1101

PARIS.(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

The English Language and the Moscow Congress.As was to be anticipated, the managers of the forthcoming

International Medical Congress have given way on the

language question. Communications may therefore beread in French, Russian, German, and English, the first-named remaining the only official language, whatever thatmay mean. The protests of Dr. Friinkel of Berlin and Dr.Felix Semon of London have likewise borne fruit, and aspecial section devoted to Laryngology will accordingly beinstituted.

Death of -0?’. Constantin Paul.It is not long since the distinguished therapeutist Dr.

Dnjardin-Beaumetz was removed from our midst, and nowanother scarcely less renowned authority on therapeuticshas joined the majority. Dr. Paul died on Sunday last fromalbuminuria at the comparatively early age of sixty-three.Appointed agrege of the Paris Faculty in 1866, he becamesuccessively physician of the St. Antoine, Lariboisiere, andUharité Hospitals, and was elected a Member of the

Academy of Medicine in 1880. He took a special interest indiseases of the heart, and in 1883 he published a work thatwas widely read, entitled "Diagnostic et Traitement desMaladies du Coeur." But general therapeutics were hisfavouiite study. In 1876 he helped to bring out a newedition of the once universally consulted "Traite de

Tberapeutique et de Matiere Medicale " of Trousseau andPidoux. His communications on the action of drugs werenumerous, no discussion on such a subject at the Academyof Medicine being considered complete without a pronounce-ment from him. This year he was elected president of theSociete de Therapeutique, and last year in the Fete Nationale(July 14th) the Cross of the Legion of Honour was publiclypinned on his breast in the courtyard of the Hotel Dieu bythe President of the Republic. Dr. Paul leaves one son, awell-known artist.

The Balsam of Peru Treatment of Scabies.Dr. Jullien and Dr. Descouleurs call attention 1 to the advan-

tages of the above non-sulphurous treatment of itch, theirconclusions being based upon 300 cases observed both in

private and hospital practice. It is known that the acarusplaced on a watch-glass and exposed to sulphur fumes mayremain alive for sixteen hours, and that it generallysurvives over an hour’s immersion in flower of sulphurand Helmerich’s ointment. Dr. Descouleurs placed sixin contact with balsam of Peru and found that inten minutes two were dead ; in twenty minutes three morehad guooumbed ; and the last of the six died soon after. Thisexperiment confirms the conclusions of Burchardt, who,moreover, discovered that the balsam kills the eggs as well.It is probable that the volatile oil-cinnamein-that accord-ing to Fr6my is the essential constituent of the balsam, killsthe acarus at a distance tbrough asphyxia and not througha corrosive action or by disruption, for Hebra has shownthat the parasite can live for a week in water at 30° C., andDr. Descouleurs has witnessed survival for three and a halfhours in glycerine. The application of the method is

.implicity itself. No soap is required, the balsam beingpainted on the surface and then gently rubbed into the wholebody with the hand. The remedy being volatile penetratesreadily into the "runs" without involving the necessityof opening these up. The patient remains thus allnight, a warm bath being taken in the morning, whenthe cure is said to be complete. A repetition of the process,if necessary, produces no irritation of the skin. Inveteratecases that had resisted the classical and rather severefrotteat the St. Louis Hospital were all invariably cured by thismethod, which would seem to be specially indicated whenscabies is complicated with impetigo, eczema, ecthyma, andbotl,4, and also in cardiac cases, pregnant women, and feeblesubjects with delicate teguments-e.g., babies. The rather

agreeable odour of the balsam tells greatly in its favour,especially in private practice. Dr. Feulard stated that hehas used it for some time in the form of ointment at theCnildren’s Hospital, where he also successfully employs itagainst seborrhoeic eczema of the scalp and impetigo.

April 14th.

1 Société Française de Dermatologie et de Syphiligraphie, April 10th.

ROME.

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

The Health of Italy in 1895.THE Commendatore Bodio, Director-General of Statistics

for the Italian Kingdom, has drawn up a singularly clear andinstructive memoir on the social condition of Italy in 1895.Beginning with the population, he tells us it increases

steadily by an excess of births over deaths equal to 10 perannum for every 1000 inhabitants. The same proportionobtains in England (not in Scotland or in Ireland),in Germany taken as a whole, and in the Scandi-navian countries, while in France the population stillcontinues stationary, if, indeed, in some years the deathshave not actually exceeded the births. As to the sanitarycondition of the kingdom, Signor Bodio contents himselfwith signalising the causes of death. Mortality from in-fective diseases (as, indeed, has been noted in THE LANCET)has for several years been on the wane. From small-pox16,249 died in 1887, as compared with 2606 in 1894. Typhoidfever, which numbered 27,800 victims in 1887, counted nomore than 13,639 in 1894. But, on the other hand, therehas been a sensible increase in the deaths from bron-chitis, pneumonia, enteritis, nephritis, &c., so that thetotal mortality is about the same as before. " This

means," according to Signor Bodio, " that the poorpopulation which fares badly, if even rudimentary pre-cautions of hygiene are to-day a little less openlydefied than before the sanitary service of the com-

munes was enlarged and reorganised, is more severelydecimated by the ordinary causes of death, which find theirnatural prey in organisms enfeebled and ill-provided withresisting power." The demonstration of the improvementattained is most evident in the city of Naples, where goodpotable water has replaced that of the wells sunk in thesubsoil. Here Signor Bodio’s figures are sufficientlyeloquent. Typhoid fever, which numbered 468 victims in

1881, counted but 173 in 1893. The section on superior orprofessional education is full of interest. The excess of" avvocati " (barristers), a class which swells the ranks ofprofessional politicians, not to say agitators, and is far toogreatly represented in the Legislature, is still an evil to be

deplored. The average per annum of "laureati in legge"(graduates in law) is, according to Signor Bodio, 1000, whilethose who can possibly make a livelihood out of it are about500. Not only so, but the residual 500 of each previous yearhas to be counted in till the country literally swarms with"legal unemployed," who take refuge in journalism, plat-form propagandism, and every sort of political and socialmovement. Less to be lamented is the over-production of"laureati in medicina," for even if they do not practisethey diffuse and raise the standard of that best of all know-ledge-that which makes a man " the intelligert custodianof his own health." Still, the profession is greatly over-stocked in Italy, with the inevitable result of a not alwayshealthy competition. There are in the kingdom 66 prac-titioners for every 100,000 inhabitants, while in France theproportion is 40, in Austria 34, and in Prussia 32.

Professor Maragliano’s Anti-Tuberculous Therapeutics.The Ligurian Medical Congress has just been sitting at San

Remo, and its most interesting feature has been ProfessorMaragliano’s paper on Tubercolosi Latente e TubercolosiLarvata (Tuberculosis Latent and Masked). He insisted onwhat Dr. Edward S. Smith pointed out some fifty yearsago on the "pretubereular stage’’ and elaborateh- particu-larised the indications which precede what he describedas the " explosion of tuberculosis." It is at this stage thatsero-therapy has most chance of success, and therefore itsdiagnosis, from the point of view of his own therapeutics, isof primary importance. Carefully graduated injections of"tuberculina" he showed to have a special and valuablediagnostic power in determining the existence of the

"stage" in question. He was followed by ProfessorLucatello, who gave the results of 492 cases of tuberculosistreated on the Maragliano system by Italian practitioners.All these cases were well marked, most of them grave, butafter the serum injections as many as 90 per cent. showeddiminished pyrexia, arrest of pulmonary lesion and increasedweight of body. These results exceeded the expectations ofProfessor Maragliano himself. The two memoirs (Maragliano’s