1504

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

(FROM, OUR OWN CORRESPONDENTS.)

A Hoo7e?vorm Zone Exhibition.

A Hookworm Exhibition is to be held at the InternationalCongress on Hygiene in Washington, next September, underthe supervision of Dr. Charles W. Stiles, the well-knownauthority on hookworm disease. The statistics gathered bythe Rockefeller Sanitary Commission will be shown by chartsindicating the presence of hookworm infection betweenparallels 36 north and 30 south, and that practicallyall countries between these parallels are infected. TheRockefeller Commission has received reports from 54infected countries. Of these countries, in Wales, Germany,the Netherlands, Belgium, France, and Spain, theinfection is wholly, or chiefly, confined to miners. In46 countries at least it is general and widespread. The

report also shows that 11 States of this country, witha population of 20,000,000, lie in the infected zone,and that of the total population of the world an exceedinglylarge proportion live in countries in which hookworm diseaseis prevalent. The conditions in the countries in which thedisease is most rife and widespread will be shown. Theeconomic effects of the disease will also be demonstratedby charts. In many localities 50 per cent. of the efficiencyof labour is lost in consequence of hookworm anasmia.

A Federal Bureau of Public Health.What is known as the " Owen Bill " was drawn up with a

view of creating a Bureau of Public Health to control thevarious Federal, State, and municipal sanitary agencies inthe United States. But the opposition aroused amongpatent medicine manufacturers and others whose interestsit endangers has caused it to be so altered and emasculatedthat its original idea can now be scarcely perceived.

Meat inspeotion in the United States.The Sanitary Commissioner of THE LANCET some few

years ago was the first to call public attention to the badcondition of the abattoir and meat-packing plants in Chicago.In consequence of these and other revelations, the system ofGovernment meat inspection was reformed, but chargeshave been made recently that such inspection is not properlycarried out, and the Department of Agriculture, which is

responsible for the enforcement of meat inspection, is beingseverely arraigned. A resolution, introduced by Mr. Nelson,is now before the House of Representatives to investigatethe meat-inspection service.

Public and Private Charities of New York State.According to the New York State Board of Charities the

aggregate expenditure of the public and private charities ofNew York State is now$24,000,000 a year and is increasingat the rate of$1,000,000 annually. Further, some 2 per cent.of the population of New York State receives institutionalsupport, and another 2 per cent. outdoor relief. Much of themoney expended on charitable purposes by public and

private agencies is required for the maintenance of defectivesand hereditary paupers, for it is stated that more than one-third of the dependent class and 25 per cent. of the inmatesof reformatory institutions are mentally defective. Thereare said to be about 30,000 feeble-minded persons in theState of New York, of whom 4000 are intermittentlysequestered, while 26,000 are at large to propagate theirkind.

The Regeneration of Slums.An interesting experiment in sociology is about to be

undertaken in St. Louis. Ten little girls are to be takenfrom their squalid homes in the slum districts of the city toa well-appointed home in the best district for one day ineach week, and under careful observation are to be

encouraged to develop whatever talents they may possess.Their individualities will be studied and each will receiveinstruction in the pursuit for which she shows the greatestaptitude. Individual teaching is the keynote of this experi-ment, in contradistinction to the system usually followed,of endeavouring to help this type of girl as a class.

Antivaooination Propaganda in the United States.The antivaccinationists are especially active at present.

In Pennsylvania, at the instance of the Antivaccination

League, a State Commission has been appointed to investi-gate the matter. There seems a tendency on the part ofState and school authorities to grant concessions to anti-vaccinationists, notwithstanding that small-pox is prevalentboth in the United States and in Canada.

Death of a Mediaal Philanthropist.l Dr. Daniel K. Pearson, who died recently in Chicago, hasr for long been celebrated throughout the United States for hisi munificence in the cause of education. Born more than 92r years ago in Bradford, Vermont, he graduated in medicine at9 the Vermont Medical School about 1842. He practised medi-1 cine first in Chicago and then in Wisconsin ; but his larger fortune was made by judicious speculation and investment,

and quickly attained to several millions of dollars. At thel time of his death Dr. Pearson had given away more than,$6,000,000 and had left himself only sufficient on which to

live frugally.May 21st.

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NOTES FROM INDIA.

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENTS.)

Public Health in Lahore.THE Lahore health officer, in his report, writing regarding

the recent epidemic of small-pox, says : " It is true, ignoranceof the law is no excuse, yet how can one prosecute suchignorant people who can neither read nor write." But itwas through their ignorance or prejudice that the majority ofcases of small-pox in December were known only by thenotification of the death, that the majority of the subse-quent 446 cases occurred, and that 188 lives were lost. Itis difficult to believe that a few judicious prosecutionswould not have disseminated, better than any number ofadvertisements and leaflets, the information that cases of

small-pox must be notified. The vital statistics of the Lahoremunicipality show a population of 208,126 souls. The totalnumber of deaths from all causes during 1911 was 6681,which gives an annual death-rate of 32 per 1000. 1911 was,as in other parts of India, relatively healthy, the death-ratebeing 3. 3 per 1000 better than in 1910. The Civil Stationand Anarkali was the most healthy portion of the area, thenumber of deaths there being 15 per 1000 less than in thecity. Fever and malaria accounted for nearly 3000 deaths,phthisis for 577, pneumonia, diarrhoea, dysentery, and small-pox for about 200 each, plague 19, and cholera only 6. Verynearly half the total number of deaths occurred amongstchildren under 5, and the committee are to be congratulatedon the efforts they are making, by supplying native mid-wives and by recommending the appointment of a ladyhealth visitor under the health officer, to check the heavymortality at birth. As to the water-supply, the muni-

cipality has in 1912 a special opportunity. The grants tothis province for sanitary works have been unusually large,and the supply of money for sanitary protective purposes inthe possession of the provincial Government is probablygreater than for many years. If the municipality wouldproduce, and engage to complete, a really effective water-supply scheme the necessary funds might be obtained, andthe provision of a full flow of safe potable water forthe whole city might be assured for years to come.

The new drainage scheme for the city and civil station ofLahore, now under consideration by the Sanitary Board,contemplates the erection of a large number of collectingstations in different parts of the civil station. Into thesestations the cans for the areas commanded by each centrewill be brought, and their contents emptied into a drain,which will carry the sewage along a gentle downwardgradient to a spot outside the station, where it will be

pumped up and treated in septic tanks. The proposedsystem is in some respects similar to that of Simla, wherethere are various collecting stations connected with themain drain ; but in Simla there is a deep descent from thetown to the sewage outlet, and under the action of gravityall the sewage is rapidly carried down to a stream manyfeet below the town. In Lahore with its level surface thisresult will have to be obtained by a fairly steep gradient tothe distributing sewers, and the difficulty in the first placeof maintaining a steady flow, and in the second place ofpumping up and disposing of the sewage, must be consider-able. The estimated cost of the scheme is .680,000.