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REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON PRISONS.
1133 all resulted in the
of the prinThis was conspicuouslv ao in the case of the lengthy inquiry into Irish prisons in 1885, when one of the chief efforts of the Commission appears to have been to raise the administration of the Irish prisons to the English level. We do not consider, theretore, that there is reason for general condemnation of a system which resulted originally from careful inquiry and much deliberation, and which was specially and successfully designed to put an end to many glaring and patent evils. Similarly, we do not consider that it is right to lay the burden of all the shortcomings of the prison system on the central prison authorities, who have carried into effect under successive Secretaries of State the Acts approved by Parliament, who have loyally and substantially carried out th e various recommendations made from time to time by Commissions and committees, and who, as administrators, have achieved in point of organisation, discipline, order, and economy a striking administrative success. Nevertheless, we feel that the time has come when the main principles and methods by the Prison Acts should be seriously tested by the of acquired experience and recent scientific research." light ’ The general effect of the passing of the Prison Act of 1877 is next dealt with. By that Act all local prisons were transferred from the local authorities in counties and boroughs to the Government and placed under the authority of a newly constituted Board of Commissioners acting subject to the authority of the Secretary of State. The intention of the Act was to produce an improved and uniform system through the strong and centralised administration of the Government, but at the same time to preserve local influences and the cooperation of the visiting justices by the institution of visiting committees to whom were assigned very extensive responsibilities and powers. In the opinion of the committee the intention of the Act in this respect for the most part has been a failure. The centralisation of authority, they say, has been a complete success in the direction of uniformity, discipline, and economy ; but, on the other band, it carried with it some inevitable cisadvantag-e!:’. "The great, and as we consider the provEd danger of tbis highly centralised system has been and is that, while much attention has been given to organisation, financ?, order, health of the prisoners, and prison statistics, the prisoners have been treated too much as a hopeless or wortble-s element of the community, and the moral as well as the legal responsibility of the prison authorities has been held to cease when they The satisfactory sanitary pass outside the prison gates. conditions, the unbroken orderliness of prison life, economy, and high organisation are held, and justly to prove gocd administrator. But the number recommittals has led us to think that there is ample cause for a searching inquiry into the main features of prison life. From the evidence submitted to us it appears that as a criminal passes into the habitual class, prison life, subject to the sentences now given, loses its terrors as familiarity it increases." This last sentence is of the nature of a truism, and we can hardly picture in our minds the possibility of any other effect of familiarity with prison life. As regards what we may call the extra-mural requirements indicated by the committef, we wou’d ask whether it has ever been held to be the duty of prison officials, except in so far as they are ordic arp citizens, to follow up the discharged prisoner and see what he dces or what bsccnus of him after he has become merged in the general community. The proper treatment of a prisoner is one thing, but the social supervision of an ex-prisoner from philantbropic motives is so voluntary in its character that it is well to detach it as far as possible from the atmosphere of officia,lism, which is so apt to place the individual in a compromised position, if not actually to damage his prospects. We honestly confess that we have no great faith in the reclamation of "old hands." And why the failure of their reclamation should be tacked on as in any sense due to the centralised system or referable to it we fail to see. The ’moral condition " of a habitual criminal when he leaves prison or when he enters it is a veritable ignis fatuus; and there are few persons who would undertake to estimate it. Asking the question, Is recidivism increasing ? the committee in a tentative way deal with this important subject, and in the end they say that it is difficult to avoid the belief that the proportion of reconvictions during the last twenty years has increased. But the reconvictions take place among the older hands, for it would appear that of every 100 who go to prison a first time seventy do not return, while of those convicted a fifth time as many
place have
general affirmation
REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON PRISONS. ciples which were prescribed by the Acts. I. IN Jane last year the Home Secretary appointed a departmental committee under the chairmanship of Mr. Herbert Gladstone, M.P., to inquire into a variety of circumstances and considerations having relation to the administration of local and convict prisons and to the treatment of the prisoners confined therein. In their report the committee say that they "could not but be cognisant of the circumstances under which the inquiry was instituted. In magazines and in the newspapers a sweeping indictment had been laid against the In brief, not only were whole of the prison administration. the principles of prison treatment, as prescribed by the Prison Aots, criticised, but the prison authority itself and the constitution of that authority were held to be responsible for many grave evils which were alleged to exist." The committee, therefore, very properly applied themselves to the task cot only of examining into present conditions of prison administration, but of endeavouring by inquiry to discover whether any and what better system and methods of treatment could be adopted. Thegroundwork of the treatment of convicted prisoners in local prisons is laid down by the Act of 1865, and further provisions, including certain modifications, were introduced by the Act of 1877. Since 1865 the main principles of prison treatment have not been altered, except in detail, and in so far as they may have been affected by the radical change in the administration effected by the Act of 1877. Indeed, it may be said generally that neither those principles nor the administrative system laid down by the Acts of 1865 and 1877 had been brought into question until the present inquiry was instituted. Convict prisons-i.e., prisons for the detention of prisoners sentenced to penal servitude-have been dealt with separately by the Penal Servitude Acts, 1853 1857, 1864, the Prevention of Crinms Act, 1871, and certain other subany Acts. During the last forty years important alterations ,;ja.ve been made in the treatment of pris iners, but contuaity in the adminstration by the directors has been maintained throughout. With these preliminary statements and after acknowledging the great assistance that they have derived from previous inquiries, the committee pass on to a "general review " of the management of English and Welsh prisons, with regard to which they’’consider that the long and able administration of Sir E. DuCane has achieved a large " measure of success." At the outset the committee gave a return which shows that while the population has increased the number of convicts and local prisoners has decreased. The number of convicts has diminished from 10,139 in 1877-78 to 4383 in 1893-94 ;and the local prisoners-i.e., persons sentenced to shorter terms of imprisonment-have decreased in numbers from 20,833 to 13 850 during the same period. The committee say that "the decrease of the prison population cannot be taken as "a correct indication of a corresponding decrease in crime." No ; it is no more a correct indication of a corresponding decrease of crime than the filling of our churches on Sunday would bea correct indication of a corresponding increase of religion. Churches are built to attract, prisons to deter, and so far as churches and prisons respectively attract and deter, are filled and are not filled, so far may they be regarded as successful in attaining the object for which they were built. For it is obvious that if prisons were made attractive in any degree they would not be fulfilling their functions and their existence would become a stimulus to crime. We would prefer to express the position by stating that the decrease of a prison population cannot be taken as expressing the proportion of influence which the prison system has in bringing about the decrease. Some types of individuals are more impressed and influenced for good by Prison life than others. general review is summed up in the following terms : it the condition and treatment of prisoners at the present tirae are compared with what they were sixty, forty, or even twenty years ago, the responsible authorities canjustly claim credit for great and progressive improvement. The bad prisons have disappeared. In the full consciousness of thefe improvements it was not unreasonable that there should have t’Een a somewhat rigid adherence to the lines of the Prison and great faith induced in the principles which they At., 4i3 down. Mieover, the various inquiries which have taken
The
adopted
held, of with
1134 79 per cent. do return. This bears out the opinion expressed ( Grottingen) said that he had seen severe haemorrhagefrom the by the committee that so far as first offences are concerned r liddle meningeal artery in the course of the operation. the present prison treatment in convict and local prisons is TAe iniology and Histogenesis of Carcinoma. amply sufficient for the purposes of deterrence. To our mind Professor Tillmanno (Leipzig) accepted the theory of the non-return to prison of first offenders is the all-important Ribbertz that carcinoma arises from any suband Valdeyer factor for consideration, and we certainly agree with the comIpithelial proliferation by which the epithelial cells are mittee when they urge that the most determined effort should solated and made to grow abnormally. Experiments in be made to lay hold of incipient criminals and to prevent them of the alleged zymotic origin of cancers have support restraint and rational treatment from by strong recruiting been without success, the bacilli found in the the habitual class. The committee point out that the head- utherto I growth not being capable of producing real carcinoma in of recidivism are doubtless in a to measure be springs large )ther persons. In patients suffering from carcinoma the found in the social conditions of the general population. Lads growth could sometimes be transferred from one organ to grow up predisposed to crime and eventually fall into it. mother, but a transfer from one person to another has not Mr. Davitt told the committee that he was speaking to an Carcinoma often arises from prolonged educated habitual criminal in Dartmoor and was pointing yet been proved. chemical or mechanical irritation ; in particular, the use out how foolish it was, apart from the immorality of the of tobacco is very dangerous as regards the tongue and lips. to risk thing, getting seven years’ penal servitude for stolen Hereditary predisposition is Females and goods of the value of 10 or 20. The man replied, " Well, negroes are especially liableunquestionable. to it. Cases of carcinoma. yes, that is all right coming from you, but put yourself in my are on the increase, their number being at present position. I never knew my father or mother; my first re- four rapidly times greater than it was forty years ago.-Dr. Geissler collection is being turned out of a workhouse. I fell among showed a dog to which he had communicated carthieves. I got educated in crime. I learned to read and write (Berlin) cinoma by inoculating pieces of a cancer taken from a in prison. Unlike you, I have had no moral training. Now woman.-Dr. Haussmann (Berlin) believed that the new I hold that man is naturally a thief. Take for instance a was not carcinoma.-Dr. Friedrich (Leipzig) said growth child in its mother’s arms : anything that excites its fancy that he had made in reference to the therapeutic it wants to get, and if that natural feeling is not corrected action of bacteriaexperiments toxines on malignant growths. In carby parental training and moral influence and education it cinoma no effect at all could be discovered, but he had gets stronger as the child grows older. Now I am such a reason to believe that in sarcoma his researches might be product of your civilisation. You allowed me to grow up more successful. He hoped to be able to give more particulars with these animal instincts uncorrected, and then you send at next year’s Congress.-Dr. Lassar (Berlin) showed patients me to prison when I exercise them." with cancers of the skin treated successfully by Fowler’s sohThe conclusion arrived at is that the habitual criminals tion.-Professor von Bergmann (Berlin) declared these cases can only be effectually put down in one way, and that is by to be not cancers but adenomata of the sebaceous cutting off the supply (during incipiency). The improve- Patients with cancers had very often come to him glands. to be ment of general social conditions is the work of the comon soon after an apparent cure had been effected by operated munity. But the opinion that some of its worst and most Dr. Lassar’s method. The growth is then usually much larger, dangerous products can be reclaimed by special and skilful and its removal becomes more difficult than it would have prison treatment and that many of these would lead honest been if the previous arsenical treatment had not been underlives in different surroundings is emphatically maintained by taken.-Professor Kocher (Berne) said that the effect of many of the most capable and experienced witnesses. arsenic was only of short duration. Professor Konig protested against the publication of methods which have the effect of causing operations to be deferred until too late. The Diagnosis of Syphilitic Growths. THE SURGICAL CONGRESS IN BERLIN. Professor von Esmarch (Kiel) called the attention of the (FROM OUR BERLIN CORRESPONDENT.) meeting to Sarcoma-like Syphilitic Growths. Sarcomatoid tumours occurring in patients with other syphilitic symptoms, (Continued from p. 1078.) and very soon reappearing after extirpation, are to be regarded as probably syphilitic. Tumours in the muscles of SITTING ON APRIL 18TH. ( Contiraiaed.) patients suffering from deferred hereditary syphilis are gumCongenital Dislocation of the Hip-joint. matous in 90 per cent. of the cases. The diagnosis is PROFESSOR HoFFA (Wurzburg) showed some cases of difficult and only to be inferred from the results of antiCongenital Dislocation of the Hip-joint which he had treated ’, syphilitic treatment. Tuberclosis of the Knee-joint. successfully by operation. He opened the joint after Langenbeck’s method and formed an artificial acetabulum in which the Professor König gave a statistical account of the cases head of the femur was inserted.-Professor Lorenz (Vienna) which he had attended in the University Hospital of that said that it is of great importance in this operation to save town. There were 725 patients suffering from this disease, the muscles and tendons which are attached to the femur. but he had notes of only 615, of whom 410 (= 65 per = He accordingly makes the incision in front, carefully avoiding cent.) have already died, the great maj oxity (340 cases 80 per to tuberculosis. of the total succumbed cent. having deceased) and after the opening of the joint the muscular insertions, in at this place an artificial acetabulum is formed and the, Conservative methods were employed for 184 patients; 15D in were performed, and 300 resection typical arthrectomy head of the femur is brought into it by gradual traction.Professor Mikulicz (Breslau) and Dr. Heusner (Barmen) and in 91 amputation became necessary. In numerous instances iodoform or carbolic acid was injected into the recommended the treatment by orthopaedic apparatus. joint, and in many of these cases operations had to be afterOperations on the Pancreas. wards performed. He had found, contrary to the experienceProfessor Kronlein (Zurich) said that carcinoma of theB of other surgeons, that injections of carbolic acid gavea pancreas was rare, only 6 per cent. of all carcinomata being: better result than injections of iodoform, the power of tound in this organ. Growths situated in the small end ofE moving the joint having been regained by thirteen out of the pancreas are the most favourable for operation. He forty patients treated with iodoform, and by twenty-one out reported a case of sarcoma where the isolation ot the pancreassof thirty-six treated with carbolic acid. was very difficult and where ligature of the pancreaticoAmbulatory Dressings in Fractures of Thigh and Leg. duodenal aitery became necessary ; gangrene of the colon Professor von Bardeleben (Berlin) said that the ambulatory resulted and caused the death of the patient on the seventh method of is now much simplified, the former comHessing day. plicated and rather expensive apparatus being replaced by SITTING ON APRIL 19TH. plaster dressings only. The broken bone is put on a splint llesection of the Gasserian Ganglion. till the swelling has reached its acme, and then a very well. Professor Krause (Altona) has performed this operationn fitting plaster dressing is applied, which, being supported by several times for trigeminal neuralgia by a method which hee the prominences of the malleoli and the pubic bone, keeps has described at former meetings of this Congress. Th(e the ends of the broken bone in apposition. A few days aftereffect was in all cases very satisfactory. By this operation itIt the injury the patient may try to walk and nearly always.r was proved that the trigeminal is the gustatory nerve to] succeeds in so doing. During last year thirty-nine out of the apex and the sides of the tongue.-Professor KöniÉg forty-five fractures of the leg and sixteen out of twenty-three I
-
-
-
of the prinThis was conspicuouslv ao in the case of the lengthy inquiry into Irish prisons in 1885, when one of the chief efforts of the Commission appears to have been to raise the administration of the Irish prisons to the English level. We do not consider, theretore, that there is reason for general condemnation of a system which resulted originally from careful inquiry and much deliberation, and which was specially and successfully designed to put an end to many glaring and patent evils. Similarly, we do not consider that it is right to lay the burden of all the shortcomings of the prison system on the central prison authorities, who have carried into effect under successive Secretaries of State the Acts approved by Parliament, who have loyally and substantially carried out th e various recommendations made from time to time by Commissions and committees, and who, as administrators, have achieved in point of organisation, discipline, order, and economy a striking administrative success. Nevertheless, we feel that the time has come when the main principles and methods by the Prison Acts should be seriously tested by the of acquired experience and recent scientific research." light ’ The general effect of the passing of the Prison Act of 1877 is next dealt with. By that Act all local prisons were transferred from the local authorities in counties and boroughs to the Government and placed under the authority of a newly constituted Board of Commissioners acting subject to the authority of the Secretary of State. The intention of the Act was to produce an improved and uniform system through the strong and centralised administration of the Government, but at the same time to preserve local influences and the cooperation of the visiting justices by the institution of visiting committees to whom were assigned very extensive responsibilities and powers. In the opinion of the committee the intention of the Act in this respect for the most part has been a failure. The centralisation of authority, they say, has been a complete success in the direction of uniformity, discipline, and economy ; but, on the other band, it carried with it some inevitable cisadvantag-e!:’. "The great, and as we consider the provEd danger of tbis highly centralised system has been and is that, while much attention has been given to organisation, financ?, order, health of the prisoners, and prison statistics, the prisoners have been treated too much as a hopeless or wortble-s element of the community, and the moral as well as the legal responsibility of the prison authorities has been held to cease when they The satisfactory sanitary pass outside the prison gates. conditions, the unbroken orderliness of prison life, economy, and high organisation are held, and justly to prove gocd administrator. But the number recommittals has led us to think that there is ample cause for a searching inquiry into the main features of prison life. From the evidence submitted to us it appears that as a criminal passes into the habitual class, prison life, subject to the sentences now given, loses its terrors as familiarity it increases." This last sentence is of the nature of a truism, and we can hardly picture in our minds the possibility of any other effect of familiarity with prison life. As regards what we may call the extra-mural requirements indicated by the committef, we wou’d ask whether it has ever been held to be the duty of prison officials, except in so far as they are ordic arp citizens, to follow up the discharged prisoner and see what he dces or what bsccnus of him after he has become merged in the general community. The proper treatment of a prisoner is one thing, but the social supervision of an ex-prisoner from philantbropic motives is so voluntary in its character that it is well to detach it as far as possible from the atmosphere of officia,lism, which is so apt to place the individual in a compromised position, if not actually to damage his prospects. We honestly confess that we have no great faith in the reclamation of "old hands." And why the failure of their reclamation should be tacked on as in any sense due to the centralised system or referable to it we fail to see. The ’moral condition " of a habitual criminal when he leaves prison or when he enters it is a veritable ignis fatuus; and there are few persons who would undertake to estimate it. Asking the question, Is recidivism increasing ? the committee in a tentative way deal with this important subject, and in the end they say that it is difficult to avoid the belief that the proportion of reconvictions during the last twenty years has increased. But the reconvictions take place among the older hands, for it would appear that of every 100 who go to prison a first time seventy do not return, while of those convicted a fifth time as many
place have
general affirmation
REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON PRISONS. ciples which were prescribed by the Acts. I. IN Jane last year the Home Secretary appointed a departmental committee under the chairmanship of Mr. Herbert Gladstone, M.P., to inquire into a variety of circumstances and considerations having relation to the administration of local and convict prisons and to the treatment of the prisoners confined therein. In their report the committee say that they "could not but be cognisant of the circumstances under which the inquiry was instituted. In magazines and in the newspapers a sweeping indictment had been laid against the In brief, not only were whole of the prison administration. the principles of prison treatment, as prescribed by the Prison Aots, criticised, but the prison authority itself and the constitution of that authority were held to be responsible for many grave evils which were alleged to exist." The committee, therefore, very properly applied themselves to the task cot only of examining into present conditions of prison administration, but of endeavouring by inquiry to discover whether any and what better system and methods of treatment could be adopted. Thegroundwork of the treatment of convicted prisoners in local prisons is laid down by the Act of 1865, and further provisions, including certain modifications, were introduced by the Act of 1877. Since 1865 the main principles of prison treatment have not been altered, except in detail, and in so far as they may have been affected by the radical change in the administration effected by the Act of 1877. Indeed, it may be said generally that neither those principles nor the administrative system laid down by the Acts of 1865 and 1877 had been brought into question until the present inquiry was instituted. Convict prisons-i.e., prisons for the detention of prisoners sentenced to penal servitude-have been dealt with separately by the Penal Servitude Acts, 1853 1857, 1864, the Prevention of Crinms Act, 1871, and certain other subany Acts. During the last forty years important alterations ,;ja.ve been made in the treatment of pris iners, but contuaity in the adminstration by the directors has been maintained throughout. With these preliminary statements and after acknowledging the great assistance that they have derived from previous inquiries, the committee pass on to a "general review " of the management of English and Welsh prisons, with regard to which they’’consider that the long and able administration of Sir E. DuCane has achieved a large " measure of success." At the outset the committee gave a return which shows that while the population has increased the number of convicts and local prisoners has decreased. The number of convicts has diminished from 10,139 in 1877-78 to 4383 in 1893-94 ;and the local prisoners-i.e., persons sentenced to shorter terms of imprisonment-have decreased in numbers from 20,833 to 13 850 during the same period. The committee say that "the decrease of the prison population cannot be taken as "a correct indication of a corresponding decrease in crime." No ; it is no more a correct indication of a corresponding decrease of crime than the filling of our churches on Sunday would bea correct indication of a corresponding increase of religion. Churches are built to attract, prisons to deter, and so far as churches and prisons respectively attract and deter, are filled and are not filled, so far may they be regarded as successful in attaining the object for which they were built. For it is obvious that if prisons were made attractive in any degree they would not be fulfilling their functions and their existence would become a stimulus to crime. We would prefer to express the position by stating that the decrease of a prison population cannot be taken as expressing the proportion of influence which the prison system has in bringing about the decrease. Some types of individuals are more impressed and influenced for good by Prison life than others. general review is summed up in the following terms : it the condition and treatment of prisoners at the present tirae are compared with what they were sixty, forty, or even twenty years ago, the responsible authorities canjustly claim credit for great and progressive improvement. The bad prisons have disappeared. In the full consciousness of thefe improvements it was not unreasonable that there should have t’Een a somewhat rigid adherence to the lines of the Prison and great faith induced in the principles which they At., 4i3 down. Mieover, the various inquiries which have taken
The
adopted
held, of with
1134 79 per cent. do return. This bears out the opinion expressed ( Grottingen) said that he had seen severe haemorrhagefrom the by the committee that so far as first offences are concerned r liddle meningeal artery in the course of the operation. the present prison treatment in convict and local prisons is TAe iniology and Histogenesis of Carcinoma. amply sufficient for the purposes of deterrence. To our mind Professor Tillmanno (Leipzig) accepted the theory of the non-return to prison of first offenders is the all-important Ribbertz that carcinoma arises from any suband Valdeyer factor for consideration, and we certainly agree with the comIpithelial proliferation by which the epithelial cells are mittee when they urge that the most determined effort should solated and made to grow abnormally. Experiments in be made to lay hold of incipient criminals and to prevent them of the alleged zymotic origin of cancers have support restraint and rational treatment from by strong recruiting been without success, the bacilli found in the the habitual class. The committee point out that the head- utherto I growth not being capable of producing real carcinoma in of recidivism are doubtless in a to measure be springs large )ther persons. In patients suffering from carcinoma the found in the social conditions of the general population. Lads growth could sometimes be transferred from one organ to grow up predisposed to crime and eventually fall into it. mother, but a transfer from one person to another has not Mr. Davitt told the committee that he was speaking to an Carcinoma often arises from prolonged educated habitual criminal in Dartmoor and was pointing yet been proved. chemical or mechanical irritation ; in particular, the use out how foolish it was, apart from the immorality of the of tobacco is very dangerous as regards the tongue and lips. to risk thing, getting seven years’ penal servitude for stolen Hereditary predisposition is Females and goods of the value of 10 or 20. The man replied, " Well, negroes are especially liableunquestionable. to it. Cases of carcinoma. yes, that is all right coming from you, but put yourself in my are on the increase, their number being at present position. I never knew my father or mother; my first re- four rapidly times greater than it was forty years ago.-Dr. Geissler collection is being turned out of a workhouse. I fell among showed a dog to which he had communicated carthieves. I got educated in crime. I learned to read and write (Berlin) cinoma by inoculating pieces of a cancer taken from a in prison. Unlike you, I have had no moral training. Now woman.-Dr. Haussmann (Berlin) believed that the new I hold that man is naturally a thief. Take for instance a was not carcinoma.-Dr. Friedrich (Leipzig) said growth child in its mother’s arms : anything that excites its fancy that he had made in reference to the therapeutic it wants to get, and if that natural feeling is not corrected action of bacteriaexperiments toxines on malignant growths. In carby parental training and moral influence and education it cinoma no effect at all could be discovered, but he had gets stronger as the child grows older. Now I am such a reason to believe that in sarcoma his researches might be product of your civilisation. You allowed me to grow up more successful. He hoped to be able to give more particulars with these animal instincts uncorrected, and then you send at next year’s Congress.-Dr. Lassar (Berlin) showed patients me to prison when I exercise them." with cancers of the skin treated successfully by Fowler’s sohThe conclusion arrived at is that the habitual criminals tion.-Professor von Bergmann (Berlin) declared these cases can only be effectually put down in one way, and that is by to be not cancers but adenomata of the sebaceous cutting off the supply (during incipiency). The improve- Patients with cancers had very often come to him glands. to be ment of general social conditions is the work of the comon soon after an apparent cure had been effected by operated munity. But the opinion that some of its worst and most Dr. Lassar’s method. The growth is then usually much larger, dangerous products can be reclaimed by special and skilful and its removal becomes more difficult than it would have prison treatment and that many of these would lead honest been if the previous arsenical treatment had not been underlives in different surroundings is emphatically maintained by taken.-Professor Kocher (Berne) said that the effect of many of the most capable and experienced witnesses. arsenic was only of short duration. Professor Konig protested against the publication of methods which have the effect of causing operations to be deferred until too late. The Diagnosis of Syphilitic Growths. THE SURGICAL CONGRESS IN BERLIN. Professor von Esmarch (Kiel) called the attention of the (FROM OUR BERLIN CORRESPONDENT.) meeting to Sarcoma-like Syphilitic Growths. Sarcomatoid tumours occurring in patients with other syphilitic symptoms, (Continued from p. 1078.) and very soon reappearing after extirpation, are to be regarded as probably syphilitic. Tumours in the muscles of SITTING ON APRIL 18TH. ( Contiraiaed.) patients suffering from deferred hereditary syphilis are gumCongenital Dislocation of the Hip-joint. matous in 90 per cent. of the cases. The diagnosis is PROFESSOR HoFFA (Wurzburg) showed some cases of difficult and only to be inferred from the results of antiCongenital Dislocation of the Hip-joint which he had treated ’, syphilitic treatment. Tuberclosis of the Knee-joint. successfully by operation. He opened the joint after Langenbeck’s method and formed an artificial acetabulum in which the Professor König gave a statistical account of the cases head of the femur was inserted.-Professor Lorenz (Vienna) which he had attended in the University Hospital of that said that it is of great importance in this operation to save town. There were 725 patients suffering from this disease, the muscles and tendons which are attached to the femur. but he had notes of only 615, of whom 410 (= 65 per = He accordingly makes the incision in front, carefully avoiding cent.) have already died, the great maj oxity (340 cases 80 per to tuberculosis. of the total succumbed cent. having deceased) and after the opening of the joint the muscular insertions, in at this place an artificial acetabulum is formed and the, Conservative methods were employed for 184 patients; 15D in were performed, and 300 resection typical arthrectomy head of the femur is brought into it by gradual traction.Professor Mikulicz (Breslau) and Dr. Heusner (Barmen) and in 91 amputation became necessary. In numerous instances iodoform or carbolic acid was injected into the recommended the treatment by orthopaedic apparatus. joint, and in many of these cases operations had to be afterOperations on the Pancreas. wards performed. He had found, contrary to the experienceProfessor Kronlein (Zurich) said that carcinoma of theB of other surgeons, that injections of carbolic acid gavea pancreas was rare, only 6 per cent. of all carcinomata being: better result than injections of iodoform, the power of tound in this organ. Growths situated in the small end ofE moving the joint having been regained by thirteen out of the pancreas are the most favourable for operation. He forty patients treated with iodoform, and by twenty-one out reported a case of sarcoma where the isolation ot the pancreassof thirty-six treated with carbolic acid. was very difficult and where ligature of the pancreaticoAmbulatory Dressings in Fractures of Thigh and Leg. duodenal aitery became necessary ; gangrene of the colon Professor von Bardeleben (Berlin) said that the ambulatory resulted and caused the death of the patient on the seventh method of is now much simplified, the former comHessing day. plicated and rather expensive apparatus being replaced by SITTING ON APRIL 19TH. plaster dressings only. The broken bone is put on a splint llesection of the Gasserian Ganglion. till the swelling has reached its acme, and then a very well. Professor Krause (Altona) has performed this operationn fitting plaster dressing is applied, which, being supported by several times for trigeminal neuralgia by a method which hee the prominences of the malleoli and the pubic bone, keeps has described at former meetings of this Congress. Th(e the ends of the broken bone in apposition. A few days aftereffect was in all cases very satisfactory. By this operation itIt the injury the patient may try to walk and nearly always.r was proved that the trigeminal is the gustatory nerve to] succeeds in so doing. During last year thirty-nine out of the apex and the sides of the tongue.-Professor KöniÉg forty-five fractures of the leg and sixteen out of twenty-three I
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-
-