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.-entricle, is to stretch the chordas tendineæ and pull downthe auriculo-ventricular curtains, and this in spite of theshortening of the longitudinal diameter of the ventricleadmitted by most writers. The musculi papillares of theleft ventricle are placed in such a way that they fit into oneanother and fill up the left part of the ventricular cavity.Tn contracting they pull the two flaps of the mitral to theleft, applying them one against the other and against thewall of the ventricle. In the right ventricle the papillarymuscles apply the flaps of the tricuspid to the surface of thepartition. Without comment, which is unnecessary, I willask you kindly to insert this in an early issue of yourwidely-read journal, and oblige,

Yours faithfully, Inverness-gardens, W. G. COCKBURN SMITH.

"AN UNUSUAL RESULT OF ABORTION."To the Editors of THE LANCET.

SIRS,-Dr. Parslow’s case of abortion, in which the foetuswas embedded in the unruptured amnion only, is interesting- from its rarity. This peculiar result (brought about by the- inpture of the external membranes and of the funis at thesite of its attachment to the placenta) has been observed andrecorded on several occasions. A similar case will be foundin the Obstetrical Transactions, vol. xxxiii., p. 462, recordedby the late Dr. Graily Hewitt, with an excellent drawing byMr. Lawrence, the Curator of University College Museum ;also a reference to a case by Dr. Herman and by Smellie.Dr. Winckel has also published an observation of the sameind, with a drawing, in his Text-book of Midwifery.

I am, Sirs, yours faithfully,Mansfield-street, W., Feb. 12th, 1897. HERBERT R. SPENCER.

"THE GLANDULAR FEVER OF CHILD-HOOD."

To the -Editors of THE LANCET.

SIRS,-Having had five of my children ill with theabove fever I read with interest Dr. Dawson Williams’spaper on the subject in THE LANCET of Jan. 16th.I will not go over the ground already traversed byDr. Williams, as I can endorse most of what he says. I donot, however, find that either the author or those who havewritten since the date of the paper refer to a complicationwhich occurred in four out of five of my own cases-namely,epistaxis. The youngest child, aged three and a half years,bled from the nose one night to such an extent as to

seriously imperil life, and the others bled pretty freely. Ialso observed that although the fever rose in two of thecases to 104° F. there was neither delirium nor vomiting.When convalescence fairly set in the appetite was voracious,and the recovery has in all cases been complete. It is

worthy of note that the first case occurred during a visitto an obscure part of South Wales. A word as to treat-ment. The severe pain in the neck was relieved by lintsmeared with extract of belladonna and glycerine. Whenthis failed lint soaked with tincture of opium and water(1 to 4) and covered with oiled silk always eased the pain.The only drug which appeared to be of any avail was salicinin from three-grain to five-grain doses every four hours. Onegrain of calomel occasionally, always did good. Grapes weregiven freely when the pain in the neck allowed oi swallowing,and, if anything, they relieved the abdominal pain.

I am, Sirs, yours truly,Weymouth-street, W., Feb. 10th, 1897. CHAS. W. CHAPMAN.

ANTI-VIVISECTIONIST TACTICS.To the Editors of THE LANCET.

SIRS,-The death of the great specialist, Sir SpencerWells, who certainly did not attain his unrivalled skill as Ian operator-a skill which has prolonged life and restored health in innumerable cases-without resort to vivisection, seems a fitting opportunity for calling attention to therenewal of the unscrupulous attempts of the anti-vivisec- tionists to blast the reputation of the medical profession andto ruin the hospitals. Twice within the past month I have

been called upon-once by a man, apparently a paid agent,and once by two young ladies, who have probably allowedsentiment to obscure reason, canvassing from house to housefor signatures to a petition insidiously represented as "forsecuring kindness to animals," but which is only the oldanti-vivisection petition accompanied by literature ofexaggerated virulence. I enclose the leaflet left by thecanvassers and ask whether something ought not to be doneto check this wholesale slanderous vituperation ? ?

I am, Sirs, yours truly,Feb. 9th, 1897. A. W. BUCKLAND.

CASE OF DERMATITIS DUE TO WEARINGA FUR COLLARETTE.

To the Editors of THE LANCET.

SIRS,-As some attention is being drawn to the eruptioncaused by fur the following case may be of interest. A

young woman, who had never been subject to eczema, con-sulted me in November last as to a rash on her neck. The

eruption was about two inches broad, extending, but for afew inches in front completely round the neck and even onto the lower part of the cheeks. There was less behind thanat the sides, the eruption being particularly marked on thethin skin over and just posterior to the sterno-mastoids. Itconsisted of fine discrete papules, intensely irritable,scattered more closely toward the centre, and fading offtoward the edge of the eruptive band. It appeared that thewoman had recently purchased a fur collarette, and on thislay my suspicions. I requested her to desist from wearingit till it had been subjected to steam cleaning, as I thoughtthen that the eruption was caused by some poisonousdressing. The fur was accordingly steamed and afterwardsworn ; but the eruption showing no signs of abatement Iobtained a piece of the fur in order to make a minuteexamination of the hairs. I found that the fur was composedfor the most part of short, even-lengthed hairs of extremetenuity, but scattered among them were long, bristle-likehairs which seem absent in good young pelts. These hairssplit and fracture very easily, the points of such fracturedhairs being extremely sharp and almost horny. It is, there-

fore reasonable to presume that when pressed in contactwith the thin skin of the neck the bristly hairs penetratingthe cutis break off and thus give rise to the eruption. Iventure to send you a specimen of the fur and a few bristlesmounted for the microscope to demonstrate the fracturedends. I am, Sirs. yours faithfully,Kensington, W. E. A. B.

** We may point out that the above conclusions ofour correspondent are similar to those we published inthe columns of THE LANCET a fortnight ago-conclusionswhich were based on experimental results with a specimenof both an irritating and a non-irritating fur collarette. At

the same time we established the absence of chemicalirritants.-ED. L.

THE CANTONMENT AT QUETTA.(FROM A CORRESPONDENT.)

WHETHER the poison which causes enteric fever and otherallied affections be animal, vegetable, or mineral, andwhether its habitat be aquatic, aerial, or telluric, theimportance of a clean wholesome site for a dwelling mustbe admitted by all theorists. No conscientious builder would

construct a house over an unemptied cess-pit, and yetthis is precisely what was done when the present canton-ment at Quetta was founded.During the last war in Southern Afghanistan a great camp

grew up by degrees round a remarkable tumulus-like moundknown as the Miri," which is situated in the centre of aspacious alluvial plane at the northern outlet of the Bolanpass, From time immemorial the site had been the regularhalting-place for caravans between Kandahar and India, andit is no exaggeration to say that the subsoil was everywheresaturated with noxious organic matter. That, under thecircumstances, the troops and followers should suffer severelyfrom diarrhoea, dysentery, enteric fever, and pneumonia was

556

a foregone conclusion ; but happily-thanks to the magni- 1ficent climate, and thanks also, no doubt, to a careful super- ’ vision of the water-supply-the mortality, though high, was Inot so great as might have been expected. t

_ Kandahar having been abandoned in the spring of 1881, (

the breaking up of the Southern Afghanistan Field Force i

followed soon afterwards ; whereupon the question of a ifresh site for the headquarters of the newly-formed Quetta <

District was immediately raised by the recently appointed J

principal medical officer. Fully imbued with the hygienic gravity of the situation, this official lost no opportunity ofimpressing upon the authorities, military as well as medical, the overwhelming advantages of a virgin soil for the new cantonment. To his mind complete removal from a sitecontaminated by the filth of centuries was an obvious

necessity, and he accordingly begged leave to point out twofresh sites in the neighbourhood of the ancient halting-ground which seemed to him to be suitable in every respect-In consequence of these representations a special committeewas appointed to inquire into the matter, and after dueinspection and deliberation the selected spots were bothdeclared to be at least as free as the old foul site itselfwas from strategical defects and military objections.The sanitary faults of the existing camp being so self-evident the principal medical officer felt sure his condemna-tion would be endorsed by the executive in India, but monthafter month passed without a sign, and at last, when theyear (1881) closed in leaving the question still in abeyance,he began to lose hope. By this time buildings instead oftents had commenced to spring up in every direction, andalthough it was true that these more or less rude shelterswere constructed of sun-dried brick and represented littleor no money value still the disheartened sanitarian could notbut regard them as so many nails in the coffin of asalubrious Quetta.The inexorable touchstone of events has long since justified

this melancholy prognostication. It cannot be denied thatduring the last sixteen years all the diseases that are usuallyassociated with a foul subsoil, from cholera downwards, havecommitted terrible ravages in the Beloochistan outpost, buteven now at the eleventh hour it is not too late to apply aremedy. The past, unfortunately, is irrevocable, but it is ourduty to safeguard the future as far as possible, and to thisend the recommendation of 1881 cannot well be improvedupon. Attention has been drawn to a recrudescence ofenteric fever at Quetta, but the fact that this fatal diseasehas become endemic is not to be wondered at. The climate,however, of the whole district is so good that our soldiersought to be quite as healthy at Quetta as in England. Air,food, and water are all of the best; it is only the soil thatis at fault, and manifestly nothing short of a completechange of site can effectually remove this extremely seriousblemish.

It is given to many people to be wise after the event, butthe first Principal Medical Officer of the Quetta district maybe included in the rarer category of those to whom prophecyis permissible because they happen to know. The testimonyof the crowded cemetery on that far-off table-land is, un-

happily, only too conclusively in favour of the genuinenessof his foresight, but, Cassandra-like, he failed to convincethose with whom was the power. Should the authoritiesdesire to refresh their memories as to the views held by thisofficer regarding possible sites for a cantonment on theQuetta plain, they will find them set forth at length in theannual (medical) report of the Quetta district for the year1881, which was duly forwarded to Simla early in 1882. Asthis was the first document of the kind which emanatedfrom the command it has doubt’ess been carefully preservedin the archives of the Government of India.

MANCHESTER.

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

Manchester Royal Infirviary.THE annual meeting of the trustees of the Manchester

Royal Infirmary was held on Friday last. In the absence ofMr. E. S. Heywood, chairman of the board, Mr. J. W.Maclure, M.P., presided. The report stated that, as

sanctioned by Parliament, the Monsall Fever Hospital was

1 THE LANCET, Jan. 9th, page 133.

handed over to the Manchester Corporation on Oct. lst last."on the payment by them of the sum of &pound;489910s.7d."Provision is made for the gratuitous removal andtreatment at the hospital of all cases of infectiousdisease arising at the infirmary or at the con-

valescent hospital at Cheadle, and the members ;of the

infirmary medical staff are to have facilities for giving clinical instruction within the wards of the hospitals of theManchester Corporation. A small second operating theatrehas been constructed at the infirmary at a cost of &pound;250,which will greatly facilitate the surgical work of theinstitution. During the year 1896 4534 in-patients, 36.90Sout-patients and surgical casualties, and 1135 home-patientshave been treated. The total reaches the large number of42,577, against a total of 41,205 in the previous year, theincrease being chiefly in the out-patients. The followingsums have been received from the patients who were ableand willing to contribute to the cost of their maintenance :&mdash;

In-patients, 826 16s. led. ; out-patients, R73 13s. 6d. ;Convalescent Hospital patients, &pound;133 17s. 2d. The reportstates that from the inquiries made by the District ProvidentSociety into the circumstances of all patients living in Man-chester, "it has been ascertained that 93 per cent. of thecases visited last year were fit objects of charitable relief."With respect to this statement, a letter signed" HospitalReform," which appeared in the Jlaitchest6r Guardian ofyesterday, may be noted. It says : "A simple calculationshows that no less than 2979 cases were not suitable objectsfor charitable relief." In the same isssue Mr. T. GarrettHorder, referring to a paper read by him in November lastbefore the Manchester Medico-Ethical Society, calls attentionto the fact that while 249 out of every 1000 inhabitants ofManchester were registered as out-patients at the Manchesterhospitals in 1892, the out-patients at the Oldham hospitalsonly numbered 33 per 1000 inhabitants ; and he says that hethinks this great difference may be accounted for by the factthat at the Oldham Infirmary " there is a Special AdmissionCommittee, whose duty it is to make investigation into thecircumstances of people who apply for out-patient medicalrelief." This seems to show that the tests of the District

, Provident Society are less stringent than those of the, Oldham committee ; or is it that the difference is caused by

the large number of patients applying at the infirmary whoL are not resident in Manchester and into whose circum-Istances therefore no enquiry is made ? ? The income of the; Infirmary last year was &pound;22,441 ; in 1895 it was .E22.627., The ordinary expenditure during the year was &pound;17,073&mdash;Convalescent Hospital, .E5621; Monsall Fever Hospital (nine, months to Sept. 30th), &pound;11,624. The cost of wines, spirits,t and malt liqucrs was ls. 42d, per patient. The chairman ine moving the adoption of the report, said that after thes deolaration of the trustees they would continue to maintain

the hospital on the present site. It was arranged that theret should be a friendly conference between representatives ofy the trustees and of the Manchester Corporation. The com-

ymittee had been appointed and, he believed, would meety very shortly. Mr. Fildes said he had attended the meetingi- as a member of the hospital committee of the Manchesteris Cotporation to express his cordial acknowledgments-in whiche he was quite well aware his committee would desire to:s associate themselves-of the exceedingly generous and.s gracious manner in which the transfer of the Monsalle Hospital had been made to the Corporation. Onee point in connexion with this transfer gave’ rise to some

anxiety when the question was first mooted-namely, the-s provision for clinical teaching in cases of fever, and it is

d eminently satisfactory that the Corporation, wit!i the

d guidance, no doubt, of the medical officer of health, has beensufficiently enlightened to continue to the students of theOwens College Medical School the opportunity of obtaining,with the help of the infirmary medical statf, this essentialpart of a medical education.

Bequests to Medical C7tarities.The will of the late Mr. James Parrott, a Salford engineer,

who died on the 5th inst., aged ninety-four, besides givinglegacies and annuities to relatives and others, makes the

er following bequests to Manchester medical charities: the

of Royal Infirmary, Royal Eye Hospital, St. Mary’s Hospital,V. and Salford Hospital, to each &pound;500; to the Homoeopathicas Hospital, &pound;500 ; to the Consumption Hospital, &pound;400; to theas Ardwick Dispensary, the Chorlton-on-Medlock Dispensary,-

the Ear Institution, and the Children’s Hospital, Pendlebury,each &pound;200. The United Kingdom Alliance, Manchester