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ARMY MEDICAL STAFF CORPS.
787
unpaid account the profession always has with the poor.r. nursing in &ickness, and who take an interest in the welfare Such things are often said; but they were said on Tuesday y of our soldiers, will not allow this question to drop, but will in a and that we with way may y insist upon such an alteration in the order as will ensure exceptional force, night of of the Ll extend the basis Medical will an adequate number of well-trained orderlies being, in time support hope ’s of peace, available for the service of the military hospitals. Benevolent College. In replying to Mr. Wheelhouse’s h toast of "The Corporations," Sir Andrew Clark, with characteristic energy, undertook
to
try
to interest the
great
medical corporations-or at least his own-in the Medical Benevolent College; and we shall be curious to see if he can excite in those bodies any practical sympathy with the benevolent work which presses so heavily on members of the profession in their private capacity. We have left ourselves no space in which to speak of the work done by the College in well educating the fatherless, and in helping by pecuniary grants those widows or members of the profession who are in need. Such work speaks for itself. If the profession does its part in this work of mercy, the public is not likely to neglect its share. ARMY MEDICAL STAFF CORPS.
MYOSITIS OSSIFICANS. DR. A. A. LENDON of Adelaide has recorded, in the Transactions of the First Intercolonial Medical Congress (August and September, 1887) the particulars of a remarkable example of the very rare disease myositis ossificans. The paper is the more valuable since it comprises full anatomical details, with illustrations of the skeleton on the subject. The man died at the age of forty-six, having first shown signs of the affection when only eight years old; but he had always been clumsy with his right arm and forearm and, as during boyhood the stiffness increased, it was attributed to injuries received at various times. He became greatly deformed, with bent rigid back and limbs, and before his death he suffered from numerous bedsores, and was reduced to a pitiable state. Many muscles were partially or wholly converted into bone, notably both latissimi, which caused the scapulae to be firmly fixed to the thoracic cage. In the limbs the joint surfaces were fairly normal, or the car-
THE new regulation, to which we drew attention last week, restricting the service of the men of the Army Hospital Corps to three years with the army, was the subject of a question in the House of Commons by Dr. Clark on Tuesday. He asked whether this order had been issued with the con- tilagesinfibroid degeneration.’although thejoints were greatly currence of the Director-General of the Army Medical surrounded by irregular masses of bone due to ossification of Department, and whether the Secretary of State had muscles and ligaments. The spinal and costal ligaments considered the results which might be expected from were all ossified, making the back quite rigid. Dr. London removing the men of the corps just as ,they became also quotes an interesting description of a similar case from skilled in their duties and replacing them by raw, unskilled a work on the city of Cork, by Charles Smith, published in men. Mr. Stanhope replied that " every army order is 1750, and reproduces the engravings that represent the issued on the responsibility of the Secretary of State after skeleton of this case. Reference is made to Mr. Sympson’s consultation with his professional advisers. The importance paper on the subject, to the case described by Mr. Caesar of having a large reserve of trained men of the Medical Hawkins, to the specimen in the Hunterian Museum, and Staff Corps available in war time is so great that the dis- to some recently recorded cases, which, however, lack the advantage of a somewhat curtailed training must be faced." post-mortem evidence that renders Dr. Lendon’s essay so It will be observed that he carefully refrained from saying important to the pathologist. who were his professional advisers in the matter, and we cannot believe that Sir T. Crawford could have given GLASSBLOWERS’ CRAMP. such advice. The policy to be adopted seems to be 8 M. PONCET has made a communication to the Académie that of providing a reserve of moderately trained hospital des Sciences upon the subject of a professional deformity of to in and at be available war so the e time, corps men, doing the hand to which he says attention has not heretofore of efficient of the the e the soldiers during expense nursing been drawn. The deformity is by him described as consisting e time of peace. Mr. Stanhope can hardly have given due is in a permanent and very pronounced flexion of the fingers. consideration to the important question involved in this e upon the hand, which is more pronounced in the case of the decision. The objection to the application of the three r. third and fourth fingers than the other two, and leaves the years’ service to the Army Hospital Corps is not, as Mr. ,t thumb wholly unaffected. The inflexion occurs principally Stanhope’s answer would seem to imply, " the somewhat curtailed trainingof the men who will join the reserve, at the second joint, so that the second phalanx is fixed but the removal of the orderlies from the army hos- almost at right angles to the first, and it is attributable not to sclerosis of the skin or tightening of the deeper tissues, e pitals just as they are becoming efficient nurses. There d but to retraction of the flexors and tendons, and more cannot be a doubt that in serious cases of fever and many other diseases the success of the treatment greatly y particularly of the superficial flexor. At this diagnosis the author has arrived by a careful examination of the affected on The returns show how v the depends nursing. army d fingers, and he argues much from the circumstance that the much fever prevails among the troops at home and abroad malady is unaccompanied by pain. The distal joints are and that enteric fever has of late years increased in the e or less deformed, with some tendency to subluxation, more army as a consequence of the greater proportion of young and the fingers are bent into a curve, and cannot be extended. soldiers. And yet under these circumstances Mr. Stanhope of the palmar surface is somewhat thicker, and The skin sanctions a measure the result of which must be to consign these cases to the care of orderlies, who are for the most t more callous than is usual even with manual labourers. part untrained and unskilled, for efficient training neces- This deformity is known among glass-workers as main en sarily requires a considerable period of time. Surelyy crocket or main fermée. It supervenes after a short practice of the art of glassblowing, and increases progressively. It a soldier is justly entitled to demand that in his sickness he shall be properly tended and carefully nursed,, is further stated upon the authority of an expert (Mr. E. a condition which we believe to be impossible underr Rollet) that it attacks the majority of glassblowers, and is the proposed system of short service in the ranks of f most marked in those who have been longest at the work. the Army Hospital Corps. If this is one of the results of f M. Poncet thinks that the deformity which he has described the new organisation of the War Office, the sooner a change e is due to the continuous application of the hand to the tube is made in it the better for the soldier. We trust that those with which a glassblower manipulates his "metal." He e members of Parliament who know the value of careful 1 stated that, during the eight hours a day through which .
-
;
-
unpaid account the profession always has with the poor.r. nursing in &ickness, and who take an interest in the welfare Such things are often said; but they were said on Tuesday y of our soldiers, will not allow this question to drop, but will in a and that we with way may y insist upon such an alteration in the order as will ensure exceptional force, night of of the Ll extend the basis Medical will an adequate number of well-trained orderlies being, in time support hope ’s of peace, available for the service of the military hospitals. Benevolent College. In replying to Mr. Wheelhouse’s h toast of "The Corporations," Sir Andrew Clark, with characteristic energy, undertook
to
try
to interest the
great
medical corporations-or at least his own-in the Medical Benevolent College; and we shall be curious to see if he can excite in those bodies any practical sympathy with the benevolent work which presses so heavily on members of the profession in their private capacity. We have left ourselves no space in which to speak of the work done by the College in well educating the fatherless, and in helping by pecuniary grants those widows or members of the profession who are in need. Such work speaks for itself. If the profession does its part in this work of mercy, the public is not likely to neglect its share. ARMY MEDICAL STAFF CORPS.
MYOSITIS OSSIFICANS. DR. A. A. LENDON of Adelaide has recorded, in the Transactions of the First Intercolonial Medical Congress (August and September, 1887) the particulars of a remarkable example of the very rare disease myositis ossificans. The paper is the more valuable since it comprises full anatomical details, with illustrations of the skeleton on the subject. The man died at the age of forty-six, having first shown signs of the affection when only eight years old; but he had always been clumsy with his right arm and forearm and, as during boyhood the stiffness increased, it was attributed to injuries received at various times. He became greatly deformed, with bent rigid back and limbs, and before his death he suffered from numerous bedsores, and was reduced to a pitiable state. Many muscles were partially or wholly converted into bone, notably both latissimi, which caused the scapulae to be firmly fixed to the thoracic cage. In the limbs the joint surfaces were fairly normal, or the car-
THE new regulation, to which we drew attention last week, restricting the service of the men of the Army Hospital Corps to three years with the army, was the subject of a question in the House of Commons by Dr. Clark on Tuesday. He asked whether this order had been issued with the con- tilagesinfibroid degeneration.’although thejoints were greatly currence of the Director-General of the Army Medical surrounded by irregular masses of bone due to ossification of Department, and whether the Secretary of State had muscles and ligaments. The spinal and costal ligaments considered the results which might be expected from were all ossified, making the back quite rigid. Dr. London removing the men of the corps just as ,they became also quotes an interesting description of a similar case from skilled in their duties and replacing them by raw, unskilled a work on the city of Cork, by Charles Smith, published in men. Mr. Stanhope replied that " every army order is 1750, and reproduces the engravings that represent the issued on the responsibility of the Secretary of State after skeleton of this case. Reference is made to Mr. Sympson’s consultation with his professional advisers. The importance paper on the subject, to the case described by Mr. Caesar of having a large reserve of trained men of the Medical Hawkins, to the specimen in the Hunterian Museum, and Staff Corps available in war time is so great that the dis- to some recently recorded cases, which, however, lack the advantage of a somewhat curtailed training must be faced." post-mortem evidence that renders Dr. Lendon’s essay so It will be observed that he carefully refrained from saying important to the pathologist. who were his professional advisers in the matter, and we cannot believe that Sir T. Crawford could have given GLASSBLOWERS’ CRAMP. such advice. The policy to be adopted seems to be 8 M. PONCET has made a communication to the Académie that of providing a reserve of moderately trained hospital des Sciences upon the subject of a professional deformity of to in and at be available war so the e time, corps men, doing the hand to which he says attention has not heretofore of efficient of the the e the soldiers during expense nursing been drawn. The deformity is by him described as consisting e time of peace. Mr. Stanhope can hardly have given due is in a permanent and very pronounced flexion of the fingers. consideration to the important question involved in this e upon the hand, which is more pronounced in the case of the decision. The objection to the application of the three r. third and fourth fingers than the other two, and leaves the years’ service to the Army Hospital Corps is not, as Mr. ,t thumb wholly unaffected. The inflexion occurs principally Stanhope’s answer would seem to imply, " the somewhat curtailed trainingof the men who will join the reserve, at the second joint, so that the second phalanx is fixed but the removal of the orderlies from the army hos- almost at right angles to the first, and it is attributable not to sclerosis of the skin or tightening of the deeper tissues, e pitals just as they are becoming efficient nurses. There d but to retraction of the flexors and tendons, and more cannot be a doubt that in serious cases of fever and many other diseases the success of the treatment greatly y particularly of the superficial flexor. At this diagnosis the author has arrived by a careful examination of the affected on The returns show how v the depends nursing. army d fingers, and he argues much from the circumstance that the much fever prevails among the troops at home and abroad malady is unaccompanied by pain. The distal joints are and that enteric fever has of late years increased in the e or less deformed, with some tendency to subluxation, more army as a consequence of the greater proportion of young and the fingers are bent into a curve, and cannot be extended. soldiers. And yet under these circumstances Mr. Stanhope of the palmar surface is somewhat thicker, and The skin sanctions a measure the result of which must be to consign these cases to the care of orderlies, who are for the most t more callous than is usual even with manual labourers. part untrained and unskilled, for efficient training neces- This deformity is known among glass-workers as main en sarily requires a considerable period of time. Surelyy crocket or main fermée. It supervenes after a short practice of the art of glassblowing, and increases progressively. It a soldier is justly entitled to demand that in his sickness he shall be properly tended and carefully nursed,, is further stated upon the authority of an expert (Mr. E. a condition which we believe to be impossible underr Rollet) that it attacks the majority of glassblowers, and is the proposed system of short service in the ranks of f most marked in those who have been longest at the work. the Army Hospital Corps. If this is one of the results of f M. Poncet thinks that the deformity which he has described the new organisation of the War Office, the sooner a change e is due to the continuous application of the hand to the tube is made in it the better for the soldier. We trust that those with which a glassblower manipulates his "metal." He e members of Parliament who know the value of careful 1 stated that, during the eight hours a day through which .
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;
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