890 A CLINICAL LABORATORY AT ST. THOMAS’S HOSPITAL.

reports in the volume which we are reluctantly compelledto pass over as our space is already exhausted. The volumefor 1896 is a good one.

A CLINICAL LABORATORY ATST. THOMAS’S HOSPITAL.

THE foundation of a clinical laboratory at St. Thomas’sHospital is worthy of record as it appears to be the first iinstance of such an institution in London. It owes itsorigin, in the first place, to the increasing complexity anddifficulty of the methods employed in the diagnosis ofdisease. The need of such a laboratory having been pointedout to the treasurer and governors of the hospital they

logical examination of the throat in diphtheria and alliedconditions both on admission and before discharge ; (2) thecompletion of the hospital record of each patient; and

(3) the periodical routine examination of the water andsterilised dressings, &c., supplied to the operating theatres.The laboratory thus has no connexion with the medicalschool and it plays no direct part in the teaching of

students. Its work is entirely devoted to the service of thehospital., The laboratory, which is shown in the accompanyingi illustration, was opened in November of last year. Itmeasures 46 ft. by 17 ft. and is lighted by seven large win-dows, the main frontage facing the east. A third of theroom, separated from the rest by a screen of wood and glass,is devoted entirely to bacteriology. The whole laboratory isprovided with electric light, teak has been used for the floorand benches, and iti is thoroughly equipped with all the

erected without delay a separate laboratory in the hospital. ; rThe work to be carried on in it was defined as being(1) the investigation of the diseases of patients in the hos-pital by means of all those methods of examination whichcannot be carried out at the bedside, including the bacterio-

; apparatus necessary for bacteriological, microscopical, andchemical research. The work has been placed in the handsof Dr. Jenner as superintendent and four or six assistantsare appointed every three or six months from among thesenior students.

THE NEW VACCINATION BILL.

THE following is the text of the Vaccination Bill whichwas introduced in the House of Commons on Tuesday,March 15th, by Mr. Chaplin, the President of the LocalGovernment Board. The Bill bears the names of the First

Lord of the Treasury, the Home Secretary, and the Attorney-General, as well as that of its introducer.

A Bill to Amend the Law with respect to Vaccination.Be it enacted by the Queen’s most Excellent Majesty, by and with

the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, andCommons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authorityof the same as follows :1.-(1) The period within which the parent or other person having

the custody of a child shall cause the child to be vaccinated shall betwelve months from the birth of the child instead of the period of threemonths mentioned in Section 16 of the Vaccination Act of 1867 and somuch of the section as requires the child to be taken to a public vac-cinator to be vaccinated shall be repealed.

(2) The public vaccinator of the dis rict sball, if the parent or otherperson having the custody of a child so requ res, visit tne home of thechild for the purpose of vaccinating the child.

(3) If a child is not vaccinated within nine months after its birth thepublic vaccinator of the district shall visit the home of the child andshall offer to vaccinate the child with glye - inated calf lymph.

I 2. An order under section thirty one of the Vaccination Act of 1867pdirecting that a child be vaccinated, shall not be made on any personwho has previously been convicted of non-compliance with a similarorder relating to the same child.

3. The Local Government Board shall have the same powers ofmaking rules and regulations with respect to public vaecinators.(whether under contracts made before or after the passing of this Act)as they have with respect to vaccination efficers and any rules or

regulations made by the Board with respect to vaccination, whetherunder this or any other Act, shall, while in force, have effect as ifenacted by this Act.

4. The enactments mentioned in the schedule to this Act are,

hereby repealed to the extent specified in the third column of that.schedule.5 -(1) This Act shall not extend to Scotland or Ireland.(2) This Act shall come into operation on the first day oj January

one thousand eight hundred and ninety-nine.(3) This Act may b- cited as the Vaccination Act, 1898, and the-

Vaccination Act of 1867, the Vaccination Act, 1871, the VaccinationAct. 1874, and this Act shall be construed together as one Act, and maybe cited collectively as the Vaccination Acts, 1867 to 1898.

An appended Schedule shows the Bill to provide the

following Repeals :-Session and Chapter 30 & 31 Vict. c. 84. Short Title-The Vaccina-

tion Act of 1867. Extent of Repeal : Section 6; Section 7 from "andshall provide all stations " to the end of the section ; so much of Section8 as fixes the amount of payment thereunder; Section 12; in Section15, from "according to the provisions to " performing the operation";Section 16, the words " within three months after the birth of Buchchild and from "within three months after receiving to period as