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WILLIAM BLAKE.
177 facial erysipelas going to the department for diseases of the skin are referred to the department for diseases of the nose and throat for examination of the nose. The importance of Dr. Farlow’s observations, particularly in recurrent attacks of facial erysipelas, is obvious.
WILLIAM BLAKE. AT the present moment there is to be seen at the Carfax Gallery in Ryder-street a collection of the works of that very remarkable poet and craftsman William Blake. He was a man who was certainly born out of due time, for his life 1758-1827, coincided with the time when art, except for Turner, Constable, and one or two other landscape painters, was at its very lowest ebb in Eogland at all events and his strange mystical drawings must have been absolutely incomprehensible to the majority of his contemporaries. Take, for instance, "The Nativity," where the Divine Child is floating in the air between the Virgin and St. E’.izabeth, or " The River of Life " with its swiftly moving figures. Blake’s drawing was often defective and he had a habit of making his figures appear to be about ten feet in height, as exemplified in the picture of Christ raising the son of the widow of Nain ; his nude figures also are, as a rule, too anatomical, but his feeling for line is wonderful. He could, however, at tim3s produce nude fisures of wonderful beauty - witness the picture of the triple Hecate. He had the same faculty for making his figures move as had Botticelli, a point well seen in the picture of the Ascension, where our Lord is rising and two angels are descending. In all his pictures of fire, also, he gives the flicker and ascent of the flames with wonderful fidelity and his angels really are winged creatures and not men or women with bird’s wings attached to them. Even when his angels are sitting still they are angelic and show their spiritual qualities, a good instance of which is the drawing of Raphael talking to Adam, where his wings mount up in a beautiful flamboyant ogee, and there is no need here to refer to the angels in the Job illustration of "The morning stars sang together." The borderline between sanity and insanity is so narrow that it is, perhaps, impossible to say whether Blake was sane or not. Imagination when uncontrolled may be said to be insanity and Blake’s imagination certainly played him strange tricks. But, mad or not, the man who could write poetry like the song beginning "My silks and fine array," or paint pictures like the "Ascension," has left treasures to posterity.
pressure and that they did not expect that a lull in thework would be made the opportunity for dismissal. They therefore beg the Board to reconsider its decision. We cannot but think that the Asylums Board has acted harshly in this matter. No one can expect the same staff to be kept up during a time of freedom from infectious disease as during an epidemic, but the Board should not, as it appears to have done, have implied that the term of service of the assistant medical officer would be for several years. A month’s notice is far too short a time to give to men who have most of them resigned good permanent appointments to assint the Board in a difficulty (three months at least should have been given), and for a body which has wasted thousands of pounds of the ratepayers’ money over the Brook Hospital, to treat its employés with what we must. call calculated meanness is not right, to say nothing of the fact that when the next; epidemic comes the Board will find it very difficult to obtain the services of extra medical officers. This is a bad policy, for not only does it mean increased mortality but increased expense.
THE METROPOLITAN ASYLUMS BOARD AND ITS ASSISTANT MEDICAL OFFICERS. ON Dec. 21st, 1903, the following communication was received from the assistant clerk to the Metropolitan Asylums Board by seven assistant medical officers in the fever service of the Board :In consequence of the decline of infectious disease the hospitals committee have determined to reduce by eight the present staff of assistant medical officers in the hospital’s service of this Board, and I hereby give you formal notice that your engagement as assistant medical officer will terminate at the expiration of one month from the 25th inst. I shall be obliged by receiving from you an acknowledgment of this communication.
THE medical officer of health of the Cape Colony states that for the week ending Dec. 19th last only 1 case of plaguewas discovered in the Colony-namely, a native male at East London. Plague-infected rats continue to be found at various places in the Colony, but in the Cape Town and. Harbour Board area 422 rats were examined during the week and none was affected with plague. As regards the Mauritius a telegram from the Acting Governor received at the Colonial Office on Jan. 8th states that for the weekending Jan. 7th there were 55 cases of plague and 37 deaths from the disease. ____
THE interests of Dr. J. F. D. Macara, to whose case wereferred last week in a leading article on the Scottish Poorlaw Medical Service, have been intrusted to the Medical Defence Union We understand that an " interim interdict," to use the Scotch expression, was obtained last week by theMedical Defence Union against the Durness board to prevent the appointment of a successor to Dr. Macara.
DISQUIETING reports having appeared in the press
as to outbreak of yellow fever in Jamaica the governor of that colony has telegraphed to the Colonial Office that since the death of an officer from this disease which he reported on Nov. 18th last no case has occurred and that the state of health in the island is most satisfactory.
an
AT the next
meeting
of the
R:)yal Microscopical Society
8 P.M., Dr. Woodward will deliver his presidential address on the Evolution of Vertebrate Animals in Time. The meeting will be held, as usual, at 20, Hanover-square, London, W.
on
Wednesday,
Jan.
20th,
at
THE SALE OF FOOD AND DRUGS ACT.-An interesting point of law was raised at Axminster on Jan. 6th with regard to the Sale of Food and Drugs Act. The The seven assistant medical officers who are referred to inspector under the Act visited a shop and wished to above have sent a reply to the Asylums Board in which they purchase some cheese for the purpose of analysis but the The solicitor for the shopexpress their surprise at the communication. They add that proprietor refused to sell it. all of them have seen at least one year’s service and some of keeper contended that as the inspector did not tender paythem two years’ service, that the terms of the advertisement ment for the article he asked for there could be no conviction as the Act that the price of the which they answered, and also the form of application which article must be distinctly provided tendered. The inspector stated that when they filled in, left no room to suppose that the engagement he received the goods he would have been q.uite willing to could be terminated in such an abrupt manner. Moreover, tender payment for them but he could not offer payment when they appeared before the selecting subcommittee until the goods were ready to- be received. The bench of several of them were asked whether they would be willing magistrates eventually dismissed the case, although at first the chairman stated that the majority of the magistrates to serve for several years and they were only appointed on thought it was not absolutely necessary to tender any paygiving such an assurance. The protesters add that they ment until the’ cheese had been received. Notice of appeal at high was given. were elected in an emergency and worked
WILLIAM BLAKE. AT the present moment there is to be seen at the Carfax Gallery in Ryder-street a collection of the works of that very remarkable poet and craftsman William Blake. He was a man who was certainly born out of due time, for his life 1758-1827, coincided with the time when art, except for Turner, Constable, and one or two other landscape painters, was at its very lowest ebb in Eogland at all events and his strange mystical drawings must have been absolutely incomprehensible to the majority of his contemporaries. Take, for instance, "The Nativity," where the Divine Child is floating in the air between the Virgin and St. E’.izabeth, or " The River of Life " with its swiftly moving figures. Blake’s drawing was often defective and he had a habit of making his figures appear to be about ten feet in height, as exemplified in the picture of Christ raising the son of the widow of Nain ; his nude figures also are, as a rule, too anatomical, but his feeling for line is wonderful. He could, however, at tim3s produce nude fisures of wonderful beauty - witness the picture of the triple Hecate. He had the same faculty for making his figures move as had Botticelli, a point well seen in the picture of the Ascension, where our Lord is rising and two angels are descending. In all his pictures of fire, also, he gives the flicker and ascent of the flames with wonderful fidelity and his angels really are winged creatures and not men or women with bird’s wings attached to them. Even when his angels are sitting still they are angelic and show their spiritual qualities, a good instance of which is the drawing of Raphael talking to Adam, where his wings mount up in a beautiful flamboyant ogee, and there is no need here to refer to the angels in the Job illustration of "The morning stars sang together." The borderline between sanity and insanity is so narrow that it is, perhaps, impossible to say whether Blake was sane or not. Imagination when uncontrolled may be said to be insanity and Blake’s imagination certainly played him strange tricks. But, mad or not, the man who could write poetry like the song beginning "My silks and fine array," or paint pictures like the "Ascension," has left treasures to posterity.
pressure and that they did not expect that a lull in thework would be made the opportunity for dismissal. They therefore beg the Board to reconsider its decision. We cannot but think that the Asylums Board has acted harshly in this matter. No one can expect the same staff to be kept up during a time of freedom from infectious disease as during an epidemic, but the Board should not, as it appears to have done, have implied that the term of service of the assistant medical officer would be for several years. A month’s notice is far too short a time to give to men who have most of them resigned good permanent appointments to assint the Board in a difficulty (three months at least should have been given), and for a body which has wasted thousands of pounds of the ratepayers’ money over the Brook Hospital, to treat its employés with what we must. call calculated meanness is not right, to say nothing of the fact that when the next; epidemic comes the Board will find it very difficult to obtain the services of extra medical officers. This is a bad policy, for not only does it mean increased mortality but increased expense.
THE METROPOLITAN ASYLUMS BOARD AND ITS ASSISTANT MEDICAL OFFICERS. ON Dec. 21st, 1903, the following communication was received from the assistant clerk to the Metropolitan Asylums Board by seven assistant medical officers in the fever service of the Board :In consequence of the decline of infectious disease the hospitals committee have determined to reduce by eight the present staff of assistant medical officers in the hospital’s service of this Board, and I hereby give you formal notice that your engagement as assistant medical officer will terminate at the expiration of one month from the 25th inst. I shall be obliged by receiving from you an acknowledgment of this communication.
THE medical officer of health of the Cape Colony states that for the week ending Dec. 19th last only 1 case of plaguewas discovered in the Colony-namely, a native male at East London. Plague-infected rats continue to be found at various places in the Colony, but in the Cape Town and. Harbour Board area 422 rats were examined during the week and none was affected with plague. As regards the Mauritius a telegram from the Acting Governor received at the Colonial Office on Jan. 8th states that for the weekending Jan. 7th there were 55 cases of plague and 37 deaths from the disease. ____
THE interests of Dr. J. F. D. Macara, to whose case wereferred last week in a leading article on the Scottish Poorlaw Medical Service, have been intrusted to the Medical Defence Union We understand that an " interim interdict," to use the Scotch expression, was obtained last week by theMedical Defence Union against the Durness board to prevent the appointment of a successor to Dr. Macara.
DISQUIETING reports having appeared in the press
as to outbreak of yellow fever in Jamaica the governor of that colony has telegraphed to the Colonial Office that since the death of an officer from this disease which he reported on Nov. 18th last no case has occurred and that the state of health in the island is most satisfactory.
an
AT the next
meeting
of the
R:)yal Microscopical Society
8 P.M., Dr. Woodward will deliver his presidential address on the Evolution of Vertebrate Animals in Time. The meeting will be held, as usual, at 20, Hanover-square, London, W.
on
Wednesday,
Jan.
20th,
at
THE SALE OF FOOD AND DRUGS ACT.-An interesting point of law was raised at Axminster on Jan. 6th with regard to the Sale of Food and Drugs Act. The The seven assistant medical officers who are referred to inspector under the Act visited a shop and wished to above have sent a reply to the Asylums Board in which they purchase some cheese for the purpose of analysis but the The solicitor for the shopexpress their surprise at the communication. They add that proprietor refused to sell it. all of them have seen at least one year’s service and some of keeper contended that as the inspector did not tender paythem two years’ service, that the terms of the advertisement ment for the article he asked for there could be no conviction as the Act that the price of the which they answered, and also the form of application which article must be distinctly provided tendered. The inspector stated that when they filled in, left no room to suppose that the engagement he received the goods he would have been q.uite willing to could be terminated in such an abrupt manner. Moreover, tender payment for them but he could not offer payment when they appeared before the selecting subcommittee until the goods were ready to- be received. The bench of several of them were asked whether they would be willing magistrates eventually dismissed the case, although at first the chairman stated that the majority of the magistrates to serve for several years and they were only appointed on thought it was not absolutely necessary to tender any paygiving such an assurance. The protesters add that they ment until the’ cheese had been received. Notice of appeal at high was given. were elected in an emergency and worked