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DANGER FROM DUCKS' EGGS
1040 of the
prothrombin-time
in
serum
reveals it.
Such data
give rise to the question whether in severe conditionsfor instance, the preparation of haemophiliacs for surgical operations-the restoration to normal of the clotting-time is sufficiently reliable. In order to minimise the surgical risk, it is probably advisable that there also be an improvement of the serum-prothrombin time. A. BASERGA Department of Internal Medicine, P. DE NICOLA. University, Pavia, Italy. NO APPLICANTS
leading article last week indicates that doctors have been quick to learn the lessons many young that some older men have had to learn at their severe cost. Some of us, who, coming from peripheral hospitals as senior registrars, have had occasion to apply to regional boards for consultant positions, have had extensive experience of how appointments committees judge candidates. It is evident that such committees are unable to judge ability directly. The questions by which they try to do so are familiar to many candidates. Instead, such committees must assess with care the departments in which candidates have served and recall the reputations of their chiefs. The implication of this situation is that certain heads of departments are better able than others to commend candidates for preferment to consultant salary. Their patronage therefore is obviously to be sought. There has grown up within the hospital service, under the management of hospital boards chiefly by teachinghospital consultants, a tendency to deny to men in their forties a professional standard of living. Posts which two years ago would have been of consultant status are now going to senior hospital medical officers. A is The established. ultimate cut-price grade being implications of this lack of status are not yet clear. The evidence of the experience of many of us is that the hazards of a future in the hospital service can probably be escaped most safely by eschewing the service in favour of general practice from the very beginning. There is no longer any secure expectation that in the peripheral hospitals a doctor can achieve a professional standard of SIR.—Your
living. The candidate for preferment must above all seek to please those of his seniors in whose hands his future lies. He cannot, therefore, afford to state or plead a case. He cannot complain. He cannot object. For these reasons the prejudiced position of the doctor in the peripheral hospital is not disclosed until the young men who have learnt about the service from their colleagues fail to apply for jobs, the holding of which will not help in the scramble for
places.
S.H.M.O.
DANGER FROM DUCKS’ EGGS
SIR,—The infection by Salmonella typhimurium which may result from eating ducks’ eggs is not unfamiliar, but since I have recently had a fatality from this cause. I feel that the possible danger from this form of food should be emphasised.
My patient was a night watchman, 71 years of age, arteriosclerotic but with a good record of past health. Five days before his admission he was given two ducks’ eggs by a workmate who had bought twelve eggs from a retail store nine days previously ; the retailer had bought them from a wholesale store. The other eggs were cooked and eaten without ill effect. The gift eggs were fried on the following day, and on the day after that vomiting and diarrhoea commenced. Diarrhoea was so severe that in the ensuing three days before admission to hospital about sixty loose, watery stools were passed ; and the patient when first seen was extremely dehydrated, torpid, and feeble. His tongue was furred, and his feet and hands cold and blue ; blood-pressure 120/90 mm. Hg, pulse-rate 100 per min., temp. 98°F. He passed a loose stool soon after admission, from which S. typhimurium was recovered. After initial improvement with intravenous glucose-saline and chloramphenicol, his condition deteriorated. No further
stools better
passed, but he became intensely ill, and despite hydration showed increasing signs of toxaemia and circulatory failure. Peripheral gangrene developed in his toes, and despite penicillin therapy an intercurrent broncho. pneumonia led to his death on the fifth day in hospital. Post-mortem examination showed an injected small bowel, flabby myocardium, gross aortic and coronary atheroma, extensive bronchopneumonia, and arteriosclerotic kidneys. were
The moral of this case is that ducks’ eggs, particularly kept for some time, may develop a high degree of infectivity with S. typhimurium and may prove fatal at least in old or frail persons. They should, therefore, only be eaten when fresh ; and only boiling for at least ten minutes, or baking (e.g., in a cake) for an hour will make them safe. As the ducks’ eggs may be infected via the oviduct, the liability to infection is presumably greater in aquatic ducks than in ducks reared and living on land. Edgware General Hospital, G. H. JENNINGS.
if
Middlesex.
THE UNIVERSITY AND MEDICINE
SIR,—Dr. Himsworth in his admirable address, published in your issue of Oct. 27, touches on an intriguing topic in discussing the claims of a given body of knowledge to be regarded as a separate science. Biochemistry is his example. This highly theoretical topic has, I suggest, some practical importance in the teaching of medical sciences. In mathematical terms scientific investigation of a new field can be described as a search for constants recurring amongst the bewildering variations of nature. Physics has been fairly satisfactorily resolved down to some eleven constants, such as Planck’s constant and the mass of an electron. Once recognised these constants can be used by the growing science, which elaborates hypotheses in terms of them and does not have to await their analysis or explanation in terms of pre-existing sciences. In fact if these constants or basic concepts are easily explained in terms of some pre-existing science one can be sure that one is not dealing with a new science. For instance, I would say that biochemistry is rightly considered a separate science from organic chemistry by virtue of its characteristic basic concept or constant-namely, enzyme catalysis-which makes possible the bizarre chemical reactions of living organisms. Explanation of enzyme action is a matter of great difficulty involving the techniques of physics and chemistry, but while of interest to biochemists they can for the most part take it for granted. Similarly immunology is characterised by the concept of antigenicity, and genetics by that of the gene. Our faith in these sciences need not await the discovery of how an antigen produces antibody, nor how a gene
produces its physical expression. Pathology, however, does not
stand up under this science. A group of studies collected together solely because they deal with the " abnormal" have no common basic concepts and no intellectual unity when, as happens in an academic department, they are divorced from the patient. The whole idea of basing a science on abnormality " is highly debatable-by this criterion atherosclerosis is hardly a fit study for pathologylargely because it often polarises the interest of the departments of physiology and anatomy on the " normal" to such an extent that they may avoid topics of mere medical interest. Certain universities, notably Birmingham, have recognised that the separation of anatomy and physiology is both artificial and unprofitable. So also is the separate consideration of " normal " and " abnormal." A course in physiology is hardly complete if it ignores the whole process whereby mammalia defend themselves from the continual threat of bacterial invasion. Anatomy would for most of us have been much enlivened by an earlier
test
"
as a
prothrombin-time
in
serum
reveals it.
Such data
give rise to the question whether in severe conditionsfor instance, the preparation of haemophiliacs for surgical operations-the restoration to normal of the clotting-time is sufficiently reliable. In order to minimise the surgical risk, it is probably advisable that there also be an improvement of the serum-prothrombin time. A. BASERGA Department of Internal Medicine, P. DE NICOLA. University, Pavia, Italy. NO APPLICANTS
leading article last week indicates that doctors have been quick to learn the lessons many young that some older men have had to learn at their severe cost. Some of us, who, coming from peripheral hospitals as senior registrars, have had occasion to apply to regional boards for consultant positions, have had extensive experience of how appointments committees judge candidates. It is evident that such committees are unable to judge ability directly. The questions by which they try to do so are familiar to many candidates. Instead, such committees must assess with care the departments in which candidates have served and recall the reputations of their chiefs. The implication of this situation is that certain heads of departments are better able than others to commend candidates for preferment to consultant salary. Their patronage therefore is obviously to be sought. There has grown up within the hospital service, under the management of hospital boards chiefly by teachinghospital consultants, a tendency to deny to men in their forties a professional standard of living. Posts which two years ago would have been of consultant status are now going to senior hospital medical officers. A is The established. ultimate cut-price grade being implications of this lack of status are not yet clear. The evidence of the experience of many of us is that the hazards of a future in the hospital service can probably be escaped most safely by eschewing the service in favour of general practice from the very beginning. There is no longer any secure expectation that in the peripheral hospitals a doctor can achieve a professional standard of SIR.—Your
living. The candidate for preferment must above all seek to please those of his seniors in whose hands his future lies. He cannot, therefore, afford to state or plead a case. He cannot complain. He cannot object. For these reasons the prejudiced position of the doctor in the peripheral hospital is not disclosed until the young men who have learnt about the service from their colleagues fail to apply for jobs, the holding of which will not help in the scramble for
places.
S.H.M.O.
DANGER FROM DUCKS’ EGGS
SIR,—The infection by Salmonella typhimurium which may result from eating ducks’ eggs is not unfamiliar, but since I have recently had a fatality from this cause. I feel that the possible danger from this form of food should be emphasised.
My patient was a night watchman, 71 years of age, arteriosclerotic but with a good record of past health. Five days before his admission he was given two ducks’ eggs by a workmate who had bought twelve eggs from a retail store nine days previously ; the retailer had bought them from a wholesale store. The other eggs were cooked and eaten without ill effect. The gift eggs were fried on the following day, and on the day after that vomiting and diarrhoea commenced. Diarrhoea was so severe that in the ensuing three days before admission to hospital about sixty loose, watery stools were passed ; and the patient when first seen was extremely dehydrated, torpid, and feeble. His tongue was furred, and his feet and hands cold and blue ; blood-pressure 120/90 mm. Hg, pulse-rate 100 per min., temp. 98°F. He passed a loose stool soon after admission, from which S. typhimurium was recovered. After initial improvement with intravenous glucose-saline and chloramphenicol, his condition deteriorated. No further
stools better
passed, but he became intensely ill, and despite hydration showed increasing signs of toxaemia and circulatory failure. Peripheral gangrene developed in his toes, and despite penicillin therapy an intercurrent broncho. pneumonia led to his death on the fifth day in hospital. Post-mortem examination showed an injected small bowel, flabby myocardium, gross aortic and coronary atheroma, extensive bronchopneumonia, and arteriosclerotic kidneys. were
The moral of this case is that ducks’ eggs, particularly kept for some time, may develop a high degree of infectivity with S. typhimurium and may prove fatal at least in old or frail persons. They should, therefore, only be eaten when fresh ; and only boiling for at least ten minutes, or baking (e.g., in a cake) for an hour will make them safe. As the ducks’ eggs may be infected via the oviduct, the liability to infection is presumably greater in aquatic ducks than in ducks reared and living on land. Edgware General Hospital, G. H. JENNINGS.
if
Middlesex.
THE UNIVERSITY AND MEDICINE
SIR,—Dr. Himsworth in his admirable address, published in your issue of Oct. 27, touches on an intriguing topic in discussing the claims of a given body of knowledge to be regarded as a separate science. Biochemistry is his example. This highly theoretical topic has, I suggest, some practical importance in the teaching of medical sciences. In mathematical terms scientific investigation of a new field can be described as a search for constants recurring amongst the bewildering variations of nature. Physics has been fairly satisfactorily resolved down to some eleven constants, such as Planck’s constant and the mass of an electron. Once recognised these constants can be used by the growing science, which elaborates hypotheses in terms of them and does not have to await their analysis or explanation in terms of pre-existing sciences. In fact if these constants or basic concepts are easily explained in terms of some pre-existing science one can be sure that one is not dealing with a new science. For instance, I would say that biochemistry is rightly considered a separate science from organic chemistry by virtue of its characteristic basic concept or constant-namely, enzyme catalysis-which makes possible the bizarre chemical reactions of living organisms. Explanation of enzyme action is a matter of great difficulty involving the techniques of physics and chemistry, but while of interest to biochemists they can for the most part take it for granted. Similarly immunology is characterised by the concept of antigenicity, and genetics by that of the gene. Our faith in these sciences need not await the discovery of how an antigen produces antibody, nor how a gene
produces its physical expression. Pathology, however, does not
stand up under this science. A group of studies collected together solely because they deal with the " abnormal" have no common basic concepts and no intellectual unity when, as happens in an academic department, they are divorced from the patient. The whole idea of basing a science on abnormality " is highly debatable-by this criterion atherosclerosis is hardly a fit study for pathologylargely because it often polarises the interest of the departments of physiology and anatomy on the " normal" to such an extent that they may avoid topics of mere medical interest. Certain universities, notably Birmingham, have recognised that the separation of anatomy and physiology is both artificial and unprofitable. So also is the separate consideration of " normal " and " abnormal." A course in physiology is hardly complete if it ignores the whole process whereby mammalia defend themselves from the continual threat of bacterial invasion. Anatomy would for most of us have been much enlivened by an earlier
test
"
as a