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high enough to render their consumption more difficult."Again, in the Fourteenth Section, a resolution brought forwardby Drs. Crocq, Witlacil, and Ealenburg was adopted andconfirmed by the general assemblies. It is thus worded:

I I The public authorities should be requested to combat theabuse of alcohol according to their position with all their

power. The means for this end are the following-viz.,temperance and abstinence associations ; restriction of the

sale of alcoholic liquors, especially that of brandy [pre-sumably spirits generally] ; supervision of the manufacture ofbrandy and assumption by the State of its monopoly ; raisingof the taxes on spirits and brandy, and lowering of the taxeson wine and beer; and establishing asylums for drunkardsand placing habitual drunkards under legal guardianship."Professor Aglave, Doctor in Law of the Paris University, is ina great measure responsible for the above resolution. For

many years he has travelled from country to country inter-viewing members of various Governments, and collecting alarge amount of evidence for the purpose of proving thatthe best way of combating alcoholism is to ensure the saleof absolutely pure-that is to say, sufficiently rectified-

alcohol, and that this result can only be attained by makingthe manufacture and sale of alcohol a State monopoly. TheSwiss and the Russian Governments have already adoptedthis proposal, and there is, we believe, some prospect thatthe French Government will follow suit; while in Canada theDominion Government exercises an absolute control over themanufacture and storing of alcohol.

THE RED CROSS IN ABYSSINIA.

WHETHER, or to what extent, the recent successes of theItalians on the Abyssinian frontier will encourage Signor i

Crispi in his African policy, and lead to the consolidation of Ithat "Colonia Eritrea" which for the last ten years has

baen a burning question in Italy, is one of the interesting pro-blems of the immediate future-interesting, indeed, to several Iother European Powers than the Italian, and not least so to Iour own. Meanwhile there is one cause which already sees anopportunity for development in those semi-civilised regions,and that is the R3d Cross organisation. OE late yearsthe European Powers have been engaged in a series of those"little wars " which in the Duke of Wellington’s opinion aremore costly than advantageous, but a redeeming feature ofwhich is the extended usefulness they have given to the"care and cure of the wounded in battle." The conflictbetween Spain and Morocco brought back to life thatSpanish Association of the Red Cross which had fallen intodesuetude since the Carlist rising some thirty years ago,and now the campaign of General Bajatieri on the

Italo-Ethiopic frontier has aroused the " Croce RossaItaliana " to seek a fresh field for its energies in the far east ofthe same continent. France and Belgium have already, in theirrespective "spheres of influence," awoke to their responsi-bilities in that direction, till we may fairly look forward,before the century closes to the establishment of as manycentres of the Red Cross organisation as there are European

, nationalities effecting a foothold in "Darkest Africa."As becomes the Power which claims priority in the

humanitarian idea which was embodied in the Geneva

Convention, Italy has lost no time in making the extensionof her military operations to the Soudan coincident with atransference of her Red Cross material and per3oa,)tel to thatregion, and, with the cooperation of her War Office, she is

organising throughout the more vulnerable tracts of the

"Colonia Eritrea " a series of ambulance stations on themodel of those which, of late years, have given so goodan account of themselves in the autumn manoeuvres

of her army in the Alta Italia. In the hill countryof Asmara, already utilised as summer quarters for the

garrison at Massowah, she contemplates a convalescent

sanatorium in supplement to those frontier stations, and

this may be regarded as the prelude to the openingup of that delightfully salabrious region to the service of

other patients than those drawn from the army. Civilisa.

tion, indeed, has everything to gain in tracts stretching inland from the Red Sea littoral by the planting of hospitalsand health resorts on the European model, and the energywith which the Italian initiative is being taken towards thatend must act as a wholesome stimulus to other Powers whose

colonial interests in the same continent are at once more

extended and more menaced. The Prefettura Apostolica, "

which, in cooperation with the Vatican, Signor Crispi hasestablished in the Tigre and throughout the sphere of Italianinfluence, " is ntly followed by a "Prefettura Igienica"; andthis, both for the work it is capable of doing and the exampleit holds out to other Powers similarly circumstanced on thesame continent, will go far to reconcile the votaries of

"peace at any price " to that forward movement in Africa towhich, by the force majeure of competition and the need ofEurope for an expansion of her colonial outlet," nearly allthe more enterprising nationalities see themselves inexorablycommitted.

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IS IT INFLUENZA P

THE word "influenza" is rapidly approaching the status ofAbracadabra or "that blessed word Mesopotamia," or theEgean Sea, which latter was always the refuge of the school-boy geographer. Nor can we wonder at this when weremember the protean forms in which the disease did un.doubtedly manifest itself from 1889 to 1892. At the presenttime there is certainly a widespread catarrhal affection of somekind which is generally called "influenza," though we ratherdoubt whether it always is. By influenza we mean an acutefebrile attack, the incubation being very short and the onset ofthe disease being characterised by severe muscular aching, arigor, a high temperature and intense headache, and some-times vomiting and diarrhoea. All or most of these sym-ptoms pass off in twenty-four to thirty-six hours, leaving thepatient greatly prostrated and with a troublesome cough andsome bronchial catarrh ; but though there are certainly somesporadic cases of influenza about, we would issue a warningagainst the growing habit of calling every indefinite feverishattack by this name. That it is a temptation no one willdeny, especially when we consider how anxious patients arethat their disease should be named and how the practitioneris apt to be looked down upon if he says he cannot doso. But it must also be remembered that influenza is a

serious disease, and it is therefore unwise to call any febrilecatarrhal affection by this name, for these latter when

properly treated never leave any serious sequelæ, whereasthe former complaint, even though treated with every care,may, and often does, leave a large legacy of grave evilsbehind it.

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RATIONAL DRESS.

AMONG the many definitions of man is one which defineshim as the only animal that wears clothes. Now this wouldbe correct if we added the word vertebrate, for several of thelower animals do wear clotheq, and wear them, too, with asense of their fitness and sensible use that puts the bimanousvertebrate to shame. Among these animals who have solvedthe problem of rational dress are the hermit crab, the larva ofthe caddis, and certain caterpillars. These clothes are

rational in so far that they are fitting for whatever thewearers are doing (of course the problem is simplified whenthe day’s occupation consists of little else than eating andsleeping) ; but how far below these creatures in our use

of dress are we. Men have for ages scoffed at women

for the vagaries and flights of fancy displayed in their dress,but there is really but little to choose between the sexes

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except in the great matter of the pocket, for except a pro-fessional thief no mortal being, even the owner, can getat a woman’s pocket. It is more, however, the weak pointsof men’s dress to which we desire to draw attention, andspecially to the fact that the lungs, as far as anatomy goes,are exposed at the back almost more than at the front. Yet

man’s clothing overlooks this fact. A man’s shirt is at least

three times thicker in front than at the back, his waistcoat is

always a mere lining at the back, and if, as the majority ofmen do, he does not button his coat his back is sure to

be much exposed. Take again the change from morningto night. Daring the day a man goes about with thickwoollen clothes, thick socks, thick boots or shoes with

spats. At night he puts on very thin clothes, a waistcoatwhich is no protection whatever, thin shoes, silk socks, with-out any spats, and sallies forth to dine, after which perhaps adance or a theatre. When arrived he congratulates himselfthat he is not as those poor silly women who go about withthe upper part of their chests bare. We are certain, how-ever, that men catch cold from wearing evening dress farmore than women do, and it behoves all who go out in theevening to keep the legs and feet warm as well as the upperpart of the body, and to wear an extra vest to make up forthe practical disappearance of the waistcoat.

THE METROPOLITAN HOSPITAL SUNDAY FUND.

WE would direct the attention of the governors andtreasurers of the various hospitals and dispensaries of the

metropolis, who desire that their institutions shall partici-pate in this year’s distribution, to the necessity for sendingin their applications to the Secretary of the Fund, Mr. H. N.Custance, at the Mansion House, on or before March 5th.Applications must be accompanied by the income and

expenditure account for the past year, printed according tothe uniform system agreed upon and duly audited by apublic accountant. The addition to Law IV. of the Constitu-tion which came into force on Jan. lst, 1893, making it

compulsory that the accounts of each institution should bepresented on a uniform basis, has greatly facilitated thelabours of the Distribution Committee in comparing therelative merits of the respective institutions, and unless thisrule is complied with no award will be made. We regret tohave to call attention to a practice which cannot be too severelycondemned-namely, that of issuing one report to the HospitalSanday Fund satisfying these requirements and another tothe supporters of the institution concerned. Such proceed-ings are not calculated to increase public confidence, and, itis hardly necessary to say, will not be recognised by theDistribution Committee, who require one form of accountonly. We regret that we should have to refer to this matter,and trust that Sir Sydney Waterlow-who we hope will bepermanently restored to health and be able to move, as hehas done for twenty-two years in suocession, the adoption ofthe Distribution Committee’s report this year-will not, ashe did on the previous occasion, have to deplore suchproceedings.

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OPHTHALMOPLEGIA AND WEAKNESS OF THEOCULO-FACIAL GROUP.

8rxCE the experiments carried out by Mendel showingthat in certain animals the orbicularis palpebrarum seemsto receive its nerve-supply from the third cranial nerver.ucleus a few noteworthy observations on the subject inman have been recorded. Drs. Tooth and Turner, in avaluable account of a case of bulbar paralysis, foundthat while the cells of the facial nucleus were com-

pletely degenerated the nerve itself had in it undegeneratedfibres, and they thought that these were probably derivedfrom the third nucleus and were for the supply of theo.rbicularis palpebrarum and frontalis, which had been found

functionally active during life. Dr. Hughlings Jackson hasalso recorded in the columns of THE LANCET his observa-tions on cases of ophthalmoplegia, in which he found thatwhen the eyes were as tightly closed as possible there wasno difficulty, or comparatively little difficulty, in raising theupper eyelid. The other facial muscles being intact thisweakness of the orbicularis was naturally regarded as a

result of the impairment of the third nucleus, whichpresumably had led to the paralysis of ocular move-

ments. Such an observation naturally lent considerable

support to Mendel’s hypothesis that the third nucleus

supplied the nerve filaments to the orbicularis palpebrarum,just as the hypoglossal nucleus is supposed to be the

source of the nerve fibres which supply the orbicularisoris. There can be no doubt that functionally theocular movements and those of the orbicularis palpe-brarum are very closely associated, just as those of the

tongue and of the orbicularis oris are. In a recent numberof the Wiener Klinische Wochenschrift Dr. Hanke recordsa case of congenital ophthalmoplegia, or of ophthalmo-plegia occurring in very early life and affecting nearly allthe ocular muscles of both eyes, in which in the twenty-sixthyear of life a paralysis of the levator palpebral superiorisand also of the frontalis took place. The case, according toDr. Hanke, supports Mendel’s hypothesis that the oculo-facial group is supplied by the third nerve nucleus.

INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS FOR THE PROTECTIONOF INFANCY.

WE announced in THE LANCET of Dec. 15th, 1894, thatFlorence would, within the coming year, be the seat of theInternational Congress for the Protection of Infancy, andwe indicated the quarter from which its personnel would bemost largely recruited, as also the tenour of the discussions,so far, at least, as the communications sent in enabled us tojudge. Since then, however, the Italian organising com-mittee, which has its headquarters in Florence (No. 7,Piazza d’Azeglio), has had intimation that another con-

gress with the same object and on the same lines to

be held in 1895 has been preparing in France, and

so, to obviate the inconvenience of two such meetingsoccurring within the same twelvemonth, it defers its own

meeting till the October of 1896. This is as it should

be, and the loyalty with which the two committees arecooperating gives promise of a highly effective promotionof the interests both have at heart. The French Con-

gress will meet at Bordeaux on Aug. 12th, and its workis divided into three principal sections. The first takes

cognisance of Children Morally Abandoned, and will dealwith the Decline of Parental Authority and the Delega-tion of this latter to other Hands. The second has

for its main subject the Administrative Protection of

Infancy. It will take up the well-known "Loi Roussel,"which has aided considerably in diminishing the death-rate among children put out to nurse. The applica-tion of this law and its further extension to all children

reared, gratuitously or not, outside the parental roofwill form the theme of many important papers anddiscussions. The third section will concern itself prin-cipally with the Physical Protection of Infancy, underwhich head the question of the alimentation of the childfrom its first day of life to the close of its second year willbe threshed out in all its ramifications. An elaborate mono-

graph has been announced on the Means to be employed byPrivate Initiative to secure the soundest Methods of such

Alimentation, the author’s name being as yet withheld.From the programme now before us the Congress cannotfail to be an effective one, the Italian contingent havingthrown itself with zeal into its proceedings ; while there isevery probability that the misguided patiiotism which kept