1343THE BRITISH SCIENCE GUILD.-A BY-LAW AGAINST STREET NOISES

the laws governing attendance of children at school in-

creased facilities of infection are provided. Dr. ARMSTRONG,however, points out that the increase in the number of casesof diphtheria is due to isolated epidemics in certain largetowns rather than to a general increase all over the country.If, then, observation of individual cases is inadequate to

prove the value of a remedy, while the figures derived fromstatistics may be to some extent fallacious, what grounds havewe for speaking confidently as to the therapeutic value ofantitoxic serum ? The evidence is afforded by the data avail-able as to the rising mortality of the disease according ascases are treated on the first, second, or following days afterits onset. The inference derived from these is clear and

beyond cavil. We find that among cases treated with anti-

toxin at the Brook Hospital on the first day of the disease atits very onset the mortality for the six years 1897-1902 waswil. Among those treated on the second day the mortalitywas under 5 per cent. ; among those treated on the

third day it was over 10 per cent. ; while among those

in which treatment was delayed to the fourth and later

days the percentage rose to about 20 per cent. It is

impossible satisfactorily to explain this increasing mortalityon any other ground than on the assumption that the

administration of antitoxin is the controlling factor in

saving life. Of the inadequacy of ordinary remedial

measures, such as preparations of iron taken internally andlocal antiseptic applications to the throat, we are only toopainfully aware. But in order that the antitoxin may be

enabled to exert its beneficent action it must be administered

before the poison of the disease has had time to obtain

a firm grip of the living cells. If the remedy is given atthe very outset the poison is neutralised before it can do

serious harm and recovery of the patient is practicallycertain. Later, larger doses of serum are necessary to

overcome the toxin and even then we cannot be sure of a

successful result.

A word of warning is perhaps necessary in advocating theuse of antitoxic serum in cases of diphtheria. There is

undoubtedly a tendency at the present time to administer

doses of this remedy very much larger than was customary afew years ago. In many cases this proceeding is necessaryto save the life of a patient already deeply intoxicated withthe diphtherial poison. Here it is essential to act quicklyand vigorously. But we must bear in mind that antitoxic

serum, or indeed any serum derived from one of the lower

animals, is not an inert substance. It is capable of givingrise in susceptible persons to constitutional disturbances

which are sometimes severe and may possibly at times beeven fatal. Just as in employing a poisonous drug as the

physiological antidote to a poison we are careful not to pro-duce another form of intoxication, so in treating diphtheriawe must graduate the dose of antitoxin employed to the needsof the individual case. It is unfortunate that the requisitedose cannot be accurately measured but it should be reco-

gnised that in cases of moderate severity only moderatedoses of serum should be at first employed. To repeat the

injection in a few hours’ time is easy ; to withdraw what isonce administered is impossible. Only in the presence ofgrave toxoamia should massive doses be at once employed.Then haste is imperative and some risk may be run to

combat the greater danger already present.

Annotations."Ne quid nimis."

THE BRITISH SCIENCE GUILD.

THE British Science Guild commenced its commendablelabours under very favourable auspices at the MansionHouse on Oct. 30th, when the Lord Mayor presidedat the inaugural meeting which was convened in partto ratify the names of those proposed to serve as officersand in part to give the leading organisers an oppor-tunity of stating the ohjects of the guild and of em-

phasising the great need for the existence of such an

association in this country. Primarily the guild seeks toawaken the nation to its sense of responsibility in regardto the development of education and the application ofscientific knowledge to all branches of human industry.To that end the members of the guild throughout theEmpire propose to meet together and to act in concert

in organising a movement which is designed to bring hometo the people the necessity of applying the methods of

science to the industrial affairs of life and thereby to pro-mote the progress and welfare of the Empire. Further,the members of the guild will act by bringing to the noticeof the Government the scientific aspects of all matters affect-ing the national welfare, by encouraging the application ofscientific principles to industrial and general purposes, andby promoting scientific education and for that purpose en-listing the support of the universities and other institutionsin which science is an ever-widening field of study andwhere new scientific applications are made. Science for alland not for the few is, in brief, the ambition of the guild,and by science is meant not the mere knowledge of scientificprinciples and facts but a training which implies the gainingof an insight into the meaning of these facts and a

quickened sense of observation which is calculated to

realise how a knowledge of these facts and principles maybe turned to practical account. The practical study ofscience even by the few has developed into so many branchesand has opened up so many fields that the only chanceof making real progress in the future will be by increasingthe number not of mere learners but of actual workers.But even so progress must necessarily be slow, for prob-ably it will be a long time before scientific investigationwill afford a compensating vocation and become the sourceof a living wage. Still a really serious beginning in thisdirection must be made and the sooner the better for

the welfare of the country, as undoubtedly while it istrue that the Englishman is second to none as a brilliant

explorer and discoverer it is a fact that he has oftentimesfailed to realise the significance of his discovery in its

application to industry and that therefore what mighthave been a valuable asset to his country has slipped away.Once, however, the need of scientific application is felt

there will be rapidly increasing vacancies in industrial

pursuits calling for the energies and skill of men versed inscientific principles and alive to the value of their applica-tion. If such a consummation ever be gained in this country,and there can be no real advance until it is gained, it maybe justly the proud boast of the recently organised guild thatat any rate it contributed its quota towards the attainmentof so desirable an end.

____

A BY-LAW AGAINST STREET NOISES.

THE Islington borough council has recently obtained thesanction of the Home Secretary, for a by-law which includesthe following provision : "No person shall sound or playupon any musical or noisy instrument or sing in any streetor public place within 100 yards of any hospital, infirmary,

1344

or convalescent home to the annoyance of any inmate

thereof after being requested to desist by any inmate orofficial, either personally or through any person acting onbehalf of such inmate or official or through a constable."Similar protection is also given to places of religiousworship or of public entertainment and the shouting ofhawkers and street-sellers is also forbidden when it isdone " so as to cause annoyance to the inhabitantsof the neighbourhood.’’ It is to be feared that this other-wise excellent by-law will not be enforced by the policeupon general instructions but will have to be set in motionby the inmate or official" invoking the constable’s aid

upon specific occasions. This, at least, is the apparentforce of the condition, that the noise must be made " to theannoyance of any inmate thereof " before it can be stopped.Possibly, however, the police may take a more liberal view.In the regulations as we have seen them quoted there is nomention of the unfortunate individual who lies ill in his homein a room which may be much nearer to the players of

street music than the ward of the hospital. As the band

may be asked to stop by any "inmate " of the latter or byanyone on his behalf there would not seem to be any greatinjustice in permitting the inmate of any house to make

a similar request if the noise caused annoyance to a

person lying seriously ill. As it is, the immediate vicinityof a hospital or infirmary should be popular as a place ofresidence among Islington citizens who wish to avoid the

"music" of the piano organ, the street cornet, and the

itinerant band. ____

THE REVOLUTION IN RUSSIA AND THE MEDICAL

PROFESSION.

IN the complete political and social upheaval now takingplace in Russia medical men have had a difficult part toplay and the fact that they are represented as workingsincerely now on the side of the autocracy now on theside of the revolutionary party shows this to be the case.As the guardians of the public health medical men arenaturally deeply concerned in the preservation of law andorder, for with mob government there comes the suspensionof all the domestic machinery devised for the safeguarding oflife and the preservation of health. On the other hand, asmembers of an enlightened profession no class in Russia canhave seen more clearly than the medical men that the Govern-ment of a vast country by one man at the completely un-fettered instigation of any group of men with whom he maychoose to surround himself is a monstrous anomaly. At a

general meeting of the League of Medical Men, St. Petersburg,on Oct. 23rd, the subjects discussed included the three follow-ing : (1) proposed adhesion to the recently formed leagueto combat capital punishment ; (2) a general strike ofmedical men ; and (3) the relations of the medical pro-fession to the Imperial Duma. The opinions of the meetingon the third point are no longer of interest as no one caresfu ther about the Duma but as to the first it was decided to

cease professional relations with any medical man who

should in any way contribute to the carrying out of capitalpunishment, an exercise of the boycott which is clearlydictated by a strong turning towards humanitarianism. As

to the second, after a long debate, during which many presenthad advocated partial boycott of selected persons and institu-tions, it was decided to favour a general strike in sympathywith the revolutionary movement. A curious comment uponthe existing legislation in Russia as it affects medical men isfurnished by the position of Professor Behrend who has

recently been summoned to St. Petersburg by an old patientwhom he had attended already in Berlin. Notwithstandingthe tempting character of the invitation, says the Novosti,with apparent reference to the fee offered, the professorreplied that although the St. Petersburg police would

probably allow him as a professor in a German university to,’eside in St. Petersburg without trouble, they might have theright to send him out of the capital as a Jew, and notwishing to subject himself to the latter possibility herefused to go until the situation was changed.

VENTILATION IN THE ROYAL COURTS OFJUSTICE.

SOME strictures recently made by one of our judges on theventilation of his court in the central legal palace emphasisethe difficulty of the problem presented to an engineer uponwhom devolves the task of ventilating any large publicbuilding. In the case of the Law Courts, consisting as theydo of an agglomeration of separate chambers, each presidedover by an autocrat holding arbitrary as well as possiblydistinct views as to temperature and ventilation from hisbrother in the adjoining court, the engineer’s lot can scarcelybe described as a happy one. But as without doubt the con-dition of the air in the courts has a serious, if indirect,bearing on the administration of justice the point is quiteimportant. A few facts as to the provision for ventilationmade in the Royal Courts of Justice in the Strand, whereso much of the legal work of the country is done, will not bedevoid of interest to our readers. Probably few medical menand very few of the general public, or those whose dutyrequires their attendance at the courts, have any idea ofthe elaborate machinery provided for the purpose in

Street’s well-abused building. Ventilation without draughthas been the aim of generations of engineers, but as yettheir best efforts have met with only partial success. Un-

fortunately the engineer seldom arrives upon the scene

of his labours until after the architect has completedhis structural work. This is to be regretted, as thereare many details in the construction of a building whichinfluence for good or evil any scheme of ventilation. In

the crypt beneath the labyrinth of corridors and courts

composing the building in the Strand exists an accumulationof machinery absolutely bewildering to anyone devoid of thetechnical knowledge appertaining to an engineer. In the firstplace, there are the steam engines with their furnaces andboilers, which alone occupy a considerable space. These workthe dynamos for generating the electric power to drive

the fans used for extracting the vitiated air and for forcingthe fresh air to the several courts. These fans, whichnumber 21, are capable of passing through the courts manythousand cubic feet of air per hour. This at first wouldseem very satisfactory but as to whether they are capableof maintaining the purity of the air at the standard requiredby modern science we cannot offer an opinion withouthaving the necessary figures. When it is remembered thateach person, in theory at least, requires 1000 cubic feet ofair space, and that it is necessary to change this air threetimes in the hour in order that the recognised limit ofcarbonic acid (CO2) present shall not exceed 0. 6 per1000, it seems not improbable that even this largesupply may fall hort of the amount required. This, of

course, not only depends upon the size of the court andthe number of people present but also upon the amount of airadmitted by doors and windows, and whether it is possibleto drive the fans at their full limit without creating anunbearable draught. Except in the case of very largebuildings, which permit of a rapid diffusion of air in thespace between the inlet and outlet, it is found difficult to *.

admit air, even when the temperature has been artificially raised, at a rate per hour much exceeding three times thevolume present without causing too great a draught. The

supply of air in the present instance can either be heated orcooled before delivery. For the former purpose there are

two calorifiers in which the circulating coils are heated bythe exhaust steam from the engines ; the hot water in the