April 19th.-Complains very much of violent pain in the back of his head and temples, running over the vertex; speaks of a sensation as if his head were not big enough for its contents; these pains are much aggravated by the slightest movement, or by the attempt to fix the eyes on any object. Has had a slight attack of twitching in the right hand, which lasted about five minutes, between 5 a.m. and 6 a.m.; another similar one at about 11 a.m., but neither seizure lasted long enough to permit of anyone being able to get to him before it was over. Temperature 97°; pulse 60; respirations 24.

20th. Slept very badly; complains of great pain on the top of the head. He looks as if he had pain in his head; turns his head with difficulty; tongue moist and furred; had some twitching in the right arm, the movement beginning in the hand; bowels open.

23rd. Sat up about two hours, but had greater pain while doing so.

25th.-Acute pain in head; no delirium; bowels open. 27th. Still great pain on vertex at back of head; is somewhat obtuse, not being exactly able to appreciate any instructions which are given to him to change his position. Right arm now quite useless. No pain in arm; bowels open; tongue furred; great thirst; no appetite; breath smells sour. The mouth is peculiarly twitched when he replies to a question by spasmodic elevation of one corner.

He died on April 30.

Autopsy. Cerebrum (left lobe): There was a nodule, smooth on surface, apparently under the arachnoid, seemingly the size of an almond. It was situated in the hinder part of the superior frontal convolution. It was afterwards found that this was but the uppermost part of a nodule which was about a cubic inch in size. It was like the other masses in the cerebellar lobes, to be mentioned presently, being made up of greyish dead matter internally, and was vascular, bluish, and succulentlooking externally. It was easily taken out of its bed of a loose puddle of brain. There was softening around it to the upper wall of the lateral ventricle on that side, the hemisphere cut off just above the ventricle disclosing a soft yellowcoloured section. The lateral ventricles were dilated, and were full of turbid fluid. The surface of the left corpus striatum looked rough and sodden. The fornix was soft-almost diffluent. Cerebellum (left lobe): Looking at the upper surface of the cerebellum, the left lobe was found to be softened in its external third. Quite in the outermost part (where the cerebellum was quite diffluent), was a lump, of an irregular shape, partly vascular and partly cheesy; altogether, perhaps, the size of three or four horse-beans. The softening was found to extend from this tumour to about the centre of the lobe. The corpus dentatum was scarcely recognisable. Right lobe: The surface of the tonsil of the right cerebellar lobe was patched for about the size of a split-pea, of a reddish vascular character, and on cutting into the tonsil it was found to be of a dirty milky white, very soft and diffluent, except in its exterior part, where was a mass of cheesy matter, the size of a small walnut. This cheesy matter extended close to the corpus dentatum, which was softened.

In remarking on this case, I shall speak from a medical as well as from a physiological point of view.

When I saw this patient with Mr. Clouting, the first impression I had was that the poor fellow was malingering. Whenever a patient complains of loss of power in one arm, this suspicion always occurs to me. But it is only a suspicion, for I am convinced that in a very few cases the arm may be the only part perceptibly paralysed from disease of the brain. (a) I soon concluded that the palsy in the patient I was examining was real, because the manner of its onset was, so to speak, an orthodox manner of onset. We frequently see hemiplegia following fits of spasm beginning in the hand of the side afterwards paralysed. A few months ago I witnessed a convulsion (it lasted ten minutes), in which the right arm and right side of the face were the only parts affected. In this case the arm was powerless-quite limp, falling forward when the patient stooped -after the spasm ceased.

I have said that palsy of one arm is rare-excluding, of course, injuries, tumours, etc., of the nerves from the cord to the arm. It is not very rare to find palsy of the arm only in a patient who has had palsy of the leg. We know that in hemiplegia the leg usually recovers faster than the arm does,

(a) I use the vague expression brain purposely. I use it because I do not know whether the motor tract or the hemisphere is discased in these cases When the palsy follows spasin of the limb, I suppose the hemisphere to be the part diseased.

and the leg may have quite recovered when the arm remains. at least so far palsied as to be useless.

But I never declare a patient whose arm is palsied to have no palsy of the leg unless I see him walk. If he seems to move both legs well and equally in bed, I admit that there must be little palsy, but I dare not say there is none after such imperfect tests as can be applied in bed. It will frequently happen that on getting a patient out of bed who is said to have palsy of the arm only, his gait shows the leg of the same side to be obviously weakened. When we cannot get him up we must not conclude that the leg is all right. If we do, we may, when we obtain autopsies, run into erroneous conclusions, such as, for instance, that the movements of the arm only, and not the leg, were represented in the part of the nervous system we find to be destroyed.

For reasons above stated, I asked my patient to get up.. The idea of there being disease of the cerebellum never occurred to me. I looked most carefully for any difference in. the legs, because, believing there was disease of the left side of the brain, I expected to find, and had predicted that we should find, at least a little weakness of the right leg.. The man had only his nightgown on, and walked on bare boards. I discovered nothing wrong with either of his legs; he walked well. Moreover, he felt nothing wrong.

in them.

Next I put him through a certain manoeuvre as a test for malingering. I asked him to stoop, pretending that I wished to examine his spine. He stooped; the right arm fell forwards.(b)

It is quite evident that fourteen days before this man died he had no muscular defect except the continued palsy and occasional spasm of the arm, and these conditions of the limb were clearly due to the nodule (c) we afterwards found in the left cerebral hemisphere.

With regard to the eyes, it is unfortunate that the sight was. not accurately tested. There was no obvious defect of sight, but I think it likely that the patient had had slight inflammation of the optic nerves. But if he had been quite blind up to his death, we should not be able to say whether the symptoms were owing to disease of the cerebrum or of the cerebellum. Moreover, if the cerebellum only had been the seat of disease, there would have been no proof that the. blindness depended on lack of any quantity of the cerebellar structure, for blindness results from tumours in many partsprobably any part of the encephalon. Besides (cases in which the optic nervous system is involved or squeezed excepted), the blindness from tumours within the cranium is due to inflammation of the optic nerves, and does not come on because any "centre for sight is destroyed. It would be easy to show essentially the same of that large and varying class of symptoms, which, when severe and acute, constitute what is called "cerebral fever." The presumption is, that this class of symptoms are brought about through the intermediation of the nerves to the blood vessels, as Brown-Séquard long since insisted on.

BIRMINGHAM GENERAL HOSPITAL.

NOTE ON A CASE OF LEFT HEMIPLEGIA WITH
LOSS OF SPEECH

OCCURRING IN A LEFT-HANDED PATIENT.
(Continued from page 36.)

(Under the care of Dr. JAMES RUSSELL.)

I REFERRED incidentally, in my report of the above-mentioned case (Medical Times and Gazette, July 11), to the peculiar condition of the cerebral functions which, in certain cases of disease of the left hemisphere of the brain, renders the patient unable to express himself by spoken or by written language, or even, in extreme cases, by the simplest signs. I might on that occasion have adduced the following case, which occurred

(b) A malingerer usually, for some inexplicable reason, keeps his "paralysed" arm to his side when he stoops. The really paralysed armexcluding cases where there is rigidity-falls forwards. Then malingerers often pretend to have total loss of sensation in the limb, and as they do not know anatomy, they make the loss of sensation stop abruptly where they suppose the arm has its uppermost limit. There was no loss of sensation in my patient's case.

(c) How this nodule led to the palsy is not a point I can consider in this article. It is to be observed that the palsy was produced, so to speak, through a convulsion. Evidence could be given from other cases to show that palsy so occurring does not depend on destruction of part of the cerebral hemisphere, but on secondary changes about the "foreign body' which led to that destruction.

many years ago in my father's practice, as an illustration of the condition just referred to; the full description of which is developed in detail by Dr. Hughlings-Jackson in the paper to which I referred. The case occurred in the person of a gentleman who occupied an important position at the head of a large manufacturing concern. He had suffered amputation for a disease of the knee; had perfectly recovered from the operation, and had returned to business. Some time after (I do not remember how long) he had been subjected to excessive mental labour, coupled with a good deal of worry, in making some large inventory connected with the business, which, when finished, was found to contain errors, and had to be done over again. Just after this he was attacked with hemiplegia, and for a time lost entirely the power of speaking intelligently. For everything he desired to say he had only two words, and always the same words "List complete." These two words he used on every occasion, and by them he gave expression to every desire. One day, on paying his visit, my father found him in a state of the utmost disturbance, making violent efforts to get some thought understood, but failing entirely to convey his meaning. His wife, being quite unable to furnish the clue so urgently demanded, in great trouble applied to my father for help. After some time my father happily suggested the words "life assurance": his patient's face cleared in an instant, all emotion but one of satisfaction vanished, and it was then recollected that it was about the time when the premium for an insurance on his life had become due.

Let me add another case of a very similar kind, detailed by Hennen in his work on 66 Military Surgery," p. 305; it possesses additional interest by showing the presence of some remains of the power of intelligent expression, though under special circumstances to be particularly noticed afterwards. An officer had sustained an extensive gunshot fracture of the left parietal bone. Dr. Hennen describes very forcibly the emotion of the sufferer on recognising him, as he had cured him of a wound in the head at the siege of Badajoz, but he had not the power of uttering a word, and could only point to the scar of the former wound. "On the sixth day," says Dr. Hennen, "he grasped my hand with great fervour, looked piteously in my face, and to my inquiries as to his feelings, he uttered audibly, though with much labour, the monosyllable 'Ther,' to which, in the course of the day, he added 'O,' and for the next three days, whenever addressed, he slowly, distinctly, and in a most pathetic tone, repeated the words 'O' Ther,' 'O' 'Ther,' as if to prove his powers of pronunciation. I therefore resolved to write to his family, and before doing so I printed in large characters, on a sheet of paper, the following words-Shall I write to your mother?' It is impossible to describe the illumination of his countenance on reading these talismanic words; he grasped and pressed my hand with warmth, burst into tears, and gave every demonstration of having obtained the boon which he had endeavoured to solicit." The patient ultimately recovered, regaining, according to the account, the power of writing before that of speaking. (a)

In the Medical Times and Gazette, November 22, 1844, p. 271, is a case in which a speechless patient is represented as resolutely opposing the operation of bleeding from the arm, but he drew with his finger on the table the figure of a leech, and held up four fingers. After bleeding, he suddenly exclaimed "Now tie up my arm," and rapidly recovered. Here was depression from a blow of the anterior and superior angle of the right parietal bone (with possible concussion from contrecoup of the corresponding part on the opposite side).

Mr. Guthrie quotes a case by Sir P. Crampton (Dublin Journal of Medical and Chemical Science, ii., p. 36), in which, after injury to the parietal bone (probably on the left side, as right hemiplegia occurred subsequently from fresh formation of matter in the original wound), the patient was left "with his memory much impaired as to words, but not as to things."

Now, my own and Dr. Hennen's cases illustrate some points of much importance in reference to the cause of the speechlessness under the circumstances we have been supposing, all of which are enlarged upon by Dr. Jackson. First, the loss of speech in these patients was not due to defect in

(a) It is of course evident that this gentleman was not so profoundly affected as was the patient whose case has just been detailed. The former patient was able to read a short sentence, which is not the case in the condition of brain attending complete loss of speech. To be able to read he must "voluntarily repeat the words internally," which a perfectly speechless patient cannot do.

the mechanism by which the muscles are set in operation in articulate speech. My patient spoke the two words quite distinctly and very frequently, and Dr. Hennen's could say "O Ther" perfectly. Secondly, the patients could carry on at least simple processes of thought. My patient fully realised the idea of his life assurance, knew the time for payment was near (perhaps recognised the actual arrival of the time), and had presented to his own mind the consequence to his family of the forfeiture of his policy of assurance at the very time when his life was endangered. Dr. Hennen's patient also knew of his own desire to communicate with his friends, and was aware that his medical attendant could act for him in this respect. Thirdly, whilst quite unable to employ words intelligently in speech (and doubtless in writing, though that is not stated), my patient at once recognised the meaning of spoken words, and Dr. Hennen's of written words. The symbols ordinarily employed in articulate or in written speech aroused in the mind of my patient the ideas they were meant to represent; he had intelligent appreciation of their meaning. It was in the failure of their damaged brains to revive by their own voluntary energy the appropriate symbols for ideas that the speechlessness of both consisted. "Whilst these verbal signs may be developed in him by our talking, he cannot initiate verbal movements; the possible reproduction is automatic or reflex or involuntary. There is a great difference between his echoing our words and a voluntary production of words for himself."

use,

These words, quoted from Dr. Jackson, give point to my fourth observation. My father's patient did utter a coherent phrase, though it was quite irrelevant to the matter in hand. This sentence, it will be perceived, was one which had doubtless been constantly in the patient's mouth at the time of his attack," List complete," the inventory which had so overtaxed his brain, and, as his wife believed, had occasioned his illness. Similarly, the “O Ther" (chief part of mother) was a familiar word with Dr. Hennen's patient, and was connected with the emotional part of his nature. This remark illustrates Dr. Jackson's observations upon the difference between intellectual and emotional language. He notices that patients suffering from the cerebral changes we are now supposing, whilst they are entirely unable to utter a phrase or even a word intelligently, will yet use perfectly coherent expressions, not indicative of any intelligently formed desire or intention, but simply as outward manifestations of inward states of feeling, such expressions having nothing to do with the intellect, but only with the emotions; and the remark he justly extends to some other phrases not belonging to the category of the emotions, but yet such as have been frequently in and ready to be produced by a slight stimulus. Dr. Jackson gives one or two sentences of some length; others much shorter must have occurred to every observer; and with regard to them it may be remarked that, though on their first production they may happen to have relation to the supposed intent of the patient who utters them, they are often repeated again and again in reply to other questions put immediately after, to which they bear no intelligent relation, at once indicating their automatie nature. With respect to these emotional or automatic utterances, it is noticed as distinctive that they cannot be called up at the patient's will, and that they are more or less habitual, as is the case with the various acquired though often complex movements which constitute the greater part of our physical acts. Indeed, Dr. Jackson notices that, with regard to physical acts themselves, a difference will be often observed in speechless patients corresponding with that above described in respect to intelligent and automatic expression. "In some cases of defect of speech the patient seems to have lost much of his power to do what he is told to do even with those muscles which are not paralysed. Thus, a patient will be unable to put out his tongue when we ask him, although he will use it well in semi-involuntary actions, eating or swallowing. In a few cases the patients do not do things so simple as moving the hands when they are told."

In those singular cases in which, from accident or disease, one language is forgotten whilst another is retained, it is, I suppose, the language not native to the individual which is lost. The well-known case of the man in St. Thomas's Hospital who was found talking Welsh is narrated in Sir A. Cooper's "Lectures," 1824, vol. i., p. 255; and Sir Astley adds. another case of a German sugar baker, who lost his English entirely from disease, and could only speak German. A very curious experience of the same kind is mentioned by Dr. Althaus as having happened to himself (Medical Times and

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Gazette, vol. i. 1859, p. 313) after a slight degree of poisoning by woorara:- Although consciousness was not impaired, I had for two minutes perhaps lost my knowledge of the English language, in which I had just conversed with a friend of mine, and I was obliged to entreat him to speak German to me." Dr. Althaus refers to a similar occurrence as having happened to Sir H. Halford after unusual fatigue in the Hartz Mountains:-"Every German word and phrase deserted his recollection, and it was only after he had taken food and wine, and been some time at rest, that he regained them."

Music and cadence in utterance fall very much under the category of emotional developments, and accordingly may be retained by some speechless patients. However, Mr. Latham (Lancet, vol. i. 1849, p. 668) mentions a case in which, after a very severe blow on the head, although the patient recovered quickly, he permanently lost musical ability, having been previously a good musician. He did not attempt the most familiar air, and could not get over more than a single bar when he became confused, and struck into two or three other tunes. But let it be noted particularly, as in accordance with what has been already observed with respect to speech, that though the patient was thus disabled from musical utterance, he still recognised music with which he had previously been familiar.

Bristol and by letters to other quarters, his determination to become the chosen leader of this shameless movement. The speech at Bristol has been Mr. Stansfeld's first important utterance on this subject, and to it we shall mainly direct our attention. His object, with that of his co-disciples, he says, "is to deserve notice; and that he, for one, will try to do so." Accordingly, we shall do our best to fool him to the top of his bent, and give him what notice we can and think he deserves.

It has ever been one of the prime claims of our profession that it is unselfish. Only by perpetual dunning have we obtained the small modicum of sanitary authority enjoyed by the community at large, though clearly the interest of the profession is to heal disease rather than prevent it. So, again, the general support given by it to the Contagious Diseases Acts is founded on a like unselfishness. Moreover, this support rests on the common feelings of a humanity which may not be quite so blatant as that of Mr. Stansfeld and his allies, but which is manifested in a much more practical form than mere words. In the meantime, the working of the Contagious Diseases Acts is limited to certain great naval and military stations, where they are used by Government for the protection of the soldiers and sailors in the public employ; or, as Mr. Stansfeld puts it, "to ascertain whether they (the women) are fit for the market upon which they are to enter, under Government protection and guarantee, and, if they are not fit, then to consign them to a hospital prison, until thus they are rendered fit, in order that they may be sent out with a Government certificate of their fitness." Now, in making such an atrocious statement, Mr. Stansfeld is either wilfully misleading or culpably ignorant. What we repeat Government does, is to take due care of the health of the soldiers and sailors in their service; and in this, if statistics can prove anything, the Acts have been successful. It is simple folly at the present time to talk and think of abolishing prostitution; at best we can but mitigate the evils incident to it, and chiefly we ought to prevent those evils from assailing the guileless and innocent. Who is there among us who cannot recall instances of men bearing in them the evils of a froward youth, becoming husbands and fathers, and transmitting to an innocent posterity those evils which they may fancy or believe to have been completely eradicated? It is for the innocent we claim the protection of these Contagious Diseases Acts. But incidentally they have done much more: they have secured for the unfortunates who come under their sway, shelter, kind treatment, and attention during their illness; they are no longer compelled to pursue their horrid calling, whether well or ill, for during illness they are incapacitated from spreading disease right and left by absolute confinement until recovery. During this period, too, they are brought under influences which could never have reached them under other circumstances, and this with the effect of withdrawing many of them from their calling and of sending them back to their friends. Mr. Stansfeld says that out of 2121 registered women only 533 had been registered the previous year. This he thinks a most damaging fact; but to our way of thinking it is quite the reverse. Again, these Acts have been powerful incidentally in suppressing what is, if possible, a greater evil than public, namely, clandestine prostitution. We could mention military stations which were formerly infamously notorious for this, but dread of being put on the register has effectually put a stop to it among women of any pretence to respectability.

It is exceedingly difficult, professionally speaking, to discuss such diseases with one who evidently knows nothing at all about them. In his speech Mr. Stansfeld talks about the increase of certain forms of disease as counterbalancing the diminution in others. He does not know that a man may get a gonorrhoea from a woman who has none, but only certain forms of what are ordinarily called innocent discharges; and

that it is possible to have a sore on the penis just as one may have a sore on the finger. In his eyes all these forms of disease are alike virulent and deadly with the fearful scourge of syphilis. With such men argument is useless.

We know something by personal inquiry of the working of these laws. It is free to anyone to make, by personal inspection, a comparison between those under the Acts and those who are not, at the Lock Hospital in the Harrow-road. To our mind, which came utterly unbiased to the inquiry, the Acts seem to have been productive of nothing save good as far as the women are concerned, for it is simply nonsense to talk about "outraging the last feeling of womanhood left in them," as Mr. Stansfeld may satisfy himself any day by attending a station surgeon's levée. But in the whole of his address Mr. Stansfeld is essentially womanish in his ignorance and carelessness as regards facts. This and other vagaries which have recently characterised the actions of some of our legislators can only apparently be accounted for by a predominating feminine influence; for in Mr. Stansfeld's, as in other cases, we have heard it roundly asserted that "the grey mare was the better horse."

THE SANITARY CONDITION OF OXFORD. HAVING Some spare time on our hands during a recent visit to Oxford, we decided to employ it in taking a few notes of the sanitary condition of the city. One would naturally hope that in the first university city in the kingdom one would find perfection in regard to sanitary matters; but inspection speedily discloses the fact that throughout the greater part of the city there has hitherto been gross neglect of the most ordinary sanitary precautions; indeed, with respect to water supply, drainage, and house accommodation for the poor, nothing worse has ever come under our notice either in London or the provinces.

The parts of the city to which our attention was chiefly directed were the densely populated districts of St. Thomas's, St. Ebbe's, and St. Aldate's, which are situated on the banks of the Isis, which here is divided into several branches. Like the streets of ancient towns generally, those of the abovenamed districts are very narrow and irregularly built, and at their back are numerous narrow courts, crowded with dilapidated, ill-ventilated, dirty, and badly drained dwellings, to which light and air can penetrate only with the utmost difficulty.

It was impossible, in the time we could devote to the work, to visit every court and every house; still, those we did visit were, we believe, a fair sample of the whole. The first place we visited was Norman's-passage, which leads out of the Rewley-road, opposite the London and North-Western Railway Station. This passage opens into a narrow court about thirty yards long, and three and a half or four yards wide, having a row of houses, six in number, on one side, and a high wall on the other. The only provision for drainage is an open gutter, which runs the whole length of the court, the smell from which at the time of our visit was very bad; though as a nuisance it was surpassed by the odour from a structure at the upper end of the court, by courtesy called a water-closet. All the dwellings are in a miserably dilapidated condition, nothing having been done by way of repair, we were informed, for more than two years. Holes in the roofs, damp and dirty walls, stairs and floors of the upper rooms broken and dangerous, ceilings tumbling down, smashed windows, rags and paper doing duty for glass, and doors minus latches and locks, were observed in the houses we entered. Some of the houses contain two small rooms, others three; for the former 2s. 1d. per week is paid, for the latter 2s. 7d. As might be expected, the occupiers of these houses

frequently suffer from disease, and at the time of our visit four persons were suffering from contagious sore throat.

In Brazier's-yard, which leads out of High-street, St. Thomas's, the dwellings are in a worse condition than those of Norman's-passage. We inspected two of the houses, Nos. 6 and 9; each contains two rooms only. The former is occupied by a man, his wife, and six children (the eldest a boy sixteen years of age), all of whom sleep in a bedroom only eleven feet square and six feet and a half in height, which gives less than 100 cubic feet to each person, or less than a third of the minimum allowed in the dormitories under the control of the Poor-law Board. The bedroom of No. 9 is about eight feet square, and, being occupied by four persons, the cubic space for each is one-sixth of what is necessary. We were told that the rent of this house is 3s. per week. Like the neighbouring courts, the only provision for drainage is an open gutter. As substitutes for water-closets we observed two privies, with one monster catch-pit full to overflowing with nightsoil, and giving forth a fearful stench. This yard and the neighbouring property belong to Christ Church College, but until recently it has been held by other parties on lease. At Peacock's-yard, Holifield's-place, Wareham-court, and Bookbinders'-yard, all in St. Thomas's, the houses generally are dilapidated; open gutters and disgusting privies are universal; and we also observed some overcrowding. In one instance, a man, his wife, and four children were living in a cottage containing two rooms only, each about nine feet

square.

as

Running through St. Thomas's, and at the back of a long row of houses called Fisher-row, is a sluggish stream known "The Ditch," which is, perhaps, the worst nuisance in Oxford. It is simply an open sewer, as it not only receives all the sewage from the houses past which it flows, but numerous privies empty directly into it. Those who live near this stream assert that at times the stench which arises from it is intolerable; and we were told that repeated complaints have been made respecting its condition to the Board of Health, but without stimulating its members to action. Standing on a bridge over this stream in one of the main streets of this part of the city, we observed that its bed was thickly covered with black mud and decomposing animal and vegetable matter, that on its surface floated masses of excrement, and that it exhaled the most fetid vapours.

In St. Ebbe's, St. Aldate's, Holywell, and other parts of the city, open gutters-privies whose catch-pits have not been emptied for years are very common, and drain-traps are unknown. At the top of Park-place, Holywell, are eight privies, having a catch-pit common to all, which was last emptied eighteen months ago; and in another instance four years have elapsed since the soil was last cleared away.

Bad as is the state of the older parts of the city, it is even worse in some of the newly built districts. Here and there whole streets have been built without any provision whatever for drainage. Thus, at Mill-street, Osney, there is in the back garden of every alternate house a cesspit, which receives the sewage of two houses. These pits are supposed to be emptied frequently, but, as it is rarely done, the sewage overflows, and runs over the surface of the gardens, exhaling such bad smells that at times the tenants are unable to occupy the rooms whose windows open towards the back gardens. Each house has its privy, with the primitive catch-pit. The only water supply is drawn from wells sunk in the gardens within a few feet of the privies and cesspits. This being the case, it is not surprising that the persons living in the houses complain of the water being unwholesome. Two samples of water that were shown to us contained immense numbers of living organisms, distinctly visible to the naked eye. In one house we found a boy suffering from blood-poisoning, and in another a patient had recently recovered from "low fever."

The local authorities have, we understand, decided to carry out an elaborate system of drainage, at a cost of something like £80,000, and arrangements are being made to obtain a supply of water from the neighbouring hills; but this, in our opinion, should not prevent public attention being directed to the insanitary state of the city, especially as we are assured these measures will not remedy the worst evils above described. Proper drainage and a good water supply are needed both by rich and poor in Oxford, and when provided will doubtless be hailed as blessings; but the poor want more than these-they want clean, roomy, well-built, well-ventilated, and cheap dwellings. The miserable dens of filth and disease which we have indicated should be condemned as unfit for human habitations. Property has its duties as well as its rights, and those who have power in Oxford should see to it and that immediately that better accommodation is provided for the housing of the poor and labouring classes of the city.

THE CONFLICT OF ANALYSTS.

THEY who undertake to maintain the purity of food have little to boast of in their battles with adulterators. Some of them in bygone days were a little too apt to make sensational statements-such as the manufacture of milk out of sheep's brains, -which were greedily taken up by popular writers, and excited great alarm and disgust for a time, but which after a while were discredited, and rendered the public indisposed to listen to sober truth. This "death-in-the-pot" style is, we hope, extinct; not so the habit of trusting in untrustworthy tests.

In the earlier analyses of bread, certain tests were relied on for the detection of alum, but the precipitate, which was rashly taken for alumina, consisted often of the phosphates which must be found in all genuine wheat. Take another necessary of life-milk. The purity of this has been estimated by an apparatus which by itself is ridiculous, though it has been designated a lactometer or lactodensimeter, and has been vaunted as an infallible test. The defects of this instrument will be apparent when we consider that it only tells how much a given bulk of milk weighs. Now, pure milk consists of two parts the skim milk, which is a good deal heavier than water; and the cream, which is as light as water, or a little lighter, because of the butter which it contains. This, because of its lightness, rises to the top, as is well known. Hence, if pure milk be skimmed, a given bulk of it will weigh more; but if water be added, the given bulk will be lightened again; and a judicious combination of skimming and watering will leave the milk impoverished, but of the same gravity, as shown by the lactometer, as it was at first. Of course, if milk is very light it ought to show a good deal of cream; and if very light milk does not show abundance of cream, it has certainly been watered; but to decide that a lighter milk has been watered, without estimating the cream, is rashness itself.

As Mr. Wanklyn says, "the lactometer confounds together milk exceptionally rich in cream with milk which has been fraudulently watered; and many a poor French peasant, bringing the best and unadulterated produce of his dairy into a French town, has been ruthlessly stopped by the police, who have dipped their lactometer into the milk, and forthwith sent it down the gutter, as if it had been milk and water." Equally absurd, though in a contrary direction, is the conduct of certain prison officials near London, who, as Mr. Wanklyn says, are very particular" about their milk. "They allow no milk to enter the prison unless it comes up to the M mark of the lactometer. The M mark is pitched very high, and the milk purveyor reaches the M by skimming the milk." If from milk we go to butter, we shall find different analysts wrangling in a manner that must delight the crafty adulterator and dismay the honest tradesman. Butter contains fat, a trace of

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curd, water, and salt. The butterman is accused of robbing the stomachs and pockets of his customers by working up an undue proportion of water in his butter. But what proportion is a fair one? Wanklyn allows 18 per cent. for the water and salt; on the other hand, the best specimens quoted by Angell and Hehner, in their work on butter, contain only 12 to 15 per cent. This, however, is a trifle to the question whether the 85 per cent. of fatty matter which butter contains is derived from the cow or from the dripping-pan; whether it has been manipulated by a sweet and wholesome rosy-fingered dairymaid, or by the dirty marine store-dealer, who clandestinely buys the refuse fat from the cook. On this point, Mr. Wanklyn denies that we have any scientific means of detecting foreign fats in butter. Messrs. Angell and Hehner, on the contrary, believe they have found certain chemical qualities which distinguish butter from all other fats, but they throw plenty of dirt at the distinctive tests vaunted by other chemists, and do not hesitate to say that a good deal of injustice has been perpetrated by their means. Thus, in the case of a prosecution at Bow-street, in June, 1874, they describe the analysts as relying on tests which were ridiculous, and they say--"Happily enough the case was dismissed, but not upon the ground of the deficiency of the chemical analysis." But in other cases, they add, heavy fines have been inflicted on no stronger grounds. They also condemn some decisions arrived at in the Marylebone Policecourt in April, 1874, as "dangerous to the reputation of the analysts and "unfair to the traders."

We need not allude further to the conflict of analysts with regard to their analyses of water, as we have shown that a state of things exists which tends to shake the public confidence in the administration of justice. Whilst chemical tests are new, not thoroughly worked out, and not unanimously accepted by analysts, it is unwise and unfair to rely on them implicitly. The whole subject is too new; has never yet received the thorough sifting requisite for the establishment of scientific fact. Out of the conflict of analysts will come truth and certainty at last; but the conflict ought to be carried on in the laboratory and scientific society-not in the police-court, with a tradesman's reputation as corpus vile.

We only hope that the crusade against adulteration will be continued more vigorously and more discreetly. We cannot help saying, in conclusion, that tradesmen, if they really care for the purity of their goods, may help themselves if they choose. No tradesman need say that he trusted to his wholesale dealer, and did not know that his pepper was mixed with 10 per cent. of dirt and dust. He ought to know, otherwise what is the use of him to society? There are two modes of determining the purity of goods-chemical tests and the microscope. The former is difficult; but there is no tradesman who cannot soon be taught to tell by the microscope whether his coffee, arrowroot, pepper, mustard, etc., are genuine. Hassall put microscopic analysis on a sound basis many years ago.

THE SCOTCH LUNACY BLUE-BOOK. THE sixteenth annual report of the Commissioners in Lunacy for Scotland, which has been issued recently, contains a great deal of valuable material, and a great deal of common sense, but we should be incorrect if we said that the impression which a perusal of it has left upon our mind is altogether pleasing. On laying down the volume, we cannot help feeling somewhat strongly that it involves a waste of paper and a waste of power, and that while, to those who value statistics for their own sake, it may well repay an outlay of 1s. 10d., it is scarcely the comprehensive practical summary that as an official report it ought to be. Here we have 329 closely printed pages and tables-so complex and tremendous that it is appalling to look at them, even at arm's