Volume 56 · Issue 04 · 1939

Our knowledge about lipoid granulomatosis or xanthomatosis of the bones begins with the description of Schüller-Christian's syndrome. This disease usually occurs in children and is characterized by (1) multiple round defects in the skull especially in the calvarium; (2) ex-ophthalmos; (3) diabetes insipidus; (4) infantilism and other disturbances of the pituitary function.

Since the time of Corning who was the first to suggest spinal anesthesia, various drugs and techniques have been introduced for this anesthetic procedure.

In an effort to find a convenient index of the state of vitamin C nutrition, investigators have chiefly centered their attention on the vitamin C content of the blood, urine, and spinal fluid. Farmer and Abt (1) and van Eekelen (2), however, have considered the blood level more informative as an index of the immediate nutritive state with regard to vitamin C. One of the main factors which determine the vitamin C content of the blood is the vitamin C intake of the food. This is illustrated, e.g., by the experiment of Mensching (3), who for 100 days was kept on a diet consisting mainly of cereaIs. Meats were taken only after being cooked for a long time. The vegetables and milk which the diet contained were boiled for from half to one hour with soda. After having been on this diet for 100 days, his blood vitamin C content dropped from 0.7 mg% t0 0.06-0 mg%.

It has been long known that compression of the eyeball makes the pulsation in the retinal vessels visible with the ordinary ophthalmoscope. To Bailliart (1), credit is due for making these pulsatory phenomena the basis of a method for measuring the retinal vascular pressures. With an instrument called the dynamometer, pressure is exerted against the globe which is fairly rapidly increased while the examiner observes, with the ophthalmoscope, the retinal vessels on the optic disc. The points of the appearance and disappearance of the arterial pulsation are noted.

Spontaneous rupture of a spleen enlarged as a result of pre-existing disease is not too uncommon. For a normal spleen to rupture spontaneously is, however, a rare abdominal catastrophe, which so far has not been satisfactorily explained. Careful review of the literature reveals that the first case of spontaneous rupture of the normal spleen was described and reported by Shorton (1) in 1919.

The accompanying diagram illustrates a simple piece of apparatus which is easily made and with which old hypodermic needles and cannulae of all sizes can be resharpened again and again instead of being thrown away when they become blunt.

Canine leishmaniasis has been previously recorded in China by Andrews (1), Lee (2), Feng, Chung and HoeppIi (3), Chung and Feng (4), and Feng and Chung (5). The present communication merely records (a) the incidence of the disease based on microscopic examination of the liver, spleen and skin of 587 normal dogs and (b) the experimental production of gross cutaneous lesions on a normal dog inoculated with a canine strain of leishmania.

The day of graduation is undoubtedly one of the highest points in the life of doctors and nurses. It certainly is a day on which the young graduates, elated by the many congratulations they receive, are allowed to look back with satisfaction on the years which lie behind them. However, at the same time, they must look forward to the years to come; they must immediately gird their loins in order to overcome the difficulties which their new position in the medical world will bring.

In the experiments devised for studying the humoral transmission at the central synapses (1), we have developed, among other technics, a simple preparation which may be called "auto-vivi-perfused isolated head".