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STANDARDISATION OF ERGOT.
1367
L.C.C. AND MARRIED WOMEN DOCTORS.
in adult rats on giving tryptophane, histidine, and to a considerable margin of error. Ergotoxine is extracts which were ineffective in pernicious regarded by the committee as the active principle for anaemia. Since the reticulocyte count in the young which ergot preparations are administered, and the rat anyhow may vary between 0-3 per cent. and following standards are suggested for adoption :.6-9 per cent. (J. M. Vaughan), and he gives no figures Extractum Ergotae Liquidum to contain 0-05 per cent. for his normals and few for his treated rats, too great of total alkaloid (±0-01 per cent.). Ergota Preparata to contain 0-10 per cent. of total stress must not be laid on his conclusions. Indeed, alkaloid (±0-02 per cent.). G. H. Minot and C. W. Heath4 have lately shown The can be obtained for Is. 6d. from the report that the reticulocyte count can be used as a satisof the Pharmacopoeia Commission, at the Secretary of the of as as index success iron well liver factory office of the General Medical Council, 44, Hallamtherapy, giving a distinct type of curve, and all observers, apart from Ganssten, are in agreement street, London, W. 1. as to its value in assessing the response to treatment RIFT VALLEY FEVER. in pernicious anaemia. THE enzootic hepatitis discovered last summer in L.C.C. AND MARRIED WOMEN DOCTORS. sheep, especially new-born lambs, on the shores of THE London County Council recently discussed Lake Naivasha, Kenya, by Mr. R. Daubney and his at some length the question whether or not it should co-workers,! seems not to have been quite so new as relax its standing orders in order to allow married at first supposed ; it appears from the evidence of medical women to be appointed to posts in its service, Mr. R. E. Montgomery that a similar epidemic The 1930 outbreak was noted nearly 20 years ago. or permit single women to remain at work after in the Rift Valley, however, was a severe one, for in The debate arose a as result of a directly marriage. resolution forwarded by the Medical Women’s the course of seven weeks some 3500 lambs and Federation. On behalf of the women, it was urged 1200 ewes died from acute necrosis of the liver. that dual appointments-e.g., the man being master Attempts to transmit the disease to sheep and lambs and his wife being matron of a workhouse or resi. soon demonstrated the fact that the aetiological factor dential school-were already sanctioned, and that was a filtrable virus ; in addition to sheep, goats and it was a scandalous thing to put a woman in a cattle were found to be susceptible, whilst a natural outbreak was observed in a dairy-herd on a farm position where the only way of retaining her in Solai, also in the Rift Valley. The virus, preserved work might be cohabitation without marriage. Reference was also made to the specialised experience in oxalate-carbol-glycerin, was brought to this medical women obtained in the Council’s service and country by Mr. Daubney and examined by Dr. the loss which would be suffered by the community G. M. Findlay at the Wellcome Physiological Research if they were compulsorily retired on marriage. Sir Laboratories, Beckenham. An account of this work William Ray said that, apart from the impossibility was given at a meeting of the Royal Society of Tropical of making exceptions for medical women, the Medicine and Hygiene on Dec. 10th, and is summarised Dr. Findlay and Mr. Daubney on p. 1350 of this position was really governed by economic circum- by The virus was still in excellent condition, issue. stances and the state of unemployment in the for two inoculated lambs had died within after profession. The Council, he declared, had no 36 hours with typical pathological changes, Major in of numbers difficulty recruiting adequate single T. Dalling, M.R.C.V.S., who performed the autopsies, women for all posts at its disposal. Mr. Cyril Jacobs, Chairman of the General Purposes Committee, became acutely ill five and a half days later with said the attitude taken up by the Council was rigors, fever to 103° F., headache, and pains in back, his assistant also developed similar symptoms. supported by many outside bodies and represented and Both of these illnesses were shown to be due to the method of distribution of the fairest employment. of Rift Valley fever. Mice and rats, and a If exceptions were made for women doctors, it would be difficult to maintain the Council’s standing order number of wild rodents were found highly susceptible in regard to other women members of the staff. to the virus both by intraperitoneal injection and The report of the committee, stating that it would be through the freshly shaven skin or conjunctival sac. undesirable to disturb this policy, was carried by Rabbits, guinea-pigs, and birds are insusceptible. Monkeys although not immune do not react so readily. 73 votes to 42. After a series of 56 passages through mice, it was still STANDARDISATION OF ERGOT. possible to produce the characteristics of the disease SINCE the fifth British Pharmacopoeia was pub- in rodents-fever, leucopenia, and focal necrosis in lished, in 1914, conviction has been growing that the the liver. In man the illness resembles in many therapeutic value of ergot is due to the specific respects dengue and sandfly fever, and apart from alkaloid contained, rather than to the presence of obvious infections with the virus, it is possible to amines, histamine, and tyramine. A special sub- acquire immunity, as in many other diseases, without committee of the Pharmacopoeia Commission has manifesting symptoms of ill-health. Dr. Findlay been busy with the standardisation of ergot prepara- became immune as a result of working with the virus tions, in view of the wide variation found in the although he had no attack of fever. The blood alkaloidal content of ergot of rye. This committee, changes also resemble those of dengue : an initial of which Dr. J. H. Burn is chairman, has come to the leucocytosis, involving chiefly the polymorphonuclears, conclusion that the colorimetric method permits an followed by a leucopenia. After the temperature has accurate estimation of total alkaloid in ergot itself fallen a few myelocytes may be seen in the blood film. and in its liquid extract, even though the colour test The changes in the liver are those of focal necrosis is given equally by the physiologically active ergo- in which may be found degenerated polymorphotoxine and the physiologically inactive ergotinine. nuclears and hyaline degeneration of the protoplasm The colorimetric method has the advantage over Acidophilic globules are present in the livers of gravimetric methods in taking less time and less the sheep, goats, and some rats. Apart from its material, and biological methods of assay are subject great general interest the study of this new disease ____
____
virus
____
4 Trans. Assoc. Amer. Phys., 1931, xlvi., 290.
1 See THE LANCET, Sept. 12th, p. 601.
L.C.C. AND MARRIED WOMEN DOCTORS.
in adult rats on giving tryptophane, histidine, and to a considerable margin of error. Ergotoxine is extracts which were ineffective in pernicious regarded by the committee as the active principle for anaemia. Since the reticulocyte count in the young which ergot preparations are administered, and the rat anyhow may vary between 0-3 per cent. and following standards are suggested for adoption :.6-9 per cent. (J. M. Vaughan), and he gives no figures Extractum Ergotae Liquidum to contain 0-05 per cent. for his normals and few for his treated rats, too great of total alkaloid (±0-01 per cent.). Ergota Preparata to contain 0-10 per cent. of total stress must not be laid on his conclusions. Indeed, alkaloid (±0-02 per cent.). G. H. Minot and C. W. Heath4 have lately shown The can be obtained for Is. 6d. from the report that the reticulocyte count can be used as a satisof the Pharmacopoeia Commission, at the Secretary of the of as as index success iron well liver factory office of the General Medical Council, 44, Hallamtherapy, giving a distinct type of curve, and all observers, apart from Ganssten, are in agreement street, London, W. 1. as to its value in assessing the response to treatment RIFT VALLEY FEVER. in pernicious anaemia. THE enzootic hepatitis discovered last summer in L.C.C. AND MARRIED WOMEN DOCTORS. sheep, especially new-born lambs, on the shores of THE London County Council recently discussed Lake Naivasha, Kenya, by Mr. R. Daubney and his at some length the question whether or not it should co-workers,! seems not to have been quite so new as relax its standing orders in order to allow married at first supposed ; it appears from the evidence of medical women to be appointed to posts in its service, Mr. R. E. Montgomery that a similar epidemic The 1930 outbreak was noted nearly 20 years ago. or permit single women to remain at work after in the Rift Valley, however, was a severe one, for in The debate arose a as result of a directly marriage. resolution forwarded by the Medical Women’s the course of seven weeks some 3500 lambs and Federation. On behalf of the women, it was urged 1200 ewes died from acute necrosis of the liver. that dual appointments-e.g., the man being master Attempts to transmit the disease to sheep and lambs and his wife being matron of a workhouse or resi. soon demonstrated the fact that the aetiological factor dential school-were already sanctioned, and that was a filtrable virus ; in addition to sheep, goats and it was a scandalous thing to put a woman in a cattle were found to be susceptible, whilst a natural outbreak was observed in a dairy-herd on a farm position where the only way of retaining her in Solai, also in the Rift Valley. The virus, preserved work might be cohabitation without marriage. Reference was also made to the specialised experience in oxalate-carbol-glycerin, was brought to this medical women obtained in the Council’s service and country by Mr. Daubney and examined by Dr. the loss which would be suffered by the community G. M. Findlay at the Wellcome Physiological Research if they were compulsorily retired on marriage. Sir Laboratories, Beckenham. An account of this work William Ray said that, apart from the impossibility was given at a meeting of the Royal Society of Tropical of making exceptions for medical women, the Medicine and Hygiene on Dec. 10th, and is summarised Dr. Findlay and Mr. Daubney on p. 1350 of this position was really governed by economic circum- by The virus was still in excellent condition, issue. stances and the state of unemployment in the for two inoculated lambs had died within after profession. The Council, he declared, had no 36 hours with typical pathological changes, Major in of numbers difficulty recruiting adequate single T. Dalling, M.R.C.V.S., who performed the autopsies, women for all posts at its disposal. Mr. Cyril Jacobs, Chairman of the General Purposes Committee, became acutely ill five and a half days later with said the attitude taken up by the Council was rigors, fever to 103° F., headache, and pains in back, his assistant also developed similar symptoms. supported by many outside bodies and represented and Both of these illnesses were shown to be due to the method of distribution of the fairest employment. of Rift Valley fever. Mice and rats, and a If exceptions were made for women doctors, it would be difficult to maintain the Council’s standing order number of wild rodents were found highly susceptible in regard to other women members of the staff. to the virus both by intraperitoneal injection and The report of the committee, stating that it would be through the freshly shaven skin or conjunctival sac. undesirable to disturb this policy, was carried by Rabbits, guinea-pigs, and birds are insusceptible. Monkeys although not immune do not react so readily. 73 votes to 42. After a series of 56 passages through mice, it was still STANDARDISATION OF ERGOT. possible to produce the characteristics of the disease SINCE the fifth British Pharmacopoeia was pub- in rodents-fever, leucopenia, and focal necrosis in lished, in 1914, conviction has been growing that the the liver. In man the illness resembles in many therapeutic value of ergot is due to the specific respects dengue and sandfly fever, and apart from alkaloid contained, rather than to the presence of obvious infections with the virus, it is possible to amines, histamine, and tyramine. A special sub- acquire immunity, as in many other diseases, without committee of the Pharmacopoeia Commission has manifesting symptoms of ill-health. Dr. Findlay been busy with the standardisation of ergot prepara- became immune as a result of working with the virus tions, in view of the wide variation found in the although he had no attack of fever. The blood alkaloidal content of ergot of rye. This committee, changes also resemble those of dengue : an initial of which Dr. J. H. Burn is chairman, has come to the leucocytosis, involving chiefly the polymorphonuclears, conclusion that the colorimetric method permits an followed by a leucopenia. After the temperature has accurate estimation of total alkaloid in ergot itself fallen a few myelocytes may be seen in the blood film. and in its liquid extract, even though the colour test The changes in the liver are those of focal necrosis is given equally by the physiologically active ergo- in which may be found degenerated polymorphotoxine and the physiologically inactive ergotinine. nuclears and hyaline degeneration of the protoplasm The colorimetric method has the advantage over Acidophilic globules are present in the livers of gravimetric methods in taking less time and less the sheep, goats, and some rats. Apart from its material, and biological methods of assay are subject great general interest the study of this new disease ____
____
virus
____
4 Trans. Assoc. Amer. Phys., 1931, xlvi., 290.
1 See THE LANCET, Sept. 12th, p. 601.