THE SOCIETY OF PUBLIC ANALYSTS.

243 high principles, to meditate on the great truths of turn to thoughts of Him who is the source of all morality, not merely the law of all morality, but Himself the giver of it all." Medical men, whether students or practitioners, will respond to such appeals. Whatever the anatomical points which differentiate man from animals they are dwarfed by the moral distinctions. The possession of conscience, the capacity for Faith, Hope and Charity are peculiarly his and they involve religion and all its gnat

lives

on

morals, and to

beliefs. ___

Record, referring to the question, says: "In view of the great number of serious accidents on the football field, between college teams it is impossible any longer toregard the game in the light of innocent recreative amusement with harmless and healthful athletics as its object. Although so-called slugging has been ruled out in the new game there is still left enough of brutal muscular force to make the alleged sport productive of the greatest. variety of surgical injuries to every part of the body. In fact, there is hardly a game played in which soma one of the contestants is not more or less seriously hurt. Only the severer injuries are noted, while the lesser ones serve as enlivening incidents to call forth the plaudits. of an excited audience. Short of actual death on the field not much account is taken of the hundreds of young men who are oftentimes injured for life as the result of the rough-and-tumble methods of the match....... It is certainly time we should look the matter fairly in the face. If we wish to develop pluck, courage, endurance and strength we These words can do so in more healthful and safer ways-" may be taken as the expression of the opinion of the, American people at large, and it seems certain that radical changes will have to be made in the present mode of conducting the game if football is still to retain its popularity in the States.

THE PLAGUE IN INDIA. readers are aware we have repeatedly stated that the epidemic of plague in India was a very grave matter and that it had apparently gained such a hold that its proportions in the affected districts were calculated to give rise to serious alarm. We regret to say that the latest reports from Bombay quite bear out this view. The epidemic in that city has been greatly aggravated of late ; the type of the disease is of a more virulent character than that of last year and the mortality is reported to average more than 200 daily. It is scarcely necessary to add that trade is paralysed, and there is a renewed exodus of natives from Bombay. The disease also largely prevails in Poona and in the Deccan. The local government is doing all it can to deal with the epidemic, and the India Office in this country has for some time past been fully alive to the gravity of the case. The India Office, in response to a telegram from the Indian Government to the Secretary of State to that effect, has asked for the aid of additional medical men and nurses for temporary serviee in India in connexion with plague work and it is quite possible that still further reinforcements will be required. There has been, and still continues to be, a good deal of activity in the India Office in replying to the telegrams and applications that have been received from medical men and nurses, and those selected for employment have been directed to present themselves for medical examination as to their physical fitness for service in India. As

our

-

THE SOCIETY OF PUBLIC ANALYSTS. THE most important and interesting speech delivered on the occasion of the annual dinner of the Society of Public Analysts, which was held on the 18th inst. at the Criterion. Restaurant, was that by Mr. Hudson Kearley, M.P. Early in the last session of Parliament Mr. Kearley moved an. amendment to the Address from the Throne regretting that no intention was expressed of promoting legislation in furtherance of the report of the Select Committee As will be remembered this amendon Food Products.

negatived, although some promise was given. question would be dealt with at an early opporA Bill was eventually prepared, which, however, tunity. FOOTBALL IN THE UNITED STATES. was withdrawn in favour of a new one prepared by FOOTBALL as played in the United States would seem to Mr. Chaplin and Mr. T. W. Russell. With this useless. be a more dangerous game than it is in England. Serious and measure we dealt at length in a leading article in THE LANCET of Jan. 8th, 1898. We did not consider even fatal accidents more than occasionally occur in Great Britain, but they do not happen with the alarming frequency that this Bill was in accordance with public requirethat has been the case within the last few years in the ments or with the necessities of the case. We are glada United States. A correspondent who writes to the above therefore, to learn from the speech of Mr. Kearley on effect states that in England there are absent many of the the occasion just referred to that he is determined to brutal features that characterise the game in the States. move strenuously in the matter in the forthcoming session. This fact, too, is becoming generally recognised by the A great national question, he said, had been trifled with by American public, and it has been for some considerable time the introduction of Mr. Chaplin’s Bill. The iniquity of adulteration of food was very great and it was the poor who, a matter of grave discussion as to whether legislation should It was not, as some have not be called upon to intervene to do away with some of the were the greatest sufferers. more dangerous points of American football. Georgia, the supposed, purely an agriculturists’ question, but one which first State to take the initiative, has gone even further than vitally affected the towns and if adulteration were allowed to this and, aroused by the death of a student as the result of continue it would thoroughly sap the commercial honesty of injuries received at football, has passed a Bill through the this country. It was a form of robbery, he added, of a most. House of Representatives of Georgia making it a mis- flagrant character, and if a Bill dealing with the matter demeanour to engage in the game when matches have been were not promised in the Queen’s Speech he should again arranged or gate money has been demanded. This Bill feel it his duty to move an amendment to the Address. The passed the Lower House by an overwhelming majority and President of the Society of Public Analysts, Dr. Bernard the action was endorsed by the Senate. Owing, how- Dyer, in proposing the health of the Houses of Parliament ever, to strong pressure being brought to bear upon the also expressed regret at the fact that Parliament had governor of the State he has been prevailed upon to exercise not seen fit during the past year to place upon the his right of veto and render the proceedings of the two Statute-book an Act which substantially gave effect to Houses of Legislature of no effect. Nevertheless, although the recommendations of the Select Committee of the. the Anti-football Bill in Georgia has not become law, yet House of Commons on Food Products and Adulterathe very fact that such a measure should have been deemed tion. The gathering was a very representative one, there. necessary by a majority of the Georgian legislators will being present the presidents of several of the learned undoubtedly exert a salutary influence on the conduct of thei societies. The Society of Public Analysts is to be congratugame throughout the entire country. The New York Medical! lated upon the excellent work which in the interests of the ment

was

that the

___

I-- -- !

.

A

T:11

-__.

--_

_’--.!_1-I-

1..------

244

public it is doing, and there is every prospect of it con- Prix Philipeaux (890 francs). In connexion with the tinuing this good work since the membership of the society Prix Bré3.nt, which is for the discovery of a cure for is increasing and there is never any lack of material for cholera, a grant the value of which was not stated was discussion at the monthly meetings which are held in the made to MM. Burot and Legrand. The Prix Parkin was Chemical Society’s rooms in Burlington House. Further, the awarded to Dr. Augustus Waller for his researches on the issue every month of a journal known as the Analyst, which effects produced by certain gases and vapours on the nerves. contains a resume of all that is being done in the direction The two Prix L. La Caze were bestowed on Professor of analytical chemistry, is a valuable means of comRoentgen and Professor Lenard. municating to the public analyst the latest analytical ,methods with the view of enabling him to detect with SIR FREDERIC BATEMAN’S HEALTH. certainty the newest frauds. We trust that a comprehenwill soon become law which will assist the analyst in his work and remove the great and constant difficulties which he encounters in endeavouring to carry ,out his duties under the present régime. sive

measure

THE DETECTION OF ALBUMOSE IN THE URINE. ALBUMOSE in the urine is recognised by its yielding the biuret reaction, but Salkowski, in a communication published in the Berliner Klinische Woehenschrift (1897, No. 17), has pointed out that urobilin gives a similar colouration, so that the test is not altogether reliable. Dr. Ivar Bang, of the Physico-Chemical Institute of the Upsala University, writing in the Deutsche Medicinische Wochenschrift of Jan. 13th, states that all difficulty may be avoided by the following new method which he has devised. If urine containing albumose and urobilin be saturated with ammonium sulphate and treated in a centrifuge it quickly yields a precipitate consisting of albumose, albumin, and urobilin, together with some uric acid and salts. The supernatant fluid is then poured off and the precipitate well mixed with alcohol of 97 per cent., which dissolves the urobilin, leaving the albumose, the albumin, the salts, and the uric acid. The residue after the addition of a little water is now thrown on a filter, which retains the albumin, the uric acid and the insoluble salts; the albumose passes through in the filtrate and may be recognised by the biuret reaction. When pure aqueous solutions are employed the urobilin is always so completely extracted by the alcohol that the residue gives no biuret reaction, but with urine containing a large amount of urobilin the separation may be incomplete, in which case the residue left after the extraction with alcohol is mixed with water and shaken with chloroform and a few drops of sulphuric acid, and the aqueous solution after removal of the chloroform by means of a pipette or otherwise is ready for the biuret test. If urobilin has been taken up by the alcohol it may be recognised by the fine fluorescence produced on the addition of a few drops of solution of chloride of zinc ; this test is - extremely delicate.

WE

are

sorry to learn that this well-known Norwich

physician was seized a few weeks ago with an attack of right hemiplegia. As there was no loss of consciousness or defect of speech and as his subsequent progress has been uniformly satisfactory his numerous friends have good grounds for hoping that he will soon be able to resume his professional and literary work. FRIEDREICH’S ATAXY. A VERY interesting case is described by Dr. J. Simon in the .Progrès Medical-interesting because the patient had been under observation for ten years and because Charcot had lectured -on the case. The patient was an only child, without any inherited taint, who had at the age of two or three had some affection of the eyes and pain in the feet. The first note was to the effect that the child (at the age of ten years) had an asymmetrical sknll, was frequently laughing, and seemed not very intelligent. Articulation was slow and scanning. There was abeence of nystagmus, scoliosis, and pes cavus, and no defect of sensibility or affection of the sphincters was present. The knee-jerk was not obtained and Romberg’s symptom was Four years later the patient was almost very marked. with quite helpless, great weakness of the legs, deformity of the feet, and marked atrophy of the muscles of the lower extremities. The knee-jerk was absent, but sensibility was normal. There was well-marked horizontal nystagmus, and the speech was slow and stuttering. There was no scoliosis, but some deformity at the level of The patient died suddenly, the first dorsal vertebra. in found dead but no condition of the bed, being to could be found account for this. The spinal organs cord was unusually small, and combined sclerosis was found affecting the posterior columns, the pyramidal tracts and the direct cerebellar tract. Changes were also found in the cells of the grey matter..

TREATMENT OF SPRUE.

WE would draw the attention ot our readers, especially those who are likely to come in contact with patients who have resided in India or China or who themselves reside in AWARD OF PRIZES BY THE PARIS ACADEMY those countries, to a letter in our issue of Jan. 15th from OF SCIENCES. Dr. Charles Begg. Dr. Begg is especially entitled to speak in in from the value treatment of sprue as during his residence in China UPWARDS of forty prizes varying 10,000 to to were awarded the he has francs treated a very large number of cases. He advises 200 francs (from E400 £8) by Paris Academy of Sciences at the annual meeting held on moderately large (5 gr. night and morning) doses of Jan. 10th. Sixteen prizes were included in the departments yellow santonin dissolved in salad oil. He insists of anatomy, zoology, medicine, surgery, and physiology, on the observance of certain details. The white santonin but some were not awarded and others were sub-divided as usually sold in this country he has found to It is rather difficult to obtain among several aspirants. The complete list is as follows :- be quite useless. Prix Savigny (975 francs), Prix da Gama Machado (1200 the yellow santonin, but if the white preparation be francs), Prix Montyon (one of 7500 and one of 750 francs), allowed to stand exposed to the sunlight for some hours Prix Barbier (2000 francs), Prix Bi6ant (100,000 francs), (preferably under a glass shade) it will soon turn yellow. Prix Godard (1000 francs), Prix Parkin (3400 francs), What the chemical difference between the two is Dr. Begg Prix Bellion (1400 francs), Prix Mege (10,000 francs), is unable to state, but it makes all the difference Prix Lallemand (1800 francs), Prix du baron Larrey in the efficiency of the drug. Another point is that the (1000 francs), Prix L. La Caze (one in physiology santonin should be administered dissolved in oil. As powder and one in physics, 10,000 francs each), Prix Pourat it does not act nearly as well. The explanation Dr. Begg 1400 francs), Prix Martin-Damourette (1400 francs), and offers is that as a powder the chief effect of the drug is -