1108

for the treatment of her injuries came to be discussed. " We

doctors," said Mrs. King with becoming dignity, "never sendbills in to each other. In the medical profession we payindirectly by presents at Christmas." It was not to be

supposed that Dr. Lithgow would charge a professionalmasseuse for services rendered, and in this he only instancedthe chivalry and free help always accorded the satellites ofthe guild of medicine by its legally qualified members,to whom, unfortunately perhaps, Mrs. King does not

belong. As Yuletide draws near, by all means let Mrs. Kingremember the fairy tale, the Christmas tree, and why notalso the more substantial seasonable fare ; but whatever formthe medium of her thankfulness may assume let it be pre-sented with a due feeling of professional modesty and ’,subordination.

_ _

"MENTAL THERAPEUTICS."

THE account given in another column of the therapeuticinfluence of credulity raises a not unimportant question inmedical practice-namely, how far it is justifiable for thepractitioner to go in certain cases in conscious deception ofthe patient. It may be said that the end to be obtained

justifies the adoption of any and every means that can bebrought to bear ; but the matter has another side to it. A

blind belief in the powers of medical art has been trans-mitted from the days when magic and medicine were almostsynonymous terms ; and it is questionable whether it is reallyjustifiable to encourage this kind of belief, except in circum-stances such as our correspondent describes, and even thenit is not certain that another line might not have beenfollowed by success. It is doubtless more difficult often to

strengthen the will-power of such an invalid than to yieldto her credulity, but there can be no two opinions as towhich line of action would be of most value to her mentalhealth.

___

EXPLOSIVES FOR MINING PURPOSES.

THE importance of a safe explosive for mining purposescannot be doubted, more especially as it has been shown in alate disastrous explosion that coal dust was a very importantfactor. A series of important tests have been carried out atan experimental station put down at the Moss Colliery, Ince,near Wigan (owned by Messrs. Pearson, Knowles, andCo., Limited). The tests were of explosives used in

coal mining operations with regard to their safety underthe conditions of a blown-out shot coming into contact

with coal dust or an explosive mixture of gas and airin a coal mine, and also as to their relative strengthsas explosives tested by the distance to which a pro-jectile could be fired from a mortar. The experimentswere witnessed by a number of Government mininginspectors, mining engineers, and also official representativesof the Miners’ Federation of Great Britain. The various

experiments were made with dynamite, roburite, tonite,westphalite, bellite, ammonite, Ardeer powder, and car-

bonite. As a guarantee that the conditions of the testwere strictly adhered to and correctly carried out a

committee-consisting of Messrs. D. R. Matthews (inspectorof mines), I. Isherwood, J.P. (miners’ agent), and J. S.Burrows (of Messrs. Fletcher and Burrows, Manchester)-was appointed to superintend the weighing of the variousexplosives and to record the results of the various experi-ments. The safety experiments were carried out in a

testing apparatus consisting of an iron boiler 30 ft. longand about 6 ft. in diameter, placed in a horizontal position,with a cast steel mortar fixed in the far end, this part ofthe boiler being so arranged that a portion could be shutoff by division into an air-tight compartment, in which a

specified quantity of coal dust or gas could be introduced.The explosive to be tested was placed in an ordinary

cartridge in the steel mortar, and fired by electricity in sucha manner as to represent as nearly as possible a blown-outshot going directly into the division of the boiler containingthe coal dust or the explosive mixture of gas and air. After

the experiments in the boiler with coal dust the committeereported as follows : Dynamite, roburite, tonite, bellite,and ammonite resulted in complete ignition of the coal dust,large flame, and explosion ; westphalite resulted in no igni-tion, no flame, and no explosion, and Ardeer powder andcarbonite in no flame and no explosion. These were followed

by experiments with the object of testing the effect of themost successful explosives when fired in the form of a blown-out shot coming into contact with an explosive mixture of airand gas, and the following results were recorded by the com-mittee : Carbonite, Ardeer powder, and westphalite, no flameand no explosion ; roburite, explosion and flame, apparentlyof gas only. To test the relative strengths of the various ex-plosives, a projectile 35 lb. in weight was fired at an elevationof 55° from a mortar with a 10 drachm charge of each explosive,and the results were pretty nearly equal as regards dynamite,roburite, westphalite, bellite, and ammonite, tonite showingconsiderably less explosive power than the above; whilstArdeer powder and carbonite, which in the first experimentscaused no flame or explosion when fired into the coal dust, hadonly a very low explosive force-scar ely more than one-thirdof the dynamite, westphalite, and roburite,-and to this lowexplosive power was due their immunity from flame or

explosion in coal dust, a result which no doubt would havebeen secured by other explosives that ’ ’fired" if they hadbeen of similarly low power. The distances to which the

projectile was thrown were as follows : Dynamite, 188 yards;tonite, 111 yards ; roburite, 182 yards ; westphalite, 177

yards; bellite, 171 yards ; ammonite, 163 yards; Ardeerpowder, 61 yards ; and carbonite, 77 yards. The generalopinion was that westphalite, under the conditions of thetests carried out, proved to be decidedly the best for miningpurposes, but in view of the importance of the subjectfurther experiments were desirable with the numerous

covered or flameless explosives that have been broughtforward recently for mining purposes.

THE DIFFUSION OF SMALL-POX.

IN the first week only of October did the new cases of

small-pox in London reach double figures ; the numbers

last week were but 9, with 8 admissions to hospital,Saturday finding 48 patients under treatment in the

institutions of the Metropolitan Asylums Board and at theHighgate Small-pox Hospital, against 63, 60, and 50 on thethree preceding Saturdays. The single death from thedisease registered last week belonged to the sanitary districtof St. George, Hanover-square. In the matter of the fatalform of small-pox in London the four weeks of September fur-nished 10 deaths, against only 2 in the five weeks of October.Several towns in the Midlands return cases of the maladylast week, among them being Wolverhampton, Handsworth,and Smethwick, though in none of these were the new casesnumerous. In the King’s Norton rural district there were3 cases in the hospital at the end of October. A serious stateof things exists at Birmingham, where there were no lessthan 69 fresh cases reported last week to the healthauthorities. The number of patients remaining under treat-ment at the hospital rose from 120 to 150 on Sunday last,37 patients having been discharged during the week and 2having died. At Willenhall there has been a slight re-crudescence, but on Monday last there was but a single casein hospital, a boy three years old. The Chesterfield

guardians and the Whittington local board have not

yet settled their dispute about the payment for thecare of pauper small-pox patients isolated by the healthauthority, but it seems likely that the matter will be

1109

soon amicably ended by the settlement of the account

by the guardians. At Liverpool the disease does not appearto make any great headway, as the fresh cases week by weeknever seem to rise to a dozen. But on one day last weekthere were as many as 6 attacks in the Toxteth-parklocality. House-to-house inspection in the affected neigh-bourhood is still maintained, and a large percentage of thenon-vaccinated persons discovered are found to be old "post-ponement " cases. This shows one weakness of the presentsystem under which vaccination officers are often put off

with certificates of postponement, only to find that beforethe period certified has elapsed the children in questionhave been removed and their parents have "left no address."A case of small-pox was last week reported as sea-borne atPort Talbot, near Aberavon, as also a case at Dowlais, andone was heard of in Merthyr Tydfil. In Dublin the diseasecontinues. In the third quarter of this year there were170 cases admitted to the Dublin hospitals, and 17 deathsoccurred. In the first week of October 8 cases were

admitted, leaving 62 patients in the wards ; 28 admissionswere recorded in the third week, 85 remaining ; the respectivefigures for the fourth week being 15 and 79, with 4

registered deaths. The disease has practically left the northside of the Liffey, but has manifested signs of increasesouth of the river.

____

THE HEALTH OF SEAMEN.

WE have commented on the prevalence of phthisisamong seamen of all nationalities, and in so doing weattributed this susceptibility to the very limited spaceallotted to the occupants of the forecastle. Dr. Colling-ridge, in his admirable lecture on the Hygiene of Ships,delivered before the Shipmasters’ Society, London, and

printed in THE LANCET of May 5th, 1894, urged thatthe legal minimum of 72 cubic feet should be largelyincreased-say, to not less than 100 cubic feet. We ob-serve with pleasure that the Fifth and Final Report of theRoyal Commission on Labour endorses these views, andrecommends that in new ships 120 cubic feet of forecastlespace should be provided for each seaman. Every suchconcession implies sacrifice of cargo space or storage roomof some kind, but shipowners will assuredly ultimately findtheir reward in the better service rendered by men whosehealth has benefited by the improvement in their quarters ;and not only their health but their general morale, for it is

clear that every alleviation of the discomforts of seafaringlife will tend to attract the services of a better class of

lads who will eventually develop into useful sailors.

PHTHISICAL PATIENTS IN CAPE COLONY.

A CORRESPONDENT writes to us from Herschel, CapeColony, to protest against the practice of sending out

advanced cases of phthisis to that region, and he

encloses cuttings from the Qiie6nstorvn free Press givinginstances of frequent deaths from the disease occurringamong recent immigrants. We entirely sympathise with ourcorrespondent in his strong condemnation of "the crueltyof sending out young persons-and elderly ones, too-in thelast stages of consumption simply to die amorgst strangers."But the question is hardly so simple as our correspondentseems to suppose. Granting that climatic change isa valuable remedy in phthisis, and that South Africais one of the best known health resorts in such cases-and we do not understand our correspondent to disputethese views,-we must not sweepingly condemn a certaintherapeutic resource because it sometimes leads to dis-

appointment and hardship. We should like to know how

many of these patients suffering from advanced phthisiswent out to South Africa without competent medical adviceor in opposition to it; how many accelerated the progress of

the disease by carelessness or imprudence ; and in how manyinstances the fatal issue was precipitated by some contingencywhich cannot be foreseen-e.g., haemorrhage. We are not7inclined to admit that the medical profession in the United"Kingdom is so ignorant of the elements of climato-thera-

peutics as our correspondent’s complaint would seem to

imp1y; but we welcome any means that can be adopted forspreading throughout the profession a correct knowledge of’the rules which must govern the recommendation of changeof climate in this disease. Those rules have been often laid.down and will be found clearly stated in various text-

books. They may be briefly summarised as follows. Thedisease must be more or less quiescent; the destruction of lungtissue must be moderate and not rapidly progressive ; theremust be no considerable continuous pyrexia, no rapid wast-ing, no profound debility ; there must be no extemion of the‘

tuberculous process to distant organs ; and there must be noserious complications. We do not say that the presence of

any one of these symptoms is an absolute contra-indicationto climatic change ; but we do say that it is only in suchcases as we have sketched that it can be recommended with

any real confidence. We may sometimes be compelled toallow a patient whose malady presents unfavourable featuresto try climatic change for the sake of palliation of symptomsand temporary relief, but we should be very frank in givingour opinion in such cases. -

THE SANITARY CONDITION OF GLOUCESTER-SHIRE.

GLOUCESTERSHIRE is one of the counties which has not yet;deemed it necessary to appoint a county medical officer, but.which has felt the desirability of making some use of the,district officers’ annual reports. Unfoitunately, the Councilhas not entrusted the duty of tabulating and summarisingthese reports to an experienced officer of health, but hasappointed a special committee for the purpose. This come-mittee has just issued its report for 1893, and it extends,to only six and a half pages octavo with well-spaced type.Its character may be gathered from the fact that the

account of the "water-supply" of the various districtsin the county takes five lines and the "drainage" eight,and that many most important subjects, such as the

"housing of the working classes," are not referred to at,all. Such a report, concluding with the statement that thecommittee can confidently assert that generally throughoutthe county the duties of the sanitary authorities appear tobe carefully and efficiently discharged," is scarcely likely tocarry conviction to a sceptical mind, and it is possible thatit may do positive harm by engendering a feeling of satis-faction and security not at all justified by the actual.’

conditions. ____

"CURIOSITIES OF A COUNTRY PRACTICE."

THE writer of an article under this title, which appears in-the November number of the Cornhill Maga;:;ine, is a

medical practitioner in Cornwall, and gives some curious’

and most interesting examples of the survival in his districtof strange superstitions. A few years ago a white witch-"adirty old woman living in a back street ...... the repositoryof innumerable absurdities handed down from countless

generations of traffic in the black art "-shared with the:orthodox practitioner the confidence of the country folk.The wise woman under her different names may, we know, be.found in many parts of England yet, though her functionsare generally more those of the soothsayer, of the astrologer,or of the detective than of the physician, but it is hard to’.

believe that such a remedy as the one that follows-a remedyredolent of Alexander of Tralles-could really have beenproposed in England in the year of the Jubilee. Yet as.

late as 1887 the finger of a man who had committed suicide