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.inquire into the matter. This sub-committee brought up areport in May which was referred back, and finally theamended report came up on Oct. 12th. The report as printedin the Coveittry Herald was as follows:-The sub-committee ascertained from the representatives of the

working men’s committee that the answers to the questions whichwere previously submitted to them were given somewhat under a mis-apprehension and amended answers to Questions 1 and 3 have now beengiven. The questions with the original and amended answers are astallows :-

Question.-l. If a man who subscribes to the Hospital Saturday Fundand earning, say, e3 or E4 per week, applied for a ticket from hisworks, would he be granted one ?Answer.-No answer could be given.Amended answer.-No.Question.-3. The sub-committee suggest making inquiries as to the

position of candidates (say for one month) who it is considered canwell afford to pay a medical man, and ask if the members of theHospital Saturday Committee are willing to assist them in obtainingthe necessary information.Answer.-They could not entertain the suggestion.Amended Answer.-The matter will now be taken in hand and

inquiries made as suggested in the question.Following up the undertaking given by them, the working men’s

committee have held an inquiry and investigated all the out-patientcases treated at the hospital between May 21st and June 30th, and ihave submitted a report thereon to your sub-committee.

!

During the period investigated by the working man’s committee thenumber of out-patients treated was as follows:-By ticket, 70 ; withoutticket, 126. Special departments: by ticket, 37 ; without ticket, 27.From the report it would appear that 30 cases were kept back for strictinquiry which upon investigation it was thought would probably befound to be instances of hospital abuse. The cases were reported uponby various members of the committee, and only 2 cases were dis-covered which, in the opinion of the working men’s committee, weresuch as should not have been treated at the hospital. The sub-committee do not consider the report of the working men’s committee.as regards the abuse to be conclusive, as it must be admitted that inmany cases the patients were in receipt of wages sufficient to enablethem to pay to a dispensary, a medical service, or a club. This view hasbeen expressed and upheld by the honorary medical staff, who fromtheir position are well able to judge as to the suitability of the caseswhich come before them for hospital treatment.With reference to the cases treated without a ticket, the sub-

committee believe that a very large proportion of those patients could,have obtained a ticket if they had thought proper to have taken thetrouble to do so, and having regard to this fact the sub-committee.recommend: " That on and atter lst November next every patient berequired to present a ticket before receiving treatment, excepting inthe case of simple teeth extractions for children under twelve,accidents, and such acute medical cases as require immediate help, and.as to the latter cases after first aid they should be required to obtainthe necessary tickets for subsequent treatment."The sub-committee have revised the existing ticket and recommend

that the ticket as revised should be brought into use concurrently withthe previous recommendation. The sub-committee believe that the.strict enforcement of the ticket system will be productive of great goodto the hospital by causing its benefits to be more strictly contined tcdeserving cases. It is hoped that the subscribers, the managers oi’workshops and of the philanthropic institutions, and all who havEtickets at their disposal will do all in their power to carry out thEinstructions and regulations on the tickets.

The chairman moved the adoption of the report, which.motion was eventually carried. It will be seen from the

report that a revised ticket is to be issued, and those whogive away the tickets are to be requested to see that they only.select fit objects for charitable relief. The medical staff as.a whole appear to incline to the belief that the ticket systemis a wrong one. This is certainly our own opinion, for ingeneral for one subscriber who looks after the properdistribution of his or her tickets there are fifty who do not.Even if this system were to be altogether done away withthere remains the question of the right of workmen tohospital relief, however high their wages, on account of theId. per week subscription. So there appears to exist thisdilemma. If the ld. per week is to be, as it should be,looked upon as a mere subscription and not as entitling thegiver of necessity to relief, the Saturday collections willdiminish very greatly. If it is to be looked upon as entitlingthe givers to treatment as in a provident dispensary, then themedical staff of the hospital will have to be paid and in thatcase the appointment of hospital surgeon or physician shouldbe open to every medical man in the town simply on accountof his being a practising medical man in Coventry.

THE ENTRIES AT THE MEDICAL SCHOOLS.

THE following table, the figures of which have been

supplied to us by the courtesy of the deans of the various.schools and medical faculties, will give some idea of thenumber of students who have decided to enter the medical

profession this year. The first column of the table is that towhich particular attention should be directed as it shows the

number of students who have entered for the full course ofmedical study. The other columns are of interest, andespecially that relating to dental students, but the grosstotals both for the present and past medical sessions onlytend to show the relative popularity of the various schools. Itshould be pointed out that last year’s totals at King’s Collegeand the London School of Medicine for Women show the totalnumber of full students only. With regard to St. George’sMedical School the figures do not include students who haveentered for a course of tropical medicine. Under the agree-ment whereby joint cards of admission are issued to theclinical instruction of the following hospitals and schoolsof medicine-viz., Charing-cross, Guy’s, King’s College,Middlesex, St. George’s, St. Mary’s, St. Thomas’s, Univer-sity College, and Westminster-42 qualified men haveentered since the 1st of May of this year-that is to say,i5 from the United Kingdom, 12 from the colonies, and15 from foreign countries. These figures, which belong to the" special courses column of the table, cannot, of course, beplaced against the name of any one school. They should,however, be taken note of in making comparisons.

ENTRIES FOR THE YEAR 1898-99.London.

University College of South Wales and Monmouthshire, Cardiff, sentin their figures too late to be included in the above table. Those figuresare as follows: Full students, 15 ; special course students, 4; prelim.sci. students, 13-total 32.

NEW INFECTIOUS DISEASES SANATORIUMAT HUDDERSFIELD.

TWENTY years ago the Huddersfield Corporation began toexercise the powers they had obtained for the establishmentof an infectious diseases hospital. On Jan. 1st, 1878, 15cases were under treatment and 163 patients passed throughthe hospital during that year. During 1897 the number ofpatients under treatment reached 700. The progressivedemands upon the resources of an inadequate and out-of-datebuilding have led to the erection of a " sanatorium," whichwas formally opened by Sir William Broadbent, himself anative of Huddersfield, on Oct. 22nd.The sanatorium has been built from the plans of Messrs.

Edward Thomas and Sons, Queen Anne’s-gate, S.W., incompetition with 144 other architects. An examination ofthe hospital is alone necessary to confirm the encomiums ofSir William Broadbent when he said at the opening ceremonythat everything connected with it met with his entireapproval. The plan may be concisely described as a long

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open corridor, at one end of which is the handsome adminis- trative block of three storeys, in the Renaissance style, atthe other the buildings for the laundry, the disinfecting ]apparatus, and mortuary. In the intervening space, on

"

each side of the central corridor, stand the ward pavilions.The pavilions stand on pillars, are one storey high, and 1

a branch from the main corridor enters the middleof each transversely. The ward kitchen immediately con- fronts the visitor with a ward of fourteen beds on each side.The pavilions run N.N.E. by S.S.W. A small rectangularblock stands out from the western aspect of the end of eachand contains the bathrooms and lavatories, whilst from thecentre of the eastern side a ward of two beds communicatingwith the large ward has been projected. The cubic space toeach bed in these small wards is 2155 cubic feet ; in thelarge wards 2095 cubic feet. The pavilions are bright andcheerful, there is a window between each bed, whilst thedirection of the pavilions ensures a maximum of sunshine.The floors are fireproof covered with polished teak laiddiagonally ; all corners and angles have been rounded ; thewalls are in Keene’s cement painted and varnished ; thewindows are on the N.A.P. principle and can be cleanedfrom the outside; and all the pipes, electric wires,and flushing cisterns are in the false roof where theyare accessible from the outside. The heating is partly byradiators and hot-water pipes and partly by open fireplaces.A ventilating stove with an ugly black flue in the centre ofthe ward would spoil the appearance of the ward less if itsfunereal colour were changed to a bright, cheerful tint. Withthe exception of a small fan in one of the walls of each largeward there is no attempt to change the air of the ward bymechanical means. Under each bed is an inlet for fresh

air, and in the wall above the beds are the aperturesleading to circular outlet shafts discharging on the eaves,whilst Boyle’s ventilators ’are placed on the ridge and com-municate with the highest point of the ceilings. The beds areGale’s iron bedsteads, fitted with Lawson Tait mattresses, uponwhich a mattress of white horsehair is placed. The kitchensand lavatories are fitted with every modern requisite, and aningenious shelved cupboard, closed with an air-tight sheet-irondoor but projecting into the open-air, to which its sides areopen by lowered ventilators, deserves mention. It is intendedfor the storage of chamber utensils the contents of which it isdesirable to keep for subsequent examination. The floors ofthe kitchen and lavatories are in Terrazo pavement, the wallsin glazed bricks, so that all may be washed down with thehose-pipe. The complete scheme comprises five pavilions. IThree only have been erected. These, with the isolationblock of ten beds, in course of erection, provide 100 beds.The quarters for the medical. officer, matron, nurses, and

servants are excellent. Bright pictures and excellent furnish-ings adorn the sitting-rooms and the bedroom appointmentsare marked by taste and comfort. The kitchens and stores arein a separate block immediately behind the administrativeblock, whilst between the kitchen and ward pavilionsintervenes the receiving block, consisting of a verandah-protected room, opening at once into a bathroom and thenceinto the central corridor. On the other side of the corridoris the discharge block, similar in its arrangements to thereceiving block. The site is about 12 acres in extent, andtogether with the 71 ft. between each pavilion is being laidout as a recreation ground for convalescent patients. Ex-clusive of the land the sanatorium has cost £24,667, and thetotal of the contracts is about .630,000. It is a modern hos-

pital of the best type and will prove a valuable help to thecorporation in checking epidemics and safeguarding thehealth of the town. By adding a laboratory for serumdiagnosis and the bacteriological examination of diph-theritic or suspected diphtheritic membrane and the appoint-ment of a resident medical officer capable of making use ofsuch a laboratory the corporation would give completeness toa scheme in which nothing that could add to the welfare ofthe sick seems to have been overlooked.

Sir WILLIAM BROADBENT, in reply to a graceful littlespeech by the Mayor on presenting a gold key of the

building, after tending his thanks for the honour done to himthat day, referred to the fact that Huddersfield was the veryfirst town to adopt the compulsory Notification Act. Hementioned that because notification was a subject which hehad deeply at heart and for advocating which he hadat one time incurred great unpopularity. He thendeclared the building open. In the afternoon SirWilliam Broadbent delivered his address in the lecturehall at the Technical College upon The Prevention of

Consumption and other Forms of Tuberculosis." This addresswill be found in full in another column. The audience com-

prised both medical men and laymen and the address waslistened to with marked attention. In the evening there was.a banquet at which Sir William Broadbent, in returningthanks for the toast of " The Medical Profession," remarkedupon the enormous progress made in medical matters from,comparative darkness into light.

VITAL STATISTICS.

HEALTH OF ENGLISH TOWNS.

IN thirty-three of the largest English towns 6217 birth&and 4043 deaths were registered during the week endingOct. 22nd. The annual rate of mortality in these towns-,which had declined in the six preceding weeks from 24’6 to19’0 per 1000, further fell last week to 18’8. In Londonthe rate was 17’3 per 1000, while it averaged 19’8 in thethirty-two provincial towns. The lowest death-rates in thesetowns were 11’4 in Cardiff, 11’7 in Huddersfield, 12-5in Blackburn, and 12-8 in Bristol ; the highest rates were24’4 in Liverpool, 25’7 in Sunderland, 26’4 in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and 30’2 in Salford. The 4043 deaths in thesetowns included 538 which were referred to the principal .zymotic diseases, against 774 and 618 in the two pre-ceding weeks ; of these, 250 resulted from diarrhoea,100 from "fever" (principally enteric), 72 from diph-theria, 48 from measles, 36 from whooping-cough, and 32.from scarlet fever. The lowest death-rates from thesediseases were recorded in Croydon, Cardiff, Wolverhampton,and Bradford ; and the highest rates in Norwich, Salford,Hull, and Sunderland. The greatest mortality from measlesoccurred in Plymouth, Norwich, and Gateshead; from" fever in Nottingham, Salford, Halifax, Leeds, Hull, andSunderland; and from diarrhoea in West Ham, Burnley,.Salford, Hull, and Sunderland. The mortality from scarlet,fever and from whooping-cough showed no marked excess inany of the large towns. The 72 deaths from diphtheria,included 30 in London, 6 in Swansea, 6 in Sheffield, &in Portsmouth, 5 in Liverpool, 4 in Leicester, and 3 in WestHam. No fatal case of small-pox was registered last,week in any of the thirty-three large towns, and nosmall-pox patients were under treatment in any of the

Metropolitan Asylum Hospitals. The number of scarlet.fever patients in these hospitals and in the LondonFever Hospital on Saturday last, Oct. 22nd, was 2915,against 2459, 2606, and 2728 at the end of the three precedingweeks ; 381 new cases were admitted during the week,against 300, 358, and 357 in the three preceding weeks. Thedeaths referred to diseases of the respiratory organs in London,which had been 226 and 263 in the two preceding weeks,were again 263 last week, and were 35 below the correctedaverage. The causes of 43, or 1’1 per cent., of the deathsin the thirty-three towns were not certified either by aregistered medical practitioner or by a coroner. All the-causes of death were duly certified in Bristol, Nottingham,Bradford, Leeds, and in fourteen other smaller towns .the largest proportions of uncertified deaths were registeredin West Ham, Leicester, Liverpool, and Preston.

! HEALTH OF SCOTCH TOWNS.

The annual rate of mortality in the eight Scotch towns-,which had increased in the three preceding weeks from19’1 to 20’7 per 1000, declined again to 19’0 duringthe week ending Oct. 22nd, but slightly exceeded the-mean rate during the same period in the thirty-three large-English towns. The rates in the eight Scotch towns rangedfrom 13-0 in Leith and 13’7 in Aberdeen to 22’1 in Perth’and 23’8 in Greenock. The 572 deaths in these townsincluded 38 which were referred to diarrhoea, 19 to-

whooping-cough, 9 to " fever," 8 to measles, 6 to’scarlet fever, and 6 to diphtheria. In all, 86 deaths-resulted from these principal zymotic diseases, against,123 and 105 in the two preceding weeks. These’86 deaths were equal to an annual rate of2-9 per 1000, which was 0’4 above the mean rate last.week from the same diseases in the thirty-three large Englishtowns. The 38 fatal cases of diarrhoea showed a furtherdecline from those recorded in recent weeks, and included 18*in Glasgow and 9 in Dundee. The 19 deaths from whooping-cough corresponded with the number in each of the two>