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higher than the mortality of the corresponding quarter in1880. The mortality from cholera was unprecedentedly low,but the figures of 1881 presented a remarkable peculiarity-namely, "a violent excess in April, amounting to more thandouble [the decennial mean], an average result in May, anda declension in June amounting to less than half. Circum-stances must, therefore, have existed in April peculiarlyfavourable, and in June peculiarly unfavourable, to the de-veloping of the diseases, while the conditions existing inMay were probably of an average kind as affecting causationof cholera." As regards these circumstances, Dr. McLeodobserves : "In the report of the first quarter allusion wasmade to the influence of rain on the prevalence of cholera,and the facts of the present quarter would appear to a certainextent to confirm the conclusion there stated that a slight andtemporary fall of rain may check, but does not stamp out, aspring cholera, which only yields to a repeated and sustainedfall. In April showers fell on the 14th, 15th, 19th, and20th. They appear to have caused a slight abatement ; butit was under the influence of the heavy and frequent showersof May and June that the disease resumed the moderatedimensions of the earlier weeks of the year. The evidencesupplied by the experience of the spring cholera of 1881 is infavour of the notion that circumstances tending to concen-tration and increasing pollution of the stagnant waters ofthe towns, and to the drying up of foul drains and hollows,are favourable to cholera development; while circumstancestending to dilute these waters and cover the reeking bedsand open drains and pits are unfavourable... I amconvinced that in the general sanitary improvement of thetown. the increased supply of pure water, the obliteration offoul tanks, hollows, and surface drains, the completion ofthe under-ground sewer system, better aud more efficientmeans of carrying out of conservancy, general and special,and improvement of bustees, reside the hope of reducingthe incidence of cholera in Calcutta."

The London Gazette of the 19th inst. contains notices thatthe Board of Trade have received copies (1) of a noticeissued by the Portuguese Government, declaring the port ofSt. Louis, Senegal, to be infected with, and all the otherports of that district suspected of, yellow fever since the 19thof July last (the ports of Goree, in the same colony, con-tinuing clean) ; and (2) of a despatch from the Administra-tor of the Gambia, reporting that, in consequence of theoutbreak, all arrivals at Bathurst from the French settle-ments on the West Coast of Africa will be placed in

quarantine.The offensive condition of the Regent’s Canal has been for

some time, it may be said, a staple subject of complaint inthe autumn on the part of the residents on its banks in thatpart of its course where it traverses Regent’s-park and theneighbourhood. Now serious complaints as to the state ofthe water in the canal come to us from the easternmostportion of it ; and these complaints are authenticatedand supported by Dr. Corner, the medical officer of healthfor Mile-end Old-town.

The Works and Health Committee of Wallasey have re-commended the selection of a site for an infectious diseasehospital.

THE SERVICES.

Brigade-Surgeon Chamney G. Irwin has been appointedto the London Recruiting District, vice Brigade-SurgeonJohn B. Cole Reade, who is under orders for India.

Surgeon Robert Moodie, Bengal Army, lately serving onthe medical staff of the army in Afghanistan, has beenawarded by the Council of the University of Edinhurgh agold medal for an essav on the recent outbreak of scurvy atThull, in the Kurum Valley.

AR:B1:Y MEDICAL DEPARTn2NT.-DeputySnrgeon-GeneralMichael Fenton Manifold, to be Surgeon-General, vice DavidReid Mackinnon, granted retired pay; Deputy Surgeon-General Alexander Smith, M.D., C.B., to be Surgeon-General, vice William Munro, M.D., C.B., granted retiredpay; Brigade-Surgeon James Arthur Hanbury, M.B , C B.,to be Deputy Surgeon-General, vice Thomas Connor O’Leary,M.B., granted retired pay; Brigade-SurgeonDuncan Alexan-der Campbell Fraser, M.D., to be DeputySurgeon-General, viceMichael Fenton Manifold, promoted; Brigade-Surgeon

William Marshal l Webb to be Deputy Surgeon-General, viceAlexander Smith, M.D., C.B., promoted; Surgeon-MajorRobert William Jackson, C.B., to be Brigade-Surgeon, viceJames Arthur Hanbury, M.B., C.B., promoted; Surgeon-Major Hector Ferguson to be Brigade-Surgeon, vice DuncanAlexander Campbell Fraser, M.D., promoted; Surgeon.Major Samuel BlackRoe, M.B., C.B., to be Brigade-Surgeon,vice J. L. Erskine, M.D., granted retired pay; Surgeon.Major Francis John Shortt to be Brigade-Surgeon, viceWilliam Marshall Webb, promoted ; Surgeon-Major HenryRichard Lobb Veale, M.D., to be Brigade-Surgeon, vice J.W. Hulseberg, granted retired pay; Surgeon-Major JamesLand, M.D., is granted retired pay, with the honorary rankofBrigad e-Surgeon; Surgeon Herbert Ernest Rhodes Wohidgeresigns his commission. The undermentioned gentlemen to beSurgeons :-Arthur Mercer Davies, Henry William Hubbard,Cuthbert Collingwood Fitzsimon, M.D., Thomas EdwardNoding, John Robert Yourdi, M.B., John Chi,,41ett Culling,Robert Isaac Dalby Hackett, M.D., Robert ThomasMcGeagh, M.D., George Turner Trewman, M.B,, HenryHalero Johnston, M.B., Edmond Munkhouse Wilson,Edmund John Erskine Risk, James David Davies, WilliamGeorge Birrell, M.B., Michael Dundon, M.D., ThomasRobert Lingard, M.B., Charles William Stanford Magrath,M.B., Alfred Vavasour Lane, John Witliam Beatty, M.D.,George Edward Weston, George Harrisoll Younge, WilliamGeorge Clements, William Baptie, M.B., Richard FrancisO’Bnen, Charles William Thiele, M.B., Frederick PeterNichols, M.B., Thomas Cox, John McLaughlin, M.D.,Richard Fowler, Stephen Henry Creagb, Francis JosephLambkin, William Lloyd Reade, Henry James Peard,Goodwin Simpson O’Grady, Samuel James Rennie, JohnCarmichael, Edward Dorset Farmar, George WashingtonBrazier Creagh, Francis Tichborne Wilkinson, John Semple.ADMIRALTY.-The following appointments have been

made :-Surgeon William C. Sandys, to the Woodlarl;, viceWilliam Algeo; Surgeon William S. Lightfoot, to the Hecla,vice W. C. Sandys. Staff Surgeon Thomas C. Hickey, tothe Co in us Surgeon Alfred H. Miller, to the Cambridge,vice Hickey.

YORKSHIRE ASSOCIATION OF MEDICALOFFICERS OF HEALTH.

ON the 26th ult. a meeting of the members of this asso.ciation was held in the board-room of the Halifax Infirmary.The chair was taken by Dr. Butterfield of York.

Dr. BRITTON, Medical Officer of Health for the HalifaxUnion, read a paper, entitled "An Illusration of the In-fluence of Improved Drainage on the Death-rate of aDistrict;"Hipperholme Local Sanitary District, which comprised thevillages of Hipperholme and Lightclitfe, and part of BailiffBridge,beingselect.ed as the example. AYhenIiebecamemedicalofficer of health in 1873, the death-rate was high, and con-tinuedso for three years. During tbatperiod steps were takento obtain a complete system of drainage. The water-supplywas all that could be desired. Zymotic diseases ranged from2 to 3’9 per 1000 per annum. In 1876 the death-rate was23’9. In 1877 the drainage scheme was commenced, andthe death-rate dropped to 18’1. In the following year, 1878,the schemes were completed, and the death-rate felt to 12per 1000. In 1879 the death-rate rose to 22 5 ; but this wasowing to the fact that the district was visited by threeepidemics of zymotic diseases. The next year, 1880, thedeath-rate again fell to 16 per 1000. The average rate forthe three years prior to the drainage scheme was 24’9, andfor the three years after the scheme was finished was 16’8, ora fall of no less than one-third.

Dr. J. M. WILSON of Doncaster then read a paper on" The Trichina Spiralis," in which he gave a sketch of thelife history of this parasite, which is generally conveyed tothe human subject in diseased pork, and which often pro-duced symptoms hardly distinguishable from enteric fever.He said that it was in the cystic stage that the trichina wasmost commonly found. On reaching the muscles the wormwas gradually enclosed in a cyst formed out of the surround-ing fluid. The cysts were found between the bundlescomposing the muscular layers. In the course of a

few months the cyst got hard from the deposition ofcalcareous matter, which gave the meat an appearance