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THE ILLNESS OF THE LATE PRINCE CONSORT.
14 what is more, these calculations are marvellously correct. Life, so uncertain in the individual, is very remarkably subject to unseen and inflexible laws in the mass; so that the mathematicians easily deal with it in gross. This is singularly verified in the history of the rise and progress of insurance companies. Life is infinitely more certain than fire ; and so great have been the advantages which this gives to the offices, that it appears from recent statistics that the profits of the companies on life insurance have been by far more steady and considerable than on fire insurance. Where the two have been combined, often all the profits of the company have been derived from the life department; and some ninety-three companies for insurance solely against fire have been broken up altogether.
AN
EPIDEMIC CHECKED.
proof of what may be done in removing of disease by careful supervision and skilled medical direction has been afforded at the Central London District School. The children at that school were, as we stated lately, suffering most extensively from defective domestic arrangements. Putting aside some minor causes of complaint, they were the subjects of an epidemic affection of the eye. Upwards of a hundred of them were so affected. Mr. Haynes Walton was called into consultation as an ophthalmologist of scientific reputation, and decided that the affection was catarrhal ophthalmia; that the dust of the courtyards and other conditions brought under review were not the causes of it, but that it was due to an injudicious method of ventilation. Over the head of each bed was a great hole, through which the air was constantly renewed ; and thus each child was continually exposed, when lying in bed, to a direct draught of cold air. The result was almost universal catarrhal ophthalmia. These holes he advised to be stopped up, and other methods of ventilation introduced as a substitution. The result has been, that ophthalmia has disappeared from the school, and so completely that a recent committee have intimated a doubt whether it had ever existed. This is just one of the instances of the useful preventive functions which medical men may be called to fill; great good would result if public institutions were more thoroushlv and generally sunervised in this wav. A
REMARKABLE
causes
their opinions, to accept their statement of the character of the malady and the prognosis as to its duration ; and since they thus took the whole body of Englishmen, laymen and physicians, into their confidence-no doubt under the highest sanction and command,-it cannot surely be said that the pro. fession are disentitled to ask that the account given of the malady shall be coherent and satisfactory. Let us look at the accounts already furnished to us officially on this head. Let us nut together the bulletins :-
"Sunday, Dec. 8th. -His Royal Highness the Prince Consort has been confined to his apartments for the last week, suffering from a feverish cold, with pains in the limbs. Within the last two days the feverish symptoms have rather increased, and are likely to continue for some time longer; but there are no unfavourable symptoms." " Wednesday, Dec. llth.-His Royal Highness the Prince Consort is suffering from fever, unattended by unfavourable but likely from its nature to continue for some symptoms, time." " T7tztrsday, Dec. 12th.-His Royal Highness the Prince Consort has passed a quiet night. The symptoms have undergone little change. - James Clark, M.D. ; Henry Holland, M.D.; Thomas Watson, M.D.; William Jenner, M.D." " Friday, Dec. 13th.-His Royal Highness the Prince Consort passed a restless night, and the symptoms have assumed an unfavourable character during the day.-James Clark, M.D.; Henry Holland, M.D.; Thomas Watson, M.D. ; William Jenner, M.D."
" Saturday, Dec. 14th, 9 A.M. -His Royal Highness the Prince Consort has had a quiet night, and there is mitigation of the severity of the symptoms.-James Clark, M.D.; Henry Holland, M.D.; Thomas Watson, M.D.; William Jenner, M. D." "Saturd.ay, Dec. 14th, 4.30 P.M. -His Royal Highness the Prince Consort is in a most critical state.-James Clark, M.D.; Henry Holland, M.D. ; Thomas Watson, M.D. ; William Jenner, M.D." " Saturday Night, Dec. 14th. His Royal Highness the Prince Consort became rapidly weaker during the evening, and expired without suffering at ten minutes before eleven o’clock.-James Clark, M.D.; Henry Holland, M.D.; Thomas Watson, M.D.; William Jenner, M.D." -
Finally, the death was certified to be "Typhoid fever: duration 21 days." Now we will not sum up coherently these scattered documents, because in doing so we might seem to accuse the phyTHE ILLNESS OF THE LATE PRINCE CONSORT. sicians, which we certainly desire not to do. But we will ask those distinguished men just to consider what effect upon the As yet we have not obtained permission to furnish the mind of the profession such a series of documents are likely medical profession with an authentic account of the illness of to produce if unexplained. Here is an account of a disease his late Royal Highness the Prince Consort, but we feel bound which begins on the 8th with "feverish cold;" which on the to repeat the appeal for such an authorized publication. The llth is unattended by unfavourable symptoms, and on the mass of our correspondence on this subject, and the unanimity 14th kills, the term "typhoid fever" then first officially apwith which the entire body of the press endorsed that appeal pearing. It would be wrong to infer that this disease, being by copying it in their impressions, indicate sufficiently the " typhoid fever (21 days)" from the first, was mistaken for a extent to which the mind of the profession and the nation is "feverish cold" until the llth December, or eighteenth day mnpleasantly affected by the injudicious reticence observed in of the disease : but so the medical attendants seem here to this matter up to the present time. The’only argument which represent to the world. Indeed it is clearly impossible to give has been addressed to us in favour of the abstinence from such a fair clinical history of a disease in five bulletins addressed to publication is, that the nature and progress of an illness is a the public, and therefore necessarily drawn up in very general, private matter-a confidence which the public cannot ask the if not even vague, terms. The medical attendants of the Prince, physicians to surrender. If this were so here, it would cer- therefore, cannot have fairly represented themselves to the tainly not be the voice of this journal which would be heard world in the accounts thus published. It must be remembered calling upon the physicians to supply such an account, however that during the illness of so illustrious and beloved a personage, desirable it might be on public grounds : the duty would have the greatest desire prevailed to modify the language describing rested with other departments of the press, and with them it his malady, so as to keep clear of raising anxieties and fears that should have remained. But since this illness affected a person might not be justified by final events. It is in the highest so near to us all that we have clad ourselves in mourning for degree desirable to satisfy the reasonable demands of the proits fatal result, that we have suspended our business, and given fession and of the public, by permitting the physicians to place all the outward tokens of the grief that has reigned in our upon record an authentic medical history of the fatal illness, hearts-so near to us that we were, so to say, summoned to which, as affecting a personage of national and historical inthe bedside of the illustrious patient by his physicians during terest, ought without delay to be removed from all shadow of its progress ; since we were called daily and publicly to hear doubt or ambiguity.
.
AN
EPIDEMIC CHECKED.
proof of what may be done in removing of disease by careful supervision and skilled medical direction has been afforded at the Central London District School. The children at that school were, as we stated lately, suffering most extensively from defective domestic arrangements. Putting aside some minor causes of complaint, they were the subjects of an epidemic affection of the eye. Upwards of a hundred of them were so affected. Mr. Haynes Walton was called into consultation as an ophthalmologist of scientific reputation, and decided that the affection was catarrhal ophthalmia; that the dust of the courtyards and other conditions brought under review were not the causes of it, but that it was due to an injudicious method of ventilation. Over the head of each bed was a great hole, through which the air was constantly renewed ; and thus each child was continually exposed, when lying in bed, to a direct draught of cold air. The result was almost universal catarrhal ophthalmia. These holes he advised to be stopped up, and other methods of ventilation introduced as a substitution. The result has been, that ophthalmia has disappeared from the school, and so completely that a recent committee have intimated a doubt whether it had ever existed. This is just one of the instances of the useful preventive functions which medical men may be called to fill; great good would result if public institutions were more thoroushlv and generally sunervised in this wav. A
REMARKABLE
causes
their opinions, to accept their statement of the character of the malady and the prognosis as to its duration ; and since they thus took the whole body of Englishmen, laymen and physicians, into their confidence-no doubt under the highest sanction and command,-it cannot surely be said that the pro. fession are disentitled to ask that the account given of the malady shall be coherent and satisfactory. Let us look at the accounts already furnished to us officially on this head. Let us nut together the bulletins :-
"Sunday, Dec. 8th. -His Royal Highness the Prince Consort has been confined to his apartments for the last week, suffering from a feverish cold, with pains in the limbs. Within the last two days the feverish symptoms have rather increased, and are likely to continue for some time longer; but there are no unfavourable symptoms." " Wednesday, Dec. llth.-His Royal Highness the Prince Consort is suffering from fever, unattended by unfavourable but likely from its nature to continue for some symptoms, time." " T7tztrsday, Dec. 12th.-His Royal Highness the Prince Consort has passed a quiet night. The symptoms have undergone little change. - James Clark, M.D. ; Henry Holland, M.D.; Thomas Watson, M.D.; William Jenner, M.D." " Friday, Dec. 13th.-His Royal Highness the Prince Consort passed a restless night, and the symptoms have assumed an unfavourable character during the day.-James Clark, M.D.; Henry Holland, M.D.; Thomas Watson, M.D. ; William Jenner, M.D."
" Saturday, Dec. 14th, 9 A.M. -His Royal Highness the Prince Consort has had a quiet night, and there is mitigation of the severity of the symptoms.-James Clark, M.D.; Henry Holland, M.D.; Thomas Watson, M.D.; William Jenner, M. D." "Saturd.ay, Dec. 14th, 4.30 P.M. -His Royal Highness the Prince Consort is in a most critical state.-James Clark, M.D.; Henry Holland, M.D. ; Thomas Watson, M.D. ; William Jenner, M.D." " Saturday Night, Dec. 14th. His Royal Highness the Prince Consort became rapidly weaker during the evening, and expired without suffering at ten minutes before eleven o’clock.-James Clark, M.D.; Henry Holland, M.D.; Thomas Watson, M.D.; William Jenner, M.D." -
Finally, the death was certified to be "Typhoid fever: duration 21 days." Now we will not sum up coherently these scattered documents, because in doing so we might seem to accuse the phyTHE ILLNESS OF THE LATE PRINCE CONSORT. sicians, which we certainly desire not to do. But we will ask those distinguished men just to consider what effect upon the As yet we have not obtained permission to furnish the mind of the profession such a series of documents are likely medical profession with an authentic account of the illness of to produce if unexplained. Here is an account of a disease his late Royal Highness the Prince Consort, but we feel bound which begins on the 8th with "feverish cold;" which on the to repeat the appeal for such an authorized publication. The llth is unattended by unfavourable symptoms, and on the mass of our correspondence on this subject, and the unanimity 14th kills, the term "typhoid fever" then first officially apwith which the entire body of the press endorsed that appeal pearing. It would be wrong to infer that this disease, being by copying it in their impressions, indicate sufficiently the " typhoid fever (21 days)" from the first, was mistaken for a extent to which the mind of the profession and the nation is "feverish cold" until the llth December, or eighteenth day mnpleasantly affected by the injudicious reticence observed in of the disease : but so the medical attendants seem here to this matter up to the present time. The’only argument which represent to the world. Indeed it is clearly impossible to give has been addressed to us in favour of the abstinence from such a fair clinical history of a disease in five bulletins addressed to publication is, that the nature and progress of an illness is a the public, and therefore necessarily drawn up in very general, private matter-a confidence which the public cannot ask the if not even vague, terms. The medical attendants of the Prince, physicians to surrender. If this were so here, it would cer- therefore, cannot have fairly represented themselves to the tainly not be the voice of this journal which would be heard world in the accounts thus published. It must be remembered calling upon the physicians to supply such an account, however that during the illness of so illustrious and beloved a personage, desirable it might be on public grounds : the duty would have the greatest desire prevailed to modify the language describing rested with other departments of the press, and with them it his malady, so as to keep clear of raising anxieties and fears that should have remained. But since this illness affected a person might not be justified by final events. It is in the highest so near to us all that we have clad ourselves in mourning for degree desirable to satisfy the reasonable demands of the proits fatal result, that we have suspended our business, and given fession and of the public, by permitting the physicians to place all the outward tokens of the grief that has reigned in our upon record an authentic medical history of the fatal illness, hearts-so near to us that we were, so to say, summoned to which, as affecting a personage of national and historical inthe bedside of the illustrious patient by his physicians during terest, ought without delay to be removed from all shadow of its progress ; since we were called daily and publicly to hear doubt or ambiguity.
.