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’by hanging was used to charm away epileptic fits ! A storyis also told of how and why a woman preserved in spirita toe which had been amputated, and the view taken by thepatient shows in a wonderfully vivid manner how in-

extricably the materialistic and the transcendental are

mixed in all vulgar superstitions. She had lived a

bad life, she said, and she did not know where thetoe might go if she allowed it to be buried at once; butas she had resolved to lead a more creditable career in

the future she kept the lost member by her, "that she mightget her toe again some day and not go limping in the nextworld." The article is, in fact, an amusing collection ofsuggestive stories. The dates are not given, and this

deficiency makes it impossible for us to see whether the fairystory confirms or refutes Mr. Andrew Lang’s theory on theextinction of fairies as given in his new Yellow Fairy Book ;but, with sufficient proof appended to render them trust-worthy contributions to a science, many of the episodesdescribed in I I Curiosities of a Country Practice" would bewelcome additions to the archives of folk-lore.

ENTERIC FEVER AT BUDOCK.

THE Falmouth rural sanitary authority have had beforethem a report by their medical officer of health upon an out-break of enteric fever at Budock. The place seems to be aiikely breeding ground for fever, being riddled with offensiveprivy pits, defective drains, and such like abominations,whilst the river Budock has up to the present received’the sewage of the village and a great deal of that

from Penrhyn ; but, despite all this, the pump is lookedTipon as the main cause of the prevailing fever, which hasattacked about twenty persons. This pump has, it would

appear, been already ordered to be closed, but has been

continued in use. As far back as August the medical officeradvised its closure ; but lack of this precaution had now’been followed by the inevitable consequence of delay inmatters of sanitary importance. A scheme for the innocuous

disposal of the sewage seems now, however, to be in pro-.gress, and the authority appear to be desirous of at last

dosing the pump, though the order is apparently for sixmonths only. It is to be hoped that there will be no disposi-tion to reopen it until there is no longer any possible doubt- of the wholesomeness of its contents as a permanent supply.

CEREBRAL LESIONS AND GONORRHŒA.

IN a recent number of the Revue .J.révrologique ProfessorPitres has a short paper on this subject. He has been led,3ie says, to publish the two cases presently to be referred tobecause of a recent communication given to the Society ofNeurology and Psychiatry at Moscow by Professor Tambourerown affections of the nervous system resulting from or associatedwith gonorrhoea. In this communication M. Tambourer men-tioned the case of a young man aged twenty-five years whoin the course of a chronic gleet lasting three years was sud-denly struck down with apoplexy and died on the third day.Unfortunately no necropsy was permitted, but M. Tambourerattributed the attack to septic embolism. Professor Pitres’- cases are as folloffs. The first was that of a man aged fifty-nine years who, in the course of an acute attack of

gonorrhoea, had painful swelling of some joints the dayafter admission to hospital, and later in the same daywas suddenly attacked with right hemiplegia accom-

panied with coma. Six weeks later he was seized withJacksonian convulsions, in which he died. At the necropsya very extensive softening was found in the region of- the Sylvian artery. The parts were diffluent, and no

atheroma of the vessels could be discovered. No bacterio-

logical examination was made. The second case was that of.3, young man aged twenty-three years. He had an attack of

gonorrhoea., from which he made a good recovery. A secondone two years later had lasted for five months and was not

quite cured when one morning he suddenly had an attack ofleft hemiplegia, which rapidly cleared up, so that in a fewweeks he was able to use his hand and walk without diffi-

culty ; but there still remained facial asymmetry and a certainamount of awkwardness in carrying out voluntary movementswith his left hand. There was no evidence of cardiac lesionor of atheromatous arteries. The coincidence of those

attacks with the presence of gonorrhoea is certainly striking,and the well-known fact that myelitis occurs apparently asa result of gonorrhoea suggests that these cerebral lesions

may have a close causal connexion with that disease andare not merely coincidences.

DIPHTHERIA IN LONDON.

THE records as to diphtheria in London last week were inall respects save one less favourable than those of the weekpreceding. The admissions to the hospitals of the Metro-politan Asylums Board, which had been 102 in the precedingweek, fell to 99 ; but the cases remaining under treatment atthe close of the week were 537, against 521, 521, and 531respectively on the three preceding Saturdays. The deaths,which had been 54, 61, and 49, were last week 54 again, 4 eachbeing credited to Paddington, Kensington, and Camberwell,and 3 each to Hackney, Poplar, St. George Southwark,Lambeth, and Greenwich sanitary areas. In the outer ringthere were 20 deaths, of which 12 belonged to the boroughof West Ham.

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MEDICAL AND DENTAL PRACTICE IN THETRANSVAAL.

ACCORDING to information supplied by Mr. Quin, L.D.S.,of Johannesburg, the Volksraad has recently ratified a newarrangement in regard to medical and dental practice inthe Transvaal. No person in the Republic is allowed tobe advertised as medical practitioner, surgeon, dentist,apothecary, chemist, or druggist unless his name appears inthe Register of the Medical Board and his admission fee hasbeen paid. The British Journal of IJental Science presumesthat the same rule applies to any person who may wish to usesuch title without advertising it in the usual acceptation ofthe word. Contravention of this regulation will bs punishedby a fine of from f:1O to £ 100, and in case of non-payment ofthe fine by imprisonment with or without hard labour for aperiod of from one to six months. Other financial arrange-ments oblige medical men and dentists to take out a licenceduring the time they carry on their profession within theRepublic, the cost of which is as follows : for one year,

a25 ; for nine months, a20 ; for six months, z15 ; and forthree months, :&10.

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PAYMENT FOR THE ADMINISTRATION OFANÆSTHETICS.

THE following letter, dated Nov. lst, and signed by SirHugh Owen, Secretary of the Local Government Board, hasbeen sent to the various boards of guardians :—"I amdirected by the Local Government Board to state thatit would appear from representations which have beenmade to them that some misapprehension exists as to

the power of boards of guardians to pay for the professionalassistance required by their medical officers in connexionwith the administration of anaesthetics in cases of operations.As the guardians are aware, the Board recommend that,under ordinary circumstances, a case in which a serious

operation is required should not be treated in a workhouse orat the patient’s home, but should be sent to a public hospital.When, however, the latter course is not practicable, or whenthe operation is not of a serious character, the Board are pre-pared, in any case where an anesthetic has been required, to