Volume 54 · Issue 05 · 1938

The aim of this paper is to stimulate the interest of ophthalmologists in the various large clinics in this country to pay attention to a disease which, thought less prevalent and apparently less important than the well-known disease, trachoma, is responsible for quiet a high percentage of the blind and the partially blind in China.

Actinomycosis is a slowly spreading granulomatous lesion characterized by a combination of acute and chronic inflammatory processes manifesting themselves simultaneously in the same region. The out-standing clinical features of the disease are marked local necrosis resulting in irregular abscess formation, hoard-like induration of the surrounding soft tissues and the production of exuberant bleeding granulations associated with moderate fever, high leukocytosis and progressive cachexia. The disease process spreads by gradual direct extension. The organisms when found in the pus resemble, to the naked eye, suIphur granules, about a millimeter in diameter. Under the microscope, the granule is seen to be composed of a central core of fungi with radiating, filaments provided with club-like terminations. The disease thrives best under anaerobic conditions and attacks usually the soft tissues of the head and neck (50 to 60 per cent), the abdomen (20 to 30 per cent) and the chest (10 to 20 per cent).

It is a fact of observation that gonorrhea is inhibited if the patient develops a high pyretic infection. When such a pyretic infection develops, the urethral discharge often ceases.

Fibromata of the intestine are rare. King (8) wrote, "Intestinal tumors are rather uncommon, benign tumors of the bowel are still more uncommon, and fibromata are very rare." According to Rankin (12), probably the first case of true fibroma of the intestine was reported by Jansen in 1876.

For the last twelve years I have been interested in the analysis of Chinese foods in order to study their composition and food values. During the last thirty years Chinese foods have been analyzed by Prof. W. C. Blasdale of the University of California, Prof. William Adolph of Yenching University, Dr. Hsien Wu of the Peiping Union Medical College in Peiping, Dr. E. Tso, Mr. Y. Lee and others. My objects is to analysis some of the foods which are commonly used in South China, especially those which could be obtained locally.

In 1934 New (1) reported that he had seen 150 cases of anterior poliomyelitis in China. So far as the writer has been able to learn there is no record of epidemic poliomyelitis in China as it occurs in Western countries.

Trephining of the tibia for obtaining a specimen of bone marrow for study was first practised by Ghedini (1) in 1908. This method was later utilized by Zadek (2), Peabody (3) and a few others to study the bone marrow in pernicious anemia. But it never became popuLar on account of the difficulty in trephining the thick tibial bone, especially that in adults. In 1923 Seyfarth (4) introduced a biopsy of the sternal marrow for study. This has been proved to be not only a much easier but also a very valuable diagnostic procedure in the investigation of certain cases presenting anemia, leucopenia, and thrompocytopenia besides its usefulness in detecting certain metastatic newgrowths which are apt to involve the sternum.

The value of in vitro experiments on the anthelmintic action of various substances has already been discusseLI by Investigators working in this line, and not only the value, but the shortcomings of such experiments have been pointed out. It may, therefore, be sufficient here to merely repeat a few specially important points.

The introduction of salvarsan, some thirty years ago, has inaugurated a new era in the treatment of syphilis. The present younger medical generation can scarcely realize what an immense benefit to suffering humanity has been created by the research work of Ehrlich. Since then we have been inundated with an innumerable amount of new drugs, but the only one which in my experience can compare in its excellent effects with salvarsan is the new antigonorrhoeal drug, Uliron, a derivate of the benzolsulfonamide group.

During the great war itself, few scientific men in any country doubted that it was their duty to do what they could to apply their specialized knowledge to the purposes of war; nor was it often suggested by publicists that there was any countervailing consideration: on the contrary they urged strongly that our resources in this direction should be efficiently mobilized. It is chiefly in vague general discussions that the opposite view becomes vocal.

New Members Proposed