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MEDICAL HISTORY OF PEKING DURING THE WAR.
1578 In their remarks upon the slight explowhich occured in the manufacture of cordite at Waltham Abbey on April 22nd., the inspectors were not able to trace the cause of the ignition with certainty. It is remarkable, however, as they point out, that the bulk of the paste fell out of the broken cylinder intact and that the cordite present in the building was not ignited. Only one ounce of the paste in the cylinder exploded, although the charging press from which the cylinder was filled contained about thirty pounds of cordite paste. Bearing in mind the large increase in the number of factories, the increased output, the number of hands employed, the greater resulting chances of accident, and the increase in the enormous number of nitro-compounds made and imported, the Act, as shown by the present report, is evidently doing good work.
stringency.
sion
patients at the hospital suffering from suppurative inflammation of the larger joints. The prevalence and mortality of cholera need occasion little surprise when we learn that the roads were watered with the afterwards became
acute
contents of open sewers to save the trouble of drawing water from the wells. The Chinese recognise that unboiled water and green fruit generally are ready carriers of the disease. Dr. Curwen acknowledges the willing help in many ways of Dr. S. W. Bushell of the British Legation. One of the most blessed influences in such countries must surely be that of
bless
the members of
our own
THE BIRMINGHAM
profession, HOSPITAL
whether official mission
SATURDAY
FUND.
THE Executive Committee of the Birmingham Hospital Collection has received a valuable gift in the shape of a seaside home for children. The generous donor, who does not wish his name to be disclosed, has handed over a mansion called Bryn Marle, between the two convalescent homes for men and for women already in use. He is prepared to furnish and maintain it free of cost for the first twelve months.
Saturday
LUNATICS IN WORKHOUSES. THE Local Government Board have just issued a circula] to boards of guardians with special reference to the medica: examination of lunatics received into, or removed from, work. houses. The circular appears at an opportune momentwhen much is being written and said concerning the care of paupers. Instances of failure to make the requisite examination and to record results where examination has been made have come under the Board’s notice, and these probably account for the issue of the present document. Careful examination by the workhouse medical officer is
enjoined immediately and immediately prior
on
the
admission
to removal
or
of
a
lunatic
discharge ; any exami-
nation in the latter case made even on the day previous to discharge is to be repeated on the actual date when the patient leaves the institution, special regard being given to any bruises or other injuries on the person. The physical condition of the patient to be removed is also to be a point of consideration by the medical officer. Such examination is in nowise to replace that called for by the Lunacy Act of 1890, where a private medical practitioner is in question. Another point refers to attendance on lunatics detained in workhouses. The Board consider that all lunatic, should be both by day and by night under the immediate charge of paid officers, and that pauper assistance, when it is impracticable to altogether dispense with it, should be under the closest supervision of paid officers. We look upon this as a very important part of the letter, and trust that as time goes on the Board will insist more and more on the replacement of pauper attendance by that of properly appointed and remunerated officials.
MEDICAL HISTORY OF PEKING DURING THE WAR.
Hospital
THE thirty-fourth annual report of the Peking in connexion with the London Missionary Society for the year 1895, by Dr. Eliot Curwen, is interesting. He speaks highly of the activity and efficiency of two native studentsMr. Li Hsiao-ch’uan and Mr. Liu Paoching-between the departure of Dr. E. T. Pritchard and his own arrival. The popularity of the hospital and dispensary seems to increase, the visits paid being 4000 in excess of those of any previous year; thus 33,253 visits were paid by 14,604 patients in 1895. To patients at their own homes 278 visits were paid and 162 were treated in the wards. Unfortunately, we presume for want of funds, only two out of three wards for males were in use. There was a memorable outbreak of cholera in Peking in 1895. Dr. Curwen speaks of it as the most fatal epidemic of the century. It is estimated to have attacked half the houses and to have killed 75,000 of the inhabitants. Few cases were brought to the hospital. If not quickly fatal they were mostly treated by native medical men with acupuncture of the larger joints or of the tongue. As a consequence of this treatment many
THE HEATH SCHOLARSHIP THE Heath Newbolt, M.B.
has been awarded to Mr. G. P. F.R.C.S. Dunelm., Eng., for his essay on the of the The prize is £200. It is Diseases Jaws. Surgical to the writer of the best essay awarded every second year upon some surgical subject selected by the trustees of the Heath Scholarship Fund, and only graduates in medicine or surgery of the University of Durham can compete for it. The subject for the next competition is Congenital Deformities, their Pathology and Treatment. The essays must be sent in on or before the last day of March, 1898. Mr. Newbolt is the first winner of this valuable scholarship.
Scholarship
STATISTICS ON WEIGHT OF INFANTS, SEX AND FŒTAL HEART-RATE.
large numbers of cases are often useful impressions on statistics from small numbers. A paper read before the Obstetrical Society of Boston on Feb. 18th of this year is interesting and valuable from this point of view as showing the results obtained from observations in a large number of infants as regards weight, STATISTICS of
to correct
erroneous
sex and fœtal heart.rate.1 Thus the assertion is often found in text-books that the foetal heart-rate of girls is more rapid than that of boys. It appears to depend on the statement made in 1859 by Frankenhauser that the average foetal rate in boys was 124, in girls 144, and this he obtained as a result of fifty observations. It is no wonder that predictions of sex based on such a small foundation should be disappointing. Taking a thousand cases at full term at the Boston Lying-in Hospital, the average rate of the festal heart was as follows : 500 males, 140-26 per minute; 500 females, 141’83. This difference of one and a half beats is, of course, valueless for prophetic purposes. Let us hope that Frankenhauser’s statement will no longer be copied into the text-books. The average weight of these 1000 full-term infants was as follows : 500 male infants, 7 lb. 8’9 oz. ; 500 female infants,7 lb. 5’l oz. It might be said that the slightly slower heart-rate in the boys depended on the slightly heavier weight of the male sex. It is interesting to note, however, that some of the very heavy babies had rapid hearts, and vice versd ; so that no individual prediction of the weight of the child could be made by the heart-beat. The variation in the rate of the heart-beat at different periods in the labour is also 1
Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, May 14th, 1896.
stringency.
sion
patients at the hospital suffering from suppurative inflammation of the larger joints. The prevalence and mortality of cholera need occasion little surprise when we learn that the roads were watered with the afterwards became
acute
contents of open sewers to save the trouble of drawing water from the wells. The Chinese recognise that unboiled water and green fruit generally are ready carriers of the disease. Dr. Curwen acknowledges the willing help in many ways of Dr. S. W. Bushell of the British Legation. One of the most blessed influences in such countries must surely be that of
bless
the members of
our own
THE BIRMINGHAM
profession, HOSPITAL
whether official mission
SATURDAY
FUND.
THE Executive Committee of the Birmingham Hospital Collection has received a valuable gift in the shape of a seaside home for children. The generous donor, who does not wish his name to be disclosed, has handed over a mansion called Bryn Marle, between the two convalescent homes for men and for women already in use. He is prepared to furnish and maintain it free of cost for the first twelve months.
Saturday
LUNATICS IN WORKHOUSES. THE Local Government Board have just issued a circula] to boards of guardians with special reference to the medica: examination of lunatics received into, or removed from, work. houses. The circular appears at an opportune momentwhen much is being written and said concerning the care of paupers. Instances of failure to make the requisite examination and to record results where examination has been made have come under the Board’s notice, and these probably account for the issue of the present document. Careful examination by the workhouse medical officer is
enjoined immediately and immediately prior
on
the
admission
to removal
or
of
a
lunatic
discharge ; any exami-
nation in the latter case made even on the day previous to discharge is to be repeated on the actual date when the patient leaves the institution, special regard being given to any bruises or other injuries on the person. The physical condition of the patient to be removed is also to be a point of consideration by the medical officer. Such examination is in nowise to replace that called for by the Lunacy Act of 1890, where a private medical practitioner is in question. Another point refers to attendance on lunatics detained in workhouses. The Board consider that all lunatic, should be both by day and by night under the immediate charge of paid officers, and that pauper assistance, when it is impracticable to altogether dispense with it, should be under the closest supervision of paid officers. We look upon this as a very important part of the letter, and trust that as time goes on the Board will insist more and more on the replacement of pauper attendance by that of properly appointed and remunerated officials.
MEDICAL HISTORY OF PEKING DURING THE WAR.
Hospital
THE thirty-fourth annual report of the Peking in connexion with the London Missionary Society for the year 1895, by Dr. Eliot Curwen, is interesting. He speaks highly of the activity and efficiency of two native studentsMr. Li Hsiao-ch’uan and Mr. Liu Paoching-between the departure of Dr. E. T. Pritchard and his own arrival. The popularity of the hospital and dispensary seems to increase, the visits paid being 4000 in excess of those of any previous year; thus 33,253 visits were paid by 14,604 patients in 1895. To patients at their own homes 278 visits were paid and 162 were treated in the wards. Unfortunately, we presume for want of funds, only two out of three wards for males were in use. There was a memorable outbreak of cholera in Peking in 1895. Dr. Curwen speaks of it as the most fatal epidemic of the century. It is estimated to have attacked half the houses and to have killed 75,000 of the inhabitants. Few cases were brought to the hospital. If not quickly fatal they were mostly treated by native medical men with acupuncture of the larger joints or of the tongue. As a consequence of this treatment many
THE HEATH SCHOLARSHIP THE Heath Newbolt, M.B.
has been awarded to Mr. G. P. F.R.C.S. Dunelm., Eng., for his essay on the of the The prize is £200. It is Diseases Jaws. Surgical to the writer of the best essay awarded every second year upon some surgical subject selected by the trustees of the Heath Scholarship Fund, and only graduates in medicine or surgery of the University of Durham can compete for it. The subject for the next competition is Congenital Deformities, their Pathology and Treatment. The essays must be sent in on or before the last day of March, 1898. Mr. Newbolt is the first winner of this valuable scholarship.
Scholarship
STATISTICS ON WEIGHT OF INFANTS, SEX AND FŒTAL HEART-RATE.
large numbers of cases are often useful impressions on statistics from small numbers. A paper read before the Obstetrical Society of Boston on Feb. 18th of this year is interesting and valuable from this point of view as showing the results obtained from observations in a large number of infants as regards weight, STATISTICS of
to correct
erroneous
sex and fœtal heart.rate.1 Thus the assertion is often found in text-books that the foetal heart-rate of girls is more rapid than that of boys. It appears to depend on the statement made in 1859 by Frankenhauser that the average foetal rate in boys was 124, in girls 144, and this he obtained as a result of fifty observations. It is no wonder that predictions of sex based on such a small foundation should be disappointing. Taking a thousand cases at full term at the Boston Lying-in Hospital, the average rate of the festal heart was as follows : 500 males, 140-26 per minute; 500 females, 141’83. This difference of one and a half beats is, of course, valueless for prophetic purposes. Let us hope that Frankenhauser’s statement will no longer be copied into the text-books. The average weight of these 1000 full-term infants was as follows : 500 male infants, 7 lb. 8’9 oz. ; 500 female infants,7 lb. 5’l oz. It might be said that the slightly slower heart-rate in the boys depended on the slightly heavier weight of the male sex. It is interesting to note, however, that some of the very heavy babies had rapid hearts, and vice versd ; so that no individual prediction of the weight of the child could be made by the heart-beat. The variation in the rate of the heart-beat at different periods in the labour is also 1
Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, May 14th, 1896.