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CONGENITAL WORD-BLINDNESS.
935 of troops, there was little increase in lousiness. I would like him to realise the plain fact that in November, 1917, the Second Army had a ration strength of over 800,000 men, and was concentrated on a sinuous front having a diagonal measurement from north to We have all appresouth of only about 12miles! ciated Mr. Peacock’s research work and efforts to combat lousiness in the field, and hope he is continuing his studies as a peace problem-for even as there are lousy soldiers, so are there lousy families and lousy which some of us consider as the " fons et households, " origo of the trouble. Lastly, I respectfully suggest to Mr. Peacock, when next he feels inclined to indulge in melancholy mood
for testing purposes by Messrs. Parke, Davis, and Co. for many years. Such graduated dilutions must, of course, be used if any quantitative estimate of the sensitiveness is to be made. 6. Autolysed cultures of bacteria (e.g., from cases of bronchin.l. asthma), after sterilising by filtration, can either be used directly or precipitated by alcohol and used as in No. 4. The skin reactions are made by rubbing some preof the suspected material on to a scratched surface of skin. These scratches may be made anywhere, but the forearm, or just above the knee, are convenient sites. Reactions are judged from urticaria at the site of the scratches and from surrounding erythema. With a new patient a control scratching with only water placed on it should always be made; and with a new test substance a control scratching should always be made on a normal man-e.g., the I am, Sir, yours faithfully, practitioner.
paration
publishes further " Generalia " based on his individual views on the shortcomings of army authorities in the field, to bear in mind the signincance of certain utterances made by another J. FREEMAN. lay worker, Mr. Dan Jenkins, secretary of the Public Health Committee of the Labour Party, at a sectional CONGENITAL WORD-BLINDNESS. meeting of the British -Medical Association held last To the Editor of THE LANCET. summer at Cambridge, who then stated: " The Labour Party desires for the working man and his family, SIR,-In your issue of April 23rd you give on p. 890 a at home, the same standard of medical organisation, paper by Dr. Wallace Wallin on this subject which is skill, and care as was shown for the British armies in of great interest. I wish he had paid more attention to France. The Army Medical Service and the Royal the question of inheritance, which was first dealt with Army Medical Corps have shown the way." by Mr. Sydney Stephenson, for to my mind this line of I am, Sir, yours faithfully, investigation will lead to a better understanding of the M. COPLANS. disease. A striking thing about Dr. Wallin’s paper is ’The Jenner Institute Laboratory, Church-road, the close similarity between his figures of incidence and Battersea, S.W., April 20th, 1921. those of colour-blindness, and also the fact that the sex-incidence is the same. This similarity of incidence SKIN REACTIONS IN TOXIC IDIOPATHIES. would suggest strongly that it is hereditary, and it would be informing to follow cases to see if the To the Editor of THE LANCET. method of transmission in word-blindness follows the SIR,-A number of colleagues, both laboratory and same course as that of colour-blindness. There is one have been how one clinical, asking recently prepares which I have noticed in two cases of the testing substance for skin reactions in diagnosis of significant thing and it is that both subjects partial word-blindness, asthma, eczema, urticaria, food idiosyncrasies, and so on. were above normal at figures. This shows that no one has been explicit enough in I am, Sir, yours faithfully, describing methods, and also that there is a demand ARTHUR WOOD. for such information. I will give here without going into details some simple practical directions. THE DIET OF THE WEANLING. The test substances (which I should like to call To the Editor of THE LANCET. "idiopathophanes"-meaning that which demonstrates an idiopathy) may be prepared in a number of ways as SIR,-The annotation in your last issue on the diet follows:of the weanling will be of great service if it stimulates 1. The crude substance direct can generally be employed interest and inquiry into the special difficulties at this without any preparation ; for example, any of the flours period of life. You rightly point out the lack of sound (such as barley or wheat), or white of egg, or the hairs of an principles by which the prescription of food can be animal (for an animal asthmatic), or even such things There are three dis- regulated. Until these principles are outlined and as uncooked meat or vegetables. The substance advantages : may give too strong a reaction, agreed upon the diet will continue to be directed by as, for example, grass pollen for diagnosis of hay fever; rules which too often express the idiosyncrasies of the secondly, the substance may contain a strong acid in certain physician or obediently conform to some tradition or (e.g., fruit juices), which may react of its own accord quite school and escape critical examination for that reason. apart from the proteid contained; thirdly, it is not very The infant at this age shows again and again how convenient to keep all the year round in the consulting- much its survival owes to the versatility of its digestion. room a supply of, for example, pork or onions or strawthere must be Nevertheless rules, could we but find berries. 2. Desiccated preparations are sometimes convenient ; for them, which might spare the strain under which even - example, desiccated white of egg or a desiccated serum will this versatility so often breaks down. As you quoted a keep indefinitely, and may be conveniently stored in small suggestion of mine that the young child may not be so bottles. dependent on cow’s milk for its health and physical 3. The proteids may be extracted. The literature on the as is commonly thought to be the case, development subject is full of demands that these proteids should be I should be glad if you would allow me to explain a chemically pure, and then usually goes on to describe a method which could not possibly produce pure preparations. little more fully what the suggestion implied. For it In practice I find that alcoholic precipitates from a watery is, I believe, quite closely concerned with one of the solution work well, but are frequently difficult to collect and principles of dietetics whose existence it is so important to get defined. keep. 4. Test paper preparations can be made from the precipitates It is a common recommendation by doctors that of No. 3 by filtering the 10 per cent. of water and 90 per cent. the second year of life a child requires from a during of alcohol containing the precipitate through filter paper and a half to two pints of milk daily. Inasmuch over a vacuum. These impregnated filter papers can be pint as it is practically impossible for a yearling to assimilate kept dry in envelopes arranged on a card index system. more nourishment than two pints of milk afford, this this is the handiest of and is method Undoubtedly storage, the one I employ in general. These idiopathophanes keep order implies that milk-feeding is still the essential feature of diet at this age. It is impossible also to well ; I am now using some I made over two years ago. 5. dilutions of a watery extract must be employed escape the implication that the cow is really performif patients react too powerfully to the undiluted substance. the function of foster-mother, and is continuing to This is so with hay-fever people, for application of the dry ing the eighteenth or twenty-fourth month the task which of not a reaction local but pollen grasses may produce only also violent constitutional disturbances, asthma, cedema, the mother is usually told she should abandon about of the &c. Suitable dilutions of the the ninth month. It is no good doctors saying they glottis, swelling up watery extract (1 part of pollen in 200 water, down to 1 part do not mean this or anything like it when they recomof pollen in 200,000 of water) have been put on the market mend a diet chiefly of milk. The denial merely means and, peradventure,
Graduated
for testing purposes by Messrs. Parke, Davis, and Co. for many years. Such graduated dilutions must, of course, be used if any quantitative estimate of the sensitiveness is to be made. 6. Autolysed cultures of bacteria (e.g., from cases of bronchin.l. asthma), after sterilising by filtration, can either be used directly or precipitated by alcohol and used as in No. 4. The skin reactions are made by rubbing some preof the suspected material on to a scratched surface of skin. These scratches may be made anywhere, but the forearm, or just above the knee, are convenient sites. Reactions are judged from urticaria at the site of the scratches and from surrounding erythema. With a new patient a control scratching with only water placed on it should always be made; and with a new test substance a control scratching should always be made on a normal man-e.g., the I am, Sir, yours faithfully, practitioner.
paration
publishes further " Generalia " based on his individual views on the shortcomings of army authorities in the field, to bear in mind the signincance of certain utterances made by another J. FREEMAN. lay worker, Mr. Dan Jenkins, secretary of the Public Health Committee of the Labour Party, at a sectional CONGENITAL WORD-BLINDNESS. meeting of the British -Medical Association held last To the Editor of THE LANCET. summer at Cambridge, who then stated: " The Labour Party desires for the working man and his family, SIR,-In your issue of April 23rd you give on p. 890 a at home, the same standard of medical organisation, paper by Dr. Wallace Wallin on this subject which is skill, and care as was shown for the British armies in of great interest. I wish he had paid more attention to France. The Army Medical Service and the Royal the question of inheritance, which was first dealt with Army Medical Corps have shown the way." by Mr. Sydney Stephenson, for to my mind this line of I am, Sir, yours faithfully, investigation will lead to a better understanding of the M. COPLANS. disease. A striking thing about Dr. Wallin’s paper is ’The Jenner Institute Laboratory, Church-road, the close similarity between his figures of incidence and Battersea, S.W., April 20th, 1921. those of colour-blindness, and also the fact that the sex-incidence is the same. This similarity of incidence SKIN REACTIONS IN TOXIC IDIOPATHIES. would suggest strongly that it is hereditary, and it would be informing to follow cases to see if the To the Editor of THE LANCET. method of transmission in word-blindness follows the SIR,-A number of colleagues, both laboratory and same course as that of colour-blindness. There is one have been how one clinical, asking recently prepares which I have noticed in two cases of the testing substance for skin reactions in diagnosis of significant thing and it is that both subjects partial word-blindness, asthma, eczema, urticaria, food idiosyncrasies, and so on. were above normal at figures. This shows that no one has been explicit enough in I am, Sir, yours faithfully, describing methods, and also that there is a demand ARTHUR WOOD. for such information. I will give here without going into details some simple practical directions. THE DIET OF THE WEANLING. The test substances (which I should like to call To the Editor of THE LANCET. "idiopathophanes"-meaning that which demonstrates an idiopathy) may be prepared in a number of ways as SIR,-The annotation in your last issue on the diet follows:of the weanling will be of great service if it stimulates 1. The crude substance direct can generally be employed interest and inquiry into the special difficulties at this without any preparation ; for example, any of the flours period of life. You rightly point out the lack of sound (such as barley or wheat), or white of egg, or the hairs of an principles by which the prescription of food can be animal (for an animal asthmatic), or even such things There are three dis- regulated. Until these principles are outlined and as uncooked meat or vegetables. The substance advantages : may give too strong a reaction, agreed upon the diet will continue to be directed by as, for example, grass pollen for diagnosis of hay fever; rules which too often express the idiosyncrasies of the secondly, the substance may contain a strong acid in certain physician or obediently conform to some tradition or (e.g., fruit juices), which may react of its own accord quite school and escape critical examination for that reason. apart from the proteid contained; thirdly, it is not very The infant at this age shows again and again how convenient to keep all the year round in the consulting- much its survival owes to the versatility of its digestion. room a supply of, for example, pork or onions or strawthere must be Nevertheless rules, could we but find berries. 2. Desiccated preparations are sometimes convenient ; for them, which might spare the strain under which even - example, desiccated white of egg or a desiccated serum will this versatility so often breaks down. As you quoted a keep indefinitely, and may be conveniently stored in small suggestion of mine that the young child may not be so bottles. dependent on cow’s milk for its health and physical 3. The proteids may be extracted. The literature on the as is commonly thought to be the case, development subject is full of demands that these proteids should be I should be glad if you would allow me to explain a chemically pure, and then usually goes on to describe a method which could not possibly produce pure preparations. little more fully what the suggestion implied. For it In practice I find that alcoholic precipitates from a watery is, I believe, quite closely concerned with one of the solution work well, but are frequently difficult to collect and principles of dietetics whose existence it is so important to get defined. keep. 4. Test paper preparations can be made from the precipitates It is a common recommendation by doctors that of No. 3 by filtering the 10 per cent. of water and 90 per cent. the second year of life a child requires from a during of alcohol containing the precipitate through filter paper and a half to two pints of milk daily. Inasmuch over a vacuum. These impregnated filter papers can be pint as it is practically impossible for a yearling to assimilate kept dry in envelopes arranged on a card index system. more nourishment than two pints of milk afford, this this is the handiest of and is method Undoubtedly storage, the one I employ in general. These idiopathophanes keep order implies that milk-feeding is still the essential feature of diet at this age. It is impossible also to well ; I am now using some I made over two years ago. 5. dilutions of a watery extract must be employed escape the implication that the cow is really performif patients react too powerfully to the undiluted substance. the function of foster-mother, and is continuing to This is so with hay-fever people, for application of the dry ing the eighteenth or twenty-fourth month the task which of not a reaction local but pollen grasses may produce only also violent constitutional disturbances, asthma, cedema, the mother is usually told she should abandon about of the &c. Suitable dilutions of the the ninth month. It is no good doctors saying they glottis, swelling up watery extract (1 part of pollen in 200 water, down to 1 part do not mean this or anything like it when they recomof pollen in 200,000 of water) have been put on the market mend a diet chiefly of milk. The denial merely means and, peradventure,
Graduated