THE GROWTH OF HYGIENIC SCIENCE. 661 



connected with those services which must ever be remembered with 

 honor : in the navy we have such men as Lind, Blane, Trotter, Bur- 

 nett, etc. ; and in the army, Pringle, one of the most philosophical 

 physicians who ever lived ; Brocklesby, Fergusson, McGrigor, and a 

 host of others. The labors of the late Sir Alexander Tulloch, Deputy- 

 Inspector-General Marshall, and Assistant-Surgeon (now Surgeon- 

 General) Balfour, in collecting and arranging the army statistics, were 

 of the highest value, and it is not too much to say that the publica- 

 tion of the first army medical statistical report marked an epoch in 

 hygiene, especially in that part that deals with climatology. It ex- 

 posed the fallacy of the common notions of acclimatization, of the 

 advantages of a seasoning fever, and similar ideas. It showed also 

 that it was possible for men of temperate habits and in hygienic 

 conditions to live and thrive in the tropics, while the death and sick- 

 ness that were unfortunately so common were due much more to the 

 ignorance and folly of man than the influence of climate in any form. 

 The truth of that is to be seen now when life in the West Indies is 

 actually healthier, especially for young soldiers, than service at home, 

 whsreas sixty years ago a tour of service there was looked upon as 

 almost a sentence of death. It is true we have still yellow fever to 

 combat, but we know now much better how to deal with it when it 

 does come, and how to obviate its invasion when it is threatened. 

 The army medical statistics are continued now yearly, but it is a 

 matter of regret that they have been allowed to be published in so 

 abstract and undetailed a shape as to deprive them of much of their 

 utility. It is to be hoped that this mistake may be remedied, and 

 that the saving of a trifling sum, which is said to be the reason, 

 may be recognized as a truly false economy. But perhaps the most 

 remarkable contribution the army has made to sanitation has been by 

 the evidence given to the Royal Commission of 1857, which met after 

 the Crimean War to investigate the causes of the sickness and mor- 

 tality of our troops. The results of that commission are well known, 

 and from its publication may be dated the reforms which have been 

 productive of much advantage both to our own and foreign armies, 

 and to the civil population as well. The paramount influence of foul 

 air in the production of lung-disease was proved to demonstration, 

 and the art of ventilation was placed upon a secure foundation. The 

 Barrack Hospital Committee, of which Dr. Sutherland and Captain 

 Douglas Galton were the active members, laid down a series of regu- 

 lations for the construction of barracks and hospitals, which have 

 been followed with the utmost benefit both at home and abi'oad. Fol- 

 lowing this came the Indian Commission, which did for that vast 

 dependency what the Home Commission had done for the rest of the 

 empire. The mortality in India was found to be inordinate, and it 

 was equally clearly traced to insanitary habits and surroundings. To 

 recognize an evil and its cause is half-way to curing it, and after a 



