THE GARDEN CITY ASSOCIATION.

THE GARDEN CITY ASSOCIATION.

844

work find no special difficulty in avoiding, the contrary !! population were enabled to make progress in physical> evidence of two non-medical x ray "experts"in a recent development all efforts to produce moral and spiritual and trial notwithstanding. It has been proved that the Roentgen intellectual development would fail. Our industries must be rays can cause atrophy of the testicle in the white rat and of carried on in healthy conditions or our nation must go underT the ovary in rabbits ; it has, moreover, been asserted that and the task of the association was to show that these industhose who work constantly with the rays are after pro- tries could be so carried on. Already the association had longed exposure rendered sterile. This property of the rays produced two notable schemes. Mrs. Barnett’s garden suburb directly touches on one of the most serious social questions scheme was bound to succeed. If all the districts surof the day and is in itself a powerful argument in favour of rounding London could be so dealt with, a very considerable the contention that the application of the rays should be amount of the evils resulting from the enormous growth of restricted to medical men trained in radio-therapeutics. London would be ended. The association hoped by acquiring Some of our continental neighbours have already made it a site before the district had become populated to insure that illegal for the rays to be used by any but qualified medical the increased value of land due to the presence of population men and at the present time efforts are being made to should be turned to the advantage of that population and introduce a Bill in France. These matters formed the not to the advantage of others. By scattering the industrial subject of a discussion at the last meeting of the British population in groups surrounded by agricultural belts new and Electro-Therapeutic Society held at 11, Chandos-street, easily accessible markets would be provided for the produce London, W., on Feb. 23rd last. The following motion was of home cultivation. The Garden City at Letchworth now proposed by the President, Mr. J. Hall-Edwards :only wanted faith and money to insure its complete success. It having been established that the use of x and other rays by persons If the public would give the means to complete the Letchwithout a registered qualification constitutes a grave social and public worth and Hampstead projects, garden cities and suburbs danger and that medical men alone are capable of administering such rays to the public benefit this society is of opinion that the use of the would be found springing up on every side. Speeches were x and other rays should be by Act of Parliament confined absolutely to also Mr. Rider delivered Mr. Harrison, and in the by Reginald Haggard, medical to dental registered practitioners surgeons practice of dental surgery. Mr. Vivian, M.P., M. Benoit-Levey (Association de Cit6 This was seconded by Dr. W. Knowsley Sibley and carried Jardin), Mrs. Barnett, and others. Mr. Harrison referred unanimously. Now that this subject has been definitely to the late Sir Benjamin Ward Richardson’s ’’ City of brought forward by a responsible body, such as the British Hygeia," and remarked that any scheme which had for Electro-therapeutic Society, which, we may add, consists its object the making of life healthier and longer must be entirely of medical men, it is to be hoped that their effort hailed with satisfaction by all members of the medical prowill meet with its due support from the members of the fession. This sentiment we heartily endorse and we wish medical profession and, at no distant date, of the House of every success to the movement. Commons. ____

DEATH THE

GARDEN

CITY ASSOCIATION.

THE dinner which was given in honour of Mr. Ralph Neville, K.C., chairman of the council of the Garden City Association and chairman of the First Garden City, Limited, at the Criterion Restaurant, London, W., on March 15th, was a successful and an important gathering of the friends of the movement, inasmuch as it included members of the leading professions and men and women of all shades of political and social opinion who were unanimous in their approval of the garden city scheme. That scheme has for its object the relief of overcrowded areas and a wider distribution of the population over the land. Those present included, in addition to the guest of the evening, the chairman, Lord Justice Fletcher Moulton; Mrs. Barnett, wife of Canon Barnett; Mr. Rider Haggard, 1,ir. H. Vivian, M.P., Mr. Idris, M.P., Mr. Aneurin Rawnsley, M. Benoit-Levey, Mr. Ebenezer Howard, Colonel F. S. Brownrigg, Canon Rawnsley, Mr. Reginald Harrison, and Dr. Arthur W. James. The chairman, in proposing the toast of the evening, referred to the research work in which the medical profession were engaged, work which he greatly honoured. The association was also engaged in scientific research of a different, though of a most useful, kind. To be successful they required a wise captain to pilot their ship through unexplored waters and in their chairman of council they had a man specially fitted for the position, a business man endowed both with imagination and honesty. Mr. Neville stood pre-eminent in ability and character. In responding, Mr. Neville said that it was only a few years since a few people had banded themselves together to fight the evils of overcrowding in towns and the depopulation of the country by carrying out the idea set forth by Mr. Ebenezer Howard; and he was surprised to find that the movement had achieved its present position and influence in so short a time. The feeling was growing daily stronger that civilisation, which had done so much for many of them, must no longer grind multitudes under its heel. Unless the

CERTIFICATION AFTER AN ACCIDENT.

IN theNorthern Counties Notes," published in THE LANCET of March 17th, p. 793, mention was made of a case commented upon under the heading, " Is Hernia an Accident?" in which a coroner wrote "a strongly-worded letter"to the house committee of the Newcastle Infirmary complaining of the conduct of the house surgeon. This gentleman had given a death certificate to the relatives of a man who had died as the result of a strangulated hernia and the coroner, who had afterwards been told that the hernia was due to an accident, considered that he should not have done so. At the inquest which the coroner held after having had the body brought back from the home of the deceased to Newcastle, he exonerated the house surgeon from blame, because it was proved that the question of accident had not been raised until after the body had been taken from the infirmary and that the house surgeon knew nothing of any such suggestion. As a matter of fact, it was proved also that the hernia was of old standing and that the accident had not been responsible for the death. It is a little difficult to see what reason the coroner had for complaint or why his displeasure should have taken the form which it did. The conditions under which a medical man should not give a certificate are not easy to define, but it may fairly be said that if he has reason to think the case to be one in which an inquest ought to be held he will act rightly in refusing. Inquests are to be held where there is reasonable cause to suspect that the deceased has died either a violent or an unnatural death, or has died a sudden death of which the cause is unknown, or in prison, or in such place and in such circumstances as to require an inquest in pursuance of any Act (Coroners’ Act, 1887, Section 3). On the other hand, when a deceased person has been attended during his last illness by a registered medical practitioner, that practitioner " shall sign and give to some person required by this Act to give information the best of his concerning the death a certificate stating to " knowledge and belief the cause of death (Registration of