699THE WATER FAMINE IN NORTH-EAST LONDON.

with the First Brigade under the command of Brigadier-General WAUCHOPE, C.B., and had been previously men-tioned in despatches for his services in the Dongola cam-

paign. Now that the Royal Army Medical Corps is for thefirst time an amalgamated corps we should not omit to

mention that a private and lance-corporal of that corps

were also among the wounded. It will be seen, at any rate,that the officers and men of the Royal Army Medical Corpsrun all the risks of battle in addition to those which theyspecially incur from the nature of their calling. Sir

HERBERT KITCHENER in a telegraphic despatch from

Omdurman of Sept. 4th says that "the British wounded

have all left for Abadia in barges towed by steamers. I

saw them before leaving and they were all doing well andwere comfortable." We venture to add an expression ofsympathy with the Times on its loss of the services of

two of its war correspondents, one of whom was killed andthe other severely wounded.

Annotations."Ne quid nimis."

THE WATER FAMINE IN NORTH-EAST LONDON.

THE situation in the district supplied by the East LondonWaterworks Company has not altered for the better since wedescribed it a fortnight ago, for the heavens still refuse rain.That it has not altered materially for the worse and that thepublic health remains fair must be looked upon as a piece ofgood fortune for the company commensurate at least withthe bad fortune which they are experiencing in runningshort of water during a drought. For if an epidemicof any kind should break out in north-east Londonthe medical men would have hard work to keep themischief under when deprived of the most natural andefficacious remedy against zymotic diseases-water. Pro-

ceedings are now being taken to place the mains of thecompany in communication direct or indirect with those oftwo other companies, and when this has been done all fearof an absolute water-famine will be at an end. But with

the tiding over of the temporary difficulty we hope that theoccurrence of these annual breakdowns will not pass from therecollection of the people of London. They ought not to occur,and if the company cannot prevent them the company wouldappear to be unable to carry on its business. There is analternative. It may be said that the company can manageits works at least as well as any municipal or central bodywould be able to manage them, but that if there is not thewater the water cannot be supplied. In this way the

relations during the last two or three summers of the EastLondon Waterworks Company with their clients form a

strong argument for the augmentation or alteration of the

present source of the metropolitan water-supply.

SCIENCE AND MEDICINE.

DR. KANTHACK, Professor of Pathology at the Universityof Cambridge, recently delivered the mid-sessional addressbefore the Abernethian Society of St. Bartholomew’s Hos-pital. He chose for his subject "The Science and Art ofMedicine " and the whole discourse was an earnest and

impassioned plea for the more scientific teaching ofmedicine and for the impressing upon students the neces-sity of finding out if possible everything about a patientwhich can have any bearing on the case. Dr. Kanthack

drew a parallel between medicine and a technical industrysuch as brewing. An art, he said, may be learned in

two ways: first, by experience based on a rule of thumbprinciple, which is the English way; and secondly, byexperience based upon systematic research, which is the

German way. Citing Hansen’s great work in revolutionisingthe brewing industry at Copenhagen Dr. Kanthack pro-ceeded to point out that the more we know about fermenta-tion the more we shall know about disease, for infection ismerely a form of fermentation. In our happy-go-luckyBritish fashion we do manage somehow to get good beer,though the e average English ale, to say nothing ofScotch ale, is somewhat heavy for this weather. But

there is one technical industry in which a real

knowledge of fermentation would be of infinite assis-

tance, and that is bread-making. Why is it that

ordinary baker’s bread is simply uneatable after it has beenbaked two days ? If it were made of good flour, good water,and carefully selected yeast it should keep quite fresh threeor four days. There is at least one bakery, and there maybe more, which pays attention to the yeast question, buteverybody knows the usual stuff proffered as "bread."To return to Dr. Kanthack. He gave as another

example the work done in Denmark, a small and poor

country, with regard to the great tuberculosis question andcompared it with what we are doing over here. Truewe have had a Royal Commission which has issued a

report, and so, we might add, have we had a Commissionon Vaccination, but neither of them have at present had verybeneficial results. "Pathology," said Dr. Kanthack, "isnot a subject of secondary importance inferior to practicalmedicine or surgery; it is the foundation of diagnosis,treatment, and prognosis." The late Dr. James Andrew,as sound a physician as ever lived, used always to tell hisclerks that there was no place for learning like the post-mortem room and his admirable clinical teaching wasalways based upon scientific research. Another ofhis maxims was that the best book on medicine was

Foster’s Physiology, neither can there be any doubt of thetruth of this. Even since his death the opportunities andadvances of scientific research have increased enormously,and we can only hope that Dr. Kanthack’s words will betaken to heart not only by his student audience but by thosein whose hands lies the future training of our young medicalmen. With all our knowledge we are still very much in thedark about the causes and processes of disease. It is the

I I why " we must seek for ; when we have found this we shallbe better able to say how to treat it and for this reason wemust inculcate research upon the learner.

SALE OF DRINK TO CHILDREN.

A CORRESPONDENT writes to us referring to our annotationin THE LANCET of August 27th entitled "Drink-fetching byChildren." "It may be mentioned," he says, "that two

deputations, one representing the temperance party and theother the licensed victuallers, have laid their views beforethe Manchester city justices. The latter deputation suggestedthat if any such intimation were necessary it should go forth

through the press and not by circular, that it was the desireof the magistrates that vendors of liquor, wholesale or retail,should exercise care not to serve children of very tender

years and should use their influence to minimise as far as

possible what the temperance party considered to be a greatevil.’ One of the deputation stated that the LicensedVictuallers’ Association had already issued a circular

urging their members not to give sweets or toysto the children sent to their houses. He also saidthat if one licence-holder refused to serve children

his neighbour might do so. Another said the restrictions

placed on licencees had been the means of creating bogus