1767NOTES, SHORT COMMENTS, AND ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS.

GLASGOW, WESTERN DISTRICr HOSPITAL-Medical Officer. Salary £ 100per annum, with board and lodging.

GUY’S HOSPITAL.-Douglas Demonstratorship of Pathology. Salary.E300 per annum. Also Executive Officer of Dental Department.Salary B200 per annum.

HASTINGS, EAST SUSSJ’,X HOSPITAL.-Honorary Physician.INDIAN MEDICAL SERVICE.-Twelve Commissions.LABORATORIES OF PATHOLOGY AND PUBLIC HEALTH.—Fourth Assistant

Pathologist. Salary .E170 per annum.LANCASHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL.-Tuberculosis Officer. Salary .E500 per

annum.

LANCASTER COUNTY ASYLUM.-Assistant Medical Officer. Salary £ 150per annum, with board, lodging, and attendance.

LINCOLN MENTAL HOSPITAL, The Lawn, Lincoln.-Assistant MedicalOfficer, unmarried. Salary £ 150 per annum, with board, &e.

.LIVERPOOL, DAVID LEWIS NORTHERN HOSPITAL.-House Physician.Salary at rate of B60 per annum, with residence and maintenance.

LIVERPOOL EYE AND EAR INFIRMARY.-House Surgeon. Salary at rateof £ 80 per annum, with board, laundry, and residence.

LIVERPOOL, RoYAL SOUTHERN HOSPITAL.-Honorary ConsultingGynaecologist. Also Honorary Assistant Surgeon.

LONDON LocK HOSPITAL.-Assistant House Surgeon. Salary .E80 perannum, with board, lodging, and washing.

MANCHESTER, ANCOATS HOSPITAL.-Assistant House Surgeon. Salary£ 70 per annum.

MANCHESTER CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL, Pendlebury. - Anaesthetist.Salary £ 1616s. per annum. Also Honorary Ophthalmic Surgeon.

MANSFIELD AND MANSFIELD WOODHOUSE DISTRICT HOSPITAL.-Resident House Surgeon, unmarried. Salary J&120 per annum,with board, residence, and washing,

MILLER GENERAL HOSPITAL FOR SOUTH-EAST LONDON, Greenwich-read, S.E.-Medical Officer as Radiographer.

NEWCASTLE-UPON-TYNE, Cay HOSPITAL FOR INFECTIOUS DISEASES.-Resident Medical Assistant. Salary .E125 per annum, with board,lodging, &c.

.NOTTINGHAM CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL.--House Surgeon (female) for sixmonths. Salary at rate of £ L00 per annum, with apartments,board, and washing.

NOTTINGHAM GENERAL DISPENSARY.-Assistant Resident Surgeon.u nmarried. Salary .E170 per annum, with apartments, attendance.1 g ht, and fuel.

HEETH UNION AND RURAL DISTRICT COUNCIL. Yorkshire -MedicalOfficer (Unker District) and Medical Officer of Health (wholedistrict). Salaries £ 45 and £50 respectively.

RENFREW COUNTY COMMITTEE ON SECONDARY EDUCATION.—SchoolMedical Inspector. Salary .E300 per annum.

ROYAL LONDON OPHTHALMIC HOSPITAL (MOORFIELDS EYE HOSPITAL),City-road, E.C.-Assistant Surgeon.

ROYAL FREE HOSPITAL, Gray’s Inn-road. W.C.-Female JuniorObstetric Assistant. Board, lodging, and washing provided.

ROYAL WATERLOO HOSPITAL FOR CHILDREN AND WOMEN, S.E.-SeniorResident Medical Officer. Salary at rate of .E70 per annum, withboard and washing.

ST. BARTHOLOMEW’S HOSPITAL.-Lectureship on Pharmacology andTherapeutics.

ST. HELENS. COUNTY BOROUGH OF.-Assistant Medical Officer ofHealth. Salary .E250 per annum.

,ST. THOMAS’S HOSPITAL.-Medical Officer for Tuberculosis Department.,SALISBURY INFIRMARY.—Assistant House Surgeon, unmarried. Salary

R50 per annum, with apartments, board, and lodging.SHEFFIELD ROYAL INFIRMARY.—House Surgeon. Salary .E80 per

annum.,SINGAPORE MEDICAL SCHOOL.-King Edward Professorship of Physio-

logy. Salary £ 700 per annum.SOUTH AFRICA LUNATIC AND LEPER ASYLUM SERVICE.-Four Medical

Officers, unmarried. Salary 2280 per annum and quarters.STOKE-ON-TRENT, NORTH STAFFORDSHIRE INFIRMARY, Hartshill.-

Pathologist. Salary .E200 per annum.THROAT HOSPITAL, Golden-square, W.-Resident House Surgeon.

Salary .E75 per annum, with board and residence.WAKEFIELD, WEST RIDING ASYLUM.-Assistant Medical Officer.

Salary £ 140 per annum, with apartments, board, washing, andattendance.

’WELLS, SOMERSET AND BATH ASYLUM.—Second Assistant MedicalOfficer, unmarried. Salary £ 135 per annum, with board, lodging,washing, and attendance.

WEST BROMWICH AND DISTRICT HosPITAL.-Assistant Resident HouseSurgeon and Anaesthetist, unmarried. Salary .E75 per annum, withboard, residence, and washing.

WEST HAM, COUNTY BOROUGH OF.—Tuberculosis Officer. Salary £ 300per annum.

WEST LONDON HOSPITAL AND POST-GRADUATE COLLEGE, Hammer-smith-road, W.-Clinical Assistants.

WESTMINSTER HOSPITAL MEDICAL SCHOOL, Caxton-street, S.W.-Lecturer on Tropical Diseases.

WIGAN, ROYAL ALBERT EDWARD INFIRMARY AND DISPENSARY.-JuniorHouse Surgeon or House Physician. Salary £ 100 per annum, with

- rations, rooms, and washing.’WINCHESTER, ROYAL HAMPSHIRE COUNTY HOSPITAL.-House Phy-

sician. Salary £80 per annum.

Births, Marriages, and Deaths.BIRTHS.

STALKER.—On Dec. 14th, at 115, High-street South, East Ham, Essex,to W. Stewart Stalker, M.D., D.P.H., and Mr3. Stalker, M.B.,

. Ch.B., D.P.H. (nee Alice Oberdorfer), a daughter.

’TRURLOW.-On Dec. 12th, at" Easdale," Frant-road, Tunbi idge Wells,the wite of Dr. Basil Lyons Thurlow, of a son.

MARRIAGES.DICK -BRISCOE.-On Dec. 10th. at St. Michael’s, Blackheath, Frederick

Adolph Dick, M.B., B.S., to Elizabeth, youngest daughter of thelate Thomas Paul Briscoe and Mrs. Briscoe, of Blackheath.

N.P.-A fee of 58. is chargedfor the insertion of Notices of Births,Marriages andDeaths.

Notes, Short Comments, and Answersto Correspondents.

CHRISTMAS FESTIVITIES AND THE DANGER OF FIRE.

EVERY year at Christmas time the deaths of children and others arechronicled which are due directly to the dangerous material used tosimulate snow in decorations and on dresses worn by Father Christ-mas, by fairies, and by other seasonable personages. Cotton-wool isthe obvious material almost universally employed, and is also themost inflammable that could be devised for such a purpose. Christ-mas trees are generally illuminated with naked candles, and it is notto be expected that electric lighting should be employed, save inexceptional cases. The season is cold and dark, so that rooms haveto be warmed and well lighted, with the result that there is alwaysabundant opportunity for starting a conflagration. We would urgeupon parents, school teachers, and organisers of Christmas revels ofany kind the use, if it be possible, of paint or whitening or someother material as a substitute for cotton-wool, or if they can find nosuch alternative to suit them-if, in short, they insist upon usingwhat they must know is easy to set on fire and difficult to extinguish-we would recommend them to take every possible care with regard tolights, to have means for quenching flame at hand, and to exercisestrict supervision over any children present. In decorating Christmastrees with presents in the neighbourhood of lights the inflammablequalities of celluloid will not be forgotten. The amateur presenter ofcinematograph entertainments should only be encouraged with greatcaution. The British Fire Prevention Committee, 8, Waterloo-place,Pall Mall, London, S.W., has issued, in packets of 10, 25, or 50, whichwill be sent in return to a written application, a " Caution " on thesubject, consisting of ten detailed warnings as to the conduct ofChristmas festivities with the minimum of risk.

QUARANTINE FOR WHOOPING-COUGH.To the Editor of THE LANCET.

SIR,-When does the infection from a case of whooping-cough cease,and at what stage of the illness is it safe to allow a child, on, board ship,amongst many other children, to n ix with them? I have alwaysunderstood that so long as the characteristic whoops are in evidence,there is a risk of infection, but a passenger on my last trip, whose childhad whooping-cough, and whom I insisted on isolating, told me I waswrong, and that recent investigations were against me in my decision.I enclose my card. I am, Sir, yours faithfuli y,Dec. 16th, 1912. SHIP’S SURGEON.

** It is customary to isolate a child suffering from whooping-coughfor six weeks, unless the characteristic cough has ceased before thattime. While this is probably a wise precaution, it is now generallybelieved that it is only during the early or catarrhal stage thatwhooping-cough is actively infective, and that during the whoopingstage, except in the earliest part, the infectivity is trivial if it exist atall. None the less, our correspondent was probably wise in his

decision, unless the child had long passed the catarrhal stage.-ED. L.

HEALTH IN JAMAICA.

ACCORDING to the Blue-book for the year ending March 31st, 1912, themean population of Jamaica was 839,247. On these figures the

marriages, births, and deaths have been calculated. There were

during the year 3607 marriages, 32,750 births and 18,631 deaths, themarriage rate per 1000 being 4’2, the birth-rate 39’0, and the death-iate 221. Of the births, 21,008, or 64-1 per cent., were illegitimate.Uncertified cases of death were 75’2 per cent., compared with 75’1 inthe previous year, for the whole island. The figures for Kingston,the capital, were 27’0 in 1911-12 and 31-1 in 1910-11, showing a verysatisfactory diminution. The principal causes of death in Kingston,stated in order of number of deaths in 1911-12, were : Diarrhoea andenteritis (191), phthisis (163), heart disease (83), enteric fever (69),malaria (52), and fever not otherwise defined (43). There was an extra-

ordinary epidemic of whooping-cough from June quarter, 1910, to theend of March, 1912, resulting in 1412 deaths. " Vomiting sickness," thecause of which is still under investigation, was registered as the

cause of death in 85 cases. The total number of patients treatedin public general hospitals during the year was 26,091. There were

497 deaths in hospitals. The number of operations performed was2268, with 20 deaths. In consequence of new arrangements made forthe treatment of out-patients at hospitals the number so assistedincreased considerably; 52,325 cases were so treated during the year,as against 40,077 in the previous year.During the year increased attention was given to the disease of

ya vs, in pursuance of the extended powers given by the Yaws Notifi-catio iLaw.No.23, of 1910. The disease prevails generally in moun-tainous localities and where water is scarce or not easily accessible,anld where, consequently, cleanliness, bathing, and proper sanitaryprecautions are negleted. The following is a return of the numbers