FOLK-LORE AND MEDICINE

160 idea first put forward by Zuckerman and Parkes,22 The on the basis of experiments with monkeys. somewhat indirect evidence that he has brought to bear on it is derived mainly from a study of the morbid anatomy of the condition, and concerns the topographical relation of the adenomatous growths’ to the true prostatic glandular tissue which in essential structure they resemble. It is of interest that in arriving at this point of view he abandoned the hypothesis that the process of adenomatous enlargement begins in the glands of Albarran-a hypothesis for which he was partly responsible and one which has always conflicted with the fact that these glands may be normal in appearance in cases of prostatic enlargement. Despite their suggestive nature, Cuneo’s arguments have failed to convince some of his French colleagues. Barres,3 for example, argues that a senile decrease in the production of male hormone is by itself insufficient to account for prostatic adenomata. He points out that the malady is almost unknown in one race, the Tonkinese, and he thinks that inflammation plays an important part in its development. Cuneo’s views have also been vigorously attacked by Marion,4 partly because of their lack of experimental support and partly because the disposition of adenomata in the prostate, according to Marion, not infrequently suggests that they do not arise in the glands of the utriculus. Marion also points out that in the operation of prostatectomy the utricle or verumontanum is removed. In deciding between the arguments of these two distinguished authorities it is difficult to avoid the conviction, which indeed is stated by Marion, that the site of origin of benign hypertrophy of the prostate is unlikely to be decided by simple pathological and histological study. As Marion himself writes, such study can never show whether adenomata arise in the glands of the verumontanum or in those of the neck of the bladder. In the circumstances it is useful to refer to experimental observations since reported by Zuckerman.5 A study of the prostates of normal rhesus monkeys and those of monkeys injected for prolonged periods with cestrone showed that the growth that such treatment stimulates is restricted mainly to the region which in human anatomy is referred to as the middle lobe. The area occupied by the true prostatic glands does not increase significantly, and as a result of the hypertrophy of the middle lobe the prostatic glands are displaced dorsolaterally until they come to form a false capsule to the organ. The hypertrophy of the middle lobe is due mainly to development of its fibromuscular tissue, although hyperplasia and metaplasia of the " uterus masculinus" also play a part. The lining of the uterus masculinus in the species used in these experiments responds like vaginal epithelium. It would therefore be of interest if similar experiments were performed on a monkey whose uterus masculinus was indeed homologous with the uterus.

pressed dressings, and are arranging for two lorry-loads of further supplies to leave England

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SPAIN SOME of our readers may wish to be reminded of addresses to which they can send help for children and refugees in Spain. The National Joint Committee for Spanish Relief have their headquarters at 4, Great Smith Street, London, S.W.l, but gifts of clothes should go to them at 15, Great James Street, W.C.1. The Spanish Medical Aid Committee have sent by air some morphine, chloroform, and com2 See Zuckerman, S., Lancet, 1936, 1, 135. 3 Le Roy des Barres, A., Bull. Acad. méd. Paris, 1937, 117, 367. 4

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Marion, Ibid, p. 124. Zuckerman, S., J. Anat. 1938, 72, 264.

before this week-end. More money is needed if these lorries are to be filled, and subscriptions will be welcomed at 24, New Oxford Street, W.C.I. The committee have received- a telegram from Dr. Audrey Russell saying that refugees are streaming into Barcelona, where babies are already rationed at 250 grammes of milk and 100 grammes of sugar weekly. It will be impossible to provide for the new influx unless more supplies are sent immediately. "Please send every ounce possible milk and sugar also increased effort to supply surgical dressings anaesthetics ambulances to deal with terrible slaughter at front." " The heart of mankind," she adds, "must be made of stone to let this happen." ...

Colonel A. M. JOHNSON, M.C., T.D., assistant director of medical services, 42nd (East Lancashire Division, Territorial Army, was created a commander in the Order of the British Empire in the New Year honours list. Group-Captain F. C. CowTAN, principal medical officer in the Middle East Command, has been promoted to the rank of air-commodore. Group-Captain Cowtan is the fourth who holds this rank in the medical branch of the Royal Air Force. Lieut.-General Sir HAROLD FAwcus has resigned from the office of director-general of the British Red Cross Society. FOLK-LORE AND MEDICINE meeting of the West London MedicoChirurgical Society on Jan. 13, with Dr. Maurice Shaw, the president, in the chair, Dr. J. D. Rolleston read a paper on folk-lore and medicine. He said that since the publication in 1927 of the late Dr. Dan McKenzie’s work, " The Infancy of Medicine," the subject of folk-lore in connexion with medicine had attracted little attention in this country. This lack of interest was in marked contrast with the enthusiasm that it had provoked on the Continent, especially in Balkan countries, representatives of which had contributed several learned papers to the last three congresses of the International Society of the History of Medicine held at Bucharest in 1932, Madrid in 1935, and Zagreb and Belgrade in 1938. The various prophylactic and therapeutic measures in folk-lore medicine, in which the curative methods far outnumbered the preventive, could be ranged under one or more of the following headings: (1) Transference of the disease to other persons, animals, or inanimate objects. (2) Animal, plant, or mineral remedies. (3) Religious influences, including the invocation of special saints. (4) The healing power attributed to water in the form of wells, springs, fountains, and streams. (5) The mystical power of odd numbers. (6) Repellent and disgusting remedies, including coprotherapy, for the purpose of drawing out the evil spirit who was supposed to be the cause of the disease. (7) Miscellaneous causes, such as the doctrine of signatures, constriction by rings, charms The diseases connected with death or the grave, &c. and symptoms for which the largest number of folk-lore remedies and preventive methods had been AT

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applied were whooping-cough, ague (which included not only malaria but, as its etymology indicated, any acute fever), epilepsy and convulsions of any kind, rheumatism, consumption, eye diseases, skin diseases (especially warts), cattle diseases, headache, toothache, jaundice, haemorrhages of any kind, and bites of snakes and scorpions. After giving numerous examples of folk-lore medicine in whooping-cough, epilepsy, rheumatism, and jaundice, Dr. Rolleston concluded by saying that though many folk-lore remedies had become obsolete some were still practised not only by the inhabitants of remote country districts but also by educated persons in business centres.