975

before a clinic of doctors and the late Professor Pepper, at the University of Pennsylvania, and they all pro- I

nounced my case incurable, as they said the stomach B

was gone; ; therefore nothing to build on ; then I a

gave up in despair until T found one of your circulars, c

and, like a drowning man, grasped it, and I bless the (

event ever since, for you built me up beyond my hopes--yes, Isaved my life. To-day my stomach can digest almost any i

kind of food and I am in high hope of being a stronger man (

than ever I was. As you know, my case was a desperate one and I had lost all, interest in life.’ ’Mrs. B. C. Copeland, 1

Evansville, Ind., S.S.-I can truly say that I have been a

successfully treated and cured by you of diseases that theold-school doctors have failed to cure and even went so far as to say I could not be cured. I am now almost 72 years of ’

age and am feeling well and can stand more work than thegenerality of younger people and people who do not know metake me to be about 50 years of age. And in truth I must

give the power of your mind the honour and credit of

all my good health and youthful appearance. 10 yearsago I was a perfect wreck-could not walk any distancewithout stopping for breath and strength. I now can walkmiles with comparative ease.’ On the attractions of this

system it were superfluous to enlarge. To have one’s stomach

restored to one after it was gone’; to be able to digest’ almost any kind of food’ ; never to need another dose ofmedicine ; and to look 50 when one is really 72, these areboons not lightly to be esteemed. But what most attracted

the pensive taxpayer over whom an impending War-Budgetbegins to cast its shadow. is Helen Wilmans Post’s treatiseon The Conquest of Poverty.’ Of this its gifted authoressboasts, and probably with justice, that it is the most

popular book in the range of mental science literature. It

brings freedom to the mind, and through the mind to thebody.’ With a steadily decreasing income and an expen-diture pitched high enough to satisfy the social demands ofStuccovia, that is, indeed, a freedom devoutly to be wishedbut not, I fear, to be attained. "-" In Praise of Birds," byE. V. B., is written with all the charm of language which weexpect from the translator of the " Story Without an End."

The Practitioner.-The March n::mber contains a paperentitled "The Health of the People " by Mr. James Cantlie,in which he touches upon many points that concern

the physical well-being of the community. He asks

the question, "Why is town life so detrimental ? and

considers that there are several reasons why such a

state of affairs should exist. The absence of freshair in our cities is, of course, a potent factor and the dis- Iinclination to take exercise is a further detriment to goodhealth. Mr. Cantlie points out that the great health

problems which immediately present themselves resolve

themselves into two-namely, "How are we to maintain thehealth of our town-dwellers and the numbers of our countrydistricts ° " The former he considers to be impossible without,so far at any rate as the youths of the poorer classes areconcerned, military conscription, and the latter requiresimproved conditions of living for those who till the soil.Dr. Arthur P. Luff contributes an interesting paper onGout, Observations on its Pathology, Forms, and Treat-

ment, and Dr. J. A. Gibson gives some good illustrationsof Graves’s Disease. Dr. F. W. Burton-Fanning’s paper onthe Etiology of Pulmonary Tuberculosis is also worthy of noteseeing that it contains some original observations on the

exciting causes of tuberculosis which have hitherto not beensufficiently recognised. For instance, he shows that physicalover-exertion is a most powerful determining cause of thesystem’s limiting or protective agencies against the disease.

The Quarterly Jornal of Microscopical Science. Edited

by E. RAY LANKESTER, F.R.S., ADAM SEDGWICK, F.R.S.,F. R. WELDON, F.R.S., and SYDNEY J. HICKSON, F.R.S.

ith Lithographic. Plates and Engravings on Wood.ndon: J. and A. Churchill. New Series. No. 180.XLV. Part 4. 8vo. Pp. 60. Price 10s.-The following-

jicles are contained in this number : 1. On the Structure-the Excretory Organs of Amphioxus, Part 1, by Edwin S.)odrich, M.A., Fellow of Merton College, Oxford, with aate. Mr. Goodrich describes the excretory tubules as form-g a series which open into the atrium- but not into thelom. They are provided at their blind internal ends with a;rge number of solenocytes. He concludes from his observa-)ns that in their segmental arrangement, in their function,ld in their histological structure the excretory organs ofaphioxus and the nephridia of phyllodoce are in all essentialsentical. 2. A contribution to the Morphology of the-

eleostean Head Skeleton, based upon a study of the-

veloping skull of the three-spined Stickleback (gasterosteus:uleatus) with four plates and five text illustrations ; by. H. Swinnerton, B. Sc. This is a very elaborate and carefullyorked out description of the development of the skull of

little fish. 3. The development of Admetus Pumilio-

Koch), a contribution to the Embryology of the Pedipalps ;.7 L. H. Gough, with two plates. 4. On the Teeth of

etromyzon and Myxine ; by Ernest Warren, D.Sc. 5..

yphlorhyncus Nanus; a New Rhabdocoele ; by F. F.

aidlaw, B.A. This part completes vol. xlv. and contains.ie index for that volume.

New Inventions.(1) A CLOSED WATER STORAGE SYSTEM ; AND (2)

AN AUTOMATIC FLUSHING APPARATUS.

1. Two sanitary appliances, the inventor of both of whichs Mr. Grundy of 13, King William-street, London, E.C.,re deserving of attention inasmuch as they promise to-

.emove many serious drawbacks to existing systems. To

,tart with, the objections to an open storage system are-

vell known, to overcome which it has been suggested,o make the cistern a kind of expansion of the risingnain, but hitherto this has not been found convenient.Mr. Grundy, however, appears to have found a solution)f the difficulty though we are not sure that his systemloes not present some practical obstacles. The cisternis completely closed and is placed sufficiently highj0 supply all the services in the house, the water passingtram the main viâ the storage-tank without being exposed tothe atmosphere. This is done in part by abolishing entirelythe ball valve and substituting for it the check valve shownin the illustration. Water passes upwards through this valve-

but cannot return. At the top of the cisternan outlet is provided at the foot of whichis a valve float which, as soon as the cisternis full, checks an overflow while trappingthe water in the cistern at the pressure-of the main at that level. In the event ofthe main supply failing the cistern containsa store which is easily drawn off, air gainingentrance at the float valve. The valves are-of excellent workmanship and design and.would replace with advantage the old andsomewhat clumsy ball valve, while they-avoid the exposure of the water to con-

tamination from without. 2. The automaticflushing apparatus is started in action eitherby the seat of the closet or by a foot leveracting on a two-way valve. The cistern

is empty until either the seat or foot lever is actuated. Theflushing cistern is closed, so that the water contained in itis under the pressure of the main which in most instances is

great and which thereby effects a powerful yet comparativelysilent flush. It is obvious that by this system the pollutionof water by the return of foul air up the pipe is prevented,while the cistern being closed there can be no contamina-tion from impure air coming into contact with the surfaceof the water. Both appliances are a decided advance upon

976

the usual fittings used for this purpose and their installationwould undoubtedly provide a most sanitary method of

storing water and of using it both for drinking and flushingpurposes. The disadvantages to the system are its cost andthe great weight of the storage cistern. Everything wouldrequire to be made particularly strong to withstand the

pressure of the main supply which, as we have said, in manyinstances is great. It is only fair to add that the fittings arebeautifully made and are of first-rate material. We have

inspected an installation which we found to be working mostsatisfactorily.

-

AN IMPROVED CISTERN. i

IT is desirable that the cistern containing the water-supplyfor domestic use should be as free as possible from projec-tions on which dirt and decomposing matter can easily accumu-late. As a rule, the average cistern presents rivets and otherprojections which are favourable to the deposit of dirt in thestorage tank. In order to remove this real objection Mr.T. B. Leech (of the Blackwall Galvanised Iron Co., Limited)has designed a steel-welted cistern with a uniform surfaceand with no projecting rivets. Moreover, the corners at thebottom of the cistern are filled in with triangular sheets ofmetal slanting downwards. The whole surface is carefullygalvanised. The cistern may be commended since its objectis to maintain the cleanliness of the domestic water-supply.

ASYLUM-SHYNESS.

(FROM A CORRESPONDENT.)

IT is now so well established that insanity may result fromdisease of any organ of the body and that it is not neces-

sarily dependent on primary affection of the brain and

nervous system that there is difficulty in understanding therooted objection in the upper classes to placing people inprivate asylums or hospitals, where at any rate there is someamount of official supervision, whilst they do not hesitate toput them in " homes " which are in no way supervised andwhich may or may not be carried on in the most un-

exceptionable manner. To account for this the generalnotion of hereditary taint has much to answer for. Itseems to be thought that because a person has been placedin an institution for the insane the offspring of necessity istainted with an opprobrious history which handicaps them in

’’

the race of life. That such a dread of the very name of an

asylum does exist cannot be denied, but it is a most un-reasonable idea to hold, and the result is that another formof imprisonment is substituted for the comparative freedomof the hospital for the insane. If it were generally accepted,as it ought to be, that insanity due to the direct hereditarytransmission of primary disease of the nervous system is byno means common and that the "asylum " is merely a placewhere the nervous symptoms due to general disease are

treated there should be no more objection to acknowledgingthat a friend or relative has been treated in such a hospitalthan there is in saying that he has been ill in bed from

jaundice or pneumonia. It cannot be denied that insanityis in some instances distinctly hereditary-and if so, what isthe use of trying to burke the fact and so to establish an

entirely false relationship of the individual to the community’? ?-but very often the fact of having had an insane progenitoris not of the least consequence quâ the sanity of the off-spring, and it is only ignorance that makes people speak inbated breath of the fact of somebody’s wife or husbandhaving been placed under certificates. That an individualhas never been in an asylum does not prove his sanity-itmerely shows that he has not been certified to beinsane and it leaves the task of finding out a neurosisto those whose concern it may be. Do those whofor matrimonial, business, or other purposes inquire ifa person has at one time been in an asylum ask ifhe or she has ever been placed in a "home," and do they recogni.e that these " homes are often asylums withoutthe name, but witl. possibly harsh and at times cruel condi-tions .’ There are numbers ot places where people sufferingfrom nervous and early insane states are confined, withoutexternal supervision, under restrictions of enforced stay inbed, of complete isolation from their friends and from the

external world, where they can neither see the newspapersnor communicate with their relatives-where they are, infact, confined as in asylums without the security of the latter,and where they are subjected to systems of treatment whichthey have not the power to resist. Such isolated treatmentis not necessarily wrong-it may be quite beneficial to a

person to be kept in bed, stuffed with milk, and made to"gain weight " like a Strasburg goose-but it representsalso a possible source of restraint to which people maybe subjected, and there seems to be no law of regis-tration or any guarantee that persons so detained canleave these places when they choose, or that they maynot be placed in them by interested persons without anycertificate or warrant. This system of to-day has arisenchiefly from the dislike of people to have it known that theirrelatives have ever been in an asylum, whereas if it weremade clear that insanity in the parents does not of necessityconnote insanity in the offspring, and that very often insanityon one side or the other is an accidental symptom of nomeaning at all as regards hereditary transmission-ifthis true view were better known there would be lesshesitation in responsible persons to allow the treatment oftheir friends or relatives in properly inspected institutions.Although there is no reason to think that patients are

unduly detained in private asylums, it would be muchmore satisfactory to the public if the owners of these insti-tutions, who are generally the people responsible for themedical treatment of their patients, were to annex to theirstaff some independent medical man. The medical ownersof private asylums are invariably courteous and they givethe most free access to the visits of any medical man deputedby the friends to visit an inmate, but the public should under-stand that there is no stigma in having their relatives in anasylum or hospital for the insane : and this better apprecia-tion might be aided by the appointment of some general andwell-established medical man in the neighbourhood whowould form a link between the disease of the general hos-pital and that of the special one. It seems hopeless to

expect that in the lower classes the stigma of havingbeen treated in an asylum will ever be eradicated,because employers of labour are very suspicious of havingin their midst anyone who is known to have been at anytime placed in such conditions, and thus it comes aboutthat the stigma of insanity means starvation ; but the betterclasses are, or should be, too well informed to be ignorant ofthe fact that hereditary taint is very wrongly interpreted inthe majority of cases, and that any attempt to elude the.laws drawn up for the protection of persons in public orprivate retreats is sure to result in a form of seclusion whichmay be all the worse because it is secretly enforced.

NOTIFICATION OF PHTHISIS AND CHICKEN-POX.-The Cardiff Health Committee has decided to ask medical

practitioners to notify cases of phthisis voluntarily at thesame fee as for diseases notifiable under the InfectiousDiseases Notification Act.-The Gloucester City Council onMarch 26th decided to include for one year chicken-pox inthe list of diseases to be notified under the Act.

THE LABORATORY OF THE SCOTTISH ASYLUMS.-In his report on the work of this laboratory for the year1901 Dr. W. Ford Robertson, the pathologist, states that

investigations on the following subjects have been in

progress during the period in question :-(1) On the In-tercranial Lymphatic System, by Dr. A. C. Heath; (2)the Vascular System in Paralytic Dementia, by Dr.A. C. Ainslie and Dr. A. Aitken Ross ; (3) PathologicalAnatomy of Mongolian Idiocy, by Dr. David Waterstonand Dr. Edwin Matthew ; (4) Comparative Neuropathology(Tabes Dorsalis in Man and Nervous Disease in Horses),by Dr. D. Chalmers Watson, Dr. Isabella D. Cameron,and Dr. Isabel Watson ; and (5) Pathogenesis of ParalyticDementia, by Dr. Robertson and Dr. Lewis C. Bruce.

Arrangements are being made by which bacteriologicalobservations may be carried out upon cases of insanity byworkers connected with the laboratory ; Dr. Robertson con-siders that in this direction important results are to be hopedfor. The laboratory, which is at 7, Hill-square, Edinburgh.i supported by the voluntary combination for that purpo-eof 18 of the Scottish asylums. The receipts fnr the yearended Dec. 31st. 1901, amounted to £726 and the expendi-ture to ,8721. Sir John Batty Tuke is chairman of the boardof management and Dr. T. S. Clouston is the secretary andtreasurer.