The Sun.
London, England, 1858-08-04 00:00:00

IVS PAPE R
Professor Playfair roee and .iirs*seTjiiittVeTit'
was the signal for renewed ap
Regarding the Scottish Universitti Ar..4lprorSor y •
FOUR said, in former times it
ntigilt are
been said
graduates lest their connection with
the university r
they shook hands with the asz:ernbled professors at the ge.
nation ceremony. This can no longer be alleged.
Universities of Scotland Bill, so well prepared and
ably carried through, by Lord Advocate Inglis,
bind the graduate to his alma ?ritzier. The men
faculty of this university have used every efibrt
obtain for graduates in medicine the same privilege,
graduates in arts. Their efforts have been successful.
act is calculated to improve the condition of Scottish
versifies. It will encourage the student to go throng
regular university curriculum in place of prosecuting tI
studies in a desultory manner at various schools and collet'
And it will thus, it is hoped, ensure that training which
so essential for the successful prosecution of medicine.
will also encourage a preliminary education in there, -
and philosophy, and will thus tend to raise the social ste
in graduates. The professor remarked that he did not I
upon a university as merely a board of examiners,
Wl-
duty was simply to test the qualifications of car
dates without reference to collegiate training. Es
univerAty ought .to have within itself the me.
of training the pupil. during his curriculum, of
serving. the annual progress in his studies, and of ea
rising a certain degree of surveillance over his general
portment, so that when candidates appear for honours, I,
appearance may be regarded as a' surer criterion for th
acquirements than that afforded by a mere professio,
examination. After enlarging upon this topic, the P.
fessor concluded by an eloquent appeal to the graduate,
relation to the important duties which lay before them
the warfare of life, both as Christians and members of t
medical. profession.
When the applause which followed the termination of t
address had subsided, the graduates passed before the pt
fessors, and were individually congratulated by each pn
fessor. The Principal then closed the proceedings
prayer.

HEALTH OF LONDON DU.RING THE IVEE,!

(From the Official Report.)

The deaths registered in London in the week ending lr
Saturday, July 31st, are 1,161, and exhibit a slight increa
on those of the previous week, when the number was 1,13;:
In the ten years 1848-37 the average number of deaths
the weeks corresponding with last week was 1,152; but
the deaths now returned occurred in a population whit
has annually increased, they can only be compared with t
average after_it has been raised iu proportion to the increas
A...correction which will mak?: it 1,267. The cornparis(
thtni,vink'shoWti a reduction of more than a 100 in the dent!
of last Nreek; but it is'necessary to remark that choler!' w.
spreading with great violence in:the last week of July, 184!
and with diarrhcel WTI fatal in 1,007 cases; that the sau
epidemic had commenced at this time in 18.54; and there
fore the average which comprises both periods is too high t
be used for comparison in a season which, like the present
is comparatively healthy. It will be found that the mor-.
tality of last week approaches very near an average derived
from non-epidemic seasons.
If the deaths of last week had been according to "th
healthy rate" of mortality, which is derived from those di, ;
tricts of England where the mortality is least, they woul ;
have been 799. Therefore the deaths that occur in excess
of this number may be designated unnatural; and in the!
present instance these amount to 362, though it is certairc
that the number thus described is understated, as will ap-
pear from the fact that the mortality of the selected coun-

try districts includes many deaths which properly fall under'
the same denomination.
The mortality from diarrhoea shows an increase; the
deaths having risen from 127 in the previous week to 16th.
last week. Five occurred in the sub-district of St. Mary,
Paddington, 5 in Camden-town, 9 in Islington East, 6 in,
Christchurch (Southwark), 5 in Lambeth Church sub-dis-;
trict, second part. Fifteen deaths are referred to cholera,
and 12 of these occurred to children. In the case of a man.
who died in Black-bull-yertl, Gray's-inn-lane, the disease
is returned as cholera Asiatica. The fatal cases of scarla-
tina arc still numerous; they rose last week to 78. Five
deaths from it occurred in the sub-district of Haggerstone
West, 2 of which were in the Shoreditch workhouse, and were
those of a man and woman who were brought on the 23d ult.
from 11, Victoria-place, Brunswick-street. Two children

have recently died from cynanche tonsillaris in the house of
a labourer in Putney, and three other children in the family
have suffered from it. Fifty-six children died of measles;
6 of these in St. Saviour, Southwark.

The three oldest persons whose deaths are in this return,
are a man, aged 94 years, and two widows who were 95.
Last week the births of 877 boys and 780 girls, in all
1,657 children, were registered in London. In the ten cor-
responding weeks of the years 1848-57 the average number
was 1,459.

At the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, the mean height
of the barometer in the week was 29.787 in. The
highest barometrical reading was 30.07 in. on Saturday.
The mean temperature of the week was 59.0 deg:, which is
2.5 deg. below the average of the same week in 43 years (as
determined by Mr. Glaisher). The mean daily temperature
was below the average on every day, and pn Thursday the
extent of depression was 6.2 deg. The thermometer fell to
its lowest point on Thursday, viz., 43.8 deg., and rose to its
highest in the shade on Saturday, which was 78.2 deg. The
range of the week was therefore 34.4 deg.; the mean daily
range was 24.5 deg. The difference between the mean dew
point temperature and air temperature was so great as
10.7 deg. The mean degree of humidity was only 68. The
mean temperature of the water &,f the Thames was 651 deg.
Oa Sunday morning the wind, which was in the south-west,
blew sometimes with a pressure increasing to 1.5 lbs. on the
square foot, and the trees in Greenwich-park suffered
damage to an unusua amount.

13IPORTANT SANITARY PROCESS-PRE-
SERVATION OF THE BODY AFTER
DEATH.

On Saturday there was a numerous assemblage at the
Anatomical Theatre, Bartholomew's Hospital, of medical
and scientific gentlemen, and others interested in the sani-
tary condition of the population, for the purpose of re-
ceiving some explanations of a process which has been
designated the process Falcony, after the name of the die-
tinguished chemist, M. Falcony, whose reputation stands
deservedly high on the Continent, in connection with this
department of chemical science. M. Falcony has succeeded
in bringing to perfection two processes, one for preventing
decomposition of the human body after death, and cf arrest-
ing it even after it has set in ; and the other for permanent
preservation, or, to use a more familiar expression, fur em-
balming the body. It is to the former that the
attention of the general public will mo:e par-
ticularly be directed, inasmuch as, in a sanitary point
of view, nething can be of snore importance than to be
put in possession of the means, at a moderate cost, of pre-
venting the decomposition of a body which it is our custom
in England to retain for a fortnight if possible. There are
some diseases which are the cause of death, where decom-
position sets in no rapidly
toothat
an
tmhegyreiants.etsatnctlez agarmroonfgresnt
euds this practice; and,
the poorer classes, compelled to sleep even in the same room
with the dead relative, numerous cases of infection and
fever have taken place. Now, this prccess of M. Falcony
for the prevention of all infectious gases, is simple and
cleanly in its application. It consists of a powder, com-
posed of various chemical constituents, of which sulphate
of zinc is the base; and this being mixed with sawdust is
placed under and over the corpse, leaving the loc.! exposed.
Covered with this dry preparation the boJy can bc, kept for
five or six weeks without any apparent change, whilst not
the sliehtest exhalation escapes. Mr. Farrow was present
on Saturday, and Dr. Holden was obliging enough to favour
the gentlemen present with the results of a test to which
chat process had been subjected at Bartholomew's. On the
9th of J une, the remains of a human leg and foot which had
been amputated at the hospital were' deposited its a box
filled with this preparation. The leg and foot were in an
offensive condition of putrefaction, and in a few days would
have liquified. On Saturday the box wss brought into the
theatre and uncovered, when all putrascence had ceased
and the fish had become indurated, somewhat resembling
India rubber. Dr. Holden further stated that upon its
being put into the preparation, the offensive smell ceased
almost instantaneously. The conclusion, therefore, to be
drawn from this fact is, that if such result can be obtained
by the application of the process to a body in a high state
of putrescence and decomposition, the same application, if
made soon after death, and before decomposition begins,
will be even mere striking and efficacious. The
demonstrations were highly satisfactory. An ex-
amination was rfterwards entered into of the process of
embalming, which is performed by the injection of a liquid,
and without the mutilation of the body, but as the explana-
tion of the details of this system would be somewhat too
technical for our columns, we feel that we shall be best per-
forming our duty to the public by inciting the immediate
and earnest attention of too Board of Health to this impor-
tant practical discovery.