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and I will take care that your letter is laid before the Boardat their next meeting.-Yours faithfully,

P. MICHELLI, Secretary.J. Curnow, Esq., M.D., F.R.C.P., 9, Wimpole-street, W.

Oct. 10th, 1898.DEAR SIR,-Referring to the proposed School for Tropical

Medicine at the Victoria and Albert Docks and Mr. Michelli’sletter of July 14th, we think our letter to the Times of

July 20th was a plain statement of facts. We see nothingto regret on our part, and if there is any meaning in plainEnglish, Sir Henry Burdett’s words can have but one inter-pretation, i.e., that the senior staff of the Dreadnouyht wereto be on the teaching staff of the proposed school.On July 15th he wrote Dr. Anderson that his

letter to the Times was written under instructionsfrom the committee of the ]J1’earlnought.. a committee,we would remind you, who had not had the courtesyto let us know that such a scheme was on foot, still less toask for our cooperation until some five days after the vice-president’s letter appeared in the lay press and he had beenasked for explanation by Dr. Anderson.We beg to ask the committee, as Dr. Curnow has twice

already asked the secretary, whether they have decided toconcentrate the cases of tropical diseases at the Branch

Hospital and have done this without consulting the visitingphysicians of the parent Dreadnollght Hospital.

It is impossible for us to give any answer to a request forcooperation until we have been put in full possession of thedetails of the proposed school.-Believe us, yours faithfully,

J. CURNOW.J. ANDERSON.G. R. TURNER.

The Chairman of the Dread?zotig7)t Hospital Committee.

Dl’cad’/1oll[1ht Seameu’s Hospital,Greenwich, S.E., 17th Oct., 1898.

DEAR SIRS, -1 am instructed to acknowledge the receiptof your letter of the 10th inst, which was laid before the

general committee at their meeting on Friday last.The committee regret that you still feel aggrieved by Sir

Henry Burdett’s letter which was published in the Times ofJuly llth.They also much regret that you do not feel able to signify

yonr wish to cooperate with them in carrying out the schemeof H.M. Secretary of State for the Colonies for the establish-ment in connexion with the society’s Branch Hospital of aschool for the study of tropical diseases.The details of the scheme must necessarily remain open for

consideration by the committee which will be appointed tomanage the school.

I am, dear Sirs, yours faithfully,P. MICHELLI, Secretary.

John Curnow, Esq., M.D., &c.John Andersen. Esq., M.D., &e.G. Robertson Turner, Esq., Ji’.R.C.S., &c.

9, Wimpole-street, Cavendish-square. W.,23th Oct., 1898.

DEAR SiR,—Wo beg to acknowledge the receipt of yourletter of the 17th inst.

It is true we are aggrieved by the entirely unauthorisedstatement contained in Sir Henry Burdett’s letter publishedi the Times of July llth last ; but we are still more so bythe committee’s want of courtesy in not asking the opinionof the senior medical staff of the Ilrearlnot7tt Hospital atany time during the inception of their scheme before theletter was written, and for which lack of courtesy no apologyhas been offered or regret expressed.The question as to the concentration of tropical cases at

the Branch Hospital and consequent starvation of the parenthospital at Greenwich in its one distinctive feature has notyet been answered, although three times asked, and we pressvour committee for a definite reply upon this point, after thereceipt of which we will not trouble them with furthercc -respondence. We are, dear sir, yours faithfully,

JOHN CURNOW.J. ANDERSON.G. R. TummR.

The Secretary, DrertdnorarJht Seamen’s Hospital,Greenwich.

Dreadito?tri7it Seamen’, Hospital,Nov. 28th, 1898.

StRS,—Not having received any reply to the question wepressed upon you in our letter of Oct. 29th last we are sending

P. MICHELLI, Secretary.

J. CURNOW.

J. ANDERSON.G. R. TURNER.

P. MICHELLI, secretary.

JOHN CURNOW.

J. ANDERSON.G. R. TURNER.

the correspondence that has taken place between us to thepress for publication. In doing so we wish to remind youthat we have performed the medical and surgical work of theDreadnought Hospital for eighteen, ten, and seventeen yearsrespectively. We are, Sirs, yours faithfully,

JOHN CURNOW.J. ANDERSON.G. R. T[-RNI’R.

To the Committee, ])r(’(fdnO/!.[fhl Scamou’H Hospital,Urcenwich.

JOHN CURNOW.J. ANDERSON.G. R. TURNER.

THE USE OF THE ROENTGEN RAYSON THE BATTLE-FIELD.

THERE was a large attendance at the Camera Club,Charing Cross-road, on the evening of Monday, Nov. 28th,when in simple language suited to a lay audience MajorBeevor, R.A.M.C. (Surgeon-Major, Royal Scots Guards),demonstrated before the members of the club and theirfriends the result of x-ray work during the Afridi campaign.There never existed, he said, a braver set of men or moreskilful artists with modern firearms than the Afridis, andconsequently there was no lack of wounds fur the surgeon’sattention. It was not only bullets, however, that thesemen used as messengers of death, but, as Major Beevorpointed out in a previous lecture, all sorts of objects-pieces of telegraph wire, buttons, and, in fact, anything zn

hard. The lecturer dwelt on the difficulty which attendedthe localisation and finding of foreign bodies in the animalorganism, and remarked that though modern surgery hadprogressed greatly and chloroform had done a great dealtowards the alleviation of human suffering he humbly main-tained that of late years no invention had come to the forein this respect so forcibly as that which was known as thex rays. To be able to localise, to find the size, and tooperate directly upon a foreign body in the human organismby means of this invention was an incalculable benefit toboth surgeon and patient.The lecture took the form of a running commentary on a

series of radiograms exhibited by means of the electriclantern, and without reproducing these pictures it is difficultto make the cases intelligible to our readers, but Surgeon-Major Beevor’s remarks embodied some information of valueto the medical profession and we pick out such items ofinterest as may have a useful bearing upon x-ray work andsurgery.

In one case a bullet was shown embedded in the tissues ofthe popliteal space. This injury caused a great deal of

swelling and irritation around the knee-joint. The bulletafter striking the tibia lodged in the popliteal space a littleabove the condyles of the femur and could not be dis-covered by means of a probe. By the x rays it was foundwithin an inch of the surface of the skin. Had not these raysbeen used it would probably have been necessary to amputate.The swelling was very marked and the radiogram showedto what an extent bones can be pushed apart and the

supporting ligaments stretched by inflammation and irrita-tion of a joint. The space between the femur and the tibiawas greatly exaggerated and the patella was high up abovethe condyle of the femur, notwithstanding the fact that theleg was flexed. As showing the conditions under whichoperations have to be performed on the battlefield, the tem-perature at this time was about 110° F. in the shade, andthere were about 400 men to look after and some 110 deadmen to be buried. Another radiogram showed a bulletwhich had entered the inner side of the biceps. This coulilnot be found by a probe, as it had slipped down intothe sheath of the tendon and become embedded. So incor-porated was it with the fibrous material that an hour anda half were occupied in dissecting it out. The superiority ofthe x rays over the probe in some cases was shown by thecase of a man from whose instep four pieces of telegraphwire were removed. A small piece of flint was afterwardsextracted and it was thought that the patient would recover.Three months later the man was about on crutches but he

complained that he could not put his heel to the ground.On examination with the fluorescent screen it was found thata piece of bone was impacted in the periosteum beneaththe heel. This could not possibly have been found witha probe. Another case shown was that of a sergeant of Sikhs,who was struck in the elbow while wearing a poshteen-a

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garment made of goat-skin. If the weather is fine this coatis worn with the hair next the body, but if the weather isdamp it is turned inside out and the hair worn outside so asto protect the leather from the wet. In this case the bullet.carried into the muscles a mass of leather and hair, bloodpoisoning supervened, and the joint swelled to such an"extent (some 12 in. in circumference) that it was impossibleto find a foreign body with a probe. By the use of the x rays,however, the foreign body was located and finally removed.’The man made a good recovery. The radiogram of an officer’shand was shown to demonstrate the fact that small quantitiesof a compound of lead, such as that incorporated in thematerial used for lead plaster, offer resistance to the x rays.’The radiogram was taken while the hand was bandaged andthe strips showed as distinct rings around the fingers. A

radiogram of the leg of General Woodhouse was shown toillustrate the fact that not only bone but fibrous materialwill break up a bullet. It is interesting to note thatwhile the bullet in this case was being extracted thirteenbullets passed through the tent in which the operation wasbeing performed.An interesting discussion followed in which Mr. Cadett,

Mr. H. H. Massey, M.R.C.S.Eng., Mr. Inwards (late presidentof the Meteorological Society), the chairman, Mr. WilsonNoble, Mr. A. A. Campbell Swinton, Mr. Godfrey (the secre-tary of the Camera Club), and others joined. In this discussionit was suggested that light dynamos to be worked by handpower should be constructed for use on the battle-field and inmilitary operations, that in some cases electric power mightbe obtained from ships of war ; that chemists should directtheir attention to the manufacture of sensitive plates moresuited to x-ray work than the ordinary photograph plates, thatthe Wimshurst machine might be used, and that the Govern-ment should be asked to facilitate in every possible way thetise of the Roentgen rays in military campaigns.

In his reply Major Beevor spoke of the uselessness of

photographic films in hot climates and the difficultiesattending transport of the apparatus. He mentioned that adynamo for use by hand had been used in the Soudan andhad proved fairly satisfactory. The Government of Indiahad afforded him every facility for carrying on the work.Hearty votes of thanks to the lecturer and to the chairman

terminated the proceedings. Credit is due to Mr. Godfreyfor his success in organising this gathering which greatlyexceeded in numbers the ordinary attendance at the lecture Iwenings of the Camera Club.

THE METROPOLITAN HOSPITALSUNDAY FUND.

A MEETING of the Council of this Fund was held at theMansion House on Monday, Nov. 28th. In the unavoidable

absence of the Lord Mayor, the Bishop of Southwark

presided.The report of the Council for the year ending Oct. 31st,

1898, stated that the twenty-sixth year of collecting thisFund had resulted, under the presidency of the RightHonourable Sir Horatio D. Davies, K.C.M.G., M.P.,Lord Mayor, treasurer, in a total of .640,397 2s. 10d.The Rev. C. J. Ridgeway, M.A., of Christ Church,Lancaster Gate, headed the list of contributions with

.61,367; the Rev. Canon Fleming, B.D., of St. Michael’s,Chester-square, collected S1268; the Rev. J. Storrs, M.A.,of St. Peter’s, Eaton-square, .6681; the Rev. PrebendaryEardley-Wilmot, M.A., of St. Jude’s, South Kensington,.6623 ; and the Rev. F. E. Ridgeway, D.D., of St. Peter’s,Cranley Gardens, .6501. Sir Saville Crossley, Bart., againmost generously contributed .6500, a like sum of .8500 beingsent by him to "The Prince of Wales’s Hospital Fund" ;ae.300 were received from A. G. P. ; "Delta" sent his twen-tieth donation of .6200 ; and Mr. George Herring sent .8200.On the motion of Sir HENRY BURDETT the following

resolution passed in committee was added to the report.Resolved unanimously :-That before proceeding to business and having this day heard of the

<1eath of their much-esteemed colleague Sir Stuart Knill, Bart. the’committee desire to record their regret and request the secretary toconvey to Lady Knill and her family their sincere sympathy and- condolence.

Alderman Sir H. D. DAVIES, the late Lord Mayor, wasselected to fill a vacancy on the Council. June llth was

recommended as the date on which to hold Hospital Sundayin 1899. The annual general meeting of the constituents ofthe Fund was fixed for Monday, Dec. 12th.

PUBLIC VACCINATORS AND THE NEWVACCINATION ACT.

AN I11ZPORTABT MEETING OF PUBLIC VACCINATORSAT MALTON.

ON Wednesday afternoon last a meeting of publicvaccinators was held at Malton to take into considerationthe remuneration which should be granted in urban and ruraldistricts. Dr. William Colby, J.P., of Malton, was voted tothe chair and there were also present Mr. Malvin (Scar-borough), Mr. Scott (Thornton Dale), Mr. Stuart (GreatAyton), Mr. J. T. R. Miller (Malton), Mr. W. S. Sprent(Slingsby), Mr. Comber (Pickering), Dr. Glen and Dr.Fulton (Middlesbrough), Mr. Norris (Sherburn), Dr.Gramshaw (Stillington), Mr. Hine (South Cave), Mr. Todd(Selby), ]BIr. Wetwan (Bridlington), Mr. Haworth (Filey),Dr. Hope (Hutton-Buscel), Dr. Dougall (Welburn), Dr.McCracken (Coxwold), and Dr. Adams (Rillington).

Mr. SPRENT, who had convened the meeting, said that theresult of his communication had been to get replies fromevery union in the North and East Ridings, while of 127public vaccinators in the two Ridings he had receivedreplies from 118 entering into details on the points to bediscussed at the meeting. In cases where there was norepresentation the unions were in perfect accord with theobject of that meeting and gave him authority fortheir support in certain resolutions. 75 per cent. ofthe public vaccinators seemed to be very strongly in favourof a mileage fee and against the minimum fee laid downby the Local Government Board. The Aysgarth Union

suggested that the Is. fee should be 2s. 6d., while theyaccepted the 5s. fee and suggested Is. per mile after thefirst mile. At Helmsley and Pickering there was a feeling infavour of Is. per mile. He had received private intimationthat the committee of the Malton and Norton Boards weremaking an offer of 2s. instead of Is. and 10s. instead of5s., to be inclusive of all claims and to cover what mightbe termed abortive visits. As far as he could gather thiswas the most generous offer made hitherto by any board ofguardians in England. In the Marylebone Union the feesagreed upon were 2s. 6d. and 7s. 6d. In Leyburn the mini-mum fee was suggested with Is. mileage; Middlesbrough wasquite in accord with this meeting, as also was Easingwold.A debate followed, in the course of which it was freely

stated that the 5s. fee for successful vaccination at homewas too small, that the Is. fee for the statutory visit wasridiculous, and that some system of payment by mileagewas the only fair one. Mr. SPRENT moved the followingresolution :-

That the fees of public vaceinators should be 2s. 6d. and 5s. inurban districts and 2s. 6d. and 10s. 6d. in the rural districts, these feesto cover all duties.

He thought in this way a settlement could be arrivedat. In rural districts the loss on long journeys would beequalised by the cases nearer home.The motion was seconded by Dr. GRAMSHAW and carried

unanimously.PUBLIC VACCINATORS AT NANTWICH AND THEIR FEES.At the last fortnightly meeting of the Nantwich Board of

Guardians held on Saturday, Nov. 26th, a motion was

brought forward to confirm certain minutes of the financecommittee, which minutes stated that after hearing Mr.William Thomson and Mr. A. E. Vaughan as a deputationthe board decided that the minimum fees under the newAct should be the scale of payment for the publicvaccinators of the union.

Mr. THOMSON, who was present, regretted this decisionbut said that the matter could not be settled by the publicvaccinators or by the guardians except by mutual agree-ment. The public vaccinators would not be satisfied withthe report of the finance committee if it were adopted bythe board and in that case they would be obliged to bringthe matter before the Local Government Board to decide.Among the reasons why the public vaccinators thought that