189

metropolis, the mortality among them ranging from 136 inDeptford to 152 in Poplar, 153 in Southwark, 156 in

Bermondsey, 159 in Finsbury, and 167 in Shoreditch.

Among metropolitan boroughs with rates below the mean

may be mentioned Lewisham, where the rate was 109 ;Stoke Newington, 113; Westminster, 115; and Hampstead,where it was lowest, 90 ; in each case the rates are statedin terms of registered births. In order to indicate the effectof social condition on infantile mortality at successive stagesof the first year of life a table is given in which infantilemortality is shown in relation to overcrowding in groups ofsanitary districts, the term overcrowding being used to applyto that portion of the local population living more than twoin a room, according to the last census returns. The tableshows a marked difference in the mortality of young childrenwhen the least and the most crowded groups of districts arecontrasted ; and this difference is even more pronouncedwhen the later I I trimesters " of the first year are placed incomparison. For example, if the infant mortality of theleast overcrowded districts be taken as 100, the mortality ofthe most overcrowded districts will be represented by 175.In connexion with the provisions of the Children ProtectionAct the subject of the suffocation of infants in bed hasreceived recent attention. ThisAct provides for a substantialpenalty where it is proved that the death of an infantunder three years of age was caused by suffocation whilst inbed with an adult "under the influence of drink." Froma table we gather that whilst in districts where the per-centage of over-crowding does not exceed 7 5 per cent. thedeath-rate from suffocation in bed is only 157 per 100,000births, in districts where the overcrowding exceeds 27 ’ 5 percent. the suffocation death-rate is represented by 524 inthe same number born.

(To be continued.)

THE BOMBAY MEDICAL CONGRESS.

AN Indian Medical Congress is to be held in Bombay from hc

Feb. 22nd to 25th inclusive under the presidency of Brevet- Colonel the Hon. Sir George Sydenham Clarke, G.C.M.G., G.C.I.E., governor of the city. We understand that the

Congress owes its inception to his Excellency who takes a ngreat interest in its organisation. The vice-presidents are arthe Hon. Mr. J. W. P. M. Mackenzie, C.S.I. ; the Hon. Mr.J. L. Jenkins, C.S.I. ; Surgeon-General Sir Gerald Bomford, isK.C.I.E., Director General of the Indian Medical Service; wSurgeon-General F. W. Trevor, C.B., Principal Medical Officer,H.M. Forces in India ; the Hon. Sir W. C. Hughes, C.I.E. ; a]and Mr. W. D. Sheppard and Mr. H. G. Gall, M.V.O. The n’general secretary is Lieutenant-Colonel W. E. Jennings, I.M.S., Marine Lines, The Fort, Bombay, and the assistantsecretary is Captain E. F. G. Tucker, I.M.S. The central o’committee includes representatives of all the medical, s:surgical, and hygienic services, associations, and colleges in India, as well as of the various government and medical d

scientific departments of governments. The Congress will confine its attention to the special

problems of disease and sanitation in India and the work swill be transacted in five sections, all of which will be shoused in the University buildings. Section I. will be underthe presidency of Surgeon-General A. T. Sloggett, C.M.G., rA.M.S., and will deal with Cholera, Dysentery, Enteric Fever, and Tropical Diarrhoea. Section II. (Surgeon-General H. Hamilton, C.B., I.M.S., President) will discuss Malarial Fever,Plague, Leishman-Donovan Body Invasion, and RelapsingFever. Section III. (Surgeon-General P. H. Benson, V.H.S., ]

I.M.S., President), Animal Parasites and Disease Carriers,Snake Venoms, Beri-beri, Mycetoma, Leprosy, and Elephan- tiasis. Section IV. (Colonel C. J. Bamber, I.M.S., President), Disposal of Sewage in India, Water-supplies, Disinfection,and Naval and Marine Hygiene, including Quarantine.Section V. (the Surgeon-General with the Government of

Bombay, President), Ophthalmic Surgery, Vesical and RenalCalculi, and Miscellaneous Papers on Tropical Surgery. Asixth section will include an exhibition of medical, surgical,and sanitary appliances, foods, drugs, and demonstrationsof specimens and lantern slides of medical interest.

Papers have been received or promised from many dis-tinguished medical men, some of whom intend to be present,including Professor Kitasato, Professor Ronald Ross, ColonelD. Semple, R.A.M.C., Major C. Donovan, I.M.S., MajorG. Lamb, I.M.S., and Major Leonard Rogers, I.M.S.

The committee will hold a conversazione in the Exhibition

grounds on Feb. 23rd. Various Indian railway companiesare offering travelling facilities at reduced rates. for theoccasion. The committee will publish papers accepted bvthe Congress in the form of transactions, which it is hopedwill form a valuable contribution to tropical medicine. A

design has been approved for a commemoration medal to bestruck in silver by the Bombay Mint, by permission of itsmaster ; the obverse will depict the goddess Hygieia and thereverse the Anopheles mosquito.

Looking Back.FROM

THE LANCET, SATURDAY, Jan. 15th, 1831.

THERE are two classes of aurists in this country, stationaryand sham, or vagrant aurists. This last class is part andparcel of the numerous miscellaneous and irregular vagabondsunder various medical denominations, who are tolerated byaw and custom in this island. The vagrant mcrist pursuesexactly the same system as the vagrant oculist. The plan ofboth is to cure slight cases for the lower orders, draw up grossexaggerations of the cases in whole columns of the news-papers, and make the patients pay for them in return for thebenefit received. By this method these swindlers lay hold ofnumerous and even respectable dupes from all parts of thesurrounding country, whilst they silence the provincial press,which, for the most part, has reached the lowest pitch of infamy,servility, and venality, and prevent the publication of

exposures by the indirect bribery of the advertisements. Ioffered Mr. Wright’s very proper "caution to the public

"

respecting these vagabonds to a provincial paper, in a neigh-hourhood where one of them was prowling about; but thenewspaper people refused to insert it, because they con-sidered exposures of quackery offensive to the public taste.The announcement of their extraordinary cures by eo2cp demain generally runs under the title of Doctor, or Mr. So-and-So, in sundry great towns, ’’ where he intends to delayhis stay for a few weeks longer," &c. Among these trampersis a woman-aurist, who heads her advertisements with awoodcut of a large ear and its organs. To reason

against such rank imposture is superfluous, since of. all derangements, universal experience has proved that none, under the most able individuals who have given.

particular attention to the subject, are more im-

moveably stubborn, and less frequently treated with suc-

cess, than cases of deafness. It is part of the admirablesystem of medical legislation in France, which is an example

*. to every other country, and which, ere long, in the presentday of rational reform, I trust, will be copied in all its

leading points in this country, that all quacks, under the1 denomination of aurists, or any denomination whatever, are seized by the police, and shopped 1 up in jails by no meanse so comfortable as our voluptuous houses of correction.

r Moreover, no encouragement is given by court appoint-ments to any superfluous subdivisions of the profes-

’ sion. Whoever takes upon him as aurist or oculist must

_’ have been regularly educated previously as physician,.’ surgeon, or officier de sante. But the assumption of

g such appellations as "surgeon-oculist," "surgeon-aurist,"is considered in that case extremely degrading, and whoever

’ assumes them is excluded by law from the concours for theelection of agreges and from all public appointments. None

) but officiers de sante grace their sign-boards with these names,z’ and they are a denounced and repudiated body. In Englande: there is no means of extirpating quacks, whether rogues,of vagabonds, strollers, or otherwise, except only the Londonal press, which, by promulgating such remarks as these in

A their columns, can always accomplish a great deal for the, public safety. 2

1 The word "shopped" is no doubt here used in its slang sense of"imprisoned."

2 Excerpt from "Practical Observations on the Pathology and Treat-ment of Deafness" by John Fosbroke, M.D., M.R.C.S., N.R.P.S.Edin. (sic),&c. The author states that "They formed the subject-matterof an inaugural thesis at Edinburgh; but to have published them inthat form, would have been to throw whatsoever was useful in theminto a vault." Dr. Fosbroke practised at Cheltenham.