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THE CARDIFF AND COUNTY PUBLIC HEALTH LABORATORY.
ST. BARTHOLOMEW’S HOSPITAL.-HORSED AMBULANCES FOR LONDON.
678 any further prosecution of the
money towards a continued come back thus to a consubject. clusion, long ago arrived at by ourselves, that it is impossible to prevent the formation of fog but that it is possible to prevent its defilement with soot, as the Coal Smoke Abatement Society has shown. vote
sum
of
We
-
BARTHOLOMEW’S HOSPITAL.
ST.
THE committee which was formed, as we announced THE LANCET of Jan. 24th, p. 254, for the purpose of inquiring into various matters concerning St. Bartholomew’s Hospital has decided at least one point of the terms of reference- namely, that the hospital shall remain upon its present site. This decision was arrived at by 14 votes to one. Sub-committees have been appointed to inquire into the question of cost .and other matters. We learn that it is not intended to enlarge the hospital but to make such alterations as shall bring the hospital buildings into accord with modern ideas. The determination to remain upon the existing site is, we think, a just and right one. We have alreadyI given our reasons for thinking that the present site should be retained, while at the same time we pointed out the difficulties in the way of such a decision. We need not repeat what we have said upon this matter, but we await with interest the reports of the sub-committees which have been appointed to consider the financial side of the question.
in
THE
DISTRIBUTION
OF PLAGUE.
a large proportion of the samples of diseased meat was found to be from animals suffering from tuberculosis and half the samples of so-called sterilised milk proved to contain organisms. A large number of specimens sent in by medical men were examined during the year and as is pointed out the identification of doubtful cases of diphtheria, typhoid fever, and other diseases is very greatly aided by bacteriological examination. Other work done in the laboratory has dealt with methods of disinfection, the extermination of vermin, and the condition of sewage effluents and waste waters discharged into streams from industrial works.
HORSED AMBULANCES WE
FOR
to learn that the London
glad considering in committee the formation are
LONDON.
County Council is
of a service of horsed Such ambulances have existed in
ambulances for London. Liverpool for some 20 years, while Blackpool, Birmingham, and Wolverhampton also possess them. The ambulances, however, do not belong to the aforesaid municipalities but to the local hospitals. Here in London we have neither municipal nor. we think, hospital horsed ambulances, excluding those possessed by the Metropolitan Asylums Board. The Ambulance Corps of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem possesses some, but these, so far as we know, are the only horsed ambulances available in the case of a street accident. The very horses of the two great omnibus companies are in better case than is the casual citizen, for these hard-working and willing animals are conveyed home in an ambulance should they fall in the street, provided that they are not so badly hurt that the merciful bullet has to be called into requisition. Every surgeon on the staff of a London hospital, and most house surgeons, can recall cases of street accidents where injuries have been gravely increased by the methods of conveying the patients to the hospital. The surest way of rendering a simple fracture of the leg compound is by crowding the patient into a hansom, yet this is not uncommonly the course pursued by the good Samaritan who It is proposed, we believe, assists at a street accident. that the ambulance service should be in connexion with the fire brigade. If this means throwing extra duties upon the fire brigade we hope that this part of the scheme will fall through and, moreover, we trust that a special ambulance stud will be provided, for a fire-engine horse is not the most fitting motive power for conveying a case of severe accident to the hospital, although the fire-engine horses are used for the purpose in some cities.
AS regards the Mauritius a telegram from the Governor received at the Colonial Office on Feb. 27th states that for the week ending Feb. 26th there were 3 cases of bubonic plague and 1 death from the disease. As regards the Cape Colony the medical officer of health of the colony states that for the week ending Feb. 7th 2 cases of bubonic plague, both in male natives, were discovered at Port Elizabeth. The one case was admitted to hospital on Feb. 4th and died on the 6th ; the other case, admitted on Feb. 6th, remained in hospital at the date of the statement, Feb. 9th, being the only case in the plague hospital at the end of the week under review. No case of plague had occurred at any other place in the colony, but rats were reported from Graaf Reinet on Jan. 31st to be dying in a suspicious manner. An investigation was made and the disease from which the rats were suffering was found to be plague. As regards Hong-Kong a telegram from the Governor received at the Colonial Office on March 3rd states that for the week ending Feb. 28th there were 12 cases of Mr. Thomas M.D. Lond., F.R.C.S. Eng., who has plague and 12 deaths from the disease. As regards Egypt held the office Wilson, of assistant obstetric officer at the General no cases of, or deaths from, plague have occurred during the Hospital, Birmingham, for the past ten years, has been week ending Feb. 22nd. unanimously elected honorary obstetric officer in place of Dr. Edward Malins, the President of the Obstetrical Society THE CARDIFF AND COUNTY PUBLIC HEALTH of London, who has resigned that post. LABORATORY. THE third annual report of the bacteriologist of the above laboratory, Dr. William G. Savage, illustrates again the A CONVERSAZIONE will be given at the West London usefulness and importance ofsuch an institution and we Hospital by the Post-graduate College on Wednesday, hope in the interests of public health that municipal March 18th, at 8.30 P.M. All past residents and past and laboratories will be the rule before long throughout the present post-graduates are invited to be present. country. This hope is amply justified by the following examples of the work carried out in the Cardiff and County WE are asked to announce that the meeting of the Medical Public Health Laboratory. Many waters from suspected of London on March 23rd will be a "clinical been investinew sources have and Society proposed supplies and that the papers on Diseases of Children set gated. Data of value for determining the purity of water-supplies were thus obtained which proved of much down for that date are unavoidably postponed. practical utility in enabling opinions to be formed as -
-
evening"
to the purity of any given supply. Moreover, of food have been bacteriologically examined and as 1
THE
LANCET,
Jan.
17th, 1903,
p. 180.
samples a
result
THE
year, until
existing Vaccination
further legislation a future session.
on
Act is to be renewed for one the subject being deferred
678 any further prosecution of the
money towards a continued come back thus to a consubject. clusion, long ago arrived at by ourselves, that it is impossible to prevent the formation of fog but that it is possible to prevent its defilement with soot, as the Coal Smoke Abatement Society has shown. vote
sum
of
We
-
BARTHOLOMEW’S HOSPITAL.
ST.
THE committee which was formed, as we announced THE LANCET of Jan. 24th, p. 254, for the purpose of inquiring into various matters concerning St. Bartholomew’s Hospital has decided at least one point of the terms of reference- namely, that the hospital shall remain upon its present site. This decision was arrived at by 14 votes to one. Sub-committees have been appointed to inquire into the question of cost .and other matters. We learn that it is not intended to enlarge the hospital but to make such alterations as shall bring the hospital buildings into accord with modern ideas. The determination to remain upon the existing site is, we think, a just and right one. We have alreadyI given our reasons for thinking that the present site should be retained, while at the same time we pointed out the difficulties in the way of such a decision. We need not repeat what we have said upon this matter, but we await with interest the reports of the sub-committees which have been appointed to consider the financial side of the question.
in
THE
DISTRIBUTION
OF PLAGUE.
a large proportion of the samples of diseased meat was found to be from animals suffering from tuberculosis and half the samples of so-called sterilised milk proved to contain organisms. A large number of specimens sent in by medical men were examined during the year and as is pointed out the identification of doubtful cases of diphtheria, typhoid fever, and other diseases is very greatly aided by bacteriological examination. Other work done in the laboratory has dealt with methods of disinfection, the extermination of vermin, and the condition of sewage effluents and waste waters discharged into streams from industrial works.
HORSED AMBULANCES WE
FOR
to learn that the London
glad considering in committee the formation are
LONDON.
County Council is
of a service of horsed Such ambulances have existed in
ambulances for London. Liverpool for some 20 years, while Blackpool, Birmingham, and Wolverhampton also possess them. The ambulances, however, do not belong to the aforesaid municipalities but to the local hospitals. Here in London we have neither municipal nor. we think, hospital horsed ambulances, excluding those possessed by the Metropolitan Asylums Board. The Ambulance Corps of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem possesses some, but these, so far as we know, are the only horsed ambulances available in the case of a street accident. The very horses of the two great omnibus companies are in better case than is the casual citizen, for these hard-working and willing animals are conveyed home in an ambulance should they fall in the street, provided that they are not so badly hurt that the merciful bullet has to be called into requisition. Every surgeon on the staff of a London hospital, and most house surgeons, can recall cases of street accidents where injuries have been gravely increased by the methods of conveying the patients to the hospital. The surest way of rendering a simple fracture of the leg compound is by crowding the patient into a hansom, yet this is not uncommonly the course pursued by the good Samaritan who It is proposed, we believe, assists at a street accident. that the ambulance service should be in connexion with the fire brigade. If this means throwing extra duties upon the fire brigade we hope that this part of the scheme will fall through and, moreover, we trust that a special ambulance stud will be provided, for a fire-engine horse is not the most fitting motive power for conveying a case of severe accident to the hospital, although the fire-engine horses are used for the purpose in some cities.
AS regards the Mauritius a telegram from the Governor received at the Colonial Office on Feb. 27th states that for the week ending Feb. 26th there were 3 cases of bubonic plague and 1 death from the disease. As regards the Cape Colony the medical officer of health of the colony states that for the week ending Feb. 7th 2 cases of bubonic plague, both in male natives, were discovered at Port Elizabeth. The one case was admitted to hospital on Feb. 4th and died on the 6th ; the other case, admitted on Feb. 6th, remained in hospital at the date of the statement, Feb. 9th, being the only case in the plague hospital at the end of the week under review. No case of plague had occurred at any other place in the colony, but rats were reported from Graaf Reinet on Jan. 31st to be dying in a suspicious manner. An investigation was made and the disease from which the rats were suffering was found to be plague. As regards Hong-Kong a telegram from the Governor received at the Colonial Office on March 3rd states that for the week ending Feb. 28th there were 12 cases of Mr. Thomas M.D. Lond., F.R.C.S. Eng., who has plague and 12 deaths from the disease. As regards Egypt held the office Wilson, of assistant obstetric officer at the General no cases of, or deaths from, plague have occurred during the Hospital, Birmingham, for the past ten years, has been week ending Feb. 22nd. unanimously elected honorary obstetric officer in place of Dr. Edward Malins, the President of the Obstetrical Society THE CARDIFF AND COUNTY PUBLIC HEALTH of London, who has resigned that post. LABORATORY. THE third annual report of the bacteriologist of the above laboratory, Dr. William G. Savage, illustrates again the A CONVERSAZIONE will be given at the West London usefulness and importance ofsuch an institution and we Hospital by the Post-graduate College on Wednesday, hope in the interests of public health that municipal March 18th, at 8.30 P.M. All past residents and past and laboratories will be the rule before long throughout the present post-graduates are invited to be present. country. This hope is amply justified by the following examples of the work carried out in the Cardiff and County WE are asked to announce that the meeting of the Medical Public Health Laboratory. Many waters from suspected of London on March 23rd will be a "clinical been investinew sources have and Society proposed supplies and that the papers on Diseases of Children set gated. Data of value for determining the purity of water-supplies were thus obtained which proved of much down for that date are unavoidably postponed. practical utility in enabling opinions to be formed as -
-
evening"
to the purity of any given supply. Moreover, of food have been bacteriologically examined and as 1
THE
LANCET,
Jan.
17th, 1903,
p. 180.
samples a
result
THE
year, until
existing Vaccination
further legislation a future session.
on
Act is to be renewed for one the subject being deferred