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Dr. Guy, who took an active interest in this inquiry while itwas in progress, has pushed his statistical investigations intothe ranks of literature and science. The data are obtainedfrom long and laborious investigation of hygienic records, andpresent a mass of interesting figures. There is, however, ahaze of uncertainty about the results. Literary men are a verymixed class ; they are draughted from all ranks ; they belongto all classes; they practise habitually professions besidesthat of letters, and are largely and frequently abstracted fromthe influences which are special to their pursuit, and, as such,might be supposed to influence the duration of their lives.

Nevertheless, they have in the mass some common charac-teristics, and Dr. Guy conceives that he has eliminated somegeneral results. The life period of poets and schoolmasters isconsiderably below that of miscellaneous writers, antiquarians,and historians. This is not surprising. To a poet, inspirationcomes early, and commonly disappointment ; his literarylabours engross his youth, and they are perhaps peculiarlyfatiguing to mind and body. The schoolmaster, chained tohis desk, wearied in frame, and with overworked brain, is

placed under disadvantageous circumstances. The moral ofthis is, that he should provide for mid-day exercise and recrea-tion, and be careful that his school-room is sufficiently venti-lated. ’i he Benedicts of literature, as of other classes, have abalance of six years in their favour. On the whole, the pursuitof literature is favourable to longevity, giving an average of G8as the mean term of existence; but it is detrimental to life ifcommenced in youth. It is well that this latter fact should be

widely known ; it accords with the à priori teachings of phy-siology. Youth is the period of active physical development,and sedentary employments cannot be closely followed at thattime without injury to health and ultimate shortening of life.

THE THAMES.

THE filthy odour of the Thames comes once more to remindus of the existence of the Board of Works, to warn us of ap-proaching pestilence, and to terrify, puzzle, and bewilder conser-vators, legislators, and engineers. Everyone has his own nos-trum by way of temporary cure or palliative. Every chemisthas his own preparation of lime, of zinc, of manganese, or ofcharcoal for brewing his favourite sanitary soup from fcetidThames water, Meanwhile the sewers continue to dischargetheir putrefying noxious contents into the stream, and the mainproblem of drainage remains unsolved. The plausible axiomwhich gives the sewage to the soil, and the rain-fall to theriver, is the most philosophic generalization which has beenattempted, but we are yet far from being in a position to carryit into effect. If the land-water of the sewers ran directlyand quickly seaward, the present difficulty could never havearisen; but the oscillation of a great mass of the water be-tween Putney and Woolwich, that part of the stream intowhich the sewers discharge their contents, exposes these noxiousmatters to the action of summer suns for a considerable time,and brings the organic matter of the water into a state ofactive septic change. The present arrangements provide forthe deodorization of the deleterious refuse thrown into theThames by the sewers at their very mouths. That much of thestench is thus abolished is beyond doubt ; that much remainsthe traveller on the Thames must dolefully confess. How far

any real sanitary good is effected by the deodorization mustremain very doubtful. To deodorize is not to disinfect. The

gases which offend the nostril are, by a beneficent provisionof Providence, co-existent with the emanations that affect thehealth; but they are not identical. To destroy this stench isto remove the warning, and but too often to leave untouchedthe danger : to kill the trumpeter, but not to check the ad-vance of the hostile body. The indication which such a stench

affords is to remove the cause; not to whitewash it, or to scent

it, or to make broth of it, but to remove it wholly. The

Thames can never be pure while the canals and sewers com-municate with it. The sooner this is understood the betterfor the public purse and the public health. The conservatorsof the Thames justly declare, at the conclusion of their year’slabours, that the exertions and expenses of the past year havebeen useless. The remedy must be to prevent, by statutorypowers, the discharge of noxious matters into any watercourseor sewer communicating, directly or indirectly, with the river,and the subsequent total interception of the London sewage.

PLAY FOR THE POOR.

THE London street children-what a sad tribe they are !’how troublesome ! how unfortunate ! how much and how con-

stantly in the way of the more prosperous and well-bred !Their shrill cries-their boisterous play-their dangerous,inconvenient pastimes of " cat" and trap-ball, "blind hookey"and "sliding," are the nightmares of paterfamilias, andmore than justify their exclusion from the more frequentedthoroughfares; so they are driven to the alleys and cellarsfrom which they emerge. It is impossible to listen unmovedto the plea which the Playground and Recreation Society nowputs forth in their behalf. From their birth upwards, thesepoor children have been written in Misfortune’s book. Born

and nurtured in damp cellars, in pestilential rooms and darkalleys, from the day that they first behold the light of heaven,the ensign of disease is livid on their cheeks, and the pale flagof want blanches their young skin. The restless activity ofchildhood we know to be a predestined agency in the develop-ment and growth of the body; and active play in open, light,and healthy playgrounds must be regarded by every medicalpractitioner as a primary necessity for young people. London,which overflows with superfluities and wants of myriad variety,is almost destitute of playgrounds. It is a natural conseqi-iencer

1 of the high value of land. Nor is it easy to find vacant spaces.within three miles of the centre of the city. But some exist,and can be secured when the funds are forthcoming. The

Marquis of Westminster has given an acre near Chelsea Hos-pital; the Society has purchased a site in Camden-town ; theGovernment have appropriated a portion of the metropolitanparks for school treats and childish pastimes; and, best of all,the Government have promised that that part of the site ofSmithfield market which they possess shall be converted into,a recreation-ground. After much fighting and wrangling, acompromise has been effected amongst the Corporation, theGovernment, and the authorities of St. Bartholomew’s Hospital,which will provide for the utilization of a considerable openspace, which may be used as a playground, and will be deco-rated, it is hoped, in a manner befitting the historical recol-lections that belong to that most interesting site.

Thus a beginning is made in a movement which promises solargely to benefit the health and promote the development ofthe children of the poor, that it must secure the sympathy andaid of our profession. Let provincial surgeons and physicians

take note of the difficulty which the growth of our city has.interposed in the selection of sites, and employ their influenceto secure playgrounds and open spaces for recreation, whilethere is yet room and opportunity, in the rapidly growingtowns of England.

THE HARVEIAN ORATION.

THE annual oration in memory of the immortal Harvey was

delivered at the Royal College of Physicians on Wednesdaylast by Dr. Aldis, one of the Fellows of the College, and

:Medical Officer of Health for St. George’s, Hanover-square.The chair was occupied by Dr. Mayo, President of the College.

The orator commenced by adverting to the honour due tothose medical men who by their learning, counsel, and expe-rience- had contributed so manv and great things to the im-

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provement of their profession. The art of healing might beconsidered as a legacy left to us by former ages, and enrichedby ancient writers, and was no doubt ordained by a benevolentCreator for the benefit of his creatures.The following topics were then eloquently alluded to in the

course of the oration. The origin of medicine, the impossi-bility of learning it properly by experience alone, and thenecessity of studying both ancient and modern writers; but,in the words of Harvey, men were not to swear such fealty totheir mistress, Antiquity, as openly, and in sight of all, todeny and desert their friend, Truth. Medical history, unfor-tunately, afforded many examples of despisers of the mightydead and of eminent living authorities. Paracelsus burnt the

writings of Galen and Avicenna before his pupils, and pro-claimed himself the king of medicine. Hahnemann muchresembled Paracelsus, for he despised the inspection of deadbodies, and preferred the homceopathic doctrine to pathology;but both had dared to do " aliquid gyaris vel carcere dignum.Hahnemann’s doctrine, that numerous chronic diseases origi-nated in the itch, was neither new, safe, nor true. Dr. C. G.Zieger had, many years before, promulgated the same idea in adissertation published at Leipsic in 1758, without boasting. asthe other did, that he was engaged twelve years in the dis-covery. False theories, however, with scientific pretensions,had flourished through many ages. Hence arose homoeopathy,kinesipathy, table-turning, and various despicable "isms" of thepresent day. But happily, for the poor at least, such falsehoodscould not exist in the schools of Harvey, Baillie, and Hunter.The low condition of medicine at the time of Linacre, and

its improvement with the aid of Henry the Eighth and Car-dinal Wolsey, were then mentioned. Linacre, the founder ofthe College, and Dean Colet, the founder of St. Paul’s School,of grateful memory to the orator, were among the first to re-store ancient learning to this island. The College of Physicianshaving been established, its members were separated fromvulgar empirics; but by a new law homceo-empirics may beregistered, which was nothing less than le al homicide, andstrongly to be protested against. Notwithstanding this error,it was hoped that under a Mpdical Council the professionmight arrive at that state of organization which it eminentlydeserved. The advantages to society, social and otherwise,arising from medical science, were not to be disputed, but therewards were few; nevertheless, its followers " went aboutdoing good."The election of Dr. Watson as representative of the College

in the new Medical Council, and the labours of Dr. FrancisHawkins as Registrar, were noticed. The remarks uponHarvey’s grand discovery of the circulation of the blood appro-priately introduced the consideration of those epidemic diseaseswhich contaminate the vital fluid, and destroy numbers of thepopulation. Hence the vast importance of sanitary science,not as a specialty, but as a component part of medicine. Thissubject having been prominently brought forward, it wasthought that the exertions of the Earl of Shaftesbury in im-proving the dwellings of the poor, and of the Earl of Carlislein obtaining the enactment of the Nuisances Removal andDiseases Prevention Acts, deserved the highest praise, as wellas those of Drs. Southwood Smith and Arnott, who were thepioneers of recent preventive medicine. Honour had also beenconferred upon the College by Dr. Robert Lee’s discoveries ofcertain cardiac nerves.A well-merited and feeling eulogium was then passed upon

the late Drs. Bright, Hughes, and John Scott, with a notice oftheir lives and writings. Reference was made to the attentionbestowed by the Fellows on the formation of a new charter,by which it was intended to embrace within the College thosephysicians who had been too long dispersed and disunited.The College was now to be congratulated upon its increasingnumbers and extending usefulness.A statue had been erected to the honour of Jenner under the

auspices of the Prince Consort, and if he deserved this tribute,surely Harvey, the fountain and origin of modern medicalscience, merited similar reverence. Even the remains of

Harvey were now lying in a neglected state, but an inquiryhad been commenced by the College with the view of removingsuch a scandal. The statue formerly placed by the Fellows inthe College had unhappily perished by fire, and had neverbeen replaced. The orator concluded by expressing a strongwish that a grateful country would either erect another statue,or at least found a scholarship, in honour of the learning andgenius of Harvey.The oration-as usual, in Latin, and remarkable for its

classical purity, was well delivered, and cordially received bythe distinguished assembly.

PROSECUTION IN GLOUCESTERSHIRE UNDERTHE MEDICAL REGISTRATION ACT.

COMMITTAL OF THE ACCUSED.

AN old man, named John Burton, as poor and illiterate ascan well be conceived, living in a place called the Butter-row,in the suburbs of Stroud, Gloucestershire, who had spent thegreater part of his life as a cloth-spinner, has for the last tenor twelve years set up as an herbalist and " doctor" in generalThe handbills and advertisements which he procured to bewritten for him published numbers of alleged cases of miracu-lous cures effected by his skill; and he appears to have hadconsiderable "practice" amongst his own class. He was inthe habit of visiting adjacent places, some miles distant, onstated days; and, equipped with a green cotton umbrella anda basket containing his precious "medicines," the old manmight be constantly seen shambling along to meet his "pa-tients" in the stable yards of various inps. He seemed to beaware that he was acting illegally, and’ consequently neverprofessed to charge for his medicines or advice, but made acharge for his time and walking. On the passing of the Regis-tration Act in August last, the pseudo doctor was informedthat he would be liable to penalties unless he registered; andfinding that a clause in the Act gave a qualification to anyperson who was in practice prior to 1815, he made a declarationthat he had " practised medicine" previous to the 1st of Augustin that year, and thus obtained his certificate. It is notoriousthat at that time, and for long after, Burton was a "billyspinner" in a cloth factory; and on the circumstance becomingknown, Mr. Robert Blagden, surgeon, of Stroud, acting inconcert with other medical gentlemen, and having communi-cated with the Medical Council, laid an information againstBurton, charging him with having caused himself to be regis.tered as a medical practitioner by making a false and fraudu-lent representation.The case was tried at the Town Hall, Stroud, in Petty

Sessions, on Friday the 17th ult., before Messrs. Winterbotham,Stanton, and Dickinson, local magistrates; on which occasionMr. Clutterbuck, solicitor, prosecuted, and Mr. Ball, solicitor,appeared to defend the accused.Mr. CLUTTERBUCK said the information was laid under an

Act of Parliament passed in August last, the preamble of whichstated that its object was to distinguish qualified from unquali-fied persons. The 17th clause related to this particular charge:" Any person who has actually practised medicine in Eng-land before the 1st of August, 1815, shall, on payment of a feeto be fixed by the General Council, be entitled to be registeredon producing to the Registrar of the Branch Council for Eng-land a declaration, according to the form given in Schedule B."The CHAIRMAN.-And your charge is that Burton made a

declaration to that effect, which you say is not true ?Mr. CLUTTERBUCK.—Yes. The 39th clause provided that

any person wilfully procuring himself to be registered, bymaking any false or fraudulent representation, verbally or inwriting, should be deemed guilty of a misdemeanour, andshould, on conviction, be liable to imprisonment for any termnot exceeding twelve months. A letter, written by Burton tothe Registrar, contained the following declaration :-" I, JohnBurton, hereby declare I was practising in Stonehouse beforethe 1st of August, 1815." He added, "If you will kindlyanswer this by return of post, and let me know the charge forbeing registered, I will send it by next post." This was writtenin a legible hand, and evidently not by himself. Some kindof misgiving seemed to have been felt by the Registrar, and aprinted form of declaration was sent down, which was re-quired to be attested by a magistrate. This was declaredbefore Mr. Winterbotham, and, on being returned, his namewas entered on the register. Then Burton, who had all hislife been known as an ordinary workman, had his name placedin the same list with Sir Benjamin Brodie, Sir James Clarke,and other eminent medical men. Mr. Blagden, wishing to seehis profession distinguished for its purity as well as skill, andseeing this speck upon it, put himself in communication withthe medical authorities in London, and, with the co-operationof other medical gentlemen. instituted these proceedings. his