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IF the therapeutic application of light had reached the stage where all were agreed that certain rays could be selected and successfully applied to treat definite disease conditions, the mechanics of furnishing the light indicated for the purpose might better be left to the advice of the engineer and physicist than the physician. Workers have agreed about the value of ultra-violet rays for rickets, having demonstrated correlated phenomena both in the laboratory and at the bedside. It has been determined that the band of the spectrum between 2,970 and 2,500 A.U. is the most potent for activating cholesterol to Vitamin D and in the prevention and cure of rickets. No such harmony prevails in dealing with tuberculosis—the evidence of its value has come from the bedside. The laboratory has been unable to support the claims of the clinicians or to guide them in the treatment. While the value of heliotherapy and ultra-violet rays is recognized, the clinicians are not in accord; all do not agree upon which part o...

Resuscitation of a patient after her apparent death from spinal anesthesia with piperocaine hydrochloride (metycaine hydrochloride®) is reported herein; cardiac massage and a new method of artificial respiration were used. REPORT OF CASE History and Induction of Anesthesia.— A slender woman aged 26 in otherwise excellent health was found to have gallstones. In the past she had had two normal pregnancies and typhoid. She was admitted to the hospital, given pentobarbital sodium 100 mg. at 8 p. m. and again at 6 a. m. Thirty minutes before being brought to the operating room at 9 a. m. she was given a hypodermic injection of morphine sulfate 0.016 mg. and scopolamine hydrobromide 0.0003 mg., which produced an agreeable sedation. She was placed in right lateral level recumbency with the back arched, and a 22 gage spinal needle was easily introduced into the dural space between the third and fourth lumbar

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MECHANICAL means have in the past been tested to drain peritoneal fluid into the venous system1,2but none has been successful due mainly to a propensity for clotting. The analogous problem of draining cerebrospinal fluid in hydrocephalus has been assisted by insertion of a manually compressable subcutaneous pump in the line which helps to keep the system patent.3,4Smith reported using such a device for drainage of ascitic fluid in one patient.5This is a report of the development of a peritoneal-right atrial shunt fitted with a plastic clearing pump that has been used in eight patients. Description of Device The shunt has three elements: the intraperitoneal collecting sump, the connecting tubes containing the one-way valves, and the flushing pump. Each has undergone progressive modification during this clinical experience.6,7The shunt now used is illustrated (Fig 1). Sump. —The intraperitoneal collecting device consists of a double