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THE LATE PROF. W. H. PERKIN.
674
THE LATE PROF. W. H.
lungs, and their resistance might consequently be expected to be higher. This factor may account for the relatively small incidence of suppuration which followed the experiments. Harkavy has certainly shown that it is possible to produce suppuration in the lungs of dogs by direct inoculation with septic material, but it is hard to see how this knowledge will reduce the incidence of pulmonary complications following tonsillectomy. As it is, every possible precaution is taken by surgeons to prevent the inhalation of septic material during these operations, because they are confident, without the reassurance of experiment, that it is a real source of danger. HOUSING IN THE IRISH
PERKIN.
diagnosis has been made. In Minnesota Medicine for May, 1929, the Norwegian surgeon, F. H. Wiese,. publishes a case of embolism of the right brachial
a woman, aged 64, suffering from heart disease. She awoke one morning with severe pain in the right arm, which was pale, cold, and paralysed. But she was not medically examined till between6 and 7 P.M., nor was the operation, under local anaesthesia, started until 10.40 P.M., at least 14 hours after the onset of symptoms. Yet the operation was successful, relieving her of severe pain, restoringmovement to the arm, and saving her from thegangrene which would eventually have developed,. had the operation not been undertaken. Her death seven weeks after the operation from embolism elsewhere in the body, complicated by a three-dayattack of pneumonia, emphasises the fairly common observation that this operation is in a certain senseonly a palliative. But even then the operation may be justified, as it relieves pain, saves the patient from the much more serious operation of amputation forDr. gangrene, and restores the use of the limb. Wiese’s paper includes a useful summary of theliterature.
artery in
FREE STATE.
A taken in the Irish Free State in 1926, and that section of the report which deals with the relation of population to housing was published last week. Accepting as the standard of overcrowding the fact of more than two people living in one room, it appears that in the whole country 781,000 persons, or 27-2 per cent. of the population, live in overcrowded conditions. The comparative percentages for Northern Ireland, Scotland, England, and Wales are respectively 18-1, 43-3, 9-8, and 7-2. The Irish Free State is thus shown to be in a better position than Scotland in this respect, but compares unfavourably with Northern Ireland, England, and Wales. The overcrowding in Ireland is worse in the rural areas than in the smaller towns, and among rural areas the worst are those along the western coast, particularly the counties of Donegal, Mayo, and Kerry. It is noteworthy, however, that this overcrowding in the rural areas does not express itself in a higher death-rate. Mayo, for example, with 41-7 per cent. overcrowding has a lower death-rate than the combined 24 best-housed urban districts with an overcrowding of 15-2 per cent. In urban areas there are other influences deleterious to health which more than counterbalance any advantage that may arise from better housing. CENSUS was
____
THE LATE PROF. W. H. PERKIN. To many doctors the name of Perkin--especially in association with Kipping-will recall little morethan a text-book on organic chemistry, which, in their student days, they were compelled, more or less unwillingly, to study. At that early stage of his; the medical student has little time, inclination, career or knowledge to grasp the true significance of organic chemistry, and the important bearing which its methods have upon medicine. As the result of the introduction of the term biochemistry there is a tendency to overlook the fact that, without the preparatory work of the pure organic chemist, many of the outstanding achievements of biochemistry would still be in the realm of unsolved problems. The ability to establish the constitution of a complex carbon compound. depends upon the skilful application of the methods of organic chemistry, and no sooner has the constitution of a physiologically important natural product been EMBOLECTOMY. determined-be it hormone or alkaloid or what notTo those who cherish the belief that medical than attempts are made to synthesise it by those same practice is international, at any rate on the surgical methods. It is in this field of synthetic organic side, it must come as a surprise to discover that certain chemistry that the work of Prof. W. H. Perkin, who operations are frequently practised in some countries died last week, has been of such outstanding value. while they remain almost unknown in others. The The son of Sir William Perkin, whose discovery of the operation of embolectomy illustrates this point. first aniline dye from coal tar led to the foundation of Were it an exceedingly technical and dim cult opera- the modern dye industry, Prof. Perkin was gifted tion, or were there grave reasons for regarding it as with great technical skill and an amazing facility undeserving the serious attention of the practitioner, in overcoming experimental difficulties. He devoted it would be easy to understand why its employment most of his life to elucidating the constitution is geographically so patchy. More than 20 years ago of some of the most complicated natural products Mr. Sampson Handley attempted the removal of an and accomplished synthesis of many of them. embolus lodged at the bifurcation of the abdominal At the beginning of his research career he set aorta, and restored for a time the blood current in himself the problem of synthesising compounds conthe femoral artery. He placed the case on record1 taining three, four, or five membered carbon rings" as one of those pioneer failures on which ultimate success so often rests." His report led Sir Berkeley Moynihan to mention2 a case under his care at the Leeds Infirmary four years previously, in which an the possible existence of which was, at that time, embolus was removed from the popliteal artery and scouted by such great organic chemists as Adolf the artery sutured; the patient, who had mitral teacher ,Victor Meyer, and Emil Fischer. vonBayer-his disease and granular kidneys, died with extensive In of this discouragement, which would spite infarcts five days later. But this work does not have been sufficient to make other people hesitate, seem to have been followed up, and for the most he persisted, and succeeded in producing such compart it has been Scandinavian surgeons at home or pounds. It would be impossible in small space to in the United States who have taken the lead in this give an adequate account of Perkin’s contributions field of surgery. The names of Haggstrom, Key, to but a few of his outstanding organic Lundberg, and Michaelsson appear in the literature researches chemistry, be recalled, while he originally may of the subject, and in the public hospitals of Scan- studied the synthesis of closed carbon chains for its dinavia this operation has been increasingly per- own the methods thus initiated came to be sake, formed during the last ten years, the general practideveloped and applied to the synthesis of natural tioners in these countries being sufficiently cognisant of products ; amongst these, the colourless precursors. the indications for, and prospects of, embolectomy of the logwood dyes brazilin and haematoxylin claimed ’ to send their patients to hospital as soon as the correct his attention, and resulted in his assigning to thesesubstances their probable constitution. It is in the 1 Brit. Med. Jour., 1907, ii., 712. group of alkaloids, however, that in recent years he 2 Ibid., p. 826. ____
.
.
VENEREAL DISEASE ON THE CHINS STATION.
675
has achieved his greatest success ; his work on berber- left China since 19] 4. but after the late war the ine and cryptopine extended over a number of years, Russians began to come down from Siberia, " many and culminated in the establishment of the con- with no resources but their good looks " ; they have stitution of both of these compounds, and in the had no one to take thought for them or look after Berberine, as its name them, and they it is who are the greatest danger to synthesis of cryptopine. implies, occurs in the root bark of the barberry, the sailor. Under these conditions venereal diseases Berberis vulgaris, but is fairly widely distributed in themselves have become clinically more serious-a the vegetable kingdom, occurring in plants belonging conclusion which Dr. Cazeneuve reaches because : to the natural orders of Papaveracee, Ranunculaceae, (1) all three infections often result from a single .and Rutacese among others. Cryptopine, on the other risk ; (2) some of the syphilitic cases are very severe ; hand, is a much rarer alkaloid, being obtained only (3) chronic buboes follow 10 per cent. of the soft from opium, where it occurs in the filtrate remaining chancres; and (4) one-third of the hard chancres after the removal of morphine and thebaine. Two appear over the site of a soft chancre, suggesting other rather uncommon alkaloids, harmaline and simultaneous double infection. Much is done in the harmine, occurring in the seeds of Peganum harmala, French Navy, he says, to prevent men from risking which have been used in the treatment of malaria, infection. Newcomers are warned, in classes of ten, were also investigated by Perkin, and after showing that continence is the only true safeguard, and patients them to be derived from hydroxytryptophane he are enlisted as lay preachers in the same cause. succeeded in synthesising both of them. In 1910 he Each man must take ashore the " necessaire de proposed a formula for strychnine which was generally poche " or prophylactic packet, but he is warned accepted, and placed this compound among the that these ointments protect less in China, where the derivatives of quinoline ; but last year he put forward disease is very infectious, than in Europe.. Of 146 a modified formula according to which strychnine cases more than half professed they had availed becomes a derivative of isoquinoline. This derivation themselves of the usual prophylactics, but of 233 who would, of course, have a profound influence upon the passed through the ablution chamber on board 75 per course to be followed in its synthesis-an object cent. escaped infection. Dr. Cazeneuve has great which it was Perkin’s great ambition to accomplish. hope from the recreation room opened and the welfare Perkin’s charm of manner and natural gift for work instituted for French sailors at Shanghai, imparting knowledge to others endeared him to all though infections occur, of course, at other ports. with whom he came into contact. His relations with Like many others he notes that the people who get his colleagues were always cordial, and he was generous themselves into trouble by indiscipline and carelessin acknowledging the help he received from them. ness on board are just those most liable to contract Fortunately for chemistry in this country he has left venereal disease ashore. What he says of the increase behind him a number of his former pupils, who of prostitution in China is no doubt true, and when .are imbued with his spirit and can be relied upon to he says that venereal disease is there more severe than carry on his work in a worthy manner. formerly he is in agreement with other writers ; but it is to be noted that the time of each case under treatment and the proportional occurrence of all VENEREAL DISEASE ON THE CHINA STATION. diseases but soft chancre have decreased in the Navy VENEREAL disease is a serious matter for the armed in the last four years reported (1924-27). This is forces of the Powers in China, whereitrattacks at least probably due to the measures of welfare work he three or four times as large a proportion of the men mentions, and to the accommodation of treatment to as at home. We know relatively little about what the local climatic conditions, but obviously it may partly the result of special distribution of the happens among troops other than our own, and a be in the various ports about the station, with a ships paper1 by Dr. Cazeneuve, on cases of venereal disease lessening of risk, for which no allowance can be made French is therefore instructive. the in 1927, among in the That the figures are improvstatistics. general He gives the percentage prevalence of these cases in the French Squadron in China for several years, and ing nevertheless raises our hopes that the toll taken to this we have added the similar figures from the by these serious diseases will further decrease, especially when medical officers have had time to Royal Navy, though it may well be that the methods study Dr. Cazeneuve’s careful appreciation of the of enumeration are not precisely the same, and the local situation. figures not truly comparable. They are as follows :THE
PHYSIOLOGY OF MILK PRODUCTION.
THE National Institute for Research in Dairying has for its chief aim the creation of a healthy industry, and in its early days the Institute at Reading demonstrated the losses occasioned by faulty milk and the methods to prevent these losses. This work has been of value to the Ministries of Health and of Agriculture, providing the former with the means of establishing standards of cleanliness for milk, and the latter with the basis of an educational campaign. Dairymen are now beginning to recognise that a cleaner milk is worth more money and are paying for it on a quality basis. The farmer is thus reaping the benefits to be derived from a healthy industry and the consumer is getting a sounder food-stuff. The Dr. Cazeneuve is concerned about the increase in same policy has been adopted towards the problem venereal disease which he has observed during his of milk carrying disease, particularly tuberculosis. service in China, and ascribes it primarily to the want The Institute has demonstrated the grave losses of employment for men on leave and to the flooding of caused by bovine tuberculosis and has investigated Chinese ports with prostitutes. Before 1911, he says, the means by which it is spread in dairy herds, and the Chinese kept their women away from the foreigner, the need for the more extended use of the tuberculin but since the Revolution and the emancipation of test. The steadily increasing number of non-reacting women, excited young students, with " liberty " on herds throughout Great Britain, and especially their lips, are much in evidence, whilst the uneducated within a short radius of the Institute, is gratifying women of the poorer classes have adopted the new evidence of the influence of this work. The annual manners, and by reason of famine and poverty crowd report1 off the Institute for 1928, while it recognises into the foreign concessions. Japanese women have 1 Which maybe obtained from the Secretary of the Institute, 1 Arch. de Méd. Nav., 1929, cxviii., 43. Shinfield, near Reading.
THE LATE PROF. W. H.
lungs, and their resistance might consequently be expected to be higher. This factor may account for the relatively small incidence of suppuration which followed the experiments. Harkavy has certainly shown that it is possible to produce suppuration in the lungs of dogs by direct inoculation with septic material, but it is hard to see how this knowledge will reduce the incidence of pulmonary complications following tonsillectomy. As it is, every possible precaution is taken by surgeons to prevent the inhalation of septic material during these operations, because they are confident, without the reassurance of experiment, that it is a real source of danger. HOUSING IN THE IRISH
PERKIN.
diagnosis has been made. In Minnesota Medicine for May, 1929, the Norwegian surgeon, F. H. Wiese,. publishes a case of embolism of the right brachial
a woman, aged 64, suffering from heart disease. She awoke one morning with severe pain in the right arm, which was pale, cold, and paralysed. But she was not medically examined till between6 and 7 P.M., nor was the operation, under local anaesthesia, started until 10.40 P.M., at least 14 hours after the onset of symptoms. Yet the operation was successful, relieving her of severe pain, restoringmovement to the arm, and saving her from thegangrene which would eventually have developed,. had the operation not been undertaken. Her death seven weeks after the operation from embolism elsewhere in the body, complicated by a three-dayattack of pneumonia, emphasises the fairly common observation that this operation is in a certain senseonly a palliative. But even then the operation may be justified, as it relieves pain, saves the patient from the much more serious operation of amputation forDr. gangrene, and restores the use of the limb. Wiese’s paper includes a useful summary of theliterature.
artery in
FREE STATE.
A taken in the Irish Free State in 1926, and that section of the report which deals with the relation of population to housing was published last week. Accepting as the standard of overcrowding the fact of more than two people living in one room, it appears that in the whole country 781,000 persons, or 27-2 per cent. of the population, live in overcrowded conditions. The comparative percentages for Northern Ireland, Scotland, England, and Wales are respectively 18-1, 43-3, 9-8, and 7-2. The Irish Free State is thus shown to be in a better position than Scotland in this respect, but compares unfavourably with Northern Ireland, England, and Wales. The overcrowding in Ireland is worse in the rural areas than in the smaller towns, and among rural areas the worst are those along the western coast, particularly the counties of Donegal, Mayo, and Kerry. It is noteworthy, however, that this overcrowding in the rural areas does not express itself in a higher death-rate. Mayo, for example, with 41-7 per cent. overcrowding has a lower death-rate than the combined 24 best-housed urban districts with an overcrowding of 15-2 per cent. In urban areas there are other influences deleterious to health which more than counterbalance any advantage that may arise from better housing. CENSUS was
____
THE LATE PROF. W. H. PERKIN. To many doctors the name of Perkin--especially in association with Kipping-will recall little morethan a text-book on organic chemistry, which, in their student days, they were compelled, more or less unwillingly, to study. At that early stage of his; the medical student has little time, inclination, career or knowledge to grasp the true significance of organic chemistry, and the important bearing which its methods have upon medicine. As the result of the introduction of the term biochemistry there is a tendency to overlook the fact that, without the preparatory work of the pure organic chemist, many of the outstanding achievements of biochemistry would still be in the realm of unsolved problems. The ability to establish the constitution of a complex carbon compound. depends upon the skilful application of the methods of organic chemistry, and no sooner has the constitution of a physiologically important natural product been EMBOLECTOMY. determined-be it hormone or alkaloid or what notTo those who cherish the belief that medical than attempts are made to synthesise it by those same practice is international, at any rate on the surgical methods. It is in this field of synthetic organic side, it must come as a surprise to discover that certain chemistry that the work of Prof. W. H. Perkin, who operations are frequently practised in some countries died last week, has been of such outstanding value. while they remain almost unknown in others. The The son of Sir William Perkin, whose discovery of the operation of embolectomy illustrates this point. first aniline dye from coal tar led to the foundation of Were it an exceedingly technical and dim cult opera- the modern dye industry, Prof. Perkin was gifted tion, or were there grave reasons for regarding it as with great technical skill and an amazing facility undeserving the serious attention of the practitioner, in overcoming experimental difficulties. He devoted it would be easy to understand why its employment most of his life to elucidating the constitution is geographically so patchy. More than 20 years ago of some of the most complicated natural products Mr. Sampson Handley attempted the removal of an and accomplished synthesis of many of them. embolus lodged at the bifurcation of the abdominal At the beginning of his research career he set aorta, and restored for a time the blood current in himself the problem of synthesising compounds conthe femoral artery. He placed the case on record1 taining three, four, or five membered carbon rings" as one of those pioneer failures on which ultimate success so often rests." His report led Sir Berkeley Moynihan to mention2 a case under his care at the Leeds Infirmary four years previously, in which an the possible existence of which was, at that time, embolus was removed from the popliteal artery and scouted by such great organic chemists as Adolf the artery sutured; the patient, who had mitral teacher ,Victor Meyer, and Emil Fischer. vonBayer-his disease and granular kidneys, died with extensive In of this discouragement, which would spite infarcts five days later. But this work does not have been sufficient to make other people hesitate, seem to have been followed up, and for the most he persisted, and succeeded in producing such compart it has been Scandinavian surgeons at home or pounds. It would be impossible in small space to in the United States who have taken the lead in this give an adequate account of Perkin’s contributions field of surgery. The names of Haggstrom, Key, to but a few of his outstanding organic Lundberg, and Michaelsson appear in the literature researches chemistry, be recalled, while he originally may of the subject, and in the public hospitals of Scan- studied the synthesis of closed carbon chains for its dinavia this operation has been increasingly per- own the methods thus initiated came to be sake, formed during the last ten years, the general practideveloped and applied to the synthesis of natural tioners in these countries being sufficiently cognisant of products ; amongst these, the colourless precursors. the indications for, and prospects of, embolectomy of the logwood dyes brazilin and haematoxylin claimed ’ to send their patients to hospital as soon as the correct his attention, and resulted in his assigning to thesesubstances their probable constitution. It is in the 1 Brit. Med. Jour., 1907, ii., 712. group of alkaloids, however, that in recent years he 2 Ibid., p. 826. ____
.
.
VENEREAL DISEASE ON THE CHINS STATION.
675
has achieved his greatest success ; his work on berber- left China since 19] 4. but after the late war the ine and cryptopine extended over a number of years, Russians began to come down from Siberia, " many and culminated in the establishment of the con- with no resources but their good looks " ; they have stitution of both of these compounds, and in the had no one to take thought for them or look after Berberine, as its name them, and they it is who are the greatest danger to synthesis of cryptopine. implies, occurs in the root bark of the barberry, the sailor. Under these conditions venereal diseases Berberis vulgaris, but is fairly widely distributed in themselves have become clinically more serious-a the vegetable kingdom, occurring in plants belonging conclusion which Dr. Cazeneuve reaches because : to the natural orders of Papaveracee, Ranunculaceae, (1) all three infections often result from a single .and Rutacese among others. Cryptopine, on the other risk ; (2) some of the syphilitic cases are very severe ; hand, is a much rarer alkaloid, being obtained only (3) chronic buboes follow 10 per cent. of the soft from opium, where it occurs in the filtrate remaining chancres; and (4) one-third of the hard chancres after the removal of morphine and thebaine. Two appear over the site of a soft chancre, suggesting other rather uncommon alkaloids, harmaline and simultaneous double infection. Much is done in the harmine, occurring in the seeds of Peganum harmala, French Navy, he says, to prevent men from risking which have been used in the treatment of malaria, infection. Newcomers are warned, in classes of ten, were also investigated by Perkin, and after showing that continence is the only true safeguard, and patients them to be derived from hydroxytryptophane he are enlisted as lay preachers in the same cause. succeeded in synthesising both of them. In 1910 he Each man must take ashore the " necessaire de proposed a formula for strychnine which was generally poche " or prophylactic packet, but he is warned accepted, and placed this compound among the that these ointments protect less in China, where the derivatives of quinoline ; but last year he put forward disease is very infectious, than in Europe.. Of 146 a modified formula according to which strychnine cases more than half professed they had availed becomes a derivative of isoquinoline. This derivation themselves of the usual prophylactics, but of 233 who would, of course, have a profound influence upon the passed through the ablution chamber on board 75 per course to be followed in its synthesis-an object cent. escaped infection. Dr. Cazeneuve has great which it was Perkin’s great ambition to accomplish. hope from the recreation room opened and the welfare Perkin’s charm of manner and natural gift for work instituted for French sailors at Shanghai, imparting knowledge to others endeared him to all though infections occur, of course, at other ports. with whom he came into contact. His relations with Like many others he notes that the people who get his colleagues were always cordial, and he was generous themselves into trouble by indiscipline and carelessin acknowledging the help he received from them. ness on board are just those most liable to contract Fortunately for chemistry in this country he has left venereal disease ashore. What he says of the increase behind him a number of his former pupils, who of prostitution in China is no doubt true, and when .are imbued with his spirit and can be relied upon to he says that venereal disease is there more severe than carry on his work in a worthy manner. formerly he is in agreement with other writers ; but it is to be noted that the time of each case under treatment and the proportional occurrence of all VENEREAL DISEASE ON THE CHINA STATION. diseases but soft chancre have decreased in the Navy VENEREAL disease is a serious matter for the armed in the last four years reported (1924-27). This is forces of the Powers in China, whereitrattacks at least probably due to the measures of welfare work he three or four times as large a proportion of the men mentions, and to the accommodation of treatment to as at home. We know relatively little about what the local climatic conditions, but obviously it may partly the result of special distribution of the happens among troops other than our own, and a be in the various ports about the station, with a ships paper1 by Dr. Cazeneuve, on cases of venereal disease lessening of risk, for which no allowance can be made French is therefore instructive. the in 1927, among in the That the figures are improvstatistics. general He gives the percentage prevalence of these cases in the French Squadron in China for several years, and ing nevertheless raises our hopes that the toll taken to this we have added the similar figures from the by these serious diseases will further decrease, especially when medical officers have had time to Royal Navy, though it may well be that the methods study Dr. Cazeneuve’s careful appreciation of the of enumeration are not precisely the same, and the local situation. figures not truly comparable. They are as follows :THE
PHYSIOLOGY OF MILK PRODUCTION.
THE National Institute for Research in Dairying has for its chief aim the creation of a healthy industry, and in its early days the Institute at Reading demonstrated the losses occasioned by faulty milk and the methods to prevent these losses. This work has been of value to the Ministries of Health and of Agriculture, providing the former with the means of establishing standards of cleanliness for milk, and the latter with the basis of an educational campaign. Dairymen are now beginning to recognise that a cleaner milk is worth more money and are paying for it on a quality basis. The farmer is thus reaping the benefits to be derived from a healthy industry and the consumer is getting a sounder food-stuff. The Dr. Cazeneuve is concerned about the increase in same policy has been adopted towards the problem venereal disease which he has observed during his of milk carrying disease, particularly tuberculosis. service in China, and ascribes it primarily to the want The Institute has demonstrated the grave losses of employment for men on leave and to the flooding of caused by bovine tuberculosis and has investigated Chinese ports with prostitutes. Before 1911, he says, the means by which it is spread in dairy herds, and the Chinese kept their women away from the foreigner, the need for the more extended use of the tuberculin but since the Revolution and the emancipation of test. The steadily increasing number of non-reacting women, excited young students, with " liberty " on herds throughout Great Britain, and especially their lips, are much in evidence, whilst the uneducated within a short radius of the Institute, is gratifying women of the poorer classes have adopted the new evidence of the influence of this work. The annual manners, and by reason of famine and poverty crowd report1 off the Institute for 1928, while it recognises into the foreign concessions. Japanese women have 1 Which maybe obtained from the Secretary of the Institute, 1 Arch. de Méd. Nav., 1929, cxviii., 43. Shinfield, near Reading.