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of 1, Derby Villas, Cheltenham, who died in September last’were proved on Oct. llth by Mr. William Haworth Holl,the brother, and John Lawrance Longstaffe, the executnrs,the value of the personal estate exceeding .63700. Thetestator bequeaths the silver inkstand presented to him bythe governors of York Hospital to his said brother. Theremainder of the provisions of the will are in fav our of hisbrother, and of Bennit Mason, Harvey Mason, and AnnieMason.The will, with two codicils, of Walter Samerville, M.D.,

formerly of Greenfield, county Lanark, N.B., but late ofHarrogate, who died on May 28th last, was proved onOct. 26th by Mrs. Isabella Young Somerville, the widow,John McCasland McCulloch, and George Dalziel, three ofthe executors, the value of the personal estate in the UnitedKingdom amounting to over £2000. The testator gives anannuity of .660, to be subsequently increased to .61000,charged on his estate at Greenfield, to his wife; and theresidue of his property equally among his children.The will of Cosmo Gordon Logie, M.D., F.R.S.E., late

of 47, Qeensborough-terrace, Bayswater, who died on

April 6th last, was proved on Oct. llth by Mrs. Maria Logie,the widow and sole executrix, to whom he gives all hisestate and effects.The will and two codicils of George Miller, M.D, late

of 6, Beaumont Villas, Spring-grove, Islewortb, who diedon Aug. 31st last, were proved on Nov. 5th by WilliamHine Haycock, the sole executor. The testator, aftermaking some bequests, leaves one-fourth of the ultimateresidue of his property to his daughter Ilarriette Louisa, andthree-fourths to his daughter Augusta Edwyna.

The following legacies nave recently been left to hospitalsand other medical charities:—Mr. Thomas Phillips Danson,of 54, Merton-road, Bootle, near Liverpool, £1000 to theEndowment Fund of the Bootle Borough Hospital, and £500to the Liverpool Dispensaries.

Public Health and Poor Law.LOCAL GOVERNMENT DEPARTMENT.

REPORTS OF MEDICAL OFFICERS OF HEALTH.

Lambeth.—In the parish of Lambeth the birth and deathrates for 1885 were 33’9 and 18.6 per 1000 respectively,the infant mortality under one year of age being at the rateof 131 per 1000 registered births. Amongst the zymoticdiseases small-pox caused 85 deaths. As regards cases ofthis disease, it is stated that 509 came under notice, thedistricts in which it was most prevalent being Vauxhall andStockwell. At Stoskwell sixty-eight houses were invadedwithin half a mile of the Small-pox Hospital, the majority ofthe cases being, as in 1881, within the quarter-mile area. In1881 Mr. Verdon brought forward some points which, in hisopinion, militated against the theory of the aerial dissemi-nation of the small-pox infection, and one of these was thefact that no cases had occurred in the forty houses situatedupon the west side of Hargwyne-street, near to the hospitalbuildings. In 1835, however, the houses no longer enjoyeda similar immunity, and Mr. Verdon states distinctly thatthe districts in which the Asylums Board Hospitals aresituated throughout the metropolis have in every epidemicsuffered severely; there has, indeed, been an exceptionalprevalence of small-pox in their vicinity. He, however,still believes that aerial dissemination is not the principalfactor, and one of the points on which he relies as to this isthe alleged comparative escape of children before vaccina-tion. Thus he points out that 427 children were bornwithin the half-mile area in the first six months of 1885,and he takes it for granted that as a rule such childrenwould remain unvaccinated for about three months. FromJanuary lst to July 28th, 293 cases of small-pox were ad-mitted into the hospital, and no cases occurred amongst thechildren referred to except in two instances, where, it isalleged, the origin of the infection could be traced. Assum-ing that Dr. Verdon is correct, and that these two whichhe heard of were really all that did take place in a

district where there is no compulsory notification, all he

proves is that, whatever the means by which small-poxspreads, it did not, for some reason or other, operate to a.large extent on these infants. But the argument is nostronger against aerial communication than against anyother method of infection-as for example, sewer infection,,which he seems, on insufficient grounds we think, to regardas a principal cause of small-pox spread. The percentage.of deaths amongst the vaccinated was 6’7; amongst the un-vaccinftted it was 78 5.

St. Luke’s.--Dr. Yarrow devotes a large portion of hisreport to the consideration of statistics, the interest ofwhich is mainly local. The corrected death-rate for 1885was 22’7 per 1000. Measles and scarlet fever were morethan usually prevalent. The number of cases of "fever" "

appearing on the Poor-law officer’s books are stated to havebeen 7 only, and this is compared with 766 in 1865. Theprecise meaning of this is not clear. It can hardly mean thatonly 7 persons in receipt of relief had fever in 1885, and ifother cases are now removed to the Asylums Board Hos-pitals, and are hence eliminated from the Poor-law medicalofficer’s books, the comparison does not hold good. A largeamount of sanitary work is steadily in progress, regulations, .

have been decided on as to houses let in lodgings, and aconsiderable portion of land is occupied with artisans’ andlabourers’ dwellings.

Bethnal-green.- In an extensive account of the conditionsof this district, in so far as they point to the need of nuisance-inspection, Dr. Bate states that in the whole of the metro-polis there are 103 nuisance inspectors, this giving a roughaverage of one inspector to 40,000 inhabitants. The varia-tions are, however, great. Thus, Greenwich and St. Olave’seach have only one inspector, the population of the firstbeing 148,545, and that of the latter 10,000 only. In Bethnal-green there is one inspector to every 65,000 inhabitants, anddifficulties have arisen as to their relationship to themedical officer of health. The death-rate for Bethnal-greenduring 1885 was 22 08 per 1000, and the birth-rate 39 96. Inthe matter of making arrangements with the MetropolitanAsylums Board for the isolation of non-paupers, the vestry-decided that no action was necessary, because the personsremoved from their district to hospital either were, or byreason of their illness became, paupers. We imagine thatmany sanitary authorities in London take the view that, a-the metropolis has an isolation authority, there is no needfor other bodies to take up the work. The new WashingtonLyons disinfecting apparatus is giving every satisfaction ;before it did so it required to be properly covered with somenon-conducting material, in order to prevent the spoiling-of certain articles by means of the condensed water from thesteam.Bath Rural District.—Dr. Harper’s annual reports on this-

district generally show a steady amount of sanitary work,.and that for 1885 forms no exception. ThA death-rate washigher than usual-namely, 17 0 per 1000, but the increasewas due to deaths amongst elderly people in the suburbs ofBath. Tiverton is evidently a portion of the district whichneeds substantial sanitary improvements. This last reportrefers to it again as having been the scene of nine fatal andthirteen non-fatal attacks of diphtheria, and it is statedthat the people lived in damp stuffy dwellings, amongst a,variety of insanitary conditions. We learn that sewerventilation and refuse removal have been improved; theimprovement has come none too soon, and we hope it maycontinue. During the summer months the authoritiesthemselves undertook the removal of refuse in the populousparts of Tiverton and Weston, but it appears to have been.of a restricted character. The removal ought to have beengeneral, and where it is professedly undertaken by theauthority, occupiers should test the matter by resort tomeasures indicated under Sect. 43 of the Public Health Act.But it would be still better if, in all the more populous.parishes, scavenging were always carried out by the-

authority, and not imposed on occupiers, who have no meansof properly carrying it out. When diphtheria was prevalent..considerable precautions were resorted to, and we are gladto find that the isolation hospital was useful both for thisdisease and other infectious fevers.

Birmingham.—During the third quarter of the present year-diarrhoea was accountable for 543 deaths, or 86 per cent. ofthe gross number in the group of zymotic diseases, this ratebeing somewhat lower than that for 1884, but nearly doublethat for Lhe summer of last year. During 188b, August andSep’ember were exceptionally cool, and the contrast which;the two years exhibit leads Dr. Alfred Hill to remind his

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readers that he has ’frequently dealt upon the obvious con-nexion between summer diarrhœa and a high temperature.He also records the mean temperatures of the third quartersof 1884, 1885, and 1886 as 64.4°, 58.0°, and GO’lo respectively,and shows that the corresponding death-rates from diarrhœaper 1000 persons-namely, 5’3, 2.2, and 5’0 -again bear outthis view. With regard to the deaths from this causeduring the past quarter, they were nearly all in childrenunder two years of age, no less than 76 per cent. beingunder one year of age, and those under five years amount-ing to 96 per cent. of the total, leaving only a percentage of4 to be distributed among the remainder of the population.

VITAL STATISTICS.

HEALTH OF ENGLISH TOWNS.

IN twenty-eight of the largest English towns 5551 birthsand 3529 deaths were registered during the week endingNov. 27th. The annual death-rate in these towns, whichhad been 18.2, 19.5, and 19.1 per 1000 in the preceding threeweeks, rose last week to 20’2. During the first eight weeksof the current quarter the death-rate in these towns

averaged 19.1 per 1000, and was 23 below the mean rate inthe corresponding periods of the ten years 1876-85. Thelowest rates in these towns last week were 134 inBrighton, 13’7 in Birkenhead, 15’3 in Derby, and 15.6 in ISunderland. The rates in the other towns ranged up-wards to 26’2 in Bristol, 26.7 in Wolverhampton, 26.7 inHalifax, and 295 in Norwich. The deaths referred to theprincipal zymotic diseases in the twenty-eight towns,which had been 411 and 402 in the preceding two weeks,further declined last week to 400; they included 144 frommeasles, 76 from scarlet fever, 55 from "fever " (princi-pally enteric), 54 from whooping-cough, 37 from diph-theria, 35 from diarrhoea, and not one from small-pox.No death from any of these zymotic diseases was registeredlast week in Brighton or in Birkenhead; whereas theycaused the highest death-rates in Preston, Huddersfield,Wolverhampton, and Leeds. The greatest mortality from I,measles occurred in Halifax, Leeds, Huddersfield, and ’,Wolverhampton; from scarlet fever, in Liverpool, Bradford,Sheffield, and Blackburn; from whooping-cough, in Leedsand Norwich; and from fever," in Manchester, Norwich, !IPlymouth, and Bolton. The 37 deaths from diphtheriain the twenty-eight towns included 24 in London, 2in Birmingham, 2 in Liverpool, 2 in Halifax, and 2 inNewcaatle-upon-Tyne. Small-pox caused no death in ILondon and its outer ring, or in any of the twenty-sevenlarge provincial towns. Only 2 cases of small-pox were Iunder treatment on Saturday last in the metropolitan hos- ’,pitals receiving cases of this disease. The deaths referredto diseases of the respiratory organs in London, which hadbeen 293, 321, and 346 in the preceding three weeks, furtherrose last week to 413, but were 61 below the correctedaverage. The causes of 83, or 2’3 per cent., of the deathsin the twenty-eight towns last week were not certifiedeither by a registered medical practitioner or by a coroner.All the causes of death were duly certified in Bradford,Sunderland, and in five other smaller towns. The largestproportions of uncertified deaths were registered in Black-burn, Oldham, and Sheffield.

HEALTH OF SCOTCH TOWNS.

The annual rate of mortality in the eight Scotch towns,which had been 20’1 and 21.4 per 1000 in the preceding twoweeks, was again 21’4 in the week ending Nov. 27th ; thisrate was 1.2 above the mean rate during the same week inthe twenty-eight large English towns. The rates in theScotch towns last week ranged from 16 3 and 1G’4 in Leithand Perth, to 23’9 in Aberdeen and 25.3 in Glasgow. The 528deaths in the eight towns last week were within one ofthe number in the previous week, and included 17which were referred to whooping-cough, 17 to diarrhoea, 14to scarlet fever, 8 to "fever" (typhus, enteric, or simple),4 to diphtheria, 4 to measles, and not one to small-pox; inall, 64 deaths resulted from these principal zymotic diseases,showing a further decline from 81 and 77 returned in thepreceding two weeks. These 64 deaths were equal to anannual rate of 2.6 per 1000, which was 0 3 above the meanrate from the same diseases in the twenty-eight Englishtowns. The fatal cases of whooping-cough, which had been17 and 19 in the previous two weeks, declined again

last week to 17, of which 13 occurred in Glasgow and 2 in’Aberdeen. The deaths attributed to diarrhoea, which haddeclined in the previous five weeks from 46 to 21, furtherfell last week to 1J, and included C in Glasgow, 5 in Dundee,and 3 in Edinburgh. The deaths from scarlet fever, whichhad been 16, 23, and 24 in the preceding three weeks, felllast week to 14, of which 9 occurred in Glasgow, 2 inDundee, and 2 in Aberdeen. The 8 deaths referred to"fever," of which 4 were returned in Glagow, exceeded thenumber returned in the previous week by 2. The 4 fatalcases of diphtheria and measles scarcely differed from thenumbers in the previous week ; 3 deaths from each of thesetwo diseases occurred in Glasgow. The deaths referred toacute diseases of the respiratory organs in the eight towns,which had increased in the preceding five weeks from 79 to137, declined again last week to 125, and were no fewerthan46below the number in the corresponding week of last year.The causes of 71, or nearly 14 per cent., of the deaths inthe eight towns last week were not certified,

HEALTH OF DUBLIN.

The rate of mortality in Dublin, which had been 26’2,236, and24’5per 1000 in the preceding three weeks, rose againto 25’3 in the week ending Nov. 27th. During the first eightweeks of the current quarter the death-rate in the cityaveraged 23’5; the mean rate during the same periodwas 17’5 in London and 18.9 in Edinburgh. The 171 deathsin Dublin last week showed an increase of 5 upon thenumbers in the previous two weeks, and included 7 whichwere referred to scarlet fever, 7 to " fever," (typhus, enteric,or simple), 4 to diarrhoea, 3 to whooping-cougb, 1 to diph-theria, and not one either to small-pox or measles. Thus22 deaths resulted from these principal zymotic diseases,against 32, 23, and 20 in the previous three weeks; theywere equal to an annual rate of 3-3 per 1000, the rates fromthe same diseases last week being but 1’8 in London and0 8 in Edinburgh, The fatal cases of scarlet fever, whichhad been 15 and 10 in the previous two weeks, furtherdeclined last week to 7. The 7 deaths referred to "fever," onthe other hand, exceeded the numbers returned in recentweeks; while those from diarrhœa and whooping-coughscarcely differed from those in recent weeks. Two inquestcases and one death from violence were registered; and 57,or a third, of the deaths occurred in public institutions. Thedeaths both of infants and of elderly persons showed aconsiderable increase upon the numbers in the previousweek. The causes of 18, or more than 10 per cent., of thedeaths registered during the week were not certified.

SANITARY CONDITION OF JAMAICA.

The report of the Registrar-General of Jamaica upon thevital statistics and health of that island in the year 1884-85,signifying the year ending 30th September, 1885, has recentlycome to hand. We must once more enter a protest againstthe obvious depreciation in the value of the report from thefact that it does not deal with the complete year endingDecember, and thus afford comparison with similar statisticalreports relating to others of the West Indian Islands, andto other British colonies. The estimated mean populationof Jamaica in the year 1884-5 is 596,383; it is pointed out,however, that emigration to the Isthmus of Panama duringthe last two or three years, for the purpose of the Canal, hasresulted in a net loss to the population of more than 20,000persons, almost exclusively male adults, and equal to one-fifth of the male population at the reproductive ages. Theeffect of this depletion of the population upon its marriage,birth, and death rates must be considerable. The recordedmarriage-rate in Jamaica is always low, and was in 1884-5equal to 10’0 persons married per 1000 of the population,corresponding with the rate in the preceding year. Thebirth-rate was 37.8 per 1000, and it is worthy of note, as anexceptional fact, that the births of females exceeded thoseof males. Bearing in mind the large proportion of maleadults temporarily absent, the birth-rate is very high. Inconnexion with the low marriage-rate, the high rate ofillegitimacy is very noticeable. In the year under noticethe proportion of illegitimate births was equal to 599per cent. of the total births, and differed but slightlyfrom the mean proportion in the preceding six years.The death-rate in the island was equal to 22.6 per1000, and was almost identical with the rate in the pre-ceding year. The proportion of infant mortality, bearing in