Leysin and Leukanemia

LEYSIN (Leysin), climate, a high-mountain resort in Switzerland, in the canton of Vaud (Waadt). It is located in a valley open to the south, protected on three sides by the mountain range of the Vaud Alps. The various sanatoriums of the resort, situated on terraces, begin from the village of Leysin, lying at an altitude of 1,265 m above sea level, and extend to a plateau at an altitude of 1,510 m. The mountains protecting the resort from northern winds reach a height of 1,800–2,300 m. The mountain slopes are covered with coniferous forest. The resort has existed since 1890 and operates year-round. Characteristic properties of the climate of Leysin: purity of the air, its dryness, strong and prolonged insolation, low air temperature; the average annual temperature of Leysin is +5.3°; the average winter temperature is -1.8°, spring +3.8°, summer +12.3°, autumn +6.8°. Months: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December. Temperature: -13.9, -11.4, -10.3, -7.4, 1.6, -2.4, 3.1, 5.8, 4.1, 1.3, -2.3, -5.5, -10.2. Duration of sunshine in hours: 9.2, 10.7, 32.9, 15.3, 18.7, 22.1, 24.3, 23.6, 22.4, 17.6, 14.7, 10.8. In Leysin, there are several well-equipped sanatoriums for patients suffering from pulmonary and osteoarticular tuberculosis. The main indications and contraindications for treatment in Leysin are the same as for Davos (see Davos and High-mountain climatic stations). Leysin gained great popularity due to the work of Auguste Rollier (A. Rollier), who since 1903 has widely applied climatic and solar treatment there for tuberculosis of the bones, joints, and lymphatic glands. M. Multanovsky.

LEUKANEMIA (the term was proposed by Leube), a blood disease in which the main symptoms include phenomena of leukemia and severe anemia resembling pernicious anemia. At present, it has been clarified that the Leube-Arneth case, which formed the basis of this disease form, has no relation to either leukemia or pernicious anemia and should be considered as a case of sepsis with phenomena of myelosis and severe anemia. As is known, both these phenomena can be observed to varying degrees in sepsis. If the term leukanemia was subsequently preserved in hematology, it was on the basis of other observations that indeed confirmed the simultaneous combination of two phenomena: leukemia and severe anemia. All such cases of leukanemia were subdivided (like leukemia) into acute and chronic, myeloid and lymphatic. It turned out, however, that there is no reason to isolate cases of this kind under the special term leukanemia. They all represent one or another form of leukemia, most often of the myeloid type, but with a distinct anemic accent; the latter, moreover, usually did not bear the characteristic features of pernicious anemia, in the sense of the color index, siderosis of organs, etc., and on the other hand, any leukemia, as is known, is to one degree or another also an anemia. Pappenheim proposed calling only those rare cases leukanemia in which there is a combination of the pictures of leukemic myelosis with typical pictures of pernicious anemia. But even when analyzing cases of this kind, it should be borne in mind that every pernicious anemia is characterized to one degree or another by phenomena of myelosis of the spleen and hematopoietic organs, and that leukanemic phenomena in the indicated sense are observed in Jaksch's form (anaemia splenica infantum), bone carcinosis, and in certain poisonings (e.g., with nitrobenzene, phenylhydrazine), etc. In the end, Naegeli, Hirschfeld, and Morawitz proposed to completely remove the term leukanemia from hematological nomenclature. It would be more correct to apply it only to those very rare cases in which the classic picture of pernicious anemia transitions into typical leukemia or where the very classification of the case (leukemia or pernicious anemia) is very difficult. In modern literature, the term leukanemia is encountered less and less frequently. I. Davydovsky.