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the fluid obtained. Dr. Horder gives some illustrative casesin support of his advocacy of the procedure, and furtherclaims as an advantage the fact that it may be the onlymeans of obtaining a culture to prepare a vaccine for thetreatment of localised infective conditions within the lung.The procedure is one which is certainly deserving of moreextended trial, since it is obviously a valuable method fordiagnostic purposes. The only conditions which suggestthemselves as disadvantages are the possibility of infectionof the-healthy pleura or of the needle track in septic cases,and the occurrence of haemorrhage from wounding a vesselor an aneurysm in a pulmonary cavity.

MEDICAL OPINION AND PUBLIC APATHY.

THE two great medical services of the country, the

sanitary service and the Poor-law medical service, both

working under the Local Government Board, are the ex-

pression of the influence of the State upon the public healthof the people. A new journal, the ivedical Officer, has latelymade its appearance, and a very promising appearance,which has for its object the dealing with the various problemsof administration as they arise, with particular reference tothe medical executive. The issue of this journal, which isdated Saturday, Oct. 9th, contains much interesting matterfor medical men in Government and municipal services, and Ithe leading article for that week is devoted to the insanitarycondition of Gravesend, to which attention has within thelast few weeks been prominently directed by Dr. R. J. Reece’s report to the Local Government Board. Our contemporaryexpresses surprise that it is possible for a local authority,such as that of Gravesend, to continually flout the centralhealth authority and to maintain insanitary conditionswhich were drawn attention to on behalf of the Board

by Mr. Netten Radcliffe in 1877, by Sir Shirley Murphyin 1885, by Dr. Theodore Thomson in 1893, and nowby Dr. Reece in 1909. But this story of Gravesend is inno sense alone, and a careful perusal of the reports of

the medical inspectors of the Local Government Board willbring to light numerous instances in which repeated visits ofinspectors have been made in years gone by, but where theconditions are now but little altered from those whichobtained at the date of the first inspection, perhaps a quarterof a century ago. The problem of how to deal with theserecalcitrant authorities is a very difficult one, and it cannot,unfortunately, be said that the creation of county councilshas served to stimulate local opinion and activity in themanner which was once expected.

PREVENTIVE MEASURES AGAINST MOSQUITOES.

MALARIA is endemic in most tropical and subtropicalregions where precautions are not taken against mosquitoes,and the story of a recent application of medical entomologyto practical cases is an instructive chapter in the history ofsanitation. It is now a matter of common knowledge thatmeasures directed mainly against the breeding-places of

the insects have proved successful in various parts of theworld. An experiment on a comparatively small scale,but no less effective, has recently been made by Major P. G.Elgood, director of the Police School in Cairo, and was de-scribed by him in the Cairo Scientific Journal for July last.In the autumn of 1906 this school occupied an old palacecontaining from 150 to 200 comparatively small rooms,

together with an average of one cess-pit to each two rooms. Mosquitoes abounded and were so troublesome that MajorElgood, who had already had experience of them in Burmaand elsewhere, could not sit in his quarters after sunset, andthe cadets were unable to obtain sleep. The public healthdepartment then came to the rescue, and he states that

when its preventive measures had been iu operation for afew weeks the palace seemed to be more free from mosquitoesthan any flat or club which he was in the habit of visiting atthe time. In the summer of 1908 the school moved intonew quarters at Abbassia, where it was soon found that thedesert isolation of the locality was no protection againstmosquitoes. Major Elgood, however, guided by the publichealth department, dealt with them by a simple method.Once a week a third of a teacupful of crude petroleumoil was poured down each of the 182 latrines, sinks,and other possible mosquito-breeding places which existin the school. Twice a week each receptacle of water

was emptied and filled. The result was that on the occasion

of a visit made by an inspector of the public health depart-ment no mosquitoes could be found in the school, althoughall latrines and other likely places were searched by him.No special men were in charge of the work and the cost wasestimated at about 10s. a month. Major Elgood draws par-ticular attention to the simplicity and cheapness of the pre-ventive measures which satisfied him so well. He also

mentions, incidentally and without comment, that the pre-valence of dengue in the school declined very much after theremoval from Cairo to Abbassia.

THE MEDICAL TREATMENT OF LONDONSCHOOL CHILDREN.

THE education committee of the London County Councilon Nov. 3rd approved and forwarded to the Council for

sanction further arrangements with the hospitals for the

medical treatment of children attending the publicelementary schools of the metropolis.l The day schoolssubcommittee reported that it had communicated with

55 hospitals and had received replies from 50. Of

these 18 had either not expressed any desire to

cooperate, or were sympathetic but unable to undertake

additional work, and 5 are treating some 390 children aweek without charge. The authorities of the remaining hos-pitals desired financial assistance, and the committee had

negotiated with them on the basis already approved by theCouncil-viz., a payment not exceeding Z50 a year for eachadditional medical assistant (working one half-day a week)and 2s. for each child treated. Final terms had been,

suggested in respect of 14 out of these hospitals,and the committee recommended that, as a beginning,agreements be entered into with eight of them to pro-vide treatment for eyes, ears, and skin, ailmerts-viz.,Belgrave Hospital for Children, Clapham-road, S.W. (1760children) ; Charing Cross Hospital, S.W. (2200) ; Hospital forDiseases of the Throat, Golden-square, S.W. (1000); King’sCollege Hospital, Lincoln’s Inn-fields, W.C. (500) ; LondonHospital, Whitechapel-road, E. (4750); Metropolitan Ear,Nose, and Throat Hospital, Grafton-street, Tottenham-court-road, W. (500) ; Royal London Ophthalmic (Moorfields) Hos-pital, City-road, E. C. (for not less than 3000 or more than 6000);St. George’s Hospital, Hyde Park, W. (2000); and that theacceptance of the offer of the committee of the Charing CrossHospital to provide treatment by means of X rays for 25children attending public elementary schools be confirmed,expenditure not exceeding S35 being sanctioned in con-

nexion therewith. The subcommittee explained that the

London Hospital, which in July agreed to give free

treatment, had withdrawn from that arrangement and

wished to enter the class of hospitals to which the

Council was prepared to make grants. It also recom-

mended the Education Committee to accept an offer bythe Hampstead Council of Social Welfare to providegratuitously for one term treatment for the Hampsteadchildren. The subcommittee estimated that provision has

1 See THE LANCET, July 31st, 1909, p.312

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still to be made for upwards of 21,000 children. In thediscussion on the report an amendment to insert in the

agreements with the hospitals a stipulation that the waiting-room and other accommodation should be satisfactory to theCouncil and the hours of treatment convenient to working-class parents was rejected, Miss Lawrance and other

supporters of the committee’s proposals urging that theamendment would give offence to the hospital authorities,and that if such important work could be entrusted to themat all they could be left to carry it out under the bestconditions. The recommendations of the subcommitteewere accordingly approved.

THE AERO CLUB OF THE UNITED KINGDOM.

THE Royal Automobile Club Journal of Oct. 21st publishesa special supplement drawn up by Mr. F. H. Butler, thefounder of the Aero Club of the United Kingdom, whichgives a chronological summary of work done by members ofthat club and others during the period 1901-09. The Aero

Club was founded at the end of September, 1901, and wasregistered on Oct. 29th of the same year as a limited com-pany in connexion with the Automobile Club. The events

mentioned in the summary are chiefly concerned with balloons,for we in these islands are, or at any rate were until very

recently, far behind our continental neighbours in the art offlying by aeroplanes. Still, on Dec. 4th, 1908, Mr. Moore-Brabazon flew 450 yards in an aeroplane at Issy-les-Moulineaux, Paris, and on Sept. 8th, 1909, Mr. S. F. Cody flewfor 40 miles in his biplane at Aldershot. The science of aero-

planing has apparently but little to do with medical matters,but in a former issue we drew attention to the difficulties which

the new mode of transit might bring about in the future withregard to the spread of infectious diseases such as choleraor plague. The "avia loca " of the air know no frontiers,and flying machines will certainly have to be taken into

consideration in any further regulations, such as theexisting Venice convention, which may be agreed uponamong the nations to prevent the spread or disseminationof disease. Another way in which flying machines mayinterest medical men in the not very far off future is theiruse as hospital " ships " or means of transporting the sick toregions of the earth where certain climatic conditions obtain.This use of aeroplaning has been already set out in realisticfashion by Rudyard Kipling, in his wonderful fantasy," With the Night Mail." No one who has read it will forgethis description of the Benedicite sung at dawn on the

hospital boat for ’’ consumptives bound for Frederikshavenor one of the glacier sanatoriums for a month." The date is

2000 A.D., but when we look back at the progress in scientificinvention between 1859 and 1909 it may be that another50 years will see Mr. Kipling’s dream no longer a dreambut a reality.

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His Majesty the King visited the National Hospital forthe Paralysed and Epileptic, Queen-square, on Nov. 4th,and opened the jubilee extension wing of the hospital.

THE Local Government Board, acting on the request ofthe London County Council, has ordered that the Notifica-tion of Births Act, 1907, shall come into operation in themetropolis on Nov. 30th next.

WE have been notified that the following members of themedical profession have been elected as councillors on theLondon borough councils, but possibly the list is incomplete:Camberwell, Mr. F. Lonnon and Dr. D. M. Serjeant;Finsbury, Mr. W. Lauzun-Brown; Fulham, Mr. J. J.

Edwards ; Hampstead, Mr. C. W. Cunnington ; Islington.Dr. G. Madden and Dr. Kate Haslam ; Kensington, Dr.

F. H. Anderson and Dr. F. H. Alderson ; Paddington, Dr. J.Thoresby Jones ; St. Pancras, Dr. R. M. Beaton and Dr.

Paramore; Stepney, Mr. M. Feldman; and Westminster,Dr. Henry Dutch.

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A TELEGRAM from the Governor of Mauritius to the

Secretary of State for the Colonies states that 21 cases ofplague with 13 deaths were reported during the week endingwith October.

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THE next meeting of the British Medical Association, ashas been already announced, will take place in London,and Mr. Butlin, President of the Royal College of Surgeonsof England, has been nominated President-elect. It is

anticipated that the annual meetings of the Association in1911 and 1912 will be held in Birmingham and Liverpoolrespectively.

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THE friends and pupils of the late Professor Arthur

Gamgee have initiated a fund which is intended to mark

their high appreciation of his eminent services to science andhis life-long devotion to the prosecution of knowledge.Subscriptions to the Gamgee Fund may be sent to ProfessorArthur Schuster, Victoria Park, Manchester ; Dr. A. D.

Waller, Physiological Laboratory, University of London,S. W. ; or Dr. G. A. Buckmaster, University College, London,W.C. A meeting of supporters of the movement will beheld shortly, the date and place of which will be announcedin due course.

ROYAL COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS OFLONDON.

A COMITIA was held on Thursday, Oct. 28th, SirR. DOUGLAS POWELL, Bart., K.C.V.O., the President, beingin the chair.The following gentlemen having passed the required

examination were admitted Members of the College :-William David Keyworth, M.B., B.C. Cantab., and CharlesJoseph Singer, M.B. Oxon., L.R.C.P. Licences to practisephysic were granted to 104 gentlemen who had passed thenecessary examinations.The PRESIDENT announced that the Jenks Memorial

Scholarship had been awarded to Mr. Phillip Dennis Scott.He also announced that the adjudicators of the Weber-Parkes prize and medals had decided upon the followingsubject for the next competition : "The influence of mixedand secondary infections upon pulmonary tuberculosis inman and the measures, preventive and curative, for dealingwith them."The following communications were received: 1. From

Professor Emil Fischer thanking the College for the awardof the Baly medal to him. 2. From the secretary of theRoyal College of Surgeons of England regarding proceedingsof their council on July 29th and Oct. 14th last.A report was received from Dr. F. W. Pavy, the College

representative at the International Medical Congress at

Budapest. On the motion of the PRESIDENT the thanks ofthe College were returned to Dr. Pavy for the service he hadrendered to the College.The audited accounts for the year ending Sept. 29th

last were laid before the College. The quarterly report ofthe College Finance Committee, dated Oct. 21st, was

received and adopted.The resignation of Dr. P. H. Pye-Smith as a member of

the Executive Committee of the Imperial Cancer ResearchFund was received, and Dr. A. Newsholme was appointed arepresentative of the College in his place.

Dr. Norman Moore was re-elected a member of the Com-mittee of Management.The books and other publications presented to the library

during the past quarter were received and the thanks of theCollege ordered to be returned to the donors.

After some further formal business the PRESIDENT dissolvedthe Comitia.