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SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. VIII. No, 201. 



of causing any hardship, have been accompanied 

 by extraordinary growth in the property of 

 New York medical schools. The report for 

 1897 showed an increase since 1893 of more 

 than 100 per cent, in total property, and of 

 nearly 100 per cent, in annual receipts. Since 

 that time even this great increase has grown 

 still larger, especially in Greater New York. 

 The University and Bellevue Hospital Medical 

 College has the fine new building erected in 

 1897 by the Faculty of the Bellevue Hospital 

 Medical College. The College of Physicians 

 and Surgeons, with the Vanderbilt Clinic, 

 doubled in size by the additional gift in 1895 of 

 $350,000, and the Sloan Maternity Hospital, 

 greatly enlarged in 1897, now make the most 

 complete plant in existence for scientific med- 

 ical education. The Polhemus Memorial Clinic 

 has been completed and thoroughly equipped 

 since the last report, providing accommodations 

 for the out-patient and medical school depart- 

 ments of the Long Island College Hospital. 

 The intention of Mrs. Polhemus, that every- 

 thing pertaining to the construction and equip- 

 ment of this building should be of the most ap- 

 proved type, has certainly been carried out. 

 Through the medical division of the Flower 

 Hospital, opened in 1896, the New York Home- 

 opathic Medical College now gives an excellent 

 opportunity for the study of practical medicine. 

 The New York Medical College and Hospital 

 for Women has just opened its handsome new 

 building in West 101st street. Last, but not 

 least, $1,500,000, the greatest amount ever de- 

 voted by one person at one time to purposes of 

 medical instruction, has just been given to 

 build, equip and endow the new medical depart- 

 ment of Cornell University in New York City. 

 The Annates cV oculistique, as quoted in the 

 London Times, reports an important decision 

 on 'Scientific Criticism of Proprietary Arti- 

 cles,' given in March last by the civil tribu- 

 nal of the Department of Seine-Inferieure. 

 The time during which an appeal might be 

 lodged having elapsed, it has now become an 

 expression of the French law upon the point. 

 The question arose in an action for damages, to 

 the extent of 20,000 francs, brought by a firm of 

 opticians in Paris against Dr. Javal, the Director 

 of the Ophthalmological Laboratory of the Sor- 



bonne. The plaintiffs were the proprietors of 

 a glass containing baryta, from which they man- 

 ufacture spectacle lenses, which were described 

 as ' isometropic,' and were extensively adver- 

 tised as possessing special excellencies. Dr. 

 Javal instructed two of his assistants, MM. Du- 

 rault and Tscherning, to institute a careful ex- 

 amination of the glass and of the lenses made 

 from it, and to report fully to him upon the 

 subject. They carried out his instructions, and 

 reported that the differences between baryta 

 glass and ordinary glass were insignificant; 

 that they were not in favor of the former, and 

 that the ' isometropic ' lenses did not offer any 

 advantages to purchasers. Dr. Javal published 

 this report by presenting it to the French Acad- 

 emy of Medicine, and hence the action. The 

 Court decided that a scientific man might rightly 

 examine and criticise, on public grounds, any 

 manufactured article for which special merits 

 were claimed, and they found for the defendant 

 upon all the issues, condemning the plaintiff in 

 costs. The decision has been received with 

 much satisfaction by the medical profession in 

 France, and the liberty thus secured is likely 

 to be employed with reference to many pharma- 

 ceutical preparations and alleged remedies. 



The Annual Congress of the Sanitary Institute 

 of Great Britain was opened at Birmingham on 

 September 17th with an attendance of 800 mem- 

 bers. In his presidential address, as reported 

 in the British Medical Journal, Sir Joseph Fay- 

 rer surveyed the progress of preventive medi- 

 cine or hygiene during recent times. In bring- 

 ing about that progress the Sanitary Institute 

 had taken an important part. He described 

 the conditions under which the people lived 

 fifty years ago, and contrasted them with the 

 present conditions. Upwards of 200 millions 

 had been spent on sanitary work with great 

 benefit to the public health. Popular teaching 

 ing and example and the general diffusion of 

 of education were still necessary in order to 

 convince the proletariat of what so intimately 

 concerned their vital interests. It would perhaps 

 not be until the more complete organization of 

 the public health administration under a Minis- 

 ter of Public Health were effected that the full 

 benefits of sanitary legislation would be realized, 

 and the people attain to that standard of healtb 



