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extension of the curriculum in respect to time. The con-

sequence of this is overpressure in the case of very many ofthe students, and a sense of oppression in those who are notactually overworked, which it would be well if the authori-ties could see their way to mitigate in the way requested,or in other ways which might suggest themselves.

ROYAL HOSPITAL FOR SICK CHILDRFN.

The Directors of the Royal Hospital for Sick Childrenhave appointed Dr. Melville Dunlop to the post of extra-physician upon the staff of the hospital, vacant through theresignation of Dr. Hodsdon.Edinburgh, Dec. 28th, 1886.

ABERDEEN.

(From our own Correspondent.)

ROYAL INFIRMARY.

THE quarterly court of the managers of the RoyalInfirmary was held on Monday, Dec. 13th, when it wasresolved, on the motion of the president, Lord ProvostHenderson, to make an appeal to the public for the fundsnecessary to carry out the proposed improvement andextension of the infirmary buildings. It was left to thecommittee of management to select a large committeethoroughly representative of town and country, who wouldtake the matter in hand, and it was hoped that an endeavourwould be made to have the sum, .62,000, subscribed beforeJune 20th, 1887. There is little doubt as to the success ofthis scheme of the Lord Provost to celebrate the Queen’sjubilee. He himself has subscribed £ 1000, and a subscriptionof .500 has also been intimated. Two vacancies in themedical staff had to be fllled up at this meeting, and a largenumber of managers attended to bestow their patronage.For the office of ophthalmic surgeon, rendered vacant by thelamented death of Dr. Dyce Davidson, Dr. MacKenzieDavidson was the only candidate, and he was appointedunanimously. When Dr. Blaikie Smith was appointedassistant physician he resigned the office of chloroformist,which he had held for eleven years, and Drs. Booth,MacGregor, and Ruxton were candidates for the appoint-ment. The first vote gave the following result: Dr. Booth,83; Dr. MacGregor, 78; Dr. Ruxton, 16. A second vote wasthen taken as between Dr. Booth and Dr, MacGregor, whenthe former was elected by a majority of four votes.

THE UNIVERSITY COURT.

A meeting of the Aberdeen University Court was heldon Saturday, Dec. 18tb, when there was laid before themeeting a communication from the Senatus, stating that ata meeting held on the llth, the Senatus resolved to repre-sent to the Court their desire to withdraw the proposalsas to changes in the examinations in medicine. The courtgranted consent, and this, for the present at any rate, gets ridof the difficulties raised by Prof. Struthers’ dissent and Prof.Ogston’s threatened action.

THE TRAINING OF PROBATIONER NURSES.

Two or three months ago the late Dr. Dyce Davidson andDr. Garden were appointed a subcommittee of the medicalcommittee to make inquiries as to the training of pro-bationers in other hospitals, and as a result of their inquiriesthey submitted a report upon the subject, and theirsuggestions have so far been acted upon. The report saysthat probationers ought to be engaged for two years, duringwhich time they ought to receive a regular course ofinstruction both theoretical and practical. The theoreticalpart of their instruction is to consist of lectures, which areto be divided into three courses : first, a series of lecturesby the lady superintendent on nursing, the economy of thesick-room, instructions as to the preparation of food for thesick, &c.; second, lectures by one of the surgical staff onelementary anatomy, with lessons on surgical nursing,including bandaging, description and preparation of instru-ments, dressings, &c. ; third, a course of instruction by oneof the medical staff on elementary physiology and medicalnursing. The practical or ward training is to be given bythe ward sisters, supervised by the lady superintendentand the teachers who supply the theoretical teaching. Drs.Fraser and Garden have been appointed with Miss Lumsdento give the different lectures.

THE HEALTH OF THE CITY.

In October there was a decided decrease in the number ofcases of scarlet fever, but it has again begun to spread, andthe report for last month shows a large increase. In October78 cases of scarlet fever were reported, but during Novemberthere were 107. In the later month there were also 14-cases of typhoid fever, as against 4 cases in October. Thedeath-rate for October was 17’28 per 1000, but last month itmounted up to 23’22 per 1000. Whooping-cough and measle/}are also prevalent, and many cases have proved fatal.

Dec., 1886. _________________

IRELAND.

(From our own Correspondent.)

ROYAL UNIVERSITY OF IRELAND.

A MEETING of Convocation takes place on Dec. 30th, and:

1 consequently will be held too late for me to record this week

the result of the election for a Member of the Senate. One

of the candidates (Major Fitzgerald) has withdrawn, and thecontest will lie between Professor O’Sullivan, Mr. 0’ConnorqI

and Dr. McMordie. I have already given my opinion that"

the first-named gentleman will probably be elected, and’ therefore shall not refer further to this subject. At the

meeting this week, several notices of motion have beengiven, the principal being as follows :-Dr. Knight willmove that the Senate be requested to consider what pre-cautions can be taken to ensure that only the votes ofmembers of Convocation are recorded in senatorial elections..Dr. Thompson will move a resolution requiring that atelections of a Senator by Convocation each voter shallaffix his name to his voting paper in presence of a justiceof the peace or a clergyman, who also shall sign his nameas witness. The recent rules adopted by the Senate for themedical curriculum of the University have created con-siderable dissatisfaction, and it is gratifying to learn thatProfessor Pye has a notice relative to this matter, in whichhe will call attention to it, and move, that in the opinionof Convocation it should be repealed, and rules framed for theguidance of medical students in accordance with the direc-tion of the General Medical Council be adopted. The pro-ceedings are expected to prove very animated, and it isto be hoped that the Chairman will exercise the powersentrusted to him in repressing all unseemly attempts atdisturbance.

THE EPIDEMIC OF ENTERIC FEVER IN CORK.

The Publlc Health Committee will this week have undertheir consideration a very important report, prepared by aninspector of the Local Government Board (Dr. O’Farrell),which deals with the present sanitary condition of the cityof Cork. Additional interest must be attached to the com-munication in view of the epidemic of snteric fever whichhas prevailed for some time past. Cork is supplied withwater from the river Lee, taken about a mile above the city.A filtering tunnel has been erected, but sufficient precautionsare not adopted to prevent contamination from the housesand towns and villages situated on the banks of the riverfrom its source to the point of intake at the water-works.The physical features of the site on which Cork is builtrender it extremely difficult to drain the hills, causing stepsand abrupt gradients, while the flat of the city is belowhigh water of spring tides. The rubble sewers in the olderparts of Cork are defective in every respect-rat-eaten andblocked, so that they are no better than elongated cesspools,.saturating the porous alluvial soil, which surround themwith organic matter, and throwing back foul sewer air onthe higher levels, thus producing zymotic diseases in thoseparts of the city which ought to be most healthy. Thereare about 1700 tenement houses in Cork, and many of them,.especially in the centre of the city, are old and structurallybad. The public cleansing of the streets is carried out in a.

most unsatisfactory manner; this is partly due to the wantof funds, the soft character of the limestone used for repairingroads, and to the large rainfall. The want of a public abattoirand the condition of the private slaughter yards must exercisean injurious influence on the health of the citizens. Dr.Donovan, the medical officer of health, is inclined to attributethe prevalence of typhoid fever to the cleansing of old drainsand the dispersion of their contents over the surface of the,public park and other places of public resort. Dr. O’FarrelI

50

thinks these views very probably to be correct, and thatthe present outbreak is due to the faulty condition of thesewers and to the effluvia arising from them and from a soilsaturated with organic matter and specific germs, acting ata time when in many parts of the United Kingdom therewould seem to be an "epidemic tendency" to the develop-ment of enteric fever. These are the chief points referredto in Dr. O’Farrell’s report, and in addition he makes thefollowing suggestions for the consideration of the PublicHealth Committee :-1. That street cleansing be improved,and that a complete system of domestic scavenging beundertaken by the Corporation. 2. That the sewers of thecity be completed and modernised, and that a mapof the city be provided, in accordance with the 23rdsection of the Public Health Act. That all main sewersbe ventilated at their highest levels, and that theybe provided with side entrances, manholes, and notless than twenty ventilators for each mile of sewer.

3. That lodging-house and tenement yards and premisesbe kept in proper sanitary condition, and that the bye-lawsmade under the 41st, 91st, and 100th sections of the PublicHealth Act be strictly enforced. 4. That a public abattoirbe erected on a suitable site, such as the old Passage Railway,with proper appliances for drainage, ventilation, and clean-liness. 5. That the sewage matter removed from drains anddeposited in the Park, and elsewhere, be thoroughly dis-infected ; and, in future, that all scavenged materials beimmediately removed from the city by water carriage, orelse that they be deposited and disinfected in suitably placedand properly constructed manure depots. 6. That the water-

supply of the city be protected, as far as possible, fromcontamination by the means already suggested in this report.7.’ That the Medical Superintendent Officer of Healthshould devote his whole time to the duties of his office.

’

Dublin, Dec. 27th, 1886.

PARIS.

(From our own Correspondent.)

EXPERIMENTS WITH THE VIRUS OF RABIES.

THE most important news of the week comes to us fromVienna in the account of Professor von Frich’s experimentswith the virus of rabies supplied to him for that purpose byMonsieur Pasteur. M. von Frich finds : 1. That in animalswhich have died from rabies the virus exists in its mostconcentrated form in the central nervous system. 2. Thatsmall quantities of the cerebro-spinal substance of animalswhich have died from rabies injected under the dura materby trephining are sure to be followed after a latent period offrom fourteen to twenty-one days by the same disease, andthis may be transmitted from these to other animals.3. That the same disease, with the same symptoms and thesame period of incubation, may be induced by intra-cranialinoculation with particles of medulla from human beingswho have died of rabies, showing the identity in manand in the lower animals. 4. That infection is less sureby the subcutaneous method, and the period of incubationlonger than with intra-cranial inoculation. 5. The lengthof the period of incubation depends upon the quantity ofvirus injected under the skin; the less the virus, the longerthe incubation. 6. By the continuous intra-cranial trans-mission of the virus taken from the cerebro-spinal substanceof rabbits, after a series of generations the period of incuba-tion is shortened and its invasion is irregular. Later on theincubation still decreases, but the invasion becomes regular.7. The /M*eJ virus of an incubation period of seven days,which M. Pasteur obtains by inoculation from rabbit torabbit through forty or fifty generations exceed in intensitythe virus of street rabies, not only in that the invasion ofthe disease is earlier, but also because the animals diewithout exception as well after subcutaneous injection aswith inoculation of the dura mater. 8. The fixed virusdoes not seem to acquire by further transmissions anynoteworthy shortening of its period of incubation. Some-times the disease begins after six days; but, on the otherhand, it may extend to eight, ten, or even twelve days. Anincubation period of from eight to twelve days, and con-sequently a virulence of the same intensity as that of thefixed virus, may also be obtained by the transmission of

street rabies, and this sometimes at the second or thirdgeneration. 9. M. Pasteur’s method of obtaining a fixedvirus of seven days’ incubation is, perhaps, not the only one,for the said virus may sometimes be obtained much earlier,independently of the transmissions, and this virus is con-stant in its effects and in its period of incubation. 10. Thevirulence of particles of medulla diminishes daily underdesiccation at 20° Centigrade over caustic potash, and is en-tirely destroyed after from fourteen to sixteen days. 11. Ani-mals which have been subjected to hypodermic injections ofa series of virus attenuated by desiccation become re-

fractory to the stronger virus by the previous inocu-lations with the weaker virus if the stronger virushave not been used in too rapid succession. 12. Animalswhich have been inoculated hypodermically during ten dayswith virus of progressive virulence (medulla from ten daysto one day) have not been refractory to infection with thefresh virus of street rabies, and have only exceptionallyescaped after intra-cranial infection. 13. Rabbits and dogsinoculated by trephining with the virus of street rabies ofsixteen days’ incubation have always succumbed, notwith-standing the preventive treatment already described.14. M. Pasteur attributed to the method of slow vaccina-tions the unsatisfactory results obtained previously byM. von Frich, and recommended a more intensive mode oftreatment. The experiments carried out conformably toM. Pasteur’s instructions have given no more favourableresult; all the animals died of rabies. 15. The experi-ments have demonstrated a most important fact-thatis, that in the rapid process the weaker preserva-tive medullæ do not confer the same certainty ofimmunity from the effects of inoculation with the strongermedullse. Of a series of dogs and rabbits inoculated as acontrol-experiment to that described in the preceding para-graph, and in which the rapid process was carried outwithout previous infection, most of the animals died ofrabies. 16. Most of the animals which were submitted tothe preventive treatment after subcutaneous inoculationwith street rabies, died of the disease even when the periodof incubation was thirty-four days. These experimentsshow, says M. von Frich, that Pasteur’s method of render-ing animals refractory to rabies is not yet either sure orcertain. There is not yet a sufficient scientific basis for theapplication in man of a preventive treatment after the biteof a rabid animal. It is, moreover, quite possible that thepreventive treatment, at any rate the intensive methodrecently recommended by M. Pasteur, may itself transmitthe disease.

A PATHOGNOMONIC SIGN OF CANCER OF THE STOMACH.

A patient was shown at the last meeting of the SociétéMedicale des H6pitaux who exemplifies the condition saidby German writers to be characteristic of cancer of thestomach, a condition found by M. Debove to be constant insuch cases, and which he proposes as a pathognomonic signof the disease. In malignant disease of the stomach it willbe found that hydrochloric acid is always wanting, whereasit lasts constantly during digestion in every other case.

In M. Debove’s patient this absence of hydrochloric acidenabled a diagnosis to be made at a period when there was noother symptom of cancer, and the disease was looked upon asdyspepsia, an opinion shared by M. Debove himself until hehad ascertained the composition of the gastric j uice. Since thebeginning of the year the man has been under observation,and the real nature of his disease now constituted by acharacteristic tumour the size of an egg, is no longer doubt-ful. In reply to questions M. Debove said that he obtainedthe liquid for examination by means of the oesophageal tube,and that the test used for distinguishing the acids werethose recommended by the Germans. A solution of gentianviolet (1 in 5000) gives a blue coloration with HCI."l’orange Poirier" in saturated solution gives a redreaction with the same acid. Lactic acid is recognised bythe increased yellowing of perchloride of iron, and bychange in colour of a mixture of perchloride of iron andcarbolic acid, from amethyst blue to yellow.

TREATMENT OF EPILEPSY.

M. Dujardin-Beaumetz is using antifebrine extensively inthe treatment of epilepsy. As far as I know nothing has asyet been published on the subject, but I am told that inantifebrine we possess one of the most powerful" moderators" of the spinal centres.

Paris, Dec. 29th,1886.