DR. JOHN MURRAY ON CHOLERA.

*

( Communicated.) The Governor-General in Council has caused the tlmnks of the Government of India to be conveyed to the author of this treatise on cholera in the following terms :?" I am to request that you will convey to Dr. Murray the thanks of the Governnient of India for his able paper, and for the zeal with which he

has undertaken the collection and analysis of the opinion of the medical profession in India; and devoted his timo, attention, abi-

lity, and protracted experience to the laborious consideration of a question of such momentous importance to the well-being of all * * * the inhabitants of India, native as well as British. * The Governor-General in Council does

not venture to pro-

authority which should be attached to it; but, as a careful analysis by a professional man of Dr. Murray's special experience and long study of the disease, the Governor-General in Council is satisfied that its promulgation cannot fail to stimulate all those whose duties call them to combat cholera to an earnest study of its nature and

nounce

the

on

degree

of

weight

and

treatment." Such are the words the Government of India addresses to its oldest medical servant,

now the head of the Bengal Medical Department?a fitting position for a man who, throughout his service, has brought zeal, energy, and talent to bear in every

walk of his for the

profession.

present

To him

decrease

only

in the

and

solely mortality

are we

indebted

of cholera, his

moving troops from their barracks when attacked with cholera having proved so successful: to him we owe a

theory

of

much more extended

knowledge

of the

propriety

of

opening

abscesses of the liver?a practice first introduced by his uncle, for many years the head of the British Medical Department in Madras: to him Agra owes its medical school, and the introa ventilating apparatus into its jail?still the only Bengal where a constant current of fresh air can be

duction of rooms

in

maintained ; and in his long tenure of the post of Civil Surgeon there, he earned the friendship of many of the neighbouring

chiefs,

whose

sons

and descendants to this

day keep

up com-

munication with him. 1

Note the very able review of this work at page

171.?Ed., I, U- Q.

August 2,

THE MEDICAL SERVICE AND THE NEW FURLOUGH RULES.

1869.]

To end his services with what perhaps we might have Let us note him as a military officer nearer the

menced.

comcom-

mencement of his career.

After the battle of jilliwal, which those who were

present

on

can

the 30th

hopeless state of confusion the army department to order, and earned this

was

Owing

to the

1846, in

in, he reduced his

notice from Sir

Smith in his despatch written in the field "

January,

well remember the apparently

judicious arrangements

Harry

:?

of Dr.

Murray,

field-

surgeon, every wounded officer and soldier was placed under cover and provided for soon after dark ; and for the zeal disthis able and

played by several

deeply If

regimental

are

medical

officer,

and to tho

the woundfed and our

country

indebted."

ever

John

persevering

surgeons,

officer earned

Murray

was

a

C.B. for service before the enemy, granted to

the man ; but C.B.'s were not then

medical officers. His services then and since would now warrant a higher title, and we still hope that Government will not

forget

to reward its honest servant, and labourer in war and

peace, of 36

years' standing, by

token than mere thanks.

a

more

honourable and lasting

1G7