THE RECENT FLOODS.

1229 ---.

that the important fact that this man suffered from irregular action of the heart, doubtless associated with cardiac incompetence, was at first either unobserved or did not suggest by symptoms of obvious urgency the necessity for immediate and more watchful attention. We fail to see, moreover, why, under any circumstances, his earlier and easier admission should not have been possible. Having once been seen and certified by the relieving officer and his medical chief, there was no occasion for him again to visit the former. It was admitted at the inquest that the required order might be issued to a messenger from the patient. Indeed, it is customary in like cases for a second visit, if needful, to be made by the relieving officer himself. This arrangement would certainly have been preferable, and the patient’s admission might then have been accomplished by means of the parish ambulance-undoubtedly the best method in the circumstances. It was likewise unfortunate that earlier notice was not taken of the condition of a newly admitted inmate. Whether the pursuance of these merciful measures would have greatly affected the issue in his case we

should always be easy to coin new names which do not appear to be obvious imitations of names already used and such imitations are apt to cause con. fusion and even to be a source of danger. From an advertisement we note the introduction of a new synthetic compound which is described as an antipyretic, antitoxic, antineuralgic, and anti-rheumatic ; it is stated to strengthen the heart’s action ; and because it is intended for treating diseases in which "toxsemia" is liable to be encountered it is to be called"antitoxine "-a name which (without the final" e") has already been appropriated, and is in these days in everyone’s mind. The nnal "e" has already given trouble enough in Anglicising the official names of alkaloids, and it may still be questioned whether the distinction conveyed by its use has yet been fully recognised. Even when pronounced quickly little difference can be detected between antitoxin and antitoxine, hence, as these two have nothing in common but the name, it is obvious that the similarity must prove a snare and a pitfall from which the profession and the public should be protected, and we hope to learn shortly that the newcomer has gracefully withdrawn from a title to which another holds a prior claim.

generally recognised ;

cannot say. TYPHOID

THE CHINESE

AND THEIR WOUNDED.

IT is

FEVER

AT

NEWPORT.

of events at Newport in the Isle of Wight is. to say, the reverse of satisfactory. The prevalence of typhoid fever continues, and we learn that attacks have also occurred in Carisbrooke, in Parkhurst Birracks and Prison, and in some other localities. This incidence of the disease adds further force to the suspicion that it is the public water service that has given rise to the epidemic ; for where the water goes, whether within or without the THE

THAT war is or is not a necessity of civilisation and progress is a question upon which arguments have by no means been exhausted ; but while war exists the humanitarian has a right to demand that the suffering which it necessarily entails shall be reduced to as small a degree as possible. This is a sentiment which is shared by every nation with the smallest pretension to be called civilised ; but the Chinese during the progress of the present war with Japan do not seem to have had any such feeling towards the wounded. And to make the matter sentimentally, if not morally, worse, it is their own wounded who have been in question. From Pekin comes the story that after the naval battle at Port Arthur a telegram was sent to Tientsin for a surgeon, and a medical man at once volunteered to go if he were equipped with the necessary medical stores and surgical instruments. This demand the authorities refused to accede to, and the wounded were consequently neglected. It is also stated that the Chinese warships are very inadequately supplied with medical and surgical stores, a matter in which the contrast between China and Japan is very marked.

WORKHOUSE

--_

we

course

regret

borough boundary, there the fever has appeared. On the other hand, whatever effect any faulty sewers in Newport may have in promoting extension of the disease, this effect must necessarily be limited to the sewer area, and cannot account for extensions of the disease which are altogether beyond that area. It is reported that Mr. Baldwin Latham has been asked by the corporation to visit Newport and to advise as to its wells. His well-known views as to the to which wells are liable by reason of soakage chalk danger of filth from cesspools, &c., are, if acted on in this case, likely to have an important influence on the future of the Newport supply, quite irrespectively of the immediate cause of this long-sustained fever prevalence. In the meantime, we would strongly urge that all water should continue to be boiled before being used for domestic purposes, and having regard to the use of water in connexion with what has been aptly termed "dairy purposes," and which includes the washing of cans, &c., we feel certain that the boiling of milk should be carried out equally with the boiling of potable water.

FORMALITIES.

that any social mechanism of be capable of exact adaptation to the convenience of individuals. Certainly no such elasticity can be expected in our Poor-law system. Nevertheless, it is advisable that the most should be made of such adaptation where this is rational and possible, and especially THE RECENT FLOODS. if necessity and not mere convenience presses for its exercise. This patent fact, as we may judge from a recent instance, WE trust the various sanitary authorities concerned are is apt to be overlooked at times, whether from inadver- fully awake to the necessity of taking very energetic and tence or other causes, by the executive agents of our exceptional measures to mitigate the dangers likely to arise administrative machinery. A fortnight ago a pauper died from the recent serious floods. Unfortunately, in the thickly in Croydon Infirmary under distressing circumstances. The populated districts which have suffered there are other evils poor man, a lodger, being ill, had applied for admit- to cope with besides the water. Even London is not altotance on the previous day, and had been furnished by the gether safe from the after-effects of the floods, for we cannot relieving officer and the parochial surgeon with the requi- say to what extent they may in the Thames Valley have consite papers. On his presenting these, through a deputy, tributed to pollute the water-supply. There is potential for final supervision to the former official, however, an though not very great danger, we venture to think, under objection was raised on the ground of his non-attendance in the circumstances, from the large number of carcases of person. He was compelled, therefore, with much difficulty animals which have been drowned and which are being and in bad weather, to attend a second time, and after much conveyed here and there by the swollen stream. We must, delay, which did not end even within the gates of the work- however, view the needing and overflow of sewers with house, he found a resting place for the night and a prospect much greater apprehension. When yards and streets are of medical attendance-which he received the next day under water the sewage in cesspools and sewers is brought about three hours before he died. It is much to be regretted to the surface, is conveyed by the floods into the cellars

clearly impossible

widely extended usefulness

can

___

i

1230 and lower rooms of inhabited houses, and also reaches placenta and uterus. There was an inversion of the uterus; the watercourses, lakes, &c. from which the various there was also enormous distension of the abdomen. The of are The sanitary woman had died on a Thursday morning, and the postwater derived. drinking supplies authorities cannot prevent this ; but special care may be mortem examination was held on the Saturday afternoon, devoted to the filtering of the water-supplies. Moreover, two days after the death. It might have been supposed that soon as the waters have subsided, the sewers ’, for some reasons of their own the women who laid out the as must be very carefully overhauled, and defects and body had determined to conceal the fact that there was a injuries remedied. Equally urgent is the purification of dwel- , child’s body there at the time as well as the mother’s ; but lings, and the cleansing of the walls, which in some cases there seems no reason to doubt that they were speaking will be found impregnated with sewage. The medical the truth, as, although the occurrence of parturition after officers of health, the sanitary inspectors, and the borough death is exceedingly rare, still a sufficient number of surveyors will have an enormous amount of work to perform, cases is recorded to place the possibility of its occurrence and we would suggest that in some cases outside help beyond dispute. Thus, in a paper read by the late Dr. It will be greatly to the credit of Aveling before the Obstetrical Society of London, forty-four should be procured. any district affected if, after a severe flood, it can show such cases are referred to, and some particulars are given of that the death-rate has not notably increased. thirty of these cases. The rarity of the occurrence, however, is shown by the fact that twenty-three of the thirty cases have had to be sought for in records previous to the UNSOUND MEAT. of the present century. The first of those recorded beginning THE offence of exposing unsound=meat for sale as human as having happened since 1800 is reported in Bell’s Weekly food is one of rather frequent occurrence, if we may judge Messenger of Sept. 26th, 1802, No. 337, and as it is in some by the reports of cases brought before police magistrates in respects similar to the recent case at Chesterfield we quote different parts of the country. As a rule convictions are it :-"The wife of a gamekeeper near Reigate, a girl of fifteen readily obtained, because the evidence given by those who years old, being with child, and hourly in expectation of are in a of the condition of the meat is

position tojudge accepted as reliable and conclusive. But in some instances the culprit escapes, notwithstanding the weight of evidence brought against him, and this because the magistrates sometimes take peculiar views of what constitutes unsound or diseased flesh, or consider they are better judges in this matter than professional experts whose business it is to inspect such food. In other instances their decisions are inexplicable. For example, in a prosecution instituted by the corporation of a town in the North, and heard a few days ago, the case was dismissed, the evidence

to bed, was seized on Sunday morning last with convulsion fits, in which dreadful situation she remained till the Monday morning following, when she died. The fourth day after her decease the child was born perfect, but dead." It appears to be very generally agreed that the motive power which so causes expulsion of the child after death of the mother is the expansive force produced within the abdomen by the generation of gases in the process of rapid putrefaction. It is a curious fact that many of the accidents of ordinary labour may also occur in labour happening post mortem, such as spontaneous evolution of the foetus, and prolapsus, inversion, and rupture of the uterus. As Dr. Taylor puts it in the Guy’s Hospital Reports for 1864: "There are probably some medical practitioners who, from not having heard of such cases, would not hesitate to deny the possibility of their occurrence. It is to them that cases of this description convey a serious warning."

being brought

of the seller of the unsound meat and others interested on the same side being accepted, and that of the medical officer of health of the borough and the inspector being rejected. What renders this case altogether exceptional, however, is the decision given in one which immediately followed. In this case another butcher was prosecuted for exposing unsound meat for sale, and a portion of it was a joint from the same animal which furnished the piece MEDICAL ATTENDANCE ON THE POOR. that formed the subject for prosecution in the first instance. The same evidence was given on both sides, but here the A VERY pitiable case was disclosed at an inquest held on bench imposed a fine of 40s., with 8s. costs, or in default Nov. 15th at the Whitechapel Infirmary, which must recur fourteen days’ imprisonment. We think in the first case unless a principle or a system for its prevention can be something must surely have been omitted from the report. devised. A poor woman, only nineteen years of age, was admitted to the infirmary in what Mr. Herbert Larder POST-MORTEM PARTURITION. described as a most shocking condition, and died in a week. A REMARKABLE case illustrative of this very rare occur- She was suffering from blood poisoning and peritonitis, It rence is reported in the Derbyshire ’Li7nes of Oct. 30th as set up by want of proper attention at childbirth. a A that she was a with Chesterfield. woman would seem at single single woman, living having happened aged in birth to a the was and newsvendor and had stillas event Dorset-street, proved, pregnant nearly given twenty, who, born child nearly a month before. A medical man, according to or perhaps quite at term, was seized with puerperal convulsions, and died undelivered. Apparently the fact of her the Times report, was called in, but when he saw the nature of pregnancy was unknown to those who were living in the the case he refused to do anything. The parish medical officer’s house with her, and, indeed, the succession of fits seems to locum tenens also refused his help save on the condition of a have given rise for a time to some suspicion of strychnine fee or an official order from the relieving officer. Strange poisoning, a suspicion which subsequently was shown to be to say, twenty days went by without other aid than that altogether without foundation. Now comes the remarkable of a "handy woman," and the young woman was then taken part of the case. Two women who laid out the body in the state described above to the infirmary, where, in the customary manner swore most positively that under the good care of Mr. Herbert Larder, she survived when they did so there was no sign of a child to nearly a week. As usual in such cases, the discredit fell on be seen, nor any signs that would have led them to the profession. The coroner said he was aware that the suppose the dead woman had been recently confined. parish medical officer was within his legal rights in refusing to It was decided to hold an inquest; and Dr. Green re- attend without an order, but he thought that "the doctor, for ceived the coroner’s order to make a post-mortem exami- the sake of humanity, ought " to have gone to the case. We nation. When he lifted the sheet which covered the body will not conceal our regret that neither of the medical men he found the body of a fcetus, at or near full time, beside went to the rescue of this unfortunate woman ; but how the woman’s body, and still remaining in connexion with the strange it is that the coroner’s argument from humanity was