906

of the digestive organs occasioned 10 per cent. of all thedeaths-190 ; and diseas«s of the urinary organs, excluding22 from diabetes, occasioned G per cent. of all the deaths-116 : instead of 5 per cent., the mortality from digestivediseases in all England; and 1 per cent., the mortalityfrom urinary disorders, including diabetes. Taking all thisglandular and vascular disease together, we fear it cannotbe entirely explained on the view of "plain living and highthinking," even when assisted by an austere climate.We have only room left for two or three isolated facts

which strike us. The deaths from cancer are 88 ; in otherwords, 1 death in 23 was occasioned by it. In an old reportof the mortality in the Equitable Office, 1 in 95 is stated tohave been so caused. In the seven years 18 deaths haveresulted from small-pox, whereas in the first thirty-twoyears of the century only 1 death was so caused in the

Equitable. Insurance Offices should require revaccination.Old age only accounts for 4 per cent. of the deaths ; in theEquitable it counts for 14 per cent. Greater perfection ofdiagnosis may explain some of these differences. But wesubmit that the mortality shown by these reports in peoplewho can largely command the comforts of life, and whoought to know something of the laws of health and thecauses of disease, is not altogether creditable.

DIPSOMANIA.

PROBABLY no similar want is felt so strongly among allclasses of society as the need for that provision for therestraint of the habitual drunkard which has more thanonce seemed almost within reach, but, alas! is now ap-parently as far off as ever. The cases are of a character forwhich the means at present at our disposal are entirely in-adequate. Friends and physicians are alike powerless.’Every remedy short of restraint which has been, and appa-rently can be, employed-self-respect, affection for others,sense of propriety, every drug in the Pharmacopœia-hasfailed ; and all through the country, and in every socialgrade, in varying proportions, the evil continues. From

time to time the need for a remedy finds direct or indirectexpression, as in a letter which recently appeared in a con-temporary, in which the writer calls urgently for legislationto meet what he rightly regards as a vast and increasingevil. The manifest and manifold difficulties which surroundthe subject, and render its manipulation difficult, are not’insurmountable, and it is urged that even if the necessaryprovisions cannot be secured without some infringementupon recognised rights and principles, the evil incurredwould be trifling compared with that which is alwayspresent and daily reaching larger proportions, during thetimorous abstinence from action. The subject concerns thepublic, and can be only dealt with by them, and we areglad to observe that there is no disposition on the part ofour lay contemporaries to allow it to sleep upon the shelfon which our legislators have laid it, and apparently intendto allow it to remain.

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SMALL-POX AT GREAT BARR.

IT is hardly to be expected that outbreaks of diseasecan be materially lessened in violence until the Govern.ment has a better organised supply of information of therise of local epidemics in their early stages and theirslighter forms. Unless the outbreak is one of startlingseverity, the knowledge of its occurrence is gained only by thelocal registrar’s quarterly returns ; and although the causesof the disease can then be ascertained and removed, so thata similar disaster may be rendered less likely, the epidemicwhich excited the inquiry has run its course, and when thestable-door is locked the immediate need for the operationis over. Moat of the minor epidemics escape notice alto-

gether. They are due, many of them, to preventable causes,the removal of which might often avert a much graveroutbreak, but the central sanitary authorities of the countryhave not the means at their disposal for prompter and moreeffective supervision of the local executives. An instancein point is afforded by the outbreak of small-pox at GreatBarr, respecting which Sir C. Forster put a question to Mr.Sclater-Booth in the House of Commons the other night.The President of the Local Government Board knew nothingof the outbreak ; no information had been received con-cerning its extent, duration, or severity, and he could onlyoffer the anxious inquirer some consolatory reflections onthe heavy penalties of fine, or demolition of premises, bywhich compulsory disinfection is, or ought to be, enforced.

REGISTRATION AND SANITATION IN DUBLIN.

THE progress of sanitary science in Ireland, as elsewhere,appears to be tolerably steady, notwithstanding occasionalhindrances. These are not likely permanently to obstructthe march of improvement so much needed in the sisterisle.

The serious fire in Dublin that has just destroyed severalhouses, some of which were fever nests, as well as some ex-tensive stores, &c., showed in a lamentable way the degrada-tion of those who inhabit unwholesome quarters; some ofthese persons, young men in the prime of life, have alreadydied of alcoholic poisoning from the quantity of whisky theydrank as it ran along the public streets. Such matters

demand, in our judgment, an inquiry into the sanitary con-dition of the lower orders in a city where on one or twoformer occasions not long since violence was resorted to bythe populace to frustrate the efforts of the fire brigade toarrest the destroying element.We are glad, however, to learn that a division of the

former registration district on the east end of the south sideof Dublin has been made by the Irish Registrar-General,with sanction of the Lord Lieutenant, and it is expectedthat this measure will be applied to each of the city regis-tration districts, in which case the public may reasonablyexpect more reliable reports of the mortality and the birthsin Dublin, and the working of the Sanitary Act of 1874 maythen also be expected to be more efficient than at present.It appears strange that the sanitary officers of Dublin, onwhom the real work falls, have been left unpaid now fornearly a year by the local authorities, notwithstanding theAct of Parliament which provides for their payment. Wecounsel such local authorities to pay, and to pay liberally,men who have such onerous and riskful duties to perform asthe medical gentlemen on whom the Legislature has placedthe working of the Act. ____

REMARKABLE RETARDATION OF THE PULSE.

A CASE recently brought before the Société de Biologie ofParis by M. Cornil affords another illustration of the phe-nomenon of slow pulse, which it will be remembered formedrecently the subject of an interesting discussion at ourClinical Society in connexion with a case related by Mr.Pugin Thornton (ante p. 339). The exact length of timeduring which M. Cornil’s patient presented the slow rate ofpulse is not stated in the report from which we quote(Progres Méd., June 5th), so that in some respects it cannotwell be compared with the cases related at the ClinicalSociety. The patient was seventy-five years of age, andfor four years had suffered from cough in the winter, whenhe was also subject to attacks of vomiting. When firstseen the pulse rate was from 25 to 30 beats per minute; ybut on May 23rd it was only 14, but perfectly regular.Respiration was unembarrassed. About every quarter of anhour there was oppressed and suspirious breathing, these