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treasurer of .61384. This makes an adverse balance of
nearly f.5000 accumulated during the last three years. Mr.Francis Tagart and Mr. Samuel White have each promised.1000 towards the extinction of this debt, and other
promises amounting to f.457 have also been received. Themost hopeful feature of the financial outlook is the increaseby E217 of the sum total of regular subscriptions. Legacieswere productive of 1173, as against £ 92. Sir George Whiteconcluded with an appeal to the public for more adequatesupport, a statement of the work of the institution during thepast half-year (1781 in-patients and 20,587 out-patients, as.,compared with 1747 and 20,227 in the corresponding half of1908), and a brief reference to the building scheme. Thishas progressed as far as the demolition of the houses whichoccupied the site to be devoted to the projected newpremises, the detailed specifications for which are beingprepared. Building tenders will be asked for in a fewmonths. After the general meeting a special meeting washeld to elect Mr. G. Munro Smith consulting surgeon onhis resignation of the post of surgeon. The President, Dr.R. Shingleton Smith, and Mr. J. Paul Bush all expressed the-general regret felt by the committee and staff at the retirementof such a popular and devoted officer, and Mr. Munro Smithreplied. Mr. H. F. Mole, who has for some years beenassistant surgeon, was elected to the full staff, and Mr. C. F.Walters, surgical registrar to the infirmary, was electedassistant surgeon.Death of Mr. Ed7vard Benjamin Steele-Perkins, L. B.A. Lond.Mr. E. B. Steele-Perkins, who died at his residence,Wilton-place, Exeter, on July 30th, in his sixty-eighth year,was a member of an old Exeter family. He received hismedical education at Charing Cross Hospital, and afterqualifying in 1876 joined his father in practice at Exeter.For nearly 40 years he was a familiar figure in that city, andhis geniality won him many friends. He was keenlyinterested in the Volunteer movement and for many yearsheld a captaincy in the lst Devon Artillery Volunteers,retiring about ten years ago with the honorary rank of major.His father, the late Dr. John Steele-Perkins, was one of theearliest Volunteers in the country. Mr. Steele-Perkins had a
large practice in Exeter, he was honorary surgeon to theDevon and Exeter Home of Refuge, and also medicalexaminer for the Royal Navy and Royal Marines. He was aI I freeman " of the city of Exeter, for many years representedSt. Sidwell’s ward in the city council, and was held in highrespect. He leaves a widow and two daughters.
P-ublie Health in Honiton District.At a recent meeting of the Honiton (Devon) rural district
council a letter was read from Mr. F. R. S. Cosens, the secre-tary of the Honiton and Axminster Unions Medical Associa-tion, stating that at a meeting of the medical men of theHoniton and Axminster unions a resolution was passedurging the provision of an isolation hospital for the Honitonurban and rural, Sidmouth urban, Ottery St. Mary urban, andAxminster rural district councils, and favouring the appoint-ment of a medical officer of health for the district, who shouldalso be superintendent of the hospital and devote all histime to public health work.
The Pearn Convalescent Home, near Plymouth.The annual meeting of the subscribers of this institution
was held recently under the Presidency of Vice-AdmiralJ. E. Maitland Wilson. The medical report stated that
during 1908 the patients admitted numbered 496, comparedwith 491 in 1907. 307 patients were admitted from theSouth Devon and East Cornwall Hospital, 172 from the RoyalAlbert Hospital, Devonport, and 17 from the Plymouth EyeInfirmary. 61 nurses from these hospitals were also receivedduring the year. The expenditure for the year was .S1123,the average cost of each patient being 2s. 6d. per day.
The Totnes Cottage Hospital.At the annual meeting of the subscribers of the Totnes
(Devon) Cottage Hospital the following members of thehonorary medical staff, whose term of office had expired,were re-elected : Dr. K. R. Smith, Dr. G. J. Gibson, Dr.W. R. Edmond, Dr. W. Chapman, and Mr. H. S. Johnson.
l’he ?bM ". 7 L" "
The party of foreign medical men who have been touringEngland under the auspices of the "Enseignement Medico-Mutuel Internationale arrived at Bristol on August 15th
under the guidance of Dr. Etienne Bazot of Paris. Theyvisited the Royal Infirmary and were conducted through thatinstitution by members of the honorary staff. They thendrove on to the General Hospital where they were receivedby the president, Mr. J. Storrs Fry, the matron, and severalmembers of the visiting staff. They went all over theinstitution and expressed their admiration of the wards, theoperating theatres, and the nurses’ home. After lunch at theRoyal Hotel, to which representatives of the two staffs wereinvited, they made a tour of Clifton which included theZoological Gardens, and were finally entertained at thehouses of several medical men who had conducted them overthe institutions in the morning.August 17th.
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SCOTLAND.
(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENTS.)
- Z/<M Visitation in Glasgow.UNDER the scheme of visitation of the Public Health
Department in Glasgow an inspector calls at every housewhere a birth has occurred. Under this arrangement 12,954inquiry cards were issued to the female inspectors during theyear. Of these, however, 273 proved to be duplicates ofprevious notifications, and 1247 were not visited for variousreasons. Of the others, 200 were not found at the addressesgiven, while 737 more had medical men in attendance.There thus remained 10,497 children not medically attendedat birth who received at least one official visit after notifica-tion. It is worthy of note that of the children found aliveon the occasion of the first visit no less than 96 per cent. hadthe advantage of breast-feeding in the early weeks of life.In this respect much help has been given by the GlasgowInfant Health Visitors’ Association. Of this associationthere are now 15 different branches supplying voluntaryvisitors to the number of 300, who undertake visitationin 19 wards or districts of wards. While the visitors areuntrained in public health work, and no standard of trainingcan be insisted on beyond a familiarity with the requirementsof district visitation, there is every reason to believe that theinfluence of an educated and sympathetic visitor cannot failto operate for good in the homes of the poor. Informationregarding the cases to be visited is sent by the health officeto the secretaries of the various branches of the association,and they in turn are responsible for returning reports to thehealth office at the end of each month. The cards forwardedfrom the health office at present consist of a yellow cardwhich is sent for information, and a small white cardwhich is for the visitor’s monthly report. The yellow cardsmay be retained by the secretary or distributed amongst thevisitors as she thinks best, but in any case they are
only for information, and are returned to the healthoffice when the babies pass from under observation. The
complete record of each baby thus consists of the yellowcard and 12 white ones, and these are all returned to thehealth office immediately the baby has completed his twelfthmonth.
{heenock and Phthisis Cases.In a report to the Greenock corporation the medical officer
of health for the burgh states that even 12 beds in theCombination Hospital would enable the health authorities toinstitute a definite campaign against phthisis. The cost isestimated at .6620. It is proposed to establish a dispen-sary, the upkeep of which would probably not exceed .E100per annum.
Large Donation to D1tndee Royal lnflrmary.At a meeting of the directors of the Dundee Royal
Infirmary held on August 12th Mr. George Duncan, one ofthe directors, read a letter from Miss Duncan of Drumforte,intimating a donation of £ 4200 to the funds of the infirmaryfor the purpose of endowing two beds in memory of, and tobe named after, Miss Duncan’s late brothers, Mr. JamesDuncan of Drumforte and Indanstone, and Mr. GeorgeDuncan, banker, Alyth ; and two cots in the children’s ward,one to be named after her late sister, Miss Marjory Duncan,and the other to be named after herself, preference to begiven to patients from Alyth and Blackwater districts. Onthe motion of the chairman, the directors resolved to recordtheir cordial thanks for the generous gift, coming as it did ata time when claims and heavy calls were being made upon the
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resources of the institution, and the secretary was instructedto transmit an excerpt of the minute to Miss Duncan.
A Modification of the Montrose Asyl1t1n Charter.The managers of Montrose Royal Asylum and Infirmary
met at Montrose on August 10th and agreed to the followingmodifications upon their charter, consequent upon the claimfor representation made by the parish councils of Forfar-shire and Kincardineshire : The whole rights and privilegesof present members are to be conserved; the new boardis to consist of 35 instead of 50 members ; the respectivenumbers of the inhabitants of burgh and the landedproprietors specified in the new charter to be reached throughdeaths or resignation in the present membership of thesetwo classes ; parish ministers ex-officio to continue membersof the board until death, resignation, or removal from theparishes ; the provost of Montrose, or, in his absence, thefirst baillie, to be chairman, or, in the absence of both, achairman to be chosen by the meeting ; the chairman to havea casting as well as a deliberative vote. The constitution ofthe new board will be as follows : The provost of Montrose(ex-officio), the first baillie of Montrose (ex-officio), maleinhabitants of the burgh and parish of Montrose, 15 ; landedproprietors of Forfarshire, 3 ; landed proprietors of Kin-cardineshire, 2; district lunacy board of Forfarshire, 1 ;district lunacy board of Kincardineshire, 1; provosts of
Arbroath, Brechin, Forfar, and Stonehaven, 4 ; representa-tives of parish councils from Forfarshire, 3 ; representativesfrom parish councils of Kincardineshire, 2; representativesfor counties of Shetland and Caithness, 2. The representa-tives of Shetland and Caithness will be elected by countycouncils, who will have power to choose their representativesoutside of their own councils. The infirmary board is toconsist of the first five classes-22 and not exceeding 12coopted members-the latter to consist of members to beelected from societies, congregations, public works, firms, orindividuals who shall annually subscribe to the institution asum to be fixed or contribute a fixed capital sum. Thevarious clauses of the new charter were discussed and votedon separately. The proposed new charter will now be
printed and forwarded to the General Board of Lunacy forapproval.Elginshire Seondary Education Committee : Medical Inspection
of School Children.A meeting of the Secondary Education Committee of the
county of Elgin was held in the Burgh Court House onAugust 7th. The clerk intimated that following upon whathad occurred at the recent conference at Forres Ire hadwritten to the department with regard to the medicalinspection of school children. He had now received a reply inwhich the department stated that it expected the committeeto include in the estimate of expenditure a tentative sum fora medical inspector’s salary and to frame and submitto the department at an early date a scheme for the medicalinspection of school children. It also desired the committeeto give careful attention to the circular recently sent toit on the subject. In the course of the discussion whichfollowed the chairman said that the best opinion thecommittee had was that of the medical gentlemen them-selves, and they were of opinion that the medical inspectionwould not be efficient unless there was a man speciallyappointed for that purpose. It was highly creditable to themthat they had taken that view, as it was not to their own
advantage. It was ultimately agreed to hold a meeting atan early date to adjust a scheme for submission to the
department.August 17th.
IRELAND.(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENTS.)
The Dzcblin Visit of the "Enseignement Médico-MutuelInternationale. "
ONE of the interesting professional events of the past weekwas the arrival of a party of French medical tourists
belonging to the body known to many of your readers as the"E. M. I." They arrived in Dublin on August 12th andproceeded to make a round of visits to the medicalschools and hospitals under the guidance of Sir CharlesAlexander Cameron, chief medical officer of health of
the city, Sir William Thompson, to whom the develop-ment and progress of the anti - tuberculosis crusadehave been so largely due, and other prominent medicalmen. At the Royal College of Physicians they were
specially interested in the portraits of Graves, Stokes, andCorrigan, with whose works many of the visitors were
acquainted, and who, they were good enough to say, madethe Dublin School of Medicine the most prominent in theworld about the middle of the last century. On passing intoTrinity College they were conducted through the medicalschool (and museums) and the College library by ProfessorA. F. Dixon, Professor M. S. MacIntosh, Professor E. H.
Taylor, and Professor W. H. Thompson. After being photo-graphed they proceeded to the Royal College of Surgeons,where they were received by the President, Mr. John
Lentaigne, and a number of other surgeons. They were enter.tained at luncheon at the London and North-Western Hotel,and took tea at the Viceregal Lodge. They subsequently visitedthe Zoological Gardens, and the programme of the day’sentertainment was rounded off by a dinner in the banquetinghall of the Royal College of Surgeons, at which Mr.
Lentaigne (himself sprung from a distinguished Frenchstock) appropriately occupied the chair. Several other ofthe leading representatives (and after-dinner speakers) of theprofession were present, including Dr. Joseph M. Redmondand Sir Lambert Hepenstal Ormsby. The guests includedProfessor Colville (Rheims), Dr. Aubry (Paris), Dr. Algret(La, Chatre), Dr. Louis Chemery (Paris), Dr. Demieville
(Lausanne), Dr. François (Andenarde, Belgium), Dr. Duran(St. Gaurens), Dr. Lefevre (Seine-et-Oise), Dr. Levy-Klotz(Paris), Dr. Breton (Oran), Dr. Hounmel (Vosges), ProfessorPouchin (Rouen), Dr. de Geynst (Belgium), Dr. Guyot(Switzerland), Dr. Hernandez (Spain), Dr. Manara (Italy),Professor La Torre (Rome), and M. Etienne Bazot (Directorde 1’Enseignement Medico-Mutuel Internationale). On the
following day they visited the Pasteur Milk Depot and theRotunda Hospital before leaving by the midday boat forHolyhead.
The August Heat-wave: Heat-strokes and Drowning.The almost tropical heat lately experienced has been
answerable for the production of a fair number of cases ofheat-stroke in various parts of the country, but the numberwas not conspicuously high. But indirectly the hot weatherhas been responsible for a startling record in the way of drown.ing fatalities amongst bathers in all quarters of the country,for everybody who has been able to immerse himself or
herself in the water has been doing so. Indeed, the heathas had the effect of reviving something of the national
spirit of the Donnybrook days-in the trouble whichmid-night divers into the refreshing waters of the canal havebeen giving to the members of the Dublin police force.The saddest of all the bathing fatalities occurred at theGreat Blasket Island, off the coast of Kerry, on August 13th,when Miss -Eileen Nicolls, M.A. Dub., was drowned in a
splendid attempt to save the life of a native girl from thesame fate. The latter (Miss Kate Crohan) had been receivingsome swimming lessons from Miss Nicolls, and was ultimatelyrescued by one of the natives, while her brother and MissNicolls both perished. Miss Nicolls had a brilliant careeras a student and was devoted to Irish literature. It was butlast year that she obtained her degree of M.A. R.U.L, withfirst place, first-class honours, and a k300 scholarship.
A Carnival of Health for the Children of Cork.On August 10th a poor children’s excursion was provided
by the philanthropic citizens of Cork, in accordance with acustom instituted in 1893. The number who enjoy thissummer holiday has increased each year, so that on itsrecent occasion over 5000 happy children were emancipatedfrom the streets of Cork to enjoy a few crowded hours ofglorious life on the beautiful strand of the bay, wherestands the historic town of Youghal. All of them hada dip in the sea; a few bathing accidents-mostlycuts and wrenches of feet and ankles-and a singlecase of insolation received the kindly attention of Dr.D. J. O’Mahony. A peep at the house and garden ofSir Walter Raleigh was one of the features of the holiday,for tradition makes that enclosure the locus of the firstcultivation of the potato and the first smoking of tobaccoin the Emerald Isle.
The Notification of Tuberculosis.The public health committee of Belfast, finding that the