860

Was in charge of department in well-known Berlinhospital. Has to keep parents. Can enter into

partnership in Italy as soon as he has British quali-fication. Requires assistance towards paying examina-tion fees, JE45. E F (a lawyer) can be re-trained foragriculture in Denmark, and then has chance of

going to Palestine, 40. Expenses required forseveral doctors taking up positions in Turkishhospitals, :E120 each." The quotations are from theGerman Refugees Assistance Fund, and we bringthe plea of that Fund before our readers with fullknowledge that they have urgent claims upon themalready furnished by the needs of our own charities.But their help can be great if they will give publicityto the work of the Fund, and lead the public torealise that the progress of all that makes the worldhabitable is linked up with the labours of theacademic and professional classes. There is no

question of the employment of more foreign medicalpractitioners in Britain, and this is recognised by theFund.

THE VIRUS OF MUMPS

QUITE apart from the results of attempts to repro-duce mumps - experimentally there are grounds forbelieving that it belongs to the group of filtrablevirus diseases. It is highly contagious, one attackconfers a solid and lasting immunity, and when ithas been possible to examine the specific lesion

histologically the inflammatory reaction has beenseen to be predominantly mononuclear. Experi-mental investigation of the disease dates from 1908when Granata published some suggestive findings.M. H. Gordon’s work several years later was moreconclusive. He demonstrated the presence of a

filtrable agent in the mouth washings from earlycases of mumps, but in only one instance did he showthat this agent was capable of producing a parotitisin experimental animals and serial passage was notachieved. Martha Wollstein 2 carried the matterfurther. Investigations pursued by her between theyears 1916 and 1921 showed that the filtered mouthwashings from early cases produced an inflammatoryreaction when inoculated into the parotid or testisof the cat and that serial passage was possible, thoughnot indefinitely so, in this animal species. She alsofound that the virus was present in the blood ofpatients with severe constitutional symptoms. The

ensuing decade saw two further attacks on the

problem. Y. Kermorgant’s 3 work claiming to showthat mumps was due to the combined action of a

spirochsete and a Gram-negative bacillus remainsunconfirmed and unconvincing, and F. F. Tang’s 4findings in guinea-pigs give the impression that if hewas dealing with a filtrable virus it was not the virusof mumps.

Recent work by C. D. Johnson and E. W.

Goodpasture5 leaves little doubt that mumps is infact produced by a filtrable virus. Their experimentswere made on monkeys (Maeacus rhesus) and thematerial investigated (fresh saliva) was introduceddirectly into Stensen’s duct in quantities of 2 c.cm.Saliva from six early cases was thus inoculated intosix macaque monkeys ; two monkeys received a

similar inoculation of normal saliva and served ascontrols. The introduction of this volume of fluidcaused an immediate enlargement of the parotid gland

1 Local Govt. Board, Pub. Health Rep. No. 96, London,1914.

2 Jour. Exper. Med., 1916, xxiii., 353 ; 1918, xxviii., 377 ;1921, xxxiv., 537.

3 Ann. de l’Inst. Pasteur, 1925, xxxix., 565.4 Nat. Med. Jour. China, 1930, xvii., 360.

5 Jour. Exper. Med., 1934, lix., 1.

which, however, subsided in two to four days. Noth-

ing further happened in the two control monkeysand in two of the six receiving mumps saliva. Butsix to eight days later the remaining four monkeysdeveloped fever, accompanied by swelling of the

parotid gland and oedema of the surrounding tissue.They also showed definite changes in their bloodpicture : a leucocytosis, appearing just before theonset of pyrexia, was gradually replaced by a

leucopenia with a monocytosis and a relative

lymphocytosis. Histological examination showedthat these glands were the seat of focal degenerationand necrosis affecting single acini or groups of acini.Suspensions of the extirpated parotid glands whenpassed through Berkefeld filters reproduced thedisease in monkeys and serial passage was realisedup to the seventh generation. Monkeys which hadrecovered from the infection proved resistant to

reinoculation, but neutralisation experiments withhuman convalescent sera gave inconclusive results.When it is added that Johnson and Goodpasture alsodemonstrated the resistance of this filtrable agentto freezing, drying, and glycerol, it will be realisedhow complete is the story which they present.

Summer Time will commence in Great Britain,Ireland, the Channel Islands, and the Isle of Manon Sunday morning next, April 22nd, at 2 A.M.,when the hands of timepieces should be advancedone hour. It will end on Sunday, Oct. 7th.

"INDIA," by Lieut.-Colonel F. D. S. Fayrer,I.M.S. (rtd.), M.A.Cantab., F.R.P.S., is the title ofan exhibition at the Galleries of the Royal Photo-graphic Society of Great Britain, 35, Russell-square,W.C.I, which will be held from May 3rd to 31st, 1934.

FOR reasons of health Mr. F. W. Ramsay hasresigned his prospective presidency of the BritishMedical Association during the coming year. In his

place Dr. Sydney Watson Smith, physician to theRoyal Victoria and West Hants Hospital, has beenappointed president for 1934-35, and he will takeoffice at the annual meeting of the Association to beheld in Bournemouth next July.A SPECIAL meeting of the Fellows of the Royal

Society of Medicine will be held on Tuesday, May 1st,at 8 P.M., when a demonstration will be given byDr. Russell Reynolds on X ray cinematography. Some

interesting films will at the same time be shownby Dr. Robert Janker of Bonn. The meeting hasbeen devised in order to bring Dr. Janker into contactwith Dr. Reynolds, as both have been working witha view to bring cinematograph technique withinthe bounds of application for use with X rays.Dr. Brailsford dealt with some aspects of thisapplication in an address summarised on p. 877 of ourpresent issue. It should be noticed by Fellows thatadmission can be by ticket only, and applicationsfor these should be addressed to the secretary of thesociety at 1, Wimpole-street, W.I.

COURSE ON MENTAL WELFARE.-The e CentralAssociation for Mental Welfare have arranged a coursefor officers of local authorities and local associationsfor mental welfare engaged in work among thementally defective. It will be held in London fromJune 30th to July 21st and will include lectures andpractical work. Applications should reach the secretaryof the association, 24, Buckingham Palace-road, London,S.W.I, before June llth.