conviction of drug smugglers

1365UNDULANT FEVER AND INFECTED MILK.

CONVICTION OF DRUG SMUGGLERS.

EARLY this year we called attention to drugaddiction in Egypt, and to the startling disclosuresmade by T. W. Russell Pasha of the internationalgang of smugglers who were largely responsible forthe vast illicit traffic which has been neutralising theefforts of the League of Nations to confine the useof narcotic drugs to medical and scientific purposes.The efforts to unmask this gang were crowned with.success on Nov. 29th when judgment was given atBasle against six persons of different nationalitieswho were convicted of wholesale smuggling of heroinand other drugs. Their operations had been tracedfrom Switzerland to Cairo, Tokyo, Buenos Aires, andother places, and the consignments had been declaredas consisting of powdered glue or labelled " milk

product for infants." Dr. Fritz Muller, a Germanresiding in Basle, was sentenced to nine months’

imprisonment and a fine of 20,000 Swiss francs;Dr. Rausch, a chemist of Geneva, to four months’imprisonment and a fine of 10,000 Swiss francs ;Dr. Diepenhorst, a German, failed to appear, andforfeited his bail of 3000 francs ; while a fourthtrafficker named Balinari was sentenced to six weeks’

imprisonment and fined 1000 Swiss francs. Othersimplicated in the same nefarious traffic are still at

large pending extradition proceedings which havebeen initiated. Salutary as has been the sequel tothe prolonged international efforts of the police, it

is, to say the least, doubtful whether the punish-ments fit the crime, in view of the gigantic profitswhich must have accrued to those engaged in thisheartless trade. For years Switzerland refrainedfrom ratifying the Hague Opium Convention of1912, and its dangerous drug regulations appear tobe less stringent than the Acts of 1920 to 1925 passedin this country. Under these a penalty may beinflicted of penal servitude up to ten years in addi-tion to a fine of 1000. One charge alone against the iBasle prisoners consisted in a sale of 12 cwt. ofheroin valued at 14,600.

UNDULANT FEVER AND INFECTED MILK.

BRUCELLA infection is one of the most widespread- contagious diseases of cattle in Great Britain, andcases of undulant fever in man are steadily beingreported. Most of these are single cases, and their.setiological connexion with a specifically infectedmilk-supply has rarely been demonstrated. Anaccount 2 of an outbreak of undulant fever tracedto an infected milk-supply is therefore of interest.The six cases were all in the small town of Pitman

(population 5387), 18 miles from Philadelphia, U.S.A.,.and the onsets were between Sept. 1st, 1930, andNov. 23rd, 1930, except in one case in which the datecould not be accurately determined. The patientswere three of each sex and with ages from 17 to.58 years. The first case was only recognised onNov. 25th, the diagnosis being based on clinicalsymptoms and specific agglutination of the blood.The report gives particulars of a careful investiga-tion of all possible sources of infection, and exceptfor milk no connexion was traceable. The dailymilk consumption of the town at the time of the cases-was about 2056 quarts, of which 75 per cent. waspasteurised and 25 per cent. sold raw. There were- eight dealers, and of these Dealer A supplied 17 per- cent. of the town’s total milk and 69 per cent. of the

1 THE LANCET, 1931, i., 713.2 Hasseltine, H. E., and Knight, I. W.: U.S. Pub. Health

Reports, Sept. 25th, p. 2291.

town’s raw milk. He did not pasteurise his milk.All the cases used raw milk from Dealer A. Of his

supply about 300 quarts were from his own herd,while the other 150 quarts was purchased fromanother dairyman. About Dec. 12th the agglutina-tion test was applied to each animal of the herd, and24 out of 42 gave positive reactions. Fourteen gavepositive reactions with the milk serum. Brucellamelitensis var. abortus was isolated from the milk oftwo out of six cows. The transportation and sale ofall raw milk or dairy products was prohibited untilall reacting animals were permanently removedunless the milk and milk products were first pas-teurised. The supply was pasteurised, and no freshcases developed, although customers (after a briefdiscontinuance) had sufficient confidence to continuethe use of this milk.

C. W. Dalrymple-Champneys, in his valuable report 3on undulant fever, states that the proportion of

English milk which contains Br. abortus is not known,but in an examination of 488 samples taken fromthe milk-supply (unpasteurised) of a large town, itwas found that 5-7 per cent. of

"

single " milks and

8-8 per cent. of "mixed " milks contained the

organism. He further adds that apparently only14 well-authenticated cases of infection originatingin England have been reported (at the time of writing),and in only two of them was there good evidence ofthe source of infection, two being cow’s milk andone goat’s milk.At the present time the factor which most requires

elucidation is the conditions under which infectionto man takes place. There is a good deal of evidenceshowing that cases are more likely to develop amongstthose who actually handle infected material, and thatinfection through a specifically infected milk-supplyis comparatively rare. A preliminary requirement isa more accurate ascertainment of human cases ofundulant fever, with a detailed study for each caseas to possible sources of infection. The aboveoutbreak is a valuable reminder, however, that aninfected milk-supply cannot be neglected as a possiblesource of sporadic cases or even of an epidemic ofundulant fever.

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THE DECOMPOSITION OF CHLOROFORM.

IT is so well known that chloroform is liable tooxidation that all pharmacopoeias direct the additionof alcohol, which acts as a preservative though itdoes not entirely stop the decomposition. Phosgene(carbonyl chloride) is one of the products formedon oxidation and the object of adding alcohol isto convert this phosgene into hydrochloric acid andethyl carbonate. The pharmacopoeias give testsintended to detect either hydrochloric acid or phosgeneitself, and these are examined by Mr. N. L. Allportin the November number of the Analyst. Thetest in most of the pharmacopoeias is a mere test forhydrochloric acid, either present in the chloroformat the time of testing or formed during the test bythe action of water, with which the chloroform isshaken, on any phosgene present. The water is

separated from the denser chloroform and tested withsilver nitrate. This test Allport found to be notvery sensitive, for a slight opalescence only was givenwhen 10 parts per million of phosgene was presentin a million parts of chloroform. The test with bariumhydroxide proposed by Ramsay is less satisfactorysince it depends on the formation of barium carbonate,which may be formed from atmospheric carbon

3 Ministry of Health Rep. on Pub. Health and Med. SubjectsNo. 56, 1929.