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departments of Basses Alpes, Hautes Alpes, Vaucluse,Drome, Ardeche, Lozere, and Aveyron ; and (2) sixdepartments with indigenous cases-viz., Haute

Garonne, Hautes Pyrenees, Isere, Savoie, Doubs,and the Rhone. At first undulant fever in Francewas confined to the regions where abortion in sheepand goats was prevalent and was not found in thosein which epizootic abortion in cattle occurred. After1930 numerous cases of undulant fever of bovine

origin began to make an appearance, cases beingreported in Isere, Franche Comte, and Lorraine. In1932 a ministerial order was issued making undulantfever notifiable and recommending examination ofthe blood in suspected cases in special laboratories.The recent increase in the number of cases is shownby the following figures. In 1933 408 cases were

notified in 44 departments, in 1934 424 cases in48 departments, and in 1935 427 cases in 53 depart-ments. The notifications, it seems, considerablyunder-estimated the real incidence of the disease andare only really carried out, according to Dr. Abet, indepartments possessing sanitary inspectors and inwhich practitioners, veterinary surgeons, and labora-tories combine in tracking out the disease. Thewide dissemination of undulant fever in France isan undoubted fact, but it is impossible to give evenan approximate idea of the number of actual cases.In 1925 Lisbonne estimated the annual number ofcases at 3 to 4000, but it is probable that this figurehas been exceeded at the present time in view ofthe fact that many cases in country districts are

overlooked or not reported.

DIFFERENTIAL CELL COUNTS OF PITUITARY

GLAND

IT is satisfactory to find that differential cellcounts of the pituitary gland, originally devised byRasmussen, are being made by research workersdespite the extremely tedious nature of such work.It is only thus that the random claims of some endo-crinologists, to the effect that specific alterations inthe numerical proportions of the three types of cellin the anterior lobe characterise certain pathologicalconditions, can be verified or disproved. In a recent

paper Dr. Frank Hawking 1 reports the results ofdifferential counts of the anterior lobe of the pituitaryin 12 cases of essential hypertension, 4 cases ofnephritis, 6 cases of diabetes mellitus, 6 cases ofhyperthyroidism, and 2 cases of Addison’s disease.In 2 cases only of hypertension was the proportionof basophils greater than normal. Hawking cautiouslyconcludes that this increase is not regular enough tobe regarded as significant. This conclusion is of

importance because it has been widely assumed,following Kraus and Berblinger, that an increase

accompanies hypertension whether essential or

secondary to nephritis, and this assumption has beena main plank in explaining the constancy of hyper-tension in Cushing’s syndrome. An increase ofbasophils was found by Hawking in 1 case of diabetes,in 3 cases of hyperthyroidism, and in 1 case ofnephritis. There is no confirmation of Kraus’s state-ment that the acidophils are decreased in diabetesnor is there any evidence in hyperthyroidism of acorrelation between the acidophil cells and hyper-activity of the thyroid gland. In 3 cases the percen-tage of basophils was high but the figure was withinnormal in 2 of these. It is difficult therefore tosubscribe to the current view that the pituitary playsa dominant role in Graves’s disease. In Addison’s

1 Jour. Path. and Bact., May, 1936, p. 689.

disease the basophil cells were greatly reduced, thefindings here being consistent with those in the largerseries published last year by Crooke and Russell.2With respect to the posterior lobe Hawking finds

no support for Cushing’s theory that basophilicinvasion is responsible for the hypertensive state.This theory however has already been sufficientlychallenged by the negative observations of J. H.

Biggart 3 on eclampsia and of C. Spark 4 on a largeseries of hypertensive cases. We are still quiteignorant of the significance of basophilic invasionof the posterior lobe and there is evidence-forexample, in the different histological reactions ofanterior and posterior lobe basophil cells in Addison’sdisease and in Cushing’s syndrome-to suggestthat they are physiologically distinct.

ORTHODICHLORBENZENE FOR BUGS

THE bed-bug, as Lord Crawford remarked not longago in a debate on housing policy, Has become afundamental housing problem. Last year the MedicalResearch Council at the request of the Ministry ofHealth appointed a committee to make furtherinvestigation into its infestation of houses. Theresistance of insects to gaseous fumigants has, itseems, been greatly under-estimated in the past, whilethe danger to human life from cyanide fumigation hasmore than once been unfortunately demonstrated.The committee, with Prof. J. C. G. Ledingham aschairman and Mr. A. W. McKenny Hughes as

secretary, has made grants for further research intochemical methods of destruction under Prof. J. W.Munro, D.Sc., of the Imperial College of Science.Under his direction investigations have been carriedout with orthodichlorbenzene, both diluted andundiluted, but while the bed-bugs have been destroyedit has been found difficult in practice to safeguardthe human inhabitants. Moreover the period whichis necessary to get rid of the fumes after fumigationis so long as to render the method impracticable foruse in occupied premises. What exactly is the

toxicity of orthodichlorbenzene vapour to human

beings is not yet known, but experiments on animalsindicate that it may be toxic in low concentration.In view of these facts the Ministry of Health hasissued a warning to local authorities (Circular 1544,May 22nd, 1936), pointing out the undesirability,pending further inquiry, of using orthodichlorbenzenefor the disinfestation of inhabited houses.

RADIOGRAPHY OF PULMONARY VESSELS

Prof. Egas Moniz is well known in this countryfor his work on cerebral arteriography. One of his

colleagues in Lisbon, Prof. Lopo de Carvalho, has forsome time been applying a similar technique to thelungs, and an account of some experience with hisprocedure was presented 5 last month to the SocieteMedicale des Hôpitaux de Paris. A vein at thebend of the elbow is exposed and opened, and intoit a radio-opaque ureteral catheter is gently intro-duced. Its progress is watched on the X ray screen,and it is usually possible to make its tip reach thelevel of the lower border of the third rib, by whichtime it lies in the right auricle. Eight to ten cubiccentimetres of 120 per cent. sodium iodide solutionare then quickly injected through the catheter, and anexposure is made immediately. The timing is always

2 Ibid., 1935, xl., 255.3 Edin. Med. Jour., 1935, n.s. xlii., 113.

4 Arch. of Path., 1935, xix., 473.5 Ameuille, Ronneaux, Hinault, Desgrez, and Lemoine, J. M..

Bull. et mém. Soc. méd. hôp. de Paris, May 18th, 1936, p. 729.

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a little uncertain because the relation of the injectionto the cardiac cycle can scarcely be controlled, butthe film usually shows a dense shadow of the rightheart, the pulmonary artery, and its branches. Theprocedure sounds rather bold, but the French authorsclaim that no casualties have occurred either inLisbon or among their own cases ; they have desistedwhere anatomical distortion has obstructed the

passage of the catheter, and their worst mishap hasbeen a transient oedema of an arm due to makingthe injection into the thoracic duct instead of theright auricle.The early results are interesting. The outline of

the pulmonary artery, and its contribution to thesilhouette of the heart and great vessels, can bedefined with accuracy. Streaky shadows in the lungfields have been proved to represent vessels, notfibrosis. The blood-supply in the vicinity of certaintuberculous lesions and of lung abscesses appeared tobe diminished, and from one region occupied by abronchial carcinoma it was absent. The vessels of a

lung collapsed by an artificial pneumothorax did notfill with opaque solution until one or two secondsafter those of the expanded lung on the other side-a delay which suggests a greater arterial resistancein the collapsed lung. The authors are hopeful thatpulmonary arteriography may throw useful light onphysiological and pathological problems-especially,no doubt, those of pulmonary embolism-but theydo not foresee a place for it in clinical diagnosis.

THE DANGERS OF BEING HUMAN

THE B.B.C. took a courageous and sensible stepin inviting a psycho-analyst of repute to broadcasthis views on the relationship of psycho-analysis tothe present social system. Dr. Edward Glover,whose previous book addressed to the layman," War, Sadism, and Pacifism," was reviewed in thesecolumns three years ago, has now collected thetalks he broadcast, together with two others whichit was considered advisable to omit or curtail becauseof the occurrence of the Abyssinian war and lastautumn’s General Election. Dr. Glover’s thesis isthat below civilised man’s apparently rationalexterior there exists a primitive instinctual life

differing little from that of the savage, and liableto take control, especially in times of crisis. Heillustrates this from such features of the social systemas the treatment of crime and the search for scape-goats ; education ; politics ; the League of Nations ;and the unconscious causes of war. Readers of his

previous volume will be familiar with his beliefthat economic factors are excuses rather than causesof warfare, and that the true causes and preventionare to be sought deeper, in the fears and guilt bothof nations and of responsible individuals. At presentno form of examination is practised to prevent aborderline psychotic becoming a foreign secretaryor dictator, or an inhibited neurotic from becoming ahomicidal motorist. Controllers of foreign policyare not even required to show an elementary know-ledge of group behaviour in primitive peoples. Ata time of almost universal distrust, mutual fear,and rearmament, it is more than alarming to considerthat much of foreign policy (however well meant)is carried out with only the vaguest conception ofwhat the psychological effects on national groupsare likely to be. It is perhaps not unfair to suppose

1 The Dangers of Being Human. By Edward Glover, M.D.,Director of Research, London Institute of Psycho-analysis. Withan Introduction by the Very Rev. W. R. Inge, K.C.V.O.London: George Allen and Unwin Ltd. 1936. Pp. 206. 5s.

the clinical impressions of chancellors and primeministers are apt to be as fallible as any physician’sunless backed up by scientific knowledge. Whileit is improbable that many of his readers will followDr. Glover all the way, it should be impossible forany open-minded person, following the argument,to fail to pause and think, and to question some atleast of the behaviour he has previously assumed tobe rational and civilised. It is interesting thatDr. Glover considers that at present the greatestdanger of being human is to give way to those periodicwaves of smugness, affecting individuals and nationsalike, in which self-satisfaction completely dulls anycapacity for self-criticism or self-improvement.

MAN-MADE MALARIA IN INDIA

THE director of the Malaria Survey of India,Lieut.-Colonel J. A. Sinton, has found it necessaryto point out, in properly vigorous language, thegreat extent to which certain procedures, intendedto increase prosperity and health in India, have infact added to poverty, sickness, and death, merelybecause there has been disregard of their well-knowneffects in producing conditions favourable to thespread of malaria. Irrigation schemes form one ofthe most striking examples of this indictment. An

engineering department makes its estimates for

bringing water to agricultural land, but these are

without proper provision for taking the water awaywhen it has done its work. The result is a water-

logged soil, whose fertility is thereby lessened, anda high water-table exposed in places as pools whosedangerous anopheles-breeding edges are probablyquite disproportionate to the area the pools cover.Malaria follows, bringing not merely its own directmisery but its subsequent weakness, so that thevictims can no longer get the best out of their alreadydamaged land, nor the State its proper revenuesfrom them. This sequence has been known in Indiafor ninety years, yet man-made malaria is still beingbrought into being by it there. A main cause of thisdeplorable state of affairs was pointed out by SirHerbert Emerson, Governor of the Punjab, at theopening of the Punjab Engineering Congress in1935 ; it lies in the tendency of Government depart-ments to look on matters only as they affect theirown budgets, and not as they play a part in theprosperity of the whole Province ; for the puttingright of these grave defects is not merely expensive,but the cost, so far as the damage can be made goodat all, is apt to fall on some other department. Theremedy proposed is that work on no project of thissort should be begun until it has been consideredby a committee representative of all interests con-cerned (engineering, agriculture, financial, publichealth, and any others), and unless all expensenecessary to prevent harm has been included in theoriginal estimate. But interdepartmental policiesplay but a small part in producing man-made malariain India. The Malaria Commission of the Leagueof Nations wrote in 1930 that attempts at malariacontrol had failed in that country, not merely throughlack of cooperation but through religious objectionsnot always sincere, and through irresponsible opposi-tion in the press ; while the Royal Commission onLabour in India wrote next year that action in healthmatters was too often limited to the toil of filinga written report. Though, then, there has beenfault in the administration, now realised and in afair way met, there has still to be faced by the

1 Indian Med. Gaz., April, 1936, p. 181.