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tion of dwellings, and other matters which are or ought tobe considered in laying out ground for purposes of burial.’The space at our disposal will not allow us to discuss it atlength. We need only now refer to permeability, moderatedryness, and a general slope sufficient to ensure the gradualsubsidence of water due to rainfall, as qualities necessarilyassociated with a suitable soil. We publish in anothercolumn an abstract of a paper on Burial Reform read byMr. Lowndes at Liverpool, in which the urgent need ofchanges in the present method of burial is strongly enforced.

ARMY MEDICAL DEPARTMENT.

IN the memorandum which has just been issued respect-ing the War Office reorganisation, the following is the

paragraph which relates to the Army Medical Service:" The Director-General of the Army Medical Department ischarged with the administration of the medical services,Medical Staff Corps, and medical establishments of the

Army, and the preparation of medical and statistical

returns; with the supply of medical stores to the Army,and with the preparation of estimates for the above ser-vices. He will report on the above questions through theAdjutant-General, Quartermaster-General, or to the MilitarySecretary, according to the nature of the matter submitted."Under this regulation we presume that all questions relatingto the personnel of the Department.-appointments, pro-motions, retirements, rewards, and punishments,-will besubmitted to the Commander-in-Chief through the Adjutant-General, and those relating to the matériel through theQuartermaster-General, on whom also will devolve the dutyto " deal with sanitary questions relating to the Army."The contracts for the supply of medicines and instru-ments will be made by the Director of Contracts onthe requisition of the Director-General, who will have avoice in determining upon the contract to be accepted. Wedo not know that these new rules will make any importantchange in the mode of conducting the service. It maypossibly throw a little more power into the hands of themilitary as contrasted with the civil branch of the War

Office ; but if so, it will transfer with it a greater respon-sibility in the event of any shortcoming such as has beenoften complained of on active service.

SENTENCE OF BANISHMENT ON A DOCTOR.

A ST. PETERSBURG Court of Justice has just passed asentence on a medical man which is sufficient to striketerror into the heart of every hospital medical officer inRussia. The circumstances, according to the St. PetersburgerMedicinisc7ie Wochenschrift, are as follows :-In consequenceof the insufficiency of room in the St. Petersburg hospitalsfor all the sick persons who apply, especially in winter, foradmission, there is frequently great difficulty in obtaining abed, even for an urgent case. In order in some measureto remedy this state of things, an "Information Office" "was established some time ago for the benefit of patients.A medical man is on duty there all day, and he receivesreports from all the hospitals regarding the number ofvacant beds for each sex, and can thus send an applicantto a hospital where he has some chance of being admitted.No beds, washing accommodation, or clothes are providedat the office, but an applicant is allowed to remain theretill nightfall waiting for news of a vacant bed. Afterthat time he must leave. In the case above alluded to,the accused, Dr. Dreipelkher, who held the rank of " CourtCouncillor," was convicted of having sent a patient awayfrom the Information Office, insufficiently clad and in

very cold weather, without giving her any assistance, andso accelerating her death. The patient was an old womanin the last stage of phthisis, who was sent, as indeed she

had been sent on previous occasions, to the InformationOffice by her employers in order that she might be admittedinto a hospital. There was, however, not a single bed for afemale in any of the hospitals. Dr. Dreipelkher sent anattendant with her to a police-station distant only a few

hundred yards, with a request that she might be taken into! a kind of small casual ward attached to the station for thenight. The police, however, would not take her in becauseshe did not belong there." In like manner she was turned

away from two other police stations, no clothing beingprovided for her, although the orders are that the feldsher(dresser) attached to each of the police casual wards shallin very severe weather see that no person is sent awaywithout a warm wrap, a supply of which articles is keptfor the purpose. After 6 o’clock the poor old woman becamealmost comatose, and was admitted to a temporary hos-pital, where she died about an hour afterwards. Inwhat way Dr. Dreipelkher was to blame it would be hardto say. He was entirely without any accommodation forpatients himself, and he seems to have done his bestto provide for the poor creature until the next day,when he hoped he would be in a position to find her a bedin some hospital. He was, however, found guilty by thejury, and was sentenced to the deprivation of personalrights and to banishment for three years to the province ofArchangel! This sentence appears to have been pronouncedin obedience to some statute and against the judge’s in-clination, for he seems to have furthered a petition to theCzar through the Minister of Justice, praying for a com-mutation of the sentence to one month’s imprisonment.

TOBACCO AMBLYOPIA.

THE optic nerve resembles a sensory tract of the spinalcord and consists of two part@, of which the central has aspecial affinity for tobacco, while drugs like quinine leaveit unaffected. Tobacco is the essential agent in causingan axial neuritis which does not generally tend to spread tothe nerve fibres coming from the periphery of the retina. Asa rule, patients apply in the early stage of neuritis, andsimple cessation of smoking is the only treatment required.When recovery is established, moderate smoking is not

injurious. In addition to tobacco, a special condition is

required to bring on an attack, alcohol, diabetes, excessivevenery, starvation, mental shock, or distress being the mostfrequent auxiliaries. In some individuals a special tendencyto degeneration (sclerosis or atrophy) exists hereditarily, andto these tobacco is especially injurious. Such are the con-clusions of, Mr. Edgar A. Browne’s article in the LiverpoolMedico - Chirurgical Aurnal, wherein also a table of casesappears. -

POST-MORTEMS IN UNION INFIRMARIES.

THE Durham guardians are much exercised at the requestof their medical officer for leave to examine the bodies ofthe deceased inmates of the workhouse, whose friends raiseno objection to this procedure. The guardians were

scandalised by such a proposal, and each vied with theother in the use of terms condemnatory of their medicalofficer. Moreover, having discovered that on some pastoccasion a post-mortem examination had been made withouttheir sanction, they resolved to communicate this occurrenceto the Local Government Board. It probably requires aproperly constituted Poor-law mind to recognise this crimeat its full enormity. For our own part, we hold that themedical officer who adds to his pathological knowledgeby taking advantage of the means at his disposal is morelikely to render service to the living than he who is un-willing to incur the trouble of examining the dead. The

guardians of Durham, however, regard this desire to " cutpoor people’s flesh and bones after they are dead," as a