Academy of Television Arts and Sciences

In the second half of 1793, slavery was abolished in the French colony of Saint Domingue or present-day Haiti. This was one of the most radical events of the French Revolution and one of the great moments in Caribbean history. Saint Domingue became the first land in the New World to outlaw slavery and to offer full rights to non-whites, yet there has been much confusion over how and when abolition occurred. Historians of the French Revolution have generally ignored abolition altogether, apparently as irrelevant to the “real” revolution, while Caribbeanists have frequently been guilty of publishing incorrect or at least incomplete versions. Even specialists in Haitian history have failed to distinguish between the various abolition proclamations which were issued between June 21 and October 31, 1793. It is the purpose of this paper to give a correct chronology to abolition and to show that it was due primarily to the efforts of one man, Léger Félicité Sonthonax, aided somewhat reluctantly by Etienne Polverel.

A commercial enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for detection of herpes simplex virus (HSV) antigen in clinical specimens and culture lysates was evaluated. A total of 1,155 specimens and an additional 335 cell culture lysates were tested by ELISA, and results were compared to those obtained by cell culture in primary rabbit kidney, human foreskin, and MRC-5. The sensitivity and specificity of the direct test were 52.5 and 96.9% and those of the culture lysate test were 98.7 and 96.9%, respectively. The sensitivity of the direct ELISA correlated with early cytopathic effect in cell culture and varied with specimen source, ranging from 100% with skin lesions to 40.9% with cervical swabs. Of 60 cervical specimens from asymptomatic individuals, 22 (36.6%) yielded false-positives, which may be due to noninfectious HSV. No reproducible cross-reactions were found with other viruses isolated. The Ortho HSV ELISA was found to be rapid, sensitive, and specific for detection of HSV from cell culture lysates, but it needs reevaluation for direct specimen testing, in particular for screening of asymptomatic obstetrical patients.

An error appeared in the article on "Acrylic Prosthesis Replacing Lower End of the Femur for Benign Giant-Cell Tumor" by Dr. George L. Kraft and Dr. Daniel H. Levinthal as published in the April issue of The Journal. On page 368 the legend under Fig. 1-A and Fig. 1-B should have read "Anteroposterior and lateral roentgenograms of the right femur, showing a enign giant-cell tumor which extends down to the cortical bone of the articulation. A pathological fracture is evident." The last line on the page should have been omitted. It is suggested that this correction be made by the reader in his April issue.

The Great Basin district, during the Paleozoic and lower Mesozoic, was a geosynclinal area, in which 30,000 feet of sediments accumulated. The district was folded in the mid-Mesozoic revolution to form a mighty mountain system. It was thereafter degraded, during the Cretaceous and most of the Tertiary, to a region of low relief. By Pliocene time the crust in the Pacific geosynclinal belt west of the Great Basin district had become so weakened that the intermediate Sierra Nevada massif began to creep westward under gravity. The Great Basin district followed, its crust was extended, and block-faulting commenced. In the Pleistocene, western North America was epeirogenically uplifted, and as a result the gravity flow increased. The Sierra Nevada massif and its extensions moved westward as much as 60 miles, shortening the crust in California, and extending the crust in the Great Basin district, to that extent. The Great Basin District then collapsed, ponded its drainage, and occasioned a topographic discrepancy which caused the Grand Canyon of the Colorado to be cut.