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abortion and infanticide. They will admit of separate consideration, as exercising a moral operation, or coming within the department of medical police.

Whether pregnancy be the consequence of legitimate union, or illicit intercourse, it presents an equal claim upon the interest of society. This principle, however neglected in times of ignorance and barbarism, is now acknowledged in our systems of legislation. Yet public opinion inflexibly retains its ancient severity, and continues uninfluenced by the mild and indulgent temper of modern institutions, which that principle has served to inspire. We are far from considering faulty that direction of ideas by which purity of morals, and the maintenance of social order, are promoted and secured: we wish not to see the dishonoured female and the virtuous wife placed in the same rank, and attracting equally the consideration of society. Against that rigid intolerance of the public mind we protest, which loads with exclusive infamy the victim of seduction; while the more guilty author of her wretchedness, unmolested by the execration which he merits, and little if at all degraded in public estimation, pursues elsewhere his infamous career. Some French writers have gone so far as to declare, that those countries, in which the laws of chastity are most severe, and their violation is most heavily fraught with dishonour, exhibit more frequently than others the crime of child murder and abortion.* We shall refrain from expressing our own opinions on this subject, lest, while advocating the cause of the injured and destitute female, and urging her potent claims to mercy and commiseration, we should be suspected of a wish to sap the foundations of morality, and set up ourselves as the apologists of profligacy and crime. Nothing is more distant from our intention. How far the exertions of the legislature to facilitate and promote marriage among the inferior classes of society, by conferring peculiar privileges and exemptions on the wedded state, might operate in repressing the dreadful crime of fœticide, is a query more readily proposed than decided.

We have, secondly, to consider the influence which a vigilant system of jurisprudence may exercise in preventing the frequency of this inhuman practice. The waste of human life, resulting from voluntary abortion, or from attempts to provoke it, is, we are convinced, far greater than they whose attention has never been directed to the subject, or possess not the requisite means of calculation, will be disposed to credit. There is scarcely a town or village in the kingdom where this horrible traffic is not carried on with fearless impunity, and the uncouth instrument of some mercenary wretch occasionally employed to bring about what the midwife or emmenagogue of the druggist has previously failed to accomplish. Many young women, the victims of obscure and violent disease, annually perish from this unsuspected cause. Any thing like a remedy for this deep and insidious evil, it is in the power of Legislature alone to furnish and apply. The Act which we have last quoted, is inadequate to its suppression. Under the specious title of emmenagogues, powerful preparations of the hydrargyrus, lytta, and other violent intestinal stimulants, are yet prescribed or administered with little hazard or precaution. A law, which, rigorously

* Dictionnaire des Sciences Médicales, tome ii. Article, Avortement.

enforced, should prohibit, under severe penalties, all persons from prescribing, administering, or employing any remedy, medicinal, dietetic, or mechanical, in cases of suppressed menstruation or suspected pregnancy, except by the advice or with the sanction of a regularly educated physician or surgeon, would probably go far to restrict the operation of the evil, and diminish the mortality consequent on it. That any British practitioner of medicine could so far forget the object of his art, or pollute the dignity of the professional character, as to undertake, from mercenary considerations, the work of assassination, is incredible: we will not dishonour our country: by admitting the supposition.

An important question, relative to the subject of abortion, lastly, présents itself for our consideration. In extreme cases of malformation of the female' pelvis, where delivery of the fœtus at the full term is obviously and utterly impracticable, may abortion or premature delivery be justifiably induced, and thus the life of the child be sacrificed to the preservation of the mother? This point has been long and warmly contested. The respectable and conscientious Mahon formally protests against the practice; but his arguments: are ably refuted by Foderé: and most of our readers will, we imagine, concur in the opinion of Dr. Male, that it is "both legally and morally right rather to save a certain and valuable life than risk it for an uncertainl one;" and that the propriety of the expedient is alike "sanctioned by humanity, policy, and justice." Nor should it be forgotten, that, in such cases, the life of the infant is not invariably sacrificed; for it sometimes, though rarely, happens, that a fœtus, born before the seventh, and even at the fifth month of utero-gestation, will live and ultimately do well. Several such cases, most respectably attested, are upon record.*

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REVIEW OF THE MEDICAL Department oF THE EAST India COMPANY.

FOR several years past we have witnessed, with pain, the depressed state of the medical profession in this country. The ranks of medical society are so crowded, that the professors of a noble art are driven, by actual want, to the most disingenuous devices-to the necessity of stabbing one

* A case of this kind is cited by Mahon from Brouzet. See also a case by Dr. Rodman, Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal, vol. xi. p. 455. We take this opportunity of calling the attention of the reader to an error which we have discovered in the commencement of this article, and which, however obvious, we think it right to notice. In describing the internal signs of pregnancy and parturition, we mentioned, that they will be more strongly marked in proportion as utero-gestation is farther advanced, and will disappear shortly after delivery; but from this description the corpora lutea of the ovaries should be excluded, as they generally remain visible during life.

another's reputation, and preying on the public at large! There can be no doubt that this redundancy in our ranks is only part and parcel of that general redundancy in all departments of civilized life. The law has felt it for some time, and a heavy prohibitory fine is about to be levied on all who enter that learned profession. We do not suppose that such a measure is practicable in medicine, though we are far from thinking that it would be prejudicial to the profession at large, or to the public generally, however hard it might bear on individuals, or however it might press on humble merit. The fact is, that we stand more in need of liberal education and honorable conduct, than of talent without these qualifications. There is little danger of want of ability in the rising generation of the profession; but there is every reason to apprehend a dreadful deficiency of liberality and high-mindedness-partly from the crowded state of medical societypartly from the leaven of corruption and vulgarity which is so plentifully disseminated in the present day.

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We have now, however, to draw attention to a great outlet and field for medical talent, which has hitherto attracted a crowd of competitors, but which is likely to prove a source of dreadful disappointment to great numbers of our medical and surgical aspirants. The amplitude of our EastIndia possessions, and the encouragement which has been held out for medical students to embark for those burning climes, there to spend their lives under the confident expectation, or even assurance, that a youth, or rather a life of labour" would be crowned with an of ease," have caused the portals of the Temple, in Leadenhall Street, to be almost choaked with candidates for obtaining the golden fruit of the pagoda-tree. In the best of times, this attractive fruit was dearly purchased at the expense of banishment, sickness, and premature old age, if not untimely death. Now, however, the fruit is taken away, and it appears that the medical practitioner, in the service of our Honorable East India Company, is estimated somewhat under a butler in London! By the said Company a man is considered as far inferior to a horse-and consequently a surgeon is subordinate to a black-smith! Our rising choler has been checked, indeed, by one redeeming principle or sentiment, which the COMPANY have lately evinced, and which must command the respect and esteem of the world. Wisely considering that the life of man is transitory in this sublunary scene-that it is bounded to three score years and ten, at the most; and, in their service, to little more than half that duration, while the soUL flourishes in eternal youth, beyond the boundaries of matter, they have very properly estimated the SURGEON, who has charge of this vile body, as a cypher, while the CHAPLAIN, who directs the etherial spirit to its future abode of felicity, is considered as a most important personage, little inferior to the Pope, or even to St. Peter, with the keys of Heaven in his hands! These observations will scarcely be believed, or even understood, till the following document is perused:-and we deem it a duty, which we owe to our profession, and to the fathers of medical youths, who may be fondly dreaming of golden settlements for their sons beneath the Torrid Zone, to publish this memorial entire, in order that they may know the extent of misery which they are unconsciously preparing for their offspring.

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THE MEMORIAL

OF THE MEDICAL OFFICERS of the Bengal PRESIDENCY, WHOSE SIGNATURES ARE HEREUNTO ANNEXED, TO THE CHAIRMAN, DEPUTY CHAIRMAN, AND Directors of THE HONORABLE THE EAST INDIA COMPANY, &c. &c. &c. WE, the undersigned Medical Officers of the Bengal Presidency, most humbly and respectfully solicit the attention of your Honorable Court to the existing state of the medical department of this country, which, by the recent abolition of the medical contract hitherto in force, is so entirely changed in its character and provisious, and the interests of your Memorialists are so deeply affected thereby, that they feel themselves warranted in submitting this detailed statement of their grievances to the favourable consideration of your Honorable Court, in the anxious hope that they may be speedily relieved from those just, and urgent grounds of complaint, under which they at present suffer.

The emolument derived from the late medical contract, though perhaps objectionable in its principle, nevertheless afforded to a certain extent an average remuneration to Medical Officers, proportionate to the duties performed, the abolition of which, both in its present effects and its future consequences, entails on your Memorialists, and more especially on the junior grades, a state of embarrassing poverty and ultimate ruin, which they persuade themselves could never have been contemplated by your Honorable Court as a result of the orders of the Governor General in Council, bearing date 29th November, 1828.

Your Memorialists entered the service of the Honorable Company confidently relying on the permanency of those advantages which were enjoyed by the medical staff of this presidency, and of which, from whatever source derived, your Memorialists could never have contemplated any diminution, as even under their operation the average income, received by Medical Officers could be considered a bare equivalent for the laborious and important duties assigned to them.

Previous to entering into those details which they consider essential to a due estimate of their claims by your Honorable Court, they earnestly solicit a full restoration of the average income they formerly enjoyed, and of which, on the principles of equity, they humbly conceive they ought never to have been deprived. Your Memorialists having thus briefly submitted the sum of their petition, and the grounds on which they justify their claims, feel themselves called upon to state, for the information of the Honorable Court, the following aggregate of facts, as demonstrative of that inferiority, in point of respectability and ultimate provision, which they have at all times suffered, in comparison with every other department of your public servants.

The subjects which your Memorialists beg to press on the attention of the Honorable Court, is the great length of time indispensable to the attainment of their professional education and the heavy attendant expenses which equal, if not exceed those incurred in the acquisition of any other liberal profession; and, with reference to such expenses, your Memorialists assumed, on premises acknowledged to be indisputable, the well-grounded expectations of an adequate return, in whatever channel they might have directed their talents and exertions, but which your Memorialists most deeply lament were never realized, and are now totally annihilated.

The comparatively advanced period of life (that of 23 to 25 years of age) at which your Memorialists enter the service, is the unavoidable result of the time employed in the course of education, as above stated; a consequence of the utmost moment to your Memorialists, as involving the rate of promotion; since by the operation of the orders above referred to, combined with the numerical strength of the medical list, your junior assistant surgeons are entirely shut out from the prospects of attaining the rank of surgeon, under a period of from 17 to 20 years, during the whole of which time, it is absolutely impossible for them, in the receipt but of a bare subsistence, to support that relative rank in society they have hitherto maintained, far less to procure those ordinary comforts of life, which habit, climate, and education have rendered indispensable.

From the facts herein adduced, it necessarily follows that a medical officer, should he even live to attain the rank of a surgeon, will have reached the age of

43 or 45 years, when he may avail himself of the miserable pension of £191 per annum, a sum utterly inadequate to support him in the rank of a gentleman and totally disproportionate to his past services.

The prospects of your Memorialists, even when advanced to this rank, though placed on a somewhat fairer scale of remuneration, will appear but little improved, when the numerous contingent disadvantages are duly considered ;-for it will be evident to your Honorable Court that thus, after 20 years service, are they, for the first time, enabled to save a fraction of their allowances, to defray either the expenses of a furlough to Europe, or to add to their future provision; while it must be borne in mind, that no individual can pass 20 years continuously in a tropical and unhealthy climate, without materially suffering in health and constitution; and this more particularly applies to your Memorialists, exposed as they necessarily are, in all seasous and under all circumstances, not only to the fatigues and duties of the military profession, but to the labour, trouble, and anxiety of their own.

Adverting to their next higher grade of superintending surgeon, a rank not heretofore attained under an average period of 16 years more, your Memorialists beg to observe that the obstacles to promotion already mentioned will, in future, defer that prospect to an almost indefinite period, certainly to one by which they will have attained the age of 60 years ;-and even then, after nearly 40 years' service, they cannot claim the trifling pension of that rank, till they shall have served an additional two years in that situation, an act of illiberality and injustice inflicted on no other department of your public service.

On a review of the facts above stated, it must necessarily be inferred, that your Memorialists can never entertain the most distant hope of reaching the highest grade of your medical service, viz. the Medical Board, under four and forty years, and at the advanced age of seventy; a period of buman life far exceeding that generally attained in this or any other country.

The deplorable situation of your Memorialists must be sufficiently apparent to your Honorable Court, from the general outline of their grievances above stated; and they persuade themselves that they do not incur the charge of presumption, in preferring the question, with all humility and respect, what possible contingency, in their case, could have caused, much less perpetuated or extended, so total an absence of consideration for their character and services as a comparative view of their condition cannot fail to evince.

Possessing an imaginary rank in the army, without enjoying any of those privileges or prospects to which the real possessors of such rank are entitled, your Memorialists are, from the exclusive nature of their profession, necessarily ineligible to those various places of rank and emolument, which are open to the purely military officer of whatever grade; and, so far from receiving any equivalent for those disabilities, in any corresponding situations in their own department, their present and future provisions are totally disproportionate to their actual or eventual services, while it cannot be supposed that a medical officer can look forward with satisfaction to the retiring pension of £191 12s. per annum, whether he may have served 20 or 36 years-of £ 300 per annum, after 36 to 44 years-or of £500 per annum, after 44 to 47 years, at the respective ages of 43 to 45 years, for the first rate of pension-59 to 61, for the second-and of 67 to 71, for the third; your military officers, in the mean time, enjoying a superiority of advantage in this res pect, in the following rates.

1st. The military officer may retire in 25 years, at the age of 41, upon £273 per an. 2d. In 28 years, at the age of 44.. upon £365. 1 3d. In 33 years, at the age of 49... upon £1000. Contrasts so forcibly exemplified in themselves, as to require little comment in further explanation of the great inferiority of your medical service. And hence it appears how totally suppositious are the advantages held out to your Memorialists on extering the service by the regulations in the East India Directory at Home, under the sanction of your Honorable Court; the plainest inference deducible from which is the possibility of the ranks of superintending surgeon and of member of the Medical Board being attained in the periods therein mentioned, viz. 17 to 20 years; results which have never yet or ever can obtain in the medical department of this presidency, where the ratio of promotion to the highest situation is in the proportion of 1 to 130 of the total establishment.

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