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OPHTHALMIA IN POOR-LAW SCHOOLS.
FORTHCOMING EXHIBITION OF HYGIENE AT BOULOGNE,
1319
introduction of the venom speedily affects the germicidal at Hanwell may be cited by way of illustration. Of£ powers of the blood. This germicidal property of normal that history during the last fifteen or twenty years serum is, however, itself limited, at least as regards the there is no need to speak, for our readers are already suffibacillus coli communis. The experiments with the bacillus ciently familiar with it. Mr. Henry John Searle, chairman anthracis seem to show that after a time the germicidal of the board of managers of the Central London School power is regained by serum that has been acted on by the District, has recently put forward a practical proposal for How the venom operates is not shown, but from the lucid account given by Dr. Ewing we may infer that it acts partly by reducing the alkalinity of the blood, an increase of which is known to raise the germicidal power, and partly perhaps by the direct influence of the toxic principle. In any case the results seem to confirm the views that normal healthy blood serum is a powerful protective agency against the inroads of bacterial infection, and that toxines act harmfully not merely by their direct effect, but equally, if not more fully, by lowering this resistant power of the blood against secondary infections.
venom.
THE DEATH OF DR. TWINING. THE sad death of Dr. Alfred Hughes Twining of Salcombe illustrates the evil consequences which may attend practical joking. The deceased gentleman, whilst driving at night along a country road, was the victim of a foolish local custom, which prevails among the inhabitants of the district on May Day, of"ducking " each other with water. Two boys, together with others, were keeping up the custom, when the carriage in which Dr. Twining was returning home happened to pass, and the boys, it is alleged, threw water over the horse, causing the animal to bolt, with the result that the vehicle was overturned and the occupants were thrown violently to the ground. Dr. Twining was taken to the South Devon and Cornwall Hospital, where he was found to be suffering from dislocation of the left ankle and a fractured leg. On Saturday, May 5th, five days after the accident, it was found necessary to amputate from the thigh, and the operation was performed on the following day, but the unfortunate gentleman never rallied from the shock and died the next day. It was pleaded on behalf of the boys at the inquest that the water was thrown with" no malicious intention and that the practice of " ducking was a common one The jury, however, returned a verdict of on May Day. "manslaughter" against the two lads, and the coroner expressed the hope that the present case would be the means of stopping a very dangerous practice in the district.
once more
OPHTHALMIA IN POOR-LAW SCHOOLS. OPHTHALMIA among the children of our Poor-law schools is, from whatever point of view it may be regarded, a subject for serious consideration. It is a disease that is always more or less present, and is liable, under certain unhygienic conditions of living to which the children of the poor are so frequently exposed, to develop into outbreaks, with consequences to vision that are occasionally disastrous and almost invariably attended with ocular troubles that are distressing to witness in children and often difficult of cure. The great thing, of course, to be aimed at from a sanitary point of view is to prevent the occurrence of epidemic ophthalmia and to limit the spread of the disease when it does make its appearance; and, from a curative point of view, to treat the disease in its initial stage before any real damage has been done to the eye. An outbreak of ophthalmia often occurs more or less suddenly and provision has at once to be made for the removal or isolation of the affected children and for their accommodation, classification, and treatment. These are matters which cannot be properly accomplished in a hurry, and they frequently entail a considerable expenditure of money in providing temporary buildings, which may not be needed when the occasion for them has passed away. The history of the London District Schools
dealing with the ophthalmia in pauper schools. He contends that just as the Metropolitan Asylums Board provides for the proper care and isolation of cases of infectious disease so there should be some adequate central establishment in connexion with the Poor-law school system for the treatment of children suffering from ophthalmia. He argues that the advantages of, and the saving by, such a plan would be very great. Children suffering from ophthalmia could be at once transferred to an establishment where they would be promptly and efficiently treated and provided for. In this way the risk of the spread of the disease and of its epidemic prevalence in school communities would be removed, and the great expense incurred at present by the multiplied provision of isolation departments at the various schools would be avoided. While we are not at all disposed to underrate the advantages of such a scheme, as set forth on paper, we think that it presents difficulties which will require to be very carefully thought out before it is practically adopted. The nature and extent of accommodation to be provided ; the site of the proposed institution as regards airiness and salubrity and amount of acreage and its accessibility; the organisation necessary for the transfer of the affected children, and the working of the system generally, together with the estimated cost of the proposal: all these are matters that must be seriously taken into account, to say nothing of what might be the possible effect of aggregating a large number of children affected with ophthalmia in one and the same building. FORTHCOMING EXHIBITION OF HYGIENE AT BOULOGNE. AN International Exhibition of Hygiene will be held this at Boulogne-sur-Mer, the popular seaside resort, which has so often been qualified as the most English town out of England. Most of the sanitary reformers whose names we have had occasion to mention in connexion with sanitary work in France are assisting in preparing this exhibition. For instance, we find among these patrons the names of M. Henri Monod, Councillor of State and Director of the Sanitary Services of France ; Dr. Brouardel, Dean of the Paris Faculty of Medicine; M. Pasteur ; Dr. Proust, Inspector-General of the Sanitary Services ; Dr. Napias. Dr. A. J. Martin ; M. Emile Trelat, the eminent architect and authority on Ventilation ; M. Bechmann, the engineer; and M. Louis Masson, the Sanitary Inspector of Paris. Dr. Aigre,l mayor of Boulogne, is the president of the Organis ing Committee, and he is assisted by the chief medical men, municipal councillors, engineers, and other local notabilities. The exhibition will last from July 15th to Sept. 15th and is to be inaugurated by the Minister of the Interior. From July 25th to 29th a Medical Hydrotherapic Congress will meet at Boulogne under the presidency of Professor Verneuil, of the Institute, and Dr. Bergeron, perpetual£ secretary of the Academy of Medicine. The exhibition will be built immediately behind the Casino, on the Quai Gambetta, where the old custom-house used to be. It will be divided into five groups. The first group, Dcmestic Hygiene, has three classes. The first class emb,races the question of the housing of the poor, the supply and sterilisa tion of water, domestic drainage, the abolition of the smoke nuisance, heating and ventilating, &c.; the second class dea1f: with food-supply and storage. The first class of the second summer
1 See THE LANCET, March 18th, 1893, for an account of Dr. action during the cholera epidemic at Portal and Boulogne.
Aigred
1319
introduction of the venom speedily affects the germicidal at Hanwell may be cited by way of illustration. Of£ powers of the blood. This germicidal property of normal that history during the last fifteen or twenty years serum is, however, itself limited, at least as regards the there is no need to speak, for our readers are already suffibacillus coli communis. The experiments with the bacillus ciently familiar with it. Mr. Henry John Searle, chairman anthracis seem to show that after a time the germicidal of the board of managers of the Central London School power is regained by serum that has been acted on by the District, has recently put forward a practical proposal for How the venom operates is not shown, but from the lucid account given by Dr. Ewing we may infer that it acts partly by reducing the alkalinity of the blood, an increase of which is known to raise the germicidal power, and partly perhaps by the direct influence of the toxic principle. In any case the results seem to confirm the views that normal healthy blood serum is a powerful protective agency against the inroads of bacterial infection, and that toxines act harmfully not merely by their direct effect, but equally, if not more fully, by lowering this resistant power of the blood against secondary infections.
venom.
THE DEATH OF DR. TWINING. THE sad death of Dr. Alfred Hughes Twining of Salcombe illustrates the evil consequences which may attend practical joking. The deceased gentleman, whilst driving at night along a country road, was the victim of a foolish local custom, which prevails among the inhabitants of the district on May Day, of"ducking " each other with water. Two boys, together with others, were keeping up the custom, when the carriage in which Dr. Twining was returning home happened to pass, and the boys, it is alleged, threw water over the horse, causing the animal to bolt, with the result that the vehicle was overturned and the occupants were thrown violently to the ground. Dr. Twining was taken to the South Devon and Cornwall Hospital, where he was found to be suffering from dislocation of the left ankle and a fractured leg. On Saturday, May 5th, five days after the accident, it was found necessary to amputate from the thigh, and the operation was performed on the following day, but the unfortunate gentleman never rallied from the shock and died the next day. It was pleaded on behalf of the boys at the inquest that the water was thrown with" no malicious intention and that the practice of " ducking was a common one The jury, however, returned a verdict of on May Day. "manslaughter" against the two lads, and the coroner expressed the hope that the present case would be the means of stopping a very dangerous practice in the district.
once more
OPHTHALMIA IN POOR-LAW SCHOOLS. OPHTHALMIA among the children of our Poor-law schools is, from whatever point of view it may be regarded, a subject for serious consideration. It is a disease that is always more or less present, and is liable, under certain unhygienic conditions of living to which the children of the poor are so frequently exposed, to develop into outbreaks, with consequences to vision that are occasionally disastrous and almost invariably attended with ocular troubles that are distressing to witness in children and often difficult of cure. The great thing, of course, to be aimed at from a sanitary point of view is to prevent the occurrence of epidemic ophthalmia and to limit the spread of the disease when it does make its appearance; and, from a curative point of view, to treat the disease in its initial stage before any real damage has been done to the eye. An outbreak of ophthalmia often occurs more or less suddenly and provision has at once to be made for the removal or isolation of the affected children and for their accommodation, classification, and treatment. These are matters which cannot be properly accomplished in a hurry, and they frequently entail a considerable expenditure of money in providing temporary buildings, which may not be needed when the occasion for them has passed away. The history of the London District Schools
dealing with the ophthalmia in pauper schools. He contends that just as the Metropolitan Asylums Board provides for the proper care and isolation of cases of infectious disease so there should be some adequate central establishment in connexion with the Poor-law school system for the treatment of children suffering from ophthalmia. He argues that the advantages of, and the saving by, such a plan would be very great. Children suffering from ophthalmia could be at once transferred to an establishment where they would be promptly and efficiently treated and provided for. In this way the risk of the spread of the disease and of its epidemic prevalence in school communities would be removed, and the great expense incurred at present by the multiplied provision of isolation departments at the various schools would be avoided. While we are not at all disposed to underrate the advantages of such a scheme, as set forth on paper, we think that it presents difficulties which will require to be very carefully thought out before it is practically adopted. The nature and extent of accommodation to be provided ; the site of the proposed institution as regards airiness and salubrity and amount of acreage and its accessibility; the organisation necessary for the transfer of the affected children, and the working of the system generally, together with the estimated cost of the proposal: all these are matters that must be seriously taken into account, to say nothing of what might be the possible effect of aggregating a large number of children affected with ophthalmia in one and the same building. FORTHCOMING EXHIBITION OF HYGIENE AT BOULOGNE. AN International Exhibition of Hygiene will be held this at Boulogne-sur-Mer, the popular seaside resort, which has so often been qualified as the most English town out of England. Most of the sanitary reformers whose names we have had occasion to mention in connexion with sanitary work in France are assisting in preparing this exhibition. For instance, we find among these patrons the names of M. Henri Monod, Councillor of State and Director of the Sanitary Services of France ; Dr. Brouardel, Dean of the Paris Faculty of Medicine; M. Pasteur ; Dr. Proust, Inspector-General of the Sanitary Services ; Dr. Napias. Dr. A. J. Martin ; M. Emile Trelat, the eminent architect and authority on Ventilation ; M. Bechmann, the engineer; and M. Louis Masson, the Sanitary Inspector of Paris. Dr. Aigre,l mayor of Boulogne, is the president of the Organis ing Committee, and he is assisted by the chief medical men, municipal councillors, engineers, and other local notabilities. The exhibition will last from July 15th to Sept. 15th and is to be inaugurated by the Minister of the Interior. From July 25th to 29th a Medical Hydrotherapic Congress will meet at Boulogne under the presidency of Professor Verneuil, of the Institute, and Dr. Bergeron, perpetual£ secretary of the Academy of Medicine. The exhibition will be built immediately behind the Casino, on the Quai Gambetta, where the old custom-house used to be. It will be divided into five groups. The first group, Dcmestic Hygiene, has three classes. The first class emb,races the question of the housing of the poor, the supply and sterilisa tion of water, domestic drainage, the abolition of the smoke nuisance, heating and ventilating, &c.; the second class dea1f: with food-supply and storage. The first class of the second summer
1 See THE LANCET, March 18th, 1893, for an account of Dr. action during the cholera epidemic at Portal and Boulogne.
Aigred