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MEDICAL ANNOTATIONS.

pressing a clear and decided opinion that it should be checked.The whine of the mendicant, the religious adjuration of the

priest, or the flowery eloquence peculiar to the tradesman’spuff, are in their turn affected in the wording of these state-ments. We hold that they should be all alike avoided. Sick-

ness and disease have their own dignity, which should be reospected ; they have their own innate claims upon humanity,which need only to be simply stated, in order that theyshould be most deeply felt. A minute particularity in re-

citing the sufferings of those who claim relief, a poetic pathosof diction in drawing the picture of the happiness which aidwould bestow upon them, add nothing to the urgency, andlittle to the success of these appeals, while they savour somuch of the style introduced by the rival proprietors of com-

peting establishments, that they tend to lower in the estima-tion of the public the noble institutions in behalf of which they I

are penned.

MB. THOMAS DuNCOMBE, the defender and supporter of

quackery in the House of Commons, is sorely annoyed thatthe statue of the great and good JENNER should be placed in a

position of honour by the side of those of the great warriorswho shed lustre upon our country. It is humiliating indeedto find that any man, particularly a member of Parliament,should be found at this time so ignorant of the claims

of JENNER to distinction, as to utter such impotent nonsenseregarding that illustrious man. It is not only an insult to anhonourable and noble profession, but it is a gross libel uponhumanity itself. The great discovery of JENNER—a discoverywhich has thrown its beneficent influence upon every land and

in every clime-has saved more lives and prevented more suffer-

ing than all the combined agencies of war and its consequenceshave ever inflicted throughout the world. And this is the

man who is unworthy to be placed in a position of honour forthe admiration of his countrymen ! The attack upon the

memory and labours of JENNER will meet with the contemptof every friend of humanity. Tens of thousands will passthe statue daily; upon how many faces will be found the

marks of that horrid and loathsome disease which the cow-

pox has all but eradicated ? Probably, not one in a thousand.But how would it have been fifty years since ? In upwards offifty in a thousand the terrible deformity would have beenmanifest. And this proportion, large as it is, bears but a

small significance when compared with the lives that havebeen saved. Humanity will give its verdict, notwithstandingthe " Coffinism" and sneers of Mr. THOMAS DUNCOMBE.

ON the closure of the first inquiry held by Mr. GULSON, anInspector of the Poor-law Board, into certain charges of neglectof duty against Mr. SYMES, the surgeon to the BridgewaterUnion, we analyzed the evidence adduced. We came to the

conclusion which we feel confident any jury in this countrywould have arrived at. Mr. SYMES was accused of neglectingtwo patients, named SOUTHWOOD and DAVIES. It is needless

again to recapitulate the evidence. We will merely repeat ourdeliberate opinion, that the adverse decision pronounced by Mr.GULSON is not substantiated by that evidence. The Poor-lawBoard itself must have felt that it could not with proprietyinsist upon Mr. SYMES’ resignation in consequence of this in-quiry. It suspended Mr. SYMES’ dismissal, and acceded to his

demand for a further inquiry, to enable him to bring furtherevidence in refutation of the charges. The second inquiry,which was most indecently protested against by the Bridge-water guardians, was conducted by Mr. GULSON, this time

assisted by another Inspector, Mr. GRAVES. The only freshevidence was all in favour of Mr. SYMES. It is therefore need-

less to say, that if the case as developed on the first inquirysignally failed, the condemnation then pronounced against Mr.SYMES cannot be confirmed by the production of evidence whichtends still more conclusively to exonerate him. Such, however,we regret to say, is the decision arrived at. The Poor-law

Board, acting on the Report of its Inspectors, again formallycalls on Mr. SYMES to resign.

Under these circumstances, we advise Mr. SYMES to appealfor a third trial ; not this time before Poor-law Inspectors orBoards of Guardians, but before the tribunal of public opinion.The case exemplifies very strongly the imperfection of the pre-sent relations of Poor-law surgeons ; it should be immediatelybrought under the notice of Parliament.

IT will be seen by an advertisement in this day’s LANCET,that the appeal which we have made on behalf of Mrs. Roij?BLhas not been unattended with success. Never was a case

which more loudly demanded the sympathy of the profession.Dr. ROLPH fell a victim to a system of persecution as cruel asany which has ever been recorded. He was a man of singularability, of amiable manners, and a great benefactor to the

poor. In the very case which gave his enemies the oppor-

tunity of destroying him, he acted with consummate skill.

After such an instance of unjust oppression no medical practi-tioner is safe. His case may be that of any one of us to-

morrow. We cannot recall him to life, but we may defend his-

memory and solace his widow. We trust that before the sub-

scription is closed the amount will be greatly augmented. It

is gratifying to state, that two gentlemen have promised thatif ;S350 are subscribed by the end of June, each will putdown his name for =S25. The simple statement of this factis surely sufficient to ensure so desirable a result.

Medical Annotations.

A BATCH OF QUACKS.

"Ne quid uimis."

IF any man wished to particularize the most infamous acts ofvillany which can be perpetrated with impunity in this country,he would find them recorded amongst the deeds of that gangof quacks who, under the false pretence of superior medicalskill and knowledge, hide the densest ignorance, the most reck-less boldness, and the most murderous disregard for the healthand life of their victims. Mendacity is the staff of their ex-istence ; the astonishing boldness of their lies is a matter of

notoriety and wonder. One set of them preach up the virtuesand innocence of a poisonous herb, which they protest is asharmless as water, and by dint of daily repetition of the false-hood, and spite of repeated exposure, gather together de-luded creatures upon whom they occasionally commit man-slaughter. Another gang of rascals prey upon the infirmitiesand the vices of enfeebled profligates and nervous students.They boldly protest that thousands are affected with fouland debilitating diseases, from which they are wholly free;

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they describe the most ordinary and the most trifling derange-ments, which they identify with the symptoms of a wasting,"secret" malady; and thus they cast their net around the

healthy, whom they infect in body and mind. Not a daypasses but we receive in our censorial capacity some mendacioushandbill, some obscure advertisement, some foul pamphlet-the lure of a herb-doctor, a bone-setter, a venereal quack, orthe like. Were we to notice all of even the more flagrant cases,or to respond to the majority of even the more urgent appeals,we should need no other subject for our pen. The evil growsapace, and we are obliged to class together a batch of mis-demeanants. The most pressing complaints have reached usfrom several quarters of a filthy pamphlet, called " HumanFrailty," which is addressed by post to married men, and, intheir absence, falls into the hands of their wives. We havean urgent appeal from a lady into whose cab was thrown aquack pamphlet upon " Spermatorrhcea, by a " Dr. " Watson-which we have once already condemned. Public decency can-not long be thus outraged with impunity, and if Lord Camp-bell’s Act be inapplicable to such breaches of common pro-priety, it is to be hoped that the law may be armed with thenecessary powers. A man has no more right to throw a filthybook into a lady’s carriage than he would have to cart a dung-heap into her dining-room.One painful feature of depravity is becoming more than ever

prominent as this evil is developed. The testimony of Heavenis habitually called in to give additional force to the baselessvaunt, and a religious tone is given to the puff which increases Iits enormity. The religious feature is very prominent inWatson’s prolusion, and equally so in the handbills of a

" Surgeon and Bonesetter at Salford." This fellow setsforth that it is a common mistake for persons who have etheir knee or hip out of joint, to be treated for disease of thejoint, and "he would say, if you cannot be cured by thoseunder whose care you are-he will do so." His handbill iscrowded with testimonials from people who " thank God" theywere led to him. From a trial reported in the lIf anchestel’Gum-dian of April 29th, it appears that James Miller, a littleboy with disease of the hip-joint, was " led to him" in February,1857. He declared that the hip was out, and "proceeded toset the joint, as it was supposed, and used very great forcein pulling and pressing the affected limb, the child lying after-wards quite exhausted, and crying piteously. Its legs werebound together, and its mother was desired to keep them sofor ten days or a fortnight, without dressing or undressing, and

,

to suspend a two-pound weight from the ankle of the leg whichwas affected, and to keep it hanging over the edge of thechild’s bed for some length of time." The child remained inhis hands till September. An action for damages was broughtand fell to the ground because, although the treatment ap-peared to the judge to have been "clumsy and ill-judged, touse no stronger expression," it could not be proved that thechild’s life was endangered. We hope that enough has been fdone to expose the nature of this fellow’s practice. But the

·

remedy lies with the public. The judge in this case laid downsound doctrine. He said, " Much must necessarily rest withthe employer himself, who is bound to exercise ordinary cau-tion and discrimination in the choice and selection of the partyhe employe. If he chooses to go to a quack instead of a duly-qualified practitioner, and is put to prolonged and unnecessarypain, if that be all, he has himself only to thank for it. But

if a practitioner, whether he be quack or no quack, throughgross ignorance or carelessness, or want of skill, inflicts somelasting injury upon his patient, he must pay for it." Turpiadecipiunt cseeum vitia. -

POISON SHOPS.

ANOTHER victim has been added to the list of those mur- Idered by the careless sale of poisois. The circumstances are

pronounced by the local paper to be "somewhat singular"! ’

They are singular only in their unusual atrocity: in the morethan ordinarily blind ignorance of the vendor, his criminal

carelessness, and double-dyed stupidity: they are not singularin any other respect, but repeat in painful monotony the fea-tures of a dozen cases which have from time to time beenrecorded of manslaughter by unqualified vendors of poison. A

Mr. Story, according to his own statement, " took a shop atGuisborough on April 9th, which had in it a stock of groceries,draperies, and drugs. Drugs he was not thoroughly acquaintedwith, and objected to take the whole of them, but the personleaving pressed him to do so." It does not seem to haveoccurred to him that in selling over the counter deadly poisonsof various kinds, with whose appearance and properties hewas unacquainted, he incurred any species of responsibility;and he served them out in this" happy-go-lucky" " fashionwithout any catastrophe occurring until Wednesday the 28th ofApril. On that day a servant-maid, named Fanny Wilkinson,aged twenty -six, who was suffering from diarrhoea, sent to hishouse for an ounce of powdered rhubarb to mix with otherremedies. Mr. Storry supplied the girl with half an ounce-all he had-of powdered opium, supposing it to be rhubarb,although the bottle was labelled in Latin " Pulv. opii Turc opt.;"the fact being that, seeing the word " Turc," he supposed itto mean Turkish rhubarb. The girl remarked to him that thepowder was of a very dark colour for rhubarb, which he ad.mitted, apparently without it ever occuring to him that otherthings might be grown in Turkey besides rhubarb, and that hehad better be sure that it was rhubarb before selling it as such.The unfortunate patient, although not without suspicions asto the dark colour, swallowed a teaspoonful, or about thirtygrains, of the powdered opium. Of course she died the same

evening, with all the symptoms of narcotic poisoning. Some

eight or ten grains of opium were filtered from the contentsof her stomach. The ignorant and culpable vendor has beencommitted for trial on the charge of manslaughter. He con-

fessed his crime, and awaits his punishment. The one willfollow justly on the other. But we must look beyond hisoffence and its penalty. There is sore and instant need of a

statute to prohibit this indiscriminate sale of poisons. Wehave constantly raised our voice in warning; we have pressedurgently for the immediate enactment of such a bill; and havecalled for aid upon all authorities, executive and legislative.Yet it is still in abeyance; and recently, when Lord Derbyasked for an opinion upon this subject from a deputation fromthe London medical corporations, he was told that they hadnot considered the matter, and therefore could not offer any

opinion. We say that they have neglected their plain duty.They are the official guardians of the interests of the professionand of its relations to the people: it was for them to play thepart of the provident ruler who,

"like a prophet,Looks in a glass that shows what future evilsAre now, or, by remissness new conceived,Are yet in progress to be hatched and born."

But they have slept over their duty, as is their custom; andthe neglect to enforce the penalty for the careless sale of

poisons has brought about the death of a large number of per-sons who by timely interference might have been saved.

Those many had not dared to do this evilIt’ the tirst that did th’ edict infringeHad answered for his crime."

THE PNEUMATICS OF THE SEWERS.

THE great question of draining London, which is fast be-

coming one of the nightmares of our existence, is passing into anew phase of discussion. Hitherto it has been debated amongstengineers as a question of hydraulics, and the main difficultyhas been to decide on the most efficient plan for carrying offthe liquid matters ; but it has been felt lately that it is alsoone of pneumatics, and that there is little less difficulty in dis-

; posing of the gases which the sewage emits in its passage; for

487

while the liquids descend by gravitation, the gases ascend by alaw of diffusion. The engineer of the City Commissioners ofSewers has presented an elaborate and very important Reporton the subject. Dr. W. Farr, and Dr. Lankester, the health officerof St. James’s, earnestly call attention to the subject in theirrespective Reports. Dr. Barker, of Bedford, has reprinted anaccount of his clever experiments on the influence of sewagegases on the health of animals. His striking experiments fixattention upon the dangerous effects of these effluvia. Theysre such as issue from half the gully-holes in the metropolis;and if Dr. Barker’s rats and mice and dogs grew sick, restless,and diarrhceal, it is no other than happens to the two millionsof human beings who in London live " in close chambers oversewers and cesspools." Dr. Farr and Dr. Lankester both thinkthat there is an easy remedy in running up pipes at least ashigh as the c7timneys, which should discharge these gases intothe air. The engineer of the Commissioners of Sewers recom-mends a more costly system of surface ventilation. Warned

by a painful experience, we forbear to enter upon this discus-sion. The sanitary necessity for ventilation is clearly enoughproved; it is for engineers to indicate the means. It appearsto be a problem of no very great difficulty, and one involvingno very considerable expense. The Registrar-General saysboldly that nothing can be easier, and that it is an inexpensivework. It may be so to men of plain good sense. But he evi-

dently has not yet seen the alarming Report to which wealluded, where the expense and difficulty are multiplied withall the ingenuity of a professional engineer, and we take this tobe a most emphatic form of superlative.

NEW FELLOWS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY.

MEDICINE is great and glorious, not only by its own powerand fame, but also by its noble alliances. The triumphs whichhave been achieved by those who bear its titles, range overall domains of science; and we are proud to see members of

’ the profession occupying the highest positions in nearly everydepartment of natural science, and wearing the honours whichfitly accrue from their disinterested labours. Nearly all thelearned societies number medical men amongst their officersand associates. The Royal Society has frequently recognised thehigh position of medical science, and enrolled amongst itsmembers many of the most distinguished members of the pro-fession.The following gentlemen are recommended by the Counci

for election into the Society on the 3rd of June :-T. G. Bal-four, M.D.; A. B. Garrod, M.D. ; Dr. Livingstone; W. S.Savory, M.B.; T. Williams, M.D.

THE DENTAL QUESTION.A NEW proposition appears to-day in another part of our

columns, by which it is sought to effect a reconciliation betweenthe opposite views of the two parties into which the dentalprofession is split. Nothing is more difficult than to effect asatisfactory compromise between opposing factions, who reso-lutely " show their teeth"-

"Pergis pugnantia secumFrontibus adversis componere ? non ego.

But union is so desirable in the ranks of the dental profession,and we take so great an interest in the efforts which the mem-bers of that profession are now making firmly to establish ahigh standard of education and capacity, and to attain anhonourable corporate existence, that we willingly open ourcolumns to "any reasonable proposition" on the subject whichemanates from a practitioner of intelligence and respectability.

MEDICO - PARLIAMENTARY.

Saturday, May 8th.-COMMONS-In answer to Mr. Berkeley, Mr.Hardy said that hitherto no regulations had been issued as to emeteries or burial-grounds in the metropolis under the

Burial Act of last session, but that they might shortly be ex-pected.Lord Vane Tempest and Lord Elcho distinguished them-

selves by an attempt to vindicate their taste at the expenseof their patriotism in carping at the site of Jenner’s monu-ment.Lord Naas replied to a question of Mr. Monsell, that he

hoped during the session to introduce a Bill for increasing thefrequency of vaccination in Ireland. It is time that some-

thing should be done. Last year 100,000 children of the Irishpoor remained unvaccinated.

Tuesday llth,.-Lord John Manners said, in answer to Mr.

Buller, that he should not give his sanction to any scheme ofMetropolitan Drainage until the Parliamentary Committeehad reported on it. As yet the Board of Works had not pre-sented any scheme.

General Peel announced that changes were about to becarried out in the Army Medical Department which wouldchange the present system under the Director-General. Awarrant in accordance with Mr. Herbert’s Committee awaited

Treasury approval.Later in the evening, Mr. Duncombe spoke with that

flippant absurdity which characterizes the disciples of imbecilequackery, of the discovery of the Great Jenner, in movingfor correspondence with reference to his statue.

Wednesday l2th-Lord Ebrington moved a series of reso-lutions as to the Mortality in the Army, justly asserting it tobe long continued and excessive. This has been so thoroughlyproved out of doors that it was difficult to deny it. One or

two speakers attempted to show that the Guards’ mortality of20 per 1000 might, by an arithmetical juggle, be reduced onpaper to about 10 per 1000 ; but as the poor fellows are actuallydead, this logic failed to produce any effect, and the Housepassed the resolutions unanimously, to the confusion of " theauthorities" who attempted to show that they, above all men,were undeserving of censure; while, in fact, it is abundantlyclear that if they had received three times the amount of thegrants for which they asked, our soldiers would still have con-tinued to be poisoned with foul air and nauseated with boiledbeef through all future generations.

POOR-LAW MEDICAL REFORM.

A DEPUTATION waited on Mr. Sotheron Estcourt, at thePoor-law Board, on Friday the 7th instant, on the subject ofthe grievances of Poor-law medical officers. It consisted ofMr. R. Griffin, chairman of committee, Weymouth; Mr. F. J.Lord, honorary secretary; Mr. J. P. Brookes, Henley-on-Thames ; Dr. Rogers, Soho; Mr. J. G. Malone, Queenstown;Mr. W. B. Young, Reading; Mr. C. F. Sutton, Wragby; Mr.J. Luce, Swallowfield; Mr. J. Armstrong, Manchester; Dr.

West, Harpenden; Mr. S. Drew, Robertsbridge; Mr. J. R.

Hutchinson, St. Albans; Mr. G. E. Nicholas, Wandsworth;Mr. G. Lowndes, Walworth; Mr. J. Chapman, Hounslow;Mr. R. Eager, Guildford; Mr. B. Apaull, Hammersmith; Mr.A. W. Thurnall, Cambridge; Mr. F. Prince, Sawston, Cam-bridgeshire ; Mr. R. Ransome, Cambridge; Mr. L. 0. Fox,Broughton; Mr. W. K. Loveless, Stockbridge ; Dr. W. Fox;Mr. E. Nason, Nuneaton; Mr. R. Grimley, Banbury; Mr. G. P.Dunn, Ledbury; Dr. Williams, Aspley, Woburn; and Mr.

Brailey : accompanied by the following Members of Parlia-ment,-viz., Sir John R. Carnac, Mr. Bramley-Moore, Mr. AMackinnon, Mr. R. A. Slaney, Hon. Ralph Dutton, Mr. DonaldNicoll, Mr. G. S. Booth, Mr. W. Roupell, Mr. G. S. Beecroft,Mr. R. Ingham, Mr. T. S. Western, Mr. R. Campbell, Mr. P.W. Martin, Mr. W. W. Beach, Mr. F. North, Mr. F. Pigott,Mr. K. Macaulay, Mr. T. Luce, Mr. Newdegate, and Mr.Evans.