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scribed there were extensive patches of diphtheritic membranewhich did not extend from the parts first affected, and werenot accompanied by any marked constitutional symptoms, nordid the cases require any other than mild alterative treatment.The meeting closed with the narration of " A Case of Dropsy

associated with Cardiac Disease," which had been benefited ina most marked and rapid manner by the inhalation of oil ofjuniper. The case was narrated by Dr. Benj. Bell, Presidentof the Royal College of Surgeons, who had tried the treatmentat the suggestion of Prof. Simpson. The method was to dis-solve half a drachm of the oil in a tumblerful of hot water,the patient inhaling the steam four or five times, with occa-sional repetitions. Prof. Simpson remarked that the practicewas not new. He recommended it several years ago, and hadoften used it with success.

If the succeeding meetings be as interesting as the first, theforty-third is likely to prove a most successful session to theSociety.

There are two students’ medical societies connected with our- medical school-the Royal Medical and the Hunterian. Thelatter inaugurated the session on Friday evening (the 20th),Dr. Handyside, the President, in the chair. Dr. Warburton

Begbie read the introductory paper, the subject of his disser-tation being " The Life and Labours of John Hunter, and theBenefits which his Genius and Study had conferred on MedicalScience. "

I observe with pleasure that THE LANCET of the 14th inst.has commenced an investigation into the adulterations of drugsas sold in the metropolis. Could you but extend your inves-

tigations to this city I doubt not you would find that thespiritus cetheris nitrici sold is not quite what it ought to be. Iunderstand that methylated spirit is largely used. The whole-sale price of spiritus cetheris nitrici made with it is 9d., andthat from pure spirit of 850 0 specific gravity is 3s. per lb. The

spirit sold by.our best shops at 5d. the ounce must give a hand-some profit.Writing of adulterations recalls the fact that but the other

day a dealer in a respectable position in Glasgow was finedX25 for selling as coffee a mixture of 80 per cent. chicory and20 per cent. mustard husks. Another sample contained equalproportions of chicory and coffee, and 15 per cent. of mustardhusks. A third sample had a trace of coffee, 15 per cent. ofmustard husks, and the rest chicory. Another dealer in coffeewas fined zC5 for a similar offence, but pleaded that he wasquite ignorant that the coffee was adulterated. From this we

may be alto wed to conclude that, in Glasgow, the more ignoranta dealer is, the less chance is there of his being punished ; andthat not to know the nature of the article he sells, is a plea forhis selling adulterated goods.

Rilinh11rQ"h- Nov_ 24th 1863

DUBLIN.

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

ON Saturday evening last the twenty-sixth session of the Dublin Obstetrical Society was inaugurated by an openingaddress delivered by the outgoing president, Dr. Beatty, for-merly professor of midwifery in the College of Surgeons. The

Society met in what is termed the Pillar-room of the Rotunda;and a crowd of distinguished visitors and members were at-tracterl together, in anticipation of a rich intellectual treat tobe afforded them by the discourse of the accomplished lecturer,- an anticipation in which no one present was disappointed.Dr. Beatty selected for his theme Ovariotomy, and gave a mostinstructive and interesting lecture on this very important sub-ject. Having prefaced his remarks by an enumeration of allthe papers that had been read before the Society in the pre-vious session, he proceeded to give a sliceiiiet yet accurateanalysis of the several cases that have been the subjects of theoperation at which he was himself present. He next exhibitedthe various instruments used in its performance, and woundup a most admirable discourse by calling on the present mem-bers of the Society to uphold, during the next quarter of thecentury, the character that had been won for it in the last. Hethen, amidst loud applause, resigned the chair to the recentlyelected President, Dr. Denham, the present accomplishedMaster of the Lying-in Hospital, in whose hands your reader smay rest assured the interests of the Society will suffer nodamage.A very unpleasant story, in which is mixed up the name of

one of our metropolitan hospitals, has made its appearance in

our local prints. The hospital in question is avowedly sec-tarian, and its authorities have adopted as one of their funda-mental rules, that under no pretext whatever shall a Roman-Catholic clergyman be admitted within its portals. WereRoman-Catholic patients denied admission as well as theirclergymen, the rule could be justified ; but as their rules nowstand, it appears a very extreme measure to deprive them ofthe services of their clergy at the very time they most requirethem, and this in a country where such extreme importance isattached by the members of that persuasion to the rites andceremonies of their church. The facts of the case are brieflythese :—A poor Roman-Catholic patient, some time an inmateof the hospital in question, required the performance of anoperation hazardous in its results ; and, previous to undergoingit, requested to receive at the hands of his priest the sacra-ments of his church. No relaxation of the rule, however, couldbe permitted, and he had actually to be carried out of the hos-pital into the street to have the desired interview with hisclergyman. Were such an occurrence to have happened underthe régime of King Bomba, surprise would be a mild term forthe feeling that would seize our minds; but to happen in whatwe boast as being the second city in her most Christian Majesty’sempire, requires for us to credit it proof strong almost as thatof Holy Writ. If this rule is to remain amongst the ordinancesof this hospital, let another eqnally stringent be placed injuxtaposition with it-that no Roman-Catholic patient be ad-mitted, and then all cause of complaint will be removed, andour city for the future will be exempt from such disgracefulscenes of intolerance. It is no excuse to allege that our Roman-Catholic poor are aware of such a regulation. Accidents willoccur, and in the emergency recourse will be had to the nearest

hospital for relief. Few patients enter the wards of an hospitalunder the impression that they are to die ; so that even ifacquainted with this regulation, they avail themselves of therelief that the hospital affords, in the hope that the separationfrom their clergy will after all be but temporary. But theircase assumes a graver aspect: death is imminent, and the poorignorant creature for the first time awakes to the fearful doomhe has so inconsiderately invoked upon his own head. Thisshould not be. Either refuse admission to Roman Catholics, or,if admitted, afford them the consolation of their religion. Thislatter would be the better course ; for, in my opinion, an hos-pital, above all charities, should know no creed or sect.

In my letter of the 10th instant, I mentioned to you that adeputation from the Irish Medical Association waited uponSir Robert Peel to bring, through him, under the notice ofGovernment, what by the profession universally throughoutIreland are felt to be grievous injustices and shortcomings inthe Irish Medical Charities Act. Some of these apply withsuch equal force to the profession on your side of the Channelas on ours that I submit them for perusal and consideration.

First comes the question of superannuation. As the lawnow exists, a man may spend a long and weary lifetime in theservice of the sick poor upon a salary barely sufficient to pro-cure for him the absolute necessaries of life, in a district sowretched as to make a fee indeed a rara avis. Old age anddecrepitude creep on, and still must he make a semblance ofdischarging the duties of his office, as without its salary no re-source is left him save the almshol1se; for in this department ofthe public service no provision is made for a retiring allow-ance. Thus two parties are injured : the worn out old man,forced to toil when past his labour; and the sick poor, who,under such circumstances, cannot get the attention which theircases demand. And yet in no other department of the publicservice is there such an unceasing demand on his time as in thecase of the medical man engaged in the discharge of dispensaryduties ; at any hour of the day and night he is at the beck andcall of any one of his dispensary committee ; and numerous in-deed are the instances where, after a ride of some ten or twelvemiles, he finds the case of some trivial nature. Still thereis no provision made for his retirement after years of service,or when broken up by work or disease. Another just causeof complaint, and one indeed, in my opinion, trenching on thespirit of the British Constitution, is the manner in which chargesagainst the medical officer for any cause are conducted. An

inspector is sent down, the case is investigated, and a reportforwarded to the Poor-law Commission ers, founded, it is to bepresumed, upon the evidence adduced ; but this the accusednever is permitted to see or read, and the decision of the Com-missioners is final. So that a medical man not only may be,but has been in repeated instances, dis-missed from his situationupon a report which he has never been allowed to examine,and which, so far as he knows, may contain a highly-coloured,perhaps a distorted and ex-parte, statement of his case, which,

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however, he has no means of correcting, inasmuch as he never Iis permitted to see its contents. A judge on the Bench is liableto have his charge excepted to ; why not an inspector under theMedical Charities Act ? Far be it from me to say that thislast-mentioned official’s reports are open to any imputations ;I only assert what in every other judicial department is prac-tically enforced-that in these instances also " Cæsar’s wife.hould not only be pure, but above all suspicion." The greatchampion of these and similar proposed amendments of theIrish Medical Charities Act, is Dr. Mackesy, of Waterford,whilom President of the Royal College of Surgeons, assistedmost efficiently and disinterestedly by the Secretary to theAssociation-Dr. Quinan, of Dublin. Dr. Mackesy was thefirst provincial surgeon-as, doubtless, your readers are aware-ever raised to the presidential chair in our College ; an honourwhich he owes to the very great respect in which his name isuniversally held throughout Ireland-a respect due as well tohis high professional attainments, as to his undoubted honour,and the labours he has expended upon, and the sacrifices hehas made for, his less fortunate professional brethren duringhis year of office. The new Examination Hall of the Collegeof Surgeons was inaugurated under the auspices of our amiahleViceroy, Lord Carlisle, on which occasion the questionablehonour of knighthood was offered him, which an esprat de co)-ps(for the exercise of which he is entitled to all credit) inducedhim to decline. His professional brethren are not inclined,however, to let such services pass unrecognized ; and a sub-scription list has been opened to present him with a testimonial--a list already amounting to some hundreds of pounds, andincluding every name of note in our profession, in addition towhich the M. D. honoris causd of the University of Dublin hasbeen conferred upon him.

Dublin, Nov. 24th, 1863.

BRIGHTON.

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

ON the 5th inst. Dr. Addison read a paper, before a full

meeting of the Medical Society, " On Fever and Local Poison,with reference to the Constitutional Pathology of the Blood;"directing notice to the fact that the corpuscles were influenced,and that more particularly-even before the other parts of thebody,-in cases of fever-poisoning. Assuming the corpusclesto be cells after the ordinary term " organic cell," it was foundthat all cells had not only a power of selection, but also of re-pulsion, of certain extraneous agents applied to them. On thistheory was to be explained the affinity of the glandular systemfor mercury, the lacteals for fat, the action of belladonna onthe iris and of opium on the nerves; and the fact that whereashydrocyanic acid was a deadly, ferrocyanide of potassium wasan inert body, the corpuscles being passive to its influence.Also, that blood being of two parts, cells and plasma-the latterever varying, the former constant, save in numbers-poisonscausing cell-destruction were at the outset active on the formerfrom their inherent power of assimilation, shown by their alteredphysical appearance seen in continued fever, typhus, pneumonia,and purpura. Moreover, that until these corpuscles were gene-rally attacked, signs of fever poison were absent ; for purging,vomiting, boils, and salivation, all could exist in the absence ofgeneral fever. In such cases the corpuscles are only locally, notgenerally, affected. Something was needed besides inhaling apoison-namely, a pre-existing aptitude or assimilative powerin the cells themselves for the poison. Hence people exposedto like infections do not manifest like diseases; and hence, also,the acknowledged necessity for preparing the blood of patientsprevious to operation, in order to ward off purulent absorption- the corpuscles being, in fact, prepared to resist a morbidtendency. The paper finished with practical hints for the

purification of blood, very general satisfaction and approvalbeing manifested by the meeting.Nevertheless the question still arises, Does fever-poison really

attack the corpuscles first of all ? These change least of bloodelements, while the plasma ever varies. Is it not more likelythat an unstable matter would be more influenced than thatwhich is less so ? Dialysis takes place in the case of liquids :may not malaria dissolved in the moist air of the lungs endos-mose into the dense plasma, rather than into the corpuscles?As to the change of corpuscles in fever-their dissolution, red-ness, or blueness-true these phenomena occur, but as well inhealth as in disease. Blood will look blue from simple mecha-

nical stasis, and dissolve from like causes; and just as a fishwill die in deoxygenated water, so will a corpuscle in a likeplasma. Yet it is said, the corpuscles are red in some fevers.True-as in scarlatina; but so is the venous blood on issuingfrom the kidneys in health more red than on entering thoseorgans : explained on the hypothesis that excessive distributionof the capillary system slackens the current, tending to furthersome normal chemical result by which oxygen is given to thecorpuscles. Disease is but a mal direction of normal forces, orperversion of health, and no new agency : the redness anderuption of scarlet fever may, then, be only an action whichin health is normal, but general in disease. Facts would pointto a close connexion between kidney and cutaneous action inscarlatina. By this it would seem that the corpuscles playsecond to the plasma in the drama of the blood, dissolved inwhich fever-poison attacks nerve or vital force, and incuba-tion bcgins; chills, headache, languor, pointing to nervous andnot corpuscular influence; while fever supervening is but anormal effort at elimination by thefluids of the blood, whichare seen to suffer most in fevers-the corpuscles suffering onlyin long-continued reaction.

Brighton. Nov. 1863.

MEDICAL TRIALS.

COURT OF QUEEN’S BENCH, WESTMINSTER, Nov. 23RD.(Sittings in Banco, before the LORD CHIEF JUSTICE, Mr. JusticeWIGHTMAN, Mr. Justice BLACKBURN, and Mr. JusticeMELLOR. )

THE CORPORATION OF LONDON V. THE GOVERNORS OF ST.

BARTHOLOMEW’S HOSPITAL.THIS was an application with a view to raise and determine

the question which has arisen between the corporation ofLondon and the governors of St. Bartholomew’s Hospital as tothe right of the former corporation to the appointment of theMayor as president of the hospital. Upon the death of Alder-man Carroll in 1861, the late Alderman Cubitt, then LordMayor, was elected president of the hospital. He was re-elected mayor, and continued in office until November, 1862.He soon afterwards resigned his office of alderman as well asthat of president of the hospital. He was, however, re-electedpresident in February, 1863, which office he held until hisdeath. His election, however, was disputed by the corpora-tion, which contended that the governors were bound to electthe Lord Mayor or an alderman who had passed the chair, andit was intended to raise the question quo warranto, but hisdeath creating a vacancy, it was agreed that the questionshould be decided by an application for a mandamus directingthe governors to elect Mr. Alderman Rose, who was LordMayor at the time of Mr. Cubitt’s re-election and a candidatefor the office. The question turns on the construction of theancient charters and orders of the hospitals of King HenryV1I1. and King Edward VI.-viz., St. Bartholomew’s, Christ’s,Bridewell, and St. Thomas’s.

Sir FITZRoy KELLY stated the substance of the charters andorders, so far as they related to the question, and said theright of the corporation had never before been disputed, andupon searching the records no evidence had been discoveredtending to throw any doubt on their claim.

’ The COURT !!ranted a rule nisi.

NOVEMBER 24TH.

EX PARTE LA MERT V. THE GENERAL COUNCIL OF MEDICAL

EDUCATION AND REGISTRATION.

This was an application under the new Medical Act of 1858.which provides that if any registered medical practitioner shallbe convicted in England or Ireland of any felony or misde.meanour, or in Scotland of any crime or offtnce, or shall, afterdue inquiry, be judged by the General Council to have beenguilty of infamous conduct in any professional respect, thEGeneral Council may, if they see fit, direct the registrar t(erase the name of such medical practitioner from the register(sec. 29). The name of the applicant, Mr. La Mert, had beenerased from the register on the ground that he had been guiltyof "infamous conduct in a professional respect" :-1. In pub.lishing an indecent and unprofessional treatise, entitled "Self.Preservation," &c.; 2. In having stated that his son, "a aLicentiate of the Royal College of Physicians," had been jointlyconcerned in the authorship of the work. On an affidavit ojthe applicant, setting forth that he himself had studied andpassed examinations at Edinburgh, and that his son was a