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THE REFORM OF ATHLETICS.
829 Linen, bedding, clothes, mattresses, carpets, widened thorax, on which the athletic enthusiast so prides contaminated or likely to be con- himself, is, according to Professor Mosso, of a highly taminated, shall be disinfected in stoves by steam under relative value, for even without such widening we always Only those stoves which have been tested respire a sufficient quantity of air, and even habitually, as! pressure. with the aid of a maximum thermometer shall be he further maintains (in a special monograph) 11 woe respire considered as efficacious disinfecting apparatus. This more air than is necessary." The gymnastics of the schools, thermometer must prove that, within the centre of a have this defect, that they 11 localise fatigue in some groups mattress, 105° to 110° C. have been attained. This degree of muscles," whereas really healthy exercises should in-
by fire.
2.
papers of value, &c.,
of heat is slightly in excess of that necessary to kill the duce a fatigue of the whole body-a symmetrical fatigueknown pathogenic micro. orgaiaisms. To ensure that the and that gradually. Recent experiments on the results of operation is efficacious, the temperature must be maintained fatigue of the muscle have shown that that tissue suffers at this elevation consecutively for from ten to fifteen minutes. more (pathologically considered) from a maximum than, 3. Disinfecting solutions :-(a) Sublimated solution of 1 per from an ordinary contraction ; and, besides, that to the 1000, with 5 grammes of hydrochloric acid added. This weary muscle a given effort is more hurtful than to the, solution should be coloured with fuehsine or eosin. It must muscle which has rested. Professor Mosso gives an instructive sketch of the phases. not be kept in metallic receptacles. (b) A 5 per cent. solution of pure carbolic acid crystals. (c) Freahly prepared through which gymnastics, from the beginning of the ninelime: To secure a very active solution, lime of good quality teenth century to its close, have passed in the schools of should be selected and mixed gradually with half its weight Italy. Received at first with enthusiasm, this new adjunct of water. When the mixture is effected the powder should to education became very soon stationary "on account of be put in a carefully closed vessel and kept in a dry its military character." Between the two chief gymnasbie place. 4. Special advice with regard to the employment systems, the Swedish and the German, there was a struggle of disinfecting solutions: All linen and clothes soiled by for popular favour, the former being the more" intense,’’’’ dejections from the patients mustbe immersed in a sublimated the latter more gradual, and basing itself on physiological solution. Such objects as may be deteriorated by exposure science as then known. Even by the Swedish method, to the high temperature of the disinfecting stove-objects according to Professor Mosso, " the development of the such as leather, tables, parquetry, flooring, &c. shall be washed muscles and the ’allenamento’ (power of keeping in thewith a sublimated solution. The persons who are attending breath) are obtained less rapidly- than on the traditional: the cholera patients must wash their hands and faces with a Italian system, but its results are more hygienic and more sublimated solution of 1 per 2000. Carbolic acid can be assured." It is, he reminds us incidentally, from the employed to disinfect such objects as are injured by a Swedish gymnastics that the so-called " ginnastica chirurtemperature of more than 100’ C., or by contact with the gicaand massage took their rise. mercurial solution, such as metals, instruments, &c. The Several commissions have, in Italy, undertaken to revise the lime is specially recommended for the disinfection of contending gymnastic systems, and to make salutary innovathe dejections of patients, their vomit, and their alvine tions accoruingly. But Professor Mosso has little confidence evacuations. In its absence, carbolic acid can be em- in the tinality of these. He rather points to France, where, as ployed. 5. The cabins or other parts of the ship occu- a means of fortifying future generations, an effort is being pied by cholera patients or persons suffering from suspicious made to give gymnastics a soundly scientific direction,-an symptoms shall be emptied and the objects they contain effort in which the physiologist and the education authorities’ to the above treatment. The walls shall be dis- are cooperating loyally. The first step taken by these resubmitted infected with the sublimated solution, containing an addi- formers was to assimilate from abroad whatever seemed tion of 10 per cent. of alcohol. The floor shall be useful and practical, and next to compile a manual of gym washed with the same solution. Two hours later the whole nastic exercises, commendable, according to Professor Mosso, of these surfaces shall be washed with a large quantity of for its clear intelligible character and for the cheapness plain water. 6. To disinfect the hold of a ship, and to which makes it accessible to all. France, he tells us, has a. neutralise the sulphuretted hydrogen, a sufficient quantity military school of gymnastics where instructors are prepared) of sulphate of iron should be injected into the bilge water. for other schools ; and he sounds a warning note to Italy, Afterwards it is to be washed out with sea water ; then a where no corresponding institution exists, to take a leaf certain quantity of sublimated solution may be injected. out of the French book betimes, while within measurable, distance of war, with its rapid mobilisation, and with the The bilge water must not be emptied into a port. movements characteristic of modern strategy. energetic " It is but too true that in Italy polities are all-absorbing and her legislators think the problem of physical education: beneath them." The meagre endowment of her physioTHE REFORM OF ATHLETICS. logical laboratories is fatal to the furtherance of such education-a fact all the more to be lamented when Italy teems THIS is a subject of present interest, particularly on the with men able to give her a pre-emlnence in gymnastics as. Continent, where the systematic training of the bodily notable as she has long held in other departments-that of powers forms a far more prominent part of education than fencing and sword exercise, for example. At present athletic or gymnastic discipline is not in, among ourselves. In France, in Germany, in Sweden, and with Italian youth; those schools in which it is pracfavour in Italy something like an international discussion has for tised always numbering many truants from its classes; some time been devoted to it-the contribution of the last" of such discipline gets more and more while the " named country being especially valuable from the scientific involved in theory pedantries, irksome to the youth unpractical ability of its representative, Professor Angelo Mosso, of and embarrassing to the instructor, and erroneous ideas as Turin. That eminent physiologist, whose doctrine as to to the Efficacy of certain "intense" forms of exercise come in the pathology of fatigue is familiar to readers of THE as a further complication. There is, moreover, the traditional’ LANCET, attacks the gymnastic system traditional in prejudice that during muscular exercise the "brain is at Italian schools, and in a recent paper in the Nuova rest-a position, according to Professor Mosso, absolutely Antologia insists, as a first step in his argument, on the false." When the distinguished Hellenist, Professor Sellar capital distinction between" robustezza(robustness) and made his first appearance on the golfing green ac St. "forza"(strength). The former, he maintains, is often Andrews, the mature " caddiewho accompanied him developed out of proportion to the bodily health, as, in remarked, " Ye may be guid eneugh, Professor, at teaching order to ensure an abnormal power of muscle, the other laddies Greek; but gouf needs a heid," Professor Mosscis clearly of the "caddie’s"opinion. organs are, pro tanto, impoverished. As a consequence modern gymnastics (and not in Italy A frequent defect in modern gymnastic institutions—and alone) are open, in physiological eyes, to grave objection. not Italian only-is the local in which the exercises take Repeated exercise, he admits, augments muscular force- place. This, often confined and sparingly ventilated, more’ the muscular tissue itself becoming thickened and the than neutralises whatever good may survive the frequent " organism habituating itself to the products ("poisonous faultiness of the methods pursued. From this consideration as these are) of muscular waste. But, as is well known, Professor Mosso proceeds to that of the necessity of gymduring intense strain or extraordinary effort the blood no nastic as a means of combating the insanitary influences, and rapidly longer circulates healthily, the respiration is altered, the always on the increase. of life in industrial tc" he cities. The concludes, are education, heart of the Physical artificially over-populated irregular. pulsations
830 be
complete,
must take in not
only
the muscular
lence
develop.
was
related to attendance at
one
particular school.
In
ment, but that of other organs. True and healthful ’, the end Mr. Sweeting arrived at the conclusion that the reco-
gymnastics must be diversified.
He appeals to the munici- I, his of to aid in this country salutary innovation by palitiessuitable locales for such exercises. But in order that giving physical education should start fair and advance beneficially, the Government should acquire a just notion of the physiological conditions of the youth frequenting school, so as to modify the hours of attendance, and appoint masters capable of teaching the true "recreative gymnastic," abandoning at once all traditional pedantries, fraught as these are neither with permanent robustness nor general vigour. E un apostolato," says Signor Mancini. echoing Professor Mosso, 11 end una missione dfgna di ogoi uomo di cuore ;" and we hope this "crusade," this "mission"of healthily irehabilitating the youth of Italy-aye, and of other countries-may soon find its proper instrument in an enlightened and practical system of "reform in athletics."
SOCIETY
FOR THE STUDY OF INEBRIETY.
been preceded by occurrences of minor sore-throat ailment ; that the disease had no relation to sanitary circumstances, to special milk services, or to disease in the lower animal ; that there was a disproportionate incidence of the disease on school attendants, with an excessive incidence on attendants at one special school, and evidence as to the absence of children from this school from time to time owing to affections of the throat, together with proof of return to school in various stages of recovery. In this latter way personal infection through school attendPrecautions ance operated to maintain the prevalence. were taken to deal with the disease ; but it is suggested that longer exclusions from school of affected persons might have helped to extinguish the disease at a much earlier date. Such exclusion, to be successful, must in every case be the result of action by the sanitary authority itself, and it is only likely to be efficient if it is based on the recomlllendation of the local health officer, who, in turn, must be kept apprised of every fresh occurrence of disease by means of immediate notification.
gnised diphtheria had
REPORTS OF MEDICAL OFFICERS OF HEALTH.
of the Medical Society of London, on this Tuesday last, Society held its eighth annual meet. The ing. president, Dr. Norman Kerr, after a service of non-intoxicating refreshments, gave some particulars of an appeal he had made to the various temperance and allied societies on behalf of compulsory legislation for the habitual drunkard. Hitherto the and general philanbodies had all such thropic opposed legislation, but the reception of this appeal revealed a marked change. Such temperance bodies as the Church of England
IN the
large
room
temperance
Ashton in-Ma7,erfielcl Urban District.-The death-rate for this district reached 22’7 per 1000 last year, and we can hardly regard the zymotic rate of 2’3 as a small one, especially when it is remembered that for so small a population it has averaged 2-8 during the previous ten years. The infantile death-rate is distinctly excessive, and it is unsatisfactory to read that nuisances which have been associated with enteiic fever remain undealt with. Themidden-privy system is badly managed and is a cause of nuisance; but at the same time Mr. Nathan Hannah says that good work is carried on, that the sewers have been carefully attended to, and that the hospital has been improved. What is evi. dently wanted is a detailed record of the sanitary circumstances of every house in the district, but the only thing the authority have done by way of setting a systematic inspection on toot has been to talk about it for " two or three
years."
Poole Urban and Port Districts.--The zyrnofic rate for this district was low in 1891, and the general death-rate was 14 2 per 1000. After discussing certain occurrences of disease, Dr. Lawton speaks of the scavenging and flusbing as being well carried out, of a good water-service, of regular inspection of the district, and of prospective improvements as to sewerage. The number of infectious cases coming under notice is nOD given, but the infectious hospital was nor, used. In the port 145 inspections of vessels were made, Dr. Lawton undertaking those in which medical points seemed to arise, and as the result improvements in shipping were ordered and Effected.
VITAL STATISTICS.
Public Health
and
Poor Law.
LOCAL GOVERNMENT DEPARTMENT. REPORTS OF INSPECTORS OF THE MEDICAL DEPARTMENT OF THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT BOARD.
On Diphtheria in St. George’s, Hanover-square, by Mr. SWEETING.—The occurrence of diphtheria at Bourdonbuildings in the above-named parish was made the subject of inquiry by Mr. Sweeting on behalf of the Local GovernThe buildings in question belong to a ment Board. and consist of twenty-four Jettings. There they .company, was no special overcrowding, and, speaking generally, no particularsanitary defects were noticeable. Bub, eommencing on Oct. 20th, diphtheria had prevailed there during the autumn months, and there had also been cases described under such terms as "tonsillitis." Indeed, out of twenty-three cases,
eight were of such a character as to have remained unnotified. All the conditions under which diphtheria and allied sore-throat are known to prevail were investigated ; bu it was not easy to determine any particular cause as influencing the spread of the disease except school attendance; and it soon appeared that nearly the whole preva-
HEALTH OF ENGLISH TOWNS.
IN thirty-three of the largest English towns 6131 blrths and 4346 deaths were registered during the week ending April 2nd. The annual rate of mortality in these towns, which had been 24-8 and 22-3 per 1000 in the preceding two weeks, further declined to 22-2 last week. In London the rate was 21-4 per 1000, while it averaged 22.8in the thirty-two provincial towns. The lowest rates in these towns were 14-7 in Croydon, 16-1 in West Ham, 17.1 in Gateshead, and 18-3 in Bradford ; the highest rates were 26-5 in Swansea and in Barnley, 26-7 in Halifax, 26-8 in Preston, and 28-1 in Manchester. The 4346 deaths included 427 which were referred to the principal zymotie diseases, against 477 and 435 in the preceding two weeks; of these, 170 resulted from whcopiiig-cough. 134 from measles, 42 from diarrhosa, 33 from scarlet fever, 30 from diphtheria, 16 from "fever(principally enteric), and 2 from small-pox. No fatal case of any of these diseases was registered in Norwich; in the other towns they caused the lowest rates in Bolton, Gateshead, and Halifax, and the highest in Salford, Liverpool, Sheffield, and Wolverhampton. The greatest mortality from measles occurred in Birkenhead, Birmingham, Sheffield, Liverpool, and Wolverhampton ; from scarlet fever in Birkenhead and Cardiff; from whooping-cough in Brighton, Bristol, Salford, Huddersfield, Sheffield. Swansea, and Wolverhampton; and from diarrhcea in Preston and Blackburn. The mortality from "fever"
by fire.
2.
papers of value, &c.,
of heat is slightly in excess of that necessary to kill the duce a fatigue of the whole body-a symmetrical fatigueknown pathogenic micro. orgaiaisms. To ensure that the and that gradually. Recent experiments on the results of operation is efficacious, the temperature must be maintained fatigue of the muscle have shown that that tissue suffers at this elevation consecutively for from ten to fifteen minutes. more (pathologically considered) from a maximum than, 3. Disinfecting solutions :-(a) Sublimated solution of 1 per from an ordinary contraction ; and, besides, that to the 1000, with 5 grammes of hydrochloric acid added. This weary muscle a given effort is more hurtful than to the, solution should be coloured with fuehsine or eosin. It must muscle which has rested. Professor Mosso gives an instructive sketch of the phases. not be kept in metallic receptacles. (b) A 5 per cent. solution of pure carbolic acid crystals. (c) Freahly prepared through which gymnastics, from the beginning of the ninelime: To secure a very active solution, lime of good quality teenth century to its close, have passed in the schools of should be selected and mixed gradually with half its weight Italy. Received at first with enthusiasm, this new adjunct of water. When the mixture is effected the powder should to education became very soon stationary "on account of be put in a carefully closed vessel and kept in a dry its military character." Between the two chief gymnasbie place. 4. Special advice with regard to the employment systems, the Swedish and the German, there was a struggle of disinfecting solutions: All linen and clothes soiled by for popular favour, the former being the more" intense,’’’’ dejections from the patients mustbe immersed in a sublimated the latter more gradual, and basing itself on physiological solution. Such objects as may be deteriorated by exposure science as then known. Even by the Swedish method, to the high temperature of the disinfecting stove-objects according to Professor Mosso, " the development of the such as leather, tables, parquetry, flooring, &c. shall be washed muscles and the ’allenamento’ (power of keeping in thewith a sublimated solution. The persons who are attending breath) are obtained less rapidly- than on the traditional: the cholera patients must wash their hands and faces with a Italian system, but its results are more hygienic and more sublimated solution of 1 per 2000. Carbolic acid can be assured." It is, he reminds us incidentally, from the employed to disinfect such objects as are injured by a Swedish gymnastics that the so-called " ginnastica chirurtemperature of more than 100’ C., or by contact with the gicaand massage took their rise. mercurial solution, such as metals, instruments, &c. The Several commissions have, in Italy, undertaken to revise the lime is specially recommended for the disinfection of contending gymnastic systems, and to make salutary innovathe dejections of patients, their vomit, and their alvine tions accoruingly. But Professor Mosso has little confidence evacuations. In its absence, carbolic acid can be em- in the tinality of these. He rather points to France, where, as ployed. 5. The cabins or other parts of the ship occu- a means of fortifying future generations, an effort is being pied by cholera patients or persons suffering from suspicious made to give gymnastics a soundly scientific direction,-an symptoms shall be emptied and the objects they contain effort in which the physiologist and the education authorities’ to the above treatment. The walls shall be dis- are cooperating loyally. The first step taken by these resubmitted infected with the sublimated solution, containing an addi- formers was to assimilate from abroad whatever seemed tion of 10 per cent. of alcohol. The floor shall be useful and practical, and next to compile a manual of gym washed with the same solution. Two hours later the whole nastic exercises, commendable, according to Professor Mosso, of these surfaces shall be washed with a large quantity of for its clear intelligible character and for the cheapness plain water. 6. To disinfect the hold of a ship, and to which makes it accessible to all. France, he tells us, has a. neutralise the sulphuretted hydrogen, a sufficient quantity military school of gymnastics where instructors are prepared) of sulphate of iron should be injected into the bilge water. for other schools ; and he sounds a warning note to Italy, Afterwards it is to be washed out with sea water ; then a where no corresponding institution exists, to take a leaf certain quantity of sublimated solution may be injected. out of the French book betimes, while within measurable, distance of war, with its rapid mobilisation, and with the The bilge water must not be emptied into a port. movements characteristic of modern strategy. energetic " It is but too true that in Italy polities are all-absorbing and her legislators think the problem of physical education: beneath them." The meagre endowment of her physioTHE REFORM OF ATHLETICS. logical laboratories is fatal to the furtherance of such education-a fact all the more to be lamented when Italy teems THIS is a subject of present interest, particularly on the with men able to give her a pre-emlnence in gymnastics as. Continent, where the systematic training of the bodily notable as she has long held in other departments-that of powers forms a far more prominent part of education than fencing and sword exercise, for example. At present athletic or gymnastic discipline is not in, among ourselves. In France, in Germany, in Sweden, and with Italian youth; those schools in which it is pracfavour in Italy something like an international discussion has for tised always numbering many truants from its classes; some time been devoted to it-the contribution of the last" of such discipline gets more and more while the " named country being especially valuable from the scientific involved in theory pedantries, irksome to the youth unpractical ability of its representative, Professor Angelo Mosso, of and embarrassing to the instructor, and erroneous ideas as Turin. That eminent physiologist, whose doctrine as to to the Efficacy of certain "intense" forms of exercise come in the pathology of fatigue is familiar to readers of THE as a further complication. There is, moreover, the traditional’ LANCET, attacks the gymnastic system traditional in prejudice that during muscular exercise the "brain is at Italian schools, and in a recent paper in the Nuova rest-a position, according to Professor Mosso, absolutely Antologia insists, as a first step in his argument, on the false." When the distinguished Hellenist, Professor Sellar capital distinction between" robustezza(robustness) and made his first appearance on the golfing green ac St. "forza"(strength). The former, he maintains, is often Andrews, the mature " caddiewho accompanied him developed out of proportion to the bodily health, as, in remarked, " Ye may be guid eneugh, Professor, at teaching order to ensure an abnormal power of muscle, the other laddies Greek; but gouf needs a heid," Professor Mosscis clearly of the "caddie’s"opinion. organs are, pro tanto, impoverished. As a consequence modern gymnastics (and not in Italy A frequent defect in modern gymnastic institutions—and alone) are open, in physiological eyes, to grave objection. not Italian only-is the local in which the exercises take Repeated exercise, he admits, augments muscular force- place. This, often confined and sparingly ventilated, more’ the muscular tissue itself becoming thickened and the than neutralises whatever good may survive the frequent " organism habituating itself to the products ("poisonous faultiness of the methods pursued. From this consideration as these are) of muscular waste. But, as is well known, Professor Mosso proceeds to that of the necessity of gymduring intense strain or extraordinary effort the blood no nastic as a means of combating the insanitary influences, and rapidly longer circulates healthily, the respiration is altered, the always on the increase. of life in industrial tc" he cities. The concludes, are education, heart of the Physical artificially over-populated irregular. pulsations
830 be
complete,
must take in not
only
the muscular
lence
develop.
was
related to attendance at
one
particular school.
In
ment, but that of other organs. True and healthful ’, the end Mr. Sweeting arrived at the conclusion that the reco-
gymnastics must be diversified.
He appeals to the munici- I, his of to aid in this country salutary innovation by palitiessuitable locales for such exercises. But in order that giving physical education should start fair and advance beneficially, the Government should acquire a just notion of the physiological conditions of the youth frequenting school, so as to modify the hours of attendance, and appoint masters capable of teaching the true "recreative gymnastic," abandoning at once all traditional pedantries, fraught as these are neither with permanent robustness nor general vigour. E un apostolato," says Signor Mancini. echoing Professor Mosso, 11 end una missione dfgna di ogoi uomo di cuore ;" and we hope this "crusade," this "mission"of healthily irehabilitating the youth of Italy-aye, and of other countries-may soon find its proper instrument in an enlightened and practical system of "reform in athletics."
SOCIETY
FOR THE STUDY OF INEBRIETY.
been preceded by occurrences of minor sore-throat ailment ; that the disease had no relation to sanitary circumstances, to special milk services, or to disease in the lower animal ; that there was a disproportionate incidence of the disease on school attendants, with an excessive incidence on attendants at one special school, and evidence as to the absence of children from this school from time to time owing to affections of the throat, together with proof of return to school in various stages of recovery. In this latter way personal infection through school attendPrecautions ance operated to maintain the prevalence. were taken to deal with the disease ; but it is suggested that longer exclusions from school of affected persons might have helped to extinguish the disease at a much earlier date. Such exclusion, to be successful, must in every case be the result of action by the sanitary authority itself, and it is only likely to be efficient if it is based on the recomlllendation of the local health officer, who, in turn, must be kept apprised of every fresh occurrence of disease by means of immediate notification.
gnised diphtheria had
REPORTS OF MEDICAL OFFICERS OF HEALTH.
of the Medical Society of London, on this Tuesday last, Society held its eighth annual meet. The ing. president, Dr. Norman Kerr, after a service of non-intoxicating refreshments, gave some particulars of an appeal he had made to the various temperance and allied societies on behalf of compulsory legislation for the habitual drunkard. Hitherto the and general philanbodies had all such thropic opposed legislation, but the reception of this appeal revealed a marked change. Such temperance bodies as the Church of England
IN the
large
room
temperance
Ashton in-Ma7,erfielcl Urban District.-The death-rate for this district reached 22’7 per 1000 last year, and we can hardly regard the zymotic rate of 2’3 as a small one, especially when it is remembered that for so small a population it has averaged 2-8 during the previous ten years. The infantile death-rate is distinctly excessive, and it is unsatisfactory to read that nuisances which have been associated with enteiic fever remain undealt with. Themidden-privy system is badly managed and is a cause of nuisance; but at the same time Mr. Nathan Hannah says that good work is carried on, that the sewers have been carefully attended to, and that the hospital has been improved. What is evi. dently wanted is a detailed record of the sanitary circumstances of every house in the district, but the only thing the authority have done by way of setting a systematic inspection on toot has been to talk about it for " two or three
years."
Poole Urban and Port Districts.--The zyrnofic rate for this district was low in 1891, and the general death-rate was 14 2 per 1000. After discussing certain occurrences of disease, Dr. Lawton speaks of the scavenging and flusbing as being well carried out, of a good water-service, of regular inspection of the district, and of prospective improvements as to sewerage. The number of infectious cases coming under notice is nOD given, but the infectious hospital was nor, used. In the port 145 inspections of vessels were made, Dr. Lawton undertaking those in which medical points seemed to arise, and as the result improvements in shipping were ordered and Effected.
VITAL STATISTICS.
Public Health
and
Poor Law.
LOCAL GOVERNMENT DEPARTMENT. REPORTS OF INSPECTORS OF THE MEDICAL DEPARTMENT OF THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT BOARD.
On Diphtheria in St. George’s, Hanover-square, by Mr. SWEETING.—The occurrence of diphtheria at Bourdonbuildings in the above-named parish was made the subject of inquiry by Mr. Sweeting on behalf of the Local GovernThe buildings in question belong to a ment Board. and consist of twenty-four Jettings. There they .company, was no special overcrowding, and, speaking generally, no particularsanitary defects were noticeable. Bub, eommencing on Oct. 20th, diphtheria had prevailed there during the autumn months, and there had also been cases described under such terms as "tonsillitis." Indeed, out of twenty-three cases,
eight were of such a character as to have remained unnotified. All the conditions under which diphtheria and allied sore-throat are known to prevail were investigated ; bu it was not easy to determine any particular cause as influencing the spread of the disease except school attendance; and it soon appeared that nearly the whole preva-
HEALTH OF ENGLISH TOWNS.
IN thirty-three of the largest English towns 6131 blrths and 4346 deaths were registered during the week ending April 2nd. The annual rate of mortality in these towns, which had been 24-8 and 22-3 per 1000 in the preceding two weeks, further declined to 22-2 last week. In London the rate was 21-4 per 1000, while it averaged 22.8in the thirty-two provincial towns. The lowest rates in these towns were 14-7 in Croydon, 16-1 in West Ham, 17.1 in Gateshead, and 18-3 in Bradford ; the highest rates were 26-5 in Swansea and in Barnley, 26-7 in Halifax, 26-8 in Preston, and 28-1 in Manchester. The 4346 deaths included 427 which were referred to the principal zymotie diseases, against 477 and 435 in the preceding two weeks; of these, 170 resulted from whcopiiig-cough. 134 from measles, 42 from diarrhosa, 33 from scarlet fever, 30 from diphtheria, 16 from "fever(principally enteric), and 2 from small-pox. No fatal case of any of these diseases was registered in Norwich; in the other towns they caused the lowest rates in Bolton, Gateshead, and Halifax, and the highest in Salford, Liverpool, Sheffield, and Wolverhampton. The greatest mortality from measles occurred in Birkenhead, Birmingham, Sheffield, Liverpool, and Wolverhampton ; from scarlet fever in Birkenhead and Cardiff; from whooping-cough in Brighton, Bristol, Salford, Huddersfield, Sheffield. Swansea, and Wolverhampton; and from diarrhcea in Preston and Blackburn. The mortality from "fever"