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SCOTLAND.(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT)

iprofessor Crum Brown and the Statement of the Associationfor the Reform of ffledical Education.

PROFESSOR CRUM BROWN has considered it his duty towrite a letter to the chairman of the Universities Commis-sion on the statement submitted by the Association for theReform of Medical Education, and he has had the courtesyto circulate copies of it. Only two paragraphs of the letterneed be quoted here, for the enlightenment of old Edinburghstudents. He saye : "The lecturers who have signed the.document presented to the Commissioners have given anovel definition of lectures. They tell the Commission thatlecturing consists in the dictation of the details of the- subject. Of such lecturing it is no question as to how muchor how little of it there ought to be ; it is clear that there iought to be none. I understand by lecturing something- very different from this. The duty of a lecturer is to

present to his students a clear, well-arranged, well-balanced exposition of the principles of the science heteaches, illustrating the application of these principlesby means of well-chosen pxamples. This is a high ideal,but one to be aimed at. If lecturing degenerates into the,reading of a published or unpublished text-book, it ceases tobe true or efficient lecturing. A lecturer or professor whodictates the details of his subject to his students does notdo his duty, and the cure is not to give him less of that badwork to do, but to relieve him of it altogether and set himon the right road." The question which these sentencessuggest is, Did his colleagues see this letter ? To oldstudents and those connected with, or who know the springsof things in, the school there is a charming simplicity andindividualism in the opinions which, if accepted by theschool at large, would do much to obviate the necessity ofceform associations.

Proposed Extension of the Royal Infirmary, Edinburgh.Negotiations have been reopened between the Royal

Infirmary and the managers of the Sick Children’s Hospitaland the Merchant Company, to ascertain if arrangementscannot yet be come to for the acquisition of ground moresuitable for the purposes of extending the buildings thanthe plans recently suggested and referred to here.

Health of Edinburgh.The mortality last week was 100 and the death-rate 20

per 1000. Diseases of the chest accounted for 50 deathsand zymotic diseases for 4. The intimations for the weekwere: typhus fever 2, typhoid fever 1, diphtheria 5, scar-latina 24, and measles 30. Feb. 9th.

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IRELAND.(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

The Irish Colleges’ Conjoint Scheme.THE following is an outline of the five years’ curriculum

for the diploma in Medicine, Surgery, and Obstetrics of thecombined Colleges, as agreed to by the Committee of

Management :-First year: (1) Demonstrations and Dis-sections, six months ; (2) Practical Chemistry, threemonths ; (3) Practical Pharmacy, three months; (4)Lectures, (a) Physics, (b) Elementary Biology, (c) Theoretical’Chemistry, each six months, Second year: (1) Hospital,nine months ; (2) Demonstration and Dissections, sixmonths; (3) Lectures, (a) Anatomy, six months, (b) Phy-siology, six months, (c) Histology, three months, (d)Materia Medica, three months. Third year: (1) Hospital,nine months; (2) Demonstrations and Dissections, sixmonths ; (3) Lectures, (a) Medicine, (b) Surgery, sixmonths each, (c) Forensic Medicine and Hygiene,(d) Pathology, three months each. Fourth year :,(I) Hospital; (2) Midwifery Hospital, including Diseasespeculiar to Women and to Newborn Children, if not deferredto Eich year, six months ; (3) Operative Surgery, threemonths ; (4) Lectures, (a) Midwifery, six months, (b) MentalDisease, three months. Fifth year: (1) Clinical Study in l’eco.gnised British or Foreign Hospitals, nine months, includinga) Surgery, (b) Medicine, (c) Ophthalmic and Aural Surgery,,(d) Fevers ; (2) Midwifery Hospital, unless taken in fourth.year, six months ; (3) Vaccination. As contrasted with the

existing four years’ course, there are some changes andadditions. For example, only one course of anatomicallectures will be required instead of two; but attendance onlectures will be required during the first year on physicsand elementary biology, six months each. A three months’,

course of lectures on mental disease will be obligatory, a cer.tificate for vaccination, and during the fifth year nine monthsclinical study in hospital. Attendance on fever cases andin ophthalmic hospitals is transferred to the fifth year, whilehygiene is not made a separate course from forensic medi.cine, as was expected, but is combined with that subject,contrary to the regulations of the English culleges. Re.quiring attendance on lectures on mental diseases is a stepin the right direction-that is, if the lectures are clinicallectures delivered in a hospital for the insane, otherwisethey would be useless, and a mere waste of the student’stime and money. Of course this is only a draft report ofthe Committee of Management, and has to be considered byboth Colleges.

Typhoid Fever in Dublin.Mr. Maguire, who has had great experience as a sani.

tary engineer, has lately reported to the Public HealthCommittee of the Corporation, of which be is a member, onthe subject of the prevalence of typhoid fever in Dublinand its possible prevention. He is of opinion that thecity may be freed from its unenviable pre-eminence inepidemics of typhoid fever by carrying out the followingreforms : 1. A main drainage system to purify the Liffeyand the lower gravel fubsoil now saturated with sewage.2. A thorough reconstruction or renewal of all street sewersnow imperfect in section, size, gradient, or level, or whichmay allow of leakage of sewage into subsoil. 3. A thoroughreconstruction and renewal of all connecting house drains fromhouses to public sewers which are now allowing the escapeof sewage into subsoil, or sewer air into houses which arenot laid on concrete foundations having sufficient even

gradient, which are too large in section to flush thoroughly orliable to become choked by any defects, or which pass fromone house under any portion of another house. 4. Theprovision of proper intercepting traps, with easy access forinspection and cleansing, on every house drain, placed inthe open areas where such exist, or otherwise in the mostsuitable sanitary position where the street-connecting drainenters the premises, always provided with fresh air inlet oroutlet arrangements. 5. The proper construction andarrangement of all internal sanitary fittings, pipes, anddrains. 6. The impervious paving of all stables, stableyards, dairy yards, and cowsheds, back yards, lanes, andstreets, and the constant efficient cleansing of the same toprevent soakage of filth into subsoil. 7. The abolition ofall privies, ashpits, and manure heaps. 8. The constantrigid inspection of all dairies and farm yards, and theeffectual prevention of all infection therefrom. 9. Themaintenance of the purity of the water-supply and dis-tribution.

National Hospital for Consumption.The general meeting of the supporters of this movement

will be held on Wednesday, the 17th inst., in the Hall ofthe Royal College of Physicians. The meeting will be pre-sided over by Dr. J. M. Finny, president of the College.The annual meeting and dinner of the Dublin branch of

the British Medical Association will be held at the Collegeof Physicians on Thursday, the 18th inst.Mr. W. I. Wheeler, F. R C.S.I. &c . was last week sworn

In as High Sheriff for the County of Kildare.Feb. 9th.

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PARIS.(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

Septic Broncho-pneumonia of Intestinal Origin.SEVESTRE, speaking on this subject at a meeting of the

Societe Médicale des Hbpitaux, held on the 22nd ulb.,reminded his audience that, in calling attention to thesecases five years ago he had formulated the following conclu-sions :-1. In badly nourished children the intestinalcontents may undergo decomposition, the products givingrise to fetid diarrhoea and septic enteritis. 2. This morbidcondition may be the starting-point of general infection,revealing itself clinically most commonly by pulmonarycongestion and broncho-pneumonia. 3. The best means of