Pharmacology and Therapeutics.

41 ’those who are dependent on them; in others, there has been less willingness to incur the expenditure which is necessary for this purpose, and, strangely enough, amongst those which bave been less active in this direction are localities that are more immediately exposed to risk of infection from without than are some others. There are probably no towns more exposed to risks of the .sort we have indicated than those which are situated on the waterside between London and the mouth of the Thames. Gravesend is known to be a special defaulter in this respect, but it by no means stands alone; the report recently issued by the Local Government Board gives but too grave an account of sanitary negligence in other districts of that neighbourhood. We have therefore thought it well to discuss in these columns the sanitary condition of other waterside towns in Kent, and we have directed our attention, in the first instance, to the towns of Rochester and Strood, which are .situated respectively on the right and left banks of the river

Medway.

for the

of emptying each cesspool, the charge being business its size. The surface-water is according proportioned removed by means of drains, which discharge into the river and carried the foreshore position Medway,high instances the and low mark. In between have connected their cesspools with these drains, inhabitants the banks of the river. and thus the overflow to

to a,

on

are

water

some

passes on to The unsatisfactory nature of these arrangements appears to be well understood, and recently a firm of engineers submitted to the sanitary authorities of Rochester, Chatham, and Gillingham a scheme for the combined sewerage of these towns. It was proposed that the sewage should be utilised, and that the enlnent, after purification, should be discharged into the Medway, not far remote from Gillingham. But the estimated expenditure proved a stumbling-block. The greatest opposition came from Chatham and Gillingham, and in the end the scheme was abandoned. (To be continued.)

Rochester forms part of a sanitary district which includes only the parishes of St. Nicholas, Rochester, Precinct Cathedral, St. Margaret, and Chatham (intra) on the one .side of the Medway, but also the parishes of Strood and Frindsbury on the other side of the river. The sanitary MENTHOL PLASTER. district is not therefore coterminous with either the registraTHE menthol plaster recently introduced into England by tion districts of Medway or North Aylesford, but includes a part of each. The total population of the district numbered Messrs. Burroughs, Wellcome, and Co. for the American at the last census 21,307 persons, that on the right bank of National Plaster Company is a good preparation. The the river being 14,240 in 2582 inhabited houses. During the to our inspection has the agreeable submitted specimen year 1885 the death-rate for the whole district was 18 5 per odour of peppermint, and indicates its nature also by the 1000 of population; but if the deaths occurring in public of the menthol vapour on the conjunctivæ. We gave action districts be institutions receiving patients from other ,excluded, the rate is reduced to 14’9 per 1000. During this a plaster of it to a patient who complained of pain ,year, of a total of nine deaths from diphtheria in the whole below the left breast. She expressed herself as greatly district eight occurred in the Medway division, and of four relieved by the application, which appeared to be more total deaths from enteric fever three occurred in the and to have greater effect than the belladonna agreeable Medway division. Of these two diseases, therefore, the which she had previously worn. The writer applied from the North as distinct plaster or Rochester division, Medway a strip of the plaster to his brow whilst suffering from an Aylesford or Strood division, suffered out of all proportion attack of megrim. The action of the menthol was decidedly to the extent of population. Rochester and Strood have shared with other towns the refreshing; it did not cure the headache, but seemed to abate benefits of an improved water-supply. Thirty years ago its intensity, and even rendered movement less distressing. two companies began to give facilities to the inhabitants ACETANILIDE, OR ANTIFEBRINE. for procuring water from deep wells in the chalk. Until R. -11. Lepine has published in the Lyon Médicale an this time the townspeople had nothing but wells in connexion with each house for their supply. These wells,account of a number of observations he has made both on situated in many instances in close proximity to cesspools,animals and on patients of the action of this drug. He finds it is a very valuable " nervine"in doses of seven and .readily became contaminated, and proved a fertile source ofthat - disease to the inhabitants. Gradually the majority of thesea half grains, producing as great an effect on the lightning wells have been abandoned, and at the present time some pains of patients suffering from locomotor ataxy as a drachm . so of antipyrin. Like the latter, it lowers the temperature three-fourths of the houses in Rochester and nine-tenths ofor the houses in Strood derive their water from the publicin fevers, and is preferred to antipyrine by patients because does not produce a condition of semi-intoxication, as ,supply. In 1880 the waterworks supplying the latter townit passed into the hands of the Corporation, who thereuponfantipyrine in large doses is apt to do. expended .611,000 in their extension, and provided a BICARBONATE OF SODA IN TONSILLITIS. .sufficient quantity of water both for Strood and Frindsbury, The treatment of tonsillitis by frequent local applications and for more than three years a large majority of the houses in these three towns have been on constant service. of carbonate of soda, which has been practised and recomThe attention of the medical officer of health, Dr. Sladen-mended by Dr. D. Juan Gine, has been put to a series of tests 1by another Spanish physician, Dr. D. Rovira y Oliver, who .Knight, and of the surveyor, Mr. Banks, is being directed to(deduces from them the opinion that, though it is often benethe remaining houses receiving their water from local wells; in ficial cases where the parenchyma of the tonsil is affected, have been for each the relative maps prepared, showing is of much less value than many other applications in cases ,1_)ositions of wells and cesspools and the distance betweenit them, and efforts are being made to induce the inhabitantswhich are merely superficial, and catarrhal. to have their houses connected with the mains of the QUILLAJA SAPONARIA AS AN EXPECTORANT. waterworks. Thus, during the year 1885, 117 samples of Dr. Maslovski has used the root of quillaja saponaria, water were examined by the former officer, and some 60 which was recommended by Kobert, as a substitute for wells were closed. Fenega in a number of different pulmonary affections, and But while the local authority deserve credit for their finds that it is a valuable expectorant. It is, however recognition of the necessity of an ample supply of whole- ccontra-indicated where haemoptysis is present. towns some water, they have failed to keep pace with other :in providing proper means for the disposal and removal of BENZOIN RESIN IN ULCERS. - excremental matter. Speaking generally, the whole of the Dr. Woskresenski, writing in the Russkaya Meditsina on sanitary district depends solely upon cesspools. Thesetthe use of benzoin resin as a popular remedy for ulcers, says receptacles vary from ten feet and more in depth. They are,that t he has frequently employed an ointment of the strength as a rule, bricked, but must nevertheless afford ample means of four drachms to the ounce spread on lint, and renewed 0 for the pollution of the soil beneath the towns. The smallerttwice a day, with excellent results. ,cesspools are emptied every year, but the larger retain their RESORCIN IN CONDYLOMATA AND MUCOUS PATCHES. ’1ilth for four or tive years. The contents are removed at Dr. Gachkovski mentions in a Russian medical journal in which in some to coninstances have be might buckets, t] he has applied resorcin as a dusting powder to thirtyveyed through the houses to enable them to be emptied that f( into the cart. The sanitary authority exercise little or no four cases of acute condylomata which he has met with in control over the operation, the inhabitants making their own the tJ last five years, with the most satisfactory results. In o: case where there were no less than arrangements with a contractor, who charges from £1 to £5 one thirty condylomata not

Pharmacology

,.

and

Therapeutics.

42 on

one of them as large as a raspberry, a daily of resorcin reduced them all in the course of a Mucous patches, too, were easily cured by resorcin, the cure was not permanent, as recurrence always

the prepuce,

application week.

practise. At the same time they could not object to any possible opposition. Naturally opposition might be expected to

from the Universities, for those who possess power are loth to see it shared by others. When Durham University was established it was opposed by Cambridge and Oxford. lle TREATMENT OF ERYSIPELAS. did not believe that such opposition would arise from any For the treatment of erysipelas Dr. Archangelski has tried feeling of jealousy of the Colleges; but he could understand that the Universities would be unwilling to see a number of applications, and finds that their comparative efficiency is represented by arranging them in the following any degree granted on conditions less honourable than In this he himself concurred, order: (1) benzoic acid; (2) tincture of iodine and turpentine, those of other bodies. as ointment; (3) sulphate of copper; (4) sulphate of iron; holding that a degree should be a distinction as well a title. That was the question they had to settle. (5) oxide of zinc; (6) naphthalln; (7) solution of perchloride as A degree would have to be obtained somewhere or other, of mercury, 1 to 300; (8) chloride of zinc; (9) iodoform. whether through a teaching university or through the CASCARA PASTILS. Colleges; and if a university were independently started in London, the Colleges would stand in a peculiar position The liquid extract of cascara sagrada though a valuable is Sir W. Gull’s suggestion was opportune, not a palatable.drug. Mr. Martindale has prepared some with regard to it. if instituted an additional examination as the basis for they pastils containing the liquid extract. These gelatinous of the degree, the opposition of the Universities would be morsels can be rapidly swallowed without effecting the and no doubt such a step would benefit the disarmed; That the sensation of taste in any noticeable degree. as well as the profession, by stamping men as fully pastils possess purgative properties we know from personal public in clinical medicine and surgery. The College qualified experience. a duty to the profession, but if it had to abandon the owed FOB.MIC ACID A DISINFECTANT. scheme, let it abandon it altogether. The College could of Formic acid, according to Dr. Voitoff, who has made a course change its opinion, but it had already gone too far number of experiments on cultures of pyogenic micro- to retreat with honour, and if it deserted the profession now organisms, is a specific against their success, and so may be it would do an injustice, and bring discredit on itself. If the considered as an excellent disinfectant. College sought the powers and failed, it would have done its best to remedy this acknowledged grievance. But why should it not succeed ? Some thought it anomalous for THE COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS AND MEDICAL Colleges to grant degrees, but they forgot that the University of was founded as a College, and existed as such DEGREES. for over a century; and, to come down to modern times, they had seen instituted in London by Royal Charter a THE adjourned debate upon Dr. Allchin’s amendment to College of Music, with power to confer degrees of Bachelor, the report of the Committee of Delegates upon Medical Master, and Doctor of Music. If a College can be instiDegrees took place at the Royal College of Physicians on tuted by Charter, why not a Medical Faculty ? As regards Dec. 23rd, Sir W. Jenner, Bart., President, in the chair. There the teaching university, it must be remembered that all things develop by degrees. They would endeavour was a large attendance of Fellows. to get power for the two Colleges to grant degrees in Sir H. PITMAN spoke first, and passed in review the premedicine, and other faculties would in time crystallisevious resolutions of the College upon the subject, which, around them. But if they held their hands, and waited judging from the debate, he feared had been lost sight of until a complete university was established, they might possibly be left outside altogether, and would lose by some of the Fellows. In 1884, upon the motion of Dr. very their acknowledged position at the head of medical educaWilson Fox, the College referred to the Medical Bill Comand if they failed to grasp the present opportunity, tion ; mittee to consider how far it was desirable that the College their claim to deal with the question would be gone for should obtain powers to confer the title of Doctor of Medicine ever. Dr. MATTHEW’S DUNCAN, whilst agreeing with nearly all upon its Licentiates. To this resolution there was no opposition, the only material change being a further reference of Sir H. Pitman’s remarks, still maintained that the essence of for suggestion of any other means whereby the alleged the question had not yet been touched. The report contained grievance to medical students, so thoroughly educated and statements which were far from being confirmed. It spoke examined, might be remedied. That Committee reported of the " schools associated with the Colleges," but was it that it was desirable that increased facilities should be sure of the co-operation of the schools and of their hospitals? afforded for obtaining the degree of M.D., and recommended How could a teaching university be instituted without that the two Colleges should immediately take steps, either teachers ? The project evidently aimed at such a university in co-operation with an existing University or by indepen- but there was no word as to its constitution, who were to dent action, to secure this end. An interval now elapsed form its senators, or in what relation the College councils pending the scheme for the conjunction of the Colleges were to stand to it. All were agreed as to the grievance, and its sanction by the Medical Council; and, this and that the Colleges would be honourably engaged in done, a further remarkable and instructive portion of trying to remedy it, but there the difficulties of the history of the question occurred. This was the recep- arose. They had to distinguish between a university and tion of a letter from the Royal College of Surgeons request- a college, and he held that a College such as this was ing the College of Physicians to nominate seven delegates distinct from a university, and its functions would be (later increased to ten) to meet the same number from their swamped in the new body. The College would lose its College, in order to determine what steps, if any, could be established position, and become a rival of other Universitaken to enable the two Colleges to obtain the legal right ties. No doubt it would have done a great work, but it of granting the title of Doctor to persons who have passed would be work foreign to the duties of the College; it the examinations of the Conjoint Board. It was scarcely would create a new body and would involve its own ruin. Dr. ORD congratulated Dr. Allchin on his speech, but possible that the College of Surgeons would have proposed this unless they had known that the College of Physicians maintained that, although himself greatly interested in the had previously viewed the matter favourably. No question work of the Teaching University Association, he could not was raised as to the desirability of this step, and the report support the amendment, for he felt that the Colleges, if of the delegates was now before the College. He thought they prosecuted this matter earnestly, would be in the Fellows could hardly have recollected this history, harmony with the objects of the Association. The power when they were asked to assent to an amendment which and influence of the Colleges would be of great value in was so adverse to the spirit in which the College had been effecting this quickly; and it was in the belief that a univeracting. Moreover, the College had some time ago received sity organisation would thus be originated that lie urged the a most influential memorial urging the combination of the rejection of an amendment the effect of which was to stop Colleges to form one Royal College of Medicine with power all progress. Sir ANDREW CLARK did not think that perfect unanito grant degrees. It was for the advantage of the profession, and it would be to the honour of the College by being mity could be expected, but considered that in discussingthea useful to the profession, that the candidates approved by principle it was important not to anticipate the details of them should have something more than a bare qualification scheme. He warned the College that if Dr Allchin’s amend-

though took place. .

Edinburgh

the question

working