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as is produced in other instances by the action of a special poison. The theory in this manner accounts for the origin of an epidemic disease from an impression made on the nervous system without the direct contact of poisonous matter, as well as for the after propagation of the disease by distribution of poisonous particles when that is communicated from an infected to a healthy person. It accounts equally for the production of disease and of poisonous glandular product under conditions of starvation and cold, by which the nervous tension is reduced.

Correspondence.

WHY DID HE DIE?

His

fever, puerperal fever (or the fever which occurs to women in childbed), cholera, yellow fever, ague, glanders, boil and carbuncle, infectious ophthalmia. He explained the nature of these organic poisons, the mode in which they escaped from the patient by secretions, and how these poisons might be destroyed. He then touched upon the so-called germ theory of disease." This hy pothesis, for it was false to designate it as a theory," was very old indeed. He added, There is nothing whatever, in fact, in the clinical history of plagues that connects them with the hypothesis of an origin from germs produced without the body and entering it to fertilize it and create a decomposition. The germ hypothe sis fails, however, on other ground than the clinical. If it were true that living germs possessing an independent growth and vitality enter the animal body, that every disease of a communicable kind is due to its own external living germ, and that the germs continue to multiply and increase by an independent action of their own- Messrs. Editors: Died suddenly" is to be noted in if this be indeed true, why do the germs after a certain nearly every newspaper that comes to hand, and the time cease to multiply and allow the sick person to re- term is so frequently in our mouths that it seems very cover? Why do they not go on multiplying until the important that each case should be carefully sifted, and person is infected in every part and fatally stricken? if any cause can be discovered for the enormous increase Who would get well from a disease due to living, self of sudden deaths in our midst, it should be made public propagating contagions? Again, who, if the hypothe and avoided. Death often comes suddenly from sunsis were true, would escape fertilization? A gen-stroke, lightning, gunshot wounds, during severe operaeral fertilizing diffusion of self-propagating matter tions or birth, or confinement, or in certain internal in minute, invisible form, entering the body as the hemorrhages, and that in persons previously sound; but air may enter, could hardly be expected to select a small the cases that I wish to call your attention to are of minority of a population, and if it did so at first, another class. I mean when death comes suddenly in why should it do so when it had seized upon many the midst of acute inflammatory disease. It is particenters in which it could increase? I need hardly add culiarly noticeable in pneumonia, dysentery, malarial in objecting to this germ hypothesis, because the fact is fevers, etc., and, as a rule, it is very difficult to get at admitted on all sides, that not only has no one ever seen its history. But in the now celebrated Dwight case of a germ disease, but that no one has ever traced any Binghampton we have a full and complete story from order of germination in relation to any of the com- the beginning to the end, and I should like you to trace municable diseases. When a really, living self-propa- it with me and draw your own conclusions. gating thing goes through its phases of life and action like, for example, the yeast growth, we can trace it through its cause, and during its action upon organic substances can study its effects, the changes it produces and the products of such changes." He then turned to a review of what he called the " glandular theory" of the origin of contagious diseases, and of advances he had made in support of that theory during the last ten years. The poison of hydrophobia is from the salivary secretions; of diphtheria, from the mucous glands of the throat; of scarlet fever, he believed, from the lymphatic glandular secretions; of glanders, from the mucous secretion of the nasal surface; of typhoid, from the mucous glands of the intestinal surface; and so on. A second point which had occurred to him is that the matter or particle which sets up the poisonous action, instead of being living matter, is matter actually dead, and that its effect for evil depends, in fact, upon its being dead. He meant that dead particle of organic matter in contact with living is the cause of the physical change which transforms the new particles of secretion into poisonous particles as they are brought up to the infected surface to be influenced by the infection. On the ground that the poisons were always of glandular origin, he had been led to the conclusion that under certain influences affecting glandular action the poisons may be made to originate directly through nervous im- At that time we were notified that there were suspression without necessary intervention of an infecting picious circumstances in the case. Some of our insurparticle. In many epidemics it is common to see a ance friends held that Dwight had falsified in his applinumber of examples of the prevailing disease, the origin cation, and that in reality he was an impaired risk, and of which is traceable to only fear or anxiety. We further, that he was endeavoring to kill himself by call these," the speaker said, nervous cases, and we swimming across a river with his clothes on, and in other try to define them as such and as distinct from cases ways. We didn't believe it, but it was our duty to look due to contagion of a direct kind. But the symptoms after it, and we at once sent our special agent, Mr. W. are the same as those which follow actual contagion, H. Smith, of Albany, directing him to probe the matter and in epidemics of cholera they take even a fatal char- to the bottom, but to be careful not to traverse decency acter. My theory explains fully the reason of tais. It in so doing. He went, and found the town in a state of indicates that an extreme nervous impression acts on excitement. Insurance agents were there by the dozen the glandular nervous supply, paralyzes the glandular endeavoring to get back their policies, and creating a function, and thereupon produces the same phenomena state of mind in the Dwight bedchamber that can hardly

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Colonel Walton Dwight, of Binghampton, died suddenly November 15th, 1878, at eleven o'clock. life was very heavily insured in a number of companies, and it became a matter of great importance to ascertain the cause of his death. Among the companies insuring him for a large sum was the New York Equitable, and in an interview with the New York Herald reporter May 7th, 1879, the President of that company gives the public the story of the condition of the patient November 13th, 1878:

"It's a mistake to suppose that Colonel Dwight came to us for his insurance. On the contrary, we went to him. You know what life insurance agents are. Well, our Binghampton agent pressed Colonel Dwight to apply for a heavy line of insurance, and when he consented we were notified that he would take $40,000. We held off at first-not that we were averse to the business, but because it was a large risk, and we of necessity hesitated. We sent to Chicago to get the facts of his earlier life, and then we asked him to come personally to our office. He came, and our examiners were entirely satisfied. He was a peculiar man-most men are. But, to make a long story short, we were content and so was he. Everything went along smoothly until a fortnight before his death."

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And then?"

62

He went to work be considered a help to the sick. cautiously, but seriously and judiciously, and satisfied himself that the patient was really a very sick man, but not necessarily a dying man.

THE DEATH-BED INTERVIEW.

"Mr. Smith was convinced, however, that seeing would be believing, and set to work to have a talk with the man himself. Being an insurance agent, he of course succeeded, and in his report of November 13, 1878, said: This afternoon I called to see Colonel Dwight by arrangement. He looks remarkably well for a sick man-bright, cheerful and hopeful; is a very fine looking, large man, without the slightest appearance of dissipation about him. He began by giving me his history as a business man, his manner of life, etc., and denied indignantly that he had ever by any act or habit given any ground for a suspicion even that he was careless of his life. He laughed heartily at the idea of having swam across the river with his clothes on, and on the spitting of blood charge said that in applying for insurance, he had frankly and truthfully told the examining physician when, where and how he had spit blood. He says his lungs are perfectly sound; that he never spit blood from them in his life; that Dr. Porter; of Albany, had recently examined him thoroughly, and He said was fully satisfied that he is a first-class risk. he had always used wine at his table, but was not a freHe laughingly said that he quenter of bar-rooms. always bored with a big auger: made a great deal of money and lost a great deal; lived at the rate of $1,000 a month, and took insurance in an amount that represented his idea of the value of his brains and hands to his family. Continuing his talk with the insurance agent, the dying man further said that if he couldn't pay his premiums, his wife could, as her father was rich, but that he hoped himself to be out in a few days to fight the companies that had insured him and now wanted to take back their policies because he was sick. Colonel Dwight give further evidence of his faith in himself by saying that a heavy contract, promising large profits, was uncompleted, simply because he was sick, but that he expected to sign it when he got out, make a great deal of money, and drop his life insurance. He defied the contesting companies to show that he ever misrepresented his case, and announced his intention to maintain his legal rights and his determination not to be bulldozed. When,' said he 'they get through skinning their cat, they won't get as much meat as they seem to think.' Mr. Smith concluded his report as follows: He was apparently very frank, looked me straight in the face, and if he is a rascal, is one of the best counterfeits of a straightforward, outspoken man I ever saw. The impression made on me by his manner, his statements, and appearance every way was very favorable. I think that the conduct of some parties who have been here in the interest of other companies is scandalous in the extreme.

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What did you do then ?"

"Well, we waited, and then on receipt of another letter from Mr. Smith, the company directed the agent to say that we would receive the premium then about due.

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Smith," continued Mr. Alexander, "was delighted. He came back to the city, and was in the act of describing his interview with Colonel Dwight on his sick-bed and predicting the row he would make when he recovered, when the door opened and one of our agents came in to say Colonel Dwight is just dead.' We were at once confronted by two duties-the first was to keep faith with our policy-holders and pay the $40,000, the second to protect the society and see that it was not imposed upon. We at once asked our doctors, Who is the medical authority here that will give us the best and most honest judgment?' They replied, Dr. Delafield.' Already the other companies were at work. Some of We were honthem were determined to prove suicide. estly anxious to know the facts. If the man had com

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mitted suicide, it was our duty not to pay the insurance, as it was our duty to pay it if it was a natural death. Dr. Delafield went up and took charge of the autopsy. His report the Herald has published. Suffice it that he ridiculed the idea of strangulation, and came back perfectly satisfied of the naturalness of the death. One of Dwight's curious requests was that a post-mortem ex

amination should be made.'

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"Did you pay on receiving Dr. Delafield's report ?" We obtained Dwight's entrails and thought of havYou see, ing Professor Chandler examine them, but he charged $1,000, and there really was no need of it. Dr. Swinburn was present with the others, and he coinWe gencided with the autopsy made and the report. erally pass twenty claims at a meeting of the Board, but to the consideration of this one we gave an entire session, and finally concluded to pay it at once and in full." And you did it ?"

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And we did it."

"Have you any sympathy with the present investigation ?"

"As a matter of policy, no. Having accepted the premiums, and having carefully investigated the whole matter just prior to Dwight's death, with what face could we stultify ourselves by pretending that we feared

fraud?"

"Not a thing.

"Then you don't believe they will discover anything?" You will find that the companies will in the end be compelled to do precisely what the Equitable did in the beginning.

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The paper containing this interview also contained the evidence given by the nurse, the attending physician and the sister of Mrs. Dwight, who was present at the deathbed.

The first witness to-day was H. E. C. Germans, who testified that he had business relations with Mr. Dwight and he was with him the night before his death, and he sat up with him two nights; he was there until noon of the day he died, when the Colonel complained of prostration, and he was bathed in bay rum and brandy; he vomited once or twice through each night and slept but little; witness had talked with Colonel Dwight about his business on the day of his death, and he seemed to realize his condition of weakness; he was never present when deceased had one of those alleged chills; during this prostration he did not observe that the face of pinched;" his pulse Colonel Dwight was pallid or seemed slow and weak; his general position in bed was Testimony of Dr. Burr, Jr., attending physician: upon his back, with his head high up on the pillows.

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At a quarter past eight on the night of Dwight's death he gave him three-quarters of a grain of morphine, and at a quarter past nine a hypodermic injection of morphine; 1. seemed quiet and natural at that time.

Mrs. Ruth Owens, the sister of Mrs. Dwight, was then called, and testified that she was in an adjoining room with Mrs. Dwight on the night of the Colonel's death; at eleven P. M. they were aroused by a loud rap on the door; it was a very earnest knock; Mrs. Dwight went out first, about five minutes before witness found Mr. Spaulding in the room giving him brandy; supposed he was alive at that time; they were giving him stimulants, and Mrs. Dwight said he was swallowing them; the expression of his face was pale and the eyes were partly closed; did not notice that his tongue was out of his mouth; witness had a conversation with the Colonel during the afternoon of the day of his death; he said if he had another chill he was afraid he would die; did not observe anything of a cord or twine about him. It is only necessary to add that the autopsy failed to discover any cause of death, and so—

1. Dr. Delafield gave it as his opinion that Colonel Dwight died of paralysis of the heart.

2. The two Drs. Burr, regular physicians of the deceased, testified that he died of a congestive chill. 3. Drs. Swinburne, Sherman and Bridges account for

his death by strangulation, believing that he hanged Dr. Watson. I say proper resolutions, undoubtedly inhimself on the headboard of his bedstead.

Why did he die?

"

Το

tended so to be. But if my friend had carefully considered those resolutions before offering them, &c., &c., If he died of paralysis of the heart, is it possible that the society would have been saved the disgrace of havthe three-quarters of a grain of morphia given at quartering printed in bold type in its annual transactions past eight and the hypodermic injection of morphia at speeches intemperate in tone, untruthful in substance, quarter past nine had anything to do with the cause of speeches containing statements which, if true, would death at eleven with " vomiting and fatal collapse ?" brand all connected with that college with shame." If he died of congestive chills, is it not singular that this I reply that it might very much more properly be the nurse who was with him for two nights previous to the subject of surprise, that there was no person on this his death did not see him in one? And if he died of last occasion who would venture to protest against the strangulation, is it not singular that they did not find flippant insolence and impertinence with which the the post and the rope? members of the society and their acts were characterized and assailed by this very erudite and distinguished professor, dean, registrar, &c., &c.

The verdict of the Coroner's jury was: "We do find that the said Walton Dwight came to his death at the Spaulding House, in the city of Binghamton, on the 15th day of November, 1878, from exhaustion of the vital powers produced by protracted vomiting, malnutrition and the enervating effects of malarial poison, terminating in fatal collapse; and furthermore we find that the said Walton Dwight did not come to his death from suicidal or homicidal

causes.

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In the light of this simple statement of facts, what will be the verdict of the medical profession and the public at large remains to be seen.

S.

Messrs. Editors: In the May number of your valuable journal, I observe a report of the transactions of the Homœopathic Medical Society of the State of New York, in which my name is made to figure most conspicuously and most unexpectedly to myself. I quote. Prof. Dowling spoke as follows:

"Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: I hold in my hand what purports to be a copy of the transactions of the Homœopathic Medical Society of the State of New York for the year 1878. For the first time, two days ago, I took up this book for careful perusal, and as I read my blood boiled with indignation.

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I propose, Messrs. Editors, to reply to the statements made by the very erudite and distinguished Professor, Dean, &c., &c., seriatum, and, in order to economize your valuable space, as succinctly as possible.

Again. "Nearly ten years ago, owing to certain supposed irregularities, owing to misunderstandings and a lack of harmony between the members of the Faculty, the Board of Trustees, who have the power to appoint and remove incumbents of the various chairs, in virtue of their authority, declared all the chairs in the college vacant, and proceeded to re-organize the Faculty. Among others, an invitation was extended to Dr. Carmichael, who was tendered by the Board of Trustees the Chair of Anatomy in the new Faculty. A letter was re ceived from Dr. Carmichael declining the offer, and stating as his reason for declining that the New York Homœopathic Medical College, as re-organized, had no legal existence, &c., &c." In this matter, to the best of my recollection, the facts are simply these: There were no misunderstandings, irregularities, or lack of harmony among the members of the Faculty at that time, but on the contrary a most pronounced and unmistakable unity of sentiment respecting the unwarrantable outrage by which, without warning, the members constituting the Faculty were dispossessed of their seats, and the college turned over to a truculent and uncompromising usurpation. I declined the offer of the Chair of Anatomy spoken of by the very erudite and distinguished professor, dean, &c., &c., because I have always, from my earliest life, been impelled by an honorable sense of the relations of life and the circumstances which call for the exercise of duty and obligation. My duty held me to the interests of those with whom I was then associated, And, first, as regards the blood-boiling attack to which and hence my declination of the position offered. Í the very erudite and distinguished professor, &c., &c., then, at the request of my colleagues, wrote and pubwas so painfully subjected. Blood boiling attacks are lished a paper exposing and denouncing what I believed generally supposed to be sudden aud evanescent, and in- to be an outrage and an usurpation. At a subsequent asmuch as the exciting cause seems to have been occa period, having had ocular evidence, through the kindsioned by what occurred twelve months previous to the ness of Dr. Carroll Dunham, that there were just invasion by which the very erudite and distinguished grounds for the suspicion that irregularities had been professor, &c., &c., was assailed, it may be reckoned committed in the administration of the then college, I among those affections which are known to the profes-lost no time in writing and publishing a recantation of sion as cumulative, remaining dormant in the system the paper already written and published under a misin order to undergo the process called incubation, apprehension of facts, and freely acknowledged the and suddenly to explode, and overwhelm the victim error into which I had been unwittingly led. That by their detonating and destructive force. 'Tis true, paper will be remembered by the profession. Again that in this instance, the very erudite and distinguished. The chair of anatomy was now vacant, and two years professor, &c., declared that two days only were suffi had elapsed-time has a tendency to heal breaches cient to develop the untoward effects before mentioned, Again Dr. Carmichael was approached on the subject of We offered him the position but I shall endeavor to show that, from my knowledge lecturing in our college. and experience of the very erudite and distinguished of lecturer on anatomy, with the title of professor, agreeprofessor, one of the most prominent characteristics ing to give him, should he accept, $500 for his winter's attaching to him is a remarkable facility of memory, or service," etc., etc. The prompt recantation of my error perhaps, elision of that faculty, whereby antecedent as above stated, will show whether I had an indisposi Occurrences are, we may charitably suppose, forgotten, tion "to heal breaches" or not, and I accepted the right and antecedent declarations ignored and denied, or else of the Board of Trustees to reorganize the college upon nature, in her otherwise bounteous affluence in his a new basis. As stated by the erudite and distinguished mental organization, may have denied him the develop- professor, I was approached again upon the subject of ment of the cerebral convolution wherein memory is lecturing in the college; and I well remember the day supposed to hold her seat. when in his office, and utterly subdued by his august Again I quote: "I regret and can but express sur- presence, the proffer of the chair of anatomy was made, prise, that, in a great medical society like this, there was and, after appealing to my sympathy for the then rather not a person present who would venture to offer a pro-impecunious condition of the college, enforced by the test against the one-sided intemperate speeches made in suave and tender impressiveness which we have all so advocating certain perfectly proper resolutions offered often seen as the one special attribute of the very by my friend of years gone by, my friend of to-day, erudite and distinguished professor; for who that has

ever seen him upon the platform, or at a fair, or as one of, if not the most prominent object in a dramatic impersonation for some so-called charitable purpose, in which he could air his pretensions when, "though he made the unskillful laugh, could not but make the judicious grieve," I say, who that has ever seen him thus, but will echo with the immortal bard :

"But man, proud man, drest in a little brief authority, Most ignorant of what he's most assur'd;

His glassy essence, like an angry ape,

Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven
As make angels weep."

to receive this amount annually, notwithstanding the fact that no member of the governing faculty had received a dollar. I mention these facts in regard to these paid lecturers to show you their relationship to the college," etc., etc. Why was my salary raised to $900? Not because of any sense of shame in the conscience of the very honorable, erudite and distinguished professor, &c., &c., that I was undergoing excessive labor which involved not only the daily duty in the lecture room, but also instructions in the dissecting room, and over the cadaver instruction, comprising the application of anatomy to physiology, pathology, surgery, and indeed everything To return to the interview; and here I would signalize der my tuition until 10 or 11 o'clock at night. I say not that I could possibly present for the benefit of those unanother instance of the imperfect working of the afore- because of these, but because of a feeling of kindness said cerebral convolution, the home of memory. He states that he offered me $500. My cerebral convolution and sympathy in a friendly heart, which felt the justice I continued to serve at this rate bestands me in better stead, and I distinctly remember of it and urged it. that $400 was the sum named on this cccasion. I ven cause of the old story of impecuniosity, not the only tured meekly and tremblingly, for I am free to say that story to be told, as the sequel will show, though I made I was desirous of obtaining the position, in order to application for another increase, to which I thought my renew the lectures in which I have always been much work justly entitled. Now mark the sequel. I received interested, to protest against the inadequacy of the a note one fine morning from Prof. Lilienthal, who was amount when the labor and toil incident to the chair appointed to confer with me, stating that because of were considered. Again was the chord of sympathy complaint among the Faculty that I was in receipt of within me made to vibrate by the suave and tender tones more money than any of them, it was resolved to request of his matchless and mellifluous eloquence. I still re-my acceptance of a pro rata distribution, sharing alike with the others. Now there arose in "my prophetic sisted the soothing influence, when, in a moment of forgetfulness of his syren song of the impecunious and soul" the suspicion that this was but a subterfuge to conuncertain condition of the college, and only recalling ceal a deeper design, which was that if I rejected the the value attaching to his own personality, in which pro rata distribution-which, when considering my arwere embodied dean, professor, and all his other dis- duous duties, I was at first impelled to do-the purpose tinguished belongings and credentials, he arose from his was to supplant me whether I rejected it or not. Before chair, and with graceful and lordly stride the apartment my response to Prof. L.'s communication was received wherein we sat was measured and an ample opportunity by the Faculty, in which I accepted the proposition made, given for the display of his imposing and majestic pro-ceived and considered, my successor was appointed. and which common courtesy demanded should be reportions

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The glass of fashion and the mould of form,
The observed of all observers."

-And thus he hastened to deliver himself to the culprit
waiting upon the fiat that should pronounce his doom.
"You ask for more compensation, but, doctor, you
know I must keep my carriage.' At first, no bolt ever
launched from the hand of Jupiter Tonans, and which
reverberated around his Olympian home, could have
been more appalling in its physical effects than was this
blasting and withering destruction of my fond wishes;
but in time I rallied, my senses resumed their wonted
sway, and the tablet of my mnemonic cerebral convolu-
tion unfolded and presented to me the response given to
an applicant, humble like myself, and who cried in
tones of deprecation, "Il faut vivre!" and who was
answered in the memorable words of the philosopher
and wit, Voltaire : 'Maisnon, Monsieur, Je n' en vois
pas la nécessité," which, inasmuch as I have never had
any knowledge of, or any reason to believe in his literary
culture, I will translate for the benefit of the very
erudite and distinguished professor, dean, etc., etc: "I
must live." "No, sir, I see no necessity for that;" nor did
I then see a necessity for contributing by my labor to
the maintenance of the equipage of the very erudite and
distinguished professor, etc., whereby he might hope
to flaunt and disport his tinsel magnificence both here
and at the annual Saratogian Vanity Fair.

And now we reach the monied part of this matter, and which seems to have been the head and front of my offending. For the next succeeding two or three years I continued to labor assiduously for the benefit of the college, and to the best of my ability, for the miserable pittance of $500, and that most grudgingly given. During this time I was in a very enfeebled condition of health, and I often felt as if it was at the peril of my life that I underwent daily the labor incident to the Depart ment of Anatomy. Again I quote: "At this time, in compliance with Dr. Carmichael's request, we raised his salary to $900 for the term, he agreeing to superintend the practical anatomy room. He continued for two years

Now I ask if this was not pretty sharp practice, to use the mildest termi. Again: "Why did you remove so eminent and renowned a man from your Faculty? One reason was because his course of lectures, though able as far as it went, was not a complete course.' Thus speaks the honorable professor, dean, &c., &c., in answer to inquiries made. Let us see how it bears the test of trutb. We all know, do we not, gentlemen of the JOURNAL, that there is unhappily too prevalent a custom among teachers in many of our public institutions to get over superficially enough and as rapidly as possible, the duties assigned to them in their respective positions, and, from common report, there is no teacher to be found whose so-called teachings bear the stamp of inefficiency and incompleteness, and want of originality of both thought and expression, and only marked by these when used secondhand by the very honorable, erudite and distinguished professor, dean, &c., &c. For his quiet and unblushing use of other men's property in this direction is proverbial, a by-word and a jest. As regards the incompleteness of my course of lectures, I unhesitatingly affirm, and defy truthful denial, and I appeal to my students, who have listened to my instructions, to bear witness to the correctness of my statement(I do not mean those of them who have been cajoled and entrapped by cunning, deceit and false promises of future professional aid, instances of which falsity and deceit have come to my knowledge, and made to turn against me, but those who have honorably resisted or not been subjected to these treacherous blandishments, used for selfish purposes) I say, to bear witness to the scope given to each lecture, beginning even with the bones, in the discussion of which were united, vessels, nerves, muscles, and their relations to anatomy, physiology, pathology, surgery, &c., and all that tended to make a complete and practical study of the great science of Anatomy. In this connection I may state that an application was made to me by some of the students to deliver, in addition to my course, a few lectures on Cellulology. To this I consented, having first ascertained

from the Dean that there were no objections to my doing how often amused surprise has been expresed to me, SO. This fact may not dwell in the cribriform cerebral when upon being interrogated by friends as to the causes convolution of the very honorable, erudite and of my removal, I have cited the severity of my final exdistinguished professor, dean, &c., as well as amination as one of them, for as will be seen further on, some others which I shall mention. I desire this was one of three given to me by one of the faculty, to analyze the words "complete course" as the reply has invariably been, that it was rather an unused by him. If I am to understand that usual objection to a teacher that his pupils were subthey are used to mean the beginning at the opening of jected to a thorough test of their proficiency. But I the course at the title page of Gray's Anatomy, absorbing wish to record here another subterfuge of this honorable it word for word by a process known as crammin, professor, dean, &c., &c. On the morning of my last ejecting it superficially so as to get through with the examination, I received a note from him, written in hot lecture hour, or worse still, getting through with it by haste, in which he desired to confer with me before the what may be called rapid transit anatomy, through the examination was held. By some means, how I know agency of which the vertebral column and three or four not, he had obtained possession of one of my printed of the cranial bones may be disposed of in as many lec- examination papers. He mildly and suavely as of yore, tures, as I am credibly informed, and hurrying on so suggested whether I did not consider it a little too that the congratulations and well done, thou good and severe. I replied that my object had always been faithful servant," may be bestowed by the honorable to elevate the standard of education in the college, professor, dean, &c., étutti quanti, and solicitations in- that I had always labored to that effect, and that there dulged in that the "finis" had been successfully reached was not one question on the paper, the subject of which in the carefully prescribed time, I say, if such be the in- had not been fully discussed by me. After some little terpretation of a "complete course, I not only can lay conversation, he left me under the impression that he no claim to it, but would scorn to belittle the great was satisfied, and that all was well, the examination was science of anatomy by peddling it at so cheap a rate. then conducted to a successful close, and many a time Then, Messrs. Editors, if my analysis of the term com- since have I had students to thank me personally for plete course be correct, I but expose another of the that examination, and also to congratulate themselves paltry subterfuges resorted to by the honorable profes- that they had come under my tuition, and successfully sor, dean, &c. &c. And now having won the affections passed my chair before I left the college. So much for and admiring approbation of his audience, to whom he the interests of the students," which were so close to thus suavely and sweetly says, "I trust, ladies and gen- the heart of the honorable professor, dean, &c., as tlemen, you are now familiar with the relationship exist given by him as a cause of my removal, notwithstanding between Dr. Carmichael and the New York Homoeo-ing that further on in the course of his remarks. he pathic Medical College.' He dons his armor again, and ignores my criticisms upon Dr. Paine's letter to me, in undaunted enters the lists against a doughty champion, which Dr. Paine distinctly declared that one of the not in name but in courage, whose clever interpretation causes of my removal was my rigid examination, he of many of the motives which have actuated the honor- suminons his usual effrontery, and thus escapes the real able professor, dean, &c.. and his colleagues, with the and substantial points at issue, I may here with proexception of two of whom I am cognizant, in whom I priety and by consent reproduce the comments of the believe truth and honor reside, and to whom I hereby Senior Editor of this journal upon my examination make public acknowledgment of my appreciation of paper. They were to the effect that there was a retheir honorable consideration for right and justice, as markable anatomical and physiological sequence in the well as personal consideration for myself as since de- order of the questions, and well-calculated to discover clared to me, I say champion and defender, in the per- the knowledge of the student, and make him give evison of Dr. Thomas Wildes, who was o near the truth dence of his proficiency in the department of anatomy. when he made use of the expression, "He was removed "Why, a man could have written a whole anatomy in to gratify some personal spite;" that "the galled jade did answering those questions." Here the honorable profeswince, and withers were wrung indeed, and the piteous sor, dean, no doubt very unwittingly, pays me the highest cry" came, Are you sure you are not actuated by what compliment he could possibly have done, and doubtless I is equally culpable, personal like," showing thereby, not shall cause him great chagrin when the knowledge of it only personal spite to myself, but absolutely mingled is given to him, because it tends to utterly draw the fire with it a jealousy of a friendship which showed itself in of one of his, as he supposes, most destructive blunderone of the truest of all tests, defense of the absent. busses, viz.: the failure on my part to give a "comRochefoucauld has said: "Les absens ont toujours, 'tort" plete course," and which I have fully answered elsewhich I will translate for the benefit of the erudite and where. distinguished professor, dean, &c., &c., "The absent are always wrong," but in this instance the French philosopher was not correct, for the absent was nobly defended, and I hasten to record another acknowledgement to my friend Dr. Wildes, for his interposition in my behalf, against the shafts of calumny and malignity launched by the honorable professor, dean, and here I quote his words again, in confirmation of the term personal spite, for, as will be remembered, even before I entered the college, a personal feeling of animosity existed against me because of my faithful adherence to my old colleagues, in which I was prompted by a sense of duty and proper personal obligation. Then to deny the charge of personal spite, as used by Dr. Wildes, is to mark a reach of audacity that few may attain, but fully within the moral compass of the honorable professor, dean, &c. "I quote," again: Dr. Wildes says, "When the President of the Faculty was finally asked why Prof. Carmichael was removed, the answer came, because his examinations were too rigid,' They were none too rigid, our students answered his questions well, but they were too lengthy. Why a man could have written a whole anatomy in answering those questions, &c., &c." I cannot remember

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Again in relation to this examination. During my association with the Woman's College, in Lex. ave., the same paper, with additional questions, has been submitted to the students there, and the ordeal successfully passed by many, and in some instances in marked contrast with the answers made by many of the students of the male college to the advantage of those of the female. So much for the question of examination.

"It is said that the Trustees of the college protested against his removal. Strange; I was present at this meeting and knew nothing of that protest till I saw it recorded in the minutes of your last annual meeting. If they, the Trustees, had felt the necessity of protesting against his removal, would they not have exercised their right and prevented his removal?”

To this I reply. In relation to the surprise manifested by the members of the Board of Trustees, when the necessity for my removal was announced to them at the meeting called at the house of the honorable dean, &c., I repeat here again, and I defy truthful contradiction, that I was distinctly informed by Mr. Wales, Dr. Hallock and Mr. Marshall, that they were greatly surprised at the proposition made to them, as they had always

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