MR GILRUTH IN PARIS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 13886, 25 April 1907, Page 2

MR GILRUTH IN PARIS.

INTERESTING EXPERIENCES,

(From Oup. oy>\\' Correspondent.)

LONDON, March 8.

" I have just been spending a month in Paris," said Mr Gilrnth when lie called on mo yesterday. "I wont chiefly to study in tho famous Pasteur Institute all tho new phases of discovery since I was there last, six years ago. I thought it right to seize every opportunity of rendering myself thoroughly au fait as regarded everything relative to my official duties."

You had studied there twice previously, had vou not? v

"Oh, yes, once ll years ago and again, ns I mentioned just 'now, six years back. I found that tlioro wore so many important things in the modem science of bacteriology that one cannot properly understand by morcly reading about them. One must absolutely sco them for oneself in microecopio and other demonstration in order fully to grasp their true bearing upon tho etiology of diseases. This you can get, at (ho Pasteur Instituto far more clearly and thoroughly than anywhere else." What struck you most particularly there? "Well, perhaps tho most striking thing at the jiresont time is the investigation that is going on of the great cancer problem. Tlicro are literally thousands of mice at tho instituto which havo been infected with cancer for tho purpose of its operation being carefully observed and studied." Oh, then, it is found to bo infectious, is it?

'Perhaps it, is not. strictly accurate to say ' infected,' for tho process is rather that o,f grafting by inserting a piece of tho cancerous growth taken from another animal. But, at any rate, Iho disenso is communicated to Iho mice, which appealto bo tho only animals lo which tho disease can bo given with certainty. It can occasionally lx) given to rats and frogs, but to no other animals. I myself tried tho experiment-, but with no better success than the others who had made the attempt. You sec it is so important, to know that animals ca.nnot, bo ' infected 1 with cancer, ill tho strict sense of the term, and that to produce cancer in oven tho most susceptible mice there must he an actual ingrafting of cancerous growth from another animal." What wore your other investigations? " I spent some time at the Paris Natural History Museum 'examining the latest discovcries os to various parasitic ftfTcctions, and developments., and gained much useful ■ information on this head, a highly important mattor in veterinary surgery. Then I also' attended the Alford Veterinary School with much advantage, and the In-, stituto Agronomiquc, where all matters relating to milk and dairy produce, including their bacteria, beneficent and maleficent, aro dealt with. Hero, again, I picked up a vast amount of .useful information, but, of ctiurso, much of my results must 1m kept for official communication to tho New Zealand Government."

Did anything particularly strike you outside of_ your professional subjects?

"Yes," replied, Mr Ciilrath, "I-was especially struck with tho changc in the way New Zealand is regarded by- the lYench. When I was thorn 11 years ago if I mentioned New Zealand I was listened to wtyh quite a puzzled expression of countenance, and my interlocutors usually shrugged their shoulders, exclaiming 'Now Zealand, ah, yes! Oh, true, of course, it is in or near Iceland, is that not so? Oh, yes! I know it quite well. It is close to Icelamd, is not that, so?' But now I found French people really well posted up about Now Zealand, quite aware of its geographical position and chief characteristics, and extremely • well acquainted with its history and politics and trado, 'and especially with its labour legislation. Tho difference is really astonishing, a,nd so is the interest which is taken in tho subject whioh 10 years ago was politely waved aside as uninteresting boredom. 'Wo havo changed all that,' as tho Frendh say!" ' '