1506 society and he held the officeof secretary for a period of 25years and was twice elected President. By his will Mr.Symons bequeathed to the society his Cross of the Legion ofHonour, the gold Albert Medal awarded to him by theSociety of Arts, the testimonial album presented to him in1879 by the Fellows of the Royal Meteorological Society, andthe sum of £200, as well as such of his books, pamphlets,maps, and photographs of which there was no copy in thesociety’s library. Mr. Marriott stated that from Mr. Symons’s ’,valuable collection he had selected for the society over 5000 I,books and pamphlets and about 900 photographs. A large ’,number of the books were old and rare works, 750 bearingdates previous to 1800, while eight were as early as thefifteenth century. By this noble bequest the RoyalMeteorological Society now possesses the most completeand extensive meteorological library in existence.

THE COLONIAL NURSING ASSOCIATION.-Thefifth annual. report for the year ending April 30th, 1901, ofthe executive committee of the Colonial Nursing Associationhas just been issued. The association, which was establishedin 1897 for the purpose of providing trained nurses in the

Crown colonies and small English communities in foreigncountries, has 6.7 nurses now at work, of whom 46 are

employed in Government hospitals and 21 as private nurses,against a total of 56 last year, 34 being Government and 22private nurses. The only new branch started this year wasone in Costa Rica. The chief feature of the year undernotice was the great increase in the staff of nurses employedby the Government on the West Coast of Africa. Eightfresh nurses were supplied to Nigeria, and Old Calabaralso applied for a second nurse to supplement the one pre-viously sent out. Two extra nurses were also selectedfor the hospital at Singapore, bringing the staff there

up to eight. Hitherto all Government appointmentshave been made at the request of the Colonial Office;but the Foreign Office has now made use of the

organisation of the association to supply two nurses forwork in Zomba, British Central Africa. In consequence ofthe many calls on the public purse during the past year itwas felt that it would be impossible to raise the balancestill required to make up the R5000 invested capitaloriginally asked for by Mrs. Chamberlain. It is hoped thatthis year the remainder of this sum may be subscribed inorder to set the association on a perfectly sound financialbasis. In connexion with the association it has been

proposed to start a sick pay fund to provide temporaryfinancial assistance to any nurse who may become

incapacitated during her connexion with the association.In order to raise the nucleus of such a fund it is proposed tohold a ball during the present year.

Parliamentary Intelligence.NOTES ON CURRENT TOPICS.

Habitual Drunkards.

THE Government has adopted the Bill of the Bishop of Winchesterdealing with the subject of habitual drunkards and since the adoptiontook place the measure has been very much altered in the House ofLords. In its present state the Bill makes it an offence for a convicted i

habitual drunkard to ask for drink in licensed premises and for thelicensee to supply him, enables the husband of a woman who is anhabitual drunkard to get an order equivalent to a judicial separation onthe ground of cruelty, and provides a special penalty for a personfound drunk while in charge of a child under seven years of age.

HOUSE OF OOMMONS.

THURSDAY, MAY 16TH.

Uncertified Deaths in Inverness-shire.Mr. JOHN DEWAR asked the Lord Advocate (1) whether the Secretary

for Scotland was aware that the medical officer of health of Inverness-shire in his report recently issued called special attention to the factthat during the last 10 years there had been as many as 3967 uncertifieddeaths in the county; and that during last year 80 deaths wereregistered in the parish of Duirinish, of which 51 were uncertified bya medical attendant, that in Kilmuir 47 deaths were registered, ofwhich 33 were uncertified, and that in South Uist, of 85 deathsregistered, 57 were uncertified, and that taking the entire county,nearly 400 persons were buried during the year whose deaths had notbeen certified by a member of the medical profession ; and (2) whetherin view of these facts, the Secretary for Scotland would introducelegislation on the subject as soon as opportunity offered in order to

remedy these conditions.-The LORD ADVOCATB replied that theanswer to the first paragraph was in the affirmative. As he bad alreadystated a medical certificate of death was not a necessary condition ofburial in any part of Scotland, and the Government were not at presentprepared to legislate on the subject.

The Manipulation of Butter.Mr. HANnURY, in reply to questions on this subject, said that the

Board of. Agriculture had official knowledge of one factory in

Finsbury in which butter was mixed with milk by a mechanicalprocess and the Board were following up information suppliedto them as to the existence of others. The Finsburv firmhad a very large number of depôts scattered over the countryand the quantity sold was presumably large. He had no powerto send an inspector into such a factory, though one was ad-mitted into the Finsbury factory on sufferance. Nor had he powerto stop the sale of butter so manipulated. But the Board had beenacting in concert with various local authorities to have the legality ofthe sale of butter so treated tested in a court of law. A conviction wasrecorded against the Finsbury company last Wednesday at Longtonagainst which the defendants had given notice of appeal. There werethree prosecutions pending. The whole question pointed to thenecessity for fixing a standard of butter, which he hoped to be able todo without any avoidable delay.

Plague in South Africa.Mr. CHAMBERLAIN stated in reply to a question that there was an

isolated imported case of bubonic plague at Durban in May of last year,since when no further cases had been reported. The governor ofSt. Helena, on the recommendation of the Medical Board there, hadissued an Order in Council that no person or cargo coming from portsin South Africa south of 25° south latitude should be allowed to land.The auestion whether this Order in Council must not be modified wasunder consideration and that of landing troops from Durban could notbe settled until this point was decided. It appeared to him that thefears of the local authorities were somewhat exaggerated.

FRIDAY, MAY 17TH.The Butter Question.

Mr. O’SHAUGHNESSY asked the President of the Board of Agriculturewhether he would explain why the Board of Agriculture had not yet fixedthe standard of water in butter, which they had been empowered to doby legislation.-Mr. HANBURY replied: The power of fixing what is some-what inaccurately described as a standard of milk and butter was firstgiven to the Board in January of last year. It was then decided that acommittee should first inquire into the question of milk, and thatcommittee was appointed on Jan. 29th, 1900, and reported in Januaryof this year. We are now working in concert with the Irish Depart-ment in preparing the necessary evidence to submit to a committeedealing with butter.

Lead- Poisoning.Sir CHARLES DILKE asked the Home Secretary whether the increase

in the more serious forms of lead-poisoning and decrease in the lessserious shown by the return on lead-poisoning could be accounted forby any ffasons which could be stated to the House in reply to aquestion-.-Mr. RITCHIE replied: I cannot accept without qualificationthe hon. baronet’s statement that the more serious cases of lead-poison-ing have increased. The most serious cases, the fatal ones, have, as .

appears from the return, been reduced by one-half from 16 in 1899 toeight in 1900. In the current year up to the present only two deaths havebeen reported. With regard to other serious cases there was an increaseamong males and a decrease among females of cases of paralysis ar d adecrease among males and an increase among females of cases present-ing brain symptoms. These are the accidental fluctuations which willalways occur in dealing with small numbers. The truth seems to bethat owing to the greater precautions now adopted there has been ageneral decrease of iead-poisoning, which in the more serious cases isqualified to some extent by the effeots of conditions extending back-toformer years.

The Reform of the Army Medical Service.Sir JOHN TUKE asked the Secretary of State for War whether he pro-

posed to adopt the suggestion contained in the report of the RoyalCommission appointed to consider and report upon the care and treat-ment of the sick and wounded during the South African campaign toappoint a departmental or other committee of experts to inquire intoand report upon the steps needed to effect certain reforms in the RoyalArmy Medical Corps, and, if so, whether he was prepared to state thecomposition of such committee.-Lord STANLEY replied : The Secretaryof State is preparing various proposals to submit to a committee ofexperts, but the composition of the committee cannot at present bestated.

MONDAY, MAY 20TH.The Workhouse Nursing Question in Ireland.

Mr. J. P. FARRELL asked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenantof Ireland would he explain on what grounds the Local GovernmentBoard had required the medical officer of Granard Union to employ atrained nurse at 21 lls. 6d. a week to nurse a baby whom he found incharge of a pauper inmate ; was he aware that the nurse in questionrefused to live in the workhouse and took a room in theprincipal hotel in Granard ; and could he state when suchorders of the Local Government Board would be withdrawn.-Mr. WYNDHAM replied : The Local Government Board did not requirethe medical officer to employ a nurse at the remuneration stated. The

master was directed by the medical officer to procure a nurse for asick child whom he found in charge of a pauper inmate. There is noapartment available for the nurse in the workhouse and she hasobtained temporary accommodation in a hotel outside. I am makingfurther inquiry in the matter.

The Royal Army Medical Corps.Sir JOHN TUKE asked the Secretary of State for War whether he

would undertake that the report of the committee to be appointed toconsider the reconstruction and organisation of the Royal ArmyMedical Corps would be in the hands of Members before the ArmyMedical Vote came up for discussion.-Mr. BRODRICK replied: It isimpossible for me to give any pledge as to the time that such a com-mittee as that proposed may think it proper to give to its duties.

1507

Deaths from Eating Ice-cream.Mr. T. R. DEWAR asked the President of the Local Government

Board whether he was aware that at an inquest hold at Hackney onMay 2nd on a boy who died from ptomaine poisoning the coronerremarked that the ice-cream purchased at street barrows had causedseveral deaths in London and that the symptoms had been the same inthis case; and in view of the large sale of such articles in East Londonwould he say whether the inspectors took any steps to secure the occa- sional analysis of eatables of this descri ption when hawked in the streets. -Mr. HANBURY, answering on behalf of Mr. LONG, said that the latter ihad seen a newspaper report of the inquest referred to. The London ’.

County Council some time since caused special inquiry to be made ’’,into the conditions under which ice-cream was prepared and sold andanalyses of samples of this article had from time to time been made bythe sanitary authorities of London. He was not, however, able tostate whether recent action had been taken on the subject.

TUESDAY, MAY 21ST.Fees of Medical tfen at Irish Inquests.

Mr. FrKLD asked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant ofIreland whether he could state the Local Government Board scale offees for medical men attending inquests ; whether Dr. Synnott onlyreceived one guinea for attending several days at two inquiries regard-ing the Dodder mystery case ; and whether he would cause the matterto be reconsidered.-Mr. WYNDHAM replied that he was informed thatthe fee paid to this gentleman was one guinea. Tbe amount of the feepayable in such cases was regulated by the Coroners’ Act, 9 and 10Victoria, cap. 37, which expressly charged it to local rates, and anyalteration in the scale of fees could only be effected by legislation.

ROYAL COMMISSION ON ARSENICALPOISONING.

MONDAY, MAY 13TH.THE Commission held another meeting to-day in the Westminster

Palace Hotel.Mr. HUGH BAIRD, maltster, Glasgow, gave evidence as to the

methods of the large maltsters in Scotland. In the case of his ownbusiness, he said that they used as fuel only anthracite coal carefullyselected for its purity, and while the floor ot each kiln was brushedevery time that the grain was removed the beams and plates werebrushed once a week or oftener if required. They had triedpneumatic malting, but it bad not proved successful forbrewer’s malt. The difficulty they experienced with this systemwas to get the moisture thoroughly out of the malt. Kilns were usedin Germany in which the malt was dried without being exposed to theactual fire, but the processes of brewing were different in Germanyfrom what they were in this country, and he did not believe thatScottish beer could be made without the malt being exposed, as atpresent, to the fire. Unle-s the fumes passed through the malt thedesired flavour in the beer could not be secured. He couldnot believe that hot air would have the same effect as

hot fumes. Once they had used peat for fuel and thekiln was so impregnated with it that it could not be usedagain and was in consequence taken down. They had madeno change in their methods of malting since the arsenical scare.

Their malts had, however, been tested by several chemists and all thesamples were found to be free from arsenic except one. The exceptionwas reported upon by one chemist as containing the three hundred andfiftieth part of a grain of arsenic per pound of malt, but two otherchemists reported the same malt as arsenic free. The fuel which theyused was regularly tested for arsenic and for the last five months or sothey bad given guarantees of purity with their malts. They made a largequantity of malt with foreign grain to meet the requirements of thebrewers who said that the addition of this malt brightened the appear-ance of the beer. In the distilleries in the north and west of Scotlandthe rule was to use home grain only, but in the south foreign grain wasnot uncommon. Turning again to the question of avoiding exposureto the fumes of the fuel witness said that there was the process ofdrying ma!t and the process of curing it, and he believed that it would befound impossible to aure malt in any inclosed cylinders. At the sametime he felt sure that the maltsters of Scotland would be glad toimprove their methods if means of improvement could be shown them.

THE INVESTIGATIONS AT THE GOVERNMENT LABORATORY.

Mr. EGBERT GRANT HOOPER, analyst in the Government Laboratory,was the next witness, and in the course of his examination he saidthat thA question of the presence of arsenic in beer and brewingmaterials first presented itself officially at the Government laboratoryin the beginning of December last, when, in consequence of thediscovery of arsenic in certain beers brewed in Lancashire, applicationswere made to the Board of Inland Revenue to permit thedestruction of the contaminated liquor in the presence of Exciseofficials with a view to the repayment of the duty whichhad been charged upon it. Samples of such beer were thenforwarded to the Government laboratory and continued to bereceived for some time. In all 748 samples had been lodged,representing 28,264 barrels, the produce of 67 brewers scattered through-nut 11 counties, but mainly in Lancashire, Staffordshire, and Yorkshire.It could not, however, be asserted that this comprised the produce ofevery brewer who might have used arsenicated materials, as some wereknown to have destroy ed their beer immediately that they became awarethat it was contaminated and without lodging applications for therepayment of duty. An examination of the brewers’ entries of thematerials used in the particular brewings, together with a determina-tion of the exact original gravity and a qualitative examination of thebeer for arsenic would have sufficed to substantiate the claim for draw-back, but with a view of affording information to this commission itwas decided to make a more detailed examination in order to obtainsome precise knowledge as to the extent to which the beer had beencontaminated. In all 143 quantitative determinations of the arsenic

in these beers had been made. From the tables of results which hehanded in it would be seen that the proportion of arsenic found varied’from less than five-hundredths of a grain up to half a grain per gallonin something like three-fourths of the whole number of cases,.but that as regards the remaining fourth the quantity ofarsenic ranged from half a grain to about one and three-quarter grains,wiLh one exceptional case of three grains to the gallon. In all but18 instances Bostock’s sugar wholly or in part had been used eitherin the production of the beer or in priming. In eight out ofthe 18 cases where sugar obtained from Bostock directly had notbeen employed, it was stated that the sugar though supplied byanother firm had been manufactured by Bostock ; in two instances.it was found that the arsenic was due to the use of yeastor of yeast pressings from contaminated beer; in one in-stance the brewer stated that Bostoc’i’s sugar was in stock.at the time a7d might have been used by accident ; and in the

remaining seven cases it was alleged that the arsenical contamina-tion had been traced to the malt used. As regards the period overwhich the arsenical contamination extended, the oldest sampleexamined was brewed on May 24th. 1900. Beer at the present timewas consumed very shortly after it was produced and consequentlywhilst there were many samples representing the November produe-tion-the date at which the contamination was detected-considerablyfewer samples of beer produced at earlier dates were available.It might, however, be noted that in the one May samplethe proportion of arsenious oxide per gallon was 0’12 grain; the two -brewed in June contained 0’16 and 0’19 grain respectively; the threeJuly samples all showed higher proportions of arsenic, and in one caseexceeded half a grain to the gallon ; in August the average of sixsamples was 0’45 grain per gallon and one sample contained065 grain ; in September the average was slightly lower (0’33.grain), but one sample contained rather more than one grainof arsenious oxide per gallon; in the October beers theaverage was half a grain per gallon, and of the 21 sampleseight contained more than this, two from different breweries con-taining as much as 1’47 and 1.28 grains per gallon respectively,though it should, perhaps, be pointed out that these were in bothcases strong beers. As regards the November samples, the averagewas 042 grain of arsenious oxide per gallon, but there were sevensamples in which the contamination exceeded one grain, and in oneexceptional case the proportion rose to three grains per gallon. Sugarwas used in varying proportions. The highest proportions ofsugar to malt and grain used were 50 and 47 per cent. respec-tively of the total brewing materials, and in neither case did thearsenious oxide exceed 0’60 grain per gallon, but such pro--portions of sugar were exceptional. The lowest proportions of

sugar were less than 1 per cent.. and in two out of three of these thearsenic found in the beer was 0’05 grain of arsenious oxide per gallon,though in the third case it amounted to 0’22 grain per gallon.The average proportion of sugar used in the production of these beerswas 8 per cent., and in the two beers showing the highest degree ofcontamination the proportions were 16 and 18 per cent. respectively.In many cases, however, the sugar employed was obtained from morethan one firm, and no evidence had been obtained at the Governmentlaboratory that the brewing sugars generally in use during the pastyear were contaminated with arsenic. Among the samplessent for examination in connexion with the arsenicated beerswere three unfermented sugar solutions which were foundto contain arsenic equal to 7’99, 8’14, and 2’62 grains ofarsenious oxide per gallon. These were priming solutions pre--pared on Nov. 23rd, 28th, and 24th respectively, the first twofrom invert sugar and fluid" sugar respectively, both manu-

factured by Bostock, and the third from equal quantities of Bostock’sinvert sugar and of caramel from a maker whose name could not beascertained. Three samples of invert sugar and one of solid glucose,all stated to be of Bostock’s manufacture, were also sent for examina-tion. The invert sugars were found to contain arsenic equal to 2’04,1’83, and 1’67 grains ot arsenious oxide per pound respectively, whilst thequantity in the solid glucose was 1’99 grains per pound. On the discoveryof the arsenical contamination of beer, all the brewing materials in storeor under examination at the Government laboratory were put aside tobe tebted for arsenic, and 104 samples of sugar with 48 samples of malt.had since been examined. The sugars included samples taken atbreweries in each of the months from June to November and the totalwas made up of 64 glucoses and 40 invert and priming sugars. Ofthese, six samples ot glucose and two invert sugars were found tocontain arsenic. 14 samples of glucose and six of invert sugar takenfrom breweries during March of the present year were all found to be -free from arsenic. Of 47 samples of malt taken from breweriesduring the months from June to November of last year allbut six afforded evidence of the presence of arsenic, but the highestproportion was only 0’05 grain of arsenious oxide per poundof malt. In 22 samples the arsenious oxide per pound of malt laybetween 0 05 and 0’02 grain, and in 19 cases whilst still showing tracesthe quantity was less tnan 0’02 grain per pound of malt. Of the maltsamples received during the month of March of the present year three -contained from 0’05 to 0’02 grain, five contained traces amounting to lessthan 0 02 grain per pound, and one only was quite free from arsenic.In view of the possibility that brewing sugars prepared or treated withsulphuric acid might contain selenium, it was felt to be necessary tosearch for this suostance. The samples of solid sugar and of preparedsugar solutions which had been used in the preparation of beers.

proved to be arsenicated were first examined. These samples hadbeen received directly from the breweries and in no case was anyselenium found to be present. Other arsenicated samples were

examined and found to be free from this substance. Finally, a seltc-tion of the non-arsenicated sugars forwarded for examination fromvarious parts of the country between June and March last weretested for selenium, but in these samples also no selenium couldbe detected. When traces of selenious acid were added to glucose orinvert sugar the presence of selenium was readily demonstrated. Torender the investigation still more thorough samples of imported brew-ing sugars were examined. 177 samples in all were received, consisting ofsolid and liquid glucose, caramel, and syrups described as molasses..These samples were received from the United States, Germany, Belgium,Holland, and Canada. With two exceptions all were found to be freefrom arsenic. The two samples in which evidence of arsenic wasobtained consisted of liquid glucose imported at London and Hullrespectively, in both cases from Stettin. The amount of arsenic was.