NATURE 
THURSDAY, AUGUST 25, 1870 
SCIENCE AND MILITARY SURGERY 
iw is matter of no small interest at the present time to 
know something of the scientific position of our Army 
Medical Service. The question has two aspects—first, the 
purely professional and technical ; and second, the general 
and scientific. In former fence sick and wounded 
soldiers in all services had inadequate care bestowed on 
them, but for many years past the advance of humane 
principles, and improvements in education and in all 
manner of appliances, have been gradually making way in 
different European armies ; and at this time we are pre- 
sented with the astonishing spectacle of distinct corps of 
men and women, many of them of noble and gentle birth, 
following the example first set by Florence Nighespale 
leaving their families and homes to accompany armed 
hosts to the battle field—their lives considered sacred by 
both sides—with the single object of conveying away poor 
wounded men as speedily as possible to shelter and to 
surgical and nursing care. 
It would not be difficult to trace this great movement to 
the disasters of the British army during the Crimean war ; 
and to the same event we have been indebted for the 
striking scientific advance in our own army medical 
service. We have been led into making these remarks 
by a perusal of the Army Medical Department Report for 
1868. This is the tenth volume of an interesting series of 
official documents, the commencement of which dates from 
the reforms introduced by the late Lord Herbert. 
The present volume maintains the reputation already 
gained by its predecessors, and even for non-professional 
readers it affords information of much general interest. A 
brief sketch of its contents will be sufficient for the object 
we have in view. 
In turning over its pages we find in the first place the 
medical statistics of the whole British army. Wherever 
Her Majesty’s troops are stationed, there the statistical] 
officer is at work collecting and registering facts, which 
show not only the state of health at each station, but the 
diseases incidental to countries and climates the most 
diverse. 
The death rates, which for foreign stations include 
deaths among invalids, show a large reduction over those 
which ruled in former years, but in many cases they are 
considerably too high, and indicate the necessity for in- 
creased sanitary precautions. The greatest reductions 
have been effected in India, where for the first half of the 
present century the rates averaged no less than 69 per 
1o0oo. In 1868 the death-rate was 21°7 per 1000, 
The reports from stations are accompanied by sanitary 
notes, in which the reasons for these death rates are more 
or less discussed, and there are valuabie reduction tables 
- showing the influence of age, locality, &c., on the rates. 
The net results of the Abyssinian expedition are given 
“as follows:—The aggregate strength of British troops 
-sent to Abyssinia at various dates was 4,208. There 
‘were 42 deaths in Abyssinia, and 12 among invalids in 
4 
- England, making 54 in all ; equal to 12°8 per 1000. There 
“Were 12 admissions but no deaths from wounds. The 
‘total loss arose from disease and accident, the latter 
* cause occasioning 14 deaths, 
VOL, II. 
329 
Among the scientific papers is one by Dr. Wright, 
giving an account of experiments on the ventilation of a 
barrack-room, and affording an insight into the nature of 
solid particles floating in impure air, which particles 
formed the subject of Prof, Tyndall’s lecture on “ Dust 
and Disease,” at the Royal Institution, last spring. 
The presence of dust particles in the air of the Royal 
Institution was shown by their reflecting a strong light 
thrown on them. In Dr. Wright’s experiments made 
at Netley Hospital, 26 cubic feet of air were drawn 
through an aspirator, and the suspended matters in this 
air were condensed, and gave the following results under 
a 4th inch object glass :— 
Cotton fibres, 
Starch granules. 
Crystalline substances, sand, or dust. 
Vegetable tissues of various sorts. 
Pollen. 
Amorphous Molecules (? Detritus of epithelium). 
Indefinite filaments. 
Minute moving particles (? Zoospores). 
It is important to point out that these substances were 
detected in the air of a sleeping-room occupied by 11 
men, where each man had 828 cubic feet of air space, 
the air of which was renewed upwards of four times 
every hour. The carbonic acid ratio in the outer air 
was °393 per 1000 volumes, and in the room air, ‘643 
per 1000 volumes. The practical result being that for 
some reason the actual ventilation of the room was very 
defective, although the quantity of air ought to have been 
more than sufficient. 
Dr. Parkes has supplied an interesting paper on Dr. 
Hassall’s Flour of Meat, giving an experimental account of 
its effect as a diet on two healthy persons. The object 
was to ascertain whether it could be used by soldiers, and 
to what extent. The results arrived at are what might 
have been expected, viz., that nitrogenous foods of this 
class are, by themselves, insufficient for purposes of health 
and nutrition ; while, as Dr. Parkes tells us, “the effeet 
on each gentleman of the addition of other articles of 
diet (vegetables, fat, and a little more starchy food) was 
described by both as perfectly marvellous.” This result 
gives the clue to the proper manner of using prepared 
foods of this class. 
Dr. Parkes likewise furnishes a report on the progress 
of hygiéne for the year 1869, in which a useful digest is 
given of the leading contributions made to this important 
subject in various countries. One important scientific 
result of painstaking-inquiries into the relation of cattle 
diseases to specific fungi, carried out in America, is stated 
as follows :—* It will thus be seen that the authors trace 
all the forms of fungi seen in the blood and fluids in the 
pleuro-pnéumonia, or splenic disease of cattle, to common 
forms, and that they entirely differ from Hallier on this 
point.” 
Hallier has fared no better with his theory of specific 
cholera fungi at the hands of Drs. Lewis and Cunning- 
ham, the two observers appointed by the Indian Govern- 
ment to examine into the question in India. These 
gentlemen furnish a paper on this subject, in which they 
state that up to the time of report the fungi supposed to 
be peculiar to cholera belong to common forms. 
There i$ a curidus paper by Dr. Smith on the notorious 
Delhi boil, in which he goes a long way in connecting 
Ss 
