227BERLIN.—EGYPT.

necropsies in medico-legal cases should be specially conductedbv these officers, and an ample supply of material would beavailable for systematic pathological teaching. During therear there were 10,371 patients under treatment in the wards,of whom 9072 left either cured or relieved and 462 died. Ex-

ÙsÎrely of the Hospital for Incurables the mortality was 4 61per cent. as regards cases treated to a termination. Thesrerage annual cost per bed for maintenance was lowest inthe Westmorland Lock Hospital (£14 3s. 11 3/4d.) and highestinthe Coombe Lying-in Hospital (.E22 5s. 11¼d.), whilst theaverage annual cost per bed for maintenance and for estab-lishment charges was lowest in the Hospital for Incurables(£31 7s. 9½d.) and highest in the Rotunda Lying-in Hospital( £ 71 17s. 9¼d). I shall defer any further observations on the

report until next week.Compared with the corresponding quarter of 1892 the

returns of pauperism for the March quarter show a decreaseof 384 in the average number of workhouse inmates on

Saturdays during the quarter and a decrease of 3674, or

5’8 per cent., in the average number of persons on out-doorrelief.

Society of Public Analysts.The annual summer meeting of the Society of Public

Analysts was held on the 18th inst. at the Royal College ofSurgeons, Sir Charles Cameron, President, in the chair. ThePresident said this was the third occasion on which the summermeeting of the Society had been held in Ireland. On behalfof the local members he offered a cordial welcome to themembers from the other side of St. George’s Channel. The

out-going President, Mr. Hehner, then took the chair to permitSir Charles Cameron to read a paper entitled " The Results ofthe Working of the Adulteration Acts in Dublin." " The first

year after his appointment as city analyst 50 per cent. of the articles examined were adulterated ; but after the passingof the Acts of 1872 the adulteration of many articles offood died out. Tea, flour, bread, mustard and whiskywere now never found to be adulterated, and, with the

exception of milk and butter, the food sold in Dublin was,with rare exceptions, pure-a fact which undoubtedly wasattributable to the working of the Anti-adulteration Acts.Professor Tichborne read a paper on " Some Recent Improve-ments in the Babcock Machine, " an instrument for estimatingthe butter-fat in milk analyses. Mr. A. W. Allen read acommurication on "Vinegar, its Nature and Manufacture. " Inthe evening a banquet, presided over by Sir Charles Cameron,took place in the Shelbourne Hotel.

Royal Hospital for hrcnrables.Having regard to the large number of candidates who seek

admission, the governors have decided to build another

pavilion, to comprise two wards, for the accommodation offifty additional patients. It is now in course of erection andit is expected to be completed in the spring of next year.

July 18th.

BERLIN.(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

Heatstroke.IN spite of the high temperature of the last few weeks

there have been few or no cases of heatstroke in Berlin. Inthe Deutsche Medicinische Wochenschrift of July 13th Dr.Kœfer writes on the subject of Heatstroke in which he speakshighly of the effects of chloroform, a treatment which, headds, was recommended long ago by Dr. Barclay in theMadras Medical Journal.

The Water-supply of Berlin.The new waterworks on the llluggelsee are now in full

work. This allows the proper rate of filtration in the oldworks at the Stralauer Thor to be maintained, and, so far asany danger of infecting the water-supply is concerned, Berlinmay be considered to be safe from an epidemic of cholera.The new filter beds are all covered in to protect them fromfrost and to prevent the occurrence of such an interferencewith the filtration as that which caused an outbreak of cholera,in Altona in the early part of this year.

Scecret Remedies.Dr. Aronson’s refusal to communicate the method of pre-

paring the extract from serum by which he hopes to be able tocure diphtheria was the occasion of some further discussionat the meeting of the Berliner Medicinische Gesellschaft on

June 14th. The Society did not enter upon any considera-tion of the merits of the preparation, and the President,Professor Virohow, repeated his previous declaration that,had he been aware of the object of the paper, he would nothave allowed it to be read.

Acute Rheumatic Arthritis.Dr. Salili, in the Deutsches Archiv fiir I7anere Medicin for

July, discusses this disease in an interesting paper. Heconsiders that it is probably an infectious disease, and inthis connexion he remarks upon its acute febrile course andthe difficulty of diagnosis between it and septic or pyæmicaffections of the joints or even osteo-myelitis, and alsocomments on the frequent detection of staphylococcus in thevegetations in cases of post-rheumatic endocarditis (Birch-Hirschfeld, Mantel and others). He then describes a case ofrheumatic fever in a girl of sixteen, being the second attack,which ended fatally, and how after death a yellow staphylo-coccus was found in the endocardial excrescences, synoviatmembrane, pericardium, pleura, swollen bronchial glands andin the blood of the left ventricle. Dr. Sahli has in severalother cases cultivated a similar staphylococcus from fluidtaken during life from inflamed joints and also from the bloodof rheumatic patients.

Foot-and-Moutk Disease.So many English medical men are more or less personally

interested in agriculture that it may be allowable to noticehere that in a publication which has just appeared Dr. Kurthof Bremen states his opinion that in a micro-organism whichhe calls "streptococcus involutus " he has discovered thecause of foot-and-mouth disease. This does not appear to beidentical with the streptococcus described by Dr. Klein in thefifteenth annual report of the Local Government Board, 1885.July l7th.

______________

EGYPT.

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

Ainhum.Until now ainhum has not been reported from Egypt, but.

Mr. Milton has seen one case in Cairo and Dr. Creswell haafound a second at Suez. The latter is that of a negro slave fromSuakin aged forty who has the disease well-marked in bothlittle toes, having anaesthesia in one of them. He has beenaffected for three years and believes himself that it is dueto working barefooted in salt. His general health is good, but.his feet are worse in winter than in summer, though a fewdays’ rest in bed are sufficient to relieve his pain.

Pellagra,This well-known skin disease occurs every spring in Egypt,

though it is only lately that it has been looked for and noted.The desquamation on the back of the neck and over a triangularpatch on the chest uncovered by the collarless dress worn bythe peasants is easily recognised, though the changes on thehands and feet may be somewhat masked by dirt. Pellagrahas been seen in both sexes, but chiefly in men, and so faralways in those from the villages of Lower Egypt. This is ofinterest because the peasantry of the Upper Nile live chieflyon the great millet or guinea corn, which is a cane-like corn-grass with a dense head of spikes bearing numerous smalbgrains. This has no sheath and therefore can be dried easily.The natives of Lower Egypt, in addition to this, live duringthe early months of the year on the maize or Indian corn (wellknown in England) which is imported here from Syria,being originally a native of South America. The heads of

closely packed grains the size of peas are enclosed in a sheathcalled the "cob," " which prevents perfect drying and aidsthe formation of the fungus, which alone is necessary for theproduction of pellagra amongst the ill-nourished. It oftenhappens in Egypt that a man is at the same time the prey ofpellagra, farus, anchylostomiasis and bilharzia.

Veterinary Departntertt.Onlynine years ago the Egyptian Government was so anxious.

to avoid multiplying the number of English officials that it

actually paid a veterinary surgeon to return to England!within a few days of his arrival here by special invitation but matters have now so far improved that a second" vet."has now been imported in addition to the one who has donegood work here since 1886. A project has also been submittedto the Council of Ministers for attaching a small veterinaryclass to the medical school. As many of the subjects to be