846

contaminated. Compensation is to be given for such

slaughtered horses or mules when diseased to the amountof one half their value ; in the case of suspected animalsdestroyed the full value is to be awarded. Such compensa-tion is likely to prove a great inducement to fraud, and withrespect to diseased animals is decidedly unfair to the rate-payer. Suspected stables may be entered and placarded iffound to be infected, and power is given in other ways tocontrol the disease ; but the task of combating this destruc-tive and dangerous equine scourge should have been under-taken by the central authority. No notice has been taken

of the risk of having glandered horses imported from infectedcountries; in fact, we can only look upon the Order as anattempt to silence the agitation that has been going on forenergetic action in dealing with the disease and to evaderesponsibility and trouble. Such an Order might have beenissued any time during the last twenty years, and before theimpotency of the local authorities had been so clearly demon-strated.

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DEATH OF LORD TENNYSON.

AT the moment of going to press we learn that Lord

Tennyson, enfeebled by years, and after lingering in a con-dition of extreme weakness, but unruffled by physical pain,has passed away. There is probably no living Englishmanwhose loss will be more mourned. He has left a

gap that cannot be filled, for as a poet he stood farabove all his compeers. If he occupied a position be-neath some of our country’s greatest poets, in power ofcreation and dramatic force, he was above most of themin grace and delicacy and refinement of expression and

diction. There was nothing false or meretricious abouthis verse. He had the true touch of genius, and, whatis a rare gift among versifiers, an evenly balanced mind.Lord Tennyson was always true to himself. He did not seek

to lead a forlorn hope of attack against the false aspirationsand ideas of his age. His tolerance and charity were broad,his sympathies deep, and a vein of tenderness and reverenceran through all he wrote. He died in the early hours of

Thursday morning, after a brief and painless illness.

THE IDENTITY OF SYRINGO-MYELITIS ANDLEPROSY.

AN important paper was recently read by Dr. Zambacobefore the French Académie de Medecine on the identity ofsyringo-myelitis and leprosy. He had seen in Constantinoplea considerable number of lepers, and became gradually con-vinced that the affection described as Morvan’s disease, or

syringo-myelitis, was no other than leprosy. He had also

carefully studied the subject in Brittany, where syringo-myelitis had been first described, and where later on thedisease was reported to occur frequently. He observedin all cases which were detained in hospital as incurable

deformity of fingers and various other trophic changes,such as loss of one or more phalanges, muscular

atrophy, anaesthesia or ulcerations, and all these sym-

ptoms he had previously observed in lepers. Photographsof a large number of these were shown which indicated agreat resemblance between the two affections. Names of

localities, such as lambezeller-i. e., " leper village"-andof cemeteries, bridges &c., which are still called des lepreux,testify to the fact that the disease has been endemic in

Brittany since the earliest times. Old pictures of saints andfairies represent lepers just as they appear now. In a picture,for instance, of the miracles of St. Vincent, the saint is re-presented as restoring to a leper child its missing fingers.Dr. Zambaco believes that he is justified in concluding fromstones, figures, and other objects found in many graves inBrittany that leprosy was imported into the country by thePhoenicians. He had discussed the subject with many

1 physicians in various hospitals in Paris also, who fnllyt admitted the resemblance between the affections. A case in

3 Charcot’s ward which had been diagnosed as typical syringo-. myelitis, and in which several fingers had been painlessly ampu-t tated, was brought to the Hopiial St. Louis and introduced to. MM. Vidal, Besnier, Fournier and Hallopeau, all of whom

E declared the patient to be a leper. In some Oriental

, countries leprosy assumes a much severer form than it does in. Brittany, where the disease often remains abortive, and. appears to inexperienced observers as an entirely different ori even perfectly new disease, and as such Morvan described it.l His syringo-myelitis, however, comprises, according to

I Dr. Zambaco, various diseases which should be separated,. one division clearly representing "lepra ansesthetica,": as von Daniellsen has described it ; while others still lack. an exact description. Permanent residents of Constantinople

: are not subject to leprosy, and in those rare instances inwhich it has been acquired it has always been found thatthe ancestors of the patients had lived in the Cyclades orother islands of the Greek archipelago.

THERAPEUTICS IN THE WESTERN INFIRMARY,GLASGOW.

IT would be wrong to say therapeutics is conspicuous byits absence from the clinical teaching in the University ofGlasgow, but it is a striking fact that the Professor of

Therapeutics has no beds at his disposal with which to illus-trate his teaching on the uses of medicines. This is a mostunusual and anomalous state of matters, contrasting withthat of the other Scotch universities and other medical

schools. There is at present a vacancy for a visitingphysician in the Western Infirmary, and it does seem mostreasonable that it should be filled by one occupying soresponsible a post as the Professor of Materia Medica andTherapeutics, to say nothing of the personal fitness andclaims of Professor Charteris, which will be everywhererecognised. It is due to the students that such an appoint-ment should be made, and that the right use of medicinesin the treatment of disease should be demonstrated

by one whose special function it is to study them and theiraction. Professor Charteris, besides being Professor ofMateria Medica and Therapeutics, has had large experiencein teaching clinical medicine in connexion with the RoyalInfirmary of Glasgow.

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THE DIGESTIBILITY OF TRIPE.

WE have been challenged to pronounce an opinion on thedietetic virtues of tripe, an article of food which is largelyconsumed in certain parts of the country, especially during’the winter months. Tripe consists of the soft muscular

walls and mucous membrane of the stomach of ruminantanimals with a small proportion of delicate omental fat

adhering, from which, however, all fibrous portions of theserous covering, or peritoneum, have been removed. From

frequent experiments it has been proved that tripe standshigh in the list of albuminous substances that are quicklyacted on by the gastric juice and reduced to a state

of solution, and has therefore acquired a reputation fordigestibility. But plain boiled tripe in itself is a veryinsipid article of food, and in order to make it palatable theart of the cook has to be invoked, which, whilst making it more"savoury," causes it often when so served to be an offenceto the stomach. The usual mode of serving tripe in thiscountry is to boil it with milk and onions, and therecan be little doubt that such a combination is not

particularly digestible. Tripe is also sometimes frieo’in batter, but unless very carefully cooked it is apt to

become leathery. If only plainly boiled in water it requiresa considerable amount of condiments in the shape of salt,pepper and mustard to make it acceptable to the palate. There-