Dition Is That of Early Development-Ie, of Quasi-Immature Growth-And

"LEPROSY AND HEREDITY." 123 the part of the ovum which decides the sex of the resulting others by a fund raised by the local residents. The dog was embryo....... The embryo pursues for a time a straight destroyed by its owner, and on a post-mortem examination path, then deviates to the male or female side." What being made by Dr. Barron of Liverpool and Mr. Welsh, the determines its deviation ? Which is the straighter path ? veterinary surgeon of the district, it was found to be the I do not agree with Mr. Wilson that "the impetus to subject of rabies The same dog also attacked Dr. Harvey of this deviation is given at the commencement of its existence Wavertree, but fortunately the bite of the animal did not as a fertilised ovum": it is further back. "The longer penetrate his clothes. A hurried meeting of the magistrates. fertilisation is delayed after its extrusion from the ovary the was convened on Saturday, and a muzzling order for the greater likelihood is there of the ovum developing into a whole district of West Derby was issued. female embryo, and vice tersa." It is this theory, built upon The Confinement of Inebriates. the devitalisation of the ovum menstruation, that I through I A instance of the for the more- wish to combat. melancholy necessity effectual dealing with confirmed inebriates was disclosed at the Premising that Mr. Wilson’s facts are true, which have coroner’s court on the 6th inst. The deceased, a married been corroborated by other observers, that conception city woman, had for years been so addicted to drink that she. very soon after menstruation results in a female following would the furniture of the house bit bit, as well as. and that the ovum comes fresh from the pawn by embryo, premising husband’s and her own She died in a. soon after the cessation of the its then con- clothing. actually ovary period, herdrunken state. Her himself a sober dition is that of of husband, man, gave early development-i. e., quasi-immature evidence, and said that he had done his best to restrain her. growth-and if then fertilised it produces a female embryo, which, for want of a better expression, is of a lower type of Hospital Sunday in Liverpool. development; but after a time it attains a more mature stage, The second Sunday in the new year (Jan. 14th) will be the- when its fertilisation results in the evolution of the higher twenty-fourth anniversary of the observance of this institu- type—i.e., the male. Following the same line of reasoning, tion in Liverpool, and, in accordance with their custom, the. how is it we so often see that girls are more impressed with committee have published their annual report in pamphlet, the father’s features and characteristics, and the boys with form, with many interesting details both of the Hospital those of the mother? Is it not that the dominant energy of Sunday and Saturday Funds. When the movement was begun the father impresses the immature ovum and outweighs it, so in Liverpool it had been a "hardy annual " in Birmingham to speak, in the balance of power, but in the case of the male for about twelve years. It had begun in Carlisle, Manchester, embryo the result is obtained by the same paternal energy and a few other places, but was unknown in London until working on an ovum of a higher evolution-an ovum that has some years later. It may be fearlessly asserted that any had more time of intra-maternal growth and so bears a difficulties which have been overcome in other towns and greater proportion of maternal characteristics? I take it, cities, or which have yet to be overcome, could not be more- therefore, it is not that menstruation weakens an ovum insidious or formidable than those which had to be encountered originally strong, and so "having lost much of its vitality," in Liverpool. But the perseverance of a few of its citizens, but that towards the end of the inter-menstrual period the aided by THE LANCET and the local press, overcame all ovum has gained in vitality, or rather has by evolution attained obstacles after two years’ hard work, and the first Hospital a more mature or higher grade. Before, however, we can Sunday collection took place on Jan. 8th, 1871. Its pro- formulate a theory that will carry conviction we must increase moters had calculated upon obtaining a total of £4000, and our knowledge as to the actual time in the menstrual cycle the amount actually realised was 4685. It was, however, when ovulation takes place. felt that it was only an earnest of what might be I am, Sirs, yours faithfully, done, and that future years would see a considerable Harley-street, Jan. 2nd, 1894. HEYWOOD SMITH. advance. For the next three years the collections rose to .S6823, £8124, and f:8848 respectively. In the year 1875, however, the sum fell to £7462, and fluctuated till 1879, when it dropped to .E6953. Aeain, there was a rise in 1880 to "LEPROSY AND HEREDITY." .E7558 and fluctuations occurred until in 1892 and 1893 the To the Editors of THE LANCET. amounts were .E6410 and .E6211. In 1893 the weather on was the streets full of SIRS,—Dr. de Valence, in the letter which he has sent to Hospital Sunday very inclement, being frozen snow and the cold most intense. such a sum as you touching the matter of the lepers who are sent to India Still, .E6211 is one which could not have been raised under such, from Mauritius, does not dispute the accuracy of his own circumstances for other save and other statement that these lepers are, as far as medical men can any objects hospitals medical to which it furnished a considerable men when arrive in the charities, pro- judge, healthy they Mauritius, of their annual and it. and that no inconsiderable number of them leave that portion income ; therefore, although and return to their homes in India incurable was proposed to change the date, the committee judged it. colony lepers. better to trust to the future. It remains to be This do at the expense and with the cheerful assent of bravely only they added that the of collection have been ex- the Government of Mauritius and so return to India to help to expenses always infect there with Dr. de Valence’s tremely moderate, amounting yearly to less than 3 per cent. healthy people leprosy. and of all beliefs and theories about and do not The committee, though comprising clergy laity "leprosy heredity" denominations, have worked most harmoni- alter the facts of the case. The people who believe religious together in the transmission of in the ously and their distributions to the various charities have- hereditary leprosy, sense satisfaction. It is that in which Dr. de Valence believes in it, are so very few in given general confidently expected ’, with times the will be seen, number those whose on the are of improved upward tendency again among opinions subject any Jan. 9th. importance that it is unnecessary to deal with the matter. I I am, Sirs, yours truly, i THE WRITER OF YOUR NOTICE OF THE REPORT OF MANCHESTER. THE ST. LAZARE LEPER ASYLUM. (FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.) Weather. LIVERPOOL. , Wintry AFTER an unusually mild and open Christmas and New- . (FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.) Year, severe weather set in about the middle of last week, and continued without intermission until yesterday evening, when a decided and welcome thaw took A- at Wavertree. suddenly place. Hydrophobia large anti-cyclone has hovered over the neighbourhood of MucH alarm was created at Wavertree, an eastern suburb Manchester during the entire period that has elapsed since- of this city, by a report that on the 2nd inst. several persons my last letter. The weather in Manchester has accordingly had been bitten by a rabid dog. Four boys were playing in been misty, and at times dense fogs have overspread the Victoria Park when the dog furiously attacked them, biting city. From the middle of last week the air-temperature three on the leg, one on the arm, and also biting a domestic fell rapidly and steadily, until on Saturday night the servant on the leg, as well as tearing her clothes. The terrestrial radiation thermometer indicated twenty degrees. injured persons were all attended by Dr. Wearing, of of frost on the grass. This was at the City Meteorological Wavertree, and have since been sent to Paris for treat- Observatory in Oldham-road, but reports say that tempera- ment, one of the boys being sent by his father and the tures not much above these were recorded in certain country.

Load more