641IRELAND.-ROME.

of starch. Mr. Rice, who prosecuted on the part of thecorporation, stated that a sample of this milk had been for-warded to Somerset House for analysis and that the reportfrom that department, after referring to a change havingtaken place in the milk, stated that the sample afforded noevidence of added water, but that one-sixth of 1 per cent. ofstarch had been added. Owing to a technical legal objectionSir Charles Cameron was not permitted to give evidencein support of the accuracy of his certificate, while Mr. Ricewas refused an opportunity of questioning the analyst ofSomerset House, whose examination of the sample of milkwas made six weeks after that by Sir Charles Cameron. Onewould think that even the most unscientific of magistrateswould have recognised the comparative worthlessness of achemical examination of such a notoriously unstable articleas milk after a delay of six weeks. Mr. Swifte said, indeed,that the delay might explain the discrepancy between SirCharles Cameron’s certificate and that of Somerset House.Both analysts, he said, agreed as to the presence of starchin the milk and differed only as to the amount of it. He (Mr.Swifte) stated on a former occasion that he would "put ona substantial penalty if any adulteration at all should beshown in a case like this where milk was supplied in largequantities." Inquiry was now made as tc previous con-

victions when it was found that in February, 1895, and inAugust, fines of £5 and .63 respectively were imposed on thedefendant. Now appears the ridiculous outcome of thismountain of investigation in the shape of the absurdly smallfine of ;&3, with 10s. 6d. for the analyst’s fee. The defendantis doubtless satisfied and will probably very soon tender againto supply the many hundred inmates of the South DublinUnion with milk of the peculiar description which he keepsin stock. Sir Charles Cameron has taken the trouble ina long letter to explain the apparent discrepancy between hiscertificate and that of Somerset House and to show that ananalysis of milk which is six weeks old cannot be very reliable.He quotes the opinion of two distinguished public analysts,Mr. Otto Hehner and Mr. Alfred Allen. The former ays :"There cannot be the slightest doubt that starch will vanishfrom milk as soon as decomposition is active and bacteriaflourish." Mr. Allen says : "In my opinion the tendency ofstarch to undergo change in the presence of meat acidswould invalidate any determination in milk which had been

exposed to a summer temperature during several weeks."It certainly will strike most people as very surprising thatwith our present knowledge of organic chemistry the autho-rities at Somerset House would have ventured to report at allas to the original condition of milk which was never

sterilised but kept in the ordinary way for six weeks.The Derry Lunatic Asylum.

There is a great deal of difference of opinion at present incounty Derry in reference to the proposed location of thenew asylum. Even the governors are divided in their views.Some adhere to the original plan of building a new asylumat Gransha, others propose that the present buildingsshould be enlarged by adding the Foyle College grounds,while the rural taxpayers are protesting against further

expenditure of money in the present depressed condition of agriculture, and suggest the utilisation of the numerousalmost empty workhouses in the county. The Derry cor- poration have met and passed resolutions calling on theasylum authorities to go on with their scheme of erectinga new institution at Gransha, as they say the growth ofthe city of Derry is retarded by the present position ofthe asylum in the centre of the city, and would be stillmore so if Foyle College grounds were added. Further,the Board of Control, having entered into a contract withthe Derry corporation through the board of guardians fora water-supply to the new asylum at Gransha, the cor-

poration have taken steps to enlarge the catchment areaso as to secure an abundant supply and to meet theincrease of the district for all time. The Derry Chamberof Commerce have also unanimously decided to write tothe Lord - Lieutenant asking that the work at Granshashould be proceeded with without delay. It is to be hopedthat the matter will soon be settled.

The Royal Hospital, Belfast. :

At the quarterly meeting of the general committee, held on Aug. 24th, it was reported that during the previousthree months 529 patients were treated in the intern and6618 in the extern departments. At the close of last quaiterthe hospital was in debt Z1141 14s. 9d. Since then the

receipts from all quarters have been E2138 18s. lld. and the

expenditure £2192 15s. 2d., making the indebtedness at theend of July £1195 lls. It is a serious matter that for thepast eleven months the expenditure has exceeded the receiptsto the amount of £553 6s. 2d. Dr. J. A. Lindsay was re-

elected physician and Dr. T. K. Wheeler staff surgeon.-The board of management of the hospital, on the recom-mendation of the medical staff, have appointed Dr. Smithassistant in the ophthalmic department and Dr. W. J.Woods assistant in the gynaecological department. Theappointments (which are for one year, but each candi-date is eligible for re-election for another twelve months)were made by examination, and for the post which Dr.Wood holds there was a keen competition.

The Health of Belfast.The high death-rate of Belfast and its general unhealthy

condition are exciting a great deal of comment at present.A special committee appointed by the Corporation are meet-ing twice weekly to inquire into the matter ; and one of thelocal papers-the Northern Whig-is publishing a series ofarticles on "Belfast and its Death-rate." In the first of these

jerry-building, which is so notorious in Belfast, is attackedand in the issue of Aug. 15th the opinions of four medical menare quoted. One assigns as the causes of the high death-rateof the city bad sanitation, deleterious food, overcrowding,and drink; another, while accenting these causes, saysthat after all it is bad sanitation which is responsible forthe greater part of the preventable disease of Belfast ; a

third practitioner thinks that the sanitary state of Belfastfrom a public point of view is as bad as it can well be,and he also blames the jerry-building ; and a fourth medicalman declares that Belfast possesses more rotten sewers andjerry-built houses within its area than perhaps any townin the three kingdoms. There is no doubt that the publicis awakening to the truly terrible condition of Belfast froma health point of view, and it is to be hoped that realand permanent good will arise from the present outcry.

Queen’s College, Cork.Dr. A. A. H. McArdle, who obtained first place at the

examination held on the 7th inst. for appointments in HerMajesty’s Indian Medical Service, was educated at the CorkQueen’s College, where he had a distinguished career. LastOctober he graduated at the Royal University with honoursand took first place out of all Ireland. Immediately after-wards he was appointed Demonstrator of Anatomy at theCork College and discharged his duties with characteristiczeal. As Dr. McArdle was always a great favourite withhis professors and fellow-students his recent success hasafforded unqualified satisfaction.

Ought Poor-law Medical Appointments to be Thrown Open toCovipetition ?

A clergyman has written to one of the Cork paperssuggesting that candidates for dispensaries ought to beselected by competitive examination. Against such an

arrangement there is, of course, the objection that a man ofmature experience and judgment might have forgotten muchbook work, and so would be likely to be defeated by a

candidate fresh from the schools. But any arrangementwould be preferable to the present one, which may bedescribed in two words-mere favouritism.Aug. 25th.

_______________

ROME.(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

" ’The Great Sin of Great Cities."PROSTITUTION is a growing evil in Italy, and its nemesis,

syphilitic disease, is correspondingly on the increase.Attempts to control it are made from time to time, buthitherto with the result of driving it more and more intoclandestine channels. The sanitary vigilance enforcedagainst it and its pathological sequelea thus loses in efficiencytill venereal maladies of evEry kind are becoming a for-midable menace to the public health. In these circum-stances the Prime Minister, the Marchese di Rudini, whoalso holds the portfolio of the Interior, has addressed acircular to the prefects throughout the kingdom calling uponthem to enforce the regulations imposed by law for thesurveillance of prostitution and its victims and remindingthem of what they seem to have forgotten-that the said

regulations are not only within their own competence but

642 ROME.-EGYPT,

especially within that of the Syndics. These latter func-tionaries, according to his Excellency, have been negligentor worse in this department of their duty, ignoring thepowers conferred on them by the first article of the law

‘

’of Dec. 22nd, 1888, which constitutes them " sanitaryauthorities charged with the safeguard of the publichealth. It is to them, therefore, that the circular 1is more immediately addressed, and accordingly " d’ora innanzi " (from this day forth) they will have to .,exercise scrupulously the powers reposed in them ; see

to the periodical inspection by their sanitary officers,of the females frequenting licensed houses or possess-ing certificates to practise their meter report to thePubblica Sicurezza" those of them who, consequent onsuch inspection, are recognised as suffering from venerealdisease ; and, finally, secure the consignment of all such-cases to the locales set apart; for their care. The prefects areto obtain from their subordinates the information so collectedand transmit it to the Ministry of the Interior every sixmonths-that is to say, within the first fortnight of the

January and July of each year. By such methods alonewill that Ministry be in a position to cope with what theMarchese di Rudini characterises as the " diffusione, semprecrescente, delle malattie celtiche," with " gli altri gravissimiinconvenienti che dovunque si lamentano in cotestamateria " (the ever-increasing spread of venereal diseaseswith the other most grave sequelse which are everywheredeplored as thence originating). The circular, in fact,comes not an hour too soon. In a country like Italy, whereeven in the army and navy the regulation diet is none toogenerous or sustaining, the diffusion of such maladies is apublic disaster, the low resisting power of the people notonly favouring lesions of a kind unknown in better-fedcommunities, but depressing the standard of health byhereditary deterioration. The gross negligence with whichthe inspection of prostitutes was quite recently practised ingarrison towns (Ravenna had an unenviable notoriety amongthese) compromised seriously the efficiency of the troopsalready exposed to insanitary conditions, inducing frequentillness and even premature breakdown,

Diphtheria.The late Mr. John Ormsby, whose versatile accomplish-

ments included not only extensive and profound Spanishscholarship, but rare knowledge and skill as an Alpine ]pedestrian, proposed, in one of his humorous papers, that amap should ba constructed representing, by lighter or darkershades, the insanitary spots-particularly those in whichdirt and untidyness were most prevalent in the EuropeanStates. The blackest sections of such a map, he went on to

say, would undoubtedly be the Italian slopes of the Alps,where the inhabitants were content to live under domestic.conditions hardly more civilised than when they were

witnessed by Hannibal or described by Livy. It is that

region that contributes most frequently to the reportsof outbreaks of diphtheria with which Italy is fromtime to time "startled" (I was going to say), or, at

least, thrown into temporary alarm. These sudden andviolent outbursts of infective poison have tended to becomemore common, as some of her best sanitarians (andTHE LANCET before them) predicted would ensue on theintroduction of sero-therapy-the knowledge that they pos-sessed a "sovereign remedy" for the disease, arresting,among the more backward of the population, what littleprogress they were making in the hygiene which minimiseszymotic maladies of all kinds. Professor Ruata of Perugiasounded an opposition note of warning in this sense,but, as usual, his words of wisdom fell dead on earsalive only to the "miraculous cures" " effected bythe Behring injections. From Bergamo comes intelli-gence of a very serious outbreak of diphtheria, thesub-alpine population of Boccaleone being thrown into con-sternation by the widespread virulence of the malady.Fortunately, that community is well supplied with medicalmen, and not a few of the patients are announced as alreadyconvalescent. But now that the diphtheritic poison seemsto have picked off its tale of " candidates " let us hope thatthe next announcement from that, as from other, sub-alpinequarters will be the initiation and prosecution of those

sanitary works the neglect of which alone makes diphtheriapossible. A pure and abundant water-supply and the freepassage of fresh air through the dwelling-houses should, incombination with well-scavenged streets and effective drain-age, prove an easy as well as salutary innovation in theBergamasque country.

The Medical Prisoners of King Jfenelik.The Ethiopian king and his court are not averse (it would

appear) to conciliate the good opinion of civilised Europe,and certainly their treatment of the medical officers madeprisoners of war tends to corroborate that impression.Letters received from several of these officers representtheir life as (all things considered) a not unpleasantone, and they are unanimous in praising the demeanourwhich King Menelik maintains towards the profession.Dr. Luigi Mauri, lieutenant-surgeon in the Alpine bat-talion, writes to his brother in Forli that "Menelikricolma i medici di cortesie " (loads the medical men withkind attentions), providing each of them with two servants,placing at their disposal an excellent Italian cook and alsoa major-domo "educate e simpatico" (well-bred and con-genial). Having ascertained that they wanted to set up apharmaceutical dispensary, King Menelik encouraged themin every way and presented each of them with ten dollarsad hoe. Another medical prisoner writes to his familyin Lombardy that the king- is at special pains toshow his respect for the army surgeons, finding themmedical employment and remunerating them handsomelyfor it. The writer (Dr. Nicola d’Amato, sub-lieutenant-surgeon) adds that they have been accommodated by hisMajesty in six excellent huts, the envy and admiration ofall ; that he allows them the free use of their surgical instru-ments, their books, and medicine chests; and, referring tothe pharmaceutical dispensary mentioned by Dr. Mauri, hesays it has been so liberally subsidised by the King as tocourt comparison with an ordinary European one. They faregenerously, not to say sumptuously, on bread and meat,coffee and honey, for which they can afford to pay out of thefees his Majesty allows them to earn. King Menelik, heconcludes, "wishes well to the doctors." Of the cir-cumstances in which those other medical prisoners are

found who are in custody of the inferior chiefs we haveyet to hear. Dr. Paolo Pacci of Pistoia, for example, a

distinguished graduate of the Bologna school and winner ofthe Riberi prize at Rome the blue ribbon of medico-military competition "), is one of these. He went out toAfrica with the first reinforcements, and on the field of AbbaCarima performed many operations on the wounded underfire. He was so employed when he found himself hemmedin by the enemy and a prisoner of war. The latest news ofhim was that he was in the hands of Ras die, but whetherin good health or enjoying the civilised treatment vouch-safed to his brother officers by King Menelik is not reported.Aug. 22nd,

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EGYPT.

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

’ Abbassiyeh Cantonment.. THE British troops in the desert three miles outside Cairo’

ought to be in the most favourable hygienic surroundings,and, as a matter of fact, in one of the regiments there are

,

only five men on the sick list at the present moment. But

during the past week there have been four deaths, one,

from delirium tremens, two from heat apoplexy induced,

by drink, and another that of a man who died from

,

the effects of a fall while riding on duty. He jumped: over a low mud wall, his horse bungled and turned a,

somersault, and he fell with his head on soft ground,, but he lacerated his brain and died from hemiplegia’ shortly after. It is significant that although both men3 were popular there were many more volunteers to attend

the funeral of the drinker than to go to the cemetery withthe man who died on duty. The Queen’s Bays have reduced

,

their regimental drunkenness to a minimum, partly by im-.

prisoning any man found to be drunk four times during theyear. The Connaught Rangers ought to take some serious

r steps in this direction, for the reputation of their men foralcoholism is unenviable.

, Boulaq District of Cairo.! The Sanitary Department continues its work of inspection

and cleansing of Cairo, with the result that now the

mortality in Boulaq and some other quarters is lower thanusual. Twenty-one native bakeries were found to bebegrimed with filth, and pending any law on the subject

. they were thoroughly lime-wa,sl2d without and within,which at least makes them look cleaner. Boulaq possessesno fewer than 1245 food shops of all kinds, and these also