The Chalmers Gold Medal awarded by the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene of England will be given next Thursday to Dr. Saul Adler, Professor of Parasitology at the Hebrew University, according to Dr. A. S. W. Rosenbach, President of the American Friends of the University. The medal will be presented at the annual meeting in England of the Council of the Royal Society. As Director of the Kala-Azar Commission of the Royal Society for 1930-32, Dr. Adler undertook researches in Italy and Malta under the joint auspices of the Hebrew University and the Royal Society, in the tropical diseases in which he is said to have done outstanding work. Earlier this year, he was awarded a Laveran Medal by the Societe de Pathologie Exotique (The French Society of Tropical Medicine).
“In a neglected semi-tropical country such as Palestine”, said Dr. Rosenbach, “there are diseases which do not exist in temperate countries and climatic and other factors affect the epidemic character of infectious diseases and the resistance or the susceptibility of the population to them. Furthermore, the re-settling in Palestine of a large body of people accustomed to live in a temperate climate involves other problems which the Department of Parasitology is endeavoring to solve.”
SPECIALIZED PROBLEMS
Kala-Azar and its transmission, through the sandfly, Jericho Boils, a disease seemingly peculiar to Palestine, the study of worms affecting man and animals in Palestine and the relation of birds and fish in the transmission of such infectious diseases are the chief problems studied in the Department of Parasitology, according to Dr. Rosenbach. Kala-Azar, in which Dr. Adler has conducted his chief research, is prevalent in India and China, occurring in the form of infantile Leishmaniasis in the Mediterranean countries.
It is thought by scientists to be transmitted by the sandfly. Although only 38 years old, Dr. Adler’s intensive studies of the species of sandflies occurring in the Near East and Mediterranean countries have won him international recognition. He joined the staff of the Hebrew University when the first Institute was opened in 1924. During the late war, Dr. Adler (a graduate of Leeds University, England) was a captain in the Royal Army Medical Corps, serving in Palestine and Mesopotamia with the British Army. Previous to his appointment to the Department of Parasitology at the Hebrew University, he was engaged in scientific research on the Gold Coast at Sierra Leone, Africa.
The Daniel Sieff Research Studentship in the Department of Parasitology, gift to Dr. Chaim Weizmann, President of the Hebrew University, and former President of the World Zionist Organization, is also announced by Dr. Rosenbach. The sum of £200 annually has been provided for research work in the department, under the general supervision of Dr. Adler.
The Palestine Herbarium of the Hebrew University has recently been enlarged by specimens collected on a botanical expedition just undertaken in Iraq by the Hebrew University, Dr. Rosenbach announced. The Palestine Herbarium, owned by the University, now has over 100,000 specimens and is said to be the largest of its kind in the world pertaining to that part of the hemisphere.
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