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means of cure and alleviation of madness, which the enlightened spirit of the age demands for this class of unfortunates. These are the causes, we believe, which have led to the appointment of this commission. It does not imply any distrust of the existing public asylums of Scotland, which have long been ac knowledged to have taken a lead in all the improvements introduced in the management of the insane.

NATURAL HISTORY CHAIR.

As government has come to no decision with regard to the appointment of a successor to the late Professor Edward Forbes, Dr Traill will conduct the course during the present summer session.

VARIETIES.

THE LATE EMPEROR'S PHYSICIAN.-The Danube, a Viennese journal, informs us that the Emperor Nicholas' physician, Dr Mandt, has secretly quitted Russia. Among the causes of his sudden departure are mentioned his having too long concealed from his august patient the fact of his lung having become affected. The doctor is a homœopath, and has been much blamed for personally compounding the medicines for the Emperor's use, instead of allowing his prescriptions to be made up by a pharmacien in the usual way. irritation exists at St Petersburg on the subject, and the Emperor Alexander, it is said, had to advise the physicfan to quit the country.

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GERMAN UNIVERSITIES.-During the past winter 18,201 students matriculated in the 28 universities of Germany; 847 regular professors, 253 professors agregés, 46 honorary professors, and 450 masters of particular subjects and languages in all 1699 persons superintended the instructions. Considerable variation has been observed in the number of students; thus, during the winter of 1851-52 the number rose to 19,354, the summer following it was 17,810; in the winter of 1852-53, 18,596, and during the succeeding summer 17,905. The total number of strangers attending these universities is estimated at 2711.-Cologne Gazette.

STUDENTS ATTENDING MEDICAL LECTURES IN PHILADELPHIA.-Philadelphis may justly be termed the medical centre of the United States, so far, at least, as the great number of medical students which annually assemble there, can entitle her to that honour. The catalogues of the present term, in the several schools, exhibit the following totals-University of Pennsylvania, 350— Jefferson College, 500-Pennsylvania College, 120-Philadelphia Medical College, 100-Homœopathic Medical College, 80-Female Medical College, 50. These constitute an aggregate of twelve hundred students.

EFFECTS OF THE EXTREME COLD ON LIFE.-The season of extreme cold has now passed over; and its effects have been seen in the tables of the last six weeks, when the deaths of 9408 persons have been registered. These deaths exceed the average by 1968; which appear under various diseases, and were the indirect results of the low temperature. The temperature of the six weeks was 28.4° on an average, and the deaths were nearly 100 weekly to every degree of depression below the freezing point of water. But the cold affected persons very differently, according to their age; for in the five weeks that ended on Feb. 17, at the first age of manhood (20 to 40) the cold did not destroy 2 in 10,000; at the age of 60 to 80 it was fatal to 38 in 10,000. If the average deaths at each of the five ages are subtracted from the deaths in the five weeks of cold weather, the numbers that are left representing the deaths

by cold are 367 children and youths under 20; 519 young men and women of 20-40; 290 middle-aged persons of 40-60; 561 of 60-80; and 173 of 80 and upwards. Upon dividing these numbers by the persons living of the corresponding ages, we find that the mortality by cold in the 100,000 was at the rate of 35 under the age of 20, and 18, 64, 382, and 1749 at the four subsequent ages. The above numbers show that the power of cold on life varies according to definite laws; thus the mortality by cold is (35) twice as great under the age of 20 as the mortality (18) at 20-40; but after that turning point, the power of resisting cold decreases every year, and men of 90 and men of 30 have suffered from the cold that we have experienced in the proportion of 100 to 1 (or of 1749 to 17.5). The general result is, that the danger after 30 of dying of cold is doubled every nine years of age; for out of the same numbers living, to 1 death by cold at the age of 30, there are 2 at 39; 4 at the age of 48; 8 at the age of 57; 16 at the age of 66; 32 at the age of 75; and 64 at the age of 84. This series at least expresses very nearly the relative mortality by cold at the respective ages during five weeks among two and a half millions of people.

HORSE FLESH AS AN ARTICLE OF FOOD.-M. Geoffrey St Hiliare has this year devoted a portion of his lectures on zoology, to the consideration of that subject with regard to its economic applications. Hitherto this department of knowledge has been confined, for the most part, to mere theory; and while other branches of science have been contributing towards the well-being of the community, zoology in this respect has been nearly at a stand still. Among the questions discussed by the lecturer, one which has particularly attracted attention, is that of the applicability of horse flesh as an article of food. After quoting a number of the most eminent authorities-Larrey, Cadet, Parmentier, Pariset, Parent Duchatelet, etc.,-in support of the quality of this substance in an alimental point of view, he proceeds to show that, in full conviction of its value as a wholesome nutriment, its sale is authorised by the Governments of Denmark, Belgium, and Austria; and while its quality is such as to recommend it for use, the quantity in which it may be obtained cannot fail to arrest attention. The question then, says M. St Hiliare, resolves itself into this are these animals to be lost, as is the case now in France, by millions, while their flesh affords a material so highly nutritive and wholesome; and that, too, at a time when, for want of some such azotised diet, we find the poor in the same land, reduced in health and strength, of mind as well as of body, and, deprived of animal food and even of bread, miserably subsisting on chesnuts and potatoes? M. St Hiliare concluded by stating that he did not look for this article taking a place with beef and mutton, in their present state of perfection; but argued that it should, at least, find a place on the poor man's table, and that there its utility would be first and most fully established.

DIETETIC PROPERTIES OF FISH.-There is much nourishment in fish, little less than in butcher meat, weight for weight;-and in effect it may be more nourishing, considering how, from its fibre, fish is more easily digested. Moreover, there is, I find, in sea fish, a substance which does not exist in the flesh of land animals, viz., iodine, a substance which may have a beneficial effect on the health and tend to prevent the production of scrofulous and tubercular disease the latter in the form of pulmonary consumption, one of the most cruel and fatal with which civilised society, and the highly educated and refined are afflicted. Comparative trials prove that in the majority of fish the proportion of solid matter, that is, the matter which remains after perfect dessication or the expulsion of the aqueous part, is little inferior to that of the several kinds of butcher's meat, game, or poultry. And if we give our attention to classes of people classed as to quality of food they principally subsist on, we find that the ichthyophagous class are especially strong, healthy, and prolific. In no

class than that of fishers do we see larger families, handsomer women, or more robust and active men, or a greater exemption from the maladies just alluded to-Dr John Davy's Angler and his Friend.

SISTERS OF MERCY.-Sick nurses have duties to perform which require an immense deal of patience, gentleness, and tact. It is not sufficient that they be free from positive coarseness and brutality, their office requires of them a degree of tenderness and sympathy, of which by no means all women can boast. It is not, indeed, to be expected that nurses in a public hospital should exhibit the same feeling and devotion that one may hope to find in the domestic circle, but certain qualities as a minimum they should invariably possess, and by a certain control, as an influence substituted for natural affection, they should constantly and carefully be ruled. But such checks, the very nature of Sisterly' "institutions seems to us to exclude. A paid nurse obtains her place by virtue of proved qualifications, and she holds it on condition of good behaviour. But here, the mere fact of a woman being a member of a certain community, is supposed to endow her at once, and as it were, by a miracle-so much so, indeed, that her future conduct shall be beyond all challenge-with the gift of competently tending and comforting those committed to her charge; while this is looked for, moreover, in the case of women, whom, generally speaking, personal circumstances of one kind or another (but these, in the majority of cases, of a nature too surely calculated to sour the milk of human kindness in them), have been driven to seek a refuge for themselves in those societies of supposed benevolence to others. Nor is there a check on misconduct any more than on incompetence. A great improvement it would doubtless be, that the sisters were subject to some competent, efficient, accessible, and independent authority. But such is not the case. To complain of them would be worse than useless. I doubt if the superintendent could interfere even were he willing to do so, which he certainly would not be, unless to the influence of the order he could oppose the backing of some equipotent power. The sisterhood seems altogether beyond every jurisdiction save that of their own hierarchy, and its members are very well pleased when an opportunity occurs of showing how they appreciate such a position. I have heard a sister say sneeringly of a patient, and in his hearing. "Number Ten threatens to speak to M. Sandras about it; he thinks he will frighten me, poor fool that he is, as if I cared for M. Sandras!”—Life in a Paris Hospital.—Hogg's Instructor.

FLANNEL. An essay on the action of flannel in direct contact with the skin, and the influence it exerts in a physiological, pathological, and therapeutical point of view, has been published by Dr Fiévée de Jeumont; the aim of the author being to direct attention to the indiscriminate use generally made of this material, without sufficient enquiry into the indications or contra indications for its employment. Considerable importance is attached by him to the qualities of this substance in relation to electricity, believing, as he does, that its agency in this way is sufficiently powerful to exercise an influence upon the nervous system, calculated in some instances to induce a diseased condition there. However, in the employment of an article such as this, much must be left to the judgment and discretion of the medical man in attendance on the individual case; and although the remarks of Dr Fiévée are interesting theoretically, it is questionable whether they may be of much service in practice. -Gaz. Med., March 31.

MESMERISM.-A novel case has just been decided in New York, which involves a curiosity in medico-jurisprudence. A mesmeric physician sued a husband for services rendered the wife in his absence. The Supreme Court says that the law does not recognise the dreams, visions, or revelations of a woman in a mesmeric sleep as necessaries for a wife, for which the husband, without his consent, can be made to pay. These are fancy articles, which

those who have money of their own to dispose of may purchase, if they think proper; but they are not necessaries known to the law, for which the wife can pledge the credit of her absent husband. The law does not seem to have much respect for mesmerism and spirit-rapping as sciences.-New York Medical Times.

SCARCITY OF MILITARY SURGEONS IN FRANCE.-Most of the military surgeons now in Paris are ordered to proceed immediately to the army. M. le Directeur de l'Assistance Publique is to nominate several physicians and surgeons in civil practice for appointment in military hospitals.-Gaz. Med.

PARIS EXPOSITION.-The jury for the departments of hygiene, pharmacy, medicine, and surgery, is composed of the following members:-Jurés titulaires-MM. Rayer, member of the Academy of Sciences and of the Academy of Medicine; Nelaton, clinical professor in the Faculty of Medicine; Melier, member of the Academy of Medicine, and of the Committee of Public Health in France; Bussy, member of the Academy of Sciences and of the Academy of Medicine, director of the School of Pharmacy; Boule (Henri), professor in the Veterinary School of Alfort. Jurés suppléants-MM. Tardieu (Ambroise), professor agrégé of the Faculty of Medicine, member of the Committee of Public Health in France; Demarquay, surgeon of hospitals.-Gaz. Med.

MEDICAL HONOURS.-The following surgeons have, by an imperial decreo dated March 10th, been authorised to accept and wear the order of the Medjidie, which has been conferred on them by his Highness the Sultan :—2d class, M. Michel Lévy, inspector-general of the board of health of the army in the East; 4th class, M. Perrier, chef de l'ambulance; 5th class, M. Buschaert, aide-major.-Gaz. Med.

BISCHOFF. This celebrated physiologist, so well known by his researches in embryology, is about to leave the university of Giessen for that of Munich. The latter institution will thus have deprived that of Giessen of two of its greatest ornaments-viz. Baron Liebig and M. Bischoff. We also learn the nomination of M. Lange of Heidelberg to the chair of midwifery in the Faculty of Medicine at Prague.

CONFINEMENT WITH HARD LABOUR.-Dr R. M. Graham, who was convicted of manslaughter some time since in New York, was last month removed to the State prison to undergo his sentence of seven years. He will be employed as assistant physician of the prison.

A NOVEL MEDICAL FIRM.- In one of the leading thoroughfares of Paris, the following inscription, on an attractive sign-board, arrests the attention of the passers by :-" Consultations gratis: from 8 A.M. till noon, treatment conducted on the principles of ancient medicine; from noon till 4 P.M. on those of homœopathy; and from 4 P.M. till 8 P.M. on the method of M. Raspail." What follows fully explains the charitable nature of the consultations: "There is a pharmacy on the premises.'

BEQUEST TO IRISH HOSPITALS.-The Right Hon. James Grattan, son of Henry Grattan, has bequeathed the interest of L.8000-one half to the Meath Hospital, Dublin, or failing it, the Cork Street Hospital, and the other half to the Queen's County Infirmary, Maryborough. The motive assigned for this benevolence is a fear that the testator's "long-neglected and unhappy country was about to be again afflicted with disease and pestilence, and that government proposes to reduce the grants to charitable institutions."

PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED.

On the Use of Creosote in Scorbutic Camp
Dysentery. By John Bramstone Wilmot,
M.D., of Caius College, Cambridge, and
F.R.C.V. London. 8vo. Pp. 16.
A New Plan of Healing Ununited Fracture.
By Henry H. Smith, M.D., Consulting
Surgeon and Lecturer on Clinical Sur-
gery in the Philadelphia Hospital. With
eight Woodcuts. Philadelphia. 8vo. Pp.

20.

Pathological and Clinical Observations respecting morbid conditions of the Stomach. By Dr Handfield Jones, F.R.S. Loudon. Coloured Plates. 8vo. Biographical Sketch of the late Dr Golding Bird, being an Address to Students, delivered at the request of the Edinburgh Medical Missionary Society. By J. H. Balfour, M.D., F.R.S.E., Professor of Medicine and Botany in the University of Edinburgh. Edinburgh. Small 8vo. Memoirs of the Life and Writings of the late Dr R. J. Mackenzie, F.R.C.S. By J. Warburton Begbie, M.D., and John Struthers, M.D. Reprinted from the Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal for April 1855. 8vo. Pp. 44.

On the Nature, Signs, and Treatment of Child-bed Fever, in a series of Letters, addressed to the Students of his Class. By C. H. Meigs, M.D. 8vo. Pp. 562. Philadelphia, 1854.

Illustrations of Medical Evidence and Trial by Jury in Scotland. 8vo. Pp. 64. Edinburgh.

The Micrographic Dictionary. By J.W.

Griffith, M.D., F.L.S., and Arthur Henfrey, F.R.S., F.L.S. Part vii.

An Expository Lexicon of the Terms, ancient and modern, in Medical and General Science, etc. By R. G. Mayne, M.D., etc. London, 1854. 8vo. Part iv. On Electro-lithotrity; or the application of the Mechanical Force of the Electrical Discharge to the disentegration of Stone in the Bladder. By George Robinson, M.D., etc. etc. 4to. Pp. 16. London. The Pathology and Treatment of Leacorrhoea. By W. Tyler Smith, M.D., etc. Svo. Pp. 217. London.

The Quarterly Journal of Public Health, and Record of Epidemics and Hygiène, including the Transactions of the Epide miological Society of London. Edited by Benjamin W. Richardson, M.D. London. No. 1.

Report on the Results of the different methods of Treatment pursued in Epidemic Cholera presented to Parliament. 8vo. London, 1855. Pp. 28.

Report on the Common and Model LodgingHouses of the Metropolis (with reference to epidemic cholera in 1854). By George Glover, Superintending Medical Inspec tor, General Board of Health. Presented to Parliament. London. Svo. Pp. 34. Letter of the President of the General Board of Health to Lord Palmerston, accompanying a Report from Dr Sutherland on Epidemic Cholera in the Metropolis in 1844. Presented to Parliament. London, 1855. 8vo. Pp. 120.

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