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the suffrages of the public, have been informed of theseillegal practices, though the members are so afraid of ex-citing the adverse influence of the priests at election timethat complaints are never attended to. Of course an indi-vidual country practitioner in Belgium is usually much toodependent upon the goodwill of his neighbours to ventureto lift up his voice in protest ; were be to do so, he wouldprobably find himself shortly on the road to starvation.

DANGER OF "BUMPING RACES."

THE fatal accident which has occurred at Cambridgeduring the Lent Term races draws attention to the dangerthat may arise from the sharp-ended prow of the pursuingboat btiog driven into the one in front of it, and injuringthe members of the crew. Although this is happily thefirst fatal accident caused in this manner, still manycasualties, some of them of severe character, have oftenoccurred before, giving, as it were, a warning of what wouldone day happen. Within our personal experience we knowof three accidents of this kind. In one the prow of aboat grazed the intercostal muscles of one of the con-

tending crew, inflicting a serious wound in the flank.In another the prow just missed entering the abdomenof a rower, who received a severe blow from its edge asit glanced by him over the region of the liver, of whichhe felt the effect for some time. In the third instancethe prow fortunately struck the outrigger of the injuredman’s seat, thus lifting the prow, which otherwise would havegone direct into his chest; as it was, the keel passed acrossthe abdomen with such violence that peritonitis ensued. Tonon-rowing men it would naturally appear that the coxswainof the pursuing boat is to blame, but this is hardly the case.In the first place, it would be impossible to stop a racingeight in full career, so as to prevent the boat from runninginto the one just ahead which has suddenly stopped. Inthe next place, the coxswain’s attention is not necessarilydirected to the boat in front of him, unless he is going tomake an immediate "bump." but to the pursuing boat. Herethe art of a good coxswain can often avert a " bump"-thatis, being touched by the pursuing boat-either by giving it" wash," or else by tempting the coxswain in it to make a"shot," which, if missed, gives the pursued another chanceof getting away, whilst the pursuer under the rudder losesway-fortunate if it escapes running into the bank or

falling a victim in its turn to the boat following it. This iswhat seems to have happened at Cambridge. The boat in

front, Clare, had bumped Queen’s at First Post Corner,just at the entrance of the most narrow part of the river,known as " The Gut." These two boats, therefore, drew onone side to clear the path for the following boats ; these wereTrinity Hall and Emmanuel. Now the former had no chanceof making a "bump," as the boat in front was withdrawn,so all the coxswain in the Trinity Hall boat had to do wasto try to escape from the boat behind him, which waspressing him hard; all his attention seems to have beendirected to this point, and by giving his adversary his"wash" he hopad to shake him off ; this brought him over tothe side of the river where the two boats whose crews had

stopped rowing had drawn up, and, as has often happenedwhen similar manoeuvres have been tried, he went hardtowards the bank. The sun, too, appears to have dazzled hiseyes, and it seems that, owing to the necessity of keepingconstant attention on the pursuing boat, he could not avoidcollision. Such accidents, as we have said, have occurredbefore, only, not having proved fatal, the lesson has not beentaken to heart. It would therefore be wrong to make thecoxswain of the Trinity Hall boat the scapegoat on thisoccasion. It is the system that is at fault, and " bumpingraces," which were first introduced in the days of the old-

fashioned tubs, have, with the introduction of long narrowprows, become dangerous. The coroner proposed that theseprows should be shielded, but the real remedy lies in theEubstitution of "time races" for 11 bumping races." Indeed,many rowing men are of opinion that the former, inaddition to their safety, are a better test of a crew’s rowingpowers.

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THE ANO-VESICAL CENTRE.

PROFESSOR ROSENTHAL of Vienna recently read before theImperial Medical Society a paper upon the "Ano-vesicalCentre (Progrès Médical, Feb. 25th), in which he drewattention to the conihcting statements of authors upon thelocalisation of this important reflex centre. Some, he said,would plaoe it below the lumbar enlargement; others abovethis part of the cord. Quincke, from a case of compressionof the cord from fracture of the first lumbar vertebra, con-cluded that the centre was to be found in the so-called" nucleus of Stilling." Professor Rosenthal attributed thesedifferences of opinion to the rarity with which uncompli-cated cases occur. He then gave the history of a case at pre-sent under his care, where the symptoms described arose fouryears ago, after exposure to cold. These symptoms consistedin anaesthesia of the lower part of the buttocks, of the peri-neum, genitals, urethra, and bladder, and complete vesical andrectal paralysis. The anaesthetic area corresponded to thedistribution of the nerves arising at the level of the lowersacral vertebræ, which also contain the motor nerves for theentire uro-genital system. As there was no paralysis oranaesthesia of the lower limbs, the lumbar cord could not beinvolved, and the absence of any motor lesions also negativedthe diagnosis of disease of the sacral plexus. The case sup-ported the view advanced by Quincke, and tended to

localise this reflex centre in the "terminal cone of the

spinal cord." This conclusion-unsupported in Rosenthal’acase by post-mortem evidence-does not agree with theresults obtained by the experimental physiologist.

THE KINGSTON NEW SEWAGE WORKS.

THE corporation of Kingston-on-Thames are to be con-gratulated on hwing boldly attempted to grapple with thequestion of sewage disposal. For the Thames Valley this isindeed, a vexed question ; and if it has not been solved, themeasures about to be adopted will, in any case, constitutea considerable improvement on the existing order of things.Twenty-five years ago the Local Sanitary Board enforcedthe general drainage of the town, and a main sewer,possessing a fall of four feet to the mile, was constructed,with outfall into the Thames close to the railway bridge.Four feet in the mile! How can such a sewer be self-

cleansing ? This, however, is another question. The sewage,minus the deposits it may have made on the road, reachesthe Thames, and any number of schemes have been pro-posed to prevent its polluting the waters of our nobleriver. The litigations attending these various proposalshave involved the corporation of Kingston in costs amountingaltogether to £80,000, a fact which seems to indicate thatsanitary reform is more profitable to lawyers than to

hygienists. Now, however, under the energetic leadershipof the present Mayor-Mr. Walter East-the corporation hasdetermined to manage their own affairs. They have acquiredpossession of a considerable tract of shore land, and theyare now spending .623,000 to build works which shallremain the property of the community, though they will beleased to the Native Guano or A.B.C. Company. These workswill, it is said, be the largest of the kind and the mostperfect existing. But we are given only scant informationas to the condition of the effluent water after treatment.

We are told, it is true, that fish will be able to live in the