1528 THE PREVALENCE OF INFLUENZA.

verdict of the coroner’s jury which dealt with this case.

On revising their decision, one point which strikes us

as indicating a want of due deliberation is the fact that,while freely blaming the original structure, they have singledout for particular censure only the person who is responsiblefor the latest addition. The most practical of their recom-mendations, however, is that which advises the systematicinspection by the Board of Trade of all such tall chimneys.This task should prove neither a difficult nor a costly additionto the Board’s present functions. Its fulfilment is evidentlycalled for, and would much enhance the public sense of

security. We would only add that such inspection, to be ofany value, must be of no merely perfunctory character, butshould include a specific statement of measures, and shouldalso be subject to official supervision.

THE PREVALENCE OF INFLUENZA.

INFLUENZA still continues to prevail widely, and it seemsnow to have crossed the Atlantic and reached New York.In Great Britain the disease has apparently increased in

virulence rather than otherwise, and in many districts has

considerably swollen the death-rate. Numerous cases are

reported to have occurred at the Ripley Hospital, Lan-caster ; and at the Royal Hospital, Stonehouse, a very largenumber of men and boys appear to be suffering from thedisease. From Exeter, Bristol, Liverpool, and the RhymneyValley a number of cases are reported, and in many part3of the country school attendance has been much diminishedby the incidence of the disease upon children. In London

during last week there were 127 deaths directly attributableto influenza, as against 22, 36, and 72 in the three weeks

preceding. There would seem to be a special tendency for thedisease in its present form to attack the pharynx and larynx,and these parts, in many cases, remain affected after all othersymptoms have passed away. Those who were attacked in

previous epidemics appear to be especially susceptible to thedisease in the present outbreak, so that any protectionafforded by one attack is apparently of short duration. In

Germany a marked increase in the death-rate has been

produced by influenza, and last month there were over 30deaths in Berlin directly referable to the disease. Deathsare also reported from Amsterdam, Prague, and Moscow.

OBSERVATIONS ON PERIPHERAL NEURITIS.

IN the Liverpool -Medico- Chirurgical Journal Dr. Alfred W.Campbell has published a series of observations which areparticularly of interest in their pathological aspect. In recent

years several observers have noted in fatal cases of peripberalalcoholic neuritis changes more or less obvious in the spinalcord and even in the higher centres, so that a widely pre-vailing belief has arisen that the disease is really charac-terised by widespread changes, probably the result of a poison,occurring in the nervous system as a whole. Dr. Campbell’sobservations certainly confirm such a view. He describes brieflythe clinical histories of four fatal cases of alcoholic neuritis inwhich the diagnosis was confirmed post-mortem. One ofthese is of particular interest because the subject of it was aboy aged only six years and a half. Briefly, then, these

cases are to be placed in the same clinical categoryas cases of polyneuritis alcoholica, and in all of them the

nerves, muscles, and small bloodvessels showed charac-teristic changes. All of them, moreover, presented diseaseof the spinal cord and medulla-viz., a scattered degenera-tion in all the white columns, particular strands - thecolumns of Goll, and Burdach and Lissauer’s root zones-

having suffered in a marked degree. The widespread dis-seminated character of the degeneration is noteworthy. Inno case did the degeneration follow physiological lines, andmotor and sensory columns were alike affected. The nervernots also were not unaffected for in the cervical and dorsal

regions the anterior and posterior roots on both sides werealtered, while in the lumbo-sacral segments the posterior rootswere more particularly degenerated. These results are definite

and interesting. The changes in the cord, as Dr. Campbellsupposes, probably account for the ataxy which is sometimespresent, and he is doubtless right in his contention that

the widespread character of the changes and the natureof these make it likely that the alterations in different partsof the nervous system are independent of one another and arereally the result of the influence of alcohol upon all parts ofit.

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THE DISCUSSION ON THE UNEMPLOYED.

Wjj! shall not be expected to go into the political or

economic problems involved in the discussion raised by Mr.Keir Hardie on the necessity of doing something unusualfor the unemployed. All must sympathise with honest andindustrious men without work to do. We think Mr. Hardiedid not add much to the strength of his case by his allusionto the increase in the number of suicides. To do workingmen justice, they are too sensible and too manly for such away out of misery. It is impossible to deny that manyof the suicides that have occurred of late have had

nothing to do with want of employment, but were theresult of morbid sentiment and sensationalism. We thinkMr. Balfour in his remarkable speech made too lightof the importance of efforts, legislative and economic, to

increase the attractiveness of the land as a source of occu-

pation and employment. We must not withhold our con-

gratulations to Sir Walter Foster on his able and sensible

speech. He perhaps expects too much from the "letting ofallotments," but, taken as a whole, his speech was sensibleand statesmanlike, and shows that the chief reliance ofBritish citizens must be on themselves and not on the State.

THE ABSENCE OF GLANDERS IN THE BRITISHARMY.

Wn lately had occasion to remark on the abeyance of

glanders and farcy in the British Army. The absence of

any infectious disease among animals depends primarily onthe care with which it is kept at a distance by those respon-sible for their health and on their sanitary surroundings.The success of the Director-General of the Army VeterinaryDepartment, Mr. Lambert, of his predecessor, and of theircolleagues has certainly been very complete. The last

case of glanders in the Army-i.e., in the troop horses,which average nearly 14,000 in number-occurred on

March 28th, 1833—over five years ago. It is probable thatsuch an immunity has never occurred in any army before, andshows the vigilance exercised in excluding infection and inmaintaining ventilation and cleanliness in their stables. This

is a comparatively easy matter when the officers of the ArmyVeterinary Department can select their own stables ; butthere are times when the mounted troops have to marchover the country and are billeted in all sorts of stables, as inthe colliery districts during the recent strikes. So far wehave heard of no accidents of infection, and we sincerelytrust that the long and creditable immunity from glandersand farcy of the horses of the British Army will be continued.

AMŒBIC DYSENTERY.

SINCE Dr. Uouncilman’s important investigation into thesubject of amoebic dysentery many cases have been fullyexamined and described, and much light has been thrown onthe subject. Dr. Quincke, whose valuable researches on othersubjects are well known, has lately described two cases whichhave come under his notice.l The symptoms were profusediarrhcea and frequent tenesmus. The characteristic amcebag

1 Wiener Medicinische Wochenschrift, No. 45, 1893.