royal college of surgeons' medical school

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adverse currents. At St. Kitts she was put in strict qua-rantine, and afterwards supplied with provisions and water.It transpired that on the voyage of the vessel from Calcuttato Guadaloupe there was serious mortality from yellowfever. She had on board 670 coolie emigrants, and twenty-seven of these died. The fever also attacked the crew, andeight men succumbed, making, with the four men who diedon the passage from Guadaloupe to St. Kitts, a total mor.tality of twelve men of the crew of the unfortunate vessel.The Jorccivacr on leaving Calcutta had a crew of fifty hands,and when she reached St. Kitts they were reduced to thirty-eight. -

The Bangor Town Commissioners, at a meeting held onthe 1st inst., adopted a scheme to supply Bangor with waterat an estimated cost of jE7000. Dr. Cameron of Dublin madean analysis of the water from Conlig, where it is proposed toobtain the supply, and has stated that the water is a goodone. A sum of .63000 will also be expended in the sewerageof the town.

ABSTRACTS OF THE

INTRODUCTORY ADDRESSESDelivered at the Dublin Hospitals and Medical Schools,

Session 1880-81.

ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS’ MEDICALSCHOOL.

MR. SWANZY, speaking of ophthalmic surgery, said it wasa branch of the medical profession which required specialattention, as was evident from the census returns, whichshowed that one in every 852 of the population was blind.No branch of the profession possessed such means of exactmethods of diagnosis and treatment-in fact, it was thenearest approach to an exact science which medicine or

surgery possessed. Each step in the study of ophthalmicmedicine and surgery showed how intimate in manyinstances was the connexion of diseases of the eye withgeneral constitutional disturbance; for example, withBright’s disease of the kidney, diabetes, locomotor ataxy,&c. Like others, he recognised the fact that the studentwas over-lectured. Already the students had to bear theirold burdens in the curriculum along with some of the new,but they might look to the professors for any assistance intheir power in the removal of difficulties that beset their pro-gress. They were all aware of the unsatisfactory conditionof the army and navy medical services, and more especiallyof the Indian Medical Service. In the latter, more particu-larly since 1864, the officers had to endure insults, disap-pointments, and breaches of faith on the part of the Govern-ment which no doubt had influenced students in refrainingfrom joining that service until they had received someguarantee that they would be treated as educated gentlemenwho served a country. At present the College had underconsideration a new scheme of medical education. TheCollege was worthy of the esteem it had enjoyed, and of thelove and pride of its licentiates, and it would be so to theend of time if preserved from the dire calamity of a conjointscheme. Though that was not the place to discuss the ques-tion, yet he could not help saying that if a conjoint schemewere adopted the College would become a mere ornamentalinstitution.

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ST. VINCENT’S HOSPITAL.Dp. QUINLAN having alluded to the death of Mr. O’Leary,

said that it was impossible to over-estimate the importanceof clinical attendance in hospital, for without thoroughlystudying disease .at the bedside, they could never pursuetheir profession with safety to the public or satisfaction totheir own conscience. No amount of reading or crammingcould replace the careful personal observation in the wards,where, while so much appeals to the eye, the ear, and theother seizes, still more is hidden from ordinary casual view,and is only to be appreciated by trained perception andpatient inductive reasoning. The lecturer then referred tothe ophthalmoscope, laryngoscope, spectrum analysis, micro-scope, as aids to medical science ; but while they care-fully studied them, it would be a grievous error to rely

unduly upon them, and to neglect the careful painstakingclinical observation of disease. The physician who reliedon the former and neglected the latter was like Esop’sastronomer who fell into the pit while he walked along, hiseyes fixed upon the stars, but unobservant of the commonobjects in the path on which he walked. It was hardlynecessary to allude there to the importance of medicalchemistry, for physiology and pathology were year byyear becoming applied branches of it, and pharmaceuticalchemistry was annually adding to their armoury remediesof the most potent character. He could not refrain fromexpressing his wish that chemistry, botany, and physicscould be learned and disposed of at the preliminaryexamination, before the student entered upon his fouryears’ regular medical curriculum. There was too muchforced into the present four years’ curriculum; andwhile something was being constantly added on (as recentlyophthalmology and vaccination) nothing had been taken off.The tension was becoming too great, and the obvious remedywas the diminution of the lectures to one course in each de-partment, except anatomy and dissections, in which thereought to be two separate courses-a junior and a senior.The lectures should be changed from mere professional dis-courses to half of demonstration and a remainder of cate-chetical examination, and no student should get a certificatewho had not attended a proper proportion of the lectures,and at each satisfied his teacher as to his knowledge of theprevious one. He had tried this double system with success.In conclusion, he impressed upon them to devote themselvesfrom the very beginning to their hospital and school studies,beginning now to take so keen and deep an interest inthe furtherance of medical science and education, and by thefact that the profession was now, through its accredited re-presentatives, always consulted on questions of medicalreform by each successive Government.

MEATH HOSPITAL.

MB. HEPBURN having referred to the death of DeputySurgeon-General Joshua Henry Porter, one of the brightestornaments of the school of Irish surgery, next addressed hisobservations to those who had chosen medicine as their

profession. Every facility would be afforded them to makethe acquaintance of a practical knowledge of their professioneasy to them. He often thought of those who then held theforemost rank in the hospital, and of whom, in the retro-spect, we felt constrained to say, " There were giants inthose days." But though their Graves, their Cramptons,their Stokes, their Porters, and other worthies had passedaway-though those ancient great ones, who made so high areputation for their hospital, were gathered to their father?,the spirit which animated those great and good men, andwhich earned for them their high renown, has lived in theirsuccessors. If those mighty spirits of old could revisit thescenes of their former labours they would find an increasingbody of intelligent, diligent, and high-toned medical stu-dents. In conclusion, students were not to suppose thatidleness and dissipation were manly. There was no truemanliness except in the honest performance of duty. Whatmeant the monuments of Wellington, Nelson, and Gough,which adorned their city and park ; had they been erectedto do honour to individuals merely ? No; but in order tokeep alive in the hearts of each succeeding generation thevirtues for which those heroes were distinguished. Duty,however, and the fear of God were the guiding principles ofthose great men, and they were influenced by those princi-ples. If they, before whom life was just opening, werestimulated by the recollection of their noble deeds, he hadno fear for their success in the profession they had chosen.He had not touched upon what might be called the burningquestions of the day, which, in his opinion, were best re-served for occasions when discussion could be elicited ; hehad preferred rather to give them advice at the outset oftheir career as to how the golden opportunities presented tothem in that hospital might be best utilised.

MATER MISERICORDIÆ HOSPITAL.

11-TP. MADDEN especially directed his observations to thoseyoung men who were about to join the ranks, on the natureof the profession they had chosen, and the method by whichthey might prepare themselves for its responsibilities. Un-like other professions, medicine was cosmopolitan, and,