1527TUBERCULOSIS IN SOUTH AMERICAN MEAT.

carrying out efficiently. " The declaration is supposed to bemade within seventy-two hours of birth ; as a matter of factthe acte is made out whenever the sarraf happens to be inthe village and is disposed to issue the copies to the interestedindividual. " The Director-General thinks that the registersshould be entrusted to the care of the sheikh, as he is moreconstantly present in the village. Were sheikhs able towrite they might be entirely charged with the registration,but unfortunately the majority are ignorant. Dr. Rogersnext alludes to a very important matter. 11 The statisticspublished by the Department are not based on accurate data.The census of 1882 is now of little use....... All figures arethus based on a census practically inaccurate, the error beinga large one." We would go even further than this ; thecensus is not only valueless now, but never possessed anyscientific value. Taken in a haphazard fashion during theArabi disturbances it was at best nothing but an elaboratesystem of guesswork, the numbers in each village and townbeing entered en masse according to the opinion of the

compiler. An accurate census is one of the most urgentrequirements of New Egypt, and as it would not cost verymuch there is no reason whatever, in view of the annuallyincreasing surpluses, that it should not at once be undertaken."The death certificates in the provinces other than thosegiven from the hospitals are practically unreliable, andmedical statistics based on them equally so....... There isroom here for a vivid imagination to play havoc with themost carefully compiled statistics ; but in villages in whichthe death is certified by the barber an attempt at diagnosis isnaturally not made, and the cause of every death is stated tobe the ordinary’ one." It is within our recollection thatmost of the defects noticed by Dr. Rogers have been alludedto in previous reports, but perhaps more attention may be paidto them now.

TUBERCULOSIS IN SOUTH AMERICAN MEAT.

As probably more of the beef eaten in this country is

imported from South America than is commonly supposed,some interest is attached to an article on the subject of Tuber-culosis in Colombian Cattle, published in the Septembernumber of the Revista Médica de Bogota by Dr. MiguelArango, who says that, although it is quite true that a verylarge proportion-perhaps as many as 90 per cent.-of thecattle slaughtered in Bogota are found to have small tumoursin the intestines these are not, as has been supposed, of atuberculous origin. These tumours vary in size from thatof a hemp-seed to that of a grain of Indian corn. Theylie in the submucous tissue and consist of a white,fibrous envelope which is firmly adherent to the surround-ing tissues, containing in the case of the smaller tumoursa white jelly and in the larger ones a darker and firmersubstance. In the smaller tumours the contents becometransformed into fibrillæ under the action of ammonia,while in the larger ones they are dissolved and their

purulent character rendered evident by this reagent. Dr.

Arango has sometimes made out crystals of a siliceousnature in the contents. He has found the tumours in alL

parts of the intestinal canal, even in the rectum. In no casehas he found ulceration, whereas tuberculous affections of theintestine almost always undergo this change. Again, tuber- !,culous disease of the intestine is most commonly secondary to ’,pulmonary disease, but in the carcasses he has examined thelungs were comparatively rarely implicated, not nearly sooften as the intestines ; and when they were the lesion wasalmost always due to a parasite, a fluke being frequentlyfound in the pulmonary cavities. It is worthy of remark inthis connexion that in Bogota horses and donkeys are verysubject to this parasitic afeection of the lungs, but rarelysuffer from phthisis. It has been remarked that wheneverthe lungs of the cattle are affected the liver is invariably

.

very much diseased, the latter organ being more often affected.-Thus in the year 1892 more than 16,000 carcasses wereexamined, the liver containing flukes in about one of everythree carcasses, while the lungs were only affected in one inevery thirty-four. The real nature of the intestinal tumoursdoes not seem to have been satisfactorily ascertained, butDr. Arango thinks that they are due either to some parasiteor to a glandular cyst caused by the mechanical obstruc-tion of the duct by particles of sand. It has been

suggested that the fact of a large number of poor peoplein Bogota being phthisical is an argument in favour oftubercle existing in the meat ; but Dr. Arango thinks thatthe miserable habitations, with an entire want of ventilation,and the wretched way in which these poor people live are asufficient explanation of the prevalence of phthisis amongthem. He does not, indeed, deny the existence of tubercleamong the cattle, but he is convinced that it is far more rarethan in European cattle, and that it is commonly introducedwhen these latter are imported. The conditions of cattle life,however, are far less favourable to the development of

phthisis than those existing in Europe, where cowsheds-often dirty and ill-ventilated-are much in vogue instead ofthe absolute open-air life of the South American ranch.

TREATMENT OF EPILEPSY.

I IN the Liverpool Medico-Chirurgical Journal Dr. Alexanderutters a word of warning against the indiscriminate use ofbromides in cases of epilepsy, a warning which, we ventureto say, is not unneeded. Nevertheless in the great majorityof cases no other drug is so efficacious, and it is only in rarecases that it is completely contra-indicated. Dr. Alexanderhas observed good results from the combination of borax withbromides, especially with bromide of sodium. In twenty-sixcases in which this combination was administered the fits werearrested for several months in nine cases ; in seventeen theywere diminished in frequency, while in one the attacks wereuninfluenced, and in another they became more frequent.But perhaps the benefits of this treatment are more uniformin regard to the mental condition of the patients. Even inthose who were subject to post-epileptic mental disturbance,and in others who remained dull and stupid for several daysafter a fit, the mental disturbances entirely disappeared.There are, however, certain drawbacks to the administration.The full dose sometimes produces gastric troubles, flatu-

lence, and loss of appetite. But this inconvenience is

usually got rid of by care in administering the drugafter food, and by caution in increasing the dose gradually.Skin eruptions may also be produced, especially after con-tinuous administration for some time. These may be accom-

panied by intolerable itching, but the eruptions are said tosubside usually even without discontinuing the use of thedrug. Loss of hair, which may be complete, is a much moreserious inconvenience. Dr. Alexander’s experience seemsto confirm that of previous observers in regard to the efficacyof borax in certain cases of epilepsy.

THE STABILITY OF TALL CHIMNEYS.

I IT does not require much technical knowledge to enable thereader to appreciate the causes of a recent chimney disasterat Huddersfield. The evidence of expert witnesses left noroom for doubt as to their significance. A hollow cylinderof brickwork was built with a base alleged to be deficient bymore than a third of its proper diameter. Its freedom of oscilla-tion was dangerously restricted by adjacent buildings forthe first thirty or forty feet of height, and finally wasmade to support an addition some thirty feet high. The

inevitable consequence followed. The stalk, partly stiff,partly mobile, broke, and two lives were lost. The various

errors of construction above-mentioned were noted in the