"status thymo-lymphaticus."

1249

the water-supply of country districts, the curious

ignorance of sanitary affairs, appeared in our owncolumns ; his clear and incisive style was displayedto great advantage in his book entitled " London,Ancient and Modern, from the Sanitary and MedicalPoint of View." In his dislike of the water-carriagesystem of sewage disposal Poore stood almost alone,and as far as town life is concerned he was

fighting a losing battle. Pull the chain and letthe sanitary authority do the rest has won

the day. But in the garden of his house atAndover he raised luxuriant crops of fruit and

vegetables by manuring with a mixture of freshfaeces and earth, at the same time proving that thesubsoil water remained perfectly wholesome andcapable of use as a domestic supply ; and he may wellhave been right in believing that in the country suchsimple and conservative methods are both feasibleand fruitful. He held, as Dr. F. G. Crookshank putsit, a steady and unwavering belief in the nationalimportance of a domestic agricultural economy,or polity, that would render possible, profitable, andattractive a life on the land. Agriculture, Pooredeclared, is the corner-stone of preventive medicine.His ideals have found a sponsor in the HomecroftAssociation, which has been trying to put them intopractice on their estate near Cheltenham. The

memorial, for which they hope to raise sufficientfunds from among Poore’s old students and friends,is to be a special croft with a building about twicethe size of the others, to serve partly as a dwellingand partly as a school. The proposals were outlinedby Prof. J. W. Scott at a meeting recently held atChurch House, Westminster. Some E250 has alreadybeen subscribed and a further sum of f200 promised.All who are interested are invited to communicatewith Prof. Scott, at University College, Cardiff.

"STATUS THYMO-LYMPHATICUS."

IN 1927 Prof. Major Greenwood and Miss HildaWoods published a study of status lymphaticus,lin which they maintained, first, that to base a diagnosison the weight of the thymus alone was unreasonable,a conclusion also reached by J. A. Hammar;secondly, that sudden death was no more the fate ofpeople with heavy thymi than of others ; and thirdly,that the concept of a status or diathesis explainedby a thymic abnormality was " a mere farrago ofrandom assertion and debased tradition." Sincethen Hammar has published a second volume 2

in which a special chapter is devoted to 44 cases ofalleged status lymphaticus. He declares that inthese cases the thymus is not only not enlarged,but also fails to show any hyperplasia of the medulla,any accidental involution, or any new formation ofHassall corpuscles. He concludes that cases of

" inexplicable " death may be the expression of somephysiological abnormality of the endocrine systemand that stigmata-a reduction or cessation of newformation in the Hassall corpuscles-may be foundin the thymus. These stigmata, however, have onlya statistical significance and cannot be applied as

criteria in clinical or medico-legal practice. Prof.Greenwood, discussing these findings, 3 examinesHammar’s data arithmetically. He forms a table ofall the children who died suddenly with negativeor trivial post-mortem indications, showing theconditions in the thymus, and a similar table of

1 Jour. Hyg., 1927, xxvi., 305.2 Die Menschenthymus in Gesundheit und Krankheit,

Leipzig, 1929.3 Jour. Hyg., November, 1930, p. 403.

normal children. These tables show that Hammar’sconclusions are amply supported by figures. Thereis no appreciable difference between the thymusof normals and that of " sudden death " cases, buta count of the Hassall bodies might possibly be ofsome value for group differentiation, if made with careand accuracy. The variability of this measure is,however, nearly 50 per cent. in a normal series, sothat it is obviously useless as an individual criterion.Prof. Greenwood suggests that, now that the thymictheory is exploded, the time has come for some carefulwork on other organs and functions, in an attemptto elucidate the mysterious condition improperly

I known as status thymo-lymphaticus.FOUNDATION DAY AT THE UNIVERSITY

OF LONDON.

THE first official celebration of Foundation Dayof the University of London took place on Nov. 28th.The ceremony took the form of a procession in fullacademic dress through the Great Hall of the

University, an impressive charge from the Vice-Chancellor, and the investment of the successfulcandidates for higher degrees. The company reflectedwell the prestige of this comparatively young univer-sity, which is already great in achievement. Diplomats,statesmen, masters of city companies, and mayorsof the boroughs which make up the county of London,as well as those more directly concerned with educa-tion or with the arts and sciences, assembled to dohonour to the University, and remained to enjoy thepleasant party which followed the more formalproceedings. The guests, who included friends of thenew masters of surgery and doctors of science,medicine, laws, and literature, who were presentedfor degrees, were received, in the unavoidable absenceof the Chancellor, Lord Beauchamp, by the Vice-Chancellor, Rev. John Scott Lidgett, the Chairmanof Convocation, Mr. S. L. Loney, the Chairman ofthe Court, Lord Macmillan, and the Principal, Mr.Edwin Deller, LL.D. The Vice-Chancellor in his

charge recalled the fact that the centenary of thefoundation of the University was approaching, andthat it was hoped to celebrate it fittingly in the newbuildings at Bloomsbury. Among the doctors ofmedicine on whom degrees were conferred were

Dr. T. Anwyl Davies, who was awarded the universitymedal in medicine, and Dr. Dorothy S. Russell, whowas awarded the university medal in pathology.During the evening the band of the Scots Guardsplayed a programme of music, and in the libraryreading room a small exhibition of rare and interestingbooks, including the Prince of Wales’ MSS., " Lifeof the Black Prince " (circa 1385) was on view.

.

COMPARATIVE PATHOLOGY OF TUBERCLE,IN a monograph published this week by the Medical

Research Council, Dr. H. H. Scott sets out the materialdrawn from post-mortem examinations made by himon 300 fatal cases of tuberculosis occurring amongstChinese of the labouring class in Hong-Kong andalso on a series of wild animals dying of tuberculosiswhilst in captivity at the London Zoo. The writerhas availed himself of a unique opportunity to makea comparative study of the morbid anatomy oftuberculosis in two groups not hitherto submittedto careful examination. That there is a close analogybetween tuberculosis in wild animals living in captivity

1 Tuberculosis in Man and Lower Animals. Special ReportSeries No. 149. H.M. Stationery Office. Pp. 270. 4s.