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Surgery (PLASTIC The reconstruction)

PLASTIC. The reconstruction of physiognomies, for either utilitarian or æsthetic reasons, has been practiced by many surgeons in large cities for many years. Of course , great progress was made in this special department of surgery as the result of TACNA-ARICA the World War and of the many facial wounds and disfigurements suffered by soldiers. Perhaps the greatest development in this direction was reached in was reached the American army hospitals, though in both the British and the French army hospitals, too, excellent work was done .

One of the latest developments is the establishment of the International Clinic of Plastic Surgery at St. Andrew's Hospital, London. Much of the success of plastic surgery depends upon dentistry.

During the war, practically all of the plastic surgery was devoted to an attempt to restore lost parts and to correct mutilations. In civil life, however, facial injuries are comparatively rare .

Then facial surgery is devoted chiefly to an attempt to improve on nature. In most cases it involves the soft parts in skin and tissue rather than the bony parts. The principal difficulty is the necessary slowness of the process, in many cases a large number of operations being required. In all of these operations anæsthesia and prevention of infection are of especial importance. In the new clinic at St. Andrew's Hospital plastic surgery becomes available to It will be persons of moderate means. It will be run on a nonprofit basis and will give graduate courses to surgeons from all over the world. In order to eliminate commercialization all students must meet the severe requirements of either the Royal College of Surgeons or the American College of Surgeons. Besides two English and French members the clinical staff includes two Americans, Dr. J.

Eastman Sheehan of New York and Dr.

F. N. Smith of Grand Rapids, Michigan.

SWEDEN. Premier Hjalmar Branting resigned in May, 1923, and was succeeded by Ernest Trygger, who was formerly chief justice. SWITZERLAND. The Federal Assembly in December, 1923, elected by a vote of 189 to 30, Ernest Shuard of Lausanne, who was vice president in 1923 and president of the Swiss Confederation for 1823, succeeding Carl Sheurer, whose term expired December 31. Jean Musy was elected vice president .

T TACNA-ARICA. The final settlement of the dispute between Chile and Peru regarding the Tacna-Arica territory was postponed in September , 1923, at the request of the Chilean Government. The dispute is to be submitted eventually to the arbitration of the President of the United States and , though Chile had completed her argument, its government desired that its United TANGIER States legal advisers, whom it had engaged, should be given an opportunity to study the argument as fully as possible.

TANGIER. A conference to determine the political cal position of Tangier was held in July, 1923, but ended with no results. Spain wished to have Tangier incorporated in her Moroccan territory.

France, however, wished it returned to the rule of the Sultan of Morocco. Great Britain and Spain objected to the French plan because it involved making Tangier a French port. As it was unable to agree, the conference adjourned. Tangier is a part of Morocco on the African side of the Strait of Gibraltar and became the property of England when it was made a part of the dowry of Catherine of Braganza on her marriage to Charles II. At the present time the town is under international tional control as fixed by the Algeciras Conference in 1906.

TAXATION. The question of reducing federal taxes which had been under discussion throughout the entire year was brought to a head by a letter addressed by Andrew W. Mellon, Secretary of the Treasury, to William R. Green of Iowa, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, sent in November, 1923. In this letter the Secretary of the Treasury not only gave the various methods by which taxes could be reduced and the results on the entire tax-paying body of citizens, but also pointed out that "a soldiers' bonus would postpone tax reduction not for one but for many years to come." In order to make the taxpayers actually participate in the annual surplus, amounting to about $300,000,000, the Secretary of the Treasury proposes: (1) a reduction of 25 per cent on taxes on earned incomes; (2) a reduction of the normal income tax from four per cent to three per cent and from eight per cent to six per cent respectively; (3) a reduction of the surtax rates by commencing their application at $10,000 instead of $6,000 and scaling them upward to 25 per cent at $100,000; (4) to limit the deductions of capital losses to 122 per cent of the loss; (5) to put a limit on the deductions for gross income; (6) to tax the common property of husband and wife to the one having control of the income; (7) to repeal the tax on telegraph, telephone, and leased wires (the last of the War-time transportation taxes); (8) to repeal the tax on admissions; (9) to repeal miscellaneous "nuisance" taxes because they are difficult to collect or unnecessarily inconvenient for the taxpayers. As a result of the various ad- TURKEY justments the Government is expected to lose a total of $391,000,000 and to gain 68,000,000, leaving a net loss of $323,- 000,000, very closely approaching the present surplus.

TAX EXEMPT SECURITIES. (See CONSTITUTION, AMENDMENTS TO, and TAXATION.) TELE-AUTOGRAMS. As a result of this new invention by M. Belin, it has become possible to send and have delivered an autograph telegram. The sender of the telegram writes his message on a revolving cylinder covered with paper. A special ink is used which causes the words to appear in slight relief. The obstacles made by the letters are struck by a delicate needle which is jerked upward and interrupts the electric current. These interruptions are recorded at the other end of the wire and result in an exact copy of the written telegram. This machine has been installed in all French telegraph and post offices. TRANSJORDANIA. The independence of this new state was celebrated in May, 1923. The Emperor Abdullah, ruler of the country, wrote a declaration agreed upon by the British Government which conferred the rights of self-government on Transjordania. This territory lies south of French Syria, to the east of Palestine and Hedjaz, west of Irak and north of the Emirate of Jebel Shammar. The ruler is a son of King Hussein of Hedjaz. Attempts were made in the latter part of the year by Arabs to break down the power of Transjordania, but these were resisted. TRYPARSAMIDE. A new arsenate compound for the treatment of African sleeping sickness was used during 1923 with considerable success as a remedy for paresis, which has hitherto been considered incurable. This drug was discovered in 1915 by Dr. Walter A.

Jacobs, and Dr. Michael Heidelberger of the Rockefeller Institute in 1915.

TURKEY. The year 1923 was an eventful one in the history of Turkey. It witnessed rehabilitation of that country as a power and saw the establishment of a republic, with Mustapha Kemal as president. The Lausanne Conference for the settlement of questions of issue between Turkey, Greece and the other powers of Europe, which failed in its first session on account of the refusal of the National Assembly to sign the prepared treaty, reconvened in April, 1923. (See LAUSANNE CONFERENCE.) The Grand Na- TURKEY tional Assembly ratified the treaty on August 23 and on the day following the Allied troops began the evacuation of the territory which they had held from the time of the armistice in 1918. The last detachment of Allied troops left on October 2, and thus the Turks regained absolute control of Constantinople, which the Turkish troops reentered on October 6. The Lausanne Treaty, in addition to concluding peace between Greece and Turkey, provided for the compulsory exchange of Greeks in Turkey for Turks in Greece, but left the Armenian problem unsolved. Turkey thus gains possession of Eastern Thrace. On August 6 a treaty was signed between Turkey and the United States. A new Grand National Assembly numbering about 200 delegates met at Angora on August 13.

It reelected Mustapha Kemal president.

In October a new constitution was adopted proclaiming the republic of Turkey, with a president elected for The National Asfour or five years. sembly has legislative powers only, the executive power being entrusted to a cabinet which is responsible to the assembly. A Council of State, the members of which are appointed by the president, dent, perform the usual functions of a second upper house or senate. The National Assembly on April 10 ratified the so-called Chester concession granted to Rear Admiral Colby M. Chester and others which had been under negotiation for many years. Protests were made by British and French interests with UNITED STATES they were not justly dealt with or if they had vested interests.

TWELVE-HOUR DAY. In 1922 Presdent Harding asked the directors of the great steel corporations to investigate the possibility of abolishing the twelvehour day in their plants. A committee was appointed which made a report in May, 1923. This committee reported that the twelve-hour day was in no way injurious and was essential to the economic welfare of the United States. It declared also that the workmen preferred the twelve-hour day because it meant more money per day. The eight-hour day would call, it is claimed, for 60,000 more workmen, which are not available because of the stringency of the immispite of this report it gration laws. In spite was agreed, in deference to the president's wishes, to abolish the twelve-hour day as far as possible, and beginning on August 13, the United States Steel Corporation and other steel mills changed from the twelve-hour day to the eight-hour day system.

TYPHOID FEVER. The steady decline of the death rate from typhoid fever in the United States for the past twelve years still continues. In 1922 a new low record was reached in large cities of the country which averaged 3.15 deaths from this disease per 100,- 000 population; less than one-sixth the rate for 1910. The two great sources of typhoid infection, polluted water and raw milk, have been practically elimiwhose concessions this clashed. The mat-nated in cities of over 100,000 populater was taken up at Lausanne and an agreement was made that all concessions should stand on their merits, and the companies could demand arbitration if UNITED STATES. tion. Typhoid is now no longer a city disease, and the chief efforts for its prevention are being directed to rural sanitation, picnic grounds, etc.

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Administration. - The year 1923 was marked midway in its political history by the death of President Harding and the succession to the presidency of Calvin Coolidge, Vice President. The great change was made without any dislocation of the administrative functions and President Coolidge regovernment. tained the same Cabinet and declared his intention of pursuing the same policies which had characterized President Harding's administration. In chronological order the chief events in the executive and legislative departments of the Government for 1923 were as follows: On February 7, President Harding appeared before a joint session of Congress and urged ratification of the British Debt Funding settlement. (See DEBTS, WAR.) The President was unable to secure the action in Congress on his proposal that the United States become a member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration. In order to present his views on this and other subjects to the country, and to fulfill also a long cherished wish to visit Alaska, he started in July on the fateful trip which was to end in his death. President Harding made speeches in most of the larger cities of the Middle and Far West through UNITED STATES which he passed. In each of these he took up one of the great questions in the public mind. These included agriculture, foreign relations, and the World Court. In Alaska the President was received with great enthusiasm, but it was evident that the tax made upon his vital energies was too great. He returned from Alaska to San Francisco, where on July 28 he was seized with the fatal illness and died on August 2, at 7.30 P. M. Vice President Coolidge was at once notified and took the oath of office at the home of his father in Vermont. He started at once for Washington and assumed the reins of government. President Coolidge steadfastly adhered to his declaration made on August 4 that he would have little or nothing to say in regard to national policies until he had received a firm grasp on questions to be considered. His first public utterance was on December 6, when he delivered his first annual message to Congress.

In this he favored the World Court, the tax-reduction plan of Secretary Mellon, advocated agricultural relief, opposed the soldiers' bonus, cancellation of Allied debts and further American disarmament. In a special message, on December 10, the President further outlined his suggestions in regard to the Mellon plan and his objection to the bonus. On December 15, the President released all war offenders following a report of a special board consisting of former Secretary of War Baker, Bishop Charles H. Brent and General J. G. Harbord.

Army. The year 1923 was the first since the World War during which attention could be given by the War Department to normal peace-time activities. The chief accomplishments of the year were general progress in training of all military elements, the growth and further organization of the reserves and reserve headquarters, and the development of plans for mobilization. The number of reserve officers increased from 69,000 to 82,000, and the commissioned strength of the organization reserve divisions from 61½ per cent to 81½ per cent. In June, 1923, there was completed for the first time a scheme of mobilization. There was a pronounced enthusiasm in favor of military instruction carried on in accordance with the National Defence Act of 1920. Thousands of citizens took advantage of the opportunities afforded in camps, armories and lecture halls. Applications for training for members of the officers reserve corps far exceeded the number limited by appropriations, and those who attended the camps gave unceasing interest and attention. UNITED STATES Budget. In December, 1923, President Coolidge submitted to Congress the Budget Bureau's estimates of receipts and expenditures for the fiscal year of 1925. All of the departments with the exception of four showed reductions in expenditures. The total ordinary expenditures are estimated at $1,876,611,773, the expenditures for Public Debt at $1,421,468,671, or a grand total of expenditures of $3,298,080,444.

In detail these expenditures were estimated as follows: Le Legislative establishments, $13,595,448; Executive Office, $415,667; Wa $415,667; War Department, including Panama Canal, $314,190,650; Navy Department, $311,020,050; Department of Agriculture, $144,784,200; Department of Commerce, $23,710,000; Interior Department, $310,507,699; Department of Justice, $21,451,960; Department of Labor, $6,107,076; State Department, $14,988,446; Treasury $228,811,090; District of Columbia, $26- Department, 896,798; Post Office Department (deficit) $2,085,184; Veterans' Bureau, $403,369,450; Emergency Fleet Corporation, $25,852,817; Other independent offices, $18,825,238; Reduction of Principal, Public Debt, $482,277,975; Investment of Trust Funds, $49,190,696; Interest on Public Debt, $890,000,000. ceipts Against these expenditures the reof the Government were estimated at $3,693,762,078, consisting of: Internal Revenue, $2,727,585,000; Customs, $493,- 000,000; Miscellaneous, $473,177,078.

Based on these estimates the surplus for the fiscal year of 1925 would be greater by some $65,000,000 than for the fiscal year of 1924, the total surplus for 1925 being estimated at $395,681,634.

Congress. The fourth session of the Sixty-seventh Congress, which began on Dec. 4, 1922, continued till March 4, 1923.

In the Senate the Capper Agricultural Credits Bill, affording agricultural relief for farmers, was passed on February 5.

Senator Borah introduced a bill for the purpose of doing away with the 5 to 5 decisions of the Supreme Court and requiring the concurrence of nine justices in constitutional cases. (See CONSTITU-