152 AMDULANCE ARRANGEMENTS ON THE ROYAL WEDDING DAY.

number of the little patients. We know from contem-

porary accounts of similar outbreaks in Germany, Franceand Italy that they have occurred as the sequelas of wide-spread epidemics ; indeed, the classic description of the

choreal distemper so diffused in the fourteenth century dis-tinctly tells us that it followed the prevalence of the "pestenoire." Now, in Stuttgart influenza was, on its first appear-ance some two and a half or three years ago, especiallysevere, and left behind it traces of a very pronounced neuroticcharacter. Dr. Rembold might, we think, follow up his

investigation of the interesting phenomena he has describedand ascertain how far the patients whose remarkable seizurehe witnessed had been predisposed to it by the influenzaepidemic, or how far their susceptibility to contract it bycontagion had been determined by that cause.

A "FOYER" OF CHOLERA.IN view of the spread of cholera the meaning of the word

foyer requires to be defined. The French Government, it is

stated, proposes to notify other countries of the existence ofcholera only when a foyer has been created. Everythingdepends, therefore, on the meaning of the word foyer. Un-

doubtedly it means head-quarters or a radiating centre. The i

foyer in the house is the fireplace, where the heat is centred Iand radiated. In the theatre it was formerly a room used bythe actors, though now the term designates the crush-roomwhich is frequented by the public. In politics the FrenchGovernment has just closed the Labour Exchange because itwas a foyer of revolutionary agitation. In optics the foyer isthe point in the glass where the rays of light unite. In

Spain, during the great cholera epidemic, we always heard ofthe " focus " of the disease. Practically the use of the termfoyer means that if there are isolated cases of cholera in atown the French Government will not notify; but if casesare grouped together and form a sort of kernel-a centre,a focus, radiating, scattering around the germs of

disease,-then the French Government will notify. Of

course one single case of cholera may be considered as acentre or a foyer. This is how the term should be acceptedif notification is to be of service; but this is not the waythe word is generally employed. A foyer of epidemicdisease means practically a centre of disease. One case

of cholera is no more a centre than a sentinel is an

army. But the army may come where the sentinel stood, andthe one case of cholera may ultimately become the centre orfoyer of an epidemic. Instead of notifying when this oneisolated case has occurred, the French propose to wait till afoyer has grown up around it. In that case, as alreadyobserved, the notification would come too late to be of anyuse and the sanitary authorities of various countries will haveto rely, as in the past, on newspaper reports or on the watch-fulness of the consuls. If, in this respect, the Dresden con-ference is to be of any service the word foyer must certainlybe withdrawn.

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THE REMOVAL OF HUMAN REMAINS FROMCITY CHURCHES.

THERE is one class of persons who are at the present timedeserving of the most hearty sympathy. We refer to the

clergy, churchwardens and all connected with those Citychurches underneath which are vaults containing humanremains. During the last few years it has been found neces-sary to remove the dead from the vaults beneath several Citychurches, and only very recently allusion was made in THELANCET to the fact that this had become necessary in

St. Michael’s, Bassishaw. We learn with regret that therector, the Rev. J. Stephen Barrass, is ill, and that his

friends ascribe his disorder to a too careful scrutiny of

the remains beneath his church. Now it appears that St.Martin’s Church, Ludgate-hill, is being put into substantial

repair, that during the process of reparation it became

apparent that there were a large number of bodies buried

under the church, and Dr. Sedgwick Saunders, the medicoofficer of health for the City of London, reported that it wasnecessary on sanitary grounds that the bodies should beremoved. Dr. Tristram, the Chancellor, has granted a facultyfor the removal of the remains under the church and for theirreinterment in consecrated ground. The Stationers’ Com-

pany, whose garden adjoins the church, applied that theremains of 350 to 400 bodies buried in two vaults beneaththis garden should be removed at the same time, but as theground had not been consecrated the Chancellor could notgrant a faculty. He suggested, however, that they could beremoved by licence from the Home Secretary, and he wouldauthorise their reinterment in consecrated ground within thediocese of London. This is very satisfactory and, indeed, itis the only proper course ; but the costs will have to be paidout of the rates, which neither the churchwardens nor the

parishioners will relish, whilst the question arises, which willbe the next City church whose vaults must be emptied? For

it is too much to expect that the proceedings at St. Martin’s,Ludgate-hill, will be the last of the kind.

"SANITARY INSPECTION WITH REFERENCE TOINFECTIOUS DISEASES."

A LECTURE on this subject was delivered by Dr. TheodoreThomson on April 22nd, at the Town Hall, Huddersfield,under the auspices of the West Riding County Council, theCouncil of the City of Sheffield, the County Boroughs of

Halifax and Huddersfield, the Yorkshire College and the Sani-tary Institute, and was repeated on April 29th at Keighley.The lecture was chiefly intended for the guidance of sanitaryinspectors, and in opening his subject, Dr. Thomson at oncestated that he did not mean to take the term "sanitaryinspection" in "any limited sense," but rather to con-

sider all the duties of a sanitary inspector when he visits

a house in which there may be infectious disease. Duringthe course of his remarks Dr. Thomson dealt with most

of the acute specific diseases, indicating the periods ofincubation and quarantine and the means to be adoptedfor the prevention of their spread in each case. To the

sanitary inspector, however, Dr. Thomson commits the im-portant duty of investigating the cause, progress of an

epidemic and the means to be adopted for limiting its spread.Nay, this important official may not only be a teacher, buthe may also be a "leader of public opinion." Practicallythe lecturer handed over to the sanitary inspector not onlythe mere routine work of inspection of infected houses, butalso the elucidation of important and difficult etiologicalproblems which have taxed the ingenuity of the best dis-

ciplined minds in the medical profession. Etiology is a field?which preeminently a:Eords scope for the energy and abilitiesof the medical officer of health ; and we feel sure, did heenter it, that he would do far greater justice to the weightyquestions which demand solution.

AMBULANCE ARRANGEMENTS ON THE ROYALWEDDING DAY.

OCCASIONS upon which great crowds of people are drawntogether naturally cause a certain amount of anxiety in theminds of those responsible for their safety and well-being. In

this country, at least, the arrangements are generally so goodand the people themselves are so orderly and law-abiding thatlittle concern arises in the case of sightseers. The ambulance

arrangements for the civilian population who took part in thefestivities were left, as usual, to the St. John AmbulanceSociety, the members of which performed their allotted tasbwith their accustomed energy. Many circumstances combinedto render the number of cases of illness and accident some-

what large, and the value of the assistance rendered by the

153THE SOOTCH FOKM OF OATN.

Society was consequently more appreciated. The publichave also to acknowledge the excellence of the arrange-ments made by the Adjutant (Surgeon-Captain J. P. S.

Hayes) who had charge of the Army Medical Staff Corps,which was nominally present for the purpose of renderinghelp to the 5000 Volunteers who paraded on the occa-

sion, but who rendered great service to the spectators.At the station on Constitution Hill about 250 persons were

treated, including a case of fractured radius, and several

cases were taken to St. George’s Hospital. At the Mall,wherea second station was appointed, 300 cases were treated-as many as forty people suffering from syncope or from heatexhaustion at one time under the colonnade of St. James’sPalace, The officials at the Palace supplied beef-teaand brandy and blankets for the sufEerers to lie upon.An offer made to the War Office by the Volunteer AmbulanceCorps was refused by the authorities. Nevertheless, whenan accident occurred to the Marquis of Tullibardine, whichgave rise to severe concussion of the spine, the medicalofficers in charge of the regular troops had to borrow astretcher from the Ambulance Corps on which to remove thepatient.

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A MODEL "HOLIDAY HOME."

SWITZERLAND, which enjoys so honourable a record ineducation, particularly amongst the poorer classes, can alsoclaim to be the motherland of "holiday homes " for school-children. The conception and organisation of such adjunctsto the humbler scholastic life belong to the Zurich clergy-man Herr Bion, who made that city and canton the first

exemplar of the institution. From Zurich the movement

spread to other parts of the Confederation, and thence overthe frontier to Germany, where the Empress Frederick hasput herself at its head-as at that of so many other good andphilanthropic works. Next to Zurich in the number and

equipment of these holiday homes are the cantons of Baleand Solothurn ; but the parent city has an advantage overall its imitators in one particular. For whereas the weaklyschool children of Bale and the other cantons are, during theholidays, maintained in hillside inns or farmhouses, Zurich,whilst also supporting a goodly number of such resorts,has a permanent building expressly constructed and

appointed for the purpose. This is situated on the Schwd-

brig Alp, half an hour’s walk from the town of Gais, a

well-known seat of the whey cure. It stands some 3500feet above the sea level; on its left rises the picturesqueGabris, called "the Rigi of East Switzerland" " and on

the right is the scarcely less striking Sommersberg. The

neighbourhood of a fine fir plantation adds a deliciousand salubrious fragrance to the atmosphere. The site

thus happily chosen is turned to the best account by thebuilding itself; in front there is a spacious hall in which thechildren can go through their exercises in bad weather andalso e2 evidence is the ample means of water-supply, hot aswell as cold, for all purposes. Every appurtenance of cleanli-ness is provided, the laundry being a conspicuously attractiveobject. On the first floor are the sleeping apartments forthe children and their teachers, in addition to which thereare eight rooms which are set apart for the superintendents.Again, on the storey above, there is a second series of

bedrooms, so that altogether about 110 children and twelveadults can be accommodated with every comfort and everyadvantage of ventilation and protection from the weather.Milk and bread, both of the best quality, are the principalarticles of diet, these being reinforced from time to time bybatcher’s meat and by plenty of green vegetables. There is alsoa resident physician who, besides visiting regularly the speciallyappointed sick-rooms, gives a general supervision to the health?-lid the hygienic conditions of the whole establishment. AmpleMeans for out-door pastimes and excursions into the neigh-

bouring woods and meadow glides are furniehed--neitherpastime nor excursion being practised or undertaken withoutthe presence or guidance of the teachers, male and female.The philanthropic munificence of the citizens of Zurich

supplied the means for this model holiday home, and thesuccess of the institution is already arousing a wholesomespirit of rivalry amongst the wealthier cantons -W 31e included.Certainly Zurich was entitled to take the lead in the move-ment. As a great educational centre it was especiallycognisant of the need of such homes for the poorer class ofweakly school children, in whose case "over-pressure" " hasbeen found to aggravate the hygienic disadvantages inseparable from their humble and scantily appointed dwellings.

THE SCOTCH FORM OF OATH.IN Chiire7i and Qiicea of the 7th ilist. an article

entitled taking the Oath" is published. As might havebeen expected, it deals with the subject in its religious phaseand comments on the strange circumstance that in the takingof oaths Scotland should set England an example of greaterreverence. Whilst acknowledging the reference made by ourcontemporary to what has appeared in THE LANCET, we mustin turn express our satisfaction that the subject is receivingthe attention of the ecclesiastical press, since allusion wasmade to the new form of oath in a recent issue of Churck

Bells, for whilst our remarks have naturally been concen-trated on the dirty and risky practice of kissing a Bible orTestament in common use, wa have m wish to ignore thereligious aspect of oath-taking. On the contrary, we have

expressed our satisfaction that few, if aay, members of the

medical profession have declined to tika the oath on thegrounds that they had no religious belief. It is most impor-tant that every medical witness should be solemnly impressedwhenever he takes an oath. The new form is admirablycalculated to make him do this, the uplifted right handbeing an act which is more solemn as well as more ancientthan the kissing of the book ; wiiilst, unlike the latter

process, it cannot be evaded, but is plain to everybodyin Court. It is true that medical evidence is as a rule-

formal and that medical witnesses have no object in

telling anything but the truth. It is impossible, however,to make any distinction, and at a recent trial the Princeof Wales was sworn like any other witness. Medical wit-

nesses, moreover, must set an example poor encollrager les

aittres. To all the sanctity of an oath and due reverence toHim in whose name it is taken is a matter to which attentionshould be drawn ; and we emphasise our contemporary’s hopethat the subject of reverent adjuration may form the subjectof sermons and discourses from every pulpit as well as ofleading articles in every religious paper.

THE CRIME OF PROCURING ABORTION AND ITSPENALTIES IN ENGLAND AND OTHER

COUNTRIES.

THE Parliamentary return asked for by Viscount Grimstonand already alluded to in THE LANCET contains answers tothe following question (No. 7) : What are the penalties forcriminally causing a child to be stillborn ’1 The replies wilbe read with interest, since from various causes and reasons thiscrime of procuring or attempting to procure abortion has oflate years become unhappily frequent. As is well known, in

England and in Ireland the punishment is penal servitude forlife, or for any less term, or imprisonment ; whilst if the-mother of the child should die in consequence of this unlaw-ful act the crime becomes constructive or legal murder.In 1875 Alfred Thomas Heap, a Manchester abortionist, wasconvicted of the murder of a woman. He had used a,

Manchester spindle, with which lie had transfixed the graviduterus. He was found guilty, but was recommended to mercyby the jury. As, however, they were unaware that he had