658

37,924 deaths and Berlin 30,465. The infant mortality wasstrangely alike ; of children over live years 17,520 died inNew York, and 17,2()6 in Berlin. Small-pox caused in NewYork 259, and in Berlin 5, deatlis ; mcastes 913 and 144respectively ; scarlet fever 2066 and 601; typhus fever 65and 1 ; pneumonia. 3472 and 1823 ; and bronchitis 1583 aud856. The population of Nev York is 1,279,560, and ofBerlin 1,174,293.

_ - ---

THE SERVICES.

BENGAL MEDICAL ESTABLISHMENT. - Surgeon-MajorsAlexallder Morison Dallas and Charles Kilkelly, to beBrigade Surgeons.MILITIA MEDICAL DEPARTMENT.—Surgeon-Major Walter

Humphries, M.D , Royal Anglesey Eugineer Militia, resignshis commission ; also is permitted to retain his lank and towear the prescribed uniform on his retirement.RIFLE VOLUNTEERS.-2nd Oxfordsbire: Surgeon and

Honorary Surgeon-Major Edward Law Husey resigns hiscommission ; also is permitted to retain his rank and tocontinue to wear the uniform of the corps on his retirement.ADMIRALTY.-Fleet Surgeon John Itichard Burke, M.D.,

has been placed on the Retired List, with permission toassume the rank and title of Retired Deputy luanector-General of Hospitals and Fleets. Staff Surgeon WilliamJabez Inman has been promoted to the rank of FleetSurgeon in Her Majesty’s Fleet, with seniority of April 2nd,1883.The following appointments have been made :-Inspector

of Hospitals John D. Macdonald. to the Plymouth Hos-pital, vice Irwin; Fleet Surgeon Henry F. Nurbury, C.B.,to the Belleisle, vice Burke.

WILLS OF MEDICAL MEN.

THE will of Mr. James Garstang, late of Wood-villa,Lytham, Lancashire, surgeon, who died on January 15thlast, has been proved at the Lancaster district registry byDr. Luke Fisher, the sole executor, the value of the personalestate being over 9100. The testator makes numerous

specific beque3ts to his own and his late wife’s relatives andfriends, and gives the residue of his personalty to his latewife’s great niece, Martha Cannon.The will of James Wingate Johnston, ill.D., Inspector-

Generalof HospitalsandFleets, late of Annandale, Clarendon-road, Soutbsea, who died on October 17th, last has beenproved by Mrs. Cnristma Blackhall Johnston, the widow andsole executrix, the value of the personal estate exceeding£ 2400. The testator gives all his property to his wife.

The will of Francis Robert Hogg, M.D., Surgeon-Major,A.M.D., who died on September 21st at Morar Gwalior,India, was proved on ttie 31st ult. by Mr. Arthur VereArcher Powys, the executor, the value of the personal estateexceeding E2300. The testator, after bequeathing £ 50 tohis executor for the purchase of a ring, distributes theremainder of his property between his brother John RobertsHogg and his sisters Mary Ann Hogg and Caroline GwinnellHogg.The will of William MeEwen, M.D., of 2G, Nicholas-street, Chester, who died on Aug. 1st last, has been provedat the Chester district registry by Mrs. Margaret EmmaMcEwen, the widow and sole executrix, the value of thepersonal estate amounting to nearly £ 4000. The testatorgives, devises, and bequeaths all his real and personal estateto his wife absolutely.

THE LEEDS GENERAL INFIRMARY. - The com-

mittee’s report, which was presented at the annual meetingof the board of this infirmary, held on the 28th ult., statedthat the number of in-patients admitted during the yearwas 3392, against 3570 in the preceding year ; and of out-patients 15,873, against 14,643. The receipts during thetwelve months amounted to £ 15,107, those in 1881 havingbeen £ 14,996. In 1881 the expenditure was £ 12,840, whilethat in 1882 was £ 13,298, 2734 of which was spent instructural improvements. The working classes contributed£ 184 more than in the previous year.

Correspondence.

THE PICRIC ACID TEST FOR ALBUMEN INURINE : A CLAIM OF PRIORITY.

"Audi alteram partcm."

To the Editor of THE LANCET.SIR,-I was not aware of Dr. George Johnson’s communi.

cations to THE LANCET on this subject .till a few weeksago, when the matter was mentioned to me by ProfessorW. T. Gairdner. Having now read them, I at once makean express claim to priority as to the best method of usingthis test ; the method, in short, in which lies, as I hope topoint out, the secret of its superior delicacy to nitric acid.There are three points to be carefully distinguished:-

1. The original suggestion of the use of the acid. 2. Themost delicate method of using it. 3. The due applicationand demonstration of its value.With respect to the first of these there is no question,

and Dr. Johnson acknowledges there is no novelty in it, andpoints out to whom it is due; but in his last paper he stillclaims that its value has not hitherto been appreciated. Ihave now to inform him that I had already demonstratedits delicacy in the most convincing manner, and by meansof the very method which he describes as the best, andwhich, as far as I can learn, was firilt published by me,

In the Glasgow Medical Journal for May, 1881, I pub-lished, or, as a friend told me (and as it now appearscorrectly), buried, a paper entitled " Researches on Albumen,with special reference to Albuminuria." This paper waspreviously read before the Glasgow Medieo-ChirurgicalSociety, before whom many of the most important experi.ments were even performed, and amongst others one illus.trating the delicacy of the picric acid test. In this article Ifirst of all gave, as I believe, a new and original test foralbumen. It consists in boiling the urine with caustic soda,and subsequently testing with nitric acid. By carefullydiluting specimens of albuminous urine with water or withnormal urine, I proved that this test was fully three timesmore delicate than the ordinary use of the acid alone. I wasnow anxious to compare this with other tests of reputeddelicacy, and I did so (by the same process of diluting) withmetaphosphoric and picric acids, using in both cases, at thesuggestion of a chemical friend, a saturated watery solutionof the acida, which I found rendered them more delicate.Let me quote the exact words in which I have describedthe method, and its results with picric acid. "Picricacid is said to be a delicate test for albumen, and in allinstances in which I have compared it with the other tests(nitric acid alone, nitric acid after boiling with alkali, andmetaphosphoric acid) I have found it so. It also is best usedin the form of a watery solution, which is light, and whenallowed to run down the tube like the others flows gently overthe surface of the urine, when, if albumen be present, itshows itself by the formation of a narrow greenish zonewhere the two liquids meet. It forms in a minute, evenwhen albumen is present in only the smallest quantities, andI have never seen anything in a non-albuminous urine whichcould be mistaken for it. It is not so applicable where thereis turbidity from urates or phosphates, but in a comparativelyclear urine I have always found it as delicate as the alkaliand acid test, perhaps tally more so, while it is much lesstroublesome." As far as I can perceive, the only suggestion made by Dr.

Johnson which is original or valuable is his advice to getrid of the turbidity of the urates by heat before applying thetest. But with respect to the two points to which I demandattention, the evidence is decisive. It only remains, there-fore, to consider, Was the test ever used formerly in thisway ? If not, what was the estimate of its value by thosewho used it in a different manner ? I find from the leadingarticle in the Medical Tinaes and Gazette, to which Dr.Johnson has referred, that the method onginally followedwas very different. A few drops of the suspected urine wereallowed to fall into the acid sulution, and the two allowedto mix. The best proof, I think, that the superiority of thetest depends entirely on my method is afforded by theinferior results obtained by those who followed the originalplan. Thus various competent observers have testified inTHE LANCET since November last that aftex a prolonged trial