EGYPT.

521

(FROM

OUR

BERLIN. OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

Chloroform Narcosis. Ostertag, municipal veterinary surgeon here, has recently made experiments in chloroform narcosis in the Pathological Institute. He found that a remarkable formation of fat took place in the internal organs of the animals experimented on. Some of them died sooner or later after the experiment. The fatal effect of the chloroform showed itself in paralysis of the heart, caused by a sometimes but slightly perceptible anatomical alteration of that organ and by a gradual surcharging of the blood with carbonic acid. Robert

The Tenth International Medical Congres.s. AN International Medico-Scientific Exhibition is to take place in connexion with the Tenth International Medical Congress, to be held in Berlin from the 4th till the 9th of August next. An organisation committee, consisting of Drs. Virchow, von Bergmann, Leyden, Waldeyer, and The last news I have read of Professor von Nussbaum’s Lassar, is entrusted with the arrangements. Messrs. Doerffel, Hasnach, Holz, Loewenherz, and Windler have condition, dated the 18th inst., announced a decided imconsented to co-operate as technical authorities. The great provement. Dr. Eugen Lellmann has been appointed Professor of difficulty of finding suitable accommodation has at last been The exhibits will consist of improved scientificc Chemistry at Tubingen. overcome. He has been a private lecturer instruments and apparatus for biological, medical, and for five years. The most important of his writings is a book surgical purposes, new pharmacological preparations, new entitled "The Principles of Organic Chemistry." A festal meeting is to be held in the Town Hall of Berlin plans and models of hospitals, convalescent homes, and disinfection and bathing establishments, new arrangements on the llth prox. in honour of Professor Kekulé of Bonn, for the tending of the sick, including baths and means of who made the important discovery of the structure of transport, and the newest apparatus for hygienic purposes. benzine twenty-five years ago. It is hoped that the All announcements or inquiries are to be addressed to Emperor will be present. Dr. Lassar, 19, Karlstrasse, Berlin, N.W., with the word Berlin, Feb. 25th. "Ausstellnngs-angelegenheit" (exhibition matter) on the cover.

EGYPT. Influenza Pandemic. of the Berlin Medical Prof. (FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.) meeting Society Leyden pointed out that the bacteriology of influenza still needs clearing up. All were agreed that it was an infectious Influenza Epidemic. disease, but whether its propagation was miasmatic or conABOUT Christmas Day the influenza first appeared in was. still a acute was clear Its character tagious question. and although it has not yet been reported fromits sequelae, whichappeared analogously to those of other Alexandria, the 1000 soldiers of the Army of Occupation, it has among acute diseases, such as scarlet fever, measles, and typhus. One been prevalent amongst the civilian population. The of those sequelæ—which were by no means to be regarded as cases very have been less serious than in Europe, and the few accidental complications, for they were observed in all deaths amongst Europeans have taken place in people influenza epidemics-was nephritis, which he had observed enfeebled disease. Cats and are already three times in the Charité. Affections of the heart also said to have beenby previousbut not horses. The dogs affected, average belonged to this category, but the most frequent and death-rate for this time of year among natives in Alexandria dangerous of the sequelæ of influenza was pneumonia, is 48 ’3 per 1000, but for the week ending Jan, 23rd it went which had proved so fatal in the last epidemic. This up to 58.1 and the following week to 70’1, since then fallinfluenza-pneumonia differed in many respects from common ing to 67 ’3 per 1000. The number of deaths in the last week Minister of Educapneumonia. The Prussian Religious, has increased from 203 to 245, and the greater part of this tional, and Medical Affairs has requested the Presidents of increase is due to diseases of the respiratory organs. In the Prussian provinces to do all that in them lies to facili- Cairo the influenza was first noticed about Jan. 10th, and tate and promcte the inquiries of the medical societies is still it is only during the last mildly prevalent, though regarding the recent epidemic. three days that cases have occurred among the 2000 English Home for the Deaf azad Dumb, Copenhagen. troops. No serious cases have been reported, but many Malling Hansen, head of the Home for the Deaf and Dumb people have had to spend three days in bed on account of fever in Copenhagen, has made an interesting observation. For and general pains, and a few rare cases neglected at the onset have developed pneumonia. The natives are attacked like seven years past all the inmates have been weighed every the white population, and call the illness aiya el moda, or of The increase was observed day. greatest weight always in autumn and th first month of winter, whereas it was the fashionable disease ! The veterinary surgeons have slight till the middle of April, after which the weight not yet been able to discover any cases of influenza among diminished till late in summer. This winter, however, the animals. The Cairo death-rate has gone up from 288 to first deviation from this rule occurred. From Nov. 23rd 345 per week, but the mildness of the epidemic would seem till Dec. 21st the increase ceased altogether in the case of to be due to the dryness and warmth of the air here. the girls, and sank in the case of the boys to 200 grammes- Bronchial symptoms in this climate are the exception, and i.e., to two-fifths of the usual amount. No change what- the coryza has hardly been seen at all. In Alexandria, on the other hand, where the weather is damp and rainy, the ever had been made in the fare or in any other matter that could possibly affect the condition of the inmates. Nor disease seems to have been more easily able to establish itself. Influenza as seen here has a faint resemblance to were any of them ill, only a few suffering from slight colds, while six of the teachers suffered severely from influenza. dengue, but is apparently a much milder disease than the latter, and has not yet been noticed to have any accomThe Nineteenth Congress of Surgeons. panying eruption. One of the last cases seen here was in a The nineteenth Congress of Surgeons is to sit in Berlin medical man who had suffered severely from the disease in Easter week. It will be opened at noon on April 9th, in in Scotland in 1848. Guinea-worm. the great hall of the University, in which the afternoon cases of filaria medinensis have lately been seen sittings will also be held. The morning sittings, which at Several Kasr-el-Aini Hospital among Soudanese and Abyssinian will be devoted to the demonstration of preparations and the exhibition of patients, will be held from ten till one in children, who had contracted the worm in their feet and legs before reaching Egypt. This parasite is very rare the University Hospital. Announcements of lectures &c. should be addressed to Geheimrath Professor Gurlt, who is among the Egyptians, though they must often drink from permanent secretary. On the first day Kappeler of stagnant pools, and therefore run a risk of becoming Miinster will speak on Ether and Chloroform Narcosis, unwilling hosts. M. Piot, a French veterinary surgeon, and Brauns of Tiibingen on the Treatment of Tuberculous has just written a paper upon the presence of Guinea-worm Joint and Gravitation Abscessee by Injections of Iodoform. among dogs, foxes, and jackals in Egypt. In a spaniel he The committee will report on the present state of the found five worms, in a mastifl’ four, and in a jackal three. present an aspect similar to that seen in human Langenbeck House project, and the successful acquisition The worms of a site for it. beings, and are always near the skin. Two cases of this worm in the legs of dogs have been seen lately by English The Twelfth Congress of Balneologists. veterinary surgeons. This is almost the first time that this The twelfth Congress of Balneologists will be held here has been found among lower animals. parasite from March 6th till March 9th, in the lecture hall of the School of Medicine. Pharmacological Institute of the University, Professor Liebreich in the chair. ) A commission was lately appointed to consider what The

At

a

recent

522 reforms could be introduced to improve the con- consultant and took an active interest in promoting institu. dition of the native medical student. The proposals of the tions of relief for the sick poor. three English members of the commission were negatived He was a modest man, of singularly frugal habits, full of by the five native members, who were all interested in the respect for authority till it seemed to contlict with the present unsatisfactory state of the school. But since then public good, generous almost to a fault, and so constant in the Council of Ministers has adopted the reforms, and it is his appeal to principle that, in common with his worthy hoped now that Englishmen may be found able and willing contemporary, Dr. Bufalini, he gave the impression of being. to. teach the English language, anatomy, surgery, medicine, an ethical philosopher even more than an active consultant and ophthalmic surgery. This English instruction will be and man of affairs. His funeral, which took place on the of a practical kind only, and the native professors will con- llth inst., was attended by representatives of all the publie, as by tinue as at present to deliver theoretical lectures in Arabic. scientific, and professional bodies of Florence, as This will be a great help towards making the school a little delegates of the Italian Government and of the numerous. more useful than at present, and it is to be hoped that foreign societies of which he was corresponding member. native opposition will soon permit more extended improvements. It is not too much to say that the instruction of I any value received to-day by the students is all in the’ wards of the hospital after they have left the school. -Ti7asr-el-Aini Hospital. Riaz Pasha, the Premier, and Ali Pasha Moubarek, UNIVERSITY OF LONDON.-The following canMinister of Education, have visited the hospital for the lidates passed the Intermediate Examination in Medicine first time for many years, and are much pleased and surin January last :of at air comfort and cleanliness. its general They prised Division.—Annie Mary S. Andersen, London School of Medicine fully appreciate the marked improvements introduced in First for Women; John Evans, University College, Liverpool; Cecil the female wards by the four English sisters. The followBenj. Thomas Musgrave, University College; Uhax,s. Edward Sa.lter,. Guy’s Hospital; Archiha.ld Caxnpbell Stevenson, University College;, ing thirty operations were lately done by a member of Thomas Major Tibbetts, Queen’s College, Birmingham Thomas the staff during the four weeks’ temporary absence of Warner, King’s College; Stephen Longmore B. Wilks, Yorkshire. Mr. Milton : 7 excisions of cervical glands, 3 of inguinal, College; John Williamson, St. Bartholomew’s Hospital; Josepb,, 2 of axillary, 2 of submaxillary, and 1 of elbow glands; Green, Owens College. seconcl Dvision.—William Bligh, Cxuy’, Hospital; George Gilbert 6 operations for necrosis and caries, 2 for lupus, removal Clarke, St. Mary’s Hospital; Stephen Geo. Floyd, Guy’s Hospital; of uterine appendages and supra-vaginal hysterectomy; George Percy Jerome, Queen’s College, Birmingham; William Black excision of hip ; amputations of shoulder-joint, leg, and - tones and Bernard Henry Frederick Lenmann, St. Bartholomew’s. Ho,pital; Harry Driffield Levick, St. Thomas’s Hosl,ital; James. breast; excision of eyeball; and cataract extraction. The Morrison, St. Bartholomew’s Hospital; Thomas Olver, King’s. cases were all successful, excepting the supra-vaginal hysteCollege; John Herbert Parsons and Arthur Walton Teake, Bristol which of died on the rectomy, peritonitis twenty-fourth Medical School; Ed. Arthur Perram, Walter Ley Pethyt)ridge, B.Sc.,. and Thomas Morgan Jones Powell, St. Bartholomelv’s Hospital;. day after the operation. This was the first time a fibroid Fluxace Bagster Wilson, Bristol Medical School. uterus had been removed in this hospital, though Mr. Milton has since done one successfully and two previous cases had ARMY MEDICAL STAFF.—The is the list been attempted, and necessarily abandoned. of the successful candidates at the recent competitiveCairo, Feb. l7th. examination for commissions in the Armv Medical Staff:--

practical

well

Medical News.

,

following

Obituary. CAVALIERE V. CAPECCHI. THIS veteran physician and alienist died in Florence on Feb. 10th, in his eighty-eighth year. An alumnus of the Florentine school, his studies in medical observation were prosecuted at a time when clinical training occupied many of the hours now given to the physiological and pathological laboratory, with the result that his qualifications on beginning professional life were more practical than scientific. The physiognomy of disease became familiar to him early in his career, and the therapeutics which seemed, from clinical INDIAN MEDICAL SERVICE.-The following is theexperience and induction’, to be best adapted to each individual case formed his appropriate armoury. So successful list of the candidates for the above Service who were sucwas he in hospital and private practice that on the first cessfnl at the competitive examination held at Burlington visitation of cholera in 1832 he was commissioned by the House on Feb. 10th and following days :Grand Ducal Government to study the disease in the countries where it had appeared in most virulent form. He accordingly repaired to Germany and watched the conditions under which the epidemic seemed to prevail with such closeness and penetration that on his return to Tuscany he was at once installed as the most trusted deviser of prophylactic measures. He more than justified the Grand Duke’s confidence, and the comparative mildness of the epidemic in Florence and the country around was uni- Of the 71candidates who competed for the 17 appointments, versally attributed to his wise and energetic precautions. 68 were reported qualified. A new field was opened up to him in the direction of the EARLY MATERNITY.—It is reported that a girl aged Manicomio (lunatic asylum) of Bonifazio, in Florence, and here again he showed his peculiar power in reading the thirteen years and eight months last week gave birth to a. characters of disease and in applying the treatment suggested boy in the Vienna Foundling Hospital. The child does act. by a careful and complete induction of cases. He was one weigh quite 31b., and is not likely to live. of the first to substitute for mechanical restraint the conSHEFFIELD HOSPITAL.-A generous local donor trolling presence of a sufficient staff of attendants, and on has made an offer of £6150 towards the couteniplate6 the establishment of a systematic climca psychiatrica he erection of an entirely new dispensary, or out-patients’ it to a standard of brought up high efficiency. Yec again the Government availed itself of his pro- department, on an eligible and convenient site in Westfieldfessional and admistrative power in appointing him Director terrace. THE TORONTO UNIVERSITY.-The Prime Minister, of the Sanità Marittima of Leghorn, a post which he filled with great ability and success, particularly in the second the Earl of Carnarvon, the Marquis of Lorne, Sir James. great cholera visitation of the century. When that oflice Paget, and the Lord Mayor have joined the committee for was suppressed he returned to Florence, and, though by securing the restoration of the Toronto University libruy, this time advanced in years, he practised a good deal as a recently destroyed by fire.