1310

Weird. All discolouration had disappeared from the face andneck and the colour of the subconjunctival haemorrhage wasless marked. The question of the cause of the blue dis-

colouration, which has been termed "the ecchymotic mask,"is interesting. In this case it could not have been due to

cyanosis because it did not disappear on pressure and

because there were bands of normal skin between the dis-coloured areas. Was it due to haemorrhage ? The con-

junctival discolouration undoubtedly was and haemor-

rhages or ecchymoses undoubtedly may occur in trau-

matic asphyxia. But the fact that the colour dis-

appeared without the changes occurring which extra-

vasated blood undergoes is opposed to this view. Ollivier

suggested that such discolouration is due to stasis of carbon-ised blood in dilated and temporarily paralysed capillaries.This was verified by Beach and Cobb of Boston, who excisedportions of discoloured skin and examined them micro-

scopically.1 Every section showed normal skin with enormousdistension of the small veins and capillaries. As to themechanism of production, forcible compression of the chestand abdomen appears to cause a reflux of blood through thejugular veins, which are more feebly protected by valves thanthe veins of the limbs. This leads to distension of the smallveins and capillaries.

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SHOP ASSISTANTS AND LIVING IN.

A MEETING of shop assistants recently convened in the Cityby the National Union of Shop Assistants, Warehousemen,and Clerks was largely attended and considerable interestwas shown in the proceedings by those present. The imme-diate object of the meeting was to protest against a state-ment made at the Drapers’ Chamber of Trade to the effectthat assertions with regard to what is known as the " living-in system put forward at a recent conference of shopassistants at Leeds were untrue and exaggerated. A resolu-tion was carried at the meeting in the City referred to-That this meeting of shop assistants, warehousemen, and clerks of

the City of London protests against the continuation of the living-insystem as being detrimental to the moral, physical, and intellectualdevelopment of the employees; and further, calls upon the Governmentto include workers in the distributive trade in the Truck Acts.

It will be seen from this that the total abolition, not theregulation, of "living in" was the end proposed to, and

approved of by, the meeting as desirable, the ambitions of theshop assistants being defined by a speaker as including theright to say where they should lodge, what they should eat,when they should go in, and when they should go out."On the other hand, the present conditions were denounced asleading in some instances to the assistants " sleeping in

rabbit-hutches and eating food which even a dock labourerwould turn up his nose at." We suggest that the shopassistants and those interested in their welfare should con-centrate their attack upon the sanitary defects of a systemwhich has something to be said in its favour as well as

against it, and should aim at securing by stringent regula-tions and their enforcement wholesome sleeping quartersand food together with reasonable liberty for those whonow are deprived of them. They would be on safer

ground in doing this than in demanding freedom to goin and out at night absolutely uncontrolled for youngmen and young women seeking to escape from restrictionswhich, although irksome, may be salutary. These youngpeople are drawn from a very large and mixed class. Someof them go into " business " in preference to "service," andare more able, perhaps, to look after themselves than thoseof their companions who have been more gently nurtured.The supply of shop assistants is now so large that the

employers evidently can impose their own conditions.On the other hand, the advertisements in daily and

1 Annals of Surgery, 1904.

weekly newspapers are eloquent as to the lack of candi-

dates for domestic service and the crowd of foreignersoccupying situations as men servants tells a similar tale.

Employers of both classes should find no sympathy on it

being proved that they fail to provide adequate food andliving accommodation for those dependent upon them, or

that they curtail their liberty to such an extent as to injuretheir health, or even to deprive them of reasonable enjoy-ment. Employers may, however, be excused if they wishto exercise some supervision and control over the lives ofthose who work for them beyond the duration of the work-ing day, and none the less so because an economy is effectedby providing board and lodging upon a more or less largescale.

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THE PREPARATION AND STRENGTH OFGREY OIL.

IN the Journal de Phrcrmaeie et de Ghirnie of March 16bhM. Camille Pepin draws attention to the great number offormulas that are used for the preparation of grey oil forinjection. As a result the products differ widely in consist-ence and in strength. Grey oil should be of such a consist-ence that it does not yield a deposit of mercury, and itshould melt readily on the application of moderate heatwhen required for injection. M. Pepin recommends thefollowing procedure in preparing grey oil. Hard and liquidparaffins are mixed by melting them together, the propor-tions being so adjusted that the product, when trituratedwith the mercury, does not separate on standing. As regardsthe strength of grey oil considerable variations exist owingpartly to the fact that some operators calculate the percentageof mercury by weight and others by volume. As the oil is

always injected by means of a graduated syringe it is

preferable to adopt as a standard strength a known per-centage of mercury by weight in volume. A strength of0’ 2 gramme of mercury in one cubic centimetre of the oil is

very convenient. With such a preparation and a Pravaasyringe graduated with 20 divisions to one cubic centimetrean accurate dose can be given, as each division representsone centigramme of mercury. The largest dose of mercurywhich is injected in practice is 0 14 gramme and this dose iscontained in less than three-fourths of a cubic centimetre ofthe oil. It is very necessary that there should be uniformityin the preparation of so potent a remedy as grey oil. It is

highly probable that the mishaps which have attended its

use have been due, in some cases at least, to a confusion asregards the dose of mercury through the preparation of theoil by weight and its subsequent administration by volume.

THE DISTRIBUTION OF THE TWO SPECIES OF

BED BUG.

SOME knowledge of entomology is rapidly becoming anecessity for medical men practising in tropical or sub-

tropical countries on account of the important part playedby numerous insects in the causation of chronic and fataldiseases. Malaria, yellow fever, plague, sleeping sickness,and several diarrhaeal diseases are typical examples of con-tagions communicable by insects. In the Milroy lectures onkala-azar in Assam, delivered before the Royal College ofPhysicians of London in February of the present year,Major Leonard Rogers, professor of pathologyin the Medical College, Calcutta, brought forward evi-dence tending to show that the disease was spread bythe bites of bed bugs,l and Captain W. S. Fatten. I.M.S.,of the King Institute, Madras, has published an

article on the nomenclature of these insects in the

Indian Medical Gazette for February, 1907. Captain Pattonstates that two species of these insects, known, however,

1 THE LANCET, March 9th, 1907, p. 648.