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540 Since February, 1949, 125 male-toad pregnancy tests have been done with this toad in Accra, in cases of doubtful or suspected early pregnancy. Follow-ups have been very difficult to obtain, since African women often will not make a second visit to hospital, whilst European women who believe themselves to be pregnant commonly return to Europe. Confirmation was obtained in 43 cases. Of 24 women whose urines gave a positive result, 23 were later found to be pregnant, and one had a hydatidiform mole. Of 19 women whose urines gave a negative result, 17 were found not to be pregnant and 2 to be pregnant. A number of the women with amenorrhcea whose urines gave a negative reaction cherished a faint hope that they might be pregnant ; many such women did not return for the result of the test. Bufo regularis weighs 30-50 grammes, and the male can be recognised by the pigmented patch on the radial aspect of the thumb. The test was performed by injecting 5 ml. of fresh unprepared urine into the toad’s dorsal lymph-sac ; three hours later the toad’s urine was examined for spermatozoa. Toads that had been in captivity for more than one week were more liable to die after the injection than fresh animals, and the urines of certain women were more toxic than others. In cases of lethal reaction the test was repeated with a fresh sample the following day ; if still lethal the test was repeated with smaller doses. In the case of hydatidiform mole a positive reaction was obtained with 0-05 ml. of urine ; three days after evacuation of the patient’s uterus the test was positive with 0-5 ml., and twelve days later the test was negative. Placental separation results in the rapid disappearance of gonadotrophin from the urine. An African inpatient with suspected ectopic pregnancy gave a positive test ; three days later she had sudden acute abdominal pain, and urine passed soon afterwards proved negative ; meanwhile opera- tion had revealed a ruptured tubal pregnancy of twelve weeks’ maturity. The results obtained suggest that positive reactions with this, as with toads used by other workers, are very reliable. Negative tests should be repeated if there is any clinical doubt. The male-toad test is within the competence of any general medical practitioner. In West Africa B. regularis abounds in every garden, and the test should prove useful to those who are out of range of full laboratory facilities: I am grateful to those colleagues who have completed follow-up forms on their cases, and to the Director of Medical Services, Gold Coast, for permission to publish this note. Medical Research Institute, Accra, Gold Coast. MARK H. HUGHES. MEMORIAL TO C. J. BOND Sin,—It has been decided in Leicester to raise a fund for a memorial to the late Charles John Bond, c.M.G., F.R.c.s., and there may be friends of his elsewhere who would like to know about this project and be given an opportunity of showing their appreciation. Bond was born in Leicestershire in 1856, and after his training at University College Hospital, London, he returned to live and work in Leicester until his death in 1939. He was pre-eminently a scientist, and his publications, which are very many and of great interest, show his surgery to have been far ahead of his time. His work was done in the Leicester Royal Infirmary but also, as was the custom in those days, often in the patient’s home in the country under very simple conditions. In an exceedingly busy life he never ceased from original and experimental research. This he did in a wide range of subjects which brought him international recognition. He began with two papers on anatomy as a student, passing in turn to surgery, gynaecology, haematology, and genetics. Breeding experiments in birds and plants were carried out in his own garden. For forty years he was the close friend of the late Sir Victor Horsley, F.B.s., and Bond showed in his book, Recollections of Student Life and Later Years, how closely their work was integrated. During the 1914-18 war he was gazetted honorary colonel in the Army Medical Services and became consulting surgeon (with the late Lord Moynihan) to the Northern Command. He was a member of the Medical Research Council, which he represented on the Inter-Allied Commission on Treatment of War Wounds, which met in Paris in 1916-18. During these years he studied wounds, immunity, the effect of antiseptics on body tissues, and leucocyte activity, finding time to publish his own observations which are of particular interest in relation to the work on these subjects in the second world war twenty-five years later. Throughout his work, in all its ramifications, he correlated his wide experience and philosophy with the sociological problems of the times. Were he alive today he would undoubtedly have been keenly interested in the State service, which he foresaw as early as 1912. Nothing was too big to daunt him nor too trivial to be ignored. He observed, recorded, and deduced with courage, but there was a charac- teristic humility and consideration for the opinions of others. Surely it must be unique for a surgeon unattached to any of the great teaching hospitals to have carried out so much valuable work on so many subjects, based on a sound patho- logical foundation. Bond decided to work in the provinces at a place where, though the material is always abundant and good, there is no medical school and for many of the earlier years of his life there was no laboratory accommodation. It seems fitting that such a life should be commemorated for our inspiration. It is proposed to place a plaque in the Leicester Royal Infirmary, and also to create a fund to enable students in biology at the Leicester University College to have greater opportunities for research and travel. Any contribution to this memorial should be sent to the hon. treasurer, Dr. L. K. Harrison, 2, Springfield Road, Leicester. Leicester. JOAN B. WALKER N. I. SPRIGGS Joint Hon. Secretaries. Medicine and the Law The Wrong Blood LAST week the assistant deputy West London coroner returned a verdict of death by misadventure in the case of a 43-year-old man who died after transfusion with incompatible blood. According to the Manchester Guardian (Sept. 9), a laboratory technician at the hospital where the transfusion was given stated in evidence that, during her absence, an unlabelled specimen was received from a nurse by another technician, and " the nurse told the technician that it was the man’s blood." The coroner concluded that there had been a mistake in the course of the transmission of the blood from the ward to the pathological department, or possibly in the patho- logical department itself, by which presumably the wrong blood was matched and the wrong blood transfused. " I am satisfied," he concluded, " that there is a rule that blood specimens must be labelled before they are accepted and I am satisfied that the rule is properly enforced ; but all hospital rules of this sort must be liable to a certain amount of elasticity and this was undoubtedly a case of emergency." Wrong Cylinder Once Again Yet another fatal accident through an error in the use of anesthetic cylinders was disclosed in the prosecution in Dublin on Sept. 1 of a woman doctor on a charge of illegal killing of a patient. The patient entered hospital for a minor operation for which an anaesthetic was required. The machine used for administering the anaesthetic contained two cylinders, one for nitrous oxide and one for oxygen. The doctor, finding the oxygen cylinder empty, asked a nurse to replace it ; the nurse took a cylinder from a rack
