314

THE LANCET.

LONDON: SATURDAY, AUGUST 29, 1874.

THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION.

THE members of the British Association for the Advance.

ment of Science, which has this year met at Belfast, appeaito have had a pleasant meeting. Fair weather, a goodlycompany, distinguished speakers, and agreeable excursions;have contributed to make the time pass quickly away. The

President’s address, delivered by Professor TYNDALL, maybe regarded as having for its subject the relation and atti-tude of modern science to religion. The subject was un-doubtedly a delicate one to handle before a mixed audience,many of whom probably had strong convictions; b’lt, uponthe whole, the topic was tenderly yet bravely dealt with, theviews entertained by the Professor being clearly enunciated,yet in such language that few, we imagine, could takeoffence at them. He commenced by reviewing the opinionsof the ancients-of DEMOCRITUS, of EMPEDOCLES, of LucRE-

TIUS, and of EpICuRus-in regard to the constitution ofmatter and the mode in which it was first produced, andshowed how closely they in some respects approximated amodern school of thought in maintaining that there is animperishable substratum of atoms by the mutual action andinteraction of which, subject to general laws, not onlyorganic forms, but sensation and thought and all the phe-nomena of the material world, are produced. These conclu-

sions were, however, almost entirely the results of abstractthought, and rested but little, if at all, upon experimentalevidence. During the darkness of the middle ages no pro-gress was made-at least by the European nations; thoughthe torch of intellectual activity was borne aloft by theArabs. With CoPERNiCus a new era commenced, and fromthat time the slender stream of truth, almost lost amidstthe mazes of the scholastic philosophy, has graduallybroadened to the mighty stream of to-day. The atomic

doctrine, the Professor tells us, was held, wholly or in part,by BACON, DESCARTES, HOBBES, LOCEE, NEWTON, and BOYLE ;and, though there have been some secessions from it, it

still, he thinks, stands firm.From the consideration of the actions of atoms the

transition is easy to the question of the origin of life.

Has every plant and every animal now inhabiting theworld, have all the myriads shown by palaeontological re-search to have once existed, been severally and individuallythe result of a creative fiat of a Supreme Being ?-or is it

possible that the forces ordinarily acting on the atoms ofmatter may generate low forms of living matter which, in thecourse of long periods of time concurrently with the con-tinued action of the same forces which originally producedit, may attain by differentiation of tissue and organs to

higher forms till man himself is reached? The theoryof DARWIN deals, indeed, but little with the originationof life; but diminishing the number of ancestral typesthe writer arrives at length at one primordial form. Yet

it is as difficult to explain the production of this on the

special-creation hypothesis as of all. The step to the viewthat life is a product of material causes is not a great one,and some have already taken it; whether it will be sup.ported hereafter by rigorous experiment is another matter.The Professor wound up with a peroration in which he

powerfully advocated intellectual freedom and the right ofscience to inquire into all things that pertain to the psychi.cal as well as physical nature of man; whilst he acknow-ledged that in religion an emotional side of our nature istouched which the understanding can never satisfy, and itis 11 two yield this sentiment reasonable satisfaction which isthe problem of problems at the present time."

Sir W. tV ILDE, as President of the Anthropological Depart.ment, gave an account of the early races of mankind in Ire.land. He described in succession the oval-headed Firbolgs,who were shepherds and agriculturists: small, dark-haired,talkative, unsteady, promoters of discord, they have leftan enduring trace in the national character; they buriedtheir dead. They were followed by the Tuatha-de-Dannans:a large, fair-complexion ed, warlike race, energetic, musical,poetical, acquainted with the healing art and metallurgy,they, too, have contributed their share to the formation ofthe Irish nation; these were burners of their dead; andwere succeeded by the brave and boastful Milesians. Sir

WILLIAM tells us the entire Irish-speaking population isnow little more than 800,000.

Sir JOHN Luj3BOCK gave what must have been a most

interesting lecture, "On Common Flowers in relation to

Insects," showing to how great an extent the persistence ofcertain flowers is due to fertilisation effected by pollencarried on the backs and wings of insects; and also how thebrilliant colours, the sweet scent, and the honey of flowershave been gradually developed by unconscious selection ofinsects.

The last lecture was delivered on Monday evening byProfessor HUXLEY, who, in an able address, gave an out-line of DESCARTES’S views on Physiology, which he showedconstitute the foundation of all that is known at presentof the physiology of the nervous system and of the relationbetween physical and mental phenomena. He particularlyreferred to DESCARTES’s doctrine that the actions of animals

were purely automatic; but showed that modern experi-mental research tended to coincide with popular convictionthat, though essentially automatic, the lower animals wereconscious automata, their perceptions, however, being pos-sibly quite distinct from ours both in intensity and inquality. The molecular changes wrought in their brains,as in ours, may leave traces and form the physical basis ofmemory and of association.

On the whole the meeting appears to have been an emi-nently instructive and successful one.

THE results of the International Sanitary Conference can

hardly fail to exercise an important influence upon thefuture of quarantine in Europe. Whatever measures, if any,may be taken by the different nations engaged in the Con-ference to give diplomatic effect to these results, the conclu-sions of the Conference must have a profound effect both onprofessional and on public feeling as to the subjects towhich they refer. It has been no inconsiderable gain at the

315THE INTERNATIONAL SANITARY CONFERENCE.

presemtime, when medical and general opinion has beensomewht distracted by doubts, crude and fallacious, butnot less listurbing to the uninitiated, as to certain funda-mental d’ctrines concerning the propagation of cholera, tohave thea doctrines reaffirmed by medical representativesof the difsrent States of Europe whose names carry that Iunquestiond weight of authority which arises from a special Iand intima knowledge of the subject with which theydeal. The nanner of affirmation on these questions was,moreover, no; less significant than the affirmation itself.

The questions of the transmissibility of cholera, and of thevarious modesin which this transmission is in this countrycommonly hel( to take place, were unanimously affirmedon propositions submitted to the Conference without theformality of a dscussion. In one question only was it found

necessary to adc to the conclusions of the ConstantinopleConference of H66—namely, in regard to the transmis-sibility of cholera through the agency of drinks, especiallyof water. This tuestion had not been submitted to theConference of 1861. It was submitted to the recent Con-

ference, and was alopted unanimously; thus proving, con-trary to what is very generally believed, that the Englishdoctrine on this subject was equally the doctrine of the re-sponsible medico-sanitary authorities on the continent ofEurope.The question of quarantine was considered in three sub-

divisions, referring jespectively to land quarantine, mari-time quarantine, anc river quarantine. Land quarantineand river quarantine occupied but little time. Land qua-rantine was declared to be impracticable and useless bythirteen States against four, two States abstaining fromvoting. River quarantine was also declared to be imprac-ticable and useless by nineteen States, three not voting;ports in the embouchures of rivers being regarded as seaports.The peculiar importance of the conclusions of the Confer-

ence on maritime quarantine (see THE LANCET of Aug. 22nd)will hardly be fully apprehended unless the conclusions areread with the discussions of which they are the result. In

the initial discussion upon the report of the Committee onthe subject, the Conference adopted a conclusion in favourof the substitution in Europe of medical inspection such asis adopted in the ports of Great Britain, Denmark, Norway,and Sweden, for quarantine, by a majority of twelve Statesagainst eight. The States voting against this conclusionwere France, Turkey, Greece, Portugal, Egypt, Luxembourg,Switzerland, and Servia, the three last-named not beingmaritime States. Trenchant as the division between the

majority and the minority in the discussion was at the out-set, it was not such as to shut out hope of coming to somecommon ground of agreement. Such ground was foundwhen the question was studied, not from the lofty attitudeof logical deductions, but from the results of observa.

tion. Thus studied, the objectors freely admitted thatthere were conditions of commerce and communication which

must render any attempts at the successful imposition ofquarantine, in view of preventing the introduction of cholera,futile; that, in fact, the imposition of quarantine was not themere application of a logical conclusion irrespective of cir-cumstances, but a question involving considerations of practi-cability with reference to certain readily ascertained condi-

tions. The majority had already adopted this principle inaccepting the conclusion of the Committee which confirmedthe recommendations of the Constantinople Conference as toquarantine in the Red Sea and in the Caspian Sea. Each

Government must obviously determine for itself the practica-bility or not of quarantine in its own ports; and as several ofthe States represented at the Conference maintained throughtheir representatives the advisability of quarantine in theirrespective countries, it was the duty of the Conference todiscuss the principles on which such quarantine should beperformed. The conclusions of the Conference, therefore,cover not only a system of medical inspection of ships inview of spreading cholera, but also a system of quarantine.These conclusions were adopted by the votes of twenty-oneStates, Spain only (of which country the representativesappeared very late at the Conference) abstaining.Of these conclusions it is important to note that while

the Conference recommends a system of medical inspectionin ports when Europe has been invaded with cholera, it

simply suggests the principles upon which quarantine shouldbe conducted in those instances where a State prefers tomaintain quarantine. The difference in phraseology is sig-nificant of the important change which has come overmedical opinion on the question of quarantine since the

Constantinople Conference. That the suggestions as to

quarantine should contemplate a less rigid system thanthat recommended by the Constantinople Conference is a

gain even in this respect; but this is of immeasurably lessimportance than the recognition of the conditions underwhich quarantine is alone practicable for the purposes forwhich it is designed, and of the proper substitute for qua-rantine in European ports. It might seem that so long asit is optional with maritime nations whether they adoptedquarantine or not, and that the minority of the Conferenceincluded the States which have most sinned in quarantine(Italy alone excepted, this State voting with the majority),the Conference would really lead to no practical result. Wethink otherwise. The question of quarantine, as it has beenleft by the Conference, becomes now one of political andcommercial convenience rather than of medical necessity;and when this is fully understood by the States which stillaccept the system, but one result can follow.

Twenty years ago, or thereabouts, Dr. GAVIN MILROY

showed that the principles which have now been adoptedby the majority of the recent International Sanitary Con-ference were those best applicable to the needs of the mari-time ports of Europe in presence of cholera or other spread-ing pestilence. Dr. MILROY has, happily, lived to see the

principles which he so long, so earnestly, and so learnedlymaintained at length accepted by the medical representa-tives of the maritime States of Europe, and in a fair wayof becoming the general rule of the Continent.

It is difficult to estimate what amount of practicabilityunderlies the project of an International EpidemiologicalCommission. There is a certain plausibility about it, butwhether the project will commend itself to the differentStates engaged in the Conference remains to be seen. Wemust confess to want of faith in the value of co-operativeinternational scientific work.

316 OVERWORK.-CAUSE OF CEREBRO-SPINAL MENINGITIS.

IT would be well for mankind if we all practised what we TON died suddenly of ursemia, also in the midst of lis work,preach-if we ourselves took the advice we give to others. and then it was found that he had been sufferng from

Yet how few follow this golden rule. The clergyman does chronic albuminuria, in an aggravated form, fa several

not always act up to the advice he gives in the pulpit. The years, and knew it! Still he never stopped. Ir. FORBES

lawyer, so ready to advise his clients to set their worldly WINSLOW had a very severe illness four or five :ears ago-matters to rights, is of all, it is said, the most liable to die stone in the bladder and pleurisy-which kept him in hisintestate. And doctors offer no exception to this too com- bedroom for months, and left him an invalid. Still he reo

mon fault. They know the laws of hygiene and of physio- pudiated the warning and went on, winter nd summer,logy; they are acquainted with the symptoms and nature with his large practice and heavy professional duties, to dieof disease; and yet in their own cases they too often despise four years later of albuminuria, foreshadowed by the formerthe former and shut their eyes to the latter. It is more illness. Lastly, Dr. FREDERIC BIRD, whose death is still

especially so when success crowns their efforts, when patients - recent, passed away in a few days, in June of bronchitis.flock to them, and summonses to the sick-bed are numerous Such a form of death in Midsummer, in an apparentlyand urgent. It is then that they seem to forget all about sound man, indicates complete organic exhaustion; it indi-the laws of physiology, to ignore serious symptoms of dis- cates that the vital powers had been so vorn by constantease in their own persons, and to act as if they had a and incessant labour that he could not suivive one of thosecharmed life-as if they were immortal-as if disease and accidental attacks of every-day illness vhich ought onlymorbid conditions, constantly fatal in their patients, would to kill weak, sickly children and aged, vorn-out men andpass away from them like a summer cloud. It is not, gene- women.

rally speaking, the young patientless doctors who make this Another phase of the same neglect of warnings on thefatal mistake : as a rule, they do not neglect their health; part of our professional brethren is seen in our obituarythey take exercise and relaxation; they seldom work too nearly every week. Therein we read of the final departurehard; and they certainly seldom die from preventable of Mr. a less-known brother, retxed from practice-causes. It is the middle-aged and elderly practitioners who often it is added, with a comfortable independence-sixare the backsliders, who kill themselves or let themselves months, a year, eighteen months previously. This means

die from unnecessary hard work, or from shutting their that he clung to work and to mone;-making until posi-eyes voluntarily to hard pathological facts applying to tively obliged to withdraw, from sheeI incapacity to accom-themselves. Of them, also, it cannot generally be said, as plish his duties, merely to die a little’ater from the diseaseit might of younger and less prosperous men, that it is the which drove him out of the ranks.

res angusta domi that pushes them on. In most instances, In the army and navy, men are obliged to retire whilewhen ill-health or exhaustion comes, they have laid by still healthy and vigorous, long before they are sixty. With

already quite sufficient to supply their own wants in mode- a modest independence, freed from tha worries and anxietiesration, or those of their families; or, at least, they have of life, they seem to live on all but indefinitely, mostlyattained to an income which would well bear dividing by dying between seventy and eighty, and often at a more ad-two or even three. vanced age.

Every year facts illustrating the truth of these remarks Would that our prosperous professional brethren wouldcome before us. Prosperous, well-to-do men are suddenly employ in their own case the knowledge they so freely givestruck down, apparently well, in the middle of their work. to others. Would that they could be satisfied to retire earlyBut when the incidents of their final illness and death be- enough to save or prolong life; or that they would be satis-come known, it is found that, although they have to all fied with one-half, one-third, or even a quarter of theirappearance died suddenly, they had been suffering from usual income. If they were so satisfied, they might passchronic disease or from exhaustion for years. Yet they one-third or one-half of the year away from the scene ofhave gone on, have kept their position in the race, all to their professional labours : the winter on the Nile, or any-gain merely a little more honour, a little more money, and where on the Mediterranean; and the summer in the

to die ten, fifteen, twenty years sooner than they ought or country in England. Absence, either occasional or regular,need to have died. Many names rise to our mind; but we does not destroy the professional income of men who havewill merely take four, all well-known physicians, whose gained the esteem and the confidence of the public bynames, lives, and deaths are public property-Dr. TODD, twenty or thirty years’ labour; it merely diminishes it.Dr. BRiNTON, Dr. FORBES WINSLOW, and Dr. FREDERIC ..

BIRD. AT a special meeting of the State Board of Health heldDr. TODD died in the night of intestinal hoemorrhage, in Detroit, Michigan, U.S., Dr. HENRY B. BAKER, Superin-

whilst carrying on an enormous and wearing practice, and tendent of Vital Statistics in the Secretary of State’s Office,after his usual hard day’s work. A post-mortem examina- and Dr. BLISS, Chairman of the Committee on Epidemic,tion showed that he was suffering from cirrhosis of the Endemic, and Contagious Diseases, were recently appointedliver, which had occasioned the haemorrhage. Now, no man to visit Petersburg, in Munroe County, to inquire into andcan die of such a disease without having been and felt very to collect evidence concerning an outbreak of an epidemicill for months; and so accomplished a physician would of cerebro-spinal meningitis reported to have broken out innever have been entirely mistaken in his own case, and that place. Dr. BLISS was unable, owing to ill-health, tofancied himself quite well when he was ill enough to die. accompany his colleague, and Dr. BAKER, therefore, madeStill he never stopped, but went on to the last. Dr. BRIN- the inspection. The result of his inquiries led to the dis-

317THE STORAGE OF WATER.

covery d’ as many as 77 cases; of which 25, or 33’46 per wheaten flour, the effects according to this theory beingcent., proved fatal. The experience thus derived of this similar to those produced by the ergot of rye. The ergotrare and terrible disease is so remarkable we feel it a duty of wheat, Dr. BAKER contends, is more active than theto place before our readers the more important facts. ergot of rye, and retains its properties longer. Its worstThe patents generally complained, before the outbreak effects are not produced by a single large dose, but by

of acute symptoms, of being tired and lame, and in this continued small doses. The symptoms excited by thisstate they dten continued twenty-four hours; they had agent are, he maintains, the same as those that were ob-also, at the same time, pain in the back of the head and served in the patients who suffered in the epidemic he haddown the spiae. The acute attack usually began with a to report upon; and he traced the fact that the flour usedchill and a cold stage; but a few persons were taken as sud- in the locality of the epidemic was from wheat grown neardenly as if they had been knocked down. Vomiting was the spot, which this year contained much diseased grain ora prominent symptom before and after the cold stage. smut. The distribution of no other article of food exceptAbout one-half cf the patients were rational throughout the the flour accounts, he believes, for the origin and spread ofattack, but some had violent delirium from the commence- the malady.ment. There was great tenderness of the body, especially We have given in detail the leading features of Dr. BAKER’Sover the deep nerves given off from the spinal column. In interesting and important report with the hope of attractingmany cases the head was thrown back, sometimes to one the attention of other sanitary officers who may, in the future,side; and in some cases the eyes were affected with squint, have to institute inquiries respecting one of the most ter-

divergent and convergent. The pupils of the eyes were ribly severe though happily most rare diseases of mankind.

usually dilated, and the eyelids were powerless, so that the The localisation of the affection at and near Petersburg, thesufferers could not wink the lids. Copper-coloured spots apparent freedom from contagion, and the brief period of

appeared upon the body in many instances. the epidemic, are, without doubt, distinctive evidences of a

Thirty-three of the cases of this disease occurred at a purely local and temporary inducing cause. If, then, byvillage called Dundee, thirty-seven at another village further evidence, Dr. RIcHARDSON’s theory of the origin ofcalled Petersburg, two at a village known as Deerfield, this malady, from a diseased grain, be proved to be correct,and five at or near another village named Blissfield. The we may feel assured that cerebro-spinal meningitis will befour villages are all located on the banks of the river arrested at once, whenever and wherever it appears in

Raisen. The water of this river is turbid; at each point civilised communities; that another plague will pass underthere is a milldam; and there is an odour arising from the the control of science, and another success reward the effortswater as it pours over the dams. The prevailing diseases of the professors of legitimate and scientific medicine.of the district are intermittent and remittent fevers. 0 -

The epidemic began on the 3rd of March at Petersburg, THE circular letter of the Local Government Board on the

and visited Dundee on the 7th of the same month. Eighteen subject of water-supply, referred to in THE LANCET of theof the cases occurred in March, twenty-seven in April, 8th inst., naturally leads us to look around and endeavour to

twenty-eight in May, and five in June. Out of the first find out how much or how little sanitary authorities havehalf of the cases, twenty-nine were males; while of the done as regards providing their respective districts with alast half, eleven only were males. The deaths took place plentiful supply of good water. The subject is probablyin all the fatal cases before the seventh day; many on the more extensive than any other that could be broached in

fourth day, more on the fifth and sixth days, and most on connexion with preventive medicine, and it takes some timethe seventh day of the disease. to apprehend fully the immense volume of sanitary or in-

Dr. BAKER entered into a careful investigation of the sanitary events depending on water plentiful and good. It

cause of the epidemic. An analysis of the water of the dis- appears to us at the present time that the dearth of watertrict proved to him the presence in it of much organic matter; is, as it has always been, felt far more in the rural than theand he points out that the village of Petersburg is the site urban districts of the kingdom, inasmuch as the latter areof an old Indian buiying-ground, and that the present for the most part able to obtain water-not perhaps as yetcemetery is within the limits of the village. But after a in a constant current, but fairly plentiful and tolerablycareful study of the local conditions actually found in con- good. It appears, therefore, that the best way of meetingnexion with the epidemic-as those of soil, sewerage, sources the urgent wants of the rural population will be to directof malaria, and general and private sanitary conditions,- the attention of sanitary authorities to the simplest modehe concludes that there was no evidence of any influence of storing water; and this is the more important because it

capable of acting on the human system through the atmo- has come to be generally acknowledged that waste is thesphere so different in the infected localities from others in immediate evil requiring a remedy. In this matter it maywhich the disease did not exist as to warrant the belief that be mentioned incidentally that the surveyor of Watford hassuch influence was the cause of the epidemic. He reports, calculated that in that town 70 gallons per head are con-therefore, against the malarial view of the origin of the sumed daily, exclusive of 14,000 gallons allowed for trademalady, and offers a series of facts tending to show that purposes.some poison in the food of the persons affected was the We have received some information on storage fromcause. His evidence leads him to the view taught by Dr. B. several correspondents; and have to mention, among others,W. RICHARDSON of the origin of cerebro-spinal meningitis- a set of questions lately issued to the various officials in the

viz., that it is induced by the eating of a fungus of wheat in Belper rural district by Mr. EDwARD GAYLOR, medical officer

318 THE PORT OF LONDON.—SMALL-POX AT NEWMARKET.

of health. These questions ask for information as to qualitystorage, &c.; the replies to which, if intelligently given, cannot fail to form a nucleus of useful information. As man

places in England are still partially, if not wholly, dependentupon rain-water, the storage question is a matter of grealimportance. it is, of course, not very difficult to find oui

the minimum quantity required by the inhabitants of an;5given district; and the area of storage can then be as easilycalculated as on board ships. Constantinople, Gibraltar,and other places are partially, and Venice is wholly, sup-plied with rain-water; and PARKES, in reminding us of thefact, says that no house in Gibraltar is now allowed to bebuilt without a tank. As to the latter, we are glad again todraw attention to CREASE’S filter tanks, a sketch of which

appeared in THE LANCET, vol. ii. 1872, p. 821. These tanks

are now used in the largest ships of the Royal Navy, and

appear to us equally suitable for the storage of water onshore. It is indeed very desirable, and in fact almost neces-

sary, that every village and hamlet should have its owntank or reservoir, the proper construction and care of whiclwould devolve upon the rural sanitary authority. If thiE

plan were generally adopted, enough roof-surface exists tcafford an ample supply, even with the irregular rainfallof this country; for a correspondent of the Builder has cal.culated that on the roof of every building that covers anarea of 27 ft. by 30 ft. there falls, in the course of an ex-

ceptionally dry year, enough water for the consumption ofone adult. The construction of water tanks should be as

simple as possible. Stone, cement, brick, and slate haveall been used, the chief necessary conditions being depthrather than length or breadth, a covering, and periodicalcleansing. They should not be exposed to heat or light,and, if large, a second smaller tank should be made, intowhich the water may run through a charcoal filter.In suggesting this very simple way of storing water for

our rural population we are but inculcating a principlethat has long been adopted in other countries, where therainfall is not so intermittent as in our own, but occurs

at much longer intervals. It is possible that in many scat-tered villages a large number of small tanks would be neces-sary. But, anyhow, the reservoir system is well worthy ofconsideration at a time when the very article we speciallyrequire for the maintenance of health is, and is likely tobe, difficult to obtain in many parts of this country duringseveral months of the year.

Medical Annotations."Ne quid nimis."

THE PORT OF LONDON.

THE second half. yearly report of the Medical Officer of Healthfor the Port of London, Mr. Harry Leach, just made public, ishardly less interesting than his first report. It shows es-

pecially how all the complicated workings of the port sani-tary authority’s district are being steadily brought undersupervision, and brings more and more clearly into promi-nence the nature of the task involved in the sanitary chargeof the river and docks within the limits of the port sanitaryauthority’s jurisdiction. Mr. Harry Leach has to deal witha district not less than 88 miles in length, and of which

the topography is complicated by numerous creeks, and byeight sets of docks. Within this district there sre, on an

average, at all times stationary 1000 ships, having on boarda population of 9000 souls, while going and coming withinthe year there are no less than 25,000 vessels, exclusive of6400 sailing and dumb barges belonging to thf port. The

ordinary work of the sanitary officials of the port includesinspection of inhabited vessels with reference co cleanlinessof crews’ quarters, ventilation, closet accommodation, stateof bilges, drinking-water supply, state of water in tanksor casks, and removal of cases of contagious diseases; re-moval, if required, of vessels to isolated mocrings ; fumiga-tion of vessels; disinfection of clothing; disinfection ofeffects of sailors or others who have died at sea; inspectionof foul cargoes; examination and (under an order from ajustice of the peace) destruction of any article about to besold, or exposed for sale, unfit for the food of man; inspec.tion of dock-closets (119 in number) ; inspection of tank.boats used for the supply of water to vessels in the port;official correspondence with agents, owners, ship captains,and public departments concerned in the business of theport. In addition to these ordinary duties, special dutieshave to be performed where there is danger of importationof cholera into the port. To do this enormous amount of

work, in a district so vast, the staff of the port sanitaryauthority at the time of the writing of the report consistedof one medical officer of health, an assistant medical officerstationed at Gravesend, and one inspector. A second in-

spector has now been added, but other inspectors will ob-viously be required before the sanitary supervision of theport can be held to be fairly provided for.The ordinary work done by the medical officer of health

and his one inspector during the half-year to which thereport refers, included the inspection of 4S64 vessels, ofwhich 758 were found foul, and were ordered to be cleansed.The special work included six inspections on informationgiven by the officers of H.M. Customs, none of these in-spections happily relating to cholera. Mr. Leach has some

important observations on the future sanitary organisationof the port, a notice of which we reserve for another oc-casion.

-

SMALL-POX AT NEWMARKET.

ON the eve of going to press we are glad to be enabledauthoritatively to state that every case of small-pox at New-market has been removed to the Heath Hospital, includingthose lately located in the workhouse, and the child of anobstinate individual referred to in our special report asassisting to spread the disease in a court called 11 The

Rookery." This satisfactory clearing out has been effectedby the persevering efforts of Dr. Gray and Dr. C. Gray,under the superintendence of Dr. Armistead, medical officerof health. Six cases have occurred since the date of our

report, all of which were removed immediately to the hos-pital, and, as we write, no fresh case has occurred for eightdays. At a meeting of the magistrates held at Newmarketon Tuesday last objections were raised as to the renewal oflicences in the cases of the " Rising Sun and the "BlackHorse," it being alleged that the landlords of these houseshad by carelessness assisted the spread of the disease (oneof these cases was explained in our special report on the 8thinst.) The consideration was adjourned for three weeks inorder that special inquiries might be made. Wemayrecord,parenthetically, that a Leeds publican was fined =85 on Wed-nesday last for not closing his house against customersduring the time that some inmates had small-pox. All casesthat have occurred in the surrounding villages are eitherwell or have been taken to the hospital, so that Newmarketand its neighbourhood have, as we hope, reached the end