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REPORTS OF MEDICAL OFFICERS OF HEALTH.
202
illegitimate infants was only 103. Dr. Millard is puzzled by the fact that the De Montfort district, largely residential and with a low birth-rate, has a higher infant mortality-rate than Belgrave or BLOCK GRANTS FOR PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICES. Aylstone, both working-class districts with a far higher PARTICULAR attention is being devoted by the birth-rate. The pulmonary tuberculosis rate (1-16) is Ministry of Health at the present time to the question not satisfactory, showing an increase on the 1920 of grants for public health services, and a special figures. A chart is given showing the great increase in committee has been appointed to look into the matter the cancer death-rate since 1888 from about 45 per The Geddes Committee reported 100,000 of the population to 129 in 1921. The Leicester and advise upon it. unfavourably upon the present system of granting Health Committee have issued an informative leaflet 50 per cent. of expenditure in respect of the various to the public on the subject of cancer to which we branches of health work, and it seems clear that some have already referred.’ Leicester has kept free from Dr. Millard does not other basis will have to be found. The advisability small-pox during the year. of block grants was most ably dealt with by Mr. approve of working up vaccination scares when Arthur Collins, late treasurer to the Birmingham small-pox is in the neighbourhood, as it was during Corporation, at the recent Infant Welfare Conference. 1921, but prefers to trust to the vaccination of contacts The objections to the present system, Mr. Collins said, when a case actually occurs. Vaccinations in Leicester were threefold : (1) There was no end to the claims only amount to 4-5 per cent. of the births. Scarlet which might be made upon the State, and it was fever only caused a case fatality of 0-1 per cent. As a desirable that the State’s resources should be defined. contrast, diphtheria had a case fatality of 8-6 per cent.
Public Health Services.
At the V.D. clinics there is a decline in new cases (2) At various times there had been clear indications that the system had not led to economy. It had often since 1919, more marked in the case of gonorrhoea happened that a proposal was advocated before a cold than in syphilis. At the Poor-law infirmary there or hostile local council on the basis that half the has been, on the other hand, an increase of cases of expense would be recovered from the State. (3) It syphilis since 1919, but this has been coincident with was an open question whether any grant on a peran energetic search for cases by means of the Wassercentage basis would ever bring a local authority to mann test. No signs of syphilis have been manifested overhaul the cost of its public health services as by any children of infected mothers treated during compared with other expenses. The first difficulty pregnancy and some of these children are now might be met by standardising the grants as they are between 2 and 3 years old. The housing shortage is at present and ascertaining what expense such local acute and Dr. Millard hopes that the Government grants-in-aid demanded from the national exchequer. embargo on housing schemes will be quickly removed. This would prevent continuous increase in cost, and Referring to a large road improvement scheme, Dr. would stabilise the divergencies between one locality Millard thinks the provision of playing fields would and another, but it would give no encouragement to a have offered just as much work to the unemployed backward local authority to begin new departures of and have been a greater benefit to the public health. health work and would fall hardly on those which had He tells us that Leicester is ahead of most towns in recently been started, and which would be unable to the matter of allotments and that this is one of the develop if the grant were based upon their period of factors helping to make it a healthy city. During the infancy. year an active campaign has been instituted in Leicester There has been, however, a rapid increase in the in favour of clean milk. number of services-clinics, midwives, provision for Coventry. nursing and expectant mothers, milk, health visitors, Dr. E. H. Snell in submitting his twenty-fifth report and other tuberculosis-all " open-air special schools, an interesting comparison of then and now." of which could be classed broadly as maternity and gives In 1897 of the staff consisted two himself, inspectors of child welfare work. Mr. Collins’s proposal is that, and a boy clerk. One of his early recomnuisances, a claim for of instead every authority making separate not even yet individual branches of work, a list should be drawn up, mendations-a public abattoir-has been carried out. Coventry became a water-carriage a record as of the the basis, taking previous year’s number of individual cases in each class admissible town in the days of Dr. Snell’s predecessor, and the in the area, added in 1899, have been for grant and of the amount allowable on each case. privy middens since converted. Between 1897 and 1921 the populaA block grant, amounting to approximately half the tion of the city has doubled ; the birth-rate has on all of be classes would work, probable expenses 30 per cent., the death-rate by 40 per decreased granted by the State, and it would be up to the local cent., and by the infant mortality-rate has been halved. it as and to to allocate seemed best, provide authority of 1921 was 128,205, the balance. At present there is a wide disparity The population at the census between the expenditure of different localities, with and during that year the birth-rate was 22-1, the the result that, according to Mr. Collins, the economical death-rate 10-2, the infant mortality-rate 793, the death-rate 0-87, and the death-rate from are virtually helping the extravagant, who receive a phthisis forms of tuberculosis 0-23. A table on p. 29 other in larger grant proportion to their outlay. The block shows the marked improvement in the infant grant system would make it profitable to be economical. Mr. Collins admitted that no system would achieve all mortality-rate since 1905 ; all the improvement has been in the last 11 months, the neo-natal death-rate we desired; but since under the present financial conditions we must aim at securing good work at the having remained stationary. The hot, dry summer least possible cost, his suggestion should receive of last year had very little effect in increasing the infant deaths from diarrhoea, and Dr. Snell thinks careful consideration. it probable that the increasing use of dried milk for REPORTS OF MEDICAL OFFICERS OF HEALTH. hand-fed babies avoids the dangers inherent in fresh milk in the hot weather. It has not been possible to Leicester. close " unfit houses " during the year owing to the The census of midsummer, 1921, showed a popula- absence of alternative accommodation for displaced tion of 234,190, less by about 8500 than was antici- tenants. The school reports contain an interesting pated. With the Registrar-General’s estimate for account of the Corley Camp open-air (residential) holiday-makers the population becomes 237,900. school. Classes for " stammerers " on the Berquand Dr. C. Killick Millard is well satisfied with a death- system have given satisfactory results. rate of 12-09 and an infant mortality-rate of 85-9, and Ilford. considers that there is a permanent improvement in The net estimated population (excluding the the conditions of child life in Leicester. The birth-rate for 1921 was 21-42. The illegitimate births amounted inmates and staff of the Claybury and West Ham in 1921 to 6 per cent. of the total births ; on the other Mental Hospitals) of Ilford for 1921 was 81,567. The 1 THE LANCET, 1922, i., 1030. hand, it is satisfactory that the mortality-rate of
203 birth-rate was 18-3 ; the death-rate *)-2 ; the infant mortality-rate 50-9; and the diarrhoea-rate under
Correspondence.
Dr. A. H. G. Burton says he will be can be maintained, and thinks the infant mortality-rate has probably reached the lowest possible point considering our present knowledge of the problems involved. In this connexion we note that 36 of the 76 infant deaths are ascribed to congenital debility. The favourable infant mortality-rate is all the more remarkable when we realise that 38 illegitimate infants provided 10 of the deaths, giving of 263 for illegitimate an infant mortality-rate infants. The Ilford council has now made a satisfactory arrangement for linking up the work of the infant life protection visitor of the Romford board of guardians. Houses accommodating foster-children are visited by the sanitary inspectors, and the fosterchildren are to be brought to the nearest infant The Essex County Council has welfare centre. terminated the agreement for treating small-pox cases from Ilford and this action necessitates a new arrangement; this council conducts a tuberculosis dispensary at Ilford and arrangements have been made for dental treatment. A local V.D. propaganda committee, supported by small grants from the county council and Ilford council, has arranged lectures during the year to both men and women, and also film exhibitions. A satisfactory start has now been made in the provision of home nursing for Ilford, but the district is badly off for midwives. There is still a good deal of pressure on housing accommodation,I a local census showing that 1123 houses contained two or more families. 275 houses of the Ilford council scheme have been occupied during the year, and 62 houses have been privately built. The school report shows that of 6486 children inspected by the dentist, 66 per cent. were found to require treatment, and that only 50 per cent. of these accepted it. There is an interesting report by the area organiser of physical training, which records the good effect of remedial exercises in some cases of lateral curvature. 2 years 60.
satisfied if these figures
"Audi alteram
SOME LESS KNOWN METHODS OF ARSENICAL POISONING. To the Editor
I
ROYAL NAVAL MEDICAL SERVICE. J. E. H. Phillips is placed on Retd. List with the rank of Surg. Capt.
ROYAL ARMY MEDICAL CORPS. Lt.-Col. and Bt. Col. R. S. Hannay relinquishes the temp. rank of Col. Lt. Col. E. W. Siberry and Maj. M. F. Foulds retire on ret. pay. Capt. H. R. L’Estrange is placed on the half-pay list on account of ill-health. TERRITORIAL FORCE.
Capt. C. Webb-Johnson to be Ntaj. The following officers relinquish their
commns. and retain their rank except where otherwise stated : Capts. S. R. Foster, H. A. Macmillan (granted the rank of Maj.), A. S. Hebblethwaite, and W. J. F. Craig.. The undermentioned officers, having attained the age limit, are retired and retain their rank except where otherwise stated : Lt.-Col. C. Douglas ; Majs. J. McD. Nicoll, J. P. Milne, and F. J. Warwick ; Capts. T. Graham (granted the rank of Maj.), G. H. Spencer (granted the rank of Lt.-Col.), E. E. B. Landon, W. Smith, H. Stonehouse, and W. T. Harkness (granted the rank of Maj.).
ROYAL AIR FORCE. Medical Rranch.-The undermentioned are granted permanent commns.: A. Briscoe, T. Montgomery, G. H. H. Maxwell, and S. E. Elphick to be Flight Lts. R. Boog Watson to be Flying Officer (since promoted). The undermentioned Flight Lts. are transferred to the Reserve, Class D. 2 : W. A. Malone, J. P. Wells, and C. H.
Young.
----
THE ROYAL VICTORIAN ORDER, Surg. Commdr. A. C. W. Newport, R.N., H.M.S. Renown, has been promoted to Commdr. ; and Surg. Lt.-Commdr. H. E. Y. White, R.N., H.M.S. Renozon, has been appointed a Member of the Fourth Class of the Royal Victorian Order.
of TUE LANCET. for a period with the office associated SiR,—When of the chemical examiner to the Government of India, Madras Presidency, as pharmacologist and physio-dynamical expert, I had occasion to trace the manner of administration of arsenic in 11 obscure cases, in which the presence of the drug was established in organs submitted for chemical analysis. Nine of these deaths proved to be due to koyahism, and only the discovery of the death-lamp of the Pshaloos furnished the clue to the solution of the other two remaining cases. The ancient belief in arsenic as a sustainer of the failing powers of sexual virility is well known ; in the East the drug is still called " kalidhan yeevah " (i.e., the elixir of life), and the invasion of Europe by the Saracens and Moors bore fruit in the spread of this belief in the Western world. The belief in amulets, charms, and philtres found a large currency in mediaeval times, and most of the love-philtres were undoubtedly compounded of arsenic. It behoves us, therefore, to extend our acquaintance with koyahism, which in the majority of cases is not resorted to until after the forty-seventh year of life, although deaths from koyahism have been noticed at earlier ages. Mogul historians tell us that Phshoraub, the Kurdo-Turanean invader of Persia, mythologically slain by the Persian chief Rusthom, died at the early age of 24 years from Pshaloan koyahism ; so likewise koyahism accounted for the death of Zhenish Khan, the slave-favourite and General of Tamur Lenk," who died at the age of 37years, 18 months after he had built his famous pyramid of skulls at Ghazi. The death of Alexander the Great has likewise been attributed to koyahism, and he died at the age of 23 years. The two forms of koyahism current in Eastern lands are :(a) Koyah dhaurwah. or graduated administration of arsenic mixed with the chlorophyl of plants in dry powder form. This use of chlorophyl as an antidote to arsenical poisoning deserves to be further studied and elaborated. Among the Pshawallee tribes that inhabit the Dhaulean Terai, the koyah contains another ingredient-namely, goats’ blood. (b) Koyahpetharah, or yeast-arsenic. The development of a strain of yeast plant by Faex-culture upon a medium composed of palmera juice (toddy) mixed with arsenic is a trade followed only by the Dravidean priesthood ; these Dravs have the monopoly of the production of this form of koyah. It is singular that the number of deaths due to genuine koyahism is extremely small. Only when amateurs in this line attempt to concoct their own potions of arsenic from the crude drug itself that such deaths attain to prominent notice. It is, therefore, advisable that the genuine methods of " koyah " manufacture be investigated ; for " koyah dhaurwah " and " koyah petharah" have been of great value in malarial regions. Peedhal is another organo-therapeutical product of arsenic, in which the aspergillus is used in place of the yeast plant. These spores are cultivated upon a mixture of goats’ milk, toddy, and arsenic. They are much more sought after in cases of amoebic dysentery than in genuine malaria, and I have hopes that the judicious use of peedhal may yet prove beneficial in giving its quietus to the " white plague "
The Services. Surg. Commdr.
partem."
I
dhaurwah
of
our mining camps. Pshalooisnm is very rarely met with ; its employThe metal ment is distinctly homicidal or suicidal.
illegitimate infants was only 103. Dr. Millard is puzzled by the fact that the De Montfort district, largely residential and with a low birth-rate, has a higher infant mortality-rate than Belgrave or BLOCK GRANTS FOR PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICES. Aylstone, both working-class districts with a far higher PARTICULAR attention is being devoted by the birth-rate. The pulmonary tuberculosis rate (1-16) is Ministry of Health at the present time to the question not satisfactory, showing an increase on the 1920 of grants for public health services, and a special figures. A chart is given showing the great increase in committee has been appointed to look into the matter the cancer death-rate since 1888 from about 45 per The Geddes Committee reported 100,000 of the population to 129 in 1921. The Leicester and advise upon it. unfavourably upon the present system of granting Health Committee have issued an informative leaflet 50 per cent. of expenditure in respect of the various to the public on the subject of cancer to which we branches of health work, and it seems clear that some have already referred.’ Leicester has kept free from Dr. Millard does not other basis will have to be found. The advisability small-pox during the year. of block grants was most ably dealt with by Mr. approve of working up vaccination scares when Arthur Collins, late treasurer to the Birmingham small-pox is in the neighbourhood, as it was during Corporation, at the recent Infant Welfare Conference. 1921, but prefers to trust to the vaccination of contacts The objections to the present system, Mr. Collins said, when a case actually occurs. Vaccinations in Leicester were threefold : (1) There was no end to the claims only amount to 4-5 per cent. of the births. Scarlet which might be made upon the State, and it was fever only caused a case fatality of 0-1 per cent. As a desirable that the State’s resources should be defined. contrast, diphtheria had a case fatality of 8-6 per cent.
Public Health Services.
At the V.D. clinics there is a decline in new cases (2) At various times there had been clear indications that the system had not led to economy. It had often since 1919, more marked in the case of gonorrhoea happened that a proposal was advocated before a cold than in syphilis. At the Poor-law infirmary there or hostile local council on the basis that half the has been, on the other hand, an increase of cases of expense would be recovered from the State. (3) It syphilis since 1919, but this has been coincident with was an open question whether any grant on a peran energetic search for cases by means of the Wassercentage basis would ever bring a local authority to mann test. No signs of syphilis have been manifested overhaul the cost of its public health services as by any children of infected mothers treated during compared with other expenses. The first difficulty pregnancy and some of these children are now might be met by standardising the grants as they are between 2 and 3 years old. The housing shortage is at present and ascertaining what expense such local acute and Dr. Millard hopes that the Government grants-in-aid demanded from the national exchequer. embargo on housing schemes will be quickly removed. This would prevent continuous increase in cost, and Referring to a large road improvement scheme, Dr. would stabilise the divergencies between one locality Millard thinks the provision of playing fields would and another, but it would give no encouragement to a have offered just as much work to the unemployed backward local authority to begin new departures of and have been a greater benefit to the public health. health work and would fall hardly on those which had He tells us that Leicester is ahead of most towns in recently been started, and which would be unable to the matter of allotments and that this is one of the develop if the grant were based upon their period of factors helping to make it a healthy city. During the infancy. year an active campaign has been instituted in Leicester There has been, however, a rapid increase in the in favour of clean milk. number of services-clinics, midwives, provision for Coventry. nursing and expectant mothers, milk, health visitors, Dr. E. H. Snell in submitting his twenty-fifth report and other tuberculosis-all " open-air special schools, an interesting comparison of then and now." of which could be classed broadly as maternity and gives In 1897 of the staff consisted two himself, inspectors of child welfare work. Mr. Collins’s proposal is that, and a boy clerk. One of his early recomnuisances, a claim for of instead every authority making separate not even yet individual branches of work, a list should be drawn up, mendations-a public abattoir-has been carried out. Coventry became a water-carriage a record as of the the basis, taking previous year’s number of individual cases in each class admissible town in the days of Dr. Snell’s predecessor, and the in the area, added in 1899, have been for grant and of the amount allowable on each case. privy middens since converted. Between 1897 and 1921 the populaA block grant, amounting to approximately half the tion of the city has doubled ; the birth-rate has on all of be classes would work, probable expenses 30 per cent., the death-rate by 40 per decreased granted by the State, and it would be up to the local cent., and by the infant mortality-rate has been halved. it as and to to allocate seemed best, provide authority of 1921 was 128,205, the balance. At present there is a wide disparity The population at the census between the expenditure of different localities, with and during that year the birth-rate was 22-1, the the result that, according to Mr. Collins, the economical death-rate 10-2, the infant mortality-rate 793, the death-rate 0-87, and the death-rate from are virtually helping the extravagant, who receive a phthisis forms of tuberculosis 0-23. A table on p. 29 other in larger grant proportion to their outlay. The block shows the marked improvement in the infant grant system would make it profitable to be economical. Mr. Collins admitted that no system would achieve all mortality-rate since 1905 ; all the improvement has been in the last 11 months, the neo-natal death-rate we desired; but since under the present financial conditions we must aim at securing good work at the having remained stationary. The hot, dry summer least possible cost, his suggestion should receive of last year had very little effect in increasing the infant deaths from diarrhoea, and Dr. Snell thinks careful consideration. it probable that the increasing use of dried milk for REPORTS OF MEDICAL OFFICERS OF HEALTH. hand-fed babies avoids the dangers inherent in fresh milk in the hot weather. It has not been possible to Leicester. close " unfit houses " during the year owing to the The census of midsummer, 1921, showed a popula- absence of alternative accommodation for displaced tion of 234,190, less by about 8500 than was antici- tenants. The school reports contain an interesting pated. With the Registrar-General’s estimate for account of the Corley Camp open-air (residential) holiday-makers the population becomes 237,900. school. Classes for " stammerers " on the Berquand Dr. C. Killick Millard is well satisfied with a death- system have given satisfactory results. rate of 12-09 and an infant mortality-rate of 85-9, and Ilford. considers that there is a permanent improvement in The net estimated population (excluding the the conditions of child life in Leicester. The birth-rate for 1921 was 21-42. The illegitimate births amounted inmates and staff of the Claybury and West Ham in 1921 to 6 per cent. of the total births ; on the other Mental Hospitals) of Ilford for 1921 was 81,567. The 1 THE LANCET, 1922, i., 1030. hand, it is satisfactory that the mortality-rate of
203 birth-rate was 18-3 ; the death-rate *)-2 ; the infant mortality-rate 50-9; and the diarrhoea-rate under
Correspondence.
Dr. A. H. G. Burton says he will be can be maintained, and thinks the infant mortality-rate has probably reached the lowest possible point considering our present knowledge of the problems involved. In this connexion we note that 36 of the 76 infant deaths are ascribed to congenital debility. The favourable infant mortality-rate is all the more remarkable when we realise that 38 illegitimate infants provided 10 of the deaths, giving of 263 for illegitimate an infant mortality-rate infants. The Ilford council has now made a satisfactory arrangement for linking up the work of the infant life protection visitor of the Romford board of guardians. Houses accommodating foster-children are visited by the sanitary inspectors, and the fosterchildren are to be brought to the nearest infant The Essex County Council has welfare centre. terminated the agreement for treating small-pox cases from Ilford and this action necessitates a new arrangement; this council conducts a tuberculosis dispensary at Ilford and arrangements have been made for dental treatment. A local V.D. propaganda committee, supported by small grants from the county council and Ilford council, has arranged lectures during the year to both men and women, and also film exhibitions. A satisfactory start has now been made in the provision of home nursing for Ilford, but the district is badly off for midwives. There is still a good deal of pressure on housing accommodation,I a local census showing that 1123 houses contained two or more families. 275 houses of the Ilford council scheme have been occupied during the year, and 62 houses have been privately built. The school report shows that of 6486 children inspected by the dentist, 66 per cent. were found to require treatment, and that only 50 per cent. of these accepted it. There is an interesting report by the area organiser of physical training, which records the good effect of remedial exercises in some cases of lateral curvature. 2 years 60.
satisfied if these figures
"Audi alteram
SOME LESS KNOWN METHODS OF ARSENICAL POISONING. To the Editor
I
ROYAL NAVAL MEDICAL SERVICE. J. E. H. Phillips is placed on Retd. List with the rank of Surg. Capt.
ROYAL ARMY MEDICAL CORPS. Lt.-Col. and Bt. Col. R. S. Hannay relinquishes the temp. rank of Col. Lt. Col. E. W. Siberry and Maj. M. F. Foulds retire on ret. pay. Capt. H. R. L’Estrange is placed on the half-pay list on account of ill-health. TERRITORIAL FORCE.
Capt. C. Webb-Johnson to be Ntaj. The following officers relinquish their
commns. and retain their rank except where otherwise stated : Capts. S. R. Foster, H. A. Macmillan (granted the rank of Maj.), A. S. Hebblethwaite, and W. J. F. Craig.. The undermentioned officers, having attained the age limit, are retired and retain their rank except where otherwise stated : Lt.-Col. C. Douglas ; Majs. J. McD. Nicoll, J. P. Milne, and F. J. Warwick ; Capts. T. Graham (granted the rank of Maj.), G. H. Spencer (granted the rank of Lt.-Col.), E. E. B. Landon, W. Smith, H. Stonehouse, and W. T. Harkness (granted the rank of Maj.).
ROYAL AIR FORCE. Medical Rranch.-The undermentioned are granted permanent commns.: A. Briscoe, T. Montgomery, G. H. H. Maxwell, and S. E. Elphick to be Flight Lts. R. Boog Watson to be Flying Officer (since promoted). The undermentioned Flight Lts. are transferred to the Reserve, Class D. 2 : W. A. Malone, J. P. Wells, and C. H.
Young.
----
THE ROYAL VICTORIAN ORDER, Surg. Commdr. A. C. W. Newport, R.N., H.M.S. Renown, has been promoted to Commdr. ; and Surg. Lt.-Commdr. H. E. Y. White, R.N., H.M.S. Renozon, has been appointed a Member of the Fourth Class of the Royal Victorian Order.
of TUE LANCET. for a period with the office associated SiR,—When of the chemical examiner to the Government of India, Madras Presidency, as pharmacologist and physio-dynamical expert, I had occasion to trace the manner of administration of arsenic in 11 obscure cases, in which the presence of the drug was established in organs submitted for chemical analysis. Nine of these deaths proved to be due to koyahism, and only the discovery of the death-lamp of the Pshaloos furnished the clue to the solution of the other two remaining cases. The ancient belief in arsenic as a sustainer of the failing powers of sexual virility is well known ; in the East the drug is still called " kalidhan yeevah " (i.e., the elixir of life), and the invasion of Europe by the Saracens and Moors bore fruit in the spread of this belief in the Western world. The belief in amulets, charms, and philtres found a large currency in mediaeval times, and most of the love-philtres were undoubtedly compounded of arsenic. It behoves us, therefore, to extend our acquaintance with koyahism, which in the majority of cases is not resorted to until after the forty-seventh year of life, although deaths from koyahism have been noticed at earlier ages. Mogul historians tell us that Phshoraub, the Kurdo-Turanean invader of Persia, mythologically slain by the Persian chief Rusthom, died at the early age of 24 years from Pshaloan koyahism ; so likewise koyahism accounted for the death of Zhenish Khan, the slave-favourite and General of Tamur Lenk," who died at the age of 37years, 18 months after he had built his famous pyramid of skulls at Ghazi. The death of Alexander the Great has likewise been attributed to koyahism, and he died at the age of 23 years. The two forms of koyahism current in Eastern lands are :(a) Koyah dhaurwah. or graduated administration of arsenic mixed with the chlorophyl of plants in dry powder form. This use of chlorophyl as an antidote to arsenical poisoning deserves to be further studied and elaborated. Among the Pshawallee tribes that inhabit the Dhaulean Terai, the koyah contains another ingredient-namely, goats’ blood. (b) Koyahpetharah, or yeast-arsenic. The development of a strain of yeast plant by Faex-culture upon a medium composed of palmera juice (toddy) mixed with arsenic is a trade followed only by the Dravidean priesthood ; these Dravs have the monopoly of the production of this form of koyah. It is singular that the number of deaths due to genuine koyahism is extremely small. Only when amateurs in this line attempt to concoct their own potions of arsenic from the crude drug itself that such deaths attain to prominent notice. It is, therefore, advisable that the genuine methods of " koyah " manufacture be investigated ; for " koyah dhaurwah " and " koyah petharah" have been of great value in malarial regions. Peedhal is another organo-therapeutical product of arsenic, in which the aspergillus is used in place of the yeast plant. These spores are cultivated upon a mixture of goats’ milk, toddy, and arsenic. They are much more sought after in cases of amoebic dysentery than in genuine malaria, and I have hopes that the judicious use of peedhal may yet prove beneficial in giving its quietus to the " white plague "
The Services. Surg. Commdr.
partem."
I
dhaurwah
of
our mining camps. Pshalooisnm is very rarely met with ; its employThe metal ment is distinctly homicidal or suicidal.