stock, both as regards body and mind. Her husband and his family had been similarly favoured; but he, from being a faithful and affectionate companion, became dissipated and cruel. When five months advanced in her fifth pregnancy, the unkindness she received from her husband threw her into a state of great mental distress and despondency, during the prevalence of which she attempted to destroy herself by drowning, but was opportunely rescued. She was delivered at the full term of utero-gestation of a boy, who survives, but who is completely imbecile. She then bore a healthy female child, who also survives, and is perfectly healthy. She had then an abortion in the fourth month, and died, nine months afterwards, of malignant disease of the uterus. Neither idiocy nor malignant disease had been previously known in the family of either parent." (p. 20.)

"Setting aside the moral evils likely thence [intermarriage within a limited sphere,] to arise, such as the facilities afforded for contracting early marriages, and for perpetrating illegitimate intercourse, it is generally admitted that such alliances, often and indiscriminately repeated, tend inevitably to the deterioration of the race. I am aware that this doctrine has been strongly opposed; but the results of observation go to substantiate what is here advanced. It is not improbable that a succession of evils arising in this manner necessitated the enactment of that portion of the Levitical code which prohibits intermarriage within certain degrees of kindred-a law which has been respected with tolerable exactness in most civilized countries to the present day." (p. 4.)

We must now convey to the reader M. Morel's deduction-that the continued subjection of the organism to the various deleterious influences we have pointed out, gives rise to degenerations, each impressed by a particular character, although there exist certain general characters belonging to the different categories we formerly laid down. The distinctive elements, according to the author (p. 71), are not alone based upon external dissemblances, but likewise on internal ones, resulting from the greater or less state of integrity of the nervous system, and of the sensory apparatus. No absolute classification, it is true, of different types of degeneration can be maintained; but such demarcations can be shown to exist between them as can be drawn between the different varieties of men. The latter, according to M. Morel (p. 73), constitute the "naturally transformed races," whilst the varieties of the degenerated human species form the "morbidly transformed" ones. In these latter

"The deviation from the normal type of humanity continues to be revealed in succeeding generations by external and internal signs, the more alarming, perhaps, since they indicate the weakness of the faculties, the manifestation of the worst tendencies, and the limitation of the intellectual life to a certain period beyond which the individual is incapable of fulfilling a function in humanity. . . . The organic lesions, the result of intoxication and other causes of degeneracy, present themselves both under an acute and chronic form. In the acute state the deleterious action may be so rapid that the most minute microscopic inquiries may be unable to reveal an appreciable organic lesion. In the chronic.... it operates progressively, raising up an invariable assemblage of symptoms..... The lesions both of the physical and moral spheres that we have signalized in the individual, suffice to constitute in him a state of degeneration, and to induce those conditions, in which degenerated beings can no longer unite together and propagate in common the great and unique family of the human race." (p. 333.)

Since it belongs to the separate provinces of pathology, morbid and

comparative anatomy, to definitely and minutely establish the organic and congenital lesions induced by degenerative influences, M. Morel touches but cursorily on these points. He has, however, given an "Atlas" of plates admirably illustrative of some important changes in the physiognomy, form of the head and trunk, &c., exhibited by certain types of degenerated beings.

"The manner in which I have regarded the great and important question of the sick man and of the man decayed [dechu], has involved a threefold view: the alteration of the organic functions and the transformation of pathologic phenomena reciprocally engendering and commanding; the degenerative tendency, congenital or acquired, of the individual subjected to the influence of certain determinate causes; and, finally, his confirmed degeneracy, which, in its turn, perpetuates itself with fixed and invariable characters in his descendants.” (p. 682.)

"These lesions are visible and palpable; it is impossible not to refer them to their origin; we may recall that the circulatory energy, even in the morbid condition, is never inactive, and if it modifies or hinders the development of organs, it can create in the latter a pathologic tendency manifesting itself externally under the form of abnormal, and, so to speak, of new productions equally transmissible hereditarily.

"I include in these productions certain morbid deviations of the species which have been designated monstrosities, such as albinism, elephantiasis, goitre, and other anomalies which we have only incidentally touched upon, but sufficiently so as to be able to apply to their causation the theory of the 'degeneration of the race!' . . . The insane who fill our asylums are, for the most part, representatives of the products of degenerative causes existing in the social state." (p. 355.)

Goitre, deaf-mutism, rachitis, imbecility, and idiocy, scrofulous and tuberculous affections, hernia, chronic gastritis resulting from imperfect nourishment, arrest of physical and intellectual development, infecundity, general degradation of the mental powers, are the diseases, the infirmities, and degenerated states which exist concurrently with cretinism." (p. 678.)

Finally, upon these points M. Morel observes:

"I have laid down a proposition in the prolegomena that I here and again maintain in its integrity. I have said: The progress of degeneration resulting from the union of individuals more or less stamped by degeneracy, may attain to such limits that humanity is alone preserved by the very excess of the evil. The reason of such is easily seen: The existence of degenerated beings is necessarily limited, and, wonderful to say, it is not always necessary that they arrive at the last degree of degradation in order to be struck by sterility, and consequently incapable of reproducing the type of their degeneration." (p. 683.)

The last chapter in the work is entitled "Practical Inductionsconsideration of the Method of Studying the Regenerating Elements in the Human Race." It is but a short one, as the important points it deals with are intended to be specially treated of in a work ("L'Hygiène, Physique et Morale") afterwards to appear, as the necessary complement to the present highly interesting treatise. The space we have accorded to the notice of the latter is the best proof we can offer M. Morel for the favourable opinion we have formed of his labours.

In conclusion, we may recommend Dr. Whitehead's treatise chiefly

as illustrating the influence of the syphilitic poison, and this rather on the individual and his family than on the race. With respect to Dr. Knox's "Fragment," we would say that whilst it undoubtedly displays not only deep anatomic, physiological, and artistic knowledge, served up with a dash of genius and flow of speech, it has some serious blemishes, by which, however, we will not allow our equanimity at present to be disturbed. One problem the author has striven at, viz., the application of the doctrine of the diversity of races to social, historic, and other "things human and divine," is a problem, no doubt, of great difficulty, and a fertile source of dispute. But notwithstanding all allowances to be made on this ground, we must accord in that opinion which has affirmed that in this "Fragment" a term of sacred import-civilization, has received such a limited application, that a benevolent spirit is ill disposed to admit, without entering a protest ere judgment be finally delivered.

REVIEW V.

1. Report on Murrain in Horned Cattle, the Public Sale of Diseased Animals, and the Effects of the Consumption of their Flesh upon Human Health. Addressed to the Right Hon. the President of the General Board of Health. By E. HEADLAM GREENHOW, M.D., Lecturer on Public Health at St. Thomas's Hospital, &c.—London, 1857. pp. 78.

2. The Cattle Plague and Diseased Meat, in their relations with the Public Health, and with the interests of Agriculture. A Letter to the Right Hon. Sir George Grey, Bart., &c. By JOSEPH SAMPSON GAMGEE, Staff-Surgeon of the First Class, and Principal Medical Officer of the British Italian Legion during the last War, &c., &c. -London, 1857. pp. 41.

3. The Cattle Plague and Diseased Meat, &c. A Second Letter to Sir George Grey. By J. S. GAMGEE.-London, 1857. pp. 26.

4. Report on Unwholesome Meat, by a Committee of the Metropolitan Association of Medical Officers of Health.

5. On the Measle of the Pig; and on the Wholesomeness, as Food for Man, of Measly Pork. By ALEXANDER FLEMING, M.D., Professor of Materia Medica, Queen's University, Ireland.-Dublin, 1857. pp. 8. THE prevalence of disease amongst cattle, especially of fatal disease, may be regarded in several points of view as related to public health. The same causes which promote sickness in the lower animals may with just reason be suspected of favouring disease amongst ourselves; the destruction which a murrain produces may, by increasing the price of animal food, almost prohibit its use to a large portion of the community whose health may pay the penalty of the deprivation; the quality of the food supplied may be deteriorated; or lastly, the flesh may acquire properties rendering it absolutely injurious to the con

sumer. We propose to limit our present remarks to the last of these possibilities, while endeavouring to define the amount of real knowledge we possess upon the subject. We shall in the last place offer some observations upon the propriety of improved legislation for the protection of public health in connexion with this element of disturbance.

The price at which the poor are supplied with meat, and the fact that a profit can be drawn from the sale of sausages, &c., at a rate much below the ordinary prime cost of the article out of which they are supposed to be manufactured, are in themselves sufficient proof that the source from which such food is procured must be exceedingly questionable. The consumers of this cheap food belong to the very class of persons who crowd the waiting-rooms of our hospitals and dispensaries, and whose rickety and scrofulous children are seen in every court and alley of our metropolis; it is the class which furnishes every summer the largest proportion of cases of diarrhoea, and out of which from time to time cholera principally selects its victims. It is then of the highest importance to discover, if possible, whether the consumption of this cheap meat directly occasions illness in those who eat it, or operates indirectly by creating a proclivity to disease. When a medical man is asked his opinion upon the influence of "diseased meat" upon the health, the usual reply is that "no doubt it is injurious," that "such food cannot be wholesome," that "there is no question it is one of the causes of summer diarrhoea," and so on. We have made numerous inquiries of this kind with a view to eliciting information, but we find that nothing can be more indefinite than the notions commonly held by professional men upon the matter, and that, with the single exception of putrid meat, they are not founded upon the results of observation so much as upon preconceived ideas of what ought to be. About a year ago, the Metropolitan Association of Medical Officers of Health appointed a committee to obtain information calculated to guide those whose duties imposed upon them the seizure of unwholesome food. The inquiry was conducted in a very cursory manner, and consisted in little more than an examination of the practice of the officers of the City of London in their seizures at the markets. We quote from the Report now, not to criticise the document, which was hurriedly prepared at the commencement of the hot season of the year, and was only intended to be preliminary to further investigation, but because it expresses the opinion ordinarily held both within and out of the profession :—

"Your committee may observe, that, although it may be difficult to prove it by actual cases, they have no doubt that unwholesome meat is one cause amongst many of the debility and cachexies, the poverty of blood and intractable maladies of the poor who flock to the dispensaries and parochial medical officers, and especially of diarrhoea during hot weather."

The committee here refers to "the flesh of animals in a state of disease, and not to meat which has become putrid from having been over kept." The Report proceeds :

"But your committee feel that this is a question which must be argued on far

higher ground than that of special ill consequences; they believe that public decency demands that a stop be put so far as possible to the sale of the flesh of diseased animals and of those which have died a natural death. They appeal to that highest and best sanitary code contained in the law of Moses, which they would willingly see observed at the present day."

Mr. Gamgee, who has addressed two Letters upon the subject to the Home Secretary of State, has taken great pains to discover the facts relating to the sale of diseased meat in London; and his revelations cannot fail to excite disgust. Medical men, however, must of all people be careful not to permit their judgments to be warped by a feeling of this nature; but are bound strictly to inquire into the proofs or probabilities of unwholesomeness before committing themselves to the condemnation of all meat derived from animals dying of disease, or slaughtered in anticipation of death. Mr. Gamgee describes what he saw one day when visiting the Metropolitan live-cattle market :— "The live beasts were generally extremely well-conditioned and thoroughly sound, but standing amongst them were three diseased beasts. One of these was emaciated and hide-bound, with abscesses in various parts of the body, particularly over the region of the head and neck. From the clinical observations I made on diseased cattle nine years ago, I believe this case was most probably one of pyæmia following typhoid fever. A second beast was in ill health, viz., thin and feverish; but I could not make a precise diagnosis. The third beast was a fat one; it was lying down, moaning, looking round anxiously at its flanks; pulse 110; respiration 45; pleuropneumonia." (p. 6.) The London cowhouses supply to the market the greater proportion of these animals. Mr. Greenhow has ascertained, and our own inquiries confirm the truth of his statements, that it is the practice thus to dispose of sick cows. They are usually sent to market, however, at an early period of disease, as soon as they fail in giving milk, and before they become emaciated. But there is no stage of disease in which the animals will not find a purchaser, there is none in which they are not slaughtered for food, even when their disease is so advanced as to render it impossible to drive them to the public market. The following extracts from Mr. Gamgee's First Letter indicate the destination of the diseased beasts :

"On Monday, the 16th inst., I inspected one of the slaughter-houses at the New Islington Cattle Market. In it I saw five carcases, three of oxen, two of sheep. One of the latter was of magnificent shape and condition, so far as fat was concerned, but the whole carcase had a uniform dusky red colour, evidently the result of general infiltration with bloody serosity. The carcase having been trimmed and completely dressed for the butcher, I had no means of inspecting the viscera. Two of the oxen were much emaciated, and had apparently died from typhus or typhoid fever: they presented numerous bloody extravasations into the subcutaneous intermuscular and sub-pleural cellular tissues. . . . The third ox was large, moderately fat; pleuropneumonia. The slaughterman stated that these carcases would be conveyed to the City markets, where they would be sold as food. In his opinion those carcases were not diseased, nor would they be considered such by the City meat inspectors." (p. 9.)

On another occasion there were three carcases of very old lean cows:"The flesh was pale, nearly white, extensively ecchymosed, the cellular