MEDICAL ADVERTISING

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.of the Local Government Board on points raised on

the construction of the Act shall be binding and

.conclusive ; and therefore nothing but fresh legisla-’tion can alter the arrangement as it now exists. We

have no doubt that the Board has considered the matter

carefully and has been guided by the best legal adviceon the legal aspects of the question. Nevertheless,nothing could be more unjust, as matters now stand; thetwo cases are parallel, and yet Clerks who are Registrarscan count the income from the latter appointment as a basisfor superannuation, but Medical Officers who are Vaccinatorscannot count their vaccination fees, although they are.appointed to the post of public vaccinator by the guardiansand are, to all intents and purposes, officers of the

guardians. If not, under whom do they hold office ?

There is no doubt that there are some who rise from

a perusal of this statute with the impression that ithas been framed mainly in the interests of Clerks to

.guardians as a class without due consideration towardsmedical men, nurses, or some others who form the greatbody of the Poor-law service ; and the statement that " thewhole principle of the Act is based on the theorythat only a comparatively small proportion of those who

contribute will ultimately need superannuation," made byone of these gentlemen in his letter to us (Oct. 17th), doesnot tend to remove that impression. This was evidently-in the mind of another correspondent, whose letter in THELANCET of Oct. 31st states in unmistakeable terms themanner in which the Act must affect the nurses, and there-fore the cause of good nursing, in Poor-law institutions.

MEDICAL ADVERTISING.

AN advertisement appears in the Bradford Obser2er of:Nov. 21st with regard to lectures on medical subjects. A

Mrs. Longshore-Potts, who states she is a doctor of theWomen’a Medical College, Philadelphia, is lecturing to

women at the Theatre Royal, Bradford. The last lectureis to be on Saturday, Nov. 28th. " Subject: Maternity.Admission, 6d., ls., and 2s. All lectures illustrated by lime-’light views, including many of art and scenery." We confesswe should like to see the views of art and scenery which illus-trate this lecture on maternity. LTnderneath this announce-ment are the names of various people who are said to testifyto the genuine character of the lecturer, and these namesinclude the Mayor of Bradford, clergymen, schoolmasters,.and others who are supposed to have influence in the dis-trict. Such support is entirely wrong from whatever pointof view it is looked at, for if the lecturer is a qualifiedpractitioner these various gentlemen must know that it is- entirely against all ethics of the profession to advertise inthis way; while, on the other hand, if she is not entitledto practise in this country such support is calculated to- deceive the public with regard to her position. In this casethe lecturer certainly states in full what degree she lays claimto, but this is unfortunately not of much use to the publicwho mostly fail to discriminate one from another and seemperfectly satisfied in their own minds so long as they believeanyone is a "doctor," never stopping to think of the truemeaning and value of the word.

EXORCISM OF GHOSTS.

A RECENT issue of the Australian Medical Gazette con-tains a brief but instructive report of the cure of a case of

haUucina.tory disorder. The patient, a man aged sixty years,had suffered for two years from subjective visual sensations.Not a day passed that he did not see a large number of spectralhuman figures, and believing himself to be haunted by ghostshe had become very despondent and melancholy. On seek-

ing medical advice it was found that he had senile cataract.When this was removed by operation the ghosts fled and

the man recovered his usual health. In this connexion we

may cite the case of a tradesman in Berlin whose shopwas haunted by apparitions resembling in appearance someof his deceased customers. He was an intelligent man,aware that he suffered from sensory hallucination, andmade notes of his subjective impressions. In due timehe submitted his eyes to examination and operation withthe result of a restoration of normal vision and the im-mediate and final disappearance of his intangible visitors.The obvious teaching of the foregoing and similar cases isthat in these modern days the person to be resorted to for theexorcism of spirits and demons is the ophthalmic surgeon.It may be suggested to those " spiritualists " who are open toconviction that curable aberrations of vision, plus uncon-scious cerebration, would account for a large proportion ofthe apparitions described in the periodicals devoted to thespread of spiritualism. We believe that certain phenomenawhich cannot be explained in this manner are generally dueto imposture. Without doubt a large number of spiritualists

honestly believe in the truth of what we cannot but regardas a monstrous delusion, but it is not easy to restrain a

, suspicion that others, and particularly "mediums," like thei Haruspices of the Rome of Lucian’s day, find it difficult tomeet without exchanging a wink and a smile.

A METHOD OF INFILTRATING DENTAL AND

OSSEOUS TISSUES FOR MICROSCOPICALWORK.

AT a recent meeting of the Odontological Society of GreatBritain Mr. Charters White gave the details of the methodhe adopts to demonstrate the presence of spaces in hardsections of dental and osseous tissues. The section to betreated must be ground moderately thin, to about one thirty-second of an inch, and then immersed in absolute alcoholfor five minutes, and subsequently in ether for a similar

period. It is next transferred to a thin solution ofcelloidin (three grains of celloidin to half an ounce of equalparts of absolute alcohol and ether). This solution iscoloured red by the addition of fuchsine, the stain beingadded to the alcohol before the celloidin is dissolved. The

specimen is allowed to remain in the solution for two orthree days, after which it is removed and placed on paperto dry. The section is then ground to the desired tenuityand mounted on balsam. The advantages of the process

are-(1) the cavernous and tubular structures in dentine andbone are filled with a coloured medium, which prevents thebalsam running into such spaces and so obliterating them ;and (2) the section is rendered less brittle and can thereforebe easily ground down without much fear of fracture.

THE LEEDS WORKPEOPLE’S HOSPITAL FUND.

CONSIDERABLE diversity of opinion has been manifested inLeeds on the subject of providing for convalescents in con-nexion with the Workpeople’s Hospital Fund. The question,being one of much importance, has naturally led to a greatdeal of discussion both by speakers at the meetings and bynewspaper correspondents, some taking the view that thetreatment of convalescents is not a legitimate application ofmedical charity, and that a separate fund should be estab-lished for the special purpose, while others deprecate thiscourse on the ground that it would favour isolated actionand -perhaps lessen the general amount subscribed for themaintenance of hospitals in the town. A further questionthen arose. Assuming it to be decided that the benefits ofthe Fund should be extended to patients during the stageof convalescence, would it be better for the association to

acquire a convalescent home of its own, or, on the other

hand, to subscribe to existing homes which would receivesuch cases as might be sent f The objection to the latteralternative was that the Leeds subscribers would have no