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such course being, in the first instance, open to none who hadnot the certificate of qualification at the ’’ technical school " orwho had not the equivalent diploma of the "normal school. "

The course of practical pharmacy to be afterwards enteredupon would be given in the "Istituti Tecnici," of whichevery Italian province has one or more. No innovation is

sought under this ordinance which would prejudice the statusof the pharmacists of the primary class or of the Doctors inPharmacy and Chemistry. These will, as heretofore, be atliberty to practise wherever they like. The creation of Ipharmacists of the secondary class is intended only for theservice of the remoter communes (all of which are specifiedby statute), which would otherwise remain without pharma-ceutical resources of any kind. These secondary pharmacists,moreover, may, if they choose, act as assistants to pharma-cists of the primary grade ; but they cannot be ’’ directors "

of pharmacies or of pharmaceutical laboratories.

POISONING BY AMYL NITRITE.

A VERY interesting case is recorded by Dr. Shoemaker in theMedical News of Philadelphia of May 20th, 1893, of a patientwho by mistake took a teaspoonful of undiluted amyl nitrite.Such a case is exceedingly rare and is worthy of note. Three

minutes after the drug had been taken Dr. Shoemaker foundthe man sitting in a chair with a moderately flushed face, apulse of 112, and complaining only of a little headache. He

was successively given several glasses of warm water, a

hypodermic injection of one-eighth of a grain of apomorphine,mustard and warm water, zinc sulphate in warm water, anothereighth of a grain of apomorphine, and more mustard and warmwater-so that just seven minutes after he took the drugcopious vomiting of a large unmasticated meal occurred.

The evacuated matter emitted a strong odour of amyl nitrite.Digitalis and brandy were then injected beneath the skin andthe patient was put to bed and surrounded by hot bottles.His face was moderately blue and the extremities were cold ;the respiration was shallow but regular ; and the pulse wasweak and intermittent, but only 68 to the minute. Sulphate ofstrychnine in doses of 1/30 gr. was frequently repeated. Two

hours later the pulse had ceased to intermit and the patientrapidly recovered. Consciousness was not lost at any time,though the man seemed drowsy and stupid. There were no

twitchings or convulsions or irregularity of respiration. The

man was constantly watched and every symptom carefullynoted as to time, a record of the pulse being taken every fiveminutes, but no symptoms beyond those related developed.

THE DIFFUSION OF SMALL-POX.

SPEAKING generally, the diminution in the extent of small-pox to which we referred last week is maintained in the

country, and it is especially notable in London. Some fouror five weeks ago the number of cases under isolation by theMetropolitan Asylums Board was about 570 ; it has now

fallen by 100, and on the 12th inst. the actual number inhospital was 473. Last week fresh attacks occurred in a

number of places, such as Aston Manor, 4; Birming-ham, 16 ; Bootle, 3 ; Burnley, 6 ; Chadderton, 3 ; Coven-

try, 4 ; Halifax, 14 ; Hull, 8 ; Keighley, 3 ; Manchester 15 ;Middlesbrough, 4; Nottingham, 2 ; Oldham, 5 ; Rawtenstall,2; Reading, 2 ; St. George’s, Bristol, 4; South Shields, 2 ;Wakefield, 3 ; West Ham, 10 ; and Wigan, 2. In Leicesterthe fresh attacks during each of the four weeks ended

Saturday, June 10th, were fourteen, five, fifteen andseven respectively; and a further attack of the diseasehas taken place amongst the unprotected hospital staff.The matter as to which there has been dispute now standsthus : Of twenty-eight officials at the hospital, twenty-twowere protected by revaccination or a previous attack of small- -

pox, and none of these twenty-two have contracted the

disease ; six -were not so protected and refused revaccination.Four of these latter had contracted small-pox and one had died;now a fifth has contracted the disease. At Bradford there arestill over 100 cases of small-pox in hospital. At Halifax thelocal complaints as to the influence of the small-pox hospitalin diffusing the disease aerially have been so strong that theauthorities have undertaken to procure another site. At

Leeds the diminution in the amount of the disease is main-tained and the number of cases under isolation had fallen to107 at the end of last week. Cases of the disease are reportedfrom a number of other places, such as Brighouse, BrierleyHill, Dewsbury, Dunton-Bassett, Eccleshill, Elland, Holbeck,Leigh, Morley, Nuneaton, Oldbury, Stainland, Stockton,Waterloo-with-Seaforth and Windhill. In some cases the

occurrences amount to outbreaks, in others they are isolatedattacks.

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A MIDWIFERY FEE ENFORCED WHERE THEPLAINTIFF WAS NOT CALLED IN.

WE are often asked whether a midwifery fee can be en-forced where the patient fails to send for, after engaging, apractitioner. We insert the following case in point from theWestern Daily Press of June 10th:-

"A MIDWIFERY FEE.

"TIPPLE 1’. BURRAGE -This was an action by Dr. E.

Tipple of Gorleston against defendant, who lives at Brad-well, to recover £1 Is., midwifery fee. Mr. R. F. E.Feriier appeared for plaintiff. The facts were that de-fendant and his wife waited upon plaintiff and engagedhim to attend upon Mrs. Burrage in her confinement. Thisevent occurred, according to Mrs. Burrage, earlier than sheexpected and plaintiff was not called in. Defendant deniedthat he engaged plaintiff, but his Honour said that a contractwas made and defendant must pay. He gave judgment forplaintiff at the rate of 5s. per month."

SCOTTISH MEDICINE IN THE DAYS OF

QUEEN MARY.PROFESSOR GRAINGER STEWART of Edinburgh has pub-

lished an article on the above topic in Blackwood’s Magazine forthis month. It appears to have been a presidential addressdelivered before the Harveian Society of the northern capital.The apposition of the ideas involved in mentioning thebeautitul and unfortunate Queen of Scotland and those con-

nected with the decay and disorder of the human frame

appears at first sight inharmonious, but when we reflect that" The pomp of heraldry, the pride of power,

And all that wealth, that beauty ever gave,Await alike the inevitable hour,The paths of glory lead but to the grave,"

our injured sense of the assthetic recovers itself and we

peruse with sangfroid an account of ailments affecting aperson whom from our infancy we have imagined as sur-

rounded 6by every element of romance. Every reader musthave a great sympathy for the brilliant and beautiful heiressof the Stuarts returning widowed from the garden-landand brilliant court of France to the Scottish mists and

acrimonious wranglings of hardheaded people in the throes ofa constitutional and ecclesiastical revolution. The throne ofScotland "cam’ wi’ a lass " to the Stuarts, and it was pro-phesied would "gang wi’ a lass," and that "lass" wouldhave required stronger nerves than Mary Stuart appears to have possessed had she been able to thrive amongst the roughbaronage of the period. She appears, moreover, to have

brought with her from France the seeds of an ague, whichlater gave rise to a "hardness in her side" suggestive ofsplenic enlargement. Her return to Scotland was no doubtfollowed by her making many "new acquaintances," butthe first so-called "new acquaintance" seems to have

been a disease indistinguishable from influenza, which

appears to have been epidemic at the time. The un-

satisfactory alliance with Darnley and her subsequent regard