168 PHARMACOLOGY AND THERAPEUTICS.

to the value of instruction and training in physicalexercises, and until quite lately England was sadly behindevery other country in the provision made for educa-tion of this kind. Of course the upper classes and themembers of the army and navy received more or less

physical training, but there was nothing like the systema-tised instruction which exists now, and even that lagsbehind the training given to the youth of both ancientGreece and Rome. Having succeeded so well in this branchof education the School Board had better give up teachingphysiology and the other " ologies " and devote its atten-tion to teaching children to swim. We do not hesitate to

say that the money squandered since 1871 upon insanitarybuildings, and upon equally useless subjects of instruction,would have provided plenty of baths; and the sooner theboard realise this fact and eliminate at least a third of

the subjects they teach the better.

MEDICAL FEES AT PETTY SESSIONS.

AT the Farnham Petty Sessions on the 11th inst. a mannamed Claytonhill was brought up in custody from theFarnham Workhouse charged with attempting to commitsuicide. The case presented no unusual features beyondthe injustice to which Dr. Scott, the medical man

subpoenaed, was subjected. Dr. Scott, acting on his

summons, attended the court, a distance of ten miles

from his home. Not only was he compelled to leave hisprivate professional work, but in addition had to pay histravelling expenses. Moreover, he was expected to giveevidence without any fee or remuneration whatever. The

clerk of the court said that the justices had no power toallow Dr. Scott’s expenses unless the case was sent fortrial. The magistrates agreed that it was a great hard-ship to Dr. Scott, but that they were helpless in thematter. Under these circumstances Dr. Scott had to

choose whether he would give evidence on the chance of

being paid if the prisoner was committed, or decline to besworn without a guarantee that he would receive a fee for his services. He adopted the latter alternative, whereupon the ’,bench, who were in full sympathy with Dr. Scott, directedthat a note of his refusal to testify should be taken. The

chairman quite agreed that " the sooner the law was alteredthe better it would be for justice." It is difficult to

realise that the law should be so harsh and defec-tive as to order or even sanction that a medical manshould be compelled to attend on a subpaena, and that onbeing sworn he must give evidence without other suretyof remuneration than the contingency of the accused beingcommitted for trial. We must admit that we were ignorantthat such a state of things obtained, for in the police courtsof the metropolis a medical man is paid according to a scalesanctioned by the Home Secretary for his attendance, inde-pendently of the issue of the magisterial investigation. Ifthe petty sessional justices have no equivalent powers thesooner they acquire them the better. A system that castssuch an indignity and injustice on our profession is nothingshort of a public scandal. -

A SUPPLEMENTARY Charter, by warrant, under the

Queen’s sign-manual, has been granted to the University ofDurham. This Charter enables Convocation to grant towomen any degrees, excepting only degrees in divinity,which they have the power to grant to men. The degrees ofthe University of Durham in medicine, science, arts, litera-ture, and music are, therefore, now obtainable by women.

THE Council of the Royal College of Surgeons of Englandhas appointed a Committee to receive a deputation of theMembers of the College regarding the proposed AmendedCharter on Friday, July 26th, at 3 P.M.

WE are asked to state that a meeting of members of theprofession who are opposed to the proposed Bill for the

Registration of Midwives will be held at St. Martin’s Town

Hall, Charing-cross-road, London, W.C. (small hall), on

Monday, July 29th, at nine o’clock P.M. (the night beforethe annual meeting of the British Medical Association).

TBE Dental Hospital of London will give a ionversazioneat the Royal Institute Galleries, Prince’s Hall, Piccadilly, onThursday, July 25th. At 8 P.M. there will be a receptionby the staff of the hospital, and later Sir William Mac-Cormac will distribute the prizes.

THE Members of the British Medical Association areinvited to visit Guy’s Hospital on Friday, Aug. 2nd, between3 and 6 P. M. Cases of interest will be exhibited and tea

provided. -

WE are very glad to be able to inform the profession thatDr. M. Armand Ruffer, the director of the British Instituteof Preventive Medicine, has made a good recovery from hisrecent illness.

Pharmacology and Therapeutics.ITROSYL- STANDARD CONCENTRATED NITROUS ETHER FOB

MAKING NITROUS ETHER OF B.P. STRENGTH.

To the practitioner there is probably nothing more un-

certain in the whole range of the Pharmacopoeia thanthe composition of spiritus etheris nitrosi. Its common

drawback, as is well known, is its instability, leadingto an excess of acid and a deficiency in the quantityof real nitrite of ethyl. Yet in view of its un-

doubted value in therapeutics, how important is it thatit should be of uniform and standard strength. We re-

cognise, therefore, a departure of more than ordinary im-portance and value in the introduction by Messrs. Fletcher,Fletcher and Co., of Holloway, of a concentrated form ofnitrous ether, which, with spirit, can be diluted at will, or tothe maximum strength of the British Pharmacopoeia. Oneounce of Itrosyl contained in twenty ounces of rectified

spirit forms, we find, a spirit fully in accordance withthe requirements of the Pharmacopoeia. The concentratedether is supplied for the first time by Messrs. Fletcherin hermetically sealed glass "cartridges," which, more-

ever, are impervious to the action of light. Eachtube contains one fluid ounce of a strength whichcannot alter, since there can be no loss by leakage orevaporation, and by the use of amber-coloured glass nochange by the action of light can take place. Apart fromthe fact that the practitioner can thus be providedwith a well known unstable drug in a permanent andreliable form, it admits also of transportation intothose climates where alteration in composition is especiallyliable to occur. In a word, Messrs. Fletcher and Co. havetaken all the precautions it is possible to take to afeord thepractitioner one of the most valuable drugs at his disposalwhich shall be of a reliable and unfailing strength.

THYROID POWDER IN PALATINOIDS.

The value of the protective influence of the palatinoid inpreserving many of the organic extracts and presentingthem in an undeteriorated condition is brought into furtherprominence as this line of treatment advances. We haverecently received some palatinoids from Messrs. Oppen-beimer, of 14, Worship-street, Finsbury-square, each con-taining thyroid powder equivalent to one-tenth of a grain ofthe fresh thymus gland. As with the other animal extracts

169THE PARIS SANITARY CONGRESS.

32ow used so largely in the treatment of disease—as, forinstance, pituitary and supra-renal extracts-the jujubecover of the palatinoid acts as a hermetic seal against thedecomposing influences engendered by exposure to the air,added to which the palatinoid is obviously a convenient form:for the administration of these therapeutic agents.

THYROID TREATMENT OF GOITRE.

Professor Kocher of Bern has communicated to the

Cnrrespondenzbkctt fur Schmeize’l’ Aerzte his experience ofthe treatment of goitre by means of thyroid administration.The effect is unmistakable, he says. the swellings becomingdistinctly smaller. Symptoms of suffocation may be abolishedby the treatment in consequence of the diminution in size ofthe goitre, but in no case did the swelling entirely disappear.Only in three cases was the treatment unsuccessful, and oneof these was that of a large cystic goitre in which successcould scarcely be looked for ; but in spite of this successProfessor Kocher utters a warning against too sanguineviews as to the success of thyroid treatment of goitre andexpresses the opinion that this mode of treatment is notmore efficacious than that by iodine. Success is only to beexpected if the treatment is undertaken at the right timeand is carried out with energy and patience.

BENZO-NAPHTHOL IN TROPICAL DYSENTERY.

Beczo-naphtbol has. been employed by Dr. José A. Clarkin an epidemic of dysentery which occurred in Alquizar,Cuba, and during which he had 137 cases of the disease undertreatment ; of these he considered 23 as serious and 114 as ofa mild type. The mortality amongst those treated withipecacuanha and calomel, opium, &c. amounted to 9 percent., while that amongst those treated by benzo-naphtholwas scarcely more than 2 per cent. This drug had the greatadvantage over the more usual ones of not causing vomiting,salivation, or depression of the circulation, and it also

brought patients through the attack more rapidly. Forty-fivegrains per diem were given to adults and but little less tochildren.

HYPODERMIC INJECTIONS OF CARBOLIC ACID IN TETANUS.

By means of a series of subcutaneous injections of carbolicacid Dr. O3herovski has successfully treated an apparentlyhopeless case of tetanus. The patient was a man who had agunshot wound in his left leg, which was followed ten dayslater by tetanus, commencing in the muscles of the lo ver jawand going on to general spasmodic contractions. Morphia,opium, and chloral in large doses were given without any- eSest, the spasmodic seizures only becoming more frequent andmore severe. After the tetanus had lasted for ten days sub-cutaneous injections of carbolic acid of the strength of 2 percent. were tried, twelve drops being injected every threehours. After two days of this treatment a marked improve-ment manifested itself, the spasmodic attacks becoming lessriolent and the respiration more easy. The injections werecontinued until twenty-eight had baen given, and a few dayslater the patient was discharged completely recovered.

FORMOL AS A DISINFECTANT. I

As a substitute for sulphurous acid, now commonly used in Ifthe disinfection of rooms and articles of wearing apparel after.the occurrence of infectious disease, MM. Berlioz and Trillatsome time ago proposed the use of formol or formaldehyde,and M. Bardet has recently undertaken a series of experi-ments in conjunction with M. Trillat which appear toshow that the substance in question when prepared inconsiderable quantity and disengaged in a room, or even

in one of the rooms of a house where all the internaldoors are open, is a perfectly safe and efficacious dis-infectant. They found that by the use of an apparatusconverting one litre of methylic alcohol into formol per hourfor six hours a set of rooms with a capacity of 300 cubicmetres could be absolutely disinfected, and this without theslightest deleterious effect upon furniture or other articlescontained in the rooms, a few hours’ ventilation beingsufficient to restore all the contents of the rooms to theiroriginal condition. The experiments were conducted bymeans of injecting animals with cultures obtained frompieces of woollen, cotton, or other fabric which had beenpreviously impregnated with various forms of virus andthen subjected to the action of formol after variousperiods.

THE PARIS SANITARY CONGRESS.

(FROM A SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.)

Muney Vahce of H01t8eholrl IlPfuse.--Sanitation in PrivateThog-o,itg7)fares.--Nem ltTethod of Pttezcmatic Drainage.-Certified Plrcrnbers.- With of St’l’eets.-Okeap Dmell6ngs.The LierAur System.- Warming Houses.-Hut Walls andCold ir,-Testzng Ohimneys.

THE first practical question discussed by the CongreEsrelated to the disposal of domestic refuse, the contents ofdustbins, &c. M. Petsché, engineer, presented a report onthe subject, in which he pointed out that the domestic refuseof the Parisian houses contained per ton 3 to 5 kilogrammesof nitrogenous substances, worth from 4s. to 6s ; 3 to5 kilogrammes of phosphoric acid, worth from 9d. to

Is. 3d. ; 2 to 4 kilogrammes of potash, worth from

8d. to Is. 4d. ; and some 30 to 40 kilogrammes of

lime, worth from 3d. to 5d. Roughly speaking, the

value of a ton of refuse might be estimated at 6s. to 9s.

Consequently the domestic refuse of the Parisian houses is,theoretically speaking, worth about ;E 300,000 per annum IYet the Parisian contractors sell this refuse, delivered on arailway truck, for 8d. to Is. 3d. the ton ; the maximum chargefor transit on the railways is from 2s. to 2s 5d., so that bythe time it is placed on a field as manure it costs from 2s. 8d.to 3s. M. The utilisation of this refuse for agriculturalpurposes may, therefore, be expected to increase ; but thequestion arises whether public health may not be endangeredby transporting to different parts of the country refuse thatmay be at times infected. M. Petsch6 then described atlength the various destructors employed in America, England,&c. M. de Montricher, who has succeeded in fertilising someof the arid, stony plains of The Crau with the refuse broughtfrom Marseilles, explained that the refuse was loaded on therailway trucks at night at a special depot away from inhabi-tants and nowhere near to passenger stations. Some dis-cussion ensued concerning the storing of refuse in thekitchens of houses let out in flats ; and M. Bechmann,engineer of the town of Paris, proposed and the Congressadopted a resolution in favour of encouraging the building ofshafts down which refuse from all the kitchens in a housecould be thrown so as not to remain in the apartment. Somedoubts were expressed as to whether such shafts could bekept clean and would not cause a nuisance. Such shaftsalready exist in many of the flats in Victoria-street, London.Unfortunately, Mr. Tidman, sanitary inspector for the West-minster district, was not present at this sitting of the Con-gress, and therefore no evidence could be adduced as to howthe system works. The question is, however, important, forin large towns the number of houses built as fiats is yearlyincreasing, and in such houses dustbins in the yard or

garden are not readily accessible. The Congress passed aseties of resolutions to the effect that domestic refuse shouldbe collected every morning and conveyed in metallic andclosed receptacles that could be easily disinfected ; that toutilise such refuse for agricultural purposes the railway com-panies should lower their tariffs and establish specialisolated depots for loading the refuse into railway trucks ;finally, that the destruction of such refuse by fire was a

satisfactory solution of the difficulty from the health point ofview if the temperature was sufficiently high and of longduration, but that further researches should be made so as toutilise the heat and the products of the combustion.The question of private roads was next taken in hand, and

it proved a very thorny matter. The Mayor of Marseillesexplained that in his town there were many places that toall intents and purposes were public thoroughfares, butwhich he could not control or even inspect because theywere, legally speaking, private property. The Congressultimately voted a resolution to the effect that all roads thatdid not belong to a town or commune, but which werefrequented by the public or inhabited by different individuals,should be subjected to the same regulations, inspection &0.as governed public thoroughfares.

During an afternoon unofficial sitting M. Chardon,engineer, described the pneumatic system of drainageapplied to the Levallois-Perret district, which is a modifica-tion of the well-known B2rlier system. He pointed out thatall the gases from the drainage-pipe in which the vacuum