1272 LIVERPOOL.-WALES AND WESTERN COUNTIES NOTES.-SCOTLAND.

cases of accident occurring in the works, at the docks, andon the railway at Garston have been treated in the Garstonaccident hospital, which is a converted shop and has onlyfive beds. Its sanitary arrangements are not by anymeans perfect and its appointments are not up to date.Its accommodation is now entirely inadequate. A singleserious accident at one of the works has furnished morecases than could be accommodated. It is impossible toremove cases of serious accident to the nearest hospital inthe city-the Royal Southern, which is five miles distant-without increased suffering and lessening the chance of

recovery. The population of Garston has increased from10,000 to 20,000 during the past 20 years and withthe projected new dock in anticipation a further in-ciease is to be expected. An adequate and properly-equipped hospital is therefore considered a necessity.In the first instance 15 beds would be required withthe means of increasing that number when the occasion shallarise. The cost of the building and equipment is estimatedat .:B1O,000 exclusive of site. The amount of land desirablewould be about two acres. The cost of maintenance wouldbe about £ 50 per annum per bed occupied with a minimumannual expenditure of .:B500. The preliminary committeeasked the Liverpool corporation to grant a site and to makea substantial contribution towards the cost of erecting andequipping the hosp’ital. It confidently expects that suf-ficient voluntary contributions for its support will be forth-coming, which is very doubtful. The chairman of thefinance committee said the city council might, perhaps, bedisposed to give a site for the hospital and a handsomecontribution, but it had no power to support the hospital outof the rates.April 28th.

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WALES AND WESTERN COUNTIES NOTES.(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENTS.)

Isolation Hospital for Pontardawe.ONLY a few years ago the isolation hospital accommodation

in the county of Glamorgan was of a very meagre character,but the sanitary authorities appear now to have realised thenecessity for providing such institutions and in severaldistricts in the county hospitals are either in course of erec-tion or are in contemplation. On April 23rd a substantiallybuilt and well-equipped hospital was opened at Alltwen forthe rural district of Pontardawe which if situated to thenorth of Swansea. The population of Pontardawe at the lastcensus was 21,000, an increase of nearly 4000 persons sincethe previous census. The new hospital buildings are on asite two acres in extent and include two ward pavilions withaccommodation for 12 patients, an administrative block, anda laundry block. The cost of the institution is 6700.

Gloucestershire Police and First Aid.The Gloucestershire county council has voted £ 0 for the

purposes of the St. John Ambulance Association’s instructionto the county police. Out of the entire force of 375 menthere are only 26 who have not yet obtained the certificateof the association.

I

Cardiff Football Clztb and Charities.The grounds of the Cardiff football club, which are situated

in the centre of the town, are the property of the Marquis ofBute who was recently presented by the club with .:B500 tobe used by him for some charitable purpose. His lordshipat once forwarded the ;6500, together with an equal amounton his own account, to the Cardiff Infirmary.

Proposed Banquet to Sir John 1Villiams.At the University College, Cardiff, on April 20th a meeting

was held under the presidency of the Mayor to form acommittee to make arrangements for a banquet of welcometo Sir John Williams, Bart., M.D., F.R.C.P., on the occasionof his leaving London to reside in Wales. It was decidedto ask Lord Windsor, lord lieutenant of the county and avice-president of the University College, to preside.

Sanitary -Tnsp6otors’ Association of &uth Wales andJ!/<MOM<AM’t9.

This association has been in existence since 1897 andincludes among its members nearly all the sanitary in-

spectors in Monmouthshire and the six southern countiesof Wales. The members of the association meet three orfour times yearly in different districts and the gatherings I

are, as a rule, productive of much good. On April 25tbthe association met at Penllergaer, near Swansea, when therewas a discussion upon Sir Francis Powell’s Public Health Bill

relating to the tenure of office and superannuation of sanitaryofficers. Dr. William Williams (medical officer of health ofthe county of Glamorgan) stated that he did not considerthat fixity of tenure would be advisable in all circumstances,while Mr. Ebenezer Davies (medical officer of health of

Swansea) and Mr. D. J. Thomas (medical officer of healthof Merthyr Tydvil) were of opinion that the present pre-carious position of sanitary officers interfered considerablywith the proper carrying out of sanitary reforms, more

especially in rural districts. Sir John Llewelyn, who is amember of the Glamorgan county council and who at onetime represented Swansea in the House of Commons, spokein favour of the provisions of the Bill and said that heconsidered that the Government should be approached witha view to facilities being given for the consideration ofthe measure. A paper which was read by Mr. D. R.Thomas, the district sanitary inspector, upon the Swansearural district as it was, as it is, and as it should be, wasin a sense a commentary upon the discussion on the PublicHealth Bill, for Mr. Thomas has been appointed permanentlyand is not subject to re-election year by year. He was ableto speak of the early days of the council when the membersentertained only crude and antiquated ideas with regard tosanitation and when their one desire was to save the rate-payers’ pockets. At the present time the councillors holdmore enlightened views and dwelling houses are not onlyinspected, but insanitary surroundings when found are

remedied, and there appears also to be a general inclinationto carry out sanitary measures.

Newport Port Sanitary Authority.From the recently issued annual report of Dr. J. Howard-

Jones, the medical officer of health of the Newport (Mon.)port sanitary authority, it appears that 6356 vessels with anaggregate tonnage amounting to 2,297,268 entered the portduring 1902. This number is about one-half that whichentered the port of Cardiff during the same year. Threevessels arrived at Newport during the year with small-pox onboard, three with typhoid fever, and on one vessel there wereten men suffering from beri-beri. Of the 3355 vessels in-spected during the year 17’ 5 per cent. were found to havesanitary defects. Dr. Howard-Jones gives a very interestingand instructive table setting out the percentages of vesselsfound to be insanitary arranged according to nationality.The table covers a period of six years. During 1902 thelowest percentage (13) was found in the Norwegian vesselsand the highest in those from Italy (34). Of British ships16 per cent. of those examined were insanitary.April 27th.

SCOTLAND.(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENTS.)

I 7% University of Glasgow.THE graduation ceremony at the close of the winter

session of the University of Glasgow took place on April 21st.The Bute Hall, in which the proceedings were held, wasfilled in every part. Principal Story, who presided, wasaccompanied to the rostrum by Lord Provost Primroseand most of the members of the senate. Among thosewho received honorary degrees were two in whom themedical profession have a special interest. These wereSir William T. Gairdner, K C.B., late professor of medicinein the University of Glasgow, and Dr. Thomas Oliver,an old graduate of the University and now professorof physiology in the University of Durham. It was amatter of profound regret to all that the former, on accountof his state of health, was unable to be present. The degree,therefore, was conferred in abseratid. Principal Story, whowas listened to with marked attention, referred in his

closing address to one or two points with regard to whichthe university authorities are much interested at present,among these being the effect that the prospective Educa-tion Bill for Scotland will have on the universities. He

expressed the hope that it would contain no new provisionsfor a meddlesome bureaucratic control, leaving nothing tothe free initiative of zealous teachers and repressing into adull monotony with its codes and regulations the ardourof eager scholars ; he also hoped that it would instituteschool boards of larger area of distribution and entrust the

1273SCOTLAND.-IRELAND.-PARIS.

educational interests of the country to persons chosenexpressly for those duties and that it would not mix them

up incongruously with the business of a county council whoseconcerns were entirely distinct from those of education. Hethen adverted, not altogether sympathetically, to the influenceof the Carnegie benefactions on the Scotch student and

expressed the view that much more benefit would accrueto education than could ever be accomplished by the

payment of fees if some part at least of the money spentunder section B of the trust could be diverted to the

purpose of increasing teaching faculties, especially of

enlarging the staff of teachers by appointing more thanone lecturer in the same subject, as is commonly done in theGerman universities. Principal Story has always the courageto express his views and there is no doubt that his remarkswill tend to guide matters in the right direction.

The Sumnzer Session, Glasg011J.All the medical schools, the University, Anderson’s

College, and St. Mungo’s College, opened their summersession on April 22nd, but it is only during the present weekthat the work of the session has properly begun.

The Death-rate in One-Apartment Houses in Glasgow.At the twelfth ordinary meeting for the session of the

Royal Philosophical Society, held on April 23rd, Dr. A. K.Chalmers, medical officer of health of the city of Glasgow,delivered his presidential address to the Sanitary andSocial Economy Section, his subject being the Death-rate in One-Apartment Houses. This must prove a

valuable contribution and will shed some light on certainquestions under investigation by the Housing Commissionat present at work in this city. Dr. Chalmers in his paperpoints out that if the last census be taken as a guideit will be found that 136,5511 of the population live in housesof four or more apartments, 151,731 in three apartmenthouses, 348,731 in two-apartment houses, and 104,128 in one-apartment houses. Now the death-rate of the last class,taking one year, is as high as 32’ 7 per 1000, and this is equalto the death-rate of the worst sanitary districts of the city,and yet the class, forming a seventh of the whole popula-tion, is widely distributed throughout the town. This death-rate is 11 per 1000 more than the death-rate for those livingin two-apartment houses and 21 per 1000 more than that forstill larger houses. Another fact of great importance broughtout is that while during recent years there has been a

marked diminution of the death-rate amounting to about 20per cent. in all other houses, that in the one-apartmenthouses has remained persistently high. Again, this highdeath-rate is associated with the high infant mortalitylargely caused by zymotic disease and diarrhoea-diseaseswell known to persist and to spread under such insanitaryconditions. Dr. Chalmers deserves a word of praise for soopportunely presenting the above facts for the considerationof all interested in the housing problem and public healthgenerally. He certainly has indicated in what directionwork must be done to obtain a still further reduction of thedeath-rate, especially that connected with infant mortality,which remains so persistently high in all large towns.April 28th.

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IRELAND.(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENTS.)

The Royal university of Ireland.AT the present time the medical examinations in connexion

with the Royal University are proceeding in Dublin, thenumber of candidates being large.

llees for the Sanitary Impection of Cottages.At the Midleton quarter sessions, before Sir J. C.

Neligan, recorder of Cork, Dr. James O’Connell sued theMidleton board of guardians for remuneration for profes-sional services rendered in inspecting 39 labourers’ cot-

tages. It was stated in the course of the trial that Dr.O’Connell had been directed by the guardians to inspectthe cottages, which were old, for the purposes of ascer-

taining whether they ware fit for occupation. Theguardians had passed a resolution that they wouldpay all the dispensary medical officers of the union a sumof 3s. for inspecting each cottage. Dr. O’Connell wrote to

the Local Government Board which informed him that hewas bound to act on the resolution of the guardians withoutany stipulation, but that it (the Local Government Board)usually allowed 5s. per cottage. Dr. O’Connell in hisevidence stated that he had to travel by car on an averagetwo and a half miles to each of 34 cottages and six milesto each of the other five cottages. He claimed 5s. forvisiting each of the 34 cottages and 7s. 6d. for eachof the remaining five. He also claimed .82 2s. forgiving evidence at a Local Government Board inquiry atMidleton and 6s. car-fare to and from Midleton on theoccasion of his giving evidence at the inquiry. The guardianslodged a sum in court, but the recorder in giving judgmentheld that the guardians had not acted reasonably in thecircumstances and gave a decree for the full amount claimedby Dr. O’Connell. In a separate action Dr. O’Connell suedthe guardians for 18s. car-hire incurred in bringing inthe dispensary medical books for inspection by the guardiansas ordered by the Local Government Board. In this case therecorder gave a decree for 15s. with costs.

The Ulster (Benn) Eye, Ear, and Throat Hospital.At the thirty-second annual meeting of the supporters of

this hospital, which was held on April 23rd, it was reportedthat during the past year a total of 1995 cases had beentreated in the hospital-viz., 1367 eye cases, 400 ear cases,and 228 throat cases. A large part of the operationswere for cataract. Financially, the balance due tothe Ulster Bank at the beginning of the year was

Z412 16s. 8d., and at the end of the year E291 lls. 10d.The total income for the year was .8834 Os. 6d. and theexpenditure was .6725 10s. 8d. Dr. Allen has been appointedan additional assistant surgeon and Dr. Isaac A. Davidson.anansesthetist.

Death of Thomas P. O’Meara, B.A., M.B. T.C.D.,L. R. 0. 8. I rel.

The death of Dr. Thomas P. O’Meara of Carlow took placeon April 25th and was unexpected, while it caused wide-

spread regret. During his long official connexion with theCarlow district lunatic asylum as resident medical super-intendent considerable additions were effected in the insti-tution and many improvements were made at his suggestion.He was a well-known townsman of Carlow and is sincerelyregretted by his many friends there and in the surroundingcounty.April 28th.

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PARIS.

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

Inhalation of Amyl Nitrite in Hysteria.M. Hirtz and M. Louste at the meeting of the Hospitals

Medical Society held on April 3rd communicated theresults of some observations which they had made upontwo patients who showed various hysterical manifesta-tions which disappeared almost at once upon the inhala-tion of nitrite of amyl. The first case that of a woman,aged 26 years, who for a period of three weeks hadexhibited one-sided contractures and anxsthesia, togetherwith aphasia. The second case was that of a man,

aged 55 years, who showed one-sided paresis and anses-

thesia and who stammered. The results obtained withthese two cases go to support the idea of M. Hirtz as

to the various symptoms which are generally considered

together under the name of " angiospasm," a disease which incei taiia cases starting as peripheral angiospasm is the fore-runmr of arterio-sclerosis. Angiospasm may also take avisceral form or if it be in the cerebro-spinal system canbring about all the varying manifestations of hysteria and ofhystero-neurasthenia. It sometimes ends, owing to itslocalisation in the renal vessels, in an intermittent albu-minuria, orthost; tic 1 or otherwise, or else in a chronicalbuminuria. In the stomach it may give rise to ulcerationstogether with hsematemesis such as are often observed inhysterical patients. On this theory it is quite easy to under-stand th favourable action of amyl nitrite.April 2Lth.

1 Albuminuria which occurs only when the patient is not confinedto bed.