703

there was the very good total of 94 hours, at Scilly 80 hours,and at Jersey as many as 109 hours. This last value is 17

hours in excess of the normal. Rain and snow were seldom

experienced. Both at Kew and Newquay there were nomore than 10 days with rain, and at the humid Scilly Islesonly 12, while at Jersey the figure was as low as 7. The

continent was drier still. At Paris and Nice there was rain

on only 4 days, and snow or rain fell at Berlin on

only 5 days, and Biarritz, sometimes so rainy in February,had rain on no more than 9 days. At Paris the

month was remarkable for the sunshine. Although therewere 6 days entirely sunless, the total for the mouth wasas high as 150 hours, giving the very high daily mean of5 hours and about 20 minutes. In London the mean was

about four hours less. Owing to the sunshine Paris was

milder during the daytime than London, its mean maximumtemperature being 480. At night, however, it was colder,having a mean minimum of 320 and frost on 16 occasions.Berlin was not cold for February, but its temperature wasmuch lower than at Paris or in any part of England. Frost

occurred on every night after the 13th, and about the middleof the month continued throughout the day also. The meanmaximum temperature was 420 and the mean minimum 29°.The Riviera had a brief touch of cold from the 18th until the

20th, when snow showers fell locally and the thermometer atnight fell to the freezing point, but as a whole the month wasmild and very fine. At Nice the mean maximum was 40 above

that at Scilly and Jersey, but the mean minimum was a littlelower, the figure being 380, just the same as at Newquay.Biarritz was not so consistently bright as the Riviera, but wasmostly very fine, and its temperature was rather higher thanat Nice both during the day and night. Frost occurred on

three nights, and the mean minimum temperature was adegree lower than at the Scilly Isles. Madeira, althoughbeyond the direct influence of the weather systems of

Europe, was also colder than during January. Its mean

maximum temperature was 64’ 4°, against 65- 50 in January.The mean minimum, however, was practically the sameduring the two months-in round figures 480. There were

only seven days with rain, and on most occasions the fallwas slight.

-

THE ENDOWMENT OF RESEARCH.

IN the interesting inaugural lecture delivered by ProfessorJ. M. Beattie on his assumption of the duties of the chairof bacteriology in the University of Liverpool he spoke of thetriumphs already won by that science and of its aim-the

prevention of disease-and of the methods by which thataim should be attained. He is struck by the danger which ’,arises from specialisation ; from the separation of the

bacteriologist from the pathologist and of both from the

practical physician or sanitarian. This danger, he thinks,can be met, and is being met, by such cooperation of

investigators as has been realised for many years in the

laboratories of the continent and for some time in America,where, according to Professor Beattie, it attains its highestideal in the Rockefeller Institute. If " coöperant, and notspecially individual, work is the keynote of success," and if,as experience has shown, it is by the close cooperation offellow-workers in an institute that this success can be realised,how does England stand in this respect and where are ourinstitutes ? Professor Beattie is able to point to one, andone only, in the British Isles-the privately endowed ListerInstitute. On the basis of the past record of bacteriology, arecord which shows results capable of being expressed interms of financial profit, he claims increased help in thefuture. Is there prospect of such help ? Under the Insur-ance Act a fund for the endowment of research in tuber-culosis is provided, and the suggested schemes for its use

include the provision of a central institute such as ProfessorBeattie desires, or the assistance and completion ofthe fairly numerous existing centres which with further

financial aid could easily attain to his ideal of scien-tific cooperation. Unfortunately, the attempted treatmentand prevention of tuberculosis will more than exhaust

the funds available under the Act, and Insurance Com-

mittees are already appealing to the Treasury for further

aid, so that this source of help may not be realised for

some time. There is, however, a change of attitude and

a greater sympathy shown by the Government towards

educational grants, but there is grave reason to fear that

these grants are given from a desire to secure control ratherthan from any desire to assist education, and it behoves.

educational authorities to try to educate the Government.in the proper principles of administration of such grants.That the man who pays the piper should call the tune is

admitted, but if the paymaster is devoid of an ear for music-and attempts to teach the orchestra how to play the tune hehas called, the result is cacophony. There is no doubt as tothe object-practically the avowed object-of the grantsmade to certain London medical schools, and it is against.interference by the Treasury with their educational aims thatthe Scotch universities have had lately to make vigorousprotest. It is for strong bodies like the universities to.

see that Government grants are not given under suchconditions as to render them dangerous rather than

helpful. -

THE " PARISH DOCTOR" IN SPAIN.

ACCORDING to La Crónica Médica of Valencia the students.and alumni of that university have been meeting in protestagainst the unsatisfactory way in which parish doctors are-paid-or not paid-by the communal authorities, a case-

being mentioned in which one unfortunate medical officerhad not received his nominal salary of £40 for 22 years.The Madrid students are also joining in the agitation, aswas pointed out last month in these columns by a Spanish’correspondent. The object is principally to get the localmedical and educational services put directly under thercentral government, so that the medical officers and

schoolmasters should not be entirely under the thumb ofthe local authorities.

____

DEMINERALISATION IN HYDRO-THERAPEUTICS.

AN interesting note in which the therapeutic claims ofEvian-Cachat water are briefly and clinically explained byDr. Paul Bergouignan has reached us, the principle uponwhich the treatment is founded being that of demineralisa-tion. With this end in view the most valuable ally is, ofcourse, a cooperative régime in regard to diet, for it is

obviously useless to try to demineralise tissues whichare in constant process of being over-mineralised.

Demineralisation, primarily a dissolving and flushingprocess, as evidenced in a course of Evian-Cachat waters,lelieves the body of waste matters out of the blood,the liver, and other organs, and excretes them throughthe kidneys. The water is admittedly not radioactive,while chemically it contains practically no salts of clinicalimportance. According to our own analysis made in 1902the total solids only amounted to 3 grains per pint, consistingchiefly of alkaline carbonates and a very small quantity ofsodium chloride. Clinical observations have shown that the

urine after the water has been administered fasting containstwice as much uric acid and five or six times the quantityof chlorides as the urine voided during the precedingnight. The bottled water retains much of its diuretic

power, and experiments at some of the hospitals in

Paris show it to be more active than distilled water