382 SWEARING ENGLISH WITNESSES IN SCOTCH FORM.

course the water is occasionally drained out of the canals, c

"!but only occasionally. The canals are below the high tide 3evel, the water can only be drained out of them at low tide, dand the water from the canals can leak into the subsoil of rthe towns. These canals communicate with the Belgian fcanals, and a large number of the cases of cholera which have toccurred in Belgium have occurred on board barges and on xthe banks of canals. But, without going so far as Belgium, t’the canals are sufficiently contaminated in Calais itself. a

1 here are two sewer outfalls just by the hospital, one a little ffurther off towards the outskirts of the town, another !-’where the Marck canal joins the Calais canal, and three fsewer outfalls in the canal or moat that goes round the B

citadel. Numerous locks shut up all this sewage and keep c

at stagnant for many hours, so that it is deposited at the (Lbottom of the canals, engenders foul gases, and perma- s

mently poisons the water. The sewers receive all the slop <

:and rain water of the town. The streets that have no sewers -drain into the gutters and these gutters now to the streets twhere there are sewers. Undoubtedly there should be a main i:sewer constructed into which all the other sewers should have i,their outfalls. It would then be necessary to build a pumping (

- station by which the whole of the sewage could be sent out iwf the town to a safe distance. When this is done there s,<could be no objection to abolishing the abominable cesspools .;-and draining everything direct into the sewers. ’1 here would l’then be no further befouling of the waters of the canals and (

of the port. i

The outline of the old historical town of Calais and the new iananufacturing district of St. Pierre-les-Calais-formerly ’-different communes but now amalgamated into one i

township-is easily discerned in the accompanying iemap. The old walls have almost entirely been re- imoved; but the neutral military zone outside these=walls, where it was forbidden to build, not to interfere’with the range of the guns, still remains and constitutesa broad open space round the old town of Calais which is>:thus separated from St. Pierre. On this neutral military zone have been built the new docks, the navigation canal, themew town railway station and the new railway line tothe port and Maritime Station. At this latter stationthe Dover boats land their passengers on an open spot swept by the sea winds and separated by the broad port and uninhabited dock buildings from the old town. The railway line, as if fearing some contamination, curves round at as great a distance as possible from the old town and near to-the as yet unbuilt districts of the new town. By travelling round the neutral zone, well away from habitations, the".town station is reached, and thence the lines branch off to7-Paris, Belgium or Germany. Thus persons who land from’the Dover boat and take the train at the Maritime Station can scarcely be said to enter the town of Calais ; they passthrough the parks and gardens of Calais and not through any,of its streets. Consequently travellers to the Continent need’not entertain any apprehension in taking the train at Calais,weven should the few cases of cholera whicb have occurred prove’o be only the precursors of a serious epidemic. The railwayNine and the Maritime Station are too far removed from

;any likely epidemic centre. There would nevertheless be- a, danger if the inhabitants of Calais drank well water, but’’the town has an excellent supply of pure water from Guisne,known historically as the Field of the Cloth of Gold. Thiswater, brought to Calais in iron pipes, is not likely tobe contaminated. For further surety, when it was known’.that there were some cases of cholera at Calais, the-crews of the Dover and Calais passenger steamers wereforbidden to land at Calais. Under these circumstances,;’,he presence of cholera at Calais should not interfere with thetraffic of passengers from Dover, through Calais, to otherparts of the Continent ; but there is no accounting for whatpanic will do, and in other respects the existence of cholerawin Calais must be very injurious to the interests of that port.’Consequently it is gratifying to hear that there have been no’further cases during the month of January, but the smallepidemic which has taken place should serve as a warning.

So far, however, no effort has been made to profit by the.existence of cholera at Calais, to urge the claim for further,and greater sanitary improvements ; yet the subsoil of Calais- seems specially subject to contamination. Apart from the- system of drainage which allows the slops to travel long’-distances in gutters before they reach the sewers, and apartfrom the fact that cesspools must leak more or less, we musttake into consideration that the subsoil has been drained

adoring sixteen yrs by the pumping operations necessary to

carry out the harbour works. In consequence of this pnmp-ing, whilst the docks were being built, wells in the St. Pierredistrict were completely dried up. Of late years this districthas greatly increased, many new houses have been built, andfor these good dry foundations were found. Now, however,the harbour works are finished. After sixteen years the

pumping operations have suddenly ceased, with this resultthat the wells which were dried up are full of water again,and the cellars of new houses, built on perfectly dry soil, areflooded. Not only has the subsoil water returned to theSt. Pierre district, but it cannot drain away with the samefacility as in former days, because there are the new dockwalls that check the natural flow. Some districts are conse-quently water-logged. It has been necessary to pump outcellars and cement their wtlls, and thustherearehouses literallystanding in water. Now, if it be considered that above the levelof this underground watershed there are numerous sewer-contaminated canals, all leaking, it will readily be seen

that specific germs could be carried a great distance underinhabited houses. It therefore becomes more and more

imperative to prevent the draining of sewers into thesecanals. It is absolutely wrong to have sewer outfallsinto canals of stagnant water. The present cholerascare is an excellent opportunity for demanding a

proper and complete system of drainage for Calais.Not only is this absolutely necessary for the securityof the inhabitants of the town, but wider interests are at

stake ; for passenger traffic between England and Francethrough Calais is ever increasing. It amounted to 247,850persons in 1888, rose to 345,934 during the Universal Exbibi-tion of 1889, and in 1891, a normal year, there were 265,283passengers who crossed the Channel between Calais and Dover.Such a traffic as this imposes a certain moral responsibility.

SWEARING ENGLISH WITNESSES INSCOTCH FORM.

UNDER this heading there appears in the Solicitors’ Journalof the llth inst. a very able article by Mr. F. A. Stringer,author of a work on oaths and affirmations, in which all thedifficulties created by the fifth section of the Oaths Act, 1888,are exhaustively dealt with. Mr. Stringer is an authority onthis subject, and a few extracts from his article will supplythe answer to the doubtful point which was left open in theannotation on page 310 of THE. LANCET of last week, while con-

firming those points on which there was no doubt expressed.Allusion is made at the commencement of the article to the

friction which is occurring in consequence of the uncertaintywhich prevails as to the precise meaning and effect of

Section 5 of the Oaths Act, 1888. "The demand of

witnesses, especially medical witnesses, to be sworn inthe Scotch form, as permitted by the section referredto, is becoming general all over the country, and we regret tosay the officials in local courts, and magistrates, justices andcoroners, are quite unequal to the occasion." After referringto the apparent ignorance of the enactment by some officialsand the confusion, in the minds of those who know of it,between the Scotch oath and an affirmation the article pro-ceeds : "We could mention several other instances whichshow that great ignorance and confusion of mind exist on thissubject. A very strong attitude has been taken up by THELANCET and the British Medical Journal, and, as a naturalconsequence, doctors everywhere refuse to be sworn by kissingthe book, and demand, as they have a perfect right to do,that they shall be sworn in Scotch form." After showinghow the difficulties had arisen from the wording of the fifthsection, which is fully quoted, and after dealing exhaustivelywith the Scotch oath and its form and manner of administra-tion, the article proceeds : "Certainly we may say as a matterof opinion, if swearing is to be retained in our legal proceedings.the Scotch form of oath appears to us to have more solemnityand dignity about it than our method of kissing a generallygreasy-looking ancient Testament, which, as a matter ofchoice, we should have avoided handling." The article nextdeals with the application of the Scotch form of oath to therequirements of English proceedings, and the absolute rightof any person to be sworn in that form is thus upheld. After

quoting the words of the section, the writer proceeds:"These words can only be construed as meaning that in

383THE ACTION OF LIGHT ON BACTERIA.

every case where an oath is required by law, and for everypurpose, the Scotch form must be administered if the person’desires ’ to be so sworn." The mere expression of the desireis sufficient, and any inquiry into the person’s reasons fordesiring it is illegal. The concluding words of the sectionare: "and the oath shall be administered to him insuch form and manner without further question." Theremainder of the article is devoted to clearing up thedoubtful point as to whether the Scotch oath could beadministered by those authorised to administer an oath inEngland. After quoting from Section 1 of the Commissionersfor Oaths Act, 1889, and reading it with the Oaths Act of 1888,the writer observes : "Can it be reasonably doubted that thepower conferred by the two sections of the Commissionersfor Oaths Act, 1889, which we have quoted, ’to administer

any oath,’ was intended to include the Scotch form of oathwhich had been previously prescribed ? ‘! We do not thinkit can." " The article concludes by reiterating that if anywitness, juryman or deponent attends in any English court,or on any inq-airy or inquest, or before an examiner, arbi-trator, referee or umpire, or commissioner for oaths, or any-one having power to administer oaths, and such personexpresses the wish to be sworn in the Scotch form describedabove, he has a legal statutory right to be so sworn, withoutany question being asked him, for all purposes for which anoath is or maybe lawfully required. The same rule, moreover,must be applied to promissory oaths of all kinds. Whether allthose who preside in our law courts will agree as to the form inwhich the Scotch oath is to be administered remains to beseen. But it is unlikely that any difficulty will be placed inthe way of witnesses wishing to be so sworn, or that anyquestions will be asked now that their illegality has beenshown in legal as well as in medical papers. Medical wit-nesses are modest and respectful in their bearing towards legalofficials ; may they always continue so. But they are entitledto every reasonable courtesy and consideration from thelatter, and it is to be hoped that we shall not hear of anymore questions being asked of anyone wishing to be swornwith uplifted hand.

THE ACTION OF LIGHT ON BACTERIA.

IN Natacre there has been published a report of ProfessorMarshall Ward’s experiments on the action of light on thebacillus anthracis, in which corroboration of some of themore important points as to the action of light on micro-organisms is brought forward.Professor Marshall Ward’s experiments appear to have

been carried out with considerable care and with a certainnumber of control experiments. His method of procedurewas to inseminate gelatine or agar-agar with spores ofbacillus anthracis, to pour the fluid medium into Petri’sdishes and allow it to set to form a plate, then to fix a

stencil-plate on the under surface of the dish and cover thewhole (with the exception of the letter in the stencil-plate)with black paper ; he then exposed the plate either directlyor by means of a reflecting mirror to the action of Decembersunlight so that the light could only act on the gelatineor agar-agar exposed through the stencil letter. Two ofhis plates, kept for eighteen hours in a drawer and then

exposed for five hours, had colonies developed all over

the surface, except on that part which had been ex-

posed to the light through the letter, where the mediumremained perfectly clear, giving sharply marked letters inboth cases. In this case, Professor Marshall Ward thinks,the spores were acted upon just at the time they weregerminating, and therefore during their most tender period ;so that they were killed off very perfectly and rapidly. Inother cases the line of demarcation was not so distinctly seen,the margins of the letter and the spores there sown receivingreflected rays from the glass cover of the plate. The generalresult of his experiments was that the actinic rays of light,quite apart from the heat rays, act as germicidal agents.

Professor Marshall Ward’s method of demonstrating theresult obtained indirectly by Engelmann and directly byother observers is an exceedingly telling one. Even thoughbut few of the Fellows of the Royal Society were able toappreciate the importance of the demonstration, most ofthem must have been struck by the ingenuity with which itwas devised. Professor Marshall Ward’s general resultsagree with those obtained by Downes and Blunt and by

Tyndall, the latter of whom, although he failed to prove thatgerms were destroyed by sunlight, was nevertheless able to’.,show that their vitality was very markedly interfered with.In France, where this question has had considerable atten-tion paid to it by Arloing, Nocard, Duclaux, Straus, Rouxjand others, it has been proved most conclusively that light-has a direct germicidal action, not only in the case of the-anthrax bacillus, but also in that of various other species ofimicrococciand bacilli ; and some years ago it was pointed outthat light might be made to play a very important part in the;attenuation of the virulence of anthrax vaccine. It has, how-ever, been insisted on by some observers that the action of lightis not altogether a direct one, but that light acts indirectlyby altering the medium in which the organism is growing,and quite recently Duclaux has again returned to the attack;on these lines, he holding that under the action of light there-are developed in almost all the nutrient media with which we-are in the habit of working, certain substances which, eveibwhen present in very small quantities, exert a very powerfulgermicidal influence.The recent observations made by Koch on the action of

direct sunlight in killing the tubercle bacillus, even in the-space of a few minutes and regularly in two or three hours ;..Roux and Yersin’s experiments on the action of light on the-diphtheria bacillus; Buchner’s, Janowski’s and Geisler’s.experiments on the typhoid fever bacillus are all of very greatinterest, the two latter observers finding that the parts oSthe solar spectrum and the spectrum of diffused sunlightwere far more active in preventing the growth of organisms,and determining their death at the violet than at the redend, whilst Geisler has found that similar results might ba’obtained even when the electric light is used, especially with.the violet rays of its spectrum. Of course the more delicate-

experiments were done, as Tyndall’s earlier experiments were,.by noting the restraining action of light on the development-of the various microbes used rather than by determining theactual death of the organism. Another very important pointrecently demonstrated, but one often hinted at and even noted.before, is that observed by Momont, who found that dry-anthrax spores might be exposed with impunity to the actionof light for a very considerable time, whilst moist-

spores exposed to sunlight for forty-eight hours in the>

presence of oxygen were so devitalised that they could not-grow a,t all. Bacilli without spores under similar conditions-were deprived of their vegetative activity by exposure to sun-‘light in from one to two hours or even less, but in the absence*of oxygen very long exposure-forty to fifty hours-was not-sufficient to prevent them germinating when introduced intc<a suitable medium.

Public Health and Poor Law.LOCAL GOVERNMENT DEPARTMENT.

REPORTS OF MEDICAL OFFICERS OF HEALTH.

.flealt7e of the County of tl’orcester, 1891.-The report of;Mr. Fosbroke, the county medical officer of health, has just-reached us. It takes the form of a digest of the districtreports, together with an introduction by the county medicalofficer. Mr. Fosbroke again points out the great desirabilityof all sanitary authorities putting into print the reports oftheir medical officers. It appears that out of the forty-two"reports received by the County Council, thirteen were un-printed, a fact which does much to prevent their due apprecia-tion by the public. Before dealing with the vital statistics,Mr. Fosbroke, very properly, warns his readers to be cautious*-in the deductions they draw from them, and he enumerates.several statistical fallacies by way of illustration. It is much,to be regretted that the value of these statistics is somewhat

impaired, partly by the reason of omissions in some districtreports and partly owing to the fact that the census.

details, as regards the rural districts, were not available.at the time of making the report. In the urban dis--trict of the county the death-rate amounted to 18 5 per.’1000, but that for the rural districts is not given. The-

zymotic death-rate varied from 0 3 to 2 3 in the urban anAfrom 3’0 to 3’7 in the rural districts. The highest infantilemortality amongst the urban districts was that of Bewdley,.where it reached the high figure of 266 per 1000 births,.while amongst the rural districts Worcester heads the list witb