0'0001 cubic centimetre. It should only be employed in the absence of fever. Recently special preparations of this form of tuberculin have been employed for diagnostic purposes by the production of a local instead of a general reaction. Thus, the ophthalmo-reaction of Calmette is based on the use of a purified solution of " Old Tuberculin." Von Pirquet has shown that a specially prepared solution of 11 Old Tuberculin " may be used for vaccinating the arm or thigh; and Moro has advocated the use

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... of an ointment of "Old Tuberculin as a local diagnostic agent. New Tuberculin B.E. differs from New Tuberculin T.R. in containing a small proportion of the water-soluble toxins similar to those that are present in "Old Tuberculin." It is standardised to contain five milligrammes of dried tubercle bacilli in each cubic centimetre and is therefore half the strength in bacilli of New Tuberculin T.R. It is less often used than the latter and is given in similar doses which are reckoned in fractional parts of a milligramme of dried tubercle bacilli. ____ FACIO-SCAPULO-HUMERAL MYOPATHY. PECULIAR interest attaches to the record, given by Professor Landcuzy and M. Lortat-Jacob in La Presse Médicale of Feb. 2íth, of a case of family facio-scapulo-humeral myopathy, type Landouzy-Dejerine, inasmuch as it concerns a patient whose condition served for the original description of this variety of myopathy published by Professor Landouzy 30 years ago. Within recent years there has been a distinct tendency in the direction of the simplification of the various forms of myopathy, and evidence has been brought forward to suggest the absence of any real distinction between myelopathic and myopathic muscular atrophies, so-called. The occurrence of spinal-cord changes in peroneal muscular atrophy, for instance, and in other progressive myopathies has led to the denial of the existence of any true muscular dystrophy. In any case, where both muscular and spinal changes have been remarked, their degree has been so commensurate as to render the determination of the seat of the primary lesion a matter of considerable difficulty. The nature of the pathological alterations in the muscles has been thought to facilitate the distinction of the two types, but even where these alterations have been of the myopathic type changes have been found in the cord. The patient whose case forms the subject of the above communication was one of two brothers who came under the notice of Professor Landouzy at the age of 17 years and who died from pulmonary tuberculosis in 1902, aged 45. He was under constant observation for almost 30 years. In his youth he presented the characteristic involvement of the muscles of the face and shoulder and upper arm which is distinguished as the facio-scapulo-humeral variety, and the disease slowly progressed until he was permanently crippled. For the last 17 years of his life he was confined to bed, unable to sit up, unable to do anything for himself except with the flexors of his fingers. At no time was fibrillation in the affected muscles observed, nor was cutaneous sensibility affected. Electric excitability was diminished in proportion to the degree of wasting of the muscles. At the necropsy a minute and painstaking dissection of the musculature was made and the skeleton was preserved and subsequently mounted. To the naked eye most of the muscles appeared simply as pale yellow fibrous sheets ; those of the face could not be distinguished at all, even by the microscope ; in the arms the flexors were of a pale rose tint; one of them, the flexor carpi ulnaris, was the solitary arm muscle unaffected. It is interesting to note this relative preservation of the flexors. Several of the muscles were yellow, with a few pink muscle bundles visible here and there. Microscopical examination showed that even in the most degenerated muscles the pathological process was unequally distributed. The skeleton was thin and slender ; the long bones were rarefied and the thorax and pelvis deformed. A series of beautiful radiographs illustrates the honeycombed and lace-like texture of the bones. But the remarkable fact remains to be noted that the cells of the anterior horns of the spinal cord, by Nissl's method, and of the bulbar centres, were, with few exceptions, perfectly normal, and this in spite of a progressive muscular disease of 30 years' duration. Similarly, the peripheral nerves appeared normal. Thus the original account of the disease as a true myopathic atrophy, without any change in the central or peripheral nervous systems, receives ample justification. MEDICAL MEN AND PATIENTS' WILLS. IN our issue of March 6th we made certain comments under the above heading upon a case then recently heard and settled before Mr. Justice Bigham. We have since ascertained that the facts before the court and connected with the settlement of the action did not justify all the words we published. In the circumstances we desire to retract the comments we made upon the subject. Especially do we desire to do this so far as those comments can possibly be read to reflect in any way upon the plaintiff in the case. Mr. Justice Bigham, in whose hands the terms of settlement were left, definitely pointed out that there was no reflection upon the plaintiff's character at all, and we are sorry if anyone read such a meaning into our words. Statistics derived from elementary schools in London and Glasgow have also been examined but afford less valuable material. We make no attempt to criticise the writers' arguments and calculations in detail, but we think that their general conclusions will be of interest. They find that there is no evidence whatever that overcrowded, poverty-stricken homes, or physically ill-conditioned or immoral parentages are markedly detrimental to the children's eyesight. There is no sufficient evidence that school environment has a deleterious effect on the eyesight of children. Though changes of vision occur during school years they hold that these are phases of one law of growth, a passage from hypermetropia to emmetropia and myopia of the eyes of "unstable stocks." They find ample evidence that refraction and keenness of vision are inherited characters, and that the degree of correlation between the eyesight of pairs of relatives is of a wholly different order to the correlation of eyesight with home environment. Intelligence, as judged by the teacher, is correlated with vision in only a moderate manner (0-16). We scarcely think that the data justify so strongly worded an ex cathed?ã statement as that made by the writers in conclusion. " The first thing is good stock, and the second thing is good stock, and the third thing is good stock, and when you have paid attention to these three things fit environment will keep your material