THE UNIVERSITY OF LONDON

1028

Annotations.

THE UNIVERSITY OF LONDON.

11 Ne quid nimis."

AT the annual meeting of Convocation on Tuesday next,in addition to any general discussion on the latest schemepublished by the Senate which may arise on the presenta-tion of the interim report by the Special Committee of Con-vocation, the definite question of lowering the medical

degrees ot the University will be raised. Dr. Sansom has

given notice that he will move: "That this House dis-approves of any such change in the regulations of the

University as would reduce the standard of attainment fordegrees in the Faculty of iMedicine to a lower level than ’,that for degrees in the other Faculties." We doubt if thewording of this resolution is altogether felicitous, for it intro- ’,duces a controversial element as to the standard of the other ’’,degrees, and does not seem to be opposed to a generallowering in all the degrees of the University. If objectionbe taken to lowering the existing standard for the medicaldegrees, it would have been better merely to have statedthis ; and then if it were carried, it would have been aguide to the Senate in shaping their policy, whilst this resolu-tion is not sufficiently definite to demand notice should itbe found convenient to ignore it. The Senate is apparentlydesirous to adapt the University to the recommendationsof the Royal Commission, and it is rumoured that it will

probably propose to subdivide the future Senate into threestanding Committees-one to deal with provincial Collegesand non-collegiate students, another to deal with Universityand King’s Colleges and the higher education in London,and a third with medical regulations and examination; thethree Committees being under the control of the Senate asa whole. In this way it is hoped that a solution may befound for the two difficulties of providing for collegiateteaching in London, and for giving medical degrees toLondon students on suitable terms, while at the same timethe necessity for a Teaching University in London will beavoided. A vacancy has occurred in the Senate by theresignation of Mr. Thiselton Dyer, and, according to theusual custom, should be filled by a graduate either inScience or in Medicine. All names must be sent in to theClerk of Convocation on or before June 10th, and theelection will take place on the 24th of that month.

BABY FARMING.

OF the work which is being done by the National Societyfor the Prevention of Cruelty to Children no part is morenecessary or gives promise of more fruitful results than thatwhich concerns the protection of infant life. The practiceof baby farming, though checked by special legislation, stillthrives under various disguises. It has happened, indeed,with this as with many other evils, that the first effect ofdirectly repressive measures has been rather to increase itsvitality by stimulating the skill of its supporters, and some iidea as to how far this is true may be learned from anarticle by Mr. Benjamin Waugh in the ConteinporaryReviem for the present month. According to the informa-tion here given, which has been gathered for the most partby the agents of the Society above named, the system asnow commonly practised is divisible into two principalsections. On the one hand we have to deal with the workof procuring the children, on the other with that of receiv-ing and disposing of them. We have, in fact, a regulartrade established, with a body of persons acting like middle-men between the parent and the child’s ultimate owner,who very frequently know nothing of each other. By means

of advertisements, commonly mendacious, couched in termsof parental tenderness, and supported by the testimonial ofsome respectable person, and by a personal aspect of quietgentility, these infamous women are easily able to obtain thesuccessive temporary possession of numerous "unwanted"children. The engagement is for so much; it may be !5 5for a poorer or JE200 for a richer client; the infant need notbe seen again. If it is the will of Providence to take it,it may be better, so they say. Anyhow, the receiver mustnext have it, and a rapid journey to some outlying districtfinds this last possessor. If she really care for the childthere is a chance of its living ; if not, it is almost certainthat it will come, through gradations of pain, starvation,and disease, to an early grave. In order to attain this

purpose no extraordinary means are needful. On the con.

trary, they are eminently undesirable, since any precipi-tancy in the final issue would attract the inconvenientattention of neighbours, and perhaps a measure of sternjustice at the hands of the coroner. No, the process mustbe more gradual. Neglect will suffice for the work, or,better still, the systematic administration of improper food.The accounts published from time to time of what is

implied in the term " neglect may well appear almostincredible. We find infants of a few months old mereshrivelled and fevered skeletons, infested with vermin,shivering in fireless rooms in bleak winter weather,unclad in the day and at night huddled together on afoul-smelling bed under no other covering than an oldcoat. All this, too, because the receiving owner wishes apound or two to buy tea or snuff, or to eke out a pittancein old age, and because the infant is inconveniently relatedto an unmarried mother. Sometimes, indeed (though by nomeans always), the latter but for shame would be a trueparent enough. Under fear of exposure she answers anadvertisement. Her child is adopted, as she trusts, bythat quiet and motherly, though (to her own sorrow)childless woman who met her at the railway station. It is

paid for, and she sees it no more, but understands it iswell cared for. Meanwhile the poor encumbrance is outof reach, and sinking through its tardy misery to the grave.It is as much in the interest of such unhappy though notwholly unworthy parents as in that of the children thatMr. Waugh advocates a still stricter exercise of legalcontrol. The Infant Life Protection Act requires materialamendment, and must apply to the case of individual nursechildren if it is to meet the difficulty in an effectual manner.Meanwhile the work of prevention is considerably aided bythe efforts of the National Society to rescue these wretchedchildren as mere victims of cruel neglect, and by the deter-rent effect of its interference on any who may be in-volved in their maltreatment. It has been suggested that aspecial "Care of Children" Act would be in every way ad-vantageous, and this will not be denied, though it mightbe better in some respects to include any such measure inthe older Act to which we have just referred.

THE HOT-AIR TREATMENT OF PHTHISIS.

’ PROBABLY no disease has had more remedies suggestedfor its cure than phthisis. Very few of the new methodsintroduced, however, have proved of any use, and have oneby one been discarded. One of the latest, suggested byHalter and Weigert, seems likely to follow the fate of itspredecessors, if, indeed, it has ever been seriously considered.Halter maintains that the tubercle bacillus will not live ina temperature of more than 41° C.; and therefore suggeststhat if patients can inhale air at a temperature above 41°the bacilli will be killed, or at any rate be rendered harm.less, and thus the course of the disease stayed. Mossi andRendelli have already shown that in dogs, when the inspiredair is at so high a temperature as 150° to 160° C , the tem.