quences, meriting for it a thorough ventilation ; and I per- 
mit myself to believe that you may not be unwilling to receive 
further remarks on those points in my “Statement” to which 
Dr. Hooker has condescended to reply. 
_ Sheen Lodge, Oct. 30 RICHARD OWEN 
S Physics for Medical Students 
_ I AM and have been a “medical student” for many years, and 
hope to live in that capacity for some years more. I admit that 
Tought to know “ the relation between the surface temperature 
_ of the body, the quantity of heat passing away from it, and the 
amount of heat generated in the body by the food given to a 
patient,” but I do not know all this, and I have never discovered 
anyone who can tell me where I can learn it or how I can find 
it out by any efforts of my own, 
__ Moreover, I have been unable to get a clear and satisfactory 
-answer to the following simple questions, and haye failed to find 
_ anyone who will explain to me accurately how I am to set to 
work to get the information so much desired :—‘‘ What is the 
quantity of heat generated in the body by the food, and how is 
it to be determined? How is the quantity of heat that passes 
way from the body in a given time to be estimated with any- 
thing approaching to accuracy?” If my friend and colleague 
Prof. Adams will be so kind as to give answers to these ques- 
tions in NaTuRE, I can assure him he will confer a great favour 
upon many workers and thinkers in my profession, besides prov- 
ing the value of such questions as that objected to by Mr. Heath 
- for medical students. At this time we doctors are much in need 
of physical help. I haye no doubt that physicists will be much 
_ astonished at our ignorance, but never mind that; we are quite 
_ ready to learn, and don’t mind being laughed at or even spoken 
of with slight contempt by our physical friends if they will only 
help us. Nay, we will suffer anything from those who will in- 
struct us so that we may be able to set to work upon living 
people who are ‘‘ generating ” and giving off heat, and determine 
with accuracy the different rate at which heat is ‘‘ generated” 
and given off under different circumstances. 
__ Prof. Adams asks whether ‘‘the production of heat in the 
human body by the consumption of food’ is ‘‘ carried on on 
principles entirely different from those of the production of steam 
ina boiler,” and seems to regard it as one of the “mildest of 
_ questions,” in heat that can be proposed for a medical student to 
‘answer, Will he answer his own question by asserting that the 
_ principles are the same in the two cases? WHeat in the body, 
steam in the boiler—heat, steam ; body, boiler !—or shall the 
question be revised before it is proposed to the student ? 
__ Lhave not the slightest doubt about the usefulness of a know- 
ledge of physics to those who are working at medicine, and quite 
agree that the rising generation of medical students should be 
‘taught physics. But this is a very different thing from teaching 
_ people to fancy that living things are mechanisms, machines, 
galyanic batteries, or molecular apparatuses. I venture to think 
‘that some of the most distinguished? physicists are too fond of 
deserting their own department for the purpose of trying to make 
ople believe that there is an analogy between steam-boilers and 
Rass bodies, when no one has yet succeeded in proving that 
_ there is any true analogy whatever. 
__ King’s College, London LIonEL S, BEALE 
—— 
_ Ty the last number of Nature Mr. Adams, of King’s College, 
criticised the remarks made by Mr. Heath in his introductory 
address upon the character of the London University medical ex- 
-aminations, and of the first, the preliminary scientific, more 
especially. It scarcely needed a column and a quarter of close 
type for Mr. Adams to tell us that a medical man should be ac- 
quainted with physical laws and phenomena, and that in his 
Opinion the mathematical question quoted by Mr. Heath was 
not too difficult to be fittingly placed in the examination paper. 
‘The former point is beyond question, and the latter is not to be 
settled by declaring the statement of the editor of the Zawcet to 
be ‘‘shallow.” As to the view that a medical man should be 
able to estimate precisely ‘‘the amount of heat lost through a 
blanket or a seal-skin coat,” I will only say that it seems to me 
_ that a slight ‘consideration of the physical and physiological con- 
ditions involved, and their variations in different instances, will 
: ss the hope that he will not waste his time in attempting 
uch feats, simple as they may be deemed in physical laboratories. 
T will not take up space in commenting upon Mr. Adams’ argu- 
ments and illustrations in support of his position, since they‘do 
but go to show that a medical man should have some knowledge 
of natural philosophy and its applications to the conditions with 
which he has to deal, and not that he should be driven to expend 
his time, already overcharged with much more that is of no pos- 
sible use to him, upon mathematical processes which concern astro- 
nomers, chemists, and engineers. Thereis no doubt that to give a 
scientific character to medicine, exact quantitative methods must 
be applied to physiology and pathology, but it should be the 
work of men specially trained and devoted to the purpose. It 
has for some time past been commonly agreed that the medical 
student’s education is such that he is urged to acquire a quantity 
of information with little regard to its use and digestibility. He 
has a great deal to learn ina short time. The chief part of his 
education consists, or should consist, in observing and compar- 
ing morbid conditions, and in learning or devising means for 
their relief and cure. Whatever time he spends upon what is 
not requisite, or has little direct bearing upon his art, implies 
time mis-spent and injury to the sufferers he will later attend. 
Prof. Huxley did not go too far in saying that the conduct of 
hose who impose useless knowledge upon medical students is 
mply criminal. F. Lynpon ATTWooD 
Junior Athenzeum Club 
NORTH POLAR EXPLORATION 
N the last number of the Witthei/ungex Dr. Petermann 
publishes his 67th paper on the Geography and Dis- 
coveries of the Polar Regions, in which he gives an 
abstract of what has been done during the last three or 
four months, 
The two projected Norwegian expeditions into the 
Siberian Seas, under the guidance of Captains Jensen and 
Mack, have at present been unfortunately frustrated ; the 
former from a damage to the screw of the steamer, the latter 
from inability to penetrate the masses of ice. However, 
a projected scientific expedition for next year is exciting 
much interest at Tromsé. The French Expedition, under 
Ambert and Mack, has not yet put to sea, having been 
detained by the delay in settling the estate of Lambert, 
who left a large sum to be devoted to this purpose. This 
is much to be regretted, as Captain Mack has already 
distinguished himself by penetrating farther than any 
other discoverer into the Siberian Sea. 
However, the much-talked-of and bold expedition 
under M. Octave Pavy, has, it is understood, at last left 
San Francisco, with what results remains to be seen. 
He expects to reach Wrangell Land by September 1, 
making his way farther northward in sledges, and hoping 
to come to open sea about May 1873. He will then 
proceed towards the Pole by means of a raft of somewhat 
novel construction, consisting of four hollow cylinders 
provided with a deck, and capable of holding all necessary 
provisions for Pavy and his small party for two years, by 
which time he expects to have reached the Pole, and re- 
turned to San Francisco. His companions are Dr. 
Chesmore, who has travelled much in Alaska; Captain 
Mike, who a few years ago attempted to cross the 
Atlantic in a vessel of somewhat similar construction to 
Pavy’s; Watkins, a renowned Rocky Mountain hunter ; 
and two sailors of whaling experience: in all, the expe- 
dition will consist of six men. 
The latest news from the North American Expedition 
is contained in a letter from Dr. Bessels to Dr. Peter- 
mann, dated August 23, 1871, at which time the expe. 
dition had reached Tessinsak, the most northerly Danish 
settlement in Greenland, in lat. 73° 24° N., and long. 
56° 12’ W. Further details as to this expedition will be 
found in NATURE for September 19, ‘ 
One of the most important and best fitted out ex- 
peditions is the Austrian one under Payer and Wey- 
precht, which left Tromsé in July, for the purpose of 
exploring the unknown region north of Siberia, to which 
they are prepared to devote three years. By the latest 
advices, about the end of July, the expedition was fairly 
on the road to its field of labour, and Count Wiltschek 
