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to form the scaffolding entire along at least half the transept without any attempt at shifting it . From the description we have here attempted , and without the benefit of any professional knowledge of engineering , it will be seen that the seven tie-bars of iron stretching across had to bear nearly the whole weight of the scaffolding , something like 70 tons . The tendency would be then to press it away from its fixed extremities , provided it resisted sufficiently at its centre . Another line of strain would be on the outside trusses , and most on their outer side ; and here it may be stated that these were the weak parts of the first scaffold , they broke first , and in the second attempt they were all braced with inch boards , as were most of the other trusses
employed , the engineers seeming , however , to overlook this great addition to the weight of one-fifth at least . The scientific tell us that , in opposition to this downward and lateral pressure there is a force of intention exerted on the inner trusses which tends to support the tic-bar , and thus compensates the strain ; and that the scaffolding , when complete , is a sort of strung bow . But still this tie-bar must be pressed downwards by a force of many tons , and its ends not being allowed to be fixed to the upright columns of the building , the chief support it gets at the ends is derived from the dead weight of the outer trusses , and the general distribution to other trusses of any strain exerted upon the ends of the outer trusses to which it ( the tie-bar ) is
fixed . So long as every truss retained its vertical position the scaffold was safe , but the moment one section diverged , the pulling together of the whole was destroyed , the tic-bar is twisted by immense force of leverage , and down everything must come , till some lucky break here and there stops the progress of the terrible sway ; it will be observed , too , that the collapse proceeded until i ^ was stopped by the two iron ribs that had been erected and fixed .
This kind of scaffolding , however applicable to spanning for arches between strong piers of masonry , does not seem to be either safe or economical for "the purpose required at Sydenham . Having watched it fall on both occasions , the same defect presented itself to my mind , viz . a tendency to overbalance into the transept—to topple over ; both times it poured forward like water out of a jug , and on examining the tie-bar ; they were always found to be twisted round and round like ribbon , and doubled up into loops , in each line or row ofthem .
1 am quite aware that it needs very little strength to keep these trusses perpendicular , and the " diesquare " timbeivs may not have been too weak for this ; nevertheless , I think sufficient precautions were not taken to keep the trusses upright , considering the great downward strain there was , and this especially in adding the advanced line of them , which process the men were engaged in when the fall occurred : even during the gale of wind , when the first scaffolding fell , there was no sort of main stay erected . Again , I think the tic-bars were deficient in horizontal support , even if they were capable of resisting the immense down strain .
At the risk of being considered presumptuous , I doubt very much if the behaviour of this complicated scaffolding under pressure , and unsupported by lateral buttresses , wns thoroughly understood and provided for by the engineers . The concluding paragraph of tho official report —a production put together in the most practised ntyle of the bamboozling art—is a . concatenation of unwarrantable assumptions and engineering sophistry . Because a portion remains undisturbed ( that is to say , it did not fall ) , therefore all wns sufficiently strong . Then , because the first portion escaped
falling while being pushed forward in the construction , thorn was , therefore , no " essential defect" in tho arrangements . Then come the excuses of defective material mid careless workmen—the one- totally inoxcusablc—tho other almost equally so ; and , moreover , oven less probablo than fault of material , because not a man but felt that bis own life- depended \\\> m \ his good work . In fact , that , accident happened which they now make it a merit to have foreseen ; wheroiiH an accident of thin kind i , s inadmissible , and if foreseen could and should havo been prevented . Tho
wholo burden of tins report is , indeed , an ¦ attempt to confound an accident with an error . If thin groat liability to accident—or morn properly , thin groat chance of its falling , wan inseparable from tho kind <\ f scaffold used , another kind should have been adopted . Tho Crystal I ' ulace Company did not dictate to tho " great engineers . " Perhaps i ' t would have been better for all parties if they had forbidden thin Ioarian attempt ; the constructors would then havo been spared tho humiliation of returning to earth , crestfallen , nftor two failures , with all the curses of the widow and tho fatherless heaped on their heads—not to mention tho little blow on the pocket which cannot be agreeable .
The inquest will be performed in the usual way in such cases . The great engineers will envelope everything in a cloud of their calculated impossibilities ; and , at last , settle down into a careless workman or a defective rivet—having related all in that peculiar style of melancholy diplomacy so suited to the occasion , and with which they are by this time so familiar— , unless any one of the jury becomes troublesome , and refuses their gospel , in which case the verdict may not turn out to be that convenient refuge " accidental death . " :
It is both lamentable and vexatious , that in the carrying out of such a noble and magnificent scheme as that of the Crystal Palace , this sad affair should have occurred ; yet it has this much of consolation in s that such a tremendous crashing and tearing away of pillars and girders was confined to the immediate spot , without even shaking the rest of the building , and proved by a severe test the strength and perfect stability of the new and beautiful structure . G .
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A WORD FOR THE DOCTORS . Education is the desire of the age . Our universities have received a salutary fillip . At the inns of court the benchers have been induced to give a modicum of attention to something less material than dinners ; and the reams of popular writing on popular education would abash the man who having waded through the Encyclopedia Britannica is progressing satisfactorily through the Metropolitana . Only one branch of the subject has remained unheeded — Medical education . On this the public have been content to remain in ignorance , or , if they ever trouble their heads about the matter , they appear to think that Bob Sawyer and Mr .
Hogmore are types of the class , and contentedly resign themselves to the belief , that those in whom they confide under emergencies the most trying are selected because they are unfit for anything but Bridewell . Under these circumstances it may not be amiss if we give such notions as we have been able to glean concerning the culture of the medical man , as it extends from turndown collars to the red lamp and night bell , pointing out its deficiencies , and premising that the youthful followers of iEsculapius and the Sandwich islanders are not justly included in the same pithy sentence—" manners none ; customs too bad to be recorded . "
Our aspirant for medical fame is , removed from Dr . Birch ' s academy at the age of sixteen , and transferred to some venerable practitioner , whose revolting compounds he is for a heavy consideration benevolently allowed to mix . In the whole three years during which he must remain in the house of bondage wo solemnly aver that nothing is acquired which might not be mastered in a month . To our unprofessional intellect this appears a blunder at starting . To a man of limited income it is doubtless pleasant as a . point of
domestic economy ; as a feature of education not only sanctioned but insisted on , it strikes us , to 6 ay the least of it , as odd . The A ery three years so wasted arc perhaps those of a young man ' s life which most contribute to make his character . The various uses of which they arc capable wo need scarcely indicate ; their abuse is preposterous . The spreading of blisters , tho scraping of gallypots , may possibly conduce to science ; if so it is by some subtle link to us inappreciable .
The cry is , what then is to bo done- with tho boy ? We can hardly be expected to prescribe for tho doctors ; but suppose you raise the standard of preliminary education ; suppose you insist on tho student matriculating at the London University ( which ho may do very well at sixteen ) , and taking a U . A . ( which he may accomplish comfortably by eighteen ) ; this loaves a year for him to learn tho manipulation of drugs . At any rate nothing can be worse than tho present odious system of apprenticeship , in whose favour wo never hoard a sensible man say a singlo word , against which there ban been . some clamour , and will bo more . The respectable old ladicM at Apothecaries' I lull persist in being deaf , but a shout will one day reverberate in their oars , which will effectually rouse them from their
plethoric stupor . For nearly forty years they ( quite a subordinate class ) liavo boon invested with a power exceeding any ever possessed by tho College of Physicians or Surgeons . They havo boon content to sacrifice science to their own partial ends , and havo secured their aggrandisement by giving a " heavy blow and great discouragement" to tho profession at largo . It is sniuo satisfaction to think that this stato of things cannot last for ever . It h 1 iou 1 < 1 not have- endured so long ; but tho Honors while crying aloud thoir own grievances from tho house-top , overlook those who nro to succeed them , whom for tho Kako of their profession they should cherish , and whom tho public should not forgot , for every deficiency among them w felt through thouBunda of all iigoR , soxos , and conditions .
Let us , however , try to persuade ourselves that our tyro has discharged his almost menial functions without having been vulgarized ; that he has passed three years in semi-idleness without having been vitiated ; what is next in store for him ? That he may have every faci . lity for going , to the dogs , after such admirable preparation , he is thrown , on the surface of London life usually " without a hand to guide or guard him . Outhospitals are not collegiate institutions , but is it suffi . cient that a father , on entrusting the education of hj 8 son to their professors , should have nothing more fa return for his heavy entrance fee than their "hone himself ?
that he will take care of " In some of the hospitals there is an arrangement by which a very small proportion of the students are accommodated but this is utterly inadequate to its real end . Indeed ' the chief good that results from it is to be looked for in the tacit avowal that something of the kind is re . quired . If unnecessary , why is it done at all ? if necessary , why is it not done thoroughly P To accomplish it would not require miraculous ability . If there be no other way , what is to prevent the licensing of boarding-houses in which all students should be compelled to reside ? Are trustworthy people to undertake the management so rare ? Is London so destitute of vacant and commodious houses ? Our hero now com .
mences walking the hospitals , and if , as a popular author has contended , vagueness is one element of sublimity , the prevalent notions on this point can be nothing short of Miltonic . We , however , have made a discovery , of which , we are rather proud—viz ., that the student can by no means live in the paradise of pothouses lie is fashionably supposed to enjoy . Listen , Mr . Jones , while we tell you what the young man had
to go through , who attended your Amelia m the measles , then go and pay the bill you ought to have settled long ago , and do not call his money lightly earned . The course lasts three years . The first ( and partly the second ) of these is employed in mastering scientific details . A great deal' of chemistry is required ; botany ( just enough to swear by ); a thorough practical knowledge of anatomy ; and one or two equally formidable items . How all this is to be done without
a great deal of good honest industry we don't know . People are not bom anatomists . The student is supposed to be assisted by lectures . In the former scarcity of good books they might have been an aid : they are now ( with the exception of practical demonstrations ) a bugbear . From the nature of the case , lectures can be little better than diluted books , and tho young men think they can get more by a quarter of an hour ' s reading than by an hour ' s listening . Moreover , wo have been told by a teacher of twenty years' standing , himself deservedly one of the most eminent of London
physicians , and beyond compare the most eloquent of London lecturers , " that ho wished with all his heart all lectures were to cease but clinical . " This we have reason to believe is the opinion of the most enlig htened members of the profession . In consequence , as might bo expected , the half-sleeping beauties in Watcr-lsmo not very long since issued an edict , requiring that tho exact number nttendud should bo endorsed ou tho schedule of every pupil . Never mind ; before- a hundred years havo expired , the appointed man will break through the hedge , and do what Judge Crampton tried to effect for Kirwtin—bring them to a senso of then
" degraded and dreadful situation . " Wo think that the efficacy of medical education for mental training has been much underrated . Let us km what ia required to insure moderate success :- —M'icli patience and perseverance—great acntcness of obserwition—accuracy that must bo like Caisar ' s wile , beyond suspicion—a very retentive- memory—and aa i " 1101 tact as is required by a cross-examining barriswi-Pnro Baconinn induction must bo tho law of stMlj- ^ than which ( tho triinscondcutttlists may nay what they like ) thero can bo no better training for tho mind . a man is a genius , it serves as a valuable corrective his impetuosity : if ho is a dolt , it is by far the sale *
method of traininghis limited faculties . Having now the greater part of his book-work at ] ~ fingers' ends , tho student is prepared , to enter on practice of medicine . For this there " is ample iW and vorgo enough , " amid many hundred casotf o kinds and degrees of intensity . Ho Inns every , n " *" " ablo facility for personal investigation . Ho "jj ^ himself interrogate ; and examine the patient , U > vm ^ own est ' nnato of tho dirtoavo , and project , bis ow " 1 , of treatment : ho nuiv then uceomnanv tho i \ Mff i 01
physician iti liin rounds—ask any questions l »« . v « difficultioH removed . The disciples of I ' ytlwK 01 '" ^ iH constrained to unbroken Kiloneo : horo tho cifi < very difleront . , Tho feeling is entirely r « p » " ^ To judgo from our ow n obser vation , tho ^ ^ professor will tondor an exp lanation or r 0 ^) lOff . argument with unruffled amenity—and oyon n " rf , lodge himself in error without a sign of diucomp
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810 THE LEA PER / [ Saturday ,
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 20, 1853, page 810, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2000/page/18/
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