623

THE LANCET.

LONDON: SATURDAY, JUNE 23, 1860.

THE SESSION OF THE MEDICAL COUNCIL.

THE Medical Council has resumed its sittings. The con-

stitution of the body has undergone but little change. Dr.

BURROWS has taken his seat as representative of the College ofPhysicians, in the room of Dr. WATSON resigned; and Dr.JAMES WATSON has also resigned the representation of theGlasgow Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons. His place hasbeen filled by Mr. GEORGE WATT. The reports of its pro-

ceedings, which we publish at page , glance at, but do

not conclude, several important subjects. Committees have Ibeen appointed for the order of business, finance, the con-sideration of amendments in the Medical Act, and another forthe consideration of special claims for registration. It was also

determined to refer to a Committee the task of examining thereturns made by the different bodies in Schedule A, and of

reporting upon, in regard to each of these, how far the courseof study and examination required by each is calculated tosecure the requisite skill in candidates for the efficient practiceof their profession. We must wait for the presentation of theReport of this Committee to the Council, in order to form aclear opinion as to the views of this body regarding the profes-sional qualifications that ought to be exacted from candidatesfor admission into the profession.Another matter brought under notice by the Metropolitan

and Provincial Inspectors of Anatomy was dismissed on the

ground that the subject does not lie within the province of theCouncil. The Inspectors are of opinion that the Anatomy Actwould work better if the Medical Session were to commence on

the 1st of November instead of the 1st of October. The changemay be worth consideration; but there are other things to beconsidered besides the working of the Anatomy Act. No stepcan be taken in so important a matter without consulting theteachers in the Schools.

The Council, also, with strict legal precision, repudiated allinterference in the matter complained of by Mr. W. W. MoRRIs,who states that he had been threatened with prosecution for

assuming the title of "surgeon," he being a Licentiate of theApothecaries’ Society, but not possessing a surgical diploma.It is obvious that the Council cannot interpose to stop legalproceedings, which are beyond its cognizance. It is un-

doubtedly a matter for regret that a qualified medical prac-titioner should be selected for prosecution, whilst there is such

ample scope for vindicating the rights of the profession and theinterests of the public, by arresting the career of undoubtedpretenders. Such a course is of questionable utility on othergrounds. The recent decision in the case of PEDGRIFT V. CRE-

VALLIER must render it difficult, under present circumstances,to obtain a verdict against any person for using the title of" surgeon."The Pharmacopoeia Committee has presented its report.

Some progress has been made towards issuing the NationalPharmacopoeia. The work must necessarily entail great labour,and we should regret to see any portion exhibit evidence of

haste. Some hope is expressed that it may be ready bythe end of the year. As to the publication, we sincerelytrust the Council will not repeat the error into which it fell in

bringing out the Register. There can be no occasion to make

a large profit by the sale of the work. It is important, for thesake of diffusing it as widely as possible, that the cost shouldbe low.

Two very important matters have been discussed and de-cided. The question of the right of the Apothecaries’ Hall ofIreland to grant a title to practise Medicine has been revived.The opinion expressed by the Council in their resolution ofAugust 9th, 1859, has been adhered to, since the Act from

which the powers of the Hall are derived contains no pro-vision or authority for examining in Medicine.The case of RICHARD ORGAN was brought forward. This

person attended, with his solicitor, under a protest. He dis-

puted the right of the Council to erase his name from the Re-

gister after having once admitted him. The Council, never-

theless, thought otherwise, and resolved,-" That it has been

" proved to the satisfaction of this Council, that the entry of" the name of RICHARD ORGAN on the Register has been fraudu-

"lently and incorrectly made;" "that RICHARD ORGAN is

"judged by this Council, after due inquiry, to have been

"guilty of infamous conduct in a professional respect;" andfurther, "that the General Council do hereby adjudge that" the name of the said RICHARD ORGAN be erased from the

" Register, and do by this order direct the Registrar to erase" his name from the Register accordingly."Many questions of great interest still press for the attention

of the Medical Council. There are difficulties in the working ofthe Act, which it will be expected to solve, or to remedy byobtaining an amended Act.The future Reports will, it is hoped, convey more information

to the profession as to the subjects under consideration andthe contemplated proceedings. The Council works a little too

closely. It would benefit by freer intercourse with the profes-sion, and by more open discussion.

THE metropolitan flaneztr has frequent opportunities of

utilizing his constitutional perambulations by studying thegeological structure of the London crust. For the repair ofpaving, the laying down of pipes, the construction of drainsand sewers, sections are made in various places, revealing toour observation the strata as they lie from depths of one or twoto fifty feet. The more superficial strata invite our attentionwith especial frequency and force. These appeal, and not

pleasantly, to sight and smell. When the outer deposit ofgranite-which constitutes, in the North, the "backbone of theearth," and is used by us for the construction of an epidermis-has been peeled off, and the pickaxe and spade have made a.little way down the surface, we are soon made acquainted withan earthy stratum of intensely black colour and suffocating odour,having a thickness of several feet. So offensive is the stench and

so revolting the aspect of this pest-stratum, that enthusiastic in-deed must be the local geologist who would venture to examine

very closely into the heterogeneous elements which enter intoits composition. But there is one constituent with which he

cannot avoid making acquaintance. As soon as the surface is

disturbed, one might imagine oneself transported to the retort-house of a gas factory. The quantity of coal gas that escapesinto the soil is something almost incredible. We feel astonishedthat the gas companies are not ruined by the enormous andnever-ceasing loss they sustain. Mr. SrEXCER, who has care-

fully investigated this matter, calculates that the total loss by

624

THE SUBTERRANEOUS LEAKAGE OF GAS-PIPES.

leakage from the pipes is about nine per cent. of all the gasdistributed. In round numbers, according to this chemist,630,000,000 cubic feet of gas are annually absorbed into thestreet-earth of the metropolis. If the gas companies, in therecklessness of superfluity and the despotism of monopoly, thuschoose to throw away so large a proportion of their produce, itis not to be assumed that the public has no concern in thematter. Independently of other reasons for restricting thiswaste, we may be quite sure that so long as the companies paydividends, the consumer pays for what the companies waste aswell as for what he burns.

Some years ago the subject of the impregnation of the street-earth by gas was pointed out by Dr. LhTHEBY as a serious nui-sance, and not without danger to the public health. Our local

surveyors and Medical Officers of Health have become familiar

with the stench. They trace it in the soil whenever the sur-face is disturbed. They find it filling the sewers and addingvirulence to the other compounds generated in those conduits.Instances are known where the workmen employed in con-structing or repairing sewers have been poisoned, nearly untodeath, by the coal-gas thus found where it ought not to be.Through all the openings communicating with the sewers, suchas street-gulleys, ventilating-shafts, and house-drains, this de-leterious gas is liable to be discharged to the annoyance andinjury of the community. It also contaminates the water of

the surface or gravel wells, which not unfrequently is so

strongly charged with gas as to be very perceptible to bothtaste and smell. But the mischief does not stop here. Pro-

perty is seriously attacked. The water companies share withsewer commissioners and gas companies the use and occupationof the sub-granitic stratum. The water-mains are rapidly cor-roded and converted into a soft plumbago-like substance; andit is observed that this change takes place only in those locali-ties where the soil has become charged with gas. When the

iron pipes are brought into contact with the black soil of themetropolitan streets, saturated with gas, they rapidly decay, andbecome rotten in about ten years. This change proceeds fromwithout inwards, and is different from ordinary oxidation. It is

due to the action of sulphur. Mr. SPENCER is of opinion thatthe sulphur is derived from two sources-namely, the sul-

phuret of carbon in the coal-gas, and the gypseous constituentof the soil. The hydrocarbons of coal-gas decompose the sul-phate of lime contained in common earth; and the sulphurcompound thus set free, together with the ammonia and thefoetid constituents of the coal-gas, form with the soil an acridalkaline liquid, which is abominably offensive, and capable ofattacking the metal of the street-mains with most destructiveeffect. No wonder the water companies complain of their bed-fellows. It is also quite probable that we pay a little more forour water as well as for our gas in consequence of the rapiddestruction of the mains due to the laches of the gas com-

panies.We are further reminded by Dr. LETHEBY that the mischief

is progressive and accumulative; and that, therefore, all theattendant evils of this waste are increasing. What, then, is i

the remedy ? We answer that, if the gas companies cannot beconvinced of the practical expediency of preventing this leakageon grounds of economy, then must they be compelled to preventit. Long experience has taught us to pay no heed to the commonargument of nuisance breeders, that as it is their evident in-terest to obviate loss of valuable produce, they may be con-fidently trusted to abate the nuisance if the thing can be done.

It may be that gas companies find it less costly to suffer aconsiderable leakage to go on than to provide more expensivegas-tight pipes, the more especially as the price of gas sold toconsumers is no doubt fixed to cover the loss by leakage.Assuming the cost price of the manufacture of gas to be

eighteen-pence per thousand cubic feet, the loss in money isestimated at .647,000 a year. The companies should be com-

pelled to save this sum for the public benefit, if not for theirown.

How can this be done ? That it can be done is already amatter of fact and experience. In the first place, it is quitepossible to supply gas freer from ammonia and sulphur com-pounds. In the next place, it is equally possible to use pipeswith tighter joints. In Liverpool, Manchester, and Leeds, thelatter remedy has been applied. The ends of the pipes areturned and bored, and fitted into each other by grinding like astopper into a bottle. Thus leakage has been prevented. Wemay remark that if this care be found to answer in towns

where coal is comparatively cheap, it must be still more de-sirable where the raw material is dearer, as is the case in

London. There are several Gas Bills at this moment before

Parliament. We think the time is opportune for introducingclauses for rendering it compulsory upon gas companies to usepipes with tight joints. With a rapidly concentrating popu-lation, it is becoming daily a matter of more pressing momentto eliminate every possible source of aerial contamination.

WE have not yet heard a word deserving the name of argu-ment in explanation or justification of the clauses in the Regis.tration Bills for Scotland and Ireland which propose to exact

certificates as to the cause of death under penalties. Had the

English Act, which has been in operation for twenty years,been shown to have failed for the want of a similar clause, theintroduction of the provision, although even on such an hypo-thesis of questionable justice and expediency, would at leasthave been intelligible. But the English Act, as we have beforesaid, is a great and a striking success. It is an example ofwhat may be accomplished by a liberal reliance upon the publicspirit of the medical profession. We believe that fully ninety-six

per cent. of all the deaths occurring in England and Wales arecertified. And this is done without compulsion and withoutreward. Is there a bureaucrat to be found who imagines thatthe introduction of a penal clause into the English Act wouldbring up the certified deaths closer than this ? 1 To obtain re-

sponsible professional testimony as to the causes of the mor-tality in the community which shall leave only three or fourper cent. unaccounted for, is a result which the most despoticcentralistic Government might envy. We are shortly to haveassembled in Congress amongst us representatives from all theGovernments in Europe, who will compare the modes adoptedin different countries to collect the vital statistics of the people.It may be confidently anticipated that the English tables willoccupy a foremost place for completeness and trustworthiness.The clause as it now stands is as follows :-

"The medical person who shall have been in attendance

during the last illness and until the death of any person dyingshall, within one calendar month after the death of such per-son, and under a penalty not exceeding 40s. in case of failure,to be paid by such person making default, transmit to theRegistrar a certificate of death in the Form (F) to this Actannexed. "

As the clause originally stood, the "medical person" was

625

MEDICAL ANNOTATIONS.

actually required to give information of the death to the Registrarimmediately after the death. This has been struck out. It

depends, we are satisfied, upon our brethren to strike out the

penalty also.We cannot believe that the Legislature will pass this odious

enactment, if the attention of independent members be pro-perlydirected to its terms and consequences. No time should

be lost in doing this. The occasion is one of unusual import-ance. The medical practitioners of the kingdom should in-stantly exert themselves to avert this scandalous outrage.

"Ne quid nimis." °

CIVIL AND MILITARY HOSPITALS.

THE authorities of our civil metropolitan hospitals will see,with shame and regret, that the shortcomings of the institu-tions under their care are quoted by the Secretary at War as anational example of incompetence and a justification of Govern-ment shortcomings in the management of public hospitals. Thesubject was introduced in the House of Commons on Tuesday inthe course of the debate on the vote for Netley Hospital. Thetotal estimated cost for the unhappy building was £292,911.The amount already voted is .6285,000. The sum proposed inthis year’s vote was £ 45,000 ; and the further amount requiredwas .625,000: a total outlay of .6355,000 against an estimatedcost of .6292,911. Mr. Sidney Herbert made no attempt todeny the defects of the building erected at so enormous a cost,but confessed that it could hardly be spoken of too severely.But by way of pleading ad misericordiam, he suggested that,bad as are our military hospitals for the purpose, civil hospitalsare not a jot better. Many of the London hospitals, he said,quite capped anything to be found in the worst military esta-blishments of that kind. The Government were now buildingbarracks that would make incomparably better invalid esta-blishments than the generality of the metropolitan hospitals,or than the one at Netley, where there are long corridors, deeprooms, with windows at one end turning towards the north-east. and no side ventilation. They were acting upon theprinciples of common sense, and endeavouring to secure thegreatest possible admission of fresh air. The Netley Hospitalis for the accommodation of 1000 men; its cost has alreadyrisen to .6350,000. No doubt, as Sir Joseph Paxton intimates,it will amount to £ 400,000 before it is finished; and it willthen have cost X400 per man. In this respect at least it willcontrast unfavourably with any civil hospital in the metropolis.The last constructed was St. Mary’s Hospital. This will ac-commodate 150 patients, and was erected, we believe, at a costof about £ 12,000 ! or about one-eighth of the proportionatecost of Netley.No one, however, but must be gratified to hear that Mr.

Sidney Herbert intends to carry out such improvements in thebarracks and hospitals as will raise them above the civil stan-dard. We shall be very curious to see whether this promisebe fulfilled, and at what cost. A vote of £ 50,000 has beentaken for sanitary improvements in barracks this year, andone of £ 120,000 for a new hospital at Woolwich. Mr. SidneyHerbert stated, in the course of discussion, that since the issueof the report of the Sanitary Commission, 2327 barrack-rooms,and 349 hospital wards, had been already ventilated, besidesvarious other improvements, so that it could not be said thatthe authorities had been idle or dilatory. It is a source of sin-cere congratulation that, as President of that Commission, heshould now be in a position to carry out the all-important re-commendations set forth in their report. The process, however

expensive, is, in the end, we believe likely to be productive ofboth financial and vital economy. It is certainly fraught with

greater health and comfort. Gymnasia are now provided forthe soldier, and well-devised cooking apparatus, widely con-trasting with the old days when the soldier might have com-plained,

" Que le vent souffle an nord, ou qu’il souffle au midi,C’est toujours du bouilli, mais jamais du roti."

MILITARY LUNATICS.

WE had occasion lately to draw attention to the treatmentof the lunatic soldiers of the army, and especially to that of apoor soldier who had become a lunatic in consequence of £wounds he had received in the service of his country. Thiscase came on for hearing before the Mayor at Rochester. Theman was sent adrift in the streets of Chatham, with a non-commissioned officer in plain clothes to watch him, in order toprevent him doing an injury to any passing stranger. Thiswas by no means a very efficient precaution, and the principleof action appeared to us discreditable to the military authorities.The parish overseers of Rochester refused to support so greata strain upon their local resources as the maintenance of thelunatic soldiers discharged from the military hospitals. Someevidence was taken before the Army Sanitary Committee,when Sir J. Liddell told the Committee that in the navy asailor was taken care of from the moment of his aberration tillthe period of his restoration to reason. Colonel North men-tioned this fact in the House of Commons in the Committeeon the Army Estimates, and, referring to the new hospital atNetley, asked whether it was the intention of the Governmentto afford accommodation for the lunatic soldiers of the army inthat hospital, a portion of which the Committee had recom-mended should be set aside for the purpose. Mr. SidneyHerbert said that it had been thought, on the whole, that abetter security for the proper treatment of military lunaticswould be obtained by placing them in well-regulated privateasylums, which were supervised by the Lunacy Commission.At any rate, we recognise with satisfaction that the militaryauthorities are now prepared to accept the responsibility oftreating these unfortunate persons, whom they had previouslydecided on turning into the streets.

THE LINACRE PROFESSORSHIP AT OXFORD.

THE election of Dr. Rolleston to the lucrative and importantposition of Linacre Professor of Physiology and Anatomy atOxford will, we hope, prove beneficial to medical interests inthat University. Dr. Rolleston is both able and willing todevote all his time and energies to the performance of hisduties, and it will depend much upon the manner in which theyare carried out whether the medical schools of Oxford be re-vivified and the University attain a renewed character for effi-cient medical education. Everything has yet to be organizedin connexion with this chair; meanwhile great facilities areoffered by the kindness of the Dean and Chapter of Christ-church, the trustees of the late Matthew Lee, M.D., of Christ-church, who have signified their readiness to offer the physio-logical and anatomical collections formed at the cost of histrust fund as a loan to the University, to be deposited in theUniversity museum under the charge of the Linacre Professor,on the following conditions :-

" 1. That the collections be preserved and kept in order atthe expense of the University.

" 2. That each specimen and bottle be conspicuously markedwith a label specifying that they are the property of Dr. Lee’strustees.

" 3. That the whole or any part of the collection may bereclaimed at any time by the trustees.

" 4. That the Lee’s Reader of Anatomy at Christchurchhave the right of using the collections freely, and of givinginstruction in the museum in a room to be assigned by theLinacre Professor; and if he require any series of specimensfor use at Christchurch, the Linacre Professor shall be boundto send such series at his demand.

" 5. That members of Christchurch be admitted to the same