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The adhesions were broken down and the uterus was lifted ]out of the abdomen. Dr. Coakley did not on this occasion a

pass a rubber ligature around the uterus, having abandonedthe procedure on the ground that if tight enough to controlthe haemorrhage the ligature would injure the uterus. In 13minutes the operation was completed except for the tying ofthe abdominal sutures. Recovery was rapid, the only com-plication being a temperature 1’50 F. above normal on thefourth day. On the twentieth day the patient was removedto a house three miles distant.

THE CHEAP PISTOL.

THE Times of July 22nd contained a report of the inquestupon a youth, aged 19 years, who had committed suicide, after Iexpressing in shorthand upon the margin of a novel by apopular lady author his approval of a phrase which he hadfound in the mouth of one of her characters that "suicideshave no souls." On what grounds suicides were to be thusdistinguished from their fellow-men does not seem to

have been discussed either by the lady novelist or by HaroldParis, but the boy, having been apparently impressed bythe profundity of an observation which seems to us mean-ingless, and having resolved to die in the companyof a penny novelette and The Romance of Two Worlds,"found no difficulty in providing himself with a suitable

weapon. Had he tried to drown himself or to stab himselfto death his resolution would possibly have failed him-had he tried to buy a sure but painless poison he would

have encountered difficulties in making the purchase ; but apostcard found among his effects showed that a Birminghamfirm was able to supply him with a pistol for the sum of3s. 3d., and it may have been, although it was not so stated

at the inquest, that the 50 cartridges also possessed by himwere bought at the same time and included in the same pay-ment. The sale of cheap revolvers from time to time engagesthe transitory attention of Parliament, but the House ofCommons shrinks apparently from interfering with the

maker of cheap pistols, whether at home or abroad, andwith a trade that is practically confined to toyshops. It

has often been pointed out that a tax that would hardlyaffect, or which could be remitted from, the more

expensive revolver used in warfare would entirely shutout of the market the gimcrack weapons that are

now a source of danger to their usually youthfulowners, to the friends of those young persons, and to

innocent persons residing in their neighbourhood. Not a

week passes but we see, not perhaps an account of deliberatemurder or suicide by shooting, but an account of a pistolaccident, or a wound inflicted in a quarrel by some youngrowdy on some person against whom he has had a grudge orwho has been passing by when he chose to fire or when thepistol went off in his irresponsible hands. Many more suchcases are, no doubt, hardly reported or heard of ; the

calendar, however, of charges at the Old Bailey, pub-lished on the same day as the newspaper to which

we have referred, contains two cases of attempting to

murder with the pistol and, without doubt, it wouldbe pretty safe to wager that the value of the two

weapons alleged to have been used will not be found toamount to a sovereign. Can a trade which supplies thesealways dangerous, sometimes deadly, weapons be worth pro-tecting ? ‘! It is true that murders and suicides are perpetratedwith the help of knives, razors, hammers, drugs, and otherinanimate agents, but all these have uses of their own

which are obvious and their abuse cannot altogetherbe prevented. The cheap revolver has no use. It is

not a sporting weapon, it is of little or no effect as a pro-tection against violence, while the householder who believesthat he needs some such protection could afford to paythe tax on revolvers that we have contemplated and to

purchase at the same time a superior weapon, although wemust add that, as a rule, revolvers are more dangerous tothe occupants of the house than to the intrusive burglar.Skill in the use of the toy pistol is not a prelude to skillwith a weapon of use in war, for the schoolboys who,buy toypistols do not cultivate their aim by practice at marks, andrevolvers are of little or no use in modern fighting. Such

weapons as that with which the boy of whom we have writtenkilled himself are simply dangerous and their danger is notconfined to those who use them and to the circle of theirfriends and playmates-it is shared by those who have noacquaintance with the person who causes the discharge. Asa means of committing suicide the cheap pistol has the meritof not being infallible, but it attracts by its reputation for-causing a speedy death and possibly by its association withthe phrase " blowing his brains out," which figures largely inthe literature that the brainless peruse.

THE HEALTH OF CANNES.

THERE has been a good deal of typhoid fever all alongthe Riviera from San Remo to Marseilles during the lasttwo or three years and it is very interesting to note-

how, having spared Cannes so long, an epidemic has at

length declared itself at that place. There are four factorsto be considered as influencing the sanitary condition of

Cannes-(1) the water-supply, (2) the main drainagesystem, (3) the floricultural industry with its incessant

irrigation and manuring, and (4) the turning up of con-

siderable areas of earth. As regards the water-supply Cannes.has a supply of most excellent water which comes straightfrom the limestone hills above Grasse some 30 miles away.Unfortunately it is brought in a canal which is practicallyuncovered and passes through or near many villages or

farms from which fascal pollution is quite possible. Formore than 20 years the English medical men at Cannes, sup-ported by one or two of their most scientific and far-seeingFrench colleagues, have been pressing upon the town councilthe necessity of either covering in this canal or making anotherfor supplying the town with pure drinking-water in pipes.They have so far succeeded that a plan is now before the’town council for bringing a supply of pure water in pipesfrom the river Loup which is not very far from Cannes andthe water of which is beyond suspicion. But, as usual, thereare many members of the council who are unwilling to spendmoney except for additional amusements, or theatres, or acasino, or ornamental buildings, or advertisements which theysuppose will attract strangers to Cannes. The main drainagesystem which was undertaken by the town council undergreat pressure from the English residents and medical men,has never been completed. The intercepting drain, which,was to have been furnished with powerful pumps and to,

have conveyed the sewage to be discharged into a deep! current of the sea at a safe distance from the town, has neverbeen made; the various collecting drains therefore dis-

. charge into the bay of Cannes at a short distance from the-, shore. There is, too, no proper supervision of the junction ofL house drains with the main drainage system. The natural) vegetation of Cannes and the Riviera consists of olives,) and fir trees. These flourish with comparatively littlewater. They are gradually being used up for fuel and their. place is being taken by florists’ flowers which now form theL chief industry of the coast and which require constant

_ irrigation and manuring (partly with human excreta, theicontents of cesspools, and the like). All along the Rivieraduring the last few years there has been a great deal ofs earth-turning and road-making which has brought to the- surface much sewer-tainted earth, and this seems to haves opened the door in some way to the epidemic of

y typhoid fever. The construction of roads and sewerage3 at Mentone was followed by the outbreak of typhoid fever..