remarked, come into the same worshipful
guild by right of a special literature they have brought into being.
They come, moreover, into the blue-book range by their bearing upon
certain topics generally assigned to it. It is found, for example, that,
like other great gatherings, they are apt to be followed by a temporary
local increase of crime. The police-records of London show that the
arrests in 1851 outnumbered those of the previous year by 1570, and that
in 1862 the aggregate exceeded by 5043 that of 1861. It will at once
occur that the population of the city was greatly increased on each
occasion, and that the influx of thieves and lawbreakers generally must
have thinned out that class elsewhere, and in that way very probably
reduced, rather than added to, the sum-total of crime, the preventive
arrangements in London having been exceptionally thorough. The drawback
that would consist in an increase of crime is therefore only an apparent
result. An opposite effect cannot but result, if only from the evidence
that so vast and heterogeneous an assemblage can be held without marked
disorder. The police as well as the criminals and the savants of all
nations come together, compare notes and enjoy a common improvement.
[Illustration: THE MAMMOTH RODMAN GUN.]
This is the first opportunity the physicians of Europe have had to
become fully acquainted with the advances in surgery and pathology their
American brethren have the credit of having made within the past few
years. They will find it illustrated in the government buildings and
elsewhere; and they have an ample _quid pro quo_ to offer from their own
researches. The balancing of opinions at the proposed medical congress
and in private intercourse must tend to free medical science from what
remnants of empiricism still disfigure it, to perfect diagnosis and to
trace with precision the operation of all remedial agents. Means remain
to be found of administering the _coup de grace_ to the few epidemics
which have not yet been extirpated, but linger in a crippled condition.
This will be aided by the illustrations afforded of processes of
draining, ventilation, etc.
Man's health rests in that of his stomach. The food question is a
concern of the physician as well as of the publicist. The race began
life on a vegetable diet, and to that it reverts when compelled by
enfeebled digestion or by the increasing difficulty of providing animal
food for a dense population. But it
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