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Dr. Pye, Professor of Anatomy and Physiology in the Queen’sCollege, Galway, for compensation for loss of fees arising outof the dissolution of the late Queen’s University. It appearsthat before the passing of the University Education Act, 1879,Dr. Pye’s fixed stipend was E220 per annum, and also certainfees from the students attending his lectures, amountingon an average to E500 a year. The effect of the dissolutionwas that he ceased to be a professor of the University,but continued a professor of the College; as it was notcompulsory, however, for students to attend his lectureswho were candidates for degrees in the Royal University,his fees decreased considerably, and he sought compensationfor the loss he had sustained. The Lord Chief Baron gavejudgment for the Crown. Hb Lordship said that the officewhich Dr. Pye had held in the Queen’s University was dis-tinct from that which he held in the Queen’s College. Inrespect of his office in the University he received certainemoluments, amounting to JE20 yearly, and he now receivedin the Royal University larger remuneration for similarwork. As to the office held in the College, that was notwithin the section of the statute, nor was he deprived of it.Judgment for the Crown should be given with costs, andthis decision was concurred in by Mr. Baron Dowse andMr. Justice Andrews.

HEALTH OF IRELAND.

The birth-rate for the September quarter was 1’6 under theaverage rate for the corresponding quarter of the past tenyears; and the death-rate was 0 ’9 under the rate for the sameperiod. Deaths from the principal zymotic diseases wereconsiderably below the average. Compared with the corre-sponding quarter of 1887, the returns of pauperism, furnishedby the Local Government Board, show a decrease of 1370,or 3’1 per cent., in the average number of workhouse inmateson Saturdays during the quarter, and a decrease of 1117, or1’7 per cent., in the average number of persons on out-doorrelief.

Dr. Wm. Moore, physician to Her Majesty in Irelard,has been appointed High Sheriff for Antrim County for 1889.Dublin, Nov. 20th.

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PARIS.(From our own Correspondent.)

THE PASTEUR INSTITUTE.

WITH reference to your note in THE LANCET of last weekanent the opening of the new Pasteur Institute, the followingmaybe found interesting to your readers. After the eulogisticspeech of M. Bertrand, Perpetual Secretary of the Academyof Sciences, on the scientific work of M. Pasteur, covering aperiod of nearly half a century, Dr. Grancher, M. Pasteur’sprincipal coadjutor at the institute, read the report of thenumber of persons that underwent the anti-rabic treatmentat Paris during the years 1886-87 and the first half of 1888,which amounted to 5384. In 1886, when the afflux of

foreigners was considerable, 2682 persons were inoculated,1778 in 1887, and 914 in the first six months of 1888. Themortality, counting all the deaths, even those affected withrabies on the day following the treatment, was-for 1886,l-34percent.; for 1887,1-12; and for 1888,0-77. These figuresare taken from the recrister to Oct. 31st, 1888. Butthemortalityamong the persons who succumbed to rabies within thefifteen days following the treatment had, of course, to beexcluded, as the inoculation to be efficacious should becarried out before the incubation of the virus of the dogwhich had bitten the subject had commenced in thenervous centres ; for the virus of common rabies, trans-mitted directly to the surface of the brain of a dog, thereincubates during fifteen or eighteen days before producingits effects. In the patients who succumbed to rabies withinfifteen days after the treatment the latter had been useless,simply because it had been commenced too late. Excludingthese cases, the mortality, notwithstanding the treatment.falls for 1886 to 0-93 per cent., for 1887 to 067 per cent., andfor 1888 to 0-55 per cent. This gradual diminution in themortality is due to the progressive perfecting of the firststeps of the treatment. Dr. Grancher explained that thetreatment now adopted is more energetic, more pro-longed, and more intensive. He then showed that thestatistics from foreign parts, at St. Petersburg, Odessa,Moscow, Warsaw, Samara, Charkow, Milan, Palermo,

Naples, Havana, and Rio Janeiro, accord with the statisticscollected at Paris. He recalled the special report for 1887,which was drawn up by the Council of Hygiene from docu-ments at the Prefecture of Police, concerning the personswho were inoculated at M. Pasteur’s laboratory. In 1887 thenumber of persons bitten and inoculated amounted to 306,.of whom three died, which gives a mortality of 0-97 per centOn the other hand, seven cases of death from rabies occurredamong the forty-four persons enumerated in the policelists as not having undergone the anti-rabic inoculation. Inthis group the mortality attains 15 ’90 per cent., which figure-M. Pasteur and the Council had accepted as representingthe average mortality before the adoption of inoculation.In concluding his report, Dr. Grancher said he wished it tobe understood that the Pasteur Institute had been foundednot only for the treatment of rabies, bub also for the purposeof promoting the scientific study of the means to practicallycombat the maladies which decimate the human species,such as diphtheria, typhoid fever, phthisis, &c. The vastlaboratories attached to the institute will be open to medicalmen of all nationalities, where they will be taught theprinciples not only of anti-rabic inoculations, but of micro-biological science in general. A regular staff has alreadybeen formed who will be the coadjutors of M. Pasteurat the institute. Drs. Grancher, Chantemesse, Charrin,and Terrillon are to attend to the treatment of rabies M. Duclaux, Professor of Biological Chemistry at the Facultyof Sciences, will direct the bacteriological laboratory ;M. Chamberland will be charged with the science of micro-logy in its relation with hygiene ; Dr. Roux will teach themicrobian methods in their applications to medicine; andtwo Russian savants, Drs. Metchnikofl’ and Gamaleia, willdevote themselves to the morphology of inferior organisms,including comparative microbia. The institute is con-i-

posed of two principal buildings, each with its own

façade, the principal one in the Rue Dutot, and theother in the Rue des Fourneaux. The first containsthe apartments of M. Pasteur and his assistants, and in the’chief hall may be seen the busts of the Emperors of Russia,Dom Pedro of Brazil, Baron Rothschild, MadameBoucicault, and M. de Laubespin, the chief subscribers to-the institute. In the second building are to be found roomsfor inoculations and various laboratories. Here also are keptthe animals intended for experiments. At the close of theceremony of the inauguration of the institute the Presidentof the Republic, who presided on the occasion, conferred on.Drs. Grancher and Duclaux the dignity of Officer of the-Legion of Honour, and on Dr. Chantemesse that of Cheva-lier of the Legion of Honour. It may here be noted thatM. Pasteur, who is Commander of the Legion of Honour,possesses fifteen other decorations; he is member of eighty-three foreign learned societies, and holds the honoraryDoctor’s degree of nearly every foreign University, and yethe is not a Doctor of Medicine of any faculty.

DEATH OF DR. FREMY.Dr. Charles Fremy, honorary physician of hospitals, died

on the 19th inst., in the seventy-second year of his age.The deceased was first cousin to M. Edmond Fremy, Mem-ber of the Institute and Director of the Museum ofNatural History. He was the father of M. Henry Fremy,who is at the present time on a scientific mission to-America. Dr. Charles Fremy was the author of severalremarkable works on the treatment of typhoid fever.

TREATMENT OF DIPHTHERIA.

At the last meeting of the Hospitals Medical SocietyM. Gaucher gave additional evidence in support of a line oftreatment for diphtheria which he had brought under the’notice of the Society last January. It consists in the appli-cation of strong alcoholic solution of carbolic acid (50 percent.) to the surface which has been denuded of false-membrane. The application is made three times a day, andin addition the mouth is frequently well rinsed with anaqueous solution of carbolic acid (1 per cent.). ). The methodindicates a return to the old plan of cauterisation,,and the results quoted by M. Gaucher, which included aseries of eighty cases treated on this plan by M. Dubousquet,are reported as having been very satisfactory. There wasno inflammatory reaction, nor any symptom of carbolic acidpoisoning, although there was usually carboluria.

STROPHANTHINE.

M. G. Sée finds that strophanthine is a valuable remedyin cases of mitral disease, especially in stenosis, but that it

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is unsuitable in aortic disease. Under its use the pulsegains in force and improves in rhythm. It is the same in,cases of cardiac dilatation and arterial-sclerosis, but inangina pectoris the drug is contra-indicated. M. Dujardin-Beaumetz recommended that strophanthus should be pre-scribed rather than strophanthine, of which no fewer thanfive varieties occur in commerce.

Paris, Nov. 20th, ________________

Obituary.HEINRICH VON BAMBERGER.

ON the 9th inst., at Vienna, as mentioned in our lastissue, died Dr. H. von Bamberger, aulic councillor (Hofrath),and head of the second medical clinique of the Vienneseschool, after a severe illness of several weeks’ duration.He was born on Dec. 27th, 1822, on the family estate in

the vicinity of Prague. That city, as afterwards Vienna,was the scene of his studies, which, after a brilliant course,culminated in his graduation and appointment as assistantphysician in the Prague General Hospital. In 1850 he wentto Vienna, to work with Oppolzer there ; and in 1854 lieaccepted the post of Professor of Clinical Medicine and pri-marius physician in the Julius Hospital at Wurzburg.On Oppolzer’s death he returned to Vienna, and in the springof 1872 was appointed director of the Medical Cliniqueof the General Hospital. His call to Oppolzer’s chair waskeenly opposed by the friends of Korner, who used all the thenMinister Jirczek’s influence in their candidate’s favour; butBamberger’s claims were too powerful even for Governmentpartiality, and his success in the post more than justifiedthe wisdom of his selection. His high intellectual gifts,his clear and logical exposition, particularly at the bedside,combined with his profound medical knowledge to makehim an ornament of his professoriate, which soon acquired afar more than local fame by the co-operation (invited andobtained by himself) of the not less richly endowed Noth-nagel. His plain unaffected demeanour, his noble earnest-ness, also worked powerfully in his favour, so that it wasdimcult to say whether he was more honoured by thepupils who flocked to him from all parts of the world, ormore beloved by the patients of low as of high degree whohad the benefit, without distinction, of his care and skill.He was an ardent and unwearied worker in the domainof pathology, as is notably evinced by his publications-on the " Diseases of the Chylopoietic System " and on theAilments of the Heart." Like Liebig, like Virchow,and like many of his most distinguished colleagues inscience, and particularly in medicine, he had a deep.and discriminating admiration for the great Englishpioneer of modern inductive research, and his " Baconvon Verulam, besonders vom Medicinischen Standpunkt",(" Bacon of Verulam, especially from the Medical Stand-point"), deserves the study of our profession, too negligent,it is to be feared, of the author of the q Novum Organum."Bamberger’s activity in medical journalism was immense,and a selection from his papers of more permanent valuewould be indeed a boon, not to his compatriots alone.The latter years of his life were embittered by the tragic

fate of his son, a youth of noble promise, Richard von Bam-berger, destined, like his father, for the medical career.

On July 13th, 1884, the young man started on an ascent ofthe Schneeberg (Bavaria), and was never heard of more. Ayear passed in unremitting search, but not a trace of himwas to be found. Only on July 18th, 1885, some foresta7angers in the Frauenbachgraben, in the neighbourhood ofthe Great Hollenthal, at the foot of the Schneeberg, cameupon some remains and effects which were recognised asbelonging to the Viennese Professor’s son.On the 10th inst., Professor Nothnagel, on the assemblingof his class, alluded to the death of his colleague and friend

in language of which the following, contributed by astudent who was present, may be taken as a faithful tran-script: " It is often said that medicine is at once a scienceand an art; and the remark is nowhere more just than onthe clinical side. We have great clinicians in whomscientific aptitude and power of thought are but littledeveloped, but who seem gifted with the inspiration of theartist. Most commonly endowed with a far-reachingmemory, there suddenly flashes on them a series of recol-

lections, ending, though often unwittingly, in a comparisonwith the concrete case and in a brilliantly improviseddiagnosis. The feats of such clinicians lie more in thedomain of practice than in that of literary exposition.With others, on the contrary, the rigid methodical discipline,the scientifically trained thinking power, is the Ariadne’sthread which runs through their clinical activity, theirmedical art, their scientific work. Bamberger belonged tothose happily constituted natures in which both endowmentsare represented. His special power as a clinician and as aconsultant may be briefly summarised in this-that hethought as a savant and practised as an artist. Thereinlies the secret of his fame as physician, as diagnostician, andas clinical teacher. In the uprearing of the scientificclinical schools of Germany, Bamberger co-operated in thefront rank-Bamberger, and Frerichs, who was his nearestintellectual brother among German clinicians. In both,the fine, artistic, plastic skill in the treatment of clinicalphenomena was dominated by the anatomical and physio-logical thinking power which won the admiration of alltheir professional brethren. Bamberger’s work on cardiacailments and on the derangements of the chylopoiëticviscera are unequalled specimens of clinical conception andpresentation ; while, again, what he was as a teacher isknown to the many thousands of his pupils, who admiredhis centripetal penetration in the most complicated cases,who were awe-struck at his vast experience, who werecharmed by the masterly ease and perspicuity of his exposi-tion. Science has lost one of her most outstanding votaries,the Vienna school one of its most shining stars. The nameof Bamberger, the clinician, links itself brilliantly to thoseof Skoda and Oppolzer. With him has one of the light!!gone out which helped to diffuse the lustre of the secondgreat school of Vienna. Be honour and undying recognitionto his Manes !"

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GEORGE BORLASE CHILDS, F.R.C.S. ENG. (EXAM.).MR. BOPLASE CHILDS, until recently a prominent surgeon

in the City of London, where he was surgeon-in-chief to thePolice Force for forty-one years, and to the City of LondonMilitia (4th Battalion of the Royal Fusiliers) for over thirtyyears, and for many years surgeon to the MetropolitanFree Hospital and to the Great Northern Railway, died ofliver disease on the 8th inst., and was interred at Kensal-green on the 13th inst. His funeral was attended by severalpersonal friends, and his coffin was borne to the grave bysergeants of the City Police Force, more than seventy ofwhom were present. He leaves a widow, one son in theColonial Service, and two daughters to mourn their loss.Mr. Childs was born at Liskeard in 1816, of parents of

considerable standing and repute in the county of Cornwall.He received a good classical education at the grammarschool of his native town, and was subsequently apprenticedto a successful practitioner, Mr. Vincent, of Camborne,where he had great opportunities for acquiring surgicalexperience in the treatment of mining accidents. On

coming to London he attended the lectures at the Alders-gate School of Medicine, under the Graingers, Pereira,and others, and the practice of the Westminster Hospital.He became a Member of the College of Surgeons in 1838,and was appointed house surgeon of the Margate Sea-bathing Infirmary. Eight years after this he passed theFellowship examination at the College, and commencedpractice in London, where he attracted the attention ofMr. Coulson, whom he frequently assisted in his largeroperations. He quickly gained considerable reputation asa successful lithotomist. When he became surgeon tothe Metropolitan Free Hospital he was one of the earliestEnglish surgeons to employ subcutaneous tenotomy fordeformities of the foot, even suggesting the advisabilityof dividing the muscles for spinal curvature. In 1853he performed what we believe was the first successfulovariotomy, an operation which had been previouslymany times attempted in both the Metropolitan Free andSt. Mary’s Hospitals so unsuccessfully that most of theleading surgeons at that period considered it to be analtogether unwarrantable operation. But he will be bestremembered as surgeon to the Great Northern Railway andCity of London Police, for it was in organising the medicaldepartments of these institutions that he displayed on alarger field the same forethought and ingenuity whichsecured the success of his surgical operations. Mr. Childs