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A SERUM TEST FOR MALARIA
1406 disturbances. The loss of appetite is in to the lack of taste in the food and may recover almost at once when salted food is given. In a few cases there may be a genuine interference with
Greig, Dr. C. E. van Rooyen, and Mr. E. B. Hendry, working in the bacteriological department of Edin. burgh University, have now succeeded in improving the technique of the test, and give a brief description
the digestive function. Nervousness, twitching movements of the skeletal muscles, and headache are also said to develop as a result of a salt-free diet. These symptoms do not, however, arise frequently, and when they do occur in nephritis it may well be that they are the results of early uraemia and not of salt deficiency. A salt-free diet has been recommended in cedema due to causes other than chronic parenchymatous nephritis. Thus in dropsy due to congestive heart failure it appears that a reduction in the intake of salt decreases the rate at which the fluid accumulates and in some cases hastens the removal of cedema, and ascites. The use of a salt-free diet in non-oedematons cases of nephritis as a, rule is to be condemned, because there is no clear evidence of its value and because the nitrogen retention and the digestive disturbances which may attend its use may cause discomfort if not actual harm to the patient. A possible exception to this rule is in a condition called " chlorurgemia," where there is an accumulation of chlorides in the blood. Chloruraemia occurs in non-cedematous cases of nephritis, and in these cases the high plasma chloride upon which the diagnosis depends can be reduced to normal limits by diminishing the intake of salt. Whether anything is to be gained by this procedure is not yet clear. In essential hypertension a salt-poor diet frequently produces a, fall in the blood pressure. There seems to be no objection to its use, though the mechanism of this process is unexplained. The treatment of epilepsy by bromides may be reinforced by a salt-free diet, the chloride of the body is replaced by bromide and less of the bromide is excreted. It should be remembered in this connexion that the use of a salt-free diet in combination with bromide is equivalent to increasing the dose of bromide.
The melanin of their method on another page. used by them is extracted from human hair readily obtained from the barber, and is in a stable colloidal solution, so that it can be put up in ampoules and applied in field tests. Sera from several cases of
digestive
part due
active and latent malaria respectively were found by the Edinburgh workers to give positive results, while out of 129 sera from non-malarial patients all except two proved negative. The future of this test will be watched with interest, as a trustworthy but relatively simple serum reaction for malaria would prove of great practical utility.
THREE professorial appointments in the British Post-Graduate Medical College, at Hammersmith, are announced in our news columns. Prof. F. R. Fraser and Prof. E. H. Kettle are leaving St. Bartholomew’s Hospital to occupy the chairs of medicine and pathology respectively, and Dr. James Young is coming from Edinburgh to be professor of obstetrics and gynaecology. INFECTIOUS DISEASE IN ENGLAND AND WALES DURING THE WEEK ENDED JUNE 16TH, 1934
Notifications.- The following cases of infectious disease were notified during the week ; Small-pox, 3 (last week 2);scarlet fever, 2483 ;diphtheria, 1186 ;; enteric fever, 13 ; acute pneumonia (primary or influenzal), 863 ; puerperal fever, 35 ;; puerperal pyrexia, 105 ;; cerebro-spinal fever, 20 ; acute poliomyelitis, 2 ;acute polio-encephalitis, 1 ; encephalitis lethargica, 4 ; continued fever, 1 (Cambridge) ; dysentery, 5; ophthalmia neonatorum, 70. No case of cholera, plague, or typhus fever was notified
during THE ORDER OF ST. JOHN
THE occurrence this week of the general assembly of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem reminds us of the close association between the Order and the medical profession, alike through the control of the ophthalmological hospital at Jerusalem and the organisation of the St. John Ambulance Brigade. After the religious service Sir John Duncan and Colonel J. L. Sleeman, respectively chief commissioners of the ambulance brigade and the brigade overseas, gave an account of the work of their departments during the past year. It was reported that nearly half a million calls upon the ambulance department at home had been made, including 17,000 motor accidents. A large number of patients had been carried by the motor ambulances of the brigade which has considerably extended the number of its divisions. The activities of the Order of St. John show that deep respect for medieval forms and formalities can accompany fine modern work for the
public good. A SERUM
Deaths.-In 121 great towns, including London, was no death from small-pox, 1 (0) from enteric
there
fever, 35 (11) from measles, 8 (2) from scarlet fever, 22 (7) from whooping-cough, 43 (11) from diphtheria,
43 (7) from diarrhoea and enteritis under two years, and 35 (4) from influenza. The figures in parentheses are those for London itself. Bradford reported the only death from enteric fever. Liverpool reported 4 fatal cases of measles, Rochdale 3, no other great town more than 2. Four persons died of 3 at Bradford and at Leeds.
MALARIA
diphtheria at Liverpool,
The number of stillbirths notified during the week 251 (corresponding to a rate of 37 per 1000 total births), including 39 in London.
was
LONDON TEST FOR
IN 1928 A. F. X. Henry showed that serum from of malaria had the capacity of flocculating melanin pigment, and that this property was apparently specific. This observation of Henry has received considerable support from the results of continental workers, but the form of melanin employed left much to be desired, since it was obtained from the choroid of an ox. Lieut.-Colonel E. D. W cases
the week.
The number of cases in the Infectious Hospitals of the London County Council on June 25th-26th was as follows: Small-pox, 5 under treatment, 0 under observation (last week 3 and 0 respectively); scarlet fever, 1571 ; diphtheria, 1671; measles, 1547 (last week 1750) ; whooping-cough, 283 ; puerperal fever, 24 mothers (plus 8 babies) ; encephalitis lethargica, 268 ; poliomyelitis, 2 ; " other diseases," 219. At St. Margaret’s Hospital there were 19 babies (plus 8 mothers) with ophthalmia neonatorum.
Prof. L. N.
SCHOOL
OF
MEDICINE FOR WOMEN.-
Filon, F.R.S., vice-chancellor of the University of London, will present the prizes of this school in the Albert Levy hall of the Royal Free Hospital at 3.30
P.M. on
G.
Wednesday, July
llth.
LONDON HOSPITAL MEDICAL COLLEGE.-On Tuesday next, July 3rd, the Queen is opening the new students’ hostel
attached
to
the
London
Hospital.
A week
July 10th, Mr. Walter Elliot, M.P., the Minister of Agriculture, will distribute prizes in the medical college. later,
on
Greig, Dr. C. E. van Rooyen, and Mr. E. B. Hendry, working in the bacteriological department of Edin. burgh University, have now succeeded in improving the technique of the test, and give a brief description
the digestive function. Nervousness, twitching movements of the skeletal muscles, and headache are also said to develop as a result of a salt-free diet. These symptoms do not, however, arise frequently, and when they do occur in nephritis it may well be that they are the results of early uraemia and not of salt deficiency. A salt-free diet has been recommended in cedema due to causes other than chronic parenchymatous nephritis. Thus in dropsy due to congestive heart failure it appears that a reduction in the intake of salt decreases the rate at which the fluid accumulates and in some cases hastens the removal of cedema, and ascites. The use of a salt-free diet in non-oedematons cases of nephritis as a, rule is to be condemned, because there is no clear evidence of its value and because the nitrogen retention and the digestive disturbances which may attend its use may cause discomfort if not actual harm to the patient. A possible exception to this rule is in a condition called " chlorurgemia," where there is an accumulation of chlorides in the blood. Chloruraemia occurs in non-cedematous cases of nephritis, and in these cases the high plasma chloride upon which the diagnosis depends can be reduced to normal limits by diminishing the intake of salt. Whether anything is to be gained by this procedure is not yet clear. In essential hypertension a salt-poor diet frequently produces a, fall in the blood pressure. There seems to be no objection to its use, though the mechanism of this process is unexplained. The treatment of epilepsy by bromides may be reinforced by a salt-free diet, the chloride of the body is replaced by bromide and less of the bromide is excreted. It should be remembered in this connexion that the use of a salt-free diet in combination with bromide is equivalent to increasing the dose of bromide.
The melanin of their method on another page. used by them is extracted from human hair readily obtained from the barber, and is in a stable colloidal solution, so that it can be put up in ampoules and applied in field tests. Sera from several cases of
digestive
part due
active and latent malaria respectively were found by the Edinburgh workers to give positive results, while out of 129 sera from non-malarial patients all except two proved negative. The future of this test will be watched with interest, as a trustworthy but relatively simple serum reaction for malaria would prove of great practical utility.
THREE professorial appointments in the British Post-Graduate Medical College, at Hammersmith, are announced in our news columns. Prof. F. R. Fraser and Prof. E. H. Kettle are leaving St. Bartholomew’s Hospital to occupy the chairs of medicine and pathology respectively, and Dr. James Young is coming from Edinburgh to be professor of obstetrics and gynaecology. INFECTIOUS DISEASE IN ENGLAND AND WALES DURING THE WEEK ENDED JUNE 16TH, 1934
Notifications.- The following cases of infectious disease were notified during the week ; Small-pox, 3 (last week 2);scarlet fever, 2483 ;diphtheria, 1186 ;; enteric fever, 13 ; acute pneumonia (primary or influenzal), 863 ; puerperal fever, 35 ;; puerperal pyrexia, 105 ;; cerebro-spinal fever, 20 ; acute poliomyelitis, 2 ;acute polio-encephalitis, 1 ; encephalitis lethargica, 4 ; continued fever, 1 (Cambridge) ; dysentery, 5; ophthalmia neonatorum, 70. No case of cholera, plague, or typhus fever was notified
during THE ORDER OF ST. JOHN
THE occurrence this week of the general assembly of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem reminds us of the close association between the Order and the medical profession, alike through the control of the ophthalmological hospital at Jerusalem and the organisation of the St. John Ambulance Brigade. After the religious service Sir John Duncan and Colonel J. L. Sleeman, respectively chief commissioners of the ambulance brigade and the brigade overseas, gave an account of the work of their departments during the past year. It was reported that nearly half a million calls upon the ambulance department at home had been made, including 17,000 motor accidents. A large number of patients had been carried by the motor ambulances of the brigade which has considerably extended the number of its divisions. The activities of the Order of St. John show that deep respect for medieval forms and formalities can accompany fine modern work for the
public good. A SERUM
Deaths.-In 121 great towns, including London, was no death from small-pox, 1 (0) from enteric
there
fever, 35 (11) from measles, 8 (2) from scarlet fever, 22 (7) from whooping-cough, 43 (11) from diphtheria,
43 (7) from diarrhoea and enteritis under two years, and 35 (4) from influenza. The figures in parentheses are those for London itself. Bradford reported the only death from enteric fever. Liverpool reported 4 fatal cases of measles, Rochdale 3, no other great town more than 2. Four persons died of 3 at Bradford and at Leeds.
MALARIA
diphtheria at Liverpool,
The number of stillbirths notified during the week 251 (corresponding to a rate of 37 per 1000 total births), including 39 in London.
was
LONDON TEST FOR
IN 1928 A. F. X. Henry showed that serum from of malaria had the capacity of flocculating melanin pigment, and that this property was apparently specific. This observation of Henry has received considerable support from the results of continental workers, but the form of melanin employed left much to be desired, since it was obtained from the choroid of an ox. Lieut.-Colonel E. D. W cases
the week.
The number of cases in the Infectious Hospitals of the London County Council on June 25th-26th was as follows: Small-pox, 5 under treatment, 0 under observation (last week 3 and 0 respectively); scarlet fever, 1571 ; diphtheria, 1671; measles, 1547 (last week 1750) ; whooping-cough, 283 ; puerperal fever, 24 mothers (plus 8 babies) ; encephalitis lethargica, 268 ; poliomyelitis, 2 ; " other diseases," 219. At St. Margaret’s Hospital there were 19 babies (plus 8 mothers) with ophthalmia neonatorum.
Prof. L. N.
SCHOOL
OF
MEDICINE FOR WOMEN.-
Filon, F.R.S., vice-chancellor of the University of London, will present the prizes of this school in the Albert Levy hall of the Royal Free Hospital at 3.30
P.M. on
G.
Wednesday, July
llth.
LONDON HOSPITAL MEDICAL COLLEGE.-On Tuesday next, July 3rd, the Queen is opening the new students’ hostel
attached
to
the
London
Hospital.
A week
July 10th, Mr. Walter Elliot, M.P., the Minister of Agriculture, will distribute prizes in the medical college. later,
on