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in former cholera epidemics in Berlin, which fluctuatedbetween 60 and 67. The number of cases in proportionto the population of Hamburg is about 1 in 46, that ofdeaths 1 in 105. The corresponding figures in the Berlinepidemics of 1837 and 1849 were 74 and 113. The con-

tinuance of the epidemic will of course make the comparisonstill less favourable for Hamburg. Professor Koch went to

Hamburg again on the 14th and was present at the meetingsof the Cholera Commission there next day. On the 16th theCommission resolved to sink Abyssinian wells in many partsof the city and its environs. Dr. Koch returned to Berlin onthe 16th, but declared his willingness to attend the meetingsof the Commission at any time. The Hamburger Borsenhallestates that he and Privy Councillor Kohler, director of theImperial Office of Health, inspected the hospitals andbarracks, and all the arrangements for the transport,treatment and care of the patients and for dealing with theepidemic, and that Dr. Koch expressed his admiration of themin the highest terms. Such perfection, he said, had neverbeen attained before. An Imperial Commissioner has beenappointed for the hygienic supervision of the basin of theElbe, and has divided it into eight districts, with an armydoctor at the head of each. His name is Baron Richthofen.’The Emperor has empowered the commanders of army corpsto diminish the sentinel service, to forbid funeral parades,and to reinforce the staffs of the military hospitals from thereserve, In the Moabit Hospital, belonging to the city ofBerlin, to which the few sporadic cases that have occurred’here have been taken, special arrangements have been madefor the disinfecting of the excreta. The latter are mixedwith a 5 per cent. solution of permanganate of potash andthen boiled for from four to ten minutes.A correspondent writes from Hamburg : There can be

no doubt that the cholera in Hamburg was imported fromRussia, but the exact source has not been traced and cannotnow be found. It commenced on Aug. 16th, but it was nottilllp.it. onAug.22nd that the foreign consuls were informedthat cholera existed in the city, though 58 deaths had pre-viously occurred ; thus ships which may have been freightedwith this deadly scourge were sent all over the world with clearbills of health. The most fatal days of the epidemic wenAug. 26th with 456 deaths, the 29th with 484, and Sept. 1s1with 478. Up to the present time there have been probabl37000 deaths. Though considerable confusion occurred a1

-first, now the sanitary stations, the disinfecting stations, thEambulance arrangements and the depots for the dead are ir

perfect function. The cholera is all over the town, and it i:reckoned that 28,000 citizens have left the place. Th(cholera is of a fatal character, at least 50 per cent

dying. It is of a type of disease not unusual ii

Europe, but not so very frequently seen in the East’The diarrhoea and premonitory symptoms are severe, rapidlyfollowed by collapse, in which death usually occurs if th.disease is fatal ; but should that not happen, the reaction i

comparatively mild, the typhoid fever condition not severe, ancany high febrile state very rare indeed. Albuminuria i

fairly common but by no means universal. Nothing worth.of remark is to be noticed in the treatment, the mild caserecovering without any complication, and those of a severtype dying rapidly in collapse, no treatment apparent!making much difference. The evidence derived from th

type of disease is strongly confirmatory of an importatiothrough Russia. It is most earnestly to be hoped that thinhabitants of Hamburg will be thoroughly roused to thdanger of drinking Elbe water that has gone through a merfarce of filtration. "

CHOLERA IN AUSTRIA.Our Vienna correspondent writes :- " The cholera has

now made its appearance on Austrian territory, at Cracow.The first case is said to have occurred as early as on

Sept. 8th, at Podgorze. Soon three other cases followedm the same quarter. Podgorze is a suburb of Cracow,separated from this town by the Vistula river, which isthere spanned by a bridge. On Sept. 9th a case of sus-

pected cholera had been admitted into the Cracow Hospitalof the Samaritan Brothers (Barmherzige Brilcler), a Catholicorder of monks devoted to nursing and treating the sick. On

Sept. llth there was much talk about the occurrence ofcholera cases in the town of Cracow, and similar rumourswere also heard regarding Vienna. After a meeting ofthe highest medical council, held on Sept. 10th in Vienna,

nothing was set forth by the official organ of the Council,Oestcr7-eiobisches bcn.i.tiatsLesen, and on the 15th inst. it

stated that ’’ no case of cholera had occurred in Austria upto Sept. 13th." The public were much surprised by an officialstatement of the probable outbreak of the cholera made bythe official gazette on Sept. 17th, on which day also theProfessor of Pathological Anatomy of Vienna (ProfessorWeichselbaum) was sent by Government to Cracow to makea bacteriological investigation. Precautions were thereupontaken to prevent the further spreading of the disease. Inother parts of Austria the progress of the disease is watchedwith the greatest anxiety. Cracow itself, and especially itssuburbs, Kasimir and Podgorze, are in a very bad sanitarycondition. It contains a poor, filthy population, bad drink-ing water partly taken from the river, and an inferior systemof treating the gewnge. The province of Galizia, in whichCracow is one of the principal towns, with its 6,600,000 in-habitants, has only seventy-two hospitals, with 4257 beds.Most of the villages are too poor to build new hospitals.Even the number of physicians, especially in the ruraldistricts, is too small in ordinary times to secure propertreatment of the sick people, and in the time of an epidemica great number of physicians from the other provinces willhave to be sent to Galizia.

" The circumstances under which the outbreak of choleraat Cracow occurred seem to teach the same lesson as inthe case of Hamburg. In both towns the report of theoutbreak of the disease has been considerably delayed bythe claims of modern bacteriology, according to whichthe diagnosis of cholera Asiatica is only allowed to be

. made if the comma bacillus is stated by microscopic ex-amination and by subsequent cultures to have been present.

: But regarding the cultures there seems to exist great difli-culties. I believe that especially one point is easily to be; overlooked by those engaged in such investigations-i. e., it; is not to be expected that a culture could be easily obtainedl of such a micro-organism as the comma bacillus, whose- vitality is so immensely lowered by most chemical bodiesL as soon as the patient has already undergone any medicalr treatment. The matter for the cultures should, if possible,3 be obtained from the dejections or vomited liquids before anyt medicine has been administered.r ’ I3y the strict system of quarantine maintained in thist country the trade and the industry have already been inter-3 fered with. In the industrial districts of Bohemia andr Moravia production has to be restricted on accounts of the want of raw materials which were imported frome Germany. It is easy to understand that it is not.. possible to keep the population of the empire undern good sanitary conditions at a yearly rate of expenditure. of two and a half kreutzers, a halfpenny per head of popula-y tion, and that is one reason why choleraphobia is now so preva-e lent among the people. Even now, in the time of imminents danger, parsimony prevails so much over common sense andd humanity that local authorities-as, for instance, the municipals board of Vienna-are disputing with the Government regardingy the duty of erecting cholera hospitals at Vienna. Nor is it’s less interesting to learn that the Government is asking the’e hospital physicians to enter cholera hospitals, promising ay salary of sixty-two florins (5) monthly with board ande lodging."n "*"*’"*’’’’***’*

THE SANITARY CONGRESS, PORTSMOUTH.

PAPERS AND SECTIONAL WORK.IN the absence of Dr. J. Wright Mason, Medical Officer of

Health for Hull, Dr. Groves read a paper by the former onthe Sanitary Influences of Harbours and Exposed Fore-shores. He advocated the perfect sanitation of our first lineof defence and mentioned the special risk of zymotic invasionby way of those ports in most constant and direct communi-cation with the Continent.

Dr. Dawson Williams contributed a paper on the Routeof the Cholera in 1892, and traced the disease from thenortli-west frontier of India, through Afghanistan, and alongthe Transcaspian railway, across the Caspian to Baku, thecentre of European infection.

Dr. Lane Notter pointed out that the strength of our

first chain of defence was measured by that of its wealestlink, and he asked if anyone could say what was being donein the smaller ports and along the coast generally.-

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Dr. Thresh said that in the small port sanitary authority ofMalden, in Essex, a hospital tent had been erected, and alongthe whole coast the coastguard officers had been instructedwith whom to communicate should a case of cholera or

choleraic diarrhoea come to their knowledge.-A Memberremarked that the paper scarcely justified its title.-Dr. LaneNotter considered that yellow fever originated in slave

ships, though the conditions favourable for its continuedexistence seemed to be associated with exposed fore-shores.-Professor Cayley pointed out that in severalrecent epidemics of yellow fever there was no asso-

ciation with the slave trade.-Dr. Groves stated thatcholera had often been said to follow the course of rivers.This had been observed in this country. When a young manhe had assisted to investigate the cause of the outbreak in1866, and showed how thefons et origo ’1Ilali had been foundto be pollution of the water supplied to a portion of theEast-end of London.A vote of thanks to Dr. Lane Notter, who had presided at

all the meetings of the Section, was proposed by Dr. Threshand seconded by Dr. Sandall.

In Section 2 Mr. James Lemon, the President, gave aninteresting address on Engineering and Architecture. He

gave the medical profession credit for having called the

sanitary engineer into existence. He criticised adversely themetropolitan scale of drainage, and said that the question ofdealing with rainfall should be determined by local considera-tions. He pointed out the care necessary in the ’manage-ment of sea outfalls, especially as regards the determinationof the force and direction of currents, before dischargingcrude sewage. He also remarked upon the folly of insufficientdrain ventilation, and said the ideal drain was an open onein the centre of the street, were it practicable. Finally, Mr.Lemon sketched the points to be borne in mind by thesanitary architect (a term of his own coinage) in constructinga model house.

Papers were read by Mr. Hubert L. Terry on the SmokeClauses of the Public Health Act, 1875; by Mr. HepworthCollins on the Pollution of Rivers and Canals by Manufac-turing and Industrial Operations ; by Mr. W. R. Maguireon the Causes and Prevention of Typhoid Fever; by Dr. H.Kenwood on Drain and Soil-pipe Ventilation; and by Mr.Henry Law on Apparatus for Softening Water.

Visit to Haslar Hospital.During the afternoon about twenty medical members of the

Institute visited Haslar Hospital, being conveyed across theharbour in a special launch. They were conducted over thebuilding by Inspectors-General E. T. Mortimer and Mac-donald. The hospital was erected about 150 years ago, andhas had as many as 2000 patients within its walls at onetime. At present there are about 500, but many of them areaged pensioners who were transferred from Greenwich. The

complicated structure, absence of any artificial mode of ven-tilation &c. prove that it does not reach the level of modernrequirements in an institution of this character. After in-

specting the museum, which contains a large number ofspecimens of interest to the comparative anatomist, and whichpossibly would be of much greater service if properly cata-logued and suitably housed in a more accessible situation, thevisitors partook of afternoon tea and returned to Portsmouth.The weather was perfect and the trip a most enjoyable one.

The Annual Dinner.The Congress dinner was held in the evening in the Mayor’s

banqueting-room at the Town Hall. Sir Charles Cameronwas in the chair, and there were present the Mayor of Ports-mouth (T. Scott Foster, Esq.), the ex-Mayor (Sir W. Pink)and a distinguished company. In proposing the loyal toasts,the President read a telegram from H.R.H. the Duke of Con-naught regretting his inability to be present. Appropriaterecognition was taken of the " Army, Navy and ReserveForces," "The Mayor and Corporation of Portsmouth,""The President and Officers of the Congress," "The

Borough Members," "The Sanitary Institute " and its "LocalSecretaries," and finally" The Health of the Ladies" wasproposed and duly honoured.

Chemical History of the Air.On Friday, the 16th inst., Dr. W. J. Russell, F. R. S., the Pre-

sident, gave an address in Section 2 on the Chemical Historyof the Air, and traced rapidly and instructively the gradualevolution of facts and opinions in connexion with his subjectfrom the days of Hero of Alexander, " whoever he may havebeen, " to the present time, giving a due meed of praise topioneers such as Van Helmont, Hook, Boyle and Mayan, and

emphasising the great services of Bunsen in this matter. Hegave the mean result of the quantitative analysis of air as

regards oxygen to be 20’90 per cent., and stated that at thepresent time probably the most interesting results to bederived from the accurate determination of the oxygen in theair are in relation to this point, the using up of the oxygen,for it is difficult to suppose that two or three hundredths of a

per cent. of oxygen can in itself produce any appreciableeffect either on respiration or combustion. Ozone, he stated,is probably always present in normal air, but unfortunatelywe have no accurate method of determining its pre-sence. Dr. Russell inclined to believe its formationwas probably due to electrical action and directly or

indirectly to evaporation. He then dealt with the question ofsolids suspended in the air, and said that the great Krakatoaeruption of 1883 had shown how dust on a large scale may be-ejected into our atmosphere, and how persistently it mayabide there and circulate round and round the globe.A vote of thanks was passed to the President for his.

able paper.Chalk Area and the Water-supply.

Mr. W. Whitaker, F. R. S. &c., read a paper on Mapsshowing the Area of Chalk suitable for Water-supply in theCentral and Eastern Parts) f the London Basin, and statedthat the whole area coloured as chalk was not available as a,

gathering ground, and described the following chalk forma-tions in the order of their permeability-namely, bare chalk,chalk covered by permeable beds, chalk protected by beds ofmixed or of varying character, and chalk protected by im.permeable beds.

Servage Treatment.Mr. C. H. Cooper then read a paper on Sewage Treat-

ment.-The Hon. F. A. Rollo Russell discoursed on Ex-halation of Vapour from the Earth, and, from a series of

interesting experiments, drew conclusions the practical lessons.taught by which were the importance of securing an im-pervious flooring and ventilation in houses and tents, of

paving in towns, of avoiding " made soils " and the vicinityof graveyards, of drainage of damp and organically pollutedsoils, of widely separating cesspools from wells, and of pre-venting the exposure of articles of food and drink to night air’near the ground.

Eigitoniology.Mr. T. B. Goodall, F.R.C.V.S., read a thoughtful and

philosophic paper on Entomology as a Sanitary Science,and, sketching the life-history of the drone fly and the gnat,showed how usefully these myriads of "scavengers of nature"aided sanitation by the consumption of putrefactive matter.

Organic Tfatter.Mr. W. C. Young contributed a paper on the Determina-

tion of dissolved Organic Matter in Water, and described aprocess which gave satisfactory results, and which was firstintroduced in a paper by the author before the Society ofChemical Industry in November, 1891. The process, hestated, was extremely simple in practice, required littlepersonal attention, and was completed within four hours.

The Pority of Stable Air.Veterinary Captain F. Smith, M. R. C. V. S., then read a

paper on a Method of determining the Purity of StableAir by a Comparison of the Temperature within and with-out the Building. "When we remember that the warmingof stable air is derived from the bodies of the animals whichlive in it we can understand the rationale of the observation.

Excursions.On Saturday two excursions took place, one to the New

Forest and the other to the Isle of Wight. Neither was sowell attended as had been anticipated, but the weather beingperfect, both were completely successful.

L’xhibits.At the Health Exhibition held in connexion with the-

Sanitary Congress at Portsmouth, Messrs. Humphreys’ IronIsolation Hospital for Infectious Diseases attracted muchinterest, a special feature of the exhibit being the presence ofa few children from the Portsmouth Hospital and a completestaff of nurses. These hospitals are more sanitary thanhastily constructed brick buildings, and while it is possible-to erect them in a few days, they are capable of lasting fortyor fifty years.A medal has been awarded to Messrs. Burroughs, Wellcome-

and Co. for their exhibition of medicine chests at the Ports-mouth Health Exhibition, and a certificate for Kepler’sExtract of Malt,