739

one bacteriologist contra mundum. It is well that the

- cloud of dust which has arisen in consequence of this

explosion should be dissipated as quickly as possible by theauthoritative pronouncement and weight of a Royal Com-mission.

The constitution of the Commission which has been

appointed for the purpose of setting at rest the publicanxiety is such as to guarantee that everything that

experience. energy, and scientific knowledge can providewill be brought to bear in the elucidation of many of theobscure points which complicate the problems of tuberculosis.Sir MICHAEL FOSTER with his unrivalled and encyclopaedicknowledge and with his matured judgment is in himself atower of strength, while Dr. SIDNEY MARTIN and

Professor SIMS WOODHEAD, as representing the clinical and

laboratory aspects of the inquiry, may be depended upon to

gauge the value of all the practical operations involved

in an experimental inquiry. Professor McFADYEAN

will add to their knowledge his special acquaintance withbovine tuberculosis. In Professor RUBERT BOYCE, the

remaining member of the Commission, we have a

happy combination of business capacity with technical

laboratory knowledge ; his inclusion in the Commission is a

guarantee that the inquiry will be conducted on business

lines. And the country may well be anxious on this point,for the delay which detracted from the value of the Com-mission of 1890 was very serious. It will be remembered

that it was not until the year 1896, six years subsequentto the appointment of the Commission of 1890, that we hadan opportunity of publishing in the columns of THE LANCETthe report of the experimental researches carried out underthe orders of the Commissioners. From that time forward

the fullest confidence has been imposed in the suggestionsembodied in the report of that Commission ; it has, in fact,been regarded as representing the standard of executive

control. Now Professor KOCH has introduced a serious

element of uncertainty into our commonly accepted conclu-sions, and in the public interest it is necessary that all doubtshould be allayed as speedily as possible.The terms of the present Commission are clearly designed

to prove or to disprove the truth of Professor KocH’s inde-

pendent assertion and run as follows :-1. Is the disease in

animals and man one and the same ? 2. Can animals and

man be reciprocally infected with it ’? 3. Under what con-

ditions, if at all, does the transmission of the disease

from animals to man take place, and what are the

circumstances favourable to such transmission ? A

truly comprehensive series of replies may incidentallysupply answers to several of the pathological difficulties

which beset the correct understanding of the conditions

which determine the infectivity of disease in general. For

instance, it would be of practical importance if we knewthe difference between a natural infection and an experi-mentally inoculated disease. In both instances, under pre-sumably favourable conditions for infection, the margin offailure is notoriously wide. It is possibly associated withthe degree of natural resistance or relative immunityexercised by the host towards the invading parasite.Perhaps the degree of resistance may be connected with the

particular breed of the animal, with its food, or with its

hygienic surroundings. Again, it would be of importance

to possess more accurate information on the limits of

morphological and physiological variations possessed by thetubercle bacillus. What is its natural distribution and

what are its relationships, if any, with certain other

organisms of closely allied morphological structure ? The

Commission has been instituted to set at rest the doubts

aroused by Professor KOCH, but the main value of the workof such an inquiry often lies in its by-products, and nodoubt some at least of these urgent questions will receive

full attention. An answer to any one of them will fullyjustify the institution of this Government inquiry.

The Attempted Assassination ofPresident McKinley.

ONCE again have overweening vanity and a weak mind

open to evil influence been the means of setting in

motion the assassin’s weapon. The attack upon the Presi-

dent of the United States has not even the shadow of

excuse which similar attacks upon an hereditary monarch

may possibly be said to have. Like the President of the

great European Republic, the President of the United Statesis elected by the popular vote and only holds office for acertain period of time. ’ But the act of CZOLGOSZ is even

more fatuous and irrational than that of CESARIO SANTO,’the murderer of the President of the French Republic.M. CARNOT had with absolute wisdom and discretion refused

to interfere with the death sentence passed upon VAILLANT,RAVACHOL, and HENRI, and had therefore drawn upon him-self the bitter hatred of tl-ie I I brotherhood " to which these

scoundrels belonged. No such special reason for destroyingPresident McKiNLEY existed. With rare exceptions, such asthat of the Chicago anarchists, the sect whose policy andcreed is murder have lost no lliember by the arm of Americanlaw, and for the fate of those to whom the law had

meted out punishment Mr. McEjNLEY was in no way

responsible. He was shot simply and solely because he

represented government, even though as a popularly electedruler he represented also the will of the majority.ALEXANDER of Russia, the type of the absolute monarch,was done to death for the same reason. King HUMBERTof Italy and the Empress of AUSTRIA fell victims to the

same blind lust for blood and hatred of anything like rule.

CZOLGOSZ, like all of his kidney, boasts that he is an

anarchist and also maintains that he has no accomplices.In one sense he may have none, but in fact his accomplicesare many. To say nothing of the woman whose ravings heconfessed had set his brain on fire, every preacher and

propagandist of what is miscalled liberty-the right of

every man to do as he likes-is an accomplice of the manwhose hand levels the pistol, guides the dagger, or throwsthe bomb. CZOLGOSZ was at first said to be a lunatic and

this judgment may well be passed upon the author of a crimeso meaningless. The death of President CARNOT made no

difference whatever in the government of France, neither

would the death of President :McKINLEY make anydifference in the government of the United States. In a

republic a new president is elected to succeed the previousone whether he be removed by resignation or by death, and,moreover, he is elected by the will of the people-by thatwill to which anarchists appeal as being the only source of .

740

rule. The sole consolation which the viperous brood of

anarchists have upon an occasion such as the present is

that their crime sets the various Governments of the civilised

world in a ferment as to how to check the pest. The crimes

of anarchy are so futile, so stupid, and withal so easy to

carry out, that their terror consists in the impossibility of

foreseeing when they will happen. Any complacency thatthe anarchistic leaders may feel in the trouble that theyhave created will, we hope, be removed by drastic concertedmeasures against them. The United States will lead the

way with peculiar satisfaction, and the European nations

may be trusted to assist.

America and England have long been known as the twocountries where a man undergoes no disabilities for his

political opinions, and we do not think that either country is

likely to change in this respect. But anarchy is not a

political opinion-its preachers, teachers, and active membersare simply and solely pests of society and should be

remorselessly harried, even as a pack of rabid wolves wouldbe. The whole of Europe and of the various countries

of the two Americas will be searching for a remedy forthe state of things that makes anarchy possible. We do

not deny that in some cases anarchy is bred of povertyand oppression, or that a portion of the remedy for crimeis to be found in improving the social condition of

workers of every class. But in the meantime the

assassins, whether they are the actual perpetrators or

the instigators of murder, must be taught that punish-ment swift and terrible awaits them. It is impossible to

legislate for the removal of motive in an apparently motive-less crime, and where an assassin is willing to lay down hislife to accomplish a crime it is well-nigh impossible to

prevent him carrying his design into execution. Whether an

attack be successful or not, death, and that carried out in

private after a private trial, should inevitably follow. The

insensate vanity of the anarchist’s mind revels in the glorifi-cation of a public execution and the world-wide reportsof his trial, and these gratifications should be taken

away from him. But the head and front of the evil is the

propagandist, the man of culture and education who

scatters his glib vapourings about property and the

rights of man broadcast by means of. the press.

Authors and publishers of incendiary and seditious printsshould be punished as severely and in as uninteresting amanner as possible ; for though it be the educated brain

which conceives inflammatory articles, and the hand whichhas never done an honest day’s work which writes them,

yet the miserable beings who translate these theories

, into acts are the poor who are bred in misery and

nurtured in hopelessness. Their own misery, and

what they can do or cannot do, assume a disproportionateimportance in their eyes, and in the vapourings of

anarchist writers they see revelations of a Utopia. The

remedy is to shut off the stream of violent ideas at thefountain-head.

PAIGNTON (DEVON) COTTAGE HOSPITAL.-Thegarden fete recently held in aid of the funds of this hospitalwas a decided success. After the payment of .6112 as

expenses there remained a sum of .6241 which has beenhanded over to the institution.

Annotations.

THE CONDITION OF PRESIDENT McKINLEY.

" Ne quid nimis."

WE have received the following cable from Dr. M. D.

Mann, who, it will be remembered, was the actual operatorin the laparotomy performed upon Mr. McKinley. It is dated

Sept. 10th and worded as follows :-

" President’s condition eminently satisfactory. Barringunexpected complications convalescence is assured."

Everyone in these islands will, we are sure, rejoice at thenews which tells us that the United States are deliveredfrom the calamity of losing their elected ruler. The

dangers in gunshot wounds of the abdomen may be setdown as shock, hoemorrhage, and septic peritonitis. From

the two first the President may at this juncture be consideredquite safe. The injury which the bullet inflicted was to-

perforate both walls of the stomach. As, however, thatviscus was practically empty at the time of perforation,and as a laparotomy, together with localisation and

repair of the perforations, were performed within a veryshort time after the infliction of the injury, the danger ofperitonitis was reduced to a minimum. Although it cannotbe definitely asserted until a later date that this com-

plication will not arise, yet it may be confidently expectedthat it will not. The records of the Spanish-American war,and of our present, struggle in South Africa, show that thedanger of perforating gunshot wounds of the abdomen isfar less to-day than it was some years ago, and although arevolver makes a larger and more lacerated wound than asmall-calibre rifle, yet the prompt manner in which thewound was treated gives every hope for expecting a favour-able result. President McKinley’s life has, under Providence,been saved by the excellent surgery of our American con-fmeres, while the ministrations of Dr. Mann, Dr. Parmenter,Dr. Mynter, and the other well-known medical men

associated with the care of the case were enormouslyassisted by the fact that in the grounds of the exhibitionthere was a perfectly equipped emergency hospital. This

was a hospital for use and not for show, and, as a result,within a few minutes of the atrocious outrage the Presidentwas receiving every possible assistance that modern surgerycould devise.

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THE FEEDING OF INFANTS.

IT is not surprising that at the present time, a season inwhich more than in any other infantile enteritis withdiarrhoeal is apt to be prevalent, the question of milk-supplyand milk dieting in infancy should have come into promin-ence. At the last meeting of the British Medical Associationat Cheltenham Dr. George Reid, medical officer of health ofStaffordshire, added his contribution to this subject in apaper on infant mortality in relation to the employment ofmarried women in factories, in which he insisted on the

necessity of a milk diet for infants to the exclusion of sub-stitute foods. It is to be remembered that even milk itselfwhen artificially reconstructed in a laboratory, desiccated,and then prepared with water as a food has proved to be in-sufficient for nutritive purposes and that its use is liable to,be followed by scurvy and other signs of tissue starvation.Nor do we consider that the addition of a fresh foodsubstance to this imperfect diet can be relied upon to obviatethe evils which it entails. Experience has shown thatthe employment of such substitutes for fresh milk, how-ever chemically correct, can at best only serve a temporarypurpose. Natural milk must remain the true diet of infancy