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A multisection technique giving a series of layers 1 mm. apart is described. It enables detail of the inner and middle ear to be shown using a conventional linear tomogram. Its application to other structures is mentioned.

In 85 air encephalograms the cell count, protein and glucose concentrations have been observed and compared in two specimens of C.S.F. from each patient, the first obtained before the introduction of air into the lumbar theca and the second collected at the end of the procedure about 30 minutes later. There is often a significant rise in the cell count after the introduction of air and a less conspicuous but often significant fall in the protein concentration. No significant difference was found in the glucose concentration in the two specimens. The observations are considered to be consistent with the view that desquamation of arachnoid cells and entry of ventricular fluid into the lumbar theca occurs during A.E.G.The observation is clinically important as C.S.F. obtained at the end of A.E.G. procedure, and for at least a week afterwards is not suitable for laboratory examination as its composition cannot be compared with the lumbar C.S.F. as usually obtained.

IN RECENT YEARS there has been considerable progress in defining the etiology of atypical pneumonia. One of the important causes of this disease is the agent described by Eaton et al in 1944.1 This agent has been associated with cold agglutinin-positive atypical pneumonia in controlled epidemiologic investigations as well as in volunteer studies.2, 3 In addition, Eaton agent has been shown to cause febrile respiratory disease without pneumonia.4Recently it has been shown that the Eaton agent is not a virus but a pleuropneumonia-like organism which can be cultivated on a cell-free artificial medium.5 The agent has been designated Mycoplasma pneumoniae.6With the demonstration that this agent was a pleuropneumonia-like organism (Mycoplasma), it was of interest to determine if strains propagated on an agar medium could infect man. In order to test this possibility volunteers free of detectable antibody were inoculated with two strains of

An evaluation of the usefulness in the diagnosis of cerebrovascular disease of certain criteria in cerebral angiograms from which gross abnormalities were absent, has been conducted according to a careful design. This involved the “blind” comparison by three observers at two readings of a series of angiograms from patients with acute cerebrovascular accidents with a series from patients with no clinical evidence of cerebrovascular disease.Irregularity of the walls of cerebral vessels and variation in their calibre were shown to be of diagnostic value, whilst tortuosity of cerebral vessels and abnormalities in the configuration of the bifurcation of the internal carotid into middle and anterior cerebral arteries (the “T-junction”) were found to be of no value.The magnitude of inter- and intra-observer variation, which has been shown to occur in the detection of minor abnormalities, demonstrates the necessity for such a study, whenever the validity of diagnostic criteria is in doubt.