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204 NOTES, SHORT COMMENTS, AND ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. Notes, Short Comments, and Answers to Correspondents. AN ANTIVIVISECTION FOUNTAIN. LAST week a proposal to erect an "antivivisection" fountain in memory of a dead dog in the Latchmere Recreation Ground, Battersea, was discussed by the Battersea borough council. A year ago or thereabouts the council agreed to accept the fountain from the International Antivivisection Council. There was to be an inscrip- tion which some persons regarded as libellous. At the meeting it was recommended by the highways committee that the Anti- vivisection Council should be informed that the fountain may now be erected. A proposal was made to defer the matter sirae die. This was violently opposed. Wild statements were made in respect to the "torture of animals" and "the dishonest use of money which working men had contributed to hospitals." A short- hand writer, understood to represent University College, was asked to retire and it was asserted that members of the council had given information to the College the authorities of which had written that proceedings would be taken if the fountain with the inscription were erected. On the other hand, the secretary to the Antivivisection Council wrote offering to deposit money for the defence. Borough councillors asserted that if medical students came to Battersea "to make a disturbance and smash the fountain they would find other than passive resisters to deal with. Dr. L. S. McManus, who is a member of the council, characterised the denunciation of the medical profession as humbug. On a vote being taken 29 voted for the reception of the fountain and 19 against. UNMANNERLY. To the Editors of THE LANCET. SIRS,-I was surprised to read in THE LANCET of July 14th the letter signed L.R.C.S. & L.R.C.P. Edin." There was nothing in my letter that could possibly be construed into an attack on the Scottish Conjoint Diploma. As you explained in a footnote-though it should have been obvious enough-my introduction of details of qualifications was merely to show that Mr. D would have suffered no loss of dignity by meeting me. In a precisely similar case last year, where I again acted for Mr. A, I had a very agreeable and instructive consultation with the medical practitioner in charge of the case. I am sorry your correspondent has taken umbrage at what I wrote, but I feel sure that if he will read my letter again he will see that the injury is imaginary. I am, Sirs, yours faithfully, July 14th, 1906. M.D. Lond. TO the Editors of THE LANCET. SIRs,-I beg to offer my opinion in the above case, taking the facts to be as stated. My sympathies are with the medical attendant of the sick man. If the patient and his relatives were s’1tisfied with the medical attendance it would have been well for the employer not to have interfered. If the employer wished to do acts of kindness he could have sent sick-room delicacies, &c., approved by the patient’s medical man. When the medical man attending offered to meet a consultant I consider he did all that was necessary. The fact that Dr. C-the complainant-was the employer’s medical man fails, to my mind, simply on that account to place him on a higher plane than the foreman’s medical man. If the employer thought fit to say impolite things " of his workman’s medical man I think they were undeserved and uncalled for. Surely Dr. C does not seriously ask one to believe that because a general practitioner happens to be on the staff of a hospital he is, ipso facto, superior to general practitioners who are not? With such a weak case I consider Dr. C’s appearance in public print unfortunate. I am proud to sign myself July 14th, 1906. ANOTHER L.R.C,P., L.R.C.S. EDIN. ** "M.D. Lond." .states definitely above what we knew (otherwise his letter would not have been printed)-viz., that he assumed no superiority. He quoted his position as showing that no obvious inferiority could justify the brusque treatment that he received.- ED. L. THE TEETH OF WORKING-CLASS CHILDREN. A MOVEMENT having for its object the better care of the teeth of the working-class children is making considerable progress in certain contiguous districts in the centre of Europe. One of the leaders is Dr. Jessen of Strasburg who has succeeded in establishing a school dental clinic at that town. To it the school children are sent regularly for examination. Each child is quickly examined, the result is noted on a card, and a note is added as to the treatment required. The dental clinic does not press children to submit to treatment but it is ready to undertake the work it need be. This it does at a cost of about B320 per annum, almost 3½d. per head of the school population. The expenses are met by grants in aid and voluntary contributions. With treatment teaching goes hand in hand; the child is instructed in the use of a tooth-brush and the teacher discusses teeth, their uses and their care, in his natural history lesson soon after his class returns from the examination. Wall pictures illustrating the growth of the teeth are now to be had for demonstration purposes. In Wiesbaden and Miilhausen school dental clinics will be opened shortly. The initial expense at Miilhausen (90,000 inhabitants) is calculated at JE650. In Winterthur Dr. Helbing has lately completed an examination of the teeth of 2400 children. He 1inds that only 1 child in 40 has a perfect denture and that over 28 per cent. of the teeth examined are bad. As a result of his representations the local school board has. decided to add the examination of pupils’ teeth to the duties of the medical officer who undertakes the medical examination of the newly enrolled children. At Langenthal, a railway centre and an agricultural district of the canton of Berne, the school board issues circulars to parents enjoining them to pay attention to the state of their children’s teeth. For some time past the board has bought tooth- brushes wholesale and has retailed them at slightly over cost price to the children. In this manner it makes a slight profit which is expended in distributing tooth-brushes gratis among poor children. ADVERTISEMENTS IN PUBLIC URINALS. To the Editors of THE LANCET. i SIRS,-Could not some method be devised for putting a stop to the placarding of public urinals with all sorts of filthy quack advertise- ments ? Surely the various authorities might pit up notices threaten- ing to punish any person who shall affix an advertisement of any kind on the walls of public urinals, either inside or out, and the person who is commissioned to look after these places might be ordered to take round with him each morning a pail and brush and scrape down any advertisements so appearing. I am, Sirs, yours faithfully, July 13th, 1906. F. H. A. * * * Some authorities are more active than others in doing exactly what our correspondent suggests.-ED. L. CURIOUS NAMES. IN the column of the Standard of July 18th headed Births, Deaths, and Marriages the surname " Godbehere appears in the deaths. Such names as Deogratias, Deusdedit, and the like were common among the North African Christians of the fourth and fifth centuries. Every- one will remember Adeodatus the son of St. Augustine. In these cases the names were probably translations of Semitic names, such as Mattathiah or Nathaniel, but in English such names arevery rare and it would be interesting to trace the steps by which they came to be adopted into our language. The members of the medical profession come more into contact with all sorts and conditions of men than do those of any other profession, the clergy possibly excepted. Soma years ago we remember a medical man practising in Norfolk made an interesting collection of curious and out-of-the-way Christian names existing in remote districts of that county and we hope that any of our readers who come across similar names, either Christian or sur- name, will communicate them to us. Names are always of interest, for in them is often preserved much historical fact dealing with racial characteristics and the like. THE ARGENTINE BOOT HEEL. WE have received from the Patent Argentine Heel Company specimens of their boot heels. The heel consists of two layers of leather with one layer of vulcanised indiarubber between them. The surface which touches the ground being leather there is not the same danger of slipping in wet weather as occurs with an indiarubber heel in which the rubber is in contact with the pavement. One of our representatives who has tried these heels fitted to an ordinary pair of shoes for walking about London reports that he finds them more comfortable than plain leather heels. They can be obtained from all bootmakers. THE PREPARATION OF INFANTS’ FOOD. AT the invitation of Mr. Cornelius Hanbury, the chairman of Messrs. Allen and Hanburys, Limited, a number of medical men, scientific experts, and press representatives visited the works of the firm on Tuesday last at Ware in Hertfordshire, in which the manufacture of the "Allenburys foods" and the Allenburys diet" is carried on. A special train was provided for the visitors at Liverpool-street and there were present at the inspection about 200 ladies and gentlemen. The various processes by which the Allenburys foods are prepared were watched with interest. An advantage of the works being situated at Ware is that this town is in the middle of rich pasture-land, so that the milk used in the foods is perfectly fresh and not exposed to the contaminating influences of a long journey. As to the composi- tion of these foods we have already given our analyses of them under the heading of Analytical Records in THE LANCET of March 24th, 1894, p. 748. The manufacturers always lay stress on the necessity of the directions as to how to use the food being carefully followed. Thus one important direction as meeting the objection that these foods are sterilised and therefore lacking in the fresh or vital element of raw milk is to supplement the food with the occasional use of raw meat juice or fresh grape juice, or white of egg. The foods are malted, contain a good proportion of cream, and the milk proteid is digestible, the casein clotting only loosely or not at all, whereas in the case of cow’s milk the casein clots densely and in that form is indigestible. At a luncheon which followed the inspection Mr. Cornelius Hanbury gave a history of the manufacture of the Allenburys foods and drew attention to the fact that they always received the best advice that could be given on the subject of infant feeding, and as views advanced so they introduced any modifications that might be held to be necessary in the preparation of the foods. . Z. is thanked for a communication which we will publish in an early issue. COMMUNICATIONS not noticed in our present issue will receive attention in our next.
