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before the shop assistants are able to go home to eat andabove all to sit down. Under these circumstances, there iseven more need in France of a Seats for Shop Assistants Billthan in England, where the hours of labour are not so longand where all shops are closed on Sundays and most shopsclose at 2 P.M. on one of the week-days. As in France so

much is attempted by the State and by private charity topreserve infant life and to encourage maternity it is some-

what surprising that the need of providing seats for shopassistants, especially the women, is not better appreciated, z,

and that comparatively little has been said or done in this ’,direction.

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THE SOLICITORSHIP OF THE GENERALMEDICAL COUNCIL.

WE have already announced the resignation of Mr. Farrerwho for many years has acted as the solicitor of the GeneralMedical Council, and who will be remembered with respectand pleasure by its members. The Council has elected as its

standing solicitor in his place Mr. W. H. Winterbotham, whois also official solicitor to the Court of Appeal. It is under-stood that the work of the Council as respects law and

police-courts will be done by another solicitor to be approvedby the Council.

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DINNER TO SIR WILLIAM T. GAIRDNER.

IN THE LANCET of March 31st (p. 956) we gave a shortoutline of the eloquent speech in which Sir William Gairdnerintimated to his class in the University of Glasgow hisdecision to resign his professorship of the Practice of Physic.We have now pleasure in announcing that his very numerousfriends in the University and among the medical pro-fession in the West of Scotland will entertain himat dinner in the Windsor Hotel, Glasgow, on Tuesday,June 19th. In view of the importance of the occasionthe arrangements are being made by an influential com-

mittee, which includes the Rev. R. Herbert Story, Principalof the University, and Sir Hector Cameron, President of theFaculty of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow. Tickets,21s. each, can be obtained from Messrs. James MacLehoseand Sons, 61, St. Vincent-street, Glasgow, and the com-mittee state that early application for tickets is necessary,as the number is limited, and no application can be enter-tained after Jane 14th.

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THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE CRANIUM.

A CAREFUL study of the development of the primordialcranium has recently been made by an Italian physician,Dr. Giuseppe Levi of Florence, and the results of his re-

searches, published in the Arohiv für MikroskopisclwAnatomize, Band Iv., p. 341, 1900, are contained in the

following propositions. The first rudiments of the primordialcartilaginous cranium in man occur in the form of isolatedgroups of closely compressed connective-tissue cells in

looser tissue than that which forms the membranous prim-ordial cranium. There is a certain homology betweenthese aggregations of cell groups and those of the futurebone. There is no homology between these rudiments ofthe skull of man and those described in mammals as para-chordals and trabeculas. The rudiments in question, evenafter their conversion into cartilage, preserve their identityfor some time by the possession of a perichondrial layer. Itis only just before the chondrocranium has attained its

highest development that all the rudiments coalesce andthen only does the chondrocranium form one continuouswhole. The rudiments formed by connective tissue are

not all formed coincidently; that of the occipital boneis the earliest, then follow those of the sphenoid and of theauditory capsules, and the last to appear is that of theethmoid. The differentiation of the several rudiments does

not progress with equal rapidity-as a general rule it

advances with the greatest rapidity in the latest formed

parts and presents in each case characteristic features ; thusin the occipital region it takes place quickly and almostcontemporaneously throughout its whole extent, whilst inother instances it commenoes at a definite spot by a kind ofcartilaginous nucleus and spreads uniformly outwards. The

enlargement of the rudiments is rapid at first but extremelyslow afterwards. The development of the occipital regionpresents a great similarity to that of the vertebral column.In particular the histological features of the formationof cartilage are different from those of all other seg-ments of the skull and are identical with those of thevertebral column. Moreover, there is one distinct rudi-ment of a vertebra-that is the occipital-which has asymmetrical origin, and further forwards there are partsof an indeterminate number of vertebias. The occipitalregion, like the vertebral column in the first stages ofits development, is in connexion with the chorda, but asthe cartilage develops it becomes distinct from the chorda.All this supports the statement made by Froriep that theoccipital region represents the true spinal segment of theskull in man. The symmetrical rudiments of the body ofthe occipital vertebra become the condyles of the occipital,the unsegmented portion represents the portio basilaris,and the lateral portion of the arch of the occipital vertebrathe processus jugularis. The form of the rudiments

antecedent to the appearance of cartilage does not alwayscorrespond to that of the cartilage when fully formed sinceparts of the rudiments undergo absorption. The chief

changes that occur, however, are those consequent on theremarkable alteration of position of the occipital and

sphenoid rudiments. The floor of the sella Turcica is the

only segment of the whole skull which preserves its originalposition throughout the process of development.

A CURIOUS THEORY OF PLAGUE.

J THERE should be no difficulty in preventing the spread of, plague according to the remarkable theory put forward by aJ correspondent in a pamphlet recently published in India. In. this pamphlet, a copy of which we have recently received,I the author sums up his view in a final paragraph as follows:. "I humbly state that the more close the investigations and

experiments the more fairly we expect to be convinced of thefact (sic) that plague is nothing but slow and gradualpoisoning of carbonic acid gas." According to this

I view we should expect plague to be a chronic disease

, in this country, having as a starting point mineral. water works or breweries, for in these places there is! constantly a large proportion of carbon dioxide in theJ air. As a matter of fact the health of the operatives inI these industries, in spite of a high proportion of carbonict acid in the air at times, is good. Carbon dioxide is, ofI course, a poisonous gas, but only when present in great excess.. As Dr. J. S. Haldane has shown air may contain from 3 peri cent. or 4 per cent. of carbonic acid gas without producingJ any serious distress. The author of the pamphlet referred to, suggests as a plan of prevention the placing of all patients on- the second floor or third floor of the building, for he remarksl that carbonic acid gas is a heavy gas and accumulatesr on the ground floor and it is on the ground floor wherej the disease flourishes. If there were no such thing as a law; of the diffusion of gases human life would have ceased to bel long ago, for there is sufficient carbonic acid in the air; to form a layer over the surface of the earth of the dimen-! sions of an ocean, and in such an ocean life would be, of! course, impossible. It is a pity that the author’s simplicity

of idea as to the origin of plague is not true, for such asimple fons et origo 1nali could easily be removed. When,

, however, he speaks of over-crowding, ill-ventilation, and

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dirty environment as factors in the etiology of the diseasehe is right, but to say that these conditions indicate nothingbut the accumulation of a large quantity of carbonic acidgas and insufficient quantity of oxygen is to ignore the

teachings of modern research and to manifest a lamentableignorance of the nature of infection.

THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS OFENGLAND.

To the list of candidates for vacancies upon the Councilshould be added the names of Mr. W. H. Bennett, surgeon toSt. George’s Hospital, and Mr. R. Clement Lucas, surgeon toGuy’s Hospital. The full list will be found on p. 1674.

THE INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF MEDICINE. IIx answer to many inquiries which have been addressed Ito it, it is announced by the Executive Committee of the

Thirteenth International Congress of Medicine that it hasdecided that dentists who are not doctors of medicine, butwho nevertheless are registered or possess a diplô’lne d’état,either French or foreign, can register themselves as membersof the Congress in the Section of Stomatology. Names must,be sent to the Bureaux of the Congress, the address of whichis 21, rue de 1’IoIe de M6decine, Paris.

LOSS OF MEMORY AND OF SENSE OFPERSONAL IDENTITY.

CASES of this sort, though decidedly uncommon in

occurrence, are of considerable medical and legal interest.The record of a specially interesting case is published inthe Philadelphia Medical Journal (May 19th, 1900) andrecalls the occurrence of a similar case recently at Cambridgewhere a young undergraduate disappeared from his

quarters and was not heard of for several days till

he was discovered staying at an inn in the countrysome distance from Cambridge. He seemed to havehad no recollection of leaving his rooms in Cambridgeor of any of the incidents subsequent to that event

and until his arrival at the inn, except that he was

feeling tired and fatigued and that his boots and clotheswere wayworn and dusty. The undergraduate was a

youth subject occasionally to epileptic fits at infrequentintervals, and it appears that after such a fit he lost

his memory and his sense of personal identity and

wandered about until he came to the inn where, weariedand worn out, he took lodgings. He had lost all recollec-tion of his former life and condition and stayed in the innfor some days. Then a second fit occurred after which the

memory of his former self returned and he was able torealise his position and find his way back to the University.The case reported in the Philadelphia Medical JOtlrnal isthat of a law student, aged 19 years, living in New York,who suddenly lost his memory and sense of personal identityand found himself wandering in the streets of what he con-sidered a strange city. He was so perplexed that he askedpeople in the street if they could tell him who he was andwent to the libraries and hotels to search in the newspapersfor stories of missing persons in order that he might getsome clue to his identity. He lived at a hotel and after

spending five days in fruitless wanderings and inquiries hefinally entered a police station and inquired of the sergeanton duty whether he could inform him in what city he wasand requested that search might be made in the recordof missing persons. When this was done it was found thatthere was a description closely tallying with his appearance.A detective was sent with the youth to the address given inthe description, where the wanderer was received with greatjoy by his mother and sisters. To their great surprise, how-ever, he thanked them very politely, but assured them that

he did not know them or the place. The mother told the

police that he was a somnambulist and had left home

previously under similar conditions. In the youth’s pocketthere was found a diary in which he had entered the detailsof his daily experience since the time he left home and

forgot who or where he was. "His physicians state that

his attack of amnesia is gradually passing off, and that whilehe shows memory of other events in his past life anyreference to himself seems to be the signal for another lapseof his memory." The import of cases such as the above isevident both from a medical and medico-legal standpoint,and it is interesting to note their affinities with such neuro-pathic conditions as epilepsy and somnambulism.

UNIVERSITY OF LONDON: THE ROGERSPRIZE.

AT a meeting of the Senate of the University of London,held on March 28th, 1900, it was resolved that one sum of.S100 be offered as the Rogers Prize open for competition toall the members of the medical profession in Great Britainand Ireland for an essay under the following regulation asto the subject and conditions thereof, namely: an essayby any member of the medical profession in Great Britainand Ireland upon the Production of Immunity in SpecificInfective Diseases generally, and with particular referenceto anyone disease on which the writer of the essay hasmade original investigations. The essay is to be sent to the

Registrar, University of London, South Kensington, S.W.,on or before June lst, 1901.

INTERMENSTRUAL DYSMENORRHCEA.

THE Boston Medical and Surgical ,To7crnat of April 19tbcontains an important paper by Dr. M. Storer on this rareand interesting affection. His observations lead him to

conclude that intermenstrual dysmenorrbcea is not so rareas has been asserted: he had found it last summer 18 timesin 400 "suitable cases" in which he inquired as to itsexistence. Analysis of 20 cases under his care and of 25collected from literature led to the following conclusions. As

regards regularity the pain in all cases appeared practicallyevery month. In 22 cases it always occurred on a definiteday from the beginning of the last menstruation; in 13there was a variation of two days and in 4 of four days; in2 with irregular menstruation it occurred on a definite daybefore the next menstruation. As regards day of appearancefrom the first day of the previous menstruation, out of 41 casesit came on in from the twelfth to the sixteenth days in 37. Asto character, in a large number of cases it was described asparoxysmal, the attacks either coming on at intervals ofseveral hours and lasting from five to 15 minutes or the painbeing constant with exacerbations often of the greatestseverity and resembling that of labour. As to duration,in 10 it lasted two days ; in 9, three ; in 8, one;and in 4, four or more. In no case was there a dis-

charge like that of menstruation, but in two cases

(one of bleeding fibroids and the other of hsemorrbagic endo.metritis) there was a slightly sanguineous discharge. Hencethe term " intermenstrual dysmenorrhoea " is inapt. On theother hand, a marked increase of leucorrhoea is spoken of in10 cases, which is evidence of temporary congestion. As to

causation, the pain in most of the books is described as

ovarian but it is not always so. In one case it disappearedafter the removal of a hydrosalpinx ; in another, after theuterus was curetted for endometritis ; and in a third, stenosis ofthe internal os was apparently the only lesion. On the otherhand, out of 40 cases in which the local condition is statedmore or less of an inflammatory condition of the appendagesis described in 30 (" ovaritis, " 15 ; "salpingitis," 12; and"bydrosalpinx," three). The exact manner in which the