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SANITARY CONDITION OF GUILDFORD.
297 H. Thompson’s," and not wishing to participate in the amenities he vouchsafes to those who are, I shall be content to
tion to the very defective arrangements for sea-bathing provided at our English watering-places. A machine, more Yours, &c., remain, likely to be wet and dirty than clean, and a towel or two, CHIRURGUS. appear to constitute all that is necessary to the minds of our Atgust 19th, 1863. P S.-I am sorrv that no response has yet been made to "proprietors." On sandy beaches the machine is commonly run out just far enough to enable the bather to walk into my appeal to Sir H. Thompson (THE LANCET, February 1st), water that will cover his knees, rarely far enough to enable the results of his medio-bilateral lithotomies. to prblish him to plunge. The consequence is, that ladies, children, and all who cannot swim, dabble about with their bodies out of the water, and get out chilled, shivering, with teeth chatterSANITARY CONDITION OF GUILDFORD. ing, blue lips, and general horripilation ; and there is no sort To the Editor of THE LANCET. of provision to aid in counteracting the species of collapse by SIR, -In your report upon the sanitary state of the town of restoring the circulation to the surface. Such bathing as this Guildiord, under the heading of "general mortality," you is positively injurious-even dangerous to delicate persons. The remark, with reference to some statistics I sent you-" As thing most wanted is a bucket of warm fresh water, say at he had previously informed us that the deaths in the whole 90° F., to stand in, and wash away the salt and sand whilst the body. This is not only a luxury, but rubbing and registration district were in each year considerably higher than a safeguard, drying to ladies and children. With it, bathespecially the above proportion, it seems strange that the extra mortality ing even in comparatively cold weather becomes useful and should have occurred in the suburban parts, and not in the agreeable. On sandy shores the water is often charged with matter, and this, added to the hygrometric property comparatively overcrowded and unhealthy town." It is ne- organic of the saline ingredients, keeps the feet sticky, clammy, and that I should this cessary explain apparent anomaly. Beyond uncomfortable for the rest of the day. It is an immense comthe con,fines of the town, but within the limits of the registra- fort to get rid of this. tion district, there are two public institutions -the Union Is there any reason why this warm water should not be Workhouse and the Royal Surrey County Hospital. The provided? It is an essential element at all the "Etablisseformer receives the sick, aged, infirm, and children, from the ments des Bains " in France. Of course a small charge would venture to say that a good bathing-place twenty-two parishes, with an estimated population of 30,000 be expected ; but Iwith this and other conveniences would The the Guildford Union. equipped properly inhabitants, constituting infirmary At present, medical men are of the Workhouse has upon an average something over fifty soon prove remunerative. inmates, many of them suffering from fatal diseases, sent in obliged to forbid many of their patients from bathing. If from the surrounding district merely to be nursed till they they knew of a place answering to medical requirements, that die. This circumstance, added to the ordinary mortality place would not lack encouragement or support. I am, Sir, your obedient servant, amongst the aged, infirm people, and children, creates a high ROBERT BARNES, M.D. Finsbury-square, Aug. 1868. death-rate, the average annual deaths during the five years in question being 37. Of the Surrey County Hospital, situated at about four hundred yards from any part of the town, the LEAD COLIC. male wards are within the borough, the female beyond it, the in cut two the line. the Editor of THE LANCET. To by imaginary boundary building being last year 8 deaths occurred in this building within SIR,-As a member of the Clinical Society, and one most the borough, and 6 beyond its limits. In the previous year the proportion was about in the same ratio. As the inmates anxious to see its object as a therapeutic society, for which it of these two establishments come from distant places, they was established, fully carried out, I as carefully as I can look cannot be considered as part of the normal population either through your columns from time to time, and endeavour to of the town or suburban registration district, although they find out and analyse the modes of treating disease. materially help to swell the death-rate of each. Thus 37 THE LANCET of the 15th inst. gives some interesting cases of deaths have been contributed to each of the five years in the series by the Workhouse to the suburban parts of the registra- lead poisoning from Middlesex Hospital. Thetreatment adopted tion district, and 43 in the two last years of it by the in each case, though differing somewhat, has, with the excepWorkhouse and Surrey County Hospital together. The de- tion of Case 4, one feature in common. Each had opium as a duction of these numbers from the gross deaths in the sub- part of the treatment, and got well. But so also did Case urban parts of the registration district will account fairly for No. 4, though it got no opium. To be brief, I gather from the report, first, that iodide of the apparent discrepancy to which you refer, and will, pro tanto, diminish the percentage of deaths both in the town potassium did no good, but rather harm; secondly, that castor oil, whether it did good or not, was not fairly tried,-it had itself and in the entire registration district. opium and liquor potassse mixed with it ; thirdly, and most I am, Sir, your obedient servant, prominent, that opium, whenever fully administered, did RICHARD EAGER. 1868. 24th, Guildford, Aug. good. Such is my own limited experience. *,* We accept Mr. Eager’s explanation of the statements With all earnestness, then, I would take the liberty to he made with respect to the general mortality of the inhabi- suggest that opium, pure and simple, and without any adjutants of Guildford, with this single observation: that as the vant, be fairly tried, and particularly in hospitals, where exof this kind can be more faithfully carried out; and borough comprises one-third of the Guildford Union, it is periments let the result be made known. reasonable to infer that one-third of the deaths in the WorkI am, Sir, yours &c., house belong really to the town. Mr. Eager has not exDIOGENES. August 18th, 1868. plained the statement that the mortality during the present year is not greater than usual, although manifestly swelled by 22 deaths from scarlatina. Does not this prove that epidemics at Guildford are the rule, and not the exception ?-
During the
_____
______
Analytical Recorbs.
En. L.
BONTHRON’S
SEA-BATHING. of THE LANCET.
To the Editor
SIR,-In your journal of the 8th instant is a code of excellent rules drawn up for the Royal Humane Society by Dr. Sieveking and Dr. Christian. These rules, I presume, apply more especially to bathers in fresh water. I think they sum up very correctly the conclusions of experienced swimmers. If they are attended to, bathing will do good; if they are eontravened, bathing will do harm. But my immediate object in addressing you is to call atten-
DIABETIC
BISCUITS.
pointed out long since by Dr. Hassall that even the carefully prepared bran biscuits abound in starch, and that they are most unsuitable for the use of the great majority of patients labouring under diabetes. Dr. Hassall has found IT
was
most
them to contain from 40 to 50 per cent. of starch, and that it is impossible to free the bran from the starchy element by any number of washings and pressings. As he has shown, the only really effectual method of removing the starch is by the action of the diastase derived from a solution of malt. Thisconverts the insoluble farinaceous matter into the soluble glucose, which is easily washed out of the bran by means of water.
tion to the very defective arrangements for sea-bathing provided at our English watering-places. A machine, more Yours, &c., remain, likely to be wet and dirty than clean, and a towel or two, CHIRURGUS. appear to constitute all that is necessary to the minds of our Atgust 19th, 1863. P S.-I am sorrv that no response has yet been made to "proprietors." On sandy beaches the machine is commonly run out just far enough to enable the bather to walk into my appeal to Sir H. Thompson (THE LANCET, February 1st), water that will cover his knees, rarely far enough to enable the results of his medio-bilateral lithotomies. to prblish him to plunge. The consequence is, that ladies, children, and all who cannot swim, dabble about with their bodies out of the water, and get out chilled, shivering, with teeth chatterSANITARY CONDITION OF GUILDFORD. ing, blue lips, and general horripilation ; and there is no sort To the Editor of THE LANCET. of provision to aid in counteracting the species of collapse by SIR, -In your report upon the sanitary state of the town of restoring the circulation to the surface. Such bathing as this Guildiord, under the heading of "general mortality," you is positively injurious-even dangerous to delicate persons. The remark, with reference to some statistics I sent you-" As thing most wanted is a bucket of warm fresh water, say at he had previously informed us that the deaths in the whole 90° F., to stand in, and wash away the salt and sand whilst the body. This is not only a luxury, but rubbing and registration district were in each year considerably higher than a safeguard, drying to ladies and children. With it, bathespecially the above proportion, it seems strange that the extra mortality ing even in comparatively cold weather becomes useful and should have occurred in the suburban parts, and not in the agreeable. On sandy shores the water is often charged with matter, and this, added to the hygrometric property comparatively overcrowded and unhealthy town." It is ne- organic of the saline ingredients, keeps the feet sticky, clammy, and that I should this cessary explain apparent anomaly. Beyond uncomfortable for the rest of the day. It is an immense comthe con,fines of the town, but within the limits of the registra- fort to get rid of this. tion district, there are two public institutions -the Union Is there any reason why this warm water should not be Workhouse and the Royal Surrey County Hospital. The provided? It is an essential element at all the "Etablisseformer receives the sick, aged, infirm, and children, from the ments des Bains " in France. Of course a small charge would venture to say that a good bathing-place twenty-two parishes, with an estimated population of 30,000 be expected ; but Iwith this and other conveniences would The the Guildford Union. equipped properly inhabitants, constituting infirmary At present, medical men are of the Workhouse has upon an average something over fifty soon prove remunerative. inmates, many of them suffering from fatal diseases, sent in obliged to forbid many of their patients from bathing. If from the surrounding district merely to be nursed till they they knew of a place answering to medical requirements, that die. This circumstance, added to the ordinary mortality place would not lack encouragement or support. I am, Sir, your obedient servant, amongst the aged, infirm people, and children, creates a high ROBERT BARNES, M.D. Finsbury-square, Aug. 1868. death-rate, the average annual deaths during the five years in question being 37. Of the Surrey County Hospital, situated at about four hundred yards from any part of the town, the LEAD COLIC. male wards are within the borough, the female beyond it, the in cut two the line. the Editor of THE LANCET. To by imaginary boundary building being last year 8 deaths occurred in this building within SIR,-As a member of the Clinical Society, and one most the borough, and 6 beyond its limits. In the previous year the proportion was about in the same ratio. As the inmates anxious to see its object as a therapeutic society, for which it of these two establishments come from distant places, they was established, fully carried out, I as carefully as I can look cannot be considered as part of the normal population either through your columns from time to time, and endeavour to of the town or suburban registration district, although they find out and analyse the modes of treating disease. materially help to swell the death-rate of each. Thus 37 THE LANCET of the 15th inst. gives some interesting cases of deaths have been contributed to each of the five years in the series by the Workhouse to the suburban parts of the registra- lead poisoning from Middlesex Hospital. Thetreatment adopted tion district, and 43 in the two last years of it by the in each case, though differing somewhat, has, with the excepWorkhouse and Surrey County Hospital together. The de- tion of Case 4, one feature in common. Each had opium as a duction of these numbers from the gross deaths in the sub- part of the treatment, and got well. But so also did Case urban parts of the registration district will account fairly for No. 4, though it got no opium. To be brief, I gather from the report, first, that iodide of the apparent discrepancy to which you refer, and will, pro tanto, diminish the percentage of deaths both in the town potassium did no good, but rather harm; secondly, that castor oil, whether it did good or not, was not fairly tried,-it had itself and in the entire registration district. opium and liquor potassse mixed with it ; thirdly, and most I am, Sir, your obedient servant, prominent, that opium, whenever fully administered, did RICHARD EAGER. 1868. 24th, Guildford, Aug. good. Such is my own limited experience. *,* We accept Mr. Eager’s explanation of the statements With all earnestness, then, I would take the liberty to he made with respect to the general mortality of the inhabi- suggest that opium, pure and simple, and without any adjutants of Guildford, with this single observation: that as the vant, be fairly tried, and particularly in hospitals, where exof this kind can be more faithfully carried out; and borough comprises one-third of the Guildford Union, it is periments let the result be made known. reasonable to infer that one-third of the deaths in the WorkI am, Sir, yours &c., house belong really to the town. Mr. Eager has not exDIOGENES. August 18th, 1868. plained the statement that the mortality during the present year is not greater than usual, although manifestly swelled by 22 deaths from scarlatina. Does not this prove that epidemics at Guildford are the rule, and not the exception ?-
During the
_____
______
Analytical Recorbs.
En. L.
BONTHRON’S
SEA-BATHING. of THE LANCET.
To the Editor
SIR,-In your journal of the 8th instant is a code of excellent rules drawn up for the Royal Humane Society by Dr. Sieveking and Dr. Christian. These rules, I presume, apply more especially to bathers in fresh water. I think they sum up very correctly the conclusions of experienced swimmers. If they are attended to, bathing will do good; if they are eontravened, bathing will do harm. But my immediate object in addressing you is to call atten-
DIABETIC
BISCUITS.
pointed out long since by Dr. Hassall that even the carefully prepared bran biscuits abound in starch, and that they are most unsuitable for the use of the great majority of patients labouring under diabetes. Dr. Hassall has found IT
was
most
them to contain from 40 to 50 per cent. of starch, and that it is impossible to free the bran from the starchy element by any number of washings and pressings. As he has shown, the only really effectual method of removing the starch is by the action of the diastase derived from a solution of malt. Thisconverts the insoluble farinaceous matter into the soluble glucose, which is easily washed out of the bran by means of water.