THE LONDON DIALECTICAL SOCIETY.

321 spring quarter returns with other localities differently circumstanced. Had I taken as the basis ofmy computation the deaths in Torquay registered between January Ist, referred to], and consequently medical officers holding such 1868, and January 1st, 1869, the result would show still charges have no claim to any portion of the allowance more favourably. The deaths during the above period attached thereto when absent on furlough in Europe, nor amounted to 345, or to about 16.50 per 1000, including all any lien on the appointment after departure from India."- imported cases, and this, let me remark, during a period ! when reports were industriously spread as to our bad saniExtract from Govemment Gazette, Feb. 4th, 1868. condition. And in another six months medical officers in civil employ I nm. Sir. vonr obedient servant. are treated in a similar manner. Resolution of Government I SPENCER THOMSON, M.D. No. 660 of 1869, dated 17th of June, states-" The GovernorAshton, Torquay, August 24th, 1869, General in Council is of opinion that a medical officer in charge of a civil station should, when proceeding on furlough’, retain a lien on some similar appointment. He THE LONDON DIALECTICAL SOCIETY. should not as a general rule have any claim to re-appointment to the same station." To the Editor of THE LANCET. Now this practically places civil medical officers in the SIR,--With reference to the allegations concerning the same position as those in military employ. They have no claim to their appointment ; and hence, as the Financial London Dialectical Society, contained in your report of Dr. Department rule, no lien on the 50 per cent. of pay. The Beatty’s address at Leeds, I am directed by the Council of transparent manner in which the harshness and injustice of that Society to state that the whole of those allegations are this last order is sought to be veiled, by saying the medical officer may retain a lien on some similar appointment, only The Society does not advocate Malthusianism or antirenders the treatment more disgraceful. A medical officer or any other view or theory of any kind; Malthusianism, not permitted to return to his appointment after furlough and utmost freedom of debate is the fundathe wait falls have to months before another vacant. Also although may his prospects are altogether injuriously affected by this mental principle of its constitution, no member or visitor withdrawal of the right of return. When he now goes has ever mentioned, except to reprobate, the odious prachome, he must sell his house, furniture, and everything at tices for the carrying out of which it has been stated that an "alarming sacrifice," and purchase again at a fresh the has Society sought the co-operation of the medical prostation when he returns-a necessity not thrust upon any Neither has any book whatever, at any time, been fession. other officer in the Indian services. All but surgeons retain their appointments when home published under the auspices of the Society. Medical on furlough, and draw 50 per cent. of their pay. of the Society (a copy of I enclose a prospectus, &c., officers are not permitted to do so-a piece of injustice which I shall be happy to forward to any of your readers without parallel. making application for the same), from which it will be seen I arm, Sir, your obedient servant, that the following propositions are the basis of its constiAN INDIAN OFFICER. tution. July, 1869. That Truth is of all things the most to be desired, and is best elicited by the conflict of opposing opinions. HEALTH OF THE TORQUAY. That the Society should afford a field for the philoTo the Editor of THE LANCET. sophical oonsideration of all questions without reserve, but of those comprised in the domain of ethics, SIR,-In the Pall Mall Gazette for July 31st, 1869, there especially and theology. metaphysics, a in table of the death-rate is published, with remarks, That it should be unsectarian in the widest possible various "English watering-places." In that table Torquay sense, and allow the most absolute freedom of debate, no is put down as having a death-rate of 19’49 per 1000 for the subject whatever being excluded from consideration except the ground of its triviality. spring quarter of the present year, in contra-distinction to onThe following remarks by Professor Bain may be con16’98 per 1000, the average for the ten years 1851-60. As sidered to embody the leading principle of the Society, and these figures would seem to indicate a decrease in the health show the origin of the title :and life averages of this place, and also to contrast unThe essence of the dialectic method is to place side by favourably with those of some other health resorts, I think side, with every doctrine and its reasons, all opposing docit right to point out one or two sources of fallacy. One of trines and their reasons, allowing these to be stated in full these is, as remarked in the Pall Mall Gazette, that whereas by the persons holding them. No doctrine is to be held as far less proved, unless it stands in parallel array in some places the figures are taken solely from town dis- expounded, to every other counter theory, with all that can be said for tricts, in others they include a considerable extent of ham- each. For a short time this system was actually maintained let and village area, as in the case of Llandudno, and of and but the execution of Socrates gave it its the Isle of Wight. In Torquay the returns are taken from first practised; check, and the natural intolerance of mankind rendered the parish of Tormohun, almost solely a town area. Of this its continuance impossible. Since the Reformation struggles parish the population, which has very rapidly increased have been made to regain for the discussion of questions since last census, is, at the lowest computation, 21,000.* I generally-philosophical, political, moral, and religious-the have been furnished with a copy of the local registrar’s two-sided procedure of the law courts, and perhaps never return, not only of the number of deaths, but of the causes morestrenuously than now." of death in the above parish, from March 24th, 1868, to T a.m. Sir your obedient servant. March 24th, 1869. The number is 373, giving a death-rate D. H. DYTE, Hon. Sec. of not quite 18 per 1000. But of these 373deaths, 48 are George-street, Hanover-square, Aug. 23rd, 1869. registered as due to pulmonary consumption, the average With few exceptions, age at death being thirty years. THE DEATH-RATE OF WORTHING. these deaths from phthisis are due to invalids who have come to Torquay in the hopeless stage of the disease, and To the Editor of THE LANCET. the number may be taken as superadded to the ordinary SIR,—As the table issued by the Registrar-General in his death-rate of the town; but if some few be indigenous, as people are sent to Torquay for other diseases besides con- last Quarterly Report might lead one to consider the deathsumption, and die of other diseases, we shall not go far rate of 20 per 1000 living to apply to Worthing alone... wrong in deducting 48 deaths as superadded, which would, might I ask of you to place the following facts before the as nearly as possible, give a rate of 16 per 1000. Moreover, public. as a large proportion of the deaths from phthisis occur in The "district of Worthing" comprises the towns of the spring months, another element of fallacy is introduced when the death-rate of Torquay is compared as to the Worthing, Littlehampton, and Arundel, together with the has been ruled that regimental medical charges are not considered appointments in the sense of Clauses 2-10 of G.G.O., No. 1064 of 1868 [the new Furlough Rules above

tary

entirely untrue.

*

This upon

authority.

intermediate

villages, extending

over a

space of 42,457