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Dr. Agagabow gives illustrations showing the mode of termina-tion of the sensory nerves. These are drawn with much

delicacy. The vaso-motor nerves taken from the choroid arealso shown which exhibit the disposition of the ganglion cellsboth singly and in groups. He states finally that in manysections of the sclera taken from white cats and rabbits

finely granular nerve fibres may be met with which proceedfrom medullated nerve trunks and which form inter-

communicating networks round endothelial cells.

PUBLIC-HOUSES AND THE SPREAD OFTUBERCULOSIS.

THAT the public-house is a fruitful source of infection bythe tubercle bacillus is well known and the returns of the

English Registrar-General show that public-house servantsare specially prone to be affected by pulmonary tuberculosis.This is not to be wondered at when we consider that the floorof the lower class of public-house is covered with sawdustwhich in great measure is impregnated with sputum. This

dust dries and is constantly being stirred up by the feet ofdrinkers. Not only are barmen and barmaids and the

customers of the house thus exposed to infection but theunhappy children who are brought into the house by theirmothers are likewise in danger. The public-house is the

poor woman’s club where she can discuss with her neigh-bours social and domestic incidents ; the children cannot beleft at home and so they sit on the public-house floorduring their mothers’ gossip-time. Only the other day i

passing a large public-house in one of the main thorough-fares of St. Luke’s we noticed through the open door of apublic bar several slatternly women drinking at the counter,while crawling on the floor of the bar and rubbing theirhands in the saw-dust with which it was strewn were two

babies of from 18 to 24 months old. That this is not an

uncommon occurrence those who have occasion to visit poorand squalid neighbourhoods well know and in the light ofsuch facts is it to be wondered that the race is said to be

degenerating or that medieal science should have such a hardup-hill fight with disease? ‘! Granting that these children,probably the offspring of degenerate beings, become infectedwith the bacillus of tubercle the environment in which theylive will necessarily be a potent factor in the development ofpulmonary tuberculosis and not only will they themselvessuffer but they will also involve the public in great expensefor their subsequent treatment and keep. Recently a lawhas been passed to prevent children under a certain age fromobtaining intoxicants and there is legislation for the pre-vention of cruelty to children but as yet there is no lawto prevent ignorant mothers from leaving their offspringto play on the disease-laden floor of a public-house.In another column we refer to the efforts being made toinculcate the precepts of hygiene at an early age and manypublicans, notably those in the borough of Woolwich, postup notices requesting their customers not to spit. But until

spitting on the floor of a tavern is made a penal offence as itis at present to spit in a tramcar, there is but little hope ofamelioration.

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ON PUBLIC HEALTH AND SOME OTHERMATTERS.

THE Buddhist ascribes all evil to Avidya or ignorance, andwhether the arguments by which he arrives at this conclu-sion be valid or not there can be no doubt that a largeamount of bodily sickness, with its attendant pain and

suffering, is due to this cause. To dispel the ignorance whichcreates disease is part of the work of the medical professionand in so doing it offers itself as a sacrifice to the causewhich it serves. For does not its material existence dependupon the existence of the ills which it alleviates ? Its rewardis the satisfaction of duty well done, and more and more as

our science continues in its progress is it seen that the work

of medicine is becoming preventive. Our best energies aredevoted to the forestalling of disease, instead of waiting, a,!S.

in days gone by we were compelled to wait, until a mani-

fested disease called for our therapeutics. In recent years,as thought and study have been devoted to the various

aspects of public health, it has become obvious that

endeavours to educate the masses of the people in those-

matters on which the general health depends offer the best,chance of securing effective protection of the community.Medical men have consequently welcomed the aid of variousinstitutions and societies which by collecting statistics,delivering lectures, and other methods have helped to awakenthe members of the public to their responsibilities withregard to the care of family, community, and national health.Singularly little assistance in this direction has been receivedfrom the public press, the most powerful educative machinethat we possess in other directions. So far from helping thecause of health, in too many cases the public press servesas a medium for puffing the quack. And even where the-

self-respect of editors and proprietors prevents this we are-very generally treated to a curious exhibition of ignoranceupon all medical topics. On the slightest hint of a new,medical discovery inaccurate and highly coloured articles

are written, holding out hopes to poor sufferers from diseasesincurable-in the present state of our knowledge. If the

press would become the vehicle of the dissemination ofscientific knowledge instead of the medium by which the quackrobs the public we should all have reason to rejoice. In the

household ignorance of sanitary laws is often the cause ofmuch disease otherwise preventable and in the case ofinfectious diseases the evil may be widespread. The want of

knowledge of the most simple hygienic rules regardingfood, ventilation, and cleanliness by the public as a bodyis astonishing. We are pleased therefore to see that a newmovement is about to be initiated by the committee of

management of the Hospital Saturday Fund, which has underits consideration a scheme for the establishment of a

health department. It is proposed to form classes for theinstruction of women in the elements of domestic hygiene,the lecturers to be medical men. The Hospital SaturdayFund is in touch with working men throughout London andthe scheme if properly carried out ought, in the near

future, to have an important influence on the health of thecommunity generally. -

INSANITY AND THE HEREDITARY NEUROSESALLIED TO IT REGARDED FROM THE

STANDPOINT OF VARIATION.

EVER since Morel of Belgium (1858) published his classicaltreatise on degeneration in human races the attention ofalienists and neurologists has been drawn to the study ofinsanity as a problem of what the biologists call variation.

In the EdE7abicrIt 1lIetGical Journal for May and June Dr.John Macpherson, Commissioner of Lunacy for Scotland,draws attention to the anatomical "stigmata" or physicalsigns of abnormal development present in the insane, andespecially in the idiot, the imbecile, and the feeble-minded.The absence of certain mental faculties is, says Dr.

Macpherson, " wholly or in part correlated with the develop-ment of the physical organisation, especially that of thecentral nervous system, and it is rare to meet with imperfectcongenital structure of the nervous system in the absence ofbodily imperfections." The more grave the incidence of themental defect the more numerous and pronounced are thephysical malformations. Thus, as we pass up the scale frommonsters to idiots, imbeciles, and the higher classes of thelatter we find a gradual diminution of physical stigmata ofdegeneration until they disappear altogether as we emergeupon the normal platform of the race. The mental defects