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present time, five months after the operation, the stateof the patient has not changed ; she can hold herurine for five or six hours when in the erect pos-ture and from 10 to 12 hours when recumbent, and thecapacity of her bladder now amounts to 350 cubic centi-metres (12 fluid ounces). Dr. Gersuny employs for his

injections the unguentum paraffini of the Austrian Pharma-copæia, melting at 40°0. The vaseline is first sterilised byboiling and is injected in a semi-liquid state. It does not

produce any inflammation, but it seems that slight prolifera-tion of the connective tissue takes place round it so that thevaseline becomes encysted. The histological changes pro-duced by the injections are now being studied at Dr.Gersuny’s laboratory, and experiments on animals are beingmade for the same purpose. The course of the cases

treated up to the present proves that the vaseline remainsunaltered in the place where it was deposited, that it- does not become absorbed, and that it is without action onthe tissues of the body. The size and shape of the vaselinedeposit have not changed since the date of the operations,though some of them were performed more than a year ago.The changes in the connective tissue around the injectedvaseline seem to be caused by mechanical pressure, andthey are somewhat analogous to the very marked effects pro-duced by the chemical action of Professor Lannelongue’sinjections of chloride of zinc. It is obvious that this methodmay find a very wide use in surgery, especially for elevatingand supporting the skin over unsightly depressions, for theformation of artificial obturators, and for the treatment ofvarious prolapses, as for instance of the rectum. The effectof a pessary might also be produced by circularly arrangedinjections of vaseline under the mucous membrane of thevagina, as has been shown recently by a case of vaginalprolapsus successfully treated in this way at the gynæco-logical clinic by Dr. Halban. At Dr. Gersuny’s hospitalexperiments are now being made on the prevention of anky-losis after resections of joints by interposing vaseline

partitions between the ends of the resected bones.Dec. 28tb, 1900.

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CANADA.

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

Canadian Beer.THE alarming news from Manchester in reference to the

deaths and wide-spread illness through beer-drinking hascaused some little concern to the lovers of that beveragein Canada, and inquiries have been numerous as to

whether the same misfortune might not occur hereas has occurred in Manchester and its vicinity. The vice-

president of the Canadian Breweries (Limited) has,however, given out a statement to the press which willno doubt quiet any alarm that may have been engenderedby reports from the mother country. Canada has never

adopted the "free mash-tun" principle, and the law hereprovides that no substitute whatever for malt shall be used,as the duty is levied directly on the malt and no furtherduties are imposed on the beer produced. In Canada allbeer is manufactured exclusively from malt and hops and nosubstitutes are permitted for these substances under heavypenalties. It is a well-known fact that Canada producesthe finest barley grown on this continent and thereforethe drinkers of Canadian beers have two substantialguarantees of purity which are said to be absent in

England and the United States, the two great countrieswhich have adopted the " free mash-tun " principle—(1) thatno substitute for malt is permitted, and (2) that owing to i

the high duty on malt only that made from the choicestbarley may be employed with economy.

New Civic Hospital for Montreal.Last week representatives from all of the hospitals in

Montreal, both French and English, met the city counciland perfected plans for the immediate erection of a newhospital for contagious diseases, as the present one is a veryantiquated structure. Four pavilions for hospital purposeswill be erected with a central administration building.Each pavilion will be of two floors containing the necessaryaccommodation for about 50 beds, with 12 beds for privatecases. There will be provision made for all cases of diph-theria, scarlet fever, small-pox, measles, typhoid fever, andother infectious diseases liable to break out at any time in

the city. The administration building will contain themedical officers’ apartments, observation-rooms, &c. A fineblock of land has already been secured. The control of theinstitution will be vested in a joint board of nine members,five of whom, including the chairman, will be appointed bythe city council, and two by the executives of the Englishhospitals, while two will come from the French hospitals.All matters of finance and expenditure by this board willbe subject to ratification by the city council. The estimatedcost will be$100,000, which will be raised by a special loan.

Manual Training Schools.Through the generosity of Sir William Macdonald of

Montreal manual training schools will, after Jan. lst, 1901,be a part of the public school system in every province inthis Dominion. These schools will be established in thefollowing places : Charlottetown and Summerside, PrinceEdward’s Island; Truro, Nova Scotia; Frederickton, NewBrunswick ; Waterloo, Knowlton, Bedford, Montreal, andWestmount, Quebec; Ottawa and Brookville, Ontario;Winnipeg, Manitoba; Regina and Calgary, North-westTerritory; and Victoria and Vancouver, British Columbia.Arrangements have been made for five instructors inWinnipeg alone, where 1000 boys will take the course.

These classes will be made up from the three highestforms in the public schools in the places named ; andthe teachers, in all about 30, have come, or are coming,from England and the United States under three-yearengagements. On Jan. lst 5000 boys will be taking thiscourse. Sir William Macdonald provides all the equipmentof every school and pays the salaries of all the teachers andthe cost of maintenance for the three years.

The Sntoke Nuisance in Toronto and Montreal.Toronto has just completed a costly new city hall, and as

it is becoming discoloured by the smoke of a large industrialestablishment in its immediate neighbourhood the citycouncil has taken up the question of compelling all manu-facturers to consume their own smoke. Some 20 years agoProfessor Carpenter, the eminent physiologist, visitedToronto and was then very much surprised that a city ofsuch beauty and such salubrity of climate should bebefouled, and have the health ot its citizens jeopardised,by the ever-pouring out of these clouds of black smokefrom the tall chimneys of the great manufactoriesof the city. Montreal suffers greatly from the same

nuisance, and it is understood that the city fathers of thatmetropolis are to follow the lead of Toronto in maintaining apurer atmosphere for its citizens. Cape Breton is a part ofCanada which is now passing through a period of greatdevelopment through the energy of the well-known Bostoncapitalist, Mr. Henry M. Whitney. This gentleman believesthat the best way of dealing with this smoke nuisance in asatisfactory manner is to provide smokeless fuel, which he isnow doing on a large scale for the city of Boston. Hehas erected 400 by-product coke ovens in which the coal ofCape Breton is converted into a cheap smokeless fuel. Hestates that the gas, tar, and ammonia which are saved morethan pay for the trouble of converting the coal into coke.When this fact becomes to be generally recognised in Canadaits cities and towns will produce a purer atmosphere fortheir inhabitants.

Free Consumption Sanitarium for Toronto.The National Sanitarium Association which controls the

Muskoka Cottage Sanitarium at Gravenhurst has offered toconstruct, equip, and maintain an institution for the con-sumptive poor of Toronto, without asking any municipal aidfrom the city on capital account, with the exception of theordinary per diem hospital allowance of 40 cents for eachpatient. The erection of the building will be begun at onceand it will be ready in a year for the accommodation atfirst of 50 patients. This accommodation will be forthose patients who are in the very first stages of

consumption, and the association proposes to erect theinstitution in the immediate neighbourhood of the Muskoka

. establishment. Arrangements have already been madewith the Grand Trunk Railway Company for free trans-

portation of 100 patients per annum to and from Graven-hurst, with half rates for all over 100. The advantages

. for its location in Muskoka are the climate, the site, and the, suitability as already demonstrated by the results achieved. at the Muskoka Cottage Sanitarium. When this part of thel work is under way the association will then take up thiquestion of providing accommodation for advanced cases at

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a distance from the city of not more than five or six miles.Toronto was about to submit a by-law to the ratepayersfor funds to the amount of$50,000 towards this purpose,but the offer of the National Sanitarium Association willnow render this unnecessary.

Providing for the Insane in Ontario.The Government of the Province of Ontario has lately been

coming in for some severe criticism at the hands of themedical and lay press for its failure to provide ample andproper accommodation for the insane of the province. Nearly100 of these unfortunate people can be found in the commongaols, and it is said that in Toronto alone some 49 lunaticsare confined who are awaiting transference to the asylums.These, however, are all full, so the lunatics must continue tobe housed with thieves and other criminals. Work is beingpushed on at the old Victoria College at Coburg, which,when completed, will accommodate 200 patients, and a newboys’ reformatory is about to be erected in Oxford county,when the present reformatory at Penetang will be availablefor further accommodation for the insane. With this addedincrease to their accommodation the Government will here-after endeavour to keep abreast of the growing requirementsof this unfortunate class of the community.

A Toronto Plzysiciany’ Protective Association.In its November issue the -Dominion Medical Monthly

advocates the formation of the above association. It statesthat in Detroit an organisation of this character has beenformed and that over 400 of the physicians of that city havesigned the roll of membership and that the organisation isproving a great benefit to the profession in that city. Othercities of the United States are said to be following in thefootsteps of Detroit ; in fact, organisation amongst medicalmen is in the air across the border. It appears that there hasbeen some quiet talk going on among the members of themedical profession in Toronto tending to the formation ofsome sort of protective association, though on what lines isnot apparent. There is, no doubt, wide room for such anorganisation, and it is altogether probable that the near

future will see something tangible done in the way of

lightening the burdens under which the profession suffers inthis city. Toronto is a rather conservative city-an attributewhich has to a great extent been incorporated in the medicalbody-but when professional organisation has proved to besuccessful in neighbouring cities the benefits to be derivedtherefrom cannot long be resisted.

Toronto, Dec. 17th, 1900.

NEW YORK.(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

Typhoid Fever prevented by a Filtering Plant.THE city of Albany formerly had an evil reputation because

of the prevalence of typhoid fever. It obtained most of thewater it used from the Hudson river, which was con-

taminated by sewage from all the towns and cities along theMohawk and the Hudson rivers and their tributaries, someof which penetrate into Massachusetts and the border factorytowns in the Berkshires. Strangers visiting Albany, many ofthem members of the Legislature or students attending theschools, sickened and died. No family in Albany of anyprudence drank water from the Hudson river unless it hadbeen first boiled and put through a good filter. Thousandsof persons never drank any of the water provided bythe city but bought spring water which was peddledthrough the streets. Nevertheless, there were a largenumber of fatal cases of typhoid fever in the cityand Albany suffered in reputation. In 1896 the Board ofWater Commissioners changed the intake of water for thecity, which drew from the Hudson river opposite the heart ofthe city and below some of its sewers, two miles further upthe river, to a point above all the local sources of pollution,and pumped the water by low-lift pumps to a settling basin,from which it could flow to sand filters and be purified. Thewater after being filtered is pumped to reservoirs on thehills west of Albany and thence is distributed through thecity. A small part of the city is, however, still suppliedwith the unfiltered water. The report of the first year’sresults is as follows. The bacterial removal has averaged99 per cent. For nine months of this year there have beenreported to the Board of Health 30 deaths from typhoid

fever. Of these, 12 deaths were alien cases-i.e., the attend-ing physician has reported that the patient contracted thedisease outside of the city-four cases were "unaccountedfor " and occurred in institutions where it was impossibleto obtain information concerning tbem, or else they livedwithin the city limits, but in localities where they did nothave a city water-supply. Of the remaining 14 cases oneoccurred in the part of the city supplied with unfilteredwater, five occurred in the portion of the city supplied withmixed filtered and stream water, and eight occurred in thesection of the city supplied with only filtered water. Thisnumber of deaths reported, 30, compares favourably with 83deaths reported for the same months in the year before thefilter was put in operation. The average number of deathsfor the nine years previously to the construction of the filterplant was 67, so that more than 50 per cent. decrease inthe deaths from this disease has followed on the new works.

Biirea7t of Animal Industry.This bureau cf the United States Government reports that

during the year the number of abattoirs and packing-housesreceiving the benefit of inspection was 148 in 45 localities, asagainst 138 in 41 localities in the preceding year. The totalante-mortem inspections of cattle aggregated 53,087,994;the animals rejected, subject to post mortem, were, atabattoirs 5958, and in stock-yards 153,561. The total post.mortem inspections were 34,737,613 and the total carcassescondemned were 61,906. In the microscopic inspec.tion of pork 999,554 carcasses were examined. Of thesebut 19,448, or 1’95 per cent., were found to contain livingtrichinae. The work of preparing serum for treating hogcholera and swine plague and experiments in treatmenttherewith are continued, with results which, while they donot justify definite conclusions as yet, are sufficientlyencouraging to justify continued experiments, includingsome on entirely new lines. With regard to rabies, thesecretary declares that this disease is unfortunately on theincrease in the United States and that local authorities inmost cases have not efficiently controlled its outbreaks.He also earnestly recommends an inspection of dairyproducts designed for export. Elaborate work in theinvestigation of food adulteration has been continued.

Proposed Change in the Management of Nerv York CityHospitals.

The Charter Revision Commission has proposed an amend-ment which provides that on Feb. 1st, 1902, Bellevue,Gouverneur, Harlem, and Fordham Hospitals, and theEmergency Hospital for Women, shall be taken from theDepartment of Public Charities and be vested in a board oftrustees appointed by the mayor. The city hospitals would,therefore, be brought under the same system of control thatprevails in private hospitals.

Massachusetts State Sanatorium for Tuberculosis.From the fourth annual report of this institution, the first

established in this country, the following facts appear.132 patients remained from one to 19§ months. In82 incipient cases 53 patients were dismissed as appa-rently cured, 28 were improved, and one was not improved ;none died. Of moderately advanced cases (40 in all) sixpatients were dismissed as cured or the disease arrested, 18were improved, 15 were not improved, and one died. Ofthe patients in 10 far advanced cases three improved,six did not improve, ’and one died. The total was 132; ofthese 59 were apparently cured or the disease was arrested,49 were improved, 22 were not improved, and two died.Dr. Bowditch, the visiting physician, says, "The chiefvalue of such an institution as this sanatorium is itseducational influence upon the community at large.Abundant and gratifying proofs of this are constantly beingshown to us by the numerous letters received from formerpatients, telling us of their improved methods of life andtheir endeavour to teach their relatives and frimds theimportance or fresh air, good food, and regular living as

the best method for the prevention of disease. The sana-torium is, therefore, in one sense a great educationalestablishment, and as such should receive the hearty andgenerous support of everyone who is desirous of combatingthe ravages of tuberculosis."

Separate Prisons for Tuberculozcs Convicts.Dr. W. H. Blake, physician to the board of inspectors of

convicts for Alabama, states that the statistics of deaths

among the convicts in the Alabama State prisons for the