VARIETIES.  183 
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drops  of  the  solution  is  to  be  introduced.  It  soon  solidifies,  and  may  re- 
main in  situ,  seeming  also  to  exert  an  influence  on  the  further  progress  of 
the  caries. —  Virginia  Med.  Journ.,from  Ren.  Medicate. 
Non-susceptibitity  of  the  Hedgehog  to  the  influence  of  poisons. — Scarcely 
any  poison  will  act  on  the  hedgehog.  Pallas  gave  to  one  a  hundred  can- 
tharides,  which  he  seemed  to  relish  very  much,  and  suffered  no  inconveni- 
ence whatever  from  them.  Lassy  caused  one  to  be  bitten  by  a  viper  several 
times,  without  any  effect  following.  And  Mr.  Cuthbert  Johnson  states  that 
prussic  acid,  arsenic,  opium,  and  corrosive  sublimate,  have  each  been  given 
to  this  animal,  without  producing  the  slightest  action  upon  him. —  St.  Louis 
Med.  Journ. 
Loss  of  French  Troops  in  the  Crimea. — Dr.  Scrive,  who  acted  as  phy- 
sician-general to  the  French  army  during  the  last  war  with  Kussia,  has 
just  published  a  book  which  contains  a  painful  account  of  the  losses  and 
sufferings  endured  by  the  French  troops  landed  in  the  East,  but  particularly 
by  those  engaged  in  the  siege  of  Sebastopol.  Of  309,278  officers  and  men 
sent  from  France  during  that  short  war,  200,000  entered  the  hospitals,  and 
were  treated  professionally,  50,000  for  wounds  received  in  action,  and 
150,000  for  diseases  of  various  kinds  contracted  during  the  campaign. 
The  first  troops  which  embarked  in  France  were  attacked  with  cholera, 
which  followed  them  to  Athens,  Gallipoli,  Varna,  and  the  Dobrudstcha. 
On  their  arrival  before  Sebastopol  the  cholera  again  attcked  them,  and  the 
receptions  in  the  military  hospitals  during  the  month  of  January,  1855, 
amounted  to  9,000.  They  were  chiefly  treated  for  cholera,  scurvy,  frost- 
bites, and  wounds  of  every  description.  Typhus  fever  shortly  after  set  in. 
The  health  of  the  army  was  better  during  the  spriDg  of  1855,  but  the 
cholera  reappeared  in  July,  and  placed  4,500  men  hors  de  combat.  Typhus 
fever  set  in  again,  and  added  to  the  mortality.  On  the  8th  of  September, 
Sebastopol  was  taken  by  the  allied  armies,  but,  nevertheless,  between  the 
1st  of  September,  1855,  and  the  1st  of  April,  1856,  of  145,120  French  troops 
under  arms  in  the  Crimea,  48,000  entered  hospitals.  Dr.  Scrive  says  that 
the  scurvy  prevailed  at  this  period,  the  constitution  of  the  men  being  im- 
paired through  fatigue  and  privations.  He  further  adds,  that  the  most  dis- 
astrous period  of  the  campaign,  in  a  medical  point  of  view,  was  during 
the  months  of  February  and  March,  1856.  A  violent  typhus,  engendered  by 
the  infection  of  the  heaps  of  refuse  in  the  camp,  struck  down  more  than 
19,000  soldiers  at  the  end  of  the  campaign,  notwithstanding  the  precautions 
adopted  by  the  medical  staff.  It  is  said  that  the  number  of  sick  in  hospi- 
tal, in  proportion  to  the  force  under  arms,  was  never  so  great  in  any 
former  campaign.  Of  the  medical  staff,  83  physicians  or  surgeons  fell 
victims  to  their  devotedness— "  an  enormous  figure,"  observes  the  author, 
"when  one  reflects  on  the  small  number  employed."— Med.  Times  and. 
Gaz.,  Nov.  28,  1857. 
