News Items.

CANADIAN.

DR. H. B. ANDERSON, Toronto, is in Atlantic City.

DR. LEEMING has been appointed bacteriologist of the city of Winnipeg.

A MOVEMENT is on foot to establish a hospital for railway men in Winnipeg.

DR. J. D. LAFFERTY, Calgary, has been visiting Ottawa, Montreal and Toronto.

LORD STRATHCONA will donate a Nurses' Home to the Royal Victoria Hospital, Montreal.

IN 1904 the Victorian Order hospitals treated 2,898 cases throughout the Dominion of Canada.

DR. A. P. PROCTOR, Kamloops, B.C., has taken residence in Vancouver, and will practise there in the future.

THE Ontario Government is likely to give a grant of $25,000 to the Muskoka Free Hospital for Consumptives.

MR. W. T. BARRETT, of Dawson, is on his way home after spending two months in the New York Hospitals.

Dr. J. GEORGE ADAMI, professor of pathology in McGill University, has been made a Fellow of the Royal Society.

Dr. W. H. B. AIKINS, Toronto, who has been in Europe for the past three months, sails for Canada on the 25th April.

DR. A. E. VIPOND, who has been in Europe for the past year and a-half, has returned and resumed practice in Montreal.

WINNIPEG is to have a fine new Medical College building situated contiguous to the General Hospital, to cost $50,000.

DR. WILLIAM CANNIFF, who was the first Medical Health Officer of Toronto, is here again after an absence of ten years.

THE Southern Medical Association of Manitoba and the Winnipeg Medical Association met in Winnipeg on the 7th of April.

DR. J. F. W. Ross, Toronto, has returned home after spending three months in Southern California, Texas, New Orleans and St. Augustine, Florida.

THE births in British Columbia in 1904 numbered 2,139, the marriages 1,252 and the deaths 1,734. Pneumonia claimed 104 victims, and tuberculosis 79.

IT is understood that complete arrangemen's have been made whereby the Medical Faculty of Bishop's College University, Mon- . treal, will amalgamate with McGill.

DR. H. G. MCKID, Calgary, N.W.T., recently entertained Dr. Chown, of Kingston, and Dr. H. H. Chown. of Winnipeg. A number of Calgary medical men were present.

THE Canada Medical Record, Montreal, has ceased publication and has been amalgamated with the Montreal Medical Journal. Dr. F. W. Campbell, Montreal, was the editor.

MONTREAL registered 7.351 deaths in 1900, 6,915 in 1901, 7,954 in 1902, and 6,895 in 1903. In the same years the deaths from tuberculosis were 692, 647, 664 and 633 respectively.

THE Bulletin Medicale de Quebec, Montreal, is advocating the formation of small medical libraries in districts and the formation of county and district medical societies, where the leading medical literature of the day would be always ready at hand for reference.

THE new Medical Council of British Columbia consists of the following: Victoria, Drs. John C. Davie, O. M. Jones and Charles J. Fagan; Vancouver, Dr. R. E. McKechnie; New Westminster, Dr. R. Eden Walker; Kamloops, Dr. A. P. Proctor, who has since removed to Vancouver.

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DR. SIMON J. TUNSTALL, Vancouver, B.C., has been elected President of the Graduates' Society of McGill University of that province. Dr. W. J. McGuigan was re-elected secretary. We are pleased to announce that Dr. McGuigan, who has been at Harrison Hot Springs, is regaining his usual health and vigor.

DR. JAMES STEWART, Montreal, and Dr. F. W. Campbell, Montreal, are stated to be recovering from very severe illnesses.

NEW BRUNSWICK MEDICAL COUNCIL.-The following were the officers elected at a meeting of the Medical Council of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of New Brunswick on the 27th of March: President, Dr. A. B. Atherton, Fredericton; Treasurer, Dr. Thomas Walker, St. John; Registrar, Dr. Skinner, Fredericton.

WINNIPEG GENERAL HOSPITAL.-The report says that during the year there were 3,868 patients treated, with an average course of treatinent of 191⁄2 days. In 1903 there were 3,354 patients, and in 1902 there were 2,928 treated. A call is made for more funds, as during the year there were very heavy expenditures both in extensions and in maintenance. The decrease in the death rate was noted, while attention was called to the unusually large number of typhoid patients who were treated. The general cash statement shows that during the year the total receipts amounted to $168,629.06, to which is added an overdraft at the bank of $6,911.82. The total expenditures amount to $175,636.63, leaving cash on hand $1,213.63. The medical report shows that of the 3,868 patients treated during the year, 271 died, a proportion of 7.06. The percentage of mortality in 1903 was 7.45, and in 1902 it was 6.45. The total number of typhoid patients treated was 728. Of these 180 were admitted during the month of October, and 166 in September. On October 10 there were 178 typhoid patients in the hospital, and between October 1 and Dec. 15 there were never less than 148 cases in the wards. The following are the statistics for the year ending Dec. 31, 1904: Number of patients in hospital Jan. 1, 1904, 151; number of patients admitted during the year, 3.576; number of births during year, 141; total number. of patients, 3,868; total number of days' treatment, 75,228; average number of days' stay per patient, 19.45; average number of patients per day, 206.03; greatest number of patients in one day, 287; least number of patients in one day, 149; outdoor department, consultations, 4,772; number of children under 12 years treated, 455; number of deaths, 271; percentage of deaths, 7.006; number of operations, 1,042; ambulance trips, 1,461. Of the total number of patients treated 36.7 per cent. were Canadians, the . nativity figures being as follows: Canada, 1,421; England, 828; Scotland, 231; U.S.A., 139; Ireland, 131; Iceland, 75; Austria, 75; Russia, 114; Galicia, 150; Sweden, 120; Germany, 95; Poland, 34; Denmark, 21; France, 5; Belgium, 4; Wales, 10; other, 415.

OFFICE OF THE PROVINCIAL BOARD OF HEALTH-DEATHS FOR FEBRUARY, 1905.-The returns for the above month are somewhat more complete than for the same month last year, and

it is gratifying to know that the number of deaths reported are less. In February, 1904, the Division Registrars reported 2,332 deaths with a death rate of 14.4 in 1,000, while for the corresponding month this year 2,263 have been recorded, representing a population of 1,935,897, which makes the mortality rate 14.0 in 1,000. The cities, towns and villages reported 1,294 from a population of 927,000, which brings the death rate up to 16.1, but the rural districts returned only 1,014 deaths from a population of 1,008,897, giving a death rate of 12.0. Small-pox has reached a very low point, only 8 cases occurring during the month as against 41 with I death a year ago. Scarlet fever shows a case reduction, but a slightly increased death rate; of the 209 cases and 16 deaths that have occurred, 141 with 9 deaths were reported from the cities and towns, which makes a case mortality of 6.3 per cent., and in townships 68 cases and 7 deaths took place, making a case mortality of 10.3 per cent. Diphtheria has not been so prevalent, as as may be seen by the comparative table; cities and towns returned 216 cases with 28 deaths, and the rural districts 54 with 7 deaths, the case mortality being the same in both, 12.9 per cent. Typhoid fever shows but little change, while tuberculosis caused 165 deaths, or 20 less.

THE American Medical Association meets in Portland, Ore., from July 11th to 14th. As a number of British Columbia practitioners purpose taking in this meeting, they will be glad to know that Dr. Kenneth McKenzie, who was a guest at the Vancouver meeting of the Canadian Medical Association, has charge of the arrangements and entertainment of visiting delegates.

CASTRATION OF IMBECILES.-The Pennsylvania legislature has passed a bill authorizing castration in cases of hopeless imbecility.

CEREBRO-SPINAL MENINGITIS has claimed 386 lives in Greater New York for the first three months of this year, most of the victims being children.

DR. WILLIAM OSLER is to be given a farewell banquet at the Waldorf Astoria, New York, on the evening of May 2nd. Invitations to subscribe to this dinner may be obtained by applying to the chairman, Dr. James Tyson, 1,506 Spruce St., Philadelphia.

THE Ohio State Board of Health has issued leaflets to physicians to give to their patients suffering from venereal diseases. These inform the patient of the hygienic measures to be adopted to protect himself and others who come in contact with him.

DR. LEWELLYS FRANKLIN BARKER, a graduate of the University of Toronto, has been appointed to succeed Dr. Osler as Professor of Medicine at Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Barker has been Professor of Anatomy at Rush Medical College, Chicago, for the past five years.

BILL TO BAR THE SALE OF DRUGS.-A Chicago member of the Illinois legislature has a bill before that body which proposes that morphine and opium be sold only on physicians' prescriptions. The bill further stipulates that a druggist will not fill a prescription unless certified to by the physician who gave the original prescription.

BRITISH AND FOREIGN.

PATENT MEDICINE ADVERTISEMENTS BARRED.-A new law in Norway forbids newspapers advertising all foreign patent medicines.