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discussion of several relative problems, for which there wasnot sufficient time. By common consent it was agreed thatthe subject was of such interest and the observations were soimportant that a profitable discussion of them in their variousrelations could only be undertaken when the members hadhad an opportunity of studying the views brought forward,and the evidence for them, when these were published.An adjourned meeting for the discussion is to be held, subse-quently to which we hope to deal fully with the views whichthe paper embodies. -

VILLAGE SANITATION.

MR. GEORGE DE’ATH of Buckingham is an ardent advocateof village sanitation ; and as the result of the experience hehas acquired both as to the sanitary circumstances of villagesin his own county and as to the almost impossible task ofsecuring for them proper sewerage, together with adequatewater-supply, cleansing, control of buildings &c., he comes

to the conclusion that a supervision of rural districts oughtto be maintained by non-local medical inspectors connectedwith the central authority, that further powers of compulsion Imust be exercised and that the incidence of rating for

sanitary purposes ought to be put on a more satisfactoryfooting. He also urges the necessity of means of adequateisolation of the sick and of institutions at certain central

points where bacteriological and other similar work neededfor purposes of diagnosis and of the adoption of successfulpreventive measures could be performed for the local healthofficers.

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LARGE TUMOUR OF THE FRONTAL LOBE.

IN a recent number of the Medical News (1’hiladelphia),Dr. Morrison gives a description of the case of a patient, firstseen in 1886, when he was suffering from vague pains in thehead, which were ascribed to syphilitic meningitis, and wererelieved by iodide of potassium. Dr. Morrison lost sight of himand never saw him again until two days before his death inDecember, 1891. In the interval he had been in various hands, !Iand had been in the Pennsylvania Hospital for a period Iof six weeks. From the somewhat fragmentary history itseems that in the summer of 1888 he had an epileptiformconvulsion, and that the pains in the head returned withincreased severity. They were worse on stooping. In August,1889, he gave up his work, and about this time it was noticedthat his speech was slower than formerly. Soon after leavingwork his eyesight began to fail, so that be was unable to re-cognise persons or objects at some distance. When in the

Pennsylvania Hospital he was in a condition of mental hebe-tude. The tongue was protruded straight and there was noparalysis. He had extensive hsemorrhagic retinitis in both

eyes. There was no material change in his condition whenhe was seen by Dr. Morrison two days before death, exceptthat he was feverish, with injected conjunctivse and othersymptoms of influenza. Next day he became comatose, anddied that evening. At the necropsy the dura mater was foundto be strongly adherent to the pia mater along each side of thelongitudinal fissure. There was a large tumour in the leftfrontal region attached superficially to the dura mater, andapparently growing from it. This mass had occupied thegreater part of the anterior fossa of the skull, and below ithad invaded the left half of the cribriform plate of the

ethmoid, so that there was a direct communication be-tween the interior of the skull and the nasal cavity.The tumour extended backwards into the frontal lobetwo and three-quarter inches. It was not adherent to thebrain substance, but had apparently pressed the frontal con-volutions backward, and when it had eroded the ethmoid ithad apparently also destroyed some central tissue. After

preservation in alcohol for five months the weight of themass was five ounces, and one curious point about it is the

fact that there was a small exostosis on the inner aspect ofthe frontal bone, which formed a distinct indentation in thetumour. There was no evidence on the bone here of any external

injury, but it may be that the irritation of the dura at one pointby such an exostosis was a very important factor in the pro-duction of the growth. The tumour was a spindle-celledsarcoma, but the chief interest of the case lies in the absenceof motor symptoms due to the growth-an absence whichseems to confirm the current views as to the functions of thefrontal lobes.

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PROGRESS OF TYPHUS FEVER AT DUNDEE.

THE epidemic of typhus fever at Dundee shows some

signs of abatement. In all twenty-eight cases have occurredin twenty-one houses. Of these twenty-one houses, six con-tain only one room, and thirteen only two. Only one five-roomed house was invaded. Pending fuller data, these factsshow clearly the oft-established relationship between typhusfever and cubic space. Though half the cases were schoolattendants, the Dundee School Board have not agreed to thehealth officer’s suggestion to close the public schools.

THE METROPOLITAN HOSPITAL SUNDAY FUND.

IN drawing the attention of our readers to the meeting ofthe Metropolitan Hospital Sunday Fund held at the MansionHouse on Nov. 25th to consider the report of the Council,we noted that the date of the next annual collection of thefund was fixed for June llth. We ought also to have statedthat Archbishop Vaughan pointed out that, owing to the

collection on behalf of schools belonging to the Roman

Catholic denomination having been fixed for June llth, itwould be necessary for the Roman Catholic churches to maketheir Hospital Sunday collection on June 18th.

INFECTIOUS DISEASE AT LEEDS.

THERE are at present ninety cases of scarlet fever and

forty-eight of small-pox under isolation at Leeds. Nine casesof the latter disease were removed during the week. It is

said that there are a great many private sufferers from bothdiseases who have not been removed to hospital. Leeds atthe present moment is in the unenviable position of beingone of the very few large towns in England which has notadopted notification. The occurrences there will, it is hoped,cause an early removal of the stigma.

THE ORIGIN OF HÆMOGLOBIN.

VTE look to comparative physiology and histology for muchof our information on the origin of the blood-corpuscles, andquite recently considerable light has been shed on the subjectby the researches carried on in both the phylogeneticand ontogenetic relations of these corpuscles. In the

Transactions of the Canadian Institute for 1891 Dr. A. B.

Macalluml deals with the question of the origin of hoemo-globin of the fusiform corpuscles and of the baematoblasts inthe blood of amphibia. Working with lake lizards (Necturuslateralis) and the larvae of Amblystoma punctatum andexamining the blood fresh, or fixed either in the fames ofosmic acid-1 per cent. solution for two hours-or by asaturated solution of corrosive sublimate or picric acid,or by Ehrlich’s fluid (the only fixing reagents which hefound serviceable), and staining with the various colour re-agents usually recommended, he obtained most beautiful

preparations, as a result of the study of which he concludesthat the haemoglobin of the blood-corpuscles is derived fromthe abundant nuclear chromatin of the hasmatoblasts. This

chromatin, he considers, is an iron compound, the constantoxidation and reduction of which constitutes the chemical

1 Studies on the Blood of Amphibia.