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METEOROLOGICAL READINGS.(Taken daily at 8.30 a.rn. by Steward’s Instruments.)

THE LANCET Office, September 5th, 1889.

Notes, Short Comments, & Answers toCorrespondents.

OUR CURRENT NUMBER

Being calrrtost exclusively devoted to information especiaLlginterestirrg to Students, we are necessarily compelled todefer the publication of communications on other im-

portant subjects. We regret also to be obliged to holdover till next week an article on Hospital Athletics andthc list of prize-winners at the various medical schoolsand hospitals during the past roi-nter and summer sessions.

We tertder our best thanks to those gentlemen who have hirzdlysupplied its with the returns and prospectuses upon whichthe information given in this Students’ Number ofTHE LANCET relative to the various medical examiningbodies, hospitals, and medical schools of the United

Kingdom is busecl. -

MICRO-ORGANISMS IN SOIL AND WATER.

THE article on the above subject, about which a. correspondent inquires,is to be found in Zeitschrift fur Hygiene, Band 6, Heft 3 (publishedby Veit and Co., Leipzig).

Dr. Clibborn (Bridport).-1. Five medical officers and a dispensaryassistant.-2. Salaries from £1000 to £180.—3. The Postmaster-General.

..d. Subscriber.—We cannot see what offence was committed by our corre-spondent, or for what he is to be prosecuted.

M.D. B.Se., &c., is referred to an article on the subject in our currentnumber.

POST-PARTUM SUPPRESSION OF URINE.

To the Editors of THE LANCET.

SIRS,-Dr. Bond’s case of suppression of urine after parturition remindsme of a precisely similar case which occurred in my practice in Londona few years since. The patient was a healthy young married woman incomfortable circumstances, whom I had attended in a previous confine-ment. The labour was a natural one, but two days afterwards sup-pression of urine came on, and in spite of everything that could be donedeath followed in eight or nine days, preceded by symptoms of uræmicpoisoning, stupor, and convulsions. There was not the slightest indi-cation of septicxmia,. I am, Sirs, yours faithfully,Northampton, Sept. 1st, 1889. J. HAWKES, M.D.

"AN ULTRA-CENTENARIAN SURGEON."

THE Patria of Buenos Ayres affirms that there is now in Bolivia a sur-geon, Luca Silva by name, whose age is no less than 129 years. He

was born in Cochabamba in 1760, and devoted himself, after graduatingin medicine, to the practice of surgery. He rendered important serviceto his country, when, after the famous manifesto of June 16th, 1809,she entered on her struggle for independence. His treatment of the

wounded, particularly his operations on the field of battle, won himhigh distinction. He also earned signal honour in the combatantranks. The other day he was brought to the house of Senor JoseRamallo, President of the Dramatic College of La Paz, and gave alucid and animated account of the revolution which, begun in 1809,resulted in the emancipation of his country from the Spanish yoke.Our contemporary would add greatly to the interest of its notice ofthe "nltra-centenarian surgeon" if it had produced some trustworthydetails as to his birth and parentage, certified by the public registrar.As it is, the fact of Dr. Silva’s having been old enough in 1809 topractise as a duly qilialified surgeon argues a longevity little short ofone hundred years.

Mr. F. Treves.-Yes, very soon.

HERNIA AS A RESULT OF DIRECT VIOLENCE?

To the Editors of THE LANCET.

SIRS,—1 send the following case for the consideration of your readers.D. C-, aged sixty-two, met with an accident by coming in collision

with a steam tram while driving. This occurrence took place onJuly llth. I saw him on that night, and, with the exception of asevere shaking, could not find anything particularly wrong with him.Three days after the accident he complained of pain in the left groin,which, on examination, I found was caused by a hernia. Now, wasthis hernia produced by direct violence? I have no idea of the natureof the accident, as the man cannot tell his own story, having been un.conscious for some time. A suitable truss soon relieved the rupture.On Aug. 17th I was called again to see the same patient ; he told me that"dropsy" had supervened. I examined his left thigh, and found alarge quantity of fluid in or about the sheath of the vastus externus.This I ascertained by exploring with a hypodermic syringe. On recentexamination I find that the fluid is now absorbed. Can this be calleda hydrocele ? ‘? I am, Sirs, yours truly,

Stamford-hill, N., Sept. 2nd, 1889. J. J. STACK, L.R.C.P.E., &c.

"DIFFUSION OF SMALL-POX BY HOSPITALS."

To the Editors of THE LANCET.

SIRS,-I have to thank you for your notice of my papers on small,poIand tuberculosis in THE LANCET of July 27th, though your reviewer hasmistaken me about winds. All that I assumed in that paper was thatwhen the wind was blowing in a contrary direction to the district

affected, cases could not well occur in consequence of infection from thehospital. I was well acquainted with Mr. Power’s work, and had givena close scrutiny to the meteorological conditions at Oldham, but cameto the conclusion that I could make nothing of them, and therefore didnot touch on that subject. I am, Sirs, yours truly,

’ Oldham, Aug. 26th, 1889. JAMES NivEN.

THE FOOD OF THE CHILDREN OF THE POOR.

To the Editors of THE LANCET.SIRS,—If your correspondent, "Parish Doctor and M.O.H.," will

communicate his address to me, I shall be very pleased to send him acopy of a card I had printed some years ago for distribution amongpoor people, entitled, "How to Bring Up Children." It might be ofsome help to him. I am, Sirs, yours faithfully,

Sept. 1st, 1889. JULIUS CÆSAR.

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