19

the oldest and most respectable members of the College of Sur-geons, who, by the restrictive character of the Charter of theCollege, had been excluded from the fellowship? If this be the

tame person, which I opine to be the case, his courage or hisassurance, or both, must be equal to that of a noble lord who,though a civilian, proposed to take upon himself the office ofcommander-in chief of the British army.Mr. Kelson says in his letter to Lord Aberdeen-" In 1845, I

took great pains to obtain the opinion of a large proportion ofthe medical body, whose reputation, skill, and high character, are4nimpeachable; more especially of the medical men in the pro-vinces ; and from the opinions thus obtained a memorial wasAddressed to the then Secretary of State for the Home Depart-ment against medical reform."

Now, Mr. Editor, either Mr. Kelson does not know whathis own memorial contained, or he has attempted to deceiveLord Aberdeen. His memorial was not on medical reformas a general question, but was a counter-memorial to one fromBristol, exclusively on the one subject of the admission of membersof the College of Surgeons to the fellowship ! ! I have beforeme the actual memorial forwarded to me in 1845 by Mr. Kelson,impudently soliciting five or ten shillings to cover expenses ;and, although extensively circulated, I never heard that it ob-tained more than sixty-five signatures, if so many.

But, Sir, if I interpret rightly the extract I have made fromMr. Kelson’s letter to Lord Aberdeen, he would insinuate thatthe memorial expressed the opinions of a large proportion of themedical body (" whose reputation, skill, and character, are un-impeachable") against medical reform as a general subject, andnot simply against the admission of a few members to the fellow.ship of the College of Surgeons (?) ! ! Is it so, or is it not so?How flattered Lord Aberdeen will feel when informed that

this memorial emanated from a meeting at the Golden Cross ofnot a dozen medical men! How highly he must think of hiscorrespondent, when made acquainted with the fact that his

predecessor in office, Sir George Grey, rejected the prayer of it,and actually admitted the whole of those to the fellowship whom ’,Mr. Kelson and his memorial prayed to exclude ! ! !Does Mr. Kelson recollect the report on his memorial of the

Bristol Committee representing one thousand surgeons?" The Committee of the Bristol Association of Surgeons,

feeling that no public document, however mean and trivial m itscharacter, should," &c. &c.And this mean and trivial memorial he now attempts to foist

on Lord Aberdeen, to show that a majority of the medical bodyare not solicitous of reform, and that the recent deputations haveimportuned and deceived him ; whereas, in fact, the memorialdoes not embrace one single principle, point, allusion, or questionof any kind contained in the Medical Reform Bill laid before hislordship.- You, Mr. Editor, will, I hope, considerately explain to Mr.Kelson how many letters appeared in your columns, in Octoberand November, 1845, inquiring if his memorial was a hoax, andconsidering that the most charitable construction which could beput upon it ! You will also perhaps enumerate to him how manymembers of the profession advocated medical reform, in 1845,under the banners of the National Association, the AssociatedSurgeons, the Bristol Association, the Associations of Essex,Nottingham, Manchester, Shropshire, Yorkshire, and other

places; and having done all you can to convince him, be notSurprised to find-

That a man convinced against his willIs of the same opinion still."

Yours &c.,June, 18MI. ALETHES.

PROPOSED ASSOCIATION OF MEDICALASSISTANTS.

To the Editor of THE LANCET.

SIR,-Being the proposer of the scheme for an institution tobenefit medical assistants, I have read with great interest thecorrespondence my letter elicited, but more especially fromQuartus and Unus Alter. The practicability of an association orinstitution for this purpose is very obvious. Your very ableleading article on the question of medical assistants settles thispoint in reference to the utility of such a proprsition. Are notthe employed of to-day the employers of to-morrow ? and is itnot considered to be the pride and glory of Britain, that from anobscure sphere an individual may rise to eminence by usingtalent and industry so whatever circumstance or society has atendency to soften the rugged paths of human life, tends also toimprove the social and domestic happiness of the reciprocants,therefore must be entitled to general encouragement. None but

those who have filled an assistant’s situation can for a momentimagine the trials, anxieties, and difficulties, he has to contendwith. In every step he takes his character is at stake-one rashact may for ever ruin his character ; great, then, must be the cir-cumspection and prudence used by a young man placed withoutfriends in this trying avocation, for should one of the body herepresents misconduct himself, of course, in the generality ofcases the whole are judged from the few. Now, as a preliminarystep amongst us, an amalgamation will work great good, and Itrust all those interested in the well-being of assistants, will comeboldly forward and declare themselves willing to aid us in thisimportant work.

In your review of this subject you think the name of collegedoes not seem appropriate for this scheme ; in my letter advo-cating this cause I only suggested the title of College, andshould, on consideration, be of opinion that the name of collegewould not be expedient, and would, in lieu thereof, substitutethe title of " The Medical Assistants’ Provident Institution."

In conclusion, I cannot but express my thanks for the goodyour journal, by its instrumentality, has wrought in this cause,and hope it will ever be open to hear both sides of a questionimpartially, giving the decision upon the subject with due weightof evidence pro and con. I would notice Quartus’ and UnusAlter’s letters, likewise Iota’s, but I feel convinced it would bebetter for us to send in our names immediately, and lose no timein forming a committee ; then call a general meeting at Londonof all that can attend, and hear the different views of the intendedsupporters as to what seems the best method of establishing, ona good foundation, an institution for the attainment of our views..Hoping this letter will meet with your earliest attention,

I remain, Sir, your’s truly,Jane, 1853. A MEDICAL ASSISTANT AND &PHgr;&lgr;&thgr;&rgr;&ohgr;.

To the Editor of THE LANCET.SIR,-I hope that a College or Institution for Medical

Assistants may be established; and I shall be happy to-sub-scribe to it.

I trust that the medical practitioners of this country willsupport a measure so well calculated to promote the welfareot those that are struggling to become qualified members ofthe profession.

I am, Sir, your obedient servant,Chatham, June, 1853. FREDERICK JAMES BROWN, M.D.FREDERICK JAMES BROWN, M.D.

GRATUITOUS ADVICE.To the Editor of THE LANCET.

SiR,-The abolition of gratuitous assistance from the pro-fession, appears to be one of the most vital and importantsubjects which can claim attention at the present moment,and I for one would lend my every energy to organize a society,having for its object the destruction of the hydra-headedmonster-informe, ingens, cui lumen adentptum.

Gratuitous advice is a senseless abomination, which yieldsno profit, and eats into the very vitals of those who engage init. The more closely it is examined the more rotten does thesystem appear. The finest talents have been prostituted toits baneful influence. Practice, except in a few, very few in-stances, is seldom obtained; and its most devoted slaves, thosewho have toiled long and arduously in our metropolitanhospitals and dispensaries, would, I am sure, candidly confesshow few patients can be traced to their wearying performanceof unpaid duties. If this axiom be founded on fact, what foolsare they or we to pamper to the depraved and morbid appetiteof the public. Is there one single article besides provided ’atour many noble institutions gratuitously ? If the baker, thebutcher, the water company, the linendraper, the lawyerssupply their wares gratis, by all means let our advice be ten-dered in a like spirit, and let us vie one with another incharity, but sunt certi denique fines quos ultra citraque nequitconsistere rectum.The proposition I have to make is this:-lst. To organize a society, to be called " The Anti-Gratis

Society," whose object shall be, by committees, to wait uponevery member of the profession practising gratuitously or fornominal salaries, and to request him to abandon the practice.Then to publish pamphlets urging in the strongest terms thegood to be derived from the abolition of all sign-boards whichlead the public to imagine they can obtain advice for nothing.

2nd. To call upon every legalized member of the profession’ to abandon their shops, which are a fruitful source of dis-, appointment and disgust. In a day-within a post-the whole . profession could become erect. At a specified time the

20

members of our body should strike a blow which shall be re-membered for ever. There should be no hesitation or drawingback. We could afford to subscribe for cases of individualhardships; and on a certain day every club and union appoint-ment should be given up to the authorities who have so longinsulted us by their parsimonious salaries.To carry out Free-trade one hundred thousand pounds was

readily subscribed; to emancipate our profession ten thousandwould be amply sufficient to meet every emergency, and toerase the wrong. If ever there was a time more propitiousthan another it is this. On all sides people are prosperous andthriving; the poor are but an unit of the population, thereforewe should commit very little injustice towards them. Bywithdrawing our eleemosynary aid we should raise the standardand tone of morality amongst the working classes, and prevent tthem from running into pauperism at every gust of sickness,for we have panperized many a thousand by the readinesswith which we have taught them to accept our charity. Ourhospitals would no longer become the resting-place of thelazy, and their funds swallowed up by the dissipated. Diveswould make way for Lazarus, and the crumbs which havefallen from the rich man’s table would be consumed by de-serving objects. Alas, what dreadful waste does an unpaidmedical officer bring upon these institutions! For the good-will of a few favoured servants of the subscribers, he squanderswith unsparing hand quinine, mutton chops, flagons of wine,and seas of Barclay’s beer. Chlorotic serving-maids are re-tained for months under treatment; fever cases are poisonedwith wine; and syphilitic clerks are sarzse-iodided to theirheart’s content. The workhouse wards are all the time preg-nant with diseases of the most dreadful caste, which are allill-physicked and ill-fed, because abandoned by physicianswhose only care is to get recommendation where they cannotobtain pay.

In thus animadverting upon our hospital system, I mean nodisrespect to the numerous highly-gifted and laborious gentle-men who for the most part occupy the posts in these institu-tions. They would do well, if an organization is effected, ,,voluntarily to come forward and tender all the advice whichtheir experience affords. Some I dare say have done well ingiving gratuitous advice; but others can tell a different tale-a tale of midnight toil, and broken purse, and wearied spirit.‘Abolish the system, and they would find much glory in theact: they would see a noble and glorious profession springfrom the Slough of Despond, and mount to a pinnacle farhigher than any other profession has yet attained. We shouldnot be advertised for by a Chorley clergyman, or held so cheapby Reigate guardians. We can challenge a Chorley divine,in conclusion, and say that no minister of the Gospel everperformed his duty so well as the meanest Poor-law doctor.I cannot forbear to retaliate at this indignity. A lover of ourChurch and its worship, when carried on without absurdityand nonsensical whimsicality, I cannot, connected as I havebeen for years with Union practice, let this opportunity slipwithout saying that the sick-beds of the poor are abominablyneglected by the village pastors. Thousands have died withouta visit or a friendly word at parting; young women with afrail accouchement unreproved lie in again; bereaved motherspray for a second loss, for they have no one to tell them ofthe value of each human life; and to the spiritual destitutionof the poor in sickness can be traced much of their futuredegradation and abasement.

Sat verbum sapientibus.I remain, Sir, with every respect,

Yours obediently,Trinity-street, June, 1851. MEDICUS

MEDICAL CERTIFICATES.To the Editor of THE LANCET.

wS’IR,-On Friday last a friend of mine was attacked withEnglish cholera, and having a witnesses’ summons to attendthe Court of Bankruptcy, he sent a certificate from Dr. Druryto that effect, which was only then received on an affidavitbeing sworn and annexed that it was the certificate of Dr.Drury, who was a physician living in Albion-street, and wasMr. B.’s regular medical attendant.A further summons was then granted for the Tuesday

following, upon which occasion Dr. Drury’s patient was muchworse, and a certificate to the effect that he was stillsuffering from English cholera, which was then complicatedwith dysentery, was sent to the Bankruptcy Court, whichCommissioner Fonblanque refused to take, and actually grantedthe warrant for arresting a man dangerously ill! saying he

would allow till eleven o’clock the following day for Dr. Druryto be brought up to swear to the truth of his own certificateand handwriting, an unnecessary attendance, highly incon-venient to the doctor, and expensive to my friend.

Are, therefore, medical certificates to be treated as a nullity?And is the above treatment the law of the land, or merelyCommissioner Fonblanque’s Christian practice of it. If thelatter, the sooner the Lord Chancellor alters it the better.

I am, Sir, your obedient servant,June, 1853. A LOVER OF JUSTICE.

* * The proceeding appears harsh, and no doubt in someinstances is so, but it has custom and law in its support. Caseshave occurred before now in which the certificates of medical

practitioners have been forged, and the ends of justice therebyfrustrated. The course pursued by the commissioner wasevidently not intended to be offensive to Dr. Drury.-SuB.En. L.

____________

THE COUNCIL OF THE COLLEGE OF SURGEONS.To the Editor of THE LANCET.

SIR,-I differ from a "Fellow by Examination" and a" Fellow of the College," (vide THE LANCET, June llth and18th,) and think the proceeding infamous, when I rememberhow and for what reasons the fellowship was originally con-ferred ; first, with rare modesty and great personal considera-tion, on the Council by the Council, then on their friends,without in either case fee, examination, or trouble. It cer-

tainly appears to me, after this, infamous to compel oldmembers of the Collpge of Surgeons to beg for signatures andpay £10-for what ? not honour, but simply the power ofelecting men to look after their property. No doubt, the"Fellow by Examination" has just cause for complaint; but,with the College antecedents, and an unjust, un-English jobbefore his eyes, how came he to go there for such a thing?]Perhaps " a Fellow by Examination," and ‘‘ a Fellow of theCollege," who evidently received the boon, will blackballcandidates for re-election until full justice is done to everymember of the College.

I remain, Sir, your obedient servant,A MEMBER OF SEVERAL YEARS’

June, 1853. STANDING, WHO BEGRUDGES

PAYING £10 FOR HIS RIGHT.

P.S.--Do, Sir, analyze the Council, and publish the genuinefellows, that we in the country may employ them.

COURT OF QUEEN’S BENCH, JUNE 22.(Sittings at Nisi Prius, at Westminster, before Lord Chief Justice

Campbell and a Special Jury.)SLANDER.-FENNELL V. ADAMS (CLERK).

THIS was an action to recover damages for certain slanderouswords alleged to have been uttered by the defendant, and com-plained of by the plaintiff as prejudicial to his professionalcharacter.The defendant pleaded " Not Guilty," and justification."Mr. M. Chambers, Q.C., Mr. Sergeant Wilkins, and Mr.

Peterdorffs appeared for the plaintiff; the Attorney-General,Mr. Bramwell, Q.C., and Mr. Hall were for the defence.Mr. Chambers stated the case, from which it appeared that

the plaintiff is a surgeon at Wimbledon, and is medical officerof an institution there called " The Maternal Society," of whichthe wife of the Rev. Mr. Adams, the defendant, was the treasurer.The charge against the plaintiff was one seriously calculated toaffect his professional reputation. The words complained of wereto the effect, that the plaintiff bad, in many cases, been verynegligent in his attendance upon various females in their periodof labour, in the institution, and that several children had beenconsequently strangled in their birth.To refute those charges, the learned gentleman calledThe plaintiff, Mr. Edward Fennell,-who deposed that he is

a surgeon, residing at Wimbledon, and had been pupil of Dr.Stevenson and of Dr. Sweetham. In 1834 he purchased Dr.Wright’s practice at Wimbledon, and paid £1000 for it, and hewas subsequently appointed to the Kingston Union, and to the" Wimbledon Maternal Society." In 1849 he received a letterfrom the Hon. Mrs. Adams, treasurer of the Maternal Society,and wife of the defendant, who is curate of Wimhledon. Theletter contained general complaints, charging him (plaintiff) withneglect of the female patients, but not naming any particular case.He called on Mrs. Adams in consequence, and she then mentionedthe case of Mrs. Gregory, who was the wife of the coachman of