Volume 50 · Issue 02 · 1936

The production and use of antisera in the treatment of typhoid fever is no new venture in specific therapy. In fact quite early in the history of modern immunology, Chantemesse(1) and various workers experimented with sera produced by immunising animals with typhoid bacilli. However success did not seem to attend these various early trials.

There remains a largely unexplored field in China for the study of food articles and utensils which contain metallic poisons, through their constant and wide use poisoning may result. Of special interest and immediate importance is the study of those articles that on account of their daily and wide use, combined with the peculiar living habits of the people, the resulting intoxication may become a problem of serious concern to the physician and health officer alike. In a previous communication (1) we have pointed out that the "mosquito incense" contains a large amount of arsenic.

Infectious diseases are the phenomena of the war between micro- organisms and more highly organized living creatures. Such diseases were noticed and recorded very early in history. In European literature, the first distinct mention infection was found in the well-known account given by Thueydides of the epidemic which raged in and about Athens during the second year of the Peloponnesian War, 430 B. C. In Chinese literature, Chou-li (周礼), which was written by Chow-kung (?-1105 B. C.), recorded infectious diseases in the four seasons, namely, headaches in spring, skin troubles in summer, fevers and agues in autumn, and bronchial and pulmonary compIaints in winter. About five or six hundred years later, in the seventeenth year of the reign of Lu Siang Kung (鲁襄�?556 B. C.), the rabid dog was driven away by the people, so that people might not be bitten by it. From this we learn that infectious diseases were known in China very early.

Twenty years ago almost to a day the Chinese Medical Association (for the National Medical Association as it was then) met in conference in this great city and also took part in the celebrations of the opening of the Kung-yi Hospital.

In this section, it is proposed to present a complete picture of modern medicine in China since its first introduction exactly a century ago. We have just heard of its progress made during this period and the significant contributions which medical missionaries have made, first in laying the foundation and then in carrying on the work.

The importance of the tubal factor in sterility has been variously estimated by different writers. Some authorities have reported that tubal occlusion is responsible for sterility in as many as 60 per cent of sterile marriages, while others have been more conservative in their estimates.

Cases of syphilitic gumma of skelctaI muscles are infrequently met with and clinicians often mistake the disorder for neoplasm. The rarity of such manifestations justifies a report of four cases which we have observed in the Peiping Union Medical College during the past ten years. Furthermore, in one case, we were fortunate enough to isolate Treponema pallidum in rabbits inoculated with the biopsy material. As far as we can learn from the literature available to us, Treponema pallidum has not been previously isolated from such cases.

Distention of the abdomen due to a collection of gas and fluid within the intestinal tract always has been an alarming symptom to surgeon and patient alike. Under the most favorable circumstances it is a source of great discomfort to the patient, who in years gone by was schooled to expect gas pains as the inevitable accompaniment of every abdominal operation.

In the May, 1935, number of this Journal Chung and Lee (1) reported ten cases of cysticercosis cellulosae in man observed in the P.U.M.C. Hospital and emphasized especially the prevalence, importance and symptomatology of central nervous system involvement. Of the ten cases only Case 5 came to necropsy. This case shows such severe infestation that it is deemed worthwhile to report it in full.

The impression has gained considerable ground in the past few years to regard vascular hypertension as being a rare condition among the Chinese people. Foster (1927) and Tung (1927) independently came to the same conclusion, that the blood pressure of the Chinese is low as compared with the occidentals. They also showed that foreigners, after being in China for a variable period of time, tend to acquire a lower blood pressure and furthermore when they return to their homeland it usually reverts back to its former level. Various explanations have been offered for this interesting phenomenon, among these may be mentioned the mode of life, the diet, and climatic differences, but none so far seems to have received general acceptance.

To most medical men to question the validity of any time-honoured laboratory procedure on which they habitually rely is tantamount tcy sacrilege. But science moves on and nature refuses to be confined for long in any mental straight-jacket conceived by man. In this connection, the interpretation of the ordinary test for the saImonella group which by reason of recent perfection in technique and mass prophylactic inoculation requires a new orientation, is worthy of attention.

There are cases appearing in the literature every few months concerning the birth of Siamese twins and different types of monsters. Each case is interesting and every one is a little different from the others. The case we are going to report on is that of a double - headed monster. This type is very rare and presents a problem of more difficult explanation for its cause than most of the others.

The present Survey is not the first occasion on which malaria has been made the subject of a collective study by the Association. In their book on the Diseases of China (1) Jeffreys and Maxwell based their discussion on the incidence of malaria in this country on material secured through the Association, and then again in 1926 appeared the report by Faust (2), on behalf of the Research Committee of the Association. This paper which embodies the analysis of questionnaires sent to hospitals throughout the country, remains still the best source of information on the general distribution of malaria in China. Accordingly its findings are given the result of the present study. Briefly they are given in the following quotation�?