1483 a Bunsen burner a steady stream of oxygen comes off, which is allowed -at first to bubble through MEDICINE AND THE LAW. the mercury in the trough F. After a fair quantity of oxygen has passed it can be taken for A Case of Unqualified Practice. granted that the air in the permanganate tube has AT the Worcester court on May 13th the been displaced by oxygen. The bent end is then county of recovered a of C20 under the end of the inverted test- Society Apothecaries penalty passed open against Charles Burden, herbalist, of tube, which is filled with oxygen. Such a per- Bridge-street. Worcester, for a breach of the Act, manganate tube will serve many times, for it stops Apothecaries 1815, in that he had acted and practised as an giving oxygen as soon as it cools. . apothecary or medical practitioner in attending Recovery of Residual Niton. and medically treating Mrs. Rosina Daniels, of After a tube has been used for applications it Ombersley-road,Worcester,whose death in February still contains niton, and it is desirable not to last was the subject of an inquest conducted by the waste it. The ’amount can be calculated accu- Worcester city coroner.1 It appeared from the rately from the quantity of radium bromide from evidence that Mrs. Daniels had died from which it has come, and its age ; or it can be read off Bright’s disease and that she had been visited from the curve. Hence it may be re-used, mixed and .attended by the defendant and supplied by with more from the source-the radium bromide. To him with herbal medicines for some months effect this a small glass apparatus, shown in Fig. 5, previously to her death, the defendant having may be employed; a is the piece of rubber tube informed Miss Daniels, the daughter of deceased, shown at s (Fig. 1) ; b is a piece of steel with a that he .believed -she had an internal abscess sharp-cutting edge at c d is the lead tube of J, and that ,the medicine he was giving her was closed by nipping. This lead tube is pushed bringing the poison out. The deputy judge in the down so as to pass the edge of the stopcock b. course of his judgment said as to the definition of This apparatus is emptied of an apothecary he felt bound to accept that given by air, as already described ; the Mr. Justice Cresswell in the case of the Apothe- air is rejected through the caries Companyv. Lotinga-viz., that an apothecary inverted syphon as before. was a person who professed to judge internal disease Then by manipulating b the by its symptoms and applied himself to cure it by lead tube is cut; the gas in medicine. The second question was, Did the J passes into the reservoir A, defendant act and practise as an apothecary? On the mercury in which has that the evidence was all one way. The evidence been lowered by depressing B. of Miss Daniels that the defendant treated her this way the residual mother, felt her pulse, and supplied her with Inniton in such applicators medicine was entirely borne out by defendant. may be recovered. In the Judgment with costs was accordingly given for the case of a glass capillary, society, and a stay of execution granted for 21 days, as in Fig. 3, it may be money to be paid into court within 14 days. introduced into the apparatus Coroners’ Inattests and the Insurance Act. of Fig. 5, the upper end of In an in the the which is closed with a opening inquest recently City Dr. F. J. told the that he had glass plug. The thin-walled coroner, Waldo, jury received a circular letter from the Home is broken and its contents recovered, Secretary capillary easily coroners to notice to the Insurance .as described. inviting give Commissioners if had reason to believe that " they Str°ength " of Niton Generated. at an inquest about to be held questions might be As a rough guide, it may be taken that every cubic raised affecting the relations between an insured centimetre of mixed oxygen and hydrogen gases patient and a medical man on the panel, or other- corresponds to niton of equal "strength" to wise connected with the Insurance Act. It was 10 mgm. of radium bromide. But it depends on intimated that if opportunity was given the Insur- its age. For example, if instead of drawing gas ance Commissioners might desire to be represented from 500 mgm. of radium bromide after 24 hours’ at the inquest. At the inquest in question the standing it had been drawn after 12 hours, the fact that the medical practitioner on whose list amount obtained would, of course, have been the the deceased had been had not attended at fourteenth part of 25, or 1’8 c.c. But this would once when summoned gave rise to discussion as contain the niton generated in 12 hours, and by to the scarcity .of medical men in the City. referring to the curve it is seen to be 0’08 of the The gentleman in question had not understood that total-that is, it is the quantity in equilibrium with the summons was an urgent one. He stated that 500 X 0’08, or 40 mgm. ; and to get at the " strength" he believed that he was the only member of the in radium units, multiplying by 0’75, it is in actual panel residing in the City, although others attended "strength"" at the time of drawing equal to there in the day-time and lived elsewhere. Mr. 30 mgm. It is evident, therefore, that the oftener Gilbert, representing the National Insurance Com- " the niton is drawn the more advantageous ; and missioners, pointed out that the question where a this is an argument in favour of having a central medical practitioner lived did not affect his obliga- "institute," where a large supply of radium is tions under his contract. He had to make arrange- kept and from which frequent drawings of niton ments whereby his patients could be attended at can be made, rather than to parcel it out in small all times. quantities and have to be contented either with!’ A Parent and Medical Treatment for his Child. weak or to have to wait for a doses, long strong The St. Helens education authority recently dose at considerable pecuniary sacrifice. The summoned with success a brakesman, earning here described can be had from apparatus .55s. week, for ls. 6d. claimed from him. Messrs. Baird and Tatlock, 14, Cross-street, Hatton per Garden, London, E.G. 1 THE LANCET, Feb. 21st, 1914, p. 561. 1484

for medical treatment of his child at the school clinic. The summons was under Section 13 THE ROYAL SOCIETY CONVERSAZIONE. of the Administrative Provisions Act, 1907, and Section 1 of the Local Authorities Medical THERE was a distinguished company present at the Royal Treatment Act, 1909, the first enabling the treat- Society conversazione, which was held at Burlington House ment of the child to be provided for, and the on May 13th. Sir William Crookes, O.M., D.Sc., the second the of the cost from President, received the visitors, who showed an evident authorising recovery interest in the of scientific exhibits chosen for the The was in of the variety parents. charge respect the occasion. Physics and biology were more strongly repre- filling of two teeth, the necessity for which sented, perhaps, than other departments of science, and there the father denied. It was pointed out that at was a notable absence of electrical demonstrations which the barest cost price for what had been for so many recent years have provided a favourite topic. done the defendant might have been charged at There was little shown of direct medical interest, if we least 4s. 6(l. The defendant denied that he had except the demonstrations for which Professor Leonard E. Professor A. F. and Mr. H. been told there would be a charge made, but he Hill, Stanley Kent, G. had signed the consent book in which the condi- Plimmer were respectively responsible. Professor Leonard Hill, with his assistant, Mr. 0. W. tions were set out. It was also out that together Griffith, pointed exhibited the caleometer, an instrument to he have had the child treated and designed might privately, measure the degree of comfort in a room or a public that if he had refused to do this after to refusing hall or factory in so far as that depends upon the rate have her treated in the school clinic he would have of cooling of the human body. A "coil" " made of a wire been liable to proceedings under the Children Act having a temperature coefficient forms one arm of a Wheat- for causing her unnecessary suffering. The stone’s bridge, the other arms of which are made of an alloy the electrical resistance of which does not with the magistrates ordered the defendant to pay the Is. 6d. vary The is balanced when the claimed, with 8s. 6d. towards the costs. He was temperature. bridge temperature of the " coil " is that of the human the also informed that he have been called approximately body, might upon current from accumulators or from the main to the whole of the being supplied pay costs, amounting probably circuit. Any tendency to a variation of this temperature is to at least 15. an a so as ______checked by automatic rheostat worked by relay, to diminish the current when the temperature rises and vice i-ers(i.. means of an indicator number of ROYAL COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS OF By the calories supplied per minute to the coil to keep its tem- LONDON. perature constant is shown at any instant. Comfortable conditions are indicated by gentle oscillations of the pointer MEETING OF COMITIA. about a mean value of 30 calories per minute. A low steady denotes monotony and while violent A COMITIA was held on 14th, Sir THOMAS BARLOW, reading oppressiveness, May oscillations about a mean value are evidence of excessive Bart., K.C.V.O., the President, in the chair. being an Professor Kent The Members who had been elected to the cooling by unpleasant draught. Stanley following exhibited the existence of muscular at the last were admitted as Fellows :- specimens showing Fellowship meeting between the auricle and the ventricle Dr. Cuthbert Jones Dr. William Mitchell continuity right right Henry Lockyer, in the heart of man. The structures illustrated lie at the Dr. Arthur Barnes, Dr. James Stevens, Stanley George of the auricle and ventricle at the Dr. William Carmalt-Jones, Dr. Samuel junction right right right Taylor, Dudley lateral of the heart. The ventricular fibres con- Alexander Kinnier Wilson, Dr. Hector Charles Cameron, margin are derived from two fibres Dr. John Foster Dr. Gordon Dr. cerned systems : (a) ascending Gaskell, Morgan Holmes, from the of the Frederick Gowland Sir Alfred and vertically direction apex immediately Hopkins, Henry Keogh, under the and Sir William F.R.S. endocardium ; (b) fibres running obliquely Boog Leishman, inwards from the middle of the ventricular wall. in Medicine and were layers Diplomas Tropical Hygiene granted, Both of these sets of fibres become connected with in conjunction with the Royal College of Surgeons of a rounded mass of auricular substance, which differs England, to the following candidates :-Vivian St. John Gordon markedly in structure from auricular tissue, and resembles Croley, Gray Jolly (Captain, f.M.S.), Maharaj the tissue found in the sino-auricular and the auriculo- Krishna and Andrew Kapur, Murphy (Major, I.M.S.). ventricular nodes. Mr. Plimmer showed an A sketch of the late Sir Samuel Wilks was to interesting presented collection of which were either new or found in the by Dr. F. G. D. Drewitt. The thanks of the parasites College new hosts. these were in the blood of were returned to the donor. Amongst toxoplasma College and also in the blood of the blue-tailed fruit The communication was received: From an fossa, pigeon ; following from the of a intestinal Committee which is myxobolus gall-bladder giant toad ; Interdepartmental considering legisla- in the blood of ambiona tion on the of the International organisms box-tortoise, showing consequent provisions Opium in the Convention the of the con- parasitic adaptation ; microscopic sarcosporidia (1912), asking opinion College muscles of a from the of a Brazilian certain limitations to the sale of langur ; mycosis lung cerning opium, morphine, tortoise of coccidia in intestinal heroine, cocaine, &c. The matter was referred to the aspergillarform ; epithelium of a dhole and babesia in the blood of another dhole Censors’ Board. Dr. NORMAN MooRE and Dr. FREDERICK (Naapur). proposed, Messrs. Chance Brothers and Co., of TAYLOR seconded, that a committee should be formed to Oldbury, Birmingham, exhibited an series of for recent alterations in anatomical nomenclature. interesting glasses designed spec- report upon tacles for the of ultra-violet and infra-red The was the nomination of the members absorption rays proposal adopted, and for the reduction of The results so of the committee left to the President. glare. experimental being far as have were the of a recent A was received and from the committee they gone subject paper report adopted read before the Sir William Crookes. to consider a letter from the Board of Control Royal Society by appointed Mr. W. A. showed an concerning grants to aid scientific research in the subject of Douglas Rudge interesting experi- ment illustrating the phenomenon of electrification pro- mental disease. The report was as follows :- duced during the raising of a cloud of dust. It appears The committee is of that these should be to a opinion grants paid that considerable charges of electricity are A few thoroughly trained observers, and that these persons and the produced. of one is found the dust itself and nature of their investigations should be selected and approved by a charge sign upon small competent advisory committee appointed by the Board of another charge of opposite sign either upon the air or else Control. upon fine particles of dust which remain suspended in the The committee is strongly of opinion that no grant should be air. dust of an acidic allocated to municipal bodies or county councils for the purpose of Generally nature-e.g., silica--gives subsidising or of maintaining pathological laboratories, or of paying a negative charge to the air, while metallic oxides and assistants to do routine work. bases give positive It would be The committee recommends that the grants should be devoted to organic charges. interesting the study of such fundamental problems concerning insanity and to learn whether this phenomenon is by any chance con- mental deficiency as require scientific investigation from the clinical, nected with the initiation of dust explosions in coal mines, pathological, biological, and sociological asr ects. flour mills, and so forth. Professor E. W. MacBride and The PRESIDENT then dissolved the Comitia. Mr. H. G. Newth showed specimens of double tadpoles