Focal Infections
OR FOCAL INFECTION DISEASES, those which originate in foci of infection, i. e. localized areas or parts of the body where pathogenic germs become seated and whence they are carried to other parts or spread throughout the body by the blood or the lymph stream. Many comdiseases, including rheumatism, mon pneumonia, appendicitis, bronchial asthma, and catarrh, together with general physical debility, and even mental-nerve diseases, have been found to arise in many cases from local infections apparently unconnected with the final symptoms of the disease in question. Common foci of infection are the intestinal canal and all the exposed membranes of the head, the mouth, nose, throat, tonsils, gums, and lastly the teeth, whose importance in this respect has lately received wide recognition. The poisonous germs multiplied in these localities often produce their first noticeable effects when carried to other parts peculiarly susceptible, such as the joints, kidneys, stomach, lungs, etc. In recent years an important part of the treatment of victims of mental disorders has been the removal of foci of infection found in bad teeth, in- FORDNEY-McCUMBER TARIFF (See UNITED STATES, 1922-23.) FOREIGN DEBTS. (British Debt Settlement). An agreement for the payment of Great Britain's debt to the United States was reached in January, 1923, between the American Foreign Debt Commission and a British Commission headed by Stanley Baldwin, Chancellor of the Exchequer. The total of the debt, to be covered by British bonds issued to the United States at par, was fixed at $4,600,000,000, the principal of the bonds to be paid in in increasing instalments over a period of 62 years. The rate of interest on unpaid balances was fixed at 3 per cent for 1923 and 3½ per cent thereafter. Congressional approval of the agreement was given in February, 1923.