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THE BLACK WATCH.
896 Readers
Albert Smith’s popular tale, "Christopher Tadpole," may remember how a medical the man induced an unwilling innkeeper to receive him killed man an accident of a by by reminding corpse of the probability that the twelve jurymen would spend The incident at Hackney twelve shillings in drinking. to have never and it certainly ought not occurred, ought to be repeated before Dr. Westcott or any other coroner. Although the coroner’s court is one of first instance, and many cases begin and end there, the coroner is in the position of a judge, and to "heckle"him is as great an impropriety as to hecklea magistrate, a recorder, or a judge of assize. Moreover, coroners’ jurors are by no means the only persons who have to suffer loss in a performing duty to their country. Medical and lay witnesses have incurred losses far exceeding the very modest sum of 6s. mentioned previously as incurred by the foreman, though unquestionably that was a very serious sum for a working man to lose. The debate was wound up by the coroner saying, "The matter lies in your own hands, and by combination you can get it." The mat’er, we fear, is not quite so simple as Dr. Westcott makes it. By the Act of 1887 a coroner’s jury must comprise not less than twelve and not more than twenty - three men. Taking the very modest sum of ls. per juror per inquest or even per diem, this would mean a large additional burden to the rates. Possibly the question would then arise, Why not dispense with coroners’ juries altogether, as is done in many other countries, and place the coroner in the same position as the procurator-fiscal of Scotland or the procureur of France? The case of Matilda Clover is recent enough to remind us that our death certification is not perfect, and that a searching inquiry into all violent, unnatural, and sudden deaths the cause of which is unknown must always form an important part of our social system, and the memorable case just alluded to was a proof of the necessity of having no deaths medically certified which are not legally entitled to be so dealt with. It may appear to be a cumbrous and harsh proceeding to summon twelve men to inquire, without remuneration, into the cause of a death which after all turns out to have been a natural one; but it is not desirable that a death due to homicidal strychnine poisoning should be certified as due to alcoholism, as happened in the cause célèbre already mentioned. On the other hand, a coroner’s jury, wisely guided by the evidence, sent to trial a wretched murderess whom a bench of magistrates had discharged on the grounds that no jury would convict. But the woman was convicted and executed.
of
the
late
__
VINOUS FERMENTATION WITHOUT YEAST CELLS. THERE is no more interesting group of bodies in the organic world than that of the ferments. They are remarkably complex in chemical composition and possess properties of an extraordinarily energetic character. In their power to transform one substance into a new and quite different substance perhaps the action of the so-called unorganised ferments or enzymes, as, for instance, the diastase of malt or the pepsin and pancreatin of the alimentary tract, is more wonderful than when an organism To the organised ferments belong the is concerned.
bacteria and germs of disease, and also yeast, the torula. According, however, to an exceedingly interesting research carried out recently by Dr. E. Buchner, and published in a recent number of the Berichte der Deutschen Chemischen Gesellschaf, the transformation of sugar into carbonic acid and alcohol is not necessarily dependent upon the presence of the yeast cells themselves. Rather would the fermentation appear to be directly due to a substance contained in the cells of the nature of an common
unorganised ferment, an enzyme. Dr. Buchner showed that by crushing pure yeast with sand, with the addition of water, that a liquid could be expressed which, after careful filtering, was found to act on cane-sugar likeyeast-that is to say, in exciting fermentation and producing carbonic acid and alcohol in the ordinary way. The addition of chloroform in small quantity does not appear to deter the action, although some precipita tion of albuminous substances results. The fermentative property of this liquid is lost when it is heated to a temperature of50°C., a point which is close to that at which the active properties of malt diastase are destroyed. The outcome of this very important investigation would seem tobe that fermentation is not directly the action of a living cell, but rather the results of the action of a liquid excreted by the living organism. The precise nature of this action and the constitution of the enzyme concerned are alike far from being understood. Dr. Buchner believes the substance to be of a proteid nature, and he has proposed to The importance of this discovery call it "zymase." cannot be doubted when the application of yeast in the arts and industries is taken into consideration. It possesses, too, a very interesting bearing on the study of the vital processes. We do not doubt that before long a substance capable of exciting alcoholic fermentation will be prepared on a commercial scale, so that instead of depending upon the uncertain action of yeast cells we may have a reliable substance yielding definite products. IZymase"should be applicable to the estimation of sugar in urine and make this method depending upon fermentation more exact, since it will exclude errors arising from the gas produced by the living cell itself or from other sources, while, still more important, the action would be due to the presence of sugar alone, and give an accurate estimate of this substance apart altogether from the presence of other reducing substances that might occur along with-it. THE BLACK WATCH. LORD G. HAMILTON recently, in reply to a question by Sir H. Maxwell in the House of Commons, stated that the monthly returns from India showed that enteric fever had prevailed in this corps quartered at Subathu, a hill station in the Punjab on the road to Simla, during April, May, and June, increased in July, August, and September, but diminished greatly in October, and ceased in November. Lord G. Hamilton added that the report on the health of the British troops for 1896 had not yet reached him and that he would ask the Government of India to expedite it and to furnish information as to the water-supply of all the hill stations on that route-namely, Subathu, Dagshai, Kassauli, Solon, and Jutogh. The amount of enteric fever at the hill stations in India is considerable, and at several of them seems to have been increasing of late years. At Subathu there have been several outbreaks of the fever from time to, time, and the medical history of the station in this respect would indicate that it is less healthy than other hill stations in the neighbourhood. The maximum prevalence of enteric fever corresponds greatly with the period of maximum heat; it rises in April and May, falls somewhat during the rainy season (monsoon), and again rises somewhat as that season ends. During the past year there has been a relative or complete absence of rain in India, with failure of the crops and famine as a consequence, and the cases have continued to occur during the whole of the hot season. There is, of course, something over and above the effects of climatic heat to account for the origin and prevalence of enteric fever; heat is only one of the factors. The greater liability of one station as compared with another to outbreaks of this fever points to the presence of some specific cause and local
insanitary conditions.
A
water-supply derived from wells
897 and springs is always liable to contamination ; but it is a 1. As to the time of repeating the injections, he did not curious fact-and we understand that it is the fact-that the wait as long as three weeks, as was recommended by the disease is
commonly greatest in the hot Professor Lannelongue, but performed a second injection and directly after the monsoon. as early as on the seventh or even third day after the The cookhouse, filters, foulness of soil from continued first injection, being guided by the indication if the pains occupation of a site, and the state of the native bazaars have did not cease within that period. 2. The administra.all to be taken into account, as well as the water-supply of tion of anaesthetics he regards as quite unnecessary in the station. adults, and even in children the operation can be easily done without them, since the pain is merely that associated KISSING THE BOOK. with all subcutaneous injections ; indeed, they were slight and fugitive in character in almost all cases of his observaTHE Mayor of Ripon recently announced that anyone tion. 3. By observing rigid aseptic precautions the giving evidence in the County-court might, if he wished, be A new copy of the Gospels was appearance of swelling, redness, and signs of any insworn in the Scotch form. -also presented to the court, and it was suggested that flammatory reaction, as described by Professor Lannelongue, in the vicinity of the injected area are a bacteriological examination should be made of the cover taking -place avoided. Dr. Sematzky was accordingly able to employ of the old one, which had been in use for sixty years. an immobile dressing immediately after the injection, which The examination was accordingly undertaken by Mr. F. W. first covered Richardson, consulting chemist to the Bradford Corpora- proved to be exceedingly useful. The skin was with collodium elasticum or traumaticin, and a solution tion. The result showed that besides various moulds there of silicate of potash served for the immobile bandage. were present the micrococcus pyogenes albus and aureus, but it is comforting to know that not one of the specific germs Professor Lannelongue’s statement that this mode of treatcf the communicable diseases was found. Kissing the ment has no effect, or little, on the general health we find book is a filthy and useless custom, and the Scotch form of so far fully confirmed by Dr. Sematzky’s record, but in the matter of the action of chloride of zinc upon tuberculous oath-taking is, as we have over and over again insisted, tissues he greatly differs from the first-named observer’s infinitely preferable from every point of view. opinion. Of course, he acknowledges the fact that it gives rise to a condition of sclerosis, but what is fatal to the A NEW MEDICAL CORONER. existence, or at any rate paralysing to the activity, of the WE are glad to be able to congratulate Dr. Lovell Drage bacillus is, according to the writer, the great antiseptic upon his election as coroner for the St. Albans division of power of which that drug is possessed. At the conclusion Hertfordshire, in succession to Mr. Brabant, a solicitor. he remarks that this method of treatment, on account Dr. Drage was unanimously selected by the general purposes of its being very simple and easily accessible to every praccommittee of the Herts County Council. We have in- titioner, deserves far more attention than it has as yet in these columns for the variably pleaded principle that a received, and if employed at an early period, and especially held should be a medical and therefore while the formation of granulations sets in, good results will man, coronership by it is with pleasure that we record the result of the present always follow. election. Dr. Drage and his father are both well known and esteemed practitioners in the county, and especially INFECTED WELLS AND TYPHOID FEVER. at Hatfield, where Dr. Drage the elder has been established THE corporation of Great Yarmouth has just escaped for nearly fifty years, and the new coroner for some thirteen mulcted in damages for having been the unwitting years. In addition to his recently conferred office Dr. Lovell being means of causing typhoid fever in the course of its prosecuDrage has been re-elected for the eleventh time as medical officer of health of the Hatfield district, his salary being tion of a very necessary sanitary improvement, which was intended to have a precisely contrary result. The Court of raised by £20 per annum. Queen’s Bench was occupied for three days in hearing the evidence upon this point. It appears that in the first THE SCLEROGENIC TREATMENT OF week of January, 1895, a new sewer was being laid down in TUBERCULOUS AFFECTIONS. that shortly afterwards a resident in this WE are indebted to Dr. T. Sematzky1 for taking up and Queen-street, and street complained that the water in a well situated in fully discussing this subject. The method of treatment, the basement of his house was foul and that he and others which consists of deep injections of chloride of zinc around the had been made ill by its consumption. He attributed the diseased part, was first introduced by Professor Lannelongue of the water to percolation of sewage which of Paris in 1891. During the years 1893-96 thirty cases of contamination was alleged to have found its way into the trench dug for every variety of tuberculous disease were thus treated by the reception of the new sewer. A month later the comhim. From these, however, ten, the observation of which could Mr. Durrant, sickened with typhoid fever, from not sufficiently be carried out, must be deducted. Of the plainant, which he died on March lst, 1895. An action was brought remaining twenty, in ten cases highly satisfactory results were his executors claiming damages from the corporation for obtained, in seven fairly good ones, and only in three no by their negligence caused the pollution of the effect whatever resulted. It is noteworthy, that the presence having through well and the death of Mr. Durrant. Without entering into of pulmonary tuberculosis greatly reduces the chance the question as to whether the consumption of this water for this local treatment. The solution used by Dr. was the cause of his fatal illness or not, and even admitting Sematzky for these injections was of 1 in 10 strength, and this the defence went to show that the well according to the age of the patient from seven to ten drops couldpossibility, not have been contaminated by the temporary diswere injected in a number of places (from twelve to twenty) turbance of the soil thirty-six feet distant, but that it was, around the periphery of the affected area. As regards the form and technique of the operation he, on the whole, followed and probably had been long, fouled by leakage from a privy feet away. For after the rules laid down by Professor Lannelongue in his first situated at a higher level, only sixteen for well had out a month the water the been daily pumped detailed communication upon the subject to the Academy Mr. still As Justice Hawkins remained highly impure. of Sciences (July 7th, 1891). In some respects, however, of the contamination the well was a poisonous he was forced by experience to modify them. For instance : remarked, the time the at of coincidence progress of the works, singular 1 a reasonable view of a question in which the and jury, taking Ljetopiss Russkoj Chirurgyi, vol. xii., part i i., 1896.
prevalence of
season
before the
monsoon
___
-
-
Albert Smith’s popular tale, "Christopher Tadpole," may remember how a medical the man induced an unwilling innkeeper to receive him killed man an accident of a by by reminding corpse of the probability that the twelve jurymen would spend The incident at Hackney twelve shillings in drinking. to have never and it certainly ought not occurred, ought to be repeated before Dr. Westcott or any other coroner. Although the coroner’s court is one of first instance, and many cases begin and end there, the coroner is in the position of a judge, and to "heckle"him is as great an impropriety as to hecklea magistrate, a recorder, or a judge of assize. Moreover, coroners’ jurors are by no means the only persons who have to suffer loss in a performing duty to their country. Medical and lay witnesses have incurred losses far exceeding the very modest sum of 6s. mentioned previously as incurred by the foreman, though unquestionably that was a very serious sum for a working man to lose. The debate was wound up by the coroner saying, "The matter lies in your own hands, and by combination you can get it." The mat’er, we fear, is not quite so simple as Dr. Westcott makes it. By the Act of 1887 a coroner’s jury must comprise not less than twelve and not more than twenty - three men. Taking the very modest sum of ls. per juror per inquest or even per diem, this would mean a large additional burden to the rates. Possibly the question would then arise, Why not dispense with coroners’ juries altogether, as is done in many other countries, and place the coroner in the same position as the procurator-fiscal of Scotland or the procureur of France? The case of Matilda Clover is recent enough to remind us that our death certification is not perfect, and that a searching inquiry into all violent, unnatural, and sudden deaths the cause of which is unknown must always form an important part of our social system, and the memorable case just alluded to was a proof of the necessity of having no deaths medically certified which are not legally entitled to be so dealt with. It may appear to be a cumbrous and harsh proceeding to summon twelve men to inquire, without remuneration, into the cause of a death which after all turns out to have been a natural one; but it is not desirable that a death due to homicidal strychnine poisoning should be certified as due to alcoholism, as happened in the cause célèbre already mentioned. On the other hand, a coroner’s jury, wisely guided by the evidence, sent to trial a wretched murderess whom a bench of magistrates had discharged on the grounds that no jury would convict. But the woman was convicted and executed.
of
the
late
__
VINOUS FERMENTATION WITHOUT YEAST CELLS. THERE is no more interesting group of bodies in the organic world than that of the ferments. They are remarkably complex in chemical composition and possess properties of an extraordinarily energetic character. In their power to transform one substance into a new and quite different substance perhaps the action of the so-called unorganised ferments or enzymes, as, for instance, the diastase of malt or the pepsin and pancreatin of the alimentary tract, is more wonderful than when an organism To the organised ferments belong the is concerned.
bacteria and germs of disease, and also yeast, the torula. According, however, to an exceedingly interesting research carried out recently by Dr. E. Buchner, and published in a recent number of the Berichte der Deutschen Chemischen Gesellschaf, the transformation of sugar into carbonic acid and alcohol is not necessarily dependent upon the presence of the yeast cells themselves. Rather would the fermentation appear to be directly due to a substance contained in the cells of the nature of an common
unorganised ferment, an enzyme. Dr. Buchner showed that by crushing pure yeast with sand, with the addition of water, that a liquid could be expressed which, after careful filtering, was found to act on cane-sugar likeyeast-that is to say, in exciting fermentation and producing carbonic acid and alcohol in the ordinary way. The addition of chloroform in small quantity does not appear to deter the action, although some precipita tion of albuminous substances results. The fermentative property of this liquid is lost when it is heated to a temperature of50°C., a point which is close to that at which the active properties of malt diastase are destroyed. The outcome of this very important investigation would seem tobe that fermentation is not directly the action of a living cell, but rather the results of the action of a liquid excreted by the living organism. The precise nature of this action and the constitution of the enzyme concerned are alike far from being understood. Dr. Buchner believes the substance to be of a proteid nature, and he has proposed to The importance of this discovery call it "zymase." cannot be doubted when the application of yeast in the arts and industries is taken into consideration. It possesses, too, a very interesting bearing on the study of the vital processes. We do not doubt that before long a substance capable of exciting alcoholic fermentation will be prepared on a commercial scale, so that instead of depending upon the uncertain action of yeast cells we may have a reliable substance yielding definite products. IZymase"should be applicable to the estimation of sugar in urine and make this method depending upon fermentation more exact, since it will exclude errors arising from the gas produced by the living cell itself or from other sources, while, still more important, the action would be due to the presence of sugar alone, and give an accurate estimate of this substance apart altogether from the presence of other reducing substances that might occur along with-it. THE BLACK WATCH. LORD G. HAMILTON recently, in reply to a question by Sir H. Maxwell in the House of Commons, stated that the monthly returns from India showed that enteric fever had prevailed in this corps quartered at Subathu, a hill station in the Punjab on the road to Simla, during April, May, and June, increased in July, August, and September, but diminished greatly in October, and ceased in November. Lord G. Hamilton added that the report on the health of the British troops for 1896 had not yet reached him and that he would ask the Government of India to expedite it and to furnish information as to the water-supply of all the hill stations on that route-namely, Subathu, Dagshai, Kassauli, Solon, and Jutogh. The amount of enteric fever at the hill stations in India is considerable, and at several of them seems to have been increasing of late years. At Subathu there have been several outbreaks of the fever from time to, time, and the medical history of the station in this respect would indicate that it is less healthy than other hill stations in the neighbourhood. The maximum prevalence of enteric fever corresponds greatly with the period of maximum heat; it rises in April and May, falls somewhat during the rainy season (monsoon), and again rises somewhat as that season ends. During the past year there has been a relative or complete absence of rain in India, with failure of the crops and famine as a consequence, and the cases have continued to occur during the whole of the hot season. There is, of course, something over and above the effects of climatic heat to account for the origin and prevalence of enteric fever; heat is only one of the factors. The greater liability of one station as compared with another to outbreaks of this fever points to the presence of some specific cause and local
insanitary conditions.
A
water-supply derived from wells
897 and springs is always liable to contamination ; but it is a 1. As to the time of repeating the injections, he did not curious fact-and we understand that it is the fact-that the wait as long as three weeks, as was recommended by the disease is
commonly greatest in the hot Professor Lannelongue, but performed a second injection and directly after the monsoon. as early as on the seventh or even third day after the The cookhouse, filters, foulness of soil from continued first injection, being guided by the indication if the pains occupation of a site, and the state of the native bazaars have did not cease within that period. 2. The administra.all to be taken into account, as well as the water-supply of tion of anaesthetics he regards as quite unnecessary in the station. adults, and even in children the operation can be easily done without them, since the pain is merely that associated KISSING THE BOOK. with all subcutaneous injections ; indeed, they were slight and fugitive in character in almost all cases of his observaTHE Mayor of Ripon recently announced that anyone tion. 3. By observing rigid aseptic precautions the giving evidence in the County-court might, if he wished, be A new copy of the Gospels was appearance of swelling, redness, and signs of any insworn in the Scotch form. -also presented to the court, and it was suggested that flammatory reaction, as described by Professor Lannelongue, in the vicinity of the injected area are a bacteriological examination should be made of the cover taking -place avoided. Dr. Sematzky was accordingly able to employ of the old one, which had been in use for sixty years. an immobile dressing immediately after the injection, which The examination was accordingly undertaken by Mr. F. W. first covered Richardson, consulting chemist to the Bradford Corpora- proved to be exceedingly useful. The skin was with collodium elasticum or traumaticin, and a solution tion. The result showed that besides various moulds there of silicate of potash served for the immobile bandage. were present the micrococcus pyogenes albus and aureus, but it is comforting to know that not one of the specific germs Professor Lannelongue’s statement that this mode of treatcf the communicable diseases was found. Kissing the ment has no effect, or little, on the general health we find book is a filthy and useless custom, and the Scotch form of so far fully confirmed by Dr. Sematzky’s record, but in the matter of the action of chloride of zinc upon tuberculous oath-taking is, as we have over and over again insisted, tissues he greatly differs from the first-named observer’s infinitely preferable from every point of view. opinion. Of course, he acknowledges the fact that it gives rise to a condition of sclerosis, but what is fatal to the A NEW MEDICAL CORONER. existence, or at any rate paralysing to the activity, of the WE are glad to be able to congratulate Dr. Lovell Drage bacillus is, according to the writer, the great antiseptic upon his election as coroner for the St. Albans division of power of which that drug is possessed. At the conclusion Hertfordshire, in succession to Mr. Brabant, a solicitor. he remarks that this method of treatment, on account Dr. Drage was unanimously selected by the general purposes of its being very simple and easily accessible to every praccommittee of the Herts County Council. We have in- titioner, deserves far more attention than it has as yet in these columns for the variably pleaded principle that a received, and if employed at an early period, and especially held should be a medical and therefore while the formation of granulations sets in, good results will man, coronership by it is with pleasure that we record the result of the present always follow. election. Dr. Drage and his father are both well known and esteemed practitioners in the county, and especially INFECTED WELLS AND TYPHOID FEVER. at Hatfield, where Dr. Drage the elder has been established THE corporation of Great Yarmouth has just escaped for nearly fifty years, and the new coroner for some thirteen mulcted in damages for having been the unwitting years. In addition to his recently conferred office Dr. Lovell being means of causing typhoid fever in the course of its prosecuDrage has been re-elected for the eleventh time as medical officer of health of the Hatfield district, his salary being tion of a very necessary sanitary improvement, which was intended to have a precisely contrary result. The Court of raised by £20 per annum. Queen’s Bench was occupied for three days in hearing the evidence upon this point. It appears that in the first THE SCLEROGENIC TREATMENT OF week of January, 1895, a new sewer was being laid down in TUBERCULOUS AFFECTIONS. that shortly afterwards a resident in this WE are indebted to Dr. T. Sematzky1 for taking up and Queen-street, and street complained that the water in a well situated in fully discussing this subject. The method of treatment, the basement of his house was foul and that he and others which consists of deep injections of chloride of zinc around the had been made ill by its consumption. He attributed the diseased part, was first introduced by Professor Lannelongue of the water to percolation of sewage which of Paris in 1891. During the years 1893-96 thirty cases of contamination was alleged to have found its way into the trench dug for every variety of tuberculous disease were thus treated by the reception of the new sewer. A month later the comhim. From these, however, ten, the observation of which could Mr. Durrant, sickened with typhoid fever, from not sufficiently be carried out, must be deducted. Of the plainant, which he died on March lst, 1895. An action was brought remaining twenty, in ten cases highly satisfactory results were his executors claiming damages from the corporation for obtained, in seven fairly good ones, and only in three no by their negligence caused the pollution of the effect whatever resulted. It is noteworthy, that the presence having through well and the death of Mr. Durrant. Without entering into of pulmonary tuberculosis greatly reduces the chance the question as to whether the consumption of this water for this local treatment. The solution used by Dr. was the cause of his fatal illness or not, and even admitting Sematzky for these injections was of 1 in 10 strength, and this the defence went to show that the well according to the age of the patient from seven to ten drops couldpossibility, not have been contaminated by the temporary diswere injected in a number of places (from twelve to twenty) turbance of the soil thirty-six feet distant, but that it was, around the periphery of the affected area. As regards the form and technique of the operation he, on the whole, followed and probably had been long, fouled by leakage from a privy feet away. For after the rules laid down by Professor Lannelongue in his first situated at a higher level, only sixteen for well had out a month the water the been daily pumped detailed communication upon the subject to the Academy Mr. still As Justice Hawkins remained highly impure. of Sciences (July 7th, 1891). In some respects, however, of the contamination the well was a poisonous he was forced by experience to modify them. For instance : remarked, the time the at of coincidence progress of the works, singular 1 a reasonable view of a question in which the and jury, taking Ljetopiss Russkoj Chirurgyi, vol. xii., part i i., 1896.
prevalence of
season
before the
monsoon
___
-
-