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heartburnings of individual members of the Royal ArmyMedical Corps, among whom it was, at any rate until recenttimes, no uncommon complaint, and in most cases a

very justifiable complaint, that neither their position northeir services received recognition from the combatant

branches of the army. We do not enter here into anydetailed comparison between the conditions of the serviceunder the new Warrant and those that held previously.The subject has been fully dealt with in our columns,and we content ourselves with recording our view that,

withTtheimproved conditions of the new Warrant before

him, and feeling certain of gratitude and respect on the

part of the combatant branches as represented by LordROBERTS, the officer of the Royal Army Medical Corps inthe future should have it in his own hands to make his

position not only one m the highest utility but also one ofgreat dignity and influence. Until the present time the

main reproach cast upon the Army Medical Service bycritics without its ranks was one which was not deserved

in many instances, while it was very easily earned by evenmost capable members of the service. It was maintained

that, however brilliant his attainments, however eager hisdevotion to medicine on entering the service, a man neces-

sarily deteriorated afterwards by reason of the limited

medical field presented to him. The amount of routine

clerical work expected of him, and the scant opportunityafforded him of keeping abreast with the various branches ofmedical science as they progressed in civil practice, bluntedhis scientific enthusiasm. Now all such objections are toa large extent removed. The changes introduced into

the medical service of the army by the recent Warrant,especially the provision for study leave, by which officers

returning from distant stations are enabled to keepthemselves abreast of modern medicine, must have a won-

derfully stimulating effect upon the scientific zeal of the

military medical man. Not only can he use his own experi-ences to advantage, but he can benefit by the experiencesof his colleagues, both medical and lay-a true interchangeof knowledge resulting. Some of the work already donein India and South Africa, particularly in connexion with

typhoid fever and malaria, shows clearly enough that amongthe members of the Army Medical Service there will be

no lack of men from whom under favourable opportunitiesresearches may be expected of the highest practical value.From the nature of their surroundings the army medical

officers must be above all things practical. If the con- Iditions imposed upon an officer of the service develop alsothat ability for scientific research which is present in

many members of the corps, the importance of the benefits

that should accrue both to the condition of troops on activeservice and to medical science in general ought to be verydistinct. Any advance that is made will almost certainlybe made along definite lines. The occupation of a medicalofficer in the army of Great Britain offers an unparalleledfield for scientific work. In every quarter of the globehe is likely at some time or other to have medical

opportunities of an interesting and unusual character.

Under the conditions that now obtain his training and

knowledge should permit him to make use of these

opportunities. In older days the great JOHN HUNTER wasn army surgeon, as Lord ROBERTS, speaking in HUNTER’S

own hospital, could not fail to remember. It behoves the

military medical omcer of to-day to strive that what

HIUNTER did in the matter of gunshot wounds shall be

paralleled by what the Royal Army Medical Corps achievesin the matters of infectious and tropical disease.

Annotations." Ne quid nimis."

DENTAL DISEASE AND GENERAL HEALTH.

! THE distribution of prizes to the students of the NationalDental Hospital and College, Great Portland-street, London,

s was held on Oct. 29th, when an address was given by Sir

’

Thomas Barlow. He urged the students to study all thef

anatomical, physiological, pathological, and bacteriologicalsubjects which made up the natural history of disease in

’ the particular tissues with which they were concerned. It

I was the intimate pathology of dental disease that he urgedi

them to study. He hoped that they would keep up their, bacteriology and remember that in every single case of

disease there was something to be learned about the mode’

of onset, the order of evolution of symptoms, and the con-’

comitant conditions, some of which in time might beL found to be the actual factors in producing the morbid! state. Dentists as well as medical men were continually. being called upon to consider the vicious circle of local. and general disease and both dentists and medical men

had realised of late in a way they neither of them

realised before the vast importance of oral sepsis in’

causing various forms of chronic intoxication. They were’

aware that strong arguments had been urged in favourof the view that pernicious ansemia was induced bysome form of oral sepsis arising in connexion with dentalcaries. There could be no doubt that marked improvementoften ensued on making the oral cavity perfectly whole-some. Many cases of what was called Riggs’s disease hadbeen accompanied by chronic septicaemia which had beenabsolutely cured after efficient treatment of the oral cavity.It should never be forgotten that so long as a man’s generalhealth was good he might be enabled to neutraliseand to dispose of the toxic products which he was con-stantly swallowing from a small discharging sinus connectedwith an old carious root. But if that man became lowered in

his general tone from some acute illness, from severe h2emor-rhage, or from some grave blood change, as in Bright’sdisease, then that little sinus assumed great importance andthe slight septic absorption might grow into a serious risk.When people got well on into middle life and degenerativechanges began to be apparent, that was the time when

dentists might often score their most brilliant successes byaiding digestive processes with the mechanical resources attheir disposal and removing the causes of toxic absorption.In that way they would deserve gratitude and gain credit.Sir Thomas Barlow concluded by laying particular stress onthe importance of the proper care of the teeth in childrenbecause there were special risks of absorption of morbid pro-ducts in connexion with ulceration of the gums and it seemed

fairly clearly shown that such a lesion was one of the modesby which tubercle obtained access to the lymphatic glands.

THE TUBE RAILWAYS.

THE recent acquisition of the control of the London UnitedElectric Tramway Company by Messrs. Speyer Bros., thefinancial sponsors of the competing Metropolitan Districtline now associated with the name of Yerkes, has caused a

complete revolution in the proposed new tube railway