180 
TREATMENT OF POST-NASAL CATARRH. 
s o compared to the recognized scale of British standards, the Commission express their 
hope that the sanction for which they ask may be extended to include every kind of 
standard in the Standards Office, and especially standards on the metric system, the want 
of which is already experienced by manufacturers of standards, men of science, and 
mechanical engineers. 
“ 15. As an important matter for maintaining the high character of the Standards 
Office, the Commission have remarked with pleasure the efforts made by the Warden of 
the Standards for the formation of a Standards Library. Many papers have been pre¬ 
sented by the Presidents and Councils of the Royal Society and the Royal Astronomical 
Society; others by the Superintendents of the Standards Departments of France, Prussia, 
and the United States of North America. The translations of these, and compilations 
from them, made by the Warden of Standards, to be annexed as appendix to a subse¬ 
quent report, will probably be found to convey the most valuable information which this 
country yet possesses on the standard systems of those countries generally, and particu¬ 
larly on the regulations and working of the metric system. Other official and historical 
documents have been derived from other sources. 
“ 16. It will be evident from the premises that the internal business of the Standards 
Office has greatly increased. In addition to the large demands for the services of clerks in 
the formation of the laborious abstracts to which we have alluded, and in the extension 
of correspondence domestic and foreign, a great amount of labour, both mechanical and 
clerical, has been thrown upon the office by the requirement of the reveritication of the 
local and official standards at stated intervals. Applications for increased personal 
assistance in the office, made by the Warden of Standards, and supported by the recom¬ 
mendation of the Commission, have been favourably received by the Board of Trade. 
“ 17. In a late discussion in the House of Commons on the question of introducing into 
this country the metric system, the Vice-President of the Board of Trade, speaking for 
your Majesty’s Government, stated, as a reason for taking no immediate steps, that the 
Government desired to wait until they should have received the opinion of this Commis¬ 
sion on the working of the metric system, and on the probable effect of attempting to 
introduce it in this country. The members of the Commission have not yet had time 
sufficiently to examine the papers bearing on this subject, and the Commission are 
therefore unable at present to express an opinion. The Commission, however, are aware 
of the great importance of the question, and will not fail to give to it their early and 
careful attention. 
“ All which we humbly submit to your Majesty. 
“G. B. Airy, Chairman. 
“ Colchester. 
“ Stephen Cate. 
“John George Shaw Lefevre. 
“Edward Sabine. 
“Thomas Graham. 
“W. H. Miller. 
“H. W. Chisholm. 
“ 7, Old Palace Yard, July 24, 1868.” 
TREATMENT OF POST-NASAL CATARRH. 
Dr. Horace Dobell, Senior Physician to the Royal Hospital for Diseases of the Chest, 
sends us a note on this subject:—“ In 1854, I read to the Observation Society of St. 
Bartholomew’s Hospital a paper on a common complaint, to which I gave the name 
‘ Post-nasal catarrh.’ So far as I am aware, it has not previously been described as a 
distinct affection, although, doubtless, it must have long been familiar to medical men. 
Subsequent experience having fully confirmed the accuracy of the account of the disease 
which I drew up in 1854, I published an abstract of my original paper in an appendix 
to my work ‘On Winter Cough’ in 1866, to which I may refer those who are interested 
in the subject.” (‘Lancet,’ June 9th, 1866.) 
“In that abstract I purposely omitted the treatment of the disease, because I had not 
then quite decided which was the best of the many plans I had tried. I propose now, 
in as few words as possible, to supply the omission referred to. Although at first sight 
