VI. No more persons to be admitted into the room than are absolutely necessary. GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. 7. When the PRONE position is resumed, MAKE equable but efficient PRESSURE, with brisk movement, ALONG the back of the CHEST; REMOVING it immediately before rotation on the side; On the restoration of life, a teaspoonful of warm water should be given; and then, if the [the first measure augments the expiration, the second power of swallowing be returned, small quantities of wine, or diluted brandy, warm: the patient should be kept in bed, and a disposition to sleep encouraged. Great care is requisite to maintain the restored vital actions, and at the same time to prevent undue excitement. The treatment recommended by the Society to be persevered in for three or four hours, as it is an erroneous opinion that persons are irrecoverable because life does not soon make its appearance, cases having come under the notice of the Society of successful results even after five hours; and it is also absurd to suppose that a body must not be meddled with or removed without the previous permission of a Coroner. commences inspiration.] THE RESULT IS-RESPIRATION; AND, IF NOT IV. TO INDUCE CIRCULATION AND WARMTH- [by this measure the blood is propelled along the veins towards the heart.] 9. Let the limbs be thus warmed and dried, and then clothed, the bystanders supplying the requisite garments. 10. AVOID THE CONTINUOUS WARM-BATHI, and THE POSITION ON, OR INCLINED TO, THE BACK. Our limited space will not admit of our placing before our readers the whole of Dr. MARSHALL HALL'S arguments in detail; they will, however, find the subject discussed by him in the columns of the Lancet, in No. 15, and subsequent Nos. in Vol. I., and in Nos. VI., VII., and X. of the present year. They may also see a summary of the same in the 21st No. of this Journal. We will merely now shortly explain the leading points of difference between the old and the proposed methods: Old Method. After certain cautions intended to counteract mistaken notions prevalent amongst ignorant people, the old instructions directed the body to be removed, on its back, in a raised position, to the nearest house, where every means were to be then resorted to to promote warmth and restore circulation of the blood; but no attempt to promote a return of suspended respiration appears to have been provided 4. That it be imitated by artificial expansion and contraction of the chest. 5. That circulation be restored by friction and artificial warmth. The substance of the doctor's arguments are, on the first head, that loss of time will, in many if not in most cases, be fatal; on the second head, that if the body be placed on the back, the tongue will of itself fall into such a position as to close the opening of the windpipe and prevent breathing; which Dr. HALL asserts he has repeatedly proved by experiment on the dead subject. On the third, fourth, and fifth heads, that it is of the utmost importance respiration be in the first instance restored, and that circulation of the blood had better remain suspended until it is so. He, therefore, altogether condemns the excitation of warmth, especially by means of a continuous warmbath, until breathing has re-commenced. His arguments are that in life the two always go together-that by the act of respiration alone can the blood be purified as it passes through the lungs, and is exposed to the oxygen of the air inhaled by them; and that without such purifying process, carbonic acid, or blood-poison as it for. The recommendation to place the body on the back was, however, subsequently rescinded in deference to the opinion of Dr. M. HALL as expressed in a pamphlet presented by him to the Royal Humane Society. New Method. On the contrary, Dr. M. is termed, must accumulate and destroy life. HALL directs, 1. That the patient be treated "instantly," "on the spot," ," "in the open air." 2. That the body be placed on the face. 3. That respiration be excited. We think there is something strikingly beautiful and simple in the process of restoring respiration by the artificial and mechanical expansion and contraction of the chest. In the means Dr. HALL recommends for promoting warmth and re-circulation of the blood there is also the novelty of rubbing the limbs from the extremities to the central parts of the body, to bring back the chilled and coagulating blood again within the influence of the first renewed but feeble action of the heart. Altogether, although we are uninstructed in the medical art, Dr. HALL's arguments appear to us so forcible and theoretically conclusive, and his experiments so convincing, that we cannot but deem them deserving of the most serious and careful consideration from every member of his distinguished profession. THE COLLAPSIBLE LIFE-BOAT. IN No. 10 of this Journal we described and eulogized this, as we believe, invaluable boat, invented by the Rev. E. L. BERTHON, of Fareham, and in our 23rd Number we stated that we should not cease to draw the attention of our readers to its peculiar merits and advantages, i. e., as a ship's life-boat for vessels carrying troops or passengers. We are again reminded of that intention by the occurrence of the war with China, involving the transport of troops to that distant part of the world, and by accidents having recently occurred to two Government steam troop-ships, the Urgent and the Transit, neither of which, it is said, had boat accommodation for half of the persons on board them. Now had either of these vessels foundered at sea, and more than half its inmates perished from the want of boats to take them on board, what an indelible disgrace would have been inflicted on our country for thus suffering the lives of its brave defenders to be uselessly imperilled! For, is it not enough that men should fearlessly expose their lives to the sword of the foe, without their also incurring unnecessary risk by the mere act of their conveyance to the scenes of their duties? That our soldiers, as well as our sailors, should be ready at all times to encounter the ordinary dangers of the sea, we at once admit; but what we contend for is, that they should be provided with every available means of security. The neglect of such provision we shall always consider a national sin. Now it cannot be said that troops or any other persons on shipboard are provided with " every available means of security," unless a sufficient number of safe boats are attached to their ship to receive them all on board in case of fire or foundering at sea. The difficulty of the stowage of such a number of boats has been got over by the invention of the collapsible life-boat; if, therefore, its safety and efficiency are established, it follows that no troop-ship or passengervessel should be without a sufficient supply of such boats. Having already expressed our opinion at large on this subject, we do not now propose to go over the same ground again. "We have nailed our colours to the mast," with the device inscribed on them, “Lifeboat accommodation for every person embarked under the British flag;" short of which nothing will satisfy us. We have also pronounced our opinion decisively on the capability of the collapsible life-boat to meet the required want. We now purpose, in further elucidation of Mr. BERTHON'S plan, to add diagrams of his boat, the woodcuts of which he has kindly furnished to us, together with some particulars respecting those which have been already in use, that will serve to illustrate their properties, especially that of strength. It is the more necessary that we should do so, as, in consequence of the sinking of an experimental mortar-boat, built on Mr. BERTHON'S plan about two years since (which was published in the newspapers at the time), unfavourable and mistaken impressions may have been entertained regarding them, whereas an examination into the cause of that accident afforded a striking illustration of the immense strength of this description of boat. The mortar-boat in question was constructed to carry a 13-inch mortar, the shell of which weighed 208 lbs., which was fired with a charge of 20 lbs. of powder, and the total weight of which was 83 tons, exclusive of ammunition. Now it so happened that when the mortar was being lowered into this boat (the mortar itself weighing 51 tons) the block by which it was suspended broke, and that enormous weight of metal fell through a height of about 4 feet into the boat. Now we feel quite sure that if the same accident had happened to a merchant vessel of average strength of build, the mortar would have gone through her bottom. We do not mean to say it would have gone through the floor of a ship having a solid bottom, as so long advocated by our friend Mr. BALLINGAL, of Melbourne, Australia, and with which every merchant vessel should be built, but that it would have broken its way through the floor of an ordinary merchant ship. In consequence, however, of the great strength of this peculiar build, no serious injury apparently resulted from the accident, and the mortar was accordingly placed in the boat and the trials of it were proceeded with. After several days' firing, it was observed that the boat heeled on one side, and the same being supposed to arise from a leak, permission was obtained by Mr. BERTHON to have the mortar taken out and the boat carefully examined. It was then found that one of the longitudinal timbers, at the spot where the mortar had fallen, was broken through, which, under the effect of the constant subsequent discharges of the mortar, had gradually collapsed to some extent, and thus altered the shape of the boat on that side, causing her to heel over as above described. The mortar having been taken out, the boat was repaired, a new timber being inserted in lieu of the broken one; it, however, unfortunately happened that one of the workmen, in Mr. BERTHON'S absence, in nailing the india-rubber cloth to the edge of the new timber, materially weakened the former through a small portion of its length, by driving in the nails close to each other, instead of at a distance of 1 inch apart; thus establishing a weak point in the fabric, which afterwards gave way at that point from the concussion of the mortar's subsequent discharge, and (at the fifteenth round) occasioned the accident above referred to. Mr. BERTHON has since devised an ingenious method of attaching the flexible cloth to the timbers of his boats without any perforations being made in it. A consideration of all the circumstances above described confirms us in our previous opinion of the great strength of Mr. BERTHON'S boats. In illustration of their strength and immunity from injury when in a collapsed state, we may relate that one of them now on board Her Majesty's steam troopship, Perseverance, on trial, was, on her recently going to sea, secured out-board, abaft her fore channels, where, when on the weather side, it was exposed to the full effects of the sea. That the ship being suddenly hurried out of port, there was no time to affix a tarpauline cover which Mr. BERTHON had considered an indispensable security, and which, from its presenting on all parts a smooth surface to the sea, would have offered no unequal resistance to it. That immediately after sailing, and before any opportunity had offered to attach the cover, the ship encountered a heavy gale which materially damaged her upper bulwarks, on the same side on which the boat was stowed, although they were in a less exposed position, washing away also one of her quarter boats; yet that Mr. BERTHON'S boat, unprotected and imperfectly secured as it was, passed unscathed through the same ordeal. To what other conclusion, then, can we come than that, whether collapsed or expanded, these boats are possessed of more than ordinary strength? It is not, however, as mortar-boats or gun-boats that we would primarily advance the importance of this invention, although we must confess we think some 50 or 60 of them so armed would, at this moment, be found invaluable auxiliaries to our fleet on the coast of China, drawing, as they would do, but a few inches water, and carried collapsed to the scene of action, as they might be, to the number of twenty in one old ship of the line. The one point on which we would base our whole argument for the adoption of these boats, is the immense advantage obtained by their collapsibility, enabling them to be stowed away in a reduced space, and in various positions on shipboard in which no ordinary boat can be stowed. By this property, no matter how crowded a ship may be with human beings, there may be boat We do, therefore, trust that an invention, which we believe to be of national interest and importance, may not be suffered to perish accommodation, nay, life-boat accommoda- by a surf or roller on the beach, such a boat tion, for every one of them; there need be no would not sink; and in the case of the landconfusion, no rushing headlong into and up-ing of troops-an operation which it might setting in succession boat after boat as they often be important to perform without waitare lowered into the sea; no fearful anxiety ing for a surf to go down-an army might as to who should be the unfortunate crea- land in such boats without wetting either tures left on board to perish. There need their arms or their ammunition. never again be witnessed the fearfully magnificent spectacle of the noble old colonel* calmly directing his men, rank and file, each in his turn, to descend the side of the burn-in embryo for want of that support and ening ship, whilst he and the residue of his band, for whom no boat accommodation had been provided, awaited, with heroic resignation, their terrible and inevitable fate. But there may be boats for all-boats which, as we have in a former paper remarked, by having each painted on them, in conspicuous characters, the number of persons they were severally fitted to carry, would, beforehand, impart confidence to the emigrants or other passengers for whose security they were intended; boats, which not only would convey their inmates safely through a heavy midocean sea, but, if required to do so, would land them in safety through the much more dangerous surf on the shore. For if filled * Vide Life-Boat Journal, No. 13, page 140. couragement which the government of the country can alone afford. Mr. BERTHON has, we are informed, already expended several thousand pounds in his endeavours to bring it to perfection, and does not feel called on or able to do more; nor can it be expected that he should do so, however much he may feel convinced of its national utility. We have ourselves, from the same conviction, done what we could to bring it into public notice; we shall now conclude by placing before our readers some diagrams explanatory of the collapsible life-boat, with a short account of its nature and mode of action, and refer them, for a more detailed description of it, to the previous Numbers of this Journal above alluded to. Showing a Section of a Collapsible Life-Boat in a collapsed state, as stowed, and in an stern-post. The planking is formed of two The chief peculiarity of these boats consists in their power of instantaneously expanding, when required, by their own weight; this is accomplished in the follow-posed of plies of canvas and cured Indiaing manner:-All the timbers are longitudinal (usually eight besides the keel), and jointed together at the tops of the stem and rubber they are very flexible and strong. When open the timbers stand apart in radiating planes extending the skins, the |