MARCH 2, 19351 CORRESPONDENCE THED OrUrNAL 447
district nurse available, but in two or three of the parishes 11 o'clock the blindness started returning, and she was soon
here (some of the largest in England) there is no nurse. totTIly blind. Her mother had influenza a fortnight ago,
Frequently one finds that the district nurse is not persona and the girl had a sore throat and an illness which was
grlta with a fair percentage of the cottage folk. probably of influenzal type a week later. There was practi-
the first and cally no pain, though she doubtfully claimed to have had
In our efforts to reduce maternal mortality some the previous day. She was a wc1ll-nourished, well-
.most obvious step seems to be to take measures to make developed girl, but obviously in a nervous state.
the attendance of these unclean" women illegal and A careful examination showed no signs whatever of disease
punishable. Give the general practitioner a clean woman in the eyes. I gave her my arm, asked her to put a hand on
-preferably a licensed one-who will see that the patient, my wrist and another on my elbow, and when I guided her in
bed, and room are clean, anid who knows the necessity this way 'she followed me very' rapidly into and about my dark-
of unlimited hot water and clean hands-one who knows room. Patients who have long been blind can be led in this
a little of personal hygiene and how to wash a patient way and will move very quic-kly, but I have never knowvn a
without spreading germs from everywhere over the site .apatient recently blihded able to do this. It is, to my mind,
of the recent operation-and we shall have taken the first certain sign of long-continued blindness or else of useful
sight. I thoroughly believe that she thought she was blind,
big step forward: but I am quite confident that she was seeing. When my
Not infrequently I have had a filthy woman of abysmal secretary was bringing her upstairs she said to her, " Put your
ignorance and ineptitude as helper, a cottage room bunged hand on the banisters." The girl unhesitatingly put out her
up with old- furniture, clothes, and bric---brac, no hot left hand to the banister on that side. She did not grope
water, a candle to work by, and in these surroundings with both hands or ask 'which side it was, as a blind person
have had to do a difficult forceps, first giving the anaes- would have done.
thetic, then ha1tily scrubbing up and performing the I gave the opinion without the slightest hesitation, first of
operation-with one- eye on the patient, one on the job, Cawadias all to the mother and aunt, and later in consultation to Dr.
and any spare glances to keep the " Gamp" from inter- hysterical and Dr. Ellison, that the girl was suffering from
amaurosis, and that she would recover her sight
fering. With all this one's results are almost uniformly completely and probably suddenly. Yesterday I was informed
good. by Dr. Cawadias that after two or three days' unsuccessful
I don't believe the general practitioner is such a poor treatment by the doctor, " a Greek priest was called in at
obstetrician. Perhaps I have been fortunate, but those the mother's suggestion. He read a prayer of exorcism of the
I know could be trusted to deal with an emergency with devil! After the exorcism she had a violent attack of
promptness and decision in surroundings a-nd conditions convulsions, was put to bed, and after a few minutes threw
that would leave our hospital specialists speechless. By off the blankets, screaming ' I see! I see! ' Since then she
all means let us have our more efficient obstetrical has been normal. ... The result' is that the Greek priest in
specialists and highly trained midwives, but first give us, his triumph has challenged the faith of Dr. Ellison and
myself in exorcisrm of the devil, and another cure of blindness
especially those of us in country general practice, just a has been added to the miracles of faith-healing!
little clean and efficient help. I think the results will
surprise many.-I-am, etc., That such claims can continue to be made in the
twentieth century is little- short of astounding. The case
Norfolk, Feb. 24th. E. CAMERoNMURPHY. was a typical one of hysterical amaurosis following influ-
enza,- and the patient was bound to recover, probably
Surgical MIasks suddenly, before very long. Doubtless the strong sugges-
tion associated with the priest's action sufficed to restore
SIR,-Dr. R. K. Debenharn's letter on surgical masks, her confidence in her power of seeing. Meantime it is
in the Journal of Februray 23rd (p. J88), reminds me being bruited in the Press as a miracle.-I am, etc.,
that I was once asked to test the efficiency of these.
The method I adopted was to expose Petri dishes at London, W.1, Feb. 21st. R. H. ELLIOT, M.D., F.R.C.S.
about the level of a patient's abdomen when on the table,
and let the surgeon and his assistant speak through their High Blood Urea
masks with their mouths at about the usual working
distance from the plates. Quite a considerable number of SIR,-I read Dr. D. E. Duinnill's account of a case of
colonies resulted in each case. As a control I and my abnormally high blood urea in the Journal of January
assistant repeated the test without masks. To our surprise 26th (p. 154).
only one or two colonies appeared on our Petri dishes. It A blood urea of 350 mg. is, of course, very high, but,
thrned out that both I and nmy assistant were in the habit in my experience at 'least, is not rare ; nor are higher
of cleaning our teeth after each meal, whereas the two values rare. Among our records of over 50,000 blood urea
surgeons cleaned theirs only night and morning. As we estimations there are about 150 such cases. The finding,
used only ordinary tooth pastes it would seem that however, of such high- urea values in chronic nephritis
sterilizing the mouth would give much better results than with no symptoms of uraemia is very rare. I note that
the use of masks. Curiously enough it was a Birmingham Dr. Dunnill's patient was not entirely free of symptoms:
surgeon who asked for that test.-I -am, etc., there was drowsiness, nausea, and indigestion when the
blood urea was higher- than 350 mg.; and later, though
Falkiik, Feb. 25th. W. J. LOGIE. this woman was able to go to a cinema two evenings in
succession, she still complained of " a certain amount of
"A Miracle of Healing" nausea." A finding which, I believe, is also worthy of
record, therefore, is the patient with no symptoms
SIR,-I think your readers will agree that the circum- whatever.
stances of the following case should be placed on record One of our recent cases was that of a man, aged 55 years,
in a medical journAl. who felt perfectly well and who, at his ow%n request, was
On February 15th I saw a young Greek lady, aged 19, at admitted to hospital for two or three days' observation
the request of Dr. A. P. Cawadias and Dr. G. E. Ellison. because he was contemplating a long trip from home. As
She had been to the gymnasium on the previous day for her I stated, this man felt perfectly well; there was no nausea, no
usual exercises, and afterw ards went downstairs and had headache, no disturbance of vision, nor any other subjective
coffee. While she was drinking it she suddenly found that sign suggestive of uraemia. There was marked hypertension,
she could not see, and she wvas led home. Half an hour but of this he was not awam. lie died two moilths later
later, at 10.30 p.m., slhe suddenly saw outite well, but at of uraemnia.
