The effects of posture and clothing on the effective radiating surface of the body are discussed. Some results obtained by Bohnenkamp and Pasquay by their electrical capacity method are criticised, and measurements made by the application of Simpson's rule are described.

The conclusion is reached that no serious error results from assuming that the effective radiating surface of the clothed subject, when in a normal standing posture, is of about the same area as that given by the Du Bois equation for skin area.

In two nude subjects, crouching in the most cramped position possible, the estimated radiating surface was reduced by 19 and 8 per cent, as compared with a standing posture.

1. In Hong Kong, where scarlet fever is extremely rare, the Dick reactions of a random sample of 921 Chinese were ascertained. Positive reactions were obtained in 19·1 per cent. The distribution of positive reactors in different age groups is recorded; it bears a general similarity to those recorded by various observers in Europe and the U.S.A.

2. A haemolytic streptococcal carrier rate of 6·6 per cent, was determined by nasopharyngeal swabbing of 1600 Hong Kong Chinese. The frequency of haemolytic streptococci was higher during the cooler months of the year and among the younger age groups.

3. Erythrogenic toxin production and fibrinolytic activity were demonstrated in a number of the strains of streptococci isolated from apparently normal throats.

4. The significance of these findings is discussed.

1. The investigation is based on 2666 Moloney tests performed before the injection of prophylactics and 595 tests carried out after the injection of toxoids in prophylactic doses. Methods of reading the test reactions are described.

2. Certain individuals develop sensitivity to toxoid at a very early stage of their existence—even during the first 18 months of life. In the herd the periods of most rapid development of sensitivity to toxoid are between the first and second years, between the fourth and seventh years, and just before the age of fourteen years.

3. For practical purposes the important reactions are those which are designated ++ and +++. Up to the age of 5 years the combined percentages of children who showed these ++ and +++ Moloney reactions did not exceed 3 per cent, at any age. At 7 years the incidence was 9·6 per cent. and thereafter there was a rapid increase until the maximum (43·3 per cent.) was reached at 14 years. Not every individual who shows such ++ or +++ results will develop unpleasant reactions on the injection of toxoids in prophylactic doses. But an investigation into the age and Moloney state of 2041 persons who received prophylactics demonstrated quite definitely that children who showed general and local reactions after inoculation were nearly always over 5 years of age, and most of them (79 per cent.) showed ++ or +++ results with the Moloney test. Hence the test should be used whenever it is intended to inoculate children of school age with prophylactic doses of toxoid or its alum preparations.

4. The assumption that strong positive Moloney reactors are usually immune is unjustified. Of 74 individuals who showed a +++ Moloney reaction 20·3 per cent., and of 173 individuals who showed a ++ Moloney reaction 32·4 per cent, were definitely non-immune as judged by the Schick test. The coefficient of association (Q5) between the two conditions was 0·632.

5. The relationship between positive pseudo-Schick reactions and positive Moloney reactions is examined statistically, and it is shown that the association is not sufficiently high to warrant the substitution of one test for the other. Confirmation of this conclusion was obtained from an examination of the pseudo-Schick and Moloney states of all individuals who showed any degree of local or general reaction after the injection of prophylactic doses of toxoids or other prophylactics.

6. The degree of association between the antitoxic content of the blood serum and the positive Moloney state was investigated in 108 cases. The coefficient (Q5) was found to be in the region of 0·5.

7. The delayed Moloney reaction (+D) is further described and its significance is discussed. The frequency of +D reactions is 1·69±0·17 per cent.

8. In general, a definite Moloney-positive state appears to be permanent. The injection of toxoid in prophylactic doses does not tend to render the injected individual sensitive to toxoid. Exceptions to this rule may be due to the acceleration of a normal process.

9. The incidence of positive Moloney reactions is practically identical in males and in females.

10. The association between the number of children in a family and the number of those who will give positive Moloney reactions is very slight. The effect of an urban environment appears to be more important than the actual family environment in determining the development of sensitivity to toxoid.

11. The relationship between protein skin tests and the Moloney reaction is discussed. Toxoid sensitivity is probably an allergic condition which is due to previous contact with the products of the C. diphtheriae. There is little evidence that age is in itself a factor in the development of sensitivity.

1. Earlier attempts to trace the vector of tropical typhus in Kenya failed. The only references to the subject in the available literature consist of mere suggestions that a mite would most likely prove to be the transmitter.

2. An investigation made in an area whence most Nairobi cases of tropical typhus were reported, suggested that a tick (R. pulchellus) would be the most likely vector.

3. Transmission experiments made in the belief that one of the unclassed fevers of man was conveyed by R. pulchellus have so far yielded negative results. There is, however, sufficient circumstantial evidence available pointing to this tick as vector of a form of mild typhus to man—this demands further investigation.

4. At Mombasa and Nairobi, houses reported to be heavily infested with ticks, or houses investigated after the occurrence of the tropical typhus in them, have yielded only R. sanguineus.

5. R. sanguineus (3 ♀), taken from a dog in a house where the last typhus case had occurred 8 months previously, gave a typical typhus syndrome when emulsified and inoculated into a male guinea-pig. R. sanguineus (1 ♀, 12 ⊙), taken in a house where a child had recently contracted typhus, also gave a positive result with guinea-pigs and the virus was further transmitted by passage through other guinea-pigs.

6. The infestation of houses by R. sanguineus and the incidence of tropical typhus among human beings appear to be influenced by unfavourable weather conditions, causing the ticks to seek relatively dry and warm places for purposes of oviposition or metamorphosis, thus invading houses. In the absence of dogs, its usual hosts, the tick attacks man.

For 2¼ years a large colony of rats was maintained on a diet based on a dietary survey of a human population. One-half of the rats was fed on the human survey diet, or this diet with a small increase in milk, the other half on the same diet supplemented with additional milk and green food. Four generations of animals were reared, all from the same stock.

The rats on the human diet with additional milk and green food were healthy in all respects so far as can be judged from our own rats on a stock diet and from the data of other workers.

On the other hand, in spite of an exactly similar environment and heredity, the animals without additional milk and green food, showed:

(1) a slightly impaired reproductive capacity;

(2) a very markedly increased death-rate due to increased susceptibility to an infection to which all rats were equally exposed;

(3) a definitely slower rate of growth;

(4) a lower haemoglobin content in the blood; and,

(5) a clinically poorer condition as judged by behaviour and state of the coat.

These findings are discussed and the possibility of applying them to human dietetic problems briefly touched upon.

The characters of the Aronson Streptococcus from Prof. Neufeld's laboratory at the “Robert Koch” Institute in Berlin have been described. This coccus resembles the pneumococcus in many respects, viz. the appearance of the colonies on the surface of horse blood agar, its virulence and capsule production in mice and rabbits, the production of a specific precipitable substance in the peritoneal washings of infected mice, the formation of firm clumps and masses when mixed with homologous antiserum, the ease of production of active and passive immunity in mice and rabbits by intraperitoneal and intravenous inoculation, the alteration in the morphology of colonies, i.e. the appearance of R forms, associated with attenuation of virulence. It differs from the pneumococcus in the following features: the round shape of the cocci, bile-insolubility and the absence of autolysis in surface colonies, the beta haemolysis of deep colonies in horse blood agar, the production of a soluble haemolysin in broth cultures, the difficulty of producing active immunity in mice by the subcutaneous injection of heat-killed vaccines.

I have obtained the Aronson Streptococcus (Neufeld type), which Lance-field places in a group containing chiefly streptococci of bovine origin, from human throats, but there was no evidence in any instance that it was producing disease, and it seems probable that it is not pathogenic for man.

The results of my investigation of this strain are in agreement with those of Yoshioka (1923), Killian (1924) and Lancefield (1933, 1934).

There are in existence other laboratory strains designated Aronson Streptococcus. These have been found to exhibit specific characters identifying them with the Str. pyogenes. It is proposed that the name Streptococcus Aronson should be confined to strains possessing the characters of Aronson N above described.

1. An antiserum containing antibodies for two unrelated antigens, crystalline egg albumin and crystalline horse serum albumin, has been prepared.

2. In titrations of the antiserum against mixtures of these antigens it has been possible to produce a single zone or two zones of optimal particulation by varying the relative concentrations of the components in the antigenic mixtures. It is evident, therefore, that whilst (a) a single zone does not necessarily indicate a single antigen-antibody system, (b) multiple zones suggest the presence of more than one antigen-antibody system.

The skin temperatures of industrial workers, mainly women and girls, engaged in very light occupations, have been correlated with environmental conditions. The temperatures of the forehead and of the palm of the hand were measured with a Moll radiation thermopile, and for the temperature of the foot a thermo-junction was used. Altogether 3085 sets of observations were made.

Various measures of environmental warmth (dry-bulb air temperature, equivalent temperature, effective temperature, and dry kata cooling power) were correlated with skin temperature. The dry-bulb air temperature is about as good an index of skin temperature as any of the other measures used, while it appears that skin temperature may be slightly less closely associated with dry kata cooling power than with the other measures of warmth conditions.

At an average air temperature of 18° C., the average skin temperatures observed were: on the forehead 34·25° C.; on the palm of the hand 29·2° C.; and on the foot 24·4° C. The average increases in skin temperature for a rise of 1° in air temperature were: on the forehead 0·139°; on the hand 0·465°; and on the foot 0·806° C.

There was much variation in the skin temperatures recorded at any particular air temperature. The root-mean-square errors of estimation of skin temperature from air temperature were 0·81, 2·51, and 2·80° C., for the forehead, hands and feet respectively.

Correlations between the temperatures of different areas of skin were rather lower than those between air and skin temperature.

1. By titration against horse serum and its protein fractions anti-horse sera can be divided into three groups, according to the antibodies responsible for the main or earliest particulating zone, namely the sera containing antibodies against (a) globulin only, (b) albumin only, and (c) both globulin and albumin.

2. For the quantitative estimation of a protein fraction in a horse serum it is necessary to use an antiserum containing a main zone antibody acting with that protein only.

This is illustrated in experiments, designed to show the increased globulin content of diphtheria antitoxin, in which antisera containing antibodies against both globulin and albumin failed to register an increase in the globulin content.

1. The causes of failure of the brilliant green enrichment method for isolation of B. typhosus are discussed.

2. It has been shown that the negative results obtained depend partly on the number of resistant B. coli strains normally present in faeces, and partly on the use of McConkey's as a plating out medium.

3. The alleged selective action of telluric acid could not be confirmed.

4. The so-called antagonism between B. coli and B. typhosus has been investigated, and by the use of a selective bismuth medium it is shown that this is more apparent than real in most cases.

5. However, the existence of certain strains of B. coli or similar bacteria with a specific inhibitory effect on B. typhosus has been confirmed.

6. The value of Wilson's bismuth medium for the isolation of B. typhosus has been demonstrated.

Vibrios heated at 100°C. in saline suspension agglutinate in a generalised manner and often to a high titre with the antisera of the Q proteins of the cholera vibrio. The antibodies concerned are not inactivated by the carbohydrate fraction of V. cholerae. Occasional strains of vibrio react similarly in the living state with these Q (choiera) agglutinins. The antiserum of the Q2 substance of S V. cholerae seems to possess agglutinating properties additional to those of anti-Q1 and anti-Q2 R sera, rather more specific and possibly related to “carbohydrate” receptors. There is reason to believe that the Q proteins are true constituents of the living vibrio and are not serological artefacts due to reagents and heat. It seems that these substances and their antibodies are important contributors to the “non-specific O agglutination” of vibrios recently discussed by Gardner and Venkatraman.

About 25 years ago Dr J. S. Haldane, Dr A. E. Boycott and Capt. Damant, R.N., in the course of investigations for the British Admiralty, worked out a system of decompression for divers and compressed air workers. This system was adopted by the Admiralty, and by its use compressed air sickness has been practically eliminated entirely amongst naval divers. The system has become known as stage decompression, although in fact stages are not an essential feature of it, though a convenience in practical working. The system has been frequently and fully described. The latest explanation will be found in the last edition, 1935, revised by Haldane and Priestly, of Respiration, by J. S. Haldane (Clarendon Press). Its most essential feature is that the pressure is lowered quickly to approximately half the absolute pressure during decompression, and one of the most important assumptions for working out the decompression tables is that different parts of the body saturate and desaturate at different rates. Enquiries sent out by me during 1934 to the United States, the principal countries of Europe and to Japan indicate, so far as definite information has been received in reply, that stage decompression has been universally adopted for divers, but in no case has it been adopted for caisson and tunnel workers in countries where State regulations already existed, except in a modified form, and I conclude that the reason for this failure to adopt stage decompression is the existence of statutory regulations, either still in force, or only partly modified in accordance with new ideas.

The problem as to the frequency with which multiple cases of, or deaths from, a disease may be expected to occur in the same house has been attacked by Troup and Maynard (1911–12), Karl Pearson (1911–12, 1911–12 a, 1913), McKendrick (1911–12), Greenwood and Yule (1920), Greenwood (1910, 1931) and others. Troup and Maynard obtained a general expression for the frequency of occurrence, and the standard deviation of the frequency, of s casesin a house when n cases of a disease occur in a town with m houses, assumingeach house to contain the same number of persons, all equally liable to contract it. Karl Pearson (1911–12) considered the problem as analogous to throwing balls at random into equally accessible pigeon-holes, and showed that since the chance that any one case will fall into any one house is , and that it will not is , the numbers of houses having 0, 1, 2, 3, ... cases should be given by the successive terms of the binomial . In a later paper (1913) he showed that the correspondence between the observed andexpected frequencies could be measured by applying the ordinary X2 test to the frequencies, omitting the houses having no cases.

A strain of Trypanosoma brucei when recently introduced into mice and imperfectly accommodated to this species of host produced infections relatively resistant to various trypanocidal drugs. On the other hand, when the strain had become highly accommodated and its pathogenicity increased to a maximum as the result of repeated passages, infected animals were readily cured. The exact mechanism on which this difference in resistance may depend has not been investigated. Attention is directed, however, to the important fact that the drugs acted poorly when the strain was in an attenuated state, as shown by the prolonged course of infection and the occurrence of marked fluctuations in the number of parasites present in the blood. Thus the chemotherapeutic response was weak at the time when the host itself was able to exercise an effective resistance. Later, when the host's resistance had become negligible, the curative action of the drugs was pronounced.

1. A method is described for estimating subcutaneous tissue oxygen and carbon dioxide tensions in man.

2. Measurements were carried out before and at the end of carbon dioxide and oxygen saponin foam baths. These baths decrease the carbon dioxide and increase the oxygen subcutaneous tissue gas tensions. No appreciable differences were found between carbon dioxide and oxygen baths.

3. We conclude that gases do not diffuse through the skin in sufficient quantities to affect the subcutaneous tissue gas tensions.

In the May 1935 issue of this Journal there appeared an article by Gibson and Muir entitled “A study of the streptococci from fifty cases of bovine mastitis”. Since the authors of that article do not appear to have fully appreciated the previous work on the subject, it has become necessary to state the position in the light of research carried out in various countries during the past few years.

For the investigation of the Hill phenomenon, viz. the antagonism of short-and long-wave infra-red radiation in their influence on nasal obstruction, the commonly used rhinomanometric technique is not well suited. In this paper a new procedure is described, in which an air current is blown through the nose. In this way the nasal passability may be estimated, independent of respiratory movements. It proved to be desirable to make a selection of suitable experimental subjects with the aid of adrenaline and histamine tests; only those persons in which the opening by adrenaline and the narrowing by histamine sprays were clearly demonstrable were chosen.

Long-wave infra-red rays constantly caused nasal obstruction.

The shorter waves were much weaker in their shutting effect, and also decreased the narrowing of the nose when they were given in combination with the long-wave rays of an electric fire.

A nasal passage closed by long-wave infra-red radiation may be partly opened by the short-wave rays; the possibility of surface cooling being the opening factor was excluded.

Artificial cooling of the skin has a very marked opening influence.

It is suggested that nose-opening and nose-shutting are correlated with cooling and heating of the Malpighian layer. Long infra-red rays will be completely absorbed in the layer and cause capillary stasis with local overheating. The shorter waves for the greater part penetrate more deeply; the skin reacts by an active hyperaemia, which, by relatively cooling the overheated Malpighian layer, has the same effect as a cooling from without.

With increasing knowledge of the effects of inhaled dusts upon the lungs has come an increase in the number of cases of Workmen's Compensation in which pulmonary disease is attributed to exposure to this form of risk during employment. Where a post-mortem examination has been made, and the opinion of a pathologist is sought, no difficulty is encountered in those cases of silicosis in which the disease is well developed, since the lesions are characteristic and easily recognised. The position, however, is by no means so easy where lesser degrees of pulmonary fibrosis are present and, in particular, where it becomes necessary to try to assess the bearing which these may have upon the susceptibility to, and the progress of, intercurrent pulmonary disease—for example lobar pneumonia. In these difficult circumstances recourse is frequently had to the chemical estimation of the quantity of silica recoverable from samples of lung. Certain standards have been set up, and the presence of silica in quantities in excess of the “normal” forms valuable corroborative evidence that a pulmonary fibrosis is attributable to its influence, where the subject in question has been exposed to this risk in his employment, and on the other hand the absence of an excess of silica is evidence that any pathological condition in the lung is due to other causes.

A total of 212 new members of the staff of the North-Eastern Fever Hospital were Schick and Moloney tested. The Schick-positive reactors were immunised with formol toxoid and post-Schick and Moloney tests were performed. The following conclusions were reached:

(1) The intradermal toxoid test of Moloney or Zoeller corresponds exactly with the pseudo response in the Schick test.

(2) The pseudo response is as efficient as the Moloney for detecting possible reactors to immunising doses of toxoid, and is a more accurate control of the Schick test. The Moloney therefore appears redundant.

(3) A positive MP (Moloney or pseudo) reaction accurately indicates those who will react to immunisation; but a negative MP is no guarantee that the subject will not react.

(4) The MP-reaction is evidence of bacterial hypersensitiveness to specific products of the body of the diphtheria bacillus.

(5) Zoeller's theory that hypersensitiveness is a half-way stage between susceptibility and immunity, is incorrect.

(6) MP-reactions usually, but not invariably, develop pari passu with immunity. Because of this parallelism tests of hypersensitiveness give information as to the state of immunity.

The significance of tests of infection, hypersensitiveness and immunity are considered; and the possible relationship of MP-reactions with bacterial immunity suggested.

We have heard much in recent times of the decrease of tuberculosis and of the increase in mortality from cancer. I propose on the basis of data from some great cities and other areas of the German-speaking world to ascertain whether, if attention is paid to age distribution, cancer really presents so striking a contrast with other causes of mortality. With a view to solving the problem let us enquire whether the undoubted absolute increase may not be a mere function of the ageing of the population, a feature common to all civilised countries. Most weight will be placed upon the statistical data derived from cities because of the greater reliability of the diagnoses in hospitals, and because, as a rule, the death certificate is filled up by the practitioner who actually attended the patient.