Dr. SAWKINS said that unless the operation for radical cure was performed it was not necessary to get a complete anæsthesia. He certainly thought that chloroform properly administered was as safe as any other anæsthetic.

Dr. PALMER said he rose to uphold the teaching of the Edinburgh school, which Dr. Arthur had assailed. He thought chloroform the proper anaesthetic to use; but for 12 months during his stay at Edinburgh, in one ward, nothing but ether had been used, so that Dr. Arthur's statement that ether was never used at Edinburgh was not correct. He did not believe in giving too much chloroform; in its administration it was not necessary to abolish all reflexes, and of course care must be exercised in the giving of this as in all other anæsthetics. He did not think the Scotch school had very many accidents through the administration of chloroform. He certainly during his ten years had never seen any fatal case.

Dr. CHARLES MACLAURIN said he was from Edinburgh and was sure that the students had open minds. He considered there was only one safe anæsthetic for adenoid operation, and that was ether. Statistics showed that death from chloroform occurred once in 1,500 cases, though, of course, there were some men who had thousands of cases without a death; still it must be remembered that the one death in 1,500 should not occur. Medical practitioners have really no right to subject anyone to any unnecessary risk. In one case he had administered chloroform and the patient died; he was satisfied now that if ether had been used the patient would have been alive to-day; and when he operated now he always asked the anaesthetist to give ether.

Dr. STEWART MCKAY said that in the course of his general practice he had had occasion to operate on over 400 cases of tonsils and adenoids. He always used chloroform, and in almost all the cases he had administered it himself. He did not believe that in many of the cases that died that the fatal result was due to the chloroform; he thought that many of the cases were smothered, and this was due to the blood being drawn into the windpipe.

Dr. HINDER said he thought the point at issue had been lost sight of, namely, that the anaesthetic should be given by an experienced hand. If chloroform was given by an anæsthetist it was no doubt safe, but as a general anæsthetic he thought ether was safer.

Dr. BRADY said he had a good deal of experience in the use of chloroform in his operations. At the Sydney Hospital a mixture of gas and ether had been used sometimes. He did not think gas should be given to young children. He did not think death from chloroform was due to syncope, but he thought the patient was smothered, and death was largely due to inattention on the part of the anaesthetist. One point he would emphasise, and that was that the anaesthetic should be given in silence; it was not the time to discuss a golf score, but one's whole attention should be given to the matter in hand. He thought that when the operation was performed by a skilful operator, and the anaesthetic administered by a skilful anesthetist, there was no danger from the use of chloroform. He certainly thought when a patient stopped breathing the operation should not be gone on with until the patient had been resuscitated. He thought that where you have large tonsils and adenoids it was good practice to remove one of the tonsils before beginning the administration of the anaesthetic.

Dr. MACDONALD GILL said the operation needed a good deal of skill, and, of course, if the removal could be done in one clean sweep well and good, but if this was not done, he thought the time given with gas was not sufficient to get the operation properly finished. With regard to the choice of an anesthetic, he had only

given ether once to a young child, and had also given gas and ether. In giving gas it must be remembered

that the duration of the anesthesia was about 30 seconds and with gas and ether about 50 seconds. Gas could not be given a second time, and this, of course, was one of the great disadvantages; the time was too short in some cases to complete the operation. If you have a patient struggling all the time, you found it very difficult to get the work properly done. He thought chloroform the best for the adenoid operation, but he also thought there was rather too much indiscriminate operating for adenoids.

Dr. SINCLAIR GILLIES said with regard to the use of gas the whole question was, Did it give sufficient time to do the operation properly? The operation for adenoids, to be successful, must be thorough. If it were not so it would be useless. At the Children's Hospital 2 per cent. of cases operated upon for adenoids suffered from recurrence. He would not recommend gas for very young children, but if children were carefully approached they took ether very well. Still, beyond question, chloroform was more convenient to give. The deaths that had occurred where chloroform had been administered were due to overdose of the drug and not to suffocation.

Dr. SCOT-SKIRVING called to mind discussions that had taken place in that room fifteen or sixteen years before relating to the use of chloroform or ether. Every now and then there had been great discussion over the matter, but it resulted in letting well alone, and each choosing for himself. It would, he considered, be extremely unwise for them as an Association to make any definite pronouncement on the choice of an anæs thetic.

Dr. WILKINSON thought it was necessary to give chloroform up to the age of 10 or 12, but it was not always necessary to give an anaesthetic after that age. Dr. Brady had said he would remove one tonsil, but he would go farther, and say it was better to remove both tonsils. General practitioners were too prone to undertake operations for the removal of adenoids, when it was admitted that a great deal of skill was required to do it properly. He would again say that patients above the age of 12 did not as a general rule require an anaesthetic; indeed, if they were questioned, they admitted that there was very little pain. At the Sydney Hospital chloroform was largely used with good results.

Dr. ARTHUR, in reply, said the position he had taken up had not been assailed by the discussion which had taken place. Everyone knew there was a chance of death from the use of chloroform. Then why run the risk? He was also a student at Edinburgh, but had certainly never heard of ether being used in this operation. It was said that deaths from chloroform were accidents; but these accidents could be obviated. And why do not accidents occur from other anæsthetics? Chloroform was dangerous, and one death from it vitiated the idea that it was the best anaesthetic for adenoid operations.

Dr. KIRKLAND read a paper on 66

Atrophic Rhinitis."

Dr. BRADY said he agreed with Dr. Kirkland that in certain cases the condition was due to sinus suppuration, but there were a certain number of cases of the kind that he did not think could be explained in that way. No doubt, in some cases, a cure would be effected by washing them out, but he advised operation.

Dr. HINDER exhibited a uterus removed for a ruptured pregnancy, occuring in stump left after removal of a former ruptured tubal pregnancy.

Dr. NOLAN exhibited dissection of temporal bone.

The PRESIDENT announced that the Governor-General would hold a levée on July 7th, and hoped that members would attend.

The PRESIDENT announced that the Hon. Dr. MacLaurin had been knighted by His Majesty, and a vote of congratulation was carried by acclamation.

Dr. WORRALL gave notice that at the next meeting of the Branch he would move the following addition to the Articles of Association:- -"No member of the New South Wales Branch of the British Medical Association engaged in private practice shall allow himself to be interviewed upon medical subjects by representatives of the lay press without a written undertaking that his identity shall not be disclosed."

COUNCIL MEETINGS.

THE Council met at the Association Rooms on Friday, 13th June, 1902, at 8.30 o'clock. Present-Drs. Rennie, Crago, Fiaschi, Brady, Newmarch, Worrall, Pockley, Hankins and Dick.

The minutes of the previons meeting were read and confirmed.

A letter was read from the Western Suburbs Medical Association asking for an expression of opinion as to fees for examination in the Canadian Foresters and the Industrial Life Association. Resolved That the Council is of opinion that the minimum fee for all examinations of this character should be £1 1s each. Application for a conference by the Balmain United Dispensary was dealt with.

The conference was held on Friday, 16th May, 1902, and the HON. SECRETARY read the notes of the conference, and the report which was to be submitted to the Board of Directors of the Dispensary.

A copy of the letter sent by the Hon. Secretary to Dr. Furnival, of Auburn, with reference to the second medical officer of the Druids' and Oddfellows' lodges; also Dr. Furnival's reply, saying he had decided to give notice that he would not continue in conjunction with any officer of the A.N.A.

Letter from Dr. Rooke, of Burnie, Tasmania, with reference to the agreement with the A.N.A.

On the question of travelling allowances to medical witnesses, thirteen letters had been received. ResolvedThat letters be forwarded to the Government Medical Adviser with a letter expressing a hope that he may see his way to advise the Government to make the remuneration to medical witnesses at coroners' inquests uniform with the present police regulations relating to travelling expenses.

Letter from Mr. Hingston was read.

The PRESIDENT reported that His Excelleney had placed the Association on the list of Public Bodies for Levees, &c. Resolved-That letters of thanks be forwarded to Mr. John See and Mr. Critchett Walker for their assistance in the matter.

Arrangements for the conversazione were discussed. The HON. TREASURER reported a credit balance of £285 12s 6d for the general account, and £75 12s 8d for Gazette account.

The Council met at the Association Rooms on Friday, July 4, 1902. Present-Drs. Rennie, Crago, Hankins, Newmarch, Hinder, Pockley, Worrall, MacCormick and Dick.

The minutes of the previous meeting were read and confirmed.

The following new members were elected :-Drs. Harrie Cox (Warren), Harrie Oswin Johnson (Parkes), A. S. Marr (Blayney).

Read-Letter from Dr. Furnival, Auburn, suggesting formation of defence fund for protection of those members who might suffer financially through resigning lodge appointments at the instigation of the Branch. Dr. Furnival to be asked to formulate scheme.

Read-Letter from Dr. Reuter Roth re alleged gratuitous teaching at Technical College by lecturers of the Civil Ambulance Brigade.

Read-Letter from Dr Sydney Littlejohn, brigade chief medical adviser, stating that no application such as that referred to by Dr. Roth had been made to the brigade authorities.

The HON. SECRETARY reported interview with the Grand Secretary M.U.I.0.0.F. re the deadlock between the Inverell lodge and local medical men, at which the Secretary suggested that the matter be referred to arbitration. Resolved-That the Hon. Secretary write to the medical men of Inverell advising that the suggestion be acted upon.

Also, to the Secretaries of the Oddfellows' and Druids' Lodges of Auburn, pointing out that if they persisted in employing a medical officer ineligible for membership of the B.M.A., they rendered themselves liable to be placed on the list of societies inimical to the interests of the medical profession, and would therefore get no applications from members of this Association.

Resolved-That the police authorities be written to reporting that an optician in Sydney was styling himself doctor of ophthalmology, in contravention of a recent Act of Parliament.

The HON. TREASURER reported a credit balance of £258 7s. 7d. for the general account, and £39 7s. 6d. for the Gazette account.

Resolved-That the discount allowed to branches taking the Gazette be subjected to revision in order to meet the increased expenditure on the paper.

Victoria.

THE ordinary monthly meeting was held in Pleasance's Buildings, Collins-street, Melbourne, on June 25th.

The President (Dr. McCansh) in the chair, and the following members were present:-Drs. Willis, Gerald Weigall, Neild, Henry, Cuscaden, Fox, Vance, and Bryant.

The minutes of the previous meeting were taken as read. Dr. GERALD WEIGALL read a paper on 66 A Case of Naumatic Epilepsy.'

Dr. NEILD thanked Dr. Weigall for his instructive and carefully prepared paper. In some post-mortem examinations at the lunatic asyluns he had found portions of bone pressing upon the brain, and no doubt furnishing an origin for disease of the brain. He remembered a tall man, who had been a guide at the Jenolan Caves, who bruised his head by rising too quickly in one of the low caves. Nothing was thought of this injury at the time, but some weeks after he began to show symptoms of mental disturbance, and then became maniacal. He was sent to an asylum, but never recovered his reason and eventually died. Dr. Neild found post-mortem that this man had fractured his right parietal bone, and that an exostosis -inch deep was pressing on the right hemisphere; and no doubt if an early operation had been performed on this man all his subsequent trouble might have been avoided. He also recalled the case of a young fellow who, whilst slightly intoxicated in an hotel in the city, got a slight push, and fell down on a tiled floor, striking his head. He was picked up all right and went home. The following morning he went to his work, and did not complain of anything, and said he had no pain nor any other inconvenience. About three weeks after this he fell down suddenly and was found to be dead. At this post-mortem there was fracture of the base of the skull and a large clot of blood over the basilar process. There had evidently been very slow hæmorrhage going on for three weeks, and not causing any symptoms until the end. He concluded by saying that in head injuries you cannot always judge of the gravity of the case by the symptoms present.

Dr. BRYANT recalled to his memory the case of a man hurt at Swan Island by a large beam falling upon his skull. The patient was under the care of a colleague who watched the case closely for a fortnight, and during this time the reflexes were quite natural, and there were no symptoms of pressure. The patient could converse on any subject, and neither complained of pain nor ache, but a distinct lineal fracture, extending from the right parietal bone into the right temporal bone, could be made out. The pulse gradually became slower, and for this reason the medical man in attendance became anxions. A consultation was held about nine o'clock one night, and it was agreed to trephine over the centre part of the fracture in the morning. During the early morning the patient had an epileptic fit, but recovered quickly, and the doctors were not sent for. At nine o'clock the next morning the patient appeared to be in much the same condition as he had been overnight. His knee reflexes were perfect, and the only change notable was that the pulse was slightly slower, and he complained of numbness of the fingers of the left hand. Whilst the instruments were being got ready for operation the patient suddenly went off into a violent epileptic convulsion, and died before the trephined bone could be removed. It was found after that the fracture had gone through the middle meringeal artery grove, and this vessel must have been oozing quietly for nearly three weeks. The pressure on the right hemisphere had been so gradual that it had set up very little disturbance until the end. The brain was pushed away from the skull on the right side by clots for nearly an inch in depth. This case shows how nature will accommodate itself to altered conditions, and that the gravity of a head injury cannot always be gauged by the symptoms.

Dr. CUSCADEN congratulated Dr. J. Weigall on the report of an interesting case, and it reminded him of a similar one. A coal lumper working at one of the piers was struck on the head by a large lump of coal which fell upon him from some height. The man had a scalp wound, which was attended to by Dr. Cuscaden, but he had no symptoms of pressure. About six months after he was called to attend the same man, this time suffering from epileptic fits, which kept recurring at shorter and shorter intervals. Finally the man lost his memory and all knowledge of his identity. He was sent to the Alfred Hospital and was trephined over the site of the old scar and got better for a time, but eventually he became insane, and died in the Kew Asylum.

Dr. WEIGALL found that on looking up the literature of the results of trephining that they were more unsatisfactory than he was led to suppose. The reason for this no doubt was that so much mischief done to the cortical layer that many cells are permanently damaged. Therefore it was wise to wait three years before publishing cases of supposed cure. Again, in this particular case which he had reported, he could not understand why the patient should develope symptoms 22 years after the injury; it appeared to him that the symptoms ought to have come on before, or not at all. A specimen of the portions of bone removed by trephine was handed round for inspection and caused a good deal of surprise, as two bony exostosis projected for about an inch from the inner surface of the bone, and must have been a great source of irritation to the brain.

Dr. McCANSH then read clinical notes in a case of "Phosphorus Poisoning."

Dr. NEILD Could not find the notes of this case, as he had mislaid them with some six other cases, which he hoped to embody into the form of a paper for the consideration of the members on some future occasion. He found the symptoms in all these cases were the same, except that children's symptoms came on more rapidly and a fatal termination more quickly occurred.

Dr. WILLIS asked if any antidote had been used in this case?

Dr. McCANSH replied that it was not known that the patient had taken phosphorus until some days after she had taken it, so that the symptoms had fully developed and were beyond the use of antidotes when this was found out.

Dr. CUSCADEN read notes of a case in which "An Unusual Train of Symptoms followed Septic Infection." (See page 371.)

Dr. HENRY inquired if both axillary glands were affected.

Dr. CUSCADEN replied that only the right axilla was affected.

Dr. Fox showed a small accumulation lit up by five small cells, and accompanied by an instrument called Dr. Isaac's search-light. This gave a very powerful light, and possessed the usual advantages of the electric light, viz., no heat, brilliant light, and no danger of setting fire to anything. This instrument could easily be carried in the overcoat pocket, and contained enough electricity to keep the lamp alight for one and a half hours.

Some experiments were made with the light, and it was found, by pressing the light on the outside of cheek, it illuminated the inside of the mouth; and by putting it inside the mouth, and shutting up the mouth with the hand, light could be noticed showing thus the cheeks and the edges of the orbits.

According to Dr. Fox, this proved that opacity was only a question of degree.

This accumulator was easily charged from a large accumulator, and it was an exceedingly handy instrument for the examination of the nose, ear, mouth, vagina, and rectum, and would be very useful to the general practitioner for this outside work.

Queensland.

AT the meeting of the Branch held in June, a paper was read by Dr. Hawkes on "Some Methods and Results in Minor Surgery." (See page 364).

Dr. THOMSON spoke of the high value of so practical and useful a paper. He agreed with the teaching of Syme, as proved by post-mortem experience, that the injection of iodine into the sac of a hydrocele, did not produce adhesions. He had not found the eversion-ofthe-sac method so successful as others. He regarded the complete emptying of the sac, and the use of the 1-14 Edinburgh tincture, as the two most important points in the injection method. He emphasised the importance of the use of the two thumbs in dilatation of the sphincter in the operation for hæmorrhoids.

Dr. BYRNE agreed with Dr. Hawkes as to the value of ligaturing as small a pedicle as possible in hæmorrhoids, the after-pain of such operations being almost entirely due to the inclusion of too much tissue in the ligature. He favoured the injection treatment of hydrocele, using a fluid consisting of half tincture and half liniment of iodine.

Dr. TURNER asked if in the use of carbolic acid as an injection for hydrocele there was any danger of poisoning? The CHAIRMAN had had a fair measure of success in the injection method of treatment of hydrocele. He mentioned one case in which cure had resulted in a very old case from insertion of a solid stick of nitrate of silver, a plan adopted by Maisonneuve. Lately he had used with success iodised phenol. He spoke favourably of Whitehead's operation for the cure of hæmorrhoids, the results being very good if the operation were done carefully.

Dr. HAWKES, in reply, said that the injection treatment of hydrocele occasionally resulted in bad failures. severe pain and sloughing, and that any large series of cases showed a certain proportion of such failures. He

replied to Dr. Turner that there had been cases of nonfatal carbolic acid poisoning after injection of the hydrocele sac. He liked Whitehead's operation for hæmorrhoids, the objection to it being that it took a long time to perform.

A MEETING was held on Friday, July 4th, Dr. Robertson in the chair. Dr. Lockhart Gibson exhibited the case referred to in his paper, also a lens with foreign body in situ, and related the following history of the case :

B.K., aged 15 years, was referred to me by Dr. MacDonnell, of Toowoomba, on June 7, 1902, on account of a traumatic cataract. She gave the following history-In October of last year she was struck in the left eye by a stone. The eye was slightly painful for three or four days, then ceased to trouble her. Its sight remained a little less clear than before the accident, but was good. The eye became suddenly blind on Good Friday of this year, and an alteration in the pupil was then noticed. No cataract, therefore, appeared until five months after the accident.

Examination.-Lens completely cataractous, eye apparently otherwise healthy. Oblique illumination with undilated pupil, and, without the aid of an X-glass, revealed no foreign body in the lens and no wound of the cornea. Dilatation of the pupil at once revealed a small foreign body in the inferior outer quadrant of the lens. Very careful re-examination of the cornea then disclosed a minute scar which might have been that of a penetrating wound. It was situated a little below the centre of the cornea and at a considerably higher level than the foreign body in the lens. The opaque white lens formed an unfavourable background for observing a small wound in the cornea. The youth of the patient and the position of the foreign body in the lower part of the lens and not much below its anterior surface made the possibility of removing the lens minus its foreign body very considerable. I considered carefully whether Pagensticher's operation for removing the lens in its capsule might not be the best to adopt, but decided to perform the ordinary operation, as for senile cataract, with iridectomy. The youth of the patient made chloroform necessary. I made as large an incision as for a senile cataract. Did a small iridectomy. Tore the anterior capsule of the lens very gently, and extracted the lens whole with its foreign body. It came out at the large incisión very readily, though holding together on account of its gelatinous consistency, and not on account of any hardness. It was little, if at all, harder than healthy lens.

The eye has done well, and has already good vision, viz., 12. N. will, I believe, see . But she retched pretty violently for 12 hours after the chloroform, and a little iris prolapsed into each angle of the wound. This led to delay in healing, and a cystoid cicatrix which required attention under cocain. The wound now healed, and tension is normal; but it is possible that a cystoid cicatrix which persists at one corner may still require interference. If so I would adopt G. A. Berry's plan of dissecting up the conjunctiva, touching the small leak with a fine cautery point, and then replacing the conjunctiva. The corneal scar, though small, is now plainly visible, and oblique illumination, on account of the black background of the pupil. The lens has been hardened in 5% formalin, and shows the foreign body in position. Dr. LOCKHART GIBSON read (1) a paper on "The Complete Mastoid Operation with Thiersch GraftingBallance' (see page 357); (2) "Two Cases of Double Glaucoma, with Remarks on Etiology."

The papers were of great interest, and the chairman and other members present at the meeting offered congratulations to Dr. Lockhart Gibson upon the clear and graphic manner in which the subjects were treated by him.

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

The Chancellorship of the University of London-The Army Medical Service-Professional Longevity-Cancer Mortality in England and Wales-Medical Endowment in America-Fourteenth International Medical Congress— The Winding-sheet of Christ-The Latest Use for d'Arsonvalisation-The Practice of Quackery.

THE Earl of Kimberley, who has just died, was for more than 40 years a member of the Senate of the University of London, and in 1899 became Chancellor in succession to the late Lord Herschell. By the new constitution of the University the vacant chancellorship will, for the first time, be filled by convocation voting as at a senatorial election. The date of election has been fixed for the 13th May, and nominations may be lodged with the Clerk of Convocation up to the 22nd of April. Several names are already mentioned; among others, Lord Rosebery, Lord Avebury, and Lord Lister. A contested election would probably be provocative of considerable excitement among the graduates who constitute the constituency.

A Royal Warrant, dated March 24th, has been promulgated to the army, with the approval of the Secretary of State for War, amending the regulations relating to the appointment, promotion, pay, and noneffective pay of officers of the medical services. The Surgeon-General holding the appointment of DirectorGeneral is to rank as Lieutenant-General, and other Surgeon-Generals as Major-Generals. Six of the most meritorious officers of the Service shall be named honorary physicians and six honorary surgeons to the King, and on such promotion an officer under the rank of colonel in the Royal Army Medical Corps may be promoted to the brevet rank of colonel.

The following shall be the yearly rates of pay, additional pay, and charge pay at headquarters:Director-General, £2,000; Deputy Director-General, £1,500; Assistant Director-General, £850; Deputy Assistant Director-General, £750. At other stations the daily remuneration shall be as follows:-SurgeonGeneral, £3; Colonel, £2; Lieutenant-Colonel, £1 10s; Lieutenant-Colonel, specially selected for increased pay, after at least eight years' service abroad, £1 158; Major, £1 38 6d; Major, after three years' service as such, £1 68; Captain, 158 6d; Captain, after seven years' total full pay service, 17s 6d; Captain, after ten years' total full pay service, £1 1s; Lieutenant on promotion and Lieutenant, 148; Adjutant of the Royal Army Medical Corps (Volunteers), the pay of his rank; Quartermaster, as a quartermaster of infantry.

A Lieutenant-Colonel appointed honorary physician or surgeon to the King will receive the pay of a Colonel, and a Captain holding the brevet rank of Major shall have 2s a day in addition to his pay as a Captain. On completion of three years' service an officer of the Royal Army Medical Corps may be permitted to become an Army Reserve officer for seven years, and while so serving will receive £25 a year.

The conditions and scales of payment and gratuity on retirement are revised, and provision is made for additional charge, extra duty, and sick pay.

The new Warrant is a good one as far as it goes; but it is not without flaws, and its success is largely dependent upon the spirit in which it is administered by the War Office.

It has been pointed out by the Star that the pages of Burke contain the names of two members of our profession, each of whom is in his ninety-fourth year-Sir Charles Nicholson, M.D., who held a distinguished position in the Legislature of New South Wales and was created a baronet in 1859; and Sir Henry Pitman, M.D., who was for many years registrar of the Royal College of Physicians of London and was made a knight in 1883.

Apropos of this statement, a still more striking instance of longevity is communicated to the Lancet by Mr. Christopher Heath, who writes to say that Mr. Nathaniel Davidson, L.R.C.S. Edin., L.R.C.P., London, to whom he was apprenticed in 1859, has attained the patriarchal age of 97 years, and is still in the possession of good health.

At a meeting of the Chelsea Clinical Society, held in March, Dr. John F. W. Tatham, Superintendent of Statistics at the General Register Office, communicated some interesting figures relating to the prevalence of malignant disease. He pointed out that during the last four years the annual death rate from this form of disease had exceeded 25,000, and that the mortality had been greater among women than men; the female death rate in each 1,000,000 living amounting to 975, and the male death rate to 672. This excess is apparently due to the special susceptibility of the female generative organs to diseases of this type, because when the deaths from cancerous affections of the ovaries, uterus, and breast are subtracted from the total of cancer deaths among females, the remaining death rate among women is considerably less than among men. Thus in the four years 1897-1900 the male deaths from cancer, less the deaths from disease of the generative organs, correspond to an annual mortality of 645 per 1,000,000, whilst the female rate, with the same limitations, did not exceed 568 per 1,000,000. The general mortality is not excessive till after the twenty-fifth year, but as age advances it increases rapidly in both sexes, as is shown by the following table:

The University of Harvard is at present conspicuously in luck's way as regards generous benefactions for medical research and equipment. A few months ago Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan gave a large sum of money to assist the completion of the new medical school buildings, and it is now announced that Mr. Rockefeller, in commendable imitation of such a worthy example, has offered a donation of no less than £200,000 towards the same object. Mr. Rockefeller's gift is made subject to the stipulation that an additional sum of £100,000 shall be raised by other contributors, either for buildings or endowment, and it is understood that already between £38,000 and £40,000 has been promised.

The fourteenth International Congress of Medicine will be held in Madrid, under the patronage of the King and Queen-Regent of Spain, from April 23 to 30, 1903.

Representatives have already been invited from the Governments of all other countries, as well as from the universities, schools of medicine, and principal medical and surgical societies. The work will be distributed over sixteen sections, under the direction of Dr. Angel Fernandez-Caro as general secretary. The president will be Dr. Julian Calleja. Intending members of Congress are requested to specify in their applications the section which they wish to join. The fee for membership is 30 pesetas (equal to about one pound sterling), and carries with it the right to receive a copy of the transactions of the section which the applicant elects to belong to. The official languages will be Spanish, English, French and German.

At the last meeting of the Academy of Sciences in Paris a paper of unusual interest was read by Dr. Vignon on the winding-sheet preserved at Turin, and traditionally said to be that of Christ. He exhibited a series of photographs (which were taken in May, 1898, during an exhibition of sacred art at Turin) of certain brown markings on the sheet, which, like a true negative, gave white imprints when photographed. It has already been clearly demonstrated that almost all substances are capable in the dark of acting on a photographic plate and producing a picture, the phenomenon being apparently always established in the presence of an oxidising agent, which Russell and others conclude to be peroxide of hydrogen. By careful experiments Dr. Vignon proved that cloth impregnated with oil and aloes, as was the winding-sheet in question, will take on an impression when in contact with ammoniacal vapours such as would be given off from a sweat rich in urea, as sweat always is in a person dying a slow and painful death. The cloth thus became analogous to a highly sensitised film, and it would seem not to be beyond the bounds of probability that, apart from any influence of light, the chemical process of oxidation of the fixed oils with a consequent colour change of certain constituents of the aloes might cause an emanation of vapours capable of reproducing on the cloth a more or less complete image of the dead Christ. The photographs are thus described:-"The impression of the head is excellent. The wounds produced by the crown of thorns and the marks of the blood drops are quite obvious. The wound in the side, and even the marks of the stripes produced on the back by the flagellation, are also quite evident. Each of these stripes has at its end an enlargement such as would be produced by a cord with a ball of lead at the end. It is well-known that this form of scourge was employed by the_Roman soldiers, and such a one has been found at Pompeii. Finally, the marks of the nails in the arms are not in the palm of the hand, but show that the nails were driven through at the level of the wrist." The photographs have been placed on public view at the offices of the Figaro, where they have been inspected by a large number of persons.