1450

to send their donations in the letter from the governors in Iour issue of Nov. 7th, p. 1324.

THE PROFESSOR OF SURGERY AT THEUNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE.

THE public orator, Dr. Sandys, Fpoke as follows in recer tlypresenting for the complete degree of Master of Arts honoriscausâ Mr. Howard Mareh, the newly elected Professor of

Surgery :-Haud ita pridem, ut mAministis omnes, plenus annis, plenus

honoribus, e vita excpssit vir insignia, per annos plurimos primumanatomiam, deicede chirurgiam. inter noi-met ipsos praeclare pro-fessus. Qui qualis quantusque vir fuerit, quanto scieotieeamore, quanta animi alacritate, quanta sermonis facundia prae-ditus, xion est quod longius exsequar : vosmet ipsi vohiscumrecordamini. Chirurgiae vero professoris nostri prirni in locum,annorum septem intervallo interposito. nuper elpctus est vir egre-gius, quem, tot aliis ministrum salutis, Academiae nomine hodieipsum jubemus salvere. Vtri talis autem inter lau ies, non nostrumerit hodie scientiae tam reconditae penetralia perserutari. non artisintimae mysteria occulta et abstrusa in luecm proferre; ne corporisquidem mala illa dura. verhis duris expressa, ut dpOpi7ts ut a’yti’BMo’tS.totiens ab hoc viro feiiciter levata coram vobis hodie commemora-buntur. Mentis potius ad bona praeclara transibimus, et professoremnobis nuper datum proptprfa oraesertim animo laeto accipiemus,quod ingenio tam vivido. jndtcio tam subacto est praeflitug, in rebusminutissimis observandis tam subtilis, in rebus obscurissimis expli-candis tam luoidus Viro in ea parte merlicioae quae manu curatinsigni manus libenter tendimus. dextraeque tam sollerti dextramlibenter jungimus. Duco ad vos baronetti quidem illustris, JacobiPaget quondam adjutorem equitis autem insignis. Georgii Humphry.nunc demum successorem, virum nobis omnibus acceptissimum, Pro-fessorem Marsh.

The public orator at Cambridge has a knack of saying nicethings in the nicest way as well as in unimpeachable Latin.We are sure that Professor Marsh’s friends and pupils willappreciate the kind i-entiments expressed towards the newMaster of Arts of the University of Cambridge, while allour readers will endorse the praise given in memory of

Paget and Humphry. -

MUSIC AND MADNESS.

By the above heading we do not mean to suggest that IHector Berlioz, whose centenary occurs this year, was mad,but the vague aspirations, the longings, the loneliness, andthe horrible visions of insanity were surely never more power-fully set forth than in that master’s Symphonie Fantastique, a i

most powerful rendering of which was given at Queen’s Hall,London, on Nov. 12th, by Herr Felix Weingartner and themagnificent band under his control. The protagonist of thesymphony is a musician who is possessed by an "idée fixe "

naturally connected with a woman with whom he is in love.The first movement gives this idée and illustrates his

longings and in the second movement he sees his love at aball. Here the lights and the swirl of the dancers are

marvellously illustrated by the glitter of harps and theshimmer of a waltz theme played by the muted strings.In the third movement the scene is laid in a pastoralcountry where a melancholy shepherd illustrated bya theme for the cor anglais calls to his love whoanswers him on the oboe. The duet continues forsome time and finally the cor anglais calls for the lasttime but elicits no response but the mutterings of a

thunderstorm. The young musician concludes from thisthat his love is hopeless and so takes opium to end his

misery. He only takes enough, however, to give himfearful dreams, the subject of which is his own march toexecution for having killed his love. The dismal processionis set forth with wonderful skill. By means of the throbsand mutterings of the drums and of the double-basseswe find suggested the tramping of feet and the

many-voiced cries of the attendant crowds which hauntthe hearer with a horrible sense of uncanny surround-

ings. With a crash the axe falls but the hero’s sufferingsare not over, for although he is dead he is now at a witches’Sabbath, where the theme of his "’ idee fixe," hideouslyburlesqued and vulgarised, is piped on a clarionet while theassembled witches jeer. Under all pulses the terrific plain

chant of the Dies Iræ. It is not soothing music but sofar as one man can enter into another’s brain and convey hissensation to others Berlioz has certainly made his music ameans to so doing. Medical men who have not heard thiswork should take the first opportunity of repairing their

neglect. -

CHOLERA IN EGYPT.

FROM a return recently issued by the Egyptian SanitaryDepartment we learn that 20,976 cases of cholera were

treated in Government hospitals during 1902. Of these

14,958 cases died and 6018 recovered. There were also

19,637 deaths "out of hospital the total mortality conse.quently amounted to 34,595 The number of infected

villages was 2026. No comments of any kind accompanythe return which is purely statistical, but some idea of thework done by the Egyptian sanitary officials can be obtainedfrom the figures. Every one of the infected villages had tobe taken in hand with a view to disinfection, to say nothingof the large towns and "governorates," in which 3393deaths occurred out of an aggregate population of

1,000,000. It is more than probable that rural Egypthas never been so clean before. It speaks volumes for thetact displayed by Sir Horace Pinching and his subordinatesthat all the necessary demolition, whitewashing, and sweep-ing were accomplished without the slightest friction and itis also greatly to their credit that they were able to dealwith, and to control, an important epidemic without causinga panic. Not only has the confidence of the fella7tin beensecured but also that of the more impressionable Greek andSyrian inhabitants.

_

A SPECIALIST IN CRIME.

ON Nov. 10th at the County of London Sessions a mannamed William Smith pleaded guilty and was sentenced tothree and a half years’ penal servitude for a series of

ingenious robberies perpetrated upon medical practitionersin the metropolis. There were more than a dozen cases

against him and he had before served two sentences of

imprisonment for like acte. His method was to watch for amedical man to pass on his professional rounds or else toentice him out to pay a visit to an imaginary patient bymeans of a bogus message. He then called at thehouse and on being informed that the medical man

was out asked to write a note. In the course of

writing it and of leaving the house he usually con

trived to annex some portable article, such as an orna-

ment from the room or an umbrella from the hall. Medicalmen who have read the story of his depredations will dowell to instil caution and vigilance into their servants,for although the sentence recorded may serve as a warn-ing to other criminals the success which for some time

evidently attended the efforts of this rascal has been madeequally conspicuous by the reports of the case in the news-papers. Medical practitioners have to take with the rebtof the community their share of the inconvenience andloss which dishonest persons can always cause to their

victims ; it is a little hard upon them that circumstancesshould expose them in a greater degree than others to thedevices of criminals who choose to devote their attentionsas I specialists " to the medical profession.

THE ASSOCIATION OF RICKETS AND WEAK-MINDEDNESS.

THAT some association exists between certain forms ofrickets and weak-mindedness in children seems to be aconclusion in favour of which evidence of a satisfactorycharacter has been accumulating in recent years. In a

previous annotation in THE LANCET reference was made tothe observations of Dr. Renoult of Paris with regard to