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CONTROL OF CONCEPTION BY IRRADIATION.
627
criminals, removed and fixed within 15 minutes of death. In each case a number of perivascular lesions, 25-300 iL in diameter, were found scattered through the lower parts of the brain, the vessels showing beading, with an area of condensation surrounding them. The lesions suggested sudden liberation of gas from electrolysis, and might have an obvious bearing in medico-legal cases where death from electric current was alleged. Spitzka made a study of the brains not merely of criminals but of many eminent men of various races, and he found time to edit the eighteenth He was American edition of Gray’s Anatomy. 46 years old at the time of his death. GRASS DISEASE AND BOTULISM. SOME allusion has been made during the last few weeks in the daily press to the possible relation between botulism and a disease of horses in Scotland " which goes by the name of grass disease " or " grass sickness." It is not generally known that the Scottish Grass Disease Committee has been working on this matter for the last four years, and that Dr. J. F. Tocher, of Aberdeen, a member of this committee, was concerned in the earliest detection of the Bacillus botulinus in this country in 1919. The limitations of our present knowledge were set out in a paper by Mr. J. B. Buxton, F.R.C.V.S., read before the Section of Pathology of the Royal Society of Medicine in January last. The grass sickness of Northern Britain appears to be identical with the forage poisoning of horses and cattle described in America, and an organism indistinguishable morphologically from B. botulinus was recovered bv Dr. Tocher from the intestine and spleen of horses dead of this disease. An attempt was made last year to devise some means of controlling the incidence of the disease, and a
botulinus-antitoxin prepared by the Wellcome Physiological Research Laboratories was employed, chiefly at first for curative purposes, although it was realised that, with the precedent of tetanus, its preventive application was more likely to command success. But
even
in
cases
which did not
recover
the acute
symptoms of disease appeared to be checked temporarily by intravenous administration of the antitoxin. Further investigation revealed the presence in the blood of several chronic cases of an appreciable amount of antitoxin, type A. One of these animals had, it is true, received injections of high value botulinus-antitoxin some weeks previous to the blood examination. As, however, in a control experiment, antitoxin even to the extent of 25 c.cm. of high value was eliminated from the blood within 10 days, it was deemed at all events highly probable that chronic cases of grass disease do develop a certain degree of active immunity, as shown by the presence of antitoxin. Complement-binding antibodies were also found, although it was not possible clearly to indicate the presence of agglutinins. The Wellcome Laboratory has, we understand, been preparing botulinusantitoxin of both types A and B during the last two years, and has, in conjunction with the Scottish Committee, recently initiated an experiment in preventive inoculation.
proceeding.
Further work in this direction is ____
CONTROL OF CONCEPTION BY IRRADIATION. MOST of the methods which have been devised for the control of conception, ingenious though many of them are, have been found to possess drawbacks for one or other of the consenting parties. In a recent number of the Deutsche rnedizinische Wochenschrift Dr. Emmerich Markovitz sets out a method which emanates from the Central X Ray Laboratory of the Vienna General Hospital. He submits that recent investigations have shown that the parenchymatous constituents of the genital glands are affected by X rays to the point of actual degeneration, while the interstitial tissue more or less escapes change. He proposes in cases where temporary cessation of conception is desirable to obtain it by alternately 1 Since published in the Veterinary Journal, April, 1922.
dosing the husband and the wife. In the early of Gauss, of ten women about the age of 30 years, nine were rendered temporarily sterile by X ray radiation, whereas before the treatment they were bearing children at an average of one in 18 months. Weber went on to show that sterility set in within six months of irradiation, and M. Frankel
experiments
observed the return of menstruation and normal pregnancy a few months after stopping the X rays. More recently Seitz and Wintz have set out the exact dosage of X rays required to attain sterility with minimal damage to other than the immediately ripening follicles. In regard to the male, analogous results have been obtained, and Markovitz quotes especially the experience of Kriser, who at the X Vienna Central Ray Laboratory produced azoospermia in a patient by means of minimal doses, giving in fact only thrice at two-month intervals 1 H through 0-3 mm. brass filter on the skin. Markovitz’s programme would consist in irradiating the man before the ability to conceive returns in the woman, as indicated by the recommencement of menstruation. Since the duration of the sterilisation in the man is as yet unknown, he admits that periodical examinations of the spermatic fluid will be necessary. The morbid conditions for which the treatment is suggested are slight tuberculosis of good prognosis, Graves’s disease after successful operative or X ray treatment, diabetes of slight grade, morphinism when not too pronounced, and such like. The treatment has the merit of avoiding finality. Prof. Holzknecht, under whom it is being carried out, lays down the principle that the doctor has no right to destroy more tissue than is necessary in the individual case ; a partial exovulation not affecting more than 6 to 12 ovula should meet the case. The method implies agreement on the side of both parties. Dr. Markovitz appends a limited but useful bibliography to his paper. ____
MALARIA IN THE MALAY STATES. FROM the annual report for 1921 of the Chief Secretary to the Government (Mr. W. G. Maxwell, C.M.G.) it appears that, as usual, malaria heads the list of fatal diseases in the Federated States. The actual number of deaths from malaria was 17,168, a considerable decrease from the 20,595 recorded in 1920, but still nearly half the total for all diseases, giving a rate of 13-16 per mille as compared with 15-24 in 1920 ; but the disease is, of course, a contributory factor in many deaths attributed to other causes, and when the malaria sick-rate and death-rate are reduced, the total death-rate of the country will fall in proportion. The Malaria Advisory Board meets every month, and almost every district has its mosquito destruction board. Any estate that requires an anopheline survey can obtain one, free from cost, together with a report and the health officer’s recommendations, but to be effectual, anti-malarial measures must be carried out under the direct supervision of the estate medical officer, and constitute a duty of the owners of estates. The district mosquito destruction boards function in the town areas, villages, and kampongs. The (central) Malaria Advisory Board merely advises, controls, and coordinates the work of the district boards. The advisory board is endeavouring to achieve a policy of combined anti-malarial action by contiguous estates ; where anti-malarial work is carried out under expert supervision upon an estate, and neighbouring State land or small holdings also requires to be treated, the Government considers applications for a fair contribution in order to render the operation effective. The anti-malarial works at Kuala Lumpur cover 6600 acres, and were maintained during the year at a cost of$22,126 ; the sum of$105,000 was expended The Port Swettenham on the erection of new works. anti-malarial area of 3100 acres was maintained at a cost of$4623 ; at Seremban a drained area of 1500 acres was maintained at a cost of$8283. Surveys at Taiping, Kuala Lumpur, Gemas, and Raub were At the car ied out over an area of 2600 acres.
criminals, removed and fixed within 15 minutes of death. In each case a number of perivascular lesions, 25-300 iL in diameter, were found scattered through the lower parts of the brain, the vessels showing beading, with an area of condensation surrounding them. The lesions suggested sudden liberation of gas from electrolysis, and might have an obvious bearing in medico-legal cases where death from electric current was alleged. Spitzka made a study of the brains not merely of criminals but of many eminent men of various races, and he found time to edit the eighteenth He was American edition of Gray’s Anatomy. 46 years old at the time of his death. GRASS DISEASE AND BOTULISM. SOME allusion has been made during the last few weeks in the daily press to the possible relation between botulism and a disease of horses in Scotland " which goes by the name of grass disease " or " grass sickness." It is not generally known that the Scottish Grass Disease Committee has been working on this matter for the last four years, and that Dr. J. F. Tocher, of Aberdeen, a member of this committee, was concerned in the earliest detection of the Bacillus botulinus in this country in 1919. The limitations of our present knowledge were set out in a paper by Mr. J. B. Buxton, F.R.C.V.S., read before the Section of Pathology of the Royal Society of Medicine in January last. The grass sickness of Northern Britain appears to be identical with the forage poisoning of horses and cattle described in America, and an organism indistinguishable morphologically from B. botulinus was recovered bv Dr. Tocher from the intestine and spleen of horses dead of this disease. An attempt was made last year to devise some means of controlling the incidence of the disease, and a
botulinus-antitoxin prepared by the Wellcome Physiological Research Laboratories was employed, chiefly at first for curative purposes, although it was realised that, with the precedent of tetanus, its preventive application was more likely to command success. But
even
in
cases
which did not
recover
the acute
symptoms of disease appeared to be checked temporarily by intravenous administration of the antitoxin. Further investigation revealed the presence in the blood of several chronic cases of an appreciable amount of antitoxin, type A. One of these animals had, it is true, received injections of high value botulinus-antitoxin some weeks previous to the blood examination. As, however, in a control experiment, antitoxin even to the extent of 25 c.cm. of high value was eliminated from the blood within 10 days, it was deemed at all events highly probable that chronic cases of grass disease do develop a certain degree of active immunity, as shown by the presence of antitoxin. Complement-binding antibodies were also found, although it was not possible clearly to indicate the presence of agglutinins. The Wellcome Laboratory has, we understand, been preparing botulinusantitoxin of both types A and B during the last two years, and has, in conjunction with the Scottish Committee, recently initiated an experiment in preventive inoculation.
proceeding.
Further work in this direction is ____
CONTROL OF CONCEPTION BY IRRADIATION. MOST of the methods which have been devised for the control of conception, ingenious though many of them are, have been found to possess drawbacks for one or other of the consenting parties. In a recent number of the Deutsche rnedizinische Wochenschrift Dr. Emmerich Markovitz sets out a method which emanates from the Central X Ray Laboratory of the Vienna General Hospital. He submits that recent investigations have shown that the parenchymatous constituents of the genital glands are affected by X rays to the point of actual degeneration, while the interstitial tissue more or less escapes change. He proposes in cases where temporary cessation of conception is desirable to obtain it by alternately 1 Since published in the Veterinary Journal, April, 1922.
dosing the husband and the wife. In the early of Gauss, of ten women about the age of 30 years, nine were rendered temporarily sterile by X ray radiation, whereas before the treatment they were bearing children at an average of one in 18 months. Weber went on to show that sterility set in within six months of irradiation, and M. Frankel
experiments
observed the return of menstruation and normal pregnancy a few months after stopping the X rays. More recently Seitz and Wintz have set out the exact dosage of X rays required to attain sterility with minimal damage to other than the immediately ripening follicles. In regard to the male, analogous results have been obtained, and Markovitz quotes especially the experience of Kriser, who at the X Vienna Central Ray Laboratory produced azoospermia in a patient by means of minimal doses, giving in fact only thrice at two-month intervals 1 H through 0-3 mm. brass filter on the skin. Markovitz’s programme would consist in irradiating the man before the ability to conceive returns in the woman, as indicated by the recommencement of menstruation. Since the duration of the sterilisation in the man is as yet unknown, he admits that periodical examinations of the spermatic fluid will be necessary. The morbid conditions for which the treatment is suggested are slight tuberculosis of good prognosis, Graves’s disease after successful operative or X ray treatment, diabetes of slight grade, morphinism when not too pronounced, and such like. The treatment has the merit of avoiding finality. Prof. Holzknecht, under whom it is being carried out, lays down the principle that the doctor has no right to destroy more tissue than is necessary in the individual case ; a partial exovulation not affecting more than 6 to 12 ovula should meet the case. The method implies agreement on the side of both parties. Dr. Markovitz appends a limited but useful bibliography to his paper. ____
MALARIA IN THE MALAY STATES. FROM the annual report for 1921 of the Chief Secretary to the Government (Mr. W. G. Maxwell, C.M.G.) it appears that, as usual, malaria heads the list of fatal diseases in the Federated States. The actual number of deaths from malaria was 17,168, a considerable decrease from the 20,595 recorded in 1920, but still nearly half the total for all diseases, giving a rate of 13-16 per mille as compared with 15-24 in 1920 ; but the disease is, of course, a contributory factor in many deaths attributed to other causes, and when the malaria sick-rate and death-rate are reduced, the total death-rate of the country will fall in proportion. The Malaria Advisory Board meets every month, and almost every district has its mosquito destruction board. Any estate that requires an anopheline survey can obtain one, free from cost, together with a report and the health officer’s recommendations, but to be effectual, anti-malarial measures must be carried out under the direct supervision of the estate medical officer, and constitute a duty of the owners of estates. The district mosquito destruction boards function in the town areas, villages, and kampongs. The (central) Malaria Advisory Board merely advises, controls, and coordinates the work of the district boards. The advisory board is endeavouring to achieve a policy of combined anti-malarial action by contiguous estates ; where anti-malarial work is carried out under expert supervision upon an estate, and neighbouring State land or small holdings also requires to be treated, the Government considers applications for a fair contribution in order to render the operation effective. The anti-malarial works at Kuala Lumpur cover 6600 acres, and were maintained during the year at a cost of$22,126 ; the sum of$105,000 was expended The Port Swettenham on the erection of new works. anti-malarial area of 3100 acres was maintained at a cost of$4623 ; at Seremban a drained area of 1500 acres was maintained at a cost of$8283. Surveys at Taiping, Kuala Lumpur, Gemas, and Raub were At the car ied out over an area of 2600 acres.