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and ply their business with assiduity, and not always withimpunity to the public. But they go scot free; and theirdupes pocket the injury they receive, no doubt feelingashamed that they have made fools of themselves. Theother point to be noticed is the contrast between the

niggardliness with which people stint the payment of medicalmen, and their lavishness when pretenders and quackshave to be paid. The man who cannot scrape a few shillingstogether to pay a doctor’s bill, and who will pauperise him-self to escape one by going to the nearest dispensary orhospital, will soon find a guinea or two to buy a quackmedicine; or his friends, who will make no contribution tothe payment of the honest doctor, will combine to pay ahuge fee to any ignorant pretender who advertises his abilityto do the impossible. -

HYDROPHOBIA IN ITALY AND AUSTRIA.

THE Milanese Commission for the Prevention of Hydro-phobia has deputed two of its number-Drs. Secchi and

Segre of the Spedale Maggiore-to proceed to Paris to makefurther researches into the Pasteur method of inoculation,and to frame a report on the results of the last three years’experience of its practice. In the Austrian Legislature,a motion to adopt the method, as having already justifieditself, and to aid its further application throughoutthe Austrian dominions by a State grant, was not carried.Dr. von Wiedersperg, who introduced the motion, basinghis demand for State assistance on the results of Dr. Ullmann’s

practice in Vienna, was met by the Budget Committee withthe objection that interesting as those results were-tbreehydrophobic patients only having died out of one hundredand twenty-two inoculated on the Pasteur method-therewere yet sources of fallacy in the experiment which hadyet to be considered. Although Dr. Ullmann’s figures wererather more satisfactory than those hitherto yielded in casesof persons bitten by mad dogs and not inoculated, thecommittee was of opinion that it had not yet been made ’iout that in all Dr. Ullmann’s patients the existence of thehydrophobic poison had been scientifically established-many of ,the patients in question having come from abroad,and having later returned to their homes. With everyrecognition of the humanitarian spirit of Dr. von Wieder-sperg’s motion, the committee required further proof of theefficacy of the Pasteur method before advising the Govern-ment to grant sums in aid of its extension throughoutAustria, or even for the maintenance of a special institutionfor the Pasteur treatment of hydrophobia.

THE ABOLITION OF GROCERS’ LICENCES.

AMONG the various reforms included in the new LocalGovernment Bill there is one to which we cannot in the

public interest refuse our hearty support. This is the con-

templated abolition of the grocer’s licence. By what pleaof necessity this arrangement can possibly be excusad weare unable to discover. Of restaurants in some form thereis in every town, almost in every village worthy of thename, a sufficient number, and of public-houses by far toomany for the ordinary requirements of wayfarers. No validreason can therefore be urged on the ground of general utilityto show why the grocer should add to his proper functionof providing for household consumption another office,which is virtually that of a disguised publican. In some

country districts, it may be, the provision store must serve tosome extent the purposes of a house of call; but there is noabsolute necessity even here for the so-called 11 off licence."What we particularly object to about this latter is its un-doubted tendency to encourage secret drinking. The evilinfluence of successive littles imbibed in a quiet manner iswell known to be quite as hurtful to the health of the toperas the unbridled and more occasional excesses of the open

drunkard. Yet the former will often avoid a professeddrinking bar. It is for his interest as a respected, if nothighly respectable, person to do so, and the grocer’s licenceis for such as he a veritable special providence of municipalarrangement. We understand, of course, that the law cannotrestrain an ostensibly sober person from procuring drink ifhe chooses, but it is nevertheless quite within the provinceof the Legislature to restrict his opportunities for ruinousindulgence, especially when its action can in no wayinterfere with public convenience. On this principle thechange proposed by the new Bill is entirely justified.We anticipate beneficial results from its operation, not somuch perhaps in the case of the chronic inebriate as

ill that of many young men and women, to whom theoff licence affords a tempting facility of descent, whichwe fear is often hopelessly irresistible. There appears tobe no reason why the holders of these licences should notreceive compensation in some form if, as we anticipate,their present privilege is withdrawn. Into this part of thequestion, however, it is not necessary for us to enter, andwe may safely entrust its settlement to the joint considera-tion of the Government and the representatives of thelicence holders.

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THE McINTYRE GIFT TO THE STUDENTS OFGLASGOW.

Dn. JOHN MCINTYRE of Odiham, who come years ago coii- "ferred the gift of £ 1000 on the poor of his native place in.remembrance of his father and mother, has new done an act ofdistinguished generosity to the Medical School of Glasgow,of which he is an alumnus. At a cost of S5000 the studentsof Glasgow have now been provided by Dr. McIntyre witha splendid Union Club building, erected in the Universitygrounds, and containing a library, a hall for debates, adining room, convenient committee rooms, and everyarrangement for a perfect house of the kind intended. Bythe request of the liberal-minded donor, the advantages ofthe Union Club will not be strictly confined to students ofthe University. Under certain regulations extra academicalstudents will be admitted to membership-a wise and justrule, and one that will do much to foster good feelingamongst the rival classes of the different schools of medicineof the city, and to tone down asperities which in past dayshave been sometimes rather keenly experienced. We aresure that every sincere friend of medical Glasgow willexpect soon to see the Union Club completed; and, hopingfor its long and successful career, will wish its generousfounder many long days of life and health to witnessthe growth and development of his happy as well asmunificent project. -

LIQUOR TRAFFIC AND NATIVE RACES.A GREAT deal of time was recently expended in the House-

of Commons in a debate upon the above subject. Practicallythere was complete unanimity. Every speaker expressedthe horror he felt at the introduction of the habits of drink-

ing among uneducated natives. All deprecated the unre-stricted sale of intoxicants. The helplessness of legislativeinterference was evidenced by numerous examples of evasionof the law by colonists or traders of other than Britishnationality. But still the fact remains that in far too

many colonies, in spite of legal restrictions, drink is

supplied to the natives at extraordinarily low prices,which appear to leave no margin for profits. The formof spirit known as "Cape Smoke" is sold at 6d. a bottle;its taste is so unpleasant that it is not consumed byEuropeans; it possesses, however, strong stimulant pro-perties, the natives who drink it getting greatly excited andquarrelsome. Mr. A. McArthur, who introduced the subjectin the House, spoke of the liquor traffic as responsible for

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wholesale murder in the islands of the Western Pacific. In IAfrica, he said, the consumption of strong drink was rapidlyincreasing, and leading inevitably to the demoralisation anddestruction of the native races. He instanced one localitywhere in two months 106 natives were destroyed by drinkingbrandy. One writer quaintly said the liquor traffic did notat present affect the natives of a certain island, as he hadbeen there some years back, when the last native died. Thisextinction of the natives may in part be due to their inabilityto withstand the inroads of diseases, which on reaching anew unprepared soil appear to gain in virulence. On the

other hand, there is no denying that it is largely the result ofthe great difficulty experienced by the natives in acquiringthe habit of self-control in the presence of the temptationsof stimulants.

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MEDICAL ADVICE THROUGH A PHARMACEUTICALJOURNAL.

MEDICAL CONSULTATIONS through the columns of news-papers are by no means confined to this country. TheConcours 316dical complains that French pharmacists areadopting this method of giving medical advice, and quotesfrom a provincial pharmaceutical journal two answers topriests who have apparently been endeavouring-possiblywith the best and kindest intentions-to obtain somereliable advice for sick parishioners gratis. In one case,that of a female, M. 1’Abbe A- is advised to note

exactly the hours at which the fever returns, and if thepatient will not take the quinine powders to have recourseto hypodermic injections. In the other case, M. le Curéde B-is advised to give " his patient" fifty centigrammesof bromide of ammonium on going to bed. And this itmust be remembered is in a country where, nominallyat least, the prescriber and dispenser must be different

persons, doctors not being allowed, except where no phar-macy is near, to dispense, and pharmacists being forbiddento prescribe. What is the use, cries the medical journalabove named, of the boasted Argus eyes of J ustice ? To pro-secute and fine a hospital house surgeon when he tem-porarily acts with the full authorisation of his chiefs ; tofine doctors who refuse to betray professional confidences ;to worry men by constant demands for their diplomas; tomake use of and abuse the power of law over medical men

by compelling them to attend inquests, to make examina-tions, and to give information of various kinds, throwingthem fees which one would sometimes not think of offeringas pour boires. The fact is, according to the Concours Medical,that radical reforms, both medical and pharmaceutical, areurgently needed. There should either be complete freedomfor all or intelligent and properly enforced regulation.

GONORRHŒA IN RUSSIAN MILITARY HOSPITALS.

DR. BuLFOBICH, referring to a report by Professor Tar-novski on venereal diseases in the military hospitals ofEuropean Russia, which was published after a special tour ofinspection undertaken some eight years ago, complains thatthe recommendations made therein regarding the importanceof a better supply of instruments for examining and treatingurethral diseases have not been followed by any improve-ment in the armamentaria allowed, and that consequentlythe treatment of gonorrhoea, and gleet in particular, cannotbe carried on in many cases with anything like scientific !,precision, the old rule-of-thumb methods leaving much tobe desired. In this way the country loses the services ofthe men who have contracted gonorrhoea for a much longertime than is necessary, their stay in hospital beingfrequently very protracted. Dr. Bulfobich illustrates thisby giving some statistics from the reports of the Caucasianarmy, to which he himself is attached. In this part of the

Russian army, the official medical report for 1885 showsthat there were 32’68 venereal cases per 1000 of the strength18’82 of these being returned as gonorrhoea. In one of tha

military hospitals in the Caucasus-that of Timir-Khan-Shurinski-the average stay of the cases of gonorrhceaduring the first half of 1887 was found to be 49’1 days, theperiod of detention varying from 9 to 199 days. Accord-

ing to Professor Taranovski, an average detention of 32

days for gonorrhcea is exceptionally long if the cases

are treated scientifically; but for really good results to beobtained, not only must the surgeon have at hand completesets of sounds, both metallic and soft, but a urethroscope,and a fluid caustic apparatus for the deep parts of the

urethra, which are as necessary to a proper system of treat-ment for urethral diseases as the ophthalmoscope is for themanagement of eye cases. _

SANITARY ADMINISTRATION IN CALCUTTA,

THE Calcutta correspondent of The Times has telegraphedthat Dr. Simpson’s statements as to the sanitary conditionof parts of that city have off anded the acute susceptibilitiesof the native commissioners, and that Dr. Simpson hasbeen solemnly called upon by a formal resolution to explainaway or withdraw his description of them as discourteousand disrespectful. Dr. Simpson’s excellent work in Calcuttahas been closely watched in England, as well as the diffi-culties with which he has had to contend ; and the enemiesof local government in India will not be slow to see, in thetreatment he is receiving at the hands of the native com-missioners, a strong reason for depriving them of a powerwhich they appear unible to exercise with wisdom and

justice. Certainly the sympathies of all right-mindedpersons in England will be with Dr. Simpson in his effortsto remove the causes of cholera from his district. This is,indeed, matter of mre than local concern, and as such wedo not doubt it will be treated. The maintenance of con-ditions which foster cholera in India cannot be disregardedby England, or even by Europe.

THE SOURCES OF SKELETON SUPPLY.

IT is, perhaps, a fortunate thing that those who have tostudy the composition of the human skeleton need not con-cern themselves with the history of the preparations whichthey handle. We all know that the bones, whose beautifulwhiteness is the admiration of many a student, have pre-viously passed through an elaborate cleansing process, andsome of us have doubtless wished, in the interests of study,that, in the transformation, anatomical marking was lessoften sacrificed to beauty of appearance. The process itself,which is largely carried on in France and Germany, consistsof two principal parts-that of boiling and that of bleaching.The "material thus prepared is of very various origin. Itis said to be derived chiefly from hospitals, prisons, and dis-secting rooms, while we also learn from a contemporary-that the late Russo-Tarkish war contributed largely to thestore rooms of the skeleton-making establishments. Thisis a statement which may shock some readers, but w&

should remember that it does not really prove such a

striking disregard for the right of sepulture as it may atfirst sight appear to imply. Hospitals and infirmaries, byaffording for dissection the bodies of patients who diewithin their walls, unclaimed by relatives, render mostefficient assistance to the teaching of practical anatomy,and we know of no reason to regret this very needful

arrangement. We confess, however, to a certain feelingof dissatisfaction at learning that the brave and notunfriended dead who have yielded up their lives on the,battle-field are liable to disturbance in their last sleep.and to dismemberment by bone-seekers. No doubt they