Volume 54 · Issue 06 · 1938

Cases for plastic repair of the nasal deformity entail the establishment of a clear understanding between the physician and the patient, as the surgeon can not always foretell the operative result with full exactitude. In our experience patients with marked irregularities of nasal contour following nasal fracture usually accept the plastic operation without hesitation.

On September 30, 1938, a sheep, brought in from the vicinity of Peiping, was killed in our laboratory for the purpose of securing Fasciota hepatica for a special study. Incidentally, one mature male of Schistosoma turkestanicum, 7.95 mm in length, was discovered in the portal vein of the liver, though no other worms of this species were obtained in a subsequent search of the mesenteric veins. Sedimentation of the stool of this sheep was made but no ova were found. In the specimen found, the number of testes was eighty, and its other important morphological characteristics agreed well with those given by Skrjabin (1913) and Bhalerao (1932).

In 1889 Fuchs published his classical paper on superficial punctate keratitis. Since then, there had been the Bombay epidemic in 1900-1, and the India epidemic in 1930. In the winter of 1930-31 a similar epidemic occurred in London. In China Ling mentioned 53 cases in the Nanking epidemic during the summer and autumn of 1934.

Having for some time past been impressed with the importance and extent of hookworm infection in this part of Hunan, we were especially surprised that Winfield in his first article on fecal-borne diseases in the February, 1937 number of this journal, entirely omits to notice the existence of hookworm in Hunan. He even considers it an unimportant disease in any area which has not either silk culture or truck gardening as main industries. This part of Hunan has neither, but hookworm is very frequent.

A Chinese patient with a brain tumor in the left occipito-parietal region presented a clinical picture of special interest, largely on account of the disturbances in reading and writing Chinese and English. He was not only fluent and well educated in Chinese and English but was also unusually intelligent and cooperative. This gave a good opportunity to compare alexia and agraphia in the two languages. Furthermore, the results of the operation add significant information. The main features of this case are reported here.

The value of bacillus pertussis vaccines has been a subject of much dispute for more than twenty years (1, 2, 3, 4). On account of lack of conclusive evidence of the therapeutic or prophylactic efficacy of such preparations, they were omitted from New and Non-official Remedies in 1931. More recently, however, a revival of interest has followed the work of Madsen (5) and Sauer (6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11). For the preparation of a potent vaccine Sauer emphasized the use of freshly isolated strains of bacillus pertussis which were grown on special medium containing human blood. He attributed to this particular specification the successfuI results which were obtained with his vaccine. Madsen also required fresh strains for the preparation of his vaccine.

Diphyllobofhrium erinacei in its adult as well as in its plerocercoid stage has been studied in the past by various investigators. Of these studies that of S. Iwata (1934) is of particular interest since he has paid special attention to the possible relationship between Sparganum erinacei and Sp. proliferum. The results of Iwata's work indicate that there are certain similarities between the two forms as well as characteristics which are undoubtedly different. In the course of these investigations, Iwata also studied the behavior of injured spargana which had been introduced intraperitoncally or subcutaneously into animals capable of serving as second intermediate host.

Basing on a new principle, Zinsser and his co-workers have in two recent publications (1, 2), announced their success in the cultivation of typhus Rickettsia on "agar-tissue" media. This medium consists of an agar slant, made up of serum-Tyrode mixture, over which small pieces of tissue are laid. It is among these little pieces of tissue, that the Rickettsiae have been found to grow luxuriantly and more regularly than by the conventional Maitland culture methods. The principle involved, as previously found by Zinsser and Schocnbach (3), is the fact that whereas virus would multiply only in cells with active respiration, Rickettsia would grow in those which have slowed down or have already ceased.

In the course of investigations done during 1930 many Culicine larvae were found in rock pools by the sea-shore. Mosquitoes obtained from these were identified on reference to Edwards' (1921) (1922) publications as Ae.(F) togoi, a species which had previoursly been recordcd in Hong Kong by Macfarlane (1915).

Since the decade, 1920-1930, when Goldberger and His associates made a long series of researches on the problem of pellegra, considerable advance has taken place in the study of this disease. Goldberger was able to show that a maize (yellow corn) diet produces pellagra in man and black tongue-canine pellagra-in experimental animals, and that the addition of yeast to the diet prevents or cures the syndrome of pellagra in man as well as in animals. Yeast was therefore considered to contain a pellagra preventive (P-P factor) factor which also exists in milk, meat, eggs, and in common or garden produce.