HOSPITALS AND ASYLUMS IN HOLLAND.

1051 anatomy, is perhaps the best introduction the Chinese can have to the study, not of medicine only, but of the other departments of natural science also. Very valuable has been his work as a professor. Utterly ignorant of anatomy as Chinese medical men are, Dr. Dudgeon is on the eve of doing the rising generation of them a signal service. He has just translated into Chinese two English works of great value-Holden’s Osteology and Gray’s Anatomy,-both containing all the wood and other engravings t) be met with in the originals. By means of these, apart even from the actual dissection of the human body, the Chinese students cannot fail, thus aided with figures and with the living voice of the professor, to acquire a fair knowledge of the make and constitution of the human frame. The dissection of it, if not forbidden by law, is at least a thing abhorrent to the people. Ere long, it is to be hoped that people and students alike may be able to say, in a sense of their own, what if. Snagarelle so confidently affirmed in reply to M. Geronte as to the relative position of the liver and the heart, "Nous avons change tout cela." Nor is this all that Dr. Dudgeon has done for them. He is at present, we understand, engaged in translating for them, with all its engravings, Dr. Kirkes’ " Handbook of Physiology." Dr. Dudgeon is surely deserving of the highest honour in thus largely putting before the Chinese in an orderly and systematic form truths of the greatest value to them as a nation. To advert now to the work at the head of this notice. A volume of 300 pages, closely printed, it is put forth for the English reader, not the Chinese; and it forms a part of the literature arising out of the Health Exhibition of last year. Its purpose is to give us of the West an insight into the social habits and usages of a people in the East with whom we are now in many ways connected. Its design is to acquaint us with the food they live on, the clothes they wear, and the dwellings they occupy. The field covered by the book is exceedingly large; the matters comprised under each of these headings are of the most varied description, and the details gone into are copious to a degree. To review such a book so as to give one even a general idea of its contents is quite impossible. Having read it, we can confidently recommend it to others. It is admirably written, clear in every part, and full of interest. We can only find room for a few words more, and these mostly from the book itself. "The Chinese," the author tells us,have admirably suited themselves to their surroundings, and enjoy a maximum of comfort and health and of immunity from disease which we should hardly have supposed possible. This ancient Oriental people have a good many lessons yet to teach us in respect of living and practical health, as well as others bad and dangerous from which to warn ups/’ And further on he remarks: " Be the reasons what they may, this we can aver, after an extended experience of over twenty years’ practice and life among them, that the Chinese are subject to fewer diseases, that their diseases are more amenable to treatment, and that they possess a greater freedom from acute and inflammatory affections of all kinds-if, indeed, these can be said to exist at all,"-than obtains among us of the West.

New Inventions.

HOSPITALS AND ASYLUMS IN HOLLAND. and asylums of Holland are under muniState The largest lunatic asylum is that control. cipal at Meerenberg, where there are upwards of 1000 patients. At the present time there are no very recently built hospitals or asylums in the country, and for the most part the patients are treated in old convents or churches which have been converted for their present purposes. One of the hospitals which has been specially built is the General Hospital at the Hague, containing 178 beds, which is under the management of Dr. Tienhoven, a very capable and kindly man, who is also a skilled physician. - The Dutch are noted for their great cleanliness, and the public institutions are in this respect models to be followed by all who desire sanitary completeness. Unfortunately the Dutch have small knowledge of the later improvements in the drainage and sanitary appliances suitable for hospitals. In consequence, the baths, lavatories, and conveniences leave much to be desired. In the matter of beds and bedding also they havemuch to learn. Apart from this, remembering the date of the buildings and the difficulties to be overcome, much credit attaches to the administration of the two institutions here Both place the comfort and welfare of the mentioned. patients before all other considerations, and the visitor feels that he could enter one of these institutions with confidence if occasion arose. The patients at the hospital and also at the asylum are divided into four classes-viz., THE

hospitals

or

hospital, each patient of the first class has a bedroom and a sitting-room ; the second, a bed- and sitting-room in one; the third class are placed two in a room; the fourth class are four in one room ; and the fifth class are placed in wards containing ten beds each. Infectious cases are admitted. The medicines are put at the end of the ward in a medicinechest, which contains as many numbered sections as there are beds in the ward, so that each patient’s bottles can be kept distinct. The rooms occupied by the paying patients are all comfortably furnished, and throughout the hospital there is abundant evidence of skilful treatment and successful results. Indeed, Dr. Tienhoven, who is well supported by able colleagues, may be regarded as a typical hospital director, who cares much more for the good management of the hospital and for the welfare of his patients than for anything else in the world. He is, in fact, the right man in the right place. At the asylum at Meerenberg there is the same evidence of good management. The patients are remarkably orderly and well cared for, they have an air of contentment and happiness, the whole establishment is in excellent condition, and there is everywhere evidence of wise administration. The amount of liberty allowed the patients is unusually great, and no restraints of any kind The wards in which the paupers or fifthare now used. class patients are confined resemble those used for the same purpose in English workhouses before the county asylums were built. All the other classes have comfortably furnished rooms, and great cleanliness, with an absence of smell, prevails generally throughout the asylum. In the superintendent’s room hang the portraits of Dr. Conolly, formerly of Hanwell, the late Dr. Forbes Winslow, the late Dr. Sutherland, and other well-known authorities. There is also a magnificent medical library containing 5000 volumes, many of which are very valuable, being original editions of standard works. Dr. von Princyn is the superintendent and the fourth physician. Dr. Coerte speaks excellent English, and is a most hospitable, agreeable, and accomplished host. Anyone visiting Holland, and interested in asylum management, should certainly visit Meerenberg, which is the largest institution of the kind to be found in Holland. At the

IMMISCH’S METALLIC THERMOMETER. THE chief advantages that this neat instrument has over those in ordinary use are its convenient shape and sizelike a miniature watch,-the readiness with which the COLONEL SIR FRANCIS BoLTON, on the 25th ult., temperature may be read off, and its comparativefreedom held an inquiry at the office of the Poplar Board of Works from liability to injury. It is equally sensitive and accuthe inconstancy of the water-supply in the Eastrespecting rate as glass clinical thermometers. The instrument may end of London, and also regarding the unwholesomeness Qf be obtained at any optician’s. the water by reason of its improper storage. z3