222

own, and their inhabitants never come near the tank at all.The water of this tank is very dirty, and contains undoubtedcomma bacilli, exactly like those found in choleraicev acuations. Although a large number of the natives livingin the bustees surrounding this tank constantly use anddrink this water, no case of cholera has occurred amongstthem. As you are aware from Dr. Koch’s official reports tohis Government, this gentleman visited during his stay inCalcutta (February 13th and 20th, 1884) bustees in SahibBagan, amongst the inhabitants of which there occurred, ibetween January 21st and April 27th of this year, a severeoutbreak of cholera. These bustees are located around atank which for convenience sake may be here called No. 2.There are about two hundred families living around thistank, and, as is usually the case, the utilise this water forwashing, bathing, cleaning, and drinking purposes. In this

water Dr. Koch found the comma bacilli, and he quitearbitrarily concluded that they caused that outbreak ofcholera. I visited this tank lately and found in its waterundoubted comma bacilli. There has occurred, during thewhole of November, 1884, one single case of cholera, althoughabout two hundred families use the water. Close to thistank there is another tank, No. 3, and around this live alsoabout two hundred families. As in the former case, thepeople here around tank No. 3 use the water for all purposes,including drinking purposes. The water of this tank isdirty, and a sample taken close to the shore revealed un-doubted comma bacilli. There has not occurred a single caseof cholera in these bustees during the whole of this year. Itis worth stating that there is a communication betweentanks Nos. 3 and 2, there being a slight flow from the formerinto the latter. Tank No. 2 receives water from the ice-factory close by.

____________

THE REPORT OF MR. L. WRAY, JUN., ON COL-LECTING AND PRESERVING VACCINE

LYMPH.

THis report, which is addressed to the Assistant Residentat Perak, urges the need for more attention being devotedto the preservation of vaccine lymph. The report deals

solely with the method of storage in tubes, and in it Mr. Wraypoints out that he has examined under the microscopetubes of lymph sent from England to the Government ofPerak, and that he has "found some of them to be swarmingwith septic bacteria, and as a result void of micrococcusvaccinœ, and quite useless for purposes of vaccination."This is a reasonable ground on which to base his argument;but when he adds that such tubes "are constantly touchedby hands that have, perhaps, only a few minutes previouslybeen feeling the pulse of a fever-stricken patient or dressingsores of the most loathsome character," we should prefer torely upon the rejection of lymph from persons guilty of

such culpable carelessness, rather than upon the process ofcleansing and sterilising the tubes.Mr. Wray describes the apparatus with which he effects his

object to be a glass tube dilated in one part, and closed atits lower end by a piece of indiarubber tubing, pinched by apinchcock ; the tube is filled with water, and the capillarylymph tube, after the latter has been filled with strongacid, has one end inserted into a pinhole in the indiarubberand the water is then forced through it. Subsequently, thecapillary tube is dried in an oven and placed with others ina glass tube, hermetically sealed at one end and closed with

, cotton-wool at the other. The whole are then exposed to ahigh temperature to sterilise them.

’ Mr. Wray gives us no definite information as to compara-, tive results with lymph tubes sterilised and with those filled: without these precautions. A series of careful experiments

with lymph taken at the same time would have a consider-able value in determining their worth; and at the same timeit might be well to compare the results with those obtainedby lymph stored in points or in other ways. It must notbe forgotten that the destruction of the vaccine organismmay come about from causes other than micro-organismscollected from without the body of the vaccinifer, and thatthe preservation of lymph may be dependent as much uponits growth as on its subsequent exposure to externalinfluences.

CYPRUS.

THE report on the census of Cyprus in 1881, taken underthe superintendence of Dr. F. W. Barry, late Sanitary Com-missioner of the Island, has just been published as a parlia-mentary paper. It shows the population to have amountedto 186,173 persons, being in the proportion of fifty per squaremile. Of the total enumerated, 95,015 were males and 91,158females, a preponderance of males which, " although contraryto the experience of all European countries, with the excep-tion of Greece and Bulgaria, has been found to exist to agreater or less extent in all Asiatic countries." The averagenumber of inhabitants to each house was 4’24. Of the whole

population 24’4 per cent. were Mahomedans, 73-9 per cent.members of the Orthodox Greek Church, and 1’7 per cent.belonged to other denominations.Under the head of "infirmities of the people" we find that

the number of blind amounted to 12 per 1000 of the popula-tion, the average in England and Wales being only ’88 per1000. This very high proportion is believed to be chiefly aresult of the great prevalence of ophthalmia and, untilrecently, of small-pox, but is also in some measure due tothe unwholesome surroundings and condition of the

dwellings and to the want of personal cleanliness. The pro-portion of deaf mutes in the population is 1’2 per 1000, ordouble the ratio in England; and of persons of unsoundmind (including lunatics, idiots, and imbeciles) 3’0 per 1000;but there is reason to believe this has been rather understated.It corresponds very closely with the ratio in England andWales, which by the last census was shown to amount to3’26 per 1000. There were 78 persons returned as affectedwith leprosy, of whom only ten were under twenty-five yearsof age. Dr. Barry remarks that there can be little doubt thenumber of lepers has been understated. "In Cyprus theleper, when recognised as such, is doomed by custom to socialextinction. His property, if he has any, passes to his nextof kin; he is an outcast from society, even from his nearestrelatives; he can hold no official position, and even the officesof the church are denied to him. Under these circumstancesit is a matter for surprise that so many as twenty-eightpersons outside the leper farm have declared themselves tobe affected with this loathsome disease." Of the lepers onlytwo were returned as Mahomedans, th e rest being membersof the Greek Church.

THE PARKES MUSEUM.—The Council has receiveda number of interesting articles and models from theJapanese Section of the Health Exhibition, and at thespecial request of the Japanese Commissioner they havesent a large case of selected duplicates from the Museum tothe Home Department at Tokio. The Council has also re-ceived the valuable collection of books in the health sectionof the library of the International Health Exhibition.