- Email: [email protected]
PROSTAGLANDINS
358
availability of hyperbaric guarded secret.
the
N.B.-Hyperbaric-oxygen hospitals in London:
oxygen is such
treatment
is available
at
the
a
closely
following
London Hospital, E.I. Westminster Hospital, S.W.!. Whipps Cross Hospital, E.11. Department of Medicine, Charing Cross Hospital Medical School, Fulham Hospital,
P. D. SNASHALL.
London W.6.
PROSTAGLANDINS
SIR,-Your editorial (Jan. 31,
p. 223) quoted an article of mine1 in such a way as to suggest that I made the important discovery that some prostaglandins act via adenyl cyclase. This is not so. Some of the original work is summarised by Butcher et al. My article might appropriately have been referred to as a general account, intended primarily for nonbiologists. Nevertheless, your editorial seems to have drawn on it in more respects than the one indicated.
Physiology Department, University College, Cardiff.
V. R. PICKLES.
ORIGINS OF WAR
SIR,-I gladly accept Dr. MacDonald’s invitation (Jan. 31, p. 233) to comment on his article on war and the doctor’s place in its prevention. Firstly, he is to be thanked for raising the subject, which always bears airing, I would at once point out that I disagree with his views in quite a number of ways, not the least being that I don’t believe that the doctor has any role to play greater or less than any other intelligent member of Society. It is a common, but fallacious, belief that a doctor’s training fits him for all general humanitarian duties from social work to confessions, and now apparently also as peace-maker. To go on to my specific comments on Dr. MacDonald’s essay, I should like to question his information that the of man are probably from unarmed ape-like
origins
evidence suggests that, far from originated from an armed and preape (see Robert Ardrey’s African Genesis). The fact that some of man’s highest and most expensive achievements are his weapons testifies to the importance they have played in his whole evolutionary career. My second point arises from his suggestion that psychiatrists in particular have a role to play in the prevention of war. This is important, I think, because it suggests what to me is a fundamental misconception-namely, that war is an abnormal phenomenon which a doctor who deals with abnormal states of mind can help to correct. War is a normal function, and has had a part to play in
creatures.
More
being unarmed, datory southern
recent
man
evolution, and is of evolution. War is the direct result of evolutionary progress from small social groups or tribes to nations, these groups competing with neighbouring
our
groups.
Such behaviour is observable in other social
species today, which also illustrate the inner-group-amity and inter-group-enmity behaviour, with all its ambiguity. This leads to the picture of the gentle husband and father who is to be seen in church on Sundavs but who becomes utterly barbaric on the battlefield, and for his bravery receives some decoration or other. Where I would agree with Dr. MacDonald, and I suppose most other people would also, is that we have reached a point in evolution where nationalism is, to say the least of it, biologically disadvantageous. One can hope that through the agencies of 1. Pickles, V. R. Nature, Lond. 1969, 224, 221. 2. Butcher, R. W., Pike, J. E., Sutherland. E. W. in Nobel Symposium 2: Prostaglandins edited by S. Bergstrom and B. Samuelsson) Stockholm, 1967.
the United Nations, the World Health Organisation, UNESCO, the World Press, Famine Relief, &c., an international unity can be achieved in time. The question is, is there sufficient time? Can accidents, or the actions of individual maniacs, be prevented, thus avoiding nuclear war, while we learn to get on with one another ? The doctor’s role in all this is the same as any other citizen’s-to take an interest, to foster international relations where this is possible, and to encourage discussion. Although we are responsible for the treatment and cure of disease, we can have little part to play in the decisions of our political masters, who resort on our behalf to chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons. Those in charge of these things, I am quite sure, are at least as aware of their risks and horror as we are. It would be one thing for the West to abandon this sort of weapon unilaterally; the unanswered question is whether there is a reasonable chance of other nations’ doing likewise R.
J. WALDEN.
UNIVERSITY UPHEAVAL
SiR,-The report in your Round the World section on the structural changes at West German universities (Jan. 10, p. 79) gives the impression that the new University Laws passed in Berlin and in Hamburg were dictated by the students. This impression is wrong. In the medical field, the new University Law in Hamburg requires that medical problems and questions concerning the public health service cannot be decided against the majority vote of those in responsible positions-i.e., professors, consultants, and readers. In medical schools in the U.K. and the U.S.A. the academic hierarchy has never been as strict as in Germany. We feel that the distribution of responsibility on many shoulders is a requirement we cannot longer dodge. There is no reason whatsoever why this development should cause, " as your contributor maintains, a sharp decline in the standard of research and learning ". I and my colleagues are quite convinced that our medical school will greatly profit by it. It is obvious that the author of the report in question was not familiar with the motives and the details of university reform in West Germany. I. Medizinische Universitätsklinik, K. MÜLLER-WIELAND. Hamburg, West Germany.
MYCOPLASMA PNEUMONIÆ POLYRADICULITIS SIR,-We are pleased that Dr. Steele and his colleagues1 have confirmed our observation2 that Mycoplasma pneumoniae may cause a Guillain-Barr--like polyradiculitis. As in our patient, the clinical findings in their four cases differed, to some extent, from the classic Guillain-Barre syndrome, and cerebrospinal-fluid pleiocytosis was found in only one. We have now seen several more patients with neurological disease and serological evidence of Af.pMeMwoMtinfection. Some of these have already been briefly described,3.4 and we shall shortly be reporting a case of acute cerebellar ataxia.s We suspect that M. pneumonia infection can affect any level of the central nervous system. We
are
preparing
a
detailed review of all
Deaconess Hospital, The Hague. Department of Clinical Respiratory
Virology, University Hospital, Leiden, The Netherlands.
1.
2. 3. 4. 5.
our cases.
L. J. ENDTZ J. F. PH. HERS.
Steele, J. C., Gladstone, R. M., Thanosophon, S., Fleming, P. C. Lancet, 1969, ii, 710. Endtz, L. J., Hers, J. F. Ph. Rév. Neurol. 1966, 114, 141. Hers, J. F. Ph., Masurel, N. Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci. 1967, 143, 447. Hers, J. F. Ph. Proc. R. Soc. Med. 1968, 61, 1325. Endtz, L. J., Hers, J. F. Ph. Rév. Neurol. (in the press).
availability of hyperbaric guarded secret.
the
N.B.-Hyperbaric-oxygen hospitals in London:
oxygen is such
treatment
is available
at
the
a
closely
following
London Hospital, E.I. Westminster Hospital, S.W.!. Whipps Cross Hospital, E.11. Department of Medicine, Charing Cross Hospital Medical School, Fulham Hospital,
P. D. SNASHALL.
London W.6.
PROSTAGLANDINS
SIR,-Your editorial (Jan. 31,
p. 223) quoted an article of mine1 in such a way as to suggest that I made the important discovery that some prostaglandins act via adenyl cyclase. This is not so. Some of the original work is summarised by Butcher et al. My article might appropriately have been referred to as a general account, intended primarily for nonbiologists. Nevertheless, your editorial seems to have drawn on it in more respects than the one indicated.
Physiology Department, University College, Cardiff.
V. R. PICKLES.
ORIGINS OF WAR
SIR,-I gladly accept Dr. MacDonald’s invitation (Jan. 31, p. 233) to comment on his article on war and the doctor’s place in its prevention. Firstly, he is to be thanked for raising the subject, which always bears airing, I would at once point out that I disagree with his views in quite a number of ways, not the least being that I don’t believe that the doctor has any role to play greater or less than any other intelligent member of Society. It is a common, but fallacious, belief that a doctor’s training fits him for all general humanitarian duties from social work to confessions, and now apparently also as peace-maker. To go on to my specific comments on Dr. MacDonald’s essay, I should like to question his information that the of man are probably from unarmed ape-like
origins
evidence suggests that, far from originated from an armed and preape (see Robert Ardrey’s African Genesis). The fact that some of man’s highest and most expensive achievements are his weapons testifies to the importance they have played in his whole evolutionary career. My second point arises from his suggestion that psychiatrists in particular have a role to play in the prevention of war. This is important, I think, because it suggests what to me is a fundamental misconception-namely, that war is an abnormal phenomenon which a doctor who deals with abnormal states of mind can help to correct. War is a normal function, and has had a part to play in
creatures.
More
being unarmed, datory southern
recent
man
evolution, and is of evolution. War is the direct result of evolutionary progress from small social groups or tribes to nations, these groups competing with neighbouring
our
groups.
Such behaviour is observable in other social
species today, which also illustrate the inner-group-amity and inter-group-enmity behaviour, with all its ambiguity. This leads to the picture of the gentle husband and father who is to be seen in church on Sundavs but who becomes utterly barbaric on the battlefield, and for his bravery receives some decoration or other. Where I would agree with Dr. MacDonald, and I suppose most other people would also, is that we have reached a point in evolution where nationalism is, to say the least of it, biologically disadvantageous. One can hope that through the agencies of 1. Pickles, V. R. Nature, Lond. 1969, 224, 221. 2. Butcher, R. W., Pike, J. E., Sutherland. E. W. in Nobel Symposium 2: Prostaglandins edited by S. Bergstrom and B. Samuelsson) Stockholm, 1967.
the United Nations, the World Health Organisation, UNESCO, the World Press, Famine Relief, &c., an international unity can be achieved in time. The question is, is there sufficient time? Can accidents, or the actions of individual maniacs, be prevented, thus avoiding nuclear war, while we learn to get on with one another ? The doctor’s role in all this is the same as any other citizen’s-to take an interest, to foster international relations where this is possible, and to encourage discussion. Although we are responsible for the treatment and cure of disease, we can have little part to play in the decisions of our political masters, who resort on our behalf to chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons. Those in charge of these things, I am quite sure, are at least as aware of their risks and horror as we are. It would be one thing for the West to abandon this sort of weapon unilaterally; the unanswered question is whether there is a reasonable chance of other nations’ doing likewise R.
J. WALDEN.
UNIVERSITY UPHEAVAL
SiR,-The report in your Round the World section on the structural changes at West German universities (Jan. 10, p. 79) gives the impression that the new University Laws passed in Berlin and in Hamburg were dictated by the students. This impression is wrong. In the medical field, the new University Law in Hamburg requires that medical problems and questions concerning the public health service cannot be decided against the majority vote of those in responsible positions-i.e., professors, consultants, and readers. In medical schools in the U.K. and the U.S.A. the academic hierarchy has never been as strict as in Germany. We feel that the distribution of responsibility on many shoulders is a requirement we cannot longer dodge. There is no reason whatsoever why this development should cause, " as your contributor maintains, a sharp decline in the standard of research and learning ". I and my colleagues are quite convinced that our medical school will greatly profit by it. It is obvious that the author of the report in question was not familiar with the motives and the details of university reform in West Germany. I. Medizinische Universitätsklinik, K. MÜLLER-WIELAND. Hamburg, West Germany.
MYCOPLASMA PNEUMONIÆ POLYRADICULITIS SIR,-We are pleased that Dr. Steele and his colleagues1 have confirmed our observation2 that Mycoplasma pneumoniae may cause a Guillain-Barr--like polyradiculitis. As in our patient, the clinical findings in their four cases differed, to some extent, from the classic Guillain-Barre syndrome, and cerebrospinal-fluid pleiocytosis was found in only one. We have now seen several more patients with neurological disease and serological evidence of Af.pMeMwoMtinfection. Some of these have already been briefly described,3.4 and we shall shortly be reporting a case of acute cerebellar ataxia.s We suspect that M. pneumonia infection can affect any level of the central nervous system. We
are
preparing
a
detailed review of all
Deaconess Hospital, The Hague. Department of Clinical Respiratory
Virology, University Hospital, Leiden, The Netherlands.
1.
2. 3. 4. 5.
our cases.
L. J. ENDTZ J. F. PH. HERS.
Steele, J. C., Gladstone, R. M., Thanosophon, S., Fleming, P. C. Lancet, 1969, ii, 710. Endtz, L. J., Hers, J. F. Ph. Rév. Neurol. 1966, 114, 141. Hers, J. F. Ph., Masurel, N. Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci. 1967, 143, 447. Hers, J. F. Ph. Proc. R. Soc. Med. 1968, 61, 1325. Endtz, L. J., Hers, J. F. Ph. Rév. Neurol. (in the press).