THE CHARGES OF CRUELTY AT CHESTER.

1075 and more from the normal course ; thus in all such cases a very considerable difference between the two curves, partly on account of the relatively large quantity of urine passed and partly on account of the relatively small amount of urea secreted. From these facts it will be seen that there is a marked difference between this type of fever, which Dr. Kache terms "telluric," and yellow fever in regard to the relative proportions of urine and urea, ALLEGED MANURE NUISANCES. which confirms the opinion generally held that yellow fever should not be regarded as of malarial origin. in the Lord BEFORE the Court of Session Edinburgh has raised an of the War at the instance Office, Advocate, THE CHARGES OF CRUELTY AT CHESTER. action against the North British Railway Company and a farmer at Glencorse, to interdict them from conveying town WE have rarely come across a more revolting case of manure to the Glencorse Railway Station and unloading it brutality than was disclosed at the recent Cheshire quarter there. Military barracks are situated opposite the station, sessions. Daniel and Constance Phelan, man and wife, of and the high road is less than fifty yards from it. The local independent means, were indicted for having ill-treated their medical officer of health is of opinion that facts point to the infant children, aged three years and twenty-one months manure as having caused, in 1890, one case of enteric fever respectively, in a manner likely to cause them unnecessary and another of diphtheria in the barracks. The brigadesuturing. To treat children of such tender age, as was proved surgeon reports that the traffic caused serious illness in his by the prosecution, by beating them with a strap, lifting them own family. Offensive smells are also complained of. The by the hair of the head, and forcibly thrusting castor oil, spoon railway company have lodged answers, in which they state and all, down the throat shows that the parents must have that under their own Act they are bound to provide trucks ’ been devoid ofall parental instinct and feeling. Such fiendish and convey manure belonging to the magistrates and town conduct far exceeded the severity of the Spartan age, without council of Edinburgh, that they act merely as haulers, having the palliation of the Spartan motive. It was urged by the no choice in the matter, and having nothing to do with defence that the evidence was malignantly false and that, loading or unloading. They deny also that the traffic is a coming mainly from servants, it was not trustworthy. Allowing nuisance or injurious to health. The farmer pleads that the for a moment that the witnesses may have been led into manure, having been regularly and timely removed, nounconscious exaggeration-and we do not say they were,nuisance in law exists or has ever been caused by him, and there was a basis of fact more than sufficient to warrant the he denies that noxious and offensive smells reach the barracks, indictment and the conviction. It was not a solitary It is ex- instance of excessive or that disease germs are carried to the inmates. punishment under uncontrollable passion, pected that counsel will be heard at an early date. but a steadily maintained and continuous course of ill-usage. That is to say, that in the short space of six years the condition of things has almost exactly turned round, and whereas-to speak roughly-in 1886 three-quarters of the milk examined was bad, in 1893 three-quarters of it is good. Having in view the importance of the condition of mi’k to the medical profession, we find these figures satisfactory and of excellent omen.

departing exhibiting

more

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The prisoners will have purged their legal offance at the end of their allotted term of hard labour, but their moral stain must The character and feeling of such inhuman ever remain. wretches are not likely to be softened by their ignoble punishFoR some years Dr. Kache has been making observations as; that they might be) ; consequently it is difficult to to the varying proportions of the total amount of urea excretedment (would think of the future infantile life of the little victims without daily to the total amount of urine passed, hoping thereby to) if to be restored to the care of their una shudder are they obtain relative curves which might prove to be of importance inl in less than a year. We trust that some means natural parents the diagnosis and prognosis in certain diseases, especially in the will be found to them against further ill-usage. safeguard His conclusions fevers and those of malarial r

PHYSIOLOGICAL AND PATHOLOGICAL PROPORTIONS OF UREA.

specific

type.

may

be summarised as follows : Apart from the well-known increase of urea in febrile conditions generally, it is impossible to formulate any particular proportion in which this increase occurs. The variations which occur do not seem to possess any practical value in the treatment of the affection. On the other hand, a comparison between the amount of urea found in the urine and the actual quantity of urine passed presents many points of interest. If these quantities are expressed

graphically in curves, in the physiological state, there is a close parallelism between the two curves, whilst in febrile conditions, of whatever type, the urine curve during the period of fever is always lower than that of the urea, whilst at the period of crisis and during convalescence the curves are very different. In patients suffering from fever of a noninfectious type the urine curve is inferior to the urea during the febrile period, mounts up as the temperature falls, and gradually assumes the physiological condition. In patients suffering from yellow fever the urine curve remains constantly below that of the urea, and even several days after all fever has subsided. In those forms of febrile attacks so frequently met with in the tropics, characterised by suddenness of onset, acute gastric symptoms, profuse sweats, and usually rapid recovery, the urine curve is lower than the urea whilst the temperature is high, rises above it for two or three days after defervescence has occurred, and then continues to rise for another four or five days, 1

L’Union Médicale, Oct. 10th, 1893.

SCARLET FEVER AT CHRIST’S HOSPITAL. THERE has been a sudden and serious outbreak of scarlet fever at Christ’s Hospital. The first cases occurred on Oct. 9th, when in twenty-four hours six boys, of different ages and resident in different parts of the institution, were attacked. Between Oct. 17th and Oct. 21st some eight or nine more cases occurred. The resident medical officer of the school, Dr. Alder Smith, immediately upon the outbreak advised that a circular notice should be sent to all the parents stating what had occurred, and leaving with them the responsibility of deciding about the removal of their children. The question of the withdrawal of a child under such circumstances is one in which the parents ought to a certain extent to have their way. To some parents the idea of leaving a child within a measurable distance of scarlet fever seems much more terrible than to others ; while some boys being members of a large family would be very unwelcome guests at home. On Tuesday last, however, the matter assumed a more serious form. Dr. Sedgwick Saunders, the medical officer of health and public analyst for the City of London, at a meeting of the City Commissioners of Sewers, reported that serious defects in the drainage of Christ’s Hospital had been discovered which might account for the outbreak, adding that he felt bound to say that the sanitary condition of the buildings rendered their further use for residential purposes absolutely impossible. As a result the authorities have decided to close the school at the end of this week and dismiss the boys to their homes,