971

having no appreciable acidity like the moorland waters oi

Derbyshire, except that which is due to carbonic acid,

We are surprised to find that no mention is made in the

report of goitre or 11 Derbyshire neck," the prevalenceof which has been notorious in the county and ascribed

to the fact of the highly mineralised state of the

waters derived from the coal measures. Since Derwent

water is so pure and soft we should have thought that thispoint would have been urged with some emphasis in favourof the Derwent Valley scheme.

DIARRHŒA OR GASTRO-ENTERITIS.

THE large number of deaths from infantile diarrhoea whichhave occurred in all parts of the country during the past fewweeks once more emphasises the importance of a uniformnomenclature of diseases. The Registrar-General includesunder the heading of 11 diarrhoea" only such deaths as are dueto that disease, although it is well known that when a praeti-tioner records the cause of death as "gastro-enteritis"he is only expressing in different terms the meaning of hisneighbour who prefers to write on the death certificate

merely 11 diarrhoea." As diarrhoea is included among theseven principal zymotic diseases it is evident that for

comparative purposes the zymotic death-rates during thesummer months as given by the Registrar-General are

absolutely valueless, for the district in which it is thecustom to certify the cause of death as "gastro-enteritis"

"

will apparently have a much lower rate than one wherethe same disease is called "diarrhoea." That such is

actually the case is well shown from the August returnsrelating to three large towns in South Wales havingan aggregate population of nearly 250,000. Merthyr,with a population of 72,000, had a I I diarrhoea death-rateamong children under five years of age equal to 5’5 per 1000persons living per annum ; Pontypridd, with a population of38,000, had a rate equal to 7 0 per 1000; and Rhondda, witha population of 124,000, one equal to 11-6 per 1000. Butthe death-rate at the same age-period in these towns duringAugust from diarrhoea plus gastro-enteritis-that is to say,the real diarrhoea death-rate-was in Pontypridd equal to18 per 1000 yearly and in Merthyr and Rhondda equal to22 per 1000. If we adopt the nomenclature of the Registrar-General the diarrhoea rate in Rhondda is double that of

Merthyr though in reality it is exactly the same ; his figuresagain would place the Pontypridd rate at 1’5 per 1000 abovethe rate for Merthyr, whereas the true rate is 4 0 per 1000below. That the Registrar-General is aware of, and appre-ciates, these discrepancies is evident from the fact that inthe more recent weekly returns of births and deaths he drawsattention in the paragraph which treats of diarrhoea inLondon to the number of deaths from gastro-enteritis amongchildren under five years of age.

STATE AID IN SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH.

AN instractive comparison appears in an article in theTimes of Sept. 30th of the advances made in scientificresearch in England and in Germany, and it is shown thatin spite of State assistance in the latter country still

England records greater results of progress. This

important place in the present progress of scientific

knowledge which England proudly occupies is due, accord-ing to Dr. Siemens, to the work of rich independentmen of science. "Without these dilettante,’ " he

remarks, "she would be nowhere." As an instance he

quotes the work that was performed in England in privatelaboratories which was devoted to the determination of theexact value of the units of electrical measurement. In

Germany State assistance to the progress of science waslimited to providing instruction in physical science, and thus

real research after all was left to private effort. There wasno support provided for original work. On whose side, then,is the reproach 7 Until recent years no State assistance was

offered in this country for the pursuit of original investiga-tion, so that practically all the splendid discoveries withwhich English scientific men are justly accredited are theoutcome of private research actuated by a desire to seek thetruth for the truth’s sake. In the application of these dis-coveries Germany has certainly not been behindhand in adapt-ing them for the improvement of the arts and industries ;England, on the contrary, has, oddly enough, been slowto recognise the value of the application of her own dis-coveries to technical occupation. But public opinion haslargely been drawn to this fact and there is promise now ofa movement being organised which will give not only apowerful stimulus to original research but also to the

application to manufacture of the fresh knowledgegained by these inquiries. Mention need only be made ofthe scheme for the enlargement of the Government PhysicalLaboratory at Kew, where researches in theoretical and

applied science are to be carried out, and of the research

laboratory presented to the nation by Dr. LudwigMond. As the Times points out it is interesting to

note that while Government aid has been necessary to

bring about the initiation of the Kew scheme,.private effortin a similar scheme was sufficient in the case of Germany rand only at a later stage did the German Government takethe financial responsibility of their research laboratories,thus affording a striking example of a reversal of the usua

procedure in the two countries.

SERIOUS ILLNESS OF GIOSUE CARDUCCI.

AT Bologna, in the university of which he holds the chairof Italian Literature with a supplementary lectureship on theliterature of the Romance languages, Giosue Carducci, Italy’sgreatest poet since Alessandro Manzoni, is lying dangerouslyill-so ill, in fact, as to plunge his compatriots into some-thing like the solicitude and anxiety universal nine monthsago throughout the English-speaking world at the life-and-death struggle fought out by Rudyard Kipling. 14 years agoSignor Carducci suffered from cerebral thrombosis with slightdifficulty in moving the tongue and right arm. Happilysurmounted with no apparent sinister sequoias the,lesion reappeared on the morning of Sept. 25th withdistinct aggravation of the old symptoms. Though feeling" not very well" he yet attempted to go out as usual but hadvery shortly to return in "considerable nervous perturbation,"’and immediately thereafter was seen by his distinguishedcolleague Dr. Antonio Murri, professor of clinical medi-cine. Rest, absolute and continuous rest, is what Dr. Murri

prescribes, all the more that he traces the reappearance ofthe malady to the severe mental strain which Signor Carduccihas been imposing upon himself in preparing an edition ofMuratori’s monumental work, the " Rerum Italicarum Scrip-tores." He had, it seems, been prosecuting his editoriallabours all the summer even in his favourite villeggiatura atMadesimo on the Italian slope of the Splugen Pass andwas already far advanced in a learned critical prefacewhen he returned to Bologna for the winter session very littleable for its duties. Struck down on Sept. 25th, as stated,he is now being vigilantly tended until the expected im-provement so far sets in as to admit of his being conveyedto some quiet resort, presumably in his native Tuscany,sheltered from adverse winds yet open to the restorativesea-breeze. That improvement, indeed, is well-nigh alreadyvisible, and he was able not only to be informed of thenumerous inquiries received daily by telegraph as to his

condition, but even to dictate a brief reply to the affectionatedispatch which reached him on Sept. 29th from QueenMargherite. The author of the "Odi Barbare" which