470

cases would be dismissed. They, however, did not grant costs, as they thought it a proper case to bring forward. It

appears, consequently, that once a bakehouse always a bake-house, if the oven and other baking apparatus be left inand the place has not been used for any other purpose, nomatter how long it may have been untenanted. Medicalofficers of health, therefore, will have difficulty in gettingrid of these undesirable bakehouses, unless successful underthe Public Health Acts. Evidently the new Factory andWorkshops Act will not help them.

HONOURS TO MEDICAL MEN.

AMONG the recipients of honours just conferred by hisHighness the Khedive appear the following medical

men, whose names were brought prominently to notice

during the late cholera epidemic lin Egypt—viz., Mr.

Harry Crookshank Pasha, Inspector-General of Prisons,and Dr. Rogers Pasha, C.M.G., Director-General of the

Sanitary Service, who are both promoted to Grand Officers(Second Class) of the Imperial Order of the Osmanieh, andDr. Pinching Bey, Sanitary Inspector of Lower Egypt, whobecomes a Commander (Third Class) of the Order of the Medjidieh.

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CHANGES IN THE BLOOD AFTERTHYROIDECTOMY.

DR. POSTOEFF of Kharkoff has made a number ofobservations on the blood of dogs before and after theremoval of the thyroid gland with the object of elucidatingthe changes which the extirpation of the gland producesin the blood. He divides the theories which have been

propounded on this subject into two groups-the one

supposing that the thyroid gland in its normal condition

secretes some substance which is necessary to the properworking of the nervous system, and the other ascribing to thegland the secretion of some substance which directly destroyscertain metabolic products, the accumulation of which in

the blood would be fatal. His observations show that the

extirpation of the thyroid gland is followed by a diminutionin the red corpuscles, the haemoglobin, and the specificgravity of the blood ; an increase in the white corpuscles ; agreat increase in the fibrin obtained by whipping the blood ;a diminution of nitrogen both in the blood and in the serum ;and a marked diminution of nitrogen in the fibrin, not onlyrelative, but absolute.

THE WATER-SUPPLY OF RICHMOND.

WE have received from Mr. John Cockram of Richmond

(Surrey) a lengthy and detailed statement making seriouscomplaints against one of the sources from which the water-supply of the town is derived. The importance of the issuesinvolved, not only to the permanent residents, but also to thethousands of annual visitors from London, obviously requiresthat the responsible authorities should make known theirreasons for feeling confidence in a source of domestic water-supply which at first sight appears to be not altogether abovesuspicion. The water distributed to this important townseems to be taken from four distinct quarters. The

best is that which is pumped from a well 1446 feet

deep, giving access to chalk strata and to Thanet sand ;our correspondent assumes 224,000 gallons as a daily averageyield therefrom. A further amount of 100,000 gallons issupplied daily by the Southwark and Vauxhall Water Com-pany. The water complained of by our correspondent isestimated at a daily quantity of 200,000 gallons and comesfrom a shallow well at Petersham. This well lies 56 ft.from the border of the Thames, in very low ground whichis subject to inundation by the Thames. The bottom of thePetersham well is 11 ft. 6 in. from the surface. Richmond

main sewer runs under the Thadtes towing path betweenthe river and Petersham well. Although the land im-

mediately surrounding the well is in its natural state,

yet a large area of surface in the neighbourhood of

Petersham and Ham-an area from which the well mayfairly be supposed to derive some of its supplies-is madeup of Richmond town refuse, which during seven years, andto the extent of about 45,000 tons, was deposited there inholes and hollows made in excavating gravel, and then therefuse was neatly covered over with turf. When the

Thames overflows then this refuse must pollute the waterat Petersham well, and when there is a drought Petershamsupplies diminish seriously. On Nov. 17th, 1894, the floodrose 4 ft. above the top of Petersham well." The chief

ground of complaint is that the water obtained from this

questionable source is, previously to distribution, mixed withthe better quality of water obtained from the deep well andfrom the London water company. If the facts are as

alleged further investigation is urgently needed. Waterdrawn directly from the Thames is said to be used for fiush-ing the sewers and sprinkling the roads.

UNIVERSITY COLLEGE HOSPITAL.

The festival dinner in aid of the funds of this charitywas held at the Hotel Cecil on Feb. 10th, when the

Right Hon. the Lord Mayor presided. Among those

present were the Lady Mayoress, His Excellency BaronWhettnall (the Belgian Minister), Lord Monkswell, Sir

Douglas Galton, Sir John and Lady Hutton, Mr. B. L.

Cohen, M.P., and Mrs. Cohen, Mr. H. F. Pollock, M.P.,the Mayor and Mayoress of Richmond, Alderman and Mrs.Truscott, Mr. H. Lucas (chairman of the hospital committee),Mr. A. E. Barker, Dr. H. C. Bastian, Dr. Dudley Buxton,Dr. J. Rose Bradford, Dr. Radcliffe Crocker. Mr. R. J.

Godlee, Dr. W. R. Gowers, Mr. Christopher Heath, Mr. VictorHorsley, Dr. G. B. Hunt, Mr. Raymond Johnson, Dr.

Sydney Martin, Dr. G. Vivian Poore, Dr. Sydney Ringer,Dr. F. T. Roberts, Dr. H. R. Spencer, Sir HenryThompson, Mr. Tweedy, and Miss Davenport Hill. In

asking for funds the Lord Mayor said that some 47,000persons were treated at University College Hospital in thecourse of a year, and that unless the hospital was morestrongly supported by the benevolent public some of the

beds would have to be closed. It is to be hoped that, asthe Lord Mayor said, " the English purse is inexhaustible,"and that not only University College Hospital, but all ourgreat London medical charities will in this, the sixtieth yearof Her Majesty’s wonderful reign, experience practical proofof his lordship’s dictum. Subscriptions to the amount of£5000 were announced by Mr. N. H. Nixon, the secretary, inthe course of the evening.

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THE NATURE OF YAWS.

MR. JONATHAN HUTCHINSON1 1 states his present positionon this much-debated question. It has been abundantlyproved that there is disease prevalent in the WestIndies, the Fiji Islands, at the Cape, in Ceylon, theEast Indies, and many other localities which is specificand much the same in all places. It is propagatedby contagion only. Inoculation experiments and obser-vations have proved that a primary sore develops afteran incubation period of about four weeks, followed bya general eruption at the end of from two to three months.This eruption is framboesial or raspberry-like in character.It tends to disappear and does not usually leave scars.

Next follow sequelæ or tertiary symptoms. There maybe bone disease, destruction of the nose, and intractable

1 Edinburgh Medical Journal, January, 1897.