The term 'typhus abdominalis', recorded as the cause of death, may not have
been specifically applied at the time to typhoid as its causative organism was not
...
JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF MEDICINE
cases in which poison was supplied by physicians'. To relate 'the function of medical doctors' to the views of an eccentric cult is quite contrary to the spirit of ancient scientific medicine. W M S Russell
Volume 90
July 1 997
were certainly aware of the difference between the two, quite different, illnesses.
for Social Medicine had reservations until late in the proceedings.
P P Anthony
Michael Warren
Department of Pathology, Royal Devon and Exeter Healthcare NHS Trust, Exeter EX2 5AD, England
2 Bridge Down, Bridge, Canterbury, Kent CT4 5AZ, England
Department of Sociology, University of Reading, PO Box 218, Reading, RG6 2AA, England
RETRACTION Rosen SD, King JC, Nixon PGF. Hyperventilation in patients who have sustained myocardial infarction after a work injury. J R Soc Med 1994;87:268-71
REFERENCE
I Sigerist, E. A. A History of Medicine. Vol 2: Early Greek, Hindu, and Persian Medicine. New York: Oxford University Press, 1961: 230-1, 299-304
Schubert's last illness Dr O'Shea (May 1997 JRSM, pp291-2) makes a convincing case for Franz Schubert's last illness to have been typhoid fever. The term 'typhus abdominalis', recorded as the cause of death, may not have been specifically applied at the time to typhoid as its causative organism was not known. However, in Central Europe 'abdominal typhus' is still the designation for typhoid in contradistinction to 'head typhus' which is applied to what we in Western Europe call 'typhus'. Early nineteenth century clinicians
416
The Genesis of the Faculty of Community Medicine Thank you for the review of the abovenamed book (April 1997 JRSM, p 233). It should be noted that, as stated in the book, Professor Jerry Morris was the originator and the chairman of the negotiating working party, Professor Lord Rosenheim was the chairman of the joint committee of the Royal Colleges of Physicians which negotiated with Morris's working party, and Dr Wilfrid Harding was the chairman of the provisional board of the Faculty which brought it into being. Sir George Godber was not, as implied by the reviewer, directly involved in the negotiations, and, although some colleagues in academic departments of social medicine were supportive of founding a faculty, the Society
This retrospective study has recently been critically re-examined. Discrepancies came to light, attributable to use of two different forced hyperventilation provocation tests (not one as stated in the paper). As a consequence, the patients' and controls' data may not be comparable. A change in international convention of testing occurred between the time that the majority of controls were investigated and the time that the majority of patients were investigated. We incorrectly assumed these tests to be entirely equivalent and, inadvertently, described only the more up-to-date method of forced hyperventilation provocation test. With regret, we feel that our analysis was unsound and wish to withdraw the paper. S D Rosen J C King P G F Nixon
