351 
Extracts from British and Foreign Journals. 
THE NEW MEDICAL APPOINTMENTS AT THE PRIVY 
COUNCIL OEEICE. 
We are very glad to learn that the new arrangements in 
the Medical Department of the Privy Council are now com¬ 
plete, and that Dr. Buchanan and Air. J. Netten RadclifFe 
have been definitely appointed ^^sanitary inspectors/^ and are 
to be charged with the execution of all sanitary inquiries 
which Mr. Simon may think fit to direct. This kind of work 
has hitherto been executed in a fragmentary manner by 
various gentlemen whom the Medical Officer of the Privy 
Council w^as able to secure at the moment when any special 
inquiry became necessary ; and it is obvious that, however 
ably the work may have been done—and in many cases it 
has been very ably done—the method of working was full of 
disadvantages. The post of sanitary inspector assuredly 
ought to be a permanent one, in order that the person hold¬ 
ing it may gain that experience which only long familiarity 
with the work can give him. 
On the merits of the two gentlemen now appointed, and 
who are, we suppose, to be regarded as the successors at some 
future time to the chair which Air. Simon so ably fills, it is 
really unnecessary to say a word. The profession will unani¬ 
mously agree that two abler naen, or better fitted both by 
personal character and special attainments for the work before 
them, could not have been found.— Lancet. 
I 
THE EDINBURGH CATTLE PLAGUE REPORTS AND THE 
UNITED STATES OE AMERICA. 
Oer readers doubtless remember the elaborate reports on 
rinderpest drawn up by Dr. Andrew^ Smart, acting under the 
instructions of the Lord Provost and magistrates of Edin¬ 
burgh, and which were published in our columns at the 
time. The reports w'ere characterised by earnest practical 
and experimental inquiry, and the conclusions arrived at by 
Dr. Smart were the result of a careful study of the disease as 
it appeared in this country. The subject of cattle plague or 
rinderpest has for some time been under discussion by the 
New York State Agricultural Society, with a view to gather 
VOL. XLII. 25 
