716-

,sum of 4000 marks per bed is accepted as a rule, while in-England 8000 marks are not thought too much. In Englandthe rooms for the nurses, the bath-rooms, the day-rooms, &c.are furnished with a comfort nearly unknown in our general’hospitals. Herr Schmieden finished his discourse with the’remark that satisfactory results in hospital building can be’obtained only by the collaboration of architects and

fphysicians. The meeting was very well attended and theaddress greatly applauded.March llth.

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VIENNA.(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

Vienna Medical Society.AT the last meeting of this society Professor Wagner spoke

’of the beneficial influence apparently exerted on mental:lienation by an acute disease appearing in the course of it.Recovery has been observed after typhoid or intermittentfever and arthritis. The younger the patient and the shorterthe-period since the beginning of the mental symptoms thean6re advantageous is the effect of the febrile disease.1Manthner has observed that atrophy of the optic nerve was- cured by intercurrent small-pox. Leidesdorf experi-mented with transfusion of blood in cases of melancholia.In 1892 Professor Wagner saw a boy affected with,muscular atrophy who contracted typhoid fever ; some

two months after this illness he recovered entirely from themuscular atrophy. The discovery of tuberculin providedProfessor Wagner with a remedy capable of producing feverwithout the risk of an infectious disease. He proceeded byinducing a rise of temperature (not more than 30 F.) bymeans of injection, and obtained very gratifying results. The’increase of body weight was a proof of the harmlessness ofthis remedy. The mental symptoms were never aggravated;after the injections.

Death of Dr. Lorinser.Dr. Lorinser, the late director of the Wieden Hospital, has

’died at the age of seventy-eight years. He was the first whoproved the noxious effects of phosphorus on the maxillary’bones of persons employed in match manufactories. Hisworks, " Treatment and Care of Diseases of the Knee-joint",and "Diseases of the Vertebral Column," found universalacceptance. Dr. Lorinser, who was also an eminent botanist, I’held many obsolete and peculiar views; thus, he was aTesolute opponent of vaccination and of mercurial thera-

peutics and did not believe either in hydrophobia or in theremedies used against it. In the deceased the poor lose agreat benefactor, whose name is everywhere mentioned with,gratitude and reverence,

The 6° Rettu,ngsgesellsahaft " (Hvmane Society).Since Baron Mundy’s death this society has been in perma-

,nent difficulties ; apparently it will not long survive its pro-moter. Like Count Montecuculi, the present manager,Dr. Charas, exclaims: "We want money, money, and stillmore money." Dr. Charas is an able and very agreeableman, but the Humane Society has lost a great many friendsin consequence of painful incidents which took place someten months ago. In fact, the only hope for the society isthat the municipality may assume the control of it..March llth.

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RUSSIA.

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

The Entozoa of Finland and Russia.DR. KLIMENKO publishes in the Vratch of last week a

spreliminary note upon the subject of the entozoa usually metwith in Finland. His observations were made in the military’lazaret in Helsingfors upon patients both of Finnish andRussian nationality, and both military and civil. As a resultof these observations, which extended to 1427 persons, it wasfound that among the Finns the ova of various forms ofentozoa could be demonstrated in the dejecta of as many as:29.29 per cent. of the total. Among the inhabitants of Helsisg-iors the percentage in whom ova could be found was as high as29 43. This, however, is lower than what was found to bethe case in St. Petersburg and Moscow, where Kessler has,-shown the percentages to be respectively 32 48 and 36. In

Helsingfors by far the commonest form of intestinal parasiteis the tapeworm (25 2 per cent. of the total number ofpatients), while in St. Petersburg tapeworm ova were presentin only 7’83 per cent., and in Moscow in 8’9 per cent. of thetotal numbers examined. The Finnish soldier is apparentlymore liable to worms than the Russian soldier, in the pro-portion of 30’71 per cent. to 27’5 per cent. In the case ofthe Finns, the ova met with are almost invariably those oftapeworms, round-worms being almost unknown ; whileamong the Russian soldiery in more tban half the cases theova are those of the round-worm. Dr. Klimenko promises topublish full details of his observations later.

A New Method of spreading Syphilis.The methods by which syphilis is spread among the

peasantry in Russia are numerous, as the following incidentshows. Within eighteen months Dr. Karakoz met, in oneand the same village in the interior, with three cases ofprimary syphilitic sore upon the eyelids. This led to inquiryand it was found that there were certain old women in thevillage to whom anyone with a speck of dust or other foreignbody in the eye was in the habit of going, and that theirmethod of removing the foreign body was by licking it outof the eye with the tongue. Three such old women werefound and examined at the dispensary ; two of them werefound to be healthy, but the third had syphilitic ulcers uponher tongue and elsewhere. She herself ascribed the diseasein her own case to her having licked the eye of a girl, who,from the description given, was clearly syphilitic. Whetherthe occurrence of primary sores upon the eyelid in Russia isalways, or even usually, to be ascribed to this objectionablepractice it is impossible to say, but they are not uncommonlymet with in that situation. Thus Dr. Poliakof, reportinga acase in the Journal of Ophthalmology in 1893 (and his casewas caused in a similar manner), stated that this was thethirty-fourth case recorded in Russian literature.

New Clinique in the University of Mosen.A new cumque tor skin diseases was opened in the Moscow

Clinical Hospital on Feb. 19th (old style), a day of days inthe Russian calendar, being the anniversary of the emancipa.tion of the serfs, which took place in the year 1861. Theclinique has been built with money left to the hospital byM. Solodovnikof. At the opening Professor Pospièlof, afterwhose plans the clinique is built, gave a brief history of theteaching of dermatology in Russia. So recently as twentyyears ago there was but one clinique for skin diseases inthe whole of Russia-namely, at the Army Medical Academyin St. Petersburg. In Moscow University there has for sometime been a lectureship in dermatology, but for clinicalpurposes the university has had to use the wards of theMiasnitzkaia Hospital.

A New Russian Journal,The new Journal of the Society of Russian Practitioners ilt

Memory of Pirogof will shortly appear, as it is alreadyannounced in the Government Gazette. It will be edited byProfessor Korsakof of Moscow, and will not have to be submitted to the censors before publication.

NEW YORK.

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

The Brink Problem.A COMMITTEE of fifty, of which the President of Columbia

College is president and Dr. J. S. Billings of the UnitedStates Army is secretary, has been organised for the

purpose of exhaustively studying the "drink problem"To determine its physiological -and pathological aspectsa circular has been issued containing the following in.

quiries. 1. Is the regular consumption of a moderattquantity of whisky, wine, or beer conducive to the main’tenance of health and working power in any class of men;If so, in what class, and is the average quantity useful.2. What is the quantity of whisky, wine, or beer which theaverage man in good health may consume daily withoutspecial risk of injuring his health? Does this vary in connederwith variations of age, of climate, or of occupation, and whatare those variations ? For the purpose of securing trustworthyevidence the committee are endeavouring to collect statistinformation. With this object in view the following questicohave been addressed to a large number of men in various