AMENDMENT TO THE ACT RESPECTING CORONERS.

THE following is the amendment to the Act respecting Coroners passed at the recent session of the Ontario Legislature and also the Regulations passed by the Lieutenant-Governor-in-Council thereunder:

Section 22 of The Statute Law Amendment Act, 1903, provides:

22. Section 1 of the Act respecting Coroners is amended by adding thereto the following sections:

(2) The Lieutenant-Governor may from time to time appoint a coroner, to be designated" the Coroner for the City of Toronto," and from and after such appointment all coroners or associate coroners theretofore or thereafter appointed in and for the County of York shall as to the City of Toronto have and exercise within the City of Toronto the powers only of associate coroners for the said city, but this shall not limit the power of the LieutenantGovernor to make further appointments of associate coroners for the City of Toronto from time to time. The powers and duties of the coroners in the said city respectively, shall be defined by and shall be exercised subject to such regulations as may from time to time be made by the Lieutenant-Governor-in-Council.

(3) Whenever the death of any person appears to have been caused by an accident occurring upon a street or highway in the City of Toronto in the operation of any railway or street railway or electric railway on or across any street or highway the Crown Attorney for the County of York shall direct the coroner or one of the associate coroners in the said city to hold an inquest upon the body of the person so dying, and the coroner or associate coroner to whom such direction is given shall issue his warrant and hold an inquest accordingly.

(4) Section 4 of this Act shall not apply to or be in force as to inquests in the City of Toronto under the foregoing provisions of this Act, nor as to investigations held in the City of Toronto under section 6 of this Act.

(5) The Coroner for the City of Toronto shall be paid such salary, not exceeding $1,500, as may be fixed by Order in Council, and the same shall be paid by the city half-yearly and shall be in lieu of all fees which would otherwise be payable to him and the city shall be entitled to be reimbursed out of the Consolidated Revenue Fund as to one-half of such salary.

(6) Any coroner within whose jurisdiction the body of a person is lying upon whose death an inquest ought to be held may hold the inquest. (See Imperial Coroner's Act, 1867, s. 7.)

Regulations Passed by the

Lieutenant-Governor-in-Council

Pursuant to Chapter 176, Section 22, 3 Edward VII.

1. Immediately on any death being reported to any Police Officer in the City of Toronto under circumstances that appear to require investigation by a Coroner, it shall be the duty of such Police Officer forthwith to report the same to the Coroner for the City of Toronto.

2. It shall be the duty of the Coroner for the City of Toronto upon receiving any report as to death within the limits of the City of Toronto under circumstances appearing to require investigation by a Coroner, forthwith to make such enquiry as may be necessary in the premises, and either personally to investigate the circumstances under which the death has occurred, and to hold an inquest if he is so advised, or to request some Associate Coroner for the City of Toronto to issue a warrant and make an investigation or hold an inquest. And in making such requisitions the Coroner for the City of Toronto shall apportion the work as equitably as possible amongst the several active Associate Coroners for the City of Toronto.

3. It shall be the duty of an Associate Coroner, upon the receipt of a requisition to make an investigation or hold an inquest, signed by the Coroner for the City of Toronto or by the Crown Attorney for the County of York, as the case may be, forthwith to issue his warrant with such requisition thereto attached and file the same at any police station in the City of Toronto, and proceed to make an investigation or hold an inquest. And no fees shall be payable to any Associate Coroner in respect of any investigation or inquest held by him unless the warrant and the requisition in that behalf have been so filed by him.

4. The requisition hereinbefore referred to, signed by the Coroner for the City of Toronto or by the County Crown Attorney for the County of York, as the case may be, shall take the place of the declaration referred to in section 4 of "The Act respecting Coroners," so far as the same relates to investigations and inquests in the City of Toronto.

ITEMS OF INTEREST.

The Chair of Surgery at Cambridge.-The chair of Surgery in the University of Cambridge, which has remained vacant since the death of Sir George M. Humphrey in 1896, was filled on July 27th by the election of Mr. Frederick Howard Marsh, F.R.C.S., Surgeon to St. Bartholomew's Hospital. The stipend is £600 a year, and the Professor is permitted to practise, the obligation being imposed on him of residing at the University during term.

American Electro-Therapeutic Association.-The thirteenth annual convention of the American Electro-Therapeutic Association will be held in Atlantic City, N.J., September 22nd, 23rd and 24th, 1903. Members of the profession are cordially invited, and it is desired to have as large a meeting as possible.

Dr. Bell Re-Enters Journalism.-The editorship of the Medi cal Mirror, made vacant by the untimely death of its founder, Dr. I. N. Love, has fallen to Dr. Raley Husted Bell, the poetphysician of the South. For some time Dr. Bell made Moody's Medical Magazine of Atlanta one of the most interesting of medical publications, and there is no doubt he will render the Mirror equally valuable as the literary character of the two journals has been much the same.

New Provincial Board of Health.-Upon the recommendation of the Honorable the Provincial Secretary, the Committee of Council advise that the following persons be appointed Members of the Provincial Board of Health for the term of three years, and that Edward E. Kitchen, M.D., be appointed Chairman of the said Board: Edward E. Kitchen, M.D., St. George; Alexander Thompson, M.D, Strathroy; Robert Penniel Boucher, M.D., Peterborough; William H. Oldright, M.D., Toronto; John Douglas, M.D., Cobourg; John J. Cassidy, M.D., Toronto.

A Tribute to Col. Neilson.-Col. J. L. H. Neilson, DirectorGeneral of Medical Services, Ottawa, has resigned his office, and the Militia Orders of August 11th contain the following announce ment:" Colonel J. L. H. Neilson, Director-General of Medical Services, having resigned his appointment, the General Officer Commanding cannot permit the severance of this officer from the active militia to pass without recording his satisfaction with the manner in which Colonel Neilson has performed his duties as a soldier during upwards of thirty years of faithful service to his country."

A Daily Medical Medical Newspaper.-The Medical Publishing Company of America has been incorporated at $150,000 under the laws of the State of New York, for the purpose of publishing The Daily Medical Journal. The first issue is scheduled for October 1st, 1903, and the subscription price has been placed at $1 a year, which also includes The New York Medical Critic, a monthly journal now in its second year. The prospectus announces a six-page journal, 12 by 15 inches in size, with full affiliation with the associated press and 100,000 copies. The editorial staff has not yet been announced with the exception of Dr. M. W. Curran, managing editor, 154 East Seventy-second Street, New York.-Am. Medicine.

President Robertson of the Medical Council.-Dr. J. A. Robertson of Stratford, the President of the Ontario Medical Council this year, is a Canadian by birth. Born in the County of Perth, he received his training at the Toronto Normal School,

J. A. ROBERTSON, M.D., STRATFORD, PRESIDENT ONTARIO MEDICAL COUNCIL.

and graduated in 1871 at Trinity Medical College. He is a district surgeon of the Grand Trunk Railway at Stratford, and has been Medical Health Officer of that city for fourteen years, where he has practised for the last thirty-one years, and has a large and

lucrative practice. He was elected to the council five years ago, and has served on the Educational Committee, and was VicePresident of the Council last year. He is a Liberal in politics.

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A Proposed " Wedding Present for the Federated Colleges. -A deputation composed of Dr. J. A. Temple, representing Trinity Medical College, and Dr. G. A. Peters, Dr. A. Primrose, representing the medical faculty of Toronto University, waited on the Government on July 15th. They asked that, in the event of the amalgamation of Trinity and Toronto University medical faculties, the Government endow five chairs, which have hitherto been kept up by fees. The chairs are preventive science, medical jurisprudence, sanitary science, anatomy, therapeutics. The deputation gave as their reason for making the request the fact that these chairs are essential to scientific research, and it was in the interests. of the public health that they should be properly and efficiently maintained. The Government promised the usual consideration

of the request.

Dr. J. B. Murphy and the "Commission Men.”—That justly celebrated surgeon, John B. Murphy, of Chicago, has been made the victim of a most disreputable set of men connected with the so-called "Christian Hospital of Chicago." During his absence from the city these men sent letters to practically every doctor in the Mississippi valley offering 50 per cent. of all fees received from patients sent for operation-presumably by Dr. Murphy. This gentleman promptly declared his innocence in the matter, and had the senders indicted for fraudulent use of his name. The worst phase of the subject, however, is the abuse heaped upon Murphy by medical writers who did not try to ascertain whether or not he was responsible for the use of his name. The tendency of some men to think evil of the great is deplorable.-Am. Jour. of Surgery and Gynecology.

A Bacteriological Chart of Unusual Excellence.-There has been placed recently in the hands of the medical profession by the firm of M. J. Breitenbach & Co., of New York (the importers of Gude's Pepto-Mangan), a very fine bacteriological chart of pathogenic organisms. It is beautifully executed, and the coloring most delicate. We can safely say that we have noticed nothing better in the most recent book on bacteriology, and feel that the firm, who have had the drawings executed, deserve the thanks of the profession as a body, in placing such a work of art, apart from its scientific value, at its disposal. A set of plates such as they are, cannot fail to be of the greatest service to any practitioner in his microscopical investigations. A full chart will be mailed to any physician on receipt of his card by M. J. Breitenbach Co., Warren Street, New York.