establishing the expediency, or rather the necessity, of applying these to the welfare and improvement both of the inferior tribes with whom in the first instance, perhaps, our cupidity or our ambition brought us into contact, and of those of our own kindred and tongue whose material and moral wellbeing we have too long neglected. The progress of research, either in the field of physical investigation, or of political organization, shows, not as zealots allege, the opposition between science and religion-nor, as sceptics maintain, the inutility of moral efforts but brings into harmony the progressive advancement of the intellect with the moral instincts of man; and by giving right direction to the simple but pregnant injunction of the Bible, that we should do good unto all men as we have opportunity, affords it also a secure and valid basis of authority.

From what we have said, it appears that the benevolent exertions which characterize modern times have a deep basis in natural obligation even anterior to any supernatural revelation; we most willingly admit, however, that they derive their impetus mainly, if not solely, from the express injunctions and, if possible, still more from the beneficent spirit of Christianity, which, whatever views we hold of its peculiar supplemental statements and doctrines, all must admit, though it is a view far too little insisted on or expounded, to be in the first instance a republication of natural theology, including under that term both the existence and attributes of the Supreme Being, and the moral obligations of man resulting from his relations to God and the nature with which He has endowed him. These are everywhere asserted or assumed in the sacred Scriptures, so that the positive evidence in their favour comes in aid of the principles of an enlightened theism-its mild and genial spirit gives warmth to the speculations of philosophy, and its sanctions of tremendous power give an efficacy to the deductions of reason, which nothing else can impart.

Both as philosophical and religious men, then, we are bound to take cognizance of, and to aid all those movements which have for their object to raise the character of our own population, to promote or secure the development of our vast dependencies, or even to diffuse in foreign and barbarous lands the light and the blessings of our own civilization, clearly destined as it is to overspread the whole surface of the globe. We have adverted to the immeasurable superiority of civilized men in the arts of war, and doubtless the blessings of peace do in time and to a certain extent follow the devastating steps of conquest, and perhaps it is not possible that the religion of peace should in all cases make progress without being preceded by the destroying angel. Still, all should and must rejoice in any schemes that bring civilized man in contact with his savage brother, not from the lust of gain, and not for oppression and the love of power, but for purposes of amity and goodwill. In the lower strata, too, of our own civilization, the impression is by no means worn out that the people are only the subjects of power, if not its victims, having no share either in its guidance or in the blessings which it brings along with it. Everything, therefore, that brings the superior, and, still more, the scien

tific classes of society in contact with the inferior, in the way of felt and palpable benefit conferred upon the latter, is of immense advantage both in elevating their capacity and status, and in giving stability to our existing institutions. Now there is probably no body of educated men who can contribute more effectually to the promotion of these ends than the medical profession. It may be at once admitted that recent medical inquiries have not added so much to our power of curing disease, as to our knowledge of its nature and our means of distinguishing one from another; still there is no doubt whatever that we are advancing even in this, while the vast strides that have been made and that are still in progress in extending our knowledge of the causes of diseases, and consequently of obviating their occurrence and mitigating their virulence, are daily increasing our influence in modifying and accelerating the progress of society, especially in forwarding those benevolent exertions on which, in so large a measure, this progress is dependent.

The stern records of the Registrar-General, indicating the fearful amount of preventible mortality that prevails in the richest and most highly civilized country in the world, as well as the appalling ravages of infectious disease among less civilized communities, are unanswerable proofs of the prodigious importance of medical agency in all schemes for the advancement of society, and for the improvement of human beings in whatever state they may exist. And though we may deplore, as we have just said, our very limited power over many forms of disease incident to our own country, and to our own stage of civilization, we may at least rejoice and hope in the increasing knowledge of natural processes which promises ultimately to put it in our power, if not to annihilate, at least greatly to diminish the operation of many of those fearful scourges that decimate our own population, and sweep with a far more destructive energy over less favoured lands. And let it never be forgotten, if such in any measure be our power, our power exactly defines and measures our obligation.

We have dwelt so long on the natural obligations to benevolent efforts, and on the power and influence of science to promote them, because we are deeply persuaded of the injurious effects that have resulted both to science and to religion from their dissociation; or, perhaps, we might more correctly say, from the presumed opposition existing between them, an error and an absurdity, for the prevalence of which, though it may not be possible altogether to acquit men of science, we do believe the religious party, in England at least, to be mainly responsible, and from which, by a kind of retributive justice, they have principally suffered both in the turn of their mind and in the conduct of many of their undertakings. The bitter jealousy with which a popular theology founded on a thorough perversion of insulated passages of Scripture, has heretofore regarded scientific speculation, must be familiar to every one at all acquainted with a certain description of religious literature, if literature it may be called. It ought surely to be enough to appease this feeling to remind those who entertain it of the analogy that subsists between nature and revelation, long ago pointed out by Bishop Butler, from which it might fairly be anticipated that new views might

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be developed, and old notions either extended or corrected as learning and information increased; and it might teach caution, to remember that there is probably not now in Europe a single educated man who receives the first verses of Genesis in the same sense in which they were all but universally accepted not fifty years ago, and in which, by many parties, it was made a testing article to adopt them. The damage resulting from such extreme and, frequently, intolerant assertions of opinion is, we believe, very great, and we would earnestly recommend the consideration of the remark of an enlightened American writer, "that there is a true system of theology as in other sciences, and the world is still struggling to ascertain what it is; progress is made, and patient thought is rewarded in this as in other sciences." We believe the bonds that unite religion to science to be indissoluble, and the whole course of events goes to prove it. However securely Christianity may seem to have been planted in any community, if that community has retrograded, or has ceased to advance in intelligence, religion has invariably become feeble and corrupt, if it has not been altogether extinguished. On the other hand, in spite of periods of difficulty, and doubt, and trial, her influence has always been strongest, and her progress most satisfactory, in nations remarkable for intellectual development and culture: and it is from them that she goes forth to other lands, or descends to the darker regions of social existence with the fairest hopes of success.

Her progress henceforward is, we are persuaded, necessarily interwoven with that of science, and with none so intimately as with the sciences connected with our own profession, not only as branches of evidence by which the truth of her statements may be tested, but as one of the most powerful means, if not the most powerful and essential of all means for the diffusion of her influences.

This view is advocated in the first work whose title is placed at the head of this article, 'The Healing Art the Right Hand of the Church.' The author regards medical science and the practice of medicine as an integral part of church organization, and seems to believe that the want of power in the Church to control, or even to contend with the social evils of our own state, or to spread Christianity in heathen lands, proceeds from their unhallowed disruption. How he proposes to reunite them we do not learn; for though we have read the book attentively, there is an absence of all positive statement, and a vague mistiness of view that prevents us, we confess candidly, from gathering with any exactness what the author precisely intends. We venture to express a devout and humble hope, that he does not seek to accomplish his object by the multiplication of clerical doctors, a genus of which the numbers are already more than sufficiently abundaut. The work contains a considerable amount of curious learning, and recalls to our attention a number of interesting facts related in Scripture; but there is a want of definiteness and completeness about it, which prevents it from making any strong impression, though it brings out very clearly one thing, that the instances of the cure of disease, recorded in Holy Writ, ought to be regarded not only as

evidences of the truth of Revelation as works of supernatural power, but that they formed part and parcel of the blessings which the mission of the Son of God was intended to confer on mankind. Thus connecting Christianity with the immediate warm and living interests of humanity, and removing it from the regions of dry and cold abstraction. The second book on our list, God in Disease,' is clearly the work of a well-instructed physician, and of a devout and pious man, who seeks to illustrate the religious and moral ends which sickness and pain may answer both to those who suffer and to those who witness them. It is well written, and abounds in illustrations sufficiently exact to suit a work intended for popular reading. To many readers it will afford information of an interesting character. But towards meeting the great difficulty, why so much misery, pain, and bitter sorrow should exist at all, it does not advance a single step. The utmost that books of this kind can do, is to show that if there be any hint of a future solution of this fearful question, or any intimations. in nature or in the Bible, as there are intimations numerous and express, of the co-existence of perfect benevolence on the part of the Creator, with all the misery and evil which it is the lot of humanity to endure; a careful study of the facts may show us that these intimations. are probable, credible, or not incredible, as the evidence may warrant us in affirming.

Both these books are in themselves more strictly theological than properly brings them under the notice of a medical review; and into their theological, and still less into their ecclesiastical contents, we have no intention of entering; but the former, more especially, deals with something like the train of thought we have followed in the preceding pages, and enters pretty fully into the subject of medical missions, which has attracted a large share of attention from the best minds both in the profession and out of it, and naturally associates itself with medical agency in the prosecution of benevolent schemes in our own country, and among our own population. We think no one can doubt that there is a peculiar propriety in the employment of medical agency both in missionary labour abroad, and in what may with perfect truth be called missionary labour at home. Sickness, pain, and accidental injuries, are the common lot of man, but chiefly are they the sad inheritance of the poor, and so far are uncivilized men from being exempt from their influence, that the concurrent testimony of all trustworthy travellers, and the well established narratives of the total, or all but total, extinction of whole tribes of Red Indians by small pox, for example, prove them to have less power of resistance than the inhabitants of civilized countries.*

* The Bombay Times' of April 26th, which brings the account of the death of that remarkable man, Sir Jamsetjee Jeejeebhoy, equally distinguished for his vast wealth and his beneficence, contains some interesting details respecting the Grant Medical College on the occasion of the annual exhibition for the distribution of prizes and diplomas to the successful candidates-all natives. Amongst the prizes was a gold medal, of the value of 15l., awarded for the first time, and now for proficiency in Practical Medical Jurisprudence,for which, and for some other prizes, the College is indebted to the munificence of the Parsee baronet. The institution is on a small scale, and has been in existence only a few years; it has for its alumni under fifty students, and of these only nine have obtained

The man, then, who can modify in any appreciable degree the power of disease, or whose scientific knowledge enables him to diminish the frequency of its visitations, or who can bring the efficacy of a highly developed surgical skill, about the beneficial effects of which the most sceptical can entertain no doubt, to bear upon the sufferings and the fears of men, is clearly the person who is best fitted for the work of a missionary. Moreover, it is in the prevention of disease, especially of epidemic disease, that medical science has both achieved its principal success, and holds out the largest promise. To the knowledge of these prodigious, but steadily recurring chemical processes which maintain the balance of organic nature, and maintain in constant operation what has been finely called the vast miracle that still goes on in silence around us, we have added a large amount of knowledge of, what may be called, disturbing forces, generally resulting, at least in their injurious influence, from the ignorance or mismanagement of men, and therefore to a great extent removable by better information and increased forecast. We have not yet been able to analyze the subtle poisons of malarious exhalations or of contagion, but we have done something, and may legitimately hope to do still more to remove what knowledge we possess from the region of mere empirical facts, and impart to it a scientific, and therefore an available character, that is, we can with more confidence, for example, in the case even of the most malignant epidemics, predict their probable occurrence, and either avoid or provide against their advent. But in all cases where we have to do with voluntary agents, if we would do any good we must secure their own willing and intelligent co-operation. The great secret of doing good to any man is to teach and assist him to do good to himself. This is a principle which we believe lies at the root of all charity, and from want of attention to it many a well intended scheme of benevolence has been shipwrecked; and from this results the necessity of the medical missionary, who primarily addresses himself to the physical requirements of men, being enabled, either himself or by enlightened coadjutors, to stimulate the intellect and to purify and elevate the moral feelings of those with whom he comes in contact.

It is, as the author of 'The Healing Art' truly says, because Christianity and its Divine founder address themselves to the whole nature of man that Christianity possesses so much power. In our own country nothing can be more striking than the difficulty of obtaining the concurrence of the people themselves in sanitary arrangements, for example, and the short-lived character of all improvements that have been forced on by the influence or power of single individuals—that have, in short, been developed prematurely and by pressure ab extra. It is in fact of essential importance that division of labour should take place in all degrees this year. But it is with a view to the future that we consider it important-as a seed of a higher civilization-as the means of introducing medical science and the exact sciences into India, and thereby conducing to expel the delusions under which the native mind labours through the influence of an absurd and licentious idolatry and the trammels of caste. The medical teacher and the medical practitioner we hold to be one of the ablest of missionaries, especially if he works in the true spirit of Christianity.