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Looking Back.FROM

THE LANCET, SATURDAY, May 30th, 1829.INFLATION OF THE LUNGS OF INFANTS.

, AT a late meeting of the French Institution, a case was

communicated, in which a new-born infant was aroused froma state of asphyxia by the insufflation of air. A child, justborn, was brought to M. Portal for the purposes of dissection ;while preparing for this, some short time after receiving it, itoccurred to him to blow for an instant into its mouth. In two or three minutes, beat returned, the circulation re-

commenced, the heart began to beat, and the supposedcorpse was restored to the parents a lively infant. A similarcircumstance is said to have once occurred to an anatomist atLyons.

CLIMATE OF EGYPT.

Dr. PARISET, a French physician, who has been residingfor several months in Egypt, for the purpose of makingobservations on the climate, gives it as his opinion, that thenotion generally entertained of the insalubrity of that

country is erroneously founded. He considers Egypt as, inreality, a very healthy country, and that the air is onlyvitiated in some parts by the absolute want of the mostsimple sanitary measures. The carcases of animals, forinstance, are every where abandoned to putrefaction, even,indeed, in the very centres of the most populous towns. Hestates that he ascertained, during his residence at Assouan,that the plague is not endemical in Nubia, and that thedisease so termed, is only a species of intermittent fever.

MEDICINE AND THE LAW.

Milk and the Farmer. AT Enfield recently a case was heard in which a retail milk c

dealer was summoned by an inspector under the Sale of Food and Drugs Acts for selling to his assistant " new cow’s (

milk " which contained 14 per cent. of added water. At the (

same time there was a summons also taken out by the inspector against the farmer who sold the milk to the retailer 1for supplying that which was not of the substance and iquality demanded by the purchaser, and the two cases weretaken together. A discussion arose as to whether the contract to supply "new cow’s milk" to his customer was a warranty on the part of the farmer upon which the retailer might rely as a defence to the prosecu- tion, and points in connexion with the procedure adoptedwere raised which, it was stated, would eventually bereferred to the Divisional Court. The result of the hearing,however, so far as the magistrates were concerned, was thatthey dismissed the summons against the retailer on theevidence, holding that he had not been guilty of addingwater to the milk and convicted the farmer of doing so.Another case was then heard against the farmer, in whichthe inspector had gone on another date to the railwaystation to which the farmer had consigned milk for theretailer already mentioned and had there taken samplesfrom a churn with the result that these on analysiswere shown to contain added water to the extent of 8per cent. In this case also the bench convicted the farmer,ordering him to pay in each case a fine of 10s. with the costs,including the fee of the analyst. The bench called attentionto the conduct of the farmer in sending milk by rail withoutsealing or locking the cans, an explanation of which wassuggested by the inspector under the Sale of Food and DrugsActs. His view was that farmers prefer to send their milkthus by rail without securing the lids of the churns,because if it is afterwards shown to have reached theconsignee in a defective condition they can put forwardthe explanation that it has been tampered with incourse of transit, a defence which obviously wouldnot be open to them if they rendered such inter-ference impossible. As the intervention of the inspectorin the circumstances described was questioned on the part ofthe defence no more need be said with regard to a pointwhich is purely a legal one. With regard to the locking ofchurns, it is obviously of importance to the public that milkshould be liable to examination at any stage of its

conveyance from the cow to the ultimate consumer

at which adulteration can be detected and brought home tothose responsible for it. The task of inspection and of

protecting the public will, however, be simpler and moreeffective if during one of those stages-that is to say, duringa journey by road or rail-theft and adulteration are renderedimpossible. To send milk in a sealed or locked can canhardly be prejudicial to a farmer or to a milk dealer, and it isnot usual with regard to other goods to intrust them tocarriers without some corresponding precaution.

The Case of George Edalji.It was inevitable that the Home Secretary’s decision in

this case should be regarded as a compromise with justice.and Mr. Gladstone must have felt very sure of his groundindeed before, by withholding compensation to a man whohad been admittedly punished in error, he exposed his

department to further public censure. Our distinguishedeonfrere, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who has throughoutbeen one of Mr. Edalji’s most stalwart champions, is now

vigorously combating the assumption that Mr. Edalji wrotethe various anonymous letters used at his trial, and to theordinary mind his arguments are very convincing.

ASYLUM REPORTS.

Barnmood House, Gloucester (Hospital for the Insane)(Forty-seventh Annual Report, 1906).-The number of

patients treated in the hospital during 1906 averaged 147 (55males and 92 females). There were 44 patients (14 males and30 females) admitted during the year 1906, this being thehighest admission rate for the last 30 years. Dr. J. G. Soutardraws attention to the unfavourable nature, from the

recovery standpoint, of the maladies from which the malepatients usually suffer. For example, in the year under

review, only one of the male admissions showed any pro-spect of recovery. He goes on to say that he has foundin recent years " that insanity among the male patientsfrom 40 years of age upwards has, in an increasing numberof cases, been associated with ascertainable arterial

degeneration. These early senile changes ’ are stillcomparatively rare amongst the women. In the case

of most of the men alcohol or syphilis may be ex-

cluded as a condition precedent to the arterial changes,but we find them amongst those who have struggled and

I striven often successfully and with little relaxation inarduous mental work. In other cases it would seen as ifexcessive devotion to athletic exercises, carried on beyondthe elastic years of youth, led, in those predisposed, to oldage arteries in middle-aged men." As to the causation, themedical superintendent reports that a hereditary tendency tomental and allied nervous troubles was ascertained in 47’ 7per cent. of the admissions. 30 persons (11 males and 19females) were discharged during 1906 and of these only 12(four males and eight females) had recovered. Two femalepatients were discharged relieved and of the other dischargesseven males and nine females left uncured. Six males andtwo females died during the year, all from natural causes.Thus the recovery rate is only 27 ’ 2 per cent. on the admis-sions, which is low compared with the average recovery rateof the past five years, which is 45 2 per cent. Dr. Soutaraccounts for this decrease in the recovery rate in that duringrecent years there has been a marked falling-off in applica-tions for the admission of acute cases. If this is the case it isto be deplored, considering the high position that this hos-pital holds and the fact that much charitable work is doneby it, for " the committee of the hospital are always readyto receive persons from the educated classes suffering fromrecent mental disorder at low rates of payment. No case ofthis type is refused admission, tut it is quite extraordinaryhow few applications are received. We have oftener thanwe like to fill our beds with chronic cases who can no longerpay the fees required elsewhere but can still easily afford topay us at remunerative rates. Many of these patients areintelligent and interesting members of our community, theyoffer points for study and consideration, and in various waysmuch can be done for them, but they cannot be cured. We ereluctantly accept them in lieu of acute cases, for theaccommodation of whom there has recently been so littledemand." Four patients have been maintained gratuitouslyand 60 others below the average cost of maintenance. Thecommittee states that the sum of .E4833 was invested inthe purchase of Z5500 stock as an addition to the PensionFund which is now represented by £36,094 in consols.