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THE HEREDITY OF POETS.
1417 also presented a variety of signs which were regarded conclusive evidence of inherited syphilis-viz.. cicatrices about the mouth and lips the result of rhagades, corneal opacities from interstitial keratitis, "geographical tongue," and in two cases the formation of gummatous ulcers of the tonsil and ankle respectively. These two cases of gummatous ulcer responded well to treatment with alkaline iodides. It was thus clear, says Dr. Bayet, that syphilis inherited from the parents acted deleteriously on the growing nervous systems of the offspring, producing arrest of development of the neurons or nerve-cells of the cerebellum chiefly, but also of the cerebrum, so that the ataxy was accompanied by mental defect.
They
as
WHOSE
and ridiculously low-priced lamps rather than from so-called low-flash oil, and that the only remedy will be to stop the sale of such lamps. There are immense practical and scientific difficulties in the way which render any legislation with regard to the flash-point of the oil hardly possible.
THE
OF SMALL-POX.
Saturday, May 10th, 25 cases were admitted to the hospitals of the Metropolitan Asylums Board ; on Sunday, the llth, 30 cases were received ; on Monday, the 12th, there were 24 admissions ; on Tuesday, the 13th, 26 fresh cases ; and on Wednesday, the 14th, 23 cases were notified. In the county of Essex for the week ending May 10th 46 new Ox
cases were
BUSINESS
PREVALENCE
notified.
_
AT the meeting of the Bath Board of Guardians held on THE MEDICAL, SURGICAL, AND HYGIENIC EXHIBITION. April 30th a letter was read from the medical officer of the workhouse infirmary stating that on April 9th the superTHE sixth annual Medical, Surgical, and Hygienic Exhibivision of the infirmary wards was taken out of the hands of tion will be held at the Queen’s Hall on May 20th, 21st, the superintendent nurse and transferred to the master and 22nd, and 23rd from 1 P.M. to 10 P.M. A concert by a select matron of the workhouse on the ground that such supervision orchestra will be rendered each afternoon from 3 to 6 and was not included in the words of the General Order of the in the evening from 7 to 10. We are informed by the Local Government Board, August 6th, 1897-viz., "in all i secretary that there will be many novelties shown which are matters of treatment of the sick." The medical officer added likely to interest the medical profession. that he held exactly the opposite view, that the cleanliness
of the wards
sick,
an
embodied in matters of treatment of the with which most people certainly will agree.
was
opinion
CHOLERA AT EL TOR. OUR correspondent in Egypt writes : "12 different steamers have arrived at El Tor from Jeddah with cholera on board and by the last weekly return it appears that 51 cases have been found on these steamers, while of this number 38 are already dead and 13 remain under treatment in the quarantine camp hospitals. It is satisfactory to find that only one case of cholera has been reported from Jeddah during the week ending May 3rd. Those of the pilgrims who have satisfactorily purged their quarantine are now beginning to pass through the Suez Canal and the Egyptian passengers are permitted to land at Suez." .
THE
ITALIAN
HOSPITAL
BALL.
"THE
DANGEROUSLY INFLAMMABLE OF CELLULOID."1
NATURE
WE are glad to note that a question was asked in the House of Lords on Monday as to whether some restric tions could not be placed upon the sale of celluloid, but the Lord Saltoun, who answer was decidedly disappointing. asked the question, referred to our own inquiries on the subject as well as to an original contribution printed in our columns two months ago. More than four years ago we abundantly demonstrated by practical experiments the dangerously inflammable nature of celluloid, and we suggested that the manufacturers of celluloid articles should be compelled to stamp plainly upon them the words ’’ highly inflammable." Speaking on behalf of the Government Lord Belper said that the Secretary of State did not see his way to interfere by legislation with the sale of Lord Belper made an extraordinary statement celluloid. when he said that if properly manufactured and free from impurities celluloid would not take fire. Celluloid is celluloid, and celluloid is by its nature highly inflammable, just as gunpowder is.
THE annual ball in aid of the Italian Hospital, which was omitted last year through respect for the memory of the late Queen, was held on May 6th in Prince’s Hall, Piccadilly, and proved to be even a greater success than on any former occasion. Nearly 700 guests were present, including the THE HEREDITY OF POETS. Italian Ambassador (President of the hospital) and Madame As already noted in THE LANCET of May 10th, p. 1337, Panza, the Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress, the Austrian I has, to the best of his belief, proved that poetic talent Ambassador and Countess Deym, the Swiss Minister (M. is in all cases traceable to the mother of the bard. The touch of of founder the Madame Ortelli the Bourcart), (widow hospital), and representatives of the German and other of sentiment in this position wins it ready acceptance. It is a embassies. Amongst the members of the honorary medical feminine doctrine, the obvious inference from which is that staff, to whose efforts the success attained was in a large the rougher sex is not apt to beget those gentle beings, the" Francis Galton, however, in " Hereditary Genius measure due, there were present Sir Dyce Duckworth, poets. has stated positively in the case of poets and artists, Cavaliere J. C. F. Naumann, Cavaliere Distin Maddick, Dr. (1869) J. Donelan, Dr. T. V. Dickinson, Dr. J. P. Henry, and the influence- of the female line is enormously less than the male,"and he supports his assertion with a "summary of Cavaliere J. FitzGerald. relationships of 24 poets grouped into 20 families."From this. it would appear that Goethe alone can trace poetic talent to PETROLEUM LAMP ACCIDENTS. his mother. "From my father,"he says, "Iinherit my frame RECENT fires in London having their origin in accidents and the steady guidance of my life ; from dear little mother with petroleum lamps have once more led to some interrogaand love of storytion of the Home Secretary on the subject. Mr. Ritchie could (Mutterchen) my happy disposition mother is described as Byron’s not promise any decided action in the matter, pointing out telling (fabuliren)." and half-mad,"and Tasso’s as "strange, proud, passionate, that the report of a Select Committee published in 1898 threw gifted in all respects. The other poets mentioned by Galton very grave doubt upon the idea that raising the flash-point by have some of them gifted fathers, as Milton ; others gifted legislation would prevent lamp accidents. We are still of the uncles and other relatives, mostly, alas, males. There are opinion, based upon our own practical inquiries on the subject, that these. accidents arise from the use of grossly defective 1 THE LANCET, Feb. 22nd, 1902, p. 540. -
Mobius
____
1418
I delivered
on Wednesday, May 21st. at 4 P.M. ,by Dr. T. ’families in which literary and other talent is hereditary, as, .for instance, the families of Coleridge and Wordsworth ; Henry Green. The subject of the lecture will be Difficulties ,but, as a rule, the sons of poets are dull dogs. The late Sir in the Recognition of Pulmonary Tuberculosis. Percy Shelley should have been a paragon to judge by his ancestry, a poet father and a mother who wrote" FrankenDR. J. I3osE BRADFORD, F.R.S., will give an address at stein." Sir Percy Shelley, however, was content to win only a meeting of the University College Medical Society, oil social popularity as an organiser of private theatricals. The Wednesday, May 21st, on the Relation of Biology to son of the poetic Brownings is a meritorious painter-not a Medicine. The chair will be taken by Mr. Victor Horsley at poet-and the descendants of certain other famous poetic 8.30 1,. t, marriages are, alas, in lunatic asylums. We have in mind three insane descendants of famous poets. It is possible MR. THOMAS JOSEPH STAFFORD, F.R.C.S. Irel., has been that the children of poets are bored in early years by their appointed by the King a member of the Royal Commission on surroundings and the mental attitude of their parents and Sewage Disposal, in the room of Mr. Charles Philip Cotton, make haste to become prosaic. Certain it is that the sons resigned. of political reformers and enthusiasts are often the most unprogressive of men, the sons of millionaires the least UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, LONDON : APPEAL businesslike, and those of divines the least saintly. ____
of the Association of
THE annual meeting will be held on Thursday,
FOR THE EQUIPMENT AND ENDOWMENT OF ADVANCED UNIVERSITY EDUCATION AND RESEARCH.
Asylum Workers
at the Medical Cavendish. Society’s House, 11, Chandos-street, square, W., at 4 P.--Ni., Sir James Crichton Browne in the chair. A presentation will be made of two gold and two silver medals awarded by the association for long and meritorious nursing service and all interested in asylum work and workers are cordially invited to attend. Communications should be addressed to Dr. G. E. Shuttleworth of Ancaster House, Richmond Hill, Surrey, the honorary secretary of the association.
May 22nd, 1902,
Ox May 9th in the Egyptian Hall of the Mansion House a meeting was held under the presidency of the Lord Mayor of London in support of the fund for advanced university education and research in connexion with University College, London. The following are the purposes for which funds are required :-
(a) Forextension
of
buildings and laboratories to provide adequate teaching and research in such important departlanguages, chemistry in all its branches, geology, physiology. pathology, bacteriology, botany, engineering in alln,
accommodation for ments as modern
____
for maintenance branches, advanced medical studies, Ac.,250,000; (& and laboratory expenses an annual endowment of £ ^0000, or a capital sum of .E200.0CO : (c) for endowment of professorships and lectureships an annual endowment of £ 20,000, or a capital sum of 27CO,000. The total sum required is therefore ,81,150,000. The Lord) MAYOR, in opening the proceedings, said that the occasion of the meeting was unique. Never before had the City been asked for such a large sum of money for the furtherance of education and research in London. Every day the struggle for commercial supremacy became more severe and the fact could not be disguised that commercial would follow intellectual supremacy. University THE festival dinner of the Medical Graduates’ College and supremacy was the only institution that had declared itself College Polyclinic will take place at the Criterion Restaurant on ready to be incorporated with the University of London and Thursday, June 5th. The Right Hon. H. H. Asquith will the result of this appeal would be to help the University take the chair and will be supported by many well-known of London itself. He earnestly urged the citizens of London Communications should to subscribe largely to the fund. men, medical and lay, as stewards. The Duke of DEVONSHIRE proposed the following be addressed to the secretary of the Dinner Committee at the motion :College, 22, Chenies-street, Gower-street, W.C. That this meeting is of opinion that the incorporation of University College, London, in the University of London will materially promote higher education and research in London, and that, with this object, a THE King has sanctioned the following promotions and fund should be raised to equip and endow the College adequately for appointments to the Order of the Hospital of St. John of such education and research. Jerusalem in England : Mr. Robert Brudenell Carter, After referring to the University Commission Bill of 1898, F.R.C.S. Eng., from Knight of Grace to Knight of Justice, the result of which was to give to the University of London powers and a controlling influence over the various and Mr. Robert Fraser Calder Leith, M.B., F.R C.P. Edin., teaching schools which were then federated in the University, so that and Sir William Henry Bennett, K.C.V.O., F. R. C. S. Eng., a course of instruction might be adopted fitted to the needs to be Knights of Grace, of the great modern metropolis, he urged that in all professions and industries success must be dependent on A DINNER of the present and past students and officials in a knowledge of scientific principles and on the trained connexion with the West London Hospital Post-Graduate capacity to apply those principles. Universities, he said, no longer a for one class alone, but the welfare college will take place on Wednesday, June llth, 1902, at were of the whole nation demanded that they should seek from the Empire Rooms of the Trocadero Restaurant, London, at all classes men of high intelligence and equip them with the 7.30 P.M. Mr. H. Percy Dunn will take the chair and comhighest training. As a nation we could not be said to have recomunications should be addressed to Mr. L. A. Bidwell. gnised the necessity of corresponding changes in our higher university training. The older Universities of Oxford and THE Glasgow University Club, London, will, on Tuesday, Cambridge had recognised the necessity and had made great efforts to themselves with the necessary machinery, July lst, give a dinner in honour of the Coronation in the but they equip had found themselves hampered by a want of Trocadero Restaurant, Piccadilly Circus. The Very Rev. Dr. the necessary resources. Speaking for the University of tory, Principal of the University of Glasgow, has promised Cambridge, of which he was Chancellor, he assured his to preside. Particulars can be obtained from Dr. C. 0. hearers that his university had no intention of abandoning its place in the front rank which it held as a centre of .Hawthorne, 28. Weymouth-street, Portland-place, W. teaching and research. Our success as a nation depended upon the number of trained brains which were produced, but THE opening lecture of the summer course at Brompton the older universities could not supply the number of trained Hospital for Consumption and Diseases of the Chest will be men required for our national industries. In London the
A COXVER3A.ZIOXE of the Medical Society of London will rooms of the Society, 11, Chanèos-street, Cavendish-square, W., on Monday, May 26th. The reception by the President is fixed for 8.30 P. 1B1., and an Oration by Dr. Stephen Mackenzie will be given at 8.45 P. :B1. There will also be an exhibition of drawings and etchings of London and its vicinity, and music will be rendered by the Bijou Orchestra, when smoking will be en ?’<’e.
’be held in the
I
-
necessity
They
as
WHOSE
and ridiculously low-priced lamps rather than from so-called low-flash oil, and that the only remedy will be to stop the sale of such lamps. There are immense practical and scientific difficulties in the way which render any legislation with regard to the flash-point of the oil hardly possible.
THE
OF SMALL-POX.
Saturday, May 10th, 25 cases were admitted to the hospitals of the Metropolitan Asylums Board ; on Sunday, the llth, 30 cases were received ; on Monday, the 12th, there were 24 admissions ; on Tuesday, the 13th, 26 fresh cases ; and on Wednesday, the 14th, 23 cases were notified. In the county of Essex for the week ending May 10th 46 new Ox
cases were
BUSINESS
PREVALENCE
notified.
_
AT the meeting of the Bath Board of Guardians held on THE MEDICAL, SURGICAL, AND HYGIENIC EXHIBITION. April 30th a letter was read from the medical officer of the workhouse infirmary stating that on April 9th the superTHE sixth annual Medical, Surgical, and Hygienic Exhibivision of the infirmary wards was taken out of the hands of tion will be held at the Queen’s Hall on May 20th, 21st, the superintendent nurse and transferred to the master and 22nd, and 23rd from 1 P.M. to 10 P.M. A concert by a select matron of the workhouse on the ground that such supervision orchestra will be rendered each afternoon from 3 to 6 and was not included in the words of the General Order of the in the evening from 7 to 10. We are informed by the Local Government Board, August 6th, 1897-viz., "in all i secretary that there will be many novelties shown which are matters of treatment of the sick." The medical officer added likely to interest the medical profession. that he held exactly the opposite view, that the cleanliness
of the wards
sick,
an
embodied in matters of treatment of the with which most people certainly will agree.
was
opinion
CHOLERA AT EL TOR. OUR correspondent in Egypt writes : "12 different steamers have arrived at El Tor from Jeddah with cholera on board and by the last weekly return it appears that 51 cases have been found on these steamers, while of this number 38 are already dead and 13 remain under treatment in the quarantine camp hospitals. It is satisfactory to find that only one case of cholera has been reported from Jeddah during the week ending May 3rd. Those of the pilgrims who have satisfactorily purged their quarantine are now beginning to pass through the Suez Canal and the Egyptian passengers are permitted to land at Suez." .
THE
ITALIAN
HOSPITAL
BALL.
"THE
DANGEROUSLY INFLAMMABLE OF CELLULOID."1
NATURE
WE are glad to note that a question was asked in the House of Lords on Monday as to whether some restric tions could not be placed upon the sale of celluloid, but the Lord Saltoun, who answer was decidedly disappointing. asked the question, referred to our own inquiries on the subject as well as to an original contribution printed in our columns two months ago. More than four years ago we abundantly demonstrated by practical experiments the dangerously inflammable nature of celluloid, and we suggested that the manufacturers of celluloid articles should be compelled to stamp plainly upon them the words ’’ highly inflammable." Speaking on behalf of the Government Lord Belper said that the Secretary of State did not see his way to interfere by legislation with the sale of Lord Belper made an extraordinary statement celluloid. when he said that if properly manufactured and free from impurities celluloid would not take fire. Celluloid is celluloid, and celluloid is by its nature highly inflammable, just as gunpowder is.
THE annual ball in aid of the Italian Hospital, which was omitted last year through respect for the memory of the late Queen, was held on May 6th in Prince’s Hall, Piccadilly, and proved to be even a greater success than on any former occasion. Nearly 700 guests were present, including the THE HEREDITY OF POETS. Italian Ambassador (President of the hospital) and Madame As already noted in THE LANCET of May 10th, p. 1337, Panza, the Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress, the Austrian I has, to the best of his belief, proved that poetic talent Ambassador and Countess Deym, the Swiss Minister (M. is in all cases traceable to the mother of the bard. The touch of of founder the Madame Ortelli the Bourcart), (widow hospital), and representatives of the German and other of sentiment in this position wins it ready acceptance. It is a embassies. Amongst the members of the honorary medical feminine doctrine, the obvious inference from which is that staff, to whose efforts the success attained was in a large the rougher sex is not apt to beget those gentle beings, the" Francis Galton, however, in " Hereditary Genius measure due, there were present Sir Dyce Duckworth, poets. has stated positively in the case of poets and artists, Cavaliere J. C. F. Naumann, Cavaliere Distin Maddick, Dr. (1869) J. Donelan, Dr. T. V. Dickinson, Dr. J. P. Henry, and the influence- of the female line is enormously less than the male,"and he supports his assertion with a "summary of Cavaliere J. FitzGerald. relationships of 24 poets grouped into 20 families."From this. it would appear that Goethe alone can trace poetic talent to PETROLEUM LAMP ACCIDENTS. his mother. "From my father,"he says, "Iinherit my frame RECENT fires in London having their origin in accidents and the steady guidance of my life ; from dear little mother with petroleum lamps have once more led to some interrogaand love of storytion of the Home Secretary on the subject. Mr. Ritchie could (Mutterchen) my happy disposition mother is described as Byron’s not promise any decided action in the matter, pointing out telling (fabuliren)." and half-mad,"and Tasso’s as "strange, proud, passionate, that the report of a Select Committee published in 1898 threw gifted in all respects. The other poets mentioned by Galton very grave doubt upon the idea that raising the flash-point by have some of them gifted fathers, as Milton ; others gifted legislation would prevent lamp accidents. We are still of the uncles and other relatives, mostly, alas, males. There are opinion, based upon our own practical inquiries on the subject, that these. accidents arise from the use of grossly defective 1 THE LANCET, Feb. 22nd, 1902, p. 540. -
Mobius
____
1418
I delivered
on Wednesday, May 21st. at 4 P.M. ,by Dr. T. ’families in which literary and other talent is hereditary, as, .for instance, the families of Coleridge and Wordsworth ; Henry Green. The subject of the lecture will be Difficulties ,but, as a rule, the sons of poets are dull dogs. The late Sir in the Recognition of Pulmonary Tuberculosis. Percy Shelley should have been a paragon to judge by his ancestry, a poet father and a mother who wrote" FrankenDR. J. I3osE BRADFORD, F.R.S., will give an address at stein." Sir Percy Shelley, however, was content to win only a meeting of the University College Medical Society, oil social popularity as an organiser of private theatricals. The Wednesday, May 21st, on the Relation of Biology to son of the poetic Brownings is a meritorious painter-not a Medicine. The chair will be taken by Mr. Victor Horsley at poet-and the descendants of certain other famous poetic 8.30 1,. t, marriages are, alas, in lunatic asylums. We have in mind three insane descendants of famous poets. It is possible MR. THOMAS JOSEPH STAFFORD, F.R.C.S. Irel., has been that the children of poets are bored in early years by their appointed by the King a member of the Royal Commission on surroundings and the mental attitude of their parents and Sewage Disposal, in the room of Mr. Charles Philip Cotton, make haste to become prosaic. Certain it is that the sons resigned. of political reformers and enthusiasts are often the most unprogressive of men, the sons of millionaires the least UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, LONDON : APPEAL businesslike, and those of divines the least saintly. ____
of the Association of
THE annual meeting will be held on Thursday,
FOR THE EQUIPMENT AND ENDOWMENT OF ADVANCED UNIVERSITY EDUCATION AND RESEARCH.
Asylum Workers
at the Medical Cavendish. Society’s House, 11, Chandos-street, square, W., at 4 P.--Ni., Sir James Crichton Browne in the chair. A presentation will be made of two gold and two silver medals awarded by the association for long and meritorious nursing service and all interested in asylum work and workers are cordially invited to attend. Communications should be addressed to Dr. G. E. Shuttleworth of Ancaster House, Richmond Hill, Surrey, the honorary secretary of the association.
May 22nd, 1902,
Ox May 9th in the Egyptian Hall of the Mansion House a meeting was held under the presidency of the Lord Mayor of London in support of the fund for advanced university education and research in connexion with University College, London. The following are the purposes for which funds are required :-
(a) Forextension
of
buildings and laboratories to provide adequate teaching and research in such important departlanguages, chemistry in all its branches, geology, physiology. pathology, bacteriology, botany, engineering in alln,
accommodation for ments as modern
____
for maintenance branches, advanced medical studies, Ac.,250,000; (& and laboratory expenses an annual endowment of £ ^0000, or a capital sum of .E200.0CO : (c) for endowment of professorships and lectureships an annual endowment of £ 20,000, or a capital sum of 27CO,000. The total sum required is therefore ,81,150,000. The Lord) MAYOR, in opening the proceedings, said that the occasion of the meeting was unique. Never before had the City been asked for such a large sum of money for the furtherance of education and research in London. Every day the struggle for commercial supremacy became more severe and the fact could not be disguised that commercial would follow intellectual supremacy. University THE festival dinner of the Medical Graduates’ College and supremacy was the only institution that had declared itself College Polyclinic will take place at the Criterion Restaurant on ready to be incorporated with the University of London and Thursday, June 5th. The Right Hon. H. H. Asquith will the result of this appeal would be to help the University take the chair and will be supported by many well-known of London itself. He earnestly urged the citizens of London Communications should to subscribe largely to the fund. men, medical and lay, as stewards. The Duke of DEVONSHIRE proposed the following be addressed to the secretary of the Dinner Committee at the motion :College, 22, Chenies-street, Gower-street, W.C. That this meeting is of opinion that the incorporation of University College, London, in the University of London will materially promote higher education and research in London, and that, with this object, a THE King has sanctioned the following promotions and fund should be raised to equip and endow the College adequately for appointments to the Order of the Hospital of St. John of such education and research. Jerusalem in England : Mr. Robert Brudenell Carter, After referring to the University Commission Bill of 1898, F.R.C.S. Eng., from Knight of Grace to Knight of Justice, the result of which was to give to the University of London powers and a controlling influence over the various and Mr. Robert Fraser Calder Leith, M.B., F.R C.P. Edin., teaching schools which were then federated in the University, so that and Sir William Henry Bennett, K.C.V.O., F. R. C. S. Eng., a course of instruction might be adopted fitted to the needs to be Knights of Grace, of the great modern metropolis, he urged that in all professions and industries success must be dependent on A DINNER of the present and past students and officials in a knowledge of scientific principles and on the trained connexion with the West London Hospital Post-Graduate capacity to apply those principles. Universities, he said, no longer a for one class alone, but the welfare college will take place on Wednesday, June llth, 1902, at were of the whole nation demanded that they should seek from the Empire Rooms of the Trocadero Restaurant, London, at all classes men of high intelligence and equip them with the 7.30 P.M. Mr. H. Percy Dunn will take the chair and comhighest training. As a nation we could not be said to have recomunications should be addressed to Mr. L. A. Bidwell. gnised the necessity of corresponding changes in our higher university training. The older Universities of Oxford and THE Glasgow University Club, London, will, on Tuesday, Cambridge had recognised the necessity and had made great efforts to themselves with the necessary machinery, July lst, give a dinner in honour of the Coronation in the but they equip had found themselves hampered by a want of Trocadero Restaurant, Piccadilly Circus. The Very Rev. Dr. the necessary resources. Speaking for the University of tory, Principal of the University of Glasgow, has promised Cambridge, of which he was Chancellor, he assured his to preside. Particulars can be obtained from Dr. C. 0. hearers that his university had no intention of abandoning its place in the front rank which it held as a centre of .Hawthorne, 28. Weymouth-street, Portland-place, W. teaching and research. Our success as a nation depended upon the number of trained brains which were produced, but THE opening lecture of the summer course at Brompton the older universities could not supply the number of trained Hospital for Consumption and Diseases of the Chest will be men required for our national industries. In London the
A COXVER3A.ZIOXE of the Medical Society of London will rooms of the Society, 11, Chanèos-street, Cavendish-square, W., on Monday, May 26th. The reception by the President is fixed for 8.30 P. 1B1., and an Oration by Dr. Stephen Mackenzie will be given at 8.45 P. :B1. There will also be an exhibition of drawings and etchings of London and its vicinity, and music will be rendered by the Bijou Orchestra, when smoking will be en ?’<’e.
’be held in the
I
-
necessity