476 
A Second Study of the Human Viscera 
weighed later than the others. In cases of accident it would be extremely 
unlikely that such a proceeding would ever be necessary. You may take it 
then that in the cases sent to }'ou the organs were weighed almost immediately 
after removal and examination by the assistant." 
This material although naturally less extensive than that previously used is 
far more reliable. Dr Turnbull knew that we wished to study healthy organs and 
consequently the data received by us formed a selection not a random sample of 
the " General Hospital Population." We have, however, carried the process of 
selection yet further. We chose from the data all the males at ages 25 — 55 and 
rejected from this number (1) all that had died of a wasting disease, such as 
Cancer or Tuberculosis ; (2) all cases in which a possibly pathological condition of 
the heart was noted, whatever the weight of the organ might be; (3) cases in 
which Syphilis might be suspected (those with record of aneurism in particular) ; 
(4) all cases with no recorded body-weight. 
The cases without recorded body-weight have not been considered at all, but 
those rejected from the series on account of (1), (2) or (3) were subsequently added 
to the remainder and the constants of the whole series ultimately calculated. Our 
work therefore falls into two parts, the first being an analysis of some 78 doubly 
selected cases, the second a reduction of about 100 records selected also but not so 
stringently. An examination of the data which are published as an appendix to 
this memoir will enable the reader to appreciate our method; it may be remarked 
that certainly one and possibly two cases not admitted to the "double selection" 
should have figured there (one was left out by mistake), while some of those 
admitted, in particular the epileptics, ought possibly to have been omitted. On 
the whole, however, we think the "double selection" conforms pretty well to 
the type we had in mind. Needless to say, it falls far short of the ideal, since, 
not to mention other points, we have not been able to take account of occupation 
or race in view of the paucity of our material. It may also be mentioned that we 
have other data relating to persons outside the limits of age here adopted ; the 
analysis of these cases will be dealt with in another communication. 
The non-medical reader will perhaps wonder how it is that we think it worth 
while to deal with so few cases, and may object that the London Hospital is only 
one of a number of great medical charities and that the material from all of these 
should be pooled and treated as a whole. This would be so obviously the proper 
course were it practicable that we may be allowed to point out the difficulties in 
the way of its adoption. The effective absence of coordination between the medical 
schools, the diverse systems in force and the contempt of statistical data which up 
to recent times characterised all but a minority of the hospital staffs, would render 
any individual attempt to deal with combined records a troublesome and possibly 
futile undertaking. We are not speaking without knowledge of the statistical 
systems in vogue at a large hospital when we say that the present state of affairs 
is unsatisfactory. Every year tons of paper and gallons of ink are devoted to 
recording the experiences, medical, surgical and pathological, of the great teaching 
