surface of the stomach to nearly its whole extent, was a mass of cancerous disease, or scirrhous portions, advancing to cancer, &c. The convex surface of the left lobe of the liver adhered to the diaphragm. With the exception of the adhesion occasioned by the disease in the stomach, no unhealthy appearance presented itself in the liver.

"It is very important first to observe, that this Report is not signed by Professor Autommarchi, although the Governor asserts that the whole of the medical gentlemen concurred in a Report on their appearance; and nextly I assert, without dread of contradiction, that no man ever saw an instance of cancer of the stomach proceeding through all its stages, from its commencement to death, in seven weeks and one day. Cancer of the stomach is a tedious, lingering disease, keeping the patient in torture for months; but here we have the stomach to nearly its whole extent, a mass of cancerous disease in seven weeks!!!

"The Report then states, that with the exception of the adhesions occasioned by the disease in the stomach, no unhealthy appearance presented itself in the liver.' What then was the cause of the adhesions of the convex surface of that viscus to the diaphragm, that is to say, the opposite side of the lobe which adhered to the stomach? The merest tyro in medicine is not ignorant that inflammatory affections of the liver and other viscera, although long continued, frequently terminate by a gradual abatement of all the symptoms, till at last the viscus is wholly restored to its natural size, colour, and functions. Very generally, however, adhesions are formed to some of the neighbouring parts, which are permanent until death. Such was the case with Napoleon, in whom an adhesion was formed between the upper and convex surface of the left lobe to the diaphragm, by the inflammation of the liver, with which he was afflicted at the time of my attendance upon him in 1818.

"With respect to the assertion of hereditary cancer, promulgated through a fabricated letter by those who had the Gazette Report in their possession, it is too contemptible to be seriously refuted. No respectable ancient author ever mentioned, no modern practitioner ever met with such a disease-it is a desperate experiment practised upon public credulity, too gross to impose upon the most uninformed, but naturally enough to be hazarded by those who are willing to impute the death of the victim to any other cause rather than the true one. It is only surprising that they have not followed it up by a calculation of how many years may elapse before the stomach of young Napoleon is to enter upon its paternal inheritance. The story is too ridiculous for argument, and those who have fabricated it, might just as well assert the existence of hereditary drunkenness, or hereditary murder, or any other moral depravity which may happen to be uppermost in their memories.

"I do not assert positively the proximate cause of the death of Napoleon; that can only be known with certainty to the Almighty Disposer of life and death; but I assert, unhesitatingly, that it was hastened by the treatment he experienced-by his transportation to a tropical climate -by the petty vexations inflicted in his imprisonment-by the numberless minute and studied mortifications, which none but a mind like his could have endured, and at length by that derangement of the digestive organs which mental anxiety invariably produces. Such is my opinion, not originating in the indignation of the moment, but formed and deli

berated long ago, and delivered by me in language not to be misunderstood, at two different periods of Napoleon's detention. I told his Majesty's Ministers, emphatically, that if the same treatment was continued, his premature death' might not be so immediate, but was quite as inevitable as if it had taken place under the hands of the 'execu tioner.' To these documents I now direct the eyes of Europe, as the testimonies of my judgment, and to the event I point, for the accuracy with which it was formed.

"Having now, Sir, stated my unequivocal opinion upon the cause of Napoleon's death, which I am prepared to justify before England and Europe, it may not be irrelevant to state a few words about myself, as a coward calumny has commenced its work, and I am well aware of what essential consequence personal character is under such circumstances. From my boyhood up I have been in the service of his Majesty, and to every officer under whom I served, in various climates, and at different intervals, I refer, without hesitation, both as to my moral conduct and professional pretensions. I ask any of them whether he can, with justice, contradict the following testimony from the Captain of the Bellerophon (from which ship I entered the service of Napoleon) to Doctor Harness?

"Dear Sir,-The attention and meritorious conduct of Mr. Barry O'Meara, while surgeon with me in the Goliath, calls upon me, as an act of justice to him, and of benefit to the service, to state, that during the fifteen years I have commanded one of his Majesty's ships, I have never had the pleasure of sailing with an officer in his situation, who so fully met my expectations. Were it probable that I should soon obtain another appointment, I know of no man in the service I should wish to have as surgeon, so much as Mr. O'Meara.

(Signed)

"FREDERICK L. MAITLAND." "Sir, when I entered into the service of Napoleon, I did so at his own solicitation, and, with the full concurrence of the Admiralty. Once in that service, I considered it my duty, in every possible way, to mitigate the misfortunes of the Illustrious Captive. I scorned to become the instrument of subaltern tyranny, and endeavoured to avert, as far as in me lay, the countless, miserable, petty-fogging vexations with which he was assailed, after the departure of that gallant officer, Sir George Cockburn. For this I was, at a few hours' notice, banished from St. Helena, with the loss of some property, and not without the plunder of my personal effects; for this I was dismissed from the service on which my bread depended, without accusation, and without trial; for this I am, up to this day, persecuted and calumniated by men, who have blackened a page in the history of England; for this, however, I am satisfied to endure much more, satisfied that I have sought, though vainly, to save my country from disgrace, and trust that I, at least, can think, without remorse, upon the grave of Napoleon.

"I have the honour to be, &c.

"BARRY E. O'MEARA." "Extract of a Letter to John Wilson Croker, Esq. Secretary to the Admiralty, dated Kennington, October 28, 1818.-It is my opinion that the life of Napoleon Buonaparte will be endangered by a longer residence in such a climate as that of St. Helena, especially if that re

sidence be aggravated by a continuance of those disturbances and irritations to which he has been hitherto subjected, and of which it is the nature of his distemper to render him peculiarly susceptible.

(Signed)

"B. E. O'MEARA, late Surgeon to Napoleon." (COPY.)

"Lyon's Inn, Strand, June 19, 1821. "My Lord, I have been informed by many respectable persons who have lately arrived from St. Helena, that it was a matter of public notoriety in that island, that Napoleon Buonaparte laboured under a disease of a very formidable nature, and one which, if relief was long withheld, was likely to terminate his existence at no very distant period. This has been confirmed to me by the testimony of the venerable Ecclesiastic who was compelled by infirmities to quit Napoleon's service in March last, and who was imprisoned for a week on board the Flamer, denied permission to land, and sent off to the Continent; and I have also been informed, that Napoleon has intimated a wish for medical assistance from Europe, and that such wish has been communicated to your Lordship.

"Under such circumstances, I conceive it a duty I owe to my country and to myself, to inform your Lordship, that as I had more frequent opportunities of making myself acquainted with the peculiarities of Napoleon's constitution during the three years I had the honour of being attached to him, than any other medical person who may consent to share his exile, I conceive it would be unpardonable in me not to tender my services to him through your Lordship, when it is within the bounds of possibility that (without pretending to any superior medical knowledge) I might be able to render him greater relief in his present distressing situation, than would be afforded by one, who, however he might be superior in talent, was unacquainted with the constitution of his patient.

"Your Lordship will do me the justice to recollect, that the crisis which has now actually arrived was predicted by me, and officially communicated to the Admiralty. After my return from St. Helena, in October, 1818, a very short period has too fatally verified an opinion which it required only common skill to pronounce, and which common honesty commanded me to promulgate. The premature death of Napoleon under such circumstances may not be so instantaneous, but is certainly as inevitable as if it took place by the hands of the executioner.

"I have further to acquaint your Lordship, that, should my offer be acceded to, I am ready to submit to such restrictions during my abode in St. Helena, as may not be derogatory to the principles of a man of honour, and also that I desire no remuneration from his Majesty's Government, either for the expenses of my passage, or during the time my attendance on Napoleon may be deemed serviceable.

"I have the honour to be, &c. &c. &c.

"BARRY E. O'MEARA, Surgeon.

"To the Right Honourable the Earl Bathurst, &c. &c."

"A refusal was the reply to this."

After the first interview Dr. O'Meara had with Napoleon Buonaparte, he confirmed the opinion which had been previously given by Mr. Stokoe, that his liver was diseased. Now, had this been the case, the affection

must have been of a chronic nature; indeed, it was understood from their representations, that it was the disease to which Europeans are liable on residing in a tropical climate. In such cases morbid changes take place in the substance of the viscus, and the disease is often rendered quiescent by mercury, so as to induce the patient to suppose he is cured. The morbid structure is, however, never completely removed, a vestige of it always appearing on dissection. The substance of the liver of Napoleon being free from any appearance indicating previous structural disease; it is clear to us that the opinion given by Dr. O'Meara and Mr. Stokoe, was not correct. Structural disease of the liver never terminates in adhesion of the peritoneal covering to the part with which it may be in contact. Had even the peritoneal membrane been affected with chronic inflammation, which is common in Europe, but very rare in a tropical climate, this species never entirely terminates in adhesion; and we believe it always occurs in the membrane covering the convex part of the right lobe, and not in that of the concavity of the left lobe. That the organic disease of the stomach, which terminated the life of Napoleon, originated in the liver, and terminated in adhesion to the peritoneal covering of the stomach, and that it afterwards spread through its substance, is totally out of the question. The case is, navy and army surgeons are too apt to attribute all complaints, in or about the region of the stomach, to a morbid condition of the liver, and if the patient is, or has been, in a tropical climate, even if the complaint should be situated in an extremity, it is attributed to diseased liver.

According to their doctrines, as well as those of many leading physicians and surgeons in this country, the liver is of such great importance in the animal economy, that in the treatment of all constitutional and local diseases the attention of the practitioner is to be directed to it only. It is, in their opinion, the source of vitality and the residence of the soul; and when mercury succeeds in affording relief, it is to them a convincing proof that their opinion was correct; as if the remedy acted on no other part of the body than the liver!!

The absurdity of this liver or bile mania, to which many thousand lives fall a sacrifice annually, has been very judiciously exposed by Dr. Dods, an eminent physician of Worcester, in a late publication, entitled, The Physician's Guide. Fortunately for many invalids, the blue pill, with a stomachic and an aperient occasionally, is applicable to a great variety of chronic diseases of the abdominal and thoracic viscera ; and had Napoleon remained under the care of Dr. O'Meara, he would probably at this time have been in possession of health. That mental uneasiness, even in a tropical climate, is capable of producing a formidable disease of the stomach, is also out of the question. It might favour the operation of an exciting cause, and its progress, after it had taken place; but is certainly incapable of bringing it into action. The effects of mental perturbation on the body are emaciation and irritability of the nervous system. From these symptoms Napoleon was free, for he always slept soundly, and was very corpulent. Corpulency is a strong proof of cheerfulness of mind;"laugh and grow fat," is an old and very true adage.

If lassitude, &c. of which Napoleon complained, arose from mental uneasiness, as intimated by those who had the protection of him, it was

an act worthy such a generous and noble-minded man as Sir Hudson Lowe, to deprive him of the professional assistance of a gentleman in whose abilities he placed implicit confidence, merely because he gave him the title of Emperor, and listened patiently to his narratives. By administering comfort to the mind of an invalid, and by soothing his ears even by flattery, the efficacy of medicine is augmented; and this we conceive to be the duty of every medical man; and we presume no English surgeon would allow a person unacquainted with medicine to point out a line of conduct for him to pursue in the treatment of a patient.

The separation from his wife and child, and banishment to an unhealthy climate, should have at least satisfied the representatives of monarchs, who had agreed to establish laws for the government of their subjects on the basis of Christianity, under the denomination of " the Holy Alliance," without requiring the co-operation of his medical attendant to diminish his comforts, or make him feel the humiliation to which the chance of war had reduced him. They should have recollected his conduct towards their masters, when the chance of war placed them within his power,

From the morbid appearances the internal surface of the stomach exhibited, viz. " nearly the whole extent of the internal surface a mass of cancerous disease," there can be no doubt of the original seat of the disease. It evidently commenced in the internal surface of the stomach. The adhesion between the external surface of the stomach and liver is a common attendant on ulceration of the stomach, for it very rarely happens that its contents escape into the cavity of the abdomen from an ulcerated aperture. The part of the stomach, between the pyloric and cardiac extremities, it is stated, was a mass of disease, scirrhous and cancerous. Now the parts of the stomach most subject to scirrhosity and cancerous ulceration are the pyloric and cardiac extremities: scirrhosity of the stomach is a slow disease, and when advanced to ulceration, is always attended with the most acute pain; but in the case of Napoleon, we are told, there was little pain, and the progress of the disease to ulceration was evidently very rapid.

During scirrhosity of the stomach, the body becomes emaciated, and when ulceration has taken place, the emaciation advances rapidly, and the patient is affected with hectic fever; but in the case of Napoleon Buonaparte, the body was overloaded with fat, and he was free from

fever.

Corpulency we consider a proof of the stomach being capable of converting the food it receives into chyme, and we cannot suppose that the stomach, when organically diseased, can perform its functions better than in a state of health. The exciting cause or agent in the case of Napoleon evidently acted, in the first instance, on the internal surface of the stomach. What then, we beg to ask, was that exciting cause? Even admitting that he did inherit from his parents, a predisposition to scirrhosity, we are to look for the cause which brought it into action. Was it the use of a stimulating regimen? Of wine he took very sparingly, he never touched a spirit; and his dishes were the most simple. It is well known that he had never been an epicure nor a glutton, and that he never indulged to any thing like excess in the use of spirituous or