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PROF. FERNAND WIDAL.
264 we gather that there On the contrary, this reputation is amply justified abroad, and in the Colonies, by the great original work of Widal. who wish to send a donation to the fund, and who Fernand Widal was eminently a representative have not yet had time to reply. The number of of the great clinicians of the Paris school. He was contributors has so far been disappointing. Without not only an original worker, but a brilliant diagnosanaesthesia, the great achievements of present-day tician and a remarkable teacher. As a consultant We ask for further he was known even in the remotest corners of the surgery would be impossible. support, not only to recognise Hickman officially for world, and when some years ago he travelled through the first time, but to claim this pioneer work for an South America, he was received with real royal Englishman, and in so doing to stimulate original honours. He had great clinical tact, and I have had work in anaathesia. The hon. treasurer of the fund the occasion to appreciate this quality in a very is Mr. V. Warren Low, F.R.C.S., 76, Harley-street, W. dark period of the history of Greece, when Widal had been called, too late unfortunately, at the sick-bed I am, Sir, yours faithfully, of the late King Alexander. As a teacher he had CECIL CECII. HUGHES, M.B., made of the medical clinic of Cochin Hospital a centre Hon. Sec., Hickman Memorial Aleiiiorial Committee. of study and work for physicians coming from all London, W., Jan. 28th, 1929.
From
a
contributor in Canada
may be medical
men
of the world. The man was as great as the physician ; although PROF. FERNAND WIDAL. covered with glory and honours, Member of the " Institut "-the highest French scientific honour-To the Editor of THE LANCET. Great Cross of the Legion of Honour-the highest SIR,—In the obituary notice in your last issue French civil honour-he kept to the last days of his Fernand Widal is given the title of Professeur agrege. life his simplicity and sympathetic disposition, ready This is an error. Widal was Professeur titulaire- to help anyone, great or small. He loved his calling ; and this is not at all the same thing. The appreciation he was a fervent but not a narrow patriot, and a of the original work of Prof. Widal which follows is valuable friend. also not very precise, and hardly gives a fair estimate I am, Sir, yours faithfully, of the work done by this physician. The precise A. A. P. P. CAWADIAS. facts are the following :Wimpole-street, W., Jan. 29th, 1929. In 1889, when he was assistant physician to the hospitals of Paris, Widal showed the importance of the streptococcus in the genesis of puerperal phlebitis. ASTHMA RESEARCH. In the same year he demonstrated with Chantemesse To the Editor of THE LANCET. the possibility of vaccinating animals against typhoid infection by using vaccines made of microbes killed SIR,—That anyone, least of all a psychologist, should have been able to read into my letter and the medium of thus the basis heat, through giving of the prophylactic and of therapeutic vaccination. link up my name with the word " pessimism " is so On June 26th, 1896 (therefore some months before astonishing that lesser misunderstandings may be the publication of A. S. Grunbaum), Widal introduced excused. I have many failings, but never before the agglutination reaction for the diagnosis of typhoid in all my life have I been calleda pessimist. Referring to that portion of my letter, which fever, and the fact that the whole world knows this reaction as " Widal reaction," and that even the Dr. Millais Culpin takes as a text for his short sermon,. Germans call it " Gruber-Wid>!,]," demonstrates suffi- my point is that the asthmatic is not a neurotic, the of the role French ciently physician in the dis- nor does he suffer from nervous manifestations, nor, but for very exceptional cases, is he in need of that covery of this valuable method. The most important work of Widal is probably ample assistance Dr. Culpin and his fellow prachis work on nephritis. He first demonstrated the titioners can doubtless afford to the true neuropath. Neurotic tendencies were wrongly imputed to the r6le of salt in the genesis of oedema, and although since then theories on oedema have changed and will asthmatic in the past by a profession which was change, the clinical fact of the role of salt-free diet totally ignorant of the main causes of asthma as will remain as a permanent acquisition of science. now recognised. When the patient said that cats Pushing his work further, Widal succeeded to free gave him asthma, he was disbelieved ; now, by means nephritis from the exclusive, and sterile thera- of the skin reactions, full justification of his statement peutically, anatomopathological point of view, and is possible. Dr. Culpin seems anxious to know what introduced his famous conception and analysis of degree of stigma I personally attach to the adjective the physiopathological syndromes of nephritis, iso- "nervous." My answer is, a very great deal. If lating principally the azotaemic type and showing the the number of neurotics in the world were doubled, diagnostical and prognostical significance of the the health of society at large and the peace of the - variations of urea nitrogen in the blood. In 1900, individual at home would be very adversely affected;: with Ravaut and Sicard, he introduced the method if it were halved, the nation would be far happier. of cyto-diagnosis of the exudates. In 1907, with Therefore, the neurotic is not an element for good, Abrami and Brule, he made a series of important and in so far as he fails to add his quota to the general works on the haemolytic jaundice. In 1913 he started happiness of the world, so far is he a nuisance, and his researches on anaphylaxis, which would have so far do his nervous manifestations carry a stigma. remained a laboratory phenomenon, or at all events I made no attempt in my letter to include all the would have been limited to serum disease if Widal possible methods of curing asthma, but because I had not thrown into this work his clear intuition and did not mention psychotherapy it does not follow his experimental genius. It is well known that that I am totally ignorant of that science. Nor is thanks to this work on anaphylaxis and that of the it impossible that some of us may arrive at useful importance of the disturbance of the colloidal equili- conclusions by sympathetic questions and by lesser brium in the blood, medicine has been transformed by methods than by stirring up the deeper pools of a sort of renovation of the old humeral pathology memory with a long stick and grabbing the dead of the Greeks, and the treatment of a great number leaves as thev come to the surface. of diseases has largely benefited by the antiAs my views on psychology cannot be of the least anaphylactic medication. interest to anyone, I will close with an article of I can only indicate the principal researches of faith. In my opinion it is of far greater value to Widal, but, in fact, there is no branch of medicine 99 asthmatics out of every 100 to know whether which has not benefited by his work, and all those they are sensitive to feathers, if they can take aspirin, who have followed the medical movement of these if their tonsils are healthy, and such like very material last years cannot agree with the words of your questions, than to undergo a course of psychoI am, Sir, yours faithfully, collaborator that " Widal achieved a reputation for analysis. FRANK COKE. Jan. 28th, 1929. original research which perhaps he hardly merited."
parts
From
a
contributor in Canada
may be medical
men
of the world. The man was as great as the physician ; although PROF. FERNAND WIDAL. covered with glory and honours, Member of the " Institut "-the highest French scientific honour-To the Editor of THE LANCET. Great Cross of the Legion of Honour-the highest SIR,—In the obituary notice in your last issue French civil honour-he kept to the last days of his Fernand Widal is given the title of Professeur agrege. life his simplicity and sympathetic disposition, ready This is an error. Widal was Professeur titulaire- to help anyone, great or small. He loved his calling ; and this is not at all the same thing. The appreciation he was a fervent but not a narrow patriot, and a of the original work of Prof. Widal which follows is valuable friend. also not very precise, and hardly gives a fair estimate I am, Sir, yours faithfully, of the work done by this physician. The precise A. A. P. P. CAWADIAS. facts are the following :Wimpole-street, W., Jan. 29th, 1929. In 1889, when he was assistant physician to the hospitals of Paris, Widal showed the importance of the streptococcus in the genesis of puerperal phlebitis. ASTHMA RESEARCH. In the same year he demonstrated with Chantemesse To the Editor of THE LANCET. the possibility of vaccinating animals against typhoid infection by using vaccines made of microbes killed SIR,—That anyone, least of all a psychologist, should have been able to read into my letter and the medium of thus the basis heat, through giving of the prophylactic and of therapeutic vaccination. link up my name with the word " pessimism " is so On June 26th, 1896 (therefore some months before astonishing that lesser misunderstandings may be the publication of A. S. Grunbaum), Widal introduced excused. I have many failings, but never before the agglutination reaction for the diagnosis of typhoid in all my life have I been calleda pessimist. Referring to that portion of my letter, which fever, and the fact that the whole world knows this reaction as " Widal reaction," and that even the Dr. Millais Culpin takes as a text for his short sermon,. Germans call it " Gruber-Wid>!,]," demonstrates suffi- my point is that the asthmatic is not a neurotic, the of the role French ciently physician in the dis- nor does he suffer from nervous manifestations, nor, but for very exceptional cases, is he in need of that covery of this valuable method. The most important work of Widal is probably ample assistance Dr. Culpin and his fellow prachis work on nephritis. He first demonstrated the titioners can doubtless afford to the true neuropath. Neurotic tendencies were wrongly imputed to the r6le of salt in the genesis of oedema, and although since then theories on oedema have changed and will asthmatic in the past by a profession which was change, the clinical fact of the role of salt-free diet totally ignorant of the main causes of asthma as will remain as a permanent acquisition of science. now recognised. When the patient said that cats Pushing his work further, Widal succeeded to free gave him asthma, he was disbelieved ; now, by means nephritis from the exclusive, and sterile thera- of the skin reactions, full justification of his statement peutically, anatomopathological point of view, and is possible. Dr. Culpin seems anxious to know what introduced his famous conception and analysis of degree of stigma I personally attach to the adjective the physiopathological syndromes of nephritis, iso- "nervous." My answer is, a very great deal. If lating principally the azotaemic type and showing the the number of neurotics in the world were doubled, diagnostical and prognostical significance of the the health of society at large and the peace of the - variations of urea nitrogen in the blood. In 1900, individual at home would be very adversely affected;: with Ravaut and Sicard, he introduced the method if it were halved, the nation would be far happier. of cyto-diagnosis of the exudates. In 1907, with Therefore, the neurotic is not an element for good, Abrami and Brule, he made a series of important and in so far as he fails to add his quota to the general works on the haemolytic jaundice. In 1913 he started happiness of the world, so far is he a nuisance, and his researches on anaphylaxis, which would have so far do his nervous manifestations carry a stigma. remained a laboratory phenomenon, or at all events I made no attempt in my letter to include all the would have been limited to serum disease if Widal possible methods of curing asthma, but because I had not thrown into this work his clear intuition and did not mention psychotherapy it does not follow his experimental genius. It is well known that that I am totally ignorant of that science. Nor is thanks to this work on anaphylaxis and that of the it impossible that some of us may arrive at useful importance of the disturbance of the colloidal equili- conclusions by sympathetic questions and by lesser brium in the blood, medicine has been transformed by methods than by stirring up the deeper pools of a sort of renovation of the old humeral pathology memory with a long stick and grabbing the dead of the Greeks, and the treatment of a great number leaves as thev come to the surface. of diseases has largely benefited by the antiAs my views on psychology cannot be of the least anaphylactic medication. interest to anyone, I will close with an article of I can only indicate the principal researches of faith. In my opinion it is of far greater value to Widal, but, in fact, there is no branch of medicine 99 asthmatics out of every 100 to know whether which has not benefited by his work, and all those they are sensitive to feathers, if they can take aspirin, who have followed the medical movement of these if their tonsils are healthy, and such like very material last years cannot agree with the words of your questions, than to undergo a course of psychoI am, Sir, yours faithfully, collaborator that " Widal achieved a reputation for analysis. FRANK COKE. Jan. 28th, 1929. original research which perhaps he hardly merited."
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