1192 THE SLEEPING SICKNESS COMMISSION.

alcium and phosphorus retention was obtained bybalance experiments on growing pigs. The pig is

notoriously susceptible to rickets and the demand ofthis quickly-growing animal for those elements isvery great. The effect of irradiation is correspond-ingly marked. In some cases where rations badlybalanced as regards the mineral content were being.given a daily retention of 0-5 g. CaO was raised to2-5 g. In view of these findings it would seem thatthe byre lit by rows of carbon arc lamps in winter,or even the irradiated pig-stye is no mere fancifulpicture. The question suggests itself as to the relativeimportance of irradiation of the subject on the onehand and of the food on the other. While no doubta great practical future lies with food irradiation itseems improbable that this method can call out allthe many reactions which are known to result fromdirect irradiation of the organism.

THE SLEEPING SICKNESS COMMISSION.THE interest shown by the Health Organisation

of the League of Nations in tropical disease is a verywelcome and opportune development of the League’swork. Many primitive countries still offer a fruitfulfield for investigation, and nowhere is this betterexemplified than in Central Africa. An international

investigation upon the great scourge which hangslike a thunder cloud over many of the most fertile ’,regions of the earth will be welcomed by all who I,have the welfare of the Dark Continent at heart.Whole-hearted international cooperation is essentialto control the spread of trypanosomiasis ; withoutit the most energetic and drastic measures appliedby individual governments must fail. Central Africais controlled by six European powers, and thetime has now come when a combined effort is neces-

sary in order to rid the whole region of the one

scourge which is retarding its commercial and intel-lectual development. Measures designed to limit thespread of trypanosomiasis, or, if possible, to exter-minate it, must necessarily be based upon a completeknowledge of the many factors upon which the

spread of the disease depends ; it is most necessarythat existing gaps in our knowledge should be filledas far as is possible. The conference which recentlyassembled in London under the chairmanship ofMr. W. G. ORMSBY-GORE, as reported in our last issue,was composed of experts of world-wide reputations.Dr. ANDREW BALFOUR and Dr. A. G. BAGSHAwE, theBritish representatives on the Expert Committee ofthe League, are to be congratulated upon the compre-hensive character of the proposals which were putforward for the consideration of the conference, andwhich were to a great extent ultimately adopted.The selection of the new Commission to carry out

the Expert Committee’s recommendations will affordsatisfaction to all workers in tropical medicine.Dr. LYNDHURST DUKE, who will direct the laboursof the Commission, has been known for many yearsas an indefatigable worker on trypanosomiasis.Dr. KLEINE, who has spent many years in EastAfrica, is a most devoted student, who first workedout the developmental cycle of Trypanosoma gam-biense in the tsetse-fly, and by courageouslyinoculating himself with animal blood containingtrypanosomes was able to prove the non-patho-genicity of T. brucei for man. The Commission isfortunate to have the cooperation of Mr. C. F. M.SwYNNERTON who, as an authority on zoology,especially the big game of Africa, has made the studyof tsetse prevention his own. The appointments oi-a biochemist and entomologist are necessary in orde]

to make such a comprehensive inquiry complete.It is a matter of considerable satisfaction that thisInternational Commission will work on Britishterritory and will enjoy the facilities provided byDr. DUKE’S laboratory at Entebbe. The exact roleplayed by the big game in the spread of trypano-somiasis to man offers many points of primary import-ance which should soon be settled. The whole of thisdifficult problem is at present in an unsatisfactorystate, and so is the part played by the commonerdomestic animals. Zoologists, veterinarians, and sani.tarians are equally concerned in its solution. Anotherimportant point is the exact relationship betweenthe three important pathogenic trypanosomes-T.gambiense, T. rhodesiense, and T. brucei-and theexplanation of the degrees of virulence displayed bythese organisms in different areas. Especially atten.tion will doubtless be paid to the most practicalmethods of exterminating the tsetse-fly. Whetherentire extermination is feasible is open to question,but much can be accomplished in greatly reducingthe numbers of the fly in populated areas, as Mr.SWYNNERTON has shown.Much more accurate and carefully controlled work

is necessary in order to determine the value of themore recent trypanosomicidal drugs-we may men.tion especially " Bayer 205 " and tryparsamide.Are these drugs more efficacious when given singlyor, as some think, is their action more rapid andeffective when non-metallic and metallic substancesare combined The combination of antimony tartratewith " Bayer 205 " is another possibility which hasalready suggested itself to workers on these lines.The prophylactic value of trypanosomicidal drugsboth in men and in animals requires reinvestigation,for it is obvious that, were any protection againstinfection made possible, the limitation of the spreadof trypanosomiasis in Central Africa would berendered comparatively simple. The labours of theCommission will be watched over with very greatinterest by the governments concerned, and itsmembers will have the sympathy of the whole medicalprofession in their work.

A CENTRAL PHARMACEUTICAL LABORATORY.IN the course of his presidential address at the

annual meeting of the Pharmaceutical Society ofGreat Britain on May 20th, Mr. F. PilkingtonSargeant stated the decision of the Council toestablish a laboratory for the standardisation of thesubstances which are the subject of the provisionsof the Therapeutic Substances Bill. The standardisa-tion of such substances as serums, vaccines, glandularpreparations, organic arsenic preparations, cannot,of course, be undertaken by chemical means, andthere is a field of work here which at present does notbelong either to the province of the doctor, the purechemist, or the pharmacist, although Mr. Sargeantclaimed it for the pharmacist. There is at presentno institution where the average pharmacist can

receive training in the preparation of such substances.The lines on which the laboratory should be estab-lished are to be in the hands of an advisory committeeon which the General Medical Council has appointedSir Nestor Tirard as its representative, the MedicalResearch Council Dr. H. H. Dale, and the BritishMedical Association Sir Humphry Rolleston. Thevalue of such a laboratory is apparent. While themedical profession will find it chiefly to reside in theexamination and standardisation of therapeuticsubstances, the pharmacist will value most thepossibilities afforded for training and research work.Some such step has long been felt to be essential ifthe pharmacist is to keep pace with the ever-

progressing march of medical science.

1193THE BIRTHDAY HONOURS.-FATTY ACIDS AND CANCER.

Annatations."Ne quid nimie."

THE BIRTHDAY HONOURS.

THE list of medical men included in the BirthdayHonours issued on June 3rd is headed by Sir JohnBland-Sutton, President of the Royal College of

Surgeons of England, who has been created a baronet.Sir John Bland-Sutton is so well known as a wise

professional leader, a scientific pioneer, and an open-handed benefactor of medicine, that all his colleagueswill recognise the rightness of the honour awardedto him. Three medical men have been given civilknighthoods, Mr. James Berry, Dr. Harry E. Dixey,and Dr. John Robertson. The honour to Sir JamesBerry will give particular pleasure to a wide groupof friends, colleagues, and pupils, and also to the farwider circle who are aware of the energy and devotionwhich he displayed during the war with the Red CrossUnit in Serbia. Sir John Robertson, the medicalofficer of health for Birmingham, is the well-knownprofessor of public health in the University and aleading authority on such far-reaching questionsas housing and milk-supply. Sir Harry Dixey isthe chairman of the West Worcestershire UnionistAssociation and has done much public and politicalwork deserving of reward.Other honours are to be recorded along various lines

of service. Major-General S. G. Moores, late R.A.M.C.,becomes a K.C.B., and Surgeon Rear-AdmiralAlexander Maclean receives the C.B. Dr. JamesCrawford Maxwell, colonial secretary of the GoldCoast Colony, becomes K.B.E., while the C.B.E.has been awarded to Dr. E. L. De Chazal, superin-tendent, Victoria Hospital, Mauritius, and Dr. V. R.Ratten, superintendent, Hobart Hospital, Tasmania.Dr. A. A. Morrison, British delegate on the Inter-national Maritime, Sanitary and Quarantine Boardof Egypt, has been appointed C.M.G., and the MilitaryO.B.E. has been received by Surgeon-Commander IJ. S. Dudding, R.N., and Major John Scott, D.S.O.,I.M.S. In the Civil Division of the Order of the British IEmpire Dr. D. M. Cassidy, the medical superintendent z,of the Lancaster Mental Hospital, Dr. G. P. Bate,who has rendered service to the Home Office underthe Factory Acts, and Major A. J. H. Russell, I.M.S.,director of public health in Madras, receive theC.B.E. Lieut.-Colonel R. P. Wilson and Lieut.-Colonel C. A. F. Hingston, both of the Indian MedicalService, receive the C.I.E. ; the former is officiatingSurgeon-General to the Government of Bengal, andthe latter is superintendent of the GovernmentHospital for Women and Children at Madras. Thefollowing received the Kaisar-i-Hind Medal of thefirst class : Dr. Esther G. Bare, of the Clara SwainMethodist Episcopal Mission Hospital at Bareilly,and Dr. Edith L. Young, in charge of the PalwalMission Dispensary, Gurgaon District, Punjab.To all of these we tender congratulations on the

State recognition of their good work.

OPTICAL TREATMENT OF CONVERGENT

SQUINT.IN a paper read at the last meeting of the Oxford

Ophthalmological Congress,l Dr. Ernest Thomsonsubmits that there are three distinct categories ofpeople who still require education in the importanceof this subject-namely, the parent, the family doctor,and the school-teacher. What is wrong with thefamily doctor, he asks, who so often minimises thenecessity for attending to a squint, tells the parentit will come right in time, and so on ? If it is truethat such family doctors are many, the answer is

Ithat what is wrong is a defect in what ought to be (an essential part of their medical training. So far as

1 Trans. Ophthalmological Society, 1924.

the deformity is concerned, a squint in a young childwill tend to cure itself in the majority of cases withtime, but only too probably at the expense of the lossof useful vision in the squinting eye. Perhaps therehas been an excuse for the family doctor in the past-namely, that there has been a school of ophthalmo--logists who have doubted the existence of the conditionknown as " amblyopia ex anopsia." It is perfectlytrue that there are cases where a squinting eye has.defective vision, not because it squints but for someantecedent cause, such as corneal nebula. In such acase the squint may be more a consequence than a.cause of the amblyopia. On the other hand, in cases.of recent monocular squint associated with ametropia,it is the general experience of all engaged in eye workthat the enforced use of the squinting eye afterappropriate optical correction, if undertaken at a,

sufficiently early age, does prevent it from becomingamblyopic. Dr. Thomson supports this by a referenceto the observations of Prof. Arthur Thomson oncave fishes and cave salamanders. The young stagesof these cave animals, it seems, sometimes have eyesshowing much less retrogression than in the adults.-In the case of the human eye it is not suggested’that there is any change in structure resulting-from disuse. What Dr. Ernest Thomson suggests-is that true amblyopia ex anopsia may result fromthe persistence of blurred vision caused by uncorrected-ametropia. The latter tends to pass into the former-after a certain lapse of time through true loss of-function of the cerebral centres. This implies thenecessity of providing young children with spectaclesnot only as soon as they have developed a squint-this is generally acknowledged-but even before,in cases where there are such considerable degrees ofhypermetropia or astigmatism as would render thevision of the child’s eyes-one or both of them-

I blurred. ____

FATTY ACIDS AND CANCER.

THAT the cells of the lymphocytic order are concernedin resisting the spread of cancerous growths has longbeen recognised. The accumulation of these cells inthe tissues around the invading edge of a malignantgrowth is so characteristic that it is one of the features.usually noted by the pathologist in weighing the-evidence for and against malignancy. Up to the-present few efforts have been made to modify thespread of cancerous processes by the stimulation of a.lymphocytic reaction in the tissues, partly no doubtbecause until comparatively recently no agent cer-tainly capable of producing such a reaction has beenidentified. In 1919, Bergell demonstrated that theparenteral injection of certain fatty oils producedsuch a reaction, and lately Nakahara,2 working at theRockefeller Institute, has used this fact as the startingpoint of an experimental investigation into the effectof the injection of fatty acids upon the growth ofimplanted cancerous tumours in mice. This observer-found that by the use of olive-oil injections he was.able to produce a general stimulation of the lymphoidtissues ; in his investigations into the inhibition ofcancerous growth, however, not the oil but oleic acidand solium oleate were used. By the injection ofsmall amounts of either of these substances it wasfound possible to produce profound modifications inthe behaviour of implanted tumours. When implanta-tion of the tumours was preceded by the injections theproportion of grafts which took was, in the case of the-oleate, 50 per cent. and, in the case of the acid,40 per cent., as against 90 per cent. and 80 per cent.respectively in the case of untreated controls. Wherethe injections were made after the implantation of thecancerous growths it was found that subsequent,injection either of oleate or acid made little differenceto the actual proportion of

" takes." Even in thisinstance, however, the course of growth of the.

implanted tumours was considerably modified. They1 Bergel, S. : Berl. Klin. Woch., 1919, lvi., 915.

2 Nakahara, Waro : Studies from Rockefeller Institute forMedical Research, Reprints lii., 1925, 95.