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HÆMOLYTIC TRANSFUSION REACTIONS
1327 Bronchospasm
may
come on
in
some cases soon
after the
injection of the relaxant and in others after an endotracheal tube, especially the cuffed variety, has been inserted. In the latter case, removal of the tube should cure the spasm. When the spasm is due to the relaxant, the situation can be most dangerous. The temptation is to inject more relaxant The first measure or to pass a cuffed endotracheal tube. will prolong the spasm and the second measure, though it will
prevent the stomach from being oxygenation mechanically easier, the spasm. In a very severe tree in acute spasm
blown up and will make will do nothing to relieve e
case
pressure rises ; the circulation may then fail and
a death on be the result. In a case like this, surely an injection of atropine and neostigmine is the wisest treatment. The patient should do his own breathing as soon as possible rather than be subjected to ventilation by positive pressure. Last February I was called urgently to one of our theatres The patient to a case of respiratory and circulatory failure. had just undergone a laparotomy for inoperable carcinomatosis. She had signs of a massive right-lung collapse. I passed a bronchoscope and to my surprise found the mucous membrane of the trachea so swollen with oedema that it largely obscured the aperture of the bronchoscope and the smaller bronchi seemed to be blocked by this swelling. The condition was similar on both sides-a picture resembling the acutest variety of acute asthma. An adrenaline drip (1 in 500,000) quickly brought the patient out of her peril and tubular breathing could be heard over the right lung where before all was quiet. An X-ray picture taken the following day suggested secondary deposits in the right lung and may explain why the right side suffered more than the
can
left.
Half a dozen times in eighteen months I have been in the direst trouble with what I believe to be bronchospasm. Had some of the patients died, and believe me some of them were very close run, my personal mortalityrate would have soared. Derbyshire Royal Infirmary, Derby.
R P. R. P BLISS. B a
TREATMENT OF CRETINISM
SIR,-A large number of human cretins treated with thyroid extract remain mentally retarded though their physical development is normal.1 Recent studies in the rat, however, showed that the effects of hypothyroidism on the development of the cerebral cortex can be largely corrected by adequate replacement therapy.2 The apparent failure of some human cretins to respond to thyroid medication led Tredgold3 to suggest that there are two distinct types of cretins. In one type the physical and mental retardation are due to hypothyroidism alone and such cases respond well to treatment. In the other type primary amentia and thyroid hypoplasia coexist as congenital deficiencies, and in these cases mental development will not be stimulated by thyroid medication. Another explanation may be that the latter type of cretin has not received thyroid extract regularly. Patients are notoriously disinclined to take their drugs even when they are ill, so perhaps even more so when they appear to be in good health. The cretin may be given tablets when there are overt signs of its condition, but when these signs disappear the stimulus to continue treatment may also disappear until the child once again develops the cretinous facies. In such circumstances treatment is sporadic and it seems possible that the metabolically sensitive tissues of the developing brain may be damaged irreversibly and fail to mature. Until this
hypothesis has been fully investigated, there justification for assuming that cretins who apparently refractory to treatment are primary
seems are
HÆMOLYTIC TRANSFUSION REACTIONS
SIR,-A letter by Dr. Whitwell in your issue of Dec. 11 memorandum of the B.M.A.’s Consulting Committee published in the British liledical Journal of Aug. 15, 1953. This memorandum, although prepared at the request of the Consulting Pathologists Group Committee, was not in fact an agreed statement put out by the group committee. It was at the request of the group written by Dr. J. F. committee and this did not mean that the committee was responsible for what was stated in the article. This correction was made in the British Medical Journal published on Oct. 17, 1953, but it may have escaped the notice of your correspondents. E. E. CLAXTON CLAXTON B.M.A. House, refers to
oxygenation through a bronchial can be nearly impossible. The patient the the bloodrises, increasingly cyanosed, pulse-rate gets the table
assumption. In the meantime it should be emphasised to parents of cretinous children that thyroid medication must be regularly maintained even when the child appears to be normal. Department of Anatomy, GABRIEL HORN. The Medical School, Birmingham.
little
aments, with all the
irrevocable
consequences of that
1. Brown, A. W., Bronstein, I. P., Kraines, R. Amer. J. Dis. Child. 1939, 57, 517. 2. Horn, G. Anat. Rec. (in the press). 3. Tredgold, A. F. Mental Deficiency (Amentia). London, 1948.
a
Pathologists Group
Heggie
W.C.I. London, W.C.1.
Assistant
Secretary.
SiR,-In their letters of Dec. 11 Dr. Whitwell and Dr. Vickers discuss the subject of transfusion reactions. The position is simplified if we remember two important facts. (1) The patient has a right to expect that his medical attendants shall exercise " reasonable care and skill." (2) The Blood Group Reference Laboratory of the Medical Research Council teach us that the slide or tile test as applied to blood-grouping reactions is less reliable than the tube test and this should occupy at least two hours before it is read.
Therefore, I should say, given sufficient time, it is the to carry out his tests by the tube method. If the clinician believes that a delay of two hours or more before transfusion can be started will be harmful to the patient, he has only to certify this and it is then the pathologist’s duty to do the best he can in the shorter time available, which may mean providing group-0 Rh-negative blood unmatched. Surely no-one could complain that this was less than " reasonable care and skill." If, owing to lack of space, staff, or equipment, the pathologist is unable to do the work as it should be done, he must inform his hospital administrators that he is unable to take responsibility in case of accidents until proper facilities are provided. Night emergencies are always a difficulty and these The should not be left to unsupervised technicians. question then arises whether it is preferable to appoint resident pathologists to all hospitals for this sort of work, or to rely on an increased stock of group-0 Rh-negative blood. The latter would seem to be the better course because:
pathologist’s duty
(a) it could be used in day emergencies pending the result of grouping and matching by the tube method ; (b) it would be available at any time whether the pathologist is available or not ; and (c) it is doubtful if enough resident found to staff all hospitals.
pathologists
could be
Of course, there will be exceptional emergencies where this course would be inadvisable, such as the patient who requires very large amounts of blood in a short time, or the patient who has a history of repeated transfusions and frequent reactions. But the pathologist, like his clinical colleagues, is always willing to be called to the exceptional emergency where ordinary routine methods are
insufficient. Wbipps Cross Hospital, London, E.11.
W. W. WAI/THER WALTHER Area
Pathologist.
SiR,,-Various criticisms have been levelled against memoranda on blood-grouping and matching that came
1328 from the North East Metropolitan regional advisory committee in pathology and from the Central Pathology Committee. These memoranda have been superseded by the revised edition of the Medical Research Council memorandum no. 9, Determination of the Blood Groups, of which they were the prepared forerunners. One is led to believe that it is possible that some pathologists do not wish to be guided to safer techniques. If the conditions for blood-grouping and matching in some laboratories of the Liverpool Region are as " deplorable " as stated in your issue of Dec. 11, it is concerned, with the surely the duty of the their of medical of the medical advisory help colleagues committees and the regional advisory committee in pathology, to approach the hospital management committees and the regional board to have these conditions made satisfactory and safe. With regard to the question of the wastage, the introduction of pilot-bottles obviates waste by enabling blood to be re-matched for two-or even three patients. This could be discussed with advantage with the director of the regional blood-transfusion service.
pathologists
North Middlesex Hospital, N.18. London, N.18.
J.
J F. HEGGIE. J. HEGGIEE. F.
RACING AMBULANCES
Sm,-None of your correspondents so far has mentioned a sinister aspect of this matter-namely, the number of accidents to ambulances reported in the press in recent years, apparently caused by excessive speed and involving the death of the patients. R. J. J. CLAUSEN. London, N.W.8. A WORD WANTED
SiR,-In this discussion about use
for "
ing for
an
forward-looking research," three
qualities
in
the
word to to be look-
appropriate we seem
word-its
linguistic
credentials, its agreeable sound, and, I suspect,
rather elusive quality, its ability to remind creative nature of such research.
us
third of the
a
I wonder if we might borrow from the anthropologists, and in particular from Gregory Bateson who, in his fascinating work on Balinese dancers,l has emphasised that two types of thinking are commonly employed in selecting a choice of action. There is what he calls " selective integration," when we categorise and evaluate alternatives according to impressions derived from past experience : and, in contrast, there is an entirely different process of decision which occurs, for example. in an extemporising dancer. The dancer’s choice is influenced to a large extent by the ongoing characteristics of his sequence of action. Bateson calls this second type of decision " decision by progressional integration,"2 and he points out that the phenomenon is not confined to activities involving rapid physical movements, although the movement of the dancer is a convenient model to characterise the state of any person whose actions involve relatively rapid complex movement " in psychological space." I am not too happy about "proleptic," which Professor Witts suggests. is, strictly, "a preconception." It is 7rpoÀÉV(}’(J’óJ which means " to see before oneself or in front," though of course " Proleptics" has been used to mean the Art of Prognosis. It is hard to get away from the notion of preand, unless I have misunderstood supposition in the terms of reference, this is not wanted here. " " Progressional may not seem to have enough of lookin it. It would take too much and " space perception " ing " to argue fully why perception must occur during progression and not prior to it if we are to avoid the preconception which will make us see only what we are looking for. In a statistical study, say, of the incidence of prolapse in epileptics, we are using " selective integration," and we know what we are looking for. "
"
is
a
Progressional research," since what stipulative definition, would soon
come
to
mean
G. Balinese Character : a Photographic Analysis. New York, 1942. Bateson, G., Ruesch, J. Communication : the Social Basis of Psychiatry. New York, 1951.
1. Bateson, 2.
is wanted here
"
and it might also remind selected game, we can extemporise. As Richard Robinson writes in his book Definition, " The greatest good to be obtained by stipulative definitions... is the improvementof concepts or the creation of new concepts."
leeward-looking research,"
us
that, within the rules of
our
WILFRED BARLOW. WILFKED
London, S.W.7.
CARDIAC MASSAGE
SiR,-In-our Mission Hospital at Pimu in the remote equatorial forests of Congo Belge we operate as often as Occasional cases, possible under spinal ansesthesia. on an open mask. because of its extreme volatility at tropical temperatures. Using chloroform, it has been my practice to be constantly ready to do cardiac massage at the first indication, and we have had three recent instances of its efficacy if anticipated and performed
however, necessitate chloroform Ether is difficult to
use
methodically. We have used an upper midline abdominal incision and manipulation through the intact diaphragm, combined with rhythmical pressure on the chest.With no skilled assistance one can resuscitate thus singlehanded with no other instrument than a scalpel. Such was actually my experience when a leprous patient for whom I was incising an abscess of the foot in her village collapsed and became pulseless under chloroform administered at first by myself and later by my African assistant. Having resuscitated the patient we applied a clean dressing on the abdominal wound and transported her to our hospital five miles away where in due course we sutured the wound. She made an uninterrupted recovery. The other two were cases of cardiac arrest during the course of abdominal operations under chloroform. Massage of the left ventricle through the diaphragm proved efficacious, while sufficient oxygenation was obtained by rhythmical pressure by the left hand on the chest wall.
Under such circumstances, an opening into the pleural cavity, as described by Mr. Neri and Mr. Stevenson in your issue of Dec. 11, would have been a disadvantage. Baptist Missionary Society, London, W.1.
S. L. HENDERSON SMITH.
REACTIONS TO IODISED OIL
SIR,-Recently Jeffcoateand Green-Armytage2 have advocated the use of iodised oils in preference to watersoluble radio-opaque materials for hysterosalpingography. Reactions to these oils have been described on several occasions,3-5 and it has been suggested that the liberation of free iodine might be responsible 6 : that the oil itself can be responsible has been shown by the following experiment.
,
Poppyseed oil, the basis of ’Neo-Hydriol,’ was injected into one of the fallopian tubes of each of two adult rabbits and retained there by ligature. The other tubes were also ligated for use as a control. The animals were killed 2 and 4 weeks after injection. In both animals both tubes were distended and convoluted. This is the normal response to double ligature, as shown by Reynolds and Kaminester.7 The convolutions of the injected tubes were adherent to each other. On the control sides, apart from dilatation and lengthening, the tubes were normal. Histological examination revealed collections of oil surrounded by zones of foreign-body giant cells, small round cells, and lymphocytes in the subserosal The oil was presumably layers of the injected tubes. responsible for the granulomatous reaction. ,
Brown et al.3 and Rubin 8 both emphasise that stenosed and partially obstructed fallopian tubes do not Jeffcoate, T. N. A. J. Obstet. Gynœc., Brit. Emp. 1954, 61, 181. Green-Armytage, V. B. Proc. R. Soc. Med. (in the press). 3. Brown, W. E., Jennings, A. F., Bradbury, J. T. Amer. J. Obstet. 1. 2.
Gynec. 1949, 58, 1041. 4. Ries, E. Ibid, 1929, 17, 728. 5. Lash, A. F. Surg. Gynec. Obstet. 1930, 51, 55. 6. Titus, P., Tafel, R. E., McClellan, R. H., Messer, F. C. Amer. J. Obstet. Gynec. 1937, 33, 164. 7. Reynolds, S. M. R., Kaminester, S. Anat. Rec. 1937, 69, 281. 8. Rubin, I. C. J. Obstet. Gynœc., Brit. Emp. 1947, 54, 733.
may
come on
in
some cases soon
after the
injection of the relaxant and in others after an endotracheal tube, especially the cuffed variety, has been inserted. In the latter case, removal of the tube should cure the spasm. When the spasm is due to the relaxant, the situation can be most dangerous. The temptation is to inject more relaxant The first measure or to pass a cuffed endotracheal tube. will prolong the spasm and the second measure, though it will
prevent the stomach from being oxygenation mechanically easier, the spasm. In a very severe tree in acute spasm
blown up and will make will do nothing to relieve e
case
pressure rises ; the circulation may then fail and
a death on be the result. In a case like this, surely an injection of atropine and neostigmine is the wisest treatment. The patient should do his own breathing as soon as possible rather than be subjected to ventilation by positive pressure. Last February I was called urgently to one of our theatres The patient to a case of respiratory and circulatory failure. had just undergone a laparotomy for inoperable carcinomatosis. She had signs of a massive right-lung collapse. I passed a bronchoscope and to my surprise found the mucous membrane of the trachea so swollen with oedema that it largely obscured the aperture of the bronchoscope and the smaller bronchi seemed to be blocked by this swelling. The condition was similar on both sides-a picture resembling the acutest variety of acute asthma. An adrenaline drip (1 in 500,000) quickly brought the patient out of her peril and tubular breathing could be heard over the right lung where before all was quiet. An X-ray picture taken the following day suggested secondary deposits in the right lung and may explain why the right side suffered more than the
can
left.
Half a dozen times in eighteen months I have been in the direst trouble with what I believe to be bronchospasm. Had some of the patients died, and believe me some of them were very close run, my personal mortalityrate would have soared. Derbyshire Royal Infirmary, Derby.
R P. R. P BLISS. B a
TREATMENT OF CRETINISM
SIR,-A large number of human cretins treated with thyroid extract remain mentally retarded though their physical development is normal.1 Recent studies in the rat, however, showed that the effects of hypothyroidism on the development of the cerebral cortex can be largely corrected by adequate replacement therapy.2 The apparent failure of some human cretins to respond to thyroid medication led Tredgold3 to suggest that there are two distinct types of cretins. In one type the physical and mental retardation are due to hypothyroidism alone and such cases respond well to treatment. In the other type primary amentia and thyroid hypoplasia coexist as congenital deficiencies, and in these cases mental development will not be stimulated by thyroid medication. Another explanation may be that the latter type of cretin has not received thyroid extract regularly. Patients are notoriously disinclined to take their drugs even when they are ill, so perhaps even more so when they appear to be in good health. The cretin may be given tablets when there are overt signs of its condition, but when these signs disappear the stimulus to continue treatment may also disappear until the child once again develops the cretinous facies. In such circumstances treatment is sporadic and it seems possible that the metabolically sensitive tissues of the developing brain may be damaged irreversibly and fail to mature. Until this
hypothesis has been fully investigated, there justification for assuming that cretins who apparently refractory to treatment are primary
seems are
HÆMOLYTIC TRANSFUSION REACTIONS
SIR,-A letter by Dr. Whitwell in your issue of Dec. 11 memorandum of the B.M.A.’s Consulting Committee published in the British liledical Journal of Aug. 15, 1953. This memorandum, although prepared at the request of the Consulting Pathologists Group Committee, was not in fact an agreed statement put out by the group committee. It was at the request of the group written by Dr. J. F. committee and this did not mean that the committee was responsible for what was stated in the article. This correction was made in the British Medical Journal published on Oct. 17, 1953, but it may have escaped the notice of your correspondents. E. E. CLAXTON CLAXTON B.M.A. House, refers to
oxygenation through a bronchial can be nearly impossible. The patient the the bloodrises, increasingly cyanosed, pulse-rate gets the table
assumption. In the meantime it should be emphasised to parents of cretinous children that thyroid medication must be regularly maintained even when the child appears to be normal. Department of Anatomy, GABRIEL HORN. The Medical School, Birmingham.
little
aments, with all the
irrevocable
consequences of that
1. Brown, A. W., Bronstein, I. P., Kraines, R. Amer. J. Dis. Child. 1939, 57, 517. 2. Horn, G. Anat. Rec. (in the press). 3. Tredgold, A. F. Mental Deficiency (Amentia). London, 1948.
a
Pathologists Group
Heggie
W.C.I. London, W.C.1.
Assistant
Secretary.
SiR,-In their letters of Dec. 11 Dr. Whitwell and Dr. Vickers discuss the subject of transfusion reactions. The position is simplified if we remember two important facts. (1) The patient has a right to expect that his medical attendants shall exercise " reasonable care and skill." (2) The Blood Group Reference Laboratory of the Medical Research Council teach us that the slide or tile test as applied to blood-grouping reactions is less reliable than the tube test and this should occupy at least two hours before it is read.
Therefore, I should say, given sufficient time, it is the to carry out his tests by the tube method. If the clinician believes that a delay of two hours or more before transfusion can be started will be harmful to the patient, he has only to certify this and it is then the pathologist’s duty to do the best he can in the shorter time available, which may mean providing group-0 Rh-negative blood unmatched. Surely no-one could complain that this was less than " reasonable care and skill." If, owing to lack of space, staff, or equipment, the pathologist is unable to do the work as it should be done, he must inform his hospital administrators that he is unable to take responsibility in case of accidents until proper facilities are provided. Night emergencies are always a difficulty and these The should not be left to unsupervised technicians. question then arises whether it is preferable to appoint resident pathologists to all hospitals for this sort of work, or to rely on an increased stock of group-0 Rh-negative blood. The latter would seem to be the better course because:
pathologist’s duty
(a) it could be used in day emergencies pending the result of grouping and matching by the tube method ; (b) it would be available at any time whether the pathologist is available or not ; and (c) it is doubtful if enough resident found to staff all hospitals.
pathologists
could be
Of course, there will be exceptional emergencies where this course would be inadvisable, such as the patient who requires very large amounts of blood in a short time, or the patient who has a history of repeated transfusions and frequent reactions. But the pathologist, like his clinical colleagues, is always willing to be called to the exceptional emergency where ordinary routine methods are
insufficient. Wbipps Cross Hospital, London, E.11.
W. W. WAI/THER WALTHER Area
Pathologist.
SiR,,-Various criticisms have been levelled against memoranda on blood-grouping and matching that came
1328 from the North East Metropolitan regional advisory committee in pathology and from the Central Pathology Committee. These memoranda have been superseded by the revised edition of the Medical Research Council memorandum no. 9, Determination of the Blood Groups, of which they were the prepared forerunners. One is led to believe that it is possible that some pathologists do not wish to be guided to safer techniques. If the conditions for blood-grouping and matching in some laboratories of the Liverpool Region are as " deplorable " as stated in your issue of Dec. 11, it is concerned, with the surely the duty of the their of medical of the medical advisory help colleagues committees and the regional advisory committee in pathology, to approach the hospital management committees and the regional board to have these conditions made satisfactory and safe. With regard to the question of the wastage, the introduction of pilot-bottles obviates waste by enabling blood to be re-matched for two-or even three patients. This could be discussed with advantage with the director of the regional blood-transfusion service.
pathologists
North Middlesex Hospital, N.18. London, N.18.
J.
J F. HEGGIE. J. HEGGIEE. F.
RACING AMBULANCES
Sm,-None of your correspondents so far has mentioned a sinister aspect of this matter-namely, the number of accidents to ambulances reported in the press in recent years, apparently caused by excessive speed and involving the death of the patients. R. J. J. CLAUSEN. London, N.W.8. A WORD WANTED
SiR,-In this discussion about use
for "
ing for
an
forward-looking research," three
qualities
in
the
word to to be look-
appropriate we seem
word-its
linguistic
credentials, its agreeable sound, and, I suspect,
rather elusive quality, its ability to remind creative nature of such research.
us
third of the
a
I wonder if we might borrow from the anthropologists, and in particular from Gregory Bateson who, in his fascinating work on Balinese dancers,l has emphasised that two types of thinking are commonly employed in selecting a choice of action. There is what he calls " selective integration," when we categorise and evaluate alternatives according to impressions derived from past experience : and, in contrast, there is an entirely different process of decision which occurs, for example. in an extemporising dancer. The dancer’s choice is influenced to a large extent by the ongoing characteristics of his sequence of action. Bateson calls this second type of decision " decision by progressional integration,"2 and he points out that the phenomenon is not confined to activities involving rapid physical movements, although the movement of the dancer is a convenient model to characterise the state of any person whose actions involve relatively rapid complex movement " in psychological space." I am not too happy about "proleptic," which Professor Witts suggests. is, strictly, "a preconception." It is 7rpoÀÉV(}’(J’óJ which means " to see before oneself or in front," though of course " Proleptics" has been used to mean the Art of Prognosis. It is hard to get away from the notion of preand, unless I have misunderstood supposition in the terms of reference, this is not wanted here. " " Progressional may not seem to have enough of lookin it. It would take too much and " space perception " ing " to argue fully why perception must occur during progression and not prior to it if we are to avoid the preconception which will make us see only what we are looking for. In a statistical study, say, of the incidence of prolapse in epileptics, we are using " selective integration," and we know what we are looking for. "
"
is
a
Progressional research," since what stipulative definition, would soon
come
to
mean
G. Balinese Character : a Photographic Analysis. New York, 1942. Bateson, G., Ruesch, J. Communication : the Social Basis of Psychiatry. New York, 1951.
1. Bateson, 2.
is wanted here
"
and it might also remind selected game, we can extemporise. As Richard Robinson writes in his book Definition, " The greatest good to be obtained by stipulative definitions... is the improvementof concepts or the creation of new concepts."
leeward-looking research,"
us
that, within the rules of
our
WILFRED BARLOW. WILFKED
London, S.W.7.
CARDIAC MASSAGE
SiR,-In-our Mission Hospital at Pimu in the remote equatorial forests of Congo Belge we operate as often as Occasional cases, possible under spinal ansesthesia. on an open mask. because of its extreme volatility at tropical temperatures. Using chloroform, it has been my practice to be constantly ready to do cardiac massage at the first indication, and we have had three recent instances of its efficacy if anticipated and performed
however, necessitate chloroform Ether is difficult to
use
methodically. We have used an upper midline abdominal incision and manipulation through the intact diaphragm, combined with rhythmical pressure on the chest.With no skilled assistance one can resuscitate thus singlehanded with no other instrument than a scalpel. Such was actually my experience when a leprous patient for whom I was incising an abscess of the foot in her village collapsed and became pulseless under chloroform administered at first by myself and later by my African assistant. Having resuscitated the patient we applied a clean dressing on the abdominal wound and transported her to our hospital five miles away where in due course we sutured the wound. She made an uninterrupted recovery. The other two were cases of cardiac arrest during the course of abdominal operations under chloroform. Massage of the left ventricle through the diaphragm proved efficacious, while sufficient oxygenation was obtained by rhythmical pressure by the left hand on the chest wall.
Under such circumstances, an opening into the pleural cavity, as described by Mr. Neri and Mr. Stevenson in your issue of Dec. 11, would have been a disadvantage. Baptist Missionary Society, London, W.1.
S. L. HENDERSON SMITH.
REACTIONS TO IODISED OIL
SIR,-Recently Jeffcoateand Green-Armytage2 have advocated the use of iodised oils in preference to watersoluble radio-opaque materials for hysterosalpingography. Reactions to these oils have been described on several occasions,3-5 and it has been suggested that the liberation of free iodine might be responsible 6 : that the oil itself can be responsible has been shown by the following experiment.
,
Poppyseed oil, the basis of ’Neo-Hydriol,’ was injected into one of the fallopian tubes of each of two adult rabbits and retained there by ligature. The other tubes were also ligated for use as a control. The animals were killed 2 and 4 weeks after injection. In both animals both tubes were distended and convoluted. This is the normal response to double ligature, as shown by Reynolds and Kaminester.7 The convolutions of the injected tubes were adherent to each other. On the control sides, apart from dilatation and lengthening, the tubes were normal. Histological examination revealed collections of oil surrounded by zones of foreign-body giant cells, small round cells, and lymphocytes in the subserosal The oil was presumably layers of the injected tubes. responsible for the granulomatous reaction. ,
Brown et al.3 and Rubin 8 both emphasise that stenosed and partially obstructed fallopian tubes do not Jeffcoate, T. N. A. J. Obstet. Gynœc., Brit. Emp. 1954, 61, 181. Green-Armytage, V. B. Proc. R. Soc. Med. (in the press). 3. Brown, W. E., Jennings, A. F., Bradbury, J. T. Amer. J. Obstet. 1. 2.
Gynec. 1949, 58, 1041. 4. Ries, E. Ibid, 1929, 17, 728. 5. Lash, A. F. Surg. Gynec. Obstet. 1930, 51, 55. 6. Titus, P., Tafel, R. E., McClellan, R. H., Messer, F. C. Amer. J. Obstet. Gynec. 1937, 33, 164. 7. Reynolds, S. M. R., Kaminester, S. Anat. Rec. 1937, 69, 281. 8. Rubin, I. C. J. Obstet. Gynœc., Brit. Emp. 1947, 54, 733.