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Solium' immediately occurred to me, and led me to ask him whether he was in the habit of eating animal food uncooked. After some hesitation, he admitted that he was, that he had acquired the practice in his native county, Lancashire, and that since his removal from it to Derbyshire, his complaint had increased much, owing, he thought, to his not having fish so frequently as before.

He assured me that the practice of eating raw meat was quite common among the Lancashire operatives, and seemed quite incredulous when told that it would be the origin of his disease.

Although he used both beef and mutton, he preferred the latter, and used more of it in a raw state. When questioned as to the frequency of his taking it uncooked, he allowed that he did so at least once a-week.

He had beside him many different medicines, supplied or prescribed by various practitioners, which from time to time brought away joints of the worm. I therefore ordered him no more vermifuge remedies, but a brisk purgative, as his bowels were sluggish, and one of the preparations of iron, on account of his being weak, and anæmic. I enjoined him also, if he wished to get rid of his tedious ailment, to avoid raw flesh in future. I did not see him again for some time, but learned from one of his employers, that his health had improved much, and that he was able to attend to his duties from which he had been laid aside.

On inquiring after him during the summer of 1854, I was glad to find him nearly free of his complaint, and during the present month (May 1855), he states that he has been completely well since the end of last summer, not having seen any portions of the worm since the beginning of September, and that he has entirely abandoned the practice of eating uncooked animal food.

The case narrated is an illustration of the advantages that accrue to practical medicine from the cultivation of pure science, and shows that the importance of inquiring into the hygienic influences to which a patient may be subjected, is sometimes of greater consequence than the administration of remedies.

CHAPEL-EN-LE-FRITH, May 1855.

ARTICLE VII.-Tabular Report of Cases treated in the Edinburgh Eye-Infirmary during the last Five Years. By the Medical Officers.

TO THE EDITOR.

DEAR SIR,-It has been suggested to my colleague Dr Hamilton and myself, that a quarterly list of the cases of ophthalmic disease treated at the Edinburgh Eye-Infirmary might not be unin

1 Monthly Journal, June 1852, where reasons are given for the belief that the Cysticercus Cellulose found in sheep and other domestic animals, is transformed into Taenia Solium in man.

teresting to some of your readers. In a mere statistical point of view, such lists become useful as they accumulate; but occasionally they may be accompanied with advantage by a few words of com

mentary.

As introductory to the first of these quarterly reports, I present the following tabular view of the cases that have occurred during the past five years; and if agreeable to you, and future opportunities are granted, the same may be reprinted, with the addition of an annual column, from year to year.-I remain, your obedient servant, BENJ. BELL.

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These figures represent the number of Patients, the more prominent disease alone being specified in each case, although the numbers might have been considerably augmented, by enumerating all the affections which were frequently associated in the same individual.

Quarterly Report of Cases from January 1st to March 21st, 1855.

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Protrusion of Eyeball,

Wounds of Conjunctiva, foreign bodies under lids, etc.,

Acute Inflammation of Conjunctiva,

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do.,

New-born Infants,

Muco-purulent,

Phlyctenular and Pustular,

Strumous,

Catarrho-rheumatic,

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Wounds of Cornea, " Fires," etc.,

Inflammatory affections of Cornea,
Abscess of Cornea,

Ulcers, vascular speck of Cornea,
Opacities of Cornea,

Staphyloma,

Hydrophthalmia,

Inflammation of Iris, rheumatic,

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syphilitic,

Inflammation of Aqueous Membrane,

Synechia, anterior and posterior, Opacities of Capsule,

Cataract-Idiopathic,

Myopia,

Asthenopia,

Amaurosis, Glaucoma, Retinitis, etc.,

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135

ARTICLE VIII.-Larrey and Military Surgery.

MILITARY surgery has been brought into such prominence by the casualties in the Crimea, that the memory of Larrey is instinctively revived on all hands. Opportunely with this feeling, a sketch of his career has appeared in the Dublin University Magazine, bearing evident marks of proceeding from an able pen, which has enriched the pages of our own Journal; and, we have, therefore, great pleasure in making a few quotations, which will probably not be without interest at the present crisis.

THE AMBULANCE VOLANTE, WHAT IT WAS.

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"The ambulance volante, as organised in the army of Italy, in 1797, formed a legion containing about 340 officers, sub-officers, and men, distributed into three divisions. Each division had a surgeon-major commanding, two assistant-surgeon-majors, twelve sub-assistant-surgeon-majors (two of whom acted as apothecaries), a lieutenant-providore of the division, a sub-lieutenant, a marechal des logis en chef (equivalent to serjeant-major of cavalry), two brigadiers (equivalent to corporals of cavalry), a trumpeter (bearer of the surgical instruments), twelve mounted hospital men, including a farrier, bootmaker, and saddler, a serjeant-major, two fourriers, three corporals, a drummer (garçon d'appareils de chirurgie), twenty-five infantry hospital men. each division were attached twelve light and four heavy carriages, manned by a marechal des logis en chef, a marechal des logis sous-chef, two brigadiers, one being a farrier, a trumpeter, and twenty drivers. It will be seen that each of these divisions was, in fact, a corps complete within itself. The medical officers were mounted, and all, officers and men, were suitably dressed and armed with light swords. The holsters and portmanteaus of the officers were furnished with the most necessary surgical appliances; and the men, mounted and dismounted, carried knapsacks containing reserve supplies of surgical munitions. The legion was under the orders of the surgeon-in-chief of the army: its administration was conducted by a board composed of the medical and administrative officers of the three divisions; and its discipline and manœuvres were regulated by a special code of instructions. Its duty was to take up the wounded from the field, after having given them immediate surgical assistance, NEW SERIES.-NO. VI. JUNE 1855.

30

and to carry them to the hospitals of the first line. The sub-lieutenants of the ambulance and the infantry hospital men were also charged with the duty of burying the dead; and the former were authorised to require such levies of the inhabitants as might be necessary for that purpose. The carriages were two-wheeled or four-wheeled, and by their form and weight they were adapted to varieties of country. They could follow the most rapid movements of the advanced guard, and divide when requisite; so that a single medical officer, with an orderly carrying all necessaries, and attended by a carriage, could repair to any spot where assistance was required. There can be no doubt that this field-hospital-train conferred the most essential benefits upon the army into which it was introduced; but it would be a very grave mistake to attempt the introduction of a servile copy of it into our own service. What gave life and energy to the French institution was the soldierly spirit, intelligence, and zeal of Larrey; and these qualities are not the products of mere material arrangements. The organisation of the ambulance volante became easy when the medical officer, feeling his responsibility, and animated with the military love of distinction, put forth the powers of his will. Nor was he ever content with using a mere machine, even when he had brought it to a state which he considered perfect. When he found himself engaged among mountains of difficult access, bat-horses or mules with panniers were substituted for carriages. In the Egyptian campaign the difficulties of the desert were met and overcome by the employment of camels, bearing cradles for the wounded slung across their backs. In an unforeseen emergency, the vitality of the system proved itself in the manner shown in an incident of the battle of Eylau, when, upon the occasion of a panic created by a sudden movement of the enemy in the direction of the ambulance, Larrey, having hastened the amputation of a leg with which he was engaged, expressed, with force, his resolution not to abandon his post ; and all his juniors, rallying around him, swore they would never quit him. In this difficult conjuncture,' he continues, Mr Pelchet, officier directeur of the ambulance, knew how to display the resources of his character, his ardent zeal, and his rare intelligence.' The surgeon-in-chief, in truth, knew how to draw out, and to foster those qualities, which, after all, are commou enough among men; and his own superiors knew the value of his abilities for such work, and at what price-no very exorbitant one in the end-they could secure the use of them for the public service. The market of intelligence, zeal, and ingenuity, is not worse provided nor dearer in Britain than in France."

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LARREY'S IMPROVEMENT OF INTERVALS, AND PRELIMINARY PREPARATIONS. "At Nice, he held an examination of the young medical officers for promotion, and, as he tells us, distinguished le jeune Gouraud, who subsequently justified his judgment by attaining to the first rank. Here a remarkable feature of Larrey's system was developed into great activity by the position in which he found himself among able colleagues and zealous pupils his juniors he always calls his pupils-advantageously placed for the observation of the note-worthy phenomena offered by a great number of internal and external ailments. He opened school, as he always did, at every moment of leisure, and gave lessons in pathological anatomy, producing, among other results, a special memoir on drowning. This course of life was prolonged for some time by the audacity of the English cruisers. And Britannia still continuing to rule the waves of the Gulf of Jouan, Larrey was invited by the representatives of the people with the army of eastern Spain, to take the direction of the surgical service of that army. He accordingly joined the head-quarters of General Dugommier before the lines of Figueras, where he arrived on the 25th Brumaire, an. III. (1794) two days before a general assault was delivered upon the Spanish fortified position. Stimulated by the evidences of the confidence placed in him by that illustrious general,' Larrey employed the interval in preparing apparatus of all kinds necessary for his service, and he had abundant occasion for them."

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