A FOUR-CELLED ELECTRIC BATH.

1385

NEW INVENTIONS.

in a variety of positions ; and (2) a set of four basins or small baths, two of which stand on the floor, while the other two stand on the arms of the chair. The patient uncovers only his arms and lower legs and sits in the chair with each of these limbs in one of the baths. The baths are filled with water or medicated solutions, and in each of them two carbon electrodes dip into the liquid. When the patient’s limbs are immersed it is obvious that a current may be sent through his body in either direction from any bath to any other one, or even from any one to the other three collectively, so that a diversity of combinations is offered for the choice of the medical attendant. These variations of direction can be made instantly by means of moveable plugs fitting into holes in a switch-board, in addition to which arrangements are pro. vided for measuring and regulating both the quantity of the current (in milliarn,6res) and its intensity (in these two conditions may also be variously

The filtering-tube is conof three sections. copper jacket which communicates with a clarifying filter immediately above a semi-rotary pump. The water enters the hose at the bottom by the suction caused by a few strokes of the rotary pump and then passes into the clarifying cylinder which, as shown in the illustration, is grasped by the left hand of the operator. The clarified water is then discharged into the sterilising filter, germ-free water escaping ready for drinking purposes at the two pipes shown. The clarifying cylinder contains an inside case of gauze and two clarifying bags. The sterilising

adjustment

practically tained in

a

volts) ;

contains an unglazed porcelain filtering tube or candle which, according to the experiments of Professor G. Sims Woodhead and Dr. G. E. Cartwright Wood, prevents the transmission of disease germs when worked under proper conditions, so that it was concluded that this filter would protect against the transmission of water-borne disease. Excellent attention, we find, has been paid to details, bearing in mind the special uses of this filter. It is compact, very easily put together, and all the parts are well made and of solid construction. One field-service filter is sufficient, it is stated, for the needs of a unit of 100 men and one man at least in each section is expected to superintend its management. The rate of pumping should not exceed 20 to 35 strokes per minute and in the event of the rate of filtration becoming slow a new clarifying bag should be introduced and, if considered necessary, a new cylinder also. Instructions to this effect are supplied with each outfit. The manufacturers are Messrs. Slack and Brownlow of Gorton, Manchester. ----’

cylinder

(

I,I

"OOCILANA" CLOTH. THE manufacturers of’’Occilana"cloth have afforded us an opportunity of examining it at various stages in its preparation and samples of fabric have been submitted to us representing first the unscoured fleece with the natural oil retained, secondly the yarn spun ready for weaving, and finally the finished material. Chemical and microscopical tests throughout determined at once that the fabric is all pure wool. The wool is said to be produced entirely in the west of England. Further, no evidence was obtained of the presence of irritating substances in the form of injurious dye stuffs or of any residue of objectionable bleaching agents. The material is warm and comfortable and porous, though shower proof. It has been pronounced a cloth material of good quality by a cloth expert. The cloth may be had in a variety of patterns and is supplied by Messrs. S. Fisher and Sons of 215, 217, and 219, Regent-street, London, W. A FOUR-CELLED ELECTRIC BATH.

THE four-celled electric bath, devised by Dr. C. E. Schnee of Carlsbad and shown in the illustration, presents no intricate complications either in the arrangement of its parts It may be said to consist of two or in its therapeutic use. principal portions-namely, (1) an armchair capable of

that a current of small quantity may have a and vice verEd. In each of thel’e baths the effective electrode is of course not the carbon conductor but the liquid contained in the bath. The current is therefore applied to the whole of the immersed surface, which for the upper limb might amount to 1200 square centimetres (186 square inches) and fcr the lower limb might amount to 1400 square centimetres (217 square inches). For many therapeutical purposes it is desirable to have electrodes of considerable size and the above-mentioned areas of skin are much greater than those of the metallic electrodes usually employed. Galvanic, faradic, or sinusoidal currents may be used; an alternating current may be previously changed into a direct one by means of a transformer. Currents having a quantity of from two to about 30 milliamperes and an intensity of from 10 to 45 volts may be employed. Cataphoresis, or the introduction of medicinal substances into the system by electrical transference through the skin, can be easily accomplished by filling the baths with the proper solutions. Dr. Schnee states that from the year 1896 to the end of 1902 he has treated 2577 patients with this

combined,

so

high intensity

I

apparatus.

IMPROVED CONTINENTAL SERVICES.-By

a

new

express service passengers travelling by the Harwich-Hook of Holland Royal British mail route now arrive at Berlin much earlier than hitherto ; leaving London (Liverpoolstreet Station) at 8 30 n.m. Berlin is reached at 6 43 next evening. Corridor carriages and restaurant cars run between the Hook of Holland and Berlin. By this new service communications with other north German towns, with Saxony, Austria, Russia, and Sweden have been much improved and accelerated. Passengers from the northern and midland counties of England leaving in the afternoon can travel directly to Harwich alongside the steamers, thus saving the trouble and expense of crossing London. A dining-car and

through corridor carriages run between York and Harwich, also through carriages to and from Manchester and Liverpool viti Lincoln, Birmingham, London and North-Western and Midland Railways, vid Peterborough. On the return journey to England a corresponding saving of time will be effected by the

new

service.

THE ADDRESS IN MEDICINE AT THE AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION.

1386

of the home life and other classes." This professional our "a return from we are would mean, told, present-day restlessness and rush to a quieter period, to a ’Mansfield must result from

cure

a

readjustment

and habits of the

THE LANCET.

with its charm of

Park,’

quiet village life ;

a

return to

a

normal life with natural intellectual tastes, and to calm, patient, original observation that fosters vital force and

LONDON : SATURDAY, MAY 16,1903.

The Address in Medicine at the American Medical Association.

successful endeavour." Surely the placid spirit of JANE AusTEN would be perturbed if it were made acquainted with such a description of the state and surroundings of Mrs. NORRIS and the BERTRAMS. The title of the address led us to hope for information upon the relations in America

to

profession to be put contemplate work

profession and the large classes of people payment of adequate medical fees would be impossible. Our readers know only too well the difficulties which the problems hence arising offer to older

this account, even if Address in Medicine

societies and the slender amount of success which has hitherto been achieved in dealing with them. In England the medical officers under the Poor-law are very inadequately paid and the whole system of club and dispensary practice

IT must

always

be

interesting

to the members of any

in a position which enables them kindred to their own as it is influenced or modified by conditions of society somewhat differing from those of which they have experience. On on no

other,

we

should welcome the

lately delivered by Dr. ANDERS of Philadelphia meeting in Chicago of the American Medical Association-an address purporting to be on " Social at the

between the medical to whom the

is riddled

by scandalous abuses for which,

so

far, neither

agitation has succeeded in suggesting any sumremedy. In Germany matters are even worse. A lately appeared in the Times in which the writer gave a highly interesting account of the effective manner, fields of medicine, of pathology, and of therapeutics. We as he regarded it, in which the problem of medical 1 cannot say that this expectation is altogether fulfilled ; for, ! attendance on the labouring classes had been solved in in truth, a large part of the address is somewhat country and in which he said that the German had determined to banish squalid poverty from full of workman and, sounding vaguely declamatory although us of definite his class. seems to leave destitute By his subscriptions noble hospitals and any very phrases, information upon the subjects with which it may be pre- convalescent homes had been erected and were mainsumed to deal. We are told, indeed, that "our possession tained and generally a sort of golden age in relation It has since appeared of unclassified facts is increasing with uncomfortable to sickness had been inaugurated. physicians employed by the societies into which rapidity," but we receive a very slender modicum of information as to the general nature of these facts or as to the German industry has been organised for the accomplishment precise directions in which it is expedient that their of these wonders have been ground down to starvation point, We are told, again, that their remuneration has been at the rate of about twoclassification should be attempted. and discoveries important, far reaching pence a visit, and that they have at last formed a counter that I I epoch-making scientific effort is justly the boast of the American pro- organisation which threatens a universal" strike"of the fession " ; but the discoveries in queation are not described medical profession against the societies if more reasonable in detail nor is any reason given for assuming that far terms are not previously agreed upon. The same question, reaching scientific effort " is in any way peculiar to America. I although possibly under a slightly different form, must of The discovery of the anaesthetic properties of ether necessity present itself in America, and it would be a matter indeed, be called epoch-making" " by any who were so left of extreme interest to learn whether any solution of it has Conditions in America in their Relation to Medical Progress and Disease." The title is an ambitious one and seems to justify expectation of a very comprehensive survey of the

reason nor

cient letter

that

thatthe

’I

might,

to themselves

rest’1

as

to

use

the term at all, but where are the was an American

It is well known that SHAKESPEARE

been reached.

subject,

in

an

The very absence of any reference to the address bearing the title which we have

citizen, but can the same claim be substantiated with re- quoted, seems at least to show that the friction hence arising gard to HARVEY, Or JENNER, Or PASTEUR, or LISTER ? cannot be so great in America as it is in this country or in These are men whose discoveries, if they have not made Europe.

epochs, have at least marked them and whose names will still be regarded with veneration by their countrymen in future generations, although not, we trust, with boastfulness-a state of mind antipathetic to science and calculated

When Dr. ANDERS passes away from questions of a very general character it is to call attention to certain phenomena

in relation to disease which

seem

to

us

to be of

great significance. He dwells upon a considerable recent increase in cancer, affections of the kidneys, and fatty prevent than to promote discovery. With regard to the general social conditions of America, as and fibroid degenerations. Coincidently, he tells us, with they bear upon the preservation or the restoration of health, the advent of epidemic influenza, there has been a heavy the address gives us very little precise information, and it may death-rate in Philadelphia from lobar pneumonia ; and he well be that the author has thought it unnecessary to dwell gives a table showing the results of post-mortem examination rather to

upon facts which were more or less familiar to his audience. It is, indeed, said that I the universal spirit of haste has taken possession of our professional life," and that "the

in 275 in the

of death attributed to this cause which occurred Philadelphia Hospital. Of these, 250, or about 90’9

cases

per cent., showed cardio-vascular

lesions, principally chronic