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PUBLIC HEALTH IN SOUTH AUSTRALIA.
311 hours later. The following were the amounts of sugar per 1000 grammes of the blood in each case. 1. Healthy dog : (a) 1’17 gr. ; (b) 1’10 gr. ; (c) 0’72 gr. 2. Dog with pancreas excised : (a) 3-30gr. ; (b) 3-23gr. ;(c) 3-04gr. So that not only in the dog which had been deprived of its pancreas was the total amount of sugar very high, but it only lost 8 per cent. by fermentation during fifteen hours, as against 39 per cent. which disappeared from the blood of the healthy animal. Again, it was found that, by adding starch to each specimen of blood, more of it was converted into sugar during fifteen hours in the blood of the healthy animal than in that of the one without a pancreas. Obviously there was a marked deficiency in ferment in the latter specimen. M. Lepine promises a further communication upon the effect of adding to each specimen of blood some pancreatic ferment. PUBLIC HEALTH IN SOUTH AUSTRALIA. THE fifteenth annual report of the Central Board of Health for South Australia points to improved legislation and more matured arrangements for administration in connexion with public health. The District Councils Act, 1887, supplemented recently by the Bye-laws Enabling Act, has given the local authorities increased means for sanitary work in their districts, and the chief inspector of the colony has been constantly employed in instructing and advising the local bodies on the information acquired as the result of his inspections and of his conferences with them. The deaths from infectious diseases are daily notified to the Central Board, and they take such steps by way of advice or inquiry as the circumstances appear to them to call for. The colony has also decided that uncertainty as to the tenure of office shall not be a constant hindrance, as it sometimes is in this country, to the efficient action of the medical officer of health, the Central Board having laid it down that such appointments are permanent ones; and they have coupled this announcement with an intimation that they will not, in the interests of the public, approve of any such appointment unless the remuneration is by annual salary. Unfortunately, we are not yet free in this country from the vicious system of payment by fee for the performance of work which the officer is specially called upon to undertake. Enteric fever and diphtheria are causing in the anxiety colony, and the etiology of the latter disease is made the more difficult by the use of the term "croup" in the registration of fatal attacks.
PORTRAIT OF SIR WILLIAM GULL. WE have received from Messrs. W. A. llansell and Co., of 271, Oxford-street, an artist’s proof of a mezzotint portrait of the late Sir W. Gull, printed from a plate made by Mr. Robert S. Clouston. It is an admirable and charaeteristie picture of Sir William Gull’s face before any failure of his strength had appeared, and will be prized as such by all who wish to possess a striking memento of his presence and
expression.
-
INCORRECT DISPENSING.
prosecution in Nottingham, to which we referred in number, has been followed by others of a somewhat similar nature in Doncaster, Huddersfield, Selby, and Bradford, while in Sheffield it appears that numerous prosecutions are still pending. In one case bicarbonate of potassium was dispensed instead of iodide of potassium ; in two, plain water was employed instead of chloroform-waterj;; and in another some sulphuric acid mysteriously found its way into a mixture containing iodide of potassium. In four instances, instead of the mixture consisting of 12 oz , as ordered, the quantity dispensed varied from 8 oz. to 14 oz. In Sheffield the articles in greatest demand by the inspector appear to have been sp. ammon. arom., ferri et quin. cit., potass. bitart., and a mixture containing potass. iod. 5iij., aq. chlorof. ad gviij. The publication of this list is not intended to set chemists upon their guard, but to indicate to the medical profession that chemical accuracy cannot in some districts be ensured by the prescription of the simplest THE
a
recent
remedies. ___
"NEURO-PARALYTIC
ŒDEMA."
DR. W. KRUGER, in the D2editsinis7oe Obozrgnie, publishes. case of "neuro-paralytic" oedema in a Cossack. The of and had been a was year patient twenty-five years age, in the army. He had suffered from infancy from attacks of oedema affecting various parts of the body, occurring every two or three months and lasting from two to three days. His mother and sister were similarly affected. On theattacks becoming more frequent, the heart’s action was. sensibly enfeebled, and the patient died suddenly one night. At the post-mortem examination the only cause of deaththat could be found was oedema of the glottis. The author considers this osdemato be of a "neuro-paralytic"origin, and that it is an independent disease closely allied to urticaria. a
THE DIRECTOR OF THE NEW LABORATORIES. IN the selection of Dr. Sims Woodhead for the office of Director to the Laboratories now being completed by the two Royal Colleges of London, the services of one well versed in the duties of such an office have been secured. It is well known that during the past three yearsDr. Woodhead hasbeen engaged as Director of the Laboratory formed by the Royal College of Physicians, and in the organisation of which he took the chief part. He will thus bring to the work of establishing and fitting up a new Laboratory the experience gained in similar duties. The record of the work done in the Edinburgh Laboratory is highly satisfactory-witness the published Reports, of which a second volume is shortly to appear,-and by itself this would have constituted a great reason for Dr. Woodhead’s appointment in London ; but when in addition the numerous contributions he has made to pathological science, and his former services in the pathological department of the University of Edinburgh are considered, it would be difficult to find anyone more fitted for the post to which he has been nominated, or who will be more likely to develop the means for original research, in which the metropolis has hitherto been admittedly deficient.
CHOLERA RUMOURS. THE I Persia
statement that cholera had altogether ceased in is not accepted by the Russian Government as trust worthy, as shown by the imposition of a five days’ quarantine on all arrivals from the Persian littoral. Dr. Babajeff, theRussian physician-in-chief in Tiflis, has also been despatched to report on the actual circumstances now prevailing. Thereport as to the occurrence of a case of cholera at Bologna has no particular significance. The attack was one of the sporadic form of the malady, and is stated to have been followed by no others, -
MANCHESTER WEEKLY HEALTH RETURN. THE commencement of this year gaveDr. Tatham an for beginning a new series of weekly returns as to the health of Manchester. First comes some account of the meteorological conditions likely to affect public health ;y then follows a statement as to the infectious diseases returned under the Compulsory Notification Act, together with tables showing their distribution over the city, and the number under isolation in hospital during the current
Iopportunity
PORTRAIT OF SIR WILLIAM GULL. WE have received from Messrs. W. A. llansell and Co., of 271, Oxford-street, an artist’s proof of a mezzotint portrait of the late Sir W. Gull, printed from a plate made by Mr. Robert S. Clouston. It is an admirable and charaeteristie picture of Sir William Gull’s face before any failure of his strength had appeared, and will be prized as such by all who wish to possess a striking memento of his presence and
expression.
-
INCORRECT DISPENSING.
prosecution in Nottingham, to which we referred in number, has been followed by others of a somewhat similar nature in Doncaster, Huddersfield, Selby, and Bradford, while in Sheffield it appears that numerous prosecutions are still pending. In one case bicarbonate of potassium was dispensed instead of iodide of potassium ; in two, plain water was employed instead of chloroform-waterj;; and in another some sulphuric acid mysteriously found its way into a mixture containing iodide of potassium. In four instances, instead of the mixture consisting of 12 oz , as ordered, the quantity dispensed varied from 8 oz. to 14 oz. In Sheffield the articles in greatest demand by the inspector appear to have been sp. ammon. arom., ferri et quin. cit., potass. bitart., and a mixture containing potass. iod. 5iij., aq. chlorof. ad gviij. The publication of this list is not intended to set chemists upon their guard, but to indicate to the medical profession that chemical accuracy cannot in some districts be ensured by the prescription of the simplest THE
a
recent
remedies. ___
"NEURO-PARALYTIC
ŒDEMA."
DR. W. KRUGER, in the D2editsinis7oe Obozrgnie, publishes. case of "neuro-paralytic" oedema in a Cossack. The of and had been a was year patient twenty-five years age, in the army. He had suffered from infancy from attacks of oedema affecting various parts of the body, occurring every two or three months and lasting from two to three days. His mother and sister were similarly affected. On theattacks becoming more frequent, the heart’s action was. sensibly enfeebled, and the patient died suddenly one night. At the post-mortem examination the only cause of deaththat could be found was oedema of the glottis. The author considers this osdemato be of a "neuro-paralytic"origin, and that it is an independent disease closely allied to urticaria. a
THE DIRECTOR OF THE NEW LABORATORIES. IN the selection of Dr. Sims Woodhead for the office of Director to the Laboratories now being completed by the two Royal Colleges of London, the services of one well versed in the duties of such an office have been secured. It is well known that during the past three yearsDr. Woodhead hasbeen engaged as Director of the Laboratory formed by the Royal College of Physicians, and in the organisation of which he took the chief part. He will thus bring to the work of establishing and fitting up a new Laboratory the experience gained in similar duties. The record of the work done in the Edinburgh Laboratory is highly satisfactory-witness the published Reports, of which a second volume is shortly to appear,-and by itself this would have constituted a great reason for Dr. Woodhead’s appointment in London ; but when in addition the numerous contributions he has made to pathological science, and his former services in the pathological department of the University of Edinburgh are considered, it would be difficult to find anyone more fitted for the post to which he has been nominated, or who will be more likely to develop the means for original research, in which the metropolis has hitherto been admittedly deficient.
CHOLERA RUMOURS. THE I Persia
statement that cholera had altogether ceased in is not accepted by the Russian Government as trust worthy, as shown by the imposition of a five days’ quarantine on all arrivals from the Persian littoral. Dr. Babajeff, theRussian physician-in-chief in Tiflis, has also been despatched to report on the actual circumstances now prevailing. Thereport as to the occurrence of a case of cholera at Bologna has no particular significance. The attack was one of the sporadic form of the malady, and is stated to have been followed by no others, -
MANCHESTER WEEKLY HEALTH RETURN. THE commencement of this year gaveDr. Tatham an for beginning a new series of weekly returns as to the health of Manchester. First comes some account of the meteorological conditions likely to affect public health ;y then follows a statement as to the infectious diseases returned under the Compulsory Notification Act, together with tables showing their distribution over the city, and the number under isolation in hospital during the current
Iopportunity