THE MARCH OF MEDICAL SCIENCE.

papers are white or delicate tints of grey, drab, or fawn-colour, pale green, or blue. These will harmonize with mahogany furniture and with gilding. The papers may either be stamped with a pattern of the same colour, or one a degree or two darker than the ground; but the contrast should not be too great. Or, the ground may be white, or one of those light greys or drabs to which it is so difficult to give a name; and the design may be a light tint of one or two pure colours; but the colours must be well contrasted, and the size of the pattern must be adapted to that of the room.

Unless the colours employed in decoration are arranged with due regard to the laws of harmony, it will be impossible to produce a good effect. Moreover, the harmony must be carried out not only in the paper-hangings, but in the window curtains, the chair and sofa covers, and the carpet, and in the colour of the wood of which the furniture is made.

(To be continued.)

THE MARCH OF MEDICAL

SCIENCE!

WHEN an article is required, either in nousekeeping or trade, persons with any pretension to prudence apply to the individual who best understands its manufacture and the various uses to which it is to be applied; and if this be so as regards the ordinary matters with which we have to do, how much more necessary is it that in the derangements which perpetually occur in the wear and tear of life to the bodily frame, we should have recourse to the man of science, who has made our "wonderful construction" the subject of his study and the pursuit of his life! But thousands act otherwise, and while moving on with tolerable philosophy in other things, taking every precaution as regards their business affairs, yet in the matter of life and health throw themselves unreservedly into the hands of the quack. But some amount of discrimination is required to judge of what is orthodox, and what is quackery-the latter may possibly lie concealed even under a diploma; nor does a regular education always answer all the conditions. The man in whose hands one should fearlessly entrust one's life should be a man of intellect,

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enthusiastically devoted to his profession, and following it from a conviction that to promote the comfort, or to assuage the sufferings of his fellow-creatures, is the noblest and most exalted employment to which to dedicate his time and his science. Amongst medical men, as amongst other classes, there are of course now and then exceptions to be met with: and the following anecdote, translated from the French, is abundantly amusing, as affording an instance of that simulated profundity which too frequently passes current with the unthinking and unreflecting, but which, of course, serves the temporary purpose of the knave and the quack. We really think it a smart joke.

It appears that a gentleman, a short time since, made a journey, by railroad or steamboat-we do not recollect exactly by which of those modes of travelling; at all events, it is of little importance to the matter with which we have to occupy ourselves, as you will soon perceive. However, it occurred that at the moment of starting, the boiler exploded, and the poor fellow was transfixed by a thin rod of iron, belonging to some portion of the machinery, and which was about seven feet long. The iron penetrated his abdomen, a little above the navel, and came out at an opposite point through the back in such a manner that three feet protruded in front, and about the same length behind. He was with difficulty conveyed home, and his position was considered one which required the immediate aid of science.

A doctor was therefore called in, who first began by feeling the patient's pulse; and, by way of gaining time, the scientific luminary wished to do two things together, and therefore asked his poor patient where he suffered.

"In my stomach, sir."

"Ah, very good!" says the doctor; "how has this happened to you?'

The exhausted patient then relates, as well as he is able, the circumstances of the explosion. This account finished, the doctor thinks it his duty to follow up his questions.

"Are your family subject to this kind of accident, sir?"

"No," answers the patient, "for all I know, they are not. Both my father and mother are very old, and they have never

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abundant evidence. The dark shades of in the natural state; but the stomach is the skin are attributable to the powerful sometimes too protuberant, and the legs influences of the sun; and the differences are calfless. Their black hair, unlike that of form and size, to climate, food, and other of the woolly head of the negro, is long circumstances. These causes are sufficient and lank, and frequently well greased, powto account for the varieties of mankind. dered with red earth, and tied into an upright knot; their mouth is wide, the lower jaw and under lip project in an ugly manner, and the teeth are unpleasingly displayed; the eyes, which are not prominent, are very piercing. I have had the head of one of these people in my hands-the countenance was truly forbidding-it was that of a ferocious fellow named Yagan, who had committed murder, and treacherously attempted to spear Mr. Moore, to whom he ought to have been most grateful. This culprit was executed for his offence. The scull is in the Liverpool Museum, to which it was presented by Mr. Dale, of the 63rd regiment, the well-known explorer of that country.

The Bushmen, supposed to be the aborigines of a portion of South Africa, are probably the lowest in the scale of human beings, not only literally, as regards the standard of bodily height-for the men do not exceed four feet nine inches, nor the women four feet four inches-but as respects their intelligence and habits. So untameable and incapable of domestication are these diminutive creatures, that they instinctively recede from the advances of civilization, and they entertain so little notion of the comforts of house and home, as to wear out their animal existence in the clefts of rocks, or in whatever other natural shelter they can find; and subsist on reptiles, insects, roots, and whatever animal food they can pick up in the woods, or steal from the neighbouring colonist. They are more hideous than the higher grades of Hottentots. They are so dull of apprehension, that even when discovered in their dens in a frightful state of suffering from disease, they will not accept aid from the friendly hand of civilised men, or submit to medical treatment, but die and rot in their caves and nooks like wild beasts.

But as this wretched race is almost extinct, I shall pass on to some description of the natives of New Holland, as presenting a correct illustration of savage life in the lowest state; and more especially because in my capacity of Editor of Letters from Western Australia, I have acquired knowledge of their condition.

When the first of these letters was written in 1830, the natives knew little of civilised man, and therefore they may be considered as at that period in a state of nature. All the tribes-or families, more correctly speaking-are of the same race, and of similar habits. In colour they are black; their limbs are generally very slender, but wiry from constant exercise; there is no malformation of body, which is erect and graceful

* Entitled, "Extracts from Letters and Journals of George Fletcher Moore, Esq., Judge-Advocate of Western Australia." Edited by Martin Doyle. London Orr and Smith, Paternoster Row, W. Curry and Co., Dublin: 1834.

The New Hollanders are of filthy habits, but possess notions of finery. The men pass a bit of bone or stick through the nose, and cut their bodies with sharp shells-not tattooing-but scarring wounds of some fanciful pattern. When they approach manhood, they undergo a whimsical ceremonythat of having one or two front teeth beaten out, the motive for which disfigurement has not yet been discovered. They paint their bodies with white stripes when going to battle, or to a dance, or feast, which they term Corrobory, and at which the habitually lazy and listless savage becomes animated and even frantic as the movements of the dance proceed, which are usually in imitation of the chase and capture of that singular animal the kangaroo. The women, instead of losing a tooth, part with two joints of the little finger of the left hand. Both sexes are unencumbered with clothing, except in very cold or rainy weather, when they throw over their shoulders a kangaroo skin, or an old sack, if they can procure one from a friendly settler. They used to have no habitation, and in rainy seasons, when they become half starved from want of food, they sheltered themselves under rocks, or in holes of the rocks; and the nearest approach which they made to hut building was a frail structure, formed of

* On the Eastern coast Sir T. L. Mitchell saw a woman, though without any decency of dress, ornamented with kangaroo teeth round her brow and feathers on her right temple!

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PROGRESS OF SOCIETY.

pieces of bark stuck in the ground and covered with leafy branches; but latterly, huts of a more durable character have been seen about 250 miles north of Freemantle, constucted of logs of wood plaistered with clay. These poor Australians might envy the natives of the island of Andaman, who on such occasions put a coating of mud on their skins either as protection from cold or from insects; the others kindle fires of reeds and decayed sticks, around which they coil themselves in close contact, enjoying the warmth of the smoke.

Having no notion of cultivating the ground, their precarious existence is sustained by the use of fish, a species of worm found within the bark of a tree, frogs, the opossum (which is like a rabbit), the squirrel, the emu (a gigantic though wingless bird, seven feet high,) and the excellent kangaroo. They also eat a white root resembling the parsnip, and the roots of the fern, which they roast and bruise. Although they do not raise or prepare grain of any sort, they eagerly devour bread when given to them by the colonists, to whom they often come in a starving and pitiable condition. But they are so devoid of forethought, as to waste good food when they have it, especially kangaroo flesh, which they gluttonously devour. Though they can kill fish with the spear, and with a net, too, the Western aborigines cannot make canoes, as other savages do, for the purpose of fishing. On the north-west coast a native has been seen sitting on a log in the water, and paddling with his hands. The nearest approach to the forming of a boat is a log, with a slightly projecting wing (fastened with pegs) for support to the feet. They certainly justify their claim to be classed in the great family of Man, inasmuch as they are a tool-making animal, capable even of forming elegantly tapered spears, of polished wood, pointed with shark-bone, with which they strike game, and not unfrequently the emu and kangaroo at full speed, (and human enemies, with whom they have deadly feuds.) Spearing the sheep and pigs of the colonists is a favourite sport with them. But who can justly accuse them of dishonesty and spoliation for considering these tame animals as their legitimate prey, on their own soil, as much as the wild ones with which the Creator has supplied them for natural means of subsistence? How can

men in their state of ignorance and barbarism be expected to understand the rights of property claimed by the usurpers of their territories? the difference between meum and tuum might in this case puzzle more intellectual heads.

They use their waddies (clubs) for knocking down game, or in a passionate fit, for felling a wife or daughter, the poor females being cruelly treated by them, as in the savage state generally, and unsparingly employed as drudges for every purpose, while the men prowl about. The courtship with which women are wooed is sometimes a blow from a waddy by the hand of a man who surprises a female belonging to some other family, knocks her down, and bears her away, while insensible, to his own district, where she becomes a captive and a bride! Wives not thus caught, are betrothed to husbands from their birth, or inherited from a deceased brother; but a general rule is that no man can have a wife of the same family name as his own. The husband is not limited in the number of his wives. One of these people, when reasoned with on this subject, asked, "Why does white man keep many servants? wife-servant—all same." Wives are considered as useful servants, and valued in that capacity as well as in other respects. An instance of the brutality of the men to their women in another part of New Holland, is related by Major Mitchell, * among other touching anecdotes of the same kind. A woman who had been killed in a rencontre, left two daughters; the younger was handsome-"she was so far from black that the red was very apparent in her cheeks; she sat before us in a corner of the group, nearly in the attitude of Bailey's fine statue of Eve at the Fountain, and apparently equally unconscious that she was naked. As my eye lingered upon her for a moment while deeply regretting the fate of her mother, the brother of the dead person, whose hand had frequently been laid upon my cap, as if to feel if it were proof against the blow of a waddy, begged of me to accept her in exchange for a tomahawk."

As an instance of childlike terror, the writer we have just named tells an amusing story of a whole tribe of the natives, who were meditating the most serious mischief

*

Eastern Australia," by Major (now Sir Thomas) "Three Expeditions into the Interior of Mitchell."

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at the prescribed distance, or stand as a target to receive a similar compliment. Very few grown up men are without spear marks, which are usually below the knee, as

are atoned for by wounds received a little under this level, which is considered the regulation height in such cases.

against the exploring party, being put to fight by the sudden appearance among them of a soldier wearing a gilt mask, and holding in his hand a blue light, with which he fired a rocket, one or two others bellow-mild offences and unintentional injuries ing at the same time through a speakingtrumpet. On another occasion a tribe of natives at Moreton bay, on seeing water boil and bubble in a pot, were terrified out of their wits, and scampered away screaming like madmen. Yet they are by no means deficient in personal courage when contending with dangers which are natural and familiar to them.

The savage instinct of revenge for real or imaginary injuries has its full exemplification in the dispositions and habits of the wild Australian. This impulse, through long cherished custom, has taught him to form a sort of code of retaliation, which bears a striking resemblance to the Jewish perversion of the Divine statute-"If any mischief follow, then thou shalt give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe." These savages rigidly exact the literal penalty. If in hostile conflict between one tribe or family and another, a life should be lost or a limb injured, the balance of account must be settled by a corresponding retribution-satisfaction must be made! When even trifling accidental injuries occur between friends and neighbours-such as a wound from a spear-the party inflicting the injury must stand a cast from a spear in return; and no modern duellists of civilised countries are more accurately precise in arranging the terms of the hostile encounter. Our pistol is often intentionally discharged aside the mark by previous arrangement, or through a right motive on the part of a man who feels that he has been a culpable aggressor, and who yet stands his antagonist's fire; but the savage, who knows no such nice and moral distinctions, demands the "pound of flesh," and will, according to circumstances, either drill a hole into the flesh of his opponent, who courageously awaits the operation

* Exod. xxi. 23-25. "This retaliation was never executed under the Mosaic Law. The Jews misunderstood the law, (which was only a direction to the magistrates,) as if it authorized private revenge." Our Saviour sets the law in its true light, Matt. v.-30.-Bishop Wilson.

No religious ideas are entertained by these people as to God and worship. Vague ones seem to be held, however, as to the future state of existence, in which they are to continue the occupations of their present life; and latterly, they expect some notion of returning to earth as white men-a sort of progressive improvement shadowed forth by their appreciation of the superior condition of the colonists. A remark often heard among them now, is, "By and by dead man jump up white man.'

Mr. Moore has given the following description of the kangaroo dance to which I have adverted.

"It appears to be an imitation of the kangaroo, the motions of the animal, and the panting and gestures of the person in chase. This dance was divided into different scenes or parts; the movements differed a little in each part: sometimes the dancers approached each other, then receded, traversed, and changed sides with a corresponding variation in gesture and exclamation. At each pause they called out, 'Beraway! beraway!' which expression one of them explained in this way:-White man say' "Hip, hip, hurrah!" Black man say, "Beraway! beraway!" During the entire dance they make a violent panting guttural noiseHegh, hegh, hegh, hogha, hogha.''

These savages use another implement, called miro, and womerah; it is a throwing board, about two feet long, and four inches broad in the middle, and tapering off at each end, one extremity being tipped with a bit of glass or quartz to scrape the spear point; the other end is so contrived as to act as a fulcrum or inflexible sling, from which the spear may be projected with steadiness and force. But far more wonderful is the missile termed kyli* in West—

* Mr. Moore, in his "Descriptive Australian Vocabulary," &c. published 1842, states that a defensive shield is not at all common in the located parts of Western Australia. They are brought there as curiosities from the northern extremity to the settlers.