A CASE OF INTESTINAL ANTHRAX.

875 had eaten. method of the two. To give an example, inpanions Among other articles of food he, in, I with others, had partaken of part of a pie and of c the case of a certain company the price charged per unit is common a 6d. flat rate or 7d. per unit for the first two hours’ averagepart of a steak, the meat being traced to possible sources ( origin but no definite anthrax infection could be traced. daily consumption of maximum demand during two winter of ’. The hour’s summer the first and for average report continues :during quarters in of this unit excess That and 3d. many should partake of the dangerous meat and only one consumption. per quarters, should die is not out of accord with the life-history of the anthrax It would be much to their advantage if consumers wouldorganism. The organism has two forms-the bacillus and the spore. the interior of infected flesh it exists in the form of the bacillus, give greater heed to the meaning of the charges pre-In as the it is readily destroyed by the gastric juice. So and, would sented to them and if they give more attentionmuch is thisbacillus, the case that a whole anthrax carcas e was recently sold for food in an English city before its hurtful character became known as to what the consumption of the electric current really and yet no deaths from anthrax were reported among those who ate

intelligible

means.

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THE INSTITUTE OF MEDICAL SCIENCES FUND: A MUNIFICENT GIFT.

1the flesh. The anthrax spore, on the other hand, is one of the most resistant of living things and is unaffected by the digestive act. If, therefore, a fortuitous circumstance should favour local spore formation in an infective piece of meat, and if this local area of sporulation should escape the full incidence of heat in the process of cooking, a is established in the meat by which one consumer may i condition absorb a fatal charge of spores while others who share the flesh with ’ him may escape unharmed. Under such a condition this isolated death may have occurred.

THE scheme for building and endowing an Institute of Medical Sciences under the control of the University of London has, as our readers know, received not only theThe extreme _rarity of this form of anthrax infection in this approval and practical sympathy of His Majesty the King country is shown by the fact that Dr. J. H. Bell, in his but has been favourably received by the medical and layarticle on Anthrax in "Allbutt’s System of Medicine,’ press and by a very large section of the London teachersvol. ii., p. 538, 1897, says : No such case has been Some large dona-recorded in this country." of medicine and the allied sciences. tions have been given already by prominent public men THE SMALL-POX HOSPITALS OF LIVERPOOL. but the latest contribution towards the scheme is the most generous that has yet been received. Mr. Alfred THE Local Government Board has issued a report by Beit has informed the honorary treasurers" that having Dr. R. J. Reece which furnishes an important addition to read the report of the committee appointed by King our knowledge concerning the influence of small-pox hosEdward’s Hospital Fund on the financial relations of the pitals in spreading this disease among persons living in their hospitals and medical schools and the correspondence and neighbourhood. At different times during the recent severe articles thereon in the Times, he has decided to increase the and protracted epidemic of small-pox in Liverpool three amount of his donation from £5000 to £25,000." By this isolation hospitals were in use: the small Priory-road Hosgift Mr. Beit desires to commemorate the great kindness of pital on the eastern edge of the city, the larger Park his friend Dr. Jameson, C.B., the Premier of Cape Colony,Hill Hospital in the south, and Fazakerley Hospital and the services of members of the faculty of medicine which lies outside Liverpool to the north. The first during an illness from which he has now happily recovered. two have large populations resident in their vicinity. At the next meeting of the Senate of the University of Dr. Reece has made an elaborate study of the local London a vote of thanks will surely be accorded to Mr. Beit, incidence of small-pox during the recent epidemic and as has already been done by the Faculty of Medicine (see his report is illustrated by a series of maps showing the page 896 of our present issue), but in the meantime we may houses which were affected during every fortnight of be allowed on behalf of the medical profession as a whole to the two epidemic years, 1902 and 1903. The result thank him heartily. of his inquiries is to show that inhabited areas within a mile of each of the three hospitals have suffered more A CASE OF INTESTINAL ANTHRAX. severely than the city as a whole and that within these areas the dwellings nearer the hospital have sushospital in United of the at AN instance this, Kingdom any rate, tained a far heavier incidence of small-pox than those is recorded in minutes form of anthrax the of very rare the meeting of the Glasgow health committee which was further away. He also shows that the exceptional incidence held on March 8th. On Feb. lst, says Dr. A. K. Chalmers, of small-pox within these areas has corresponded in point of the medical officer of health, a lead worker died from time with the use of these hospitals for the treatment of intestinal anthrax and Dr. Currie made a careful inquiry acute cases of small-pox. Evidence of this was afforded in into the various sources from which the deceased might have connexion with each of the three hospitals but was most been infected. His occupation was the grinding of white striking in the case of that at Park Hill, which was used lead in refined linseed oil and in the course of his work only for a comparatively short period, but during that time he came into contact with the following substances appears to have occasioned a local outbreak of very excepwhich under varying conditions have been associated with tional severity among those who dwelt in its neighbourDr. Reece concludes that the influence of the outbreaks of anthrax. The substances were four-namely, hood. linseed oil, spent oak bark, tallow used for lubricating hospitals has been responsible in material degree for the considerable and sustained prevalence of small-pox in Liverpool a machine, and waste with which the deceased wiped his hands. The oil could be excluded because it was in 1902 and 1903. We propose in a subsequent issue to give refined linseed oil, which during the process of refining an account of the interesting data upon which these conis exposed for many hours to a heat sufficient to kill any clusions have been based. anthrax spore in about five minutes. As to the spent bark, PUBLIC HEALTH IN JOHANNESBURG. it is true that cases of anthrax have occurred in association with tan works, but they have arisen from hides before THERE must be few, if indeed there are any, municipalibeing submitted to the liming process. As the bark is used ties equally populous which approach Johannesburg in the upon limed hides and the liming destroys the anthrax in- disproportion of the sexes.. The last census enumeration fection the spent bark could not be held responsible. The was made on April 17th, 1904, and from the preliminary tallow was refined tallow which had been rendered at such report of the census commissioner (Dr. George Turner) it a heat as to make it free from anthrax and the waste was appears that there were 158,580 inhabitants, of whom cotton and jute waste which is not associated with anthrax. 118,917 were males and 39,663 were females. The racial Moreover, no case of anthrax had occurred at the works distribution was as follows: Europeans or whites, from which these four substances were derived. As to the 52,042 males and 31,860 females; and all coloured man’s food, it was similar to that which many of his com- races, including, South African aboriginals and Asiatics, -

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