Vol. 60, 1909 - University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

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THF CHARLOTTE MEDIOAL JOURNAL
certain time, "through the action of latent He belongs to an order of sanitary priests
malaria without preceding fever. " j
Protec- and belies his vocation and betraj-s his trust,
tion against this disease can be established if he does not use the material at his disby
shortening tlie period of residence in the posal fully and faithfully. He is his brothcountry
where it prevails, e. g.. Central er's keeper; and as in these matters knowl-
^frica. edge means added life and happiness and
usefulness to the communities whose wel"
Atlatita Jounial-Record of Medicine, May, fare is his charge, he will reject no method
1909.
of labor and spare no endeavor which offers
The Principal Cause ol Typhoid Fever the prospect of increased power over disis
the Common House-Fly. Dr. J. W. ease."
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Palmer says that the function of the "ty-
phoid fly" in the human economy is to carry The American Practitioner and News, June, -f^
bacteria from one place to another and the 1909. j,'
one mostly carried by them is the typhoid Chronic Ulcer oi the Stomach and 'J
bacilli and what they lack of being respon- Duodenum.— Dr. \V. H. Watheu says that ,
sible for all cases of typhoid fever is more in the treatment of chronic ulcers that have J
than made up in causing other infectious resisted all medical treatment and cannot |
diseases. It has been shown that when the be cured except by surgical intervention, 1
"typhoid fly" is most abundant, intestinal there is some difference of opinion. In the 1
diseases are on the increase and these dis- pyloric end, if the constriction is consider- J
eases decrease just as soon as there is a fall- able, most operators only make a gastroing
off in the prevalence of these flies. They enterostomy, and these patients get well J
are great factors in the spread of tubercu- and may never suffer again. Gastro-enter- 1
losis, so we see that the domestic fly has ostomy ought never to be done, as a rule, fl
passed from a disgusting and troublesome except where there is obstruction in the 1
pest to a dangerous enemy to human life. pyloric end of the stomach or in the duode- "
The number of bacteria on a single fly num that prevents stomach drainage; other- -.
will some times reach many millions, de- wise the contents of the stomach will pass
pending on the season of the year and the out through the pylorus instead of entering i
locality of the flies. Dr. L. O. Howard the jejunum. This is a question that con- •
caught 256flies from several different sources fronts us. It has been shown conclusively j
by means of sterile fly net, introduced them by men like Mayo and Moynihan that the -i
into a sterile bottle and poured into the bot- majority of all cancers of the stomach orig- .J
tie a known quantity of sterilized water, inate in the base of an ulcer. Mayo puts it I
then shook the bottle to wash the bacteria at .54 per cent. Because of that fact Rod- „
from their bodies, to estimate the number man suggested, several years ago, that i
of organisms that would come from a fly where there is considerable chronic ulcera- •-(
falling into a lot of milk and found that the tion and induration of the pyloric end, to
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average bacteria on each fly was over three make a resection of that part, including all
millions, hence the importance of keeping ulcerated or indurated tissue, and after
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the flies from milk. These flies will injest closing the duodenal and gastric ends, then '
the typhoid bacilli, carry them around, de- make a gastro-enteroslomy. Mayo has apposit
them with their "specks" which are proved of this suggestion in some cases, and I
as virulent and dangerous as the germs they followed it, and so has Moynihan. i
leave when crawling around. A Review ol Several Thousand Pcr-
The Doctor—His Relation to Public sonal Surgical Anesthetics.— Dr. H. C.
Sanitation.— Dr. J. C. Beauchamp con- Woodard believes that patients with lung
eludes his paper by quoting the following and pleuritic susceptibility, and in pulmo- 1
from a paper at the International Congress nary tuberculosis, the lighter the anesthetic
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on Tuberculosis read by Dr. A. Newsholme, is given means better chances for the patient.
medical health officer to the local govern- The use of the nitrous oxid and oxygen
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ment board of England: method does not work successfully with
"Social physiology and medicine are even some of these patients; it frequently causes
more complex than the same sciences ap- dyspnea and cyanosis. These patients do
plied to the individual, and statistics must better with a minimum amount of anes-
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be used to decipher their mysteries. As thesia and large quantities of air; therefore,
they are required, our duty is to use them chloroform has proven to me to be the best
with the same care to avoid fallacy and the because the air supply can be regulated
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same pains to control our results as are ex- better. When chloroform is ever used at
pected in deductive experiment. The serv- any the dangers are lessened if nitrous oxid
ant of public health is working on the lives
f men, and should be laying the fouudaand
ether are employed to produce anes-
thesia, and then switch to chloroform when
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on of natural prosperity and happiness, the patient is breathing regularly, which ;
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