THE EPIDEMIC OF FEVER AT NORTH SHIELDS.

620 Medical Society." Since the foundation of.the present Society, he had 180 cases of fever on his list, and the experience in 1856, two volumes of Transactions have been published for of other medical men is similar. private circulation among rhe members. The disease is still limited very much to the higher and The more recently founded medical schools have not been better parts of North Shields, the lower parts by the riverslow to imitate the example of their seniors in founding students’ medical societies;, thus the University College Medical side being almost entirely free. It is to be noted that the part Society was established in 1828, and flourishes at the present of the town now affected with typhoid is just the part which moment, offering its members the advantages both of a library suffered severely in the late epidemic of cholera. It has been, and a collection of materia medica. The King’s College stated that the water-supply of the two parts of the Medical Society was founded in 1835, and the following refer- already affected and the exempted-is different. There are town-the ence to it, extracted from the London Medical Gazette of indications that the cause of the disease will be be of significant interest :-" November 3rd, 1838, may King’s College Medical and Scientific Society, October 25th, 1838; Professor ascertained to be, either the defective supply of water or an Arnott, president. The introductory address, by Mr. Bow- actual excrementitious contamination of it, probably both. man, the secretary, was devoted to a critical examination of The testimony of a defective supply is ample. Mr. Bell, in the advantages offered by debating societies to the medical ’ the Town Council, said that in the high part of the town, in student in the more advanced stages of his education." The St. Thomas’s Hospital Medical Society dates from which he Jived, they had the water on an average two days in 1840, and appears to be in a vigorous condition. And the week, and about an hour each day; and that the water at the London Hospital a medical society was founded in was bad. Dr. Peart, at a conference between the medical men 1848, of a character similar to those formed elsewhere; but in of the town and a committee of the Council, mentioned the 1853 the Society greatly enlarged its scope, and took the chasignificant.fact :-In Loraine-terrace rain-water kept racter of a debating society. It has been in abeyance, for a following in lead cisterns is used by the inhabitants. They have been most few years, but is about to be reconstrueted. affected with symptoms of lead-poisoning. In one The Westminster Hospital, Charing-cross Hospital, and St. extensively house in which these symptoms were very serious, Dr. Peart Mary’s Hospital, have each within the last few years instituted recommended them.to the town water; and in this house students’ medical societies, which have met with a fair amount there are two cases of get fever, though the rest of the terrace is of support. free from the disease. In the early part of, 1861,a movement was set on foot for The Town Council had in the cholera time most serious the foundation of a "Junior Medical Society of London,"to of the faults and defects of the water-supply, and then proofs which we were glad to give our support, believing that it took to have the opinion of a distinguished engineer, but steps would be for the advantage of the medical schools, aud of declined it, partly, it would seem, from an objection to, finally their students, that an intercommunication should take place his fee-some thirty or forty guineas. Now they have between them. The Society was duly started, and promised pay 800 cases of sickness in the town, and many deaths. It well, the meetings taking place in rotation at the different is to be hoped that a central authority will undertake an inhospitals. An unfortunate misunderstanding at one of the vestigation into this outbreak. On the spot there are too meetings led. however, to disagreements, and at the present many local interests affected to get an unbiased investigation. moment the Society can hardly be said to exist; at least it has There can be little doubt that an inquiry into the water-supply made no sign during the present session. and its possible contamination, in connexion with the recent outbreak of cholera and the present one of typhoid, will elicit. most important facts, that will tend to elucidate still further THE the etiology of these diseases; though Mr. Turnbull may be assured that we know already a great deal more about this EPIDEMIC OF FEVER AT NORTH SHIELDS. matter than Aristotle did. If the North Shields authorities had applied the knowledge already supplied by medical science, (FROM OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.) they would not have had such an epidemic to answer for as

that

THE outbreak of fever in North Shields still continues to extend, and is so remarkable both in its extent and its limitations as to be a most proper subject for close and crucial investigation at the hands of the Privy Council. There has been a discussion in the Town Council on the epidemic, in the course of which several interesting facts and some curious opinions transpired. A town councillor, Mr. Turnbull, said that he had been assured by a medical friend of his that, though medical men had been trying to ascertain the cause of this disease since the time of Aristotle, they really knew no more about it than that distinguished individual. I cannot answer for the learning of Mr. Turnbull’s informant, but I have the conviction that a little investigation into the epidemic of North Shields will throw considerable light upon the etiology of the disease. I have nothing to add to the report of last week as to the nature of the disease. The specific typhoid character of it is more and more apparent. Many In many cases have all the characters of genuine typhoid. In one I saw the eruption is copious and characteristic. there was copious ha-morrhage from the intestine. Deafness is frequent, and diarrhœa occurs in almost every case at some stage or other, though it is not an invariable or a continuous symptom. A good proportion of the cases are mild, characterised by slight acceleration of the pulee, furred tongue, not a very high temperature, and a tendency to perspiration and sudamina. Consistently with this is a relapsing tendency in many of the cases. At the Town Council meeting it was said that there were probably 700 or 800 cases in the town, and this accords- with my own observation of the number of affected houses in some of the streets, and of the existence of I numerous cases in the same house. Dr. Peart informed me

the

present.

THE REPRESENTATION OF THE PROFESSION IN THE MEDICAL COUNCIL. THE Committee of the British Medical Association recently appointed at Oxford, with Dr. Edward Waters as its chairman, to take steps to obtain the direct representation of the profession in the Medical Council, has issued an address to the profession asking for united efforts to secure the attainment of the desired object. The remedy for the present unsatisfactory state of things is declared to be an amended Medical Act, which, " besides increasing and defining the powers of the Council,, shall include as its most important provision the direct representation of the profession in the Council. If representatives of the profession are added to the Council in the proportion of one-fourth of the total number of members, the present proportion of Government nominees being likewise preserved, many of the existing clogs to the efficient action of the Council, due in considerable part to the balancing of the various interests, will be removed. The legitimate influence of thegreat educatingand licensing bodies will still be maintained, but force, unity of direction and definite purpose, will replace the existing inadequacy of the action of the Council. And on these grounds the Committee of the Council urge upon the members of the Association to impress upon the candidates for Parliament and the members of the Legislature and Government, that, in order to secure the interests of the public and the welfare of the profession, any future Bill for the amendment of the Medical Act ought to include a clause for the direct representation of the profession in the Medical Council." We shall make some observations on this important docu-

ment next week.