DR. JAMESON ON SOUTH AFRICA.

302 attacked unjustly and bringing it to a successful issue, &c. The number of members of the union advances by leaps, and bounds ; they have risen from 293 in 1893 to 3358 in 1894, and the guarantee fund has increased from M150 to IC5032. All the work, including the legal expenses of the last year, has been carried out without trenching on the reserve fund. One significant remark in the report is that "blackmailing" cases become less every year, and that in every case brought before the union the prompt action of the council in directing its solicitor to accept service of the threatened writ on behalf of the member has prevented its issue and stopped further proceedings. Mr. Victor Horsley, the President, has attended forty out of forty-two meetings, and displays as much interest in them as if he were the most DIPHTHERIA IN LONDON. general and assailed practitioner in the profession. We conhim and his staff on the thoroughly satisfactory THE Registrar-General is able to record that last week’s gratulate rreport of the year. mortality from diphtheria in London was below the corrected average for the corresponding week of the preceding PUBLICANS AND DEAD BODIES. ten years. True, the deaths were but one below that A of CASE considerable importance in view of the disposal average, but even so it is pleasing to find them on that I bodies was heard at the county court of Birmingham of dead side. The deaths registered were 29 in number, a progreson before Jan. Mr. John Amphlett, deputy judge. The sive fall from 50 in the week ended Jan. 5th. Of the total, 23rd, was taken action 26 were of persons aged from one to twenty years and 18 were by a publican to recover 15 damages from a of infants in the first quinquennium of life. Six belonged to police sergeant for the annoyance, expense, and of business occasioned through the dead body of a. loss Islington, 6 to Poplar, and 2 each to Mile-end Old Town, woman In St. George Southwark, and Greenwich sanitary areas. being deposited in the club-room of the public-house without of which occurred Greater London there were 15 deaths, 8 plaintiff’s permission. It appeared that on Saturday, in West Ham and 2 each in Croydon and Epping districts. Aug. 8th, 1894, a woman was taken ill outside the plaintiff’s house. Plaintiff took her in, gave her brandy, and sent for a medical man ; the woman, however, died, and plaintiff AN APPEAL FOR A MEDICAL MISSIONARY. had her decently laid out in an outhouse. A police constable THE Secretary of the Archbishop’s Mission to the Assyrian was satisfied with the arrangements, but the defendant when Christians sends us a note on the need of a medical man in he insisted upon the body being taken into. appeared this work. Hitherto the Mission has had to depend for the in and house, spite of plaintiff’s protest it was carried medical assistance upon Dr. Cochrane of the American into the clubroom, where much annoyance was caused. It Presbyterian Mission, who has always willingly afforded help. seems that if there is no public mortuary the responsible If any young medical man possessed of good health desires a person is the churchwarden of the district, upon whom field of interesting work, both from a medical and an eccle- devolves the duty of finding a suitable and decent place for siastical point of view, here is a chance for him. His outfit the Evidence was given to substantiate the claim, body. (in reason) and the expenses of his journey would be paid for and a verdict for the full amount was given. The power of him, and all drugs, instruments, &c., would be supplied and the police to insist upon a publican finding room for dead would be the property of the Mission. His salary would be bodies is therefore unsupported by legal authority, an action ;S25 a year with board and lodging. This is not, it is true, for tresspass being the liable outcome of such decision. It a large scale of payment, but it is more than most house also points to the desirability of properly appointed publicsurgeons receive in London. The Mission field lies on the mortuaries, a consideration for the reflection of the new borders of Turkey and Persia, the climate is pleasant, and a county councils in the interests of the community. A populargood horse can be bought for 10. The practice" would fallacy is dispelled by this judgment and the law made clear include ordinary diseases with sundry local fevers, a good and intelligible. deal of eye work, and general surgery, with a possibility I now and then of some military surgery owing to difficulties DR. JAMESON ON SOUTH AFRICA. with the Kurds. Further information can be obtained from ON Monday evening, Jan. 28th, Dr. L. S. Jameson, C.B., Rev. R. M. Blakiston, 7, Dean’s-yard, Westminster. Administrator of the British Chartered Company’s Territories, in South Africa, delivered an address before an audience THE MEDICAL DEFENCE UNION. of nearly 2500 people in the great hall of the Imperial THE report of the Medical Defence Union for 1894, of Institute. H.R.H. the Prince of Wales presided, and many which we have been favoured with an early copy, shows that distinguished persons, representing art, science, the learned The past, this Union continues to grow in numbers and in usefulness. professions, and commerce, were present. The somewhat disturbing incidents of the year which led to present, and future of South Africa constituted the litigation are fully and frankly detailed in the report and in subject of Dr. Jameson’s address, and with a somewhat no degree lessen our sense of the efficiency of the Union for nervous though deliberate delivery he briefly sketched thethe great purposes which it was created to serve. A schedule rise and progress of our new South African territory. of a few (about eighty, not itself a small number) of Starting from a period something more than 300 years. the cases and applications dealt with by the council in ago, when some of the best families of France and Holland the year illustrates its great value in protecting medical men were compelled to emigrate and settle down on a narrow from unjust attacks, in guiding them in circumstances of strip of land between Table Mountain and the sea, the perplexity, in averting lawsuits, in reporting to the medical lecturer traced the history of the colony to the time when the corporations or the General Medical Council cases of un- Cape of Good Hope was transferred to the English Crown. professional conduct, in advising in a kindly spirit members I From that time to the present Dr. Jameson drew a brief and who are pursuing wrong methods of practice, in promoting vivid picture, detailing our troubles with the Boers prosecution in fit cases &c., in taking action where members and the Zulus. In glowing colours he then put before his

ten times as large as that of most unions." Is it to be wondered at, therefore, that the medical officer’s extras are more than in other districts ?1 But before altering the terms on which an officer has been appointed it would be well for the guardians to attack the bigger and graver question. Some guardians, we know, would prefer to underpay their officers and give relief indiscriminately, but such a proceeding is not to be encouraged, for, although it is right and proper to relieve poor and needy persons efficiently, yet there is the moral responsibility not to manufacture permanent paupers. If more relief were given to the needy and less to those who have no title or right to it the rates would be saved and thriftless impostures would disappear. was

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303 audience Rhodesia as it is and its capabilities, expressing his belief that that territory has and will have the greatest e:Eect in producing the future of South Africaa future which he wished to interpret as the commercial union, amalgamation, and federation of the South African States. Rhodesia, the lecturer said, is a country nearly as

large as Europe, a country where white men and

women can

live and where their children can be reared in health. In minerals and in the products of agriculture the country is rich, and railways, roads, and telegraphs are rapidly opening it up. The picture drawn by Dr. Jameson was of a land veritably flowing with milk and honey, and even if some allowance is made for his high eulogies, still what the lecturer desired to prove seems undeniable-namely, that in our African territory there we have magnificent accommodation for our overflow population.

THE BRITISH INSTITUTE OF PREVENTIVE MEDICINE.

disease of the heart and kidneys, as was the deceased. The chemist here remarked that the mixture contained a small quanity of chlorodyne and sal volatile. On the coroner calling his attention to the fact that he had offended against the Pharmaceutical Act the following conversation ensued :" The Chemist : It is a difficult thing to be a chemist at the present day. All chemists ought to be doctors, it seems. to me. You have to say how people are to take their breakfasts, dinners, teas, and suppers, and how to use every halfpennyworth of stuff you sell.-The Coroner : But you knowthat by prescribing poisons you are committing an illegal act, for which you can be punished, and it is my duty to tell you so. I know your difficulties, and no doubt you think it hard that when a person comes to you late at night you are. not allowed to serve him, but I must tell you that you run a great risk if you prescribe poisons.-The Chemist: I do not prescribe for people as a rule, and it is impossible for a. chemist to say whether a person is suffering from heart disease.-The Coroner : But chemists must not act in the dark. You know it is beyond the province of a chemist to prescribe poisons.-The Chemist : Then medical men should not do their own dispensing. It seems an anomaly, because the Government allows me to sell as much chlorodyne as I like provided the bottle bears a stamp. "

WE publish this week the report of the Director of the British Institute of Preventive Medicine. In this is included the reports of the medical superintendents of certain of the THE PROHIBITIVE PRICE OF ABSOLUTE fever hospitals under the management of the Metropolitan ALCOHOL. Asylums Board upon the results of the antitoxin treatment THERE are few agents at the present time which play a of diphtheria at their several institutions. We have from the more felt that so a in important or useful r6le in practical scientific operations beginning treatment, important departure with such high claims and excellent introductions, ought not than absolute alcohol. Indeed, its use is indispensable to be judged lightly or speedily, and that all judgment should in the prosecution of chemical, bacteriological, and physiobe based upon clinical records of series of cases undertaken logical researches, to say nothing of the necessity of its under special and highly tested conditions. The reporting of employment in the preparation of the fluids used in sero-isolated cases can, we consider, only be useful when such therapeutics. Yet all who are actively concerned in these cases are properly collated for purposes of comparison, and important lines of research are severely handicapped when all the data necessary for making fair comparison because of its excessive price, very nearly the whole of which accrues to the Excise. On the Continent the retail price are forthcoming. of absolute alcohol is considerably less than that charged PRESCRIBING CHEMISTS. in this country, and there is little doubt that this is one THE question whether it is not only legal but desirable of the sources of the increased facilities in research work that a person with no medical qualification should prescribe which obtain there.; at any rate, its cost here militates for a patient of whom he knows nothing was forcibly illus- against such progressive work. Surely in the interests of trated by a case which came before the St. Pancras Coroner’s science and progress the authorities could be induced to Court on Jan. 22nd, a brief account of which we give as grant a special concession in this matter to bonâ-firlt, reported by the Times. James Jefferies, aged fifty-eight years, research workers and to those engaged in unravelling the having complained of severe internal pain, his daughter-in- mysteries of disease. Why should not a memorial be law went to a chemist’s and brought back an eight-ounce drawn up and signed by influential members of the various bottle labeled The mixture ; one tablespoonful to be taken scientific societies and presented in the proper quarter!’ We feel sure that our remarks will appeal to the majority every hour if needful.-J. B. Johnston, 218, Kentish-townthe members of the scientific professions. of road." The sufferer took a dose at once and was relieved, but at 3 A.M., being again in pain, he took another dose THE DIFFUSION OF SMALL-POX. and died. Dr. Sanctuary stated that on making a postTHE number of fresh cases of small-pox notified in London’ mortem examination he found a large aortic aneurysm which had caused death by pressure on the trachea. last week was7 and the admissions to the institutions of the In this particular case the action of the chemist probably Metropolitan Asylums Board 8, against 8, 8, and 6 respecin no way accelerated the patient’s death ; but the difficulty tively in the preceding three weeks. The end of the week of the responsibility of the unqualified prescriber still found 35 patients in hospital, an increase of 3 on the previous remains. The poorer classes make no distinction between Saturday. The disease does not obtain any great hol& a °’ doctor "and a "chemist." They are both people from on the metropolis, nor is it completely shaken off. Mr. whom you can get "a bottle" at eighteenpence or a "pink Wynter Blyth relates small-pox has been successfully come powder" for twopence. To be perfectly just to an intelligent bated under inauspicious circumstances in Marylebone last and upright body of men, it is fair to say that deaths can but month. Four virulent cases were removed from premises-. rarely be traced to the action of any drug supplied by a the ground-floor of which was used as a small general shop. chemist. The danger lies in the disease not being recognised, Prompt removal of the patients and closure of the shop. and as long as those responsible for the sick are content to under payment made to the tradesman have resulted in seek the services of an unqualified authority, we fail to see staying the disease. This instance is in striking contrast. how the law can protect them against themselves except by to the case which led to such disaster a few months making it illegal for any chemist to supply any remedy ago in the same parish. In the provinces the news is. without the authorisation of a duly qualified practitioner. generally of a reassuring nature. We are glad to see that Questioned as to whether the medicine the man had taken despite its two registered deaths Birmingham had only had anything to do with the death, the witness replied that some half-dozen fresh attacks; whilst Liverpool with the he could not say, but that no medical man would have same number of deaths registered had only some dozen cases prescribed such a mixture for a patient suffering from coming newly to light. Lancashire was otherwise fairly free: -