26 JUNE 1897, Page 11

The Medical Environment. By Dr. Campbell Black, M.D. (H. Hopkins,

Glasgow.)—Dr. Black attacks with no little fierce- ness the hospital system, and certain practices in medical ethics and etiquette. He makes a case against both ; that a patient in a Glasgow infirmary should be visited by his father in a carriage and pair is, indeed, the grossest of scandals ; but the gigantic demoralisation caused by the out-door patient system in London, is as bad in its way. The etiquette of advertising, again, is full of inconsistencies, which Dr. Black forcibly points out. He is sometimes quite unnecessarily offensive, but that he hits some nails on the head—and hits them with both precision and force— is beyond all doubt.