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children entirely off the streets, nor for that matter arechildren alone liable to be run over in this way. The van-

cover is the real cause of offence. It cannot, we fear, bealtogether dispensed with, but surely some arrangement ispossible which, by rendering it more open at the sides, wouldallow the driver a view of at least part of the front wheelsof his vehicle, and thus tend to obviate the dangers whichmust accompany his present ignorance of surroundingconditions.

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THE HEALTH OF THE PRINCE OF WALES.

IN reference to the rumours concerning the health of HisRoyal Highness the Prince of Wales, we are informed ontrustworthy authority that there is no foundation for them.

We understand from our enquiries that His Royal Highnessis in the enjoyment of his usual health.

ENTERIC FEVER IN LIVERPOOL.

CONSIDERABLE alarm is being felt in Liverpool on accountof a large number of attacks of enteric fever amongst busi-ness people having their daily occupation in some of thecentral parts of the city. It is said that in the case ofmembers of one cricket club no less than fifteen Liverpoolmen of business are down with the disease, and the causeis believed to be the highly insanitary condition of many ofthe older business premises.

PROMPT ATTENDANCE AT HOSPITALS.

A CORRESPONDENT of an evening contemporary complainsof delay in a case of serious injury to the foot admitted toone of the general hospitals. Three hours, it is alleged,were allowed to elapse before telegraphing to the surgeonfor the day. He was not at home, and two hours moreare stated to have elapsed before a surgeon could be procured.A little management would easily prevent such a complaint,if, indeed, it be founded on fact, and clearly strict rules

should be made and enforced to secure a prompt attendanceof the surgeon for the day, and, failing him, of a substitute,who should be named.

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MIDWIVES AND CERTIFICATES OF DEATHS.

THE Derby Borough Coroner had a case before him inwhich a midwife is said to have attended a child five days old.with convulsions and congestion of the lungs, and to havediscouraged the parents from sending for a medical man tillthe last moment, when one was sent for, but only to find thechild dead. One witness stated that in the event of the child

dying the midwife said, "even if it does it will be all right-I Ican bury it." This was denied by the midwife, who howeveradmitted that something had been said about the case ofstillborn children requiring a certificate. The coroner said alot of that sort of thing had been going on lately in the townand he was determined to have it thoroughly gone into. The

determination is a right one and comes none too soon. The

coroner adjourned the inquest until November 24th.

INFRINGEMENT OF THE PHARMACY ACT.

THE county court judge of St. Helen’s, when he recentlyimposed a penalty of ;E5 and costs upon a child of fourteenyears of age who was proved to have infringed the PharmacyAct by selling a bottle of oxalic acid, gave effect in the onlyway that was open to him to the provisions of that statute ;but the case is one that brings to light a serious flaw in theAct of Parliament. The child had been left in charge of achemist’s shop during the absence of the chemist and hisqualified assistant. A customer called and bought a bottleof the poison at this particular time, with which he

shortly afterwards committed suicide. The child appears to

have acted with great intelligence, the customer was askedfor his name and warned that the acid was a poison. An

adult assistant could not have prevented what subsequentlyhappened. Still there can be no question about the impro-priety of permitting children to act in matters of this kindand we should make no complaint if the penal consequencesof such a dangerous irregularity had been visited upon theperson in authority whose business it was to know the law

and his duty to see that in his own establishment it wascarried out. It is probable that the child although pre-cocious could not pay the penalty, and we hope that it wouldin the end fall upon the person morally responsible for theinfringement of the Act. That this child should be in the

circumstances the person legally responsible is a striking andvery unpleasant illustration of the fact that our English lawdoes sometimes deal out very random justice.

PREVALENCE OF SCARLET FEVER.

SCARLET FEVlJR seems just now to be displaying itsautumnal increase in various parts of the country in such amanner as to excite some public attention. We hear ofschools being closed by sanitary authorities at the instanceof their respective officers of health, as at Bedhngton andWirksworth. Scarlet fever is also reported to be prevailingin the Wandsworth workhouse and at Calverley, near Leeds.Between 2000 and 3000 cases a week are being notified

throughout the country, of which the metropolis contributesmore than a third. The chief other contributory places arePlymouth, Leicester, Liverpool, West Ham and Bradford.

"THE TIMES" AND QUARANTINE.THE special correspondent of The Tirneg, whose second

article on English Ports and Cholera we discussed last weekin reference to quarantine, now states that he is "entirelyopposed to " that system. We are glad to have elicited anopinion so definite and so difficult to gather from the articleitself. But since he is thus in entire agreement with us asto the opposition to quarantine we hardly understand thepurport of his remark as to those "who differ " from him, aremark which might at first sight appear to apply to THELANCET. On the important point of putting ships frominfected ports at short distances on the same footing as shipsactually infected, we shall be quite prepared to abide bythe results of any attempt to apply such a practice tothose of our south-eastern and southern ports which are indaily, rapid and incessant communication with ports of

France, Belgium and Holland, for the purposes of an almostuninterrupted stream of passenger and goods traffic. Butfor the sake of the ports alone, we trust the experiment maynever be made,

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THE CORONERSHIP FOR THE WREXHAM DIVISIONOF DENBIGH.

WE regret to have to announce the election of a legalcoroner for the Wrexham Division of Denbigh instead ofDr. Edward Davies of Wrexham, who has been acting asdeputy coroner for some months past both before and afterthe death of the late coroner, Mr. Thelwall. He, although asolicitor, was magnanimous enough to appoint Dr. Davies ashis deputy, knowing well that he himself could not hold theoffice of coroner much longer and that Dr. Davies would bea candidate for the vacant office. One of the chief reasonsfor the election of Dr. Davies’s opponent would appearto be that he had a more thorough knowledge of the

Welsh language ; but, as we understand that the majorityof jurors and witnesses understand English and inter-

preters are rarely required, we fail to see how this canbe urged as any reason, seeing that Dr. Davies musthave had, by his long residence and extensive practice, asufficient knowledge of Welsh to enable him to fulfil the