674

LIVER TREATMENT IN PERNICIOUS ANÆMIA.To the Editor of THE LANCET..

SiR,-The following extract from a letter recently’received, from Australia may be of interest.

Dr. S. had treated a, lady with signs of pernicious anaemiawith poor results. After an absence of some time she putin an appearance at his rooms looking the picture of health.On inquiry as to what had produced this excellent resultshe said, " I went to a Chinese herbalist, who gave me apowder to take and this is the cause of my cure." Thepowder on examination looked like desiccated flesh and thepatient said it was powdered liver of the carnivorous crow,an old Chinese remedy it appears. On further inquiryDr. S. found that boys are regularly employed by Chinamento catch crows for them, so that they may get the liver. Isit that the Celestials have been using for years a remedy’which our men have only recently discovered ?Can any of your readers supply the answer ? My

,correspondent is my father, who has recently givenup active work in the profession, and Dr. S. is a well-!known consultant in Melbourne.

T am. Sir. vonrs faithfullv.JOHN H. ANDERSON.

LOCAL FAT ATROPHY FOLLOWING INSULININJECTIONS.

To the Editor of THE LANCET.SIR,-It may interest Drs. Carmichael and Graham

to hear that I have a patient who developed a localfat atrophy following very large injections of insulininto the left thigh. It is now two and a half yearssince any insulin has been required and the thigh has’returned to normal.

I am. Sir. vours faithfu11v-

The Services.

P. D. H. CHAPMAN.

ROYAL NAVAL MEDICAL SERVICE.

Surg. Lt.-Comdr. G. E. Heath to be Surg. Comdr.Surg. Lt. (D.) F. W. Watt to be Surg. Lt.-Comdr. (D.).

ROYAL NAVAL VOLUNTEER RESERVE.

Surg. Lt. S. W. Davidson to be Surg. Lt.-Comdr.

ROYAL ARMY MEDICAL CORPS.

Capt. E. S. Cuthbert to be Maj.R. A. Kennedy to be Temp. Lt.Temp. Lt. R. J. Monahan relinquishes his commn.

TERRITORIAL ARMY.

-Capt, H. A. B. Whitelocke to be Maj.,Lt. 0. F. W. RobinsoR to be Capt.Lt. F. T. Birkinshaw resigns his commn.

ROYAL AIR FORCE.The undermentioned Flight Lts. are granted permanent

commissions in this rank : J. McM. Wilder and L. 1. Hyder.Temp. Capt. J. M. Jamie (Dental Surgeon, General List)

is granted a temporary commission as a Flight Lt., on.attachment to the R.A.F.

Flight Lt. C. T. Hastings (Capt., Army Dental Corps.)relinquishes his temporary commission on return to Army ’,duty. i

.

INDIAN MEDICAL SERVICE.Majors to be Lieut.-Colonels : W. E. Brierley, J. B.

Lapsley, C. H. Fielding, W. L. Watson, J. W. Barnett,Madan Lal Puri, R. B. Lloyd, A. C. Munro, Ram NathChopra, A. G. Tresidder, G. G. Jolly, H. Stott, A. A. C.McNeill, G. F. Graham, Maneck Dhunjishaw Wadia, T. D.Murison, Sohrab Shapooni Vazifdar, J. J. H. Nelson,E. S. Phipson, F. F. S. Smith, and T. C. Boyd.The undermentioned officers retire : Lt.-Cols. T. H. Gloster

.and L. Revnolds.ROYAL VISIT TO MILITARY HOSPITAL.

On March 24th the King and Queen paid an unofficialvisit to Queen Alexandra’s Military Hospital, Millbank.They were received by Col. E. Ryan, the commanding officer,and Miss Osborne, matron-in-chief. The medical and

surgical staff and sisters were presented to the King andOueen, who afterwards made a tour of the buildings.

Parliamentary Intelligence.NOTES ON CURRENT TOPICS.

OFFICES REGULATION BILL.ON March 20th in the House of Commons Miss WILKINSON

asked leave to introduce a Bill to regulate offices and theemployment of young persons therein ; and for otherpurposes connected therewith. She said that the measurewas designed to extend to people who worked in officessome of the protection that was at present given to thosewho worked in factories. The conditions in many big cities,especially owing to the great congestion at the present time.were rapidly growing worse, and it was felt that somethingought to be done to protect the health of the men andwomen who worked in those offices. In one of the bestand newest offices lately built in the City of London largeprovision was made for underground office accommodation.In the older buildings in the city where girls worked under-ground conditions were very bad indeed. They had alsoin these basement offices the enemy of damp. The effecton health was particularly bad at the present time, becausemany of these girls worked very long hours and specialovertime at quarter days. A girl had written to her givinga description of the office in which she worked. It was onlya cubicle with no windows and no ventilation, and five menbesides herself worked in that unhealthy place. The girladded that the electric light had had a bad effect upon hereyes and she had been obliged to see an oculist, who saidthat her eyes were badly strained. One-third of the diseasesof those who worked in offices were due to phthisis, and122 out of every 1000 died from diseases which were causedby working in cramped spaces with bad light, bad ventilation,and very long hours. The Bill recognised the difficulty underwhich many employers worked at the present time. Highrents were making overcrowding worse. The Bill threwthe burdern of keeping the offices in a proper condition onthe owner, but made provision for adjustment afterwardsby the council. The Bill would prevent overcrowding ; itwould stop any premises being used as underground officeswhich were not so used on the date when the Bill passedinto law, and briefly it made provision for adequate lightingand heating and proper sanitary accommodation.Leave to bring in the Bill was granted without a division

and the Bill was brought in and read a first time.

INVALIDING FROM THE NAVY : TUBERCULOSIS.On Thursday, March 22nd, on the Report of Navy

Estimates for 1928, Rear-Admiral BEAMISH said he wishedto return to a subject which he had mentioned twice, thatwas the question of tuberculosis and the invaliding of men.One could not return to that particular matter too oftenbecause it was very serious. He realised that the Admiraltyhad their hands tied to some extent and that the questionof invaliding was a matter for decision by secret and con-fidential instructions received by the Admiralty from theTreasury. He was not sufficiently conversant with Parlia-mentary rights to know whether they had any methodwhereby they could get hold of those instructions and seethem. They ought to know more about them than theydid at the present time. The Admiralty were condemnedto be controlled by these regulations which imposed uponthe men of His Majesty’s Fleet very severe hardship whenthey were invalided. The extent of tuberculosis in the Navyhad been higher for at least the last five years than it hadbeen in the Army, and the conditions of life in the Navywere very largely responsible for that. He impressed uponthe House the real importance of this matter and urgedthat the question should be adequately looked into and somechange made, not only in regard to the actual methods ofinvaliding men, but in regard to the composition of theboards that invalided them, and in regard to the attributa-bility as to the diseases and injuries for which the men wereinvalided.

The Incidence of Tuberculosis.Dr. VERNON DAVIES said that he was tempted once again

to press the question of tuberculosis in the Navy on theattention of the House. It was a most serious subject andaffected a class of men who were not able to speak adequatelyfor themselves. They had had statistics showing the numberf cases of tuberculosis in the Navy and the extremely;mall percentage which got a pension or were held to beattributable—namely, 3 or 4 or 5 per cent. They:ould hardly wonder that these poor men who went intoLhe Service physically fit in the prime of their youth andnanhood and subsequently came out practically condemned;o death must hold that in some way or another the Serviceliad something to do with it. The different incidence ofTuberculosis in the Army and the Navy to the detriment of,li(- latter was perhaps not astonishing in view of the