Sir Hope Grant's army has given the lie to all those assertions."

Again there have been seizures of diseased and unwholesome meat in the City. The carcase of one calf was seized, which, from the immature formation of its hoofs, Dr. Letheby declared either to have dropped as an abortion, or to have been cut out of a dead cow.

A numerously-attended meeting of Medical Officers of Health, Engineers, and others interested in sanitary improvement, was held last Saturday, to consider the subject of the entry of sewer-air into houses, and the means of prevention. The subject was brought forward by Dr. B. Sanderson, by desire of the Vestry of Paddington. Mr. Lovegrove, Mr. Rawlinson, and other Engineers present, gave numerous curious details respecting the movement of air in sewers, and of the frequency with which strong currents of air are found by the sewer-men to be setting from the sewers up the drains of even the best houses, where, of course, they cause annoyance or illness, according to the point of escape. It was mentioned by Mr. Chadwick and Mr. Rawlinson that a great distinction ought to be drawn between house-slops, pure and simple, and the same matter when it has lain festering in cesspools, or old drains, or street sewers If conveyed rapidly out of houses, and along properly-distributed pipes, the liquid may be delivered to the farmer in an undecomposed and almost inoffensive state: it is when it has been allowed to stagnate and ferment that it developes those offensive gases which fill our present sewers, and are allowed to poison the air of the streets, and which are the real generators of typhoid fever and diarrhoea.

A fine old Medical veteran, Sir William Burnett, late Director-General of the Medical Department of the Navy, died last week, aged 82. We shall prepare an account of his career, which we trust will interest our readers, for an early Number.

ARMY MEDICAL SCHOOL, FORT PITT.

MILITARY SURGERY.

PROFESSOR THOMAS LONGMORE, F.R.C.S.,

DEPUTY INSPECTOR GENERAL.

1. A battle is to be fought within twenty-four hours of a given time. Give a sketch of the surgical arrangements necessary for a division of the army, and more particularly describe the duties of the several Medical Officers of a regiment. Value 50.

2. A soldier has received a wound of the chest from a musket ball; the ball has entered a little above the right nipple, and is found lodging beneath the skin at some part of the vertebral margin of the scapula. Describe the principal lesions which may have been caused by the projectile in its passage, and the guiding symptoms of each. Value 75.

3. What injuries and what circumstances in warfare particularly lead to the development of pyæmia? Value 25.

4. An Assistant-Surgeon is ordered to go in Medical charge of troops in a ship proceeding from Gravesend to Calcutta. What are his duties before, during, and at the end of the voyage? Value 50.

5. Describe the system of dieting ordered by the military regulations for military Hospitals in time of peace. Mention the names of the several diets in the scale. State the com

your diagnosis, prognosis, the probable effects of treatment, and the influence of the disease (or injury) on the man's fitness for service as a soldier. Half-an-hour will be allowed for this description.

PATHOLOGY.

PROFESSOR W, AITKEN, M.D.

1. Describe the more immediate and subsequent effects of malaria on the human subject; the morbid conditions which are brought about upon the spleen, the liver, and the blood; and the kind of influence exercised on the condition generally by a prolonged exposure to malaria. Mention the earlier symptoms which indicate the establishment of the pernicious influence, and give any one example demonstrating the persistent character of these influences, and how they showed themselves in the particular example you may cite. Value 75.

2. Describe the structure of the mature ovum of the tapeworm; state the part of the tapeworm colony in which the ovum reaches maturity; describe the stages of its subsequent development, and the dangers which may attend the existence of tapeworm colonies in the human subject. Value 60.

3. State what is known regarding the source and development of the dracunculus; describe the lesions in the human subject to which it may give rise; and state the regions of the world in which it is endemic. Value 55.

4. Describe the lesions of the intestine in cases of acute dysentery; and state the circumstances which are apt to render cases of dysentery complex, and the nature of the lesions which may then ensue. Mention the points in the morbid anatomy of dysentery regarding which more exact and extended information is desirable. Value 60.

PRACTICAL EXAMINATION.

1. Examine the ova from the segments of the tapeworm, and demonstrate the distinctive characters. (20.)

2. Demonstrate the elements of muscular tissue and of cartilage. State shortly the best mode of preparing muscular tissue for examination. (35.)

3. Demonstrate the villi of the intestine, and indicate the morbid state. (40.)

4. Demonstrate the lobules of the liver, and indicate the morbid state in the specimen. (40.)

5. Demonstrate the structures found in the cortical substance of the kidney, especially the epithelium, the tubes, the basement membrane, and the Malpighian bodies. (60.)

6. Demonstrate the mucous tubes of the stomach, and state the kind of medium in which epithelium is best examined. (20.)

7. Delineate (in outline only) any of the objects examined: (1) judging of the size by the eye alone; (2) using the camera and appending the scale which indicates the relative magnifying power used in the observation. (35.)

8. Determine the magnifying power of the lens in the large microscope on the table (1) with the long eye-piece, (2) with the short one. (60.)

9. Describe any of the lesions in any one of the specimens on the table. (35.)

HYGIENE.

PROFESSOR E. A. PARKES, M.D.

1. What is the mortality of the British soldier at home as compared with adults of the same age in civil life? To what causes is the mortality owing, and what measures would you suggest for prevention? Value 80.

2. If you were sent into a district to examine into the quantity and quality of the water of a certain spot, where it was proposed to encamp 10,000 men for a month, how would you proceed to get the information you required? What arrangements would you adopt to purify the water if it contained organic matter from peaty or marshy soils? Value 70.

Note.-Do not enter into chemical details, but state generally your mode of procedure.

3. What effect have soil and configuration of ground on health? Value 40.

4. What are the chief sanitary duties to be carried out in a camp? Value 60.

PRACTICAL EXAMINATION.

1. Water.-Determine the amount of magnesia by the soap-test. Calculate as chloride.

2. Vinegar.-Estimate the amount of acetic acid. Is sulphuric acid present?

3. Lime-juice.-Estimate acid as hydrated tartaric acid. Examine for sulphuric acid.

5. Microscopic examination of the specimen [adulterated coffee].

N.B.-It was proposed to have an oral examination for those candidates who failed to satisfy the Examiners at the written and practical examinations, but it was not found necessary to hold one.

ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS.

HUNTERIAN ORATION, BY MR. COULSON. WE expressed last week our intention to give some extracts from Mr. Coulson's excellent Hunterian Oration, and do so accordingly. Mr. Coulson commenced by lauding the pious reverence of Hunter's genius which led to this anniversary gathering" amid the works of his hands and the fruits of his labours, there to pay genius its due homage, to hold forth a great example, to incite and to instruct. He gave a rapid sketch of Hunter's life and labours, and analysed the character of his mind, emphasising the evidence of his power of generalisation, his faculty of comparison, his accuracy of observation, his marvellous activity and industry. After summing up the results of Hunter's labours, of which the greatest was "a demonstration that organised creation has been formed on a single plan or type, which may be traced throughout the whole animal world, and that the lower animals represent permanently the successive stages through which higher animals pass until they have attained their full and perfect development," Mr. Coulson discussed the theories of vitalism, and continued thus:

"Having thus considered the leading characters of Hunter's mind, and the principal results of his labours, it is only becoming that I should make some allusion to the task which has devolved on the Council of this College, and to the manner in which the important duties entrusted to it have been fulfilled. We have become the guardians of the Hunterian Museum-that magnificent epitome of organised nature; in which the multifarious and complex phenomena of life are illustrated by a most perfect display of the organs concurring to their production; in which diseases are traced to the primary changes connecting them with natural conditions; in which the plan of the Supreme Architect is revealed in all the greatness of its unity; in which, also, are preserved the earliest traces of that sublime Science which connects the history of the present world with the worlds which have passed.

"Sixty years ago, Hunter's Museum fell into the hands of the College of Surgeons, and since that period the Council has never ceased to preserve and enlarge it, and to render it more and more intelligible to all.

"John Hunter spent £70,000 on the original collection, for which the Government gave £15,000. In 1806 another sum of the same amount was granted to the College towards the building fund, the rapidly increasing additions to Hunter's original collection having caused a corresponding demand for exhibiting space. In the following year a further vote of £12,500 was passed for the same purpose; and finally in 1852, the College obtained a grant of £15,000, raising the sum total contributed by the nation towards the support of the Museum, to £57,500. In addition to this, the Council of the College, since the year 1835, has devoted £60,000 to the improvement of the various departments of the collection; so that the entire sum hitherto expended, amounts to £118,000, an estimate which, it will be observed, does not include the expense of keeping up the Museum. This is borne wholly by the College, which has not expended less than £100,000 for this purpose.

"The increase of the Museum, partly by purchase and partly by contribution, but mainly through the industry of our own Conservators, has been prodigious. The number of preparations constituting the collection at the time of its purchase by the Government, was 13,682, the great majority

of these having been made by Hunter's own hands. Since that time, numerous additions have accrued to every division, and the total number of preparations at present in the Museum, including the microscopical collection of 16,000 preparations, which we owe to our indefatigable Curator, Mr. Quekett, is no fewer than 44,700. So much for the manner in which the College has discharged the duties which devolved upon it, in immediate connexion with the Hunterian Museum.

"It now remains for me to speak of the controlling influence which has been exercised by this Corporation upon Surgical education. With the labours of John Hunter, commenced a new era in Surgery, for from his time it dates its existence as a science. Professional education,-the control of which was entrusted by public consent to this College,—thenceforward assumed a more important rank and required to be directed into new channels. The task was great and noble. The duty has been faithfully and efficiently performed. We have kept pace with the progress of the age, bearing steadily in view and endeavouring to reconcile with each other, the advancement of science, and the true interests of the Profession and of the public.

"If Surgery be a science, it must enter that circle which embraces all sciences and connects them together, establishing a fundamental relation which renders the progress of all dependent one on the other. And such connexion, such mutual dependency or relation, must necessarily exist, for in reality there are not many sciences, but one, viz. a knowledge of the causes of those various effects which are produced around us. Where the effects, then, are so numerous and so different from any others with which we are familiar, while the causes are so obscure, where such a wide field is open to conjecture and error, while the measure of connexion is so narrow and confined, it is obviously our duty to fortify the mind against its own failings, to strengthen Reason by early discipline, and to ensure so far as we can that her powers shall not be wasted in the pursuit of vain shadows and empty speculations.

"This discipline a liberal education, in its most extensive sense, can alone bestow. The education thus desiderated, will shortly be required as the preliminary discipline of all who strive to obtain the diploma of the College.

"If an enlarged and liberal scheme of education be a necessary foundation for Professional science, if the status which we are to occupy in society must depend in great measure on our acquaintance with those literæ humaniores which are cultivated by the members of every other liberal profession, then has the Council of this College done wisely in ordaining that the Student shall commence his career by a course of study, similar to that pursued by the gentry of this land and the professors of other liberal sciences.

"This principle, long since voluntarily adopted by the College, has recently been sanctioned by law. But let it never be forgotten that, although honoured by Royal Charters, the existence, prosperity, and influence of this College have not been owing to legislative protection, but are the fruits of public confidence-freely bestowed, because fairly merited.'

DENTAL APPOINTMENT.-Mr. J. Cox Smith, an active member of the College of Dentists (who has on principle objected to dental certificates issued by any foreign body), has just been appointed Dentist to the Government Hospital of Fort Pitt, Chatham.

ON THE INFLUENCE OF MENSTRUATION AND PREGNANCY ON THE QUALITY OF THE MILK OF THE HUMAN FEMALE. In the Chicago Medical Examiner for October, Professor N. S. Davis has an article upon the above subject. We give a conclusion or two, without quoting the facts from which those conclusions are deduced. Professor Davis says, "From all the foregoing facts and analyses, I am led to infer that the occurrence of pregnancy during the ordinary period of lactation, either speedily reduces the quantity of milk secreted, or lessens the proportion of solid or nutritive constituents to such a degree as to render it insufficient for the proper nourishment of a child over six months old. In a small proportion of cases, however, the milk secreted continues abundant and of good quality, but the health of the mother rapidly declines; while in a still smaller proportion of cases, the mother and child both continue well-nourished and healthy."

REVIEWS.

A Treatise on Fever; or, Selections from a Course of Lectures on Fever. Being part of a Course of Theory and Practice of Medicine, Delivered by ROBERT D. LYONS, K.C.C., M.B. T.C.D., Physician to Jervis-street Hospital, etc. 8vo. Pp. 473. London: 1861.

We wish we could write unqualified praise of Dr. Lyons' book. The advanced Practitioner, whose views of the pathology of fever have been consolidated by observation and experience, may doubtless read it with profit, but it is not a work which we should place in the hands of a student to whom we might desire to impart distinct ideas about the nature and characteristics of the specific fevers. And our reason for this opinion is, that while, on the one hand, the book bears intrinsic testimony to much original inquiry, that portion of it which affects to be systematic, which would naturally and properly form the basis of all instruction which the Professor would impart to his pupils, strikes our mind as deficient in clearness both of doctrine and arrangement. We shall have an opportunity, in the course of our remarks upon the volume, of illustrating what we mean, and shall therefore proceed to lay before our readers a brief summary of what they may expect to find.

Dr. Lyons tells us, in his Preface, that his object in publishing these selections from his lectures is "to bring within the reach of the student and junior Practitioner in a convenient form the more recent results of inquiries into the pathology and therapeutics of this formidable class of diseases. After two introductory Chapters, historical, statistical, and (in a general" sense) pathological, we arrive at his "classification" of fevers, which he divides into Primary, Irritative, and Eruptive - the first class being the subject of the book under our notice. The primary fevers he divides into Continued, Intermittent, and Remittent, following thus an arrangement which no one can quarrel with. With the exception of yellow fever, which he places among the remittents, the continued fevers alone are treated of in extenso.

We have, then, group "(a) Continued Fevers;" synocha, synochus, typhus, and typhoid being the forms which Dr. Lyons recognises. And it is here that we begin to find ground for complaint. We do not grumble at Dr. Lyons adopting an antiquated, and, as we have long regarded it, an exploded division of fevers; for he has certainly a right to recognise synocha and synochus, if, as he says, he is satisfied that they do exist as distinct forms of disease; but that he throws in the path of the Medical student a stumbling-block which we had hoped recent pathology had for ever removed. Nothing puzzled us more in our early student days, and before we had observed for ourselves, than the endeavour of systematic writers to group all these fevers together as varieties of one disease, the leading characteristics of which were laid down systematically in one page of our text-book and contradicted seriatim in another, that other being the one which treated of each variety in its turn. Surely this was a difficulty which others must also have experienced, and we regret to find that Dr. Lyons perpetuates the offence. Chapter 4 is headed "Simple Continued Fevers," but is mainly a disquisition on synocha, into which he interpolates remarks on diaphoretics, purgatives, and diuretics in" fever," sufficiently confusing, we should think, to his junior pupils; and this is succeeded by a Chapter on Synochus-we should rather say part of a chapter, for the idea of synocha still seems to prevail. The Chapter is entitled, "Varieties of Synochal Fever," and here synochus is despatched in the space of half-a-page, albeit honoured with special mention in Dr. Lyons "Classification" of Continued Fevers. had expected some light and life to be imparted to this exhumed disease by our author; but in place of this, and as if to make up for our disappointment, he passes off into an account of Relapsing Fever-a disease we should have thought quite worthy of a place in his "Classification." The mode in which relapsing fever is introduced is characteristic. Having despatched synochus, he writes :—

We

"Amongst the minor types of continued fever we may notice the affections known as febricula and ephemera, and also the mild form of febrile action called into existence by the effects of the inhalation of such odorous particles as those

fever.'

emanating from newly-mown hay, and hence designated 'hay It (hay fever) may last two, three, or more days, and I have known it assume the form of a relaps ing fever."-P. 103. Dr.

And forthwith comes a heading "Relapsing Fever." Lyons enters his "protest against the statements recently circulated on very insufficient data that relapsing fever constituted the large majority of the cases of the famine-fevers of Ireland," and says he "can certify that the maculated typhus was the disease which chiefly prevailed."

And now comes Chapter 6, on "Typhoid Fevers," which in its matter and arrangement puzzles us completely. First of all, Dr. Lyons tells us that all the fevers "in the typhus category present certain striking features in common, namely, early prostration if not collapse of the system, a peculiar dusky appearance of the skin, a semi-livid state of the countenance," etc. etc. and adds that, "the

very term 'Typhosis' may be introduced to embrace the wellmarked groups of morbid phenomena above described." Then immediately there is a heading "Typhosis," the "various forms of which he enumerates as typhus, typhoid, the typhoid state which attends some local diseases, the secondary form of cholera, and the general typhoid condition which attends erysipelas, phlebitis, and pyæmia. Surely Dr. Lyons does not mean to tell his pupils that these conditions have all a proper place in a Treatise on Primary Fevers, or that typhoid fever is early marked by the striking features which he has enumerated as those of the "typhous state. But we have scarcely time to answer this question to our satisfaction before we find him, without any warning, sliding off into a discussion of the characteristics of "Typhus or Spotted Fever." All this must have been very confusing to his pupils, if the arrangement of the book at all resembles that of the Lectures of which it professes to be a selection.

In fact, as we proceed in reading Dr. Lyons' book, the idea grows up and becomes more and more confirmed in our mind, that we have got hold of an embodied anachronism: that while the later chapters on Typhoid and Yellow Fevers are the product of recent research, the earlier chapters must have formerly constituted a portion of a course of lectures of his, written some fifteen or twenty years ago, and which have been patched and amended at various periods since, by the introduction of modern innovations which he has endeavoured to dovetail with the original text. In what other way can we account for his telling us at page 44, " that the relation of the enteric lesion to the [typhoid] fever is certainly not that of cause and effect; nor again is the connexion proved to be of an absolutely constant kind,”—and at page 179, that the follicular lesions are developed "with such constancy, as shown by the results of numerous investigations, that it is impossible to resist the conclusion that the lesion of the intestine is part and parcel of the disease, if not the cause of How else are we to some of its principal phenomena.' account for his introducing" delirium ferox" in his description of typhus, in place of deferring it to the Chapter on Typhoid; or to his quoting Louis' observations on typhoid at page 160, when discussing the changes of structure noticed after death from typhus.

We have dwelt upon these prominent defects in the book, because they damage it for the use of those persons for whom it was professedly designed. But we wish to act fairly by our author, and although we have little more space left for our review, to say something in his favour. His Chapters on Typhoid Fever are excellent, and are enriched by an abstract of his Report on the Pathology of the Diseases of the Army in the East during the last Russian campaigns, together with Dr. Lyons a long and valuable series of illustrative cases. very properly draws attention to the great danger which attaches to premature indulgence of the appetite, and premature return to the habits of health in convalescence from this disease.

"We have seen, from pathological anatomy, how deposit in the solitary and aggregate glands, to a very large extent, may remain quiescent for a long period. It is presumable that in many such cases, with judicious management, the gradual elimination of the deposit might have been brought about without the induction of ulcerative action in the intestines. Incautious exposure, premature exertion, and the use of food and drink of irritative quality, insidiously light up inflammation around the follicles and patches of Peyer. This process localised for a time, sooner or later re-acts on the

system, and secondary fever of a slow and obscure kind is developed, with subsequently pain and distension in the abdomen, diarrhoea, bloody stools, tympanitis, and, it may be, perforation of the intestines and fatal peritonitis."-P. 292.

Chapter 9, on Yellow Fever, and Chapters 10 and 11 (supplementary), on the Pathological Anatomy of the Yellow Fever of Lisbon (1857), to which last is appended a table of illustrative cases, constitute a valuable monograph upon this formidable but interesting malady.

Only one word more, however, before we part with Dr. Lyons. In various parts of his volume we meet with the names of German, French, Irish, and now and then Scotch observers; but the names we do not find, are those of Stewart, Jenner, Murchison, Parkes, with some others of English notoriety, the accepted regenerators of the Pathology and Nosology of Continued Fever. How is this?

FOREIGN CORRESPONDENCE.

MALTA.

MALTA, February 6. A COURT-MARTIAL has been recently held upon Dr. Monteith, late Surgeon of the Melpomene, and has pronounced its verdict to the effect that the Surgeon of the Melpomene was to be "severely reprimanded and dismissed his ship." The charges against him were,-negligence in sending men to duty before they were fitted for it, and inhumanity in the exercise of his duties. If it be a well-recognised duty to bring a Medical man to a Court-martial for charges of this kind, and to visit them with the severest sentence if proved, it is certainly no less the duty of everyone to animadvert in no measured language, upon an ill-considered institution of proceedings, grounded upon frivolous and vexatious charges, and ending in an unjust and severe exercise of power against an old and deserving officer.

That the proceedings and sentence of the late Court-martial come under the latter category, there can, I think, be no doubt whatever. All those who heard the evidence were surprised at its frivolous nature, and it was generally and strongly felt, indeed, that there was none of a reliable nature to support the charges against Dr. Monteith. Had the case been investigated before any civil tribunal, not only would Dr. Monteith have been honourably acquitted, but we are assured that the whole thing would have been indignantly dismissed as vexatious and frivolous. Dr. Monteith might have protested with perfect justice against the Court-martial as regards his professional conduct, by simply stating that he acted to the best of his judgment, and that he was a duly and legally qualified man, and that none but professional men either could or should be permitted to prove him wrong.

When the sentence was known, indignation and surprise were prevalent in the minds of all Medical, and a very large number of the executive officers of the Mediterranean fleet. Dr. Monteith was a valued and respected officer in his ship, and that he met with the greatest sympathy from his brotherofficers is well known. The fact is, the late Surgeon of the Melpomene and his Captain had frequently come into collision in the exercise of their duties; and however much it was felt that Captain Ewart was wrong, however strongly the evidence told against the discipline of his ship, and against his want of decision and judgment, the Court, we suppose, felt that some one "must be hanged," and generously, if not justly, spared a member of their own body and sacrificed the Doctor.

It is only due to Dr. Monteith's character, that a short epitome of the facts should be frankly, honestly, and in good faith, laid before the Medical public; and it is equally due to those who are thinking of entering her Majesty's Navy, that they should be well aware what rewards they are likely to meet with after eighteen years' honest service.

In the first place, it ought to be known that such evidence as was produced was composed of men who were at once prosecutors and witnesses. An interval of between two to four months intervened between the time of the circumstances complained of having taken place, and the period of their reporting them to the Captain. Even then, whilst upon the quarter-deck, one of the witnesses answered his Captain affirmatively, upon being asked the third time as to any com

plaint, and then only at the suggestion of a petty officer. That the seamen sent to "partial" duty by the Surgeon, really had "ordinary duty, and were exempted from a part, or a whole of it, by petty officers-is true; but it is equally true that the Senior Assistant-Surgeon reported to the First Lieutenant that such men were to have partial duty.

The cases were generally of one kind, viz. acute dyspepsia and hypochondriasis, the direct or indirect result of debauch. The Surgeon, after treating them for some time, ordered them partial duty, and to attend thrice daily at the sick bay for medicine, upon the following grounds: First. That such cases not only do not improve in Hospital, but get worse, owing to the confined air, want of exercise, and association with sick comrades, and that convalescence was more rapidly achieved by the open air, and the physical and mental exercise connected with a partial discharge of duty. These reasons were absolutely explained to the men themselves, and the Surgeon's proceedings met with the sanction of the two Assistant-Surgeons, and the appearance of the men did justice to the judgment of such a course. Secondly. That there are many duties on board ship which such men can perform with benefit to themselves and relief to their messmates. Almost every Medical man (particularly in the Naval and Military Services), is aware that for cases of this nature, a protracted stay in Hospital is actually injurious, while air and exercise are in themselves curative.

The witnesses for the prosecution gave their evidence to the effect that the men were not well, and unfit for this or that, or any duty; while the Medical men said they were fit for certain duties, which they defined.

One case occurred which was particularly dwelt upon, both by Court and witnesses, as a proof of the Surgeon's negligence and want of skill. A seaman attended a few days at the sick bay with slight gastric symptoms, followed by catarrh. Upon the appearance of the latter, the man was admitted, and eleven days afterwards died. An autopsy proved what had been surmised from the sudden appearance of collapse, about twelve hours before death, that ulceration and perforation of the ileum existed. It was, doubtless, a case of latent enteric fever, by no means uncommon here. The Medical witnesses swore that the man, (up to the period of the sudden accession of collapse, and abdominal pain,) suffered in a trifling degree from bronchitis, and presented no symptoms by which they could diagnose intestinal ulceration. Some Professional men proffered the evidence of their knowledge and experience as corroborative of this, but the five Post Captains evidently did not credit it, and went deeply into the question of treatment of enteric ulceration by quinine, etc. In point of fact, the Court got into the most terrible confusion upon questions of Pathology, and although Medical gentlemen present in the Court volunteered evidence upon certain points, and put themselves before the Court for any questions that might require elucidation, the Court, we presume, felt so certain of their unerring wisdom, that they did not require any guidance, and as by the rules, no evidence is given save in answer to questions, Professional men had to maintain silence upon matters upon which they alone were qualified to judge. The prisoner and his friends considered the whole case so self-evident and favourable, that they never doubted a verdict in their favour, and hence they evinced no desire to protract an enquiry which had already consumed so much time.

The last case was one of a drunken sailor who had dislocated the left arm at the shoulder-joint; and here there did seem to be an error in judgment upon the part of the Surgeon, or we ought rather to say, the evidence that this man was officially exempted by the Surgeon from the performance of his duties was not so clear as it might have been. He was discharged from Hospital upon the eighth or ninth day after the reduction, with his arm secured in a sling, and the Surgeon told him he would not be required to go aloft, or pull in boats, etc. Within seven days of such discharge, it was proved that the man went on shore and got drunk, and was confined the whole night in the main guard. Tho petty officers ordered the man duty, and exempted him from it, without any reference to the executive or Medical officers.

These were the charges attempted to be proved, and during the trial every by-stander thought there was not a tittle of evidence on the part of the prosecution, and proceeded to congratulate the prisoner. It was generally felt

and expressed that Captain Ewart was in an awkward position, and that the numerous facts bearing upon the lax discipline of his ship (which had leaked out during the trial), must call forth the severest reprehension upon the part of the Court. When it was found that the Medical evidence was one and all in favour of the prisoner; that the evidence of the executive officers was as strongly so as evidence could be; when the Assistant-Surgeons, and sick-bay men, the sick berth attendants, and half-a-dozen seamen and marines (out of a long list) spoke to Dr. Monteith's uniform kindness and attention, and the prosecution had failed to establish one single charge of harshness (even a harsh phrase or expression); when the strongest evidence to support such a charge (on the part of a very jolly-looking tar), went only so far as to characterise his manner (( as sharp;" but at the same time to allow that it was the same, whether to his messmates, Assistant-Surgeons or his patients, the whole affair was looked upon as simply a ridiculous and vexatious trial. Captain Ewart stated that "he was a more than usually conscientious man, and that he never desired to have a more zealous or attentive Medical officer." The First Lieutenant said: "The charges, in his opinion, were frivolous and vexatious." The Assistant-Surgeons said "that they concurred in almost all that their Surgeon had done," and spoke in the highest terms of his uniform attention and kindness. The sick-bay men and many seamen did the same. A military officer testified that upon several occasions Dr. Monteith had declined to go out for a walk or dine with him on account of his having sick men in whom he was very much interested, and that they required watching, and stated also that this evidence was purely voluntary on his part. Evidence was produced to prove what every member of the Court well knew, that partial duty was ordinarily recognised everywhere in the service. A very old officer of much experience has assured me that it is a recognised principle that the Surgeon should keep as few men in the sick bay, and as many at light duty, as he can consistently do with justice to the cases under his care. It was also shown that the only fatal case during Dr. Monteith's connexion with the ship was the one of perforation alluded to. The evidence extended over so large a space that it is impossible to forward you a summary of it, but the result ought to be well known and wide-spread, and coupled with words used by a gentleman whose character is above reproach, and who has had some experience of the Service generally, and Dr. Monteith in particular. "If they desired to single out a truthful, conscientious, and zealous Medical officer to try by court-martial, and ruin him by an unjust and ridiculously severe verdict, they have succeeded."

It must not be forgotten that the witnesses for the prosecution had free communication one with another during the trial. The Surgeon protested against this, but at the same time feeling that he had everything to lose by the non-continuance of the trial, urged that no mere technical or legal advantage was desired on his part, but that his conduct should be fully investigated upon its own merits. To show the character of the witnesses we would remark that when two or three of them were called by the Court, and questioned as to whether they had conversed about the trial, they one and all denied it! Now, what is the plain inference when witnesses at a trial were seen talking together while the proceedings were continuing? That they did talk of it, certainly! There are some who can only account for the verdict by supposing that it was a species of pandering to the public cry of "How to man the Navy?" A Surgeon is nothing henceforth on board ship, and any Naval Surgeon would be justified in refusing to permit any man to be discharged from treatment without an express order from his Captain. If the Service is to be rendered popular by sacrificing Professional men who are conscientiously striving to act with a due regard to their patients, and the exigencies and good of the Service, then it had better be plainly stated so. The effect of all this upon the discipline of Her Majesty's Navy must be baneful in the extreme. To the Medical Profession, as a body, a Naval Court-martial will be regarded as a facile and gratuitous mode of insult. If, in defiance of all rule and logic, the evidence of tars upon special questions is to be held in estimation above that of men specially educated in such matters, and the judges are to be constituted of a class necessarily as ignorant of the matters under examination as the commonest able-bodied seaman of Her Majesty's Navy,

and with the prejudices which Post Captains generally entertain with reference to the social and professional position of Medical officers, then the Naval Medical Department had better be abolished at once, and the commander of every vessel (becoming in reality the little god he fancies himself) allowed to treat and cure, as well as command, the crew he has under him.

The middies endeavoured to evince that respect for their brother officer which he had failed to obtain from his superior officers, by manning the gig that conveyed their unfortunate, but in no wise disgraced, messmate away from his ship. Should this meet Dr. Monteith's eye, let him bear well in mind that his character, be it professional or personal, with a large majority of right-thinking men remains unblemished by any stain of dishonour, spite of the Court

martial.

GERMANY.

DRIBURG, February 10.

THE existence in this place of mineral springs, which contain a large amount of free carbonic acid and bicarbonate of iron, is well known, and they have for centuries been somewhat extensively used for the cure of diseases; but the arrangements for bathing have, until lately, been so faulty, that it is only since 1858, when the new "Badehaus was erected, that the importance of our springs has been fully acknowledged. In this "Badehaus," arrangements have been made to heat the water, which is naturally cold, by means of steam, so that its chemical composition is as little altered as possible; now the water in which the patients bathe contains only onefourth less of carbonic acid than the water of the spring itself, while formerly, when large quantities of common boiling water were added to heat it, much more of the gas was lost. There are only a few springs in existence which possess just the temperature suitable for bathing, viz. 76° to 88° F.; and therefore the water of cold springs requires to be heated, and that of warm springs to be cooled. This heating or cooling process essentially alters the condition of the water. If Thermal waters, which contain sulphuretted hydrogen, are cooled down in a special reservoir, from 120° or 130° to 76° or 80° before they are used, it is found that the gas has quite disappeared; and the same is the case if water, which when cold, contains carbonic acid and sulphuretted hydrogen, is boiled. The only way to render such changes as trifling as possible, is to let the hot water directly into the bathing tubs, and there to add common cold water to it; while the water which is naturally cold, ought to be gently heated by means of steam.

Last year M. Wiggers, Professor of Chemistry at the University of Göttingen, was requested by Baron von Vincke, who is the greatest landed proprietor in this neighbourhood, to make a fresh analysis of the springs of Driburg, which had not been analysed since 1854, and to compare the amount of gases and minerals found here with those of other carbonic acid and iron-springs. The result of this analysis showed, that there is no mineral water in Europe, which contains so much of these two important elements as that of Driburg, while the springs of Pyrmont, which were formerly believed to be the richest in these elements, approach nearest to it. According to this analysis one pound (7680 grains) of our mineral water contains :