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of the public in economy with strict justice to the prisoner ; Iand they have certainly laboured, by careful considera- Ition of the commercial value of different food stuffs in rela-tion to their nutritive value, to construct a scheme of diet

which would effect an improvement without increasing thetotal cost. The following table shows concisely the dietrecommended for each class of prisoners, according to thelength of sentence :-

The Committee have retained the principle of "progressivedietaries," inasmuch as prisoners committed for a period ofnot more than a month are for the first week of confinementplaced on the diet of Class I.; those committed for not morethan four months begin with Class II.; and those whosesentences are for more than four months remain for thatperiod on the diet allotted to Class III. before passing to thehigher scale.

n

Whilst agreeing in the main with the proposed altera-tions, we must object to the diet of Class II., for men withhard labour, as being too severe. It must be rememberedthat prisoners who are submitted to this diet have alreadyexperienced a week of severe restriction on the diet ofClass I., and for men at hard labour the increase to Class II.is certainly insufficient for their physiological require-ments. We would recommend that prisoners committedwith hard labour in this division, after the preliminary weekon the low diet of Class I., should be at once passed to thediet of Class III. For prisoners without hard labour, forperiods not exceeding one month, the diet of Class II. isquite sufficient.One notable feature in the new dietaries is the greater

variety in the kind of food. Thus the Committee have takenthe novel step of substituting fat bacon and beans forcooked beef on one of the days of the week. We believe thisto be a step in the right direction, and that the change willnot only be a welcome break in the monotony of theprisoners’ diet, but a direct saving to the community. Thus,

the beef dinner costs, at present prices, 44d., whilst thebeans and bacon dinner costs 2id. Theoretically the latteris superior in nutritive value, and the experience of othernations shows that, when properly cooked, the pulses arehighly digestible. If the experiment succeeds, and the costof meat increases, it would be a question, the Committeethink, for serious consideration, whether it may not beadvisable to diminish the outlay on meat by the substitu-tion of foods which are equally nutritive and far less costly.

Correspondence."Audi alteram partem."

THE COUNCIL ELECTION AT THE COLLEGEOF SURGEONS.

To the Editor of THE LANCET.SIR,-No charge of ambiguity in my correspondence with

Mr. Bennett May can rest with me. He seems, however, tohave read my reply unintelligently, and without apprecia-tion of its significance.To his second series of misstatements and suppositions, in so

far as they relate to me, I now give a general and specificdenial. Collectively, and in detail, they are utterly untrue.

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Had I recognised the personal animus which dictated hisfirst slanders, I should not have deigned to reply ; but,having once responded, this second contradiction seems tobe an obligation.

I would remind Mr. May that he has permitted an ima-ginary grievance so to warp his judgment as to lead him todisregard the simple courtesies of correspondence, and toforget the social laws which restrain men from making ac-cusations that are unsupported by an iota of proof.

ZI)

With imaginary wrongs no argument can be held, and Mr.May’s professed readiness to "retract " when contradicted isno justification of false and injurious statements circulatedin a public journal. No retractation or apology can removethe culpability of such couduct.With these remarks, I take leave of Mr. May, whose

future effusions I shall not notice.Believe me to be, faithfully yours,

ALFRED BAKER.

1’0 the Editor of THE LANCET.SIR,-In your Annotations of the 18th May you use the

word "eligible" " in a -sense which implies that only suchFellows as you mention in order of seniority are eligible forelection into the Council. If this were the fact, the choiceof suitable representatives would indeed be limited, and ifgenerally so small a number were suitable it would be some-times difficult to avoid making an improper selection. Thispossible misconception induces me to remind your readers ofthe conditions which constitute eligibility, and also, as itseems to me, which govern the mode of reckoning theseniority of the eligible. According to the 7th section of theCharter of 1852 no Fellow is eligible who has not been aFellow of the College for fourteen years, or a member fortwenty years, or is not in the bond fide practice of his pro-fession as a surgeon, or is practising as an apothecary at thetime of election. But every Fellow of such standing asFellow or member as aforesaid shall be eligible as a memberof the Council. Since all the gentlemen whom you namehave fourteen years of fellowship, their seniority amongthemselves must be counted from the dates of their diplomaof membership. Furthermore, it is clear from the wordingof these conditions that seniority was not intended to be themain qualification for election into the Council, but that theFellows should select from the large body who havethe moderate seniority insisted upon. There are 850members who have fourteen years’ standing as Fellows,besides those of more recent fellowship whose seniorityas Members brings them within the eligible category,It is important that the electors bear in mind theintentions of the Charter to counteract the tendencyto give mere seniority undue influence in the elec-tions, and thus ensure that the Council shall consistentirely of members still actively engaged in professionalwork, to the exclusion of those whose chief claim is theirseniority. A further proof of this intention of the framersof the Charter is the clause in the 7th section of the Charterto which you occasionally draw attention-namely, " If anymember of the Council shall at any time after his electioncease to be in the bond fide practice of his profession as asurgeon, or shall practise as an apothecary, he shajl there-upon cease to be such member of the Council, and shallforfeit all his rights and privileges as such member thereof."No stronger evidence could be given that the Council shouldconsist solely of practising surgeons, and consequently ofthose best able to represent the wishes and opinions of theirbrethren with whom they are of necessity continually incommunication.

I have the less scruple in urging the importance of notbeing too rigidly governed by the claims of seniority whenselecting candidates at the present time, because amongthose whom you have’ already mentioned as possible candi-dates there is not one who need rest his claim on hisseniority, but has solid reason in his own professional positionfor soliciting election into the Council of the College ofSurgeons. I am. Sir, vours. &c..

BERKELEY HILL.

* The word " eligible " to which Mr. Hill objects couldnot, on his own showing, reasonably be expected to extendto all the Fellows who may or can offer themselves for elec-tion. Mr. Hill tells us there are at least 850 eligible candi-dates, and we offer his calculation as a satisfactory justi-

fication for limiting the number of names to seven or eight.Even so, the list is unusually long. Although the vacancieshave not yet been officially announced, there are, we believe,not less than seven Fellows who have made known theirintention of contesting the election. Besides these, any orall of the three retiring candidates may also seek re-election.With ten candidates for three seats we cannot join in Alr,Hill’s lamentation over the narrowness of the choice. Theword " eligible " was intended to imply that the gentlemenwe named were the Fellows who had by seniority and rota.tion come to the front. Mr. Hill’s argument about theseniority reckoning from the date of membership is logicallyinconsistent. The membership of itself confers no right,claim, or privilege on the holder, either to vote or becomea candidate for election. Section 10, Charter 7th Victoria,states " that from henceforth no member of the said College,who shall not also be a Fellow of the same, shall be eligibleas a member of the Council of the said College "; and Section7 of Charter 15th Victoria provides that no Fellow shall beeligible until he have been a Fellow for fourteen years. Itis the fellowship, and the fellowship only, that gives a mem-ber the right to vote, and it is his standing as a Fellow thatestablishes his eligibility for election. The membershipalone cannot do this, no matter how long its duration. The

specious argument that the membership should decide theseniority was adopted by a coterie for a set purpose a fewyears ago, but has never been regarded with favour by thewell-informed. It has hitherto been the custom to allowthe seniority among the Fellows to determine the order inwhich candidates shall come forward, and what customhas in this instance established, good taste and feelingapprove.-ED. L.

THE CAUSE OF DEATH OF THE LATEARCHBISHOP WHATELY.

To the Editor of THE LANCET.SIR,—111 THE LANCET of May 18th there is a communi-

cation from Dr. Scriven, in which he says "he attended thelate Archbishop Whately in his last ilhiess," and asserts thatI "have been entirely misinformed as to the nature of hisdisease and the cause of his death," in having attributed itto haemorrhage, which might have been avoided by anyordinary surgical care, but that there were only homoeopathsto attend him.Dr. Scriven’s correction of my misstatement, as he is

pleased to call it, is as follows in his letter :-" After deathI renewed the dressings which had been applied on the legthe day before, and discovered that a small vessel had givenway, allowing the escape of an ounce and a half, or, at most,two ounces of blood." That is his own statement in his ownwords, that after death, and after the removal of dressingswhich had been allowed to remain applied from the daybefore, he then discovered that a small vessel had givenway, and that an ounce and a half, or, at most, two ounces,of blood, had escaped. How he discovered the size of thevessel, and how he measured the quantity escaped, he doesnot tell us.The following is the account of the cause of death given

in his life and correspondence by his daughter, E. Whately,vol. ii., p. 419 :-" The physician arrived at his usual hour(12 o’clock), ten minutes after Dr. Whately had breathedhis last. We then found that the immediate cause of deatlthad been the bursting of an arterlf in the leg."

I do not think it necessary to make any comment.Yours trulv.

D. J. CORRIGAN.

THE ARMY MEDICAL SERVICE.To the Editor of THE LANCET.

SIR,-If, as I learn from a recent number of the Orerland<x7, a committee is sitting, or about to sit, to try to solvethe difficulty of the Army Medical Department, let me sug-gest as one thing to be remedied-title and rank. Let them