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DEATHS FROM WILD ANIMALS AND SNAKES IN INDIA.
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payment from that source was impressed on him his methods changed, and on Oct. 25th, 1908, he wrote a letter to the railway company in which he complained of the usual symptoms, and attributed everything to the two railway accidents. Examination in May of this year showed him to be suffering from tremor of the eyelids, tongue, and hands ; the whole body was hypalgesic, the reflexes increased ; the mental condition was one of constant querulousness and discontent. When he was offered light work in a garden he refused. saying that he was not yet a lunatic. Dr. Mendel considers this an instructive instance of what might be called neurasthenia querulatoria, in which a characteristic mental and physical neurasthenia supervenes not as the direct result of an accident, but because of litigation pending, with its alternate hopes and disappointments. After the first the recovered so accident patient completely as to be able hours a day, and on his own admission he was to work 10 fit for this work, but the idea of obtaining further compensation remained as the provoking cause of a whole train of mental symptoms which soon expressed themselves in bodily signs. In the same article other cases, equally illustrative, are quoted. Needless to say, treatment of such patients is most unsatisfactory. Some make it a rule not to treat accident cases until litigation is at an end. Dr. Mendel says the only way to make them useful members of society again is to recommend the cessation of all payment, and this plan he has unhesitatingly adopted in a number of cases with most encouraging results. -
DEATHS FROM WILD ANIMALS AND SNAKES IN INDIA. IT is a remarkable fact that in spite of the opening out of the country by railways and roads and the clearing of jungle tracts the number of persons killed by wild animals in British India does not show any decrease ; in fact, last year the figures rose to 2166, an actual increase of 200 in comparison with the deaths in 1907. In Bengal tigers killed 100 more persons, while in the Central Provinces and Berar the increase was 64. In the Chanda district one tiger alone killed 19 people before it was shot, while panthers and bears accounted for 95-practically double the total of the preceding year. In the United Provinces the mortality was 194 against 159. This increase was due to the ravages of leopards and wolves in the Kumaon and Fyzabad divisions respectively. Leopards seem to abound in Kumaon, and one particularly given to man-eating was still at large at the close of the year, though a reward of Rs. 500 had been offered for its extinction. In Bahraich wolves have become so dangerous that special measures have been taken for their extermination. The number of cattle killed was 87,697 -a decrease of some 1200. In the United Provinces, there was a remarkable however, Fise; and in the Almora district this is said to have been due to the wholesale destruction of game, which has resulted in a serious diminution of the natural food-supply of tigers and leopards. It may be noted that in the Kumaon district wild dogs do great mischief, though the Forest Department has entered upon a campaign against them. Evidently there is much work still for the sportsman in various parts of India and there is no necessity to accept any plea for the preservation of the tiger, leopard, or wolf. As to the deaths from snake-bite, the decrease was very satisfactory, the numbers falling from 21,419 to 19,738. This total was the lowest since 1897, and The official every province shared in the decrease. report states that the success of the Lauder Brunton treatment is on the whole encouraging, although the usual uncertainty as to the identification of the snake in the majority’ of cases still continues. The Commissioner of Agra
reports that the villagers are afraid of the lancets, while the Magistrate of Shajakanpur states that there is a general
complaint that the lancets are not sharp enough to make The results proper incisions where the skin is hard. generally reported, however, are such that Government consider they justify further efforts being made to popularise the treatment. It is to be hoped that these will be made, for the application of the lancet and permanganate of potash is simple in the extreme, and the most ignorant person can use the method. It is interesting to note that in Burma the lancets were used with some success in cases of cattle bitten by snakes, and the civil veterinary department might report whether this kind of treatment is really efficacious. "TRACHEAL PUSHING" IN ANEURYSM OF THE AORTA. AT a meeting of the Société Medicale des Hopitaug of Paris on Oct. 29th M. E. Hirtz showed a case in which the inverse of the well-known sign of aortic aneurysm-tracheal tugging-was present. The patient was a man in whom the trachea and larynx instead of being dragged down with each heart beat were, on the contrary, pushed upwards in sudden oscillations. Radioscopy revealed an aortic aneurysm but not its exact localisation. M. Hirtz thought that if it was situated in the concavity of the aortic arch it would have caused rhythmical depression of the left bronchus and there.. fore of the trachea and (tracheal tugging). He believed that the aneurysm was situated at the convexity of the aortic arch. This inversion of the usual tracheal sign of aortic aneurysm does not appear to have been previously described.
larynx
___
THE INNERVATION OF THE SOFT PALATE. THE nerves supplying the soft palate, and more especially those distributed to the muscles in that structure, have been the subject in the past of considerable controversy. It has, however, been established, especially by the researches of Beevor and Horsley in this country and of Professor L. Rethi in Vienna, that these muscles are supplied through the vagus nerve. Professor Rethi reviewed the whole question in a paper read before the recent International Congress at Budapest and published in the Wiener MedizinÍ8ehe Woehensali9’ift of Nov. 6th. It was for a long time supposed that paralysis of the soft palate was a symptom of certain forms of lesion of the facial nerve. Certain anatomists maintained that the motor fibres to the levator veli palatini came from the facial, since they succeeded in tracing fibres from the facial trunk through the geniculate ganglion into the great superficial petrosal nerve. Professor Rethi claims that these fibres are not motor in function, since stimulation of the facial trunk does not produce contraction of the muscles of the soft palate. As long ago as 1840 Volkmann, and shortly afterwards Hein, found independently that in freshly killed animals they obtained contraction of the levator veli palatini only on stimulating the vagus roots and not those of the facial. The observations of Beevor and Horsley on monkeys in 1888 established this fact, and Professor Rethi himself has confirmed it in a large series of observations on different animals. He has alsofound that the motor fibres for the levator leave the medulla in the median roots of the vagus, and that they originate in a common nucleus with the other fibres of bundles. He has traced them down the lateral wall of the pharynx to the velum itself. These observations have been, confirmed by Kreidl, and also by Chauveau in the horse. In man the same facts have been established. There have been cases in which the origin of the facial nerve has been destroyed without any paralysis of the soft palate, especially
these
payment from that source was impressed on him his methods changed, and on Oct. 25th, 1908, he wrote a letter to the railway company in which he complained of the usual symptoms, and attributed everything to the two railway accidents. Examination in May of this year showed him to be suffering from tremor of the eyelids, tongue, and hands ; the whole body was hypalgesic, the reflexes increased ; the mental condition was one of constant querulousness and discontent. When he was offered light work in a garden he refused. saying that he was not yet a lunatic. Dr. Mendel considers this an instructive instance of what might be called neurasthenia querulatoria, in which a characteristic mental and physical neurasthenia supervenes not as the direct result of an accident, but because of litigation pending, with its alternate hopes and disappointments. After the first the recovered so accident patient completely as to be able hours a day, and on his own admission he was to work 10 fit for this work, but the idea of obtaining further compensation remained as the provoking cause of a whole train of mental symptoms which soon expressed themselves in bodily signs. In the same article other cases, equally illustrative, are quoted. Needless to say, treatment of such patients is most unsatisfactory. Some make it a rule not to treat accident cases until litigation is at an end. Dr. Mendel says the only way to make them useful members of society again is to recommend the cessation of all payment, and this plan he has unhesitatingly adopted in a number of cases with most encouraging results. -
DEATHS FROM WILD ANIMALS AND SNAKES IN INDIA. IT is a remarkable fact that in spite of the opening out of the country by railways and roads and the clearing of jungle tracts the number of persons killed by wild animals in British India does not show any decrease ; in fact, last year the figures rose to 2166, an actual increase of 200 in comparison with the deaths in 1907. In Bengal tigers killed 100 more persons, while in the Central Provinces and Berar the increase was 64. In the Chanda district one tiger alone killed 19 people before it was shot, while panthers and bears accounted for 95-practically double the total of the preceding year. In the United Provinces the mortality was 194 against 159. This increase was due to the ravages of leopards and wolves in the Kumaon and Fyzabad divisions respectively. Leopards seem to abound in Kumaon, and one particularly given to man-eating was still at large at the close of the year, though a reward of Rs. 500 had been offered for its extinction. In Bahraich wolves have become so dangerous that special measures have been taken for their extermination. The number of cattle killed was 87,697 -a decrease of some 1200. In the United Provinces, there was a remarkable however, Fise; and in the Almora district this is said to have been due to the wholesale destruction of game, which has resulted in a serious diminution of the natural food-supply of tigers and leopards. It may be noted that in the Kumaon district wild dogs do great mischief, though the Forest Department has entered upon a campaign against them. Evidently there is much work still for the sportsman in various parts of India and there is no necessity to accept any plea for the preservation of the tiger, leopard, or wolf. As to the deaths from snake-bite, the decrease was very satisfactory, the numbers falling from 21,419 to 19,738. This total was the lowest since 1897, and The official every province shared in the decrease. report states that the success of the Lauder Brunton treatment is on the whole encouraging, although the usual uncertainty as to the identification of the snake in the majority’ of cases still continues. The Commissioner of Agra
reports that the villagers are afraid of the lancets, while the Magistrate of Shajakanpur states that there is a general
complaint that the lancets are not sharp enough to make The results proper incisions where the skin is hard. generally reported, however, are such that Government consider they justify further efforts being made to popularise the treatment. It is to be hoped that these will be made, for the application of the lancet and permanganate of potash is simple in the extreme, and the most ignorant person can use the method. It is interesting to note that in Burma the lancets were used with some success in cases of cattle bitten by snakes, and the civil veterinary department might report whether this kind of treatment is really efficacious. "TRACHEAL PUSHING" IN ANEURYSM OF THE AORTA. AT a meeting of the Société Medicale des Hopitaug of Paris on Oct. 29th M. E. Hirtz showed a case in which the inverse of the well-known sign of aortic aneurysm-tracheal tugging-was present. The patient was a man in whom the trachea and larynx instead of being dragged down with each heart beat were, on the contrary, pushed upwards in sudden oscillations. Radioscopy revealed an aortic aneurysm but not its exact localisation. M. Hirtz thought that if it was situated in the concavity of the aortic arch it would have caused rhythmical depression of the left bronchus and there.. fore of the trachea and (tracheal tugging). He believed that the aneurysm was situated at the convexity of the aortic arch. This inversion of the usual tracheal sign of aortic aneurysm does not appear to have been previously described.
larynx
___
THE INNERVATION OF THE SOFT PALATE. THE nerves supplying the soft palate, and more especially those distributed to the muscles in that structure, have been the subject in the past of considerable controversy. It has, however, been established, especially by the researches of Beevor and Horsley in this country and of Professor L. Rethi in Vienna, that these muscles are supplied through the vagus nerve. Professor Rethi reviewed the whole question in a paper read before the recent International Congress at Budapest and published in the Wiener MedizinÍ8ehe Woehensali9’ift of Nov. 6th. It was for a long time supposed that paralysis of the soft palate was a symptom of certain forms of lesion of the facial nerve. Certain anatomists maintained that the motor fibres to the levator veli palatini came from the facial, since they succeeded in tracing fibres from the facial trunk through the geniculate ganglion into the great superficial petrosal nerve. Professor Rethi claims that these fibres are not motor in function, since stimulation of the facial trunk does not produce contraction of the muscles of the soft palate. As long ago as 1840 Volkmann, and shortly afterwards Hein, found independently that in freshly killed animals they obtained contraction of the levator veli palatini only on stimulating the vagus roots and not those of the facial. The observations of Beevor and Horsley on monkeys in 1888 established this fact, and Professor Rethi himself has confirmed it in a large series of observations on different animals. He has alsofound that the motor fibres for the levator leave the medulla in the median roots of the vagus, and that they originate in a common nucleus with the other fibres of bundles. He has traced them down the lateral wall of the pharynx to the velum itself. These observations have been, confirmed by Kreidl, and also by Chauveau in the horse. In man the same facts have been established. There have been cases in which the origin of the facial nerve has been destroyed without any paralysis of the soft palate, especially
these