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THE RETIREMENT OF DR. E. C. SEATON.
500 a kindSeaton’s efforts in the direction of promoting the harmonious surgeon. And working of the several districts and officials were highly savages are the successful survivors of her age-long series of successful, and the progress which has been made in operations. We may here quote from a communication which Surrey in the matter of isolation accommodation, housing, has reached us recently on this very topic. The writer says : water-supply, and the purification of rivers is due in " In North Queensland, in the Arctic regions, in Central no small degree to Dr. Seaton’s tact and judgment. Dr, Africa, the savage tribe witnesses to the truth of the eugenic Seaton has held many important examinerships in public theories. The savage is a ruthless eugenist. He destroys health in the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, London, the weakly as often as not at birth ; he eats what the tribe and elsewhere. He was, too, chairman of the Board of cannot support. Cannibals have a keen eye for the weak and Studies in Hygiene and Public Health in London University, the superfluous, as well as for the obese and unwieldy, and in which capacity he displayed much discrimination and cannibals, unhampered by social wreckage, are persons of powers of leadership. On his resignation, when he was magnificent physique and often of high intelligence and good succeeded by Sir Shirley F. Murphy, the board marked its tribal morals. Witness the Papuans as described by Dr. appreciation of his services by nominating him for election The teeth of savages as Chadwick lecturer. The lectures, which will be looked C. G. Seligmann in his last book. excite our envy ; they are the direct result of the survival forward to with much interest, will, we believe, be delivered of the fittest. To eat raw or tough meat in quantities and before the University of London in November next. Dr. to support life thereon in a severe climate the savage needs Seaton has, we trust, many years of active usefulness before the teeth of a wild animal." Our correspondent is here a him, and doubtless his less exacting position as consultant little too sweeping, for it is notorious that the teeth of many as far as Surrey county is concerned will afford him leisure wild animals, herbivorous and carnivorous, are frequently to devote to outside calls the knowledge and experience subject to gross caries, but his general argument is weighty. which he has acquired in so long and so distinguished a. We still quote the formula about the greatest good of the career. greatest number, but many of the more thoughtful among TRANSITORY HEMIPLEGIA IN HEART DISEASE. us are inclined to revise this rough-and-ready teaching in the light of modern science, and substitute for " the greatest PARALYSIS in heart disease due to cerebral embolism, number," "the best." The greatest good of the best-that thrombosis, or haemorrhage is well known. In recent years seems to be the aim set before the scientific reformer to-day. French writers have drawn attention to a transitory form of It is an aristocratic aim in the finest sense. Yet it does not hemiplegia not due to any of these causes, of which the militate against the democratic increase of the best. offers an interesting problem. At a of
grand eugenist. old
The
optimistic Longfellow
called her
mother, but, in their opinion, she is really
a
I
____
pathogenesis
meeting
the Societe Medicale des Hupitaux of Paris on June 3rd THE RETIREMENT OF DR. E. C. SEATON. M. E. Hirtz and M. Beaufume reported the following case, THE announcement that Dr. Seaton, the county medicalA woman, aged 49 years, was admitted into the Necker officer of health of Surrey, has been appointed consultingHospital on Jan. 20th, 1910. She had had rheumatic fever medical officer of health, and that he has thus relinquishedtwice-at the ages of 9 and 39 years respectively. Since the more active role of administration for its reflective andJuly, 1908, she had frequently been treated at the hospital advisory aspects, recalls the prominent part he has taken in for mitro-aortic disease with asystole and ascites. Para, many public health matters which are now accomplished centesis was performed 13 times, for the last time at the end facts, but which, when he entered the public health arena of November, 1909. In January, 1910, the abdomen was some 40 years ago, were but just, as it were, being brought again much enlarged, but the patient could follow her into the battle line. The name of Seaton is intimately bound occupation of housekeeper. About Jan. 14th she was seized up with the sanitation of the last 50 years, Dr. Seaton’s with right frontal headache, diurnal and nocturnal, and felt father having occupied between the incumbencies of Sir giddy on rising with a tendency to fall backwards, but this John Simon and Sir George Buchanan the important post of condition disappeared after sitting down for some minutes. principal medical officer to the Local Government Board at a On the 19th she went to bed as usual and about 2 A M she time when vaccination administration was in the making, felt a violent desire to micturate, but found thnt she and his writings upon this subject are well-known classics. could not get up or speak to awake her hushaud. The present Dr. Seaton has had an almost unique experience. She made great efforts to get out of bed Mil in As early as 1871 he assisted in the sanitary inspection of the end succeeded. She found that she was paraly-ed on Oxford during an outbreak of enteric fever, and in the! the left side in the face and arm and almost complete? following year he was appointed an assistant Commissionerin the leg. On admission there was left hemiplegia with for inspecting school children in Lancashire and Cheshire inmarked dysarthria. The left side of the face was flaccid and connexion with Mr. Mundella’s Commission. As medicalL drooping; the labial commissure was depressed and she could officer of health for Nottingham in 1875 he was instrumental1 not whistle. The left eye could be shut, but not so well as in declaring the first "unhealthy area"under the Housing; the right. The tongue was slightly deviated to the left. She Act of that year, and in 1878 he obtained the insertion into could not speak, and stammered in an incomprehensible a local Act of a clause for the notification of infectious manner. The left leg was partly paralysed. The reflexes s f were diminished on the left side ;Babinski’s sign was absent’ diseases, this same clause subsequently becoming the basis of the Infectious Diseases Notification Act of 1889. Later, when n There were dyspnoea (the respirations numbering 36), marked medical officer of health of Chelsea, he secured the appointj- ascites, oedema of the legs, and double hydrothorax. The ment of a committee which subsequently induced the Local vl heart was dilated and there was a prolonged systolic murmur Government Board to bring about the admission of students at the apex and another systolic murmur at the base. The into the hospitals of the Metropolitan Asylums Board. In n urine was high coloured and slightly albuminous. Para. n centesis abdominis was performed, and after 4 or 5 litres ot 1890 the Surrey county council decided to take the lead in is fluid had escaped the patient could pronounce some words. appointing a county medical officer of health, and for this was selected. The ’k then she could move the fingers of the left hand and finally Seaton work Dr. difficulties of the post the wrist. Towards the end of the operation, which occupied 16 which devolved upon him in coordinating the work of the at 15 minutes and yielded about 10 litres of fluid, the face was several districts were very great, more especially as at that r. less deviated and the patient could speak almost normally time there were no precedents and very few powers, but Dr.
I
grand eugenist. old
The
optimistic Longfellow
called her
mother, but, in their opinion, she is really
a
I
____
pathogenesis
meeting
the Societe Medicale des Hupitaux of Paris on June 3rd THE RETIREMENT OF DR. E. C. SEATON. M. E. Hirtz and M. Beaufume reported the following case, THE announcement that Dr. Seaton, the county medicalA woman, aged 49 years, was admitted into the Necker officer of health of Surrey, has been appointed consultingHospital on Jan. 20th, 1910. She had had rheumatic fever medical officer of health, and that he has thus relinquishedtwice-at the ages of 9 and 39 years respectively. Since the more active role of administration for its reflective andJuly, 1908, she had frequently been treated at the hospital advisory aspects, recalls the prominent part he has taken in for mitro-aortic disease with asystole and ascites. Para, many public health matters which are now accomplished centesis was performed 13 times, for the last time at the end facts, but which, when he entered the public health arena of November, 1909. In January, 1910, the abdomen was some 40 years ago, were but just, as it were, being brought again much enlarged, but the patient could follow her into the battle line. The name of Seaton is intimately bound occupation of housekeeper. About Jan. 14th she was seized up with the sanitation of the last 50 years, Dr. Seaton’s with right frontal headache, diurnal and nocturnal, and felt father having occupied between the incumbencies of Sir giddy on rising with a tendency to fall backwards, but this John Simon and Sir George Buchanan the important post of condition disappeared after sitting down for some minutes. principal medical officer to the Local Government Board at a On the 19th she went to bed as usual and about 2 A M she time when vaccination administration was in the making, felt a violent desire to micturate, but found thnt she and his writings upon this subject are well-known classics. could not get up or speak to awake her hushaud. The present Dr. Seaton has had an almost unique experience. She made great efforts to get out of bed Mil in As early as 1871 he assisted in the sanitary inspection of the end succeeded. She found that she was paraly-ed on Oxford during an outbreak of enteric fever, and in the! the left side in the face and arm and almost complete? following year he was appointed an assistant Commissionerin the leg. On admission there was left hemiplegia with for inspecting school children in Lancashire and Cheshire inmarked dysarthria. The left side of the face was flaccid and connexion with Mr. Mundella’s Commission. As medicalL drooping; the labial commissure was depressed and she could officer of health for Nottingham in 1875 he was instrumental1 not whistle. The left eye could be shut, but not so well as in declaring the first "unhealthy area"under the Housing; the right. The tongue was slightly deviated to the left. She Act of that year, and in 1878 he obtained the insertion into could not speak, and stammered in an incomprehensible a local Act of a clause for the notification of infectious manner. The left leg was partly paralysed. The reflexes s f were diminished on the left side ;Babinski’s sign was absent’ diseases, this same clause subsequently becoming the basis of the Infectious Diseases Notification Act of 1889. Later, when n There were dyspnoea (the respirations numbering 36), marked medical officer of health of Chelsea, he secured the appointj- ascites, oedema of the legs, and double hydrothorax. The ment of a committee which subsequently induced the Local vl heart was dilated and there was a prolonged systolic murmur Government Board to bring about the admission of students at the apex and another systolic murmur at the base. The into the hospitals of the Metropolitan Asylums Board. In n urine was high coloured and slightly albuminous. Para. n centesis abdominis was performed, and after 4 or 5 litres ot 1890 the Surrey county council decided to take the lead in is fluid had escaped the patient could pronounce some words. appointing a county medical officer of health, and for this was selected. The ’k then she could move the fingers of the left hand and finally Seaton work Dr. difficulties of the post the wrist. Towards the end of the operation, which occupied 16 which devolved upon him in coordinating the work of the at 15 minutes and yielded about 10 litres of fluid, the face was several districts were very great, more especially as at that r. less deviated and the patient could speak almost normally time there were no precedents and very few powers, but Dr.
I