1087

BERLIN.(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

The Statistics of Cazcer.ACCORDING to Professor Behla, one of the medical members

of the Prussian Statistical Office, the number of deaths fromoancer has again increased in 1912 as compared with thepreceding year, 30,045 deaths from cancer having beenreported in 1912 against 29,473 in 1911. The increase incancer mortality has been continuous during recent years,whilst the death-rate from tuberculosis is constantlydecreasing. New methods of treatment have thus failedto produce a decrease in the mortality, and it will be ofinterest to see from future statistics whether this will con-tinue to be the case after the introduction of modern radio-

therapy. Professor Behla draws attention to the remarkablefact that the cancer mortality of the year is always greatestùn the autumn.

A Municipal 5Mbvcntion to the Berlin lledical Society.The Berlin Medical Society has hitherto not been in

possession of premises of its own, the Langenbeck House,where the meetings take place and where also the offices andlibrary are accommodated, being the property of the GermanSurgical Association, and only rented from them. The

Langenbeck House has long since proved much too small forthe increasing number of members of the Medical Society,and the society has therefore decided to build a new houseof its own, to be called the "Virchow House." The pur-chase of a site in the medical quarter of Berlin, however, hasexhausted the funds at the disposition of the society, so thatbut little money is left for the cost of building. The com-mittee of the society some time ago petitioned the municipalauthorities of Berlin to grant to the society a subvention onaccount of the valuable work done by the society for publichealth. The town council has, indeed, after a thoroughdiscussion, decided to grant the request and to give to thesociety an annual sum of f,500 for five years, beginningwith Oct. 1st, 1914, and further, to lend the sum of .650,000on mortgage on the premises. In this way the MedicalSociety is at once relieved from its financial difficulties andwill be able to begin building the new premise. This

generous decision of the Berlin municipal authorities is

highly appreciated in medical quarters. The plan of co-

operating with the German Surgical Association in con-

structing a large house to be used in common has been

abandoned, the negotiations for that purpose not havingled to any practical result, although the Langenbeck Housealso is much too small for the Surgical Association, so

that their last two meetings had to be held outside the

Langenbeck House in a large concert hall.The Noise Mt Modern Hotels.

Professor Oppenheim, the well-known specialist for nervousdiseases, has been drawing public attention to certain draw-backs connected with modern hotels, notwithstanding thegreat progress made in their construction and management.He refers to the noise produced by lifts and by the hot-water arrangements for a great number of bathroomsand lavatories. Matters are made worse by the thinnessof the partitions between the hotel rooms, which allow

every noise in the neighbouring rooms to be heard,notwithstanding .double-doors and double-windows. Thesituation of the leading hotels in busy thoroughfares doesnot favour quietness, and in the back rooms the noise issometimes as annoying as it is in front. But the greatestnuisance of all is the excessive supply of music. Formerlymusical performances took place only in the evening and incertain hotels ; nowadays every hotel, from the fashionableones in the great cities to the more unpretending inns inremote mountain places, has its house band, which performsat least twice a day. Music, as Professor Oppenheim says,is truly a great delight, but only under certain conditions,and the individual hotel resident should have the choicewhether he wishes to hear music or not, whilst under presentconditions he has no means of escaping it, even should heprefer to seek quietude in a retired corner. The hotel

managers, Professor Oppenheim suggests, should discuss thequestion at their forthcoming congress ; he is certain thatit would be a great comfort to many of the guests, especiallyto those in a nervous condition, if they would alter thepresent noisy state of things.Oct.6th.

’

ITALY.(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

An International Congress -Vainst Alcohol at Milan.THIS is a season of congresses, of which perhaps the

most important has been the International Congress againstAlcohol, inaugurated at Milan on the 22nd of last month.The Onorevole Falcioni, Under Secretary of State, repre-sented the Government and welcomed the delegates, whoincluded representatives of 28 different countries. The com-mittee had kept in view the most important point of thealcohol question as it affects this country, and instead ofinviting the Congress to philosophise over the vice of

inebriety and enthuse over the virtues of abstinence theyhad placed before it the economic problem, vital to Italy,of the utilisation of the fruit of the vine apart from theproduction of alcohol. It appears that the work of Italianshas gone far towards the solution of this problem in thepreparation of a grape juice concentrated by a cold process.This gives an economical, pleasant, and nutritious drink coli-taining phosphorus in combination as lecithin and nucleinin proportions much higher than in wine. Experimentshave shown the ease with which it is assimilated and provedits nutritive value for children and delicate subjects.

The Congress of Sciences at Siena.Another interesting congress has been that of the sciences

held at Siena last week. Medical sciences were well repre-sented. Professor Sclavo’s address on the Rights ofHygiene was an outspoken criticism on the state of affairsobtaining here. He told an amusing story of a doctor who,having obtained funds for the acquisition of a site for ahome for children with a tendency to tuberculosis in a fineposition overlooking the sea, received a summons to the

prefect, who advised him to drop the project as he wouldnever allow him to open an establishment of such a kind,so full of danger to the fish in the sea below 1 ProfessorSclavo found both medical men and engineers deficient ineducation in matters of public health, and deplored thegreat waste of public money which this ignorance hascaused. Professor Centanni reported some original obser-vations on the behaviour and development of tissues inartificial conditions. Making use of a modification ofCarrel’s technique, he had studied the means to stimulatethe growth of tissues and to produce pathological forma-tions. He expressed the conviction that tris line of researchpromised important practical results. For the entertainmentof the congress the municipal authorities arranged a thirdperformance of the "Palio," the mediaeval horse races, ofwhich the usual two performances take place in July andAugust in the Piazza del Campo.Oct. 4th.

CANADA.(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

Canadian Public Health Assciation.AT the third annual congress of the Canadian Public

Health Association, held in Regina, Saskatchewan, on

Sept. 18th, 19th, and 20th, under the presidency of Dr. JohnW. S. McCullough, chief health officer of Ontario, a resolutionwas adopted affirming that advanced cases of tuberculosiscould be treated in general hospitals without the danger ofinfection to other patients, providing proper arrangementswere made, and copies were ordered to be sent to the Pro-vincial Governments, asking that provision be made in allhospitals receiving Government aid. A resolution was

adopted also asking the Dominion Government to take intoconsideration the danger to the public health through theyearly increasing number of immigrants from Europeancountries into Canada. The following officers were electedfor 1914 : President, Dr. M. M. Seymour, Regina. Vice-

presidents, Dr. J. D. Page, Quebec ; Dr. T. Aird Murray,Toronto ; and Dr. Duncan Anderson, Toronto. General secre-tary, Dr. Lorne Drum, Ottawa. Treasurer, Dr. G. D.Porter, Toronto. Fort William and Port Arthur will be the

place of meeting in 1914.

Sanitary Services Convention, Quebeo.The fifth annual conference of the Sanitary Services of the

Province of Quebec was held in Montreal during the week