A TURKISH ARMY SURGEON.

1528 the same observer to be a very (liflicult matter, and for this reason all doubtful cases occurring among the coloured population are at once quarantined until the diagnosis is established. Dr. Benson and Dr. Chapman, two of the medical inspectors, in reporting upon the small-pox hospital, state that as a result of their experience they have arrived at the conclusion that there is no period of life at which vaccination may not be safely performed, and that there is no physiological condition in which the human animal can exist which will contra-indicate the performance of vaccination. It is to be regretted that the two gentlemen just referred to do not give more details in respect to this very interesting question. It may be added that Dr. Benson and Dr. Chapman make a practice of washing the arm to be vaccinated with soap and warm water, and, after washing, to rinse with 11 rather hot water." Dr. Warren, the physician in charge of the Chicago small-pox hospital, which building he considers a disgrace to "the metropolis of the West," records two cases of variola in domestic animals. In one case his own horse developed a typical variolous eruption which passed hrough the papular, vesicular, and pustular stages and in the second case a cat brought into the wards went through similar symptoms a fortnight after admission. There are many other interesting subjects in Dr. Reynolds’s elaborate report to which we wish we could devote space, but we must limit our further remarks to the water-supply of Chicago and its apparent effect upon the death-rate from enteric fever. Many of our readers have probably fresh in their memories the Report of THE LANCET Special Sanitary Commission of Inquiry concerning the Water-supply of Chicago, U.S.A., which appeared in THE LAXCET of April 8th, 1893, so that it will be unnecessary to do more than state that since the date in question some of the intakes in Lake Michigan have been so lengthened as to ensure that all water supplied to Chicago shall be taken in at a distance of at least two miles from the shore. Dr. Reynolds contributes a special report upon the water-supply of the city at the end of 1894, and he states that the chemical and bacteriological analyses which have been made from time to time show that, in the

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"conservative" phrase of the laboratory director, Dr. Gehrmann, "the character of the water is that of a usable drinking-water." It seems, too, that, after storms followed by winds which tend to carry the shore water in the direction of the intakes, the number of bacteria in certain of the shorter intakes has been excessive, and there have, too, been indications chemically of an excess of organic matter. The water from the four-mile intake has been not merely usable, but a pure water as classified by analysts. There is obviously, Dr. Reynolds observes, need for more four-mile tunnels. Taking now the typhoid fever mortality of Chicago as an index of the purity of its water-supply, it is to be observed that between Jan. lst, 1890, and Dec. 31st, 1892, at which latter date water was let into the four-mile tunnel, the annual death-rate from enteric fever averaged 11-5 per 10,000 of the population. In 1893, during the first year of using the new tunnel, the rate was 4’18, and in 1894 3’14 per 10,000. The reduction in the typhoid fever mortality was shown by all the wards in the city, and this fact is, Dr. Reynolds considers, in favour of the reduction being due to improved water-supply. A remarkable reduction has also been observed in diarrhceal mortality. Up to the close of 1892 Chicago had the highest typhoid fever mortality of the several principal cities of the linionall those having populations of 200,000 or over. In 1894 it ranked tenth amongst the seventeen. This reduction in the typhoid fever mortality is certainly a very striking one, and much of the evidence adduced tends to support a thesis of water-borne infection as an explanation of the prevalence and decline of this disease. Still we must confess we shall await with interest the rates of subsequent years. Other American cities besides Chicago have evinced within recent years some very remarkable fluctuations in their deathrates from typhoid fever. For instance, the city of Detroit in 1890 and 1891 ranked first in the list of large American cities as regards the smallness of its enteric fever mortality, while in the following year it occupied a place sixteenth in the list, rising again in 1894 to the fourth place. Dayton, too, has had its oscillations in this respect, as also has St. Louis. One of the most interesting papers in the Chicago report is by the Chief Smoke Imspector, and it will well repay perusal by those medical ofucers of health more especially concerned with the smoke nuisance.

A TURKISH ARMY SURGEON. Mn. WiLMAM V. HERBERT, the author of " The Defenceof Plevna, by One who Took Part in It," has received 3 letter from Dr. Charles Ryan of Melbourne, who in 1877 was The following one of the surgeons in Osman Pasha’s army. extracts may interest our readers :— " I saw your book yesterday for the first time and read it with intense interest. I am an Australian by birth. I graduated in medicine from the University of Edinburgh; thence I went to Paris, where I spent a few months at the university; and finally spent the winter of 1875-76 in Vienna. I always had a strong desire to visit the East, and in taking up the Time8 one day I saw an advertisement to the effect that the Turkish Government required thirty surgeons to proceed to the seat of war (the Servian war had just broken out). I obtained an introduction to the Turkish ambassador, and received an appointment at the rate of .:8200 per year, to. be paid in gold, the rank of a major and four rations. I proceeded to Constantinople, where I spent a week, and one fine morning early in June I found myself in the train with a thousand Turks, bound I knew not whither. We travelled together to Tatar Bazardjik, thence we marched to Sofia, where we spent a few days. From Sofia we went to a place five miles the other side of Pirot, where we camped, not very far from the Servian border ; thence we marched to Akpalankah, where we spent three weeks, and thence to Nish. After the fall of Alexinatz I stayed in Widdin until Osman Pasha’s departure to Plevna. " I cannot imagine who the long English correspondent mentioned in your book could have been. The only English correspondents that I knew were poor Nicholas Leader, who died in the Shipka Pass a short time afterwards, and poor Frank Power, who was afterwards British Consul in Khartoum, and was killed by the Arabs with Colonel Stewart. 11 own the declaration of peace with Servia, Osman Pasha gave a ball, to which none but field officers were invited. We sent to Crayova in Roumania (fifty miles) for our supper. I was curious to know where our partners were to come from, and was amazed to find so many pretty girls present, chiefly Grecian, Bulgarian, Roumanian, and Spanish Jewesses, and you know how pretty some of the latter were. Three days. before war was declared I hired a boat and paid a visit to Calapat, and spent a most interesting day. I remember well the scene that occurred when the first shot was fired. I was lunching with Colonel Stracey, at a hotel kept by a Polish Jew on the banks of the river, when, without any warning, the guns began to fire. The excitement and the scene which followed are admirably portrayed in your book. This was at 1 P .1B1. on July 19th, 1877. I jumped on my horse and rode due north, tied up my horse on the left side of the range, and went up to where we had three batteries of artillery in action, and I saw one of the layers, while setting a gun, have his head taken clean off. I was so affected that I turned sick and vomited. A month later I could have seen fifty men have their heads taken off without feeling the slightest emotion. There were only seventeen surgeons in Plevna at this time, and we were working for about fortyeight hours on a stretch. It was our custom, as you are aware, after heavy engagements to dress the wounded and send two-thirds of them in carts to Sofia, leaving behind only the gravely wounded who were unable to travel. With regard to our medical staff, Hassib Bey was, as you state, our head-a very decent old fellow, who took a fancy to me. Most of the doctors were Hungarian Jews ; there was one Austrian and one Hungarian called Kronberg. Kronberg was the only man in the whole crowd who had a spark of pluck, the rest were arrant cowards. "During the second battle of Plevna I rode out continually from the headquarters camp. I was provided with bandages, lint, &c., and lent a helping hand wherever I saw The Russians having commenced to flee any wounded. Hassan Sabri Pasha gave the order for the cavalry to follow them up, and my friend Mustapha Bey waved his sword to me and shouted, I Come along.’ Eventually the order was he Hassan to as was afraid lest our retreat retreat, 3 by given would be cut off, and we galloped towards a field of maize. Never will I forget my sensations. While facing the c enemy I had no fear, but now all was changed. When you are in the open and the bullets come hissing past you, you cannot say how close they actually pass; but on this.

1529 ride I saw the bullets striking the leaves and stems al about me, and for many years afterwards, whenever I had nightmare, it was always that ride through the maize field. On the morning following the battle I rode out to the Grivitza redoubt and saw close by an immense number of Russians dead. They were all stripped naked, and many of

British or German officers would be well-nigh in-. vincible. ’’ In conclusion, allow me to offer to you my sincere thanks for the intense pleasure your book has given me. It has. awakened some of the pleasantest recollections and. memories of my life."

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extraordinary postures. fight at Pelishat (Aug. 31st), our ambulance being placed about three-quarters of a mile behind the fighting. When the troops retired two soldiers, THE ASSOCIATION OF FELLOWS OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS one dying with a wound through his neck and the other The with a shattered thigh, were being left behind. OF ENGLAND. most adventuresome of the Russians were within 200 of me, but I carried these two wounded on my horse for about a mile, when the man with the shot through his neck died, and I was able to bring the I also took part in the other man back to Plevna. expedition to Lovdcha (Sept. 3rd). I received no warning, simply jumped on my horse, took my great-coat and a few instruments. When we got within about four miles of Lovdcha we were told that the Russians had taken the place two days previously. I accompanied the cavalry, and we came to a large knoll, on which were thirty or forty walnut trees, and there we met with a horrible spectacle. Some 400 Turkish soldiers in their flight bad been overtaken here and killed. Each man had his rifle broken beside him ; their faces were slashed, and they were cut to pieces. On the march back to Plevna we passed several deserted Bulgarian villages. Those memorable days in September, can one ever forget them ? I had a little desultory fighting on my own account when Skobeleff was taking the two redoubts and the troops were flying in hundreds, and the shrapnel shells were exploding on the Plevna side of the hill. Riding to the redoubt I did my level best to rally the troops. During the night we moved all the wounded who were in the hospitals in the south of the town to the north, and the next morning we had something like 3000 of them lying out in the open near the main road. My house was so close to the Kavanlik redoubt that during the night my horse, which was tied up in the yard, received a bullet wound, and all night long the ’i bullets kept striking the shutters. The dreadful uncertainty ’, of that night is strongly impressed on my memory. The morning broke on a terrible scene. After Tewfik Pasha’s glorious success I remember the joyous cry ofAllah!’ given This was vent to by our troops as they rushed forward. taken up by the reserves in the valley below, thence travelling like feux dejoie all over the lines of Plevna. We were now in a state of siege, and our stock of bandages, medicines, dressings, &:c., had run out. We had 5000 wounded to look after. I alone had charge of between 200 and 300 of the most gravely wounded, with only two Iarrabashi, or Turkish surgeons, to assist me. Nothing could have been more terrible than the position in which I was placed : absolutely without remedies or dressings, an hospital which contained five times its proper number of inmates, and nearly all the wounds maggoty. All I could do was to scoop out these creatures with my fingers. I had no beds and no mattresses ; the men were lying on the floor in the clothes in which they were shot. More brave, enduring, long-suffering, heroic patients I shall never see again. I was so disheartened at the dreadful misery and my inability to alleviate it that I felt inclined to sit on the steps of my house and cry like a child. The only correspondent we had was Ollivier Pain, a French Communist. As he had no proper firman Osman Pasha sent him back to Constantinople to obtain one, and he returned to Plevna shortly after the third battle, before the taking of Telisch. He it was who wrote that most stirring and noble reply of Osman Pasha to the Grand Duke in which he declined to surrender Plevna. I remained in Plevna until the second week in October. During this time I was worked pretty well to death. The enormous number of wounded we had on hand, and the few medical men, will easily account for that. A few days before the Russians cut off Plevna for the last time by the taking of Garna Dubnik I went to Constantinople, and before I could get back to Plevna it was closed to the outside world. I then went straight to Erzerum, where I served through the siege. There were no correspondents there, and if the horrors of that siege were written people would not credit that such things could happen in this enlightened century. I have as the of my daily intercourse and my insight into t’)eir character the highest admiration for the Turks. I have always thought that a Turkish army commanded

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THE CASE OF MR. R. B. ANDERSON. A DEPUTATION from the Civil Rights Defence Committee, introduced by the Earl of Stamford as President, waited on the committee of the Association of Fellows of the Royal College of Surgeons of England on Wednesday, Dec. 4th, 1895. Mr. George Pollock, President of the Association, occupied the chair. The deputation consisted, in addition to Lord Stamford, of Major-General Graham, Mr. R. B.. Anderson, Mr. Henry Anderson, and Mr. Walter Rivington. Telegrams and letters regretting inability to take part in the deputation were received from Mr. William Williams, J.P., treasurer of the British and West Indian Alliance, Mr. H. T. Butlin, treasurer of the British Medical Association, Dr. E. G. Younger of the London and Counties Medical Protection Association, and the Hon. Stewart Erskine, Vice-President of the British and West Indian Alliance. Before proceeding to the business of the deputation the hon. sec., Mr. Percy Dunn, read a letter from General Graham conveying the thanks of the Civil Rights Defence Committee to the committee of the Association for having, at the last meeting, adopted a resolution expressing appreciation of the action of the Council of the College in cooperating in support of the rights of a Fellow and Member. A letter was also read from Mr. Holmes to the effect that the published reports of Mr. Anderson’s case made it quite clear that he had suffered the, grossest injustice as well as indignity-the former at the hands of the Trinidad judges, and the latter at those of the English-and that he ought to be fully and fairly compensated, and that the Association could not be better occupied than in supporting Mr. Anderson in obtaining compensation and the reversal of the illegal sentences and orders against him. Lord Stamford then briefly introduced the deputation, and called upon Major-General Graham to read a statement as to" the measures now being adopted by the Civil Rights Defence Committee. After thanking the committee of the Association, MajorGeneral Graham expressed a hope that the measures adopted would be confirmed by the general meeting of the Association on the llth inst., and that the example would be followedby every remaining medical or surgical association or society in the kingdom. In such a hope they had already had much encouragement, several branches of the British Medical Association having organised subscriptions, and The Torquay some having voted amounts from their funds. Medical Society had lately done the same, recommending a vote of .E5from its funds, and organising a uniform subscription of 5s. each from members, amounting in all to .S18. Besides this, that society had adopted resolutions calling upon Her Majesty’s Ministers, Members of Parliament, public men, and public bodies to unite with the Civil Rights Defence Committee in defence of the common rights of all medical men and all British subjects, and had obtained the signatures of its members to a memorial to Commander Philpotts, R.N., M.P. for the Torquay Division. Mr. Cohen, M.P., had come forward in the most generous The way and promised his support to the committee. Council of the British Medical Association had been asked to use its great influence with its branches throughout the country, and the friends of Mr. Anderson in Lincolnshire, his native county, were taking up the matter warmly. By such means it was hoped to enlist the sympathy and cooperation of other public bodies, especially the guilds and corporation of the City of London, than which no public bodies in the kingdom were more interested in standing forward, and being seen to stand forward, in defence of the ancient rights and liberties of Englishmen. They had a special ground to do so in this case, since the