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THE MEDICAL CLUB.
905 THE number of deaths registered from small-pox last week in London was 44, against 61 and 60 in the two previous weeks. Half the fatal cases (22) were returned from the East Districts, in addition to 3 cases belonging to those districts which occurred in the Hampstead Small-pox Hospital. The disease appears to be gaining ground in Westminster. ____
THE Cambridge Improvement Commissioners have decided for the present not to proceed with their projected Bill for the improvement of the river Cam. Intended Government legislation on the general question, as applied to the whole kingdom, is alleged as a reason for the step now taken by the Commissioners.
INTIMATION has been made by the Privy Council to the Liskeard board of guardians that legal proceedings will be taken against them if they longer delay to enforce the Vaccination Act as by law required. THE will of the late Mr. Charles Egan, of High-street, Mr. was proved in the Probate Court last week. left to be various has about distributed to £190,000 Egan charitable institutions in that city.
Dublin,
Dr. LORY MARSH
spoke briefly
upon the condition and
prospects of the Club. These, he said, were encouraging-;, for, although it had been found necessary, which he much regretted, to increase the terms of subscription, yet he was to find that that increase had not led to so many withdrawals as had been anticipated;and as new members were at the same time coming in, be believm’t that when they went next, year over to the new house in Pall Mall, they would be in a more flourishing state than ever. In that new house they would have au establishment which, externally and internally, would, relatively to their numbers and requirements, be fully equal to any cluh in the metropolis. He hoped the profession and the Club would continue to be a benefit and support to each other.
glad
Correspondence. "Audi alteram
partem."
THE ORIGIN AND SPREAD OF TYPHOID FEVER. To the Editor
SIR,-In
of THE LANCET. day (Dec. 19th, p. 4) there
The Times of this
will be found, in a second notice of the Privy Council Health Report for this year, the following sentence:" There is every reason to believe that a law which should IN terms of the Royal Infirmary (Edinburgh) Act, 1870, divorce sewage from drinking-water would at no distant at a special general meeting of the Merchant Company, " fever entirely." There is every Thomas J. Boyd, Esq., master of the Company, was elected date, extinguish typhoid reason" that the erroneousness of this statement should be manager of the Royal Infirmary. put in a clear light, for it is by such sweeping statements that discredit is brought upon the teaching and preaching AN outbreak of scarlatina on board the Britannia training of the apostles of hygiene. ship is reported in the Globe; and it is further stated that Firstly, then, there is no justification for this statement all the cadets, except those 11 passing out," were to be sent in the Report which the reviewer had before him, Mr. to their homes. Simon expressly saying at p. 16-" The differences are in fact little more than whether the filthy infection has been THE Prince of Wales has announced that he will have embodied in air or in drinking-water." These differences, much satisfaction in presiding at the anniversary festival however, explain the fact, which the roughest observer can convince himself of, that in a typhoid-stricken locality total of the Earlswood Idiot Asylum next year. abstinence from its water will not always confer immunity from the disease. WE are glad to be informed that Sir Roderick Murchison’s Secondly, in a work of no less authority and accessicondition has, on the whole, somewhat improved of late. bilitv than Dr. Murchison’s "Treatise oa the Continued Fevers of Great Britain," we find it stated, at p. 447, that He has quieter nights, and his mind remains clear. " in most cases the poison is taken into the system through THE medical library of the late Dr. Beddoes, of Shrews- the air and in the fourth volume of the" Munich Zeitschrift fiir Biologie," p. 512 (Oct. 1868), we havea most bury, consisting of 150 volumes of modern works, has been conclusive, though short, paper by Pettenkofer in refutation presented by his widow to the Liverpool School of Medicine. ofalesssweeping statement of Professor Hallier’s to something like the same effect as the statement of The Times reviewer. I apprehend, however, that in such a case as that of a THE MEDICAL CLUB. parish in this city, in which, as I was informed this day, fifteen cases of typhoid were all simultaneously brought AT the monthly dinner and 1,éttnion of the members of the under the notice and care of a sisterhood localised there, it Medical Club, held on Tuesday last, Dr. Lory Marsh pre- would be wise to take off the pump-handles, as they weresiding, Dr. J. A. LusH, M.P. for Salisbury, in responding- to then taken off in the affected locality. And I apprehend the toast of 11 The House of Commons," referred to the sub- further that if the outbreak ceased therewith, a view which origin with drinking-water would assume a, ject of medical reform, and remarked that he, in common connected its of probability. And thirdly, I feel assured, with the other medical members of the House, protested high degree I cannot refer to chapter and verse in any authority though against the Government Bill of last session, which was ad- for my saying so at this moment, that it is a recognised mirable in its details, but wholly unsatisfactory in conse- sanitary rule to look to the supply of drinking-water when quence of its denying to the body of the profession the outbursts of fever have been sudden and simultaneously right of representation in the Medical Council. With re- extensive. The poison is, no doubt, sometimes introduced gard to the Bill prepared by THE LANCET, Dr. Lush was by way of the oesophagus, but it is oftener introduced by of opinion that it would be very materially strengthened way of the trachea. and improved if, in addition to the twelve members of the I do not know that it is necessary for me to apologise for Council proposed by the Bill, the right should be reserved to meddling with sanitarian matters ; for if "it belongs," as the Crown of nominating as chairman some member either Mr. Forster in his great speech of March 14th last said it of the House of Lords or of the House of Commons, who did,’-to all religious men to teach religion," it certainly should be the recognised medium for bringing all sanitary belongs to all men who are interested in health to teach and hygienic matters before the Legislature, and for com- what they may happen to know about it. As it happens, municating information upon all medical questions to the however, I am specially bound to write on this particular profession. In its general provisions Dr. Lush expressed subject, and propose, with your kind permission, to do so his approval of the Bill drawn by THE LANCET. at greater length at an early opportunity, in vindication of ____
THE Cambridge Improvement Commissioners have decided for the present not to proceed with their projected Bill for the improvement of the river Cam. Intended Government legislation on the general question, as applied to the whole kingdom, is alleged as a reason for the step now taken by the Commissioners.
INTIMATION has been made by the Privy Council to the Liskeard board of guardians that legal proceedings will be taken against them if they longer delay to enforce the Vaccination Act as by law required. THE will of the late Mr. Charles Egan, of High-street, Mr. was proved in the Probate Court last week. left to be various has about distributed to £190,000 Egan charitable institutions in that city.
Dublin,
Dr. LORY MARSH
spoke briefly
upon the condition and
prospects of the Club. These, he said, were encouraging-;, for, although it had been found necessary, which he much regretted, to increase the terms of subscription, yet he was to find that that increase had not led to so many withdrawals as had been anticipated;and as new members were at the same time coming in, be believm’t that when they went next, year over to the new house in Pall Mall, they would be in a more flourishing state than ever. In that new house they would have au establishment which, externally and internally, would, relatively to their numbers and requirements, be fully equal to any cluh in the metropolis. He hoped the profession and the Club would continue to be a benefit and support to each other.
glad
Correspondence. "Audi alteram
partem."
THE ORIGIN AND SPREAD OF TYPHOID FEVER. To the Editor
SIR,-In
of THE LANCET. day (Dec. 19th, p. 4) there
The Times of this
will be found, in a second notice of the Privy Council Health Report for this year, the following sentence:" There is every reason to believe that a law which should IN terms of the Royal Infirmary (Edinburgh) Act, 1870, divorce sewage from drinking-water would at no distant at a special general meeting of the Merchant Company, " fever entirely." There is every Thomas J. Boyd, Esq., master of the Company, was elected date, extinguish typhoid reason" that the erroneousness of this statement should be manager of the Royal Infirmary. put in a clear light, for it is by such sweeping statements that discredit is brought upon the teaching and preaching AN outbreak of scarlatina on board the Britannia training of the apostles of hygiene. ship is reported in the Globe; and it is further stated that Firstly, then, there is no justification for this statement all the cadets, except those 11 passing out," were to be sent in the Report which the reviewer had before him, Mr. to their homes. Simon expressly saying at p. 16-" The differences are in fact little more than whether the filthy infection has been THE Prince of Wales has announced that he will have embodied in air or in drinking-water." These differences, much satisfaction in presiding at the anniversary festival however, explain the fact, which the roughest observer can convince himself of, that in a typhoid-stricken locality total of the Earlswood Idiot Asylum next year. abstinence from its water will not always confer immunity from the disease. WE are glad to be informed that Sir Roderick Murchison’s Secondly, in a work of no less authority and accessicondition has, on the whole, somewhat improved of late. bilitv than Dr. Murchison’s "Treatise oa the Continued Fevers of Great Britain," we find it stated, at p. 447, that He has quieter nights, and his mind remains clear. " in most cases the poison is taken into the system through THE medical library of the late Dr. Beddoes, of Shrews- the air and in the fourth volume of the" Munich Zeitschrift fiir Biologie," p. 512 (Oct. 1868), we havea most bury, consisting of 150 volumes of modern works, has been conclusive, though short, paper by Pettenkofer in refutation presented by his widow to the Liverpool School of Medicine. ofalesssweeping statement of Professor Hallier’s to something like the same effect as the statement of The Times reviewer. I apprehend, however, that in such a case as that of a THE MEDICAL CLUB. parish in this city, in which, as I was informed this day, fifteen cases of typhoid were all simultaneously brought AT the monthly dinner and 1,éttnion of the members of the under the notice and care of a sisterhood localised there, it Medical Club, held on Tuesday last, Dr. Lory Marsh pre- would be wise to take off the pump-handles, as they weresiding, Dr. J. A. LusH, M.P. for Salisbury, in responding- to then taken off in the affected locality. And I apprehend the toast of 11 The House of Commons," referred to the sub- further that if the outbreak ceased therewith, a view which origin with drinking-water would assume a, ject of medical reform, and remarked that he, in common connected its of probability. And thirdly, I feel assured, with the other medical members of the House, protested high degree I cannot refer to chapter and verse in any authority though against the Government Bill of last session, which was ad- for my saying so at this moment, that it is a recognised mirable in its details, but wholly unsatisfactory in conse- sanitary rule to look to the supply of drinking-water when quence of its denying to the body of the profession the outbursts of fever have been sudden and simultaneously right of representation in the Medical Council. With re- extensive. The poison is, no doubt, sometimes introduced gard to the Bill prepared by THE LANCET, Dr. Lush was by way of the oesophagus, but it is oftener introduced by of opinion that it would be very materially strengthened way of the trachea. and improved if, in addition to the twelve members of the I do not know that it is necessary for me to apologise for Council proposed by the Bill, the right should be reserved to meddling with sanitarian matters ; for if "it belongs," as the Crown of nominating as chairman some member either Mr. Forster in his great speech of March 14th last said it of the House of Lords or of the House of Commons, who did,’-to all religious men to teach religion," it certainly should be the recognised medium for bringing all sanitary belongs to all men who are interested in health to teach and hygienic matters before the Legislature, and for com- what they may happen to know about it. As it happens, municating information upon all medical questions to the however, I am specially bound to write on this particular profession. In its general provisions Dr. Lush expressed subject, and propose, with your kind permission, to do so his approval of the Bill drawn by THE LANCET. at greater length at an early opportunity, in vindication of ____