Notes

Abstract

IN his address to the French Association, at the recent Boulogne meeting, Dr. P. Brouardel took as his theme “Hygiene and its Progress during the last 100 Years.” He paid special homage to the memory of the great Englishman and Frenchman, Jenner and Pasteur, who had done so much for the promotion of medical science. The first operation in vaccination made in France was performed at Boulogne, June 18, 1800. A public monument—a statue of Jenner—records the event. Referring to some preventive diseases, Dr. Brouardel remarked that in the French army the mortality from typhoid fever is now about 12 in 10,000, and in the present state of the water supply of many towns it is believed that this mortality will not be much reduced. In the German army, however, the mortality from typhoid fever is as low as 1 and 2 per 10,000, owing doubtless to the fact that an order of a Government authority addressed to any municipal body is immediately carried out, so that an impure water supply has soon to be replaced by a better one. But though some French municipalities are indifferent to their responsibilities, others do their duty well, and the mortality from typhoid fever for the whole of France is only 3 per 10,000. Dr. Brouardel referred to several other subjects which came within the range of preventive medicine.