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VASELINED LINEN THREAD.
710
by the saving of time when the card-index system gets into proper working order. The examining doctor who wishes to look at the man’s past documents could do so before examination of the patient; many members of pensions boa,ds prefer to investigate each case with an unbiased mind, and only after examination do they wish to compare their independent conclusion with that arrived at by previous boards. I am, Sir, yours faithfully, ANOTHER MEMBER OF PENSIONS BOARD. Oct. 2nd, 1919.
JOHN HUNTER’S BEARD AND MASK.
a
drum, which is treated’with the ordinary dressings in the
steam steriliser.
The thread is stored in
spirit or biniodide-
spirit.
Linen threa1 so prepared has a distinct but extremely delicate coating of vaseline which is present round every filament of the thread. As a ligature and suture material it has many advantages. It is not an irritant, being soft and pliable it is easily drawn into a tight knot and having a smooth surface it does not traumatise the tissues when used as a suture. It is very strong and keeps indefinitely. The absence of capillarity prevents infection passing along the thread. It is easily prepared and very pleasant to work with. Vaselined linen thread has been in constant use now for almost two years. I have personally employed it as a general ligature and suture material in more thxn 200 opera. tions and have never had cause to regret its employment. I am. Sir. vours faithfullv. Richmond Hospital, Dublin. R. V. SLATTERY, F.R.C.S.Irel.
To the Editor of THE LANCET. men are familiar with Reynolds’s great medical SIR,-Most picture of John Hunter. It was painted in 1785 when When giving the Hunter was in his fifty-eighth year. centenary lecture to the Hunterian Society in the Apothecaries’ Hall last week I bad an opportunity of examining Reynolds’s less-known picture of Hunter, which hangs there. THE LESSONS OF FAILURE. A comparison of this picture with the greater work in the To the Editor of THE LANCET. Council Room of the Royal College of Surgeons of England leaves no doubt that the picture in the Apothecaries’ Hall SIR,-I am glad to see in THE LANCET of Oct. llth Dr. represents a preliminary picture or sketch of the final and H. Warren Crowe’s article on Some Causes of Failure in the Vaccine Treatment of Arthritis, Rheumatism, and Neuritis, triumphant effort at the College of Surgeons. One feature of the Apothecaries’ Hall picture has puzzled for two reasons : first, because the writer’s idea of bringing students of Hunter, for there heis represented withathin beard forward causes of failure in more or less novel forms of made up of long straggling hairs. I infer that Reynolds felt therapeutics is well advised ; and second,, because when I that a successful portrait was impossible until this beard was more in touch with general vaccine treatment than now had been got rid of, and therefore proposed that a plaster I saw much of failure and little cf success. I cannot agree mak of his sitter’s face should be taken-a proposal which with his regret at the number of cases of failure he expresses, would certainly have appealed to Hunter. At least we for assuredly if a mode of treatment has in it some lasting know that a mask of Hunter’s face-one which is usually value one well-reported failure is worth a dozen successes. described as a death-mask, but has all the marks on it of a A well-known practitioner of vaccine treatment is a pioneer, life-mask-was taken then at Reynolds’s suggestion. William and a pioneer will "get there"none the worse, to say Norris, in the Hunterian Oration of 1825 (p. 35) states: nothing of those who follow him, if he marks publicly his " Whilst, however, Sir Joshua was engaged on this portrait, own wanderings from the best path in the country through he requested Mr. Hunter to let a caste be taken from his which he has passed. Nothing strikes one more in the face." The orator goes on to describe how this mask was dis- recent memoir of a great pioneer than the scrupulous care covered at a later date in a lumber-room and used by Chantry and open statement of his failures that strewed the pathin fashioning his bust of Hunter. Hunter himself mentions way of Lister to truth that will never perish. What he the taking of this mask (Palmer’s edition, vol. iii., p. 88); it had omitted to do, what he had done wrong were " the cells of the skin of the nose being loaded exposed in lectures, addresses, and at the bedside; they gave rise to with extravasated blood," which he remarked soon turned were his omissions and his failures. It is hard enough to from a "florid red to a dark purple." read aright one’s own failures, when ol’tensibly all the facts I had come to the conclusion from a study of the maskare known to us, but harder indeed to read those of other itself that it had been taken during life before I came workers whose knowledge, skill, and care are unknown to across the above records. But it was not until I again us. I am led to say this because the writer gives only one examined the picture at the Apothecaries’ Hall that Iexample, which I suppose was a case of his own, under the realised the relationship between the cast and the beard. five headings as to causes of failure, and that one is not a We have here. I think, an example of the adroit skill withifailure properly so-called but an instance of an experiment which Reynolds could deal with his sitters. The beard hadwith this modern method, as, indeed, vaccine treatment in to go beiore the mask could be taken t There is thegeneral This precaution will need to be is at present. 1 traditional story of Reynolds being dissatisfied with hisobserved closely in the other numerous forms of treatment .earlier efforts and of his turning his canvas round and 1that have emerged through the years of war. Let us, then, I cases of failure as well as causes of failure. beginning his picture again.I think the straggling beard have I am, Sir, yours faithful!r,.... represents the real difficulty which had to be overcome. I am, Sir, yours faithfully, M.D. Oct. llth. 1919. ARTHUR KEITH. Royal College of Surgeons of England, Oct. 13th, 1919.
I
THE MEDICO-LEGAL SOCIETY.-In issuing the report and list of members of this society the honorary VASELINED LINEN THREAD. secretary pleads for new members now that the war is over, To the Editor of THE LANCET. and states that offers of papers to be read at the society’s meetings will be welcomed. The annual dinner will be held SIR,-Linen thread prepared in the following simple manner at the Holborn Restaurant at 7 P.rvr. on Oct. 29th, has proved very satisfactory in my work both with the Salonika when several guests of eminence, bothWednesday, in law and medicine, Forces and, since my return, in the R chmond Hospital, are expected to attend. Tickets. 14s. each, may be obtainad satin" Barbour’s linen thread with a hard or Dublin. the honorary secretary, 3, South-square, Gray’s Inn, finish is employed. Nos. 30. 60, and 90 are the most con- London, W.C. 1. "
from
venient sizes. I use the thread undyed, but if distinctive I THE LATE MR. EBENEZER SNELL.-Ebenezer colours are desired the same quality thread can be had ironSnell, M.R.C.S. Eng., L.S.A., who died at his residence in is wound on a The thread loosely glass reels, using dyed. Brighton on Oct. 13th, aged 76, was a student at Middlesex separate size or cotour of reel for a particular thickness of Hospital and qualified in 1864. After holding a house thread. The reels are now sterilised in vaseline, which is appointment at the Isle of Man General Hospital and Dis-. slowly raised to 1400C. and kept at this temperature for pensary he became medical officer to the House of Industry 20 mintiteq. No special apparatus is necessary for this pur- at Douglas. He afterwards resided at Ketton, near Reading, and in 1891 went to Brighton, where he was one of the pose. To facilitate the removal of the reels out of the hot members of the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, and vaseline I usually knot the thread round the reels, leaving a original held the rank of surgeon-lieutenant-commander in the Sussex loose end, and grip allthe ends together in an artery forceps. Division. He was also Admiralty surgeon and agent. His To remove aseptically the excess of vaseline from the thread son, Mr. J. P. B. Snell, has followed his father’s profession, the reels are next wrapped in sterilised gauze and placed in and is on the West African Medical Staff.
by the saving of time when the card-index system gets into proper working order. The examining doctor who wishes to look at the man’s past documents could do so before examination of the patient; many members of pensions boa,ds prefer to investigate each case with an unbiased mind, and only after examination do they wish to compare their independent conclusion with that arrived at by previous boards. I am, Sir, yours faithfully, ANOTHER MEMBER OF PENSIONS BOARD. Oct. 2nd, 1919.
JOHN HUNTER’S BEARD AND MASK.
a
drum, which is treated’with the ordinary dressings in the
steam steriliser.
The thread is stored in
spirit or biniodide-
spirit.
Linen threa1 so prepared has a distinct but extremely delicate coating of vaseline which is present round every filament of the thread. As a ligature and suture material it has many advantages. It is not an irritant, being soft and pliable it is easily drawn into a tight knot and having a smooth surface it does not traumatise the tissues when used as a suture. It is very strong and keeps indefinitely. The absence of capillarity prevents infection passing along the thread. It is easily prepared and very pleasant to work with. Vaselined linen thread has been in constant use now for almost two years. I have personally employed it as a general ligature and suture material in more thxn 200 opera. tions and have never had cause to regret its employment. I am. Sir. vours faithfullv. Richmond Hospital, Dublin. R. V. SLATTERY, F.R.C.S.Irel.
To the Editor of THE LANCET. men are familiar with Reynolds’s great medical SIR,-Most picture of John Hunter. It was painted in 1785 when When giving the Hunter was in his fifty-eighth year. centenary lecture to the Hunterian Society in the Apothecaries’ Hall last week I bad an opportunity of examining Reynolds’s less-known picture of Hunter, which hangs there. THE LESSONS OF FAILURE. A comparison of this picture with the greater work in the To the Editor of THE LANCET. Council Room of the Royal College of Surgeons of England leaves no doubt that the picture in the Apothecaries’ Hall SIR,-I am glad to see in THE LANCET of Oct. llth Dr. represents a preliminary picture or sketch of the final and H. Warren Crowe’s article on Some Causes of Failure in the Vaccine Treatment of Arthritis, Rheumatism, and Neuritis, triumphant effort at the College of Surgeons. One feature of the Apothecaries’ Hall picture has puzzled for two reasons : first, because the writer’s idea of bringing students of Hunter, for there heis represented withathin beard forward causes of failure in more or less novel forms of made up of long straggling hairs. I infer that Reynolds felt therapeutics is well advised ; and second,, because when I that a successful portrait was impossible until this beard was more in touch with general vaccine treatment than now had been got rid of, and therefore proposed that a plaster I saw much of failure and little cf success. I cannot agree mak of his sitter’s face should be taken-a proposal which with his regret at the number of cases of failure he expresses, would certainly have appealed to Hunter. At least we for assuredly if a mode of treatment has in it some lasting know that a mask of Hunter’s face-one which is usually value one well-reported failure is worth a dozen successes. described as a death-mask, but has all the marks on it of a A well-known practitioner of vaccine treatment is a pioneer, life-mask-was taken then at Reynolds’s suggestion. William and a pioneer will "get there"none the worse, to say Norris, in the Hunterian Oration of 1825 (p. 35) states: nothing of those who follow him, if he marks publicly his " Whilst, however, Sir Joshua was engaged on this portrait, own wanderings from the best path in the country through he requested Mr. Hunter to let a caste be taken from his which he has passed. Nothing strikes one more in the face." The orator goes on to describe how this mask was dis- recent memoir of a great pioneer than the scrupulous care covered at a later date in a lumber-room and used by Chantry and open statement of his failures that strewed the pathin fashioning his bust of Hunter. Hunter himself mentions way of Lister to truth that will never perish. What he the taking of this mask (Palmer’s edition, vol. iii., p. 88); it had omitted to do, what he had done wrong were " the cells of the skin of the nose being loaded exposed in lectures, addresses, and at the bedside; they gave rise to with extravasated blood," which he remarked soon turned were his omissions and his failures. It is hard enough to from a "florid red to a dark purple." read aright one’s own failures, when ol’tensibly all the facts I had come to the conclusion from a study of the maskare known to us, but harder indeed to read those of other itself that it had been taken during life before I came workers whose knowledge, skill, and care are unknown to across the above records. But it was not until I again us. I am led to say this because the writer gives only one examined the picture at the Apothecaries’ Hall that Iexample, which I suppose was a case of his own, under the realised the relationship between the cast and the beard. five headings as to causes of failure, and that one is not a We have here. I think, an example of the adroit skill withifailure properly so-called but an instance of an experiment which Reynolds could deal with his sitters. The beard hadwith this modern method, as, indeed, vaccine treatment in to go beiore the mask could be taken t There is thegeneral This precaution will need to be is at present. 1 traditional story of Reynolds being dissatisfied with hisobserved closely in the other numerous forms of treatment .earlier efforts and of his turning his canvas round and 1that have emerged through the years of war. Let us, then, I cases of failure as well as causes of failure. beginning his picture again.I think the straggling beard have I am, Sir, yours faithful!r,.... represents the real difficulty which had to be overcome. I am, Sir, yours faithfully, M.D. Oct. llth. 1919. ARTHUR KEITH. Royal College of Surgeons of England, Oct. 13th, 1919.
I
THE MEDICO-LEGAL SOCIETY.-In issuing the report and list of members of this society the honorary VASELINED LINEN THREAD. secretary pleads for new members now that the war is over, To the Editor of THE LANCET. and states that offers of papers to be read at the society’s meetings will be welcomed. The annual dinner will be held SIR,-Linen thread prepared in the following simple manner at the Holborn Restaurant at 7 P.rvr. on Oct. 29th, has proved very satisfactory in my work both with the Salonika when several guests of eminence, bothWednesday, in law and medicine, Forces and, since my return, in the R chmond Hospital, are expected to attend. Tickets. 14s. each, may be obtainad satin" Barbour’s linen thread with a hard or Dublin. the honorary secretary, 3, South-square, Gray’s Inn, finish is employed. Nos. 30. 60, and 90 are the most con- London, W.C. 1. "
from
venient sizes. I use the thread undyed, but if distinctive I THE LATE MR. EBENEZER SNELL.-Ebenezer colours are desired the same quality thread can be had ironSnell, M.R.C.S. Eng., L.S.A., who died at his residence in is wound on a The thread loosely glass reels, using dyed. Brighton on Oct. 13th, aged 76, was a student at Middlesex separate size or cotour of reel for a particular thickness of Hospital and qualified in 1864. After holding a house thread. The reels are now sterilised in vaseline, which is appointment at the Isle of Man General Hospital and Dis-. slowly raised to 1400C. and kept at this temperature for pensary he became medical officer to the House of Industry 20 mintiteq. No special apparatus is necessary for this pur- at Douglas. He afterwards resided at Ketton, near Reading, and in 1891 went to Brighton, where he was one of the pose. To facilitate the removal of the reels out of the hot members of the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, and vaseline I usually knot the thread round the reels, leaving a original held the rank of surgeon-lieutenant-commander in the Sussex loose end, and grip allthe ends together in an artery forceps. Division. He was also Admiralty surgeon and agent. His To remove aseptically the excess of vaseline from the thread son, Mr. J. P. B. Snell, has followed his father’s profession, the reels are next wrapped in sterilised gauze and placed in and is on the West African Medical Staff.