INFECTIOUS DISEASE

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Medical News

WE regret to record the death of Prof. GEORGESDREYER which occurred on Friday last, August 17th,at Sollestedgaard, Laaland, Denmark, in the 61st year ofhis age. Both as physiologist and administrator he was aprominent figure at Oxford, while that part of the variedand learned pathological work which rightly gained himhis major fame was his devising of a technique for thediagnosis of typhoid fever which could be employed toa great extent by those who were not themselves patho_logists. A fuller notice of Prof. Dreyer will appear later.

International Paediatric CongressThe fourth conference of the International Association

of Preventive Paediatrics (medical section of the Save theChildren International Union) will be held at Lyons onSept. 27th and 28th. The first subject for discussion willbe the prophylaxis of malaria in children, and the speakerswill be Prof. E. Cacace (Naples); Prof. Gillot and Dr.Sarrouy (Algiers); and Dr. Barclay Barrowman (BatuBlah, Federated Malay States). The second subject willbe the prophylaxis of rickets and convulsions, and thespeakers will be Prof. S. Monrad (Copenhagen) and Prof. E.Rominger (Kiel). The secretary of the association may beaddressed at 15, rue Levrier, Geneva.

Fellowship of Medicine and Post-Graduate MedicalAssociationA lecture-demonstration on loss of voice will be given by

Dr. A. E. Clark-Kennedy at the rooms of the MedicalSociety of London, Chandos-street, Cavendish-square,London, W., at 2.30 P.M., on Tuesday, August 28th.The following lecture in the series will deal with pleuralpain, and will take place on Sept. 4th. There will be anafternoon course in infants’ diseases at the Infants Hospital,Vincent-square, London, S.W., from Sept. 3rd to 14th,and a course in chest diseases for M.R.C.P. candidates atthe Brompton Hospital, from Sept. 10th to Oct. 5th.A " refresher " course in medicine, surgery, and the

specialties will be given at the Westminster Hospital,from Sept. 17th to 29th. Other forthcoming courses

include diseases of the chest at the Brompton Hospital,Sept. 24th to 29th ; proctology at the Gordon Hospital,Sept. 24th to 29th. There will also be a demonstrationof urological cases at the National Temperance Hospitalon Sept. 8th at 3 r.M.

INFECTIOUS DISEASEIN ENGLAND AND WALES DURING THE WEEK ENDED

AUGUST 11TH. 1934

Notifications.-The following’ cases of infectiousdisease were notified during the week :-Small-pox, 0 ;scarlet fever, 2091 ; diphtheria 961 ; enteric fever,35 ; acute pneumonia (primary or influenzal), 402 ;puerperal fever, 42 ; puerperal pyrexia, 103 ; cerebro-spinal fever, 15 ; acute poliomyelitis, 14 ; encephalitislethargica, 7 ; dysentery, 10 ; ophthalmia neo-

natorum, 67. No case of cholera, plague, or typhusfever was notified during the week.The number of cases in the Infectious Hospitals of the London

County Council on August 20th-21st was as follows :-Small-pox, 0 ; scarlet fever, 1281 ; diphtheria, 1457 ; measles, 456 ;whooping-cough, 264 ; puerperal fever, 23 mothers (plus 8babies) ; encephalitis lethargica, 269 ; poliomyelitis, 3 ; " otherdiseases," 268. At St. Margaret’s Hospital there were 16babies (plus 7 mothers) with ophthalmia neonatorum.

DBaths.-In 121 great towns, including London,there was no death from small-pox, 1 (1) from entericfever, 12 (1) from measles, 7 (2) from scarlet fever,11 (1) from whooping-cough, 29 (9) from diphtheria,39 (13) from diarrhoea and enteritis under two years,and 12 (1) from influenza. The figures in parenthesesare those for London itself.Croydon reported the only death from enteric fever. Three

cases of diphtheria were fatal at Halifax. Manchester with5 showed the highest number of deaths from diarrhoea, Cardifffollowing with 4 and Leeds with 3.

The number of stillbirths notified during the weekwas 232 (corresponding to a rate of 39 per 1000 totalbirths), including 33 in London.

Notes, Comments, and Abstracts

THE following letter reaches us from the FactoryGirls’ Country Holiday Fund. " May we appeal toyour kind readers for help for this Fund which isin urgent need of financial assistance ? It maybe questioned whether any of us ever outgrow acertain quickening of the pulse at the word ’ holiday ’ ;it is a fact that the idea yearly increases its hold onour sense of what is due to us. Doctors recommenda holiday, kind friends urge it as a panacea for allthe evil effects of overwork and fatigue ; it is partof the routine of all our lives. But not, alas, of thelives that probably need it most. The girl who worksall day in factory or shop, the woman who looks afterher home and also cleans offices in the late eveningand very early morning, have little money to payfor what to us is a necessity, but to them an unattain-able luxury. When what they earn is wanted forfamily, rent, and food and clothing, in these daysof unemployed men and boys, how can one individual,herself often the breadwinner who holds the housetogether, set aside even a few pence a week so as togo away and amuse herself alone ? We deplore thescanty knowledge and appreciation that town andcountry people have of one another ; what betterway to cure this than the sending town girls andwomen to welcoming country homes ?

" Many of us have thankfully remembered allthrough our lives some kind hostess who invited usto stay, or some fairy godmother who paid for us totravel, the odious word pauperising ’ never beingused in such a case. Why should not we who spendpounds on the vacations of ourselves and our familiesbe allowed and indeed urged to spend shillings on themuch-needed holidays of those who cannot pay forthemselves ? The summer months are hurrying byand there is no time to lose. ’ Do it now.’ Onmerely selfish grounds I would suggest that we shouldenjoy our own travels more this year if we precededthem by sending a donation to the wise, careful, old-established, and indefatigable Factory Girls’ CountryHoliday Fund.

" Subscriptions and donations will be thankfullyreceived and acknowledged by the hon. treasurer,Mrs. Slater, or by Miss Mary Canney, 75, Lamb’sConduit-street, London, W.C. 1."The appeal is signed by the Bishop of London,

Lady Sandwich, Mrs. Creighton, Miss Lilian Braith-waite, Dame Georgiana Buller, Sir Thomas Barlow,the Chief Rabbi, and Lady Loch (chairman).THE AMBULANCE WORK OF THE ORDER

OF ST JOHN

IT has been pointed out to us that in a recentannotation on this work the omission of one pointmight appear unfair to members of the Associationwho held its certificates and who are not in theBrigade. These members, however employed, geta local reputation for rendering first aid and arefrequently applied to for assistance in their ownhomes and during their spare time, and their servicesare given as freely as are those of members of theBrigade. We have been learning recently fromspeeches in the House of Commons how numerousare the serious accidents of daily life, and the serviceof first-aid workers have become essential. Thefirst thing to be observed by a surgeon in dealingwith a casualty must be the condition in which thepatient arrives ; often this means what form the

first aid has taken, and hereon may depend the’

direction of treatment and the chances of earlyrecovery.

BRITISH POST-GRADUATE MEDICAL SCHOOL.-As wego to press we learn that the chair of surgery has been

;: filled by the appointment of Mr. G. Grey Turner, M.S.,1 F.R.C.S., professor of surgery in the University of

Durham (Newcastle-upon-Tyne).