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Looking Back.FROM

THE LANCET, SATURDAY, July 12th, 1828.

FACULTY OF LAUGHTER NOT PECULIAR TO MAN.

Of all animated beings, man alone, it is generallybelieved, is dowed with the faculty of laughter; it beingthe external and natural indication of mental emotions ofwhich it is said animals are not susceptible. Hence Milton,in his Paradise Lost :-

Smiles from reason flow,To brute denied."

The reverse of this opinion, however, is maintained on

good authority. Le Cat affirms that he has seen the jockoboth laugh and cry ; * the ourang-outangs, exhibited someyears since at Exeter Change, are said to have sometimeslaughed when much pleased. But the last number ofBrewster’s Philosophical Journal contains the most con-clusive evidence on this subject in a letter from Mr. Grant,giving an account of the structure, manners and habits, ofan ourang-outang from Borneo. The writer says, that if theanimal be tickled, " the corners of his mouth draw up intoa grin ; he shows his teeth, the diaphragm is thrown intoaction, and reiterated grunting sounds, somewhat analagousto laughter, are emitted."

In a note upon this subject it is stated the by originalpossessor of the animal, that with him and also with a youngfemale, ourang-outang, he has observed, when not excitedby any apparent cause, a contraction of the upper lip,showing the teeth, and a play of the features resemblinga smile, as if excited by some pleasant idea. The female,when tickled (withholding her breath and struggling)would utter a half-suppressed sound, (which might be

expressed by the letters Khre,) much in the same way assome individuals of the human species when placed undersimilar circumstances.

NON-EXISTENCE OF EPIDEMIC DISEASES IN NEW

SOUTH WALES.

We remember some years since reading an advertisementfor medical practice, in which the advertiser wished for " ahealthy situation: "-he would have been transported withthe subjoined intelligence. " With the exception of catarrh,there are no epidemic diseases known ; and those complaintswhich are common to children, in Britain, such as measles,hooping-cough, small-pox, &c. have no existence in thisclimate." j- †

t Letter from New South Wales to Dr. Brewster, p. 119.

ROYAL COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS OFLONDON.

AN extraordinary Comitia was held on June 28th, Sir

RICHARD DOUGLAS POWELL, Bart., K.C.V.O., the President,being in the chair.

Licences to practise physic were granted to Neil John

illelean, University of Manitoba, and to Harry FrancisGolding Noyes, University of Cambridge and the London

Hospital.The following communications were received: 1. From

the secretary of the Royal College of Surgeons of Englandreporting proceedings of its Council on May 10th. 2. Fromthe Anthropological Institute inviting the College to joina deputation to the Prime Minister to urge the institu-tion of a National Anthropometric Survey. It was resolvedthat the invitation should be courteously declined, the viewsof the College having been sufficiently expressed in a reportto the Privy Council two years ago. 3. From the GeneralMedical Council forwarding a copy of a report from theStudents’ Practical Midwifery Committee with recom-

mendations and inviting observations from the College.The consideration of the report was deferred until the nextComitia.

* Traité de l’Existence du Fluide des Nerfs.

A report was received from the representative of theCollege on the General Medical Council on the proceedingsof the Council during its session in May last.A report, dated April 23rd, was received from the

Committee of Management and adopted. The reportrecommended-

1. That Dr. Theodore Dyke Acland be appointed the first assessor tothe examinations of the Egyptian School of Medicine for the examina.tions to be held in December next.

2. That the course of laboratory instruction in public health given byDr. William Hunter, Government bacteriologist, Hong-Kong. in theGovernment laboratory, be recognised as fulfilling the conditions ofClause 2, Paragraph II., Section II., of the regulations for the diplomain public health.

A second report from the same committee, datedJune llth, was received recommending that the TechnicalCollege, Sunderland, and the Municipal Day TechnicalSchool, West Bromwich, should be added to the list of insti-tutions recognised by the Examining Board in England forinstruction in chemistry and physics. The recommendationswere adopted.A report from the Conjoint Finance Committee was

received and adopted sanctioning the expenditure necessaryfor remedying grave defects in the drainage and sanitaryappliances of the Examination Hall.The PRESIDENT then dissolved the Comitia.

MEDICINE AND THE LAW.

Jury of Matrons.RARELY of recent years has it been found necessary at

the trial of a woman for murder to summon a jury ofmatrons, but such an event occurred at the last BodminAssizes when Carrie Thomes was convicted before the LordChief Justice of the crime of murder. When the ordinaryjury of men returned into court with a verdict of "Guilty" the prisoner was called upon by the clerk of assize to pleadin arrest of judgment and she pleaded in a clear voice thatshe was pregnant. The Lord Chief Justice said that thiswas not the proper time to urge that plea and proceeded topass sentence of death. After sentence the prisoner byher counsel, as well as by herself, pleaded pregnancy andthe judge thereupon ordered all doors to be shut and thesheriff to summon a jury of matrons de circumstantibus.This was done and the jury of matrons were sworn

like a grand jury, the clerk of assize administer-ing the oath in the following manner: "That you will

diligently search and try Carrie Thomes, the prisoner at thebar, whether she be quick with child or not, and that yourverdict shall be according to the best of your skill and know-ledge." The jury of matrons retired for half an hour andthey returned a verdict that she was" quick with a livingchild." The judge thereupon ordered that the sentence ofexecution should be respited until the child was born oruntil there was no possibility of a child being born. Thereare two cases, the one criminal and the other civil, in whichthe question whether a given woman is with child or not issubmitted to the decision of a j jury of matrons or other

’ " discreet women." In the first case the use of this meansof inquiry is obligatory and by the court; in the second,optional and upon the petition of a private litigant. The

procedure is of high antiquity and is stated by Black-stone to have prevailed in the pleas of the Crown

’ "as early as the first memorials of our laws willreach." In early ages, when medical knowledge was rare inamount and poor in quality, resort to a jury of matronswas, no doubt, the best and surest means of inquiry.Modern experience, however, does not justify the continued

.

existence of a procedure which has often led to wrong resultsand for which the medical profession furnishes a more

easily available, as well as a more trustworthy, substitute.The course usually followed is exemplified in Wycherley’s

. case (8 Car. & P. 262). There Baron Gurney said: "Let: all the doors be shut and no one be suffered to leave the,

court "-that is to say, to prevent the ladies present as sight-.

seers from withdrawing and so declining an unwelcomeoffice. At the trial of Catherine Webster, in 1879, the prisonerpleaded pregnancy, but unavailingly. The impanelling of ajury from among the lady sightseers on this occasion is said,

to have operated for a considerable time in diminishing theaverage attendance of lady spectators at the proceedings ofthe Old Bailey. The jury having been sworn withdraw with

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the prisoner to make their examination. But they maydesire, and will be accorded, the testimony of a qualifiedmedical man, and probably in these days such testimonywould in practice be considered indispensable. In Webster’scase the verdict of the jury was given upon their own exami-nation, and upon the evidence of Thyrza Belsham, one of thewardresses of Newgate, and Mr. Bond, the surgeon whoexamined the prisoner. Were this not so, grave mistakeswould occur, such as in the past have occurred, for " perhapsthere is no subject on which average women display greaterignorance than on questions connected with pregnancy "

(Tidy’s Legal Medicine, Part H., p. 107). The books makemention of an early case where a mistake was made in thismatter at Aylesbury (1 Hale, P.C. 369). And in moderntimes mistakes have been made, e.g., in the Norwich case(R. v. Wright (1832), Medical Gazette, Vol. XII., p. 22), inwhich a jury of matrons wrongly found a prisoner not withchild. If medical evidence is called, the jury, it has beenheld, must return into court and hear such testimony givenpublicly on oath. In strictness the question to be decided isnot whether the prisoner is or is not priviment ensient

(i.e., barely with child: having conceived, "but notwith quick child "), but whether or not she is ensientde vive enfant; but in practice a jury of women willlean to mercy’s side; for, says Lord Hale, " I haverarely found but the compassion of their sex is gentle tothem in their verdict, if there be any colour to support asparing verdict." In the Norwich case, however, a jury ofmatrons negatived the plea, though the woman was in thefifth month of her pregnancy. The reprieve is granted, not forthe woman’s own sake but in favorem prolis. And it holdsgood, at all events, until either the woman shall have beendelivered or proved by the course of nature not to have beenwith child. The French law (Art. 127 of the Penal Code)is satisfied by medical evidence of pregnancy. In New Yorkit is provided by statute that if there is reasonable groundto believe that a female defendant sentenced to death is

pregnant a jury of six physicians shall be impanelled toinquire into the fact and if it is found by the inquisition thatshe is " quick with child " the execution is to be suspendeduntil the governor issues a warrant directing it, which hemay do as soon as he is satisfied that she is no longer " quickwith child," or he may commute her punishment to imprison-ment for life. In England the judges and lawyers who pre-pared the Draft Codes of the Criminal Code Bill Commissionprovided (Art. 531) for the abolition of the jury of matronsand the substitution in it for an examination of the prisonerby one or more registered medical practitioners.

Public Health and Poor Law.LOCAL GOVERNMENT BOARD.

ANNUAL REPORTS OF MEDICAL OFFICERS OF HEALTH.

County Borough of St. Helens.-Dr. John J. Buchan

reports that considerable attention has been paid during thepast year to the condition of the children attending thepublic elementary schools. Excluding the common zymoticdiseases there were 625 cases under observation during1905, and these comprised verminous conditions and sore

heads, 137 ; ringworm, 29 ; itch, 6 ; eczema and other skindiseases and neglect, 238; sore eyes and ears, 72; non-

notifiable infectious diseases (excluding measles), 116 ; andother causes, 27. These figures are sufficient to indicatewhat a very material benefit may accrue from a systematicattempt to obtain information with regard to the conditionof school children and the resulting control cannot fail toexercise a good educational effect on parents and childrenalike. It may be hoped that supervision of this nature mayresult in greater cleanliness of the poorer classes and in anultimate reduction of that great class of adults which mayquite fairly be termed the offensively smelling class. If theeducation authorities can induce the children of this genera-tion and, hence, the adults of the next to pay more attentionto cleanliness and to take baths more frequently they will bedoing an admirable service to public health and will beadding to the enjoyment of all classes, more especiallyin these days when class distinctions in the matter of

travelling facilities, &c., are tending to disappear. As

regards St. Helen?, the council has decided to appoint a

hospital-trained nurse to visit any houses where thereare children suffering from conditions which are largelythe consequences of dirt and neglect and in the caseof one of the two schools in the borough a short anthro-pometric survey of the children was made in thecourse of which height, weight, physical defects, eyesight,and general nutrition were gone into. It is satisfactory tonote that the nuisance caused by the emission of blacksmoke in St. Helens is, according to the statistics, diminish-ing year by year, there having been in 1905 out of the 396observations made 14.9 per cent. in which there was anemission of black smoke for a longer period than fiveminutes, the percentages in the immediately precedingyears being in 1902, 28’ 5; in 1903, 22’ 1; and in 1904, 16 ’ 9.

County Borough of Sunderland.-The corporation of thisborough subscribes for two beds in the Durham Sanatoriumfor Consumption and since 1901 50 patients from Sunder-land have bten under treatment at this institution. Theresults have so far been as follows : four still under treat-ment, 26 dead, 17 well, one ill, and two untraced. Of the26 who died the average duration of life after dischargefrom the sanatorium was two years. Dr. Henry Renneyadvocates the exclusion of children from school until fiveyears of age and the education committee has passed aresolution to the effect that "children under the age of five

years be not admitted to the public elementary schools inthe borough where such admission would have the resultof bringing the average attendance above the authorisedaccommodation." The corporation has recently appointeda lady health visitor, the results appearing to be quitesatisfactory, and the medical officer of health, in the interestsof a reduction in the infantile mortality-rate, suggeststhat the health department should be informed of the birthof a child before the expiration of the six weeks laid downby statute. As he points out, during the interval many ofthe children born have died, and could the mothers bevisited shortly after the birth of the child a considerablesaving in infant life might be effected.

County Borough of Halifax.-Dr. J. T. Neech, dealing inhis current annual report with the subject of small pox,furnishes an instance of a case where a group of six attacksof small-pox apparently arose from the arrival at the post-office of a letter from the small-pox hospital. No town inthe kingdom has, Dr. Neech states, a purer water-supplythan Halifax, the corporation having wisely purchased thegathering grounds connected with the storage reservoirs.The water of one of these reservoirs is liable to exhibitconsiderable acidity at certain times of the year, especiallyduring February and March but by the addition of lime tothe water as it leaves the main reservoir this acidity hasbeen largely neutralised and there have been no cases oflead poisoning during 1905. Dr. Neech things, however,that a little more lime might be profitably added to thewater.

VITAL STATISTICS.

HEALTH OF ENGLISH TOWNS.

IN 76 of the largest English towns 8708 births and 3721deaths were registered during the week ending July 7th.The annual rate of mortality in these towns, which hadbeen equal to 13’2 and 12’4 per 1000 in the two pre-ceding weeks, further declined last week to 12 3, and waslower than in any previous week of this year. Duringthe 13 weeks of last quarter the death-rate in thesetowns averaged only 14’9 per 1000, and in Londonthe rate in the same period was slightly lower-namely, 14 8. The lowest death-rates during last week inthe 76 towns were 6’ 0 in Walthamstow, 7’ 0 in Leicester,7’2 in East Ham, and 7.8 in Hastings ; the rates in theother towns ranged upwards to 17’ 4 in Merthyr Tydfil,19 - 1 in Rochdale, 19 - 6 in Wigan, and 20’ 2 in Wallasey.The 3721 deaths in the 76 towns showed a furtherdecline of 43 from the low numbers returned in recent

weeks, and included 406 which were referred to theprincipal epidemic diseases, against 380 and 372 inthe two preceding weeks; of these, 122 resulted frommeasles, 92 from diarrhcea, 74 from whooping-cough,46 from diphtheria, 45 from scarlet fever, 26 from"fever." (principally enteric), and one from small-pox. Thedeaths from these epidemic diseases were equal to an

annual rate of 1 - 3 per 1000 in the 76 towns and to1’4 in London. No death from any of these epidemicdiseases was registered last week in Bolton, Croydon,