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than when offices are provided and make it possible for thegerms of disease to fructify through insufficient supervision.Sometimes, again, offices are not in use because of their un-suitable or elementary character. At the best a minimum ofattention is given to these structures, which are constantly asource of embarrassment at visits of inspection." OnMarch 10th a deputation from the National School Teachersof Ireland waited on the Chancellor of the Exchequerand the Chief Secretary for Ireland at the House ofCommons asking for a revision of the pension system andthat something should be done to make the schools morecomfortable and more sanitary. A large number of Membersof Parliament of all shades of politics accompanied this

deputation. Mr. Lloyd-George, while sympathetic, thoughtthat the heating, lighting, and ventilation of the schoolsshould be a local obligation ; while Mr. Birrell, feeling thatsubscriptions of a voluntary nature could not be relied on,added that if the Treasury would nut give the money itwould be necessary to consider whether a measure authorisingschool attendance bodies to charge the expenditure onheating and ventilation should not be passed.

The Irislt Tuberculosis Van.

A most unfortunate accident, due to "something goingwrong with the stove," led to the destruction at Lifford onMarch 15th of the tuberculosis caravan I I Eire " which hassince autumn been touring through the country. The charts,exhibits, gramophone, literature, and the clothes and otherpersonal property of the lecturer and van attendants wereentirely destroyed, but, fortunately, the attendants them-selves and the horses were saved. The lectures given inconnexion with the van will go on as usual for this week asarranged, and it is hoped that some plan will be immediatelydevised for replacing the van or for continuing its work inthe western districts of Ireland whither it was bound. Sincethe caravan started in November it has been visited by about70,000 people who have evinced the greatest interest in thelectures and demonstrations.

Limerick: Abattoir Needed ; Food Inspeetion PeculiarlyDefective.

A meeting of the public health committee was held inLimerick on March llth, and a letter was read from theLocal Government Board which stated that in consequence ofthe evidence given at the inquest on the bodies of the ninechildren who died last November at the Mount St. VincentOrphanage from the effects of food poisoning, they hadinstructed their medical inspector, Sir J. Acheson MacCullagh,to inquire into the arrangements for meat inspection inthe county borough. Sir Acheson MacCullagh had quiterecently submitted his report to the Local Government Board;and the main purport of it was that there was no regularinspection of slaughter-houses except that done by thesanitary sub-officers. The inspector of food sometimes visitedthem, but his attention was chiefly directed to stalls wheremeat was exposed for sale. It was pointed out, too, that therewas no abattoir in Limerick; also that the slaughter-houseswere not registered, and that the by-laws regarding them,although adopted, were never inforced. In the course of itscomment on the report the letter of the Local GovernmentBoard proceeded to observe that it was obvious that the

corporation had devoted but insufficient attention to this

important aspect of public health administration, andstrongly urged that it should henceforward receive activeand very prompt consideration. A brief discussion of thesubject by the committee was then closed by making an ordergiving instructions to have the by-laws more stringentlyobserved.March l6th.

PARIS.

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

An Epidemic of Typhoid Fever due to Infection fromDrinkshops.

FOR the last four weeks there has been a serious epidemicof typhoid fever among the garrison of Cherbourg. Theincidence of the disease has fallen equally upon the troopsin barracks and upon the seamen on board the warships inthe harbour. So serious was the aspect of affairs that theUnder Secretary for War, M. Cheron, himself went to

Cherbourg to hold an inquiry. He found that the water

supplied to the barracks came from an unimpeachable sourceand that supplied to the ships was distilled, so that thesetwo supplies were exonerated. It was thus evident that thesource of infection must lie in the supplies furnished to thesoldiers and sailors in the towns and suburbs. The inquiryshowed that in nearly all the drinkshops the drinkingwater supplied came from wells which were often infectedby drainage from privies or dung.pits. M. Cheron, therefore,issued an order forbidding the troops to enter any drinkshopunless it could be shown that it was supplied with waterfrom a spring. This order brought about a violent protestfrom all the drinkshops and purveyors of food in the town.Meetings were called at which the deputies for Cherbourgpresided and delegations to Parliament were sent. M. Cheron,however, sticks to his guns and has sent to Cherbourg asanitary commission, composed of hygienists and inspectorsin the military health department, to inquire into the water-supplies of all the drinkshops. If the subject does comeup in Parliament it will be interesting to see how the deputiesfor the town will act. The political influence exercised bythe drink trade in France is enormous, and members ofParliament are very shy in interfering with it.

The Treatment of Gangrene by Hot Air.M. Tuffier read a paper upon the above subject at a recent

meeting of the Society of Surgery. He said that there werethree methods of carrying out this treatment-one by airheated to the temperature of the body, one by air heatedto a temperature of 100° C., and the third by air ata temperature of from 500° to 700° C. In two patientswho were threatened with gangrene of the leg he usedthe first method, the air being at a temperature of50° C. The first patient did very well but the second,who was diabetic, died in a few days. For advanced

gangrene M. Tuffier is a great advocate for the use ofair heated to 300° C. or more. He treated in this way a

patient with gangrene of the dorsum of the foot. Locallythe result was good, but the general toxaemia continued andthe patient died within five days. A douche of hot airafter the sloughs have separated is useful to promotehypersemia, although M. Tuffier acknowledged that this corl-dition could be obtained in other ways. He mentioned thatmore than 50 years ago Guiot had obtained good results bythe method in question.

Surgical Treatment of Wounds of the Lung.At a meeting of the Surgical Society held on Feb. 24th

M. Delorme returned to the subject of surgical interventionin wounds of the lung complicated by haemorrhage. Hedefended operative measures from the attacks of those whoargue that they give rise to dangerous shock and are wont tobring about infection of the pleura. Waiting, he maintained,is just as dangerous as thoracotomy ; an operation still im-perfect in technique (mal reglée encore) which labours undera weight of unsuccess due to imperfect closure of wounds.Pleurisy is not due entirely to surgical interference butis mainly due to infection of the pleura by fragmentsof clothing. Opening the thorax and direct hsemostasisare called for in cases of abundant or persistent haemorrhage.A hæmothorax which leads to functional trouble can onlybe treated in some way which, while enabling the surgeon toevacuate the effused blood, will also enable him to search forand to locate the bleeding points. M. Delorme considers thathaemorrhage due to wounds of the vessels at the root of thelung ought to be treated surgically. He related the case

of a patient under the care of M. Demandre of Amienswho secured hæmostasis in a wounded vessel at the root ofthe lung. The patient had been shot by a revolver and thewhole of the left side of his chest was full of blood. Hiscondition was very serious, but M. Demandre turned up anosteo-cutaneous flap and found a small wound on the internalaspect of the lung close to the root. The bleeding point(probably a vein) was secured and the patient made an un-eventful recovery except for the fact that at the end of thefifteenth day some sero-sanguinQlent fluid escaped from thewound.

Malta Fever.At a meeting of the Hospitals Medical Society held on

March 6th M. Sicard said that in December last year an

engineer had consulted him who had arrived from Malagawhere he spent some days, and where he had fallenill with headache, diarrhoea, a raised temperature, and

878

meloena. There were, however, no rose spots and no

irregularities in the temperature oscillations. Sero-diagnosiswas negative for typhoid fever, but a blood culture, carriedout on the advice of Dr. Chauffard, showed the Micrococousmelitensis. The patient was successfully treated with injec-tions of collargol. M. Rist observed that as there is Maltafever at Gibraltar it had very likely extended to Malaga.March 15th.

___________________

ITALY.

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

Robbery by Anœsthesia.BEFORE the Florentine Tribunal last week a young

Russian, describing himself as a "medical student," wasconvicted of various thefts committed in the Hotel Savoiaand sentenced to 14 months’ imprisonment, in addition to afine for being illegally possessed of a revolver. One of hisvictims deposed that having gone to bed before midnight hedid not wake till nearly noon next day, thereby losing anappointment. He had been drugged with chloroform duringhis sleep, and on awaking in the state of hebetude caused bythe anaesthetic (traces of which were found in the apart-ment) he discovered that his pocket-book containing470 francs (nearly .619) had been stolen. Another victimhad been relieved of 1100 francs (.E44). The youth, who, inhis defence, claimed to be of good family, the members ofwhich, however, seem to have taken no steps towards hisexculpation, is supposed to be of anarchist antecedents andto have adopted criminal means of supplying himself withthe "sinews of-war," like other adherents of that "interest"in Switzerland and quite recently in London. In fact, afterthe thefts had been committed, he was on his way to Englandand was arrested en route at Genoa. The incident hasevoked much comment as illustrating the dangers to whichthe travelling world is now subjected, not only in expresstrains, but in first-class hotels at the hands of ohevaliersd’industrie, whose stock in trade is reinforced from thePharmacopoeia.

Solitary Confineraent and its Results.As a " deterrent " the advocates of the abolition of capital

punishment insist on imprisonment for life between fourwalls. Whether it is efficacious is strenuously deniednowhere more authoritatively than in Italy, where, however,it remains in force. In Great Britain the whole subject oflethal crime and its penalty was discussed by the House ofCommons just 40 years ago, and in the Hansard of that daywill be found the impressive speech of John Stuart Mill, whothrew the weight of his authority into the non-abolitionistscale, first because the gallows or the guillotine was

superior as deterrent, and, secondly, because, in theinterests of the assassin himself, they were much morehumane. The "life in death" of such regicides as

Passanante or Bresci, or, indeed, of the inmates of suchestablishments as that of Montepulo in Tuscany, bears alltoo eloquent attestation to the British philosopher’s conten-tion-the said inmates, as described by humanitarian visitorslike Signor Dominione, being reduced to straits, mental andphysical, such as to inspire the profoundest pity, even whenthey do not cut short their sufferings by suicide. The Secolo.of Milan, under the heading " I Drammi del Cellulare

"

(thetragedies of the prison cell), gives harrowing details of thesesufferings; "altri tentativi di suicidio " (other attempts atsuicide) being reported as among the incidents of that mostterrible of punishments. The impression remaining on thereader of Signor DominiQue’s revelations is all in favour ofthe British practice, so recently endorsed by the FrenchParliament-revelations all the more cogent as appearing ina democratic organ traditionally wedded to the abolitionisttenets of Beccaria.

The General -Electiogts and the Medical Candidates.

As I write, Italy is in the throes of a general election thepolitical aspects of which it is outside my competence todiscuss. One feature of interest, however, in the contestsis the enormous number of professional men soliciting thehonour of being returned to Parliament. Of these, it goeswithout saying, the majority are barristers, more or less" unemployed." But the number of medical men, either

holding chairs in universities or locally connected withboards of health, is large, larger indeed than usual; andwhen among them are "past masters " in the healing artlike Guido Baccelli of Rome, Angelo Celli also of theEternal City, and Queirolo of Pisa, it is reassuring to thinkthat (safe to be re-elected as they are held to be) the

hygienic interests of the country, to say nothing of those ofthe profession, will remain in loyal and enlightened keeping,especially in a country so feelingly persuaded of thesoundness of Disraeli’s watchword-" Sanitas Sanitatum,omnia Sanitas."’ A Medical Martyr.

By misadventure, all too common in pathological research,a valuable life has just succumbed at the early age of

27. At Subiano, in Tuscany, Dr. Domenico Magrini hadcompleted the necropsy of a woman who had died throughinfezione puerperale when he accidentally punctured .his handwith the operating scissors. Pyaemia of a virulent characterensued and in less than three days carried him off, in spiteof every effort to save him. This occurred at Arezzo, hisnative town, the seat of a clinical school, which is nowmourning the loss of one of its ablest and most promisingrepresentatives.

Professor Ugolino Mosso.’

At Genoa, on March 6th, the lecturer on materia medica inthe University, Dr. Ugolino Mosso, died suddenly from internalhaemorrhage. One of a gifted family-his brother being theprofessor of physiology in the Turin School, Dr. Angelo Mosso,well known for his treatise on the pathology of fatigue-Ugolino was born of comparatively humble parents at Chierion June 14th, 1854. After the good grounding in the artsfaculty for which Turin (thanks to Vallauri and others) wasjustly famed, he devoted himself to medicine, passed throughall the classes of the curriculum with distinction, and tookthe double qualification in medicine and surgery. Aftergraduation he won in 1887 a, travelling scholarship whichenabled him to perfect his Italian training by study abroad.Selecting Strasburg as the scene of his post-graduate work,he was for two years a pupil of Professor Schmiedeberg, inwhose laboratory he laid the foundation of that proficiencyin physio-pharmacology which was destined to enrich Italianmedical literature with many an instructive monograph.Appointed in 1891 to the post of privat-docent in materiamedica in the University of Genoa, he rapidly drew aroundhim a band of able and enthusiastic students, some ofwhom are already teachers of the same subject in otherschools. He was indefatigable in research, often denyinghimself the normal allowance of sleep or food itself in hiseagerness to follow out to its farthest ramifications sometempting line of study, theoretical or clinical. Modesthimself, he bowed to no authority outside the ruling ofscience, and though often assuming a critical, nay an

antagonistic, attitude to his contemporaries, he never

forfeited a friendship or created an enemy. A collectionof his papers read before learned societies and congresses is,I understand, in contemplation, and among these the medicalworld will recognise many old theses productive of animatedand illuminating discussion, notably his monographs on thephysiological action of cocaine, of saccharine, of the sugars,and of salicylic acid, and on the variations of the tempera-ture of the human body in diverse conditions, physiologicaland pathological.March 15th.

CONSTANTINOPLE.(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

’’ La Pedicctrie en Turquie."

A NEW medical periodical, under the name of La Pédiatrieen Turquie, has made its appearance in Constantinople. It isedited by Dr. G. B. Violi, an authority on diseases ofchildren. Half of the periodical is in French, the other halfbeing in Turkish. It is devoted to surgical as well as medicaland hygienic matters concerning the ailments of children.and thus fills a gap in the medical literature of Turkey thathas been apparent for a long time. I understand that Dr.F. G. Clemow, the medical adviser of the British Embassyand British delegate on the Constantinople Board of Health,has been asked by Dr. Violi to contribute from time to time