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clearly understood that our scheme of reform has been con-ceived and elaborated as a whole and that any interferencewith the principles on which it is based would necessarilydestroy its benefits. With the completion of Part III. ourmission will have been fulfilled." In Section IV. of Part II.dealing with the chief of the general staff " we find thefollowing remarks: "There is at the present time a greatlack of information as regards technical military progress in pother countries. An officer of Royal Artillery and of the

Royal Army Medical Corps should therefore be attached tothe section of the director of military operations whichdeals with intelligence. It should be the duty of theseofficers to supply the branch of the master-general of Sthe Ordnance and the director-general of the Army Medical s,Services with information in regard to new developments of armaments or of military hygiene and these officers should be enabled to travel for this purpose when neces- Y

sary." If the boldest course in certain circumstances is the s

best no fault can be found with the committee’s reports in this respect. We may assume that in a general way ourreaders are acquainted with the sweeping and wholesale rchanges proposed by the committee which, if carried out, will be almost tantamount to having a new army, a new War Office, and a new army system. As regards the Army Medical fService, we shall be better able to speak after the House of aCommons has had an opportunity of expressing an opinion on the new army scheme and when the third and last part ofthe committee’s report has been published.

THE ARMY ESTIMATES. We gather from the Army Estimates for 1904-05 that the

total number of men to be voted is 227,000 and shows ra decrease of 8761, as compared with the numbers voted "for 1903-04. Of this decrease 4200 are due to the in- t

creased garrison of South Africa being found in t1904-05 within the ordinary establishments, instead of ]being provided for by a vote of temporary additionalnumbers, as in 1903-04. The balance of 4561 is due to decreases in other corps. On the other hand, there are small (increases in the Royal Army Medical Corps and the Army Pay Corps. The estimate for the Royal Army Medical Corpsis for a strength of 4648 for the coming and present financialyear as compared with 4154 in 1903-04. The figures for the ’Army Medical Staff (including Headquarters Staff) andmedical officers not included under the Royal Army MedicalCorps remain the same. The estimated cost of the medicalestablishment for pay, &c., for the present financial year is i

.6484,000. as against f.530,000 for the past year-a decrease of £46,000. The establishment of British regiments of allranks serving in India gives an estimated total of 74,657,which includes 337 Royal Army Medical Corps.

THE HEALTH OF THE ROYAL NAVY.The statistical report of the health of the Royal Navy for

the year 1902 has just been issued in the form of a blue-book. The returns for the total force serving afloat in theyear under notice, the report states, may be consideredsatisfactory. With a personnel increased by 1190 as comparedwith the previous year there is an increase in cases anddeaths but a decrease in invalidings. The numbers arerespectively 85,769, 590, and 2985, in comparison with 84,026,526, and 3108 in 1901. The aggregate number of cases ofdisease and injury recorded during the year furnishes a

ratio of 861’ 13 per 1000, which shows an increase of 7’ 3 per1000 as compared with the ratio for 1901, but a decrease of22 2 when contrasted with the average of the last five years.The prevalence of, and mortality from, enteric fever show aslight decrease ; one case of plague is recorded and therewere five cases of cholera, with four deaths. A decline inthe ratio of cases of primary syphilis is shown but increasesare shown as regards constitutional syphilis and gonorrhœa.Two cases of wounds in action are recorded, with one death.

THE NEW INSPECTOR-GENERAL.It is officially announced that with the approval of the

King H R H. the Duke of Connaught and Strathearn has beenappointed as the new Inspector-General of the Forces andPresident of the Selection Board.

We understand that arrangements are in progress forextending in the Army a system of training for increasingthe visual powers of soldiers and developing their powers ofobservation in the field.

Brevet-Colonel D. Bruce, R.A.M.C , has been speciallyselacted for increased pay under Art. 365 of the PayWarrant.

Obituary.SIR EDWARD HENRY SIEVEKING, M.D. EDIN.,

F.R C.P. LOND.,PHYSICIAN-IN-ORDINARY TO THE LATE QUEEN VICTORIA; PHYSICIAN

EXTRAORDINARY TO THE KING ; PHYSICIAN TO THE LATE DUKEOF CAMBRIDGE ; CONSULTING PHYSICIAN TO ST. MARY’S

HOSPITAL AND TO THE LOCK HOSPITAL.

As we briefly announced last week Sir Elward HenrySieveking died on Feb. 24th at his house in Manchester-square. The medical profession of this country has therebylost one of its best known members who for more than 50

years enjoyed a distinguished position not only as a phy-sician in the scientific sense but as the trusted medicaladviser of the highest personages of the State.

Sir Edward Sieveking, who at the time of his deathhad attained the advanced age of 87 years, was born inSt. Helen’s-place, Bishopsgate, in the City of London, onAugust 24th, 1816. For an outline of his lineage and youth.ful journeyings on the continent we are indebted to someautobiographical memoranda which have been intrusted to,us by his youngest son Mr. A. Forbes Sieveking, and whichwe hope may eventually be given to the public in an

extended form. Sieveking was descended from an ancientWestphalian or North German Lutheran family. It is sug-gested that the original spelling of the name was Sieviking,.a name which marked descent from the Vikings, theScandinavian adventurers who settled in Westphalia inthe eleventh century. Anyhow, the family dates backto the sixteenth century and subsequently became prominentin the intellectual, political, and mercantile circles ofHamburg. In the early part of last century, for instance,an uncle was known among European statesmen inconnexion with the negotiation of commercial treaties.Sieveking’s parents came from Hamburg and settled inLondon in 1809, his father becoming a merchant inFenchurch-street. His mother was a daughter of SenatorJ. V. Meyer of Hamburg. His education was commenced inEngland and continued on the continent, first at theGymnasium of Ratzeburg (about the time when SamuelTaylor Coleridge was writing some of his best known lettersfrom the lake-girt island near Lübeck in Mecklenburg-Strelitz) and then at the Gymnasium of Berlin. Of his stayat the latter school and his subsequent movements he hasleft a record as follows: "I passed the Abiturienten-Examen, obtained a certificate of ’ maturity,’ and transferredmy allegiance to the Berlin University, where I dissectedunder Schiemann, attended the lectures on physiology byJohannes Miiller and those on chemistry under Mitscherlich,and then went to Bonn for a year where I attendedlectures on surgery and made myself well acquaintedwith the Rhine and its lovely tributaries....... For two

years I studied medicine at University College, London, andthen went to Edinburgh University where I graduated asM.D. in 1841, my thesis on I Erysipelas’ receiving a star ofdistinction. In the latter part of 1841 I went to Paris forthe winter and studied at the Hotel Dieu under Andral, atthe Hopital St. Louis (for skin diseases), and the Hôpital duMidi, where I followed the practice and teaching ofRicord, ...... travelled through France and North I6aly toVienna, where Jäger especially attracted me, and I attendeda private course of ophthalmic surgery under his assistantRigl, when I travelled with my parents through Hungary,Tyrol, and South Germany." After his rvanderjahre he prac-tised for a short time, about four years, amongst the Englishcolony in Hamburg, where he delivered a course of lecturesand founded a children’s hospital in conjunction with hisaunt, Miss Amalia Sieveking, a philanthropist and pioneerof nursing, whose biography, translated by Miss CarolineWinkworth, is still known in England. He also publishedin German a treatise on Ventilation and started the AlsterRowing Club, which athletic association delighted later inhonouring their founder.

It will be seen that his early education was calculated togive him self-reliance and a sound introduction to medicineas well as to make it unlikely for him to take narrow orprejudiced views. Returning to London in 1846 he com-menced medical practice in Bentinck-street, Manchester-square, where he resided until 1857, when he removedto Manchester-square, living there until the day of his

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SIR EDWARD H. SIEVEKING, M.D’EDIN., F.R.C.P. LOND.,PHYSICIAN EXTR.A.ORDE.A.RY TO HIS MAJESTY THE KING.

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- daath. He was admitted a Member of the Royal (

College of Physicians of London in 1847 and soon 1

engaged actively in literary work. In 1849 he published a (

small treatise with the title, "The Training Institutions for Nurses and the Workhouses," a question in which he felt 1much interest and which also formed the subject of a paper read by him before the Epidemiological Society in 1854. In the same year he translated for the Sydenham I

Society Vol. II. of Rokitansky’s "Pathological Anatomy." ’After holding the post of physician to the Northern Dis- 1

pensary he was appointed in 1851 assistant physician to St. (

’:M:ary1s Hospital, an institution with which he maintained a life-long connexion. At an early period he became lecturer on materia medica and for 37 years in the wards, the classroom, and the out-patient department he was a pro- Jminent figure in the school. He became full physician tothe hospital in 1860, only retiring from this position in 1888, when he was placed on the consulting staff. 4

He was also one of the first physicians appointed to the 1staff. In 1862 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal ]College of Physicians of London and afterwards filled 1

various offices in the College, including those of examiner, Harveian orator, senior censor, and vice-president. As vice-president under Sir William Jenner his claim to thepresidency was held by many to be stronger than that of SirAndrew Clark, but Sir Edward Sieveking himself, afterexperience of Clark’s strenuous ways, allowed that he had been superseded by a man with peculiar aptitude for thepost. In 1866 he delivered the Croonian lectures in theCollege, the subject of them being the Localisation of Disease. In 1877 he delivered the Harveian oration, with theresult that the College, together with the Royal College ofSurgeons of England, aided him in producing an autotypepublication of the MS. of Harvey’s original physiologicallecture delivered in 1616. ’

At an early stage of his career he contributed to theBritish and Foreign Medico Chirxrgical Review, then editedby its founder, Sir John Forbes, who became his firm friendand whose name was given to Sieveking’s youngest son in1857, the year in which Sieveking succeeded to the editor-ship of the Review. In addition to Sir John Forbes and hiscolleagues at the hospital and the Royal College of Physiciansof London, he was on terms of intimate friendship with manymen eminent in medicine and literature, including Sir David Brewster, Charles Kingsley, F. D. Maurice, and Henry CrabbRobinson, who knew his parents and in whose reminiscenceswill be found a eulogistic allusion to the son. Sir EdwardSieveking’s first contribution to THE LANCET appeared in theissue of Sept. 10th, 1853, and was entitled "A Case in whichHydatids were Discharged from the Kidney during Life."In 1854, with the collaboration of Dr. Handfield Jones (alsoof St. Mary’s Hospital), he published a I I Manual of Patho.logical Anatomy." In 1858 there appeared the first edition ofhis important work on " Epilepsy and Epileptiform Seizures,their Causes, Pathology, and Treatment," which was reviewedin THE LAKCET of Jan. 16th in that year. In 1861 hepublished in our columns Clinical Remarks on Neuralgiain a series of five articles and also became president of theHarveian Society. Many years previously he had been

appointed physician-in-ordinary to the late Duke ofCambridge, the father of the present Duke. In 1863, on

the recommendation of Sir James Clark, he was appointedphysician-in ordinary to the Prince of Wales, now the King.In 18-73 he was made physician. extraordinary and in 1888physician-in-ordinary to her late Majesty Queen Victoria,having been knighted two years earlier.

In 1849 he married Miss Jane Ray who survives him.By her he had five sons, one of whom is in the medicalprofession, and three daughters, one of whom is now thewife of Professor Starling, having previously been married tothe late D:. L. Woolridge.The following appreciation of Sir Edward Sieveking’s

work as a colleague comes from a member of the staffof St. Mary’s Hospital, and shows well the esteem whichhe enjoyed among his colleagues as physician, teacher, andfriend : " It is some years since Sir Edward Sievekingtook an active part in the practice of medicine, but thosewho had the pleasure of his intimate acquaintance willremember him as one who, if still imbued with many of thetraditions of an earlier schcol of thought and action, waskeenly impressionable to the influence of more recentmethods. He was in the exact sense of the term a generalphysician and considered specialism in its narrower inter-pretation with little tolerance. A survey of his professional

career reveals the wide range of his intellectual activity.Whatever subject he touched-e g., pathology, neurology,climatology-he left the record richer by his work andpen. He possessed much of the courtly grace exemplifiedby many of his contemporaries and successfully strove tomaintain the lofty ideal he had always in view. Whilst,appreciative of the claims of others he knew how to assenthis settled convictions. What Lord Granville was in politicsSieveking was in medical polemics. If he excelled in onething more than another it was in the rational treatment ofdisease, and whilst paying primary attention to the specialnature of an ailment he never neglected the claims of thebody corporate. He made humanity his study and theamelioration of its ills his constant care. He had a tearfor pity and a heart open as day for melting charity.’As a colleague he was loyal and devoted. To his equals instation he was deferential; to his subordinates he wa&

encouraging, helpful, and considerate. His methods ofteaching were not, perhaps, quite in accordance with thepresent trend of directive as opposed to descriptive inculca-tion of knowledge, but he was clear in diction, impressive inmanner, and conclusive in argument. The medical profes-sion has lost one of its most honoured lights and St. Mary’sHospital, the home of his life-work, a guide, counsellor, andfriend. "

This brief appreciation of his work at St. Mary’s Hospitaldepicts Sir Edward Sieveking graphically. We see how theliberal education and varied opportunities of his youth gaveflexibility to his views and breadth to his sympathies and wecan understand that when once he was interested in a

subject he spared no pains in promoting the views upon itwhich he thought sound. To questions of nursing, educa-tion, and hygiene he paid the close attention which he con-sidered such matters should exact from the general physicianwith the result that he was able to give well-reasoned advicein directions where many medical men would have con-sidered ignorance excusable. And with all his wide rangeof accomplishments a high ideal of conduct kept himcourteous, generous, and kind. Though in a sense SirEdward Sieveking belonged to a day that is past his death isdeeply felt by the medical profession.The funeral took place on Feb. 27th at Abney Park

Cemetery, the memorial service being held in St. Thomas’sChurch, Orchard-street, Portman-square.

A. A. LIEBEAULT, M.D.

Dr. L’ebeault, who died at Nancy on Feb. 18th, wasthe doyen of the Nancy School of Hypnotism. Born in 1823he studied medicine at the University of Strasburg wherehe took his M.D. degree. After a few years spent in generalpractice in the country he settled in Nancy, where heestablished a clinique for the free treatment of the poor by asystem which came to be known as treatment by suggestion.In 1866, he published his first book on the subject, " Sommeilet les Etats Analogues," which, however, met with a verypoor reception. Nevertheless, Dr. Liebeault continued towork with enthusiasm and success and in 1881 he obtainedthe support of three eminent professors in the university-Bernheim, Beaunis, and Liégeois. Thus arose the Nancyschool which has done so much to establish the practice ofhypnotism on a scientific basis. Dr. Liebeault when he re-tired on a modest competence in 1890 was the recipient of atestimonial of remarkably cosmopolitan character from about50 medical friends and pupils, referred to in THE LANCETof that year. His kindly and unassuming dispositionendeared him to all who met him, and the widespreadinfluence of his teaching is a pleasing testimony to thesuccess of perseverance and singleness of purpose.

DEATHS OF EMINENT FOREIGN MEDICAL MEN.-The deathsof the following eminent foreign medical men are announced:Dr. Jos6 Calvo y Martin, formerly professor of anatomy inMadrid and Senator of Spain.-Dr. Juan J. Flores, formerlyMinister of the Interior in the Republic of Costa Rica and atone time Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, San José.-Dr.Alexander Spiess of Frankfort, editor of the Deutscke Vier-teljahrsschrift fiir öffentliche Gesundheitspflege. His son,Dr. Gustav Spiess, has been in attendance on the GermanEmperor during his laryngeal trouble.