The Medical journal of Australia
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Historical Article
"Ring the bell and win a cigar". Some early experiments on the measurement of human strength in Port Jackson and Van Diemen's Land.
The first medical research formally undertaken on Australian soil was a series of experiments to test different factors which might modify muscular power. The experiments were conducted by François Péron, a Parisian doctor and naturalist, who travelled with Baudin's French scientific expedition to Nouvelle Hollande and Terre de Diemen. ⋯ He conducted his experiments at Port Jackson, and at Maria Island (in Van Diemen's Land) in 1902. The basis for the experiments, an account of the equipment used, and the results are presented together for the first time.
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An improved operative technique for funnel chest is described in detail. The results of operation with this procedure on 229 cases over the past 10 years are compared with those obtained, using an earlier technique, on 319 cases over the preceding 16 years.
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This case report describes cardiorespiratory arrest which occurred in a 38-year-old man immediately after a mobilization procedure of the cervical spine without anaesthesia.
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A follow-up study has been made of a personal series of 118 cases of patients with scleroderma (progressive systemic sclerosis) followed for periods up to 25 years. These were classified according to the early distribution of skin changes as Type 1 (skin changes in fingers only), 48 cases; Type 2 (skin changes beyond the fingers but mainly in extremities), 47 cases; and Type 3 (diffuse), 19 cases, and atypical, four cases. ⋯ Actual compared with expected survival rate was better for younger than for older patients and for females than for males. Although the disease type gives an indication of survival in general, the caution must be used in the individual cases, as the course of the disease is very variable even in patients of the same type, and is subject to remission and relapse.