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the right of selection. To the great surprise of the

majority present the Vice-Chancellor (Lord Morris) decidedin favour of a show of hands. There was, he said, no ruleof Convocation directly bearing on the subject, but he

thought that there was one bearing on it indirectly-viz., thatthe first mode of election should be presented by a showof hands. After the show of hands, if no poll was calledfor, the man having the greatest number of hands heldup for him would be entitled to be declared elected.One of the candidates (Mr. White) having withdrawnhis nomination and a show of hands having been taken,on behalf of the four remaining, a poll was called forwith the following result :-Doyle, 46; Meredith, 45 ;Brown, 35; and Donaldson, 25. Lord Morris then declaredMr. Doyle duly elected.

Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland.There are at present two candidates for the Vice-

Presidency of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland :Dr. John J. Cranny and Mr. Arthur Chance. Dr. Crannyhas addressed a circular letter to the Fellows of the Collegein which he asks them not to attribute to negligence hisomission to canvass individual Fellows but to his ’ deepconviction that the practice is improper." He further goeson to say : "It appears to me that the Vice-Presidencyshould be an annual office and this was the intention of theCollege when the biennial Presidency was agreed to. Asmatters are now one gentleman holds office for four years,thus excluding a great many who are naturally anxious tobecome Vice-Presidents and who may not ambition the

higher dignity."Election of Workhouse Medical Officer.

The rather valuable appointment of medical officer to theLongford Workhouse, vacant by the death of Mr. R. S.,Cochrane, has just been filled by the election of Mr. Francis J.Macguire, who has resigned his position of medical officer tothe Killashee Dispensary District.

no Belfast Medical School and the Royal University ofIreland.

At the recent autumn examinations of the Royal University,of Ireland the candidates from Belfast gained a large numbeIof distinctions. Mr. Robert Allen, M.B., of Queen’s College,Belfast, was awarded a medical studentship in pathology ;Mr. R. A. L. Graham, M.B., obtained the Stuart Scholarshiin mental science. At the M.B. examination all thehonours were awarded to Belfast students, Mr. J. C.Rankin obtaining a first class and a £ 40 exhibition; Mr,H. B. Steen obtained a second class together with Mr. J. H,Reford, B.A., and the former gained a £ 25 exhibitionof the seven candidates in the upper pass division four werefrom Belfast ; and of the total number of students whc

passed the final M.B. examination (25 out of 36 candidates) 13 came from Belfast, while two others studied ther(.as well as at Galway. At the Second Examination irMedicine Mr. Thomas Lyle obtained the only first-class wittan exhibition of ;E35, and he was awarded the Stewart’i

Scholarship in Medicine ; Mr. J. 0. McPherson obtained ! Gsecond-class at the same examination. At the Third Examination in Medicine Mr. Henry M. Johnston obtained th<

only first-class and also a 30 exhibition. By far the

majority of exhibitions and honours in the medical examinations of the Royal University were gained by students of thBelfast School of Medicine.

Belfast Guardians and the TForkhouse.In reply to the very condemnatory report of Mr. Agnew

inspector of the Local Government Board, on the conditiorof the Belfast workhouse a report in reply was submitted t(the guardians at their meeting on Oct. 23rd. It was th(outcome of a special meeting of the board in committee or,Oct. 22nd. In this document attempts are made to meet thivery serious allegations of Mr. Agnew and, in conclusionit is urged that the Local Government Board should plac(the departments of the workhouse in which the sick are

treated under the charge of a medical inspector who i:

specially qualified to confer with the medical officers, and t(,make special recommendations to the guardians for the bette :treatment of the sick where required. The report was passelby 14 to five.

The Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast.At a meeting of the board of management of the Roya

Victoria Hospital held on Oct. 27th Dr. H. L. McKisa,.k was ,

appointed physician in place of the late Dr. R. S. Smith,and Dr. W. B. McQuitty was appointed assistant physician.Dr. A. B. Mitchell was advanced to the full surgeonshipin room of Dr. H. O’Neill (resigned), and Mr. Robert

Campbell was appointed assistant surgeon in the officevacated by the promotion of Dr. Mitchell. Mr. Campbellhaving resigned the office of surgical registrar tne post willbe filled up by the medical and surgical staff next month andmost excellent candidates-old students of the school-arein the field. The staff have decided to appoint anaesthetistson two grounds : (1) in the interests of the patients and(2) that, as was pointed out in a leading article inTHE LANCET of Oct. 27Gh, students may really getsome practical knowledge in the administration of chloro-form, ttber, &c. For the posts of resident pupils, ofwhich four were vacant, there was a very keen com-

petition, 10 students presenting themselves, and thefollowing were selected on Oct. 26th: Mr. McCrea, Mr.Ferris, Mr. Logan, and Mr. Armstrong. Dr. J. C. Rankinhas been elected house surgeon, vice Dr. J. W. West(appointed to a commission in the Royal Army MedicalCorps). Never were the staff more enthusiastic in teachingand the great success of the Belfast School at the recentexaminations of the Royal University has proved a mosthealthy stimulus to all the professors and clinical teachers.

The Belfast Charitable society.Dr. W. Calwell has been appointed consulting physician

to the Belfast Charitable Society in place of the late Dr.R. S. Smith.

The Queen’s College, Belfast, Students’ Union.A meeting of the members of the Students’ Union Society

of Queen’s College, Belfast, was held in the building of thatinstitution on Oct. 29th to consider what steps should betaken towards raising sufficient money to meet the cost ofpresent and prospective necessary improvements. It wasdecided, after some discussion, to hold a small bazaar in theunion, by which it is expected the required money will bemost easily raised.

Oct. 30th. _____________

PARIS.(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDBNT.)

The Sale of Morphia by Pharmaceutical Chemists without aMedical Prescription.

THE Council of the Medical Association of the Seine hasrecently had this important matter under consideration. In

spite of the various police regulations forbidding pharma-ceutical chemists to sell medicaments without a prescriptionmost of them are in the habit of shamelessly breaking therules. The tolerance which was formerly extended to thesale of certain anodyne drugs in common use has now been

, taken as applying to a regular crowd of medicinal prepara-tions. The unprecedented development of " specialties inFrance has contributed greatly to the present state ofmatters, so that there is no one drug which has not beenworked up into a specialty, and they are all sold without apre-cription. Nux vomica, aconite, opium, and digitalisare prohibited from being sold except through a prescription,but anyone can obtain at once from the pharmaceuticalchemist specialties of which these poisons are openly acknow-ledged to torm the basis. It is not too much to say that in mostof the Paris pharmacies of the present day the majority of

, customers buy things without any prescription at all. Inmany cases they come in simply to ask the pharmacist for" something for a cough, or for palpitation of the heart, orfor pains in the stomach," especially in the poorer quarters,and the pharmacist without the slightest hesitation givesthem a bottle " or some pills. Very often these are hisown preparations " or else a lucrative forgery of some

approved specialty, which forgery could only be sold in this, way, for no medical man prescribes or even knows it. It is. needless to say how such conduct prejudices the medicalmen residing in the neighbourhood. Unfortunately it is verydifficult to put a stop to these dangerous practices. Medicalmen rarely have the courage to bring a charge, and even if aconviction is obtained the punishment which the courts

l inflict is most inadequate and altogether disproportionate to

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the income which the pharmacist draws from his most

objectionable industry, while the medical man hasfrom henceforth an implacable enemy in the pharmacistwho manages completely to wean his patients from him.However, the Medical Association of the Seine, which hasbefore now done the profession a number of signal services,is going to bring an action against a pharmacist for sellingmorphia without a prescription for the same. The associa-tion has a very good case, for there is no doubt as to thelaw upon this point and the dangers resulting from theillicit sale of morphia are quite enough to make the magis-trates exercise severity in its repression. As a matter offact a pharmacist has just been sentenced to a term ofeight days’ imprisonment and a fine of 1000 francs forhaving been in the habit of selling morphia to a lady with-out a physician’s prescription and without entering the salein a book according to the law regulating the sale of poisons.In this case M. Duchesne suggested to the Medical Associa-tion of the Seine that those medical men who lived in thesame district as the pharmacist should boycott him as wellas those who were in the habit of counter prescribing.One member of the association expressed the fear thatsuch boycotting on the part of medical men would exposethem to the risk of an action on the part of the pharma-cists, but M. Duchesne soothed these fears by relatingthe following cases. The first was that of a pharmacist inthe tenth arrondissement. The medical men in the same district recommended their patients not to go to him onaccount of the very inferior quality of the drugs suppliedby him. The pharmacist brought an action, lost his case,and three months later had to shut up shop. The othercase showed how at Saint-Mand6 a medical man wassummoned by a pharmacist for having recommendedpatients not to go to him, giving at the same timereasons for his advice. Not only was the medical manacquitted, but the court in giving judgment added that inany similar case it would be the duty of the medical man towarn his patients against dispensing establishments whereprescriptions were incorrectly made up (officines incorrectes)and also against the reprehensible practices of pharmacists.M. Duchesne carried his proposition by the unanimous voteof the Council and the medical men of the arrondissementconcerned have all been advised of the decision by a specialletter.

The Cellular Diagnosis of Tuberculous Meningitis.M. Widal, M. Sicard, and M. Ravaut laid before the

Society of Biology at the meeting held on Oct. 13th anaccount of researches made by themselves into the histologyof the serous effusions which occur in cerebro-spinal menin-gitis and in tuberculous meningitis. The methods employedwere the same as used by them in their researches uponpleurisy. Normal cerebro-spinal fluid contains no morpho-logical elements. In acute diseases, such as typhoidfever, acute phthisis, Buhl’s disease,’ morbus cordiswith anasarca, and in various nervous diseases such as

general paralysis, disseminated sclerosis, hemiplegia, chronicchorea, and cervical caries, the cerebro-spinal fluid stillcontains no cells. In the fluid from cases of acute menin-gitis, however, the observer may see various morphologicalelements. In 12 cases of tuberculous meningitis, the diagnosisbeing verified by a post-mortem examination and the diseasehaving occurred in patients of different ages, lymphocyteswere numerous. In two cases red blood cells predominated ;in four cases there were a few polynuclear elements ;injection of the fluid, however, never produced a secondaryinfection. In two cases of cerebro-spinal meningitis thepolynuclear elements were more numerous than the lymphocytes and that to a very marked degree. Lymphocytosisis therefore characteristic of the effusion of tuberculousmeningitis.

Oct. 30th.

SWITZERLAND.(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

Leprosy in Switzerland.THE attention of the Zurich sanitary authorities was

recently attracted by a private communication to the fact thata man probably suffering from leprosy was on his way from

1 Icterus in new-born children.

Brazil to Ziirich to consult a Swiss practitioner who, discardingdrugs as poison, makes a therapeutic speciality of vege-tarianism and hydro-therapeutics. The man when he arrivedat Ziirich with his family was immediately sent to theMedical Clinic and there isolated. The case, as demon-strated by Professor Eichhorst, proved to be one of lepractttanea sive tuberosa localised in the inner and outer nose,pharynx, and the epididymis, which were enlarged andhardened; a small thickening of the cartilage of one ear

was also suspicious as was pigmentation of the dorsum of onefoot. The eyebrows and eyelashes were wanting, as in manysimilar cases. The almost certain clinical diagnosis couldbe confirmed by the bacteriological diagnosis, as numerousbacilli of lepra could be demonstrated from mucus removedfrom the nose. The sanitary authorities in Switzerland haveno wish to detain such patients except in isolation.

A Remarkable Weapon.At a meeting of the Zurich Medical Society on Nov. 27th

Professor Kr&ouml;nlein demonstrated a pistol which is creatingquite a stir in army circles. A man who shot him-self with this weapon, a "selbstlade-pistole (self-loadingpistol), fabrick Mauser, modification Bergmann," was

admitted to the Surgical Clinique with a perforated skulland died soon after. The necropsy revealed a most extra-ordinary power of destruction in the bullet, there beingquite a network of fissures in the skull, besides the smallwounds of entrance and exit. Professor von Bruns of

Tubicgen made experiments on the dead subject withthe original Mauser pistol three years ago, and the Germanarmy authorities intend to introduce this destructive weaponinto the army. The Swiss army authorities have not yetcome to a final decision. The weapon is very light, has alight but strong leather case, into which the weapon can beso fixed that it serves as a short gun, which greatly facilitatestaking aim. The weapon is remarkable from its simplicityof construction and want of screws. The projectile has adiameter of 7’6 millimetres and the velocity on firing is 450metres, or 482 yards ; the velocity after the bullet hasreached a distance of 1000 metres, or 1093’6 yards, is still120 metres, or 130 yards. The simplicity of loading is suchthat 120 shots can be fired in one minute. It seems a weapon.admirably adapted for cavalry forces and mounted infantry.

Ziirieb, Oct. 29th.

ROME.

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

Notification of Infectious Diseases.IN connexion with the question of the notification of

plague discussed in recent numbers of THE LANCET, it mightprove useful to compare the regulations in force in Britainas to the notification of infectious diseases with those inother countries. Here, for example, is the municipal enact-ment on this subject for the city of Rome :-

Physicians, surgeons, and midwives who treat or assist patientswith small-pox, malignant pustule, measles, scarlatina, enteric fever,typhus, diphtheria, croup, whooping-cougb, puerperal fever, cholera,dysentery, or other disease which is contagious or suspected to be so,as well as cases of hydrophobia or of syphilis transmitted by a hiredwet-nurse, are required to give immediate notice of such to theMunicipal Bureau of Hygiene.I think that I am right in saying that in ordinary circumstancesand for the less serious of the maladies enumerated abovethe letter of this law is generally disregarded by medicalmen here, in as far as the reporting of cases which are onlysuspected of being infectious is concerned. In times of anyalarming epidemic, however, the advantage of such a clauseis obvious, leading as it doubtless does to a speedier isolationof infected cases and so removing a load of responsi-bility from the shoulders of the ordinary practitioner,who may, moreover, be trusted not unnecessarily toavail himself of its provision. It will be noticed,by the way, that the list of notifiable diseases includesmeasles and, indeed, any infectious complaint however un-important, but as no fee is allowed in Italy for notifica-tion no expense is thereby incurred, and the authorities

usually take no action upon the information so obtained,unless for some special reason-as, for instance, in the caseof measles where an outbreak is of a virulent character.Further, it may be added that an exception is made for cases