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RESEARCH AT THE LONDON HOSPITAL
1401
ably still rely on its of modern
common sense
and its
knowledge
contemporary life.
Ecclesiastical Qualifications The above-mentioned statute of 1543 is an early instance of a concession to the unqualified practitioner. It attacks the statutory monopoly of the surgeons which was based on an Act of 1511. This earlier statute recited the inconveniences caused by and surgery, and and to the " great witchcraft in part using sorcery of the it faculty"; proceeded to forbid infamy anyone to act as a physician or surgeon within the City of London or a radius of seven miles therefrom, unless approved by the Bishop of London or the Dean of St. Paul’s, these ecclesiastical dignitaries being assisted for the purpose by four doctors of physic and by other persons expert in surgery. The Act is still unrepealed, though it must be a long time since the Bishop or the Dean conferred a medical qualification. The Archbishop of Canterbury has power to grant degrees, and still exercises his power from time to time. The authority for conferring these so-called " Lambeth degrees " is understood to represent a survival, from pre-Reformation time, of the powers of a Papal legate ; the Archbishop exercises it by granting such degrees as his own university would grant. If an Oxford man, he grants such degrees as Oxford would give-if a Cambridge man, such degrees as Cambridge would give, and so on. But the Archbishop makes it a rule to refrain from conferring medical degrees, although, during a wellremembered controversy, it was suggested that he should make a curious exception.
ignorant
persons
practising physic
To return to the Act of 1543, it was less respectful to the faculty than the Act of 1511. The London surgeons, it declares, " minding only their own lucres and nothing the profit or ease of the diseased or patient, have sued troubled and vexed divers honest persons " who have been using their skill without the ecclesiastical qualifications. " And it is now well known that the surgeons admitted will do no cure to any person but where they shall know to be rewarded with a greater sum or reward than the cure extendeth unto ; for in case they would minister their cunning unto sore people unrewarded, there should not so many rot and perish to death for lack or help of surgery as daily do." The unqualified practitioner is no longer to be vexed by prosecutions, for " the greatest part of surgeons admitted been much more to be blamed than those persons that they trouble."
RESEARCH AT THE LONDON HOSPITAL SOME of the work in progress at the London Hospital is described in a report on the investigations carried on under the Freedom Research Fund during 1932. Filtrable vir’u’se8.-Dr. S. P. Bedson, senior Freedom Research Fellow, has continued his inquiry into the
this morphological study in tissue culture and found The the same sequence of developmental forms.
findings point to the virus possessing a developmental cycle, and suggest that it is more akin to the mycetozoa
than the bacteria. Dr. R. T. Brain, with a grant from the Yarrow Fund, has studied the incidence of herpetic antibody in human sera by means of the complement-fixation reaction. His findings confirm and extend those of Andrewes and Carmichael (1930), and show that this antibody is only found in persons who are subject to herpetic eruptions. He has also investigated the relationship between the viruses of zoster and varicella. The work of Netter and his colleagues, showing that the sera of convalescent zoster and varicella cases contain antibodies which fix complement equally well in the presence of zoster and varicella antigens, has been confirmed. It is felt. however, that these findings do no more than demonstrate a close antigenic relationship between these two viruses. The claim of Ramsay Hunt that cases of facial paralysis accompanied by a vesicular eruption in the sensory area of the seventh nerve are due to the zoster virus has also been tested. The evidence obtained by Dr. R. S. Aitken and Dr. Brain corroborates Ramsay Hunt’s hypothesis, and also shows that a certain number of cases of facial paralysis unaccompanied by any vesicular eruption are probably due to the zoster virus. Glandular fever.-Dr. Bland reports that transmission of infection to rabbits and guinea-pigs with blood from a further case was successful. The appearance of toxoplasms in the rabbits receiving blood from this new case has increased significance in that the rabbits were a toxoplasm-free strain. The toxoplasm is now being examined in tissue culture. Gliomata.-In conjunction with Dr. Dorothy Russell, Dr. Bland has studied human gliomata in tissue culture. A representative series of these The cells exhibited tumours has been cultivated. great plasticity of form during migration, but preserved their morphological characters on coming to thereby emphasising the specificity of different types. Actual multiplication of cells was seen in two examples of spongioblastoma multiforme only. The investigation gives considerable support to the modern classification of gliomata such as that of Bailey and Cushing. Immunity reactions.-Dr. F. Campbell Smith has continued to collaborate with Dr. J. R. Marrack in the study of immunity reactions. Their earlier work had established that antibodies were altered serum globulins which formed definite insoluble compounds with their specific antigens. This led to a study of the specific combination in immunity reactions and a method has been evolved whereby the combination between antibodies and simple substances (haptenes) containing the active antigenic group can be demonstrated directly. Antisera to the azo-proteins made from p-amino-benzene-arsinic acid and p-aminobenzene-sulphonic acid were prepared in rabbits, and the specific union between the globulins of these sera and the corresponding haptenes was demonstrated by a direct method. Thus what Landsteiner inferred from indirect evidence has been shown to be capable of direct proof, and since one of the partners in the combination is a pure substance of known structure and composition, the method should prove of value in the elucidation of the immune reaction. Specific cancer tests.-The apparatus used at Hamburg by Dr. Dannmeyer and his colleagues has now been installed at the London Hospital, and Dr. Campbell Smith and Dr. E. R. Holiday are engaged on a repetition of the German work.
‘
rest,
virus of psittacosis. It has been possible, he says, to obtain the virus in relative purity, and to demonstrate that the virulence of a suspension of psittacosis material resides in the coccus-like particles seen in preparations made from virulent tissues. It appears that these particles or elementary bodies represent only one stage of the virus. On gaining access to reticulo-endothelial cells, they give rise to homoA ROMAN CATHOLIC HOSPITAL.-Dr. Amigo, the geneous masses or plasmodia ; these in turn divide Roman Catholic Bishop of Southwark, announces that it into a number of more or less equal portions between is to build a Roman Catholic hospital for south hoped 1 , and 2 [L in size, and from these, by a process of London at a cost of jB100,000. A site has been acquired repeated division, the elementary bodies or ultimate in Lambeth-road, but work will not be begun until money phase again arise. Dr. J. 0. W. Bland has repeated is available.
ably still rely on its of modern
common sense
and its
knowledge
contemporary life.
Ecclesiastical Qualifications The above-mentioned statute of 1543 is an early instance of a concession to the unqualified practitioner. It attacks the statutory monopoly of the surgeons which was based on an Act of 1511. This earlier statute recited the inconveniences caused by and surgery, and and to the " great witchcraft in part using sorcery of the it faculty"; proceeded to forbid infamy anyone to act as a physician or surgeon within the City of London or a radius of seven miles therefrom, unless approved by the Bishop of London or the Dean of St. Paul’s, these ecclesiastical dignitaries being assisted for the purpose by four doctors of physic and by other persons expert in surgery. The Act is still unrepealed, though it must be a long time since the Bishop or the Dean conferred a medical qualification. The Archbishop of Canterbury has power to grant degrees, and still exercises his power from time to time. The authority for conferring these so-called " Lambeth degrees " is understood to represent a survival, from pre-Reformation time, of the powers of a Papal legate ; the Archbishop exercises it by granting such degrees as his own university would grant. If an Oxford man, he grants such degrees as Oxford would give-if a Cambridge man, such degrees as Cambridge would give, and so on. But the Archbishop makes it a rule to refrain from conferring medical degrees, although, during a wellremembered controversy, it was suggested that he should make a curious exception.
ignorant
persons
practising physic
To return to the Act of 1543, it was less respectful to the faculty than the Act of 1511. The London surgeons, it declares, " minding only their own lucres and nothing the profit or ease of the diseased or patient, have sued troubled and vexed divers honest persons " who have been using their skill without the ecclesiastical qualifications. " And it is now well known that the surgeons admitted will do no cure to any person but where they shall know to be rewarded with a greater sum or reward than the cure extendeth unto ; for in case they would minister their cunning unto sore people unrewarded, there should not so many rot and perish to death for lack or help of surgery as daily do." The unqualified practitioner is no longer to be vexed by prosecutions, for " the greatest part of surgeons admitted been much more to be blamed than those persons that they trouble."
RESEARCH AT THE LONDON HOSPITAL SOME of the work in progress at the London Hospital is described in a report on the investigations carried on under the Freedom Research Fund during 1932. Filtrable vir’u’se8.-Dr. S. P. Bedson, senior Freedom Research Fellow, has continued his inquiry into the
this morphological study in tissue culture and found The the same sequence of developmental forms.
findings point to the virus possessing a developmental cycle, and suggest that it is more akin to the mycetozoa
than the bacteria. Dr. R. T. Brain, with a grant from the Yarrow Fund, has studied the incidence of herpetic antibody in human sera by means of the complement-fixation reaction. His findings confirm and extend those of Andrewes and Carmichael (1930), and show that this antibody is only found in persons who are subject to herpetic eruptions. He has also investigated the relationship between the viruses of zoster and varicella. The work of Netter and his colleagues, showing that the sera of convalescent zoster and varicella cases contain antibodies which fix complement equally well in the presence of zoster and varicella antigens, has been confirmed. It is felt. however, that these findings do no more than demonstrate a close antigenic relationship between these two viruses. The claim of Ramsay Hunt that cases of facial paralysis accompanied by a vesicular eruption in the sensory area of the seventh nerve are due to the zoster virus has also been tested. The evidence obtained by Dr. R. S. Aitken and Dr. Brain corroborates Ramsay Hunt’s hypothesis, and also shows that a certain number of cases of facial paralysis unaccompanied by any vesicular eruption are probably due to the zoster virus. Glandular fever.-Dr. Bland reports that transmission of infection to rabbits and guinea-pigs with blood from a further case was successful. The appearance of toxoplasms in the rabbits receiving blood from this new case has increased significance in that the rabbits were a toxoplasm-free strain. The toxoplasm is now being examined in tissue culture. Gliomata.-In conjunction with Dr. Dorothy Russell, Dr. Bland has studied human gliomata in tissue culture. A representative series of these The cells exhibited tumours has been cultivated. great plasticity of form during migration, but preserved their morphological characters on coming to thereby emphasising the specificity of different types. Actual multiplication of cells was seen in two examples of spongioblastoma multiforme only. The investigation gives considerable support to the modern classification of gliomata such as that of Bailey and Cushing. Immunity reactions.-Dr. F. Campbell Smith has continued to collaborate with Dr. J. R. Marrack in the study of immunity reactions. Their earlier work had established that antibodies were altered serum globulins which formed definite insoluble compounds with their specific antigens. This led to a study of the specific combination in immunity reactions and a method has been evolved whereby the combination between antibodies and simple substances (haptenes) containing the active antigenic group can be demonstrated directly. Antisera to the azo-proteins made from p-amino-benzene-arsinic acid and p-aminobenzene-sulphonic acid were prepared in rabbits, and the specific union between the globulins of these sera and the corresponding haptenes was demonstrated by a direct method. Thus what Landsteiner inferred from indirect evidence has been shown to be capable of direct proof, and since one of the partners in the combination is a pure substance of known structure and composition, the method should prove of value in the elucidation of the immune reaction. Specific cancer tests.-The apparatus used at Hamburg by Dr. Dannmeyer and his colleagues has now been installed at the London Hospital, and Dr. Campbell Smith and Dr. E. R. Holiday are engaged on a repetition of the German work.
‘
rest,
virus of psittacosis. It has been possible, he says, to obtain the virus in relative purity, and to demonstrate that the virulence of a suspension of psittacosis material resides in the coccus-like particles seen in preparations made from virulent tissues. It appears that these particles or elementary bodies represent only one stage of the virus. On gaining access to reticulo-endothelial cells, they give rise to homoA ROMAN CATHOLIC HOSPITAL.-Dr. Amigo, the geneous masses or plasmodia ; these in turn divide Roman Catholic Bishop of Southwark, announces that it into a number of more or less equal portions between is to build a Roman Catholic hospital for south hoped 1 , and 2 [L in size, and from these, by a process of London at a cost of jB100,000. A site has been acquired repeated division, the elementary bodies or ultimate in Lambeth-road, but work will not be begun until money phase again arise. Dr. J. 0. W. Bland has repeated is available.