FACTS AND OBSERVATIONS. 
2 77 
divided iron ore with charcoal. Mr. Spencer, whose name 
is connected with the discovery of the electrotype, has for 
some time been advocating the use of a filter of this descrip- 
tion. Its power of rendering water beautifully transparent, 
and apparently free from all organic matter, is its strong 
•recommendation .-— Journal of the Society of Arts. 
Privy Council Inspectors. — We understand that Dr. 
Thorne, who has been very successfully engaged for several 
years as an occasional inspector under the Privy Council, 
and who more especially led to the exposure of the causes of 
the Terling epidemic, has been appointed to a permanent 
position under the Privy Council . — British Medical Journal . 
Entozoa and Sewage. — A second paper on this subject 
has been communicated by Dr. Cobbold to a meeting of the 
Association of Officers of Health. After the reading of the 
paper the discussion on the general question was resumed by 
Dr.Letheby,Dr. Stallard, Dr. Hawksley, Mr. Hawksley, C.E., 
Mr. Holland, and others, with great warmth. Dr. Cobbold 
recorded a number of entirely new experiences in reference to 
the development of Bilharzia , showing that the larvse of this 
remarkable entozoon could neither develope itself in urine nor 
live for any length of time in water tainted with the slightest 
impurity. Condy’s fluid, carmine solution, small quantities 
of sherry or alcohol, and even decaying vegetable and animal 
matters, quickly poisoned the larvse. This experience, how- 
ever, was altogether exceptional ; for the larvae of ascarides 
and their allied forms of entozoa appeared to be most vigorous 
when reared in solutions containing mud, decaying matters, 
and excremental filth obtained from the higher animals. — 
Ibid. 
[We give Dr. Cobbold's original paper in our present 
number, and hope in our next to publish his second com- 
munication on this important subject.] 
Smallpox and its Prevention.— At the meeting of the 
Medical Society of London on February 27th, Dr. Edwards 
Crisp read a paper on this subject. The subjoined are some 
of the conclusions arrived at by the author. No deleterious 
effect is produced on the human constitution by the introduc- 
tion of cow-pox matter — an inference greatly strengthened by 
the fact that, since the introduction of vaccination, the popula- 
tion of the United Kingdom has nearly doubled. Govern- 
ment hospitals should be established in the metropolis, in 
suitable localities, and provided with proper vehicles for the 
conveyance of patients, and with proper heat-chambers for 
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