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man is another matter; for they are known to be capableof producing changes in the genetic material of the

spermatozoon 61 and for other reasons, too, may be

classed as radiomimetic agents. 8 Substances which havethese effects, but which do not prevent the spermatozoonfrom entering the egg, cannot be regarded as any lesshazardous than atomic radiation and should be treatedwith the same reverence.

Dangers of somewhat lower degree, though still serious,attend practices that depend on destruction of the earlyembryo. Here, too, phenomenal specificity of chemicalaction is manifest, notably in the lethal effect of the tri-phenylethanol derivative known briefly as MER-25 on theunimplanted embryo and that of podophyllotoxin afterimplantation.10 This work represents a fascinating aspectof experimental biology; but there is an ever-present riskthat the embryos may not all be killed and that damagedembryos may survive to term.Some lines of research seem to offer hopes of satisfactory

results with comparative safety: these depend on suppres-sion of ovulation or of implantation. The best known isthe oral administration of certain 19-nor steroids withprogestational activity which apparently inhibit the

gonadotrophin output from the pituitary.l’ Hopeful alsoare the results with m-xylohydroquinone 12 1-3; this sub-stance is believed to inactivate gonadotrophin, oestrogen,and progesterone in vivo by combining directly with them.In the suppression of implantation, some success has beenreported in rats treated with ergotoxine,14 but the mostinnocuous method of achieving this effect has recentlybeen observed in mice: pregnancy was interrupted at

high frequency by no more drastic an expedient thanallowing the females to become aware of the proximity ofstrange males.15 16

TREATMENT OF INFECTIONS IN HOSPITAL

IN the past twenty-five years sulphonamides, penicillin,antituberculous drugs, broad-spectrum antibiotics, vari-ous antistaphylococcal agents, and some promising anti-fungal substances have become available. Nevertheless,infective disease remains undefeated and some types areon the increase. The lamentable lack of achievement hasbeen exposed by Finland and his colleagues 17 in anauthoritative report to the Council on Drugs of theAmerican Medical Association. These workers havereviewed the changing pattern of infections observed inthe Boston City Hospital in certain years, carefully chosento reflect the changing fashion in chemotherapy. The year1935 was selected as a baseline for the pre-sulphonamideera; 1941 to reveal the impact of the sulphonamidesbefore they had been joined by penicillin; 1947 when bothpenicillin and streptomycin had been widely used; 1951to show the influence of the broad-spectrum antibiotics;and 1957 to define recent trends influenced by most or allcurrently available antibiotics. In order to make validcomparisons, attention was restricted to septicaemia,meningitis, empyema, and necropsy material from whichbacteriological studies were satisfactory.7. Cattanach, B. M. Nature, Lond. 1957, 180, 1364.8. Craig, A. W., Fox, B. W., Jackson, H. Brit. J. Radiol. 1959, 32, 390.9. Segal, S. J., Nelson, W. O. Proc. Soc. exp. Biol., N.Y. 1958, 98, 431.

10. Wiesner, B. P., Yudkin, J. Nature, Lond. 1955, 176, 249.11. Pincus, G. Stud. Fertil. 1958, 10, 3.12. Sanyal, S. N. J. Med. intern. med. Abstr. 1959, 23, 15.13. Sanyal, S. N., Rana, M. ibid. p. 33.14. Shelesnyak, M. C. Recent Progr. Hormone Res. 1957, 13, 269.15. Bruce, H. M. Nature, Lond. 1959, 184, 105.16. Bruce, H. M. J. Reprod. Fertil. (in the press).17. Finland, M., Jones, W. F., Barnes, M. W. J. Amer. med. Ass. 1959,

170, 2188.

In 1935 about 300 septicasmic patients were admitted tohospital and roughly three-fifths of these died. By 1957there were twice as many septicsemic patients, nearlytwo-fifths of whom died: whereas 2 out of 5 septicxmicpatients could be saved in the dark ages before sulphon-amides, no more than 3 out of 5 survive with the help ofmodern chemotherapy. The decline in mortality occurredin the years 1935-41, when the sulphonamides were inexclusive use, for by 1941 only one-third of septicxmicpatients died. Since then and, with the use of penicillin,streptomycin, and the broad-spectrum antibiotics, themortality-rate has increased.

In contrast, meningitis and empyema have becomerather less of a challenge. As regards meningitis, therewere rather more cases in 1957 than in 1935, but betweenthese years the mortality had steadily fallen from 80% to20%. Between these particular years the number of

patients with empyema had halved, although the mortalityrate had risen slightly from 20 to 30%.The bacteria isolated from these infections have changed

significantly over the years, and this changing flora mirrorsthe success and failure of the antibiotics. Pneumococciand hasmolytic streptococci have continued to remainsensitive to antibiotics, but success in this direction hasbeen offset by the increasing incidence of infection due tostaphylococci, enterococci, and various gram-negativeorganisms, against which existing drugs are less potent.The mortality-rate of septicaemia due to gram-positiveorganisms was 67% in 1935 and 33% in 1957. The fallin mortality would have been far more impressive but forstaphylococcal infections, whose incidence quadrupledover these years. The incidence of septicaemia due togram-negative organisms increased sixfold, and the mor-tality also rose slightly from 42%"(1935) to 54% (1957).In essence, the antibiotic era has witnessed a change frompneumococcal to staphylococcal and coliform septicsemia.The gravity of the staphylococcal menace is reflected alsoin the frequency with which this organism was isolatedin pure or almost pure culture from one or more importantsites in necropsy material. It was recovered from 7% ofnecropsies in 1935 compared with 24% in 1957. Finlandand his coworkers draw attention to this as a crude indexof the increasing significance of Staphylococcus aureus asa cause of death.

This survey might be interpreted less confidently hadit not been made at the Boston City Hospital-a largegeneral city hospital, admitting 4 patients every hourround the clock, where throughout the years covered bythe survey Dr. Maxwell Finland has himself been res-

ponsible for the management of infections.Possible steps to reduce the hazard of infections include

vigilance against cross-infection, combination of anti-

biotics, rotation of drugs, limitation of the use of some,the introduction of fresh antistaphylococcal agents, andnew measures to improve host resistance. That the

challenge has been accepted in London is evident fromthe painstaking work of Barber and her colleagues 18 andthe cooperation of the whole staff of Hammersmith

Hospital, where some reversal of antibiotic resistance inhospital staphylococcal infection has already beenachieved by the introduction of some of these measuresin the surgical wards. At the beginning of the investiga-tion, 70% of staphylococcal infections were resistant topenicillin and tetracycline and only 12% were sensitive18. Barber, M., Dutton, A. A. C., Beard, M. A., Elmes, P. C., Williams, R.

Brit. med. J. Jan. 2, 1960, p. 11.

158

to penicillin. At the end of the investigation, 36% of theinfections were resistant to penicillin and tetracycline and48% were sensitive to penicillin. The use of penicillinwas deliberately restricted, and broad-spectrum anti-biotics in combination were used more freely. The con-sumption of penicillin in the hospital was halved, butthat of tetracycline, chloramphenicol, and erythromycindoubled, and the use of novobiocin increased sixfold.The increased cost entailed by this programme is un-important if it succeeds. One peril is that gram-negativeorganisms may become increasingly often resistant to theroad-spectrum antibiotics. It would be difficult to

defend the unlimited use of polymyxin for bacillarydysentery and trivial skin infections in a hospital, if thisinvolved an increase in infections with resistant pseudo-monas for which originally only polymyxin is effective.This organism alone was responsible for 13 deaths in1957 in the Boston City Hospital, compared with nonein 1935. Barber and her coworkers are well aware ofthis danger; and, in re-shaping their policy for the nextphase of the attack on hospital infection, they might eveninclude the coliform organisms with staphylococci as

their quarry.

CLASSIFICATION OF PSYCHIATRIC DISORDERS

DISCOVERING the prevalence of mental disorders indifferent communities helps both to throw light on theircausation and to plan the therapeutic services. Minor

psychiatric illness is much commoner than is usuallyrealised, both as " maladjustment

" in children and inadults consulting their family doctors 2; and outpatientfacilities must be planned to meet the need. Arentsen andStr6mgren 3 have reported a survey based on a census ofall persons resident in Danish psychiatric institutions on aday in the autumn of 1957. The prevalence of suchpatients-228 per 100,000-was considerably less than the342 per 100,000 in this country and the 430 per 100,000 inSweden; and this was presumed to be due to nosocomialfactors rather than to differences in morbidity. Swedenhas been able to provide more hospital beds than Denmarkand Norway (where the rate is also low), and geographicalfactors make outpatient management easier in Denmark.Distribution of diagnostic subgroups did not, overall,differ greatly throughout the country; but diagnosticpractices in certain hospitals were strikingly discrepant,reflecting the present unsatisfactory state of classification.In her survey of mental illness in London, Vera Norris 4found similar differences. In some conditions the con-cordance of diagnosis for the same patient betweenobservation ward and mental hospital was less than 30%.Agreement on schizophrenia and manic-depressivepsychosis, however, was about 70%, and the differencebetween the diagnoses was borne out by the very highlysignificant (p < 0.0001) differences in duration of stay.Prof. Erwin Stengel 5 has surveyed 58 current classificationsat the request of the World Health Organisation. Hefound that none was wholly satisfactory and most werebedevilled by national and personal sentiment. Despiteminor difficulties with cardiovascular classification 6 the

1. Ministry of Education Report of the Committee on MaladjustedChildren, 1955.

2. Shepherd, M., Fisher, M., Stein, L., Kessel, W. I. N. Proc. R. Soc. Med.1959, 52, 269.

3. Arentsen. K., Stromgren, E. Actajutlandica, 1959, 31, 1.4. Norris, V. Mental Illness in London: Maudsley monograph no. 6,

1959.5. Stengel, E. Address at a meeting of the Section of Psychiatry, Royal

Society of Medicine, Nov. 10, 1959.6. See Lancet, Nov. 14, 1959, p.836.

International Classification of Diseases has been generallyaccepted throughout the world except for the psychiatricsection. Disagreement on definition has led to gross dis-crepancies in use, and Professor Stengel maintains that anacceptable classification demands that grouping beexhaustive and the categories mutually exclusive with eachexplicitly defined. That the present system has failed ismade clear by Miss Eileen Brooke.5 The I.C.D. and theAmerican Psychiatric Association classifications are

theoretically interchangeable, but when some 200

diagnoses were coded on each separately and the A.P.A.coding was used to give an I.C.D. code number, therewas concordance in only a minority. Cohort analysis ofcases discharged and readmitted elsewhere within fouryears showed a similar minority of concordant diagnoses.Miss Brooke concluded-as did Dr. Norris from similarfindings-that only with the broad groupings did diagnosisseem " not completely haphazard ".

This unsatisfactory situation is hindering progress.’ 7

Pending the evolution of objective indices, we can onlyawait the outcome of W.H.O.’s endeavours and hope thatthe conclusions will prove universally acceptable. Fortu-

nately the planning of our future services need not waiton these deliberations; Professor McKeown and his

colleagues, for example, have described a very useful

system of classification, based on the treatment needs ofpatients, which ignores diagnosis.8 9

PULMONARY ARTERIOVENOUS FISTULA INHEREDITARY H&AElig;MORRHAGIC TELANGIECTASIA

EVERY large general hospital is certain to have on itslist of frequent attenders a small group of unfortunateadults who come to the casualty department complaining ofrecurrent bleeding from the nose or lips or mouth. Theblood is seen to stem from an insignificant leak in thecentre of a small ruby patch, many of which are usuallyto be found scattered here and there on the mucousmembrane. Although the flow of blood is seldom

vigorous it may eventually, by its persistence, cause someconcern. Its arrest can certainly be infuriatingly difficult,whether it be attempted by sustained compression or bycautery, or by both. Each ruby patch marks the positionof a tiny arteriovenous communication at the capillarylevel. Presumably these vessels are very close to the

surface, or else they are abnormally fragile. Whatever thecause, they can be induced to bleed by the most trivial ofinjuries.

This vascular anomaly is not restricted to the mouthand nose, but may affect any portion of the skin of thetrunk. Similar lesions can also involve mucous membraneelsewhere; and bleeding from the gastrointestinal tract orhxmaturia often feature in the history. The disease isknown to be hereditary and is presumed to be transmittedas a simple dominant with equal frequency by males andfemales. Most have now agreed to call the disease

hereditary haemorrhagic telangiectasia, but some studentsand compilers of texts still delight in the eponymousprolixity of Rendu-Osler-Weber disease.

Arteriovenous shunts in the lesser circulation, betweenbranches of the pulmonary artery and of the pulmonaryvein, were recognised at necropsy at the turn of the cen-tury, but it was not until 1939 that the first case was

diagnosed clinically.10 The triad of cyanosis, poly-7. Lancet, Aug. 15, 1959, p. 117.8. Garratt, F. N., Lowe, C R., McKeown, T. ibid. 1958, i, 682.9. McKeown, T. ibid. 1958, i, 701.

10. Smith, H. L., Horton, B. T. Amer. Heart J. 1939, 18, 589.