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wool and silk serves the latter purpose best; it protectsthe body much better than a very heavy overcoat which islikely to tire the patient out even after a short walk, andas, as is well known, fatigue increases the breaking downof bodily tissue the patient has to be protected in this direc-tion as well. 3. Finally patients of independent means, orsuch as can afford it, are advised to spend their wintersin sunny climes. For this purpose the quieter places of theRiviera-as San Remo, Cannes, and Grasse-come first intoconsideration ; Algiers can also be considered ; whereas thevery dry climate of Egypt is not so well tolerated by manydiabetic patients. Although we do not consider that thereis anything particularly new in Dr. Arany’s observations,yet he has put his points clearly, and they are certainly suchas should by no means be neglected by anyone who has thecharge of a diabetic patient.

IS STONE-BREAKING INHUMAN ?

SOMETIMES we are inclined to think that our humanitariantenderness is in danger of becoming a mawkish andeffeminate sentimentalism. A discussion took place a fewdays ago at the meeting of the Salford board of guardianson the question of stone-breaking, one gentleman saying thatit was " an inhuman method of out-relief." Another said thatif it were an inhuman practice the guardians were not respon-sible for it and they had to administer the law as it stood.The first gentleman considered that some alternative schemeshould be evolved by the board that would not come intocompetition with other trades. This probably would prove amore difficult task for the evolutionists than even stone-

breaking. A lady guardian said that they must either openthe stoneyard or take the men and their families to the work-house. The amount of work prescribed is "the breaking of8 cwts. of stone per day, each worker to be paid in accord-ance with the amount of stone he breaks not exceeding thespecified quantity." It may be that the able-bodied un-employed who still retain any of the independence of mindand self-respect that in these days have a hard struggle forexistence prefer this kind of work to going to " the house."We have seen on country roads contented looking and,indeed, cheerful old men who evidently were unaware oftheir work being inhuman and whose lives had not apparentlybeen shortened by such labour.

THE LAST ILLNESS OF GIOSUÈ CARDUCCI." THE illustrious patriot and poet for whom all Italy is

now in mourning was of an exceptionally robust constitu-tion," writes an Italian contributor, " and led a life ofstrenuous activity, mental and physical, till 1884, when thefirst symptoms of cerebral exhaustion began to betray them-selves. He bad in consequence to slacken his productiveenergies and to seek, summer by summer, the fresh ’,restorative Alpine air, first of Courmayeur and then of Madesimo on the southern slopes of the Splugen. OnSept. 29th, 1893, he passed through a grave crisis dueto cerebral thrombosis, from which he emerged with a slight impediment in the use of his tongue and of his liright arm. From that day forth he had to employ an I

amanuensis to whom he dictated his work in verse and

prose, rarely writing a letter even, but signing with a pencilwhat had been written to his dictation. Up to October,1905, he continued his academic and literary work with theaid above indicated and, accompanied by friends, wouldoften be seen walking about Bologna and frequentinghis old places of resort. At that time, however, he hada spasmodic cardiac seizure which was so severe thatit seemed to portend a fatal issue at no distant date,one of the sequelæ; being a loss of power in the lowerlimbs which confined him to carriage exercise. Even

thus he would seldom venture farther than the establish-

ment of his friend Zanichelli, the well-known Bolognesepublisher, where he would while away the afternoon inskimming the new publications. His faculties remainedentire and clear till Feb. 8th when he was attacked bythe prevailing influenza. Pneumonia supervened and onthe 13th his temperature rose to fever heat, accompanied bydistressing dyspnœa. His distinguished brother professor inthe Bolognese school, Dr. Augusto Murri, was called inconsultation by his regular attendants, Dr. Boschi and Dr.Dagnani, but his prognosis held out but little hope. At

11 A.M. on the 15th he was again seen by Dr. Murri and thenit was only too apparent that the end was a matter ofhours. In the Italian clinical phrase he had entered intothe agonia,’ and at 1.28 in the afternoon he breathedhis last in presence of his family and immediate relatives.The King and Qaeen, the Queen Dowager, the Prime.

Minister, and the Presidents of the two Houses of Parlia-ment, LTpper and Lower, received the announcement imme-diately by telegraph and all Bologna was profoundly andvisibly impressed. It is for the lay press to sum up thecareer of Giosue Carducci and to pronounce on the placedue to him in his country’s annals. But it may interest the

professional reader to know that his father was an able andaccomplished practitioner on the Maremma of Pisa, where,after suffering arrest and police surveillance for interventionin the cause of Italy, he did heroic service in the frightfulepidemic of cholera which decimated Leghorn and the

adjacent towns, while it was to him, in the intervals ofpractice, that the son owed his initiation in the literature,classical and modern, of which he was ere long to become

so eminent a votary and exemplar."

THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS OFENGLAND: HUNTERIAN FESTIVAL.

THE Royal College of Surgeons of England celebratedthe anniversary of John Hunter’s birth on Feb. 14th by adinner given at the College subsequently to the delivery byMr. H. T. Butlin of the Hunterian Oration (see p. 481 of thisissue). The President, Mr. Henry Morris, who was supportedby the Vice-Presidents, Mr. Edmund Owen and Mr. RickmanJ. Godlee, received the visitors and Fellows in the hall ofthe College, and 95 covers were laid for dinner in the library.Mr. Morris presided, the chairs at the ends of the smallertables being taken by Sir John Tweedy, the immediate PastPresident of the College ; Mr. Butlin, the Hunterian Orator ;Professor Charles Stewart, the conservator of the museum;Mr. Frederick G. Hallett, the secretary of the ConjointExamination Board; and Mr. S. Forrest Cowell and Mr.Victor Plarr, the secretary and librarian respectively ofthe College. The guests included : H.S.H. Prince Francisof Teck, Professor T. Clifford Allbutt, Mr. A. B. Atkinson,Sir S. Bancroft, Sir T. Barlow, Sir F. Bridge, LordCheylesmore, Mr. Coles Child, Sir W. S. Church, Mr.Justice Bargrave Deane, Alderman Dr. T. B. Crosbyand Mr. W. H. Dunn, Sheriffs of the City of London,Director-General H. M. Ellis, R N., the Right Hon. W. G.Ellison-Macartney, Dr. T. G. Foster, Mr. W. W. Grantham,Mr. Reader Harris, Sir Edward R. Henry, Sir C. Holman,Mr. W. How, Dr. Robert Jones, Sir Alexander Kennedy,Director-General Sir Alfred H. Keogh, A.M.S., the Hon.Sir Schomberg McDonnell, Sir J. McFadyean, the RightHon. Sir H. E. Maxwell, the Earl of Onslow, Mr. Ernest

Page, Mr. J. S. Phene, Sir R. Douglas Powell, Mr. C. W.Powell, Dr. P. H. Pye-Smith, Lord Reay, Sir James

Reid, the Rev. Ernest F. Roberts (Vice-Chancellor of theUniversity of Cambridge), Dr. F. Roberts, Archdeacon

Sinclair, Dr. S. S. Sprigge, Sir C. V. Stanford, Sir DouglasStraight, Mr. Thomas Wakley, jun., Mr. J.W. Waterhouse,R.A., Sir J. Wolfe-Barry, Dr. Dawson Williams, Mr.