967

found that the stomach contained 3 lb. 11 oz. ofmetallic objects, varying in size from a cold chisel,weighing 11 oz. and 5 inches long, down to a

collection of coins, bolts, nuts, rivets, wire nails,tin-tacks, screws, and hooks; there were alsohalf-a-dozen small flints. The man made a goodrecovery and left the hospital after six weeks.Six months later he returned, with the same

complaint of weakness and loss of appetite.Examination with the X rays showed an opaqueobject in the ascending colon ; this was removed byoperation, and proved to be a piece of tin-

plate 4 inches long, and a piece of slate pencil.The patient was watched while in hospital, buthe succeeded in swallowing a piece of soap and2 oz. camphorated spirit, neither of which didhim any harm. He again recovered from opera-tion and was removed from the hospital to an

asylum. But there he died a few days later, withfever and signs of inflammation of the mediastinumand right lung. At the post-mortem examinationthe cesophagus was found to be acutely inflamedfrom the level of the larynx down to within 4 cm.of the diaphragm, and at the level of the sixthdorsal vertebra it contained three metal screws,and a tinplate box 1’2 inches in diameter and ; inchhigh. The oesophagus was adherent to the hilumof the right lung ; the upper two lobes of the

right lung were soft, light grey-red in colour,and contained numerous cavities exuding pus onpressure. The stomach was not enlarged, thick-walled, or ulcerated. The patient had receivedasylum treatment for dementia preecox on severaloccasions before he came under Dr. Graftdijk’sobservation. The clashing or coin-like soundselicited on palpation of the patient’s abdomen whenhe first came under observation lend a colour-able probability, if such a loan be thought neces-sary, to the well-known account given by Mr. J.Hopkins of the child that swallowed a necklaceof large black wooden beads and was treated inSt. Bartholomew’s Hospital in 1828. It will beremembered that the father had occasion to give’’ the child a shake to make him obedient, and sucha rattling ensued as nobody ever heard before. ’Why,damme, it’s in the child!’ said the father; ’he’s gotthe croup in the wrong place.’ ’ No, I haven’t, father,’said the child, beginning to cry, ’it’s the necklace ;I swallowed it, father.’ " While the child was in

hospital it was necessary, according to Hopkins,to muffle him in a watchman’s coat for fear heshould wake the other patients. Dr. Graftdijk doesnot seem to have found any such precautionadvisable in the case of his patient, but he gives aremarkable and convincing photograph of the 132foreign bodies removed from the stomach at the

operation. -

’

WE shall publish in a forthcoming number an ‘

obituary notice of the late Dr. T. Colcott Fox. 1

THE next session of the General Council o 1

Medical Education and Registration will commence ]at 2 P.M. on Tuesday, May 23rd, at the newpremises of the Council, 44, Hallam-street, Portland- I

place, London, W., under the Presidency of Sir fDonald MacAlister. (

ABERDEEN EYE INSTITUTION.-The annual meeting ‘of this institution was held on April 26th. The number of <new cases treated during the year was 2771. Of the patients33 were treated in the institution with an average stay of 16 ‘days. There is a deficit on the year’s working of 215. The -

expenditure for the year was jE551. f

PARIS.

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

JVater-oa1’ts for the Army.THE Touring Club Frangais has decided to use a part

of the funds devoted to the soldier at the front in providingpotable water for the army of operations. It has now

furnished water-carts in which is a filtering apparatus forrendering the water limpid, and also rectangular tanks wellcalibrated wherein to sterilise the water with the minimumof hypochlorite. These carts have the advantage of

providing water when the springs and wells are affectedby the rains, and multiply the sources of the water in

permitting the utilisation of rivers, brooks, and pond.-Finally they assure a better sterilisation of the water tH.s--tributed to the troops. The Touring Club has ordered 10(bof these carts, the type being the regimental cart of theEngineers. Each carries two pumps and hose, a clarifyingfilter of sponge, and two sterilising tanks of sheet iron.The first pump draws up the raw water at the source nearwhich the cart stops, and after passing through the filter the.-water runs into one of the two tanks, where it is sterilisedby hypochlorite of soda. The second pump then takes thefiltered and sterilised water contained in the tank and

impels it into the casks on carts by means of which potablewater is provided for the different cantonments. The-

filtering cart when empty weighs only about 1200 kg., and,allows a delivery of 3000 litres an hour of quite clear and.sterile water, each giving easily 25,000 to 30,000 litres a,

day. All of the carts are now delivered.

Ocular Prosthesis.,M. Valois and M. Rouvier think that following on the...

traumatisms of war the lesions which accompany enucleation,of the globe of the eye-palpebral cicatrices, fibrous bands,reduction and irregularities of orbital, cavity-necessitate a.new technique. The authors apply to ocular prosthesis theprinciple of entire moulding of the orbital’ cavity, with itscicatricial bands and traumatic malformations. In this wayaccurate adaptation is secured. The technique requires firstthe taking of the impression, followed, by a mould of this.Then the actual artificial eye is made and coloured. Thisprocedure allows of the following advantages: very greatmobility of the artificial eye, to which are transmitted the..least movements of the stump, absence of, troublesome con-.junctival secretions, satisfactory appearance of eyelids andeyebrow, lightness and ease of making the appliance, andmoderate cost.

Obituary.French science has sustained. two sad losses. Pro-

fessor Gilbert Ballet is dead after. six months of severe

suffering. He was interne in 1875, physician of the

hospitals in 1884, agr&eacute;g&eacute; in 1886 with a thesis thatattracted much attention on internal language and thedifferent forms of aphasia, chief of service in 1890, titularprofessor in 1908, and finally member of the Academy ofMedicine. He was one of the favourite pupils of Charcot,and devoted himself to mental pathology. His works puthim rapidly in the front ranks of French neurology. He

published a number of memoirs on exophthalmic goitre,the affections of the nerves, brain, and cerebellar apparatus,studies on the psychoses,, general paralysis, and thedeliriums of persecution or of melancholia. In collaborationwith Professor Proust he published " Hygi&egrave;ne du Neuras-thenique," in which is shown all that can be expectedfrom hygiene as a curative and preventive factor. Finallythe I I Trait6 de Pathologie Mentale," published under his chiefdirection, constitutes a veritable monument of actual medicalliterature. Only a few days later followed the death ofDr. Leon Labbe. Former interne of the Paris hospitals,agr&eacute;g&eacute; of the faculty with a thesis on the coxalgias, andsurgeon of the hospitals in 1864, he was during a quarterof a century one of the most able and consulted as wellas successful operators. He published some much-readworks on tumours of the breast and, of the abdominalwall, and his "Le&ccedil;ons de Clinique Chirurgicale. " He wasSenator for the Orne, Commander of the Legion of Honour,and member of the Academy of Medicine and of theAcademy of Sciences. His death, occurred suddenly at33, which age he had reached:without an, infirmity.