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OUR EPILEPTIC COLONY.
250 we ever heard such views expressed, and we are certain that if e:Eect were given to them the damage done to those great interests which are involved in public health questions would be irretrievable. But the alderman announced that the post of medical officer of health was a sinecure, and this is, we expect, the secret of the curious views which are held by If this post is ever a some of the notabilities of Dunstable. sinecure we must blame the miserable salary which is intended to serve as a hint that no work is expected or wanted, or the fact that the medical officer of health never receives the support of his council when he advises as to action that should be taken. What the precise cause of the alleged nuisance is in Dunstable we do not know, and, since the Mayor and Mr. Councillor Perkins did their best to save the reputation of the council, we need not inquire whether the statement is correct or the reverse. The former urged the reappointment of the present officer, and the latter pertinently asked whether people usually discharged their servants just as they became accustomed to their work, and in the end the council were unanimous in re-electing Mr. Morcom for one year only.
of these invalid settlers was only what might have beeo expected under their greatly improved vital conditions. Their efficiency as cultivators afforded the most gratifying proof of this improvement, and the fact that the attainment of these desirable ends was found to be compatible with a noteworthy economy in expenditure ought to reassure any who may still be disposed to doubt the wisdom of aiding with their means this new departure in the treatment of disease. We feel confident, therefore, in supporting th: appeal issued a few days ago on behalf of our national colony by the chairman of the executive committee. A sum of Z1200 received up to the date of that request has been found altogether inadequate to the purposes which the committee have in view. It certainly seems exceedingly meagre compared with the annual subsidy of .630,000 allotted to Bielefeld in a much less wealthy country than our own. We feel assured that the present difficulty need only be mentioned in connexion with a work so deserving and so fruitful of good as we have shown this to be in order to open more widely the justly-generous purse of the British public. BOILER EXPLOSIONS.
THE LONDON POST-GRADUATE COURSE.
OUR remarks upon the Board of Trade report on boiler DURING the spring term, which will commence on issued about this time last year, apply with-fresh, explosions, Monday, Feb. 3rd, there will be classes at Moorfields (Eye), and even greater, force to the report just recently issued. In Blackfriars (Skin), Bethlem (Mind), Great Portland-street the report issued in 1895 the total number of boiler explosions (Throat, Nose, and Ear), King’s College (Bacteriology), was 104, of which 21 occurred in the case of Cleveland-street (General Medicine and Surgery), Parkes investigated domestic heating apparatus. In the report now before us the Museum (Public Health and Hygiene), and at the Institute of total number of explosions investigated was 114, of which 27
Preventive Medicine (Urine Testing). The hours at which the lectures are to be given will all be in the afternoon and evening, so that the practitioner can attend. The fees are payable for single courses, and are from 1 to 3 guineas each. Early entries are desirable so that the classes may be formed. During 1895 nearly 200 practitioners attended. They came from all parts of the Empire and from the most distant countries of the world. A central building, which would naturally aid in the organisation and multiplication of the classes and extension of the work, has become a necessity and is in contemplation. Entries will be received by Dr. Fletcher Little, secretary, 32, Harley-street, W. OUR EPILEPTIC COLONY.
COMMONLY the accepted gauge of success in colonising is the measure of commercial profit. There is, however, one exception to this rule. It is the case in which the colonists Establishments like those of Bielefeld, Chalare epileptic. the American and font, colony in Tennessee must be judged In them the return from land, or standard. another by even from work, is not calculated in money alone..This form of advantage, indeed, is not forgotten, but it is not The farm is before the one or even the first consideration. all things a training school designed and administered It is a hospital planted out in on sanitary principles. cottage fashion, partly self-supporting, but mainly dependent, as it needs must be, upon public or private charity. It is chiefly as a therapeutic enterprise that it now claims our attention. Viewed in this light it possesses a great and peculiar interest. Furthermore it is only necessary to examine the reports published from time to time respecting the German institution which forms the prototype of its class in order to prove success by the results of wise and careful treatment. The respectful flattery of imitation has not been wanting to it, and the work done for thirty years in a Westphalian village has been reproduced on a varying scale not only in Germany itself, but in Great Britain, America, Holland, and Switzerland. In THE LANCET of Nov. 17th, 1894, we published a detailed account of the epileptic colony recently founded at Chalfont, in Buckinghamshire. The marked improvement in the health
due to domestic heating appliances ; so that the number of cases inquired into shows a small increase upon the number recorded in the preceding year, while the number of persons killed and injured is larger than in any year since the Boiler Explosions Act came into force. This increase, however, was due to some exceptionally serious accidents at industrial works, and an unusual number of domestic boiler explosions consequent upon a prolonged period of severe frost. The latter accidents were, in the main, the result of undue pressure in the boiler arising from the freezing of the water in some part of the apparatus. The lesson is taught afresh, therefore, of the need of measures to prevent such occurrences. We believe this would be amply met by the use of a safety-valve placed in a convenient and accessible recess so as to permit of inspection and testing from time to time. So far the present winter has, happily, not been very severe, and should it continue without a " cold snapsuch as we experienced in the previous season we may hope to find a complete absence of accidents and disasters in the next Board of Trade report. But then, such a satisfactory result ought to serve as a lesson of equal force as when disaster happens, and it must be borne in mind that the foretelling of weather is not at present an exact science.
were
THE SMALL-POX EPIDEMIC AT GLOUCESTER. THE Gloucester Board of Guardians, who do not enforce the Vaccination Acts, discussed at their meeting last weeka minute of a special meeting of the sanitary committee of the City Council, which stated that the number of cases of small-pox in the Infectious Diseases Hospital was thirty-six, that others had been notified, and urged that vaccination should be enforced as the only means of staying the epidemic. After a long discussion the board passed a resolution recommending parents to have their unvaccinated children immediately operated upon, and stating where this vaccination and the revaccination of adults would be performed. The action of the sanitary committee was influenced in an effective manner by the resolutions passed at a meeting of the members of the medical profession of Gloucester held on the 16th inst., on the invitation of the committee to advice
of these invalid settlers was only what might have beeo expected under their greatly improved vital conditions. Their efficiency as cultivators afforded the most gratifying proof of this improvement, and the fact that the attainment of these desirable ends was found to be compatible with a noteworthy economy in expenditure ought to reassure any who may still be disposed to doubt the wisdom of aiding with their means this new departure in the treatment of disease. We feel confident, therefore, in supporting th: appeal issued a few days ago on behalf of our national colony by the chairman of the executive committee. A sum of Z1200 received up to the date of that request has been found altogether inadequate to the purposes which the committee have in view. It certainly seems exceedingly meagre compared with the annual subsidy of .630,000 allotted to Bielefeld in a much less wealthy country than our own. We feel assured that the present difficulty need only be mentioned in connexion with a work so deserving and so fruitful of good as we have shown this to be in order to open more widely the justly-generous purse of the British public. BOILER EXPLOSIONS.
THE LONDON POST-GRADUATE COURSE.
OUR remarks upon the Board of Trade report on boiler DURING the spring term, which will commence on issued about this time last year, apply with-fresh, explosions, Monday, Feb. 3rd, there will be classes at Moorfields (Eye), and even greater, force to the report just recently issued. In Blackfriars (Skin), Bethlem (Mind), Great Portland-street the report issued in 1895 the total number of boiler explosions (Throat, Nose, and Ear), King’s College (Bacteriology), was 104, of which 21 occurred in the case of Cleveland-street (General Medicine and Surgery), Parkes investigated domestic heating apparatus. In the report now before us the Museum (Public Health and Hygiene), and at the Institute of total number of explosions investigated was 114, of which 27
Preventive Medicine (Urine Testing). The hours at which the lectures are to be given will all be in the afternoon and evening, so that the practitioner can attend. The fees are payable for single courses, and are from 1 to 3 guineas each. Early entries are desirable so that the classes may be formed. During 1895 nearly 200 practitioners attended. They came from all parts of the Empire and from the most distant countries of the world. A central building, which would naturally aid in the organisation and multiplication of the classes and extension of the work, has become a necessity and is in contemplation. Entries will be received by Dr. Fletcher Little, secretary, 32, Harley-street, W. OUR EPILEPTIC COLONY.
COMMONLY the accepted gauge of success in colonising is the measure of commercial profit. There is, however, one exception to this rule. It is the case in which the colonists Establishments like those of Bielefeld, Chalare epileptic. the American and font, colony in Tennessee must be judged In them the return from land, or standard. another by even from work, is not calculated in money alone..This form of advantage, indeed, is not forgotten, but it is not The farm is before the one or even the first consideration. all things a training school designed and administered It is a hospital planted out in on sanitary principles. cottage fashion, partly self-supporting, but mainly dependent, as it needs must be, upon public or private charity. It is chiefly as a therapeutic enterprise that it now claims our attention. Viewed in this light it possesses a great and peculiar interest. Furthermore it is only necessary to examine the reports published from time to time respecting the German institution which forms the prototype of its class in order to prove success by the results of wise and careful treatment. The respectful flattery of imitation has not been wanting to it, and the work done for thirty years in a Westphalian village has been reproduced on a varying scale not only in Germany itself, but in Great Britain, America, Holland, and Switzerland. In THE LANCET of Nov. 17th, 1894, we published a detailed account of the epileptic colony recently founded at Chalfont, in Buckinghamshire. The marked improvement in the health
due to domestic heating appliances ; so that the number of cases inquired into shows a small increase upon the number recorded in the preceding year, while the number of persons killed and injured is larger than in any year since the Boiler Explosions Act came into force. This increase, however, was due to some exceptionally serious accidents at industrial works, and an unusual number of domestic boiler explosions consequent upon a prolonged period of severe frost. The latter accidents were, in the main, the result of undue pressure in the boiler arising from the freezing of the water in some part of the apparatus. The lesson is taught afresh, therefore, of the need of measures to prevent such occurrences. We believe this would be amply met by the use of a safety-valve placed in a convenient and accessible recess so as to permit of inspection and testing from time to time. So far the present winter has, happily, not been very severe, and should it continue without a " cold snapsuch as we experienced in the previous season we may hope to find a complete absence of accidents and disasters in the next Board of Trade report. But then, such a satisfactory result ought to serve as a lesson of equal force as when disaster happens, and it must be borne in mind that the foretelling of weather is not at present an exact science.
were
THE SMALL-POX EPIDEMIC AT GLOUCESTER. THE Gloucester Board of Guardians, who do not enforce the Vaccination Acts, discussed at their meeting last weeka minute of a special meeting of the sanitary committee of the City Council, which stated that the number of cases of small-pox in the Infectious Diseases Hospital was thirty-six, that others had been notified, and urged that vaccination should be enforced as the only means of staying the epidemic. After a long discussion the board passed a resolution recommending parents to have their unvaccinated children immediately operated upon, and stating where this vaccination and the revaccination of adults would be performed. The action of the sanitary committee was influenced in an effective manner by the resolutions passed at a meeting of the members of the medical profession of Gloucester held on the 16th inst., on the invitation of the committee to advice