- Email: [email protected]
RESEARCH DEFENCE SOCIETY
754
owing to intolerance and 22-4% owing to inadequate response. Some may have failed to respond because they
beyond the occasional "round" and the afternoon
suffering from a megaloblastic anaemia of pregnancy, which does not appear to have been excluded by
between the general
tions were
examination of the bone-marrow.
"
course "
R. O. GILLHESPY.
PRODUCTION OF CODEINE
SIR,—The enzymatic dehydroxylation of phenols, which Mr. L. M. Spalton (March 24) claims is nonexistent, is not an uncommon reaction. Burton1 has shown that dopa-melanin is formed by the elimination of water between phenolic hydroxy groups. A large number of analogous reactions have been reported.2 E. P. EVANS.
Winnipeg. Canada.
14 a Peripatetic Corressays that he often wonders what chondrus carrageen is.
SIR,-In your issue of April
pondent
is familiar to most people in Ireland and often is consumed as a sweet there. It is a small seaweed, which has curly, branching fronds. It is harvested on the shore and is washed and then dried and bleached in the open. It may be purchased loose from sacks in grocers’ shops in towns near where it is harvested and elsewhere in packets in which it may be inspected through a transparent window. It is packed and is very light for its bulk. Nowadays its commonest use is for making a sweet which is a cross between jelly and blancmange, with a delicate flavour. It is soaked for some hours in water and then discarded, the decanted liquid being heated with milk, which may be coloured at will and which some misguided persons also flavour artificially. The agar-like gel extracted by soaking causes the milk when cooled to set. The resulting dish is light and readily taken in large quantity. Hence it has a place in the diet of invalids. Its other medical interest lies in the fact that from ancient times it has been thought to have a value in the treatment of cough, being so used by the public to some extent even now and being incorporated in some commercial coughremedies widely sold at present in Ireland. I doubt if it has any effect on cough apart from its soothing of the throat, but who am I to say that another Fleming may not at some later time say otherwise ?
Carrageen
loosely
If your correspondent or others not familiar with this weed would like to try some, I should be happy to oblige.
CONCHUBHAIR. SEAGHÁN UA UA CONCHUBHAIR.
THE PATTERN OF GENERAL PRACTICE
to thank Dr. Richards (May 5) for of his experience of general practice and its to medical education. Though he said little that was new he presented many of the important facts and feelings in a connected and con. vincing way. For those who work and teach in hospital this kind of communication is most helpful, and I hope that other family doctors in differing types of practice will be encouraged to follow Dr. Richards’s example. All
SIR,—I should like
telling
Dr. W. LANE-PETTER, hon. secretary of the Research Defence Society (11, Chandos Street, London, W.1), writes : On more than one occasion recently there have been broadcast programmes on the subject of animal experiments in which doctors have taken part. May we, through the courtesy of your columns, invite any doctors or scientists who may be asked to take part in future programmes of this kind to remember that the Research Defence Society exists to help them in just this sort of activity. DAPHNE AND THE GREENFINCHES
something relationship
Mr. MAX PETTERSSON, PH.D. (Linnean Society, lington House, Piccadilly, London, W.l), writes:
Burton, H. Nature, Lond. 1948, 161, 725. Mason, H. S. Advanc. Enzymol. 1955, 16, 121.
Bur-
In the classical myth Daphne was persecuted by Apollo; while in contemporary gardens her namesake, Daphne mezercum L., is newly set upon by greenfinches. (This daphne species is the small shrub covered with a profusion of pink and fragrant blossom about March.) A pair of greenfinches will gouge out every single seed, in May or June, and before the fruit is mature-to feed themselves and their nestlings. To study the origin and spread of this new habit, I should be glad to hear of cases where this does, or does not, happen; and, if it does, about how many years ago the first despoliation took place. Further details are given in Nature (April 14, 1956, p. 709).
Public Health Contaminated Flour ?? AT
Pontardawe, Glamorgan, over 100 people were affected in an outbreak thought to be due to contaminated flour. The first to be taken ill were those who had had bread rolls in a canteen. Later, cases became more general in the village. The illness began one to three hours after eating the bread. Those most severely affected had epileptiform fits, sometimes accompanied by violent muscular contractions and followed by unconsciousness for up to one hour. In milder cases there was weakness, twitching, nausea, and confusion of thought. Some people became aggressive. They all recovered, but a number were injured when they fell. Inquiries suggest that 3 sacks of flour out of a consignment of 100 were contaminated—perhaps by coming in contact with some toxic substance. Samples are being analysed.
Help
us
medical practice, including general practice, requires both general professional education and specialised training. In planning this for the undergraduate and early graduate stages we need to know more precisely than we do at present what are the proper functions of a family doctor today. This is essential if the doctor in training is to make serious contact at appropriate points with the attitudes and experiences of family practice. I hope myself that at the undergraduate stage this contact will be limited, that in the preregistration stage we shall one day find time for a substantial apprenticeship for all in general practice, and that during the years of established professional activity we shall step out 1. 2.
DONALD COURT.
Newcastle upon Tyne.
CARRAGEEN
Uarán Mór, Gaillimh Eire
imaginative forms of contact practitioner and the specialist.
more
RESEARCH DEFENCE SOCIETY
Dudley Road Hospital, Birmingham.
or
into
for the
Family
Kent
County Council recently completed the first year of a family-help service to households where there was temporary difficulty in looking after the children in their
mothers’ absence. The aims of the service were to avoid breaking up the family and to reduce the cost of taking the children into the care of the county council. It was limited to families of 2 or more children, with an initial term of not more than three months, and a contribution was assessed on the parents’ means. The helpers were recruited mainly from the council’s domestic help service, and they either lived in or visited daily. 1090 children in 302 families were helped in that way during the year, with an average of twenty-four days per family. The cost of £5400 was estimated to be less than half the expense of taking them into the council’s care.
94 % of the cases were the result of confinements or treatment in hospitals and convalescent homes, and the remainder were due to deaths or desertions. 126 further applications for the service were not granted; most of those families made their own arrangements, and only 12 children had to be taken into care by institutions or foster parents. Although it was intended that help should be withdrawn when the mother returned home, it proved necessary to extend it in some cases until she was able to cope with her children’s needs.
owing to intolerance and 22-4% owing to inadequate response. Some may have failed to respond because they
beyond the occasional "round" and the afternoon
suffering from a megaloblastic anaemia of pregnancy, which does not appear to have been excluded by
between the general
tions were
examination of the bone-marrow.
"
course "
R. O. GILLHESPY.
PRODUCTION OF CODEINE
SIR,—The enzymatic dehydroxylation of phenols, which Mr. L. M. Spalton (March 24) claims is nonexistent, is not an uncommon reaction. Burton1 has shown that dopa-melanin is formed by the elimination of water between phenolic hydroxy groups. A large number of analogous reactions have been reported.2 E. P. EVANS.
Winnipeg. Canada.
14 a Peripatetic Corressays that he often wonders what chondrus carrageen is.
SIR,-In your issue of April
pondent
is familiar to most people in Ireland and often is consumed as a sweet there. It is a small seaweed, which has curly, branching fronds. It is harvested on the shore and is washed and then dried and bleached in the open. It may be purchased loose from sacks in grocers’ shops in towns near where it is harvested and elsewhere in packets in which it may be inspected through a transparent window. It is packed and is very light for its bulk. Nowadays its commonest use is for making a sweet which is a cross between jelly and blancmange, with a delicate flavour. It is soaked for some hours in water and then discarded, the decanted liquid being heated with milk, which may be coloured at will and which some misguided persons also flavour artificially. The agar-like gel extracted by soaking causes the milk when cooled to set. The resulting dish is light and readily taken in large quantity. Hence it has a place in the diet of invalids. Its other medical interest lies in the fact that from ancient times it has been thought to have a value in the treatment of cough, being so used by the public to some extent even now and being incorporated in some commercial coughremedies widely sold at present in Ireland. I doubt if it has any effect on cough apart from its soothing of the throat, but who am I to say that another Fleming may not at some later time say otherwise ?
Carrageen
loosely
If your correspondent or others not familiar with this weed would like to try some, I should be happy to oblige.
CONCHUBHAIR. SEAGHÁN UA UA CONCHUBHAIR.
THE PATTERN OF GENERAL PRACTICE
to thank Dr. Richards (May 5) for of his experience of general practice and its to medical education. Though he said little that was new he presented many of the important facts and feelings in a connected and con. vincing way. For those who work and teach in hospital this kind of communication is most helpful, and I hope that other family doctors in differing types of practice will be encouraged to follow Dr. Richards’s example. All
SIR,—I should like
telling
Dr. W. LANE-PETTER, hon. secretary of the Research Defence Society (11, Chandos Street, London, W.1), writes : On more than one occasion recently there have been broadcast programmes on the subject of animal experiments in which doctors have taken part. May we, through the courtesy of your columns, invite any doctors or scientists who may be asked to take part in future programmes of this kind to remember that the Research Defence Society exists to help them in just this sort of activity. DAPHNE AND THE GREENFINCHES
something relationship
Mr. MAX PETTERSSON, PH.D. (Linnean Society, lington House, Piccadilly, London, W.l), writes:
Burton, H. Nature, Lond. 1948, 161, 725. Mason, H. S. Advanc. Enzymol. 1955, 16, 121.
Bur-
In the classical myth Daphne was persecuted by Apollo; while in contemporary gardens her namesake, Daphne mezercum L., is newly set upon by greenfinches. (This daphne species is the small shrub covered with a profusion of pink and fragrant blossom about March.) A pair of greenfinches will gouge out every single seed, in May or June, and before the fruit is mature-to feed themselves and their nestlings. To study the origin and spread of this new habit, I should be glad to hear of cases where this does, or does not, happen; and, if it does, about how many years ago the first despoliation took place. Further details are given in Nature (April 14, 1956, p. 709).
Public Health Contaminated Flour ?? AT
Pontardawe, Glamorgan, over 100 people were affected in an outbreak thought to be due to contaminated flour. The first to be taken ill were those who had had bread rolls in a canteen. Later, cases became more general in the village. The illness began one to three hours after eating the bread. Those most severely affected had epileptiform fits, sometimes accompanied by violent muscular contractions and followed by unconsciousness for up to one hour. In milder cases there was weakness, twitching, nausea, and confusion of thought. Some people became aggressive. They all recovered, but a number were injured when they fell. Inquiries suggest that 3 sacks of flour out of a consignment of 100 were contaminated—perhaps by coming in contact with some toxic substance. Samples are being analysed.
Help
us
medical practice, including general practice, requires both general professional education and specialised training. In planning this for the undergraduate and early graduate stages we need to know more precisely than we do at present what are the proper functions of a family doctor today. This is essential if the doctor in training is to make serious contact at appropriate points with the attitudes and experiences of family practice. I hope myself that at the undergraduate stage this contact will be limited, that in the preregistration stage we shall one day find time for a substantial apprenticeship for all in general practice, and that during the years of established professional activity we shall step out 1. 2.
DONALD COURT.
Newcastle upon Tyne.
CARRAGEEN
Uarán Mór, Gaillimh Eire
imaginative forms of contact practitioner and the specialist.
more
RESEARCH DEFENCE SOCIETY
Dudley Road Hospital, Birmingham.
or
into
for the
Family
Kent
County Council recently completed the first year of a family-help service to households where there was temporary difficulty in looking after the children in their
mothers’ absence. The aims of the service were to avoid breaking up the family and to reduce the cost of taking the children into the care of the county council. It was limited to families of 2 or more children, with an initial term of not more than three months, and a contribution was assessed on the parents’ means. The helpers were recruited mainly from the council’s domestic help service, and they either lived in or visited daily. 1090 children in 302 families were helped in that way during the year, with an average of twenty-four days per family. The cost of £5400 was estimated to be less than half the expense of taking them into the council’s care.
94 % of the cases were the result of confinements or treatment in hospitals and convalescent homes, and the remainder were due to deaths or desertions. 126 further applications for the service were not granted; most of those families made their own arrangements, and only 12 children had to be taken into care by institutions or foster parents. Although it was intended that help should be withdrawn when the mother returned home, it proved necessary to extend it in some cases until she was able to cope with her children’s needs.