DIPHTHERIA AND SANITATION AT OUAINTON.

DIPHTHERIA AND SANITATION AT OUAINTON.

1180 it is a matter of some importance, before claiming such a case as support for any theory, to know full particulars as to the time and nature of t...

190KB Sizes 1 Downloads 109 Views

1180 it is a matter of some importance, before claiming such a case as support for any theory, to know full particulars as to the time and nature of the birth. The second case is even more sensational. An Irishwoman, when four months pregnant, was frightened by a fight between her husband and another man. She entered the room where they were just as her husband received from his antagonist a slap on the side of the neck and face with the blood-stained hand of his adversary, which left the print of four bloody fingers on his neck and cheek. WhenI the child was born it is said to have had the marks of four

hinted,

on its neck and face ; it was living up till five years ago, but has since been losb sight of. Here, again, we should like to have further particulars, especially as to the nature of the marks on the child, which are said to have been like nnger marks. Another case is quoted, but on hearsay alone. The two referred to, however, Dr. Lee has himself seen, and he is strongly of opinion that maternal impressions in pregnancy are of very great importance in regard to the future of the child.

bloody fingers

DIPHTHERIA AND SANITATION AT OUAINTON. THE intervention of Baron Ferdinand Rothschild as a resident in the Aylesbury rural district and as a Bucks County Councillor, with regard to the prevalence of fatal diphtheria at Quainton, seems at last to have aroused the rural authority to action ; for, apart from temporary measures dealing with the present emergency, an engineer has been called in to advise as to the drainage of Quainton and other villages. The need for proper sanitary action in this rural district has long been apparent, but it needed the stimulus of fatal disease to secure even the beginning of action to which we advert. Dr. Theodore Thomson, of the Local Government Board, has made a report on the actual diphtheria, and this has now been communicated to the rural authority. But he is continuing his investigations into the general sanitary administration of the district by the Aylesbury guardians and their sanitary officers, and it is this report which is most anxiously awaited by those residents in the district who desire to see some efficient work done with a view to improving the conditions under which many of the people, who are not so fortunate as to reside on the Rothschild estate, have been and are still living.

until the fluid had remained long enough to take of the pathological products, it was withdrawn. up The number of bacilli found in the specimens examined was as a rule small, although in a few instances veritable colonies of the bacilli could be seen. Only two cases of croupous pneumonia were punctured, in both of which pneumococci were found. Tubercle bacilli were observed in a case of enlarged cervical glands. By aspiration the bacillus leprae was invariably found in leprous nodules, ir, filtrations, and neighbouring lymphatic glands. Dr. Abrams concludes that parenchymatous aspiration is. when conducted with antiseptic precautions, a harmless procedure. In normal viscera it is rarely attended with danger, owing to the elasticity of their walls. Haemorrhage may possibly follow aspiration in disease of the viscera, owing to diminished tissue elasticity and pathological changes in the bloodvessels ; but the necessity for a correct diagnosis justifies, in properly selected cases, the slight risks that are incurred. It is of value in the diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis, with lung consolidation, in which no bacilli can be found in the sputa; or when consolidation is present, but no sputum, it may furnish the earliest 6vi. dence of the disease. In tuberculosis of the lymph glands, bones, joints, skip, testicles, and other structures, it is of undoubted importance. In malaria, typhoid fever, and other infectious diseases, puncture of the spleen may prove of great value in diagnosis. Leprous lesions of the external parts or of the viscera may be correctly recognised by the aid of this operation.

waiting

some

-

THE SALVATIONISTS AND CLEANLINESS.

acting upon apparently reliable indirected attention to the alleged unwholesomeness of a Salvation Army shelter, and to its apparent influence in promoting a local increase in the pauper population. We have now the satisfaction of learning, from a presumably well-informed correspondent, that a recent official inspection of the shelter has, at all events, effectually disposed of any question as to its present eanitary condition. Within, it wag found to be rematkably clean, well heated, and well ventilated. Several baths, with a sufficient supply of water, towels, and soap, were at the service of the occupants, and the sanitary conditions generally were the reverse of what they were at first sup. posed to be. "Adversity," saysBacon, "doth best discover virtue"; and certainly the Salvationists of Clerken. PARENCHYMATOUS ASPIRATION. of public DR. ALBERT ABRAMS of San FranciEco describes, in the well have little reason to regret the light hardship to have discovered among which appears suspicion finally Boston Medical and Surgical Journal of July 9th, 1891, them the healthy virtue of cleanliness. under the above title, a method of obtaining pathological products for diagnostic purposes. The process consists of NAPHTHALIN IN WHOOPING-COUGH. withdrawing, by means of a hypodermic syringe, certain MANY remedies have been vaunted for the cure of whoopproducts from pathological formations in solid tissues, and the examination of what is obtained by the microscope. The ing-cough, but with little satisfactory results in the great syringe has a large barrel with a capacity of ten grammes, majority of cases. A proposal to add naphthalin to the long the object being to secure as good suction as possible. list of so-called cures has arisen in the following manner. After numerous experiments on animals, Dr. Abrams Dr. Chavernac of Aix, during a recent epidemic, seems to punctured the lung in cases of disease of that organ more have allowed his son, who was eighteen years of age, while than fifty times, and the only ill effects observed were suffering from the affection to continue to attend school. syncope in one case, haemoptysis lasting a day in another, One day the lecturer on science had heated some substance and circumscribed pains limited to the punctured region, of which gave off very strong fumes, which, though disliked short duration, in two other cases. This aspiration was by many of the boys, had the effect on him of immediately made in cases of tuberculosis, pneumonia, and syphilis. In stopping a violent attack of coughing. As soon as the undoubted cases of tuberculosis of the lungs and bronchial windows were opened and the fumes passed away the cough glands, tubercle bacilli could only be demonstrated in the recommenced as violently as ever. His father, having disaspirated products in about 40 per cent. of the cases. Failure covered that the fuming substance was merely naphthalin, to find the bacilli in all cases was largely attributed to errors had about an ounce of it burnt in the lad’s bedroom, with in technique, which were partially removed after further the result that he breathed a great deal more easily, and trials. In some cases, the syringe having been partially only had one slight attack during the night. The next day, filled with a normal saline solution, this was injected into being at school, he had several attacks, but they were somethe diseased tissues, the needle remaining in situ. After what less severe than they had previously been. The next A FORTNIGHT ago,

formation,

we