585

MEDICAL ANNOTATIONS.

Not only will the physical well-being of the citizen suffer; buta heavy blow will be struck at his moral independence, andthe greatness of this country.

THE secret of success with governments so conservative inaction as our own is agitation. Abstract right is not oftenrecognised; silent claims slumber on unsatisfied; but a goodcause long and ardently struggled for succeeds. We have a

long vista of columns in our eye of retrospection when we lookback upon our editorial assaults upon the management of armymedical affairs. All that we have asked for has been founded

upon obvious principles of justice, and all that we have askedfor will doubtless be given in process of time. For the present,however, we must give ourselves up to the pleasure of congra-tulating our army medical brethren upon the increased rate ofpay ordered by Royal warrant to be given to assistant-surgeons.The document is as follows :-

"VICTORIA R.

" Whereas it has been represented to us that advantagewould arise to our Army from an increase in the rate of pay ofAssistant-Surgeons, our will and pleasure therefore is, thatfrom and after the date of this warrant, the minimum rate ofpay of Assistant-Surgeons of our Army shall be Ten Shillingsa dav.

" Given at our Court at Windsor this 23rd day of November,1857, in the twenty-first year of our reign.

" By Her Majesty’s Command," PANMUEE."

In this accession to the general wish of the profession and thetestimony of persons well able to form an opinion, we see,however, only the first step of a series of improvements. We

want real instead of 1’elative rank. We want some considera-

tion to be given for foreign services, a possibility of quickerpromotion and earlier retirement upon full pay, and other con-cessions as reasonable. As opportunity occurs, we shall notfail to represent these things in their proper light; and we feelas assured of ultimate success as we always have done in thematter of increased pay to assistant-surgeons.

Medical Annotations.

BRICKS AND MORTAR RESURRECTIONISTS.

" N quid nimis."

THE abominations practised in London graveyards before thediscontinuance of intramural interment were so terrible andinhuman that the mere recollection of them causes a shudder.The fabled Ghoul was a delicate-minded gentleman, comparedto an old, hardened sexton. The turning up of the bones ofthe dead as if they were potatoes; the burning of the soddencoffin boards; the human remains piled in festering heaps;the iron bars thrust through coffin lids to test the degree ofdecomposition;—all these and other still more disgusting pro-cesses were of constant recurrence. And it was with a feelingof relief at having heard the last of such things, that right-minded men read the order to close all city graveyards, toreturn to the good custom of our forefathers prior to the sixthcentury, and inter our dead as they did-" farre out of alltowns and cities."Then commenced another abuse. Efforts were made in several

directions to build on the disused graveyards. In the crowded

cemetry of the chapel in Tottenham-court-road, the whole sur-face was levelled, and the grave-stones taken away without anymark being left to indicate what lay beneath. Further pro-ceedings were luckily stopped. Similar attempts have been

made in other parts of London under various pretences. Andone of the most shocking of these has been recently brought tolight, and will hereafter be made the subject of a trial.

. Adjoining to a large chapel in Moorfields is a closely-packedburial-ground, now, of course, disused. On such a site theGeneral Board of Health, for some unexplained reason, sanc-tioned the erection of a school in connexion with the chapel.Accordingly, (as the case was stated by the City solicitor,) thosewho undertook the work excavated a portion of the burialground, removing numerous bodies, and " it appeared that avast quantity of human bones had been taken away, and soldto dealers in marine-stores." Numerous witnesses deposed tothe offensive effluvia during this wholesale disinterment. Oneof them, engaged in building some new houses in the neigh-bourhood, where soil was wanted, stated-" I have seen a quantity of earth carted there. The man

said he had some very good stuff to make mortar of. Severalbushels of bones were taken from the earth. Men used to come

raking the earth every day for bones, which they took away mbags. I sifted some of the earth myself. Some of the boneswere fifteen, sixteen, and seventeen inches long. I have also

picked up bits of coffin. One old chap’ who came there pickedup a rare big bagful of bones." "

Another witness deposed-" I went to Victoria Park, where I observed some newly-

removed earth, which was to be used to make the road with.I found a quantity of bones and pieces of coffins. Cloth andlining were adhering to the bones. The soil smelt very offen-sive." "

Dr. Letheby said-" On visiting the place I found that a number of men were

engaged in digging a trench from one end to the other of thegraveyard, and in carting away the earth and broken boneswhich they had taken up....... I noticed two heaps of humanbones, and on one of them were fifteen skulls, upon whichthere still remained portions of hesh and hair....... 1 perceivedan unpleasant smell. The disinterment of bodies under suchcircumstances was calculated to be very injurious and dangerousto the public health. It appeared to me that two or three feetof earth had been carted away from the surface at the back ofthe graveyard....... I found in the general vault under thechapel, immediately on the inside of the opening, thirty-sevencoffins piled up on each side of the way. I had the lids, whichwere fastened, lifted from some of the coffins, which were ofwood, and contained bodies in a state of decomposition."What must be the condition of the air of a chapel beneath

which lies such a festering heap of human remains, with noother enclosure than wooden coffins ?The description given was illustrated by, a large. bag of de-

composing remains brought into the police-court, where theodour was so overpowering that they had soon to be hauledaway by two policemen. Well might the magistrate haveexclaimed with Hamlet, Did these bones cost no more thebreeding but to play at loggats with them ?-mine ache to thinkon’t." For all these proceedings, of course no one was to

blame-the old story. But the facts detailed prove whatamount of respect is likely to be paid to the dwelling-places ofthe dead, unless some stringent law be passed to inhibit theirbeing in any way disturbed for building purposes. The groundthey occupy is not large, and the spaces thus left free are cleargain, now that burials have ceased, to busy dwellers in theclosely-pent houses surrounding these homes of the dead-theselittle oases of rank green grass, where,

"In the heart of the city, they lie, unknown and unnoticed ;Daily the tides of life go ebbing and flowing beside them:Thousands of aching brains where theirs no longer are busy-Thousands of toiling hands where theirs have ceased from their labours-Thousands of weary feet where theirs have completed their journey."

WHERE TO DRAW THE LINE.

THERE are bounds to everything: so says the old proverb,In Horatian phrase,

"Sunt certi denique fines"Sunt certi denique finesQuos ultra citraque nequit consistere rectum." -

But where to draw the line is the main difficulty of statesmen

and philosophers. The impossibility of satisfactorily drawingsocial and political lines is the standing problem of the age. Thisis equally so in modern science. You cannot define a plant froman animal; a horse-chestnut bears a physical as well as a

logical relation to a chestnut horse. You cannot draw thelimit between the forms of physical force; they are correlativeand convertible. Nature used to abhor a vacuum. She has

overcome this distaste. That wonderful lad, every schoolboy,knows that now she is indifferent on this score. She has sub-

stituted a modern abhorrence of limitation. Where to drawthe line in any domain of thought or action ? There is the rub.How to distinguish between economy and stinginess, betweenprudence and meanness, courage and fool-hardiness, liberalityand indifference, enthusiasm and fanaticism, piety and cant.

Some figures emanating from a committee on BeneficentInstitutions of the Statistical Society may well set us

thinking upon the difficulty of defining the limit betweenuseful and well-meant charity, and an ill-conceived pro-digality which apes the name of Benevolence. From a seriesof complete returns from all the dispensaries and hos-

pitals in London, we learn that upwards of .Sl,000,000 of

money is spent in the metropolis in the bestowal of medicalaid, and that nearly 700,000 persons-one-tenth of the wholepopulation-receive medical service for which they do not pay.Here is a gigantic abuse. It is not possible that one-tenth ofthe population are entitled to this gratuitous service. Ill-directed charity becomes injustice here. It is a double-edgedevil; it wrongs the medical man; it injures those who impro-perly lean upon his kindly staff, by giving birth in them to animprovident spirit of dependence.

These startling figures may suggest another thought. Is it

charity, or a penurious and deceptive imitation of it, whichprompts Dives in Belgravia to subscribe the annual guineathat entitles his gouty butler or dyspeptic valet to the bestmedical advice in London ? or which induces Mercator ineastern Babylon to barter an annual three guineas for the

power of giving hospital letters and immediate dismissal to hissick "young men"? Under this aspect, these tables supplyan index to some very indifferent pages in our social economy.They represent a vast amount of unrewarded labour and unpaidservice unjustly exacted from the most laborious, intelligent,and deserving of professional men-the members, we mean, ofthe staff of hospital and dispensary medical officers in thismetropolis.

-

A MEDICAL GENTLEMAN !

A WRETCHED, illiterate mountebank, named James Cowan,was brought before one of the magistrates some time ago forexposing a number of obscene and libellous placards in front ofhis house. He was a slovenly old creature, who, after havingbeen several times in prison, had undertaken to cure all humanailments, at a miserable hovel in Pimlico ; this trade in healthand life being the only business which our merciful and con-siderate Government specially invites any individual withoutconscience, capital, or education to enter upon. The theory is,that if people are " fools enough to entrust their lives to suchfellows, they deserve the certain prolongation and probableincrease of their disease as a reward for their folly." Now thisman Cowan applied the same theory in a new form. He pla-carded the-walls of his house with seditionary, " libellous, andobscene placards, calculated to create dissension amongst theQueen’s troops-one of these contained a most indecent attackupon an illustrious personage." The theory so blandly mouthedwhere the health of the people is concerned, was equally appli-cable when the political health was threatened. If fools be-lieved these placards, they would deserve the punishment en-tailed by any active ’demonstration of their folly. Mùtatismutandis—the argument was just as good-i. e., good fornothing.But the impartial law which permitted this creature Cowan,

and thousands like him, to trifle with the health of the people,immediately bestirred itself when the majesty of those havingauthority was assailed. So this fellow was immediately ar-rested for exhibiting these gross placards, was committed by amagistrate, and last week was brought to trial at the OldBailey.Perhaps the scene in Court was one of the most- audacious

exhibitions of what is called the " liberty of counsel," (whichseems to mean taking liberties,) ever witnessed. The prisonerwas attired decently, placed at the bar, and told to pleadguilty to the charge brought against him. Then thus spakethe learned sergeant retained on his behalf :-"The defendant, he was instructed, was a ’medical gentle-

man’ of great skill and of considerable practice, residing inWestminster, and in a moment of excitement he had put forthcertain placards which were undoubtedly of an illegal cha.racter, and he had explained to him that they were so, and thedefendant was now satisfied that he had done wrong, and hehad pleaded guilty, and would undertake not to repeat theoffence. "

And thus the fellow got off on the plea of belonging to aprofession, to which his relation is about on a par with that ofthe pediculus to the human being on whom it preys.

Verily, justice is very blind, and the criminal lawyers, herdutiful sons-in-law, take most noble and honourable advantageof her failing. It is told that the little animal which suppliesthe ermine is caught by driving it towards a muddy place,when the hunter wades through the dirt, however foul, toseize it; since the little creature will sooner be taken than soilits delicate fur. The purity of those who sit on the judicialbench is above doubt; but we should be sorry to think thatthe seekers after the judge’s ermine, like the fur-hunters, arecareless what amount of dirt they go through to attain it.

A HINT FOR EXAMINING BOARDS.

THE proceedings disclosed in the subjoined correspondenceare of importance both to the profession and the public. Thatsuch frauds are frequent cannot be supposed; but that theirperpetration is possible speaks little for the care exercised byexamining boards. We suppress the names, but these, as wellas the original letters, are in our possession. A correspondentwrites that, having advertised in August last for a situation,he received the following answer :-

" In reply to your advertisement in THE LANCET, I am com-missioned to obtain for a country practitioner, in the WestRiding of this county, an assistant; and will, therefore, thankyou to forward me references and qualifications. The situationis one of permanency and the salary liberal if the party suits."He forwarded his references, &c., and then received the sub-

joined detailed account :-" In reply to your letters, I beg to say that my employer

requires a gentleman to go up for him for examination at oneof the boards that is empowered to grant licences to practise inEngland. He is an M.D. of a foreign university, but has noqualification from London, Edinburgh, or Dublin; and he isdesirous of obtaining a qualification that will enable him toregister himself according to the pending Act of Parliament."Our correspondent wrote with indignation at such a proposi-

tion, but received his letter again through the dead-letter office.Possibly the scoundrel who could thus calmly suggest some-thing very like perjury had met with a needy adventurer asunscrupulous as himself; for we have many black sheep in theflock. As a guide to the members of examining boards beforewhom such a fraudulent impersonation would be attempted,we may state that the letters above-quoted are forwarded fromRiccall, Escrick, Yorkshire, and that the proposer of this littlearrangement is stated to reside in the West Riding.

ANOTHER BIRD OF PREY.In the advertising sheet of The Time. occurs the subjoined! announcement I

586