483

Sons, Limited, of Dominion Works, Birmingham, and byMessrs. S. P. Whitfield and Co., Limited, of Watery-lane,Birmingham. Woods’ patent wire mattress was exhibited bythe Longford Wire Co., of Warrington. This mattress,attached to a bedstead six feet by three feet. will carryone ton weight without injury to the mattress or bed. A

very interesting series of photographs illustrating more than30 cases of double amputation of legs and arms was shownby Mr. J. Gillingham, manufacturer of artificial limbsand surgical appliances, Chard, Somerset. Mr. N. Bletchley(89, Northgate- street, Gloucester) has devoted .his attentionto special construction of boots. He exhibited a numberof boots adapted for various abnormal conditions anddeformities.

(To be concluded.)

Public Health and Poor Law.LOCAL GOVERNMENT BOARD.

REPORTS OF MEDICAL OFFICERS OF HEALTH.

City of London. - In his report for the three weeks endingJuly 13th, Dr. W. Collingridge, the newly appointed medicalofficer of health, tells us that the Corporation of London havedecided to adopt the voluntary notification of phthisis and topay the usual fee of 2s. 6d. for each case notified. On the

receipt of the notification the invaded house will be visited,disinfection will be offered, and a leaflet prepared by themedical officer of health, setting out the precautions to beobserved, will be left. Turning to another matter we arepleased to see that a detailed inspection of the sanitary con-veniences at the several railway stations, both above andbelow ground, has been made in the City, and defects havebeen found at a very large number of them. This is a veryuseful public service and it is to be hoped that other medicalofficers of health will follow this example. Our own expe-riences over many of the lines of England enable us to urgethe necessity of this step.Surrey County District.-The Surrey County Council have

under the advice of Dr. E. C. Seaton, their medical officer ofhealth, taken an active and useful part with regard to thewater supplied in the county during 1900. More particularlywas this the case with respect to the West Surrey WaterCompany, the water supplied by which had been the subjectof complaint by two urban district councils whose districtswere supplied by the said company. Briefly stated thechemical analysis gave, in the view of these two councils,unsatisfactory results. The company in question has an

intake from the Thames a short distance above Walton Bridgeand the area of supply is very extensive. Near the intakethere are filters but no subsidence reservoirs, the water beingdelivered direct to the filter-beds. The filtered water is

pumped to a service reservoir on St. George’s Hill. The

analyses made by the experts of the company were in favourof the company ; those made by the Jenner Institute of Pre-ventive Medicine were unsatisfactory. Doubtless, as Dr.Seaton suggests, the conditions of collection varied, but at thesame time the strength of a chain is measured by the resist-ance of its weakest link. Having regard to these discrepanciesDr. Seaton, who received the assistance of the company inhis inquiries, procured a sample before filtration and a sampleafter filtration, seeking by this means to ascertain whetherthe filtered water gave average results which are satisfactoryat all times, and under all conditions of the river. Thewater was also examined bacteriologically and for this

purpose 50 samples were taken. The results of this

bacteriological examination were, we are told, satisfactory,but on the other hand the chemical results were unsatis-factory. It is not clear if the filtrate of each -filter wassubmitted to examination or whether there are automaticarrangements for checking the rate of filtration of each filter.But in the meantime the company applied for Parliamentarypowers to construct subsidence reservoirs and the countycouncil were able finally to arrange terms upon which alonetheir opposition to the Bill would be withheld. It may there-fore be said that the Surrey County Council have here per-formed a useful service. Other action has also been taken

by this county council in reference to another water

company.

Coventry Urban Distriot.-By the provisions of the

Coventry Corporation Act, 1900, power has been procured bywhich the corporation, having erected an abattoir, mayrevoke, cancel, or call in any licence granted by them,either before or after the passing of the Act, with regard toprivate slaughter-houses, subject to the condition that com-pensation to the owner shall be given. Similarly the

corporation have power to close any private slaughter-housewhich in their opinion is injurious or dangerous to the publichealth. It will be interesting to note how these provisionsare applied in practice.

Kingston-upon-Hull Urban District.-Dr. Wright Mason,in reporting upon the cases of small-pox which occurred atHull during 1900, gives a brief summary of the whole out-break. There were in all 943 cases notified with 163 deaths.There were removed to hospital 904 cases, and of these 748.were vaccinated and 156 showed no evidence of vaccinationfrom marks." The fatality-rate of the vaccinated was 10’2per cent. and that of the unvaccinated was 48’7 per cent.,The total fatality-rate was 16’9 per cent. 20 vaccinatedchildren under 10 years of age were attacked, with no-

deaths, while of the 60 children attacked who showed noevidence of vaccination 27 died-i. e., the fatality-rate was 4&per cent.

Hastings Urban -Distg-ict.--Dr. Scarlyn Wilson refers inhis current annual report to the practice of the I I inflati c n, orblowing up, of the connective tissue of young animals, suchas calves and lambs, immediately after death. This opera-tion is held to improve the appearance of the meat, and ther eis no doubt that it imparts a fallacious idea of bulk andperhaps, too, of freshness. In other words, it must be

regarded as a questionable practice. Dr. Wilson states thatinflation" " is practised on ill-nourished meat by the directlung power of the slaughterer, and certainly this proceedingshould be unhesitatingly condemned. We have ourselvesseen inflation" " by means of a pump. But here is another

argument for public slaughter-houses where processes such asthis may either be controlled or prohibited.

VITAL STATISTICS

HEALTH OF ENGLISH TOWNS.

IN 33 of the largest English towns 5893 births and 4863deaths were registered during the week ending August 10th.The annual rate of mortality in these towns, which had risenfrom 14’8 to 22 4 per 1000 in the six preceding weeks, declinedagain to 22 ’1 last week.. In London the death-rate was 18’3per 1000, while it averaged 24-3 in the 32 large provincialtowns. The lowest death-rates in these towns were 11-9 inBristol, 12’0 in Croydon, 12’1 in Wolverhampton, and 14’5in Plymouth ; the highest rates were 32’6 in Sheffield, 33-7in Sunderland, 34’1 in Salford, and 40’6 in Gateshead.The 4862 deaths in these towns last week included 1724which were referred to the principal zymotic diseases,against 1508 and 1755 in the two preceding weeks ;.of these 1436 resulted from diarrhosal diseases, 98from measles, 71- from diphtheria, 57 from whooping-cough, 34 from "fever" (principally enteric), 27 fromscarlet fever, and one from small-pox. The lowest death-rates from these diseases were recorded in Bristol,Cardiff, Swansea, and Halifax ; and the highest ratesin West Ham, Salford, Leeds, Sheffield, Sunderland,and Gateshead. The greatest proportional mortalityfrom measles occurred in West Ham, Birmingham,Salforcl, Leeds, and Sheffield ; from whooping-coughin Sunderland ; and from diarrhoeal diseases in Ports-

mouth, Manchester, Salford, Shefiield, Sunderland, andGateshead. The 71 deaths from diphtheria included 24-in London, seven in West Ham, seven in Leeds, six in

Brighton, and four in Leicester. One fatal case of small-

pox was registered in London, but not one in anyother of the 33 large towns ; the number of small-poxpatients under treatment in the Metropolitan Asylumshospitals, which had been 14, 11, and 13 at theend of the three preceding weeks, had declinedagain to 11 on Saturday, August 10th ; three new

cases were admitted during the week, against five,two, and four in the three preceding weeks. Thenumber of scarlet fever patients in these hospitals and inthe London Fever Hospital at the end of the week was

3148, against 2907, 2974, and 3091 on the three precedingSaturdays ; 306 new cases were admitted during the week,