987

MEDICAL SOCIETIES

ROYAL SOCIETY OF MEDICINE.

SECTION OF MEDICINE.

AT a meeting of this section held on April 26th,the chair was taken by Dr. H. MORLEY FLETCHER,the President, and Dr. S. H. Coogsorr read a paperon the size and shape of the

Heart in Thyroid Disease.

Opinion, he said, was much divided on whether theheart was or was not enlarged in disorders of the

thyroid gland in which the secretion was excessiveor abnormal. He would, however, show radiographsproving that the heart was often enlarged in goitre,and that it had a characteristic picture. This

picture included : (1) convexity of the pulmonaryarc instead of concavity-filling out of the pulmonarybay ; (2) elevation of the aortic knob ; (3) straighten-ing of the left border, due to a combination of (1) withsome enlargement to the left. In the result theheart became rather ham-shaped. In a girl of 16,with goitre symptoms of only two months’ duration,the aortic knob was as high as the clavicle and thepulmonary bay convex, although there was no

enlargement. Other young subjects showed thesesigns together with enlargement. In severe cases

gross enlargement might be seen, but his series gaveno support to the view that enlargement was mechani-cally produced by pressure of the goitre on thevessels. Radiographic evidences of heart failurewere prominence of the superior vena cava, effusionat the right base, and congestion of the lung roots.

In mitral stenosis the pulmonary arc might bedeveloped to an extreme degree and below it mightbe seen a second bulge, due to the conus arteriosis.Moreover, the aortic knob tended to be unduly smalland there were often dense lung roots without anycongestive failure. These points distinguished stenosisfrom the goitre heart, which did not show such anextreme pulmonary arc or any conus bulge andin which the aortic knob was unaltered in size andthe lung roots were only dense in the presence ofheart failure.The cause of goitre heart might be the greater

volume carried by, and the greater pulsation of thegreat vessels ; the weaker pulmonary arch wouldgive way before the aorta.The PRESIDENT asked for further details of the

causation.Dr. J. PARKINSON said that these changes were

found in a fair proportion of cases of hyperthyroidismand it was remarkable that the hearts of youngpeople should be so affected. It had been statedthat the lung fields were clearer in goitre than in thenormal case, but others thought this was due tothe emaciation. In mitral stenosis the lung areaswould be more shadowed.

Dr. COOKSON, in reply, said that measurementshad shown that the pulmonary artery was actuallydilated. Some German workers had suggested thatthe prominence of the pulmonary artery was entirelydue to enlargement of the right ventricle. He did I,not think the lung fields were really any clearer Ithan normal in goitre. I

Dr. ADOLF SCHOTT (Bad Nauheim) read a paper i

on the

Respiratory Changes of Blood Pressure.These changes, he said, consisted in a decrease in

the amplitude of the pulse during inspiration andan increase in expiration. There were three formsof pulsus paradoxus : (1) the extrathoracic, whichhad no clinical importance; (2) the mechanical,due to adhesions between the heart and neighbouringstructures; and (3) the dynamic, which was the subjectof his paper. He described a number of experimentson animals and patients, particularly a method ofdirect registration, as a result of which he had foundno connexion between pulsus paradoxus and latentor inherent weakness or atonia of the heart muscle.A pulsus paradoxus was found, however, over a widerange of pressures, in emphysema, even in veryearly cases where the diagnosis was only radiological.It was found also in artificial pneumothorax. Theseresults could be explained by the fact that the intra-alveolar respiratory pressure changes were markedlyincreased and reacted on the pulmonary vessels.The practical conclusion was that pulsus paradoxusmight indicate increased resistance in the bronchialand alveolar tubes, and could not be regarded as asign of incipient atonia of heart muscle. A closerdefinition of pulsus paradoxus was advisable, andthe dynamic form should be diagnosed only if thepulse tracing showed the characteristic respiratorychanges when taken by an adequate recording systemunder no pressure outside the range : systolic pressureto 15 mm. below.

Dr. A. BRIAN TAYLOR read a paper on

Tuberculous Empyema.This form of empyema, he said, differed from otherforms and required different treatment. His paperwas based on a series of 79 cases from the BromptonHospital. A purulent tuberculous effusion indicatedpleural tuberculosis, either primary or secondary; aclear effusion might be a secondary exudate or anallergic response. The morbid process in the pleurafollowed the usual changes of tuberculous lesions,but the frequency of early adhesions accountedfor the comparative rarity of empyema. Only afew main 2etiological types were common. In hisseries the onset had been as follows : (1) in an artificialpneumothorax, 47 per cent. ; (2) by primarypurulent pleurisy, 15 per cent. ; (3) in a previousserous pleurisy, 16 per cent. ; (4) after spontaneouspneumothorax, 22 per cent. The final diagnosiswas made by finding the bacilli in the exudate,but often diagnosis had to rest on the presence of

a sterile effusion, with a more or less chronic courseand clinical features compatible with tuberculosis.The clinical course might, however, vary widely.The treatment presented problems of the gravest

difficulty and the prognosis was bad. Treatmentmust take into account : (1) the mechanical andtoxic effect of the effusion ; (2) the condition of theunderlying lung; and (3) the general state of the

patient. When the trouble in the lung was slightor controlled, where the pneumothorax was other-wise producing satisfactory results, or where the

general condition was good, treatment should beenergetic and radical. Removal of the effusionwas best performed by gas replacement, which

occasionally produced cure. More often, furthertreatment was needed, and pleural lavage was oftenvery helpful. By continuing pleural lavage combinedwith gas replacement to keep the cavity dry andempty, the lung could be gradually re-expanded! tao such an extent that complete cure resulted. Itwas, of course, useless to re-expand a lung containing

988

active disease, but expansion was fairly safe aftertwo years. Pleuricotomy with constant drainagewas a useful measure but seldom produced permanentcure. It was a temporary measure, or could be

applied when the patient was too ill for radicaltreatment. Oleothorax had not proved very satis-factory at Brompton; it was mainly indicated inrecurrent purulent pleurisies where the toxaemiawas very severe, in cases secondarily infected beforesurgical treatment was commenced, or in the presenceof pleuro-pulmonary perforations which might behealed by oil. Thoracoplasty was one of the mostvaluable methods ; it brought the chest wall downto the lung to produce adhesions. It was the opera-tion of choice when the active lung disease wasunilateral, or where it had been locked up by fibrosis.Phrenic avulsion should be performed first.

Of the 79 cases in this series, 31-6 per cent. werealive three years after treatment, 58-2 per cent.dead within two years, and the rest untraced. Pleuralwash-outs had been used alone in 18 cases, half ofwhom had died, and in addition to gas replacementsin 57 cases, 52-6 per cent. of whom had died. Thoraco-

plasty in 13 cases had had a mortality of 30-8 percent.

Dr. G. MARSHALL said that tuberculous empyemawas almost always due to rupture of the lung, andtreatment should depend on whether it was tubercu-lous or secondarily infected. If the purely tuberculouswere left alone, most patients did well, but the Isecondarily infected had to be treated, preferably by icontinuous suction drainage, which was a tedioustreatment but extraordinarily worth while.

Dr. E. R. CULLINAN read a paper on

. Dermatomyositis.

This was, he said, a disease of unknown origindifficult to diagnose from scleroderma. It appearedto be an infection, but nothing else was known ofits setiology. He described a case which appearedquite different from scleroderma. The patient hadcomplained of loss of power and a rash. She had haddifficulty in walking and balancing, in feeding herself,and in clearing her throat. She had had vaguegeneralised pains. The rash had been a patchyskin pigmentation ; the skin had felt stiff and thesubcutaneous tissue thick. All the joints had beenstiff-some of the muscles had seemed to be in astate of tonic contraction, and had shown somereaction of degeneration. The chief reflexes hadbeen absent. There had been moderate eveningfever. She had gradually become worse, and haddied in a manner suggesting suffocation from mucuswhich she could not dislodge. The peculiar changesin the muscles were apparently confined to dermato-myositis ; they were never seen in scleroderma,however similar the two skin conditions might be.Autopsy had shown a marked lymphoid hyperplasiain the stomach, spleen, and thyroid, a general diffusefine fibrosis, with wide areas of chronic inflammation(lymphocytes and histiocytes) in the muscles, andfoaming macrophages in the areolar tissue. Somefibres showed a hyaline degeneration like Zenker’s

degeneration.Dr. PARKES WEBER asked whether the urine

had been examined for myoglobin, and what preciselywas meant by lymphoid changes in the stomachand thyroid.The PRESIDENT asked if the blood had shown any

eosinophilia.Dr. CULLINAN, in reply, said that the urine had

not been specially examined for myoglobin; it hadcontained no albumin. By lymphoid hyperplasiahe meant overgrowth of the lymphoid tissue in thesubepithelial layer of the stomach, but there hadbeen no definite appearance of follicles in the thyroid.There had been no eosinophilia.

SECTION OF UROLOGY.

AT a meeting of this section on April 21st, thechair was taken by Mr. RALPH THOMPSON, and adiscussion on

Nephrostomy in Theory and Practicewas opened by Prof. HUGH CABOT of the MayoClinic. Nephrostomy, he said, was a very old opera-tion as an emergency procedure, but the earliestdiscussions on the subject did not appear to dateback beyond the ’eighties. The rapid return offunction and the effect, upon infection, of drainagethrough the kidney substance had attracted attentionat that time. He would, he said, consider the applica-tion of nephrostomy in three types of case-namely,calculus disease ; chronic hydronephrosis with or

without infection ; and chronic infection of thekidney. Nephrostomy was desirable in calculusdisease when the pelvis and calyces of the kidneywere markedly dilated, and he believed that the

operation diminished the risk of infection consider-ably in the non-infected cases ; there was, however,the possibility that the operation might stir up latentinfection. Where the kidney had been primarilyinjured by stone, and had subsequently been thesite of prolonged infection, it was a temptation toregard nephrectomy as the only safe operation ;but if there were stones, however small, on the

opposite side he hesitated to recommend nephrectomy.Moreover, in a number of instances where the stone-bearing kidney on one side had been removed, stonehad developed in the opposite kidney although itmight have been healthy for years. In one sense a

stone-bearing kidney on one side might be a safe-guard to the other kidney. Possibly on the removalof the stone-bearing kidney the disturbance ofchemical mechanism, whatever it might be, was

transferred to the previously healthy kidney. Forthese reasons he was unwilling to perform nephrectomywhere it could be avoided, and preferred to do asmuch as possible for the injured kidney, howeverserious the damage might appear to be. Cases ofpyonephrosis without stone also fell into this group,and were undoubtedly the outcome of infection ofa hydronephrosis. It had been recognised for manyyears that, although it was not possible to determinewith any accuracy how much the function of a

kidney containing a stone was depressed, removal ofthe stone would often result in a return to somethingapproximating to normal function. In cases of

pyonephrosis, however, the kidney was often reportedto be completely functionless. This did not neces-

sarily mean that the kidney was incapable of function.In a series of 42 cases in which no function otherthan moderate secretion of water could be detected,he had found that drainage of the kidney and removalof stone, where stone was present, resulted in a returnof about 50 per cent. of the normal function. It

was, therefore, unjustifiable to declare a kidneyincapable of function, even when it failed to respond tothe elaborate tests now available. In the normal

kidney only a certain proportion of the glomeruliwere active at any one time, and under adverseconditions it might be possible for the whole kidney

989

to lie fallow for a considerable period. If the active e

glomeruli were reduced from about 30 per cent. toabout 3 per cent. the kidney might possibly continueto preserve its anatomical structure and capacityfor normal function. Nephrostomy was valuableas a method of estimating the capacity of a kidneywhich appeared to be functionless. An advantageof nephrostomy over pyelostomy was the provision ofmore satisfactory drainage. His experience had beenthat kidney function would return after drainagein proportion to the amount of normal kidney tissueremaining. Opinions differed on the effect of nephros-tomy in clearing up infection. Acute recent infections

generally cleared up entirely, but were relativelyrare among the cases in which the operation wasindicated. Recent and slight infection of an acute

hydronephrosis usually cleared up readily whatevermethod of drainage was employed, provided theobstruction was removed. With chronic infectionthe question presented difficulties ; at the MayoClinic there were a number of patients who had beendraining for some years following nephrostomy, andwho were retaining a kidney of some value. A

kidney which had been severely infected at theoutset usually continued to harbour urea-splittingorganisms, but it might serve as a useful organ,nonetheless, which was worth preserving if theopposite kidney was injured. Where both kidneyswere damaged it was worth while trying to preservea kidney of this kind ; he did not think there wasevidence to support the view that such a kidneymenaced the kidney of the opposite side. He believedthat nephrostomy had a wider field of applicationthan was usually conceded. In cases of doubtthe function of an infected kidney might be savedby the operation, whether stone was present or not.In certain cases, particularly cases of cancer, per-manent nephrostomy might be valuable, and wasnot more socially inconvenient than permanentcolostomy ; the patient might live comfortably formany years. The tube could be so arranged as to beaccessible to the patient, who could change it himselfafter a little experience. He shared the view, putforward in 1910 by Watson, that in bilateral calculusdisease, permanent nephrostomy on one or both sidesmight preserve the kidney tissue from further destruc-tion. It was even possible that in some cases per-manent nephrostomy might inhibit the developmentof further calculi in the kidney, though the evidenceon this point was inconclusive. At his clinic therewere patients operated on for recurrent calculi whohad lived for 3, 6, and 15 years after permanentnephrostomy without further recurrence. Two othercases had been reported in which permanent nephros-tomy had been performed for recurrent calculi,and there had been no further recurrence. InWatson’s case in 1910 not all the calculi had beenremoved, but there was no evidence that they increasedin number following permanent nephrostomy, and thepatient lived for 25 years with good kidney function.

Sir JOHN THOMSON-WALKER remarked that inthis country the term nephrostomy was used to

imply an operation leaving a permanent fistula,and nephrotomy was reserved for temporary drainageof the kidney. Conservative treatment was favouredin cases of bilateral calculus, but it had not been hisexperience that removal of stone from one kidneyfavoured the development of stone in the other.On the contrary, it had been found that if an infectedstone was left in one kidney, there was a tendencyfor stone to develop in the opposite kidney.

Mr. JOCELYX Sw 4T doubted whether the apparent

improvement in renal function following drainagewas a true improvement. The stone might depressthe action of the kidney in the earlier tests, and theapparent restoration of function following removal ofthe stone was therefore deceptive.

Mr. F. A. G. JEANS and Mr. ZACHARY COPE alsojoined in the discussion.

Prof. CABOT, in replying, said that nephrostomywas not an operation which should be substituted fornephrectomy if the other kidney was sound.

THE MEDICO-LEGAL SOCIETY.

AT a meeting of this society on April 28th, withLord RIDDELL, the President, in the chair, a paperon the

Gynaecologist in the Law Courts

was read by Mr. J. BRIGHT BANISTER. He said hebelieved that most gynaecologists felt an abhorrenceabout appearing in the law courts, first because thecases concerning which they were required to giveevidence were usually sordid and unsavoury, and

secondly because a gynaecologist in active practicefound his work seriously dislocated by the inevitabledelays associated with legal hearings. Furtherreasons were that the evidence he had to give washard to present to the non-medical mind, which usuallywas very ignorant of the subject. Recently, for

example, a successful barrister was much annoyedwith a doctor because X rays had not been employedto settle the mystery of a possible six weeks’ pregnancy.The gynaecologist’s difficulties were not lessened bythe fact that usually he knew nothing of the law ;it took him a long time to realise that law and equitywere not related to one another. Even the oathappalled him, for it required the telling of " thetruth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth."A medical examination was made, and certain factswere noted, which, communicated to the court, were,to the doctor, the truth ; but if other facts notnoticed were not included it was not the whole truth.And in- the interpretations and inferences drawn, thewitness was made to feel that his completed evidencewas something more-it might even be less-thanthe truth. Even the words he used were sometimesaltered, as in a case in which he referred to a woman’sabdomen, and the judge interposed with the remarkto the jury : "When the doctor says her abdomenhe means her stomach."

Mr. Banister’s main purpose, he said, was to relatesome of the reactions of a gynaecologist to his

experience in the courts. He thought a distinctionshould be drawn between the gynaecologist and theordinary medical witness and that the former shouldbe regarded as an expert, for he was required tomaintain an impartial outlook on all the circumstancesat issue. The examination-in-chief and the cross-

examination were apt to produce on the witness oneof two effects : either he became antagonistic and solost his impartiality, or he realised that anything waspossible in gynaecology, as in other branches of theprofession, and so was of little use to any one side,especially as he heard evidence by other medicalwitnesses which was at variance with his own. Mr.Banister therefore thought that a medical witnesson a subject should be one who had experience ofit in actual practice. In one case a medical witness,who said he had been 30 years in practice and hadcommanded a general hospital during the war,