Acute bacterial meningitis in childhood: an outline of management

When acute purulent meningitis is treated as a medical emergency, the diagnosis made early and the correct medications started im mediately in the proper dosages and by the proper routes, the chances for recovery are excellent. For antibiotic therapy to be most effective, attention must also be directed to anticipating the many complicating hazards, and preventing them. Ampicillin is the antibiotic of first choice. For the child who is allergic to penicillin, chloramphenicol is recommended until the causative organism is identified. The concomitant administration of sulphonamides, streptomycin or other antibiotics is unnecessary and may be harm ful except in the neonatal period when it is recommended to commence therapy with ampicillin and gentamicin.

This report outlines in detail the authors' program for the specific and supportive treatment of bacterial meningitis and the preven tion and management of its major complications. The 100 cases most recently treated at The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, had a case fatality rate of 2.2 per cent.

On the molecular mechanism of facilitated oxygen diffusion by haemoglobin and myoglobin

The equation suggested by Wyman (1966) to explain the facilitated diffusion of oxygen in a haemoglobin solution is studied. The results for myoglobin are also given. A singular perturbation approach is used which, in this particular situation, reduces the problem from that of solving a nonlinear second-order differential equation to that of solving an algebraic quadratic one. The method also suggests functional forms for the dependence of the fractional saturation of the protein on the oxygen concentrations at the surfaces of the layer of solution through which the oxygen diffuses. The variation in the concentration of free oxygen and the fractional saturation within the layer of solution are given for haemoglobin and myoglobin. The results are consistent with those found experimentally by Wittenberg (1966). A physical implication of the mathematical solution is that the haemoglobin or myoglobin is essentially everywhere in equilibrium with the oxygen in solution. Although this has been conjectured in the past, for example by Wyman (1966), it is motivated here by the mathematics.

A Sky Survey of Neutral Hydrogen at l 21 cm. II. The Detailed Distribution of Low Velocity Gas

The distributions of intensity and radial velocity of neutral hydrogen gas of low radial velocity are presented in the form of detailed diagrams of T max., the temperature at the peak of a hydrogen line profile, and of the radial velocity value at the Tmax .

A Sky Survey of Neutral Hydrogen at l 21 cm. I. The General Distribution and Motions of the Local Gas

A survey for neutral hydrogen of the whole sky visible from Sydney has been carried out with a multichannel H-line receiver and a 2�.2 aerial beam. A sample of the profiles obtained has been analysed to present the disposition of local hydrogen in terms of three schematic diagrams: (1) the distribution of N H, the number of hydrogen atoms in a line-of-sight column of 1 cm" section, (2) a diagram of representative line halfwidths, and (3) the observed distribution of profile peak radial velocities.