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is desirable, if they are determined upon action, thatthe matter should be at once taken in hand by theGovernment. The Government Committee were alsostrongly urged to remove " the stumbling-blockof compulsory Greek at the Universities of Oxfordand Cambridge," and it was pointed out that thougha majority of the people who have given attentionto the matter are now in favour of reform, the wayis blocked by the non-resident voters, and this wayshould, in the opinion of the committee, be clearedby Government interference. It is suggested thatmore direct encouragement of science is needed, sothat there should be an increased number of careersopen for highly-trained men, while existing scientificservices should be expanded, so that men whohad received high scientific training could findcareers. It is not proposed that the subjects oflanguages and history should be displaced, butthere can be little doubt that there must soon besecured for the teaching of natural science a

position of no less importance, as an essentialcomponent of a liberal education, than that whichis now held by the teaching of languages andhistory, and the views of the Government com-mittee on this question may well lead to im-

portant modifications in the curriculum at our

centres of education. ---

DEATH CERTIFICATION.

THE serious and increasing shortage of medicalmen available for civilian practice is making itselffelt in various ways. The Guy’s Hospital Gazettefor July states that those responsible for dealingwith acute cases sent up to the hospital are find-ing that the work of the general practitioner isgradually becoming less efficient. Acute abdo-minal cases, it is here stated, are constantlybeing admitted in which perforation had evidentlybeen present for some days. In view of the urgentcall on the practitioner’s time in matters of lifeand death it is not unnatural that less time andthought are available for work of a more formalcharacter. At a recent inquest at Hackney held by IDr. Wynn Westcott on the body of a labourer theunusual form of a death certificate excited

. comment. The deceased was seen by a medicalman on July 25th at his surgery, and by no otherpractitioner before his death, which took place onAugust 4th. Meanwhile the medical man hadgone away, and before doing so had signeda certificate which a colleague, who was tempo-rarily attending his patients, filled up and handedto the relatives. This, as the latter gentlemanstated in his evidence, he did after making in- iquiries, but he admitted that he had not seen thepatient when alive, nor apparently had he seen thebody. The jury accepted the certificate as accurateand returned a verdict of " Death from natural icauses," adding that, in their opinion, the pro- i

ceeding was irregular, the coroner having already imade observations to the same effect. While 1the giving of a death certificate in such amanner is irregular and obviously undesirable,we cannot find evidence that it is illegal. It cannot =be said to be in accordance with the spirit of the Istatute of 1874, which regulates the registration ofdeaths, but done as in the case under comment awithout any wrong intention it does not constitutean offence. The Act (37 & 38 Viet. c. 88) onlyorders that a medical practitioner attending apatient in his last illness shall sign and give to fsomeone who has to give information to the ]registrar a certificate stating to the best of his (

knowledge and belief the cause of death. Beforethe Departmental Committee which inquired intothe law relating to coroners Mr. J. Brooke Little,in the course of his evidence, was asked whether amedical man was obliged to see the body after death,when he replied as follows :-

I think the Registration Acts do not point out in any wayhow the medical man is to prepare himself for giving hiscertificate, except that it appears to be assumed that thecertificate will be given by the medical practitioner whoattended the deceased during his last illness. Section 20 ofthe Act of 1874 makes it incumbent upon such a practitionerto give a certificate of the cause of death in the prescribedform. There is, however, no statutory direction that heshall see the person after death before he gives hiscertificate.

The first part of this reply calls attention to theunsatisfactory looseness of the law as to who is tobe responsible for the giving of a certificate of thecause of death, although the question asked wasdirected to another point-that is to say, to thedesirability of the medical man inspecting the bodyas to which the cerbificate is given.

SYNTHETIC ALCOHOL FOR COMMERCIALPURPOSES.

THE synthesis of alcohol from its componentelements would afford great relief to a country likeSwitzerland, dependent for its usual supply ofalcohol on outside sources and naturally loth toemploy for the purpose any of its scanty stock ofstarch. Dr. Fleissig, apothecary to the Town Hos.pital in Basle, tells 1 how thisproblem has been solved,although, unfortunately, its complete technicalapplication will require 18 months to work out.Calcium carbide is now produced in Switzerland toan annual amount of 70,000 tons, and is thestarting-point of the synthesis. The acetyleneevolved from it combines with a molecule ofwater to form acetaldehyde in the presence of acatalyst such as mercuric sulphate. Two additionalatoms of hydrogen, produced electrolytically, unitewith the aldehyde to form alcohol under the

influence of certain metals as nickel, platinum, orpalladium. A ton of alcohol can thus be obtainedfrom 2 tons of carbide and 500 cubic metres ef

hydrogen, requiring, apart from electrical energy,only 2’2 tons of coal and 4 tons of chalk. Switzer-land’s average requirement of 10,000 tons ofalcohol would therefore demand the import of onlysome three-quarter million francs worth of coal,while the ready-made alcohol at present costs

4,000,000 francs. The process requires, of course,a large amount of electrical energy-a ton ofalcohol demands 11,000 kilowatts to produce-butthis is readily supplied by the "white coal" availablein the water-power of Europe’s central plateau.We know well enough that alcohol may be

synthetically produced from acetylene, but up tothe present this has only been done on a laboratoryscale. In this case the method has been to convertthe acetylene into ethylene by contact with hydrogen,and to pass the ethylene so produced into sulphuricacid, sulpho-vinic acid resulting. Finally, thisacid when distilled with water gives alcohol. Thesynthesis on a commercial scale will be watchedwith close interest by all those who use industrialalcohoL ————

1 Correspondenzbl. f. Schw. Aerzte, 1917, p. 948.

DONATIONS AND BEQUESTS.-The late Mr. S. H.Whiting, of Charlton King’s, Cheltenham, bequeathed £ 500each to the Gloucester Royal Infirmary, Cheltenham GeneralHospital, and the Stroud Hospital, and X200 to the CirencesterCottage Hospital.