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1244 REPORTS AND ANALYTICAL RECORDS.
INTERNATIONAL HYGIENE.
By C. W. HUTT, M.A., M.D., D.P.H., MedicalOfficer of Health, Metropolitan Borough ofHolborn. London : Methuen and Co., Ltd. 1927.
Pp. 261. 10s. 6d.
THE habit of " thinking internationally " is growing
steadily amongst intelligent men and women, andthere was scope for such a book as Dr. Hutt haswritten. It is obvious that for an island country thehealth of the mercantile marine, both its own andthat of other countries, is of great importance totrade, while the fact that England is on the path ofmigration from the mainland of Europe to the FarWest means that this country is liable to infectionsimported from all quarters of the globe. Dr. Huttdeals in interesting detail with these and other aspectsof the problems of international hygiene. He beginswith one of the fundamental problems-namely,how infectious diseases are kept out of a maritimecountry-and goes on to discuss land frontiers inrelation to infectious diseases and the varioussanitary conventions. Our dependence upon theDominions and continental neighbours for our food-supply leads to a discussion of the internationalproblems connected with food. The chapter on thedifficult subject of drug habits opens up a new fieldof preventive medicine, and Dr. Hutt’s summaryof the working of the Dangerous Drugs Acts of 1920and 1923 is admirably balanced. Following chaptersdeal with the health of the seamen, and in particularthe problem of venereal disease. Writing of industrialhygiene from the international standpoint, Dr. Huttstresses the point that any restriction in industrywhich makes for the health of the workers should beimposed equally on all nations ; the existence ofan International Labour Office and of the League ofNations Health Organisation, whose work is well setout in this book, may make this a practical ideal.Voluntary work such as that of the League of RedCross Societies is also playing a valuable part in theinternational field. Interchange of public healthpersonnel, made possible by the generosity of theRockefeller Foundation, may prove the best meansof all for pooling hygienic experience, and it waspresumably Dr. Hutt’s visit to Austria in such circum-stances that stimulated him to write this admirablebook.
JOURNALS.
BRITISH JOURNAL OF OPHTHALMOLOGY.September.-This number is mainly devoted tohereditary and family diseases. C. H. Usher givestwo pedigrees of hereditary optic atrophy. R. R.James a pedigree of a family showing hereditaryglaucoma. R. C. Davenport a family history ofchoroidal sarcoma. Major J. N. Duggan and B. P.Nanavati have discovered a family with blue sclerotics,and the same authors a family with aniridia. Thejuxtaposition of these various narratives is calculatedto enhance their value.
October.-N. Pines contributes a paper on arterialhypertension and retinal changes. The generalpractitioner is sometimes appealed to by specialiststo record observations of this nature and we cannotbut be grateful when the appeal, as in this case, isxesponded to. In over a hundred cases seen ingeneral practice the blood pressure (systolic anddiastolic) was correlated with the state of the retinalvessels as revealed by the ophthalmoscope. the urinebeing also examined in most cases. For this workconsiderable experience with the ophthalmoscope isrequired, and this the author possesses. His analyticaltable, in which the various signs of degeneration of’the vessels are correlated with different degrees ofhyperpiesis and with cases of diabetes, is of distinctvalue. The different vascular signs usually lookedfor are tabulated and the frequency with which theywere found is noted, but the main importance isattached to the sign of translucency of the secondary
arteries. (In the main arterial branches the bloodcolumn is so thick that it is itself sufficient to causeloss of translucency.) When translucency was
complete the blood pressure was normal in all cases.When translucency was incomplete or absent thegeneral blood pressure was in all cases abnormallyhigh. This is a valuable observation, but needs
checking by other observers, especially in regard tothe age of the patients. In elderly patients a certainloss of translucency is the rule without the existenceof- any unduly high arterial tension.
NOl’embe1".-In the second of two short papersT. Harrison Butler reports a case of monoculardiplopia which must be unique. The slit lampshowed the cause of the diplopia to be a large fluidcleft in the cortex of the lens. This formed anoptical opacity dividing the lens into an upper anda lower segment. These acted independently, formingan upper and a lower image upon the retina.-Tscherniiig’s Photometrical Glasses form the subjectof a paper by W. A. Wille (Java). The object is torender possible a quantitative estimation of the powerof adaptation to darkness. The apparatus consists ofa series of plain dark glasses and a light-tight frame.The glasses are graduated thus : No. 1 lets throughone-tenth of the light, No. 2 one-hundredth, No. 3one-thousandth, and so on. The test is a candleflame at half a metre distance and the darkest glassthrough which this can be seen is the measure of thepower of adaptation. It can be used as a measureof night blindness in any disease where this is asymptom. A differentiation must be made betweenthe first or primary adaptation which takes placewithin 10 or 15 minutes, and the secondary whichtakes place within half to three-quarters of an hour.
Reports and Analytical Records.GENASPRIN.
(GENATOSAN, LTD., LOUGHBOROUGH, LEICESTERSHIRE.)
Genasprin is an acetyl salicylic acid (aspirin)preparation put up in the form of tablets convenientfoi the treatment of headache, toothache, neuralgia,neuritis, rheumatism, also for influenza and all feverishconditions. The tablets when analvsed were foundto contain :-
.
The weight of each tablet is 6-5 gi., equivalent to5 gr. of pure acetyl salicylic acid."MINTIES."
(JAMES STEDMAN-HENDEPSON SWEETS, LTD., SWEETACRES,SIDNEY, AUSTRALIA.)
Minties are a hard opaque white sweet with apleasant but not too pronounced flavour of pepper-mint. They dissolve slowly in the mouth, maintainthe throat in a moist state, and do not adhere to thepalate. Analysis shows that the sweets have beenmade from pure and wholesome materials. Eachsweet is wrapped in waxed tissue paper which keepsit in a dry condition and free from extraneouscontaminations.
Messrs. ALLEN & HANBURYS, Ltd., have prepared,and are now in a position to supply, liver in the formof a fine powder, which is palatable and readilytaken by the most fastidious patient. Two ouncesof this product are equal in activity to eight ouncesof fresh liver. The powder is supplied in 1 oz., 2 oz.,4 oz., and 8 oz. bottles.