The work is now attached (as a regimental record) to every regiment in India, and I have reason to believe that it has been useful to the serviee;—but the expensive form in which it has been put forth, has, I fear, in a great measure, frustrated my intentions, and rendered the work less generally useful than I had hoped to have made it. Several of my professional friends, both in India and in this country, have suggested to me, that a condensed edition would be more acceptable to the profession, and more likely to be useful to the public; I have, therefore, in the retirement from the active duties of my profession, been induced to revise the whole work in the most careful manner; to omit the general descriptions of cases, and also the physiological views which may be found in the writings of others, and a knowledge of which it is not unreasonable to presume is already possessed by all medical officers in India. By these means the work has been greatly reduced in size, rendered portable, and placed within the reach of every practitioner. I can safely state that whilst every redundancy of expression has been struck out, and every superfluity of diction curtailed, no single fact has been omitted, and I sincerely hope that in offering to the public a mass of practical facts—the result of long, varied, and extensive observation, I shall, in presenting this edition to the public, be rendering a service to the medical profession in general. The morbid appearances have been as faithfully described as possible in the absence of the plates, and they can at any time be verified by reference to the previous edition, which, as already stated, is with every European and native regiment in India, as well as in all garrisons—and in many civil stations. My object has been to render the work practically useful-to give to the medical officers of India a manual, as it were, of the diseases which he may have to combat in the course of his practice, and to point out to him the various forms and varieties under which they appear, and the mode of treatment which has been found to be attended with the greatest success.

In the previous edition I endeavoured to give to the reader

a general view of the climate and diseases of the Bengal and Bombay Presidencies, derived chiefly from the records furnished by the Honourable East India Company. My object in entering upon this branch of the subject, upon which I did not entertain any personal knowledge, was principally to excite some of the many well qualified individuals belonging to the medical service of these Presidencies; to direct their attention to it, and to communicate to the public the results of their experience in their own particular localities. No one could feel more sensibly than myself, that ample talent for the inquiry existed among the medical officers of those Presidencies; but the profession and the exercise of talent are distinct from each other, and I ventured zealously to call for the latter upon a subject of vital importance. The extensive field of observation in which it has fallen to my lot to be actively engaged, may perhaps be considered as a justification of my efforts to draw attention to the climate and health of the troops in other presidencies than that to which I was attached; more especially as there was no work at that time of recent date which treated specifically of the diseases peculiar to those presidencies. My object was to promote to the utmost extent of my power the general good of the public service, without the slightest wish to interfere with the duties or privileges of others. Nor have my anticipations on this head failed; for since the publication of my work in 1828, a member of the Bengal Medical Service has put forth his "Observations on the Diseases peculiar to Bengal."

As more extended views of physiological and medical science have been developed, the profession in India, as elsewhere, has been more on the alert, and manifested due eagerness to contribute to the general stock of information; and from the spirit of emulation now excited, we may reasonably anticipate a fruitful harvest in relation to all subjects in connexion with the Diseases of India, as they appear in the several presidencies, from the highly talented professional men who now form the very effective medical staff of the India Medical Service. Whilst, however, I have in this edition been induced to omit all

Medico-Topographical statements relative to the Bengal and Bombay Presidencies, I have been careful to extend my remarks upon that of Madras; pointing out the various stations in the different divisions of the army, and giving a short summary of the climate, the peculiar localities, and the diseases most prevalent in each. I could have entered more largely into this subject, but my great object has been to reduce and render the work as portable as possible. Whilst, however, I have kept this desirable object in view, I hope I have not lost sight of such facts as will be useful to medical officers on their arrival in India, and prove a faithful guide in their future service. It is only by the united exertions of the profession in different parts of the world, that medical knowledge can be really advanced; and it would be vain in any one man to attempt more than his own experience and observation authorised. To the public services the members of the profession have a right to look for practical facts which shall enable them to extend their knowledge shall dispel the obscurity that too frequently involves them in difficulties, and open to them distinct and correct views of disease; but in the investigation of those facts the mind should not be warped by prejudice, or cramped in its exertions by trifling distinctions, and the recognition of forms which are of no essential value in practice. Intimate and enlarged ideas of every subject connected with medicine should be entertained; what is essential and important should be distinguished from what is fortuitous and trivial, and the science cultivated as first amongst the highest departments of human knowledge as being the application of numerous branches of study to one great end,-the alleviation and removal of human suffering, and the prolongation of human life. In this point of view there is not a nobler study, there certainly is none which displays a more ample field for the exercise and improvement of the powers of mind.

The want of precise information as to the treatment of disease on first arrival in India, has been felt by every person who has visited that country, and by none more sensibly than

myself. The rapidity with which morbid actions run their course in warm countries calls for the most decided treatment, -there is no time in the acute disorders of those climates for speculation, they must be decidedly met, to be successfully combated. The boldness with which many of the diseases detailed in this work have been recommended to be treated, may surprise the practitioner in more temperate countries, where disease is much slower in its progress than it is in warm climates. But in India, if disease be not checked at its commencement, and before it has established itself in the structure of vital organs, either the patient is lost, or that organic derangement is produced which makes him a burden to himself, and useless to the public service or to society. Decision in the treatment of intertropical maladies, however, in order to be beneficial, or even to be devoid of mischief, must be the result of precise and accurate views of their nature and causes: these are chiefly to be acquired by close and attentive observation at the bed-side of the patient. The nature and extent of the measures to be pursued, and the application of them to the various periods or stages of disease, and to the peculiarities of habit and constitution, must depend upon the intelligence, discrimination, and tact, of the practitioner, who should know when to confide in the operations of nature, and when to be decided in the employment of the resources of art: and as this is one of the first features in the character of a good and enlightened physician, so the acquisition of it should be the object of every medical man's ambition.

MEMOIR,

&c. &c. &c.

IT has been very generally remarked, that the lives of Medical Men rarely offer but little of interest beyond that which is contained in their writings; these being commonly on the diseases incident to human nature which have fallen particularly under their observation. The nature of such researches, it will be readily admitted, possesses but little calculated to amuse or secure attention, except to those who seek their pages for instruction, or relief from suffering. The duties of a professional life lead to a familiarity with scenes of pain and distress, which it is natural rather to shun than to court, and which, but for the possession of philanthropic feelings, and a desire to mitigate woe, would the rather be avoided.

Perhaps, among the several classes of medical men, no one becomes more familiar with scenes of horror than the Military Surgeon. In the performance of his duties in the hour of battle, he, however, partakes of the excitement connected with his position, and is thereby sustained. A late high authority regarded the situation of a Military Surgeon as being more important than that of any other. "While yet a young man (he has remarked), he has the safety of thousands committed to him, in the most perilous situations, in unhealthy climates, and in the midst of danger. He is to