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1647 Notes, Short Comments, and Answers to Correspondents. QUEEN ANNE’S PHYSICIANS. IN " Queen Anne and Her Court," by Mr. P. F. W. Ryan, recently pub- . lished by Messrs. Hutchinson and Co., there is much to interest medical readers. The work consists of a series of splendid portraits of the men and women-the dramatis personæ of one of the greatest dramas of English history. Here is the author’s description of Dr. John Arbuthnot and his quarters in St. James’s Palace:- , " Passing through the darkening galleries and cloisters one comes to a remote wing of the palace, where in dingy quarters a gentle- man of forty, pleasant of face, with a humorous twinkle in his eye, kept his Court amongst his books. This evening he is less serene than is his wont. His apartment has somewhat the air of discomfort one associates with unusual preparations. Everything here is too trim, too mathematical to please John Arbuthnot. His books have been dusted and disarranged. His easy chair is in rebellion; they have made it look formal; it is at the angle of irritation with regard to the light, and he can neither rest his feet on the mantelpiece nor on the table. One must make sacrifices for one’s friends or lose them; and John Arbuthnot, physician extraordinary to Queen Anne, was not a curmudgeon to grumble because his rooms were uncomfortably neat to receive Her Majesty and a wedding party. Yes, a wedding party, no less; and for a secret wedding, too. Death and damnation ! If people would marry why not by daylight: or if by candlelight, why not in their own rooms : Arbuthnot was not only a physician, he was a man of wit and learning and as cheerful as he was gifted. Swift said of him that he was the first wit in London and Pope celebrated his medical skill in the lines :- ’Friend to my life, which did not you prolong The world had wanted many an idle song ?’ His rooms in St. James’s were the resort of every pleasant fellow employed at Court, and of all the wits of the town. Thither they made their way of an evening from the theatres and coffee- houses to play at cards and punish a bottle while discussing the latest book. or pamphlet, or comedy. They did justice to the scandal of the hour and when fresher topics flagged it was always easy to poke fun at the Queen above the Queen-Her Majesty, Sarah." Then follows a most amusing description of the secret wedding of Abigail Hill and Captain Masham, the Queen stealing on tip-toe to the ceremony in mortal terror of being caught by her arch-enemy and tyrant Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough. Speaking of Dr. Radcliffe the author says: "He was the first of his profession and a high Tory, with little love for princes or princesses who owed their dignities to the Revolution. Radcliffe offended Anne by declining to hasten to St. James’s Palace when she imagined she needed his presence. Tell Her Highness,’ said Radcliffe, ’nothing ails her but the vapours."’ He was summoned to the death-bed of Anne’s son, the young Duke of Gloucester. On being told that the patient had been bled he replied that they had destroyed the Prince. "You may finish him," he said, "I will not prescribe." It was Radcliffe who, when summoned to the bedside of William III., looking at the King’s swollen legs said, "I would not take your two legs for your three kingdoms." The well-known story of the encounter between Radcliffe and the great painter Sir Godfrey Kneller bears re-telling. They were good friends and to facilitate their friendly intercourse a door was put into the wall that separated their two gardens in Kensington. But the doctor’s maids stole the’ painter’s flowers. The painter then sent a note saying that he would take the door away and brick up the aperture. To this the doctor replied that he might do [anything he liked to the door, except paint it. Kneller responded that he was willing to take anything from Dr. Radcliffe, except his physic. THE HUMAN WOMAN." WE cannot publish much of the correspondence which we have received arising out of our editorial remarks of last week upon Lady Groves’s recent work with this title. Lady Groves’s work puts forward the arguments on her side. We have expressed our views on them frankly, but we do not claim to have settled the whole of a difficult question. Most of the points at issue are before our readers and they must make up their own minds. THE NEED OF MEDICAL MEN IN CHINA. IN his annual report, just received at the Foreign Office, Sir Alexander Hosie, acting commercial attache to the British Legation at Peking, observes that "at a time when the Chinese Government has made up its mind to eradicate the opium habit, China requires the services of thousands of medical men to help the people who are smokers to rid themselves of the craving for the drug, and she does not possess them. She also requires their services to diminish the tremendous infant mortality of the country and to remedy those insanitary con- ditions to which much of that mortality is due. It is true that there are medical colleges in Hong-Kong and in several cities of China, but their graduates are merely a drop in the ocean of the Empire’s requirements." In another section of his report, dealing with imported medicines, Sir Alexander Hosie states that Japanese goods take the lead, British coming second. The Japanese importers aim at reaching the poor in China by making up their medicines in small doses, with labels in Chinese setting forth the methods of use and the diseases which they are intended to cure. GARBAGE-MONGERS AT WIGAN. AT the Wigan borough police court on Nov. 19th two hawkers were summoned for being in possession of 27 pieces of diseased meat for the purpose of sale and intended for the food of man. Evidence was given that the meat was " unsound, diseased, and as soft as rags, and not fit for human food." The defendants did not appear and a warrant was issued for their arrest. Another case wa heard by the Wigan justices on the following day in which Joseph Harrison was summoned for exposing for sale a forequarter of beef which had tubercles on the pleura; the beef was condemned and destroyed. Although clear evidence was given by the medical officer of health as to the diseased condition of the meat and the danger to the community caused by the sale of tuberculous meat, evidence which compelled the bench to acknowledge the case as proved, the defendant was let off on payment of the costs only. It would be interesting to know if this leniency was the result of the arguments of the defending solicitor who adduced Professor Koch’s views on bovine tuberculosis and also suggested that "the highest authorities contend that although there is a slight tuber- culosis in meat it is all the better for the consumer." METRIC SYSTEM. To the Editor of THE LANCET. SIR,-I observe that you notice in THE LANCET of Nov. 14th a new nvention. entitled the " Versimetric " Chart which is likely to be useful. rhis encourages me to write you these few lines to explain two little rules for converting the linear metric measures into approximate English equivalents, as follows: Take the denominators of the fractions of the metre which are tenths and call them ninths of a yard ; thus, one lecimetre equals one-ninth of a yard, one centimetre equals one- ninetieth of a yard, one millimetre equals one-nine-hundredth of a yard approximately. As the yard is 36 inches and 36 is divisible by both 3 and 18, and 90 or 900 are both divisible by the same divisors and the latter by 36 also, it is easy to discover that a centimetre, or yard or equals i inch and that a millimetre or equals ;5 inch. The metre itself approximately equals ten-ninths of a yard (40 inches). The second rule is to multiply the number of centimetres by 4 and divide by 10 which simply means placing the decimal point to the left of the last figure of the product-e.g., 5 centimetres (multiplied by 4 and divided by 10) equal 2’0 inches; 12 centimetres (multiplied by 4 and divided by 10) equal 4’8 inches, and so on. To turn inches into centi- metres multiply the number of inches by 10 and divide by 4-e.g., 6 inches (60 -r- 4) equal 15 c.m. These rules will only apply to small measures. I am, Sir, yours faithfully, Nov. 16th, 1908. F. A HYGIENIC PRACTITIONER. A PAMPHLET has been placed in our hands entitled Are Medicines and Operations Necessary ?" The author is one I. Brozel and the book, which is marked " No. 1 of Brozel’s Hygienic Library: Tenth Thousand," is an impudent attack upon the medical profession as well as an invitation to the public to go to the writer "for advice and treatment, paying 10s. 6d. and 21s. per month." STERILISATION IN HYPODERMIC INJECTIONS. To the Editor of THE LANCET. SIR,-In these days of hypodermic injections, can any of your readers suggest any way of quickly sterilising both the syringe and the liquid to be injected? Lysol and other irritant antiseptics added to the liquid and used to lubricate the piston of the syringe simply irritate the subcutaneous tissues so much as to make the patient sometimes refuse further treatment, while boiling the syringe for each patient causes much loss of time.-I am, Sir, yours faithfully, NOV. 19th, 1908. SYDNEY WHITAEEB. AN AFRICAN ANTIDOTE TO SNAKE POISON. Mr. J. F. Herbst, assistant resident magistrate at Rietfontein, Cape Colony, in a report on the large tract of land known as the Kalahari Desert, describing the natives of that region and their habits, observes that the personal possessions of a Bushman consist of a few lean and hungry dogs, a short but heavy knobkerrie, a long bone tsamma knife, a bow and arrows, the dried body of the " gnubo snake as an antidote against snake-bite, a skin bag as a receptacle for these articles, and a tin for use as a kettle. The " gnubo " snake is very rarely found, spending most of its time underground. It is small, of a brown colour, and said to be very poisonous. There are two kinds-one with two small, short, fore-feet. The dried body is carried by all natives in the Kalahari district and in German South-West Africa and the dried flesh, ground to a powder and rubbed into the incised wound, is said by all to be an absolutely safe antidote to the most virulent snake poison. It is said to draw the poison "out in a stream." Some "gnubo" was analysed in Cape Town some years ago but no properties were found that could account for this action.
