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ANNOTATIONS

CLAIMS ON THE ÆTHER

A RATHER delicate situation arises out of rival claimsto the capacity of the sether to serve two masters. Oneis the public which has to be amused, or instructed, orperhaps advised of catastrophe by means of signalssent by way of certain wave-lengths. The otheris the electrologist who has a claim, prior both intime and intent, on these same wave-lengths formedical treatment. Modern diathermy machinesemit oscillations which are of similar frequenciesto those which will convey information or amuse-ment. Interference is inevitable, but it works onlyone way : television becomes blurred when operatedwithin a mile of a hospital diathermy set, but thetreatment is not upset by the entertainment. Hereis a case which might be brought into court and

laughed out of it by judge or counsel with the witto see that there is no reason why both claims shouldnot be perfectly well met. Electrical screening ofrooms in which electro-medical apparatus is usedis dealt with in a circular issued by the radio branchof the General Post Office. The experts responsiblefor this memorandum know their job, which is to

safeguard the transmission of their particular formsof entertainment ; and this memorandum is a verypractical one in the sense that it tells us quite clearlythat interference can reach a radio receiver by onlytwo means, either (1) by conduction along the mainsor (2) by radiation direct to the receiving aerial.Mains-borne interference can be easily got over, butdirect radiation is a much more difficult matter ; itcan only be suppressed by enclosing in an electricalscreen or Faraday cage not only the apparatus butalso the patient and the operator. The cost of

dealing with a room 12 by 16 by 8 ft. in this way isabout jE20 ; if it is done at the time the department isplanned this sum would include the cost of screeningthe room and fitting a mains filter. The G.P.O.memorandum overlooks the possibility of allocatingto hospitals as their prerogative certain bands of

wave-lengths in the sether. If this were done the

designers of instruments would, we think, bendtheir energies to devising apparatus capable of

emitting the particular range of frequencies in work-able intensities. Furthermore it might very welllead to a salutary development in the efficiency of

diathermy and other appliances, and the abandon.ment of apparatus depending upon spark excitation.The valve is a more trustworthy emitter than thEspark, and its potentialities have not yet beerexhausted.

TRANSPLANTATION OF EPITHELIAL TISSUES

THE successful use of transparent corneal graftsto replace corneas rendered opaque by injury or

disease is now becoming almost commonplace.Prof. Filatov of Odessa, one of the chief exponentsof the method,! now suggests its application to thetreatment of chronic affections of other epithelialstructures.2 He has found, he says, that varioustissues, preserved in the cold, have a therapeuticaction when transplanted into diseased tissues of thesame histological type, and his idea is that their actionas transplants is "

autocatalytic." In the cornea

the toxic substances which are produced by inflam-matory processes are neutralised by this autocatalyticprocess, and the protoplasm is restored to its norma]

1 Filatov, V. P., Lancet, 1937, 1, 1395.2 Filatov, Journal Médicale (Kiev), 1937, 7, 757.

intracellular disposition. In other tissues the specificproperty is similarly re-established ; elasticity, for

example, is restored to the skin or to the sclera.Preserved tissues are usually employed ; skin,cornea, mucous and vascular membranes have allbeen used. The autocatalysis takes place in thetissues of the host, but it is said to be stimulated bythe catalysers of the transplant. Filatov has success-

fully applied the method of transplantation in a caseof retinitis pigmentosa and in one of tuberculousuveitis. In a case of pannus, mucosa was trans-

planted with a good result. Skin has been trans-

planted in psoriasis and in a case of cutaneoustuberculosis in a rabbit-apparently with good effect.Preservation of the skin up to four months does not

appear to destroy its properties. The character ofthe pathological process is regarded as relativelyunimportant so long as the transplant is of the samehistological type as the tissue into which it is intro-duced. The first case of lupus in which Filatov triedthe method gave results that surpassed all his hopes.He excised an ulcer and covered the defect with skintaken from a cadaver and preserved in the cold.Within 48 hours there was conspicuous improvement;the ulcer cicatrised rapidly, and healing took placeboth of the face and of the mucous membrane ofthe nose. In 26 days the healing process slowed downbut it was restored by further transplant of pieces ofskin. In a case of lupus of the hand, similarly treatedwith skin from a cadaver, improvement was sudden.By the 17th day after operation the greater part ofthe ulcer was cicatrised and the infiltratng tissuehad been absorbed. Similar success has been obtainedin two further cases of lupus of the face, in one case ofscleroderma, one case of cutaneous cicatricial hyper-trophy, and in one case of ulcer of the leg which hadrefused to heal. The transplanted skin in these casesis regarded by Filatov not merely as a covering forthe defect produced by destruction of the skin, butas the agency that cuts short the pathological process.As he regards the corneal transplant in a similar light,he is here pressing home an analogy that might notbe generally accepted.

BLOOD PRESSURE AND EMOTIONAL

INSTABILITY

THAT physiological tests can profitably be used toeliminate would-be aeroplane pilots who are psycho-logically unfitted for the work began to be recognisedduring the war. Those most in touch with theproblem of selecting aviators are satisfied that unstableor neurotic men will not do ; the requirements andstress of flying do not accord with a fundamentallynervous temperament, however brilliant and daringthe occasional exploits which such a temperamentmay provoke. Continued efforts have thereforebeen made to substitute readily made physicalmeasurements for a lengthy subjective psychologicalmethod, more like history-taking, of detectingcandidates who are emotionally unstable without beingobviously so. At the physiological research laboratoryof the United States Army Air Corps, the director,Captain Armstrong, has found a surprisingly highcorrelation between the cardiovascular findings andthe emotional stability of a series of 700 applicantsfor flying training.! Those who were assessed bythe customary personality study as emotionallyunstable were found to have readings above an

1 Armstrong, Harry G., Amer. J. med. Sci. February, 1938,p. 211.