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incontestatly St. Luke. Replying to the recent criticism ofDr. Clemen, an able German theologian, that "a Greek phy-sician would not have been likely to describe Herod Agrippa asbeing eaten of worms,’ " he reinforces the traditional view bythe high authority of Professor Macalister, who maintainsthat the disease in question, as affecting Herod Agrippa," was a sudden and fatal seizure of some abdominal com-

plaint, accompanied with intense agony and in some wayconnected with worms," while Sir J. Risdon Bennett

surmised that it was acute peritonitis due to perforationof the bowel by a worm-" a rare but not impossiblecondition." Of these two interpretations Dr. Knowlingrightly attaches more weight to that of the Cambridgeanatomist, who further points out that crK’h’B(M7-os(eaten of worms) is found in Theophrastus, and that in

ancient times such cases as that of Antiochus Epiphanes(II. Maccabees ix., 9) were common enough when

injuries were neglected, a view supported by referenceto Josephus (Ant. xvii., 6, 5). Another interestingcomment of Dr. Knowling is that the "first aid" "

applied by the Good Samaritan to the man maltreated

by brigands was practice quite in keeping with the thera-peutics of the first and second centuries, to which he

might have added that the pouring on " (not, as mis-

translated in the Authorised Version, "pouring in") of

oil and wine after the bandage had been applied wasmotive by the need of keeping the bandage from stiffening(hence the oil) and of stimulating the ansemic parts (hencethe wine). In fact, as indicated by the late Dean Alford, apaste, mainly compounded of these two ingredients, was inmedical use in the second century. Dr. Knowling’s essay isan able and scholarly vindication of what few but those

devoid of what William James calls the will to believe" "

will now venture to gainsay-that to a practising physicianin the mercantile marine of the Levant, whose name wasLuke, must be ascribed the Third Gospel, which, according toRenan, is the loveliest book ever written, and also of theActs, which Sir W. M. Ramsay esteems for its historical

merit as in every sense a masterpiece.

OCULAR PARALYSIS IN INTRACRANIAL TUMOUR.

IT has long been recognised that in cases of intracranialtumour weakness of one or both sixth nerves-sometimes

even of the third pair-may be present in cases in which

there is no reason to suppose that these nerves are directlyinvolved in the growth. The usual explanation that hasbeen offered is that the sixth nerves, on account of their

long course and exposed position, are particularly liable tohave their functions interfered with either by pressureagainst the bone or by oedema. The same explanation wouldbe applicable to interference with the functions of the

third pair, only in such cases a greater degree of pressurewould have to be assumed than is necessary to induce

interference with the functions of the sixth nerves.

Collier has suggested that the antero-posterior course

of the sixth nerves may render them more vulnerable

by the pushing back of the brain stem, which is shownin so many cases by the protrusion of the medulla,and even by part of the cerebellum, through the fora-men magnum, when the intracranial pressure has been

excessive. In the last number of Brain Dr. Harvey Cushingmakes a valuable and suggestive contribution to the elucida-tion of this point, and as a result of a series of anatomicaland pathological studies he submits the view that in certaincases at least the interference with the function of the sixth

nerves, especially in cases of intracranial tumour, may bedne to strangulation of these nerves by transverse branchesof the basilar artery. In support of this view he finds that

! these arteries, contrary to the usual anatomical description,usually overlie the nerves, that in a series of cases of intra-cranial tumour the vessels which normally encircle the brainstem often produce a more or less deep grooving of the

nervous tissues, that the sixth nerves in many such cases are

deeply constricted, and that in a large percentage of cases inwhich there is found post-mortem grooving of the pons withimplication of the nerves, there was recorded during lifeeither subjective diplopia or the actual presence of a

convergent squint. -

THE CURRICULUM OF THE MEDICAL STUDENT.

WE publish this week a full report of an important speechmade by Sir Henry Morris on the closing day of the wintersession of the General Medical Council. An abstract of the

speech was published in our columns on Dec. 3rd (p. 1626),but we are glad to place Sir Henry Morris’s words before ourreaders in complete form because the importance of the

questions raised is very great, because the solution of these

questions is very difficult, and because in our opinion thatsolution should be no longer delayed. The bald outline of

the situation is this. The medical curriculum is overcrowded,so that an unduly small number of candidates for medicalqualification are able to obtain registration in the statutorytime of five years. Sir Henry Morris, to meet this situation, pro-poses that the preliminary scientific studies should be pursuedby the students at their schools, leaving the five years medicalcurriculum free for the study of the strictly professionalsubjects-anatomy, physiology, and medicine in its various

branches. One of the strongest points in Sir Henry Morris’sarguments is undoubtedly the fact that registration of themedical student is not a compulsory process, so that the

General Medical Council has not that complete control over thestudents’ curriculum which some of its published words claimfor it. The General Medical Council, on the other hand, holdsthat, as the supreme authority, under the Privy Council, overthe medical education of the student, it cannot willingly sanc-tion any part of medical education being undertaken saveunder its control. The growing importance in the eyes ofheadmasters of the scientific training of the schoolboyindicates that much educational and parental feeling will bewith Sir Henry Morris in his contention, but those opposedto his view believe, among other things, that the scientificfacilities offered by the public schools are not yet as a rulesufficient. These are just the sort of questions that medicalmen want to see debated, and not only debated but settled,by the General Medical Council.

FACTORY AND WORKSHOP ACT (1907) IN RELA-

TION TO POOR-LAW ESTABLISHMENTS.

AN arrangement has been made between the Local Govern-ment Board and the Home Office with regard to the inspec-tion by inspectors of factories of certain portions of work-houses and other Poor-law establishments. Any laundry orworkshop where industrial work is carried on or machineryused, attached to any Poor-law institution, may under thenew regulations be inspected by the inspector of factories incharge of the district in which the institution is situated,who will report through the Home Office to the Local

Government Board on any point that, in his opinion, requiresattention. Where only inmates are employed the factoryinspector will report only on the ventilation of the workshopor laundry, the fencing of machinery, the use of dangerousplant or materials, the carrying away of fumes, steam, ordust, and similar matters. Where paid hands, as well as

inmates, are employed, the inspector will report on the hoursof labour of the paid hands, persons employed only forpurposes of supervision or instruction not being regarded as