562

A WARNING.

ALL orders given by Subscribers to Booksellers and Newsvendors for " THE BRITISH MEDICAL DIRECTORY" shouldparticularly and fully specify the EXACT TITLE, otherwise the " QUACKS’ GuiDF," may be imposed upon them, instead ofthe orthodox Directory of the Profession.

Published at the Office of THE BRITISH MEDICAL DIRECTORY, 423, Strand, London, and sold by all Booksellersin the Kingdom.

PIU:CE: SIX SHILLINGS.

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

Medicus.-The document printed at page 560 will, we trust, satisfactorily ter-minate the contention that has so long existed at Newcastle-on-Tyne, on thesubject of the sanitary measures that were adopted at that place. Whatevermay have been the impression produced on the minds of three or four gen-tlemen, it is now amply proved that a vast majority of the practitioners ofthe town highly approved of the conduct of Dr. Gavin. It would be wrongto allow a public question of importance to be narrowed down to a merepersonal altercation, in which little else but invective would be displayed.

Enquirer.-The new-coming practitioner should call upon the older residents.Antiquary.-Yes. The notice appeared in THE LANCET of February 16th,

1827. It ran thus :-" To the Readers qftiir LANCET.-The ’Yellow Goth’ will be scarified, by

Mr. Brougham, on Monday next, the 18th instant, in the Court of Queen’sBench, Westminster."Mr. Brougham held a " general retainer" for THE LANCET from 1824 untilhe became Lord Chancellor. Our decision, therefore, is altogether in favourof E. R., whose antagonist has been wrong throughout.

Observer, (West-end.)-The paper is under consideration.Timoleon.-The article that our correspondent has described may be forwarded,and it shall receive a careful perusal; but we cannot even promise to publishany paper on such a subject.

Cosmos.-Yes, to an indictment for misdemeanour.

THE MEDICAL PROFESSION AND LIFE ASSURANCE ASSOCIATIONS.To the Editor of THE LANCET.

SIR,-If the following correspondence can be of use in exposing to theprofession "the practice" of the Law Life Assurance Society, perhaps you willgive it a corner in your journal. Your obedient servant,Newport, Isle of Wight, Dec. 1853, ERNEST P. WILKINS.

Fleet-street, London, Oct. 18th.SIR,-A proposal having been made to the Law Life Assurance Society to

effect an assurance on the life of Mr. -, and the directors having been re-ferred to you for information as to his health, I am desired to request that youwill as early as convenient favour them with answers to the several queriesannexed. I beg to inform you that any communication you may be pleasedto make will be treated by the directors as strictly confidential, and will not inany way be suffered to transpire. Should the directors not have the pleasureof hearing from you before the expiration of ten days from the present date, itwill be concluded that you decline answering, from your not considering thelife eligible for assurance. Yours, &c.,

E. P. Wilkins, Esq. W. S. DowNES, Actuary.Newport, Isle of Wight, Oct. 19th.

SIR,-Your enclosure requiring my services does not contain a fee for thesame; and as I am unaware whether you intend to send it to me, my onlyreply must be, that I consider all lives, whether good or bad, ineligible forassurance in any office that does not pay medical men for such important in-formation as your list of queries requires of them.-Yours, &c.,Mr. W. S. Downes. ERNEST P. WILKINS.

Fleet-street, London, Oct. 20th.SIR,-In reply to yours of yesterday, I beg to state that it is not our practice

to pay the fee to the medical referee of a party proposing to assure. The re-ference is made at the request and on the behalf of the assured, and it is inti-mated by a memorandum on the proposal which the assured fills up, that heis required to furnish the answers of his referees, free of expense, to thesociety. I have written by to-night’s post to the solicitor through whom theproposal was introduced, requesting -him to arrange with you as to the pay-ment of your fee. Yours, &e.,

E. P. Wilkins. W. S. DowNEs.

After this some days elapsed, when my patient came to me, and stated thatfurther delay would cause him some pecuniary loss, of which indeed I wasaware. Under these circumstances I saw his solicitor, and consented to for-ward my opinions on his life if I received my fee from the party assuring it,and not from my patient himself. The matter was thus finally arranged, andthe life assured in the above office. E. P. M.

Inquirer states that a paper was published some time since by Dr. C. Ritchieof Glasgow, "On the Physical Effects of the Habitual Use of Distillec

Spirit," and our correspondent wishes to learn when and where the papelwas published. Probably Dr. Ritchie himself will be so kind as to supply UIwith the required information.

eTustus.-If the attempt were to be made, it would not be successful.M.D., (Birmingham.)-No. The cause was tried before Lord Tenterden whiLhe was Lord Chief Justice of the King’s Bench.

A Surgeon.-We cannot recommend the book. It is an imperfect compilationand it is quite destitute of any considerable quantity of original matter.

.Dart.-It would be of some importance, provided the "fact" mentioned coulibe clearly established.

N.-Whatever may be the merits of the legal question at issue between theI Pharmaceutical Society and one of its members, it is clear that the introduc.

tion of abuse and personalities into the discussion can only tend to evil.The Council, as our correspondent observes, have, without doubt, "actedwith much forbearance in the matter." As the rule nisi will soon come onfor argument, it is not necessary to go into the question now.

’

A Surgeon in General Practice.-The Western Medical Society meets twice inthe month; the North London only once. The first holds its meetings inSloane-street; the second in Camden-town.

W. B. C.-Mr. Langston Parker’s work.A Constant Reader, (Leeds.) - The price of the BRITISH MEDICALDIRECTORY for ENGLAND, WALES, AND SCOTLAND, is SIX SHILLINGS,whereas the price of the London and Provincial Medical Directory for Eng-land, TVales, and Scotland, is TEN SHILLINGS to subscribers, andTWELVE SHILLINGS AND SIXPENCE to non-subscribers; yet theBRITISH MEDICAL DIRECTORY is infinitely the best and handsomest work ofthe two, the titles and distinctions claimed by the quacks being altogetherexcluded from its pages, and moreover one-half of the profits accruing fromits publication is to be given to Mr. PROFERT as a contribution to the fundsof the Benevolent Medical College.

A Student. - 1. At Churchill’s, the price is five e shillings, - 2. Harnett’s,Museum-street, Bloomsbury.

F.R.C.S.-Fellows of the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society resident in thecountry do not pay a yearly subscription. The entrance fee is six guineas,which is the only payment a non-medical fellow is called upon to make,except a "composition" for the Transactions. Non-resident fellows are

eligible to attend the meetings of the Society, and vote on all subjects, butthey are not elected to office.

G. B.-The case should be stated unreservedly to a respectable surgeon, whowould take the circumstances of his patient into consideration.

THE NEW CHARTER OF THE COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS.To the Editor of THE LANCET.

SIR,-I do hope that whatever may be the changes made in the Charter ofthe College of Physicians, London, sufficient time and notice will be given to =the licentiates and extra-licentiates practising in foreign countries, in orderthat they may be enabled to conform to them. Information is frequently sixmonths old before it reaches the writer, and and to your publication I am in-

debted for all I know of medical politics in Europe.’ Your obedient servant,

Dec. 1853. M.D. AND EgTRA-LICENTIATE.

Assistant-Sztrgeon.--k correspondent inquiries when Mr. Guthrie’s new work. will be furnished to the different regiments.

C. E. H. Z.-We must decline recommending any particular medical practi-tioner. There are many surgeons of eminence in the neighbourhood whereour correspondent resides, who are perfectly competent to treat the case.

Dr. Brintora’s valuable paper, on the "Treatment of Fever," shall be insertedif possible in our next impression.

A Spectator.-Who were the parties engaged in the disgraceful transaction? PIt would be well for "A Spectator" to send their names.

B. C.-The idea is not original.; COMMUNICATIONS, LETTERS, &c., have been received from - Mr. Dixon;

Dr. Statham; Mr. Acton; Dr. Maxwell Burman, (Wash-upon-Dearne;) Dr.- J. G. Atkinson, (Wakefield;) Mr. W. L. Curtis, (Filly, Yorkshire;) Dr. P.

Leonard, (Melville Hospital, Chatham;) Mr. Chadwick; Mr. Smith; AnOld Subscriber, (Liverpool;) Dr. W. E. Humble; An Assistant-Surgeon,

tR.N., of more than Three Years’ Standing; C. E. H. Z.; Mr. W. E. C.Nourse; Mr. Mansford; Mr. J. H. Jardine; Mr. H. Behrend; Dr. Kilburn

; King; Dr. E. Turley; Mr. A. L. Boyle; Chemist, (Cambridge;) Enquirer, (Bootle;) A Student; Mr. Lancy; W. G.; Dr. Murphy; Mr. Wallace;’Mr.

Arnison, (Stanhope, with enclosure;) Mr. Underwood; Dr. Gilbert, (Lux-!, gan;) Mr. Ellis; Dr. M’Dermott, (Santiaga;) Justitia; Mr. J. Carlisle,d (Stockport, with enclosure;) Miss Dence, (Hendon House, with enclosure;)r Mr. Porter, (Godshill, with enclosure;) Mr. A. L. Boyle, (West Boldon,.s with enclosure;) Rev. S. Silver, (Margate;) Captain Davis, (Cerne Abbas;)

Rev. F. Leathes, (Acle, with enclosure;) Mr. J. Vaux, (with enclosure ;)Dr. Boulton, (Horncastle, with enclosure ;) Mr. Allen, (York, with enclo-

e sure;) Mr. A. Taylor, (Ashley, with enclosure;) Mr. A. K. Maybury,(Emsworth, with enclosure;) Rev. R. Thornton, (Oxford, with enclosure;)

i, Justus; M.D., (Birmingham;) A Surgeon; A Fellow; Dart; Medicus;Antiquary; An Enemy to Quacks ; Observer; Timoleon; N.; A Constant

.d Reader, (Leeds;) A Student; Cosmos; F.R,C.S.; A Surgeon in GeneralPractice; W. B. C.; A Spectator; &c, &c.