84 
MAGAZINE OF SCIENCE AND ART. 
sea of life; but a tempest gradually arose, and in 
-- .1 _ .. . .1..!.. , n'liinh word Of* ft S ll 1 V 
sea oi me; uum -’ , 
1852 a wave, the undulations ol which were sensibly 
felt in all parts of the world, rolled over Australia, 
and falling on a race of men, composed, in great 
part of the adventurer and the convict, between 
whom little tie could be expected to exist, it literally 
disorganised society. The moralist will in too many 
cases see, as a consequence of this ferment, (winch 
buried some of the finer feelings of man) the utili¬ 
tarianism of Hume practically illustrated; and the 
Statesman, among numerous other considerations, 
will find it interesting and important to discover in 
how far the different policies pursued by Urituli 
Statesmen are applicable to an Australian Common- 
Australia has become not only interesting but 
most important to the soldier. No one can be b mil 
to the ravages the “ Gold Fever" has committed in 
the ranks of Her Majesty's troops, especially in V ic¬ 
toria, where, being more immediately uuder its in¬ 
fluence it has decimated the entite force, by in¬ 
ducing desertion and disease. By viewing the 
records of the military prison, and taking into con¬ 
sideration all the facts there revealed, no other hut 
this painful conclusion can ho armed at, that tno 
soldier, with all his environments, is iu many oases 
far from proof against the invasion of this leartol 
malady. By oxamining more closely into the cir¬ 
cumstances that brought the unhappy men within 
the prison walls, it would appear that the young 
soldier sent to Australia in his present unprotected 
state is unnecessarily exposed by Ins country, t he 
preceding remarks have been made merely iu as far 
as health is dependent on good conduct ; but as the 
subiect belongs more to the financial than tho phy¬ 
siological economy of the army, ft will be well to 
leave it for the consideration of others, adding 
merely that, from the facts revealed by tho records 
of the military prison, and from many circumstances 
of daily occurrence, nothing is more apparent than 
th t the greatest conservative against the attack ot 
“ Gold Fever’ is length of service and marriage 
A practical example of this has been in the case of 
the Roval Artillery, wiiere most of tho men having 
seen considerable service, and tho married men in 
the coinpauy being three times the number allowed 
by regulation, desertion has been amidst unknown, 
and, perhaps, sickness less prevalent than among 
the troops of the line, not having similar advantages. 
To the physician Australia is by no means unin¬ 
teresting or unimportant. In many cases disease 
manifests itself in a comparatively simple form ; not 
that, as will bo seen, thero is less diseased action in 
this country, hut in most cases the process developes 
itself with less complexity. To the military medical 
officer, this country is intensely interesting, m as 
much as tho knowledge of the Boldier's past medical 
history, his present habits and mode of life, the ex¬ 
posures he lias been subjected to, the excesses lio 
has indulged in, his length of residence m the 
country, being taken into consideration, m eonnec- 
tion with the diseases that overtake him, the results 
ought to be little less than those deduced Irom actual 
experiment in the physician’s enquiry into the influ¬ 
ence of climate. Such observations might in due 
time lead to the discovery of more general laws in 
medical science than we are at present acquainted 
with; and we have reason to believe that is will be 
bv the discovery of such that tho science will even¬ 
tually be perfected. Looking at medicine as a 
science, I candidly confess tliaq the great “ positive” 
(though wo trust perverse) philosopder took a cor- 
rect view when be gave it no place among the in* 
ductive, but ranked it among tbe future sciences. 
This is not to be wondered at when it is considered 
that the physician, before ho can expect to do more 
than trace the outline of the science, must draw 
largely upon almost all the physical and not a few 
of the mental sciences ; and, seeing the imperfect 
state of many of those he most depends upon, it 
would bo idle, at present, to look for a medical 
science as perfect as any of the inductive. By the 
rapid advances that have been made in medicine 
during the last 15 years, especially in physiology, 
chemistry, and pathology, and having men oi the 
highest intelligence engaged in the profession, it is 
f.tr from unlikely that before long medicine will le 
able to take its place as a science. 1 do think Pro¬ 
fessor Blackie made a mistake when he give it as 
his opinion that the most distinguished men in the 
rued tea l profession did not study the subject in the 
true spirit of scientific research, and that an equally 
incomprehensive and uncharitable view was taken 
by one of \ast attainments and high in office in this 
land, when he characterised the profission as a com¬ 
pound of “skill and ignorance.’ 1 From what has 
been said, I think it canuot be douied that medical 
men are proceeding in tho right direction, in at pre¬ 
sent waiting for a sufficient number of facts before 
beginning to generalise. At present it would be 
unwise to advance, ntd far more so to put theories 
to the test, for this much may be learned from the 
other sciences, that, however plausible a theory may 
appear in the abstract, it should be put in practice 
with extreme caution. This holds good much more 
in medicine, for besides the properties of matter, we 
have to deal with the life of a fellow-being. Al¬ 
though in mathematics there is a calculus that can 
grasp tho most intric ite formula, in chemistry the 
atomic theory, to which we can refer, most of phe¬ 
nomena of chemical affinities, and in physics the 
theory of gravitation on which hangs the whole 
science of astronomy; yet, for reasons that have 
been given, it would be, at present, absurd to look 
for any such general law in medicine to which 
phenomena, either physiological or pathological, 
can be referred. 
In describing the physical aspect of tho country, 
I must confine my remarks chiefly to the neighbour¬ 
hood of Sydney, on the south side of Port Jackson. 
The sittoral of New South Waies presents pretty 
muoh the same character from north to south ; a 
plateau differing in height at different places and at 
unequal distances from the sea, bounded on the west 
by a continuous mountain chain, and on rhe east by 
the pacific, extends along almost its entire length. 
These plains in some places approach the shore, and 
present lofty anu inaccessible cliffs to the ocean, as 
scon from Botany Bay to Port Jackson, where, at 
the 4 ‘ Heads.” they rise to the height of more than 
250 feet. These cliffs are composed generally, of 
the carboniferous sandstone, but in some few places 
this is exchanged for the earlier formation of lime¬ 
stone; and towards the south the rocks are ot a 
porphvritic nature, as seen at Gabo Island, near 
Cape Flowe, where they are granitic, and m other 
places they partake of a basaltic character. Be¬ 
tween Botany Bay and Port Jackson, a distance of 
about ten miles, the coast is bold ; except where it is 
interrupted, by indentations in tho shape of small 
bavs, of which there are several along the shore. 
For some miles the interior consists of a series of 
drifted sandhills, of a more or less oblong form, and 
many of them remarkable for t«o sparseness of their 
stinted vegetation, especially where the sandstone 
rocks come to the surface. There rocks appear in 
many places to be perfectly detached, the intervening 
spaces being more or less filled up with sand, giving 
rise to a belief that, at some former period, Botany 
B.iv and Port Jackson communicated, and that tno 
present intervening space ma£t have consisted ot a 
cluster of rocky islands such as aro at present seen 
in the harbour of Port Jackson. This is well seen 
at Rose Bay, where the interstices appear to be less 
perfectly tilled up. Between these mounds there 
are in some places swamps, from one cf which tho 
Victoria Barracks and part of the town ot Sydney 
are supplied with water. By recent analysis this 
water has been shown to be exceedingly pure, b rom 
the friable nature of the soil, dust is very prevalent. 
