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THE EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF HEREDITY.
844 bowel to the
publish
an
underlying
fascia.
In T i tE LANCET of
to-day
we
account, written by Mr. Leslie W. Dryland of
Kettering, of an operation for the cure of prolapse of the rectum which consists in attaching the upper part of the sigmoid to the iliac fossa, a flap of peritoneum having been previously raised above and external to the external iliac vessels. He has performed the operation in one case with a satisfactory result. The novelty of the method consists in the site of the attachment. These various operations of sigmoidopexy have all given good results in a large proportion of the 50 cases which have been recorded. The risk in the operation is small and the benefit appears to have been very great. So far as we are aware, no evil results have followed any of these operations, and they are deserving of trial in cases where simpler methods have failed. It is somewhat difficult to decide whether the modification suggested by Mr. Dryland is an improvement or not on the previous methods of practice, but it appears to be sound in principle. -
THE
EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF HEREDITY.
THE report of the committee of the British Association, consisting of Mr. Francis Darwin (chairman), Mr. A. G. Tansley (secretary), Professor Bateson, and Professor Keeble, shows that the grant of Z30 allotted at Winnipeg for this committee has been used at Cambridge in connexion with the researches carried on by Miss E. R. Saunders, Miss Wheldale, and Mr. R. H. Compton. Miss Saunders’s work in connexion with Mendelism is well known. Her study of the inheritance of double flowers in stocks, wallflowers, hollyhocks, carnations, meconopsis, petunia, and other genera has been continued. Experiments on the inheritance
of other characteristics have also been undertaken in various plants, but in the case of stocks it is hoped that from this year’s results a material addition to the records of the last three years will be obtained, and that then it will be possible to give a full account of the work on the very complex problem which is here involved. In the cases of the other plants named, most of which are biennial, the experiments have necessarily been lengthy, but the work of four seasons will shortly have reached a point at which a definite statement can be made. Miss Wheldale is conthe chemistry of pigmentation in plants, in continuation of her work already published. Mr. Compton is investigating the occurrence of sterility in the crosses between cultivated peas and a wild form brought from Palestine by Mr. Arthur Sutton. He is also conducting various other breeding experiments. The amount of work on heredity that is being carried out with regard to plants nowadays is very significant.
ducting experiments
on
of chloroform during inhalation and after death is being continued by the committee which includes these gentlemen. The importance which accurate results as regards amounts of chloroform recoverable from the body after death mightassume in determining the cause of death in cases where this takes place during or shortly after operation needs no demonstration. Perhaps the most promising experiments, however, dealt with in the present report were those which were made to show the effect of chloroform when combined with air or with Here we oxygen in deficient and in excessive quantity. have very definite confirmation given to the clinical view that oxygen is of service in diminishing risk from chloroform. Using blood pressure and respiration as inthese experiments bring out very clearly the value of oxygen. The smalier the amount of oxygen the greater is the depressing tendency of the chloroform and the larger the proportion of oxygen the less is this tendency. The experiments provide many strong indications for the continuous use of oxygen with chloroform during long or severe operations when this anesthetic is employed for such purposes. We notice one point, in an appendix by Dr. Waller, wherein our own opinion would not coincide with that of the writer, and possibly his clinical oonfrèros also are not in agreement with him. We allude to his opinion that the administration of chloroform In the laboratory can be rendered as safe as that of ether. this has perhaps been demonstrated, though we would be prepared to deny even this if the test were applied of performing serious operations upon two sets of animals anass. In the operating thetised with the two different drugs. theatre any such contention is at present, we believe, not to be maintained.
dications,
____
THE organising committee of the International Congress of Tuberculosis to be held in Rome next year has fixed the date of the meeting for Sept. 24th to the 30th. The President of the Congress will be Professor Guido Baccelli, and the general secretary Professor v. Ascoli of Rome.
HOSPITAL SATURDAY FuND.-A meeting of the workpeople of Sir W. G. Armstrong, Whitworth, and Co., was held about a week ago in the dining-room at the Manchester works, to consider the question of forming a branch of the Hospital Saturday and Convalescent Fund. The Lord Mayor was present, and said they all knew that they had in Manchester " one of the finest infirmaries and some of the most up-to-date hospitals in the world, and that the Royal Infirmary would eventually minister to 600 patients. It was entirely for the benefit of the working man."" He went on to say that the infirmary alone The required ;E12,000 a year additional income. of the Fund this year was .E7441, exceeding that of last year by .6569 Perhaps, considering the depression in trade, that was "not wholly disappointing," but it was to he hoped that next year it might be five or six that amount. The Lord Mayor said that a few days before he had been present at the centenary celebrations of a working men’s society where they had invested no less than E14,000,000. A penny a week from the thousands engaged in their trade would be a godsend to the hospitals. The spirit of the men is good, and it seems as if it was only neces. sary to have the case of the hospitals put fairly before them to ensure a hearty response, for a resolution was unanimously passed to the effect that " a branch be formed and that they do "all in their power to further the interests of the institutions. If this were done at all the works, great and small, in the area ministered to by the Manchester hospitals, it would help the funds very considerably and do much to ensure the etlicient rendering of the services which they were intended to give, and the knowledge that the mite of each one contributed to this great end would give a feeling of satisfaction in that they were givers as well as receivers.
Limited,
income THE
ANÆSTHETICS COMMITTEE BRITISH ASSOCIATION.
OF
THE
AMONG the reports presented at the recent meeting of the British Association is one from the Committee on Anaesthetics which has, of course, special interest for medical men. The report contains no purely clinical contributions, such as that which we published last year,l but the work which is being carried on, having both an experimental and a clinical side, seems likely to provide results of a highly important character from the purely practical point of view. From the experimental point of view the comll1iGtee may well claim to have already achieved very considerable results. The well-known work of Dr. A. D. Waller upon percentage administration of chloroform and that of Dr. G. A. Buckmaster and Dr. J. A. Gardner upon the blood
contentI
1
THE
LANCET, July 3rd, 1909.
times
publish
an
underlying
fascia.
In T i tE LANCET of
to-day
we
account, written by Mr. Leslie W. Dryland of
Kettering, of an operation for the cure of prolapse of the rectum which consists in attaching the upper part of the sigmoid to the iliac fossa, a flap of peritoneum having been previously raised above and external to the external iliac vessels. He has performed the operation in one case with a satisfactory result. The novelty of the method consists in the site of the attachment. These various operations of sigmoidopexy have all given good results in a large proportion of the 50 cases which have been recorded. The risk in the operation is small and the benefit appears to have been very great. So far as we are aware, no evil results have followed any of these operations, and they are deserving of trial in cases where simpler methods have failed. It is somewhat difficult to decide whether the modification suggested by Mr. Dryland is an improvement or not on the previous methods of practice, but it appears to be sound in principle. -
THE
EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF HEREDITY.
THE report of the committee of the British Association, consisting of Mr. Francis Darwin (chairman), Mr. A. G. Tansley (secretary), Professor Bateson, and Professor Keeble, shows that the grant of Z30 allotted at Winnipeg for this committee has been used at Cambridge in connexion with the researches carried on by Miss E. R. Saunders, Miss Wheldale, and Mr. R. H. Compton. Miss Saunders’s work in connexion with Mendelism is well known. Her study of the inheritance of double flowers in stocks, wallflowers, hollyhocks, carnations, meconopsis, petunia, and other genera has been continued. Experiments on the inheritance
of other characteristics have also been undertaken in various plants, but in the case of stocks it is hoped that from this year’s results a material addition to the records of the last three years will be obtained, and that then it will be possible to give a full account of the work on the very complex problem which is here involved. In the cases of the other plants named, most of which are biennial, the experiments have necessarily been lengthy, but the work of four seasons will shortly have reached a point at which a definite statement can be made. Miss Wheldale is conthe chemistry of pigmentation in plants, in continuation of her work already published. Mr. Compton is investigating the occurrence of sterility in the crosses between cultivated peas and a wild form brought from Palestine by Mr. Arthur Sutton. He is also conducting various other breeding experiments. The amount of work on heredity that is being carried out with regard to plants nowadays is very significant.
ducting experiments
on
of chloroform during inhalation and after death is being continued by the committee which includes these gentlemen. The importance which accurate results as regards amounts of chloroform recoverable from the body after death mightassume in determining the cause of death in cases where this takes place during or shortly after operation needs no demonstration. Perhaps the most promising experiments, however, dealt with in the present report were those which were made to show the effect of chloroform when combined with air or with Here we oxygen in deficient and in excessive quantity. have very definite confirmation given to the clinical view that oxygen is of service in diminishing risk from chloroform. Using blood pressure and respiration as inthese experiments bring out very clearly the value of oxygen. The smalier the amount of oxygen the greater is the depressing tendency of the chloroform and the larger the proportion of oxygen the less is this tendency. The experiments provide many strong indications for the continuous use of oxygen with chloroform during long or severe operations when this anesthetic is employed for such purposes. We notice one point, in an appendix by Dr. Waller, wherein our own opinion would not coincide with that of the writer, and possibly his clinical oonfrèros also are not in agreement with him. We allude to his opinion that the administration of chloroform In the laboratory can be rendered as safe as that of ether. this has perhaps been demonstrated, though we would be prepared to deny even this if the test were applied of performing serious operations upon two sets of animals anass. In the operating thetised with the two different drugs. theatre any such contention is at present, we believe, not to be maintained.
dications,
____
THE organising committee of the International Congress of Tuberculosis to be held in Rome next year has fixed the date of the meeting for Sept. 24th to the 30th. The President of the Congress will be Professor Guido Baccelli, and the general secretary Professor v. Ascoli of Rome.
HOSPITAL SATURDAY FuND.-A meeting of the workpeople of Sir W. G. Armstrong, Whitworth, and Co., was held about a week ago in the dining-room at the Manchester works, to consider the question of forming a branch of the Hospital Saturday and Convalescent Fund. The Lord Mayor was present, and said they all knew that they had in Manchester " one of the finest infirmaries and some of the most up-to-date hospitals in the world, and that the Royal Infirmary would eventually minister to 600 patients. It was entirely for the benefit of the working man."" He went on to say that the infirmary alone The required ;E12,000 a year additional income. of the Fund this year was .E7441, exceeding that of last year by .6569 Perhaps, considering the depression in trade, that was "not wholly disappointing," but it was to he hoped that next year it might be five or six that amount. The Lord Mayor said that a few days before he had been present at the centenary celebrations of a working men’s society where they had invested no less than E14,000,000. A penny a week from the thousands engaged in their trade would be a godsend to the hospitals. The spirit of the men is good, and it seems as if it was only neces. sary to have the case of the hospitals put fairly before them to ensure a hearty response, for a resolution was unanimously passed to the effect that " a branch be formed and that they do "all in their power to further the interests of the institutions. If this were done at all the works, great and small, in the area ministered to by the Manchester hospitals, it would help the funds very considerably and do much to ensure the etlicient rendering of the services which they were intended to give, and the knowledge that the mite of each one contributed to this great end would give a feeling of satisfaction in that they were givers as well as receivers.
Limited,
income THE
ANÆSTHETICS COMMITTEE BRITISH ASSOCIATION.
OF
THE
AMONG the reports presented at the recent meeting of the British Association is one from the Committee on Anaesthetics which has, of course, special interest for medical men. The report contains no purely clinical contributions, such as that which we published last year,l but the work which is being carried on, having both an experimental and a clinical side, seems likely to provide results of a highly important character from the purely practical point of view. From the experimental point of view the comll1iGtee may well claim to have already achieved very considerable results. The well-known work of Dr. A. D. Waller upon percentage administration of chloroform and that of Dr. G. A. Buckmaster and Dr. J. A. Gardner upon the blood
contentI
1
THE
LANCET, July 3rd, 1909.
times