CHOLERA PRECAUTIONS AND IMPERIAL SUBVENTIONS.

1455 beside the question and wide of the mark. So far as we drinking purposes, was discussed at some length. It is to be the Radcliffe Infirmary of Oxford is the only hoped that the schoolmaster in the present instance will not hospital in the kingdom where bodies of deceased patients be deterred from complaining for fear of sharing a similar fate. the property of the coroner are not viewed by him and the jury in the mortuary belonging to the hospital ; and SMALL-POX IN SCOTLAND. Mr. Hussey is the only coroner, medical or legal, who has IN Montrose, where the disease was understood to be at an adopted this practice of ordering their removal to a different end, three new cases have occurred and the patients have mortuary. In other words, Mr. Hussey’s conduct is singular been sent to hospital. Elsewhere the reports are more and without precedent and for these reasons requires ample favourable. In Edinburgh there have been three new cases grounds for its justification. In his reply to the petition he and in Glasgow only two cases occurred last week. In Paisley implies that the mortuary of the infirmary is unsuitable for one case is recorded. its purpose, and he also makes an implication against the officials as to the treatment of the bodies, but he gives no THE DRUGGIST AS MEDICAL PRACTITIONER. facts in support of this latter. Assuming both, however, to THE Western Mail of the 7th inst. gives some account of be true, the coroner had his remedy-viz., to point out the an inquest on a poor woman of Trevaughan, Whitland, who officials of the and misconduct of the defects mortuary any to the chairman and members of the managing committee, died shortly after taking a mixture supplied by a druggist on the prescription of another druggist. Druggists are proa body of gentlemen who would, we feel sure, have paid gressing ; they used only to dispense their own prescriptions. every reasonable attention to him and would also have There is in this case a druggist who prescribes-Mr. Jabez promptly removed any abuses so far as lay in their power. Mr. Hassey also complains that the committee have not aided Jenkins-and the prescription was taken to be dispensed by him in the discharge of his duties as coroner, but on one another druggist-Mr. Owen. Mr. Williams of Carmarthen occasion his conduct towards the resident medical officer of made a post-mortem examination and found that death was heart failure. That does the infirmary was, to say the least, inconsiderate. In some due not to the medicine but to not alter the facts the had no business to that druggist cases we have had to regret that Mr. Hussey has not shown prescribe and that had the patient been seen by a properly a little more of the suaviter in modo and a little less of the qualified medical man the heart might not have failed. in re. The Lord in his has are aware

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fortiter

Chancellor,

reply,

conveyed

hint which he will do well to take, since there can be no doubt that whilst no inconvenience would be the result of his acting like other coroners-viz., viewing the body in the mortuary of the infirmary and holding the inquest in or near it-very great inconvenience must attend what appears to be his present usual practice. Everyone knows the powers which a coroner possesses. We trust that in future Mr. Hussey will realise the truth of the old saying, As you are strong, be merciful." a

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A SCHOOLMASTER’S WATER-SUPPLY. A CORRESPONDENT has sent us for examination a small bottle of water taken direct from a tank from which a Sussex schoolmaster and his family are said to obtain their drinkingwater, with the request that we would give an opinion upon the character of it. The repulsive appearance of the water is sufficient ground for condemning it unhesitatingly. It swarms (we counted just 100 in four fluid ounces of the water) with dead animalcule of the kind which infest rotten wood and damp and mouldy corners of a long neglected tenement. The animalcule measured just one-eighth of an inch in length, was perfectly white and resembled a small caterpillar. Probably water is not their habitat ; they were drowned and were therefore presumably derived from the dirty surroundings of the tank. Besides these objectionable animal forms there were also present a large specimen (dead) of amphipoda probably gammarus pulex, and a white threadlike transparent insect over half an inch long, also dead. The water had a repulsive musty smell. It was impossible to carry out anything like a satisfactory analysis of it, for the quantity did not exceed four and a half fluid ounces. Suffice it to say, however, that large quantities of ammonia were present, judging from the intense colour that was produced with Nessler’s reagent, whilst the existence of organic matter was indicated by the rapid reducing effect upon permanganate of potash and still further pollution was illustrated by a marked response to the test for phosphates. In view of these facts the water is utterly unfit for drinking purposes and a new source of supply should be sought at once. We agree with our correspondent that the above is a case quite as serious as, if not more so than, that which formed the subject of an article in our columns a few weeks ago in which the action of a School Board for wrongful dismissal of a teacher, whose only offence was that he had complained of the water supplied for

CHOLERA PRECAUTIONS AND IMPERIAL SUBVENTIONS. IT is evident that we have not yet heard the last of the demand made by port sanitary authorities for a subvention from Imperial funds to aid in the expenses which are being incurred in some ports in anticipation of the re-introduction of cholera from the Continent of Europe. Mr. Heneage and his friends decline to accept the decision of the Chancellor of the Exchequer and signatures are being obtained from Members of Parliament with a view to a more formal application on the same subject. If the applicants wish to gain their end they should limit the terms of their demand to such effective special measures as they think are imposed on them in view of cholera and not make it appear as if they wanted a subvention for merely carrying out with a little extra care their ordinary duties as port sanitary authorities. ____

WELLINGTON COLLEGE. The Tiiiies of June 14th announces that the report of the governors of Wellington College for the year 1892 has just been issued as a Parliamentary paper in accordance with the annual custom. There has been an exceptional and extraordinary expenditure, most of which was incurred in connexion with the recent sanitary works carried out at the College and the consequent temporary removal of the school to Malvern, creating a large deficiency at the end of the year of £25,571 17s.4d. Our readers will remember that the College has been visited not only by the grave outbreak of illness amongst the pupils which led to the removal of the school to Malvern, but by serious illness on several previous occasions. Public confidence was shaken in the management of the institution notwithstanding that it had the patronage and support of a more distinguished body of governors than any other school in the kingdom. The annual speech day will take place to-day (Saturday), instead of on the 18th, the anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo, which this year falls on a Sunday. Parents and friends of the boys and others interested in the institution will, no doubt, assemble in large numbers on this occasion, which will afford them an opportunity of inspecting the various sanitary improvements carried out under the direction of Mr. Rogers Field, the well-known sanitary engineer. They will be able to observe the numerous AA 3