- Email: [email protected]
THE QUALIFICATIONS OF THE PUBLIC ANALYST.
252 ’with the matter from this point of view was read by Miss Wilkie, superintendent of the Halifax Infirmary at the Yorkshire Poor-law Conference held in November, 1898. Miss Wilkie proposed that a nurse should have no salary during the first two years of her training, which is to last four years, but only board, lodging, and washing; and ccholarships might be established. Miss Julian apparently advocates a fusion of both schemes, only she thinks that possibly the best thing would be a departmental inquiry into the whole question. It seems to us that most of the difficulties arise from the unfortunate position which the workhouse holds in our social economy. Instead of being, as it ought to be, a place where the really deserving poor can end their days in comfort-a resthouse in short and not a workhouse-it has come to be looked upon as a place of disgrace and discomfort. And this idea Until some is by no means an unreasonable one. method is devised for separating the really deserving poor from the idle, the incompetent, and the loafer, so lorg will the provision made by the Poor-laws for the poor be considered a thing to be only accepted in the very last emergency. We are far from saying that the tramp, the idler, and the drunkard should be allowed to starve, but there should be some definite line of demarcation between the sheep and the goats, and if this consummation were to be brought about the really deserving poor could be housed an some institution of the bede-house type and the undeserving in a place where they might expiate their sins of omission or commission while those who looked after them would have the same status as the present prison officials, one far superior to that of the workhouse official as constituted nowadays.
condition was very good except for some nausea; fresh vesicles were seen on the left cheek, below the eyebrows, in the mastoid regions, and on the left index finger. The latter consisted of a group of three vesicles on the dorsal aspect of the last phalanx immediately This group was very painful. There below the nail. On the sixth day there were two new was no albuminuria. vesicles on the left cheek and three on the right eyelid. The other vesicles were completely dried up except those on the index finger which were very large and very painful. Recovery was not complete until the twenty-fourth day. The interest of this case lies in the localisation and persistence for twenty-one days of herpetic vesicles on the left index finger. Herpes of the extremities is exceptional. Recently1 MM. Kahn and Apert have observed it on the back of the hands and wrists, but then the disease terminated in five
days.
-
THE QUALIFICATIONS OF THE PUBLIC ANALYST. IT is
quite time that the qualifications of the analyst appointed under the Food and Drugs Act should be more clearly defined. At present it is vaguely required of him
according
to the tenth clause of the Act that he shall be
possessing "competent knowledge, skill, and " experience as an analyst of all articles of food and drugs. So far there is no diploma or degree officially recognised by which to an extent the competency of the candidate could be adjudged and thus those whose business it is to appoint the public analyst have no standard which might serve as a guide in this matter. It is anomalous, we think, that in one of the most important branches of home administration there should be an office requiring skilled work which may HOSPITAL FOR CONSUMPTION AND DISEASES be filled by a person possessing neither diploma nor degree. OF THE CHEST, BROMPTON. The Act states that he must be competent, and our local authorities have little means of being assured upon this THE winter session of afternoon lectures and demonstrations by the staff of the hospital will commence on important point. We have already expressed an opinion Wednesday next, Feb. 1st. The opening lecture of the that the best test of a person’s competency for the session will be delivered by Sir R. Douglas Powell, Bart., post of public analyst is the thoroughly practical M.D. Lond., on that day, at 4 P.M., the subject being "Mitral examination held by the Institute of Chemistry of Great Stenosis." The lectures are free to all qualified medical Britain and Ireland. The duties of the office essentially practitioners and to students attending the practice of the require a person of practical attainments in regard to the hospital and every care is taken that an exactly typical set analysis of food, water, and drugs, and the Fellowship of the of cases shall be at hand for clinical demonstration. We Institute of Chemistry is granted to those persons who have have sometimes wondered whether medical men quite successfully passed the examination which is almost exclusively practical, involving nearly a week’s laboratory appreciate the opportunities which are thus afforded them of work of a in the brief an hour or so series relating to the subjects indicated. The science degrees of seeing space of our universities obviously can count for little, since a man examples of thoracic conditions most difficult occasionally to diagnose and of hearing the signs and symptoms ex- may possess a science degree without the slightest conception of the practical analysis and composition of food and drugs. pounded at the same time. We think the matter calls urgently for the attention of the Local Government Board. Their decision should remove con"HERPETIC FEVER." siderable ignorance upon this subject and tend to secure the AT the meeting of the Société Medicale des Hopitaux on appointment of a body of competent persons whose imDec. 16th, 1898, M. L. Renon related the following curious portant duty it is to protect the public against fraud and case. A girl, aged eight years, was suddenly seized with largely also to watch over the hygienic interests of the headache, nausea, and cough. On the following day the community. temperature was 1004° F. and the pulse was 120 ; there were some white points. on the right tonsil and the pharynx was a THE POOR-LAW MEDICAL OFFICERS’ Kttle reddened. There were bronchitis and a distinct zone of ASSOCIATION. congestion at the base of each lung. The child complained AT a meeting of the council of the above association held of intense supraorbital headache. Influenza was diagnosed. at their rooms, 9, Copthall- avenue, E.C., on Jan. 17th, the On the third day there were numerous herpetic vesicles of a central fund for the payment of Poor-law subject around the mouth and on the right cheek ; there were also officers’ pensions came under discussion. It was resolved some on the point of the tongue, the soft palate, and the the present system of dealing with the vexed question slight tonsil. The general condition was better, the tempera- of expenses was likely to lead to serious superannuation ture had fallen to 986°, and the signs of bronchitis had disthat it would inevitably result in preventing grievances; appeared. It was evident that the disease was not inffuenza the increase of Poor-law officers’ salaries under any but an infection which had attacked the respiratory and that it would hinder any man ordinary circumstances ; digestive organs and terminated in an outbreak of herpes. 1 Bulletin Herpetic fever was diagnosed. On the fourth day the general Médical, April 10th, 1898, p. 333. a
person
-
-
-
that
condition was very good except for some nausea; fresh vesicles were seen on the left cheek, below the eyebrows, in the mastoid regions, and on the left index finger. The latter consisted of a group of three vesicles on the dorsal aspect of the last phalanx immediately This group was very painful. There below the nail. On the sixth day there were two new was no albuminuria. vesicles on the left cheek and three on the right eyelid. The other vesicles were completely dried up except those on the index finger which were very large and very painful. Recovery was not complete until the twenty-fourth day. The interest of this case lies in the localisation and persistence for twenty-one days of herpetic vesicles on the left index finger. Herpes of the extremities is exceptional. Recently1 MM. Kahn and Apert have observed it on the back of the hands and wrists, but then the disease terminated in five
days.
-
THE QUALIFICATIONS OF THE PUBLIC ANALYST. IT is
quite time that the qualifications of the analyst appointed under the Food and Drugs Act should be more clearly defined. At present it is vaguely required of him
according
to the tenth clause of the Act that he shall be
possessing "competent knowledge, skill, and " experience as an analyst of all articles of food and drugs. So far there is no diploma or degree officially recognised by which to an extent the competency of the candidate could be adjudged and thus those whose business it is to appoint the public analyst have no standard which might serve as a guide in this matter. It is anomalous, we think, that in one of the most important branches of home administration there should be an office requiring skilled work which may HOSPITAL FOR CONSUMPTION AND DISEASES be filled by a person possessing neither diploma nor degree. OF THE CHEST, BROMPTON. The Act states that he must be competent, and our local authorities have little means of being assured upon this THE winter session of afternoon lectures and demonstrations by the staff of the hospital will commence on important point. We have already expressed an opinion Wednesday next, Feb. 1st. The opening lecture of the that the best test of a person’s competency for the session will be delivered by Sir R. Douglas Powell, Bart., post of public analyst is the thoroughly practical M.D. Lond., on that day, at 4 P.M., the subject being "Mitral examination held by the Institute of Chemistry of Great Stenosis." The lectures are free to all qualified medical Britain and Ireland. The duties of the office essentially practitioners and to students attending the practice of the require a person of practical attainments in regard to the hospital and every care is taken that an exactly typical set analysis of food, water, and drugs, and the Fellowship of the of cases shall be at hand for clinical demonstration. We Institute of Chemistry is granted to those persons who have have sometimes wondered whether medical men quite successfully passed the examination which is almost exclusively practical, involving nearly a week’s laboratory appreciate the opportunities which are thus afforded them of work of a in the brief an hour or so series relating to the subjects indicated. The science degrees of seeing space of our universities obviously can count for little, since a man examples of thoracic conditions most difficult occasionally to diagnose and of hearing the signs and symptoms ex- may possess a science degree without the slightest conception of the practical analysis and composition of food and drugs. pounded at the same time. We think the matter calls urgently for the attention of the Local Government Board. Their decision should remove con"HERPETIC FEVER." siderable ignorance upon this subject and tend to secure the AT the meeting of the Société Medicale des Hopitaux on appointment of a body of competent persons whose imDec. 16th, 1898, M. L. Renon related the following curious portant duty it is to protect the public against fraud and case. A girl, aged eight years, was suddenly seized with largely also to watch over the hygienic interests of the headache, nausea, and cough. On the following day the community. temperature was 1004° F. and the pulse was 120 ; there were some white points. on the right tonsil and the pharynx was a THE POOR-LAW MEDICAL OFFICERS’ Kttle reddened. There were bronchitis and a distinct zone of ASSOCIATION. congestion at the base of each lung. The child complained AT a meeting of the council of the above association held of intense supraorbital headache. Influenza was diagnosed. at their rooms, 9, Copthall- avenue, E.C., on Jan. 17th, the On the third day there were numerous herpetic vesicles of a central fund for the payment of Poor-law subject around the mouth and on the right cheek ; there were also officers’ pensions came under discussion. It was resolved some on the point of the tongue, the soft palate, and the the present system of dealing with the vexed question slight tonsil. The general condition was better, the tempera- of expenses was likely to lead to serious superannuation ture had fallen to 986°, and the signs of bronchitis had disthat it would inevitably result in preventing grievances; appeared. It was evident that the disease was not inffuenza the increase of Poor-law officers’ salaries under any but an infection which had attacked the respiratory and that it would hinder any man ordinary circumstances ; digestive organs and terminated in an outbreak of herpes. 1 Bulletin Herpetic fever was diagnosed. On the fourth day the general Médical, April 10th, 1898, p. 333. a
person
-
-
-
that