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practice is outside the province of the charitable healer. I

The close connexion between illegitimacy, conceal-

ment of birth, and infanticide needs no explanation.Snch preventive measures as have hitherto been employed todestroy this mischievous and criminal combination have notbeen highly successful. The question remains whether theyshould not be supplemented by such public and charitableaid as is plainly needful to secure the safety of mother andchild at the time of birth. We would answer this question inthe affirmative. Mr. Frederick Lowndes, in a paper recentlyreprinted, advocates a similar view. He proposes that mid-wives attached to maternity hospitals should be eligible forattendance on cases of labour without distinction outside thewalls of these hospitals, and that provision should be madefor the reception of a certain number of necessitous caseswithin the wards also. We believe that the adoption ofthese or similar suggestions would neither, in a well-

regulated institution, tend to lower our present standard ofmorality nor act upon the recipients of charity as an

encouragement to do evil. A judicious selection of Gasesfor admission would of course be imperative, and a pre-ference, though not wholly exclusive, would naturally begiven to married women. Defended by such needful safe-guards, the arrangement suggested should, we consider,work well and should prove in the end to be both a humaneand a politic measure.

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THE OPERATIVE TREATMENT OF SPINAL

CURVATURE.

AT the French Academy of Medicine M. Chipault hasfrom the commencement of his researches on the reductionor correction of spinal deviations maintained that thecorrection will not be permanent unless the vertebral columnis kept in its new position by direct fixation of the spinousprocesses ; this applies both to scolioses and to the results ofPott’s disease. All the authorities on the subject now agreewith him. M. Regnault has, in the first place, demonstratedbefore the Anatomical Society thit Pott’s disease and spinalcurvatures (scolioses) if left to themselves tend to recoveryby ankylosis of the posterior portions of the vertebrm, andthat metallic fixation of the processes consequently does no

I

more than anticipate in a most logical way the natural pro-cess of recovery. In the next place, M. M6nard has

exhibited to the Academy and to the Surgical Society aseries of anatomical preparations which proves the harmless-ness of the operation for reduction. S3 far as the spinal cordand the parts surrounding the vertebral column are concerned,the correction of these deviations sometimes produces a

remarkable change in the configuration and dimensions ofthe space lying in front of the vertebral column, and theseanatomical preparations show that for the purpose of render-ing the improvement permanent it is necessary that the

spine shall be fixed in the new position. Many cases ofrecent occurrence in which distortion returned when fixa-tion was neglected after correction of the deformity provethe absolute necessity for fixation of the processes.The attention of surgeons in many different places seems atthe present time to be directed to this subject, andM. Chipault has now given an account of the improvementswhich he has during the last few months made in the opera-tion originally devised by him. It consisted, as will be

remembered, in tying the processes with stout silver wire, amethod which is satisfactory and will continue to be

employed under certain circumstances, but is neverthelesssometimes difficult of application on account of thestiffness of the wire. In place of the wire he there-fore now uses hooks of four different forms, twofor lateral deviations and two for antero - posteriordeviations ; each form of hook is made in two qualities, onebeing rigid, for use when it has been possible to correct the

distortion completely, and the other being pliable, so as tobe available when the correction of the deviation is onlypartial. The hooks can be applied with the utmost ease.They cause no local disturbance and do not interfere withthe development of the portion of the spine to which theyare applied.

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A PATIENT FINED FOR LEAVING A HOSPITAL.

A PATIENT has lately been fined for leaving a fever

hospital while suffering from typhoid fever. He hadbeen an inmate for some time and had apparentlybeen very ill, but during his convalescence he thoughthe was well enough to go and so walked out one

day without saying anything to anyone. Patients in

general hospitals not infrequently practise this modeof departure, which probably does little harm to any-one except the patient himself; but in the case ofinfectious hospitals things are different, for unless the

patient and his clothes are properly disinfected disease maybe spread to any extent. It is thus right that patientsshould understand that although they may risk doing harmto themselves by leaving hospitals against advice, they mustnot be allowed to convey infectious diseases to other peoplewho are unfortunate enough to come in contact withthem.

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THE FAMINE IN INDIA.

THE news from the famine districts of India has been so

uniformly good for some weeks that we hope we are nowwithin a measurable distance of the ending of the acutestage. But before the famine passes out of men’s minds or

is crowded out by the more exciting news of frontier

wars, it may be well to recall the chief causes of the scarcityof food in the famine-stricken districts. No rain, no food

for cattle, then starvation of the earth and its dwellers.Cattle are fed during the year for three months correspond-ing to the rainy season upon green grass, and then for the

next four months they are fed upon hay made from thissame grass; but at the end of seven months the supply isexhausted, and for five months the animals get only milletstalks as their staple food. It must be rememberedthat beans, barley, and oats grow only in Upper India.When the supply of rain is abnormally diminished the grassand hay are deficient, and the cattle die for want of food.The dearth of cattle puts an end to all bullock traffic, to thecarting of grain for human needs, to ploughing, and to allagricultural work. Ploughing in India is done twice a yearand is impossible except after the rains, because the groundat other times is too hard and fissured. In the old days thenatives used to buiy grain for years, and so in famine timesthere was a hidden store of food for men and cattle, butto-day the grain is all exported by rail to Bombay, andthence out of India. This is a necessary sequeme of themodern extension of railways throughout country districts.

POLYNEURITIS.

AT the recent meeting at Baden Baden of the South-westGerman Society of Neurologists and Alienists 1 Professor

Strumpell directed attention to some points in the sym-

ptomatology of this disease. He mentioned in particularthe occurrence of double facial palsy in alcoholic neuritisas a result of an affection of both facial nerves. Thiscondition he had observed on two occasions. He alsoreferred to a hitherto undescribed affection of the

auditory nerves which had been described by Professor

Kiesselbach-viz., true nerve deafness on each side-

passing off in three weeks, and being replaced by noises

1 Neurologisches Centralblatt, p. 610.