1830 EPSOM COLLEGE.-YELLOW FEVER IN YUCATAN.

practitioners. He interested himself in municipal matters atSt. Leonards-on-Sea. Dr. LUDOVIC WILLIAM DARRA MAIRdied on Nov. 4th at the age of 46. He was medical inspectorof the Local Government Board. His services were speciallyin demand for inquiries into applications from publicauthorities to his department for sanction to new methodsof water purification and of sewage treatment, and forother matters involving intricate technical questions. Dr.ROBERT FLETCHER died in November at the age of 90.He held a prominent position in the Surgeon-General’sLibrary at Washington, U.S.A., and assisted in the issue ofthe Index Catalogue of the Library, the most importantcontribution ever made to medical bibliography. Mr.ARTHUR HENRY BENSON died on Nov. 6th at the age of 60.He was surgeon to the Royal Victoria Eye and Ear Hospital,Dublin. Lieutenant-Colonel EDWARD ALFRED BIRCH diedon Nov. 27th at the age of 72. He joined the IndianMedical Service in 1866. He was the author of a work

entitled " The Management of Children in India," whichmet with great success. He finally settled down in

Okehampton. Dr. G. CHRISTOPHER TAYLER died on

Nov. 23rd at the age of 67. He was the oldest practitionerin Trowbridge.

Dr. CHARLES THEODORE WILLIAMS died on Dec. 15th,having been born in 1838. He was consulting physicianto the Brompton Hospital for Consumption and Diseases

of the Chest and to King Edward VII. Sanatorium.He devoted his professional life to the study of diseases ofthe chest, especially pulmonary tuberculosis. He drew

prominent attention to the treatment of that disease at highaltitudes, and took a prominent part in the formation of

King Edward VII. Sanatorium, and for his services receivedthe distinction of M. V. 0.

Annotations.

EPSOM COLLEGE.

Ne quid nimis.

THE number of appeals which pour from all quarters intothe office of every newspaper and the letter-box of everymedical man makes the selection of the institutions whichhave the greatest need a most difficult one, especially in acase where the urgent need does not appear on the surface.Epsom College is one of those cases, because it is not alwaysrecognised that although the ordinary pupils of the College,the majority of whom are the sons of medical men, pay feeswhich cover the cost of their board and education, there isa Royal Medical Foundation, the cost of maintaining whichis defrayed mainly out of subscriptions and donations.In another column of this issue of THE LANCET will

be found an appeal by Sir Henry Morris, the treasurer ofthe College, for an annual income of at least f,4500 in

order that the 50 pensioners and 50 foundation scholars maybe maintained as at present. Unless this income can be

assured it will be impossible any longer to maintain this

number, while the pressure for admission of pensionersand foundation scholars is so great that any reduction in

the number maintained by the College would be more thanregrettable. It may be pointed out that donors of10 guineas and collectors of 20 guineas are life governorsof the College, while subscribers of 1 guinea annually aregovernors during the continuance of their subscription. Atthe same time contributions of less than 1 guinea will be ’,welcome. The appeal is made primarily to medical men,and Epsom College is an institution which not only Ideserves their support, but should be a claim on their

pride as a duty; but the lay public who are sensible oftheir obligations to the ’medical profession will, we aresure, give a helping hand to an institution whose need is

so great. For these reasons it is difficult to believe that

the appeal of Sir Henry Morris on behalf of the Collegewill not meet with an immediate and generous response.The office of the College is 37, Soho-square, London, W.

YELLOW FEVER IN YUCATAN.

THE Mexican peninsula of Yucatan, and especially itsnorthern portion, has for many years been recognised as anarea in which yellow fever is endemic. From time to time

the disease has assumed epidemic proportions, usually whencircumstances have brought together in the region a numberof persons who were "non-immune." The natives of

Yucatan, as of other endemic areas, are regarded as beingimmune to the infection, and so strong is this belief amonglocal medical practitioners that when a native has a febrileattack the possibility of the illness being yellow fever is notconsidered, while the same symptoms in a foreigner wouldbe regarded with very grave suspicion. This assumed

immunity of the native is believed to be established duringchildhood, and is brought about by one or more mild

attacks of the disease. It is held that yellow fever inchildren is generally far milder than in the adult, and itis also said that, should a native adult be attacked,he generally suffers less than a foreigner. It is common

knowledge that Europeans recently arrived in an endemicarea are far more susceptible to the infection of yellowfever than those who have resided in the region for someyears. It is now fairly well recognised that the dangerto which a white man is exposed as regards contractingyellow fever stands in inverse proportion to the length ofresidence within the endemically infected area. Some

authorities believe that Yucatan was free from yellow feverat the time when the Spanish conquerors under Cortez firstvisited the country, and that the disease was imported at alater date. Others, basing their belief partly on ancient

Indian archives, are convinced that yellow fever existed inYucatan before the conquest of the country by the Spaniards.,But be that as it may, the malady has continued to manifestitself for many years, assuming epidemic proportions,.especially at times when a number of non-immunes from

other countries or districts happened to be present. In 1911the revolution in Mexico necessitated the sending of soldiersfrom the healthy highland districts of the interior to Yucatan.The arrival of two battalions at Merida, the capital of theState, was followed by a yellow fever epidemic, and of thefirst 50 cases 48 are said to have been recently arrivedsoldiers. The opportunity of investigating the etiology ofthe disease in Yucatan was at once seized by the YellowFever Bureau, which despatched Dr. Harold Seidelin fromLiverpool to Merida, where he spent five months carryingout his researches, but the epidemic was already waning whenhe arrived. He fell a victim himself to the infection, butfortunately escaped with a fairly mild attack ; he is believedto have had a previous attack some years ago. Some interest-ing notes upon the examination of his blood for the yellowfever bodies, the paraplasma flavigenum, are given in hisreport which was recently published in the léllorv FeverBureczu Bulletin, Vol. IL, No.2, 1912. In this report hediscusses the epidemiology, symptomatology, pathology, andtreatment of yellow fever, and gives many new and valuablefacts concerning the disease. The principal object of hisvisit to Yucatan was to study the relationship of paraplasm81fiavigenum (the parasite discovered and described by himsome years ago) to yellow fever. He found this organism in

.practically all the cases of the disease which he saw ; also,