DROUGHT.

THE PRESIDENCY OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS OF ENGLAND.

199

pointed out, he ought to have gone to the parish medical officer, who was paid for such services as the case required. Upon the death of the child the midwife sent a note written for her by another person to say that she had attended the confinement and that no medical man was present. No cause of death was assigned and consequently the midwife could not be charged with certifying, but she admitted that in several other cases she had certified and had given as the cause of death "suffocation," 11 failuie of the heart," and " exhaustion." It transpired also that these certificates had been registered and burial certificates granted by the registrar. Pursuing his inquiry beyond the immediate limits of the case under investigation, the the troops. We have, of course, nothing to say about the coroner called evidence to show that another midwife had political aspect of this Soudan expedition, but it seems clear acted in the same way. The registrar contended that he that the people are heartily tired of the Khalifa’s rule, and was acting strictly upon his instructions from the Registrarand the coroner allowed that he had done so, but of its oppressive tyranny, and of the ruin in which it has General, commented strongly on such latitude being given to regisinvolved the country. trars, and contended that it opened the way to the comThe Egyptian army of to-day is a very different force to mission of crime. As he said, if it were so desired nothing what it was formerly, and the campaign has so far been could be easier than for a murder to be committed and the admirably conducted. The advent of cholera in the force act safeguarded against discovery by the practice sanctioned He went further under any circumstances must be reckoned as a serious by the Registrar-General’s instructions. and stated his opinion that it was illegal for a midwife to obstacle and it forms at present the important item of give a certificate assigning the cause of death and for intelligence from the Soudan. We can only conclude by the registrar to register such certificate and grant a reiterating the advice which we have so frequently proffered, burial order thereon. We fully subscribe to every viz., that serious attention must be given to the sanitary sentence of the coroner’s summing up and gladly acknowimprovement of Egypt. We must no longer neglect our ledge that he has rendered valuable service to the public by obvious duty in this respect or be content with the existing the nature and thoroughness of his procedure. It is permonstrous that a midwife should be permitted to state of the public health of that country with its high fectly to the cause of death and that such certificates certify rates of mortality and its liability to periodical recurrences should be accepted and registered. At the above-mentioned of cholera. inquest a midwife who had been in the habit of certifying said that in one case she gave suffocation as the cause of death, although, as she admitted, she could not distinguish between suffocation and death from poisoning. Surely the examples here quoted are enough to prevent their repetition. If the Registrar-General has acted strictly within the pro" Ne quid nimis." vision of the law-and we do not contend that he has notthe sooner the law is altered the better. Such practices as THE PRESIDENCY OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE have prevailed at Derby are probably only an index of a OF SURGEONS OF ENGLAND. The security of human life SINCE the election of Sir Spencer Wells fourteen years imuch more general usage. ( cannot be whilst such obtained laxity is permitted by the ago to the presidency of the Royal College of Surgeons of 1 England, St. Thomas’s Hospital, one of the largest hospitals Legislature. of the metropolis and the second in seniority of foundation, DROUGHT. has not been able to claim the honour for one of its surgeons. The turn of St. Thomas’s has now, however, come again, as FOR the second time in consecutive seasons we are brought Sir William MacCormac has been elected to the covetedto i face the inconveniences, not to say the probably serious chair. Sir William MacCormac has won honours in many of a Few would believe that the

before it appeared in the Nile Valley and the Soudan, and it will be noticed that its spread has been contrary to the course of the river Nile, which is now rapidly rising. Most of the medical officers with the Anglo-Egyptian expedition have already had considerable experience of the disease and possess a practical as well as a theoretical acquaintance with it. They have been most energetic in the application of their knowledge and we may confidently predict that nothing will be neglected to limit the spread of cholera in the expeditionary force. The Government of Egypt and this country have been very unfortunate in regard to this outbreak among

coroner

____________

Annotations.

-

results,

drought.

present

but he can scarcely have gained any one moreseason is worse off in regard to water-supply than last year. pleasing to himself than that conferred upon him by the Yet it is so, and the total deficiency of rainfall for this year Fellows of the College on Thursday last, and we have now 4’69 inches, or more than 50 per cent. on the previous is pleasure in offering him our sincere congratulations. Consumers in the districts

fields,

thirty years’ by the East

average. supplied London Waterworks Company, for example, THE DEATH CERTIFICATES OF MIDWIVES. have been presented with the following notice, dated AT an inquest recently held at Derby by the aJuly 13th: " Owing to the existing drought (which 1 much more severe even than that of 1895), and coroner, Mr. John Close, some startling facts were broughtis to light concerning the granting of death certificates by to 1 there being every appearance of its continuance midwives and their acceptance by the registrar. The case the 1 directors have deemed it advisable as a precautionary under investigation was that of a child who died aboutmeasure to shut off the supply during the night. In each thirty hours after birth. The midwife who attended at the district the water will be turned off and on as nearly as confinement advised the father of the child to call in a possible at the same hours daily. The turncocks will commedical man, as, in her opinion, the child was not likely tomence shutting off at 9 P.M. and turning on at 6 A.M. live. The father deposed that he sought the services of a Consumers are requested to see that their taps and fittings medical man, but the latter declined to attend unless are not allowed to waste water, as by so doing the period his fee was paid beforehand, and in this he acted during which the intermittent supply has to be resorted not only legally but reasonably. Upon this refusal to may be much shortened." The italics are ours. In by the medical man the father seems not to have this statement we have the company’s admission of a Of course it must be conceded troubled himself further in the matter, although, as the shortness of supply.

borough

200 is an exceptional season, but the has added much to our knowledge and paved the way of should be adequate enough under for further observations. In the discussion of this. London water-supply all conditions, and if it be shown that even under excep- question there is, too, need for differentiating between tional conditions the supply is likely to run short it is a diseases such as cholera and typhoid fever, which strong argument for going further afield. We trust that the in some instances may be spread by means of speciserious complaint of deficiency of supply in the East End of fically infected matter washed into drinking-water wells London, to which illness and even fatal results were attri- by the movements of subsoil-water, and diseases such buted and which was the subject of enquiry last season, will as phthisis, rheumatism, and diphtheria, which are probably not have occasion to be reiterated this year. But it is influenced by subsoil-water movements in quite a different evident that the East London Company’s resources, at any manner. Although workers in this country have furnished rate, are at the present time strained to their utmost. There several valuable records as to the movements of subsoilis little doubt, moreover, that the same predisposing con- water there is much need for further observations ; and, as dition, the continuous absence of rainfall, must also be we have before pointed out in our columns in connexion keenly felt by the companies which depend upon the river with the valuable work of Mr. Adams, the medical officer Thames for their supply. of health of Maidstone, to which Dr. Copeman drew attention, it would be well if the example set at THE METHODS OF DEMOCRACY. Maidstone were followed by other medical officers of in this country. There is such a thing as patriotism health WE have frequently contended that freedom can be carried in scientific research, though perhaps it is of a different too far. Freedom in this country, for instance, consists in to that engendered by martial ardour. We are fully everyone being allowed to annoy his neighbour provided type that records aware such as we suggest place a tax of no only that he acts under the guise of "commerce "-e.g., nature a upon busy medical officer of health or general newsboys and organ-grinders—or "conscience"—e.g., anti- light vaccinationists and Peculiar People. In democratic practitioner, but, as Dr. Copeman observed, the employAmerica they stand no nonsense, and the means employed ment of a self-registering apparatus should not be a there to convert sinners from the error of their ways are difficult matter, and this would reduce the labour to a simple and effectual. The following are portions of a letter minimum. It would be well, too, if in connexion with these printed in a Gloucestershire journal and written by a man observations records of the temperature of the earth, &c. also kept. in Texas to his mother, who lives near Stroud :-‘Ihave

that

the

present

-

were in

been much interested in the accounts of the small-pox your neighbourhood. In this free and enlightened country, when it broke out in a town everyone was ordered to be vaccinated. Those who objected were held against a wall by one policeman, and another stood opposite with a loaded revolver while the operation was being performed. I should much like to assist in the same way at the vaccination of some of the Stroud people." So should we.

THE INFLUENCE OF SUBSOIL-WATER ON HEALTH. WE print elsewhere in our columns the greater portion of an interesting paper read recently by Dr. Monckton Copeman at the Sanitary Institute on the important subject of subsoilwater in its relation to health and disease. There are few matters upon which an accurate knowledge is more desirable than this, as, if we can discover what are the exact bearings of subsoil-water upon health and obtain reliable records of the movements of this underground lake"in all parts of the country, we shall be in a position to do much in the matter of the prevention and reduction of disease. Although our knowledge on this subject has within comparatively recent years been much augmented, it must be admitted that there are several questions connected with it upon which we are still in the dark and as to which different observers have arrived at different conclusions. Possibly, as Dr. Copeman indicated in his paper, these differences may in some degree be due to a tendency to attach undue importance to subsoil-water as an exclusive agent in the production of disease, whereas its influences must be considered in conjunction with questions of soil moisture and organic pollution, of rainfall, temperature, barometric pressure, and other meteorological conditions ; in fact, as has been insisted upon by Pettenkofer, the level of the subsoil-water may be taken as an easily observable index of conditions of soil moisture, &c., likely to be associated with it. Fortunately for the furtherance of accurate study in connexion with this subject the science of bacteriology is able to afford in these days very material assistance, and the work which has already been done as to the behaviour of certain pathogenic micro-organisms in contact with soils of varying degrees of temperature and humidity

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THE PUBLIC MORTUARY AT PORTSMOUTH. AT an inquest held at Portsmouth on Thursday Mr. G. F. Morley called the attention of the coroner to the state of the public mortuary of the town. It he covered in and screened was, said, insufficiently from view, for no one could make a necropsy there without being interrupted by women and children! On one occasion he said he placed a body on the lid of a shell with a sheet over it. The sheet was blown off by the wind and the There were, he alsocorpse exposed to public view. said, no towels or proper utensils, and in the case which had been inquired into that day he had had no notice to make a post-mortem examination until The body was then a putrid two days after death. mass, and it was "simply disgusting to go into the place," and the only excuse was that the officer" had not time" to make out the case before. The coroner said this was not the first time he had had such complaints. He bore evidence that the police were actually very busy with four inquests on the intervening day in this case, but this can beno excuse for a state of affairs which-if as stated-is a disgrace to the borough of Portsmouth.

"AN ETON PLAYING FIELD." THE

present ’’ phenomenal"weather, as various news. will insist upon calling it, sets most of us thinking papers of the delights of the country; and when we saw the book whose title we have quoted above the Strand seemed more stuffy than ever. Again we saw the cool river and the big elm trees, "Athens," and Boveney Weir. But the Eton playing field in question is very far removed from these delights and is situate in the wilds of Hackney Wick, where the Eton Mission are doing a good work. Among other things they teach the young men how to row and swim, but the means of doing so are rather limited as the following quotation shows: "The Hackney Cut is a canal joining two portions of the River Lea. It is a highway for barges containing all kinds of merchandise, but more especially rags, ashes, and every sort of garbage, so that the odours thereabouts were 1

An Eton

Playing Field.

London : Edwin Arnold.