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THE DRAINAGE OF LONDON AND THE FLOODS.
47
education, that the Principal’s remarks on these ground more and more that it was a mistake to allow ra:n subjects do not now call for detailed comment. It is water to mix with sewage. That was the only available -eminently gratifying to the medical profession that of the method half a century and more ago but the resources first four honorary graduates of the University of London of civilisation have expanded since that time. It costs an to medical
enormous amount of money to raise small rivers of rain one should be a surgeon and that it should have fallen to the lot of a physician as Vice-Chancellor of the University to water by means of steam pumps. If this artificial means of present the Prince and Princess of Wales for their degrees. providing a fall for sewage to flow on to distant outfalls were We are glad to note that the Principal speaks hopefully of limited to sewage alone the cost would be very materially the prospects of the scheme for concentrating the preliminary reduced. On the other hand, storm waters, instead of being and early subjects of medical study in a university institute cramped and confined in sewers, could follow much more at South Kensington. It is true that for this, as for much rapidly the course indicated by nature to the nearest Even if floods did arrive they would other work of the University, large sums of money are point in the river. required. It is to be hoped that the privately circulated be floods of clean water and not of sewage. But it is appeal for this object may shortly meet with an adequate not necessary on this occasion to discuss so controversial response. The magnificent result of Mr. Haldane’s work on a matter as the rival merits of the separate and of the behalf of what is commonly called the London University combined systems of drainage. All that is intended at Charlottenburg scheme will encourage those who have this present is to point out that the entire system of drainage as project at heart. The new regulations for examinations and applied to London is challenged, its efficacy is questioned, - curricula for medical students will shortly come into force. and the adoption of totally different methods is not without They represent all that can be effected by the Senate to advocates. This may in some measure account for the improve the conditions of medical education in London until hesitation to spend yet another large sum so as to extend it is in a position to endow the laboratories and to in- the old methods. But, nevertheless, this is not a sufficient excuse for doing nothing and for allowing floods to injure crease the inadequate remuneration of the professors and the demonstrators. As a first step towards securing such property and the health of a large section of the populaassistance it appears to be essential to modify tion. If there are new systems and methods that give the extravagant arrangement whereby the comparatively good promise could they not be applied experimentally and small number of medical students in London require the locally to one or more of the suffering districts, where someservices of 12 or more lecturers on each of the earlier thing, whether on old or on new lines, must be done and that immediately. subjects of the curriculum.
pecuniary
-
THE DRAINAGE OF LONDON AND THE FLOODS. air
Philip
Bume-Jones,
writing
from
his
studio
at
Hammersmith to the Times, speaks of his experience of the recent floods and calls the attention of the public to the inadequate drainage of London. In Kensington, Hammersmith, Fulham, and Chelsea a large number of houses have been flooded and damaged by rain water mixed with sewage. The danger to health and the discomfort resulting are
obvious, and in the prevention of such disasters Sir Philip Burne-Jones very properly refuses to believe that we have exhausted the resources of civilisation. Not only is it possible to remedy the evil but measures have been proposed and approved only they have not been applied. The vestry of Hammersmith complained, we are told, to the London County Council in 1888, but it was only in 1895 that, after many more complaints had been made, the main drainage committee recommended the construction of an additional outfall between Old Ford and Barking and of an intercepting Then there were to be sewer from Paddington to Old Ford. two more pumping stations, one in Chelsea and the other in Fulham. But these recommendations were not adopted and though it was decided that local floods were in need of "immediate attention they did not receive any attenIn 1897 further reports were made tion whatsoever. and it was then decided to construct the pumping stations, but again nothing was done. In 1899 the main drainage committee recommended the Council to spend 1,250;000 in order to bring the main drainage system up to date. Four years have now elapsed since this last report And recommendation and still, and once again, nothing has been done. Such, in brief, is the story which Sir Philip Burne-Jones lays before us and it is most natural that he should complain of what appears to be long, unjustifiable, and dangerous neglect. On the other side, it must be admitted that the position of affairs is perplexing. It is proposed to add more than a million sterling to the heavy burdens which Londoners have to bear so as to patch np an antiquated system of drainage which can never be made to work to the entire satisfaction of the more advanced among modern sanitary engineers. The opinion is gaining
THE ETIOLOGY OF APPENDICITIS. IN THE LANCET of June 27th, p. 1839, there appeared a letter from Mr. S. Kellett Smith concerning the increase of appendicitis which has apparently taken place during recent Mr. Smith appears to have no doubt about the years. actual increase, but we are not quite so certain, as undoubtedly improvement in diagnosis will account for some of the excess of cases met with at the present time compared with those noted 20 or 30 years ago. Nevertheless, his remarks are worthy of careful thought. He suggests that the ingestion of chilled or frozen food especially liable to rapid decomposition may result in a more septic state of the intestine than prevailed before the days of cold storage and that this greater septicity may in its turn account for the greater virulence of those irritations to which the This caecum and the appendix have always been prone. theory would seem to be a plausible one, but we should like to know whether it can be shown that the intestine is in a more septic state now than it was when frozen and chilled comestibles were not so largely in common use.
DERMATO-MYOSITIS. IN the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal of June llth Dr. F. Forchheimer has published a case of dermatomyositis-a rare disease first described by Unverricht i 1887, though cases the nature of which was not understood had been previously reported by Wagner and Potain. A neurotic woman, aged 40 years, received a shock in June, 1901, became ill, and complained of irregular menstruation, constipation, headache, and pains in various parts of the body. On August 20th she noticed a pustule on the left leg where the garter had pressed. On Sept. 8th there were in the left gluteal region itching and an erythematous eruption with one pustule. During the next few days three pustules appeared in the ischio-rectal region. Here a deep swelling formed which was repeatedly incised without yielding any She was emaciated, weak, and depressed, with a pus. temperature of 102° F. and a pulse of 110. There was an rash on the face and the eyelids and the region the eyes were very puffy. The rash extended over the around
erythematous
education, that the Principal’s remarks on these ground more and more that it was a mistake to allow ra:n subjects do not now call for detailed comment. It is water to mix with sewage. That was the only available -eminently gratifying to the medical profession that of the method half a century and more ago but the resources first four honorary graduates of the University of London of civilisation have expanded since that time. It costs an to medical
enormous amount of money to raise small rivers of rain one should be a surgeon and that it should have fallen to the lot of a physician as Vice-Chancellor of the University to water by means of steam pumps. If this artificial means of present the Prince and Princess of Wales for their degrees. providing a fall for sewage to flow on to distant outfalls were We are glad to note that the Principal speaks hopefully of limited to sewage alone the cost would be very materially the prospects of the scheme for concentrating the preliminary reduced. On the other hand, storm waters, instead of being and early subjects of medical study in a university institute cramped and confined in sewers, could follow much more at South Kensington. It is true that for this, as for much rapidly the course indicated by nature to the nearest Even if floods did arrive they would other work of the University, large sums of money are point in the river. required. It is to be hoped that the privately circulated be floods of clean water and not of sewage. But it is appeal for this object may shortly meet with an adequate not necessary on this occasion to discuss so controversial response. The magnificent result of Mr. Haldane’s work on a matter as the rival merits of the separate and of the behalf of what is commonly called the London University combined systems of drainage. All that is intended at Charlottenburg scheme will encourage those who have this present is to point out that the entire system of drainage as project at heart. The new regulations for examinations and applied to London is challenged, its efficacy is questioned, - curricula for medical students will shortly come into force. and the adoption of totally different methods is not without They represent all that can be effected by the Senate to advocates. This may in some measure account for the improve the conditions of medical education in London until hesitation to spend yet another large sum so as to extend it is in a position to endow the laboratories and to in- the old methods. But, nevertheless, this is not a sufficient excuse for doing nothing and for allowing floods to injure crease the inadequate remuneration of the professors and the demonstrators. As a first step towards securing such property and the health of a large section of the populaassistance it appears to be essential to modify tion. If there are new systems and methods that give the extravagant arrangement whereby the comparatively good promise could they not be applied experimentally and small number of medical students in London require the locally to one or more of the suffering districts, where someservices of 12 or more lecturers on each of the earlier thing, whether on old or on new lines, must be done and that immediately. subjects of the curriculum.
pecuniary
-
THE DRAINAGE OF LONDON AND THE FLOODS. air
Philip
Bume-Jones,
writing
from
his
studio
at
Hammersmith to the Times, speaks of his experience of the recent floods and calls the attention of the public to the inadequate drainage of London. In Kensington, Hammersmith, Fulham, and Chelsea a large number of houses have been flooded and damaged by rain water mixed with sewage. The danger to health and the discomfort resulting are
obvious, and in the prevention of such disasters Sir Philip Burne-Jones very properly refuses to believe that we have exhausted the resources of civilisation. Not only is it possible to remedy the evil but measures have been proposed and approved only they have not been applied. The vestry of Hammersmith complained, we are told, to the London County Council in 1888, but it was only in 1895 that, after many more complaints had been made, the main drainage committee recommended the construction of an additional outfall between Old Ford and Barking and of an intercepting Then there were to be sewer from Paddington to Old Ford. two more pumping stations, one in Chelsea and the other in Fulham. But these recommendations were not adopted and though it was decided that local floods were in need of "immediate attention they did not receive any attenIn 1897 further reports were made tion whatsoever. and it was then decided to construct the pumping stations, but again nothing was done. In 1899 the main drainage committee recommended the Council to spend 1,250;000 in order to bring the main drainage system up to date. Four years have now elapsed since this last report And recommendation and still, and once again, nothing has been done. Such, in brief, is the story which Sir Philip Burne-Jones lays before us and it is most natural that he should complain of what appears to be long, unjustifiable, and dangerous neglect. On the other side, it must be admitted that the position of affairs is perplexing. It is proposed to add more than a million sterling to the heavy burdens which Londoners have to bear so as to patch np an antiquated system of drainage which can never be made to work to the entire satisfaction of the more advanced among modern sanitary engineers. The opinion is gaining
THE ETIOLOGY OF APPENDICITIS. IN THE LANCET of June 27th, p. 1839, there appeared a letter from Mr. S. Kellett Smith concerning the increase of appendicitis which has apparently taken place during recent Mr. Smith appears to have no doubt about the years. actual increase, but we are not quite so certain, as undoubtedly improvement in diagnosis will account for some of the excess of cases met with at the present time compared with those noted 20 or 30 years ago. Nevertheless, his remarks are worthy of careful thought. He suggests that the ingestion of chilled or frozen food especially liable to rapid decomposition may result in a more septic state of the intestine than prevailed before the days of cold storage and that this greater septicity may in its turn account for the greater virulence of those irritations to which the This caecum and the appendix have always been prone. theory would seem to be a plausible one, but we should like to know whether it can be shown that the intestine is in a more septic state now than it was when frozen and chilled comestibles were not so largely in common use.
DERMATO-MYOSITIS. IN the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal of June llth Dr. F. Forchheimer has published a case of dermatomyositis-a rare disease first described by Unverricht i 1887, though cases the nature of which was not understood had been previously reported by Wagner and Potain. A neurotic woman, aged 40 years, received a shock in June, 1901, became ill, and complained of irregular menstruation, constipation, headache, and pains in various parts of the body. On August 20th she noticed a pustule on the left leg where the garter had pressed. On Sept. 8th there were in the left gluteal region itching and an erythematous eruption with one pustule. During the next few days three pustules appeared in the ischio-rectal region. Here a deep swelling formed which was repeatedly incised without yielding any She was emaciated, weak, and depressed, with a pus. temperature of 102° F. and a pulse of 110. There was an rash on the face and the eyelids and the region the eyes were very puffy. The rash extended over the around
erythematous