PAUPERISM, CHARITY, AND POOR-LAWS. How disheartening it is to be obliged to confess that the subject of Pauperism is now the most pressing one of the moment. Alas! for all our dreams of progress and the universal happiness of mankind! Here we are in the beginning of the year 1869 in a position of such gravity with regard to the questions above referred to, as perhaps our history, as a nation, can scarcely parallel. A million of paupers in a wealthy state like this is evidence of the sad want of thought exhibited by those who have preceded us. There has been a great unwillingness to face the difficulties of the question, and hence to us unhappily has been bequeathed the sorrowful task of combatting a perfect sea of human misery and degradation. We have, for instance, before us a pamphlet, written by Dr. Stallard, from which we would select one or two facts to show what are the evils which we have to attack. On January 1st, 1858, there were in the Metropolis, 77,660 paupers relieved, and in 1868 this number had actually swelled to that of 163,179. In the unfortunate district of Poplar there were in 1858 2,874 persons in receipt of relief, and this has swelled to no less than 9,996 in 1868. In Whitechapel, likewise, the numbers relieved on January 1st, 1858, was 2,223, and in 1868 5,266 in a population which has not much increased in numbers. In Bethnal Green in 1841 the expenditure for the poor-rate was only £15,989, whereas this year it is £55,260. "I venture to assert," says Dr. Stallard, "without fear of contradiction, that there is scarcely a native male adult in Bethnal Green who is fit for military service. There are here hundreds of men who, being fit only for children's work, earn children's wages. Nowhere is the standard of comfort so low. Furniture is often thought superfluous, and it is a matter of common experience to find a widow trying to rear her family without applying to the parish on earnings which do not amount to twopence per head per day." Take the account, too, of the frightful overcrowding which is so common in the East-end and in St. Giles's. In a report of a deputation which waited on the Duke of Marlborough at the Privy Council last year, on account of the "Artizan and Labourer's Dwellings Bill," one of the speakers, Mr. Nisbet, said that in one district in St. Giles's there were 600 families, and of these 570 occupied but one room. He had seen one old man, one old woman, and two unmarried persons, who lived together with their children, all occupying one room. One room that had been visited was 12ft. by 13ft., and 7ft. 6in. high. In that room eight persons lived, and the rent was four shillings a week. Another room was 13ft. by 5ft., and 6ft. high. The father, mother, and five children lived in that, and the rent was four shillings a week. No words could express the wretchedness and filth in which the people lived. And all this, be it remembered, is taking place, not in Connaught, nor in the uncivilised parts of France or Spain, but in the midst of our boasted civilisation-in London, the centre of industry and freedom. Truly the wisdom of our forefathers has left us in a sad mess, from which all the science at our disposal is required to extricate us. We do not think that it will be necessary for us to quote at greater length the details of the misery with which, alas! all who are members of the medical profession are but too well acquainted. The physician or surgeon to a public charity in the East-end is but too conscious how many of the unfortunates who crowd the consulting-rooms are living in a way which forbids him to hope for any of his directions as to food and other hygienic appliances being attended to. The condition, then, of many of us in this era of the world is still a most melancholy one. Man, of all animals, seems alone to be able to attain an extremity of misery, without having sufficient intelligence to look his fate fairly in the face, or to die, as the lower animals do. Traditions of modes of looking at our tenure of existence, derived from the sad days of human ignorance and superstition, still obscure a clear view of the fact that man is no exception to the rest of animated nature, in his being subject to the evils caused by the "struggle for existence," if he imitates, as he does constantly, the lower animals, in engendering a far greater number of offspring than can be fairly maintained by the provisions and capital at hand. Mr. Malthus, at the beginning of this century, so clearly showed the truth of this proposition that it is now held to be axiomatic by all who have ever seriously examined this branch of science. Of course we must not expect the prejudiced, or the aristocratic members of society, to attend to such commonplace and vulgar accounts of the origin of poverty as this. A well-known contemporary of the Medical Times and Gazette, indeed, in commenting on some bold and admirable remarks recently made in the Dialectical Society by Lord Amberley, Dr. C. Drysdale, and others, would not hear of us being over-peopled. Conservatives such as he never will. They are too well satisfied with things as they are to wish to see them altered, and hence go in for large families, primogeniture, entail, &c., &c. Let them! It is the interest of many persons that the people should be poor, since they can buy their services more cheaply. Such persons, of course, belong, or think they belong, to the higher classes, whom it is the duty of the others to serve as cheaply as possible. But to all true lovers of the human race, the poverty and distress of the poor is a subject of never-ceasing pain. And the present misery and pauperism of Poplar and Whitechapel would be indeed a blessing to the poor if it The large number of new streets, consisting of really handsome houses, each with its own garden, that have lately been completed, have contributed both to the beauty and health of the quarter in which they are situated. This is the most remarkable quarter, and is sure to attract the first attention of new arrivals. Scarcely anything offensive is here to be found-not nearly so much as is to be met with in Paris and other Continental cities. A little beyond, however, there is another division where sanitary measures have yet to be attempted, and where filth and disease triumph. The drains, if such they should render the subject of poverty a popular one, to be discussed until such a curse be made to disappear from the face of civilisation. The immediate and pressing question, of course, for these pauperised districts, is how this winter is to be passed without an utter bankruptcy of the district. Eventually, we doubt not that London will, as Mr. Mill proposes, be turned into one city for the purposes of rating to the poor's rate. It is iniquitous that the inhabitant of the rich quarter of St. James's should be so slightly taxed for the poor in comparison with his poor neighbour of Poplar. Were he taxed he would give, it is presumable, a little more attention to the great sub-may be called, are open to the tropical sun, and the atject of poverty. At present, all but the best minds among the educated and richer classes, almost ignore the subject. It is, they say, so difficult and disagreeable! We would suggest that all funds subscribed for the maintenance of the poor in Poplar on this trying occasion, should be, as far as possible, employed as wages; and that the inhabitants should be employed in raising better dwellings for the labouring classes, in cleansing and beautifying their dull neighbourhood, and making it more fit for the habitation of a happier race than has hitherto peopled it. We are opposed to spending the funds on emigration. That bubble, we conceive, has burst. We have sent out our millions during this half century. Are our wages any better now? Are our profits any higher? Are we less crowded? The above testimony says no. Has the large family system been enough discussed? In this, we apprehend, lies our hope for the future. THE SANITARY STATE OF CALCUTTA. IF, as most men are now ready to admit, the condition and prospects of our Eastern Empire deserve the attentive consideration of our greatest statesmen, medical men may think that the improvements that have been introduced in the sanitary state of its capital are worth their brief consideration. Those who lately have been in India do not need to be told that much has been attempted. Many, however, who have no personal interest in the matter, are apt to regard pictures of what was as indications of what is. It may, indeed, be open to question whether, ever since our possession, there has not been a steady, though a slow, progress. Comparing the data that can be obtained at considerable distances of time, those who think so have certainly much to say in proof of the correctness of their opinion; though, on the other hand, there are facts that they would find it difficult to harmonise with their views. Be this as it may, no one can compare the condition of the Calcutta of to-day with that of a generation ago without admitting the immense strides that have lately been made, and feeling thankful that our later rule has been marked with so much real improvement. The "City of the Palaces" has been drained, better water is drank, the European inhabitants live more rationally, the jungles are no longer so near, and many other things have resulted in an improved death-rate; and the same may be said of other cities where we have attempted to discharge this high function of such a government as ours. The statistics of the capitals of the three Presidencies, down to the latest returns, are as follows:Population. Mortality Receipts. Expenditure. per 1,000. Calcutta in 1867£ £ Municipal ... 430,000 28-08 263,114 257,318 Suburbs (about) 500,000 Hourah (about) 80,000 Bombay Island in 1865 816,562 Madras in 1866-67 450,000 tempt to stir them up gives rise to pestilence. The lowest and worst of the population dwell here, and perish in frightful numbers. It is a city of filth and vice, where epidemics are endemic. Yet there is hope even for this quarter. Already a determined effort to infuse new life into it by sanitation is being made, and in a couple of years it will be drained and have a good supply of water. Mr. Stuart Hogg, of the Civil Service, is the Commissioner who is entrusted with the great undertaking. He and his staff merit full confidence from the manner in which they have carried out the works in the European part, and no doubt will do here. The costs must be great, but the money will be profitably expended. The ground is of great value, often fetching prices which only London and Paris can compare with, and thus it is likely that the investment may be a fair one, in addition to the destruction of disease which will be effected. It is much to be regretted that the Zemindars do not see the value of sanitary measures, and too often do all in their power to oppose them. Drainage and water-supply-these are the two essentials of healthy cities, and on these the greatest energy is now being concentrated, so that it is hoped a complete purification may be effected, and the whole city of Calcutta made worthy of its position as the capital of our Indian Empire. From a recent letter of the correspondent of the Times, who seems to have thoroughly informed himself as to the facts of the case, we take the following details : "At the cost of somewhat more than half a million sterling, lent by Government to the municipality, the Hooghly water is to be filtered, conveyed for eighteen miles from Phulta, above Barrackpore, and supplied to the city at the rate of 6,000,000 gallons a-day. The works will be finished by this time next year. The water will be supplied to the third storey of English houses, and by numerous stand-pipes in the native city-a mode rendered necessary by native prejudices. The effect of this vast consumption of pure water directly on the people, and indirectly through the drainage, need not be pointed out. The drainage works are magnificent as far as they have gone. Like all deltaic rivers, the Hooghly is rising its bed, so that the drainage must be away from the river. Fortunately, there are low lagoons to the east, known as the salt water lakes. They have a slight connection with the sea, but it is designed ultimately to reclaim a large portion of them by the sewage of Calcutta. Already one mile has been embanked, ready for the first experiment. Mr. Clark, the municipal engineer, accordingly planned a series of great drains, like the Cloaca Maxima, where it still may be seen on the Tiber shore, meeting outside of Calcutta, whence the sewage is to be pumped up to a higher level, and is allowed to flow to the salt lakes. To drain all Calcutta would cost nearly a million sterling, but it has been decided that the underground drainage shall stop at two-thirds of the city, including the most repulsive portion in the centre, and that the remainder of the native There is really no reason whatever why music should be sung in an unattainable key, and the tenors, headed by Mr. Sims Reeves, have absolutely refused to injure their voices or depreciate their performance to please the fancy of conductors. town shall have surface drains well flushed. The drains music written for the tenor or higher male voice has been are completed all over the European quarters, and the out-obliged to be retranscribed or transposed down to bring fall works for the whole city are nearly finished, at an it within the scope of ordinary performers. This in the expenditure of £450,000. The scheme will involve some case of orchestral performances is impossible, and tenors £150,000 more, and to raise the funds the house-rate has just been increased to ten per cent., the native Justices to have been obliged to screech up to the pitch to the great a man voting against the addition. Nothing can be finer injury of their voices, and to the loss to their performance than the two great drains and the outfall works. There of that richness and sweetness which belongs to the is to be a third great drain, and the three meet at the out- middle register of the voice. fall works in some splendid tunnelling, which would accommodate a single line of underground railway. The doctors have raised two difficulties as to the danger of semi-solid sewage in underground drains in a tropical city, and as to the evil of voiding the sewage at a spot whence the prevailing wind for a third of the year will blow the noxious exhalations back upon the city. I confess that until going over the works in Calcutta, and lately inspecting the drainage works between Edinburgh and the sea, I shared both apprehensions. But the experimental drains are working admirably, and though the time is at hand when they must receive all night-soil, the new waterworks will be added to the effects of a rainfall of seventy-five inches a-year. The solid sewage is conveyed by trains along the Municipal Railway, which skirts the circular road side by side with the Maharatta ditch, six and a-half miles to the salt lakes. It is impossible to doubt that that and the discharge of the drains will speedily convert the shallow lagoons, carefully embanked in portions to exclude the salt water, into the finest rice land, if not kitchen gardens. Even at Lahore the natives alone have made a similar system such a success that, for the first time in India. manure has come to possess some value.” Notes on Current Topics. The Sacred Harmonic Society, who adhere to the old pitch, will have to do without Mr. Sims Reeves, and already the lower grade, known as the French pitch, has been adopted for forthcoming concerts. Registry of Deaths. THE nomenclature lately recommended by the committee of the London College of Physicians, has been adopted as far as the designation of fevers is concerned. The English Registrar-General has issued a notice that medical practitioners are requested to use the names, in order that the Registrar-General may distinguish the several forms of fever in the returns of the ensuing year. The committee, it will be remembered, detailed four forms of fever-typhus, enteric, relapsing, and simple continued fevers. Slanders on the Profession. THE office of Vindicator of the Profession from the slanders to which it, as well as other bodies, are liable is Lady Doctors and the Competitors for their not an agreeable one, and it has been uniformly shifted Patronage. THE British Lying-in Hospital and Dr. James Edmunds, the Female Medical College, the insult to Dr. Eastlake and the Profession, and all the ingredients of the dirty mess whose unfragrance pervaded the medical nose some months ago, have got a fresh stir, and this time the befoulment of the nest offends the public as well as the professional nostril. Dr. Thomas Snow Beck has been shaking up Dr. Edmunds, and Dr. Edmunds has been stirring up Dr. Beck, and both have been raking up the British Lying-in Hospital and the Female Medical College, and the aroma has spread through the London police courts to the public sense and the fragrance of the Profession is immeasurably damaged. Our fingers are not dirty enough for the manipulation of the mess, and we decline to touch it, simply remarking as we did on the former occasion, "that it affords a cogent warning to the Profession not to place themselves in the position of alliance with the administrators of the establishment." Strike of Tenor Singers. THE limits of action of the human larynx has at length been practically marked by a strike on the part of tenor singers against the orchestral conductors who have the regulation of concerts. There has existed for many years an arbitrary pitch altogether out of the reach of all private singers, and, it would appear, also beyond the capacity of the most perfect vocal development. Thus almost all the operatic by licensing corporations from themselves to the Medical Council, and by that cautious assembly back again, till at last the profession has had to act for itself, and by means of its protective association to give expression to the disclaimer which councils and corporations did not care to trouble themselves with. We don't pretend that it is the duty of licensing corporations to take up the cudgels and drive out every snarling cur which disturbs the profession by his yelping; but there are occasions when the adoption of a resolution would do all that is required of them, and when the slander would be within their dignity, and even in such cases the mouthpieces of the profession show themselves careless or over timid. It would seem that a statement published in the public press, and reiterated as a literary curiosity all over England, to the effect that "the Governor of Taunton Goal had had applications from members of the profession for the office of HANGMAN," would have been worthy of notice, not in the form of a denial, which would only enhance the insult, but as a censure on the editors who gave publicity to so obvious and so insulting a lie. Dr. Carey, of Taunton, an old member of the College, who felt himself aggrieved by such a suggestion, called, last week, the attention of the Secretary of the Royal College of Surgeons of England to it, in a letter which appeared in our last, and received the reply which we append :— "Royal College of Surgeons of England, London, W.C., 29th December, 1868. SIR, --I have to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 26th instant, and accompanying copy of the Somerset Gazette of the same date, and I have to acquaint you that, irrespective of the fact that the paragraph to which you allude would ap. pear to be inserted in the Gazette upon the authority only of the newspaper reporter, and not of the governor of the prison, it relates to a matter over which this College has no control. I may add that it would be quite impossible for the authorities of this College to undertake to investigate or contradict every idle statement relating to the surgical profession contained in the columns of the various newspapers published throughout the kingdom. I am, Sir, On this reply, Dr. Carey writes to us : In answer to my letter to the Secretary of the Royal College of Surgeons, London, and published in your last number, calling the attention of that College to a statement going the round of the newspapers that Mr. Oakley, the governor of Taunton jail, has in past times had applications from members of the surgical profession to perform the office of hangman, and calling upon the College, as the natural guardian of the honour of the surgical profession, to take some steps to vindicate that profession from a stigma so revolting, I received the enclosed cool communication from the Secretary, which has dispelled some delusions under which I had hitherto laboured, for I had, until now, imagined that the editor of a newspaper was accountable for the truth of any statement given upon responsible authority in his paper, and that the editor alone knew, when he printed a slander, whether he had it directly from the author, or indirectly from his reporter, and also I used to believe that a member of any respectable London club would be protected against association with hangmen members of that club, and that a public printed assertion made on respectable authority by any respectable journal, that any of the club's members were hangmen, or candidates for the post of hangman, would be properly investigated for the credit of those members that were not-but how I have been mistaken!" It certainly seems to us that a little over-zeal on the part of the College would be more gratifying to its members than the laissez faire spirit in which the matter has been treated; and if the Secretary has not considered it worth his while to say so, we must speak for him, and inform the editor of the Somerset Gazette that the falsehood admitted by him to his journal disgraces no one but himself. Inhumanity of the Police. AGAINST the universal condemnation which the inhumanity of the police towards the poor woman who last week attempted suicide has brought upon them, they can offer no plea of doubt as to the nature of the case. Even the police must know that to carry a prisoner on a stretcher with nothing on her but a wet shift and a sack thrown over her is brutally inhuman, and to leave her half-drowned and half-frozen for a whole night in a damp cell savours either of stupid carelessness or official cruelty. We endorse every word of the verdict of the jury :"That the police were culpable for not calling in the divisional surgeon, and leaving her in a cell the whole of a night, when she might have been taken to the German Hospital or to a workhouse infirmary, and that the police should in future call in the divisional surgeon of the force to see persons who have been rescued from drowning." The Drainage of Colney-Hatch Asylum. THE judgment of the Court of Chancery imposes on the Committee the duty of putting an end to the nuisance complained of by those who had property close by--that of the sewage of the Asylum being so disposed of as to injure and annoy their neighbours. This is satisfactory, as it clearly shows that not even a Public Board will be permitted, under a plea of discharging duties imposed upon it, to override the rights of others. On this question it is certain the law cannot be too rigorously upheld, and whatever the inconvenience or expense incurred by the Committee of the Asylum, we rejoice that they will not be suffered to make the neighbourhood of their excellent institution unwholesome or offensive. For once the law is found strong enough to put down a nuisance. It is a good lesson. Refined Naphtha. THE sad accident on the Brighton Railway has again directed public attention to the danger of conveying certain compounds in passenger trains, and it is to be hoped that some measures will be taken to lessen the fearful risks of travelling. The inquiry before the coroner has so far been important that it has placed before the public the truth as to some of these dangerous articles of commerce on no less authority than that of Dr. Letheby. From that learned Professor's evidence at the inquest we gather that some years ago "benzine," or "benzole," was a naphtha containing 90 per cent. of benzole. "It was the most volatile and highly rectified spirit of coal tar, and was used for making coal-tar colours, being then thought to be the best description of naphtha for that purpose. But within the last few years it was found that a weaker naphtha, containing 40 per cent. of benzole, was better suited for the production of aniline reds; and they were now using naphthas containing as little as 20 per cent. of benzole. În English commerce all these were known by the name of refined naphtha of British manufacture, but in France they called 90 per cent. benzole,' and all below, refined naphtha.' Every sample, however, contained a large proportion of benzole, the inflammability of naphtha. Benzole itself was 850, which was the most important constituent with regard to but Mr. Thacker said the spirit in question had & gravity of 875; still, it was very volatile at an ordinary temperature. Seven or eight drops dropped on a piece of paper, as he demonstrated, would dry up in a minute and-a-half; and in a minute and-a-half two drops of common naphtha would convert itself into a cubic inch of vapour at a common temperature, and diffusing itself through 371⁄2 times its volume of air, would form an explosive mixture. Dr. Letheby showed this to be the fact by dropping some of the sample produced by Mr. Thacker into a glass bottle, and said if the proportion was 1 of vapour to 374 of air, the temperature of the flame in an enclosed vessel the flame which he produced-was 7,000 degrees Fahrenheit, and in an open vessel it would have been 5,000 degrees. The explosive vapour was many atmospheres over 20; therefore it evolved an inflammable vapour at common temperatures, which, mixed with air, was capable of generating heat enough to set fire to itself -not liable to spontaneous combustion, but when the vapour exploded the heat would be sufficient to set fire to the liquid or any combustible substance, with force enough to blow any vessel to pieces in which it was contained. He had read the evidence taken on the last occasion, and had no doubt at all that the refined naphtha in question had leaked, or had become diffused in the waggon, and the vapour mixing with atmospheric air, had formed an explosive mixture, which was fired by the light of the lamp held by one of the deceased men, and the explosion resulted, the burning naphtha being blown over them. He had also heard the evidence given by Mr. Thacker and by Mr. Kay, and was of opinion that the dangerous properties of naphtha were not sufficiently well known for the dangers which might arise from its carriage being guarded against, for the leakage of it into a confined truck might at any time, by the approach of a light, be the cause of a serious accident. Some regulations ought to be laid down for its carriage, and he thought there would be no difficulty in making a regulation which would not interfere with the commerce of the article at all. In reply to questions from several jurors, Dr. Letheby said he did not think naphtha could be ig nited at a temperature below 1,500 or 2,000 degrees, and then it would require a flame to come in contact with it. A 'Davy lamp would have prevented the explosion. The guard's lamp, being closed, was no protection, for whenever the air got in to feed the lamp the vapour would get in, but it would not get through the gauze wire of a Davy. He suggested that as casks, although safer than carboys, would not prevent the escape of vapour, that trucks used for the carriage of such articles should be provided with louvre openings at the top for the purposes of ventilation; and that they should not be handed over from one company to another without the contents being made known." It is satisfactory to learn that some of the precautions thus suggested were enforced by a distinct recommendation by the coroner's jury. An understanding was also given that the recommendation of the jury should receive "early consideration." We hope this phrase will not be allowed to cover further negligence, but that the Brighton Company will forthwith frame rules for their traffic in accordance with it, and that other companies will follow suit. If some such action is not taken by the companies, we hope the next accident will be succeeded by trials, and that the jury will in each case award "exemplary damages." ceeded. He fought the battle on public grounds; I, to vindicate my honour, as a professional gentleman. Having done so I am content, and only wish, for the sake of the excellent charity to which I give it, that it was a | larger sum. "I am, yours faithfully, "ROBERT M'DONNELL. "To the Treasurer of the Medical Benevolent Fund." This letter having been read, the following resolution was passed unanimously :-" That the marked thanks of this committee be presented to Dr. Robert M'Donnell for his munificent subscription of £36 11s. 3d. a year, in accordance with his letter of the 30th Nov., 1868, to the funds of the Royal Medical Benevolent Fund Society; and that he be requested to allow his name to be recommended to the general meeting for election as a member of the central committee." The treasurer further reported having received a letter credit of the society of £121 19s. 2d. under the will of from Mr. Courtnay, solicitor, enclosing a cheque to the the late Dr. William Kingsley, the founder of the society. Outbreak of Choleraic Diarrhoea near A VERY severe outbreak of choleraic diarrhoea took place last week in the family of a farmer named Lashley, at Hambledon, near Southampton, which resulted in the death of one child, and the severe illness of every member of the family. His mother deposed that the deceased went to bed on the previous Tuesday evening in his usual health. He had for supper some soup, which they had Royal Medical Benevolent Fund Society of procured from the soup kitchen, and nothing else. The Ireland. A MEETING of the Central Committee of the above Society was held at the Royal College of Surgeons, on the 30th December. Present:-Mr. Tufnell (in the chair), Dra. Benson, Collis, Crocker, Fitzpatrick, Evory Kennedy, Law, Little, M'Clintock, Mollan, Quinan, Stewart, Albert Walsh, and Wharton. The death of Dr. Guinness having been announced, it was unanimously resolved :-"That this committee desires to record its deep regret at the death of Dr. B. Grattan Guinness, one of the honorary secretaries, by which sad event the society not only loses a warm friend, but is deprived of the services of a zealous and efficient officer." It is in fact (less income-tax) the pension assigned to me by Government as late medical superintendent of the Mountjoy Prison, and which I hope to hand to you annually as long as I continue to receive it. Circumstances into which it is unnecessary for me to enter, induce me to think that as I did not seek this pension on any selfish or personal grounds I can make no better public use of it than by devoting it to the service of the widows and orphans of my professional brethren. "I made every possible exertion to obtain it, and through the unwearied exertions of Mr. Pimm, I suc next morning he seemed perfectly well. She had been ill from the previous morning with diarrhoea and sickness, and had not got up in consequence. Her husband and eldest boy had been ill from the same complaint; her other children had been ill also, and the one younger than the deceased was still ill, but better. She went down-stairs and found him and his younger sister both very ill; they were sick, had diarrhoea, and were very thirsty. She took them up-stairs and put them to bed They kept on asking for drink. Deceased grew worse, and attempted to get out of bed, and would have fallen through weakness if she had not held him up. They had had no arsenic, nor any other poison in the house, nor had they any reason to believe that any person had given any to their family. Dr. Gaman said he did not see the deceased during his illness, but he had made a post-mortem examination of the body. From what he had heard of the symptoms he thought they might have been occasioned by arsenic, but he could find no traces of that or of any other irritant poison. He had tested the contents of the stomach of the deceased, and the vomit of the sister. In appearance they were both the same, except that in the stomach, which was a little darker. On opening the chest he found the left lung unhealthy and tuberculous, showing a disposition to consumptive disease. The right lung and the heart were healthy, and both sides of the heart were full of blood. The stomach was unusually flaccid, and the mucous lining here and there congested. He accounted for this from the vomiting; if it had been the effect of poison the congestion would have been more marked. The intestines appeared healthy, and were filled with |