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AFTER IMAGES
AFTER IMAGES.——TREATMENT
reform. The Government bread is endowed with all the characteristic features of a patent medicine. We are concerned with a number of unknown, imponderable factors ; the calcium requirement of a victim of this dietary experiment is unknown. The amount of calcium in foodstuffs other than bread which he consumes is unknown ; the quantity of bread eaten by him remains unknown. All this evidently does not matter. The millennium will be attained when we have swallowed extra doses of calcium of varying magnitude as ordained by the Government experts. The tragedy is that with the same absolute certainty as that two and two make four a large number of the public are bound to suffer serious iniurv from the doctored bread. I. HARRIS.
Liverpool.
SiR,—My letter in your issue of Aug. 10 was written before I had received, by the courtesy of the Medical Research Council, an official copy of the report of the Accessory Food Factors (Vitamins) Committee, appointed jointly by the Medical Research Council and the Lister Institute of Preventive Medicine, and I am informed in a covering letter that the report " represents their corporate views.’’ Its first and most emphatic recommendation reads as follows :" Flour for the bread of the people should contain the germ of the wheat grain, as much as possible of the aleurone layer, and the finer portions of the bran. Instead of flour consisting of about 70% of the wheat grain, as it does at present, the percentage extracted should be at least 80 to 85%." It is at once obvious that the " reinforced loaf " projected by the Ministry of Food does not fulfil any of these requirements, named as essential by the most authoritative committee which has as yet made a public pronouncement on this subject. The report of the Ministry’s Scientific Food Committee, on which the spokesman in the House of Commons for the Ministry declared the Government was acting (Hansard July 18, col. 456), has not been, and I am given to understand will not be, published. The situation is rendered - piquant by the fact that the chairman of the " vitamins committee " cited is a leading member of the Ministry’s " scientific food committee." One is constrained to assume that the latter’s report must be regarded as a political rather than a scientific verdict and is an example of the disadvantageous position of members of Government advisory bodies even when they are individually the most eminent scientists. This position is castigated in the recently published Penguin book " Science in War " as follows. Speaking of these advisory bodies it says : " They seem to have been much more concerned with agreeing with Government decisions than with challenging them in the name of science.... In the long run theyes-men ’ of science are likely to be at least as dangerous as the ’yesmen ’ of politics." E. GRAHAM-LITTLE. House of Commons. SIR,-In your issue of August 10 Sir Ernest Grahamdiscussing the reinforced loaf makes the statement: " There will probably be general agreement that the organic vitamin (B1) is in every respect superior to the synthetic product." Actually vitamin Bl is a pure chemical substance with well-defined properties, and it Little
has been
repeatedly demonstrated since 1937 that the physiological and therapeutic results produced by its administration are the same, whether the natural or the synthetic substance is used. It is proposed to add
synthetic and not naturally occurring vitamin Bl to bread for the simple
reason
Welwyn Garden City, Herts.
that it is much cheaper. F. PRESCOTT.
SiR,-Mountains have always had an odd habit of producing mice. but I was puzzled when the mountain of the Ministry of Food brought forth its funny little
reinforced mouse of a loaf with its pathetic protective vitamin Bl. Why synthetic Bl alone ? ’BVhy not follow the Medical Research Council’s recent very strongly worded advice ? Why continue to rob the people of iron, copper, magnesium, trace elements, vitamin A, the vitamin B complex (except B1), vitamin E, fat and protein ?° There is ample proof that about half the
249
OF 13URiNS
nation is deficient in vitamin A, vitamin E, the whole of the vitamin B complex and iron. One has only got to feed either children or adults on a preparation of wheat germ, such as Bemax, to see what the community loses in health by not eating their wheat germ automatically in their bread. Masses of money is poured out over " protective foods " : free milk, Oslo breakfasts, vitaminised margarine. Why-when all this could be made largely unnecessary by having stone-ground four ? If the Minister knows, as know he must, that stoneground flour is best for the nation he should say that Bl in bread will help slightly, but that he cannot provide really valuable stone-ground bread because of the millers. The nation might listen to him and buy stoneground flour from people who make it, like Prewetts of Horsham. FRANKLIN BICKNELL. Wimpole Street, W.I. AFTER IMAGES
SiR,-If the hand be moved in front of the eyes, half a dozen or more hands will be seen. When however the eye is moved in ordinary circumstances no after-image is seen, unless the object looked at is very bright. It would be very inconvenient if after looking at a dog and then at a man the image of the dog appeared on the man’s face. This is obviated by the fact that when the eye moves the ocular muscles shift the photochemical film in the eye and a new film is presented. If a light be looked at in a dark room and then the eyes be directed to a peg two feet to the right the positive after-image of the light will be seen to the right of the peg. The same thing may be seen in daylight. If a yellow ball or lemon be looked at for a second, and then the eyes be directed to a cross on a sheet of white paper to the right of the yellow ball, only a white or faintly blue surface is visible, but on the right of this an elongated yellow area much longer than the ball will be seen. F. EDRIDGE-GREEN. EDRIDGE-GREEN.. London. TREATMENT OF BURNS
SiR,-In view of the present importance of the treatment of burns may I be allowed to stress the value of dressings of " Bonney’s blue." In my -opinion this mixture of dyes should replace tannic acid. Not only is it a perfect antiseptic lotion for deeper burns but when applied on gauze to burns of the first three degrees it adheres as a firm case quite as occlusive as the tannicacid coagulum. This case separates gradually as the skin heals and leaves an even better scar than does the tannic method. Bonney’s blue, therefore, besides sharing with the tannic-acid technique the valuable attributes of freedom from re-dressings and from pain, has the following further advantages. First, it is easier to apply, since it can be put on burns of all degrees, no re-spraying is necessary and the toilet of the damaged area need not be so thorough, thus eliminating the necessity for more than a whiff of nitrous oxide while the actual dressing is applied. Secondly, the gauze being bandaged on, the subsequent care of the case is easier and all danger of cracking the occlusive dressing by movement is removed. Thirdly, in my experience there is little or no risk of effusion beneath the dressing with the formation of boggy patches and collections of pus. Finally, no special skill is required in carrying out the treatment. For those who prefer to continue the use of the tannic acid spray may I suggest the application to the cleanedup burn of the white of a fresh egg with subsequent spraying with a really strong solution of the acid. The resultant coagulum will be found to be much tougher and more elastic and therefore less liable to crack and split. The formation of the coagulum is also much hastened. I cannot entirely agree with recent suggestions that when fluid or pus collects beneath a tannic-acid dressing it should be left untouched. I havenoticed that such collections have a habit of spreading, and, by lifting up more and more of the coagulum, infecting and destroying the growing epithelium over larger and larger areas of the burnt area. I am sure that many otherwise unnecessary skin grafts are occasioned by this procedure. Battersea General
Hospital.
A. J. HOBSON.
reform. The Government bread is endowed with all the characteristic features of a patent medicine. We are concerned with a number of unknown, imponderable factors ; the calcium requirement of a victim of this dietary experiment is unknown. The amount of calcium in foodstuffs other than bread which he consumes is unknown ; the quantity of bread eaten by him remains unknown. All this evidently does not matter. The millennium will be attained when we have swallowed extra doses of calcium of varying magnitude as ordained by the Government experts. The tragedy is that with the same absolute certainty as that two and two make four a large number of the public are bound to suffer serious iniurv from the doctored bread. I. HARRIS.
Liverpool.
SiR,—My letter in your issue of Aug. 10 was written before I had received, by the courtesy of the Medical Research Council, an official copy of the report of the Accessory Food Factors (Vitamins) Committee, appointed jointly by the Medical Research Council and the Lister Institute of Preventive Medicine, and I am informed in a covering letter that the report " represents their corporate views.’’ Its first and most emphatic recommendation reads as follows :" Flour for the bread of the people should contain the germ of the wheat grain, as much as possible of the aleurone layer, and the finer portions of the bran. Instead of flour consisting of about 70% of the wheat grain, as it does at present, the percentage extracted should be at least 80 to 85%." It is at once obvious that the " reinforced loaf " projected by the Ministry of Food does not fulfil any of these requirements, named as essential by the most authoritative committee which has as yet made a public pronouncement on this subject. The report of the Ministry’s Scientific Food Committee, on which the spokesman in the House of Commons for the Ministry declared the Government was acting (Hansard July 18, col. 456), has not been, and I am given to understand will not be, published. The situation is rendered - piquant by the fact that the chairman of the " vitamins committee " cited is a leading member of the Ministry’s " scientific food committee." One is constrained to assume that the latter’s report must be regarded as a political rather than a scientific verdict and is an example of the disadvantageous position of members of Government advisory bodies even when they are individually the most eminent scientists. This position is castigated in the recently published Penguin book " Science in War " as follows. Speaking of these advisory bodies it says : " They seem to have been much more concerned with agreeing with Government decisions than with challenging them in the name of science.... In the long run theyes-men ’ of science are likely to be at least as dangerous as the ’yesmen ’ of politics." E. GRAHAM-LITTLE. House of Commons. SIR,-In your issue of August 10 Sir Ernest Grahamdiscussing the reinforced loaf makes the statement: " There will probably be general agreement that the organic vitamin (B1) is in every respect superior to the synthetic product." Actually vitamin Bl is a pure chemical substance with well-defined properties, and it Little
has been
repeatedly demonstrated since 1937 that the physiological and therapeutic results produced by its administration are the same, whether the natural or the synthetic substance is used. It is proposed to add
synthetic and not naturally occurring vitamin Bl to bread for the simple
reason
Welwyn Garden City, Herts.
that it is much cheaper. F. PRESCOTT.
SiR,-Mountains have always had an odd habit of producing mice. but I was puzzled when the mountain of the Ministry of Food brought forth its funny little
reinforced mouse of a loaf with its pathetic protective vitamin Bl. Why synthetic Bl alone ? ’BVhy not follow the Medical Research Council’s recent very strongly worded advice ? Why continue to rob the people of iron, copper, magnesium, trace elements, vitamin A, the vitamin B complex (except B1), vitamin E, fat and protein ?° There is ample proof that about half the
249
OF 13URiNS
nation is deficient in vitamin A, vitamin E, the whole of the vitamin B complex and iron. One has only got to feed either children or adults on a preparation of wheat germ, such as Bemax, to see what the community loses in health by not eating their wheat germ automatically in their bread. Masses of money is poured out over " protective foods " : free milk, Oslo breakfasts, vitaminised margarine. Why-when all this could be made largely unnecessary by having stone-ground four ? If the Minister knows, as know he must, that stoneground flour is best for the nation he should say that Bl in bread will help slightly, but that he cannot provide really valuable stone-ground bread because of the millers. The nation might listen to him and buy stoneground flour from people who make it, like Prewetts of Horsham. FRANKLIN BICKNELL. Wimpole Street, W.I. AFTER IMAGES
SiR,-If the hand be moved in front of the eyes, half a dozen or more hands will be seen. When however the eye is moved in ordinary circumstances no after-image is seen, unless the object looked at is very bright. It would be very inconvenient if after looking at a dog and then at a man the image of the dog appeared on the man’s face. This is obviated by the fact that when the eye moves the ocular muscles shift the photochemical film in the eye and a new film is presented. If a light be looked at in a dark room and then the eyes be directed to a peg two feet to the right the positive after-image of the light will be seen to the right of the peg. The same thing may be seen in daylight. If a yellow ball or lemon be looked at for a second, and then the eyes be directed to a cross on a sheet of white paper to the right of the yellow ball, only a white or faintly blue surface is visible, but on the right of this an elongated yellow area much longer than the ball will be seen. F. EDRIDGE-GREEN. EDRIDGE-GREEN.. London. TREATMENT OF BURNS
SiR,-In view of the present importance of the treatment of burns may I be allowed to stress the value of dressings of " Bonney’s blue." In my -opinion this mixture of dyes should replace tannic acid. Not only is it a perfect antiseptic lotion for deeper burns but when applied on gauze to burns of the first three degrees it adheres as a firm case quite as occlusive as the tannicacid coagulum. This case separates gradually as the skin heals and leaves an even better scar than does the tannic method. Bonney’s blue, therefore, besides sharing with the tannic-acid technique the valuable attributes of freedom from re-dressings and from pain, has the following further advantages. First, it is easier to apply, since it can be put on burns of all degrees, no re-spraying is necessary and the toilet of the damaged area need not be so thorough, thus eliminating the necessity for more than a whiff of nitrous oxide while the actual dressing is applied. Secondly, the gauze being bandaged on, the subsequent care of the case is easier and all danger of cracking the occlusive dressing by movement is removed. Thirdly, in my experience there is little or no risk of effusion beneath the dressing with the formation of boggy patches and collections of pus. Finally, no special skill is required in carrying out the treatment. For those who prefer to continue the use of the tannic acid spray may I suggest the application to the cleanedup burn of the white of a fresh egg with subsequent spraying with a really strong solution of the acid. The resultant coagulum will be found to be much tougher and more elastic and therefore less liable to crack and split. The formation of the coagulum is also much hastened. I cannot entirely agree with recent suggestions that when fluid or pus collects beneath a tannic-acid dressing it should be left untouched. I havenoticed that such collections have a habit of spreading, and, by lifting up more and more of the coagulum, infecting and destroying the growing epithelium over larger and larger areas of the burnt area. I am sure that many otherwise unnecessary skin grafts are occasioned by this procedure. Battersea General
Hospital.
A. J. HOBSON.