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fly when depositing its pupæ. A systematic method of

clearing banks of watercourses is given, illustrated bydiagrams. Notes on the breeding-places of glossina, and

flight experiments with the fly, carried out by Dr. A. G.Bagshawe before he became director of the bureau in

London, are appended to the report and are full of interest.The latest publication of the Bureau is a small pamphlet ofnine pages, designed for the use of travellers and residents intropical Africa, entitled ’’ Sleeping Sickness and How toAvoid Infection." It contains in short and concise terms aconsiderable amount of valuable information, including anaccount of the Glossina palpalis with illustrations of this andother biting flies prepared from photographs taken by Dr.W. M. Graham. Some account is given of the habits andmode of reproduction of the glossina, and advice is offeredas to the selection of sites for permanent residence, or for

temporary camps, outside the fly range. A brief descriptionis added of the symptoms of sleeping sickness, how to ’’

recognise the disease, what is to be done with the sick,and how natives should be instructed with a view to preventdanger should the malady develop among them. This little

pamphlet will prove of great service to those who travel intropical Africa. Copies may be had upon application toDr. Bagshawe, the director of the Bureau, Royal Society,Burlington House, W.

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RAILWAY TRAVEL IN ITALY: ITS DISCOMFORTSAND ITS DANGERS.

"AT a time," writes an Italian correspondent, "whenthe Association for Promoting the Influx of Foreigners intoItaly is appealing to the press, British and Continental,to contradict the reports disseminated as to the risks incurredby sojourners in Italy, a recrudescence of robberies on thechief railway lines and of the disservice and consequentdiscomfort prevalent on all of them has most inopportunelydeclared itself. The transference of those lines from

private to State control has not been succeeded by themuch required innovations anticipated-on the contrary,there has seldom been a time when the passenger, nativeor foreign, has had more reason to complain of the treat-ment which he encounters en route. Unpunctuality, involvingloss of connexion with other trains, prolonged delay in the’ sala d’aspetto,’ hardly more chilly than the poorly-heatedcarriage (of the second class particularly), and very inferiorviands and beverages doled out at exorbitant prices in therestaurant-car are but negligible experiences comparedwith the insecurity to property and even to person whichthe passenger has to guard against. How unsafe it is to

travel, even in the direttissimo ’ (express), on so frequenteda line as that between Genoa and Rome may be inferredfrom the fate of Signor Vittorio Vinay, a barrister in

extensive practice, Piedmontese by birth but long domiciledin Rome. On the evening of Jan. 27th he entrained at

Genoa and found himself the only occupant of a first-classcarriage as far as Massa where, however, a young man

faultlessly dressed and of engaging manners entered andtook his seat opposite him. He remarked that his vis-à-vis

had no handbag or impedimenta of any kind to deposit inthe net and, indeed, he said as much to him in the un-reserved Italian way, whereupon he was blandly assured thathe (the said vis-à-vis) was only a commercial traveller whose, campionario’ (box of specimens) was in the luggage vanand whose destination was Pisa a few stations off. Dorma

pure tranquillo,’ the youth added (that is, sleep soundly’),and thereupon he dropped into slumber, having first drawnthe window blinds and lowered the lamp-shade. On arrivingat Pisa, Signor Vinay awoke, only to find his vis-à-vis gone ;at the same time he felt head-achy, with discomfortabout the temples and throat and something of a tendency

to be sick. Hastily putting his hands in his breast pockethe found his porte-monnaie had also disappeared (its contentswere some 400 francs), with other articles ; while his

watch and chain (the latter of the heavy cable variety) wereintact. The chevalier d’industrie (a ’commercial traveller’with a vengeance !) had evidently been in too great a hurryto make away with these latter-thinking himself well repaidwith the pocket-book which he had reason to believe containednotes to the amount of 40,000 francs (<&1600). In fact it was bythe merest accident that Signor Vinay had left that sum behind-a sum of which he was to have been the bearer to a clientin Rome but which, at the eleventh hour, he decided toremit by other means. How did the ’ commercial traveller’come to know of Signor Vinay being the probable, if

temporary, possessor of that sum ? And how was he informedas to Signor Vinay’s hour of departure and the particulartrain by which he was to go ? Obviously by collusion withsome ’confiderati’ not a thousand miles away from Genoa.The fact is that similar robberies, familiar enough on theFrench Riviera, effected, moreover, as this one was, by theadroit administration of a narcotic, are becoming all toocommon on Italian lines-a result of the extension of busi-ness’ on the part of such commercial travellers’ across thefrontier, with the well-to-do (generally the English-speaking)passengers for its elzenteie. The industrie in question is

now one of the fine arts prosecuted with a dexterity inmanipulation and a skill in anaesthesia which any fashionabledentist might envy-its gains, moreover, being such that itcan afford to pay for the information which led to SignorVinay being selected as a victim. That gentleman on

arriving, ill, impecunious, and morally as well as physicallydepressed at Pisa, was fain to put up at a friendly hotel,the manager of which provided him with the means of

recruiting his energies and pursuing his journey to Rome.Both there and at Pisa he gave due instructions to the

police ; but, it is safe to say, with little or no prospect ofredress-Italy being as unable to cope with her crime aswith her mendicancy, both of which she has developed (inthe phrase already used) into one of the fine arts."

THE COMPARATIVE ANATOMY OF THE TONSIL.

ALTHOUGH the tonsils are so frequently the subject ofoperative procedure they still remain organs of doubtfulfunction and unknown nature. Like the thymus and

Peyer’s patches they reach their greatest developmentin the young. The observations by Mr. G. Seccombe

Hett, which appear elsewhere in our present issue,although they add little to our knowledge of the

function of the tonsil, form a most welcome andvaluable contribution to our knowledge of its comparativeanatomy and surgical pathology and thus provide a basisfrom which the physiologist and pathologist may begin theirwork. The primitive form of the tonsil is extremely simple;it is a pocket or diverticulum of mucous membrane,the submucous tissue of the pocket being studded withlymphoid follicles. Mr. Hett demonstrates that the

supratonsillar recess represents the lumen of the primitivetonsillar pocket. In man the lymphoid tissue has dis-

appeared from the upper or palatine side of the pocket,the plica semilunaris, between the anterior and posteriorpillars of the fauces, representing the inner wall of this partof the pocket. The human tonsil is developed chiefly in thewall of the lower or lingual side of the primitive diver-ticulum. Perhaps from a practical point of view the mostvaluable result of Mr. Hett’s observations is the provision ofa scientific basis for the classification of the various forms of

enlargement of the tonsil. The classification of enlargementsproposed-viz., (1) imbedded, (2) flat, (3) projecting, (4)

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hanging, (5) irregular, and (6) lingual forms-is both Ipractical and scientific.

THE ENGLISH DEATH-RATE IN 1908.

THE provisional figures showing the vital statistics for &deg;

England and Wales in 1908, which by the courtesy of the (Registrar-General we were enabled to publish in our last c

issue, afford conclusive evidence of continued satisfactory Ehealth progress. The death-rate in England and Wales (

during last year did not exceed 14’7 per 1000 of theestimated population in the middle of the year, and was con-siderably lower than the rate recorded in any previous year 1

since the initiation of civil registration in 1837. The markeddecline in the English death-rate dates from the year 1870 ;the mean annual rate during the ten years 1861-70 being equalto 22’5 per 1000. The mean rate in the three succeedingten-year periods successively declined to 21-4, 19-1, and18.2 per 1000 ; and in the past eight years of the currentdecennium the mean annual death-rate has shown a still

larger proportional decline to 15’ 6 per 1000. The deaths ofinfants under one year of age last year in England and Waleswere equal to 121 per 1000 births registered, against 132 and118 in 1906 and 1907 ; the mean annual infantile rate in thelast eight years 1901-08, however, has not exceeded 133 per1000, whereas in the ten preceding years the mean rate was154 per 1000, showing a recent distinct reduction in the wasteof infant life. Satisfactory as is this evidence of health

progress, no one who studies in the Registrar-General’sreturns the varying death-rates prevailing in different

counties, towns, and sanitary districts will doubt that itshould prove an incentive to improved sanitary organisationand action in those administrative areas where the death-ratesstill show excess.

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THE HISTORY OF COCA.

To the Pharmaceutical Journal of Jan. 9th Dr. J. Gordon

Sharp contributes an interesting sketch of the history of 1

coca. The drug first became known in Europe through thewritings of Garcilaso Inca de la Vega, a student of Peruvianhistory who died in 1616. Abraham Cowley (1616-1667)wrote in glowing terms of the virtues of the drug, as in thefollowing lines :-

Our Varicocha first this Coca sent,Endow’d with Leaves of wondrous Nourishment,Whose Juice succ’d in and to the Stomach takenLong Hunger and long Labour can sustain :From which our faint and weary Bodies findMore Succour, more they chear the drooping Mind,Than can your Bacchus and your Ceres join’d.These Leaves supply for six Days March afford.The Quitoita with this Provision stor’dCan pass the wild and cloudy Andes o’er."

Shortly after the conquest of Peru (1524) the widely pre-vailing employment of this new intoxicant was a matter ofanxiety to both the Church and Government of Spain. At

a council of bishops held in Lima coca was condemned,after deliberation, chiefly for the reason that the Peruviansthought it gave them strength and that this idea was anillusion of the devil. But the Church, despite her strength,was powerless to put down the practice of chewing cocaamongst the natives, and it is said that even many of theconquering Spaniards themselves secretly fell victims to thevice. The Government forbade the cultivation of the

plant, but being unable to enforce the enactment it wasannulled and an excise tax of 5 per cent. was put onthe drug, the cultivation of which became a profitablesource of revenue. Joseph de Jussieu in 1750 was

the first to send specimens of the plant to Europe,after which but little was heard of it for a long time.

Various travellers on returning to Europe recorded their

observations on the use of the drug in Peru. Of these

Poppig, a German naturalist who had lived in Peru from1827 to 1832, spending much of his time in the company ofusers of the drug, considered it to be injurious to the

Indians, regarding its use as akin to excessive drinking oropium eating. On the other hand, von Tschudi, anotherGerman naturalist, spent a year in Peru, and held theopinion that coca was, on the whole, a blessing, for its useenabled the people to undergo fatigue, although he did notdeny that cases of abuse did arise. The plant became morewidely known in 1847 on the publication of Prescott’s

"History of the Conquest of Peru." He stated that the

leaves, dried in the sun, were mixed with lime and chewedby the natives, and that with a small supply of this

preparation and a handful of roasted maize they wereable to make wearisome journeys day after day with-out fatigue, or at least without complaint. When

used in excess, however, it was said to produce all

the harmful effect of habitual intoxication. In 1876 the

late Sir Robert Christison published the results of some

personal experiments made by himself with coca at the

age of 78, and created fresh interest in the drug. The plant, was so rare in Europe at the time that in one of his experi-

i ments he had only about half an ounce of the leaves at hisdisposal. He ascended Ben Vorlich, in Perthshire, 2900 feetabove the highway, in two and a half hours, and was much

fatigued. Instead of joining his companions at lunch hechewed 40 grains of the leaves, and after a rest of three-

s quarters of an hour he began the descent, chewing 10 grainst more on the way down. He reached home free from fatiguet or hunger, having fasted for eight and a half hours. In

n 1859 Niemann discovered cocaine, the active alkaloid of thes leaves, and in 1884 the discovery of the anaesthetic power of

the drug brought it into still more prominent notice andremoved it from the category of empirical remedies. It is

interesting to note that the name coca is a corruption of the

Amyara word khoka, which means "the tree of trees."Garcilaso changed it into cuca, and from this it was alteredto coca, an unfortunate change owing to its resemblance to

the words cocoa and cacao.THE TREATMENT OF WOUNDED IN NAVAL

WARFARE.

THE treatment of wounded in naval warfare has been

affected by the introduction of steam in a not altogetherfavourable manner. The bluejacket on a modern man-of-war gets the benefits of the progress in surgical science, butthe circumstances in which first-aid is given are worse thanthey were within the old wooden walls of England. Some

space was available in the roomy three-decker, but in modernbattleships, which are complicated masses of machinerypacked with marvellous precision into the smallest conceiv-able space, the difficulty of finding even a temporarysheltered spot in which to render first-aid would be almostinsuperable during an actual naval battle. This diffi-

culty is one which should be met, for the sight of a

deck strewn with wounded and dying men would damp theardour of the bravest, while the throwing the dead at onceoverboard would powerfully affect the feelings of the seamen.In the modern man-of-war the question of where to place adressing station must resolve itself into a search for thebest protected spot according to the type of vessel-for allmen-of-war are not alike-and the more usual varieties of

casualty. Some cases will occur during every action whichdemand immediate attention, and these must be attended tobefore they can even be removed. The medical officer mustrun risks of course in discharge of his duty, but it would bewell that on every ship the most sheltered place for a

. dressing station were selected beforehand, so that not only: can the work be done uninterruptedly but the wounded man