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that all these provincial summaries shall be sent in to thecentral office by the beginning of February, together with theoriginal data, in order that the preliminary report, embracingall the local summaries may be published not later thansix weeks after the date of the census. The central office,immediately that this unrevised summary is published,proceeds to revise the figures in all the local summaries forpublication in the full and detailed census report. A

Vienna correspondent of a contemporary reports that theAustrian census inquiry includes a far wider range of ques-tions than will be the case in the approaching English’census. Among the subjects concerning which theAustrian will be questioned, and which lie outside the

scope of the English census, may be mentioned religiousprofession, language, education, and agricultural stockand produce. It is also provided that each enumeratedmale person born between 1871 and 1881 must be pre-pared to produce a certificate of his birth for militarypurposes. It is stated that the Central Statistical Bllreauwill employ a staff of 350 persons for tabulating the revisedtotals, and has undertaken to commence publishing therevised figures by the end of 1891, and to complete the epublication of the final report by the end of 1892. It

appears to be contemplated to adopt the Hollerith system- of electrical tabulation in the Austrian Census Office,which is now being used with marked success in theUnited States Census Office at Washington. This systemof tabulation implies the necessity for transferring theenumerated items of information concerning each indi-vidual to separate cards specially punched for the purpose.When, however, this process is once completed, the rapidityand accuracy of tabulation open up possibilities in that,direction which could not even be dreamed of under theold-fashioned system of tallying by ticks. It is to be re-

fgretted that no intimation is given that this new system of- electrical tabulation is to have at least a trial in the

English Census Office, which will now shortly be opened inWhitehall.

ENTERIC FEVER AMONGST THE TROOPSIN BERMUDA.

THE information received through Reuter’s agency of theoccurrence of several deaths among the men of the 2nd Bat-talion of the Grenadier Guards from enteric fever has been

oificially contradicted by the following telegram from the"Governor of Bermuda: "No serious outbreak of fever

’amongst the Guards. No case at head-quarters, St. George’s.Five cases at Boaz; all doing well. Only one death from’fever since arrival." This cannot be considered an alarmingnumber of cases in a regiment chiefly composed of young- soldiers, and arriving at Bermuda in the middle of summer.On examining the Army Medical Department reports forthe ten years preceding 1889, we find the admissions into’hospital for enteric fever to have averaged 25’57, and the’deaths 4’44 per 1000 of strength annually. But there wasa very marked difference in the prevalence during the first as.compared with the second five years, the average for 1879-83’being 9 ’88 cases and 1 v0 deaths, while for 1884-8 it was 45’93.cases and 7’73 deaths per 1000. In the first period the ratiowas exceptionally high in 1880 in the 99th Regiment,which had arrived early in the year from South Africa; butdt was still higher in every year of the second period, and- especially in 1888, the last for which any report has been,published. In that year the admissions amounted to 95’1 andthe deaths to 13’37 per 1000, and occurred chiefly in the’1st Battalion of the Leicestershire Regiment, which landediifrom England in the end of September. In the next threemonths that corps furnished no less than 109 cases and 17.deaths from a strength of about 860 men. The greatprevalence of the disease in the last quinquennium has

been at Prospect Camp, and although every care has beentaken to investigate the cause of the marked increase, no satis-factory solution has been found. Defects in the drainage andwater-supply of the camp have been remedied, but the sani-tary condition of the town of Hamilton, its water-supply, andthe milk and aerated waters sold in it are all stated to bemost unsatisfactory. It does not appear, however, that anymarked change took place in these conditions in 1884, whenthe increase of enteric fever began. In 1888 a special com-mittee was appointed to inquire into the sanitary state ofProspect Camp and barracks, and to endeavour, if possible,to trace the cause of the epidemic, but it did not arrive at

any satisfactory results. We do not find that anythingwas done, or recommended, beyond an improvement in thedrainage of the camp and an increased supply of water forflushing ; nor was any probable cause assigned for the out-break. As no report has yet been published for 1889, wehave no means of knowing to what extent the epidemicwhich began in the autumn of 1888 prevailed in that year,or whether it had entirely ceased before the Guards weresent out. But we infer that it had, or probably a muchgreater number of cases would have occurred among themthan is stated in the Governor’s telegram. The returns forthe decennial period show that there has always been anincrease in the disease closely following upon the arrival offresh troops in the command, and that the newcomers havebeen the sufferers.

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MEDICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON.

THE 117th session of this Society will commence on

Monday next, October 20th, when the President,Mr. Knowsley Thornton, will deliver an address on the" History of Ovariotomy." During the recess the Society’srooms have been much improved by the installation ofthe electric light and the fitting up of a new book-caseand desks in front of the president’s chair. The book-casewas presented by Dr. Theodore Williams, and a newchair for the president by Dr C. D. F. Phillips. The spacein the library available for clinical evenings has been muchincreased by the rearrangement of the book-cases, and aspecial electric lead has been fixed in the meeting-room forthe use of those Fellows who may wish to illustrate their

papers by the niagic lantern.

DEATH OF A CHILD UNDER CHLOROFORM.

AT one time it was believed that women in childbed andchildren enjoyed an almost complete immunity from thedanger of death the result of chloroform inhalation. Aforeextended observations have shown that children of eventender years succumb. A death of a child aged tenoccurred last week at the Royal Berks Hospital, Reading.The patient, described as being in perfect health, wasadmitted for an operation for the relief of knock-knee.The anaesthetic, according to Mr. Maurice, the surgeonwho operated, was given with great care and skill byan experienced assistant house surgeon, and the operationduly carried out. After its completion the child suddenlybecame faint and in a dangerous condition. Artificial

respiration being tried, natural breathing was resumed, butthe heart’s action remained unsatisfactory, and the patientfinally died from cardiac failure. Injections of ether weretried without avail. The child had been examined beforethe administration, and pronounced healthy. We are nottold whether in this case Nelaton’s inversion method wastried; it certainly is of great value in primary heartfailure, and in the case of children is easily put into practice.The question of the infrequency of death under chloro-form in the case of children is held by some observers tobe influenced (1) by the less psychic fear of the anaesthetic,and (2) by the physical condition of the patients, whether