1320 THE NURSES’ HOME AT THE LONDON FEVER HOSPITAL.

group, Public Hygiene, deals with urban sanitation, sewers,

wells, reservoirs, public washhouses, cesspools, treatment

of sewage, scavenging, markets, slaughterhouses, stables,municipal statistics, &c.; the second class includes all that

concerns the relief of the poor and help to the wounded.The third group is devoted to School Hygiene, and the fourthgroup to Maritime Hygiene, notably the clothing and foodof the sailor and improved sanitation for fishing smacks.The fifth group comprises all that concerns Hydrotherapy.Persons desiring to exhibit should apply to M. H. Ruveillez,Secretary to the Organising Committee, at the Hôtel-de-Ville,before May 25th. Doubtless this exhibition will add to the

attractions of Boulogne, and we hope that it will enlightenthe native population in matters relating to hygiene. In

this respect there is still much to be learnt and much to be

taught, for the drainage of Boulogne is very imperfect, andthe inhabitants do not yet thoroughly understand how muchtheir prosperity depends on the perfection of their sanitaryervices.

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CADAVERIC RIGIDITY.

DR. TISSOT presented before the Académie des Sciencesthe results of his researches on cadaveric rigidity.l Two

contrary opinions have been expressed by physiologists onthis point, SJm9 concurring with Brucke and Kuhne that therigidity is due to a chemical phenomenon-coagulation of themyosine, whilst others, agreeing with Ingsten and Brown-Sequard, consider it as a final contraction of the muscles-that is to say, a physiological phenomenon. Dr. Tissot’sconclusions are as follows : 1. The rigid muscles can veryoften be electrically excited for a variable length of timeafter the onset of rigidity and even when it is com-

pletely established. This persistence of excitability is

almost constant in those cases in which rigor mortishas supervened rapidly. 2. The rigid muscles which havelost their electric excitability often preserve their mechanicalexcitability for a considerable period of time. 3 The rigidmuscles which have lost their electrical and mechanical ex-

citability can still be excited to contraction by chemical re-agents. Contrary to what has been stated by several physio-logists, the excitability of muscles to chemical reagents(chloroform, ammonia, ether, &c.) persists much longer thanthe mechanical excitability and is always the last to be lost.4. Whilst the electrical excitability progressively diminishes,the excitability of the muscles to certain reagents increasesand reaches its maximum when that of electricity dis-

appears, and at the moment when the muscle becomes

rigid. With some reagents, however, the reverse occurs

and the excitability progressively diminishes. 5. Tetanisedand fatigued muscles present an exaggeration of sensi-

bility to chemical reagents in the same manner as

the rigid muscles. This reaction has also been observedin muscles of which the vessels have been ligatured for

some time, and in muscles which have been submitted to

the action of air, heat, drying processes, &c. 6. Contraction

produced in rigid muscle by the action of some excitant,even if it be only a small quantity of the vapours of chloro-form or ammonia, is accompanied by the production of a"current of action " in the muscle. It is also accompaniedby the disengagement of heat, as in the contraction of normalmuscle. 7. Rigid muscles when exposed to the air absorboxygen and give off carbonic acid. 8. Dr. Tissot had onlytwice been able to cause the onset of rigidity in the gastro-cnemius of a frog by a single strong electric shock, just beforethe moment when the muscle would have lost its electric

excitability. -

WE understand that there is a probability of steps beingtaken to hold the annual meeting of the British MedicalAssociation in 1895 in London.

1 L’Union Médicale, April 28th, 1894.

AT the meeting of the delegates of the London medicalschools held at the Middlesex Hospital on Wednesday last aresolution was passed expressing an approval of the generalfeatures of the scheme drawn up by the Gresham Uni.

versity Commissioners ; but it was also resolved to ask thatpowers should be given to a Statutory Commission to re-consider and alter some important details in the report ofthe Commission.

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MR JOHN CHARLES BUCKNILL, M.D., F.R.S., who is, weare pleased to learn, to receive the honour of knighthood,took an active part in the Volunteer movement and may be,indeed, regarded as its originator in this country. Dr.

Bucknill, who is joint editor with Dr. Hack Tuke of the"Manual of Psychological Medicine," has written severalworks on allied subjects, and was Lumleian Lecturer at theCollege of Physicians in 1878.

THE testimonial to Dr. W. Howship Dickinson, which con-sists of a portrait of himself by the Hon. John Collier, a serviceof silver plate, and an illuminated address, will be presentedto him on Monday, June 18th, in Grosvenor House. The Dukeof Cambridge has, we understand, undertaken to present thetestimonial to Dr. Dickinson.

THE new buildings of the Medical School of St. Thomas’sHospital will be opened by the President, H.R.H. the Dukeof Connaught, K.G., on Saturday, June 9th, at 4 p M.

THE NURSES’ HOME AT THE LONDONFEVER HOSPITAL.

ON Friday afternoon last Lady Balfour of Burleigh, whowas accompanied by her husband, the President of the

Hospital, declared open a new Nurses’ Home which hasbeen recently built in juxtaposition to the London Fever

Hospital. The total cost of the handsome annex, includingthe furnishing of it, was over 6000, and the money hasbeen well spent, as this extra accommodation for nurses hasbeen sorely wanted for a long time. This urgency of needfor better accommodation for the nurses has led to the first

step in future work. The erection of the Nurses’ Home may

be taken as a first instalment of the work of general recon-struction. The architect of the Home was Mr. Keith Young,h’. R I. B. A. The building, an illustration of which we give,is a handsome and commodious three-storied house. It con-tains single bedrooms for thirty-one nurses, with certain

large common rooms and other smaller ones, and its erectionshould greatly conduce to the comfort and general health ofthe nursing staff of the Fever Hospital.