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portion of the sane to the insane has been impairedwithin the past few decades by an emigration of about1,500,000 of the healthiest of the inhabitants of thiscountry, a fact illustrated by the present residence in poor-houses of no less than 3775 labouring under some form ofmental disease, independent of the aged, infirm, and

physically prostrate. Contrasting the relative populationof England and Wales with that of Ireland, and the propor-tion of insanity as recognisable from statistics in bothcountries, their position appears to be analogous. Englandand Wales, with a population of 27,500,000, had 79,700lunatics; while Ireland, with a population of 5,000,000, had14,288 registered insane, or about 1 to 348. Of the 9687patients in the district asylums, with reference to probableor possible curability, 7399 are recorded as hopeless cases,and 2288 as admitting of amelioration, if not of actualrecovery.

HEALTH OF BELFAST DURING 1885.The general death-rate has been higher than in the two

preceding years, as was also the mortality from zymotic andlung affections. It was this latter increase which has somaterially added to the general death-rate in this urbansanitary district. The epidemic of measles which prevailed,especially in the second quarter of the year and also in theother quarters, was very severe; and the changeable andsevere weather of the spring caused many deaths fromdiseases of the respiratory organs and phthisis. It is, how-ever, satisfactory to note that there has not been a singledeath from small-pox in the Belfast district for two years,and that typhus fever has caused fewer deaths than in either1883 or 1884. Scarlatina has also shown a smaller mortalitythan in these years; indeed, had it not been for the fatalepidemic of measles the death-rate from all zymotic diseaseswould have been very low; but measles alone gave a rate of2’70 out of a total of 5-3.

CITY OF DUBLIN HOSPITAL.

A fancy fair and carnival was held at the Artisans’ Exhibi-tion last week, on behalf of the City of Dublin Hospital.The attractions for the public were sq. many, and so wellworth visiting, that enormous crowd -attended on theseveral days the bazaar was held, and a very large sum ofmoney was obtained for a most deserving charity.

Dr. Rawdon Macnamara has been re-elected the represen-tative of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland on theGeneral Medical Council for the ensuing year.

Sir Charles Cameron, President of the Royal College ofSurgeons, who had been indisposed for some time past,is now, I am glad to state, thoroughly recovered, and isable to resume his official and professional duties.Dublin, Feb. 9th, 1886.

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PARIS.

(From our own Correspondent.)

PTOMAINES AND THE MICROBE THEORY.

THE discovery by M. Gautier of the part played byptomaines and leucomaines in the pathogeny of disease is aterrible blow to the microbian theory, as in a paper com-municated by the author to the Academy of Medicine it hasbeen demonstrated that the non-elimination from the bodyof dead animal matter is the only source of all humanailments. Professor Peter has always been vehementlyopposed to the bacillary theory qf the etiology of disease,and looks upon the discovery of ptomaines and leucomainesas a new era in medicine. Although he himself had long agoforeseen the existence of such elements as causes of disease,it was left to M. Gautier, the eminent chemist, toformulate his theories in a more scientific manner. Thisnew theory formed the basis of a very interesting paperread by Professor Peter at the Academy of Medicinelast week, in which he makes out that this new theoryof auto-infection is quite compatible with clinical observa- tion, whereas the microbian theory is so shrouded inmystery that Koch himself had been induced to considerably alter his opinions respecting the r6le of the comma bacillusin the development of cholera, and now declares that thedisease is caused by a ptomaine secreted by a bacillus. In

concluding his paper Professor Peter made the followingremarks: "M. Gautier has shown that in the dead body,and even in the living, ptomaines are formed; these alka-

loids, ptomaines or leucomaines, are absolutely toxic; anauto-infection characterised by hyperthermia is the result.This theory rids us, at least for a time, of the tyranny ofthe microbes. If urea, which is an alkali, is constantlyformed in our organism, why should there not also be formedan alkaloid in it ? It is only a question of degree. Life isa contingent phenomenon; it is a series of partial deaths.It may therefore be said that we carry in ourselves whileliving a portion of our own corpse, but we resist the work ofauto-infection by two distinct mechanisms: the eliminationof the toxic substance and its destruction by oxygen. Weshould no longer hesitate between the parasitic doctrines;which are shrouded in dark hypotheses, and this new doc-trine, which is as luminous as it is precise, which explainsthe phenomena of normal and abnormal life."

STATUE TO CLAUDE BERNARD.

A statue, erected to the memory of Claude Bernard, theeminent physiologist, was unveiled on Sunday last, in thepresence of the Minister of Public Instruction, delegatesfrom the Institute and University of France, amongst whomwere also present MM. Paul Bert, Pasteur, Renan, andother scientific and literary men. The statue is of bronze,and considered a very good likeness, representing ClaudeBernard in a pensive mood, as he was often seen in hislaboratory, while he was meditating over a new problemfrom which he had not yet formed any positive deductions.The statue is placed at the top of the large staircase leadingto the College of France, where he had worked in the labora-tory for more than forty years. On one side of the pedestal isinscribed his name, with the statement that the monumentwas erected by his colleagues, his friends, and his disciples.Over the different emblems on the other parts of thepedestal are to be seen the names of the principal discoverieswhich will for ever be associated with the name of ClaudeBernard: glycogeny, diabetes, vaso-motor nerves, digestiveliquids, experimental medicine, general physiology, unityof life, determinism, &c..Many interesting speeches weremade on the occasion, the principal of which was that ofPaul Bert, one of the most intimate friends and pupils ofClaude Bernard, in which, in a few neat phrases, he paid ajust tribute to the memory of his former master.

Paris, Feb. 9th, 1886. ___

ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS.

AT an ordinary meeting of the Council of the above

College, held on Thursday, the llth inst., the report of theBuilding Committee of the two Colleges, the Royal Collegeof Surgeons and the Royal College of Physicians, in referenceto building on the Savoy Estate, was presented. It wasapproved and adopted, and authority was given to theBuilding Committee to make the necessary arrangementsfor the ceremony of laying the foundation stone. The letterfrom the Committee of the Association of Fellows, signedby the hon. sec., Mr. Bruce Clarke, in reference to the pro-position to elect fifty Fellows yearly without examinatien,was read. Mr. George Robert Wyatt, of Tulse Hill, waselected a Fellow of the College.

Obitary.JAMES BALLS WOOLBY, M.B.LoND.

MR. WOOLBY, who was accidentally drowned whilst

bathing on January 1st at Groot river, Cape Colony, was a,

native of Halesworth in Suffolk, and received his medicaleducation at King’s College, where he entered in October, 1875.In 1876 he obtained a junior scholarship ; in 1877 he passedthe Intermediate M.B. Examination at the London Univer-sity, taking honours in Materia Medica; in 1878 was prize-man at King’s College in Forensic Medicine, Obstetrics,and Pathology, and in 1879 was elected an Associate of theCollege. Just as a brilliant career was opening before himhis health began to fail, and an attack of hsemoptysis,accompanied by other signs of chest mischief, alarmed hisfriends, especially as his family history on the maternal sideshowed a strong tendency to consumption. He thereforetook the L.R.C.P.Lond. in 1879, and after a voyage or two tothe Cape, stayed in South Africa for the next two years, with

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great benefit to his health. He returned in 1882 and passedthe Second M.B. Examination. He was appointed phy-sician’s assistant and afterwards assistant house-surgeon, tothe Bristol General Hospital, and became a M.R.C.S.Eng. inJanuary, 1884. He was then elected resident medical officerto Queen Charlotte’s Lying-in Hospital, and may be said tohave been the first who systematically and thoroughlycarried out the principles and practice of antiseptic surgeryin that institution, with the remarkable results described byDr. Priestley recently at the Obstetrical Society. His devo-tion to the duties of this hospital, the fatigue attendant onnight-work, and an attempt at the same time to read for hisM.D. degree, again told seriously on his health, and sym-ptoms of rapid phthisis (high temperature, night sweats,slight haemoptysis, and rales over the upper part of bothlungs) presented themselves. He again left for South Africa,taking the medical charge of a mission-station at Engcobo,Tembuland, and had improved greatly in health and wasrapidly increasing in weight, so that when he last wrote tohis friends in England he spoke in the most reassuringmanner as having practically recovered, and as being aboutto start on a hunting expedition. The news of his accidentaldeath came as a great shock, and the regret at so early and sada termination to his career can scarcely be expressed. Besideshis medical knowledge, Mr. Woolby had much literary culture ;and his unassuming manner, gentle disposition, obligingfriendliness, and self-sacrificing devotion to duty will belong iemembered by all with whom he came in contact.

R. ROBERT MADDEN, F.R.C.S.ON the 5th inst., at Booterstown, near Dublin, the death

occurred of Mr. Richard Robert Madden, formerly ColonialSecretary of Western Australia, and Secretary of the IrishLoan Fund. The deceased, who was the youngest of

twenty-one children, was born in Dublin, and was admitteda Member of the Royal College of Surgeons of England in 1829,- obtaining the Fellowship of that body in 1855. In 1883 hewas appointed a special magistrate in Jamaica, and in thiscapacity he became a friend of the slaves, earning through- out the island the reputation of being their protector andsympathiser, and an ardent colleague of Clarkson, Wilber-force, and Buxton in the movement for the abolition ofslavery. The esteem in which he was held by the blackpopulation was recognised in 1836 by his appointment assuperintendent of liberated Africans at Havannah under theBritish Colonial Office, and in this post he rendered valuableservices to the cause of the slave. Three years later, in1839, he was appointed Acting Judge Advocate of theMixed Commission Court under the Foreign Office. Sohighly did the Home Government regard his services inthis capacity that in 1841 Lord John Russell appointed hima Commissioner of Inquiry on the West Coast of Africa, andit was whilst performing the duties of this office that hisvigi-lance unmasked what became known at the time as the "pawnsystem," which turned out to be slavery in all respects carriedon under the very eyes of the British authorities and of theofficials entrusted with the protection of the negroes. In1847 Mr. Madden was appointed Colonial Secretary ofWestern Australia, a post which he retained for three yearsuntil he became Secretary to the Irish Loan Fund. Thisposition he resigned some years ago, and devoted the re-mainder of his life to literature. Mr. Madden was theauthor of the following, amongst other, works: Infirmitiesof Genius; Lives and Times of the United Irishmen; Con-nexion of England with Ireland; Phantasmata, or Illusionsand Fanaticisms; Galileo and the Inquisition; and the Lifeand Times of Savonarola. The works published by himrelating to Ireland were contributions to the study of theIrish question of the period, and may still be referred towith profit. At the time of his decease Mr. Madden was inhis eighty-eighth year.

ROYAL PORTSMOUTH, PORTSEA, AND GOSPORT Hos-PITAL.-At the annual meeting of the subscribers to thisinstitution on the 9th inst., it was stated that the excess ofincome over expenditure for the past year was no less than.E1723, whilst in addition to this, legacies and specialdonations amounting to £644 were received. The number ofin-patients was 591, and 2247 out-patients received advice.The satisfactory financial state of the hospital is attri-buted to a canvass made early in 1884 with the object ofobtaining increased support for the institution.

Medical News.UNIVERSITY OF LONDON.—The following candidates

have passed the recent Preliminary Scientific (M.B.)Examination :-

ENTIRE EXAMINATION.FIRST DIVISION.

Clutterbuck, Medwin Caspar, University College, Bristol.Krohn, Ronald E. S., Univ. Coll. and School. and private tuition.Lansdown, Charles Ewbank, University College, St. Mary’s

Hospital, and private tuition.Mack, Cyril Gordon, St. Mary’s Hospital and private tuition.Macnamara, John Joseph, Univ. Edin. and Univ. Coll., London.Snell, Sidney Herbert, University College and private tuition.

SECOND DIVISION.

Atwool, William Tillinghast, University College, St. Mary’sHospital, and private study and tuition.

Cole, Robert Henry. St. Mary’s Hospital.Edge, Arthur James, Owens College, St. Bartholomew’s Hospital,

and private tuition.Heath, Alan Jasper, Univ. Coll. and private study and tuition.Murrell, George F.. University College, St. Bartholomew’s

Hospital, and private study.Paul, John Ernest, University College and private tuition.Price, Arthur Edward, St. Thomas’s Hospital.Taylor, F. Ryott P.. Westminster Hospital and private study. ,

Thorue, Attwood, St. Mary’s Hospital and private tuition.Worsley, Reginald Carmichael, University College.Wright, Sydney Faulconer, St. Thomas’s Hospital.

At the January Matriculation examination of the University,104 candidates passed in the Honours division, and 345and 27 in the first and second divisions respectively.Samuel Arthur King gained the exhibition of £30 per annumfor two years; W. T. N. Spivey the exhibition of £20 perannum for two years; and E. G. Hawke the exhibition of£15 per annum for two years.

SOCIETY OF APOTHECARIES.-Thefollowing gentlemanpassed the examination in the Science and Practice of Medi-cine, and received a certificate to practise, on the 4th inst. :-

Henderson, James Threapland, Wibsey, near Bradford.On the same day the following passed their Primary Pro-fessional Examination :-

Charlesworth, George, Middlesex Hospital.Mason, Francis John Gorringe, St. Bartholomew’s Hospital.

, THE annual meeting of the St. Mary’s Hospital for

the treatment of diseases of women and children, Manchester,was held on the 8th inst.

A MEETING held at Eastbourne on the 5th inst.decided, subject to obtaining the necessary land at a moderatecost, to enlarge the Princess Alice Memorial Hospital.HER Majesty has forwarded a douation of .6100 to

the Countess of Dufferin’s Fund in support of the NationalAssociation for supplying Female Medical Aid to the Womenof India.AT an inquest recently held at Upton on the body

of James Hunter Knox, M.B. Glas., whose death was causedby morphia, the jury returned a verdict of suicide whilsttemporarily insane.THE eighteenth annual dinner in aid of the funds

of the French Hospital was held on the 6th inst. Duringthe evening subscriptions amounting to about £2000 wereannounced.

THE committee of management of the AberdeenRoyal Infirmary on the 27th ult. resolved that the treatmentof zymotic diseases -except typhoid fever-be discontinuedat the earliest practicable date.A CONFERENCE on the subject of the management of

idiots is to be held in Gratz from the 6th to the 8th ofAugust. A conferencc on the statistics of idiocy has justbeen held in Pesth.

MEDICAL MAGISTRATES.—The Lord Chancellor hasappointed Dr. Douglas A. Reid and Mr. John Griffith Lock,M.A. Cantab., M.R.C.S., to the Commission of the Peace forthe Borough of Tenby.ROYAL FREE HOSPITAL.-The fifty-eighth annual

meeting of the governors of this institution was held on the4th inst. The report of the committee of managementshowed that the receipts from all sources during the pastyear amounted to .S7556, and the total expenditure to £11,275.During 1885, 1728 in-patients had been admitted, and thedaily average of patients in the wards was 135. The numberof out-patients under treatment was 21,853.