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provincial health officers. On more than one occasion theLocal Government Board have resisted the attempt toreduce an income which was always inadequate to thecharacter of the services rendered ; but, apparently availingthemselves of the plea of a temporary physical infirmity onthe part of their officer, a majority of the Hexham ruralauthority have at last succeeded in gaining their end andreducing the salary in question. The central authorityhave even now expressed their disapproval of the actiontaken, and they have only assented to the appointment,under the altered circumstances, for a period of one year.The lesson is one which diplomates in Public Health shouldcarefully weigh, otherwise they will find that, whilst theirservices are willingly sought and paid for at moments ofurgency, they will be as easily discarded when, as theresult of skilled sanitary supervision, immediate necessityfor special services no longer presses.

PATENT MEDICINES.

IT will be seen by reference to another column that Mr.Hubbard considers that in the article which appeared in ourimpression of the 4th inst., on the subject of patent medi-cines, we failed to deal with one important branch of hisoriginal argument, which is to the effect that proprietarymedicines, as distinct from patented medicines, are by theletter of the law as it stands made subject to the

provisions of the Pharmacy Act concerning the saleof poisons. Dr. Luff. has also addressed us to the sameeffect, and both these correspondents contend that the

exemption of "patent medicines" in Section 16 of the

Pharmacy Act does not cover secret preparations. The

point is one that can only be settled by judicial authority,and we believe that it has never yet been raised in a court’of law. That being so, it is evident that the expression"patent medicine in the Pharmacy Act has by common.consent and for a long period being taken to include allmedicines liable to stamp duty, and this is a factto which any tribunal deciding on the meaning ofthe words would of necessity attach considerable weight.Then, again, the expression " patent medicine " is intitself loose and inexact. Mr. Hubbard thinks that itmeans a medicine protected by letters patent, and he maybe right. But when such medicines have been unequivo-cally alluded to in Acts of Parliament it has been by someprecise form of words such as the foregoing. The expressionused is susceptible of a totally different construction, whichdoes not refer in any way to letters patent-namely this, amedicine the uses and virtues of which are patent to allthe world from the recommendation and directions underwhich it is sold. This, it will be observed, is in sub-stance the test used to determine whether a givenpreparation is subject to stamp duty or not. Andthis definition makes the expression "patent medicine"substantially equivalent to "nostrum" or "specific."Upon the mere verbal question, therefore, we feelsome difficulty in accepting the position taken up byour correspondents ; and when we consider the conse-

quences which they deduce our difficulties are multiplied.As matters stand, there is no question that certain personsare licensed under statutory powers to prepare and sell

medicines, the mode of preparation of which they allege tobe their own secret. Such licences are quite inconsistentwith the provisions of the Pharmacy Act, unless the articlesin respect of which they are given come within the exceptionsfrom that statute. It seems a very strong thing to saythat the Legislature intended to invalidate a hwge numberof existing licences and involve a great number of licensedtraders in a constructive liability to penalties under thestatute, and effected this purpose by the strict use cf anexpression of ambiguous meaning, and popularly understood

in a wider than its legal sense. We think that any tribunalin the land would recoil from such consequences, and, there-fore, although on an open question like this opinions mayfairly differ, we do not at all expect to see the point decidedin the sense for which Mr. Hubbard contends.

EFFECT OF CERTAIN SUBSTANCES ON THERED CORPUSCLES.

M. MAYET of Lyons read an interesting paper at therecent meeting of the French Association for the Advance-ment of Science, in which he gave an account of the effectsof various neutral salts and of chloral on the red corpusclesof the blood. Solutions of the strength of 1 or 2 per cent.of chloride of sodium, chloride of potassium, sulphate ofsoda, phosphate of soda, bicarbonate of soda, and sulphateof magnesia all at first temporarily destroy the elasticityof the corpuscles, and then dissolve or disintegrate thestroma. Solutions of the strength of 5 per cent. or morediminish the size of the corpuscles and harden them. Thechloride of sodium has the most preservative primary action,but is most destructive on prolonged contact. As is well

known, it has been recommended for washing the blood (in a0’6 per cent. solution) in certain cases of poisoning. Sulphateof soda has a great tendency to preserve the chemical pro-perties of the corpuscles, but makes them much more rigid thandoes chloride of sodium. It is not suited for intravenous

: injections, but is very useful in the laboratory for washingthe corpuscles before preparing hemoglobin from them. For

: this purpose it is better than the 3 per cent. solution of: chloride of sodium, which is commonly employed, but which has a considerable tendency to dissolve the corpuscles.’ Chloride of potassium has a great preservative action, butj cannot be used for intravenous injections owing to its

toxicity. Carbonate of sola in weak solutions is very pre-servative. Phosphate of soda in weak solutions renders thecorpuscles rigid for a long time ; it preserves their form

t well, and so is useful in diluting the blood for thef purpose of counting the corpuscles. Sulphate of magnesia’ does not dissolve them, but changes their shape more than

any of the other salts. Hydrate of chloral is very destructivet to the corpuscles when it is in a concentrated solution, but

not when it is of less strengh than 5 per cent. Intravenous

injections of the latter, which may be repeated several timese daily, are very valuable in tetanus, in ursemic convulsions, to11 calm the violent spasmodic attacks in rabies, and in some

painful diseases where hypodermic injections of morphia area inefficacious or badly borne. Of course the effects on the

heart, respiration, and urine must be carefully watched.r

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THE DUTIES OF A COUNTY HEALTH OFFICER.

DISAPPOINTMENT has been occasioned to some by theobjection of the Local Government Board to sanction the

employment by the Essex County Council of Dr. Threshas " medical officer of health for the purpose of collatingthe reports of the local medical officers of health and

reporting generally thereon to the Council quarterlythrough the committee." It is true that this is an advanceon an original proposal that mere statistical compilationshould be the duty of the new county officer, and it is

equally true that material valuable for county purposeswould result from Dr. Thresh’s labours in the somewhat

enlarged sphere now proposed. But it is impossible not tofeel that there is much in the contention of the LocalGovernment Board to the effect that the appointment of acounty health officer for such limited purposes as are pro-posed for the county of Essex cannot be regarded as aproper compliance with the terms of Section 17 of theLocal Government Act, 1888. Some of the appointmentswhich have been professedly made under that section can