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Glasgow, receive B1000 each ; and smaller sums are donatedto the special hospitals and nursing institutions.

The Proposed West of Scotland Consumptive Hospital.A further appeal has been made on behalf of this

scheme. Donations of £ 500 and £ 250 are acknowledgedand suggestions for further contributions are made. One4i)f these indicates the necessity for £3000 to build a

dispensary in Glasgow, another is for £ 300 "to providea sun bath." The objection to the spending of L3000 inthe erection of a dispensary on the ground that such aninstitution will simply come into competition with existingdispensaries and allied organisations has already beenindicated in THE LANCET, and a recent correspondencepublished in the local press shows that this objection at leastcommands some sympathy. Meanwhile the medical com-mittee understood to be supervising the arrangementsmakes no sign. The profession and the public generallynaturally expect some guidance from the committee, butsince Professor Gairdner’s letter to THE LANCET announcingthe fact that the committee had so far not been consultedsilence has reigned supreme. If the committee is still inexistence it is surely high time that it either publiclysupported the scheme as published or divested itself offurther responsibility.

Eye Infirmary, Paisley.It is announced that in connexion with the Diamond

Jubilee, Provost Mackenzie has intimated his intention topresent to the town an infirmary to be devoted to diseases ofthe eye.May 4th.

_______________

IRELAND.

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENTS.)

The Chi.ldrefi Hospital, Temple-street, Dublin.IN aid of the funds of this hospital a f 6te arranged on a

very large scale was formally opened by Her ExcellencyLady Cadogan on the 4th inst. There was a very largeattendance of the friends and patrons of the hospital and ofthe general public.

The Mater Misericordiæ Hospital.The complimentary dinner given by the medical board of

the hospital to its football team took place at the HotelMétropole, Dublin, on May 3rd. The members of themedical staff, both visiting and resident, were present andnumbered, with their guests, somewhat over sixty.

Oittbrea7, of Typhoid Fever.At the meeting of the City Council, held on May 1st, it

was reported that during the previous four months themedical practitioners of Belfast had notified 416 cases ofzymotic disease, and of these 289 were typhoid fever, andas Dr. O’Neill (one of the city councillors) pointed out, if theMarch cases are added, 641 persons had been notified assuffering from this disease during the two months of Marchand April. The outbreak is principally among young people.it is a question whether there is any real increase in thenumber of cases, the apparent largeness of the numbersbeing due to the more correct information obtained by theworking of the Notification of Infectious Diseases Act adoptedrecently in Belfast. The latest returns show that the death-rate of Belfast is 27’9 per 1000, 95 for chest affections and4 6 for zymotic diseases. Numerous suggestions as to theprevention of typhoid fever were brought forward at themeeting of the council, such as boiling the milk and water,&c. ; and a conference of all the medical officers was heldsome time since in reference to this most importantquestion, but the result of the meeting has not yet beenmade public.May 4th.

PARIS.

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

The Treatment of Locomotor Ataxy.AT the Academy of Medicine a communication was

recently made by MM. Gilles de la Tourette and Chipaultupon the treatment of locomotor ataxy by stretching of the

spinal cord which created much public excitement, being re-produced in the lay journals. These observers, having openedthe spinal canal in the dead body and exposed the cord, provedthat whilst suspension only results in a trifling elongationforcible curvature of the back produces a very real increasein length, amounting to more than a centimetre. Theythen applied this treatment of incurvation to fortyataxic subjects. They placed the patient in a sittingposition on a table and drew his back forwards until hischin nearly touched his knees by means of a cord passingthrough a pulley-block fixed to the table and attachedto a kind oi corset fitting tightly to the shoulders andback of the subject. A dynamometer measured the degreeof traction exercised. This treatment was afterwards appliedby M. Gilles de la Tourette to forty-seven ataxic patients,twenty-two of whom are said to have experienced a cessationof almost all their symptoms-lightning crises and vesicalparalysis among others-and fifteen others to have foundbenefit from the treatment, while ten remained unaltered.At a subsequent meeting of the Academy M. Blondel madea communication which somewhat dashed the enthusiasmwith which the discovery of MM. Gilles de la Touretteand Chipault had been received. He mentioned thathe had already published some two years ago a noteon the treatment of locomotor ataxy by means offorcible incurvation of the spinal column, and that he hadobtained remarkable success in one case where lightningpains had been present, while Erb, in a treatise on ataxia,had pointed out the value of the method. M. Blondel hademployed the treatment in five cases and met with onesuccess. He believed that it would succeed chiefly in casesof early disease of the posterior columns where the sclerosiswas not too hard to yield to elongation, but that in old casesof sclerokis the effects would be nil. He pointed out thatthe anatomical fact that the cord was lengthened by theprocess of incurvation had been demonstrated on the deadsubject by Bonuzzi.

Surgical Interference in Suppurative Peritonitis.At the Societe de Chirurgie a long discussion has taken

place upon the rules which should guide surgical interferencein cases of suppurative peritonitis. M. Jalaquier had underobservation certain cases, one of which healed spontaneouslyby discharge of a collection of pus through the umbilicus,while of four others one patient was operated upon and died.The virulent agent was the pneumococcus. M. Jalaquier, inreporting upon these cases, objected to the employment ofsolutions of corrosive sublimate for washing out the peri.toneal cavity, preferring to use saline solution. M. GerardMarchand thought that many cases of peritonitis caused bythe pneumococcus assumed the encysted form and that thelimitations by adhesions explained the numerous spontaneouscures. The surgeon, he considered, ought not to forgetthe action of these adhesions, but should make use ofthem during operation as a ready-formed barrier againstthe spread of the mischief. It is particularly im-

portant to operate before symptoms of toxemia appear.Pain, distension, vomiting, and scanty urine made a group ofsymptoms authorising interference. The incision should bemade in the middle line. The pus being evacuated and theappendix resected if necessary the peritoneal cavity shouldbe asepticised and drained and all shreds of lymph shouldbe removed. Bleeding points should be compressed imme-diately, and, finally, iodoform gauze should be loosely packedinto the cavity. One drainage tube is sufficient. MM. RontierNelaton and Qaenu took part in the discussion and laidstress on the difficulty of diagnosis.

A Citrious Outbreak of Typhoid Fever.Professor Laveran has published accounts of several cases

of typhoid fever occurring in a military d6p6t among the non-commissioned officers. The private soldiers escaped infectionand the water used at the barracks was of irreproachablequality. Microscopic examination of the food served to thenon-commissioned officers revealed the presence of thebacillus typhosus in abundance on the salad, and the ovaof the tmnia solium were also discovered on these too

generously manured leaves. M. Laveran pointed out, inconclusion, that it was impossible to be too careful in thepreparation of uncooked garden stuff for the table, and thatthis precaution applied especially to strawberries.

Poisoned Fisk.A barge freighted with sulphate of copper has " turned

turtle" in the Seine, in the basin of La Villette. Pumps were

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got to work at once, but the water in the basin became rapidly saturated and a large quantity of poisoned fiih soon made their appearance on the surface of the water. Only 1the strenuous intervention of the police prevented many ofthe populace from poisoning themselves by carrying away and eating the fish.

Tile Closirtj of Two Cmueterzes at Versailles.Two cemeteries have been closed at Versailles, the clayey

soil being found quite unfitted for the reception of bodies.Not only were the coffins on inspection found practically unaltered after six years’ burial, but the enclosed corpses had for the most part escaped putrefaction. ;

May 3rd.

ROME.

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

Internationa,l Congress of the Red Cross.IN time to catch the members of the International Congress

of Medicine and Surgery on their return from Moscow, thesixth International Congress of the Red Cross is organised tomeet at Vienna. This, it is expected, will be the most

important congress of the series. All the Powers, great andsmall, as signatories of the Geneva Convention, will be repre-sented at its sittings. Italy, who claims to have conceivedand planned, if not actually to have "put on wheels," theentire movement, will send the President of her own

organisation, the Count Taverna, assisted by the Com-mendatore Becchi, Counsellor of State, and Dr. GaetanoMazzoni, Professor of Clinical Surgery in the RomanSchool. She will also contribute her experience inthe Abyssinian campaigns, rich in suggestions for the stillfurther improvement of the ambulance service in moun-tainous countries. Rome, it will be remembered, from trefull reports furnished by THE LANCET I at the time, was thescene of the last (the fifth) International Congress of theRed Cross, and it will also be within the memory of itsreaders from similar reports in these columns that at theInternational Congress of Medicine, held two years later inRome, a distinctive feature was the exhibition of RedCross matériel, much of which was tested sooner thanwas anticipated in the disastrous campaigns aforesaid.These, however, are not the only military operationson a grand scale which have occurred since the risingof the last International Congress. There has beenthe war between China and Japan, in which the latter(and victorious) belligerent vindicated its right to rankwith the civilised Powers by its effective adoption ofRed Cross organisation and methods-a step which it fol-lowed up by delegating M. Nagao Ariga, its special com-missioner, to Geneva, by way of still further putting itselfin touch with Western Europe as to the means for alleviatingthe miseries of war. In the day now passing, moreover, wehave the Grasco-Turkish campaign and its lessons in Red-Cross intervention, and who knows what further com-

plications may not increase the war area and put theresources of the organisation still further to the test ? In the thirty-three years ending July, 1896, there have beenon an average sixteen nations engaged in hostilities everytwelve months ! These statistics were put en e-vidcnoe lastyear in the interesting brochure illustrating the magnificentRed Cross chart on view at the Geneva Exhibition, and whilethey dealt with "little wars," such as the Duke of Welling-ton used to deplore, the lessons they taught as to the neces-sity for increased efficacy on the part of the Red Cross aredriven still further home by the sanguinary outbreaks in theEast, notably the Armenian and Cretan butcheries, cal-minating in the severe fighting on the Thessalian frontier.The programme for the "Conference Generale des Societesde ]a Croix Rouge" (to give it its official name), whichmeets next autumn in Vienna, will, it is probable, be

unprecedentedly full, even if it does not witness acces-sions from a quarter unrecognised at preceding Con-gresses. That quarter, as was shown in a leading articlein THE LANCET.,2 is the civilian world, in which calamitieson an increasingly extended scale are coincident withthe development of industries and the aggregation ofmasses of workers in ever-augmenting numbers. Proposals

1 THE LANCET, April 16th and 30th, and May 7th, 1892.2 THE LANCET, Students’ Number, Sept. 2nd, 1893, pp. 536-37.

have been formulated, principally by the" Congrès Inter-national de Samaritains " originating at Vienna, to utilisethe resources of the Red Cross for the disastrous miningaccidents, railway casualties, conflagrations, to say nothingof floods, famines, and even pestilences, all too characteristicof the nineteenth century, and so to provide for thetwentieth a prompter and more effective system of reliefthan has hitherto been available. These proposals,probably to be renewed at the approaching Congress, are

not (as, indeed, THE LANCET showed) regarded favourablyat Geneva, and the argument that their introduction wouldencumber a programme already ample enough for the timemay be utilised to shelve them altogether. Still, there is forceenough in these said proposals to impress public opinion,and even to make converts to their reasonableness among thenationalities represented at the Congress ; indeed, I can

vouch for the fact that Italy is prepared to go a considerableway at least in entertaining them and in passing them

through the alembic of discussion. If an alliance couldbe effected by the " civilian " with the "combatant’"organisation, and a "grande arm6e" mobilised for therelief of suffering inflicted on an extended scale, theirtwofold resources could be placed at the service ofeither branch, according as circumstances required-thereserves of one being put at the disposal of the other andvice versa. For one thing, the carrying out of the ideawould demand much assistance from the medical and

surgical profession, and might, as, indeed, THE LANCETindicated, open an outlet for its surplus hands. As I closethis letter I learn from a report just handed to me of theGeneral Assembly of the Italian Red Cross (president,Count Taverna) that in spite of the heavy drain of theAbyssinian war the organisation has a balance of 6,000,000lire, including the value of its matériel. It has in the

kingdom 360 sub-committees and 109 ladies’ sections, with atotal of 25,000 members. It possesses 82 transportablehospitals capable of admitting and treating 7000 wounded,and served by 1000 medical officers, pharmacists, and admini-strative hands, with 2500 men-nurses and helps.May 2nd.

MONTREAL.

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

Golden Wedding Celebration.AN interesting occasion, a few days ago, was the golden

wedding anniversary of Sir J. William and Lady Dawson.Mr. Dawson (as he then was) was appointed Principalof McGill University over forty years ago, when itwas in a very weak state, the medical faculty beingthe only section that was at all vigorous. The wonderfulgrowth of the University in wealth and extent is veryproperly associated with Sir William Dawson’s connexionwith it. On the occasion of the celebration congratulationspoured in upon him and his esteemed lady fromgraduates from all parts of the world. The variousfaculties presented costly and beautiful gifts, withaddresses expressing the highest sentiments of respectand esteem for the ex-Principal. Sir William Dawson is nowenjoying the otium cum dignitate of Emeritus Principal ofMcGill University, and devoting his time to authorship.

Medical Convocation.At the convocation of McGill University just held seventy-

six gentlemen received the degree of M.D. The number of

graduates in the class of the first year of Mr. Dawson’sPrincipalship was nine. This is the last year in whichmedical " capping will take place in April. The course nowconsists of four anni medici of nine months, and graduationmust necessarily take place at a later date. The immenseattendance at meetings of convocation of the medical facultyhas quite outgrown the capacity of the old hall of the College,and these meetings have been held down town ". This year’smeeting was held in the largest playhouse, which was quitefilled. Sir Donald Smith, Chancellor, presided. A most

interesting announcement was made during the meeting,that a brother of a deceased professor of physiology hadadded to his previous benefactions £5000 for a DrakePhysiology Memorial. Laval University (French Catholic)in its medical faculty has just graduated thirty-five men ; yBishop’s College, eight persons, two being women (this isthe only medical school which admits women) ; the Faculty