Says McLeod: 'I never saw one amongst our most numerous amputations in which primary adhesion took place throughout the whole surface of the flaps. Is not this a most unparalleled experience? Do the annals of surgery furnish another such example ?" (p. 185.)

In case they do not, we will endeavour to supply one by confessing that, in a hospital experience extending now to a great number of years, we never saw the wound of an amputation, nor any other wound of anything like equal size, whether made under the influence of chloroform or not, in which primary adhesion took place throughout its whole extent, nor do we believe that such a phenomenon has ever occurred in Professor Hamilton's or any other surgeon's practice; but we have noticed quite as favourable examples of primary union in wounds made under anaesthetics as in any others. If this were not so, why have not our surgeons long since discovered that chloroform would be fatal to their reputation? We trust that the benefits of the greatest discovery of modern times will not be denied to men when they most require it, on the strength of such flimsy reasoning as this.

But, however we may differ from some of Professor Hamilton's opinions, we can recommend his work as a sensible, useful, and concise treatise on the subject which he has undertaken; and in taking leave of him, we can only express a fervent hope that our military surgeons may not have the opportunity forced upon them of giving practical evidence on American soil of their proficiency in the lessons which he inculcates.

ART. X.-Die Krankheiten der Handwerker.

ADOLPH HANNOVER.

The Diseases of Artisans. By PROFESSOR HANNOVER.

Von PROFESSOR

THIS essay appears in the fifth, sixth, and seventh numbers of the 'Monatsblatt für Medicinische Statistik und Offentliche Gesundheitspflege,' for May, June, and July, 1861, and is primarily concerned with the statistics of the diseases of the working classes in Copenhagen. The author's observations are founded on the statistics of the larg General Hospital, and in the present paper apply only to internal or medical diseases.

At the outset of his paper he remarks on the difficulties surrounding the inquiry he has taken in hand, except, indeed, in the instance of artisans who use in their trade well-known poisons whose operation is fully understood-such as mercury, lead, and phosphorus. Among others, the causes of disease dependent on their occupation are obscure, and to be sought in the nature and character of their work, and in the external circumstances associated with it. The only method to arrive at a correct knowledge of the immediate influence of the several trades on health would be by taking a certain number of artisans, of about the same age and conformation, and of sound constitution originally, and to note the duration of their healthy condition and the couse

quences of the favourable or unfavourable circumstances under which they have subsisted.

Professor Hannover proceeds with some preliminary remarks on the character of the population of Copenhagen, and on the relative proportion of those who are, and of those who are not engaged in some handicraft, and then by means of a table shows the relative numbers of persons of the different trades in one thousand admissions into the hospital, rightly commenting, at the same time, on various circumstances which dispose, or otherwise deter the operatives in the several trades availing themselves of hospital treatment. In subsequent tables he exhibits the numbers in different trades who have been labouring under one or other internal diseases, and then taking each principal variety of disease, considers the special relations between it and the occupation of the patients who are its victims. The statistics of the mortality of diseases in connexion with the several trades are also well set forth, and some interesting supplementary tables respecting the prevalence of insanity among different classes, are added on the authority of Dr. Funder, of St. John's Hospital at Bidstrup.

We hope to have an opportunity ere long to discuss at large the conclusions of Professor Hannover, along with those arrived at by other investigators of medical statistics.

ART. XI.-Transactions of the Ethnological Society of London. Vol. I. New Series.-London, 1861.

THOUGH not a handmaid of practical medicine, yet there is an intimate relationship between ethnology and anatomy and physiology, for on these sciences the stability of the first-named science mainly rests. Indeed, the rise and progress of ethnological science are greatly indebted to members of the medical profession, and particularly to Dr. Prichard, whose book on the 'Races of Men' is still a standard work on the subject. Even in the volume before us we find valuable contributions from medical men-from Mr. Greenhow, Dr. R. G. Latham, Dr. Beddoe, Dr. Knox, Mr. Lockhart, Mr. Busk, and Mr. Dunn; but we regret to learn from a most valuable paper by the last-named surgeon, 'On the Psychological and Physiological Evidence in Support of the Unity of the Human Species,' that the Ethnological Society is at the present time not so well supported by the medical profession as it was when first established. We would desire to enlist the co-operation of medical men, not only on the ground of the connexion between ethnology and those subjects, such as physiology, with which they have a special acquaintance, but also on account of the good it would do them to mix among nonprofessional scientific men, and to get those angularities rubbed off which are otherwise apt to grow too luxuriantly among purely medical acquaintance and medical societies. And looking only to the contents of the volume before us, we can assure them that the subjects discussed at the Ethnological Society are eminently calculated to arouse their interest and attention.

The prominence which has lately been given to M. du Chaillu's African researches will lend additional importance to a paper by that gentleman in the present volume, "On the People of Western Equatorial Africa," and to the "Ethnological Notes on M. du Chaillu's Explorations and Adventures in Equatorial Africa," by that hardy, venturesome traveller, Capt. R. Burton.

In conclusion, we would recommend to our readers the perusal of this volume of ethnological essays (which we should have noticed in detail had we sufficient space at our disposal), and at the same time congratulate the Society which publishes them on the excellence of the work they accomplish.

ART. XII.-Elements of Medical Zoology. By A. MOQUIN TANDON, Member of the Academy of Sciences, &c. Translated and edited by R. T. HULME, M.R.Č.S.E., F.L.S., Lecturer on Dental Surgery, &c. pp. 423. 1861.

THE thanks of the medical profession are due to Mr. Hulme for introducing M. Moquin Tandon's work to their notice in an English garb. In the wide range of English medical literature there was no book which comprised all the information afforded by his treatise. Besides a complete account of all animals furnishing substances to which curative properties have been attributed, it presents a full, although at the same time terse and concise, zoological description, together with a relation of the action and effects of all noxious and poisonous animals, and of human epizoa and entozoa. The classification which the author proposes for the purposes of medicine is not founded upon zoological affinities, but rather upon the characters of the animal in its medico-zoological relations. Such an arrangement has, of course, no pretensions to be scientific; it is simple and practical, and adapted to the wants of the practitioner of medicine. Thus, for instance, all poisonous animals are treated of together, and are divided into two sections. The first includes those which convey their poison by the mouth, comprising poisonous animals with fangs-serpents; and poisonous animals armed with antennæ in the form of claws or with foot-jaws-spiders, scolopendra. The second comprises animals which inoculate their poison by means of a special organ-viz., the ornythorynchus, scorpions, and the hymenoptera. The account of the human internal parasites leaves in the present state of knowledge little to be added. Mr. Hulme has not only performed a translator's part well, but he has exercised the editorial function for the benefit of the reader by interblending with the original text much new matter. Amongst the interpolations we notice the late experiments of Virchow and Leuckart on the propagation of trichinæ, a notice of the Distoma Buskii, and of Griesinger's account of the peculiar form of chlorosis designated by him Egyptian, and the production of which he refers to the Ancylostomum duodenale.

PART THIRD.

Original Communications.

ART. I.

The Diseases of St. Kilda. By JOHN E. MORGAN, M.A., M.B. (Oxon. Member of the Royal College of Physicans, Manchester.

EXAMPLES selected either from the vegetable or animal kingdoms testify to the differences in organic development which may, even in a comparatively short space of time, result as a consequence of the varying physical conditions to which any particular species may happen to be exposed. The same truth is daily illustrated in the science of medicine. Diseases designated indeed by one term, nevertheless appear under so many phases, dependent upon the circumstances which gave them birth, that it is frequently no easy matter to determine either the order under which they are to be classed, or the causes on which they depend; and if this holds true even where difference in respect to such questions as employment, and diet, and race are insignificant, much more may it be looked for among those persons who, in respect to all these points of comparison, differ very materially from their neighbours. Viewed in this light there is, I think, much in such an island as St. Kilda which more especially calls for observation. It is situated, as my readers are doubtless aware, some sixty miles to the west of the group of islands known as the Hebrides; while three sides are walled by precipitous cliffs, the fourth descends with a gentle slope towards the sea, its two extreme points embracing between their arms the intervening bay which serves as a harbour, with a holding-ground and shelter sufficiently insecure. At a short distance from this bay lived, and for upwards of four hundred years have lived, that small and secluded society who together constitute the people of St. Kilda. To the population of Great Britain and Ireland they contributed at the taking of the late census seventyeight souls-thirty-three males and forty-five females, divided among twenty families, domiciled in twenty houses. The exact time at which the island was first colonized is a somewhat disputed and not very important question. Dean Monro, who travelled through the Hebrides in the year 1549, refers to it under the name of Hirta, and distinctly alludes to its being inhabited at that time. During the whole period of its history the people have remained singularly stationary, neither, except under very peculiar circumstances, encouraging emigration, nor admitting strangers to dwell among them. Their

occupation, which is neither agricultural nor piscatorial, might almost, were it not their recognised calling in life, be termed acrobatic, a great portion of their time being passed rather in the air than on either land or water. In the pursuit of the sea-fowl, especially the fulmars, a species of petrel, a great portion of the male population may be seen suspended by ropes around the cliffs, as composedly applying themselves to their work as the farmer to the cultivation of his soil. Their food-to modern ears, at least-has little to recommend it, and seems but few degrees more natural than their calling. It consists to a great extent of sea-birds, the flesh and eggs eaten fresh in summer, while no less than twelve thousand, or one hundred and fifty for each man, woman, and child, are salted down for winter consumption. A considerable admixture of oleaginous food appears to be required to render such a diet either palatable or digestible, inasmuch as St. Kilda historians speak of the necessity of making a free use of a peculiar preparation termed "the Giben." This consists of the fat with which the breasts of the young solan geese are thickly padded, melted down, and stored up in stomachs obtained from the old gannets, and preserved like bladders of hogs' lard. A small quantity of coarse meal, potatoes, and milk, complete their dietary table. Such is the mode of living among these people as regards their occupation and diet; to the construction of their dwellings, another important element in the causes which influence the origin and propagation of disease, I shall have occasion hereafter to revert.

In the course of June, 1860, during a cruise among the Western Isles, I happened to call at St. Kilda. As the difficulties of visiting the island, in consequence of the absence of all public means of communication, are considerable, and comparatively few persons have inquired into its condition, it appeared to me that it might prove neither uninteresting nor unprofitable to investigate, as far as lay in my power, into the history, causes, and symptoms of one or two very rare affections which have long been associated with its shores. To the prosecution of this task I was further invited, by the discovery while there of a register of the number and causes of death which occurred on the island between July, 1830, and September, 1840. It was kept by a missionary resident at the place during the years over which it extends, who from the careful manner in which he fulfilled his task, and the remarks he had interspersed in reference to the causes of death, was evidently a well educated and intelligent man, far better entitled to form an opinion than the generality of Highland registrars. At this time the aggregate population amounted to about one hundred and five persons, or twenty-eight more than at the time of the late returns of the census; but nevertheless, as thirty-five natives have emigrated since 1851, the island cannot be spoken of as becoming "depopulated" in consequence of its peculiar diseases. During the period of time included in the ten-year register, 65 births and 64 deaths are respectively recorded. Of the latter, no less than 33 were due to a disease termed by the inhabitants the "eight-day sickness;" among medical writers, the trismus neonatorum, or infantile lockjaw. Neither term is strictly 57-XXIX.

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