ALPINE ACCIDENTS

768

as it was handled. At the two ends of the coil, where theintestine crossed itself, the wall was pale and the lumenwas contracted. These parts recovered their normal

appearance under the eyes of the operator. A man

suffered for five days from complete obstruction ofsudden onset. Within a few minutes of palpation of the

abdomen, while the question of operation was beingdiscussed, the bowels were suddenly and freely moved. But

the patient’s prostration increased and he died in six hours.A sharply defined segment of the ilemn, 6 in. in length,black and gangrenous, was found. In the third case at a

laparotomy Mr. Thorburn found about 18 in. of smallintestine similarly affected. In the second and third casesthere is no direct evidence of volvulus, but there is noother explanation of the gangrene, for there was no hernia,old-standing peritonitis, bands, or interference with themesenteric circulation. In the Transactions of the Northof England Gynaecological Society, 1895, Dr. Donald haspublished a case of sharply defined gangrene of 5 ft. of

ileum, which caused death thirty-five hours after ovariotomyand has adopted this explanation of a spontaneously reducedvolvulus. Mr. Thorburn says that no new principles of

treatment can be deduced from these cases.

ALPINE ACCIDENTS.

THE holiday season as usual is producing its annual cropof accidents. In many instances, notably those disasters

which occur to persons when bathing or boating, the faultis generally their own and is due to ignorance. But we

cannot always say this, for the two lamentable accidentswhich have lately happened in the Alps show that evenwhen care and forethought are taken "the iced moun-

tain top" still has its perils. All the world is the

poorer for the loss of Dr. Hopkinson, the well-known

electrician, and the circumstances of his death are

rendered all the more sad by the loss at the same time

of his three children. The peak which Dr. Hopkinson as-cended, namely the Petite Dent de Veisivi, is not considereddangerous, and Dr. Hopkinson was an expert mountaineer.But he was heavily handicapped by the presence of two

young and untried climbers. How the fatality happenedwill never be known, suffiue it to say that it did happen.The other accident is notable for one of the most mag-nificent pieces of heroism which we can recall to mind.Professor Nasse, well known in Berlin as the assistantto Professor von Bergmann, and Dr. Borchardt, withtwo guides, the four roped together, were crossing thePiz Balne over a snow bridge which was considered quitesafe by the guides. The bridge gave way and the leadingguide and Professor Nasse fell into the crevasse. Pro-fessor Nasse had the rope round his chest and hungin mid-air for half an hour. To relieve the intolerablestrain the leading guide cut the rope between him-self and Professor Nasse and disappeared into the ’,depths. The other guide and Dr. Borchardt were then ’’,- able to pull Professor Nasse up, but he was dead. Itis cheering to know that the guide who had so willinglyoffered his own life was not killed but was found unhurt

by a rescue party. But as an heroic action it is beyond allpraise. Men have risked their lives on the battlefield in

many very noble ways, but there they have the excitementand the lust of fighting to keep them up. Here, however,there was nothing of the kind, almost certain and horribledeath stared him in the face. , Two actions we can recallwhich are in some way comparable-the one which happenedin England the other day when the driver and fireman of theGreat Western express stuck to their engine, so as to stopthe train, although being boiled alive, and the other the well-known instance of the steersman on the burning steamer on]..ake Erie who stood at the wheel while slowly scorching so

that he might steer the ship safe to land. Such deeds are

beyond all praise, and let us not forget them.

THE OPENING OF LABORATORIES OF PHYSIO"LOGY AND PATHOLOGY AT LIVERPOOL.

AMONG those who have accepted invitations to be presenton Oct. 8th at the opening, by the President of the RoyalSociety, Lord Lister, of the new laboratories of Physiologyand Pathology given by the Rev. Mr. Thompson-Yates toUniversity College, Liverpool, are the following: the Duke ofDevonshire, Lord Derby, Lord Spencer, Lord Ripon, LordKelvin, Professor Michael Foster, Professor Virchow, Mr.

A. J. Balfour, Sir Douglas Galton, Sir Samuel Wilks, SirRichard Thorne, the Bishop of Chester, the Bishop of Carlisle,the Bishop of Ripon, Sir William Gairdner, Mr. Justice

Kennedy, Sir James Crichton Browne, Sir Archibald Geikie,Captain Abney, C.B., Sir George King, Professor Ramsey,Professor David Ferrier, Professor Rücker, Dr. Pavy,Mr. R. B. Haldane, Sir John Batty Tuke, Sir Henry Little-john, Mr. Thistleton Dyer, Professor Darwin, Professor

Schafer, Professor Kanthack, Professor Burdon-Sanderson,Professor Halliburton, Professor Meldola, the Dean of

Lichfield, Professor Charlton Bastian, the Hon. SydneyHolland, Professor Rose Bradford, Professor Forsyth, Pro-fessor Bower, Dr. Alexander Cope, Professor Crookshank,Dr. Lauder Brunton, Professor Waller, Professor Noel

Paton, Dr. Ludwig Mond, Dr. Mott, Professor Poulton,Professor Stirling, Professor Liveing, Mr. Gerald Yeo,Professor Macallum, Dr. Byrom Bramwell, and many otherswell known within and outside the profession. The

ceremony will commence with the conferment of the

honorary degree of Doctor of Sciences upon Lord Lister atthe hands of the Chancellor, Earl Spencer. Lord Listerwill then, with the President, Earl Derby, proceed to openthe new laboratories. In the evening a banquet will begiven by the Lord Mayor in the City Hall.

THE BACILLUS OF RABIES.THERE are many diseases the communicability, incu-

bation, and general phenomena of which compel us to

regard them as bacterial, even though the microbes shouldfor ever elude observation. Such a disease is rabies.

Pasteur to the last contented himself with the empiricalprocedure of attenuating the virus of a hypotheticalmicrobe, and so long as the results he aimed at were

satisfactory he worked at improving his methods, leavingthe more purely scientific aspect of the question to bacterio-logists in the future. Accordingly Foll, Rivolta, Ferran,and Spinelli have claimed to have detected in certain

secretions and preparations a bacillus the specific cha-racter of which was made highly probable by Sanfelice,who, employing a special staining process, demonstratedits presence in large numbers in the spinal cord of a boy whohad died from hydrophobia. Memmo of Rome confirmed the

observation of Sanfelice and proved the virulent character ofthe micro-organism, which he described as a blastomyceteand the presence of which he detected in several cases of

rabies, but quite recently he has succeeded in cultivatingit in artificial media and in reproducing by inoculationswith these cultures the disease with its distinctivecharacters in dogs, rodents, and birds respectively. These

experiments and observations, which, fulfilling the most

stringent demands of bacteriological criticism, leave no

room for doubt, are described in the Centralblatt fürBakteriolog’ie, Abtheilung I., Band xxi., 17, 18. He found themicrobe in the cerebro-spinal fluid and the substance of thebrain and spinal cord, in the saliva and parotid gland, andin the aqueous humour of four dogs dying from the naturaldisease, and of rabbits, guinea-pigs, and pigeons in whichit had been produced by’ inoculation. It grew better in