every sort of martial exercise; and we find the wielding of the sword particularly named as an art in which he excelled at this period. His skill in war, too, had been proved upon various occasions; and that the arts of peace were also cultivated by him, is shown by the fact, that in his own day he obtained much celebrity in what was then called the gay science, or in other words, the composition of small and somewhat rude pieces of verse, the first effort of reviving poetry on the north of the Alps. Besides these qualities, Richard had displayed a degree of moderation and even gentleness in his dealings with all men since he had succeeded to the dominions of his father, which might have been expected, from the clemency which he had generally shown to his vanquished enemies, during the various struggles in Poitou and Aquitaine, but which seems to have taken his subjects by surprise, when, having unbounded power to chastise, he used it, but with two exceptions, to soothe, to recompense, or to forgive.

A dreadful passage in the history of the lion-hearted king.

Whether to gratify the zeal of his faithful subjects, or to guard against any of those acts of tumult and violence which sometimes took place when the wandering traders of the children of Israel were mixed with the Christians at any public ceremony, Richard had published a proclamation, forbidding the Jews, who were then very numerous in London, from entering the church or the precincts of the palace on the day of his coronation. Notwithstanding this prohibition, the Israelites, it would seem, were determined, either from motives of interest or curiosity, to enter the banquet hall, and witness the festivities which were going on. While the king was still at table, several of the Hebrew people, amongst whom was a wealthy Israelite named Benedict of York, passed the gates on the pretence of offering the king gifts on the occasion of his coronation; but as soon as they were perceived, the inferior persons who crowded the lower part of the hall, attacked and drove them out with blows, following them furiously into the space before the palace. Benedict, the Jew of York, was nearly killed upon the spot, and only saved from death by crying out that he wished to become a Christian; upon which he was baptized, apparently without any decent delay, by William, Prior of St. Mary's, of York. The crowd on the outside of the hall seeing the Israelites thus driven forth from the presence of the king, became possessed with the idea that it was by Richard's order they were attacked, and not content with striking them with the fist, caught up sticks and stones, killing several, and leaving others half dead upon the ground. The report spread like lightning through the city, that a general massacre of the Jews had commenced. It unfortunately happens, that in every great town multitudes are found ready to follow any example of mischief which may be given to them; crowds speedily collected in various parts of the capital, and pouring into the quarters in which the houses of the Jews were situated, commenced the work of pillage and murder in the most brutal and remorseless manner. Few were suffered to escape, but those who, having friends amongst the Christian population, were permitted to fly to their houses for shelter. Such was the mad rage of the excited people that the houses of the Hebrews were fired, even at the risk of burning the capital, a great part of which was then built of wood; and if we VOL. II. (1843) No. III.

X

may be permitted to form a conception from the writings of many of the contemporary monks and priests, what was their own conduct at at the time, it is probable that these abominable acts were, in most instances, countenanced and encouraged by the clergy. Nor was the offence confined to London alone. The news of the massacre of the Jews spread through the whole country with the rapidity and malignity of a pest. One city emulated another in rapine and violence; and it would seem that of all the great towns throughout the kingdom, Winchester alone displayed the true spirit of Christianity towards the unfortunate Israelites, for which lenity she is severely blamed by some of the contemporary historians.

Expensive frenzies were these same crusades. And what were the contrivances for equipping and maintaining the said mis-named Holy Wars? We copy out not merely an answer to the question, but something to convince the reader that the ingenuity of our living statesmen can hardly, on great emergencies, get out of the track of the dark ages.

In moments of great and pressing difficulty the same measures generally present themselves to all states, however different may be their habits and customs at other periods; and things that strike us as novelties, produced by the exigences of our own situation, will often be found upon the page of history, adopted by men under similar circumstances in various remote ages. At a general assembly of the nobles and people of the kingdom of Jerusalem, with the consent and approbation of the king, it was determined, in the imminent necessity of the time, to have recourse to a property and income

tax.

Assessors were appointed to estimate the property and income of cach person in the realm; measures were taken to insure individuals against surcharge and afford them the power of appeal; the assessors were bound by oath not to reveal the secrets of any man's fortune, which they might discover in the execution of their duty: and the lower class were in some degree protected against the pressure of the tax. The impost was fixed at one per cent. upon property, and two per cent. upon income derived from ordinary revenues, [this included all revenues of landed proprietors, monasteries, churches, &c.] while those who laboured for their bread, and whose income was derived from pay or salary, were with justice imposed only to half the amount, though they were not absolutely exempted from bearing a share in the burdens of the state.

ART. III. Austria: its Literary, Scientific, and Medical Institutions. With Notes upon the present state of Science, and a Guide to the Hospitals and Sanatory Establishments of Vienna. By W. R WILDE. Longman.

MR. WILDE is a Licentiate of the Royal College of Surgeons, in Ireland, and may be known of the author of a very readable and informing work, of a professional character, entitled a "Narrative of a

Voyage to Madeira and the Mediterranean." In 1840 and 1841, he made a tour on the Continent, his main object being to visit the principal medical institutions, and to obtain that knowledge with regard to the modes and extent of study required, the manner in which the schools were conducted, and the various circumstances of the profession, which every person of liberal inquiry would naturally desire, and which to one of the cloth must be particularly interesting. The schools and the profession in Austria were the especial objects of Mr. Wilde's investigations, for, neither before he visited the country, nor after his return from it, could he meet with a book that lent him any information upon the points about which he felt so anxious. Having therefore set out to examine for himself, by reading whatever he could find in the laws and publications of the land, by personal inspection, and by oral inquiry, that bore upon his purpose, he proceeded to put his notes into such a shape as would have been most welcome for his own guidance when he commenced his tour, and which, of course, will be highly serviceable to all future medical travellers to Austria and the imperial city of Vienna.

As a guide book, indeed, this volume is particularly full and satisfying; although to the general reader many parts present subjects and details that are not of the most inviting nature; their dryness being in some degree heightened by the statistical precision with which they are conveyed. But one of the most important desiderata will be discovered in these pages, viz. the proofs of earnest and personal examination, by an individual competent for the due performance of the task, and who has overlooked no accessible source of information necessary to the fulfilment of his purpose. To every one in our own country who takes an interest in the progress of science, medical study, and practical eminence; or who contemplates reform in the schools; and especially to all who may take an active share in legislating for the improvement of these institutions, and the elevation of the profession,-Mr. Wilde's book is clearly a valuable suggestive work. It is true that Austria is not celebrated for its science and literature in any department; this mediocre condition being attributed to the want of patronage on the part of the paternal despotism, and the practical character of the Government. The regulations for study, and the qualifications demanded, as laid down by authority, are excellent, and, according to the letter, might be with certain modifications, most advantageously adopted in Great Britain. But then, those inducements are wanting that give an impulse, or offer a tempting scope for the enterprise of original genius, and that would not only lead to great discoveries, but would animate the entire profession with a high and progressive spirit. Every thing in Austria must be done by rule, and according to the measure meted out by Imperial will; and so long as the thing goes on in its regular, level, soberly working style, the utmost is attained that is desired; so that an era

closes pretty nearly just as it commenced. We quote a statement descriptive of the grades of the Austrian medical profession.

As it now stands, the medical profession in Austria is divided into the first class physicians and first-class surgeons (Doctoren der Meditzin und Chirurgie); the town and country surgeons (Civil und Land Wundärzte)—analogous to the general practitioners in Great Britain; those who practice specialities, as accouchers, (Geburtshilfer,) oculists, (Augenärzte,) dentists, (Zahnärzte): the Pharmaceurs, who are divided into the apothecaries, (Apotheker,) and the doctors of chemistry, (Doctoren der Chemie); and lastly, the veterinary surgeons, (Thierarzte)-a class very superior to any other of a similar calling in Europe, and a large portion of whom are at the same time physicians and surgeons of the first grade. The veterinary college and hospital now form a portion of the university direction, and come under the general oversight of the medico-chirurgical faculty. In addition to the above, there are a certain number of educated licensed midwifes, (Hebammen), as shall be explained in describing the obstetric clinique of the general hospital. Each of these classes undergoes a certain fixed course of study.

The fixed course of study for each of these classes is very extensive and well arranged; the routine of subjects being not only accurately defined, but the student is obliged strictly to adhere to them in the manner and according to the order marked out by the board of medical directions. Mr. Wilde proceeds to recommend the adoption of a similar system of study and exaction in this country:

I cannot too strongly admire and recommend this practice, more especially as it is one whose adoption in Great Britain would be a vast improvement in the present system of medical education there. In England, with few exceptions, (and even in those exceptions the kind of instruction is very meagre,) there is little or no preparatory education required by the different colleges and licensing bodies. The student is at perfect liberty to choose what lectures, and how many, he will first attend; the object not being how he can best prepare his mind, by initiatory degrees, for the more mature branches of study, but how he can soonest, easiest, and cheapest, become possessed of the certificates of attendance upon these lectures; a large majority of which said lectures he has never heard, nay, may never have seen the lecturer till he comes to purchase from him the necessary certificate. There being no tests required as to his knowledge of any of the subjects he is supposed to study till the hour of his examination, (still some years distant,) a great number of them have never cost him an hour's thought or reading; and when this examination does arrive, the chances that he is never asked a question except upon anatomy and surgery, and a little physiology, are, in the chief licensing institutions in Great Britain, so slight as almost to amount to a certainty. Again, in the order (if the term can be so applied) of these studies, what difficulties do not hourly present themselves in the student's path. Hospitals and practical subjects are attended to long before their theory has ever been learned. Here the pupil really walks the hospital without sequiring a definite knowledge of any one thing; he witnesses ope

rations of which he neither understands the rationale nor the cause, except by his grinder, during a few months' hard study prior to his examination; the result of which more frequently depends upon his memory than his practical knowledge; he is never once called upon to test or exercise his acquirements until the hour before he receives a license to practice, and too frequently he finds, at the conclusion of his studies, that he has begun at the wrong end. As matters now stand in this country, this is not the student's fault, but the fault of those who have, or ought to have, the direction of his studies and pursuits. The contrast with Austria, and the medical schools of the Continent generally, may be learned by an examination of the programme of the different lectures.

In the Austrian system of division of science and labour, the department of Pharmacy seems to be particularly worthy of notice :

There is no division of medical science in Austria that is better managed, or that might with greater advantage be imitated in many respects by ourselves, than that of pharmacy, for it is there studied and practised as a separate and distinct branch of knowledge; the apothecary neither aspiring to the character of a medical practitioner on the one hand, nor descending to the trade of a druggist or retail grocer on the other. There, the apothecary is solely a compounder of physicians' and surgeons' prescriptions. He dare not, under the severest penalties, prescribe even the most simple remedies, nor perform the most insignificant surgical operations; nay, more, he cannot sell a dose of physic without the written order of a physician or surgeon who is recognised by the university of his country. Under this order of things, the prescriber and the taker of medicine have the advantage of having that medicine accurately compounded by a properly-educated pharmacean, whose whole time and ability are devoted to the subject. Only a certain fixed number of apothecaries are permitted to dispense and sell medicine in the empire: in Vienna the number is limited to forty, and never varies; for the Apotheke, or shop, like the title of monarchy, never dies, but merely changes masters. These establishments are known by their signs, and not by the names of their owners: who may be, and often are, widows of apothecaries, or merely tenants of the relatives or executors of such. The apothecary has no connexion whatever with the patient: he never leaves his shop to apply his remedies or perform the minor operations of surgery, such as bleeding, cupping, leeching, &c., as with us; these being, as I have shown, the exclusive province of the Wundärzt. Each medicine has a certain stated price fixed by authority, and marked in the pharmacopoeia and medical tax-book, so that no exorbitant demand can possibly be made; and, as has been already stated, no apothecary dare, under a heavy penalty, compound the prescription of any medical man whose name is not set forth in the printed list of authorised practitioners. The poor of this country being everywhere so well provided for by the state, the great number of hospitals that exist, and the smallness of the fees received by the practitioner, enabling the middle classes to procure proper medical advice, render unnecessary the system of self-doctoring or quack-doctoring, in use in Great Britain. The department of pharmacy consists of doctors of chemistry and master apothecaries; and these latter are again subdivided into the Apo