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child lived a few hours. Statements varied as to whetherthis had been made clear to the signer of the certificate.But the magistrates imposed the above fine. It is a greattemptation to save poor people all the paraphernalia andexpense of a funeral for a child that can scarcely be saidto have lived. But it would have been better to have leftthe midwife to state the facts, and in any case the utmostcare to be accurate is necessary.

THE CARRIAGE TAX.

THE movement to repeal, or at least modify, the tax oncarriages is one that deserves success, if it were only forthe pertinacity with which it has been, and still is, carriedon in the face of unaccountable neglect and opposition. A

great mistake is made by those who think this is a " richman’s question." The profession of medicine is in this wayundoubtedly unduly taxed, but it is the coachbuilders’ classthat suffers most, and the tax is a burden on industry.It ought to be abolished, and the magnitude of the revenuederivable from the tax is not so stupendous as to be over-whelming to any spirited Chancellor of the Exchequer.

THE ACCURACY OF THE NEW MEDICAL REGISTER.

THE Registrar of the Medical Council is very anxious tosecure the greatest possible accuracy in the new volume ofthe Medical Register. This can only be attained by theco-operation of the profession, and especially of all thosewho have changed their addresses or added to their titles.If such gentlemen will immediately intimate such changesthey will be duly registered; otherwise inaccuracies willremain which not only discredit the Register, but may dis-qualify practitioners. ____

THE PROGRESS OF CHOLERA.

IT is stated that there has been no recurrence of cholerain the neighbourhood of Tirnova since the first report, wheneight deaths occurred. The sanitary authorities are, how-ever, still maintaining a quarantine round the infectedlocality; and since the Bulgarian authorities decline to

admit that any cholera has occurred within their princi-pality, Roumania has placed Bulgaria in quarantine.

CHONDROMA OF THE LIP. -

IN the Transactions of the American DermatologicalAssociation for 1886 Dr. A. R. Robinson reports a very rarecase of chondroma of the right side of the upper lip of a man-thirty-six years of age. This affection has been described

by Pagot under the term " labial glandular tumours."

OVERHEAD TELEGRAPH AND TELEPHONE WIRES.

THE recent heavy snowstorm has emphasispd the lesson ofwarning as regards overhead wires. Many have fallen, and.great damage has been done; but probably some consider-able loss of life will be required to bring the facts clearlybefore the Legislature and to rouse public indignation to theboiling point. -

FOREIGN UNIVERSITY INTELLIGENCE.

Bern.—Dr. Demme has been appointed Professor in

Ordinary of Pharmacology and Children’s Diseases.Bolo,qna. - This University will celebrate its seven

hundredth anniversary in the Spring.Bonn.—Dr. Franz v. Leydig, Professor of Comparative

Anatomy and Zoology, will retire in April.Freiburg.—Dr. Baumgartner, formerly Professor of Patho-

logy and Director of the Medical Clinic, died at Baden-Badenon Deo, llth.

St. Petersbuy. - It is now announced that ProfessorNasiloff is to take charge temporarily of the surgical clinic-not Dr. Beltsoff, as originally stated. The report that Pro-fessor E. Bergmann of Berlin had declined an invitation toSt. Petersburg is confirmed.

BERI-BERI IN THE DUTCH INDIES.

IT is officially stated that during the year 1885, therewere 5388 persons in the Atchin colony treated for beri-beri, of whom 235 died and 842 were incapacitated for dutyUp to the present time no regulations seem to have had anyeffect on the ravages of this strange malady.

FROM the report of the examination made by Colonel SirFrancis Bolton of the water supplied by the several metro-politan water companies during the month ’of November,1886, it appears that the Thames water sent out by theChelsea, West Middlesex, Southwark, Grand Junction, andLambeth Companies contained rather more organic matterthan the previous month’s samples, although the actual

amount present was in every case small for the season ofthe year. The water taken from the Lea and distributed

by the New River and East London Companies also containedonly a very small proportion of organic matter. All thewaters were clear and bright on delivery.

DR. RAYNER’S plea, in The Times, for the treatment ofmental disease at general hospitals deserves the attentionof the profession. It is precisely what we have urged uponthe consideration of our readers for many years past; butthe subject has so many aspects that it cannot be at presentadequately discussed. -

DR. ALFRED MEADOWS has been elected an honorarymember of the Washington Obstetrical and GynæcologicalSociety. _

MR. CHARLES A. BALLANCE, M.S. Lond., F.R.C.S., has beenelected Surgical Registrar to St. Thomas’s Hospital, in theplace of Mr. G. H. Makins, F.R.C.S., resigned.

THE Deutsche Medicinische Wockenschrift, which hashitherto been published by G. Reimer of Berlin, will now bepublished in Leipsig by G. Thieme.

The Lancet Sanitary Commission.THE SANITARY CONDITION OF ROCHESTER.

ENGLAND has recently had much cause for congratulationthat she has escaped the terrors of a disease which hasvisited with calamitous results France, Italy, and Spain.She has been able to regard with equanimity the possibleintroduction of cases of cholera into her midst, and haswitnessed, without feeling the necessity for interferencewith her trade, the epidemic prevalence of th’s malady incontinental seaports with which she is in constant com-munication. For this security she has undoubtedly paid aprice, but the money expended has not procured for hersafety in regard to this disease alone, but has given herinhabitants prolongation of life, and has raised the standardof health in all parts where the teachings of sanitary sciencehave been allowed to prevail. But this security is not sharedalike in all parts of the kingdom: in some, local authoritieshave striven to guard to the fullest the health interests of

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’those who are dependent on them; in others, there has beenless willingness to incur the expenditure which is necessaryfor this purpose, and, strangely enough, amongst those whichbave been less active in this direction are localities thatare more immediately exposed to risk of infection fromwithout than are some others.There are probably no towns more exposed to risks of the

.sort we have indicated than those which are situated on thewaterside between London and the mouth of the Thames.Gravesend is known to be a special defaulter in this respect,but it by no means stands alone; the report recently issuedby the Local Government Board gives but too grave anaccount of sanitary negligence in other districts of that neigh-bourhood. We have therefore thought it well to discuss inthese columns the sanitary condition of other watersidetowns in Kent, and we have directed our attention, in thefirst instance, to the towns of Rochester and Strood, which are.situated respectively on the right and left banks of the riverMedway.Rochester forms part of a sanitary district which includes

not only the parishes of St. Nicholas, Rochester, PrecinctCathedral, St. Margaret, and Chatham (intra) on the one.side of the Medway, but also the parishes of Strood andFrindsbury on the other side of the river. The sanitarydistrict is not therefore coterminous with either the registra-tion districts of Medway or North Aylesford, but includesa part of each. The total population of the district numberedat the last census 21,307 persons, that on the right bank ofthe river being 14,240 in 2582 inhabited houses. During theyear 1885 the death-rate for the whole district was 18 5 per1000 of population; but if the deaths occurring in publicinstitutions receiving patients from other districts be,excluded, the rate is reduced to 14’9 per 1000. During this,year, of a total of nine deaths from diphtheria in the wholedistrict eight occurred in the Medway division, and of fourtotal deaths from enteric fever three occurred in the

Medway division. Of these two diseases, therefore, the

Medway or Rochester division, as distinct from the NorthAylesford or Strood division, suffered out of all proportionto the extent of population.Rochester and Strood have shared with other towns the

benefits of an improved water-supply. Thirty years agotwo companies began to give facilities to the inhabitantsfor procuring water from deep wells in the chalk. Untilthis time the townspeople had nothing but wells in con-nexion with each house for their supply. These wells,situated in many instances in close proximity to cesspools,.readily became contaminated, and proved a fertile source of- disease to the inhabitants. Gradually the majority of thesewells have been abandoned, and at the present time somethree-fourths of the houses in Rochester and nine-tenths of .the houses in Strood derive their water from the public,supply. In 1880 the waterworks supplying the latter townpassed into the hands of the Corporation, who thereupon fexpended .611,000 in their extension, and provided a

.sufficient quantity of water both for Strood and Frindsbury,and for more than three years a large majority of thehouses in these three towns have been on constant service.The attention of the medical officer of health, Dr. Sladen-.Knight, and of the surveyor, Mr. Banks, is being directed to 1the remaining houses receiving their water from local wells; (maps have been prepared, showing for each the relative,1_)ositions of wells and cesspools and the distance betweenthem, and efforts are being made to induce the inhabitantsto have their houses connected with the mains of thewaterworks. Thus, during the year 1885, 117 samples ofwater were examined by the former officer, and some 60wells were closed.But while the local authority deserve credit for their ,.

recognition of the necessity of an ample supply of whole- csome water, they have failed to keep pace with other towns:in providing proper means for the disposal and removal of- excremental matter. Speaking generally, the whole of thesanitary district depends solely upon cesspools. These treceptacles vary from ten feet and more in depth. They are, tas a rule, bricked, but must nevertheless afford ample means 0for the pollution of the soil beneath the towns. The smaller t,cesspools are emptied every year, but the larger retain their’1ilth for four or tive years. The contents are removed atmight in buckets, which in some instances have to be con-veyed through the houses to enable them to be emptied t]into the cart. The sanitary authority exercise little or no f(control over the operation, the inhabitants making their own tJarrangements with a contractor, who charges from £1 to £5 o:

for the business of emptying each cesspool, the charge beingproportioned according to its size. The surface-water isremoved by means of drains, which discharge into the riverMedway, and are carried on the foreshore to a, position

between high and low water mark. In some instances theinhabitants have connected their cesspools with these drains,and thus the overflow passes on to the banks of the river.The unsatisfactory nature of these arrangements appears tobe well understood, and recently a firm of engineers sub-mitted to the sanitary authorities of Rochester, Chatham,and Gillingham a scheme for the combined sewerage of thesetowns. It was proposed that the sewage should be utilised,and that the enlnent, after purification, should be dischargedinto the Medway, not far remote from Gillingham. But theestimated expenditure proved a stumbling-block. The

greatest opposition came from Chatham and Gillingham,and in the end the scheme was abandoned.

(To be continued.)

Pharmacology and Therapeutics.MENTHOL PLASTER.

THE menthol plaster recently introduced into England byMessrs. Burroughs, Wellcome, and Co. for the AmericanNational Plaster Company is a good preparation. The

specimen submitted to our inspection has the agreeableodour of peppermint, and indicates its nature also by theaction of the menthol vapour on the conjunctivæ. We gavea plaster of it to a patient who complained of painbelow the left breast. She expressed herself as greatlyrelieved by the application, which appeared to be more

agreeable and to have greater effect than the belladonnaplaster which she had previously worn. The writer applieda strip of the plaster to his brow whilst suffering from anattack of megrim. The action of the menthol was decidedlyrefreshing; it did not cure the headache, but seemed to abateits intensity, and even rendered movement less distressing.

ACETANILIDE, OR ANTIFEBRINE.-11. R. Lepine has published in the Lyon Médicale an

account of a number of observations he has made both onanimals and on patients of the action of this drug. He findsthat it is a very valuable " nervine" in doses of seven anda half grains, producing as great an effect on the lightningpains of patients suffering from locomotor ataxy as a drachmor so of antipyrin. Like the latter, it lowers the temperaturein fevers, and is preferred to antipyrine by patients becauseit does not produce a condition of semi-intoxication, asantipyrine in large doses is apt to do.

BICARBONATE OF SODA IN TONSILLITIS.

The treatment of tonsillitis by frequent local applicationsof carbonate of soda, which has been practised and recom-mended by Dr. D. Juan Gine, has been put to a series of testsby another Spanish physician, Dr. D. Rovira y Oliver, whodeduces from them the opinion that, though it is often bene-ficial in cases where the parenchyma of the tonsil is affected,it is of much less value than many other applications in caseswhich are merely superficial, and catarrhal.

QUILLAJA SAPONARIA AS AN EXPECTORANT.

Dr. Maslovski has used the root of quillaja saponaria,which was recommended by Kobert, as a substitute for

Fenega in a number of different pulmonary affections, andfinds that it is a valuable expectorant. It is, howevercontra-indicated where haemoptysis is present.

BENZOIN RESIN IN ULCERS.

Dr. Woskresenski, writing in the Russkaya Meditsina onthe use of benzoin resin as a popular remedy for ulcers, saysthat he has frequently employed an ointment of the strengthof four drachms to the ounce spread on lint, and renewedtwice a day, with excellent results.

RESORCIN IN CONDYLOMATA AND MUCOUS PATCHES.

Dr. Gachkovski mentions in a Russian medical journalthat he has applied resorcin as a dusting powder to thirty-four cases of acute condylomata which he has met with inthe last five years, with the most satisfactory results. Inone case where there were no less than thirty condylomata