578

’however, the treasurer represented to me as everyone had resigned it was desirable that I should do so, and I fell’In with his suggestion. In due course the applicationsfor the in- and out-patient staff were advertised for,but the post of anaesthetist was not advertised fortill Feb. 2nd. My application therefore did not comebefore the Medical Selection Committee in the early part ofJanuary. Although the board advertised that candidatesmust not be engaged in general practice I applied for re-elec-tion, stating I bad served the hospital as anaesthetist forthree and a half years and that I had had no fatal case.There has never been any fault found with my work. Iclaim to take all necessary care as regards antiseptic pre-cautions, and I fail to see that my work as a practitionershould disqualify me for 4 post which I have held withsuccess for so long. I am, Sirs, yours faithfully,

ANDREW FAUSSET, B.A., M.B., B.Ch. Dub.Belgrave-road, S.W., Feb. 25th, 1895.

ANDREW FAUSSET, B.A., M.B., B.Ch. Dub.

"THE DANGERS OF STREET PENNY TOYS:A PROTEST."

To tkJ Editors of THE LANCET.SiRS,—With reference to your annotation concerning the

danger of cheap toys and the possibility of diffasion ofdisease by the mouth, allow me to remind you of an instanceof the kind reported in the French press somewhere aboutEj877. A number of persons having become infected withsyphilis by the mouth, an inquiry was made which led to thediscovery that they had all been in the habit of smokingcigars from the same manufactory, where the finishingtouches (adjusting the edges of the outside leaf, shaping theoint, &c.) fell to the share of some young women sufferingfrom specific disease of the mouth or lips. The conclusion isobvious . 1 am, Sirs, yours truly,

Feb. 25th, 1895. X.

"THE REMUNERATION OF THE RESIDENTOFFICERS IN ST. BARTHOLOMEW’S

HOSPITAL."To th.e Editors of THE LANCET.

SiRS,—I am sorry that my expression "a good time"should have clashed with "Fair Pay’s" idea of why onetries to get on the junior staff. I quite agree with him thatone does not do so with the object of having a good time. Iwas thinking that a year on the junior staff at St. Bartho-1omew’s is worth four or five at a small hospital, for in theformer case one learns how to work with colleagues of manyand varied temperaments ; in the latter, one has at the mosttwo colleagues and often only one. To go back to the pointof pay. The resident officer is in residence for six months-say. twenty-six weeks-and pays about P.1 per week for hisfood. Therefore in twenty-six weeks he pays £ 26 for food.Now, as far as I can see (my authority is the advertise-

ments at the end of the Medical Directory), no single hos-pital with a school attached pays its junior residents anysalary, though they feed them, and most of the appointmentsseem to be for only three or six months. The St. Bartholo-mew’s junior officer is in office twelve months and in resi-dence six. In those six he pays ;t26, and for his year’s workhe receives 25. This works out to much the same as if hegot no salary and was boarded. Again, "Fair Pay" says thatI knew that men resident in a hospital have no opportunityof broaching the subject, nor would they be listened to. Iknow nothing of the kind, but I do know that when I was inresidence I and one of my colleagues initiated several reformsaffecting the junior staff, and that the committee were

uniformly courteous and obliging, and that about a year afterwe left the reforms were completed. As to "R.M.O.,"what does he mean by saying that I have learned thatrelations with other medical men are to be regulatecby supply and demand in its money sense ? ? The onl3meaning I can attach to his words is that the senio],members of the staff have a pecuniary interest in theirhouse physicians or surgeons not being paid more. I:1 have put a wrong construction on his words I wil

apologise in advance, but I can attach no other meaning t(them. I cannot see that it is more expensive to be on thjunior staff of St. Bartholomew’s than that of any othe,hospital with a school ; and not only the experience, but the

fact of having held such an appointment is invaluable. Ifthe hospital were to pay the junior staff the full value oftheir services it would get off cheaply at f2000 or 3000each, for the hospital work could simply not go on withoutthem, but the same might be said of the cook or the porters.

I am, Sirs, yours faithfully,AN OLD HOUSE SURGEON OF ST. BARTHOLOMEW’S.

Feb. 25th, 1895.AN OLD HOUSE SURGEON OF ST. BARTHOLOMEW’S.

LIVERPOOL.

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

The Date of Hospital Sunday at Liverpool.MUCH difference of opinion prevails as to the proposal to

alter the date of Hospital Sunday from the second Sundayin the year to another one later in the year, when the weathermay be expected to be less wintry. On the one hand itis contended that the result could not be worse and mightbe better, that the present Sunday is too near the Christmasand New Year’s festivities, and also too soon after quarter-dayand the inevitable quarterly bills ; and on the other hand it isurged that the present date has been followed for twenty.four years, during which period a sum of 167,508 has beenraised by the Sunday collections alone, an average of £6979annually; and such being the happy result it would be betterto leave well alone. Although the weather this year wasexceptionally severe and the depression of trade worse

than it has ever been before, the collections are expected toreach 6000, the unfavourable circumstances just noted

having combined to raise much sympathy towards the

hospitals and other medical charities. Then there is the riskof dislocating a custom of such long standing, and thefear that it may cause some p3rmanent defaulters. Thematter will be fully considered by the committee before thenext anniversary comes round.

The Weather and the Distress.

Within the last few days the severity of the weatherhas considerably abated, and consequently the distress

among the poor has been less acute. Nevertheless, thestream of benevolence still flows on, large numbers of

persons being relieved, mostly in food, coals, &o. The dis-tribution of money through the police and through theCentral Relief and Charity Organisation Society preventsit being quandered on undeserving persons, of whomthere mast always be a large proportion in such a city asthis. There are always benevolent persons ready to givealms to any applicant, and as a natural consequence thereare always beggars. Organisation and charity are perfectlycompatible, and no one can know better than medical menwhat are the evils of indiscriminate almsgiving.

Lord Chief Justice R1lssell.The Lord Chief Justice is expected to preside in the Crown

Court at the Asszes to be held here next month. As is wellknown, his lordship-first as Mr. Charles Russell and subse-quently as Sir Charles Russell-was for many years attachedto the Northern Circuit, and in no part of it was he betterknown than in Liverpool, which has been the scene of manyof his forensic triumphs.

An Atrocious Murder.At an early hour one morning last week a boy seriously

wounded came out of a house and gave the alarm tiJ

some men that an old man in the same house had beenmurdered. The boy then fainted, and was conveyed to theNorthern Hospital, where he still remains in a somewhatcritical state under the care of Mr. Damer Harrisson. Tneold man was found dead, having received very severe wounds.causing great haemorrhage. The inquest has been opened bythe City Coroner and adjourned, Mr. Frank T. Paul, lectureron medical jurisprudence, having made the examination ofthe body at the request of the coroner, together with theexamination of the blood-stained weapons found by the

police. The injured boy recovered consciousness and wa,

able to give a description of his assailant and to identify, a man whom the police arrested later as the man who

assaulted him. The case has naturally attracted much excite-ment, but further comments must be left till after the inquest

. and magisterial investigation.Feb. 26th.