1008

’be imitated in the laboratory. We have certainly at the Ipresent day got far beyond Spallanzani’s facts, but are only’face to face with more profound problems. It is the,molecular machinery of vital actions that now concerns us.more than the larger and more obvious movements of themechanism. Physico-chemical theories are no longersatisfactory, the conditions of living matter being so

’unlike those of dead matter-belonging, as it were,to a different plane. We are yet fnr from an ulti-- mate explanation. Among other subject?, Spallanzanialso studied fecundation, hibernation, and respiration.In looking over the general record of his work, the absence.of two great ideas, which dominate and direct scientificthought to day, is noticeable--that of the permanence ofmatter and the permanence of force. The profound concep-tion had not been reached that all the phenomena of nature,as seen on earth, including among these all the phenomena.of life, depend upon interchanges of the elements of whichthe earth is formed ; or that the various forces apparentlydisappear only to reappear in different forms ; that thesource of energy is always the same ; and that force, likematter, is never destroyed. Professor McKendrick closedby addressing some words of encouragement to the students.He knew of no education that bad a wider or grander sweep’than that of the student of medicine, nor one more fitted to’call forth all the powers of a strong and healthy mind.At Anderson’s College the winter session of the medical

school was opened by an address from Professor ROBERTSON"WATSON on the future of the medical profession. This heshowed by a long and interesting argument to depend on’organisation, a law, a condition of progress which ran like abackbone through the whole of the natural world. The’medical profession bad hardly yet begun to organise ; it was.rather disorganised, each member battling under his own,supreme irresponsible direction. There was little or no co-operation. He wished to see the medical profession bandedtogether as an army, instead of, as now, independent units.’His idea was that the State should take the matter in band,and appoint a Minister of Public Health, having under him.a vast organisation in which each member of the medicalprofession might have his appointed place and his appointedsphere of action. There would be statistical and adminis-trative departments, sanitary and public health depart-ments-urban and county,-with a sort of vigilance depart-ment armed with complete powers for dealing with infectiousdiseases of a specific kind. In addition to this he would’:.have a research department, reserved for the men of geniusof the profession, whose function it would be to extend thebounds of medical science. For all this he looked to theState, and as organisation had advanced rapidly in all otherdirections, he did not despair of seeing a beginning made inthis direction within one or two decades.

The winter session in Queen Margaret College was openedby addresses from Professor JOHN YOUNG and Dr. G. G.HENDERSON, Professor of Chemistry. The latter entered astrong plea for the medical education of women, and, anxiousthat the physical training of women should not be neglected,he hoped to see the College soon in the possession of a well-

equipped gymnasium.At Sb. Mungo’s College the session was opened on Wed-nesday, Oct. 21st, by an address from Professor E. E. PRINCE,in the course of which he condemned the" examination craze,".one of the most feasible means of escape from which is togive more and more prominence to practical study andteaching, so as to prevent students being over-lectured andover-taught. He dealt also with the microscopic study of.embryology, and its importance as bearing on the othersciences.

OPENING OF THE MEDICAL SCHOOLS INIRELAND.

MEATH HOSPITAL.

PROFESSOR RAWDON MACNAMARA, F. R. C. S. L, deliveredthe introductory address at the Meath Hospital. He said :" From our first entrance on professional life to its termina-tion our paths are beset by what I term traps for the

ranwary, and to some of these I would wish to draw atten-tion upon the present occasion. The first of these traps is I:found in the fact that in but too many instances the I

choice of a profession is not left to the party primarilyinterested in iC, but is decided for him, irrespective of theyoung man’s vocation, by some outsider, whether parent,guardian, or other responsible party. To the majority ofour students there must be something singularly attractivein the study of medicine, else would they not struggleon through what is admittedly per taedia et labores toattain the object of their ambition ; but there remains aminority to whom each succeeding day’s duty makes theirtask more repulsive, and if there be such a one amongstyou, to him would I give the advice given by QueenEliz9.beth to Sir Walter Raleigh on a memorable occasion!’If your mind fail thee, climb not at all.’ Seek for thetalents with which Providence has blessed you some otheroutlet more congenial to your tastes. In my own experienceI am aware of several instances where the course I am nowrecommending has been pursued. One instance occurs inthe person of one of our leading Dublin solicitors, anotherin the person of a distinguished ’cavalry officer, another inthe person of a colonel in the Artillery, and yet another inthe person of a leading London barrister-all of these com.menced their career as students in this hospital; but, findingthat they had no vocation for medicine, they gave up itsstudy and betook themselves to more congenial oecti.

pations wherein they respectively gained subsequent dis-tinction."The most remarkable example, however, constitutes

what I look upon as an historic episode in the Meath Hos.pital history-an episode which has not been recorded in itsannals either as furnished us by our standing committee, orbv Dr. Ormsby in his most interesting history of the MeathHospital. Early in the year 1871 the prelate whose recentdeath the Christian world is still deploring, the Archbishopof York, at that time Bishop of Peterborough, when stoppingon a visit in this city with his old friend Dr. Newell, C.B.,sought the services of one of our surgical staff, and on thetermination of the treatment asked the surgeon in questionwhat was his fee. The surgeon replied that he was afraidthat his lordship would consider his demand exorbitant,but that the only fee that he would accept was a charitysermon in aid of the funds of the Meath Hospital. After amoment’s reflection the bishop consented to preach thesermon, but pressed the surgeon himself to accept a

cheque for his services, to which the reply made was, I No,my lord, the sermon, the whole sermon, and nothing butthe sermon,’ and so the matter was arranged. Monthselapsed, the bishop had long returned to his diocese, andthe occurrence bad entirely slipped the surgeon’s memory,when one morning he received a letter from the bishopstating that he was prepared to come over at his own ex-pense and to preach the sermon on any of four Sundaysnamed. The sermon was preached in St. Ann’s Churchon Sunday, Nov. 13th, 1871, and there accrued to the fundof the hospital the sum of £109 6s. 3d. But what pointsthe moral of my tale remains to be told; the bishop informedus that his first start in life was as a medical student for sixmonths in the wards of the Meath Hospital, but, finding

more congenial work in the .service of his great Master,that he made up his mind to abandon medicine in favour ofdivinity." Speaking of antiseptics, he said :-" Some yearspast I was considered a fossil because I would not bow downand worship the carbolic acid spray, which en passant I mayremark was as frequently as not directed npon the operator’sback instead of on the patient’s wound. However, timehas passed, and we do not hear its advocates nowadays sotrumpet-tongued as to its efficacy as was formerly the case.Gentlemen, let no antiseptic, no matter how loudlyvaunted, no matter how high be the authority advocatingit, blind your eyes to the paramount importance of nature’sown two antiseptics-fresh air and pure water. In a timenot so long past every effort was made to exclude from thesick room the night air, and it remained for FlorenceNightingale to point out to our common sense that the onlyair we could breathe at night was night air, and that thefresher it was the better it was for the invalid ; whilst itremained for our great Macartney to insist upon the valueof water dressing as a substitute for the farrago of unguentspreviously in use under the name of digestives.’ Curiouslyenough, frequently is this great advance in surgery eirone-ously attributed to that great surgeon, Liston. Well mightMacartney, if made aware of this fact, exclaim from hisgrave, with Virgil, ’Hos ego versiculos feci, tulit alterhonores.’"In addition to his other valuable contributions to

1009

surgery, my colleague, Mr. Smyly, has devised a plan for 1utilising this most efficient antiseptic in our operative pro-cedures in this theatre-a plan by which the wound can bethoroughly cleansed by irrigation with water at any

required temperature, a plan well worthy of adoption insimilar institutions. This carbolic acid spray fad has, how-ever, not been altogether devoid of value, for, believing inits virtue, surgeons have been emboldened to undertake,under its influence, operations, notably abdominal sections,for the relief of diseases previously considered unsuited foroperative interference, and the brilliant results seemed tojustify its claims to importance. However, equally brilliantresults have been attained in a long series of abdominalsections by my friend, Mr. Lawson Tait, who dispensesaltogether with its employment. Believe me, gentlemen,that nature’s antiseptics are those upon which you shouldplace your greatest dependence."

ST. VINCENT’S HOSPITAL.The introductory address was delivered by Mr. TOBIN on

Oct. 20th. After some introductory remarks he stated thatthe main object of his discourse was to prove that the pureand simple bedside observation of disease was being pushedon one side by science, and that medical education wassuffering in consequence. Having weighed the relativemerits of the scientific and empirical methods, he said thatthe scientific at the present time was able to take care ofitself, for the reason that it could be measured. He sawexaminers in whose hands it was perfectly safe, and his con-tention and complaint was that in consequence of itsmeasurableness the present age of examinations showedalmost completely on one side that immeasurable butgreat educational force which he would call empiricism.If a one-sided man was intimate with science only, he mightmeasure and classify with accuracy when face to face withdisease, but would be unable to render quick help. It washard to account for that fact. Science, however, covered sosmall a part of therapeutics that the man who relied ontheory rather than experience for direction must often findhimself in the hands of a blind guide; or was it that science,when unduly pressed, dulls some of their finer perceptions ?Darwin said that it had somewhat of that effect on him, andthat with his scientific work nature lost for him her charms,so that when advanced in life he could not say with Words-worth, " The innocent brightness of a new-born day islovely yet." Perhaps both causes were at work. Powersof observation that were trained by constant and accu-rate measurement of dry facts, unsupplemented by a

sympathetic watching of the sick, must often fail to

recognise such disturbances as were incapable of measure-ment. Thus the practitioner who had not thoroughlystudied in the wards of the hospital the power of medicinesmight let lie in his hands unused forces which science haddone almost nothing to discover. There was no greaterdanger than the tendency to press science beyond its

legitimate limits ; but the man who would define its boundsundertook an ungrateful and dangerous task, and might bedenounced as a traitor to the cause. In conclusion, thelecturer said that he was comforted by the thought that ofwhatever he submitted to them they could learn more thanhe could teach them.

THE HOUSING OF THE WORKING CLASSESIN WEST SUFFOLK.

THE first inquiry held under Part 3 of the Housing of ’’

the Working Classes Act has resulted in " nothing." LordFrancis Harvey, who acted on behalf of the West SuffolkCounty Council at the inquiry held at Ixworth, issued areport in which he gives his opinion " based upon the factsthat were elicited at the inquiry and upon personal exami-nation." He states that "in some instances there was

proof of serious overcrowding ; in others decrepitude anddecay have gone so far as to make it more than doubtfulwhether the time for patching and mending has not passed ;in others glaring structural defects and faults of arrange-ment seem to make half measures futile ; in some the

ground itself seems overcrowded with hovels (they canscarcely be called houses, how much less homes !), as these

hovels are themselves sometimes overcrowded with inhabit.ants. Among the particular features of danger or reproachthe following may be specified-want of sufficient and propersleeping room; roofs and walls not water-tight; priviesill placed and insufficient in number; back premises defec.tive or entirely wanting; floors ruinous; want of ventila-tion and light; water supply endangered by proximity to,cesspools or other sources of contamination; staircases notsecurely railed off; no means of removing refuse &c. from,the backyards to the street except through the dwelling-rooms." "

He then adds that he is "driven to the conclusion that.further accommodation is necessary for the housing of theworking-classes in Ixworth." He also found that there is."no apparent likelihood that the needful accommodation.will be provided without resort to the special machinerysupplied by Part 3 of the Act of 1890."The Thingoe rural sanitary authority not having made°

application to limit the burden of expense to any particular-area, Lord Francis Harvey made no inquiry into the questionof such limitation. The County Council issued the necessarycertificate, and everything seemed to be working smoothly,and the working men of Ixworth to be within measurabledistance of their cottages. The guardians of the Thingoe,Union had, however, been reconsidering their position,and had decided that a further application should be madeto the County Council to limit the expense to Ixworth and a.few neighbouring parishes. The County Council consented to,reopen the question, and on Sept. 25th Colonel Pocklingtonwas sent down to receive evidence with reference to limiting;the expense to certain contributory parishes. It was then-discovered that such a course would be illegal, and that afresh inquiry upon all points must be held. Fresh notices’were accordingly issued, and on the 9th inst. ColonelPocklington again attended to conduct the inquiry. Therepresentatives of the Thingoe Union made no effort toprove their case, beyond submitting their medical officer ofhealth for examination. The Ixworth Labourers’ Associa-tion, which at the first inquiry had engaged the services of’a barrister, medical expert, &c., had decided simply to,tender Lord Francis Harvey’s report, and to call no wit-nesses. The report was refused as " evidence." Repre-sentatives from all the parishes proposed to be included in the- Aspecial rateable area strongly opposed the scheme, affirming-that if cottagps were needed the expense should be borne-by the whole Union.

It was given in evidence by the medical officer of healththat there were other parishes in the Union nearly if notquite do bad as Ixworth ; and for that reason it was argued that,the sanitary authority should have applied for certificates-for all or have let the matter alone. Much dissatisfactionwas expressed by the labourers at the hour of meeting;being fixed for 3 o’clock, as very few were able to be pre-

sent at that hour, and then only at a serious sacrifice.Colonel Pocklington’s report will be looked forward to withinterest, and it is to be hoped no other " technical errors"’

: or "oversights" will be discovered necessitating further: inquiries.

_____________

IRISH MEDICAL SCHOOLS’ AND GRADUATES’ASSOCIATION.

THE autumn general meeting of the above Association,which now numbers close on 700 members, was held on,Wednesday evening at the Holborn Restaurant London.Director-General Dick, C.B., R.N. (President-elect), occupied the chair in the absence of the President (Dr. T.Gilbart Smith). The Council reported that they had in-structed their secretaries to write to each of the candidates.for the position of Direct Representative and ascertaintheir views in reference to the question of the monopoly ofhonorary appointments in England to the exclusion of thoseholding Irish and Scotch diplomates. It was also reportedthat the letter ordered by the British Medical Associationto be sent to the hospitals in which the exclusive rule exists.was about to be issued. The members and their friends, to,the number of forty, dined subsequently in the Queen’sSalon of the Restaurant. Director-General Dick, R.N.,C.B., occupied the chair. The guests of the evening werethe two lately elected honorary members, Sir George M