610

while a like dose of cocaine produced no effect. He

regards eucaine as inferior clinically and as far more

dangerous than cocaine. Upon the other hand, ProfessorCharteris and Dr. MacLennan recently communicated to theRoyal Society of Edinburgh a paper dealing with the

physiological action of eucaine, which gives that body amore favourable aspect. Solutions were injected hypo-dermically into guinea-pigs. A lethal dose of eucaine wasfound to be 0’09 gramme (per kilogramme of body weight),that of cocaine being 0’068. The phenomena of dying undereucaine showed less head rotation, less opisthotonos, less

salivation, and less difficulty of breathing; the symptoms,moreover, took longer to develop than was the case withcocaine, while larger quantities than of the latter were

required to produce toxic effects. The influence upon theheart is not mentioned. It must be confessed that we donot at present possess sufficient knowledge of the physio-logical and clinical behaviour of eucaine to pronounce adefinite opinion upon it.

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THE "YORKSHIRE POST," "THE LANCET," ANDTHE LEEDS INFIRMARY.

THE Yorhshire Post is certainly one of the best informedand most readable papers in England, but in its criticism ofour Special Commissioner’s article upon the Leeds Infirmary-the sixth article in the series entitled HospitalAbuse"1-it has done us scant justice. Our Commissioner hassought to collect impartially all the available informationbearing upon the subject. For instance, in his firstarticle on Manchester he set forth the arguments adducedby the consultants of that town and by the visitingstaff of the hospitals. This practically constituted an

indictment of the general practitioners. Then in the

subsequent articles he gave the opinion of the generalpractitioners, which in its turn constituted an indictmentof the hospitals and of the consultants. Now at Leeds

the principal feature which distinguishes that town fromother towns is the influence and powerful organisationof the Workpeople’s Hospital Fund. Naturally our Com-missioner gave us as fully and as forcibly as possible thearguments and the opinions of this important organisa-tion. Thereupon the Yorkshire Post, in a leading article,attacks THE LANCET. If we were to attack the YorkshirePost because of the opinions expressed by a Liberal leaderwhose speech was reported in the columns of that paperthe position would be the same. Our Commissioner seeksto describe all views that bear upon the question of hos-

pital abuse; that does not mean that he approves or thatwe approve of these views. Such views are held, they exer-cise a certain influence, and we record the fact. That is all. The Yorkshire Post would not refuse to publishone of Mr. Gladstone’s speeches, though it is opposed tothe political opinions of that statesman. We cannot hopeto solve the problem of hospital abuse unless we hearall sides of the question. The Yorkshire Post has everyright to attack the opinions of the friends and advocates ofthe Leeds Workpeople’s Hospital Fund, but it is not justifiedin fastening these views upon our Commissioner as if theywere his views and his opinions.

THE RE-ENDOWMENT OF GUY’S HOSPITAL.

THE interim report of the Re-endowment and SustentationFunds in connexion with Guy’s Hospital, which has justbeen issued, shows that the amount received on the re-

endowment fund account up to Sept. 30th, 1896, was£161,907 19s. 4d. Of this sum, £18,826 16s. 8d. wasdevoted to the repayment of a loan to the hospital, and thesum of £142,981 2s. 8d., less £6364 1s. 3d., the expenses of

1 THE LANCET, 13th, 1897.

the appeal and of the festival, has been invested in approvedsecurities. The amount received on sustentation fundaccount up to Sept. 30th, including 13,932 11s. 3d., thebalance transferred from the old special appeal fund of 1886,was S34.417 11s. Of this total certain items amounting toZ6965 1s. have been transferred to the re-endowment

fund. The sum taken from the sustentation fund since

its inception to supplement the deficiency in the

ordinary income of the hospital was 11,206 13s. 10d.The appeal has been necessitated by reason of the growingdepression in agriculture, the endowment of Thomas Guy,which from 1725 to 1886 provided for all the financial

requirements of the charity, having fallen in 1895 to aboutone-half of its previous value. The treasurer states that ofthe 500,000 asked for only about one-third has as yet beenforthcoming and 150 beds still remain closed.

THE LATE M. BLONDIN.

IT is but a just tribute to M. Blondin on the part of thepress to devote a few columns to his unprecedented feats asan acrobat. There was a pluckiness about him which welbecame one with his muscles and his nerves, and which was

strikingly manifest at both ends of his life-in his child-

hood, when at nine years of age he was left as an orphanand resolved to look out for himself; and in his advancedage, when, after losing his money, he had to begin theworld afresh and repeat the achievements which causedthe spectator to hold his breath. His actual feats, includingthe crossing of the Falls of Niagara, with a man or alion in his care, or blindfolded,.or on stilts, are likely toremain long unrivalled, and perhaps properly so. Mean-

time they are a record in the region of physiology of

simply marvellous command and coordination-of feetwith the sensibility of hands and of a brain workingwith equal perfection in its way. Possibly the most

striking thing was the long continuance of his remark-

able powers. It is one thing to do such feats at twentyand another to retain the power at seventy or more.

And yet so lately as 1896, when he must have been seventy-two years of age, we read that he performed in Belfast.This is the more remarkable, as fully ten years ago, afterit is understood, reverses in fortune, Blondin showed unmis-takeable indications of physical degeneration. We mayquestion the ethics of such a use of fine nerves and limbs,but we can scarcely question the heroism of the man inbattling with life according to his methods and his faculties.

CORTICAL EPILEPSY SURGICALLY TREATED.

Dr. WEISSGERBER has published in the Münchener Medi.einishe Wochenschrift a paper in which are given the detailsof two cases of epilepsy with localised fits which were treatedsurgically. An abstract of the paper appears in the last

number of the Neurologisches Centralblatt. The first casewas that of a boy, aged ten years, who at the age of one anda half years had sustained a compound fracture of theskull. Several pieces of bone came away before the woundhealed. In June, 1891, and in August of the same yearthe two first attacks, characterised by movement of theleft upper and lower extremities, took place, and thesewere succeeded by recurrences taking place every eightor ten days and lasting for two or three minutesat a time. An operation was carried out dealing withthe site of the old scar. A defect was found in thebone and adhesion of bone, dura mater, and brain. These

were all removed or separated, even part of the cortex beingtaken away. Rapid healing took place and the boy remainedfor two years without an attack, and he has remainedsince April, 1894, quite free from fits and in a satisfactorymental condition. The second case was that of a man aged