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HOSPITAL ABUSE.
957 conjecture. Professor
Lombroso’s
arguments
are,
however,
capable of development in other directions than those selected ’by their author, and the case of Tasmania may even supply - an opportunity of meeting the pessimists with weapons from
and that is that if the district council have, the advice of their health officer, issued the order as to school closure it is no business of the school board to cavil at the grounds on which the order is issued and to make this the basis of a discussion whether they shall obey or not. All that they have to say as to this must be embodied in the appeal to the Education Department, who in such matters seek the advice of the Medical Department of the Local Government Board.
thing is certain, on
their own armoury, for those who admit the existence of an irresistible hereditary bias to crime can hardly deny the possibility of a bias, if not to righteousness, at least to good works. It should not be forgotten that in the transportation days. the island was not occupied exclusively by a -criminal class ; many of the inhabitants were government HOSPITAL ABUSE. officials charged with the maintenance of order, and when these opposing elements became ultimately intermingled the I THE provinces seem to be no better off than the metropolis higher ethical standard of the young generation might be as regards the abuse of hospitals, judging by a letter from a taken as evidence that by the union, for instance, of a layman which appeared in the Sheffield Daily Telegraph of He points out how any day in the outmurderer with the widow or daughter of a gaoler the pre- Sept. 26th. to from the father wickedness inherited was ,disposition patient departments of the various Sheffield hospitals counteracted by the law-abiding bias derived from the people attend as "sick poor"who have paid 2s. for rail.mother. way fare and 3s. for cabs ; that many large firms who ought to pay the local medical man for attending at their THE ENCOURAGEMENT OF BONE-SETTERS. works subscribe instead to the charity and take the "letters" IT is a pity that the press of this country should directly to which they are thereby entitled ; that the usual fee of a ’1end itself to encourage the careers of such men as general practitioner in the neighbourhood is from Is. 6d. to ibone-setters, who pass themselves off as being able to effect 2s. 6d. ; and that even this pittance is not received at once, wonderful cures when all the rest of the world have failed but painfully collected by sixpenny instalments. If this " Observer " writes very temperto do so. The Lancashire .Empress devotes an article to state of things be so-and and with the air of one sure of his facts-it is a crying ately .a bone-setter and joint specialist, in which various wild shame. in We cannot afford to cast stones London, however, statements are made with regard to his skill, as he is said to succeed daily "after the large infirmaries and at our provincial brethren. We wonder in how many hospitals -the most successful surgeons have failed," and all this the same abuse exists. Of our own personal experience we know one hospital to which a patient used to come once a success is attained without blistering, bandages, iodine, - and embrocation such as were used by the old-fashioned month from the other side of Peterborough to be inspected ’bone-setter. We venture to think that it is most and obtain medicine. The return fare (third class) is 12s. 8d., ’unfair to the public to put forth an article such as this which would probably have been a godsend to some village ’unless it is stated that it is an advertisement, for it is practitioner. How abuses of this and kindred sorts are to immediately looked upon as authoritative by a large portion be remedied is doubtless a difficult question, but that they .of the credulous public, who have only to see a thing in print should and must be is a necessity. In another column will to believe it, and are ever ready to reply to any objections be found an article from a correspondent suggesting details ’that-"It said so in the paper at any rate." By this means of a tentative scheme to this end, and in many directions many people are induced to try the various " cures" when no can be seen signs that the profession is making up its mind that it will not be so persistently and cruelly imposed upon. flair advertisement would have drawn them. ___
____
SCHOOL CLOSURE AT SOUTH NORMANTON. ACCORDING to the local press it is stated that the schools - of the South Normanton School Board had been ordered to be closed by the medical officer of health to the Mansfield rural -sanitary authority and that his order had been " set at defiance." The ground of failure to act is stated, amongst other things, to have been that the school board had no ,knowledge of the extent, increase, or otherwise of the ,disease which had led to the order, and that the medical - officer of health had not visited the village. We draw attention to the occurrence because, if it is correctly reported, the case is one of many others in which there is misconception as ,to the duty of the medical officer of health in this matter. In the first place this official has no power to close a school. His duty is that of a health adviser, and when he advises his .district council that a school should be closed or that scholars should be excluded it is the authority, and not he, who issues the necessary order ; and the school board have, under the Education Code, no option but to - comply with the order, although after compliance they can appeal to the Education Department to rescind the order. In the second place a medical officer of health has no duties towards a school board ; his duties are to the district council and through them to the general body of the inhabitants. It may be policy to visit a district and to confer with the school officials before advising the closure of a school or it may not. We are by no means prepared to say that such action may not at times be properly taken on the ,notification returns and without a personal visit ; but one
THE DECUSSATION
OF THE OPTIC
NERVES.
IN the last number of the Neu’I’ologisakes Centralblatt there is an important preliminary communication on this subject from Dr. L. Jacobsohn of Berlin. He refers to the contention of Eolliker at the recent Anatomical Congress at Berlin that in mammals and also in man there is a complete crossing of the optic nerves at the chiasma, a view which Michel formerly advocated against that of Gudden, who held that in mammals a semi-decussation took place at the chiasma. Dr. Jacobsohn used in his researches Marchi’s method, by which a degenerated fibre can be traced clearly from the point of section onwards, and his method of experiment was to extirpate one eye and kill the animal a few weeks later, when the degeneration could be easily traced. As the fibres of the optic nerve run without interruption from the retina to the corpus geniculatum it was obviously easy to trace degenerated fibres both in the chiasma and in the optic tract, and so to determine whether the fibres from the extirpated eye all ran on one side or whether some crossed. Rabbits, guinea-pigs, cats, and monkeys were used for experiment. In the rabbits and guinea-pigs no fibres could be traced through the degenerated All apparently chiasma to the tract of the same side. But in crossed to the tract of the opposite side. cats and monkeys, on the other hand, there was a considerable number of fibres to be traced into the optic tract on the same side as the extirpated eye, clearly showing that in these animals the crossing at the chiasma was only There is, of course, a presumption that an imperfect one.
Lombroso’s
arguments
are,
however,
capable of development in other directions than those selected ’by their author, and the case of Tasmania may even supply - an opportunity of meeting the pessimists with weapons from
and that is that if the district council have, the advice of their health officer, issued the order as to school closure it is no business of the school board to cavil at the grounds on which the order is issued and to make this the basis of a discussion whether they shall obey or not. All that they have to say as to this must be embodied in the appeal to the Education Department, who in such matters seek the advice of the Medical Department of the Local Government Board.
thing is certain, on
their own armoury, for those who admit the existence of an irresistible hereditary bias to crime can hardly deny the possibility of a bias, if not to righteousness, at least to good works. It should not be forgotten that in the transportation days. the island was not occupied exclusively by a -criminal class ; many of the inhabitants were government HOSPITAL ABUSE. officials charged with the maintenance of order, and when these opposing elements became ultimately intermingled the I THE provinces seem to be no better off than the metropolis higher ethical standard of the young generation might be as regards the abuse of hospitals, judging by a letter from a taken as evidence that by the union, for instance, of a layman which appeared in the Sheffield Daily Telegraph of He points out how any day in the outmurderer with the widow or daughter of a gaoler the pre- Sept. 26th. to from the father wickedness inherited was ,disposition patient departments of the various Sheffield hospitals counteracted by the law-abiding bias derived from the people attend as "sick poor"who have paid 2s. for rail.mother. way fare and 3s. for cabs ; that many large firms who ought to pay the local medical man for attending at their THE ENCOURAGEMENT OF BONE-SETTERS. works subscribe instead to the charity and take the "letters" IT is a pity that the press of this country should directly to which they are thereby entitled ; that the usual fee of a ’1end itself to encourage the careers of such men as general practitioner in the neighbourhood is from Is. 6d. to ibone-setters, who pass themselves off as being able to effect 2s. 6d. ; and that even this pittance is not received at once, wonderful cures when all the rest of the world have failed but painfully collected by sixpenny instalments. If this " Observer " writes very temperto do so. The Lancashire .Empress devotes an article to state of things be so-and and with the air of one sure of his facts-it is a crying ately .a bone-setter and joint specialist, in which various wild shame. in We cannot afford to cast stones London, however, statements are made with regard to his skill, as he is said to succeed daily "after the large infirmaries and at our provincial brethren. We wonder in how many hospitals -the most successful surgeons have failed," and all this the same abuse exists. Of our own personal experience we know one hospital to which a patient used to come once a success is attained without blistering, bandages, iodine, - and embrocation such as were used by the old-fashioned month from the other side of Peterborough to be inspected ’bone-setter. We venture to think that it is most and obtain medicine. The return fare (third class) is 12s. 8d., ’unfair to the public to put forth an article such as this which would probably have been a godsend to some village ’unless it is stated that it is an advertisement, for it is practitioner. How abuses of this and kindred sorts are to immediately looked upon as authoritative by a large portion be remedied is doubtless a difficult question, but that they .of the credulous public, who have only to see a thing in print should and must be is a necessity. In another column will to believe it, and are ever ready to reply to any objections be found an article from a correspondent suggesting details ’that-"It said so in the paper at any rate." By this means of a tentative scheme to this end, and in many directions many people are induced to try the various " cures" when no can be seen signs that the profession is making up its mind that it will not be so persistently and cruelly imposed upon. flair advertisement would have drawn them. ___
____
SCHOOL CLOSURE AT SOUTH NORMANTON. ACCORDING to the local press it is stated that the schools - of the South Normanton School Board had been ordered to be closed by the medical officer of health to the Mansfield rural -sanitary authority and that his order had been " set at defiance." The ground of failure to act is stated, amongst other things, to have been that the school board had no ,knowledge of the extent, increase, or otherwise of the ,disease which had led to the order, and that the medical - officer of health had not visited the village. We draw attention to the occurrence because, if it is correctly reported, the case is one of many others in which there is misconception as ,to the duty of the medical officer of health in this matter. In the first place this official has no power to close a school. His duty is that of a health adviser, and when he advises his .district council that a school should be closed or that scholars should be excluded it is the authority, and not he, who issues the necessary order ; and the school board have, under the Education Code, no option but to - comply with the order, although after compliance they can appeal to the Education Department to rescind the order. In the second place a medical officer of health has no duties towards a school board ; his duties are to the district council and through them to the general body of the inhabitants. It may be policy to visit a district and to confer with the school officials before advising the closure of a school or it may not. We are by no means prepared to say that such action may not at times be properly taken on the ,notification returns and without a personal visit ; but one
THE DECUSSATION
OF THE OPTIC
NERVES.
IN the last number of the Neu’I’ologisakes Centralblatt there is an important preliminary communication on this subject from Dr. L. Jacobsohn of Berlin. He refers to the contention of Eolliker at the recent Anatomical Congress at Berlin that in mammals and also in man there is a complete crossing of the optic nerves at the chiasma, a view which Michel formerly advocated against that of Gudden, who held that in mammals a semi-decussation took place at the chiasma. Dr. Jacobsohn used in his researches Marchi’s method, by which a degenerated fibre can be traced clearly from the point of section onwards, and his method of experiment was to extirpate one eye and kill the animal a few weeks later, when the degeneration could be easily traced. As the fibres of the optic nerve run without interruption from the retina to the corpus geniculatum it was obviously easy to trace degenerated fibres both in the chiasma and in the optic tract, and so to determine whether the fibres from the extirpated eye all ran on one side or whether some crossed. Rabbits, guinea-pigs, cats, and monkeys were used for experiment. In the rabbits and guinea-pigs no fibres could be traced through the degenerated All apparently chiasma to the tract of the same side. But in crossed to the tract of the opposite side. cats and monkeys, on the other hand, there was a considerable number of fibres to be traced into the optic tract on the same side as the extirpated eye, clearly showing that in these animals the crossing at the chiasma was only There is, of course, a presumption that an imperfect one.