ined: Blood serum cultures from throat and tonsil, and from urine: Results, negative.

The three remaining case were attendants and physicians in frequent contact with paretic patients. Smears were examined from the pharyngeal and tonsillar mucus of each, with negative results as regards the Bacillus paralyticans.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.

The laboratory technique of the investigations here recorded and still in progress has been entirely in charge of Dr. Clayton B. Conwell, the efficient pathologist to the sanitarium. He has been ably and heartily assisted in the work by my associates of the medical staff, Drs. B. A. Williams and C. B. Rogers. The co-operation and valuable advice of Dr. Samuel E. Allen, Health Officer of Cincinnati, are also hereby acknowledged. To Dr. M. H. Fletcher is due the credit and our thanks for the accompanying photo-micrographs and the sacrifice of much time and labor on his part in preparing the same.

Dr. W. E. Schenck has kindly contributed to some of the blood work. As stated elsewhere, Dr. F. W. Harmon, Superintendent of Longview State Hospital, and his able assistants, Drs. W. C. Kendig and J. W. Mann have kindly placed at our disposal the wealth of material contained in their population of approximately 1200 patients.

Finally, the business management of the sanitarium, in charge of Mr. John C. Sheets, President, has, with characteristic liberality, freely placed at the disposal of the medical administration the necessary facilities, financial and otherwise, for the prosecution of these researches into the cause and nature of one of the most obscure and fatal diseases which can afflict humanity.

EXPLANATION OF PLATE V.

FIG. 1.-Bacillus paralyticans, thread form. X750. Culture on bloodserum and agar of centrifuge deposit from urine. Case 2. Some streptococci are also present.

FIG. 2.-Bacillus paralyticans. X 1000. Pure culture on blood serum from cerebro-spinal fluid. Case 3.

FIG. 3.-Bacillus paralyticans. X 750. Pure culture on blood serum from cerebro-spinal fluid. Case 3.

WOMEN NURSES ON WARDS FOR MEN IN HOS

PITALS FOR THE INSANE.'

BY CHARLES R. BANCROFT, M. D.,

Medical Superintendent New Hampshire State Hospital, Concord, N. H.

From a purely theoretical point of view the employment of women nurses as far as is practicable on men's wards in hospitals for the insane would seem to be desirable. For women are better housekeepers than men; they possess as a rule the nursing instinct to a far greater degree than men; they exercise a refining and restraining moral influence that is not possible for the average male nurse to exercise over those of the same sex; and it is possible for a woman to render an environment homelike and attractive in a way wholly impossible of attainment by the average male nurse.

Theoretically speaking, I have for years been a believer in the presence of women nurses on men's wards. Practically, the realization of such a service is in the ordinary hospital somewhat difficult of attainment. Location and ward construction oftentimes embarrass the employment of women on male wards. But the chief difficulty in the way of securing this most desirable result is the scarcity of good material. With abundance of nurses who are possessed of the nursing spirit, who are properly educated and trained in their profession and who are imbued with the general hospital spirit, I believe the employment of women nurses on men's wards would not only be comparatively easy, but would serve to secure the results we are all so anxious to see attained on our wards.

First as to the character of the wards and the class of men patients to whom such assignment of women nurses should be made. This is a matter of vital importance; for, on the proper selection of wards must largely depend the success of the measure. Every well regulated hospital for the insane will have a judicious classification of its patients. Such classification is

'Read at the sixty-second annual meeting of the American MedicoPsychological Association, Boston, Mass., June 12-15, 1906.