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The times of rising and of the morning prayer and medita-tion were the same as on weekdays, but the Mass was

followed by religious instruction. Work began at 7. It is un-

necessary, and it would be tedious, even to follow the hoursof study. The whole day, as Renan told his mother, was

spent in continuous pious exercises and the studies were

devoted to religion and the catechism, instruction was re-ceived and analyses were made on these subjects, and theseduties occupied the whole of the time except that which wasspent in learning by heart the Gospel and the catechism.Presumably the working hours at Saint-Nicolas were longerthan those at similar establishments in France at the time

and than those now prevailing in religious seminaries thereor elsewhere ; but it is quite possible that the length oftime devoted to study has counted for something in the

ineffectiveness of such institutions. Boys trained in this

way ought, if there were nothing radically wrong in the

system, to become the intellectual giants of the world. It

is notorious that this has not been the usual case.

THE BATTLE OF THE CLUBS: THE DISPUTEAT CHESTERFIELD.

THE Derbyshire Courier of Saturday, Oct. 11th, contains areply from the representatives of the friendly societies to thearticle by our Special Commissioner which appeared inTHE LANCET of Sept. 27th (p 895). The representatives ofthe friendly societies state that our article is I I a series of mis-

statements " ; that married women who have children should"be allowed to make an honest arrangement to protectthemselves against heavy doctor’s bills, which in many caseshave brought families to ruin and pauperism " ; and thatthey will " shortly introduce into Chesterfield a medical

gentleman who will be quite able to hold his own both asregards the qualification and social position." We may haveto refer to this funny document again ; for the present wehave only to say that we do not envy the medical man whotakes office under its writers.

THE CONDITION OF FLORENCE.

AN Italian correspondent writes, under date Oct. 6th :—" Competition, like every other incentive, has its bad as wellas its good bide, and the approach of the autumnal season,when the sun-traps and winter-cities of Southern Europebegin to attract the health-seeker from the north, is alwaysprolic of self-assertive rivalry between the many caterersfor that money-bringing clientèle. The Riviera Ponente,through the agents interested in its prosperity, is aptto advertise itself at the expense of the Riviera

Levante which in its turn, again through similarlyinterested agents, vaunts its special advantage over the

Neapolitan Riviera ; until, like Tennyson’s swallow flying,flying South,’ depreciation and disparagement (bothof them economists of truth’) alight with exhausted

wing on the Algerian seaboard or the banks of the Nile.Florence is at this moment chafing under a more than

usually severe visitation of this periodical scourge. Havingnothing to say against her sanitary or hygienic condition,her detractors, like the irate goddess in Virgil’s Æneid’—

’Flectere si nequeo Superos, Acheronta movebo’-

descend to politics and on the strength of a recent abortivesciopero generale (general strike) give out that she isthe prey of an aggressive Socialism,’ if, indeed, the

Anglophobe and the Anarchist have not marked her fortheir own. Like all ridiculous exaggerations this latest

specimen of self-interested misrepresentation has overshotits aim and fallen harmlessly-a telum imcbelle sine ictuinto the back of beyond. So far from being ’ honeycombed with revolution’ and ’ perfectly unsafe for the law-abiding Iresident,’ Florence, thanks to the monumental failure’ of

the general strike referred to and the discredit incurred byits promoters, is about the last place in Italy where theaggressor, anarchic or other, dares to enter an appearance,as may be seen by any visitor who paces its bright, cheerfulthoroughfares en route to its architectonic ekefs d’æuvre or

picture galleries already thronged with the votaries of plasticor reproductive genius. ’ Our Lady of Flowers,’ in truth, hasrarely been more attractive than in the day now passing,certainly has never been healthier since her mediaeval wallshave been replaced by ample viali or boulevards, andsince her streets can no longer be described, as they werea generation ago by the late Dr. King Chambers, as

mainly a series of Hanway passages bordered by Newgateprisons.’ Now that the agitation against the English prac-titioner and his professional activity has died a naturaldeath in Italy, Florence, like others of her Italian sisters,requires little more than a better organised, more punctualpostal service to be an ideal resort for the northern pilgrim,whether his presence be motiv6 by medical or by artistic,literary, or even social considerations. For the average

Englishman, however, residence in the most congenial ofcities becomes rather a chastened joy when he gets hischerished English newspapers at the good pleasure or

the private convenience of an undermanned and over-

worked postal personnel-a state of things which on theoutbreak of the South African war occasioned quite a

stampede of the English-speaking arrivals, eager to havenews from the front in their own journals and irritatedrather than satisfied by the meagre, ill-spelt, and not

always benevolent ’ despatches’ of the local press." "

THE PREVENTION OF BABY-FARMING.

IT is at least disappointing to find that notwithstandingall the trouble that has been taken to secure its abolition

the practice of baby-farming still continues to exist, even

though it be with an impaired vitality. That it can live atall is by no means creditable to our system of social

administration. We acknowledge that the energy put forthby local authorities for its prevention has increased and isincreasing. The officers of the Society for the Prevention ofCruelty to Children have also done much, and with no

small measure of success, towards the same purpose.Public opinion, too, is certainly better informed and moreawake to its duty in this connexion than it was some

years ago. We may quote in illustration of this fact the

recent finding of a Dublin jury which affords a significantexample of wholesome plain-speaking. The foreman, onhis own behalf and on that of his fellow jurors, expressedhis detestation of "this most inhuman practice of baby-farming, which was nothing short of murder," and hedesired to state their collective opinion that no respectablenewspaper should publish such advertisements as that

which appeared to have attracted the accused (and sub-sequently convicted) nurse. In this case, as in manyothers of the same class, the victim was a singly nursedchild and was therefore not protected by the defenceafforded by registration. Numerous protests have beenlevelled at this anomaly of legislation. By what cross-windof argument it was originally inspired we know not. Its

practical effect has too often been that of a mischievousconcession in favour of the wrongdoer. It is true that regis-tration does not provide a perfect remedy but it neverthelessmust act as a check upon malpractice. We trust that a

contemplated amendment which will make it operative inevery case without exception in which a young child is

nursed for hire will, before long, be embodied in the statute-book. Nor should those who honestly desire the extirpa-tion of this evil rest content at this point. Registration, inorder to he effectual, must be supported by a system ofregular and conscientious inspection. This we believe to be

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quite possible without the exercise of an obtrusive curiosity.There is also another and a larger consideration which

ought not to be overlooked. It usually happens that thereceiver of a child is in fact entirely responsible for

his or her health and safety. A sum of money is paiddown or a small and inadequate weekly dole is allowed

for an uncertain time and the parent and child are

thenceforth nothing to one another. This arrangementought not to be possible. It is contrary to all natural law,right, and instinct that a parent should be able thus easilyto divest himself of all personal responsibility even for anillegitimate child. It is his ability to do this which con-tributes more than any other circumstance to foster the

evils of the present system of nursing. We are unable toconceive how this boarding-out of infants is ever to becomea safe and genuine proceeding or other than an avenue

for abuse unless the parents (one or both) are made

contracting parties to registration, and responsible for the

cost, care, and to any reasonable extent for the safety.and health of their offspring. We have little doubt thatthis object could be attained and without any publicexposure by such a method of procedure as we have

indicated. Let it be made penal to receive a childto nurse unless the parentage is authenticated (asin the earliest stage in the child’s life it always can beauthenticated) and the parents are contracting parties andduly registered as such. As has already been stated thisarrangement need not imply the publication of personaldelinquencies, and it does not seem possible that justicecan be done to this class of children or that the destructionof the baby-farming system can be assured until this questionof parental liability is dealt with in such a manner as wehave proposed.

-

"LOOKING BACK."

IN THE LANCET of Oct. 4th (p. 953), under the headingof "Looking Back,"

" we published a quotation from

THE LANCET of Saturday, October 2nd, 1824. It is

instructive to compare the views then in vogue as rpgardsthe nature and origin of hydrophobia with those now

held after numerous scientific researches have been

made by the most eminent investigators. In 1824 our

predecessors wrote : "Whether any specific poison be

communicated by the bite of a rabid animal, capableof producing the train of symptoms designated hydro-

’’

,phobia, or whether those symptoms are merely the result

of a lacerated wound in an irritable constitution, are

still questions of dispute with many of the most eminentmedical characters. The subject is altogether pregnant with.difficulties, and as yet we are not in the possession of asufficient number of facts to lead us to any definite conclu-sion." What is the position to-day? Pasteur, Chamberland,and Roux, Babes, Dowdeswell, Bruschet’ini, and others

have described micro-organisms which they have isolated

from animals suffering from rabies, but when it has come to

.a rigid proof of the causal connexion of a particular organismwith the disease the chain of evidence has invariably brokendown at some critical point. That the disease is due to

some form of organism which has the power of multiplyingin the tissues and of producing a toxic substance which

- appears to act specially upon the central nervous systemcannot be doubted, but we are forced to the conclusion thatthe exact nature of the poison has not yet been determined.Doubtless, however, the difficulties will be overcome and

eventually an organism will be isolated which will fulfil

the necessary postulates. The view that the symptoms aremerely the result of a lacerated wound in an irritable con-stitution may be entirely set aside as contrary to facts andmodern scientific discovery. When we consider the advance,,in treatment of hydrophobia we are able to take a more

hopeful view than was possible in 1824. It was then said," Hydrophobia, then, may still be considered one of the

opprobria of surgery." Pasteur’s treatment by inoculation hasachieved results the efficiency of which cannot be denied.The statistics of cases treated in the Pasteur Institute in

Paris are a triumphant vindication of the attacks made

upon him by oppoers of vivisection in all countries. These

noisy and unscrupulous agitators have made the veryobvious error of taking the total number of deaths from

hydrophobia in various years without considering the totalnumber of cases which have occurred. The total mortalityfrom any particular disease in any year is no proof of theutility or otherwise of any treatment unless the case

incidence ih also given. This point anti-vivisectionists havealways studiously avoided.

THE NEW ENTRIES AT THE MEDICALSCHOOLS.

IT is too soon after the opening of the medical schools tospeak with any certainty as to the increase or decrease inthe number of students’ who have entered their names for afull course of medical study, but from the returns which wehave received up to the time of going to press it wouldseem that in London the figures show a slight decrease ascompared with those for last year. Of the returns fromthe provinces which have reached us that from the Uni-

versity of Cambridge is the largest, the number of under-graduates starting upon a medical career being 125. Thesame number of entries practically was returned at a corre-sponding period last year. We shall publish a detailed tablewhen the entries are more complete.

THE TOXICITY OF METHYL ALCOHOL ASREGARDS MAN AND THE LOWER

ANIMALS.’ DR. R. HUNT, assistant professor of pharmacology at theJohns Hopkins University, Baltimore, has published in theJo7tns Hopkins Hospital Bulletin for August and September,1902, a paper on the relative toxicity of methyl alcohol andon the special pathological changes produced by its action onthe nervous system. The number of cases of poisoning bymethyl or wood alcohol has greatly increased in the last

few years, a fact due to the frequent use of wood alcoholas an ingredient of preparations in which ethyl alcohol wasformerly used-e.g., varnishes, bay rum, and flavouringagents such as Jamaica ginger and peppermint. In acute

intoxication with methyl alcohol the symptoms are, saysDr. Hunt, similar to those produced by ethyl alcohol withthe difference that they are more prolonged in duration.Thus the coma of ethyl alcohol does not, as a rule, last

longer than six hours, and according to the experiments ofJoffroy and Serveaux it never lasts for 24 hours. On the

other hand, the coma produced by taking methyl alcohollasts, not uncommonly, for two, three, or even four,days. Experiments on the lower animals and observa-

tions on man have shown that this difference is not

due to "impurities" in methyl alcohol, but that the

pure drug will produce this same effect. On giving lethaldoses of methyl alcohol and ethyl alcohol to dogs andrabbits, it was found by Dr. Hunt that the latter produceddeath more speedily, a result which agreed with earlier

experiments made by Joffroy and Serveaux. As regardschronic intoxication, however, it appeared that methylalcohol was retained longer in the nerve tissues than ethylalcohol, and hence that small doses taken a few times actedvery poisonously owing to their cumulative effect. Dogs towhich measured doses of pure and commercial methylalcohol were given died as a rule, whereas those treated withequal doses of ethyl alcohol tecovered. Dr. Hunt was alwaysable to establish the presence of degenerative changes in