AAY 3O2 I9I4] CORRESPONDENCE.

L X T Ba 1213

STRYCHNINE-TUBERCULIN TREATMENT OF THE SOUTH LONDON HOSPITAL FOR

HOSPITAL TUERCULOUS CASES. WOMIEN.
SIR,-In answer to Dr'. William A. MIuir's criticism on SIR,-May I, as clhairm-an of the Board of Manage.
-Ilmy short paper bearing the above title in the JOURRNAL inent of tlle South London Hospital for Women, correct
of May 16th, I have little to say -but. that I lad previously onie or two of the statements in the paragraplh hleaded
treated in tlii'ty years very mnaniy cases in tlle usual "A New Hospital " in your issue of May 23rd ?
method by rest in bed, good diet, inhalations, various Th-e report presented to tlle governors of tlle lhospital
drugs, anid so forth, witlh the ordinary results, wlhiclh were three weeks ago was the 8econd and not the first aDnnual
nlot niearly as good as by the addecd iuetlod. I tlhink when report, as stated in yoiur JOURNAL. It gives informiiatioln
Dr. MuIir has seen the treatment tried and lhas lhad miiore relating to the year 1913 onily. The first annual report
general experience, lie will be in a position to express an and the appeal issued - witlh it, both of whiich I enclose,
opinion, but lhardly before. contain the annoouncement of the anonynmlous donation of
Hospital cases of phtllisis miean pulmnonary tuberculous £35.000 to the building fund, and also the reasons which
patients who have been taken acutely ill and require rest led the promoters of the hospital to decide on separate
in bed for a time oWiDg to fever, haemorrhage, pleurisy, sites for the in-patient and out-patient departmenits anid
and other causes. Their stay in a general hospital- is to build a hospital containing a large proportion of private
limited, and the great desideratumi. is to get the maximum wards. It is stated in your JOURNAL that the out-patient
of imnprovement in the tilmle allowed. Of various lmlethods department was opened when- even the sitp of the present
tried I foulnd tlhe strychnine-tuberculin- treatment gave the institution had still to be acquired." This is a mistake.
best results by a long way.-I ai, etc., Not only had the site of the lhospital on Clapham Common
Plyniouth, May 24th.- J. I.WIIIELAN. been bought, but a sum amotuting to over £36,000 towards
the cost of the building and equipment had already been
promised at that time-tlhat is, April 2nd of last year.
Inasmuch as the building fund is in the hands of trustees,
OPERATOR'S M[ASK. who are entiriely responsible f'or its expenditure, and not
SiR.-Ope'ators wlho wear spectacles wvill fild that con- in the han(ds of the Board of Management, the account
-densation on the glasses is prevented by the simple device does not appear am.ongst those presented by the board for
we lhave used for §ome years backin theRoyalVictori4* tlhe year 1913. Thie total receipts to date for all purposes
.Hospital, Dublin, namely, the insertion of a flexible wire connected with -the hlospital amount to a little over
-lead does admirably-alona tlhe lower border of the £46,000.
slit cut in the mask for tlle eyes of the surgeon. By Th'at the cost of mainltenance of the out-patient depart-
-moulding tlle flexible wire on the nose and clieek the mient appears hiigh is partly explained by the fact that
expired air is excluded from -contact with the glasses. several of the items do not belong properly to this depart-
-I am, etc., mlent, but would be included in the general hospital
Df'iblilu, May 26tlh. JOHN B. STORY. expenditur e were the comuplete lhospital in existence.
Thus a proportion of thle expenditure necessarily included
in the accounts has nothiinag to do with the out-patient
department.
CENTIGRADE AND FAHRENHEIT SCALES. I should like to say tllat the promoters of the hospital
SIR,-It is the custom of various firms, for advertise- are, firmly persuaded of thle need for its existence. Thle
Hospital for Women is not nearly large enouglh to
ment or otherwise, to puLblislh clinical temperattire cllarts Newtreat all the patients who seek admission, and somethinga
with a Centigrade scale at the riglt hand side. In miiany hlad for all tllose women wlho were crowded
of these the scales are badly made and misleading, some out. to be done accolumm-odation in Soutlh London was
of tlhemn beinig as much as lhalf a degree Fallrenheit in relatively Hospital
error. The makers of the clharts seem to hlave failed to women's hospital scalnty wlhen it was decided to start the second
grasp the fact that the Centigrade degrees all come tlhere, and it was also natural to clhoose a
exactly on thl usual rulings of a Fahrenheit clhart, -thus: site at the opposite polc of London from the Nevw- Hospital
for Women in Euston Road.. Thle rapidly increasing
numbers of out-patients at Newington Causeway-sorne-
350 C- 950 F., is the lowest marlking usually given oll clhart timiies
or thermometer. as niany as 80 in an afternoon-proclaim the nieed in
360 C. =96'8° F. South London for a lhospital officered by medical women.
370 C. = 98.60 F., may be taken as normal temperature. .We hope that tlle building, wlicih began in earnest a few
380 C.-100.40 F., a good point at wlhich to send a patient to weeks ago, will be completed before another year is
bed as a routine treatnment. passed. I am, etc.,
390 C. 102.20 F. London, S.E., May 26th. EDITH CASTLEREAGH.
40" C. 1040 P., an easy fact to remiiember.
410 C. = 105.8 F.
The present inaccurate metlhod has the effect of CHRONIC COLITIS.
obscuring all the above facts, wlich slhould be familiar Chronic SIR,-May I be permitted to indicate to your revicwer of
to every medical man. All that is necessary is that thle Coliti8 tlha.t valuable as such a critique is to the
Centigrade degrees should be printed opposite to their plete writers of an admittedly elementary and possibly incom-
proper lines, and short bars should be placed to the right wvork, their difficulties are somewlhat increased by
of the chart to indicate the tenths of the Centigrade the enumeration of sins of omission and commission whicl
have actually not occurred ?
degrees. First of all, I cannot accept the compliment, implied
A still greater advance would be to have the main rather
rulings of the chart according to the Centigrade scale in " than expressed, that we have originated a new idea
and the exact Fahrenheit readincgs relegated to the right 'the holding that the connexion between chronic catarrlh of
hand margin. colon and constipation has been overlooked." The
One small advantage of tlle Centigrade over tlle chronic relation between constipation and the early stages of
Fahrenheit scale that I have not seen nioticed is tllat- tlheir causal colitis may lhave been too lightly regarded, but
no confusion can arise as to whether the expression of course wellrelationship has been, as youir reviewer is
"point," muich in use among -nurses, means one-fiftlh or Continental writers aware, very completely considered by tho
one-tenth of a degree, because there would be roomi on the refer to whose views on the subject we
tlhermometers and charts to mark the tentlhs of the in more than one place.
Centigrade degrees instead of only the fifths of a degree, refer Your reviewer complains that, altliough we repeatedly
as in the present Fahrenheit scale. to the sigmoidoscope and to lavage for -diagnostic
Is it not time that the medical schools adopted the purposes,and nowhlibe lhas lhe "i foiind inntioned the far
Centigrade scale in the wards, so that the next generation nationsimpler very valuable method of radioscopic exami-
of medical men may use it, and so bring British practice use of aofbismuth the bowel by screen or by a skiagraph after tlie
meal." I beg his pardon, but-tlhat is his
into line wlith the Continental ?-I amu, etc., fault. He will find tlle reference in question at pp. 74, 75.
H. B. BILLUPS, B.M.Oxon., etc.
Sandown, Isle of Wight, May 2nd. He remarks that we have printed "copies of a great