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Next, Hobbs and Bortnick impregnated some of theanimals that had previously been given endometrialimplants in order to ascertain if a decidual reactionoccurred in the ectopic endometrium in the lung. Inseveral instances this could be demonstrated, and theirmicrophotographs clearly show a decidual reaction. Incontrol pregnant rabbits no decidual reaction could beseen in serial section of the lungs. In a final experimentthey tried to stimulate the ectopic endometrial tissue inthe lung with stilboestrol, and in 4 out of 12 experimentsa diffuse endometriosis was produced. This work, ifconfirmed, proves that endometrium can be transportedto distant metastatic foci by the veins, that it can livein its own environment, and that it is capable of under-going the same changes as its parent tissue under thestimulus of the various internal secretions. Hobbs andBortnick carry their argument a step further and suggestthat some obscure benign and malignant tumours of thelung in women may be derived from a metastatic endo-metrial implant, but so far a study of 33 primary lungtumours has failed to demonstrate endometrial tissue.THE ELECTRO-ENCEPHALOGRAM IN EPILEPSY

THE discovery that epilepsy is associated withparoxysmal outbreaks of high voltage in electro-

encephalographic records opened up wide fields for

investigation. The sequence of these waves whether

rhythmic or random, their constancy, their dominant

frequency, their voltage, the percentage of time that theyoccupy on the record, the type of wave, the number ofwaves in each paroxysm, their localisation on the cortex,whether discrete, bilateral, multiple or diffuse must all beconsidered. Further studies would determine the effect

upon them of physiological events, of pathological states,of drugs, of special diets and of hyperventilation, andendeavour would be made to correlate the findings withvarious types of epileptic attack and mental statesassociated with epilepsy. The field is an enormous oneand a mass attack has recently been made into it byJasper and Kershman working at the department ofneurology and neurosurgery at McGill University, Mon-treal. These authors present interseizure records of 468epileptic patients. They divide the high voltage wavesinto random waves and paroxysmal rhythms, and sug-gest further subdivisions of these two great groupsaccording to shape, pattern and frequency. From thepoint of view of localisation they classify their recordsinto three groups : the localised unilateral cortical, whereonly a discrete area of the cortex is involved (50% of theirseries); the bilaterally synchronous from homologousareas of the cortex (35%) ; and the diffuse (15%).They find that the great majority of the localised uni-lateral cortical group have, in fact, fits with a focal onset,and this is especially the case with certain types andfrequency of wave. In these cases a family history ofepilepsy is uncommon. Operative procedure should becarefully considered and pneumoencephalography willoften help in the decision. Slow bilateral synchronouswaves occur in patients who lose consciousness at theonset of their attacks, whether petit mal or grand mal ;the fits usually begin before adolescence and are calledidiopathic. The origin of the waves is presumablydeep-seated. Rather more frequent (6 per sec.) bilateralsynchronous waves, usually bifrontal or bitemporal, areoften associated with psychomotor attacks. These arethe waves which are sometimes discovered in non-epilep-tic behaviour-problem children. Diffuse waves are

usually found in patients subject to major fits withoutfocal onset. As a generalisation, therefore, the patternand localisation of the waves bear a close relation to thetype of fits.The real trouble with mass interpretation of electro-

encephalograms is that there are so many variables to be1. Jasper, H. H. and Kershman, J. Arch. Neurol. Psychiat, 1941,

45, 903.

considered. In classifying the epilepsies the clinicalvariables require painstaking observation and on theside of the electro-encephalogram the polyglot of fre-

quencies encountered, their size, shape, number andcombination call for an equally experienced and con-servative analysis. When the difference between the" between seizure " and the " seizure " record of the

epileptic is considered it is not surprising that workershave mainly concentrated upon the distinct wave-formsencountered during clinical and subclinical fits. In thisfield the greater part of the work of Gibbs and Lennox 2 3stands unchallenged as the classical reference point in themodern study of the epilepsies. Their correlation of thedistinct patterns encountered in grand mal, petit mal,the petit mal variants, and in the jumble of the psycho-motor epilepsies forms a basis for exact clinical diagnosis.Grey Walter approached the subject from the otherside, and studied the position of foci of abnormal wavesin the between-seizure records of epileptic patients.He was able to show the relationship between the clinicalpattern of attacks and the focus of abnormality ; withMcKissock he later showed that surgical removal ofareas of focal abnormality did not benefit the patient,but that in fact epilepsy is a disease of the hemispheresas a whole. The biochemical approach to the epilepsieswhich has been made through the medium of the electro-encephalogram by Lennox 5 and his co-workers, Williams 6and others points to an underlying metabolic abnormalitywhich may explain the relative unimportance of focalabnormality in the treatment of individual cases.

Jasper and Kershman have done well to correlate so manydata, and have added to our knowledge, but a finalsynthesis is not yet in sight.

SEX GLANDS AND BLOOD-PRESSURE

Two sets of facts are combining to direct attentionto a possible influence of the gonads on blood-pressure.On the one hand are the well-known observations on theeffects of adrenaline and pituitary extract in both manand animals ; the low blood-pressures in Simmonds’sand Addison’s diseases and the high ones in basophiltumour of the pituitary and cortical tumour of the

adrenals ; the high systolic with low diastolic pressureso often found in Graves’s disease ; and a host of otherobservations linking blood-pressure with the endocrinesystem in general. On the other hand is the rapidlygrowing pile of observations linking the glands of thesystem so intimately with each other that diseases ofsingle glands are hardly recognised and the term poly-glandular syndrome has lost all meaning, since almostall glandular syndromes are " poly." Added to these

general signposts are a few somewhat vague clinicalobservations, some of which have been misunderstood.Thus the frequent appearance of high blood-pressure atthe menopause has been attributed to a deficiency ofcestrogens, whereas the increase of pituitary basophilcells and adrenal cortical hyperplasia which occur at thisperiod in animals make it much more likely that one ofthese glands is responsible. This supposition is sup-ported by the observation that menopausal hyperpiesiain women is more common when symptoms suggestiveof Cushing’s syndrome, such as adiposity, hypertrichosisand carbohydrate intolerance, are also present. This

type of high blood-pressure so often returns spontane-ously to normal that it is difficult to assess the value ofoestrogen treatment. Nevertheless, such treatment is

rational, and until there is evidence of its uselessness it isclearly justifiable to exhibit oestrogens with a view toshortening the hyperpietic period and possibly of pre-venting the permanent changes which often occur.

There have been reports of small numbers of patients not2. Gibbs, F. A., Gibbs, E. L. and Lennox, W. G. Brain, 1937, 60, 377.3. Gibbs, F. A. J. Pediat. 1939, 15, 749.4. Golla, F., Graham, S. and Walter, W. G. J. ment. Sci. 1937, 83, 137.5. Nims, L. F. et al. Arch. Neurol. Psychiat. 1940, 43, 262.6. Williams, D. J. Neurol. Psychiat. 1941, 4, 32.

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of menopausal age whose blood-pressure has fallen afterthe administration of oestrogens, for instance by Guird-ham,l but faced with many contrary experiences, suchreports are bound to be unconvincing in the absence offull investigations and adequate controls. The situationof male hormone therapy is still less satisfactory.Steinach has long held the view that its rejuvenatingeffects, the existence of which is disputed by mostobservers, are due to widespread hyperoemia. WithPeczenik and Kun 2 he claimed to have produced loweringof the blood-pressure in 39 out of 49 male hyperpietics.Their results were immediately challenged by Greene 3who published accounts of a series of carefully investi-gated patients whose hyperpiesia had been unaffectedby doses of testosterone propionate far larger than thoseused by the earlier observers. That the question cannotbe left there is shown by the later claim of Edwards,Hamilton and Duntley,4 who not only confirmed theincrease in arterialisation claimed by Steinach butobtained amelioration of symptoms in three cases of

Buerger’s disease and four of arteriosclerosis. It seems

probable that the good results of treatment with malehormone, if ultimately confirmed, must depend on thedegree of irreversible change which has previously takenplace in the arteries, as well as on the initial cause of thehigh pressure. In considering the latter, the work ofSelye and others on the nephrotrophic effects of testo-sterone and androsterone may well be significant.

FOR THE MERCHANT NAVY

THE controversy in the Times following Lord March-wood’s proposal in the House of Lords on Sept. 10for a royal commission to inquire into conditions ofservice in the Mercantile Marine is on the familiar lines ofthe controversy about state medical service. But evenif some of those who would like a commission are aimingat a national service they would probably leave therunning and upkeep of the ships in the hands of privateowners and would make a national responsibility only ofthe entry, training, supply and appointment of officersand men. There would be Government training andinstructional establishments to supply young officers forthe Merchant Navy exactly as in the Royal Navy. The

personnel might stick to one shipping company for life,but they would be Government servants with a schemeof promotion, partly by service and partly by merit, withregular leave, retiring pensions and unemploymentbenefit. The conditions would be not unlike those in the

public health services where the personnel are employed,with variations from the national mean, by local author-ities. From the Speech from the Throne at the openingof Parliament in the autumn of 1936 we learned that theGovernment were considering measures " to secure themaintenance of a Mercantile Marine adequate for theneeds of the country." Thoughtful observers of condi-tions in the Merchant Navy (non-medical as well asmedical) have long been convinced that uncleanliness anddiscomfort have prevented many lads from going to sea.In 1902 win. Collingridge, then medical officer for thePort of London, said that the sanitary state of ships was50 years behind that on shore. Herbert Williams,W. F. Dearden, W. E. Home and Howard Jones, in ourcolumns and through the Association of Port HealthAuthorities, followed his lead in demanding what Green-wood Wilson, hon. sec. of that association, has apt,ly called" slum clearance at sea," but it was not until 1937 that theBoard of Trade issued instructions to surveyors whichwent most of the way in fulfilling the recommendationsof the association for improving crews’ quarters, andeven then any improvement of the old vessels was to1. Guirdham, A. Bristol med.-chir. J. 1941, 58, 19.2. Steinach, E., Peczenik, O. and Kun, H. Wien. klin. Wschr. 1938,

51, 102, 134.3. Greene, R. Lancet, 1938, 1, 79.4. Edwards, E. A., Hamilton, J. B. and Duntley, S. Q. New Engl.

J. Med. 1939, 220, 865.5. Selye, H. J. Urol. 1939, 42, 637.

wait for convenient opportunity. Would it be cynicalto note that at about this time there was a seriousshortage of merchant seamen_? Two years later theNational Maritime Board achieved a welcome agreementabout cleanliness and comfort of crews’ quarters, andsome may claim that for this reason, amongst others, theboard is well able to look after the interests of themerchant seafarer without the lead of a commission.Other bodies, such as the Ministry of War Transport, areworking whole-heartedly to the same end. It is probablethere were various persons and bodies interested in thewelfare of the factory child-worker and of the prisonerbefore Shaftesbury and Howard focused popular atten.tion on all the available and ascertainable facts andinitiated great reforms. Surely no student of historycan object to a scientific and Government-sponsoredinquiry into the conditions of service of an industry sovital to the nation’s welfare, at peace and at war, as theMercantile Marine ?

SCOTTISH HEALTH

WITHIN the past decade there have been obvious effortsto make Scottish health reports more readable and moretimely in issue. The circumstances of war have divertedenergies normally available for report making, and thesummary recently issued in review of the period Jan..1,1939, to June 30, 1941 is, understandably enough, butan an2emic shadow. Much of its space is given over toan account of adaptation and preparation for war, ofemergency measures such as casualty hospital provision,evacuation and related problems and health conditionsin shelters. Some of these measures benefit the popula-tion of considerable areas, but it would have beeninteresting to have official information about the actualextent to which emergency hospital provision, forinstance, has been used for relief of .the load on voluntaryhospitals or for improving the general level of hospitalservices when not required for the treatment of casualties,since there is a suspicion that much of it has beenallowed to lie needlessly fallow. When judged by theordinarily accepted indices, the health of Scotland inwar-time is perhaps no worse than might have beenexpected. Tuberculosis has increased, and still seemsto be increasing, but other infections, with the almostexpected exception of cerebrospinal fever, have remainedat pre-war levels. The increased incidence of tubercu-losis calls for administrative action and it would havebeen comforting to have an official assurance thatspecialised institutional accommodation is immediatelyavailable for every sufferer from the disease who requiressuch treatment. The number of cases of cerebrospinalfever, not yet alarming, is a danger signal that cannotbe ignored. Infant mortality has increased. In thismatter Scotland has for long been worse off than England,and the Scottish figure for 1940, 78 per 1000 live births,is too high. The summary refers to recent legislationto widen the scope of National Health Insurance; butit is a matter for keen regret that it has been thoughtnecessary to discontinue the illuminating reports onincapacitating sickness among the insured populationthat have come to be recognised as a peculiarly Scottishcontribution to social medicine. Information on thissubject would be of more than scientific interest in timeof war, and it should be collected if at all possible.

At the request of the Prime Minister, Sir CHARLESWiLSON, P.R.C.P., has joined the British Mission toMoscow. On his return he will report on Russia’s needfor medical help. According to a Reuter message themission reached Moscow by air on Monday last.

Sir EARLE PAGE, who left Sydney on the same day torepresent the government of Australia in Great Britain,is a medical graduate and a foundation fellow of theRoyal Australasian College of Surgeons. He was

Minister of Health 1937-38.