shape, are commonly described as associating with this habit; yet in others the indications of good looks are frequently observable, usually accompanied, however, by diminished muscular developement and lax fibre. Any tendeney to this habit is most difficult of eradication; by care, attention to diet, air, &c., extensive symptoms are often warded off until the frame is matured, when nature gradually establishes a healthy temperament, which seems capable of resisting the diathesis in frequent instances, unless the constitution suffers from mismanagement, or the debilitating influence of continued illness. But here is at once seen the reason why men, having a strumous taint, are so unfit for soldiers, even though they exhibit no marked physical disability.

If scrofula exists in the constitution only to a slight degree, the habits, the pursuits, the nature of the duties of a soldier all tend to its developement; how can prophylactic measures be adopted? On a march, independent of the fatigue, he may get wet, or take cold on guard; the careless life of a young soldier, with unlimited temptation, conduces to venereal; numerous are the causes exposing to illness, any of which might develope the latent tendency; then struma may appear in any of its varieties, even though slight, much to be dreaded, as almost every scrofulous affection requires the discharge of a soldier. Did it tend even to one of the mildest forms, suppurating glands of the neck, what more troublesome, what more unsatisfactory? As long as there

is a discharge from the abscess or ulcer, the man cannot usually appear on parade; do what one will, send him where one likes, we shall very frequently fail in procuring a permanent local and constitutional cure. True, it is said, suppurating glands of the neck are usually unassociated with the more fatal disease, phthisis, that they seem to act as a derivative for the diathesis to expend itself. Granting this to be the case, still as a man having strumous sores of the neck is unfit for a soldier, but little is gained to the service by the less fatal disease. Sores in this situation often continue for years unhealed a sergeant in the regiment of infantry, in which I once had the honour to serve, caught a severe cold; though of large and powerful frame, some of the lymphatic glands of the neck, as well as the tonsils, became swollen and inflamed, in the course of time matter formed in those of the neck, they were either opened or ulcerated, the tonsils remained permanently enlarged; this was a most trustworthy man of some fourteen years service, he had nothing to fall back on if discharged, with a pension for a limited period; he was unfit for duty in the ranks, yet the Colonel did not wish to lose him, the situation of provost sergeant being vacant at the time, he was appointed, his duty in this capacity comparatively screened him from observation; he satisfactorily served for a few years, until from some exposure he unfortunately subjected himself to fresh cold, his tonsils swelled to such a size as seriously

to impede respiration, the inflammation extended to the rima, from thence into the glottis, and produced thickening and effusion into the submucous tissue. In twenty-four hours, despite the greatest care, he died; this man had, to my knowledge, unhealed ulcers originating in the glands of the neck for more than four years He had resorted to various means of treatment, was quartered at the sea-side for twelve months, and never did a day's duty in the ranks from the period these abscesses formed; had there not been this situation vacant at the time he must have been invalided. His stout appearance was but little altered by the strumous diathesis, yet I have no doubt had he been subjected to the hardships sometimes incidental to a soldier's life, for which every man enlisted should be unequivocally fit, he would have broken in constitution and have fallen a victim much sooner to the consequences of his fearful idiosyncracy. The filth resulting from such a disease, the inability to wear a stock, and the disgusting spectacle of continued running sores in the ranks are sufficient, without the more formidable evil of depraved constitution, to render a man inefficient. The supposition is not for a moment entertained of the possibility of a man having extensive open ulcers of the neck ever gaining admission into the army; yet a good looking lad, with enlarged glands, or a single sinus or old cicatrices about the neck might do so; these evidences are usually accompanied by other indications of struma, but should they not, I believe

them sufficiently disqualifying on their own merits, as showing either remote or persistent scrofula.

If this habit is liable to be produced from the effects of debilitating causes in individuals not apparently prone to it, how much more likely, from similar reasons, is this malady to recur in one whose constitution has previously suffered, and where it is more than probable that a dormant taint remains to be awakened by any fortuitous circumstance.

There is hardly a necessity to urge additional arguments why the examination for evidences of this habit ought to be strictly investigated, and sought for with a most jealous care, as one might be led into the subject to a much greater extent than is at all requisite; the importance is patent on the least reflection. Nevertheless, as I have been more than once eye-witness to a very formidable sequence of this diathesis in relation to a soldier's duties, which seems to me worthy of notice, I will still further extend these observations by introducing a few instances. Infantry soldiers, on a line of march, when undergoing fatigue, carrying the weight of musket, ammunition, and full kit, are liable to injuries of the inferior extremities, and where the constitution is in the least imbued with a strumous tendency, such strains and injuries frequently assume serious characters. The last occasion on which such occurrences were ob

served by me, was on a march of some days in Ireland with an infantry regiment, when I wit

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nessed disease produced in three men of a scrofulous temperament. On arriving at our destination, one complained of pain in the tibia of the left leg immediately below the tubercle, the periosteum seemed engaged, the integuments were red and very painful to the touch. In despite of treatment the tibia became extensively affected, the disease extending into the joint, sinuses formed, the man was worn down by hectic, and eventually the limb was amputated. In the second case, disease commenced in the first metatarsal bone of one foot, engaging the internal and middle cuneiform bones, synchronous with which, strumous glandular enlargement appeared in the neck. Having undergone treatment in the regimental hospital for more than six months, without a prospect of his ever becoming again fit for duty, he was brought forward at the next inspection and invalided. In the third, a lad in the band, of considerable talent as a musician, strumous enlargement of the os calcis occurred, induced by this march; from this he suffered for a very lengthened period, and was eventually sent to his duty in the band, with some increase in size of the os calcis. As he was a useful boy, it was recommended not to subject him to similar exciting causes. In these three cases there were coexistent unequivocal symptoms of a strumous habit. The two first were men in the ranks, under three years service; it is probable, had they been in civil life, these affections might never have appeared; but as soldiers, the work they were subjected to clearly induced them.