Volume 58 · Issue 06 · 1940

In connection with certain studies on Leishmania infection in experimental animals, it occurred to us that the hitherto unexplored intratesticular route might be utilized with greater advantage than the intraperitoneal route usually empIoyed. As the results present certain interesting features, a preliminary note is hereby communicated.

Trephinging of the tibia or femur to obtain bone marrow for microscopic examination was apparently first performed on man by Ghedini (1) in 1908 and later (1910) utilized by Basile (2) in his study on canine visceral leishmaniasis.

The object of this paper is to emphasize the fact that malaria transmission during the course of routine blood transfusjons in an endemic area may occur with alarming frequency. Therapeutic use of the blood of malaria patients in the treatment of cerebro-spinal syphilis has long been resorted to, so that the concept of transmitting malaria by blood transfusion is not new. According to Gardner and Dexter (1), Woolsey in 1911 was the first to report a case of accidental transmission during a transfusion for pernicious anemia. Wang and Lee (2) reported fifty-four cases of malaria complicating 3,700 transfusions over a period of ten years in Peking. They likewise reported relapsing fever as a complication of bIood transfusion. Syphilis transmitted by blood transfusion has been re- ported on numerous occasions (3), (4), (5), (6), (7). Malaria tlansmitted by the injection of whole blood ha3 likewise been reported (Wright 8). Flaxam (9), Geiger (10), Appelbaum and Gelfand(ll), Chung et.al (12), have reported cases of malaria transmission by means of hypodermic syringes used by narcotic addicts.

In a previous communication (1) it was shown that Chinese hamsters infected with Leishmania donovani can be cured of the infection by neostibosan. FolIowing a total dose of 5 t0 7 gm per kilo body weight, all the 6 hamsters which had survived the course of treatment, showed no parasites in smears made from the liver and spleen either by puncture or at autopsy, and they were all aPParently cured. However, by emulsifying each spIeen and inoculating this emulsion into a number of normal hamsters, it was found that only 3 of the 6 apparently cured hamsters were actualN cured, as the spleen emulsion prepared from 3 0f them was still capable of causing kala-azar in normaI hamsters.

In 1931, Riddle and Braucher showed that the lactogenic hormone secreted by the anterior pituitary gland initiates and maintains lactation. Gomez and Turner (1937, 1938) suggested that the anterior pituitary gland secretes a "mammognic" hormone in response to the ovarian hormones, estrogen and progestin. This mammogenic hormone is probably composed of two factors, the duct growth stimulating and the lobule alveolar stimulating.

Riboflavin is the term recently adopted by the American Medical Association and the American Institute of Nutrition for the substance "6, 7 dimethyl-9-(d'1 ribityl)-iso-alloxanzibe. It was at one time believed to be one of the factors necessary for the cure of human pellagra but now the factor responsible for the cure of the latter condition is proved beyond question by many recent investigators (Fouts and his associates (1), Spies and his associates (2), Hou (3) and others) to nicotinic acid.

The therapeutic value of sulfapyridine in the treatment of children with lobar pneumonia, pertussis pneumonia, and with bronchopneumonia secondary to measles has been well established. Table l gives a summary of the literature with 378 cases of pneumonia in children with a mortality rate of l.06 per cent as compared with the text-book mortality rates of 3-5 per cent in lobar pneumonia, 10-20 per cent in primary bronchopneumonia, and 50-80 per cent in secondary bronchopneumonia in institutions (9), (10). The authors agree that the lowering of the mortality rate is not the only indication of the therapeutic vaIue of suIfapyridine. It is remarkable to see how often an acutely ill child becomes well within forty-eight hours, often within twenty-four hours. The toxic symptoms encountered are nausea and vomiting, sometimes cyanosis, rarely morbilliform eruptions,neutro penia, hematuria, and irritability-they do not usualIy necessitate the cessation of the drug.

Acute suppurative sinusitis in rabbits has been produced successfully by introducing Strebtococcus hemolyiicus into the antrum (1). Such a procedure, however. Is not applicable to the production of diphtheritic sinusitis in these animals since it is well known that the mere presence of C. diphtheriae on the mucosa of the upper respiratory tract fails to lead to the invasion of the tissues by this organism. Lesions can be induced only when the mucous membrane previously has been damaged before the organisms are introduced. Even then pathological changes are not constantly observed and it is questionable whether the pseudomembrane thus produced corresponds histologically to that of the false membrane observed in patients suffering from diphtheria (2). Since there are many interesting and unsolved problems associated with the clinical manifestations of this disease, it appeared worthwhile to make further efforts to produce experimental diphtheritic infection in animals in order that some of these problems might be subjected to controlled investigation.

The close relationship between canine and human kala-azar in Peiping has been shown in a previous communication (1). If one accepts the view that tFu: dog is the reservoir host of human kala-azar in North China, then one would expect to find canine leishmaniasis in all of the kala-azar villages. It is, therefore, important to determine the presence or absence of canine leishmaniasis in as many kala-azar villages as possible. Recently some observations of considerable interest concerning the occurrence of canine leishmaniasis in 3 kala-azar villages in the suburbs of Peiping have been made and are here recorded.

Although tuberculosis is quite prevalent in China, there are very few reports in the literature concerning the incidence of tuberculous infection among Chinese children (1,2,3,4), Mass tuberculous testing of many thousands of children in different parts of China still remains to be done.

In China where the spectre of famine due to human or natural causes ever broods over the land, the grateful people have not forgotten to deify the first nutritionist who furnished them with the list of edible plants and cereals and the pharmacognosy of herbs. The hungry world of to-day has the same reason and cause for honouring those investigators who have placed at its disposal all the resourcefulness of science not only to stave off starvation on a blockade ration but also to fortify the fighters at the front and to supply energy to workers behind the lines. Through the vitaminization of edible fats and reinforcement of flour with Ca and vitamin B1, it has been possible to sustain the stamina of panzer battalions, to speed up the output of factories and to inspire determination and hope in the general population. Szent Gyorgyi has rightIy said that "by no other means will so much human sufferings be banished as by the correct understanding and employment of vitamins." And to help our colleagues to acquire this requisite and proper knowledge, we reproduce below excerpts of an article on the subject by Dr. Hazel Munsell which appears in the October, 1940 issue of the Milbank Memorial Fund Quarterly.