United Kingdom, or any part of the British Empire, without passing a fresh examination or securing any qualification, other than the colonial one which he already possesses.

A letter received from Dr. Elliott, General Secretary of the Canadian Medical Association, informs us that General Laurie is desirous of reintroducing his bill at the present session of the British House of Commons, providing the Canadian profession desires it.

It goes without saying that the very liberal offer contained in General Laurie's bill would involve medical reciprocity. It would be an unheard-of piece of generosity for the British Parliament to extend the privilege of practising medicine in the United Kingdom, and other portions of the British Empire, to coloniallytrained Canadian graduates in medicine, if the Parliament of Canada would not grant to British graduates in medicine the right to practise medicine in Canada. But the Parliament of Canada would not entertain such a proposal. It would be distinctly ultra vires; for, in Canada, all matters pertaining to education, by the terms of the Confederation Act, are left to the Provincial Legislatures. Hence the proposal to license British medical graduates in Canada, en bloc, without their conforming to the established Provincial tests, could not be entertained by the Canadian Parliament, unless all the Provincial Legislatures of the Dominion were to agree to forfeit their own rights in the matter and would unite in requesting the Canadian Parliament to provide reciprocal legislation in keeping with the natural outcome of General Laurie's bill.

As far as we have learned, there is no marked desire on the part of Canadian physicians to avail themselves of the advantages which would accrue to them if General Laurie's bill were to become law. It is true that Canadian applicants for medical positions in the Imperial army, navy, or civil service, would be benefited by the passing of the amendment; but a physician who has practised in Canada would be going far afield were he to transfer his Lares to the land of his fathers, and few there are who have made such a venture.

That British physicians would come to Canada, if the law permitted them to practise in this country without undergoing a fresh examination, is altogether likely. The older men might

not care to leave home and face new conditions in a strange land; but the younger men would quite naturally follow in the wake of their emigrating compatriots, especially if the medical bars were let down.

There are physicians enough and to spare in this " Canada of ours.' From reliable statistics, which were published in this journal in November, 1902, it was found that in all Canada there was one physician to 991 persons. It is manifest, therefore, that Canadian physicians would lose by opening their field to outsiders. For the reasons given, we do not think that General Laurie's amendment is likely to be reintroduced into the British House of Commons.

J. J. C.

EDITORIAL NOTES.

Payment of Notification Fees. In reference to the British Infectious Disease Notification Act, 1889, the British Medical Journal (December 17th, 1904, p. 1673), says: "The authority is required to pay for each certificate and there is no legal obligation upon a medical man to send the authority a statement of fees. apart from the certificates themselves, which under the Statute he is bound to furnish. The fees thus become due, as and when the certificates are received by the authority." In order to get over a difficulty which might arise if medical men insisted upon the immediate payment of each separate fee as it become due, the British Medical Journal suggests that the payment of fees due under the Infectious Disease (Notification) Acts be made periodically, without waiting for an account to be sent in by the medical man who notifies. This practice is said to prevail in nearly all large towns in England, and is growing in smaller districts. It is necessary to ask for a statement on the notification certificate indicating whether the person to whom the certificate refers is being treated by the practitioner as the medical officer of any public body or institution, in which case only a shilling fee is paid. The ordinary fee for a case in private practice, which is reported to the authority, is two shillings. We have already adverted to the practice which obtains in England of paying a small fee to a practitioner who gives notice to the authority of an infectious disease. The practice is just and

proper.

The municipality in which the practitioner does his work is benefited by his report of an infectious disease, and ought to remunerate him for his trouble in giving notice to the sanitary authority. We have shown elsewhere that practitioners and hospital authorities in Ontario do not report cases, of typhoid fever, although required to do so by the Ontario Medical Act. Is this negligence on their part due to the fact that there is no provision made in the Act for the payment of fees for notification, or is it due to another reason? Whatever the reason may be, physicians should discuss the question in the medical journals, or else instruct their representatives in the College of Physicians and Surgeons to discuss it in Council. At the present time there appears to be either a neglect of professional duty by physicians and the authorities of hospitals, or an unwarrantable assumption of authority on the part of the State in obliging physicians, under penalties, to work for the common good without remuneration.

Experiments of Metchnikoff and Roux on Syphilis.--In Annales de l'Institut Pasteur (1904, 25 Novembre, p. 657, 3ème memoire), Metchnikoff and Roux continue to give the results of their work on experimental syphilis in the chimpanzee, referring in this paper to the influence of different factors on the properties of the syphilitic virus. As the direct examination of the virus did not disclose the existence of a specific microbe, either in the products of inoculation or the lesions themselves, they determined, in the first place, whether or not the syphilitic virus would pass through a filter. The filtration of syphilitic virus (taken from “n indurated human chancre) through a Berkfeld filter completely suppresses its activity. A control animal injected simultaneously with unfiltered syphilitic virus took syphilis. Klingmuller and Baermann, by experiments made on themselves, had already shown this action of the filter in stopping the passage of the syphilitic virus, but their experiments, for obvious reasons, were repeated on other persons, and therefore lacked the element of completeness. The effect of heat on the syphilitic virus was then essayed. Heating to a temperature of 51 deg. C. (123 4-5 deg. F.) during an hour is sufficient to render the virus inactive. The addition of glycerine to it did not remove any of its pathogenic power. They then tried specimens of the syphilitic virus, made inactive through filtration or heat, as immunizing agents. These experi

not

ments turned out negatively, and chimpanzees which had received injections of inactive products, took syphilis, when injected with the products of active human syphilitic chancres. They think that, to find a procedure for immunizing the chimpanzee against syphilis, it will be necessary to look elsewhere. From researches actively in progress, it appears to Metchnikoff and Roux, that they are more likely to succeed in their endeavors by passing syphilitic virus through the inferior catarrhines (Simiada), a species of monkeys which is more distantly related to the human race than the chimpanzees.

De Renzi's Opinions on the Treatment of Diabetes.-According to De Renzi (Berlin Kl. Woch., November 14th, 1904) diabetes is especially produced by overfeeding, which causes arthrit ism, or a slowing of the nutritive processes. Hereditary arthritism also causes diabetes in individuals who are not given to overeating. Treatment should be dietetic and hygienic. In order to produce a complete glycolysis, the hydrocarbons have been eliminated from the diet of the diabetic patients. Cantani has pushed an exclusive meat diet to such an extent as to expose diabetic patients to the acid dyscrasia, with diabetic coma as a consequence. De Renzi advises diabetic patients to use green vegetables, the hydrolysis of which does not produce glucose but levulose (fruitsugar), which is well borne by diabetic patients. For instance, if the glycosuria of a diabetic patient has been reduced to the normal level by the use of green vegetables, and he should take 25-100 grams of fruit-sugar, his glycosuria would not be increased thereby, which proves that the fruit-sugar has been completely consumed in his economy. De Renzi prescribes the following diet for diabetic patients: Five portions of green vegetables, 300 grams of meat, five eggs, and half a litre of wine, amounting in all to about 2.104 calories. Diabetic patients also take with advantage fruits which contain a considerable quantity of glucose in addition to levulose. De Renzi has not obtained from potatoes the same results as Mosse. He thinks this vegetable exercises an effect principally through the potash salts which it contains, and through its poverty in nutritive materials. Bodily exercise should be taken to increase the oxidation of tissue. Bicarbonate of sodium is the only medicament which seems to be useful.

The Action of the Rontgen Rays in a Case of Leucocythemia. -The prognosis and treatment of leucocythemia are so unfavorable that any treatment which produces a curative result in this disease deserves the highest commendation, and should be circulated in the medical journals. A case of leucocythemia treated successfully by the Rontgen rays was reported to the Berlin Medical Society, November 23rd, 1904, by Dr. Grawitz. The patient, a man of fifty-four, was in a state of advanced cachexia when seen during the preceding month (October). The proportion of red and white blood cells was 1:1; the liver and' spleen were considerably hypertrophied. After receiving twenty-three treatments by X-rays, the patient found that his general condition was vastly improved. The proportion of white blood cells' fell almost to the normal standard, and the liver and spleen were notably diminished in volume.

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Sulphur Baths in Lead Poisoning.—In the Scottish Med. and Surg. Journal, November, 1904, Dr. Theo. Ogg states that sulphur baths are most useful for all workers in lead, in order to procure the cleansing of the surface of the body from dust which adheres to it; sulphur baths may also be used as a vehicle for removing lead, which has already been absorbed and deposited in the tissues of the body. Lead may enter the body by the mouth, the respiratory organs and the skin. It enters principally by the mouth in the case of workmen who do not wash their hands before eating or who smoke during work, or who do not take the precautions of washing the mouth and brushing the teeth. Iodide of potassium eliminates lead from the body; this result is supposed to be produced by the formation of'a soluble compound of lead in the tissues, which is eliminated by the kidneys. Some authors attribute to the iodide of potassium a tendency to produce acute symptoms and to intensify already existing symptoms, as a result of the action of the soluble salt of lead which penetrates into the blood. Sulphur baths, sulpho-alkaline baths, and the drinking of sulphur waters of all kinds act as useful adjuvants to the, iodide of potassium. A sulphur bath at a temperature of 95 deg. F. and lasting for from half an hour to an hour, together with the injection of sulphur water into the bowel, diminish the risks of lead poisoning, which are due to the too rapid introduction of lead into the blood, without a corresponding elimination of