1329VIENNA.-ITALY.

for professional negligence, in that he was well aware of thepatient’s deformity, and consequently had erred in not

taking precautionary measures. They therefore awardedM. Chassin 16,000 francs damages.

Nov. 5th. __________________

VIENNA.(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

The Balkan War and the Ausstrian 3ledical Profession.THE sudden outbreak of the Balkan war is making itself

deeply felt in this country, not only for political and ’Commercial reasons, but also as regards our profession.’There are in this empire several separate nationalities of Slavonic origin whose sympathies are naturally with their co-nationalists now fighting against the Turks. Numerousmedical men of Slavonic descent have therefore proceeded from Austria to the Balkan peninsula, partly with theAustrian associations for succouring the sick and wounded,the Red Cross to Montenegro and Bulgaria, and the Red ’Crescent to the Turks, and partly in an independent capacity,their presence and aid being gladly accepted. In additionto this racial fellow-feeling it must be remembered that theAustrian hospitals and medical schools are the principal places to which Balkan students resort for the purpose of’learning their profession and obtaining qualifications to prac-tise. These visitors from abroad are all absent now, servingtheir respective countries in the field, with the result thatnumerous posts in our hospitals which were held by Slavs orGreeks are now vacant and have to be refilled. From ourtwo surgical clinics in Vienna the chief assistants (mostly’Germans) have been despatched to the theatre of war by theRed Cross, which has also sent out a large number of trainednurses, together with the necessary outfit for field hospitals,and special mountain carts for the transport of the wounded.’These latter have not yet been used anywhere, but it is

expected that they will be very serviceable in the hillycountry where there are so many wounded. Another effectof the war has been an enormous sale of articles necessaryfor hospitals and the treatment of wounds. Very extensiveorders are still coming in from Greece ; the Austrian militaryauthorities have also been busily preparing for possible- emergencies, and every medical man in the empire who is’capable of serving knows by this time where he will be

expected to work in case of a call to arms.A Newal Society in Vienna.

Two enterprising medical men in this city have under-taken the task of founding a new medical society in additionto the numerous ones already- existing here; or perhaps itwould be more correct to say that their endeavour is to unite:all that there now are into one general medical society, ofwhich the existing smaller societies would be branches. Theidea is considered a good one, for we suffer from an unduemultiplicity of small societies, and the’ funds as well as thetime of the members are sadly split up by the present’.conditions. If the scheme receives sufficient support toenable it to be carried into practical effect a working methodwill be easily found, and this Austrian equivalent to theEnglish Royal Society of Medicine will undoubtedly be a’great boon to scientific life in this country.

Birthday Honours to Professor Kassom’it::.A few days ago Professor Dr. Kassowitz celebrated the

seventieth anniversary of his birthday and was the recipientof many congratulations in honour of the event. In additionto being a pioneer in the department of paediatrics he wasone of the founders, and is the chief leader of the AustrianAnti-alcohol Society, and both the Government and thescientific corporations of this country took this oppor-tunity of showing the esteem in which they hold him. A"Festschrift," to which many of Professor Kassowitz’sformer pupils contributed interesting articles, was publishedin honour of the occasion, and a special meeting of thepoediatric section of the Vienna Medical Society was heldat which he discussed the influence of hypothesis on

science, arguing in the course of his address that popularideas should not be accepted by science until they have beencorroborated by exact investigations.

The Relotions between Bodily Constitution and Disease.Professor A. Weichselbaum, the eminent pathologist, who

has just been installed for this year as Hector Magnificus ofthe University of Vienna-the highest honour in the gift ofour alma viater-delivered on this occasion an instructiveaddress on the relations between bodily constitution anddise,ise. He said that medical opinions on this questiondiffered a good deal at various times, for ancient authoritiesas represented by the Hippocratic treatises and Galen weremostly in favour of the "humoral" hypothesis, accordingto which the body as a whole became diseased, while laterinvestigators as represented by Virch)w denied the uni-versality of any pathological condition from which a patientsuffered, and maintained that each disease was an affectionof certain organs alone. More recent research, however, hasshown that the same morbific agent acted differently indifferent persons, and therefore we were bound to supposethat the constitution or bodily cenditions of the, patientplayed a prominent part in the course of disease. Suchclinical observers and pathologists as His, Martin, Paltauf,and Pfaundler have shown that anomalies of constitutionwere apt to influence in a high degree the progress of adisease and the clinical events following a surgical opera-tion. The heredity of such anomalies was a fact not to beoverlooked. As regards the problem of racial degeneration,it was important to note that there there could be no doubt(1) as to the increase of mental disease, of suicide, of cariesof the teeth, and of myopia ; and (2) as to the dying outof the masculine branches of eminent families, especially intowns. The chief causes for the above-mentioned detri-mental conditions were to be found in an educational

system which overtaxed the mental capacity of individualsduring the period of growth, in the abuse of alcohol, and insyphilis and tuberculosis. It should no longer be regardedas merely a Utopian ideal to demand from the State somemeans of eradicating these detrimental factors. Perfectfreedom of scientific investigations was an absolute necessityin order to enable the true social economist to find out and

lay his finger upon those evils, which must be re stifled unlessracial destruction be courted.Nov. 4th.

__________________

ITALY.(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

. The State Medical Service.

THE tenth congress of the Medici Condotti, to be held thisweek at Cagliari, will be occupied with a serious questionaffecting the State Medical Service. For years the medicicondotti have been agitating for the abolition of the° ° condotta piena," but the Association of Communes have

recently decided that this institution must be retained. Alittle explanation is necessary. The " condotta" is a kindof " parish " appointment for the medical assistance of thepoor, for which the commune pays a medical man a fixed

salary annually. The medical man is obliged to reside inthe district, and in this way the more prosperous classes areassured of having a doctor in the vicinity to attend totheir needs. But these more prosperous classes have theadministration of the communes in their hands and haveinstituted a custom of making the doctor attend the wholedistrict irrespective of the poverty or wealth of the patientsfor a certain small addition to his original salary. In thesecircumstances the " condotta" is spoken of as a " condottapiena." The doctors, however, find that whereas the poorare rarely ill enough to ask for their assistance the wealthierclasses call them for their least indisposition, keep them upall night, and in other ways abuse their gratuitous attend-ance. The medici condotti had hoped to have freed them-selves from the tyranny of the communes by getting thecontrol of the sanitary services transferred from the communesto the larger provincial administrations. This hope has

proved vain, for the Association of Provincial Administra-tions has decided not to support the proposal. While thereis so much talk in England of the possibility of the institu-tion of a State Medical Service this experience in Italy isworth noting. The National Association of Medici Condottinumbers 7629 members.

The Accident to Signor MarconiOn Sept. 25th, on the road between Spezia and Genoa,

Signor Marconi was the victim of a serious accident. He

was driving his motor car at a fair pace round a curve in