its students are undergraduates of that university. Reference was next made to the health of the locality and to the special diseases rendered prevalent owing to the special occupations of the people. The miners, who are very numerous here, are a remarkably healthy set of men, whose average of life is only one year less than the very best class of lives, comparing in this most favorably with miners in other localities. Those employed in the lead works are peculiarly liable to lead poisoning, which is found to affect the women more than the men. An inquiry is at present being made to see what further precautions can be taken to prevent the suffering and loss of life in this industry. The workers in the iron foundries are found to be specially liable to diseases of the heart and great vessels,due to the strain to which they are subjected.

After touching on the hygienic and public health arrangements of the city, the speaker entered into particulars regarding the notification of disease and the advantages which might be derived from a further development of the act and the information contained in its returns. It was also suggested that benefit might result if a special department of the Government could be devoted to the interests of health under the leadership of some properly qualified man, and the appointment of Sir M. Foster, M.P., to be a member of the cabinet, was referred to as a step in the right direction.

Dr. David Drummond gave the opening address in medicine and dwelt most particularly on the causation of disease, pointing out the importance of this in the matter of treatment. In his opinion, all cases of locomotor ataxy, general paralysis of the insane, and most cases of aneurism are due to a previous attack of syphilis. The fact that in a small proportion of cases of such maladies no history of syphilis can be obtained, he did not consider as conclusive that no such history existed. He then referred to the connection between pneumonia and empyema and the relationship between chorea and rheumatism, and dwelt at length on the importance of discovering the cause in any case of heart disease. The various causes of heart disease include gout, rheumatism, alcohol and syphilis, and the treatment and prognosis will vary according to the cause. He next touched on the influence of one disease on another, showing how in some cases the symptoms only developed after some intercurrent affection. In

some cases one disease appeared to arrest another, and in other cases two forms of disease such as phthisis and cardiac disease appeared to be incompatible with each other.

The International Congress at Rome has been postponed till April, owing to the presence of cholera in Europe, and since the notice. was issued, this disease has been making rapid strides. Numbers of cases are reported from various parts, but happily it has not yet assumed such gigantic proportions as it did last year.

I cannot close without referring to the death of M. Charcot, which took place on August 16th. The medical profession has lost in him an original thinker and scientific investigator surpassed by few. I remain, sir,

Yours faithfully,

J. B. HENDERSON, M. D.

23 Royal Crescent, W. Glasgow, Aug. 31st, 1893.

NO "SUN-DOWN” MEDICAL STUDENTS IN NEW YORK.

The Sun has made a fitting answer to the following query: "Will you please inform me if there is a medical school in New York in which the lectures for the first year are given in the evening or any time after 3 P. M.? DUFFY."

The Sun's reply is as follows: "Duffy, you and dozens of other 'would-be doctors' think you can study medicine in a happy-go-lucky way the law-pills study law-lectures in the afternoon, office work in the morning. You must give up that idea at once. Medicine requires twenty-five hours out of twenty-four, and more on Sundays and holidays. The lecturer in every medical school are given when the professors and lecturers can find time for them. They're given in the morning, and in the afternoon, and in the evening, and some of the private 'quizzes' begin at 10:30 or 11 P. M., and stop in time to get ready for breakfast, if you dress quickly. Now, Duffy, if you ask because you think medicine is a snap like these afternoon law schools, you'd better keep out of it; but if you can stand the pace, and ask simply because you're ignorant, why, go ahead, and with good health and hard work you may get your license to 'kill, kill, kill. kill, kill."- Canadian Practitioner.

SOCIETY PROCEEDINGS.

DISCUSSION OF DR. WHITNEY'S PAPER.

DR. E. R. HERSHEY.-The subject of cancer of the kidney is an interesting one. It is difficult of diagnosis, as are all abdominal tumors. In an abdominal tumor, I, as a physician, believe in calling in a surgeon for consultation, and I always do it. Haematuria and an abdominal tumor should lead one to suspect a renal tumor.

As to the nature of the mass, Roberts thinks an encephaloid carcinoma is the most frequent renal tumor; while Smith in the American Journal of the Medical Sciences asserts that sarcoma is the most frequent.

In the doctor's case, without cachexia, I should think of sarcoma, as it does not give any cachexia. The surgeon in doubtful cases should make an exploratory incision. In a capable surgeon's hands the risk of an abdominal section is nil.

Another point in the consideration of abdominal tumors is, get rid of faecal masses. Give sulphate of magnesia in large doses in every case. Under this salt, one case of mine of abdominal tumor disappeared in three days. In sarcoma of the left kidney insufflation of the colon may be of aid in the physical examination.

When the kidney enlarges, it generally enlarges symmetrically, but it may be nodular. Hence it may assume any shape and may extend to the bony pelvis, or in any direction for that matter.

In splenic affections with enlargements, we should always examine the blood for the plasmodia malariae or for changes in the leucocytes. As regards the fluid obtained in the two cases it points to sarcoma, as a breaking down of a sarcoma is frequent and is to be expected. Haematuria is not frequent in sarcoma of the kidney but it may occur.

Dr. Rogers said that in the second case described by Dr. Whitney the fact had not been clearly brought out that the tumor at the time of operation had lost all trace of a distinct wall. The localized cystic mass being limited on all sides by peritoneal adhesions and the intestines closely bound together so as to form a limiting mem

brane. The tumor itself had lost all definite shape and structure, being simply a soft, broken-down mass completely disorganized.

The difficulty of diagnosing abdominal tumors had been well illustrated in the case of a girl operated on in the county hospital in April last. In this case a distinct tumor could be felt extending from the left hypochondrium downwards transversely across the abdomen beyond the umbilicus. The diagnosis of a probable tumor of the omentum was agreed upon. The operation showed a very general tubercular disease of the peritoneum, while the tumor was found to be entirely extra-peritoneal lying in a fold closely attached to the anterior wall.

The girl left the hospital convalescent.

Dr. Rogers had no remarks to make on Dr. Whitney's first case, as the girl was in a collapsed condition at the time of his examination of her; the examination was, therefore, unsatisfactory.

DR. WHITNEY.-In answer to Dr. Hershey I may say that where pus develops as in nephritic abscess, the tumor formed is more likely to bulge out symmetrically into the abdominal cavity. While a malignant tumor may present, as in the present case, an exeedingly irregular and nodular development.

At the post mortem we looked very carefully for peritonitis but could find none.

The small liver dullness in the case perplexed me greatly. There was no distention of the abdomen by gas and absolutely no cloudiness of the peritoneum or other local sign of septic peritonitis. Death may have been due to a septicemic condition but hardly to a septic peritonitis.

A case which does not properly come into the discussion this evening, but which I wish to report, as many of those here present saw him at different times, was of a boy 13 years old, who on admission to hospital presented a tumor the size of a walnut in the left temporal region. It was removed and the boy recovered. It came back in six weeks, an enormous parotid gland. I excised it with numerous cervical lymphatic glands. He did poorly under the anesthetic, and we worked for an hour to bring him back to consciousness. One gland was left. In ten days, however, I removed it and he recovered. In two or three weeks additional glands were removed

after which he lived three or four months. On post mortem examination, I found an extensive sarcomatous infiltration, hundreds of foci being present in the skin, chest. abdomen and back. In the skull the bone was eroded. The membranes and brain were involved by many foci. In the thoracic cavity were hundreds of foci involving the lungs, which were full of the mass in places. The heart and the kidneys were neither involved. The intestines and omentum were involved. It was painless throughout. The bad effect of the ether was due to the lung involvement, which pressed upon the bronchial tube.

The undersigned chairman of the American National Committee. of the International Medical Congress, which was postponed from September 24th on account of Cholera prevailing in Italy, has been notified by the Secretary-General that the Congress will be held at Rome from March 29th to April 5th, 1894. Instructions and documents relating to the journey, etc., are promised for the near future. Yours very respectfully,

A. JACOBI, M. D.

Dr.John Elsner recommends Osler, Struempell, Whittaker, Loomis, American Text Book of the Theory and Practice of Medicine by Pepper, Da Costa's and Loomis's Medical Diagnosis.

We would call the attention of the physicians to the Professional Gazetteer of the United States, published in Denver by Chas. E. Tallmadge.

The "American Medical Journal Publishers' Association" will meet at Cincinnati on December 4th. This Association should have the co-operation and support of all editors and publishers of medical journals.

THE PUNISHMENT FOR THE CRIME OF PRODUCING ABORTION.

In England and Ireland the punishment is penal servitude for life, or a less term. Should the mother die, the crime becomes murder, which may be punished by death. In Scotland, says the Lan