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Annotations.

THE DEATH OF THE ARCHBISHOP OFCANTERBURY.

11 Ne quid nimis."

THE death of the Archbishop of Canterbury is an event ofnational importance. The Archbishop was a distinguishedfigure in the nation and enjoyed that position in the publiceye which is only conceded to men of high character

coupled with corresponding intellectual endowments. Hewas a moderate High Churchman, but he was broad

enough to sympathise with all classes within his own com-munion as well as with those outside. In short the

great abatement of strife between contending sects and

theological parties, which is a feature of the last ten

years, is doubtless largely due to his wisdom and spirit.His power of work seems to have been prodigious. A

writer in the Times tells us that at Wellington Collegehe would often work twenty out of twenty-four hours.And in later years he has taken his holidays often inmountain climbing with ecclesiastical friends, feeling asif he were going to school again. Few deaths of publicmen have been so keenly felt by all classes, from the

throne to the cottage. No doubt this is partly due to thedramatic circumstances of it, happening as it did (withtragic suddenness) when he was the guest of Mr. Gladstone,in his historic retirement, and worshipping as a privateworshipper in a village church. But apart from this circum-stance we cannot fail to see that a great figure has suddenlydisappeared, one on whose shoulders current events laida heavy burden of care very bravely borne, and to whomhis Church and his order looked much for guidance. Forthe manner of his death many will be ready to account ;those who know least perhaps will be most ready to saywhy the great Archbishop, who had endured so manylabours, died in the very midst of his repose, and aftera pleasant visit to Ireland, where he had gone to enjoyhimself, and where he did most profoundly enjoy thecharacteristic hospitality of that nation. This is not the

place to dogmatise on the pathology of his case or on

the suddenness of the cessation of his great career. Con-

trary to the Litany which he loved so well, his translationwas an "improvisa mors." We can only join our con-

dolences to those of other classes and sympathise withthose most nearly affected. Whether his great laboursand cares precipitated his death or not they constitutethe chief glory of his life, and will occur as a consolationto his bereaved family.

" Nor love thy life, nor hate; but when thou liv’stLive well, how long or short permit to Heaven."

Paradise Lost, Book xi., 553-4.

WEATHER FORECASTING.

THE evolution of scientific weather forecasting is a subjectfull of interest to medical men, since the influence ofweather upon the public health is well known. Meteor-

ology can hardly be considered as exact as the other

sciences, and the predictions, therefore, in regard to atmo-spheric changes are not as reliable as could be wished, norcan certain meteorological conditions be safely anticipatedmore than twenty-four hours in advance of the time of makingobservations. Everything depends, of course, upon a con-sideration of observations made daily at stations distributedover the country. The results are telegraphed to the centraloffice, where they are mapped out, the barometer and thermo-meter in figures, the wind by an arrow flying with the windand with barbs proportional to its strength. These entriesare made over the spot upon the map which represents

the station whence these data are derived. When all the-

reports have arrived lines are drawn joining places at whichthe barometric pressure is the same (isobars), and throughthose of which the temperature is the same (isotherms).A distinct relation is immediately evident between these-

isobars and the arrows representing the direction andforce of the wind. Roughly, the arrows are parallelwith the isobars and they are more barbed-i.e., the windis stronger the closer the isobars are together. Generally.these isobars are curved and enclose an area either of lowor of high barometric pressure. In the former case there issaid to be a cyclone, in the latter an anti-cyclone. If thecentral barometric pressure be very low and the isobars close

together a violent storm is in progress ; if the central

pressure be high and the isobars wide apart there is a

calm, and in winter generally a fog. The difficulty forthe forecaster, especially in a small area like theBritish Isles, is to tell what direction this cyclonicor anti-cyclonic system will move. " There are, more-

over, V-shaped depressions, secondaries, and other varietiesof distribution of pressure to be detected and taken into

account, so that, on the whole, a British forecaster probablyrequires boldness as much as he needs knowledge." Soobserves Mr. G. J. Symons, F.R.S., in a very interestingbut much too short paper in the current number of Science

Progress, from which we derive the foregoing brief outlineof meteorologic methods. In this paper the historyof scientific weather forecasting is traced. This historyis necessarily brief, the first record of weather that can bediscovered appearing in an entry on the map of Virginia,published in 1747 by Lewes Evans, to the effect "that allour great storms begin to leeward." Observations con-

tinued to follow until in 1830 the construction of weather

maps was in vogue with leading meteorologists. It was not,however, till the invention of the electric telegraph in 1837that weather forecasting was brought to the dignity of ascience, and in 1860 the first daily weather report issued bythe Meteorological Office appeared in the Times. A strongeffort was next made to produce a daily telegraphicweather map, but the scheme fell through, and " England,which had been the first to produce one, was left without adaily weather map for twenty-one years, until in 1872 theEnglish Meteorological Office consented to issue one."Weather reports and observations are now, however,systematically issued from our well-equipped and well-manned meteorological office and published each morning inthe daily papers, besides which advices are telegraphed, webelieve, to inland country stations for the benefit of thoseengaged in agriculture and others. The value of such an

organisation to those on land and on sea cannot be over-estimated. The accurate forecasting of English weather,which is so proverbially capricious, is attended with peculiardifficulties ; but in spite of the enormous diversity in tbenature of the "samples" which are constantly being experi-enced it must be acknowledged that the work of this depart-ment is, as far as the position of the science permits,.efficiently carried out.

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HOSPITALS AND PUBLIC LIBRARIES.

SOME time since the public library authorities of WestHam decided to supply certain books and papers withdrawnfrom circulation, or of which there were duplicates, to thePlaistow Hospital. These are added to from time to time.A few simple rules have been made and a framed type-written catalogue, stockbook, and register provided. This,

arrangement has been greatly appreciated, not only by thepatients, but also by the staff, and we think that the-

example of the officials of the West Ham Public Librarymight well be followed in other similar institutions. Of

course, special arrangements and care would have to betaken to avoid spreading infection, but this might be easily

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done by the exercise of a little forethought. Most of the

voluntary hospitals have libraries of a kind already, but

we fancy that the municipal hospitals are not so well off,and as these institutions, being fever hospitals, are farmore cut off from the world than are the general hospitals,there is all the more reason why amusement should beprovided for such of their inmates as are able to enjoy it.

FALSE ALARMS OF FIRE.

WITH reference to our annotation in THE LANCET ofOct. 10th we are happy to be able to record that one falsealarmist has been caught. He is a young gentleman of tenderyears-namely, fourteen-and he turned out the Fire Brigadeto a non-existent fire in Queen Anne’s-gate. He was sus-

pected of having given several other false alarms, as in theoffice where he is employed there is a telephone and thealarms were given in a boy’s voice. Master Parsons has nowretired for a space of fourteen days, failing to obtain anysurety for his good behaviour for six months, and suchsurety, we should say, he would not obtain. This ingenuousyouth has evidently mistaken his vocation. Imaginationwhich can depict non-existent fires in so many localities ashis presumably has. might find a lucrative vent in the manu-facture of "penny bloods," for even that masterpiece of

phantasy, the ball at the Vatican in "Jack Harkaway,"pales before the efforts of Master Parsons.

EXPERIMENTS ON LIVING ANIMALS.

IN the return to the House of Commons showing thenumber of experiments performed on living animals duringthe year 1895 the inspector has given in tabular form a veryfull record of the experiments carried out under licencescurrent under Act 39 and 40 Vict., c. 77. This return, asusual, contains the names of all persons who have heldlicences or special certificates during any part of the year,together with a statement of the registered places atwhich the licences were available ; it also contains thetotal number of experiments performed during the year,classified and arranged according to their general nature.The total number of those who held licences during the yearwas 213, but of these 65 performed no experiments. In orderto show the stringent conditions under which the licences areheld it is pointed out that all the licencees were restrictedto the place or places specified on their licences, with theexception of those who were permitted to perform inocula-tion experiments in places other than a I licensed place,’with the object of studying outbreaks of disease amonganimals in remote districts." As the inspector points out,we have in these tables evidence-, (1) that licences

and certificates have been granted ard allowed onlyupon the recommendation of persons of high scientific

standing; (2) that the licencees are persons who, bytheir training and education, are fitted to undertake

experimental work and to profit by it ; and (3) that all experi-mental work has been conducted in suitable places." Theselimitations are valuable, and in the eyes of those who are notbiased should afford sufficient guarantee that vivisection isnot carried on, by scientific men at any rate, either for

pecuniary benefit or as a matter of custom and routine. Itis pointed out that most of the experiments performed areconnected directly with the diagnosis of disease and withthe preparation of therapeutic agents for the treatment ofdisease. In this connexion it is certainly a matter for con-sideration whether inoculation experiments, the majority ofwhich are unattended by as much pain as is inflicted in

vaccination, slight as that is, should come under the

Experiments on Animals Acts at all, though, as mightbe pointed out, it is perhaps as well that experimentsshould only be carried out by those who have fitted them-selves for the work and who are likely to make the best use

of experimental investigations. We are no advocates ofindiscriminate experiments on living animals; unnecessarysuffering is only inflicted by the careless and thoughtless,and for this reason alone it is well that some investigationshould always be made as to the capacity of an experimenterbefore he is allowed to carry on experiments ; but it beingrecognised ttat there is work to be done no obstaclesshould be placed in the way of using animals for

experiments where no other means are available for thesettlement of the question under examination. In the

inspector’s report we find that under licence alone there wereperformed 1333 experiments, or one-fourth of the whole

(4679) ; in these experiments the animals suffered no pain,as complete anaesthesia was maintained from before thecommencement of the experiment until the animal waskilled. Experiments performed under A, or E, or F alongwith A (2358), were all simple inoculations and were

practically unaccompanied by any pain. Under certificate

B, along with EE and F, 761 experiments had been made,the remainder, 227, being performed under certificate C.In Ireland there were performed 8 experiments under thelicence only, 12 under Certificate A, and 20 under Certificate B.Four of these were directed to the diagnosis of canine rabiesand 20 were in connexion with physiological experiments.We are glad to notice that, on the one hand, the licenceeshave, as usual, manifested strict loyalty to the letter andspirit of the Act, only 2 cases of irregularity on the part oflicencees having called for official notice on the part ofthe Home Secretary of State, whilst on the other hand,though the Act is carried out so strictly, regard for the

requirements of those who are conscientiously endeavouringto study the cause and treatment of disease are never lostsight of.

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ANTI-VACCINATION AT READING.

THE anti-vaccination campaign does not seem to havebeen one whit diminished by the overwhelming proofs of thevalue of vaccination given in the final report of the RoyalCommission. An esteemed correspondent in Reading informsus that this movement has been very active in that town,where quite lately a meeting was held and addressed by Mr.Hadwen, whose work in Gloucester early in the year didmuch to confirm the people in withholding the protectionof vaccination from their children-to their bitter cost

as events shortly proved. Mr. Hadwen’a address in

Gloucester on Jan. 25th was reprinted and widely circulated.A few weeks later the hospital was filled with youngunvaccinated children who had contracted small-pox at

school, and many ot whom died. There is no shadow ofdoubt that if at the time that that speech was deliveredthere had been shown the same energetic recourse to

vaccination as was taken subsequently, these innocent

victims would not have perished. Mr. Hadwen, we-

learn, has now established himself in Gloucester as.

the medical officer to an organisation for the treatmentof disease on hydropathic principles. It is amazing thathe should have any followers there after the frightfulexperience Gloucester has gained from reliance upon hisfallacious sophistries. Reading, however, seems likely to.

emulate Gloucester in its perversity, and our correspondentforwards to us a pamphlet written by a " botanical

practitioner" which is full of the well-worn argumentspreached by Mr. Hadwen and others, besides containingabuse of the general bulk of the medical profession. The

author of the pamphlet, who has been given free opportunityto air his views in the columns of the local press, complainsthat challenges to discuss the question in open debate whichhe issued to a medical practitioner and a minister of religionhave been ignored. These two gentlemen showed their

good sense in taking no notice of the challenge. The