VIEWING THE BODY.

1058 New York, is provided, and which is described by Dr. Alvah Doty, the health officer of the port, in the August issue of the American Journal of the Medical Sciences. It consists in the exhaustion of the air in the chamber so as to produce a partial vacuum before the steam is admitted ; and it is found that all other circumstances being alike a temperature of 240°, that of the steam in the chamber, is reached in the interior of a mattress or like article in less than three minutes with the vacuum, though without it from ten to fifteen minutes are required. The James Wadsworth oven is constructed with double walls and is encased in a jacketing of asbestos, which so prevents the loss of heat by radiation that the room in which it is fixed is not perceptibly warmer than others in the vessel or building. The special feature, however, is the steam exhaust, which consists simply of a powerful jet of steam coming directly from the boiler, where a pressure of 651b. to the square inch is maintained, passing across the mouths of 1-2L in. pipes connected with the chamber of the oven, and with the space between its inner and outer walls. A similar pipe com. municates between the chamber and the outer air, and the steam is admitted by one of 21/2 in. in diameter, furnished with a regulating nozzle by which the pressure may be reduced to 15 lb. or 10 lb., which is sufficient for a temperature of 240° in the chamber. All these pipes are of course VIEWING THE BODY. provided with stop-valves. The operation, after articles AT an inquestrecently held at Accrington by Mr. F. D. to be disinfected have been introduced and the doors Robinson, the deputy coroner, the jury complained through securely closed, is to set the steam exhaust to work until their foreman of having to view the body and asked if the manometer or steam gauge indicates a pressure in the they were compelled to do so by law. Mr. Robinson chamber and surrounding wall space of not more than twenty partial vacuum which is attained in about one repliei that they were so compelled. The foreman then inches-a minute. The valves are then closed and the steampipe asked if thecoroner was not obliged to view the body also, the superheated vapour entering under a when opened, and received an answer in the negative. It is, of course, of two pressure atmospheres into the rarefied atmosphere of the fact thatthe coroner is not bound by law to view the the chamber the densest fabrics and stuffed or penetrates body, but in Ol1r opinion he certainly should do so, above all their goods, packed raising temperature throughout to its if he be a medical man, for certain appearances might very own in three or four minutes. Ten minutes at 240° destroys well be present which might in that case lead him to conduct bacilli of plague and anthrax, however protected, with his inquiry in some particular way or to adjourn tbj inquest absolute certainty, so that in fifteen minutes from the comso as to have a post-mortem examination made. This, in fact, mencement of the process the steam may be turned off, is one one cf the great reasons why we have always insisted The when the steam exhaust is again set in action, though on on the propriety of tha coroner being a medical man. the chamber only, until the former vacuum has been jury finally passed the following resolution, "The jury believe is opened, and the exhaust still the viewing of dead bodies by juries to be useless, but restored ; then the air inlet such draws a powerful current through the chamber acting if the law so directs we believe tha the coroner’s moisture has As now carried out that in two or three minutes every trace of presence should be necessary." within and be resumed wearing apparel may the viewing of bodies is certainly rather a perfunctory been removed, less than half an hour of its having been given up, an ceremony, but to quote the compilers of the Prayer interval clearly none too long for the bath and cleansing of not take away the Book, "the abuse of a ceremony persons of the wearers-in this particular instance mostly lawful use cf it ’’ steerage passengers, immigrants from places where cholera, yellow fever, or other epidemic prevailed, or among whom A FURTHER IMPROVEMENT IN DISINFECTION cases had occurred on the passage. BY STEAM.

and after twelve minutes a more concentrated vapour of chloroform was successfully employed. ‘1’nree untoward c1Ees"occurred; two recovered after two minims of ;3s.l:c;ele’s hydrocyanic acid had beeii placed on the back of the tongue and artificial respiration had been employed, and the third, which died, was the fat pug referred to above. Professor Hobday regards hydrocyanic acid as a.ntidotal to chloroform and directs the use of a "fall Bat as medicinal dose"" it in respiratory failure. not certain artificial respiration is also used it is what rôle the drug plays in the resuscitation. The lateral posture and rapid rhythmic compression of the ribs are the means of artificial respiration recommended, and there is no doubt that in most cases animals with pliant ribs can be ra,pidly restored by this method even without traction of the tongue, although that is often a valuable aid. The remaining seventy patients were chloroformed by Professor Hobday’s other inhaler,-which is practically a small Wolff bottle, the animal breathing air which has been pumped over the surface of the chloroform and not as in Junker’s apparatus driven through the anæsthetic. Professor Hobday’s concluaions are that chloroform is not particularly dangerous to dogs or other animals unless improperly administered ia an insufficiently diluted vapour and in an irregular manner.

perhaps

doth

____

SATISFACTORY as are the results obtained by the use of such apparatus as those of Lyon, Reck, and others, it must be admitted that the air confined in a closed chamber presents an obstacle to the penetration of the interstices of stuffed or packed goods by the superheated vapour which is not met with when " ctirr,?n’Ll steam is employed, though this preliminary loss of time ii more than compensated by the greater effciency of the higher temperatures (from 220° to 240° F.) over the 10w,el’ (from 170° to 180°), however prolonged. Since, however, the high temperature must be not only reached but maintained for about a quarter of an hour in the interior, it follows that the exterior of an article of clothing or bedding is exposed, more or less to its detriment, twice as long as is really necessary. This objection has now been completely overcome by a contrivance as simple as it is ingenious adopted in the apparatus with which the disinfection steamboat, aTa;mQS Wadsworth, engaged in the Port of °’

1 See THE LANCET, July 24th, 1897.

the

THE SANITARY OATH.

profession has to thanli phrase —’ the sanitary oath’-and does so gratefully, as he thereby acknowledgea that the ordinary form of oath is insanitary. I well remember hearing him christen it and the tone of scorn in A CORRESPONDENT writes:"The Mr. Justice Day for the happy

which he asked it anyone could believe that diseases were contracted by kissing a New Testament. I know of one New Testament that has been in constant use for thirteen years, and what there is left of it is not a pleasant thing to) caress. Though the Scotch form of oath has, perhaps, not made such rapid progress as one might wish, it is doubtless steadily coming into favour with those best qualified to judge of its worth. The late Mr. Justice Cave stated in public that he liked to see the oath taken in this way, and last week, when the magistrate’s clerk at Lancaster had to give evidence in a case of alleged perjury, he chose