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and during his long career enjoyed the confidence andgained the esteem of a large clientèle. A great favourite,his kindness, geniality, and sympathy gained him a largecircle of personal friends. Mr. Irvine was buried on May lst.He leaves a widow, four daughters, and two sons, one ofwhom, Mr. Hugh R. Irvine, succeeded his father a few yearsago when through failing health he was obliged to resign his 1dispensary.

Small-pox in Belfast. (Small-pox tM Belfast.On April 30th a woman who had come from Liverpool on j

April 17th was admitted into the Union Hospital and onthe following day symptoms of small-pox appeared. The case is a severe one. The patient from Glasgow. whodeveloped the disease on coming to Belfast, has recovered.

The Belfast Hospital for Sick Children.A collection, organised by the Belfast United Trades and

Labour Council, was made on May 3rd on behalf of theBelfast Hospital for Sick Children when a large sum ofmoney was the result.

Health of Belfast.The annual death-rate between March 16th and April 19th

was 22-7 per 1000, while in the corresponding part of lastyear it was 27’4. The. death-rate is lower than in the reportfor the previous month and is specially low in the case ofzymotic disease.

Benn Ulster Eye, Ear, and Throat Hospital.At the annual meeting of the friends of this hospital, held

on April 24th, it was reported that during the past year thenumber of patients under treatment in the hospital (of.whom 463 continued in attendance from the previous year)was 1992, while 212 were received as intern patients. Theboard of management had decided to increase the charge ofintern patients from 10s. to 15s. per week, with the resultthat the debt of the institution, which was E567 15s. 8,,Z. atthe beginning of the year, was reduced to £412 16s. 8d. atits close. The total income for the year was E870 8s. 1r!.,and the expenditure was .E7l5 9s. 1r!. Dr. W. A. McKeown,surgeon to the hospital, said that his experience in Belfastand in Ulster in the last 20 years enabled him to say in rela-tion to the work done by that and other hospitals, that themajority of the cases of diseases in young persons originatedthrough defective hygienic conditions. He referred to the

great help given to him in the work of the hospital by hisexperienced assistant, Dr. W. M. Killen.

Londonderry Eye, -Ea2,, and T7eruat Hospital.At the annual meeting of the friends and supporters of

this hospital, held on April 24th, it was reported that therehad been 1368 extern and 94 intern patients during the yearended March 31st, 1902. There had also been 1087 dentalcases under the charge of Mr. E. Donaldson and Dr. W. B.Hunter. This hospital is doing excellent work for patientsin Derry and the North-west of Ireland. It was decided to

provide an apparatus for administering anæsthetics to thedental patients.

Down District Lunatic Asylum.At a meeting of the committee of management of the

Down District Lunatic Asylum, held on April 19th, it wasannounced by the rasident medical superintendent that thecontractors had commenced the work of the erection of theiron isolation hospital which will be a very necessary andmost useful adjunct to the asylum.North of Ireland Branch of the British Medical Association.The spring meeting was held in the Belfast Museum on

April 24th, the President, Dr. J. S. Darling (Lurgan) being inthe chair. The president read notes of a case of PerniciousAnaemia developing in six weeks. Dr. J. St. Clair Boyd andDr. J. Tennant read notes of cases of Extra-uterine Foetation.Professor T. Sinclair reported upon a case of Simultaneous

, Appendicectomy and Transverse Colectomy ending in recovery.Dr. A. Dempsey showed specimens removed from two casesof Extra-uterine Foetation successfully operated upon. Mr.Robert Campbell read notes of a case of Acute IntestinalObstruction by a Band in an elderly woman and showed aspecimen of a Peculiar Body in the Vermiform Appendix.Dr. W. Calwell read notes of (1) a case of Tetany inDilatation of the Stomach; (2) a rare form of Relapse inTyphoid Fever and of a second attack after a few monthsinterval ; and (3) on the Nitro-propiol Test for Sugar in LTrinebased on 100 Examinations.

May 6th.

PARIS.(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

Rats and Pla.1Ile.M. GAMALEIA of Odessa forwarded an interesting note to-

ae Academy of Medicine which was communicated to thatody by M. Proust. M. Gamaleia has found that important.ifferences exist between the rats found in sewers and thosefound in houses. Sewer rats are very refractory to plague,r, at least, if they do contract it from eating carrion, they.0 not infect other rats. House rats, on the contrary, arehose which are found also on board ship. They contractplague very easily and infect their fellows through the inter-lediary of fleas. M. Proust considers that the fact thathe continent of Europe possesses more sewer rats than house-ats is the reason why plague, starting from a port, spreadsnly slowly through the country, whereas it will spread fromne ship to another very rapidly.

The Benefits of Tobacco.Heretofore scarcely anything but the dangers of the use of

obacco have been insisted upon. But now a physician,)r. Dumon, in a thesis for the degree of Doctor of Pharmacy,)oints out that tobacco is of great use to medical men andothers who come into contact with those suffering fromnfluenza, diphtheria, and tuberculosis. Dr. Dumon has.tudied the action of tobacco-smoke upon the variousorganisms found in the cavity of the mouth and has come to.he following conclusions : Tobacco has no effect upon the

levelopment of the germs of typhoid fever or tetanus, but itgreatly retards the growth of the bacilli of influenza,)f diphtheria, and of tuberculosis. These experimentsvere made with definite cultures and Dr. Dumons able to assert that the vapours of nicotine and.)yridine which are produced by the burning of tobaccolo render the buccal cavity more or less aseptic. The same’act has been noticed by dentists. Possibly, however, thisadvantage is somewhat counterbalanced by the chronic:ntoxication of the nervous system which is produced by;moking and by the irritation of the naso-pharynx which itsets up.

lhe Reorganisation of the Paris Hospitals.The question of the reorganisation of the Paris hospitals

ias been under consideration for some three years. Many of:he hospitals are by no means in accordance with modernrequirements and should be pulled down. But, naturallynough, the enormous expense which such destruction andconstruction would involve stands in the way. The plan firstproposed by the Prefect of the Seine in 1895 involvedan expenditure of from 57,000,000 to 75,000,000 francs,according as to whether brick or stone were employed-The Municipal Council considers that to finish thethree children’s hospitals now building, to erect nineother new hospitals, and to pull down the old ones.

would require an expenditure of 105,000,000 francs. This

figure, however, is too high. M. Lefevre, who has drawnup a report on the matter, proposes to rebuild on thesites which they now occupy the following hospitals ithe Pitie, the Cochin, the Ricord, the Broca, and theBrouseais, as well as to pull down the annexe of the HotelDieu. He further proposes to rebuild one of the contagioushospitals and three general hospitals, to build a large centralwash-house and laundry, to enlarge the Brevannes and theRochefoucauld establishments, and to put the remaining hos-pitals in thorough repair. These works would require anexpenditure of 75,000,000 francs. The Municipal Councilrecoiled from this enormous sum and the plan was rejected.M. Mourier, on the part of the Assistance Publique, thenbrought forward anew the proposal of M. Lefevre, with somemodifications as follows : (1) to rebuild on their present sitesthe following hospitals-the Cochin- the Ricord, the Broca,and the Broussais, and to increase the total number of bedsto 451 ; (2) to rebuild on different sites the followinghospitals : the Pitie, the Laennec, the Charite, the Beaujon,and the Aubervilliers, with 557 additional beds ; (3) to

enlarge the annexe of the Hotel Dieu and not to pull it

down ; (4) to build a new hospital for children sufferingfrom tuberculous disease of the bones ; (5) to enlarge theHerold Hospital and that for Sick Children ; (6) to

enlarge the Brevannes and Rochefoucauld establishmentsso as to make 900 new beds ; (7) to improve the wash-housesand laundries ; (8) to do away with the present centraldispensary and to rebuild it at Ivry ; and (9) to put theiemaining hospitals into thorough repair. By this scheme

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nearly 2000 new beds would be established, of which number1208 would be purely hospital beds. The total cost wouldbe 83,000,000 francs, of which sum 29,000,000 francs wouldbe provided by the sale of sites set free by the demolition ofexisting buildings.May 6th.

EGYPT.(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

Cholera in the Hedjaz. IT is extremely probable that all the different epidemics

of cholera which have reached Egypt since the first visitationin 1831 have invariably been transmitted to this country from Arabia, the conveying hosts on most, if not all, occasions having been pilgrims returning from the holy places. Egypt (is therefore always much interested in the progress of the disease in Mecca and Jeddah. It appears that the first cases 1occurred in Mecca about Feb. 20th of this year, but it was tnot until March 5th that the disease was officially declared 1to be cholera. Unfortunately for those who have to control the hordes of the returning faithful the pilgrimage to (Mecca this year has been an extra large one, and it is calcu- 1lated that about 40,000 of the pilgrims have come from 1northern countries. The present effort of the Egyptian (quarantine authorities is to prevent all pilgrims from entering j Egypt by any other way than that of El Tor, and also to take care that while at El Tor every pilgrim is thoroughly exa- mined and is prevented from pursuing his journey towardsEurope or into Egypt until he is considered to be incapable ofcarrying cholera with him. To prevent clandestine landingon the Red Sea coast from native boats Government steamersand land patrols are always watching, while the Suez Canalis being guarded by its own agents and by coastguardpolice.

[The Camp at .EL Tor.Boats from Suez take about 12 hours to reach El Tor,

which is situated 120 miles to the south of Suez on theeastern coast of the Arabian Gulf. When the steamers con-

veying pilgrims reach El Tor the passengers disembark intolarge boats which are towed to three disinfecting stations.Each of these stations is divided into two parts, for men andfor women. The clothes and luggage of each pilgrim arethen put into sacks which are placed in the disinfectors,where they are subjected to a heat of 1200 F. for 20 minutes.Any articles which would be spoilt by this heat are dippedinto a sublimate solution. The steamer itself is thoroughlydisinfected and the pilgrims themselves are conducted to adressing-room connected with a bath-room where they have-the choice of a cold or hot douche or a cold or hot sea-waterbath. They are then moved on to another room where theyjoin their clothes which have in the meantime been dis-infected and where they are visited by the quarantinemedical officer and a passport clerk. As everything is nowdone methodically about 100 pilgrims pass through eachstation every hour and in times of pressure the electric

light allows the work to be continued by night. The pilgrimand his luggage are then conveyed by a local railway tothe section of the camp destined for their accommodation.Each of these sections is a fenced-in enclosure 200 yards longand 50 yards wide on which there are standing 100 tents,each capable of sheltering six pilgrims, besides the tentsof the medical officer and the sanitary police, the store, therestaurant, and the latrines. The medical officer visits eachpilgrim twice a day and despatches any pilgrims who are sickto hospital at once. Cholera quarantine lasts for 15 days, butif a case occurs during the quarantine the pilgrims of thatsection are kept until 15 days have elapsed since the last caseof cholera in their section. Egyptian pilgrims who have nolong sea voyage to undertake after their emancipation arekept for 18 instead of 15 days. The camp contains 40sections of which only the 20 intermediate ones are occupied,- thus providing accommodation for 12,000 pilgrims at a time.Each section is complete in itself, is strictly isolated fromthe rest of the camp and is surrounded by a .cordon ofsoldiers, and the camp is furnished with electric light andtelephones. The stores are sold at a fixed tariff and theGovernment provides destitute pilgrims of all nationalitieswith two meals a day. This description refers to healthypilgrims, but the moment one is discovered to be diseased heis removed to a hospital according to the nature of his com-plaint. One hospital is for surgical cases entirely, another

for suspicious cases under observation, another for con-

tagious disease, and yet another for cases of ordinarydisease. The arrangements this year are certainly betterthan they have been on former occasions and it is to be

hoped that the quarantine authorities will succeed in arrest-ing all cases of cholera at El Tor, thus preventing the diseasefrom being transmitted into Europe or into Egypt. In spite ofall that has been written about it in former years the steamers

conveying pilgrims are still fearfully overcrowded ; one at thebeginning of this month conveyed 1514 Russian pilgrims fromJeddah to El Tor and another steamer carried 1560 to thesame port. Each of these arrived at El Tor with cholera onboard.

The Pilgrimage of 1901.To go back to last year for a moment it is satisfactory to

point out that whereas the general mortality in the camp atEl Tor was 0’64 in the case of non-Egyptians it was only 0’06,or 10 times less, in the case of Egyptian pilgrims. Moreover,the number of pauper pilgrims trom Egypt was only 61, orless than 1 per cent., of the total number of paupers duringthe year. On the other hand, out of a total of 18,900 foreignpilgrims no less than 6000, or 31 per cent., had to be fed atthe expense of the Egyptian Government. The new rules for

controlling the Egyptian pilgrims have been on trial now forthree years and have answered so well without any frictionthat it is a profound pity that Turkey, Russia, and othercountries do not adopt similar means to prevent paupersfrom attending the pilgrimage. The most important ofthe Egyptian rules are: (1) that no pilgrim is allowedto leave Egypt unless he is provided with a passport,and he cannot obtain this passport until he has deposited32s. to pay for his disembarkation at Suez and his quarantineexpenses ; (2) that each pilgrim must have a return.ticket forthe steamer, and that the steamer company must satisfy theEgyptian Government that they can guarantee the return

journey of all their passengers ; and (3) that all pilgrimslanded at Suez must give their addresses to the local sanitaryauthorities who are thus able to trace them to their homes.

Many stringent regulations have been enforced about thesteamers carrying Egyptian pilgrims. Besides sanitaryregulations the number of pilgrims which each vessel isauthorised to carry is painted in large letters on the ship’sside ; each vessel is inspected by Government officials, and.E2000 caution money is deposited by every company to

which authority to carry Egyptian pilgrims is given.

Cairo, April 28th. __________________

NEW YORK.(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

Municipal Control of Therapeutie Serawas.DuRlKG the past year there have been-notably at St.

Louis-some lamentable accidents from the use of diphtheriaantitoxin manufactured by city boards of health which haveexcited a certain amount of distrust as to the methods

employed by such bodies. A movement in favour ofGovernment control has accordingly been initiated. Butwhile no objection has been brought against the adoptionof this plan a decidedly adverse sentiment has beenmanifested against the system in force at the New York

Citv Board of Health. This board for some considerabletime has been accustomed to sell its therapeutic serums,thus competing with private manufacturers. The Boardof Health of New York City has gained a deservedlyhigh reputation for the good work which it has accom-

plished and it has been felt and expressed by manyphysicians that by selling any of its products it not onlybecomes tainted with commercialism but goes outside itsown province and restricts its power of acting in the bestinterests of the health of the community at large. On April17th a deputation of pharmacists, physicians, and others

opposed to the sale by the New York Board of Health ofantitoxin and vaccine virus had an interview with the mayor(Mr. Low) for the purpose of protesting against this courseand of endeavouring to prevail upon him to put a stop to thecustom. The petitioners were represented by counsel who pre-sented a memorial signed by more than 1000 persons and whostated the condition of affairs to the mayor. The New York CityBoard of Health contends that only the surplus stock of virusis sold but when a profit of$20,000 (£4000) is made in one

year, as in 1901, it would seem that the commercial side ofthe question is at least one of the objects in view. The