1629IRELAND.-PARIS.

IRELAND.(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENTS.)

Irish Poor-law Medical Service.A MEETING of the Council of the Irish Medical Association

was held in Dublin on Nov. 30th, when a committee wasappointed to urge upon the Government the carrying outof the recommendations of the Vice-regal commission onthe Poor-law system in Ireland.l A special general meetingof the association held on Nov. 14th had already passed fourresolutions to the following effect :-

1. That in any reform the members of the Poor-law medical serviceand those of the county infirmary service should form a homogeneousState service.

2. That any body or council administering the Poor-law medicalservice should contain a majority of members elected periodicallyfrom among the members of the medical profession practising inIreland.

3. That all hospitals and infirmaries under the contemplated Poor lawservice should be designated by a uniform title.

4. That in the adm inistration of the proposed State Council aDepartment of Public Health with a Minister should be appointed.

The committee was appointed in order to bring these resolu-tions to the attention of the Government and the followinghave been nominated to serve upon it: Dr. J. S McArdle,President of the Irish Medical Association ; Sir WilliamThomson (Dublin), Dr. R. F. Tobin (Dublin), Sir John W.Byers (Belfast), Dr. R. J. Kinkead (Galway), Mr. H. T. A.Warnock (Donegal) Dr. P. J. Macnamara (Kilmallock), withthe deputy chairman and the honorary secretary of theassociation.

The Health of Belfast.At the last weekly meeting of the Belfast public health

committee, held on Nov. 29th, it was reported that for theweek ended Nov. 24th ten cases of typhoid fever, 40 ofscarlet fever, and six of diphtheria had been notified. Thedeath-rate from all causes was 17’ 8. It was decided to re-commend the city council to pay Professor W. St. C Symmers£ 200 per annum for bacteriological reports and examinations.At a meeting of the city council of Belfast held on Dec. 3rdattention was drawn in the public health report to thegreat prevalence of scarlet fever and diphtheria. BetweenOct. 2lst and Nov. 17th 262 cases of zymotic disease hadbeen notified—viz., 2 caes of typhus fever, 28 of typhoidfever, 132 of scarlet fever, 30 of simple continued fever(whatever nondescript this disease is), 4 of pllerperal fever,32 of diphtheria, 4 of membranous croup, and 30 of

erysipelas—a list which shows that really no adequate pre-cautions whatever have been taken to cope with such anextraordinary state of affairs. Congratulations on the factthat typhoid fever has-as appears in this list-been re-

duced 50 per cent. may be readily given, but their

significance is somewhat discounted when it is seen thatthe subsidence of this disease has simply been replacedby such a terrible outbreak of scarlet fever ard diph-theria. The circulation of posters urging the people tobe careful about their children when convalescingfrom scirlet fever mixing with healthy children isa p)or attempt to cope vith such a terrible outbreak ofscarlet fever Anyone acquainted with the very rudi-ments of public health matters knows that the only wayto cope with such an epidemic is the insistence of promptisolation at the outset of the epidemic (in the case of thosewho have no facilities for proper nur.ing), but in Belfast wehave an infectious di-eases hospital just opened with accom-modation for only 168 patients, and yet within one month262 cases of z. motic disease have been notified I Every oneforesaw this dfficulty but nothing was done -At the samemeeting of the council the town clerk, Sir Samuel Black,explaintd that although the letter from the Local G,>vern-ment Board of Ireland sanctioning Mr. H. W. Bailie’sappointment as medical officer of health had been read atthe meeting of the health committee the document had not,he understood, been seen by Dr. J King Kerr.

The Water-supply of Belfast.In the Chancery Division of the Four Courts, Dllblin,

before the Master of the Rolls, on Nov. 28th, the BelfastWater CommIssioners applied for an ad interim injunctionagainst a farmer restraining him from continuing to pollutestreams of water which flowed from his lands into theBelfast Water Commissioners’ reservoir at Stoneyford, from

1 See THE LANCET, Nov. 24th, p. 1460.

which portion of the Belfast water-supply was taken. Itwas stated by counsel that heaps of manure bad been placedclose to the river referred to and it was a matter of,urgentimportance. The Master of the Rolls made the order,’as thematters complained of constituted, in his opinion, a gravedanger to the public health.

Typhoid Fever in Holywood.An epidemic of typhoid fever has broken out in the

Holywood urban district, county Down. and already a..

number of cases have had to be removed to hospital.Dee. 4th.

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PARIS.(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

S’anitary Matters in Paris.THE Municipal Council devoted a portion of the sitting of

Nov. 5th to the consideration of various matters dealingwith sanitation in Paris. M. Lajarrige proposed to openmunicipal washhouses in the working-class quarters of Paris.The right to use these establishments should be attainableon payment of a very small fee and even this could be re-mitted in the case of very poor persons. Soap and brusheswould be supplied free. Many municipal councillors were infavour of the creation of a sanitary "dossier" for childrenattending the schools. It was proposed that every childattending a primary school should on entrance be requiredto produce a certificate of having been successfully vacci-nated and another one to the effect that he or she was notobviously tuberculous. Whenever a child was absent fromschool the parents would be required to hand in a certificatethat the disease was not contagious and no child would bere-admitted to school without a certificate of being in goodhealth. The " dossiers would be handed over to thechildren on their leaving school. M. Jollibois broughtforward and succeeded in carrying a motion inviting theadministration to apply for powers to obtain the passing ofa law for the compulsory acquisition of insanitary property.The law as it stands at present provides that property maybe compulsorily acquired on payment of a compensationfixed on the basis of the income of the property. It is now

proposed that the cost of the works necessary to put thepremises in a sanitary condition should be estimated andthat this amount should be deducted from the amount paidas compensation reckoned on the income brought in by theproperty. M. Ambroise Rendu proposed that a sum of50,000,000 francs should be set aside for this purpose.Finally, M. Jollibois raised the question of allocating a sumof from 6,000,000 t) 10,000,000 francs for improving thewoods, parks, and promenades of Paris and for the creationof new squares.

A Case of Dissimulation in a Child.At a meeting of the Hospitals Medical Society, held on

Nov. 18th, M. Souques showed a little girl, aged 10 years,who for the last three months had contrived to make bothher parents and the family medical man believe thatworms came from her nose when she blew it. The factwas indisputable but when the worms were examined atthe museum they were found to be the larvæ of the

apple moth and those of sundry weevils which were foundin worm-eaten fruit. The child then confessed her decep-tion, saying that she took the larvae from the fruit and putthem up her nose. She did this to be interesting.

. Changes in the Paris Hospitals.The Municipal Council of Paris has recently decided that

a portion of the Laennec Hospital should be fitted up for thereception of tuberculous patients, only stipulating that theworks for this purpose, which are estimated to cost 1,000,000francs, should not be begun until the Assistance Publique hasobtained a subvention of 500,000 francs from the funds ofthe Pari Mutuel. The Minister of Agriculture has, however,notified the Prefect of the Seine that this proposal has beenmost favourably considered and that he himself undertakesto see that it parses. With this despatch before him M.Navarre has proposed to the Municipal Council that althoughthe committee of the Pari Mutuel does not meet untilJd,nuaty an estimate should at once be got out for the worksin question and this proposal has been accepted. The townof Paris will thus possess for the first time a hospital oneqliarter of which will be allotted to the care and treatmentof tuberculous cases. M. d’Andigne, on behalf of the fifth