TH

it had now shrunk to about 20 per 1000. This gain waslargely due to increased cleanliness, and whilst much yetremained to be done on the old lines-and in particularin the direction of preventing the occupation of houses

totally unfit for habitation-the notification of infectiousdiseases and the immunisation principle were amongst thenewer apparatus of sanitary science, and these and otherdevelopments of the more recent pathology might be

expected to furnish still further triumphs. At theclose of his lecture Sir William Gairdner read to hisaudience, the text of a memorandum which he hadsubmitted to the University Court in connexion with theteaching of Public Health in the university. In thisthe urgent necessity of the foundation of a professor-ship and laboratory is insisted on and the opportunity atpresent afforded by the vacancy in the chair of ForensicMedicine is pointed out. The present arrangements fortouching the subject in the university are condemnedas most incomplete and most unsatisfactory. Anothersuggestion which has been made is to transfer the endow-ment of the present chair of Forensic Medicine to a newchair of Public Health and to allow the former subject to betaught by a lecturer. Certainly it is absurd to pay a sum of9600 per annum to a chair the duties of which may appa-rently be discharged by the delivery of fifty lectures tomedical students and a few lectures to students of law.All this could be efficiently undertaken by a lecturer at amuch smaller salary, but the proposal above alluded to in-volves legal difficulties and possibly may suggest questionsas to whether other endowments are wisely,spent in the pay-ment of professors whose sole duty seems to be the annualdelivery of a statutory number of dictation lectures.

Royal Lunatic Asylum, Aberdeen.The ninety-seventh annual report-for 1897-shows that the

number of patients in this asylum is now 765, which closelyapproaches the limit of 792 fixed by the scheme of increasedaccommodation sanctioned in 1892 The extension of theheating system to Elmhill House (for patients of the middleand wealthier classes) and the new laundry, together withheating and ventilation of the new hospital, have cost nearly.63000; the electric light for the whole buildings has cost.65000 ; and .62000 extra were spent in a basement floor forthe new hospital. The laundry and work-room block nowin course of construction (including additional day-room and dormitory accommodation for female patients)will cost between .68000 and .E9000 before it is finished.Cornhill-road has been diverted at an expense of .E1500 andthe outlay for additions and improvements at Daviot BranchAsylum has been upwards of .S5000. It is recommendedthat two wings (for sixty patients) be erected in the rear ofthe new hospital at a cost of about Z8000 and that some de-tached buildings be converted into good dayrooms and dormi-tories for sixty patients at a probable expense of .61500. Assoon as these works are finished the reconstruction ofthe front buildings will be proceeded with. Altogetherit is said that in addition to the expenditure of.E50,OOO sanctioned by the managers in 1892 there has been,or will be, required a further outlay to the extent of about..635,000. It is proposed to borrow the money on the securityof the assets, the debt to be paid off within thirty years. Ithas been arranged to acquire on favourable terms seventy-sixacres of additional land at Hilton and Cornhill, Aberdeen,for the healthy employment of inmates at agricultural work.The income for the year, exclusive of the sum credited tonew hospital and reconstruction account, amounted to

.627,504 and the expenditure, including the sum of E2000reserved for deterioration, to 26,397. Of the surplus of.63107, L2000 have thus been carried to a reserve for deprecia-tion and E1107 applied towards the cost of the extension andimprovements scheme. There were admitted last year 233patients, the discharges numbered 142 and the deaths 56.The total number of cases under treatment was 969. Therate of recovery, says Dr. W. Reid, physician superintendent,compares favourably with the average of former years.

Proposed Nem L2natac Asylum, Aberdeen.In connexion with the scheme to build a new poorhouse to

take the place of the two existing institutions of the kindin Aberdeen the General Lunacy Board for Scotland hasindicated that it does not approve of lunatic and ordinarypaupers being accommodated in the same establishment andhas suggested that the territory of Aberdeen Parish Councilbe formed into a lunacy district. The works committee of

the parish council accordingly recommend that a new

district asylum be built near Aberdeen for 400 patients at anexpense, including land, of 64,000, that the West Poor-house and ground on the east side of King-street be sold,and that additions and alterations be made at the East Poor-house so as to accommodate all the in-door ordinary poorof the city. These alterations would cost 3764, which,after giving credit for 23,419 4s. as the value of the propertyto be sold, would leave the net first cost of the new schemeat .E44,344 l6s.

Feb. 15th.

IRELAND.(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENTS.)

Cork-street Fever Hospital, Dublin.AT a meeting of the Managing Committee of this hospital

held on the 10th inst. the registrar reported that during themonth of January 227 cases had been admitted, the bulk ofthe patients being sufferers from scarlet fever. Enteric feverhad been less prevalent than during the corresponding periodof recent years but of a more severe type, while during thelatter half of the month influenza and influenza complicatedwith pneumonia were common. Typhus fever has againdisappeared from Dublin. In reference to the new con-

valescent house at Beneaven it is satisfactory to note anincrease in the number of those who avail themselves of itsadvantages before returning to their homes. All the beds areoccupied at present.

Death of Mr. T. Hamilton Burke.A well-known and much esteemed member of the medical

profession in Dublin-Mr. T. Hamilton Burke-has justpassed away at an advanced age. For more than fifty yearshis name appeared on the roll of Fellows of the Royal Collegeof Surgeons in Ireland, where his personality was well known.Commencing his career as medical officer to the Dispensaryand Hospital at Westport he subsequently became one of themedical inspectors under the Local Government Board andfilled that position until he retired some years ago as seniormedical officer of that service. His funeral, which was

largely attended, took place on the llth inst.Sudden Death of Two Medical Practitioners.

Dr. P. L. Ahern, of Milford, county Cork, was recentlyattacked with a malignant form of typhoid fever, to whichhe quickly succumbed, his death having taken place on the10th inst. A telegram announcing his sudden and grave

illness was despatched tn his brother, Mr. James Ahern, ofFermoy, and was received by the latter during his con-valescence from severe rheumatic fever. In his weakenedcondition the shock was too much for him and he died atonce from syncope. Both medical men were young but wellknown and much esteemed in the south of Ireland.

The Royal Medical Benevolent Fund.The committee of the Belfast and District Branch of the

Royal Medical Benevolent Fund have made a very strongappeal to the medical profession in Belfast through the localsecretary, Dr. John McCaw, basing their request for furthersubscribers largely on the fact that last year the CentralCommittee of the society gave .E90 to the widows andorphans of medical men of the local branch and that furtheraid is urgently needed.. It is hoped that this request will beliberally responded to.

Belfast Asylum.From the report of the Inspector of Lunatics, Dr. G. P.

O’Farrell, I learn that although this asylum is calculated toaccommodate 400 patients there are now resident in it nearly700, but as it is likely that the present building will bevacated in a few years the inspector did not feel justified, not-withstanding this great overcrowding, in urging any additionwhich would entail a large expenditure. The capitation costof maintenance was 22 8s. 9d. At the meeting of theGovernors held on Feb. 14th the secretary of the BelfastNurses’ Home wrote protesting against the new feverhospital being built at Purdysburn and appealing to have itplaced instead in the present lunatic asylum grounds withinsafe distance of the New Royal Victoria Hospital. By suchan arrangement the probationers of the New Royal VictoriaHospital could have a fixed period of training in the nursing

543

of infectious diseases. At present all the nurses trained in 1the Royal Hospital get their experience of infectious diseases 1

in the fever block there and the public who afterwards i

employed them had benefited by this training; but were 1

the new city fever hospital built at Purdysburn, the secretary I

of the Nurses’ Home says, such an arrangement would bemanifestly impossible. The chairman (Professor Cuming, i

M.D. R.U.I) said this subject was a matter for the Cor-

poration and the Asylum Board could not hear it.

Medical1lfen and Clerical Work.

At a meeting of the Belfast board of guardians held onFeb. 8th a statement was read on behalf of the residentmedical staff of the Infirmary protesting against the

imposition made upon them of clerical duties formerlyperformed by an inmate of the establishment. As a

result of the new system two of the house surgeons wereengaged at the books up to 2 A.M. on Sunday, Feb. 6th,all day on Sunday until 1 A.M. on Monday, and on theMonday from 10 A.M. till 6 and afterwards from10 P.M. until 2 A.M. on Tuesday morning, yet thebooks for the current week were not properly opened.Admissions, discharges, and deaths were in arrears, and onehouse surgeon was left to attend to 1300 patients in theinfirmary and his whole time would be fully occupied byattending to admissions without paying a single visit topatients in the wards. It seems that the clerk, who hadbeen removed from his former post to other duties, althoughhe worked from ten to fourteen hours daily (Sundaysincluded), could only do a portion of the work, the im-portant items being always performed by the medical staff.The resident staff protest against the new rule that theymust personally enter in the weekly return and diet billevery entry required for each patient. The whole matter isto be considered in committee at the next meeting of theboard.

Typhoid Fever in Kilmallock Union.A serious outbreak of typhoid fever has occurred in

Kilmallock Union. Dr. Browne, Local Government Boardinspector, was present at a meeting of the guardians andstated that he found it very difficult to trace its source. He,however, believed that certain creameries were instrumentalin spreading it. He recommended that the creamerymilk should be boiled before being used and he urged theremoval to hospital of patients suffering from the disease.In that connexion he remarked that the ambulance vans werenot as comfortable as they might be. He also stronglyrecommended that the Infectious Diseases (Notification)Act, 1889, and the Infectious Diseases (Prevention) Act,1890,should be put into force in the union. It was stated that40 cases had occurred in the district since June last.

Dr. T. A. Kelleher has been appointed assistant housesurgeon to the Cork South Infirmary.

Feb. 15th. _______________

PARIS.

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

The Adjourned Discussion on Blistering.AT the meeting of the Academy of Medicine held on

Feb. 8th M. Ferrand gave an account of the work by whichhe bad tried to reintroduce blisters. That which we have toguard against is not the use of blistering but its abuse. Theindications for blisters are very plain in certain morbid con-ditions where simple rubefacients are insufficient. Blisteringmust on no account be used so as to cause a woundof the skin by which certain infectious germs may enter,but a blister properly applied produces all its effectswithout any wound and very simple aseptic measures aresufficient to protect the place if by any chance the epitheliumis broken. The pain caused by a blister can be easily alle-viated and the general depression which accompanies its usevery soon disappears. The vascular alterations produced bycantharides are not necessarily dangerous of themselves,but, in fact, they are of great use in the treatment of certaindiseases. As for the renal affections which sometimesresult from the absorption of cantharides, even if theydo occur and increase from a simple catarrh to nephritisextending to the vessels and glomeruli, it is easy

to avoid this accident by limiting the duration ofthe application, by using small blisters and not apply-ing them too often. Cantharides sometimes has a.

useful action upon the kidney ; in certain forms of

nephritis it is valuable and it is allowed by everyone at the.present time that if cantharides ought to be prescribed insome cases of interstitial nephritis it can also be given with.advantage in the parenchymatous variety. The indications.for a blister vary according to the site, the kind, andthe type of the disease. They are of great use in

typical forms of catarrh of the serous and mucons

membranes. In conclusion, M. Ferrand pointed out thatblisters exercise a good effect upon nutrition and he:

agreed with M. Robin’s opinion that they produce a realhyperleucocytosis. Vesication also has a good -effect inthe spasmodic vomiting of certain convulsive affections. M.Huchard gave the meeting a short historical account ofvesication. It was invented some 2000 years ago by-Asclepiades of Bithynia, but since his time it has beengreatly abused. Defective asepticism was responsible for a.great number of the accidents following this method oftreatment. He reminded the Academy of the case of a child,eleven years of age, whom Dr. Duquet had seen, who hadbeen blistered 110 times for pleurisy. As a result the patientdied from empyema and nephritis. It was especially in thecountry that this sort of abuse flourished and practitioners’ought to make themselves thoroughly acquainted with therisk to which they were exposing their patients by the use ofcantharides without special precautions.

The Surgery of the Stomach.At the same meeting of the Academy M. Doyen gave his,

experience with regard to the result of 146 cases of surgicaloperations upon the stomach. Of these, 66 were malignantand 80 non-malignant. There were 22 dea hs in all and 20of these were in cases of cancer. Of last 55 cases.

50 were successful, 5 of the patients being in extremais whenthey came under treatment. Gastro-enterostomy is a proper-treatment for dilatation and ulcer with or without.,haematemesis. Roux’s method is the only satisfactory one .it avoids all danger of infecting the peritoneum. M. Doyenmakes use of the lever compression forceps which wereoriginally made for compressing the pedicle of ovariantumours. Recovery is undoubted in cases of serious dyspepsia.or where there is ulceration without pyloric stenosis. The

patients eat like everybody else and are quite unaware that.they have a stomach. The operation is also of great use inpatients who apparently suffer from intestinal dyspepsia hasmatemesis ceases after its performance and the biliaryfunction is re-established.

Bequests.Professor Tarnier by his will has left to the Academy of

Medicine a yearly income of 5000 francs, 3000 of which are-assigned for a prize to be given annually, which will be-called the Prix Tarnier and which is to be given for the,best work on a subject in obstetrics and gynaeaology. Theprize will be given in one sum and will be allotted in the-first year for obstetrics and in the second year for gyn2eco-logy. The Academy can make what use of the remaining-2000 francs of income it pleases.-Madame Emile Durandhas just made a donation to the Pasteur Institute of a sum.of 50,000 francs to promote the study of tuberculosis.

The Case of M. Heim.

The Council of the University, with the Minister of Public:Instruction as president, has just delivered judgment in the:

, case of the appeal entered by M. Heim, an assistant professor; in the Faculty of Medicine, who was accused of unlawful. possession of certain apparatus and of neglect of his duties., and who was sentenced to suspension froni his office. The

Disciplinary Committee which heard the appeal first reporteds to the Council that the following were the heads of the:L accusations against M. Heim: (1) that he had been guilty- of grave neglect of his duties, and (2) that when a candi-date for the post of chef des travaux in the natural historyr faculty he had handed in a scientific treatise which con-, tained sundry errors. These. then, are the conditions underiwhich M. Heim, with the assistance of his counsel,iMaitre Millerand, appealed to the Superior Council. By, 33 votes to 14 the Council mitigated the original sentence--s |that is to say, reduced the suspension to the period of two, years with loss of salary.