657

16 grammes of hydrochloric acid diluted with water to

100 cubic centimetres. While the solution has little or no

action on healthy skin it frequently exerts a beneficial actionon inflamed skin and in certain skin diseases it may be ofabsolute service. It was found in a case of psoriasis thatthe application of solid antimony chloride by means of aglass rod checked the inflammation without causing the for-mation of a scab. In two cases of lupus of the face thenormal skin was not attacked by the solution, while thediseased parts were beneficially affected.

THE PLAGUE ON THE GOLD COAST.

DURING the week ended Feb. 22nd the Acting Governor ofthe Gold Coast has reported 11 deaths from bubonic plagueat Accra and that deaths have occurred from pneumonicplague at Nianyano. With the exception of one case ofbubonic plague at Brewa no cases are reported from anyother place in the colony.

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THE GORE BROOK.

A MANCHESTER correspondent writes : ’’ The Gore Brook,like most water-courses in the neighbourhood of towns,instead of adding to the beauty and increasing the attractionof the district through which it takes its course, has been foryears a mockery and byword as the possessor and diffuser ofthe strongest and foulest stink, or odour if preferred, to befound in the neighbourhood of Manchester. Now, however,there is said to be more hope of cleansing it than there hasbeen for years past. The Mersey and Irwell joint committeehas decided to request the district councils of Audenshaw,Droylsden, and Gorton to have the houses within their

districts which now drain into the brook connected with thesewerage system. The cleansing of the brook will be lookedforward to with interest by the numerous sufferers from itspresent noxious and disgraceful condition and the onlywonder is that the nuisance should have been allowed toflourish so long."

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RATS AND THE PUBLIC HEALTH.

THE report of the Public Health and Marine Hos-

pital Service of the United States for Jan. 31st lastshows that the sanitary authorities on the other side ofthe Atlantic have acted up to the American reputation forpromptitude in the adoption of any new method of provedvalue. The rat examinations, including the laborious " fleacensuses," that is the combing-out and counting of the fleasfrom previously chloroformed rats, are being pursuedvigorously in San Francisco, the city which feels especialanxiety regarding plague on account of its floating cosmo.politan population. Daring one week its "rat crusade" "

statistics are given as follows: Rats found dead, 268;rats trapped, 4022 ; rats identified, 2359, of which 2154were of the Mus decumanus species; 1371 rats were

examined bacteriologically and 19 of them were foundto be infested with bacillus pestis ; 374,011 poisonswere placed but no mention is made of any bacterio-

logical method of attack. Similar measures were takenat Oakland, Point Richmond, and Emeryville, California.The health officer, Passed Assistant-Surgeon Blue, reportsthat plague is practically at a standstill, no case havingoccurred since Dec. 20th in San Francisco. The percentageof plague-infected rats is slightly on the decrease, being atpresent about 0 7 per cent. of the number examined, but therat cases are still widely distributed over most of the districts.In one district the flea census of all live rats caught showedonly one flea in 20 rats, and two fleas in another batch ofeight rats. The prolonged enzooticity of the disease amongstthe rats in districts liable to plague amongst men seems nowto be a well assured fact, after the authoritative pronounce-ments that have come from both India and Australia on the

matter, and the San Francisco sanitarians will not rest easyuntil even this small percentage of infected animals ceases tobe found. They are taking stringent precautions to renderbuildings and stables rat proof, and the use of metal garbagecans has been rightly ordered. It need hardly be said thatEurope is deeply concerned in the keeping of plague out ofAmerica in these days of speedy and easy transatlantia

communication, and it is gratifying to learn that the splendidresearch of the working commission on plague in India is

bearing such useful fruit in another country.

SEXUAL HYPOCHONDRIASIS.

To the January number of the Liverpool Medico- ChirurgicalJournal Mr. Frederick W. Lowndes has contributed an

interesting article on sexual hypochondriasis. He deals first

with syphiliphobia and shows that some of those who

imagine that they are afflicted with syphilis are medical menwho have for many years seen much of syphilis. It is almost

impossible in many cases to convince them that they arewrong. Mr. Lowndes also discusses the question of the

marriage of those who have suffered from syphilis and helays down the rule that proper treatment continued untilperfect recovery has followed must have been employed andthat a sufficiently long interval must have elapsed since thelast appearance of any symptoms of constitutional syphilis,but he does not tell us what length of time is meant by a" sufficiently long interval." All interested in the subjectwould have liked to have the benefit of his opinion onthis important matter, an opinion founded, as it would be,on an exceptionally long experience of syphilitic disease.

SANATORIUM FOR CHILDREN THREATENEDWITH CONSUMPTION.

IT is gratifying to notice the increasing attention whichis being given to matters connected with the health of thechildren of the poorer sections of the community. Thediminished birth-rate and the appalling mortality whichoccurs among the infants and young children of the poor areat last attracting the notice of statesmen and philanthropistsin this country as they have done for many years past inFrance. Large numbers of sanatoriums set apart for thereception of children have been erected round the coast ofFrance and a most careful selection of cases is made so asto avoid sending early and advanced cases to the same

institutions. A certain number of these sanatoriums

are set apart for what the French authorities term

"les enfants pretuberculeux." Within this expressivecategory are included delicate children of tuberculous

inheritance and probably also many cases of doubtful

nature, including early cases of tuberculous disease withinsufficient signs to enable the diagnosis to be established.The results obtained at such institutions appear to be most

encouraging. In Germany also highly gratifying results

have been obtained by open-air sanatoriums and forest

schools for children. An influential meeting was held atthe Mansion House on Feb. 19th, the Lord Mayor of

London, Sir John Bell, occupying the chair, in aid of a

sanatorium for children threatened with consumption whichit is proposed to establish in connexion with the Children’sHome and Orphanage, Bonner-road, N.E. The Rev. Dr.

Gregory, principal of the institution, explained the objectsof the proposed sanatorium which is intended in the first

place for members of their own home and orphanage who arein need of special treatment, especially those who are

threatened with consumption. He appealed for contribu-tions towards an establishment fund for which 10,000; gnineas were necessary. Sir R. Douglas Powell, the

President of the Royal College of Physicians of London,- in supporting the appeal, referred to the good work thatthe Children’s Home and Orphanage were carrying on. He