RECOLLECTIONS OF AN ARMY DOCTOR.* Sin JOSEPH FAYEEE'S book would
be welcome at any time, for he has seen many men and cities; just now, with its many experiences of military medicine, it is particularly seasonable. The sea was Joseph Fayrer's first choice, but pleased less on Recollections of my Life. By Surgeon-General Sir Joseph Fayrer, Bart. London : W. Blackwood sod Sons. [sls.] trial, as indeed it is apt to do. The coincidence of a visit to Bermuda with an outbreak of yellow fever among the troops strengthened a liking for medicine that had for some time been present in his mind. There are some who would hue failed in so severe an initiation, but it revealed in the young sailor the real enthusiasm of healing. He entered at the- school of Charing Cross Hospital in 1844, T. H. Huxley being one of -his fellow-students, passed the examination of the College of Surgeons in 1847, and three years afterwards went out in the Camperdown,' East Indium:1n, in charge of three hundred recruits. These he delivered at Fort William after a voyage of about a hundred days, and was complimented on their good condition, besides receiving something over two thousand rupees in head money. At the same time he had his first, but by no means his last, experience of official negligence or incom- petence. He pointed out to the military authorities an artillery- man who had shown signs of insanity, and recommended that he should be watched. The authorities took no heed, but sent the man on to D am-Dum. A few days afterwards he dressed, himself in full uniform, walked into a tank, and drowned himself. In the following year (1ssi.) he was put, owing to an accidental vacancy, in medical charge of the 74th Bengal Native Infantry. The regiment was suffering from inter, mittent fever, all the sepoys at headquarters, except a few men for orderly work, being in hospital. This was in October; in December orders came that the regiment was to be moved for change of air. Mr. Fayrer represented to the Superintending Surgeon that this movement would probably. bring on an attack of cholera. It was in vain; the order was imperative, and they must go. They went, the men being crowded together in boats. In a few days the cholera came;" "the sepoys died in numbers." The officer in command, on the urgent representations of Mr. Fayrer, asked for leave .to return. It was refused. " I again urged Ryley to - return,. and told him that I would hold him responsible for the loss of life if he did not do so." On this he acted. " We turned and made for Dacca, and strange as it may appear, the disease decreased from that time, and had almost ceased when we got back to Dacca." The incident is a remarkable proof of the power of mental agencies. It scarcely fits in with the germ theory. Anyhow, if the cholera germs were present, they were inactive till the fears of the men were roused,. and this comes to much the same thing as not being present.. " No fault was found," not even with the officials who ordered the move against advice, and persisted in it after a disastrous experience. "If the men had been in better health I believe they would have mutinied," says Sir Joseph. As it was, the regiment nearly ceased to exist. Our author adds a curious experience of his own to the natural history of that enigmatic disease, cholera. In the attack on the Thilawa stockade at the mouth of the Rangoon River he was on board the Phlegethon.' A shell burst at the mouth of the long gun, and the concussion gave his left ear a severe shock. "I have been deaf on that side ever since." He was very unwell, the rest of that day, and had a very troubled night. "I can remember feeling very ill, rushing up in the night and falling flat on the deck. I then developed all the symptoms of cholera." But on the second day he was all right again. Here, again, the behaviour of the germ seems to have been eccentric. All these Burmese experiences are full of interest, general as well as medical. It was a rare opportunity for a young man,—he was only twenty-seven, and had been in the Company's service for eighteen months only. And we have nc doubt that the men under the young surgeon's charge were not less fortunate than he.
One result of the service in Burmah might well have turned out anything but fortunate. In a most complimentary letter the Governor-General (Lord Dalhousie) offered Mr. Fayrer the Residency Surgeoncy at Lucknow. It had been vacant for some time, and, as the best medical appointment in the gift of the Governor-General, had been "reserved for the assistant-surgeon who should be found to have rendered the most approved services during the war with Burmah." So it was offered to Mr. Fayrer after less than three years' service. Lucknow was aar interesting place, but somewhat volcanic. Lord Dalhousie was bent on annexation, and the King was busy in giving him good reasons for the measure. Mr. Fayrer now held, in addition to his medical. duties, the post of Assistant Resident. In this capacity he bad to send in reports of what took place at Court and throughout the ki"gdom. He gives a characteristic specimen :- "His Majesty was this morning carried in his tonjon to the Mahal, and there he and So-and-so [ladies] were entertained with the fights of two pairs of new rams, which fought with great energy, also of some quails. Shawls worth Rs. 100 were presented to the jemadar who arranged these fights. His Majesty then listened to a new singer, and amused himself afterwards by kite- flying till 4 P.M., when he went to sleep. Reports have come from the village of — in the district of — that Ram Sing, zemin- der, refused to pay Rs. 500 demanded of him by the amii, whereon his house was burned ; he was wounded, and his two sons and brothers have absconded. Jewan Khan, daroga of the pigeon- house, received a khilat of shawls and Rs. 2000 for producing a pigeon with one black and one white wing. His majesty recited to the Khas Mahal his new poem on the loves of the bulbuls."
The Governor-General decided on annexation, and Outram was sent to carry it out. Sir Joseph Parer does not say that the measure was not justified. but he is quite clear that it was unpopular, and certainly suggests that it might have been better to leave the people to right themselves. This was in February, 1856; about sixteen months later the Lucknow
Residency was besieged, and Mr. Fayrer was in chief medical charge. The story of the siege is one that can never lose its interest. It has never been told before, from the standpoint of the physician, in such detail or with so authoritative a sanction. It is profoundly impressive. Never were three months (to speak only of the first siege from June 30th to September 25th) more closely filled with suffering and with heroism. And none suffered more and endured more bravely than the medical officers. How much is implied in the simple statement that every amputation was fatal ! Mr. Fayrer's painful experiences began very soon. He bad had to invalid Sir Henry Lawrence on June 9th. On the 12th he allowed him'to return to duty; twenty days afterwards Sir Henry was
wounded. When the wound was examined it was seen to be certainly mortal. This was the first of many sorrows. It would
not be easy tO find a story so piteous and so noble. Where so much seems to call for extract, it is difficult to choose. We are sure that Sir Joseph will approve if we select one or two anecdotes about most illustrious patient, Outram. He was, as every one knows, in the first relief, giving up the command which came to him as senior to Hatrelock, and serving with the Volunteer cavalry.
Re was in the thick of every fight, carrying nothing but a stick,—Charles Gordon's favourite weapon. He received a flesh wound in the arm while the relieving force was making its way in. Apparently the first notice that he gave of it was that he was found wandering about next morning with his coat on his arm. wanting to know if any one could mend the holes for him. It worried him to be asked about it. " I heard Outram say to some of the numerous visitors when they inquired How is the arm, General ? " Oh, damn the arm ! " He would take nothing but the commissariat rations. When something extra was one day sent to him, " he was very angry and refused to have it"
" The soldiers of the relief force voted him the V.C., and nothing would have pleased him more than to have it, but some wretched red-tapism prevented him from getting it because he was so high in command. Note that he had, purposely, to serve Havelock, and because in his generosity he thought Havelock was more entitled to it, laid down his command, and had acted as a volunteer where he might have been supreme, and this was all the thanks he got for it ! I don't know what he thought about
• it, but I know what we all thought of it !"
Sir Joseph Fayrer has many things to tell us outside his own profession. He was present at Palermo in 1847, and tells some gruesome stories about Sicilian ferocity. And he has been a mighty hunter, telling his stories with just the spice of interest. which distinguishes the student of natural history from the mere slayer of beasts. Here is a little picture, for instance :-
" When buffaloes .find themselves in the presence of a tiger, they collect in a circle with their heads outwards, the big ones in front, and in this position they defy him and he dare not attack them. In such a case the cowherd not unfrequently gets into the centre, or rather they put him there, all forming round him, where he is perfectly safe, for no tiger could touch him; or some- times he gets on the back of one of the buffaloes."
The sportsman of conservative instinct will hear with pleasure that the gun which Sir Joseph still shoots with in preference to all others is an old " Joe Manton," now turned into a breechloader, which belonged to his father.
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