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mises their good repute, he is guilty of conduct that deservesthe deepest censure. Hence it is, that if he strive to defenchimself by the plea, "n faut vivre," the answer of Talleyrancmay justly be quoted-" Je n’en vois pas la necessite."

" Anc

whoever vehemently condemns him, if asked, as was the prophet of old, " Doest thou well to be angry ?" may, like himreply, "I I do well."We might readily find a long list of illustrations to exemplify

our meaning, but at present will only cite one case. There lies

before us a green card, resembling a theatre ticket, one side ojwhich bears the name and address of a " Dr. Robert Smith,Surgeon, &c., 37, Westbourne-grove, Bayswater," and " reospectfully" informs patients when and how they may best havedealings with him. Without staying to enquire too particularlyinto the antecedents of this Dr. Robert Smith, we may observe,that in the early part of his career he was a student of UniversityCollege, and he displays his respect for his former teachers, byprinting on the back of his green ticket two testimonials-onefrom Dr. Walshe, and the otherfrom Mr. Quain, respectively thesenior physician and surgeon of University College Hospital. Weneed hardly add, that this is done entirely without their sanc-tion, and that they wrote these testimonials with far otheiviews than to have them publicly printed as vulgar puffs ojthe said Robert Smith. His employment of them in thisfashion is not only basely ungrateful, but is directly insultingto Dr. Walshe and Mr. Quain.In fact, we can hardly conceive any conduct more worthy oi

contemptuous condemnation. Every professional reader know.what impression he would receive on reading such a card.But the particular demerits of the said Dr. Robert Smith sinkinto insignificance when we remember the effect of his conductin tending to weaken the confidence between teacher andpupil, and to make those whose high and honourable positionneeds to be vigilantly guarded, unwilling to grant testimonials,even to worthy pupils, fearing that they might hereafter riseto flout them."

BREAD UPON THE WATERS.

" IT suits poetasters," said Tom Hood, " to talk of thedomain of the sea and of the fields of the ocean; but, after all,it is but a sorry estate that is all fish-pond, and it is but abarren field that grows nought but weeds." The old ScythianTime, who sweeps on equally regardless of his jokes or of theirverges, winning the final victory alike over poetasters and overwits, and calling constantly for new editions of the " Guide toUseful Knowledge," seems likely to command us to erase fromour books the contemptuous epithets which men have beenwont to apply to the weeds of the sea. They have floatedthrough ages of scorn and obloquy. " Projecta vilior alga,"was the lowest term for worthlessness in the language ofHorace and of Virgil. Downright Dr. Johnson terms them" noxious and useless plants." " We are now entitled to sayin equally Johnsonese language, " Sir, they are neither."Seaweed has a more extended range of growth than perhaps

any other vegetable; for wherever the ocean rolls there it lives.How, then, should it be noxious and useless even to man ? More-over, its known esculent capabilities are already very great, anda most intelligent and meritorious effort is being made, at thistime, to increase our knowledge of the chemical character ofmarine algse, and to multiply their application as food or met idicine for men and animals. Such purposes they already Ilargely subserve in various parts of the world. The Icelanders, Ithe Highlanders, the Irish, the Kamschatkans, the inhabitantsof the Orkney Islands, the populations of Van Dieman’s Land,New South Wales and New Zealand, the Chinese, the Cinga-ese, the Japanese, and the Scindians, feed extensively uponseaweed and its products. They ferment them, or eat themboiled with butter, or as broth with animal substance, or

pickled; by way of condiment with meat, stewed with rice,in the form of jelly, and in a thousand other ways. The Car-

rageen moss (Chondrus Crispus) and laver (Porphyra Vulgaris)find their way as luxuries to our tables. Nevertheless, thereis the strongest reason to believe that the esculent capabilitiesof the algae are but very imperfectly developed. Sir John

Trevelyan has-under the auspices of the Society of Arts--offered a handsome premium for the best original essay, accom-panied by illustrative edible preparations, and containing newanalyses of these economic applications of the algse and theirproducts. To medical men their utilization, as articles of diet,affords a field of research especially interesting, since the largequantity of iodine and bromine which they contain, indicatevaluable dietetic relations in which they may be employed.We trust that the bread which the sea thus casts upon ourshores may soon be estimated at its true value.

SPECIALISM.

COMPARATIVE anatomists-great lovers of °‘ sesquipedaliaverba"-tell us that in the animal kingdom a gradual ascensionof type and exaltation of function is effected by the operationof the "law of differentiation." That in proportion as theduty of each organ is rendered special, and its work restrictedwithin narrower bounds, so does the whole complex organismapproach to archetypal perfection. It is not easy to determine-whether the same law holds good in the progress of the medicalbody; whether, in this case also, perfection is to be obtainedby differentiating the functions of the members of that body,and confining the labours of each within narrower limits. Inthe mechanical arts a division of labour undoubtedly favoursthe development of particular skill in the operative. But in anart and science such as that which we profess, where universallaws are dimly seen and studied beneath variously-fashionedveils of matter,-where the same prime forces work throughoutwith varying activity and under modifying conditions,-everyavenue which leads us to the knowledge of them needs to betrodden. On the other hand, by studying but one series of themodifications of life-force, the specialist must necessarily incline to attribute too great a power and too universal a rangeof influence to particular forms of vital mutation. Hence theScience of surgery and of medicine often suiters in the hands of

specialists. But it cannot be doubted that the Art has gainedmuch from their labours. To this fact the modern progressof orthopaedic and ophthalmic surgery especially testifies.Ophthalmic surgery has in recent times made a most con-siderable advance in this country. The latest token of its

vigorous growth is the recent issue of a new Journal ofOphthalmic Hospital Reports. The time has arrived, we be-lieve, when such a journal will find a fit and full audience inthis country, such as the Annales d’Oculistique has long hadabroad. We accept it as of good augury for the progress ofophthalmological science, that the lead is taken by men ofgeneral scientific acquirements and extended surgical expe-rience, who, by other relations, maintain their familiarity withthe general principles and practice of their art.

MEDICO-PARLIAMENTARY.

Thursday, Dec. lOth.-Copies presented of letters about themain Drainage schemes, from the referees and MetropolitanBoard of Health.-Return presented of the number of menflogged in the army during 1856 ; and also copies of the officialreports concerning Netley Hospital.Mr. Adderley enquired for a report of the state of the Thames

opposite the Houses of Parliament, which Sir B. Hall promisedshould be forthcoming.Mr. Cowper obtained leave to introduce a bill amending the

Pnblic Health Act the same bill which was withdrawnlast season on account of press of business. -Read the first time.A second reading fixed for Februarv 4th.