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POOR RELIEF IN FRANCE.
1170 Russian oil type, whilst not
one was of the Scotch oil type flash having point at or over 100° F. " In fact, not one came within about 11° of that standard." This seems paradoxical, but the reservoir when the low flash oil is used soon becomes charged with such an excess of oil-vapour that it ceases to be explosive as there is not enough air mixed with it. It appears that in Manchester and Salford more of the low flash point American oils have been sold than of the higher flash oils of Russian type, and the probabilities are that the latter are more than four times more dangerous as regards explosions, " as the conditions of temperature of the room and the lamp were such as to give more often the conditions necessary for producing a mixture of oil-vapour and air capable of producing the most violent explosions." If the lamp is upset or broken the danger of the oil catching fire is much greater with that of low flash point than with that where the flash point is higher and the flame spreads more rapidly, especially if the oil at the time of the accident is, as is usually the case, at a temperature considerably above that of the air. Mr. Thomson writes, "It had been suggested that the Government should take the usual plan of settling such matters by splitting the difference between the contending standards of 3° and 100° F.," but he thinks that 85° or 88° would be distinctly worse than 73°. Taking all the facts into consideration, both of danger from explosions in bad lamps and of danger from the upsetting and breaking of lamps, Mr. Thomson thinks the standard fixed for the flash point of petroleum oils should not be lower than 1000 F. Whatever may be decided as to the flash point, it is much to be desired that the lamps should be made safer and that there should be some control over .their sale, so that the public may be protected-for a large section of it needs protection-against dangerous a
lamps.
-
POOR RELIEF IN FRANCE.
bi-monthly periodical was issued in Paris in this year under the editorship and management of January M. Albin Rousselet, who is well known to the medical profession in France as the sub-editor of the Progres Médical. It is entitled L’ Assistance Pllbliq lie and is devoted to all questions relating to poor relief. This is ’a matter of all the more importance as there is no Poor-law in France such as exists in England and therefore the submerged section of the population is in a more precarious position. This state of affairs is modified doubtless by a very recent law bearing the date of July 15th, 1893. The first clause of this law states : " All French subjects who are ill and possess no resources may receive gratuitously from the commune, the department, or the State "-answering to our parish, county, or State-" according to the relief district in which he lives, medical assistance." This it will be A NEW
of patients cannot benefit from the law, though there Of course, is no moral reason for their exclusion. there are one or two notable exceptions due, howFor ,instance, the hospitals of ever, to private charity. Ormesson and Villiers and the sanitary colonies of Noisy and Tremilly have treated 9514 children suffering from tuberculosis, giving a total of 326,859 days spent in these hospitals, and claim that 30 per cent. of the patients were cured. Nevertheless, there is no general and national for the treatment of the poor whose poverty is aggrasystem vated by this very prevalent disease. This is one of the questions which this new periodical is bringing forward very prominently. Another question is the treatment of the trained hospital nurses, not merely with regard to the very meagre salaries which they receive, but with respect to the honours bestowed upon them. M. Rousselet points out that only two nurses, Mademoiselle Bottard of the Salpetriere Hospital and Madame Brochard of the Tenon Hospital, have received the Cross of the Legion of Honour. The Minister of Commerce gives to those who have faithfully served the State for 30 years a medal of honour and the right to wear a tricolour ribbon. It is now claimed that hospital nurses, both male and female, who have an equally honourable and lengthy record of services rendered, should be entitled to the This proposal has received the support same honour. of Dr. Napias, the recently appointed Director of the Public Assistance in Paris, and perhaps in the course of time it will be definitely adopted by the Government. The interests of those members of the medical prowhose business it is to attend to the poor are also represented in the new periodical. It is urged that if the poor are to be properly treated the medical attendant must receive a reasonable remuneration, so that he may be able to afford the time necessary to do his duty in a satisfactory manner. Altogether, our new contemporary has a wide field of useful work before it and the appearance of this publication is the more appropriate as it will be the organ of a great international congress to be held next year in Paris for the purpose of discussing all the problems relating to the relief of the poor.
fession
CHANGES IN THE SPINAL CORD IN PERNICIOUS ANÆMIA.
recent number of the Neurologisches Centralblatt appears an abstract of an important paper published by Dr. Wilhelm Gobel in the Mittheil1lngen aus den Ha1nb11/rgischen Staatskrankenanstalten. The writer had subjected to close examination the cords from six cases of pernicious anaemia, especially by means of Marchi’s method. The first case was that of a woman, aged 63 years, who had had no spinal symptoms, and in her case the cord showed only very seen only applies to those who are suffering from someI slight alteration in the anterior columns with no changes in form of illness ; the able-bodied pauper is not included in the vessels. In the second case, that of a man, aged 51 this law. But L’Assistance Publiq2ce points out that even years, in whom during life the knee-jerk.s were absent, there among those who are ill, and very seriously ill, there is a was visible partial degeneration of the extra-medullary large class of patients who cannot benefit from this enact- posterior roots of the lumbar and lower dorsal oord. The indigenous sufferers from phthisis, though Examination by Nissl’s method also showed cell changes ment. possessing the triple qualification of being French subjects, in the cervical cord. The third case, that of a child, aged of being ill, and poor, are not received in the hospitals. five years, showed no changes in the spinal cord. The fourth Practically they are outlawed. At best the phthisical case, that of a man, aged 63 years, with loss of knee-jerks, patient is admitted into a hospital when he is at the showed microscopic changes in widespread asymmetrical point of death. This is done in the main to avoid the alterations of the posterior columns, especially in the cerscandal of his dying in the public streets, but no real vical region. There were also slight changes in the pyramidal effort is made to save and to cure. The excuse given tracts visible with the microscope and also alteration in the is that the hospitals have not the means of treating cells of the grey matter. The fifth case was that of a chronic diseases of this description and that there woman, aged 50 years, who had weakness of the legs, loss are not a sufficient number of beds to admit this class of knee-jerk, and weakness of the bladder. There were of patients. As matters now stand this is all true only slight alterations in the lumbar cord. In the cervical enough ; but the fact remains that this particular class region there was symmetrical affection of the posterior
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a
one was of the Scotch oil type flash having point at or over 100° F. " In fact, not one came within about 11° of that standard." This seems paradoxical, but the reservoir when the low flash oil is used soon becomes charged with such an excess of oil-vapour that it ceases to be explosive as there is not enough air mixed with it. It appears that in Manchester and Salford more of the low flash point American oils have been sold than of the higher flash oils of Russian type, and the probabilities are that the latter are more than four times more dangerous as regards explosions, " as the conditions of temperature of the room and the lamp were such as to give more often the conditions necessary for producing a mixture of oil-vapour and air capable of producing the most violent explosions." If the lamp is upset or broken the danger of the oil catching fire is much greater with that of low flash point than with that where the flash point is higher and the flame spreads more rapidly, especially if the oil at the time of the accident is, as is usually the case, at a temperature considerably above that of the air. Mr. Thomson writes, "It had been suggested that the Government should take the usual plan of settling such matters by splitting the difference between the contending standards of 3° and 100° F.," but he thinks that 85° or 88° would be distinctly worse than 73°. Taking all the facts into consideration, both of danger from explosions in bad lamps and of danger from the upsetting and breaking of lamps, Mr. Thomson thinks the standard fixed for the flash point of petroleum oils should not be lower than 1000 F. Whatever may be decided as to the flash point, it is much to be desired that the lamps should be made safer and that there should be some control over .their sale, so that the public may be protected-for a large section of it needs protection-against dangerous a
lamps.
-
POOR RELIEF IN FRANCE.
bi-monthly periodical was issued in Paris in this year under the editorship and management of January M. Albin Rousselet, who is well known to the medical profession in France as the sub-editor of the Progres Médical. It is entitled L’ Assistance Pllbliq lie and is devoted to all questions relating to poor relief. This is ’a matter of all the more importance as there is no Poor-law in France such as exists in England and therefore the submerged section of the population is in a more precarious position. This state of affairs is modified doubtless by a very recent law bearing the date of July 15th, 1893. The first clause of this law states : " All French subjects who are ill and possess no resources may receive gratuitously from the commune, the department, or the State "-answering to our parish, county, or State-" according to the relief district in which he lives, medical assistance." This it will be A NEW
of patients cannot benefit from the law, though there Of course, is no moral reason for their exclusion. there are one or two notable exceptions due, howFor ,instance, the hospitals of ever, to private charity. Ormesson and Villiers and the sanitary colonies of Noisy and Tremilly have treated 9514 children suffering from tuberculosis, giving a total of 326,859 days spent in these hospitals, and claim that 30 per cent. of the patients were cured. Nevertheless, there is no general and national for the treatment of the poor whose poverty is aggrasystem vated by this very prevalent disease. This is one of the questions which this new periodical is bringing forward very prominently. Another question is the treatment of the trained hospital nurses, not merely with regard to the very meagre salaries which they receive, but with respect to the honours bestowed upon them. M. Rousselet points out that only two nurses, Mademoiselle Bottard of the Salpetriere Hospital and Madame Brochard of the Tenon Hospital, have received the Cross of the Legion of Honour. The Minister of Commerce gives to those who have faithfully served the State for 30 years a medal of honour and the right to wear a tricolour ribbon. It is now claimed that hospital nurses, both male and female, who have an equally honourable and lengthy record of services rendered, should be entitled to the This proposal has received the support same honour. of Dr. Napias, the recently appointed Director of the Public Assistance in Paris, and perhaps in the course of time it will be definitely adopted by the Government. The interests of those members of the medical prowhose business it is to attend to the poor are also represented in the new periodical. It is urged that if the poor are to be properly treated the medical attendant must receive a reasonable remuneration, so that he may be able to afford the time necessary to do his duty in a satisfactory manner. Altogether, our new contemporary has a wide field of useful work before it and the appearance of this publication is the more appropriate as it will be the organ of a great international congress to be held next year in Paris for the purpose of discussing all the problems relating to the relief of the poor.
fession
CHANGES IN THE SPINAL CORD IN PERNICIOUS ANÆMIA.
recent number of the Neurologisches Centralblatt appears an abstract of an important paper published by Dr. Wilhelm Gobel in the Mittheil1lngen aus den Ha1nb11/rgischen Staatskrankenanstalten. The writer had subjected to close examination the cords from six cases of pernicious anaemia, especially by means of Marchi’s method. The first case was that of a woman, aged 63 years, who had had no spinal symptoms, and in her case the cord showed only very seen only applies to those who are suffering from someI slight alteration in the anterior columns with no changes in form of illness ; the able-bodied pauper is not included in the vessels. In the second case, that of a man, aged 51 this law. But L’Assistance Publiq2ce points out that even years, in whom during life the knee-jerk.s were absent, there among those who are ill, and very seriously ill, there is a was visible partial degeneration of the extra-medullary large class of patients who cannot benefit from this enact- posterior roots of the lumbar and lower dorsal oord. The indigenous sufferers from phthisis, though Examination by Nissl’s method also showed cell changes ment. possessing the triple qualification of being French subjects, in the cervical cord. The third case, that of a child, aged of being ill, and poor, are not received in the hospitals. five years, showed no changes in the spinal cord. The fourth Practically they are outlawed. At best the phthisical case, that of a man, aged 63 years, with loss of knee-jerks, patient is admitted into a hospital when he is at the showed microscopic changes in widespread asymmetrical point of death. This is done in the main to avoid the alterations of the posterior columns, especially in the cerscandal of his dying in the public streets, but no real vical region. There were also slight changes in the pyramidal effort is made to save and to cure. The excuse given tracts visible with the microscope and also alteration in the is that the hospitals have not the means of treating cells of the grey matter. The fifth case was that of a chronic diseases of this description and that there woman, aged 50 years, who had weakness of the legs, loss are not a sufficient number of beds to admit this class of knee-jerk, and weakness of the bladder. There were of patients. As matters now stand this is all true only slight alterations in the lumbar cord. In the cervical enough ; but the fact remains that this particular class region there was symmetrical affection of the posterior
IN
a