- Email: [email protected]
Notes and quotes
NOTES
AND
QUOTM cancer in men by the inhalation of cigarette smoke.” He went on to say that in surveys already conducted, a much larger percentage of lung cancer patients confessed to heavy cigarette smoking than did other groups of peopIe simiIarIy questioned. The trouble with such surveys, he pointed out, is that “the emotional effect of having a deadly disease might perhaps tend to make lung cancer patients give exaggerated or otherwise unreliable answers to questions about their smoking habits.” Prof. Hammond said that experimental studies in which animals are being exposed to cigarette smoke to see if they develop lung cancer and in which cigarette smoke is being anaIyzed in an attempt to isoIate some specific cancer-producing agent as we11 as statistical studies in which smoking habits of 204,000 peopIe are being correIated with death rates from various causes may answer the big questions about cigarette smoking.
A YALE professor said that smoking cigarettes may possibly be responsible for heart disease as we11 as cancer. But, and it is a big “but,” there is no specific proof that the use of tobacco causes cancer, heart disease or serious ailments, according to E. CuyIer Hammond, professor of biometry at Yale University. Prof. statistical
Hammond, research
who for the
is aIso
director
American
of
Cancer
Society, in discussing tobacco and health, pointed out that “the death rates from heart disease have been increasing steadily for the last severa decades” and that the popularity of cigarettes has also been on the rise in that period. Even taking into account the increasing age and greater vuInerabiIity to heart disease of the population, “death rates from coronary thrombosis appear to have about doubIed in the last twenty years or so,” said the YaIe biometrist who appIies the science of statistics to bioIogy and pubIic heaIth. Smoking is known to cause “an increase in the heart rate, an increase in blood pressure, and a constriction in the size of the smaI1 bIood vessels,” he continued. While none of this proves that cigarette smoking causes death from heart disease, it does constitute “sufficient evidence to warrant doing further research on the subject,” Prof. Hammond said. He went on to expIain that there is no positive proof yet that cigarette smoking causes Iung cancer. Many other factors in our environment, he insisted, should be investigated as possible causes for the starthng jump in Iung cancer during the Iast twenty years. For instance, he explained, soot and fumes from oi1 furnaces and from motor vehicIes both “are inhaled by human beings-and both contain substances which can be used to produce cancer in experimenta animaIs.” He added that it is possibIe that “Iung cancer may be caused by the combined effects of cigarette smoking and air pohution.” The YaIe statistician described an experiment in which materia1 was cohected from cigarette smoke and applied to the skin of mice every day for many months. “Forty-one percent of the mice deveIoped skin cancer,” he reported, adding, “Note that I say skin cancer. This is a far cry from the production of Iung
A jirst aid “specific” dressing for inj’uries on knuckles or Jingers, especially finger joints, has been manufactured by Medical Fabrics Co., Inc. of Paterson, New Jersey. “Knuckle-Bands” are a time- and labor-saving addition to ordinary first aid material for they can be applied quickly, securely held and yet permit free movement of injured parts. Flex-Aid Knuckle Bands are made of jleshcolored elastic cloth wbicb expands and contracts witb every movement of tbe joint or body and does not cause constriction. These sterilized, individually wrapped adbesive dressings are somewhat porous, therefore reducing the danger of maceration of bandaged parts. Four-U’ing Joint Patches for knees, heels, elbows, side of hand and chin are also available. NEW technics for liver surgery may resuIt from studies reported to the American Association of Anatomists by Dr. John E. HeaIey, Jr., of Jefferson MedicaI CoIIege, PhiIadeIphia. Dr. HeaIy toId the assembIed anatomists that aIthough operations for remova of portions of the Iiver have been performed since 1886, they are reIativeIy crude since surgeons have lacked knowIedge about bIood and biIe circuIation within the liver. To Iearn more about this 46
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48
NOTES
AND
QUOTES
circuIation within the liver, Dr. HeaIy reported how he had injected a viny1 acetate soIution into biIe ducts, hepatic arteries and porta veins, and foIIowed the ffow patterns. He discovered that al1 three of these systems were arranged by fissures into segments, and that a11 three foIIowed each other very closely. However, the hepatic veins did not foIIow this segmenta arrangement. The main trunks of these veins were found between the liver segments, draining segments adjacent to them. The hepatic veins are one of the four main channeIs of circuIation in the Iiver; the bile ducts, hepatic arteries and porta veins being the other three. By estabIishing an anatomic pattern within the Iiver, Dr. HeaIey hopes to make it easier for surgeons to perform operations on the Iiver and to increase the safety of such operations. An evaluation of tbe efects ojrobalate@, donnataP and donnalate@ on gastric secretion and gastrointestinal motility in peptic ulcer patients is being made in Chicago under the direction of Dr. Clifford J. Barborka, associate projessor of medicine, Nortbwestern University Medical School, and senior consultant in gastroenterology to the Veterans Research Hospital, and Dr. E. Clinton Texter, associate in medicine, Nortbwestern University Medical School. Dr. W. R. Bond, director of clinical research of tbe A. H. Robins Co., Inc., Richmond, Virginia, said tbe grants cover a six-montb pilot project at the Medical School outpatient department of gastroenterology, and a three-year prqject to explore tbe mechanism of pain in ulcer. SIh4~m forms of urinary infections usuaIIy can be treated successfuIIy by sulfonamide therapy, according to Drs. Houston D. Everett and John Herman Long of Johns Hopkins University and HospitaI in the ApriI, 1934, issue of the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology.
“The preferred agents for the initial treatment of urinary infection of a11varieties shouId be one of the suIfonamide drugs,” the BaItimore physicians concIuded on the basis of 1,916 urine cuItures studied over a period of three years. They favored suIfonamides over antibiotics because of Iower costs, effectiveness
against a greater variety of organisms and fewer unpIeasan-t side effects Antibiotic therapy, they reported, shouId be reserved for the more complicated and serious infections or those that have proved resistant to suIfonamide therapy. They found suIfadiazine in smaI1 doses, z gm. daiIy, proved effective in acute uncomplicated infections in five to seven days. A team of Cincinnati doctors reported “striking response” witb a newly developed therapeutic vitamin cream, pantboderm, in speeding tbe bealing of stubborn, chronic skin diseases, many of wbicb bad jailed to improve under prolonged treatment witb otber drugs. Dr. Asbton L. Welsh and Dr. Mitchell Ede, reporting in tbe American Medical Association’s Archives of Dermatology and Sypbilology, said twenty-jive of a group of twenty-eigbt patients witb a wide range of chronic skin diseases ranging from bypostatic dermatitis, atopic dermatitis and neurodermatitis to leukoplakia and seborrbeic keratoses showed faster, often striking improvement. Tbese patients “evidenced stimulation of epitbelization (growtb of epidermal, or outer, tissue), a resolution of maceration, healing of fissures and excoriations” wben tbe pantboderm cream was employed externally. Tbe investigators were also impressed with tbe way tbe new cream controlled tbe itching wbicb accompanied many of tbese skin ailments. DR. ALEXANDER R. SURREY, senior research chemist at the SterIing-Winthrop Research Institute, Rensselaer, New York, has been eIected chairman of the Eastern New York Section of the American ChemicaI Society. He wiI1 serve in that position until May, 1955. Dr. Surrey is the author or co-author of more than fifty pubIications and patents deaIing with organic syntheses. Included in his work is synthesis of the antimaIaria1 araIen@ (chloroquine), and the deveIopment of a process for its production. His most recent pubIication concerns synthesis of a group of powerful new amebicidal agents. He is also the author of a book on organic chemistry, “Name Reactions in Organic Chemistry,” pubIished earlier in 1954 by the Academic Press, Inc., New York. It was written by Dr. Surrey to fiI1 the need for
48
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PAGE
50
NOTES
AND
QUOTES
a sharpened, up-to-date compiIation of name reactions, one of the important tooIs of the organic chemist. These are the reactions designated by the names of the individuaIs who discovered or deveIoped them, conforming with time-honored custom in chemical literature.
Dr. Silvio de Sao Paulo has joined 11jretb Laboratories as a clinical associate, it was announced recently. Dr. de Sao Paulo formerly served as a major in tbe U. S. Army Medical Corps as chief of the Preventive Medicine Section, 1st Army Corps, Korea. A graduate of tbe school of medicine of tbe University of Babai, Brazil, Dr. de Sao Paulo also received a doctor’s degree in public bealtb from tbe University of Brazil. He took his master’s degree in public bealtb at Yale Cniversity. During his Army career Dr. de Sao Paulo served in tbe Caribbean and Far East tbeaters wbere be was awarded the Presidential Unit Citation and tbe Bronze Star Medal. He is a member of tbe Association of Military Surgeons.
Despite its triumph and miracles, modern medicine bas jailed. It has neither eliminated disease nor promoted bealtb, according to Dr. Iago Galdston of the New York Academy of Medicine. Tbis seeming paradox is vividly demonstrated in bis new book “The Meaning of Social Medicine,” publisbed in May by Harvard University Press. Not to be confused with socialized medicine, wbicb is the provision of certain medical services by the government, social medicine is concerned witb a wider view than mere “curative” medicine. It scrutinizes many factors afleeting bealtb and well-being. Its emphasis is upon man and his environment ratber tban disease and its etiology. [Recommended. Ed.]
THE pubIished
studies on the antimicrobial nitrofurans are so voIuminous by now that Eaton Laboratories at Norwich, New York, where this new family of drugs was discovered, has established a reference library as a service to its staff and to independent investigators. UndoubtedIy the onIy compIete coIIection of the nitrofurans Iiterature in existence, it consists of 894 original articIes in seventeen Ianguages, not including abstracts and mentions. Items on furacin@, furaspor@, furoxone@, furadantin@ and other nitrofurans are constantly being added from clinical and veterinary journaIs and those devoted to chemistry, biochemistry, bacteriology and biology, pubIished throughout the world. A mimeographed bibIiography is availabIe to investigators, and queries are answered with the aid of a card index system with cross reference cards to a11 phases of published work on the nitrofurans anywhere in the world.
VITAMINdeficiency is now known to be among the causes of at Ieast eleven nervous or mental disorders, according to a report in The Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Disorders Iisted invoIve such symptoms as menta1 deterioration or depression, hysteria, defective memory, Ioss of sense of Iocation, loss of sense of truth, haIIucinations, ideas of persecution, anxiety, irritabiIity, etc. Authors of the paper, which is a summary of research on the roIe of vitamins in nervous and menta1 disease, are Dr. Robert A. Peterman, medica director of J. B. Roerig and Co., Chicago, and Dr. Robert S. Goodhart, scientific director of the National Vitamin Foundation, New York. Both have contributed to the advance of cIinica1 nutritiona research as members of the Nutritiona CIinics of the New York City Department of HeaIth. Their report summarizes seventy-four studies, of which sixty have been pubIished since January, 1940. A major purpose of the summary is to make these new findings available to the practicing physician by describing the signs and symptoms of otherwise undetectabIe disorders and suggesting one or more vitamins as therapy for the conditions invoIved.
Shock was successfully controlled in jive b_vpotensive patients following infusions of’ neosynepbrine bydrocbloride@, with no unusual reactions noted despite “prolonged and continuous intravenous administration” of tbe vasopressor drug, it was reported in tbe March, 1954, issue of tbe BuIIetin of the New EngIand MedicaI Center. Blood volume bad been restored in each patient, but bad jailed to reverse tbe acute bypotension, according to Dr. Harold Rbeinlander and bis
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52
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AND
QUOTES
associates. Tbey are afiliated witb New England Center Hospital and Tufts College Medical School. In two patients witb shock due to massive bemorrbage, prompt and continued therapy witb neo-synepbrine reversed the shock condition and maintained blood pressure at normotensive levels “until the vasomotor center recovered.” Previously, tbe doctors state, tbe pressure bad not responded to adequate blood replacement.
After using mycijradin (neomycin) to reduce tbe bacterial j7ora of tbe intestines of f;fty patients before they underwent surgery, a group oj Army surgeons bave termed tbis antibiotic, “the most efective antibiotic available for intestinal preparation.” Tbe physicians from tbe Surgical Fesearcb Unit of the U. S. Army at Fort Sam Houston, Texas, praised neomycin for its low rate of absorption from tbe bowel, its wide range oj activity against tbe bacteria of tbe gut and tbe low incidence of bacterial resistance encountered with tbe drug to date. Tbeir report appeared in a recent issue of Surgery. In tbeir tests tbe Army doctors found tbat 4 gm. of neomvcin in a single dose completely suppressed colijorm bacteria, staphylococci and otber gram-positive bacteria for twenty-four hours. Tbe patients were first given enemas and a laxative in order to enable tbe neomycin to work more efectively. Tbe investigators conclude, “Neomycin effectively suppressed all intestinal bacteria in tbis series witbout evidence of tbe development of resistant forms. Overgrowtb yeast or fungi was not evident. Toxicity from absorption of the drug did not occur.”
THE outIook for medica education in America has been “visibIy brightened” by events of the past few months, according to CharIes H. Prange, President of AustenaI Laboratories, Inc. and Chairman of the HospitaI, SurgicaI and Opticai Division of the Committee of American Industry. The CA1 is spear-heading an appea1 of the NationaI Fund for MedicaI Education for an annua1 ten million dolIars from industry to keep the nation’s medical schooIs in business. “Just before its adjournment the Congress passed and President Eisenhower signed a bill granting a Federal Charter to the National Fund for MedicaI Education,” Mr. Prange said. “This stamp of Federal approva1 puts the NationaI Fund on the same pIane with the Red Cross and other great public agencies, a deserved acknowIedgment of its importance to the nationa weIfare. It emphasizes the fact that medica training in America is a basic national resource. “At aImost the same time,” Mr. Prange continued, “the United States SteeI Foundation announced its initia1 gift to the Fund of $so,ooo. So to FederaI recognition is added that of one of the nation’s Iargest industries in marshaling business support of medica education. WhiIe not unique-there have been other corporate gifts of Iike size-Big Steel’s action wiI1 be a pace-setter for other business firms, Iarge and smaI1.” Mr. Prange pointed out that the NationaI Fund distributed $2,176,go4 to the nation’s eighty medica schooIs Iast summer, bringing to $7,000,000 the grant distributed since the Fund’s founding in 1949. But the annua1 goa1, he added, is $IO,OOO,OOO, which he described as the minimum to keep the medica schooIs above water without seeking FederaI subsidy.
of
THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF MEDICINE, since 1946 an internationally known, independent monthIy pubIication, has been honored as recipient of the Honor Award, CIass II (medica speciaIty journaIs) for Distinguished Service in MedicaI JournaIism given by the American MedicaI Writers’ Association. The award, consisting of a pIaque, was accepted by its Editor, Dr. AIexander B. Gutman of New York City, Professor of Medicine, CoIumbia University, and Director of Medicine, Mt. Sinai Hospital, New York. The presentation was made by the President of the Association on the occasion of the I Ith Annual Meeting of the Association heId in Chicago on September 24th. The award is one presented annuaIIy “for accuracy, cIarity, conciseness and newness of information in articIes, editorials, and other materia1; for exceIIence of design, printing and iIIustrations, and for distinguished service to the medical profession,” rendered by United States and Canadian medical periodicaIs. 52
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54
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QUOTES This project is under the supervision of Dr. Herbert E. Carter. At the same university research on antibiotics in the department of horticuIture is being aided by a $6,000 Upjohn grant to be used under the direction of Dr. David GottIieb. Dr. James HaIsted of the University of CaIifornia has been awarded $3,000 by Upjohn to continue his studies on vitamin Br2.
In tbe past two decades, major gains bave been made in reducing mortality among children jive to fourteen years of age. The deatb rate dropped nearly two-thirds between 1933 and rg53-from 158.0 to 57.3 per roo,ooo-among boys of elementary school age insured under Industrial policies in tbe Metropolitan Life Insurance Company. Among the girls the downward trend in mortality was even more marked, the rate jalling from 125.8 to 36.8 per 100,ooo. In each sex decreases of 85 per cent or more were recorded in the death rate from a number of diseases, including tbe principal communicable diseases of cbildbood, appendicitis, pneumonia and in&enza, and tuberculosis. Despite these striking achievements in lije consercalion, the actual number of lives lost among school-age youngsters is still large, a considerable part of it resulting from causes amenable to control. At present tbere are about IS,OOO deaths a year among children of ages Jive to fourteen in the general population of the United States. Accidents are the greatest single menace to child life. Among the boys accidental injury was responsible for more tban two-fifths of the total mortality in 1950; among the girls the proportion exceeded one-quarter. The wide disparity in the accident death rate between boys and girls-31.5 and 13.3 per IOO,OOO, respectively-accounted for nearly the entire sex di.erence in tbe total mortality. Malignant neoplasms (cancer and allied conditions), wbicb two decades ago were a relatively minor cause of death among children jive to fourteen years of age, now outrank every other disease as a cause of deatb in this period of life. Tbese conditions bave forged abead to their present rank not only because of the marked decrease in tbe mortality from the infectious diseases, but also because of the increase in the recorded death rate from cancer. The leukemias account for nearly balj of all the deatbs attributed to malignancy among school-age children.
Furadantin@ is a useful chemotherapeutic agent in combatting “surviving strains from otber medications since these strains soon become tbe dominant injecting organisms,” Dr. Grayson Carroll and Dr. Robert V. Brennan of the St. Louis University Medical School stated in the May, 1934, issue of JournaI of UroIogy. The investigators found juradantin “particularly useful in tbe stubborn Proteus injections,” and likewise e$ective in the majority of strains of Escbericbia coli, Aerobacter aerogenes, Streptococcus jaecalis and Alcaligenes sp. “Its effectiveness in Proteus injections has been most encouraging and valuable since the Proteus causes recurrent stone formation and encrustations,” tbey report. Clinical studies of 128 patients taking juradantin showed no toxic e$ects. Side effects, limited to nausea in one-tbird of the patients and vomiting in I per cent, were reduced by lowering dosage, administering tbe drug witb food or after meals and giving alkalis.
DR. PATRICK H. HANLEY, instructor in the Tulane University SchooI of Medicine, has been awarded the Ohio ValIey Proctology Award for the best paper presented at the 53rd AnnuaI Meeting of the American ProctoIogic Society heId in June at Los Angeles, CaIifornia. Dr. Hanley received the award for his paper on surgica1 cbrrection of ana deformities in babies at birth. A native of Lockport, Louisiana, Dr. HanIey is a 1933 graduate of TuIane. He is a staff member of the department of surgery, Ochsner MedicaI Foundation. The Ohio VaIIey Award is presented annuaIIy to an affrIiate member of the American Proctologic Society whose paper is judged the best of those presented at the yearIy meeting of the group.
RESEARCH grants of $r~,ooo to the University of IIIinois and $3,000 to the University of California have been announced by The Upjohn Company. The department of chemistry at IIIinois wiI1 receive $9,000 to support work on the chemistry and preparation of antibiotics. 54
AND
QUOTM cancer in men by the inhalation of cigarette smoke.” He went on to say that in surveys already conducted, a much larger percentage of lung cancer patients confessed to heavy cigarette smoking than did other groups of peopIe simiIarIy questioned. The trouble with such surveys, he pointed out, is that “the emotional effect of having a deadly disease might perhaps tend to make lung cancer patients give exaggerated or otherwise unreliable answers to questions about their smoking habits.” Prof. Hammond said that experimental studies in which animals are being exposed to cigarette smoke to see if they develop lung cancer and in which cigarette smoke is being anaIyzed in an attempt to isoIate some specific cancer-producing agent as we11 as statistical studies in which smoking habits of 204,000 peopIe are being correIated with death rates from various causes may answer the big questions about cigarette smoking.
A YALE professor said that smoking cigarettes may possibly be responsible for heart disease as we11 as cancer. But, and it is a big “but,” there is no specific proof that the use of tobacco causes cancer, heart disease or serious ailments, according to E. CuyIer Hammond, professor of biometry at Yale University. Prof. statistical
Hammond, research
who for the
is aIso
director
American
of
Cancer
Society, in discussing tobacco and health, pointed out that “the death rates from heart disease have been increasing steadily for the last severa decades” and that the popularity of cigarettes has also been on the rise in that period. Even taking into account the increasing age and greater vuInerabiIity to heart disease of the population, “death rates from coronary thrombosis appear to have about doubIed in the last twenty years or so,” said the YaIe biometrist who appIies the science of statistics to bioIogy and pubIic heaIth. Smoking is known to cause “an increase in the heart rate, an increase in blood pressure, and a constriction in the size of the smaI1 bIood vessels,” he continued. While none of this proves that cigarette smoking causes death from heart disease, it does constitute “sufficient evidence to warrant doing further research on the subject,” Prof. Hammond said. He went on to expIain that there is no positive proof yet that cigarette smoking causes Iung cancer. Many other factors in our environment, he insisted, should be investigated as possible causes for the starthng jump in Iung cancer during the Iast twenty years. For instance, he explained, soot and fumes from oi1 furnaces and from motor vehicIes both “are inhaled by human beings-and both contain substances which can be used to produce cancer in experimenta animaIs.” He added that it is possibIe that “Iung cancer may be caused by the combined effects of cigarette smoking and air pohution.” The YaIe statistician described an experiment in which materia1 was cohected from cigarette smoke and applied to the skin of mice every day for many months. “Forty-one percent of the mice deveIoped skin cancer,” he reported, adding, “Note that I say skin cancer. This is a far cry from the production of Iung
A jirst aid “specific” dressing for inj’uries on knuckles or Jingers, especially finger joints, has been manufactured by Medical Fabrics Co., Inc. of Paterson, New Jersey. “Knuckle-Bands” are a time- and labor-saving addition to ordinary first aid material for they can be applied quickly, securely held and yet permit free movement of injured parts. Flex-Aid Knuckle Bands are made of jleshcolored elastic cloth wbicb expands and contracts witb every movement of tbe joint or body and does not cause constriction. These sterilized, individually wrapped adbesive dressings are somewhat porous, therefore reducing the danger of maceration of bandaged parts. Four-U’ing Joint Patches for knees, heels, elbows, side of hand and chin are also available. NEW technics for liver surgery may resuIt from studies reported to the American Association of Anatomists by Dr. John E. HeaIey, Jr., of Jefferson MedicaI CoIIege, PhiIadeIphia. Dr. HeaIy toId the assembIed anatomists that aIthough operations for remova of portions of the Iiver have been performed since 1886, they are reIativeIy crude since surgeons have lacked knowIedge about bIood and biIe circuIation within the liver. To Iearn more about this 46
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48
NOTES
AND
QUOTES
circuIation within the liver, Dr. HeaIy reported how he had injected a viny1 acetate soIution into biIe ducts, hepatic arteries and porta veins, and foIIowed the ffow patterns. He discovered that al1 three of these systems were arranged by fissures into segments, and that a11 three foIIowed each other very closely. However, the hepatic veins did not foIIow this segmenta arrangement. The main trunks of these veins were found between the liver segments, draining segments adjacent to them. The hepatic veins are one of the four main channeIs of circuIation in the Iiver; the bile ducts, hepatic arteries and porta veins being the other three. By estabIishing an anatomic pattern within the Iiver, Dr. HeaIey hopes to make it easier for surgeons to perform operations on the Iiver and to increase the safety of such operations. An evaluation of tbe efects ojrobalate@, donnataP and donnalate@ on gastric secretion and gastrointestinal motility in peptic ulcer patients is being made in Chicago under the direction of Dr. Clifford J. Barborka, associate projessor of medicine, Nortbwestern University Medical School, and senior consultant in gastroenterology to the Veterans Research Hospital, and Dr. E. Clinton Texter, associate in medicine, Nortbwestern University Medical School. Dr. W. R. Bond, director of clinical research of tbe A. H. Robins Co., Inc., Richmond, Virginia, said tbe grants cover a six-montb pilot project at the Medical School outpatient department of gastroenterology, and a three-year prqject to explore tbe mechanism of pain in ulcer. SIh4~m forms of urinary infections usuaIIy can be treated successfuIIy by sulfonamide therapy, according to Drs. Houston D. Everett and John Herman Long of Johns Hopkins University and HospitaI in the ApriI, 1934, issue of the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology.
“The preferred agents for the initial treatment of urinary infection of a11varieties shouId be one of the suIfonamide drugs,” the BaItimore physicians concIuded on the basis of 1,916 urine cuItures studied over a period of three years. They favored suIfonamides over antibiotics because of Iower costs, effectiveness
against a greater variety of organisms and fewer unpIeasan-t side effects Antibiotic therapy, they reported, shouId be reserved for the more complicated and serious infections or those that have proved resistant to suIfonamide therapy. They found suIfadiazine in smaI1 doses, z gm. daiIy, proved effective in acute uncomplicated infections in five to seven days. A team of Cincinnati doctors reported “striking response” witb a newly developed therapeutic vitamin cream, pantboderm, in speeding tbe bealing of stubborn, chronic skin diseases, many of wbicb bad jailed to improve under prolonged treatment witb otber drugs. Dr. Asbton L. Welsh and Dr. Mitchell Ede, reporting in tbe American Medical Association’s Archives of Dermatology and Sypbilology, said twenty-jive of a group of twenty-eigbt patients witb a wide range of chronic skin diseases ranging from bypostatic dermatitis, atopic dermatitis and neurodermatitis to leukoplakia and seborrbeic keratoses showed faster, often striking improvement. Tbese patients “evidenced stimulation of epitbelization (growtb of epidermal, or outer, tissue), a resolution of maceration, healing of fissures and excoriations” wben tbe pantboderm cream was employed externally. Tbe investigators were also impressed with tbe way tbe new cream controlled tbe itching wbicb accompanied many of tbese skin ailments. DR. ALEXANDER R. SURREY, senior research chemist at the SterIing-Winthrop Research Institute, Rensselaer, New York, has been eIected chairman of the Eastern New York Section of the American ChemicaI Society. He wiI1 serve in that position until May, 1955. Dr. Surrey is the author or co-author of more than fifty pubIications and patents deaIing with organic syntheses. Included in his work is synthesis of the antimaIaria1 araIen@ (chloroquine), and the deveIopment of a process for its production. His most recent pubIication concerns synthesis of a group of powerful new amebicidal agents. He is also the author of a book on organic chemistry, “Name Reactions in Organic Chemistry,” pubIished earlier in 1954 by the Academic Press, Inc., New York. It was written by Dr. Surrey to fiI1 the need for
48
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50
NOTES
AND
QUOTES
a sharpened, up-to-date compiIation of name reactions, one of the important tooIs of the organic chemist. These are the reactions designated by the names of the individuaIs who discovered or deveIoped them, conforming with time-honored custom in chemical literature.
Dr. Silvio de Sao Paulo has joined 11jretb Laboratories as a clinical associate, it was announced recently. Dr. de Sao Paulo formerly served as a major in tbe U. S. Army Medical Corps as chief of the Preventive Medicine Section, 1st Army Corps, Korea. A graduate of tbe school of medicine of tbe University of Babai, Brazil, Dr. de Sao Paulo also received a doctor’s degree in public bealtb from tbe University of Brazil. He took his master’s degree in public bealtb at Yale Cniversity. During his Army career Dr. de Sao Paulo served in tbe Caribbean and Far East tbeaters wbere be was awarded the Presidential Unit Citation and tbe Bronze Star Medal. He is a member of tbe Association of Military Surgeons.
Despite its triumph and miracles, modern medicine bas jailed. It has neither eliminated disease nor promoted bealtb, according to Dr. Iago Galdston of the New York Academy of Medicine. Tbis seeming paradox is vividly demonstrated in bis new book “The Meaning of Social Medicine,” publisbed in May by Harvard University Press. Not to be confused with socialized medicine, wbicb is the provision of certain medical services by the government, social medicine is concerned witb a wider view than mere “curative” medicine. It scrutinizes many factors afleeting bealtb and well-being. Its emphasis is upon man and his environment ratber tban disease and its etiology. [Recommended. Ed.]
THE pubIished
studies on the antimicrobial nitrofurans are so voIuminous by now that Eaton Laboratories at Norwich, New York, where this new family of drugs was discovered, has established a reference library as a service to its staff and to independent investigators. UndoubtedIy the onIy compIete coIIection of the nitrofurans Iiterature in existence, it consists of 894 original articIes in seventeen Ianguages, not including abstracts and mentions. Items on furacin@, furaspor@, furoxone@, furadantin@ and other nitrofurans are constantly being added from clinical and veterinary journaIs and those devoted to chemistry, biochemistry, bacteriology and biology, pubIished throughout the world. A mimeographed bibIiography is availabIe to investigators, and queries are answered with the aid of a card index system with cross reference cards to a11 phases of published work on the nitrofurans anywhere in the world.
VITAMINdeficiency is now known to be among the causes of at Ieast eleven nervous or mental disorders, according to a report in The Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Disorders Iisted invoIve such symptoms as menta1 deterioration or depression, hysteria, defective memory, Ioss of sense of Iocation, loss of sense of truth, haIIucinations, ideas of persecution, anxiety, irritabiIity, etc. Authors of the paper, which is a summary of research on the roIe of vitamins in nervous and menta1 disease, are Dr. Robert A. Peterman, medica director of J. B. Roerig and Co., Chicago, and Dr. Robert S. Goodhart, scientific director of the National Vitamin Foundation, New York. Both have contributed to the advance of cIinica1 nutritiona research as members of the Nutritiona CIinics of the New York City Department of HeaIth. Their report summarizes seventy-four studies, of which sixty have been pubIished since January, 1940. A major purpose of the summary is to make these new findings available to the practicing physician by describing the signs and symptoms of otherwise undetectabIe disorders and suggesting one or more vitamins as therapy for the conditions invoIved.
Shock was successfully controlled in jive b_vpotensive patients following infusions of’ neosynepbrine bydrocbloride@, with no unusual reactions noted despite “prolonged and continuous intravenous administration” of tbe vasopressor drug, it was reported in tbe March, 1954, issue of tbe BuIIetin of the New EngIand MedicaI Center. Blood volume bad been restored in each patient, but bad jailed to reverse tbe acute bypotension, according to Dr. Harold Rbeinlander and bis
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associates. Tbey are afiliated witb New England Center Hospital and Tufts College Medical School. In two patients witb shock due to massive bemorrbage, prompt and continued therapy witb neo-synepbrine reversed the shock condition and maintained blood pressure at normotensive levels “until the vasomotor center recovered.” Previously, tbe doctors state, tbe pressure bad not responded to adequate blood replacement.
After using mycijradin (neomycin) to reduce tbe bacterial j7ora of tbe intestines of f;fty patients before they underwent surgery, a group oj Army surgeons bave termed tbis antibiotic, “the most efective antibiotic available for intestinal preparation.” Tbe physicians from tbe Surgical Fesearcb Unit of the U. S. Army at Fort Sam Houston, Texas, praised neomycin for its low rate of absorption from tbe bowel, its wide range oj activity against tbe bacteria of tbe gut and tbe low incidence of bacterial resistance encountered with tbe drug to date. Tbeir report appeared in a recent issue of Surgery. In tbeir tests tbe Army doctors found tbat 4 gm. of neomvcin in a single dose completely suppressed colijorm bacteria, staphylococci and otber gram-positive bacteria for twenty-four hours. Tbe patients were first given enemas and a laxative in order to enable tbe neomycin to work more efectively. Tbe investigators conclude, “Neomycin effectively suppressed all intestinal bacteria in tbis series witbout evidence of tbe development of resistant forms. Overgrowtb yeast or fungi was not evident. Toxicity from absorption of the drug did not occur.”
THE outIook for medica education in America has been “visibIy brightened” by events of the past few months, according to CharIes H. Prange, President of AustenaI Laboratories, Inc. and Chairman of the HospitaI, SurgicaI and Opticai Division of the Committee of American Industry. The CA1 is spear-heading an appea1 of the NationaI Fund for MedicaI Education for an annua1 ten million dolIars from industry to keep the nation’s medical schooIs in business. “Just before its adjournment the Congress passed and President Eisenhower signed a bill granting a Federal Charter to the National Fund for MedicaI Education,” Mr. Prange said. “This stamp of Federal approva1 puts the NationaI Fund on the same pIane with the Red Cross and other great public agencies, a deserved acknowIedgment of its importance to the nationa weIfare. It emphasizes the fact that medica training in America is a basic national resource. “At aImost the same time,” Mr. Prange continued, “the United States SteeI Foundation announced its initia1 gift to the Fund of $so,ooo. So to FederaI recognition is added that of one of the nation’s Iargest industries in marshaling business support of medica education. WhiIe not unique-there have been other corporate gifts of Iike size-Big Steel’s action wiI1 be a pace-setter for other business firms, Iarge and smaI1.” Mr. Prange pointed out that the NationaI Fund distributed $2,176,go4 to the nation’s eighty medica schooIs Iast summer, bringing to $7,000,000 the grant distributed since the Fund’s founding in 1949. But the annua1 goa1, he added, is $IO,OOO,OOO, which he described as the minimum to keep the medica schooIs above water without seeking FederaI subsidy.
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THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF MEDICINE, since 1946 an internationally known, independent monthIy pubIication, has been honored as recipient of the Honor Award, CIass II (medica speciaIty journaIs) for Distinguished Service in MedicaI JournaIism given by the American MedicaI Writers’ Association. The award, consisting of a pIaque, was accepted by its Editor, Dr. AIexander B. Gutman of New York City, Professor of Medicine, CoIumbia University, and Director of Medicine, Mt. Sinai Hospital, New York. The presentation was made by the President of the Association on the occasion of the I Ith Annual Meeting of the Association heId in Chicago on September 24th. The award is one presented annuaIIy “for accuracy, cIarity, conciseness and newness of information in articIes, editorials, and other materia1; for exceIIence of design, printing and iIIustrations, and for distinguished service to the medical profession,” rendered by United States and Canadian medical periodicaIs. 52
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QUOTES This project is under the supervision of Dr. Herbert E. Carter. At the same university research on antibiotics in the department of horticuIture is being aided by a $6,000 Upjohn grant to be used under the direction of Dr. David GottIieb. Dr. James HaIsted of the University of CaIifornia has been awarded $3,000 by Upjohn to continue his studies on vitamin Br2.
In tbe past two decades, major gains bave been made in reducing mortality among children jive to fourteen years of age. The deatb rate dropped nearly two-thirds between 1933 and rg53-from 158.0 to 57.3 per roo,ooo-among boys of elementary school age insured under Industrial policies in tbe Metropolitan Life Insurance Company. Among the girls the downward trend in mortality was even more marked, the rate jalling from 125.8 to 36.8 per 100,ooo. In each sex decreases of 85 per cent or more were recorded in the death rate from a number of diseases, including tbe principal communicable diseases of cbildbood, appendicitis, pneumonia and in&enza, and tuberculosis. Despite these striking achievements in lije consercalion, the actual number of lives lost among school-age youngsters is still large, a considerable part of it resulting from causes amenable to control. At present tbere are about IS,OOO deaths a year among children of ages Jive to fourteen in the general population of the United States. Accidents are the greatest single menace to child life. Among the boys accidental injury was responsible for more tban two-fifths of the total mortality in 1950; among the girls the proportion exceeded one-quarter. The wide disparity in the accident death rate between boys and girls-31.5 and 13.3 per IOO,OOO, respectively-accounted for nearly the entire sex di.erence in tbe total mortality. Malignant neoplasms (cancer and allied conditions), wbicb two decades ago were a relatively minor cause of death among children jive to fourteen years of age, now outrank every other disease as a cause of deatb in this period of life. Tbese conditions bave forged abead to their present rank not only because of the marked decrease in tbe mortality from the infectious diseases, but also because of the increase in the recorded death rate from cancer. The leukemias account for nearly balj of all the deatbs attributed to malignancy among school-age children.
Furadantin@ is a useful chemotherapeutic agent in combatting “surviving strains from otber medications since these strains soon become tbe dominant injecting organisms,” Dr. Grayson Carroll and Dr. Robert V. Brennan of the St. Louis University Medical School stated in the May, 1934, issue of JournaI of UroIogy. The investigators found juradantin “particularly useful in tbe stubborn Proteus injections,” and likewise e$ective in the majority of strains of Escbericbia coli, Aerobacter aerogenes, Streptococcus jaecalis and Alcaligenes sp. “Its effectiveness in Proteus injections has been most encouraging and valuable since the Proteus causes recurrent stone formation and encrustations,” tbey report. Clinical studies of 128 patients taking juradantin showed no toxic e$ects. Side effects, limited to nausea in one-tbird of the patients and vomiting in I per cent, were reduced by lowering dosage, administering tbe drug witb food or after meals and giving alkalis.
DR. PATRICK H. HANLEY, instructor in the Tulane University SchooI of Medicine, has been awarded the Ohio ValIey Proctology Award for the best paper presented at the 53rd AnnuaI Meeting of the American ProctoIogic Society heId in June at Los Angeles, CaIifornia. Dr. Hanley received the award for his paper on surgica1 cbrrection of ana deformities in babies at birth. A native of Lockport, Louisiana, Dr. HanIey is a 1933 graduate of TuIane. He is a staff member of the department of surgery, Ochsner MedicaI Foundation. The Ohio VaIIey Award is presented annuaIIy to an affrIiate member of the American Proctologic Society whose paper is judged the best of those presented at the yearIy meeting of the group.
RESEARCH grants of $r~,ooo to the University of IIIinois and $3,000 to the University of California have been announced by The Upjohn Company. The department of chemistry at IIIinois wiI1 receive $9,000 to support work on the chemistry and preparation of antibiotics. 54