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MEDICAL MOBILISATION IN FRANCE
943 venous
injections ;
but
prolonged
oral administration
of this drug is not to be recommended, for, apart from the question of efficacy, it is sa,id to cause gastrointestinal changes.9 Casini/" on the other hand, reporting on adrenaline therapy in 48 splenomegalic of
cases
malaria,
matched
by
36
carefully
selected
controls, concludes that it does not activate the latent infection, does not reduce the size of the enlarged spleen, and does not improve the blood or the general health. Attacks of malaria and reduction in the size similar in the two groups. These spleen unfavourable conclusions are supported by those of Nlarotta," in Sicily, who finds that adrenaline does not influence malarial manifestations, and that the contraction of the spleen lasts only three or four minutes. Ascoli’s method has also been recommended in the treatment of haemorrhagic tendencies, haemolytic splenomegaly, and kala-azar. of the
were
MEDICAL MOBILISATION IN FRANCE
LAST month Monsieur Daladier and the Ministers for Public Health, Finance and the Interior presented the draft of a decree providing for the regulation of medical practice in war-time and for its proper remuneration. Thanks to the special powers granted to the French Government by the law of March 19, 1939, it was possible for this decree to be put into effect at once. All doctors not liable to be called up for military service must, if they are of French nationality, put their services at the disposal of the Public Health Ministry for the requirements of the civil population. These doctors may be required to continue working where they were or may have to go elsewhere. The decree lays down the conditions under which remuneration is to be given for war work and the scale of this remuneration. French women doctors come under the same rules as their male colleagues. Dr. Dreyfus-See, vice-president of the Association française des femmes medecins, has issued an appeal to all the members of this organisation to send her information about the subjects in which they have specialised, the most important appointments they hold, the free hours at their disposal, and the regions in which they would prefer to be employed. In the meantime the surgical services have been or will shortly be discontinued at the following Parisian hospitals: Pitie, Cochin, Necker (adults). Lariboisiere, Maison Dubois, Broca, Ambroise-Pare, PetitsMenages, Trousseau, Ivry and Saint-Louis (children). VALUE OF BLOOD-ALCOHOL ESTIMATIONS WHEN
precise quantitative
estimation ot
blood-
first introduced, about a decade ago, hopes were aroused that it might solve a difficult legal problem. Most countries have strict legislation against drunkenness in charge of a motor vehicle, and if the state of drunkenness could be established quantitatively much of the difficulty inherent in accepting the opinion of eye-witnesses could be overcome. But though the passage of years has proved E. M. P. Widmark’s micro method of estimation to be extremely accurate, it has also demonstrated the fallacy of attempts to connect it at all closely with a legal standard of drunkenness. Dr. John McGrath in a useful review 12 says that the blood-alcohol content in a specimen or a corpse remains unchanged for at least a fortnight. Other things being equal, the blood-alcohol is proportional
alcohol
9. 10. 11. 12.
was
See Lancet, July 1, 1939, p. 31. Casini, G., Riv. Malariol. 1939, p. 189. Marotta, G., Ibid, p. 194. McGrath, J., Irish J. med. Sci. July, 1939, p. 304.
to the total amount of alcohol ingested ; but when the drink is strong, the blood-alcohol is higher than when it is dilute. Severe injury or haemorrhage may disturb the absorption and metabolism and retard the fall in the content ; vomiting, curiously enough, is followed by a rise. Food not only checks the increase but greatly reduces the maximum content. The most difficult factor is the influence of habit and addiction. The blood-alcohol is closely related to the
but many people have a " concentration tolerance " which enables them to remain comparatively sober when their blood-alcohol is high. Hellwigcites many cases to show the mistakes that may be made through undue reliance on laboratory findings, an error to which German courts seem liable. Coffee diminishes the effects of a given content on the brain-cells ; ephedrine and insulin counteract and smoking increases the effect of alcohol. It is therefore not possible to rule a line, as Widmark once attempted to do, at 160 mg. per 100 c.cm. and say that a person who shows more is incapable of driving a An efficient clinical examination made immedicar. ately after arrest will probably always be indispensable. Nevertheless, blood-alcohol estimation obviously has a high corroborative value, and if the result is completely negative it clears the accused so far as alcohol is concerned.
brain-alcohol,
SIR WILLIAM POPE
William Jackson Pope, whose father was in business in the City of London, was one of a group of beyswho passed at a very early age across the playground of the City Central Foundation School in Cowper Street, City Road, to the Finsbury Technical College in the next street. Pope, like another Cowper Street boy, now Sir Gilbert Morgan, was more able than some to benefit by the change from the discipline of a school to the greater freedom of lifeat college. His contemporaries remember him as a brilliant youth of rather remarkable appearance whose sense of humour was perhaps more highly developed than that of the newly appointed professor of chemistry, Raphael Meldola. After a distinguished career at Finsbury and an interlude spent abroad, Pope went to the other City and Guilds College at South Kensington. Here he worked with H. E. Armstrong, who soon realised that he had under him a student of great promise and a man of ideas. Indeed Pope was probably Armstrong’s favourite student. In 1908 Pope became professor of chemistry at Cambridge, in succession to Liveing, who died a few years ago, well over 90, of injuries sustained after being knocked down by a bicycle. Here Pope had more time for research and was able to surround himself with a zealous group of colleagues and research students. Pope had vision. While working under Armstrong he began to study the somewhat unusual subject of crystallography. Pasteur, Le Bel and Van’t Hoff had been able to connect optical activity with molecular asymmetry. Linking this with the knowledge he had acquired of the shapes of visible units of organic compounds Pope and his colleagues discovered the possibility of asymmetric grouping around atoms other than those of carbon. They then prepared optically active compounds of sulphur, selenium, tin and later of other elements. Pope and Barlow set forth a theory of molecular structure in three dimensions which sought to connect the arrangement of the atoms in a compound as ascertained by its chemical relations with its crystalline structure, a subject which was developed further by Bragg. 1.
Hellwig, A., Med. Welt, Aug. 5, 1939, p. 1098 ; Aug. 12, p. 1136.
injections ;
but
prolonged
oral administration
of this drug is not to be recommended, for, apart from the question of efficacy, it is sa,id to cause gastrointestinal changes.9 Casini/" on the other hand, reporting on adrenaline therapy in 48 splenomegalic of
cases
malaria,
matched
by
36
carefully
selected
controls, concludes that it does not activate the latent infection, does not reduce the size of the enlarged spleen, and does not improve the blood or the general health. Attacks of malaria and reduction in the size similar in the two groups. These spleen unfavourable conclusions are supported by those of Nlarotta," in Sicily, who finds that adrenaline does not influence malarial manifestations, and that the contraction of the spleen lasts only three or four minutes. Ascoli’s method has also been recommended in the treatment of haemorrhagic tendencies, haemolytic splenomegaly, and kala-azar. of the
were
MEDICAL MOBILISATION IN FRANCE
LAST month Monsieur Daladier and the Ministers for Public Health, Finance and the Interior presented the draft of a decree providing for the regulation of medical practice in war-time and for its proper remuneration. Thanks to the special powers granted to the French Government by the law of March 19, 1939, it was possible for this decree to be put into effect at once. All doctors not liable to be called up for military service must, if they are of French nationality, put their services at the disposal of the Public Health Ministry for the requirements of the civil population. These doctors may be required to continue working where they were or may have to go elsewhere. The decree lays down the conditions under which remuneration is to be given for war work and the scale of this remuneration. French women doctors come under the same rules as their male colleagues. Dr. Dreyfus-See, vice-president of the Association française des femmes medecins, has issued an appeal to all the members of this organisation to send her information about the subjects in which they have specialised, the most important appointments they hold, the free hours at their disposal, and the regions in which they would prefer to be employed. In the meantime the surgical services have been or will shortly be discontinued at the following Parisian hospitals: Pitie, Cochin, Necker (adults). Lariboisiere, Maison Dubois, Broca, Ambroise-Pare, PetitsMenages, Trousseau, Ivry and Saint-Louis (children). VALUE OF BLOOD-ALCOHOL ESTIMATIONS WHEN
precise quantitative
estimation ot
blood-
first introduced, about a decade ago, hopes were aroused that it might solve a difficult legal problem. Most countries have strict legislation against drunkenness in charge of a motor vehicle, and if the state of drunkenness could be established quantitatively much of the difficulty inherent in accepting the opinion of eye-witnesses could be overcome. But though the passage of years has proved E. M. P. Widmark’s micro method of estimation to be extremely accurate, it has also demonstrated the fallacy of attempts to connect it at all closely with a legal standard of drunkenness. Dr. John McGrath in a useful review 12 says that the blood-alcohol content in a specimen or a corpse remains unchanged for at least a fortnight. Other things being equal, the blood-alcohol is proportional
alcohol
9. 10. 11. 12.
was
See Lancet, July 1, 1939, p. 31. Casini, G., Riv. Malariol. 1939, p. 189. Marotta, G., Ibid, p. 194. McGrath, J., Irish J. med. Sci. July, 1939, p. 304.
to the total amount of alcohol ingested ; but when the drink is strong, the blood-alcohol is higher than when it is dilute. Severe injury or haemorrhage may disturb the absorption and metabolism and retard the fall in the content ; vomiting, curiously enough, is followed by a rise. Food not only checks the increase but greatly reduces the maximum content. The most difficult factor is the influence of habit and addiction. The blood-alcohol is closely related to the
but many people have a " concentration tolerance " which enables them to remain comparatively sober when their blood-alcohol is high. Hellwigcites many cases to show the mistakes that may be made through undue reliance on laboratory findings, an error to which German courts seem liable. Coffee diminishes the effects of a given content on the brain-cells ; ephedrine and insulin counteract and smoking increases the effect of alcohol. It is therefore not possible to rule a line, as Widmark once attempted to do, at 160 mg. per 100 c.cm. and say that a person who shows more is incapable of driving a An efficient clinical examination made immedicar. ately after arrest will probably always be indispensable. Nevertheless, blood-alcohol estimation obviously has a high corroborative value, and if the result is completely negative it clears the accused so far as alcohol is concerned.
brain-alcohol,
SIR WILLIAM POPE
William Jackson Pope, whose father was in business in the City of London, was one of a group of beyswho passed at a very early age across the playground of the City Central Foundation School in Cowper Street, City Road, to the Finsbury Technical College in the next street. Pope, like another Cowper Street boy, now Sir Gilbert Morgan, was more able than some to benefit by the change from the discipline of a school to the greater freedom of lifeat college. His contemporaries remember him as a brilliant youth of rather remarkable appearance whose sense of humour was perhaps more highly developed than that of the newly appointed professor of chemistry, Raphael Meldola. After a distinguished career at Finsbury and an interlude spent abroad, Pope went to the other City and Guilds College at South Kensington. Here he worked with H. E. Armstrong, who soon realised that he had under him a student of great promise and a man of ideas. Indeed Pope was probably Armstrong’s favourite student. In 1908 Pope became professor of chemistry at Cambridge, in succession to Liveing, who died a few years ago, well over 90, of injuries sustained after being knocked down by a bicycle. Here Pope had more time for research and was able to surround himself with a zealous group of colleagues and research students. Pope had vision. While working under Armstrong he began to study the somewhat unusual subject of crystallography. Pasteur, Le Bel and Van’t Hoff had been able to connect optical activity with molecular asymmetry. Linking this with the knowledge he had acquired of the shapes of visible units of organic compounds Pope and his colleagues discovered the possibility of asymmetric grouping around atoms other than those of carbon. They then prepared optically active compounds of sulphur, selenium, tin and later of other elements. Pope and Barlow set forth a theory of molecular structure in three dimensions which sought to connect the arrangement of the atoms in a compound as ascertained by its chemical relations with its crystalline structure, a subject which was developed further by Bragg. 1.
Hellwig, A., Med. Welt, Aug. 5, 1939, p. 1098 ; Aug. 12, p. 1136.