100 YEARS AGO

A curious example of resonance is to be noticed in Llandingat Church, Llandovery, South Wales. In one of the windows there is a pane of glass which is not very tightly fixed, being free to oscillate with a definite frequency, which happens to correspond to the frequency of the low pedal “G” of the organ. The consequence is that when the service is taken in G, at the end of each of the Responses, Amens, &c., quite a loud buzzing noise is produced by the resonance of the window; and I have seen strangers sitting near the window seem quite perplexed, not knowing what causes the noise.

From Nature 8 March 1900.

50 YEARS AGO

Among the diseases which fill the out-patient departments of hospitals and dispensaries in tropical Africa, yaws and tropical ulcer are undoubtedly the most time-consuming. Up to the present, yaws has been treated solely by injections of bismuth, arsenicals or penicillin…. The following observations show that aureomycin given by mouth is effective in clearing up the secondary lesions in yaws. Three children all with florid secondary yaws were given aureomycin, six capsules (250 mgm. per capsule) daily for seven days. As African parents consider that yaws treatment without injections cannot possibly be effective, the three children were also given a daily injection of 2 ml. of physiological saline as a placebo. No change in the lesions was noted until the fifth day of treatment, and treponemata could still be seen in the lesions up to this time. On the fifth day the lesions began to dry up and by the seventh day they had almost completely healed. The children gave positive Kahn reactions at the time of beginning treatment and continued to show positive Kahns for six weeks after ceasing treatment, although they remained in good health and exhibited no relapse. Thus, as in syphilis, so in yaws, aureomycin brings about rapid healing of the lesions, but in the doses so far used no serological changes have been noted…. Aureomycin is somewhat slower in action in penicillin; but it has the advantage of not requiring intramuscular injections. It would thus be simpler to carry out mass treatments with aureomycin than with penicillin.

From Nature 11 March 1950.