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by a high amount of glycosuria and the presenceof acidosis operation should be performed as

quickly as possible. The same applies to diabetescomplicated by nephritis.

THE WORK OF THE CANADIAN ARMY MEDICALSERVICE.

IN a report on the work of the Canadian MedicalServices issued from the Department of Militia andDefence at Ottawa, under date Feb. 20th, 1919, astatistical summary is given of the Canadian hos-pital organisation and of the volume of work doneby the Canadian Expeditionary Force. The 65 hos-pital units in Canada and the 59 units overseas hada total bed capacity of 43,531, with just short of700,000 admissions to hospital up to December,1918. 20,891 deaths occurred in these hospitals, theratio of deaths to admissions being 2’9 per cent. A

striking comparison is made between the numberof deaths from wounds and those from disease in the"

present war " and other recent campaigns. Thefigures are as follows :-

These figures are rightly claimed to speaklouder than words in regard to the resources ofmodern scientific medicine, properly applied undermilitary authority by a well-organised and enicientmedical service.

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FRIENDS FOR SICK CHILDREN.

BETWEEN the Christian charity of the first

century and the charity meted out in the twentiethby the fortunate rich to the "deserving poor" thereis a great gulf fixed. So obvious is this that in1881 the revisers of the New Testament considered itnecessary to substitute the inexact rendering "love"for the word still found appropriate in 1611 as

a translation of &agr;&ggr;&agr;&pgr;&eegr;. The Invalid Children’sAid Association are striving with some success tobuild a bridge across this chasm. Lady ForbesRobertson, speaking at their annual meeting onMay 13th, mentioned the scheme by which individualsmay give personal as well as financial help to someparticular sick child until he or she is restoredto health. Verily it is more blessed to giveof one’s time and personality than to receive aletter of acknowledgment from the treasurer ofsomeone else’s fund. Yet at this same annualmeeting Dr. S. H. Nathan had need to appeal formore helpers. The work it seems is increasing and,indeed, there is no end to the possibilities of useful-ness which will present themselves to an associa-tion whose " primary aim " is " to find a friend forevery child referred to it ...... doing for it, andgetting done everything that experience, common-sense, and kindness may suggest." Medical men,who must compress into a few minutes all the

personal care which they can give to each sickchild, know well with what relief they have passedon to the Invalid Children’s Aid Association poorchildren in need of treatment beyond their parents’means. To such we appeal with confidence to givewhat help they can to a valuable organisation whilebringing its claims unremittingly before their friends and patients. ’,

A NEW HOSPITAL FOR TROPICAL DISEASES.

A HOSPITAL devoted solely to the treatment ofpatients suffering from tropical diseases will beopened shortly by the Seamen’s Hospital Society inthe Endsleigh Palace Hotel near Euston-square.The building has been used during the last fouryears as a hospital for wounded officers and wasrecently acquired through the aid of the BritishRed Cross. It is understood that the clinicalmaterial will be available for post-graduate instruc-tion in connexion with the London School ofTropical Medicine. The new hospital will be withineasy reach of University College Medical School,Middlesex Hospital, the School of Medicine for

Women, Charing Cross Hospital, and BedfordCollege, and should prove a useful accession tothe claims of Bloomsbury to become the futurehome of the University of London.

LYSOROPHUS.

AT the Royal Society recently it was announcedthat Professor W. J. Sollas would read on May 22nda paper on the Structure of Lysorophus as Exposedby Serial Sections. Many of our readers may havebeen puzzled by the word " Lysorophus " and havewondered to what section of science it belonged.We admit that we ourselves were in that plight.All the big dictionaries, those of Cassell andWebster, the Standard and Century dictionaries,and even Murray’s large dictionary, failed to revealthe meaning of the word. Professor Sollas suppliesthe following interesting information :—

I , I Lysorophus ’ is the name given to a primitive amphibian,an ancestor to the Urodeles, which lived in late carboni-ferous times. We owe it to Cope who, in 1876 or there-abouts, founded the genus on some isolated vertebras. Afterhis time many specimens were discovered of the entireskeleton. Cope does not give the etymology of the wordnor do any subsequent writers. I assume that - lyso comesfrom auw, and means loose.’ , Rophus’ is not so easy. Isthe o long or short ? If short we have pooos, a swallowingdown, or that which is swallowed; if long, the only wordwhich approaches rophus’ is &rgr;&ohgr;&pgr;os, any small wares,

frippery, and the word should be lysoropus’ (perhaps) withthe intended meaning of loose bits.’ I will ask myclassical friends. I never coin words myself without sub- .

mitting them to an expert before publication, and I ratherresent Cope’s remissness in not informing us of the derivationof his horrible word."

Edward Drinker Cope, to whom reference is made,was an American biologist (1840-1897).

Colonel William Tindall Lister, C.M.G., M.B.Camb., F.R.C.S.Eng., has been appointed surgeonoculist to His Majesty’s Household.

THE Oliver-Sharpey lectures of the Royal Collegeof Physicians of London will be delivered by Pro-fessor E. H. Starling on June 3rd and 5th, takingas his subject, The Feeding of Nations-a Study inApplied Physiology. Professor G. Elliot-Smith willgive the Croonian lectures on June 12th, 17th, 19th,and 24th, dealing with the Significance of theCerebral Cortex. The time in each case is 5 P.M.

As part of the scheme of reorganisation of the’Ministry of Pensions ten neurological hospitals invarious parts of the country will be opened for thecare and treatment of pensioners suffering from warneuroses. Each medical staff will consist of onesenior and two or more junior medical officers.The headquarters of the Medical Department of theMinistry are at Cromwell House, Westminster,S.W. 1, where applications may be sent.