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THE RULE OF THE PAVEMENT.
1598
FARQUHAR, NORTH, AND CO.
v.
LLOYD.
was proved beyond doubt
from Mr.
Home Secretary, to bring these their senses and to their duties. As the House of Commons meets next week it seems fitting that the attention of its members, whose proceedings are considered to be a model for others to follow, should be called to the preferable mode of taking the oath. No doubt the grievance of kissing the book is little felt in the House of Commons, and especially in a new Parliament. The renovation of the legislative chamber comprises new wigs for the clerks at the table and probably it includes also an ample supply of new copies of the Gospels and of the Pentateuch. The Speaker, the first commoner in England, is the first to kiss probably an absolutely new book. The contrast between this and courts of law is manifest. Nevertheless, we would urge that the handling and kissing of a book in any assembly and under any circumstances is an uncleanly procedure. In a recent issue we felt it our duty to allude to the question of the communion cup as a possible means of infection. The danger of kissing the book in coroners’, police, sessions, or assize courts is greatly accentuated by the fact that medical witnesses are asked to do this after the book has already been kissed by numberless witnesses of the lowest class, including from time to time some infected with loathsome diseases. This fact was recognised by Lord Justice Collins, who, when presiding at the Central Criminal Court, ordered a book to be destroyed after it had been kissed by a witness suffering from syphilis. We have frequently pointed out the dangers of the English mode of administration before and have urged the adoption of the Scotch form. We could add much in favour of the latter form on the grounds of greater impressiveness and more solemnity, but we must leave this to others.
Asquith, then recalcitrant gentlemen to
that damage approximating to the sum awarded was caused by the publication of the comments objected to, and not by the publication of the facts proved in the trial upon which comment was made, and which must have been reported in many newsThe dangers papers besides the Daily Chronicle. arising to the poorer classes of the public from the sale of inefficiently preserved provisions are great and real. We ourselves frequently lay stress upon them, and it would be a matter of regret if the freedom of the press honestly to criticise and to censure were to be curtailed by the fear of a verdict for unreasonably large damages following the slightest error made in dispensing such This is our view, and it is no answer censure and criticism. it that to the to say proprietor makes a profit by the pub. lication of the newspaper containing such criticism and censure and that he need not publish either the newspaper or the criticism unless he chooses. To deny that the newswriter has in any case a or the newspaper paper proprietor at the fulfilment of to the that he ever aims duty public, or that duty is to indulge in silly cynicism. Both have a duty, and if they go too far in performing it they must suffer. But it is to the public good that they should not be made to suffer unreasonably. -
THE RULE OF THE PAVEMENT.
WEAK, nervous, and elderly people are often made very uncomfortable by the overcrowding of the London pave. ments in the more frequented parts, while busy men are driven to despair by the obstacles to direct walking. Of late the inconvenience experienced has been increased by the fact that the people of London are, on the whole, less orderly and well-mannered than those of a previous genera. tion. The deterioration of public manners of the men, and especially of the boys, in the street is a subject of constant FARQUHAR, NORTH, AND CO. v. LLOYD. remark amongst those whose memory carries them back only THE case of Farquhar, North, and Co. v. Lloyd, tried 10 or 15 years. Formerly the observant Londoner on before Mr. Justice Wills, in which the plaintiffs obtained a visiting a country town was often struck by the fact that in verdict for E1900 damages against the Daily Chronicle for the provinces the people as a rule walked about without any libel, illustrates somewhat forcibly the dangers which a regard to rule, and he noticed that although the pavements newspaper may encounter if in the discharge of its duty to or "side-walks," to use a convenient Americanism, were less the public it reports legal proceedings and ventures in ’, crowded there was much more trouble in avoiding collisions addition to comment upon them. The plaintiffs, being with foot-passengers than was the case at that time in any manufacturers of tinned provisions, had sold goods to a part of London. We regret to say that London is now as tradesman who had refused to pay for them, contending that bad as, or worse than, any country town. The unwritten they were defective and that had he sold them they rule of the pavement-that a pedestrian should walk on the would have proved dangerous to the public. He appears right &ide—is a most valuable one, and has not only conto have been successful upon these contentions on being venience but some prestige of antiquity to support it. It sued in the county court for the price of the goods. The does not, however, date back beyond the last century, Daily Chronicle in dealing with the case must from the and it is not, so far as we know, possible to deterverdict of the jury be taken to have erred in its criticism, mine the origin of the rule. It probably came slowly into in that it suggested that the stock of the plaintiffs, general use in London. Dr. Johnson while at breakbeyond those articles sold to the retailer referred to, would fast in the Highlands one morning told Boswell that be found in an equally defective and dangerous condition. when his mother lived in London there were two sets of This the -Daily Chronicle presumably inferred, not only from people,"those who gave the wall and those who took the particular goods having been found to be unfit for it," and that when he returned from London to Lichfield his consumption, but also from the attitude adopted by the mother had asked him to which set he belonged. " Now it plaintiffs in endeavouring to enforce payment for them by is fixed that every man keeps to the right," said Dr. Johnson, legal proceedings-a step which certainly lent colour to the "or if one is taking the wall another yields it and it is a dispute." This, according to Dr. Johnson, was the suggestion that the goods were in their view fit for trade purposes, although they maintained that they would state of things in 1772. All well-behaved and peaceable have exchanged the defective tins for sound ones had they took the right side, but the rule was not absolutely been asked to do so. By what particular process the jury established at that date, for some few people still " took the that tried the action for libel fixed upon E1900 as the sum wall." Why it was a sign of pride and of a quarrelsome disdue to the plaintiffs it is useless to inquire; they possibly position to "take the wall " when to "go to the wall" was thought that with the costs added the defendant newspaper synonymous with misfortune is a question for philologists; would lose the round sum of .62000. Granting, however, that we are concerned only to insist that in the present crowded the alticle in question exceeded the limits of fair comment state of the streets of London order and method should be upon the proceedings in the county court, it appears to duly observed by pedestrians. Even those who object to us that the damages were excessive. Damages so large religious education ought if they be good citizens to dis. could only have been awarded with justice where it courage rowdyism, and the hustling on the pavements of
never
people
I
SIR ARTHUR SULLIVAN.-THE DENTAL HOSPITAL OF LONDON. .some
of the crowded streets of the
metropolis is hardly to be
differentiated from rowdyism. The rule of the pavement should be taught in the board schools and it would be by no means a
bad test
question
to
put
to all candidates for the they are or are not
London School Board to ask them whether in favour of such teaching. ___
SIR ARTHUR SULLIVAN.
Music, in
far at any rate
it conduces to happiness, make no apology for referring in these columns to the loss which British music has sustained by the death of Sir Arthur Sullivan. In serious music he sometimes rose to great heights, as witness the fine chorus in The Bolden Legend, commencing " The night is calm and cloudless." But where he shone preeminent was in his faculty for writing really humorous music. Take for examples the delicious burlesque solemnity of the entry of the judge and the fugal chorus of jurymen, "He’ll tell us how he came to be a judge," in Trial by Jurythe introduction of the opening notes of the great G minor fugue given to the bassoon in the Mikado’s song concerning punishment; and Arac’s Handelian aria di bravura about his armour in Princess Ida. Sullivan’s orchestration was always fitting and appropriate, and although Ivanhoe was not a success yet it contained at least one gem, the song "0 moon, thou art clad in silver," with its delicate accompaniment given to flutes and muted strings. He was manysided : he could write a song (notably, "Orpheus with his lute "), he could write a madrigal, or, to be more accurate, we should say a ballet or Fa-La, he was unrivalled at a patter song, and the music to " When the night wind howls," in Ruddygore, was a danse Maccabre which made the hearer shudder. By his art he lightened many weary hours, and though his works live after him it is sad to think that the hand which wrote and the brain which conceived them are
is
a
so
great therapeutic agent,
as
so we
stilled. ___
THE DENTAL HOSPITAL OF LONDON. THE subject uppermost in the minds of those who attended the annual dinner of the staff and past and present students of the Dental Hospital of London, which was held on Nov. 24th at the Hotel Metropole, was the approaching completion of the new hospital in Leicester-square. The information afforded on this head by a trustee and vice-president of the hospital, Mr. F. A. Bevan, was very encouraging. He had recently visited the. premises and could assure the present students that in a few months they would be able to conduct their studies in a building worthy of the best traditions of the institution. The benefits which this charity has conferred on a needy public may be best realised from the statement made by Mr. F. G. Hallett that during the past year over 68.000 cases had been treated at the hospital at a cost of less than £3000. Further proof of the need of the accommodation of the hospital and the school increasing was afforded by the fact that the numbers of students entering for the hospital curriculum continued to increase. Last term a larger number of students had joined the school than had ever joined before. How the work was carried to the - successful issue which the past history of the hospital had shown in the old utterly inadequate building was a matter of surprise to all concerned. Mr. C. S. Tomes, F.R.S., urged the students and all those present who were interested in the well-being of the institution and the success of the school not to relax their energies towards ’, increasing the fund for the new premises so that there might be no feeling of anxiety as regards the financial situation. It was a gratifying feature of the subscription list that old students had rallied round their alnia mater by giving substantially to this fund. It was abundant proof that they appreciated the educational value of the hospital.
More money, however,
was
needed.
1599 The dinner
was
well
attended, amongst those present being many representatives of the various London medical schools. THE Queen has given to Sir William Mac Cormac, Bart., K.C.V.O., President of the Royal College of Surgeons of
Her Majesty’s Royal licence and authority to and to wear the Cross of Commander of the Legion of accept Honour, conferred upon him by the President of the French Republic in recognition of services which he rendered to the French wounded during the war of 1870-71, as well as to the International Medicine Congress held during the recent Paris Exhibition. Sir William Mac Cormac is to be congratulated on this most recent addition to his many honours, and doubtless this recognition of his services by the French Republic will be highly appreciated by him.
England,
PROFESSOR W. H. CORFIELD’S Harveian Lectures on Disease and Defective House Sanitation," of which translations into French and Hungarian have already been published by the Royal Society of Public Health of Belgium and the Hungarian Society of Public Health respectively, have now been translated into Italian by Dr. Soffiantini of Milan, and are being published, with the illustrations, in IL Monitore
Tecnieo. __
THE first annual dinner of the Otological Society of the United Kingdom will take place on Monday, Dec. 3rd, at 7.30 o’clock, at the CafeMonico, Sir William B. Dalby, the President, in the chair. Amongst the guests expected are Sir Thomas Smith, Sir R. Douglas Powell, Sir Felix Semon, Mr. T. Pridgin Teale, Dr. F. W. Pavy, Dr. T. Barlow, Mr. T. Bryant, Mr. W. Watson Cheyne, and Mr. H. T. Butlin.
To mark their esteem and personal appreciation of the late Mr. Thomas Cooke, F.R.C.S. Eng., some of his friends and past pupils recently presented to Mrs. Cooke a portrait of her late husband, together with a piece of plate. Dr. Dundas Grant was chairman of the committee, Dr. David Walsh acted as honorary treasurer, and Mr. Wyatt Wingrave was
honorary secretary.
-
MR. HERBERT F. WATERHOUSE, F.R.C.S. Eng., has been appointed Dean to the Charing Cross Hospital Medical School, vice Dr. Montague Murray, whose term of office has
expired.
-
DURING the week ending Nov. 22ad there were 39 fresh cases of plague in Mauritius and 25 fatal cases, making the total of dcaths from plague 33.
H.R.H. the Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll, has the committee of the Coal Smoke Abatement Society.
MEDICAL WOMEN
IN
HUNGARY.-A
for the first time been allowed to take in Hungary.
a
joined
woman
medical
°
has
diploma
UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, BRISTOL.-The annual meeting of the governors of this college was held on Nov. 2lst under the presidency of the Bishop of Hereford. The report, which showed a satisfactory year’s work, stated that 542 students had attended the classes during the year and added that the council viewed with much satisfaction the amalgamation of the Bristol Royal Infirmary and the Bristol General Hospital for the purposes of clinical instructicn.-The new wing of the college, comprising a large hall, a library, a laboratory, and class-rooms, was opened at the end of September. The total cost of the building was £7500,
towards which £6000 have been subscribed.-The University Entrance Scholarship of the value of E50 open to medical students has been awarded to Mr. Samuel C. Hayman.
FARQUHAR, NORTH, AND CO.
v.
LLOYD.
was proved beyond doubt
from Mr.
Home Secretary, to bring these their senses and to their duties. As the House of Commons meets next week it seems fitting that the attention of its members, whose proceedings are considered to be a model for others to follow, should be called to the preferable mode of taking the oath. No doubt the grievance of kissing the book is little felt in the House of Commons, and especially in a new Parliament. The renovation of the legislative chamber comprises new wigs for the clerks at the table and probably it includes also an ample supply of new copies of the Gospels and of the Pentateuch. The Speaker, the first commoner in England, is the first to kiss probably an absolutely new book. The contrast between this and courts of law is manifest. Nevertheless, we would urge that the handling and kissing of a book in any assembly and under any circumstances is an uncleanly procedure. In a recent issue we felt it our duty to allude to the question of the communion cup as a possible means of infection. The danger of kissing the book in coroners’, police, sessions, or assize courts is greatly accentuated by the fact that medical witnesses are asked to do this after the book has already been kissed by numberless witnesses of the lowest class, including from time to time some infected with loathsome diseases. This fact was recognised by Lord Justice Collins, who, when presiding at the Central Criminal Court, ordered a book to be destroyed after it had been kissed by a witness suffering from syphilis. We have frequently pointed out the dangers of the English mode of administration before and have urged the adoption of the Scotch form. We could add much in favour of the latter form on the grounds of greater impressiveness and more solemnity, but we must leave this to others.
Asquith, then recalcitrant gentlemen to
that damage approximating to the sum awarded was caused by the publication of the comments objected to, and not by the publication of the facts proved in the trial upon which comment was made, and which must have been reported in many newsThe dangers papers besides the Daily Chronicle. arising to the poorer classes of the public from the sale of inefficiently preserved provisions are great and real. We ourselves frequently lay stress upon them, and it would be a matter of regret if the freedom of the press honestly to criticise and to censure were to be curtailed by the fear of a verdict for unreasonably large damages following the slightest error made in dispensing such This is our view, and it is no answer censure and criticism. it that to the to say proprietor makes a profit by the pub. lication of the newspaper containing such criticism and censure and that he need not publish either the newspaper or the criticism unless he chooses. To deny that the newswriter has in any case a or the newspaper paper proprietor at the fulfilment of to the that he ever aims duty public, or that duty is to indulge in silly cynicism. Both have a duty, and if they go too far in performing it they must suffer. But it is to the public good that they should not be made to suffer unreasonably. -
THE RULE OF THE PAVEMENT.
WEAK, nervous, and elderly people are often made very uncomfortable by the overcrowding of the London pave. ments in the more frequented parts, while busy men are driven to despair by the obstacles to direct walking. Of late the inconvenience experienced has been increased by the fact that the people of London are, on the whole, less orderly and well-mannered than those of a previous genera. tion. The deterioration of public manners of the men, and especially of the boys, in the street is a subject of constant FARQUHAR, NORTH, AND CO. v. LLOYD. remark amongst those whose memory carries them back only THE case of Farquhar, North, and Co. v. Lloyd, tried 10 or 15 years. Formerly the observant Londoner on before Mr. Justice Wills, in which the plaintiffs obtained a visiting a country town was often struck by the fact that in verdict for E1900 damages against the Daily Chronicle for the provinces the people as a rule walked about without any libel, illustrates somewhat forcibly the dangers which a regard to rule, and he noticed that although the pavements newspaper may encounter if in the discharge of its duty to or "side-walks," to use a convenient Americanism, were less the public it reports legal proceedings and ventures in ’, crowded there was much more trouble in avoiding collisions addition to comment upon them. The plaintiffs, being with foot-passengers than was the case at that time in any manufacturers of tinned provisions, had sold goods to a part of London. We regret to say that London is now as tradesman who had refused to pay for them, contending that bad as, or worse than, any country town. The unwritten they were defective and that had he sold them they rule of the pavement-that a pedestrian should walk on the would have proved dangerous to the public. He appears right &ide—is a most valuable one, and has not only conto have been successful upon these contentions on being venience but some prestige of antiquity to support it. It sued in the county court for the price of the goods. The does not, however, date back beyond the last century, Daily Chronicle in dealing with the case must from the and it is not, so far as we know, possible to deterverdict of the jury be taken to have erred in its criticism, mine the origin of the rule. It probably came slowly into in that it suggested that the stock of the plaintiffs, general use in London. Dr. Johnson while at breakbeyond those articles sold to the retailer referred to, would fast in the Highlands one morning told Boswell that be found in an equally defective and dangerous condition. when his mother lived in London there were two sets of This the -Daily Chronicle presumably inferred, not only from people,"those who gave the wall and those who took the particular goods having been found to be unfit for it," and that when he returned from London to Lichfield his consumption, but also from the attitude adopted by the mother had asked him to which set he belonged. " Now it plaintiffs in endeavouring to enforce payment for them by is fixed that every man keeps to the right," said Dr. Johnson, legal proceedings-a step which certainly lent colour to the "or if one is taking the wall another yields it and it is a dispute." This, according to Dr. Johnson, was the suggestion that the goods were in their view fit for trade purposes, although they maintained that they would state of things in 1772. All well-behaved and peaceable have exchanged the defective tins for sound ones had they took the right side, but the rule was not absolutely been asked to do so. By what particular process the jury established at that date, for some few people still " took the that tried the action for libel fixed upon E1900 as the sum wall." Why it was a sign of pride and of a quarrelsome disdue to the plaintiffs it is useless to inquire; they possibly position to "take the wall " when to "go to the wall" was thought that with the costs added the defendant newspaper synonymous with misfortune is a question for philologists; would lose the round sum of .62000. Granting, however, that we are concerned only to insist that in the present crowded the alticle in question exceeded the limits of fair comment state of the streets of London order and method should be upon the proceedings in the county court, it appears to duly observed by pedestrians. Even those who object to us that the damages were excessive. Damages so large religious education ought if they be good citizens to dis. could only have been awarded with justice where it courage rowdyism, and the hustling on the pavements of
never
people
I
SIR ARTHUR SULLIVAN.-THE DENTAL HOSPITAL OF LONDON. .some
of the crowded streets of the
metropolis is hardly to be
differentiated from rowdyism. The rule of the pavement should be taught in the board schools and it would be by no means a
bad test
question
to
put
to all candidates for the they are or are not
London School Board to ask them whether in favour of such teaching. ___
SIR ARTHUR SULLIVAN.
Music, in
far at any rate
it conduces to happiness, make no apology for referring in these columns to the loss which British music has sustained by the death of Sir Arthur Sullivan. In serious music he sometimes rose to great heights, as witness the fine chorus in The Bolden Legend, commencing " The night is calm and cloudless." But where he shone preeminent was in his faculty for writing really humorous music. Take for examples the delicious burlesque solemnity of the entry of the judge and the fugal chorus of jurymen, "He’ll tell us how he came to be a judge," in Trial by Jurythe introduction of the opening notes of the great G minor fugue given to the bassoon in the Mikado’s song concerning punishment; and Arac’s Handelian aria di bravura about his armour in Princess Ida. Sullivan’s orchestration was always fitting and appropriate, and although Ivanhoe was not a success yet it contained at least one gem, the song "0 moon, thou art clad in silver," with its delicate accompaniment given to flutes and muted strings. He was manysided : he could write a song (notably, "Orpheus with his lute "), he could write a madrigal, or, to be more accurate, we should say a ballet or Fa-La, he was unrivalled at a patter song, and the music to " When the night wind howls," in Ruddygore, was a danse Maccabre which made the hearer shudder. By his art he lightened many weary hours, and though his works live after him it is sad to think that the hand which wrote and the brain which conceived them are
is
a
so
great therapeutic agent,
as
so we
stilled. ___
THE DENTAL HOSPITAL OF LONDON. THE subject uppermost in the minds of those who attended the annual dinner of the staff and past and present students of the Dental Hospital of London, which was held on Nov. 24th at the Hotel Metropole, was the approaching completion of the new hospital in Leicester-square. The information afforded on this head by a trustee and vice-president of the hospital, Mr. F. A. Bevan, was very encouraging. He had recently visited the. premises and could assure the present students that in a few months they would be able to conduct their studies in a building worthy of the best traditions of the institution. The benefits which this charity has conferred on a needy public may be best realised from the statement made by Mr. F. G. Hallett that during the past year over 68.000 cases had been treated at the hospital at a cost of less than £3000. Further proof of the need of the accommodation of the hospital and the school increasing was afforded by the fact that the numbers of students entering for the hospital curriculum continued to increase. Last term a larger number of students had joined the school than had ever joined before. How the work was carried to the - successful issue which the past history of the hospital had shown in the old utterly inadequate building was a matter of surprise to all concerned. Mr. C. S. Tomes, F.R.S., urged the students and all those present who were interested in the well-being of the institution and the success of the school not to relax their energies towards ’, increasing the fund for the new premises so that there might be no feeling of anxiety as regards the financial situation. It was a gratifying feature of the subscription list that old students had rallied round their alnia mater by giving substantially to this fund. It was abundant proof that they appreciated the educational value of the hospital.
More money, however,
was
needed.
1599 The dinner
was
well
attended, amongst those present being many representatives of the various London medical schools. THE Queen has given to Sir William Mac Cormac, Bart., K.C.V.O., President of the Royal College of Surgeons of
Her Majesty’s Royal licence and authority to and to wear the Cross of Commander of the Legion of accept Honour, conferred upon him by the President of the French Republic in recognition of services which he rendered to the French wounded during the war of 1870-71, as well as to the International Medicine Congress held during the recent Paris Exhibition. Sir William Mac Cormac is to be congratulated on this most recent addition to his many honours, and doubtless this recognition of his services by the French Republic will be highly appreciated by him.
England,
PROFESSOR W. H. CORFIELD’S Harveian Lectures on Disease and Defective House Sanitation," of which translations into French and Hungarian have already been published by the Royal Society of Public Health of Belgium and the Hungarian Society of Public Health respectively, have now been translated into Italian by Dr. Soffiantini of Milan, and are being published, with the illustrations, in IL Monitore
Tecnieo. __
THE first annual dinner of the Otological Society of the United Kingdom will take place on Monday, Dec. 3rd, at 7.30 o’clock, at the CafeMonico, Sir William B. Dalby, the President, in the chair. Amongst the guests expected are Sir Thomas Smith, Sir R. Douglas Powell, Sir Felix Semon, Mr. T. Pridgin Teale, Dr. F. W. Pavy, Dr. T. Barlow, Mr. T. Bryant, Mr. W. Watson Cheyne, and Mr. H. T. Butlin.
To mark their esteem and personal appreciation of the late Mr. Thomas Cooke, F.R.C.S. Eng., some of his friends and past pupils recently presented to Mrs. Cooke a portrait of her late husband, together with a piece of plate. Dr. Dundas Grant was chairman of the committee, Dr. David Walsh acted as honorary treasurer, and Mr. Wyatt Wingrave was
honorary secretary.
-
MR. HERBERT F. WATERHOUSE, F.R.C.S. Eng., has been appointed Dean to the Charing Cross Hospital Medical School, vice Dr. Montague Murray, whose term of office has
expired.
-
DURING the week ending Nov. 22ad there were 39 fresh cases of plague in Mauritius and 25 fatal cases, making the total of dcaths from plague 33.
H.R.H. the Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll, has the committee of the Coal Smoke Abatement Society.
MEDICAL WOMEN
IN
HUNGARY.-A
for the first time been allowed to take in Hungary.
a
joined
woman
medical
°
has
diploma
UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, BRISTOL.-The annual meeting of the governors of this college was held on Nov. 2lst under the presidency of the Bishop of Hereford. The report, which showed a satisfactory year’s work, stated that 542 students had attended the classes during the year and added that the council viewed with much satisfaction the amalgamation of the Bristol Royal Infirmary and the Bristol General Hospital for the purposes of clinical instructicn.-The new wing of the college, comprising a large hall, a library, a laboratory, and class-rooms, was opened at the end of September. The total cost of the building was £7500,
towards which £6000 have been subscribed.-The University Entrance Scholarship of the value of E50 open to medical students has been awarded to Mr. Samuel C. Hayman.