The Sun.
London, England, 1864-07-26 00:00:00

THERMOMETER.

This day at Two o'clock 74

Barometer-30.06.

WIND —S.-Westerly ; moderate breeze, and fine.

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.
rya DA.T.—Morning, 7h. 12m.—Afternoon, 7a. 40m,
ro.monnow.-morning, Bh. lOrn.—Afternoon, Bh. 45m,

,irto T .4.
°(4] .11, 1514414.5::-§ SUI
ftzviigiv,

JULY 26, 1864.
LONDON, TUESDAY,

In a thin House at the very end of a session we
may dften find measures of considerable importance
brought forward without sufficient heed being taken
of their scope and tendency. We have just had a'
notable instance of this in the India Medical Berge()
Bill, which was attempted to be passed, but Was
thrown out by a very small majority. Mr.
HENNESSY and Mr. LONGFTELD and others
did good service in
pointing out its injurious
tendency. Sir CnKaLEs WOOD appears to
have a special preference for bringing forward
everything pertaining to his department when
energies are exhausted, moments
brief, and the
general feeling of the political world is to
through the work that remains with as little ?jet
ielay
and trouble as possible. Whether such a time is
the best suited for careful conaideratior, of Indian
matters may be very much doubted. Sir ,lIARLES
%VOOD probably thinks that his own edicts are so
p?rfect that it would be idle to trouble the House
with them at an earlier and busier portion of
the session. The Bill in question, however, is
cue within the reacin of every one's comprehen-
sion and experience, however little he
may have studied the general aspect of Indian
affairs. The want which is felt in the Indian army
is felt also in the regular army, and it is a want of
such
.importance that public attention should at
once be called to the matter. It appears that a

very great :deficiency exists in the number of me•
dical officers for the Indi an army. The Assistant-
Surgeons at present obtain their appointments by
competition according to the usual rule. It is
generally found when public appointments are thus
thrown open that the number of candidates very
greatly exceeds the li st of vacancies. But what is
the case with the "Indian medical service ? Sir
CHARLES WooD, in. replying to Mr HENNESSY on
Friday night, said that a return of the last three
examinations showed that for 90 vacancies there
were only 72 candidates, of whom only 50 suc-
ceeded in passing, so that the supply of eighteen
months has fallen short of the demand by forty
men. This is confirmed by Sir JOHN LAWRENCE,
\
Who states that the medical service in Bengal is
short by 20 officers, and that the deficiency else-
where is still greater. And what is our Indian
Secretary's cure for all this ? As he cannot get a
proper supply of efficient men on his terms he
proposes to atone for it by taking in the inefficient.
Competitive examinations have proved, he says, a
failure, and evidently he regards them as such, bes
cause they deprived him of 22 out of the united
number of candidates who presented themselves.
He therefore brings forward a bill " to make pro-
vision for her MAJESTY'S Indian Forces, which is
to empower the Secretary of State to make, from
time to time, such regulations for the appointment
of medical officers as he may think fit ; and to en-
able the Governors of the Indian provinces to do the
same thing subject to his revision. This means
that these authorities are to be allowed to pat into
the service men who could not have passed the test
of an examination. In a a country where the
exigencies of climate, the deficient sanitary arrange-
ments, and the ignorance and imprudence of Euro-
peans render our troops so especially liable to sick-
ness, and demand unusual skill, intelligence, and
energy on the part of the medical officer, men are
to be appointed who do not know their business.
When we are always liable to the possibility of a
war, or, at least, a brief campaign, such as that on
the north-western frontier, the same incompetent
assistants are to dress the wounds and amputate the
limbs of our suffering soldiers. It is always blame-
able for a Government to allow or encourage the
appointment of men to public offices who are unequal
to their post, but in an instance like this to sanc-
tion the appointment of ignorant men is an act of the
greatest cruelty. The horrors of war are surely great
enough without any needless aggravation, but if an
unskilled or ignorant medical officer is to attempt
to relieve the misery of the sick and wounded, how-
ever great his wish to do good, he will probably
lose the service a good many lives. There is
another and much simpler mode of rectifying
the discrepancy between the number of officers
wanted and the number forthcoming. The
medical branch of the service have, it is said,
been harshly and unjustly treated ; they re.
ceive a very illiberal remuneration, and are not
allowed to occupy their proper position in the army.
The profession, in consequence, declines to enter
lists for these appointments. Its members are cer-
tainly numerous enough to supply every vacancy,
and the eagerness with which a fixed appointment
is generally sought after in our crowded professions
shows how great must be the mistake or neglect on
the part of the authorities, who have so thoroughly
disgusted the members of this one with their ser-
vice. For the want which is becoming so serious in
our Indian service is also largely felt in our general
army, and consequently Sir CHARLES WOOD'S
excuse that the principal object of his bill was to
enable the assistant surgeons of the QUEEN'S army
to volunteer into the Indian service was little
' heeded. Colonel NOICTII remarked that so scarce
were assistant surgeons in the regular army that
the Government had been forced to extend the
limit of age for admission first to 25and afterwards
to 10; while quite a new class had lately sprung
up—acting assistant surgeons, men, we presume,
who fufil the duties of assistant surgeons without
being regularly qualified for the appointment.
This is not a very hopeful source of supply for India,
when we have not enough for England and else-
where. Bat the whole principle is in fault. If men
are to be appointed to offices of so much importance
they ought to be properly qualified, and if the corn,
petition be moderate and practical in its nature,
it would never keep back those who ought to pass.
But it is evident that the fault lies in the appoint-
ment and not in the examination, since not only the
number of successful candidates, but the total
number of applicants, fell far short of the list of
vacancies. If the Government reformed their salaries
and improved their position, there is little doubt the
army would be as well supplied with surgeons as
with any other officers, but it is easier and cheaper
to pass incompetent men. At least, it is apparently
cheaper, for a soldier's life in India is too costly to
be lightly trifled with.

There are few more difficult tasks than to
attempt the amelioration of the condition of the
working classes. In the matter of their dwellings,
more especially, there is ample scope for the exer-
cise of ingenuity and the practice of patience. So
much must be done before any effectual end is.
gained, and the obstructions are so numerous; the
opposition so continuous, that it sometimes seems
an almost impossible task to make any progress in
the complicated affair. It is very satisfactory to
find that the company of which Lord STANLEY is
Chairman, still prosecute their labours and keep
up their exertions in the rAtimable undertaking in
which they are engage/ Last Friday a meeting
was held at the Mansion House, and the details
are very well wrerth consideration: Mr. Alderman
WATERLOW, the Deputy Chairman, presided in
the absence of Lord STANLEY, and the report of
the transactions of the company was read. It is
very gratifying to find that the directors have
" undiminished confiaence in the success of the
enterprise," and this notwithstanding the increased
demand for labour and the high price of bricks has
greatly augmented the cost of the dwellings. It
is quite evident that the labours of this company
represent a necessity of the times, they are closely
allied with the greatest principles and the greatest
scandals of the age we live in. As day after day,
and week after week, witnesses the structure
of some immense building, or the design of
some important social improvement in the way
of architecture and the construction of railways, so
also do these changes and alterations bear dark
events in their train, and herald the advent of
misery to many a small but nourishing homestead,
and bear the mandate of doom to the poor man's
simple but convenient habitation. Go where we
will we must meet with the traces of these things,
and hear the complaints made by the unfortunate
individuals who are driven forth few know where,
and fewer stilt care. This is not as it should be,
and the political economist who understands kis
Science will recognise the inadvisability of the
course now being pursued so recklessly and at so
great an extent. The sufferings and inconveniences
to which the lower orders have been put by the
mania for railways that has spread in all directions,
and the erection of other public works and large
buildings in all imaginable localities, cannot pos-
sibly be overrated, Too much cannot possibly be
done on all sides to obviate as far as
preeticeble the
spread of ruin and dejection that threatens to over-
ran an Active And industrious population, and cause

a return to some of the worst evils of that state of
neglect from which they have only so recently been
in a great measure rescued. It was mentioned
at the meeting that whole parishes of housed
are being removed for the construction of
railways and other " improvements," but yet
no attempt seems to be made to procure " decent
houses" for those that are being swept away. The
best proof that could possibly be furnished of the
desirability of this comptay being formed consists
in the fact that was mentioned at the meeting that
numerous applications have already been made for
the " dwellings," although the buildings are not yet
roofed in. This circumstance should unquestionably
impart confidence to those who are as yet but lookers
on at the scheme, and take no active part in its
prosecution. There is everything to recommend an
immediate attention to the claims of this society on
public support. The profit is almost certain, and
the philanthropic nature of the scheme is beyond
all praise. It is incumbent upon those who are
possessed of sufficient means to do what they can in
the way of providing for the pressing necessities
and urgent wants of their fellow-brethren ; and,
sad as are the cases of absolute distress, it is in a
great measure more incumbent upon us to take care
of those who are bordering on the precipice, and in
a short time will be driven over into the gulf of
ruin beneath. A timely hand stretched out, a friend
in need, may often prove the turning points in the
career of many. It is not charity that is here
sought, bat assistance that is immediately required to
enable the work now in full trim to go on prospering.
Those difficult first steps have been taken which are
too often the beginning and the end of fair-seeming
enterprises, and thus the timid and doubtful have
not the very plausible excuse in their power of say-
ing that they are afraid it will not do so well in
practice as in theory, and that they must reserve
their judgment until a more fitting opportunity.
The board very wisely suggest to the members that
they should use their efforts to induce their friends
to take up the remainder of the capital of the com-
pany without delay. The reasons for this are ob-
vious, because there often occur opportunities for
obtaining advantageous sites, but the Board hesi-
-1 tate to purchase more land unless they have a larger
capital. There is every reason to hope that due
attention will be paid to this suggestion, and that
this excellent undertaking will not be allowed to
languish for want of the right means for carrying
out to the full entirety its plans and purposes. That
something decisive must be done has long been ad-
mitted on all sides, and it seems only the practice of
a wise forethought that induces these members of
the Company to undertake in time what must be-
fore very long be done by some means or other. It
will be quite impossible to treat this question
of the dwellings of the working classes with the
indifference that so often pervades the social ques-
tions of the day. The mischief will spread like
wildfire—fever, disease, and miseries of all kinds
will supervene if the poor are left to remain in
their closed, crowded dwellings, with hardly any
appliances for decency. or comfort, and often pay-
ing an extravagant price for their miserable loca-
tions. It is of more especial importance, too, to
pay all possible heed to this subject, on account of
there being the certainty that as time passes all
these evils of over-crowding will increase, instead
of diminishing: The improvements of modern
science, and the new aspect things are assuming
in all directions, tend to militate, very consider-
ably, against the chances of the poor being left
in peace, or even undisturbed in their hardships.
A company of this class may, in some sort, be re-
garded as partly a national institution, for it pro-
vides for a great want of the community, and in
some degree finds a remedy for a great and -eressing
evil. Every inducement, then, seems to invite us
to pay special heed to the undertr:ging of such an
establishment, and it is earliestly to be trusted
that it will go on and pr-,,sper, and that succeed-
ing years will find it advancing in usefulness,
while the more pressing and painful demand for
its agency shall cease, through better arrange-
ments and the progress of improvements.

HENRY PHILLIPS AND THE YANKEE MUSIC
SELLER.—I had had written beforehand, as was
my custom to make all the preliminary arrangements, and
arrived about twelve o'clock in the day. The person who
kept the music store was to lend me a piano forte on hire,
and had promised it should be on the platform, with a
music stool, not later than four o'clock in the afternoon,
Knowing how dilatory men of buc'
climates, I always took the pre iness are in these hot
thing some hours sooner tb "eaution of ordering every.
the rooms at five o'cloe';‘, :an was necessary. I went to
but no instrument had arrived.
Six o'clock, still ned pianoforte. Half past—no signs of
such a thing. I 'Looked down the long avenue leading to
the store, lei'-`,; there was nothing on the way. Seven o'clock
aPProacked ; and hoc as the evening was, I resolved to go
down 'co the store and inquire the cause, as in another half
hoele my audience would be arriving. About a quarter of a
mile down the road I saw a little knot of negroes carrying
something that resembled a square pianoforte. By the time
I came up with them they had laid it fiat on the ground,
and some six niggers were sitting on it. Another nigger
was carrying two of the legs, a second two more, and a third
the music-stool. The six were wiping their foreheads, and
telling all sorts of stories, when I asked, " Is that pianoforte
for the concert-room tonight?" " Yes, massa," replied
one. " Then whecelon't you take it ?" I said. "It ought to
halo been there two hours sieeee,” " It's ber heavy," re-
`plied my friend. " We'll get on de track presently.'
" Very well," said, 1, shaking my finger at them, " I'll
complain to ye,er master ;" and in a raging fever I reached
the music :store. There stood the proprietor, picking his
teeth ';eith his penknife. He was a till, thin-faced man,
all, bone and muscle. I was red with rage when I dashed
into the shop and said, " What does all this mean ?"
" What do you allude to, strangeri?" he replied, in the
coolest manner conceivable. Speaking rapidly, I con-
tinued, " You said my pianoforte should be in the room
at four o'clock; it's now past seven, and your niggers are
now sitting down on it in the street. It has put me in a
fever of rage and disappointment. My auditors are
coming. Those lazy brutes won't stir, and you ought to
have seen them off three hours since. It's scandalous I
shameful! abominable I How am I to sing a fter this ?
What excuse can you make ? " All this time he stood with
his arms folded, looking coolly at me ; and while I was
waiting a moment to take breath and renew the attack, he
said, " Well, stranger, have you done ?" I hesitated for
an instant, and said " Yes." " Look you here, then,"
said he, "This is our mode of doing business; if you don't
like it, move the pi-a-no forte yourself." This philo-
eophical mode of treating and looking at the matter put a
stop to all argument, so I hastened back, and sang well to
a very good audience.—Muileal anl Personal Recollections
of henry Phillips,
FRENCH ACADEMY OF SCIENCES.—At the last
sitting a paper was received from M. Valz, the
astronomer at Marseilles, in which he stated the elements
of the new comet as follows ;—Passage through perihelion
September 7.05 mean time of Marseilles; perihelion dise
tance, 0.823 ; longitude of perihelion, 289'37 degrees ; right
ascension, 66'56 deg. ; inclination, 1'45 dog. ; motion, re-
trograde.—Dr Nelaton communicated a paper on the des
struction of tumours by an electrolytic method, applicable
to cases in which the tumour is deeply seated and inacces-
sible to ordinary instruments. The case quoted by him was
a naso-pharyngian polypus, which was electro• chemically
destroyed by inserting two platinum pins into its mass,
and making them communicate with the poles of a Bunsen's
pile, consisting of 9 elements 16 centimetre in height by 8
in diameter, and arranged for tension. The tumour was
destroyed in six sittings, without any effusion of blood, and
with very little pain. A paper was received from M. Pisani
on the chemical composition o the aerolith whiele fell at
Orgueil on May 14 last. He states that all the specimens
of this aerolith do not present the same state of cohesion,
but that they are all of spongy texture, and all eagerly
absorb water. M. Henri Sre. Claire Deville communicated
further researches on the penenetbility of iron. Our readers
may recollect that in a previous paper this eminent
chemist had shown that hydrogen contained in an iron tube
will, ooze through its pores it hat be applied, a fact easily
explained by the expansion of the metal consequent upon
an increase of temperature. In the present case M. Devine
introduced an iron tube into a porcelain one, so as to form
an empty cylindrical space between the two, closed at both
ends. He then filled both the inner and outer spaces with
nitrogen, and heated the apparatus, after which he caused
hydrogen to pass into the annular space, taking care to mea-
sure the pressure, which soon became doubled in the iron
tube. On analysing the gas contained in the latter, he
found it to consist of hydrogen and nitrogen, the former
in by far greater quantity than the latter, besides a little
oxide of carbon, This shows that the hydrogen had pene-
trated through the tube.