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Giessen.-Dr. Ernest Otto Beckmann of Leipsic has beeninvited to accept the chair of Chemistry.Graz.-Dr. M. Borgsiekiwicz of Innsbruck has been

appointed to the Professorship of Ophthalmic Surgery.Jena.-A new Professorship of Mental Diseases has just

been created, to which Dr. Binswanger has been promoted.Marburg.-Dr. Kohl has been promoted to the rank of

Professor, teaching Vegetable Physiology.Munster (Academy).-Dr. Kassner of Breslau has been

appointed to the chair of Pharmaceutical Chemistryvacated by Dr. Meyer, who has gone to Gottingen.

DEATHS OF EMINENT FOREIGN MEDICAL MEN.

THE deaths of the following distinguished members ofthe medical profession abroad have been announced :-Professor von Richter, Director of the University Instituteof Technical Chemistry, Breslau.-Dr. Clement JosephRaymond, Principal Medical Officer of the First-classReserve of the Belgian Army at Liége.-Dr. N. Protopopoff,Director of the Kharkoff Bacteriological Station.-Dr.

Bernazki, of Odessa, from diphtheria contracted from achild he was attending.

AT Milan before the last meeting of the LombardMedical Association, Dr. Segré read the report of the firsttwo years’ work of the " Istituto Antirabico," established inconnexion with the Ospedale Maggiore of that city. The

patients numbered 238. The mortality was 1’26 per cent.The report concludes : " If the Pasteur method for the cureof rabies is not such as to give absolute certainty of cure inevery case, it is incomparably superior to all others hithertopractised." The discussion which followed ended in aresolution adopting the report and agreeing with the con-clusion above quoted. --

ON Monday the 19th inst. in the great hall of the Univer-sity of Rome assembled the Fourth Congress of the SocietaItaliana di Medicina Interna. The inaugural discourse wasdelivered by the President, Dr. Guido Baccelli, and there-after came the first paper on the agenda : "The Pathologyand Treatment of Diseases of the Stomach," by ProfessorsRossoni and Forlanini. The attendance was numerous, allthe Italian schools being represented.

AT a meeting of the Council of Owens College held onFriday last, Dr. Julius Dreschfeld, who for ten years hasheld the Professorship of Pathology in the College, was,subject to the approval of the court, appointed Professor ofMedicine in succession to Dr. Morgan, who has resigned.

SURGEON-GENERAL J. McG. GRANT (retired), of the

Army Medical Department, whose death at Cheltenham werecently recorded, retired from the Service in May, 1879,having entered it in November, 1840. The deceased officerdoes not appear to have had any war service.

WE understand that Dr. Arthur Gamgee, F.R.S., latelyof St. George’s Hospital, and Emeritus Professor of Phy-siology in the Owens College, Victoria University, hasobtained the Federal State licence to practise medicine inthe Engadine.

NORTHAMPTON COUNTY ASYLUM.-In connexionwith this institution, the first training school in mentalnursing will shortly be opened. The medical super-intendent proposes to receive paying pupils, and to intro-duce a system of ward management similar to that in-augurated by Miss Nightingale in hospitals.

THE FLITWICK CHALYBEATE SPRING.

A SHORT time since, in the course of the ordinaryuties which devolve upon the Analytical department ofHE LANCET, amongst many other specimens that hadbeen submitted for examination, certain samples of a re-narkable chalybeate water from the Flitwick spring in3edfordshire aroused much interest and curiosity. So

emarkable, indeed, were the results yielded by analysis,,hat an inspection of the source of the water was deemedtdvisable. The spring is situated near to Ampthill andFlitwick in Bedfordshire, and the water is found oozing’rom a fissure in a surface cutting about a foot and a halfn depth, and thirty feet in length, through a layer of blackpeat. The nature of the surrounding soil is of peculiarinterest. It consists of crumbly peat, which readily dries,and which is remarkable in containing a very high per-centage of oxide of iron. Underneath the peat is.a stratum of marly clay, containing as much as

76 per cent. of oxide of iron, in conjunction with,it is stated, alumina and phosphoric acid. Below this.is a substratum of dark sand, which is said to belong to theCretacean period. It is identified by geologists as the lowergreensand formation, and is thickly studded with nodulesof ferruginous material, the rich brown colour, of course..being due to the iron which enters so largely into its com-position. In the lowest portion of the valley in which theFlitwick chalybeate rises is an extensive bed of black peat,consisting in some places of a mass of considerable thickness,and composed of the decayed remnants of vegetal matter,such as bog mosses, sedges, and certain flowering plants.The dip of the valley is so small that all attempts at drain-ing it have proved unsuccessful, and consequently thiscurious and interesting place has not shared the fate of manyother well-known districts which were formerly of a similarcharacter. It is said that this valley is the richest districtin the county for rare and curious plants, no fewer than720 varieties being known to the student of botany.The temperature of the water is 45° F. at all times of the

year, and from this it is inferred that Flitwick water isderived from a deep source leading up to a fissure in theunderlying strata. The water is of a clear sherry colour,and not unpleasantly acid to the taste. It does not depositon standing, and therefore differs in one essential respect.from the usual type of the chalybeate waters of England,which commonly contain proto-carbonate of iron held insolution by carbonic acid. On boiling Flitwick water,however, a brown sediment is quickly deposited, and thesupernatant liquid is still acid to test paper. The acid re-action, accordingly, is not due to carbonic acid, nor cancarbonate of iron be present. Rough tests like thesewere performed at the spring, but a large sample ofthe water was secured and sealed under personal super-vision, and subsequently examined at greater lengthin THE LANCET laboratory. Mere qualitative analysisserved at once to show that the iron is in the ferriccondition, or that of a per-salt. Thus ammonium hydrategave an abundant reddish-brown flocculent precipitate ; 9hydrochloric acid turned the water from a brown to a lightamber colour; ferrocyanide of potassium gave a darrk-blueprecipitate, and sulpho-cyanide of potassium adeepblood-red

: colouration. Boiling resulted in the formation of a fawn-coloured sediment, which quickly subsided, leaving a super-

. natant liquid of acid reaction, and evidently containing lessiron. Barium chloride in strongly acid solution gave anabundant precipitate, due to formation of sulphate. Onremoving the precipitate, the filtrate when made alka-

line with ammonia, and when more barium salt wasadded, yielded no further precipitate. When a large

. quantity of the water was evaporated on the water bath3 a resinous residue was obtained, which on continuedi evaporation showed signs of charring, and a smell not

unlike burnt sugar was perceptible. This was in all proba-- bility owing to the action of sulphuric acid liberated during-

extreme concentration on the constituents of peaty matter,possibly the so-called humic and ulmic acids. Organic

.1 acids of the ordinary type were evidently absent, inasmuch’- as ammonium hydrate removed the whole of the iron from

solution, and not a trace of darkening could be observedt- when ammonium sulphide was added to the filtered liquid.

It is well known that iron in the presence of organic acids,