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Mommsen has beguiled his leisure by translating intoGerman ; of the noble sapphic ode entitled "Piemonte," inwhich that cradle of Italy’s aspirations and of the heroeswho gave effect to them is duly honoured; of the splendidapostrophe to the "Dea Febbre" ere long to take flightfrom her haunt in the Roman Campagna; and of manyanother K7-gM eis ad—the author of these, we say, and of themagnificent discourse on the" Mother of Universities " readat Bologna 11 years ago 1 before an audience representingthe whole academic world, is too precious to his country andto her oldest seat of learning not to inspire the most ferventwishes for his restoration to health-wishes hardly less loyalthroughout Christendom than in Italy herself.

THE PREVENTION OF TUBERCULOSIS.

THE intelligent co8peration of the public is essential forthe success of any sanitary reform, and the local authority ofCardiff, recognising this, has adopted an excellent methodof enlightening the townspeople with regard to the com-

municability of tuberculosis. Dr. Edward Walford, themedical officer of health, has drawn up five I’ leaflets" onthis subject, printed on blue foolscap paper surmounted by theborough arms. One of these is evidently intended for generaldistribution and enumerates various precautions to be takenfor preventing the disease spreading from an infected person.Another paper informs medical practitioners that the HealthCommittee of the Cardiff Corporation, with the approval ofthe Medical Society of Cardiff, has decided to carry out asfar as possible certain recommendations of the medical officerof health, and with this object makes a request for notifica-tion of cases of tuberculosis. Another paper is addressed tothe occupiers of houses where deaths from phthisis haveoccurred, and intimates that the sanitary authority will, freeof cost, disinfect the infected rooms and their contents.

Another paper is apparently intended for the managers andofficials of institutions to which meat and milk are supplied ;its object is to recommend the use of the tuberculin test forthe presence of tuberculosis in cattle and it is accompaniedby two forms of contract (a) for meat and (b) for milk andbutter, both of which are of course to be taken merely assuggestions for the framing of clauses to be inserted in con-tracts that may be made. The contract for meat specifiesthat it shall be from animals free from any trace of tubercu-

losis or any other disease, and agrees that the name andaddress of any person engaged in the preparation of the meatshall, if required, be furnished to the medical officer of

health. The contract for milk permits the veterinary sur-geon for the borough of Cardiff, in company with themedical officer of health, to apply the tuberculin test to allor any of the milch cows on the contractor’s premises andprovides that no preservative shall be added to the milk orbutter. The fifth leaflet" is addressed to dairymen, cow-keepers, and purveyors of milk, and gives details of the pre-cautions necessary to be observed in their business.

AN amateur theatrical matinee entertainment has been

arranged under influential patronage and will be held in the ’Royal Lyceum Theatre, Grindlay-street, Edinburgh (kindlylent for the purpose by Messrs. Howard and Wyndham,Limited), on the afternoon of Saturday, Dec. 2nd, in aid ofthe British Ophthalmic Hospital at Jerusalem. All informa-tion can be obtained from the honorary assistant secretary ofthe hospital in Scotland, Mr. A. A. Gordon, 128, George-street,Edinburgh. -

THE LANCET goes to press this week on the seventy-sixth anniversary of its birthday, for our first numberwas issued on Sunday, Oct. 5th, 1823. The journal has

1 Vide THE LANCET’S Reports of the Octo-Centenary of BolognaUniversity, June 23rd, 1888, p. 1264.

grown considerably during its long life-in fact, from 36octavo pages to 160 or more quarto pages ; and we trust weare not very egotistic when we claim that within these pageslies the history of modern medicine.

THE first Hunterian Society lecture will be delivered onWednesday, Oct. llth, at the London Institution, Finsbury-circus, at 830 P.M., by Dr. Sansom, the subject being theEffects of Influenza on the Heart and Circulation: theirClinical History and their Treatment. Members of the pro-fession are invited to attend.

DR. ROBERT P. R. LYLE, at present senior assistantmaster of the Rotunda Hospital, Dublin, has been appointedLecturer in Midwifery and Diseases of Women and Childrenin the University of Durham College of Medicine, Newcastle-on-Tyne, in succession to the late Dr. Nesham.

WE remind our readers that conferences, under the

auspices of the Hospital Reform Association, will take placein St. Martin’s Town Hall on Tuesday, Oct. 10th, at 4 P.M.and 8 P.M., and on Wednesday, Oct. lltb, at 4 P.M.

INSUFFICIENCY OF THE PARIS WATER-SUPPLY IN SUMMER TIME.

(FROM OUR PARIS CORRESPONDENT.)

EVERY summer the water company gives notice to theinhabitants of Paris that if the hot weather continues it willbe necessary to add Seine water to the spring water which issupplied to householders-a prospect which is never a satis-factory one for sanitarians. Although the main sewer nolonger pours its foul contents into the river below Paris, asused to be the case, the river nevertheless continues to bepolluted both above and below the city, firstly by watercoming from factories in the neighbourhood where it entersthe metropolitan area, and secondly by the sewage of thesmall suburban parishes. The intake is a little above Parisand the water is brought into the city by means of powerfulpumping machinery. Theoretically, the Seine water is notused for human consumption but is reserved for other pur-poses, such as industrial requirements, for watering streets,courts, and gardens, for water-closets, lifts, &c. In actual

practice, however, the pressure obtainable by the pumpingmachinery, powerful as it is, is insufficient to raise thisenormous quantity of water to certain very high-lyingparts of Paris, such as Montmartre, Menilmontant, andthe Trocadero ; much less does the water rise to the sixthfloor of the houses there. It is therefore necessary inthese localities to employ spring water for all purposes; evenin manufacturing establishments, for this is the only waterdelivered at sufficient pressure to rise to that level. This isthe reason of the seeming inconsistency which every yeararouses the ire of journalists who, without having full know’ledge of the circumstances, complain that certain low-lyingparts of Paris are reduced to the prospect of drinking Seinewater, while on the Trocadero spring water is used for

watering the streets. An enormous quantity of spring wateris brought into Paris and is always being increased bydrawing from fresh rivers, but nevertheless it is insufficientr

during intensely hot weather, although at that time a con.siderable part of the population is out of town and many

I of those who remain drink mineral waters. There are. several reasons for this insufficiency. In the first place,I the natural supply cannot help being a little less in.

summer, while in the second place much more is usedfor watering streets and gardens and we have seenthat a considerable proportion of what is taken for thelatter purpose is necessarily spring water. But wilful

, waste is the principal cause of the insufficiency..Every. year when the supply of spring water threatens to fail theI

water company, in the hope of diminishing waste, puts uppublic notices to the effect that 200 litres (44 gallons) ofspring water per head per day are delivered-a quantity,

which is more than enough for cooking and drinking but

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vill not admit of waste and especially will not admit oise of the water for cooling purposes. The concluwords of the last sentence describe the manner in whicl

greater part of the spring water supplied to the Parisiawasted. People are most unreasonable in this respect.summer time a Parisian insists that the spring water sup]- to him must be cold. In order to have it so he keeps,water-tap always running lest the water should become mby standing in the pipes. On entering a kitchen in Parthe summer time it is very common to find the bottlewine, beer, and even of water intended for the evening ! tstanding in a bucket under the stream from the tap whickept constantly running. This wasteful practice is thevariable rule in working-class homes and is adopted evetpeople who are quite able to obtain an infinitely be

.cooling effect by the purchase of a pennyworthice. A doorkeeper’s wife (une concierge) has 1:known to keep the water-tap running the whole day incourtyard in order to cool the place where she would- sitting in the evening. Under such circumstanceswith such waste a milliard (40,000,000) would not c(

the Paris water-supply and the Seine itself laid on to prh- houses would fall short of the quantity required. The WI

- company has tried different means of preventing this wbut all in vain. In particular, it has everywhere fixed wataps which close themselves automatically by means ospring when the hand is removed, but tradesmen immediat,put on the market an ingenious little contrivance whfitted the tap accurately and kept it always open by bearagainst the wall. The use of these appliances is stri-forbidden and when the company’s men discover themtheir visits of inspection those who have them in tb,possession are fined. All this, however, is of no aB- and it will obviously be necessary to have recourse

the only practical method-namely, that each suiterooms should have its own water meter just as it 1its gas meter. At present there is only one wa

meter for each house and the landlord to whom thouse belongs pays the water company for what

’:used; he in his turn charges the tenants for their persorconsumption a fixed sum which they pay quarterly at tsame time as their rent. This system has the disadvantathat by the wastefulness of one tenant the landlord mhave to pay much more than the proportion repaid quarterby the tenant. On the other hand, if the landlord gets in.arrear with the water company the latter, in the exercise’its legal rights, may cut off the supply from the house-this to say, from all the tenants, although they are in no w.at fault, because they have already paid the landlord f<their water. This is a favourite resource of the wat

- company during the hot weather, when the most trivi:

,pretext is taken advantage of in order to save water, and :has attracted the attention of the Hygienic Commissiorwhich has just presented a report to the Municipal Councurging the council to compel the company (1) to refraifrom punishing the tenants when the landlord is at fault.and (2) in the event of the latter not meeting hiliabilities regularly to proceed against him as an ordinardebtor without resorting to the summary and cruel procedurof cutting off the water from an entire house. In some housein Paris there are from 200 to 300 tenants and the effect ocutting off the water is that none of them have water fodrinking or washing or flushing the closets. It is witlspecial reference to the last of these questions that th.

Hygienic Commission has made its report to the Municipa’Council. The company might be liable to prosecution foinfringement of the law of July 10th, 1894, relative to th(maintenance of public health in Paris and for breach of theregulation which requires that everything should be turnedinto the sewer. The water company has also brought uponitself much hostile criticism from all quarters, from muni-cipal councillors, sanitarians, and private individuals, for thehigh-handed manner in which it exercises its rights. Thebringing of the water to Paris costs it nothing, for the citydefrays all expenses connected with the intakes as well asfor the construction of aqueducts and reservoirs. Thecompany charges very high for the water, reserves the rightof cutting it off on the slightest pretext, and, worst of all, itmakes a profit out of a multitude of arbitrary details veryvexatious to the consumers. For instance, it reserves theright of sending its own men to do all the repairs which itconsiders urgent, charging the consumer for these repairs twoor three times as much as an ordinary tradesman would ask.ten in the employ of the company are continually visiting

houses to examine the state of the pipes and taps;they say that repairs are necessary, they come back in alittle while to do them, and at the end of the month a bill

for extra charges of 30 or 40 francs is sent in. It is uselessto have either the bill or the work examined by an expert orto complain to the law courts. It is especially stipulated inthe agreement that none but the company’s workmen mayinterfere with the water-fittings ; if an action is brought thecompany has the right of setting aside the agreement andcutting off the water as long as the case lasts, and as anaction may be kept up by a clever lawyer for several years noone ventures to attack a company possessed of such powers.When its concession expires it will probably not be renewedand the water-supply will be undertaken by the city.Meanwhile the company is carrying out extensive works forthe purpose of increasing the supply of drinking-water toParis. Immense filtering ponds for Seine water have justben completed at Ivry. These ponds, situated at theriverside, one kilometre (five furlongs) from the ramparts,will be able in case of necessity, and especially during thehot season, to supply 32,000 cubic metres (7,040,000 gallons)of water purer than ordinary water, containing fewer microbesand less lime and nitrogen, but not quite so cool. This wateris equal to half that consumed by the population of Parisduring the hottest weather in excess of the normal consump-tion. A pond of this kind was constructed some months agoat St. Maur. The filtration of Seine water is in fact one ofthe most ingenious methods of solving the serious problem ofsupplying Paris with drinking-water. It is less costly thanbringing in spring water, because drawing from freshstreams becomes increasingly difficult and troublesome onaccount of the demands of landlords and riparian owners.Filtration yields a water the purity of which is much moreconstant and more certain because no pollution from theneighbourhood has access to it, a thing which unfortunatelyis not always the case with ordinary water (l’ea1l des c?<c).It is probable that other ponds of this kind will be con-structed in the environs of Paris. A daily supply nowamounting to 274,000 cubic metres (60,480,000 gallons) ofspring water and filtered water will for the future beavailable for the city of Paris. Of this quantity 220,000cubic metres are drawn from the Avre, the Dhuys, theVanne, &c., and 54,000 are furnished by the filtering pondsit St. Maur and the new ponds at Ivry. The water

company’s officials assert that from this time henceforth;here will be no necessity for resorting to the use of Seinevater except in the event of 20 consecutive days of extremeieat, an assumption which has not been realised since thecommencement of the century.

THE MEDICAL SCHOOL DINNERS.

SOME of the medical schools make of the opening of theWinter Session an opportunity for the meeting together ofold students at an annual dinner, and these functions, whiledoing good to the schools, at the same time serve to

maintain a pleasant spirit of comradeship.King’s College Hospital dinner was held at Limmer’s

Hotel on Oct. 2nd. There was a large gathering of oldstudents present. Prominent among these was Dr. Deville,i hale and hearty veteran whose student days lay back injhe forties. The speeches, as usual, were lightened bynusical interludes. Special mention was made of theextensive additions to the anatomical and physiologicallepartments at the college, now in course of construction,n aid of which Mr. Balfour has consented to preside at a!inner in the course of November. The hospital, too, hasmly just been reopened in the full glory of parquet floors,nd electric light throughout all the wards. Among othermprovements of the immediate future the committee ofnanagement of the hospital have in hand a scheme for theomplete rebuilding of the out-patient department of theospital. These works will of course involve a very heavyxpenditure, towards defraying which all friends of theollege and hospital are urged to lend a helping hand.Tlte London Hospital old students’ dinner was held in the

brary of the hospital on Oct. 2nd and was in every way alccess. The fare provided was excellent and conviviality wasifectious notwithstanding the fact that by holding the