Report, published in 1868, to the "great increase in recent years in the proportion of convicts of a weakly and diseased constitution." Accepting this as of course unfavorable to the decrease of convict mortality, I now proceed to my argument.

The changes involved in the four topics with which we have been dealing have come into operation during the more recent years of the convict system; consequently, the more recent years, taken with relation to our subject, fairly constitute a period in that system, and therefore the mortality of the five years last reported upon form a legitimate basis for comparison with previous periods of five years. Now, the whole fifteen years embraced in our inquiry have, except in respect of these four topics, been remarkably uniform as to influences bearing on the death rate. There has been no fatal epidemic to complicate, nor has there been any special cause of unusual mortality; so that, regarding the middle period of five years in the light of a transition period, we go on to compare the third period ending with 1870 with the first period ending with 1860.

And first as to figures, Table VII shows that the average annual number of deaths per 1000 of population from all causes rose from 12.8 in the first period to 13.6 in the second, and to 140 in the third. We thus arrive at an increase of 1.2 in the annual mortality per 1000 in the third as compared with the first period. And what have we found to be the direction of the influences exerted by the four sets of modifications which characterise, be it remembered, the third period? The only influence out of the four which favoured the decrease of the mortality was the cessation of transportation, and that influence we found to be exactly neutralised by the reduction of medical pardons. We are thus left with a reduced dietary and an increased ratio of ill health among convict recruits, both of which exert an unfavorable influence on the death rate; and it may be said, I think fairly too, that the amount of that unfavorable influence is represented by the increase of 12 in the average annual mortality per 1000 in the third period as compared with the first. But, not to put too fine a point upon it, I think that, having shown that there has been a progressive increase in the quinquennial rate of mortality, and also that the weight of characteristic influences favours that increase, I may claim to have proved at least that, upon the general question, the tendency of the mortality of the English convict prisons has been towards an increase. This leads us on to inquire to what forms of disease that increase is due.

Not to the scourge of prisons,' consumption, for, notwithstanding the annual fluctuations of its death rate, exactly the same number died from that disease in the third as in the first period; but the larger population in the former reduced its rate slightly. See Table VII.

Besides consumption, only the various' list of constitutional and

general diseases shows a comparative decrease (indicating, probably,
defective classification of causes during the first period). All the
other, classified, causes of death show an increase. The amount of
increase or decrease per 1000 in the third period, as compared with
the first, is given below.

If we deduct the decrease from the increase we get 1-2, the general increase in the third period upon the first.

On this subject I may refer to some statistics published by Dr. Rendle, of Brixton Prison, in the British Medical Journal' for April, 1871 (No. 536). I took exception to conclusions based upon insufficient and immaterial data, and a brief correspondence ensued between us (see Journal,' Nos. 538, 543, and 546). Throughout his reports Dr. Rendle frequently deals with the question of mortality among female prisoners. About ten years ago, Mr. Bruce Thomson, of Perth, published in the Edinburgh Medical Journal' some statistics on the mortality, &c., among the prisoners in the General Prison for Scotland.

I append a table, which gives a numerical comparison as to the average population and mortality of the convict prisons of England, Ireland, and Scotland, for the corresponding fifteen years, viz. 1856-70.

1 Includes prisoners not sentenced to transportation or penal servitude.

VI. Concluding remarks.-The convict question, more especially its practical portion, is in great measure a medical one. Penal servitude' may be said to be a large experiment set on foot by the State with the view of proving under certain conditions how much work a man is able to do, and how little food he can do it upon. Penal serfs or convicts, with this object among others, are for a time separated from the outer world and the test is applied. The adjustment of food and work to physical capability, or rather perhaps the adaptation of individual capacities to certain standards of food and work, is one of the chief duties of the medical department. The same department deals with the sanitary and hygienic questions relating to prisons and their occupants, as well as with the bodily and mental diseases of the latter. The results obtained from investigation, in these different directions ought not, in these days of state medicine and sanitary laws, to be lost, the more especially as they are favorable indications of what can be done under proper management and discipline. It is to be regretted, on various grounds, that no general annual report is made as to the condition of the convict medical department. The individual medical reports from prisons, varying greatly in their character, afford no indication of the state of health, &c., of the whole convict body. In spite of this drawback, I have endeavoured in this inquiry to present a fair estimate of the rate of death and its causes in our convict prisons, as far as the evidence of the fifteen years last reported upon goes; but I have avoided, for the sake of simplicity, statistical comparisons with other bodies of individuals.

The following are the general conclusions at which I have arrived:

I. That the average population was 7551, the ratio of females to males being as 3 to 17.

II. That the total deaths were 1528, the ratio of females to males being as 3 to 16.

III. That the annual rate of death averaged 13.5 per 1000 prisoners.

IV. That more than one half (52.6 per cent.) of the mortality is due to diseases of the respiratory organs, and that pulmonary consumption is by far the most fatal disease among prisoners, 5 out of every 12 deaths (41.3 per cent.) arising immediately from it.

V. That diseases of the brain and nervous system follow next in point of frequency, and then diseases of the heart.

VI. That 5 per cent. of the deaths are due to accident and suicide.

VII. That there has been no fatal epidemic in the convict prisons for the last fifteen years, and that their mortality from zymotic

diseases has been reduced to a minimum (5 per 1000 prisoners per annum).

VIII. That, while the mortality as due to imprisonment may be said to have diminished, upon the examination of the whole question the tendency has been towards an increase in the rate of death, which increase appears mainly attributable to a higher ratio of disease existing among the convicts on reception.

II. On the Action of certain Neurotics on the Cerebral Circulation. By PATRICK NICOL, M.D., Physician to the Bradford Infirmary, and ISAAC MOSSOP, L.R.C.P.E., late Resident Physician, Royal Hospital for Sick Children, Edinburgh.

THE uses of the ophthalmoscope, one of the most valuable additions to modern means of research, are not exhausted by its employment for the diagnosis of disease. As a As a means for observing the phenomena of the circulation in the fundus of the eye, under varying circumstances, this instrument may procure for us valuable results in determining the laws of action in the smaller vessels of the

nervous centres.

The object of this paper and those that follow it, is to record some. observations on the condition of the fundus oculi, and especially of the optic disc, under the action of certain neurotic drugs. The circulation of the blood in these parts is of great interest, because it is very closely connected with that in the brain, and conclusions may be drawn from the one to the other, with considerable confidence.

The cerebral central artery of the retina, which appears in the centre of the optic disc, is a branch of the ophthalmic artery, and that again of the internal carotid. The ophthalmic vein opens into the cavernous sinus, and its ramifications are subject to much the same conditions of blood-pressure as prevail within the skull. But it is the capillary supply of the optic disc that is the most interesting and important. This is as it were just a small portion of the general blood supply of the brain. The whole subject has been fully set forth in Dr. Clifford Allbutt's recent work.' It appears from the researches of Galezowski (confirmed by Dr. Allbutt), that various vessels proceeding from the pia mater and choroid plexus, are distributed to the optic tracts and nerves. When the fundus oculi is examined with the ophthalmoscope, a more or less rosy tint is generally seen in the disc, especially on the apparent outer side (indirect method of examination), and this is caused by capillary vessels from the branches just referred to, not by branches of the arteria centralis. Hence in observing the increase or diminution of this reddish tint, we are in a manner observing the changes in the vascularity of the brain itself. It is especially from this point of view that the following observations on the actions of neurotics are made.

The experiments reported in this paper were made on healthy individuals. Those which relate to the human eye were carried out on the authors themselves; those which relate to animals, on rabbits.

The Use of the Ophthalmoscope in Diseases of the Nervous System and of the Kidneys.' 1871.