610

than half a pint the vessels need not be stamped unless theywere marked. Unmarked vessels containing less than half apint need no official verification. When the capacity exceedshalf a pint the vessel is bound to be stamped in accord-ance with the standard imperial or metric measures.

The representation of the trade, therefore, met with

success. But the plan anyhow is muddling which allowsvessels to be graduated officially by two systems of measure,the imperial and the metric. We may be confident that for

lager beer the latter system will be generally retained sinceit is least understood. It cannot be imagined for a momentthat the sale of lager beer in half-pint and pint measureswill be adopted-it would "inconvenience" the trade. Wecannot understand in the least why it should be considerednecessary that the metric system should be recognised forthe sale of one kind of beer and not for another. And it

just happens that the light beers are sold at a high price bya small standard of capacity and the comparatively heavybeers at a low price by a large standard of capacity-asystem which is just exactly the reverse of the requirements ofcommon sense and one that is directly opposed to the growthof temperate habits.

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THE TREATMENT OF ANEURYSM BY INJECTIONSOF GELATINE.

THE recent deaths of two patients in Guy’s Hospital fromtetanus occurring while they were undergoing a course oftreatment by injections of a solution of gelatine formedthe subject of inquiries held by Dr. F. J. Waldoon August 26th. For some unexplained reason some

of the daily papers reported these inquests undera heading or sub-heading which included the word" experiment

" or

" experimental. " Without wishingin any way to minimise the unhappy result we must pointout that there was nothing experimental-except in the

sense in which all and every treatment is experimental asbeing tried upon a new patient-about the method. It

was introduced some three years ago by Professor Lance-reaux of Paris and has been successful in a good manycases, while of the three patients treated in Guy’sHospital one has apparently recovered completely, andthe two patients who so unfortunately died did so from anaccidental circumstance, though none the less lamentable.

The tetanus bacillus may infect any wound. Every pre-caution was taken in the sterilizing of the injections andthe instruments used, and the jury, after a patient hearing,decided that the medical officer in charge of the case was

exonerated from all blame. Inoperable thoracic aneurysm isa disease so distressing to the patient and so uniformly fatalthat it would be a thousand pities if a treatment which

has already given good results should be looked at askancebecause of the unforeseen having happened.

TUBERCULOSIS, BOVINE AND HUMAN.

THE most sensational episode at the recent Congress onTuberculosis was undoubtedly the statement made by Pro-fessor Koch in which he threw doubt upon the communi-

cability of tuberculosis from animals to man. The

challenge thus thrown down has been eagerly taken upby various observers, and the controversy will con-

tinue to rage until further and numerous investiga-gations have shown whether or no the human species canbe infected with tuberculosis from the flesh and milk of

tuberculous cattle. We print this week an important com-munication by Professor Hueppe, a perusal of which we

recommend to our readers. He commences by draw-

ing attention to Professor Koch’s announcement, to

which we have just referred, as being in direct opposi-tion to his previous teaching, and argues that

1 THE LANCET, vol. ii., 1898, pp. 1092, 1299, 1369.

if Professor Koch is correct the measures hitherto taken

against bovine tuberculosis must therefore be in the first

place too severe and in the second place of no avail for

the suppression of human tuberculosis. Professor Hueppethen proceeds to review the investigations which he himselfhas made on the subject and the results obtained which opposethose of Professor Koch. There are many points in this paperwhich will attract attention. Professor Hueppe ascribes thehistological differences which exist between miliary tuberclesin the human subject and the tubercles of perlsuchtin the ox to a dissimilarity in the inherent qualityof the tissue, and further maintains, as Professor

Virchow discovered long ago, that the distinctions whichKoch has now found to exist are concerned with quitedifferent things-the one with the inherent quality of thestructure, the other with the remote or ultimate develop-ments dependent thereon ; and the facts, he says,ascertained with regard to one of those do not neces-

sarily serve for the elucidation of the other. Oneother remark is worthy of note, namely, that whilst theminutest difference in the organisms in cholera and nowalso in tuberculosis are enlarged upon by many bacterio-logists in order to build up on them a theory of differencesin species, in diphtheria the same investigators completelyignore constant and much greater differences in thebacteria. Professor Hueppe provisionally considers that theonly thing that is certain is that the " so-called tuberclebacillus " adapts itself to the particular member of theanimal kingdom which happens to be its host, and thatwhen it has so adapted itself and has, for instance,become pathogenic for man, in that case it is not quitepathogenic for another kind of host, such as the ox ; but, headds, this limitation cannot be practically defined. He there-fore urges, and we consider very rightly so. that the struggleagainst bovine tuberculosis should be carried on unre-

mittingly, both on account of the economic danger andalso because he still believes that the danger of bovinetuberculosis to mankind has not been disproved.

THE PUBLIC CONTROL DEPARTMENT OF THE

LONDON COUNTY COUNCIL.

IN spite of, or possibly because of, Parliament, the LofidonCounty Council, the metropolitan boroughs, and the lightingand water companies, London is possibly the most incon-venient and most untidy city of Europe. The streets are

either muddy, slushy, or dusty ; they are littered with straw,cabbage-leaves, newspaper posters, and omnibus tickets;they are constantly being grubbed up for some reason orother ; barrels of beer, coals, and other goods are deliveredacross the footways at all hours of the day ; omnibuses areallowed to block the streets pretty much as they please, andchimneys are allowed to make the air filthy because they"cannot get Welsh coal." And yet the annual return of thechief officer of the Public Control Department of the

London County Council for 1900-1901 shows a giganticamount of work. A glance at the contents page showssuch subjects as lamp accidents, boiler explosions, the

sale of bread, coal, and coke, inquests, diseases of animals,gas-testing, infant-life protection, petroleum Acts, weightsand measures, rabies, and the smoke nuisance, to mention

only a few. As regards rabies no case has occurred inLondon since 1898 and the last case of hydrophobia.returned (of course, this means in a human being) was in1896. The section of the report dealing with smok&

nuisances is interesting. It points out that the Acts underwhich prosecutions may be taken practically only deal withblack smoke, and also that the County Council can only dealwith cases where a sanitary authority is in default. Anyperson, however, may make a complaint. With regard to