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83 [FROM A CORRESPONDENT.] Scutari, Dec. 30th, 1854. As to the hospitals, we are in statzc quo; we are, perhaps, a little better off on the whole, but a head or heads are still badly wanted. Our supply of useful medicines we borrow from the Turks, while there are some we cannot get at all. Of medicines not used here there are immense quantities, such as jalap, scammony, &c., and they still continue to send out large quantities of them, and very little of the opposite kind, such as opium. Notwithstanding the Duke of Newcastle’s statement, that there is one medical officer to every seventy- seven men of the army, many, very many assistant-surgeons have upwards of 100 sick and wounded under their charge, and but for the nurses we could not get on. This is not fair to sick and wounded-not fair to the Medical Department, the country, or the poor over-worked wight who, having, as in most instances here, just passed his examination, finds himself cast headlong into a vortex of disease, without help or advice of any kind, and with a want of those comforts, medicines, and appliances for his patients which he has just been taught are of vital importance. I pity these young fellows exceed- ingly ; they work like negroes, and are treated as such by the staff-surgeons over them, some of whom, perfectly ignorant and useless themselves, think to make up a show of business by insulting those below, and fawning on their equals and the late arrivals from England. We all get little air enough here, and are continually con- fined to a close atmosphere in the performance of Qur duties, in consequence of which some of us are now suffering from fever. One would imagine our rulers would endeavour to let us have as much fresh air as possible, duty being done. Quite the con- trary ; they are so puzzled, so frightened, and have so little reliance on their own measures, that an order was given the other day by Dr. C- that no medical officer was to leave the hospital while sick were being landed. A little arrange- ment for sick beforehand, with a simple order for broth and wine, and half-a-dozen assistant-surgeons to see the orders carried out, would allow some twenty-five surgeons, living on putrid air, to dilute it occasionally on a fine day, particularly as sick are landed on fine days only, and on the other days the weather confines one to the house. Medical News. ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEOnS.—NEW FELLOWS.—At a meeting of the Council on the llth inst., the following mem- bers were admitted to the fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons of England :- BROADBENT, EDWARD FARB, Lincoln, diploma of member- ship dated 22nd July, 1836. CROZIER, ALEXANDER WILLIAM, Bengal Army, 24th May, 1839. OBRE, HENRY, Melcombe-place, Dorset-square, 3rd August, 1838. ’ SLEMAN, RICHARD, Tavistock, 23rd May, 1832. At the same meeting, Mr. JOHN KIRKWOOD, of Hamilton- place, King’s-cross, a Licentiate of the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons af Glasgow, was admitted an ad-eundem member of the College. THE HUNTERIAN ORATION.—The ensuing oration will be delivered by Mr. Hodgson on Wednesday the 14th proximo. EAST INDIA MEDICAL SERVICE.—As much misappre- hension exists respecting the salaries of surgeons in the East India Company’s Service, the following is extracted from the Regulations respecting these officers:—" The assistant-surgeon will receive no pay until his arrival in India; in fact, it is only then that he receives his appointment. He must pay his own expenses out, which will cost him £90. During the first six months after his arrival, he is attached to the Presidency garrison hospital, where he has an opportunity of providing him- self with regimental and canteen equipments, surgical instru- ments, &c. His pay and rank are then equal to that of a lieu- tenant. Pay per month, thirty days: Assistant to cavalry in garrison, £28 4s. 2d. ; infantry in garrison, X18 13s. 4d., (the latter being S224 per annum.) The assistant-surgeon is re- quired to subscribe, as a condition to his appointment, to the ’,i Retiring Fund, and also to the Orphan Society, if appointed to Bengal.’’ GERMAN SURGEONS IN THE CRIMEA. -The position which Germany will, in all probability, hold in the spring, in the war in the Crimea, has been rendered remarkable by a prohibition issued against Prussian surgeons joining France or England: the Prussian surgeon is to take an oath of fidelity to the Czar; but is, on the day of the expiration of this contract, absolved from his oath. One hundred German surgeons, it is said, have sent in applications; and will be employed chiefly in the Crimea. A notice of four weeks dissolves the contract. The salary is fixed at Warsaw; and first-class carriage travel- ling expenses allowed to all candidates to that city. The surgeon is, at least, treated as a gentleman—a hint which might be useful in our own Admiralty at home, and amongst our Poor-law authorities. MILITIA SURGEONs.—It is stated that many of the Irish Militia, Regiments are likely to be left as destitute of medical care as the army at the seat of war. Several corps have been unable to procure assistant-surgeons, and it is said that the surgeons of others will resign as soon as the regiments are fairly embodied. The cause of this strange state of affairs is attributed to an old source of public mischief-viz. , misplaced economy in small matters; while prodigality in great, is but too frequently regarded with indifference, if not worse. AMPUTATIONS AT INKERMANN.—"All that afternoon of Inkermann," says a writer in Blackzvood, "wagons and doctors were bringing in wounded Russians. Passing the hospital tent of our First Division, I saw a neat boot sticking out of the doorway, the wearer’s leg being supported by an orderly. It was a young Russian officer, whose thigh-bone had been splintered by a ball, and was undergoing amputation at the hip-joint. He died in an hour. Outside lay five dead Russians; near them a heap of amputated legs and arms." THE CRYSTAL PALACE IN PARIS has a department allotted to medical and surgical discoveries. It is expected England will furnish various articles of importance-surgical instruments of various kinds, anaesthetic apparatuses from Dublin, Edinburgh, &c. It is stated that M. Leroy d’Etiolles, the celebrated improver of lithotritic instruments, is expected daily in London, whether in connexion with this undertaking or not we cannot determine. LEADEN BULLETS.—Surgeons must take care of Russian leaden bullets, says a letter from the seat of war; they will splinter and remain in the flesh. ’’ Two soldiers of the 77th were wounded by one ball; it struck the shoulder-blade of one, and half remained till extracted; the other half lodged in the neck of a second soldier. The bullet was of pure lead, whereas the Alini6 balls have an alloy of zinc and lead." COLLEGE OF SURGEONS’ LIBRARY.—It has been strongly recommended amongst hospital surgeons that the library of the College be left open in the evenings till eight o’clock. It is suggested also that the Medico-Chirurgical and other Medical Societies meet from four till six, as in Paris, as this would ensure a larger attendance-after dinner for some, before dinner for others. At present the Societies’ meetings are spoken of as being so late they are never thought of, and infringing on that part of the day usually devoted to study. THE SCIENCE’OF OBSTETRICS AMONGST THE BURMESE. - The word in the Burmese language signifying to " be con- fined," translated literally signifies " to be roasted:" and no word could have been chosen to convey a clearer idea of the proceedings on these occasions. At the expiration of the seventh month of pregnancy, one hundred large sticks or logs are purchased in anticipation of the event; and directly the woman is seized with labour-pains, a large fire is lighted on a small moveable platform, and placed close to her left side. The heat given out by this pile of blazing wood is intense; and the room is not rendered cooler, or the atmosphere more agreeable, by every window being religiously closed, and by being crowded with all the woman’s relatives and friends, male and female. If the patient’s family be suffi- ciently rich, the attendance of a Bhoodist Brahmin is secured, who places himself at the woman’s head, and remains during the whole labour, in order to ward off the approach of evil spirits. An old woman generally acts as accoucheur. If every. thing goes on right, no one interferes; but if the labour exceeds an ordinary period, a few of the most powerful male relatives are called upon to make violent pressure on the abdomen from above downwards, with the view " of pushing the child out." Every Burmese woman swears by the efficacy of this measure. During the whole process the woman is placed on the back, and is not allowed to turn on either side. The umbilical
