Volume 67 · Issue 07 · 1949

Since the departure of Dr. F. Y. Khoo, the Editor-in-Chief, for Penang early in January of this year, much of his work has been laid on the shoulders of the Managing Editor. At a time when this land was experiencing turmoil, insecurity, economical crisis and finally liberation, this load was beyond the ability of a single man to bear. Yet the Journal has pulled through thick and thin, and made its appearance without cessation. Had it not been supported ardently by the members of the Standing Committee, and the contributors, as well as by many members of the Association who were called upon to run through manuscripts on special fields, the Journal never could have made progress and become what it is to-day.

Schistosomiasis japonica is one of the most important parasitic diseases in China. Ever since its dscovery in this country (1) its incidence and extent of endemicity have become increasingly evident with improvement of diagnostic methods and as a result of investigations made by various workers. It is well known that regions watered by the Yangtze River were rampant with this disease. The vast areas of endemlelty include not only the territories immediately traversed by the main stream and its innumerable tributaries but also districts adjacent to the mammoth bodies of water such as Great Lake (太湖), Poyanghu (鄱陽湖)，and Tungtinghu (洞庭湖). Thus Kiangsu (江蘇), Chekiang (浙江), Anhwei (安徽), Kiangsi (江西), Hupeh (湖北) and Hunan (湖南) are the provinees of high endemicity. Rampancy of the infestation dOes not, however, Confine to regions of tbe central and lower Yangtze Valley as cases of Schistosomiasis have been recorded in the central plains of Szechuan(四川) (2-4) and souuthwest part of China including Kwangsi (廣西) (5) and Yunnan (雲南) (6-8).

From 1943 to 1948 July inclusive, in a period of 6 years, there were 34 cases of carcinoma of the stomach admitted to the Chungking Central Hospital for treatment. There were 31 males and only 3 females. Twenty-one of them were confined to the age groups between 41-60, and 14 cases had symptoms referable to the gastro-intestinal tract of less than 6 months' duration. Among these 34 patients, 10 were considered to be far advanced and inoperable when first seen and 5 patients refused operation. Therefore, laparotomy was performed in 19 cases and of these only 6 cases were considered to be resectable (20.6 per cent resectability rate among the operated patients) and the resection carried a mortality of 50 per cent. Of these 3 postoperative deaths, one patient who sustained a transthoracic resection of the stomach for a cardiac end lesion died right after the completion of the operation, while the other two were subjected to subtotal resection of the stomach died 6 and 7 1/ 2 weeks after the operation respectively. Their deaths were due to a sudden perforation of the jejunum proximal to the anastomosis. If we exclude these two late fatalities, the operative mortality for resection was 16.6 per cent.

Influenzal meningitis is not common among infants. From 1946 to the end of 1948, only eight cases had been admitted to the Department of Pediatrics o,f the Central Hospital, Nanking. Five patients recovered while three died. In the past five years, many papers on this subject have been published (1-20).

Congenital omphalocele, or eventration of umbilicus, is not to be confused with the ordinary umbilical hernia. The latter is a hernia developed from the weakness of the umbilicus having a peritoneal sac and skin covering. Congenital omphalocele is a true defect of the umilicus at birth characterized by, eventration of abdominal viscera underneath a layer of amnion. There is neither a true peritoneal sac nor over-lying skin. To describe it as an extra wide and huge umbilical cord containing abdominal viscera explains the pathology more truthfully.

In confirmation of the results obtained by Wichwire and others (1,2,3), we (4,5) have reported that the threshold stimulus for the knee jerk can be used as an index to physical fitness.

Four cases of anuria due to lower nephrone nephrosis were recently seen in the Chung Shan Memorial Hospital. They all failed to respond to the usual conservative measures and had to be treated surgically by renal decapsulation. During the same period, three similar cases were encountered in the First Hospital of the Red Cross Society of China.