and meditation;-the framing of a code of laws which shall regulate the professional and social intercourse of physicians, thereby preventing many of those heart-burnings and jealousies which now embitter the physician's lot; the elaboration of a nomenclature of diseases to give unity and stands upon an if:—if the study of medicine develops the faculties, and prepares a practitioner for usefulness,—a position, however, which is assumed to be true. It may be observed that this blowing hot and cold in the same breath is a favourite method with gentlemen, themselves well educated, who, for whatever reasons, under ake to depreci-uniformity to medical descriptions; -the ate the value of a liberal education to a physician; and especially so when they address medical students. attempt to induce the legislatures of the several states to provide by law for that only mode of measuring the health of dis Dr. Annan notices doubtingly the recom-tricts, and of learning the local causes of mendation that courses of medical lectures disease, by means of a system of registrashould be extended to six months. While it tion; these seem scarcely to have attracted may be dangerous for schools of unfounded, attention. The notion has been too geneor no reputation, to make the proposed ral, that the Convention was "got up" as a change, those of sterling worth, and which sort of crusade against the mal-practices of offer superior instruction, will, we think, public teachers, whereas its object has been beyond all question, find it to their ultimate declared to be "the protection of the inte advantage. rests, the maintenance of the honour and Our author agrees with the Convention { respectability, the advancement of the knowin its estimate of the value of clinical in- ledge, and the extension of the usefulness" struction, but insists on the impossibility of { of the medical profession of the United imparting it in many of the schools. It States. It is earnestly to be hoped that the is respectfully submitted that a school scientific and literary committees appointed which professes to educate practitioners of} medicine, and cannot illustrate pathology with living cases, is bound either to shut its doors, or to announce that patients who employ its graduates must do so at their proper peril, regarding the title of doctor conferred by it as indicating no competency to treat disease. to report to the next meeting of the "American Medical Association," will infuse into that body a more generous and elevated idea of the medical profession than seems to be entertained by the author of the "Remarks," and by disseminating a love for scientific truth, and inspiring enthusiasm for its search, cause public medical The paper under notice concludes thus: sentiment to react upon our colleges, and Reports were also presented and adopted dissuade them from any longer dishonouring by the Convention on the registration of the American student by offering him child's marriages, births, and deaths; on the form-fare instead of that solid and nutritious food ation of the National Medical Association; which is proper for men. and on a Code of Medical Ethics. Upon these subjects there was little difference of opinion." A. S. Genesee Co. (Michigan) Medical Society. -At the annual meeting of the Genesee County Medical Society, held in the village of Flint, July 10th, 1847, the following were elected officers for the ensuing year: John W. King, President; Robt. D. Lamond, Vice President; De Laskis Miller, Secretary; and Jeremy T. Miller, Treas'r. For Censors, Geo. W. Fish, J. N. Graham, J. T. Miller, John Willett and Jos. Eastman. It argues ill for science in our country, that neither in this notice, nor in any other that we have seen of the proceedings of the Convention, does there appear the least criticism, commendatory or otherwise, of the important subjects mentioned in the last { paragraph. The hopes and anticipations which should fill every lover of the American medical profession, on the creation of a After the election of new members, the permanent national society which will here- reception of reports from different commitafter be the theatre of many a physician's tees, &c., the following resolutions were fame, and which is destined to give its mem- offered, and after free discussion, adopted bers increase of knowledge and eminence of unanimously. On motion of Dr. Miller, rank, by collecting together the now scat- Resolved, That the Secretary furnish the tered and isolated, and therefore compara-publisher of the Flint Republican with a list tively useless fruits of individual experience of the names of the members of this Society, 90 SKETCHES AND ILLUSTRATIONS OF MEDICAL QUACKERY. and request that they be published as members of the Genesee County Medical Society. Also, that the names of those, residing in this county, and calling themselves Doctors, be published as irregular practitioners. The following, offered by Dr. Graham: Resolved, That any member of this Society knowing of any one practising medicine in violation of chapter thirty-six, section thirtysix of the Revised Statute of Michigan, regulating the practice of Physic and Surgery, be required to report the same to the Secretary of this Society, that action may be taken upon it according to law. Dr. Fish moved the following: roast beef and plum-pudding than any other {nation, so do they, with a courage peculiar to themselves, bolt more drugs, mineral and vegetable, than the rest of the world beside. Indeed, make anything into a pill, and John Bull will swallow it. Verily, he hath a courageous stomach! "The British government, too, overtly aids and abets the medicinal doings of its children, who have good leave to experimentalize on their intestinal machinery, so that they pay for it. By virtue of a stamp, a man may take the safest and most legal cut from this world into the next. If, with a criminal contempt of the pill-vendor, he jumps into the Thames, or inserts his neck into a noose, what a fuss there is with the coroner, the jury, the witnesses-what reflections upon the sanity of the deceased. Now, let him make away with himself by means of pills, and he goes out of the world like a respectable man-pays government duty for his death-and there is no beadle to summon a meddling coroner, and curious jury. Hence, our advice is, to all weary of this rate-and-tax-paying world, not to bring any discredit upon themselves, by a rash ap Resolved, That in view of the efforts now making throughout the United States for the elevation of the medical profession, that the Genesee County Medical Society recommend to the Michigan State Medical Society that a convention be called, to meet at some central point in this State, said convention { to be composed of delegates from each County Medical Society in the State, to discuss subjects having an important bearing upon the profession in this State, and to appoint delegates to the American Medical Association, to convene in Baltimore in thepeal to water or rope, but to subside from month of May, 1848. Resolved, that the proceedings of this meeting be published in the Medical News, and in the State papers. The meeting then adjourned. DE LASKIS MILLER, Secretary. SKETCHES AND ILLUSTRATIONS life in a quiet, respectable manner, paying a government duty for death, and thus emulating the self-devotion of the old Roman. Dulce et decorum est pro patriâ mori! It is a sweet and gracious thing to die for the stamp-office."-Punch's Pocket Book. It clearly matters not to John, whether the pill be really suitable for his case or con OF MEDICAL QUACKERY. dition; he wastes no time about that; and, Pill-taking.-England is the place for if he did, it would be impossible for him to "pills," and Englishmen are the dupes that discover a difference between it and any swallow them! Right or wrong, let them other pill, because he could only judge from be big, little, round, oval, flat, or square, size and outward appearance; so he cuts all John Bull's stomach is always ready, and reflection short, by dropping the bolus into down they go with a merry welcome! {his stomach, where he knows, at least, that Rather a curious propensity for otherwise it will be out of sight,—and out of sight sensible people, but no less curious than true. out of mind" is an adage as old as John Let the veriest knave or idiot only set a himself. pill-machine to work-christen his little It seems quite sufficient for this unreflectglobular masses by a strange name-adver- ing man to be convinced that he has perpetise them well, as being made from an in-trated the act of swallowing a pill; and valuable and never-failing recipe, which, of course, everybody must implicitly believe, and John Bull, his wife, and all their little pill-taking pledges, will instinctively open their mouths, like unfledged rooks, and swallow away, without rhyme or reason! Englishmen are a pill-taking people. It may be their boast that, as they eat more though it may never do him any real good, because misdirected, yet it affords an inexhaustible fund of self-satisfaction. Thus he undeceives himself, day by day, while a superlative halo floats around his ethereal brain that he is preparing himself to live for ever! What a pity to undeceive this calm, contented, open-your-mouth-and-see-what God-will-send-you philosophy! - Lancet, alliance which now exists between quackery Mach 13, 1847. and the newspaper press would be broken up.] MEDICAL NEWS. DOMESTIC INTELLIGENCE. Hampden Sidney College.-Dr. JAMES L. CABELL, Prof. of Anatomy and Surgery in the University of Virginia, recently appoint Quackery and the Newspaper Press.-In Scotland the presses are beginning, in real earnest, to oppose the vile system of quack medicines, and quack advertisements. Articles have been forwarded to us from Chambers' Edinburgh Journal, the Scottish Reformer's Gazette, the Glasgow Constitutional, the Fifeshire Journal, and othered to the chair of Surgery in the Medical respectable newspapers, expressing their determined opposition to medical quackery in every shape. The Glasgow Constitutional tersely observes: "We have often been astonished that some journals, otherwise as respectable as their neighbours, should, for any trifling pecuniary advantage, place themselves in the position of socii criminis to a parcel of vagabond quacks. Department of Hampden Sidney College, Medical Department of the University of Buffalo.-At the first commencement held on the 16th June last, the degree of M. D. was conferred on 17 of the class. "We consider the insertion of quack advertisements a most dangerous imposition, and the persons who give it as little better than the more daring criminal. The quackits close the degree of M. D. and his newspaper agent are as necessary to each other, in order to dupe the unwary with complete success, as is the receiver to the thief, being all in concert; and they divide the spoil wrung from the pallid hand of poverty, disease, and death." Medical College of the State of South Carolina.-204 students attended during the session of 1846-47; of whom 74 received at Chambers' Edinburgh Journal, entering, as it does, the homes of tens of thousands in every part of the empire, can render immense service to the anti-quackery cause. In Ireland, also, the anti-quackery feeling is alive. As we stated some weeks ago, the Nation is most vigorous and determined in its reprobation of quack medicines and advertisements. Side by side with this paper we must place the Dublin General Advertiser. We are sanguine in the hope, that the press, which has so long been the stronghold of quackery, will now become an agent in its destruction. We contend that every qualified medical man should become an active propagandist of anti-quackery opinion, and above all, should endeavour to influence the public press for the suppression of the whole system.--Lancet, Feb. 27, 1347. The New York Medical and Surgical Reporter." This weekly Journal has been discontinued for want of patronage.”—New York Journ. Med. This announcement may surprise those who have read on the last number issued of that Journal the following notice: "We would take the opportunity to state that the Reporter is established on a firm basis; its circulation constantly increasing, and that it has now so large a number of subscribers, that its advertising sheet offers inducements, as good if not superior to most other medical journals, for those wishing to bring any matter before the notice of the profession of this country." FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE. Ship Fever in Canada.-This disease, which is but a malignant modification of {typhus, has carried off great numbers; and, we are sorry to add, from its remarkably contagious nature, is rapidly gaining ground in this city, Quebec, and those places along [The profession could do much to abate {the route to the upper province usually folthis monstrous evil if they would only exert lowed by the emigrants. In consequence the power they possess. Let them exert of the crowded state of the passengers on their influence in favour of those papers shipboard, aided by poor diet, want of free which refuse insertion to quack advertise- ventilation, and that total absence of perments and discountenance those which pub-sonal cleanliness, for which the pauper class lish such advertisements, and the unholy of the Irish who arrive here appear to be distinguished-numbers have perished on { (and of whom we have no record, because not entering the hospitals,) upwards of 5000 have been known to have been ill-being about one-sixth of the whole number. The medical staff at the Quarantine, and at the Emigrant Sheds in the vicinity of this city, have received additions to their numbers; but are yet insufficient to meet the exigency. The medical officers in charge are worn out the passage; while in those, whose constitutions have enabled them to weather the hardships and distress incident to protracted voyages under the circumstances mentioned, the disease rapidly develops itself after their arrival, and is characterized by the same malignity, and a nearly uniform mortality, under whatever circumstances treated.When treated early, the disease is most and harassed with their arduous and unceasusually found manageable; but if delaying labours. The mortality is appalling. takes place, even for a few days, before At the Quarantine establishment at Grosse medical assistance is called in, the cases Isle, 2796 cases, of which more than fourmost frequently turn out unfavourably. It fifths were cases of fever, have been treated is usually ushered in by a rigor, general between the 8th of May and 19th of June. malaise, and the usual concomitants of a Of this number 565 have died, being at the febrile attack; to which are superadded a rate of 1 in every 4.9 cases, or 20'4 per cent. marked prostration of nervous energy, men- At the Emigrant Hospitals, in the neightal depression, disinclination to motion, the bourhood of this city, between the 13th and tongue usually affording palpable evidence 28th of June, 1420 cases, all of fever, were of irritation or congestion of the mucous admitted-the deaths during the same period membrane of the alimentary canal, and in numbering 331, affording a greater ratio of many cases the icteroid tint of the conjunc-mortality, the rate being 1 to every 4.2 cases, tiva and skin denoting a congested state of or 23.8 per cent.-British American Journal the hepatic system, and an impairment of{ of Med. and Phys. Sci., July, 1847. its functions. Diarrhoea, dysentery, and bronchitis, are the usual complications, and in one respect the disease differs materially from the typhus which in previous years has prevailed among the emigrants, in the supervention of profuse sweats, of a non-criti-Schoenbein, physician to the Queen, and cal character, breaking out at irregular periods of the disease, and in all the cases in which we have seen it, indicating the necessity for an immediate recourse to a stimulant treatment. Petechiæ make their appearance usually about the sixth day, and are diagnostic of the severity of the disease and its type. With reference to the treatment, we have to observe that one of an active nature is to be generally avoided. So great is the nervous depression and the debility, that abstraction of blood, either local or general, can seldom be borne with impunity, even in those cases which, under ordinary circumstances, would appear most to demand it. In other respects, the treatment to be pursued is that usually employed in febrile cases, omitting every article likely to induce, or keep up, irritation of the mucous membrane; while a cautious stimulation is usually early demanded when the pulse affords signs of weakness. Up to the present moment, 32,338 emigrants have landed on our shores; and of this number, exclusive of those who have died on the passage, and are sick in this city, Quebec, and the intermediate places, Munificence of the King of Prussia for Medical Services.-The King of Prussia caused to be purchased, a few days ago, the villa of Thiergarton, occupied by Dr. then sent the doctor the purchase-deeds which bore his name as proprietor, in order to recompense the care and attention which he bestowed on her majesty during her recent illness. British and Foreign Medical Review.—It is said that this Journal will be discontinued after the publication of the number for October next. Method of administering Quinine.—An infusion of coffee is said to conceal the bitterness of quinine without impairing its medicinal virtues, and it is recommended to give the medicine in such an infusion. McGill College.-At a "Convocation" of this college on the 26th of May, nine gentlemen were admitted to the degree of Medicine and Surgery. Obituary Record.-Died, at Manchester, June 1st, aged 44 years, JOHN Walker, Esq., Surgeon to the Manchester Eye Hospital and author of the Oculist's VadeMecum. MEDICAL REFORM. Report of the Medical Department of the University of Pennsylvania for the year 1847; to the Alumni of the School. By the Medical Faculty. Philadelphia, 1847. TWENTY-FOUR PAGES. interest to the medical profession, and likely to exert no little influence over the future character of medical instruction in this country. A Convention of Physicians, representing medical bodies in almost all sections This report cannot be read by any Alum- of the Union, assembled in Philadelphia in nus of the University of Pennsylvania, who May last, to take into consideration the vaentertains proper sentiments towards his rious interests of the profession, and to adopt time-honoured alma mater, without feelings { measures calculated to sustain and elevate of pride and satisfaction. The statement its character and usefulness. It is believed which is presented of the continued pros-that, in relation to its numbers, and the perity of the school is highly gratifying, while the course which the faculty have determined to adopt with the view of raising the character of the profession by improving { the education of those who enter it, is worthy of the oldest and most respectable school in the Union. To our respected alma mater belongs the honour of being the first to carry out the recommendations of the National Medical Convention, to extend the annual course of lectures; and the disposition which some other schools have expressed to follow this example is cheering for the cause of medical progress and improvement. "Since the last annual communication of the Faculty," it is remarked in the report, an occurrence has taken place of great standing of its individual members, the late Convention has never been equalled by any assemblage of medical men upon this continent. The recommendations of such a body are entitled to the highest respect; and, though it may not be practicable to carry them immediately into full effect, yet, as they have the general good only in view, it would appear to be incumbent on all to enter into their spirit, and by cordial efforts to prepare the way for the ultimate attain. ment of their objects. The faculty recognize this obligation, and propose to act in accord{ance with it. "A prominent measure among those recommended by the Convention is the prolongation of the annual course of scholastic medical instruction to six months. The Published Monthly by LEA & BLANCHARD, Philadelphia, at One Dollar a year, and sent GRATUITOUSLY to all subscribers of the American Journal of the Medical Sciences, who remit the annual subscription, Five Dollars, in advance. See Prospectus in full on the Supplement to the Number for July. In no case will this work be sent unless the money is paid in advance. This should pay postage as one newspaper. VOL. V.-9 |