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Foreign Medical Intelligence.(FROM OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.)

THE professors of the University of Vienna have latelymet for the purpose of deciding whether the degree ofDoctor of Medicine may be conferred upon women. As yetno lady has presented herself as a candidate in Vienna, but,as the case may occur, it was considered necessary to makesome provision beforehand. The professors resolved, mean-while, that all ladies holding foreign diplomas would beadmitted to attend lectures and visit the hospitals. Twoladies, one a Swiss and the other English, have alreadyavailed themselves of the opportunity.At the last meeting of the Paris Academy of Sciences an

interesting paper was communicated by M. Dumas, in thename of M. Wiestyn, concerning the influence of atmo-

spheric dust on the production of disease. M. Wiestyn ob-serves that the ventilating machines of the various hos-pitals and places of public resort pump up with the air ofthe wards and theatres the germs which escape from thebodies of the patients, &c., and then let them fall over in-habited localities, where they produce mischief. Theauthor therefore suggests that, before escaping from theventilators, the air should be subjected to a very high tem-perature, so that all the germs which it contains may be

completely destroyed.In connexion with this communication, M. Sainte-Claire

Deville made some noteworthy remarks concerning variousexperiments which he had instituted during the choleraicvisitation four years ago. He then recognised that theodour emitted by the patients was sometimes acid and atother times alkaline. It was acid in the wards inhabited bychildren or females. The alkaline odour, he said, wasproduced by ordinary ammonia or triethyl ammonia. Besidesthis, the presence of numerous organic germs was traced inthe air of the wards, and it even happened that some of theexperimenters suffered from their contact. M. Sainte-ClaireDeville warmly advocated the employment of calcination ofair as a means of destroying these germs, and preventingthe extension of the epidemic.

HEALTH-CONDITION OF THE CONTINENT.

The health-condition of the Continent continues to bevery unfavourable. At Bordeaux cases of variola havebeen extremely numerous and severe, the hoemorrhagic formprevailing; and in the hospitals the proportion of deathsis said to be 35 per cent. Several cases have also been ob-served at Lyons, Dijon, Marseilles, &c. Besides this im-portant feature in the "medical constitution" of the Con-tinent, may be noticed the results of the cold, windy, andvariable weather which is still prevailing. Out of the 1263deaths registered in Paris, there have been as many as131 due to pneumonia, and 100 to bronchitis, withoutmentioning other complaints of the respiratory organs. Thesame proportion is to be observed in the last health bills ofBerlin, 1VIadrid, Vienna, Florence, &c. Out of a total num-ber of 141 deaths recorded in Florence for the week com-mencing February 27th, there have been 19 cases of bron-chitis and pneumonia. During the same week the thermo-meter descended as low as five or six degrees above zero.

CONTINENTAL APPOINTMENTS.

France.

Professor Chatin, of the Paris School of Pharmacy, hasbeen appointed a member of the Imperial Council of PublicHygiene and Salubrity.-Dr. Jules Delbet, on his returnfrom an official scientific mission to the East, has beennamed a Knight of the Legion of Honour.-Dr. Leroy deMericourt, the able editor of the Archives de Médecine Navale,has been promoted to the rank of Chief Physician in theHealth Department of the Navy.--At the last meeting ofthe Paris Academy of Medicine, M. Amedee Latour, whohas rendered such distinguished services to French medi-eine as the editor of the Union Micticale, was elected amember of that learned body.

Spain.Dr. D. Antonio Machado, Rector of the University of

Seville, has just been elected Civil Governor of the provinceof Seville.

Italy.Professor Guiseppe Giannuzzi, of the University of

Sienna, Dr. Giovanni Demarchi, formerly at the head ofthe Section of Public Health at the Home Office of Italy,and Dr. Villavecchia, of Solero, a veteran practitioner, havebeen nominated Knights or Officers of the Crown of Italy.

PARIS.

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

THE EPIDEMIC OF SMALL-POX.

SMALL-POX is still extremely prevalent in Paris. The

epidemic, far from diminishing, has increased, the last

weekly health bill recording 112 deaths ; and the questionhas been put whether the immense number of vaccinationsand revaccinations performed at the same time has not con-tributed to the extension of the disease. Meanwhile the

panic still continues among the Parisian population, whodaily besiege the various maii-ies, the hospitals, the re-

sidence of M. Lanoix, and every other locality wherevaccine may be obtained. It has been observed that if thedisease has really increased in frequency, on the otherhand it has lost much of its intensity; for whereas themortality was as high as one in every ten patients a fewweeks ago, it has now fallen to one in thirty. Cases ofhaemorrhagic or confluent variola, &c., are becoming rare,whilst cases of modified and benign small-pox are daily onthe increase.The prevalence of the epidemic has opened the eyes of the

Parisian authorities to the necessity of having constantlyon hand an abundant supply of vaccine, whether animal orhuman. The medical and administrative authorities ofParis have been taken by surprise, and have had to un-dergo the severe censure of the press and of the public forthe want of those preventive and precautionary measureswhich the epidemic has brought to light, and which neces-sarily lies at their doors. Not only has the public been con-siderably disappointed at the difficulty, and I may say theimpossibility, of obtaining vaccine at the hands of theauthorities, but all the private medical men of Paris havehad the greatest difficulty in providing themselves with themuch desired virus.There has been quite an outcry from the medical portion

of the public against M. Lanoix, who until now has had themonopoly of animal vaccine ; and this shows the culpableneglect of the Parisian authorities and the AssistancePublique, who, before the present epidemic, had not takenany measures to secure a stock of the virus in case of need.M. Lanoix was the only one in Paris who had heifers affectedwith cow-pox, and when the demand arose for animal vac-cine, M. Husson, the Director-General of the AssistancePublique, and the Town Council, were compelled to enterinto an agreement with him in order to be able to dis-tribute the lymph on appointed days, at the hospitalsand mairies. The result was that M. Lanoix, unable to meetthe demand, eventually furnished matter of a very doubtfulquality. Consequently, almost all the vaccinations turnedout unsuccessful.The reputation of animal vaccine will be considerably

injured by the unfavourable results which it has affordedduring the present epidemic. Even when the vaccinations

were performed under the very best conditions-as in thoseof Dr. Constantin Paul, performed with the purest lymph,coming from one of the heifers which the Assistance

Publique had just secured-the results have been disastrous.Out of thirteen children whom he inoculated at the H6pitalBeaujon, there were twelve unsuccessful cases. About thesame proportion of unfavourable results have been observedin all the other trials ; so that, at least from the point ofview of actual and practical results, the fame of animalvaccination, which had been so trumpeted of late, will bemuch lowered after this test.

M. TARDIEU.

The students of the School of Medicine, who have beenconsiderably irritated by what they style the meek andcomplacent attitude of Professor Tardieu in the recenttrial of Pierre Bonaparte, gave the professor a very rudereception on Monday last, when he resumed his course of