1563BACTERIOLOGICAL DIAGNOSIS.-THE QUEEN’S VISIT TO NETLEY.

2s. and 10s. instead of Is. and 5s., and they are fixed at

2s. 6d. and 7s. 6d. in several metropolitan unions.We learn, on inquiry, that a communication is about to

be addressed from Whitehall to the boards of guardians in

England and Wales on the matter of fees both to publicvaccinators and vaccination officers, and that there is a

greater inclination to raise the fee for procuring vaccinationthan for merely formal visits to record the refusal of a parentto have his child vaccinated. There is little disposition, weunderstand, to such an increase of the fee for the statutoryvisit as would so far pay an officer as to make him careless

about getting the child vaccinated; hence there may be adesire even when mileage is considered not to disturb the

ratio laid down between the minimum fees of 18. and 5s.

Annotations."Ne quid nimis."

BACTERIOLOGICAL DIAGNOSIS.

A CORRESPONDENT draws our attention to the fact thatthe Camberwell Vestry has been the first vestry in Londonto appoint a bacteriologist to work at certain of the

problems which occupy the attention of the medical officer ofhealth. This is a new and in many ways a good departureand is certainly an experiment which is well worth carefulattention, especially if the bacteriologist is to devote his

whole time to the work of the vestry and to be corre-

spondingly well paid. There can be little doubt that

there is more than sufficient work to keep a bacteriologistfully employed, even though he should devote the wholeof his time and energy to the appointment; whilst if heshould give a part only of his time the appointment will beof value to the community. At the same time it must beevident that there may be some waste of energy and brain

power if a thoroughly competent bacteriologist (however wellpaid) is to be expected to do a great deal of routine workwhich might equally well be done by skilled and unskilledassistants, and it certainly comes to be a question whether inthe present state of affairs it might not be better, as we

have already pointed out, to utilise to a greater extent

existing facilities, and in a large community like that

of London to centralise the work at two or three points.There can be little doubt that under different men

very different results will be obtained, first as regardsthe efficiency of the work done and secondly as regards theamount of information which will be collected and made

public and the value of the statistics so obtained. It

is, however, well that some such experiment as that

brought under our notice by our correspondent shouldbe tried, especially as anything which is conducive to

accuracy and rapidity of diagnosis will be heartilywelcomed by all who are concerned in guarding the

public health. It is even possible that it may be found

necessary not only to have local laboratories but alsoto have special and consultation laboratories where workout of the ordinary routine, for which special and expensiveapparatus is necessary, may be carried out. The need for

bacteriological work is only just coming to be appreciated,but already there is such specialisation that it is difficult tosee how any single man will be able to attack unaided (oreven with the assistance to be obtained in a small laboratory)the multifarious problems with which the bacteriologist ofto-day is faced. The diagnosis of diphtheria, of typhoidfever, of tuberculosis, of pneumonia, of anthrax, ofcholera and the like form only a very small proportion of the

work to be done. The examination of air, of soil, of water, ofcondemned food stuffs, and of milk will all have to be under-taken and it is quite within the bounds of possibility thatlaboratories will have to be founded and appointments madefor the carrying on of these individual branches of work.This, however, may fairly be assumed, that whatever maybe the initial cost of these laboratories and whatever it

may cost to keep them well manned and equipped the directand indirect saving to the community would be sufficient,first through the direct saving of life brought about by earlydiagnosis and secondly by the elimination of foci of infectionand a consequent circumscription of the areas of infectionand disease, during the first two or three years alone tofound and endow these laboratories for a couple of score ofyears to come. We think that our correspondent is per-fectly correct when he states that the reduction of the death-rate from diphtheria alone as brought out by the returnsof the Metropolitan Asylums Board is ample justification forany vestry making arrangements to have bacteriologicalinvestigations carried on for them.

THE QUEEN’S VISIT TO NETLEY.

THE Queen’s solicitude as to the condition of her sick andwounded soldiers was again shown on Saturday last, whenfor the third time this year she paid a visit to the RoyalVictoria Hospital. A break in the bad weather latelyexperierced on the coast occurred, and during a portionof the time Her Majesty spent at Netley the sun shonebrightly, the day being a warm one for the time

of year. The portico by which the Queen was to enter

the building was adorned with trophies of flags and shieldsand with a mass of palms, flowers, and ferns, while

the corridor along which the Queen was to pass was carpetedwith red cloth. Travelling from Windsor by way of Byfleet,Cosham, and Fareham, the Queen reached Netley station-at1.30 o’clock. Her Majesty was accompanied by PrincessBeatrice and Princess Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein andwas received at Netley station by General Sir Baker Russell,commanding the Southern district, and his staff. In atten-

dance were the Countess of Lytton, the Hon. Mrs. AlaricGrant, and Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Arthur Bigge, while thetwo equerries were Major-General Sir John McNeill, V.C.,and Lieutenant-Colonel Davidson. In an open carriage, afew minutes in advance of the Royal party, Lord Kitchenerof Khartoum, who had joined the Royal train at Windsor,drove up to the hospital, and with him was Sir HenryRawlinson, who was on his staff during the Soudan

campaign. The Queen reached the hospital just before2 o’clock, and was received by Surgeon-General Nash,principal medical officer, and the following officers ofthe Royal Army Medical Corps-Colonel Notter, ColonelMacLeod (of the Indian Medical Service), Colonel

Stevenson, Lieutenant-Colonel Blennerhassett, Lieutenant-Colonel Webb, and Major Dick. Here, too, waitingto receive Her Majesty were Miss Norman, LadySuperintendent of the Army Nursing Service, and ColonelCreagh, A.A.G. at Netley. A bouquet was presentedto -the Queen by Miss Nellie Stevenson, daughter ofColonel W. F. Stevenson, R.A.M.C. Entering a wheeledhand-carriage which was propelled by an Indian servant

the Queen passed along the corridor to the lift t

by which she was conveyed from corridor to corridor,inspecting the different wards both in the medical and

surgical divisions of the hospital and speaking wordsof comfort to the wounded and stricken soldiers. In

the corridor of the medical division of the hospital all theconvalescent patients entitled to the Atbara and theOmdurman medal were drawn up in order of regiments,the men of the 21st Lancers being formed up on the

right of the line, Royal Artillerymen of the 32nd

1564

Field Battery came next, with the Guards on their left, andafter them the Seaforths, Camerons, Lincolns, Warwicks,Rifles, Northumberland Fusiliers, and Lancashire Fusiliers.The most interesting feature of the day was the personalpresentation by the Queen of the medal For distinguishedconduct in the field " to two gallant men of the Royal ArmyMedical Corps-viz., to Staff-Sergeant G. A. Benson andto Private A. Davidson, both of whom served in the FirstBrigade Field Hospital during the late campaign. Duringthe visit the Sirdar who followed in the wake of the

Queen through the various corridors and wards decorated180 men with the medal struck by the Khedive inhonour of the campaign. On Saturday last the hospitalcontained 800 sick and wounded men and of thesethe Queen saw over 600. Among the patients, apart fromthe sick and wounded from the Soudan, are men from India,Crete, Mashonaland, and the West Indies. Before leavingNetley Her Majesty was conducted to the operating theatrewhere the Roentgen rays were demonstrated by ColonelStevenson, Princess Beatrice having the shadow of the

bones of her hand thrown on the fluoroscope. The Royal visitterminated shortly after three o’clock and Her Majestyreturned to Windsor by the South-Western route, arriving atthe Castle at six o’clock.

___

THE EXPENDITURE OF THE METROPOLITAN

ASYLUMS BOARD.

IN a letter from the Local Government Board referring tothe managers’ application for an order authorising the

borrowing of a further sum of C2413 4s. 6d. in respect ofalterations and additions to the South-Western Hospital theBoard state that they find similar irregularities to thosewhich occurred in the erection of the Brook Hospital onthe part of the architect, and omit from the order the

amount which under ordinary circumstances would be dueto him as commission-viz., <E62. The architect, in a letterto the managers, has defended his conduct in the case ofthe Brook Hospital. We do not see much evidence of anymotive of personal advantage in the architect’s large orders,but such motives get blended dangerously with the love ofgrand schemes, for which neither the architect nor the

managers have the trouble of finding the money. The

system is obviously not in the public interest. Let anyonecontrast the scale and system of this expenditure with thoseof voluntary hospitals or of private individuals and they willsee to what length this system has been carried. It must bechecked or it will demoralise both the public and the

managers. Unfortunately, it is not a subject which the partypolitician cares for. We must look to the Local Govern-ment Board to do its duty.

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THE LAST OF LUCCHENI.

THE appeal to the Court of Cassation in behalf ofLuccheni was withdrawn by his counsel per maneanza dimotivi (for lack of grounds) and on the night of the same day(Nov. 22nd) he was removed, heavily manacled, to the prisonwhere he is to spend the next six months in solitude. There-

after he will be "accommodated" in the penal oubliette

where he will be put to hard labour for the rest of his life.He is, we read in the Italian journals, "completely changed ;no more the petulant cynic he was on the day of trial,but wan, dejected, prostrate (pallido, abba,tuto, accasciato).He deplores his abominable crime," adds the reporter, "thereligious sentiment dominates him, and he is haunted by fearof the eternal punishment awaiting him after death." All

this was foreseen by his medical examiners who made fullallowance for the vanity which was his ruling principle andwhich sustained him in the arrogant, the revolting self-assertion he assumed in open court. Withdrawn fromthe public gaze and the gratification he drew from

this position he collapses at once into the &deg; hysterico-epileptoid imbecile" of the criminal anthropologist andcomports himself accordingly. The fact is not withoutits significance for the legislator, explaining as it doesthe wretched creature’s disappointment that he was

not tried in a canton where capital punishment (as in

Lucerne) is still in force. Steeped in the spurious rhetoricof anarchism he had looked forward to the guillotine forwhich he had qualified-the guillotine and the scaffold, that"tribune of the socialist martyr," as his French prototypeVaillant called it. But that opportunity of ventilating hisamo2rr-propre is denied him and he has to share the com.

mon and ignoble doom of the Italian homicide-a mere

unit among many other compatriot malefactors. We

hope that the International Congress for the Suppression ofAnarchism now sitting in Rome will take practical noteof this collapse of Luccheni. Arrested red-handed fromtheir crime, anarchists should not be gratified with

the public trial they count upon or even with the

theatrical execution they court. Vanity being in most

cases their guiding motive they should under every legalsafeguard and formality be brought to justice in

private and be visited with its severest penalty in

private likewise. Legislating on such lines the Powers

represented at the Congress will have introduced an

effective deterrent for such assassins, and so far thecriminal anthropologist will find that he has not preachedin vain. Another deterrent not unworthy of considerationis the penalty of flogging in the case of would-be or un-

successful" Lucchenis." " We have alIeadyl treated of thisform of punishment which certainly put down garottingand which by the humiliation it combines with physicalsuffering would appeal powerfully to the vainglorious as

well as effeminate side of such rhetorical specimens ofthe below 1lmana as Vaillant and his latest disciple.But, as we have previously urged, a deeper policy than thatof the restrictive or repressive legislator must be adoptedin dealing ab initio with anarchism and its instrument,and for this we must look to reforms inspired not merely bythe forensic but by the medical innovator. The Con-

gress of Criminal Anthropology which by a strangely sug-gestive coincidence met at the scene of the late anarchistcrime just three years previously to its commission wasnot without its lessons and its admonitions to the Govern-ments of Europe. Had these latter, particularly that of

Italy, paid due attention to what was put in evidence on thatoccasion measures would have been adopted which mighthave prevented the tragedy of the Quai du Mont Blanc. Let

us hope that profiting by that and similar sad experiencesEuropean statecraft will take a more intelligent interest inthe next Congress of Criminal Anthropology which in theAugust of 1899 will assemble at the Hague.

TWO MEDICAL HEROES.

THE latest name added to the roll of the Victoria Cross isthat of Surgeon William Job Maillard, M.D. Lond., of theRoyal Navy, upon whom the decoration has been conferredfor conspicuous bravery during the outbreak at Candia onSept. 6th, 1898. At that date, during the landing of seamenfrom Her Majesty’s ship Hazard, Surgeon Maillard, who haddisembarked and reached a place of safety, returned through aperfect deluge of bullets to the boat and endeavoured to bringinto safety Arthur Stroud, ordinary seamen, who had fallenback wounded into the boat as the other men jumped ashore.Surgeon Maillard failed to bring Stroud in only through theboat being adrift and it being beyond his strength to lift theman (who was almost dead) out of so unstable a platform.Surgeon Maillard returned to his post with his clothes

1 THE LANCET, Oct. 29th, 1898, p. 1146.