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the propriety of her acts. Sir James Wilde, in a most ela-

borate and lucid judgment, which we propose to analyse nextweek, has pronounced Mrs. Thwaytes’ will invalid. We en-

tirely concur in this decision, and in the reasoning by whichit is supported. Since the summing-up by Lord Brougham, inthe case of Waring v. Waring, there has been, in our opinion,no exposition of the law in relation to mental disease more satis-factory or more entirely in accordance with the teachings ofmedical science.

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ARMY HOSPITAL SERGEANTS.

IT has reached us that the hospital sergeants of the armyhave some grievances. Their pay is not complained of ; but itis alleged that in point of clothing, of allowances, and of pen-sions on discharge, they, as compared with non-commissionedofficers of much less service and with much less responsibleduties, are treated somewhat ungenerously. The hospitalsergeant’s duties are really very important. If they are im-perfectly performed, great harm accrues to the patients, andthe medical officer labours at a great disadvantage. It wouldbe a politic and wise course to reward the labours of hospitalsergeants a little more liberally.

SMALL-POX AT GREENWICH.

No less than twenty cases of small-pox were reported toexist in Newcastle-street, East Greenwich, last week, due toneglect of vaccination. The medical officer to the board of

guardians urged the necessity of resorting to prompt measuresto compel parents to have their children vaccinated, as theonly means of eradicating the disease.

It may not be generally known that one hundred years ago,in 14 deaths from all causes 1 was from small-pox: now thedeaths are less than 1 per cent.-7 in the 1000; and it is morethan probable that if these cases had been efficiently vacci-nated, even supposing they had contracted small-pox, theywould all have recovered. There can be no fire without com-bustible materials; neither can there be infectious disease ifthe conditions of infection are prevented.

MILITIA SURGEONS. I,A DEPUTATION was received by Sir John Pakington on

Monday last at the War-Office, when a statement was made tohim, showing that in the event of the Army and Militia Re-serve Bills passing, the emoluments of militia surgeons will beso much increased that it would be a saving to the country ifthey were placed on the permanent staff of their respectiveregiments, being also allowed the option of taking privatepractice. Sir John Pakington went very fully into the ques-tion. He feared it was too late this year, but when the esti-mates were considered, he would bear the subject in mind. Heappeared to be quite aware of the necessity that some changeshould be made, and the impression on the deputation was,that it had been a highly successful interview. We hope jus-tice will at last be done these officers.

HEALTH OF LONDON.

THE deaths registered last week were less by 56 than thenumber in the preceding week, and 156 below the correctedaverage. The mortality from diarrhoea has gradually increasedfrom 115 to 170, 196, and 217, in the last four weeks; cholerahas been fatal to 12, 10, 15, and 19 persons in the same time;and small-pox has crept up again from 13 to 14, 19, and 21deaths. Remembering that just at this time last year we wereat the acme of the cholera " explosion," we have every reasonto be thankful that the metropolitan mortality continues torule at a rate which indicates the absence of any importantepidemic. Cholera and diarrhoea are confined now almost

exclusively to children, the only noticeable feature as regards

diarrhoea being that in one sub-district (Christchurch, Mary-lebone) it caused 7 out of a total of 9 deaths. The temperatureof the air during the week was 7’3 degrees below the fiftyyears’ average of the corresponding week, as determined byMr. Glaisher. No rain fell at Greenwich; and the sewagepumped into the river at Crossness fell from a daily average of57,000,000 gallons in the previous week (when the rain-fallwas nearly four inches) to 48,819,000 gallons.

THE medical staff of the Royal Albert Hospital, Devonport,has arranged to give clinical lectures once a fortnight on oasesin the house to students and any other members of the pro-fession who desire to attend. We believe this step has beentaken with reference to the alteration of the bye-laws of theRoyal College of Physicians, by which instruction with amedical practitioner in the country who is attached to a puJMicinstitution is allowed to count as part of the four years’ CB}1’-riculum.

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A CONFERENCE, convened by order of the Admiralty, washeld on Friday, the 2nd inst., at Greenwich Hospital, to era-sider the respective merits of Queen Anne’s and Queen Mary’squarters for the purposes of the Seamen’s Hospital Society.The Director-General of the Navy presided; and there werepresent Sir Charles Bright, M.P. for Greenwich, Mr. GeorgeBusk, F.R.S., Dr. Barnes, Dr. Bristowe, Mr. H. T. Rooke,Mr. Timothy Holmes, and Mr. Tatum. Major Clarke, R,E.,and Alderman Salomons, M.P., were also invited to be preset,but were unable to attend. After some discussion, a resolutionwas put and carried unanimously, to the effect " that neitherwing of the hospital was suitable for the purpose required."A second resolution was then put to the committee, which de-cided, by a majority of one, " that, if either wing were chose]4’choice should fall on that of Queen Mary." The chairman .did

not vote. -

THE authorities of University College have decided to in.crease the number of beds at the hospital by erecting a fourtjastory, in which the nurses may be accommodated, thus leavingan extra wing for patients.

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THE next examination for the Army Medical Departmentwill commence on Monday next, the 12th inst. The writtenexamination on this occasion will be held at University Col-lege, Gower-street, instead of Chelsea Hospital, in consequenceof the hall at the latter place being engaged for the examipa-tion of candidates for direct military commissions. Some fiftycandidates are said to have entered for the examination.

THE REPORT OF THE MEDICAL OFFICER OFTHE PRIVY COUNCIL.

THE Ninth Report of the medical officer of the PrivyCouncil, Mr. John Simon, has just been laid before Parlia-ment. It refers to the proceedings of the department of whichhe is the chief during the year 1866, and is a volume of sur-passing interest. Description alone will enable us to give anyjust conception of the contents of this comprehensive volume,and by citation only can we hope to convey a right knowledgeof the incisive and pregnant comments of its author on thedifferent subjects brought under review.Mr. Simon first gives a summary of the ordinary proceedings

of his department under the Public Health Act. Of these

proceedings two alone require and receive detailed mention-namely, (a) the administration of the Parliamentary grant forpublic vaccinators ; (b) an inquiry into the results hithertoobtained by local authorities in their endeavours to improvethe public health. The remarks on the former subject are soimportant, and tend so greatly to remove sundry misappre-hensions of the profession, that we quote them in full

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"The intention of this grant was not to relieve local ratesof a part of the costs already chargeable on them for fees topublic vaccinators, but to provide, independently of local rates,that meritorious public vaccinators should have their earningsby vaccination increased. There had always been a great dealof complaint from the medical profession that public vacci-nation was not sufficiently paid for. Against this complaintit was argued that guardians had no better means of deter-mining what price to pay for public vaccination than by adopt-ing the minimum price for which duly-qualified local practi-tioners were willing to contract to furnish it; and that, a certainmarket price for vaccination being thus fixable, practitioners,could not reasonably complain of terms which they had volun-tarily accepted, nor guardians properly be coerced by legislationinto paying an artificial, protective price for the service. Andof course on all sides it would be recognised that, howeverpoor might be the remuneration under contract, the practi-tioner who had voluntarily made the contract could not pleadthe poorness of payment as an excuse for imperfectly fulfillinghis engagements. Yet, on consideration of the whole case,Parliament, in 1853, had determined that the price to be paidfor public vaccination could not, with due regard to nationalinterests, be left an entirely open question between guardiansof the poor, on the one hand, and competing members of themedical profession on the other. It had fixed a minimum priceof 18. 6d (with additional rate for distance) below which it.should not be lawful for guardians to pay. But the fixing ofthis minimum (which in practice guardians were very apt toregard also as their maximum) did not satisfy the medical pro-fession ; and always, when consideration was being given toproposals for amending the vaccination laws, question arosewhether the provisions of 1853 as to payments for public vac-cination could be so changed as to remove that dissatisfaction.It was found, however, that any statutory fixing of a higherminimum rate for vaccination contracts would be strongly re-sisted on the part of local authorities; and apart from thiskind of opposition, doubts were entertained as to the proprietyof pressing any further a principle of legislation so evidentlyexceptional as one which aimed at protecting the medical pro-fession from the ordinary consequences of competition amongits own members. On the other hand, no sensible person couldavoid seeing that the national defences against small-pox mightbe of a most untrustworthy sort, if the business of seeing tothem for each locality were virtually assigned by the guardiansto the lowest professional bidder. The mischief of such asystem would not lie so much in those extreme cases (which Itrust would be as rare as they would be scandalous) where acontractor, poorly paid for prescribed duties, might deem him-self free to neglect them : it would consist far more in the veryextensive unwillingness, which would be engendered, to incurtrouble beyond the letter of the contract. And this kind offeeling, as I endeavoured ten years ago to express, would, inmy opinion, be the worst of dangers to public vaccination.The national utility of public vaccination depends, to a degreewhich unskilled persons can hardly imagine, on the conditionthat its local administrators shall work, not merely as compe-tent perfunctory performers of prescribed tasks, but thoroughlywith zeal for their work. And in this point of view it becomesan important public object that the scale of payment providedfor their service shall be such as they can accept with satis-faction."My Lords, after considering all the circumstances of the

case, determined that the best course for them to take was toask authority from Parliament to give to public vaccinators,under certain regulations, gratuities in excess of their contractreceipts. The contract rate might, they thought, remain asheretofore, to be adjusted between guardians and medical prac-titioners, subject only to the actual statutory provision of aminimum; and they would assume (as indeed no other assump-tion is practicable) that the contract rate represents a paymentwhich the contracting medical practitioner deems sufficient forhis prescribed duties. But, inasmuch as the thoroughly wellvaccinated sbte of the population of a place indicates, almostof necessity, that the contractor exerts himself in various wayswhich lie beyond the definite obligations of his contract-exertshimself with zeal both to optimise the quality, and also tomaximise the quantity, of the local vaccination, therefore myLords would ask Parliament to allow an annual sum out ofwhich extra remuneration for this zealous work might beawarded under their Lordships’ direction. "-pp. 8-10.

In 1866, Parliament granted jE5000, now in process of dis-tribution, for the "payment of results ;" and in the VaccinationBill, which will, it may now be assumed, become law before I

the close of the present session, provision is made for a per.manent system of gratuities to public vaccinators.On the second subject of detailed mention referred to-

namely, works of sanitary improvement in England,-Mr.Simon gives a summary of what he justly and emphaticallyterms the - "splendid results" of an elaborate inquiry carriedout under his superintendence, and at his suggestion, duringthe years 1865 and 1866. This important investigation wasentrusted to Dr. Buchanan, and the thoroughness with whichit has been completed is beyond all praise. Dr. Buchanan’sdetailed Report, which is published in the Appendix to Mr.Simon’s Report, is undeniably one of the most importantcontributions to State Medicine which has been made for manyyears. It not only shows a positive and unquestionable dimi.nution of disease in the localities investigated following uponsanitary improvements, but it brings to light with respect toone pre-eminently important disease, phthisis, an etiologicalrelationship hitherto unsuspected. It would seem probablefrom Dr. Buchanan’s researches, and to use Mr. Simon’s

words, that" the drying of soil, which has in most cases

acconapanied the laying of main sewers in the improved towns,has led to the diminution, more or lesg considerable, of phthisis."On the results of Dr. Buchanan’s inquiry (which we shall sub-sequently consider in detail), Mr. Simon remarks generally :-

" Reviewing the inquiry as a whole with reference to theobjects for which it was undertaken, I think I may ventureto say that it has been very fairly successful. True, that theresults which have been elicited are not in all cases equally in-telligible, nor, of course, in all cases equally satisfactory. But,on the whole, the results are such as can be well understoodby all who will somewhat carefully consider them, and suchas deserve to be well pondered by the local authorities of thecountry. If hereafter other inquiries of the same sort aremade, the investigator will doubtless have an easier task thanwe have now had; for the quality of the rough material ofmedical statistics is always in course of improvement. Andalso he will probably have a far simpler exposition to make ;for, when the evidence of longer periods can be collected, ap-parent exceptions become fewer, and the meaning of evidencefar less doubtful. Meanwhile, however, the present recordsmay fulfil very important provisional uses, not only to confutepersons who have despaired, or affected to despair, of any greatpreventability of disease, but still more to justify in the publiceye, and to encourage in some of the noblest of human labours,those who for long weary years have been spending their powersin this endeavour, and to whom surely it will be the best ofrewards to see demonstration of the good they have wrought.

" In conclusion, I may be permitted to mention, though notstrictly within the business of my present report, that the in-dications elicited by Dr. Buchanan as to the existence of someetiological connexion between phthisis and local dampness ofsoil, have seemed to me so important that I have submitted tomy Lords the expediency, in my opinion, of further inquiriesin that special direction; and, as their Lordships have beenpleased to direct such further inquiries to be made, I hope tobe able in some future report to bring other facts into evidenceon the subject."-pp. 17, 18. -

We shall return to Mr. Simon’s Report on an early occasion.

THE VVAR OF the number of the 11 Journalof the Royal Statistical Office," just published at Berlin, givesthe first official report that has been issued of the losses ofthe Prussian army in the last war. The total number of thewounded was 669 officers and 15,508 men; of those who re-mained on the field, 178 officers and 2753 men; of those whodied of their wounds, 64 officers and 1435 men; and of thosewho died of illnesses contracted during the campaign, 53 officersand 6734 men. The total loss amounts to 315 officers, 10,562men, and 6490 horses. The number of officers wounded wasrelatively twice as great as that of the private soldiers.-PallMall Gazette.

SUICIDE OF A PHYSICIAN.-At Penrith, on Monday,a retired physician, Dr. Allinson, shot himself in his library,and was found lying dead on the floor. Another physician,Dr. Jackson, residing in the same town, when informed ofthe occurrence, threw up his arms in astonishment, fell back,and expired in the arms of a visitor. Both deaths occurred inthe same day.