water directly or indirectly from the river, depriving the owners lower down of the natural force of the stream; so that it would be necessary to have a separate system of contract for each river. He therefore proposed to defer this portion of the Bill till next session. Where the pollution came by a channel newly created this year, it should be unlawful. He thought the county court was capable of dealing with questions as to sewage. Earl Granville thought the noble marquis had done right in giving up the attempt to pass the Bill in its present shape through both Houses of Parliament, and he suggested that before the measure was reprinted the amendments should be carefully reconsidered, in order that the passing of it by that House might not be followed, as was sometimes the case, by abandonment immediately afterwards in another place. On Monday, June 28, The Duke of Richmond moved the second reading of the Public Health Bill. He wished at the outset to divest the minds of their lordships of the idea that it professed to be a permanent settlement of sanitary legislation; it merely proposed to amend and consolidate the existing laws. It contained 340 clauses. He referred to the various Acts which had been passed relating to public health, especially referring to the confusion arising in consequence of the defective rendering of these Acts in different localities. In some districts the board of guardians was the authority for the removal of nuisances, and the vestries for sewers and the supply of water. It was also found difficult to distinguish between the functions of urban and rural sanitary authorities. The salient points of the Bill related to sewerage, drainage, scavenging, cleansing, water supply, nuisances, offensive trades, infectious diseases, and the prevention of epidemics. Part 4 related to highways, streets, buildings, public pleasure-gardens, markets, slaughterhouses, and police regulations. Part 5 related to contracts, purchase of land, by-laws, officers, and mode of conducting business; Part 6 to rating and borrowing; Part 7 to legal proceedings; and Part 8 to alteration of area and union of districts for constituting the sanitary authority. After a brief discussion, the Bill was read a second time. The Commons' amendments to the Lords' amendments of the Artisans' Dwellings Bill were considered and agreed to. In the House of Commons, on Monday, June 28, Mr. Sclater-Booth, replying to Mr. Dillwyn, said the salary of £2000 was secured to the Medical Officer of the Local Government Board by Act of Parliament, he having enjoyed that as Medical Officer to the Privy Council, and he still performed some duties there. After a short conversation the vote was agreed to. On Tuesday, June 29, The Lord Advocate, replying to Mr. Holms, said that in 1867 he introduced a Bill for the purpose of consolidating the laws relating to public health in Scotland. The Bill passed into law, and had been in operation since that time, and its working had, he believed, given very considerable satisfaction. It was, therefore, quite unnecessary to propose another Consolidation Bill. The Chancellor of the Exchequer had authorised him to introduce a Bill containing a single clause, enabling local authorities in Scotland to borrow money from the Public Works Loan Commissioners for sanitary purposes at as low a rate of interest as could be obtained by local authorities in England and Ireland. THE Hospital Sunday collection in Victoria, in April last, amounted to £5400. THE PEMBROKE TOWNSHIP, DUBLIN.-On Friday, June 25, Captain Robinson, one of the Inspectors of the Local Government Board (Ireland), held an inquiry with respect to a memorial presented to the Board by a number of the residents of Sandymount—a low-lying and populous suburb of Dublin, situated close to the sea, and in the above-named wealthy township. The memorial complained of an open sewer which received the drainage of a large district, and ran for a considerable distance beside the Kingstown Railway line, near Sydney Parade Station. Several witnesses were examined in support of the memorial, including Dr. Grimshaw, Diplomate of State Medicine, University of Dublin, who gave very strong testimony as to the nuisance and its possibly hurtful influence on health. Captain Robinson announced that the evidence would be forwarded, with his report, to the Local Government Board, who would adjudicate upon it. REPORTS OF SOCIETIES. OBSTETRICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 2. W. O. PRIESTLEY, M.D., F.R.C.P., President, in the Chair. THE following are the proceedings of this meeting, apart from the discussion on Puerperal Fever already published: The gentlemen recently admitted Fellows of the Society are-Edwin Hollings, L.R.C.P., Thomas Bailey, M.R.C.S. (Godston), R. B. Cole, M.D. (San Francisco), Robert Cory,, M.D., W. H. Drew, M.R.C.S., A. T. Gibbings, M.D., James Gray, M.D. (Glasgow), and E. M. Sheldon, M.R.C.S.. (Liverpool). Specimens of Hindoo Pelves and Foetal Heads were shown and presented to the Society by Dr. Short, of Madras. SUPPURATING TUMOUR OF LEFT OVARY. Dr. J. W. J. OSWALD related the particulars of a case where, from the rapidity of its growth, the emaciation of the patient, and lung-complication, tubercular peritonitis was supposed to exist. The patient had been under Dr. Routh's care in the Samaritan Hospital, and died suddenly about a week after her return home. Dr. ROUTH remarked that the chief point of interest was the rapidity of the growth of the tumour, which led to the supposition of its being a cancerous growth. There was. amphoric breathing over the right chest. Dr. WILLIAMS asked if any microscopic examination had been made. He had witnessed a similar case. Dr. OSWALD replied that the microscope proved it to be tuberculous. SPECIMEN OF EXTRA-UTERINE FŒTATION, IN WHICH A COMMUNICATION EXISTED BETWEEN THE CYST AND THE UTERUS. Dr. GALABIN exhibited an interesting specimen of this nature. In February, when the patient-a multipara--considered herself eight months pregnant, severe abdominal pain and hæmorrhage from the vagina occurred, the foetal movements. ceasing from this date; the breasts also enlarged. She was admitted into Guy's Hospital in May, and attempts were mad to deliver the foetus, but the patient died collapsed. At the post-mortem a greenish semi-sloughing membrane was exposed,, which formed an entire cyst, enclosing the foetus. There was a round opening from the cyst into the uterus. The PRESIDENT referred the specimen to Dr. Playfair and Dr. Williams, in conjunction with Dr. Galabin, for further investigation. INTRAMURAL CALCAREOUS TUMOUR IMPEDING LABOUR. Dr. A. WYNN WILLIAMS exhibited a specimen and related the history of the case. Dr. Kirby having called him in con-sultation to a primipara aged forty-five, craniotomy was per-formed, and, delivery being still impossible, cephalotripsy was. about to be resorted to, when the hard mass was discovered to be movable within the uterus. The cephalotribe was applied, and a portion of the mass broken off. Delivery of the body of the foetus was then effected, and subsequently the tumour, which proved to be an intramural calcareous tumour, was extracted. The patient made a good recovery. CASE OF EXTREME DROPSY: FATTY DEGENERATION AND FRIABILITY OF THE PLACENTA. Dr. JOHN BRUNTON exhibited what had been an enormous, placenta, but had unfortunately become much shrivelled up by being kept in spirits of wine. The patient, a primipara, was very stout. Labour was premature-about the sixth month; the right hand and left foot presented; the child died immediately after birth. A very large placenta was first expelled, and subsequently three other separate portions. The patient was in an advanced state of dropsy; the urine highly albuminous. She recovered perfectly. CASE OF MONSTROSITY. Dr. FREDERICK WALLACE exhibited a foetus, attached to the head of which was a large fluid tumour, supposed during labour to be hydrocephalus. One eye was wanting, and the other only rudimentary; and there was no tongue. Dr. WALLACE also exhibited an enormous uterus removed post-mortem from a patient aged fifty-five, who had been tapped over a dozen times for supposed ovarian tumour. Dr. HAYES thought the case worthy of further examination. Robert S. Cochrane, Kendal M. St. John Franks (Sch.), Thomas Carson Fisher, Nicholas John Halpin, John J. Power, John G. Lane, William H. Hart, Arthur W. W. Baker, John Russell West, Arthur H. C. Dane; Edward H. Burne and William B. Smith, equal; William Clibborn, Archibald H. Montfort, Francis G. Goodman, and Martin O'Carroll. At the examination for the degree of Master of Surgery, held on Monday and Tuesday, June 14 and 15, the following were the successful candidates : : Thomas Carson Fisher; William Lovell Hunter and Nicholas John Halpin, equal; William H. Hart, De Burgh Griffith; Alexander S. Bleakley, John J. Power, and Arthur W. W. Baker, equal; Alfred Banks, James J. Moran; George M. Nixon and Edward H. Burne, equal. Prizes and Exhibitions.-Medical Travelling Prize-Robert S. Cochrane. Surgical Travelling Prize-Thomas Carson Fisher. Senior Medical Exhibitions-Robert S. Cochrane, Thomas Carson Fisher. QUEEN'S UNIVERSITY IN IRELAND.-At a meeting of the University, held on Monday, June 21, in the Council Chamber, Dublin Castle, the Chancellor (his Grace the Duke of Leinster) conferred the following degrees and diplomas :The degree of Doctor in Medicine upon John James Adams, Belfast; William Armstrong Burges, Cork; William F. Carmody, Cork; Robert Erskine, Belfast; Robert Esler, Belfast; John Coady Flood, Galway; James J. Gorham, B.A., Galway; Henry Hamilton, B.A., Belfast; William R. Huggard, Galway; Robert Moore, M.A., Belfast; Joseph O'Sullivan, Cork; Christopher Pearson, M.A., Cork; David Robertson, Belfast. The degree of Master in Surgery upon― John J. Blackhall, M.D., Cork; Thomas Clarke, M.D., Belfast; William Davis, M.D., Galway; Gerald H. Fitzgerald, M.D., Cork; Samuel Edgar Martin, M.A., M.D., Belfast; H. Charles Wilson, M.D., Belfast; William Armstrong, Burges, Cork; William Francis Carmody, Cork; Robert Esler, Belfast: John Coady Flood, Galway; James J. Gorham, B.A., Galway; Henry Hamilton, B.A., Belfast; William R. Huggard, Galway; Robert Moore, M.A., Belfast; Joseph O'Sullivan, Cork; Christopher Pearson, M.A., Cork. The diploma in Midwifery upon— Thomas Clarke, M.D., Belfast; William Irvine Faulkiner, M.D., Belfast (in absence); Samuel Edgar Martin, M.A., M.D., Belfast; William Armstrong Burges, Cork; Robert Esler, Belfast; John Coady Flood, Galway; James J. Gorham, B.A., Galway; Henry Hamilton, B.A., Belfast; Robert Moore, M.A., Belfast; Christopher Pearson, M.A., Cork. Clifford-Eskell, Herbert Hyeman, Sandymount, Dublin. Cook, Augustus, Upper Norwood. Corbett, Joseph John Francis, South Mall, Cork. Gaddes, Thomas, Barkham-terrace, S.E. Lipscombe, John Moore, Alresford, Hants. Morris, William Graves, Winchester-street, S.W. Pearman, George Benjamin, Lincoln-street, Chelsea. Phillips, Edward James Montagu, M.R.C.S., Rodney-street, Liverpool. Robertson, James Lewis, Cheltenham. Rowney, Thomas, Hull. Stocken, James, Euston-square. Whatford, Jack Henry, Brighton. White, Charles Edward, Belgrave-road. Williams, James, Walsall. Williams, George Arthur, Cavendish-place. Woodhouse, Robert Hall, M.R.C.S.. Hanover-square. Youngman, Francis, Thornton-heath. Three candidates having failed to acquit themselves to the satisfaction of the Board, were referred to their studies for the usual period. APOTHECARIES' HALL. The following gentleman passed his examination in the Science and Practice of Medicine, and received a certificate to practise, on Thursday, June 24: Martin, John Michael Harding, St. Helen's, Lancashire. The following gentlemen also on the same day passed their primary professional examination : Dobbie, Robert John Algernon, London Hospital. NAVAL APPOINTMENTS. ADMIRALTY.-Francis H. Moor, Fleet Surgeon to the Valiant; James A. Dick, Fleet Surgeon to Haulbowline Hospital. BIRTHS. GAYTON-On June 28, at the Homerton Small-pox Hospital, the wife of W. Gayton, L.R.C.P., M.R.C.S., Medical Superintendent, of a daughter. KINGSFORD.-On June 27, at Upper Clapton, the wife of C. D. Kingsford, M.D., of a daughter. PARSONS.-On June 26, at Sunnyside, Wimbledon, the wife of T. E. Parsons, M.R.C.S. Eng., L.S.A., of a daughter. WESTCOTT.-On June 25, at Bijou Cottage, Martock, Somerset, the wife of W. W. Westcott, M.B., M.R.C.S., of a son. MARRIAGES. BURKE CRUICKSHANK.-On June 29, at St. Stephen's Church, Bayswater, John Francis Burke, C. E., of Stratford-on-Avon, to Kate Marlow, eldest daughter of the late Wm. Cruickshank, Esq., Deputy InspectorGeneral of Hospitals. ELLIOTT SOLE.-On June 23, at Christ Church, Wellington, Shropshire, the Rev. J. R. Underwood Elliott, M.A, Head Master of Gainsborough Grammar School, son of the late J. H. Elliott, Esq., of Eaton Socon, Beds, to Mary,' younger daughter of the late W. Sole, F.R.C.S., of St. Neots, Hunts. FLETCHER-CONWAY-HUGHES.-On June 24, at the British Consulate, and afterwards at Holy Trinity Church, Corfu, William Bainbrigge Fletcher, M.R.C.S. Eng., Surgeon R.N. of H.M.S. Wizard, eldest son of the Rev. William Fletcher, D.D., Rector of Minterne, Dorset, to Christine Adriana Sidney, third daughter of the Rev. J. W. ConwayHughes, M.A., Consular Chaplain of Corfu. GOODWIN-COOPER.-On June 29, at Holme parish church, Dorset, the Rev. E. H. Goodwin, South Camp, Aldershot, eldest son of the Rev. Wm. Goodwin, Killiney, co. Dublin, to Mary Mildred Troughton, second daughter of the late Wm. Cooper, M.D., Norwich. RYAN-BRABAZON.-On June 24, at St. Mary's Church, Chester, George Ryan, L.R.C.P., L.R.C.S. Edin., Surgeon 19th Regiment, to Louisa C., daughter of the late Major Colthurst Brabazon, of Wilville, co. Louth. SMITH-BAKER.-On June 22, at Ifield, Sussex, Thomas Smith, M.R.C.S., to Florence Mary, eldest daughter of the late John Baker, Esq., Russellsquare, London." DEATH. BELL, OSWALD HOME, M.D., F.R.C.S.E., Professor of Medicine University of St. Andrews, at The Scores, St. Andrews, on June 24, in his 39th year. VACANCIES. In the following list the nature of the office vacant, the qualifications required in the Candidate, the person to whom application should be made and the day of election (as far as known) are stated in succession. ADDERBURY, Oxox.-Medical Officer to the Poor. Candidates must be duly qualified. Applications, with testimonials, to Lieut.-Col. Cobbe, West Adderbury House, Banbury, on or before July 20. BOOTLE BOROUGH HOSPITAL, LIVERPOOL.-House-Surgeon. Candidates must be duly qualified and unmarried. Applications, with testimonials, to T. P. Danson, Esq., Honorary Secretary, on or before July 3. DENTAL HOSPITAL OF LONDON, LEICESTER-SQUARE.-Assistant Dental Surgeon. Candidates must hold the dental diploma of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. Applications, with testimonials, on or before July 12. EAST LONDON HOSPITAL FOR CHILDREN AND DISPENSARY FOR WOMEN, RATCLIFF CROSs, E.-Resident Medical Officer. Applications, with testimonials, to the Secretary, on or before July 15. HOSPITAL FOR SICK CHILDREN, GREAT ORMOND-STREET.-Surgeon-Dentist. Candidates must be F. or M.R.C.S. Eng. Applications, with testimonials, to the Secretary, before July 15. KILBURN DISPENSARY.-Assistant Resident Medical Officer. Candidates must be duly qualified and registered. Applications, with testimonials, to the Honorary Secretary, 33, Boundary-road, Finchley-road, N.W., on or before July 10. METROPOLITAN FREE HOSPITAL, DEVONSHIRE-SQUARE, E. -Assistant House-Surgeon. Applications to the Committee of Management. PORTSEA ISLAND UNION.-Medical Officer. Candidates must be duly qualified. Applications, with testimonials, to Mr. T. P. Mills, Clerk of the Union, 34, Lion-terrace, Portsea, before July 7. ROYAL SURREY COUNTY HOSPITAL, GUILDFORD.-House-Surgeon. Candidates must be duly qualified. Applications, with testimonials, to the Assistant-Secretary, on or before July 31. ST. GEORGE'S HOSPITAL MEDICAL SCHOOL.-Teacher of Physiological Chemistry. Applications to Dr. Wadham, at the Hospital. UNION AND PAROCHIAL MEDICAL SERVICE. •.• The area of each district is stated in acres. The population is computed according to the census of 1871. RESIGNATIONS. Bury Union. Mr. T. Batt has resigned the Radcliffe District; area 7682; population 26,598; salary £60 per annum. Chertsey Union.-Mr. Samuel M. Ward has resigned the Chobham District; area 13,746; population 3622; salary £70 per annum. Chesterfield Union.-The Whittington District is vacant; area 2946; population 7981; salary £20 per annum. Leek Union. Mr. Samuel Goddard has resigned the Norton District; area 4000; population 6897; salary £20 per annum. APPOINTMENTS. Central London Sick Asylum District.-Charles L. Wattie, B.M. & M.C. Aber, as Assistant Medical Officer and Dispenser at the Cleveland-street Asylum. Hay Union.-Thos. S. H. Hincks, B.M. & M.C. Edin., to the Workhouse. Louth Union.-Henry George, M.R.C.S. Eng., L.S.A., to the Tetney District. Saffron Walden Union.-Francis F. Welsh, M.R.C.S. Eng., L.S.A., to the Fifth District. Stourbridge Union.-Edwin Turner, M.R.C.S. Eng., L.S.A., to the First Kingswinford District. SUPERANNUATION ALLOWANCE. Holborn Union.-Mr. W. P. Cullen, who has held the office of District Medical Officer since the year 1859, has been awarded an annual allowance of £70 on retiring from office on account of bodily infirmity. CONTAGIOUS DISEASES IN NEW SOUTH WALES.Advices from New South Wales state that on April 16 last, after a warm discussion in the House of Assembly, a resolution affirming the desirability of introducing a Contagious Diseases Bill was carried. NUMBER OF MEDICAL DEGREES CONFERRED IN FRANCE. -The Minister of Public Instruction has recently published a document showing that in the seventy years 1803-73 there have been conferred 28,807 diplomas on doctors of medicine and 15,671 on officiers de santé-in all, 44,478 practitioners. HEALTH OF LONDON.-In London, last week, 1413 deaths were registered, which showed an excess on the average of 72. The death-rate was 214 per 1000, a slight increase on the two previous weeks. Two deaths occurred from small-pox, both cases unvaccinated; 25 deaths from measles; 62 from scarlet fever, being 23 beyond the average; 62 from whooping-cough; and 77 from diarrhoea, showing an increase on the latter in the past fortnight from 31 to 77, and a rise on the average, at this period of the year, of 17. DEATH OF M. DEMARQUAY.-To the great astonishment of those who knew his apparently robust frame, M. Demarquay has just died in his sixty-first year, his complaint a cancer of the stomach, which ran an unusually rapid course. Sprung from a very common origin, by indefatigable labour he worked his way to a high position, having died very rich, and holding various distinguished posts. Remembering the struggles of his own early career, he always felt the highest gratitude to those who aided him in surmounting his difficulties, and was most generous in his aid to young men exposed to similar trials. He was a complete master of the art of getting on, and well appreciated the powerful aid the press could furnish him: while one of the aids to his more recent progress has been the attachment he had formed for M. Ricord, whose alter ego he had become, serving under him in the ambulances during the sieges of Paris, accompanying him in his various excursions to this and other countries, and continually meeting him in consultation. In his public capacity he was best known as the senior surgeon of the Municipal Maison de Santé, and as a frequent contributor of interesting memoirs to the medical societies. NOTES, QUERIES, AND REPLIES. He that questioneth much shall learn much.-Bacon. Senex.-August 2, 1858. Adolphus.-Dr. Horner is the medical officer on board the Pandora in the new Arctic Expedition. He will also take upon himself all the meteorological duties of the Expedition. N. F. H.-Sir John Richardson, M.D., C.B., R.N., was last officially connected with the Haslar Hospital from 1849 to 1855, when, being passed over by the Government on the plea of age, he retired from the service, in which he had spent nearly half a century. O. N., Deptford.-Nitrogen or azote was discovered by Dr. Rutherford, of Edinburgh, and described in his "De Aëre Mephitico," published in 1772. Dr. Priestley, who termed it " phlogisticated air," also described it in the Philosophical Transactions for 1772. S. N., Chatham.-Air-beds were invented in the eighteenth century, and the hydrostatic or water-bed by Dr. Arnott in 1832. B. M.-Professor Cleland will preside over the Department of Anatomy and Physiology of the British Association at the Bristol meeting. Harry Weighton. -1. September, 1862. 2. The statue of Dr. Jenner was inaugurated at Boulogne on September 11, 1865. Antiquarian.-The comedy was called "The Husband's Relief; or the Female Bone-setter, and the Worm Doctor." Mrs. Mapp, the famous bone-setter at Epsom, attended the first performance at the Lincoln'sinn-fields Theatre. A song in her praise was sung, of which we give two verses as a specimen : "You surgeons of London, who puzzle your pates, To ride in your coaches and purchase estates, Give over for shame, for your pride has a fall, And the Doctress of Epsom has outdone you all. "Dame Nature has given her a doctor's degree, She gets all the patients and pockets the fee; So if you don't instantly prove it a cheat, She'll loll in a chariot whilst you walk the street." Hahnemann, Exeter.-What is homoeopathy? A system of doing nothing, and taking a long time to do it. M., St. Bartholomew's.-Sir James Paget, Bart., F.R.S., will be elected Cuvier, Belgravia.-The additions about to be made to the museum of the Alexander M.-"The Hunterian Medical Society" of Edinburgh was founded in 1824. Ernest Y.-The date of the eighth decennial census of the people taken throughout the kingdom was April 3, 1871. J. F. B., Folkestone.-By the Act passed on the 14th ult., 38 Vict., cap. 23, the new excise duty on vendors of patent medicines is 5s. per year. G. G., Coventry.-Dr. O'Reardon died at Killarney, March 14, 1866, aged ninety. He was first cousin to, and once the physician of, Daniel O'Connell. He was the oldest member of the Irish College of Physicians, and though he had retired from practice for some years, he continued active almost to the last. J. B. Sanderson, M.D., F.R.S. 220 330 500 3 3 0 550 20 0 0 M.W.Taylor, M.D., Penrith 2 00 H. Bullock, Esq. 5 0 W. Beamish, M.D., Cork... 2 0 0 H. Camps, Esq. 500 PrescottG.Hewett, F.R.C.S. 10 10 0 E. Ballard, M.D. 3 3 0 W.J.Harris, Esq., Worthing 2 20 R. B. Grantham, Esq. (Mem. Inst. C.E) 220 Peter Eade, M.D., Norwich 1 1 0 200 H. Jephson, M.D., J.P., Poor Student.-You will find it far better to get one for yourself. You may get a good foreign one for a few pounds. Dr. Charles Bell Taylor.-We shall be most happy to comply with your suggestion. A Subscriber.-The first society instituted for the investigation of physical science was that established at Naples in the year 1560, with the name of "Academia Secretorum Naturæ." W. N. C.-Dr. Wollaston's first contribution to the Philosophical Transactions was in June, 1797, the subject being a paper "On Gouty and Urinary Concretions." From this period until his decease he was a constant contributor to the Transactions, as well as to various scientific journals. H. T. F.-Jenner conclusively established the principles of vaccination on May 14, 1796. Gregory H.-Sir William Read, originally a tailor or a cobbler, became a quack doctor, and was knighted by Queen Anne. Queen Anne and George I. honoured Read with the care of their eyes. Dr. Radcliffe mentioned this worthy as "Read the mountebank, who has assurance enough to come to our table upstairs at Garraway's, swears he'll stake his coach and six horses, his two blacks, and as many silver trumpets, against a dinner at Pontack's." Read died at Rochester, May 24, 1715. Leo.-Sir William Snow Harris, a surgeon, residing at that time in Plymouth, was knighted in 1847 for inventing lightning-conductors for vessels of war. COMMUNICATIONS have been received from THE REGISTRAR OF APOTHECARIES' HALL, London; Mr. J. CHATTO, London; Professor HUXLEY, Edinburgh; THE REGISTRAR-GENERAL, Edinburgh; Mr. R. YOUNG, Hong-Kong; Dr. GRIMSHAW, Gravesend; OUR PARIS CORRESPONDENT; Dr. PAVY, London; Dr. C. BELL TAYLOR, Nottingham; Dr. A. INGLIS, Worcester; THE SECRETARY OF ST. THOMAS'S HOSPITAL; Dr. GRAY, London; THE SECRETARY OF THE OBSTETRICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON; Dr. WILTSHIRE, London; THE LIBRARIAN OF CHARING-CROSS HOSPITAL; THE HONORARY SECRETARY OF THE RUMSEY TESTIMONIAL FUND; Mr. C. T. CULLINGWORTH, Manchester; OUR DUBLIN CORRESPONDENT; Mr. G. BROWN, London; Mr. T. M. STONE, London; POOR STUDENT; THE SECRETARY OF THE ROYAL INSTITUTION; Mr. TAYLOR, London. BOOKS AND PAMPHLETS RECEIVED Second Supplement to Watts's Dictionary of Chemistry-Taylor on Poisons, third edition-Semple's Manual of Diseases of the Heart-Griffith's Lessons on Prescriptions and Prescribing-Ormsby on Deformities of the Human Body-The Surgeon's Pocket-Book, by Surgeon-Major Porter-Richardson's Lectures on Alcohol-Ganot's Popular Philosophy, translated and edited by Dr. E. Atkinson, second edition-The Skull and Brain and their Indications of Character, by N. Morgan. PERIODICALS AND NEWSPAPERS RECEIVEDLancet--British Medical Journal-Medical Press and Circular-NatureBerliner Klinische Wochenschrift-Centralblatt für Chirurgie-Gazette des Hôpitaux-Gazette Médicale-Gazette Hebdomadaire-Le Progrès Médical-Bulletin de l'Académie de Médecine-National Food and Fuel Reformer-Philadelphia Medical Times-Pharmaceutical JournalCentralblatt für die Medicinischen Wissenschaften--La France Médicale -Iron-Wiener Medizinische Wochenschrift-Journal des Sages-Femmes -The London Mirror-New York Druggist. APPOINTMENTS FOR THE WEEK. July 3. Saturday (this day). Operations at St. Bartholomew's, 14 p.m.; King's College, 2 p.m.; Charing cross, 2 p.m.; Royal Free, 2 p.m.; Royal London Ophthalmic, 11 a.m. Royal Westminster Ophthalmic, 1 p.m.; St. Thomas's, 9 a.m. 5. Monday. Operations at the Metropolitan Free, 2 p.m.; St. Mark's Hospital for Diseases of the Rectum, 2 p.m.; St. Peter's Hospital for Stone, 3 p.m.; Royal London Ophthalmic, 11 a.m.; Royal Westminster Ophthalmic, 1 p.m. ROYAL INSTITUTION, 2 p.m. General Monthly Meeting. 6. Tuesday. Operations at Guy's, 1 p.m.; Westminster, 2 p.m.; National Orthopedic, Great Portland-street, 2 p.m.; Royal London Ophthalmic, 11 a.m.; Royal Westminster Ophthalmic, 14 p.m.; West London, 3 p.m. 7. Wednesday. Operations at University College, 2 p.m.; St. Mary's, 11 p.m.; Middlesex, 1 p.m.; London, 2 p.m.; St. Bartholomew's, 13 p.m.; Great Northern, 2 p.m.; St. Thomas's, 14 p.m.; Samaritan, 24 p.m.; King's College (by Mr. Wood), 2 p.m.; Royal London Ophthalmic, 11 a.m.; Royal Westminster Ophthalmic, 14 p.m. OBSTETRICAL SOCIETY, 8 p.m. Some interesting Specimens will be exhibited at the beginning of the meeting, after which the Discussion on Puerperal Fever will be resumed. 8. Thursday. @perations at St. George's, 1 p.m.; Central London Ophthalmic, 1 p.m.; Royal Orthopedic, 2 p.m.; University College, 2 p.m.; Royal London Ophthalmic, 11 a.m.; Roval Westminster Ophthalmic, 14 p.m.; Hospital for Diseases of the Throat, 2 p.m.; Hospital for Women, 2 p.m. 9. Friday. Operations at Central London Ophthalmic, 2 p.m.; Royal London Ophthalmic, 11 a.m.; South London Ophthalmic, 2 p.m.; Royal Westminster Ophthalmic, 14 p.m.; St. George's (ophthalmic operations), 1 p.m. Temp. Temperature of Air of Air (Fahr.) (Cent.) Rain Fall. Estimated Population to middle of the year 1875.* (1875.) Persons to an Acre. Births Registered during Highest during Mean Daily Values. Weekly Mean of Mean Daily In Inches. In Centimetres. 0.12 0.30 0:45 1.14 0.02 0.05 3445160 45 7 2370 1413 780 445 58 6 14.78 0.08 0.20 122632 27.3 77 37 82842 11'1 53 26 82'0 43 0 55 0 14:44 196186 44.1 127 81 71-7 39 5 56 7 13 72 71718 21.1 49 27 77 9 43 8 59:4 15-22 366325 436 279 151 734 44 2 58′5 14.72 0.06 0.15 109930 34.3 70 41 75 0 445 59.8 15:45 0.00 0.00 92251 46.2 71 43 741 40 3 58:1 14.50 0.09 0.23 516063 99.1 374 242 356626 83.1 249 170 135720 26 3 110 63 73.6 42.9 56.8 13.78 0.05 0.13 87437 187 73 46 126 68 72 9 47 2 58'6) 14.78 231 126,75'0 460 59 5 15:28 ... 168305 23:3 0.02 0.05 ... 285118 13 2 0.09 0'23 237 109 82 41 117 65 157 107 432 280 64 5 44 8 55 4 13.00 176 125 74'4 40'2 56 6 13.67 112 760 440 58 8 14.89 77 78'0 410 58 1 14.50 0.00 0.00 1.22 3.10 0.51 1.30 Newcastle-on-Tyne 137665 25'6 Edinburgh... At the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, the mean reading of the barometer last week was 29 87 in. The lowest was 29 59 in. on Monday morning, and the highest 30'05 in. on Thursday morning. The figures for the English and Scottish towns are the numbers enumerated in April, 1871, raised to the middle of 1875 by the addition of four years and a quarter's increase, calculated on the rate which prevailed between 1861 and 1871. The population of Dublin is taken as stationary at the number enumerated in April, 1871. ORIGINAL LECTURES. THE HARVEIAN ORATION, 1875. By WILLIAM A. GUY, M.B., F.R.S., F.R.C.P. MORE than two centuries ago (it was some time in the month of July, 1656, nine years therefore before the Great Plague, and ten before the Great Fire of London), the old College of Physicians, at Amen Corner, was the scene of a most touching ceremony. In the library of the "noble building" which he had erected at his own cost, furnished, supplied with books, objects of curiosity, and surgical instruments, and three years previously presented to the College, William Harvey met the Fellows, his colleagues, friends, and pupils, for the last time. Bent beneath the weight of nearly fourscore years, worn by repeated attacks of a painful malady, "not only far stricken in years," but "afflicted with more and more indifferent health," conscious that his life must be drawing to a close (he died in less than a year afterwards), Harvey formally resigned the chair he had held for upwards of forty years; and, as the crowning act of many a deed of princely munificence, made over to the College his paternal estate. Harvey's object in so doing was to incite other Fellows and Members of the College to like deeds of liberality," to search and study out the secrets of nature by way of experiment," and to cultivate mutual love and affection among themselves-his means to these ends, an Oration to be delivered annually within the College. Such, in brief, is the origin of this day's ceremony,—a ceremony which, for upwards of two centuries, has been the occasion of gathering together, year by year, the élite of the medical profession, with many a worthy representative of every department of learning and literature, art and science. The appointment of the Harveian Orator rests, as is well known, with the President of our College. Were it not so, if I were a volunteer, self-chosen for the duty I have this day to perform, I should begin my address by words of self-depreciation; but these, under the circumstances, would be obviously out of place. Assuming, then, a certain undefined and wholly undefinable degree of competence, I address myself earnestly to the task of justifying the President's choice, fulfilling your reasonable expectations, and approaching, as near as my powers permit, to my own ideal of what is due to the dignity of this College, and the memory of its brightest ornament and greatest benefactor. The lapse of time and altered circumstances have, as you are aware, brought about deviations from the original design of the Harveian Oration. In lieu of the Latin tongue, once the written and spoken language of the learned, we now use our own native English, which promises some day to be to the whole world, what Latin was to the educated section of a small part of it; and, by a sort of general understanding and consent, we meet on this occasion to do honour to Harvey himself, as the man who, above and beyond all others, has "approved" himself "a benefactor to the College," and our greatest contributor "to the sum of medical science." In saying this, I think that I rightly represent your feelings and expectations; but on referring to the published orations of my predecessors, I find them grouping themselves into two equal classes, the one devoted to Harvey and his labours, the other to some topic connected with modern discovery and research. Among those who have chosen to discourse of Harvey, some (like my immediate predecessor, Dr. West) have set him before us in "his habit as he lived"; others (among whom Dr. Rolleston deserves special mention, as having made an important discovery bearing on the question of Harvey's riginality) have maintained Harvey's claim to be considered the real discoverer of the circulation; and one (I speak of my friend and former colleague, Dr. Arthur Farre), handling a subject of which he is an acknowledged master, showed us how Harvey, in his treatise on Generation, displayed the same ability as in that great discovery with which his name is more generally associated. It is with this class of Harveian Orators that I elect to asciate myself; and the more willingly, as certain physiological questions connected with the circulation were the first of a strictly scientific character which attracted my own attention VOL. II. 1875. No. 1306. Harvey entered on his work of discovery with some considerable advantages. He came of a wealthy family, and had independent means of his own, so that he could command the very best education England or Italy could give, and either purchase, or secure through royal favour, whatever he needed for purposes of experiment and illustration. And these his easy circumstances took from him all motive and temptation to a hasty or premature announcement of his views; and though (as his writings attest) he had good opportunities of experience as physician, surgeon, and accoucheur (for in Harvey's day the three faculties were united), and turned them to excellent account, he was not overwhelmed by the cares and incessant demands of practice, and was even withdrawn more than once by command of the Court from the usual duties of his profession. Harvey, in being spared the drawbacks of poverty, must have lost with them the proverbial stimulus of necessity. But happily he found, in the stirring circumstances of his times, and the example of great thinkers and discoverers (his contemporaries or immediate predecessors), that spur to exertion to which generous minds yield so ready a response. For Harvey lived in an age of excitement, political and theological, breathing an atmosphere of civil strife, a witness, and a sufferer by, one of the fiercest struggles between throne and people, between power and prescription on the one side and aggressive liberty on the other, that the world has ever seen. And this state of excitement, be it recollected, was but the carrying forward of the agitation of men's minds that had arisen out of the events of the Renaissance and the Reformation. Harvey, as I have said, had for contemporaries many great thinkers and discoverers. He might have known both Shakespeare and Milton; for he was thirty-eight years old when Shakespeare died, and thirty when Milton was born. He was well acquainted with Lord Bacon, who died when Harvey was forty-eight years of age. Lord Napier, the inventor of logarithms; Hobbes of Malmesbury, author of the "Leviathan"; Robert Boyle, Dryden, Cowley, and rare Ben Jonson, were among his contemporaries. The Marquis of Worcester was busy with his water-compelling engine, and "Century of Inventions"; Sir Hugh Myddelton was at work with the New River; John Woodall, author of "The Surgeon's Mate," was commending lemon-juice as preventive and cure of scurvy; and Sydenham (thirty-three years of age when Harvey died) was collecting materials for his immortal works, when Harvey was demonstrating the circulation of the blood. It is worthy of note that the "Novum Organon," and Harvey's great work, "De Motu Cordis et Sanguinis," appeared within a few years of each other. Need I add that Harvey, surviving the execution of his royal master and patron, died in the same year with Oliver Cromwell? As to foreign contemporaries, Harvey was only by seven years the junior of Kepler, and by fourteen of Galileo, and the senior by several years both of Descartes and of Spinoza; so that Harvey was of an age to have shared that Italian journey of Milton's, during which, as Milton tells us in his Areopagitica," "he found and visited the famous Galileo, grown old, a prisoner to the Inquisition, for thinking in astronomy otherwise than the Franciscan and Dominican licensers thought." And here I am reminded of another advantage Harvey had in dealing with his great discovery. The views he might form and promulgate were not likely to clash with the preconceived notions of those who drew their science equally with their theology from the same source-from that Bible of which the authorised version was first published when Harvey was thirty-three years of age; and which, laying hold of the minds of men by the sustained dignity of its language, its lofty poetry, its vivid and life-like narratives, and stirring them to their very depths by awful threats and precious promises, must have greatly added to the excitement and exaltation of the popular mind. 66 Harvey, then, as I have just stated, took in hand the work of discovery with some obvious advantages. And, on the other hand, he had only to contend with the obstacles which beset all such paths as he was about to tread. He would arouse that spirit of opposition and detraction which springs up quite naturally in the minds of those who, having imbibed certain views, at the cost of much study, and from the lips of men whom they hold in respect, are asked to abandon not only the views themselves, but all that, in course of time, has grown up and clustered round them. To root up these weeds and keep them under, to select and sow the better seeds, |