Red-hot Iron Research Articles

Ultrasonic Energy for Cutting, Coagulation and Dissection

Under Professor Wolfgang Feil of the Evangelical Hospital in Vienna, the editors from Belgium, Germany, Finland and Sweden have drawn together 40 contributors largely from the surgical specialties and gynaecology in Europe and the US. The preface reminds the reader of the basic fact that surgical technique fundamentally comprises cutting and haemostasis. Ancient civilisations used sharp instruments made of stone and later metal, while the scalpel and scissors of the modern operating theatre are merely the result of refinements of the basic principles. Again, going back to ancient times, haemostasis was often accomplished with compresses of plant material while surgical wounds, for example amputations after battle injuries, were controlled by tourniquets and subsequently cauterised by red-hot iron. While the basic principles of haemostasis by ligation and cauterisation are still valid today, the methods have progressively advanced, for example by the use of clips and rows of staples for ligation and high-frequency electrical power, focused at the tip of an active electrode for the latter. However, the risk of damage to tissues by heat and electrical current have been particularly evident in laparoscopic surgery and ultrasound as an alternative source of energy for surgical cutting and haemostasis has been progressively introduced. The 35 chapters focus on the UltraCision system, which uses ultrasonic energy for haemostatic cutting and coagulation of soft tissues. After an introduction to the system, comprising generator, handpiece with ultrasonic transducer, blades and shears, the principles of ultrasonic energy for coagulation are described. These are then compared and contrasted with more conventional high-frequency coagulation and cutting in monopolar and bipolar form, emphasising the ‘tissue-friendly’ characteristics of ultrasonic energy as demonstrated by infrared thermography. The next chapter on education, training and the personal experience over nine years by the lead editor suggests that laparotomy is the ‘perfect procedure’ to make first contact with ultrasonic cutting and coagulation. The reader is then guided in greater detail through a wide range of surgical procedures, each of which is considered in a uniform format with indication and pre-operative management, the operation itself, hints and pitfalls, personal experience and discussion. The procedures described include oesophageal resection, reflux surgery, oesophageal myotomy, radical gastrectomy, laparoscopically assisted and open colorectal surgery, laparoscopic surgery for cancer, laparoscopic cholecystectomy, hepatic resection, laparoscopic splenectomy, pancreatic resection, laparoscopic adrenalectomy and minimally invasive thyroid surgery. In addition, gynaeco-logical procedures such as hysterectomy, laparoscopic myomectomy and resection of deep infiltrating endometriosis are covered before the field is widened yet further into breast surgery, tonsillectomy, orthopaedic and thoracic surgery, and urology, including a description of radical laparoscopic prostatectomy. Typically for a book from the Thieme stable, it is concise, well produced and beautifully illustrated with line diagrams and colour photographs. It certainly fulfils the editors' stated aim of being a step-by-step guide for practising surgeons and those in training. It is interesting to note their views on the back cover that ultrasonic energy for cutting and coagulation is ‘one of the most versatile tools that surgeons can have in their arsenal’ and that ‘the future of surgery lies in the use and mastery of techniques such as this’. Time and wider experience will, of course, tell but there is no doubt that their enthusiasm is potentially infectious.

Radical remedies

Fancy having a hole drilled into your skull to cure a headache? Or how about having a cut treated with red hot irons? Possibly not, but these are some of the remedies our ancestors had to contend with, as <b>Antony D9Angelo</b> explains

Vaba, Haiza, Kholera, Foklune or Cholera: in any language still the disease of seven pandemics.

1. SUMMARY Cholera is a disease which can strike in any community where sanitary conditions deteriorate or where it is possible for a few people to transport the organism from infected areas to new communities. The historical background of the seven major pandemics and the discovery of the causative organism are provided from 1800 to 1995. With the procedure of oral rehydration therapy few patients should succumb to the disease if clean water is available. The problem is that large-scale floods in many places often lead to a breakdown in clean water supplies and sewerage treatment so it will not pay to be complacent, cholera has not disappeared!.

Histoire de la traçabilité des animaux et des produits d'origine animale

The author presents a review of the history of traceability as applied to live animals and animal products from antiquity to the 19th Century. The evidence shows that livestock farmers, owners, and those in charge of animal production and health were concerned with traceability from a very early stage. With regard to live animals, individual identification by means of body markings has been practised for over 3,800 years (Code of Hammurabi). Branding with a red-hot iron, with or without a written record of animal characteristics, was employed in most ancient civilisations. This branding technique was principally used on valuable animals, in particular horses, in which case a written record was kept. Individual indelible branding was used on other species over the following centuries, for example, on swans belonging to the Kings of England as early as the 13th Century. Branding for disease control purposes commenced later, prompted by the major epizootics (rinderpest, contagious bovine pleuropneumonia, glanders and rabies). Marking of animals formed part of a series of very pragmatic measures, and the penalties in the event of violation were much more severe than is currently the case. Although modern traceability techniques were not available, our ancestors, as early as the 17th Century, practised indelible branding and strict health certification. Animal products were likewise closely monitored, particularly during the epidemics of human plague during the 14th Century. Some animal products could not be traded internationally unless accompanied by a certificate of origin guaranteeing safety. During the major epizootics of the 18th Century, some contaminated products (meat, hides) were cut up, slashed or covered with lime to indicate that the product was unfit for trade or consumption.

Race and the Southern Imagination: Woodrow Wilson Reconsidered

The author gratefully acknowledges Caitlin McCain's assistance in editing and reviewing this article. At a time when hundreds of southerners could charter a train to watch Henry Smith lynched, his feet seared with a red-hot iron, the word "Justice" emblazoned on the scaffold, his grisly demise captured in souvenir photo- graphs, whites who promoted segregation seemed comparatively mild. Woodrow Wilson, future president and visionary of a world made safe by democracy, was one of these.

SEARCHING FOR A FUTURE WAITING TO BE BORN

A little more two months ago I was flying over Tanzania in a small Cessna aircraft. Looking out of the window from the co-pilot's seat I saw lines of mango trees stretching mile after mile. The trees were a living monument to the thousands of slaves who were herded towards Zanzibar's brutal slave markets. As they travelled, mangoes provided refreshment on the terror marches, the trees grew as silent testimony. In 1994, the Bishop of Cape Coast in Ghana took me to visit the British fort that still stands intact on the palm-fringed shoreline. Within, a sign read Slave Quarters, and I began to walk into the dark tunnel leading to chambers where up to a thousand slaves were held in darkness. Beyond the cells was another tunnel, which led to a keyhole gate. Through this exit slaves would be pushed into the sea and pulled by ropes to the ships anchored in the bay. The chambers were a starvation block, a place where captives were slimmed down to be thin enough to pass through the keyhole gate, and docile enough to be contained on the long voyage to the Americas and the West Indies. Be in the dark, shouted a man from Jamaica, who had returned to discover his roots. See how it really was for them. They didn't have any electric light, nor room to move. hosts tried to protect me from his attention, saying Cool it man. It was a long time ago and we must forgive and forget. For my own comfort I wanted to agree, but the Jamaican was right. There is a need for reminder and a challenge about such a past. Being in Codrington reminds me of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel's (SPG) past, and its involvement in slavery. Codrington was left to SPG in 1710, a mere eight years after the society had been founded. In the deed of transfer, the following is written: My desire is to have the plantations continued entire, and three hundred negroes at least, always kept thereon; and a convenient number of professors and scholars maintained there; all of them to be under vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. The society maintained its plantations, albeit not very well. For a time too it had its own brand, and the Rev. Arthur Holt, writing in 1732, to question its continued use, wrote These letters SOCIETY in large letters are Brandished with a Red Hot Iron upon the naked breasts of the New Negroes as If they were So many Beasts, a Cruelty which I believe the Society will think it proper to discourage. The society did not think it proper to discourage, and eventually Holt took things into his own hands. This attitude reflected in its own way the view of the society that its task was to win over the slave holders rather than the slaves. In the sermons and discourses that it distributed in the colonies, therefore, the society urged that Christianity would not undermine slavery but strengthen it. The Christian slave would be more docile and diligent than the heathen Negro. Christianity would leave West Indian society undisturbed. The Christian slave would look for his reward in heaven, and in this life would abide in the same Calling wherein he was called.(1) As late as 1823, SPG, while making its policy towards slaves progressively more humane, nevertheless followed a policy that was coincident with colonial interest. The American historian J. Harry Bennett observed, Because it was an ecclesiastical body, and one closely identified with the hierarchy of the Church of England, the corporation was highly vulnerable to humanitarian attack. By 1832, the society accepted that the slaves would ultimately be freed, and in due course invited William Wilberforce to be one of its trustees. The title and sub-title of this lecture seek to express a deeply held belief that contemporary Christianity, approaching the end of the twentieth century and the beginning of the twenty-first, needs to re-discover metanoia - repentance at its heart, and apply this to the place where we are, the life we are living and the destination we hope to achieve. …

The Dead Sea monster

For a very large part of human history, the Dead Sea has been considered a prime example of an environment completely devoid of life, a condition which during the Greco-Roman period was ascribed to natural causes—the bitterness of the water and the hydrogen sulphide stench associated with the area. In the Middle Ages, however, attitudes towards the Dead Sea changed and it came to be considered satanic, actively hostile to anything with the breath of life in it. During this time, two types of Dead Sea monsters are described in various sources: One type is truly halophilic monsters that lurk in the lake itself and are responsible for the drowning of believers who immerse themselves at the baptismal site in the Jordan River, not far from the Dead Sea; the other, based on several descriptions written between the 12th and 15th centuries, is of a serpent named Tyr or Tyrus which lives near the Dead Sea, and which has several mythical properties. It is extremely poisonous and when it stings a horse its rider dies too; it can glow like a red-hot iron and can pierce thick wooden boards. The inhabitants occasionally catch it, and its poison is used as one of the ingredients in preparing tyriac—a universal panacea against poisons and a much sought after drug from the first century BC to the 17th century AD. There is little doubt that descriptions of the mini-monster Tyr are based onEchis colorata, a poisonous snake found in the Jordan Valley, near the Dead Sea, whose bite has been fatal in several cases.

Sunrise at Abadan: the British and Soviet invasion of Iran, 1941

Game for the Domination of the World Helpless Pawn on a Slippery Chessboard The Arab Liberation Movement is Our Natural Ally The Germans Must Be Expelled from Iran Seeking a Magic Formula Say One Word to the British, They Would Not Invade Iran They're Blowing Her Up! The Russian Armor Has Broken Through! Handling a Red-hot Iron Why Should We Quit Fighting? We're Winning! There May Be a Revolution in Tehran Can You Hold the Throne?

Therapy With The Knife: Is It Still Needed for Renal Stones?

Therapy With The Knife: Is It Still Needed for Renal Stones?

Assessment of the efficiency of the Leister-Ghibli hot air disbudding gun

For many years the red-hot iron has been the method of choice for the de-horning of calves in the United Kingdom. Nevertheless, there can be little doubt that the method involves considerable tissue destruction and a certain degree of pain in the immediate post-operative period. It is therefore interesting to find that Leister-Ghibli have produced a hot air tool for the same purpose.&#x0D; The Leister-Ghibli hot air tool has a wide variety of applications not only in the field of Veterinary Science but also in Human Medicine, Agriculture and laboratory work. In this study the efficiency of the gun for disbudding calves was investigated.

‘Therapeutic’ burns (Maqua)

Cauterization of the skin by a red-hot iron, a pinch of hot cinder or a burning coal, is a form of ‘treatment’ used by lay healers in some parts of Africa and the Middle East. The burns are limited to small circular areas, and are usually full-thickness skin loss. Most frequently, the patients do not seek medical treatment and the burns heal by secondary intention. Sometimes, however, disastrous complications such as infectious osteomyelitis, septicaemia and death may occur.

Memories of my research on boiling

ACCORDING to the request from the Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers, I am writing of my experience under the title “Memories of my research on boiling” with a slight compunction of self-praise. When water boils at an atmospheric pressure of 1 atm and a temperature of fOO”C, the heating surface temperature, t, and the heat rate, Q, show the relationship OACDE, as shown in Fig. 1 which has the maximum C and the minimum D Cl]. Since my college graduation, I have been involved in research on boilers for one reason or another. This is probably because I attended lectures by Prof. Shigemitsu Niwa and because I happened to start lecturing on boilers as my first job after graduation. Since1 did not know, however, what specific research should be conducted on boilers, I at first, undertook rather easy measurements of thermal conducti~ty and so on. Around the end of the Taisho era or the beginning of the Showa era, there was a Japanese torpedo-destroyer which was blown ashore and wrecked by a windstorm. When I asked an officer why the ship did not escape the storm offshore, I learned that it took 30 min for the boiler to become operative after firing. It usually took more than 5’ h for a cylindrical boiler. I wanted to shorten this time and my preliminary research led me to a type of boiler known as a flash boiler which had already gone out of use. If water is sprayed against a redhot iron plate, as is done in this boiler, steam can be generated instantaneously. But this principle has many big problems in practical use from scale and water impurities contributing to low efficiency.. I then decided on the research objectives of increasing the ratio of vaporization and decreasing the size of the boiler. I undertook the above-mentioned experiment to learn the critical values with such a system. Old literature had described the @characteristic up

The Hollywood Posse by Diana Serra Cary

Reviews 167 Rivers West. By Louis L’Amour. (New York: Saturday Review Press/E. P. Dutton & Co., Inc., 1975. 192 pages, $6.95.) Louis L’Amour’s Rivers West is escape literature which takes five Budweisers to finish and two minutes to reflect upon. Its dust jacket is handsome and will look swell on the formica tabletops where it undoubtedly will repose. The story is set in the pre-Disney America of 1821. The manlybosomed hero of the novel, Jean Talon, is a Canadian immigrant set on foiling the dastardly lot of insurrectionists who are led by Baron Richard Torville. Talon, at story’s beginning, reveals he is hooked on a girl who has forsaken him for a merchant old enough to be his sweetheart’s analyst. Driven to near madness by grief for nearly a week, he even considers writing poetry to produce cathartic relief. But since his grammar (or L’Amour’s) is faulty, and since there still are 181 pages left in the book, Jean goes out instead to save the Louisiana Territory for the future Huey Longs of America. Does Jean succeed? Does Baron Richard Torville wind up with a deserved faceful of red-hot iron for his dirty deeds? Does Talon wind up with an incredibly desirable female of at least technical virgin status to replace the one that got away? Well, gentile reader, to find out the answer to these and other per­ snickety questions, you will have to plunk down seven bucks, or barter your new pork pie hat, for a copy of Rivers West. Don’t delay! You can always catch that Cher Bono Special on televi­ sion some other year. Why miss a book which so neatly catches the spirit and pageantry of America’s bicentennial celebration? But should your bookseller be out of Rivers West, don’t despair. Any one of L’Amour’s fifty other novels is easily available and will do just as well. HANK NUWER, Reno, Nevada The Hollywood Posse. By Diana Serra Cary. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1975. 268 pages, $8.95.) When the cattle empires crumbled, hundreds of working cowboys were left with no place to ride. Their way of life was anachronistic until about 1910 when one last frontier was discovered in the most unlikely place, Hollywood. Riding as movie extras in the guise of everything from Western 168 Western American Literature desperadoes to Saracen raiders, these cowboys found a reasonable facsimile of range life and a chance to use their range-bred skills. Picture riding was to them an honest job to be done well and they brought with them the values of the range — honesty, loyalty, courage, generosity. In the ego­ centric, cynical world of Hollywood, they were strangely out of place, a tight knit group of never more than two hundred men who rode together in front of the cameras for over forty years. Diana Serra Cary’s account of these Hollywood extras follows their up-and-down careers from the first two-reelers to the opening of Disneyland, an event which marked the end of the era of real cowboys. Disneyland, with all its technology, was a sad last stand for men who prided themselves on individual courage and skill. By the late fifties, most of the original cowboys had been replaced by “scissorbills” (riders who had never ridden the range and who, most likely, had taught themselves to ride at the local stable). This is not a book about heroes or stars, though John Wayne, Tom Mix, Cecil DeMille and others are found in its pages. The central figures though are the nameless cowboys of the Hollywood Posse — Jack Padjan, Neal Hart, Sonora, the hot-blooded young rancher, Cherokee, the cowboy with a removable glass eye, and most of all, Jack Montgomery, Mrs. Cary’s father. In large measure, The Hollywood Posse is a biography of Jack Montgomery, a working cowboy who typified the Hollywood riders and who spent the majority of his adult life in Hollywood, ultimately caught by the fantasy version of the real life he loved. Diana Serra Cary, once known as child star “Baby Peggy,” grew up in the midst of the Hollywood Posse. By the late...

The Deformation of Metals at High Temperatures

The blacksmith is an almost legendary figure now, standing by his glowing fire and hissing bellows as he hammers a piece of red-hot iron into shape with skillful blows. Today the hotworking of metal is on the scale of a heavy ingot, weighing many tons and being shaped by a huge pneumatic hammer, a hydraulic press or a rolling mill. More than 80 percent of all metal products undergo high-temperature deformation at some stage in their processing. The products are as diverse as seamless tubes, turbine blades, railroad-car wheels, stainless-steel knives, concrete-reinforcing rods and the sheet steel from which many products are made by further working without heating.

Lavoisier's Relatively Unknown Large-Scale Decomposition and Synthesis of Water, February 27 and 28, 1785

THE controversy over the nature and composition of water that developed between 1783 and 1790 must surely rank among the most important in the history of chemistry. The opening of the controversy can be fixed at Cavendish's experi ments on the combustion of hydrogen, repeated by Lavoisier and Laplace in 1783. It should, however, be realized that for several years the appearance of water had been noted whenever hydrogen was burnt although nothing had been deduced from the observation. In conformity with his earliest general theory Lavoisier had been of the opinion that an acid should be produced by the combination of hydrogen with oxygen. Preparatory to testing this experimentally he had already had his first gasholders constructed 1 and was preparing a systematic attack on the problem when he learned that Cavendish had anticipated him.2 Subsequent to the 1783 series of experiments Lavoi sier was the first to give a correct explanation of the phenomena ob served. The current and commonly held explanation involved the admission of the existence of phlogiston and assumed water to be an elementary substance. In addition Lavoisier was the first and only chemist to pursue, over a number of years, a long series of experiments devised to place his theories on a solid and incontrovertible foun dation. Having been given by the Acad?mie des Sciences, along with Meusnier, the task of preparing hydrogen on a large scale for the fill ing of balloons, Lavoisier started decomposing water with red-hot iron.3 During this time he had M?gni? construct two gasometers, ac cording to Meusnier's design, for the accurate measurement of the gases consumed or evolved in his projected attempt to demonstrate that water was a compound substance.

Historical development of pulmonary surgery

W HEN in the second haIf of the Iast century a new, important phase in the deveIopment of surgery dawned-when the introduction of anesthesia, of antisepsis and asepsis, new discoveries in anatomy and physioIogy, and deveIopments in pathoIogic anatomy finaIIy ushered in the “golden age of surgery”operative technic was aIready estabIished on a fairIy sound basis. OnIy the endothoracic organs remained an area of which surgeons stiI1 fought shy. True, there are cases reported by surgeons of the MiddIe Ages and the Renaissance in which resection of the puImonary tissue was performed. Back in the thirteenth century RoIando of SaIerno removed the gangrenous part of a Iung that had proIapsed as a resuIt of an injury to the thoracic waI1. In the seventeenth century, under simiIar conditions, Fabricius HiIdanus performed puImonary resection with a red-hot iron. Yet in the numerous descriptions of thoracic and pulmonary injuries contained in the surgica1 Iiterature of the Ancients and of the MiddIe Ages, there is not one mention of pneumothorax and seIdom of subcutaneous emphysema. This is a sign that cIinica1 observation in those days, aIthough we11 advanced in other respects, stiI1 feIl short when it came to studying intrapIeura1 diseases, or else perhaps, was of no practica1 interest for lack of the means to treat such cases. Even the treatment of empyema-one of the outstanding achievements of the Alexandrine schoo1 of surgery-had so fallen into disrepute that Dupuytren (1777-1835), enterprising surgeon though he was, refused to aIIow this operation to be performed on himseIf. thorax, refused to remove the spear point from his breast unti1 he Iearned that the Thebans had won the day. Even in the earIy days of the first World War the ruIe was stiI1 not to intervene in such cases, and the reaIization that it was enough to transform an open pneumothorax into a closed one to remove a11 immediate danger only sIowIy found acceptance. MeanwhiIe the reticence shown toward open thoracotomy gave pIace to an important advancement which fifty years Iater was to become one of the cornerstones of the postoperative treatment of intrathoracic interventions. In 1876 BtiIau, a Hamburg physician, introduced the method of subaqueous drainage into the treatment of empyema. This he was induced to do by the unfavorabIe experiences encountered in performing open thoracotomy in chiIdren. His work shows that he had a cIear conception and understanding of the dangers of the open pneumothorax, and from this time onward surgeons reaIized the need to reduce or eliminate these dangers during and after intrathoracic interventions. The immediate effect of this realization was, admittedIy, to hamper rather than to assist. The dangers of opening the pIeura were grossly overestimated; and although in 1884 KrfinIein, a Swiss surgeon, performed resection of a lung, manv vears went by before others foIIowed suit. It \;a; not until the turn of the century that isoIated cases were reported (by Murphy, Tuffrer, Heidenhain, KBrte, GarrC: and Quincke, Len hartz and others).

Cancer of the breast

C ANCER of the breast is not new. In the first century A.D. Leonides112 operated upon the breast for cancer, using a red hot iron to sear the remaining surfaces. AntyIIus’ also operated upon the breast in the third century. In 1804 Benjamin Bell’ insisted that local operations were of no avaiI and urged that wider operations were necessary and suggested that the pectoral muscIes and axillary lymph nodes be removed. Up to this time aImost IOO per cent of patients had recurrences and died. CharIes Moore’ in 1867 emphasized that neck dissection be performed en masse and in continuity. Sir Mitchell Banks’ in 1882 taught that removal of the axillary lymph nodes was necessary whether they seemed enlarged or not. HaIsted3 and WiIIy Meyer4 in 1894 separately described an operation which has been the basis for our surgery to date. Halsted removed the breast first, followed by the axillary dissection. Meyer reversed this order. Halsted removed a large amount of skin, necessitating skin grafting in most cases. He later described a more radical operation, entering the neck and removing the lymph nodes in the posterior triangle. L. McLane Tiffany5 in 1901 drew attention to the intercostat spaces where nodes could sometimes be found and removed. Sampson HandIey in 1904~ and again in 1921~ emphasized that the spread of cancer was by Iymphatics which coursed chiefly in the fascia1 planes. He stated that wide areas of fascia therefore should be removed, incIuding the fascia over the epigastrium and the upper part of the rectus abdominus muscle. He believed that since cancer did not spread along the skin, it was not necessary to remove wide areas. We are indebted to him for the rule that at least 6 inches of skin, centered over the tumor, pIus IO inches of deep fascia, incIuding that over the rectus muscle and epigastrium, shouId be removed. In 1895 Roentgen2 discovered x-rays and soon after that a patient with a Iarge cancer of the face was treated with roentgen rays. The tumor shrank away rapidly and disappeared. Marie and Pierre Curie2 discovered radium and later this was made available for therapeutic use against cancer. Soon a technic was developed for a combination of surgery plus radiation. Radium was used but gave way to x-ray preoperativeIy, postoperativeIy, or both. Radiation combined with radical surgery was considered better than either aIone. We had now reached a stage where it was beIieved that the treatment of cancer of the breast had become standardized. However, our tranquility did not Iast long. New and conflicting ideas emanate from so many authoritative sources that we are now in a state of uncertainty. In a recent article Charles Eckert and William B. Seaman8 summarize their ideas on radiation therapy as follows: “ Irradiation offers definite palliation, prolongation of life and occasionaIIy even five-year survivals are seen in the group of primary inoperabIe cases. Preoperative radiation serves to surround the cancer cells with a fibrous tissue barrier. If surgery foIIows, it effectiveIy breaks down this barrier so that life is often shortened over what it wouId be from x-ray therapy alone.” They aIso state that postoperative radiation is not caIIed for unIess there are very high nodes in the axilla and the surgeon believes he has probably Ieft some Iymph nodes or extension which he cannot reach. This view is held aIso by Haagenson” and others. However, Janes’O and Jones” both report satisfactory results in a smaI1 number of cases treated preoperatively. Janes reported two advanced cases treated by preoperative radiation. Both patients are alive and free from recurrence eleven and six years, respectively. A. Nohrman’? reports a series of 1,042 cases in which there appeared to be an improvement in prognosis in the most unfavorable cases. The author has used preoperative x-ray therapy in a number of cases and has noted marked clinical improvement. In many cases the

TRIBAL MARKETS IN SPANISH MOROCCO1

WITHIN the frontiers of Spanish Morocco there are more than a hundred tribal markets. (See Fig. I.) They are held weekly and a large variety of goods ranging from live animals and grain to Oriental spices and North African medicines, changes hands there. In addition, services such as those of the footwear-repairers, barber-bleeders, and shoeing smiths, are in active demand at all but the smallest markets. But the buying and selling of goods and services is by no means their only function. Legal work and local administration are carried on. There are opportunities for social intercourse; friends separated by miles of country during the rest of the week enjoy each other's company, intrigue, and revive common hatreds. All and sundry enjoy the entertainments provided by representatives of several fraternities. News items concerning the larger world are gathered through gossip or from the market-criers. Commands of the authorities are heard there and discussed at length. Religious zeal is rekindled through contact with the living saints present, and by visiting the shrine which is to be found near almost every market. Many take the opportunity of the certain presence of jnin (spirits) at the market, to practice magic. Further, in the past, many of these gatherings were the scenes of the public blinding with red-hot irons of notorious brigands, and of the begging of blood-money to expiate an indigent murderer's crime, as of many other practices of public or private import. Therefore, the weekly market has always been definitely more important in the life of the countryside than a mere place and means for the exchanging of goods and services. Indeed, making an analogy between tribe and nation-state, it can be said that, in the past, the

ZINC SULFATE FOR PREVENTION OF POLIOMYELITIS

To the Editor:— The excuse for this letter is the difficulty which the deleterious effects of an exploited remedy have in catching up with its recorded virtues. My first opportunity to employ zinc sulfate for the prevention of poliomyelitis was for the protection of the mother of a little patient. The instructions with regard to material, instruments and technic, as recommended in the Peet article, were carefully carried out. The mucosa was shrunken with epinephrine and the zinc sulfate 1 per cent, sodium chloride 0.5 per cent, pontocaine hydrochloride 1 per cent solution was applied under visual control to the olfactory area. The young woman commented that she felt as if she were going to have her tonsils out again, but only after leaving did she begin to be distressed. She complained that the sensation in her nose was like red hot irons. It lasted through the night, the application

The Action of Short Radio Waves on Tissues: II. Treatment of Animal Tumours in vivo

In an earlier paper (1) we described the effects of short radio waves on tissues in vitro. From the studies there reported it was concluded that the action of these waves depended entirely on the production of heat. The present paper deals with experiments in vivo. Earlier work on this subject has already been reviewed in our first paper. Of later publications, the work of Haas and Lob (2) and that of Taylor (3 and 4) may be mentioned: no effect on tumour growth was observed unless the temperature was allowed to rise, and no difference was found in this respect with different wavelengths. Haas and Lob conclude that, since short-wave action is nothing but a heat action, its use for tumour treatment must be considered a retrograde step compared with the methods of surgery or x-rays. With this we do not necessarily agree. Obviously, heat application by short waves is not the same as that by the red-hot iron. In our opinion the properties of short waves are such that they may provide a very efficient weapon in the treatment of tumours in the future, provided a suitable technique is worked out. Short waves not only generate a uniform and penetrating heat in the depths of the tissue, but also allow a very fine regulation of the degree of heating. By the shape and design of the electrodes the field can be concentrated on a circumscribed region and the heat effect thus localised. Even if complete coagulation of the malignant cells is not aimed at, a slight elevation of temperature to, say, 42° C. may prove valuable in conjunction with other agents such as x-rays or radium (Warren, 5 and 6).