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A FATAL CASE OF DIPHTHERIA WITHOUT MEDICAL HELP.
986
profession generally would regard as exact scitntific indica- nourishment at one time snakes have also the power of tions of the Imperial patient’s actual condition at the moment. fasting for a considerable period. Catherine Hopley, in her They are, of course, only intended to convey to the outside interesting book on the curiosities of serpent life, lends her world, and to the nation more immediately and directly authority to the story that they may live for two years withinterested, information to which the public is entitled, in out food, and there is at any rate evidence to show that a view of relieving or abating the weight of national anxiety, rattlesnake lived at the -Zoological Gardens for some months which, is only augmented by suspense. Still, we do not think without food." , . that, even in the absence of .any reference to such points as ____
or pulse indications, there can be much doubt in the minds of .our readers, as to the nature of the Cz’ar’s illness. The symptoms clearly point, to a form of Bright’s disease, and the oedema of the lower extremities, the general weakness, attacks of breathlessness, as well as the insomnia, vomiting, and mental depression, are but the sequence or concomitants of the blood, changes and cardiac failure induced by that disease. There is no need to dwell upon the liability to blood mpurity caused by the retention of effete products or upon the impoverishment and lowered nutritive properties brought about by a chronic leakage of some of the constituents of that fluid, for these conditions will be universally recognised by members of the medical profession as commonly attendant on the disease. Assuming this view to be substantially the correct one, it is almost needless to add that the prognosis is most grave, but the duration of the disease, in the absence of precise data, is nevertheless uncertain, the sufferer from it being liable to serious fluctuations and dangerous complications at any time. The operations in His Imperial Majesty’s case, about which the public seems to be sorely puzzled, no doubt refer to simple punctures for the escape of fluid and the relief of the tension of the dropsical extremities.
the temperature
___
SNAKE CANNIBALISM. F.Z.S. writes to us as follows :-"A brief’ and substantially accurate note in the Times of Tuesday last records the fact that a boa constrictor at the- Zoological Gardens has lately swallowed one of its mates. This’occurred over a fortnight ago, and the facts are briefly as follows. ’One compartment of the reptile house contained three boa constrictors, of which one was about nine feet and another eight feet long. During the night the smaller of these two disappeared, and the larger was found to be enormously distended and unable The cannibal snake was considerably inconto curl up. venienced by his meal, and remained for a week in a lethargic condition and suffered from dyspnoea. It is supposed that the boa had no deliberate intention of eating his companion, but that he began by swallowing part of a pigeon which was projecting from the mouth of his companion, and that the rest of the action was involuntary. It is a very unusual circumstance for one boa constrictor to swallow another, and were this not so they would have t.Q be kept apart-for the sake of economy, if for no other reason. Inthis case the money value of the deceased snake was probably ;&7 or 8. Although there was probably only about a foot in ’the difference of the the one which was eaten length of the two as much as the other. not half more than did The internal capacity of some species of snakes is enormous, and there are on record instances of their having swallowed animals of greater weight than themselves. Dr. Stradling has related the case of an Etaps lemniscatus which swallowed and afterwards disgorged an Amphisboena longer than itself and weighing half as much again. Boas are certainly not always very particular as to the nature’of their food, and some years ago one at the Zoological’Gardens swallowed her blanket. She was, however, made to disgorge it, when Mr. Buckland described it as being . like a’long flannel sausage.’I Like other creatures which have the power of consuming an immense amount of
snakes,
weigh
t W
.... -
-
".’"
-
., ..
-
4
i
"COUNTY COURT LAW." A CORRESPONDENT informs us that he has taken a claim into the county court for forty-five visits in a case of scarlet
they
were paid recovered. The child to whom The of the’father that the child had not had scarlet fever, as it had not been kept in bed all the time. Our correspondent suggests that such reasoning on the part of the judge was not permissible. It is certainly a new departure for a judge to go behind the diagnosis of the, medical man, and a new departure of which we entirely disapprove. We venture to doubt whether such a decision would be upheld in a higher court. Perhaps there may be some facts which have not been reported to us by our correspondent ; but, if not, the case seems to be one that should be carried further. On one point we disagree with our correcourt law." We cannot spondent. He calls endorse the implied censure. Speaking with a fair knowledge of county court decisions, we are impressed, on the whole, with their reasonableness.
fever.
judge adopted the theory
this "county -
A
FATAL
CASE OF DIPHTHERIA WITHOUT MEDICAL HELP.
incredible that a boy aged ten years should have, be allowed to die from it without the benefit and diphtheria of medical attendance. Yet this is the case of Thomas IT
seems
Oborn, of Holland-street, Kensington, as investigated by Mr. Luxmore Drew, the coroner for West London. The boy’s mother poulticed the throat, and he appeared much better, bat the next day he took his dinner and half hour after was found dead on the stairs. There had been no other cases in the house before that ; but since then two other children had been removed suffering from sorethroats. The drains were said to be in perfect order. Mr. John Starling, who was called in after death, described the post-mortem examination. The right ventricle of the heaxt r contained a clot, and the windpipe was extensively with diphtheria. He thought it a bad case and a lesson every person to call in a medical man early in the throat affection. The advice is momentous. However difficult a disease diphtheria may be to medical men, it must be much more so to those who know nothing of medicine, and, as in this case, it may not even be detected till other persons have been infected. an
affected
to slightest
PUBLIC HEALTH
ADMINISTRATION.
DURING the last week two
magisterial
decisions
were,
recorded, each of considerable importance to sanitary authorities. Mr. Sheil, at Westminster, declined to make, an
order for the
remedy
of
certain dilapidations, although
require the removal of stagnant pools in a backyard. The question is, ,of course, whether dilapidations of ceilings, walls, andfloors constitute nuisances within the meaning of the public Health Act. Now there is nothing in that Act prescribing that dilapidations are to be regarded as nuisances,; but any premises in such a state as to be a nuisance or injurious or dangerous to, health " are to be deemed a nuisance. This does not help us very,far, for. in effect the Act defines a. nuisance to be a 1;1uisan.The fact that the dilapi-, dations, if dangerous to health, may be the subject of an order, Rorever, goes ..trther. We presume no health pmcer will feel any difficulty in asserting that he
was
prepared
to
I
.
dilapidated
profession generally would regard as exact scitntific indica- nourishment at one time snakes have also the power of tions of the Imperial patient’s actual condition at the moment. fasting for a considerable period. Catherine Hopley, in her They are, of course, only intended to convey to the outside interesting book on the curiosities of serpent life, lends her world, and to the nation more immediately and directly authority to the story that they may live for two years withinterested, information to which the public is entitled, in out food, and there is at any rate evidence to show that a view of relieving or abating the weight of national anxiety, rattlesnake lived at the -Zoological Gardens for some months which, is only augmented by suspense. Still, we do not think without food." , . that, even in the absence of .any reference to such points as ____
or pulse indications, there can be much doubt in the minds of .our readers, as to the nature of the Cz’ar’s illness. The symptoms clearly point, to a form of Bright’s disease, and the oedema of the lower extremities, the general weakness, attacks of breathlessness, as well as the insomnia, vomiting, and mental depression, are but the sequence or concomitants of the blood, changes and cardiac failure induced by that disease. There is no need to dwell upon the liability to blood mpurity caused by the retention of effete products or upon the impoverishment and lowered nutritive properties brought about by a chronic leakage of some of the constituents of that fluid, for these conditions will be universally recognised by members of the medical profession as commonly attendant on the disease. Assuming this view to be substantially the correct one, it is almost needless to add that the prognosis is most grave, but the duration of the disease, in the absence of precise data, is nevertheless uncertain, the sufferer from it being liable to serious fluctuations and dangerous complications at any time. The operations in His Imperial Majesty’s case, about which the public seems to be sorely puzzled, no doubt refer to simple punctures for the escape of fluid and the relief of the tension of the dropsical extremities.
the temperature
___
SNAKE CANNIBALISM. F.Z.S. writes to us as follows :-"A brief’ and substantially accurate note in the Times of Tuesday last records the fact that a boa constrictor at the- Zoological Gardens has lately swallowed one of its mates. This’occurred over a fortnight ago, and the facts are briefly as follows. ’One compartment of the reptile house contained three boa constrictors, of which one was about nine feet and another eight feet long. During the night the smaller of these two disappeared, and the larger was found to be enormously distended and unable The cannibal snake was considerably inconto curl up. venienced by his meal, and remained for a week in a lethargic condition and suffered from dyspnoea. It is supposed that the boa had no deliberate intention of eating his companion, but that he began by swallowing part of a pigeon which was projecting from the mouth of his companion, and that the rest of the action was involuntary. It is a very unusual circumstance for one boa constrictor to swallow another, and were this not so they would have t.Q be kept apart-for the sake of economy, if for no other reason. Inthis case the money value of the deceased snake was probably ;&7 or 8. Although there was probably only about a foot in ’the difference of the the one which was eaten length of the two as much as the other. not half more than did The internal capacity of some species of snakes is enormous, and there are on record instances of their having swallowed animals of greater weight than themselves. Dr. Stradling has related the case of an Etaps lemniscatus which swallowed and afterwards disgorged an Amphisboena longer than itself and weighing half as much again. Boas are certainly not always very particular as to the nature’of their food, and some years ago one at the Zoological’Gardens swallowed her blanket. She was, however, made to disgorge it, when Mr. Buckland described it as being . like a’long flannel sausage.’I Like other creatures which have the power of consuming an immense amount of
snakes,
weigh
t W
.... -
-
".’"
-
., ..
-
4
i
"COUNTY COURT LAW." A CORRESPONDENT informs us that he has taken a claim into the county court for forty-five visits in a case of scarlet
they
were paid recovered. The child to whom The of the’father that the child had not had scarlet fever, as it had not been kept in bed all the time. Our correspondent suggests that such reasoning on the part of the judge was not permissible. It is certainly a new departure for a judge to go behind the diagnosis of the, medical man, and a new departure of which we entirely disapprove. We venture to doubt whether such a decision would be upheld in a higher court. Perhaps there may be some facts which have not been reported to us by our correspondent ; but, if not, the case seems to be one that should be carried further. On one point we disagree with our correcourt law." We cannot spondent. He calls endorse the implied censure. Speaking with a fair knowledge of county court decisions, we are impressed, on the whole, with their reasonableness.
fever.
judge adopted the theory
this "county -
A
FATAL
CASE OF DIPHTHERIA WITHOUT MEDICAL HELP.
incredible that a boy aged ten years should have, be allowed to die from it without the benefit and diphtheria of medical attendance. Yet this is the case of Thomas IT
seems
Oborn, of Holland-street, Kensington, as investigated by Mr. Luxmore Drew, the coroner for West London. The boy’s mother poulticed the throat, and he appeared much better, bat the next day he took his dinner and half hour after was found dead on the stairs. There had been no other cases in the house before that ; but since then two other children had been removed suffering from sorethroats. The drains were said to be in perfect order. Mr. John Starling, who was called in after death, described the post-mortem examination. The right ventricle of the heaxt r contained a clot, and the windpipe was extensively with diphtheria. He thought it a bad case and a lesson every person to call in a medical man early in the throat affection. The advice is momentous. However difficult a disease diphtheria may be to medical men, it must be much more so to those who know nothing of medicine, and, as in this case, it may not even be detected till other persons have been infected. an
affected
to slightest
PUBLIC HEALTH
ADMINISTRATION.
DURING the last week two
magisterial
decisions
were,
recorded, each of considerable importance to sanitary authorities. Mr. Sheil, at Westminster, declined to make, an
order for the
remedy
of
certain dilapidations, although
require the removal of stagnant pools in a backyard. The question is, ,of course, whether dilapidations of ceilings, walls, andfloors constitute nuisances within the meaning of the public Health Act. Now there is nothing in that Act prescribing that dilapidations are to be regarded as nuisances,; but any premises in such a state as to be a nuisance or injurious or dangerous to, health " are to be deemed a nuisance. This does not help us very,far, for. in effect the Act defines a. nuisance to be a 1;1uisan.The fact that the dilapi-, dations, if dangerous to health, may be the subject of an order, Rorever, goes ..trther. We presume no health pmcer will feel any difficulty in asserting that he
was
prepared
to
I
.
dilapidated