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Notes Short Comments, and Answersto Correspondents.PRAYERS FOR THE SICK.

UNDER this title a correspondent of the Halifax Ctmrter, writing abovethe initials " J. W. S.," has suggested that when prayers are asked ina place of worship for sick persons there should be rendered to thosesick persons or their friends the aid of a medical consultation as wellas the spiritual assistance which is sought. His suggestion is that theminister should " have the privilege, as an act of grace, to ask or tooffer to send any physician or doctor in his congregation to go and seethe sick person and consult with the medical attendant to find out ifsome other means of remedy cannot be tried to restore health." Healso adds the suggestion that "there should be a town’s physicianof advice for the medical officers of health in towns to

apply for advice in dangerous cases amongst the poor, and forsuch visit or advice to be free or the fee quite optional."We fear that his first proposal is not exactly practical and the inter-vention of the minister, however well meant, can only lead toconfusion. The patient, the friends of the patient, and the medicalman in attendance upon the patient might all have reasons for

desiring a particular consultant and they could obtain his services .

directly. On the other hand, there might be no reason whatever for -

inviting the opinion of any one of the medical men forming a regularpart of the minister’s congregation. We do not quite understandwhat "J. W. S." means by his second proposal; it is very obscurelyworded, and we think that he is not quite clear in his mind as to whata medical officer of health may be. A community could not supportand pay a consulting physician for reasons that will be apparent toanyone who knows anything of the proper relations between medicalmen and the public.

THE FIRST MEDICAL BOOK PUBLISHED.

To the Editor of THE LANCET.

SIR,-In THE LANCET of August 22nd, p. 596, in " Notes Short Com-ments, and Answers to Correspondents," referring to "An Adaptable

i

Remedy and a Famous Quack," Mr. R. S. Wilkinson believes the

"Compleat Practise of Physick," 1655, to be the first medical bookpublished in English. I have in my possession, and in English, awell-preserved edition of-

" The Breuvary of Health, named the Extravagantesfolloweth compyled by Andrewe Boorde of Physickedoctor.

Examined in Oxford in June the yere of our Lord MCCCCCXLVI.and in the reigne of our souerayne Lorde Kynge Henry the viij.,King of Englande, Fraunce, and Irelande, the xxxviij. yere.And newly Imprinted & Corrected the yere of our Lorde GodMCCCCCLII.

Imprinted at London in Flete Strete at the signe of the Georgenext to Saynt Dunstone’s Church by Willyam Powell. In the yereof our Lord God MDLII."

I have a rather dim recollection of an Andrewe Boorde, M.D., as men-tioned by one of the commentators on Shakespeare. I have a furtheridea of having once read that an itinerant quack of the name ofAndrewe Boorde was the original merry Andrew. It would be

interesting if any of your readers could throw light on curious oldmatters of this kind. I am, Sir, yours faithfully,Worthing, August 24th, 1908. WILLIAM KELLY, M.R.C.S. Eng.PS.-It would be interesting to know if there is in existence an

earlier medical book published in English than this one of AndreweBoorde printed in 1552.

PUBLIC HEALTH AND SANITATION IN WEI-HAI-WEI.

Mr. J. H. Stewart Lockhart, C.M.G., in his annual report on thisterritory-which, it will be remembered, was leased to Great Britainby China by a convention made in July, 1898-mentions that therehas been remarkable freedom from disease during the past year. Nocases of small-pox were reported. The Chinese inhabitants are fullyalive to the advantages of vaccination, which has been systematicallycarried out. The number of vaccinations performed were 3737 on themainland and 128 on the island, as compared with 3064 on the main-land and 223 on the island in 1906. There was little dysentery at anytime during the year. Although no enteric fever could be tracedlocally there were two cases among the summer visitors. Ono ofthese was certainly imported from Shanghai; the origin of the otherwas more obscure but it seems probable that in this case also infectionwas introduced from outside the territory. Three cases of beri-berioccurred among the Japanese in connexion with a single building;the house and soil have been thoroughly disinfected and it is hopedthat there will be no recurrence of the disease. The sanitary conditionof Port Edward and the island is good. A now dairy erected on themainland has been well kept and has supplied milk of a goodquality. In the civil hospitals the in-patients treated during the yearon the island numbered 35 and at Port Edward 120. There wereon the island 2520 out-patients and at Port Edward 2306; these

:figures show a very satisfactory increase, the number of admissions at

Port Edward being nearly three times as many as in the previousyear. The behaviour and health of prisoners in the gaol wereexcellent. It has been found that the cure during imprisonment ofany but the most confirmed opium smokers has been effected bydepriving the smoker entirely of the drug at the cost to him of notmore than a week or ten days of diarrhœa and malaise. Cases ofsuicide in Wei-hai-wei have been comparatively numerous. By far the.greater number occur among women, the motive in many cases beingtrivial in the extreme. The frequency of suicide appears to be duepartly to the fact that the idea of death in itself does not seem to actas a deterrent, and partly to the fact that the taking one’s own life is.apparently not regarded as disgraceful or as implying any moralobliquity. The district officer reports that so far as his experiencegoes the only occasions on which an act of suicide is condemned bythe general voice of the community are when a young marriedwoman destroys herself before she has presented her husband witha son or while she is still nursing an infant. The meteorologicalreturn for 1907 shows that the highest monthly barometrical averagewas for December, 30’209 inches, and the lowest for August, 29.624inches, the average monthly range being 0’546 inch. The highesttemperature was 92° F., recorded in June and August, and the lowest7° F., in January and February. Rain or snow fell on 90 days, theannual fall being 37’85 inches, an amount higher than the average andexceeded only once in the last seven years. July was the wettestmonth with a rainfall of 12’29 inches.

AN ANCIENT PICTURE.

A CORRESPONDENT asks us for information concerning an old picture,presumably an engraving, which has recently come into his posses-sion. The subject is stated to be Harvey describing the circulationof the blood to Charles I., and it is signed in the left-hand corner" Robert Hannah " and in the right " Henry Lemon." It representsHarvey with a heart in his hand addressing Charles 1., the viscusprobably being that of a deer, as a deer’s head is on the table. ThePrince of Wales is leaning over the table with a Virgil in his hand andfour other figures are grouped round, two of whom are presumablyphysicians as they are pressing their traditional round-knobbed

walking sticks against their nether lips. Our correspondent would, like suggestions for the names of these physicians and any information

that may be forthcoming about the picture.

WF have received from Messrs. Heynes, Mathew, and Co., of CapeTown a catalogue of scientific apparatus which they are preparedto supply to medical men, public health authorities, departmentsof agriculture, practical mineralogists, and so on in South Africa.The catalogue contains all the usual urinometers and saccharo-meters and the prices quoted for more expensive articles such asbacteriological microscopes, prospectors’ outfits, incubators, andmicrotomes are distinctly reasonable.

Dr. John M. Thompson (Chicago).-Our correspondent’s address is un-decipherable. The powder was analysed in our Laboratory and saidto contain the very ordinary ingredients which occur in well-knownformulse of a similar sort. We added that we had received a list oftestimonials containing " arrant nonsense." It is our experience thatthe American quack habitually and wrongfully makes use of our namein the way now brought to our knowledge. Letters pointing out thefact to the editors of American newspapers have no effect, so that wecan occupy our time in more useful ways than writing them. Ournote upon the powder was published in THE LANCET of April 26th,1902, p. 1192. Perhaps our correspondent could assure the editor ofthe paper publishing the advertisement that the advertiser is aninaccurate person. We are sure that we should be unable to persuadehim to have no more dealings of the sort.

COMMUNICATIONS not noticed in our present issue will receive attentionin our next.

M ETEOROLOGICAL READINGS.(Taken daily at 8.30 a.m. by Steward’s Instriuments.)

THE LANCET Office, Sept. 3rd, 1908.

During the week marked copies of the following newspapershave been received :-Times, Daily News, Star, Yorkshire Post,Glasgow Herald, Pall Mall Gazette, Science Siftings, Daily Chronicle,Sheffield Weekly Telegraph, Daily Telegraph, Liverpool Mercury,Birmingham Post, Irish Independent, Scotsman, Neucastle DailyChronicle, Army and Navy Gazette, Thames Valley Times, HullEastern Morning News, (vzc.