515BILATERAL TUMOURS.-PELLAGRA IN ILLINOIS.

susceptible to a second attack, but it appears to be extremelyseldom, even in the presence of epidemic influences, that a

person who has had a mild attack of " fievre inflammatoire "

in his youth dies later from yellow fever. The protectionthus secured resembles in some measure that conferred upona child by vaccination against small-pox ; the protectionin either case may need to be renewed by a subsequentinoculation at puberty or in adult life, and the immunity ismore lasting according to the severity of the primary attackof I I fi6vre inflammatoire. " In the epidemic of 1908-09 atMartinique, during the first four months of the year, the

attacks of I fl6vre inflammatoire" were numerous, but the

type was not severe. With the advent of the hot season,however, an increasing severity in the symptoms was

observed, and ultimately the virulence resulted in producingcases which showed the clinical characters of yellow fever asdescribed in the text-books. The summer of 1908 was

exceptionally hot, and the number of mosquitoes was notedto be far in excess of previous years. The French observersat Martinique hold the opinion that heat and moisture notonly favour the multiplication of mosquitoes, but that theseconditions lead also to an intensified virulence in the yellowfever virus, which intensification they think takes place withinthe body of the stegomyia mosquito itself. The multiplicationof the stegomyise is thought, too, to aggravate the seriousnessof the yellow fever attack in another way. If a number of in-

fected insects bite a non-immune individual a larger quantityof the virus must be inserted into the victim’s body than if hehad been bitten by a single stegomyia ; that is to say, the

administration of a larger dose of the infective material willnaturally be expected to give rise to a more severe attack ofthe malady. The thesis of the reporters on the Martiniqueepidemic is, shortly, that yellow fever is endemic in that

colony, prevailing from year to year in a mild form under thename of I I fi6vre inflammatoire," an attack of which confersprotection against the severer varieties of the disease ; thatthe type becomes more severe in the summer season, andwhen that season is exceptionally hot and mosquitoes havegreatly increased in numbers the disease may become

epidemic and cases assume a higher degree of virulence,presenting the serious symptoms of yellow fever which

are described by the older observers. The latter

cases are, in these circumstances, observed mostly in

Europeans who have recently arrived in the island, or in

creoles who have returned to the colony after a prolongedsojourn in some temperate zone. These views, as might havebeen expected, have not altogether met with general accept-ance in Martinique, some members of the medical professionpractising in the colony holding fast to the view that" fièvreinflammatoire " and yellow fever are two separate and

distinct diseases. Unfortunately, since the specific organismof yellow fever has not yet been isolated and identified

it has not been found possible to put this difference of

opinion to the test-that is, by ascertaining definitely thepresence or absence of the yellow fever germ in the systemof those who are suffering from an attack of fi6vre inflam-matoire." The facts as set out in the report on the 1908-09epidemic in Martinique appear to justify in a great measurethe opinion that the immunity acquired against yellow feverby a large portion of the population of that island is due totheir having suffered in childhood from a mild attack of thedisease in the form of " fievre inflammatoire. "

BILATERAL TUMOURS.IN the last issue of THE LANCET appears an article by

Mr. W. Roger Williams on Malignant and Non-malignantTumours of Bilateral Origin. Mr. Williams, as is well

known, has devoted much attention for many years to thedifficult problems of the nature and origin of tumours, espe-cially those which are malignant in nature, and in the article

which we have mentioned he has drawn attention to the factthat in some cases of tumours, both innocent and malignant,the growths are arranged with bilateral symmetry. In thecase of non-malignant growths the fact that the tumoursare situated symmetrically on the two sides of the bodyis at least evidence that something more than merelylocal causes have given rise to the growths. In thecase of malignant tumours, unless the growths on thetwo sides of the body have appeared synchronously, thereis always a possible objection that the growth on one

side of the body appearing first has given rise to

that growth which appeared later on the opposite side.The more numerous the tumours are, the more difficult is it tofeel sure that there is any special factor leading to thesymmetry. Mr. Williams quotes as striking examples of

bilaterality cases of multiple fibromata of nerves. In

some instances more than 2000 tumours have been present.We fail to see much force in this example, for it would havebeen much more remarkable if with so many tumours presentthere had been marked unilaterality in distribution. This is

only a small criticism and there is a great deal of evidence inthe article which deserves attention, but whether the obser-vations recorded and quoted here will aid at all in thesolution of the difficult problem of the etiology of new

growths we should hardly like to say. The wealth of refer-ence which Mr. Williams supplies will enable our readers

to investigate at first hand most of the facts on which

the article is based, and there can be no doubt that sufficientattention has not hitherto been paid to the fact that casesdo occur in which tumours are situated symmetrically on thetwo sides of the body.

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PELLAGRA IN ILLINOIS.

THE Peoria State Hospital for the insane was opened in1902 and now consists of 30 buildings, with 600 acres ofland, which represents a capital expenditure of over .6200,000.Last August Dr. G. A. Zeller, the medical superintendent,discovered that there were several cases of pellagra amongthe 2150 incurable lunatics under his care. With praise-worthy promptness Captain J. F. Siler and Captain H. J.Nichols of the United States Army Medical Corps weredespatched before the month was out to study the disease incooperation with the local medical staff. Their able reporthas now appeared in the Medical Record (New York,Jan. 15th), and we have also received the pellagra number

"

of the Illinois State Board of Health bulletin (August, 1909),which is richly illustrated with striking photographs ofthe disease. The well-marked symmetrical eruptions are

doubtless due to the fact that the asylum is managed with-out restraint ; the windows are not barred and the groundsare not enclosed by any wall or fence ; hence the exposureto sunlight during the summer months is practically un-limited. After careful examination of all the inmates and

excluding many doubtful cases it was decided that 175 ofthe men and women were pellagrous, and that some 70 percent. of these had suffered from previous attacks. It is nowcalculated that the disease has been prevalent, but unre-cognised, in the asylum for at least four years, during whichtime complaints have been received, from friends of inmateswho had died, of sunburns on the backs of the patients’hands ; coroners’ inquests have been held on patients whowere thought to have incurred severe scalds of the feet ; andattendants have been dismissed for supposed carelessnesswhile administering hot baths. Diarrhoea, dysentery, andulcers in the colon at necropsies were present in some cases,but a faulty water-supply was held to be responsiblefor some of these symptoms. The patellar and plantarreflexes were abnormal in about three-fourths of the

patients and were usually excessive. Cultures of the

blood, spinal fluid, and spleen pulp were negative. There

516 ENTERIC TRANSMISSION BY CHRONIC CARRIERS.

was no evidence that the maize, on which the patients werefed to the amount of two ounces per day, was diseased, butthe investigators state, " The possibility of an intoxicationfrom bacterial action on maize products in a damagedintestine is considered the most promising field for study."One of the arguments in favour of the protozoal nature ofpellagra is the mononuclear increase in the blood of patients,but at Peoria this increase was not found. The completefreedom from pellagra in this asylum of the resident staff,physicians, attendants, and servants, makes it difficult to

understand how the infection can have arisen through anybiting insect, and as nearly all the pellagrous patients hadbeen resident in the asylum for periods varying from two toseven years, we must agree with the report that there is "astrong indication that the exciting cause of the disease ispresent in the institution."

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ENTERIC TRANSMISSION BY CHRONICCARRIERS.

IN the Army Medical Department report for 1908, whichwe have reviewed at length recently, it is stated that specialattention has been directed by the military medical autho-rities in India to the possibility of contamination of food bychronic typhoid carriers, that is, by persons who at someprevious time have suffered from enteric fever and who con-tinue to excrete the bacilli. In every suspicious case theblood has been examined for agglutinins, and in a number ofthese the urine and stools are also bacteriologically examinedfor the specific organism. Widal’s reaction alone is no

evidence that a man is a carrier. In one case, that of a

regimental soldier cook who had suffered from enteric feverin 1896, it was found that he was intermittently excretingtyphoid bacilli in his urine 12 years later, but no case ofenteric fever occurred amongst the men whose food he

cooked. The combined observations of a large numberof investigators in different countries carried out in recent

years tend to show that about 3 per cent. of all

convalescents from enteric fever become chronic carriers,and a large proportion of these (70-80 per cent.) are

women. In India some 1000 cases of enteric fever occur

annually amongst British troops ; of these about 200 end

fatally and about 50 are invalided to England, so of theremaining 750 left in India it may be assumed that about 23become chronic carriers. As, however, only 3 or 4 per cent.of soldiers are employed in connexion with either the cooking ’or preparation of food for their comrades, not more than one or two carriers can possibly be looked for as likely to be a Ifsource of infection to food supplies in the cookhouses. With

a view to isolating convalescents recovering from enteric

fever more completely than can be done in most stations, and I

at the same time providing opportunity for detecting chronic I,carriers with as much certainty as possible, convalescents from ’

the Lahore, Mhow, Meerut, and Lucknow division are sent to IfNaini Tal. This depot is about a mile from the civil station, and I

no other troops were stationed in their vicinity. The divisional Ilaboratory is at Naini Tal under the care of a specialistofficer in bacteriology. A steam disinfector for clothing andmeans for boiling all excreta before disposal are also pro-vided. The urine and fasces of each man (unless he hasalready been found to be a carrier) are examined for aboutseven consecutive days, and no convalescent patient is sentback to his station until at least four months have elapsedsince the cessation of fever. It was found that the greatmajority of C3nvalescents cease to pass bacilli in their urinewithin a few weeks of convalescence. Of 190 men whose

excreta were examined six were found to be still passingbacilli (five in the fasces and one in the urine) more than sixmonths after cessation of fever ; that is 3’1 1 per cent. of theconvalescents. These men were invalided to England and

were still excreting bacilli 18, 16, 12, 8, 6, and 6 monthsafter cessation of fever. During 1908 no less than 310 con-valescents from enteric fever were received at Naini Tal-

that is, excluding those invalided to England-more than one-third of the convalescents from all India. During the year1472 examinations of fasces and 1448 of urine were made. The

effect of segregating enteric convalescents at Naini Tal hasapparently proved beneficial in stopping the spread of thedisease in other stations, for it has been found that the admis-sions for enteric fever from all stations in 1908 which sentconvalescents to Naini Tal show a reduction of 9 per cent.on the figures for 1907, while the remaining stations show anincrease of 26 - 6 per cent. At stations from which con-valescents could not be sent to Naini Tal they were isolated

locally as strictly as practicable, and where laboratories wereavailable their excreta were examined. Five chronic

carriers-two of whom were women-were discovered andalso a temporary carrier who was a nursing orderly. Ata conference of sanitary officers held at Poona it was recom.mended that all soldiers found to be typhoid carriers shouldbe strictly segregated, and if the condition was found to bechronic that they should be invalided out of the service. Asa result of the investigations at Naini Tal a similar con-valescent depot for the enteric convalescents for SouthernIndia has been established on the same lines at Wellingtonin Madras.

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INSANITY AND ASYLUM ACCOMMODATION INRUSSIA.

AT the recent Congress of Russian Psychiatrists the Pre-sident, Professor Bechtereff, in his address gave some strikinginformation on the extent of mental disorders in Russia. He

drew a picture of the terrible position of the neglectedpatients, for whom there is no room in the overcrowded

hospitals and who are kept in chains " in cheerless houses,and so on. In Russia, he stated, compared with other

countries, there is less mental disease, which increases withcivilisation. Whereas there is one such sufferer in 200 of the

population abroad, in Russia the proportion is 1 in 450.And again abroad, whilst the number of mental patientsunder skilled care is, for example, 92 per cent. in Englandand 97 per cent. in Scotland, in Russia it is only 10; andsince in Russia the number of the afflicted is at least

300,000 it follows that 270,000 are at liberty. He

urged the necessity of colonies and the communal super-vision of these people, as also for epileptics and other

sufferers from nervous disorders who must be counted in

millions and for whom nothing is done. The speaker referredto the war, the revolutionary movement, and economic andsocial misery as causes of the increase that has been noticedand as having produced a number of suicides and cases of

drunkenness. As a radical method of reducing mentaldisease he advocated the suppression of the sale of alcohol.Professor Bechtereff’s conclusions are very interesting. Thesmaller comparative number of the insane in Russia may be

attributable to the fact that civilisation has not there reachedthe stage at which it has arrived in other countries, but theinfluence of civilisation upon the actual incidence of mentaldisease is at least a moot point, while there is little doubt

that the apparent incidence of insanity is greater in the

more civilised countries. Amongst persons of little educa-tion deviations from normal mentality are only classed asinsane when such deviations are of the extremest nature,while deviations from the normal in the region of conducttend to be ascribed to anything rather than to insanity. It is

a current popular view that to the alienist all men are insane,and it certainly is the case that insanity betrays itself to theskilled observer when it is hidden from those of less experi-ence. In the less civilised communities many persons pass