Volume 50 · Issue 05 · 1936

Cutaneous eruptions due to the bromides are among the most characteristic of drug reactions. Noteworthv cases have been reported from different parts of the world from time to time. In this country not a single case has been reported. The condition is but rarely seen in Peiping. The infrequency of its occurrence is probably due to the restricted use of the drug. So far as it is known the bromides are not prescribed by physicians trained in the native school of Chinese medicine, and the drug has not yet become popularized through its use in proprietary medicines obtainabIe directly by the laity. The eruptive lesions are frequently of such a character as to be taken for a chronic infectious precess rather than one due to drug intoxication. The report of a typical case together with its treatment by the intravenous administration of sodium chloride solution will serve to draw attention to this interesting manifestation of bromide hypersensitiveness.

Ever since this deformity of the pelvis has been described it has been the subject of considerable discussion, for its etiology has been obscure and it has often gone undiagnosed to the great detriment of the patient. Two patients came to one of us in the month of June 1935. Both of these patients were foreign women, and in the one case the lady was the wife of a doctor. She had had a long and tedious labour which had to be finished by a difficult forceps extraction, in which a great deal of strength had to be exerted, and the cervix had been badly torn. She had been an invalid for months with phlebitis and general weakness, and yet it was evident on the simplest examination that she had a funnel pelvis with a markedly contracted transischial diameter. On remarking that this was the cause she said, "But it cannot be, I was measured at home and told that my measurements were over large." So they were as regards the Interspinous, Intercristal and Ext. conjugate, and these were so large that the examiner had never thought it worth while to trouble about the outlet.

Neuroparalytic accidents complicating anti-rabic treatment, though rare, were known even in Pasteur's time. They occur either during or soon after the anti-rabic treatment, from the sixth to the twenty-fifth day after the first injection. The paraIysis occurs in three more or less distinct clinical types: the Landry's ascending paralysis, the subacute dorso-lumbar myelitis, and the mild peripheral neuritis, with a mortality rate of thirty, five, and zero percent respectively. The incidence of such accidents varies with different report, expressed in number of cases per 1,000 treatments. Remlinger (1905) gave 0.37, Babes (1912) 1.3, Simon (1912) 0.48, Pelser (1920) 0.77, International Rabies Conference (1927) 0.28 and Mokendrick (1930) 0.25. It is definitely less with carbolized vaccine than with dried cord. Sex and season seem to have no influence on its occurrence. It is rare at both extremes of life. Although about 50 percent of the treatments were given to children, not a single accident has been reported in children below five years of age. People of intellectual profession are said to be more susceptible to the accident than are those engaged in manual labor.

Although not as spectacular as epidemics of smaIlpox, plague, or cholera, malaria is undoubtedly the cause of more deaths each year, and mare disability than any other disease in Hainan. Its treatment is therefore, of the greatest importance.

In view of the recent legislation put out by the Canton authorities with regard to the establishment of outpatient and village clinics for the treatment of patients suffering from Leprosy, some observations on the first six months' work of a village cIinic may be of interest.

The question of the specificity of the Wassermann and Kahn reactions in leprosy is still far from being settled, as indicated by many conflicting reports (1). Recently, Soule (2) made an investigation of this matter at Culion, and summarized his findings as follows.

It is only of recent years, one might almost say only of recent months, that any very wide interest has been taken in the question of leprosy in this country; So far, to the Bodies working for the eradication of leprosy from China it has been a very uphill fight. They still have much to do before the.prevalent lack of interest and inertia are overcome but there are evident signs of an awakening to the urgency of the problem and to the need for a real policy which faces facts as they are, not as we would like them to be.

Tuberculosis is a disease of cities, leprosy a disease of villages. This is Muir's dictum for India and the experience of workers in this country makes it certain that the same is true for China. Why this shouId be the case is a matter of no little interest and importance, for the explanation of this peculiarity should bring much light to bear on the problem of the transmission of infection.

Ours was the first among the nations of Europe to set up institutions for rendering assistance to lepers in the Far East.

Refrigerant drinks are non-alcoholic beverages. They are aerated or non-aerated. The former imparts to the tongue a cooling and consequently a pleasant sensation caused by the ebullition of carbon dioxide, while drinks of the latter class appeal better to the taste and have the additional function of thirst quenching.

In a spirited article on the etiology of heart disease Halsey (1) calls upon the profession to make etiology the basis of its classification of the diseases of the heart. After presenting three series of extended observations from as many different sources he concludes that "the results are very much a mixture" and that "the lack of a common denominator destroys the validity of comparison". "The conclusion seems justified", he finds, "that accurate knowledge of the extent of the etiologic groups will not be available until cIinicians, pathologists and statisticians think of, diagnose, treat and record the diseases of the heart by a common nomenclature of etiology whenever, wherever and for whatever purpose records are made."

Few diseases show within a short period of time from their onset such a considerable loss of body fluids and consequently such a pronounced change in the chemical composition of blood as choIera. However, reports on a fairly complete study of the blood of cholera patients have been comparatively few, owing apparently to the fact that the occurrence of this disease is practically limited to the Eastern Asiatic countries, where researches in scientific medicine have been much less extensively performed than in Europe or America.