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ODIUM MUD [CUM.
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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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of which -Mr . Kijrpp . made the cannon of Great'Exhibition notorielv . His welding is . also performed |> y a TiydnuiUe press . _ Now it we" were quite •'¦ swre that 4 he science ~ of pr . jtu-ti . es hart readied its utmost condition ' of perfection ' . 'the ordinary sort of Ministers , Commanders-in-Chief , and Boards might , with the help of a few men of science and skilled artisans , go on in a tolerably flourishing manner ; but we are not secure , for one moment , against the march of invention ) and discovery , and unless our whole official mechanism is up t / the mark , and ready to enter upon afresh race at any moment , YteThight easily find ourselves sufficiently < . is . ancecl as to ' be placed in a dangerous position . Very lately we trusted to iron-clad ships , but the illustrations of the effects of cannon upon far to destroy
These are the inevitable results of the application of science to war , « : r »^ i ^ s || g ^ least as advantageous as tlfa . fr of the moderately skilled ai tu , an .
masses of this metal exhibited by Mr . Abel go very confidence in what has been done . We are on the point of constructing additional fortifications , at an enormous expense , and we have , as yet , very slender means of judging of what the continuous fire of large Akmstbosg and Whitavokth gnus , or of improved monster mortars , would effect . It is obvious that further dinnges will take place , and only thoroughly well-trained and skilful . 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 rifled cannon / and the artillery used so recently as the Crimean- war , is almost as great as between the catapulta and . those very ' guns . All ; existing fortifications hay *} been constructed upon a . certain calculation if the range of artillery , and its power of displaring earth and stone—that is now completely overthrown . The mode of approaching" a stronghold and the -manoeuvres of one arrny in . the Held against . another have also reference to the distance nt which musketry and artillery can
changes as they occur . The theory of every department of military art must be perfected , for as our mechanism * becornes more elaborate , trifles rise'into importance , and using _ a wrong material to grease cartridges might lead to theToss of jftmttle on which great ' , fortunes . might depend . Mr . Abel suggested this reflection by his remarks on this very question . The new " rifles have very little of what is called " wind age , " their balls are almost a close fit , and cartridges greased with tallow or oilbecome too big , owing to the action of the fatty acids on the lead . Even employing sweet oil to grease the machines b y which the balls are now formed , by pressure instead ct' 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 tnl . low , beeswax was laced the olive oii
substituted , and oil from Barbadoes petroleum rep in the bullet-making machine .. Similar minute but essential ; parli--ctc !« Ws-tvt 1 HiaTTrixrtrcrd ^ of almost every novelty introduced ; and we must remember that , owing to the discouragement with which successive administrations have treated nun of science , we are scarcely on the threshold of invention as applied to military affairs . Until recently the slow match was the only wily in which the engineer ignited his mines or masses of powder . Nov . ' , magneto-electricity has been introduced , and a man can curry 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 ( substance very easy for this form of electricity to
ignite , and yet capable of being handled without danger ; the ordinary fulinimftihg compounds failed , but a mixture of phosphurct of Copper and chlorate of potash succeeded , as was shown by Mr . Abel in the course of his lecture , Captain Norton ' s fire shells pluoed any canvas camp at the mercy of a few riflemen or artillery men with a small Wiiitwoktji or Armstkoko gun . It was , therefore , necessary to nuiko tho tents fireproof , " > ld afc * " P »« 'tial success luis been achieved by ¦ tho employment of soluble glass . Among other improvements we find vulcanized indiurubbev luis been introduced to line powder barrel ? , and hold the" powder itself for submarine and other explosions . But vulcanized rubber , as " tisually prepared , soon gets rotten , us all who use the paper bands are nwure ; and , moreover , the material is very costly , so that invention is needed in thin direction as well as in others . Hitherto and have been political jobsand
army navy management , anybody possessed of enough influence has been thought fit for n War Minister , * First L' . rd of tho Admiralty , or scino high command . This system must bo rooted out , or we shall soon be relatively behind the tinies . nstnuch as wo were before tho ' Russian . war lefe-ii little daylight into the scene . If an uristoondio noodlu will no longer do for command , n more clod pole drilled into n machine will not ' sufiU ' e fur tho executive agent . Tho scientific apparatus \ vo have been describing cim only be efficiently used by men of suiUciontly sharpened iutelligtinco to get a far mcro comfortable and better living in the world than that of the private soldier has over jet been / ' An nnny or a navy using skilled weapons and practising skilful tactics will no longer bo a more mass from out of which individual life has been Hogged and crushed . In a different way to that of ancient times , because associated with more combination , ( ho individuality of uuch combatant will return , . and both tho Holdi <; r and Bailor will bo conscious of a persoiuil vahio he ' has not felt before .
produce their maximum effect , and not only mnst 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 an 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 4 s not ready to learn , Irom day to day , ajid prompt at . devising expedients to meet
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A N old dramatist—WiiBsran , we think—sings m one ot his solemn XJL dirsres of- — , ,. " those dreary graves and . vault 3 , That oft do hide T > hysich » ns' faults . " Ye < = there the lawyer vields to the one law which cannot be explained away there the preacher , instead of moralising , ezcep from his tomWtone . or bv the memory of his example » moi ; a u * d « pony there the ,, hvsicians sleep too , with their quarrels , which maj have been violent / with their victims who may have been » nm 0 ™ ™ ib their etiquettes which , more even than their doses , linic > o ten , worried their patients . Judged they have been , of course ancUevei e y enough during their lifetime by their professional brethren ; . if tcj--ward ' s , for some time , at least , etiquette and English espy * tin con * throw a veil over the weakness of their judgment or the audacity of their practice , and vest mortem examinations of their characters are decently forborne by their survivors in the pro ession At least this seems to be the general rule , from the disturbance which a violation of it has caused in the London medical world . _ The offending party in tho present instance is a writer well known in the literary as well as the medical y . orld—Dr Gkaxvilms author of the " Spas of Germany , " " Sudden Death , &e ; and Dn ? Tor > r > and Bjjtght . both recently deceased , are the gentlemen
exhumed for . a post mortem , and charged pretty plainly with having hastened the death of Mr . Hixdley , the late member for Ash ton , bv what is , in medical language , termed the " exhibition - of enormovs do ^ es 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 . Iodd , delirium -tremeni . Dr . Tobd is charged with insisting on this mode of treatment , and Dr . Bjlugktwith seconding and sanctioning it , contrary to the adwee of DiU 3 ranviU ; e , who had been first called in and-at last , ' in de-liancc of his warnings and protest , which
seems , according ttr his own account , to have been a very distinct one . Dr . ToPD / in tliis Bruivonian practice , as it is calred , may have believed himself to be justified by some prior instances of success- but the treatment is so unlike that" which is usual jii diseases of this class ^ tliat it seems little short of madness to the rational reader mid the average medical man ; and , individually , \ ye should far prefer putting ourselves , with our knowledge ot their respective practice , under the " author of the Spas , than under that of the other trentlemen if they were still surviving , though we distinctly assure ' the reader that we are speaking quite problematically , this form of disease
as we have never been troubled with , nor deserved it . We have cited Dr . Gaaxvixle ' s own-. lUfcidiilberated account of the matter given in a " Letter lo the Medical Circular . "Whether the authors of an error are dead or alive , we think it 7 b 3 ^ irabfe thamHTpinilic s ! iotirdnT ^ iTiit ^ TnTOsscssron-of-the ~ f « ct , sfar as they are capable of understanding them as soon as possible , without any of that absurd delicacy with which the members of the same profession or bodv 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 Gartu ;—" About tho symptoms how they disagree ! But how unanimous in case of fee I "
To break through this even at the risk of having to run anna-k , lancet or rather steel-pen in hand , through double files of prognosticating brows and diagnosticating noses , amid showers of blows from gold-headed ' ennos , would deserve the applause and thanks ot the public if done without the smallest desire of notoriety ; aiurwe should have highly praised Dr . Gjianvii . t , e for his resolution , but there is an animus about his -pamphlet which is extremely unpleasant . Considering that the two erring doctors aro dead , we should have thought that ,, at least , the good tasto of tho literary man would have ' come in aid , and dictated to ' tho physic-inn a mild and temperate letter , with a very simple statement of his own utter dissent from what ho believed to bo an error , and of his regret that his
professional brethren should have fallen into it , —had this been done m a judicious tone , wo cannot believe that ho would have incurred any severe reflections . Hut , instead of that softening of tho spirit which ought to attend a censure of tho dead , instigated by a simpjo desire of good for tho living and love of truth , tho pamphlet is moderated by no such feeling for tho survivors . If his medicines are healing to the body , his letters certainly aro not so to tho mind ; and if his treatment is not "heroical" ( tho medical term for strong ) , his stylo in , at least in tho sense of pugnacity ; and there are-superfluous' and painful ronnuks on individuals , which , ordinary dolicacx ' especially in such a ca ' sowould have avoided . Certainly ,
, , no one can say that ho bus attacked tho dead only ; ho hits right mid left , behind and before , liko a Gichyon , or » patent douhloaction Siamese-twin , Tom Saykus . Wo havo his word , for it , that Dr , B . nioiiT related tho case of a niece of Dr . Omjtterbuck , who was reduced to a similar state ( with Mr . Hindlky ) by a continuous use of •¦ stimnhintH ' under Dr . SoimnvooD Smith , which tho undo took upon himself to stop at once , and tho young lady recovered . " At tiiis time he thought that Dr . Biucuit ' s opinion would bo in harmony with his own , and oven after tho disagreement was patent , ho -again , with evident satisfaction , quptoa Di \ IJiiidiir , when ho " smilingly remarked , ' Oh , tho Doctor ( Glianvils ) i . i not
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420 . The Leader and Saturday ^ Anal ^ L ^ . [ MayJ ^ ISoO
Odium Mud [Cum.
ODIUM MUD [ CUM .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), May 5, 1860, page 420, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2346/page/8/
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