- Email: [email protected]
MANCHESTER.
343
higher ratio. The sanitary board continued the inquiry into As Mr. Thomson said: "The portrait was before them and the septic system for the disposal of sewage and the Lieu- he was sure they would all have the greatest pleasure in tenant-Governor now considers that the system has passed seeing it hung on the walls of that room to recall to them beyond the experimental stage and has given sanction to the a familiar face-a face which they would look upon with Muzaffarpur municipality to construct a septic tank. This affectionate regard." is an example of how little one province profits by the TAe Lord Mayor (If Manchester and Vivisection. experience of others. The advantages of the septic tank On meeting was held on the system have been known for years even in India and lawn July 25th an anti-vivisection near Middleton. of Mrs. Hopwood inHall, Hopwood the must Government wait for Bengal appirently yet the results of experiments by its own officers before it troduced the Lord Mayor of Manchester who then took the chair. The Mayor of Heywood and the Mayor of Middleton can recommend the adoption of the system to any one of The chairman said that the object its towns. This is the first municipal venture in Bengal. were also present. In the Assam report I notice an increase in the number of of the meeting must commend itself to all right-minded deaths from kala-azar. Plague has made its appearance for people and that the sights he had seen many years the first time, almost entirely in Dibruyarh town and in the ago, not so much in this country as on the continent, in bazaar inhabited by foreign grain merchants. The discovery relation to the treatment of dumb animals had been shockof dead rats was the first indication of danger. In the ing in the extreme." No one who knows the Lord Mayor urban areas of Assam the death-rate was higher than the would question his kindness of heart and his single-minded wish to do good when taking the chair at this meeting ; birth-rate ; elsewhere registration is very defective. There but what connexion there is between the cruelty of the a in from is was great increase mortality small-pox which in of the continent towards the animals
attributed to the visits of Ganaks who practise inoculation. This not being prohibited and vaccination not being compulsory in rural districts there is no wonder that small-pox should be so prevalent. The death-rate from fevers in Assam was 14’7 per 1000. No sanitary work of any magnitude was undertaken during the year. Some boards spent nothing on conservancy, while the expenditure of others was ridiculously small. Sanitary works and improvements are expensive but the reports of these two provinces indicate how very little has been done and go to show the necessity for a radical alteration of the sanitary administration of the provinces in India. The Indian Army Nursing Service is to be known in future as " Queen Alexandra’s Military Nursing Service for India." A set of x-ray apparatus with a duplicate set of cells will be supplied on loan to the Medical College, Calcutta, by the Medical Stores Depot, Bengal. This will be curious news to your readers at home as they would naturally expect that the largest medical school in India and the practice ground of the hospital surgeons of Calcutta would have been provided with this apparatus for several years past. Had the hospital honorary physicians and surgeons as in London it is safe to say that such a want would have been filled long before this. The plague epidemic continues to subside and has now for the first time this year shown fewer deaths than in the corresponding week of last year. 1362 deaths were recorded for the whole of India, of which 390 occurred in the Punjab. The figures for Bombay, however, instead of falling continue to show a slight rise and the reports from the Madras Presidency and the Mysore State are not satisfactory. There is a small outbreak developing in Ootacamund and in the Nilgiris district. There is every reason to believe that the present low mortality is only temporary and that in the course of the next few months a recrudescence will be seen once more in several parts of India. There are now more centres of infection and the next outbreak will probably be more severe than any we have had before.
July 10th.
MANCHESTER. (FROM Presentation
OUR OWN
of Dr.
CORRESPONDENT.)
Renaud’s Portrait to the
Royal Infirmary. AT the meeting of the infirmary board on July 27th Mr. J. Thomson, the chairman, accepted on behalf of the board a portrait of Dr. Frank Renaud who resigned his official conIt has been nexion with the infirmary last October. privately subscribed for by friends and colleagues and will be hung in the board room. Dr. Renaud was elected physician to the infirmary in 1848, became consulting physician in 1867, and at a later period was invited to join the board, of which he remained a member till October, 1902. He had endeared himself to all by his courtesy and kindness and the promotion of the welfare of the infirmary has been one of the chief interests of his life. He held strong views as to the desirability of keeping the infirmary on the Piccadilly site and when on the question of removal the decision went against him he severed his long connexion with the institution which he loved so well and for which, as physician and as one sage in counsel, he had done so much.
many parts people they employ in their daily work
and the practice of vivisection carried on under careful Government regulations and with the elimination of pain by anaesthetics he did not explain. It is practically certain that none of the perpetrators of the cruelties which so properly shocked him ever heard of vivisection as it is conducted in the interests of medical science and for the relief of human suffering from disease. Nor were they people who had been brutalised and made callous, as the anti-vivhectionists are fond of saying, by the proceedings of men of science. Vivisection and cruelty to animals are not interchangeable terms but things distinct and separate. The Lord Mayor, however, was very frank, for he is reported to have said that ’’ he had not studied the question of vivisection sufficiently to be able to entertain or enlighten them," but he was glad that Mrs. Hopwood had taken the matter in hand. This naive confession of ignorance detracts somewhat from his advocacy of anti-vivisection. Whatever we- may think of Mrs. Hopwood’s advocacy of this cause there is another crusade in which she has displayed marvellous energy and that is in combating the smoke nuisance in her neighbourhood, which is one of many works and many chimneys. The whole district owes much to her and all may join with the Lord Mayor when he said that "he was glad that she had been able to deal with the smoke nuisance in the neighbourhood, not only to the benefit of those who had to live amongst it as workmen, but also to the benefit of those who created the smoke." Granting unreservedly that she also was influenced solely by the wish to do good it may be safely assumed that she knows much more about the smoke nuisance than about vivisection, more especially if her mind has been fed by the ordinary anti-vivisection literature. ’
Regulation of Registry Offlees.
A good deal is heard from time to time of the white slave traffic between this and other countries and a clause in the Manchester Corporation Bill, recently before a Parliamentary committee, shows that there is another branch of the same traffic where perhals it has not been suspected. The clause is to the effect that all female servants’ registry cffices shall be registered at the town hall, with the name and place of abode of the proprietor. The counsel for the corporation said there were 88 registries for servants in Manchester and "that it was impossible to conceive that all these places were carrying on a legitimate business." He cited as an example an advertisement that appeared in a country newspaper, asking for 50 generals and girls " and promising ’’ splendid places and good wages." The girls went, were unable to obtain places because there were nothing like the number advertised, ’’ their money was soon exhausted and many of them fell into immoral courses." There are unquestionably respectable offices and the reputable ones do not object to registration. The police-court missionary said that some of the offices as at present conducted were undoubtedly the cause of many girls being demoralised and that there had"been cases in which girls were sent from " registry offices to houses of questionable character." It is clearly to the interest of the country on physical as well as on moral grounds that there should be some means of safeguarding ignorant and unsuspicious girls flocking into towns like Manchester. Penal Servatude for Women. As the Staffordshire Assizes on July 27th two women were
344 sentenced to penal servitude. One got seven years’ imprisonment "for administering a noxious drug for an unThe lawful purposeto two women, one of whom died. mother also of the prisoner was sentenced to four years’ imprisonment for a similar crime. The drug was " diachylum," which set up lead poisoning. It was stated at the trial that "the Treaoury were anxious the public should know the danger of taking diachylum," but the women who practise the trade of abortion producers do not wih to know. A Jewish Hospitallo7’ Manchester.
the new water-supply which is now approaching completion is actually available the corporation will be well advised if it abolishes this most unnecessary as well as most unusual charge. The proper supervision of dairies and cowsheds, in Dr. Howard-Jones’s opinion, is a national matter and deserves as much consideration as the inspection of factories and workshops, for the conditions and practices obtaining in dairies generally in respect to hygiene are often disgusting when considered in detail, and as towns are usually dependent upon the country for their milk-supplies they are practically helpless in the matter in spite of local Acts of The foundation-stone of the Manchester Victoria Memorial Parliament. Jewish Hospital was laid on July 23rd. It is situated in the British Dental Assooiation. Cheetham district, part of which is occupied largely by Jews. The annual meeting of the Western Counties branchof the It is expected to cost, when completed, .610,000 or .6I.2.000. British Dental Association was held at University College, At present, however, the committee only intends to provide Bristol, on July 24th, under the presidency of Mr. S. G. ten beds, which will involve an outlay of about .64000. The Yates (Ross). There was a large attendance which included completed hospital is to have 40 beds, 20 for each sex. The Mr. Walter Harrison (president of the British Dental AssoJews in Manchester show a commendable endeavour to bear ciation). Mr. Yates gave an interesting address, after which each others’ burdens. They have for many years had their he vacated the chair in favour of Dr. C. A. Hayman ’(the own board of guardians for the relief of their own people elect) who delivered the presidential address. In and now they are building a hospital. The Chief R3.bbi said president the evening the annual dinner was held at the Clifton Down that while "it was the bounden duty of Jews to establish Hotel, Dr. Hayman presiding. such a hospital it did not mean that they would withdraw Medical Cricket Mate7a. their support from the existing medical charities." A cricket match was played on July 22nd at the county July 28th. ground, Bristol, between representatives of the Bristol General Hospital and the Bristol Royal Infirmary respectively. WALES AND WESTERN COUNTIES NOTES. The match used to be an annual affair and this year it has been revived. The match resulted in a success for the OUR OWN (FROM CORRESPONDENTS.) ___________________
infirmary.
July 27th.
Glamorganshire County Asylums. Glamorganshire County Asylums at Bridgend
THE which established in the year 1864 have now accommodation for 1801 patients, 912 males and 889 females, and the medical superintendent (Dr. H. T. Pringle) states in his annual report that on Dec. 31st last there were resident in the institution 1000 male and 910 female patients. This overcrowding will no doubt be lessened upon the completion of the Cardiff Asylum which is now in course of erection. There were admitted during 1902 to the county asylums 526 patients, a number equal to 596 per 1,000,000 of the population served, compared with 583 per 1,000,000 in 1901. In 1879 the admission rate was equal to 256 per 1,000,000 inhabitants. During 1902 there were 181 deaths among the were
patients
at
Bridgend. Pa2cperism
in South Wales. Mr. F. T. Bircham, the Poor-law inspector of the Local Government Board for South Wales and Monmouthshire, has recently issued statistics relating to his district in which he compares the amount of pauperism on March 25th, 1903, with that on the same date in 1893. There were on Lady Day, 1903, in the whole of England and Wales 2’ 2 per cent. of the population in receipt of parish relief and in the six South Wales counties and Monmouthshire the percentage was 2’ 6, compared with 2’8in 1893. As might be expected, the highest proportion of pauperism was in the rural districts ; for example, it was 3’4 per cent. in the Haverfordwest union and 3 per cent. in the Carmarthen union, while in the colliery districts the proportion was low, being in the Merthyr union 2’3 per cent. and in the Pontypridd union only 2 per cent. The amount of pauperism in Cardiff increased from 2’2 per cent. of the population in 1893 to 2 5 per cent. in 1903, and in Swansea the increase was from 2’6per cent. to 3’2 per cent. in the like period.
___________________
IRELAND. (FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENTS.) Isolation La2cnlries. AT the last
meeting of the Rathkeale board of guardians Lady Monteagle drew attention to the difficulty existing in the workhouse with regard to the washing of the clothes of patients suffering from infectious diseases. The latest discoveries in bacteriology, she observed, had shown that many of the germs of infection were not killed by hot water and therefore she was of opinion that a place distinct from the ordinary laundry of the house should be constructed for the treatment of infected clothes. After some discussion the matter was referred to the engineer for a report.
Rabies in Ireland. During greater part of 1901, the whole of 1902, and for over six months of the current year no case of rabies has been reported in Ireland. The latest published official returns, however, show that a case of the disease has recently appeared in the county Sligo. Inasmuch as sporting dogs will soon be moved about and across the Irish Channel in large numbers in connexion with the coming grouse season the discovery is of some significance. Opening of the Nc7v Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast. During their visit to Belfast on July 27th their Majesties the King and Queen visited the new Royal Victoria Hospital for the purpose of performing the opening ceremony. Arriving at Grosvenor-street in state at a quarter to one o’clock the King and Queen were received by the Lord Mayor (the Right Hen. Sir Daniel Dixon, D.L.) and Mr. and Mrs. Pirrie, with whom they shook hands. The chairman (Mr. W. Health of Newport (Mon.). Crawford) having been presented read an address on behalf In his recently issued annual report upon the health of of the board of management, the construction committee, and Newport the medical officer of health (Dr. J. Howard-Jones) the medical staff, to which the King replied. The following estimates the population of the borough at the middle of gentlemen were then presented : the Right Hon. T. Sinclair, 1902 at 68,862 and he records a birth-rate of 32 8 per 1000, D.L., member of the construction committee; Mr. R. H. a death-rate of 15’8 per 1000, an infantile mortality rate of Reade, D.L., chairman of the relations committee; Mr. A. 125 per 1000 births, and a death-rate from the principal M’Dowell, honorary secretary and solicitor of the various zymotic diseases of 1’92 per 1000, or, including tuberculosis, committees in connexion with the building of the It is not at all satis- hospital; Dr. J. Walton Browne, chairman of the medical a zymotic death-rate of 3 74 per 1000. factory to find that, although Newport is essentially a water- staff ; Sir William Whitla, senior physician ; and Mr. carriage town, there are still in the older portions of the Henman, the architect. Mrs. Pirrie then presented the borough a large number of water closets which are hand- King with a massive gold key and on behalf of the conflushed. It appears that a charge is made for water struction committee begged his acceptance of it and asked named after his supplied through a flushing cistern and the medical I him to open the new hospital which wasthe oificer of health very properly remarks that this amounts beloved mother. The King then turned key, the door to a tax upon cleanliness and interferes very considerably opened, and their Majesties, escorted by Mr. and Mrs. with the adoption of cisterns throughout the town. When Pirrie and followed by the Royal suite, passed into the the
higher ratio. The sanitary board continued the inquiry into As Mr. Thomson said: "The portrait was before them and the septic system for the disposal of sewage and the Lieu- he was sure they would all have the greatest pleasure in tenant-Governor now considers that the system has passed seeing it hung on the walls of that room to recall to them beyond the experimental stage and has given sanction to the a familiar face-a face which they would look upon with Muzaffarpur municipality to construct a septic tank. This affectionate regard." is an example of how little one province profits by the TAe Lord Mayor (If Manchester and Vivisection. experience of others. The advantages of the septic tank On meeting was held on the system have been known for years even in India and lawn July 25th an anti-vivisection near Middleton. of Mrs. Hopwood inHall, Hopwood the must Government wait for Bengal appirently yet the results of experiments by its own officers before it troduced the Lord Mayor of Manchester who then took the chair. The Mayor of Heywood and the Mayor of Middleton can recommend the adoption of the system to any one of The chairman said that the object its towns. This is the first municipal venture in Bengal. were also present. In the Assam report I notice an increase in the number of of the meeting must commend itself to all right-minded deaths from kala-azar. Plague has made its appearance for people and that the sights he had seen many years the first time, almost entirely in Dibruyarh town and in the ago, not so much in this country as on the continent, in bazaar inhabited by foreign grain merchants. The discovery relation to the treatment of dumb animals had been shockof dead rats was the first indication of danger. In the ing in the extreme." No one who knows the Lord Mayor urban areas of Assam the death-rate was higher than the would question his kindness of heart and his single-minded wish to do good when taking the chair at this meeting ; birth-rate ; elsewhere registration is very defective. There but what connexion there is between the cruelty of the a in from is was great increase mortality small-pox which in of the continent towards the animals
attributed to the visits of Ganaks who practise inoculation. This not being prohibited and vaccination not being compulsory in rural districts there is no wonder that small-pox should be so prevalent. The death-rate from fevers in Assam was 14’7 per 1000. No sanitary work of any magnitude was undertaken during the year. Some boards spent nothing on conservancy, while the expenditure of others was ridiculously small. Sanitary works and improvements are expensive but the reports of these two provinces indicate how very little has been done and go to show the necessity for a radical alteration of the sanitary administration of the provinces in India. The Indian Army Nursing Service is to be known in future as " Queen Alexandra’s Military Nursing Service for India." A set of x-ray apparatus with a duplicate set of cells will be supplied on loan to the Medical College, Calcutta, by the Medical Stores Depot, Bengal. This will be curious news to your readers at home as they would naturally expect that the largest medical school in India and the practice ground of the hospital surgeons of Calcutta would have been provided with this apparatus for several years past. Had the hospital honorary physicians and surgeons as in London it is safe to say that such a want would have been filled long before this. The plague epidemic continues to subside and has now for the first time this year shown fewer deaths than in the corresponding week of last year. 1362 deaths were recorded for the whole of India, of which 390 occurred in the Punjab. The figures for Bombay, however, instead of falling continue to show a slight rise and the reports from the Madras Presidency and the Mysore State are not satisfactory. There is a small outbreak developing in Ootacamund and in the Nilgiris district. There is every reason to believe that the present low mortality is only temporary and that in the course of the next few months a recrudescence will be seen once more in several parts of India. There are now more centres of infection and the next outbreak will probably be more severe than any we have had before.
July 10th.
MANCHESTER. (FROM Presentation
OUR OWN
of Dr.
CORRESPONDENT.)
Renaud’s Portrait to the
Royal Infirmary. AT the meeting of the infirmary board on July 27th Mr. J. Thomson, the chairman, accepted on behalf of the board a portrait of Dr. Frank Renaud who resigned his official conIt has been nexion with the infirmary last October. privately subscribed for by friends and colleagues and will be hung in the board room. Dr. Renaud was elected physician to the infirmary in 1848, became consulting physician in 1867, and at a later period was invited to join the board, of which he remained a member till October, 1902. He had endeared himself to all by his courtesy and kindness and the promotion of the welfare of the infirmary has been one of the chief interests of his life. He held strong views as to the desirability of keeping the infirmary on the Piccadilly site and when on the question of removal the decision went against him he severed his long connexion with the institution which he loved so well and for which, as physician and as one sage in counsel, he had done so much.
many parts people they employ in their daily work
and the practice of vivisection carried on under careful Government regulations and with the elimination of pain by anaesthetics he did not explain. It is practically certain that none of the perpetrators of the cruelties which so properly shocked him ever heard of vivisection as it is conducted in the interests of medical science and for the relief of human suffering from disease. Nor were they people who had been brutalised and made callous, as the anti-vivhectionists are fond of saying, by the proceedings of men of science. Vivisection and cruelty to animals are not interchangeable terms but things distinct and separate. The Lord Mayor, however, was very frank, for he is reported to have said that ’’ he had not studied the question of vivisection sufficiently to be able to entertain or enlighten them," but he was glad that Mrs. Hopwood had taken the matter in hand. This naive confession of ignorance detracts somewhat from his advocacy of anti-vivisection. Whatever we- may think of Mrs. Hopwood’s advocacy of this cause there is another crusade in which she has displayed marvellous energy and that is in combating the smoke nuisance in her neighbourhood, which is one of many works and many chimneys. The whole district owes much to her and all may join with the Lord Mayor when he said that "he was glad that she had been able to deal with the smoke nuisance in the neighbourhood, not only to the benefit of those who had to live amongst it as workmen, but also to the benefit of those who created the smoke." Granting unreservedly that she also was influenced solely by the wish to do good it may be safely assumed that she knows much more about the smoke nuisance than about vivisection, more especially if her mind has been fed by the ordinary anti-vivisection literature. ’
Regulation of Registry Offlees.
A good deal is heard from time to time of the white slave traffic between this and other countries and a clause in the Manchester Corporation Bill, recently before a Parliamentary committee, shows that there is another branch of the same traffic where perhals it has not been suspected. The clause is to the effect that all female servants’ registry cffices shall be registered at the town hall, with the name and place of abode of the proprietor. The counsel for the corporation said there were 88 registries for servants in Manchester and "that it was impossible to conceive that all these places were carrying on a legitimate business." He cited as an example an advertisement that appeared in a country newspaper, asking for 50 generals and girls " and promising ’’ splendid places and good wages." The girls went, were unable to obtain places because there were nothing like the number advertised, ’’ their money was soon exhausted and many of them fell into immoral courses." There are unquestionably respectable offices and the reputable ones do not object to registration. The police-court missionary said that some of the offices as at present conducted were undoubtedly the cause of many girls being demoralised and that there had"been cases in which girls were sent from " registry offices to houses of questionable character." It is clearly to the interest of the country on physical as well as on moral grounds that there should be some means of safeguarding ignorant and unsuspicious girls flocking into towns like Manchester. Penal Servatude for Women. As the Staffordshire Assizes on July 27th two women were
344 sentenced to penal servitude. One got seven years’ imprisonment "for administering a noxious drug for an unThe lawful purposeto two women, one of whom died. mother also of the prisoner was sentenced to four years’ imprisonment for a similar crime. The drug was " diachylum," which set up lead poisoning. It was stated at the trial that "the Treaoury were anxious the public should know the danger of taking diachylum," but the women who practise the trade of abortion producers do not wih to know. A Jewish Hospitallo7’ Manchester.
the new water-supply which is now approaching completion is actually available the corporation will be well advised if it abolishes this most unnecessary as well as most unusual charge. The proper supervision of dairies and cowsheds, in Dr. Howard-Jones’s opinion, is a national matter and deserves as much consideration as the inspection of factories and workshops, for the conditions and practices obtaining in dairies generally in respect to hygiene are often disgusting when considered in detail, and as towns are usually dependent upon the country for their milk-supplies they are practically helpless in the matter in spite of local Acts of The foundation-stone of the Manchester Victoria Memorial Parliament. Jewish Hospital was laid on July 23rd. It is situated in the British Dental Assooiation. Cheetham district, part of which is occupied largely by Jews. The annual meeting of the Western Counties branchof the It is expected to cost, when completed, .610,000 or .6I.2.000. British Dental Association was held at University College, At present, however, the committee only intends to provide Bristol, on July 24th, under the presidency of Mr. S. G. ten beds, which will involve an outlay of about .64000. The Yates (Ross). There was a large attendance which included completed hospital is to have 40 beds, 20 for each sex. The Mr. Walter Harrison (president of the British Dental AssoJews in Manchester show a commendable endeavour to bear ciation). Mr. Yates gave an interesting address, after which each others’ burdens. They have for many years had their he vacated the chair in favour of Dr. C. A. Hayman ’(the own board of guardians for the relief of their own people elect) who delivered the presidential address. In and now they are building a hospital. The Chief R3.bbi said president the evening the annual dinner was held at the Clifton Down that while "it was the bounden duty of Jews to establish Hotel, Dr. Hayman presiding. such a hospital it did not mean that they would withdraw Medical Cricket Mate7a. their support from the existing medical charities." A cricket match was played on July 22nd at the county July 28th. ground, Bristol, between representatives of the Bristol General Hospital and the Bristol Royal Infirmary respectively. WALES AND WESTERN COUNTIES NOTES. The match used to be an annual affair and this year it has been revived. The match resulted in a success for the OUR OWN (FROM CORRESPONDENTS.) ___________________
infirmary.
July 27th.
Glamorganshire County Asylums. Glamorganshire County Asylums at Bridgend
THE which established in the year 1864 have now accommodation for 1801 patients, 912 males and 889 females, and the medical superintendent (Dr. H. T. Pringle) states in his annual report that on Dec. 31st last there were resident in the institution 1000 male and 910 female patients. This overcrowding will no doubt be lessened upon the completion of the Cardiff Asylum which is now in course of erection. There were admitted during 1902 to the county asylums 526 patients, a number equal to 596 per 1,000,000 of the population served, compared with 583 per 1,000,000 in 1901. In 1879 the admission rate was equal to 256 per 1,000,000 inhabitants. During 1902 there were 181 deaths among the were
patients
at
Bridgend. Pa2cperism
in South Wales. Mr. F. T. Bircham, the Poor-law inspector of the Local Government Board for South Wales and Monmouthshire, has recently issued statistics relating to his district in which he compares the amount of pauperism on March 25th, 1903, with that on the same date in 1893. There were on Lady Day, 1903, in the whole of England and Wales 2’ 2 per cent. of the population in receipt of parish relief and in the six South Wales counties and Monmouthshire the percentage was 2’ 6, compared with 2’8in 1893. As might be expected, the highest proportion of pauperism was in the rural districts ; for example, it was 3’4 per cent. in the Haverfordwest union and 3 per cent. in the Carmarthen union, while in the colliery districts the proportion was low, being in the Merthyr union 2’3 per cent. and in the Pontypridd union only 2 per cent. The amount of pauperism in Cardiff increased from 2’2 per cent. of the population in 1893 to 2 5 per cent. in 1903, and in Swansea the increase was from 2’6per cent. to 3’2 per cent. in the like period.
___________________
IRELAND. (FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENTS.) Isolation La2cnlries. AT the last
meeting of the Rathkeale board of guardians Lady Monteagle drew attention to the difficulty existing in the workhouse with regard to the washing of the clothes of patients suffering from infectious diseases. The latest discoveries in bacteriology, she observed, had shown that many of the germs of infection were not killed by hot water and therefore she was of opinion that a place distinct from the ordinary laundry of the house should be constructed for the treatment of infected clothes. After some discussion the matter was referred to the engineer for a report.
Rabies in Ireland. During greater part of 1901, the whole of 1902, and for over six months of the current year no case of rabies has been reported in Ireland. The latest published official returns, however, show that a case of the disease has recently appeared in the county Sligo. Inasmuch as sporting dogs will soon be moved about and across the Irish Channel in large numbers in connexion with the coming grouse season the discovery is of some significance. Opening of the Nc7v Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast. During their visit to Belfast on July 27th their Majesties the King and Queen visited the new Royal Victoria Hospital for the purpose of performing the opening ceremony. Arriving at Grosvenor-street in state at a quarter to one o’clock the King and Queen were received by the Lord Mayor (the Right Hen. Sir Daniel Dixon, D.L.) and Mr. and Mrs. Pirrie, with whom they shook hands. The chairman (Mr. W. Health of Newport (Mon.). Crawford) having been presented read an address on behalf In his recently issued annual report upon the health of of the board of management, the construction committee, and Newport the medical officer of health (Dr. J. Howard-Jones) the medical staff, to which the King replied. The following estimates the population of the borough at the middle of gentlemen were then presented : the Right Hon. T. Sinclair, 1902 at 68,862 and he records a birth-rate of 32 8 per 1000, D.L., member of the construction committee; Mr. R. H. a death-rate of 15’8 per 1000, an infantile mortality rate of Reade, D.L., chairman of the relations committee; Mr. A. 125 per 1000 births, and a death-rate from the principal M’Dowell, honorary secretary and solicitor of the various zymotic diseases of 1’92 per 1000, or, including tuberculosis, committees in connexion with the building of the It is not at all satis- hospital; Dr. J. Walton Browne, chairman of the medical a zymotic death-rate of 3 74 per 1000. factory to find that, although Newport is essentially a water- staff ; Sir William Whitla, senior physician ; and Mr. carriage town, there are still in the older portions of the Henman, the architect. Mrs. Pirrie then presented the borough a large number of water closets which are hand- King with a massive gold key and on behalf of the conflushed. It appears that a charge is made for water struction committee begged his acceptance of it and asked named after his supplied through a flushing cistern and the medical I him to open the new hospital which wasthe oificer of health very properly remarks that this amounts beloved mother. The King then turned key, the door to a tax upon cleanliness and interferes very considerably opened, and their Majesties, escorted by Mr. and Mrs. with the adoption of cisterns throughout the town. When Pirrie and followed by the Royal suite, passed into the the