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Annotations."Ne quid nimis.

THE LATE SIR JAMES PAGET.

ALMOST coincidently with the close of the year 1899came the life’s end of one of the foremost figures in theworld of medical science which this century has produced.We speak elsewhere in full detail of the life and work of

James Paget, but we may here express our inti-

mate sense of the loss which the profession hassustained. By his wonderful insight into the various

processes of pathology, by his power of storing up detailsand his faculty for comparing one with another he renderedincalculable service to the science of medicine and so to

suffering humanity. His influence as a teacher was alwaysfor good, and the great hospital in which he took such aninterest, within whose walls he did such admirable work, hasnever, since the days of Rahere, had a more faithful or

upright servant. -

THE NEW YEAR HONOURS.

THE list of New Year Honours although containing nonames of very special distinction yet brings into prominencemany of those who have done and are doing unobtrusive workfor the Empire. Among the new Knights are the names ofMr. T. Lauder Brunton, M.D. Edin., F.R.S., and of Mr.F. H. Lovell, C.M.G., Surgeon-General of Trinidad. Thework of Sir Thomas Lauder Brunton with reference to

Pharmacology and Therapeutics and his services in con-

nexion with the Hyderabad Chloroform Commission, on

which he represented THE LANCET, are well known to ourreaders. As a physician of high standing and as a man whohas unobtrusively worked hard in the profession to which hebelongs the distinction that has been conferred upon him willbe received with cordial satisfaction by all who know him.Sir Francis Henry Lovell, who is a member of theExecutive and Legislative Council of Trinidad, at one timeheld the appointments of chief medical officer, President ofthe General Board of Health, and member of the LegislativeCouncil of Mauritius. The Honourable John Alexander

Cockburn, M.D. Lond. and Adel., formerly Premier of

South Australia and now Agent-General in London for thatcolony, is made a Knight Commander of the Order of

St. Michael and St. George, and four other membersof the medical profession have been appointed Companionsof the same Order-namely, Mr. John Pringle, M.B.,C.M. Aberd., who is a member of the Privy Council andLegislative Council of the Island of Jamaica; Mr. PatrickManson, M.D., LL.D. Aberd., who, as medical adviser to

the Colonial Office, has done not a little in the cause of

tropical medicine; Mr. Wordsworth Poole, M.B , B.C. Camb.,the principal medical ’officer of the West African Frontier

Force; and Mr. Archibald Donald MacKinnon, M.D. Aberd.,principal transport officer for Uganda. Although not

members of’ the medical profession the Right Hon. SirJohn Lubbock, F R S., who has been made a peer, and

Captain Abney, C.B., F.R.S., who has been promoted to

Knight of his Order, have done work which bears bothdirectly and indirectly upon medicine and public health.

Captain Abney in particular has by his researches into thenature of light and its phenomena, embracing the physiologyof vision, rendered great service to our profession. We con-gratulate all these gentlemen in the name of medical science.

THE ROYAL INSTITUTION OF GREAT BRITAIN.

THE list of Friday evening lectures to be delivered atthe Royal Institution before Easter gives promise of a veryinteresting and instructive session, and among the lecturers I

will be Signor G. Marconi who on Feb. 2nd is announcedto deliver a lecture on Wireless Telegraphy. In the list of

subjects which have some connexion with medicine we notethat Professor J. Reynolds Green will deal on Feb. 9th with"Symbiosis and Symbiotic Fermentation"; Major RonaldRoss, I.M.S., on March 2nd will lay before his audience someinformation with regard to Malaria and Mosquitoes; ProfessorFrank Clowes will on March 9th discourse on " Bacteria and

Sewage"; and Professor J. Arthur Thomson on March 30thwill discuss the "Facts of Inheritance." On Thursdays,Jan. 18th, 25th, and Feb. lst, Dr. W. H. R. Rivers willdeliver three lectures on " The Ssmes of Primitive Man."

THE LANCET RELIEF FUND.

THE report made this year by the almoners of THE LANCETRelief Fund carries on in a very remarkable way the threadof last year’s report and enables us to refer to it as con-

firming the inferences which we then drew from what

seemed to be settled features of the administration of theFund. We had last year to remark that the benefactionsshowed a reduction both in number and amount and thatthere was a marked tendency for the benefits to take the formof gifts rather than of loans. Save as to the reduction in thenumber of benefits these observations apply equally to thefacts disclosed by the present report. It happens, curiouslyenough, that the number of benefits is precisely the samethis year as last, but on this occasion only one case hastaken the shape of a loan ; the rest have all been out-and-out gifts. We have, therefore, a broader basis to-day thanwe had 12 months ago for the pleasing deduction that thepressure of necessity upon those of our professionalbrethren and their immediate dependents who have

fallen upon evil times is sensibly less acute than itwas when the Relief Fund was founded. Coinciding as

this improvement does with improved conditions of

general prosperity it may be reasonably referred to thismore general improvement as its cause and looked uponaccordingly as a real, not merely as an apparent, ameliora-tion in the condition of those of our fraternity uponwhom the times press hardest. The singular, if not quiteabsolute, absence of applications for loans points in the samedirection and this is the more marked in the present becauseattention was expressly drawn last year in our columns tothis feature of the almoners’ work and we then pointed outthat of the various cases which are presented for considera-tion there is none in which it is possible to extend a

helping hand with a livelier sense of satisfaction than thecase in which a timely loan helps a brother overtaken byadversity to help himself. That, however, is no greatmatter. The feelings of the benefactor do not count in

comparison with the advantage of the beneficiary, and wehope with much confidenca that the benefits conferred bythis Fund take the shapes in which they are most service-able to those in whose interest they are bestowed.It is again our privilege to make public acknowledg-ment of the generous services rendered to this charityby the distinguished men who have associated them-selves with it in the capacities of almoners andauditor. We refer, of course, to Sir Samuel Wilks, latePresident, and to Dr. W. S. Church, the President of theRoyal College of Physicians of London; Sir WilliamMac Cormac, President of the Royal College of Surgeons ofEngland ; Sir William Turner, President of the GeneralMedical Council; and Sir Henry Pitman, for many yearsassociated with the first-named body as its registrar.The absence of Sir William 1llacCormac’s name frcm

among the signatures appended to the report reminds usthat his presence at the seat of the war in South Africa isa fine example of practical patriotism which the nationwill not be slew to appreciate. Nor is the presence of

44

Sir Henry Pitman’s name less suggestive, who in the falnessof many years brings a mind still vigorous in age and mostnotable alertness to bear upon the examination of theaccounts. In presenting to each and all of them our

thanks we assume to speak not only for ourselves as

donors of the Fund, to whom its due administrationis naturally a matter of solicitude, but in the name alsoof those who benefit by it and whose gratitude, not alwaysarticulate, is in not a few cases evidenced by expressionswhich it is a privilege to acknowledge but a satisfac-tion largely alloyed with sympathetic sorrow to receive.The application form of THE LANCET Relief Fund willbe found in our present issue and can be readily detachedfor use in case of need. We again take an opportunityof asking those of our readers who may have occasion toassist in furthering any application made for relief from thissource to note carefully the conditions on which applicantsbecome entitled to participate in the benefits of the Fund,as it is still found that many requests are put forward whichare so far outside the objects of the benefaction that theycannot be entertained and from such applications nothingbut disappointment can result. All applications should bemade (in writing) to the Secretary, Mr. Edward Davies,THE LANCET Offices, 423, Strand, London.

A MATTER FOR THE MEDICAL OFFICER OF

HEALTH AND OTHERS.

MR. FRANCIS E. COLESO writing to the limes under dateDec. 29th with regard to the incarceration of some nativesof South Africa at Olympia says that owing to the outcryagainst certain natives employed at Earl’s Court in the per-formances during the exhibition which was held there lastsummer the management at Olympia met the situation bysimply shutting up the Zulus " within the walls of Olympia,where, except when performing, they spent their daysin the twilight of a single large room, being about 50 innumber with two women and a little girl." The letter

really deals with the question of restricting the liberty ofthe Zulus, which does not come within our province, but thequotation from the letter which we have given would seemto indicate the existence of a state of things into which 1inquiry ought to be made. If the facts are as stated the ’Iincarceration not only constitutes a violation of the law,but forms a real danger to public health.

ANTI-ALCOHOLIC SERUM.

THE Paris Academy of Medicine at its meeting of

Dec. 26th listened to a very interesting paper communicatedby MM. Broca, Sapelier, and Thiébaut on the discovery of aso-called anti-alcohclic serum which has already createda great deal of excitement in the daily papers and

which looks rather like a trade advertisement. The three

observers in question started from the principle thatin alcoholic intoxication, as in morphia intoxication,there is a preliminary period which is characterised bygradual toleration of the drug and a feeling of desire forthe poison. On the other hand, it is well known that certainorganic poisons, more especially those produced by microbes,jocm in the organism antitoxins which represent the

elements of resistance which the organism offers to in-

fection. These antitoxins injected into another organismplace that crganism in a state of being able to

resist the corresponding poison. The observers there-fore determined to make research on these principlesinto the action of alcohol. They produced toleranceto alcohol in the horse by giving it by the mouth and thenfound that the serum of this horse injected into otheranimals which had been made tolerant and fond of

alcohol produced in the animals in question such a dis-

taste to alcohol that they preferred to give up both

eating and drinking rather than continue to take alcohol.The injection of this serum in large doses has producedneither in animals nor man any unpleasant symptomseither local or general. M. Broca and hit colleagues proposedto call this substance antiethyline." Clinical experimentsmade upon drunkards had given most interesting and some-what inconceivable results. The drunkard treated with anti4

ethyline lost all his taste fur alcohol ; he no longer cared forbrandy, rum, or absinthe, but he preserved a liking for wineand his appetite and strength returned. Up to the presentantietbyline seems powerless to make any improvement inthe organic alterations produced by the action of alcohol.It is only right to say that this thirsting serum which doesaway with any hungering after brandy but preserves thetaste for wine was received by the Academy with smilingincredulity.

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SEATS FOR SHOP ASSISTANTS.

WITH the first day of the new year the Seats for ShopAssistants Act came into force and with it we hope theamelioration of much suffering among a certain class ofwomen. We say "amelioration" because the evil that hasbeen wrought by compelling women to stand all day long inshops through ignorance and prejudice must still take timebefore it can be eradicated altogether. It is with particularpleasure that we announce the coming into operation ofthis Act because we have for years pointed out the evils oflong standing in shops, more especially in regard to drapery.establishments. The new Act, which is practically part ofthe Shop Hours Acts, is wide in its application as will beseen from the following clause:-"In all rooms of a shop or other premises where goods are

actually retailed to the public, and where female assistantsare employed for the retailing of goods to the public, theemployer carrying on business in such premises shall provideseats behind the counter or in such other position as may besuitable for the purpose, and such seats shall be in the pro-portion of not less than one seat to every three femaleassistants employed in each room."The first offence of non-compliance with the provisions ofthe Act carries with it on conviction a penalty not exceeding.63, and subsequent offences a penalty not exceeding 5, witha minimum of 1. The new Act will be welcomed by thehard-working girls of our shops, and inasmuch as the evilsfrom which the girls suffered frequently extended intofamily life the community at large is to be congratulated.

THE DISSEMINATION OF ANTHRAX.

THERE is good reason to hope that the number ofcases of anthrax will, in the near future, be considerablydiminished. Horsehair imported from China and some partsof Russia has Icng been suspected of being a source fromwhich anthrax spores are intioduced into this country, andthis is now known to be the case. It would indeed be.difficult to believe that those who direct the operations of thehorsehair trade here were indifferent to the danger to whichthey, in common with their employés, are frequently sub-jected. The public will be interested to know that resultswhich individual efforts on the part of manufacturers.have hitherto been unable to effect are likely to be securedby the combined action which has now been organised bythe leading members of the trade. Systematic inquiry hasconfirmed previous suspicion, and on Sept. 2.7th, 1899, at ameeting, held in London, of the principal firms engaged, thefollowing resolution was passed :-" That the manufacturerspresent hereby bind themselves from this date to buy noRussian, Siberian, or Chinese undyed mane hair until

satisfactory guarantees are given by the sellers that the bairhas been thorough’y disinftcted." Steps BBere ako taken to