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intended us to rest from the effects of light as soon as thesun is below the horizon demands, if it can be reasonablyapplied at all, the rejection of all artificial means of lighting,since there can be no light of any kind of any aid to theeye whatever that can be without some chemical activity.Still less practicable does such a suggestion become whenapplied to the lands of the midnight sun and other places orto the arctic winter of several months’ darkness. Clearlythis theory could only be prompted by the considera-tion of the limited conditions of environment in the tem-

perate zone. No men probably are exposed more freelyand continuously to the chemically active rays of thesun than our sailors, yet their acuteness of visionand penetrative power of sight is a matter of admira-tion and wonder to everyone. Sunlight is by a thousandcircumstances widely and uniformly diffused making it moreacceptable to the eye, and during its journey to earth itundergoes an important modification, for in passing throughthe air it is deprived of some of the red rays, while the bluerays pass on-a circumstance which explains the azure

character of the sky. In view of these facts, it is difficult toreceive the theory with any seriousness that because theremay be a certain proportion of ultra-violet rays in a givenartificial light it is necessarily injurious. It would

be a sorry thing if these same rays were for ever

filtered out of the light of the sun by the medium ofconstant fog or cloud, as so often happens in the daysof winter. Exposure to a purely elementary light, asred, yellow, or blue, does undoubtedly prove injurious eitherpositively or negatively. The distrefs produced on workingfor some time, to quote one instance, in a red or yellow light,as in the dark room of the photographer, who employs one orother of these colours on account of their chemical inertness,is well known. Absence of sunlight is held to be synonymouswith the absence of life, and the life-giving and invigoratingqualities of solar light are largely, if not entirely, dependentupon the chemically active rays, and certain lines ofscientific research have shown that without the greatphenomenon of insolation going on day by day life would beunendurable and finally extinguished. White light, therefore,as afforded in its entirety by the sun, is a necessity ofexistence.

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THE INTERNATIONAL MEDICAL CONGRESS AT

MOSCOW.

A MEETING of the English committee was held at

13, Harley-street, W., on Feb. 13th. The following memberswere present: Sir W. Mac Cormac (in the chair), Sir DyceDuckworth, Mr. Langton, Dr. Lauder Brunton, Dr. Allchin,Mr. Henry Morris, Surgeon-Major-General Hooper, Dr.

Champneys, Professor Thane, Dr. A. E. Garrod, and Mr.Makins. The secretary reported that fifty members, repre-senting the various English universities, medical schools,and medical societies, had joined the committee, andseveral matters relating to the Congress were discussed.The preparations for the meeting at Moscow are now in

an advanced state, the programme of work in several of thesections being nearly complete. Papers may, however, stillbe announced, the last date being June lst next. The

secretary-general, Professor W. K Roth, announces that theEnglish Consul, Mr. Medhurst, is in communication with theprincipal members of the English colony residing in Moscowwith a view to the entertaining of guests to the Congress ;further, that ample hotel and lodging accommodation atreasonable charges will be forthccming. It is hoped thatthe members of the Congress will be received at a Court

reception by the Czar, and arrangements are being madefor fetes to be held at St. Petersburg after the terminationof the meeting at Moscow. The cost of the railwayjourney to Moscow, returning by St. Petersburg, will be

e approximately as follows: A circular ticket frjm Lonf’ 01., vitiy Paris, Strasburg, Munich, Vienna, Oderburg, and Granica, (frontier station for Moscow), and home vii Eydtkuhnene (frontier station from St. Petersburg), Königsberg, Berlin,. Cologne, Brussels, and Calais to London, available sixty1 days, first class, 17 5s. second class, f:12 4s. 6d. ; 56 lb.r of baggage free to Avricourt on the out journey and fromr Blandain on the home journey. For the remainder of the- journey baggage must be paid for. The tickets for the- Russian portion of the journey must be taken at the frontierr stations, the cost being as follows :-Granica to Moscow, first class, 38 roubles 43 kr. ; second class, 24 roubles 68 kr.i Moscow to St. Petersburg, first class, 20 roubles 76 kr. ;- second class, 12 roubles 21kr. St. Petersburg to Eydtkuhnen,1 first class, 17 roubles 90 kr. ; second class, 10 roubles 74 kr.; No return tickets are issued on the Russian railways.t Taking the rouble at 2s. 3d. the approximate cost of thel railway travelling will thus be : first class, .E26 ; second. class, 18; and it will be necessary to give eight days’, notice to Messrs. Cook in order to obtain the circularþ tickets. The Secretary-General holds out some hope of the: fares on the Russian lines being considerably reduced. All, visitors will be required to be provided with passports.: Forms of inscription as members of the Congress may be. obtained from Mr. Makins, 47, Charles-street, Berkeley-,

square, W. --

LEICESTER AGAIN.

LEICESTER, unlike the heroines of modern novels, has apast of which it may well be proud. But its present seems

to be given up to the fostering of every kind of fad, and,like the gentleman whose politics were summed up in thesimple words, "Agin the Government," Leicester seems tobe always in opposition. Its views on vaccination are well

known; consignments of "cheap tans" made, not of

leather, but of "compo," come ’from there and figured inthe Whitechapel County-court last year; and now it hasstarted another fad. There is Mr. Pickering, who claimsto cure fevers by giving baths, and the Leicester Board ofGuardians have intimated to their medical officer, Mr. Bryan,that they would like the Pickering system tried in casesof fever brought to the workhouse infirmary. The housecommittee accordingly wrote to Mr Bryan asking the follow-ing questions : 1. Whether you have had an opportunity ofascertaining the methods employed by hydropathists, particu-larly those used by Mr. John Pickering, and the resultsobtained under such treatment ? 7 2. Whether you are of

opinion that the advantages claimed for this treatment areactually obtained; whether the course of the fever can be

stopped, and the risk of complications and spread of infec-tion prevented ? 7 3. Whether you are prepared to adoptsuch treatment, either permanently or as an experiment ? 7We are both pained and surprised to see the Leicester Boardof Guardians suggesting a method of treatment " as an experi-ment " upon patients. However, we may safely leave them tothe wrath of the Personal Rights Association and the Anti-vivisection Society, and we will pass on to Mr. Bryan’sanswer. He wrote-(l) that he was perfectly conversant,in common with the rest of the medical profession, with theuse of baths, &c., in lowering temperatures, and that Mr.Pickering professed to destroy germs by a temperature offrom 102° to 110° F. ; (2) that he would not trifle with humanlives ; (3) that he had been medical officer to the workhousefor sixteen years and had never had a single death fromscarlet fever ; and, finally, that he would not allow any inter-ference with his treatment, for which he alone was responsible.These obvious truths pained the house committee, and theclerk wrote back saying, among other matters, that " yourstatement that Mr. Pickering claims to destroy such fevergerms as you refer to by means of baths is not correct."

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Now some time last year Mr. Pickering was interviewed atLeicester, and we published portions of the interview in ourissue of Jan. 2nd, 1897. There Mr. Pickering was reportedas saying: "Extremes of temperature are destructive of

germ or organic life in the blood. Cold water at

36° F., or hot water at 102° F., are conditions under whichno fever can live." Supposing Mr. Pickering to have beenrightly reported-and our quotation has never been contra-dicted-these words can only mean that Mr. Pickering con-siders that germs can be destroyed by a temperature of 36°F.or 1020 F. The letter also asked if Mr. Bryan would watchsome cases now being treated by Mr. Pickering. To the

second letter Mr. Bryan replied that he would have nothingwhatever to do with Mr. Pickering or his treatment, that hewould not argue a purely medical subject with anyone out-side the profession, and that he hoped Mr. Pickering andhis admirers would find some other way of airing his fadthan on the sick poor who are not their own masters. At

the meeting on Feb. 16th some resolution of the com-mittee was adopted nem. con. We do not know whatthe resolution was, but apparently the "system" " is beingadopted in the town. Mr. Bryan has protested in vain; itremains for the Local Government Board to do its duty.There is one cheering incident in connexion with thisexhibition of folly, and that is that Mr. Pickering has beensummoned under the Public Health Act for unlawfullyexposing a patient suffering from scarlet fever by removingher in a hackney carriage on Jan. llth. The Bench decidedto convict and fined Mr. Pickering L2 and costs.

HAZARDOUS COMMODITIES.

WE have frequently expressed the opinion that theGovernment would sooner or later have seriously to con-sider the question of placing under proper control certainnew and rapidly developing sections of chemical industry.Several more or less dangerous articles of chemicalmanufacture are becoming so largely employed in our

midst for a variety of useful purposes now that some

restrictions as to their sale, conveyance, and storageare, in the interest of the public safety, imperative.In this opinion we were not mistaken. Certain sub-

stances that were previously regarded as chemicalcuriosities have ceased to be so, and are now importantcommercial commodities and made on a very largescale. Thousands of gallons of "liquid" carbonic acid

gas in steel cylinders under high compression may nowbe seen every day being conveyed in carts from placeto place, and similarly other gases are stored under pressurein "tubes," as, for example, oxygen, hydrogen, nitrous

oxide, and so on, all of which may expose the public todanger. Solid bricks of metallic sodium, again (kept undernaphtha, of course), are every day carried from port to portas part of a ship’s cargo, and very serious accidents haveoccasionally arisen from the intermixture of variouschemicals on board ship by the damaging effect of a roughpassage upon the packages. The trade in cylinders of com-pressed gases has already been placed under control. Stillanother chemical substance of comparatively recent dis-

covery is now so extensively used as to have given rise tothe necessity of a Home Office Order being recently issued.We refer to carbide of calcium, which on simply becomingmoist gives off the exceedingly inflammable gas acetylene.Carbide of calcium is useful for a variety of purposes, butchiefly because on simply placing it in water it evolves pureacetylene, which possesses a remarkably high illuminatingpower. The employment of this method of generating agaseous illuminant for optic lanterns, for photographicpurposes, and for lighting private dwelling-houses has

already been tried. It is quite obvious that some restrictionshould be placed upon the sale and storage of this substance,

t which is now being manufactured on a large scale, andr which simply in a moist atmosphere gives off an inflamI mable gas which with air forms an explosive mixture.f Carbide of calcium is now to be brought under the

t 14th section of the Petroleum Act, 1871, and after April 1st,i 1897, it will be unlawful to keep carbide of calcium excepti in virtue of a licence to be obtained from the local authority- under the Petroleum Act. Doubtless the recent accidents- that have been reported from time to time by the employ-. ment of acetylene in this way have prompted the Homei Office to issue this Order, together with a memorandum showing the character of the risks to be guarded against, and giving suggestions as to the nature of the precautions3 likely to be most effectual for securing safety.

SANITATION IN HUNGARY.

t THE Gyógyászat of Budapest publishes a series of articlesby the Government sanitary inspector, Dr. Jenö Farkas,on the Prophylactic Measures and Treatment of the

r Plague should it unfortunately reach Hungary throughTurkey or Russia. Dr. Farkas has evidently been carefulto follow the literature of the epidemic, and has

: deduced therefrom his conclusions. He estimates quaran-tine at its proper value-as worthless and mischievous-and insists that it is the duty of the authorities in Hungary

r to seriously consider and to carry out without further

’ delay the all-important improvements in respect of dwellings,food, and general hygiene of the poorer classes. He warnsthe public, and particularly the medical profession, againstthe mischievous supposition which seems to have been

adopted in some quarters as an excuse for doing nothing,>

that the plague bacterium is the primary cause of the

epidemic and that if that be prevented from entering Europeother measures are of secondary importance. Views on

hygiene, as expressed in the medical press of Hungary,coincide with those of our own. Poverty and its accom-

. paniments of dirt, unwholesome food, and insanitary and over-: crowded dwellings are hotbeds of all zymotic diseases and

: foci of epidemics. The high mortality and the alarming.

increase of tuberculosis testify to the insanitary evils presentin a high degree at Budapest, and until these are seriouslytaken in hand and remedied they will remain a standing

- danger to public health, from which the inhabitants of the: splendid palaces in the Hungarian metropolis will not be

spared. -

PREVENTION BETTER THAN CURE.A CORRESPONDENT writes :-" In spite of all our stringent

efforts to stamp out infectious diseases our large day schoolsare still well known to act as foci of epidemic disease.

, That children should be herded together, some of them

possibly in the incubating stage of disease, without any: medical supervision, seems incredible in the present state of: science. The mere detention of a child from school from an

infected house where a disease is already developed is not, sufficient. Why should there not be in all our large day, schools a daily medical inspection, or ’health parade,’

every morning or afternoon ? Local practitioners might befound in every district surrounding a day school who would,in consideration of an annual payment, devote an hour every

, morning or afternoon to this health inspection. The children

might be placed in rows, down which the medical inspectormight walk. An observant inspector would probably see ata glance signs of malaise or indisposition in a child. Such achild might be told to ’fall out,’ in order that he or she

might be more fully examined afterwards. Those whohad passed the inspection might be told off at once to

begin their classes, so as to delay the work of the school nolonger than absolutely necessary. The time taken up by theinspection would, of course, vary with the size of the school