433

-water. This we knew before. Anyone who has watchedthe manceuvres of anglers on the banks of the Thames isaware that they select in preference places near to the seweroutfalls. A more scientific and a more conclusive proof ofthe purification of the sewage water than is afforded by the- presence of fish is assuredly necessary. Nevertheless, if thesewage water is only partially purified, this is, in any case.some improvement on the actual state of affairs.

THE PHARMACY ACTS AMENDMENT BILL.

THis Bill, practically the same as last year, has been

.again introduced. On this occasion it appears in the Houseof Lords, with the name of the Earl of Milltown. The

chief purpose of the Bill seems to be to give power to theCouncil of the Pharmaceutical Society to make such bye-laws as will regulate more eff actually the curriculum ofstudy to be required of those who seek to be registeredunder the Pharmacy Acts. There is nothing in the Bill

which alters the well-defined line between the study andthe rights of those registered under these Acts and thoseregistered under the Medical Acts. We think the Pharma-ceutical Society is right in asking for more powers toregulate the curriculum, which is now occasionally aptto be somewhat short and of the nature of a crammingprocess. We should not approve of too much interferencewith outside teaching, but such a Society as the Pharma-ceutical Society, with its history, its plant, and its teachers,self-supported as they are almost entirely, deserves to havemore power to control inferior teaching. No change in thecurriculum in this Bill would come into force before 1893,or without the assent of the Privy Council.

IRISH FISHERY.

THE Second Report of the Royal Commission on IrishPublic Works is probably one of the most striking documentsthat have been presented to Parliament for many years.Rarely nowadays do we hear of any industry that, instead ofbeing overcrowded, is perishing of sheer neglect, or whichwoos capital in vain with all the attractions of philanthropycapable of returning 5 per cent. Yet such seems to be the

present plight of the deep-sea fishery upon the west coastof Ireland. In 1816 this industry employed 19,883 vessels,manned by 113,073 men and boys; whereas, in 1886, after aninterval of forty years, the numbers had fallen off to 5683

vessels, manned by 21,482 men and boys. And this fallingoff is not attributable to any change in the habits ofthe fish or the condition of the fishing grounds. On the

contrary, the fish come to be caught as heretofore, andpresumably in the absence of the fishermen they musthave recourse to the unsatisfactory expedient of eating oneanother. Here is what Sir Thomas Brady told the Com-missioners : "The old Irishmen up to 1830, and even later,who knew all the banks round the coast and how to sail

vessels, have died out, and the present generation, to a greatextent, are deplorably ignorant, and, having got into thesystem of fishing from open boats within a short distancefrom the shore, could not handle a sailing craft such as is atpresent used in any deep-sea fishing. The boats now usedon the west coast-and in most places, indeed, round thewhole coast, save where deep-sea fishing has been vigor-ously prosecuted of late years, such as from Baltimore,Kinsale, &c.—are not fit to go any distance from the

land, except on rare occasions. When they do succeedin getting to the fishing banks, perhaps fifteen to

twenty miles from the land, they are loaded with fishin a few hours—so much so, that sometimes theyare not able to bring all to shore, and have to throw aquantity overboard." It is, however, not only in the captureof fish that the west c)ast Irishmen are remise. " It is a

remarkable fact," say the Commissioners, "that there arepractically no curing ebtablishments in Ireland....... In

consequence of this state of things, when the take ofherring or mackerel is abundant no adequate marketexists at the time for fresh fish ; great waste and depres-sion of prices therefore takes place, quantities of fish

being sometimes thrown into the sea or used as manure."The same point was made by the late Mr. Blake, M.P.,even more forcefully. "Notwithstanding," said he, "thevast quantity of f!3h rcund the coast of Ireland, there isabout £200,000 worth at least of cured fish brought intoIreland, which might be all caught on the Irish coast

and cured if there were means for it....... I may referto the Artane Industrial School, in the neighbourhoodof Dublin; and I was there a short time ago, and inquiredhow tne boys were fed. They said the greater part wereRoman Catholics, and were fed on fish on Fridays. I said,’Where do you get the fish from ? ’ The answer was Great

Grimsby.’" " It is of course very possible that it paysIrishmen to import their fish in exchange for other productsof their industry, but on no principle of political economycan it be other than a lamentable waste of precious oppor-tunity that shoals of wholesome and nutritious food whichvisit our shores should be suffered to float away again tosea, or be taken only to b9 little better than wasted onland for want of a little well-directed enterprise in takingthem and utilising them when taken.

URTICARIA PIGMENTOSA.

IN an elaborate monograph on this disease, containing an

exhaustive analysis of previously recorded and several newcases, and some interesting chromo-lithographs, Dr. PaulRaymond discusses a disease of much interest, first studiedin England. This affection of early infancy is characterisedby urticarial eruptions succeeded by raised or flat patchesof a brown colour. It has a variable duration, averagingabout ten years, and the author thinks it allied to urticaria,but differing very distinctly clinically and in its pathologicalanatomy. He concludes that it is a special angio-neurosis,marked by a vaso-motor hyper-excitability, and an indepen-dent dystrophy or tropho-neurosis of the dermis, ending inthe formation of the peculiar cells described as " mastzellen."The peculiar and characteristic colouring of the eruption,which is so interesting a feature, is thought to be due tothe accumulation of " mastzellen" and superadded elements,and secondarily to hematin crystals and pigmentation ofthe lowest cells of the epidermis.

RECREATIVE EVENING SCHOOLS.

LAST Monday a deputation, headed by Lord Derby, waitedupon the Charity Commissioners to ask for assistance inestablishing a system of recreative evening schools for thebenefit of boys between twelve and eighteen years of age.The scheme which the deputation has at heart is a mostpraiseworthy one, and is somewhat imperfectly describedunder the above title. It aims at satisfying a long-feltwant by providing a course of secondary education in even-ing classes to supplement that now afforded in the primaryBoard and voluntary schools. Its purpose, notwithstand-

ing that it is described in terms suggestive rather of playthan of work, is entirely educational. As might havebeen expected, special provision is made for impartingtechnical instruction, and an element of interest is thusintroduced which ought to go far to popularise the newundertaking among those whose mental and social develop-ment it is intended to promote. The Association interestedin this movement has now been two years in existence, andhas already organised 110 classes in London alone, utilisingfor this purpose the accommodation afforded by the primary