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42o The Leader and Saturday Analyst. [Ma...
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ODIUM MEDICUM. AN old dramatist—Webstee,...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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| ¦ | ' ..-, **. ^ Science And Avar. //¦...
of which Mr . IvKuri ? made the cannon of Great Exhibition notoriety . His welding is also performed by a hydraulic press . - Now if \ v . e were quite sure thaithe science of pr < jectiles had reached its utmost condition of perfection , the ordiuary sort of Ministers , Coimnanders-ih-Chief , and Boards might , with the ^ help of a few men of science and skilled artisans , go on in a tolerably flourishr ing manner ; but we are not secure , for one moment , against the march' of invention and discovery , and unless our whole official mechanism is up to the mark , and ready to enter upon a fresh race at any moment , we might easily find ourselves sufficiently distanced as to ' placed in a dangerous position . Verv lately we trusted to iron-clad ships , but the illustrations of the effects of cannon upon masses of this metal exhibited by Mr . Abei . go very far to destroy
confidence in what has been done . We are on-the point ot constructing additional fortifications , at an enormous expense , and we have , as yet , very slender means of judging of what the continuous fire of large Aksistkojs g and Whitwohth guns , or of improved monster mortars , would effect . It is obvious that fm-ther changes will take place , and only thoroughly well-trained and bkiiful officers will be competent to direct . either an attack or a defence , with means so different to what have been hitherto employed . The difference between the action of the new rilled cannon , ar . d the artillery used so recently as the Crimean war , is almost as great as between the catapult * and those very guns . All existing , fortifications ¦ have calculation cf the of artil
been constructed upon a certain range - lery , and its power of displacing earth and stone—that is now completely overthrown . The mode of approaching a stronghold and the manojuvres of one army in the field against another have also reference to the distance at which musketry and artillery can produce their maximum effect , and not only must new calculations be made , and re-made ,, as circumstances change , but every arrangement of war will demand an amount of knowledge and skill hitherto unknown . How this will work with the Horse Guards jobbery and Court patronage may be easily divined . It will not be enough that iin officer shall be tolerably acquainted with routineroutine itself is destroyed by the constant accession of novelties , and no one can be fit for command who is not ready to learn ,
from day to day , and prompt at devising expedients to meet -changes as they occur . , = - . The theory of every department of . military art must be perfected , for as our mechanism becomes more elaborate , trifles rise into impbrtancerand using a wrong material to greaseTiart . ridg . es might lead to the loss of a battle on which great fortnifes might depend . IMi \ Abel suggested ibis reflection by his remarks on this very question . The new rifles have very little of what is called "' ^ windage / 1 their balls are almost a close fit , smd-cartridges greased wifch tallow or oil become too big , owing to the action of the . fatty acids oil the lead . Even employing sweet oil to grease the machines b y which the balls are now formed , by pressure instead of casting-, was found to set up a chemical action that did not stop , and made the balls unfit for use after a certain lapse of time . Instead of tallow , beeswax was substituted , and oil from Barbadoes petroleum replaced the olive oil in the bullet-making machine . Similar minute but essential particulars will have to be discovered and attended to in the employment
oTaTmost every iiovetty ~! ntrirdu ^ e tf ^ owing to the discouragement with which successive administrations have treated inch of science , we are scarcely on the threshold of invention as applied to . military affairs . Until recently the slow match was the only way " in which the engineer ignited his mines or masses of powder . Now , magneto-electricity has been introduced , and a man can carry in" a little box a set of magnets and coils which , when set in rotation , afford power enough to explode a dozen or more mines at once . This was not , however , accomplished without considerable ingenuity and a series of experiments . It was necessary to find a substiince very easy for this form of electricity to igmtp , and yet capable of being handled without danger ; the ordinarfulminating compounds failed , but a mixture of phosphuret ' . of
y copper and chlorate of potash succeeded , as was shown by Mr . Abei , in the-course of his lecture . Captain Norton ' s fire , sheila placed any canvas cninp at the mercy of a few riflemen or artillerymen with . a small Wjiitwoktii or AriiMSTRONG gun . It was , therefore , necessary to make the tents fireproof , and at lenst a partial success has been achieved by the employment of soluble glass . Among other improvements we find vulcanized indiurubber has been introduced to lino powder barrels , and hold the powder itself for submarine and other ¦ explosions ; ¦ Hut vulcanized rubber , as usually prepared , soon gets rotten , as all who use the paper bands are fiware ; arid , ; inbreWer , tlie material is very costly , so that invention is needed hi ' this direction as well as iii otnors . HUhertoarmy and navy management have been political jobs , and anybody possessed of enough influence baa been thought fit for a
War * Mfhimter , First Ly ' . rd of the Admiralty , or somo high command . ThiB tiystem mdst bo '' rooted , out , or we shall soon bo relatively bqhinid the times , us much as we were before the Russinn war lot a little : daylight into the kftehor If «« aristocratic noodle ' will , no longer do for command , a mere clodpolo drilled . into a machine will hdt suffice for the executive agent . The scientific apparatus we have been describing can only be efficiently used by men qf Bufflcie ' nUy sharj ^ ned intelligence to get a ' fur mere comfortable and better'living in the world than that of tho private soldier has over yet been . An army <) r a navy using skilled ^ wenpons and practising ctcilAil thetferf' ivlll ho longer bo ' n mere- mass from out of which Indi vidual life has been flogged and crushed . In a different way to that of ancient times , because ' associated with more combination , the mdrvidiiaHfy of each cbnibatarit ' will return , and both tho soldier and ¦ ftftot will be'cotrecious of iV personnl valuo ho has not felt before .
These are the inevitable results of the application of sci ex » cejo wa ^ and unless the middle class and the aristocracy intend to furnish the ? a » k and file of our defenders , they must' make thy position at least as advantageous as that of the moderately skilled artisan .
42o The Leader And Saturday Analyst. [Ma...
42 o The Leader and Saturday Analyst . [ Ma ^ 186 € l
Odium Medicum. An Old Dramatist—Webstee,...
ODIUM MEDICUM . AN old dramatist—Webstee , we think—sings in one of his solemn dirges of— . ¦ .. " fi . nao ilrpnrv crraves and vaults , " those dreary graves and vaults ,
That oft da hide physicians' faults . " Yes , there the lawyer yields to the one law which cannot be explained away : there the preacher , instead of moralising , except from his tombstone , or bv the memory of his example is moraUsed upon ; there the physicians sleep too , with their quarrels , winch may have been violent / with their victims who may have been numerous ., with their etiquettes which , more even than their doses , have often worried their patients . Judged they have been , ot course , and severely enough during their lifetime by their professional brethren ; afterwards , for some time , at least , etiquette and English esprit du corps throw a veil over the weakness of their judgment or the audacity of their practice , and post mortem examinations ot their characters are decently forborne by their survivors in the profession . At least this seems to be the general rule , from the disturbance which a violation of it lias caused in the London medical wor . d .
. The offending party in the present instance is a writer well known in the literary as well as the medical world—Dr . Guakviixx , author of the "Spas of Germany , " " Sudden Death / & c . ; and Drs . Todi > and BittGHT , both recently deceased , are the gentlemen exhumed for a post mortem , and charged pretty plainly with having hastened the death of Mr . Hhtcmjsy , the late member for Ashton , by what is , in medical language , termed the " exhibition' ot enormous doses of stimulant in the form of brandy at the rate ot half an ounce every half-hour , and this continued with little intermission till one hundred and twenty ounces were taken by the patient ; the disease being delirium , or , according to Dr . Todd , delirium iremens . Dr . Todd is charged with insisting on
thismodc of treatment , and Dr . Bbioh * with seconding and sanctioning it , contrary to the advice of Dr . Gbanvilxe , who had been first called in , and sit last , in defiance of his warnings and protest , which seenrs ^ according to his own account , to have been a very uistinct one . Dr . Todd , In this ^ Brunbnian pwietiee , as it is called ,. mayhave believed himself to be justified by some prior instances of . success ; but tlie treatment is so unlike that which is usual m diseases ^ pf this class , that it seems little short of madness to the rational reader and the average medical man ; and , individually , we
should far prefer-putting ourselves , with ova- knowledge ot their respective practice , under the " author of the Spas , " than under that of the other gentlemen if they were still surviving , though we distinctly assure the reader that we are speaking quite problematically , as we have never been troubled with this form of disease , nor deserved it . We have cited J ) n GhanvuxEs own unadulterated account of the matter given in a " Letter to the Medical Circular ^ Whether the authors of an error are dead or alive , we think it desirable that the public should be put in possession of tho facts as
far as they arc capable of imderstaiulmg ^ lTejnfTir ^^ without any of that absurd delicacy with . which the members of the snme profession or body corporate often shield one another when a fault or a mistake has got wind , thereby adding another point ot unanimity to that owned by Dr . Samuel Gaiith : — " About the symptoms how they disagree ! ¦ ' - But how unanimous in case of fee 1 " To break through this even at the risk of having to run amuck , lancet or rather steel-pen in hand , through double files of prognosticating brows and diagnosticating noses , amid showers of blows front gold-headed canes , would deserve tho applause nnd thanks of the public if done without the smallest desire of notoriety ; and we .
should have highly praised Dr . Granviixe for his resolution , but there is an animus about his pamphlet which id extremely unpleasant . Considering that the two erring doctors are dead , wo should have thought that , at least , tho good taste of the literary man would have come in aid , and dictated to tho physician a mild and temperate letter , with a very simple statement of his own utter dissent from what he believed to bo an error , and of his regret that his professional brethren should have fallen into it , —had this been done in a judicious tone , we cannot believe that ho would have incurred any severe reflections . But , instead of that softening of tho spirit ; which ought to attend a censure of tho dead , instigated by a simple is
desire of good for the living and love of truth , the pamphlet moderated by no such feeling for the survivors . U his medicines are healing to the body , his letters certainly are not so to tho mind ; and if his treatment is not " heroical" ( the medical term for strong ) , Iiis Btylo is , at lenst in tho sense of pugnncity ; and there are superfluous and painful remarks on individuals , which ordinary delicacy , especially in such a case , would have avoided . Certainly , no one can say that ho ' has attacked the dead only ; he hits right and left , "behind and before , like a Geuyon , or a patent doubleaction Sjamose-tvvin Toar Sayeus . Wo have his word for it , that 11 Dr . Bright rohttod the enso of a nicoo , of Dr . Clcttekhuck , who was reduced to a similar state ( with Mr . Hinj > i , e ' y ) by a continuous usoof stimulants under Dr . Southwood SinTir , which the
nnclo tpbk upon himself to stop at ortco , and tho younjr lftdy recovered . " At this time he thought that Dr . BuranT ' s opinion would be in harmony with his own , and oven after the disagreement wns patent , he again , with evident satisfaction , quotes Dr . Buioht , when ho ' smilingly remarked , * Ob . tho Doctor ( Gkanvillk ) is not
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), May 5, 1860, page 8, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_05051860/page/8/
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