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half. The floor space allotted to each patient is ninety squarefeet, the air space 1400 cubic feet. Each ward has accom-

modation for thirteen patients on the female side and nine-teen on the male side. In one male ward there is accom-

modation for twenty-five beds. Small wards with six beds are

provided for special cases. Each ward has small projectingwings for sink, lavatories and sanitary adjuncts. All the

ward floors are fireproof, of coke breeze concrete upon rollediron joists ; the floors are of Canadian maple in narrowwidth, and are of wax-polished and impervious surface ; thewalls are of cement plaster finished with parian ; all the

passages, corridor, roofs and staircases have a dado, four feetsix inches high, of parian cement; all angles are rounded; thestaircases are of stone, the ward windows are all alternatelydraw-sash and French casements; rounded balconies face theairing yard to allow of patients getting an airing. The hos-

pital is heated with hot-water pipes. The ventilation includesthe admission of heated air into the wards and the dischargeof vitiated air by appliances of the latest and most approvedtypes. The buildings will be lighted throughout with theelectric light.

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PROFESSOR BILLROTH’S JUBILEE.

THE past few days have witnessed a series of festivals atVienna in commemoration of the commencement of the

teaching career of Professor Billroth at the above-mentionedschool. The event indeed has been converted into a sort of

congress, which was inaugurated on the 8th inst. by theassembling of the former pupils of this distinguished surgeonin order to testify their gratitude for the advantages they hadderived from his instructions. On this occasion Professor

Czerny of Heidelberg was deputed to present to ProfessorBillroth a volume containing a record of his principal surgicalworks, and entitled Contributions to Surgery. " In the eveningof the same day a dinner was given to Professor Billroth, Iat which numerous congratulatory speeches were made. The

jubilee extended to the llth, on which day his friends andadmirers assembled to listen to an address by ProfessorAlbert. The commemoration has excited great enthusiasmin the medical world of the Austrian capital.

ABUSE OF EYE HOSPITALS BY WEALTHY PEOPLE.

A CORRESPONDENT in an evening contemporary writes

apparently in justification of wealthy persons going into theophthalmic hospitals. He says, "The reason why people go tothe Ophthalmic Hospital is because, however much wealth theymay have, they get the best surgical treatment. " This follows,somewhat inconsistently, an account of his own experience ofthe hospital, with which he was dissatisfied. He adds, " Ibelieve it is quite true that very rich men go to the Ophthal-mic Hospital. An Australian landowner was in when I was.He had come from Australia for the purpose. " Wealthy andwell-to-do people who go to hospitals are without excuse.They are not objects of charity and they take up beds meantfor the poor. It is idle to say that the best surgical treatmentis there. It is also to be had from the same surgeons privately;and it is mean and unjust not to pay for it. Such publicstatement of abuses of eye hospitals should make the

governors more vigilant to exclude such unfit cases. Other-wise subscriptions will fall off.

THE HOWARD SOCIETY’S REPORT.

THE wise and practical benevolence which characterisedthe great prison reformer is commonly represented in theproceedings of the Society which bears his name, and of thisfact we have received fresh proofs in its recently publishedannual report. While admitting, however, the general excel-lence of the matter contained in this work, we may selectcertain subjects with which it deals as of special interest andimportance. Among these public opinion will rejoice to note

as a familiar evil marked for amendment the notorious

inequality of legal sentences. No one probably will disputethe pernicious effect of that kind of magisterial good naturewhich has often impeded justice by condoning grave personalerrors-as cruelty, drunkenness and the like-while scourgingby heavy penalties the most petty sins against property. The

report again strikes hard at the system of I I association " amongprisoners still widely practised in America and by no meansunknown in Europe, or even in Great Britain and her depen-dencies. It would institute everywhere in place of this amethod which would separate prisoners from each otherwhile allowing them intercourse by visitation with the non-criminal outer world. It exposes with critical penetrationthe fallacy within that emasculated humanity which educates,feeds and clothes, but will not chastise, the offender againstlaw. The frequently long detention of prisoners awaitingtrial and their unwholesome and indecent herding togetherin many court-houses have given rise to protests on the partof the Association which have not been fruitless of improve-ment. Not the least sensible observation contained in the

report is that which condemns the still too common imprison-ment of children and youths, for whose misdemeanours amore effectual deterrent would usually be found in the freeadministration of the birch.

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THE SEMMELWEISS INTERNATIONAL MEMORIAL.

WE have already informed our readers of the movement onfoot for the erection of an international monument toSemmelweiss. We gladly revert to the subject, and directthe attention of our readers to the notice of a meeting tobe held on Oct. 24th, at 5 P.M., in the library of the RoyalCollege of Physicians, and to be presided over by SirAndrew Clark, Bart., President of the College. We earnestlytrust that he will then be supported by practitioners of

every class, and not least by general practitioners who feelgrateful to Semmelweiss for shedding such a flood of light onthe simple means by which the conveyance of puerperal fevermay be avoided, of which means the more perfect obstetricantisepticism aimed at by every good practitioner is the con-summation. It is understood that subscriptions will be limitedto one guinea. There will be the more need for numbers.We wish every success to the movement. It is understoodthat the practitioners of Scotland and Ireland will be askedto participate. -

DIPHTHERIA AT ALBRIGHTON.

A STORMY meeting of the parishioners of this place,situated in the Shifnal rural sanitary district, took placerecently, to discuss the sanitary state of the village, whichhad been blamed for the prevalence of diphtheria. Various

allegations were made as to the circumstances of the drainage,sewage disposal and water-supply which, if true, deserve theearnest attention of the authority. But, inasmuch as some

divergence of opinion appeared to exist as to the facts, thematter seems one that requires the intervention of the Shrop-shire County Council or of the Local Government Board.

THE SOCIETY OF MEDICAL OFFICERS OFHEALTH.

THE Birmingham and Midland Branch of the Society ofMedical Officers of Health held last week its first meeting ofthe present session, and Dr. Alfred Hill, the President of the

branch, read a paper on Cholera, giving an account of thedifferent invasions of England by this disease, and especiallyof cholera prevalences in Bilston, and he contrasted thecalamities that occurred on these occasions with the immunityenjoyed by England at the present time. The circumstances

under which cholera was spread were, he said, well under-

stood in this country, and he dwelt upon the evidence that wentto prove that cholera was a water-borne disease. The da,nbers

898

of surface wells were described, and an account given of thesteps taken in Birmingham to close those wells which werefound to be polluted. The lesson Dr. Hill taught cannot berepeated too often. England is undoubtedly in a better con-dition to resist cholera now than formerly, but the work is inno way completed, and there are still in existence localities

where excessive death-rates from enteric fever show that there

cholera would still find fitting places for its development.The winter months give opportunities for sanitary authoritiesto remove many of these dangers before injury results. It is

to be hoped that this opportunity will not be wasted.

SMALL-POX PREVALENCE.

SOME forty to fifty cases of small-pox per week are still

being reported throughout the kingdom. The town of

Warrington retains the preeminence of contributing the

largest quota of these, equal to nearly half the total.Halifax and Barnsley come next, whilst London, it is satis-

factory to know, remains practically free from the disease,only some half-dozen cases remaining under treatment.

FOREIGN UNIVERSITY INTELLIGENCE.

Be’l’lin.-Dr. Johannes Sobotta has been appointed Assistantin the First Anatomical Institute.

-Dorpat.-Dr. Gusta,v Tammann has been appointed Extra-ordinary Professor of Chemistry in succession to Dr. Carl

Schmidt, who has retired. The total number of students inthe university is 1558, or more than a hundred less than lastyear. Of these rather more than half belong to the medicalfaculty, in addition to 118 who are studying pharmacy.

122n,,?br?tek.-Dr. Foltanek, the newly appointed Professorof Children’s Diseases, has resigned his post on the ground ofthe insufficient accommodation provided for patients.-Dr.Wladimir Lukasiewicz has been appointed ExtraordinaryProfessor of Dermatology and Syphilis.

.XaM.—Dr. Alexander Henrichovich Ge, Professor of

Dermatology, has been appointed Dean of the Medical

Faculty. ‘

’

Iiortisber.-A new Clinic for Syphilis is being established I

under the care of Professor Schneider. Hitherto there has

been no Clinic for Mental Diseases, but this deficiency is now I

being supplied by the establishment of one as a department ’,of the Town Hospital under Professor Meschede. The iPrussian universities have now all, with the single exception iof Kiel, a Clinic for Mental Diseases. I

If-ii,rzbii,ry. -The chair of Chemistry vacated by Dr. Fischer,who has gone to Berlin, has been offered to ProfessorHantzsch of the Zurich Polytechnic.

/<?A.&mdash;The chair of Pharmacognosis and Pharmacy,vacated by Dr. Schar-who goes to Strasburg to fill

Fluckiger’s place-has been conferred on Dr. Carl Hartwich ofBrunswick.

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DEATHS OF EMINENT FOREIGN MEDICAL MEN.

THE deaths of the following distinguished members ofthe medical profession abroad have been announced :-Dr. Eduard Ipsen, Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery in theUniversity of Copenhagen and Surgeon to the Crown Princeof Denmark, at the age of forty-eight.--Dr. A. Allenstein,one of the best known practitioners in Riga. &mdash;Dr. Steinthal,Medical Privy Councillor of Berlin.

WB regret to learn that Dr. Villemin died on Friday night, i

Oct. 7th, at the age of sixty-five. Born in the Vosges, hebegan life as a teacher in the Strasburg Military Schooland was next professor at Val-de-Grace, Paris. Hisworks on Tuberculosis were the starting point of new ideas onthat malady. His experiments proved it to be inoculable andcontagious. At the International Tuberculosis Congress inParis last year the greatest honours were paid to him.

THE Smith Hospital, Henley, the gift of the late Right I I

Hon. W. H. Smith, was opened on the 6th inst. by the Bishopof Oxforcl, in the presence of a, large audience. The site forthe building was given by Mr. W. D. Mackenzie of FawleyCourt, who has undertaken to lay out the ground.

PROFESSOR ANREP of St. Petersburg is stated to be sufferingfrom cholera, but is believed to be progressing favourably.

CHOLERA.

CURRENT NOTES, COMMENTS AND CRITICISM.CHOLERA is gradually ceasing to manifest itself with

epidemic force, and it is rapidly subsiding in those places inwhich it is still prevailing. At Hamburg there were only13 cases and 3 deaths on the llth inst., and for theweek ending Oct. 8th the number of attacks was 155 with43 deaths, against 474 and 180 respectively during thepreceding week. The number of cases in Paris and itsenvirons is diminishing, but there has been rather a sharpoutbreak at Marseilles. At Antwerp, Amsterdam, Rotterdam,St. Petersburg, Berlin and Cracow respectively the cases arerelatively few in number. At Budapest the disease still con-tinues prevalent, as might be expected, and several isolatedcases are stated to have occurred at thirteen different placesin Hungary.

In the case of an epidemic disease like cholera, disappear-ance and death cannot, however, be used as conterminous orsynonymous expressions. It does not at all follow, unfor.tunately, that because the disease ceases to manifest itselfactively under the repressing effects of winter its cause

will not be revitalised under other and favourable con-

ditions. The influence of season on epidemic cholera is anoteworthy factor. It apparently overrides other conditions,and we might almost as soon expect a heavy fall of snow insummer as the beginning of an epidemic of cholera or its rapidand widespread extension in winter. But the active manifesta-tion of the disease is one thing, its death and destructionanother. As we have stated from the beginning, a

cholera epidemic usually lasts three, or from three to four

years from start to finish, and the experience derived fromthe history of cholera in the past indicates that it has itsperiods of latency and dormancy as well as those of activemanifestation ; and it is not only quite conceivable, but pro-bable, that the former has a causal connexion with the latterperiod in the spread of an epidemic. Paradoxical as it mayappear, it is well to regard the cholera-cause for the momentas something altogether separate and distinct from the humanbeings in whom it manifests itself and makes its presenceknown; for there can be little doubt that the time ofits coming forward may be quite separate and distinctfrom the time of its introduction and distribution in anygiven country or locality. So much depends upon seasonand other conditions, to say nothing of those of locality, whichmay be favourable or the reverse, that we cannot prospectfuture occurrences with any sufficient accuracy to turn themto practical account. But of one thing we may be sure-viz.,that it is a delusion and contrary to fact to suppose that be-cause an epidemic declines or ceases altogether in winter itsfurther progress at later dates and under other circumstancesis therefore arrested and cannot take place.As on former occasions, the present epidemic has been very

unequal both in its incidence and in its effect indifferentplaces. In Russia it has given rise in the aggregate to aterrible amount of sickness and mortality. The total numberof cases in the Caucasus during the months of Augustand September were 127,273 with 64,767 deaths, ac-

cording to a telegram in the daily Chronicle. Althoughthe epidemic had almost died out before August in thegovernment of Baku, 1800 deaths were reported during thatmonth. In the Northern Caucasus the provinces of Kubanand Stavropol suffered most heavily. In Baku the death-ratewas 70 per cent. of those attacked, while in Kars and thesurrounding district it was 40 per cent. At the present timethe disease is very active in the government of Erivan and tothe north of the Caucasus. During the seven weeks of theepidemic in Hamburg 17,862 persons were attacked withcholera, with 7571 deaths, or a mortality of 42 per cent.