1877SCOTLAND.-IRELAND.

of the medical union. The friendly societies therefore advertised for a medical officer. The medical union imme-diately sent out counter advertisements warning medical mennot to apply. Several intending candidates consequentlywrote asking for explanations and when these were suppliedthey honourably refrained from seeking the appointment.Ultimately a practitioner was secured. From all accounts hewas not very successful. At the Bradford Medico-EthicalSociety the advent of this interloper was much discussed. Allthe members of this organisation, including the Bradford con-sultants, agreed that they would not meet or in any wayrecognise the newcomer. This promise was also faithfullykept and what little assistance the medical officer importedby the friendly societies did obtain was not from anymember of a medical organisation.As a counterblow to the importation of an outsider a

notice was printed in the form of a poster and exhibited inall the surgeries. It was worded as follows :-

ODDFELLOWS’ SHIPLEY MEDICAL SERVICE.For the members of the Shipley District F.O.O.F., M.U. Terms

2s. 6d., payable January, and 2s. 6d. in July.Members can enrol at any of the surgeries.

This proved a very effective measure. Not a few Oddfellowspreferred to select their medical attendant among themedical practitioners holding the best reputation in the townrather than subscribe to the imported practitioner.

This struggle has now been continuing for some five yearsand the position of the friendly societies has grown weakerand weaker. To import a medical practitioner it wasnecessary to guarantee a minimum salary and to grant theright to private practice. The fact, however, that the inter-loper is ostracised by the entire profession in the townputs private practice out of reach. On the otherhand, many Oddfellows are dissatisfied at having to

pay a medical attendant whom they did not select andwho is not in touch with the profession in the neighbourhood.So strong is this feeling that quite recently the ShipleyFriendly Aid Society has been founded to try to getout of the present difficulties. This is, however,so recent a creation that it is too soon to speculate asto its possible effect. It is also found that as the Odd-fellows have but one medical officer in their employ andthere is no possibility of getting another he is toomuch the master of the situation. It is therefore said thathe could, in such circumstances, limit his attendance to themere giving of medicine, whereas the personal factor is sogreat that the poor as well as the rich should have the powerto select the man whom they prefer. So much is this the casethat practically all the smaller societies and clubs of Shipleyhave broken away from the leadership of the Oddfellowsand have accepted the terms made by the medical union.The Rechabites are not satisfied because they had a women’s club but all the others are well content with the conditionslaid down by the medical profession. With the loss of theminor clubs and the desertion of individual Oddfellows therehas been such a falling off in the subscriptions paid formedical aid that not only would it be impossible for the Odd-fellows to import a second practitioner but it is no longer soeasy a matter for them to pay the minimum salary which theyguaranteed to the medical officer now in their service. Con-sequently within the last 18 months they have compelledall their members to pay the medical subscription even if theydo not want the medical aid or have subscribed elsewherefor that purpose. This has caused much dissatisfaction. Themembers are still disposed energetically to support their com-mittee ; they will not recognise that they are beaten and thattheir cause is lost, but nevertheless they want some altera-tion nor would it be difficult to effect such an alteration.There are, for instance, actuarial tables setting forth theamount which on an average has to be paid to members for sickallowance and for funerals. This has all been worked out toa nicety, so that it is known with great precision what shouldbe paid annually to cover this outlay. The same calculationcould be made in regard to medical attendance. Grantingthat workmen cannot pay a medical man’s bill, why shouldthey not insure through their friendly societies, the latterpaying a reasonable fee to any of the local medical practi-tioners whom the patient chooses to select and charging theirmembers the premium necessary to meet this cost exactlyin the same manner as is actually their practice ill. regardto sick and funeral allowances.What alteration will ultimately be made cannot at present

be foreseen, though it is clear that the present state of affairscannot continue. The centre of resistance to the demands of

the medical profession still subsists but all the out-works havefallen. Unless some unexpected help comes from the outsidea citadel cannot hold out for ever when the city is alreadycaptured, and this seems to be the position of affairs atShipley where the battle of the clubs has been fought duringthe last five years.

SCOTLAND.(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENTS.)

Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.AT a meeting of the Royal College of Physicians of

Edinburgh, held on Dec. 5th, Dr. C. E. Underhill was

re-elected President of the College, Dr. John Playfair,Vice-President, and Sir Thomas R. Fraser, Sir JohnBatty Take, Dr. W. Allan Jamieson, Dr. James Ritchie, andDr. R. W. Philip were elected to the Council with thePresident and Vice-President.-At an extraordinary meetingof the College, held on Dec. 17th, the College unani-

mously appointed Sir Alexander R. Simpson and Dr.Playfair to be representatives of the College on the board ofmanagement of the Royal Infirmary.-Death of Professor T. Annandale and Sir Patrick Heron

Watson.The Christmas vacation in the Edinburgh School of

Medicine is ushered in by the deaths of two eminentmembers of the profession in Edinburgh. ProfessorT. Annandale was found dead in bed on Friday morning,Dec. 20th. He was in his ordinary health the day beforeand had indeed operated in the infirmary in the afternoon.Sir Patrick Heron Watson died on Saturday, Dec. 21st.He had been failing for some time and had been con-fined to the house for some weeks and his condition wasknown to be critical. The two deaths have thrown a shadowover the West-end of Edinburgh, for Christmas week openswith the fact of two prominent surgeons lying dead onopposite sides of Charlotte-square-men who have beenidentified with the higher walks of professional life inEdinburgh for the past 40 years.

Glasgow Committee of the Red Cross Society.The Lord Provost last week convened a meeting of those

interested in the formation of a Glasgow centre in connexionwith the Scottish branch of the British Red Cross Society.Sir George T. Beatson, in explaining the objects of the

society, stated that an attempt was being made to form RedCross committees in every district, so that they might intime of war organise ambulance and hospital aid. Itwas proposed to form a Glasgow committee similar to thosein formation in Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Perth, and Dundee,and from these committees and the county committeesalready formed it was intended to establish a Scottishrepresentative central committee. It was pointed out thatthe military authorities would not permit of that class ofwork being performed through agencies other than those ofthe Red Cross Society. After some discussion it was agreedto form a Glasgow committee, of which the Lord Provostwas appointed President, Sir George Beatson Vice-President, and Dr. R. T. Halliday honorary secretary.

Dec. 23rd. _________________

IRELAND.

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENTS.)

Teaching of Midwifery in Ireland.A MEETING of masters, ex-masters, assistant masters, and

ex-assistant masters of the Dublin maternity hospitals washeld in the Royal College of Physicians, Mr. E. HastingsTweedy, master of the Rotunda Hospital, being in the chair.The following motion was proposed by Dr. R. D. Purefoy,ex-master of the Rotunda Hospital, seconded by Dr. M. J.Gibson, and carried unanimously :-That this meeting, consisting of the masters and REsistants, past and

present, of the Dublin maternity hospitals, is unanimously of opinionthat the proposed shortening of the course in practical obstetrics fromsix to three months would seriously interfere with the work of thematernity hospitals; that it would increase, rather than lessen thedifficulties in providing each student with the required number ofcases, and that. at the same time, it wonld materially diminish hisopportunities o- obtaining practical instruction.

1878 PARIS.-BERLIN.

It was then proposed by Sir William J. Smyly, ex-master ofthe Rotunda Hospital, seconded by Mr. A. J. Home, master ofthe National Lying-in Hospital, and passed unanimously :-That, in the opinion of this meeting, it is most desirable that the

recommendations of the General Medical Council with regard to aclinical and practical examination in obstetrics and gynaecology beadopted, especially as the meeting has been assured that the masters ofthe maternity hospitals will further the scheme by every means intheir power.

The Royal Irish Academy and the Royal Commission onVivisection.

The following resolution passed by the Council of theRoyal Irish Academy has been forwarded to the secretary ofthe Royal Commission on Vivisection now sitting :-The Council, fully recognising the vital importance of experimental

investigations carried out on living animals, believes it is desirablethat licences to perform such experiments should continue to begranted to qualified workers. The Council believes that the restric-tions at present regulating the granting of licences are adequate. TheCouncil would desire to see licences granted by the Home Secretary onthe recommendation of (1) the head of any of the universities of GreatBritain and Ireland; (2) the head of any of the medical licensing.corporations ; (3) the head of any of the chartered scientific societies;,(4) the head of any of the veterinary colleges.

Dec. 20th. ________________

PARIS.(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

Reopening of the Faoulty of Medicine.THE Minister of Public Instruction acceded to the petition

of Professor Landouzy, the new dean of the Faculty ofMedicine, that the Faculty should be reopened on Dec. 16th,the day on which he begins his Decanate. For the most

part entrance cards to the Faculty will be required for boththe courses of lectures and the practical schools of the newsession. The lectures in anatomy and histology will only be.open to students in their first and second years of study, forwhom they are intended. The students should feel them-selves much beholden to the new dean for his intervention intheir favour with the authorities.

A Case of Goitre Treated by -Exothyropexy.M. Jacob has sent a note to the Surgical Society which

M. J. L. Faure communicated on Dec. llth ; it dealt withthe case of a young man who had a goitre which was givingrise to respiratory embarrassment. M. Jacob operated withthe intention of doing an intra-glandular enucleation, but ashe found no nodular structure under the capsule he deter-mined to attempt a partial thyroidectomy. He had toabandon this intention also on account of intimate adhesionsto the great vessels of the neck, so he contented himself withan exothyropexy. The result of the operation was that allthe symptoms cleared up and the patient made a goodrecovery.

The Radiograp7tic Diagnosis of the Reality of Death.M. Vaillant has undertaken some experiments to see if

radiography can be used to determine with certainty theoccurrence of death, with favourable results. According tohim skiagrams of the abdomen and pelvis present a

very different appearance according to whether the subjectis living or dead. In a living person, whether an

adult or a child, the stomach and intestines are notvisible. On the other hand, in a dead person, providedthat he has taken food before death, these organs becomevisible. M. Vaillant explains his results as follows. The

gases which form in the abdominal viscera are, for the most

part, sulphuretted, and by their chemical qualities becomephosphorescent under the x rays, and this luminosity is onlyappreciable to the eye by radioscopic examination of theabdomen. The contents of these viscera under the action ofthe rays act as fluorescent screens and make an added im-

pression on the photographic plate in the place where theirimage is produced ; these facts and the absolute immobilityof the viscera account for their visibility when the subject isa corpse. M. Vaillant communicated these observations tothe Academy of Sciences on Nov. 18th. At the December

meeting M. Perier read to the Academy a note by M. Béclèrewho does not believe in the possibility of making a radio-graphic diagnosis of the occurrence of death. He pointedout that radiographs of persons with abdominal meteorismor paralytic distension of the bowel do not differ from thoseof dead persons, since in all three cases there is gaseousproduction in an immobile intestine.

Dr. Laveran.

Dr. Laveran, who has been awarded the Nobel prize inMedicine, was born in Strassburg in 1845. He followed hisfather’s profession and studied in the medical school of hisnative town, where in 1866 and 1867 he was an interne inthe civil hospitals. In 1874 he was nominated after com-petition professor agr6g6 at Val-de-Grâce. When his pro-

fessorship had expired he was sent at his own request toserve in Algeria and during that time at Bona he discoveredthe hasmatozoon of malaria. In 1884 be became full pro-fessor at Val-de-Grâce, a member of the Academy of Medi-cine in 1893, and of the Institute in 1901. In 1897 he retiredfrom the military service with the rank of principal surgeonof the first class and since then he has worked at the PasteurInstitute studying trypanosomes and trypanosomiasis.

Dec. 20th. _______________

BERLIN.

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

The " Berliner Klinische Wochenschrift." Professor Ewald is about to relinquish his position as joint

editor of the Berliner Klinische Wochenschrift, with whichjournal he has been connected for a number of years. From1881 to 1889 he was sole editor, in succession to the late

Professor Waldenburg, and since 1889 he has been associatedwith Professor Posner. The Berliner Klinische Wochenschriftdeservedly enjoys a great reputation and this is to a largeextent unquestionably due to Professor Ewald who has wellmaintained its high standard and has made it one of theleading medical journals of Germany. The Association ofthe German Medical Press has recognised Professor Ewald’smerits by electing him an honorary member. ProfessorPosner will continue to act as editor of the journal, whilstProfessor Ewald will be replaced by Dr. Hans Kohn, hithertoBerlin correspondent of the Münchner Medicinische Wochen-schrift and known by numerous publications on the subjectsof clinical medicine and general pathology.

The Ophthalmo-reaction in Tuberculosis.Some time ago, at a meeting of the Berlin Medical Society,

Dr. Wolff Eisner mentioned the interesting fact that theinstillation of some drops of a solution of Koch’s tuberculininto an eye produced a marked reaction, consisting first ofhyperasmia of the conjunctiva and the caruncula followedby a swelling and hypersecretion lasting for a few days andsubsiding without any injury to the eye. This reaction, how-ever, developed almost exclusively in tuberculous patientsand did not make its appearance in non-tuberculous cases,FO that it might be used for purposes of diagnosis. Dr.Eisner’s statements have been confirmed by several otherauthorities. Dr. Eppenstein found that the reactiondeveloped in 72 per cent. of cases of undoubted tuber-culosis, in 40 per cent. of suspected cases, and in 4 per