THE SITUATION OF DERMOID CYSTS.

THE AMBULANCE SERVICE AT THE JUBILEE PAGEANT IN VIENNA.

evoked universal gratitude from the Viennese public, and indeed it may serve as an object-lesson outside Austria showing the extent to which the public depends upon an

in the territories belonging more directly to the Crown but also in those of the ruling chiefs of the native States, in which the erection of female hospitals has been encouraged, and advice has been given and lady doctors have been provided on request by the chiefs to the head committee. The natives of India evidently believe in the art of healing as taught by English medical men and women. But the benefits bestowed through the knowledge of our English medical science are not the only good results ; through the influence of the female medical practitioners employed the rigid rules of seclusion as regards Indian females are gradually becoming relaxed, the lifelong seclusion of married women is no longer so strictly enforced, and under the improved state of affairs some of the highest Indian ladies are now receiving even male visitors. What a blessing this breaking down of the deadening seclusion must be to these people who have hitherto been practically prisoners in their own homes. Dr. D. N. P. Datta pleaded eloquently at the annual meeting of the friends and supporters of the North India School of Medicine for Christian Women at Ludhiana for the greater liberty of the native women of India, so that they might enjoy the same blessings as their enlightened European sisters. He spoke of newly married girls who during their first year of married life had longed and yearned for the old outdoor life with its sight of birds, flowers, plants, and the expanse of the hillside. This intense longing, however, consequent on the customs hitherto existing in India had become gradually deadenedl but this deadening was much to be deplored. Happily under the beneficent influence of the Countess of Dufferin’sI humane association a brighter future seems about to arise.

organised medical service for the prime necessities of its

well-being.

-

"THE OLDEST INSTITUTION FOR TREATING SICK CHILDREN." A LARGE circle of the medical profession will learn with sympathy that Sir Samuel Wilks has been laid up by a serious operation for the second time within a few years. We are very pleased to have had evidence of his convalescence in a letter which he has written to us concerning the first children’s hospital in defence of the claims of the Royal Waterloo Hospital for Children and Women to the honour of that title. He says: "I was physician there in the fifties and had a few cribs there. When I saw out-patients and there was a child too ill to be taken home (perhaps with pneumonia) I recommended admission, and if there was an empty bed I took it in. Of course, the cots were few, as were the women’s beds in so small a place, but children were taken in." The letter which called forth this reply from Sir Samuel Wilks was from the secretary of the Hospital for Sick Children -in Great Ormond-street and was published in It stated that "Thetreatour issue of June 13th, p. 1716. ment which the Royal Waterloo Hospital afforded before

,

1852

.

......

and for many years after that date,

was

treatment only." It will be seen that Sir Samuel Wilks’s statement controverts the last state-

dispensary

The interest in medical affairs which has led the physician to champion the claims of his old hospital will surprise none who are aware of the enthusiasm and energy which he still displays in the progress of his art, and especially in the defence of medical research. We take this opportunity of expressing our hope that he may be restored speedily to complete health and may long remain a pillar of the society lately inaugurated to promote the great cause which he has so much at heart. ment.

veteran

THE AMBULANCE SERVICE AT THE JUBILEE PAGEANT IN VIENNA. THE

1957

great Jubilee pageant which took place before the ,

Austrian Emperor in Vienna on June llth in celebration of the Jubilee of his accession to the throne was the occasion of much thought and elaborate organisation on the part of THE SITUATION OF DERMOID CYSTS. those in charge of its details. No fewer than 12,000 persons in costumes and armour representing every phase of the A DERMOID cyst is caused by the inclusion of a portion of national history, with 4000 horses, filed past the Emperor, the skin at some part of the body where a cleft exists during and more than half a million of his subjects shared the development and closes later. Thus they are found in the spectacle with their venerable monarch. But the complete lines of any of the embryonic fissures of the face ; especially enjoyment of the great gala day depended on less conspicuous do they occur at the outer end of the orbital fissure, but workers than those who marched in the procession and the they are also found in the lines between the fronto-nasal arrangements for the public comfort and safety were the process and the maxillary processes and in the oral fissure. cause of no less anxiety to the responsible officials than was Dormoids may also be found in the middle line of the trunk the pageant to its marshals. This anxiety was intensified anteriorly where the somatopleures close, and posteriorly by the fact that when 80,000 school children had paid their where the dorsal folds meet. In the labium also and in the duty to the Emperor a few weeks previously there had been scrotum dermoids may be found, and it is probable that all such a lamentable lack of drinking water and lavatory those cysts which have been described as dermoids of the accommodation as to cause considerable suffering to many of testis are really dermoids of the scrotum. The cysts which them. Since that time the weather had been hot and dry have been described as dermoids of the ovary are in all and the probability of many cases of sudden illness occur- probability teratomata, that is to say, suppressed fcetuses. ring was made all the greater by the fact that a large A distinction has been drawn between the dermoids number of the sightseers. of whom not more than a quarter just described, which have been called somewhat barcould find seats in the tribunes, were to be in their places barously "sequestration dermoids," and those dermoids for nine hours from 6 o’clock in the morning on each side which arise in connexion with canals which exist in the of a route nearly 10 miles in length. In spite of this the foetus but normally disappear before birth; these dermoids physical requirements of that huge assembly were met with are called tubulo-dermoids. The distinction is practically complete success. Public lavatories were erected every useless and it results mainly from a want of recognition of few hundred yards all along the line and an abundant the fact that cysts of two kinds may arise in connexion with supply of fresh cool water was available at all points. developmental canals. In one variety the cyst is a true The Vienna Rettungsgesellschaft (Street Ambulance Corps) dermoid, exactly similar to those developing in the sites of provided 20 stations, with 216 medical men in attend- the facial clefts ; its walls are formed of skin and it may ance, but amongst the whole concourse only 350 casualties: contain hairs. In the other form the cyst is derived from needed treatment, most of which were slight attacks of, a survival of a part of the canal itself ; the walls are formed fainting, with a few cases of heat-stroke and minor accidents. of a stratified epithelium without hair follicles or sweat glands, We are informed that the excellence of the arrangements and hairs are not found in the contents. The diagnosis of ,

,

1858

THE EYES OF EPILEPTICS.-THE CORONERb’ SOCIETY.

dermoid cysts is generally easy, though they may on the one quantities sufficiently large to poison cattle in samples of hand be confused with teratomata and on the other with forage crops gathered at varying distances up to ten mile$.sebaceous cysts. The distinction in doubtful cases will from the smelter and in samples of the soil collected at &. depend on the nature of the sac wall and of the contents. distance of eight miles. These results are of great importIn the present issue of THE LANCET is printed an account by ance to medical officers of health and sanitary boards, asMr. P. Maynard Heath of a dermoid occurring behind the conditions which injuriously affect vegetable life and -cattleare prejudicial also to man, not only by the pollution of ear, a somewhat rare situation. streams and the air but by introducing a danger of epidemiaarsenical poisoning through the agency of cattle fed on THE EYES OF EPILEPTICS. c contaminated pastures and dry forage. THE results of some observations made upon the eyes of epileptics between the attacks, undertaken by Dr. A. Rodiet THE CORONERS’ SOCIETY. of the St. Yon Asylum, Dr. P. Pansier of Montpellier, and M. F. Cans of the Asylum of Mondevergues, have been THE annual banquet of the Coroners’ Society of England published in recent numbers of the Recueil d,’ Ophtalmologie. and x Wales was held at the Holborn Restaurant on June 18th. These observers, who have had large opportunities ofThe chair was taken by the President of the society, Mr. Isaacinvestigation, find that slight dilatation of the pupil Bradley, J.P., coroner for Birmingham. The banquet, which may be noticed during the period of depression thatwas well attended by members of the society and guests,. follows the paroxysm, and that whilst the ordinarywas very successful. After the usual loyal toast had been reflex phenomena take place their character is often dis- proposed by the chairman, that of ’’ Imperial and Local turbed, as, for example, by hippus and by paradoxal reflex.Government" was proposed by Mr. Christophers, coroner for In addition injection of the conjunctiva accompanied Warwickshire, and responded to by Mr. J. T. Middlemore, by anaesthesia or hyperaesthesia may be observed which M.P. for the Northern Division of Birmingham, on behalf is not only very well marked during the phase of clonic of Imperial government, and by Mr. R. A. Robinson, chairspasms but remains for some time after. The fundus of the man of the London County Council, on behalf of local eyes presents a certain degree of hyperæmia which lasts for government. The toast of "The Coroners’ Society"was. an hour or two if the case is slight, but if severe may proposed by Mr. C. E. Troup, C.B , of the Home Office, whopersist for 12 hours. In the intervals of the attacks referred to the work of the society and the valuable character the papilla is pale and the retinal vessels are small, probably of its reports. The reply was made by the chairman in indicating general anæmia. In epilept,ics of old standing, or an eloquent speech, delivered in admirable style, referringpresenting very serious attacks, neuritic troubles or grey to the duties and responsibilities and anxieties of the optic atrophy may be seen. Not infrequently, if the state: coroner’s office. The health of the guests was proposed of conjunctival and temporary retinal congestion recurs at by Mr. Troutbeck, coroner for Westminster, and responded short intervals, a permanent condition of hyperaemia is in- to by Mr. George Crisp Whiteley, President of the Society duced, so that with pallor of the papilla there is greatj of Justices’ Clerks, and by Mr. W. W. Kelland, the chairman passive congestion of the retinal vessels. Occasionally the of the Middlesex county council. The toast of I I The choroid and retina show well-marked pigmentation highlyr Officers of the Society"was proposed by Mr. C. L. Rothera, suggestive of hereditary syphilis. There may also bee coroner for Nottingham, who referred to the excellent work irregular contraction of the field of vision not amounting to) of the honorary secretary, Mr. Walter Sohioder, and thehemianopia especially noticeable just after the fits. Mr. Schrodertreasurer, Mr. G. Perceval .

’

Wyatt.

honorary responded

INJURY TO VEGETATION AND CATTLE DUE TO) SMELTER WASTES.

and alluded to the help which he obtained fromthe members of the council. During the evening a pleasingentertainment was provided under the direction of Mr. Arthur Winter.

Department of Agriculture has recently issued a bulletin1 by Mr. J. K. Haywood dealing with the SYNTHETIC SUPRARENIN. injury that is sustained by vegetable and animal life in the Dr. F. Stolz, the originator of synthetic suprarenin, in the vicinity of copper smelting works, owing to the smelterr Pharmaceutical Journal of May 16th takes exception to Pro.. The investigation, which was conducted at t wastes. fessor W. E. Dixon’s conclusionthat the synthetic substance is of interest to as l officials well Anaconda, Montana, sanitary is less active than the natural suprarenin. He states that tha as to agriculturists. The principal waste products are sulphur ] r results of investigations by a large number of clinicians and dioxide, with a little sulphur trioxide, arsenic, copper, lead, have furnished proof that the synthetic and zinc. Experiments are recorded showing the injurious ’ pharmacologists is more autive. Dr. Hans Meyer of the Pharmathe article action of sulphur fumes on vegetable life. The arsenic is cological Institute, Vienna, showed that both substances are given off in the fumes of the sm3lter in a volatile form and in their influence on blood pressure and vascular* is deposited upon the surrounding lands and crops whereidentical contraction, in their anasmic and mydriatic action, and in cattle are reared. A comparatively large amount of copper in the production of diuresis and glycosuiia. He quotes the suspension, and to a less degree in solution, is found in the statementof Dr. B:trhem of Bonn University that " synthetic tailings" from the water concentrations and in the drainings is not inferior to the natural in practice," and from the "dump heaps," which eventually pollute adjacent suprarenin states that these conclusions have been confirmed by Dr. streams. Finely-divided particles of flue dust, containing ’g Hans Hoffmann of Leipsic, Professor Braun of Zwickau, and sufficient quantities of copper, lead, and zinc to injure vegetaIn others. the same number of the Pharmaceutical many Is tion, were found in the atmosphere at considerable distances Journal Dr. J. Biberfeld of the Pharmacological Institute, It was found that the vegetation from the smelters. III Breslau, publishes recent confirmatory experiments on rabbits around a smelter was greatly injured by the sulphurous showing similar results from both substances in raising the gases to distances extending 20 miles north, eight blood pressure. He combats the suggestion of Professor miles south, six miles east, and 15 miles west, ’ Dixon that the lævo-rotatory portion alone of the synthetic and less severe injury probably extended for a considerable is active, whilst the dextro-rotatory portion 1& suprarenin Arsenic was found in distance beyond these limits. wholly inactive, and attributes Professor Dixon’s results to.THE United States

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s

"

n it

as

1 Bulletin No. 113, Bureau of Chemistry, United States Department of Agriculture, pp. 40, 1908,

1

THE LANCET,

May 23rd, 1908,

p. 1502.