To the Editor of the "Midland Medical Miscellany." SIR, I should like to ask your opinion on the metric system. I have long been of opinion it should be introduced into general There is little difficulty in learning it. use in our prescriptions. Believe me, yours truly, Q. SMITH. London, Dec. 14th. [Our opinion is strongly in favour of the adoption of the metric system, and in an early number we intend stating the grounds upon which we advocate the change. In our present number we produce the metric table, a glance at which will show the simplicity and convenience of the system.-ED.M. M. M.] THE METRIC SYSTEM. The metric system of weights and measures is based on a standard measure represented by the METRE: a unit of length equal to a little more than one yard-viz., 39 370 English inches. French geometricians intended this standard should have reference to the circumference of the earth, and therefore the metre is estimated as the one-ten millionth part of the distance between the Equator and the Pole, or 39 370 English inches. It is divided into tenths, decimetres, hundredths, centimetres, and thousandths, millimetres. The multiples are-tens, decimetres, hundredths, hectometres, and thousandths, kilometres. For area and capacity we have square metres, decimetres, etc., and also cubic metres, millimetres, etc. The litre is the unit of weight for fluid measures, and is the term used to denote one cubic decimetre, or 1 pints English. It is divided into 10ths, 100ths, 1,000ths, etc. The Gramme, or the weight of one cubic centimetre of water at the temperature of 4 degrees centigrade, is the unit of weight, and equals 15 grains. It is also subdivided into 10ths, 100ths, 1,000ths, etc, APPROXIMATE EQUIVALENTS OF CUBIC CENTIMETRE (C.c.) equal to 1-65 minim 0'001' Ο ΟΙ C. C. APPROXIMATE EQUIVALENTS FOR RAPID REFERENCE. 1-6 IA 15 4 drachms I "3 ounce 14 fluid drachms 33 ounces I pints or LITRE 4 litres I gallon Hectolitre 22 gallons 1 Milligramme equal to 1-65 grain 1-32 39 6-13 17 9-10 37 I I Gramme equal to 15 grains 30 23456 78 a 1 Decigramme equal to 1 grains 3 1234 i 70 a 23456 700 a 1234 3O 70 a Owing to pressure on our space, several important articles are "Health and Education" held over: Mr. Orton's address on will be continued in our next number. Communications received from:-Mr. T. M. Dolan, Halifax; Mr. W. Marshall Taylor, Dunston; Chotah Wallah; Dr. Wallace, Parsonstown; W. T. P.; Mr. A. Jackson; Mr. W. C. Robinson, Tynemouth; Mr. M. D. Makuna, etc. Books, Pamphlets, etc., received:-Practitioner, Health, Schmidt's Jahrbücher der in-und auslandischen Gesammten Medicin, Birmingham Medical Review, Philanthropist, New England Medical Monthly, Centralblatt für die Medicinischen Wissenschaften, Philadelphia Medical and Surgical Reporter, Birkenhead News, Bulletin Général de Thérapeutique, Medical News, Medical Record, New York Medical Journal, Students' "The Extra Pharma"Baldness and Greyness," Journal, copoeia.' NOTICES. TO SUBSCRIBERS FOR 1884. We would call the attention of our readers to the fact that the subscription for the Miscellany will be due on the 1st of January next, and we therefore request them to kindly forward their Subscriptions to our Office, or to any of the Publishers or Agents. When the Miscellany is delivered by hand from the Agents, the subscription is 6s. per annum. The Miscellany will be forwarded direct, on the first of the Month, from any of the Publishers, viz., Messrs. RICHARDSON & Co., Leicester; Mr. H. K. LEWIS, 136, Gower Street, London; Messrs. MACLACHLAN & STEWART, South Bridge, Edinburgh; or Messrs. FANNIN & Co., Grafton Street, Dublin, at the following prepaid charges, post free : Great Britain and Ireland U. S. America and Canada Mexico and South America Also from any of the following Agents : Aberdeen Mr. J. ADAM, 73, Union Street. Leicester: Messrs. CROSSLEY & CLARKE, Gallowtree Gate. To whom notice of presentations, testimonials, appointments, and general local medical news may be given. The Midland Medical Miscellany, VOL. III. AND Provincial Medical Journal. Ellustration. DR. LYONS, M.P. FEBRUARY 1, 1884. Dr. Robert SPENCER DYER LYONS, the subject of our present sketch, was born in the year 1826 at Cork, of which city his father, Sir William Lyons, was twice Mayor and High Sheriff. He was educated, first at Hamlin and Porter's Grammar School, and afterwards at Trinity College, Dublin, where he graduated. Among his earlier studies was that of the microscope, and he was the first man in Ireland who lectured upon its use in the investigation of disease. Having already acquired a reputation, he was recommended by the late Dr. Parker for the appointment of Pathologist-in-Chief to the army in the Crimea. Sir James Clarke elected him to fill that office, and the Minister of War commissioned him to report upon the diseases then making such terrible havoc at the seat of war, where, in the trenches before Sebastopol, according to despatches from Lord Raglan, the soldiers were dying like flies. Thus, before he had attained the age of thirty years did Dr. Lyons form one of a group of prominent men-a group of men upon whom the gaze of the whole civilized world was riveted. At a time when necessity compelled our country to call her best men to the front, Dr. Lyons stood out with other men of strong character and distinguished fitness for the service of the State. With all the Generals commanding the allied forces in the Crimea his duties brought him into important relationship, as also with Lord Stratford de Redcliffe at Constantinople. Dr. Lyons is a strong advocate of measures tending to elevate the moral tone and raise the standard of education of, not alone the political and civil services, but of the country at large. He powerfully urges the necessity, as he conceives, for teaching in the intermediate schools of Ireland the languages of Asia Minor, and considers, once it is made known No. 26. that a demand for such qualifications exists, an abundant supply would arise to meet it. He holds the opinion that the youth of Ireland possess a latent ability which needs. but opportunities for development. In a letter addressed to the late Earl of Beaconsfield, dated July 15th, 1878, on the subject of Irish (Intermediate) Education and the Civil Service of Cyprus (and dedicated to Lord Stratford de Redcliffe, in memory of kind attentions received at Constantinople), he says:-"I confess I should myself desire to see the cultivation of Russian stimulated,” etc.; and if the foregoing quotation be taken along with the following one it will at once strike the reader that the writer was actuated by a herculean desire to cleanse the Augean stables of administrative corruption and strangle the Hydra of ignorance, the bulwark of oppression:-"The administrators and the governed too frequently are separated by lines of interest and policy well known to the few who are initiated and can see below the surface, but wholly unappreciable to those who believe that uniformity of religious practice and costume indicate common nationalities and like bonds of interest. No worse political agent can be found than the Ottomanized Frank, Teuton, or Greek, who barters self-respect and religion for the privilege of fleecing, almost at will, the long-suffering classes of at will, the long-suffering classes of a mixed Ottoman State or dependency. In a lamentably large proportion of cases the insurmountable barrier of language prevents the possibility of tracing out wrong, of hearing the complaint or the sufferers, or of practically applying a remedy to the worst form of evil. . To this state of things the intervention of the whole tribe of dragomans, writers, and interpreters lends but too fatal facilities, and all direct access to those willing and able to administer justice is cut off." For the valuable services he rendered to the sick and wounded Dr. Lyons was thanked by the authorities in the field and at home after the 18th of June; and on the 8th of September, on the fall of the Russian stronghold, he was awarded the Crimean and Turkish medal and clasp for Sebastopol. He was also thanked by the French Generals for the assistance he rendered after the battle of Tchernaya. In 1857, knowing how important a full knowledge of the pathological anatomy of the yellow fever would be, not only to the British Empire, but to humanity at large, Dr. Lyons undertook a voluntary mission of investigation to Lisbon, where, as well as in other towns of Portugal, that disease had broken out. The result of his investigations induced him to place before the King, Dom Pedro V., a full report, together with the proposal of various sanitary measures, which, being adopted, were of material assistance in restoring public confidence and reviving trade. For the important services he had rendered, the King and all the officials thanked Dr. Lyons, to whom was awarded the Cross and Insignia of the Ancient Order of Christ (Templars). The Government of this country, as fully alive to the great importance of his investigations as was the King of Portugal, took the question up, and the report was, by command of Her Majesty, published in both Houses of Parliament. Dr. Lyons then joined St. George's Hospital, Dublin, taking an active share in the education of the Army Medical Staff of the present day. In 1860 his treatise on fever appeared, in which an account of his investigations into the Lisbon epidemic is recorded. In his general observations, in Chapter I. of this work, he says to students of medicine: "By far the most important of the duties to which you will be called, when you pass into the world as practising physicians, no matter in what clime your lot may be cast, will be those which devolve on you in connection with fevers. After expressing his full belief in the statement of Sydenham that, excluding deaths from violence, fevers constitute nearly two-thirds of all the diseases by which mankind perish annually, he goes on to show by figures the terrible havoc fever made among the French and English soldiers in the Crimea. He says: "From the 1st of September, 1854, to April, 1855, 4,228 men perished in the hospitals at Scutari alone, of whom but 359 died of wounds." A year before the publication of his treatise on fever, his "Handbook of Hospital Practice" had appeared. In 1870 Dr. Lyons was invited by Mr. Gladstone's Government to act with the Earl of Devon on a commission of inquiry into the treatment of Irish treason-felony prisoners in English prisons. The exhaustive report which followed this inquiry led to the liberation of the chief prisoners, among whom was O'Donovan Rossa, who had, it was proved, been kept for thirty-five consecutive days with his hands manacled behind his back or in front of him. Whilst this inquiry was in course of progress Dr. Lyons visited the French prisons, and his report upon the subject of French prison discipline as applied to political offenders, and upon the question of prison labour and the utilization of the profit derived from the prisoners' work for their support when in gaol, and their maintenance when released therefrom, was regarded as being of deep interest and great practical value. The pathological and other scientific researches of Dr. Lyons have been followed by vast practical benefit both to the general practitioner and to the general public. The space at our disposal prohibits detailed mention of all the works of which Dr. Lyons is the author. His "Intellectual Resources of Ireland," powerfully putting forward the necessity that exists for an extended system of university education, may be regarded as evidence not only of his strong desire for the spread of knowledge, but of his most assiduous exertions in the endeavour to bring about that desirable end. In the work mentioned the following quotation may be given as singularly characteristic of the man: "If knowledge be power, ignorance is weakness, and we are fallen upon times in which the ignorant and the weak go down before the force of organized knowledge, more speedily and more surely perhaps than at any former period in the history of man.” Dr. Lyons is exceedingly enthusiastic on the question of reafforesting Ireland. His article on this subject which appeared in the "Journal of Forestry and Estate Management," in February, 1883, not only bears witness to the possession of tremendous earnestness and energy, but of his power to move mountains of difficulty from his path, and in the face of stupendous obstacles to achieve practical results. Of this power the Dublin Daily Express of September 10, 1883, speaks in terms of high encomium. It mentions Dr. Lyons as being "all but ubiquitous in his zealous action," and as "a host in himself," etc., etc. On the subject of the Parliamentary Oaths Act he holds but "one opinion," he says, and it is next to impossible to do other than admire the impassioned eloquence of his speech in Parliament on the 1st of May, 1883, on the occasion of the second reading of the Parliamentary Oaths Act (1866) Amendment Bill. At the elections of 1868 and 1874 Dr. Lyons was asked to come forward as a candidate for various Irish seats, but he then declined to allow himself to be nominated. Since that time, however, he has withdrawn his opposition, and he now sits in Parliament as member for Dublin, having previously sat as a representative of his native city, Cork. Dr. Lyons strongly favours a rigid observance of the Apostolic injunction, to "be temperate in all things." |