Volume 56 · Issue 02 · 1939

The patient, L. T. C., a twenty-four year old business man, was admitted to the Medical service of Cheeloo UniverSity Hospital on January 14, 1939, the chief com plaint being cough with a large amount of sputum. He had enjoyed excellent health until twenty-four days previously, when he had a heavy drinking bout. On the following day he started with a mild cough but without any rise of temperature. He did not, however, pay much attention to it, arid continued at his work. The cough got progresaively worse, and the sputum gradually increased in amount, its character changing from mucoid to purulent but remaining free from odour; the amount was almost two bowls daily; in the three days before admission it became blood-streaked. Shortly after the onset of his present illness the patient developed a low degree of fever and impaired appetite. Bowel movements and urination were quite normal. Epistaxis and shortness of breath were noticed in the last week before his coming to hospital.

Sulphonamide by oral and parenteral routes has produced fairly good results in the report by Price and Myers (1). Similar results from other authors are referred to in their paper.

Considering the high incidence of malaria in many parts of China, it is a little surprising to find blackwater fever a comparatively rare disease and, according to Seaton, it is found only in Yunnan, Hainan Island and occasionally in the South China ports. The following report of a case of blackwater fever in the New Territories of the Kowloon Peninsula is interesting in view of the extreme rarity of the disease in this district where malignant tertian malaria is both endemic and rampant.

Physical therapy has been added during the past twenty years as a new technical specialty to the general field of medicine. Physical therapy is the therapeutic use of the physical agents. It comprises the use of physical, chemical and other properties of heat, light, water, electricity, massage and exercise.

Dr. Y. T. Yao has sent to the United States National Museum a large series of Oncomelania for determination, which he collected at Wang Ling Hsiang, Pingyang Hsien, in the central part of Kiangsi Province, China, which he found served as intermediate hosts of the Asiatic Blood Fluke in that region. These proved to he an undescribed species of Oncomelania. which I take pIeasure in naming for its discoverer.

Following the clinical use of sulfanilamide and its related compounds profound changes in the blood and hemopoietic organs are sometimes known to occur. Cases of leucopenia (1, 2, 3), granulocytopenia, agranulocytosis (4, 5, 6, 7, 8) and acute hemolytic anemia (9, 10, 11) have been repeatedly reported.

This paper deals with the food of four species of liver flukes: Fasciota hepatica, Dicrocoelium dendriticum, Clonorchis sinensis and Meiorchis orientalis. As all of these are parasites of biliary passages, it is interesting to make a study of the following three problems : (1) What is their food? (2) Are there any differences between the quality and quantity of their food? and (3) Is there any relationship with the pathological lesions they produce?

Incised wounds of the anterior part of the neck with involvement of the larynx or trachea are rarely seen, probably because this region of the body is well shielded from external injuries. A surprisingly 1arge percentage of those which do come under observation are self-inflicted. This is perhaps due to the fact that among the Chinese one of the traditional methods of committing suicide is by cutting the throat. If immediate death does not take place, and the patient arrives at the hospital, the surgeon is confronted with many difficult problems both immediately and during the later period of treatment. In the handling of these probIems he finds very little help in textbooks or surgical literature. It is the purpose of this paper, therefore, to record the results of our experience gained in the treatment of such cases.

The use of specific vaccines as a prophylactic measure against typhoid and cholera has become increasingly popular in recent years. The following statistical record from the Shanghai Municipal Council and the Mnnicipal Council of French Concession, Shanghai, China, shows the general increase in the number of cholera inoculation given during the recent five years.

In a previous paper (1) we described the two types of diet prevalent in Peking and pointed out some common distortions of these diets. We will now consider the modifications usually made by a patient who does not feel well, but who is not acutely ill. If he normally eats the whole-cereal-soybean diet, he finds the dry bread, "wo-t'ou" (窩头) rather difficult to chew and he substitutes rice gruel, "hsi-fan" (稀饭）, a weak carbohydrate solution. If he habitualIy eats the milled-cereal-meat diet, he eliminates the meat and vegetable sauted together as "ch'ao ts'ai"(炒菜) and although he may continue to eat white rice and noodles, he too may eat only rice gruel, "hsi-fan' (稀饭）. Rarely does either type of patient take much vegetable soup of his own accord.

In a special article under this title published by Dr. Harold Balme, formerly dean of the School of Medicine and professor of surgery at Cheeloo University in Tsinan, in "Lancet" of April 8, 1939, an attempt has been made to answer the question regarding the medical situation in this country and how far the national medical services ofChina are in a position to cope with medical relief among the Chinese civilian population as a result of the present emergency.