No accepted or acceptable explanation of the phenomenon has yet been put forward. It has been suggested by the various authors and particularly by Fridericia et al. (1927) that bacterial synthesis of vitamin B in the intestine of the rat may be the explanation of the condition. Schieblich & Rodenkirchen (1929) have described a “vibrio-like” organism which they claim to be responsible for refection, but this finding has so far not been confirmed. In a recent dissertation on refection Nathan (1935) believes that the explanation is coupled with the nature of the starch in the diet rather than with an infection with a specific type of organism.

1. Two herds of cows were divided into two groups for winter feeding. One group was given the usual ration of hay, roots and “concentrates”, the other was fed on a similar diet in which part of the hay and concentrates was replaced by artificially dried grass.

2. The carotene content of the butterfat in the control group fell steadily from 0·8 mg. per 100 g. of fat to about 0·2 mg. between October and March. That of the group to which dried grass was given did not fall below 0·5 mg. per 100 g. of fat.

3. The milks from the two groups were employed in a nutritional investigation on the boys of two institutions. During a “fore-period” from July until the end of September, the boys received the ordinary milk of the herd as part of their diet. They were then divided into two groups which, during the experimental period from October until March received the “winter” or the dried grass “summer” milk respectively. Then followed an “after-period” during which all the boys received the mixed milk of the herds, then out at pasture. The composition of the basal diet of the boys at these institutions was known. Boys attending an elementary school in the vicinity of one institution were also investigated in a similar experiment but no details of their home diet were obtained.

4. Excluding children whose records were incomplete there were 159 in the group on “winter” milk, and 163 in that receiving “summer” milk.

5. Periodically records of height, weight, and chest measurement were made. All the boys were under medical supervision.

6. Statistical examination of the results fails to show that the artificially produced “summer” milk exerted a beneficial effect detectable by the improvement in growth or general condition of health.

7. The most probable explanation is that the basal diets of the two institutions were already adequate in respect to carotene and vitamin A.

8. The variations exhibited by the records of the groups provide another example of the very great difficulty of eliminating or adequately controlling sources of error in a big-scale nutrition experiment of this type.

1. The weekly budgets of eighty out of ninety-nine families in four rural schools (containing 165 school children) and ninety-seven out of 200 families in one urban school (containing 183 school children) have been analysed.

2. Evidence is given that housewives, despite varying social status, spend between 9 and 11s. per man per week on food when the income is sufficient to allow this.

3. The lowest level of sufficiency in diet according to the instincts of the housewife is seen to correspond, at prices ruling in this district in the winter of 1936–7, with the cost of the diet of the British Medical Association Nutrition Report (1933) (7s. 8¾d.). This has been called standard A and compared with standard B costing 5s. 10¾d. which contains 1000 cal. and 13 g. of first-class protein a day less. Standard B is probably the lowest standard of diet which any authority would be prepared to recommend.

4. In the school in a prosperous urban district, in working class families (income not exceeding £4) where the children were fully embarked on the school period (i.e. the eldest child over 7 years but no child yet earning more than 10s. weekly), and which contained more than one child, 60% of children fell below standard A and 47·6% below standard B.

5. In the rural schools taking all the children, 72·2% were below standard A; where there was an income below 55s., 78% fell below standard A; below 40s. 85%; and below 35s. 91·7%. The figures below standard B were 40·6, 52·4, 60, and 75% respectively.

6. Both in urban and rural families, with the exception of high income groups (e.g. farmers), increase in the size of the family steadily lowers the allowance of food per unit. In medium wage earners the allowance of 9–11s. per unit per week when the family is small, is reduced to about 3s. when the family grows to a large size and before the first children begin to earn.

7. Most significant is the decline in the provision of first-class protein foods both in town and country in proportion as the family grows. Evidence is given that this contrasts markedly with the recognized needs of growth in childhood, and it is clear that in both town and country the large family in low wage groups produces a condition of extreme protein deficiency. Accepting 2s. per unit per week as a conservative estimate of the minimum expenditure upon first-class proteins, 13·2% of the school children in the urban school and 32·7% in the rural schools were subsisting on amounts suggesting protein starvation.

In a few instances outbreaks of food poisoning have been traced with a high degree of probability to rodents (Savage & White, 1925; Salthe & Krumwiede, 1924; Jones & Wright, 1936), but in the main the idea that such outbreaks may be due to contamination of food with the excreta of rats and mice is based on the fact that organisms of the Salmonella group have frequently been found in the faeces or organs of these animals. Savage & Read (1913–14) made cultures from the spleen, liver, heart blood and intestinal contents of forty-one rats after enrichment in liquid media and isolated five strains of Bacterium enteritidis (Gaertner). Savage (1918) obtained four strains of what he regarded as “para-Gaertner” which failed to ferment dulcitol and one strain of Gaertner's bacillus from forty-eight rats by direct inoculation from the spleen and heart blood on to MacConkey's medium. Savage & White (1922) from the spleen, liver, heart blood and intestinal contents of ninety-six rats recovered six strains of Gaertner's bacillus. Kerrin (1928) isolated eleven strains of Bact. enteritidis (Gaertner) from 100 rats. His observations were made on the liver and spleen with preliminary enrichment in brilliant green peptone water and subsequent plating on MacConkey's medium. All these British observations agreed in indicating that Gaertner's bacillus was not uncommonly found in wild rats, but in a much more extended series reported from America by Meyer & Matsumura (1927) twenty-eight strains of Bact. enteritidis (Gaertner) and thirty of Bact. typhi murium (Bact. aertrycke) were isolated from 775 rats. These workers inoculated large portions of liver, spleen and colon into broth containing brilliant green and gentian violet and subcultured on brilliant green eosin agar. Verder (1927), who examined 114 rats in another part of America, records the isolation of five strains of Gaertner's bacillus and one of Bact. aertrycke.

1. Material taken from a ferret sick of a disease epidemic among breeders' stocks in 1935 was shown to produce a similar disease when inoculated into normal ferrets.

2. The behaviour of the experimental disease and its pathology indicated that it was a form of distemper, antigenically related to dog distemper, but differing in minor points from the description of canine distemper in the ferret given by Dunkin & Laidlaw.

3. Associated with the disease was a strain of Brucella bronchiseptica which may possibly have been responsible for the high incidence of bronchopneumonia observed.

1. Details have been given of the cancer mortality for twelve occupational groups of males in the City of Sheffield 1926–35 inclusive.

2. Of these groups six show a significantly greater cancer mortality than that experienced by clerks, business and professional men in the City. The six groups are:

(1) Engineers, machinists, cutlers, etc.

(2) Steel foundry and furnace workers, etc.

(3) Grinders and sandblasters.

(4) Workers in precious and non-ferrous metals.

(5) Workers in transport and communication.

(6) Coal miners.

3. The excessive cancer mortality in certain of the sites in the first three of these occupational groups is thought to be definitely associated with their occupation.

4. Cancer of the tonsil is particularly excessive among the steel workers both in the foundry and the shop.

5. Significantly excessive mortality from cancer of the respiratory tract is marked in engineers, foundry workers and grinders and is seen in no other occupational group.

6. Cancer of the alimentary tract is most excessive in foundry and furnace workers. It is suggested that the carcinogenic factor may be hydrocarbons ingested from smoke and fumes.

7. Cancer of the pancreas is excessive only in engineers, etc., and in workers in non-ferrous metals. The theory is advanced that excessive absorption of iron in engineers, and possibly copper in workers in non-ferrous metals, are the respective causes of the findings with regard to cancer of the pancreas in these two occupational groups.

8. Cancer of the skin is significantly excessive in both foundry, etc., workers and engineers, and this is believed to be a direct result of their occupational environment.

9. Tumours of the central nervous system showed no significant variation from the control in any occupational group.

10. The findings in this research indicate that there is a field for further investigation with regard to the carcinogenic properties of iron and copper, particularly with reference to cancer of the pancreas. Some further investigation is re uired with reference to the occupations exposed to the inhalation and ingestion of silica. Is the high cancer rate amongst grinders associated with the silica risk or with the inhalation and ingestion of iron dust from the article ground? On the preventive side the findings support the view that measures should be elaborated to improve the protection of workers from gases, fumes and dust in the iron and steel and allied industries.

The literature dealing with the intradermal test in whooping cough has been reviewed, and the claims as to the specific value of the test have been investigated in 1300 cases.

A method for the extraction of endotoxin from Haemophilus pertussis has been described and the intradermal response to this preparation compared with that following whole vaccine.

The findings in this investigation do not support the claim that the intradermal response to Sauer's vaccine in the strength commonly employed (10,000 million organisms per c.c.) is of value either in demonstrating immunity to whooping cough or in the early diagnosis of this disease. The bacterial content of this vaccine appears to be too high for skin-testing purposes, giving rise to inflammatory lesions of a non-specific character rather than to allergic reactions of specific value. These reactions are less apparent when the vaccine is employed in a diluted form.

The intradermal response to pertussis endotoxin, on the other hand, though not invariably consisting of a clear-cut reaction (and in this respect falling short of the ideal as a reagent) is more consistent with the development of the allergic state towards H. pertussis, reactions presumably of this nature being present in the skin of approximately 85% of children with a past history of whooping cough. Similar reactions, however, can be elicited in the skin of about 30% of individuals with no history of the disease; but in view of the fact that, unlike the more invasive virus diseases, many individuals never develop whooping cough in spite of almost certain exposure when young, it is suggested that latent immunization or recent contact with the causative organism might account for this phenomenon. Whether these reactions indicate merely sensitization or a definite immunity to pertussis must remain, for the time being, sub judice.

The onset of bacterial hypersensitiveness, as judged by the pertussis endotoxin test, appears about the 10th day of whooping cough and becomes heightened during the subsequent course of the disease. Ultimately this cutaneous allergy undergoes a regression, which, however, is not always complete. For this reason the pertussis endotoxin test would appear to be of some value in assessing the immune state of the individual, and also as a diagnostic reaction in early, atypical or late cases of whooping cough where bacteriological findings by the cough plate method have proved disappointing.

The object of this investigation is to gain more precise information concerning the retention of potency of vaccine lymph at those temperatures which are likely to be encountered by lymph after issue from the laboratory and before use by public vaccinators. These temperatures are—broadly speaking—likely to be those of the ice-box (say 5–7° C.) and average room temperature (say 15–16° C.).