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London and which is based on the recommendations of the

Royal Commission on the Housing of the Working Classeswhich sat in 1884." Comparing the prevalence of typhoidfever in London with that of the neighbouring districts andboroughs the result is not as good as might be anticipated bythose who live away from the crowded metropolis. Theinhabitants of the outlying districts enjoy "no such

superiority as might have been naturally expected in respectof this most preventable disease." It is evident that in suchold towns as Richmond and Kingston and in the lower partsof Wimbledon and Mitcham special activity is necessary toensure the reconstruction of old-fashioned and defective housedrains. It was in response to the articles which we publishedin 1892 that strong representations were made as to the needof a staff of well-qualified sanitary inspectors to examine allthe houses in Surbiton. We are to-day pleased to recordthat a considerable measure of success has rewarded

these efEorts. It is now shown by Dr. Owen Coleman’s

report that this work is more thorough and up-to-datethan it has ever been before. During the last two and a halfyears 295 houses have been redrained, for the most partentirely, and other works are in process. This applies tohouses of every description. Dr. Coleman adds that ownershave no option and are compelled to put their houses in

proper order when defects are discovered and the process of

discovery is making rapid progress. Many incoming tenantsemploy experts to test the drains before they take a house.The working of the Notification Act also leads to inspectionwhenever a case of disease occurs. It may be said, therefore,that both the authorities and a large section of the publichave realised the great practical importance of good housedrainage. A considerable number of persons who have theirbusiness in London nevertheless live at some distancefrom town in the hope that they and their families maybenefit by a purer atmosphere. It is obvious that this advan-

tage would be lost if sewer air enters their houses. A well-drained house in the centre of London would be more healthythan a badly-drained house in a rural suburb, yet it has beenno easy matter to make petty local authorities understandthis most obvious fact. Indeed, those who have theorisedon this subject have had many occasions for despair. Whathas done more good than any amount of theory has been theflat refusal on the part of eligible tenants to hire housesunless their sanitary conditions were tested by experts. It

is too often only when speculators in house property find thatbad sanitation does not pay that they resign themselves todo their duty in this respect. The authorities of Surbitonare to be congratulated on having in a measure succeededin inculcating this wholesome lesson.

STATES OF OVER-EXCITABILITY, HYPER-SENSI-TIVENESS, AND MENTAL EXPLOSIVENESS

IN CHILDREN.

IN the Scottish liledical and Surgical J01lrnal for JuneDr. Clouston of Edinburgh describes certain morbid con-ditions in neurotic children. The vagueness and variety ofconditions have prevented them from being systematicallydescribed; these conditions are often found to lie on theborderland of mental disease. There is little or no pyrexiain any of them and conditions such as delirium, night terrors,oonvulsions, and loss of consciousness are excluded from thiscategory. They are attendant on developmental conditionsof brain and mind occurring in childhood and are evoked infull form only when a neurotic heredity is present. Thefirst of these morbid states is hyper-excitability-an unduere-activeness to mental and emotional stimuli which in

ordinary children would evoke only slight response.The excessive movements of the child may be partlychoreic in character and they may, on the whole, last formonths before passing away. A second type is marked by

an undue activity and instability of the special senses ofsight and hearing. Such children readily develop visual andauditory hallucinations, often nocturnal and of terrifyingcharacter. A third type is marked by excessive or morbiddevelopment of imagination. These children are full of

vivid fancies and prone to delusions and false beliefs con-

cerning things which every-day experience fails to correct.The power to invent lies and extraordinary stories is strongin these subjects and the most bizarre and fantastic crea-tions may be conjured up by them and for the time beingbe believed in as firmly as realities. This condition of thebrain may last for months or years. In other types, again,morbid suspiciousness and distrust with unsociability may bedeveloped, while finally a few may exhibit epileptic sym-ptoms with a tendency to pass into automatic states. A milkdiet in abundance with bromides has been found to give thebest general results in the treatment of these cases.

A PRECAUTION AGAINST PLAGUE.

MOVED by the fact that there is a direct trade incotton between Manchester and the plague-infected city ofAlexandria, the Manchester Port Sanitary Authority hastaken the judicious course of reprinting in leaflet form anextract from a report on plague submitted by Dr. J. H.

Crocker, the port medical officer of health. These reprintsare intended for distribution to the owners and captainsof vessels trading to the East as well as to the ShipCanal officials, and aTe specially designed to call atten-

tion to the part played by rats and mice in the dis-

semination of the disease. Rats are quite common onshipboard and as the evidence in favour of their suscepti-bility to plague is conclusive the Manchester Port SanitaryAuthority has been well advised in warning masters of vesselsagainst the possibility of danger from infected rats comingon board at ports where plague exists. Dr. Crocker furtherrecommends the destruction of rats in the warehouses andbuildings in connexion with the port of Manchester andmentions that the mongoose has been found very serviceablefor this purpose. -

THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE MOTOR CAR.

A MONTH ago we expressed the opinion that no substantialprogress had been made towards perfecting a motor car of

,

practical utility to the medical man, or, in other words,combining speed, simplicity, and cheapness, in a vehicle

capable of being used on country by-roads in such weatheras may be expected in our changeable climate. In curiouslyexact corroboration of our view we note that this week themotor cab has disappeared, temporarily at all events, fromthe streets of London, the reason assigned being a difficultyin finding drivers for them. This can only mean that driversdo not come forward on the terms offered, or, in other words,that the economy supposed to result from not using horsesis not sufficient to pay for whatever superiority of intelligenceis necessary in order to cope with a motor car, while theviews of cabmen-presumably drivers of motor cabs-are thussummed up by a representative of the Daily Chronicle: " Thedrivers consider that the motor cab so far is not a sufficientlypractical machine to be of use at all times, in all weathers,and on all roads." In comment upon this we can only saythat the roads of London, whatever may be their faults, are,taking them all round, sounder and more level than the

highways and byways of a country district and the motorcab is the nearest horseless substitute we have seen for the

brougham. On the other hand, we notice that a cyclist"paced " by a motor tricycle covered 78 miles at an averagepace of 20 miles an hour and apparently rode behind onemotor for 210 miles on his way to Edinburgh. It is possibletherefore that the substitute for the gig or dogcart may befound in the tricycle if the price of purchasing and driving