1703IRELAND.-PARIS.

receives its water-supply. During the discussion some veryenergetic phrases were applied to the corporation’s proposal,and it was agreed to communicate to the Local GovernmentBoard an expression of the committee’s disapproval of theselected site.Dec. lOth.

________________

IRELAND.

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENTS.)

The late Mr William Smyth, L.R. C. 15. Irel.,of BurtonPort.

THE melancholy death of Mr. W. Smyth of Burton Portand Arranmore Island from typhus fever has given rise to afeeling of admiration for his heroism and of widespreadsympathy with his family, left poorer by his loss. While

conveying some fever-stricken patients in an open boat overthe four miles which separate the island from the hospitalon the mainland Mr. Smyth contracted typhus fever fromwhich he died. A subscription list, headed by the Presi-dents of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland and theRoyal College of Surgeons in Ireland, has been opened andmany donations have already been received. Letters of

sympathy, with subscriptions, have also just been receivedfrom His Excellency the Lord Lieutenant, His EminenceCardinal Logue, and His Grace the Duke of Abercorn. Asum of over .6400 has already been subscribed in Belfast.

Honours to the Irish Hospital Corps.On Dec. 7th his Excellency the Lord Lieutenant formally

presented medals to the Irish Hospital Corps who haverecently returned from South Africa. The members ofthe corps assembled in the Upper Castle Yard, underthe command of Sir William Thomson, their surgeon in-chief. The Lord Lieutenant, who was accompanied by theDuke of Connaught and Lady Cadogan, delivered an interest-ing address in which he highly praised the staff of the hospitaland the work which they had accomplished at the seat ofwar, expressing at the same time his regret at the unavoidableabsence of Lord Iveagh, to whose magnanimity and bene-volence the organisation of the hospital was entirely due.His Excellency took the opportunity of calling attention tothe brilliant services of the late Sir William Mac Cormac

during the time of war and alluded pathetically to the self-denying work recently performed in Ireland by Mr. WilliamSmyth of Donegal who met his death the other day undersuch painful and yet under such glorious circumstances." SirWilliam Thomson, in reply, thanked his Excellency on thepart of all the members of the corps, and conveyed theapology of Lord Iveagh for his quite unavoidable absence.The members of the surgical and medical staff who receiveddecorations were: Sir William Thomson, Mr. G. Stoker,Dr. Coleman, Dr. Friel, and Dr. Thomas Edwards.

The Ulster Medical Society.The second public meeting of the session 1901-1902 was held

in the Belfast Museum on Dec. 5th, the President, ProfessorW. Whitla, M.D.. occupying the chair.-Dr. W. B. M’Quittyshowed two patients suffering from Myxcedema and gavedetails of three cases illustrated by photographs showingtheir condition before and during treatment.-Dr. A.Fullerton read notes of a case, illustrated with photographs,of a child with Penile Hypospadias and Cleft Scrotum anddiscussed the surgical treatment.-Professor J. L. Smith andDr. J. S. Darling showed the Kidneys and Bladder from acase of Enlarged Prostate. -Dr. V. G. L. Fielden showedan apparatus for the Continued Administration of NitrousOxide and Oxygen.-Dr. T. S. Kirk described a Modificationof Thiersch’s Method of Skin-grafting. -Dr. Charles O’Neillread a paper, illustrated with lantern slides, on the BiologicalPurification of Sewage.-In the discussions on these com-munications the following took part : the President, Dr. A. B.Mitchell, Professor J. W. Byers, Dr. W. Calwell, Dr. A.Dempsey, Dr. J. Rusk, and Dr. H. O’Neill.

The Royal Vitoria Hospital, Belfast.The shareholders of the Oceanic Steamship Co. (better

known as the White Star" line) have decided to honourthe memory of Mr. T. H. Ismay, the late chief of the line,by giving £10,000 to the Liverpool Seamen’s Pension Fund(which was established by Mr. Ismay in 1887), and also bygiving £10,000 towards the endowment of a ward in theRoyal Victoria Hospital, Belfast, to be called the Thomas

henry Ismay Ward." ’ By these two munificent gifts theconnexion of the White Star" line with Liverpool (wherethe head offices of the company are located) and with Belfast(where, in the great yard of Hartland and Wolff, the shipsof the line were built) is emphasised. Shortly before hisdeath Mr. Ismay was made an honorary freeman of Belfast.

Queen’s College.. Belfast.Professor J. Symington has been appointed registrar of

Queen’s College, Belfast, in place of Professor J. M. Purser,resigned.

Belfast District Lunatic Asylum.In his report as inspector of asylums Sir G. P. O’Farrell,

points out that at the day of his visit there were 713.patients at Belfast, 150 at Purdysburn, and 62 at Ballymena ;and inasmuch as the old asylum only provided legitimateaccommodation for 440 patients it would be evident how

greatly overcrowded the institution was, and it was only bythe excellent administrative arrangements and by keeping thepatients as much as possible in the open air that this seriousovercrowding had not prejudicially affected the health ofthe inmates. The committee had arranged to meet this over-crowding to some extent by building two villas on the Purdys-burn estate. Sir G. P. O’Farrell says that he was pleasedto find every part of the asylum clean and orderly. The

dietary was satisfactory and suitable to the needs of the

patients, and the amusement of the patients continued toreceive due attention. Dr. R. A. L. Graham, the juniorassistant medical officer, continued to take,great interest in,

pathological work. The medical books were carefully keptand the general management of the asylum, the inspector -reports., bore distinct evidence of the zeal and ability ofthe medical superintendent (Dr. W. Graham) in the dischargeof his duties.

The late Sir William Mac Cormac.The greatest sorrow was felt in Belfast on Dec. 4th, when

the very sudden death at Bath of Sir William Mac Cormac-was announced. His close connexion with Belfast was broughtout in your full obituary notice.-At a meeting of the Ulster--Medical Society held on Dec. 5th, on the motion of ProfessorByers, seconded by Dr. Dempsey, the following vote of con-dolence was passed in silence and ordered to be entered on,the minutes of the society and a copy to be sent to LadyMac Cormac :—

That the members of the Ulster Medical Society desire to take this.the earliest opportunity of expressing their great regret at the loss theyhave sustained through the sudden death of Sir William Mac Cormac,Bart. Originally an ordinary, and afterwards an honorary, member ofthe Ulster Medical Society, he took the deepest interest in its affairsand the members have followed with pleasure and pride the successive-stages of his brilliant career since he left Belfast. The son of a distin-guished Belfast medical man, Sir William Mac Cormac always main-tained the highest traditions of the profession. The memhers of the-Ulster Medical Society wish to express their sincere sympathy withLady Mac Cormac in her present deep trial.

At a meeting of the board of management of the RoyalVictoria Hospital held on Dec. 7th, on the motion of the-Chairman (Mr. William Crawford), seconded by Professor

Byers, a vote of condolence was passed with Lady Mac Cormacon the death of her distinguished husband who had been.house surgeon, surgeon, and consulting surgeon at various.

! times to that institution.’ Dec. 10th.

________________

PARIS.

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

Reports upon Epidemic Diseases.AT the meeting of the Academy of Medicine held on

Nov. 26th M. Landouzy read the report of the commission

upon epidemic diseases. The report laid great stress uponthe absolute incompleteness of the returns furnished bythe various prefects. The figures which are givenas to the different contagious diseases, in conformitywith the law of 1892, are very incomplete, and mo&t-of the reports give no statistics either as to theincidence of a disease or its fatality. Influenza is

responsible for a large number of deaths by reason of com-plications involving suppurative affections. Cerebro-spinalmeningitis is fairly common, but small-pox is rare and almostunknown in certain districts, as for instance Bordeaux,where vaccination is rigorously carried out. Wanderingpedlars have imported this disease into certain districts and .

1704 . PARIS.-BERLIN.

M. Landouzy maintained that vaccination and revaccinationshould be carried out in the case of such persons. Thedeath-rate from diphtheria has fallen considerably, thanks tothe very early use of Roux’s serum. A certain number ofcases of typhoid fever are put down to infection by theinhalation of dust. The report further draws attention tothe necessity for, distributing information as to general andpersonal hygiene in all scholastic establishments. The

report also asks for the creation of a sanitary inquiry into thehealth of both the civil and the military sections of the

- community. Information on these points is much wanted toprevent the spread of disease by patients who leave the’hospitals before they are completely cured. For instance,’when a tuberculous patient is allowed to return home his,family ought to be told of the various measures necessary toprevent him from becoming a focus for the spread of the.disease. Three very interesting reports were sent in by Dr.Kermorgan, Inspector-General of the Colonial Medical Service.,One dealt with yellow fever in Senegal, one with tuberculosisin the colonies, and the third with infectious disease in the,colonies.

The Physiological Effects of Balloon Ascents.At the meeting held on Nov. 25th M. Gaule laid before the

,Academy of Sciences the result of some researches which had’been undertaken by himself with a view to ascertain whether<the results of a balloon ascent were comparable with thoseobtained at a high altitude on land-e.g., at the top of a,mountain. The most notable of these is a marked

augmentation in the number of red corpuscles. Viaux;and sundry observers who followed him have ascer-

tained that at a high altitude there is a great increase in’the number of red corpuscles. Thus in the Cordilleras at a

- height of 4000 metres, Viaux found 8,000,000 red corpuscles,,per cubic millimetre. M. Gaule wished to see whether in aballoon ascent, where ascension is very rapid and entails no,muscular exertion, a similar phenomenon would occur. He,made two investigations at heights of 4200 and 4700,metres and found in himself 8,000,000 red corpuscles per,cubic millimetre. Further, M. Gaule at a height of over4000 metres made some blood-films stained after Ehrlich’smethod with eosin and hasmatoxylin. He found numerousred corpuscles which showed a nucleus coloured blue bythe hasmatoxylin. This nucleus was in many instances

- segmenting, and also groups of three or four corpuscleswere seen as if they had undergone subdivisions.,Similar preparations made before the ascent showed nosuch appearances. M. Gaule therefore considers that athigh altitudes there is an actual formation of red corpusclesand that this takes place with great rapidity. At the fol-lowing meeting M. Tissot and M. Haillon gave an accountof researches on a somewhat analogous subject. OnNov. 21st they undertook some researches at various altitudesinto the physics and chemistry of the respiration. Experi-ments were made at the following heights : 1350 metres,2600 metres, and 4450 metres in the case of M. Tissot, andat 1700 metres and 3500 metres in the case of M. Haillon.The chemical phenomena of the respiration did not varyappreciably at these different altitudes. The respiratoryrhythm, however, was greatly modified. Although the totalquantity of air entering the lungs was less the number ofrespirations was not sensibly altered. It would thus appearthat at high altitudes the air is purer and more completelyused.

The Fatal Accident at the Lariboisi&egrave;re Hospital.I have already acquainted your readers with the details of

the fatal accident at the Lariboisiere Hospital, owing to themistake of a nurse who administered chloride of zinc as an.enema. The court of first instance has sentenced the matronof the hospital to two months’ imprisonment and the directorof the hospital to 15 days’ imprisonment as being respon-sible for the accident, with right of appeal in both cases.The nurse was given three months’ imprisonment, also withright of appeal, but she accepted the sentence. The ninth,division of the Court of Appeal, before which came the casesof the matron and the director, has just delivered judgment.The nurse alone was considered guilty. The judgmentstated that the vessel from which the nurse drew the fluid.employed for the enema was labeled chloride of zinc "

sufficiently legibly for the court to read it, and that the errorwas that of the nurse alone. The matron and the directorwere acquitted.

Dec. 10th.

THE LANCET, April 20th, 1901, p. 1174.

BERLIN.

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

The ’Agglutination of Tubercle Bacilli and its DiagnosticValue.

AT a meeting of medical officers of consumption hospitalsProfessor Koch recently read a paper on the Agglutinationof Tubercle Bacilli and its Diagnostic Value. In this paper,which has been published in the Deutsche Medicinische Woc7b-enschrift, he said that cultures of the bacilli of enteric fever,cholera, and bubonic plague agglutinated by the addition ofblood serum of patients suffering from these diseases andthat this fact was of great diagnostic importance. Dr.

Arloing and Dr. Courmont had described a method ofcausing tubercle bacilli to become agglutinated, providedthat they had been cultivated on potatoes, but theirmethod had not proved to be trustworthy. Professor Kochtherefore proceeded in another way, of which the

following is an outline. The essential is that weighedquantities of pulverised cultures of tubercle bacilli are

mixed with a solution containing 0’5 per cent. of car-

bolic acid and 0’85 per cent. of sodium chloride and thendiluted with the same fluid to 1000 times the weight ofthe dry culture. This test fluid is agglutinated only by theserum of a tuberculous animal, the serum of non-tuberculousanimals having no influence on it. The agglutination isespecially marked when one part of serum is mixed with nineparts of test-fluid, but is perceptible when one part of serumis mixed with 150 parts of test-fluid. Professor Koch thenexamined the blood serum of different species of animals.He found that in 28 normal rabbits out of 30 the serumhad no agglutinating action ; the same was the case

in goats, asses, dogs, and cattle, with which in onlyvery few instances did agglutination take place. Theblood serum of horses, 10 of which were examined,showed considerable spontaneous agglutinating power inmixtures of one part of s]rum with 25 and even with 50parts of test-fluid. He then experimented on the artificialincrease of the agglutinating power of the blood serum. Theserum of goats which had been injected subcutaneously withcultures of tubercle bacilli showed after a few injectionsagglutination when the proportions of serum and test fluidwere 1 to 50 and even 1 to 100 ; with rabbits the proportionsvaried between 1 to 100 and 1 to 400 ; and with horses theproportions were 1 to 200. Professor Koch said that hehad reason to believe that animals in which the agglu-tinating action was increased by injections of tuberclebacilli were at the same time immunised ; so that the

degree of the agglutination corresponded to the degreeof the immunity obtained. The experiments on this subjectwere, however, not yet finished. He then injected serumof high agglutinating power into tuberculous patients in thehope of obtaining a curative effect, but hitherto without anysatisfactory result. He found that the serum was unableto agglutinate the bacilli of diphtheria, enteric fever, andbubonic plague, but that the bacilli of perlsucht, tuberculosisof fowls and of fishes, and butter bacilli, which whenstained showed the same resistance to acids as tuberclebacilli, were agglutinated by it. Conversely, when animalswere immunised by injections of this kind of bacilli theirserum was able to agglutinate the bacilli of human tubercu-losis. Professor Koch then examined the blood serum oftuberculous and non-tuberculous persons. Among 30 non-tuberculous persons there were five whose serum had an

agglutinating power ; among 78 consumptives there were fivewhose serum caused agglutination when mixed with test-fluid in proportions of 1 to 50 or 1 to 25, and there were 14whose serum acted similarly when the proportions were1 to 10. There was, in fact, no -very marked differencebetween the serum of both categories and the method wastherefore of no use for the diagnosis of tuberculosis. Atten-tion was then drawn to the fact that in the advancedstages of tuberculosis the agglutinating action did not

increase, as was the case in plague, enteric fever, andcholera. The cause was, in his opinion, that in the latterdiseases substances (alexins) were produced in the bloodwhich conferred immunity to subsequent attacks and thatit was owing to the alexins that the agglutination of thebacilli took place. In tuberculosis such substances were notpresent (an infection by tuberculous virus predisposed tosubsequent attacks of tuberculosis) and agglutination there-fore did not occur. Professor Koch some years ago, as