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especially when we remember that the family linen is driedat the same kitchen fire, and that work of all sorts is donethere. At the village of Vetlianka, where the plague brokeout, another unfavourable condition besides all these wasadded. A large fishery is carried on at the place, and theheaps of fish, often half rotten, which accumulated there inthe course of being salted, helped still further to poison theatmosphere. Malignant fevers are never absent from theselocalities, and newcomers often yield to them after havingbreathed the air for only a few hours. Medical aid is nearlyunknown, and nothing induces the peasants to change theirmodes of life. Such is a description of the rural districts of"Christian" Russia !

HEALTH OF LARGE ENGLISH TOWNS INTHE THIRTEENTH WEEK OF 1879.

DURING last week 4943 births and 3992 deaths were

registered in twenty of the largest English towns. Thebirths were 239 below, while the deaths exceeded by no lessthan 622, the average weekly numbers during 1878. Thedeaths showed a further decline of but 8 from the excep-tionally high numbers returned in the two preceding weeks;and the annual rate per 1000, which had been equal to 29’1,’28’6, and 28’3 in the three previous weeks, was 28’2 last week.During the thirteen weeks ending last Saturday the death-rate in these towns averaged 27’5 per 1000 ; in the cor-

responding periods of the four years 1875-8 it was equal to28’9, 26’2, 24’2, and 25’2 respectively. The lowest rateslast week in the twenty towns were 17’8 in Brighton, 22’9in Bristol, 23’0 in Portsmouth, 23’5 in Bradford, and 23’9 inNorwich. The rates in the other towns ranged upwards to29’9 in London, 29’9 in Manchester, 30’0 in Oldham, 30’9 inNewcastle-upon-Tyne, 31’3 in Wolverhampton, and 31’4 inSunderland. The 408 deaths referred to the seven principalzymotic diseases showed a decline of 18 from those returnedin the previous week, owing to a decrease in the fatality ofwhooping-cough; they included 149 from whooping-cough,107 from scarlet fever, 46 from fever (principally enteric),and 46 from measles. The annual death-rate from theseseven diseases averaged 2’9 per 1000 in the twenty towns,and while it did not exceed 0’4 and 0’5 in Portsmouth and

Brighton, it ranged upwards in the other towns to 5’0 and6.4 in Sunderland and Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Whooping-cough showed the greatest fatality in Manchester, New-castle-upon-Tyne, and Sheffield ; scarlet fever in Sunderland,Oldham, and Nottingham ; and measles in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. The deaths referred to enteric fever were propor-tionally most numerous in Bristol and Nottingham. Small-pox caused 9 more deaths in London, but not one in any of thenineteen large provincial towns. The Metropolitan AsylumHospitals contained 291 small-pox patients on Saturday last,a smaller number than at any time since the middle oiJanuary last; 47 new cases of smallpox were, however,admitted to these hospitals during the week.

AN ARMY HOSPITAL CORPS FOR INDIA

WE understand that the Indian Government has decidedto organise an Army Hospital Corps, composed of natives,for each of the presidencies. It is much to be regretted thatthis has been so long postponed, for undoubtedly had sucha corps been in working order at the beginning of the

Afghan war, it would have contributed materially to theefficiency of the hospital service, the comfort of the sick andwounded soldiers, and the reduction of the unavoidable

expenses of the campaign. In 1876 a committee, consistingof four military and two medical officers, was assembled byorder of Government to report upon the details of a schemefor organising an army hospital corps in the Bengal Pre-sidency. They drew up a very able and exhaustive reporton the subject, which has been adopted, we believe, as thebasis on which the corps is to be formed. Their scheme, iffully carried out, will have some very marked advantages.The men will be enlisted for a stated period, and will not

therefore have the power to leave when they please, possiblyat a time when their services are urgently required; theywill be more under control and discipline ; they willbe better trained for their duties, and, as a consequenceof improved organisation, a considerable reduction in thenumbers employed will be effected - a point of verygreat importance. We may briefly notice the chief re-

commendations of the Committee. They suggest thatthe corps should -consist of men enlisted and attestedunder the Indian Articles of War as hospital attendantsof H.M. Indian Army. That the men should have the rightto claim their discharge after three years’ service, on givingtwo months’ notice in time of peace; this privilege to besuspended in time of war or of exceptional sickness, orwhen war is imminent. The corps to consist of four classes—(1) ward-servants; (2) cooks ; (3) water-carriers, orbhisties;(4) sweepers, or mehturs. Each class to consist of threegrades, at stated rates of pay. The advancement from onegrade to another to be made on the report and recommenda-tion of the medical officer in charge of the hospital in whichthe man is serving, and to be dependent upon proficiency inordinary work, good conduct, and length of service. TheCommittee were of opinion that under the new organisation,with an establishment adequate to the requirements of theservice, a saving would be effected equal to 25 per cent. ofthe cost under the present system, and with increased effi-ciency. In addition to the pay of these grades, good conductpay is recommended, increasing after each three years ofservice, but contingent on the man being clear of an entryin the defaulters’ book of the corps for two years. It isproposed that men who are pronounced by an invalidingcommittee to be unfit for further service, having servedmore than six and less than twenty years in the corps, shallreceive a gratuity equal to one month’s pay and good-conductpay, if in receipt of the latter, for every two years of service.After twenty years’ service they are recommended for apension not exceeding one-third of the average monthly paydrawn by them during the previous three years, and afterthirty years to a pension not exceeding one-half of suchaverage. The discipline of the corps is, as in the ArmyHospital Corps at home, to be in the hands of the medicalofficers, except in such cases as appear to require a trial bycourt-martial or summary dismissal from the service, whichare to be referred to the military authorities. The Committeerecommend that the minor punishments in the corps shall bedeprivation of furlough or of the indulgence of temporaryleave of absence, fines not exceeding certain amounts, im-prisonment to the extent of four days-these to be awardableby,the medical officer in charge of the hospital,-deprivationof good-conduct pay, disrating or degradation to a lowergrade-to be awarded by the administrative officer of thecircle on the recommendation of the medical officer in chargeof the hospital-and forfeiture of service towards good-conduct pay as a consequence of entry in the corps defaulters’book, as in the case of the combatant classes. The Com-mittee made further recommendations with reference togeneral administration and interior economy, clothing andappointments, and extra allowances during service, into thedetails of which it is unnecessary to enter. If these recom-mendations are fairly carried out, we cannot doubt that theywill add greatly to the efficiency and comfort of the. mili-tary hospitals ; a better class of men will be obtained for theduties ; they will be thoroughly trained to their work, andtherefore much more efficient ; the good-conduct pay will bea strong inducement to a zealous discharge of their duty,and the prospect of a pension will retain them in service.Now that the Government has decided upon the adoptionof the scheme, we trust no time will be lost in carrying outa measure which has so much to recommend it, and towhich, so far as we are aware, there exists no practicalobjection.

ROYAL IRISH ACADEMY.-At a meeting held onthe 15th ult., Sir Robert Kane was elected President for1879-80. The following grants for scientific purposes havebeen sanctioned by the Academy :—£40 to Drs. Davy andCameron, to prosecute further researches into the compoundsof selenium ; £21 8s. to Dr. Davy, for researches on thenitro-prussides ; £50 to Dr. Wright, for investigations intothe structure of the vegetable cell and its nucleus; 20 toDrs. Reynolds and Haughton, for microscopic slide sectionsof Sandwich Island lavas, already analysed by Dr.Haughton.