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A DANGEROUS DRY HAIRWASH.
1725
ligatured and
the thymus was removed. The sterno-mastoid tendons and the wound in the skin were sutured. The child stood the operation very well. The tracheal cannula was removed on the eighth day after operation. There was never the slightest stridor after the thymectomy and no ill-effect seemed to have been produced on the blood or nutrition. Microscopic examination of the thymus showed only simple hypertrophy. This is the seventh case on record of cure by thymectomy of "thymic asthma," or, more correctly, thymic In performing tracheotomy for its relief tracheo-stenosis. a long cannula, which will reach below the obstruction, is necessary. The want of this seems to have been the cause of death in some of the cases.
A DANGEROUS DRY HAIRWASH. HAIRDRESSERS seem to be at their wits’ end to devise an effectual yet safe dry wash for the hair. The chief object of such a wash is, of course, to remove grease and therefore dirt, but unfortunately the best solvents for grease are as a rule volatile and inflammable. Light petroleum spirit appeared at first to be excellent for the purpose until some serious accidents occurred in which somehow or other the spirit was ignited with results disastrous to the hair in some cases and in others to the person also. We have had occasion before to refer to the dangers of employing exceedingly inflammable and volatile liquids such as benzene and petrol as dry hairwashes. If they are used at all the cleansing should be conducted without risking the slightest process chance of the vapour catching fire-in a place, in short, where there is no flame. Even the electric light does not confer immunity from an accident, since any small sparking that may happen at the points of contact at the switch or the lamp is sufficient to start an explosion of air and inflammable vapour. Convinced apparently of the dangers attending the use of liquids which give off inflammable vapours, some of the hairdressing trade have evidently been induced to give them up in favour of a less volatile and practically non-inflammable yet grease-extracting liquidnamely, carbon tetrachloride. It is not surprising to find that the barber is absolutely ignorant of the nature and substance, and most people properties of this chemical would ask, " What is it?" Used largely as a solvent for grease, wax, and rubber in certain technical trades, carbon tetrachloride so far is little known to the ordinary person and certainly less known than is chloroform, to which it is intimately related. As a matter of fact, carbon tetrachloride is just as much an anxsthetic as is chloroIt is not quite so powerful perhaps, because form. it is less volatile and its boiling point is higher. But that it may produce anaesthesia sufficiently to develop alarming results is evident from the case which we record this week. This fluid was being used after the manner of an ordinary dry hairwash. Almost at the moment of its application the customer, a lady, cried out that it was far too strong, but the operator replied that it would soon pass off. In the words of our contributor, "her next recollection was that of finding herself propped up on the floor, a wet towel round her head, the window wide open, and a very frightened hairdresser fanning her vigorously with a towel. She was informed that she had been unconscious for five minutes and had been a very nasty colour." She said that she felt just as though she had been taking chloroform and suffered from sickness for some time afterwards. We should have thought that the judicious use of soap and ammonia water followed by rinsing with weak spirit would serve as an effectual wash for the head with long hair which would afterwards dry reasonably quickly. Ladies, however, evidently regard this method as much too slow compared with the rapidly drying but highly inflammable petroleum, and so they run serious risks rather
than exhibit a little patience. In passing, it is interesting to observe that most of, if not all, the fluids the vapour of which produces anaesthesia when inhaled are solvents of fat. Ether, chloroform, ethyl chloride, benzene, and light petroleum serve as instances, and apart from the intense inflammability of some of them they should never be countenanced as safe agents in the hands of the hairdresser. THE CARE
OF TUBERCULOUS CHILDREN.
THE needs of tuberculous children have been sadly neglected in this country. Some doubt seems to be arising as to whether open-air treatment for the adult, although offering the best means for dealing with tuberculosis in the working man and woman, is that specific which early enthusiasts proclaimed it to be. We are as to understand that as well beginning medically, economically, it is wisest to begin at the beginning. Greater attention must be devoted to the protection of tuberculously disposed children. The committee of the Children’s Home and Orphanage, the headquarters of which are at Bonner-road, London, N.E., with branches throughout the country and in Canada, and caring for nearly 1800 children, finds that something like 25 per cent. of its little folk are predisposed by heredity to tuberculosis. It has, therefore, determined to establish a sanatorium in a suitable country district near London for these cases. Dr. T. N. Kelynack, the editor of the British Journal of Ticberczclosis, has accepted the invitation to act as honorary physician and medical adviser, and full particulars may be obtained from the principal, Dr. A. E. Gregory; at the London Branch Children’s Home and Orphanage, Bonner-road, N.E. We are informed that the forthcoming issue of the BritisA Journal of Tuberculosis will contain articles by British, American, and German experts on the tuberculosis problem as it affects infancy and childhood.
MSS. OF
JOHN
HUNTER’S
LECTURES.
IT has been suggested to us that the title of an annotation in a recent number of THE LANCET ("Original Notes of John Hunter’s Lectures") might convey the impression that a unique discovery had been made. This is not the case of course. The manuscript, which has been to the Royal College of Surgeons of just presented a medical man of long standing, who thus by England generously commemorates his jubilee as a Member, has long been known in the College library in the form of one of those exquisitely written transcripts for which Clift, the conservator, was justly noted in his day. This transcript was made by William Clift in 1835, ap 1 .n returning the original to Dr. T. J. Walker’s predecessor in his Peterborough practice he apologises in an extant letter for having kept the book for eight long years. Clift was a leisurely and faithful transcriber of all that concerned his great master John Hunter and his transcripts were often made at rather late More than one ends with some such note as hours. "finished this copy at 2 A.M.," usually in mid-winter. There are a number of volumes of notes of John Hunter’s lectures on surgery in the library of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. The best known is the quarto four-volume MS., dating from 1786, which was reprinted by Palmer in his classical edition of John Hunter’s works. More recently Sir John Tweedy has presented a fine MS., containing a note by Clift to the following effect : ’’ Mr. Eyles’s copy of Dr. Joseph Adams’s account of Mr. Hunter’s lectures on the Principles of Surgery. No date. Lent to me June 4th, 1827, to compare with Mr. Twigge’s and Mr. Pearce’s copy." Another MS. off Lectures on the Principles of Surgery," in an unknown hand, was bought at a sale at Sotheby’s in May, 1904, where it was
ligatured and
the thymus was removed. The sterno-mastoid tendons and the wound in the skin were sutured. The child stood the operation very well. The tracheal cannula was removed on the eighth day after operation. There was never the slightest stridor after the thymectomy and no ill-effect seemed to have been produced on the blood or nutrition. Microscopic examination of the thymus showed only simple hypertrophy. This is the seventh case on record of cure by thymectomy of "thymic asthma," or, more correctly, thymic In performing tracheotomy for its relief tracheo-stenosis. a long cannula, which will reach below the obstruction, is necessary. The want of this seems to have been the cause of death in some of the cases.
A DANGEROUS DRY HAIRWASH. HAIRDRESSERS seem to be at their wits’ end to devise an effectual yet safe dry wash for the hair. The chief object of such a wash is, of course, to remove grease and therefore dirt, but unfortunately the best solvents for grease are as a rule volatile and inflammable. Light petroleum spirit appeared at first to be excellent for the purpose until some serious accidents occurred in which somehow or other the spirit was ignited with results disastrous to the hair in some cases and in others to the person also. We have had occasion before to refer to the dangers of employing exceedingly inflammable and volatile liquids such as benzene and petrol as dry hairwashes. If they are used at all the cleansing should be conducted without risking the slightest process chance of the vapour catching fire-in a place, in short, where there is no flame. Even the electric light does not confer immunity from an accident, since any small sparking that may happen at the points of contact at the switch or the lamp is sufficient to start an explosion of air and inflammable vapour. Convinced apparently of the dangers attending the use of liquids which give off inflammable vapours, some of the hairdressing trade have evidently been induced to give them up in favour of a less volatile and practically non-inflammable yet grease-extracting liquidnamely, carbon tetrachloride. It is not surprising to find that the barber is absolutely ignorant of the nature and substance, and most people properties of this chemical would ask, " What is it?" Used largely as a solvent for grease, wax, and rubber in certain technical trades, carbon tetrachloride so far is little known to the ordinary person and certainly less known than is chloroform, to which it is intimately related. As a matter of fact, carbon tetrachloride is just as much an anxsthetic as is chloroIt is not quite so powerful perhaps, because form. it is less volatile and its boiling point is higher. But that it may produce anaesthesia sufficiently to develop alarming results is evident from the case which we record this week. This fluid was being used after the manner of an ordinary dry hairwash. Almost at the moment of its application the customer, a lady, cried out that it was far too strong, but the operator replied that it would soon pass off. In the words of our contributor, "her next recollection was that of finding herself propped up on the floor, a wet towel round her head, the window wide open, and a very frightened hairdresser fanning her vigorously with a towel. She was informed that she had been unconscious for five minutes and had been a very nasty colour." She said that she felt just as though she had been taking chloroform and suffered from sickness for some time afterwards. We should have thought that the judicious use of soap and ammonia water followed by rinsing with weak spirit would serve as an effectual wash for the head with long hair which would afterwards dry reasonably quickly. Ladies, however, evidently regard this method as much too slow compared with the rapidly drying but highly inflammable petroleum, and so they run serious risks rather
than exhibit a little patience. In passing, it is interesting to observe that most of, if not all, the fluids the vapour of which produces anaesthesia when inhaled are solvents of fat. Ether, chloroform, ethyl chloride, benzene, and light petroleum serve as instances, and apart from the intense inflammability of some of them they should never be countenanced as safe agents in the hands of the hairdresser. THE CARE
OF TUBERCULOUS CHILDREN.
THE needs of tuberculous children have been sadly neglected in this country. Some doubt seems to be arising as to whether open-air treatment for the adult, although offering the best means for dealing with tuberculosis in the working man and woman, is that specific which early enthusiasts proclaimed it to be. We are as to understand that as well beginning medically, economically, it is wisest to begin at the beginning. Greater attention must be devoted to the protection of tuberculously disposed children. The committee of the Children’s Home and Orphanage, the headquarters of which are at Bonner-road, London, N.E., with branches throughout the country and in Canada, and caring for nearly 1800 children, finds that something like 25 per cent. of its little folk are predisposed by heredity to tuberculosis. It has, therefore, determined to establish a sanatorium in a suitable country district near London for these cases. Dr. T. N. Kelynack, the editor of the British Journal of Ticberczclosis, has accepted the invitation to act as honorary physician and medical adviser, and full particulars may be obtained from the principal, Dr. A. E. Gregory; at the London Branch Children’s Home and Orphanage, Bonner-road, N.E. We are informed that the forthcoming issue of the BritisA Journal of Tuberculosis will contain articles by British, American, and German experts on the tuberculosis problem as it affects infancy and childhood.
MSS. OF
JOHN
HUNTER’S
LECTURES.
IT has been suggested to us that the title of an annotation in a recent number of THE LANCET ("Original Notes of John Hunter’s Lectures") might convey the impression that a unique discovery had been made. This is not the case of course. The manuscript, which has been to the Royal College of Surgeons of just presented a medical man of long standing, who thus by England generously commemorates his jubilee as a Member, has long been known in the College library in the form of one of those exquisitely written transcripts for which Clift, the conservator, was justly noted in his day. This transcript was made by William Clift in 1835, ap 1 .n returning the original to Dr. T. J. Walker’s predecessor in his Peterborough practice he apologises in an extant letter for having kept the book for eight long years. Clift was a leisurely and faithful transcriber of all that concerned his great master John Hunter and his transcripts were often made at rather late More than one ends with some such note as hours. "finished this copy at 2 A.M.," usually in mid-winter. There are a number of volumes of notes of John Hunter’s lectures on surgery in the library of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. The best known is the quarto four-volume MS., dating from 1786, which was reprinted by Palmer in his classical edition of John Hunter’s works. More recently Sir John Tweedy has presented a fine MS., containing a note by Clift to the following effect : ’’ Mr. Eyles’s copy of Dr. Joseph Adams’s account of Mr. Hunter’s lectures on the Principles of Surgery. No date. Lent to me June 4th, 1827, to compare with Mr. Twigge’s and Mr. Pearce’s copy." Another MS. off Lectures on the Principles of Surgery," in an unknown hand, was bought at a sale at Sotheby’s in May, 1904, where it was