631

anaesthesia. Chloroform in small doses has the same effectas ether, but in larger doses acts as a more powerful andcomplete uterine depressant. Bromide and chloral, hefinds, have no effect on uterine action and any improve-ment in the action of the uterus after their use heattributes to their sedative effect on the higher centres.morphine acts in the same way except that 15 min.after the injection of gr. there is a slight but noticeablediminution in the intensity and frequency of the contrac-tions ; this is a transient phenomenon, lasting only30 min. at most, and not influencing the subsequentbehaviour of the uterus. The action of morphine withscopolamine is the same as that of morphine only. Healso investigated the oxytocic drugs and found thatquinine in gr. 10 doses is an unreliable stimulant. Infour patients on whom tracings were secured only oneshowed improved contractions. Pituitrin on the otherhand has a dramatic effect on the parturient uterus ;acting rapidly, it increases the power, frequency andduration of the contractions, but relaxation betweencontractions is incomplete ; in other words, a state ofpartial tetany is induced. The duration of this actionis about 30 min. even with small doses of 22 units.These hysterographic studies of the effects of pituitrinonce again confirm the grave dangers of its indiscriminateuse, the gravest being that of rupture of the uterus.Hysterography failed to show any demonstrable differencebetween pitocin, the separated oxytocic principle of

pituitrin, and pituitrin itself. Thymophysin is variablein action, and shows no particular advantages overpituitrin. (Estrin and acetylcholine have a variableeffect on the parturient uterus : in some cases a definiteincrease in contractions results quite soon after theiradministration, though this is never so dramatic as

after pituitrin. Embrey’s work confirms some and

repudiates others of our established theories of uterinebehaviour in labour, and the action of stimulant anddepressant drugs on the contracting uterus. Hystero-graphy should provide a reliable measure of old andnew therapies.

ANTISCORBUTICS

ANIMAL tissues are valuable sources of the fat-solublevitamins, but, with a few exceptions of secondarypractical importance, plant tissues are essential to manfor his supply of vitamin C. It is a fallacy, however,to consider that all plant tissues are equally importantantiscorbutics, and consideration of tables such as thosecompiled by Boas Fixsen and Roscoe reveals the

great variation in vitamin-C content of various fruitsand vegetables. The negligible amount of the vitaminin plums, pears and melons is in striking contrast to thehigh concentrations found in many other fruits and

vegetables. Citrus fruits have been accepted for somelong time as valuable antiscorbutics, but it was not until1936 that it was shown 2 that black-currants were threeor four times as potent as orange juice. Two-thirds ofan ounce of black-currants will provide the entireestimated daily dosage of 50 mg. of ascorbic acid. The

strawberry also now ranks with the citrus juices and isapproximately twice as rich as the tomato. Alongsidethis revision in the scale of accepted antiscorbutic valuesother false impressions have been corrected as the resultof recent investigations. Vitamin C was once regardedas a luxury vitamin restricted to those who could affordthe more expensive fruits. But price and antiscorbuticvalue do not necessarilv run side bv side and aboutld. a day spent on properly chosen foods will supplythe normal requirements of vitamin C.3 Anothercommon fallacy was that cooking and canning of fruits andvegetables destroyed most if not all the vitamin C present.1. Boas Fixsen, M. A. and Roscoe, M. H. Nutr. Abstr. Rev. 1937, 7,

823.2. Olliver, M. J. Soc. chem. Ind., Lond. 1936, 55, 153T.3. Olliver, Lancet, 1940, 2, 190.

Workers throughout the world-Kohman and Tresslerin America, Lunde and Mathiesen in Norway, andOlliver in England-have disproved this theory. Duringcooking a proportion of the vitamin is extracted fromthe tissues into the liquid but the actual destruction isrelatively small. Cooked, but not overcookecl, vege-tables such as brussels sprouts, cauliflower, cabbage,and spinach are among the most valuable antiscorbuticsbut it is a pity more use cannot be made of the despisedwater they have been cooked in. These new findings,which are of the utmost importance in time of warwhen the nation has to be fed on a restricted food-supply, are based on a mass of experimental work mainlyaccumulated during the past five or six years. As theJournal of the American -111edical Association 4 pointsout, these many observations have only been madepossible by the perfection of rapid chemical methods forestimating the vitamin, and the importance of the workof Tillmans, Harris, and others, by which a simple30-minute test can be substituted for a laborious threeto four weeks’ biological assay, cannot be overestimated.

POLIOMYELITIS OF MICE AND MEN

IT is too early to attempt to classify animal viruseswith the precision applied to bacteria, but it is possible toplace them in groups. These include the vaccinia-variola group, the Castaneda-positive group (made up ofthe viruses of psittacosis, trachoma, inclusion conjuncti-vitis and lymphogranuloma venereum), the influenza

group and so on. It may now become necessary to

speak of a poliomyelitis group. In 1934 Theiler whileworking in New York on the effects of the neurotropicyellow-fever virus in mice noted that a few uninoculatedmice from an apparently normal strain showed symptomsof a flaccid paralysis of the hind legs. From the brains ofthese mice a virus was isolated which is similar in size tothe poliomyelitis virus and like it gives rise to lesionswhich affect especially the cells in the anterior horn of thecord.6 A number of strains of this virus have beenisolated not only in America but in Germany, Japan andPalestine. Olitsky has now found that the same virusis carried in the intestines of a high percentage of normalmice in America, although few develop nervous svmp-toms. From the intestine the virus can be traced,according to Theiler and Gard,8 through the intestinalwall to the mesenteric glands. Monkeys are resistantand do not develop immune bodies after inoculation withthe mouse virus nor is there any serological relationshipbetween it and human poliomyelitis virus. Theseobservations might appear to have little bearing on humanpathology were it not for the discovery by Armstrong 9that the Lansing strain of human poliomyelitis virus istransmissible to the Eastern cotton-rat, Sigrnodo7zhispidus hispidus, and to the mouse by intracerebralinjection. The lesions in these species closely resemblethose found in the monkey (Lillie and Armstrong 10).After passage through the cotton-rat the Lansing viruswas shown by Peers 11 to have undergone no change in itspathogenicity for the rhesus monkey ; and Haas 12 foundthat 57 of 83 human sera possessed immune bodies to thisvirus, as judged by the reaction in mice, whether or notthe donors of the serum had a clinical history of polio-myelitis. The susceptibility of the Eastern cotton-rat tothe Lansing strain of human poliomyelitis was confirmedby Toomey and Takacs,l3 who also infected the closelyallied species, Sigmodoib hispidus littoralis. They were

4. 1940, 115, 863.5. Theiler, A. Science, 1934, 80, 122.6. Theiler, J. exp. Med. 1937, 65, 705.7. Olitsky, P. K. Ibid, 1940, 72, 113.8. Theiler and Gard, S. Ibid, pp. 49 and 79.9. Armstrong, C. Publ. Hlth Rep., Wash. 1939, 54, 1719 and 2302.10. Lillie, R. D. and Armstrong, Ibid, 1940, 55, 718.11. Peers, J. H. Ibid, p. 726.12. Haas, V. H. Ibid, p. 1061.13. Toomey, J. A. and Takacs, W. S. Proc. Soc. exp. Biol., N.Y.

1940, 43, 536.