THE

London Medical & Surgical Journal.

London, Saturday, Feb. 4, 1832.

IN coming before the medical public with the first number of a Weekly Journal, we feel some confidence that we shall obtain the credit of having fulfilled, as far as a single number would permit, the pledges which we recorded in our prospectus.

The selections from the Lectures of eminent teachers which we are enabled exclusively to publish, will themselves be too sufficient a commentary on their own value, to require of us the addition of one word of eulogy.

The Hospital Reports which will be found in our pages, are carried to an extent which, we are convinced, will meet with the approbation of the Profession and we beg it to be understood that the same scale of description of Hospital practice will be maintained in every succeeding number.

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The remaining contents of the Journal demand no particular observation from us. We shall, however, in future be able to present to our readers an abundance of miscellaneous intelligence immediately connected with the affairs of the profession.

The time in which we are called on to interfere with renewed activity in medical concerns, is one of peculiar importance to the profession. A crisis has arrived, the results of which will have the most decided inVOL.. 1.

fluence upon our common interests. The necessary and just claims of the science to which we are devoted, are now openly resisted; and what with the apathy of some of the Profession, the open hostility of others, and, what is worse, the treacherous enmity of pretended friends, the staunchest advocates of a just cause are nigh overwhelmed by the force of ignorant and untameable prejudice.

For our own parts, it will be our task to exhibit, by impressive examples, the beneficent, the assuaging, the truly charitable protection, which medical science so extensively affords to society against some of the severest of human calamities. It is only by such methods that the bulk of mankind can be brought to sacrifice that distaste to the prosecution of anatomical study, which results either from their instinct or their education. A sentiment of compassion for the imbecility that consigns so many of our fellowbeings to the tyranny of prejudice, will, we trust, be always sufficient to keep us in good temper with even the most active persecutors of Dissection.

The same principle of moderation shall govern every part of that system of remonstrance, by which we hope to expedite the approach of the day when the Profession to which we have the honour to belong shall be placed on a better footing than we find it. We deliberately believe that the coarse and violent importunity with which medical reform in this country has been insisted on for the last few years, has materially retarded the ap

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plication of a wise and efficient measure for the removal of all our grievances. Such being our resolution, we shall be content to appeal for proofs of our sincerity in making it, to the uniform conduct of this Periodical.

We beg to remind our readers, that there is appended to this Journal, over and above the contents of an ordinary weekly publication, the first portion of an important work now publishing at Paris. Medical men and students will see, therefore, that in subscribing for this Work, they are securing to themselves a body of professional information such as cannot be surpassed in any age of medical history. We wish it to be understood, that this altogether unexampled advantage is coupled with the contents of a Journal, which, independent of such addition, ought to sell for EIGHT PENCE, and that still our charge for the whole amounts only to Six PENCE. Nothing, we assure our readers, will enable us to maintain a Periodical so conducted, but the most extensive patronage and support.

the same to be published in the London Gazette.

One of these inspectors is to reside in London, and another at Edinburgh.

The three inspectors are empowered to visit and inspect, at any time, any place where Anatomy is carried on, on the production of a written order, signed by the Secretary of State.

The salaries of inspectors to be paid by the Lords of the Treasury, and to be £100 a-year each.

Any party having lawfully the custody of the body of any deceased person, and not being an undertaker, may, with the consent of the nearest relatives, permit the body of a deceased person to undergo anatomical examination, unless the deceased shall have expressed his desire, orally or in writing, in the presence of two or more witnesses, during the illness whereof he died, that his body after his death may not undergo such examination, or unless the surviving husband, or wife, or any known relative of the deceased, shall require the body to be interred without such examination. When any person directs his body to be anatomically examined, such examination is to take place, unless the husband, wife, or nearest relative object to the same.

The body is not to be removed without a certificate from the medical attendant, or from some medical practitioner, stating, to the best of his belief, the cause of death.

Graduates in medicine, surgeons, apothecaries, and students, are empowered to receive bodies for dissec

tion; every such person to receive the medical certificate, already mentioned, and make a return within twenty-four hours after the receipt of the body, to the district inspector, stating the day and hour, and from whom, the body was received, the date and place of death, the sex, christian and surname, age, and last place of abode of such person, and keep a copy of same.

No penalties to be incurred for dissection after this enactment, unless instituted by the Attorney General, or by leave from the Court of King's Bench; and all actions to be commenced within six months, the defendant pleading specially, or the general issue of not guilty.

The act commanding the dissection of murderers to be repealed, but that the bodies of murderers be hung up in chains, or buried in the highways, as the Court shall order.

This act not to extend to Ireland, and to come into operation after the 1st of July next.

Such are the leading features of the Anatomy Bill, as it now exists; but as it may be modified before it becomes a law, we decline inserting at length the draught of the bill, which lies before us. Should it become a part of the Statute-book, it shall be printed in full in our pages. We feel so deep an interest in the success of this measure, that we, in acknowledgment of the communication with which he has so kindly favoured us, transmitted to Mr. Warburton copies of the law of France and of the United States relative to Anatomy,

the latter of which he has referred to in Parliament. We also urged various objections to the clauses of the bill, the validity of which was acknowledged; but in reply it was said, that the state of the public mind and of political feeling, rendered the suggested improvements totally impracticable at present. We feel deeply sensible of the great, the almost insurmountable difficulties which exist in this country to legislation on this subject; and therefore the hostility of a certain portion of the medical press, and of a public professor of surgery, is unjust and ungrateful. As to the opposition of a certain portion of the public press, that is to be expected. Yet who are so loud in their abuse of Anatomical Teachers, as the conductors of newspapers ?-individuals who have accused our Profession of encouraging Burking; and still, when a remedy is proposed, are the very first to condemn it. Some of them are so ignorant and stupid as to maintain that Anatomy is unnecessary; or, in other words, that the complex and intricate microcosm of the human body is to be learned by inspiration.

We shall take the first opportunity to expose the utter absurdity of the objections of these seers, and to prove, to the entire satisfaction of the humblest comprehension, that the study of anatomy is not only indispensable to the best interests of every human being, the preservation of health, which is above all treasure; but that it is most particularly so to the poor, who cannot procure the best

The cholera has now extended in England to Sunderland, Newcastle, Gateshead, North and South Shields, Newburn, Haughton-le-Spring, Leamington, and various collieries and hamlets in the vicinity of Newcastle. In Scotland, it has extended to Haddington, seventeen miles; Tranent, nine miles; and Musselburgh, six miles east from Edinburgh. The deaths in England up to the 24th inst. are as 325 to 1 in Scotland as 32 to 1. The disease abates in severity as the season advances; but this is no reason why it should not prevail violently during the summer and autumn.

GREAT MEDICAL REFORM IN SCOTLAND.-PROSPECTS OF THE MEDICAL PROFESSION IN ENGLAND.

FROM Our private sources of information we are enabled to lay before our readers, many weeks earlier than they could expect it from other channels, a parliamentary document, giving an account of the plan of Medical Reform

for Scotland, which has been recommended to the government by a commission authorized to investigate the state of the Universities in that country.

The royal commission here alluded to commenced its operations in 1826, and in 1831 it was renewed by his present Majesty. The manner in which the inquiry was conducted confers the highest honour on the commissioners; and the facts which they have collected, and the conclusions at which they have arrived, form a subject of interest, such as the medical profession in these countries has not been lately accustomed to contemplate. The following selections from the report of the commissioners, as just printed by authority of parliament, contain the principal recommendations; and as we have no doubt of these recommendations being adopted, we do not think that any commentary upon them is necessary. shall return to this deeply important subject very speedily.

MEDICINE.

We

The Medical Department of education in the Universities of Scotland is evidently of the greatest importance. During a long period, a very large proportion of the persons who have practised medicine throughout that country, and who have occupied the medical stations in the army and navy, have been educated for their profession in one or other of these Universities. The Medical School of Edinburgh has indeed long possessed very high celebrity, and that of Glasgow has of late years risen into great eminence; and there is strong reason to believe that this branch of academical instruction may soon attain an important rank in the University of Aberdeen.-p. 55.

. After full consideration of the subject of preliminary education, and referring to the whole evidence relating to it, we have come to the resolution that a certain preliminary education in Literature and Philosophy ought to be required of all candidates for the Degree of Doctor in Medicine. We do not, however, propose to require that they shall have gone through the Curriculum of Arts in the University, but only that they shall, at the time of being taken on trial for the Degree, possess the information which the regulation prescribes.

We have resolved accordingly, "That the general attainments of Candidates for the Degree of Doctor in Medicine should embrace a competent knowledge in Latin, Greek, Mathematics and Natural Philosophy, and that this knowledge should be ascertained by examination, to be conducted by the examiners for Degrees in Arts, in such works as shall be fixed by the Faculty of Arts, which examination must take place previously to the examination for the Medical Degree, except in the cases where the Candidates have the Degree of Bachelor of Arts.-p. 57. 58.

After a careful consideration, and after deliberating fully upon the valuable evidence which we have received in regard to the subject of the Medical Curriculum, we have framed the following course of study to be observed by Candidates for the Medical Degree, in whichever of the Universities that Degree may be taken. Ist YEAR.

3d YEAR.

Winter. Surgery, Midwifery, and either Clinical Surgery or Clinical Medicine, or attendance on the ordinary Physicians of the Infirmary, when there is no Professor of Clinical Medicine or Surgery giving Lectures in the Infirmary.

Summer.-Clinical Surgery or Clinical Medicine, in such Hospitals as the Medical Faculty may deem sufficient.

4th YEAR.

Winter.-Practice of Medicine, Infirmary, Clinical Medicine.

One Course of Practical Anatomy, in either of the last three Winters ; one Course in the second or third Summer.

Two Courses of Clinical Medicine, and one of Clinical Surgery, to be required. The other Clinical Course may be either Clinical Medicine or Surgery, as the Student may prefer.

Botany to be attended in the University during any Summer of the Course.

The Commissioners recommend atter dance upon a course of Clinical Midwifery; and upon the three following Classes in the University, viz. Natural History, Medical Jurisprudence, and Military Surgery, which may be attended during any period of the course after the first year, and a second course of Chemistry in the University.

That if from bad health, or any other particular reason, a Student should find himself precluded from attending any class in the above order, he may apply to the Senatus Academicus, who, if satisfied with the reason specified, may dispense with his attending that class in the prescribed year, and permit him to attend it in one of the subsequent years.

That in order to entitle attendance with a private Teacher or Lecturer to be taken into account, such Lecturers must adapt their system of instruction, and the length of the course, to the regulations of the University; must adopt a form of certificate to be