64

decided by ourselves and the public." This is our position,and I appeal, not to the chivalry, but to the justice of themedical profession, to show us that it is untenable, or elseto concede it at once.

I am, Sir, your obedient servant,Edinburgh, June 21st. SOPHIA JEX-BLAKE.SOPHIA JEX-BLAKE.

INDIAN SANITARY COMMISSIONERS.To the Editor of THE LANCET.

SIR,-In common with most other medical officers in

India, I am truly glad to see that you are opposed to the’continuance of those needless and expensive luxuries, theSanitary Commissioners. What sort of men must the

Deputy Inspectors-General of necessity be if they are in-competent to be the sanitary advisers of Government withintheir respective ranges ?

Provide each Deputy Inspector-General with an addi-tional clerk, on thirty rupees a month, abolish the SanitaryDepartment, and save an overtaxed people £ 25,000 a year.It might be well to ask the different Governments in Indiato specify any instance where they have been supplied withinformation by any sanitary commissioner, which they,could not as easily and effectually have obtained from thechief administrative medical authority.

I am, Sir, your obedient servant,May 3rd, 1870. MEDICUS.

PARIS.

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

TEE VACCINAL CONGRESS.

THE meeting of June 15th was far less numerouslyattended than the preceding one, of -which I sent you a re-port ; but, en revanche, it was marked by greater quiet anda more sedate attitude. Doubtless the tumultuous scene ofthe former sitting had scared away many assistants who,until then, had attended the meetings more as flaneursthan as serious partakers in the business of the con-

gress. The proceedings of the secmee of June 15th may bevery briefly summed up as follows :-A letter from M.

Durozier, in favour of animal vaccination, and giving theresults of vaccinations and revaccinations performed at oneof the Paris rnairies in 1868 by MM. Lanoix and Chambon;a discourse by M. Lucas Championniere, who examined com-paratively the results furnished at the Hopital Cochin bythe two methods of vaccination, and concluded in favour ofthe Jennerian vaccine; a communication from M. Leduc, ofVersailles, mentioning that three years ago he had inocu-lated horse-pox on a child, and had obtained magnificent pustules, wherewith he has since performed all his vaccina- Itions and revaccinations with the very best results. M. Lanoix again spoke in this meeting to advocate warmlythe merits of animal vaccine ; and, on one of the membersanswering, it was decided that a special committee shouldbe named to investigate the statistical accounts presentedby M. Lanoix.

In a former letter I alluded to the good which this con-gress, the first of its kind in France, will accomplish.Notwithstanding its shortcomings, it will furnish most-valuable documents, gathered especially from the mass ofletters which have been sent by provincial practitioners;and, above all, it will constitute an excellent precedent-aproof that the medical body here may organise itself into Imeetings and assemblies for the purpose of discussing matters of public or professional interest, without any ex- traordinary preparation, without any assistance from the I:authorities-in a word, without any of those thousand Iformalities which until now have been so fostered and - cultivated in France.

REPORT OF THE COMMISSION D’ENSEIGNEMENT SUPERIEURON THE FREE TEACHING OF MEDICINE.

This report, which has just been issued by the HighCommittee appointed by the French Government to in-

vestigate the question of " freedom " of teaching, is a mostvaluable document, and, whether adopted or not in all itsbearings by the Corps Législatif, contains the germs of mostimportant reforms in medical education in France. The

position of the School of Medicine of Paris will certainly bemuch changed by the adoption of any of the importantclauses of the report. Want of space will not allow me forthe present to insist at any great length on this very in-teresting question, but I may just mention that the reportstates that any group of individuals, if doctors of medi-cine, may organise a 11 free " school of medicine, providedthey give proof of possessing a hospital with 120 beds,the necessary laboratories, scientific collections, &c. ; thatthe present faculties be maintained as State schools ; thatthe State schools have a jury composed of their respectiveprofessors, and before which candidates educated in thefree schools may go up for graduation without the paymentof any fee save that for the degree ; and, lastly, that a specialjury, or jury d’examen, be nominated by Government, toconsist of judges who are professors neither at the Stateschools nor in the free schools, and before whom all candi-dates may go up for their degree.REPORT OF THE COMITE CONSULTATIF D’HYGIÈNE ON THE

SMALL-POX EPIDEMIC.

This report, which has just been presented to the Ministerof Agriculture and Commerce, has been drawn up by MM.Husson, Fauvel, Reynaud, and L’heritier, with M. MichelLévy as president. It commences with a sketch of thehistory of the epidemic, and ends by the recommendationof various sanitary and prophylactic measures, the relationof which would scarcely be of interest to your readers.It is important, however, to note a few points contained inthe first part of the report, which says:-

From January lst to May, 1870, the epidemic has pro-duced 4251 cases in the hospitals of Paris, of which 172were developed within the wards (4’16 per cent.), and 683ended in death (16’07 per cent.) Here is a proportion of mor-tality which already proclaims the benefit of vaccination;the more vaccination is prevalent and repeated the less doesvariola extend, and the more it loses its gravity....... Howfar removed we are from the times when variola destroyed8 patients out of 10. But even in the centres of civilisationthe need is forgotten of vaccinating and revaccinating atall ages. At the H6pital Necker an old man of eighty-twohad died from small-pox. Has it not been attempted incertain journals to denounce vaccination, and to representit as a means of fomenting variolic contagion, at the riskof depriving credulous individuals of the only sure, if not

absolute, preservative that art opposes to this disease ?......Vaccine taken from the child, and vaccine proceeding fromthe heifer, are both good, if well cultivated and inoculatedby a competent hand."In short, the gist of the report may be summed up thus:

- 1. The continued efficacy of good vaccinations. 2. The

equal value of animal and human vaccine, when carefullygathered and employed. 3. The good effects of isolatingthe patients, which is especially insisted on at the end ofthe report.

Parliamentary Intelligence.HOUSE OF LORDS.

JULY 4TH, 1870.MEDICAL ACT (1858) AMENDMENT BILL.

ON the report of amendments in this Bill,The Earl of LICHFIELD, in moving the amendment to

Clause 18, of which he had given notice, said that, in askingfor such a representation on the Medical Council as hisamendment would give them, the profession were actuatedby a desire to promote the interests of the public. He hadheard it said that the medical body was represented in-directly, if not directly, on the Medical Council. Now, ifit had no direct voice in the constitution of the collegesand universities-and it was only necessary to look intothe pages of the medical calendars to see that it had not-it could not have an indirect representation on the MedicalCouncil. It was urged, also, that a direct representationof the profession on the Council would not be worth thetrouble and expense which it would involve; but he believedthat the registration of the whole profession, established bythe Act of 1858, rendered the carrying out of the object of! his amendment a very easy matter. Another objection was