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rable studies of human nature, and, indeed, epitomize almost every phase of Jewish character.

To the left, passing briefly over a beautiful rosy boy in a glistening cloth of gold tunic, with dashes of green and crimson, comes his master, the chief rabbi,-a blind, bigoted old Jew, who bears reverently in his palsied old arms the rolls of the law, the silver-fringed bosses and rich ornamented case of which he holds up like a banner of the faith, to resist tacitly the heresies of the boyish Prophet.. His falling lip and seared eyes are excellent types of the blind heart, and of the obstinate and wilful adherents of a faith already sunk into second childhood.

SMALL-POX AND VACCINATION,
BEING AN ARGUMENT ADDRESSED TO THE INDIVIDUAL AND TO THE
STATE.

THE continued increase of such a malady as small-pox, the annual
mortality from which just now nearly doubles its ordinary average,
cannot but very forcibly arrest public attention. So great have
been the benefits accruing to mankind from sanitary science, of
the application of which to the saving of life vaccination is the
most successful instance, that we have come to regard human
progress in this particular as one steady advance. We look for-
ward to some distant future, as superior to our present as that is
confessedly to the past. But natural as may be such aspirations,
what we really observe, in the shape of progress, is rather a strug-
with many opposing causes, not without its defeats, as well as
its triumphs.
Into a full history of small-pox before the introduction of vacci-
nation we have not space to go. A disease which, in 1784,
swept away two-thirds of the inhabitants of Greenland, which had
destroyed annually half a million of lives in Europe, and in our
own country had, even when not in its highest activity, caused
one-fourteenth of the annual mortality, may well have terror
attached to its name. Of the total of those attacked, 1 in 5 or 6
died, of those attacked in infancy, 50 in 100 died. The disease
was fearful, however, not merely from its fatality, but also
from the injury, mutilation, and loss of sight which it often
caused when not fatal,-too frequently transforming youth and
beauty into objects painful to look upon, and dangerous to
approach. It spared no one in its course. No one was too high
for it to reach. A Queen of England, an Emperor of Russia, and
a King of France, have fallen victims to it. Burnett, speaking of
its prevalence in London, in 1684-5, writes:-"The small-pex
raged in this winter, some thousands dying of them, which gave
us great apprehension with regard to the Queen, for she never
of William the Third, the pious and amiable Queen Mary, was
had them. In conclusion, she was taken ill, and the devoted wife
carried off by this fatal disease, to the inexpressible grief of her
husband and the whole kingdom." To what do we, husbands
and wives, or lovers, parents, children, or friends, owe our feeling
of comparative security from the dreadful disease, and to whom are
we indebted for this security?

Next him comes another old man,-a gossip, a fellow-wor-gle shipper, who, holding in one hand his phylactery box and the strings that are used to fasten it on the forehead, with the other hand presses the patriarch's wrist to call his attention to the written promises, which he evidently deems sufficient and satisfying. These are lost men, whom no argument could move to anything but an angry or contemptuous smile. The next, however, is younger and more vehement. He is fanatical and impatient, half distrustful of his own arguments, yet not willing to relinquish them. Probably worsted by Christ, he anxiously unrolls the Book of Daniel to gather fresh evidence for the controversy. His clutch of the roll, the very way his feet are gathered upon the divan, are admirably shown us by the painter. Over the shoulder of this fanatic, who may one day be one of the loudest and most accusing voices at the Sanhedrim, leans a red-bearded Levite, who, pointing at Christ, mockingly alludes to his mysterious words just uttered, "Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?" This mocking and small-minded man wears a gray quilted cap and a gilt turban filleting it around. His attenuated and critical face is seamed with avarice, envy, and all uncharitableness. The fourth rabbi of the semicircle, probably a Pharisee, wears the phylactery which many Pharisees wore on ordinary occasions. With inflated self-conceit, this man is self-appointed arbitrator, sums up the argument to which no one is listening, and playing with a reed or stylus, lays down the premises and foundations of all religious argument.

Against this loathsome disease, inoculation of small-pox matter had long been practised in China and Hindoostan, when in 1721 the operation was introduced into this country by the celebrated Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, who caused her daughter to be inoculated in the year mentioned. Afterwards, the experiment was tried on six condemned criminals in Newgate; and subsequently, on a favourable result being obtained, the practice was the individual inoculated gained by this process, with but little danger, the great advantage of subsequent immunity from smallpox, yet, when the practice of inoculation from small-pox matter became general, the community suffered from the multiplied sources of contagion; for the disease was now never absent, even suffered little from it. Thus, instead of the practice of inoculation in places which, being thinly peopled and remote, had formerly resulting in any diminution in the number of deaths from small-pox, 45,000 persons are said to have been carried off by it in England annually during the period during which that practice prevailed. It is now more than sixty years since it was first announced that this grievous plague could be prevented by the trifling operation of inserting under the skin a portion of fluid obtained from an eruption occurring occasionally on the teat of the cow. This fact was asserted by a young countrywoman, in the hearing of a doctor's apprentice. When small-pox was mentioned, she said, "Oh, I cannot take that disease, for I have had cow-pox." The remark fell on He never desisted till he had put this information to the proof. no inattentive car. That doctor's apprentice was Edward Jenner. After thirty years of inquiry and investigation, he gave to the world, in 1798, his first work announcing the discovery with which his name is now inseparably associated.

The fifth rabbi, an indifferentish, neutral, highly respect-adopted on certain members of the Royal family. But although able well-to-do man, with a white, goatish, bi-forked beard reaching to his girdle, draws himself up with his crossed legs comfortably under him, and holds out his glass in a cozy recipient way,-a broad, shallow crater it is, for wine which a crafty, agile-looking Syrian is pouring to refresh him after the troublesome warmth of debate. This is the good-natured selfish man, who has yet heart enough to refrain a moment from drinking, that he may watch the joy of the mother at recovering her child. So we pass on from severe, austere fanaticism to the mere careless outside world, closing with the seventh doctor,-a pasty, sensual man, who, sitting crosslegged, with pen-case at his girdle, lifts one hand in lazy astonishment at so strange and unexpected an interruption. Behind these disputative rabbis are gathered servitors and musicians of the temple, waiting for the commencement of the evening service. Already a Levite with lighted wand is spreading fire from lamp to lamp. Two of these youths are clad in rich green robes; one bears a four-stringed harp, the body of which is formed of tortoiseshell; and another a ringed sistrum of the currycomb shape that the Egyptians were in the habit of using. The third, with a greedy, shameless, Absalom-sort of face, leans over his companions, clinging as he does so to one of the gilded pillars of the temple. He looks at the intruding strangers with an insolent, patronizing pride.

About 1780, the grand idea of transmitting this vaccine disease from one person to another, and in this way extending its influence all over the world, occurred to him. The first opportunity of putting this idea to the test occurred on the 14th of May, 1796. Matter from the hand of Sarah Nelmes, who had been infected from her master's cows, was on that day inserted into two incisions in the arms of a lad named James Phipps. This experiment, the first case of intentional vaccination, perfectly succeeded, and Phipps was without effect. The discovery,-for, from a local popular belief, it inoculated with small-pox matter many times during his after-life, had now risen to the rank of a scientific discovery, was afterwards put to the test by the great surgeon, Cline, who vaccinated a re-patient at St. Thomas's Hospital, on whom inoculation with smallpox matter subsequently failed to produce any result. Dr. Jenner subsequently announced that 6,000 persons had been subjected to the operation, by far the greater part of whom had been subsequently submitted to small-pox contagion without taking that disease. The value of the discovery now began to bear down. opposition. The esteem of the wise and good, the respect and veneration with which Jenner's name was received abroad, and the many evidences of the success of his discovery, sustained him under the obloquy of the envious and the ignorant.

The further background of this wonderful picture is also full of thoughtful detail, no touch of which can the spectator afford to miss. There, behind the papyrus-stalk pillars, is the money-changer weighing gold; there are the father and mother bringing their first-born, and the lamb that is to deem him. The mother carries the child, while the father slings over his shoulder the sacrificial lamb with the bound feet. Behind is the seller of the lamb, lagging behind to count the purchase-money, and at the same time, pushing back the ewe that struggles to follow her lost lamb. A boy in the far distance, who with a scarf is driving home stray doves out of the temple, completes the glorious and imperial picture. The faults of the picture are,-a little over-balancing in the composition, the extreme largeness of the old men's heads, the undue size of our Saviour, the unreality of the flying pigeons, the want of aerial perspective, and massive roundness and shadow in the painting. Taking every part of this grand chef-d'œuvre, perhaps the Virgin's face is the least cessful in point of expression. It is not eastern; and there is something rather lean and ascetic about the drawing of the figure.

would be a melancholy one. Such opposition was sufficiently castiThe story of the opposition which the new practice encountered gated in anable article in the Edinburgh Review by Jeffrey, who states, "we were so overpowered and confounded by the rude clamour and vehement contradiction of the combatants, that we were tempted to abandon the task we had undertaken, and leave it to suc-soning which could be discovered in this tempest of the medical world."" In 1808, the following question was put up for discussion in a debating society called the "British Forum:"-" Which has produced the most striking instance of credulity, gaslights of

some more athletic critic to collect the few facts and the little rea

AUG. 1860.

REGISTER.

Mr. Winsor, or the cowpock innoculation ?" The result of the discussion was as usual announced, and both gaslights and vaccination were handed over to scorn and ignominy.

Let us turn from this unwelcome picture to the results of vaccination when tried on a grand scale. If we compare the mortality from small-pox in certain localities, before and after the introduction of vaccination, we soon arrive at conclusive evidence. According to data furnished in Mr. Simon's report, where formerly, as in Sweden, 2,050 victims out of each million of the population perished annually from small-pox, the deaths from that disease have only averaged 158 yearly, out of the same number, during the period in which vaccination has been practised. In Copenhagen, where, for the half century 1751-1800, the annual small-pox death-rate per million was 3,128, for the next half century it was only 286. It seems probable that the small-pox death-rate per million in London, during the eighteenth century, ranged from 3,000 to 5,000; whilst, during the ten years 1846-55, it was under 340. The protective influence of vaccination is further seen in such facts as the following, viz.; that in the Grand Duchy of Baden, no deaths from small-pox occurred for eight successive years from 1820 to 1827; that in Copenhagen, no small-pox deaths occurred in the thirteen years from 1811 to 1823; and that in all Sweden, with an average population of 3,300,000, the total number of deaths from that disease, in 1843-4-5-6, were only 9, 6, 6, and 2, respectively. In all these localities, vaccination was as nearly universal as it could possibly be. Again, it is in the case of vaccinated children under eight years of age that the immunity from small-pox is most nearly absolute; yet, among the unvaccinated at that age, small-pox is both common and fatal. Nearly 50 in every 100 unvaccinated children, attacked under five years of age, died at the Small-Pox Hospital in 1838; whilst, amongst the children who had been vaccinated, not one death occurred under nine years of age. Of 195 children in the Foundling Hospital of Vienna who died of smallpox (of whom 194 were unvaccinated), 168 were in the first year of their existence. As may be naturally supposed, Dr. Jenner was perhaps oversanguine as to the final extermination of small-pox; but he did not claim for vaccination a greater likelihood of protecting every individual than is possessed by small-pox itself. To a friend he thus writes:-"Be of good cheer, my friend; those who are so presumptuous as to expect perfection in man, will be grievously disappointed. His works are, and ever will be, defective. Let people, if they choose it, spurn the great gift that heaven has bestowed." And again:-"Is it possible that any one can be so absurd as to argue on the impossibility of small-pox after vaccine."

The experiments of this assiduous inquirer led him to ascribe the vaccine disease in the cow to a vesicular disease, called the "Grease," which affects the heels of the horse. This idea, further investigation has not confirmed; but the correctness of his opinion of the essential identity of small-pox and cow-pox,-that the latter is, in fact, the former disease, modified by transmission through the cow, has been amply proved. Dr. Sonderland, of Bremen, is said to have communicated the small-pox to a cow, by enveloping her in the bed-covering which had been used by a small-pox patient. To Dr. Gassner, of Gunzburg, is due the credit of having first inoculated the cow with small-pox matter, and he succeeded in obtaining vaccine vesicles in the cow. These experiments have been repeated by others, but by none with more success, and with the exhibition of greater care, acumen, and knowledge of the subject, than by Mr. Robert Ceeley, of Aylesbury, whose papers are among the best that have been written on this subject, since the time of Jenner himself.

The protective power of vaccination, then, seems most singularly, but still quite in accordance with what we know of some other of the zymotic blood diseases, such as measles and scarlatina, to be a A mild, even the case of a disease protecting against itself. mildest, attack of scarlatina, measles, or whooping cough, usually protects the individual from any subsequent seizure. The vaccine lymph is really a mild and modified form of small-pox virus; it is probably for this reason that vaccination serves as a protection from that dreadful and dreaded malady. This essential identity of the two diseases ought, as it appears to us, completely to extinguish the fear, and remove the reluctance, which many people feel, to have matter indirectly derived from an animal introduced into their children's blood. The public should also remember that the occasional occurrence of rashes and spots on the skins of children, at or just after the performance of vaccination, is believed, upon careful inquiry, to be owing to the condition of health of the child operated on, or to a peculiar constitution of its cutaneous system, rather than to the frequently, but erroneously, abused lymph which has been employed.

But the question which is most imminent just now, and it is one
which demands the deepest consideration on the part of every one
in the community, is this:-What are the causes of the present
increased mortality from small-pox? Is it probable that the fre-
quent transmission of the vaccine lymph through a number of
human beings, without renewal from the cow, has in some degree
impaired its qualities? Or is the operation, as a rule, conducted
without sufficient care to secure a favourable result?

Now, many high authorities appear still to maintain that the
cow-pox lymph can undergo no real degeneration under careful
management. Even Mr. Ceeley states that his "own applications
But the obser-
to the cow were made without any belief in the superior protective
efficacy of the new over active humanized lymph.'
vations of Gregory, and the quite recent researches of Bousquet
and others, together with the results of re-vaccination, which
appears to succeed now more often than it did at earlier periods,
tend to support the opinion that some degree of diminution of the
To meet this
active qualities of vaccine lymph really may take place, from inde-
finite transmission without occasional renewal.
difficulty,-if, as is probable, it really exists,-we would point out,
that although the disease in the cow is rarely met with, and though
special acquaintance with the subject is required to distinguish
genuine from sourious vesicles, the method of inoculating the cow

with small-pox matter, and, after a due transmission through a
source of lymph, can be readily adopted from time to time.
sufficient number of animals, using the resulting vesicles as a fresh
The other possible cause of increasing small-pox suggested
above, is the alleged imperfect performance of the slight but
important operation of vaccination. It is very difficult not to be-
lieve that, to some extent, this has been the occasion of many of
the cases of small-pox after vaccination. According to Mr. Mar-
son, of the Small-pox Hospital, vaccination "is far less well per-
formed in England than in any country in Europe; all persons,
medical men, clergymen, amateurs, druggists, old women, mid-
wives, &c., being allowed to vaccinate as they think proper." The
consequence of all this certainly must be much inefficient vacci-
nation, especially amongst the poorer classes. Mr. Marson's re-
searches further tend to show that vaccination, to be of full value,
should consist of four or more well-formed vesicles; for he found
that patients attacked with small-pox, who had only one scar from
vaccination, died in the proportion of 7 per cent.; those with
two scars, at the rate of 4 per cent.; those with three, at the rate
of 14 per cent.; and those with four or more scars, at the rate of
only per cent. Nothing could afford stronger evidence of the
Besides the two just briefly discussed, however, there are
value of good vaccination in preventing a fatal result.
undoubtedly other causes for the recent spread of the small-pox;
and one of these is the want of any provision for securing re-vac-
cination, which may be rendered necessary either by the first vacci-
nation having been defective, by the wearing out of its particular
influence as life advances, or by peculiar predisposition to be affected
a second time by the same disease. Re-vaccination should, at
least, be done during the prevalence of small-pox epidemics, which
appear to render those liable to the disease who in ordinary times
would not have been so, and there are undoubtedly numbers of per-
sons, originally perfectly vaccinated, who become in course of time
bring under notice instances in adults of unvaccinated persons
more or less susceptible to small-pox. Such a practice would also
who are themselves perhaps unaware that they are unprotected.
Ordinarily it is well not to re-vaccinate before fourteen years of
age; from which age up to twenty-five or thirty, is the best period
for this operation. There are those who doubt its usefulness; but
again and again instances have occurred in which small-pox has
made its appearance in a school or an asylum, affecting daily some
of the children or patients, but after a general re-vaccination, not
another case of small-pox has occurred. Professor Wood, of Phila-
a student of medicine died of confluent small-pox in a boarding-
delphia, relates the following instance:-"In the winter of 1845-6,
house containing about thirty inmates. All of these were re-vac-
cinated, except three young men, who had confidence in their
security. Those who were re-vaccinated escaped, while the three
persons alluded to were, as I was informed, affected with varioloid
(a modified small-pox)."

But there can be little doubt that the chief cause of the present
as well as of other extensions of small-pox, is the fact that there is
no enactment which ensures the universal adoption of vaccination.
It is true that in more enlightened neighbourhoods, where the law
and the general feeling as to the desirableness of vaccination are
more in harmony, the Vaccination Act is not by any means "a
dead letter;" and such districts small-pox appears comparatively
to spare. But in various parts of England, especially in purely agri-
cultural districts, there exists a state of ignorance, and an abhor-
rence of vaccination, which are almost incredible. It is here where
the parish authorities. Personal visitation and persuasion, how-
the system of compulsion by fine should be strictly enforced by
ever, with a view to inducing concurrence in a wise and beneficent
law, should be previously adopted; and this would also have the
effect of diminishing that distance between the different classes
of society, with which the feeling of resistance to, and the desire
of non-compliance with legislative interference, are so deeply
connected in the minds of our poorer fellow-subjects. Until vac-
cination be almost universally adopted, we can never fully esti-
mate its protective power. With a large number of the popula
tion unvaccinated, and small-pox therefore never absent, and its
poison intensified by increasing prevalence, we cannot wonder
that at last some of the more susceptible of the vaccinated are
attacked.

In some districts, with the ultimate view of extending the pracThis visitation of tice of vaccination, many public schools have been visited, and thus many children have been vaccinated who were and would probably have continued to be unvaccinated, while others, apparently defectively vaccinated, have been re-vaccinated. Mr. Marshall, of the London University College Hospital, his idea schools, it is right to mention, was first proposed and carried out by being that in this way not only would many unprotected children be quickly detected and forthwith vaccinated, but that an estimate could be made, by examination of the arms of the children, of the extent to which the general youthful population of the poorer class, of which such children might be taken as a not unfair sample, was protected by perfect vaccination.

It is also to be hoped that the official scrutiny into the causes of the prevalence of small-pox in particular districts, which, under the regulations of the Privy Council, has recently to a certain extent been made, and which will, we trust, henceforward be still more widely extended, will be rendered useful in many ways, If there is fear that in many instances imperfect, not to say more especially in exciting public and parochial zeal. "bad" vaccination has been practised, this will be prevented in future, as far as possible, by the recent orders of the Privy Council, which will require every person, desirous of qualifying as a public vaccinator, to be instructed in this subject, and to give satisfactory tional instances,-of careless vaccination, which have led to an proof of his proficiency. This will prevent those, we hope excep imputation, which cannot but be felt in the light of a professional reproval, and which we trust may prove not to be sustainable to any great extent. And if it be the part of government to issue directions having for their obiect the efficient performance

[graphic]

of vaccination, and the due transmission of vaccine lymph, it is
surely a part of its duty to see that the lymph is the best possibly
procurable; for the practitioner, anxious for the success of his
operation, has often extreme difficulty in procuring and main-
taining good fresh vaccine lymph. One gentleman has recom-
mended the establishment of "vaccine farms" for this purpose.
Finally, on the whole, it is clear that to provide for and secure
good vaccination are legitimate grounds for legislative protection
and the exaction of penalties. It would be well, indeed, for the com-
munity if law was always obeyed, simply because it is the law, or
because it is intended for the public good, and not from any lower
motive, such as the escape from fine or other punishment; but this
can only happen where the general state of intelligence is high,
and the interests of the governing and the governed aro felt to be
identical. Then the valuable sentiment of individual indepen-
dence would be counterbalanced and prevented from becoming ex-
cessive by that sentiment of common unity, which common interests
and common dangers, pestilences, and the like, are too often ne-
cessary to inspire. In reference to the sacredness of the obliga-
trous of human law, we may understand the words of a great
French historian, who says "that whoever violates the laws, what-
ever colour of piety he may assume, is sacrilegious and a parri-
cide."
We await, however, the result of enlightened legislation on this
important subject not without anxiety, believing that we, the
countrymen of Jenner, who have tardily raised a monument to his
memory, by the side of those heroes with whom genius has made
him kin, can do nothing so truly honourable to the man as to en-
deavour to perfect the application of his marvellous discovery, and
realize the aspirations of his far-sighted philanthropy.

In a word, we feel that on a subject in which an increasing interest has unfortunately been now excited in the public mind, a writer in the pages of the REGISTER is taking no liberty in conjur ing its readers and their friends to admit the truth of these two fundamental propositions,-first, that it is the duty of the state to the individual to insist on vaccination; secondly, that it is the duty of the individual to the state to submit to be vaccinated. EDWARD JAY, M.R.C.S.

PROFITABLE EMPLOYMENT OF WOMEN.

LADY PHYSICIANS.

we still see everywhere great bewhiskered fellows measuring out
tapes and ribbons and lounging among silks and muslins. Only
let the upper and happier classes of women be once awakened to
this abuse, and their sympathies excited towards their own sex, and
the matter will be accomplished. Every lady resorting to a draper's
or mercer's shop should refuse to be waited on by men; and should
confine her purchases to the go is offered by her own sex,
Another and a higher problem belonging to this subject, and one
which is just beginning to excite attention and to undergo dis-
cussion, is how to find suitable and remunerative employment for
the better educated and more refined class of females, such as
now have no other available occupation than teaching. If the
demand for governesses by the richer classes equalled the supply,
nothing more would be needed, but unfortunately it does not; hun-
dreds, nay thousands, of educated women, prepared for and com-
petent to the duties of teachers, find no scope or place for the
exercise of their talents.

The idea has been suggested that they might to a considerable extent adopt the theory and practice of the art of healing. Miss Martinean has recently employed her powerful pen to advocate this idea, and several writers in the Englishwoman's Journal have urged from various points of view its practicability and propriety. No candid mind unshackled by professional prejudices, can examine the subject without being convinced that the creation of a large class of female physicians would confer benefits equally on themselves and on society.

It is impossible in the limited space at our command to exhibit a hundredth part of the arguments, or of the facts adducible to support and illustrate them, which could be brought forward to prove the justice of this opinion. We shall, therefore, confine ourselves to the bare assertion of a few truths, and those who have leisure and inclination may examine their foundation.

First. The science of disease and its laws, technically designated "Medicine" or "Physic," as this science stands at present, contains nothing which could not be perfectly understood after a moderate amount of study by any educated woman.

Secondly. The science of remedies, i.e. Materia Medica, is equally intelligible.

Thirdly. The application of these sciences to practice, in the art of healing, or Therapeutics, flows directly from the former and presents no difficulties.

Fourthly. The subsidiary and underlying sciences of anatomy, physiology, chemistry, natural philosophy, and botany need only be studied so far as to obtain a familiarity with their fundamental principles, outlines, and general conclusions. A very minute or profound knowledge in detail of even any one of them would absorb so much time and attention, that no man can attain it without de facto disqualifying himself for the duties of a practical pro-physician. Few practitioners, indeed, are chargeable with this error.

Ir is not so widely and popularly known as it ought to be, that a society exists for promoting the profitable employment of women. Statistical writers inform us that in the British Islands there are upwards of two millions of the sex who are condemned by the inexorable exigences of our form of civilization to pass through life in a state of celibacy. Far more than an arithmetical portion of this number belong to the upper and middle classes of society. Education and refinement of taste have made equal if Admitting, then, as it must be admitted, that the necessary not more progress among the female than among the male part amount of knowledge for the practice of the art of healing could of our population. If we can justly pride ourselves on being readily be acquired by females, were they afforded the opportupre-eminently a moral and religious people, the superiority is nity of acquiring them, we think we perceive a peculiar appromore marked, and the character more stamped upon our women. priateness and propriety in ladies becoming physicians. They It seems to be the fate of human nature that all advances made excel us in tact and quickness of perception, and, when their faculby people in knowledge and refinement must be attended ties fobservation are developed, in clearness and distinctness in by corresponding and unavoidable evils. The struggle for life apprehending things. The gentleness, patience, and kindly symand for the enjoyments which our artificial state renders its neces-pathy with suffering characteristic of the sex, peculiarly adapt sary accompaniments, effectually checks the natural tendency them for exercising the functions of attendants on, and advisera to marriage which would otherwise equalize and overcome the of, the sick. existing disparity. To marry and duly fulfil the duties of a wife and a mother, are held to be the only honourable functions of women. It is forgotten that they have minds and hands for a wide range of the labour incident to every social state. Hence there is an incalculable waste of power, and a corresponding aug-mire in female character to familiarize them with disease and mentation of suffering. Idleness, whether voluntary or enforced, is confessedly an unmitigated evil. The suffering consequent upon want of useful occupation falls with its greatest weight upon women. Can nothing be done in their case to lessen its extent or mitigate its severity? Are we to remain always enslaved to an irrational conventional prejudice? Must we stand idle spectators whilst whole hecatombs of our fellow-creatures are sacrificed on the altars of this social Moloch?

Surely it is an effort worthy of the highest benevolence, the profoundest philanthropy, to devise methods for relieving the misery attaching to the wasted lives and energies of so many of the nobler part of mankind. Whatever may be effectually done for giving suitable occupations to minds and hearts so prepared, and to limbs so ready for any good work, will speedily tell upon the mental and moral progress of the whole human race.

The society in question is, as we have said, comparatively little known and feebly supported, and yet its aims are well worthy of consideration in a political point of view. The time appears to be approaching when, if Great Britain is to preserve her natural existence, every man capable of bearing arms in her defence will be needed; and it is high time to begin the habits and the manly exercises which will enable every one to assume the character of a soldier. Emigration has drawn off from many parts all, or nearly all, the able-bodied male population. And yet at this moment hundreds of thousands of men are engaged in occupations which render them worse than effeminate,--occupations which would be better and more appropriately undertaken by women. Look at the swarms of mercers, men-milliners, tailors, shopmen, etc.; how vastly better would their places be supplied by women. The Society recognises this great fact, and is working towards a change and reformation. A movement has begun in the right direction; women are beginning to be employed as managers of the electric teleg copyists, engravers on metal and stone, printers, chasers of meta., ..atchmakers, etc. It requires an organized society to encourage and promote the movement, since considerable, and, in some cases, successful opposition has been encountered from the jealousy of the men engaged in these trades. Less effect has been produced on shopkeepers than might have been anticipated, and

We do not undertake to state and answer objections which may be urged against this as against any or every innovation on established usages. One, however, may be noticed. It may be thought inconsistent with that delicacy of sentiment we all so much adsuffering. Let any one who thinks so reflect on the great moral achievements of Miss Nightingale and her friends in their noble work of nursing the sick soldiery. Nothing that the liveliest imagination can picture of the painful and repulsive scenes which may occasionally be encountered by the medical attendant of the sick in ordinary practice can possibly equal what Miss Nightingale and her friends must have witnessed. Does nursing render a lady less feminine or less delicate than those who spend their time in the practice of music or of the other fine arts? Besides, as Miss Martineau has said, women will practice medicine, whether with or without understanding it: it seems to be a natural instinct of the sex to proffer advice and assistance in cases of suffering; consequently what we propose would be but carrying a common practice a step further, and, while basing their exercise on true scientific knowledge, bringing into distinct and acknowledged usefulness talents which are now for the most part wasted.

Crowded as the profession is, it may be asked, is there room for female practitioners of the art of healing? A full answer to this question would require a large space. We can only afford the following hints:-1. Scarcely a third of the sick and suffering come under the treatment of the regular practitioners. 2. Tens of thousands, according to the Registrar's reports, die annually of curable diseases. 3. The diseases of women and children are those most neglected. 4. The expense of medical treatment is too great,-women practitioners could charge less. 5. Medical men always seek aid in consultation in difficult cases,-conld not women do the same? 6. The prevailing practice of midwifery by men is objectionable in every point of view,-degrading to themselves, fatal to many patients, unnecessary, and injurious to feminine modesty. 7. There are a number and variety of specialities which might be adopted by educated women,-branches of the art of healing which are now considered rather below the dignity of men, yet which require skill, judgment, and medical knowledge to be exercised properly, ex. gr.-the management of the teeth, particularly of children, of the feet, of the hair and skin, etc. The practice of chiropody has been successfully pursued by many ladies, and a few have practised dentistry. Several new pro fessions relative to hygiene might be created. In all these edu

AUG. 1860.

REGISTER.

cated and refined females might find a sphere of usefulness, and a source of remuneration.

And last, but not least, the writer believes that the public would gain incalculably by the extinction of shoals of quacks and impostors, the prevention of frauds, and the explosion of fatal errors; all of which would flow from the institution of a large class of female physicians properly educated.

Is the subject worthy of being practically developed? Nothing could be more easy or accomplishment. Let a moderately-sized dispensary and hospital be established in the metropolis, where there is abundance of sickness and diseases failing to find relief, for the resort of lady students only. A distinct and liberal course and plan of instruction, embracing all the necessary topics, both direct and collateral, should be laid down, and a staff of dulyqualified professors be appointed to teach in lectures, and to give practical instruction by the bed-side of patients. The cost of a complete course of instruction should be made as moderate as possible, and we have no doubt that the school or college for lady physicians would be resorted to by very many earnest and resolute students, and would soon win its way to public favour.

As in all cases, the first step is the great desideratum. Is there no wealthy and benevolent lady or gentleman willing to secure the honour of being the founder of such a college? Once set on foot, the public would liberally support it.

There is, however, already, slightly as the subject has as yet been discussed, one difficulty to be overcome,-one rock on which the project might founder at the outset. Two accomplished American women have been in this country lecturing to admiring audiences on this topic. They have imbued themselves and indoctrinated others with the notion that, in order to practice the art of healing, the cap and gown of the college and the title of Doctor are things needed,-they take the appertainings and ornaments to be the man, the colours and drum to be the army,-they would initiate the era of female physicians with a struggle for a seat on the same bench as that occupied by the male student, for admission with him into the dissecting-room, for a promenade with him at the heels of the doctor as he perambulates the hospitals, and then for the honour of being called "Doctor," and being allowed to affix M.D. to their names. This is a great mistake. These things will never be, can never be; and, unless repudiated, and a practicable course adopted, we shall never have the satisfaction of seeing our wishes fulfilled: we shall never see in every district of our cities, and in all our towns and villages, the names of female physicians, indicative of help and remedy in sickness for their own sex, and for children

of both sexes.

.

M.D.

BUILDING STONES-WHY THEY DECAY AND HOW TO
PRESERVE THEM.

ARCHITECTS have only of late years given their attention to the
quality and endurance of the stones they build with. Only recently
have they discovered that they must call the practical geologist
into their councils to explain to them the characteristics of par-
ticular strata and soils, and to tell them where the best stones
may be found for the best buildings. Sad mistakes have been
made for want of this knowledge, the fruits of which ignorance
are visible in the early decay of not a few modern mansions and
modern churches and chapels, while more ancient erections, that
otherwise seemed destined to stand to the "crash of doom," have
become prematurely decrepit, and lose their scaling off surfaces
as men lose their hair. Henceforth they stand as proofs of the
premature failure of the noblest designs for want of that prac-
tical knowledge which not a few common quarrymen possess,
which all geologists ought to be in possession of, and which
architects need most of all, but which they have unfortunately
neglected until the decadence of their decorations and the fading
and obliteration of their choicest carved foilage has convinced
them that a chemical autumn and winter await their stony fruits
and flowers and leaves, as surely as the natural seasons advance
upon the forest and the flower garden. Certain freestones and
sandstones, though facile to dress and fair to look upon, are as
certain to lose the sharpness of their outlines and the coherence of
their external particles, as are the showers to descend, the storms
to rage, the frosts to bind up, and the warm beams to melt.

Close and continual observation alone can enable a man to say what stones will be injured by atmospheric changes, and what stones will defy them all. We have conversed with common quarrymen in their quarries who have this kind of knowledge in large measure, although, of course, only as pertaining to their If the knowledge of all these men could be own localities. written and arranged and systematized, we should have a valua ble body of information of which the most eminent and highly educated architects would do well to avail themselves. One man we knew in our early years who was pre-eminent in this kind of information. That man was the father of English geology, the constructor of the first geological map of England,--the best and indeed the only sound and accurate geologist of his day: we mean the eminent William Smith,-or, as he was familiarly named, "Stratum Smith," from the circumstance that he found strata in everything, from a plate of bread and butter on the breakfast table to papers and books on the library shelves. He could say more about the durability of stones than his wisest compeers, On one occasion, when Gimply because he had observed more. in company with an eminent clergyman, we found Smith in Scarborough churchyard, narrowly scanning the tombstones. am glad to see you thus occupied," exclaimed our clerical friend; "a solemn spot this, Mr. Smith, and one where we may learn the "So I think, sir," rejoined Smith; "I most important lessons." quite agree with you, and here I have learnt some truly serviceable things. You see, sir," added Smith, directing the elergy 'you see that man's attention to one particular tombstone,

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"Well, sir, you will observe that
it is a slab of the worst bed of the inferior oolite,-and that even
stone?" "I do, Mr. Smith."
already it is peeling off at the edges; but look at the other stone,
will last for centuries. Yes, sir, this is the place to learn the true
sir, on the right. That is a slab of the hard blue lias, and it
henceforth renounced all professional attempts on Stratum Smith's
durability of stones." It is needless to add that our clerical friend
religious improvement.

When the houses of parliament were about to be erected, the
attention of the government was drawn to Smith, and he, in
examine the principal quarries and building stones, and to report
Smith knew
company with two other gentlemen, was deputed to visit and
upon them. Numerous researches were instituted.
every principal building stone in England. He had walked over
other men had never seen, though beneath their eyes. He selected
most of the strata, pen in hand, and had noted many things which
a stone at once durable, ornamental, and facile to the tool. It is
true that the beds of even this excellent stone were found to differ,
and hence the decay in some parts of the building, which has
not more than were to be expected in a building requiring such
occasioned so much talk. Still, the defects so far exhibited are
one quarry to supply. More durable stones would have been top
vast quantities of material,-quantities beyond the capacity of any
the best building stones in our land is the carboniferous or moun-
hard, and would not have yielded to chisel and mallet. One of
tain limestone, especially that of Clifton, near Bristol; but it is
impossible to dress and carve this stone, and the same is the case
with hundreds of other stones, otherwise most suitable for build-
Any man who inhabits a large city or town, and watches the
ing purposes.
new buildings erected around him, may observe within how brief
a period an unsuitable stone begins to show signs of decay. The
decay will be the more rapid in proportion as the building con-
smokier parts of the city. The reason is, that the air of cities
structed of the unsuitable stone is situated in the denser and
is loaded with deleterious acids and alkaline gases, which render
it an invincible, although invisible, foe to all strongly absorbent
stones. Multitudes of human beings are in their respirations
sending forth fumes of sulphurous acid. There is, too, not a little
giving off carbonic acid gas; multitudes of fires are burning and
ammonia; and all these agents, aided by a damp and heavy atmos-
phere in our comparatively moist climate, are combining, and
deface his choicest ornamentation. In this way, absorbent and
that ceaselessly, to destroy the architect's handiwork, and to
improperly selected stones tell the tale of the builder's ignorance
decay takes place. We are acquainted, for example, with a beau-
daily more and more distinctly. Even in the country similar
tiful chapel some six miles from London, erected very recently
at a cost of four thousand pounds, of which the outer walls and
the ornamental projections are even now scaling off. In such
cases as this, "our damp climate" is usually accused, while "city
smoke" bears the blame in the case of urban buildings. There
are, however, stones which have withstood, and are withstanding,
both. Why not use these?

Is there,

Here the question of expense arises. For many cities and towns, as for London, the cost of the carriage of stone is a heavy item, and either the most accessible stones must be employed, where Caen stone, for funds are limited, or none at all. The choice, therefore, lies of necessity betwen good brick and bad stone. instance, is capital, but also costly; the carriage from Normandy is an insuperable bar to its frequent use in England. Moreover, in the case of existing buildings constructed of non-durable stone, all discriminating knowledge comes too late. then, no means of protecting such buildings from further decay, and at the same time of rendering it practicable to use the inferior but cheaper stone for future buildings, without risk of their Various expedients prematurely scaling and crumbling away? What is required is to render impervious to air or moisture the surfaces of stones which are naturally porous and absorbent. have been adopted with a view to the accomplishinent of this objec. Paint most readily suggests itself, and is frequently used, but always ultimately proves a failure, because the oil in it deoxide of lead. The painted surface first browns, then blackens, composes under atmospheric action, and then separates from the and finally peels off, when another coat of paint must be laid on, this also speedily to be succeeded by another. Besides, if paint is to be employed, it may as well coat brick or stucco as stone. It has been suggested that preparations of bitumen should be substances with vegetable or animal oils. Fitumen would cer used instead of the paints formed by the commixture of mineral tainly answer the required end, but there is a fatal objection to its man would coat the walls of his house with so black and dismal use,-it is unsightly. It is suitable enough for pavements; but no a substance. If any one were tasteless enough to do this, he would excite the disgust of every passer by.

What is wanted, then, is some mineral body with which it shall be possible to cont the surfaces of absorbent stones, which shall adhere firmly, and not be liable to decomposition by the action of the atmosphere, and which at the same time shall not spoil the appearance of the structure as a coating of bitumen would. To substances are the most powerful resistants of moisture and any reader who will spend a moment in thinking what nuneral decay, fint will be certain to suggest itself. A flat wall is invariably dry. At Margate, Ramsgate, and many other places in the chalk districts, we see many walls, and some houses, constructed of split flints; and any visitor may note that while the flint structure, and that alone, will be thoroughly dry. It everything else around him may be dripping from recent ram, will be the only thing that shows no trace of the moisture and damp hanging all around him, and perhaps personally upon him.

In this part of our article we make use of a recent lecture by Professor Ansied at the Royal Institution, delivered May 24th, 1860, an abridged repar of which appeared in the Engineer and other journals.

Now flint is silica,-a body which forms the mass of nearly all sandstone, and also the basis of granite,-and silica is a combination of a base which is called silicon with oxygen, and by chemists is also called silicic acid, although its acid properties are very weak. If flint, or silica, be subjected, at steam pressure, and at a temperature of 300 deg. or 400 deg. Fahr., to the action of caustic potash, the silica is dissolved, and the compound called silicate of potash is formed; the result being a liquid which consists of a combination of silicate of potash with water, and constitutes what is known as the "Water Glass" of Kuhlman. If this liquid be exposed to the action of the air, it parts with its potash to the carbonic acid of the atmosphere, nothing but solid silica, after a short exposure, being left behind. A drop placed on a piece of glass at the commencement of a lecture, passes first into a gelatinous state, and by the close of the lecture is quite hard and solid, adhering so firmly to the glass as to be impossible of removal. As silica thus deposited from a solution of silicate of potash will adhere as tenaciously to any kind of stone, Kuhlman suggested that absorbent building stones should be coated by this process. Silica thus deposited, however, fails to afford efficient protection, being acted upon in time by the alkaline carbonates of the atmosphere. It is, moreover, open to the objection, that if rain were to fall upon it before it had hardened, it would be washed away. Mr. Ransome has come forward with another method of applying silica to the protection of absorbent building stones from decay. He first causes the stone to absorb a solution of silicate of soda, which is formed by a process exactly parallel to that by which silicate of potash is formed, and then fills the pores with a solution of chloride of calcium (muriate of lime). Chlorine having a stronger affinity for soda than for lime, and silica having but a slight affinity for soda, the chlorine of the chloride of lime abandons the lime and seizes the sodium of the silicate of soda, forming with it the soluble chloride of sodium, or common salt, while the silicic acid and the lime also combine together, forming instantly a hard, solid, and utterly insoluble silicate of lime, the particles of which adhere with intense tenacity to any and every kind of sandstone. The chloride of sodium being washed away, the film or coat of silicate of lime alone remains. Mr. Ransome's method, so far as we can at present judge of it, appears to be really effective, so far as sandstones are concerned. It remains to be seen whether it is equally effective in the case of other stones. What we desire to know is whether it would protect from decay such stones as the soft oolite of Bath. If so, the advantages to decorative architecture will be very considerable, since stones which are so easily carved, and are so beautiful when freshly carved, but which are at present almost as fading as the fruit and foliage they are sometimes made to represent, may in that case be made permanently ornamental, to the great increase, in all probability, of the adoption of architectural decoration.

PROGRESS OF ASTRONOMY.

SOLAR PHENOMENA AND SPOTS ON THE SUN'S DISC. ASTRONOMY, in point of sublimity of theme, magnitude of range, and magnificence of phenomena, stands at the head of the sciences. In our earliest pages, therefore, do we recognise its royalty, and glance at its progress.

Astronomy is essentially a science of progress. What may be its goal to-day is its starting place to-morrow. It never pauses, but its advance is as unceasing as that of the suns and stars. Night and day do they roll on; the music of the spheres has no termination, and no interludes. In ancient tragedy the chorus sang the interludes: in the spheral harmony the chorus is perpetual, and the chant eternal. So, also, in the earthly auditors and spectators; -their vigilance must be as unceasing as the courses of the stars and the beamings of the suns. They can give themselves no rest, no times of idleness, no nights of repose. Through all the silent spaces of the hours of darkness their eye must hold itself unslumbering. It must be ever upward, as the planetary paths must be ever onward. The telescope requires no repose, so neither must they who hope to profit by it. At eventime all the world goes to rest, except the astronomical world. As the shadows fall thick and frequent, fold after fold, the student of the stars braces himself up for his best opportunities, repairs to his observatory when others repair to their beds, and notes what the shining orbs are doing, while other men are dreaming of what can never be done. As unceasing as is the progress of this royal science, as unremitting as are its cultivators, so unremitting must be its annotators and registrars. From time to time we hope, therefore, to note in brief, and in popular form, for the benefit of non-scientific readers, what the most reliable astronomers are observing and recording. Striking phenomena do not occur very frequently, but minor occurrences in the celestial spaces may often interest us. Thus we shall find enough for occasional papers; and while professed newspapers keep their readers well informed of the progress of terrestrial politics and the march of earthly potentates and warriors, we, under the present heading, shall hold in review the mightier march of celestial potentates, and keep our readers au courant with the orbital progress of firmamental glories, and the changes and notabilities of some of those innumerable worlds to which our own little orb is but as a brilliant speck,-great to us, but small indeed in comparison with the magnitudes of the vast sidereal systems. The sun is the foremost object in our view,-the fountain of that light by which we see all objects, and therefore, naturally, the foremost subject of our observations in the present connexion. Most men are satisfied with knowing that this great luminary is set in the heavens to rule the day; but astronomers are ever seeking to learn more and more of its physical constitution,-and well may they be interested in this, knowing, as they do, that the sun's rays are the ultimate source of almost every motion which is made upon our terrestrial surface. All the phenomena of terrestrial inagnetism are due to disturbances in the electric equiforium of the atmosphere, caused, in all probability, by the

At

action of heat; and this again gives impulse to the winds. By its quickening power, vegetables are drawn forth and developed, the oceanic waters made to circulate in humid vapours through the air, and to refresh the earth again with bubbling springs and running rivers. All the curious and half-unobserved phenomena of chemical change and atomic laws are traceable to solar heat; and, indeed, as a general truth, all vital, and even all merely molecular activity and changes, going on unceasingly night and day,-in the lofty clouds, in the swelling ocean, in the circling earth, in the masses and varieties of matter, in things around us, in things above us, and in things within us,-all are ultimately ascribable to that glorious body which Heathenism deifies, Poetry sings, and Science studies. No wonder that mere Materialism has ever worshipped the sun, no wonder that Poetry has ever discerned something new in its glories, no wonder that Science is ever finding something new in its phenomena. A number of questions suggest themselves to us on a number of distinct subjects connected with the various solar phenomena,-for the astronomy of the sun is not merely a single and simple touch of the science, but one which itself is radical, and shoots forth numerous branches of inquiry,-and so important is each one of these that it has its own separate students, who find quite enough in it for their best powers of observation and reflection. We may notice in due season the progress of research in their several directions, and show their more important practical issues. present, however, our intention is to refer solely to the SOLAE SPOTs, and what is now known concerning their character and causes. We shall first briefly glance at past observations, and then more particularly at some recent ones, of peculiar interest and importance. Everybody knows that the body of the sun is frequently observed to exhibit large and perfectly black spots, which are commonly surrounded by a kind of fringe or border, which fringe or border is not so dark as the spots themselves, and is called the penumbra. These spots are not permanent, but enlarge or contract from day to day, and even from hour to hour, and at length altogether disappear, or break out anew in parts of the surface where none like them had been previously seen. The central dark spot always contracts into a focus, and vanishes before the penumbra. Sometimes the spots break up or divide into two or three, and thereby indicate that extreme mobility which can only belong to the fluid state, and such a violent agitation as seems only compatible with the gaseous condition of matter. It is not easy for us at first reading to familiarize our minds with the grandeur of scale on which the movements of these spots range. Certain spots have been observed, the lineal diameter of which has been upwards of 45,000 miles. Indeed, Dr. Herschell perceived, in the year 1779, one spot which was about 50,000 miles in diameter, and more than six times the size of our earth. Now, as the spots on the sun are scarcely ever visible for more than six weeks at a time, in order that a particular spot should close up in that time, its borders must approach at the rate of more than a thousand miles a day. But with respect to speed, we shall presently learn some far more surprising particulars.

Observations upon the sun's disc were at one time but rarely made, and hence our knowledge of the spots has been very insulficient. It is, indeed, admitted that this branch of inquiry has been altogether neglected until within the last few years. Unquestionably the most important of all the observations of solar phenomena which have yet been made, were those made by two individuals on the 1st of September, 1859. At eighteen minutes past eleven o'clock on that day, Mr. Carrington, the distinguished astronomer, had directed his telescope to the sun, and most unexpectedly beheld two patches of intensely white and bright light. breaking out in the neighbourhood of a large group of spots. So remarkable was their appearance, that the observer felt convinced that light had been admitted through an opening in a screen employed to throw the image of the sun into shade,-for only in this manner can solar observations be made,-but he found that he was really the privileged beholder of a phenomenon such as had never been observed before. Agitated by his emotions. he ran forth to summon another witness,-alas! to his own sad disadvantage, for upon his return the appearance was less wonderful, and its splendour enfeebled; nor did the two patches of light occupy the same precise position. One minute had cost him a lamentable loss. Yet during the next four minutes he watched with intense interest and concentrated purpose what might occur, and he found upon calculation that these patches had traversed a space during the five minutes of no less than 35,000 miles, which gives a velocity of 7,000 miles in one minute! Side by side they were borne into the field of his telescope, and in five minutes side by side they faded from his view, rapidly diminishing into two dots of white light.

Incredulous men might have ascribed all this to a day-dream; but, fortunately for science, at Highgate sat another astronomer, and his gaze also was directed sunward. Suddenly upon him likewise flashed a brilliant star, as it were, in the very body of the sun, the brightness whereof dazzled his eye, though carefully protected, as it is necessary that the eye should be when it turned to the orb of day. This star illuminated the upper edges of the adjacent spots, while its illuminating rays extended in all directions. Five minutes was his allowance of time also; for five minutes only did be see this glorious star upon the sun's disc. At the expiration of the five minutes it instantly disappeared.

What, now, have these favoured observers really witnessed ? This is the question which astronomers address to each other. Have they seen the actual feeding of the sun with a sudden in-fall of meteoric matter? Have they really beheld the evidence of that glorious luminary's replenishment,--the morning meal, as it were, of living, leaping light? What a theme for poetry is here, as well as what queries for science! Conceive yonder mighty sun, moving with his thunder speed as long of old, and ever approaching with mysterious march to that known spot in the heavens at which he and all his subservient planets are destined to arrive. And as Le

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