- Email: [email protected]
EDINBURGH ASYLUM FOR THE INSANE.
318 It will be of
importance at the present moment, when the of sufficiency the Vaccination Act of 1867 is under the examination of a Parliamentary Committee, to learn what teachings are to be derived from the existing epidemic of small-pox in the estimate of the physician (Dr. Seaton) who speaks with evident knowledge and a grave official responsibility on the subject, and from the physician (Dr. ’Grieve) who has had the largest experience in the charge of We trust that the incases in the course of the epidemic. vitation of the Society will be largely accepted, particularly by those members of the profession who believe that they can throw light upon the causes which have interfered with that thorough working of the Vaccination Act that had been hoped for by its promoters. EDINBURGH ASYLUM FOR THE
INSANE.
THE annual report submitted to the managers of this institution shows that, on December 31st, 1870, the daily average of inmates was 733 in number, as compared with 1732 at the same date in 1869. The income during the past twelvemonth was £25,279 10s. 5d., and the expenditure £23,448 8s. 7d., leaving a balance of .81831 ls. 10d. This year’s balance was £536 less than last year’s, owing to the reduction in the rates. During 1870, new additions to the .asylum were completed at a cost of £4486 16s. 3d., and twenty patients received benefit from the charity fund, the average allowance being £11 15s. To supply the vacancies caused on the medical board by the deaths of Sir James Y. Simpson and Mr. Syme, Drs. Christison and Alexander Wood were appointed. According to Dr. Skae’s report, 739 patients, exclusive of 15 absent on probation, were inmates of the asylum at the - close of 1869. During 1870 the admissions were 265. The removals during the same period were 229, of whom 118 were discharged °recovered," giving the percentage of 44’5 recoveries on the number of admissions; so that, although the admissions are slightly less than those of 1869, the recoveries in proportion to the admissions are greater. The remainder of the report is of local rather than of general interest, but its tenor is such as to show the continued efficiency of the great Edinburgh Asylum under its
present management.
____
LORD DERBY ON SICK CHILDREN’S HOSPITALS. men outside the profession have a finer appreciation sanitary laws than Lord Derby, whose speech at the recent anniversary dinner in aid of thefunds of the Hospital for Sick Children was as important in its way as his other speech at the opening of the Stanley Hospital at Liverpool. Remarking on the inferiority of the town to the country in the matter of health, he proceeded to show that this, though .a strong, was not the sole reason for founding hospitals in
FEW
.of
advance it had made. Additions to the building, though expensive, will be covered by the yearly income, which in 1870, without including the balance from the year before, was £10,600. Though often poor, the hospital has never been in debt; but the need for augmenting the donations increases with the number of inmates. Seven hundred inpatients and twelve thousand out-patients were under treatment in the year 1868; while, in addition to the new hospital, there is one for convalescents at Highgate, holding from fifty to sixty patients, and always full. But, laudable as are these arrangements, how can they cope with the incessant waste of infant life-a waste heavier than that occasioned by the most sanguinary war? What are two hundred beds to all the mass of disease and suffering in London ? But the hospital is a beginning, and there. fore better than nothing. Support it, pleaded his Lordship, and our money or sympathy will not be thrown away. Support it, and we shall have done good to those whom we relieve, good to the public at large, and good above all to ourselves. __
NATURE OF ADDISON’S DISEASE. IN
a
very exhaustive paper
on
this
subject
Archiv, in which the author appears
in Virchow’s
to have
carefully
collated and studied almost every case recorded both at home and abroad, Dr. Rossbach, of Wurzburg, arrives at the following conclusion :-Addison’s disease is a neurosisthat is to say, an affection not at present anatomically demonstrable, but a functional disturbance of the whole nervous system, which stands in close but not in absolutely essential relation with the suprarenal capsules, and is characterised by serious perturbations of the psychical powers, very strongly marked anaemia, extraordinary debility, and very frequently also by a dark pigmentation of the integument (bronzed skin).
BRITISH MEDICAL BENEVOLENT FUND. AT the usual monthly meeting held on Tuesday last the committee granted relief to the extent of .660 to nine applicants, while two other cases were postponed for further inquiry. Two names were also added to the list of candidates for annuities. A special vote of thanks was passed to Dr. Thorne Thorne, who has acted as honorary financial secretary for the past three years, but retires on his appointment as medical inspector to the Privy Council. Mr. Charles S. Webber, F.R.C.S., has kindly undertaken the duties of the office vacated by Dr. Thorne. The following gentlemen have recently consented to assist the committee by acting as honorary local secretaries for their respectiveneighbourhoods:-Dr. Cocks, Ross; Dr. W. Vawdrey Lush, Weymouth; Dr. J. Thompson, Bideford ; Mr. E. Pye Smith, Hackney; Mr. F. Salzmann, Brighton; Mr. W. Bale, Stockport; and Mr. H. Stear,
populous centres for the diseases of children. The tie of neighbourhood is never felt in a city of three millions as Saffron Walden. it is in a country village, where everybody knows all about THE CONCEALMENT OF SMALL-POX. his neighbours, and charity goes direct from the giver to the receiver. Organised relief is demanded in great cities, WE regret to learn how completely Mr. Goschen has been where infant mortality is so high and the need for checking misled as to the causes which lead to the concealment of or diminishing it so urgent. Nor should it be argued, in small-pox. He stated that 11 such was the extraordinary abatement of children’s hospitals, that with a diminution feeling which he was almost glad to find still existing of infantile death-rates we should be overdone with a popu- amongst the poorer classes with regard to parochial relief, lation that could not find employment. Emigration will that many of the families concealed from the relieving always counteract such an evil, and all the more that ener- officers the fact that small-pox existed in their homes, getic workmen of the poorer class are beginning to appre- though they had to pay private medical men small sums ciate the advantages which a colony presents. Reverting for their visits and medicine." Unfortunately the explanato the particular institution in whose behalf he was plead- tion is far more selfish in its nature. The laundress in the court knows that her little income would immediing, he congratulated its supporters on the steady, if slow, our
crowded
importance at the present moment, when the of sufficiency the Vaccination Act of 1867 is under the examination of a Parliamentary Committee, to learn what teachings are to be derived from the existing epidemic of small-pox in the estimate of the physician (Dr. Seaton) who speaks with evident knowledge and a grave official responsibility on the subject, and from the physician (Dr. ’Grieve) who has had the largest experience in the charge of We trust that the incases in the course of the epidemic. vitation of the Society will be largely accepted, particularly by those members of the profession who believe that they can throw light upon the causes which have interfered with that thorough working of the Vaccination Act that had been hoped for by its promoters. EDINBURGH ASYLUM FOR THE
INSANE.
THE annual report submitted to the managers of this institution shows that, on December 31st, 1870, the daily average of inmates was 733 in number, as compared with 1732 at the same date in 1869. The income during the past twelvemonth was £25,279 10s. 5d., and the expenditure £23,448 8s. 7d., leaving a balance of .81831 ls. 10d. This year’s balance was £536 less than last year’s, owing to the reduction in the rates. During 1870, new additions to the .asylum were completed at a cost of £4486 16s. 3d., and twenty patients received benefit from the charity fund, the average allowance being £11 15s. To supply the vacancies caused on the medical board by the deaths of Sir James Y. Simpson and Mr. Syme, Drs. Christison and Alexander Wood were appointed. According to Dr. Skae’s report, 739 patients, exclusive of 15 absent on probation, were inmates of the asylum at the - close of 1869. During 1870 the admissions were 265. The removals during the same period were 229, of whom 118 were discharged °recovered," giving the percentage of 44’5 recoveries on the number of admissions; so that, although the admissions are slightly less than those of 1869, the recoveries in proportion to the admissions are greater. The remainder of the report is of local rather than of general interest, but its tenor is such as to show the continued efficiency of the great Edinburgh Asylum under its
present management.
____
LORD DERBY ON SICK CHILDREN’S HOSPITALS. men outside the profession have a finer appreciation sanitary laws than Lord Derby, whose speech at the recent anniversary dinner in aid of thefunds of the Hospital for Sick Children was as important in its way as his other speech at the opening of the Stanley Hospital at Liverpool. Remarking on the inferiority of the town to the country in the matter of health, he proceeded to show that this, though .a strong, was not the sole reason for founding hospitals in
FEW
.of
advance it had made. Additions to the building, though expensive, will be covered by the yearly income, which in 1870, without including the balance from the year before, was £10,600. Though often poor, the hospital has never been in debt; but the need for augmenting the donations increases with the number of inmates. Seven hundred inpatients and twelve thousand out-patients were under treatment in the year 1868; while, in addition to the new hospital, there is one for convalescents at Highgate, holding from fifty to sixty patients, and always full. But, laudable as are these arrangements, how can they cope with the incessant waste of infant life-a waste heavier than that occasioned by the most sanguinary war? What are two hundred beds to all the mass of disease and suffering in London ? But the hospital is a beginning, and there. fore better than nothing. Support it, pleaded his Lordship, and our money or sympathy will not be thrown away. Support it, and we shall have done good to those whom we relieve, good to the public at large, and good above all to ourselves. __
NATURE OF ADDISON’S DISEASE. IN
a
very exhaustive paper
on
this
subject
Archiv, in which the author appears
in Virchow’s
to have
carefully
collated and studied almost every case recorded both at home and abroad, Dr. Rossbach, of Wurzburg, arrives at the following conclusion :-Addison’s disease is a neurosisthat is to say, an affection not at present anatomically demonstrable, but a functional disturbance of the whole nervous system, which stands in close but not in absolutely essential relation with the suprarenal capsules, and is characterised by serious perturbations of the psychical powers, very strongly marked anaemia, extraordinary debility, and very frequently also by a dark pigmentation of the integument (bronzed skin).
BRITISH MEDICAL BENEVOLENT FUND. AT the usual monthly meeting held on Tuesday last the committee granted relief to the extent of .660 to nine applicants, while two other cases were postponed for further inquiry. Two names were also added to the list of candidates for annuities. A special vote of thanks was passed to Dr. Thorne Thorne, who has acted as honorary financial secretary for the past three years, but retires on his appointment as medical inspector to the Privy Council. Mr. Charles S. Webber, F.R.C.S., has kindly undertaken the duties of the office vacated by Dr. Thorne. The following gentlemen have recently consented to assist the committee by acting as honorary local secretaries for their respectiveneighbourhoods:-Dr. Cocks, Ross; Dr. W. Vawdrey Lush, Weymouth; Dr. J. Thompson, Bideford ; Mr. E. Pye Smith, Hackney; Mr. F. Salzmann, Brighton; Mr. W. Bale, Stockport; and Mr. H. Stear,
populous centres for the diseases of children. The tie of neighbourhood is never felt in a city of three millions as Saffron Walden. it is in a country village, where everybody knows all about THE CONCEALMENT OF SMALL-POX. his neighbours, and charity goes direct from the giver to the receiver. Organised relief is demanded in great cities, WE regret to learn how completely Mr. Goschen has been where infant mortality is so high and the need for checking misled as to the causes which lead to the concealment of or diminishing it so urgent. Nor should it be argued, in small-pox. He stated that 11 such was the extraordinary abatement of children’s hospitals, that with a diminution feeling which he was almost glad to find still existing of infantile death-rates we should be overdone with a popu- amongst the poorer classes with regard to parochial relief, lation that could not find employment. Emigration will that many of the families concealed from the relieving always counteract such an evil, and all the more that ener- officers the fact that small-pox existed in their homes, getic workmen of the poorer class are beginning to appre- though they had to pay private medical men small sums ciate the advantages which a colony presents. Reverting for their visits and medicine." Unfortunately the explanato the particular institution in whose behalf he was plead- tion is far more selfish in its nature. The laundress in the court knows that her little income would immediing, he congratulated its supporters on the steady, if slow, our
crowded