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students was 3503, as against 3160 in 1880 and 1768 in1870. Of the total number, 1979 were in the faculty ofmedicine ; of these, 814 belong to Scotland, 687 to Englandand Wales, 58 to Ireland, 99 to India, and 270 to variousBritish colonies. In the same faculty 54 candidates receivedthe degree of M.D., and 219 the conjoint degrees ofM.B., C.M. The annual value of medical scholarshipsand bursaries amounts to :132560.

Annual Report of the Edinburgh Royal Infarmary.The annual meeting of the contributors to the Royal In-

firmary was held on Monday, and had submitted to it theannual report. From this report it appears that betweenOctober, 1889, and October, 1890, the total number of in-patients was 8695. Of these, 3648 were dismissed cured,3121 relieved, 685 dismissed on other grounds, while 634died in the hospital. Of the cases brought to a termination3619 were medical, and 4478 were surgical cases. Theaverage daily number of patients in the hospital was 645,the greatest number at any one time being 699. The per-centage of deaths was 7’0. and, deducting cases which diedwithin forty-eight hours after admission, ili was only 5’3. Theordinary income was £31,552 6s. 9d., and the expendituref37,945 15s. Legacies and donations of SIOO and upwardsamounted to £12,993 ls. 3d. This report completed thefirst decade of the New Infirmary, and during that time themedical cases had increased by 67 per cent., and the sur.gical by over 88 per cent. It was further intimated that anincrease in the accommodation at the Convalescent Hospitalwas under consideration and was much needed.

Health of Edinburgh.The mortality last week was 112, and the death-rate 21

per 1000. Diseases of the chest caused 50 deaths, andzymotic diseases 15, of which 7 were due to typhoid fever and5 to whooping-cough. The intimations for the week com-prised 31 cases of typhoid, 23 of scarlatina, 5 of diphtheria,and 7 of measles.

Illness of Surgeon-General Fasson.Surgeon-General Fasson, the superintendent of the Royal

Infirmary, is so seriously ill that the annual gathering ofnurses and other entertainments which take place at thisseason have been postponed. Last year they experienced asimilar disappointment by the illness of the matron.Edinburgh, Jan, 6th. -

ABERDEEN.

Royal Infirmary Hospital Sunday.The 4th inst. was Hospital Sunday for the Royal Infir-

mary, and the collections already intimated show that thetotal amount will at least equal that of last year. Anabstract of the number of patients received into and dis-missed from the Royal Infirmary was annexed to a lettersent by the directors to the different churches to show thatthe " institution deserves in fullest measure the support of ’,the public." The abstract shows that on Jan. 1st, 1890, !,there were 155 patients in the hospital, and that during theyear, up to Dec. 21st, 2015 were admitted, 955 were cured, I,631 were improved, 269 were dismissed at desire or as unfit, I

and 148 died. On Dec. 21st there were 167 patients in thehospital. In their special appeal the directors state that ’,the ordinary income will fall considerably short of the ex- ’,penditure, a circumstance arising almost entirely from additional cost under the heads of medical and surgicalrequirements, and increased outlay in connexion withlaundry work. The church collections for 1890 amountedto £1640.

Health of the City.The following cases of zymotic diseases were notified last

week to the medical officer of health : Measles, 7 ; scarletfever, 17 ; and diphtheria, 1.

Is Cheese Meat?Last week the sanitary inspector petitioned the magis-

trates to grant an order to have forty-seven cheeses de-stroyed which he considered unfit for human food. Theagent for the owner of the cheeses objected to the petitionbeing granted because cheese was not included in thesection of the Public Health Act under which the petitionwas made. After an adjournment, the magistrates decidedthat "the objection was well founded." " The 26th sectionof the Public Health Act, under which the petition isbrought, mentions specifically," they said, "the variousarticles which, if unfit for human food, may be seized by

the sanitary inspector. Amongst these cheese is not men-tioned, and although it was maintained that, having regardto and intention of the Act, such an article of food ascheese might fairly be held to be included under theterm of meat,’ we do not see our way to give effect tothat contention. We accordingly sustain the objectionand dismiss the petition."Jan. 6th.

IRELAND.

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

TAc Public Health of Belfast.MR. CONWAY SCOTT, C.E., the executive sanitary officer

for the city of Belfast, has prepared a very interesting andable report on the question of the removal of refuse matterfrom the dwellings in the city. After pointing out thatBelfast has a population of nearly 250,000, with 48,000-dwelling-houses, besides workshops, warerooms, factories,and mills, he shows that at present each house has anasbpit in the yard in which usually more than a ton ofrefuse matter can be held. When it is full the pit iscleansed and its contents removed on payment of Is. perload. In cases of sickness and poverty no charge is made.The objections to this plan are : First, that the pit is not,cleansed until it gets full, and in this way a pollution of theatmosphere takes place in the vicinity ot the dwelling;.secondly, to save the cost of removal tenants in small housesthrow the contents of the aslipit into the adjoining passage,lane, or street (a most objectionable practice) ; and, thirdly, as the floor of the pit is rarely concreted, liquid matterpercolates the subsoil with offensive material. Startingwith the maxim that in sanitary matters "promptfilth removal" is of primary importance, Mr. Scott pointsout what has been done in Rochdale, Edinburgh, and

Birmingham, and states that his opinion, after fifteenyears’ careful study of the subject, is that the system ofdisposal which he would recommend for Belfast is the rail-way system, which can be utilised to transfer the filth of acity, from where it is a nuisance and a danger, to the country,where it is a source of prosperity. He recommends thatfour small experimental districts be formed, and that duringnext year a daily or weekly removal of filth be carried outin each by the city scavengers, and that the refuse matterbe removed to the nearest railway depôt, and thence to thecountry. (During the past year 10,000 tons of city manurewere sent to the farmers in the country by rail, and thedemand exceeds the supply.) At the end ot the year thesanitary condition of those districts, with their death-rate,can be compared with other parts of Belfast, and the prac-tical details of the system of filth removal best suited to-Belfast can be gradually fixed and the cost ascertained.

Officer of Health for Belfast.I understand that the Local Government Board have

approved of the appointment of Dr. Whittaker as medicalsuperintendent officer of health for the city of Belfast.

The Belfast School and the Royal University.Owing to the death of Dr. Anthony Corley of Dublin, a

surgical Fellowship in the Royal University becomes vacant,and for the post Dr. John Walton Browne, senior surgeonto the Royal Hospital and to the Belfast OphthalmicHospital, is a candidate. The Belfast students have sent amemorial to the University urging that Dr. Browne shouldbe appointed, on the grounds that, while the Belfast Schoolof Medicine contributes nearly 50 per cent. of the candidatesfor the M.B. of the Royal University, there is only oneexaminer from that school at this examination.

PARIS.

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

Experimental Researches on Cow-pox Vaccination in theCalf.

MM. Straus, Chanrbon, and Menard reported to theAcademic des Sciences on Dec. 22nd, 1890, the results ofthe experiments conducted by them for the past two yearson the above subject. They find that the inoculation ofcow-pox lymph into the cornea provokes, in six or seven

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days, keratitis, characterised by opacity of the cornea,intense congestion of the conjunctiva, photophohia, andacrymation, the operation conferring immunity, but not- so rapidly as in subcutaneous inoculation. The sameoperation practised on a calf previously rendered immunetly subcutaneous inoculation leaves the cornea unaffected.Inoculation into the anterior chamber is as surely, andalmost as rapidly, protective as the ordinary subdermicoperation, a considerable degree of inflammation of thecornea and iris being excited. The intra-venous transfusionof even a feeble quantity of vaccine confers completeimmunity without producing either local or general dis-turbance. The same immunity was conferred on a calfinto whose veins the blood of another calf presenting thecharacteristic eruption of cow-pox at its height had beeninjected. The weight of blood transfused, however, mustnot be less than from 4 to 6 kilogrammes. The transfusionof 51 kilogrammes of the blood of a calf previously protectedby vaccination, and weighing 148 kilogrammes, failedto protect an animal of the same species, thus proving theinteresting fact that the transfusion of nearly the whole ofthe blood of a protected animal is inefficacious as a prophy-lactic measure. Finally, cow-pox vaccine mixed with anequal volume of sterilised bouillon, and then filtered, provedto be worthless as a protective agent.

Tlaenape2tsis of Ieuo-pleeaorteid.M. Galezowski read, on the 27th ult., to the Societe de

Biologie, a communication on the application in ophthal-mology of this new bactericide, discovered by him and M.Petit. They have succeeded in producing, by the decom-position of an aniline dye, a definite compound (tetramethyl-diapsido-benzo-phenoid), which they propose to call by theless formidable name of benzo-phenoneid. This product is- endowed with the same powerful microbicide properties aspyoktanin, whose chemical composition is unknown. Solublerin 100 parts of water, the solution, further diluted a hundred-fold, is neither caustic nor irritant. Applied locally, ithas proved very efficacious in causing the rapid and painlesscicatrisation of ulcers of the cornea which had resisted allother methods of treatment. It has given also good resultsin purulent keratitis and chronic phlyctenular ophthalmia.

Deaths of Dr. Baillarger and JJI. E. Richard.An eminent alienist, whose name must be familiar to all

- students of mental medicine, has just been removed bydeath in the person of M. Baillarger. M. Emile Richard,who died of broncho-pneumonia on the 27th ult., agedforty-seven, was better known as a militant politician than.as a practitioner. He occupied at his death the onerous;and important post of President of the Paris MunicipalCouncil, and was also the political editor of the daily paperLa Cite. He recently presented to the body over whosedeliberations he presided a somewhat elaborate report,subsequently published in volume form, on prostitution.

Retirement of Paris Hospital Physicians.The following eminent Medecins des HûpÌt-aux de Paris,

having attained the age of sixty-five-the limit prescribed for’compulsory retirement-are this year, with two exceptions,Telegated to honorary functions: MM. Charcot, Potain,Mesnet, Vidal, Laboulbène, and Fereol. The exceptions;are Professors Charcot and Potain, who, in virtue of theirposition as clinical professors of the faculty, are exemptedfrom the application of the above rule until they reach the- age of seventy. Even then M. Charcot, who adds to hisnumerous honours that of being a Member of the Institute,will be at liberty to retain his post at the Salpetriere for afurther period of five years--i.e., until 1900. The numerousadmirers of this famous pioneer in the scientific study ofdiseases of the nervous system will rejoice to learn that theregulation affecting less known colleagues will not, for someconsiderable time, debar him from continuing the researcheswhich have shed such lustre both on himself and on theschool of neurology, the creation of which is largely dueto his genius and initiative.

Koch’s Liquid.Your readers will have gathered from these pages that

French physicians find it difficult to become reconciled tothe secrecy observed concerning the composition of Koeh’aliquid. M. Leon Petit (Soc. de Med. Pratique, Dec. 18th,1890) formulates an opinion that the appearance of theiiquid as a therapeutic agent has been premature, and heconsiders that its employment should, for the present, be

confined to the laboratory. Assisted by MM. Cérémonieand Gautrelet, he has subjected Koch’s fluid to analysisand found that the active principle is an amine. Theseobservers have succeeded in reconstituting, synthetically, asubstance - christened patriotically by them la lympheFfaK(;!XMc—which presents the same organoleptic, physical,and chemical properties as the German liquid. The com-position of this indigenous product will be divulged as soonas the results of inoculatory experiments now proceedingon sound and tuberculous animals of divers species havebeen verified.

Animal v. Human Ly2t-tph.In reply to the question propounded by the Board of

Health of the Department of the Seine by the Prefect ofthat territorial division as to the advisability of sub-stituting animal for human lymph in vaccination, Dr.Lancereaux, specially deputed to report on the subject,pronounces decidedly in favour of the animal product, andrecommends the discontinuance of human lymph. Thereasons adduced in support of this conclusion are theimmunity from risks of communicating syphilis, erysipelas,lymphangitis, &c., and the greater facility of procuring thecalf lymph in a pure state, the source being picked animalsplaced under the most favourable hygienic conditions. M. Lan-cereaux attributes to the general employment of calf lymphthe increasing favour with which the practice of vaccination,and especially revaccination, is regarded in France.

Paris, Jan. 6th. ____ __________

BERLIN.(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

Ferdinand Cohn and Robert Koch.AT a time when all the world is talking or has just been

talking about Robert Koch, the following word portrait ofhim by a distinguished man of science who has known himfor many years is likely to interest many. It is from theJanuary number of the Deittsche Revue, and its author is thefamous botanist, Professor Ferdinand Cohn, of Breslau." When I made Koch’s acquaintance," he writes, " he wasalready the great investigator whom all the world now knowsand admires. On the 22nd of April, 1875, I received aletter from the district physician, Dr. Robert Koch, ofWollstein, in the district of Bomst, in the grand-duchy ofPosen, asking whether I would allow him to visit me inBreslau, and perform before my eyes the chief experi-ments relating to anthrax and its characteristic bacilli,the history of the development of which he believedhe had now discovered after prolonged investigations, andwith it the etiology of that destructive disease. I hadbeen myself engaged for years past with bacteriologicalinvestigations, and had consequently often received an-nouncements from dilettanti of their alleged discoveriesin that field, which was then being cultivated with but

little precision; the expectations, therefore, which thatletter from an utterly unknown physician in a Polishcountry town inspired in me, were of the smallest. I ofcourse wrote, however, that I should be very glad if HerrKoch would visit me and show me his things (" seineSachen "). Koch came to my institute on April 30th, andI can truly boast that in the first hour of our intercourse Irecognisea in him an unequalled master of scientific investi-gation ; his method, proceeding with rigid consistency fromstep to step, the elegance and certainty of his experi-ments, the classic clearness of his statements, were allag perfect in his first, then just completed, work on

anthrax as in all his later researches. For Koch’sworks are distinguished from those of most investi-gators by the circumstance that he does not publishthem till they are finished to the last point. Otherscart up stones to be used in the building up of science,or draw a new plan or add a new wing, a new storey, anew roof, but they finish only the brickwork, and leaveit to others to complete the building and make it habitable.Koch, on the other band, does not let his scientificfabrics leave his hands till he has made them com-

pletely fit in all their details as well as in the mainfor the use of others, who have then nothing moreto do than to add this or the other little furnishing.All Koch’s works have been so complete in formand contents that nothing remained for those that

followed but to confirm them, for it was not possible to add