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MISSED MENINGOCOCCAL INFECTIONS
48 at which the burn is covered merely by a broken and sodden coagulum, incorporated with semi-liquefied sloughs, and with malodorous pus escaping at many points. At that stage a general improvement is seen when the granulating surface is cleared of sloughs and exudate and the usual treatment of a healing sore is
weeks,
begun. The local treatment of an extensive granulating surface To obviate the is tedious and often disheartening. of some necessity frequent dressing surgeons encase the area in a plaster cast; the method is not without disadvantages. Others have attempted to recoagulate the surface, as in the initial treatment of the burn, as soon as the first coagulum is removed. These efforts are not usually successful owing to the profuse exudation from the granulations. It seems that more is to be gained from the use of skin grafts, especially the split grafts described by Blair and Brown. MISSED MENINGOCOCCAL
INFECTIONS
BAOTEEEMiA is an essential preliminary to invasion of the meninges in meningococcal meningitis, but the disease is rarely diagnosed at this stage except in the most fulminating cases. The resulting delay in beginning treatment, however, is slight, since localisation in the What is more meninges usually takes place early. is that we should a important recognise type of chronic meningococcal septicaemia in which invasion of the meninges may be delayed for months or may never take place at all. This condition was discussed by Colonel Stott and Major Copeman in our issue of June 22 (p. 1116) and sporadic cases have been reported by Dimson,’ Mackay and Bryan2 and others. There is substantial agreement on the clinical picture, and diagnosis should not be difficult on this alone. Briefly, after a sudden onset with severe headache, chills and fever, an irregular pyrexia begins which may last for weeks, months or years with occasional long intermissions of normal temperature. Migratory joint and muscle pains are common but splenic enlargement is not, and there is a surprising absence of wasting, debility or anaemia. Many types of rash have been described, the usual one consisting of successive crops of. tender macules or papules distributed principally on the limbs and back. The danger of the condition lies in its complications, especially meningitis and infective endocarditis. Unlike rheumatism, influenza and erythema nodosum, with which it is apt to be confused, chronic meningococcal septicaemia clears _up rapidly with sulphapyridine, but with symptomatic treatment it may persist almost indefinitely. INFLUENZA INFECTION OF CHICK-EMBRYO LUNG
IN one way after another the chicken-embryo is being pressed into service for experimental studies, particularly by workers with viruses. It was first minced and used for tissue cultures; then the chorio-allantoic membrane was made to serve almost as an agar-plate on which viruscolonies could be counted; then the yolk of the living egg was found to provide a suitable medium for certain rickettsise and viruses. Now Burnet,3 following up some work by Buddingh and Polk,4 has attacked the embryo from yet another quarter. He finds that influenza viruses may be introduced by a simple technique into the amniotic cavity of the embryo; they will then, though not previously adapted to growth in the egg, produce specific infections of the lung. These may be recognised by the gross and histological appearances of the lungs, or with greater rapidity and certainty by examination of stained smears of tracheal fluid. " Amniotic inoculation," Burnet suggests, " is in a certain sense equivalent to placing the embryo in an infected external environment 1. 2. 3. 4.
Dimson, S. B. Lancet, 1938, 2, 424. Mackay, H. and Bryan, M. Proc. R. Soc. Med. 1939, 32, 1371. Burnet, F. M. Brit. J. exp. Path. 1940, 21, 147. Buddingh, G. J. and Polk, A. C. J. exp. Med. 1939, 70, 499.
from which infection can be derived by more or less natural routes." The virus presumably can, if it chooses, swim through the chick’s beak and so down its respiratory tract to the susceptible lung tissue. Burnet’s observations are of possible importance in two ways. First, he has successfully infected chickthe amniotic route with material of human embryos by origin which has been passed through only one ferret (adaptation to growth on the embryonic membranes is a relatively difficult and laborious business). He is optimistic that virus obtained directly from human beings would infect equally well, though he has not yet had an opportunity to test the point. A rapid and reliable method of recognising influenza-virus infection in man without the use of the somewhat inconvenient ferret would, needless to say, be of great practical value. Secondly, the new method offers fresh hopes that a way may be found to detect the presence of some of those viruses, other than that of epidemic influenza, which produce respiratory disorders in man but elude study because we have no susceptible test animal. ABORTION:
RIGHT OR WRONG?
Mrs. Dorothy Thurtle
was
a
member of the inter-
departmental committee on abortion whose report appeared last year. She disagreed with her colleagues on certain points and submitted a minority report in which she pleaded for liberalisation of the laws on abortion so as to legalise among other things the termination of pregnancy in women who had had four viable children and wanted no more. She has now placed her views before the public in no uncertain terms. In her book-’1 she draws attention to the unequal opportunities enjoyed by the well-to-do and the poor in obtaining the termination of an unwanted pregnancy by qualified and skilled practitioners, and to the grave dangers of illegal abortion performed by unskilled people. In her view public opinion has outstripped the present laws, and it is impossible to enforce a law affecting a large class of people unless the law has the sanction of that class. She maintains that one of the most important factors which impel women to act in defiance of the abortion law is a high degree of fertility, and in her opinion every woman has a right to decide if she wants any given pregnancy to go to term. As remedial measures she recommends, first, the wide dissemination of scientific contraceptive advice, the provision of the necessary facilities being in the hands of the local health authorities; second, the legalising of voluntary abortion in the case of women who have had four pregnancies continuing as far as the 28th week; and third, the legalisation of abortion in cases of rape or unlawful carnal knowledge in girls under sixteen, rape in older women in certain circumstances, incest, and where mental and physical defects are likely to be transmitted to the offspring. In her discussion Mrs. Thurtle dismisses too lightly the effect of abortion, however skilfully performed, on the health of women. She says " it is difficult for the lay mind to follow the suggestion that an operation (dilatation and curettage) carried out frequently on young women, married or unmarried, for certain menstrual conditions should become such a complicated matter when pregnancy exists," thus missing the point that dilatation and curettage may be damaging in pregnant women because it disturbs the physiological mechanism set in train by a pregnancy, whereas there is no such profound disturbance
in
non-pregnant
Moreover, the pelvic congestion and non-pregnant state. She
women.
organs in pregnancy are in activity not present in the
a
state of
suggests that the Russian abortion law of 1920 was repealed and restricted not because of the amount of morbidity that had been produced in the women of the nation by the widespread induction of abortion but 1. Abortion:
Pp. 81.
Right 3s. 6d.
or
Wrongs
London:
T.
Werner Laurie.
weeks,
begun. The local treatment of an extensive granulating surface To obviate the is tedious and often disheartening. of some necessity frequent dressing surgeons encase the area in a plaster cast; the method is not without disadvantages. Others have attempted to recoagulate the surface, as in the initial treatment of the burn, as soon as the first coagulum is removed. These efforts are not usually successful owing to the profuse exudation from the granulations. It seems that more is to be gained from the use of skin grafts, especially the split grafts described by Blair and Brown. MISSED MENINGOCOCCAL
INFECTIONS
BAOTEEEMiA is an essential preliminary to invasion of the meninges in meningococcal meningitis, but the disease is rarely diagnosed at this stage except in the most fulminating cases. The resulting delay in beginning treatment, however, is slight, since localisation in the What is more meninges usually takes place early. is that we should a important recognise type of chronic meningococcal septicaemia in which invasion of the meninges may be delayed for months or may never take place at all. This condition was discussed by Colonel Stott and Major Copeman in our issue of June 22 (p. 1116) and sporadic cases have been reported by Dimson,’ Mackay and Bryan2 and others. There is substantial agreement on the clinical picture, and diagnosis should not be difficult on this alone. Briefly, after a sudden onset with severe headache, chills and fever, an irregular pyrexia begins which may last for weeks, months or years with occasional long intermissions of normal temperature. Migratory joint and muscle pains are common but splenic enlargement is not, and there is a surprising absence of wasting, debility or anaemia. Many types of rash have been described, the usual one consisting of successive crops of. tender macules or papules distributed principally on the limbs and back. The danger of the condition lies in its complications, especially meningitis and infective endocarditis. Unlike rheumatism, influenza and erythema nodosum, with which it is apt to be confused, chronic meningococcal septicaemia clears _up rapidly with sulphapyridine, but with symptomatic treatment it may persist almost indefinitely. INFLUENZA INFECTION OF CHICK-EMBRYO LUNG
IN one way after another the chicken-embryo is being pressed into service for experimental studies, particularly by workers with viruses. It was first minced and used for tissue cultures; then the chorio-allantoic membrane was made to serve almost as an agar-plate on which viruscolonies could be counted; then the yolk of the living egg was found to provide a suitable medium for certain rickettsise and viruses. Now Burnet,3 following up some work by Buddingh and Polk,4 has attacked the embryo from yet another quarter. He finds that influenza viruses may be introduced by a simple technique into the amniotic cavity of the embryo; they will then, though not previously adapted to growth in the egg, produce specific infections of the lung. These may be recognised by the gross and histological appearances of the lungs, or with greater rapidity and certainty by examination of stained smears of tracheal fluid. " Amniotic inoculation," Burnet suggests, " is in a certain sense equivalent to placing the embryo in an infected external environment 1. 2. 3. 4.
Dimson, S. B. Lancet, 1938, 2, 424. Mackay, H. and Bryan, M. Proc. R. Soc. Med. 1939, 32, 1371. Burnet, F. M. Brit. J. exp. Path. 1940, 21, 147. Buddingh, G. J. and Polk, A. C. J. exp. Med. 1939, 70, 499.
from which infection can be derived by more or less natural routes." The virus presumably can, if it chooses, swim through the chick’s beak and so down its respiratory tract to the susceptible lung tissue. Burnet’s observations are of possible importance in two ways. First, he has successfully infected chickthe amniotic route with material of human embryos by origin which has been passed through only one ferret (adaptation to growth on the embryonic membranes is a relatively difficult and laborious business). He is optimistic that virus obtained directly from human beings would infect equally well, though he has not yet had an opportunity to test the point. A rapid and reliable method of recognising influenza-virus infection in man without the use of the somewhat inconvenient ferret would, needless to say, be of great practical value. Secondly, the new method offers fresh hopes that a way may be found to detect the presence of some of those viruses, other than that of epidemic influenza, which produce respiratory disorders in man but elude study because we have no susceptible test animal. ABORTION:
RIGHT OR WRONG?
Mrs. Dorothy Thurtle
was
a
member of the inter-
departmental committee on abortion whose report appeared last year. She disagreed with her colleagues on certain points and submitted a minority report in which she pleaded for liberalisation of the laws on abortion so as to legalise among other things the termination of pregnancy in women who had had four viable children and wanted no more. She has now placed her views before the public in no uncertain terms. In her book-’1 she draws attention to the unequal opportunities enjoyed by the well-to-do and the poor in obtaining the termination of an unwanted pregnancy by qualified and skilled practitioners, and to the grave dangers of illegal abortion performed by unskilled people. In her view public opinion has outstripped the present laws, and it is impossible to enforce a law affecting a large class of people unless the law has the sanction of that class. She maintains that one of the most important factors which impel women to act in defiance of the abortion law is a high degree of fertility, and in her opinion every woman has a right to decide if she wants any given pregnancy to go to term. As remedial measures she recommends, first, the wide dissemination of scientific contraceptive advice, the provision of the necessary facilities being in the hands of the local health authorities; second, the legalising of voluntary abortion in the case of women who have had four pregnancies continuing as far as the 28th week; and third, the legalisation of abortion in cases of rape or unlawful carnal knowledge in girls under sixteen, rape in older women in certain circumstances, incest, and where mental and physical defects are likely to be transmitted to the offspring. In her discussion Mrs. Thurtle dismisses too lightly the effect of abortion, however skilfully performed, on the health of women. She says " it is difficult for the lay mind to follow the suggestion that an operation (dilatation and curettage) carried out frequently on young women, married or unmarried, for certain menstrual conditions should become such a complicated matter when pregnancy exists," thus missing the point that dilatation and curettage may be damaging in pregnant women because it disturbs the physiological mechanism set in train by a pregnancy, whereas there is no such profound disturbance
in
non-pregnant
Moreover, the pelvic congestion and non-pregnant state. She
women.
organs in pregnancy are in activity not present in the
a
state of
suggests that the Russian abortion law of 1920 was repealed and restricted not because of the amount of morbidity that had been produced in the women of the nation by the widespread induction of abortion but 1. Abortion:
Pp. 81.
Right 3s. 6d.
or
Wrongs
London:
T.
Werner Laurie.