MEDICAL NOTES.

Hokitika Guardian, 16 July 1924, Page 4

MEDICAL NOTES.

LONDON, .May 120. Professor Joseph Bancroft, lecturing at the Boyal Institution, pointed out that the acute want of oxygen that will bo experienced lay those who are attempting tin* ascent of Mount. Everest simulates the Hfrcfc Of (iHinkcuncss or indiDlrial fatigue. He had vivid recollections of the experiments lie had made on himself in a closed chamber lasting over a peril,.l of six days. The oxygen in the air taat he was breathing was reduced to the conditions that climbers encounter at a height of 18,099 feet. An ’interested observer who questioned him on the morning of the Cth. day found that he had ceased to interest himself as to whether the conditions, of the chamber represented 18,009 or f 0.00.9 feet, and his reply to queries was: “It does not matter.” He was then 'removed from the chamber, and hurst into tears, thus affording conclusive evidence of an over-tired mind produced by a lack of oxygen. Dealing with the experience of others, llti said Unit lie laid known the l<est of companions become unruly when at an altitude (if lo.OO!) feet, losing restraint, kicking stones over the precipices, and a source of solicitude to the guide. At J 0,090 feet, lie had known the most respected and respectable. Uni versify Don dress up his mums with .adjectives unknown in academic circles. He had known the most helpful of persons become Milky and morose. These were the things he meant when he said that acute oxygen want simulated alcoholic excess.

THAI XING WHITE AIICE. Discussing the Alontessori system of education. Sir James Criehton-Bvowno referred to the experiments made by the great Kussiau physiologist. Pavlov. lie trained a group of white mice to run to the feeding-places on the ringing of an electric hell. and found that three hundred lessons were required in the first instance to accustom the mice to run to the feeding spot when they heard flic hell ring. But in mice bred from the mice thus trained a much higher aptitude was displayed, for only a hundred lessons were necessary to obtain the same results. The third generation •required only thirty lessons and the fourth only ten. The last generation on which Pavlov lias reported learned tlieil - lessons alter only live repetitions, and In* has holies that the sixth generation, or oik* still later, will run to the feed-ing-place on th;* first occasion of hearing the hell. Very encouraging should these experiments lie to Dr Alontessori and her disciples, said Sir James Griciitnnllrowm*, for they may pursue their lahours feeling that they are ((inferring benefits more far-reaching llian they had hitherto believed, and are benefiting tin* race as well as the individual child.

j B1HTI! CDXTUOL. j Air H. G. Wells and Miss Dorothy Jenson. ALP., were members of a deputation which waited on Air Wheatley. Minister of Health, on the subject, of birth control. The deputation, which was organised by the lion Airs Bertrand Bussell's Birth Control Committee. included members of the medical profession, representatives of Dr Stupe’s Constructive Birth Control Society, the New Generation League, and Birth Control Clinics. Air F. A. Broad, A 1.1 . who introduced the deputation, submitted largely signed petitions asking that doctors at maternity and welfare centres should lie permitted to give birth control inl’oration to mothers who desired it. Hitherto the .Ministry had taken stern measures against those under its control, who had given such information. It was urged that the limitation of population was a matter of vital importance to the community. The deputation put. forward two requests. The first, was that birth control information .should ho given at institutions under the control of the .Ministry to those working mothers who asked for it. The j sin oml was that it .-Mould he left to the discretion of the Welfare Centro doctors to give advice when they considered it medically advisable.

Air 11. G. Wells strongly urged the paint of view of class distinction, saying that well-to-do women could get all the information they wanted, and that the present Government, as a democratic body, should not contlnuo the former “aristocratin” policy of the Aiinister of Health, and regard working women as simply “material for breeding.’’

The Almister. in reply, .-.lid that a clear distinction must, he drawn between allowing access to knowledge and actually distributing knowledge. No olio would seriously maintain that sie- < -*ss to knowledge should he forbidden, hui public opinion on tin's question was not so definite that it would allow Stale and rate-aided institutions to do inoro than direct people in need of advice as to where it .should he obtainable. The decision, in fact. must la* with Parliament, anil not la* assumed l>c administrative action. AUTIEKTAL .SUNLIGHT.

A new artificial sunlight department is shortly to he opened at the Cripples’ Hospital at Alton, by the Duchess of York. Tlu* Alton method of treating niin-puhuoiuiry tuberculosis in children, both hv natural and artificial light, has heen so successful that the trustees have sanctioned tin* extension of the work. Tlu* system is ttnif|tie. in that it permits the utilisation of radiant energy of various wavelengths, for local or general treatment, and for various stages of the same! disease. A P'iiisen-lleyu lamp lias been installed, which is especially useful for treating lupus. Powerful carbon lamps rich in ultra-violet and other rnvs, approximating to natural sunlight for the general light hath, are in use for both recumbent ami ambulant patients, fnteiise heat rays of great penetrative

power can also la* projected. Tin.' success of these various rays in curing liipii<, septic wounds, diseased hones, and hairlessne. l can ho seen in the remarkable change effected in the course of a few months on emaciated nm! disfigured patients. Little cripples are restored to robust hcaiiii and run about in tie* sunshine playing cricket ; unsightly skin diseases gradually clisapr pear: and, with infinite patience, crooked spines are straightened. There are I I children under treatment in the wards at Alton and at Hayling Island. Sir Henry Gnuvain is the medical oil) ter in charge in this institute. The average length of stay in the hospital

is over a year. The children are giv en such education as their conditio permits, and crippled lads are beim taught leather work, tailoring, am houtmakiiig.