EXCESSIVE PROTEIN IN DIETS.

1253 with the new Impex plates and the ordinary X-ray Experiments have been made which show that the plates, by Dr. G. H. Rodman, the president of the metabolic machinery of adult rats works in a Royal Photographic Society, are of special interest. different way from that of young rats. Grown rats A series of plates taken with a portable apparatus fed on one protein, gliadin, with the other essentials in France, by Miss Phyllis Berry and Miss Collum, of a diet, remain active and healthy and capable of late of the Scottish Women’s Hospital, illustrates reproduction. The offspring appear normal and The grow actively as long as they are suckled by the some of the war-time applications of the X ray. exhibition generally marks a distinct advance, and the mother, but if after weaning they are fed on the opportunity of direct comparison of the work of same diet as the mother, growth ceases at once. radiographers in this country with that of workers The young animal would seem to be unable to abroad is of considerable value in demonstrating manufacture something which is present in the different methods of procedure. The series of sets maternal pabulum, and which is not present in the Once the of four prints produced by lay workers employed constitution of the directly-fed gliadin. either in the radiographic departments of hospitals growth stage is over, some new machinery must arise or acting as assistants to qualified radiographers, are capable of transforming the gliadin. specially helpful in this respect, entries for prizes offered by Dr. R. Knox are of a high standard. FIBROMA OF THE OVARY. The first prize has been awarded to Mr. Suggars, of ACCORDING to Dr. Edmund D. Clark and Dr the London Hospital, and the second to Mr. A. 0. Forder, of King’s College Hospital. The exhibition William E. Gabe1 of Indianopolis, who record a will remain open daily throughout June (Sundays personal case in a single woman aged 46, fibroma of excepted) from 11 A.M. to 5 P.M., and admission is the ovary is a sufficiently rare condition to warrant the publication of all carefully studied cases. free. They quote statistics derived from various sources showing the surprisingly small number of true ovarian EXCESSIVE PROTEIN IN DIETS. fibromata encountered in large clinics or by men WE drew attention in THE LANCET of April 16th with an extensive experience of pelvic surgery. Only to the important observations of T. B. Osborne and three examples were found by Sir Spencer Wells I L. B. Mendel, of Yale University, on growth with among 1200 ovariotomies. Kelly, in 1200 laparodiets poor in true fats, and growth without preformed Ii tomies, found only four cases, and Hellman reported The same observers1 only six instances among 4500 pathological specimens carbohydrate in the diet. I discuss the question of growth with diets containing at the Woman’s Clinic at the Berlin Charite in the more than 90 per cent. of protein. Although it ’, course of ten years. Hellman and Reel estimate has been demonstrated that a carnivorous animal can that fibromata constitute approximately 2 per cent. They occur from the time be kept alive and maintained in activity for con- of all ovarian tumours. siderable periods on an exclusive diet of meat, it is of puberty up to an advanced age, the youngest case I not known whether growth as well as maintenance on record being in a girl aged 17 and the oldest in a woman of 73. The majority occur in single can proceed on a regimen entirely free from both Hammarsten has stated women and about the menopause. Their size and fats and carbohydrates. that omnivora and herbivora cannot survive on such weight vary extremely, the smallest ones being a ration. The authors’ successful experiments in enclosed in ovarian tissue, while the larger ones 56 pounds. as much as Their consistency growing rats on food extremely poor in fats and in weigh very variable, some being composed of a carbohydrates respectively encouraged them to test is also woven network of connective tissue, while diets containing only minimal quantities of both. loosely The mixtures included protein 95 per cent., inorganic others are so dense that a bone saw is needed for salts 5 per cent., with a supply of vitamins A and B their section. They are liable to various changes, in the form of tablets of alfalfa (0-4 g.), and dried such as cedema, necrosis, hyaline formation, and degeneration. The diagnosis is dependent brewery yeast (0-2 g.) daily. On such diets, when fatty on microscopical examination, which in typical casein furnished the protein, animals have already solely of the individual grown to three times their weight at the beginning cases shows a certain regularity The vitamin-bearing substances were fibres or muscular cells and strands, despite varying of the trial. the only noteworthy sources of either fat or carbo- quantities of cells, fibres, vessels and degenerative The principal feature in the symptomahydrate, and supplied 4-8 per cent. of the food eaten. changes. If future experiments prove as successful as those tology of ovarian fibroma is the presence of a hard, described by these authors, then various problems unilateral movable tumour, accompanied by ascites. of nutrition and physiological function can be Pain is of varying degree and is often absent altosuch as frequent micturition, approached from new experimental standpoints. gether. Other symptoms, are due to mechanical factors. The earlier experiments by Hammarsten, few in constipation, &c., number in relation to this problem, were conducted Owing to its absence in other tumours of the ovary and its rarity in fibromata elsewhere, especially in on a less satisfactory plan, the food mixtures being the occurrence of ascites is of considerable inadequate in respect to one or more essential the uterus, value. The prognosis of ovarian fibroma is factors. It is to be noted that in Osborne and diagnostic Mendel’s experiments the growth of the rats was invariably good. Treatment is exclusively operative. It observed only until their weight was trebled. ____

has still to be determined whether rats will attain adult size and normal functions on diets furnishing proteins as the almost exclusive source of energy and tissue substance. The communication in our present issue from Miss G. A. Hartwell would seem in the first place to indicate that there may be exaggeration even in the diet of a lactating mother. We know little of the metabolism of even a single protein in any single animal, and practically nothing of the transformations of proteins in a suckling mother and of the metabolites that may be discharged in the milk under abnormal or even normal conditions of nutrition. It would be interesting to have an analysis of the milk in other animals giving suck while consuming excess of proteins.

POST-GRADUATE MEDICAL STUDY. newspaper announcement has reached country of a scheme of medical amalgamation, rendered possible in New York by private munificence, whereby the medical faculty of Columbia University has been able to amalgamate with the Presbyterian Hospital, which is one of the largest hospitals in the city. Those who are familiar with the medical institutions of New York will be able to appreciate the comprehensiveness of the scheme, for which the claim has been made that, in point of size and equipment at least, a medical centre has been created which will be " the greatest in the world." The organisation thus brought into being has been endowed to the extent of 3,000,000—

1 Proc. Soc. Exp. Biol., 1921, xviii., 167.

1 Amer. Jour. of Obstetrics and Gynecology, March, 1921.

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