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is instantly acquired when seen. Mr. MacMunn may at first

sight see some resemblance between his design and mine, forall clamps may be more or less alike. But his requires a corkto be placed over the protruding points after insertion-aclumsy, unscientific, and impossible method, as the past 18years have eloquently demonstrated. However, I shall shortlyhave some results of trials that are now being conducted insome of our largest London hospitals to submit to those whomay be sceptical, and in the meantime I shall be most happyto demonstrate the application of the new clamp by theside of Mr. MacMunn’s before any unquestionable surgicalauthority he may select.

I am, Sirs, yours faithfully,Surbiton, July 6th, 1902. HAYDN BROWN, L.R.C.P. Edin.

THE SEED AND THE SOIL.To the Editors of THE LANCET.

SIRS,-The admirable and instructive lecture and leadingarticle which appeared in THE LANCET a few weeks ago 1havebrought the seed and the soil" subject before your readersin a way calculated to impress the memory with some soundand useful facts. No doubt in the growth, spread, and

fatality of disease, especially of epidemic diseases, the soilor the bodily state has more to do with the untoward resultsthan the quality of the seed sown. If the body or soil isin a healthy, robust state the seed sown fails, but if the bodyis in a state of cachexy or low vitality the soil may bringforth some a hundredfold, some sixty fold, some thirtyfold.But the resisting or receptive power of the body or soil

depends for the most part on the climate or localityin which it is situated. If the climate or localityis all that can be desired from a sanitary point ofview the soil is healthy and resists contagion, butif otherwise the body or soil lies open to receive the seed ormicrobe of disease wherever it comes from. And of all the

preventives of disease there is none that can be comparedto a good and perfect drainage of the environments of thesoil or body.

Before the main drainage of Lincoln was effected its

sanitary state was as bad as it could be. The sewage raninto cesspools and there was allowed to ferment and to putrefyand to fill the air with noxious effluvia. Dysentery, diarrhoea,and typhoid fever prevailed, and consumption was so commonthat Dr. Thompson of the Brompton Hospital for Consump-tion, in his Clinical Lectures on Pulm nary Consumption,remarked on it. The disease was most frequent amongwomen who remained at home in their houses, but theirhusbands who spent their days away from home in thefields generally escaped contagion. When the main drainagewas accomplished a rapid improvement in the health of the

city took place and now in this coronation year typhoidfever and consumption seem to be dying out, and althoughwe have recently had a slight outbreak of scarlet fever, stillthe death-rate is only about 14 in 1000, and I hope thatwhen the sower goes forth to sow the seeds will fall by thewayside and the fowls of the air will come and devourthem up.-I am, Sirs, yours faithfully,

WILLIAM O’NEILL, M.D. Aberd., M.R. C. P. Lond.Lincoln, July 5th, 1902.

INSANITY AND THE DEATH PENALTY.To the Editors of THE LANCET.

SIRS,—My attention has just been drawn to an article inTHE LANCET of June 21st, p. 1782, with reference to the trialfor murder of the unhappy man Simmons at the recent Dorsetassizes, and I shall be glad if you will allow me to say aword in reply upon the facts of the case which may be ofinterest to your readers from a scientific point of view, aswell as a matter of fairness to the prisoner. The writer has

picked out the salient facts without reference to any of theminor events which qualified them, and upon these facts hehas assumed that the theory of the prosecution that this wasa deliberate crime "committed by an angry man upon awoman who had refused (apparently) to respond to his

passion" "

was proved ; but this is exactly what the

prosecution utterly failed to prove, and it was obvious toeveryone who heard the evidence that the suggested motivefor the crime was absolutely broken down and for ever gonelong before the close of the prosecution, and I have the

1 THE LANCET, May 10th (p. 1297) and June 28th (p. 1843), 1902.

authority of Dr. Weatherly and Dr. Morton for saying thatunless they had been previously satisfied of the untruth ofthe theory of the prosecution and of the consequent want ofmotive for the crime they could not have expressed the

confident opinion on the case which they did in the witness-box. I am, Sirs, yours faithfully,

Weymouth, July 2nd, 1902.A. WENTWORTH MALIM,

Solicitor for the Defence.

THE PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICE AND THECORONATION HONOURS LIST.

To the Editors of THE LANCET.

SIRS,-While agreeing generally with your admirable lead-ing article on the Coronation Honours in THE LANCET of July5th, p. 31, and while also fully endorsing your statement that"the general design of the Crown, and of the advisers ofthe Crown, appears to have been toido ample justice toworkers in the cause of humanity at large," may I ventureto draw attention to the altogether remarkable omissionfrom the honours list of that great service of the Statewhich is responsible for the health of the people? This service through its untiring efforts is instrumental in

saving annually thousands of lives. It is gradually prolong-ing the average duration of life on the planet, and, byimproving the physical conditions under which the poor live,it is carrying on a work which has no parallel in history.This service exercises a leavening and altogether non-poli-tical influence throughout all grades of society, and the forcewhich it represents is, perhaps, if read aright, the most far-reaching anti-revolutionary power of modern times. Never-theless, this service has received no recognition whatever inthe recent honours list.

Perchance, had the victories of preventive medicine inGreat Britain been less complete, and had bubonic plagueinvaded our shores, and small-pox spread broadcast over theland, the conditions would have approximated more to thoseof the field of battle, and decorations might have beenbestowed upon the service on almost military lines. It maypossibly be that the martial spirit of the moment has ledthe advisers of the Crown to attach less importance to thei-aving of human life and to the improvement of its condi-tions. But whatever the explanation the omission is none thele-.s remarkable.

It would be obviously absurd to suppose that the monarchwho happily still reigns over us, and with whose name thepregnant query, " If preventable, why not prevented ?" willalways be associated, would have allowed this omission hadthe claims of this service been adequately put before him.The deep interest taken by His Majesty in the housing of hispoorer subjects and in the prevention of tuberculosisand cancer is sufficient in itself to negative any such

’ view. Moreover, I read the signs erroneously if I do not* detect in the list of honours the keenest sympathy of King: Edward VII. for the worker whatever such work may be.

In this sense the honours list is, in my opinion, alto-gether unique. Nor can I believe that the able andvigorous Cabinet Minister who is responsible for the

sanitary service of this country has failed to lay beforethe proper authorities the claim of those who, in the

prevention of plague and small-pox, and in the routinework of public health have so well supported his efforts.Mr. Walter Long must. above all others, be aware of thesignal services rendered to public health by the labours

t of his own medical department, and by those numerousa medical officers of health who in our ports and towns havef borne the brunt of the attack.

s But there is something strangely anomalous in the facts that honours should have been showered, and justly so,

.e upon those who have defended the honour of the Empire

.e in the battle-field while those who in the paths of peace,s have kept disease from our shores, and have made thea name of England synonymous with sanitation should upon

a historic occasion such as this have been passed over ine silence. If, Sirs, it were possible that on each New Year’sQ Eve, as the ebbing year flows into the ocean of time,,e there should be a march past of all those men, women,

e and children whose lives preventive medicine had savedduring that year, a spectacle would be witnessed which

would cast martial displays into relative insignificance, andwhich would awaken in the minds of the onlookers some