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398 LOOKING BACK.-MEDICINE AND THE LAW. in making one or two important innovations. Apart from the Bulletin already mentioned they have not only settled in which rooms the sections of the Congress are to meet but they have published a plan of each floor of the School of Medicine where the Congress is to assemble. Every compartment, room, amphitheatre, or hall is numbered and a reference shows at once the employment for which it is destined. Thus those who want to inquire about travelling and excursions must go to room No. 13 on the ground floor. Others who are anxious about obtaining lodging accommoda- tion must go to Room 27 on the same floor. Anyone who desires to leave his coat or bag must find out Room 38 and those who have not paid their entrance fee will find the cashier in Room 40. Altogether there are 43 different rooms and halls on this one floor. On the first floor, which is as large, there are only 30 rooms, but these are much more spacious. These will be occupied by sections likely to attract many members of the Congress. Then there is an annex with 21 rooms or divisions and one of these is a kitchen and another comprises a terrace and restaurant. Thus it will be possible to have meals without leaving the premises where the Congress will meet. Even the con- ferences or special lectures that do not form part of the work of the sections are to be given here. It will be remem- bered that at Madrid and in other towns such meetings were convoked in different parts of the cities and much trouble and time were expended in going about to find the particular hospital or building where a lecture had been announced. At Lisbon, on the contrary, all is concentrated in the one building. Consequently the position of this one building becomes a matter of primary importance. Few persons are likely to undertake such a voyage without providing themselves with a Baedeker, and therefore it has been the subject of special correspondence on our part to ascertain where in Baedeker’s map the locale of the Congress is situated. The answer is that Congress will meet in the square formed by the letter G and the number 2 in the map of Lisbon that will be found in Baedeker’s Guide to Spain and Portugal. But the organisers of the Congress are preparing a medical guide to Lisbon and this will contain a new map drawn and printed expressly for the Congress. In this new map the Congress locale is in the square marked by the lines G, No. 6. It will be seen that the Escola Medica, where the Congress is to meet, overlooks the field of martyred patriots, Campo dos Martyres da Patria. Within a few hundred yards there is a circle of hospitals. Thus close to, and due south of, the Escola Medica are the Bacteriological Institute and the Hospital de S. Joe. South-west, and equally near, there is the Hospital de S. Lazaro. Due west at a distance of 200 yards is the Hospital do Desterro. To the north-west and a little farther off there is the Asylo de Sto. Antonio. The Hospital D. Amelia is in the same direction but much further away. Due north but not quite so near as the hos- pitals to the south, are the Hospital de D. Estephania, the veterinary institution, and the lunatic asylum, and to the north-east the hospital of St. Matba. Close at hand to the due east are the Asylum for the Poor and the Ophthlamo- logical Institute. Finally, to the south-east are the botanical gardens, the polytechnical schools, and the headquarters of the Medical Association of Portugal, and farther away is the Academy of Science. Thus we find here a double centralisation. First, everything that forms part of the Congress will take place in the one building, and secondly, that one building is itself situated in the very centre of all the hospitals and other institutions which members of the Congress are likely to visit. Topographically speaking, therefore, everything seems to have been arranged very conveniently. As time is always most precious during such congresses these advantages are sure to be appreciated highly. Further, and this will not only economise time but will very materially help to render the discussions of the Congress more interesting and useful, a large number of the reports by which the debates are to be opened have been written and are already printed. The reporters themselves are un- fortunately prone to postpone writing their reports to the last moment, so perhaps it will not be possible to publish them all before the Congress meets. Nevertheless, a very large number of these reports will be in the hands of those who are interested in their subject matter before the Congress meets. Thus it will be possible to prepare replies to the reporters and to look up evidence or data for the purpose. Considering that all this work of organisation was com- menced in 1904, and has been continued ever since, everything should be ready in good time. There is every reason there- fore to hope that the Congress will prove a success and that the organisers will earn the gratitude of the medical profession throughout the world. Looking Back. FROM THE LANCET, SATURDAY, Feb. 9th, 1828. Sitting of SU’rgery. * BLINDNESS FROM WORMS IN THE EYES. M. J. Cloquet communicated to the Sitting, a curious case of a man attacked with several subcutaneous abscesses on the head, in consequence of a considerable deposit of the eggs of flies on this part. An old man fell asleep in the open air ; the flies, attracted by the bad odour which exhaled from his body, deposited their eggs in great numbers between the eyelids, in the auditory passages, on the cheeks, the head, and beneath the prepuce. After a few days the eggs produced larvse, which, at first, occasioned a very troublesome itching, then several abscesses formed beneath the integuments of the head, and the temples, and in the orbit. When the man was admitted into the hospital, there was an ichorous discharge from all these parts, from the auditory passages, and the prepuce, containing a number of small worms, which were found to be the larvae of the mu,sca carnaria. M. J. Cloquet removed a great quantity of these worms, and employed mercurial frictions to destroy the remainder. At present, the patient is in a fair way of recovery; but, from the worms having perforated the eyes, he is quite blind. Notwithstanding the extent of mischief produced by these animals, no haemorrhage occurred. M. Larrey stated, that he had often seen, during the campaign in Egypt, worms in wounds ; but they never attacked dense tissues as those of arteries. which might account for no bleeding having occurred in the case related by M. Cloquet. MEDICINE AND THE LAW. Is a " Dootor’s Boy a Male Servant ? A SUMMONS was heard recently at the South-Western police court against a medical man practising in Battersea for keeping a male servant without a licence. Evidence was given on behalf of the Inland Revenue authorities that the boy in question, who presumably may be regarded as typical of a good many doing like work, opened the surgery door to patients, ran his master’s errands, including the delivery of medicine, and performed such domestic duties as cleaning windows and boots. The defendant’s advocate contended that the position of the boy corresponded to that of a lad employed by such a trader as an oilman, whose main occupation would be to deliver the goods sold by his smployer but who might incidentally be a member of his household and perform other duties therein. It certainly would surprise an oilman who employed his errand boy to black his boots and clean his windows to learn that he was keeping a male servant and must pay in respect of him the licence fees demanded from his wealthier customers for their butlers and footmen. Mr. de Grey, however, took the view that the youth in question was a page and refused to accept the view that he was a " doctor’s boy " kept to run errands. He held as a fact that the employment was mainly domestic and that the delivery of medicine was merely incidental to it and he ordered 15s. for the licence and 2s. costs to be paid ay the defendant. We are not aware of the exact extent to which the boy in this case was engaged in the dwelling-house and in duties inseparably connected with that portion of his employer’s premises. It is probable, however, that but ’or the delivery of medicine the defendant would have lad no reason for keeping a boy at all, and that his duties, so far as they were connected with the profession of his naster, did not make him any more a domestic servant ihan would those performed by a solicitor’s office-boy. rhe polishing of the brass plate, for example, on his * Archives Generales, Dee 1827.
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