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THE CHEMISTRY OF RED BLOOD-CELLS
88
ANNOTATIONS A YEAR’S CRIME
ONCE again the comparative rectitude of the female sex is established by the annual Criminal Statistics for England and Wales. The figures for 1934, just issued (Cmd. 5185, 3s. 6d.), show that, in a total of some 66,000 persons found guilty of indictable offences during the year, there were more than seven males for every female. The naughtiness of the boys is particularly serious. Over 11,000 boys under the age of 14 committed indictable offences whereas hardly more than 500 girls under 14 got into similar trouble. It is the youngsters that give the male sex a bad name. Of the male offenders in 1934 as many as 33 per cent. were under the age of 17 ; 48 per cent. were under the age of 21. Men, it is comforting to find, seem to grow better as they grow older. For every 1000 males between the ages of 10 and 21 there were eight found guilty of some indictable offence, while for every 1000 males over 21 no more than two or three were found guilty. Shop-breaking and house-breaking seem attractive to the human boy ; they give him a sense of exploration and lawless adventure. One-third of the persons found guilty of " breaking and entering " were under 14 years of age, another third were between 14 and 21. A few weeks ago the annual report of the Chief Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police advocated the more extensive recording of finger-prints in the cases of juveniles for the purpose of clearing up cases where no culprit had been discovered and of removing suspicion from the innocent. Impressed by the statistics of youthful crime, the Home Secretary last week issued instructions which go far to give effect to the Commissioner’s suggestion. The continuous and rapid rise in the proportion of boy offenders to the population is indeed a grave social symptom. In the boy population aged from 10 to 14 the proportion mounted from 615 per 100,000 in 1933 to 788 per 100,000 in 1934. How is this jump to be explained Is it due to a weakening of parental discipline or to a misunderstood leniency in the treatment of children when found guilty ?‘ Or is it due to the lessening of reluctance to charge children with offences in a generation which appreciates that the juvenile court will treat the juvenile offender in his best interests and will avoid injuring his future career ? For the
pet theories, political, sociological, and economic. nip-farthing tendency to cut down the analytical introductions to official compilations is wasting the value of these documents to the our
But the
uninstructed reader. THE CHEMISTRY OF RED BLOOD-CELLS
has been concerned chiefly number, size, and haemoglobin content of the circulating red blood-cells. In a recent studyi of the permeability of red cells M. Maizels has shown that certain other differences in the cell may prove of considerable interest. He found in normal blood that the concentration of anions and cations is less in the red cells than in the plasma. An apparent deficiency in cell osmotic pressure therefore exists which makes it necessary to assume that about 8 per cent. of cell water is bound. Further an amount of base is present which is greater than that theoretically required to combine with the cell Cl-+HC03-+ Hb-. Maizels suggests that this excess of base is combined normally with some other anion present in the cell. This unknown anion is present in increased amounts in anaemias other than acholuric jaundice. The acholuric red cell has other peculiarities. It contains less water than the normal or other anaemic red cells, and cell potassium is reduced by 20-30 per cent. This decrease in cell potassium is not related to the degree of jaundice or to the reticulocytosis, since it is not found in other conditions, such as myelosclerosis, where there may be a similar reticulocytosis and a high indirect van den Bergh reading. The cell potassium cannot be correlated with the red cell fragility, since the same patient from day to day may show considerable variations in cell potassium but no change in cell fragility. Anion, cation, and water are approximately normal in the red cells of megalocytic anaemias and in myelosclerosis. The cation content of the cell and its water content are increased in microcytic anaemias, but the former only slightly. The concentration of cell cation is thus relatively constant in spite of great variations in the concentration of cell haemoglobin. These preliminary observations suggest that chemical studies of other constituents of the red cells in pathological bloods may reveal interesting variations from the normal. CLINICAL medicine
with the
rest, the statistics of murder remain, as Sexual offences and usual, curiously constant. crimes of violence against the person went up in 1934. More persons (chiefly women) were tried for procuring abortion in 1934 than in 1933, but the defences were more successful and exactly the same number was found guilty in the two years. The number of cases of attempted suicide known to the police has been steadily rising for the past four years whereas the number of verdicts of suicide in coroners’ courts is inclined to fall. It is noteworthy that coroners are increasingly taking advantage of the power to direct or request post-mortem examination both in inquest and in non-inquest cases. The number of inquests held in 1934 was, as in the previous year, the total of deaths investigated by over 31,000 ; coroners where no inquest is held is very nearly as large as the total of inquests. In roughly two out of every three inquests the coroner sits without a jury. In the study of these and of other statistics in the recent Blue book a little more comment from official experts would be welcome. We can allwe doubtless all shall-use these statistics to buttress
MECHANISTIC BIOLOGY
ONE of the greatest stumbling-blocks to the advance of theoretical biology is the persistent refusal of many to consider clearly what they mean by biologists " a mechanistic " interpretation. Mr. Savory, an on the natural authority history of spiders, has attempted2 to give his views upon the nature of animal behaviour in general, and has naturally chosen most of his examples from the group of animals in which he himself is chiefly interested. His "point of view" as outlined in the first chapter is what he terms "mechanistic." To equate the mechanistic with all objective and deterministic standpoints is a common but quite unjustifiable extension of the term. It was at one time hoped by many biologists that an interpretation based upon the principles of mechanics would apply to all aspects of living organisms. But physicists have themselves 1
Biochem.
Jour., 1936,
xxx., 821.
2 Mechanistic Biology and Animal Behaviour. By T. H. Savory, M.A. London: Watts and Co. 1936. Pp. 182. 7s. 6d.
ANNOTATIONS A YEAR’S CRIME
ONCE again the comparative rectitude of the female sex is established by the annual Criminal Statistics for England and Wales. The figures for 1934, just issued (Cmd. 5185, 3s. 6d.), show that, in a total of some 66,000 persons found guilty of indictable offences during the year, there were more than seven males for every female. The naughtiness of the boys is particularly serious. Over 11,000 boys under the age of 14 committed indictable offences whereas hardly more than 500 girls under 14 got into similar trouble. It is the youngsters that give the male sex a bad name. Of the male offenders in 1934 as many as 33 per cent. were under the age of 17 ; 48 per cent. were under the age of 21. Men, it is comforting to find, seem to grow better as they grow older. For every 1000 males between the ages of 10 and 21 there were eight found guilty of some indictable offence, while for every 1000 males over 21 no more than two or three were found guilty. Shop-breaking and house-breaking seem attractive to the human boy ; they give him a sense of exploration and lawless adventure. One-third of the persons found guilty of " breaking and entering " were under 14 years of age, another third were between 14 and 21. A few weeks ago the annual report of the Chief Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police advocated the more extensive recording of finger-prints in the cases of juveniles for the purpose of clearing up cases where no culprit had been discovered and of removing suspicion from the innocent. Impressed by the statistics of youthful crime, the Home Secretary last week issued instructions which go far to give effect to the Commissioner’s suggestion. The continuous and rapid rise in the proportion of boy offenders to the population is indeed a grave social symptom. In the boy population aged from 10 to 14 the proportion mounted from 615 per 100,000 in 1933 to 788 per 100,000 in 1934. How is this jump to be explained Is it due to a weakening of parental discipline or to a misunderstood leniency in the treatment of children when found guilty ?‘ Or is it due to the lessening of reluctance to charge children with offences in a generation which appreciates that the juvenile court will treat the juvenile offender in his best interests and will avoid injuring his future career ? For the
pet theories, political, sociological, and economic. nip-farthing tendency to cut down the analytical introductions to official compilations is wasting the value of these documents to the our
But the
uninstructed reader. THE CHEMISTRY OF RED BLOOD-CELLS
has been concerned chiefly number, size, and haemoglobin content of the circulating red blood-cells. In a recent studyi of the permeability of red cells M. Maizels has shown that certain other differences in the cell may prove of considerable interest. He found in normal blood that the concentration of anions and cations is less in the red cells than in the plasma. An apparent deficiency in cell osmotic pressure therefore exists which makes it necessary to assume that about 8 per cent. of cell water is bound. Further an amount of base is present which is greater than that theoretically required to combine with the cell Cl-+HC03-+ Hb-. Maizels suggests that this excess of base is combined normally with some other anion present in the cell. This unknown anion is present in increased amounts in anaemias other than acholuric jaundice. The acholuric red cell has other peculiarities. It contains less water than the normal or other anaemic red cells, and cell potassium is reduced by 20-30 per cent. This decrease in cell potassium is not related to the degree of jaundice or to the reticulocytosis, since it is not found in other conditions, such as myelosclerosis, where there may be a similar reticulocytosis and a high indirect van den Bergh reading. The cell potassium cannot be correlated with the red cell fragility, since the same patient from day to day may show considerable variations in cell potassium but no change in cell fragility. Anion, cation, and water are approximately normal in the red cells of megalocytic anaemias and in myelosclerosis. The cation content of the cell and its water content are increased in microcytic anaemias, but the former only slightly. The concentration of cell cation is thus relatively constant in spite of great variations in the concentration of cell haemoglobin. These preliminary observations suggest that chemical studies of other constituents of the red cells in pathological bloods may reveal interesting variations from the normal. CLINICAL medicine
with the
rest, the statistics of murder remain, as Sexual offences and usual, curiously constant. crimes of violence against the person went up in 1934. More persons (chiefly women) were tried for procuring abortion in 1934 than in 1933, but the defences were more successful and exactly the same number was found guilty in the two years. The number of cases of attempted suicide known to the police has been steadily rising for the past four years whereas the number of verdicts of suicide in coroners’ courts is inclined to fall. It is noteworthy that coroners are increasingly taking advantage of the power to direct or request post-mortem examination both in inquest and in non-inquest cases. The number of inquests held in 1934 was, as in the previous year, the total of deaths investigated by over 31,000 ; coroners where no inquest is held is very nearly as large as the total of inquests. In roughly two out of every three inquests the coroner sits without a jury. In the study of these and of other statistics in the recent Blue book a little more comment from official experts would be welcome. We can allwe doubtless all shall-use these statistics to buttress
MECHANISTIC BIOLOGY
ONE of the greatest stumbling-blocks to the advance of theoretical biology is the persistent refusal of many to consider clearly what they mean by biologists " a mechanistic " interpretation. Mr. Savory, an on the natural authority history of spiders, has attempted2 to give his views upon the nature of animal behaviour in general, and has naturally chosen most of his examples from the group of animals in which he himself is chiefly interested. His "point of view" as outlined in the first chapter is what he terms "mechanistic." To equate the mechanistic with all objective and deterministic standpoints is a common but quite unjustifiable extension of the term. It was at one time hoped by many biologists that an interpretation based upon the principles of mechanics would apply to all aspects of living organisms. But physicists have themselves 1
Biochem.
Jour., 1936,
xxx., 821.
2 Mechanistic Biology and Animal Behaviour. By T. H. Savory, M.A. London: Watts and Co. 1936. Pp. 182. 7s. 6d.