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and Mrs. Pirrie for their exertions on behalf of the hospitalscheme. It was announced that there was a sum of ;E64,000in the bank to the credit of the fund and there ’was alsoa considerable amount promised towards an endowmentscheme. IITyphoid Fexer and Shellfish.At a meeting of the Public Health Committee of the

Belfast Corporation, held on July 21st, Dr. Bigger, physician to the Fever Hospital, called attention to the !,fact that many cases of typhoid fever had been traced to Ithe eating of shellfish gathered on the odoriferous banks of Belfast Lough, which are saturated with sewage matter, Iand it was decided to call public attention to this cir- Icumstance in order that people may be apprised of the idanger of eating shellfish taken from such an unsavoury I

locality. It is a great misfortune that both sides of BelfastLough for a considerable distance from the city, owing to Ithe deposit of sewage matter, &c., in the seaweed at low tide,emit the most horrible stench, especially in the presentunusually hot and dry weather.

The Londonderry Lunatic Asylum.It would seem that the Grand Jury of the county of Lon-

donderry has passed a resolution by 19 to 14 urging that,pending the coming into office of the county council, theBoard of Control be requested to restrain the governors ofthe lunatic asylum from taking further action towards theproposed building scheme, as reported in THE LANCET.2Sir Thomas Lea, Bart., M.P., is to ask a question in theHouse of Commons in reference to this undoubted differenceof opinion in county Derry as to whether a moribund bodyhas the right to incur such an expenditure of money soshortly before the transfer of its powers to the countycouncils.

The Workmen’s Compensation Act.Dr. J. Walton Browne and Dr. T. Sinclair Kirk have been

appointed medical referees under the new Workmen’sCompensatton Act.July 26th.

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PARIS.(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

Notification of Infectious -D,)seases.AT the meeting of the Academy of Medicine held on

July 19th M. Monod said that the notification of infectiousdiseases was an excellent measure and that the notifi-cations had risen from 23,414 in 1896 to 26,000 in1897. The authorities had done all in their powerto obtainnotification by medical men ; prosecutions were only under-taken when failure to notify involved danger to the public-as, for instance, during an epidemic. M. Ferrand, who wasnot an advocate of the system, having compared it to thedeclaration of births and having expressed the opinion thatthe onus ought to be laid on the family, M. Monod repliedthat this change would be difficult to make, for, apart frommedical men and some exceptionally well-informed persons,people generally believed that there was some objection totheir notifying cases, and it would be remembered thatcertain parochial authorities had acted as if they shared thisopinion. However, the Public Health Bill which was beingprepared would extend the duty of notification to headsof families, hotel-keepers, and persons in attendance onthe patient.

Pathology of Caseous Pneumonia.At the same meeting of the Academy of Medicine M.

Grancher read for M. Auclair a paper in which he sought toshow as the result of numerous experiments that caseouspneumonia is due exclusively to toxins elaborated by Koch’sbacillus. All authors have regarded it as a mixed infectiondue to streptococci and pneumococci. If extracts of culturesof the tubercle bacillus made with ether or chloroform areinjected into the trachea of guinea-pigs the result will be theproduction of caseous pneumonia with giant cells, fibrinousexudation, sclerosis, &c. Cultivation experiments made withthe caseous foci thus obtained never yield cultures. Nothingcan be more decisive as to the connexion of caseous pneu-monia and tuberculosis.

Regeneration of the -illiteotis Membranes.At the same meeting of the’ Academy of Medicine

2 THE LANCET, July 23rd, 1898, p. 234.

M. Cornil stated that he had recently been studying therepair of mucous membranes and that he had ascertainedseveral new facts by experiments made in dogs on the urinarybladder, the gall-bladder, the uterine mucous membrane.and the ureter. The regeneration of the uterine mucousmembrane is accomplished by means of the glands in a

peculiar way. The method of investigation consisted in

slitting up the ureter or the uterine horn longitudinally andkilling the animal some hours or days afterwards. He foundin the course of his experiments that mucous membrane.that of the ureter for instance, might be grafted directly onthe omentum. The facts brought to light by M. Cornil are ofgreat importance from the point of view of general anatomy.

The Artichoke as a Culture Medium in Micro-biology.Bacterial cultures have been made on almost all vegetables,

but the potato and the carrot are the principal ones whichare in daily use in bacteriology. M. Roger has, however,reported to the Society of Biology, at the meeting held onJuly 16th, that in his opinion the artichoke possesses severaladvantageous qualities in this respect. Nothing is moresimple than to prepare it for the purpose. After havingstripped off the scales the thick part is cut up into littlecubes, care being taken to preserve the fibres (foin). Thepieces are placed in tubes plugged with damp wadding, thefibres being uppermost, so that the culture medium is repre-sented by a fleshy mass surmounted by a sort of tuft. Whenthe wadding is inserted the whole is heated in an oven to115° C. for a quarter of an hour. In making the inoculationthe germs must be deposited at the point of insertion of theflowers.

Influence of Tuberculin on Cnltures of Koe7i’s Bacillus.

At the same meeting of the Society of Biology M. Carnotmentioned that he had ascertained that if a small quantityof liquid derived from a previous culture of Koch’s bacillusis added to the ordinary culture media before they areinoculated with tuberculous material the effect is to hastenthe growth considerably. In practice the same result isobtained by adding some drops of tuberculin to the culturemedia. If, on the contrary, the quantity of tuberculin isincreased-if, for instance thirty drops are added to aculture instead of five or six--the culture either does not

undergo development or else its development soon stops.-Rabies in Dogs.

The general report presented by Professor Proust to theCouncil of Hygiene on the cases of rabies observed in1897 in the department of the Seine elicited from thatlearned assembly numerous interesting remarks on rabies andits treatment. Finally, the council repeated the two resolu-tions which it passes every year: 1. That the council

approves of the regulation of May 30th, 1892, relative to

stray dogs and recommends that this regulation should bestrictly enforced throughout the jurisdiction of the prefectof police. 2. That the council urges the authorities to

prosecute the owners of animals which have shown them-selves to be vicious and with regard to which the policehave presented reports.July 25th.

MR. D. M. FoRBES, who for the last thirtyyears has held the office of medical superintendent of theInfirmary of St. Leonard’s, Shoreditch, was on July 19thentertained to luncheon at the Holborn Restaurant and

presented with a testimonial on the occasion of his retiringfrom that position. Mr. R. G. Alabaster occupied thechair and the company included many of Mr. Forbes’spersonal friends, among the number being the Ven. Arch-deacon Sinclair and a few medical men. Mr. Forbes, a

Scotsman by birth, has for many years been a prominentmember of the Royal Scottish Corporation and the

Royal Caledonian Asylum, and a generous contributorto the funds of these charitable institutions as well as awarm supporter of other Scottish societies in London. Hedid excellent work with regard to the better treatmentand nursing of the sick in the Poor-law establishments ofthis country and the passing of the White Lead FactoriesAct of 1891 which has done much to ameliorate the conditionof the workers in that industry. The testimonial took the

form of a beautifully illuminated address on vellum. togethertvith a purse containing over 6GO guineas.