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THE CUSTOMS AND PORT AUTHORITIES.
THE DIFFUSION OF SMALL-POX.
46
sion that neglect had something to do with the sad result in this instance. Luscious fruits are particularly liable to putrefactive change, and such thrifty processes as exposure to a cold and dry air, spreading out and the like, Eunice only to postpone decay for a brief period. We cannot do better than point to the incident above-mentioned in order to remind the vendor and the purchaser alike that freshness is the only certain guarantee of safety when any succulent fruit forms an article of diet. We have not forgotten that another hardly less serious danger of the season awaits those who indulge in fruit which is under-ripe. In this case taste as well as judgment commonly interpose a caution the importance of which can hardly be exaggerated. Yet here, also, the consequences of neglect have too often been sadly
apparent.
-
THE
WHILST
DIFFUSION OF SMALL-POX.
diminution in the extent and diffusion of still in progress there are localities in which the ’disease is still very rife. West Ham is one of these. Over a hundred cases have occurred there during the last six weeks, 24 being notified during last week. Other places where have outbreaks occurred and in which the important number of fresh attacks during last week is known are : some
to be extended to other ports ; but it remains how far the appliances of the Customs officers will admit of any reduction in the expenses to which port authorities are now being put, and it is evidently anticipated by many that such help as is given in the port of London will not be found available for any but a few selected ports. It is in view of this, we believe, that some Members have in contemplation to move the adjonrnment of the House, and if so we have not yet heard the end of the demand for an Imperial subvention in aid of work done for the prevention of cholera.
scheme
to be
was
seen
H.R.H. THE DUKE OF YORK.
glad to be in a position to state that the somewhat extensively circulated rumours as to the illness of the Duke WE
are
of York had no more substantial basis than the fact that His Royal Highness has been suffering from toothache, from which trivial if distressing disorder he has now completely recovered. ___
small-pox is
Blackburn, 4 ; Birmingham, 10 ; Bradford, 13 ; Halifax, 10 ; Leicester, 15 ; Manchester, 7 ; Oldham, 10 ; Wakefield, 9 ; and Walsall, 5. Fresh attacks have also occurred at Aston Manor, Burnley, Bury, Cambridge, Chadderton, Croydon, Guildford, Hanley, Handsworth, Keighley, Lancaster, Longton, Middlesbrough, Reading, Salford, Sheffield and Tottenham. In London the number of cases actually under treatment
Metropolitan Asylums Board hospitals on the river has .also again undergone a slight diminution, the actual number of patients under isolation on June 26th being 380. We have on several occasions referred to the spread of the disease through the agency of night shelters. The question whether :such shelters as those which belong to the Salvation Army are to be dealt with by the local sanitary authorities in much the - same way as is the case as regards common lodging-houses will probably now be settled, owing to the action which has been taken at the instigation of Dr. Waldo at the Southwark Police Court against the superintendent of one of those shelters in which a small-pox patient was found to have slept.
at the
THE CUSTOMS AND PORT AUTHORITIES. THE final decision of the Government not to grant an Imperial subvention to port sanitary authorities in aid of ttheir special work for preventing the importation of cholera into this country would seem, from the explanations given in the House of Commons, to be largely due to some understanding to the effect that the Customs are to assist port officers in their work. This view gives especial interest to a report recently issued by Dr. Collingridge on the inspection of vessels at Gravesend. He points out that at the end of dast year the Customs office, professing to be afraid of their officers becoming infected, announced that they would no longer consent to the Customs’ visit and the visit of the medical - officer of health being paid at the same time and from the same vessel. The Port of London authority in consequence went to considerable expense in providing a separate hulk, a second steam launch and further medical assistance ; but at a later stage, apparently on the representation of the Local Government Board, the Customs offir ers were instructed by the Chancellor of the Exchequer to revert to their original practice of allowing the medical officer of health of the port to accompany them on their visit to every vessel and to render the port authority all possible assistance in carrying out the inspections required under the cholera regulations. From the announcement made in the House of Commons on Tuesday last it would appear as if some similar
BROMIDE OF STRONTIUM IN
EPILEPSY.
IN the May number of the Johns Hopkins Hospital Bulletin Dr. Berkley gives an account of his experience in the treatment of epilepsy with this new drug. The results are both interesting and gratifying. There was during the administration continued absence of the usual bromide acne, the somnolent effect was much less than with other salts and some of the patients were decidedly less quarrelsome and troublesome after their seizures than they had been whilst subjected to other courses of treatment. The dose given was about thirty grains three times a day. After five months the patients treated with this drug showed no tendency to relapse into their former condition. ___
"EPILEPTIC SLEEP SEIZURES." IN a recent number of the .2V York Medical Journal Dr. George W. Jacoby writes on this interesting and, from the medico-legal point of view, extremely important subject. As he remarks, it is well known that many epileptics sleep after every convulsive attack, and that others do not, whilst some present no regularity in this respect but sleep after some seizures and not after others. But the class of cases which is dealt with in this paper is that in which attacks of sleep constitute the chief symptom and in some apparently the only one. The first case alluded to is that of a man of twenty-nine whose mother was subject to "nervous spells " all her life and one of whose brothers was epileptic. The patient was well until his twelfth year when, in consequence apparently of a fright produced by being chased by a dog, he fell down in a convulsion. He lost consciousness, frothed at the mouth and bit his tongue. This was the only true convulsive attack which he ever had. At the age of twenty-one he had a peculiar attack. Whilst walking with a friend and conversing on ordinary subjects he suddenly wheeled round, completing a full circle, and then began to run at full speed. After running about 500 feet he fell and was found by his friend lying on the ground apparently fast asleep. After about a quarter of an hour he awoke, but had no recollection of anything intervening between his conversation with his friend and his awakening. He remembered perfectly the subject of the conversation. The attacks gradually became more frequent, so that latterly he sometimes had several in one day. All the attacks that have been observed were of similar character to that described and no convulsion has ever been associated with them. A complete attack has never been witnessed in-doors, but he has been found asleep in various places and postures. The patient is also a somnambulist and as a child was subject to pavor nocturnus. Of the epileptic character of these attacks there can be no doubt. The second case was that of a barber. About ten years ago he rapidly increased in weight from 150lb. to 267lb. Four years since he sud-
46
sion that neglect had something to do with the sad result in this instance. Luscious fruits are particularly liable to putrefactive change, and such thrifty processes as exposure to a cold and dry air, spreading out and the like, Eunice only to postpone decay for a brief period. We cannot do better than point to the incident above-mentioned in order to remind the vendor and the purchaser alike that freshness is the only certain guarantee of safety when any succulent fruit forms an article of diet. We have not forgotten that another hardly less serious danger of the season awaits those who indulge in fruit which is under-ripe. In this case taste as well as judgment commonly interpose a caution the importance of which can hardly be exaggerated. Yet here, also, the consequences of neglect have too often been sadly
apparent.
-
THE
WHILST
DIFFUSION OF SMALL-POX.
diminution in the extent and diffusion of still in progress there are localities in which the ’disease is still very rife. West Ham is one of these. Over a hundred cases have occurred there during the last six weeks, 24 being notified during last week. Other places where have outbreaks occurred and in which the important number of fresh attacks during last week is known are : some
to be extended to other ports ; but it remains how far the appliances of the Customs officers will admit of any reduction in the expenses to which port authorities are now being put, and it is evidently anticipated by many that such help as is given in the port of London will not be found available for any but a few selected ports. It is in view of this, we believe, that some Members have in contemplation to move the adjonrnment of the House, and if so we have not yet heard the end of the demand for an Imperial subvention in aid of work done for the prevention of cholera.
scheme
to be
was
seen
H.R.H. THE DUKE OF YORK.
glad to be in a position to state that the somewhat extensively circulated rumours as to the illness of the Duke WE
are
of York had no more substantial basis than the fact that His Royal Highness has been suffering from toothache, from which trivial if distressing disorder he has now completely recovered. ___
small-pox is
Blackburn, 4 ; Birmingham, 10 ; Bradford, 13 ; Halifax, 10 ; Leicester, 15 ; Manchester, 7 ; Oldham, 10 ; Wakefield, 9 ; and Walsall, 5. Fresh attacks have also occurred at Aston Manor, Burnley, Bury, Cambridge, Chadderton, Croydon, Guildford, Hanley, Handsworth, Keighley, Lancaster, Longton, Middlesbrough, Reading, Salford, Sheffield and Tottenham. In London the number of cases actually under treatment
Metropolitan Asylums Board hospitals on the river has .also again undergone a slight diminution, the actual number of patients under isolation on June 26th being 380. We have on several occasions referred to the spread of the disease through the agency of night shelters. The question whether :such shelters as those which belong to the Salvation Army are to be dealt with by the local sanitary authorities in much the - same way as is the case as regards common lodging-houses will probably now be settled, owing to the action which has been taken at the instigation of Dr. Waldo at the Southwark Police Court against the superintendent of one of those shelters in which a small-pox patient was found to have slept.
at the
THE CUSTOMS AND PORT AUTHORITIES. THE final decision of the Government not to grant an Imperial subvention to port sanitary authorities in aid of ttheir special work for preventing the importation of cholera into this country would seem, from the explanations given in the House of Commons, to be largely due to some understanding to the effect that the Customs are to assist port officers in their work. This view gives especial interest to a report recently issued by Dr. Collingridge on the inspection of vessels at Gravesend. He points out that at the end of dast year the Customs office, professing to be afraid of their officers becoming infected, announced that they would no longer consent to the Customs’ visit and the visit of the medical - officer of health being paid at the same time and from the same vessel. The Port of London authority in consequence went to considerable expense in providing a separate hulk, a second steam launch and further medical assistance ; but at a later stage, apparently on the representation of the Local Government Board, the Customs offir ers were instructed by the Chancellor of the Exchequer to revert to their original practice of allowing the medical officer of health of the port to accompany them on their visit to every vessel and to render the port authority all possible assistance in carrying out the inspections required under the cholera regulations. From the announcement made in the House of Commons on Tuesday last it would appear as if some similar
BROMIDE OF STRONTIUM IN
EPILEPSY.
IN the May number of the Johns Hopkins Hospital Bulletin Dr. Berkley gives an account of his experience in the treatment of epilepsy with this new drug. The results are both interesting and gratifying. There was during the administration continued absence of the usual bromide acne, the somnolent effect was much less than with other salts and some of the patients were decidedly less quarrelsome and troublesome after their seizures than they had been whilst subjected to other courses of treatment. The dose given was about thirty grains three times a day. After five months the patients treated with this drug showed no tendency to relapse into their former condition. ___
"EPILEPTIC SLEEP SEIZURES." IN a recent number of the .2V York Medical Journal Dr. George W. Jacoby writes on this interesting and, from the medico-legal point of view, extremely important subject. As he remarks, it is well known that many epileptics sleep after every convulsive attack, and that others do not, whilst some present no regularity in this respect but sleep after some seizures and not after others. But the class of cases which is dealt with in this paper is that in which attacks of sleep constitute the chief symptom and in some apparently the only one. The first case alluded to is that of a man of twenty-nine whose mother was subject to "nervous spells " all her life and one of whose brothers was epileptic. The patient was well until his twelfth year when, in consequence apparently of a fright produced by being chased by a dog, he fell down in a convulsion. He lost consciousness, frothed at the mouth and bit his tongue. This was the only true convulsive attack which he ever had. At the age of twenty-one he had a peculiar attack. Whilst walking with a friend and conversing on ordinary subjects he suddenly wheeled round, completing a full circle, and then began to run at full speed. After running about 500 feet he fell and was found by his friend lying on the ground apparently fast asleep. After about a quarter of an hour he awoke, but had no recollection of anything intervening between his conversation with his friend and his awakening. He remembered perfectly the subject of the conversation. The attacks gradually became more frequent, so that latterly he sometimes had several in one day. All the attacks that have been observed were of similar character to that described and no convulsion has ever been associated with them. A complete attack has never been witnessed in-doors, but he has been found asleep in various places and postures. The patient is also a somnambulist and as a child was subject to pavor nocturnus. Of the epileptic character of these attacks there can be no doubt. The second case was that of a barber. About ten years ago he rapidly increased in weight from 150lb. to 267lb. Four years since he sud-