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MEDICAL ANNOTATIONS.

to the propriety and utility of vaccination as flourishes uponthe Northern steppes. Whilst this class, whether Sclave or

Kelt, obstinately refuse to listen to the right charmer, charthe never so wisely," they yield a willing assent to the assertionsof credulity and superstition. A pig was said to have beenseen one day last summer by the assembled members of a

6‘highly respectable family" regaling itself with fruit in theupper branches of a cherry-tree; whilst, through the malice ofan envious neighbour, the wife of a Norfolkshire yeoman was"’harassed about night and day, continual worrying like windteasing her stomach, and like a sow with all her little pigs a

pulling her to pieces." We all know the axiom of the poet-"A little knowledge is a dangerous thing ;Drink deep, or touch not the Pierian spring;"

but perhaps all are not provided with so apt an illustrationof it as the following statement of the Sfatu7°clay Review will

prove to be :-" A clergyman not long ago was earnestly pressing upon the

attention of a dying Lincolnshire boor certain doctrines whichhave presented difficulties to cleverer heads under more favour-able circumstances. ’Wut wi’ faath,’ (was the faint responsegiven in the sick man’s native Doric,) ’and wut wi’ the earth aturning round the sun, and wut wi’ the railroads a fuzzin anda whizzin, I’m clean muddled, stonied, and bet;’ and so sayinghe turned to the wall and expired."The indifference of the Russian peasantry with respect to

their children exceeds all belief They give themselves littleor no concern about their offspring. The consequence is that

only a very small proportion of the children brought into theworld reach maturity. The mortality of children under fiveyears of age is, no doubt, considerable in all countries; but inRussia it attains its acme. Many more than one-half of the in-fants die in the earliest days of existence. One-eighth die be-tween the ages of five and ten, and another eighth between tenand twenty. Thus three-fourths perish before reaching matureage. Now, where are we to look for the cause of this extrememortality ? It cannot be referred to climate alone; for through-out the whole extent of Russia there is no climate more inimi-

cal to health than that of St. Petersburg, and yet in thecapital the deaths during infancy are not, as in other parts ofthe empire, in the proportion of one-half, but only of one-third,to the births. The reason of this favourable result is, thatchildren are more cared for, and their physical development is Ibetter attended to, than they are in the provincial govern- Iments. Again, a vast proportion of infantile premature deathin the latter is due to the carelessness of the mothers, who, it13 said, continually expose their offspring to fatal accidents.Amongst ourselves, Manchester appears to stand in unen-

viable prominence as a slaughter-house for children. It is cal-

culated that in that city one-half of all the children die beforethey reach the age of five years, whilst in healthy country dis-tricts the mortality of early life is much less. According toDr. BAREEE, of 1000 born in agricultural districts, 221 willdie under five years of age, showing a mortality less by halfthan that of Manchester. One-fourth of all the children born

in England die before they reach their fifth birthday. The

"slaughter of the innocents" has become a modern realizationas well as an historic record.

ONE result of the late elections will be much regretted bymembers of the medical profession. We lose an old and tried

friend by the retirement of Colonel BOLDEP.0 from Chippenham.

Though differing from him in politics, we do full justice to theenergy, ability, and perseverance with which, upon every

fitting occasion, he advocated the claims of naval assistant-sur-

geons in Parliament. We are sure that his services in this cause

will long be held in grateful remembrance by the profession.The accident which lost the gallant Colonel his election was a

peculiar one. He fell, and met with a comminuted fracture ofthe thumb, just before the dissolution. This kept him in town,and he was thus disabled from prosecuting his canvass untilhis opponent had gained considerable advantages over him.We are, however, informed that his retirement from the Houseof Commons is only temporary.

Medical Annotations."1Ve quid nimis."

FREE-TRADE IN PHYSIC.

A CRY has been raised for free-trade in medicine. Let ushave free-trade, by all means. Protectionist doctrines are radio

cally false in questions affecting class opinions or class interests.We are content with free-trade; but let it not only be free,but fair. When the Medical Act was passed, we found it tobe a great merit that it permitted freedom of choice to all mento select their system, and to carry out their wise or foolishfancies to the fullest extent. It is a great mistake, or a wilfulmisrepresentation, to assert that this Act has in any way in-jured the free-born privileges of Englishmen to dispose as theylist of their individual members. Every man is naturally adespot over his own organs; he is the tyrant over his solids,and the ruler of his fluids. If it please him, he has the inde-feasible right to torment his intestinal tract with gambogeunder a " system " of vegetable purgation; to choke himselfwith antiseptic charcoal, that he may cheek physiologicalchange; to string himself in galvanic chains; to convulse histissues with electric shocks; to bring himself to his I coffin" "with lobelia or any other variety of lethal herb. Short of suicide,there is no natural limit to the authority of an individual overhis own body. It would have been an undoubted act of oppres-sion, therefore, to deny to Englishmen their privilege of beingquacked by homoeopathist, hydropathist, Morisonian, or

Coffinite. We have never asked for such an enactment, norshould we ever demand it. We have asked only that the

rogues should be cast out from the camp, and that we shouldbe allowed to strip the Queen’s livery from impostors. Notfrom those from whom we differ in opinion, but from impos,tors. So long as there is a stamped article and an unstampedone, common morality requires that the distinction be en.forced. We are the stamped article. The stamp is understoodto mean that we have passed through certain curricula of

study, that we have acquired a knowledge of a certain rangeof facts in the domain of science, and that we have satisfactorilydemonstrated a knowledge of, and expressed a belief in, certaindoctrines. Then we are not to be confounded with a gang of

ignorant and fraudulent quacks, who put forth any plausibledeception which is likely to impose upon the credulity of thepublic, and to serve the ends of ruthless cupidity. Nothingmore than such a distinction is aimed at by the Medical Act;and nothing more has been done, in carrying on the prosecutionsby that most useful Society, the London Medical RegistrationAssociation, than to detect and punish the frauds of some ofthese criminal impostors.

Perfect free-trade still prevails; several striking proofs of itare now in our hands. The largest development of freedom inphysic with which we are acquainted is that of the barrow-herbalists, or "herb-doctors." These represent the lowestlink in the chain of free-traders. An inquest held last week

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by Dr. Challice on the body of a man poisoned by such herbsthus purchased, affords one of three recent instances whichhave come to our knowledge of the way in which public healthis affected by their activity. Here, again, the base of theevil is not freedom, but rascality. If the quacks openly an-nounced themselves quacks, they would be harmless; and ifthe herbalist had made it known that he was selling herbs

dangerous to life, his power for evil would have been limited.But these fellows, whether herbalists, Coffinites, Morisonians,or homceopathists, ask that a complete immunity shall beafforded them for all falsehoods, deceptions, and bad practiceswhatsoever; and these frauds they baptize free-trade. Theyask, in fact, for an unlimited power to gull and deceive, andthat the people shall be delivered up to them for spoliation,under the false cover of alien respectability.

REWARDS TO ARMY SURGEONS.

WE are rejoiced to find that the services of the medicalofficers employed in the Bengal army have been acknowledgedby Lord Canning, at the instance of Lord Clyde, the Com-mander-in- chief, East Indies, in a form hitherto only employedin offering the acknowledgments of the Government to thoseactively engaged in military duties. This honourable ex-

pression of public indebtedness to the members of this mostdistinguished and important service has been received withhigh gratification. Coupled with the issue of the new War-rant, extending to Indian army medical officers most of theprivileges now accorded by the Warrant of October last, it maybe regarded as initiating a period in army medical service,when the heroism, the devotedness, the talent, and the energyof the officers of that service will habitually receive that re- icognition and reward which they have long fairly but unsuc-cessfully claimed. The paragraphs in Lord Clyde’s despatchrecommending the Medical Department to the notice of theGovernment of India run thus :-

" To his Excellency the Right Honourable the Gove2-nor- General.Head-Quarters, Camp, Lucknow, Feb. 21st, 1859.

My LORD,--The military operations in the Presidency ofBengal, which ensued on the great mutiny of 1857, havinghappily been now brought to a close, I have the greatest satis-faction in recommending warmly to your Excellency’s protec-tion two great departments of the military administration towhich the troops and the officers who have commanded themin their long campaigns are under real and great obligations.I allude to the Medical and Commissariat Departments.The former, being composed of officers belonging to the two

services, has shone equally in the matters of general organi-zation and of regimental arrangements. The Director-General,Dr. Forsyth, and the Inspector-General of her Majesty’s Forces,Dr. Linton, C.B., in Calcutta, have worked successfully tomeet the great requirements made on them; and the staff andregimental medical officers have well maintained the credit oftheir noble profession, and the reputation for self-sacrificewhich belongs to the surgeons of her Majesty’s armies-a re-putation which is maintained in the field on all occasions, aswell as in the most trying circumstances of the hospital.

CLYDE, General Commander-in-Chief, East Indies."

This tribute to two excellent and distinguished officers, whohave organized an important service under circumstances ofconsiderable difficulty, and to the able and humane surgeonswho have laboured with them, will be read with considerablegratification. It is a tribute pre-eminently deserved and grace-fully paid. More solid tokens of approval will, we trust,follow.The last Gazette announces still further the willingness of

the authorities to recognise medical services in the field andhospital. Six surgeons have been honoured by being institutedCommanders of the Bath. They are-John Charles GrahamTice, M. D., Deputy-Inspector-General of Hospitals; FrancisWilliam Innes, M.D., Deputy-Inspector-General of Hospitals;John Fraser, M.D., Deputy-Inspector- General of Hospitals;

Charles Alexander Gordon, M.D., Surgeon 10th Regiment;James Gordon Inglis, M.D., Surgeon 64th Regiment; andJoseph Jee, Esq., Surgeon 7Sth Regiment.

VITAL STATISTICS OF INDIAN SOLDiERS.

A VERY interesting and able digest of the Vital Statistics ofthe European and Native Armies in India has been lately pub-lished by Dr. Ewart,* of the Bengal Medical Service, inter-spersed with able suggestions for the eradication and mitigationof the preventible and avoidable causes of sickness and mor-tality amongst imported and indigenous armies. The recordsof the mortality of our European and native armies in Indiaare pregnant with interest to the medical statist as they are tothe rulers and the people of Great Britain. It is satisfactory tofind, as an initial fact, that the value of life has increased inthe European army during the five years ending 1851-52. Thecomparative tables show a gain of 573 lives in the Presidenciesof Bengal and Bombay, saved in one year out of 20,000, andtantamount to a money saving of 57,300. If, however, weask to whom this decrease of mortality is to be credited, weshall find that it must be assigned, not to the rulers of thearmy for any broad sanitary reforms, but to the greater skill ofthe medical staff, and their greater success in opposing, by theuse of appropriate remedies, the inroads of disease. This is themore evident, because, while disease in general has been onthe increase, the deaths to strength have manifested a not in-considerable diminution, which has been solely effected througha decrease in the number of deaths in cases treated. Only aminute portion of the credit, of the decreased mortality in theIndian army can be ascribed to the introduction of sanitaryreforms. The balance of mortality against the soldier as com-pared with the civil servant in Bengal is still nearly 60 per 1000annually. This represents, therefore, the disease which is ob-viously preventible. Ninety-four per cent. of our Indiansoldiers disappear from the ranks before they arrive at the ageof thirty-five. If a similar state of things is permitted to con-tinue, the future yearly loss to strength by avoidable deaths andinvaliding will amount, according to Dr. Ewart’s tables, to 3473trained, disciplined, and effective soldiers, representing a

money value of £347,300.The sanitary measures required to effect the removal or miti-

gation of the malarious fevers, which are the scourge of ourarmies, are those which have been recommended by Mr. RanaldMartin, by Mr. Grant, and by all the most able and thoughtfularmy surgeons of India. They include the most careful selec-tion of temporary camps, and the employment of the mosthealthy hill climates as permanent abodes for the reserves andsick in times of peace. These hill sanitaria have now becomean imperative State necessity. Dr. Parkin’s work abounds inillustrative tables and suggestions, and, as a volume compiledduring busy and stirring labours, it does honour to his energyand ability.

THE MEXICAN SLAUGHTER OF SURGEONS.

INFAMOUS atrocities are reported from Mexico, which makehumanity blush and pity turn pale. The reactionary party, yunder General Miramon, having possessed themselves of Tacu-baya, have violated all the laws of warfare, and trampledupon the dictates of common humanity by their outrages uponmen engaged in the sacred offices of medicine. The ministerof religion who, at the last moment, soothes the spiritual pangsof the dying, or allays the doubts and strengthens the faith ofthe sick, and the surgeon or physician who tends the bleedingwound and cools the feverei lips of the wounded and the suffer-ing, have always been invested with a sanctity due to the un-selfish and charitable cares which they bestow, and to the bene-ficent object of their labours. This character of neutrality isprecious to human interests, and has availed to save countless

* Smith_ "Elder- and Co.. Cornhill. London. 1859.

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lives. When, on that dreary Crimean field, the heroic Thomp-son stayed solitary amongst a thousand wounded foes to waitthe coming of a more active host of enemies, he did it in thesublime assurance which his self-sacrificing labours might wellinspire, and in no misplaced confidence that the wildest savageof the Ukraine would instinctively respect the

" Kind physician, skilled his wounds to heal."

These Mexicans have shown themselves dead to the naturalinstincts of veneration for that which even savages would hold

sacred, and regardless of the voice of international law.The last despatches declare that the surgeons who had volun-

teered their services to attend to the wounded who were

brought into the hospital were taken from their humane work,and dragged off with the other victims of the police; and thesepoor, harmless men, thus benevolently engaged, with others,to the number of twenty-eight, were shot like dogs the samenight, within what are called the sanctified walls of the Churchof San Diego, in Tacubaya, without a show of trial, or withoutallowing them to call in any one to hear their dying requests.Sixty-six persons are reported to have been murdered, includ-ing four Englishmen, five Americans, and several Germans andFrenchmen. Amongst the victims was Dr. Dunall, the emi-nent English physician, who was shot after attending to thesick and wounded at the hospital of Tacubaya. The British

fleet is at Vera Cruz, and such outrages will call for strikingreparation.

THE LONDON MEDICAL REGISTRATIONASSOCIATION.

PUBLIC MEETING OF MEDICAL PRACTITIONERS INST. MARYLEBONE.

THE sixth of the meetings convened by this Association indifferent districts of the metropolis took place on the eveningof Saturday, May 7th, in the theatre of the Literary andScientific Institution, Edwards-street, Portman-square. Lettersannouncing it, and inviting the attendance of members of theprofession, had been extensively circulated throughout theborough of Marylebone, which, together with the parish ofthat name, comprises the extensive and wealthy parishes ofPaddington and St. Pancras. Shortly after eight o’clock P.M.,by the unanimous vote of all present, Mr. Propert, Vice-President of the Association, took the chair. He was attendedon the platform by the Treasurer, Mr. Bottomley, and manyother members of the Committee of Observation (formerlytermed the Vigilance Committee), also Mr. Hancock, F.R.C.S.,Dr. Willis, of Kensington, &c.; and various other members ofthe Association were present amongst the practitioners of thedistrict in the body of the theatre.

Mr. PROPERT, on taking the chair, opened the proceedings- by appealing to those assembled on behalf of the Association,which, as he said, was entitled to the sympathy and supportof the whole profession. Sixteen years ago he had taken thechair in that very room at a meeting of his brother practitionersheld to oppose the Medical Bill introduced into the House ofCommons by Sir James Graham. The agitation of the profes-sion begun at that time had now resulted in the passing of anAct, which, although very deficient, would still be advan-tageous to us if its provisions were properly complied with. Itwas the business of the London Medical Registration Associationto see that those objects were fully carried out, and thereforethat body was deserving of all support and encouragement,and he hoped it would flourish as much in St.* Marylebone asit had done elsewhere. The Chairman called on

Dr. LADD, Hon. Secretary, who read the Report of the Pro-ceedings of the Association. It repeated what has, from timeto time, been stated in the medical journals, and drew attentionin particular to the actions against quacks undertaken by theAssociation, one of which, a few days previously, will be foundelsewhere reported in our columns,

Mr. GuY, of Dorset-square, moved the first resolution,which was as follows :-

" That this meeting, having heard the report of the progress

hitherto made by the London Medical Registration Association,thoroughly acquiesces in the principles by which the course ofthat Association has been guided, and recognises the import-ance of its receiving the support of all qualified medical practi-tioners in the borough of Marylebone."Mr. GERRANS, of Wyndham-place, seconded this resolution.Mr. BOTTOMLEY remarked, that when he looked back to a

period many years ago, and remembered the profession dis.united and incapable of consentaneous action, he congratulatedhis brethren on the alteration that had taken place. He hadvery early taken an active part in the efforts to remedy theevil. There had been much and continued opposition to thewishes of the profession from the Corporations and the Govern-ment. At length the " Act" was obtained. Tt was byno means perfect, but we were now about to be collectedtogether as the " bundle of sticks" in the ancient fable,and should begin to be a powerful body. It is in the handsof the profession to place itself in the position it ought tooccupy in society, and the public will reap the benefit re-

sulting from the putting down of the "herrible" people ofwhom the meeting had heard in the Report just read. Theywere greatly honoured that evening by the presence of Mr.Propert. (Much applause.) His name would go down toposterity as one of the greatest; benefactors of his kind. Fewmen could have done what he had, and his active support of thisAssociation greatly entitled it to general encouragement. He

hoped that the endeavour would be made to render the Associa-tion a powerful body, so as to have influence both with theMedical Council and the Government, to the extent of render-ing the Medical Act hereafter perfect.

Mr. NUNN had come to obtain information from the Com-

mittee as to the effect which the Act might have with referenceto the frauds of quacks. He knew that the sons of somenotorious persons of that sort had become qualified medicalpractitioners, and had registered, and that their fathers prac-tised under cover of the sons’ names. He could not considersuch persons, fathers and sons, as other than "thieves;" andhe wanted to know what power the Association, the MedicalCouncil, or the Government, had over them in virtue of theAct.

Dr. LADD, in reply to that question, stated that if a manwere duly qualified, unless any gross case of immoral conductwere proved against him, he (Dr. Ladd) apprehended that theRegistrar could not legally refuse his admission upon the

register.Mr. C. CLARK, of Notting-hill, could not consider such a

proceeding as that of one person practising with the diploma ofanother as otherwise than immoral conduct, involving in suchcases as those instanced, a complicity on the part of the qualifiedman, and therefore coming under the cognizance of the institu-tion to which the latter belonged. If the qualified man wereguilty of such a fraud as lending his diploma to another personfor the purpose of practice, he ought to be struck off the listsof his College, and would thereby be disentitled to register.Mr. Clark suggested that the names of all such persons shouldbe given to the Secretary of the Association, in order that theymight be communicated to the institutions to which they be-longed.The CHAIRMAN warmly urged upon the meeting the sugges-

tion of Mr. Clark, stating that communications to the Com-mittee of the Association were treated confidentially, andwould assuredly be represented in the proper quarters.

Dr. KIRBY remarked that the Committee would make suchrepresentations, properly authenticated, first to the college orfaculty to which the offender belonged ; if they were not dulyattended to there, the Committee would appeal to the MedicalCouncil; and lastly, if necessary, to the Government.The first resolution was then put to the meeting, and unani-

mously carried.Dr. WILUS, of Kensington, moved the second resolution

which was as follows :-" That in the opinion of this meetingit is highly desirable to augment the number and influence ofthe members of the London Medical Registration Association,so as to enable it effectually to carry out its objects, and togive weight to its proceedings with the Medical Council; andthis meeting pledges itself to use every exertion to secure thatend." He observed that we have now, in the Medical Council,a kind of Parliament of the profession; and we must act uponthat Council as a representative body is acted upon by its con-stituents, and prevent its subsiding down into an useless body.We must point out to it what are improper regulations, andsuggest the due amendment of the Act, which is now in manyparticulars very inefficient. It will be the duty of the Asso-ciation to do this; and the profession, made fully aware of what