The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1859-09-20 00:00:00

HEALTH AND DISEASE.

THE PUBLIC HEALTH.

(From the

l's Report.)

Much has been done to improve the health of London,
yet 1,111 persons died within its limits in the week end-
ing on Saturday, September 10—that is, rather more
than 158 daily. About 50 persons are destroyed every
24 hours in London by sanitary defects that we may
hope will be to a large extent removed by the Board of
Works. The mortality is now near the average rate,
which, exclusive of the weeks of 1849 and 1854.
when cholera was epidemic, would have demanded 1,102
lives.

SclMin& and diptheria became more fatal, but the
deaths by fever and diarrhoea decreased • so that the
deaths by ryinotic diseases amounted to :86, the same
number ILI last week.

-151-ciiii-r.ihia; 146;4 cholera two persons died.
A retired plant broker, aged 69, died of cholera,
said to be Asiatic, at 24, Princes-street, Mile-end Old
Town.

- -A
C--.ercluuit's wife, of the age of 36, died of cholera on
board of the Moselle, shortly after it had passed Graves-
end. The attack was fatal in 12 hours. She had suffered
from choleraic diarrhoia at Rostock, and left that place
in rather a weak state; went on board the steamer at
Hamburgh on Friday night at 12 o'clock, vu attacked
by cholera on Sunday morning at about 11 o'clock and
died soon after 11 o'clock at night. This death, on Aug.
28th, has not been registered.
The uselessness of quarantine in such cases is evident;
but it would be satidactory to know the real sanitary
state of the steamers which ply between Hamburg and
London.

The deaths of 24 persons by accidents or negligence
were registered in the week; -11 by mechanical injuries,
Iby bums, 7by drowning, sby suffocation. One [DUl-
der or manslaughter and one suicide were recorded.
In the week, the births of 875 boys and 821Igirls, in all
1,701 children, were regibtered in London. In the 10
corresponding weeks of the years 1849-58 the average
number was 1,531.

The mean temperature of the air, WO deg., differed
only half a degree from that of the week preceding; but
it fell on Saturday to 551 deg., the lowest having been
479 deg. on that night. The temperature of the air was
615 deg. on Thursday, and the thermometer in the sun
rose to 91 deg. on Monday, when the thermometer on
the grass fell to 38* deg. The Thames was 6 degrees
wanner than the air. The wind was calm in the begin-
ning of the week, bet rose, and passed, chiefly from the
south-west, over Greenwich on three days at the rate of
7 miles an hour, making 43 miles an hour on an average
during the week. The sky was often overcast and cloudy.
0.35 inch, or above the third part of an inch, of rain fell
on three days. Electricity was feeble generally, but was
strong on Tuesday, positive during the morning and ne-
gative daring the afternoon. Volleys of sports and gal-
vanic currents were observed, and it lightened and thun-
dered between 4 and 11p.m. on that day.

LOCK JAW.—A very curious communication on this
dangerous affection has been presented to the French
Academy of Sciences by Dr. Vella, of Turin. The ease
was that of a sergeant, aged 36, who bad been struck
with a bullet in the right foot at the battle of Magenta,
June 4. He had entered the hospital on the 10th, and
the ball had been successfully extracted on the 13th.
Three days later he experienced a certain stiffness in
his neck, and on the 17th his jaws were firmly rimed.
AU the physicians of the hospital were agreed on the
point that this was a ease of confirmed tetanus. On
the Nth the patient was bled to prevent asphyxia, and
laudanum administered inwardly, which produced no
effect. In the afternoon, curare was applied on the
wound in the proportion of ten centigrammes in 40
grammes of water; but this was successively increased
to one granule of curare in 80 granules of water.
After the lapse of thnse-quarter of an hour and subse-
quently of half an hour, each application was followed
by a diminution of tetantic rigidity, and at length by so
complete • relaxation of the muscles that the patient was
enabled to drink, take some soup, and even it up on his
bed. After the action of the curare had ceased, the tetanic
spasms would recommence in the right leg with great vio-
lence. After the treatment had continued for three days,
blisters were applied to the thigh, in order to obtain a
larger absorbing surface. The application of curare
was repeated every three, and then every five, hours
until the twelfth day, when twice a day was found
manna:it. The attack of tetanus constantly diminished
in intensity: on the 10th of July the patient left his
bed for the first time; on the Itith he walked for an
hour; and on the 25th he left the hospital perfectly
recovered. On this communication being read, M. Vel-
peau east some doubts on the sufficiency of the fact to
establish the value of curare as a specific against tetanus,
seeing that it is a most dangerous poison that requires to
be handled with extreme caution. —M. Claude Bernard
remarked that the extraordinary tales related of curare
contained much exaggeration, but that it could be safely
introduced into therapeutics like prussic acid and other
deadly poisons. As for Dr. Vella's amount of its use
as a specific against tetanus, Dr. Bernard thought it
deserving of the greatest attention. Drs. Serves, Clo-
quet, Bayer, and Robert de Lawballe concurred with
Dr. Claude Bernard, and expressed their conviction that
further experiments should be made, especially on bin-
' malls, in order to warm the efficacy of curare.