1481THE FOURTEENTH INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF MEDICINE, MADRID.

- could obtain. He could see no danger in this. The object wasto give all news and that as quickly as possible. It was the

professors’ and doctors’ own fault if they did not write long- and carefully- thought-out papers. In Germany the generalcomplaint was that these papers were too long. A littleclever, crisp snmmarising would be very welcome so long asdue credit was given to the authorities quoted.

Dr. BLONDEL replied that reports now appeared in 24 hoursinstead of two months and these reports were often almostverbatim, so that they destroyed all hope of subsequent andmore careful publication.

Professor CORNIL remarked that as opinions seemed todiffer they must give liberty to each to do as he thoughtbest.

Dr. VIDAL said that a sharp line of demarcation should bemade between what was but the bulletin or circular of asociety and what was a bonâ-fide journal.

Dr. AVILEZ remarked that a real transformation was takingplace and Mr. ADOLPHE SMITH insisted that the businessof the Congress was with medical journals and not withpublications that consisted simply of the transactions or

proceedings of some one society.Dr. BLONDEL again spoke, remarking that in Belgium

the medical press was in danger of extinction throughthe competition of bulletins issued by societies andsometimes distributed gratuitously. These publications.commenced merely as records of the proceedings ofthe society by which they were published. Then itoccurred to someone that it would -be useful to have a-few advertisements, and as advertisers preferred journalsscissors and paste were employed, a few leaderettes werewritten, and the bulletin was transformed into what pre-- tended to be a journal. These publications were pushingthe legitimate journals out of the field, at least in Belgium.Now in France there was a medical friendly society,l’Association des Medecins de France, and it had about 8000members. It used to publish a bulletin which containedbalance-sheets, a record of the widows and orphans ofmedical men who had been helped through the agency ofthe association, &c. Now, and so as to recruit more

members, this bulletin was being forwarded gratuitously toall the medical men of France ; then, so that those prac-titioners who did not belong to the association might betempted to read it and perhaps ultimately to join andfurther so that advertisers might likewise be tempted toadvertise, this bulletin had been converted into somethinglike a journal, for it now contained a few original articles.The speaker wanted to know if a bulletin was to be con-sidered a journal.

Dr. VIDAL said that a bulletin was paid for by thesociety it represented, it had neither editor nor staff ; what itpublished was signed by the secretary of the society it repre-sented and for the society. Therefore it was not a journal andthe secretary of the society was not a journalist. ’

Dr. PITALUNGA (Italy) said that the double character ofmedical man and journalist somewhat complicated matters,particularly as there were three different kinds of periodicalpublications to be considered. There was the doubtfulbulletin, the organ of a society ; then there were the archivesor reviews, solemn and ponderous, and appearing perhapsonly once in three months. The merit of such a publicationdepended entirely upon the master by whom it was controlledand who published only careful and elaborate studies. Itwas all a question of the responsibility of the master. Forhis sake, and his sake alone, were such publications bought,and they were useful, for sometimes the master brought outyoung men who otherwise would never get a hearing. Thenthere was the bonâ-jide journal. He thought that it waseasy enough to distinguish between these three very differentcategories of publications.At this stage the Congress adjourned for the day.

THE FOURTEENTH INTERNATIONALCONGRESS OF MEDICINE, MADRID.

(FROM ONE OF OUR CORRESPONDENTS.)

EXCURSION TO THE SOUTH OF SPAIN.MUCH has been written of the discomfort endured by

some members of the Congress who have lately returnedfrom Spain. In many cases the discomfort was born of an

imperfect knowledge of Spanish combined with a laudable, if

child-like, wish to manage for oneself and not to be helped.It is pleasant, therefore, to record the successful issue ofthe excursions to the south of Spain under the guidance ofcompetent conductors who did not exceed the moderate costat first agreed upon. There were several of these excursionsso arranged in point of time that the caravans," as suchparties are called by the railway officials, worked inde-pendently of each other, visiting the same towns insuccession. In every case the parties had to be small,for the hotel and railway facilities in Spain are notgreat. One through train runs in each direction dailyand on three nights a week there is an express with sleep-ing-cars attached. The track is single and the halts aremany and long. Early breakfast and déjeuner are takenen route at a wayside station with the guard, engine-driver,and fireman, whilst dinner is usually served in the hoteleither before starting or on arrival at the destination.Through carriages are only to be obtained as a special favour,the number of places in each train is as fixed as it used tobe in the diligences, trains cannot be multiplied to suit thetraffic, nor is it usual to add a carriage when the train is full.It is necessary, therefore, to give ample notice when acaravan of even moderate size intends to travel. Seats mustbe booked some days in advance and the heavy luggage maybe required 12 hours before the train starts, a custom whichaffords ample opportunity for an unauthorised and furtiveexamination of the baggage in the early hours of the morning.Passengers are still penned up in stuffy waiting-roomsuntil the train starts and, more irritating than all, the bookingoffice is closed with exemplary punctuality ten minutesbefore the advertised time of departure. There are, how-ever, compensating ad,antages : the carriages are comfortable,all the windows are open, the trains are punctual, and as theaverage speed is about 17 miles an hour the country is seenat leisure.A long night journey of 350 miles intervenes between Madrid

and Seville, but the glories of the latter town amply repay thetraveller for the discomfort of getting there. The magnificentCathedral which overtops all the other buildings in the city,the Alcazar, or ancient royal palace, with its Moorish Hallof the Ambassadors and its lovely hanging gardens throngedwith nightingales, the copy of Pontius Pilate’s house, andthe Torre del Oro where the gold of Mexico was stored on itsarrival in Europe, make Seville the most interesting city inthe south of Spain. The clean and narrow streets, the trimpatios or forecourts of the houses, the shops open to thestreet as in a bazaar, and the dozens of barbers all plyingtheir trade in full view of the passers-by were the firstindications to the caravan that the customs of Paris andMadrid had been exchanged for an older and more pic-turesque civilisation. Three days were spent at Seville, onebeing a Sunday to give an opportunity of attending highmass celebrated most gorgeously and impressively in theCathedral. Part of another day was devoted to visitingItalica which was founded by Scipio Africanus as a sana-torium for his veterans. A fine amphitheatre remains butthere are not even ruins of the town where the emperorsTrajan, Hadrian, and Theodosius first saw the light.

.

Three clear days did not exhaust the charms of Seville,for the whole time might well have been spent inthe picture gallery amongst the Murillos which viewith, if they do not actually excel, the magnificent collec-tion at Madrid. The fourth day was spent in traversingthe 280 miles which separate Seville from Granada. The

party was certainly routed and its individual memberswere nearly destroyed on their arrival by the touts of thedifferent hotels in the town. But rooms had been securedin the Washington Irving Hotel within the grounds of theAlhambra and after a very late dinner most of the caravanwent to bed, preferring to imagine rather than to see thebeauties of the ancient Moorish palace as revealed by thelight of a full moon. The next day was devoted to an ex-ploration of the Alhambra, but it was not seen to the best

advantage, for the weather was cold and dull, whilst the

beggars were noisy and importunate. The beautiful gardensof the Generalife were visited and as a point of honour adrive was taken through the gipsies’ quarter. The visit wasnot made without some trepidation on the part of the ladies,for one party had an escort of soldiers and another hadominous tidings of the newly committed murder and robberyof a Spanish gentleman who had been quietly returninghome on the previous evening. The gipsies appeared, how-ever, as picturesque villains dwelling in caves much afterthe fashion of our ancestors, but with greater conveniences,

1482 NOTES FROM INDIA.-MANCHESTER.

prolific in children much given to halfpence and posturedances.The caravan proceeded from Granada to Cordova, a dis-

tance of 140 miles, at the leisurely rate of ten miles an hour,a speed which gave ample time to survey the beauty of theSierra Nevada, the constant covering of snow of which mustbe so grateful a sight to the inhabitants of the hot and wideplain beneath, The mosque at Cordova surpassed even

the extravagant expectations which had been formed aboutit, so that the sightseer was prepared to condone vandalismwhich had built a great Christian church in its very midst,for the very size of the church revealed the immensityof the mosque within which it was hidden. The

mosquitoes here became troublesome and there were fewwho did not welcome the time when they climbed into theirsleeping-berths at Cordova to awaken in the plains ofLa Mancha whilst passing windmills any of which mighthave been successors to those tilted at by Don Quixote. The

morning caf6 was enlivened by the report that as the trainhad been overcrowded on the previous evening the night hadbeen spent in depositing 30 or 40 would-be passengers atdifferent wayside stations to reach their destinations as bestthey could and to learn the lesson that seats in a first-classtrain on a Spanish railway must be booked beforehand. Thereturn journey from Madrid was as straightforward as theoutward journey had been, for the Sud Express has admirableaccommodation both for sleeping and refreshment. Thecaravan reduced itself to constituent units at Biarritz.

NOTES FROM INDIA.

(FROM OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.)

An Eye Infirmary for Bangalore.-The Indian MedicalS’erviees.-The Increasing Plague epidemic thronglwutJMZ.&mdash;J-CCfM the Streets of Indian Cities.-The- P?’<!0ee of Bati in India.AN eye infirmary, estimated to cost Rs. 150,000, will

shortly be built by the Mysore Durbar in connexion withthe Victoria Jubilee Hospital erected during the late regencyon the glacis of the Bangalore fort.The proposal to form one body out of the various sub-

ordinate medical services in India by combining them intoa single corps under the title of the Indian Army MedicalCorps has been finally negatived. ’

The following figures are interesting as showing how theplague epidemic has spread in India during recent years.There were in 1897 56,000 recorded deaths ; in 1900.93,000 ; in 1901, 274,000 ; and in 1902, 577,000. Duringthe first three months of the present year the mortalitywas 334,000, that in March last being no less than 136,000.The reduction in the plague mortality throughout India

reported for the week ending April llth has not beenmaintained. Once again a marked rise to 32,159 hasoccurred which is more than accounted for by the Punjabalone, where the plague mortality is now greater than in allthe rest of the country put together, having gone up from13,225 to 18,488. This is the history of last year repeatingitself. There was an increase of about 1000 deaths inthe United Provinces, bringing the total there to 4382.The counterbalancing decreases occurred in the Bombaypresidency and in Bengal. In the United Provinces 12 citiesare now suffering, including Allahabad, Agra, Benares, Cawn-pore, Lucknow, Meerut, and Bareilly. The disease is nowraging very fiercely in Karachi, but there are better returnsfrom Bombay city and from Calcutta. The severe andcontinued prevalence of plague in Bombay city has led to theenlargement of the Marathu Plague Hospital. Five newwards have just been opened. They have been presented bysome of the leading inhabitants and are constructed of redbrick with Mangalore tiles and neat paving. They will provea great improvement on some of the existing sheds. This

hospital in Bombay has always been popular, the reasonsgiven being that it is cheerful in appearance, is centrallysituated, and is of sanitary construction ; that there is an

option given to all patients of native or European treatment ;and that there is great freedom of access for the relatives.The frequent accidents in the streets of the two cities of

Calcutta and Bombay have drawn attention to the imperfectmeans in both cities for the conveyance to hospital of injuredor sick persons. There are very few ambulances in Bombayand still fewer in Calcutta and the delay which occurs when

there is an accident is a matter of public comment in both,cities. Some attempt is about to be made in Calcutta to-

remedy this grievance, but unless the police are made

responsible for the removal to hospital of these cases the

provision of ambulances will not be of much avail. At

present in both cities the want of the necessary organisationand material is a disgrace.Although Sati or the burning of the widow on the funeral

pyre of her husband was prohibited by the Government-many years ago the practice is occasionally kept up in out-of-the-way places and in secrecy. This shows that thecustom still lingers and the manner in which it is referredto by the native press also shows the underlying sympathywith this horrible form of cruelty. Although burning is.now rare, the suicide of widows in other ways has to acertain extent taken its place, and every widow who kills.herself on the death of her husband is styled a heroine.There is a widely-rooted idea that the wife should not outliveher husband and it is probable that if British rule wereremoved the old practice would be revived. The ideas aresaid to be founded on religious sanction, but the putting todeath of innocent young lives ought not to be tolerated. IfHindu society cannot purify itself from such barbarouscustoms it will never gain the respect of educated and right-thinking persons, and if the encouraged practice (and it is.apparently encouraged very strongly) continues the Govern-ment of India may be called upon to interfere.April 30th.

__________________

MANCHESTER.(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

The Manchester Coronership.EVER since the death of Mr. Smelt, the late Manchester

city coroner, there has been a good deal of interest shown asto the appointment of a successor. Some weeks ago thetown hall committee of the county council, to which the pre-liminary task of making a selection to be afterwards sub-mitted to the council was committed, reduced a list of 2&applications to six and then recommended a member of themedical profession for the office. There was no question asto his fitness, although he had had no previous experience ofthe work, but unfortunately he was at the time of his

application as a candidate a member of the council and amember of the committee by which he was recommendedfor the coronership, although he afterwards resigned hismembership of the council. At the subsequent meeting ofthe council the recommendation of the town-hall committeewas set aside, as his appointment would have been on the.extreme verge of legality if not absolutely illegal, and thematter was referred to a new committee specially chosen.This committee on May 8th selected six names from theoriginal 26, setting aside the gentleman recommended by thetown-hall committee and also another who is one of the

legal staff in the town-hall, and substituting the names oftwo others of the candidates. After seeing each of thesix, votes were taken and after the preliminary rounds therewere 11 votes for Mr. Gibson and eight for Dr. Sellers andthen the committee voted unanimously for Mr. Gibson who-was chosen for the approval of the city council. Though itis not absolutely certain that the choice of the committee willbe approved at the council meeting to be held to-morrowit is almost certain, for this time there is no illegalityto bar the way, and Mr. Gibson comes with good credentials.He was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge ; is B.A. andLL. B. with honours in the Law Tripos in 1883. He wascalled to the bar and practised at the bar of the NorthernCircuit in Liverpool. In 1898 he began to study medicineat University College, Liverpool, and has passed all theexaminations for the M. B. and Ch. B. except the last part ofthe final, for which he is not entitled to enter until July.He has been deputy coroner for Liverpool since 1892 andhas conducted over 3000 inquests. " He stroked his collegeboat at Cambridge and he devotes holidays to mountain

climbing." As there is only one coroner for Manchester itwas certain that 25 out of the 26 candidates, many of whomwere notably well qualified, would be disappointed, and onecan only express sympathy with the unsuccessful.

A New Hospital for Skin Diseases.The Manchester and Salford Hospital for Diseases of the

Skin, established in 1884, has outgrown the accommodation