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’upon the University by the Commissioners. He referredto the reception of the deputation by a select com-mittee of the Council of the College. The deputation badpointed out that some change was necessary in the rulest-onnected with the voting papers for the election of the’Council, and had also referred to the question of calling ameeting of the Fellows to consider points of importancethat might come before the Council Letters had been re-ceived from the secretary to the effect that the Council,having considered the rules relating to the voting papers,had determined to make no alteration in them. Thatwas the only question upon which an explicit answer

had been given. At the general meeting, when the question.of the meeting of Fellows to consider any question ofinterest to the College was raised, the Council referred thematter for counsel’s opinion, by which it promised to be.guided. No explicit reply had yet been given on this point.Mr. Holmes moved : " That this meeting desires to recordits emphatic protest against any final settlement betweenthe Council of the College and the Senate of the LondonUniversity, in the matter of the reconstitution of the Uni-versity, without the Council of the College having consultedeither the Fellows of the College or, if they cannot be con-sulted separately, a general meeting of the Fellows andMembers." In moving this resolution he did not wish in.any way to criticise the scheme that had been settled forthe reconstruction of the University. He had seen it.announced that some sketch of a plan had beenforwarded to the Privy Council. A scheme was saidto have been formulated, even as to its details, but towhich many objections had been raised, principally by theprovincial schools of medicine in England. He did notknow, however, whether the scheme had a substantial’existence or not, but negotiations were going on betweenthe Colleges and the University, the issue of which mustseriously affect the position of every Fellow and Memberof the College of Surgeons; and to act in the name of theCollege of Surgeons without communicating any of the details-of the scheme to any person whatever out of their ownbody-to claim the absolute right of concluding a treaty onbehalf of the Fellows and Members with the University ofLondon, was a state of things which, if legal, was quitewrong, and should not be tolerated a moment longer than<could be helped. The Fellows had, he thought, a legaliright to be consulted in affairs of such magnitude affectingthemselves. Some of the Council seemed to think thatby claiming a vote as to the result of the negotiationsthe Fellows were thereby claiming the right to con-

duct the negotiations themselves. He referred to theorigin of the Colh ge, and stated that no City Companywould be allowed to amalgamate with another on themotion and unrestricted action of the master and wardens.The Members of the College appeared to have lost all rights,and to be simply pawns, to be moved about the board bythose twenty-iour gentlemen who formed the Council.Mr. Mayo Robson seconded the resolution, which was

-carried unanimously.Dr. Collins then moved : " That a committee of the Asso

ciation, with power to add to their number, be authorisedto act as a deputation to attend, if necessary, before theLondon University, the Lord President of the Council, andthe Commission of the Teaching University for London."As a Fellow of the College, he knew nothing of the natureof the negotiations now in progress, while as a member ofConvocation of the University he was thoroughly acquaintedwith the details of the scheme and of the many revised- ’schemes which had appeared from time to time. Hepointed out the anomalous position occupied by membersof the Royal College of Surgeons as compared with amember of Convocation in negotiations of this kind, andemphasised the fact that they stood in an inferior positionto any other college or corporation of a similar nature,-and also to the Royal College of Physicians. In afew weeks the Lord President would be master of the:-ituation, and then perhaps suitable witnesses would appearbefore him on behalf of the Fellows in order to preventany serious mistakes that might be made.

Mr. Norton seconded the resolution, which was also’carried unanimously.

The Chairman announced that Lord Cranbrook hadacknowledged the receipt of the resolutions previouslypassed, but had made no observations as to their havingbeen before him.

Dr. Collins: No scheme is before him as yet.

Mr. Tweedy moved : " That a dinner of the Associationbe held in April next." He thought that would strengthenthe interest in the Association. The date would be fixed bythe Committee.The motion was seconded by Mr. Dunn, and carried

unanimously.A few remarks from the Chairman concluded the meeting.

VITAL STATISTICS.

HEALTH OF ENGLISH TOWNS.

IN twenty-eight of the largest English towns 4935 birthsand 4681 deaths were registered during the week endingDec. 20th. The annual rate of mortality in these towns,which had been 21-5 and 21’3 per 1000 in the precedingtwo weeks, rose again to 25’1 Jast week, a higher ratethan in any week since March last. The rate was 26’0in London and 24’4 in the twenty-seven provincial towns.During the past twelve weeks of the current quarterthe death-rate in the twenty-eight towns averaged 21’1per 1000, and exceeded by 0’3 the mean rate in thecorresponding periods of the ten ears 1880-89. The lowestrates m these towns last week were ]5.2 in Leicester, 16’0in Derby, 16’1 in Hull, and 18’6 in Bradford ; thehighest rates were 28’5 in Plymouth, 29’4 in Cardiff,31-9 in Manchester, and 51-6 in Preston. The deathsreferred to the principal zymotic diseases, which hadincreased from 430 to 483 in the preceding three weeks,further rose last week to 511 ; they included 216 frommeasles, 107 from whooping-cough, 5 from scarlet fever,51 from diphtheria, 47 from "fever" (principally enteric),39 from diarrhoea, and not one from small-pox. The lowestdeath-rates from these diseases were recorded in Leicester,Hull, Norwich, and Derby; the highest in Birkenhead,Bolton, Salford, and Preston. The greatest mortalityfrom measles occurred in Birkenhead, Cardiff, Man-chester, Salford, Oldham, Bolton, and Preston; from scarletfever in Liverpool; from whooping-cough in Halifax,Birmingham, Birkenhead, and Preston ; and "fever" inHalifax and Sunderland. The 51 deaths from diphtheriaincluded 32 in London, 5 in Salford, 4 in Birming-ham, 2 in Liverpool, 2 in Manchester, and 2 inBirkenhead. No death from small-pox was regis-tered in any of the twenty-eight towns ; and no

small-pox patients were under treatment in the Metro-politan Asylum Hospitals or in the Highgate Small-pox Hospital on Saturday last. The number of scarletfever patients in the Metropolitan Asylum Hospitals andin the London Fever Hospital at the end of last weekwas 1752, against numbers declining from 2122 to 1803on the preceding six Saturdays; the patients admittedduring the week were 108, against 151 and 125 in theprevious two weeks. The deaths referred to diseases ofthe respiratory organs in London, which had increased from375 to 487 in the preceding three weeks, further rose to752 last week, and were as many as 282 above the correctedaverage. The causes of 108, or 2-3 per cent., of the deathsin the twenty-eight towns were not certified either by aregistered medical practitioner or by a coroner. All thecauses of death were duly certified in Bristol, Leicester,Bradford, Brighton, and in four other smaller towns. Thelargest proportions of nncertified deaths were recorded inLiverpool, Blackburn, Huddersfield, Halifax, and Hull.

THE SERVICES.

NAVAL MEDICAL SERVICE. -The following appointmentshave been made at the Admiralty:-Deputy Inspector-General Garland W. L. Harrison to Plymouth Hospital(dated Dec. 20th, 1890); Surgeon R. H. T. Browne to theDuke of Wellington, additional (dated Dec. 19bh, 1890);Mr. Ernest W. Skinner to be Surgeon and Agent atWinchelsea, Dog’s-bill, and Haddocks.VOLUNTEER CORPS.- Royal Engineers (Fortress and

Railway Forces) : 1st Durham : John Dickinson Leigh,M.B., to be Acting Surgeon (dated Dec. 20th, 1890).-Rifle: 2nd Volunteer Battalion, the Manchester Regiment:Tho. Carr, Gent., to be Acting Surgeon (dated Dec. 20th,1890).-1st Cadet Battalion, the Queen’s (Royal West

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Surrey Regiment): Timothy Holmes, Gent., to be ActingSurgeon (dated Dec. 20th, 1890).VOLUNTEER MEDICAL STAFF CORPS. &mdash; The London

Division: Surgeon G S. Woodhead, M.D., from the Edin-burgh Division, to be Surgeon (dated Dec. 20th, 1890).-The Maidstone Division: Surgeon J. Grant, M.B., resignshis commission (dated Dec. 20th, 1890).

Correspondence.

THE TUBERCLE BACILLUS.

" Audi alteram partem.

To the Editors of THE LANCET.SIRS,-In his address to the International Medical Con-

gress in Berlin Dr. Koch is reportedl to have said: "Directsunlight quickly killed bacteria, the tubercle bacillus forinstance ; even daylight produces the same effect, thoughmore slowly. Cultivations of the tubercle bacillus propagatedfor from five to seven days at a window died."The fact thus bridly stated is a weighty one. It points

to the conclusion that in the chemical ray of the sun wehave an agent by which the prevention of consumption is tobe compassed. The demonstrated effect of light on thebacillus seriously endangers, if it does not destroy, thegreat (theoretical) source of infection in tuberculosis. Butthe special object I have in view now is to suggest that theresults of these later observations materially affect Koch’soriginal assumption that the tubercle bacillus is an obligateparasite-the bold assumption which has been accepted andacted upon as confidently as though its soundness bad beendetermined. For it is upon it that the futile prophylaxis(re phthisis) of continental Europe is based.There is no larger question relating to the causation of

tuberculosis than the tirst of the two questions Koch put tohimself after his brilliant discovery ot the cause of tuber-culosis-" Where do the parasites originate, and how dothey gain entrance into the body ?’’ As the precise natureof Lis reply to the former of these questions would appearto have been lost sight of, it may be as well to give it in hisown words: " With reference to the first question, it is

necessary to decide whether the infectious material developsonly under such conditions as are provided by the animalbody, or whether, as can the splenic fever bacillus, it canpass through its development process in any place free innature. The results of several experiments showed that thetubercle bacillus can grow only at the temperature of from30&deg; to 41&deg; C. Under 30&deg; and at 42&deg; not the slightest growthtook place during three weeks’ time; while, on the otherhand, the bacillus anthracis grows actively between 20&deg; and42&deg; or 43&deg; C. On the groundof this one fact the first questioncan be answered. In temperate zones at no time does thereoccur at least two weeks of a continuous temperature ofover 30&deg;. It follows, therefore, that the tubercle bacillus inits process of development is limited to the animal body, andis, moreover, not an acciclcutal, but a pure [or true’]parasite, and can only originate in aoa animal organism."[The italics are mine ]

Never, I ventme to say, in botany or biology has so largeand momentous a conclusion been drawn from so small and

insignificant a premiss. For this one fact, from which Kochsays authoritatively, -it follows that the tubercle bacillus isa true (obligate) parasite, is simply the fact that he failedto grow the vegetation outside the body below blood-heat.

In my book, "The Prevention of Consumption,"2 themain contention is that the bacillus of tubercle is not a"true" parasite, and I endeavoured to show that everyclinical fact and all known phenomena connected with theincidence of phthisis were in perfect accord with the

supposition that it is an " accidental" parasite. From myarguments in that work, it will be seen that what I in-ferred (from the phenomena I cited) in regard to the effectof the sun on this vegetation has been experimentally con-firmed by Koch. Whether daylight was or was not the dis-turbing element in his attempts to cultivate the bacillusunder 30&deg; C. there are not sufficient data to show. All thatis clear is that chemical light was not specially taken into

1 THE LANCET, Aug. 10th, 1890, p. 356.2 Reviewed in THE LANCET, Oct. 1st, 1887.

account in the cultivations, and that, consequently, theamount of chemical light admitted into the laboratory mayhave inhibited the growth of the vegetation. It is quitepossible, indeed, that the bacillus would have been found togrow in the dark on some one or more of the soils on whichit could not be got to grow in broad daylight, or even indiffused daylight of low chemical intensity. In short, thevalue of the light may have been the one thing that pre-cluded the growth. Inasmuch as Koch’s latest revelationis a virtual confession that his attempts to cultivatethe bacillus are, if not vitiated, at least incomplete ordefective, and therefore valueles, by reason of his havingomitted to take chemical light into consideration, it is noweasy enough to see that the ground is cut from under theassumption of obligate parasitism. It is palpable that theculture processes will have to be gone through again inorder to validate the one fact from which true parasitismhas been, as I have contended, wrongly inferred. If I havebeen forestalled in drawing attention to this matter so muchthe better. The sooner the arbitrary dictum that thebacillus is a true parasite is dealt with effectively the soonerthe way will be seen to an efficient mode of preventing con-sumption. On this point it may, perhaps, be permissibleto observe that my views of preventing much tuberculosisand of precluding all phthisis, speculative as they are, maynot appear so wildly speculative or so visionary and imprac.t icabl as they were taken to be now that it has been shownthat the sun kills the tubercle bacillus. These views werebased on the assumption that this bacillus (or its parentform) is a saprophyte (and facultative parasite in the animalorganism) growing "free in nature," and on the inferencesdrawn from certain data (given) that this saprophyte growsin, amongst other places, the dark or insuffiently lighteddormitories of man. This recent demonstration of theinimical efftet of the sun on the bacillus is therefore strongadditional proof of the soundness of the priuciple in. themodes of sun-prevention of phthisis which I submitted,together with other measures directed to the destruction ofthe infective vegetatinn.I am, Sirs, your obedient servant,

Melbourne, victoiia, Sept. 28th, 1890. C. CANDLER.

* * We have been compelled to curtail somewhat Dr.Candler’s lengthy communication.-ED. L.

C. CANDLER.

ENTERIC FEVER IN TROPICAL CLIMATES.To the Editors of THE LANCET.

SlRS,&mdash;Tbe whole question of enteric fever in tropicalclimates would be much simplified if we were able to followthe belief of Mr. Sherman Bigg (late staff surgeon, Allaba-bad), who has given his very practical views in THE LANCETof Oct. 25th, and if it coulcl he allowed that enteric fevermay be oue to chill. In 1889 two great authorities pro-pounded the theory that chill may be the cause of certaindiseases generally believed to be due to specific poison,-.Dr. John Harley, in his Lumleian Lectures, gave it as hisbelief that chill might give a man enteric fever, just as it,

might give him dysentery, diarrhoea, or simple continuedfever. Surgeon General Sir BV. Moore, before the Epidemio-logical Society (THE LANCET, Dec. 21st, 1889), stated that" so-called malarious fevers are caused by...... chill." laInfavour of the chill theory as regards enteric fever, we havethe fact that, in spite ot well-built barracks and great sani-tary improvements, it is rife in India ; in facr, even allow-ing for confusion of diagnosis between remittent andenteiie fever, as prevalent as ever it was. If medicalofficers would suspend any fixed belief in the specincpoison theory, they might find much to confirm themin the belief that enteric fever may be due to chill.At Suakin, while native troops suffered from dysentery anddiarrh&aelig;a-they also suffered after a time from scurvy andberi-beri-the Europeans suffered from enteric fever. Themen of the Shropshire Regiment at Graham’s Point-awayfrom the town, and with good sanitary surroundings-hadmany cases of enteric fever A large number of these menwere continually bathing in the sea, and they remained iDthe water a long time. It is p’)s",ible that this gave a.

certain number a chill. It is by no means uncommonin India for those who bathe carelessly in a swimmingbath to be attacked by fever. On field service irritabilityof the bowels is somewhat common, as a result probablyof food, work, and conditions of the life combined; a chill