753

eyelid and became generalised. The spasms lasted half an

hour, during which time the pupils were widely dilated anddid not react to light. After an interval of three hours

there was a second attack which lasted 20 minutes, and fivehours later there was a third attack lasting ten minutes.Both of these attacks had a course like the first. Six hours

later a fourth and final attack supervened and this continued-with short intermissions lasting each from one to fiveminutes-for an hour. The patient was conscious and feltwell between the epileptiform attacks, but after the lastattack he suffered from symptoms of numbness and formica-tion in the two outer fingers of the left hand. The urine wasnormal and there was no cardiac abnormality. The patientwas put on bromides and made an uneventful recovery afterthis. The exact cause of the cerebral disturbances couldnot be traced, the question whether they were due to a smallembolus or other cause of acute local cerebral aiioemia beingleft open.

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THE PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS AT THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION.

THE meetings of the British Association are a carnival

of science. That is to say, we think that it may be taken

without contradiction that the festival and the social sideof science are more in evidence than the real work andtoil of it. Excursions with an archseological or architecturalsubstratum are much favoured, and were it not for thesethe meetings would probably be sparsely attended. This

being so Sir William Turner is to be congratulated on thesuccess of his bold attempt to lay before an audience com-posed in great part of men and women who take an intelli-gent interest in science without knowing very much aboutit an account of the processes of biology. But we fear that

to many his account of the cell and its life, of karyokinesisand of cell cleavage, clearly expressed as it was, must havebeen somewhat unintelligible. Those who have watched theactual processes under the microscope will recognise howsimply and plainly Sir William Turner, a master of his

subject, has formulated the stages of karyokinesis ; but to theaverage scientifically minded layman the terminology willseem as obscure as, for instance, an account of a bull

fight with its references to the various feints and passesof the chulos and the matador is to the non-expert. We

hope we do not wrong Sir William Turner’s audience in

believing him to have been above the heads of many of them.But if their technical knowledge enabled them to follow himwe are sure that they must have been profoundly interested,for the study of the life processes in the cell is

one of absorbing interest as a step on the journeytowards that knowledge which at present spems unknow-able. The evolution of the human race is perhapsthe greatest problem with which we have to grapple andSir William Turner well said : ’’ Though from the nature ofthings the order of descent is, and without doubt will con-tinue to be, ever a matter of speculation and not of demon-stration, the study of the subject has been a valuableintellectual exercise and a powerful stimulant to research."When we consider how little we know we need not be down-

cast, for we can consider at the same time what enormousadvances have ben made in our exact knowledge even inthe present century.

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THE ETIOLOGY OF "CANCER."0]<’ recent years many attempts have been made to dis-

cover the true cause of malignant growths, and one of themost valuable of these investigations was carried out by acommittee appointed by the Birmingham and MidlandCounties Branch of the British Medical Association. The

committee was appointed in March, 1898, and their reportwas published in the l3irmLragham Medical Review in May,

June, and July of this year. The investigation was limitedto the counties of Warwick, Stafford, Salop, and Worcester,but it was found impracticable to obtain information withregard to every registration area. The committee drew up acircular mentioning the points on which information wasdesired and a schedule for tabulating the cases. Thecircular asked that the percentage of deaths from malignantdisease in the whole district, and in each of the parishescomprised in it, might be ascertained, and that an accuratedescription should be given of the physical conditions of thedistricts where malignant disease appeared to be most

prevalent. It was further requested that special attentionshould be paid to the situation and surroundings of anyhouse or row of houses where malignant disease had

occurred with marked frequency. Returns were obtained

from more than 50 registration areas, with a population ofmore than 860,000, and 5300 cases of malignant disease weretabulated. The report deals at great length with the returnsfrom every district, and these are of much value, but mostinterest will be felt in the conclusions at which thecommittee have arrived. The first point established bythe returns is that there are certain areas in whichthe mortality from malignant disease is noticeably above,and others in which it is markedly below, 0’58 per 1000 perannum, the average for England and Wales. For instance,in the Shipston-on-Stour sub-district every parish exceptone has a mortality from " cancer of over 1-15, while inthe Foleshill registration area nearly every parish has a

mortality from this cause below 0’47. The physical con-ditions which are found where "cancer prevails are con-tamination of the soil with sewage and a general lack ofdrainage. There seems to be no definite connexion betweenthe geological characters of the subsoil and the prevalence of"cancer." Evidence is also adduced that there is a specialtendency to the occurrence of malignant disease in certainhouses or groups of houses, and on the whole "cancer" ismore common in old than in new houses and districts. The

investigation has certainly accomplished all that could havebeen expected from it.

CONSTIPATION FROM ATONY AS A FATAL

DISEASE.

CONSTIPATION is one of the commonest ailments of

civilised life and its relative frequency among people other-wise healthy leads us to regard it not so much as a

disease but as the natural result of artificial conditions act-

ing upon a healthy body. It may be due to either sluggish-ness of the peristaltic action of the intestines or to increasedresistance to expulsion offered by the f&aelig;cal matters owingto hardness and dryness of f&aelig;cal masses. Mr. RobertBrummitt records a case of constipation as a fatal diseaseper se in the Australasian Medical Gazette for March, 1900.The story is very instructive and almost unique. The patientwas a boy who since his birth in 1884 had suffered fromchronic sluggishness of the bowels with constipation.Careful examination of the abdomen and of the rectumshowed nothing abnormal save a few external haemorrhoids.Every therapeutic means had been tried-unsuccessfully-to relieve his trouble. Laxatives and aperients, intestinaland general tonics, regulation of diet, massage, enemataof various kinds and irrigation, and faradaic electricityhad been employed, but to no purpose. The relief

occasionally obtained by a partial evacuation of the bowelsaided by one of the above therapeutic means was onlytemporary. He continued to grow ill and to lose flesh,and eventually died in an emaciated condition at the age of16 years, the immediate cause of death being peritonitis,his weight being only 60lb. At the post-mortem examina-tion it was found that the c&aelig;cum and the ascending andtransverse colon were full of scybalous masses, which were