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WE regret to announce the death of Dr. William WebsterFisher, the venerable Downing Professor of Medicine, Cam-bridge, who died on Tuesday morning at his residence atDowning College after a long illness. The electors to the

professorship are the Archbishops of Canterbury and Yorkand the Masters of St. John’s, Clare, and Downing Colleges.The professor must at the time of his election be a graduatein medicine of one of the universities of the United Kingdom,and not under twenty-five years of age. The professorshipis not vacated by marriage or by the possession of any pro-perty, and the professor is eligible to hold any of the layoffices of the college. ____

AT the Homerton Hospital, 206 cases of fever were ad-mitted during the past two months, of which 114 were oiscarlet fever, 24 of enteric, and 29 of typhus. The scarletfever patients chiefly came from the parishes of Holborn;St. George-in-the-East, and Bethnal-green. During th(

same period, 187 fresh cases had been admitted into thefever side of the Stockwell Hospital, of which 80 were oj

scarlet fever and 52 of typhus ; no less than 30 of the latte]came from Greenwich.

VITAL statistics of Alexandria and Cairo have recently forthe first time been forwarded to the Registrar-General byDr. Ardouin, physician to the European hospital in theformer town. The returns are by no means satisfactory,the annual rate of mortality in both places being over 50per 1000. It is to be hoped that henceforth weekly ac-counts of the health of towns so largely visited by Englishtourists and invalids will be furnished by the EgyptianGovernment.

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WE have to record the premature death, on the 14thof July last, of Dr. Simon Belinfante, of Mudgee, NewSouth Wales. Whilst in the act of crossing a river to visita patient his buggy was overturned, and he was swept awayand drowned. Dr. Belinfante had been a distinguishedstudent at University College Hospital, where he obtainedseveral prizes. He was M.R.C.S. Eng. and M.D. St. Andrews.After settling in New South Wales he was admitted to theBar at Sydney in 1867, and subsequently practised law andmedicine, displaying in both professions remarkable ability.

WE understand that the body of Lady Dilke, who recentlydied, has been taken over to Germany in order to be sub-mitted to the process of cremation. It is impossible todoubt that the method of disposing of the dead advo-cated by Sir Henry Thompson is attaining popularity inthis country, or that it will eventually supersede inhuma-tion. Sir Charles Dilke has set a courageous example whichwe hope and believe will be widely followed as soon as asuitable establishment has been erected in this country.

THE Woolwich Board of Guardians lately advertised

widely for a dispenser. Singular to relate, in these days offierce competition, there was only one application receivedfor the post, and that from a female, who, we are sorry tosay, was considered by the guardians ineligible on accountof her sex. There can be no possible objection to employingwomen as dispensers of medicine; it is a sphere of work inwhich they would probably display great aptitude and care.

THE mortality in London last week amounted to 1163deaths, including 4 from small-pox, 8 from measles, 10’ifrom scarlet fever, 8 from diphtheria, 16 from whooping.cough, 25 from different forms of fever, and 38 from diar.rhcea. The fatality from scarlet fever exceeded that of an3similar period since the winter of 1870-71, when it wafepidemic in the metropolis.

WE are glad to be able to state that 11 Messrs. Gay andCo., of Fleet-street, have received orders from the GeneralPost-office to paint the whole of the pillar-boxes a brightvermilion colour, the same as the mail carts, with their im-penetrable paint, as they find it the best, having used it forthree years. The chief object of the change is to clearlydistinguish the letter-boxes from the iron rubbish-boxeswith which our streets are adorned."

IT is intended shortly to so reconstruct the HampsteadAsylum that it will provide accommodation for 700 imbe-ciles, of whom about half will be children. School-rooms,workshops, recreation rooms, &c., will be added to the

building. ____

THE Siberian plague has made considerable havoc atTobolsk during June and July. No fewer than 4775 horses,516 cattle, 1030 sheep, 52 pigs, and 15 goats have died of it.Even human beings have caught it, and 106 have suc-cumbed.

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IN view of the continued prevalence of scarlet fever in themetropolis, the Metropolitan Asylums Board contemplateusing their empty, or nearly empty, small-pox asylums forthe reception of patients suffering from the disease.

MR. H. C. BURDETT, late secretary and superintendent ofthe Queen’s Hospital, Birmingham, has been elected secre-tary to the Seamen’s Hospital. There were 134 candidatesfor the appointment.

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THE subject of the Fothergillian Gold Medal for 1875 is" The Diseases of the Testicle and Spermatic Cord." For

1876, " On Cataract and its Treatment." Essays must besent in before the 1st of the previous November.

DR. VANS BEST has been appointed for a second year tolecture to and conduct the midwifery class in the Universityof Aberdeen, during the absence of Professor Inglis.

THE ancient town of Damascus is now suffering terriblyfrom fever. In all 14,000 persons, including the garrison,have been attacked.

INSANITY IN SCOTLAND.

THE Sixteenth Annual Report of the General Board ofCommissioners in ’Lunacy for Scotland contains, like its

predecessors, much valuable information on the conditionand management of lunatics and lunatic asylums. Of theinsane persons in Scotland, of whom the Commissionershave official cognisance, 1423 are maintained from privatesources, 6505 by parochial rates, and 54 at the expense ofthe State. No certain knowledge can be obtained of theunreported insane maintained by their friends in privatedwellings, but their number has been formerly estimated atabout 2000. They are probably less numerous now, owingto the increasing tendency to seek parochial relief. Theresults shown by statistical tables in the report indicate aprogressive increase in the number of lunatics broughtunder the cognisance of the Board; but it is left open todoubt whether such increase be due to a greater prevalenceof insanity, or simply to a growing disposition to con-

centrate lunatics in asylums. In contrasting the lunacy ofan active, busy, and increasing population, with that of acommunity which is less active, standing still, or even

decreasing, it is pointed out in the Report that active andacquired insanity is doubtless more prevalent among theformer, and idiocy or imbecility among the latter. Besides,the great centres of business attract the more energetic and

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pushing members, who, by transferring their domiciles, aonce increase the ratio of lunacy among those they 1eavjbehind, and decrease it among those they join.That insanity is the result of bodily disease or imperfec

development cannot, in the Commissioners’ opinion, h.called in question ; but whether the varying causes whiclproduce the requisite abnormal physical condition are mos1prevalent among the upper or lower classes of society is a

problem which still awaits solution. Not improbably thEovercrowding of the houses of the poor, their poor diet, andover-indulgence in intoxicating liquors, may have more thana counterpoise in the luxurious living of the rich, and inthe greater amount of continual excitement to which wantof occupation in some, and over-much occupation in others,give rise. But be this as it may, the Commissioners adhere

strongly to the belief that not only is insanity a preventablemalady, but that it is in the direction of preventing itsoccurrence that any sensible diminution can be effected inits amount. As to the nature and object of moral training,the Commissioners quote the observations made on thissubject by Mr. William Jolly, Her Majesty’s Inspectorof Schools in the Northern Counties of Scotland. Heremarks that one of the most important points in theeducation of children is quite overlooked in our schools-theeducation of the moral faculties. With the religious know-ledge taught in our schools, moral teaching and trainingshould also be systematically given. This subject treats ofour duties to ourselves and others, their nature, and theprinciples that regulate their performance. A very largepart of error in conduct arises from simple ignorance of theright actions to be done in certain circumstances, and theirresults to ourselves and others. In urging the teaching ofmoral duty in schools the subject is to be earnestly andeminently practical, and is to be as practically taught aswriting or arithmetic. It should seek to show the child thatthe true purpose of life lies in the right development of hisnature, in the formation of a high, truthful, broad, loving,manly character. The subject is treated in detail by Mr.William Jolly in a clear and practical spirit; and we concurwith the Commissioners in thinking that if effect were givento these views, combined with due regard to physical train-ing, far more successful results would be achieved in the

diminution of insanity than have hitherto been attainedthrough the operation of asylum treatment.The Reports of the Deputy Commissioners on the condi.

tion of patients in private dwellings, printed in an appendix,serve to illustrate the system pursued in Scotland with re-ference to this class of patients. The Commissioners, whilethey are far from maintaining that their condition is in everyrespect satisfactory, still believe it to be more satisfactoryin Scotland than in any other country. Adverting to thedifference of opinion that exists as to the limit in size whichasylums should not surpass, the Commissioners carefullybalance the merits and demerits of large and small asylums,with the result of adhering to their formerly expressedopinion in preference of small establishments. The Com.missioners throw out a suggestion for an interesting inquiryas to whether in different districts d)6’nrent forms of in-sanity are more or less prevalent; in other words, whetherthe patients received into asylums manifest certain prevail.ing types of insanity, originating in, or modified by the soilor climate of, the district from which they are drawn, orthat the form of the malady is influenced by the occupations,dietary, and religious observances of the population. Wehave touched on a few, and but a few, of the materials for

reflection contained in this Report.

DR. BARNES’S OBSTETRIC BAG.

MR. MILLIKIN, surgical instrument maker, St. Thoma.3’s-street, Borough, has submitted to our inspection a portagebag of obstetrical instruments which have been chiefly sug-gested or designed by Dr. Robert Barnes. The instrumentsare exceedingly handsome, and creditable in every way tothe maker. The contend of the bag are as follows:-

Dr. Barnes’s long forceps, craniotomy ditto, perforator,crotchet, and dilators; Dr. Braxton Hicks’s blunt hook;frsenum scissors; female and other catheters; quill for

puncturing membrane; chloroform inhaler; uterine syringeand enema; chloroform bottle ; six stoppered bottles forsp. ammon. co., ether, tinct. opii, &c. &c.

Correspondence.

PRACTICAL PHYSIOLOGY AT EDINBURGHUNIVERSITY.

’rAudi alteram partem."

To the Editor of THE LANCET.SIR,—In one of the leading articles in last Saturday’s

number of THE LANCET you refer to the part taken by Dr.Rutherford in instituting the class of Practical Physiology inEdinburgh University. That gentleman himself says, in hisletter to the curators, that in addition to the course of His-tology previously taught by myself, he 11 organised two newcourses, consisting of Experimental Physiology and Prac-tical Physiological Chemistry." You will oblige by allowingme to correct the errors contained in these statements.

Histology, systematic and practical, was first taught byme in 1841, and the following year Quekett gave courses onthe same subject in London. Shortly after my appoint-ment to the Chair of Physiology in 1848 I saw the necessityof extending the practical department. But it was nottill the year 1859 that I with great difficulty succeeded inobtaining a grant of money for the purchase of instrumentsnecessary for that purpose. This was followed by anothergrant, with which I was enabled to convert the premisespreviously occupied by the Theological Library, into a newtheatre, a chemical and physiological laboratory, and an in-strument room. These were completed in 1862. By thekindness of Prof. du Bois Reymond of Berlin, Prof. vonBezold, of Jena, visited Edinburgh and personally in-structed me in the use of the many delicate instrumentswhich had now arrived, and with which I performed nume-rous experiments in my systematic class. The next stepwas obtaining an annual salary for an assistant. This was

granted in 1863, and Dr. Argyll Robertson was nominated