822

&c.). Eight hours after the bite he was put to bed and aliberal dose of whitehouse mixture administered. He

developed no further symptoms and was discharged four dayslater. The patient was an old soldier and had served withLord Roberts in Afghanistan and never knew fear till the dayof his accident. I treated him for snake bite pure andsimple, no sign of alcoholism, and must say that his condi-tion warranted heroic treatment as he was in a comatosestate."

Vital Statistics.In the quarter ending June 30th, 1907, the number of

births in the Commonwealth was 27,895, of which 1656 wereillegitimate. 267 cases of twin births were registered andnine cases of triplets. 14,324 were males and 13,571 werefemales. During the same period there were 10,707 deaths.Tuberculosis was the most destructive disease, claiming 939victims, of whom 529 were males and 410 females.

Enteric I ever in Victoria.A return just placed before the Board of Public Health I

shows a remarkable diminution in the number of cases in thepast ten years. In 1898 there were 5423 country cases and2020 cases in Melbourne, while last year the figures were 1030and 350. The metropolitan sewerage system has greatlyimproved the figures for Melbourne.

Remarkable Oee?trr,.-nee.While two lunatic patients were being taken by steam

launch from Sydney to Gladesville Asylum, which is on theParramatta River, one of them suddenly jumped overboard.Before the attendants grasped the situation the other patienthad dived after the first and seizing hold of him kept himafloat till both were rescued by the launch party.

Obituary.The death is announced of Dr. James Barrett, one of the

oldest and most widely known of the older generation ofmedical men in Melbourne. Dr. Barrett was a native ofBanbury, Oxfordshire, and arrived in Melbourne in 1858. Hewas one of the original members of the Alfred Hospital staffand for many years held a commission as justice of the peace.Three sons are members of the medical profession-viz.,Dr. J. W. Barrett who is lecturer on physiology of the

special senses at the University of Melbourne and was formerlydemonstrator at King’s College, London; Dr. Edgar A.Barrett; and Dr. John Barrett who was a distinguishedcricketer and visited England as a member of an Australianeleven. One daughter, Dr. Edith Barrett, has also beenpractising medicine for some years in Melbourne.Jan. 25th.

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Obituary.REGINALD HARRISON, F.R.C.S. ENG.,

CONSULTI-VG SURGEOV TO ST. PETER’S HOSPITAL FOR STONE, ETC.

THE unexpected death of Mr. Reginald Harrison hasremoved one who for 40 years played a hard-working anddistinguished part in two great circles of surgical activityand who devoted his thought and time in no small degree tothe alleviation of an unnecessary cause of suffering in citystreets with which his hospital experience had early madehim familiar. ,

Reginald Harrison was born 70 years ago in Shropshireand was the eldest son of the late Rev. Thomas Harrison ofStafford. He was - educated at Rossal and received therudiments of his medical training at the Stafford GeneralHospital where he came under the influence of the late Mr.Moreton of Tarvin, to whose instruction he was wont toacknowledge his lasting debt. Coming to London, heentered St. Bartholomew’s Hospital and qualified M.R.C.S.and L.S.A. in 1859. He at once went to Liverpool,the city which was to become the nurse of his pro-fessional fortunes, although when he entered it hehad not, in his own words, "the acquaintance of one

professional friend in the city or neighbourhood." Hestarted as house surgeon at the Northern Hospital andin the next year obtained the valuable appointmentof resident surgeon to the Royal Infirmary, a post which heheld for three years ; at the end of this period he commencedpractice but was able to devote much of his time tu theremodelling of the Liverpool School of Medicine which hadfallen into a very unstable condition. He was appointeddemonstrator of anatomy and registrar in the school and

shortly afterwards surgeon to the Northern Hospital, In1866 he became a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons ofEngland and two years later he was made assistant surgeonto the Royal Infirmary at Liverpool, succeeding to a full sur-geoncy in 1874, and to the senior surgeoncy on the retire-ment of Mr. E. R. Bickersteth 14 years later. Harrison

proved himself to have two qualities which, when theyoccur in one man, of necessity make for his success:

he was an enthusiast and a steady worker. He has left arecord of the latter fact in the Liverpool Hospital Reports,of which he was part editor from 1867 to 1871, and heperformed a similar duty for the Liverpool and Man-chester Reports from 1873 to 1878. During these years otherduties were crowding upon him ; he was made successivelylecturer in Surgery and Anatomy at the Liverpool School ofMedicine and in Clinical Surgery at the Victoria Universitywhich had not yet undergone its analytical reconstruction.He was also an examiner in surgery at the University ofDurham as well as at his own.

In 1883 he was chosen to deliver the Address in Surgery atthe Liverpool meeting of the British Medical Association and in1888 he became President of the Liverpool Medical Institution.In that year he was asked to deliver the Lettsomian Lecturesbefore the Medical Society of London, and he took for hissubject "Some Points in the Surgery of the Urinary Organs."By this time he was in the enjoyment of a wide consultingand operating practice, especially in urinary surgery, thebranch in which he had taken a special interest from the out-set of his career. It was more a matter of regret than sur-prise to his colleagues, therefore, when in the next year hewas invited to go to London to fill the place of the late Mr.Walter Coulson as surgeon to the St. Peter’s Hospital forStone. He accepted the invitation and at his departurefrom Liverpool was presented with an address andpieces of plate, the presentation being made by the lateSir W. Mitchell Banks. Sixteen years later Harrisonreturned to Liverpool to do public honour to the memoryof that same distinguished surgeon who had been hisclose personal friend, the occasion being his delivery of thefirst Banks Memorial Lecture. He took for his subject " TheProspects and Retrospects of University Life," and in thecourse of a graceful tribute to his departed colleague heshowed his deep knowledge of the records of his own

university, of the court of which he was a life member.Whilst at Liverpool he married Jane, daughter of Mr.A. Baron, of that city. Harrison came to London with hisreputation made and from the first his success in privatepractice was assured. He continued to play a prominent partin professional life and held many offices ; he was made a Vice-President of, and Hunterian professor to, the Royal College ofSurgeons in 1890, and Bradshaw lecturer in 1896, when hetook for his subject " Vesical Stone and Prostatic Disorders."In the same year he was elected President of the MedicalSociety of London and gave his official address on "TheTreatment of Some Forms of Albuminuria by Renipuncture."Two years later he was made a Vice-President of the RoyalMedical and Chirurgical Society, and in 1902 he delivered theannual memorial lecture of the Hunterian Society. This was

by no means his last official public utterance, for in 1904 hepractically founded the Metropolitan Street Ambulance Asso-ciation and since then until his death the presidency of thatbody was a labour of love with him. His interest in ambu-lance work dated back to his hospital days at Liverpooland he made a careful study of all the systems employed,so that he became an acknowledged authority on ambu-lance work in civil life. He published a book on the subject,which is in its sixth edition, but his ideals took more solid;forna than ink and paper.We need not rehearse all the phases of the movement of

which he was the guiding spirit, for we have made frequentLllusion to the street ambulance problem for London, andieed only refer to a leading article on the subject inTHE LANCET of Nov. 23rd, 1907, p. 1474, for an epitome ofhe whole matter ; but we may repeat that Reginald Harrisonhas been the mainspring of the movement and the fulfilmentf his scheme for a motor ambulance service, in’ so far as itffects the City of London, was a fitting reward for hisabour. He was keenly interested in the outcome of the’arliamentary Committee which still has the matter in handnd we wish he could have died assured that it will lead to thextension of the City’s system to the whole metropolitan area.lis delight - was unmistakeable on the two occasions duringlast year of the public trials of the White Swan " of the City,s the ambulance car has been dubbed, for the successful

823institution of which, as our readers will remember, thepublic owes a good deal to Captain Nott Bower, the ChiefCommissioner of the City Police, who was Mr. Harrison’sson-in-law. In recognition of his ambulance work hewas made a Knight of Grace of the Order of St. Johnof Jerusalem. Two years ago the Khedive of Egyptconferred upon him the First Class of the ImperialOrder of the Medjidieh in appreciation of his services. Hewas an honorary member of the French Surgical and

Urological Society and of more than one similar society inAmerica. He showed his sympathy with distant colleaguesby appealing to the profession at home for duplicate copiesof books to send to Toronto to replace the medical section ofthe library after it had been destroyed by fire in 1890.Such was his public career. In private life he was a kind

and courteous gentleman, a man who attracted friends

naturally. He was a man of wide tastes outside surgery,and these are well indicated by saying that he was amember of the Athenaeum, the Garrick, and the M.C.C.He died at Lower Berkeley-street on Feb. 28th from influenzalpneumonia after a very short illness. He is survived by oneson and two daughters. Mr. Harrison was an industriouswriter, as our own columns abundantly testify. During thelast two decades of the last century there were few years inwhich he did not contribute some paper of urological interest,so that his papers form a fair epitome of the progress ofthat branch of surgery. The books which he published, besidesthose mentioned above, were "The Urethrotomies andKidney Capsulotomy," " The Surgical Disorders of the

Urinary Organs," and "Clinical Lectures on Stone andUrinary Disorders," His occasional contributions, were

largely concerned with urethrotomy, the treatment ofcertain cases of acute nephritis by renipuncture andlater by capsulotomy, and the pathology and treatmentof enlarged prostate. For long he advocated vasectomyin this last-named condition but in his later writingshe gave due consideration to prostatectomy. He main-tained a prejudice in favour of the perineal route forlithotomy after the pendulum of opinion had swung towardsthe suprapubic operation but he was no slave to custom and judged every procedure on what appeared to him to beits merits. As far back as 1888 he demonstrated theelectric endoscope at Liverpool and then reminded hisaudience that 20 years previously he had shown thereDesormeaux’s primitive instrument with its paraffin illu-mination. In his Bradshaw lecture in 1896 he showed akeen appreciation of the potentiality of the x rays as a meansof diagnosis of stone, a prophesy which he lived to see

justified. Amongst other subjects on which he wrote werealbuminuria and kidney tension, lithotrity, and urine fever.His thoughts, however, were not entirely fixed on his specialpractice for three years ago he sent us a thoughtful littlepaper on the possible connexion between the increase in

appendicitis and the use of boric acid as a preservative offood.

Dr. Richard Caton, Lord Mayor of Liverpool, and an oldfriend and colleague of Mr. Reginald Harrison, has kindlysent to us the following supplementary note. "Thenumerousfriends of the late Mr. Reginald Harrison, alike those in theprofession and among the laity, have heard with the deepestregret the news of his death. In Liverpool the feeling wasparticularly strong and widespread. The bonhomie, cheeri-ness, kindliness of nature which characterised Mr. Harrison,no less than his great ability in his own professional sphere,caused him to be greatly beloved and highly valued. The

special ability and tact which were so characteristic of himwere of great value not merely in the hospitals which heserved so diligently in Liverpool, but also in regard to hisconnexion with the Medical Institution and the School ofMedicine. It is well known that Great Britain owed toMr. Harrison the introduction of the ambulance system.He had noted during his travels in America the greatadvantages that method offered, and after some difficulty hesucceeded in persuading the authorities in Liverpool toinstitute an exactly similar arrangement. This, as we know,has now been copied in a large number of cities not only inEngland but throughout Europe, and is found of the greatestadvantage. Mr. Harrison’s zeal and energy were exceedinglyvaluable also to the School of Medicine. At a time whenthat institution was in low water and when it was a matter ofdoubt whether it was worth while continuing it, Mr.Harrison together with two or three of his colleagues wereof opinion that if improved and maintained it might provethe germ from which a college and even a university

might spring in the city of Liverpool, and to a.

considerable extent the present flourishing Universityof Liverpool has to thank him that its foundationtook place at so early a date as it did. Mr. Harrison wasgreatly beloved by his students. His methods of teachingwere simple, direct, and practical. He wasted little time indisquisitions upon theory, but he showed his pupils how to form a careful diagnosis and how to carry out a useful andpractical treatment. The loss to Mr. Harrison’s privatefriends is indeed a very great one. Not many men have suchkindliness, such capacities for friendship, and few had thewonderful memory that he possessed in regard to faces andindividuals whom he had known even at remote periods oftime. Nowhere is his loss more lamented than among his

many friends in Liverpool."

EDWARD DILLON MAPOTHER, M.D. R.U.I.,F.R.C.S.IREL.

THE many friends in England and Ireland of Dr. EdwardDillon Mapother, and those Irishmen scattered through theworld who were his former pupils at the Royal College ofSurgeons in Ireland will regret to hear of his death whichtook place at his residence, 16, Welbeck-street, London, W.,from influenza and broncho-pneumonia, on March 3rd, in hisseventy-third year. He had retired from active practice forseveral years and had lately been in failing health.

Dr. Mapother belonged to a well-known Roscommon familyof English descent but long settled in that county. He wasborn at Fairview, near Dublin, on Oct. 14tb, 1835. The systemof apprenticeship being still in vogue when he commenced hisprofessional studies he was bound to Dr. Hatch Power, pro-fessor of surgery in the Royal College of Surgeons, Dublin.In 1857 he graduated M,D. (with first honours and gold medal)in the Queen’s University. For some years he was engagedin tutorial work and prepared many successful candidatesfor the medical service of the Crown as well as for gradua-tion. In 1862 he became a Fellow of the College of Surgeonsand soon after, in 1867, was elected professor of anatomy andphysiology in succession to Professor Jacob, having beenappointed in 1864 to the chair of hygiene. He had beensurgeon to St. Vincent’s Hospital from 1859 as well as to theChildren’s Hospital. For several years he discharged withconspicuous ability the onerous duties of medical officer ofhealth of Dublin, and many much-needed sanitary reformsowe their initiation to his courage and energy. He waselected President of the Royal College of Surgeons in Irelandin 1879 and it was largely due to his exertions in his year ofoffice that the dental diploma of the College was instituted,while later he took a leading part in the movement whichbrought about the amalgamation of the Carmichael andLedwich schools with that of the College. He was the -author of many professional works, amongst others "AManual of Physiology" (three editions), "Lectures on

Public Health," and " The Body and its Health," a bookfor primary schools (six editions). In 1868 he won theCarmichael prize for the best essay on " Medical Education."He delivered the address on public medicine at the Brightonmeeting of the British Medical Association in 1886. Duringthe next few years he spent a considerable time at the centresof medical education in France and Germany in the study ofskin diseases as well as syphilis and gout.

In 1888 he removed the sphere of his consulting practice toLondon and was presented with a farewell address by theleading members of the profession in Dublin. In that yearhe was President of the Dublin branch of the British MedicalAssociation. Dr. Mapother was also a Fellow of the RoyalMedical and Chirurgical Society, a member of council of theMedical Society of London, and chairman of the IrishMedical Schools’ and Graduates’ Association. He was alsofor some years, 1880-1886, surgeon to the Lords Lieutenantof Ireland.He married in 1870 Ellen, daughter of the Hon. John

Tobin, M.P., of Halifax, Canada, who survives him and hasissue one son, Edward Mapother, M.B., B.S. Lond., who haslately entered the medical profession and is at present housephysician at University College Hospital, and six daughters,of whom five survive.

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DEATHS OF EMINENT FOREIGN MEDICAL MEN.-The deathof the following eminent foreign medical man is announced:Dr. Ferdinand Petersen, extraordinary professor of surgeryin the University of Kiel, aged 62 years.