1345THE LATE DR. A. H CORLEY.

cation in the succeeding number, and declined all furtherdiscussion of the subject. We can only regret that the

criticism of the editor was kept in abeyance till the com-munication appeared in print. But he lias made the bestamends in his power, and we should advise his correspon-dent to study surgery as well as Scripture before he attemptsagain to enlighten the public on such high themes.

THE LATE DR. A. H. CORLEY.

IT will be seen by reference to our advertising columnsthat a movement is in progress in Dublin to raise a fundfor the benefit of the wife and family of the,late Dr. A. H.Corley. The case seems one of considerable urgency, andwill commend itself more fully and readily to the sym-pathies of the profession by the fact that Dr. Corley wasfor a long time before bis decease a sufferer from seriousillness, which rendered his life of late years uninsurable. I

LEPER ASYLUMS ON THE BALTIC.

THE first of the proposed " Leprosoria in the Balticprovinces will, it is hoped, be ready for occupation in the’spring A valuable piece of land having been presented forthe purpose by the landowners at -Nennal, a villageseventy versts distant from Dorpat, it is proposed to locateupon this forty or fifty lepers who are still able to work. I

A small branch establishment, or hospital, for severe cases-<8specially such as require operative measures-is to be- established in the immediate vicinity of Dorpat, where, ofcourse, the best professional assistance is to be bad. This

hospital will contain ten or fifteen beds. It will be

employed also as an observation station, where patientsmay be kept before being sent on to Nennal. To the- students of the University it will prove most valuable,- enabling them to study a disease which, it is to be feared,those of them who ultimately practise in Livonia will haveonly too many opportunities of treating in after life.

THE RESULTS OF COMPULSORYNOTIFICATION.

THE Corporation of Leeds have apparently taken toheart the fact that their borough has been held up as one ’,of the only two large towns of England where the compul-sory notification of infectious diseases remains in abeyance,.and they have instructed their medical officer of health to

prepare for them certain information on the subject. Oneof the points in question has to do with the rates of deathfrom certain notifiable diseases in towns where notificationas been adopted during periods both antecedent and

subsequent to the adoption of the system. Dr. Spottis-woode Cameron has taken pains to supply the information.asked for, and he does it in a diagrammatic form for each of- eight large boroughs with which he deals ; the diseasesselected for the comparison being small-pox, scarlet fever,’diphtheria, and "fever." Doubtless some sources of errorwould need elimination before an absolutely accurate con-- clusion could be arrived at from the statistics given. Thus,the period antecedent to notification includes the 1871-72amall-pox epidemic; but even as to this it must beremembered that this antecedent period in no instance coversless than nine years, and in one instance extends to sixteenyears ; besides which it might be urged that, as in Leicester,’for example, early information as to first small. pox cases sogreatly facilitates the adoption of measures tending to theprevention of the disease that, had notification then beenin operation, such an excess of small-pox deaths in 1871-72might not have taken place. But these and similar pointsare not adverted to by Dr. Cameron. He simply suppliesthe information asked for ; and since the same information

has more than once been sought, his results deserve atten-,tion. Grouping together his statistics for a populationwhich in the aggregate amounted to 1,293,305 in 1881, itappears that in the eight boroughs in question the annualdeath-rates per 1000 living from the four diseases namedvaried from 2’6 to 1’8 in the period antecedent to, and from1’2 to 0’5 in the period subsequent to, the adoption of thenotification system ; the mean annual rate for all thetowns together being 2’1 before notification and 0-8 afternotification. And Dr. Cameron further shows, by means ofhis statistical diagrams, that whilst this result was achievedas regards the four notifiable diseases, nothing comparablewith it was obtained with respect to measles, whooping-cough,and diarrhoea, as to which notification was in almost everyinstance not required in the towns referred to. It maydoubtless be contended that the satisfactory result whichfollowed as regards the notifiable diseases has been partlydue to a general improvement in the conditions affectinghealth in the eight boroughs concerned ; but the uniformityof the success is certainly very striking, and though otherpreventive measures may have gone hand in hand withnotification it can hardly be denied that the latter systemhas operated both directly and indirectly to bring about thediminution of mortality which Dr. Cameron’s report bringsinto such prominence. -

DENTAL LAW IN ITALY.

A LAW has recently been passed in Italy by which it isenacted that whosoever desires to practise dentistry musthave the degree in medicine and surgery. It is not, however,in any way retrospective, and does not affect those who arealready in practice who may not have the medical qualifica-tion. This is indeed a progressive step, and we trust thatFrance in framing the projected Dental Act will follow uponthe same lines and not make dentistry a separate profession,and that those countries where the latter position has beentaken up will before long insist upon the higher standing.

IMMUNITY FROM DIPHTHERIA AND TETANUS.

Dr. BEHRING has, we are glad to see, lost no time inmaking known the chemical agent employed by himself andDr. Kitasato in their experimental investigations on diph-theria and tetanus to which we referred last week. This

agent proves to be trichloride of iodine, which, injected sub-cutaneously in animals inoculated with the viruses, notonly cures them, but renders them immune to subsequentinfection. Peroxide of hydrogen in 10 per cent. solutioncan also confer such immunity in respect of diphtheria.

AMERICAN COPYRIGHT.

THE Americans have long practised and reduced to asystem the craft of literary piracy, and have exhibited,even in the deliberations of their Legislature, a superb con-tempt of the remonstrances of injured authors and thenatural rights of foreign authors to share the profits of therworks. At last, however, a Bill is apparently about to passinto law which will confer upon the foreign author powerto own an American copyright. We should be glad to findin this circumstance an occasion of congratulating ourTransatlantic kinsfolk on an act-of international courtesy ifthe circumstances of the case admitted of such a favourableconstruction. But unfortunately the Bill contains an in-sidious provision that all printed matter to which theprivilege of copyright sball attach must be impressed fromtype set in the United States. It thus aims a blow at the

printing trade of foreign countries, and especially of ourown, and seeks in this way to recover with the one handwhat with the other it professes to give. The reasonof this seemingly capricious inconsistency is not, how-