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act thus, and it may be confidently expected thatfurther research will do much to elucidate this obscurecondition. Light may come from unexpected directions,and we commend to the attention of our readers thecurious similarity of effect produced by absence ofvitamins and by exposure to X rays and radium, whichis the subject of an important communication this weekin our original columns. -

NATURAL HEALTH CENTRES.

THE death of Dr. Theodor Schott, which recentlyoccurred at Frankfurt, removes one who had for44 years exactly applied a number of physical agentsto the treatment of chronic disease of the heart, and inwhose lifetime the Nauheim method became well knownall over the world. A paper which we published lastweek contained an exact record by four competentobservers at one of our own spas of the experi-mental basis claimed for certain popular methodsof electrical treatment. The move towards precisionin the study of physical therapeutics is very welcome.The new impetus given to the study of incipient andchronic disease has naturally directed fresh attentionto the great sources of energy and healing in watersand climates. An interesting symposium by Frenchauthorities appears in the Tie lJ1édicale for April 8th.Attention is there called to the "gamut" of Frenchmarine climates, of the Channel, Ocean, and Medi-terranean coasts, and to the varied Alpine locations,which are available-but far too little utilised-for thetreatment of tuberculosis, both in children and adults.Tuberculous maladies form but one group of manychronic infective and toxic conditions that are amenableto climatic influences. We are also reminded of thenumerous natural waters of France, many of themsituated in fine, sub-Alpine climates, where arthriticaffections and dermatoses, cardio-vascular affections, anddisorders of digestion, of metabolism, and of the nervecentres, can be treated by waters and baths in beautifuland stimulating surroundings. Dr. H. Jumon, in a

study of La Bourboule, states very truly that all such"cures" are in themselves unavoidably fatiguing andought to be carried out in an atmosphere of peace andrepose. He deplores the tendency for health resortsto become merely centres of excitement for pleasure-seekers. This is a very old tendency, and has in thepast spoiled many a famous spa. Pleasant distraction,amusement, music are, of course, wanted by the health-seeker, together with the magic of ohange in dailysurroundings, habits, and thoughts. But these shouldform only the setting for a definite organised medicalspecialty. The health resort is a treatment centre forincipient and chronic disease. Its accidental andobvious features as a place of recreation and pleasureshould not be allowed to obscure its essential purposeof healing and fortification against disease. Moreover,as we have hinted, there is now a body of exact

knowledge drawn from many countries and times,dealing with the effective utilisation of health resortsby invalids. It forms no part of authorised medicalteaching, or only in an occasional and sporadic way.Sometimes, in the laudable search for definition, healthstations are labelled too precisely, as in France. Forexample, obesity is referred to Brides-les-Bains andenteritis to Chatel-Guyon. We ought to look a littledeeper. Symptomatic maladies arise from manycauses, and it would be more useful for the medicalman to direct his patients according to underlyingconstitutional conditions, which respond in a definitemanner to different forms of hydrological treatment.This hiatus in the education of the practitioner shouldbe filled by instruction in the general principles uponwhich incipient systemic disorders are actuallyamenable to the methods of physical medicine. Atpresent the lack of this knowledge is a fruitful sourceof unfounded pretensions and empirical practice. Asone of our French colleagues observes, doctors areapt to refer their patients to waters and bathswith a veiled scepticism, and often in order to getrid of them for a time, or simply to give thempleasure.

Dr. G. Bardet, director of the Laboratory of

Hydrology in Paris, points out in the same journal thegreat opportunity existing at the present time for ableyoung practitioners to specialise in climatic and hydro-logical medicine. Such a movement has already takenfirm hold in Switzerland, Belgium, Holland, Italy, andGermany. The creation of new stations, both in theAlps and along the coasts of France, with adequatemedical organisation would be, he thinks, of immensebenefit to his country. The young physician, special-ising according to the local indications during thesummer, could spend the winter to great advantage instudy and travel. He estimates that from 500 to 600such medical men could thus find scope for practice aswell as study in medical posts of this kind. Certainlyit is hardly open to doubt that a more completeprovision of health stations is needed, whether for thetuberculous, for delicate children, for the unfit in allwalks of life, or for the overworked and the elderly. InEngland the coast climates-perhaps even more

remarkably than in France-offer a complete range ofsedative and tonic infiuences. Inland we have moorsand hills, and what these lose in altitude they gain inthe tonic influence of northern latitude. But here againwe are driven back to the need for more knowledge andcoordination. We are glad to learn that an Inter-national Society of Medical Hydrology is to devote itselfto throwing light on these problems.

ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON THE WELFARE OF

THE BLIND.

IN view of the passing of the Blind Persons Act, 1920,the Minister of Health has reconstituted the AdvisoryCommittee on the Welfare of the Blind, so as to affordrepresentation to the local authorities under the Actand to voluntary agencies for the blind, and thefollowing have been appointed members of theCommittee: Right Hon. G. H. Roberts, M.P. (Chair-man), Mr. P. M. Evans, LL.D. (Vice-Chairman), Mr.Alderman F. Askew, Mr. A. M. Bernard, Miss WinifredBramhall, Sir Coles Child, Bart., Mr. H. Davey, Mr.James Graham, Mr. Councillor J. A. Hill, Sir WilliamHodgson, Mr. T. Holt, Mr. A. L. Lowe, C.B.E., Mr.G. F. Mowatt, Mr. H. J. Munro, Sir Arthur Pearson,Bart., C.B.E., Mrs. Wilton Phipps, Rev. P. S. G.

Propert, Mr. R. Richardson, M.P., Mr. W. H. Tate.The Committee will advise the Minister on matters

relating to the care and supervision of the blind,including any question that may be specially referredto them by the Minister. Mr. F. M. Chapman, of theMinistry of Health, will act as Secretary.

OXYGEN INSUFFLATION IN MORPHINE

POISONING.

Professor Brauer has recently discussed 1 the treat-ment of morphine poisoning as lately adopted at theEppendorfer Hospital in all severe cases. In his opinionmorphine poisoning proves fatal chiefly on account ofthe CO2 intoxication which it induces; if this can beprevented the most dangerous symptoms of morphinepoisoning are warded off, and doses of morphine whichwould otherwise inevitably prove fatal can be toleratedwith comparative impunity. In his first case, treatedby insufflation of oxygen, this procedure was more orless a counsel of despair, for all the standard methodsof treatment had been tried for many hours, and lifewas slowly ebbing away. Yet, within five minutes offlushing the trachea with oxygen there was a remark-able improvement in the patient’s colouring, which hadbeen cyanosed. She soon began to breathe automatically,and it was evident that in a few minutes a change hadbeen effected, converting a hopeless case into one withevery prospect of recovery. The insufflation of oxygenwas continued for about 12 hours, and though aspira-tion pneumonia of both lower lobes developed,the patient ultimately recovered. The procedure

1 Beiträge zur Klinik der Tuberkulose, Bd. xlvi., Hft. 1.