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are all points in favour of this relationship. Then,again, the fact that almost everyone who has studiedthe virus of psittacosis has seen these bodies suggeststhat they are something more definite and more

readily demonstrated than the Paschen and othervirus bodies. Whether this minute cocco-bacillus isthe virus of psittacosis remains to be demonstrated,but its constant presence in virulent material, whethercoming from man, birds, or mice, makes this morethan a remote possibility.

THE TRAINING OF THE DEAF.

THOSE who attended the meeting of the National-Institute for Promoting the Welfare of the Deaf whichtook place last week and to which we elsewhere makereference, had the good fortune to hear from Mr.Stanley Baldwin a very clear exposition of the trials.of the large number of people who have lost theirsense of hearing. Mr. Baldwin, in a studiously simpleaddress, confined attention to the unsympatheticattitude which.the public, through a sort of unheedingignorance, manifests towards the deaf population,contrasting that attitude with the prompt and deepcommiseration which is always extended to the blind.The situation which was .described is one of whichmedical men are becoming increasingly aware, formany doctors are now realising how much can be donefor the deaf by classification and suitable education,where full advantage can be taken of the propertraining. They will recognise the good sense of Mr.Baldwin’s words by as much as they have recognisedthe possibilities for good work and good citizenshippossessed by a large proportion of the deaf. The plightof these is undoubtedly aggravated by the thought-lessness of those with whom they mix, but thecapacities of the deaf require development by methodsof education that are hard to come by, and for theprovision of which the aid of the State is needed.Expressions of official sympathy have now beenreceived from the relevant Ministers of State undertwo administrations, and while there is reason to hopethat the untiring work of the National Institute willsoon bear fruit, towards this end Mr. Baldwin’s wordsof wisdom will play an influential part. By making

little organised attempt to train the deaf the State ison the one hand doing little to ease a burden whichthe country has to bear, and on the other isleaving undeveloped the capacities of a large numberof persons perfectly fitted, if only they can be equipped,to help themselves and help others.

THE OBJECT OF A PHARMACOPŒIA.IN a presidential address to the United States

Pharmacopoeial Convention, delivered on May 13th,Dr. Reid Hunt quoted from the founders of theU.S.P. in 1820 : " It is the object of a Pharmacopoeiato select from among substances which have medicinalpower those the utility of which is most fully estab-lished and best understood ; and to form from thempreparations and compositions in which their powersmay be exerted to the greatest advantage." He isuggested how far it was possible to stray from thisideal by recalling the words of another president ofthe Convention, who had remarked that there werepreparations in the U.S.P. no more active or usefulthan brickdust ; and that doubtless brickdust wouldalso be included if a demand for it arose. But thoughuseless drugs or preparations which enjoy a tem-porary vogue may encumber the Pharmacopoeia,they can always be removed by judicial editing;on the other hand, the full value of remedies longknown to pharmacologists and doctors may oftenescape investigation for years. Dr. Hunt cited ether

as an example, which was known for nearly 300 yearsbefore its anaesthetic use was discovered, and Epsomsalt, recognised by the medical profession since 1694,

- but never examined as an intravenous injection until1905. The use of carbolic acid as an operative

disinfectant by Lister, which was to lead indirectlyto the development of aseptic surgery, was suggestedto him by observing its action at a Scottish sewageplant-a haphazard origin for a revolution in surgicaltechnique. The moral Dr. Hunt draws from theseinstances is the need for the rational use of experimentto investigate completely the properties of drugs atpresent recognised, many of which are still givenempirically. The use of anaesthetics once believed tobe impossible is now beginning to extend, with thesafety and efficiency afforded by modern technique ;but Dr. Hunt reproaches surgeons with treatingthe subject of anaesthesia as though it were a closedchapter, whereas he questions " if man has even goton the right track in regard to general anaesthesia."The effective anaesthetic dose of the substances inuse is more than 50 per cent. of the fatal dose-asmaller margin of safety than with any other class ofimportant drugs. And in this view Sir FrancisShipway is in accord, for in a letter on another pageof our present issue he describes the position ofsurgical anaesthesia as very unsatisfactory, and callsfor search after an agent which will eliminate the fearof going under, provide a safe induction, and avoidthe later complications, whether toxic or irritant.Dr. Hunt holds it probable that in other directionssome of the drugs at present in common use haveequally far-reaching potentialities. Ehrlich, whocombined an encyclopaedic knowledge of pharmacologyand of organic chemistry, believed that the future ofmedicine lay in pharmacology. His many con-

tributions to the science were made as the result ofpatient experiment. The introduction of almostevery modern drug into medicine has depended onpharmacological experiments; further, the use ofsynthetic drugs is rapidly increasing, and to thisfield of activity it is impossible to imagine a limit.In 1835 Bigelow placed epilepsy and angina pectorisamong the " self-limited diseases," declaring thattheir paroxysms could be neither " foreseen, pre-vented, nor, as far as we know, materially abridgedin their duration." Dr. Hunt referred to the valueof the bromides and amyl nitrite, since employed inthese two conditions, and mentioned the extremespecificity of action of certain drugs. The destructionof a few cells of the retina, only, by methyl alcoholpoisoning was remarkably suggestive ; there werepossibly a vast number of known but untestedcompounds which might have a similar effect upon thecancer cells. We have no right to consider anydisease " self-limited," or to think it essential todiscover the cause before attempting the cure. But,as Dr. Hunt pointed out, " at the present rate ofprogress it would require not only decades butcenturies, perhaps a millenium, for the medicalprofession to examine what the chemists alreadyhave to offer." He left a stimulating impression thatno time should be lost in setting about the task.

ROAD ACCIDENTS.’

THE harm that is often caused in accident caseson the roads by well-meant but misguided zeal onthe part of the public is the subject of a letter addressedto the Times of May 28th by the Director of the HomeAmbulance Service of the British Red Cross. Thisapplies in particular to cases with fractures of thelimb bones ; examples are given of patients with afractured femur taken to hospital in the back seatof tiny cars, and others of simple fracture becomingcompound after transport in a lorry without splintage.The British Red Cross Society has done a great dealto minimise the results of the increasing number ofroad accidents by establishing a network of motorambulances throughout the country, by educatingthe people in the principles of first-aid, and by theprovision of boxes of first-aid equipment. There is,however, a real danger that the public by itsendeavours to help may nullify these efforts. Itcannot be too widely made known that in the majorityof cases of accident on the road it is far better to