1898

through the island suffer from a chronic water famine anmeans will have to be taken for their relief.

THE MIDWIVES BILL.

THERE was a debate, which will be found fully reportedin our columns on p. 1920, in the House of Commons on

Wednesday evening last upon this measure. Mr. Griffith-Boscawen moved that the Bill be considered upon that daythree months on the grounds that it had been inadequatelydiscussed on its second reading and rushed through theStanding Committee. Colonel Milward, in seconding theamendment, thought the measure too drastic. Sir J. BattyTuke, in a successful maiden speech, approved the generallines of the Bill, though he considered that it should beamended in certain particulars. Dr. Farquharson thoughtthe measure had been sufficiently discussed, but SirWalter Foster urged postponement, pointing out thatthe measure should be dealt with by the Governmentof the day, the question involved being too large to

be dealt with by a private Member. While Mr. HeywoodJohnstone was falling in with this view 5.30 o’clock wasreached and the debate stood adjourned-probably for therest of the session, as Government has taken all the availabletime.

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THE DEARTH OF MEDICAL ASSISTANTS ANDASSISTANT CURATES.

THE est7ainstEr Gazette states that a vicar in theMidlands recently applied to five theological colleges for anassistant curate in priest’s orders and was unable to obtainone. In our own profession the dearth of assistants has oflate years become very marked, but there are obviousreasons for this. First comes the action of the GeneralMedical Council in forbidding the employment of un-

qualified men, and this is an influence which will abide.

Secondly, the war in South Africa has absorbed numerousyounger members of the profession who would in all

probability be holding assistants’ posts if they were

not engaged in minimising the necessary horrors ofwar. The reasons for an ecclesiastical scarcity arenot so obvious. Possibly ideals are higher nowadays thanthey were 60 years ago and the class of man who used totake orders because it was a calling which carried with it acertain social position and a comfortable income has becomesmaller. Perhaps, too, the fact that the comfortable incomehas become smaller has something to do with the matter.But however this may affect the average assistant curatewhose field of labour is a country parish we fancy that townincumbents who live with their assistants in a clergy housefind no difficulty in getting men willing to live and workwith them without any thought of the amount of their salary,provided that they are fed and have fairly comfortable

quarters. -

SMALL-POX AT STALYBRIDGE AND SALFORD.

IT may be remembered that small-pox was taken to

Stalybridge on April 28th by a man returning from Russia.Up to June 6th there had been 18 cases and threedeaths. The first death was that of the man who introducedthe disease and the other two were those of two boys whowere unvaccinated. A sub-committee of the Town Councilhas been appointed to consider the question of providing aninfectious diseases hospital and to deal generally with allmatters of emergency relating to persons suffering from

small-pox. It appeared, the mayor said, from inquiries hehad made, that small-pox was not subject to the quarantinelaws, which only applied to cholera, to plague, and to yellowfever. He suggested "that action should be taken witha view to bringing small-pox within the operation ofthe quarantine laws." It was decided that the mayor,

the town clerk, and the medical officer of healthshould go as a deputation to the Local GovernmentBoard "with a view to get the matter dealt with in an

omnibus Bill at the end of the session." Salford alsohas had an outbreak of small-pox. Recently Mr. C. H.Tattersall, the medical officer of health, reported thatfive cases had been brought under his notice. Promptmeasures had been taken to check the spread of the disease.So far Manchester has escaped.

THE PROPHYLAXIS OF PLAGUE.

La Salud, a monthly review of hygiene published at

Buenos Ayres, contains in its March number an interestingarticle upon plague. Formerly, says La Salud, according toa tradition common amorgst certain tribes of South.American Indians, wide-spreading fires used to sweep overthe land. The inhabitants were in the habit of takingrefuge in caves and dens of the earth. From time to time

they poked out the branch of a tree and if this when pulledin again showed no signs of burning they considered it safeto come out. So formerly when plague ravaged and deso-lated various countries the inhabitants shut themselves up inthe cave of isolation and did not come forth until they learnedthat plague had disappeared. Nowadays, however, just asthe Indian tribes possess herds of horses which they did notformerly possess and are able by these means to stamp outpampas fires, so that there is no need to take refuge in a cave,so also modern cities possess hygienic knowledge and con.ditions which render isolation unnecessary and a generaldissemination of plague throughout Europe or America is asimpossible as a fire which should affect the whole pampas.In India and in China only those persons succumb who liveunder grossly unhygienic conditions. With reference to therecent outbreak of plague in the Argentine the article con-tinues : "It would be greatly to the honour of the ArgentineRepublic if she would invite other countries to a conferenceto consider the question of meeting plague, if not actuallyby abandoning all international action yet by leavingcommerce perfectly free and by treating the disease where-ever it appears exactly like any other infectious diseasewhich assumes endemic characters."

TICK FEVER IN NEW SOUTH WALES.

I DR. FRANK TIDSWELL, Principal Assistant Medical Officerto the Government of New South Wales, has issued a secondreport upon Tick Fever. This report, which is dated

February, 1900, is really a continuation of his first reportwhich was dated December, 1898, and upon which we com-mented in our issue of May 6th, 1899, p. 1240. The first

report dealt with the immediate effects of protectiveinoculation and the second takes up the tale and gives anaccount of the result of exposing an inoculated herd to theinfluence of ticks. The experiments were made at

Greenfell, Rockhampton, in Queensland, a district seriouslyaffected with ticks. The total number of animals used was

60-namely, 22 inoculated and eight controls from NewSouth Wales, and 20 inoculated with 10 controls from theNorth Coast District. Of the inoculated animals five escapedentirely and eight died, but although these eight -maybe said to have died from causes incidental to their

exposure to ticks none of them could be said to havedied from tick fever per se. Among the control animalseight died, four from acute tick fever, one from debilityfollowing tick fever, and three from causes incidental to theirexposure. As a rule, the symptoms were much less severe inthe inoculated than in the control animals, although in sixof them the disease was nearly as severe as in the controlanimals, and of these six four died, three of which were, how-ever, old and unhealthy to start with. Dr. Tidswell concludesthat the main line of defence lies in keeping the ticks out of

1899

the colony, but inoculation may be of great service, for it

does not involve permanent ill health; inoculated animalsresist second inoculation attacks and, as was seen by theexperiments, they take the fever much less severely thandoes an uninoculated control. Careful dipping is of greatuse. With regard to the selection of blood for inoculationits infectivity does not depend upon controllable factors.The blood of one animal will give good reaction 12 monthsafter inoculation, while that of another will be useless shortlyafter three months.

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THE FIRST PRINCIPAL OF THE UNIVERSITY OFBIRMINGHAM.

IT is announced that Oliver Joseph Lodge, F.R.S., LL.D.,D.Sc., has been appointed the first principal of the newUniversity of Birmingham. It is difficult to know whetherto congratulate most the new principal upon the honour sorightly offered to him or the new University upon his accept-ance of the post, but that both parties to the transaction areto be felicitated there can be no doubt. Dr. Lodge waseducated at the Newport (Salop) Grammar School andat University College, London. In 1877 he took the

degree of D.Sc. at the University of London, gavelectures on physics at the Bedford College for Ladies, andwas appointed Assistant Professor of Physics at UniversityCollege, London, where, during Professor Clifford’s illness,he took charge of his classes. In 1880 he was appointedProfessor of Physics at the then newly-establishedUniversity College, Liverpool. He has written upon

Electricity and Light, and his "Modern Views on Electri-city " is perhaps the clearest account of a by no means easysubject which has appeared up to the present time. He has

also made researches into the nature of lightning andlightning discharges and has also written upon Herz andhis work. Apart from the more purely scientific subjectsDr. Lodge takes a deep interest in those somewhat obscurephenomena known as psychic. He is a prominent memberof the Psychical Research Society and was one of thoseappointed to examine into the phenomena presented byEusapia Palladino. -

THE FAMINE AND SPREAD OF CHOLERA ININDIA.

THE events taking place in China and in South Africa, tosay nothing of those on the West Coast of Africa in the reliefof Kumasi, occupy such a prominent place at the presentmoment as to absorb almost exclusively all public thoughtand attention. It is natural that it should be so, but thelamentable loss of life and the suffering entailed by theseevents are really insignificant compared with the trulydeplorable state of affairs in India at the present time asset forth, for example, in a communication from the specialcorrespondent of the Standard of June 26bh. India has oflate years been a prey to all the ills that can afflict a

country. More direct and terrible even than the fear ofstarvation is the fear of cholera, and we are confrontedwith the sad and remarkable spectacle that the unfortunateand starving natives are being driven from many faminerelief centres by the dreaded scourge of cholera in order

to meet their end in a slower and less agonising waythan that disease often causes; whereas in all the districtsof India wherein cholera has not appeared distress compelsthem in increasing numbers to seek and hold on to the Ifamine relief works as their only chance. Nor is this all.

The want of water and the fear of a water-famine, theenormous mortality amongst both man and beast, and theextreme poverty and increasing enfeeblement of the nativepopulation make up an appallingly realistic picture of

human suffering. The condition of the Rajput States, ofthe Bhil country, and of Jodhpur State, where over a

million beasts have died from starvation, and of other

extensive parts of India is simply terrible.

SiR WILLIAM GAIRDXER was entertained at dinner in

Glasgow on June 19th with many evidences of sympathy andenthusiasm, the occasion being his retirement from his pro-fessorship in the University. The company numbered about

140, Principal Story, of the University, being in the chair.Sir William Turner, replying to the toast of " The MedicalProfession," which had been proposed by Sheriff Berry, statedin the course of his remarks that after Sir William Gairdnerhad withdrawn from his duties as professor in GlasgowUniversity he (the speaker) would take his place as the oldestteacher in a Scottish university, 40 years having elapsedsince he commenced to teach anatomy in Edinburgh Uni-versity. Sir William Gairdner, replying to the toast of hishealth, proposed by Principal Story, said that his arrival inGlasgow marked almost to a month the middle point of hislife. He was 38 years of age when he became a professorand he had lived for 38 years afterwards. If he put tohimself the question whether the former or the latter 38years were more fraught with real happiness he should bepuzzled to give an answer, but on the whole he thought heshould prefer the latter period. The toast of "The LordProvost and Corporation of Glasgow" was proposed by SirHector C. Cameron and acknowledged by Lord Provost

Chisholm. ___

IT has been found convenient to postpone the MalariaConference which it was proposed to hold in Liverpool at theend of July, the centenary celebration of the Royal Collegeof Surgeons of England and other events in the medicaland scientific world having been arranged fbr the same time.

SIR WILLIAM BROADBENT will formally open the newClinical Museum at the Medical Graduates’ College onWednesday next, July 4th, at 8.30 P.M., when Professor

Osler, F.R.S., of Baltimore, will deliver an oration on " TheTeaching of Practical Medicine."

THE Guy’s Hospital Biennial Dinner will be held at theWhitehall Rooms, Hotel Metropole, on Friday, July 6th, at6.30 P.r., under the presidency of Mr. Charles Higgens.

THE WAR IN SOUTH AFRICA.

THERE is still a pause in Lord Roberts’s operations,for what has been recently taking place, although of a suffi-ciently stirring nature, is not likely to have any seriousinfluence on the course of events. Notwithstanding that theBoer forces have exhibited unwonted activity of late andhave had some successes the campaign is slowly but surelycoming to an end-if it has not virtually already done so.General De Wet is commanding, however, with remarkableskill and success in his operations against our lines ofcommunication between Kroonstad and the Yaal river. Ifit be true, as is reported of this Boer general, that hedeclared he would make Lcrd Roberts repent of havingrefused to accept his terms of surrender, he has done a gooddeal to justify his threat, for his force, owing to its astonish-ing mobility, has of late been apparently ubiquitous. Arecital of the raids, surprises, and exploits of General De Wetreads like an exciting chapter in a book describing theadventures of some notable guerilla chief. By his energyand enterprise he has damaged the railway about Rhenosterriver, captured the Derbyshire Militia, inflicted considerableloss on the Devonshire Militia, attacked a post at HoningSpruit and burned three wooden bridges, and succeededin capturing several convoys with their wagons, stores, andammunition, including one sent to the Highland Brigade.