1319FORTHCOMING EXHIBITION OF HYGIENE AT BOULOGNE,

introduction of the venom speedily affects the germicidalpowers of the blood. This germicidal property of normalserum is, however, itself limited, at least as regards thebacillus coli communis. The experiments with the bacillusanthracis seem to show that after a time the germicidalpower is regained by serum that has been acted on by thevenom. How the venom operates is not shown, but fromthe lucid account given by Dr. Ewing we may infer thatit acts partly by reducing the alkalinity of the blood, an

increase of which is known to raise the germicidal power, andpartly perhaps by the direct influence of the toxic principle.In any case the results seem to confirm the views that normal

healthy blood serum is a powerful protective agency againstthe inroads of bacterial infection, and that toxines act harm-

fully not merely by their direct effect, but equally, if notmore fully, by lowering this resistant power of the bloodagainst secondary infections.

THE DEATH OF DR. TWINING.

THE sad death of Dr. Alfred Hughes Twining of Salcombeonce more illustrates the evil consequences which may attend

practical joking. The deceased gentleman, whilst drivingat night along a country road, was the victim of a foolishlocal custom, which prevails among the inhabitants of thedistrict on May Day, of "ducking " each other with water.Two boys, together with others, were keeping up the custom,when the carriage in which Dr. Twining was returning homehappened to pass, and the boys, it is alleged, threwwater over the horse, causing the animal to bolt, with theresult that the vehicle was overturned and the occupants werethrown violently to the ground. Dr. Twining was taken to theSouth Devon and Cornwall Hospital, where he was found tobe suffering from dislocation of the left ankle and a fracturedleg. On Saturday, May 5th, five days after the accident,it was found necessary to amputate from the thigh, and theoperation was performed on the following day, but the unfor-tunate gentleman never rallied from the shock and died thenext day. It was pleaded on behalf of the boys at theinquest that the water was thrown with no malicious inten-tion and that the practice of " ducking

" was a common one

on May Day. The jury, however, returned a verdict of

"manslaughter" against the two lads, and the coroner ex-pressed the hope that the present case would be the means ofstopping a very dangerous practice in the district.

OPHTHALMIA IN POOR-LAW SCHOOLS.

OPHTHALMIA among the children of our Poor-law schools

is, from whatever point of view it may be regarded, a subjectfor serious consideration. It is a disease that is always moreor less present, and is liable, under certain unhygienic condi-tions of living to which the children of the poor are so

frequently exposed, to develop into outbreaks, with conse-quences to vision that are occasionally disastrous and almostinvariably attended with ocular troubles that are distressingto witness in children and often difficult of cure. The greatthing, of course, to be aimed at from a sanitary point ofview is to prevent the occurrence of epidemic ophthalmiaand to limit the spread of the disease when it does makeits appearance; and, from a curative point of view, to treatthe disease in its initial stage before any real damagehas been done to the eye. An outbreak of ophthalmia oftenoccurs more or less suddenly and provision has at once to bemade for the removal or isolation of the affected childrenand for their accommodation, classification, and treatment.These are matters which cannot be properly accomplishedin a hurry, and they frequently entail a considerable expendi-ture of money in providing temporary buildings, which

may not be needed when the occasion for them has

passed away. The history of the London District Schools

at Hanwell may be cited by way of illustration. Of £that history during the last fifteen or twenty yearsthere is no need to speak, for our readers are already suffi-ciently familiar with it. Mr. Henry John Searle, chairmanof the board of managers of the Central London School

District, has recently put forward a practical proposal fordealing with the ophthalmia in pauper schools. He contendsthat just as the Metropolitan Asylums Board provides forthe proper care and isolation of cases of infectious diseaseso there should be some adequate central establishment inconnexion with the Poor-law school system for thetreatment of children suffering from ophthalmia. He

argues that the advantages of, and the saving by, sucha plan would be very great. Children suffering from

ophthalmia could be at once transferred to an estab-lishment where they would be promptly and efficientlytreated and provided for. In this way the risk of the

spread of the disease and of its epidemic prevalence inschool communities would be removed, and the great expenseincurred at present by the multiplied provision of isolationdepartments at the various schools would be avoided. Whilewe are not at all disposed to underrate the advantages of sucha scheme, as set forth on paper, we think that it presents diffi-culties which will require to be very carefully thought outbefore it is practically adopted. The nature and extent of

accommodation to be provided ; the site of the proposed in-stitution as regards airiness and salubrity and amount ofacreage and its accessibility; the organisation necessaryfor the transfer of the affected children, and the working ofthe system generally, together with the estimated cost of theproposal: all these are matters that must be seriously takeninto account, to say nothing of what might be the possibleeffect of aggregating a large number of children affected withophthalmia in one and the same building.

FORTHCOMING EXHIBITION OF HYGIENE ATBOULOGNE.

AN International Exhibition of Hygiene will be held thissummer at Boulogne-sur-Mer, the popular seaside resort,which has so often been qualified as the most English townout of England. Most of the sanitary reformers whosenames we have had occasion to mention in connexion with

sanitary work in France are assisting in preparing thisexhibition. For instance, we find among these patrons thenames of M. Henri Monod, Councillor of State and Directorof the Sanitary Services of France ; Dr. Brouardel, Dean ofthe Paris Faculty of Medicine; M. Pasteur ; Dr. Proust,Inspector-General of the Sanitary Services ; Dr. Napias.Dr. A. J. Martin ; M. Emile Trelat, the eminent architect andauthority on Ventilation ; M. Bechmann, the engineer; andM. Louis Masson, the Sanitary Inspector of Paris. Dr.

Aigre,l mayor of Boulogne, is the president of the Organising Committee, and he is assisted by the chief medical men,municipal councillors, engineers, and other local notabilities.The exhibition will last from July 15th to Sept. 15th and isto be inaugurated by the Minister of the Interior. From

July 25th to 29th a Medical Hydrotherapic Congresswill meet at Boulogne under the presidency of Professor

Verneuil, of the Institute, and Dr. Bergeron, perpetual £

secretary of the Academy of Medicine. The exhibitionwill be built immediately behind the Casino, on the QuaiGambetta, where the old custom-house used to be. It

will be divided into five groups. The first group, Dcmestic

Hygiene, has three classes. The first class emb,races the

question of the housing of the poor, the supply and sterilisation of water, domestic drainage, the abolition of the smokenuisance, heating and ventilating, &c.; the second class dea1f:with food-supply and storage. The first class of the second

1 See THE LANCET, March 18th, 1893, for an account of Dr. Aigredaction during the cholera epidemic at Portal and Boulogne.

1320 THE NURSES’ HOME AT THE LONDON FEVER HOSPITAL.

group, Public Hygiene, deals with urban sanitation, sewers,

wells, reservoirs, public washhouses, cesspools, treatment

of sewage, scavenging, markets, slaughterhouses, stables,municipal statistics, &c.; the second class includes all that

concerns the relief of the poor and help to the wounded.The third group is devoted to School Hygiene, and the fourthgroup to Maritime Hygiene, notably the clothing and foodof the sailor and improved sanitation for fishing smacks.The fifth group comprises all that concerns Hydrotherapy.Persons desiring to exhibit should apply to M. H. Ruveillez,Secretary to the Organising Committee, at the Hôtel-de-Ville,before May 25th. Doubtless this exhibition will add to the

attractions of Boulogne, and we hope that it will enlightenthe native population in matters relating to hygiene. In

this respect there is still much to be learnt and much to be

taught, for the drainage of Boulogne is very imperfect, andthe inhabitants do not yet thoroughly understand how muchtheir prosperity depends on the perfection of their sanitaryervices.

___

CADAVERIC RIGIDITY.

DR. TISSOT presented before the Académie des Sciencesthe results of his researches on cadaveric rigidity.l Two

contrary opinions have been expressed by physiologists onthis point, SJm9 concurring with Brucke and Kuhne that therigidity is due to a chemical phenomenon-coagulation of themyosine, whilst others, agreeing with Ingsten and Brown-Sequard, consider it as a final contraction of the muscles-that is to say, a physiological phenomenon. Dr. Tissot’sconclusions are as follows : 1. The rigid muscles can veryoften be electrically excited for a variable length of timeafter the onset of rigidity and even when it is com-

pletely established. This persistence of excitability is

almost constant in those cases in which rigor mortishas supervened rapidly. 2. The rigid muscles which havelost their electric excitability often preserve their mechanicalexcitability for a considerable period of time. 3 The rigidmuscles which have lost their electrical and mechanical ex-

citability can still be excited to contraction by chemical re-agents. Contrary to what has been stated by several physio-logists, the excitability of muscles to chemical reagents(chloroform, ammonia, ether, &c.) persists much longer thanthe mechanical excitability and is always the last to be lost.4. Whilst the electrical excitability progressively diminishes,the excitability of the muscles to certain reagents increasesand reaches its maximum when that of electricity dis-

appears, and at the moment when the muscle becomes

rigid. With some reagents, however, the reverse occurs

and the excitability progressively diminishes. 5. Tetanisedand fatigued muscles present an exaggeration of sensi-

bility to chemical reagents in the same manner as

the rigid muscles. This reaction has also been observedin muscles of which the vessels have been ligatured for

some time, and in muscles which have been submitted to

the action of air, heat, drying processes, &c. 6. Contraction

produced in rigid muscle by the action of some excitant,even if it be only a small quantity of the vapours of chloro-form or ammonia, is accompanied by the production of a"current of action " in the muscle. It is also accompaniedby the disengagement of heat, as in the contraction of normalmuscle. 7. Rigid muscles when exposed to the air absorboxygen and give off carbonic acid. 8. Dr. Tissot had onlytwice been able to cause the onset of rigidity in the gastro-cnemius of a frog by a single strong electric shock, just beforethe moment when the muscle would have lost its electric

excitability. -

WE understand that there is a probability of steps beingtaken to hold the annual meeting of the British MedicalAssociation in 1895 in London.

1 L’Union Médicale, April 28th, 1894.

AT the meeting of the delegates of the London medicalschools held at the Middlesex Hospital on Wednesday last aresolution was passed expressing an approval of the generalfeatures of the scheme drawn up by the Gresham Uni.

versity Commissioners ; but it was also resolved to ask thatpowers should be given to a Statutory Commission to re-consider and alter some important details in the report ofthe Commission.

___

MR JOHN CHARLES BUCKNILL, M.D., F.R.S., who is, weare pleased to learn, to receive the honour of knighthood,took an active part in the Volunteer movement and may be,indeed, regarded as its originator in this country. Dr.

Bucknill, who is joint editor with Dr. Hack Tuke of the"Manual of Psychological Medicine," has written severalworks on allied subjects, and was Lumleian Lecturer at theCollege of Physicians in 1878.

THE testimonial to Dr. W. Howship Dickinson, which con-sists of a portrait of himself by the Hon. John Collier, a serviceof silver plate, and an illuminated address, will be presentedto him on Monday, June 18th, in Grosvenor House. The Dukeof Cambridge has, we understand, undertaken to present thetestimonial to Dr. Dickinson.

THE new buildings of the Medical School of St. Thomas’sHospital will be opened by the President, H.R.H. the Dukeof Connaught, K.G., on Saturday, June 9th, at 4 p M.

THE NURSES’ HOME AT THE LONDONFEVER HOSPITAL.

ON Friday afternoon last Lady Balfour of Burleigh, whowas accompanied by her husband, the President of the

Hospital, declared open a new Nurses’ Home which hasbeen recently built in juxtaposition to the London Fever

Hospital. The total cost of the handsome annex, includingthe furnishing of it, was over 6000, and the money hasbeen well spent, as this extra accommodation for nurses hasbeen sorely wanted for a long time. This urgency of needfor better accommodation for the nurses has led to the first

step in future work. The erection of the Nurses’ Home may

be taken as a first instalment of the work of general recon-struction. The architect of the Home was Mr. Keith Young,h’. R I. B. A. The building, an illustration of which we give,is a handsome and commodious three-storied house. It con-tains single bedrooms for thirty-one nurses, with certain

large common rooms and other smaller ones, and its erectionshould greatly conduce to the comfort and general health ofthe nursing staff of the Fever Hospital.