Volume 58 · Issue 04 · 1940

Recent publications in America and Europe emphasized the increasingly high incidence of primary carcinoma of the lungs. Simons (1) expressed the opinion that the increase was both absolute and relative. Fried (2), on the other hand, considered that the greater frequency of the disease was very likely more apparent than real. The fact remains that more cases of primary carcinoma of the lung were seen in Western countries during the recent years than in the beginning of the century. In China, however, the situation seemed to be different. Maxwell in 1928 (3), in statistics collected from a number of hospitals in several provinces of China with a total of l,133 cases of malignant diseases, found only two cases of cancer of the lung which had appeared in the Hongkong Public Mortuary Report of 1905 by Koch (4). Gears (5), in a recent study of the incidence of tumors among hospital patients in China, did not even mention carcinoma of the lung.

The prevalence of leptospirosis in Japan and Indo-China suggests that the disease may aIso occur in China. However, as far as we know, the only authentic report on the occurrence of this disease in this country is that by Tang (1) who observed 3 cases in Canton in 1934 (leptospira was isolated from the blood of l patient) and referred to a severe epidemic in the same year when more than 100 prisoners succumbed to the disease in a rat-infected gaol in the city. Our present communication records for the first time in North China two cases which are of special interest inasmuch as they represent the canicola type of infection hitherto not observed in this country.

Since 1871 there have been at least 15 epidemics of acute encephalitis in Japan. These epidemics are different from those of the lethargic form described by von Economo in Vienna in 1916-1917.

Good results in the culture of microbes (gonococcus) in the chick embryo were reported by Bradford as early as 1936 (1), thereafter in 1938 by Barykine and his co-workers with typhus virus (2), and by Cox in 1938 (3) with the virus of the Rocky Mountain spotted fever, and viruses belonging to the typhus group. Recently we reported the success of cultivating the Chinese strain of Rickettsia prowazeki in the same medium (4).

Neuropathic Arthropathy was first studied by Charcot who published reports in 1868. The disease most frequently attacks the knee joint, but it may sometimes attack the hip, shoulder, ankIe, elbow, wrist or the joints of the fingers and in all these cases both sides of the body may be involved at the same time. The knee joint is most frequently affected, next the hip joint, whiIe the spine is rarely involved.

Numerous reports have been published on the use of soybean for infant feeding. The way it has been prepared for this purpose can be classified into (a) the powder or meal form and (b) the "milk" form. The latter method of preparation is chiefly utilized in this country where soybean "milk" has occupied a position in the dietary for centuries. It is prepared by grinding the soaked bean with water in 8 stone mill. The resulting milky emulsion is then strained. This pro duct, as compared with the soybean meal used in the formulae in the Western countries, is of course much finer in that it does not contain coarse particles. It also captures popular imagination as a good infant food because it has a milky appearance. Both of these factors are of some importance.

This treatment developed from the observation by Hirshfeld, Hyman and Wanger (1) that numerous chemical compounds could be safely administered to animals and human beings in amounts far exceeding the usual toxic doses by a slow continuous intravenous drip injection of dilute solutions. This manuscript was first made available in 1931. Since 1933 a considerable number of papers have appeared dealing with this technic as applied to the treatment of early syphilis by a group of workers (2) at the Mount Sinai Hospital of New York. A number of manuscripts have been read since that date before various meetings. Obviously there are considerable advantages in any method of treatment of syphilis which can be completed in a brief period of time, so that the results, if even approximately comparable to those obtainable with systems of treatment requiring months or years, are likely to be speak for such a method the most favorable consideration. However, there must be borne in mind as well the fact that the employment of remedies with such a technic involves a certain amount of risk and that the risk with drugs of the type of neoarsphenamine and mapharsen is far greater than that with less toxic preparations.

In a previous paper (1940) we have described the general features of the maIaria survey conducted aIong the new China-Burma Highway. The present paper deals in more detail with the region of severe malaria endemicity, stretching from Lungling through Mangshih to the Burma frontier.

Bacillary dysentery has long been a most dreaded disease among infants and young children in this country. To this day it still carries a very alarming mortality rate, especially in the infant group. Hence, it is thought that a review of the past experience with this disease might be helpful and of interest to those who are likely to meet with such patients in their practice. The present study is based on the records of 315 patients admitted to the Pediatric Ward of the Peiping Union Medical College Hospital from July 1930 to June 1938. The clinical diagnosis of bacillary dysentery was made during the acute stage of the disease, with dysenteric stools and toxic symptoms Patients seen in the carrier stage were not included in this series. In this analysis, special attention was given to the prognosis.