579

for every five kilogrammes of body-weight of the animal, the strength of the solution being about 1 per cent. It was

found in some preliminary experiments that hirudin has nospecific effect on the gases in drawn blood. When sub-

cutaneously injected it was found that the oxygen in thearterial blood rose to a variable extent whilst the carbonicacid fell. The respiration was quickened, an effect thatfollowed quickly upon a considerable fall in the blood

pressure. The fall in blood pressure is consequent upon dila-tation of the peripheral vessels in the visceral area and pre-sumably elsewhere. Cerebral ansemia is thereby caused andconsequently increased respiration. The increased respirationdecreases the amount of carbonic acid in the blood to a slightextent and tends also to increase the oxygen. If hirudin be

injected too rapidly death may occur.

THE LATE DR. W. S. PLAYFAIR.

THE sum of &1000 has been collected among the patientsand friends of the late Dr. W. S. Play fair and is to be pre-sented to King’s College Hospital with a view to erect a

memorial to him at the institution with which he was so i

long associated. In view of the eminent services renderedto the hospital in the past by Dr. Playfair, and in deferenceto the wishes of his family, it has been decided by theremoval fund committee to devote this money to the buildingand equipment of an appropriate department of the new

hospital shortly to be erected at Denmark-hill, this depart-ment to be named after him and to bear an inscriptionrecording his 35 years’ work at King’s College Hospital.

A DEPILATORY FOR USE BEFORE SURGICALOPERATIONS.

IN the Journal de Médecine et de Chirurgie Pratiques aformula is given for preparing a depilatory for use beforeoperations. It consists of sodium monosulphide, 1 part ;calcium oxide, 1 part; starch, 2 parts ; and sufficient waterto form a stiff paste. The longer hairs are removed withscissors and then, after washing the patient thoroughly, thepaste is spread in a uniform layer with a spatula. After fiveminutes the paste is removed by means of a sterile swab ofcotton and the skin is washed freely with sterile water toremove the alkali.

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THE LOCKING OF MILK CHURNS.

THE proposal of the London County Council in a clause inits General Powers Bill to examine samples of milk at

railway stations in its area is to be petitioned against bythe East Sussex County Council. The London authority isanxious to trace the origin of any unwholesome milk thatmay arrive in the metropolis but the rural authority objectsto the proposed power on the score of the possible hardshipto the farmer. Many hours frequently elapse from the timewhen the farmer places the milk in a train at a country rail-way station and its process of being doled out at one of theLondon termini. Is the farmer to be responsible for the milkin the interim ? The East Sussex County Council at its

meeting on Feb. llth replied in the negative. It asks thatthe particular clause may be amended by providing that theperson producing or consigning the milk shall not be liable ifhe can prove that the milk contained no matter rendering itunwholesome or unfit for the food of man when so producedor consigned. To some extent the object of the farmercould be surmounted by the lids of the churns beinglocked during transit. This would prevent any possibletampering either during the railway journey or on the plat-form at any station, except by some authorised person. The

general practice, as was pointed out over and over again in aseries of articles which appeared last year in our columnsdealing with the subject of the railway transport of milk to

I London, ’is not to lock np the churns : the contents are

accessible to anyone-and anything that comes along. Of

course, locking the churns would not obviate the harm thatmay occur through delay in transit, but it would stop muchgross defilement. -

"CAMPTODACTYLIA."

IN a clinical lecture delivered at the Charite Hospital in1885 and in an article which appeared in the Presse Médicaleof April 21st, 1906, Professor Landouzy has described underthe name of 11 camptodaotylie " (&kgr;&agr;µ&pgr;&tgr;ós, bent, and &dgr;&agr;&kgr;&tgr;&ngr;&lgr;os,finger) a condition of permanent and irreducible inflexi-

bility of one or several fingers which develops graduallywithout pain or inflammation and affects only the inter-

phalangeal joints, never the metacarpo-phalangeal. The

palmar fascia is intact and the ends of the bones do not

present nodosities. At a meeting of the Sociélé M6dicaledes Hôpitaux of Paris on Jan. 10th M. Ch. Lesieur read animportant paper on camptodactylia which, he said, might beunilateral or bilateral. When unilateral the right hand is themore frequently affected ; when bilateral the condition mostfrequently commences in this hand and predominates there.Usually only one finger is affected, even in the bilateral form,and that finger is nearly always the little one. When morethan one finger are affected the fingers involved are the littleand ring, sometimes the little, ring, and middle fingers ;the index participates only exceptionally. When several

fingers are involved the little finger is always the mostaffected, the ring finger less, and the middle finger least.Each affected finger may be inflexible at one interphalangealjoint or at both joints. In the first case the deformity formsa more or less obtuse angle; in the second the finger has theaspect of a hook formed by a line broken at two points cor-responding to the joints. It also may happen that the

second phalanx is flexed on the first and the thirdextended on the second. A pathognomonic characteristicof camptodactylia is its irreducibility: extension ofthe finger is limited by the degree of the deformity andthe impression is given of tension of the flexor tendon. On

the other hand, there is no obstacle to flexion, and in somecases this movement shows adhesion of the retracted tendonto the overlying skin. Even when marked, camptodactyliadoes not interfere with the use of the hand. Professor

Landouzy regards camptodactylia as a stigma of " neuro-arthritism " and due to some functional disturbance at theconfines of the cervical and dorsal region of the spinal cord.But M. Lesieur thinks that the condition has some causalrelation to tuberculosis for the following reasons : Campto-dactylia resembles the retraction of the tendo Achillis whichhas been observed in tuberculous ulcers of the leg. In thecondition termed by French writers " tuberculous abarticularrheumatism " fibrous tissue is involved. Finally, campto-dactylia clinically resembles contraction of the palmarfascia, which some French writers regard as tuberculous.M. Lesieur therefore investigated 100 cases of campto-dactylia. In these 87 of the patients were averredly tuber-culous, seven probably tuberculous, and six appeared to befree from the disease. But of the last group several

gave a family history of tuberculosis and the greater numbershowed slight lesions, such as acrocyanosis which is regardedas a tuberculide. In the 87 cases of averred tuberculosis the

lungs were affected in 78, the lymphatic glands in 28, andthe bones in seven. In most of the tuberculous cases thelesions were of attenuated virulence, with a tendency tosclerosis, progressing for the most part towards cure or evenalready cured. Thus camptodactylia is of great use both indiagnosis and prognosis of tuberculosis. It is possible to saythat a patient is tuberculous simply by examination of his

fingers, for camptodactylia is a stigma of tuberculosis. In

prognosis it is equally useful; it shows that the tuberculosis