Report of the Committee of Management and Medical Director : 1940 / Papworth Village Settlement.

  • Papworth Village Settlement (Cambridge, England)
Date:
1940
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of the Committee of Management and Medical Director : 1940 / Papworth Village Settlement. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Research Department has taken an active part in the life of the Institution by evolving methods which have proved of practical use to the medical as well as to the industrial side of the organisation. Industrial Physiology. The Department of Industrial Physiology has steadily extended its activities, very much encouraged by the expenses grant from the Medical Research Council, which rendered possible the provision of adequate equipment. The effects of manual work on the tuberculous have been studied from their various aspects. Close contact has been maintained with the Oxford Physiology Laboratory and the Indus¬ trial Physiology Department of the London School of Hygiene. Dr. J. G. Priestly, whose unfortunate death occurred on February 9th, was a staunch supporter of the work of this department, and a true friend to Papworth which he visited on frequent occasions. The loss of the friendship and advice of Dr. Priestly, who had himself suffered and recovered from tuberculosis, will be deeply felt. The Industrial Physiology Unit has turned out a practical scheme of grading the degree of efficiency of sub-standard worxers, and has successfully evolved a method of assessing their efficiency according to a scale of stan¬ dards. The physiogram attached to each case- report has proved of considerable assistance to the Industries' management. In the same way the clinician is supplied with the results of physiological tests in those cases in which surgical treatment is considered, in order to show the functional reserves in respiration and circulation. The unit for Clinical Sociological Research is assisting the clinical staff in obtaining scientificand statistical analyses of the material passing through the Institution, and a detailed report on the incidence and types of lesions recorded in all the contact; in the village has been completed. A few remarks on the activities carried on during the past year are appended. EXPERIMENTAL PATHOLOGY. Experiments have been carried out to examine the question as to whether the adult type of phthisis is aptly described as a ‘ re¬ infection ’ type. These observations suggest that the adult type of phthisis is not necessarily, if ever, a re-infection phenomenon, but might be the result of infection by small dosage, possibly aided by some constitutional age factor E MAINSPRING weakening the pathogenic efficiency of the infecting strain. POST MORTEM ANALYSIS The histological follow-up of post mortem specimens has been continued, and the ana¬ tomical evidence compared with the clinical and radiological findings as well as with the case-history. The modern attitude of the pathologist to the problem of phthisiogenesis is characterised by the tendency to type the stage or age of the various lung lesions discovered in the lungs of the tuberculous. For some time ‘ stage ’-typing was favoured. The focus was classified as being the primary, or post primary reinfection focus, according to certain histological characteristics. ‘ Stage-’ typing is necessarily dogmatic and It pre¬ supposes the existence of different stages and different histological reactions in these stages. ' Age ’-typing, however, is independent of any theory, and might be successful in cases in which the case-history renders it possible to establish, with some degree of certainty, the probable date of the exposure to infection. Data that we have collected shows that the [10] I