1204 MANCHESTER AND SALFORD LADIES’ HEALTH OCIBT.

irrigations are of great value ; the poison is soluble in water, andmuch of it may be thus swept away. Observers have pointedout that the toxines are less active in an acid medium ; there-fore dilute acids, such as lactic and tartaric, may also beused as sprays. Dr. Veillon suggests a saturated solutionof boric acid, to which 1 per cent. of lactic acid is added.Our present knowledge helps us but little with regard toneutralising the toxine already absorbed. The numerous

laboratory experiments which are now being made byBehring, Kitasato, and Martin may eventually bring about tthe desired end. A method of attenuating the diphtheriticvirus seems to have been successfully accomplished by thefirst two observers named above, but the investigators havenot arrived at that stage when it may be applied to man.Preventive inoculation would seem destined to hold a vastlymore important place in the therapeutics of the future thanit does at present, but some time must yet elapse before themuch-wished-for methods can be definitely formulated.

MANCHESTER AND SALFORD LADIES’ HEALTHSOCIETY.

As useful and as friendly in its purpose as its methodsare orderly, the Ladies’ Health Society of Manchester andSalford has established a precedent in practical sanitationwhich we trust will commend itself to the many in every citywho share the wholesome views and the humane enthusiasm ofits members. The Society is affiliated to the sanitary associa-tion to which we directed attention four years ago (Sept. 28th,1889), and its character and work may be understood fromthe details recently published in its report for 1892. It con-

sists of an organisation of ladies working in union with femalehome-visitors belonging to the labouring classes for the pro-motion by every available means of its chosen aims. Theseare as various in kind as they are united in purpose.Home hygiene in all its applications, clothing and feedingwhere needful, the care of children, the detection of

nuisances, nursing in sickness, country holidays-the Societyprovides for them all. It has endeavoured, moreover, and

not without success, to discharge these numerous, and oftendelicate, duties with as little as possible of an officious spirit.The acceptance with which it has laboured may be recognisedby the fact of its general popularity among the class whomit seeks especially to benefit. It is equally significantin this connexion that the corporations of both Man-

chester and Salford have been willing to avail them-

selves of its services in making their sanitary arrangements.During the year its agents have paid some 8649 visits andhave drawn up reports of population, cleanliness or the

reverse, sickness, death-rate, &c., in the houses visited. To

have carried on this kind of work and done it well duringthirty-two years is the Society’s record. It is one, we repeat,which may well stimulate the zeal of social reformers else-

where, to whom a like success in the work must also come iftheir energies are guided by the same intelligence and, aboveall, by the same friendly tact.

USES OF THE OPHTHALMOSCOPE.

IN the Joitrnal of the Avaerzean Medical AssociaÜon a paperappeared recently by Mr. Edward P. Morrow which givesvery practical emphasis to the plea urged by some for aroutine examination of the eyes in all obscure cases. Mr.Morrow relates two cases in neither of which had a diagnosis-or at least a correct diagnosis-been made until the eyeswere examined with the ophthalmoscope. The first casewas that of a lad aged seventeen who had had a fallfrom a bicycle about six months before he came underobservation. The lad struck his head and remained tem-

porarily unconscious. He was afterwards troubled with

weakness, more or less general, and at intervals with

dizziness when walking. He subsequently had occasional

vomiting, but never sufficiently to suggest that he mightbe suffering from a cerebral tumour. He then began tocomplain of his sight and Mr. Morrow was asked to examine hiseyes. He found him to be suffering from intense optic neuritiswith haemorrhage in both eyes. He died a few weeks afterthis without any further sign than some epileptiform con-vulsions. At the necropsy a large glioma was found in thetemporo-sphenoidal lobe on the right side. The second casewas that of a young man aged nineteen, but his symptomswere such as to suggest a diagnosis long before the eyes wereexamined, for he first complained of giddiness and unsteadi-ness in walking. Subsequently he had also attacks of vomit-ing, and sank into a lethargic state. The discs at the time wereonly hypersemic, but a few weeks later they were muchswollen and there were numerous haemorrhages. He wasted

away gradually and at last died suddenly. At the necropsya glomia was found on the upper surface of the cerebellum,covering the superior vermiform process and extending aboutequally over each lateral lobe. These cases are interestingin themselves, and they certainly point a very strongmoral-viz., the duty of examining the eyes in all obscure

cases, especially if there should be occasional giddiness or

vomiting. -

IN RE MACDONALD, SONS, AND COMPANYLIMITED.

THE case of Macdonald, Sons, and Company, Limited,which came before the Court of Appeal on Tuesday,interests our readers not mainly because of the pointsof company law which it raise and solves, but becauseof the fact that these questions were raised out oftransactions in which nine registered practitioners were

involved. So far as they are material to our presentpurpose the facts of the case were shortly these. The

above-named company was formed for the purpose of

acquiring and carrying on the business of two persons-medicated wine manufacturers. The secretary of the companyopened negotiations with various medical men in order toinduce them to prescribe and recommend to their patientsand tradesmen these medicated wines, promising to eachmedical practitioner who undertook thus to recommend thecompany’s wares a fully paid up founder’s share of E25. Ninemedical men each accepted a share upon the conditionsmentioned. In the course of a few months the companywas ordered to be wound up, and the liquidator placed therecipients of the founder’s shares on the list of contribu-tories. The nine gentlemen then applied to the court to

remove their names from such list. The judge, Mr. JusticeVaughan Williams, held that they were not liable to pay thecash value of their shares, but marked his disapprobation oftheir conduct by refusing them costs as against the OfficialReceiver. His lordship said he " could not part from thecase without saying that it was a sad thing that membersof a learned profession should have consented to takeshares on these terms. It might be that the indi-vidual doctors thought well of the wares of this com-

pany, and that in praising them they acted as their con-sciences dictated, but to take shares in consideration of

praising the wares of the company was very much like takingbribes." From this decision the Official Receiver appealed.It was, however, unanimously affirmed by Lords Justices

Lindley, Smith, and Davey. The first-named intimated thatas to the morality or immorality of the transactions in whichthe medical men became involved he would express no

opinion. These were matters, said his lordship, for theGeneral Medical Council. Undoubtedly they are. Courts oflaw do not enforce rules of professional conduct, and in thisparticular case the transactions are fit matters for inquiry bythe domestic forum-the General Medical Council. This

tribunal is entrusted by the Legislature with disciplinarypowers and duties with the object of maintaining a proper