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We quantitatively analysed compensatory head reactions of flies to imposed body rotations in yaw, pitch and roll and characterized the haltere as a sense organ for maintaining equilibrium. During constant velocity rotation, the head first moves to compensate retinal slip and then attains a plateau excursion (Fig. 3). Below 500°/s, initial head velocity as well as final excursion depend linearily on stimulus velocities for all three axes. Head saccades occur rarely and are synchronous to wing beat saccades (Fig. 5). They are interpreted as spontaneous actions superposed to the compensatory reaction and are thus not resetting movements like the fast phase of ‘vestibulo-ocular’ nystagmus in vertebrates. In addition to subjecting the flies to actual body rotations we developed a method to mimick rotational stimuli by subjecting the body of a flying fly to vibrations (1 to 200 μm, 130 to 150 Hz), which were coupled on line to the fly's haltere beat. The reactions to simulated Coriolis forces, mimicking a rotation with constant velocity, are qualitatively and to a large extent also quantitatively identical to the reactions to real rotations (Figs. 3, 7–9). Responses to roll- and pitch stimuli are co-axial. During yaw stimulation (halteres and visual) the head performs both a yaw and a roll reaction (Fig. 3e,f), thus reacting not co-axial. This is not due to mechanical constraints of the neck articulation, but rather it is interpreted as an ‘advance compensation’ of a banked body position during free flight yaw turns (Fig. 10).

We simultaneously investigated eye and head movements and postural adjustment during orienting by measuring load force exerted by four limbs in cats. When light is moved from the fixation point to the target position, the head first begins moving towards the target position, and the eye moves in the opposite direction due to the vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR). Later, the eye moves quickly in the target direction by saccade, synchronous with the remaining rapid head orientation movement. Head movement is classified as either ‘head rotation’ or ‘head translation’. During head rotation, the load force in ipsilateral limb to the target position decreased, and that in the contralateral limb increased. During head translation, on the contrary, load force in the ipsilateral limb increased and that in the contralateral limb decreased. This phenomenon was observed in fore- and hindlimbs. The latencies of head movement are very similar with those of the load force change in many trials, and in case in which the head movement has short latency, the amount of load force change is larger. In contrast, when head movement has long latency, the amount of load force change is smaller. In a previous study, we recorded two types of neurons from ponto-medullary reticular formation. The firing of these neurons was related with head movement. The cervical reticulospinal neuron (C-RSN) in ponto-medullary reticular formation got off collateral to both neck and forelimb motoneurons. These types were named phasic neuron (PN) and phasic sustained neuron (PSN). We discuss the relation between load changes and the two types of neurons and postural adjustment during orienting.

For CyberKnife planning and treatment, patients are set up on a thin foam pad. In the head first supine position, the patient's arms are at body level at their side for treatment. This position of the arms does not allow beams to be planned and delivered that transit the arms if arm avoidance is desired. To circumvent this problem, a new thicker, firmer patient support pad has been developed and used to treat many patients at our CyberKnife Centers. The new pad is narrower at the level of the trunk and abdomen allowing the patient's arms to fall comfortably below body level. This allows more beams to be planned using the plan optimization routine to enter the body from more posterior-lateral directions than can be obtained with the patient on the thin pad. Illustration of the use of the new pad and an example plan is discussed.

This article describes the HEAD FIRST helmet safety program for preventing bicycling injuries in children. HEAD FIRST is an acronym for Helmet Education and Demonstration for Injury Reduction and Safety Training. The program includes 5 learning objectives, along with an outline of lesson content and teaching strategies. Information on the types of helmets and what to look for in a good helmet is covered. The proper fitting of a helmet is demonstrated on either the teacher or one of the students. Handouts distributed in class reinforce the messages of helmet safety. The authors report that bicycling accidents result in more than half a million visits to the emergency department for treatment of injuries each year. For children, the rate of injury is especially significant, with bicycles accounting for more injuries than any other mode of transportation except cars. The safety education program also teaches students how to identify safe and unsafe riding behavior by showing them brief video clips of bicyclists and helping them to clarify safe and unsafe practices. The program is designed for 8- to -10-year-olds.

The patient was a 23-year-old woman referred to physical therapy for the primary treatment of knee pain which began 4 months prior following a twisting injury. During the patient interview, the patient also complained of neck pain and numbness and tingling in her bilateral hands and feet which began 6 weeks earlier after jumping into a 2 meter pool head first and striking her head on the floor of the pool. Due to concern over a serious cervical spine injury, the physical therapist focused his initial physical examination on the patient's cervical spine. Physical examination findings were remarkable for midline cervical spine tenderness and decreased sensation throughout both hands and feet. Cervical spine radiographs were ordered, which revealed a cortical irregularity along the anterior aspect of the superior endplate of the C7 vertebral body, which was concerning for an anterior-superior compression fracture. Computed tomography scanning was completed for further evaluate the area of injury and revealed...

Depending on the type and manufacturer of your magnet, and the type of examination you are going to perform, patients can be positioned either head first or feet first. The main advantage of positioning patients feet first is the diminution of claustrophobic feelings. Many magnet systems, however, obligate you to position patients for cervical spine (CS) examinations head first the fixed location of the head and/or the CS coil. If you have the choice, patients, especially anxious ones and children, should be positioned feet first whenever possible. We use a knee support for patient comfort in examinations of the cervical and thoracic spine; this, in turn, is favorable for the image quality as patients are less likely to move during the examination. In lumbar spine examinations, however, a lumbar support diminishes lumbar lordosis, and therefore, may diminish the amount of disc protrusion. Only when patients are unable to remain motionless without the support of the legs, e.g., patients with substantial back pain, should a knee support be used in lumbar spine examinations. In any case, the patient should be positioned as comfortably as possible to minimize movement artifacts. On high field magnets and/or magnets with strong gradients, earplugs or a headphone should be provided to the patient.

Whilesome schools dive head first into shared governance, others struggle with issues and processes that frustrate both faculty and administrators. Here the author describes selected experiences of four schools at various stages of implementation of a shared leadership model in an effort to identify factors that facilitate meaningful involvement. Propositions are offered regarding issues for shared governance, the structure and composition of leadership teams, and the collection and use of information.

International audience; Here presented is the case of a one-level jumping-fall with extensive skull fractures and brain expulsion. The body was found on the basement floor at the foot of the stairs. At the autopsy, the skull was extensively fractured, with about half of the brain expulsed several feet away from the body. The cause of death was established as a craniocerebral trauma with brain expulsion. The circumstances and manner of death were still unclear at that time. A low fall seemed very unlikely considering the severity of the skull and brain damage. The police investigation clearly revealed that the man, in a paranoid psychotic state, attacked his wife with a knife and then was witnessed by his children to have hit his head several times with a hammer. Afterwards, they saw him running to the top of the basement stairs and jumping to the bottom of the stairs head first.

The skeleton bobsled is a relatively new discipline of winter sports that competes in the winter Olympic Games. It is a sport with high speeds where fearless determination of the individual slider is required to achieve a winning margin which can be a 100th of a second. Skeleton bobsled requires the athlete to sprint, board a sled (weighing upto 43kg) and slide down a bobsleigh track with their chin just millimetres from the ice at speeds up to 130kmph in a head first position. This paper explores the basic physics that underlie the sport comprising the physics of ice friction, the aerodynamics of the slider, the dynamics of the descent of a curved track, control of direction and position on the track. The rules that govern the sport have a significant impact on the methods whereby performance can be improved and in effect determine the upper limits of achievable speeds. The relative differences in performance between the various competitors are analysed with respect to the published data for the male and female sliders who competed in the 2006/2007 World Championship in St Moritz. It is difficult to identify actual optimum body height and weight but interesting to note that the victors in both the men’s and women’s event were of similar size.

Predatory fish sometimes capture a prey fish first by striking it from the side, allowing the predator to consume the stunned prey head first. The rapid body flexion that the predator uses to stun its prey is similar to the "C" shaped maneuver ("C-bend") that many fish species use when performing a C-start escape response. For most species, one of the two Mauthner neurons initiates the C-start and, together with other reticulospinal neurons, their activity determines the extent of the bend and the ultimate trajectory of the fish. Reported here is initial evidence of previously undescribed behaviors where goldfish strike an object while executing voluntary C-bends that are similar to their C-start escape responses. The overlapping distributions of turn durations, turn angles, and angular velocities suggest that at least some voluntary C-bends are initiated by the Mauthner neuron. This implies that the Mauthner neuron can be activated voluntarily in the absence of predator- or feeding-associated releasing stimuli.

Bungee jumping is a dangerous sport with increasing popularity in the western world. We report the case of a 28-yr-old man who sustained an orbital emphysema as a result of bungee jumping. He jumped head first from a 160-ft high bridge over a river. At the end of the jump he dived into the water with his head in a reclined position. The sudden dive into the water caused an increase of the air pressure in the nose and paranasal sinuses, which led to an emphysema of the right orbit resulting from a skull fracture not detectable by x-ray. The patient was treated with oral antibiotics. Five days later, he had no clinical complaints and the ophthalmologic examination was normal. This variation of bungee jumping may bear severe risk factors for health in addition to those known from the classic jumps. Language: en

The countermanding task requires subjects to cancel a planned movement on appearance of a stop signal, providing insights into response generation and suppression. Here, we studied human eye-head gaze shifts in a countermanding task with targets located beyond the horizontal oculomotor range. Consistent with head-restrained saccadic countermanding studies, the proportion of gaze shifts on stop trials increased the longer the stop signal was delayed after target presentation, and gaze shift stop-signal reaction times (SSRTs: a derived statistic measuring how long it takes to cancel a movement) averaged approximately 120 ms across seven subjects. We also observed a marked proportion of trials (13% of all stop trials) during which gaze remained stable but the head moved toward the target. Such head movements were more common at intermediate stop signal delays. We never observed the converse sequence wherein gaze moved while the head remained stable. SSRTs for head movements averaged approximately 190 ms or approximately 70-75 ms longer than gaze SSRTs. Although our findings are inconsistent with a single race to threshold as proposed for controlling saccadic eye movements, movement parameters on stop trials attested to interactions consistent with a race model architecture. To explain our data, we tested two extensions to the saccadic race model. The first assumed that gaze shifts and head movements are controlled by parallel but independent races. The second model assumed that gaze shifts and head movements are controlled by a single race, preceded by terminal ballistic intervals not under inhibitory control, and that the head-movement branch is activated at a lower threshold. Although simulations of both models produced acceptable fits to the empirical data, we favor the second alternative as it is more parsimonious with recent findings in the oculomotor system. Using the second model, estimates for gaze and head ballistic intervals were approximately 25 and 90 ms, respectively, consistent with the known physiology of the final motor paths. Further, the threshold of the head movement branch was estimated to be 85% of that required to activate gaze shifts. From these results, we conclude that a commitment to a head movement is made in advance of gaze shifts and that the comparative SSRT differences result primarily from biomechanical differences inherent to eye and head motion.

Objective To determine the method of sliding that propels the baseball athlete to the desired base in the shortest amount of time. To assess the athlete's perception of the quickest, safest, and preferred sliding technique. Design A single occasion with repeated measures design was used. The independent variable was slide type, and the dependent variable was time. Setting The study was conducted in October 2000 at the University of Kentucky baseball complex. Participants Twenty collegiate baseball players. Interventions High-speed video (to 1/200th of second) analysis of 20 collegiate baseball players performing 3 trials each of both head-first and feet-first sliding techniques. Additionally, each participant was asked to complete a sliding survey. Main outcome measures The videotape of each slide performed was reviewed separately (using the same viewing equipment) by 2 of the study investigators. Slide type and time were recorded for each slide. Results There was no significant difference between head-first versus feet-first slide times (P = 0.357). The average time for feet-first slides was 3.67 seconds, while that for head-first was 3.65 seconds. Sixty-eight percent of the players felt that head-first slides were faster than feet-first slides. Seventy-four percent identified the feet-first slide as the technique they most used, while 90% of the athletes perceived the feet-first technique to be safer. Conclusions On average, head-first and feet-first sliding techniques employed at the end aspect of base running propel the baseball player to the base in similar times. The head-first sliding technique is perceived to be faster and more dangerous.

Background Two basic baseball sliding techniques, feet-first and head-first, are taught at all levels of play. Because of the risk for injury to the upper extremities and the cervical spine during head-first sliding, it is potentially more dangerous than feet-first sliding. There is an assumption among coaches that head-first sliding is more aggressive and faster, but there has been no scientific study to prove this claim. Purpose The purpose of this study was to determine which technique provides a faster slide into the base. Study Design Controlled field study. Methods A total of 60 players ranging from Little League to college level was analyzed. Each athlete was evaluated three times from a standing start at first base to either a head-first or feet-first touch of second base. Each athlete was also timed in a 40-yard sprint and his or her preferred sliding technique was recorded. Results We found no statistically significant difference in speed between head-first and feet-first sliding at all levels of play in this study.

If willpower doesn't stop you from reaching for that second piece of cake, the problem might still be in your head. New research on corpulent rats shows that the hormone insulin helps the brain determine how much food is enough. The findings solidify the idea that insulin doesn't govern weight solely through its effect on body tissues and might inspire new ways to prevent diabetes and obesity. Scientists once thought of insulin as a provincial hormone that works mainly outside the brain, controlling blood sugar by prodding muscle and liver cells to take up and store glucose. But recent work hinted that insulin also goads neurons in the brain, helping them regulate eating and energy use. Two years ago, Harvard researchers produced mice that lacked insulin receptors throughout the nervous system. The mice overate and grew chunky, which suggests that insulin normally helps restrain hunger or accelerate metabolism. But the rodents also developed reproductive flaws. Because signals from the reproductive system can affect fat storage, the mice's girth could have resulted from these defects rather than from a scarcity of insulin receptors. To pin down the hormone's role, Obici and colleagues pruned insulin receptors from only one region of the hypothalamus, the brain structure that governs appetite and metabolism, among other processes. The researchers created short strands of DNA that mirror a segment of the receptor gene. The team implanted catheters that delivered these so-called antisense strands directly to the part of the rat hypothalamus involved in maintaining energy balance. Once there, the molecules stuck to the receptor gene's RNA message and blocked production of the protein. The manipulation slashed the number of insulin receptors in the brain region by 80%. The treated rats binged, snarfing about 50% more food than the control group, which had received a dummy antisense strand, ate. The ravenous rodents also packed on more than twice as much fat, and their livers were less responsive to insulin, a condition known as insulin resistance. That the rodents displayed hallmarks of obesity and diabetes--overeating, weight gain, and insulin resistance--suggests that reductions in the number of insulin receptors in the hypothalamus might spur these diseases, says Luciano Rossetti, a diabetes researcher at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City and head of the team. If so, treatments that correct the deficiency might fend off obesity and diabetes. "The study is an important addition to our understanding of the role of insulin signaling in the brain," says Jeffrey Flier, an endocrinologist at Harvard University. However, he cautions that no one has demonstrated that the brains of overweight or diabetic people bear fewer insulin receptors than normal. Obesity researcher Stephen Woods of the University of Cincinnati also praises the work, saying that it might help explain why another weight-control hormone, leptin, failed "as the magic bullet that would cure obesity." The evidence suggests a dual-control system, he says, in which insulin cooperates with leptin to tell us when to step away from the dinner table. --Mitch Leslie S. Obici, Z. Feng, G. Karkanias, D. G. Baskin, L. Rossetti, Decreasing hypothalamic insulin receptors causes hyperphagia and insulin resistance in rats. Nat. Neuro. 5 , 566-572 (2002). [Abstract] [Full Text]

We quantitatively analysed compensatory head reactions of flies to imposed body rotations in yaw, pitch and roll and characterized the haltere as a sense organ for maintaining equilibrium. During constant velocity rotation, the head first moves to compensate retinal slip and then attains a plateau excursion (Fig. 3). Below 500 ° /s, initial head velocity as well as final excursion de- pend linearily on stimulus velocities for all three axes. Head saccades occur rarely and are synchronous to wing beat saccades (Fig. 5). They are interpreted as spontane- ous actions superposed to the compensatory reaction and are thus not resetting movements like the fast phase ol `vestibulo-ocular' nystagmus in vertebrates. In addition to subjecting the flies to actual body rotations we developed a method to mimick rotational stimuli by subjecting the body of a flying fly to vibrations (1 to 200 µm, 13C to 150 Hz), which were coupled on line to the fly's haltere beat. The reactions to simulated Coriolis forces, mimicking a rotation with constant velocity, are qualita- tively and to a large extent also quantitatively identical tc the reactions to real rotations (Figs. 3, 7-9). Response, to roll- and pitch stimuli are co-axial. During yaw stimu- lation (halteres and visual) the head performs both a yam and a roll reaction (Fig. 3e,f), thus reacting not co-axial This is not due to mechanical constraints of the neck ar- ticulation, but rather it is interpreted as anadvance com- pensation' of a banked body position during free flight yaw turns (Fig. 10).

Wrist and hand injuries are common in elite divers, as all correctly performed dives end with a head first entry into the water with the hands extended above the head. This case presentation was an Olympic level diver with 3 months of persistent dorsal wrist pain. MRI findings showed contiguous contusions to the lunate, capitate, hamate and distal radius and also a peripheral tear of the ulnar attachment of the triangular fibrocartilage complex (TFCC). The repeated dorsiflexion stress of entry into the water likely caused these injuries. Although the authors had suspected a TFCC injury and did find an isolated ulnar-sided peripheral tear, the complicating carpal contusions led us to choose a conservative treatment plan, which was the only intervention the patient ultimately required.

The spear tackle is a tackling method employed by Rugby League players. In order to put the ball-holding player on the ground, he is up-ended and driven head first into the pitch with obvious high risk of cervical spine injury. This tackling technique is illegal but still occurs in the amateur and professional game. We report two cases of players sustaining fractures of the posterior elements of C5 after being spear tackled and illustrate difficulties in diagnosing this type of fracture from plain radiographs. The value of CT in cases of cervical spine trauma is demonstrated.

“Nephew, I was laying drunk in my private compartment on the train across New York State that first night after I killed the Pinkerton detective. I woke up near 11 o’clock in a cold sweat. I couldn’t shake a horrible recurring vision of that Pinkerton man tumbling from brace to brace down into the bottomless ravine. When I’d pushed him off the back of the observation car, he’d fallen head first. His head struck the rail, and his momentum carried him over the side of the trestle where the first wooden cross-brace caught his body, and then tossed it onto the next brace. Down, down he went, spinning from brace to brace until he literally disappeared from view. That damned sight is burned into my brain.

The walking step of the microtubule minus-end directed kinesin motor Ncd involves about 75-degree rotation of its coiled-coil stalk. Two crystal structures, 1CZ7 and 1N6M (protein data bank IDs) are related respectively to conformations before (plus-end pointing stalk) and after (minus-end pointing stalk) this movement. Using targeted molecular dynamics we traced the stalk motion between these two structures. We observed that the motor head first rearranges from the 1CZ7 to 1N6M conformation, followed by the travel of the stalk. The 75-degree rotation of the stalk is accompanied by a nearly 20-degree torsion in its coiled coil. Further, the stalk travel can be divided into sub-steps between intermediates at about 17, 38 and 56 degrees from the 1CZ7 conformation that are characterized by the breaking and forming of new salt bridges by Arg335 or Lys336 in the stalk with the charged groups along the alpha-1 domain of the motor head, some of which are not present in the crystal structures. These results suggest that when Ncd is making a step towards the microtubule minus-end, the motor head first changes conformation in a nucleotide-dependent manner that promotes the detachment of the plus-end pointing stalk. This is followed by the stalk rotation that may be broken down into sub-steps between the intermediate states. In case of a diffusive motion, this may be more effective than diffusion over the entire 75-degree range.

Protecting the cervical spine in situations of axial com pressive loading is indeed complex. Results from a number of crash simulations suggest that the mecha nisms of head impact causing brain damage and those causing neck injury are different. The idea that neck injuries can be predicted from results of helmet drop tests or that the helmet is capable of providing protec tion to the cervical spine is unsupported. In head-first collisions causing axial compressive loading, the cushioning properties of the helmet alone would dictate the maximum force on the neck if both the head and neck were rigid. Since the head and neck are not rigid and appear to be as stiff or less stiff than the helmet, the cushioning influence of the helmet is minimized, so the forces experienced by the neck are dictated largely by its own properties. The helmet does not have a large influence. To be effective, the helmet would have to be much less stiff than it is at present and would have to maintain this low stiffness under very large loads. These conditions would be difficult to achieve without making the helmet disproportionately larger than it is now.

PALEONTOLOGYThe most primitive tyrannosauroid yet discovered, described this week in Nature , has revealed the basic blueprint from which Tyrannosaurus rex and its kin evolved.

Science just ran head first into religion in the form of putative human clones. The mere existence of such clones marks a societal turning point; the full ramifications will take years to map. Immediately apparent was the irritation of the religious and public policy communities. Both had large stakes in fashioning generally-acceptable outcomes; it is unlikely that this is the result they envisioned. Theologians feel especially betrayed, with good reason: dialogues between science and religion were leading to some sense that each side was beginning to understand the other. Although this is unlikely to be a fatal setback to such dialogues, it might reasonably make the religion end of the science-religion axis somewhat suspicious of the motives of the science end. I can imagine a work like John C Avise's Genetic Gods being dismissed, at least temporarily, as just-another-scientist's view of religion.

Toby Briant-Evans goes skiing, improves his language skills, and stitches scalps back together

Children have strangled when their heads became entrapped in structural openings of children's products. To analyze these accidents, we applied human factors principles of anthropometry, childhood development, perception, behavior, and biomechanics. Children under 5 years of age became entrapped either head first, feet first, or neck first. Four product characteristics contributed to accidents: product function, product weight/size, opening location, and opening configuration. From this analysis, we developed a standard procedure for evaluating product openings. This procedure describes how to develop test fixtures to simulate the smallest and largest users at risk. This work can assist, and has assisted, product designers, manufacturers, and the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission in reducing head entrapment in product openings. For example, this procedure was used to develop provisions in ASTM voluntary standards for baby gates and enclosures, bunk beds, and playground equipment.

The investigation of sixty-one rheumatoid patients relates their hand function to measured hand deformity. Certain deformities are related to a reduction in function; others are not. The dominant hand, used more frequently, deteriorates more quickly than the non-dominant. The benefit on hand function of synovectomy is limited in duration and should be accompanied by some procedure to defer or correct deformity.Study of the metacarpophalangeal joints by radiography and at operation shows that degeneration starts where the metacarpal head first loses articulation with the base of the phalanx, and spreads out from there across the metacarpal head as deformity increases.

Spinal cord trauma due to head-first collisions is not uncommon in vehicle accidents, shallow water diving, football, or ice hockey. Two approaches to evaluating potential protective devices for ice hockey are described: an evaluative tool based upon an anthropometric test dummy, and a computer simulation of axial head-first collisions. Helmets reduced the peak cervical spine loads during low velocity head-first collisions by up to 8%. It is shown that large thicknesses of appropriate padding are necessary to hold the cervical spine loads to noninjurious levels. A head-first impact of 3.0 m • sec−1 required padding deformations on the order of 94 mm to hold cervical spine loads below 2,000 N.

A long axis view to demonstrate left ventricular regional wall motion was devised for the ultrafast CT scanner. The patients are positioned supine, head first, into the scanner. The scan table is slewed 20° counter-clockwise in the horizontal plane without tilt. A bolus of contrast is injected via a median antecu bital vein. Contiguous level R wave triggered cine studies are obtained during peak passage of contrast through the heart to image the entire left ventricular cavity. Fourteen patients had left ventricular wall motion compared by long axis CT and RAO 30° single plane ventriculography at catheterization. In all cases, regional wall motion in comparable segments by both methods was in agree ment. It is concluded that the ultrafast CT long axis view permits diagnosis of left ventricular regional wall motion abnormalities. This view images the apex and sections the interventricular septum and lateral free wall horizontally. Un like conventional CT views, it is comparable to the RAO left ventriculogram.

This report records the investigation into a high-speed hydroplane accident in which the driver died. He was ejected head first into the water at 117 to 126 ft/sec (80 to 85 mph), suffering brain damage and a fractured skull. Suggestions are made to minimize the effects of these inevitable crashes. Language: en

It is well known that severe head injury may give rise to pronounced disturbances of acoustic-vestibular function which may even become extinguished if the labyrinth is involved by a fracture of the temporal bone. Less attention has been given to the fact that severe acoustic-vestibular disturbances may be observed also after less severe head injuries. This is exemplified by the present patient who also had recurrent parotid swelling. Report of a Case The patient was a boy, aged 11 years, the second of a family of 3. The pregnancy had been uneventful apart from minor vaginal bleeding in the 3rd month. Delivery occurred at term and was normal; birth weight 4,700 gm. The boy was fit and thrived normally during infancy. At the age of 2½ years he fell head first, into a basement passage, from the ground floor down 5 or 6 stone steps. He was brought to a

Montevallo, Ala., Aug. 6, 1898. To the Editor: —I wish to mention the case of a negro girl whom I delivered of twins, Feb. 5, 1897. This girl was born and raised in Boiling, Ala. At 11 years of age, she began to menstruate regularly; became a prostitute soon afterward, and was delivered of twins at the age of 13 years, 9 months and 5 days. Both children were females. One is living; the other was accidentally smothered when five days old. The first child presented feet foremost; the second came "head first." The afterbirth was adherent. I administered chloroform and, after introducing the hand, detached it. There was some hemorrhage, but a hot douche controlled it. The mother was exceedingly well developed for her age and made a speedy recovery. I inclose a copy of the birth certificate. Very truly yours

HAVING occasionally caught a viper, and kept it for a time in a glass case, one of the platelayers called me last Thursday and said “there was a fine ‘Long Cripple’ (a local name for a serpent of any kind) lying on the bank a few yards down the line.” I went to the place indicated, and there was a very large viper basking in the sun, but when I got near, it began to move away, and to prevent its escape I gently pressed a stick across it while I sent the man to fetch a glass jar to secure it in; but when it found its progress arrested, it began in a very spiteful manner to dart its nose forward, striking at the stick and stones and anything that was within its reach, but I could not see that it opened its mouth to make a real bite; but when it found with all its wriggling and twisting it was unable to free itself, it turned its head round upon itself, and about four inches from the head it opened its jaws and gave itself a bite, and when the fangs were well into the skin, it gave an extra squeeze, as if it intended to make sure that the operation should be thoroughly and effectively performed. It then deliberately withdrew its fangs, and in so doing it turned its head first one way and then the other, so as to withdraw one fang at a time.

We developed a simple method to confine ducks so that a person working alone would be able to take blood samples from the brachial vein of a bird's extended wing. A piece of polychlorinated vinyl (PCV) pipe about 30 cm long was slotted about half way from the end to accommodate the bird's extended wing; the slot was about 12 mm wide. Sleeves of 2 sizes were made, one of 7.5-cm diameter pipe to accommodate blue-winged teals (Anas discors) and another of 11.5-cm diameter for lesser scaups (Aythya affinis) and similar-sized ducks. A larger sleeve, 12.6 cm in diameter, would be useful for larger ducks such as mallards (Anas platyrhynchos), although we did utilize the 11.5-cm sleeve for 10 canvasbacks (Aythya valisineria) without much difficulty. Each duck was inserted head first into

In 1927 Baurmann 1 reported a method of measuring intracranial venous pressure in man. He compared the pressure in the veins on the head of the optic nerve with the cerebrospinal fluid pressure in nine cases. In these there was a direct relationship between the level of the spinal fluid pressure and his determination of the pressure in the veins on the nerve head (fig. 1). He took as his criterion of the venous pressure the intra-ocular pressure at which the veins on the nerve head first begin to pulsate. The intra-ocular pressure was raised by pressing on the eyeball with an ophthalmodynamometer of the type devised by Magitot, the intra-ocular pressure being measured with a tonometer. All the methods in which venous pulsations are used as a criterion of venous pressure were criticized by Duke-Elder 2 on the ground that venous pulsations in the eye are a complicated phenomenon

Patient. —E. P., white, aged 13, a schoolboy, was admitted to Kansas City Post-Graduate Hospital, Nov. 23, 1908. Previous History. —The patient stated that on the night of Nov. 19, 1908, in attempting to remove an accumulation of dirt or foreign matter from the glans penis, he had passed a shawlpin head first into the urethra, and it had slipped away from his grasp and become fastened in the urethra. He denied sexual perversion. Present Condition. —The boy is well nourished and well-developed. Intellectually, he seems below normal and has a peculiar defect in speech, something between a lisp and a stammer. He complains of nothing referable to bladder or otherwise, and passes urine without difficulty. He was brought to the hospital by his father because the boy had told him of losing the pin in his urethra, not because of any particular discomfort caused by the foreign body. Examination