1259THE LATE EMPEROR OF GERMANY,

sudden onset, the course of the pyrexia, the early appearance of jaundice, the absence of pulmonary catarrh, the herpeticand erythematous rashes, and indeed almost all the 8ym-ptoms, being opposed to that idea. Moreover, if Aufrecht’stwo cases were examples of Weil’s disease, they neither ofthem showed typhoid lesions in the intestine. It is notedthat nine out of Fiedler’s thirteen patients were butchers, afact which may prove of etiological value.

THE LATE EMPEROR OF GERMANY.

IN another column will be found a short report on therecent condition of H,I.M. the late Emperor of Germany,furnished by Sir Morell Mackenzie, together with his state-ment as to the nature of the case, made immediately beforethe post-mortem examination. Up to the present time nocomplete account of the case has been published, and eventhe full details of the post-mortem examination have notbeen made public. We must therefore postpone any com-ments on the many important questions that it raises untilwe have all the facts before us. We can now only say thatthe post-mortem examination showed what our readersmust have known long ago-that the disease was cancerin an aggravated form. -

SMALL-POX IN THE NORTH.

ENERGETIC measures are being adopted to stay the

progress of small-pox in Preston. Owing to the suddenonset of the disease the authorities were unprepared to copewith it, and the needed means of isolation were not avail-able. There is a hospital near the workhouse which, it isstated, can take in some 300 patientq, and which hashitherto been of little use, but since it is vested in the

guardians of the poor it could only be legally used forpauper persons ; unless, indeed, the building could tempo-rarily be transferred to the corporation, who are the sani-tary authority. In the meantime further progress is beingmade with a temporary erection in Moor-park; but, likemost temporary erections, its usefulness will, it is feared bymany, come too late. Much the same is being done atSkipton, where a temporary hospital is being put up after the need for it has to a large extent passed away. At Hull,small-pox is said to show no indications of abatement. Sofar the type is mild, but there are some forty patients undertreatment in the borough hospital.

THE MEDICAL FACULTY OF BARCELONA.

THE first stone of a new medical faculty and clinicalhospital for Barcelona was laid on May 28th. There was, of

course, a great ceremony, the Minister of Education and allthe municipal and university authorities being present.The Government has assigned a million dollars for the

buildings, and the local authorities have given the site.

These works, as it would seem from the Barcelona

correspondence of El Siglo Médico, have not been beguna moment too soon, as the hospital, lecture-room, andlaboratory accommodation in Barcelona is at present ofthe most meagre and unsatisfactory description. The

hospital of Santa Cruz is pervaded, not only in the

wards, but in the staircases, by a powerful smell. Thebeds are arranged in double rows along each side of badlylighted and badly ventilated walls, the foot of one bedtouching the head of another, and the space at the sidesof the beds scarcely allowing the attendants to move about.There are no ventilating arrangements, the air renewing itselfas best it can. Notwithstanding all thifl, however, it is

satisfactory to learn that, thanks to extreme care taken byDr. Morales in attending to antiseptic measures, he has notlost a single one out of eighty cases of major operations

performed this year. With regard to the medical school, itcannot, strictly speaking, be called a university, as it is unableto grant the M.D. degree, which Madrid alone has the powerof conferring. The lecture-rooms are small, dirty, andbadly arranged, the di8sectiDg-room confined and dark, thelaboratories ill supplied with materials, and the library ofbut little use. In striking contrast to this is the new

municipal laboratory under Dr. Ferr’an, as well as two

private laboratories belonging to Drs. Barraquer and Pi, allof which are well arranged and replete with every necessaryfor bacteriological research. Indeed, according to theauthor of the letter, the municipal laboratory is worthy torank amongst the first in Europe.

THE REPORT ON EXPERIMENTATION ON LIVINGANIMALS.

IN his report Mr. Erichsen states that the number ofcases in which pain has been unavoidably inflicted duringexperiments conducted under the operation of certificates-which dispense with anaesthetics in cases in which theywould frustrate the result of the experiment, or with thekilling of the animal on recovery from anæsthesia-is seventy-one, or 5.8 per cent. of the total number of experiments.Of these, two were physiological, twenty-one pathological,and forty-eight therapeutical. In one case only, that of atherapeutical experiment, specially protected under Certi-ficate E, was an animal subjected to pain. It is importantto observe that comparatively few vivisections," pro- .

perly so-called-that is to say, experiments involving adistinct surgical operation on a living animal,-have beenpractised during the past year. In all cases in whichsuch experiments have been performed under Certificate B(dispensing with the necessity of killing the animal beforethe effect of the anaesthetic has passed away), it has beenmade a condition that the wound should be treated anti-

septically and thus be rendered practically painless, and thatin the event of the antiseptics failing and the animal suffer-ing pain it should be destroyed. Mr. Erichsen has everyreason to believe that this condition has been faithfullyfulfilled by those on whom it was imposed. We have readthis report with satisfaction, because of the care which theinspector evidently takes to prevent any infringement ofthe law.

___

HOSPITAL SATURDAY FUND.

WE are glad to notice a healthy dissatisfaction with pastperformances in the Council of the Fund, especially with re-gard to collections in the workshops. The street collection,which is fixed for the 14th of July, is expected to showconsiderable advance. It has steadily increased from£258 in 1874 to nearly X5000 last year. We agree withLord Brassey, President of the Fund, that £50,000 wouldnot be too great a contribution from the working classes ofLondon to the institutions by which they so largely profit.

THE DANGERS OF A COLD SUMMER.

REPORTS from Aberdeenghire testify to the prevalence ofunusually severe weather in the upland districts of thatcounty. For the first time during many years snow fellheavily in the earlier part of this month, covering theground to a depth of from three to six inches. The damagedone to trees at this time in full foliage by the breakingof branches under their snowy load was considerable, andcattle are said to have been in great straits from the im-possibility of access to their grazing ground. In the southwe have not suffered so much as our northern neighbours;but the current month and that of May will probablybe remembered by medical practitioners here and elsewhereon account of the unusual coldness and uncertain variations