1666 NOTES FROM CHINA.

commissioner has been requested to prescribe a minimumdistance to which the villagers should remove.

Importation of Cooaine.A notification of the Government of India is published

which prohibits the bringing by sea or land into BritishIndia of cocaine by means of the post, and restricts itsimportation by any other means to cases in which it is

imported by persons or their authorised agents who havebeen specially permitted to import the drug by a local govern-ment or administration or by the Madras Board of Revenue.

Wild Animals in Madras.

During 1907 in the Madras Presidency the number ofpersons reported to have been killed by wild animals andsnakes was 2041, or 197 more than in the previous year. Therewas a considerable increase in the number of deaths caused bytigers in Vizagapatam, by other animals in Tinnevelli, and bysnakes in North Arcot. The number of cattle killed fell by361. The decreases occurred principally in Malabar andSouth Canara, while North Arcot and Coimbatore report largeincreases. The total number of wild beasts for the destructionof which rewards were paid during the year was 797, or 109less than in the previous year. The amount paid in rewardswas Rs.13,698, or Rs.1133 less than in the previous year.Rewards aggregating Rs.2920 were paid for the destruction of69 tigers. A sum of Rs.13,111 was spent during the yearon the removal of noxious undergrowth which harbourssnakes, &c.May 7th.

——.——__________

NOTES FROM CHINA.

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

Disposal of Refuse in China.IN view of the great expense entailed upon sanitary

authorities at home in the disposal of refuse by the erectionof septic tanks, refuse destructors, &c., it might be interest-ing to consider the universal system which has been in voguefrom prehistoric times in China where such highly specialisedprocedures are quite unknown. China is essentially an

agricultural country and the greater part of the Empire maybe looked upon as being one vast sewage farm. Excrementalrefuse is not in any way regarded as a waste product here;on the contrary, its value is so great that the authorities donot attempt to regulate its disposal in any way, knowingwell enough that it is dealt with in a very active manner bythe people. Take, for example, this big city of Peking withthree-quarters of a million inhabitants. Numbers of peopleearn a good living by being night-soil collectors. Here andthere men build latrines in the streets, from which theycollect the deposit of chance pedestrians, while every laneand street is the property of others as far as the house-to-house collection of excreta is concerned. In addition, thereare large numbers of itinerant gatherers who perambulatethe streets, bucket on back and spade in hand, withkeen eyes for any stray deposit from either man

or beast. Among the male part of the populationthe act of defalcation is not regarded as one re-

quiring any privacy and thus it comes that variousopen spaces in the city are made conveniences of by passers-by. In the streets the night-soil collectors’ wheelbarrowloaded to the buckets’ brims jostles the mandarin in hiscarriage or the itinerant purveyor of food. All this refuse istaken to the outskirts of the city, where there are " clearinghouses " from which the farmers buy. No fields are everallowed to lie fallow. Not only that but they are forced bymeans of this liberal manure dressing to raise two crops ofcorn a year. In the case of rice the soil is first preparedwith manure which is thickly spread over the surface, thenby flooding the fields with water a mixture of unsavouryslush is made. Vegetables such as turnips, cabbages,tomatoes, and egg plants are treated in the same way as thecereals. It is to this whole system that the extraordinaryfertility of the land is due, but here also lies the cause of thehigh prevalence of intestinal parasitism. Over 60 per cent.of Chinese harbour one or another of these parasites; so muchso that in hospital practice it is generally found that a usefulroutine is to begin medical treatment by a dose of calomeland santonin. Thus in St. Luke’s Hospital, Shanghai, Dr.Eli Day, working in conjunction with Dr. W. H. Jefferys,made an examination of 500 stools mostly from surgical

cases with the following result. For the sake of greaterI accuracy the findings of the first 50 stools were excluded.

These examinations were irrespective of symptoms presentedand are practically borne out by the results obtained inHong-Kong public mortuary, where post-mortem examina.tions are performed on a scale neither attempted nor per-mitted in any place in China. In Hong.Kong ascarislumbricoides has been found present in 90 per cent. of thebodies examined, trichocephalus in a fair proportion, andankylostoma very rarely. Distoma %inense is next to ascaristhe commonest parasite, being constantly met with in thebile-ducts and gall-bladder. A feature of note is the absenceof cestodes among the Chinese ; in fact, they are never metwith except among those who indulge in foreign food or havereturned from abroad. In my last letter I referred to therarity of appendicitis among Chinese. Perhaps the similarrarity of cases of tapeworm may be more than a coincidence,as both these affections are present in countries where muchand imperfectly cooked beef is eaten. The slice of under-done roast beef so popular at English tables is quite unknownin China. Trichina spiralis is another parasite that may besaid to be absent in China, although pork is the commonestkind of meat eaten and the village pigs support themselvesmainly by scavenging.

Union Medical College, Peking.In response mainly to the indefatigable efforts of Dr. T.

Cochrane, the principal of this college, the Imperial Govern-ment has followed up the Charter which it granted in 1906by making an annual allowance. This may be looked uponas a more important step than it might at first sight seem,for it means a direct filip to the cause of scientific medicine,especially in this ancient city of Peking. It is the firstGovernment grant given to any medical college under

European direction. The teaching is in Chinese and nostone is being left unturned by the British and Americanstaff of lecturers to make it as thorough as possible, thoughthe terminological difficulties are great. This annual grant-in-aid is a concomitant to the Government’s action in

bestowing a charter, by virtue of which it is to be givenfacilities for satisfying itself through its own officialexaminers that graduates have been put in possession of acompetent knowledge of their profession. This is thereforereally the dawn of the foundation of scientific medicinein China and it behoves medical men at home to watchwith interest this endeavour of their British andAmerican oonfreres to establish the profession in a way thathas not been done before. Graduates will go forth withGovernment-stamped diplomas and their work will no doubtbe appreciated by a people whose eyes are being dailyopened to the ameliorating effects of Western civilisationjust as has happened in Japan. A German medical schoolhas recently been opened in Shanghai. At present a begin-ning has been made in the preliminary scientific work and inthe teaching of German as the course will be conducted inthat language. The enterprise is said to be well supported.The present members of the scientific staff are Professordu Bois Reymond, Professor Ammann, and ProfessorSchlinger.Appointment of Foreign Medical Police Offioers at Tientsin.By sanction of Viceroy Yung Shih-hsiang, the Chief Com-

missioner of the Chinese city police has engaged foreign prac-titioners to act as medical advisers to the police, fire brigade,and public works department which up to the presenthave had no regular medical help. In addition, the Chief

1667AUSTRALIA.

Commissioner has issued orders requiring detailed reportsabout the sanitary condition of the people and the roadswith a view to improve the health of the general public,especially during the coming hot weather. Tientsin is the

commercial capital of North China and each of the foreignconcessions in it has its own municipality and public healthregulations but hitherto nothing in matters sanitary hasbeen done in the densely populated Chinese city.

The Stamping-out of Opium Smoking.I append a translation of the latest Imperial Edict on the

opium habit to enable your readers to see for themselves theactive efforts which the Chinese Court and Government aremaking to suppress a national vice.

IMPERIAL EDICT, 7TH APRIL.

Ching Hsin and Ting Shen-tao are appointed special commissionersin charge of the work of opium suporession. They are required toascertain whether there are any officials either in Peking or the

provinces still smoking opium, and to draw up regulations to deal withofficials still guilty of this habit. Her Majesty the Empress Dowagerhas been informed that there are still some officials breaking the rule,and the Grand Council is hereby authorised to dismiss any official fromthe rank of Viceroy down who persists in smoking. The two aboveofficials are held responsible in this matter and they are grantedtaels 30,000 for initial expenses of their work and to open their office,and taels 60,000 annually to maintain it. It is to be kept up until theopium habit is entirely stopped.April 9th.

________________

AUSTRALIA.(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

Climatology of Australia.Mr. Hunt, the Commonwealth meteorologist, has issued a

report dealing with the above subject. Mr. Hunt considersthat Australia is, by reason of its insularity and the absenceof striking physical features, less subject to extremes ofweather than are regions of similar area in other parts of theglobe, and that, latitude for latitude, it is more temperate.The hottest area of the continent is situated in thenorthern parts of West Australia, about the Marble Bar andNullagine goldfields, where the maximum shade tempera-ture exceeds 100° F. for weeks continuously. The coldestarea is in the extreme south-east of New South Wales andextreme east of Victoria, where in the region of theAustralian Alps the shade temperature rarely if ever exceeds100°. The average rainfall of Australian cities affordssome surprising comparisons with other great world centres.London has an average 2 inches below that of Melbourne,Edinburgh 1’ 31 inches less, San Francisco 4 inches less,and Berlin about the same. Amsterdam, Christiania, Copen-hagen, Paris, Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Stockholm are allbelow. The wettest Australian town is Geraldton, on theQueensland coast, where the average rainfall is 145 inches(maximum 211, minimum 69). Lake Eyre district in SouthAustralia has an annual average of only five inches. Mr.Hunt thinks that the Australian southerly buster " is of likecharacter, and probably derived from similar atmosphericconditions, as the "bora" " of Dalmatia, the "mistral" " ofFrance and the Gulf of Lyons, and the " pampero " of SouthAmerica.

Chiddren’s Hospital, Sydney.At the annual meeting of the supporters of the Royal

Alexandra Hospital for Children Mr. C. P. B. Clubbesaid he regretted that the hospital was not supportedas it should be by the public. If the public would notsupport these institutions there must be a hospital taximposed. Mr. Dorman, representing the Hospital SaturdayFund, said that the hospital certainly did not receive enoughmoney from the Government. Recently there had sprunginto existence a number of institutions calling themselvesmedical charities which were not fit to bear the name ; manyinstitutions which had proved their utility were languishingwhile funds were being diverted to these others. The publicgifts should go through some channel by which they wouldbe properly distributed.

Vital 8tatistics of Sydney.During the quarter ended March 31st the metro-

politan birth-rate was 6-26 per 1000 of population. Thebirths numbered 3677. There were in the same period 1519deaths, equal to a rate of 2-76 per 1000. This birth-rate is7 per cent. and the death-rate is -5 per cent. higher than thatof the corresponding period of 1907.

Infeatious Diseases Hospital, Melbourne.In 1891 it was decided to build a hospital for infectious

diseases in Melbourne. The project lingered until 1897 whenit was finally decided to build in commemoration of theDiamond Jubilee of the late Queen Victoria and to name theinstitution the Queen’s Memorial Hospital. The hospitalwas largely designed under the supervision of the late Dr.D. A. Gresswell and cost ,c18,250. Its history up to thetime of completion was a series of disputes and dissensionsamong its promoters and since it was opened about five yearsago it has never given complete satisfaction. The design isfaulty and only scarlet fever and diphtheria patients are

admitted, with the result that there are never more thantwo-thirds of the beds in use. The management is in thehands of a committee representing the various munici-palities which contribute to the up-keep. Patients may be

charged in some instances as much as 7s. 6d. per day. Thedissatisfaction with the position and general managementof the hospital is likely to be brought forward prominently inconnexion with a complaint by the father of a recent inmatethat his child was sent home in a dirty state. The hospitalauthorities deny that there is any ground for the allegation,but Dr. Norris, chairman of the Board of Public Health,wrote to the medical superintendent to the effect that thestatements call for a more extended reply. The Inspector ofCharities has furnished a report to the Premier in which hestated that the brown appearance of the skin of the child onhis discharge was naturally due to open-air treatment butthat his head was clean on admission and subsequentlyrequired treatment. The report states that "the hospitalauthorities were undoubtedly to blame in handing the childover to its parents other than in a thoroughly clean con-dition." The inspector also remarked that while the hospitalwas doing good work it required to be extended and

popularised. At present it was difficult to obtain admission

and charges for maintenance were excessive.Melbourne Hospital.The trustees of the Wilson Estate, who offered £100,000

towards rebuilding the Melbourne Hospital, practicallydirected that it should be rebuilt on the present site and thecommittee has concurred. The trustees have now invitedarchitects to communicate with them in order that they maysuggest a name to the hospital committee as they are entitledto do so under the terms of the gift. The gentleman selectedmust be prepared to spend at least six months in visitingand examining the most modern hospitals in Europe andAmerica.

Diagnosis of Fractured Skull.Within the space of a few days three cases have come

before the Melbourne city coroner in which the deceasedperson had been found drunk, taken to the lock-up, becomeseriously ill in the cells, removed to the Melbourne Hospital,and died. In the last case the subject had been seen at thehospital prior to being locked up and refused admission.The coroner has expressed his opinion that the initiation ofa State public medical service at night deserved considera-tion. He produced a copy of a London journal which con-tended that " the time will come, we hope, when a medicalman will be engaged to attend at all police stations in largetowns to do duty for a certain number of hours and todiagnose doubtful cases, render skilled aid in cases ofaccident and sudden attacks of serious illness."

Juvenile Smoking.At Dimboola, an up-country centre in Victoria, the first

case under the new Act for the prevention of juvenilesmoking was heard at the local police-court. A lad wassummoned for having given a cigarette to a companion whowas under the age of 16 years. The lad receiving thecigarette appeared, however, to be over the statutory ageand had made a statement to that effect. The case wasdismissed but the police magistrate improved the occasionby a severe lecture to the recipient of the gift for having toldan untruth as to his age.

Medical Registration in Victoria.A deputation consisting of members of the Medical

Board, the Council of the British Medical Association(Victoria branch), and the Melbourne Medical Association,waited on the Chief Secretary to request an amendment inthe present Act relating to medical registration. As the Actat present stands one homoeopathic practitioner may beadmitted each year in Victoria provided he holds a diploma