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splenic pulp, and from its venous blood, a juice can be ob-tained containing pepsine, and capable of digesting coagu-lated albumen. The spleen, he is therefore disposed tothink, prepares from the disintegrated albuminates of the

blood- corpuscles the pepsine that is afterwards secreted bythe glands of the stomach. The hyperæmia of the spleenoccurring at the commencement of the malarial intoxica-tion occasions an increased secretory activity of the gastricpeptic glands, and thus accounts for the increased appetiteobserved at this period; but, at a later stage of the disease,the persistence of the hyperæmia causes stasis of the bloodin the swollen spleen, accompanied by a kind of paralysisor functional disturbance, and the patient is no longercapable of digesting albuminoid food.

THE HEALTH OF THE NAVY.

THE annual Statistical Abstract of the Health of the

Navy for the year 1869-70 has just been issued, and em-braces the period between the 1st of July, 1869, and the30th of June, 1870, inclusive.

In going through the Report, we found the constantlyrecurring notice of rheumatism as a cause of invaliding,this being due in great measure to the absurd routine prac-tice of constantly washing the decks of the ships, againstwhich we have before this protested. We should like alsoto know whether the repairs of the Defence were really ofsuch an important character as to prevent her proceedingfrom Jamaica to Halifax until twenty-five cases of yellowfever had occurred on board, of which seventeen provedfatal.

Among the 11 Irreoular Force" there were some curiousoccurrences. Thus the Bristol, the sea-going training-shipof naval cadets, was properly enough at sea a good deal,but was it absolutely impossible to avoid giving ground forthe following paragraph in the Report?-

H During these cruises the ship’s company were neces-sarily victualled very much on salt provisions (altogether169 days out of the twelve months), and there was in con-sequence a great loss of service from boils and abscessesand ulcers....... The loss of service from boils and abscessesand ulcers amounted to 2607 days, so that seven men weredaily incapacitated for duty from these causes alone."Now this reads very like scurvy, and we wish some medi-

cal member of Parliament would ask whether the use of

lime-juice and preserved vegetables and meats is encou-

raged on board her Majesty’s ships, or whether both captainand paymaster are encouraged to be as saving as possibleof these essential articles of ship’s provisions. The same

thing was noticed in the case of the ships of the FlyingSquadron ; witness the following respecting the Scylla:-

°° As in the other vessels of the Flying Squadron, the dis-eases causing greatest loss of service were boils and ab-scesses and ulcers; rheumatic, catarrhal, and simple febrileaffections were also prevalent. The daily number on thesick-list averaged 5 per cent. of the ship’s company."

THE VACCINATION COMMITTEE.

THE Committee of the House of Commons continues tobe occupied in hearing the anti-vaccinationists, some ofwhom have been rather severely handled by members oncross-examination. It must be acknowledged that it is verydifficult to fix gentlemen who make the most astoundingassertions on the sole authority of their individual expe-rience. The Committee have been repeatedly told that thevaccinated are more liable to small-pox than the unvacci-nated, on the ground that more vaccinated patients are ad-mitted to the small-pox hospitals than unvaccinated; andwhen it is urged that the vaccinated in the communitygenerally are as ten to one unvaccinated, the Committee are

referred to a speech of Lord Robert Montagu in 1867, inwhich he is reported to have said that 50 per cent. of thepublic generally are unvaccinated. On Friday last Dr.Lyon Playfair was particularly happy in his cross-examina-tion of Dr. Pearce, and convicted him of misquoting Jennerand misstating the opinion published by the Royal Collegeof Physicians. Some very old statistical fallacies have beengravely brought out as new and important. Thus it is

urged that the number of deaths by small-pox in France wasgreatest in those departments in which there had been mostvaccinations. But the reason for this is obvious enough, forwhenever there is small-pox there will also be panic, underthe influence of which people rush after vaccination. It isto be hoped that the whole time of the Committee will notbe occupied in reviewing a question which has long agobeen settled by every intelligent community, and only lastof all in this country. There is much to be done in the

way of improvement, upon which the Committee may in.quire with great advantage.

ARMY MEDICAL SERVICE.

THOSE who scanned the Army estimates for the presentyear will, no doubt, have perceived that there was no de-

crease in the number of the staff of Inspectors-General ofHospitals, notwithstanding that the removal of the troopsfrom Canada rendered the reduction of one of those postsnecessary in so far as the Canadian command was concerned.

Owing, however, to the increase in the number of troops inthe southern district of Great Britain, and to the relativelygreater importance of Portsmouth, from the establishmentof the Indian overland route transport system, it was decidedto make the latter station an Inspector-General’s charge.During the absence of Deputy Inspector-General Gordon inParis, as one of the medical officers accredited to the FrenchGovernment, a surgeon-major has undertaken the medicalcharge of the Southern district. We believe that a militarycontemporary is in advance of the facts in announcing thatDr. Gordon will proceed to Nova Scotia, for we are given tounderstand that no such arrangement has been made.

THE PARIS MEDICAL PRESS.

WE have received the Gazette Midicale de Paris of the 4thof March, printed as before the siege; and right welcomehas been the sight of this valuable journal, of which we hadseen nothing since Sept. 18th of last year. We perceive byan address to its readers that the Gazette was being pub-lished during the blockade of the capital in a smaller sizefor the benefit of the profession shut up in Paris ; and, con-sidering the scarcity of paper, it is a wonder this was accom-plished. M. Jules Guerin, the proprietor of the journal,who had partially retired from the editorship, comes for-ward again with a fiery article, in which he sketches theduties of the medical profession during the new order ofthings. We are afraid M. Guerin is in too great a hurry.Reforms and the position of medicine in the vast changeswhich must occur should, no doubt, be defended; butmedical men in France might allow the country breathing-time, and, above all, avoid that bane of modern days-thestringing together of fine phrases which have no practicalvalue.

DIRT AND DISEASE IN DEVONSHIRE.

DR. THORNE, sanitary inspector from the medical depart-ment of the Privy Council, reports of Northam and Appledore,in Devonshire, that whereas typhoid and other preventablediseases have been most virulent there, the air, soil, andwater are seriously polluted. Many of the wells are situatedlower than the worst nuisances, and the drinking-wateris saturated with sewage ingredients. At Appledore, 100