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MODERN MEDICAL LIBRARIES.
980
thoughtlessly oil June 29th next when many people MODERN MEDICAL LIBRARIES. in North Wales and Xorthern England are hoping to enjoy the only chance* in their lives of seeing the WE have drifted far frvrn the days when thf corona of the sun surrounding the black disc of the bibliotliecarius, often a creature of pomp, pedantry, moon. Even after any ordinary partial obscuration and quaint punctilio, and alwaysa man of high and of the sun a few cases of ’’ eclipse blindness " come curious on equal terms with learning, under the observation of ophthalmic surgeons. The a Leibnitz or a corresponded Milton. Such a man in the late number may be very much larger as a result of the seventeenth century was the famous scholar, Richard widely advertised total eclipse of June, unless the Bentley, who was King’s librarian at St. James’s danger be equally widely advertised. The visible and before the days of the British Museum. He became infra-red rays from the sun passing for the most part Master of in the Trinity year 1700, but may be said unchanged through the cornea and lens are focused to have classical scholarship modern inaugurated on some part of the retina whenever approximately The roll of honour of the eye is at rest and the sun within the field of vision. when still a librarian. Reaching the retina, these rays pass through its librarians can be vastly extended, for it ranges down superficial layers without doing any harm until they to the days of Richard Garnett, Bradshaw of Camreach the pigmented epithelial cells at the back, bridge, and the present Pope, and numbers in its where they are degenerated into heat, which gives middle period such names as Lessing and Casanova. rise to a thermal lesion (an ordinary burn) spreading Doubtless the ancient librarians often dozed aloof, inwards to the retinal tissues and outwards to the or like erudite silkworms spun their own webs of choroidal vessels. Fixation of the sun’s image on any learning, undisturbed by readers. Now all that has peripheral part of the retina must, however, be a very been changed. The modern librarian is above all rare occurrence, and a point lesion, if it should occur, things practical. Indeed, in his laudable desire to would probably give rise to no inconvenience. But at be of use to an ever-growing host of students, as the macula or central spot of distinct vision the case to scholars, he is in danger of specialising in is quite otherwise. Here in the normal eye the rayss opposed This becomes almost painfully manifest routine. are accurately focused and at a moment of keen " we consider an exhaustive report on methods interest discretion may be thrown away and fixation when Medical Education and Problems of issued recently of the sun’s image occur. The macula is the most the Foundation of New Rockefeller York. In this by vulnerable part of the retina, for at this spot the in six medical libraries different bulky pamphlet parts retina is thinnest, all the layers having nearly disappeared except the cones and the pigmented of the world, ranging from China to beyond Peru, epithelium, while there are no blood-vessels which sup- to Brazil, and thence to Harvard and the Canadian ply the central spot direct and might help to distribute Universities, have been fully reported upon by the heat. Hence, if the warning sensation of dazzle modern and able librarians. The general impression is disregarded, a thermic lesion may result, leading to that will be left on the mind of any lover of a noble permanent damage at the macula, with pigmentary i European tradition is that the library of to-day is a. changes which can be seen with the ophthalmoscope ; sternly efficient machine, an affair of typing, teleand at the macula even a point lesion will lead to a phony, electricity, but hardly a home of abstruse visible blank in the field of vision. It is thus the red research and reverent bibliography. We hear little and yellow rays from which the retina runs the chief in this report of rare and precious works. Indeed, risk. The ultra-violet rays, it is true, cause con- in one fine American institution, all books prior to junctival trouble and pain, but they are, it seems, the nineteenth centurv are referred to by a modem largely absorbed by the cornea and the crystalline librarian as " antiques," and the classification lens and therefore do not reach the retina in any lady to put John Hunter and his brother, would dangerous quantity except in young children in whom also appear and Sydenham, many other permanent luminaries, the lens is very transmissible, or in those whose lens in a fading glow. of the glories of the Rockefeller One has been extracted bv operation. is the of the Peking lJnion Medical Library enterprise We dwell upon this danger to the unprotected eye are 817 Chinese books, a surHere there College. no means to because we wish by discourage anyone from seeing what he can of the eclipse, but rather to prisingly large number when we consider that at the remind would-be astronomers, and especially all who beginning of the nineteenth century only one work have the care of children, that the danger is as real on medicine produced in China destined to be of as the safeguard is simple. All that is necessary for a practical utility had come into public notice--there brief survey of the eclipse is to interpose a piece of were, of course, others, and more may be yet heard smoked glass or of fogged photographic film of such of them. The one specially referred to is a translation a density that the sun when seen through it is no by Sir George Staunton of Alexander Pearson’s brighter than the setting orb. The photographic film work on vaccination, published in Chinese type and is the safer, as the smoked surface rubs easily off the illustrations at Canton in 1805. The title was transglass when in use. A further refinement in precau- lated for us by the late Sir Robert Douglas, the tionary equipment is described in Sir ARNOLD LAWSON sinulogist, and it ran thus: "English recently issued and Mr. WHITEHEAD’S note. Untreated film, they Vaccination Rare-Book." Jenner’s appealed insist, does not afford sufficient safeguard for to the Chinese almost from the first, discovery and their centuryIt the but remove may prolonged sun-gazing. glare, of vaccination is in strange contrast it does not prevent the ultra-violet burn of the anterior long practice with their folk-medicine and the inclusion of tiger’s structures of the eye, and they have collaborated in the production of a photographic film so treated that eyes and other strange ingredients in their pharmacy. all the short waves are cut out completely, made up in How far the silken-robed figures of Chinese students gliding about the medical library of Peking are bent. a mask at a price designed to bring it within reach of nearly everyone. We hope these precautions will be on modern scientific errands is perhaps matter of brought to the knowledge of all the schools and legitimate conjecture. By all accounts they are families in the country and that no one will suffer serious students, and to-day every opportunity i& unwarned from the result of laudable curiosity. given them for research among some 4300 .volumes of "
981
European medicine and
a
great number
of
journals
Annotations.
and pamphlets. All the six libraries described in the Rockefeller report are, indeed, conducted with the
highest kind
of
medical knowledge in view and
on
the
"Ne
most advanced modern principles. The medical profession is perhaps better supplied than any other with exhaustive catalogues and
quid nimis."
THE BRINE BATHS OF DROITWICH. of every kind. In the fine library of THE ancient township of Droitwich lies in a hollow the Harvard Medical School there are some 45,000 of the beautiful Worcestershire hills, and 200 feet volumes, over 100,000 pamphlets, and the number of beneath it is the inexhaustible bed of salt which has. current periodicals is over 400. But the student is provided brine for commercial and therapeutic use not left at sea among all this, for the attendants since Roman times. The water, which used to well in all the rooms answer all inquiries and try their to the surface but now has to be pumped, is unique up The utmost to supply the information desired." the mineral springs of the world in its conlibrarians, Dr. Elliott P. Joslin and Frances Whitman, among centration--ten times stronger than sea-water, 40 per "take pleasure in giving assistance." We can well cent. stronger than the waters of the Dead Sea, and believe it, and the same may be said of medical mineral springs approached only by those of librarians all the world over. The library of the among Rheinfelden and Bex in Switzerland. The water is Washington School of Medicine, St. Louis, under the only available on the spot, for Droitwich believes, skilled management of Miss Etta Lawrence, now with much show of that the full effects of numbers well over 33,000 volumes, having risen from the brine cannot be reason, obtained from redissolving the a nucleus of 3000 volumes in 1910. Unlike most very and that the degree of radiomodern collections, this admirable library, ’ classed evaporated salt,in the fresh brinehigh would be dissipated activity present with the best libraries of medical schools," possesses evaporation or during long transit. There is little, antiquities in the shape of the Beaumont Collections. by if any, accurate knowledge as to the precise action These consist chieflv of the note-books in which for of brine baths on the various systems of the body. years Dr. William Beaumont, the pioneer American Salt-water baths are to have a much more reputed physiologist who was also F.R.C.S. England, set down stimulant effect than have ordinary baths of the same his observations of the workings of the gastric juice in season (and and Droitwich through the fistula in the abdomen of Alexis St. Martin. temperature, of the rediscovery out the of season) perhaps story A library which promises very well, though it is at of the stimulating properties of the brine when the present small, is that of the Queen’s University, contents of an pan were used in emergency Kingston, Ontario. It forms part of the large for a collapsedevaporation cholera patient a century ago. The of volumes. McGill 175.000 At university library influence of salt water on metabolism has been the University the medical collection is extensive, amount- subject of much experiment and discussion, but, as volumes. It is more than a to some 60,000 ing Dr. Huggard said 20 years ago,l no very positive century old, having been founded in 1823. In 1907 the conclusions have been obtained, and the same ir, Osler Library was erected, and here are housed the 7000 odd volumes, which it was the life-work of that largely true at the present time. Testimony to the fine bibliophile, Sir William Osler, to collect. The chemical activity of the brine is borne by the corroded and discoloured walls of the old baths, which Osler Library has a hoble appearance worthy of him taps the new installation completely masks by its vulcanite whom it commemorates. The Rockefeller Foundation has issued the report in pamphlet form, as the sixth fittings and vitrolite panels. The buoyancy of the which will doubtless water is such that the immersed body or limb is instalment of a
library
helps
repeats
larger work,
supported, so that stitf and partly muscles are enabled to move on their own Active initiative with little expenditure of energy. movement of this kind is a unique feature of the Europe. brine bath, and var-time experience not only suggested its great utility but the possibility of its taking the place to a large extent of massage and passive ADDITIONAL INSURANCE BENEFITS. aU busy THERE is gratifying evidence that the scheme of the movement. The doctors of Droitwich are with little time to devote to practitioners, general Insurance Acts is now being developed along prevenwhich they tive lines. Last month, in reply to a question by Sir the why or the how of the good results of are daily u-itness, and at his visit last week, recorded in John Power the House of Commons, the Minister of Health gave some interesting figures showing the on another page, Mr. Neville Chamberlain gently extent of additional benefits granted to insured chid them for an omission which may be preventing Droitwich from being useful on the scale which it persons during the year 1926 (THE LANCET, April merits. Mr. Chamberlain was careful to explain a sum this twelvemonth 23rd, p. 901). During that he was speaking as one of the trustees of the of more than one million pounds was expended on dental treatment and nearlv a quarter of a million on Corbett Estate, to which the bathing establishments treatment in hospitals. Much of this dental treat- belong, and not as Minister of Health ; but the local ment is of a preventive nature and, along with the medical profession will do well to take his words to medical inspection of school-children and dental heart and in the course of time provide good evidence treatment at school clinics. it cannot fail to react in for the faith which is in them. There should, at all the course of time on the incidence of sickness. The events, he no lack of occupation for a full-time amount spent on treatment in hospitals and the biochemist at Droitwich. E7000 on provision of nurses might well have been much larger, for both of these are essential services SPLANCHNIC ANALGESIA. for the restoration of the sick worker to normal health. SPLANCHNIC No information was given as to the amount of addianalgesia has been in use since 1914, tional benefit given by way of increase in the ordinary when M. Kappis first reported on it at the Surgical cash benefits, and so no material is available to judge Congress at Berlin. Since then H. Braun (1919) and what relation this outlay bears to the one-and-a-half G. Labat have made important additions to the millions spent on specified additional benefits, but literature of the subject. In our own columns2 a it is to be hoped that the latter fund will go on record of 91 cases has been published by O. S. Hillman there will soon be manifest some and B. E. Apperley. There has been time, thereincreasing, when the method to be improvement in the efficiency of the workers and some fore. for theandtechnique of established and for its thoroughly reduction in the time lost from incapacity. The systematically figures given by the Minister of Health are evidence A Handbook of Climatic Treatment including Balneology. that the problem of preventing sickness is being By1 W. R. Huggard. Macmillan and Co., 1906. 2 THE LANCET, 1925, i., 863. seriously tackled by the approved societies. contain descriptions of the famous medical libraries of London and of the Surgeon-General’s Library at Washington, as well as of those of the Continent of
completely
paralysed
I
thoughtlessly oil June 29th next when many people MODERN MEDICAL LIBRARIES. in North Wales and Xorthern England are hoping to enjoy the only chance* in their lives of seeing the WE have drifted far frvrn the days when thf corona of the sun surrounding the black disc of the bibliotliecarius, often a creature of pomp, pedantry, moon. Even after any ordinary partial obscuration and quaint punctilio, and alwaysa man of high and of the sun a few cases of ’’ eclipse blindness " come curious on equal terms with learning, under the observation of ophthalmic surgeons. The a Leibnitz or a corresponded Milton. Such a man in the late number may be very much larger as a result of the seventeenth century was the famous scholar, Richard widely advertised total eclipse of June, unless the Bentley, who was King’s librarian at St. James’s danger be equally widely advertised. The visible and before the days of the British Museum. He became infra-red rays from the sun passing for the most part Master of in the Trinity year 1700, but may be said unchanged through the cornea and lens are focused to have classical scholarship modern inaugurated on some part of the retina whenever approximately The roll of honour of the eye is at rest and the sun within the field of vision. when still a librarian. Reaching the retina, these rays pass through its librarians can be vastly extended, for it ranges down superficial layers without doing any harm until they to the days of Richard Garnett, Bradshaw of Camreach the pigmented epithelial cells at the back, bridge, and the present Pope, and numbers in its where they are degenerated into heat, which gives middle period such names as Lessing and Casanova. rise to a thermal lesion (an ordinary burn) spreading Doubtless the ancient librarians often dozed aloof, inwards to the retinal tissues and outwards to the or like erudite silkworms spun their own webs of choroidal vessels. Fixation of the sun’s image on any learning, undisturbed by readers. Now all that has peripheral part of the retina must, however, be a very been changed. The modern librarian is above all rare occurrence, and a point lesion, if it should occur, things practical. Indeed, in his laudable desire to would probably give rise to no inconvenience. But at be of use to an ever-growing host of students, as the macula or central spot of distinct vision the case to scholars, he is in danger of specialising in is quite otherwise. Here in the normal eye the rayss opposed This becomes almost painfully manifest routine. are accurately focused and at a moment of keen " we consider an exhaustive report on methods interest discretion may be thrown away and fixation when Medical Education and Problems of issued recently of the sun’s image occur. The macula is the most the Foundation of New Rockefeller York. In this by vulnerable part of the retina, for at this spot the in six medical libraries different bulky pamphlet parts retina is thinnest, all the layers having nearly disappeared except the cones and the pigmented of the world, ranging from China to beyond Peru, epithelium, while there are no blood-vessels which sup- to Brazil, and thence to Harvard and the Canadian ply the central spot direct and might help to distribute Universities, have been fully reported upon by the heat. Hence, if the warning sensation of dazzle modern and able librarians. The general impression is disregarded, a thermic lesion may result, leading to that will be left on the mind of any lover of a noble permanent damage at the macula, with pigmentary i European tradition is that the library of to-day is a. changes which can be seen with the ophthalmoscope ; sternly efficient machine, an affair of typing, teleand at the macula even a point lesion will lead to a phony, electricity, but hardly a home of abstruse visible blank in the field of vision. It is thus the red research and reverent bibliography. We hear little and yellow rays from which the retina runs the chief in this report of rare and precious works. Indeed, risk. The ultra-violet rays, it is true, cause con- in one fine American institution, all books prior to junctival trouble and pain, but they are, it seems, the nineteenth centurv are referred to by a modem largely absorbed by the cornea and the crystalline librarian as " antiques," and the classification lens and therefore do not reach the retina in any lady to put John Hunter and his brother, would dangerous quantity except in young children in whom also appear and Sydenham, many other permanent luminaries, the lens is very transmissible, or in those whose lens in a fading glow. of the glories of the Rockefeller One has been extracted bv operation. is the of the Peking lJnion Medical Library enterprise We dwell upon this danger to the unprotected eye are 817 Chinese books, a surHere there College. no means to because we wish by discourage anyone from seeing what he can of the eclipse, but rather to prisingly large number when we consider that at the remind would-be astronomers, and especially all who beginning of the nineteenth century only one work have the care of children, that the danger is as real on medicine produced in China destined to be of as the safeguard is simple. All that is necessary for a practical utility had come into public notice--there brief survey of the eclipse is to interpose a piece of were, of course, others, and more may be yet heard smoked glass or of fogged photographic film of such of them. The one specially referred to is a translation a density that the sun when seen through it is no by Sir George Staunton of Alexander Pearson’s brighter than the setting orb. The photographic film work on vaccination, published in Chinese type and is the safer, as the smoked surface rubs easily off the illustrations at Canton in 1805. The title was transglass when in use. A further refinement in precau- lated for us by the late Sir Robert Douglas, the tionary equipment is described in Sir ARNOLD LAWSON sinulogist, and it ran thus: "English recently issued and Mr. WHITEHEAD’S note. Untreated film, they Vaccination Rare-Book." Jenner’s appealed insist, does not afford sufficient safeguard for to the Chinese almost from the first, discovery and their centuryIt the but remove may prolonged sun-gazing. glare, of vaccination is in strange contrast it does not prevent the ultra-violet burn of the anterior long practice with their folk-medicine and the inclusion of tiger’s structures of the eye, and they have collaborated in the production of a photographic film so treated that eyes and other strange ingredients in their pharmacy. all the short waves are cut out completely, made up in How far the silken-robed figures of Chinese students gliding about the medical library of Peking are bent. a mask at a price designed to bring it within reach of nearly everyone. We hope these precautions will be on modern scientific errands is perhaps matter of brought to the knowledge of all the schools and legitimate conjecture. By all accounts they are families in the country and that no one will suffer serious students, and to-day every opportunity i& unwarned from the result of laudable curiosity. given them for research among some 4300 .volumes of "
981
European medicine and
a
great number
of
journals
Annotations.
and pamphlets. All the six libraries described in the Rockefeller report are, indeed, conducted with the
highest kind
of
medical knowledge in view and
on
the
"Ne
most advanced modern principles. The medical profession is perhaps better supplied than any other with exhaustive catalogues and
quid nimis."
THE BRINE BATHS OF DROITWICH. of every kind. In the fine library of THE ancient township of Droitwich lies in a hollow the Harvard Medical School there are some 45,000 of the beautiful Worcestershire hills, and 200 feet volumes, over 100,000 pamphlets, and the number of beneath it is the inexhaustible bed of salt which has. current periodicals is over 400. But the student is provided brine for commercial and therapeutic use not left at sea among all this, for the attendants since Roman times. The water, which used to well in all the rooms answer all inquiries and try their to the surface but now has to be pumped, is unique up The utmost to supply the information desired." the mineral springs of the world in its conlibrarians, Dr. Elliott P. Joslin and Frances Whitman, among centration--ten times stronger than sea-water, 40 per "take pleasure in giving assistance." We can well cent. stronger than the waters of the Dead Sea, and believe it, and the same may be said of medical mineral springs approached only by those of librarians all the world over. The library of the among Rheinfelden and Bex in Switzerland. The water is Washington School of Medicine, St. Louis, under the only available on the spot, for Droitwich believes, skilled management of Miss Etta Lawrence, now with much show of that the full effects of numbers well over 33,000 volumes, having risen from the brine cannot be reason, obtained from redissolving the a nucleus of 3000 volumes in 1910. Unlike most very and that the degree of radiomodern collections, this admirable library, ’ classed evaporated salt,in the fresh brinehigh would be dissipated activity present with the best libraries of medical schools," possesses evaporation or during long transit. There is little, antiquities in the shape of the Beaumont Collections. by if any, accurate knowledge as to the precise action These consist chieflv of the note-books in which for of brine baths on the various systems of the body. years Dr. William Beaumont, the pioneer American Salt-water baths are to have a much more reputed physiologist who was also F.R.C.S. England, set down stimulant effect than have ordinary baths of the same his observations of the workings of the gastric juice in season (and and Droitwich through the fistula in the abdomen of Alexis St. Martin. temperature, of the rediscovery out the of season) perhaps story A library which promises very well, though it is at of the stimulating properties of the brine when the present small, is that of the Queen’s University, contents of an pan were used in emergency Kingston, Ontario. It forms part of the large for a collapsedevaporation cholera patient a century ago. The of volumes. McGill 175.000 At university library influence of salt water on metabolism has been the University the medical collection is extensive, amount- subject of much experiment and discussion, but, as volumes. It is more than a to some 60,000 ing Dr. Huggard said 20 years ago,l no very positive century old, having been founded in 1823. In 1907 the conclusions have been obtained, and the same ir, Osler Library was erected, and here are housed the 7000 odd volumes, which it was the life-work of that largely true at the present time. Testimony to the fine bibliophile, Sir William Osler, to collect. The chemical activity of the brine is borne by the corroded and discoloured walls of the old baths, which Osler Library has a hoble appearance worthy of him taps the new installation completely masks by its vulcanite whom it commemorates. The Rockefeller Foundation has issued the report in pamphlet form, as the sixth fittings and vitrolite panels. The buoyancy of the which will doubtless water is such that the immersed body or limb is instalment of a
library
helps
repeats
larger work,
supported, so that stitf and partly muscles are enabled to move on their own Active initiative with little expenditure of energy. movement of this kind is a unique feature of the Europe. brine bath, and var-time experience not only suggested its great utility but the possibility of its taking the place to a large extent of massage and passive ADDITIONAL INSURANCE BENEFITS. aU busy THERE is gratifying evidence that the scheme of the movement. The doctors of Droitwich are with little time to devote to practitioners, general Insurance Acts is now being developed along prevenwhich they tive lines. Last month, in reply to a question by Sir the why or the how of the good results of are daily u-itness, and at his visit last week, recorded in John Power the House of Commons, the Minister of Health gave some interesting figures showing the on another page, Mr. Neville Chamberlain gently extent of additional benefits granted to insured chid them for an omission which may be preventing Droitwich from being useful on the scale which it persons during the year 1926 (THE LANCET, April merits. Mr. Chamberlain was careful to explain a sum this twelvemonth 23rd, p. 901). During that he was speaking as one of the trustees of the of more than one million pounds was expended on dental treatment and nearlv a quarter of a million on Corbett Estate, to which the bathing establishments treatment in hospitals. Much of this dental treat- belong, and not as Minister of Health ; but the local ment is of a preventive nature and, along with the medical profession will do well to take his words to medical inspection of school-children and dental heart and in the course of time provide good evidence treatment at school clinics. it cannot fail to react in for the faith which is in them. There should, at all the course of time on the incidence of sickness. The events, he no lack of occupation for a full-time amount spent on treatment in hospitals and the biochemist at Droitwich. E7000 on provision of nurses might well have been much larger, for both of these are essential services SPLANCHNIC ANALGESIA. for the restoration of the sick worker to normal health. SPLANCHNIC No information was given as to the amount of addianalgesia has been in use since 1914, tional benefit given by way of increase in the ordinary when M. Kappis first reported on it at the Surgical cash benefits, and so no material is available to judge Congress at Berlin. Since then H. Braun (1919) and what relation this outlay bears to the one-and-a-half G. Labat have made important additions to the millions spent on specified additional benefits, but literature of the subject. In our own columns2 a it is to be hoped that the latter fund will go on record of 91 cases has been published by O. S. Hillman there will soon be manifest some and B. E. Apperley. There has been time, thereincreasing, when the method to be improvement in the efficiency of the workers and some fore. for theandtechnique of established and for its thoroughly reduction in the time lost from incapacity. The systematically figures given by the Minister of Health are evidence A Handbook of Climatic Treatment including Balneology. that the problem of preventing sickness is being By1 W. R. Huggard. Macmillan and Co., 1906. 2 THE LANCET, 1925, i., 863. seriously tackled by the approved societies. contain descriptions of the famous medical libraries of London and of the Surgeon-General’s Library at Washington, as well as of those of the Continent of
completely
paralysed
I