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- cells. It is easily demonstrated by Gram’s or Giemsa’sstains. Culture of the fungus from morbid material isnot difficult but may be slow ; it takes from a few daysto about three weeks, and the fungus grows ratherbetter at 24° C. than at 37° C. In saprophytic life thefungus is dimorphic : a mycelial form, bearing character-istic reproductive bodies, grows on nearly all commonmedia at body heat or room temperature, and anotherform resembling the parasitic yeast stage develops onlyon particular media at temperatures near 37’ C.The disease was first described by Darling in 1905 ;

he found it at autopsy on 3 cases in Panama. Less thanhalf a dozen additional cases were recorded during thenext 27 years. De Monbreun’s success, in 1932, in

cultivating the causal fungus revived interest in thedisease, and new cases have been reported in increasingnumbers every year since. Histoplasmosis, hithertoknown only in Central and North America, has recentlybeen recognised in the East Indies and England. DeMonbreun found the natural infection in a pet dog,but the saprophytic fungus has not yet been found innature and the source of infection is uncertain. Treat-ment, including chemotherapy, has proved of littleavail and the prognosis is bad, patients sometimes dyingwithin a few months of iniection.

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Systemic mycoses have so far roused interest chieflyin countries where they are known to exist; but a searchfor them in other parts of the world will probably showthat they are commoner than has been supposed.

NUTRITION SOCIETYTnjs society met on Feb. 28 at the London School of

Hygiene when a discussion onFood Production and Distribution

in relation to nutritional needs was opened by Sir WILSONJAMBSON, chief medical officer of the Ministry of Health.It is the Government’s policy, he said, that the Ministerof Food should be advised by the Minister of Health.His own duty is to watch for any deterioration in thenation’s health ; so far there was no evidence of anythingseriously wrong. During his recent visit to America hehad been impressed by the interest shown in nutritionin the United States, and by the demonstration atToronto of the profound influence of prenatal diet onthe health of mother and child.

Sir JOHN ORR, F.R.S., director of the Rowett Institute,spoke of the agricultural implications of a food policybased on nutritional needs. He thinks that thoseengaged in medicine might learn much about infantmortality from agricultural researchers. The psycho-logical effect of deficient diets is, he said, just as

important as the physiological or pathological aspects,and he asked for a food policy based on nutritionalneeds as a basis of postwar reconstruction. Greatincreases in the production of protective foods will beneeded to cover the requirements of the population.Nations should cooperate to see that foodstuffs whichcan be easily transported are grown in the regionswhere production is most economic. The foods whichshould be raised here are vegetables, milk, eggs andpork. Agricultural research may be able to increasethe vitamin and mineral contents of various foodstuffs.

Prof. E. J. BIGWOOD, lately director of the BiochemicalInstitute in Brussels, said that Germany’s food policyin occupied countries has been directed to making themself-supporting as far as calories go. This has thrownthe diet entirely out of balance by exaggerating thedeficiency in protective foods. It will result in Europeancountries producing more and more of-the least perish-able foods, of which there are larger world surpluses ;in the immediate postwar period they will have to relyon shipments from overseas of those perishable foodswhich should really be consumed where they are

produced.Discussing Sir John Orr’s paper, Mr. T. F. MACBAE,

D.Sc., of the Lister Institute and the R.A.F., regrettedthat in the past we imported large amounts of food fromcountries with ill-nourished populations. He pointedout that a diet of 85% extraction bread made from1. Ebbs, J. H., Tisdall, F. G. and Scott, W. A. J. Nutrit. 1941, 22, 515.

imported wheat, and of milk and milk products with agood variety of vegetables would ensure adequate nutri-tion though it might lack flavour. Flavour however wasimportant; the menu value of palatable foods like meat,eggs, bacon, fish, or of flavouring like onions, is probablygreater than their nutritive value. Other speakersexpressed concern at the shortage or destruction in ourpresent diet of vitamins, especially vitamin C. Dr. E.KODICEK, of the Cambridge Nutritional Laboratory,thought the war-time diet near the danger point withregard to nicotinic acid, especially where white bread wasconsumed. He was supported by Captain J. D. KING,Ph.D., of the nutritional laboratory of the NationalInstitute for Medical Research, who had noticed latelyin some London children ulcerative gingivostomatitis(trench mouth) which responded well when local treat-ment was supplemented by nicotinic acid or yeast. Theclinical appearance of these lesions was not dissimilar tothat in scurvy. Prof. H. P. HIMSWORTH, of UniversityCollege Hospital, doubted whether in peace-time thepopulation could be persuaded to take foods and concen-trates rich in accessory factors and asked for the inclusionof sufficient of those factors in the basic foods consumedin peace and war alike. Miss M. C. BROATCH wished tosee simple teaching of the elements of nutrition in schoolsso that children would understand the significance of theextra rations given in school canteens.

BETWIXT MAN AND BEAST

Mr. NORMAN WRIGHT, D.Sc., director of the HannahDairy Institute, spoke on the rival claims of animals andman to food. In a balanced agriculture man and beastderive their nutrients from complementary sources...

Livestock performs the valuable function of concentra-ing the available foodstuffs into a form more suited tothe digestive system of man, conferring on them in theprocess a high value as protective foods. Animal pro-ducts add variety and palatability to what would other-wise be a monotonous and insipid starchy diet. Ofalmost equal value from the point of view of man’s food-supply is the function of livestock in improving soilfertility. This ideal balance was, however, upset beforethe war by the country’s over-specialisatfon on livestockhusbandry, the retrograde diversion of good arable landto grazing, and by the importation of feeding-stuffs outof all proportion to home-produced feeds. War, with itsdrastic curtailment of imports, has demanded an ex-tremely rapid return to the older balanced system, and anenergetic ploughing-up policy has been applied. Never-theless the balance-sheet of animal nutrients shows thatthe supply of feeding cereals and concentrates has beenalmost halved since the war started. Dr. Wright hopedthat postwar agricultural production will be more inkeeping with the country’s needs.

Dr. B. S. PLATT spoke of the competition betweenman and man which inevitably results when concen-trates are imported from countries which could use themthemselves.

’

The question of avoidable waste loomed large in thediscussion : waste by inefficiency or lack of properscientific care in cultivation, loss of crops from diseasescapable of control, loss of food by faulty distribution.A considerable quantity of milk had been wasted lastsummer through souring. Mr. W. R. WOOLDRIDGE,Ph.D., president of the National Veterinary MedicalAssociation, commented on the lack of preventivemedicine on the farm. He asked for a bold policy tomaintain and improve the health of farmstock andquoted computations which showed that three diseasesof dairy cattle alone-mastitis, contagious abortion andsterility-were responsible for a loss of liquid milkamounting to nearly 200 million gallons a year.Mr. E. T. HALNAN, of the Animal Nutrition Institute

at Cambridge, spoke of animals as food converters,showing how difficult it is to form a reliable estimate ofthe relative efficiency of the different domestic animals.To begin with there is the problem of choosing theyardstick ; Mr. Halnan graded livestock according totheir ability to transform the protein and energy offodders into protein and energy for human consumption.On this basis and considering the requirements of breed-ing and rearing as well as the production capacity of theanimal he was in favour of concentrating on the produc-tion of milk with veal as a by-product, and on the

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production of eggs with petits poussins meat productionas a by-product. He relegated lamb production to hillgrazings and would not encourage the production of beef.

Subsequent speakers agreed or disagreed with Mr.Halnan’s classification depending on the yardstick theyused. The choice varied according to whether theamount of land required per unit output, the type offodder consumed, the cost of the unit of energy orprotein produced, or the method of book-keeping indrawing these balances of nutrients were taken as a basisof calculation. Prof. J. R. MARRACK remarked that allsuch economic considerations should be heavily weightedby an appraisal of the value of the animal product inhuman nutrition ; vitamin and mineral content, bio-logical value of the proteins, palatability and flavour areof the utmost importance. On this basis milch cows andlaying hens give even better return for their food thanappears from the incomplete balance sheet of energy andprotein.

LOOKING AHEAD

Sir JOHN RUSSELL, F.R.S., director of the RothamstedExperimental Station, speaking on planning for agri-cultural production, suggested how agriculture after thewar might adapt itself to the changing and increasingnutritional needs of the nation. He foresaw a concen-tration on the production of milk with which necessarilywould grow the production of meat ; in combination witharable farming the whole of the increased requirementsfor liquid milk and for potatoes, 80% of the vegetables,eggs and poultry, 60% of the meat and 35-40% of thecheese could be produced at home. He advocated asystem of contracts between farmers and purchasingboards on which consumers’ interests would be ade-quately represented. Such purchasing authorities couldmake stipulations in regard to quality based not onmarket standards but on nutritional value. He quoted theexample of milk for which standards, he said, were reason-ably definite but already quite inadequate. Provided itcontains no less than 3% fat, 85% solids not fat, and noextraneous additions, milk can be sold in this countrywith no reference whatever to dietary factors influencedby the fodder, like vitamin A, or by the handling of themilk, like vitamin C. In winter and early spring in-creased demands of the infant and child for certain dietaryfactors coincide with the lowest ebb of these substancesin cow’s milk. It is possible to produce winter milkapproximating to summer milk in its nutritional quali-ties ; Finland saw fit to legislate for such milk before thewar and this country, he considers, should certainly do thesame when the war is over.

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’" Sir JOSEPH BARCROFT, F.R.S., in summing up,suggested that the views expressed should be placed atthe disposal of Government committees. He had beenbrought up on the teachings of Pavlov and agreed withMacrae and other speakers that if a food was not attractiveit might not be fully asimilated. He remarked thatalthough the gravity of wastage either due to cattle diseaseor to deterioration of foodstuffs had been stressed,not enough attention had been paid to seasonal wastagedue to glut.

PHYSICAL EDUCATION IN MANY COUNTRIESTHE Ling Physical Education Association held an

inter-allied open conference on wide aspects of physicaleducation at Tavistock House on Friday and Saturday,March 6 and 7.

In his address of welcome Mr. R. A. BuTLER, presidentof the Board of Education, said that we take too muchpride in remedial measures and not enough in the main-tenance of health and power. Gymnastic is the grammarof movement, necessary to make the body alert and pre-pared ; but youth also needs heroic training-the chanceof adventure and adventurous recreation. In our

secondary schools physical education is largely crowdedout by other subjects, thanks to the examination system ;thus the vigour and strength of the adolescent is sapped.He has found, he said, more need for diplomacy in theBoard of Education than in the Foreign Office, but hehas managed to get a few physical training instructorsreleased from the Forces to work with youths of theimportant and neglected 14-18 age-group ; and he hopesfor a large increase of school medical services to coveradolescents of these ages. -

Count JAN BALINSKI JU1TDZILL, director of the PolishResearch Centre, contrasted the advantages of Englisheducation-where plans can be carried out openly in afree country-with the hard struggle, of the Polesthroughout the nineteenth century (when Poland wasunder the divided rule of Russia, Austria and Prussia) tomaintain a national language, tradition and culture.There, the underground struggle for education hadstimulated a sense of values in the young, and no doubtthe same spirit is at work today, when the only functioningPolish school and university are over here, in Scotland.

Lieutenant JIAIE F. VRANEB:, PH.D., formerly chief ofthe section of political sciences of the League of NationsInstitute of Intellectual Cooperation, spoke of therelation of social welfare to physical education in Czecho-slovakia.. For twenty years the social policy and therealisation of the humanitarian ideals put forward byMasaryk have been advancing. In 1918 every citizenwas insured against unemployment, illness and old age.There was a Ministry of Social Welfare, and the workingpopulation had gained greatly in security. Physicalwellbeing was maintained by medical inspection andphysical education. The Sokol gave unity to a countrygeographically and politically surrounded ; it aimed atthe physical and moral welfare of the people and weldedthese aims into the national organisation. The spiritin which this was done was voluntary and democratic ;and the opportunities offered for recreation held -no classdistinctions. Discussing why the Nazi regime has gainedsupport he said that the weak spot in nations is thegullibility of youth, and Hitler has made unscrupuloususe of youth. This is what we have to counteract. Hequoted Wells’s phrase " young people without prospects."Peace will be planned, he hopes, to give the youngprospects and to stop the cult of violence. We must aimat social reconstruction, carried out by united nationslinked by a similar conception of civilised life. No fullreconstruction is possible, he believes, without a spiritual Irevolution. Since the purpose of education is to assimi-late the young into the life of the community socialreforms must guard family life and foster healthy out-of-school activities.Dr..ACHSA BEAN, assistant chairman to the depart-

ment of health and hygiene of Vassar College, is one of theAmerican women doctors who have come to join theBritish Army. She-spoke of the need for health servicesand physical education for those in the age-group 17-22.They are largely overlooked in legislation but they arethe leaders in age of the coming generation. Shedescribed the work done at Vassar College for peoplein this age-group : 1200 women students, 550 employees,250 members of the faculty and their families. Theseare served by five physicians and one psychiatrist.Some 40-55% of students hold scholarships. Greatemphasis is laid on team-work. On admission thestudent is given an hour’s interview with’ a medical over-haul including examination of posture, and intelligenceand psychological tests. A real attempt is made to winthe girl’s interest in personal and public health. Ifhealth or posture are poor she is given corrective exer-cises and graduated activity. There is close cooperationbetween the orthopaedic surgeon and the physical educa-tion department ; and the students take courses inhygiene, industry, and social problems. They are

encouraged to report early to the health services whenthey are ill. Statistics are compiled from X rays andtests made when the girl is leaving. The result has been,as at Harvard, to create an intelligent lay public anxiousto promote positive health.

Lieutenant KJELD BIRKELUND, gymnastic instructorto the Norwegian Army, explained that Ling’s principles-Ling of course was a Swede-were maintained withmodifications in Denmark and Finland. In Oslo, theNorwegian Central Institute for physical education isattached to the university and as a rule the physicaltraining school instructors teach two other educationalsubjects, generally languages. Short refresher coursesare arranged for elementary school teachers. In the highschools attention is paid to posture, and the adolescentgenerally joins classes and clubs held after school.Physical education in the university is voluntary butclasses are usually well attended. Nearly everyonebetween the ages of 3 and 70 can ski, skate and swim, andmost people can handle a boat. The Gymnastic Associa-