1455THE DENTAL HOSPITAL OF LONDON.

might have been thought that such a deputation would havebeen most careful to explain fully what had been done.The neglect to do this will probably result in damagingrather than in reinstating the character of the town.

Medical and engineering experts have been consulted, andtheir suggestions are constantly being discussed by theCouncil ; but how far they have been or are being reallyacted upon no one appears to know. No doubt after what hasoccurred the medical officer in his next report will chronicleall the improvements recently effected, and the public will bebetter able to judge whether the sanitary administration iseffective or not. Under the circumstances we cannot help ’’,thinking that it would have been far wiser had the Corpora- ’,tion endeavoured to secure the sympathy of the CountyCouncil by some means necessitating less publicity than theformal reception of a deputation. We commented some time

ago upon the refusal of the Local Government Board to allowa " whole time " medical officer of health to be appointedfor Southend. Under the present arrangement the servicesof such an officer are in most frequent demand at a timewhen the place is crowded with visitors, and therefore whenhis private practice requires all his attention. Southendis the great holiday resort of the East-end of London,as many as 35,000 persons visiting there during a single day,some, possibly, with disease actually upon them, others

hoping to evade disease by a day at the seaside. The con-ditions are exceptional, and it is to the interest of the countyas a whole to prevent the town becoming a focus from whichdisease is disseminated. As the committee of the CountyCouncil are willing to aid the Corporation if they wish toobtain the services of a skilled medical officer to devote hiswhole time to the discharge of ’his duties, probably the LocalGovernment Board will withdraw their objections. Failingthis, combination with some adjoining authority might befound possible.

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THE PROBLEM OF METROPOLITAN ISOLATION.

THE answer of Sir Walter Foster to Mr. Cohen, who askedfor a Select Committee to consider this problem, is not satis-factory. Perhaps a Select Committee of the House is not thekind of body for the work ; but that seme inquiry into ourpresent plight is urgently necessary admits of no doubt. TheLocal Government Board betrays no sense of the gravity ofthe problem, as it certainly seems to have no leisure to con-tribute to its solution. It stands convicted of never havingmade the rules and restrictions by which admission of

non-pauper classes to these institutions was to be regu-lated. No more pitiful case has been reported than thatin 11’ednesday’s 2MK<M of Sophia Mary Buckminster, whodied of typhoid fever unattended in her own miserable

home, and for whom no place could be found in the hos-pitals belonging to the Board. A Royal Commission would bea more fit body for determining on what principles in futureand under what restrictions the State is going to provideisolation for all classes, consistently with its first duty to thepoor and the needy. -

THE DENTAL HOSPITAL OF LONDON.

AT the annual dinner of the staff and the past and presentstudents of the Dental Hospital of London, held on Satur-day last in the Whitehall Rooms at the Hotel Mtropole, thePresident of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, Mr.John Whitaker Hulke, F.R.S., who took the chair, remindedhis hearers of the enormous advances which had been madein dental surgery since his boyhood, when he rememberedthat tooth-drawing, bleeding, and cupping were frequentlyannounced amongst the other operations which a black-smith then undertook to do. He congratulated them on thevaluable and practical character of the teaching at the DentalHospital, and he urged on the students the necessity of

pursuing their work in a true philosophical spirit. Mr.

Stanley Boyd and Dr. Sidney Coupland, in response to

toasts, also referred in congratulatory terms to the

progress of dentistry. The authorities of the hospitalare evidently keenly alive to the growing needs ofthe institution, in evidence of which they are sparingno efforts in raising a fund towards the erection of

new buildings in Leicester-square to supersede the old

hospital, which is totally inadequate to deal with the

increasing requirements of both patients and students. A

site for a new hospital near the old building has beenacquired, and for this purpose the sum of about 40,000is required. Of this amount the sum of .E10.000 hasalready been promise 1 and E6000 actually received. It mustbe a sourca of considerable gratification to the staff andto those who have been responsible for the teaching ofdental surgery in the hospital school since its foundationto find that a large proportion of the contributions to thenew fund are due to the efforts of former students and thatan esrit de corps has sprung up which must serve to main-tain the position and dignity of the dental profession, aswell as to establish a code of ethics consistent with thehonourable calling of a dental surgeon.

A LEICESTER HOSPITAL EXPERIMENT.

AN interesting experiment is in progress at Leicester. The

disaster which followed the attempt to deal with small-poxand scarlet fever on the same hospital fite has practicallysuspended the sanitary functions of the town council as anisolative authority except as regards small-pox. This hasbeen a serious thing for Leicester, and now that the numberof small-pox patients is few a tent has been erectedon the hospital site and experiments are being made

to see whether it is practicable to maintain this structure

at a sufficiently equable temperature by day and by nightto justify the treatment of small-pox in a tent in such

a climate as ours often is in mid-winter. We shall look

with much interest to the thermometrical observations, forthe only published information on that point as yet is theexperience of St. Pancras when using double-lined tents,which is recorded in Dr. Thorne Thorne’s official report oninfectious hospitals. But the Leicester experiment, if suc-cessful in this respect, will be rather curious than interesting,in so far as it will constitute a second attempt to deal withsmall-pox on the same site as other infectious diseases. The

recent experience of Wirable(lon with hospital tents is

altogether adverse to exposing patients to the infection of

small-pox in this way. A Royal Commission has reportedagainst it, and we can well conceive that Leicester parentsand guardians will resist the removal of their sick to a spotwhere small-pox is under treatment, although they will beprofessedly under isolation.

THE EFFECTS OF LIGATION OF THE CORONARYARTERIES.

AN interesting addition to our knowledge of the heart hasrecently been made by Mr. W. Townshend Porter in an articlepublished in the September number of the J01lrnal (If Physio-lO,fJY. He remarks that the experimental study of the infia-ence of an interruption of the coronary circulation on theaction of the heart may be said to have begun with Erichsen.The death of Hunter in 1793 in a paroxysm of angina pectorisand the discovery that his coronary arteries were indeed cal-careous, as Jenner had predicted, was a great stimulus tothe clinical and pathological study of these vessels, and thisinterest has extended to, and has even increased, duringthe last few years. Mr. Porter has made a large numberof experiments upon dogs. The conclusions at whichhe has at present arrived are as follows. Ventri-cular stand-still was never observed after ligation of the