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PARIS.(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

A Libel on the Memory of the late Professor Dolbea1f.THE family of Dr. Dolbeau, Professor of Surgery at the

Academy of Medicine, who died some years ago, has justbeen successfully engaged in a very curious lawsuit. The

appellants were anxious to obtain an injunction against abook published by M. Lissagaray dealing with the Communein 1871. In this book the writer, himself an old Communist,accused Professor Dolbeau of having committed a graveoNence against professional honour. He alleged that in 1871,when Dr. Dolbeau was surgeon-in-chief to the hospital atBeaujon, some wounded Communists who were in his wardswere handed over by him to the police and accordingly shot.This story, which was spread abroad during the life of Dr.Dolbeau, naturally gave rise to a grave feeling against him.The students who attended his lectures hissed him, and hedied a short time afterwards through worry and mortifi-cation at the hostility shown towards him. The realtruth of the matter, as has been shown in the recentsuit, is that in exact opposition to the allegations Dr.Dolbeau did his best to save the wounded Communists, andwhen they were convalescent tried to send them out of

hospital under false names. Unfortunately, Dr. Dolbeauforgot the names agreed upon (or, rather, never knew them),and when the discharge-sheets were presented for signaturea policeman who was there saw through the unskilful ruseand arrested three men. They were not, however, shot.These facts were established some years ago, and the childrenof Dr. Dolbeau now sought an injunction against M. Lissa-garay’s book, so as to have an official denial of the accusationwhich weighed so heavily on their father’s memory. Theoourt granted the injunction applied for.

The Plague.A recent enactment of the Minister of the Interior annuls

the decree of Feb. 9th, which prohibited the entry of vesselscoming from India into the port of Marseilles. The neworder establishes one uniform regulation for all Frenchports, the organisation costing 247,000 francs. The Ministeralso asks the Chamber for an additional sum of 150,000francs to complete a sanitary installation at Marseilles.The prohibitory measures in force] at this town withregard to goods coming from Bombay have given riseto a lawsuit between two large firms, of which the

import house was unable to meet ibs engagements for thedelivery of some oil-bearing seeds. The commercial courts- decided that the decrees of prohibition constituted a caseof force 1naJeure, an accidental circumstance quite inde-

pendent of the wishes of the importers, who could not beheld responsible, and that therefore the contract lapsedwithout any damages. The Correctional Court of St. Malohas just condemned a captain who had made a false

sanitary declaration at St. Pierre and Miquelon to eightdays’ imprisonment and a fine of 16 francs.

The Sanitary Service for the Paris Exhibition of 1900.The organisation of this service has just been arranged in

a most precise fashion and the works have already begun.The plan for a hospital to be built in the centre of theexhibition has been rejected. This idea was the suggestionof M. Marcel Baudouin, who had seen a similar establishmentworking at the Chicago Exhibition. But at Chicago theexhibition buildings were outside the town, far awayfrom the hospitals, and the transport of the woundedor sick for so long a distance would have been bothdifficult and dangerous. At Paris, although the exhibitionbuildings cover an immense area, they are close tothe populous quarters where hospitals abound ; in fact,there are five of which the most distant is not morethan ten minutes away from the centre of the exhibition.The ambulance service for the transport of the sick andwounded can therefore meet every want without incurringthe enormous expense of the construction of a temporaryhospital. At the head of the new service is Dr. Gilles de laTourette, who has appointed fifty assistant surgeons to aidhim, who will be drafted to different relief stations, whereone or two will be always on duty. To particularise someother measures, all workmen who have not been vaccinatedor re-vaccinated within the last two years will be gratuitouslyvaccinated at any medical station; exhibitors, their employes,or workmen, and all visitors wounded or stricken with

sickness inside the buildings will receive first aid atthe medical stations on application, or, if necessary, willbe conveyed thither by the administration. For every sickor wounded person thus treated the medical staff will take aticket and issue a special bulletin. The expenses of drags,dressings, &c., will be defrayed by a special fund suppliedby a rate of 1 per cent. on any contracts which the adminis-tration makes with contractors or exhibitors. If at the closeof the exhibition there be any money over from this fund itwill be handed to the Assistance Publique; if, on the con-tra,ry, the fund is found to be in debt the general fund ofthe exhibition will pay. The surgeons employed by thisservice will receive ten francs for every time they attendat the buildings. Despite the smallness of the fees, theapplications to take part in the work are innumerable andinclude the well-known names of several hospital surgeons.

The Pharmacopœia.The Minister-in-Charge has appointed a Commission to

revise the Pharmacopoeia, the use of which is obligatory onall druggists, and a revision of which is made about everyten years.

Horses at the Pasteur Institute.It is well known that for the preparation of the various

serums at the Pasteur Institute, and for the preparation ofanti-diphtheritic serum particularly, there is at Garches alarge stable capable of accommodating eighty horses. Atfirst it was impossible to pick these animals with much carefor want of funds. At present, since it has been shown thatthe state of health of the horse exercises a great influenceupon the value of the serum, and more especially upon theaccidents which may arise from its use, the horses have beenselected with the greatest care. A recent bequest of twomillion francs from Baron Hirsch to the Institute has beenthe means of allowing large sums to be expended on the pur-chase of horses and so of improving the quality of the serum.Among these horses are many with a notable past, and Imay mention the charger of Marshal Canrobert and SaintClaude, formerly a steeplechaser belonging to Baron Finot,and the winner in 1890 of the great hurdle race at Auteuil,

Banquet to Madame Clemence Royer.A great banquet has been held at the Grand Hotel in

honour of Madame C16mence Royer, who translated Darwin’sworks, and has always been a great promoter of the evolu-tionary movement in science. She recently attained herseventieth birthday, and has devoted her whole life to meta-physical biology. Always struggling with undaunted energy,suspected on account both of her Chauvinist proclivities andher sex, and receiving neither encouragement nor reward,she has now reached old age, without fortune or honours,in the Hospice Galignani. The banquet was attended bythe élite of the scientific world at Paris, and a number ofdelegates from abroad were present.March 17th.

RUSSIA.

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

Tlte Plague and the Imperial Commission.THE Russian authorities continue to watch with the

greatest interest the spread of the epidemic of plague inIndia and to take measures to prevent it crossing their ownfrontiers. The principal measures undertaken by theImperial Commission recently formed to deal with the

danger are the following :-1. To send a scientific

expedition to India to study the disease on the spot.This expedition was to sail from Odessa on the 12th(24th) of February on board one of the large vessels ofthe Russian volunteer fleet, en route for Bombay. At thehead of the expedition is Dr. Vuisokovitch, Professor ofPathological Anatomy in the University of St. Vladimir atKief. He is accompanied by his assistant in the same chair,Dr. Zabolotnui, and one or two senior medical students. The

expedition is prepared for a four months’ tour. and is in-structed to make particular observations on the mode ofpropagation of the plague in India and the results of inocula-tions of anti-plague serum both as a preventive and as acurative measure. 2. A second measure is the prohibition forthe present year of pilgrimages of Mussulman subjectsof the Tsar, whether to Mecca or to the holy placesof the Shiite sect, of which Meshed in Persia is the

847

most important. In the same spirit the Government ]

Messenger, the official paper of the Government, recently i

published a proclamation from the Mufti of Orenburg, addressed to all the Imams and others in authority under i

him. In this proclamation the excellent advice is given to i

all good Mussulmans to abstain from going to Mecca or 1Medma this year, and to put off their Haj to a more favour- i

able time, and the wise words of Mahomet are quoted, in which the faithful are told not to go to places where iinfectious diseases are prevailing, nor, when these diseases come to them, to run into foreign lands and so carry the i

infection with them. In Russia it is comparatively t

easy to put a stop to pilgrimages, by merely refusing ato issue travelling passports or to give the police-permit to ]leave the country. The Russian Palestine Society has refused for the present to issue tickets to Christian pilgrims, iof whom there is usually a more or less constant stream fromRussia to the Holy Land and back. 3. The third measure ofthe Imperial Commission is to organise means for the pre- paration of Yersin’s plague-serum on a large scale. 4. The fourth is to send small bodies of medical men and ]officials to the more vulnerable points on the frontiersto take local measures against the admission of the infec-tion to the country. These points are situated along thePersian, Afghan, and Chinese frontiers. Special measuresare also being taken along the shores of the Biack and Caspian Seas, in the Caucasus, Transcaucasia, Transeaspia,and Central Asia generally. 5. The last measure of the Commission is the decision to publish in the Government gazette all the authentic information they receive about thespread of the plague and the measures that are being takento guard against it.The Russian Members of the International Sanitary Confernce

in Venice.

Russia’s official representatives at the Sanitary Conferencein Venice are M. Jonin, the Russian Minister in Switzerland,who took part in the similar Conferences in Venice andDresden which met to deal with the subject of cholera in1891 and 1892 respectively, and Professor Lukianof, thedirector of the Imperial (Oldenburg) Institute of ExperimentalMedicine in St. Petersburg, who has also gone to Venice asthe representative of the Imperial Commission appointed todeal with the plague, whose activity has just been described.

Green Tca aotd the Playte.Can green tea, imported from India, be a means of

introducing the infection of plague ? The authorities in theCaucasus appear to think that it may, and have put in actioncertain rather stringent measures to prevent the possibility ofsuch an event. The importation of green tea is to be stoppedat once and all trucks which have carried it are to be dis-infected. Chests of tea already unpacked in Batoum are tobe isolated and kept so by sentries; tea en route is to bestopped at Baku on the Caspian, and there quarantined inthe same way. All persons who have been in contact withthese goods are to undergo a six days’ observation, and onthe appearance of any suspicious symptoms are to be at onceisolated. Without discussing the desirability of thesemeasures, the question arises why green tea is selected forspecial treatment apart from other merchandise.The English Colony in St. Petersburg and t7te Indian Famine-A collection was recently made in the English church in

St. Petersburg for the sufferers from the famine in India,and reached the large sum of .E340. As the English colonynumbers only some 3000 individuals (no exact figures areavailable), and many of these are Nonconformists, this summust be regarded as a most liberal contribution to the reliefof our Indian fellow-subjects.

PHILADELPHIA.

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

Cardiac Hydrothorax.AT a recent meeting of the Pathological Society of this

city Dr. J. Dutton Steele presented an interesting statis-tical paper from the Pepper Laboratory of Clinical Medicineupon the Distribution and Etiology of Cardiac Hydrothorax.An analysis of 2415 necropsies gave 173 cases of uncom-plicated chronic heart disease in which there had been long-continued dilatation-affecting particularly the right auricle. ,

.n the 75 cases of passive effusion into the pleura occurringn this series the effusion was unequal in distribution inf’0 per cent., and of this number 77 per cent. were greateripon the right side. In 13 cases the effusion was entirelymilateral, and of these 10 were upon the right side. In equal)ilateral hydrothorax the tendency to general anasarca was-nuch increased, and in the unequal cases less than one-sixth showed cedema of any part. The writer reported 5 casesn which there was passive effusion much greater upon.)r entirely confined to the right side. In all there/’Yere undoubted signs of long-continued dilatation of-the right auricle, and dropsy of the legs was either’absent or followed the appearance of the hydrothorax.[n none of the cases were there signs of aneurysm or tumour.rhe writer thought that the explanation for such effusions isthat a dilated auricle by its pressure interferes with thevenous and lymphatic circulation of the pleura of the same-side, and the long-continued congestion causes the effusion.rhe right auricle is the most frequently dilated of any of theheart chambers in failing compensation, and hence the large-percentage of right-sided effusions.

Infccnts’ Feeding Bottles.Buffalo, N.Y., has passed an ordinance making it " un--

lawful for any person or persons to use or to engage in thesale of any bottle, mechanism, or other device for theartificial feeding or nursing of infants or children under-three years of age that has connected therewith a rubbertube, hose, or such contrivance." The Health Commissioner,Dr. Ernest Wende, stated that the infant mortality has.fallen very materially since its adoption.

The Serum Diagnosis of Typhoid FeverIn adopting the method of Wyatt Johnston for the.

diagnosis of typhoid fever, Dr. Gehrmann, of the ChicagoBoard of Health, has substituted pieces of sterilised mica.for card, since the smooth; non-absorbent surface of theformer renders it much more easy to effect a solution of theblood in water.

Medical Appointnccnt.Dr. A. C. Abbott, professor of hygiene in the University

of Pennsylvania, has been appointed chief of the Depart--ment of Bacteriology of the Philadelphia Bureau of Health,.vice Dr. B. Meade Bolton, who has accepted the chair of

Pathology in the Missouri Medical College.

Competition among Hospitals.Philadelphia is soon to have another hospital; to be known

as the American Hospital for Diseases of the Stomach. Its

scope will, however, be broader than the name implies, for,.in addition to the treatment of gastric and intestinal dis-orders, the management intend to establish a laboratory forresearch work, giving particular attention to adulterationof food. Free lectures will also be given to the public uponthis subject. It is to be hoped that the " charitablefeature of hospital work will be kept prominently in view,.and that steps will be taken to prevent abuse as far asthis is possible. Competition is so keen among the

hospitals that special inducements are offered by some ofthem to the drivers of our police patrols, " and, of course,.the case goes to the highest bidder." I believe the schemewas promulgated by the homceopaths ; at all events, theHahnemann Hospital has been the chief offender. A few ofthe institutions openly advertise for patients, while othersare " written up " by the reporters. It seems that the staffare not averse to appearing in print; indeed, in many casesthe technical description is highly suggestive of collusion.Since it is human nature to get as much as one can fornothing, the remedy lies not with the people but with the-physicians, and while these latter actually bid for cases

abuses of the most flagrant kind will exist.Feb. 25th.

YoRK COUNTY HOSPITAL.-The annual meeting.of the York County Hospital was held in the building onMarch 9th, the Dean of York being in the chair. It was.stated that an extension of the children’s wards would soonhave to be undertaken.. The report also mentioned thenecessity of taking some steps to improve the accommoda-tion provided for the nurses, and suggested that the workmight be carried out during the present year in commemora-tion of the prolonged reign of the Queen. The accountsshowed that at the close of 1896 there was a balance of £14I.in the hands of the treasurer.