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THE HOSPITAL FOR SICK CHILDREN, GREAT

ORMOND-STREET, AS A TEACHING SCHOOL.THE staff of the Hospital for Sick Children, Great Ormond-

street, encouraged by the fact that the University of

Cambridge has spontaneously " recognised " medical studyin its wards as a part of the required university curriculum,will commence, with the new year, courses of lectures andclinical demonstrations intended for those students who maywish to obtain a certificate of having attended the practiceof the hospital. We think that this is a good movement onthe part of the hospital in question, as well as on thatof the University of Cambridge. Notwithstanding the

multiplication of hospitals for children, it is much to be

regretted that medical students are but ill informed as tothe kind of diseases that are most frequent in children, andare lamentably ignorant of the methods of clinical investi-gation. This is the more unintelligible in that at most ofthe large hospitals separate wards are set apart for thetreatment of and instruction in children’s diseases. Perhapsthe recognition of this, the oldest children’s hospital, byCambridge may lead to a wider diffusion of the study of thediseases of children and infants than at present obtains.

TEMPERATURE AT BIRTH.

SOME experimental researches have been conducted byM. Bonnal of Nice on the temperature of parturient womenand of infants at the moment of birth. It appears that thework of accouchement does not markedly elevate the tem-perature of the parturient woman. In normal labours the

temperature is not in the majority of cases below 375° C. ;sometimes it reaches 38° C. With abnormal labours the

temperature may be raised to 396° C. The temperature ofthe infant oscillates between 37’6° and 383° in normal par-turition ; it may attain to 39° or 394° in abnormal labour.The rectal temperature of the infant is nearly always abovethat of the temperature of the maternal vagina, rectum, oruterus. The infantile temperature rapidly falls after birth,and may descend as low as 34-8° C. = 96° F.

FEES FOR MEDICAL ASSURANCE REPORTS.

OuR attention has been called to the fees for medicalexaminations and certificates offered by the Sickness andAccident Assurance Association of Edinburgh. In a circularissued by the directors of this office, it is proposed that forthe examination of proposers the fee of 7s. 6d. shall be

paid to the medical examiner, and that for the inspectionof claims the sum of 5s. shall be the fee within the threemiles radius. The circular asks the views of those to whomit is addressed as to the scale of remuneration thus offered,and whether it may be accepted as a "tentative arrange-ment" with especial terms for the inspection of claims atlong distances. We do not know what our Scottish brethrenmay think of this proposal, but on this side of the Tweedit would, we suspect, meet with a response which the moversof it are but little prepared for. To expect a medical manto fill up carefully a report such as this company submits,for the fee named, is out of all reason. About fifty pointshave to be dealt with by the medical man in each case,and the urine has to be tested to determine reaction, specificgravity, presence or absence of albumen, and the presence orabsence of sugar and deposits. A careful return, in point offact, could not be drawn up under one hour by any con-scientious and scrupulous man, and for that labour, and forall the serious responsibility connected with it, the magni-ficent sum of 7s. 6d. is offered by the Sickness and AccidentLife Assurance Association (Limited). Comment on such a

proposition would be labour thrown away. To solicit pro-fessional direction on such absurd terms is as unfair to the

company and to the assured as it is to the medical referee,and those who ask for it either do not know the value ofwhat they want, or do not understand that all who practisemedicine as an art and not as a trade are simply insultedwhen requested to forget what is due to their art as distinctfrom mere clerkship and rule of thumb.

PHYSIOLOGY OF SEVENTH AND TENTH NERVES,

THERE still remains much to be learnt in regard to thephysiology of some cranial nerves. According to hisrenewed experimentation, M. Vulpian finds that the glan-dular and vaso-dilator fibres of the chorda tympani arederived from the bulb at the level of the facial nerve, anddo not emanate from the trigeminal nucleus. The chorda

tympani contains, besides, fibres which are concerned largelyin the sense of taste ; Vulpian states that these truly belongto the facial nerve, and are not derived from other sources

by anastomosis. The secretory and vaso-dilator fibres of theglosso-pharyngeal exist in the nerve as soon as it has leftthe medulla oblongata. -

THE BROWN LECTURES.

MR. VICTOR IlORSLEY, Brown Professor of Pathology ofthe University of London, will deliver five lectures in the-theatre of the University of London, Burlington-gardens,,at 5 P.M., on December 7th, 9th, llth, 14th, and 16th. The

ground that these lectures will cover is a most extensiveone, and chiefly relates to matters of neurological interest.The relations of the thyroid gland to general nutrition, themodern pathology of the central nervous system, functionaldisorders of the central nervous system produced by loss offunction of the thyroid gland and pituitary body, caninechorea, and the pathological anatomy of functional nervousdisorder are some of the main headings of the lectures,which are sure to attract large and scientific audiences.

DEATH OF MR. ROBERT LAWSON.

WE regret to have to announce the death of Mr. RobertLawson, one of the house-surgeons to St. Thomas’s Hospital.This gentleman’s death, which took place on Nov. 30th, wascaused by a severe attack of scarlet fever, contracted in the-course of his duties. Mr. Lawson was a distinguishedprizeman and universally esteemed. His early death, atthe age of twenty-four, cuts short a career of exceedingpromise and usefulness. -

THE ORDER OF THE BATH.

AT an investiture held by Her Majesty at Windsor Castleon Wednesday, Dr. Thomas Crawford, Director-General ofthe Army Medical Department, was, with other KnightsCommanders, introduced into the presence of the Sovereign,,who conferred upon them the honour of knighthood, andinvested them with the insignia of the Military Division ofthe Second Class of the Order. Deputy Surgeon-GeneralGeorge Langford Hinde was amongst those who received thedecoration of the Division of the Third Class of this MostHonourable Order.

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THE SUSPENSION OF DR. COLLIE.

WE understand that two deputations, one from the,Medical Defence Association, the other from the Council ofthe Metropolitan Counties Branch of the British MedicalAssociation, will, at 12 noon to-day (Saturday), wait uponthe Metropolitan Asylums Board at the office of the Metro-politan Board of Works, Spring-gardens, to testify to theManagers the high sense which the profession entertainof the personal and professional character of Dr. Collie,and to urge the propriety of his reinstatement in office.