1286

was six and although in 1901 this average was found to beonly 5’6 it is probable that the reduction was due more tothe extension of the city boundaries than to any very markedimprovement in the crowded parts of the town. Althoughthere are in Bristol no very large unhealthy areas there arestill many courts and insanitary dwellings which must

prejudicially affect the health of the inhabitants and it is tothese that the Committee for Promoting the Better Housingof the Poor turns its attention. The annual meetingof the committee was held on April 25th when the

President, Mr. Lewis Fry, commented favourably upon thework accomplished during the past year. Mr. Fry depre-cated the adoption by municipal authorities of extensive

housing schemes as likely to stifle private enterprise and headvocated greater facilities for taking working men rapidlyto and from their work. It appears that many of the

insanitary dwellings which the committee desire to see

abolished are built in groups of four or eight upon landwhich was formerly the garden of a house facing the streetand accessible only through the street-door of that house. Asthe surrounding property is often very valuable it is almost

impossible to clear an area and the houses can only be dealtwith effectually piecemeal.

Death of Alfred Ric7tards Smith, M. D., L. R. C. S..Edin.Through the death on April 20th of Dr. A. R. Smith the

medical profession in Hereford has lost one of its oldest andmost valued members. Dr. Smith was born in Hereford inthe year 1833 and received his early education at theCathedral School, afterwards proceeding to Edinburgh Uni-versity, where in 1858 he obtained the gold medal inanatomy and took the M. D. degree in 1861, being admitteda Licentiate of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburghin the same year. Shortly after qualifying he began practicein Hereford and in 1872 was elected on the staff ofthe Herefordshire Infirmary. At the time of his death hewas consulting physician to that institution and held asimilar position in connexion with the Herefordshire Dis-

pensary. During the past few years he had graduallydropped out of practice except in the capacity of consultant.Although of a retiring disposition and by no means self-assertive there is no doubt that the high character of Dr.Smith and his strict observance of the dictates of medicaletiquette have left their mark upon professional life inHereford. He was a musician of considerable ability andfrequently acted as organist at one of the city churches.He leaves a widow and one daughter.A Warning to "Oonscientious Objectors" to Vaccination.At the Cheltenham police-court on April 17th three

defaulters were summoned under the Vaccination Act.Evidence showed that they had previously satisfied the

magistrates of their conscientious objection to vac.cinationbut had refused to pay the fee of Is. 6d. due for eachcertificate, and consequently did not receive the certificateswithin the required seven days. For the defence it wascontended that the defendants had acted under a bonâ-fidemisapprehension of the magistrates’ power to order the

payment of this fee and they asked the bench to exercisetheir discretion and now grant the exemption. To thiscourse the magistrates assented, though intimating that theaction must not be taken as a precedent now that the lawwas established.

Queen Vtotoria Jubilee Oonvalesaent Home, Bristol.The second annual report of this institution which has just

been issued shows that 1015 patients were admitted during1901 ; of these, 12 were returned to their homes as unsuitablecaes, 35 were discharged unimproved, and the remaining968 derived considerable benefit from their stay at the home.The financial statement was satisfactory and showed that thetotal expenditure for the year amounted to .62299 and thata favourable balance of .r.39 remained.April <:tlth.

IRELAND.(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENTS.)

Prevention of Consumption in Ulster.AN interesting letter from the honorary secretary of the

Ulster Branch of the National Association for the Preventionof Consumption appeared in the Irish limes of April 29th, inwhich it was shown that although the mortality from con-sumption in Ulster and Leinster is higher than that in anyother districts in the United Kingdom-the death-rate being

three times as high as in high parts ot England-no steps have been taken to lessen the prevalence ’ofthe disease. The letter describes the measures adopted for-this purpose on the Continent, in the United States, and inmany English towns, such as Liverpool and Manchester, andcontrasts the scientific precautions which have succeeded inNew York in lowering the death-rate from consumption-during the last five years by 35 per cent. with the deplorableapathy in this regard which still prevails in Ulster.

The Case of Small-pox in Belfast.The Belfast Poor-law Guardians having protested in

reference to a man with small-pox being sent from the jail(in which there was a good infirmary), where there were 500,inhabitants, to the workhouse, where there were 3500 in-mates, the Secretary of the Local Government Board has

replied enclosing a letter from the General Prisons Board,Dublin Castle, to the effect that the prisoner’s release fromprison took place on March 13th, and that as he was thensuffering from small-pox it would obviously have been im-proper to allow him to return home. It turns out thatthis is hardly a full and accurate statement, as the man was-arrested in Glasgow on Feb. 26th on a charge of bigamy,and conveyed to Belfast, arriving there on the morning ofthe 28th. On that date he was brcught before the courtand remanded to jail until March 6th, when he was againremanded for a week. On the 13th he was unableto attend the court and on that day he was orderedby the Lord Lieutenant to be removed from BelfastJail to hospital, as he was suffering from small-pox.The guardians have decided to let the Local GovernmentBoard know the real facts of the case and they will decline-in future to receive such a case, there being ample accom-modation, in their opinion, in the jail infirmary, or thepatient can be sent to the wooden isolation huts to be pro-vided by the Public Health Committee of the Corporationat their new fever hospital at Purdysburn, near Belfast.

The Mater InfirmOr1tm Hospital, Belfast.From the financial statement of this hospital for the year-

ended Oct. 31st, 1901, it appears that a sum of .E4000 has beenreceived from various sources for defraying current expensesand the excess of expenditure over income for the yearamounts only to R300, a small deficit indicating the greatcare exercised in the disbursement of the funds. The last

Saturday in May is fixed as the day for the hospital collectionin aid of the funds of the Mater Infirmorum Hospital.

Milk Prosecutions.The adjourned cases of prosecution of Belfast dairymen.

for having sold milk deficient in fat were before the police-court on April 21st. The city analyst had certified that there-was a deficiency of 13’3 per cent. of normal fats ; but,after hearing the evidence, the resident magistrate dismissedthe prosecution on the ground that there was no evidencethat there had been any abstraction of fats, the evidence beingthat the milk was sold just as it had come from the cows.

By an order of the Agriculture and Technical Education-

Department for Ireland, dated August 2nd, 1901, it is pro-vided that where a sample of milk is found deficient in fats.there is left upon the dairymen the onus of proving thatthe milk is genuine. The importance of this magisterialdecision is that it is in antagonism to the theory that astandard can be set upon which to judge whether milk is oris not genuine. The evidence showed that the amount offats and solids which milk contains may vary according to-the weather, there being less fat and more solids in coldsevere weather than in mild warm weather. In cold weathermore fat is consumed to maintain animal heat than in warmweather and so there is less fat in the milk. The milkstandard, it would therefore seem, ought to vary accordingto the state of the thermometer and in a variable climatelike Ireland it is difficult to imagine the thermometersetting a standard to anything. In any further prosecutionsevidence as to the chemical composition of the milk will beof little avail.April :1tn.

PARIS. (FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

-Radium as a Means of Sight for the Blind.AT .the meeting of the Academy of Medicine held on

April 15th M. Javal showed the meeting that radium, themetal discovered by M. Curie, possesses the singular quality