REMARKABLE EXPLOSIONS AT MANCHESTER.

1416 tooth in the cramped space available for it. With regard to have discovered, it is stated, that spent acid from benzol the jaw itself, the inherent probability of diminution owing was being put into the sewers, which coming into contact to the accumulated inherited effects of disuse was greater. with spent ammonia liquor gave rise to an evolution of Mr. Bennett devoted considerable attention to the views sulphuretted hydrogen. In May, 1898, the medical officer expressed by Dr. J. Sim Wallace in some recent articles on of health, with an inspector, found a quantity of naphthalene the etiology of dental caries. He was unable to support in two of the manholes. Creasote has also got, in from a Dr. Wallace’s ’theories (1) that the size of the jaw was the tank having been allowed to run over. People have comdirect expression of the size of the tongue and that the latter plained that the noxious vapours have got into their houses frequently did not attain its full development owing to the from the sewers, and on one occasion there was an explosion removal of the fibrous portions of the food-stuffs by in a kitchen, when the flooring was torn up and much The dwellers in this evil-smelling and civilised peoples; and (2) that the diminution in the size damage was done. of teeth was occasioned by decreased liability to caries dangerous neighbourhood look on this last exploit of the incident to these variations and the consequent survival of imprisoned gases as being perhaps a blessing in disguise, and the individual. Mr. Bennett brought many arguments to hope that at last definite steps will be taken by the authoribear in opposition to most of Dr. Wallace’s contentions and ties to remedy the dangerous conditions in which they live went on to point out how the theory of " regression towards and of which they have long complained." mediocrity " propounded by Galton and supported by Russel Wallace might be invoked to explain most of the facts of THE FESTIVAL DINNER OF THE MEDICAL degeneration of the teeth and jaws without assuming as a GRADUATES’ COLLEGE AND POLYCLINIC. fact the inheritance of acquired characters ; but in concludON Wednesday next, May 22nd, the festival dinner ing this part of his paper he expressed the view that a of the Medical Graduates’ College and Polyclinic will be verdict of non-proven was the only possible one at present. held at the Hotel Cecil. No pains have been spared to The second part of the paper was concerned with the remake the occasion a successful and even a remarkable Dr. Black on the searches of strength, density, and percentage of lime-salts in human teeth, and Mr. Leon Williams’s demon- one. Mr. A. J. Balfour in the chair will be supported strations of the earliest stages of dental caries and the bearing by some 400 gentlemen interested in the welfare of the of these investigations on current views. Mr. Bennett depre- institution, and among the speakers will be the new cated the tendency of many odontologists to accept the Bishop of London, Sir William Broadbent (the President inference that the variability of susceptibility to dental caries of the Polyclinic), Lord Strathcona, and the Duke of£ must of necessity be sought for outside the teeth themselves, Marlborough. The efforts of these speakers will be openly and he showed that, even if Dr. Black’s observations were directed towards obtaining for the Polyclinic a large sum of accepted in their entirety, such a conclusion was not the money and as the orators will have at the table with them logical outcome. While believing that the ever-varying con- some of the richest and most open-handed citizens dition of the oral fluids might be a most fruitful subject for of the empire we may feel confident that a substantial result investigation, yet he urged the view that there might be, will be obtained. The Polyclinic, as we have said on and probably were, physical and molecular differences between previous occasions, fills a gap in the medical education of teeth the chemical composition of which was shown to be as this country. If it had a substantial endowment its uses as nearly as possible identical, and that associated with such a central school for post-graduate students would be so differences there might be correlated a dissimilar degree of immediately recognised that the students would themselves by their numbers supply the income necessary to carry on susceptibility to the micro-organisms of dental caries. the work. That, at least, is our belief and that of the promoters. But in spite of the notable generosity of not a. REMARKABLE EXPLOSIONS AT MANCHESTER. few lovers of science the institution has never been placed ON May 3rd a series of violent explosions took place in upon a substantial pecuniary basis. We should be glad if Sandal-street, Bradford-road, Manchester. The district the festival dinner should prove a turning point in its An inquiry will fortunes which have hitherto not been proportional to its contains a number of chemical works. no doubt be held as to the cause of the explosions, but it is merits or to the labours bestowed upon its working. said that "quantities of the noxious vapours generated in the processes carried on in some of these works find their UNILATERAL CLUBBING OF THE FINGERS. way into the sewers, and it is to this cause that the AT the meeting of the Societe Medicale des H6pitaux of explosion is at present attributed." A little before 3 P.M. the ironwork of the manhole at the foot of Sandal-street Paris on March 22nd Dr. Béclère described a case in which the and the heavy stone setts surrounding it were suddenly curious condition of clubbing of the fingers of only one hand blown into the air with a loud report. This was succeeded present. The left hand was normal; the right had the by a similar explosion at the next manhole, followed quickly appearance shown in the third stage of pulmonary tuberby others, till all the manholes covering a distance of nearly culosis ; the terminal phalanges were much enlarged and the 400 yards had been destroyed. In two adjoining thoroughfares nails were convex longitudinally as well as transversely. manholes were blown up, "and in each case eye-witnesses Radiographs showed that this enlargement was confined state that the explosion was followed by a flame of consider- to the soft parts and that the bones were not affectedThe patient able height." A very offensive odour accompanied the the usual condition in clubbed fingers. explosions. Although this part of the neighbourhood is was a man, aged 65 years, who had a pulsatile swellthickly populated no one was hurt owing to the children ing of the size of a large egg in the right subclavicular being in school and their parents in the mills and works. region-no doubt a subclavian aneurysm. He could not state The operations carried on at the various works are many the time of the onset of the swelling, but he was very and unsavoury. They include tar-distilling, the manu- definite as to that of the deformity of the fingers ; it began facture of sulphuric acid and sulphate of ammonia, benzol a year previously, a little after the appearance of severe rectifying, the manufacture of paint and varnish, the treat- pains in the right shoulder which radiated into the neck and ment of gas products, oil-distilling, and other similar hand. At this time, according to the patient, the hand was manufactures. The residents have often complained of swollen and violaceous and the subclavicular region more nuisances. It is said that sulphuretted hydrogen has voluminous than when he came under observation. Dr. been found to be given off in the sewers. The inspectors Beolere thought that the subclavian artery, and probably

was