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of life from pulmonary tuberculosis is nearly equalin both sexes, whereas English experience shows the

mortality to be at the present time enormously greateramong males, although this has not always been the case.In Ireland the greatest fatality from this disease occurs inthe age-period 25-35 years, the death-rate among men being3-78 per 1000 living, and among women 3 29 per 1000. In

England pulmonary tuberculosis is most fatal to the malesex at the age-group 45-55 years, and to the female sex atthe age-group 35-45 years. A highly interesting table isinserted in this report showing the mortality from tuberculousphthisis among the several social classes in the Dublin regis-tration area. The figures refer to the year 1909. From thistable we learn that the rate per 1000 living, representedby deaths from tuberculous phthisis among the families ofthe professional and independent class was 0’ 29, among thefamilies of the middle class the rate was 1-76, among thefamilies of the artisan class and petty shopkeepers it was:2 19, and among the families of the general service class itwas 2 31.

J.nfantile illortality.In respect of infantile mortality-i.e., the rate of death

under one year per HJOO births-Ireland compares favourablywith the other divisions of the United Kingdom. The ratelast year was 92 per 1000 in Ireland, whilst it was 109 in

England and 121 in Scotland. Infantile mortality varies

considerably in the urban as compared with the rural parts ofIreland, for whilst it amounted to 123 per 1000 in the"civic areas "-i.e., the unions containing towns with popnla-tions of not less than 10,000-it did not exceed 71 per 1000in the remainder of Ireland. If the mortality in the principalurban districts of Ireland be contrasted with that in thecountry districts the differences in infantile mortality will befound to be still more pronounced. Thus in the Kilkennyurban district the rate amounted to as much as 155 per 1000births (which is higher than the Liverpool rate for the sameperiod), whilst in the sparsely-populated district of Traleethe rate was only 70 in each 1000 registered births.

SEVENTEENTH INTERNATIONALCONGRESS OF MEDICINE.

A MEETING of the General Committee was held on

Wednesday, Oct. 12th, in the library of the Royal Collegeof Physicians of London. Sir Thomas Barlow occupied thechair. A brief note of the meeting has already appeared inour columns.The minutes of the last meeting were read and confirmed.

Letters of regret for absence were read from the following :Mr. C. A. Ballance, Dr. J. W. Ballantyne, Mr. Giloert

Barling, Sir John Byers, Dr. W. Collier, Sir J. HallidayCroom, Mr. Clinton Dent, Dr. Gordon Dill, Mr. Frederic S.Eve, Dr. Ferrier, Dr. J. Magee Finny, Dr. G. A. Gibson,Professor J. Glaister, Dr. Dundas Grant, Mr. J. W. B.

Hodsdon, Dr. W. Allan Jamiesòn, Mr. J. C. Keston, SirDonald MacAlister, Professor Howard Marsh, Dr. J.

Marnoch, Dr. Alexander Miles, Sir George Hare Philipson,Professor R. W. Reid, Dr. Lloyd Roberts, Mr. A. W. MayoRobson, Professor Saundby, Sir J&ms Sawyer, Mr. W. G.Spencer, Professor W. Stirling, Mr. John Lynn Thomas, SirW. J. Thompson, Professor Arthur Thomson, and Dr.Wethered.On the report of the Advisory Board, which was appointed

on Feb. 7th last,l it was moved by Dr. PAVY, and secondedby Dr. NORMAN MooRE, that Sir Thomas Barlow be askedto become President of the next International MedicalCongress. This was carried unanimously, and Sir ThomasBarlow accepted the position.

Mr. BUTLIN proposed the next resolution of the AdvisoryBoard, viz. :-That there be two treasurers of the Congress, of whom one should be

.a layman of high financial position and the other an eminent medicalAllan.

He said that he felt considerable doubt as to the advisabilityof appointing a lay treasurer.

Dr. PASTEUR seconded the resolution for purposes of.discussion.

Dr. NORMAN MOORE spoke against the appointment of a ,,

1 THE LANCET, Feb. 12th, 1910, p. 458.

lay treasurer, although quite willing to invite men of sciencewho were not medical men to take part in the work of theCongress.

Sir MALCOLM MORRIS said that the Advisory Board bad hadin mind the desirability of inviting laymen to bear some partof the expense of the Congress. There was no doubt thatinternational congresses were of enormous benefit to the

public of the countries where they were held, and in othercountries were generally supported by public money.

Dr. KNOWSLEY SlBLEY proposed that there should be twotreasurers to the Congress, and that they should both bemedical men.

Dr. SAMUEL WEST seconded the amendment, which wascarried.

Mr. BUTLIN then proposed that one of the treasurers beMr. G. H. Makins, and in doing so alluded to the work

performed by Mr. Makins at the previous international

congress held in London.Dr. PAVY seconded this proposal, which was unanimously

carried, and it was agreed to leave the appointment of thesecond treasurer to the Executive Committee.

Sir RICHARD DOUGLAS POWELL proposed, Dr. HALEWHITE seconded, and it was carried, that Dr. W. P.

Herringham be elected honorary general secretary of the

Congress.Dr. HERRINGHAM said that he could not accept that

position without publicly expressing his great indebtednessto Mr. D’Arcy Power, who had hitherto been secretary of theNational and General Committees, for his extreme courtesyand patience in explaining the details and mechanism of thework. He hoped that Mr Power, who, he supposed, wouldbe promoted to the Executive Committee, would continue toafford him similar assistance.

Dr. PAVY wished to add his testimony to the great amountof labour which Mr. D’Arcy Power had already for manyyears given to the work of the committee.

Sir HENRY MORRIS proposed-That an Organising Committee be formed which shall select a smal

Executive Committee and shall have power to add to its number.

Dr. NORMAN MOORE seconded.The following gentlemen were appointed on the Organising

Committee :-Dr. T. D. Acland, Sir Clifford Allbutt. Sir W.Allchin, Sir Cnarles Ball, Mr. C. A. Ballance. Dr. FreelandBarbour, Professor H. G. Barling, Sir James Barr, Dr. A. G.Barrs, Sir Wm Bennett, Mr. G. A. Berry, Mr. L. A. Bidwell,Mr. A. A. Bowlby, Mr. Stanley Boyd, Dr. J. Rose Bradford,Dr. Byrom Bramwell, Surgeon-General A. M. Branfoot,Sir James Crichron- Browne, Dr. Alexander Bruce, Dr.Mitchell Bruce. Sir Lauder Brunton, Mr. Butlin, Dr. DudleyBuxton, Sir John Byers, Sir H. Cameron, Sir FrancisChampneys, Sir Havelock Charles, Sir Watson Cheyne, SirWilliam Church, Mr. Andrew Clark, Professor Michell Clarke,Dr. T. C. Clouston, Professor James Craig. Dr. P J. Oremen,Sir Anderson Critchett, Sir Halliday Croom, Dr. H. Davy,Mr. Clinton Dent, Dr. Gordon Dill, Sir Dyce Duckworth,Professor William Dyson, Mr. F. S. Eve, Mr. HurryFenwick, Dr. Ferrier, Professor D. W. Finlay, Dr. MageeFinny, Dr. J. Kingston Fowler, Sir Thomas Fraser, ProfessorS. Gemmell, Dr. G. A. Gibson, Professor T. R. Glynn, Mr.R. J. Godlee, Dr. Edwin Goodall, Mr. A. Pearce Gould, Dr.W. S. A. Griffith, Director-General W. L. Gabbins, Dr.F. W. Hewitt, Dr. G. E. Herman, Mr. J. W. B. H -dsdon,Sir Victor Horsley, the President of the Royal College ofPhysicians of Ireland, Dr. W. A. Jamieson, Dr. MacnaughtonJones, Dr. Robert Jones, Sir Alfred Keogh, Dr. Percy Kidd,Sir Francis Laking, Mr. Ernest Lane, Dr. H. A. Latimer,Professor J. A. Lindsay, Professor James Little, ProfessorH. Littlejohn, Director-General C. P. Lukis, Sir DonaldMacAlister, Sir William Macewen, Professor Dixon Mann,Sir Patrick Manson, Professor Howard Marsh, Dr. C. J.Martin, Dr. Charles Mercier, Dr. Alexander Miles, SirJ. W. Moore, Dr. Norman Moore, Sir Henry Morrill, SirMalcolm Morris, Dr. F. W. Mott, Mr. B. G. A. Moynihan,Professor R. Muir, Sir Shirley Murphy, Sir T. Myles,Professor J. Mangrove, Dr. A. Newsholme, Sir ChristopherNixon, Sir Thomas Oliver, Professor W. Osler, SirIsambard Owen, Dr. R. W. Philip, Sir George HarePhilipson, Dr. F. W. Pavy, Inspector-General Sir JamesPorter, Sir Itichard Douglas Powell, Mr. D’Arcy Power,Sir W. H Power, Mr. J. H Pringle, Professor J. P. Pye,Professor R. J. Pye-Smith, Dr. Guthrie R-mkin, Sir JamesReid, Dr. C. J. Renshaw, Mr. J. Scott Riddell, Mr. A. W.

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Mayo Robson, Dr. H. D. Rolleston, Professor Ronald Ross,Dr. Amand Routh, Dr. W. Russell, Dr. F. M. Sandwith,Professor R. Saundby, Dr. G. H. Savage, ProfessorE. A. Schafer, Dr. S. J. Sharkey, Professor T.

Sinclair, Dr. Percy Smith, Dr. Walter Smith, Sir Wm.

Smyly, Dr. Herbert Spencer, Dr. Squire Sprigge, Dr.J. E. Squire, Professor A. M. Stalker, Professor E. H.

Starling, Mr. H. J. Stiles, Professor J. Swain, Sir

Henry Swanzv, Mr. Charters Symonds, Dr. F. Taylor,Professor G. D. Thane, Professor Alexis Thomson, ProfessorArthur Thomson, Professor W. Tnorburn, Sir FrederickTreves, Dr. Logan Turner, Sir John Tweedy, Dr. J. C.Uhthoff, Dr. C. T Vachell, Dr. Norman Walker, Mr. DavidWallace, Dr. W. Hale White, Dr. B. A. Whitelegge, Sir W.Whitla, Dr. Dawson Williams, Sir John Williams, andPresident Bertram Windle.

Sir DYCE DUCKWORTH then proposed :—

That it is advisable that distinguished laymen be invited to becomemembers of the Congress.This was seconded by Sir MALCOLM MORRIS.

After some discussion, in which Sir ANDERSON CRITCHETT,Dr. PASTEUR, Mr. MAKINS, Dr. SQUIRE, Mr. PEARCEGOULD, Mr. ARMIT, and Dr. BASHFORD joined, it wasresolved :—

That it is advisable that distinguished laymen be invited to associatethemselves with the work of the Congress, and that such invitations bein the hands of the Executive Committee.

The date of the Congress led to considerable discussion.The date proposed by the Advisory Board was from July 29th Ito August 6rh, 1913, and a resolution to this effect wasformally moved by Mr. MAKINS. He said, however, that thechoice of a date was extremely difficult for several reasons,and that he hoped the General Committee would carefully Iconsider the matter before coming to any resolution. On theone hand, the Congress could not be earlier than the date

proposed, as our German colleagues could not attend if itwere, and, indeed, the date proposed was earlier than thatwhich Dr. Pavy, after conference with the German repre-sentatives, had originally proposed in the Advisory Committee ;secondly, Bank Holiday came in the middle of the proposedmeeting, which might possibly lead to considerable incon-venience ; and a third difficulty was that the proposed dateclashed with the meeting of the British Medical Association.He therefore moved the resolution rather to open the subjectfor discussion than to support strongly the date originallyfixed.

Dr. NORMAN MOORE seconded the proposal.Mr. BUTLIN said that he had been present when the date

had been fixed by the Advisory Committee, and had himselfnot realised that the British Medical Association made it so

regular a custom to meet at that date as he had since foundwas the case. He thought it would be a pity if some

arrangement could not be come to with the Association.Sir MALCOLM MORRIS pointed out that if, as was

customary, royal patronage was sought for the Congress, thedate of the meeting could not be settled without consultingthe wL-hes of royalty.

Several speakers emphasised the extreme undesirability ofcreating ill-will in a matter of this kind and said that it wasof the utmost importance that the spirit in which the Congresswas to be got up should not be impaired by any feeling cfhostility.

It was officially resolved, on the motion of Sir HENRYMORRIS, that this matter be not decided that day, but that it beleft in the. hands of the President and of the executive officersto settle the date, and that they be at liberty to receive anycommunications from, or to confer with, the officers of theBritish Medical Association.

VITAL STATISTICS.

HEALTH OF ENGLISH TOWNS.

IN 77 of the largest English towns 7420 births and 4260deaths were registered during the week ending Oct. l5ch.The annual rate of mortality in these towns, which hadbeen equal t3 13 3 and 12 8 per 1000 in the two preced-ing weeks, rose again last week to 13-1. During the lastsummer quarter the death-rate in these towns averaged 11 8per 1000. corresponding with the rate that prevailed in thesummer quarter of last year. In London the death-rate last

quarter, calculated on the probably over-estimated populartion, did not exceed 11-0 per 1000. The lowest reportedannual death-rates last week in these 77 towns werer

50 in Handsworth, 6-7 in East Ham, 6 9 in Willesden..and 70 in Leyton and in Walthamstow; the rates inthe other towns ranged upwards to 19-4 in Burnley,.19-5 in Middlesbrough, 20-3 in Oldham, and 23 5 in-Warrington. In London the reported death-rate lastweek did not exceed 12 8 per 1000. The 4260 deathsfrom all causes registered in the 77 towns last weekshowed an increese of 97 upon the number returnedin the previous week, and included 504 which were referredto the plincipal epidemic diseases, against numbers decliningfrom 720 to 497 in the seven preceding weeks ; of these 504-deaths, 296 resulted from diarrhcea, 51 from measles, 4’’from whooping-cough, 43 from enteric fever, 34 from diph-theria, and 33 from scarlet fever, but not one from small-pox. The mean annual rate of mortality from these diseasesin the 77 towns last week was 1-6 per 1000, against 2-018, 1 6, and 1-5 in the four preceding weeks. Nodeath from any of these epidemic diseases was registeredlast week in Leyton, Wolverhampton, Handsworth, Hastings.Dewsbury, and Burton-on-Trent ; the annual death-ratestherefrom ranged upwards, however, to 3 9 in Burnley,4-3 in Oldham, 4-5 in Wigan, and 5-5 in Tynemouth.The deaths attributed to diarrhoea in the 77 towns,which had declined in the six preceding weeks from 527to 311, further fell last week to 296 ; in the severaltowns, however, they caused annual rates rangingupwards to 2-5 in Oldham, 2-8 in Wigan, and 29in Burnley. The 51 fatal cases of measles were

within 2 of the number in the previous week, and showedthe highest death-rates, 1-3 in Hartlepool and 1-8 in

Tynemouth. The 47 deaths from whooping-cough alsoshowed a slight decline, but caused rates equal to 1-6 6 inRotherham and 1 8 in Tynemouth. The deaths referred toenteric fever, which had been 38 and 21 in the two previousweeks, rose to 43 last week, and exceeded the number in anyprevious week of this year ; they included 20 in London andits suburban districts (of which 3 occurred in Tottenham),and 2 each in St. Helens, Bradford, and Hull. The 34 fatalcases of diphtheria showed a decline of 8 from the numberin the previous week ; 11 occurred in London and itssuburban districts, 3 each in Birmingham, Liverpool, andManchester, and 2 in Middlesbrough. The 33 deaths fromscarlet fever showed a distinct increase upon recent weeklynumbers ; 5 were returned both in London and in Liverpool,3 in Stoke-on-Trent, and 2 in Manchester and Newcastle-on-Tyne. The number of scarlet fever patients unde]’treatment in the Metropolitan Asylums Hospitals and theLondon Fever Hospital, which had increased in the eight.preceding weeks from 1423 to 1706, had further risen to1745 on Saturday last ; 234 new cases of this disease wereadmitted to these hospitals during last week, against 249and 245 in the two previous weeks. The 1200 deaths-from all causes in London last week included 162 which werereferred to pneumonia and other diseases of the respiratorysystem, showing a further slight decline from the numbers inrecent weeks ; they were also 16 below the corrected averagenumber in the corresponding week of the five years1905-09. The causes of 39, or 09 9 per cent., of thedeaths registered in the 77 towns during the week were

not certified either by a registered medical practitioneror by a coroner. All the causes of death were duly certifiedin Leeds, Bristol, West Ham, Bradford, Newcastle-on-Tyne,Hull, Nottingham, and in 52 other smaller towns ; the 39uncertified causes of death in the 77 towns last week included10 in Liverpool, 5 in Birmingham, 3 in South Shields and i:1>Gateshead, and 2 each in Stoke-on-Trent, Leicester,Warrington, and Barrow-in-Furness.

HEALTH OF SCOTCH TOWNS.

In eight of the principal Scotch towns 878 births and 468.deaths were registered during the week ending Oct. 15th.The annual rate of mortality in these towns, whichhad steadily increased in the four preceding weeks from13 . 0 to 14 4 per 1000, declined again to 12-9 9 in theweek under notice. During the past summer quarter-the death-rate in these towns averaged 12’ 9 per1000, and exceeded by 1-1 1 the mean rate during thesame period in the 77 largest English towns. The annualdeath-rates in the eight Scotch towns last week ranged