priori, and without any examination at all, or at least without any worthy of the name, that the Bible does not contain as genuine a revelation of God as the great volume of his visible works? That it does so, has been and is the firm, the intelligent, and the enlightened conviction of myriads of the noblest spirits which have elevated humanity or gladdened the world with their presence. And is it wise-is it consistent-is it safe-for professed inquirers after truth to shut the eyes of their understanding and the door of their heart against a whole system of truth which the greatest, the wisest, and the best of mankind, with one concurrent voice, proclaim to be essentially divine? That God has revealed much of his nature, his character and attributes in the volume of creation, is what we rejoice to believe and glory in acknowledging. But that he has revealed much more of his nature, his character and attributes, in the volume of his Word, is what we rejoice to believe and glory in avowing too. We do not despise the light of reason, or the light of conscience, or the light of God's visible works. As far as these are truly discerned, they are genuine lights. But what we maintain is, that they are faint and feeble, compared with the light which streameth from Jehovah's Oracles. In the darkness and gloom of a cloudy night, who would despise the twinkling of a star? But who, in his sound mind, would deliberately prefer the glimmer of a single star to the blaze of a whole firmament of stars?-or of a firmament of stars to the superior radiance of the full orbed moon ?-or of the full orbed moon to the dazzling brightness of the noontide sun? And such as is the difference between the light of a starry sky and the effulgence of the meridian sun, such, if not vastly greater, is the difference between the fairest revelation of God in his works and the surpassing lustre of that Revelation which he has graciously condescended to make of himself in his inspired Word. We would therefore earnestly entreat the members of the Theophilanthropic Society to lay these things to heart, to reconsider their present line of procedure, and to advance to the study of that only Book which can scatter the clouds that now environ and obscure their spiritual vision, guide them unerringly along the dangerous course of time, and conduct them in safety to the regions of glory, honour, and immortality.

Proposed Fever Hospital, in connection with the Medical College, Calcutta. By Fred. J. Mouat, M. D.

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OUR object is not exclusively or even chiefly a literary one—either as to matter or style. As to matter, our great design is to discuss all manner of subjects, calculated, in any way, to throw light on the existing condition of this country, its rulers and its people-and thereby fitted, directly or indirectly to accelerate the cause general improvement. As to style, neither despising nor neglecting its elegancies or its excellencies, as occasion may offer, our chief concern is to express our meaning with a clearness and a force which may indicate our earnestness of purpose. For these reasons, we feel

that it quite falls within the general scope of our undertaking, to notice a pamphlet like that which now lies before us.

In April, 1835, we are informed that "James Ranald Martin, Esquire, Surgeon to the Native Hospital, addressed a letter to the Governors of that Institution, pointing out the urgent necessity for establishing a Fever Hospital in a central part of the Native Town of Calcutta, from the constant universal and frightful prevalence of fever among the Native inhabitants, its generally fatal consequences, and the acceleration of the fate of those attacked by it through the unskilful and mistaken remedies resorted to by the Native Doctors, to whose aid alone the poorer classes of Natives with few exceptions could have recourse." The governors were not slow in giving the subject the consideration which it deserved. On due enquiries made, they soon came unanimously to the resolution that "the proposal to establish a Fever Hospital in a centrical part of the Native Town of Calcutta, was one of undoubted expediency"-that, under the circumstances described by them, it was "highly necessary to solicit the contributions of all classes of the community" towards the accomplishment of so desirable an object—and that a sub-committee should be appointed to adopt all practicable measures calculated to ensure its realization.

This Committee appear to have set to work with commendable zeal and energy. Amongst other objects, they began to collect, from all available sources, such facts and suggestions as might contribute to confirm or illustrate the expediency and practicability of the general design. These facts and suggestions they subsequently embodied in

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elaborate Report. And it is of extracts or selections from this Report that Dr. Mouat's pamphlet mainly consists. The extracts or selections are very judicious and appropriate. But we must be allowed to express our regret that they are not preceded by a general abstract or digest of the contents. In a case to be established for judicial decision or executive purposes, it is essential that it should be supported by a body of evidence, extending to the minutest particular. The more frequent the repetition of the same or similar statements, on the part of separate and independent witnesses, the better; inasmuch as every such repetition is of the nature of a confirmatory testimony. But that which constitutes the chief value of a body of substantiating evidence, is the very thing which renders it utterly insufferable to the general reader, who soon gets wearied of endless reduplication, and bewildered in the maze of circumstantial varieties. Hence the importance of a brief clear summary or digest. Hence our regret, that Dr. Mouat, for the sake of the cause which he has so much at heart, has not furnished such a condensed abstract of the contents of his pamphlet-throwing the whole mass of the extracts into an Appendix. Such an abstract would be readily and gladly perused by many who will not have patience or inclination to toil through a tangled forest of facts. Such an abstract, too, would have been readily inserted entire in newspapers and periodicals that cannot afford space for the contents of a pamphlet of thirty-one pages, and whose

conductors cannot afford time to draw out epitomized summaries for themselves. In the absence, however, of such a summary, we may briefly advert to two or three leading points and furnish a few corroborative quotations.

1st. As to the prevalence of fever, &c. All the most experienced medical gentlemen in Calcutta unite in bearing testimony to the frightful extent to which all the ordinary tropical diseases prevail among the native inhabitants of this metropolis, and more particularly, bilious, intermittent, and remittent fevers, with their almost invariable sequela, spleen, diarrhea and dyspepsia. All observation and experience go to prove that, during the four unhealthy months of August, September, October and November alone there are at least eighteen thousand persons, out of a floating population of 300,000 attacked by fevers of different kinds-that of these," about one-fifth or twenty per cent. die before December-that about one-tenth of these diseases run into the following months of December, January, February, and March that of the remaining half may recover; but with others enlargement of the spleen and affections of the liver last, with intermittent fever, for many months, when they terminate fatally."

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2d. As to the present total want of any adequate means of relief, and the consequent aggravated sufferings and almost necessitated premature loss of thousands of lives, the testimonies are equally explicit and decisive. The governors of the Native Hospital declare that "thousands of the poorer Natives in and around Calcutta tinually exposed to the ravages of the more prevalent diseases of the country, and in a very large proportion without a chance of being relier d-and that they die in thousands, not from the original force of the disease, but from the want of an asylum like that now proposed, viz. an Hospital." Mr. Surgeon Martin testifies, that "fever is so universal with the native, that until enlarged spleen or bowel complaint, the sequela to oft repeated fever, seizes him, he never thinks it necessary to apply for aid; that when he does, it is but to accelerate his fate, as the compound of arsenic and spices, or the rude preparation of mercury, given by the Native Doctors, is efficacious to rekindle the feeble remains of constitutional power, only to sink the more rapidly in death"! Baboo Ramcomul Sein and Dr. Jackson, in their joint observations, declare, that "there are no institutions which are of adequate service to the immense number of poor, homeless, and helpless native inhabitants, and emigrants, in, and about the Town of Calcutta"-that though there were a Native Hospital and two public Dispensaries, "the people do not generally avail themselves of the benefit of these institutions"-that "the Native Hospital is well calculated, and was originally established, for patients labouring under external, or accidental injuries, such as constantly sent by the Police; but that people affected with fever, or other diseases, of whom great numbers die annually, derive hardly any benefit from it"-that "the Dispensaries supply medicines to such persons as are able to attend personally, and to shew themselves to the superintending Surgeon or Apothecary; but if the dose of

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medicine they receive does not produce the expected relief, or operate with any degree of violence, or if their illness increases, they do not present themselves again, or apply for more medicines, and nothing more is known of their history"-and that "indeed there are many who receive medicine from the Dispensaries, but do not take it at all." In the observations of the same respectable and highly qualified witnesses, there is the following affecting statement which we are tempted to give entire :

"**Besides the multitude of resident inhabitants destitute of Medical aid, except from Dispensaries, people from various parts of Bengal come to Calcutta to seek for employment, to beg charity and assistance from their friends and acquaintance, and for speculations. They come and live with persons who are employed in offices, and work-men, and those who follow menial professions, and whose means are very limited. If they are able, or willing, to live separately, they hire lodgings in some hut or old building the small apartments of which are let from two annas to two rupees a month. These people do not possess a sufficient quantity of clothing; they are naked almost day and night; they have no bed, and lie down on mats and leaves spread on the damp ground in their cells or holes. In hot weather they sleep out in open places, and on the borders of the Road exposed to the weather, and all its changes.

"When they get fever or cholera, they have nobody to attend on them, nor have they any means to procure Medical aid, clothing, or food suitable to the state of their health. If it is fever, it increases, and becomes violent day by day many cannot afford to buy even a dose of Panchun (the commonest and cheapest Native remedy) which costs but one pyee; and, even if the people of the house, or their neighbours, give them pyees enough to purchase it, they have neither place nor means to prepare it; and, destitute of all the comforts and necessaries of life, their illnesses soon arrive at a stage always dangerous, in which their recovery must be generally considered doubtful; while they are, without any care and attention being paid to them, exposed to the vicissitudes of the atmosphere, with nothing but unwholesome water for drink. The friends of the miserable being with whom he lives, or at whose place he hires his lodging, finding his case bad, become alarmed, send for a Byda (Native Doctor) to prescribe for him. But the landlord or host now becomes involved in another difficulty: he cannot attend himself to the sick, and neither has, nor can give means to take proper care of him, and, therefore, to get rid of his sick tenant or guest, these are the modes usually resorted to. He procures him either a boat or dooly to carry him to his family in the country, which he never, or at least seldom, reaches. By the shaking and agitation he receives in his weak state, exposed to the weather, he soon dies. "I have seen," says Dr. Jackson, "boatmen and bearers often put down such men on the ghauts and bank of the River, &c. where in a few hours they have expired, or they are often attacked by beasts of prey before they cease to breathe. The second, and more convenient mode adopted in Calcutta for disposing of such a man, is to carry him to the bank of the River, and there to place him under the charge of some hired people at the ghaut of the River, waiting his dissolution."

"This mode is considered more convenient and less expensive and better for the deceased as well as the persons to whom he was attached. Another reason for this also is the well known Hindu belief, that, when a sick man considers that he has no hope left of being recovered, he had better die by the holy stream. Allowing the sick to die in his cell, and throwing his body into the stream, is reckoned infamous, and disgraceful to the survivors and

friends of the deceased, and cruel and unbecoming in the persons with whom he has lived. But if he dies on the bank of the Ganges there is some consolation for his family and friends, and at the same time it saves the landlord or his host from the reproaches, which might otherwise be poured upon him by the friends.

"It is to these circumstances that the Unterjalie, or ghat murder, owes its derivation, about which so much has of late been said in the Calcutta papers."

3rd. As to the question which had been raised relative to the difference in the nature of the relief afforded by the two kinds of institution, an Hospital and a Dispensary, Dr. Martin, Dr. Nicolson, Dr. Stewart, and other competent judges are very unanimous and decided in giving the preference to the former, viz. the Hospital. Dr. Martin thus remarks::

Without the aid of an Hospital, in a City like this, fever and dyssentery cannot be cured; every thing in it is necessary to save life; the regular visits of an European Doctor, aided by an intelligent establishment; its open airy wards and raised clean beds; its regulated diet and clothing, and its general cleanliness-these are all necessary. But in a Dispensary, which is only useful to keep men out of Hospital (no small matter in itself) the patient gets his dose of medicine and is cured; or if not he returns to the very place where he caught his disease, to sleep on the damp ground, to get medicine by chance, and have any diet or clothing the friends choose, together with the absence of all ventilation and cleanliness. In violent illness, therefore, such management can be of little avail in arresting disease. Again, it is not, even in the most dangerous diseases, by medicine alone that a man's life is to be saved; but by the careful and continued watching of the operations of nature, and those of medicine so as to determine when to give and withhold drugs. It results from this that Dispensaries take but a secondary or subordinate station, and cannot be compared in active relief to a well ventilated and regulated hospital. Speaking as a Medical man, and viewing the question as it affects the public health, I should feel that I conferred a greater benefit on humanity in one case of acute disease restored to health in an Hospital (where alone such cases can be treated) than by many scores of cases of doubtful relief afforded through the casual exhibition of doses of medicine at a Dispensary."

Dr. Nicolson, whose unrivalled shrewdness, sagacity and experience entitle his opinion to more than ordinary weight, is equally clear and peremptory in his decision :—

“I think there can be no question as to the superiority of a large Hospital for the accommodation of fever and all other medical cases for the purposes mentioned in the above paragraph, over any number of Dispensaries strictly speaking; but the expense of the former would necessarily be much greater. In advocating the establishment, therefore, of a large Hospital for Medical cases, I am not opposed to the establishing of Dispensaries. On the contrary, I am of opinion that, as soon as an Hospital is provided, Dispensaries should be established in several parts of the Town, and particularly in the populous Suburbs around. These should be, strictly speaking, Dispensaries, to afford advice and medicine to all applicants. As a large proportion of those who would apply to these Dispensaries would be of the poorest and lowest classes, many of them strangers, and without friends in Calcutta, who have no property, save the few rags in which they are partially clothed, and no

VOL. II.

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