CHINESE PREVENTIVE MEDICINE!

IMPORTANT DECISION AS TO INFECTIOUS DISEASES.

Journal of Public Health. Within two years of this

1651

and again by medical officers of to a number of opinions which have health; opposed been given by legal members and officers of different sanitary authorities. This difference of opinion has now prevailed ever since the Act of 1875 was passed ; it has in many cases hindered the proper administration of the law against the

of the

we find Dr. Brehmer at Gorbersdorf opening the first sanatorium on Bodington’s principles and working out his system into From this point the a carefully thought out organisation. success of the treatment has been continuous, and we are preparing to welcome back into England a system which we ought to have accepted and developed nearly 60 years ago. Probably others before Dr. Bodington have at various times advocated the rational treatment of consumption, but he is the first whose advocacy though bitterly opposed was successful in gradually, if slowly, changing the whole current of popular and medical opinion on the subject. One of his patients whose case he describes in his book, a young lady in the third stage of consumption, whom he treated in 1837, is still living at Cheltenham, a grateful witness of his skill.

case as

set out

again

but it is

spread of infection, and therefore we are glad that a decision has at last been given which must be regarded as setting the matter at rest. ___

"CRUELTY TO WOMEN."

THE temperance and wisdom which characterised the prothe first meeting of the League which has just been formed to secure seats for women in shops and of which the Duchess of Westminster is president afford a good omen for the realisation of the necessary reform which the new league has at heart. Since this meeting, which was IMPORTANT DECISION AS TO INFECTIOUS held under the of the Dean of Westminster in presidency DISEASES. the Jerusalem Chamber on the 8th inst., the Seats for AN important case known as that of "Warwick v. Assistants (England and Ireland) Bill has passed Graham"was decided on June llth by Mr. Justice Day I Shop has been reported without amendment on appeal against the interpretation put upon Section ’i through committee, ’ to the House of Commons, and has been read a third time. 124 of the Public Health Act, 1875, by two justices for the that the realisation There is reason to county of Cumberland. The section deals with the power ’, of the wishes of thehope, therefore, ladies who form the league kindly of compulsory removal of a sick person to a hospital for That in some cases women should be comis near at hand. infectious diseases. It has often been held that, although in shops for from 12 to 14 hours daily with the section allows of such removal by order of any justice I, pelled to stand two intervals of half-an-hour for dinner and 20 minutes when the person suffering from an infectious disease "is only for tea all the year round regardless of temperature is without proper lodging and accommodation," yet its meana disgrace to a country like England, and ing is that such accommodation has to do with the welfare thisstanding is emphasised by the fact that in New Zealand a law of the patient and not with the protection of other persons. exists by. which an employer is rendered liable This view is taken because the clause further states that one already to a penalty if he does not provide seats for his female of the conditions under which the removal may be effected is that the sick person is "lodged in a room occupied by assistants. It is unnecessary to point out to our readers either the harm that is done to the women or the more than one family." This has been held to imply that lessened for work which is the outcome of thoughtprotection against infection is not contemplated in the lessness capacity by employers in this connexion. The present Bill section so long as members of only one family are in House deals with England and Ireland only and before the question. But others have contended that the use of the it will be remembered that the Lords have recently thrown word I I or"in the section shows that there were two I a Bill on the same subject dealing with Scotland. out different sets of circumstances, in either of which ’, is to be hoped, however, that legislation will not removal of the patient under a magistrate’s order ’, It be restricted to any particular divisions of the could be carried out; and, further, it has been urged eventually United Kingdom. At the meeting above referred to it was. that the general intention of the Act is not the resolved that efforts should be made to form welfare of the individual but that it has concern with the unanimously an advisory committee composed of medical men and the public health and hence with the protection of the public I, of shops and that the wives of proprietors of against infection. Magisterial decisions have varied accord- ’, proprietors some of the shops should be asked to join the league. ing as one or other of these views have been pressed upon the ’, With this suggestion we are in full accord and we heartily justices, but hitherto no decision on appeal has been avail- wish success to a movement which we have always strongly able for general guidance. In the case in question a boy in Workington was suffering from scarlet fever and it was not i supported. pretended that he had not such proper lodging and accomCHINESE PREVENTIVE MEDICINE! modation as was necessary for his own welfare ; but the I, corporation insisted that, owing to the position of the room I, WHETHER it be from the fact that the Chinese physicians which the patient occupied with respect to other rooms in consider that man is influenced by heat and humidity, ths the house, including the kitchen, it was impossible to isolate harmony of which constitutes life, or whether it be that him in the sense of preventing the spread of infection to they consider the human body as a harmonic instrument others. The magistrates declined to regard Section 124 as which is affected by the vibration of the muscles, tendons, applicable to such a case. They held that the proper lodging nerves, and arteries, we know not, but the Sanitary Board and accommodation which was necessary surmised no more of Hong-Kong has just had a curious application made to than that the patient was provided with ordinary habitable, them for permission to hold a procession of a somewhat clean, and comfortable quarters such as are requisite for a corybantic nature to frighten away the plague which is sick person, and they refused to grant an order of removal to increasing in Hong-Kong, though we are glad to learn from hospital. This decision was appealed against, and although a correspondent that it remains localised in No. 9 health we have not yet before us the revised judgment of Mr. Justice district, a part of the town rarely visited by Europeans. As Day the brief account of it already published shows the case was pointed out by Dr. Atkinson, principal civil medical to be of sufficient importance to warrant our calling imme- officer, it is certainly not advisable for large crowds to diate attention to it. For the judgment on appeal is to the gather in a part of the town affected with the plague, effect that Section 124 was clearly directed to the protection but the application was granted on the understanding of persons from infection and not merely to the protection of that the firing of crackers and the beating of gongs the sick person himself. This judgment is in accordance with should cease at nine o’clock in the evening; moreover, common sense ; it is in accordance with the general necessities no noise was to be made within a certain distance of the

ceedings of

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1652

THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE MOTOR CAR.

hospital. It is not only in "ways that are dark and ’tricks that are vain"that the heathen Chinee is peculiar but also in his methods of medicine. He possesses the notion that the devils of disease can be frightened away in the ’same way that young Hodge in England frightens away ’birds from the growing corn, hence the application to cure the plague by a wild procession through the infected - quarter with shrieks and yells and a noise suggestive of an unloosed pandemonium. According to the China Mail of May 9th the plague is more than recrudescent in many of ’the towns and villages of the delta. In Canton and Fatshan it is reported as "bad" but not so bad as in some of the inland cities. The city of San Ning might correctly be named at present "the city of death." The plague is raging with special virulence and carrying off its victims in large numbers. Shops and dwelling-houses are closed and their inhabitants have fled into the country. Business is for the The streets, meanwhile, are reeking in filth and all drains are choked with rubbish. In one street no less than three mat sheds were erected, in which were - seated in calm complacency many idols, which are implored to exert their power to stem and turn back the tide of death. Almost every door is hung with branches of cactus ,or other thorny shrubs, a piece of fine netting, and a bag -of small cockle-shells. It is believed that the malignant devils cannot well avoid all these obstacles and enter the house. If the devils yet attempt to enter they must pass through the mass of thorns but can scarcely avoid the small

present paralysed.

mettirig.

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THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE MOTOR CAR. THE fete held this week in the Tuileries Gardens at Paris appears to have been highly successful from the point of view of its promoters, and the flower-decked cars combined with fine weather no doubt attracted a large concourse - of sightseers. France is admittedly ahead of us in the building of these vehicles and we note that a prominent feature of the fete was supplied by an electric car owned by M. ’Tenetzy, which is cigar or torpedo shaped and is said to travel on a good road at any pace up to 65 miles an hour. ’Even with the customary grain of salt necessary for the appreciation of novelties in our neighbours’ locomotion, ,aerial, terrestrial, or submarine, 65 miles an hour is good .going and most of us would be happier at a less startling pace. We fail, however, to see that any substantial progress Bhas been made towards perfecting a motor car of practical utility to the work-a-day man, who may perchance take a loving pride in his horse and trap, but to whom a higher rate of speed, or the same measure of usefulness at a less cost, would turn the scale in favour of the motor car. Of .all the professions the medical profession was the one from which inventors of horseless carriages might well expect - support provided they could furnish them with what they ,needed. It had to combine speed, simplicity, and cheapness, ’with moderate comfort in travelling. Electricity, speedy .and clean as it is, was and is still practically out of the .question in most districts. The provision of charging stations ;and the weight of accumulators for country by-roads in wet weather, besides the jar of a heavy vehicle moving rapidly ,over an uneven surface, were obstacles not to be easily If all oil motors do not smell abominably -overcome. we certainly meet many that do, while if their unsightliness ,is a matter of taste the weight of some of them is only too but at the obtainable should the

time their fuel is everywhere carried run short on an (lnexpectedly prolonged journey. Meanwhile, all roads are not main roads, and those who travel for business and not for pleasure cannot always choose their way or their weather. Motor-cars can never be a fashionable craze with a horse-loving people, and their practical usefulness, except

apparent;

same

supply

perhaps

as

weight

carriers

on

roads ascertained to be

suitable, has yet to be demonstrated by a vehicle which has not, so far as we know, at present appeared. THE TEACHING OF PATHOLOGY AT OXFORD.

long time the accommodation placed at the disposal of the teacher of pathology at the Oxford University has been inadequate to meet the requirements of the students attending the courses. From time to time the University has been urged, first by Sir Henry Acland and more recently by Sir John Burdon Sanderson, to provide suitable laboratories, but the impoverished condition of the University chest has been such that although these proposals were sympathetically received the funds were not forthcoming. Recently, however, the matter has been taken up with renewed energy owing to the kindness of an anonymous donor who has promised a sum of E5000 provided that within a certain date the University carries out the plan of the suggested laboratories. Such a scheme entails the expenditure of £10,000 on buidings and the first stage was reached last Tuesday when Congregation passed a grant of f.5,OOO to supplement the sum already subscribed by the anonymous donor. The circumstances of the vote were particularly pleasing, for whereas it was announced that opposition from various sources would be raised the house, which was well attended, passed the decree without any discussion whatever. At the same time an annual grant of E250 for upkeep and maintenance was passed without opposition. In view of the friendly attitude of the University it is most probable that these decrees will be presented to Convocation during this term, and in all likelihood, if no opposition be encountered, building operations will be started in the long vacation. In little over a year’s time Oxford will be provided with a pathological department second to none in regard to convenience of arrangement and fittings. Already a further fund for the purchase of apparatus is being generously con tributed to, so that in this respect also the laboratory will be well equipped. FOR

a

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SEWER VENTILATORS. SEWER ventilators are an abomination but a necessity of the modern system of sanitation, so that any proposal to reduce the nuisance without interfering with the proper function of the ventilators will be welcomed. Sir Charles Cam n has suggested employing porous cylinders as a kind of lid placed in the crown of the sewer. As is well known, plaster-of-Paris or unglazed porcelain is sufficiently porous to allow of the escape of gas through the material. While these cylinders therefore would allow air to pass freely through them they would effectually bar the passage of micro-organisms and at the same time there, would be no greater pressure in the sewer air than in the street atmosphere. Indeed, the action is twofold, diffusion and filtration simultaneously taking place. Air thus continuously comes out of the sewer filtered through the cylinders, and on well-known principles of diffusion air as continuously enters the sewer through the porous vessel. It is stated that this method has given satisfaction in Dublin and has proved effective, having been in use for the last two years, the porous ventilators being quite clean at the end of that time. It is possible also that some amount of deodorisation is effected since the oxygen and putrefactive gases in passing through a porous material are brought into very intimate contact and the gaseous organic matters are thus oxidised. We have had some evidence on this point in some experiments with coffins made of porous ware. When the body of a dead rabbit was placed in a porous coflin and the latter was sealed with plaster-of Paris there was hardly any evidence of the evolution of