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expulsive pozaer is limited by the resisting tension of thediaphragm." The expulsive power of a pair of lungs is adefinite quantity, and to speak of it as limited by theresisting tension of the diaphragm, or even to speak of aresisting tension at all, is surely inadmissible.

I am, Sir, yours truly,WM. McLAURIN, M.B., C.M. (Glasgow.)

Islington, Oct. 19th, 1879.WM. MCLAURIN, M.B., C.M. (Glasgow.)

THE WAR AT THE CAPE.To the Editor of THE LANCET.

Sin, —It is a matter of some comment that the Commis-sariat Department, which gained for itself a somewhat un-enviable notoriety during the Crimean campaign, andowing to the administration of which we have on more thanone occasion had bad accounts since the commencement ofthe Zulu war, should be the only one to have honours andrewards heaped upon it. The senior officer has been pro-moted, and raised to the honourable distinction of a KnightCommander of the Bath. The other equally importantdepartments of the army have as yet had no distinction atall. This has naturally caused a great deal of dissatisfac-tion. It is felt that the officers of the Army Medical Depart-ment, who have so ably attended to the care of the sick andwounded, the "Army Pay Department," which has had thespending and accounting for the large sums voted by Par-liament for the payment of the troops and the expenses ofthe war, and the " Ordnance Store Department," which firstequipped and started the force from England complete withall the necessary matériel to take the field, and has soefficiently kept up the supplies of ammunition, &c., sincethe commencement of hostilities, have equal claims withthe Commissariat. Reports have on more than one occa-sion been made of soldiers being on "half rations," butnothing has ever been said that they were without medicinesor surgical appliances, without money, or minus rifles,powder, and shot. If honours and rewards are given, byall means let them be distributed equally or not at all.

Sir Garnet Wolseley has, it is stated, drawn the attentionof the authorities to the anomaly, and made suggestions forspeedy amendment.

Your obedient servant,SURGEON.

ARMY MEDICAL DEPARTMENT.To the Editor of THE LANCET.

SiR,-At a time when discontent prevails in the MedicalDepartment of the Army, and when it is difficult, if not im-possible, to obtain candidates for it, is it not surprising thatmedical officers should apparently be forgotten when honoursare being so freely lavished on those who have lately re-turned from Zululand ? Surgeon-Major Reynolds was con-sidered deserving of the Victoria Cross for his conduct atRorke’s Drift, but nowhere have I seen that the Commander-in-Chief noticed his gallant services, and honoured him inthe manner he did Major Chard at Portsmouth, althoughthey arrived in the same vessel.

Again, Major Chard was honoured with a command toappear before Her Majesty at Balmoral ; but no such honourfor Dr. Reynolds. He has instead been ordered to reporthimself to the principal medical officer, Ireland, for dutythere ! Is it not very disheartening that such invidiousdistinctions should be made ?

Yours truly,Oct. 20th, 1879. DISJECTA MEMBRA.

YORKSHIRE ASSOCIATION OF HEALTHOFFICERS.

(From our own Correspondent.)

ON Thursday, the 16th inst.; the fourth annual meetingof the Yorkshire Association of the Medical Officers oiHealth was held at Bradford, the president, S. W. North,Esq., of York, occupying the chair.After examining the town sewage works in the morning,

the efficiency of which seems to be undoubted, they visited

the Fever Hospital, where they were entertained in a mosthospitable manner by the House Committee. Among therecent improvements at this institution, a disinfecting stove,designed by Dr. Ransom, of Nottingham, excited specialinterest.At 3 P.M. the general meeting was held, by permission of

the Mayor (Mr. Augus Holden), in the Town Hall, at whichabout 300 gentlemen were present. The routine businesshaving been transacted, Mr. Harris Butterfield, of Bradford,read a most interesting paper on " Infantile Diarrhoea."He considers the causes to be due mainly to high tempera-ture, excremental pollution of atmosphere, construction ofback-to-back dwellings, as also those built upon ashpitrefuse which has been used to fill up old quarries, and im.proper feeding. The remedies, he thinks, are more easilyrecognised than applied-viz., improved dwellings withbetter ventilation, a more rapid and thorough removal ofexcreta, and a reform in the habits of the people as regardsthe general management of infants. A valuable communi.cation was also made by Dr. Britton, of Halifax,’on "Adifficulty of Water-supply." His remarks were chieflyapplicable to hilly neighbourhoods in rural districts. Hegave the following example :-Water originally pure nearthe top of a hill is contaminated in its passage through afarmyard. It flows from thence over the land or in drainstill it gets to a stone trough, forming the water-supply forblock of cottages No. 1. The same thing is repeated lowerdown at block of cottages No. 2. As the law at presentexists there seems to be no possibility of obtaining whole-some water for these blocks of cottages. The subject ap-pears to be one of paramount importance, and we hope Dr.Britton’s paper may be the means indirectly of providing aremedy for this pernicious state of things.Bradford, Oct. 21,1879.

PARIS.(From our own Correspondent.)

SINCE the beginning of the present year the Morgue hasbeen used for practical demonstrations in connexion withthe chair of Legal Medicine. This teaching is almost unique,and attracts many foreign students. It would scarcely bepossible to obtain elsewhere, in so short a time, a practicalknowledge of the post-mortem appearances resulting fromcrime, but a month here would be almost sure to furnishthe elements of a complete course of criminal necropsology.Besides the numerous bodies fished out of the Seine, sub-jects are brought hither by the police from all parts ofParis. Death by drowning, suicidal or criminal (for suicideis not a crime in France), are very frequent, but other causesare common enough. There is a fashion in these matters,as in everything else, and of late stunning and stabbingseem to have been in vogue. Self-destruction can be, andoften is, surely and speedily effected by a jump from oneof the towers of Notre-Dame, or from the top of the Arc-de-Triomphe, but a gentler method is often preferred. Statisticsshow that the scrapings of lucifer-matches are most fre-quently chosen for this purpose. Oxide of carbon, generatedby means of charcoal, is also employed commonly enough,and the more so as it enjoys the reputation of lulling awaythe taker sweetly into eternity. But here, again, fashionhas interfered, and a person with any sense of propriety isdebarred from its use. Voluntary death by the inhalationof oxide of carbon is not considered at all clisti*2zg?t, andsome unpleasantness might arise for the family when ameans which is socially considered un peu trop blccnchisseztsehad been adopted by one of its members. The prefet of theSeine has now appointed a Commission to study the presentorganisation of the Morgue, and if projected arrangementsare carried out, they will leave very little to desire. Amongstother novelties it is proposed to furnish a freezing apparatus,which will enable the bodies brought for identitication to bekept for a considerable time.Numerous changes have been made recently in the medi-

cal curriculum. Formerly the first of the five examinationsfor the doctorate could only be passed at the expiration offour years of medical study, and it then required about twoyears more to obtain the degree. Minor examinations,called exccmens de fin d’année, took place at the end of eachof the first three years. These are now to be suppressed,

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and the examinations for the doctorat distributed over thefour years’ curriculum. This will be a great reform, as theyearly examinations were often a mere farce. The examinerswere loth to pluck candidates in subjects in which theywould have to pass a much more stringent teat later, andthis indulgence, which put off the real ordeal until the endof the curriculum, encouraged many of the students to

spend the first few years of their university life in idlenessand dissipation. Another feature of the new programme iscompulsory practical work which was formerly optional.The requirements in this respect have not yet been madeknown, but will probably range over the same subjects as inEngland.M. Tillaux communicated to the Academy of Medicine a

case where ablation of the uterus, or, as he calls it, "hys-terectomy," was performed for fibroid tumour. This opera-tion was officially condemned by the Academy, at the in-stance of Demarquay, in 1872 ; but, thanks to Duplay, Pean,and Tillaux, it has now obtained a footing in Frenchsurgery. In Tillaux’s case it is interesting from the factthat menstruation took place three months after the opera-tion, and has always occurred regularly since. It is pro-bable that a small portion of the cervix, which was allowedto remain, may account for this peculiarity.Teetotalers, non-smokers, and others who are anxious to

distinguish themselves, will do well to communicate withthe French Societies against the abuse of alcohol andtobacco. Numerous prizes and medals are offered for com-petition in 1880. The Societe Franeaise de Temperancehas its official seat at 6, Rue de l’Uiiiversit6-, and theSociete contre 1’abus du Tabac at 5, Rue St. Benoit. In-formation may be obtained on writing to the presidents.

Obituary.ALFRED HENRY GARROD, M.A., F.R.S.

IT has rarely been our sad duty to chronicle the

premature decease of so promising a representative ofbiological science as the subject of this notice. Professor

Garrod, the eldest son of Dr. A. B. Garrod, F.R.S., of

Harley-street, prepared for a scientific career by a completecourse of medical studies, and the acquaintance whichhe thus acquired of the structure, functions, and diseasesof the human body was of great advantage to him in hislater researches in comparative anatomy and physiology.Seldom indeed has a career, cut short at the early age ofthirty-three, been so brilliant as that of Professor Garrod. Heentered the medical department of King’s College in October,1864, where he gained a Warneford Scholarship, and in suc-cessive years obtained the junior, second-year, and seniorscholarships, besides many prizes in special subjects. Hebecame a Licentiate of the Apothecaries’ Company in 1868,and was appointed house-physician to King’s College Hos-pital. He then determined to give up medicine for science,and proceeded to Cambridge, where in 1871 he took hisB.A. degree, passing out first in the Natural Science Triposof that year. Just previously he had been appointed Pro-sector to the Zoological Society, and in 1873 was elected aFellow of St. John’s College, his election being one of thefirst, if not actually the first, that was made from the NaturalScience lists by that college. In 1874 he was appointed Pro-fessor of Comparative Anatomy at King’s College in succes-sion to Professor Rymer Jones, and this was followed in thenext year by his being selected by the Council of the RoyalInstitution as Fullerian Professor to that body. In 1876and 1877 he examined at Cambridge for the NaturalScience Tripos, and became a Master of Arts and a

Fellow of the Royal Society. In addition to the dutiesivliieh his various appointments involved, Professor Garrodmade many contributions to scientific literature. His earliestpapers were physiological in their character, and his obser-vations on the sphygmograph and on temperature are well-known to all students of physiology for the care andaccuracy with which they were made. After his appoint-ment to the Zoological Society his attention was mainlydevoted to comparative anatomy, and his descriptions in theProceedings of the Zoological Society of many of the highervertebrata will perpetuate the memory of his name and good

scientific work. By his personal friends, Professor Garrodwill also be remembered for his indomitable energy, capacityfor work, and singular originality of thought. The lastcharacteristic is well shown in one of his most elaboratepapers-viz., that on the " Classification of Birds," in whichthe suggestion of a new basis of classification is well workedout. He was also a frequent contributor to the biologicalsection of Nature. He delivered the Introductorv Lecturelast year to the students of King’s College, choosing for hissubject the importance of a scientific training to the medicalstudent, and this was practically his last official work. Hewas even then suffering from the early symptoms of laryn-geal phthisis, and, after a lingering illness, died on the 17thinst.

MR. CROSBY LEONARD, F.R.C.S. Edin., M.R.C.S.THE death of Mr. Crosby Leonard at the early age of

fifty-one has occasioned a wide-spread feeling of grief inBristol, notwithstanding that for some time Mr. Leonardhad been incapacitated for practice by a form of paralysis,dating, we believe, from some injury to his neck, receiveda few years ago. He died somewhat suddenly on Oct. 13th.Mr. Leonard was born in Bristol in 1828. He studied atthe Bristol Medical School and the Innrmary. After obtain-ing his qualification he spent some time in London andParis. In 1854 he was appointed Lecturer on Anatomy inthe Bristol Medical School, and held the post till 1864. Hewas then appointed to the Chair of Surgery, which he heldtill 1871. He was surgeon to the Iniircnary from 1860 to1878, and on his resignation was appointed consultingsurgeon. He held the post of surgeon to the Bridewell formany years, and received a retiring pension from themagistrates. He was surgeon to the Kines from the timeof the formation of the corps. He had a large familypractice, and did besides a considerable amount of work asa consulting surgeon. He had a high professional reputa-tion, especially as a surgeon, and, as a man, was a universalfavourite. In fact, he was one of those few men againstwhom no one had a bad word to say, and whom everybodywas glad to see. Associated with a handsome person and anequable and shrewd mind, he had most genial manners and

, unfailing good nature. It may well be that a man so gifted,! and filling such important offices, will be greatly missed.

ARTHUR LEARED, M.D.ARTHUR LEARED was a native of Wexford, and received

his education at Trinity College, Dublin, where he graduatedboth in arts and medicine. He first practised in the countyof Wexford, but soon moved to London ; during the Crimeahe acted as physician at the British Civil Hospital atSmyrna. The war over, he returned home and againsettled in practice in London as a physician, and continuedin active work until this autumn. He was connected withseveral hospitals and dispensaries, and latterly was physicianto the Great Northern Hospital, and to St. Mark’s Hospitalfor Fistula. He was the author of several papers, medical,chemical, and physiological, but is chiefly known for hiswritings on digestion and dyspepsia. He is spoken of bythose who knew him best as an excellent physician, exceed-

ingly careful, and sparing no paius to arrive at a completediagnosis, and successful treatment. Outside his professionhe was widely known ; he had a large circle of literary,scientific, and artistic friends, who appreciated his wideknowledge of many subjects, and were often surprised atthe curious information he had gathered on mattersheeded only by few. Very fond of travel, he hadthrice visited Iceland, and became so proficient in thelanguage that he published a book in the vernacular on the"Fatal Cystic Disease of Iceland." His works on Moroccoand the Moors are well known, and attest his intimacy withthat little visited country. Fur some years he had sufferedseverely from gout, and more recently the evidence ofchronic contracted kidney was well marked. Weaied withwork, he took a trip this summer to Tangier. He was feelingunwell when he left, and during a short stny at Lisbon be-come much worse, and on his arrival in London was veryprostrate, his illness proving to he typhoid fever. For atime his symptoms improved, but he suffered from a relapse,again mended and again relapsed, and diel on October 16th,at the age of fifty-six.