the mammalian period, or of the days of the great extinct pachyderms, down to recent times, than of the carrying back of the existence of man into the remoter ages. Our contemporary, when commenting on M. Lartet's account of the Aurignac cave, observes:

Assuming all the conclusions from the observations of M. Lartet to be correct (and from the great majority of them we see no cause to dissent), it appears to be almost incontestable that the result is unfavourable to the idea of assigning an almost measureless antiquity to those numerous deposits which are proved to be coëval with extinct mammalia, and of which we have treated in this article. It goes a long way to convince us that the existence in Europe of the cave-bear, cave-lion, rhinoceros, and mammoth must be approximated much more towards recent times rather than that the creation of man must be drawn back into a region of quite hypothetical remoteness on account of his association with the extinct species. But Sir Charles Lyell and M. Lartet (who appears to be a thorough disciple of his school) try to persuade us that absence of any mark of important change in the physical condition of the country about Aurignac is no proof that the antiquity of the tomb may not be indefinitely great. Great, no doubt, it must be, but every fact connected with its position and discovery seems to show that it belongs to what we may (somewhat vaguely, no doubt) call the present age of the world. There is nothing unreasonable in assuming that these mammals survived to a later period of the world's history than geologists have usually allowed. Even the changes of climate which they were once considered to establish has disappeared as a difficulty." (Edinburgh Review.')

But once admitting the contemporaneousness of man with the extinct pachyderms before mentioned, his duration upon the globe must under any view of the case, be still allowed to be of a far greater antiquity than has hitherto been suspected. But we are warned that we have already exceeded our usual limits, and we must relinquish our obscure, though very interesting theme. It will be recollected then that the theory of Cuvier was, that the earth, when sufficiently free from water to support animal existence did so in the successive order of-1. An age of reptiles; 2. Of palæotheria; 3. Of the mammoth and mastodon; and 4. Of man. Down to the time of Cuvier and Buckland, no very definite idea existed that man was contemporaneous with the extinct pachydermata of the third series. In their day, however, a few explorers of the labyrinthine passages of the past ventured, as we have seen, to hint that there was testimony to show that Man did tread the earth, for however short a period, with the cave-bears, hyænas, and rhinoceroses which have been extinct for ages. Now we find many of our highest geologic and paleontologic authorities strenuously supporting such an opinion, and carrying back the origin of man, geologically speaking, into the post-Pliocene period of the upper tertiary series. Whether he is to be finally located in these strata along with the mammoth and cave-bear, or whether he is to be brought forward again into a brighter daylight in company with certain extinct species, which were once thought to have been lost before they actually were so, or whether after all, certain grand mistakes have not been made, must be regarded as yet-in our opinion, at least, quite undetermined. Not only, however, do Sir Charles Lyell and others, for whose opinion we should have the highest respect, lean towards

the belief that man inhabited the earth in far distant ages, along with the elephant and the rhinoceros in the valley of the Ouse at Bedford, and in "post-Pliocene" times fashioned the flint implements of Amiens and Abbeville, but they maintain that the "recent period" of his existence here has been of so long duration as to carry it back to an incalculable antiquity, or one at least, to which five or six thousand years are but an insignificance, and in comparison with whose archives the records of the valley of the Nile must be considered as extremely modern. The evidence for thus lengthening the "præ-historic period" of man will be found displayed in a most interesting manner in Sir Charles's recent volume. It is founded upon the history of Danish peat and its remains, upon the Kjokkenmödding of Denmark, the lacustrine habitations of ancient Switzerland, the " crannoges" of Ireland, &c. &c. To discuss it would require nearly as many pages as we have already consumed. In conclusion, we feel bound to say, then, that however suspicious we still feel in respect to the nature of the testimony which has been offered us in proof that our race existed in past ages, almost bewildering to think of, we consider that neither the scientific world nor the general reading public have received for some time past two more welcome gifts than those of Sir Charles Lyell and of Professor Huxley. We do not know which to rate more highly-their scientific importance, or their general interest.

REVIEW X.

1. Report of the Commissioners appointed to Inquire into the Sanitary State of the Army in India, with Précis of Evidence. 8vo, pp. 265. 2. Minutes of Evidence, Reports from Stations in India and its Dependencies, &c. &c. 2 vols. folio, pp. 943 and 959.

THE appearance of this Report, with its documentary evidence, will form an era in the literature of State Medicine, and of the Hygiene, not of armies and military establishments only, but of communities and peoples also. From the very wide extent and varied nature of the field of inquiry, as well as from the comprehensive and searching system of investigation pursued, and the highly-intelligent character of the testimony received, whether orally or in writing, an amount of valuable information on many of the most important subjects relating to public health is collected together, such as has never before been obtained. The Commission was appointed in the summer of 1859, and the Report is dated May 19th, 1863, so that their labours extended over four years. The period had, alas! not passed away without leaving more than one blank in the roll of the original members. The brave and earnest-hearted Alexander, who, by the sheer vigour of his straightforward, resolute character, had swiftly raised himself to the highest post of professional ambition, was early cut off, to the infinite regret of his brother officers and numerous friends. Who that knew him, as he stood at the door of his Malta hut, "in the front," by the side of the Woronzoff road, or ever accompanied him over the hospitals of the Light Division, of which he was so proud, can forget his manly bearing,

his bold independence, whenever he felt himself in the right-his detestation of everything savouring of unfairness or deceit his most friendly intercourse with all the medical officers serving under him, and his hearty appreciation of their services-can refrain from dropping a tear to the memory of a gallant, able, and upright man? And then, too, the pure and noble-minded Sidney Herbert, worn out by slow sickness, and forced, despite heroic endurance, to yield his post to another, sunk at length, "weary with the march of life," to his long rest, amid a nation's sorrow. The date of his latest appearance at the meetings of the Commission appears to have been within a month or two of his decease. His place was filled by Lord Stanley, than whom no fitter or abler man could be found; and that of Mr. Alexander by Dr. Gibson, the present Director-General of the Army Medical Department. The other medical members of the Commission are Sir Ranald Martin, Dr. Farr, and Dr. Sutherland. The guiding, and indeed the originating spirit of the whole, has, of course, been the first of these three eminent men; and well may we, while according high praise to all, specially congratulate him on the success of the great object of his professional life. Rarely has it fallen to the lot of a medical man to witness so completely the attainment of the long-cherished and the long-pursued object of a most worthy ambition, and by the attainment of it to confer a great benefit on his country.

The paper drawn up in the early part of 1835 by him, while Presidency Surgeon at Calcutta, and addressed to Sir Charles Metcalfe, the Acting Governor-General of India at the time, contains the germ of the large and comprehensive inquiries which have been carried out by a Royal Commission five-and-twenty years subsequently. Basing his suggestions on the valuable work of Hennen on the Medical Topography of the Mediterranean,' he proposed that "the medical boards at each Presidency be directed to require from all medical officers, civil and military, serving under their orders, a report of the medical topography of the province, district, city, or cantonment, with the localities of which they may happen to be best acquainted, in which they may be serving at the time." These reports to be collected into a memoir, to be printed and supplied to all staff-surgeons and officers of the Quartermaster-General's Department. Besides minute topographical, meteorological, and climatic details, with remarks illustrative of the vital and medical statistics of the native populations, their dwellings, mode of life, &c., the most prevalent epidemic, epizootic, and epiphytic diseases, minute information is required as to the situation, construction, arrangement, and existing condition of barracks and military hospitals, with special reference to the drainage of the ground, the size and airiness of the wards, the quality of the water-supply, &c. &c., adding the very significant queries, "Whether any particular disease has ever been traced to them?" and "Whether any patients have ever laboured under any diseases that could fairly be attributed to the locality of the hospital?" The Medical Board of Calcutta, to whom Mr. Martin's paper was referred by the Indian Government, cordially approved of the scheme proposed, and expressed their readiness to co-operate in the

furtherance of its important objects. The result was, that the board was instructed by council to direct the attention of all the medical officers throughout the Presidency to the subject; and "in calling on those under your orders for topographical memoirs, it should be impressed on their minds that it is not on mere geographical position that climate and its salubrity depend, and that a fair estimate of the influence of detached spots on the health of the troops or other inhabitants is what is most wanted."

In 1842 he addressed to the Colonial Office a memorandum in which he pointed out the enormous loss of life, injury to health, and sacrifice of money resulting from the faulty mode of locating and constructing barracks and hospitals for the European troops in India and in many of Her Majesty's colonies, in consequence of these matters having usually been "left to the fancy of individuals, some of them very able military engineers, but too often persons who have had neither the time nor opportunity to consider the subject in all the importance it derives from the considerations of health." He proposed that standard or model plans be prepared for barrack and hospital accommodation, proportioned in scale to certain given numbers of men, and suited to the various climates occupied by our troops, and that these should in future be adopted, in place of leaving the matter to the caprice or faucy of different individuals. For this purpose, he suggested that a committee of competent engineers and medical officers be convened in London, to obtain the necessary evidence and report to the Government thereon. With the customary acknowledgment and thanks to the writer the matter dropped for the time; and it was not till the disasters of the Crimean war forced the subject of military hygiene on public attention-notwithstanding the oft-repeated expostulations of medical officers, and, although many terrible warnings, both in the East and West (as, for example, at Hong Kong, Kurrachee, Barbadoes, and Bermuda), had been given not many years before of the danger of neglect that there seemed to be a prospect of any useful result from his labours. With nations, it is often as it is with individuals—they need to be afflicted to learn the statutes of true wisdom and humanity.

The admirable 'Suggestions for promoting the Health and Efficiency of the British Troops serving in the East Indies,' addressed by Mr. Martin, in 1857, to the chairman of the East India Directors, enter more fully into the details of the important subjects of the selection of the proper locality and of the best structural arrangements in barracks and hospitals, thus anticipating the chief recommendations on these particulars in the present Report. The question of suitable bill stations for the troops is largely discussed, and the necessity for a series of careful scientific examinations being made of the ranges of hills throughout India is pointed out, to determine the best spots, which shall be free alike from the malarious fevers of the plains and from the disorders of the bowels which have infested too many of the mountain positions which had hitherto been selected. Lastly, the great importance of having a competent medical officer of health for the sanitary duties of the army at each of the Indian Presidencies, and whose office it should 65-XXXIII.

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be in peace to examine and report on the sites and condition of all military stations, the plans and structure of all buildings, and on everything relating to the health and comfort of the soldier, while in war; being attached to the quartermaster-general in the field, he would study the medical topography of the scene of action, advise as to the best sites for camps, &c., and as to all other matters having reference to the sanitary condition of the army. It is thus seen that the scheme sketched out in 1857 constitutes a sort of programme of the inquiry which has. been conducted by the Commission. The voluminous evidence which accompanies the Report occupies no less than 1900 folio pages of small print, and consists of the oral testimony of forty-eight witnesses, chiefly medical and military officers who have served in India, of the detailed replies to the elaborate queries prepared by the Commission from upwards of a hundred stations in the three Presidencies and in Ceylon, of a lengthened series of statistical returns of the royal troops from 1847 to 1856 prepared by Dr. Balfour, of the War Office, of numerous statistical tables illustrative of the health of the late East India Company's army prepared by Dr. Farr, together with a Report by Mr. Glaisher upon the meteorology of India, extending over nearly 160 pages. To diminish the labour of perusing such a huge mass of evidence, a very useful précis of the oral evidence, arranged as an analytical index under the different heads of inquiry, has been drawn up by Mr. Baker, the active Secretary of the Commission, and is appended to the Report; while the abstract of all the stational reports prepared by Dr. Sutherland, along with a valuable paper of comments on these reports, contributed by Miss Nightingale at the request of the Commissioners, will enable the reader to form a good idea of their chief sanitary contents:

The numerous subjects discussed in the Report are arranged in distinct divisions. It begins with the statistics of mortality and disease among European troops in India, and is followed by a similar estimate of the mortality among native troops, among the native population, and among Europeans and mixed races in the country. The various influences affecting the health of the soldier are then minutely examined under the different heads of the topography and climate of India-the sanitary condition of stations, native lines, towns, and ba zaars-the site and construction of barracks and hospitals, their defects and requirements as to drainage, water-supply, &c.-the diet, dress, duties, and recreations of the soldier, together with the subject of intemperance, and of the prevalence of syphilitic disease among the European troops, &c. &c. The important question of hill stations attracts much attention. With an account of the present state of sanitary administration in India the Report closes, and, after a recapitulation of the leading results of the inquiry, the recommendations of the Commission on the numerous topics which they have examined are set forth at length. It is no easy matter, within the bounds of an ordinary article, to give the reader anything like an idea of the value of the information accumulated in such a wide and varied investigation. Its interest and importance are national, not merely professional, and