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780 THE ENERGY UTILISATION IN EMOTIVE EXPRESSION. 12 months old, except in the case of certain minor treatments definitely specified by the local authority. Before the admission of any spa to the Federation, three representatives of that body (one being a spa medical practitioner) will visit and report along the lines thus indicated, the Federation in this way emphasising the necessity of a high standard of practice at the British spas and of’ cooperation between its members and the medical profession. It is the aim of the federated British spas by these and other means, combined with the research work which is now going on at several spas, to provide medical men with hydrological centres in this country, at which they may be sure of their patients receiving efficiently administered treatment. The hon. secretaryship of the Federation is to be held in turn by representatives of the various spas, and Mr. John Hatton, the director of the baths of Bath, was elected to that office in succession to Mr. F. J. C. Broome, general manager of the Royal Baths, Harrogate, who received the warm thanks of the Federation for the valuable service he has rendered. ———— THE ENERGY UTILISATION IN EMOTIVE EXPRESSION. SOME experiments have recently been carried out by Dr. Hermann V. Schroetter, of Vienna, in which the energy usages in expression have been compared with those of ordinary speech. The experiments were made on a well-known elocutionist, who for purposes of control remained at rest, or read, as in a lecture, without emotional expression. The results so obtained were compared with those obtained in laughing, crying, or sobbing. In the ordinary reading it was found that about 20 L. of air were breathed per minute, while the energy expenditure deduced from the respiration data showed an increase of 85 cal. per hour above the resting value. For laughing and sobbing the volumes breathed were 22 and 12 L. per minute respectively, while the increase above the resting value was 12 and 5-5 cal. respectively. The actual work involved in speech amounted to 9250 kilogram-metres per hour, that in laughter 1300 kgm., and that in sobbing only 580 kmg. per hour. Sobbing is thus, from the physiological standpoint, a cheap form of entertainment. Each spoken syllable is calculated to cost about 0-5 kgm. The loss of moisture by the lungs is about the same in speech as in laughter -viz., about 42 g. per hour-while sobbing only accounts for a loss of about 18 g. per hour. Dr. Schroetter’s experiments are of a thoroughly interesting character. ____ PHYSIOTHERAPY IN HEART DISEASE. DURING and after the war graduated exercise I proved to be the mainstay in the treatment of soldiers suffering from D.A.H. ; yet, as Dr. G. H. Hunt rightly says in the first of a series of articles 2 dealing with massage and remedial exercises in medicine, writers on this subject have devoted but little attention to the fundamental principles which underlie the use of these measures in the treatment of organic heart disease. This appears to be due principally to lack of cooperation between the physician and the masseur, the former having been not unnaturally prejudiced against the use of massage on account of certain practices based on fundamentally unsound doctrines which still find a place in some of the text- books on the subject. The so-called " local heart treatment " is a case in point. It is totally valueless in organic disease ; and, by directing the patient’s attention to the heart, it is positively harmful in the purely functional disorders. In the acute stages of heart disease, whether one is dealing with an active I infection or with acute myocardial insufficiency 1 supervening in the course of chronic disease, where the heart is already the seat of an old-established 1 Monatschr. f. Ohrenheilkunde und Laryngo-Rhinologie, 1925, lix., pp. 1-27. 2 Guy’s Hospital Reports, January, 1925, p. 20. lesion, the supreme importance of absolute and complete rest has long been recognised. During the stage of convalescence, however, the institution of massage and breathing exercises is of value in aiding the venous return to the heart and in promoting the nutrition of the tissues, whereas the gradual addition of passive and active movements forms a suitable preparation for the somewhat sudden change to which a patient is subjected when he is allowed to get up for the first time. The increase in pulse-rate produced by standardised " test exercises " affords a simple and reliable means of graduating the duration and extent of the treatment at any particular stage of the illness, and serves to indicate the progress which is being made. At the present day various functional tests of the exercise tolerance have been so universally adopted, in supplementing the mere physical examination in cases of heart disease, that it is rather surprising that more attention has not hitherto been paid to the use of physiotherapy in this particular department of medicine. PROFESSOR WARDROP GRIFFITH. Dr. T. Wardrop Griffith has placed before the Council of the University of Leeds his resignation of the Professorship of Medicine. In a letter to the Council he has pointed out that in harmony with the rules of the General Infirmary at Leeds he becomes a member of the consulting staff next September, by which time he will have served for twenty years on the full staff. It is this fact which has led him to anticipate the age-limit for the tenure of office which attaches to professorships in the University; for although, as is happily the case in Leeds, members of the consulting staff have the privilege of admitting a limited number of patients to be under their care in the infirmary and continue to work within its walls, he felt that the best interests of the University would be served if he did not retain the professorship after he had retired from the full staff and the regular routine teaching which that involved. The resolution parsed by the Council of the Uni- versity of Leeds in response to Dr. Wardrop Griffith’s letter was as follows :- The Council accepts the resignation of the senior professor - proof. T. Wardrop Griffith, with deep regret. He was appointed to the Chair of Anatomy in 1887 and transferred to the Chair of Medicine in 1910, a continuous record of 38 years. He began work in the old Medical School in Park- street and took an active share in the construction of the new school in Thoresby-place, in which he established one of the best anatomical departments in the Kingdom, filling it with many valuable collections, and in one cardiac section a unique collection of specimens prepared by his own hands. His assiduous attention rendered his tenure of office of the Chair of Anatomy little different from a full-time office, as every hour spared from hospital work and consulting practice was spent with energy in the department, and there is no department of its kind more entirely the creation i of one man’s zeal and love. In his tenure of the Chair of Medicine he has added to the lustre of its history by the high quality of his observations in clinical fields and able exposition of his subject, attaining an eminence acknow- ledged by his admission to the Order of St. Michael and St. George and the conferment of the honorary doctorate of Laws by his own University of Aberdeen. In both depart- ments his courses of lectures have been noted for their vivid quality and the perfection of arrangement and delivery. In the Faculty and University he has played an important part by sound advice and an example of devotion for which a heavy debt of gratitude and affection is due. His resignation marks the completion of one of the soundest pillars on which the school has been reared, and the Council, looking forward to the support which will remain in his work and the effects of his work, desires to record its appreciation of his most valuable and enthusiastic services, its grateful thanks for the distinction he has brought to the University, and its cordial hope that he will, for many years to come, enjoy the ability to pursue the practice of his profession and add to the many contributions by which he has advanced the cause of medicine. From this resolution, upon whose accuracy we congratulate Dr. Wardrop Griffith, it will be gathered that resignation of the official position is not accompanied by withdrawal from practice.
