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indication of virus pneumonia, since these agglutininsdo not appear in-every case and may occur in otherconditions. The white-cell count is of greater value, fornormal or only slightly abnormal total and differentialcounts are the usual finding, whereas a polymorphleucocytosis is usual in bacterial pneumonias. In thecommonest type sparse physical signs are associatedwith widespread pulmonary lesions revealed radiographi-cally. There is no specific treatment, but the prognosisis usually very good. Penicillin and the sulphonamidesare useless, unless to combat secondary bacterial invasion-in fact, a belated retrospective diagnosis can sometimesbe made on the failure of these substances to influencethe course of the disease.

VISIBLE SPEECH

WE have already briefly noted a remarkable experi--ment by a team of workers in the Bell Telephone Labora-tories in America.! By means of a cathode-ray device,speech is translated into luminous patterns, which moveacross a screen. The results were demonstrated, in

1946, at the annual convention of the American Associa-tion for Promoting the Teaching of Speech to the Deaf.Debarred by deafness from ordinary use of the telephone,

a member of the staff of the laboratories called up his wifeat their home. Her speech, relayed to the audience byloudspeaker, was also converted into luminous patternswhich were read by the deaf man, as from a book, while theytravelled across the screen. Apart from a somewhat deliberaterate of speaking the conversation appeared to be normal.Later, two senior pupils of the Lexington School for theDeaf talked to each other by the same means from glasstelephone-booths, in which they sat with their backs to eachother, on opposite sides of the platform.The method has been described 2 fully, but in non-

technical terms, by Mr. R. K. Potter, director of trans-mission research at the laboratories, and Mr. G. A.

Kopp and Mr. H. C. Green, former members of thetechnical staff. New but self-explanatory terms are

used. For instance the " stop gap " due to the briefperiod of silence while the lips are closed during thefirst stage of saying the consonant " p

" is followed bya " spike fill " recording the explosive and fricative

puff of breath responsible for the characteristic sound.The picture produced by the consonant " b " has a

" stop gap " but this is voiced and therefore not

completely blank. The " spike fills " of "

p " and " b "

differ in detail from each other and from those of other

stop consonants. The pictures are rich in informationabout the influence of one sound upon another, whencombined in words and phrases. Just as handwritingis characteristic of individuals, so are these spectograms.However, the learner whose aim is to transfer hisnormal reading habits to the new method is enjoinedto concentrate on essential features of pattern.The spectograms will evidently serve to analyse many

details of sound and speech. Some examples on whichwork has been begun are quoted : the heart beat, thespeech of the deaf, speech defects associated with otherabnormalities such as cleft palate, vocal and instru-mental music, the songs of birds, and the sounds madeby insects. Components of complex transient soundscan be made visible, and examples in colour delight theeye : here, perhaps, is a new way of apprehending music.The equipment must be simplified and its cost reduced

before it will be ready for duplication and general use.In its present form it offers a means of distant com-munication which may serve the deafened adult well.

Learning to comprehend the spectogram must be, forthe totally deaf, by means of lip-reading alone; thosewith some hearing will have the help of a hearing-aid.The relative difficulty of the two methods has not vet1. See Lancet, 1947, ii, 660.2. Visible Speech. New York: D. Van Nostrand. London:

Macmillan. 1947. Pp. 441. 25s.

been assessed ; and it is still too early to say whetherthe device can help the young deaf child who is wordlessuntil he receives special education. Experiments atAnn Arbor, University of Michigan, should answer theseand other questions. Meanwhile, it seems clear that wehave here an exceedingly important device for the educa-tion of the deaf-perhaps as important as Braille hasbeen for the blind-and one with potentialities still to beconceived and studied.

THE PATIENT’S FOOD

IT seems that some of our hospitals remain deaf tocomplaints about their system of feeding patients. Thefact that in the past relatives and friends augmentedthe hospital diet in many ways-a practice that shouldnever have been necessary-is made an excuse for givingpatients less than enough to eat ; and this course isstill persisted in when rationing prevents friends frommaking the time-honoured offerings of eggs, cake, jam,butter, and sugar. Most of these things hospitals couldprovide in abundance if they chose to take up theirfull allowance of rations. Yet even in hospitals whichcan boast of their good feeding, patients do not alwaysget the butter and sugar to which they are entitled,and marmalade and jam are apparently served with asaltspoon.

Friends usually manage to make up some of thesedeficiencies ; but how hard may be the plight of a

patient with no friends at hand was demonstrated byMrs. A. B. Munro in the Nursing Mirror of Dec. 6.

Being separated from her relations by some hundreds ofmiles, she had nobody to bring her extras, and she wasin hospital for three weeks. This hospital took herration book and three weeks’ points, and gave her thefollowing diet :

_

7.30 A.M. Break-fa8t : On 5 days a week, two slices ofbread and butter, and marmalade ; two cups of tea. Nomore bread allowed. On 2 days a week a rasher of baconand a piece of potato, or a kipper. 10.30 A.M. Coffee madewith dried milk. 12 noon. Dinner: Meat and vegetables,and a pudding. A second helping of pudding was allowed.3.30 P.M. Tea: : The last official meal of the day. Two

pieces of bread and butter, jam, and an extra cake or bunon Sundays. 7.30 P.M. Hot milk or cocoa, and one pieceof bread and butter.

Everyone, she says, was ravenously hungry andwakeful by 4 A.M. She asked the matron whether she

might be allowed to eat more at supper-time, but thiswas refused, on the ground that it was against the

20-year-old custom of the hospital. She was advisedto get her friends to bring her eggs. She explained that

’ this was impossible, and asked whether they might bringher fish instead. " Certainly not fish," said the matron :nurses could not be expected to cook fish.On leaving, she discovered that patients in the paying

wards of the same hospital had cereals and a cookeddish for breakfast, cake for tea every day, and a cookedsupper with sugared coffee at 7.30 every evening. This,she feels, explains where some of her points and rationswent. As a correspondent pointed out in our columnslast week, the present food-supply difficulties are an

insufficient excuse for poor feeding of patients. If some

hospitals can manage well, others can usually do the same.Certainly there can be no possible justification for

depriving any patient of his rations in order to increasethose offered in the private wards. 0

Dr. DOUGLAS FIRTH, consulting physician to King’sCollege Hospital, died in Cambridge, on Jan. 9, at theage of 67. Since his retirement in 1945 he had beenorganising postgraduate instruction in the easterncounties for demobilised medical officers.

Sir STEWART DUKE-ELDER has been appointedconsulting ophthalmologist to London Transport.