THE ARMY SURGEON AN EXECUTIONER.

489 of corporeal punishment. to the pulpy condition of the muscular tissue, was not an Sir George Ballingall’s assertion, that in the 200 opinion, but a statement of fact, and moreover confirmed by oath. cases above referred to there had not been any prominent In conclusion, Sir, I beg to observe, that in requesting the or dangerous symptoms of thoracic inflammation," is most the adjectives " prominent" and publication of the comments contained in this communication, by qualified disagreeably " dangerous." I would ask-What was the proportion of I have had no other object in view than that of the elucidathoracic disease, of whatever kind ? And I would further tion of truth. For Sir George Ballingall I entertain the inquire-For what period after punishment were those men highest sentiment of respect, and it would give me much pain, observedMight they not, months after, nay, perhaps years, if I thought that in anything I have written I had overstepped have languished with disease of the thoracic viscera, the seeds the bounds of courtesy which I feel to be due to him. of which had been sown by the punishment to which they Hitherto, I have taken no part in the disquisitions to which the Hounslow inquest has given rise; but the observations of had been subjected. In the next paragraph, Sir George Ballingall quotes his Sir George Ballingall have shown me the necessity of laying experience in post-mortem examinations for pathological the whole case, such as it was presented to me for my judgpurposes, and concludes his remarks with the information ment, before the profession-a duty which, with the aid of that his collective observation " does not enable him to hazard THE LANCET, I shall take an early occasion to perform.-I have the honour to be, Sir, your obedient servant, an opinion as to the frequency of the connexion between ERASMUS WILSON. corporeal punishment and thoracic inflammation." I am quite ready to give Sir George credit for the truth of this remark; but I could wish him to remember that such an THE ARMY SURGEON AN EXECUTIONER. inquiry is altogether beside the question. The occurrence of To the Editor of THE LANCET. such a combination in one single instance is sufficient to establish its possibility; and that combination was undoubtedly SIR,—Having perused, with much satisfaction, certain represent in the soldier White. contained in your own journal, and in a recent number marks I pass over, as having no direct bearing on the subject, Sir of the Medico-Chirurgical Review, upon the degrading and George Ballingall’s observations on burns, and on the nature painful office which is cast upon the military surgeon, of deof the relations subsisting between the skin and the internal ciding how much torture a poor wretch can endure without organs, and especially the mucous membrane. That such a danger of immediate death, you may judge of the surprise relation exists, Sir George does not dispute; but he considers and indignation with which I read the following paragraph in that the law which governs its action is one of susceptibility the Daily News of Oct. 2nd :of the weaker organ. Sir George Ballingall is not prepared "BRANDING A DESERTER.-Yesterday morning, at Windsor, to acknowledge the analogy between the injury to the skin the 2nd battalion of Scots Fusileers, in garrison at that place, produced by a burn, and that which is effected by a military were drawn up in a hollow square, for the purpose of witnesflogging, and he considers that the parallel between them sing the branding with the letter’D’ the arm of the private, "has been pushed too far." And he furthermore makes the John Saddler, who had been tried by a regimental courtextraordinary statement, that "we have no instances of death martial for desertion, and found guilty of the offence. The from burns when the injury is confined to so limited a surface charges and sentence having been read over, the operation as that involved in the ordinary mode of inflicting corporeal was performed by the surgeon of the regiment, it occupying but punishment." Now, in the case of White, the surface involved a few minutes." in the laceration caused by the lash extended from the nape How ignorant may we be of what is passing around us! of the neck to the lower part of the thorax in length, and Little did I believe that a punishment which has been disfrom one shoulder across to the other in breadth-the continued in civil life, in consequence of public opinion revoltwounded surface being, according to the entry made in the ing against such brutal proceedings, was still retained for the surgeon’s book, " lacerated and swollen." unfortunate soldier, who seems destined to suffer what no Sir George Ballingall concludes this paragraph with a sly other class, however abject, is submitted to. Still less did I hint that the removal of the skin of the back, some days prethat this disgusting proceeding, which in civil life imagine viously to my examination, must have added much to the was always one of Jack Ketch’s meaner " operations," was condifficulty of my speaking " with so much confidence and pre- signed to the hands of an educated gentleman. It seems cision as to the morbid state of the muscles, whether super- almost incredible that the of the functions of the ficial or deep-seated." I can assure Sir George that there executioner can be enduredassumption such.-I am, Sir, yours, by was no difficulty at all in the matter; the deep muscles, of A LOOKER-ON. which alone I spoke, were so fresh as to possess all their anatomical characters uninjured; they were in a state perOF SEEING AN INMATE OF ST. LUKE’S fectly fit for demonstration in the anatomical theatre; and in their deepest part was the pulpy disorganization to which I HOSPITAL. referred, distinctly circumscribed, existing on one side of the To Editor the of THE LANCET. chest only-namely, the left, and noted by me before I knew ! on which side the pleuritis existed. SIR,— Perhaps you will be kind enough to publish, in the But Sir George Ballingall is probably in possession of that pages of your valuable journal, the particulars of a disappointpart of the evidence given at the inquest, in which it was ment I met with, when in London last week, on visiting stated by Dr. Hall (during my absence from the room, in St. Luke’s Hospital, with the intention of seeing an inmate of obedience to the direction of the coroner) that the change in that institution, in order that others, who are unacquainted the muscles which I had observed was "the first stage of with the necessary preliminaries for admission, may be spared putrefaction." I have given, above, the strongest assurance the necessity of submitting to a similar grievance. The cirin my power that such was not the case; and I cannot cumstances are briefly these :I left England, a few weeks ago, for the purpose of seeking believe that any other man in the profession would impute to me an to distinguish between a pathological the restoration of my health by a visit to the continent, and change in muscular tissue and a state of incipient putrefac- returned, by Rotterdam, to London, purposely with the intion. The difference was so striking and so manifest, that I tention of visiting Mrs. W., at the above institution, who should have been ashamed of a student of the first session formerlv resided, and had the greater part of a large family, in I was her medical attendant, who could not have made the distinction. Dr. Hall further this town, during which ventures to assign a cause for the change occurring only on who, upon removing to Manchester, became the subject the left side, that side of the chest being, he says," filled with of occasional attacks of mental aberration. At Manchester, diseased and disorganized viscera and highly putrid fluids." as well as in her present abode, when perfectly free from her Now, I must remind Dr. Hall, that disease and disorganiza- disease, she had often expressed to her friends a great desire tion are not putridity, and therefore we will set aside the to see her old medical attendant, which being communicated " diseased and disorganized viscera," and inquire only into the to me, I resolved, the first time I could conveniently do so, position of the " putrid fluids." The man died in the evening to see her, and accordingly proceeded, last Tuesday, to the of Saturday, and was opened on Monday. At this inspection, establishment, when I was most courteously received by a the barrier between the two sides of the chest was broken gentleman, whom I supposed to be the steward of the liosdown, and consequently the "putrid fluids" occupied both pital. That gentleman, on learning the object of my visit, si .es equally. If, therefore, Dr. Hall’s hypothesis were cor- immediately replied, that he had not the slightest objection rect, a similar change should have been found in the muscles to my seeing the lady, and that he would acquaint the medical of both sides of the thorax, which was not the case. Dr. Hall officer with the nature of my errand. I did not imagine should recollect, that what I stated at the inquest, with regard there could be the least impediment ;but it turned out

far from

being an uncommon result

Besides,

,

DIFFICULTY

inability

and

period