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interment and had fired over the grave. It wasidentified by the hair which yet remained and by theteeth, all of which were still in their sockets exceptone which had been lost during life. Head, trunk, andlimbs were entire, so that the stature could bemeasured. The chest had fallen in and the heart andlung tissues had become blended together, presentingthe appearance of a dark oleaginous substance. Thewhole was without smell. The entire trunk was thenremoved-the head and extremities being regardedas unnecessary to the investigation. The portionreserved for examination weighed nine pounds, ofwhich two pounds were set aside for a second set ofexperiments lest those made on the first should proveunsatisfactory. In the investigation, Drs. Ozinamand Ide proceeded on the supposition that arsenicwas the poison.The matter was first boiled, and the fluid therefrom

evaporated to dryness, the residuum thus obtained beingdissolved in distilled water. This produced a deep-colouredliquid which, treated with chlorine, was but imperfectlydeprived of its colour. The distilled water charged with thisextract from the remains was again evaporated to dryness,and four ounces of potassium nitrate, placed in a matras,were exposed on ignited charcoal. The suspected matterwell-dried and after rolling it into little portions, was intro-duced. Each time this was done a deflagration was producedand perceived. It was now allowed to cool and the residuewas again dissolved in distilled water. This resulting solutionwas now saturated with nitric acid and afterwards subjectedto the usual reagents, all of which indicated the presence ofarsenic. Some small portions were treated with vegetablecharcoal introduced into a glass tube and then heated. Thisgave off aqueous vapour at first, soon after which small grey-coloured and brilliant points were seen. A grain of metallicarsenic was thus obtained. Another portion treated withhydro-sulphuric acid furnished sulphuret of arsenic and this,when heated and acted upon by caustic potash, afforded aportion of shining matter which was easily dissolved in distilledwater by directing upon it a current of oxygen gas.

By these various experiments the fact of a consider-able quantity of arsenic having been administeredseven years earlier was demonstrated. From theability of witnesses to recognise the features after sevenyears’ burial it is clear that the preservative effect ofthe arsenic had been remarkable. Since that time othercases have established this effect, which has longbeen recognised by medico-legal writers. Instancesare given in the text-books of Dixon Mann andR. T. M. Buchanan, while J. Glaister cites indetail the appearance of the victims of Flannaganand Higgins who were tried at Liverpool in 1884. Byreason of arsenical poisoning having been establishedin one of the three victims, the bodies of two others-Mary Higgins, aged 10, and John Flannagan, aged24-were exhumed and examined. Although thebody of the former had been buried for about 13!months, and that of the latter for 37 months, bothwere found to be in an excellent state of preserva-tion ; indeed, in the case of John Flannagan, theface and body generally could easily be identified.The abdominal organs of Mary Higgins were foundon analysis to. contain one grain, and those of JohnFlannagan, 34 grains of arsenious acid. Anothernoteworthy appearance found after burial in thestomach and intestines of the bodies of those towhom arsenic has been administered and which,moreover, was also observed in the bodies of the ’,above-named individuals, is a golden-yellow pigmentor coating of the mucous membrane. It has beencontested whether this yellow pigment is composedof arsenic sulphide or of yellow bile-pigment. Camp-bell Brown and Davies analysed the pigment in thesecases and found that it did not contain any appreci-able amount of arsenic, but chiefly consisted of bile-pigment. On the other hand, Littlejohn and Drink-water have recorded two cases of poisoning witharsenious acid in which the yellow sulphide wasfound in the alimentary canal. Like preservativeeffects on the bodies of victims of poisoning by anti-mony are also well established. The account of the

exhumed bodies in the Chapman or Klosowski casein London (1903) by the late Sir Thomas Stevenson,

abundantly shows this. Similar effects had beenpreviously noted in the case of Palmer in 1856, andalso that of Captain Caw poisoned by his son-in-lawin New Zealand.

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A RECEPTION BY THE ROYAL SOCIETY

OF MEDICINE.

A WELL-ATTENDED reception was held by the RoyalSociety of Medicine on May 29th, when Lord Dawson,as President of the society, received the guests withLady Dawson. In the course of the evening twofilms were shown ; the first, " Turksib," was a Rus-sian picture showing the construction of a railway inTurkestan. This, like other Russian films which have ereached this country, was an artistic and cleverproduction. The railway was presented as almostfinished, for it was due to be completed in 1930, asthe audience was repeatedly told ; but in actual factit is still, we understand, in an early stage of develop-ment, and will most certainly not be finished thisyear. It was interesting to notice that the bigmachinery being used in the construction was English ;also that sheep, cattle, and horses have been importedfrom England to stock the country through whichthe railway is to run. The second film was an amusingcomedy, entitled " Habeas Corpus," and provided apleasant contrast to the more serious picture. Thepopularity of these social evenings has increased tosuch an extent that many applications for cards haveto be refused for lack of accommodation. It is atribute to the attractions offered by the society thatthis is true at the very height of the London season.

THE VIRUS OF PSITTACOSIS.

THE claim that certain of the so-called filtrableviruses can be demonstrated by the current micro-scopical methods is no new one. The bodies describedby Paschen, Borrel, and others in virulent vacciniamaterial are, perhaps, the best known example, butsimilar appearances have been observed in connexionwith other members of the group, such as the virusesof fowl-pox, influenza, poliomyelitis, and dengue.Opinion is sharply divided on the nature of thesebodies. They are not easily stained, and do notreveal themselves to casual or haphazard study,which probably accounts for the lack of attentionwhich they have received, many investigators havingdismissed them after a cursory examination as

precipitate of stain or protein. Nevertheless theview that they are the viruses is held by many whoseopinion is entitled to respect. Recently bodies of asomewhat similar nature have been described inconnexion with the virus of psittacosis. These appearmost commonly as small cocci, 0’3 -0-4 fL in diameter,single or in pairs, but occasional bacillary forms aremet with which may be as much as 2 fL in length.They are readily demonstrated by prolonged stainingwith Giemsa, but can be stained, though less well,with L6ffler’s methylene-blue or carbol fuchsin.Levinthal,l who was the first to describe them, doesnot commit himself on their relationship to othervirus bodies, though he does throw out a hint of thepossibility of the virus of psittacosis being a memberof the Brucella group ; apparently he considersthese bodies to be the virus. Both Coles 2 and Lillie.3whose papers closely followed that of Levinthal,incline to the view that these bodies belong to therickettsias ; in fact, the latter author goes so far asto coin the name Rickettsia psittaci. Undoubtedlythere are strong resemblances with the rickettsias.The presence of bacillary forms, the appearance of thecoccal and bacillary forms when stained by Giemsa,their occurrence in masses inside endothelialphagocytes, and the fact that they are Gram-negative,

1 Levinthal, W. : Klin. Woch., 1930, ix., 654.2 Coles, A. C.: THE LANCET, May 10th, p. 1011.

3 Lillie, R. D.: U.S. Pub. Health Rep., 1930, xlv, 773.

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are all points in favour of this relationship. Then,again, the fact that almost everyone who has studiedthe virus of psittacosis has seen these bodies suggeststhat they are something more definite and more

readily demonstrated than the Paschen and othervirus bodies. Whether this minute cocco-bacillus isthe virus of psittacosis remains to be demonstrated,but its constant presence in virulent material, whethercoming from man, birds, or mice, makes this morethan a remote possibility.

THE TRAINING OF THE DEAF.

THOSE who attended the meeting of the National-Institute for Promoting the Welfare of the Deaf whichtook place last week and to which we elsewhere makereference, had the good fortune to hear from Mr.Stanley Baldwin a very clear exposition of the trials.of the large number of people who have lost theirsense of hearing. Mr. Baldwin, in a studiously simpleaddress, confined attention to the unsympatheticattitude which.the public, through a sort of unheedingignorance, manifests towards the deaf population,contrasting that attitude with the prompt and deepcommiseration which is always extended to the blind.The situation which was .described is one of whichmedical men are becoming increasingly aware, formany doctors are now realising how much can be donefor the deaf by classification and suitable education,where full advantage can be taken of the propertraining. They will recognise the good sense of Mr.Baldwin’s words by as much as they have recognisedthe possibilities for good work and good citizenshippossessed by a large proportion of the deaf. The plightof these is undoubtedly aggravated by the thought-lessness of those with whom they mix, but thecapacities of the deaf require development by methodsof education that are hard to come by, and for theprovision of which the aid of the State is needed.Expressions of official sympathy have now beenreceived from the relevant Ministers of State undertwo administrations, and while there is reason to hopethat the untiring work of the National Institute willsoon bear fruit, towards this end Mr. Baldwin’s wordsof wisdom will play an influential part. By making

little organised attempt to train the deaf the State ison the one hand doing little to ease a burden whichthe country has to bear, and on the other isleaving undeveloped the capacities of a large numberof persons perfectly fitted, if only they can be equipped,to help themselves and help others.

THE OBJECT OF A PHARMACOPŒIA.IN a presidential address to the United States

Pharmacopoeial Convention, delivered on May 13th,Dr. Reid Hunt quoted from the founders of theU.S.P. in 1820 : " It is the object of a Pharmacopoeiato select from among substances which have medicinalpower those the utility of which is most fully estab-lished and best understood ; and to form from thempreparations and compositions in which their powersmay be exerted to the greatest advantage." He isuggested how far it was possible to stray from thisideal by recalling the words of another president ofthe Convention, who had remarked that there werepreparations in the U.S.P. no more active or usefulthan brickdust ; and that doubtless brickdust wouldalso be included if a demand for it arose. But thoughuseless drugs or preparations which enjoy a tem-porary vogue may encumber the Pharmacopoeia,they can always be removed by judicial editing;on the other hand, the full value of remedies longknown to pharmacologists and doctors may oftenescape investigation for years. Dr. Hunt cited ether

as an example, which was known for nearly 300 yearsbefore its anaesthetic use was discovered, and Epsomsalt, recognised by the medical profession since 1694,

- but never examined as an intravenous injection until1905. The use of carbolic acid as an operative

disinfectant by Lister, which was to lead indirectlyto the development of aseptic surgery, was suggestedto him by observing its action at a Scottish sewageplant-a haphazard origin for a revolution in surgicaltechnique. The moral Dr. Hunt draws from theseinstances is the need for the rational use of experimentto investigate completely the properties of drugs atpresent recognised, many of which are still givenempirically. The use of anaesthetics once believed tobe impossible is now beginning to extend, with thesafety and efficiency afforded by modern technique ;but Dr. Hunt reproaches surgeons with treatingthe subject of anaesthesia as though it were a closedchapter, whereas he questions " if man has even goton the right track in regard to general anaesthesia."The effective anaesthetic dose of the substances inuse is more than 50 per cent. of the fatal dose-asmaller margin of safety than with any other class ofimportant drugs. And in this view Sir FrancisShipway is in accord, for in a letter on another pageof our present issue he describes the position ofsurgical anaesthesia as very unsatisfactory, and callsfor search after an agent which will eliminate the fearof going under, provide a safe induction, and avoidthe later complications, whether toxic or irritant.Dr. Hunt holds it probable that in other directionssome of the drugs at present in common use haveequally far-reaching potentialities. Ehrlich, whocombined an encyclopaedic knowledge of pharmacologyand of organic chemistry, believed that the future ofmedicine lay in pharmacology. His many con-

tributions to the science were made as the result ofpatient experiment. The introduction of almostevery modern drug into medicine has depended onpharmacological experiments; further, the use ofsynthetic drugs is rapidly increasing, and to thisfield of activity it is impossible to imagine a limit.In 1835 Bigelow placed epilepsy and angina pectorisamong the " self-limited diseases," declaring thattheir paroxysms could be neither " foreseen, pre-vented, nor, as far as we know, materially abridgedin their duration." Dr. Hunt referred to the valueof the bromides and amyl nitrite, since employed inthese two conditions, and mentioned the extremespecificity of action of certain drugs. The destructionof a few cells of the retina, only, by methyl alcoholpoisoning was remarkably suggestive ; there werepossibly a vast number of known but untestedcompounds which might have a similar effect upon thecancer cells. We have no right to consider anydisease " self-limited," or to think it essential todiscover the cause before attempting the cure. But,as Dr. Hunt pointed out, " at the present rate ofprogress it would require not only decades butcenturies, perhaps a millenium, for the medicalprofession to examine what the chemists alreadyhave to offer." He left a stimulating impression thatno time should be lost in setting about the task.

ROAD ACCIDENTS.’

THE harm that is often caused in accident caseson the roads by well-meant but misguided zeal onthe part of the public is the subject of a letter addressedto the Times of May 28th by the Director of the HomeAmbulance Service of the British Red Cross. Thisapplies in particular to cases with fractures of thelimb bones ; examples are given of patients with afractured femur taken to hospital in the back seatof tiny cars, and others of simple fracture becomingcompound after transport in a lorry without splintage.The British Red Cross Society has done a great dealto minimise the results of the increasing number ofroad accidents by establishing a network of motorambulances throughout the country, by educatingthe people in the principles of first-aid, and by theprovision of boxes of first-aid equipment. There is,however, a real danger that the public by itsendeavours to help may nullify these efforts. Itcannot be too widely made known that in the majorityof cases of accident on the road it is far better to