country districts. In Sydney the rate has fallen from 4109 to 29.01; in the country from 35:35 to 28.15. During the same period the illegitimate birth-rate has risen from 5:08 to 6:58 per hundred births for the whole colony, or from 7.65 to 9.79 for the metropolis. During 1897 the mothers under 18 years of age of illegitimate children totalled 264, as against 216 married mothers. One mother bore an illegitimate child at 12 years of age, while no less than 14 unmarried girls were under 15 years when they gave birth to infants. No less than 2,433 of these unhappy women registered their offspring during the year. In addition 251 children were born within one month of marriage of the parents, and of these 45 were born within a week. Over 2,000 children were born within seven months of the marriage of the parents.

Here we have a problem which legislation must deal with soon unless we are content to become a weak and degenerate country. The birth-rate is falling at an alarming rate; the illegitimate rate is increasing; nearly ten per cent. of the children born are conceived out of wedlock!

What are the causes which conduce to this state of affairs? Various answers are given to this question. By some it is asserted that the decrease in the birth-rate is due to altered cir cumstances. Many young men who were in good positions a few years ago have now insufficient means to allow them to take on the responsibilities of matrimony. But there are others who assert, and apparently with reason, that there is a growing disinclination on the part of young married women to become mothers. After marriage they do not wish to be troubled with children, and they either make use of artificial checks to conception or call in the aid of the abortionist. There is no shutting the eyes to the fact that the abortionist flourishes in Sydney; married women openly boast that they prevent conception, while some go so far as to procure abortion on themselves.

The Legislature must soon deal with this problem. Abortion must be put down, indecent advertisements must be suppressed, quack literature must be prevented from falling into the hands of our young people. Our wives and daughters must not have their senses offended by the announcements in the press and placarded throughout our chief thoroughfares that "Dr. So-and-So treats Private and Nervous Diseases," or removes irregularities from whatever cause arising. Is it too much to expect the guardians of our public morals to take up this subject which is eating the heart out of our young and otherwise healthy country?

INDIGENOUS VEGETABLE DRUGS.

MR. J. H. MAIDEN, Government Botanist and Director of the Botanic Gardens, Sydney, published in the October number of the Agricultural Gazette of New South Wales, an extremely valuable article on the above subject. The author has already published some valuable papers on the same subject, and we have read this, the latest, with genuine pleasure.

Mr. Maiden thinks we are very little indebted to the Australian aborigine for information as to the medical properties of our plants. He is inclined to think that native Australian drugs will probably be found peculiarly efficacious in the treatment of diseases, or modifications of diseases, which are co-extensive with their distribution. Here is a field for practical work among our brethren in the country districts, and some of them may feel disposed to take advantage of Mr. Maiden's offer to assist any medical man or chemist to get material for experimental purposes.

Most

A large number of native plants are described and their physiological and therapeutic actions commented upon. It is to be hoped that some of our medical men will take up this important subject. It will give us great pleasure to publish the results of such researches. countries have local remedies for local diseases, but Australia is contented for the most part to treat its endemic diseases according to old world methods, notwithstanding the fact that some of these ailments present local characteristics.

DR. WILLIAM PEPPER.*

DR. WILLIAM PEPPER died 28th July, 1898, of heart disease, at Pleasonton, California. Dr. Pepper was the son of a distinguished member of the Medical Profession, who made a name for himself as the Professor of the Theory and Practice of Medicine in the University of Pennsylvania. The son graduated in the same University in 1862, and became a teacher in his Alma Mater in 1868, for two years upon morbid anatomy, then for six years on clinical medicine, when he was appointed professor of that subject, and held the chair until 1884, when he succeeded Dr. Alfred Stille in the chair of the Theory and Practice of Medicine, the duties of which he performed up to the time of his death.

During his association with the University,

* For materials of this notice we are indebted to the International Dental Journal, Philadelphia, September, 1898.

around to do you honour. We ask you to accept this piece of plate, Matron, in taken of our goodwill, of our hearty good wishes for your welfare, and as a reminder that your honest work is not as bread cast on the waters, but is now bearing, and will continue to bear, good fruit.

Dr. MCCLELLAND, Medical Superintendent, said: Miss Gould, on behalf of the Resident Medical Staff, I ask you to accept this afternoon tea set as a memento of the esteem in which you are held by us. Dr. Evans has left me very little to say, but I heartily endorse every word which has been spoken by him. The Residents generally have very little to do with the Matron, but they can all speak well of the high degree of efficiency to which the nurses have attained under your training; while those of us who are the senior members of the Resident Staff, and have been brought into almost daily contact with you, can certainly affirm that the success of the Nursing Staff depends very largely upon the close attention to matters of detail, which you have always impressed upon the nurses as being so important. We feel, too, that owing to their excellent training by you the nurses have been of considerable help to the doctors. While we are sorry that you are going, we are glad to know that your place is to filled temporarily, and we trust permanently, by one who has received a thoroughly scientific and practical training from you, and we can assure Sister Creal that we will loyally stand by her and afford her every assistance possible. Again we ask you to accept this tea service, andour best wishes for a very successful future.

The ACTING MATRON (Sister Creal), on behalf of the nursing staff, presented Miss Gould with several valuable articles.

Mr. JONES (House Steward), on behalf of the executive officers, presented Miss Gould with a marble clock. Miss GOULD thanked all the donors for their valuable presents. She said as she was accustomed to speaking to the nurses she would try to think that they were the only people present, and address her remarks to them. She thanked them all for their loyal support. Like Miss Florence Nightingale, she had no faith in born nurses, but preferred those who had had a thorough practical training. She considered three years none too long to acquire that training. She was strongly opposed to any system of prizes for the nurses; that was all very well for school-girls, but not for nurses in a hospital. The knowledge that they had done their duty well should be sufficient reward. Their motto at the Sydney Hospital had been thoroughness rather than brilliancy. A lot of nonsense was sometimes spoken about lady nurses. She maintained that every nurse who was properly trained was a lady. As a member of the Royal British Nurses Association, she gave her decided opinion that a thorough training was essential before women called themselves trained nurses, and that they ought to have a system of registration out here similar to that in England, as it was not fair to the properly trained nurses nor to the public that women who, after a short experience in a hospital, and proving their unsuitability for nurses, should, on leaving, adopt nurse's uniform and style themselves trained nurses. Two attempts had been made to bring about the registration of nurses in Sydney. The later attempt failed through the death of Dr. Huxtable. She was pleased to think that her successor, as well as all the sisters at the Sydney Hospital, were colonials, and had been trained in the institution under her predecessor and herself. It showed that it was no longer necessary to import their nursing sisters; in fact, nurses trained in England had much to unlearn in coming to this climate. She was proud of having been trained in the colony herself.

NEW INVENTIONS.

FLETCHER'S AUTOMETRIC STOPPER.

THIS ingenious contrivance combines the advantages of a permanent stopper, which can neither break nor get fixed, and a graduated measure, always ready for use, and reserved for the one fluid for which it is provided,

By loosening the stopper, and slightly compressing the air chamber attached, any required volume of liquid can be instantly withdrawn from the bottle. It being unnecessary to pour out any of the contents, no spilling or other waste of liquid can occur. Moreover, the inconvenience incidental to the use of the ordinary minim measure, with the necessary washing and frequent breakage, is entirely obviated.

Medical men who have frequent occasion to measure small quantities of liquid will find Fletcher's Autometric Stopper invaluable for rapid and accurate work,

To Fill.-Dip the graduated tube in the liquid and compress the large ball. On relaxing the pressure the liquid will rise to the top of the tube.

To Measure.-Lightly press the small ball between the thumb and finger by placing the former on the letter P. This opens an air valve, aud allows any required quantity of liquid to flow out.

COMBINED URINOMETER AND THERMOMETER.

This is a very useful improvement upon the ordinary urinometer, and will prove of special value in examinations of candidates for assurance, now that most of the insurance companies insist that the persons desirous of obtaining a policy must pass the specimen in the presence of the medical examiner. This instrument, while indicating the specific gravity of the urine, also gives

VIBRONA CHAMPAGNE.

PUBLIC HEALTH.

During the year 1897 only 245 vaccinations were performed by Government Vaccinators in New South Wales. This is equal to 0.65 per 100 births registered, and is by far the smallest number recorded since the institution of public vaccination in 1861. Only six persons were vaccinated in the metropolitan area (Sydney and suburbs), all of these being over 10 years of age. Vaccinations were performed as follows in the country districts, viz. :-Bega, 17; Cootamundra, 5; Dubbo, 6; Emmaville, 17; Lithgow, 1; Orange, 8; Parramatta, 103; Quirindi, 67; Rylstone, 11; Warren 4. The cost of vaccinations in 1897 was £37.

On September 21st a medical practitioner at Lithgow. N.S.W., was summoned by the police under section 21 of the Public Health Act for neglecting to give notice to the local authorities of a case of diphtheria. A plea of guilty was recorded, and a fine of 5s. and costs imposed.

Diphtheria has been prevalent at Ulverstone, Tas.

For the month of September 14 cases of typhoid had been reported throughout Tasmania, and one death had resulted. For the same month 21 cases of scarlet fever had been notified, and 12 cases of diphtheria. One death had resulted from each cause. Measles had also been prevalent in different parts of the colony.

"The analysis of this wine was as follows:-Alcohol (by weight), 10.08 per cent.; ditto (by volume), 12:49 per cent. (equivalent to proof spirit 21.89 per cent.); total solid matter, 181 per cent.; mineral matter, 0.13 per cent.; sugar, 0-13 per cent.; fixed acids (calculated as tartaric), 0.87 per cent.; volatile acids (calculated as acetic), 0·0072 per cent. We have not examined a champagne presenting less sugar than is here shown. It is the smallest amount we have ever found in sparkling wines, and is practicably a negligible quantity. To the palate the wine is exceedingly dry,' just a suspicion only of an added bitter being evident. The wine contains five grains of standardised Cinchona Bark in the form of neutral hydrobromate. This addition in no wise spoils the delicate character of the wine itself, but on the contrary has rather a pleasant effect on the palate. The wine was in perfectly sound condition, and possessed, as the analysis also shows, practically no volatile acidity as represented in acetic acid. The sample submitted to us yielded on suitable treatment with solvents, the principles of Cinchona Bark, which, occurring in the form of neutral hydrobromates, are well tolerated, and without the unpleasant effect known as cinchonism.' The wine has a pleasing, delicate, vinous flavour. Its tonic value will be readily conceded from the results of our analysis."- April 30th,

1898.

MEDICAL PRACTICE IN RISING TOWN IN QUEENS

LAND FOR SALE. Appointments-Hospital, £200 per annum ; Health Officer, £25 a year in fees; Friendly Societies, about 120 members. Cash Practice from £600 to £700 per annum. Price £200. For further particulars apply to T. H. Houghton, Civil Engineer, 12 Spring Street, Sydney.

nature.

At a meeting of the Tasmanian Central Board of Health recently the secretary drew attention to the rapid increase taking place locally in the number of Mr. Mault said, in his opinion, the bodies embalmed. subject was one of such importance from a public standpoint that the Board should have some supervision over it. If it were allowed to become a general custom, he considered that it would be the means of

The opening the door to a number of illegal acts. subject was discussed at some length, but no definite understanding was arrived at.

VITAL STATISTICS.

NEW SOUTH WALES.-The Registrar-General has recently issued his annual report on the vital statistics of the colony for 1897. The ages of mothers of children registered ranged from 12 years to 50; that of the fathers from 17 to 78. There were 417 cases of twin births (415 males, 418 females); 1 of triplets (3 males. 1 stillborn); 1 of quadruplets, at Sydney, the youngest of the four being stillborn. 6.58 per cent, of the births were illegitimate.

SYDNEY.-There were 1,042 births and 576 deaths registered in Sydney during September. The principal causes of death were:-Measles, 66; influenza, 9; puerperal fever, 5; diphtheria, 5; typhoid fever, 2; bronchitis, 32; pneumonia, 60; cancer, 29; phthisis, 40; scarlet fever, 2; whooping cough, 19.

MELBOURNE.-The chief causes of death in greater Melbourne during September were as follows:-Measles, 15; diphtheria, 7; cancer, 30; phthisis, 69; scarlet

fever, 2; whooping cough, 2; bronchitis, 26; typhoid fever, 2; pneumonia, 71. There were in all 1,045 births and 548 deaths registered during the month.

BALLARAT.-There were 4 deaths from measles, 1 from diphtheria, 1 from cancer, 6 from phthisis, 2 from bronchitis, and 10 from pneumonia during the month of September. There were in all 60 deaths.

ADELAIDE. There were 115 births and 80 deaths in Adelaide during August. The principal causes of death were :- - Measles, 2; cancer, 3; phthisis, 9; old age, 10; pneumonia, 2.

HOBART AND LAUNCESTON.-During September 144 births were registered, with 87 deaths. There was 1 death from scarlet fever in Launceston.

BRISBANE. During the month of September there were 168 births and 107 deaths registered in Brisbane. The principal causes of death were: Measles, 11; scarlet fever, 18; diphtheria, 3; cancer, 6; phthisis, 22; pneumonia, 8; enteritis, 8.

NEW ZEALAND.-In the four boroughs of Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, and Dunedin there were, during September, 8 deaths from measles, 14 from cancer, 15 from phthisis, 18 from heart disease, 13 from bronchitis, and 17 from pneumonia.

UNIVERSITY AND HOSPITAL INTELLIGENCE.

APPOINTMENTS AT THE PRINCE ALFRED HOSPITAL, SYDNEY.

AT the last meeting of the conjoint board, consisting of the Senate of the University and the directors of the Prince Alfred Hospital, Mr. F. A. Bennet, M.A., M.D., Ch.M. Aberdeen, was appointed honorary physician for diseases of the skin; Mr. G. T. Hankins, M R.C.S., was appointed honorary surgeon for diseases of the ear, throat, and nose; Mr. Cecil E. Purser, B. A., M. B., Ch. M., was elected an honorary physician in the room of Dr. G. E. Rennie, resigned, and Mr. E. M. Pain, M.B., Ch. M., was elected medical superintendent

of the hospital in the room of Dr. F. J. T. Sawkins. The British Medical Association has granted a research scholarship of £150 to Dr. G. Elliot Smith, of Sydney, and now of St. John's College, Cambridge, for the purpose of enabling him to undertake an investigation into the changes in the brain in general paralysis

of the insane.

Hobart General Hospital.-The balcony in front has been completed at a cost of £1000, and is a fine piece of work.

OBITUARY.

nature with which he has not been associated; and the fact that he left no room for others to take an active part will render it all the more difficult to replace him. It is impossible to enumerate all of them. Perhaps the one which stands out most prominently is the Children's Hospital. Since its foundation he has been its mainstay, guiding it with a firm hand through many difficulties, until it has grown from a small beginning into a large institution, of which any colony may be proud. His first consideration in this, as in many of his acts, was for the sick children, but he also determined that the hospital should exert a wider sphere of usefulness. This was first manifested by making it a training school for nurses; then its wards were placed at the disposal of the medical school; and finally, when bacteriology became a necessary equipment for medical laboratory at the hospital, and opened its doors for the purposes, he strongly advocated the establishment of a action is characteristic of the man. use of practitioners outside the hospital. This latter He made no pretensions to being a practical scientist, but he was quick to grasp the practical application of scientists' work. In respect to bacteriology, his action supplied a want which the Government did not see their way clear to supply at the time, and there can be no doubt that thereby the public health has been the gainer. It has further been justified by the manner in which the profession has availed itself of the advantages of the laboratory.

The District Trained Nurses Society was another philanthropy into which he threw his whole heart and soul. He not only was concerned in the initiation of this work, but he worked hard and successfully to establish it on a firm foundation. It was a characteristic of his that, having put his hand to the plough, he never looked backwards; and perhaps, had he spared himself more, he might have lived longer.

medical profession has been referred to. Only last The extension of the laboratory privileges to the July the Institute of Hygiene and Bacteriology was objects being to further extend the advantages of the founded under the auspices of Dr. Campbell, the Institute, and to create a society for educating public laboratory by placing it under the control of this opinion on health matters. This Institute will feel his

loss more than most of the others with which he was

connected, because it is still in its juvenile phase of existence; but it is to be hoped that its members will determine to exert themselves to make it a success he delivered to the Institute dealt with tuberculosis in honour of his memory. The inaugural address which from a public health point of view, and the grasp of the subject, as well as the masterly style of delivery, were worthy of the occasion. It is an open secret that had his life been prolonged he intended to organise a crusade against consumption, so deeply was he imbued with its terrible consequences and its possibilities of cure, and there is not the shadow of a doubt that he

M.L.C.

THE death of the Hon. Dr. Campbell leaves a void in the ranks of the medical profession in South Australia which it will be difficult to fill. He was the chief-one might say the sole-representative of the profession in active philanthropic work, and for many years he has been the only medical member of the legislature. In regard to philanthropic work, it must not be assumed that other medical men were not interested in it, but Dr. Campbell made such work his specialty, and performed it so efficiently that there was little cause for others to intervene. Since he came to the colony, 30 years ago, there is probably not a single work of that

hope that his mantle has fallen on someone's shoulders who will take up this important matter.

Nor was his career as a legislator less distinguished than his career as a philanthropist, To have represented one constituency for twenty years in the Legislative Council shows the confidence felt in him.

He could always be relied upon to represent the best interests of the medical profession in Parliament, but those who were associated with him in endeavouring to amend the Health Bill now before the House of Assembly can testify that while he had every consideration for his profession, he had a greater consideration for the health of the people. The time and