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1316 of tuberculosis to the extent that they are only notifiable when occurring in educational institutions, boarding schools, asylums, and hospitals, unless they are cases which termi- ,nate fatally, when they must be notified wherever they occur. ,Oct. 29th. ’ ______________ NEW YORK. (FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.) The Massaohusetts Arsenic Law. THE Massachusetts State Board of Health has secured an Act fixing severe penalties with regard to the use of arsenic in fabrics. The law as approved on May 18th becomes operative on Jan. lst, 1901, and places the power in the hands of the State Board of Health. The Act provides that any corporation, firm, or agent, who directly or by an agent manufactures, sells, exchanges, or has in his custody or possession with intent to sell or exchange any woven fabric or paper containing arsenic in any form or any article of dress or of household use composed wholly or in part of such woven fabric or paper, shall on conviction thereof be punished by a fine of not less than$50 or more than$200; provided, however, that the section shall not apply to dress goods or articles of dress con- taining not more than 1/100th of a grain, or to other articles or materials containing not more than l-tith of a grain of arsenic per square yard of the material. The State Board of Health shall make all necessary investigations as to the existence of arsenic in the material and articles mentioned in Section 1 of the Act and may employ inspectors and chemists for that purpose, and shall adopt such measures as they may deem necessary to carry out the provisions and to facilitate the enforcement of the Act. Visual Defect and Railroad Service. In order to ascertain what is being done in railroad circles in matters of this nature Professor Allport sent a letter of inquiry and a question blank to every railroad company in the United States, Canada, and Mexico, operating over 100 miles of road. 244 railroad companies were thus addressed, whose operations covered 205,386 miles of road. Professor Allport received replies from 64 companies whose operations extended over 90,950 miles of road, and he found that 53 of these exacted a systematic eye and ear examination of some kind. These examinations are undoubtedly not at all ideal in many instances, but they show that interest is taken in the matter. As to what men are subjected to such examinations the replies are differently couched, but it is evident that at least 50 of the companies require such examinations of all men directly engaged in moving and operating trains and in giving and receiving signals, such as engineers. firemen, conductors, brakesmen, yardmen, signalmen, switchmen, &c. These examinations are made exclusively by the surgeons of the companies in 19 cases; 18 companies entrust the work to an employe, such as a division superintendent, train master, .&c. Six companies send doubtful cases to an eye and ear surgeon ; nine companies entrust the whole matter to a regularly employed eye and ear surgeon ; and three com- panies first have the men examined by their surgeons who then send doubtful cases to the eye and ear surgeons. Three of these companies cause examinations to be made in all cases by surgeons of relief associations. One company has re-examinations every six months, four every year, 14 every two years, four every three years, and two every four years. Eight re-examine whenever it seems advisable, as after severe illness or injury, or after a railway accident, or when certain incidents bring into question the reliability of the eyes or ears of an employe. One company requires re-examinations only at times of promotion, and another when a man arrives at the age of 50 years. On 23 railroads it is claimed that perfect eyes and ears are required of new men, and that no concessions whatever are made to old employes. On 16 of the railroads, while perfect sight and hearing are required of new men, various reasonable concessions are made to old employes. On one railroad the following requirements are made : engineers and firemen shall possess a vision of n in one eye, and 20/30 in the other. Conductors, flagmen, brakes- men, and switchmen must have a vision of 20/30 in one eye and 20/30 in the other; other employes must have a vision equalling 20/30 in both eyes. On one railroad the applicant must possess eyes and ears the functions of which shall equal 75 per cent. of the normal function. One company requires perfect eyes and ears for firemen and all the employ 6s to possess vision equalling in one eye and 20 in the other. Another company sets the standard of vision at 20/30 and declares that a whisper must be heard at a distance of 12 feet. One company requires a combined vision of 20/30 and that neither eye shall drop below 20/70, while another requires of engineers, firemen, signal-tower men, and switch- men vision of 20/20 in one eye and 20/30 in the other. Upon two railroads employ6s are retained who still possess vision equalling 211 in both eyes and when the hearing is half lost in one ear, provided the other ear be perfect. Seven companies specifically state that old employ6s may wear distance glasses, if these will enable them to reach the proper standard ; seven others especially state that they do not allow distance glasses during train duty when such glasses are necessary to bring vision up to the proper standard. It appears that on all points bearing upon the visual and aural capacity of railroad employ 6s there is much diversity of opinion on the part of the employer and the employed and also on the part of railroad surgeons and eye and ear surgeons themselves. This is unfortunate, as it precludes the probability of meeting on mutual ground and formulating rules that shall be safe and yet not extreme or Quixotic. Charitable Hospitals not Liable. The United States Circuit Court lays down the rule that a beneficiary of a charitable corporation-as, for example, a patient in a hospital which is chartered or must be legally classed as a charitable institution-must take its bounty for what it is worth. It is inconsistent with the underlying idea of charities, as recognised by law, to hold that the same rule that applies to a person or an institution employed for compensation to do a certain service applies to the distribu- tion of charity. The person who enters a charitable hospital is not a contractor ; neither is the hospital a contractor with that person. The person who enters is a mere licensee, like a guest who enters a person’s house and who must take the service as he finds it. He cannot have higher rights than members of the household of which be has for the time being become as it were a part. All he is entitled to is not to be led into a danger known to his host and not known or not reasonably apparent to himself. That, the court holds, is the precise rule that applies to a public charity, and in this respect it holds that private charity and public charity rest on exactly the same ground and there is no basis in either case to hold that the person who receives the bounty is a contractor, a person contracting for service as he engages service when he ordinarily employs a surgeon. He is in law only a licensee. Nor does the court consider that the reception-the frequent reception-of money from patients changes the nature of the institution ; and the following out of this proposition, it says, necessarily leads to the conclusion that the reception of money from any particular patient does not change the nature of the service rendered to that patent, so far as anything said here is concerned. It looks at the money paid in such a case as a proper contribution to a charity on the part of the person who makes the payment and who receives the benefit of the charity. It is not compensation in the eye of the law. Furthermore, the court holds that the officers of a charitable institution have no power by contract to impose any liability beyond that which the law raises. If it is unsuitably or carelessly managed the remedy is in the hands of the State. So, for the reasons adduced, it holds the hospital in the case in which the above judgment was de- livered not liable for an injury alleged to have occurred to a patient through the neglect of a nurse even in the case of a " pay patient," it being in law a charitable corporation. The Health of the Arvty. From the report of Surgeon-General Sternberg it appears that during the calendar year 1899 there were 229,885 admis- sions to sick report recorded in a mean strength of 105,546 regulars and volunteers. This is equivalent to a rate of 2187-06 per 1000 of strength, as compared with 2146-18 per 1000 during the year 1898, and with 1237-24, the mean annual rate for the decade 1888-1897. The deaths in 1899 amounted to 1945, equal to a rate of 18 43 per 1000, as con- trasted with 27’99 during the year 1898, and with 6-69, the mean of the preceding decade. The principal causes of death and the rates per 1000 men contributed by them were: gunshot wounds, 5’10; other injuries, 1-57;
