786

English-speaking expansion over that of its other Europearcompetitors in the strongest light-a superiority due to thecivilising energies and aptitudes of the race, using as a maininstrument the medical missionary. Scotland has an honour-

able record in this field of enterprise, from Mungo Park toDavid Livingstone and the noble band of volunteers to whomthe regions round the Equatorial lakes are already so deeplyindebted. The faculty which he represented in GlasgowUniversity took, said Professor McKendrick, "the deepestinterest in medical missionary work." Long may it continueto do so, thus making medicine the handmaid of physicaland moral evolution and promoting spiritual reclamationwith a success which religion, single-handed, has never

known. ___

"ANTI-VIVISECTION."

AN institution that desires to be known as the NationalAnti-Vivisection Hospital is advertising for funds. A noble

lord and a lady whose name is not given have promised sumsof L50 and £ 10 respectively if a given number of personswill also oblige with donations of equal value. The pro-gramme which the promoters of this foundation lay downfor it is brief and is as follows: " No vivisectors on its

staff ; no vivisection in its schools ; no experiments onpatients." There is here an obvious omission and one whichno doubt the intending donors of E50 and £ 10 will desire tosee supplied before drawing their cheques. A fourth ruleshould run to this effect : "No operation will be performedand no drug will be administered in this hospital the effect ofwhich has been discovered or verified in any degree by meansor with the aid of experiments on living animals," all suchexperiments being presumably included in the word" Vivi-section " as used in the advertisement. The precise meaningof the expression experiments on patients " needs furtherdefinition. Either the surgeons in this institution are to

profit by operations successfully performed for the firsttime elsewhere by other surgeons, but are not to be

trusted to take steps without precedents to follow, or

a wider principle is suggested for universal guidancesimilar to that enjoined by the fond but Hibernian

parent who forbids a child to enter the water until he haslearnt to swim. In whatever way it may be regarded everydeviation, however slight, from established practice is neces-sarily an experiment the first time it is made, aye and untilthe deviation has itself become recognised as necessary whenoccasion demands. But now we are beginning to pay thefaddist the useless compliment of reasoning with him,whereas he will not even gracefully reply by submitting to usa schedule of the operations and drugs that he would permitunder the limitations which we have suggested and whichare the logical complement to those already propounded.

RIVER POLLUTION: THE MERSEY AND IRWELLDISTRICT.

AT a meeting of the Mersey and Irwell Joint Committeeheld on March 6th Sir Henry Roscoe presented a return of aseries of analyses of sewage effluents and of the waters ofthe Ship Canal and of the rivers in the district. Of 36

samples of effluent taken 26 were either good or fair, the un-satisfactory effluents mainly coming from tanks. The tables

concerning the effluents showed that the difficulty of dealingwith the sewage was mostly felt in the large towns. Sincethe committee began its work, however, their knowledge hadbeen much extended and he felt that even in large townsthe difficulties which presented themselves could be overcome.There was no doubt of considerable progress having beenmade and this progress was especially noticeable in the con-dition of the rivers themselves. Many cases had come beforethem in which water could be used for manufacturingpurposes which could not be so used before the committee

1 began its work. It was satisfactory to know, too, that the’3 committee bad not interfered with trade. No single in-

i stance had occurred in which a manufacturer had tc’- leave the district by reason of the action of the committee.) The returns were of considerable interest. They had

i hitherto not been able to state definitely what the conditionr of the rivers was. He bad the results of a very completer system of analyses of the waters of the ship canal andb of the rivers in the watershed. 63 samples had been.

; taken from the Ship Canal and analysed and they hadl obtained a fair idea of the condition of the water

L generally. It had been said that the composition of thewater in the canal was worse than the effluent from the locaBauthorities. This was proved by analyses not to be the case.69 samples had been taken from the streams. It was found

in all cases that the condition of the water deteriorated, the further they went from the source. Although they could

not tell exactly the improvement which had taken place in.the condition of the streams during the last few years therewas no doubt that some improvement had taken place. The

samples related to the Irk, the Medlock, the Mersey, theIrwell, the Roach, and the Beal. The Irk was by far theworst of the streams ; the Mersey and Irwell were not nearlyso bad. The reason for this will no doubt be the subjectof investigation.

-

CONVERSAZIONE AT THE MIDDLESEX HOSPITALMEDICAL SCHOOL.

A CONVERSAZIONE was held on Wednesday, March 15th,on the occasion of the inauguration of the new schoo

buildings. Guests were received in the board-room by the;chairman of the council, the senior physician, the senior

surgeon, and the dean. The new school buildings consistof two blocks-the Garden block and the Union-streetblock. The Garden block contains the large lecture

theatre, the bacteriological research laboratory, the

museum, the chemical department (with laboratory, lecture’theatre, and lecturer’s private laboratory) the pathologicaland bacteriological laboratories, the room for operative-surgery, and the dissecting-room. In the Union-street block

are two physiological laboratories and some class-rooms. Anthe laboratories have evidently been fitted up with very greatcare and are admirably adapted for the purposes for whichthey have been designed. They are well-equipped with all,needful apparatus. Many objects of interest were on

view in the various rooms, and among them may be

mentioned the following. In the large lecture theatreMessrs. Muirhead and Co. exhibited Mr. MackenzieDavidson’s apparatus for localisation in skiagraphy, andespecially neat was a portable form of the apparatus.intended for use by army surgeons in the field. Mr.Mackenzie Davidson also showed stereoscopic skiagrams bymeans of Wheatstone’s stereoscope. In the bacteriologicalresearch laboratory was an interesting series of specimens pre-pared by Mr. A. G. R. Foulerton illustrating the successivesteps in the complete bacteriological diagnosis of pulmonarytuberculosis. In the museum Dr. Voelcker and Dr. CampbellThomson showed many recent additions to the museum

prepared by the Kaiserling method which so success-

fully retains the normal appearance of the tissues. Dr.

Voelcker also kindly lent for exhibition a fine and

valuable collection of archaic medical works. In

the chemical theatre were to be seen the spectra of the

latest additions to the list of elements-namely, neon,krypton, and xenon; these were exhibited by ProfessorW. Ramsay and Dr. Travers. In the anatomy lecturer’room was an exhibition by Messrs. Schall of electrical

apparatus adapted to medical purposes. In the pathologicaland bacteriological laboratories were many microscopicalpreparations of morbid histology and some original paintings