Dec. 20, 1877] 



NATURE 



139 



the given conditions was '13 of a foot (ij inches only [!]), 

 but even that is more than has been allowed in the design 

 of this ship (viz. -12) in which the Committee say " a just 

 balance " has been preserved.^ And this inability of the 

 ship to withstand her own rudder's action, and that at 

 a low speed, even with virgin armour and a bottom un- 

 touched by ram or torpedo, having been asserted and urged 

 by others, elicits no remonstrance or objection whatever 

 from the Committee. And yet, when a little later on in 

 their Report they have disclosed a somewhat similar 

 degree of longitudinal instability — discovered, as they sup- 

 pose by themselves^ but already well-known and obvious, 

 doubtless, to others — and have shown that the ship would 

 not be safe at seven and nine knots speeds because of her 

 tendency to capsize lengthwise (so to speak), and so 

 more or less down headforemost, then the Committee see 

 grave danger showing itself, for they say, " We consider 

 that any large limitation in the ship's speed may expose 

 her dangerously to the attack of ram or torpedo," and 

 in the summary they incidentally tell us, in the mildest 

 terms, that a blow from either would be fatal ; " the small 

 residuum of stability she would possess would not avail 

 to render such an attack other than fatal." The only 

 difference in the two cases is (and this is possibly the 

 reason why the Committee lay the greater stress on this 

 case) that it is not here necessary to suppose the cork or 

 stores blown out, for a single shot or shell making a large 

 wound near the stem, bulging a skin plate outwards, and 

 completely rupturing the internal bulkheads, would so 

 destroy the longitudinal stability of this large ironclad, 

 costing more than half-a-million sterling, that even at 

 seven knots' speed she would run her bows under ; " and 

 again," we are told by the Committee, "her speed is 

 similarly limited to nine knots by wounds of a much less 

 critical character in other parts of her sides." We have 

 said that even this danger was doubtless foreseen by 

 others — as it certainly was by ourselves, whether men- 

 tioned or not — before the Committee's Report appeared ; 

 but the Committee certainly have carried the subject a 

 step forward by the experiments they have made with the 

 model, and by their positive declaration that " on the 

 whole the effect of sea-waves must be to aggravate, and 

 in some circumstances greatly to aggravate," this very 

 serious and certain source of danger. In a word, the 

 very Committee who have in another place asserted that 

 in the Inflexible the balance is fairly maintained between 

 the armoured and unarmoured ends, have elsewhere in 

 their Report shown that that balance is so ill maintained 

 between the two, that with all the cork in place one or 

 two shot and shell penetrating the unarmoured parts 

 would so reduce her stability that she could not be 

 steamed ahead with any reasonable speed, but would of 

 necessity become a prey to any ram or torpedo craft that 

 might evade or disregard her guns ! 



Another disclosure of the Committee is that the mere 

 running out of the guns " would become a serious element 

 of danger as the ship approaches the riddled and gutted 

 condition." Here again they employ the phrase to which 

 we have already intimated an objection in a foot-note, 

 and speak of " the ship " approaching " the riddled and 



' The Committee, at the bottom of page 15, give us the means of readily 

 illustrating the amount of stability whicJi the InJIexibU has tin the case 

 above considered, for they tell us that 60 tons in the bottom of the ship, which 

 herself weighs over 11,000 tons, would alter the length of cz to '12 of a foot. 



gutted condition." They mean nothing of the kind ; by 

 "the ship" they mean the exposed unarmoured ends 

 only ; and here again it is to be observed that the danger 

 disclosed is not one contingent upon the blowing out of 

 all the cork, &c., but arises before, when the unarmoured 

 part only approaches that condition. That the danger is, 

 again in this case as in the previous one, a very serious 

 and practical one is shown by the Committee recom- 

 mending an alteration in the gunnery arrangements, 

 proposing that the travel of the gun on the slides should 

 be restricted, lest by running the guns out to the full 

 extent at present arranged for, they should capsize the 

 ship. 



We have now sketched, sufficiently for our present 

 purpose, the substance of the Committee's Report. We 

 may end this article as we ended that of July 19, and 

 repeat : " The conclusions we have arrived at are, that 

 the Inflexible is not a safe ship for battle in her present 

 state, that the objections brought against her have been 

 much too lightly treated, and that the disclosure of her 

 condition, with the circumstances that have followed it, 

 have excited just surprise and dissatisfaction." That 

 surprise and dissatisfaction will be greater than ever when 

 the Committee's Report has had time to produce its full 

 effects, both intended and unintended, 



HYDROPHOBIA 1 

 II. 



WE do not intend to do more than allude in a cursory 

 manner to the prophylactic treatment of hydro- 

 phobia, i.e. to the treatment adopted to prevent the occur- 

 rence of the disease in those who have been bitten by mad 

 dogs. The general experience of the past sanctions, as might 

 be expected, the practice of attempting to prevent the 

 absorption of the poison of rabies by excising or destroying 

 by caustics the wounds inflicted by rabid animals ; of the 

 innumerable internal remedies which have been proposed 

 and made use of with the object of preventing the deve- 

 lopment of hydrophobia in those bitten by rabid dogs, it 

 may be said with justice that nothing whatever is known 

 which warrants the assertions of their advocates. This 

 is indeed a case in which the fallacies which beset all 

 therapeutical inquiries, especially when attempted by 

 ignorant persons and fanatics, are specially liable to 

 obscure the truth. Of all dogs supposed to be rabid, only 

 an infinitesimal proportion really are so, and it is but 

 rarely that the fact of a dog being rabid is tested by 

 having it watched until it dies, or by the unfortunate fact 

 that some of those bitten perish by hydrophobia ; then, 

 of all persons bitten by certainly rabid dogs, only a small 

 proportion become affected with hydrophobia, even when 

 no treatment is adopted, so that the value of any drug or 

 remedial measure as a prophylactic could only be tested 

 by an experience such as no one ever has had. 



Less uncertainty prevails in reference to the effects 

 of treatment when hydrophobia has been developed. 

 According to the best observers this disease has hitherto 

 been invariably fatal. There are, it is true, a few cases — 

 and of these two have been recorded within a compara- 

 tively recent period— in which a cure is said to have been 

 effected, but when examined with care the'gravest doubts 



> Continued from p 119. 



