THE EAST INDIA MEDICAL SERVICE.

655 extreme insalubrity of Newcastle in 1853, prior to the outbreakof cholera from the long-continued neglect of sanitary regulations, had been frequently pressed upon the attention of the local authorities by several of the resident medical men, but without avail. Most beneficial results have been obtained in the City of London, in Liverpool, and other towns, where able officers of health havebeen appointed, even when the powers vested in these officers were in many respects very inadequate. That your petitioners have observed with great satisfaction The total admissions in camp have been 274, deaths 145; to that, by Clause 104 of the Metropolis Local Management Bill, which may be added 81 admissions and 30 deaths in the it is proposed that " Every vestry and district board shall Kertch expeditionary force; making the grand total for the from time to time appoint one or more legally qualified medical whole army in the Crimea, so far as it has been ascertained, practitioner or practitioners, of skill and experience, to inspect 352 admissions, and 175 deaths from cholera, during the week and report periodically upon the sanitary condition of their under review. parish or district; to ascertain the existence of diseases, more The number of admissions from fever is nearly the same as especially epidemics increasing the rate of mortality; and to last week, but that of diarrhoea is doubled. point out the existence of any nuisance or other local causes The admissions into hospital from wounds and injuries have which are likely to originate and maintain such diseases, and amounted to 642, and occurred chiefly on the night of the 7th, injuriously affect the health of the inhabitants; and to take or when the " quarries" in front of the Redan were stormed. cognizance. of the fact of the existence of any The men were brought in by the ambulance waggons, aided epidemic diseases, and to point out the most efficacious mode by a party of Croats with bearers; and they were all comfort- of checking or preventing the spread of such diseases," &c. &c. That it is obviously most desirable for the maintenance of ably accommodated, and their injuries promptly attended to! by their medical officers with their regiments in front. Thethe public health throughout the kingdom that a similar proheaviest loss fell on the 2nd and Light Divisions. Ample vision be made in the bills now under the consideration of accommodation is still left for wounded men, sufficient for Parliament for the appointment of local officers of health in other towns and parts of the country. almost any contingency. That whereas in the Public Health Acts of 1848 and 1854 The Sardinian Contingent is suffering from cholera, as also) the Land Transport Corps, and the merchant seamen in thei there was no provision whatever for the employment of any medical officer in connexion with the General Board, your petiharbour of Balaklava. tioners are gratified to perceive that by clauses 7 and 8 of the Public Health Bill now before your Honourable House, it is proposed " That the General Board may appoint a Medical THE COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS AND THE Council, consisting of such number of medical practitioners as PUBLIC HEALTH. the General Board may, with the consent of the Treasury, deem expedient;" and also " may appoint a medical officer" THE following petition has been presented to the House of as one of the recognised officers on the staff of the Board. The anomaly of a Ministry of Public Health without the Commons by the College of Physicians :services of any members of the medical profession will thus To the Honourable the Commons of the United Kingdom of cease to exist. Great Britain and Ireland in Parliament assembled. That a serious defect in the sanitary legislation hitherto has The humble petition of the President and College or been, that the General Board of Health, to which the care of Commonalty of the Faculty of Physic in London the public health is supposed to be entrusted at all times, has under their common seal, shewethbeen left without any power even to institute inquiries reThat your petitioners having ever been considered as the specting the prevalence of fatal diseases in any town or district legitimate guardians of the public health, feel it their duty to of the country, far less to promulgate any regulations or direcrepresent to your Honourable House that they have had under tions for the arrest of sickness and the preservation of life, their attentive consideration certain bills relating to the public except after the issuing of a Special Order of Her Majesty’s health, which have been introduced into Parliament in the Privy Council. Since the establishment of the General Board in 1848, such an order has.been issued only upon the outbreak present session, viz. : of Asiatic cholera. The Public Health Bill, 1855; This defect does not appear to be supplied by any of the The Nuisances Removal and Disease Prevention Acts Consolidation and Amendment Bill; and sanitary bills now before the Legislature. That to secure the efficiency of any legislative enactments The Metropolis Local Management Bill. That there is in all seasons and years a large amount of for the protection of the public health and the prevention of sickness and death in our towns and villages from numerous disease, it is indispensable that the General Board should, as diseases attributable more or less directly to causes which in the case of the Poor-law and other Government Boards, medical science has shown to be capable of great abatement or have the power of maintaining, by means of qualified inspecentire removal. From the returns of the Registrar-General it tors, a constant supervision over the working of the acts appears that the annual mortality from continued fever and throughout the country, and also of affording counsel and bowel disorders, as diarrhoea and dysentery, not to enumerate direction to local authorities on matters relating to the health other maladies, is extremely great. In one year, the number of their district, wherever the advice of the Board is sought of deaths from fever alone, in England and Wales, was upwards for by these authorities, or when the prevalence of disease may of 30,000,-a number considerably greater than all the deaths render it expedient. Your petitioners therefore pray that your Honourable House from cholera during last year; and the mortality during the last ten years from fever and bowel disorders, exclusive of will be pleased to make such further provisions in the bills Asiatic cholera, has far exceeded that from the successive now before Parliament as may empower the General Board of visitations of the latter pestilence in 1848, 1849, 1853, and Health, acting for the benefit of all classes of the community, to exercise such authorized medical supervision as is-not in 1854. That the labours of medical men have demonstrated the times of pestilence only, but at all times-requisite to maintain close connexion which exists between the prevalence and fatality the health of the people of this country at the highest possible of these diseases, and the presence of local circumstances inju- standard; and, further, to pursue such investigations for the rious to health; and that experience has abundantly shown promotion of the public good, by means of science, as are how much these diseases may be controlled, or even altogether wholly impracticable by any private combinations. prevented, by judicious sanitary arrangements. Our prisons, workhouses, and lunatic asylums, which were formerly infested with typhus or gaol fever, have been of late years almost THE EAST INDIA MEDICAL SERVICE. entirely free from its ravages, in consequence of improvements advice of the medical introduced by the officers. THE following notice has been sent to each of the Medical That after an epidemic disease has once established itself in , Schools of the United Kingdom. all works for its and sanitary any place, arresting progress The Board of Examiners for Assistant-Surgeons in the Homitigating its severity have been found to be relatively ineffiEast India Company’s Service, havingreceived many cacious when compared with the very same measures systematically carried out previously to the advent of the disease. The I inquiries as to the object and extent of the examination in

contagious

.

’

.

nourable

656 comparative anatomy, zoology, and botany, have considered it desirable to announce that its objects are,1. To ascertain who of the candidates have devoted especial attention to any of these sciences, and are hence qualified to undertake duties requiring a knowledge of them, as well as the general duties of their profession. Proficiency in these sciences will, in classifying the candidates by merit, be entitled to great consideration. 2. To encourage all candidates to acquire an elementary knowledge of the structure and affinities ofthethe principal natural families of animals and of plants, with general plan upon which these are constructed, and the functions and relations of their most important organs. 3. To promote the study of natural history as a most important adjunct or preliminary to a liberal medical education; that of comparative anatomy, zoology, or botany, if properly cultivated, by means of specimens, for even a short period, being eminently calculated to develope habits of close observation, and to strengthen those powers of reasoning upon observed facts, which must be habitually exercised by medical men everywhere, but which must be exercised with the greatest energy and promptitude by those who practise in a tropical climate, and who are often thrown wholly upon their own resources. I The general examination in these sciences will be elementary, ’, and will embrace a very limited range of technical terms. At i, the written examination, a considerable number of questions will be put, with the view of allowing each candidate to select such subjects as he has attended to, and, thereby, of enabling the examiners to ascertain the particular departments of science in which the verbal examination should be conducted. With those candidates who have attained proficiency in any branch of these sciences, the verbal examination will be pursued in the branch selected, so as to ascertain the full extent of their

and the table.

Cheshunt, on

Littlehampton,

for alteration.

Ordered to lie

Hospitals. —Mr. Statford gave notice of his intention to ask whether it is intended to place invalid soldiers on board the hospital ship Britannia before the hospitals on shore are filled. The Medical Profession.—Bill to alter and amend the laws regulating the medical profession. Ordered to be brought in by Mr. Headlam, Mr. Brady, and Mr. Craufurd. (This Bill has since been presented and read a first time, and ordered to be read a second time on the 24th of July, and to be printed.) Naval Medical Officers.—Petition for improving their condition, from Devonport. To lie on the table. Army Medical Department.—The following notice of motion has been given by Colonel Boldero:-That it appearing from the report of the Sebastopol Committee " That although the medical officers were indefatigable in their attention, so great was the want of common necessaries, even of bedding as well as of medicines and medical comforts, that they sorrowfully admitted their services to be of little avail." (p. 19.) It is therefore expedient that a Select Committee of this House should be appointed to inquire into the best means of rendering the Medical Department of the Army efficient for the preservation of the health of Her Majesty’s troops. Nuisances Removal Amendment Bill, and Public Health Bill.-The Committee on these two bills is deferred from Friday the 29th inst. till Tuesday the 3rd of July.

I

Medical News. ROYAL COLLEGE

Parliamentary Intelligence. HOUSE OF COMMONS.

TUESDAY, ADULTERATION

OF

JUNE 26. FOOD

AND

DRUGS.

Mr. SCHOLEFIELD moved for a select committee to inquire into the adulteration of food, drinks, and drugs. Adulteration had so greatly increased that some inquiry was absolutely necessary; but if fraud had increased so as to outstrip existing legislation, the means of detecting fraud had been still more increased by the knowledge which had been acquired of organic chemistry. A gentleman who had been a member of that house, Mr. Wakley, to whom the public owed a debt of gratitude, had made some startling disclosures with regard to the adulteration which took place, although in the course of that task he was subjected to various annoyances, and even to threats of personal violence; and some of the details which that gentleman had published were well worthy of attention. The hon. member then proceeded to read statistics, with the view of showing the extent to which adulteration was carried on in coffee and other articles of consumption. After people had been injured by adulterated food, they were obliged to have recourse to medicine; but he was sorry to say that the adulteration of drugs was equally great, if not greater; in fact, there was hardly a single article in the materia medica but what had been found to be adulterated. (Hear, hear.) Efforts to arrest the evil in France, America, and Prussia had been successful, and there was no reason why they should not be so in England. (Hear, hear.) Sir G. GREY said that after the revelations that had taken place on the subject it deserved to be inquired into, but he doubted whether the inquiry could be completed this session. The motion was then agreed to.

-

DR. DICKSON, Hertford-street, DR. WooDFALL, Maidstone,

were

DR. FINCHAM, Chapel-street, Belgrave-square, DR. COTTON, Clarges-street, DR. STEWART, Grosvenor-street, DR. GOODFELLOW, Russell-square, DR. OGLE, Queen-street, May-fair, DR. KIRKES, Lower Seymour-street, chosen Fellows.

ROYAL COLLEGE

OF

SURGEONS.—The

following gentle-

having undergone the necessary examinations for the diploma, were admitted Members of the College at the meeting of the Court of Examiners

the 22nd inst.:— ANTHONY, THOMAS, Tredegar Iron Works, Monmouthshire. CLOUGH, CHARLES FREDERICK, Worksop, Notts. CROOJXIE, WILLIAM FREDERICK, Banbury, Oxon. GARDNER, THOMAS TuRYILLE, Brighton. KAY, DAVID, Bradford, Yorkshire. KNIGHT, ALBERT STANLEY PRESCOTT, Army. on

O’LEARY, RICHARD, Bradford, Yorkshire. SCHOFIELD, CHARLES JAMES, Leeds.

STOBART, MATTHEW WM., St. Bartholomew’s Hospital. WEIR, MARSHALL, Belfast. At the same meeting of the Court, Mr. BROWNELL RiCHARP MURPHY passed his examination for naval assistant-surgeon. .

HER MAJESTY’S LEVEE.-The

____

the

PARLIAMENTARY NOTICES.—.Public Health Bill.— Petitions from the Local Boards of Health of Hanley, Shelton, Bradford,

May-fair,

men

ARMY MEDICAL DEPARTMENT.

Col. BOLDERO begged to ask the noble lord at the head of the Government whether he had read the notice of motion for a select committee to inquire into the state of the army medical department, and also whether it was the intention of the Government to accede to or oppose the motion. Lord PALMERSTON suggested that the hon. and gallant member had better communicate with the Under-Secretary for War.

PHYSICIANS.-At the usual quar-

Comitia Majora, held at the College on the following gentlemen, having undergone the necessary examinations for diploma, were admitted Members of the College :DR. EDWARDS, Bentinek-street, Manchester-square. DR. VAN DER BYL, Oxford-square, Hyde-park. DR. MuxcHISOrr, Upper Seymour-street, Portman-square. DR. THOMPSON, Connaught-terrace. DR. IRVING SMITH, Madras Army. AlsoDR. COOPER, Hove, Near Brighton, and DR. WATSON, Greenhill-house, Derby, were admitted Extra Licentiates. At the same ComitiaDR. PAGE, DR. HUGHES, DR. Guy, DR. BLACK, were chosen Censors for the ensuing year; and-

knowledge.

,

OF

terly meeting of the Monday, June 25th,

profession

were

Marsden, Field, E.

genbuhl.

at the

following

members of

Wednesday:-Drs. Meryon, Theophilus Thompson, and Gug-

present

levee,

on