News of the Month. DEATHS IN THE PROVINCE OF ONTARIO FOR. BY CHARLES A. HODGETTS, M,D., THE health of the province for October, based upon the returns of 760 municipalities, may be considered highly satisfactory, as the deaths from all causes are 31 less than those reported for the same period last year, yet notwithstanding the population reporting is greater by 10,000. The most pleasing features of the returns are the reductions in both cases and deaths of all infectious diseases, with the exception of typhoid fever, there being a case decrease of 23 per cent., and in deaths, 10 per cent., as may be seen by the table below. The total deaths recorded from all the causes are 2,091representing a reporting population of 2,092,300-which makes a death-rate of 12.0 per cent. per 1,000, as compared with 2,122 deaths for a population of 2,081,534 for the corresponding period of last year, which gave a death-rate of 12.2 per cent. Smallpox has almost disappeared, only one case being reported for the month. Scarlet fever, also, has reached a very low point, there being 177 cases and 10 deaths, or a case decrease of 23 per cent. Diphtheria. As may be seen by the returns, this disease has shown the greatest decrease of any of the infectious diseases, having dropped from 541 cases and 66 deaths to 239 cases and 34 deaths, being a case decrease of 55 per cent. and deaths 50 per cent., as compared with the same month a year ago. Typhoid Fever.-The returns for this disease show but little. change over the preceding month, but compared with October, 1903, there is an increase both in cases reported and also in deaths returned. The increase in the number of reported cases is no doubt due to the fact that medical practitioners are now aware of their responsibility, and more readily comply with the Act. The marked increase in deaths would indicate the type was more virulent. In this connection, that portion of the quarterly report of the Secretary, as adopted by the Board on November 11th last, regarding water supplies, may be quoted. Its perusal is worthy of careful consideration by individuals as well as municipal authorities: It is, however, quite evident from the information to hand, that water pollution is the cause in every instance of the outbreak, which emphasizes the fact that the utmost care must be taken by health authorities to preserve their water supplies from contamination, whether the source be wells, lakes or streams. Too often the relative positions of the well or the intake pipe and the barn, stable or cesspool are not carefully considered, and a longcontinued rain storm results in water contamination by reason of the large amount of surface washings carried directly into the source of supply, with the inevitable result of an outbreak either of enteric fever or some intestinal trouble, according to the specific character of the bacterial infection. To prevent this pollution, it should be the duty of each local board of health to employ an intelligent officer to examine periodically into the conditions surrounding the water supply of each inhabitant, and, if necessary, take samples for laboratory examination. Further, if pollution is found to exist, either the source of the same should be removed or condemned, and the supply from that particular source, being unfit for domestic use, forthwith stopped. "Further, municipal authorities must be alert to the fact that what has been a source of good water supply often becomes, by reason of the rapid growth of the place, a polluted well, stream or lake, presenting a condition which at the time of the inception of the system was never considered. In the case of a town, the sewage emptied into a body of water from which the water supply is taken, has increased to such an extent that admixture takes place through the very increase in volume. In the smaller towns. and villages, without public systems, the pollution of wells and springs is an ever-increasing difficulty, and it behooves the individual householder and local authorities to bear this in mind and see to it, that either of these sources are not contaminated by the placing of cesspools or stables in too close proximity to either. With the rapid growth of towns, whereby fields become, through the erection of dwellings, the abode of perhaps hundreds of persons, it cannot be expected that, what in a primitive state is pure, will remain so. "The question here arises, what is the best course to pursue in regard to both public and private supplies? "In view of the fact that it is almost impossible to be your brother's keeper and have a control over how and where he shall dispose of his wash sewage and exereta, and also that water is often polluted at a considerable distance from the point where it is taken for consumption, the one answer is, to filter before use, for with the proper kind of filter in use, we have assuredly the best guarantee of always securing a drinking water which is likely to be at all times free from contamination, though to maintain this standard in the case of corporations, it requires the local authorities to place the system in charge of a competent official, and this Board should not only require an annual report from the local authorities, but should, for the interests of the general public, institute a periodic inspection of both water and sewage systems." I would particularly point out the danger of the pollution of milk supplies by reason of the use of the contaminated well water of the farm-yard, which water is used to wash out the milk cans. Too often, I fear, is the infection spread from this source, for the cool, crystalline spring water of the farm-yard is not always free from contamination, and therein often lurks the germ of typhoid. COMPARATIVE TABLE FOR OCTOBER-THIS YEAR AND LAST. In an article in a recent issue we stated that, before long, important news would be forthcoming as to the new hospital scheme in Toronto. Our prognostications have turned out about correct, as Mr. George Gooderham, the retiring trustee of the General Hospital, a couple of weeks ago intimated that he will mark his retirement by a donation of moment to the hospital. The exact amount which Mr. Gooderham will give has not been specified yet, but Mr. Gooderham intimates that it would be in keeping with Mr. Cawthra Mulock's recent donation of $100,000. The amount of Mr. Gooderham's donation will not be stated until the plans for the extension of the hospital assume a definite shape. As the matter stands now, the Hospital Board has $100,000 from Mr. Mulock, and the Ontario Government has offered $100,000, on condition that the city of Toronto contributes a similar sum. We don't know quite where we are at," remarked one connected with the Hospital Board recently, "but we have already decided upon an hospital with four or five hundred beds. This we will build in units of one hundred beds or so. The hospital to be of utility for educational purposes must be established close to the University. We have not selected our site, and no one will know anything about it until we have secured the property. Mr. Gooderham's gift paves the way for making the hospital in connection with the University Medical College one of the best equipped and most important clinical hospitals on the continent." The plans of the Board of Trustees for the new hospital are most ambitious. They want to give the medical students of Toronto University the most completely equipped clinical hospital in America. The advantages of such an hospital in connection with the University have been pointed out by such eminent physicians as Dr. William Osler, of Oxford University. It would raise still higher the standard of the medical profession in Canada. ITEMS OF INTEREST. To Investigate yellow and Malarial Fevers.-Dr. Wolferstan Thomas, of Montreal, a son of the late general manager of the Molsons Bank, has left Liverpool for the Amazon to investigate yellow and malarial fevers on behalf of the Association of Liverpool Merchants, headed by Sir Alfred Jones, formed for the investigation of tropical diseases. 66 Condemnation of the Division of Fees.-At a recent meeting of the Council of the Chicago Medical Society, Arthur Dean Bevan offered the following resolution which is to be voted on at a subsequent meeting and then, if adopted, to be incorporated as an amendment to the Constitution: Any member who is guilty of giving or receiving a commission, or of entering into any arrangement for the division of a fee for professional services, which arrangement is not known and fully understood by the patient or party by whom such fee is paid, shall be guilty of unprofessional conduct."-Medical Record, N.Y. The Physician's Library. BOOK REVIEWS. The After-Treatment of Operations. By P. LOCKHART MUмMERY, F.R.C.S. (Eng.), B.A., M.B., B.C. (Cantab.), Hunterian Professor, Royal College of Surgeons, etc. Second edition. London: Bailliére, Tindall & Cox. It is somewhat of a treat nowadays to pick up a book other than "My First Hundred Operations for Appendicitis," or "My Last Hundred Cases" of what-not, and though to the one before us the charge might be made that there is too much "spoon-feeding," yet it has its value. The young practitioner is brought face to face with a serious emergency requiring immediate operation. This he does successfully, but his patient may lose his life through unskilled handling in the after-treatment. Here is a book that should be on the table of every general practitioner, for even if the surgeon has been called in, it is the family doctor in many cases that watches the after-progress of the case, and in this little book the detail of the after-treatment is given in a lucid manner. One can hardly follow the author in all his ideas, namely, to allow the patient to be the judge of what is good and what is not good for him after the operation, yet on the whole his remarks are to the point. Particularly valuable are the hints on posture as relating to the patient's progress, and if followed many hours. of discomfort will be saved. In this second edition a section is added on the smoking and drug habits. The chapter on appendicitis has been enlarged, and that on shock and collapse has been revised, so that it is quite up-to-date. F. N. G. S. Light Energy. Its Physics, Physiological Action and Thera peutic Applications. By MARGARET A. CLEAVES, M.D., |