Is Medicine a Science ? 435 
-fessor Tennant. Illustrated books and paintings from N.E. 
China and Japan, and ancient skulls from Mantchouria, 
collected by Dr. Lamprey, 67th Regiment. Ancient British 
skulls, and bones of Bos longifrons dug from long barrows, 
in Wiltshire, by Dr. Thurnam, Mixed anesthetic vapour 
apparatus and two forms of a compound inhaler, and a self- 
_acting chloroform inhaler, by Mr. Robert Ellis. Sample 
iron plate protected by Gisborne’s mercurial anti-fouling 
composition, Lee’s patent steam fuel, composed of peat and 
petroleum, and Palmer's section shell ‘for naval and military 
purposes, by Mr. F. N. Gisborne. Section of the side of an 
iron ship, showing Daft’s new method of double lap-joint, 
_and zinc sheathing for prevention of fouling, by Mr. Mackie. 
New patent process for printing with elastic types on un- 
even or brittle surfaces, with specimens on porcelain, glass, 
_and wood (Leighton’s patent), by Messrs. Leighton. A 
portable easily extemporised battery, for military and sub- 
marine purposes. &c., &c. 
IS MEDICINE A SCIENCE ? 
T cannot be doubted that whilst Surgery has advanced 
in our day with rapid strides until it has attained 
perhaps perfection; that which is called the sister art 
Medicine, has not only made no progress, but, in fact, has 
retrograded, and lost the advantage of all the experiences 
of former ages, casting away the facts ascertained by past 
‘practice without examination or regard—and groping in 
the dark after some new agent, or body which the progress 
of chemistry might bring forth. 
_ Surgery is an exact science, it depends on a knowledge 
of anatomy and the perfection of instruments to be em- 
ployed. The surgeon knows exactly the parts of the body 
he has to cut, and how he is to proceed with his work, and 
he performs his operation with absolute certainty. 
The physician on the contrary, in general, has no certain 
or even reliable knowledge of the disease or the constitu- 
tion of the patient, or the way to cure him, or of the effect 
of the remedy he is going to administer, and certainly no 
knowledge of the modus operandi of his drug (that is to say, 
