1315LEPROSY IN THE CAUCASUS.

required for personal security. All avoidable petty legisla-tion is objectionable, and it would be the height of unreasonto found a by-law on such an incident as this. Its most

satisfactory result will doubtless be the removal of a numberof prominent screws, nuts, and other obstacles from publicfootways; and we trust that, when these minubiaa are pro.vided for, such relatively greater evils as the open trap-door which ought to cover the household coal-cellar or thestore caverns of many City warehouses will aleo be con-sidered and treated.

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LEPROSY IN THE CAUCASUS.

IN a paper read before the Caucasian Medical society,Professor Minkh gave a history of leprosy in the Terskdistrict. He showed that it must have been in existencethere amongst emigrants from the borders of the Don andof the Volga during the latter part of the last century, andthat though there are no statistics of the number of personsaffected up to 1840, it must have been appreciable, as therewere lazarets in a good many places for lepers. From 1841to 1883 the disease seems to have been steadily on theincrease, but after that the number of victims rapidlydiminished. In is an interesting fact that in localitieswhere lepers were kept apart from healthy persons in

special buildings the numbers attacked diminished, whilein other localities where segregation was not practised theyincreased.

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INFECTIOUS DISEASE AND SCHOOL CLOSURE.

INDICATIONS are not wanting that sanitary authoritiesthroughout the country are beginning to act upon the

knowledge so abundantly gained as to the close relationof the prevalence of infectious disease and the factor ofschool attendance. Thus, in the Watford urban andrural districts schools are being closed wholesale owingto the prevalence of scarlet fever and measles, and it iscurrently reported that there are more than 1000 childrenabsent from school owing to this came. Again, ab Haleand Tongham, in the Farnham rural district, the schoolshave been temporarily closed owing to the reappearance ofdiphtheria in that classic haunt of the disease. Similarmeasures have been taken at the remote village of Garton-on-the-Wolds, in Yorkshire, where diphtheria has brokenout. We trust that these several hygienic precautions willprove of use to the authorities concerned in repressing thespread of the infectious diseases with which they have todeal. But they must be carried out in a firm and completemanner. No half measures are of use in emergencies suchas these.

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LONDON SEWAGE:

THE present system of dealing with the sewage of themetropolis by chemical precipitation is, significantly enough,regarded as a legacy from the Metropolitan Board of Worksto the County Council. An enormous sum of money was

expended on its establishment, and ib is thought that thesystem should have a fair trial before deciding on one stillmore expensive. So far, the method is in reality totallyinadequate to deal with the requirements of the metro-

polis. The tfflarznb appears to be clear, but the waterall around the outfalls of Barking and Crossness is blackand repulsive, and although it does not seem to containsuspended matter, yet doubtless it contains plenty of dis-solved organic substances that readily undergo putrefaction,and such that will give rise to an intolerable nuisance. Thatthe condition of the river does not improve is borne outby the fact that the dredging expenses of the East IndiaDock Company have in three years lisen from J613,000 to40,000, and this increase is attributed mainly to the wayin which the sewage is treated. Apart from the public

health point of view there are shipping interests to be con-sidered, for it appears that the navigation of the river isseriously interfered with by the deposition of sewage matter.Daring the last year or so complaints have not been so fre-quent, probably because the weather has been of such acharacter as to provide an abundant supply of waterin the river ; but as soon as we experience a periodof hot and dry weather such as we are now promised,all the abominations of a sewage-polluted stream maybe reasonably anticipated. The sewage works at Barkingand Crossness were visited and inspected by a specialcommittee appointed by the Chamber of Commerceon the 3rd inst., and they considered that although someimprovements had been effected since the early part of theyear, very much yet remained to be done to render thesewage system of the metropolis perfect.

PROGRESS OF THE CHOLERA.

CHOLERA appears to be still raging at Meshed, morethan a hundred deaths occurring every day. The last newsis that the disease has appeared amongst the English ,

camps in the hills, and that cordons sanitaires are beingformed to arrest the movement of pilgrims. We had hopedthat the last had been heard of this antiquatEd mode ofwarfare against disease, and that the time consumed informing cordons might have been more usefully employedin the direction of an improved system of sanitary defence.

THE ROYAL SEA-BATHING INFIRMARY.

WE regret to observe that unless additional contributionsare speedily forthcoming the Royal Sea-bathing Infirmaryat Marg%te will have to reduce the number of its beds from220 to 80. Such a curtailment of the benefits of so mf ri-torious an institution would be a calamity, aLd we trust]that the appeal published on Monday last will be successfulin warding it off. That appeal was most influentially sup-ported, the Archbishop of Canberbury, the Lord Presidentof the Privy Council, the Presidents of the Reyal Colleges cfPhysicians and Surgeons and of the Ganeral MedicalCouncil being among the signatories. The Sea. bathing Infir-mary was founded in 1791, and is practically unique. After60 long and useful a caieer, it would be pitiable were itsuffered to fall into neglect’. Rather should we be hearingof its extension and increase in accommodation than thereverse.

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GLYCOSURIA FROM COAL-GAS POISONING.

THAT glycosuria is an invariable atter-rcnect ot poisoningby oxide of carbon is stated in text-books-mainly conti.nental ones it must be admitted-as an irrefragable fact.Professor Jaksch, to instance one pathologist among many,gives currency to it in the last edition of his authoritativewotk. Dr. Garofalo, however, in a publication entitled11 Glicosmia per Ossido di Carbonio e per Gas Illuminante,"travetses this teaching in the most trenchant manner,

grounding his criticism on data reached by himself after acareful series of experiments in Professor Colasanti’slaboratoly in Rome. Having reviewed the previousstate of our knowledge on the question, as given inmedical treatises and clinical memoirs, he proceeds to setforth the results he has independently obtained. He

asphyxiated a number of dogs with vapour of carbonic

oxide, and in no case found this mode of poisoning followedby the slightest vestige of sugar in the urine. Thereafterhe made prompt and thorough examination of a clinicalcase of acute oxy-carbonic asphyxia, and again ascertainedthe urine to be totally devoid of sugar. From these

observations, in which the search for sugar was con.ducted and checked by every test known to modern