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Notes, Short Comments, and Answersto Correspondents.

FRENCH AND GERMAN PREPARATION OF ENGLISHMEDICAL MEN FOR THE INTERNATIONAL

CONGRESS OF MEDICINE.

THE official languages for papers and discussions at the Congress beingEnglish, French, and German, many English practitioners who,while reading foreign medical literature with ease, may not have hadopportunities of acquiring that knowledge of spoken French andGerman which is necessary for the appreciation of the various im-portant points that will arise at the Congress, may be glad to learnof a scheme which is advertised in another part of THE LANCET.Mr. A. le Forestier is arranging a series of lectures on medical

subjects to be delivered in French and German, which will be followedby discussions in those languages, and further particulars may beobtained from him at 20, Baker-street, London, W.

MOSQUITO DESTRUCTION.MOS QUITOES. in the winter of cold countries, in the dry season in thetropics, find their energy much diminished and hide themselves incellars or houses ; then is the time to deal with them. Ross destroysthem by oiling ponds and killing the larvae (which are uninfected), andSteudel insists that it is even more important to kill the mosquitoesbefore they lay the eggs from which the larvae will hatch out.

Giemsa thinks it is even better to hunt them in the houses inthe rainy season. Unless they are laying their eggs they getto cover in the houses which they haunt, seeking the bloodthat makes their eggs fertile, and at the same time becomingmalarial infected, dang erous, and most suitable for slaughter. Anattack upon them now will destroy a particularly high proportionof fertile infected females, and so will do the maximum of good.Giemsa (Archiv fiir schiffs- und Tropen-Hygiene, March) notes

that, little damaged as mosquitoes are by poisons touching theirmouth apparatus, they easily succumb to suitable sprays which clogtheir tracheae. The spray he recommends is tincture of pyrethrum(20 per cent. in methylated spirit) 54 per cent., soft soap 18 per cent.,glycerine 24 per cent., for a stock solution. This, 1-20 in water, hesprays with a pressure spraying nozzle (a suction spray as in a per-fume bottle weakens the solution too much). He works all over theroom at 20 inches range, and repeats the process every week in thenative houses, and thus he allows no infected female to escape atleast one spraying during her incubation of the malarial parasite.

ECZEMA AND PREGNANCY.

To the Editor of THE LANCET.SIR,-Is eczema in a pregnant woman likely to be followed by eczema

in the child ? A patient of mine, the mother of a large family, bringsme her boy of 5 years, who always suffers from eczema. The motherattributes it to the fact that she was very bad with eczema during herpregnancy with him. None of the other children are affected, and shehad no severe attack whilst carrying any of the others. I can find noreference to the matter. I am, Sir, yours faithfully,Dublin, May 9th, 1913. J. C. MCWALTER, M.D.

"AN OFFERING TO THE GODS."

Captain W. Tarr, M.D., F.R.C.S. Edin., 1.M.S., Khandwa, C.P., writes :-"On March 20th, at Mandhata, a holy place on the Nerbudda,Lachman, an ascetic, aged 45, went to the temple of Shiva, at whichhe had been a worshipper, put his left arm on the threshold, and withtwo blows of an axe severed the hand at the wrist; he then placedthe hand before the idol and went to tell the priest; the latter appliedan impromptu ligature round the forearm and brought him tohospital. He was quite happy, and said he had felt no pain. I foundthat the hand had been amputated by a clean cut through the wrist-joint, just removing the articular surface of the radius. I explainedto him the necessity of a further operation, and proposed an anaes-thetic ; he refused chloroform, as he was quite confident he wouldfeel no pain. I proceeded to clean up the arm and do the necessaryoperation, which, of course, included sawing through both bones,while he looked on in a calm and interested manner ; it was quiteevident that, for the time being, his sense of pain was in abeyance."

A TRAGEDY IN A PILL FACTORY.THE imprudence of youth in the matter of dietetic excess is wellknown, but we do not remember to have heard of any previous casequite like that of Walter Langridge, aged 16, into the details ofwhose death a coroner’s jury inquired on April 27th. This boy wasemployed in Bermondsey as a pill packer, and the evidence showedthat in bravado he swallowed 40 or 50 pills. All the employees had,

it seems, been warned against any such indiscretion, and the

deceased himself was remonstrated with by a fellow employee with-out success. He was received into Guy’s Hospital, where an alter-native diagnosis of ptomaine poisoning was considered to be possible,but this was negatived by the post-mortem examination. The pills,according to the Tioaes, contained aloes, podophyllin, henbane,hyoseyamus, and jalap, a somewhat formidable mixture, thoughprecisely what the difference is between the third and the fourth ofthese ingredients the authorities at Printing House Square mightfind it difficult to say.

BED-BUGS AND PLAGUE.

ACCORDING to the Report of the Bureau of Health for the Philippinesfor the quarter ending Dec. 31st, 1912, plague was imported in 1912after an absence of six years, but was promptly and successfullydealt with. An interesting point in this connexion is that 9 cases,all fatal, which occurred in Iloilo were confined to two houses, andas a rat campaign extending over three months failed to demonstrateany rat infection, it is suggested that bed-bugs may have been theconveyers of infection.

A WARNING.

A CORRESPONDENT informs us that a working man-brown hair, thickset, standing 6 feet in height, wearing a suit of dark material-iscalling on medical men. When asked for his Insurance card he

says he is not insured. He complains of his throat aching and thathe has shivering attacks. In payment of the fee he places whatappears to be half a sovereign on the writing-table. If any medicalman is visited by this person he would do well to detain him and sendfor the police. He is wanted by the police at Willesden Green, N.W.,for passing counterfeit coin.

E. A. C. T.-The preparation mentioned by our correspondent is quitegood for the extermination of rats. It should be pointed out, how-ever, that care must be taken to prevent its transference to anyarticles of food, since it is quite capable of producing infective gastro-enteritis in the human subject. As to where the rats deposit them-selves to die, the pious hope of the originator of the virus is that theywill be deveured by their nearest relatives, who in turn also succumbto the disease. In laboratory experiments enly about 30 to 40 percent. of rats are killed, so presumably the balance are well able todispose of the dead bodies, but the preparation referred to is quite asgood as any of the viruses on the market.

W. T. B.-It is the duty of the husband to give notice of the birth tothe registrar. In default of the parents, it is the duty of the medicalman, in common with other persons present at the birth, to reportit to the registrar.

Mr. H. Hamilton-Hoare.-The character of the advertisement suffi-

ciently explains why the advertiser’s name is not in the Medical

Directory.A. R. C.-It is useless and dangerous to purchase such things exceptunder medical advice and supervision.

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

M E T E O R O L O G I C A L R E A D I N G S.(Taken daily at 8.30 a.m. by Stewarcrs In8trunwnt8.)

THE LANCET Office, May 14th, 1913.

The following journals, magazines, &c., have been received :-Æsculape, American Journal of Medical Sciences, American Journalof Surgery, Annali dell’ Istituto Maragliano, American Journal ofClinical Medicine, Archives de Medecine et Pharmacie Navales,Archiv fiir Schiffs- und Tropen-Hygiene, Maryland Medical Journal,Indian Medical Record, Calcutta Medical Journal, Indian MedicalJournal, Guy’s Hospital Gazette, Bulletin of the Johns HopkinsHospital, Man, Archives of Pediatrics, International Journal of

Surgery, Archives de Medecine et de Pharmacie Militaires, DieTherapie der Gegenwart, Monthly Cyclopedia and Medical Bulletin,Jahrbuch fiir Kinderheilkunde, Canadian Journal of Medicine andSurgery.