Editorial Department.-Summary Punishment of Illegal Practitioners.

TIONERS OF MEDICINE.

335

present is indeed a critical period in the medical history SUMMARY PUNISHMENT OF ILLEGAL PRACTI. of the province, pregnant with important results, which may be either beneficial or injurious, in accordance We copy the following judiciously written editorial with their nature. On the eve of the introduction to article, from the Morning Courier, Feb. 4; and conthe legislature of important measures, seriously affecting curring entirely in the statements which are contained the future position and the prospects of the profession, in it, we submit it to the Profession of the Province these measures, ostensibly proposed for its amelioration, without comment. We would only observe that the will receive, as before, a careful and independent certificate of the Apothecaries' company, is the license examination. Devoted to the interests of the profession which qualifies the general practitioner of England; generally, the journal will faithfully maintain them in their integrity; and, if the profession be true to itself, the principles avowed in its pages will not be overlooked by the legislature, when deliberating on the measures which may be submitted to it.

and, as the criminal law of England is the one which holds in this colony, we certainly conceive that impostors and quacks here can be rendered amenable to its penalties as well as in Great Britain. We think the matter is deserving of consideration by the Profession To the contributors to the original department of the at large. Numerous are the complaints which have journal, medical as well as physical, the thanks of the reached us, relative to quacks and medical impostors, editor are due. Fears certainly were entertained, that in the country districts. The remedy is of easy apthis department of the journal would not have been plication, and we should be happy to enumerate a few sustained in the manner in which it has been. Al-instances of its successful application :though the limited space allotted to it has been fully The article which we quote below from a London occupied, and to a greater extent than has occurred daily paper, we most especially commend to the attenwith any other journal of the same nature previously tion of our general readers, and most particularly to published in this colony, yet communications on that of the Medical profession, and the Judicial authoriphysical subjects are still a desideratum; and we would earnestly call on our friends to record, in its pages, those of pre-eminent importance, and numerous extracts The general sanatory condition of the community is matters of physical interest which must, when collec- and editorial articles given from time to time in the tively considered, constitute a most important means of columns of the Courier demonstrate the interest which furthering our acquaintance with the physical develop-this question is at present exciting in England. On ment and resources of this important section of the Bri-this subject we shall at a future period have more to tish Empire. For the record, and dissemination of authorities of this City to pay more attention to this. say. We wish, if possible, to induce the Municipal such facts, this journal presents the only truly legitimate question before the meeting of the Legislature, in order medium of which this colony is, in the meanwhile, that they may apply for a Local Act, under whose pro-` possessed; and must, in due process of time, become a visions they may enforce such general sanatory regula. work of reference on such topics. tions as are absolutely necessary to ensure the health of the population of Montreal.

ties.

The journal being now fully established, it will assume If, however, the general health is a matter of interto itself an independent stand. It seeks for no favours.est to the community at large, and its preservation is Its exchange list is large, but to it will be added, with a question more immediately concerning the public pleasure, those local papers which may give insertion to authorities, the subject to which the following article alludes is one that more properly belongs to individuals this notice, and transmit a copy to the editor. and the Medical profession.

As intimated on previous occasions, all communications on scientific subjects must be transmitted to the editor, postage free; while on every other matter connected with the journal, letters and communications are to be addressed to the publisher, Mr. Becket.

We presume that there is no occasion for us to state a fact which is sufficiently well known, that is, that this Province is inundated with Medical practitioners who are utterly unqualified to prescribe for the bodily ailments of the lieges, in fact, quacks, under whose In consequence of its extensive circulation among the of the population are annually murdered. Against diabolical "simples" and other nostrums hundreds medical profession of this province, the advertising sheet this infliction we believe there is no "specific" represents a desirable means of introducing to the ge-medy. At least we remember some time ago having neral notice of the Profession, on the part of druggists and booksellers, matters which may be of interest. The 1st and 2d volumes may be obtained, either bound or in numbers, by application to the publisher. Montreal, March 15, 1847.

occasion to notice the arrival among us of a Yankee, who pretended to be an oculist, aurist, or some thing cal friend, and advised him, if there was any law by of that class, we mentioned the circumstance to a Mediwhich it might be done, immediately to institute a prosecution against him, We were then told that

336

Editorial Department-Summary Punishment of Illegal Practitioners.

there was no law which could oe resorted to in order prevail. The medical men here are general practito put a stop to irregular practice. This we thought tioners, and the same rule must apply in their case. rather extraordinary, and wondered at the existence of We are sorry to state that among the medical men a Board of Medical Examiners and the formality of a of Lower Canada, and particularly, of the city of license to practise, so solemnly promulgated in the Montreal, there appears to be very little of that esprit Official Gazette. It is true that we were always du corps which generally actuates bodies of similar aware that the examination before this Board was to a character in other countries. But they appear to give certain degree a farce, for to our own certain know. way to petty jealousies and to be divided into little ledge men have passed their examination there and cliques which must ever prevent unanimity of action been admitted to practice who knew nothing of ana-on questions of interest to the profession at large. It tomy but what they had learned from books: they had is not our province to decide who is in the right, or never in their lives dissected a subject, yet a good memory enabled them, by dint of severe cramming, to undergo the ordeal. But still to enforce an examination on Canadian students, while there are no means of preventing foreigners, not only really educated men from the American Colleges, but the most abominable quacks, from practising when and where they please, certainly does seem to us a little bit of a farce.

who is in the wrong, in these matters-were we to
decide at all, we should probably say that their very
great acrimony and vehemence would prove both
parties to be in the wrong. We would gladly see
these differences determined, because we are convinc-
ed that through them the public suffers,—
“Quid-quid delirant reges,
Plectuntur Achivi."

Medical men, who come to this Colony, and have It is not for us to say whether the medical men themobtained their diplomas from regular institutions in selves should attempt to determine this question, by England, Ireland and Scotland; medical men natives instituting a prosecution in the Court of Queen's Bench, of Canada, who have gone home to study and there against the first irregular practitioner they can lay hold taken their degrees, and men who have studied and of, or whether it should be left to others. We have taken their degrees in Toronto, and Montreal, have done our duty to them and the community by publishobtained their skill and their standing in their profes-ing an article which hitherto appears to have escaped sion at an immense expense and after years of hard the notice of our contemporaries. We believe this to study; is it either just or right, or expedient, that these men should not be protected from the intrusion even of educated foreigners? If so, is it not still more imperative that they be protected against quacks! We think this will be readily conceded.

be one of those questions of practical reform of an existing abuse, which is of much more importance than disquisitions on abstract questions of government :

PRACTISING AS AN APOTHECARY WITHOUT LEGAL QUALIFICATION, AN INDICTABLE OFFENCE.-The society of Apothecaries have We are aware that this is stating the case on the issued a circular, stating that, entertaining an opinion that a penal very low grounds of the mere pecuniary emolument to dispensably necessary for the protection of the public, and that check upon the practice of medicine by unqualified persons is inwhich every professional man is entitled; but the high-the pecuniary penalty imposed by the Apothecaries' Act is but ill est ground we can take up, is to point out to the people adapted for checking such practice, they have long desired a more the evils under which they labour from the practice of summary mode of proceeding against illegal practitioners. A rethese self-styled Physicians. A general paper like the cent decision of the Court of Queen's Bench, in a criminal pro. secution instituted against an attorney for practising without Courier is not the proper medium in which to discuss qualification, seemed to lead to the conclusion that notwithstandmedical cases; were it so we could detail instances ing the specific pecuniary penalty imposed upon unqualified perin which the remedies of these quacks have entailed sons practising as apothecaries, such persons might be indicted on their deluded patients the most intense sufferings, society to suggest a mode of proceeding for checking the illegal criminally as for a misdemeanor. This decision appeared to the which have often resulted in permanent ruin of the practice of medicine, which might be attended with such important constitution, loss of the faculties, and distortion of the results, that they determined to lose no time in obtaining the limbs; and many cases in which their mal-practice highest legal opinions upon the subject; they, therefore, luid a has resulted in a verv speedy loss of life, their ignor-given to the questions submitted, it is the opinion of these learned case before the law officers of the Crown, and from the answers ance and its result having been concealed from public gentlemen that an indictment will lie against a person who has view by the spade of the sexton. practised as an apothecary without legal qualification.

The following is the opinion:-1. We think that an indictment Let the article which we quote below, be carefully will lie against a person who has practised as an apothecary with. considered by the medical profession, and by those out legal qualification, notwithstanding the particular penalty imlegal authorities whose duty it is to watch over the lives posed by the 20th section of the Act, and the disability imposed by the 21st section. 2. The indictment may be preferred in any and properties of the Queen's subjects; it will be seen of the ordinary criminal courts having cognizance of misdemean that the common law of England, the criminal law,ors committed in the county, or place, in which the party has which we fortunately possess in Lower Canada, does,o illegally practised, and it may be preferred at the instance of a in the opinion of the Great Law Officers of the Crown, private prosecutor. 3. We think it is competent for the Society in England, afford to every man a remedy against as in case of other misdemeanors, would be fine or imprisonment, of Apothecaries to prefer the indictment. 4. The punishment, illegal medical practitioners. It is true that this or both, at the discretion of the court. 5. We are not aware that opinion has only been sought by one of the medical any more summary proceeding than an indictment can be resorted corporations, but that which applies to practising legal qualification.-JOHN JERVIS, DAVID DUNDAS, FREDERIC to for the punishment of persons practising as apothecaries without apothecaries, must also apply to practising surgeons ROBINSON. Temple, Nov. 23. and physicians. In Canada these distinctions do not

It is, perhaps, hardly necessary for the society to point out the

Editorial Department.--Kingston and Eastern Hospital of Upper Canada.

337

increased facilities which this mode of proceeding affords for put.
ting the law in force against unqualified practitioners. Instead of
proceeding for the recovery of penalties by a civil action, which
in the case of a country practitioner could only be tried at the
Spring and Summer Assizes, an indictment may be preferred at
the Quarter Sessions and at the Assizes also; and instead of the
power of proceeding against unqualified practitioners being re-
stricted, as in the case of the specific penalty mposed by the
statute, to the society of apothecaries, it will be competent for any
person to prefer an indictment who may be disposed to do so. An
other distinction between the two modes of proceeding, which is
likely to operate still more powerfully as a check upon illegal
practice, is this, that whereas an individual against whom a judg-
ment for a penalty is obtained, under the present form of proceed-
ing, can relieve himself from the consequences of his offence by ob.
taining his discharge under the bankrupt or insolvent acts, an in-
dividual found guilty on indictment of having practised as an
apothecary without legal qualification, will be punishable by fine
and imprisonment, and will have to undergo, whatever measure
of punishment the Criminal Court may in its discretion award.
The authorities of the Apothecaries' Hall express a hope that
a public intimation, that the penalties of the law.can now be en.
forced against illegal practitioners of medicine more summarily
than heretofore, will deter all persons from practising as apothe-
carics who have not given such evidence of their competency to
practise as the law demands. But if individuals who have not
possessed themselves of a legal qualification will persist in practis-
ing in the absence of such qualification, they will do so at the risk
of being criminally indicted for the offence at the instance of any
individual prosecutor who may be induced to prefer an indictment
against them." The Society further state their readiness to en-
force the law to the extent of the means placed at their disposal;
but those means are inadequate to the institution of frequent pro
secution. It may, therefore, be anticipated, that indictinents will
be preferred at the instance of other parties; and the Society
state" that they will endeavour to render such experience as they
may have acquired in administering the act of 1815 available in following table gives the results:-
furthering the ends of justice; and that they will be prepared,
upon proper application, to furnish any information in connexion
with the subject of illegal practice which they may have it in their
power to afford."-London Express.

cess will attend the efforts. The vertebræ are in an ex-
ceedingly fine state of preservation. The blue clay de-
posit, in which these remains have been discovered,
belongs to the post-pliocene period, and abounds in
marine shells. From the locality which we have
specified, specimens of the Tellina, Saxícava, My-
tilus, Mya, Balanus, Psammobia, and Nucula, have
been taken. The blue clay deposit has been observed
in this country as high as 500 feet above the level of the
sea; the height of the stratum from which the vertebræ
have been removed, may be safely estimated at about
100 feet above the same level. We shall keep our
readers advised of the further progress made in this inter-
esting matter.

Kingston and Eastern Hospital of Upper Canada. -We notice, in the Kingston Chronicle, an interesting accourt of a meeting, held in that city on the 15th March, of the Committee of the Hospital, at which the first annual report was read, adopted, and ordered to be published. From it we learn that the Hospital was opened in November, 1845, between which period and February 19th, 1847, 244 patients had been admitted. We have no account of the diseases, but the

Cured.....

156

Left Dissatisfied..

30

Sent to Lunatic Asylum....

1

Dismissed for Bad Conduct...
Died

10

26

Remaining in Hospital..

21

244

Three-fourths of whom were connected with the commercial.

marine of the lake.

From the successful effort thus made to establish an

Discovery of Fossil Bones.-No little interest has been excited in this city, by the discovery, lately, of some fossil bones, vertebræ, in the blue clay deposit behind Cadieux village, in the immediate neighbourhood of this city, and about a mile N. W. from the northern end of hospital, the Committee have come to the conclusion to the mountain. They were first observed by the work- found it on a firmer basis. It is accordingly promen, when excavating for clay for the purpose of mak-posed, to apply for an Act of Incorporation at the ing brick, at the depth of fifteen feet from the surface, next meeting of the Legislature, and the constitution at the side of a steep bank, at the base of which a small of the Montreal General Hospital is assumed as the rivulet takes its course. We have seen the spot, and the model or type of that of King-ton, modified according vertebræ. They are nineteen in number, gradually di- to the circumstances, and the necessities of the locality. nishing in size; the space between the ends of the We have previously expressed our opinion, on the transverse processes of the largest measuring twelve peculiar advantages which the city of Kingston preinches. When placed in continuity they measure about sents for the establishment of an institution of the four feet six inches in length, about eight of them are cau- kind. Situated at the foot of the lake navigation, on dal vertebræ; the transverse and spinous processes in these the high road of immigration to the fertile districts of being in the first instance rudimentary, and finally becom- the sister province, the necessity for such an institution. ing lost altogether. They are undoubtedly the fossil remains is so obvious, that we wonder it has never been beof a large cetaceous animal, and the discovery altoge- fore attempted. We sincerely hope that the work, now ther is replete with interest. The excavation is still going on under the direction of Mr. Logan the Geologist, and although in the mean while, nothing further has been developed, yet we can scarcely doubt that ultimate suc

commenced with the spirit manifested at the meeting, will be successfully carried to completion, and that the philanthropy of its founders will meet with its due reward, in the gratitude of those who have been par

338

Editorial Department.-Report of Montreal General Hospital.

takers of the benefits what it is calculated so well to afford. We shall be happy to record, from time to time, its progress, and its utility as exhibited in its work.

BOOKS, &c., RECEIVED DURING THE MONTH.
Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, March 3, 7, 10, 17, 24.
Medical News and Library, March.

Southern Medical and Surgical Journal, March.
The Medical Examiner, March.

Buffalo Medical Journal, March.

Employment of Sulphuric Ether Vapour in Montreal, Quebec, and Sherbrooke.-This agent has been employed in Quebec, this city, and Sherbrooke; but not with uniform success. In Quebec, Dr. James Douglass lately amputated the toes of a man, who had been previously narcotized by the inhalation of the vapour. More lately, in this city, Dr. Nelson removed a tumour from the thigh of a woman under similar circumstances of narcotism. The removal of a leg by Dr. Worthington, of Sherbrooke, was effected under a like state of insensibility from the same cause. In these three instances the successful use of the ether vapour was complete. At the Montreal General Hos- DR. CRAWFORD AND DR. MACDONNELL, Attending Physicians. pital, circumstances lately demanded the amputation Remained, of the leg of a patient. Several protracted attempts were made, and at different intervals, under Dr. Campbell, to induce the narcotic effects of the ether, but without success; the leg was afterwards removed in

New York Medical and Surgical Reporter, February, 27, March 6, 13, 20,

Illustrated Botany, Nos. 11 and 12.

The American Journal of Science and Arts, March.
The Southern Journal of Medicine and Pharinacy, March.
Missouri Medical and Surgical Journal, February.
Dublin Medical Press, February 3, 7, 10, 17, 24.
Provincial Medical and Surgical Journal, February 17, 21.
La Lancette Canadienne, March 1, 15.

Mesmerism in India, and its Practical Application in Surgery
and Medicine. By James Esdaile, M.D., Civil Assistant Sur.
geon, H.C.S. Bengal. London. 1846.
The American Journal of Dental Science, March.

the ordinary way. As the man had been of very

intemperate habits, it becomes a question how far these habits may have influenced the susceptibility of the patient to the influence of the ether.

REPORT OF THE MONTREAL GENERAL HOSPITAL
FOR JANUARY AND FEBRUARY, 1847.

Admitted,

Total treated,

Belonging to Montreal,

92 Discharged cured,
Irregular,
Died,

157

173

2

5

265 Remaining,

101

Total,

265

IN-DOOR PATIENTS.

Immigrants,
Scamen,

Total,

Males,
Females,

Total,

Abscessus,
Acne,
Ambustio,
Amenorrhea,
Anasarca,

Ohio College of Dental Surgery.-A College for teaching Dental Surgery, has been in successful operation for the last six years, in Baltimore. Last year a second, with a similar object in view, was started at Cincinnati, Ohio, under the name of the Ohio College of Dental Surgery. The medical staff comprises three Professors: one of Dental Anatomy and Bronchitis, Physiology, one of Practical Dentistry and Pharmacy, and one of Dental Pathology and Therapeutics; one Caries, Lecturer on Chemistry; and two Demonstrators, one Conjunctivitis of Anatomy, the other of Practical Dentistry. We do Constipatio, not doubt the ultimate success of the undertaking.

Fractura, Furunculus, The two first communications did not reach us until after the Gastritis, original department of the Journal was in type, and the middle Gelatio, Gonorrhoea, sheet in page form. The Journal has been, in accordance with Herpes, instructions received, sent to Drs. Morson and Barry, (Bytown), Hemorrhois, Dr. Nicol, (Perth), and Dr Purves, (Guananoque). These Hepatitis, gentlemen can be supplied with the back numbers if intimation Hysteria, be given to that effect.

DISEASES AND ACCIDENTS.

.

38

Scirrhus,

BILL OF MORTALITY for the CITY of MONTREAL, for the month euding FEBRUARY 28, 1847.

Mean. 7 A.M. 3 P.M. 10 P M. Mean 7 A.M.

+7

+5

W.

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Noon.

6 P.M.

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29.62 N. W.

29.91

29.89

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29.56 N. N. W.N. N. W.N, N. W Fair Fair
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-10.5 30.63 30.38 +16.5 29.90 30.01 30.01 S W by WS 13.5 30.34 30 33 30.33 W. "11.-30.33 30.32 30.38 30.34 N. by W. 5.-30.52 30.51 30.47 30.50 W. 0.5 30.33 30.12 30.0230 16 +11.-29.97 29.88 29.98 29.94 8.- 30.22 30.24 30.36 29.27 66 7.-30.47 30.38 30.34 | 30.40 W. "4.- 30 32 30.2839.28 30.29 N. W. N.W.byN.N. N. W. Fair 7.-30.42 30.33 30.32 30 36 NW by WN WbyWN WhyW. Fair "15.-30.14 29.82 29.39 29.78 N. E N. E. E. Fair "22 "24.5 29.18 29.13 29.14 29.15 N. N. E. S. W. W S. W. Snow Fair Fair

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