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an increase of 1861 on the numbers of the previous year.The number of in-door patients waiting for admissionaveraged, throughout the year, 6S. The large addition tothe infirmary, which is being built and equipped from fundsleft for this purpose by the late Mr. Freeland of Nice, andwhich nearly doubles the accommodation of the institution,is now almost ready for occupancy; but, as shown in the

1report, the managers depend entirely on increased con-1tributions from the public to enable them to maintain any 1increased number of patients. Each additional bed occupiedwill cost about E50 per annum, i

A public meeting of the inhabitants of Dundee was held Jon 29th December, for the purpose of devising means for the lestablishment of a College in that town. Towards thisobject there has already been received a sum of £150,000,the gift mainly of Miss Baxter, of Ellangowan, and Dr. J. B.Baxter. The proposed College is for the promotion of thehigher branches of education in arts and science : Classicalliterature, Latin and Greek, pure mathematics, naturalphilosophy, mental philosophy, and natural science, in-cluding chemistry, physiology, natural history, geology,and botany. It has been suggested that medicine alsoshould be taught at the College, and that the large andadmirably-conducted Infirmary of Dundee would be of greatuse in connexion with a medical school. It is anticipatedthat in time Dundee College will come to be affiliated withone or other of the Universities, and that its classes willqualify for graduation. This rather complicates matters forScotland’s oldest University, St. Andrews, which hasalready difficulties enough to contend with. Indeed, it hasbeen proposed, and we believe the scheme is at presentunder consideration, that the Arts and Science Faculties ofSt. Andrews should be at once transferred to Dundee, achange which could scarcely fail to be of benefit to allconcerned.

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The new building in which the work of the GlasgowMaternity or Lying-in Hospital will in future be carriedon has now been completed, and appears to embodyall the latest improvements in hospital construction.It consists of three storeys and attics. Two wholeflats are devoted to the wards and head-nurse’s rooms, eachflat containing eighteen beds, and giving an average of1460 cubic feet to each patient. In the upper flat an isola-tion ward is provided, to be used in the event of thebreaking out of any epidemic disease. The remainder ofthe space is taken up by the lecture-room, lecturer’s retiring-room, board-room matron’s, house-surgeon’s, and nurses’

- accommodation, &e. The sanitary arrangements are as

nearly as possible perfect. The lavatories, which containbaths, w.c,, washhand basins, slop-sink and general sink,are fitted up with the best and most approved appliances, andare entirely disconnected from the main building, beingapproached through a lobby with doors at each end. Thesoil-pipes, traps &c., are thoroughly ventilated. The heatingis by open fireplaces and low-pressure hot-water pipes carriedthrough all the wards, lecture-room, staircase, &c. Freshair, warmed by passing over hot-water pipes, is admitted atthe level of the floor, under the windows. The vitiated airis carried off by openings in the wall close to the roof, thesebeing connected by separate flues with a hot-air extractingchamber. The public of Glasgow have subscribed liberallytowards the hospital; but we understand that the sum of;(1100 is still needed to open the building on a satisfactoryfooting. This sum will doubtless soon be obtained for sucha deserving object.A vigorous letter from Mr. Thomas Keith appeared in the

Scotsman of January 3rd. It should be carefully ponderedby every sympathiser with anti-vivisection movements, if,indeed, such persons could be induced to give calm and dispassionate consideration to such a subject. It furnishesalso, a fresh instance of the objectionable means to whiclunreasoning enthusiasts often resort in endeavouring tpropagate their beliefs.

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THE committee appointed by the Epsom Board oGuardians, to consider the question of the salaries of thmedical officers of the union, have recommended an increasin the remuneration for the work done in several of thdistricts, and that a fixed sum be paid annually to thmedical officers for expensive medicines instead of thesbeing charged for quarterly.

IRELAND.

(From our own Correspondent.)

DR. CHRISTOPHER FLEMING, an Ex-President of the

toyal College of Surgeons in Ireland, and formerly a mem-ber of the Surgical Court of Examiners, and surgeon to theRichmond Hospital, died last week in his 81st year.The Lord Mayor of Dublin, who was installed on the lst

nst., referred to the large expenditure (;B22,OOO) during the)ast year upon the city sewers, and when the works now in)rogress (estimated to cost £8000) are finished, he believed;he sewerage of Dublin would be in a very perfect condition,at least as perfect as it could be said to be until the largerscheme of main drainage has been carried out. Another

satisfactory work had been performed in the purchase of theCoombe area. The district referred to had been a nestof tumbledown, ruined, and filthy tenements, the tocusand seat of disease and dirt. It has now been cleared andhanded over to the Artisans’ Dwellings Company, whohave commenced the erection upon it of a large number ofsuitable and commodious dwellings for artisans andlabourers, who will thus be provided with wholesome, con.venient, and economical residences supplied with all propersanitary accommodation. The Plunket-street area is alsoto be cleared, and although the expense is great, such animmense improvement from a sanitary, social, and moralpoint of view, is most desirable.In consequence of a promise by the Chief Secretary for

Ireland that certain charges made against the managementof the Belfast Workhouse by Mr. Moore, M. P., for Cl’onmel,should be thoroughly sifted, the Local Government Boardfor Ireland recently instituted an inqniry into the conditionof that institution in reference to the discipline and classi.fication of its inmates, the rate of infant mortality, and theaccommodation for the destitute poor. The inquiry wasconducted by Mr. Bourke and Dr. Brodie; and last weektheir report was furnished to the Belfast guardians. Theystate as the result of their investigation that they found theworkhouse very well managed as a rule, the hospital forinfectious diseases and the schools being specially worthyof praise for their admirable and efficient condition. Theclassification of the inmates, as regards the separation of thesexes, was found to be sufficiently perfect and complete;and the rate of infant mortality was equal to 27’9 per cent.,which was not unusually high, when the habit prevalentamong mothers of taking their infants out of the house assoon as they (i.e., the mothers) are able to move, and thenreturning, is considered. The charges put forward by a magis-trate, and referred to in Parliament, that the workhouse was"a nest of drunkenness, immorality, and crime," have beenproved to be without foundation.Typhus fever is rather prevalent at present in Dublin,

and for this additional reason it is absolutely necessarythat cases of the disease occurring in tenemental dwellings,where accommodation is not sufficient, and the chance ofinfecting others is greatly increased, should be promptlyremoved to hospital. Recently a case of inattention on

the part of a dispensary medical officer in Dublin to thiswise procedure came under the observation of the PublicHealth Committee of the Corporation ; where in one tene-ment house several cases of typhus fever had taken place,and the medical attendant had not enforced their removal tohospital. His explanation was not deemed sufficient bythe Committee, who considered that it was his imperativeduty to report the cases to them ; and this view of the

.

matter was acquiesced in by the Local Government Board,. who, in a recent correspondence with the gentleman in

question, stated that the Committee should have been in-formed of the fact of such an outbreak of a dangerous. infective disease.

By the 20th section of the 43rd and 44th Vic., cap. 13, of-

the Births and Deaths Registration Act (Ireland), 1880,-

which came into operation on the first day of the presentf year, every registered medical practitioner who has been ius attendance during the last illness of a deceased person is3 required to give a certificate stating, to the best of hise belief, the cause of death. Refusal to give such certificatee entails a penalty not exceeding forty shillings.e The Bangor Town Commissioners have applied for a loan

of £ 14,000, to enable them to carry out a water and sewerage

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scheme, &c., and the 25th instant has been arranged for theholding of local inquiry into the matter.llrs. Sarah Green died on Christmas Eve, at Tullabeg,

Coalisland. at the alleged age of 101 years.Deputy Surgeon-General J. L. Jameson has been appointed

principal medical officer at Cork, in succession to Surgeon-General Thompson, now principal medical officer in Ireland.

THE GARRISON HOSPITAL OF HAMBURGHALTONA.

(From a Correspondent.)

IT is a much-disputed question in Germany whether the"corridor," the "pavilion," or the " barrack system forhospitals is the best. Having been most kindly shown overone of the best and newest " corridor " hospitals in theempire, a short sketch of it may not be uninteresting.The Garrison Hospital of Hamburgh-Altona is of red brick,

three-storeyed, and contains 212 beds; central entrance, stair-casesstone. It stands in a garden and is surrounded by fieldsand open country, facing south. The two upper floors containthe wards, the lower offices, pharmacy, medicine, andsurgical appliance; depôt for the whole corps, the ninth ; twowards for sick officers, with servants’ rooms attached ; roomsfor the hospital attendants, a small operating room, &c. The

hospital orderlies, men detached from their regiments, andhaving subsequently undergone one year’s training, sleep onbarrack beds, iron bedsteads with planks, straw mattresses,&c., six in each room; each man has the usual barrack

lock-up cupboard. The two upper floors are divided into three ‘ stations"-surgical, medical, or "external" and " in- ’,ternal," and the third for venereal, eye, and skin dis-eases. Of venereal patients the division containedbut few, the supervision of the police under the

Contagious Diseases Act having lately become much stricter,the number of venereal cases has decreased in consequence.With one exception, the wards contain only six beds, withan allowance of 1200 cubic feet of air for each patient. Thedoors opening on to the corridor are numbered, and markedwith the cubic contents, of the room. Numerous and. largeare the windows of the corridor, as also those of the wards.These latter are provided with curtains. The whole build-

ing is supplied with gas and hot and cold water, the latterbeing laid on to different parts in the corridor for the

patients’use. Floors polished wood. Bedsteads iron, withwire-wove mattress, with head-piece, on which lies anotherof horsehair. These are most comfortable beds. As also atMetz, the venereal patients here have to be satisfied with aless agreeable arrangement, lying as they do on seaweedmattresses placed on boards. One double bedside table withfolding doors stands between every two beds. Two woodenwahhandstands with metal basins for each ward. Blackbed-head, board and clothing the same as at Metz. Latrines-waterclosets, the opening of the door admitting water ;urinals with constant supply of water. On each floor is aroom specially set apart for smoking (nowhere else is it per-mitted) ; also a bath. room with full-length baths; a vapour-bath with cooling chamber, bed, and stove for warming linen;a small kitchen for making poultices, drinks, &c., the heat-ing leing done by steam. The upper floor contains quartersfor the resident assistant-surgeon-one month on duty ; thesecond a large operating room, a chapel, and a dark room forophthahnoscopic examinations. The whole building iswarmed, both with hot water and warm air, by means of aboiler and steam-engine in the basement. The water, con-tained in a series of coiled metal pipes lying in a very largebrick oven, is heated to about 200°; it then rises to reservoirsin the ceiling of the upper floor, whence it is distributed bynumerous small pipes into the warming apparatus proper oithe wards and corridors. This consists of six or eight metal

each of about four inches diameter, arranged perpenin a circle, though not actually in contact, and

communicating only at the top and bottom. These hot-watter " stoves stand one in each ward, and several ilJthe corridois, reaching almost from the floor to the ceiling.

The water, after passing through these, runs out againthrough a small pipe at the bottom into reservoirs under thefloor, whence once more it finds its way in the same mannerthrough the wards and corridors below, and so on againback into the boiler, after warming the first floor, to com-mence its rounds once more. It is of course evident thatthe temperature of the upper floor must be higher than thatof the second, and this higher than that of the first ; and itis found that the water, when it returns to the basementfrom its transit through the building, has lost about fiftydegrees of heat. The wards are further warmed, as alsoventilated, by means of a large wheel, shaped like a ship’sscrew, worked by a steam-engine. It rotates below thebasement floor, draws in the external air through a highchimney built at some distance from the building, and com-municating with it by means of a subterranean passage. Inwinter the air is passed over a series of pipes heated bysteam, and then forced into the different wards throughshafts contained in the walls dividing the rooms from cor-ridor, communicating with the wards by valved openingsnear the floor, and others near the ceiling opposite thewindows. In summer the air is not previously warmed.Near the windows are louvred openings communicating withthe outside through ventilating shafts. The amount ofair admitted can be regulated by a contrivance from thecorridor; cold air can be supplied through one, and hot airthrough the other, opening into the ward at the same time.The cooking is by steam, in metal boilers cased with wood.These are the chief points of interest in this " model"hospital.

I add the following extract from the last Décret, June 15th,1880, relating to appointments in the Medical Departmentof the French Army.In every September an examination will be held for can-

didates for the Medical Department of the army, the primaryconditions being the following :-All candidates must beborn or naturalised French subjects. Those already doctorsof medicine not to be more than twenty-six years of age;students of medicine not to be more than twenty-five yearsof age, but not less than twenty-two. An engagement toserve in the department for at least ten years from the dateof being appointed assistant-surgeon of the second class. Itis ordered that, in future, appointments be open to doctorsand students of medicine of sixteen, twelve, and eight " in-scriptions " (courses of lectures attended), who shall havepassed the corresponding examinations. Those consideredqualified and commissioned as candidates for the depart-ment-in numbers as required-are divided into two classes,the first composed of students merely, the second of those

, who have already taken the degree of doctor. Candidatesof the first category will have to undergo the same education

and the same examinations as civilians for the title of doctor’ of medicine -three years. They may choose their place ofresidence and study from among eleven cities in France,Paris included, named in the Décret. Attached to a

i military hospital, or to the military division of a

tcivil hospital, under the orders and surveillance of thel surgeon-in-chief, they will assist in the hospital work, andiat the same time follow the complete course of lectures andt general study, &c., of the school in which they are in-scribed. The candidates do not wear uniform, but are

under a certain discipline, and receive a fixed yearly sum of; 1200 francs for their general expenses and the purchase ofithe necessary books and instruments. Should the student- fail in his examination twice, he will be dismissed, and- repay all moneys advanced by the State. Candidates of the; second class, doctors of medicine, enter the School of Mili-- tary Medicine, Val-de-Grâce, with the title of " stagiaires,"s at once, on the condition of their being passed bodily fitefor the service. They draw 2000 francs per annum, wearr uniform, obtaining a grant for their first outfit. While ats the school they are made familiar with medicine and surgeryaas applied to the army, theoretically and practically, also- with official work and routine. The course to last at leaste eight months. After a successful examination, theses "stagiaires" become "aides-major," or assistant-surgeonsyof the second class.

L- THE Municipal Council of Paris has, it is reported,d voted a sum of i400 for the establishment of a School ofj- Chemistry, which will be free to the pupils of the municipaln schools who are desirous of practice in chemical industries.;. The smallness of the sum is noteworthy.