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bmdkerchief drawn tight with many precautions. Atthe present moment public opinion is extremely hostile4o the medical -experts who gave evidence at thetwo former trials and by each time declaring theinnocence of Jeanne Weber allowed her to escape from

justiceand to commit fresh crimes. Numerous interviewswith medical men are being published in the newspapers,- some defending and others condemning the experts, who fortheir part maintain that their opinions given in evidencewere absolutely unassailable, because they did not find inthe deceased any appearance which they could con-

scientiously regard as a positive indication that murder hadbeen committed. As regards the crime which the womanhas just perpetrated and about which there is no possibilityof doubt, they think that she suffers from dementiaaggravated by poverty, privation, intemperance, and mentalexcitement, and that she took the child’s life under theindnence of a genuine mental obsession. Their hypothesisis that the woman was tormented night and day by thethought that she was looked upon as a strangler of childrenand that she finally ventured upon doing what she had sooften heard spoken about. This view of the case has, how-ever, been received with distrust not only by the generalpublic but also by a portion of the medical profession.

<7A?’OMtC Appendioitis.At a meeting of the Academy of Medicine held on

May 12th M. Richelot read an interesting and a suggestivepaper on Appendicite Larvie. This condition, he said, is found;among the class of cases known as muco-membranous entero-- colitis; the patients complain of extremely varied generalsymptoms and no medical treatment is of any avail. On- examination of the appendix it would be found to bediseased, although the patient presented none of therecognised clinical indications of appendicitis. In the casesobserved by M. Richelot a constant pain in the epigastricregion was a frequent symptom.

An Exhibition of Ambulance Dogs.At the approaching international dog show the Eastern

43anine Society has decided to organise, near Nancy, anexhibition of ambulance dogs, which will be held on

June 23rd under the auspices of the Medical Service of the20th Regiment. This will afford a very interesting demon-stration of the services which well-trained dogs can render insearching for the wounded on a field of battle. One dogthat will take part in the show, named Gaspard, which wastrained by a hospital orderly of Nancy, has already aMilitant record for military ambulance work by seeking outand finding wounded men hidden amongst woods and in-difficulty country.Mav 2Sth.

COPENHAGEN.(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

The New Light-Bath Treatment.I MENTIONED in my last letter the new light-bath treat-

ment for cardiac and other chronic diseases carried out atthe Finsen Medical Light Institute of Copenhagen. On theoccasion of the inauguration of the new clinical building thetechnique of the treatment was described by Dr. A. Oigaard.Two large carbon arc lamps aie used, each of 75 amperes andfrom 50 to 55 volts. They are placed 48 centimetres distant’from one another and may be lowered or raised simultaneouslyaccording to the position, whether erect or recumbent, of thepatient. The patient places himself as near as possible tothe source of light, usually at a distance of from 50 to

<60 centimetres, where the temperature is about 40&deg; C.measured by the bright-bulb thermometer. During the treat-ment the patient wears only a sort of bathing drawers,slippere, a broad-brimmed straw hat with a linen veiland dark goggles. During the first 10 or 20 minutes the

,patient is in the standing position and turns from time totime in order to obtain a uniform action of the light over thewhole surface of the body. The remaining 10 (or more)minutes of the i-eance are passed by the patient on a couch,the position of which is varied by the attendant. A showerbath finishes the treatment. The duration of a single treat-ment is, on an average, about half an hour. The number ofeeances going to make up a course is about nine; two<3<:&aces are given in a week. The first objective effect of

the light bath is erythema, the onset of which may beaccompanied by slight but never disagreeable rigors and a, slight rise of temperature. In three female patients the, temperature, however, rose as high as 40’ 40 0. On the dayL following the treatment the temperature was always normal.I As to the results, the following statements apply to the, 159 out-patients treated at the Institute in 1907. Nearlyall of them were treated exclusively by light baths, andt most of them were able to follow their usual occupationt during the treatment. In 34 of 60 cases the absolute heart. dulness decreased, and in 10 out of 14 cases of oedema thisl condition disappeared totally. The blood pressure wasL determined in most of the patients by means of Hill andr Barnard’s sphygmomanometer. It turned out that in all cases where the pressure was abnormally high at thel beginning of the treatment a decrease, and very often at considerable de<rease, takes place. If the blood pressure! was normal to begin with, the effect is only insignificant; int two cases there was a slight increase. The subjectivel effects of the treatment are a peculiar, agreeable feeling. of weariness, and during the last half of the period. a certain state of psychical excitation manifesting itself; in a sensation of increased working power. Patients were

nearly always able to sleep well during the treatment.Dr. H. Jacobaeus has published his experience of the light-bath treatment in angina pectoris. 52 patients were treated.In three cases the treatment had to be discontinued, while

i in two cases the result was negative. In 14 patients theeffect was only slight or transitory. 33 patients wereimproved ; in three of these a nearly complete recovery fromthe symptoms maintained itself for a long period. Dr.Jacobaeus thinks that the improvement obtained is due, at

, least chiefly, to the physiological effects of the light baths, and he expects that the light-bath treatment will also in

future prove a valuable means of bringing about some degreeof improvement in the majority of patients suffering fromangina pectoris.

Appenrlicitis.At the last meeting of the Copenhagen Medical Society

there was a discussion on appendicitis. Dr. L. Kraft saidthat in his opinion the various clinical forms of the diseasemight be assigned to one of four classes, which he describedwith much detail. Professor Tscherning said that it did notmatter much whether the case appertained to one or anotherof the classes described, and he doubted very much whetherhe could recognise the classes from the description whichhad just been given. There were, however, two questions

i of importance-namely, was there any concomitant peri-tonitis and, particularly, was the peritonitis circumscribedor prcgressive ? 1 In the first case the surgeon might awaitthe course of events, but in the second case he had to

operate immediately. A very good sign of spreading peri-tonitis was the one described by the late ProfessorLennander-namely, spreading painfulness on pressure. Onthe whole, Professor Tscherning’s impression derived fromwatching nearly 1000 cases of appendicitis was that

operation was the only real treatment for appendi-citis ; circumstances had, however, prevented him fromoperating in about a fourth of his cases. Professor ThorkildRovsing alluded to a statement made by Dr. Kraft inhis introductory address-namely, that Rovsing’s symptom 1of appendicitis was present only when the appendix wassituated internally to the cascum. He felt sure that theinvestigation had not been made in the correct manner as hehad described it, for it had never yet disappointed him. Hewas astonished to hear that Professor Tscherning had notoperated in all his cases, though he seemed to accept theaxiom "once appendicitis, always appendicitis." He him-self operated in practically all cases and was not able to seehow the cases could be distinguished in which operationmight be omitted.

Spiroohaeta Pallida.At the last meeting of the Biological Society Dr. 0.

Thomsen read a paper on the distribution of spirochsetapallida in the tissues. He agreed with those investigatorswho regard the so-called silver spirochaatasas true spirochaetaepallidas. He had found that the syphilitic pneumonia ofnewly born infants began as a peribronchitis, aLd that a thicklayer of spirocheatoe was to be found unrer the epithelium ofthe bronchioles. It was not until the later stages that thespirocba3ta3 spread out in the tissues of the lung, and that

1 Described in THE LANCET, Nov. 22rd, 1907, p. 1503.

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the well-known macroscopic and microscopic lesions of

syphilitic pneumonia developed.Female Voting and Mental Diseases.

Although the clamour of the British suffragettes to beallowed to vote in Parliamentary elections is of comparativelyrecent date, the women of Finland have not only for sometime been in possession of the right to vote but may even beelected Members of Parliament. This would not, however,seem to be an undoubted boon. At least a Finnish medicalman, Dr. Onni Granholm, asserts that there is a certainconnexion between the votes-for-women movement and thefrequency of mental diseases. He has chosen to study thequestion in a small municipality, as in the large towns thepoat ible etiological factors of mental diseases are too manyand too varied to allow of the drawing of trustworthy con-clusions. In the municipality in question, Nurmes, thenumber of lunatics has been steadily and alarminglyincreasing from the year 1900 up to now. In 1900the population was 11,888 with 29 lunatics ; in 1906it was 12,137 with 67 lunatics. Dr. Granholm claimsto be able to exclude any augmentation of the com-

mon causes of mental diseases, because the Socialistmovement and the political disaster under which Finlandhas laboured have not extended their influence to the remoteplace in question. Moreover, morbid religious movementsand heredity are also said to be unable to explain theincrease of lunatics. But visitors to Nurmes speedilybecome aware of the very emancipated views of the femalepopulation, particularly the female teachers. In thisgentleman’s opinion domestic life in that place has becomeunfavourable to the normal mental development of the youngof both sexes, the result being a marked increase in mentalaberration.

. May 20th. _____ ____ ___

VIENNA.(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

3ee Use of White Phosphorus in the Manufacture of Mat7tes.THE Vienna Medical Society some time ago appointed a

committee to investigate the conditions arising out of theuse of white phosphorus in the manufacture of matches andthe report of this committee has now been published. At

present about 70 per cent. of the matches produced inAustria contain this dangerous white phosphorus, andthe principal seat of the manufacture is now in Bohemia,having been transferred there from Vienna where the

regulations and inspection are very strict. On this account

phosphorus necrosis is very seldom seen in the clinics of theUniversity of Vienna, whilst in the Bohemian hospitals suchcases are fairly frequent. A careful examination of the

hospital reports shows that every year at least 40 cases ofphosphorus necrosis occur in Austria, and of these 20per cent. prove fatal, either directly or indirectly.It could not be decided whether the main reason

for the occurrence of the necrosis was the inadequacyof the regulations or the laxity of their application.The experience of all countries where white phosphorus isnot strictly excluded from the manufacture shows that it isimpossible even by the best of regulations to stamp out thedisease. The use of this form of phosphorus is not only asource of risk to the persons engaged in the manufacture butis a danger to the general public as well, matches being usedas an abortifacient in many rural districts. Moreover, inVienna alone there have been during the last ten years 741cases of females and 396 cases of males who had attemptedsuicide by the phospborus contained in matches; 342 ofthese proved fatal. The ease with which the poison can beobtained in every family is mainly responsible for the largenumber of attempts, many excitable young people havingbeen induced to end their troubles by so simple a means.The Vienna Medical Society therefore proposes that a petitionshould be addressed to the Government requesting it to pre-vent any further use of white phosphorus iu match factories,to stop the sale of such matches, and to accept the principlesof the convention held at Berne in 1906, which nearly allEuropean countries have joined.

Poisoning by " I Montanin.Two cases of poisoning by a liquid hitherto not regarded

as dangerous to life have occurred quite recently in Viennaand they deserve mention on account of their toxicological

interest. " Montanin " is a by-product of ceramic processes ;it forms a colourless, odourless liquid, containing about21 per cent. of hydrofluosilicic acid. It is used mostly inbreweries as an antiseptic but the building trade employsit for drying damp walls and for preventing the formation ofmould. In the cases cited above a man mistook it forbeer in the dark and gulped down about a quarter ofa pint of the liquid. His mother also had some ofit but not more than a mouthful. The man a fewseconds after drinking it complained of intense pain inhis stomach and became very pale. Abundant salivationthen appeared, and he soon vomited acid mucous masseswhich were at first whitish but afterwards brownish withsome blood. Intense thirst caused him to swallow enormousquantities of water. Dyspnoea and convulsions set in and hedied 15 minutes after taking the poison. The woman alsocomplained of pain and thirst, but her condition improvedafter her stomach had been washed out in a hospital. Shesuffered only from acute toxic nephritis and acute gastro-enteritis and was discharged after a fortnight. Dr. Rosner,who reports these cases, concludes his paper with theremarks that "montanin" " must be recognised as being adangerous poison, that the inspectors of breweries shouldturn their attention to this supposed harmless liquid, andthat in forensic cases such as trials for murder in which amineral acid has been used the presence of

" montanin " maygive a clue to the murderer. At the necropsy of the deceasedman it was found that all the symptoms produced by ordinarycorrosive acids were present; the mucous membranes of theoesophagus and the stomach and part of the liver were whiteand eroded; the blood was liquid; there were no markedchanges in the spleen or kidneys.

A Novel Method of Removing a Foreign Body from theBladder.

At a recent meeting of the Medical Society Dr. Lenk ofProfessor Hochenegg’s clinic, showed a man 56 years old, whohad applied for advice with symptoms of severe hsematuriaand cystitis. When he was examined by means of a largecystoscope a wax taper, twisted on itself and covered byincrustations, was plainly seen floating in the upper part ofthe liquid contained in his bladder, where it had been intro-

, duced some 16 weeks ago and had set up severe ulcerativeicystitis. The condition of the patient was very unpromising ;. an operation was certain to be dangerous owing to the stateof the bladder; and extraction without injury to the urethrawas impossible on account of the incrustations. Professor. Hochenegg accordingly suggested that benzene (one of the, light liquid petroleums) should be injected into the! bladder so as to dissolve the taper. In order tomake the method as little painful as possible, the inflamed mucous membrane being highly irritable, 120 cubiccentimetres of sterile water were first injected into the bladder, distending it and causing the taper to float ; 50: cubic centimetres of benzene were then injected, and this) being lighter than water rose to the top and acted readily. on the taper without causing much pain, as the diseasedL part of the bladder was not in contact with the irritant

r liquid. The benzene was withdrawn after acting for O. seconds. Five sittings, each of 20 seconds’ duration, were; sufficient to dissolve the stearin of the taper and the in-s crustations were now reduced to mere sand which could bee easily evacuated by the stream of urine. The wick of theL taper was easily removed by a lithotrite. The method was

t very easy and safe, the result was perfect, and since severali instances in which tapers have been introduced into thei bladder are on record, it may soon be possible to repeat theL process in another patient.

Extraperitoneal Suprasymphyseal Delivery of a Living Cltild.Professor Latzko, at a recent meeting of the Gesellschaft

der Aerzte, showed a newly born infant with an ulcer re-y sembling a bed-sore of the size of a shilling, localised on the

left parietal bone. It was caused by pressure on the pro-l montory of a narrow pelvis. Labour had commenced 24hours before the patient came under observation, but as the

conjugate diameter of the pelvis measured only three inchess the child’s head did not advance in spite of the powerful

contractions of the uterus. Finding that the patient’s tem-perature began to rise and believing that there was a possi-bility of saving the child’s life, Professor Latzko resolved tooperate by a modification of the method of Frank who

d divided both lasers of the peritoneal covering of the uterusa and stitched them together, so that the peritoneal cavityal was completely closed before the uterus was incised.