- Email: [email protected]
TO MEDICAL FREEMASONS.
1459 conducted by Dr. Strauss, the of the French military hospitals.
personally
Inspector-General
FAR EAST. rain heavy following a dust storm in Manchuria, rendering the roads bad and impeding transport. There are signs of extensive movements of Marshal Oyama’s forces and skirmishes are reported by both sides. In these the casualties seem on the whole to preponderate on the side of the Russians and are gradually mounting up. The deaths from disease in their army since the war began must have reached a heavy total as compared with those in the Japanese armies. Notwithstanding that the next battle threatens to take place between the hostile armies public interest and speculation have been transferred from the land forces to the fleets in consequence of its being universally recognised how much hinges upon the results of the impending operations It will obviously be of the greatest interest and at sea. importance to the naval powers generally to see what arrangements are made for the disposal of the sick and the wounded in the event of the occurrence of any naval THE WAR
IN THE
There has been
engagement.
According to the Novosti, Professor D. O. Ott has been ordered to join the acting Russian army for four months. His special mission is to investigate the nature of medical organisation in the army.
not pronounced "and the third case After having looked through the literature on I have only found two cases of myxcedema with diabetes, those of Ewald2 and Beclere.3 In both cases diabetes had been the consequence of thyroid medication in I am, Sirs, yours faithfully, big doses. DR. ARNOLD LORAND. Carlsbad, May 15th, 1905.
that two
cases were
irregular." the subject
was
TO MEDICAL FREEMASONS. To the Editors of THE LANCET. SIRS,-May I, through the medium of your widely read journal, thank the many medical Freemasons and others who sent me their votes for the medical candidates at the recent elections of the different Masonic charitable institutions ?1 The success of these candidates is largely due to the hearty response to my appeal in THE LANCET of March 25th and must be very gratifying to those who were interested in the cases. The results are as follows :-
Royal Masonic Institution for Girls.-Eileen Torrens, successful with 5591 votes ; Mary Trevor Webster unsuccessful. Royal Masonic Institution for Boys.-Charles Hughes, successful with 5309 votes; Alfred Burns, successful with 3709 votes; Cyril Hockley unsuccessful. Royal Mason Benevolent Instit1ttion.-Joseph Rickets, successful with 3602 votes ; Elinor Gartley, successful with 3855.
I am,
Secretary,
Correspondence. II Audi alteram
partem."
DIABETES AND THE THYROID GLAND. To the Editors
of
Sirs, yours faithfully, HAROLD S. SINGTON, St. Luke’s Medical
44, St. Mary’s Mansions, W., May 22nd, 1905.
Lodge of Instruction.
THE FINANCIAL RELATIONS OF THE LONDON HOSPITALS AND THEIR MEDICAL SCHOOLS.
THE LANCET.
Zo the Editors
of THE LANCET.
SIRS,-In his very instructive Goulstonian lecture on SIRS,-In a leading article in THE LANCET of May 20th, Diabetes Mellitus, published in THE LANCET of April 22nd, 1362, in which reference is made to the arrangement that p. that Dr. C. "Lorand states W. p. 1053, Bosanquet says : has been come to between the Westminster Hospital Medical it is chiefly in female diabetics that actual enlargement of School and King’s College for the teaching of the preliminary the thyroid is present ; though why the other sex should and intermediate subjects of the curriculum at the latter not also exhibit the same alteration is not clear." May it is stated that the arrangement has been made I be allowed to make a few remarks on the subject ?7 institution, with King’s College Medical School, and not as should have According to George Murray, the thyroid of women is been said with the Science Department of
than that of men. I do not think it improbable that this may be in connexion with the fact that there exist very intimate relations between the ovaries and the thyroid, demonstrated clearly by the frequency of the swelling of the thyroid in consequence of defloration, conception, during puberty, menstruation, pregnancy, lactation, and the climacterium (menopause). Thus the female thyroid is more exposed to hyperfunction than the male one, and this might also be the cause of the greater frequency of goitre, of Graves’s disease, and of myxcedema in women. I should also like to add that the median lobe of the thyroid is in the great majority of cases more developed in women than in men; its swelling can thus be easier seen and felt than that of the lateral lobes which are more covered by musculature. It is certainly not easy to judge the condition of a thyroid by its external appearance. Sometimes a thyroid may not be seen or felt and still there might be at the necropsy a very big thyroid. As generally accepted Graves’s disease is a condition of hyperthyroidia (hyperactivity of the thyroid) and still there are not so rarely cases of Graves’s disease where no big thyroid can be seen or felt. On the other hand, the big size of the cretin’s thyroid is no proof of its good working condition. Hence the only reliable proof of the functional activity of the thyroid as of other glands can be gained merely by its histological examination. As I stated in my paper before the London Pathological Society on Feb. 21st last I have found in the thyroid of four diabetic dogs alterations that resembled those found by Chalmers Watson1 in fowls fed for a certain time only on animal food. May I also be allowed to say a word on the rarity of diabetes in myxoedema ?7 As Dr. Pavy has stated in his discussion with me in the Pathological Society he has neve) seen a case of myxoedema with diabetes ; and in the description of the three cases of the Philadelphia County Medical Society which he kindly lent me, the author himself admits
bigger
King’s College,
which has no necessary connexion with the Medical School. As this statement might possibly lead to some misunderstanding as to the relations between the two medical schools I should be much obliged if you can find room in your next issue for this correction. I am, Sirs, yours faithfully, E. PERCY PATON, Dean of Westminster Medical School
Park-street, Grosvenor-square, W., May 22nd, 1905.
A PLEA FOR THE RECOGNITION OF THE TREATMENT OF DISEASE BY INTRAVENOUS INJECTIONS. To the Editors of THE LANCET. SIRS,-In the report of the discussion on the above subject at the meeting of the Edinburgh Medico-Chirurgical Society
held on May 3rd-1. It was not a single but six injections of a 1 in 2000 solution of OH2O in physiological solution which affected the temperature in the case of oral sepsis. It brought it down from 104’ 5° to normal in nine days. Each injection was 110 cubic centimetres. 2. While the tuberculous abscess was quite cured as reported the patient some months later broke down and died from a practically general tuberculosis. Had she remained well permanently the power of arresting recent acute tubercle with CH20 Still the immeintravenously would have been phenomenal. diate success in this case with IlVIaguire’ssolution was brilliant. 3. I am also reported as having said that the presence of apical scars or caseous nodules was not proof of the curability of pnl17wnary tnberculosis. The term I used was phthisis not pulmonary tuberculosis, and I further explained my meaning by stating that I referred to the 2 Berliner Klinische Wochenschrift, 1895, No. 2, Jan. 14th. Société Médicale des Hôpitaux, Oct. 12th, 1894, and Gazette Médicale de Paris, 1894, p. 41a. 3
1
THE
LANCET, Feb. 11th, 1905, p. 347.
personally
Inspector-General
FAR EAST. rain heavy following a dust storm in Manchuria, rendering the roads bad and impeding transport. There are signs of extensive movements of Marshal Oyama’s forces and skirmishes are reported by both sides. In these the casualties seem on the whole to preponderate on the side of the Russians and are gradually mounting up. The deaths from disease in their army since the war began must have reached a heavy total as compared with those in the Japanese armies. Notwithstanding that the next battle threatens to take place between the hostile armies public interest and speculation have been transferred from the land forces to the fleets in consequence of its being universally recognised how much hinges upon the results of the impending operations It will obviously be of the greatest interest and at sea. importance to the naval powers generally to see what arrangements are made for the disposal of the sick and the wounded in the event of the occurrence of any naval THE WAR
IN THE
There has been
engagement.
According to the Novosti, Professor D. O. Ott has been ordered to join the acting Russian army for four months. His special mission is to investigate the nature of medical organisation in the army.
not pronounced "and the third case After having looked through the literature on I have only found two cases of myxcedema with diabetes, those of Ewald2 and Beclere.3 In both cases diabetes had been the consequence of thyroid medication in I am, Sirs, yours faithfully, big doses. DR. ARNOLD LORAND. Carlsbad, May 15th, 1905.
that two
cases were
irregular." the subject
was
TO MEDICAL FREEMASONS. To the Editors of THE LANCET. SIRS,-May I, through the medium of your widely read journal, thank the many medical Freemasons and others who sent me their votes for the medical candidates at the recent elections of the different Masonic charitable institutions ?1 The success of these candidates is largely due to the hearty response to my appeal in THE LANCET of March 25th and must be very gratifying to those who were interested in the cases. The results are as follows :-
Royal Masonic Institution for Girls.-Eileen Torrens, successful with 5591 votes ; Mary Trevor Webster unsuccessful. Royal Masonic Institution for Boys.-Charles Hughes, successful with 5309 votes; Alfred Burns, successful with 3709 votes; Cyril Hockley unsuccessful. Royal Mason Benevolent Instit1ttion.-Joseph Rickets, successful with 3602 votes ; Elinor Gartley, successful with 3855.
I am,
Secretary,
Correspondence. II Audi alteram
partem."
DIABETES AND THE THYROID GLAND. To the Editors
of
Sirs, yours faithfully, HAROLD S. SINGTON, St. Luke’s Medical
44, St. Mary’s Mansions, W., May 22nd, 1905.
Lodge of Instruction.
THE FINANCIAL RELATIONS OF THE LONDON HOSPITALS AND THEIR MEDICAL SCHOOLS.
THE LANCET.
Zo the Editors
of THE LANCET.
SIRS,-In his very instructive Goulstonian lecture on SIRS,-In a leading article in THE LANCET of May 20th, Diabetes Mellitus, published in THE LANCET of April 22nd, 1362, in which reference is made to the arrangement that p. that Dr. C. "Lorand states W. p. 1053, Bosanquet says : has been come to between the Westminster Hospital Medical it is chiefly in female diabetics that actual enlargement of School and King’s College for the teaching of the preliminary the thyroid is present ; though why the other sex should and intermediate subjects of the curriculum at the latter not also exhibit the same alteration is not clear." May it is stated that the arrangement has been made I be allowed to make a few remarks on the subject ?7 institution, with King’s College Medical School, and not as should have According to George Murray, the thyroid of women is been said with the Science Department of
than that of men. I do not think it improbable that this may be in connexion with the fact that there exist very intimate relations between the ovaries and the thyroid, demonstrated clearly by the frequency of the swelling of the thyroid in consequence of defloration, conception, during puberty, menstruation, pregnancy, lactation, and the climacterium (menopause). Thus the female thyroid is more exposed to hyperfunction than the male one, and this might also be the cause of the greater frequency of goitre, of Graves’s disease, and of myxcedema in women. I should also like to add that the median lobe of the thyroid is in the great majority of cases more developed in women than in men; its swelling can thus be easier seen and felt than that of the lateral lobes which are more covered by musculature. It is certainly not easy to judge the condition of a thyroid by its external appearance. Sometimes a thyroid may not be seen or felt and still there might be at the necropsy a very big thyroid. As generally accepted Graves’s disease is a condition of hyperthyroidia (hyperactivity of the thyroid) and still there are not so rarely cases of Graves’s disease where no big thyroid can be seen or felt. On the other hand, the big size of the cretin’s thyroid is no proof of its good working condition. Hence the only reliable proof of the functional activity of the thyroid as of other glands can be gained merely by its histological examination. As I stated in my paper before the London Pathological Society on Feb. 21st last I have found in the thyroid of four diabetic dogs alterations that resembled those found by Chalmers Watson1 in fowls fed for a certain time only on animal food. May I also be allowed to say a word on the rarity of diabetes in myxoedema ?7 As Dr. Pavy has stated in his discussion with me in the Pathological Society he has neve) seen a case of myxoedema with diabetes ; and in the description of the three cases of the Philadelphia County Medical Society which he kindly lent me, the author himself admits
bigger
King’s College,
which has no necessary connexion with the Medical School. As this statement might possibly lead to some misunderstanding as to the relations between the two medical schools I should be much obliged if you can find room in your next issue for this correction. I am, Sirs, yours faithfully, E. PERCY PATON, Dean of Westminster Medical School
Park-street, Grosvenor-square, W., May 22nd, 1905.
A PLEA FOR THE RECOGNITION OF THE TREATMENT OF DISEASE BY INTRAVENOUS INJECTIONS. To the Editors of THE LANCET. SIRS,-In the report of the discussion on the above subject at the meeting of the Edinburgh Medico-Chirurgical Society
held on May 3rd-1. It was not a single but six injections of a 1 in 2000 solution of OH2O in physiological solution which affected the temperature in the case of oral sepsis. It brought it down from 104’ 5° to normal in nine days. Each injection was 110 cubic centimetres. 2. While the tuberculous abscess was quite cured as reported the patient some months later broke down and died from a practically general tuberculosis. Had she remained well permanently the power of arresting recent acute tubercle with CH20 Still the immeintravenously would have been phenomenal. diate success in this case with IlVIaguire’ssolution was brilliant. 3. I am also reported as having said that the presence of apical scars or caseous nodules was not proof of the curability of pnl17wnary tnberculosis. The term I used was phthisis not pulmonary tuberculosis, and I further explained my meaning by stating that I referred to the 2 Berliner Klinische Wochenschrift, 1895, No. 2, Jan. 14th. Société Médicale des Hôpitaux, Oct. 12th, 1894, and Gazette Médicale de Paris, 1894, p. 41a. 3
1
THE
LANCET, Feb. 11th, 1905, p. 347.