demanded in this great modern undertaking, such adequate service can only be met by taxation under Government responsibility. At the present stage of civilization there will always be much opportunity for the exercise of private charity-not merely the great benefaction, but the little acts of community and individual help that will continue to exist outside of the statutory powers of public agencies. It seems very evident, both by the discussions at this Conference, and the changing attitude of the public toward the subject, that people are being educated toward a belief in the desirability of State support and control of all public social service agencies. The Search of the Age The possibility of prolonging human life by extension of years has been practically demonstrated. The science of preventive medicine has developed so rapidly within the last generation that life expectancy has increased over twelve years. And by further control of infectious diseases and further education of the public on medical lines, it will be possible to attain advancing results in the future. But the extension of life years is entirely distinct from the alleged life rejuvenation concerning which so many sensational reports have recently appeared in the press. To so minimize disease by preventive and curative measures that the full period of our years may be fulfilled appeals as a natural and desirable process; but to efface the years and return to youth-or at least, to achieve its simulacrum-the possibility comes with something of a shock, almost a revulsion, and demands a large measure of mental adjustment. The longing for physical rejuvenation, for youth, is no new desire. It was besought of the gods, of the alchemist, of the magician. Down through the ages the search has been ceaselessly carried on by the misty light of slowly developing science. It has been the theme of poet and novelist, each according to the method and interpretation of his own day and generation. A quarter-century ago the novelist passed "She" through a fountain of flame. To-day, with the minimum of romance, the endocrine glands and Roentgen ray are chosen as the via media. In one recent "best seller" the novelist builds skilfully on the quasi-medical reports of French scientists regarding the functions of certain ductless glands, to achieve a decidedly stimulating melange for jaded society folk in their fifties and sixties. That the writer makes deliberate appeal to this class in her depiction of wealth, idleness, and folly a la mode, does not altogether obscure the rather clever study of the reaction of such rejuvenation, not upon the subject herself, but upon her social intimates, when she takes them into her confidence. "All these women had suffered illness, but all from time-honored visitations, even when under new and technical names . . which fact held at least the safeguard of normalcy. They felt a chill of terror, in some cases of revulsion, as Mary Ogden went on to picture this abnormal renaissance going on in the body, unseen and unfelt; in the body of one who had been cast in the common mould, subject to the common fate, and whom they had visioned as growing old with themselves, as any natural Christian would. It was not only serious and terrifying, but subtly indecent-a drama of one's insides, and especially one that dealt with the raising from the dead of that section which refined women refused to discuss after they got rid of it. It was positively ghoulish." The novelist skilfully accentuates the point that, while body and brain of the heroine are rejuvenated, the memories of all the years remain-and herein lies the crux of the plot. The triumph of the novelist lies in the skill in which she has seized an old, old theme and brought it strictly up to date, so that the ordinary lay reader, closing the volume, echoes her query: "Do the constantly advancing triumphs of science over nature point to such miraculous possibilities as the arrest or retrograde of senescence?" Do the French savants protest too much? Shall we one day accept with the placidity of common knowledge the heroine's dictum : "I do not merely look young again. I am young. I am not the years I have passed in this world. I am the rejuvenated glands in my body. Some day we shall have the proverb: 'A man is as old as his endocrines." " It is at least a pleasant fantasy! and National Hygiene Incorporating The Dominion Medical Monthly A monthly journal devoted to Preventive Medicine, including Social Hygiene, Mental Hygiene, Child Hygiene, Foods and their purity, Serum Therapy, Milk Supply. Drug Addiction, Industrial and Institutional Health Problems, etc. SUBSCRIPTION PRICE, $2.00 PER ANNUM. OFFICE OF PUBLICATION, SLEEPY Hollow buildING, TORONTO, CANADA GEORGE G. NASMITH, C.M.G., D.P.H., Honorary Adviser in Public Health, Canadian Red Cross Society. Kindly address all communications to The Canada Lancet and National Hygiene, Sleepy Hollow Building, Toronto, Canada. Original Contribution THE GALL-BLADDER * BY HERBERT A. BRUCE, M.B., F.A.C.S., F.R.C.S., Anatomy: The gall-bladder, pyriform in shape, surrounded below by peritoneum is connected by loose areolar tissue with the under surface of the liver. In four per cent. of subjects, it is entirely surrounded by peritoneum. It may be bifid or have a septum and in a few instances two bladders are found. The fundus of the gall-bladder is on a lower level than its apex, when we are in the erect position and is opposite the tip of the eighth or ninth costal cartilage. In a few cases the gallbladder is deeply imbedded in the substance of the liver, the fundus even projecting through its upper surface. By its lower surface the gall-bladder is in relation with the colon and transverse mesocolon, the two forming a delicate shelf which may limit infections to this region of the abdominal cavity. The apex of the gall-bladder is in relation to the first portion of the duodenum and may also come into contact with the stomach near the pylorus.. It has a capacity of from one to two ounces, and may very rarely in disease be so large as to be mistaken for hydronephrosis or even an ovarian tumor. The gall-bladder has a fibrous wall, with a considerable admixture of muscle fibre and is lined by a reddish mucosa, within which are numerous glands which secrete a clear viscid fluid which when accumulated in large quantities after long obstruction of the cystic duct is known as white bile. The neck of the gall-bladder makes a sharp turn upwards and to the left and a recurve downwards to the beginning of the cystic duct. These curves, together with certain spiral elevations of the mucosa have the function of a valve-Heister-above which stones are liable to lodge. The blood supply of the gallbladder comes chiefly from the cystic artery and in a very slight measure from the liver bed in which it is placed. The cystic artery is derived from the right branch of the hepatic and A Synopsis of Clinical Lectures to the Graduating Class in Medicine of the University of Toronto, on Diseases of the Gall-Bladder and Biliary Ducts, the Pancreas and Spleen. |