1379

now available, to be preventable. Tens of millions a year were poured out in an endeavour to mitigate its ill-effects, while towards the removal of the causesof these effects our efforts by comparison were insig-nificant and disconnected. There was work here formore than one generation, but recent experience gavegood ground for encouragement.

SWITZERLAND.(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

Medical Meetings.WE are in the midst of a series of meetings of

medical societies. The ninety-third annual meetingof the Swiss Medical Federation was held in Basleon May 28th and 29th. Several hundred practi-tioners were present. The opening paper on thefirst day, on Methods for the Extraction of ForeignBodies in the (Esophagus, was read by Prof.Oppikoper of Basle. At a social gathering follow-ing, the production of a play entitled "Steinach"by medical amateur actors caused great amuse-

ment. The author is a leading Swiss neurologist,and I only mention the play to show that themedical world here has not much use for the Steinachoperation and its propaganda. The morning sessionof the second day of the meeting was devoted todemonstrations in the various clinics and medicalinstitutes of the town. Prof. Doerr of Basle read apaper on

" Idiosyncrasies," followed by a discussionin which Profs. Sahli of Berne and Bruno Bloch ofZurich took a prominent part. The latter emphasisedthe great importance of idiosyncrasies as a cause ofeczema, idiosyncrasy being probably the clue for thesolution of the eczema problem.-The nineteenthannual conference of the Swiss Neurological Societytook place in Fribourg on June 4th and 5thunder the presidency of Prof. Robert Bing of Basle.The subject for discussion was Regeneration in theNervous System. Prof. Bing approached it from theclinical point of view, Dr. Perret of Montreux asa surgeon and Prof. Hedinger of Basle contributed ia valuable paper from the pathological and anatomicalside.-The Swiss Society of Surgeons is meeting inAarau on June 25th and 26th. Surgery of the GallDucts will be the subject for a general discussion.

Small-pox near Basle.In Basle and in Oerlikon near Zurich there is at

present an outbreak of small-pox. The disease wasbrought to Basle by a German railway official. Sofar we have in Basle 19 cases with one death. AtOerlikon there are 97 cases; none of these hadever been vaccinated except one lady aged 65, whohad been vaccinated when 5 years old, and oneother patient who was vaccinated 30 years ago.These two epidemics should be a warning signal toour country, which has no compulsory vaccination.Compulsion was rejected some 20 years ago by apeople’s referendum. There is now a great rush tothe vaccination stations and a movement is afootto re-introduce compulsion by an appeal to a better-informed electorate.

Imitations of Salvarsan.There was never a time when imitations and

sophistications of drugs was so frequent. Duringthe war nearly all countries placed embargoes onthe import of medicaments, and owing to this thesupply became scanty. The drugs rose in price and inconsequence became a popular object of smuggling.Switzerland, with its high exchange rate, soon

attracted the smugglers. In the back restaurantsof Basle morphine, cocaine, and salvarsan were

bought, sold, and re-sold. The fact that many personsengaged in the speculative trade of drugs had noknowledge whatever of their pharmacology enabledcertain unscrupulous vendors to profit and to selltheir customers imitations. The most prominent ofthe drugs imitated was salvarsan. Dr. Hunziker,director of the health office of Basle, who investi-g-ated the question, at a recent meeting of the Basle

Medical Society gave a description of some samplesof counterfeited salvarsan. A very clumsy substitutewas contained in a bottle of green glass, roughlysealed, bearing the inscription: "Original packagefor Oversea Trade. Neo-Salvarsan 0-3. Contents500 g." Chemical analysis showed that the yellowpowder consisted of sulphate of barium and chromateof lead. A bricklayer of Basle had brought this bottlefrom a German plasterer for 6000 marks (400 francs)The contents of a similar bottle were found toconsist of dust of silicates and rye flour. Threebottles, each containing 500 g. of a yellowishpowder, had a label similar to those on the smalloriginal packages. The inscription, "500 g. Neo-Salvarsan and 0-t g. Salvarsan" was sufficientto rouse suspicion. The contents were sulphateof barium, chromate of lead, and a yellow anilinedye-stuff, probably naphthol yellow S. In thetrade of these bottles were engaged a hairdresser,a beer retail merchant, and a baker. But the mostdangerous imitations of all were those resembling thesmall, much used salvarsan packages. A parcel withseveral hundred samples was found by the Baslepolice at a short distance from the German frontier.The labels closely resembled the original ones, butshowed several slips ; the name Hochst a. M. wasspelled Hochs, in the English text the word" prohibited " ran ;. prohibitet," and the name

of the firm Briining was wrongly spelt. Thecontents, a yellow powder, looked very much likethe original salvarsan. but consisted only of dustand of salt stained with vellow ochre. Thedangers to the public health of this illegitimate tradeare obvious, but quite apart from the spurious pro-ducts the rough handling of the authentic salvarsanby the smugglers is apt to produce oxidisation, whenthe arsenic components may become more toxic.

BRITISH PHARMACEUTICAL CONFERENCE.

THE 58th annual general nleetIng was heid in Scarboroughlast week. The President, Major E. Saville Peck, gave anaddress upon British Pharmacy and its Possibilities.He drew attention to the addresses delivered in recentyears on the need for the representation of pharmacists uponthe Pharmacopoeia Revision Committee, on the institutionof an Army Pharmaceutical Corps, on the advisahility ofthe separation of prescribing and dispensing of medicinesand the necessity for pharmaceutical research. ThePresident outlined the present unsatisfactory position ofthe practice of pharmacy, and urged members to work forthe establishment of a distinct profession of pharmacy onthe lines of that which obtains upon the continent and issuggested in the United States of America. He advocateda wider preliminary education for all those entering thecalling, and pointed out the advantage to be gained byinsisting that apprentices or students of the PharmaceuticalSociety should pass one of the School Leaving CertificateExaminations before registration. llajor Peck also advo-cated the establishment of a university degree in sciencewith pharmaceutics as one of the final subjects, and stronglyurged the institution of a Fellowship Examination to includebiochemistry and bacteriology with clinical microscopy.Such an examination, and the training required therefor,would enable students to carry odt clinical analyses and soassist in diagnosis of disease. It would train men for thework of clinical assistants to medical men in the primaryand secondary health centres contemplated bv the Ministryof Health. Such men are also required by wholesalehouses for the purposes of preparing vaccines and forresearch upon new drugs and remedies. He urged that theprofessional spirit should be reawakened in the rank andfile of pharmacists and that the local associations shouldbe stimulated to discuss pharmaceutical professionalmatters. These associations should send delegates to anannual conference so that the considered opinion of membersmight be focussed and handed on to the council of thesocietv. He advocated the formation of an association ofteachers from the various schools of pharmacy recentlyinstituted, the associates to meet annually to discuss subjectsin furtherance of pharmaceutical education. He lookedforward to the time when a central unifying body shouldbe formed to coördinate and combine all these forces-education, qualiticstion, professional conduct. and research.This would work for the evolution of a profession of phar-macy, which coexistent and interdependent with that ofmedicine, would assist in the combating of disease and inthe improvement of the health of the nation.