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A TYPICAL CASE OF FOOT AND MOUTH DISEASE:INTERESTING ILLUSTRATIONS.

WE are indebted to Mr. T. R. D. Carruthers, of St. Vincent-street, Edinburgh, for the interesting photographs whichwe reproduce below. The infected cow was attacked during the recent outbreak of this disease in Edinburgh, and the darkmarkings on the tongue and at the division of the hoof indicate well the site and appearance of the disease. The

photographs were from specimens supplied by Professor J. R. U. Dewar, Principal of the Royal (Dick) Veterinary College,Edinburgh.

MEDICINE AND THE LAW.

Bromn v. Butler Negligenoe in Supplying Impure Wate’l’.AN action, the hearing of which lasted for several days,

ended recently in a verdict awarding damages to a widow,Mrs. Margaret Sophy Brown, in respect of the death ofher husband, formerly farm bailiff at the Three Counties

Asylum, Arlesey, Bedfordshire. The defendant was suedas the clerk to the committee of visitors of the asylum andthe claim was based upon the alleged negligence of thedefendant in supplying impure water for the consumptionof the deceased with the result that he contracted entericfever and died. There was a further allegation of negli.gence with regard to the medical attendance suppliedto him under his contract of service, but this portion ofthe claim was abandoned after the evidence had shownthat it could not be sustained. The evidence proved thatthe water supplied to the inmates of the asylum and to thecottage of the deceased, which was within the groundsbelonging to the asylum, was derived from two wells andthat it went through a softening process, being afterwardspumped up to water towers whence it reached the con-snmers. It was part of the widow’s case that drains con-veying sewage matter from the asylum to a sewage farmpassed near one of the wells and were found to be in a verybad state after the death of her husband had taken place,and apparently Sir Thomas Stevenson (who was calledfor the defence) had found the bacillus coli present inthe water, and Mr. G. F. Deacon, C.E. (also a witnessfor the defence), had attributed the enteric fever tothe condition of the water-supply in a report madeby him upon the subject. There was conflicting evidence

as to the nature and extent of the complaints madeby the Browns with regard to the water-supply and as toadmissions by officials of the asylum before his death withregard to its defects, but the fact that the plaintiff had beenalarmed at the appearance of the water was established,although it was not admitted on behalf of the defence thatits turbid condition, to which she called attention, wascaused by the presence in it of dangerous matter or wasconnected with her husband’s illness. For the defence itwas contended that the deceased had visited Yarmouth fora few days’ holiday, returning on July 25th, 1906, andthat his illness, of which he first complained on August 22ndand from which be died on Oct. lst, was, or might have been,contracted there; that no trace of enteric fever contami-nation was traceable in the water, and that if the water hadbeen contaminated a general outbreak in the asylum wouldhave taken place inevitably and not merely a single caseoutside it. There was also evidence that cases of entericfever had occurred in the neighbourhood, this being givenpresumably in order to show that, should the jury not ascribethe disease which affected the deceased to his visit toYarmouth, there were still sources other than the waterfrom which it could have been derived. Sir ThomasStevenson, in his evidence, supported the view that a

general outbreak should have taken place had the waterbeen to blame, and explained that his report as to theundesirable condition of the water was due to the presenceof the bacillus coli only. He also spoke of Yarmouth as aplace in which the deceased would be likely to contractenteric fever. Mr. Deacon explained that a passage in areport made by him in which he said that " I think thatthere is no room to doubt that the outbreak was caused bythe water " was based upon a mistaken belief that a general

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outbreak had taken place. The facts, apparently beyonddispute, that the water had not been in a condition ofpurity, and that the widow, who went into the witness-box to say so, had herself complained with regard to it,no doubt were accorded serious consideration by the jurywho awarded her E650 damages, for which sum judgmentwas entered by Mr. Justice Grantham, a stay of executionbeing refused.

The Pistol Again.The still frequent occurrence of accidents and intentional

injuries inflicted by pistols, which evidently have been

acquired by their possessors without any difficulty, points tothe insufficiency of the late Act of Parliament regulating thesale of such weapons, so far as the protection of the public isconcerned. A few weeks ago the suicide of a young lady ina train showed that she was in the habit of practisingshooting with a revolver and in her case the existingstatute would naturally have been of little avail and

perhaps no other one likely to be passed would havebeen much more effectual. More recently, however, another.woman has selected the same manner of committing suicideand in her case the enforcement of the Act might have givenher time for reflection and might have deterred her from herpurpose. It was not, however, enforced, with the result thatMr. A. H. Watson, a gun-maker in Bond-street, and his

. salesman were summoned before Mr. Denman recently at

Marlborough-street police court. At the hearing it wasshown that a lady known as Margaret Leighton or

Alcott bought the pistol at 3 o’clock in the after-noon and on the same evening shot herself withit in a railway carriage at South Kensington. Shehad paid for the weapon .S3 7s. 6d. and had obtained itwithout being obliged to produce a licence to carry firearmsas a preliminary condition, by means of an ingenious talethat she intended it as a present for her daughter who wasgoing to America. The salesman, apparently desiring tosave his customer 10s., allowed her to take away the weaponand as a result of the transaction each defendant had to paya fine of Z3 with 2s. costs. They had failed to insist uponsuch precautions as the law at present enjoins, but it canhardly be contended that these would necessarily have pre-vented the acquisition of a pistol by a person able andwilling to pay 3 7s. 6d. for it. More stringent regulationsmight render the purchase or possession of a revolver illegalfor any civilian unable to show that he required it for somelawful purpose, and the trade which would be diminishedthereby can hardly be regarded as one of importance or asone useful to the community.

A NEW VISUAL ILLUSION.1

VISUAL illusions are always interesting and this pamphletwith its nine illustrative plates describes a new form ofdeception in a very lucid manner. Dr. Fraser states that:" In all the hitherto published visual illusions of direction,with the exception of the chequer-board or Munsterbergillusion, the illusory lines or bands are definitely continuous,uninterrupted in character, of black or of white, on a con-trasting background. In the illusion of direction heredescribed each illusory band consists of a series of visiblydiscrete similar parts, all inclined at the same small angle tothe line of direction of the series to which they belong. Suchvisibly discrete similar parts may be conveniently termed’ units of direction.’ Where the illusory band consists ofalternating black and white units of direction,’ it maybe conveniently regarded as representing a cord consisting oftwo strands, black and white, twisted together." Thisarrangement he refers to in the subsequent descriptions of

. the illusions as the "twisted cord." A twisted cord laid

upon a grey or coloured background of intermediate

’luminosity will, he says, apparently deviate from its actualline of direction at an inclination corresponding in trend(but at a smaller angular degree) to the inclination of theunits of direction. This illusion is much increased in degreewhen the twisted cord is laid upon a chequer-work back-ground of squares of white, black, and an intermediatelyluminous grey in such a way that it bisects diagonally each

1 A New Visual Illusion of Direction. By James Fraser, M.B.,C.M. Aberd., Deputy Medical Superintendent, Central London SickAsylum. Reprint from the Journal of Psychology, vol. ii., part 3,January, 1908.

member of a series of black and white squares, itsblack and white units bisecting respectively white andblack squares (their contrasts) at a small angle withthe diagonal line of the square. Dr. Fraser’s descriptioncontinues as follows: " In such a figure each unit of directionis now, in effect, lengthened by the addition of a triangulararea of the same luminosity at each of its ends. Thesetriangular areas are derived or borrowed from the neigh-bouring squares belonging to the series on which the twistedcord lies, and they lie on opposite sides of the twisted

cord." The reader will find that on holding the pages containing the illustrated figures on a level with the eyes so aeto foreshorten the characters Dr. Fraser’s explanationbecomes at once comprehensible. The "units of direction ’

then remind us of horse-nails but with a head on each endon opposite sides placed slantwise to form the outlines of theletters forming the word LIFE. If one of the examplesis looked at in this manner the apparent sinuosity of outlinedisappears and the convergence and divergence of otherexamples are greatly modified. To see how great thismodification is, it is only necessary to print on a piece oftissue paper the word Life in simple straight characters ofthe same size as the apparently crooked letters. When therectangular word on the tissue paper is laid upon the"crooked word as printed above the superimposition willbe found almost exact. The paper well deserves study bythose interested in the subject.

THE FIRST INTERNATIONAL FIRST-AIDAND LIFE-SAVING CONGRESS.

THE First International First-Aid and Life-Saving Congresswhich will be held at Frankfort-on-Main during Whitsunweek of the present year, should prove to be of greatinterest, especially as the ever-increasing use of machineryand the altered conditions of the means of transit demand inthe interests of the public the fullest consideration of thequestions with which the Congress will deal.As will be seen from the programme, many of the matters

to be discussed have already received special attention in theUnited Kingdom, while the exhibition which will be held inconnexion with the Congress will afford an opportunity forthis country to occupy a fitting position in a movement ofgreat importance.The Congress will open on June 9th under the presidency

of His Excellency Dr. Count von Posadowsky when therewill be a reception of delegates in the Rathaus followedby a supper in the Ratskeller. On June 10th the

Congress will meet in I I Jilgel Haus " and later inthe day a banquet will be held in Frankfurter Hof. OnJune llth the sectional meetings will be followed by ageneral meeting and a visit to the opera in the evening.On June 12th the proceedings of the Congress will be con-tinued and a garden party will be held in the evening in thePalmengarten, and on June 13th, after the final meeting ofthe Congress, a visit will be made to the Hochst Farbwerkeand supper will be given at the Kurhaus at Homburg. Theprovisional programme also announces that the Congress willbe divided into ten sections dealing respectively withmedical first-aid in cases of accident, instruction of non-professionals in first-aid, ambulance work in towns, ambu-lance work in the country and in industrial and small com-munal centres, ambulance work on land (railway, automobile,&c.), ambulance work at sea and on inland and coast waters,ambulance work in mines and similar places, ambulance