514 



SCIEJSCE. 



[Vol. 7111., No. 20O 



doubt. At Szegedin, in the first nine days of its 

 existence, 284 persons had been attacked, of which 

 number 124 had died. In Trieste in one week 

 there were 70 cases, of which 39 were fatal. The 

 disease has existed in this city certainly since 

 June, during which time it has attacked 859 per- 

 sons, 271 of whom have succumbed. The disease 

 has also ravaged Istria, having had since July, in 

 that province alone, 662 victims, with 368 deaths. 

 The appearance of this malady in Buenos Ayres 

 seems to be well authenticated, and some of the 

 southern ports of our own country, notably Gal- 

 veston and New Orleans, which ate in commercial 

 intercourse with that country, have already insti- 

 tuted a quarantine against it. It is said that there 

 are a number of vessels due in these two ports 

 from Buenos Ayres about Christmas. 



— The St, Petersburg Oriental review of Nov. 

 4 says that the eminent Mongolian explorer 

 Potanin returned safely on the 22d of October to 

 the Siberian frontier town of Kiachta, after an 

 absence of three years spent in the exploration of 

 Mongolia and China. Throughout his long and 

 difficult journey, Mr. Potanin was accompanied 

 by his wife. The expedition was undertaken 

 by order and at the expense of the Imperial 

 Russian geographical society ; and the Oriental 

 review says, " "We expect the richest and most valu- 

 able results from this scientific exploration of 

 China and Mongolia. 



— The meeting of the next oriental congress has 

 been postponed until 1890. The executive com- 

 mittee of the congress is preparing a memorial, 

 which will be signed by the Archduke Renier, to 

 the trustees of the British museum and the British 

 secretary of state for home affairs, praying that 

 a bill be introduced into parliament empowering 

 the museum to lend the oriental manuscripts in its 

 possession to foreign savants. 



— The physical hydrographic field-work of the 

 coast survey in New York bay and harbor has 

 closed for the season, and Professor Mitchell 

 is now at the home office working up his notes. 

 The computations of pendulum work of Lieuten- 

 ant Greely's party at Lady Franklin Bay are ex- 

 pected to be completed by Dec. 1. The coast 

 survey report for 1885 will be ready for distribu- 

 tion about Jan. 1. It contains a number of val- 

 uable appendices, among them ' The magnetic dip 

 intensities,' by C. A. Schott, and 'The currents and 

 temperatures of the Gulf Stream,' by Lieut. J. E. 

 Pilsbury, U.S.N. Owing to the lack of funds to 

 prosecute the topographic work in California, all 

 operations there will be closed for the season 

 about Dec. 15. 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 



*t* Correspondents are requested to he as brief as possible. The 

 writer's name is in all cases required as proof of good faith. 



Laws against quacks. 



My attention has been called to an editorial note 

 on 13. 447 of Science (viii. No. 198), in which,, 

 apropos of a recent arrest of one violating the law 

 regulating the practice of medicine in this state, in- 

 justice is done to the Medical society of the county 

 of New York. 



I assume that this injustice, which seems to have 

 arisen out of a misapprehension both of the law and 

 the facts of the case, was of course unintentional^ 

 and that you will give equal publicitj'' to the state- 

 ment of the counsel of that society, who caused the 

 arrest, and was successful in the action, which, as 

 you said, was brought against him for damages. 



The part of your note to which I except runs as 

 follows : "It is absurd as a matter of common sense 

 that registration in one county should not be suffi- 

 cient, rather than that a man should be required to 

 register in all the counties of the state if he desires 

 to practise in them ; and, as appears from an un- 

 written oijinion given by two judges of the supreme 

 court of this state, it is equally absurd as a matter of 

 law." As to the absurdity, from the stand-point of 

 common sense, of requiring registration in every 

 county in which a physician regularly practises, I 

 venture to differ with you : that is a mere matter of 

 opinion. The object of the law is to provide in. 

 every county a list of physicians regularly practising 

 therein, for the information of the public and the 

 protection of physicians against proseciition. The 

 construction you give the law would necessitate the 

 examination of the records in the offices of sixty 

 county clerks, before any prosecution could be com- 

 menced ; and you might with as much justice declare 

 it a hardship to require a judgment to be docketed in 

 every county in which it is to be enforced. The 

 only theorj' on which it is absurd to require a phy- 

 sician moving from one county to another to register 

 in the latter, is this : that the act of registration per 

 se has some saving grace whereby a physician who 

 performs it becomes wiser and more skilful in his 

 calling. But, unless registration is analogous to bap- 

 tism, I fail to see the absurdity you declare exists ; 

 although I readily admit that a state registration law, 

 like that provided for in the medical act of Great 

 Britain, would be a great improvement over the 

 present clumsy system. The second part of your 

 sentence, however, is a statement, not of oiainion, 

 but of fact, and is absolutely incorrect. No judge 

 or judges in this state have rendered any such 

 opinion as you mention. On the contrary, four years 

 ago, in the case of Hayes vs. Webster, — an action 

 against the president of the county society for mali- 

 cious prosecution in causing the arrest of a practi- 

 tioner registered in Queens county, — Judge Freed- 

 man, of the superior court of this city, directed a 

 verdict for defendant on the ground that not only 

 was the arrest on probable cause, but that it was 

 President Webster's duty to make it. In the case 

 against myself, to which you refer, Judge Lewis of 

 the supreme couit directed a verdict in my favor on 

 the plaintiff's own testimony, upon the same grounds. 

 The criminal courts have held in the same way In 

 Texas, under a statute like ours, the court of appeals 

 has held, that, on removal from one county to 

 another, a physician must register anew. The court 

 said, "The object of the law was to protect the 



