A MEDICAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE IN THE FAR EAST.

92 seaside. This remark inspired Leech to the drawing of an inimitable cartoon which appeared in JM<*—we fancy in 1854—wherein the alderman and his family were depicted taking a summer holiday in Smithfield and saying, "How delicious the drains smell this morning." Possibly when the Torquay councillors do smell the destructor they will say the same thing. We wish that they would send us a copy of Mr. Davis’s report. We have it on the authority of the mayor that there is nothing to keep back. We learn from the "Torquay Directory" of July 2nd that 500 copies of the newPictorial"issued by the Torquay Directory Company have been obtained by the corporation for distribution throughout From this the country. "Pictorial," a copy of which lies before us, we see that it is claimed for Torquay that at the present moment it stands pre-eminent for the perfection of its sanitary system. "Nothing that science, skill, and money can the local authorities achieve has been left undone and sanitary staff are imbued with a deep sense of the importance of perfect sanitary arrangements and devote no little time, energy, skill, and constant supervision to maintain in a high state of efficiency everything bearing upon, or contributing to, the health of the people." Despite A MEDICAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE IN THE this, however, the average visitor will not be allured by the FAR EAST. smells from the .destructor which apparently envelop Torquay WE have received from the office of the Resident-General whenever there is a northerly wind. at Selangor an intimation to the effect that the Government of the Federated Malay States has established in Kuala MEDICO-PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION OF Lumpur, the capital of the Federated Malay States, a GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. research institute which is open to all workers irrespectively THE of nationality. The medical department is fully equipped sixty-first annual meeting of the Medico-Psychological for special and general pathological work, for the Association of Great Britain and Ireland will be held at the scientific study of clinical medicine, and for experi- Medical Institution, Hope-street, Liverpool, on Thursday mental physiology and bacteriology. It includes a modern and Friday, July 24th and 25th, under the presidency of Dr. mortuary with a refrigerator chamber, a department Joseph Wiglesworth. The annual meeting will commence for both organic and inorganic chemistry, a well- at 11 A.M. on Thursday and will be preceded by meetings equipped photographic department, facilities for bio- of the Educational Committee, the Rules Committee, logical research, and a good working library. It is stated the Parliamentary Committee, and the council, to be After the election of the that to the members of scientific commissions who visit the held between 9 and 10 A.M. Malay Peninsula and neighbouring islands the institute officers and council eight candidates will be proposed for affords an excellent opportunity for working up and pre- election as ordinary members, Dr. Giovanni S. B. Estense paring collected material. Students of tropical medicine of Rome will be proposed for election as a corresponding will find there an ample field for work. Beri-beri is pre- member, and Dr. Sidney Coupland of London and Dr. valent and malaria exists in at least four distinct types. Edward N. Brush of Towson, Maryland, U.S.A., will be At 2 P.M. The institute is at present under the direction of Mr. proposed for election as honorary members. Hamilton Wright, M.D. McGill, to whom any communications Dr. Wiglesworth will deliver the presidential address, after which medals and prizes will be distributed. At in reference to the institute may be addressed. 3.15 P. M. Mr. Damer Harrisson will read a paper entitled "Some Remarks upon the Surgical Treatment of Insanity." THE DESTRUCTOR NUISANCE AT TORQUAY. At 4 P.M. Dr. Charles A. Mercier will propose the folIN our issue of June 14th, page 1706, we adjured the lowing motion, upon which Mr. Percy Becher, solicitor, municipal fathers of Torquay to endeavour to render their of Bedford-row, London, and others will speak: That beautiful town worthy of its reputation as a health resort. in the opinion of this association further legislative The destructor still continues to emit offensive odours and measures are needed to protect the property of those we learn from Dr. H. Humphreys that on July 1st he had to who, without being ceitifiably insane, are yet, by reason keep his windows shut all day and night on account of oily of disorder of mind, unable to administer their affairs with and gritty fumes blown down upon us by a northerly wind." ordinary prudence." The annual dinner will be held at the The Misses Tapper who have before complained to the Adelphi Hotel, Liverpool, at 7 P. M. (tickets .61Is., inclusive Council on the subject tell us the same story about July lst. of wine). On Friday, July 25th, at 10 A.M., Dr. F. W. Mott These ladies say that even after their doors and windows will read a paper entitled Stimulus in Relation to Decay and were closed " the sickening odour pervaded the whole Repair of the Nervous System."Professor C. S. Sherrington, house."" The town council apparently argue that there is Dr. W. B. Warrington. and others will take part in the disno noxious smell given off by the destructor. Of municussion. Dr. A. W. Campbell will give a lantern demonstracipalities it may be said "with the Psalmist, "Noses have tion on Medullated Nerve-fibres of the Cerebral Cortex. they but they smell not." In the good old days when Dr. David Orr will give a lantern demonstration on NerveSmithfield and its vicinity was a sink of cruelty—"dung, cell and Medullated Fibre Changes in Acute Insanity. At guts, and blood " and other horrors-it was proposed to do 2 P.m. Dr. T. S. Clouston will introduce a discussion upon away with the cattle market. This proposal met with bitter IThe Possibility of Providing Suitable Means of Treatment opposition from the City fathers, one of whom went so far as for Incipient and Transient Mental Diseases in our Great to say that the Smithfield smells were as refreshing as the General Hospitals," after which Dr. C. Hubert Bond will 2 Loc. cit. read a paper entitled IMedico-Psychological Statistics-the

away in 24 hours. The haematoma in the back was aspirated six times ; each time from one to two pints of bloody serum were withdrawn and each time the fluid reaccumulated with great rapidity. The discolouration of the skin faded rapidly after the third day and the intermediate areas of normal skin became larger. In contrast to this subconjunctival hsemorrhages, which were present, went through the usual changes observed in absorption of blood. A piece of discoloured skin was removed from the neck and examined microscopically. The section showed nothing abnormal. This bears out the view advanced by Dr. Ollivier, who examined the bodies of 23 persons crushed to death by the rush of the mob in the Champs de Mars in 1837, that the discolouration is due to stasis of hyper-venous blood in dilated capillaries. All the cases examined post mortem have shown changes characteristic of venous engorgement-distended great veins and punctate haemorrhages on the surfaces of the viscera. But why was the remarkable discolouration of the skin confined to the face and neck ? In the case previously described in THE LANCET2 it extended as low as the third rib. No satisfactory answer to the question is apparent.

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