PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION IN ELECTIONS.

315 fever, 340 ; typhus fever, 12 ; influenza, 264 ; whooping- The same principle was carried out for the other party, Fit z.cough, 1404; diphtheria, 205; and enteric fever, 277. The gerald having received 12 votes altogether was elected and most prominent epidemics during the year were measles and had 9 votes to pass on. S in the end six candidates were whooping-cough, and owing chiefly to the prevalence of elected by 18 members of the one palty and four by 12: these disorders there was a most extraordinary rise in the members of the other, the number of successful candidates from 16 9 being in proportion to the numbers of the different parties.. death-rate both for Edinburgh and Leith to 21-29 per 1000 of population in the former as com- Mr. Barrett’s lecture, now issued as a pamphlet, entitled pared with 1896, and from 16 0 to 20 31 in Leith. "Proportional Representation," from which we have taken Scarlet fever also was particularly marked in Edinburgh in these figures, is well worth reading. the month of August. It is interesting to note that while I the death rate in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dundee, Leith, CHRONIC SYMMETRICAL ENLARGEMENT OF Paisley, Greenock, and Perth rose more or less as comTHE SALIVARY AND LACRYMAL GLANDS. pared with the immediately preceding year that for Aberrare and imperfectly known diseases there are AMONG deen fell fractionally, which is .to the credit of Professor of none greater interest or more in need of further investigaMatthew Hay, M.D. Edin., medical officer for the City of a curious malady characterised by chronic enlargetion than Aberdeen, and his staff. It is also supposed with good the salivary, lacrymal, and other glands. ment of It reason that the population of Aberdeen has been undera new in In THE LANCET problem pathology. estimated by the Registrar-General. There is evidence presents quite al2nn.de" (as they would say in Scotland) that the annual of March 18th, 1893, we noticed a paper on the subject by increase of population per cent. in Aberdeen has since the Professor Fuchs, of Vienna. He had under his care a man, Censu3 of 1891 been greater than that of any other of the aged sixty-one years, who, having had swelling of his eyelids principal towns of Scotland. At all events, accepting the for four months, noticed that a tumour was forming below Registrar- General’s estimate, the death-rate in Aberdeen last the ear. Examination showed that the upper lids were* forward by tumours in the upper and outer portion year was the lowest on record since the Registration Acts pressed of the orbits, evidently enlarged lacrymal glands, and that came into force in 1855, and approaches the ideal figure set the parotid glands were also enlarged, forming smooth forth by the late Sir Edwin Chadwick. tumours. There was neither pain nor sign of inflammation.. Treatment proved useless, and at the end of a year the PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION IN tumours had slightly increased. A fragment excised from ELECTIONS. one of the lacrymal glands showed a structure much WE have received from Mr. J. W. Barrett, F.R.C.S. Eng., resembling the lymphoid tissue of trachoma ; no glandular of Melbourne, a letter which he has addressed to the substance was found. Professor Fachs could find only two President of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. In cases in medical literature of chronic simultaneous enlargeIn one the sub’ this letter Mr. Barrett points out that elections to vacancies ment of lacrymal and parotid glands. on the Council of the College are decided by the system maxillary glands were also affected ; after a year all the: of voting known as scrutin de liste, a method which glands had nearly regained their normal condition. In theenables a minority to return a majority of candidates. For other all the maxillary glands as well as those of the oral instance, there is one vacancy for which there are three mucous membrane were enlarged. THE LANCET of candidates, A, B, and C. There are also twelve electors. July lst, 1893, contains another case pub;ished by Mr.. A gets 5 votes, B gets 4, and C gets 3. A is therefore Simeon Snell and entitled, "Simultaneous and Symmetrical The elected although he has not an absolute majority, for Tumours of the Lacrymal and Parotid Glands." B and C have together 7 votes to A’s 5. If C had not been patient was a woman, aged sixty-one years, in good a candidate B might have obtained C’s votes and so secured health. The tumours steadily increased in size, the left election by an absolute majority over A. Mr. Barrett is orbital becoming of the size of a small teacup. It was of of opinion that the Hare system, which aims at reproducing a bluish colour and reached to the temple and down in the elected body the various opinions held in the the face. The submaxillary and sublingual glands finally This method is as became affected. The subsequent history is imperfect. The electorate at large, is the best. from a lecture delivered by Mr. right side of the face ulcerated and a perforation into the to follows, quote -

..

"

Barrett at the Reform Club, Melbourne, last summer. The elector numbers the candidates in the order of preference that he chooses. The voting papers are then sorted and those in which any particular candidate is marked 1"" are put together and the bundles of papers are counted. The number of valid papers is then divided by the number of vacancies and the result gives the average number of votes which must be obtained by any candidate to secure his return. Candidates found to have reached this quota are elected and if there are enough to fill the vacancies the matter is at an end ; if not, but some candidates have received a surplus of votes, the surplus is distributed amongst those candidates marked "2."" For example, says Mr. Barrett, suppose 30 electors and 10 vacancies; 18 papers are marked, Turner, 1; Berry, 2 ;

Isaacs, 3 ;

and so on with the rest of the candidates ; while 12 are marked, Fitzgerald, 1 ;Gillies, 2 ; MacIntyre, 3; and so on. As there are ten vacancies and thirty votes the average to be obtained is three. Turner had 18 votes in all and therefore was elected with 15 votes to spare. These 15 votes were handed on to Berry, who was accordingly elected and had 12 votes to pass on. Isaacs therefore received 12 votes, was elected and had 9 votes to pass on.

mouth formed. Six months later and five and a-half years. after the onset of the disease the patient died from. exhaustion. The latest contribution to the subject is an article by Dr. Osler in the Americzn Journal of Medical Sciences of January, 1898, in which he has described the following case: A coloured girl, aged eleven years, in good health, began to feel dull and heavy and her face: and neck became a little swollen. When she came under observation, six weeks after the beginning of the disease, the lacrymal, parotid, submaxillary, and buccal glands were enlarged. The symmetrical enlargement of the parotid glands was a remarkable feature, causing tilting up of the lobes of the ears. There was slight general enlargement of the lymphatic glands, particularly of the posterior cervical. The spleen also was enlarged and the notch could be felt. Ulceration of the cartilage of the septum nasi, which was reported to Dr. Osler as syphilitic, occurred. Iodide of potassium and mercury were administered; all the glandular enlargemenbs slowly diminished and had quite disappeared one and a half years after the onset of the disease. She was readmitted to hospital she more than a year later with phthisis, to which succumbed. The necropsy showed that the lacrymal