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to Egypt, which he visited in 1883 as leader of the (Germancholera expedition. He will return in March to undertakethe management of the institute for infectious diseases,the building of which, as I convinced myself yesterday byocular inspection, is progressing rapidly. An eminentAustralian physiologist suggested to me yesterday thatthe true inference from Virchow’s observations may be,not that the bacilli wander from their burned-out homes Ito new ones in healthy tissue, but that Koch’s fluid rendersthem more easily visible to the microscopisc. ,

Berlin, Jan. 17th. _______________

VIENNA.(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

The Chemistry of the Tacberele Bacillus.AT the clinic of Professor Nothnagel a very interesting

investigation on the chemical composition of the tuberclebacillus has been carried out by Dr. Hammerschlag, whohad commenced his studies on the bacillus at ProfessorNencki’s chemical laboratory at Berne. For the chemi-cal examination of the bacillus, glycerine-bouillon andglycerine peptone agar cultures were used. The freshbacteria had a rose-red colour, and a smell resemblingthe odour of fruit. Two analyses of two different- culture series were made. The cultures were 0’2-3months old, and 7’5 and 2’2 grammes moist bacteriawere obtained for the analyses. They contained between38.7 and 83-1 per cent. water, between 28-2 and 26-2 percent. substances soluble in alcohol and ether-i.e., leci-thin, fats, and a poisonous substance which injectedsubcutaneously into guinea-pigs produced clonie spasms ofthe muscles, acceleration of pulse and respiration, andfinally general convulsions and the death of the animalfrom twelve to fifty-one hours after the injection. Theresidue which remained after the extraction with ether andalcohol contained an albuminoid body and cellulose.Therefore the tubercle bacilli seem to differ from otherbacteria by the high percentage of substances soluble inalcohol and ether, as they contain between 26 and 28 per cent.,while bacterium termo contains only 7’3, Friedlander’sdiplococcus only 1-7, the bacillus anthracis only 7 8 percent. Concerning the specific reaction of the tuberclebacilli, and their resistance to acids, it was found thatthis property must be due to a specific morphologicaldistribution of the albumins and the cellulose in the bodyof the bacillus, the presence of both substances being neces-sary for the production of the characteristic staining. Ithas been found that the presence of carbohydrates and.glycerine is necessary for the growth of the bacilli, and thatalbumins alone are not sufficient as nourishing media forthe tubercle bacillus, which differs thereby from the otherbacteria. By experiments on rabbits it was proved that apoisonous albuminoid body is formed in the cultures by thebacilli, which (the dose used varied between 0’2 and()’4 gramme) produced, a few hours after the injection, arise of temperature amounting to 1° or 2° C., lasting for oneor two days, without any other effect, even after repeatedinjections. The glycerine bouillon cultures lost theirvirulence on being kept for eight months at a tempera-ture of 39° C., but they retained their vital activity.In experiments made on animals with such cultures of eightmonths’ standing only negative results were observed withregard to the production of immunity in animals by suchcultures, and Hammerschlag, Falk, and Charrin have failedto produce a protective inoculation.

The Composition of Koch’s Fluid.As has been reported in a previous letter to THE LANCET,

an Austrian professor has made experiments on animalswith Koch’s liquid and with a liquid prepared by himself.Now these experiments have been brought to an end, and’Professor Hueppe and Dr. Scholl of Prague have made acommunication on their experiments to the BerlinerKlinische Wochenschrift nearly at the same time as Koch’sarticle appeared. They found Koch’s liquid to contain,besides albuminoid bodies, glycerine in large quantity, andthemselves made experiments with extracts made fromtubercle bacilli cultures with peptone (3-8 per cent.),glycerine (5 per cent.), common salt (0’5 per cent.), and- extract of beef (0’1 per cent.), on tuberculous animals,which gave positive results.Vienna, Jan, 20th.

NEW ZEALAND.

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

Incrcase of Cancer.DR. GORDON MACDONALD of Dunedin has recently

published in the New Zealand lt2’edical Journal informationregarding the steady and alarmingincrease of cancer in thecolony. In 1879 the estimated population was 507,324; in1889, 645,830. In 1879 deaths from cancer to the numberof 68 were registered at the office of the Registrar-General,while in 1889 the number amounted to 136, or as Dr. Mac-donald puts it, "the mortality from cancer exactly doubleditself in ten years, although the population had only in-creased about a fifth." Sir Spencer Wells, in his Mortonlecture in 1888 on "Cancer and Cancerous Diseases," makesspecial reference to the same steady increase of the diseasein Great Britain and Ireland. He states that he has foundthe mortality from cancerous diseases to have almostdoubled itself during the past ten years. In a table com-piled by Dr. Copland, , house surgeon to the DunedinHospital, it seems that at this hospital during the sameten years 233 cases of cancer occurred. In males theseat of the disease was in the following order-(1) lips,(2) stomach, (3) liver. In females the commonest seat wasin the uterus, and next to that the breast. During the tenyears 42 cases occurred in the lips, almost entirely in males,40 in the uterus, 33 in the breast, 33 in the stomach (all butthree in the male), 21 in the liver (all but four in the male),9 in the tongue (all in the male). Two cases are recordedas occurring in the brain, and one in the spleen. In themales epithelioma predominated, and in the femalescarcinoma and scirrhus.

Report of the Royal Commission on the Dunedin HospitalInquiry.

Sir James Hector, M.D., and Mr. E. H. Carew, R.M.,the commissioners appointed by his Excellency LordOnslow to hold an inquiry touching complaints made con-cerning the Dunedin Hospital’s insanitary condition, havesubmitted their report. Both the hospital trustees andDr. Batchelor were represented by able counsel, and a largeamount of medical evidence was brought before the court.The report begins by stating that the commissioners wereempowered to hold an inquiry touching complaints whichhave been made that the hospital known as the -DunedinHospital, or certain parts thereof, are in an insanitary con-dition, and dangerous to the health of the inmates, and par-ticularly the allegation that certain cases of blood-poisoninghave arisen from the general condition of certain wards. There-port itself is voluminous. In brief it amounts to this, that theinquiry itself, as a trial between Dr. Batchelor as a presumedplaintiff (for Dr. Batchelor made these charges on his ownauthority in a letter written to the trustees, and datedJuly 22nd ult.) and the hospital trustees as defendants, endedunsatisfactorily, for both sides are commended in the courseof the report. The report, nevertheless, is an able one. TheCommissioners spared no pains in thoroughly investigatingthe matter, and offered many valuable suggestions. Theonly unfortunate part connected with the whole affair isthat the result is not considered satisfactory by either side.Indeed, at a meeting of the hospital trustees, held atDunedin on Nov. 19th ult., the report was read and dis-cussed. All the members who spoke condemned the reportof the Commissioners as unsatisfactory and valueless. Asa trial between Dr. Batchelor and the hospital trustees thisexpression of opinion may be true as regards its unsatisfac-tory termination; but that the inquiry was valueless Iventure to deny. As a matter of fact, I quite agree withSir James Hector’s closing speech at the inquiry itself,when he stated "that the result of this inquiry will be toshow to the public that a mass of evidence bearing on thequestions of hospital management and construction has beenaccumulated that will form a State paper of very high valuefor the future guidance of those concerned in the managementand care of hospitals in all parts of the colony ; and I thinkthat the manner in which the evidence has been broughtforward, the carefulness with which all sources of informa-tion have been drawn on, and the impartial way that theevidence has been put in, reflect the very greatest credit onboth sides.

Wlolesale Poisoning at Wanganui.Since I last wrote the medical men practising at Wan-