Volume 56 · Issue 06 · 1939

The purpose of the present paper is to review certain aspects of catarrhal jaundice and arsenical jaundice and their relation to acute yellow atrophy in connection with a case of diffuse liver degeneration following neo-arsphenamine and mapharsen treatment with rapid fatal termination. Such a review may serve to clarify our present position in regard to the pathogenesis of catarrhal jaundice and arsenical jaundice. The case is remarkable in that the liver remained large to the end in spite of the fulminating course.

In recent years there has been a growing suspicion that the dog may be an important reservoir host of human kala-azar. Since both human and canine leishmaniases are not only prevalent but also frequently occur together in the same house in Peiping, it is obvious that one of the most urgent and important problems in the epidemiology of kala-azar is the identity of or the relationship between Leishmania donovani and Leishmania canis. In attempting to solve this problem, we deemed it pertinent, among other lines of approach, to make comparative studies of the immunity reactions caused by the two organisms respectively. While these studies are still in progress, certain results of considerable significance and interest concerning the immunity to infection with Leishmania canis of hamsters recently cured of Leishmania donovani infection have emerged and are here reported.

The high cost of Dagenan, because it is a new and patented preparation (2); which requires a fairly large dosage for effective oral administration (3, 4) makes the use of the drug rather limited or impossible, for the group of poor patients with whom we are now dealing.

History. The patient, Hospital No. 66875, a Chinese salesman, aged 27 years, was admitted to the Medical Service of the P.U.M.C. Hospital on April 9, 1939. He complained of a growing mass in the left upper abdomen for four years, general malaise, pallor and loss of body weight for over one year, blurring of vision for one year, and frequent epistaxis and bIeeding from the gums for five months. The bleeding occurred once every three to four days, only a few drops of blood being lost on each occasion. The mass in the abdomen had been irradiated repeatedly in other hospitals and had stopped growing following these irradiations. Otherwise the history was irrelevant.

Perforation of the gallbladder is not common, and its occurrence in children is distinctly a rare condition. In a series of l,000 cases of gallbladder disease, Alexander (1) in 1927 found twenty cases perforated. Only one of them occurred in a child of twelve years. In 1934, Judd (2) reported 61 perforations in a series of 9,446 cases of gallbladder disease, and Eliason and McLaughlin (3) in the same year, 105 perforations in a series of 7,316 cases. Sanders (4) in 1937 found that 46 of his 886 cases of gallbladder disease perforated. None of their cases occurred in children. In China, Snell (5) in 1933 reported three perforations in a series of 46 cases of gallbladder disease. The youngest paUent in his series was sixteen years of age. Another case reported in China (Tongs (6)) was a woman of 39.

Tetanus is described in ancient Chinese medical literature (1). The most prevalent types now seen are tetanus neonatorum and tetanus which has developed in deep penetrating wounds, or in flesh wounds on which Chinese native plaster, incense powder or dirt has been applied as a styptic. Recently we have seen many cases of tetanus in which no prophylactic tetanus antitoxin had been given in shrapnel and bullet penetrating wounds, especially those of a lacerating or crushing nature.

E.R.C. a male student, aged 17 years, complained of inability to open his mouth. On Aug. 9th., 1939 at his home he presented an appearance typical of tetanus with sardonic facies and with a mild degree of opisthotonus.

The rôle played by bacillus carriers in the spread of typhoid fever is an important one considering that about 11 per cent of cases continue to discharge typhoid bacilli for eight to ten weeks after the onset of the disease and that from 2-4 per cent of all cases become active chronic carriers indefinitely.

Scarlet fever is by no means a rare disease in China. Ever Since its first record in Shanghai, 1873, (1) scarlet fever has been reported both sporadically and epidemically throughout the various parts of the Country. Generally speaking it is less common and less severe in the Southern provinces (2).

Rats by reason of their great number constitute in the south-western part of China a serious household pest, and as possible disease carriers for man and domestic animals deserve urgent attention. The present report embodies part of a preliminary survey on the parasitic fauna of the common vertebrate in the vicinity of Kweiyang which was begun in the summer of 1938 and concerns only with the helminth parasites of rats.

Eponyms--designations after a person or thing--are frequently used in medicine to designate certain diseases, instruments, methods. These eponyms have their uses as well as their abuses as Rolleston has very clearly explained (1). Now-a-days there is a great tendency to delete eponyms as much as possible from the niedicallanguage, and this modern trend will certainly obviate many abuses and difficuIties. On the other hand, thanks to the use of eponyms, names of scientists which otherwise would have been forgotten are now still remembered. In this way the physician of today is reminded that for thousands of years generations of scientists have contributed to the development of modern medicine. As a result, the use of eponyms has frequently stimulated the interest in medical history.