August 1 8, 1881] 



NATURE 



375 



living animals is but an infinitesimally small application of the 

 liceiiCe which common life claims for itself in regard of 

 animals ; and I would challenge such men to examine, with 

 strict impartiality, what are their own responsibilities, direct and 

 indirect, in regard of the infliction of pain on living animals. 



I protest against any man's applying to this extremely impor- 

 tant question a purely arbitrary standard of right or wrong. 

 Those who pronounce judgment on their neighbours must be 

 prepared to state the principle on which they judge. "Com- 

 pound for sins you are inclined to, by damning those you have 

 no mind to," is the Pharisee's easy-going formula. Where would 

 life be if that were generally accepted? Suppose a g^nlls of 

 action ; let men draw an arbitrary line across it — a line pre- 

 scribed by no better rule than that w hich governed the lady's 

 dislike to Dr. Fell ; let them affix a nickname of praise to all on 

 one side of the line, and a niclaiame of dispraise to all on the 

 other : truly we should thus have the readie-t of royal roads to 

 unlimited mutual persecution. 



And I prote>t against a standard of right and wrong being 

 fixed for us on grounds which are merely sentimental. In certain 

 circles of society, at the present time, esthetics count for all in 

 all ; and an emotion against what they are pleased to call 

 " vivisection " answers their purpose of the moment as well as 

 any other little emotion. With such sections of society, our 

 profession cannot seriously argue. Our own verb of life is 

 ipya^faSai, not alaBifiaitu. We have to think of usefulness to 

 man. And to us, according to our standard of right and wr. ng, 

 perhaps those lackadaisical esthetics may seem but a feeble form 

 of sensuality. 



Of the mere screamers and agitation-mongers who, happy in 

 their hysterics or their hire, go about day by day calumniating 

 our profession and trying to stir up against it the prejudices and 

 passions of the ignorant, I have only to express my contetupt. 



I regret to have had to speak at so much length of the heavy 

 cloud which at i)resent hangs over the sludy of scientific medicine 

 in England, and which, in my opinion, is likely to be of specially 

 disastrous effect on the progress of preventive medicine. As a 

 very old public servant in that cause, I should indeed grieve to 

 see it brought to a stand-still for want of the scientific nurture 

 which, in truth, is its very basis of life ; and, speaking publicly 

 of the danger on this occasion, I have hoped that the occasion 

 may give importance to what I say. 



And now, gentlemen, from contemplating that cloud, which 

 happily is but local, and which perhaps may be but temporary, 

 I gladly turn to skies which have no cloud. If there exist in the 

 social organism any function whatsoever for which development 

 and eventual triumph may be foretold, surely it is that of State 

 Medicine. Of the two great factors concerned in it — the two 

 strong powers which within our own time have converged to 

 make it the reality which it is — the growth of science on the one 

 hand, and the growing stress of common humanity on the other, 

 neither one is likely to fail. Of our science it is needless to say 

 that it will grow. To the science of nature indeed is allotted 

 that one incomparable human day which knows no sunset. In 

 the pure light of its ever-present daybreak, individual workers 

 will pass away, generations will change, but the studies of 

 Nature, and, above all, the gathering of such knowledge as can 

 lessen man's physical difficulties and sufferings, will surely grow 

 from age to age, and, as on Proserpina's sacred tree, one golden 

 fruit will follow another: "simili frondescet virga metallo." 

 And no less also in the other direction, the auguries are wholly 

 for our cause. Populiir education is gradually making its way, 

 and it will grow to be a force on our side. RIasses of mankind 

 that now have to be humbly pleaded for by others, will then be 

 strong to speak for themselves. Physical interests, now but 

 little understood, will then be within grasp of all men's appre- 

 hension. Not only will health be recognised at its true value, 

 and its elementary requirements be regarded, but also the frauds 

 and villanies which are now committed against it will have 

 become intelligible to the common mind : and the workman of 

 the future will strike against being cheated in health as he n-ould 

 now strike against being cheated in wages. As such times come 

 to the world, the science and the profession which care for man as 

 man will get to be better appreciated than now. And in pro- 

 portion as an educated people grows to become Body-Politic, 

 State Medicine will be seen to represent the true ideal of 

 Government-action which sets its standard of success in the 

 "greatest happiness of the greatest number." 



OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN 

 The Great Comet of 1S81. — The observations of this body 

 in both hemispheres from its discovery on May 22 by Mr. Tebbutt 

 at Windsor, N. S.W., to the end of last month, are closely 

 represented by a parabolic orbit. The intensity of light is now 

 rapidly going off, and if any decided deviation from the parabola 

 is established it can only be through the later observations in 

 these latitudes. It is therefore important for the theory of the 

 comet that the larger instruments in our observatories should be 

 brought to bear upon the accurate determinations of position, 

 and that this should be continued as long as practicable. The 

 following ephemeris for Greenwich midnight is calculated from 

 elements, which are likely to give the comet's places pretty 

 closely : — 



Right Ascension. Declination. Log. Distance from 

 h. m. s. o / E.irth. Sun. 



August 20 ... 14 31 o ... -f 77 I9'6 ... o'i2o6 ... o"i5oi 



22 ... 38 10 ... 77 3-0 



24 ... 45 22 ... 76 47-1 ... 0-1376 ... o'i672 



26 ... 52 36 ... 76 319 



28 ... 14 59 52 ... 76 17-2 ... 0-1532 ... 0-1837 



30 ... 15 7 10 ... 76 3-2 



Sept. I ... 14 31 ... 75 49'2 ■■■ 0-1676 ... 0-1995 



3 ... 21 54 ... 75 357 



5 ... 29 iS ... 75 22-4 ... 0-1810 ... 0-2148 



7 ... 36 46 ... 75 9-3 



9 ... 44 16 ... 74 56-3 ... 0-1934 ... 0-2295 



II ... 51 51 ... 74 43'4 



13 ... IS 59 29 ... 74 30-8 ... 02050 ... 0-2436 



15 ... 16 7 II ... 74 i8-i 



17 ... 14 57 ••• 74 5"4 ••• 0-2160 ... 0-2572 



19 ... 22 47 ... 73 52-6 



21 ... 30 42 ... 73 39-7 ... 0-2264 ■■■ 0-2704 



23 ... 16 38 41 ... -f 73 26-7 



The intenstty of light on September 23 will be only one-third of 

 that on August 20. 



Dr. B. A. Gould has published in pamphlet-form an account 

 of the Cordoba observations of this comet, with particular refer- 

 ence to his observations of June II, to which we referred last 

 week. We give his conclusions respecting the object seen that 

 evening in his own words : — " La latitud considerable pre.sta poca 

 probabilidad a la hipotesis de que esta estrella haya sido un 

 planeta interior. El movimiento relative en declinacion, y la 

 falta de cualquier objeto visible de la misma clase en la vecindad 

 del cometa el dia siguiente, no parecen admitir la suposicion que 

 el cometa se hubiera dividido como el de Biela. El brillo que 

 se necesitaba, para que fuese visible la estrella en aquel 

 raomento y aquella posicion, indica una magnitud no inferior i 

 la tercera. 



" Esta observacion tambien tiene que esperar su solucion en 

 lo futuro, y tal vez solo despues de muchos aiios." 



Schaberle's Comet.— According to M. Bignurdan's ele- 

 ments, the position of this comet at Berlin midnight on August 

 23 will be in R.A. Iih. 42-5m., Deck -*-40° 34', and at the 

 same hour on August 25 in K.A. I2h. l6-om.. Deck +34° 14', 

 and the intensity of light will be at a maxiumm betweeji these 

 dates. It may be observable in the other hemisphere for some 

 weeks after perihelion passage. 



The Companion of Sirius.— Prof. Colbert of the Dearborn 

 Observatory, Chicago, has calculated the following orbit of the 

 companion'to Sirius: — Apastron passage, '1867-0, position of 

 node, 42° -4; node to periastron in the direction of the star's 

 (retrograde) motion, 133° ; inclination, 57°-l ; eccentricity, o 58 ; 

 semi-axis major, 8"-4l ; jieriod, 49-6 years. These elements 

 give, for i88r2 : angle of position, 45'''6 ; distance, 9"9; and 

 for 1882-2, position 43°-! ; distance, 9"-5. For 1890-2 the po.si- 

 tion is 322° -2 ; distance, 2" '2; and the distance is near its 

 minimum. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS 



The Journal of Anatomy and Physiology, vol. xv. Part IV. 

 July, 1 88 1, contains : On the ovary in incipient cystic disease, 

 by Dr. V. D. Harris and A. Doran (Plate 23).— The anatomy of 

 the Koala (Phascolardos cinereus), by Dr. A. H. Young.— On 

 the lymphatics of the pancreas, by Drs. George and F. Elizabeth 

 Hoggan (Plate 24). — A case of primary cancer of the femur, by 

 R. Maguire (Plate 25). — A case of chronic lobar pneumonia, by 



