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ting. (The tests I have made use of are Reinsch’s process, sul.phuretted hydrogen, and the ammoniaco-sulphate of copper.)My patient had often suffered from similar eruptions in a

milder degree, but never after only one day’s dipping. Heaccounted for the present aggravated attack by the length oftime occupied in. the process, and his neglect of the ordinaryprecautions of using a leather apron, or some water.proof subt-stance, and subsequent ablution with soap and water.

I have conversed to-day with five shepherds, who haveall been in the habit of using arsenic, and their statementsare consistent and uniform. They have all been in thehabit of compounding their own dipping material. None ofthem have ever suffered from mixtures of tobacco infusion,oil of tar, and black soap, nor even when "sublimate" hasbeen used. Several of them have themselves suffered, afterusing arsenic, from eruptions, principally on the hands andforearms, scrotum, and thighs; and the suffering proves intenseshould they have chapped hands at the time. Almost all ofthem can narrate cases of severe constitutional as well as localirritation. My patient remembers his father lay fourteen days,and he knows of a case where the mixture of arsenic and potashin the solid form was rubbed into the unbroken skin of a sheep,(the only case he knows of such practice,) and it died in fourhours.They all recognised the comparative insolubility of arsenic,

as well from the sediment in the washing utensils, as from thefine grittiness of the liquid even after long boiling. My patientwas the only one who used the mixture of arsenic and potash.I believe the potash had nothing to do with the skin affection,as the quantity of it was so small, (probably not more thanfour ounces to forty-two gallons of water,) and the others hadobserved or suffered similar results when they had purchasedarsenic alone.They have all a salutary dread of the arsenical dipping

liquor, and I know a neighbouring farmer who uses arsenic andtobacco infusion whose servants are so cautious as to pour theliquid on the sheep from a kettle or tea-pot, rather than incurthe risk of having the arsenic in contact with the skin.Hoping the foregoing remarks may not prove uninteresting

or uncalled-for,I am, Sir, your obedient servant,

Ludgatc Lodge, Ratho, Aug. 1857. WALTER WATSON, M.D.WALTER WATSON, M.D.

NAVAL MEDICAL APPOINTMENTS.To the Editor of THE LANCET.

SIR,-In THE LANCET of the 5th instant, " J. J. C." hasanswered my letter, and states that it merely corroborates his.I beg materially to differ with him in some of the most im-portant points.

In his first letter, " J. J. C." says that an assistant-surgeonon entering the service has 8s. ld. per diem, (correct,) and inthree years 10s., when he is also eligible for promotion, whenhis pay is as high as 18s. In answer to my letter, he saysthat he did not mention the length of service required to attainthe pay of 18s. Now, I call that a shabby way of getting outof a scrape. With the same ambiguity, he did not say howlong an assistant-surgeon must serve after three years, or inwhat class of ship, in order to attain the pay of 10s. ; thereforehis language is calculated to mislead; and I ask all who haveread his first letter if they should not argue, from the state-ments contained in it, that an assistant-surgeon had 10s. perdiem immediately after having served his three years, and thatif he should be promoted at the end of that time, he would

’ have 18s. per diem at once? ? This is a complete mistake. Anassistant-surgeon of three years’ service has 8s. 7d., and not10s., per diem. When he has been ten years on full pay, andis in medical charge, he then, and not till then, gets 10s. Id.A surgeon’s pay on promotion, after three years’ service as

assistant-surgeon, is 118. per diem, after six years it is 12s.,after ten years it is 14s., and after twenty years’ service it is

18s. per diem. ’

If I I J. J. C." will take the trouble to ask any medical officer ’,in the navy, he will find that an excellent outfit may be had ’ifor £100. i

I can only say, that if the average sick-list of the Duke qf ’,’Welli?2gton was 40, it was very small indeed for a ship of her size. I have had some experience of a ship with 600 men, andthe number of sick was nearly double that mentioned as theDuhe’s average, and that, too, on a healthy station. A 50-gunfrigate the other day in England had upwards of 60 men sick.If your correspondent will inquire of any naval medical officer,he will be told that the average number of sick in a man-of-war

is 5 per cent.; and the only way that I can understand such amistake being made by " J. J. C." is by believing that he wasignorant of the complement of a 60-gun ship. Our largest classof 50-gun frigates has a complement of 560 men, and a 60-gunfrigate would not have less than 600. If " J. J. C." will lookat his first letter, he will find that he did not say a word aboutthe Mediterranean till after he had made the statement aboutthe sick-list. Let him read the letters from two correspondentsin THE LANCET of the 5th instant, and see what assistant-sur-geons think of the accuracy of his statements.

There is a slight mistake in Mr. Keele’s letter. All time asassistant-surgeon counts towards surgeon’s pay and retirement,instead of only three years, as Mr. Keele says.

I believe there are many naval surgeons practising in thewest-end, but that is no argument against my statement. Thetime they spent in the service might have been much moreprofitably employed on shore, and I dare say they think sonow. The very fact of having no obstetric practice for yearsis enough of itself to render a naval medical officer to a certainextent unqualified for the practice of his profession on shore, orat least to make it very difficult indeed.

I have had some short experience in the navy, and I knowthat when a person who does not belong to the service (andwho consequently does not understand it) begins to write onthe subject, he is always sure to make some mistake, and assure to be corrected, (which of course is disagreeable;) and asthis will be my last letter on the subject, I leave it those of myown profession in her Majesty’s navy to judge whether myviews and statements, or those of "J. J. C.," are the morecorrect.

Apologising for troubling you so far,I have the honour to be, Sir,

Your obedient servant,Sheerness, Sept. 1857. ASSISTANT-SURGEON.R;N:

Medical News.APOTHECARIES’ HALL. - Names of gentlemen who

passed their examination in the science and practice of Medi- ’

cine, and received certificates to practise, onThursday, September 3rd, 1857.

BRIGHT, JOHN MEABURN, Richmond.SMITH, JAMES THOMAS, Sutton Coldfield.

ROYAL MEDICAL AND CHIRURGICAL SOCIETY.-Thelibrary re-opens on Monday next, the 14th instant.

M. PIRAGOFF. - We announced last year, that M.Piragoff, the distinguished Russian operator, contemplatedretiring from the profession. This he has since done. The

Emperor, in acknowledgment of the professor’s eminent services during a period when they were so greatly needed, hasenabled him to accomplish his wish in a very agreeable manner.M. Piragoff is now " Curator" of the educational districtattached to the Imperial Lyceum of Odessa. This is a veryresponsible post; but his excellency’s antecedents must havequite qualified him for it. The new curator is very popularwith the students; and the improvements he has alreadyintroduced are highly spoken of. A more acceptable retreatcould scarcely have been offered, as the district is healthy, andthe more agreeable from former associations.A QUACK.-Last week, at the Wakefield Court-house,

a fashionably dressed individual, who wore a profusion ofjewellery, a moustache, and an imperial, and who gave thename of William Langley Riley, was charged with obtainingmoney on false pretenses. A very smart -looking young woman,named Sarah Smith, was also charged with aiding and abettingRiley. The chief constable applied for a remand till Monday,which was granted; Mr. Wainwright, who prosecutes, brieflystating that the prisoners were travelling about the country ina conveyance, under the designation of "Drs. Langley Rileyand Co." "Dr." Langley Riley’s manner of duping the publicwas original. He pretended to be one of the medical officersfrom the Royal Botanical College of Health, London, and to besent down by Government for the especial behoof of the poor.He professed to dispense medicines gratis, only charging forwhat he pretended was the " government stamp." A largemedicine chest was produced in court, containing spuriousdrugs. Since the apprehension of the prisoner it has been dis-covered that he has a wife and six children, who have been

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deserted by him for the last four years. Both prisoners weresent to the house of correction till Monday, on which daythey were again brought up, when Mr. Wainwright, who ap-peared for the prosecution, said he had nothing against theyoung woman, Sarah Smith, and asked for her discharge, whichwas acceded to. There were only three charges taken againstRiley; but the table of the Court-house was covered with a vastnumber of bottles of spurious medicine, bearing the names ofthe different parties whom this swindling quack had duped.The prisoner was committed for trial on all the charges.POISONED WHISKY.-The "Lebanon Star" records the

death of four men from drinking whisky with strychnine in it.It also says that tens of thousands of fish in the stream belowthe distillery have died. Two tons of dead fish have beentaken out, a mill-race being literally choked with them.STRYCHNINE AND ITS EFFECTS.--On Monday afternoon

last, a valuable greyhound bitch, which had been entered forthe Dumfriesshire St. Leger, belonging to a gentleman residingat Corbelly-hill, was killed by partaking of strychnine. Thebitch had been allowed to run about the locality for a fewminutes, while her owner was at tea; but she immediately re-turned to her kennel, howling most piteously. The gentlemanat once left his meal for the purpose of ascertaining the causeof the noise, when he found the animal standing upright in aperfect state of rigidity, and apparently enduring great agony.He dispatched a messenger for Mr. Paterson, veterinary sur-geon, who was in immediate attendance, and at a glance pro-nounced the dog poisoned by strychnine. Chloroform andother antidotes were applied, but all failed; and the animal,after having undergone a series of violent convulsions, expiredin about an hour and a half. In the same locality, a few weeksago, another dog, belonging to a lady, died in a similar manner;and the people in the neighbourhood are so much alarmed thatthey will not even allow domestic animals to leave their houses,lest they should suffer.OFHTHALMIA IN PRUSSIA.-The affection of the eyes

which has lately exhibited itself in so virulent a form amongstthe troops in garrison here is stated by medical men to be theEgyptian ophthalmia; it manifests itself in a number of smallwhite vesicles below the lower eyelid, which, if not promptlyremoved by a solution of lunar caustic, increase very rapidly,and soon extend in the form of a white crust or scab over thewhole eye, and dry up its fluids. Although some entire regi-ments have hitherto escaped this infliction, others have hadsuch considerable numbers of their men rendered unfit for dutythat the men of the reserve have been obliged to be called outin order to keep up the regiments to even their peace comple-ment. The exertions of the regimental surgeons have, for thepresent, succeeded in mastering the epidemic; and, if no newoutbreak occurs, it may be looked on already as in a fair wayof disappearance. The same seems to be the case with the sick-ness which has affected the horses of the cavalry in Potsdam.Very shortly after they were distributed throughout the sur-rounding villages it became apparent that they were recoveringso rapidly that they would soon be able to be brought back totheir own stables and do duty. What the nature of this affec-tion of the horses has been we have not been able to learn.

THE LATE CAPTAIN SKENE.-WE have already givenan account of the tragedy at Jhansi. Captain Skene was theson of the late Dr. Charles Skene, an eminent physician inAberdeen. He was also nephew of the late Andrew Skene,Esq., advocate, well remembered at the Scotch bar as anenergetic pleader, and who was appointed Solicitor-General forScotland by the Melbourne Ministry, in 1834. The two infantdaughters of this hapless but heroic pair fell victims at thesame time.-Glasgow Herald. ’

HEALTH OF LONDON DURING THE WEEK ENDINGSEPTEMBER 5TH. -The deaths registered in London, which rosein the previous week to 1177, declined in the week that endedon Saturday (September 5th) to 1084, of which 537 are deathsof males, 547 those of females. In the ten years 1847-56, theaverage number of deaths in the weeks corresponding with lastweek was 1464; but as the deaths of last week occurred in anincreased population, the average, with a view to comparison,should be raised in proportion to the increase, whereby it willbecome 1610. It will be seen, however, on reference to thereturns of 1849 and 1854, that in the corresponding week ofthe former year, cholera carried off 2026 persons, and in that ’,of the latter 2050, and that the average is, consequently, too Ihigh as a standard of comparison for seasons when only ordinary ’,,causes are in operation. After due allowance is made for this I

circumstance, the result is still very favourable as regards thepublic health at the present time. Diarrheea continues to de-cline, though by slow degrees; but it is more fatal than isusual at the beginning of September. The deaths from thiscomplaint attained their maximum in the last week of July,when they were 302, after the mean weekly temperature hadbeen for a fortnight 68°. In each successive week there was adecrease; and last week, when the mean temperature was60 ·4°, the number of deaths returned from diarrhoea was 181.Besides these, 11 deaths are referred to dysentery in the tablefor last week; and only 4 to cholera, all the cases, in whichthe latter disease was fatal, having occurred amongst infants.As diarrhoea declines, typhus shows a tendency to increase;for though the deaths from it (52) were less than in the previousweek, they were more numerous than in the earlier part of thesummer. Two deaths from small-pox and one from chicken-pox are returned. The deaths of 2 persons are ascribed to in-temperance, and no less than 8 to delirium tremens. Eleveninfants died from want of breast-milk. Only one person of the1084 who died in the week had attained the age of 90 years,and she was a widow of 92.

Births, Marriages, and Deaths.BIRTHS. ’

On the 1st inst., at Boyne-terrace, Kensington-park, thewife of W. H. Ashley, M.D., of a son.On the 4th inst., the wife of W. B. Kesteven, Esq., F. R. C. S.,

Upper Holloway, of a daughter. ’

On the 6th inst., at Cockermouth, the wife of Geo. D. Arm-strong, Esq., M.R.C.S. Eng., L.A.C., &c., of a son.

MARRIAGES.

On the 4th inst., at Upper Norwood, T. Hillier, M.D., ofUpper Gower-street, St. Pancras, to Susan, second daughter ofWm. Delf, Esq., of Anerley Villas, near Norwood.On the 8th inst., at St. Barnabas, Kensington, Bernard Rioe,

Eoq., M.B., of Stratford-upon-Avon, to Emily, youngestdaughter of the late Rev. Dr. Rice, of Christ’s Hospital.On the 8th inst., at St. John’s, Southwark, J. N. Vinen,

M.D., to Caroline, eldest daughter of Joseph Steede, Esq.

DEATHS. -

On the 31st of May, murdered by the Sepoys, at Shahjehan-pore, H. Hawkins Bowling, Esq., Surgeon, 28th Regt. B.N.L,and on or about the 9th of June, Jane, wife of the above gen-tleman, who was shot by some Sepoys of the 4lst N.L, nearthe fort of Mahomdee, after escaping from the massacre atShahjehanpore.On the 15th of July, at Malabar-hill, Bombay, Agnes Isabel,

the wife of Dr. Rooke, Surgeon-General.On the 22nd ult., at the residence of Duncan Campbell, Esq.,

Newton, Islay, John Pattison, M.D., F. R. C. S., London.On the 24th ult., at Newport, Isle of Wight, Sarah Anne,

only daughter of E. P. Wilkins, Esq., M.R.C.S., F.G.S., &c.,aged 3 years.On the 3rd inst., at Brighton, after a short illness, Eliza, the

wife of Dr. Ashwell, of Brook-street, Grosvenor-square.On the 4th inst., at Shepton Mallet, T. Brickenden, M.D.,

aged 86, formerly of St. John’s, Southwark.

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