750

and not hard-working we need have no excessive sympathyif their failure to make any attempt to protect their childrenfrom obvious risks attracts the notice of the law. Further,we do not believe that those who would be called on to enforce

any new provision of the law would allow it to press heavilyupon the good citizen. We are only afraid that they would’enforce it too lightly against the undeserving. In Germany, at any rate in some parts of Germany, there is a law thatno child shall sleep with its mother. In many cases in

which an answer of non possumus is given as a reply to ademand for sanitary and other reforms consideration of

the example of other countries forms a valuable guide in,estimating the possibility of the improvement at home.

We are a little too ready to forget that we are not the only-nation in the world which has to amend its laws in order

,to keep pace with the developments of modern civilisation.

Annotations."Ne quid nimis."

TRANSMISSION BY POST OF PATHOLOGICALSPECIMENS.

THE Postmaster-General has recently revised the regula-tions governing the transmission by post of deleterious

liquids and substances sent for medical examination or

-analysis, and on and from Oct. 1st such specimens may- be sent by letter post, without registration, by qualifiedmedical practitioners and qualified veterinary surgeons underthe following conditions :-

1. That they are addressed to a laboratory or institute,public or private, or to a medical practitioner or veterinary-surgeon within the United Kingdom.

2. That they are inclosed in a receptacle hermeticallysealed, which receptacle must itself be placed in a strongwooden, leather, or metal case in such a way that it cannotshift about and with a sufficient quantity of some absorbentmaterial (such as sawdust or cotton-wool), so packed aboutthe receptacle as absolutely to prevent any possible leakagefrom the package in the event of damage to the receptacle.

3. That they are conspicuously marked Fragile, withcare," and bear the words, "Pathological specimen," and.also the signature and address of the medical practitioner orveterinary surgeon who sends them.The packet must on no account be sent Iby parcel post.Any packet of the kind found in the parcel post, or found inthe letter post not packed and marked as directed, will be atonce stopped and destroyed with all its wrappings andenclosures. Any person who sends by post a deleterious

liquid or substance for medical examination or analysisotherwise than as provided by these regulations is liable to

,prosecution. It is recommended that if receptacles are

supplied by a laboratory or institute to medical practi-,tioners or veterinary surgeons they should be submitted to’the General Post Office, in order to ascertain whether theyare regarded as complying with the regulations.

VIVISECTION IN GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND.

THE return recently made by the inspector (ProfessorG. D. Thane) to the Home Secretary upon experiments onliving animals is of a nature to carry comfort to the mindsof all reasonable folk, whether their leanings are more

pronouncedly scientific or humanistic. On the one hand

there is evidence of good experimental work in progress,and on the other there is convincing proof of careful preven-tion of cruelty. To the antivivisectionist, of course, sucha return is sorry reading. That experiments upon livinganimals should be permitted at all is to him so monstrous

that he can only regard the merciful circumstances of modernresearch with impatience. We may leave him on one side,however, while we recognise gladly the increased use ofcareful and humane experiment, which goes hand in handwith the more widely recognised need for such work onthe part of those responsible for the public health of thecountry. Several county councils and municipal corpora-tions have their own laboratories in which bacteriologicalinvestigations are carried on, including the necessary testson living animals; many of them have arrangements bywhich similar observations are made on their behalf in the

laboratories of universities, colleges, and like institutions.The Board of Agriculture, too, has laboratories which areregistered for the performance of experiments having fortheir object the detection and study of disease in animals.A large number of the experiments alluded to in the reportwere made on behalf of official bodies with a view to the

preservation of the public health. To any unprejudicedreader of the tables which are included in the inspector’sreport it is quite plain that licences and certificates are

granted only on the recommendation of persons of highscientific standing and that the licensees are fitted by theirtraining and education to undertake the various investiga-tions. Of the experiments performed without anaestheticsthe vast majority are mere inoculations or the abstrac-tion of a minute quantity of blood for examination. Theywere, in fact, such procedures as are in common use upon thepersons of human patients, in whose case, however, they arenot distinguished by the title of "vivisection experiments."

THE STATISTICS OF THE UNEMPLOYED: ANINTERESTING POINT.

THE problem of the real cause and actual extent of unem-ployment, now so prominently under discussion, is mainlya social, economical, and political question, but its publichealth aspect cannot be ignored. A correspondent hasrecently contributed to the Times an interesting article onthis subject in which it was asserted that whereas, in conse-

quence mainly of the steadily maintained decline in the

birth-rate, the proportion of adults in the English populationhad increased considerably during the twenty years 1881-1901, the proportion of workers for their support haddecreased during that period. This conclusion was based

upon statistics derived from the reports on the censuses inthe above-mentioned years. As a matter of fact, the house-holder’s schedule used at those censuses required no state-ment as to whether an individual was in or out of employ-ment at the time of the census, and the reports there-fore can throw no direct light upon the question of

unemployment. They do, however, show the number andages of persons stated in the schedules to be followingany definite profession, trade, or occupation; they alsoshow the numbers of children and adults not stated to be

following any definite occupation, or stated to be living ontheir own means, or returned as pensioned, or retired fromdefinite occupation. Thus the enumerated population isshown in the tables as either occupied or unoccupied-thatis, as following or not following some definite occupation,whether in or out of work at the time of the census.

The article referred to points out that between 1881 and1901 the number of persons returned in the census schedulesas not following any definite occupation showed a largerincrease than did the number of those persons who werereturned as following definite occupation, and it was arguedtherefrom that the productive force of the nation is de-

clining. As the census figures upon which this conclusionis based relate to the entire population of men, women,and children aged upwards of ten years, in order to estimatethe true import of this increase in the proportion of theunoccupied it is necessary to examine the facts for males