The following gentlemen also on the same day passed their first examination:

Joseph William Ekens, Ollive Sims Shaw, and Edward Harry Steele, of Guy's Hospital. Frederick Wm. Joy, of University College. Frederick Smith, of the London Hospital. George Tobin, of St. Bartholomew's Hospital. Thomas Marshall Wilkinson, of St. Thomas's Hospital.

We regret to learn that small-pox is prevalent at Wigan.

M. RICORD will, in all probability, be elected to the vacant seat of Free Associate in the Academy of Sciences of

Paris.

WE observe that it is not intended to proceed with the petition presented against the return of Mr. Moncreiff for the Universities of Glasgow and Aberdeen.

ACCORDING to the "Gazette de France," cholera has broken out in the French colony of St. Louis, in Senegal, and is making sad havoc among the native population.

AN appeal of the "Surrey Advertiser" on behalf of the County Hospital, has been promptly and generously responded to by J. I. Briscoe, Esq., M.P., one of the county representatives, who has forwarded a cheque for £100.

THE results of the preliminary deliberation for the renewal of the Board of the Medical Association of the Seine present M. Nélaton as President, and MM. Barth and Béclard as Vice-Presidents.

THE curate who had performed the Cæsarean operation in Belgium upon a woman who had just died, and who had been condemned for the act to one month's imprisonment, has made an appeal to the Court of Cassation. The case will shortly be tried.

Ir is reported that the General Court of Managers of the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary have appointed a committee to communicate with the Governors of Watson's Hospital as to the terms upon which that site may be acquired for the purpose of building a new hospital.

A JOINT MEETING of the Governors of the Newark Dispensary and Newark Hospital is to be held on the 11th inst., with a view to amalgamate the management of the two institutions, and to decide upon the rules, &c., to be adopted under the altered conditions.

[JAN. 2, 1869. 29

parted surgeon, who, from the humble condition of a farrier's journeyman, rose by dint of undaunted perseverance to the professional pinnacle of the French capital. Velpeau never relaxed in hard work; he was not spoiled by success, but laboured incessantly to the last hour. He never would grant that he felt ill, and no one was acquainted with his state of health; he always smiled at any condolence, and jocosely said (he was very fond of a joke), "I shall be downright dead before I confess that I am gone." Writing, public speaking, and clinical teaching were his forte; and though a sound surgeon, he was far from being a showy operator. His reputation was European; but the French practitioners, dazzled by the new surgical star in the person of Nélaton, were far from requesting his opinion so often, within the last few years, as had been their wont of old. Velpeau died very rich, commanding the respect of several generations of pupils, and offering a bright example to those who place their reliance in persevering industry. M. Béclard's discourse was a real panegyric; actual surgical disquisitions did not abound in it, and, though the orator showed some impartiality, he could have shown more had his biographical sketch been put off for a few years.

Ar a large tea party held lately at Wolverhampton, in honour of a local celebrity, yclept "Fiddler Joss," the unpleasant discovery was made that the water was strongly impregnated with what seemed to be copperas. It has, however, been ascertained that the well from which the water was taken had been contaminated by the vitriol from some neighbouring works.

THE Glasgow Medical Missionary Society, which associates the healing of the body with the healing of the soul, has just held its first annual meeting, under the presidency of Dr. Andrew Anderson. A dispensary for the gratuitous supply of advice and medicine, under the direction bible-woman" for the of a medical superintendent, and a “ and supported by the society, which appears to have so well administration of spiritual comfort, has been established

managed its financial affairs as that its income has exceeded its expenditure.

THE Duchess of Beaufort has given a grand evening concert at Badminton House, in aid of the funds of the Tetbury Cottage Hospital, her Grace and family sustaining the greater part of the programme. As the audience was large and fashionable, it is presumed that a handsome result was realised for the hospital.

THE WORKSHOPS' REGULATION ACT.-Mr. Redgrave, the Home Office Inspector of Factories, has notified that, from the beginning of the new year, "the Saturday half holiday will be compulsory as regards children, young persons, and young women in all factories, workshops, and places in which any manual labour is performed."

ANNIVERSARY MEETING OF THE ACADEMY OF MEDICINE OF PARIS. This meeting, which takes place every year in December, is looked forward to by the numerous phalanx of scientific workers who burn the midnight oil in the hope of carrying off a prize. Every year also it is the custom to offer the panegyric of some departed member of the learned body; and as M. Béclard, the secretary, had taken Velpeau as his subject, a good deal of interest was excited among the medical public. The meeting turned out very brilliant, especially as numerous ladies were present (a very questionable addition), and the report of M. Dubois, the permanent secretary, on the prizes was listened to with great attention. In many cases no prize was awarded, but sums of money were granted as encouragement. Finally came the much-talked-of discourse on Velpeau, in which M. Béclard succeeded in giving an animated, and somewhat kindly, sketch of the great de

A NOBLE EXAMPLE.-M. Victor Hugo has given This year the warm-hearted exile was able to congratulate his annual Christmas fête to the poor children in Guernsey. himself that his original idea of providing for the destitute little ones has fructified to such an extent that more than 120,000 children were assisted during the year just closed. M. Hugo concluded an impressive address to his visitors in these words:"Whatever may be the sorrows of life I shall not murmur at them if I am permitted to realise the two highest objects of ambition that a man can aim at. These objects are to be a slave-to be a servant; to be the slave of conscience-to be the servant of the poor."

ACADEMY OF MEDICINE OF PARIS. - Our readers, and especially the young workers in the field of science, should not forget that the prizes offered by this Academy are open to competition by all comers. We subjoin a list of the principal subjects for the year 1869 :

Academy prize: On the Diseases of the Cerebellum. £40. Portal prize: On Sclerosis in the different Organs. £24. Civrieux prize: The Clinical History of Insanity, with the predominance of greatness mania, especially in a therapeutic point of view. £40.

Barbier prize: Means of Cure for Rabies, Epilepsy, Scrofula, Typhus, Cholera. Rewards may be granted to those who have approached the aim. £120.

Capuron prize: On the Return of the Womb to its usual State after Confinement. Medico-legal application of the results of this inquiry respecting the manner of determining how much time has elapsed since parturition. £60.

Ernest Godard prize: Best work on Surgery. £40. Amussat prize: The labours, founded both on anatomy

and experiment, which shall have promoted the most important improvement in the practice of Surgery. £40.

Lefèvre prize: On Melancholy. £80.

Argenteuil prize: The most noted improvement in the treatment of stricture of the urethra. (1863-1868) £320.

Rufz prize: Indicate, by means of facts sufficiently accurate and numerous, the modifications and alterations of functions, and the organic lesions, which can be attributed to acclimatisation, in men and animals that have been transferred from one climate to another. £80.

FROM a report of the Glasgow Maternity Hospital by Dr. Tannahill it appears that during the last year 346 women received the benefit of the charity as in-door patients, while 601 were attended at their own homes. The number of patients treated at the dispensary was 360. There is also a course of practical instruction regularly conducted, for the purpose of qualifying respectable females to act as midwives and ladies' nurses.

The

THE ACCIDENT AT ROCHDALE.-Dr. March has been good enough to send us the following list of injuries received by persons at the recent accident at Rochdale,- -a compound fracture of the forearm, a case of fractured thigh and leg on the same side, and several fractured forearms. severer injuries were caused by falling timber; many persons had to be literally dug out, and beams of wood were sawn asunder to extricate some who were comparatively unharmed. Coming down with the roof was a shower of mortar and lime, which, by filling up the scalp wounds, caused an unpleasant complication. Happily, no death occurred. Many had most severe contusions of the limbs, of the spine, and of the trunk generally; also severe scalp wounds, caused by falling slates and bricks.

DESECRATION OF HUMAN REMAINS.-The attention of the Bermondsey vestry has lately been called to the fact that large quantities of human bones, brought as rubbish from an adjoining locality, had been deposited in the parish; it was further stated that it was 66 quite common to come across human skulls and bones in the rubbish," and that there was scarcely a new road made in which human skulls might not be found. We should hope that these statements are exaggerated. If true, they indicate the necessity for strict inquiry as to the circumstances under which these remnants of mortality arrived at so improper a destination. The conversion of what were formerly burial grounds into sites for present building requirements, may in some cases be inevitable; but at least decent care should be observed in the proper disposal of any remains that may be disturbed, and such desecration as the Bermondsey vestry complain of ought not to be a possible occurrence.

HOUSE OF COMMONS, DECEMBER 29TH.-Mr. Torrens moved for returns of the asylums which are in course of building under the 5th, 6th, and 7th sections of "The Metropolitan Poor Act, 1867," and of those which it has been directed should be built; with the estimated cost of site, structure, furnishing, &c., in each case, whether the same shall be altogether new, or partly the conversion of existing edifices. Also of the unions, districts, or parishes which have complied with the provisions (sections 38 to 46) for establishing dispensaries and appointing dispensers for the relief of the sick poor in their own dwellings, and the estimated cost of the same in each case; and of the salaries paid to all persons employed under "The Metropolitan Poor Act, 1867," in each union district or parish, and of the number of sick poor attended by the medical officer in each, whether in-door or out-door, for the year ending Michaelmas, 1868.

WE regret to have to announce the deaths of several distinguished Continental brethren :-M. Gaillard, one of the provincial notabilities of France, who as chief surgeon to the Hospital of Poictiers, and as a writer and operator, had enjoyed considerable reputation; M. André Uytterhoeven, one of the most distinguished medical men of Belgium, Surgeon-in-Chief to the Hospice Ste. Elisabeth of Antwerp, former Professor of the Free University, Member of the Academy of Medicine and of the Royal Society of Brussels, and the author of several surgical proceedings and valuable writings; and M. Gubian, an able physician of Lyons, one of the founders of the General Dispensary of that city for giving medical relief to the poor in their own homes.

Medical Appointments.

ADRIEN, E. W., L.K.Q.C.P.I., has been appointed Medical Officer, Public Vaccinator, and Registrar of Births &c., for the Stamullen Dispensary District of the Drogheda Union, Co. Meath, vice J. W. Adrien, L.K.Q.C.P.I., appointed to the Drogheda Workhouse and Fever Hospital.

ALEXANDER, P., L.R.C.P.Ed., has been appointed Surgeon to the East Holywell Colliery, Earsdon, Northumberland, and to the New Backworth Colliery, Backworth, vice T. H. Pyle, M.R.C.S.E., deceased.

BAGNALL, S. F., L.R.C.P.L., has been appointed Resident Surgeon-Apothe

cary to the Dispensary, Warrington, Lancashire, vice M'Gregor, resigned. BUCHANAN, A., L.R.C.P.Ed., L.F.P. & S. Glas., has been appointed Medical Officer to the St. John Del Rey Mines, Brazil. CLARKE, Dr. E. G., has been appointed Medical Officer to the Putney District of the Wandsworth and Clapham Union, vice Dr. Pritchard, resigned. ELLIS, E., M.D., has been appointed Medical Inspector to the Artists' Annuity Fund, vice G. Cockburn Hyde, M.R.C.S., deceased. EVANS, A. G., M.R.C.S.E., has been appointed Medical Officer for the Workhouse at Penwortham, and for District No. 5 of the Preston Union, Lancashire, vice B. W. Parker, M.R.C.S.E., deceased.

FENNELL, T., M.R.C.S.E., late Senior House-Surgeon to the Manchester Royal Infirmary, has been appointed Senior Resident Medical Officer to the Leeds Public Dispensary, vice Shaw, resigned.

FRYER, C., F.L.S., L.K.Q.C.P.I., has been appointed Medical Officer and Public Vaccinator for the Townships of Whaley, Taxal, and Kettleshulme, in the Macclesfield Union, Cheshire (recently detached from the Sutton and Rainow District).

GARNER, Dr., F.R.C.S.I., has been appointed Resident Medical Superintendent of the Tipperary Auxiliary Lunatic Asylum at Clonmel, vice G. St. G. Tyner, L.K.Q.Č.P.I., appointed Medical Superintendent of the Downpatrick Lunatic Asylum.

HILL, P. E., M.R.C.S.E., L.S.A.L., has been appointed Surgeon to the Foresters', Shepherds', and Philanthropic Societies' Lodges, Newport, Monmouthshire.

JONES, J. E., M.D., has been appointed Surgeon to the Provident Society of the Great Western Railway in the Dolgelly District, and Certifying Surgeon under the provisions of the Factories Act for the Dolgelly District, vice W. Williams, F.R.C.S.E., deceased.

Musicians of Great Britain.

MACKENZIE, M., M.D., has been appointed Physician to the Royal Society of MILLAR, J., M.D., F.R.C.S.E., M.R.C.P.E., has been appointed Extra-Phy

sician to the Royal Edinburgh Hospital for Sick Children, vice R. Peel Ritchie, M.D., F.R.C.S.E., resigned.

MITCHELL, T. R., M.D., F.R.C.S., has been appointed Medical Attendant to the Convalescent Home, Felixstow, vice Mr. J. Rand, resigned. NASON, J. H., L.R.C.P.Ed., has been appointed Medical Officer, Public Vaccinator, and Registrar of Births &c., for the Templemartin Dispensary District of the Bandon Union, Co. Cork, vice John Belcher, M.D., resigned.

ROBERTSON, R. T. C., M.B., L.R.C.S.E., has been appointed Surgeon to the Great Northern Railway Locomotive Sick Society, Doncaster. ROBINSON, E., M.D., has been appointed Public Vaccinator for the Parish of Birmingham. SHAW, Mr. H. J., has been entered on the list of Civil Medical Practitioners for the Inspection of Recruits in Louth, Lincolnshire, and its neighbourhood, in the place of the late Dr. Trought. Mr. Shaw has also been appointed Medical Officer for the Yarborough District of the Louth Union.

SIMONS, J. A., M.D., has been appointed Medical Officer and Public Vaccinator for District No. 2 of the Battle Union, vice R. Duke, M.R.C.S.E., resigned.

SMITH, E., L.R.C.P.L., has been appointed Medical Officer and Public Vaccinator for District No. 1 and the Workhouse of the Battle Union, Sussex, vice R. Duke, M.R.C.S.E., resigned.

Births, Marriages, and

BIRTHS.

Rutherford Adams, M.D., of a son.

Deaths.

ADAMS.-On the 19th ult., at St. James's-road, Croydon, the wife of S. DOBIE.-On the 20th ult., at Chester, the wife of W. M. Dobie, M.D., of a GOODING. On the 15th ult., at Cheltenham, the wife of J. Callender Gooding, M.D., of a son.

son.

HEAD. On the 20th ult., at East Grinstead, the wife of Robert T. Head,
M.R.C.S.E., of a daughter.
LATHAM. On the 26th ult, at Hackney-road, the wife of Charles W. Latham,
M.R.C.S., L.S.A., of twin daughters.
LAWRENCE. On the 20th ult., at the Cedars, Chepstow, the wife of Arthur
Garnons Lawrence, M.D., of a son.

SPENCER. On the 16th ult., at Oxford, the wife of H. B. Spencer, M.D., of TANNER. On the 22nd ult., at Alfred House, Newington Causeway, the wife a daughter.

of John Tanner, M.D., of a daughter.

MARRIAGES.

CARVER-DAY.-On the 17th ult., at St. John's Church, East Dulwich, Edmund Carver, A.M., M.B., of Cambridge, to Emily Grace, elder daughter of the late Robert Day, Esq., of Streatham, Surrey.-No Cards.

SANITARY STATE OF KIDDERMINSTER.

A LETTER which we published from Dr. John Rose, of Kidderminster, five weeks ago, drew attention to the extremely unhealthy condition of that town, resulting in great measure from the neglect of proper sanitary works. We learn now from the Birmingham Daily Post that the subject of the increased sickness and mortality in the district has lately been specially considered by the Board of Guardians at a meeting at which the reporter for the Post was refused permission to be present, on the ground that as reporters had never been admitted to the meetings of the Board, the rule could not be departed from on that particular occasion. Access was, how ever, allowed to the minute-book after the meeting was over, and thence it appeared that Mr. Stretton, one of the medical officers of the union, had reported most strongly against the bad water and inefficient drainage of the town, giving particulars of the prevalence of preventable disease-scarlet fever being then specially rife,--and of the existence of evils which showed the great need for remedial measures. After some discussion, a deputation was appointed to wait upon the Mayor and Corporation of Kidderminster to represent the urgent necessity of introducing an efficient system of town drainage and water-supply, so as to remove the causes of the greatly increased mortality, and the large additional expense thereby thrown of late upon this union. The more prompt removal or abatement of nuisances, through the local inspector, than at present exists in the town, was also to be urged upon the Corporation. We gathered from Dr. Rose's letter that the townspeople themselves objected to incur the cost of works of drainage and water-supply which had been proposed. This would account in some measure for the backwardness of the Corporation; but it surely is not forgotten at Kidderminster that upon complaint being made to the Home Secretary of default of duty in sanitary matters on the part of the town authorities, that functionary has the power either to compel them to do their duty, or to do it for them at their own cost. Interference of this sort has been efficacious lately at Falmouth, and we have little doubt it would be equally so at Kidderminster.

Mr. J. B. Gill.-Our correspondent might possibly obtain wh t he desires from Mr. Ceely, of Aylesbury; but we should advise him to read Dr. Seaton's Handbook of Vaccination before carrying his intention into effect. The results are often somewhat formidable.

Mr. S. Mortimer should consult a respectable medical practitioner.

Diogenes-1. Mr. Nunneley has recorded several interesting cases. He would, no doubt, give the reference.-2. In the "Transactions of the Clinical Society" and the Hospital Reports of THE LANCET.

Mrs. Baines wishes to say that she is wrongly reported in the local press in regard to her advocacy of the placing of day nurseries under Poor-law management. She thinks they should be supervised by some responsible authority, but not the Poor-law Board.

FICTITIOUS LIFE ASSURANCE OFFICES.

WE have been requested to warn the junior members of the profession against the proceedings of a so-called agent for Insurance Offices, who is calling upon gentlemen recently embarked in practice, and inducing them by specious promises of agencies to deposit sums varying from two guineas to five pounds, for which they find that they receive no return whatever. We would strongly recommend one of the deluded gentlemen to try the effect of summoning the person in question for obtaining money under false pretences.

P. P. P.-There is no recognised scale of charges. Many practitioners charge a shilling a mile in the case of visits. The average charges for medicine are pretty well known.

An Old Subscriber.-1. No, certainly not.-2. Decidedly it is.

ACTION OF NITROUS OXIDE.

To the Editor of THE LANCET.

SIR,-In your report of the proceedings of the Medical Society of London nitrous oxide in dentistry, but the discussion was adjourned. As this does on November 30th, it is stated that I introduced the subject of the action of not quite correctly represent the part I took, and as I am anxious that the matter I really introduced should be well ventilated, will you permit me to say a few words in explanation.

That nitrous oxide is a safe anaesthetic for short operations, such as the extraction of teeth, I never doubted, after a few weeks' experience and an intimate intercourse with Dr. Colton; that it is a safe anæsthetic in such cases is now too fully and too generally recognised to render it needful for me to bring its claims simply as a dental anaesthetic before the notice of a purely Medical Society. But I have the most perfect conviction that it will eventually prove a safe and efficient anaesthetic in the more prolonged operations of general surgery--not, indeed, as at present given, but with certain modifications and improvements in the apparatus used for its administration. I am led to this conviction from my experience of its effects in a case of removal of the breast by Mr. Carr Jackson, when I maintained the anesthesia for twenty minutes; from my subsequent experiments upon animals, upon myself, and upon members of my family. And I was anxious to bring the question prominently under the notice of my medical brethren, because from their greater opportunities I believed the question would be more readily fully tried. My present theory is, that although the admixture of atmo spheric air with the gas when first administered tends to induce excitement, yet when once the patient is fully anesthetised, the anesthesia may be kept up for an indefinite period by the continued administration of the gas, diluted with certain proportions of atmospheric air, without any excitement supervening. I have had some instruments constructed by Mr. Coxeter to effect this measured admixture, so as to pursue my experiments with greater exactness; and as one of the greatest bars to the use of the gas in general surgery lies in its want of portability, I have exerted myself so far to remedy this evil that I expect in a week or two, with the help of Mr. Coxeter, to arrive at a means of obtaining the gas in a more convenient form for general use than at present exists.

Meanwhile, I throw out these hints in order to secure the early co-operation of my medical friends in this path of investigation, and I have no doubt, with their aid, some means will be found of prolonging the anesthesia induced by nitrous oxide, either by the admixture of atmospheric air or someother chemical agent.

I am, Sir, yours faithfully,

CHARLES JAMES Fox, M.R.C.S., L.D.S. Mortimer-street, Cavendish-square, Dec. 28th, 1868.

To the Editor of THE LANCET.

SIR, I shall be glad if you will allow me space in your journal to correct an error which has been reported at page 780 of THE LANCET for Dec. 12th, 1868, under the head of "Proceedings of the Odontological Society of Great Britain." At the last meeting of that Society I am reported to have said: "In one case a pig was experimented upon. It was found insensible to pain, but it was by apnea; for, owing to a mistake, the nitrous oxide had been cut off, and the pig got neither gas nor air."

It will be observed from the following statement of facts that the animal was sensible to pain when apnea was accidentally produced, and insensible to pain when rendered equally unconscious by the administration of nitrous oxide. The experiments which were spoken to involve a question of scientific interest; and as very few of your readers will see the "Transactions of the Odontological Society," I ask leave to give them again in detail. In the case

SUTURES IN SCALP WOUNDS.

To the Editor of THE LANCET.

SIR,-In your number for December 19th, 1868, Dr. Lindsay Porteous gave a few interesting remarks on the value of sutures in scalp wounds, in which the results have been all that could be desired. In scalp wounds of any great extent I have been in the habit of using sutures; but latterly I have adopted another method, which perhaps, though not new, is not much known (I mean generally). I have only had an opportunity of trying a few cases with it, and should be happy to learn the results of others who may have had more experience. I use needles, in place of sutures, inserted into the edges of the wound at equal distances, and then coil around the needle a piece of thread, in such a way as to draw the edges of the wound well in. apposition; then use water-dressing. The result has been very satisfactory. Hoping to hear more on the subject, I remain, Sir, yours, &c., Clarendon-terrace, Bow-road, Dec. 1868.

P. MACARTHUR, M.B. A Mother-It is often of advantage to a young man before coming to London to study at the hospital that he should be placed with some medical practitioner. He thereby obtains a good deal of familiarity with drugs and minor medical matters, which is of great use to him afterwards, and which as a rule he does not learn at College or at the hospital. The subject is discussed in a leading article in our present number. Dr. Crisp.-We must decline to reopen the question.

mouth and nose of a pig, about eight weeks old, with india-rubber sheeting, so as to exclude air. In about three minutes the animal became profoundly unconscions, and when in this state was pricked by a spur and other sharp instruments. The fact that the pig showed manifest signs of feeling whenever it was punctured created surprise, as the inhaler was connected by an india-rubber tube with a bag containing nitrous oxide. After a time it was discovered that the tube (which had been tightly ligatured to prevent any escape of the gas during its transit from London) had not been untied, and the animal got neither gas nor air. The same pig was allowed to run in a paddock until it had recovered its former strength, and then nitrous oxide was properly administered through the same inhaler. In the course of one minute anesthesia was produced, and the animal did not show any sign of feeling whea punctured in the same manner as before.

Other experiments were performed to test the correctness of the foregoing, and with the same result- to wit: Two healthy pigs, about four months old, were obtained fresh from the sty of a neighbouring farmer. The one was asphyxiated by bandages which were applied for three minutes. When they were removed, it was found to be unconscious, and upon the application of a sharp needle it evidently did feel. The other inhaled nitrous oxide until it was equally unconscious, and when it was pricked with the same needle did not make any sign of pain.

These experiments were witnessed by surgeons, and the general opinion in each case was that unconsciousness from asphyxia did not destroy the sense of feeling, while the same degree of unconsciousness produced by the inhalation of nitrous oxide did destroy the sense of feeling.

I remain, Sir, yours truly, Westfield Lodge, Brighton, Dec. 20th, 1868.

W. A. N. CATTLIN.

THE LANCET,]

·HOW THE TIME OF OUR ARMY DOCTORS IS FRITTERED AWAY. THEEE is, no doubt, a great waste of power and time involved in many of the daties which army medical officers are called upon to perform. It is perfectly fatile for the authorities to make attempts at retrenchment if commanding officers are needlessly to insist upon the presence of their medical officers at parades. We have lately heard of an illustration of the anomalous functions of army medical officers, which will serve to show the way time is frittered away which ought to be given to the sick and to professional duties. At Chichester one may see any Sunday morning the surgeon of the 3rd Dragoon Guards, an officer of twenty years' standing, with his assistant, paraded in full dress, and "falling in" with the regiment, and marching with it to church. Those who know how long it takes to don

properly all the paraphernalia of a dragoon parade can best appreciate it, and how much time is likely to be given to hospital duties on Sundays. It is a pity, we think, that the dragoon doctors are not allowed to go through their wards mounted; for the sick must be visited by the surgeons at full gallop to allow of their doing their duty and getting their breakfasts in time for parade.

Dr. Bower. The profession has the materials of an opinion before it in regard to the case in point, and we see no use în reopening it. Dr. Bower is entitled to his own opinion on the facts, and he reasons not badly in support of it; but he should allow other men, who are quite as entitled as he is to an opinion, to differ from him, especially in defence of a medical brother.

A REPULSIVE EXHIBITION.

THE exhibition of human deformities to the common gaze of the uneducated is reprehensible enough under most circumstances; but rarely have we heard of a more condemnable instance of this pandering to a morbid curiosity than comes to us from a midland county town, in which a druggist shows in his shop window a cast of the bust of a child prematurely still-born. Circumstances connected with the birth render the exhibition additionally objectionable, and we have no hesitation in adding our strongest censure to that of the local press upon the conduct of the exhibitor in thus outraging public decency.

M.D. has entirely misconceived the matter. We think the course taken by the medical and surgical staff of the Aberdeen Infirmary was perfectly correct. If the Managers had the spirit of Gallio, it was to their credit. A Doctor's Wife.--No.

A CORRESPONDENT wishes to know whether there are any good schools for the daughters of deceased medical men, in which they are educated and boarded on reduced terms.

Enquirer.-Time and tonics will do all that is needed.

EXCESSIVE SNEEZING.

To the Editor of THE LANCET.

SIR,-I shall be glad if you will favour me by inserting the following case in your next impression, and much obliged to any of your readers who will give me any hints as to the treatment of the same..

My patient is a lady about thirty years of age, and she has suffered for nearly a year from violent sneezings, which are of considerable duration, and occur chiefly night and morning. She has also had during the greater part of this time complete loss of smell and taste, the loss of the latter sense having occurred shortly after that of the former. The general health, though never much below par, has latterly improved under the use of tonics, principally quinine and iron. I have tried many remedies, both constitutionally and locally. I cannot discover anything within the nasal passages to account for the disease, more than a generally inflamed state of the mucous membrane. As local applications, amongst others, I have tried the nitrate of silver and bromide of potassium-the latter as spray, the former both in solution and as spray,--but with no good result. I am, Sir, yours obediently,

ВЕТА.

December 27th, 1868. Machaon.-1. It is very commonly done, although our correspondent, strictly speaking, has no legal right to the use of the title.-2. We cannot pronounce an opinion without knowing all the facts. There can be no harm surely in a father attending his daughter under the circumstances, as he probably would be a middle-aged man.

LONGEVITY.

To the Editor of THE LANCET.

[JAN. 2, 1869. 33

SIR-If the discussion between Dr. Dickinson and myself should end in our agreement, even though I submit at the point of the pen, no one will yield more gladly; for Dr. Dickinson will make much better use of true principles than can do. There remains, however, something more to be said before I retire, and I will try to remember in saying it that Editors, like the human race of which we are complaining, want but little, nor want that little long.

If I have properly seconded Dr. Dickinson's argument with my understanding, and, harder still, if I properly understand myself, our controversy stands as follows. In his first letter, Dr. Dickinson referred with interest to the stories of several persons who had lived to great age, and some of whom were supposed to have existed for times longer than a century. His chief object, however, was to secure post-mortem examinations upon such old persons, in the hope of discovering the mode of their gradual and silent dissolution. As a pathologist, he was so unfortunate as only to meet with the bodies of persons who had not worked themselves out, who had not exhausted all those changes of which their original structures were capable, and who presented to him the phenomena of destruction, contra naturam, in a coarse, ragged, and incomplete way. He hoped, therefore, that some one would give him occasion to examine a "machine" which had come to its natural term, and had not been accidentally "stopped" at a stage of immaturity. Such, in brief, was, I think, the substance of the first letter.

My reply was intended to have something of this effect. It is true that a large number of persons are destroyed by accidents from without, and so die relatively young; but it is not true that all persons who die nominally young are "stopped machines." On the contrary, that a large proportion of these have lived their life, and that their ages are to be counted by the physiologist not according to solar revolutions, but according to germinal capacities, which vary for us all.

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In his "retort courteous," Dr. Dickinson sent me word that he "may perhaps allow, using the language of paradox, that all persons who die of disease which is purely hereditary or innate, die of age, though their years be few...... The majority of mankind, however, inherit, not disease, but a liability to disease, and die at last because circumstances are adverse." He brings me scarlatina, typhus, syphilis, knife-grinders' rot, lead-poisoning, drunkenness, accidental lung mischief, rheumatic cardiac disease, and the like, as share. Then he kindly encourages me by also admitting that there are proexamples of death from circumstances, and throws me in the rest for my gressive changes which lead to death, and depend upon time rather than upon circumstance. Thus Dr. Dickinson comes half way to meet me, and if drops. But I am not yet so amiable altogether, though I am ungenerous I will but yield a few steps, we fall into each other's arms, and the curtain enough to accept willingly the largest concessions. Dr. Dickinson will 'perhaps" (why perhaps ?) allow, "using the language of paradox" (that is to say, putting a true proposition into unusual language for a special purpose) "that all persons who die of disease which is purely hereditary or innate, die of age......The majority of mankind, however, inherit, not disease, but a liability to disease," &c. Now, what does Dr. Dickinson precisely mean by this? Whatever he means, he has touched the matter with a needle point. If by "inheriting a liability to disease" he merely means, to use for once the language of a distinguished "female practitioner," that we are "born into a wale," that we "inherit a liability to disease" as a fisherman's boy inherits a liability to be drowned, then, instead of objecting to this part of the clause, I should object to the previous part-namely, "that the majority of mankind do not inherit disease." Are we not still hampered more or less with the old scholastic distinction between causa prevenientes and cause efficientes, which ingenious falsity has so long disfigured our text-books? If men did not all inherit disease, we should only have to put some man under a glass-case to make him immortal. But every man is his own disease; he may be prevented from developing its retrograde forms, as a phthisical girl may die of a blow before she has hatched a tubercle. Or, again, its development may be hastened, as she would hasten it by wearing thin shoes, or it may be greatly retarded by medical means; but these two classes of "influences from without" change the rate, but not the nature of the process. "Liability to disease" simply means, therefore, either the disease (that is, the mode of life) itself, or it merely means liability to accident. I do not think that I ever underrated the action of circumstance. I stated in my former letter that "life" was not the organism alone, nor the medium alone, but the result of these two factors. The organism is, however, by far the more complex of the two factors, and the less modifiable; the medium is simpler, and very manageable. As civilisation advances, therefore, the former must go for more and the latter for less; and indeed in our present time, even in an hospital so successful as St. George's, no pathologist need languish for want of examples of bodily decay. For in many of the instances of destruction from without which Dr. Dickinson enumerates, the external cause acts rather by finding out the direction of least resistance in the individual body, as the tap of a knife cleaves a crystal, than by rending parts which were previously sound. I grant that we all have to stand up against good bowling; some of us do better, some worse; few of us carry our bats out, and I will admit that

PREVENTIVE MEDICINE IN CANADA.

WE learn from the Montreal Gazette that the medical officers of health have recently held a meeting in that city for the discussion of sanitary measures needful for the diminution of epidemic diseases, and of the generally prevalent causes of excessive sickness and mortality. Measles and scarlet fever seem to be "household words" amongst our Canadian brethren, as unhappily they are with us, and the efficacy of the defensive weapons of our medical armoury against those diseases is as fully recognised by Dr. Dugdale and his colleagues as by ourselves. Like us also, they have begun to discover that the free bestowal of gratuitous service is apt to beget increasing demands on the time of the medical profession, and they very properly hesitate to undertake more than they have already done. They have agreed, however, to meet more frequently for the discussion of sanitary reforms, and we may take this opportunity of saying that we shall be glad to receive from time to time accounts of the progress of preventive medicine in British America.

One Disgusted.-The authorities of the hospital should have their attention called to the nuisance.

M.D., writing on the subject of general practitioners and Government vaccinators, will find we have not failed to give attention to the matter.

soon detects the weakness in our defence. I hardly need be obliged to say that the organism being constant, and the medium variable, then length of life will vary with the latter; but I do wish to urge the correlative but less familiar truth, that if the medium be constant (which it is tending more and more to become), yet single organisms are largely variable as yet, and can have no common term of life until uniform circumstances have moulded us for ages.

We are all liable to interferences. "A Punch's show, a chimney-sweep, a Newfoundland dog, or a drunkin' man acomin' round the corner sharp may do it; there's no deniging of it." But if all the long phalanx of babies now issuing into life as I run my pen across the sheet were to enter upon identical conditions, their hopes of life could be no more equal than the quality of their brains; for a peculiar death is bound up with, and is from the beginning a part of, every peculiar life, and interference, where it occurs, acts oftener by hastening a foregone conclusion than by setting up new and irregular deviations. I think we are all tempted at the post-mortem table to look upon man as a congeries of separable organs rather than as a whole-as one complex structure and one complex function.

detail; but I have already written at greater length than I intended. In I had hoped to make this discussion more useful by entering into some conclusion, let me say that I have argued against Dr. Dickinson not with the intention of proving that there was nothing of importance in his letter, but, on the contrary, because there is so much in his writing, both here and elsewhere, which is full of excitement for our interest and our exploring faculties. I am, Sir, your obedient servant, Leeds, December, 1868. T. CLIFFORD ALLBUTT.