1868. } On Medical Science. 39 
our coal measure Ironstone formations were the direct result of the 
process of coal formation, the water in which the coal was formed 
removing from the surrounding rocks, by virtue of the dissolving 
power of carbonic acid, the Iron which they contained; this, if 
retained within the coal basin, gradually produced the argillaceous 
carbonates of Iron as we find them, but if the ferruginous waters 
passed away from the influence of the dissolved vegetable matter, 
then oxidation ensued, and hence the deposits of Hematite in ponds 
and fissures as we see them near Ulverstone. The same carbonized 
water had previously been active in dissolving the limestones formed 
around the coal basins, and into the cavernous spaces thus formed,— 
and these are common in all our carboniferous limestone districts 
—the peroxide of Iron was deposited, as at Whitehaven, in the 
Forest of Dean, and in Glamorganshire. 
Further study is required before it can be certainly determined 
whether or not the chemical changes indicated, are those only which 
have been active in producing our Iron ores as we now find them. 
It is, however, believed that the hypothesis put forward will serve 
to explain most of the conditions which are presented to the careful 
observer. They are, at least, honest attempts to read the pheno- 
mena which are presented to us in the varied conditions under 
which we find the most useful of the metals, Iron, occurring in the 
inorganic world. 
VI. ON MEDICAL SCIENCE: ITS RECENT PROGRESS 
AND PRESENT CONDITION. 
Tue season which has passed away, although not especially fertile 
in the fruits of the earth, has not been deficient in those of the 
mind. The intellectual harvest, gathered at the autumnal meetings 
of learned and scientific societies, at statistical congresses, and other 
assemblages of men earnestly engaged in the pursuit of common 
objects, has been plentiful and of perhaps more than average 
quality. We have already registered many of these products, but 
there is one class of them, which, from its purely technical nature 
and the unfitness of many of its details for public discussion, is 
rarely noticed, except in Journals strictly professional; and yet it 
relates to matters in which we are all deeply interested. If there 
is any subject which “comes home to our business and bosoms,” it 
is that of Medicine. Next in importance to the supply of our daily 
wants of food and clothing, is the care of our health, and the im- 
provement of the means of its conservation is a topic to which none 
of us can be indifferent; an occasional survey, therefore, of the 
