940

as this, and, finding our statement so impugned, we tookoccasion to submit the figures given in our issue of the28th ult. to the offices there named. They were as follows :Gresham, ,;/;;2 2 Oa. 2d. ; Star, .;/;;2 2 Gs. 8d.; United Kent,1 17s. 9d. ; as compared with the Nurses’ Pension

Fund, ,;/;;2 lox. We have been assured by each office

separately that our figures were correctly deduced fromthe published prospectus of the Company, and thatbusiness will be done upon the terms named with anyperson applying. This can, of course, easily be verified byanybody who chooses to repeat the inquiry at theomces mentioned. This result will, we hope, conveyto the managers of the Pension Fund an impression thatsome other mode of conducting the discussion will betterserve their purpose. Though compelled by the tactics justdescribed to write in this seemingly unfriendly tone, wedo not in the least withdraw from the position which weoriginally took up. It is a matter of great regret to us tosee, according to our judgment, a splendid opportunitybeing thrown away, and we shall be only too glad if the

promoters will endeavour to adapt their scheme to the realrequirements of the members of the nursing profession.

MEDICAL DECLARATIONS CONCERNING ALCOHOL.

WE have been asked to publish three separate MedicalDeclarations respecting Alcohol, issued respectively in 1839,184:7, and 1871, and signed by many of the most distinguishedmen in the profession of the several periods. They were tothe effect that men in ordinary health do not requirealcohol; that many people immensely exaggerate its valueas an article of diet; that the inconsiderate prescriptionof it by medical men has often given rise to the formationof intemperate habits; and that it should always be pre-scribed by medical men with as much care as any powerfuldrug, in such a way as to be no excuse for excess, or forthe continuance of its use when the need for it has ceased.Persons willing to subscribe to such propositions are invitedto send their names to Dr. J. J. Ridge, Enfield, Middlesex.We cannot give room for the declarations in extenso, and weare disposed to think that the good of such declarations issomewhat overrated. Men will often sign a declaration in.general terms, when it is known that their individual habits,or their practice and prescription, do not altogether accordwith its purport. So it comes to pass that some incon-

sistency is felt, to the discredit of the declaration or ofthose who signed it. Let nobody suppose, however, thatwe are really out of sympathy with the above pro-positions. The medical man that does not see thatalcohol is a very two-edged tool must be ignorantof the literature of his profession and destitute of thelowest powers of observation. I-Ie must also be uninformedof the best practice of the leading physicians of his time,which we may without immodesty suppose to be a bettertime than any anterior period. When men like Dr. HughesBennett have treated 150 cases of pneumonia with scarcelyany mortality and a very small amount of alcohol; when menlike Dr. Gairdner tell us that fever, especially in the young,does better without alcohol; when men like Dr. Wilkstell us that "in bronchitis he has repeatedly seen im-provement where a stimulant has been left off," and that" he is convinced that the mischief done by stimulants inheart disease is immense" (THE LANCET, vol. i. 1867,p. 506)-those are without excuse who think its indis-criminate prescription in undefined and large quantities alight matter. One other great improvement in our estimateof the uses of alcohol is to view it in regard to the state ofthe glands and bloodvessels of the patient. If these areblocked, and if the powers of elimination aro impaired,it can be easily understood that in more advanced age, when.alcohol is thought to be more admissible or even necessary,

it must be given with much judgment as to form and dose,if harm is not to be done. Dr. Wilks sounded a note in thisdirection twenty years ago, when he said, " It causes me dailysurprise to observe how the effects of stimulation are over-looked," and "if a man comes into our presence with atottering gait and bloated face, and his nervous energy all gone,you may be quite sure that he has been taking strengthen-ing’ things all his life." What piece of medical malpraxiscan be worse than to see a bon-vivant, with a carbuncle onhis neck, his arteries distended and excited, and his secretionsloaded, treated to a bottle of port a day, or half a bottle, inthe view that it is all weakness," whatever that mysteriousword may mean ! We have no fresh declarations to make.Our own deliverances on this subject have been anxious andresponsible. Alcohol is a powerful remedy in some cases,and it has been intemperately denounced by teetotalers.But it is a fruitful source of disease and degeneration, andthe wisest physicians will use it with care and discrimination.

THE EMERITUS PROFESSOR OF SURGERY,KING’S COLLEGE.

PROFESSOR HENRY SMITH, Surgeon to King’s CollegeHospital, having reached the limit of age allowed for

retaining his office, has sent in his resignation. The Council,whilst accepting the resignation of Professor Smith, haveresolved, in recognition of his past services to the Institu-tion, to confer upon him the titles of Emeritus Pro-fessor of Surgery and Consulting Surgeon to the Hospital.Mr. H. Smith was educated at King’s College, and becameHouse Surgeon to the hospital in 1846. Subsequently tothis he was associated with Sir William Fergusson as hisprivate assistant. He was elected in 1851 Surgeon to theWestminster Genaral Dispensary. He held this post for tenyears, and resigned it on being appointed in 1861 to King’sCollege Hospital as Assistant Surgeon, and Surgeon withcare of out-patients. He was elected Professor of Surgeryand Surgeon to the hospital in 1877.

CAMBRIDGE TOWN DRAINAGE.

RATHER more than fourteen years ago our attention wasfirst drawn to the frightful state of the drainage of Cam-bridge by the fatal outbreak of typhoid fever at one of theColleges. At that time the Improvement Commissionersreceived peremptory notice from the Local GovernmentBoard to prepare plans and at once set on foot a new

drainage scheme, by which means the overloaded sewers ofthe town might be relieved, and the Cam purified from itsaccumulated filth. It is, as we say, rather more than four-teen years since this peremptory notice was sent by the LocalGovernment Board, and up to the present day Cambridge lacksits new system of drainage, and the Cam remains the samemalodorous and fetid ditch as it did of yore. It would forman interesting history to sketch the successive steps by whichthe Improvement Commissioners of the town have succeededin evading for fourteen years the peremptory order to providethe town with efficient drainage; but now that they haveresisted so far successfully, it is not at all impossible that theymay altogether escape the necessity of constructing a newscheme of sewerage, since we notice that at a meeting calledfor May 8th it was proposed "that application be made tothe Local Government Board for the renewal of the powersfor compulsory purchase of the land necessary for the

proposed scheme for one year." By that time the LocalGovernment Bill will have come into operation, which willcause great changes with respect to the position of thesanitary authority towards the Government Board. What-ever may be the reason alleged, however, for the delay, wehope that the drainage scheme will not be permitted to fallthrough. During the fourteen years that have elapsed since