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Western Company is at pains to explain that the passengerguards, of whom only 10 per cent. make longer duty thantwelve hours at all, and none so long as eighteen hours,work short time on one day to balance the overtime of

another. The plea is not a very sufficient one, for chanceleisure realised at irregular intervals is comparatively ’,worthless for the purposes of recuperation. But suchas it is, it serves to show how cruel, even under theofficial point of view, is the infliction of uncompensatedovertime upon 90 per cent. of the company’s far more

numerous engine-drivers and firemen, who between themmade overtime beyond the twelve hours of over 85,000 hoursduring the month of January, or at the rate of twenty-twohours per man. What the same manager can mean bysaying, a propos of this fact, that " every man whose dutyis at any time unduly prolonged has only to seek for reliefto obtain it " we are at a loss to imagine. The machineryof relief which he is at pains to describe must be singularlyinefficient, to judge it by results. We are much averse, inthe abstract, to the intervention in matters of this sort ofthe Legislature with legal regulations and restrictions uponthe hours and conditions of labour, but we think that

public opinion should make itself unmistakably heard onsuch a point, so that persons in the quasi-public position ofrailway directors might feel that they could only exact atale of labour such as is described in the present returnunder the penalty of public execration.

SELF-MEDICATION.

ON the 7th inst., an inquiry was held at Higginshawnear Bolton, on the body of James Frederick Smith, anengine-fitter, who died on the 5th inst., another victimto the habit of self-medication. The deceased, it seems,suffered from gout, and by the advice of a companion sentto a herbalist for one ounce of colchicum seed, one drachmof iodide of potassium, slippery elm, and guaiacum, 4d. beingpaid for the ingredients. The deceased placed the drugs inboiling water and drank the decoction, death, as before

stated, resulting. The herbalist, in his evidence at the

inquest, said that he did not label anything "Poison,"because he was not allowed to sell it. The jury returneda verdict of " Accidental death." Colchicum is a favouriteand valuable remedy in gout, but when (as in the case undernotice) an ignorant man, by the advice of an equallyignorant comrade, takes what is calculated as sixteen timesthe usual medicinal dose of the drug, the consequences mayeasilv be foretold.

SMALL-POX ISOLATION AT SWINTON.

AT Swinton, Yorks, a disused brick "hovel" connectedwith an old pottery was hurriedly converted into a small-pox hospital towards the close of last year, and the work,including the provision of a wooden administrative cottage,would appear to have been creditably carried out. But the

story of the building embodies some important lessons. Noisolation hospital could be pressed upon the sanitaryauthority with any success until small-pox infection becamea real danger. Then it was that Mr. W. M. Jones, themedical officer of health, succeeded in showing, by certaincalculations, how great would be the mere money loss ifsmall-pox did invade Swinton. But this did not secure the

hospital; it only obtained for him the authority to at oncecall the board of health together as soon as a case hadactually arisen. This tardy action had to be dearly paid for,for when the disease appeared no hospital was ready, and anumber of cases, including three deaths, took place beforethe building was available. It was, however, completedwith considerable speed, and, unlike most such buildings, itlargely served the purpose of checking the epidemic.

It now remains to be seen how far an emergency hospital ofthis sort will really meet the permanent requirementsof the district-that is to say, whether first attacks of diseasessuch as scarlet fever, and which cause a far greater mortalityin our midst than small-pox does, will be isolated in it, orwhether, like many other such buildings, it will be shut up assoon as the small-pox panic is over, the district remainingas regards other infectious diseases, without means ofisolation as heretofore. We hope this may not be the

case; but a disused pottery hovel, even when substantial, isnot, as a rule, the sort of building to attract the infectioussick, and if it fail in this respect, its provision may, in theend, turn out to have been the reverse of a permanent benefitto the district.

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DIABETES INSIPIDUS IN A YOUNG CHILD.

DR. JULIUS WEISZBARTH of Buda-Pesth publishes in aHungarian medical journal an account of a case of diabetesinsipidus occurring in a little girl of only four and a half yearsof age. The daily quantity of urine was from about six tothirteen litres, the specific gravity being about 1002, and noabnormal constituents being found in it. The chief symptomwas the violent and unquenchable thirst, the quantity ofwater drunk varying from eight to ten litres per diem. Whenattempts were made to withhold liquid, the child becamemost distressed with thirst. She always seemed better whenallowed to have as much to drink as she wished. By addingquinine to the water the quantity was reduced to threelitres and a half, but only for a day or two, for as soon asthe child became accustomed to the bitter taste shedrank as freely as before. No medication appeared to haveany effect on the disease. After being about six weeks inhospital the child succumbed to an attack of diphtheria.Before death the quantity of urine passed diminished, asalso the excessive thirst. The post-mortem examinationrevealed slight oedema of the medulla oblongata, diph-theria of the fauces and nares, strumous disease of themediastinal and bronchial glands, tubercle in the lungs,bronchial congestion, hypertrophy and induration of theliver, chronic catarrh of the stomach, follicular enteritis ofthe large intestine, hypertrophy of the muscular structureof the bladder, and dilatation of the ureters.

CHURCH BELLS AND SALVATION ARMY DRUMS.

OCCASIONALLY one finds that the spirit and purpose ofreligion are apt to be lost sight of in the manner of its pub-lic presentation. Thus we feel a want when something likea faith without feeling is preached in the name of utility.Not less evident, however, is the failure of discretion whenenthusiasm becomes ecstasy, and the unbridled emotion leadsits devotees to ignore the present realities of daily life.

llliberality of judgment, and disregard for the legitimate, ifcontrary, opinion of others, are the outcome of this latterweakness, and examples of its pernicious consequences arenever far to seek. By way of illustration we may brieflyrefer to a singular meeting of extremes in the same error ofinconsideration which has lately been exposed in the dailypress. A letter from a clergyman, published a few daysago, complained of the noisy Sabbath observed by the.members of the Salvation Army. This has been succeeded,after a short interval, by a similar protest-brought forwardpartly on medical grounds-against a Ritualistic congrega-tion by a member of our own profession, on account of the" clang, from early morn till late at night," of the churchbell. Which of these two modes of disturbance is theless objectionable is open to question. The correspondentlast mentioned gives the preference to the "Army" ratherthan the Church, perhaps because of its more mobilecharacter. Without discussing this debatable point, how-