1441

owing to the block in the circulation and could not over-take it to neutralise its effect. The bacteria of hog choleraand many streptococci, said Professor Wassermann, havemore than one kind of molecule carrying the same toxin.These molecules therefore can be assimilated by differentreceptors in the cells of the patient. Hence, the anti-serum for such organisms should be prepared not from asingle pure culture but from several cultures injected intoanimals whose various seras would then supply a proper andeffective mixed antiserum. This he had found to be the case

also for antisera in the treatment of typhoid fever and ofinfection by the bacterium coli, as mixed antisera were the

only ones found to be really effective. " Children recoveringfrom diphtheria," adds Professor Wassermann, "are found tohave diphtheria bacilli present in their throats and naso-

pharynx long after recovery. The use of mixed antiserum

is necessary in preventing continued occurrence of these

organisms, for then the child can go to school without fear ofinfecting others." The antiserum is dried, made into tabletswhich the children have to suck, and in a few days all

diphtheria bacilli are found to have disappeared.

A PROVINCIAL sessional meeting of the Royal SanitaryInstitute will be held at the Council Chamber, Exchange-buildings, Nottingham, on Saturday, Nov. 26th, at 11 A.M.,when a discussion will take place on Some Present-dayAspects of Conservancy Systems. The discussion will be

opened by Dr. Philip Boobbyer, medical officer of health ofNottingham. The chair will be taken by Mr. William

Whitaker, B.A., F.R.S., chairman of council of the Institute.Tickets for admission of visitors may be had 0:1 applicationto Dr. Boobbyer, Guildhall, Nottingham, who is acting asthe local honorary secretary of the meeting, and fromMr. E. White Wallis, secretary, Parkes Museum, Margaret-street, London, W.

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AT the next meeting of the Royal Medical and ChirurgicalSociety to be held on Tuesday, Nov. 22nd, at 8.30 P.M., therewill be a discussion on Chloroform Anaesthesia and demon-strations of apparatus and instruments for the adminis-tration of the anesthetic. A short paper will be read

by Dr. A. G. Levy and the general discussion will be

opened by Dr. F. W. Hewitt. Probably it will be

necessary to adjourn the meeting so that the subjectmay receive full consideration from all points of view.Gentlemen wishing to take part in the discussion are

requested to communicate at once with the honorarysecretaries, 20, Hanover-square, London, W.

THE annual dinner of the Royal Free Hospital and Schoolof Medicine for Women will be held at the Hotel Cecil,London, on Wednesday, Dec. 14th, at 7.15 P.M. Dr. Har-

rington Sainsbury will take the chair. Past and presentmembers of the hospital staff and school desiring to be

present should communicate with one of the honorary secre-taries, Dr. A. G. Phear, 47, Weymouth-street, W., and Mr.T. P. Legg, 141, Harley-street, W.

THE funeral of the late Dr. Achille Vintras, physician tothe French Embassy and senior physician to the FrenchHospital in London, took place on Nov. 15th. The requiemwas sung at 11.30 A.M. in the Church of Notre Dame deFrance in Leicester-place, Leicester-square, and was attendedby His Excellency 1f. Paul Cambon, the French Ambassador.

THE general meeting of the London Chemists’ Associa- Ition will be held on Nov. 23rd at St. Bride’s Institute, Fleet-street, E.C., commencing at 3.45 P.M. Among the agenda isthe reading of a paper on a Better Understanding betweenMedical Men and Chemists and how this can be broughtabout by the Committee for its Members.

A MEETING of the Faculty of Medicine of the Univer-

sity of London will be held on Tuesday, Dec. 6th, at

5 P.M. Any member desiring to bring forward business isrequested to give notice of motion to the honorary secretaryof the Faculty of Medicine, University of London, S.W., onor before Saturday, Nov. 26th.

THE President of the Royal College of Surgeons of

England, Mr. J. Tweedy, will unveil the memorial windowto the late Mr. W. Cadge in Norwich Cathedral on Tuesday,Dec. 6th, at 3 P.M. The Dean of Norwich proposes to

conduct a short service on the occasion.

A SPECIAL meeting of the Hunterian Society will be heldon Wednesday, Nov. 23rd, at 8.30 P.M., to consider the

following resolution passed by the council on Nov. 9th :" That it is advisable to dispose of the library with certainreservations." "

____

AT the meeting of the Chelsea Clinical Society to be heldon Dec. 20th Dr. R. L. Bowles proposes to bring forward thesubject of the best method of artificial respiration for re.suscitating the partially drowned.

Mr. H. T. Butlin has been elected a representative of

the Royal College of Surgeons of England on the Senate ofthe University of London in the place of Sir Henry G.Howse, resigned. -

THE annual dinner of the Otological Society of the UnitedKingdom will be held at the Trocadero Restaurant, Piccadilly-circus, London, on Monday, Dec. 5th, at 7.30 P.M.

MENTAL HYGIENE IN CHILDHOOD.

DR. T. B. HYSLOP gave an interesting address on MentalHygiene in Childhood before the members of the ChildhoodSociety at the Royal Sanitary Institute, London, on Nov. 10th.He said that the mental health of the community was aproblem which was asserting itself with such ever-increasingand almost overwhelming force that alone it might wellstand as sufficient justification for not only individual inquirybut for the most serious consideration of the nation. In the

report of the Commissioners in Lunacy for England andWales, 1904, they learnt that there were in England andWales on Jan. 1st, 117,199 notified lunatics. The ratioof insane to the population of England and Wales wasinstructive, the aggregate on Jan. lst last giving a ratioof 1 insane person to 288 sane persons. That ratio had

steadily increased from the year 1859 (when trustworthystatistics of insanity commenced) at which date the ratiostood at 1 to 536. That rise had not been quite regular forall classes, the increase having been practically confined tothe pauper class. Dr. Hyslop emphasised the importanceof these figures and observed that it would be interestingto determine how long it would be before the ratio was as

1 1 to 1, certainly not long when the drop in the ratio of248 in 45 years was taken into account. In Scotland theratio was 1 to 279 and in New South Wales 1 to 299. TheAmerican lunacy figures were more startling. In hisstatistical report for last year the superintendent of the

Chicago Insane Asylum stated that Chicago contained oneinsane person to every 150. The percentage had quadrupledin 50 years and was increasing at the fastest rate in theworld. Those figures referred to certified lunatics underofficial cognisance and did not include imbeciles permittedto remain as citizens nor the thousands on the borderlandbetween sanity and insanity. If statistics were providedrelating to those who by reason of mental infirmity wereincapacitated from competing with their fellow beings or

even aiding in their own survival, the true state of affairswould be more completely realised and one and all wouldrise in revolt at the insidious onset of a national dementiawhich ere long it might be too late to combat or even

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to ameliorate. The researches on fatigue lately conductedby scientific observers showed that strength was lessenedby continued effort even in moderate degree, and in

spite of the difficulties attending the investigation ofthe effects of fatigue on the brain it is now definitelyascertained that excessive muscular effort lessened or evenabolished the sensory power of the cerebral centres. It wasalso interesting to note that the imperfect attention of pupilsso frequently recorded as evidence of brain weariness wassimply an expression of imperfect brain power resultingfrom over-exertion and that brain fatigue commonly induceda failure of memory and of the power of grasping a subject.Physical or mental exercise, when indulged in to excess andnot rendered complementary the one to the other, in the

long run proved baneful to the mental or physical health ofthe individual. The individual who had undergone too earlyexcessive mental strain found himself at a comparatively ’vearly age suffering from one of the numerous forms of Ineurasthenia, or, in other words, exhaustion from too earlyand excessive use of functions which ought in the life-

history of the individual to have developed more graduallyand at a later period. The present age was one of too earlyand too rapid mental growth-Dr. Hyslop would not, andcould not, say mental development. The early andsevere taxation upon the resources of the brain pro-duced effects which were becoming more and more

disastrous and explained why mental and cerebral diseasestended to appear at an earlier age and were charac-terised by great severity and lessened curability. The

young, of course, must be suitably educated to fit them forthe competition of modern life. As to the extent to whichthis should be carried in early childhood there was a dis-crepancy between the doctrinaires of the Education Depart-ment and the views of those possessing any knowledge ofthe laws of nature or who as physicians dealt with cases ofdisease arising from the violation of these laws. The red-

tape officialbm of the Education Department was oftensupreme over medical experience and hence it came aboutthat the physician must still raise his protesting voice aslong as children before the age of puberty were overworkedinto disease or death. Undoubtedly the first years of lifeshould be mainly occupied by moral and physical trainingand during that period the amount of mental cultivationwhich a child’s brain was capable of receiving with permanentadvantage was much less than was commonly believed.Hence arose a very important practical question in connexionwith compulsory elementary education. A large proportion ofthose who must come within the provisions of the educationaldepartment in most large cities were ill-fed children ofthe poorest classes, and children thus debilitated by priva-tion were necessarily as much incapacitated for any mentalstrain as they were for the accomplishment of any feat ofphysical strength. Dr. Hyslop declared that he was by nomeans alone in saying that it was inhuman, injudicious, andimpolitic to expect the fulfilment of educational standard

requirements by children so circumstanced. If for reasonsof public policy all children are forced by the State to hecompulsorily educated from their earliest years means shouldcertainly be afforded by which that might be carried outleast injuriously. The deterioration of the physical andmental stamina so much discussed of late had been con-sidered to be due to the fact that a large part of the firstyears of life which should be primarily devoted to religious ormoral as well as physical training was now given up to thedevelopment of the mental powers. Children were too earlycompelled to attend some school where their immaturebrains were forced into abnormal and disastrous activity.He believed that for the physical and mental welfare ofthe race such an imposition as compulsory education shouldbe withheld from at least one-half of those who were nowundergoing sentence in board schools. The present timewas undoubtedly a brain age, but it was an age when brainswere forced to grow at the expense of development. It wasnot an age of thought and reason but one of rememberedfacts and transmitted ideas.

ROYAL DEVON AND EXETER HOSPITAL.-Mrs.Nosworthy of Dawlish has offered to defray the whole cost(estimated at .S1000) of the etection of a new operatingtheatre for the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital, providedthat all the subscribers who have already promised donationstowards the new theatre allow them to be placed to thecredit of the general funds of the hospital.

ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS OFENGLAND.

AN ordinary meeting of the Council was held on Nov. 10th,M[r. JOHN TWEEDY, the President, being in the chair.It was resolved that diplomas of Membership should be

ssued to 102 successful candidates.A report was read from the finance committee which

stated that for the quarter ending Michaelmas, 1904, the.neome of the College exceeded the " expenditure in respect)f income " by .6665 ; though the income had decreased byE320 the expenditure had also been reduced by 221. The

report was approved.A report was presented from the committee of manage-

ment on a communication which had been received from theBoard of Education in reference to a proposal for organisinga system of school certificates. It was referred to a specialcommittee to advise as to the form of answer to be sent,the Council approving of the general terms of the reportmentioned.

Mr. H. T. Butlin was elected as the representative of theCollege in the Senate of the University of London in thevacancy occasioned by the resignation of Sir Henry G.Howse.A letter was read from Mr. R. M. Banks thanking the

Council for its resolution of condolence in reference to thedeath of his father, Sir William Mitchell Banks.A letter was read from the clerk of the Privy Council

transmitting, by direction of the Lord President of theCouncil, a copy of a letter addressed to the General MedicalCouncil stating that the Lord President had had under con-sideration the proposal of the General Medical Council forthe establishment of a register of medical students and theimposition of a registration fee not exceeding 1, and thathis lordship had also received communications on the subjectfrom the Presidents of the Royal Colleges of Physicians ofLondon and Surgeons of England and suggesting that, "inthe circumstances, it might be expedient for the MedicalCouncil to confer with the Colleges with a view to thepreparation of a scheme providing for their cooperationtowards the desired end on a basis that would in some formor other recognise existing rights."

"

A letter was read from the clerk of the Privy Counciltransmitting, by direction of the Lord President of theCouncil, a copy of a note from the Portuguese Charged’Affaires forwarded to his lordship by the Secretary of Stateinviting the attendance of representatives at the FifteenthInternational Medical Congress to be held at Lisbon in

April, 1906.A letter was read from the secretary of the Royal Sanitary

Institute inviting the College to send delegates to a confer-ence and exhibition on School Hygiene to be held in Londonin February, 1905.A letter was read from the president and honorary secre-

tary of the Royal Institute of Public Health inviting theCollege to send delegates to the next annual Congress of theinstitute to be held in London from July 19th to 25th, 1905.The President and the Vice-Presidents were authorised to

appoint all these delegates.The PRESIDENT reported that he had accepted an invitation

to unveil the Cadge Memorial window in Norwich Cathedralon Dec. 6th.The PRESIDENT stated that the vacancy in the court of

examiners occasioned by the expiration of Mr. Bernard Pitts’speriod of office would be filled up at the next ordinary meet-ing of the Council on Dec. 8th and that Mr. Bernard Pittswould be a candidate for re-election.The SECRETARY reported the notices of motion for the

annual meeting of Fellows and Members on Nov. 17th.

REPORT OF THE HEALTH OFFICER OFCALCUTTA FOR 1903.1

DURING the year 1903 it would appear that the registeredbirth-rate for Calcutta was 15 ’ 5 per 1000 of the population,and as Mr. Cook remarks that the true birth-rate there

1 Report of the Health Officer of Calcutta for the year 1903. ByJ. N. Cook, D.P.H. Cantab., Health Officer. Calcutta: Printed at theCorporation Press. 1904. Pp. 28.