MEDICAL RESEARCH

Evening Post, Volume CXVII, Issue 83, 9 April 1934, Page 8

MEDICAL RESEARCH

NEW ADVANCES

TRACKING DOWN INFLUENZA

ARTIFICIAL VITAMIN

(From "Th» Post's" Representative.) ' ; LONDON, March 1.

The annual report of the . Medical Research Council. contains an - account of the research work that is being done in various parts of the country, and particular attention is paidto the subject of influenza.

In the introduction attention'~ is called to the gradual disappearance of certain diseases. "Many diseases," it is stated, "remain as formidable as ever, but it is satisfactory to know that some of the more deadly and disabling have become a mere shadow of themselves. Among the diseases which have aknost disappeared, although for no known reason, is chlorosis, twenty years or more ago one of the commonest of" all diseases among- young women. Another disease in this disappearing group is epidemic diarrhoea and vomiting'of children. Those who remember the ravages among infants caused by this disease in the summer of 1911, for example, havo reason to be grateful that during the past summer 0/ 1933, when the climatic conditions were such as to lead to the expectation of a' similar epidemic, this death-bringing disease has been relatively rare."

Dr. Laidlaw, Dr. Andrewes, and Dr. Wilson, working at the National Institute of Medical Research, have succeeded in conveying human influenza to ferrets, and thus in bringing it within the scopo of research by the exact methods of experimental science.

" Washings from the nasal mucous membrane- of human cases diagnosed as influenza were passed through a fine filter, capable of keeping back ordinary ■ bacteria," says the report. "The resultant fluid, containing no microscopically visible organisms, was instilled into the nostrils of ferrets. This was followed with some regularity by the onset of a characteristic feverish and catarrhal condition, which was transmissible by similar means to other healthy ferrets. After recovery, which was usual, the animals were found to be immune to further infections during a period of which, the-length has not yet been determined. The procedure has already been successfully, repeated on several independent occasions with material from different.- human, cases." PROTECTIVE INOCULATION. With distemper- of dogs similar work led. to the evolution of a highly successful method of protective inoculation. Recent,work has shown how viruses may be rendered non-dangerous by "inaetivation" by exposure to the action of methylone blue in the presence of light and free oxygen. One injection of tho virus of distemper treated in this way conveys more protection to a susceptible animal than has hitherto been achieved, and makes the whole question of inoculation against influenza one for serious consideration.

Another line of research of great im- 1 portance is proceeding at the Ferens Institute of Oto-Laryngology, Middlesex Hospital, where new electrical methods of detecting the passage of sound along the nerves of the ear have been, devised. It is hoped that an exact study Of this aspect of hearing may have an important bearing on the whole question of aids to hearing for deaf persons. Work on the vitamins proceeds, and this year special interest is attached j to vitamin C. The chemical nature of this vitamin was established in 1932, but the matter has been taken a stage further by work in Birmingham, where it is claimed that a crystalline form of this vitamin has been produced by artificial synthesis. . . . ■ CHEMICAL STIMULI. Another branch of medical research of great interest. concerns tho study of what' are called natural chemical stimuli. The body is constantly producing its own "drugs," so to speak, which carry out the necessary stimulation of the cells and. tissues. Important research on what is called acetylcholine is proceeding at- the National Institute for Medical Research in Hampstead. It seems that the impulses travelling along serves' in the involuntary, parts of: the ■ nervous system finally exert their effects by causing release of this and'similar chemicals at the actual nerve ending, and the effects upon the organs of the body are produced by these intermediate substances.

Practical applications of this have already been made, and acetyleholino is being used as a .drug for certain spasmodic conditions.