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stringency. In their remarks upon the slight explo-sion which occured in the manufacture of cordite at

Waltham Abbey on April 22nd., the inspectors were not

able to trace the cause of the ignition with certainty.It is remarkable, however, as they point out, that the bulk ofthe paste fell out of the broken cylinder intact and that thecordite present in the building was not ignited. Only oneounce of the paste in the cylinder exploded, although thecharging press from which the cylinder was filled containedabout thirty pounds of cordite paste. Bearing in mind thelarge increase in the number of factories, the increasedoutput, the number of hands employed, the greater resultingchances of accident, and the increase in the enormousnumber of nitro-compounds made and imported, the Act, asshown by the present report, is evidently doing good work.

LUNATICS IN WORKHOUSES.

THE Local Government Board have just issued a circula]to boards of guardians with special reference to the medica:examination of lunatics received into, or removed from, work.houses. The circular appears at an opportune moment-when much is being written and said concerning the careof paupers. Instances of failure to make the requisiteexamination and to record results where examination hasbeen made have come under the Board’s notice, and theseprobably account for the issue of the present document.Careful examination by the workhouse medical officer is

enjoined immediately on the admission of a lunaticand immediately prior to removal or discharge ; any exami-nation in the latter case made even on the day previous todischarge is to be repeated on the actual date when thepatient leaves the institution, special regard being given toany bruises or other injuries on the person. The physicalcondition of the patient to be removed is also to be a pointof consideration by the medical officer. Such examinationis in nowise to replace that called for by the Lunacy Act of1890, where a private medical practitioner is in question.Another point refers to attendance on lunatics detainedin workhouses. The Board consider that all lunatic,should be both by day and by night under the immediatecharge of paid officers, and that pauper assistance,when it is impracticable to altogether dispense with it,should be under the closest supervision of paid officers. Welook upon this as a very important part of the letter, andtrust that as time goes on the Board will insist more andmore on the replacement of pauper attendance by that ofproperly appointed and remunerated officials.

MEDICAL HISTORY OF PEKING DURING THE WAR.

THE thirty-fourth annual report of the Peking Hospitalin connexion with the London Missionary Society for theyear 1895, by Dr. Eliot Curwen, is interesting. He speakshighly of the activity and efficiency of two native students-Mr. Li Hsiao-ch’uan and Mr. Liu Paoching-between thedeparture of Dr. E. T. Pritchard and his own arrival. The

popularity of the hospital and dispensary seems to increase,the visits paid being 4000 in excess of those of any previousyear; thus 33,253 visits were paid by 14,604 patients in1895. To patients at their own homes 278 visits were paidand 162 were treated in the wards. Unfortunately, wepresume for want of funds, only two out of three wardsfor males were in use. There was a memorable outbreakof cholera in Peking in 1895. Dr. Curwen speaks of it asthe most fatal epidemic of the century. It is estimatedto have attacked half the houses and to have killed 75,000of the inhabitants. Few cases were brought to the hospital.If not quickly fatal they were mostly treated by nativemedical men with acupuncture of the larger joints or ofthe tongue. As a consequence of this treatment many

afterwards became patients at the hospital suffering fromacute suppurative inflammation of the larger joints. The

prevalence and mortality of cholera need occasion little

surprise when we learn that the roads were watered with thecontents of open sewers to save the trouble of drawing waterfrom the wells. The Chinese recognise that unboiled waterand green fruit generally are ready carriers of the disease.Dr. Curwen acknowledges the willing help in many ways ofDr. S. W. Bushell of the British Legation. One of the mostblessed influences in such countries must surely be that ofthe members of our own profession, whether official missionblessTHE BIRMINGHAM HOSPITAL SATURDAY FUND.

THE Executive Committee of the Birmingham HospitalSaturday Collection has received a valuable gift in the shapeof a seaside home for children. The generous donor, whodoes not wish his name to be disclosed, has handed over amansion called Bryn Marle, between the two convalescenthomes for men and for women already in use. He is pre-pared to furnish and maintain it free of cost for the firsttwelve months.

THE HEATH SCHOLARSHIP

THE Heath Scholarship has been awarded to Mr. G. P.Newbolt, M.B. Dunelm., F.R.C.S. Eng., for his essay on theSurgical Diseases of the Jaws. The prize is £200. It isawarded every second year to the writer of the best essayupon some surgical subject selected by the trustees of theHeath Scholarship Fund, and only graduates in medicine orsurgery of the University of Durham can compete for it.The subject for the next competition is CongenitalDeformities, their Pathology and Treatment. The essaysmust be sent in on or before the last day of March, 1898.Mr. Newbolt is the first winner of this valuable scholarship.

STATISTICS ON WEIGHT OF INFANTS, SEX ANDFŒTAL HEART-RATE.

STATISTICS of large numbers of cases are often usefulto correct erroneous impressions on statistics from smallnumbers. A paper read before the Obstetrical Society ofBoston on Feb. 18th of this year is interesting and valuablefrom this point of view as showing the results obtained fromobservations in a large number of infants as regards weight,sex and fœtal heart.rate.1 Thus the assertion is often foundin text-books that the foetal heart-rate of girls is more rapidthan that of boys. It appears to depend on the statementmade in 1859 by Frankenhauser that the average foetalrate in boys was 124, in girls 144, and this he obtainedas a result of fifty observations. It is no wonder that

predictions of sex based on such a small foundationshould be disappointing. Taking a thousand cases at fullterm at the Boston Lying-in Hospital, the average rate ofthe festal heart was as follows : 500 males, 140-26 perminute; 500 females, 141’83. This difference of one and ahalf beats is, of course, valueless for prophetic purposes.Let us hope that Frankenhauser’s statement will no longer becopied into the text-books. The average weight of these1000 full-term infants was as follows : 500 male infants,7 lb. 8’9 oz. ; 500 female infants, 7 lb. 5’l oz. It mightbe said that the slightly slower heart-rate in the boysdepended on the slightly heavier weight of the male sex. It

is interesting to note, however, that some of the very heavybabies had rapid hearts, and vice versd ; so that no

individual prediction of the weight of the child couldbe made by the heart-beat. The variation in the rateof the heart-beat at different periods in the labour is also

1 Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, May 14th, 1896.