UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. than half the mothers were under 23 years of age. Five were 14 years of age, 9 were 15 years, 34 were 16 years, 63 were 18 years, 146 were 19 years, 101 were 20 years, 103 were 21 years, 85 were 22 years, and 89 were 23 years of age. According to the Registrar-General, the expectation of life for males is 54’44 years. It would appear that the influence of the Chinese consul is making for less restrictive measures with respect to the admission of immigrants from China. At present, in addition to a poll-tax of £100 every Chinaman had before admission to read and write some sentences in a European language. By a Government Bill introduced recently, the Governor takes power to modify these conditions. It must not be presumed from this, however, that there will be any relaxation in the campaign in favour of a white New Zealand. From the report of the inspector of mental hospitals it would appear that there are 3549 people in these institutions. This means that one in every 280 of the people of New Zealand is insane. The proportion is, perhaps, slightly greater because there are some who are looked after by their friends. The ratio would appear to have increased since last year. Males show 1 in 253, females 1 in 318. As to the causes, heredity seems to be responsible for 14’36 per cent. ; critical periods, 14’2 per cent. ; mental stress, 9.6 per cent. ; while alcohol is credited with only 4.9 per cent. The average gross cost per head is £34 13s. 3¼d. cases more

Vaccination. tale has to be told with respect to vaccination. Only some 4’ 3 per cent. of the children born last year were vaccinated. The steady decrease in the number of the children protected is a matter for grave concern, but, alas, those in authority pay little attention. An amendment to the Public Health Act was introduced by the Government towards the end of last session, but, like many others, it would seem only to have found a place on the order paper so that it might form one of the innocents"" yearly thrown to sacrifice. The proposal was practically to delete all semblance of compulsion from the Act governing vaccination, but in case of small-pox appearing in any part of the Dominion the Governor was to have power to declare an " infected area," and to require all inside that area to be vaccinated. At the present time the law is practically a dead-letter, and to allow it to remain upon the statute book and not to enforce it is wrong. It should be remembered that the disobedience to the law is the result of carelessness rather thanany active opposition, although there are, of course, the section who are continually declaiming against the interference with personal rights." Dec. 19th, 1910. The

same

a paper on the powers of the health board to control venereal disease. He pointed out that these powers are arbitrary, almost autocratic, and that therefore sufficient authority is vested in this board to deal with the matter as its members may think fit, and that, so far as New York City is concerned, the board of health is perfectly competent from all points of view to meet the situation. Dr. A. Jacobi, Dr. Darlington, and several others joined in the discussion, but the trend of all the speeches was in opposition to the regulation of prostitution as a means of controlling venereal diseases. The society itself does much, and hopes to do much more, by educative means, by the distribution of literature, and by lectures delivered in all parts of the country. The most interesting feature of the present widespread campaign in America against venereal disease is the manner in which everywhere the matter is publicly discussed. Not long ago the subject Now public meetings are held, at was entirely tabooed. which women, not only mothers of families but even girls, are present, where sexual hygiene and venereal diseases are made the subjects of free and open debate.

Health, read

Preventable

(FROM The

STATES OF AMERICA. OUR OWN

CORRESPONDENTS.)

Society of Sanitary and Moral Prophylaxis. object of this society is to endeavour by all possible means to decrease the spread of venereal diseases. Dr. Prince A. Morrow is the president of the society. The society includes in its membership prominent members of the medical profession, as well as laymen and laywomen of note. A public meeting of the society was held in the New York Academy of Medicine on Dec. 22nd, 1910, and was largely attended, the majority of the audience being women, Dr. Morrow being in the chair. An address was delivered by Professor E. R. A. Seligman of Columbia University on the sanitary supervision of prostitutes. It was a vigorous criticism of the Payne Bill passed recently in the State of New York, with a view of checking venereal diseases by partial measures for regulating prostitution. Much opposition has been developed against the Bill, especially against Clause 79 for the sanitary supervision of prostitutes. There is a great aversion in this country to any kind of regulatory measures, and in his address Professor Seligman gave expression to THE

Insanity.

A meeting of the New York State Charities Association at the New York City Academy of Medicine on the evening of Dec. 23rd passed resolutions to the effect that fully 70 per cent. of the cases of insanity received into our asylums are preventable, and that an immediate campaign of education should be instituted among the people. Among the 70 per cent. of preventable cases the association classed those induced by alcohol and drug habits, by various infections, auto-intoxications, emotional strain, and overwork. During the past decade, while the population of New York State has increased less than one-half, the Last number of known cases of insanity has doubled. year 6400 new cases were admitted to the asylums, a net increase of 1200. Much of this increase is apparent, however, owing to improved methods of diagnosis and to more attention being paid to the insane.

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The Plea of Insanity in Murder Cases. The Society of Medical Jurisprudence of New York City at a recent meeting has discussed the question of the frequent escape of murderers from capital punishment on the plea of insanity. At present juries are obliged to acquit prisoners adjudged insane. The society recommended a change in the law so that a verdict might be rendered guilty but insane," which would lead to the immediate incarceration of the prisoner in an asylum for the criminal insane, but would not absolve him from the usual penalty if he should at some future time regain his reason. A distinction would thus be established between insanity at the time of the commission of a crime and insanity at the time of trial, and the latter would not save the life of a prisoner adjudged guilty if he finally recovered. Doubtless the death penalty would never be exacted in such cases.

The Cost of Hospital Patients in New York. In announcing the Hospital Saturday and Sunday collec6 tions this year the association in charge thereof has drawn attention to the fact that in ten years the cost of treating a patient has incresed 100 per cent. In 1900 the daily cost of each patient was 4s. 10½d., whereas to-day it amounts to 8s. 10d. The Federal Government and the Rotten Egg Traffic. The Federal Government is prosecuting several firms for selling to bakers eggs in an advanced stage of decomposition, to which practice I referred in THE LANCET of Jan. 7th, p. 66. Such eggs have a legitimate market among manufacturers of varnish, but bakers have been purchasing them at nearly ten times the regular market price. It appears that the hydrogen sulphide disengaged from such eggs is used in place of carbon-dioxide in raising bread and cake. They have been sold in bulk by the pound, the shells being discarded and formaldehyde added to the putrefying mass of yelks and whites, which is then frozen and disposed of in that condition. An analysis of this precious mess showed 8,000,400,000 micro-organisms to the cubic centi.

this sentiment in strong terms. Furthermore, the argument was brought forward that the Payne Law is not far-reaching enough to be of any use. At any rate, there can be little metre. Exercise for -Naval Officers. doubt that the systems of regulating prostitutes in vogue in " The famous in this Dr. Roosevelt testsfor officers of the navy have will with favour not meet Stephen country. Europe in and new regulations demand only a the New York, abolished, Smith, the Nestor of the medical profession and one of the pioneers of the New York Board of quarterly exercise by officers of the navy and public health

been

OBITUARY.

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and marine hospital service. They will be obliged to walk 25 miles in two consecutive days, five consecutive hours being allowed for each day, and the walk of 12J2- miles each day is not to be completed in less than four hours. Physical examinations will precede and follow each test, and officers found unfit will be ordered before a retiring board. Naval Dental Officers. The Congressional House Committee on Naval Affairs has recently reported favourably on a Bill entering members of the dental corps as acting assistant surgeons, with provision that after 11 years’ service there may be developed from them automatically one lieutenant-commander, four passed assistant surgeons, and 25 assistant surgeons. Smoking Automobiles. Federal legislation is being sought for protection of the pedestrian public against smoking automobiles, which have become veritable nuisances everywhere, and a probable menace to health.

exhibition and gold medal in anatomy and physiology, and the gold medal in structural and physiological botany at the intermediate examination in medicine in 1852, the scholarship and gold medal in physiology and comparative anatomy, and the scholarship and gold medal in surgery at the Final M.B. examination, graduating M. B. in 1855. Four years before, that is in 1851, he had been appointed demonstrator of anatomy at the Westminster Hospital, and for the next ten years he lectured successively on comparative anatomy, human anatomy, and physiology at that school. He was appointed assistant surgeon to the Royal Westminster Ophthalmic Hospital in 1856 and assistant surgeon to the Westminster Hospital in 1857. The latter post he resigned in 1867, when he was elected ophthalmic surgeon to St. George’s Hospital. In 1870 he resigned his position at St. George’s Hospital to become the first ophthalmic surgeon at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, a position which he held for nearly a quarter of a century. For 12 years he was ophthalmic surgeon to St. Bartholomew’s Hospital at Chatham, where he attended every Wednesday afternoon, leaving Jan. 18th. London at 2 o’clock and arriving in town again at 6, and as by this time his private practice was very large, it will be seen that throughout his long professional career his life was an extraordinarily industrious one. Mr. Power’s varied literary work showed well his industry and wide range of exact knowledge. In 1863 he translated HENRY POWER, M.B. LoND., F.R.C.S. ENG., for the New Sydenham Society the work of Wilhelm LATE VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS OF ENGLAND; Kramer of Berlin, entitled: "The Aural Surgery of the AND CONSULTING OPHTHALMIC SURGEON TO ST. BARTHOLOMEW’S HOSPITAL AND THE WESTMINSTER OPHTHALMIC HOSPITAL. Present Day." From 1864 to 1876 he edited the sixth, WE deeply regret to announce the death of Mr. Henry seventh, eighth, and ninth editions of Carpenter’s famous Power, consulting ophthalmic surgeon to St. Bartholomew’s "Principles of Human Physiology." The following excerpt Hospital, and for more than 40 years a regular member of the from a review of the seventh edition, published in staff of THE LANCET, the sad event having occurred at his THE LANCET of April 10th, 1869, bears testimony to the residence, Bagdale Hall, Whitby, on Wednesday, Jan. 18th. essential characteristics of his work : "It is in all respects an Henry Power was born at Nantes in France on Sept. 3rd, admirable work, and we congratulate Dr. Carpenter on 1829, the only child of Captain John Francis Power by his having secured the services of a man endowed with the second wife Hannah, daughter of Mr. Henry Simpson, of ability, learning, and conscientious exactitude of its editor, Meadowfield, Whitby, Yorkshire. His father came of a long Mr. Power. We almost regret, with so much new matter line of soldiers, and received his first commission at the early on the one hand, and the recasting and reconstruction age of 14 years. He served through the Peninsular, Baltic, and of the old on the other, that Mr. Power did not rewrite Waterloo campaigns, and received the Peninsular medal (1793- the book, for the production of a new edition so complete as 1814), with a clasp for Sahagun and Benevente, as a cornet in the present one must have caused him infinite labour." As a the 3rd Dragoons King’s German Legion, and the Waterloo matter of fact, Power may almost be said to have rewritten medal as a lieutenant in the 3rd Regiment of Hussars K.G.L. each edition. In 1869 11Illustrations of the Principal He was afterwards captain and major in the 35th (Royal) Diseases of the Eye"was published by Messrs. Churchill, Sussex Regiment, " the Old Orange Lilies," and at the time of the original coloured drawings having been made by Power his death in 1856 he was lieutenant-colonel in command of himself from the patients who came under his observathe British Foreign Legion at Shorncliffe. Immediately tion at the Royal Westminster Ophthalmic Hospital. In after his birth Henry Power was taken to Barbados, where 1870 he translated for the New Sydenham Society Prohis father was quartered, and narrowly escaped death in the fessor Stricker’s "Manual of Human and Comparative hurricane which devastated the island on the morning of Histology." This publication formed a very valuable August llth, 1831, when the barracks were blown down, and welcome addition to English medical literature. killing the sergeant-major, a sergeant, and five privates. The translator’s own knowledge of the subject, joined Major Power resigned his commission in 1833, and for to his familiarity with the German language and his mastery many years spent the wandering life which was then over his own, resulted in the production of a volume that usual with half-pay officers who had no private means. betrayed scarcely a trace of its foreign origin. In 1876 His son, therefore, was educated for short periods at Power translated, for Ziemssen’s " Cyclopædia of the schools in Gloucester, Liverpool, Cheltenham, Leamington, Practice of Medicine," Erb on"Diseases of the Peripheral and Whitby, never remaining long enough at any place Cerebro-spinal Nerves," and from 1879 to 1899 he re-edited, to receive a thorough grounding in classics and mathe- for the New Sydenham Society, in conjunction with Dr. matics. His name appears in the lists of Cheltenham Leonard Sedgwick, Mayne’s I I Expository Lexicon of Medical College as a day boy admitted at Easter, 1842, the Terms." The new edition was planned on so large a scale, college having been opened in the previous autumn. that the last volume, P to Z, was completed by Mr. George Having decided to adopt the profession of medicine, he Parker. In 1884 his " Elements of Human Physiology," one was apprenticed to Mr. Thomas Lowe Wheeler in 1844, who of Cassell’s manuals, was published, was very highly comwas afterwards chairman of the Board of Examiners at the mended by the medical press, and obtained wide popularity. When it is remembered that in addition to all his Apothecaries’ Hall. Mr. Wheeler was the son of Thomas Wheeler (1754-1847), the botanist, who was apothecary to literary and official duties Mr. Power was for many years a St. Bartholomew’s Hospital. The apprentice lived with his leading London ophthalmic surgeon whose wise advice and master in Newcastle-court, Gracechurch-street, E.C., entered manual dexterity were daily in demand, it will be wondered St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, and was diligent in attending what time over he could have to place at the disposal of this the early morning botanical lectures and the herborisings journal. The fact is that he was an untiring as well as a methodical worker, and his industry and love of order which were then a feature of the medical curriculum. The result of this botanical training enabled Mr. Power to enabled him not only to keep abreast of ophthalmological win the Galen silver medal and the Linnæan silver medal given literature, but also to read widely in anatomy, physiology, annually by the Society of Apothecaries, and in 1851 he was and botany, and to record his candid views upon what he admitted a Licentiate of this body. In the same year he read with regularity. Week after week, year after year, in took the Membership of the Royal College of Surgeons of this manner he sat in genial judgment upon medical writers, England, and on Dec. 1st, 1854, he was elected F.R.C.S. Eng. and so closely accurate were his appreciations, and so At the same time he was graduating in medicine at the obviously fair and friendly his strictures, that we can University of London where he had a brilliant career. He took hardly remember an occasion when an author was moved the prize in chemistry at the matriculation examination, the to protest against his criticisms. Gradually, as different ___________________

Obituary.