countries relative to the modes of treating diseases amongst uncivilised tribes; not that it is likely to prove of much value, but as a matter of history it may be worth recording. It would even be interesting to know the virtues attached to charms and amulets, as well as the manner in which they are obtained, of what they consist, and how they are worn; nor would the methods of performing surgical operations be of less interest. The Albanians, it is reported, with but slight knowledge of anatomy, perform the operation of lithotomy with dexterity and success. The Marabouts of Africa, with a fallen tree for their table, may be seen, with little display, performing the initiatory rites of Mahomedanism on the assembled youths of an entire village; while the Fetish man, on another part of the continent, ministering to the pride of caste, makes such fearful gashes on the cheeks of his patients as would astonish our boldest practitioners. How these wounds are cured might be worth knowing, as the scars sufficiently attest the excellence of the surgery.

In the central parts of Africa, and in some of the islands of the Indian Archipelago, there is reason to believe that the natives are in possession of narcotic poisons with which we are still unacquainted. An account of these, and of the modes in which they are prepared, would be interesting. And on all occasions the diseases most prevalent in the various foreign countries visited, and the most approved methods of treating them, together with an account of the medicinal plants, and other means in general use as remedies, should in conformity with the public instructions be invariably reported.

In preserving medical plants or seeds, and other objects of natural history, for the purpose of bringing them to this country, it will be found no easy matter to protect them from the ravages of insects, and in damp countries from the effects of mildew. The tin cases now used for certain articles of dress are well adapted for the safe keeping of perishable substances; but when they cannot be procured, a deal box made to fit snugly between the beams

of the small cabins allotted to gun-room officers, with its seams closed up by pasting paper inside, is the best substitute. From these predatory insects may be excluded by scattering amongst the contents pieces of camphor, and rags sprinkled with turpentine, to which a few drops of the oil of petroleum will be a useful addition. Into a box so protected neither ants nor cockroaches will enter; and without some contrivance of the kind it will be in vain to attempt to preserve almost any object of natural history of an animal or vegetable substance; unless it be placed in spirits or in a dilute solution of the chloride of zinc. The latter, as it is now generally employed in ships of war for the destruction of vermin and the prevention of fetid exhalations from the holds, is not only the most available, but in other respects it is perhaps the cheapest and the most generally useful. It has been successfully used by the curator of the Museum at Haslar, in the proportion of one part of the concentrated solution to twenty of water, for preserving fish and reptiles, and, when in good condition, specimens of morbid anatomy; but when the latter are very putrid they require at first a much stronger mixture, namely, about equal parts of each. In this the preparation is allowed to remain until it is free from smell, when it may be finally put up in a solution of the first-mentioned strength.

In the first edition of the Admiralty Manual of Scientific Enquiry several suggestions were made with reference to the improvement of the medical returns, which have since been adopted, so that the statistical information required is now more available, and it is to be presumed more correct, than it was formerly; still there is room for improvement.

In each surgeon's journal there are two statistical tables: in one all the cases of disease and injury from the day the ship was commissioned up to the 31st of December are to be included; the other is to be used only when the ship is paid off or when the surgeon is superseded, and when his journal contains part of two years. It may thus happen that the surgeon begins his journal in July and ends it

about the same time in the following year; nevertheless the table should include the cases only which occurred during the first year, and the additional table may be left blank; but the first table in the following journal ought necessarily to contain all the cases which occurred between the 1st of January and the 31st of December. The pro

priety of closing the statistical table on the 31st of December does not appear to be generally understood, but this is absolutely necessary in order that the health of one part of the force may be compared with another for corresponding periods and seasons. A statistical table which contains part of two years is useless.

The number of days each case remained under treatment being given, the total loss of service from disease and injury may be readily ascertained. As, however, a few sickly men in a ship may increase the aggregate number of days' sickness, it would add to the value of the returns if the medical officer would notice in his sick-book and in the annual statistical return the total number of secondary entries for the same disease, and the total number of men whose names were not entered on the sick-list during the period. Ten cases of ague, for instance, may be reported in the Nosological Return, though one person only suffered from the complaint. And with the view of still farther following out the influence of climate and locality on European life, it would be desirable were the medical officers to mention, in their lists of men dead and invalided, where the disease in each case was originally contracted, as it frequently happens that men die on one station of a disease contracted on another.

When a case, from an error in diagnosis, has been entered in the sick-book under a wrong name, or when the original disease is displaced by one of a more important character, the first insertion should be scratched out, and the disease which decides the fate of the patient, whether by death or invaliding, written under it. Many fatal cases of dysentery and cholera make their appearance in the form of diarrhoea, but it would be highly incorrect to report the deaths under

that head. On the other hand, death may result from disease consequent on an injury or on another disease; for example, a man may die of paralysis arising from fracture of the spinal column, or of gangrene consequent on erysipelas in these and similar instances the death should in the first case be put down to the injury, and in the second to the primary disease, and not to diseases of a secondary, or of a consequential nature. Still there are cases in which the changes may be so imperceptible, and in which the links which bind causes and effects together are so obscure, that it will be difficult, if not impossible, to decide under which head the death ought to be placed. The surgeon in these and in many other instances must be guided by his own judgment.

ARTICLE X.

THIRD DIVISION, SECTION 4.

ETHNOLOGY.

BY THE LATE J. C. PRICHARD, Esq., M.D.

[Revised by T. WRIGHT, Esq., and Monsieur D'AVEZAC, on the part of the Ethnological Society.]

THERE are few subjects that can engage the attention of intelligent travellers, more worthy of interest, or on which any additions to our previous stock of information will be more generally appreciated, than ethnology. Under that term is comprised all that relates to human beings, whether regarded as individuals or as members of families or communities. The former head includes the physical history of man; that is, an account of the peculiarities of his bodily form and constitution, as they are displayed in different tribes, and under different circumstances of climate, local situation, clothing, nutrition, and under the various conditions which are supposed to occasion diversities of organic developement. The same expression may also, in a wide sense, comprehend all observations tending to illustrate psychology, or the history of the intellectual and moral faculties, the sentiments, feelings, acquired habits, and natural propensities. To the second. division of this general subject, viz. to the history of man as a social being, must be referred all observations as to the progress of men in arts and civilization in different countries, their laws and customs, institutions-civil and religious their acquirements and traditions, literature,