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BIOGRAPHY.

CHARLES TUCKER, ESQ.

DIED, lately, at Alphington, near Exeter,Charles Tucker, Esq. staff-surgeon.—Thisgentleman had collected a rich museum of

antiques ; which, among other curiosities,contained an ancient arrow-head, found byLord Byron on the plains of Marathon, andby him presented to Mr. Tucker. He had

brought from Italy many beautiful pieces ofsculpture of Canova’s workmanship. Ofthese, one was the Plateau, intended byNapoleon as a present to Maria Louisa.This consisted of a model of the Parthenon,cars of Hector and Achilles, temples of

Jupiter and Apollo, and various other ele-gant designs. Also, he had a most admira-ble museum of wax models, exhibiting agreat part of human anatomy, in a mannerso exquisitely perfect and beautiful, as to

delight the scientific by their accuracy, andthe artist by their perfection of execution.There were fancifully disposed in Mr.

Tucker’s garden, valuable antique vases,and remains of exquisitely-wrought Sarco-phagi. The hope of one day seating himselfamong these invaluable possessions, and ofcalling about him the men of talent and oftaste to enjoy them with him, had formedthe polar star of his varied life. His schemewas, however, very imperfectly realized,owing to the miscalculations of a too san-guine mind but even after curtailments hepossessed such an assemblage of objects,calculated to feed the mind and excite the

imagination, as few, even of those who de-light in such, are able to acquire. Thosewho knew IBlr. Tucker in private, have seena perfect example of what is graceful andgentlemanly in demeanour, and have feltwhat is the charm of " personal converseand wit." He was deep in information,elegant and bold in fancy, fluent and power-ful in language : illustrating his most origi-nal ideas with stores of anecdotes, which,as they were the produce of various lan-

guages, ancient and modern, were almostinexhaustible. As a practitioner, Mr.Tucker was eminently scientific ; a tho-

rough hater of humbug and mere pretension,and, as a necessary consequence, a friendand admirer of a free medical press, and 01

every thing liberal, talented, and useful.

Why, it may be asked, so much about Mr.Tucker ? Had the inquirer known him,his query had been, Why so little ? If hewas not eminent, he deserved to be so,more than four-fifths of those so esteemed :and it was to me quite intolerable, that oneso gifted should die in that silence whichbefits the death of mediocrity.

W. CLondon, Nov. 9th, 1828.

RE-PRODUCTION OF THE LENS.

HENRY DAY.

To the Editor of THE LANCET.SIR,—Some time back, seeing in your Ta.SIR,—Some time back, seeing in your va-luable Journal an account of the re-pro-duction of the crystalline lens, after beingextracted, I was led to try the experiment.The result I now send you, and, shouldyou deem it worthy a place in TuE LAX-CET, I should feel obliged by your in.

serting it.August 12, 1828, I extracted the lens of

a half-grown rabbit. On the 24th of Septem.ber, following, the animal was killed, and,occupying the position of the original lens,was found a new lens, of the general form,but of a much softer consistence. It may be

right to state, the rabbit had the faculty ofvision with the eye. I remain, yours, &c.

HENRY DAY.21st Oct. 1828.

LONDON MEDICAL SOCIETY.

November 10, 1828.

Dr. HASLAM, President, in the Chair.POINT OF ORDER-LIBERTY OF THE MEDI-

CAL PRESS—MR. AIVIESBURY’S COMPUTECURE OF A FRACTURE OF THE NECK OF

THE THIGH-BONE.

THE Minutes of the two last meetings hav-ing been lead:-The PRESIDENT said, that he did not con-

sider himself taking a part in the discus.sions of the Society, though, at the com.mencement of this evening’s business, befelt himself imperatively called upon to

rise to a point of order. The Society hadmet last week-a geneial meeting "for

receiving a report of the state of the. So-

ciety ;" no report, however, was pre-pared for the information of its members,(cries of hear, hear,) and, therefore, he hadbeen under the necessity of calling upon theofficers of the Institution, respectively, tostate what they knew of the Society’s affairs;still this was not a report. A report, hepresumed, was to be considered somethmodelivered to the Society in writing, deliver-ed to it in the most substantial form ; andlie should have apprehended, that if such areport bad been, as it ought to have been,duty made, it would have comprelseuded,first, the specific accounts of the treasurer,next the communications which the secre

tary for foreign correspondence might havehad to bring forward, and likewise whateverthe librarian might have had to disclose,

! The report not having been made, he coc-

ceived the purpose of the last meeting had! not been fulfilled, and it was for the mem-hers to act upon this suggestion, as thershould think right. (Applause.)

213

Mr. LAMBERT rose and said, the welfare,and the very existence of the Society, in hismind, depended so much on the right feel-ings of its members at large, that he hadthat eveningMr. FIELD (the Registrar) interrupted,

to inquire of Mr. Lambert, whether it wasof the ordinary business of the Society hewas about to speak ?The PRESIDENT. Sir, you are not the

proper person to ask that question.The REGISTRAR. Sir, I rise to order.The PRESIDENT. Then, Sir, sit down to

order.Mr. LAMBERT considered the objects of

which he was about to speak, importantlyconnected with the interests of the Society.He had thought that a fellow of the Societyhad, whenever he pleased, a right to speakon any subject connected with its welfare.If the Registrar, who had taken the libertyof interrupting him, trembled lest he wasabout to bring forward the subject of pub-lishing the proceedings of the Society, hebegged to inform him and the Society at

once, in the plainest terms, that that was themain topic he meant to discuss.The REGISTRAR (interrupting again).

Then you have no right to bring that for-ward. (Cries of, chair, chair.)The PRESIDENT (addressing the Regis-

trar). Sir, I request that you will besilent. 1 shall read a law to the Society,compelling you to keep more in order :" All Members shall pay implicit obedienceto the President, in the execution of hisoffice." (Hear, hear, hear.)Mr. LAMBERT. The book of laws of the

Society commenced by declaring—" Theprincipal part of our knowledge must everbe derived from comparing our own obser-vations with those of others ;" and yet therehad been, as he had understood, a base at-

tempt made to prevent the diffusion of theobservations made in this Society. Ifsuch an impression went forth to the publicof the feelings of the Society, none could bemore totally destructive to its prosperityand interests ; nor could it be stigmatisedwith any reproach too great. (Hear, hear.)He appeared that evening prepared to ad-vocate and maintain the principle of theliberty of the medical press. But for thepublication that had already gone forth ofthe proceedings of the Society, the Institu-tion, in all probability, would have long,ere now, been wrapped in its shroud ; and ithad hamed him, in no small degree, to findthat, at this period of the day, there shouldhave been this base attempt made to have" hole and corner" work established withinthe walls of that Society. (Hear, hear.) Hadlie dreamed of any such a wish ever hav-ing entered into the minds of its members,he would have scornfully rejected the cha-

racter of one of its fellows ; nor would henow continue to be associated with thosewho maintained such principles. The veryatmosphere of a society so conducted wouldchoke him, if he were to step within itsthreshold.-The REGISTRAR again rose, and attempt-

ed to interrupt.The PRESIDENT. Sir, I shall not hear

you.The REGISTRAR. I rise to order.The PRESIDENT, You have no right to

make these interruptions.The REGISTRAR. Then I call upon the

Vice President, Dr. Williams, to say,whether it is not out of order, that such astatement as this should be made in the

Society. (Hissing from various parts of theroom, and cries of chair, chair ; shame,shame !)

The PRESIDENT. Mr. Lambert, proceed,Sir, if you please.

illr.LAMBERT resumed. If the Membersof the Society were to be hampered in thismanner; if they were not to be permitted tobring forward whatever subject they pleasedbefore the Society, touching their interestas a body, he would at once take upon him-self the responsibility of calling a generalmeeting, to inquire into the necessity ofre-organising the Institution. He felt therewas a disposition, on the part of some ofthe Council. to act over the large body ofmembers upon an aristocratic principle, butwhich he never would submit to, for he ac-knowledged no aristocracy but an aris-

tocracy of talent. Mr. Wakley, the Editor ofTHE LANCET, had commissioned him to stateto the President and Society, that he had noinclination whatever to publish, nor would

lie publish, a syllable of what transpired inthe Society, unless it met with the entireapprobation of its members. He, of course,did not mean to be understood to say, thatthe Editor would pay the slightest regardto the objection of any two or three, orhalf dozen, narrow-minded members, if suchcould be found in the Society, to the pub-lishing of the reports, and who might wellfeel sore on seeing their nonsense (laughter)exhibited in print; but if the majority wish-ed for publicity, the Editor would continueto give the reports in the faithful and veryuseful manner he had done ; and lie (Mr.Lambert) there and then demanded, on be-half of the Medical Press at large, the

Society’s declaration of a peifect right toenter the room at any period the medicalreporter pleased.( The PRESIDENT observed, that he had fullpower, if supported by five of the Membersof the Council, to call a general meeting.Should Mr. Lambert- request that meetingto be called therefore, to have this subjecttaken into consideration, and should he be

214

thus supported, he would call that meetingforthwith. The circumstance, too, of gentle.men not being at liberty to introduce theirfriends at the last meeting, was one greatlyto be deprecated, inasmuch as it was directlyopposed to all existing law. The conduct ofthe last meeting was a sufficient reason forprotracting the debate of this evening.

Alr. PROCTOR objected to the term Mr.Lambert had used, " hole and corner."—" Hole and corner men" imported afactio1!—a party, and which was not to be foundin that Society. His only objection to pub-lishing the reports was, that they had not,in all instances, been fairly reported. [Thespeaker, however, on being pressed, wasunable to bring forward a single instance ofinaccuracy.]Dr. WILLIAMS, who felt second to no

man in zeal for the honour and dignity ofthe Society, really believed that the notionof there being an objection on the part ofany one individual member to the reportsbeing fairly published, was a gratuitous as-sumption, If it was an entire assumption,the discussion of this evening had beenaltogether premature. He strongly objectedto the term « hole and corner," as applica-ble to any part of the Society.Mr. WALLER observed, that the assump-

tion was not gratuitous, nor was it confinedto Mr. Lambert. lie unhesitatinaly de-clared, that he had witnessed objectionsmade to the publication of the proceedings ;and it was due to the Society, now that thesubject was brought openly and fully beforeit, for its members to come forward and

wipe off the reproach, by showing, in themost decided manner, that so far from therebeine an obiection to uublishinm the re-

ports of its proceedings, if it were (as hefirmly believed) put to the vote whether themembers would have them published or not,it would be carried by at least four to one !(Cries of hear, hear.)Mr. SALMON was an advocate for the li-

berty of the press. If a discovery, or newsubject, presented itself to his mind, bywhich he thought both the community andhimself might be benefited, about the veryfirst thing he should do would be to detailit to this Society, if he believed the medicalpress would lay hold of it.Mr. BLENK;RNE could not suppose therewas an objection on the part of the Societyto the publication of its proceedings, pro-vided they were accurately made, and hethought, not only as the only mode of secur-ing that accuracy, and also as a just remu-neration to the Registrar, he ought to beappointed to furnish the reports, and throughhim alone should they be permitted to goto the press. (Hissing, and cries of no, no.)Mr. TAUNTON said, if the subject was to

be prosecuted further, in his opinion iti

ought to go before the Council, and in all

probability they would call a general meet-ing upon it; but he really could not findthere was any solid objection to the re-

porting.A MEMBER took the liberty of saying’

that he thought the evening had been frit-tered away in discussing that which wasprivate, aud in talking nonsense, by whichmeans he bad been prevented bringing for-ward something exceedingly iratereating.The PRESIDENT was prepared to bear tes.

timony to the perfect accuracy with whichthe reports had been made in THE LANCET ;and he thought great credit was due to theEditor for coming forward, through Mr.Lambert, to make the kind and candid state-ment he had done, namely, that he was

willing either to continue or discontinuethe reports, just as the Society pleased.He (the President) thought he might nowsafely declare it to be the opinion of theSociety, that there was no objection what-ever existing to the system of reporting.

I Mr. LAMBERT said, he was sure hisfriend, Mr. Wakley, would be glad to hear,not only this declaration, but that themembers had rejected any thing in the cha-racter of " hole-and-corner-men" beingapplied to them. Mr. Blenkarne’s observa.tions only demonstrated to persons of com-mon intelligence, how ignorant he was ofthe system of reporting, or of the mannerin which editors would consent to havetheir materials brought to them. The me.dical press had done more for this Societythan any thing else possibly could havedone ; it had made it known far and wide;it had brought a great number of membersto it; and, without its continuing to no-

tice the proceedings, the majority of thosemembers would almost entirely abandonit, and he himself would never set his footwithin its walls.

Dr. STEW ART concluded the business byan amusing- suggestion. If there should be

any person found disposed to object to thepublishing’ of the reports, let the onus lie onthat individual, of calling a general meet-ing. (Laughter.)Mr. FIELD declared, he did not believe

there was any objection whatever to re-porting.Mr. WALLER observed, that this was in

direct contradiction to what had been statedon a former occasion.Mr. LAMBERT felt astonished, that a ser-

vant of the Society should be permitted tobeard the Fellows of the Institution at his

pleasure ; if he continued to do so, the

question would be, whether such servantought to be suffered to remain in cfnce anylonger. (Hear, hear!)

215

TRACTLIRE QF THE NECK OF THE THIGH BONE.

Mr. A MESBURY produced a patient, to

show that an union of a fracture of the neckof the thigh bone had been effected, in themost perfect manner, by his mode of treat-ment. He could not state exactly, whetherthe fracture, was within the capsule or not;be was inclined to think it was. It wasalmost impossible to detect the slightestlimp when the man walked. By the finestmeasurement, however, the limb could befound to be about a quarter of an inchshorter than the other. Mr. Amesburyconsented that any member should be at

liberty to put some questions to him, re-specting this case, at the next meeting, theSociety’s time having been now exhausted.

ST. THOMAS’S HOSPITAL.

CASE OF DISLOCATION OF THE FEMUR BACK-

WARDS, WHICH HAD EXISTED FIVE MONTHS,AND IN WIIICH THE REDUCTION WAS EF-

HCTED.

BENJAMIN WHITTEMBURGH, a stout IIIIIS-

cular man, was admitted, under the care of £-41r. Travers, on the 4tll of November, withdislocation of the femur on the dorsum ofthe ilium. He stated, that on the 4th ofJune last, a tree fell upon him, and he thus,received a severe injury, on account ofwhich lie sent for a practitioner, who failedto discover any thing wrong about the hip.However, at the end of six weeks, he toldthe surgeon that he was certain the bonewas displaced; to which the surgeon replied,that if it were so, it must remain, for it wastoo late to attempt reduction. At length hewas advised to go to the Hospital, after thedislocation had existed five months.When admitted, the characteristic signs

of dislocation of the hip backwards werefound to be very distinct ;-the limb wasabout two inches and a half shorter thanthe opposite. Notwithstanding the greatlength of time in which the bone had re-mained dislocated, Mr. Travers determinedon attempting reduction ; and with thisview, on Friday last, the man was put onthe table of the operating theatre, havingfirst been put in the warm bath, and bled.Extension was made in a right line with thebody, and a dose of solution of tartar emeticwas given every ten minutes. After theextension had been kept up for about halfan hour, blood was taken from the arm;and, afterwards, continuing the force stea-dily for nearly the same length of time, thebone was at length reduced.The patient passed a restless night, and

suffered much pain, but we found, on

visiting him at noon, that the bone was insilû, and he had the power of rotating thefoot outwards. But, when seen by Mr.Travers, in the afternoon, the bone had be-come displaced-there was considerable

shortening of the limb-and, in short, everysymptom as before reduction.

It is intended to attempt reduction again,and then to place the limb on a double in-clined plane.

GUY’S HOSPITAL.

IRREDUCIBLE HERNIA.

Supposed Case of Reducible Scrotatl Hernia, inwhich the Taxis, Bloodletting, Soaking,and Smoking, were employed without effect.

JAMES PAULSON, æt. 30, admitted on Sa-

turday evening, Nov. 8, at seven o’clock,-states that lie has been the subject of herniaseveral yeais, that it occasionally descend-ed, and was always reduced with facility ; butwhen lifting deals, on Friday, the gut camedown, and he was unable to return it. Heapplied to a practitioner at Camberwell,who sent him some purgative medicine,which he supposes were salts, and whichproduced many fluid evacuations. Havingmuch pain, and being unable to reduce thetumour, he applied to the Hospital. When

admitted, there was a large pyramidalswelling in the scrotum, very painful, and,apparently, containing a considerable quan-tity of fluid; the dresser applied the taxiswithout effect ; the assistant-surgeon wasthen sent for, and he directed the man to bebled to xxiv., and put in the bath, andtwenty leeches to be applied to the abdo-men ; the taxis was again had recourse tofor a considerable time, without being ableto return the intestine. Ice was directed tobe applied to the scrotum.

, Mr. Key visited the patient at ten the

following morning, and the swelling was notdiminished ; it was very tense and painful;the abdomen very tender when pressed.The taxis was again used by Mr. Key with-out benefit. On removing the bed-pan,.there was a large watery evacuation, whichMr. Key said he supposed to have been de-rived from the small intestines, and produced

by a saline purgative ; but whether abovethe seat of stricture, or not, be was unableto say. He directed the man to smokesome strong tobacco till sickness, and greatrelaxation were produced ; before he hadfinished the second pipe, he experiencedgreat nausea, and much faintness; the ab-dominal muscles were much relaxed, andMr. Key again used manipulation for some