- Email: [email protected]
CHOLERA.
THE NEW SCOTTISH LOCAL GOVERNMENT BILL.-CHOLERA.
1155
to the district committees, as the parochial without at the same time making it financially possible to have done in the past. The district committees will bring them into force would be worse than farcical. With boards to as local authorities for the carrying out of regard to the special districts, the parish councils are also act continue the Public Health Acts, and in this way the large areas and usefully to come in as constituting the whole or part of subvaluations necessary for satisfactory health administration committees of management which may be appointed by the will be continued. At the same time the new parish councils district committees with the sanction of the county councils. will be able to take charge of many local matters too Another part of the new Bill deals with the power of county minute and detailed to be satisfactorily managed by the councils and district committees to acquire land for public district committees. They will have the power to provide purposes. In Aberdeenshire and elsewhere almost insuperable difficulties have been met with in obtaining sites for or acquire buildings for public purposes and grounds and The Health recreation. Scotch Public for buildings public hospitals, and no doubt the Government has had this specially Act enables any two householders to call the attention of in view in proposing that in future it shall not be necessary the local authority (i.e., in rural localities, the district to go to Parliament for this purpose. So far we have little but praise for the Bill as it stands. committees) to any neglect of enforcement of the Public Health Acts, and in the event of failure by the There are, however, one or two very serious omissions. The I authority to attend to notice so given, the householders chief of these is that from beginning to end there is nothing have the right of appeal to the Board of Supervision. giving power to district committees to regulate, with referSimilarly, the Local Government Act of 1889 gives to any ence to the health of their future inmates and of the general five ratepayers right of appeal to the county council against public, the erection of new buildings. Sir George Trevelyan the proceedings of district committees, and it also gives the may have thought that such a subject might more properly county councils themselves a right of appeal to the Board of come within the scope of a new Public Health Act, but most Supervision regarding any neglect by district committees to of the rural authorities will probably think that in this matter carry out the Public Health Acts. These several rights, half a loaf would be a great deal better than no bread. No heretofore respectively invested in householders, ratepayers, doubt, throughout the Bill many details will be found open and county councils, are now to be transferred to the parish to discussion or amendment, but it is sincerely to be hoped councils. This is likely to be of very considerable consequence that party feeling will offer no obstruction to the passage of a in carrying out the minutise of sanitation in every parish. It measure so fraught with good to all classes of the people of is a trite saying that what is everybody’s business is nobody’s Scotland. business, and it is therefore very seldom that householders or ratepayers have thought of exercising these powers, even if or where they knew of their existence ; but when these duties are specifically laid on a public body constituted by THERE appears to be a good deal of doubt as to the exact Act of Parliament, ahd provided with a clerk to carry on its correspondence, it is certain that the ninety-sixth clause of nature and causes of the epidemic which has been, and still the Public Health Act will be instilled with new vitality. is, prevailing at Lisbon. On the one hand, the Medical One of the most valuable principles embodied in the Scotch Society of that city and Dr. Montaldo, who was sent as Public Health Act has been the power to form special dis- a special delegate from Spain to investigate and report tricts for the purpose of carrying out certain schemes of upon the nature of the disease, have declared it to be sanitary improvement and of assessing the cost of these Asiatic cholera, but in a mild form, and the latter attributed schemes on the districts primarily benefited. Unfortunately, its introduction into Lisbon to a merchant vessel from in the past this power has existed with regard only to two sub- Cape Verd ; on the other hand, there are many medical jects-water-supply and drainage; and since the creation of men at Lisbon and others-to say nothing of the Governthe county councils under the Local Government Act of 1889 ment officials-who do not at all agree with this view no complaint has been more general than that of the absence and point to the insignificant mortality in corroboration of of similar power with regard to other sanitary procedures, the correctness of their opinion. The bacteriologists who and especially with regard to the scavenging and cleansing have examined the excreta for comma bacilli do not seem to of populous villages. The new Bill provides the necessary have satisfied themselves that they have discovered any microand cultivation organism which fulfils all the remedy, and on this account alone it ought to be widely tests of Professor Koch’s bacillus.descriptions of the results Photographs welcomed by rural authorities. It is proposed that the pur- of bacteriological observations, together with clinical reports poses for which special districts may be formed shall now be of the cases, have, meanwhile, it is stated, been forwarded to extended so as to include three additional groups : (a) the Berlin and Paris. The disease towards the end of last month prevailed lighting of streets, common stairs, passages, &c. ; (b) the in Lisbon, many hundreds of individuals having extensively and removal of and the dust, ashes, refuse, scavenging pro- been attacked in the course of a few days, and several fresh viding of lands for the deposit, treatment, and disposal of cases are still occurring daily, but the epidemic is stated to be such refuse, the erection of public waterclosets, latrines, &c., now rapidly declining. Some cases have occurred at Castello the watering of streets, the compulsory cleansing of common Bianco, close to the Spanish frontier, and several villages on stairs, courtyards, pavements, &c., the formation, improve- the left bank of the Tagus are also stated to be contaminated. As we have already said, the mortality, according ment, paving, and maintaining of streets, the formation of to the reports, seems to have been very small foot pavements by owners of premises abutting on streets, indeed published with the number of recoveries, which is compared and the naming and numbering of streets ; and (e) the pro- quite at variance with what takes place in an epidemic of vision of public baths, washhouses, and drying grounds. It Asiatic cholera; the recoveries ensue speedily after attack, will be seen that these proposals are more or less equivalent and the disease has not extended to Oporto, although to the sections of the English Act regarding the granting of there has been constant and unrestricted communication between that and Lisbon. Typhoid fever urban powers to rural authorities. An important point is is also stated to be place at the present time in prevalent that the costs involved in carrying out these provisions will Lisbon. All this points to water contamination, and it fall to be levied within the special district I I along with, and appears to us that both the present outbreak of choleraic as an addition to, the public health rate." In Scotland diarrhoea and the occurrence of cases of typhoid fever may A water-supply the present public health rate for all purposes is limited be fairly attributed to this as a cause. which is rendered impure by being contaminated with the to 2. 6d. per pound of assessable rental. In rural products of sewage is a perpetual source of danger and districts this is often found insufficient even for water under certain climatic conditions-of temperature especiallyand drainage, and to enact new sanitary provisions may give rise to localised outbreaks of disease allied to that
representatives
local
CHOLERA.
1156
TELEPHONES AND THUNDERSTORMS.
prevailing at Lisbon at present. Obviously such out- question was doubtless a manifestation of phenomena such breaks, occurring at a time when epidemic cholera has as these. The "clacking"sound also described might have recently prevailed in Europe and may be revivified later been caused by the oscillating discharges of small induced on in the year, excite and call for increased vigilance currents, even in a protected instrument, and could be of on the part of all sanitary authorities ; but we are not no moment so far as danger is concerned. From the foregoing considerations certain obvious precau. disposed to regard the local epidemic at Lisbon with any grave anxiety as far as this country is concerned. We have tions suggest themselves. On the part of the public it will already had cholera introduced here from countries closer to, be wise not to handle the telephone during a thunderstorm. and with freer and more frequent communication with us On the part of the telephone companies it is to be expected that the recognised necessity of having each instrument duly than Portugal. As far as this country is concerned we are content to place protected will be strictly carried out. With these two pre. cautions supplementing each other immunity from danger is our main reliance upon sanitary safeguards, and to see that these are made sufficient to prevent cholera or any other practically secured. But even these can scarcely be said to dangerous disease from taking root among us when introduced provide for every possible contingency. The occasional by arrivals from abroad. It is, first of all, by securing that our eccentricities of lightning conductors are well known and water supplies are good and protected from contamination, the precaution in the hands of the public does not cover, for and by attention to hygiene and cleanliness, that the public example, such a case as the following :-Suppose a telephone health can be protected. The sanitary survey of this wire passing from London to Brighton to encounter an undertaken the under country, special orders issued to the electrical disturbance, say, at Redhill. This might not be sanitary authorities of our various ports, should enable them known at either end of the wire (and therefore no precaution to discover and remedy any sources of weakness that may taken) until the fact is announced by some such alarming
demonstration as the one above described. It thus becomes of the greatest consequence to have a reliable protector." The form which this ought to take will depend upon TELEPHONES AND THUNDERSTORMS. individual expert opinion. One of the devices adopted by the Post Office for this purpose (and it is difficult to imagine SUBSCRIBERS to the telephone, whilst fully recognising its a better) consists of two metal plates faced with platinum, one connected with the line and the other put to earth," usefulness, have long been familiar with its occasional the discs being separated by a perforated mica plate. irregularities. They have only lately, however, learnt that it Such an arrangement affords insulation for ordinary working also has its risks. The "strange story" of a telephone is currents, but allows a loophole of escape for those of high thus recounted by an eye witness :-"Inow hung the potential. The currents in question would easily spark across receiver on its hookjust as the storm was at its height and in the minute air gap, and so pass harmlessly to earth. recent figures show that whilst in Hamburg the a few minutes a tremendous flash occurred, sending a shower Although of telephone subscribers to population is 1 to 40, in proportion of sparks from the receiver to the transmitter and to the Berlin 1 to 78, in New York 1 to 167, and in London only 1 to several metallic parts of the telephone, including the bell 636, still the actual number of those using the telephone connexions, such as would have proved fatal to the hearing i in this country represents an enormous aggregate. To if not to the life of any listener." The possibility of such ani this class, of which medical men form, an increasing item, occurrence cannot be doubted. With proper precautions, the telephone has become a convenience and almost a however, the risk becomes inappreciable. In the absence of necessity. With proper precautions it need not be a data impossible to obtain it is difficult to estimate the actual danger. amount of danger incurred by anyone who might happen to be using the instrument at such a moment. It seems in no way probable, however, that, thus subdivided into a "shower THE ORGANISATION OF THE SEVENTH of sparks," such a discharge would prove directly dangerous INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF to life. That it might produce local effects of a serious HYGIENE. nature and even inflict irreparable injury on the organs of sight and hearing there seems no reason to doubt. It will at least be wise for anyone not wishing to demonstrate this WE have received further circulars of invitation and pro. interesting point by actual experiment on his own person to grammes of procedure for the Seventh International Congress take the simple (though not quite adequate) precaution of of Hygiene, which, as already announced, will meet at Buda. abstaining from the use of the telephone in the presence of a thunderstorm. It is to be remembered that any such pest from the 2nd to the 9th of September next. We regret electrical apparatus becomes for the time being a "lightning to say that these circulars, though showing some improve. conductor," and if danger is to be avoided, a lightning ment in the method of organising the Congress, still indicate charge gaining access to such a conductor must be provided ’, that the errors committed at the last Congress, when it met in with an efficient means of " putting itself to earth." It is in London, will be repeated and perhaps intensified at Badarecognition of this fact that telegraph and telephone instru- pest. There are to be no less than nineteen sections of ments connected with overhead wires are or ought to be Hygiene and seven sections of Demography ; and, so far back provided with a "protector"" or "lightning-arrester "-in as March 31st last, 437 papers had been announced on Hygiene other words, with the means of carrying a strong current to and 98 papers on Demography. What will be the use of 535 earth without its passing through the ins trument. It is also papers ? Who will ever read them? When the work of a because of the. careful adoption of this precaution that a Congress is so split up into small sections it cannot hope to telegraph operating room has been regarded as the safest exercise any great influence. The number of sections refuge in a thunderstorm. An overhead wire may be would not, however, matter if, by the side of the meetinvaded by strong currents in more ways than one. It may ings of the sections, there were a few plenary meetings be directly"struck" by lightning or more probably it may at which the Congress, as a whole, could express its The only become the seat of those "induced" charges and discharges opinion on four or five great questions. which must to some extent always occur during an electrical attempt made in this direction is with regard to the An international committee, on disturbance in its vicinity. Thus-speaking roughly and question of diphtheria. apart from many complications-the thundercloud charged which fifteen nationalities are represented, has been apwith electricity of a certain polarity " induces " in the wire pointed to prepare the discussion on Diphtheria; and on When the flash ("the disruptive Sept. 4th the Sections I., II., and V.-namely, Bacteriology, a charge of opposite sign. discharge of the storm-battery ") occurs the induced potential Prophylaxis, and the Hygiene of Children-will meet to in the wire suddenly subsides by oscillating disruptive dis- discuss the subject. It is to be hoped that the International charge, and equilibrium is established with the nearest Committee on Diphtheria will issue a report on the question oppositely charged conductor. But in the parts of the printed in the three leading languages, terminating with one telephone itself which are not in metallic connexion with the or two short practical resolutions on which a vote can be wire there will have been an induced charge of opposite sign taken. Even then an expression of opinion from three to that in the wire, and if this charge become so great that sections out of a totality of twenty-six will not be very the potential is sufficient to overcome the ’’ resistance’’ of influential or conceive, but it will be better than nothing. the intervening air space a discharge by sparking must in- The great function of these Congresses is to influence Legisevitably occur. The erratic behaviour of the telephone in latures, and this can on1By be achieved when the entire
exist.
,
1155
to the district committees, as the parochial without at the same time making it financially possible to have done in the past. The district committees will bring them into force would be worse than farcical. With boards to as local authorities for the carrying out of regard to the special districts, the parish councils are also act continue the Public Health Acts, and in this way the large areas and usefully to come in as constituting the whole or part of subvaluations necessary for satisfactory health administration committees of management which may be appointed by the will be continued. At the same time the new parish councils district committees with the sanction of the county councils. will be able to take charge of many local matters too Another part of the new Bill deals with the power of county minute and detailed to be satisfactorily managed by the councils and district committees to acquire land for public district committees. They will have the power to provide purposes. In Aberdeenshire and elsewhere almost insuperable difficulties have been met with in obtaining sites for or acquire buildings for public purposes and grounds and The Health recreation. Scotch Public for buildings public hospitals, and no doubt the Government has had this specially Act enables any two householders to call the attention of in view in proposing that in future it shall not be necessary the local authority (i.e., in rural localities, the district to go to Parliament for this purpose. So far we have little but praise for the Bill as it stands. committees) to any neglect of enforcement of the Public Health Acts, and in the event of failure by the There are, however, one or two very serious omissions. The I authority to attend to notice so given, the householders chief of these is that from beginning to end there is nothing have the right of appeal to the Board of Supervision. giving power to district committees to regulate, with referSimilarly, the Local Government Act of 1889 gives to any ence to the health of their future inmates and of the general five ratepayers right of appeal to the county council against public, the erection of new buildings. Sir George Trevelyan the proceedings of district committees, and it also gives the may have thought that such a subject might more properly county councils themselves a right of appeal to the Board of come within the scope of a new Public Health Act, but most Supervision regarding any neglect by district committees to of the rural authorities will probably think that in this matter carry out the Public Health Acts. These several rights, half a loaf would be a great deal better than no bread. No heretofore respectively invested in householders, ratepayers, doubt, throughout the Bill many details will be found open and county councils, are now to be transferred to the parish to discussion or amendment, but it is sincerely to be hoped councils. This is likely to be of very considerable consequence that party feeling will offer no obstruction to the passage of a in carrying out the minutise of sanitation in every parish. It measure so fraught with good to all classes of the people of is a trite saying that what is everybody’s business is nobody’s Scotland. business, and it is therefore very seldom that householders or ratepayers have thought of exercising these powers, even if or where they knew of their existence ; but when these duties are specifically laid on a public body constituted by THERE appears to be a good deal of doubt as to the exact Act of Parliament, ahd provided with a clerk to carry on its correspondence, it is certain that the ninety-sixth clause of nature and causes of the epidemic which has been, and still the Public Health Act will be instilled with new vitality. is, prevailing at Lisbon. On the one hand, the Medical One of the most valuable principles embodied in the Scotch Society of that city and Dr. Montaldo, who was sent as Public Health Act has been the power to form special dis- a special delegate from Spain to investigate and report tricts for the purpose of carrying out certain schemes of upon the nature of the disease, have declared it to be sanitary improvement and of assessing the cost of these Asiatic cholera, but in a mild form, and the latter attributed schemes on the districts primarily benefited. Unfortunately, its introduction into Lisbon to a merchant vessel from in the past this power has existed with regard only to two sub- Cape Verd ; on the other hand, there are many medical jects-water-supply and drainage; and since the creation of men at Lisbon and others-to say nothing of the Governthe county councils under the Local Government Act of 1889 ment officials-who do not at all agree with this view no complaint has been more general than that of the absence and point to the insignificant mortality in corroboration of of similar power with regard to other sanitary procedures, the correctness of their opinion. The bacteriologists who and especially with regard to the scavenging and cleansing have examined the excreta for comma bacilli do not seem to of populous villages. The new Bill provides the necessary have satisfied themselves that they have discovered any microand cultivation organism which fulfils all the remedy, and on this account alone it ought to be widely tests of Professor Koch’s bacillus.descriptions of the results Photographs welcomed by rural authorities. It is proposed that the pur- of bacteriological observations, together with clinical reports poses for which special districts may be formed shall now be of the cases, have, meanwhile, it is stated, been forwarded to extended so as to include three additional groups : (a) the Berlin and Paris. The disease towards the end of last month prevailed lighting of streets, common stairs, passages, &c. ; (b) the in Lisbon, many hundreds of individuals having extensively and removal of and the dust, ashes, refuse, scavenging pro- been attacked in the course of a few days, and several fresh viding of lands for the deposit, treatment, and disposal of cases are still occurring daily, but the epidemic is stated to be such refuse, the erection of public waterclosets, latrines, &c., now rapidly declining. Some cases have occurred at Castello the watering of streets, the compulsory cleansing of common Bianco, close to the Spanish frontier, and several villages on stairs, courtyards, pavements, &c., the formation, improve- the left bank of the Tagus are also stated to be contaminated. As we have already said, the mortality, according ment, paving, and maintaining of streets, the formation of to the reports, seems to have been very small foot pavements by owners of premises abutting on streets, indeed published with the number of recoveries, which is compared and the naming and numbering of streets ; and (e) the pro- quite at variance with what takes place in an epidemic of vision of public baths, washhouses, and drying grounds. It Asiatic cholera; the recoveries ensue speedily after attack, will be seen that these proposals are more or less equivalent and the disease has not extended to Oporto, although to the sections of the English Act regarding the granting of there has been constant and unrestricted communication between that and Lisbon. Typhoid fever urban powers to rural authorities. An important point is is also stated to be place at the present time in prevalent that the costs involved in carrying out these provisions will Lisbon. All this points to water contamination, and it fall to be levied within the special district I I along with, and appears to us that both the present outbreak of choleraic as an addition to, the public health rate." In Scotland diarrhoea and the occurrence of cases of typhoid fever may A water-supply the present public health rate for all purposes is limited be fairly attributed to this as a cause. which is rendered impure by being contaminated with the to 2. 6d. per pound of assessable rental. In rural products of sewage is a perpetual source of danger and districts this is often found insufficient even for water under certain climatic conditions-of temperature especiallyand drainage, and to enact new sanitary provisions may give rise to localised outbreaks of disease allied to that
representatives
local
CHOLERA.
1156
TELEPHONES AND THUNDERSTORMS.
prevailing at Lisbon at present. Obviously such out- question was doubtless a manifestation of phenomena such breaks, occurring at a time when epidemic cholera has as these. The "clacking"sound also described might have recently prevailed in Europe and may be revivified later been caused by the oscillating discharges of small induced on in the year, excite and call for increased vigilance currents, even in a protected instrument, and could be of on the part of all sanitary authorities ; but we are not no moment so far as danger is concerned. From the foregoing considerations certain obvious precau. disposed to regard the local epidemic at Lisbon with any grave anxiety as far as this country is concerned. We have tions suggest themselves. On the part of the public it will already had cholera introduced here from countries closer to, be wise not to handle the telephone during a thunderstorm. and with freer and more frequent communication with us On the part of the telephone companies it is to be expected that the recognised necessity of having each instrument duly than Portugal. As far as this country is concerned we are content to place protected will be strictly carried out. With these two pre. cautions supplementing each other immunity from danger is our main reliance upon sanitary safeguards, and to see that these are made sufficient to prevent cholera or any other practically secured. But even these can scarcely be said to dangerous disease from taking root among us when introduced provide for every possible contingency. The occasional by arrivals from abroad. It is, first of all, by securing that our eccentricities of lightning conductors are well known and water supplies are good and protected from contamination, the precaution in the hands of the public does not cover, for and by attention to hygiene and cleanliness, that the public example, such a case as the following :-Suppose a telephone health can be protected. The sanitary survey of this wire passing from London to Brighton to encounter an undertaken the under country, special orders issued to the electrical disturbance, say, at Redhill. This might not be sanitary authorities of our various ports, should enable them known at either end of the wire (and therefore no precaution to discover and remedy any sources of weakness that may taken) until the fact is announced by some such alarming
demonstration as the one above described. It thus becomes of the greatest consequence to have a reliable protector." The form which this ought to take will depend upon TELEPHONES AND THUNDERSTORMS. individual expert opinion. One of the devices adopted by the Post Office for this purpose (and it is difficult to imagine SUBSCRIBERS to the telephone, whilst fully recognising its a better) consists of two metal plates faced with platinum, one connected with the line and the other put to earth," usefulness, have long been familiar with its occasional the discs being separated by a perforated mica plate. irregularities. They have only lately, however, learnt that it Such an arrangement affords insulation for ordinary working also has its risks. The "strange story" of a telephone is currents, but allows a loophole of escape for those of high thus recounted by an eye witness :-"Inow hung the potential. The currents in question would easily spark across receiver on its hookjust as the storm was at its height and in the minute air gap, and so pass harmlessly to earth. recent figures show that whilst in Hamburg the a few minutes a tremendous flash occurred, sending a shower Although of telephone subscribers to population is 1 to 40, in proportion of sparks from the receiver to the transmitter and to the Berlin 1 to 78, in New York 1 to 167, and in London only 1 to several metallic parts of the telephone, including the bell 636, still the actual number of those using the telephone connexions, such as would have proved fatal to the hearing i in this country represents an enormous aggregate. To if not to the life of any listener." The possibility of such ani this class, of which medical men form, an increasing item, occurrence cannot be doubted. With proper precautions, the telephone has become a convenience and almost a however, the risk becomes inappreciable. In the absence of necessity. With proper precautions it need not be a data impossible to obtain it is difficult to estimate the actual danger. amount of danger incurred by anyone who might happen to be using the instrument at such a moment. It seems in no way probable, however, that, thus subdivided into a "shower THE ORGANISATION OF THE SEVENTH of sparks," such a discharge would prove directly dangerous INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF to life. That it might produce local effects of a serious HYGIENE. nature and even inflict irreparable injury on the organs of sight and hearing there seems no reason to doubt. It will at least be wise for anyone not wishing to demonstrate this WE have received further circulars of invitation and pro. interesting point by actual experiment on his own person to grammes of procedure for the Seventh International Congress take the simple (though not quite adequate) precaution of of Hygiene, which, as already announced, will meet at Buda. abstaining from the use of the telephone in the presence of a thunderstorm. It is to be remembered that any such pest from the 2nd to the 9th of September next. We regret electrical apparatus becomes for the time being a "lightning to say that these circulars, though showing some improve. conductor," and if danger is to be avoided, a lightning ment in the method of organising the Congress, still indicate charge gaining access to such a conductor must be provided ’, that the errors committed at the last Congress, when it met in with an efficient means of " putting itself to earth." It is in London, will be repeated and perhaps intensified at Badarecognition of this fact that telegraph and telephone instru- pest. There are to be no less than nineteen sections of ments connected with overhead wires are or ought to be Hygiene and seven sections of Demography ; and, so far back provided with a "protector"" or "lightning-arrester "-in as March 31st last, 437 papers had been announced on Hygiene other words, with the means of carrying a strong current to and 98 papers on Demography. What will be the use of 535 earth without its passing through the ins trument. It is also papers ? Who will ever read them? When the work of a because of the. careful adoption of this precaution that a Congress is so split up into small sections it cannot hope to telegraph operating room has been regarded as the safest exercise any great influence. The number of sections refuge in a thunderstorm. An overhead wire may be would not, however, matter if, by the side of the meetinvaded by strong currents in more ways than one. It may ings of the sections, there were a few plenary meetings be directly"struck" by lightning or more probably it may at which the Congress, as a whole, could express its The only become the seat of those "induced" charges and discharges opinion on four or five great questions. which must to some extent always occur during an electrical attempt made in this direction is with regard to the An international committee, on disturbance in its vicinity. Thus-speaking roughly and question of diphtheria. apart from many complications-the thundercloud charged which fifteen nationalities are represented, has been apwith electricity of a certain polarity " induces " in the wire pointed to prepare the discussion on Diphtheria; and on When the flash ("the disruptive Sept. 4th the Sections I., II., and V.-namely, Bacteriology, a charge of opposite sign. discharge of the storm-battery ") occurs the induced potential Prophylaxis, and the Hygiene of Children-will meet to in the wire suddenly subsides by oscillating disruptive dis- discuss the subject. It is to be hoped that the International charge, and equilibrium is established with the nearest Committee on Diphtheria will issue a report on the question oppositely charged conductor. But in the parts of the printed in the three leading languages, terminating with one telephone itself which are not in metallic connexion with the or two short practical resolutions on which a vote can be wire there will have been an induced charge of opposite sign taken. Even then an expression of opinion from three to that in the wire, and if this charge become so great that sections out of a totality of twenty-six will not be very the potential is sufficient to overcome the ’’ resistance’’ of influential or conceive, but it will be better than nothing. the intervening air space a discharge by sparking must in- The great function of these Congresses is to influence Legisevitably occur. The erratic behaviour of the telephone in latures, and this can on1By be achieved when the entire
exist.
,