EDITORIAL NOTES.

Laboratory of the Inland Revenue Department, Ottawa, Canada, Bulletin No. 150.-In this bulletin, Mr. McGill, chief analyst, gives the results of the examination of ninety samples of canned salmon collected in February, 1908. The collection consisted of six samples taken in each inspectoral district of the Dominion. All the samples were found to be in good condition and true to name. It is gratifying to read such a report on the condition of a food product, which has sometimes been viewed with suspicion by the public. The results of the analysis are creditable to the salmon canners of Canada.

Demise of the "Indian Lancet.”-We notice, with regret, that "there will be no more issues of the Indian Lancet, after the 27th of April, 1908." The Indian Lancet, Calcutta, which made its first appearance as a monthly, January 1st, 1892, and two years later, was changed into a fortnightly, was issued as a weekly since January 1st, 1901. During the last ten years or so, since we became acquainted with our Calcutta contemporary, first under the editorial management of Dr. Fernandez, and more recently under that of Dr. Monnier, we have read the Indian Lancet with pleasure and profit. The circumstances which produced its demise being unknown to us, surmise would be useless. We would fain hope that it may prove to be only a case of suspended animation, and, that under favorable auspices the talent and enterprise put into the Indian Lancet may not be irreparably lost to the medical profession and the people of India.

Typhoid Fever in India Due to Unfiltered Water and Defective Drainage.-Referring to an increase in the death rate from typhoid fever in Calcutta and its environs, the Indian Lancet, April 20th, 1908, says: "Very many cases of enteric fever are reported as 'remittent fever,' etc., and are not correctly diag nosed. The mortality of enteric fever out here is not very high10 per cent. being the average. Europeans are more susceptible to this disease than Indians. Defective drainage and deficient filtered water supply are the two most potent causal factors of this malady. Typhoid and cholera are easily preventible dis

eases, and improved sanitation is the keynote to their

eradication."

A Diminished Consumption of Liquor in Canada.-Internal revenue figures show a large decrease in the consumption of liquor in Canada. For the months of November, 1907, to April, 1908, inclusive, the aggregate internal revenue receipts from the liquor traffic show a decrease of nearly $450,000, or over 10 per cent. The decrease in the receipts for April, 1908, as compared with April, 1907, was 20 per cent. A shrinkage in the quantity of liquor manufactured in the United States amounted, in the first ninety days of 1908, to 25,000,000 gallons, 60 per cent. of which was for whiskey production and 40 per cent. for beer. This decline in the liquor and beer production of the United States is unprecedented. The present financial stringency may account in part at least, for the lessened consumption of alcohol in both countries; but the swelling of the prohibition wave seems to be a more potent factor. In the Southern States it is a question of keeping liquor from negroes, just as in Canada it has been necessary to make it unlawful to sell liquor to Indians. In the Western States and Provinces, prohibition is often an economical necessity, in order to prevent farm hands from obtaining liquor and getting drunk, at times when the corps have to be saved. An American railway company has adopted a policy in promotions, or in weeding out, where reductions on the force are made, of giving preference to total abstainers. Another railway has gone still further, and will employ abstainers only, in certain classes. Employees are signing the temperance pledge, chiefly as a means of retaining their places. Employers of labor in warehouses, manufacturing and trade establishments ask for clerks, who are abstainers. The age is a strenuous one, and the doctrine of the survival of the fittest is in the air. Employers will pay well for the best skill or talent; but not if it is weighted down with intemperance. Hence, it is unlikely, that a return of good times would increase the sale of alcohol in America and Canada. From the standpoint of reason, it is preferable to see total abstinence inculcated through economic necessities than through appeals to the emotions. At all events, the actual shrinkage in the consumption of liquor and beer in America and

Canada can be looked upon with satisfaction by all, except, of course, the distillers and brewers.

An Act Respecting Proprietary and Patent Medicines.— From a medical standpoint, the chief interest felt in the new Canadian Act respecting proprietary and patent medicines attaches to the list of forbidden drugs. This list (Schedule A) is as follows: Acetanilide, aconite and its preparations, arsenie and preparations containing it, atropine, belladonna and its preparations, cantharides, carbolic acid, chloral hydrate, chloroform, cocaine and its preparations, conia and compounds thereof, corrosive sublimate, cotton root, croton oil, digitaline, ergot, essential oil of mustard, ether, hellebore, heroin, hyoscyamin and its preparations, Indian hemp, morphine and its preparations, nux vomica, opium, its preparations and derivatives, pennyroyal, phenacetine, prussic acid, savin and the preparations thereof, strychnine and its preparations, sulphonal, tansy, tartrate of antimony, veratria. According to subsection C, section 7 of this Act, a proprietary patent medicine, containing any drug included in the above list, may be manufactured, imported, exposed, sold or offered for sale, if the name of the drug is conspicuously printed on an inseparable part of the label or wrapper of the bottle, box, or other container. This means that the public are to be allowed to purchase patent medicines containing any one of the above-mentioned drugs, if the name of the drug confronts the purchaser on the label of the bottle, box or other container. To illustrate: Mrs. Winslow's Soothing Syrup for Infants may be sold without restriction, if the word morphine appears on the label of each bottle of this preparation offered for sale. To prevent the consumption of proprietary or patent medicines, which are said to be used as alcoholic beverages, it is provided in subsection B, section 7, that no proprietary or patent preparation shall be manufactured, imported, exposed, sold, or offered for sale, if it does not contain sufficient medication to prevent its use as an alcoholic beverage, or if it contains alcohol in excess of the amount required as a solvent or a preservative. a preservative. Provision is made for the analysis of patent medicines and for the remuneration of the analysts. Manufacturers or importers are obliged to furnish, each year, to the Minister of Inland Revenue a list of the medicnes, which it is proposed to manuacture or import; on

payment of a fee of $1 they procure a certificate of registration. The name and number under which a proprietary or patent medicine is registered with the words, "The Patent Medicine Act," and also the manufacturer's name and address shall appear on the labels of all proprietary or patent medicines intended for sale or distribution in Canada. Provision is not made in this Act for a revelation of the formulæ of proprietary or patent medicines to the Minister of Inland Revenue, neither is there any provision for the publication of formulæ on labels, other than what has been referred to above.

Cancer in the British Colonies. In an editorial appearing in the British Medical Journal, May 2, 1908, p. 1067, reference is made to a report from the Natal Cancer Research Committee for 1906. The death rate from malignant disease among Europeans in Natal is given as 0.46, but it has to be borne in mind. that only 3.4 per cent. of the European population in Natal, as against 5.9 per cent. in England and Wales, were in the age period-55-65-which provides the maximum mortality from cancer. That cancer is comparatively infrequent among the natives of Natal would, however, seem to be shown by the following facts: In a population of 930,000, with 12,255 deaths, no death was attributed to cancer. Again, the district surgeon of Mapamulo, a district with a native population, which, in 1905, was estimated at 32,082, states that no cancerous disease occurred in the district during the year. Here, too, the age factor must not be left out of account, only 13.7 per cent. of the Natal natives reaching the age of 40; as against 25.7 in England and Wales. Among the Indian population of Natal, estimated at 98,049 in 1906, only five deaths were certified as due to cancer. Only 1.7 per cent. of the Indians, however, were in the cancerage period. With regard to British Guiana the total number of cases of malignant disease admitted into the Public Hospital, Georgetown, from April, 1906, to March 31, 1907, was 140. Among these cases, carcinoma of the penis and of the cervix uteri was particularly common."

J. J. C.

THE 1908 meeting of the Canadian Medical Association, held at Ottawa, June 9, 10 and 11, was successful from many standpoints. The addresses, papers and entertainments filled the three days with profit and pleasure. The attendance was not as great as at some previous meetings, yet in the various sections good interest was shown and the rooms provided for section meetings were frequently overtaxed. This was most noticed in the Surgical Section. The papers presented at the association were of good quality, and after the first day discussions were often animated.

Some who promised papers failed to attend, and a few of these did not even send their communications to the secretary. It was disappointing that in one section, of six papers on the programme only three were presented. When papers have been promised it is surely incumbent upon the essayist to be present in person, and if not, at least to send his paper.

At the first business session the association representatives on the Executive Council were elected. J. C. Mitchell, Brockville, Chairman; R. W. Powell, W. I. Bradley, Col. Jones, A. T. Shillington, W. Hackney, Ottawa; G. E. Armstrong, F. A. L. Lockhart, E. P. Lachapelle, James Bell, Montreal; J. T. Fotheringham, R. A. Reeve, C. J. C. O. Hastings, J. H. Elliott, Toronto, and A. B. Atherton, Fredericton. The remaining members of the Executive Council are the representatives from the Provincial Association as provided for by the new constitution, by which the various provincial medical associations are constituent parts of the Canadian Medical Association.

The report of the special committee on an association journal was received. They recommended the publication of a monthly journal if the association could guarantee a subscription list of not less than 1,500 members at $5 per year, $3 of which goes towards the journal. The committee were discharged, and the matter is now in the hands of the Finance Committee, which is practically the business executive of the association, Drs. J. T. Fotheringham, F. N. G. Starr, Toronto; G. E. Armstrong, James Bell, Montreal; R. W. Powell, Ottawa. It was suggested by Dr. Bell that some of the leaders of the profession in Canada might