798

DICROTISM VERSUS DICHROTISM.To the Editor of THE LANCET.

SiR,-Since the sphygmograph has come into use in thiscountry as an instrument of clinical research, the secondgreat wave in the pulse-trace has generally been describedby the word 11 dicrotism." By a strange freak of ignorancethis word has been changed by some writers or printersinto dichrotism. There is no excuse whatever for this mis-spelling of the word, as its conjugate, 11 dicrotic," has longbeen used in medical literature, and is to be found in thelexicons of Nysten, Mayne, and Hooper, with its derivation(6ts-, twice; ICPOT4(0, I strike). The new volume of Reynolds’sSystem of Medicine has its pages disfigured by this bar-barism ; and it is with a hope of preventing it from creep-ing into other works likely to live that I appeal toTHE LANCE to save future generations from such evidenceof our decline in culture.

I am, Sir, your obedient servant,]3irmingham. Nov. 25th. 1871. BALTHAZAR W. FOSTER, M.D.BALTHAZAR W. FOSTER, M.D.

IRELAND.(FROM A CORRESPONDENT.)

SMALL-POX is steadily increasing. At first it was limitecto adults who had been either badly vaccinated or not vac.cinated at all, and, on the commencement of the preseniepidemic, was clearly traceable to importation from EnglandIt came over with the Guards last August; since then i1

has been gaining ground, and now it has spread to such aIextent that, as might have been expected, it has appearecamongst the upper classes, and several fatal instances havEoccurred amongst them during the past week; it is also scwidely disseminated that numerous deaths have occurredamongst children a few weeks old, who had not been vac.cinated. One of the principal reasons is, that only one oithe Dublin hospitals (Cork-street Fever Hospital) has acab for the conveyance of patients to hospital, and thathospital has issued a notice to the effect that it cannot ad-mit any additional cases of small-pox ; there is, therefore,now no vehicle to carry small-pox patients to hospital inDublin. The sanitary authorities-that is, the corporation-have not provided any conveyance, but have satisfied them-selves with prosecuting an unfortunate cabman. However,as patients must get to hospital in some way, all manner ofdevices are adopted, and so the disease is spread. Nearly8000 persons have been vaccinated without any bad result,beyond, perhaps, a little temporary inconvenience. Thenumber of deaths bears little proportion to the amount ofthe disease present, for vaccination is so general that inmost instances the disease is very much modified; but it isso widespread that almost every badly-vaccinated or

unvaccinated person will be nearly certain to take small-pox.

Dr. Henry Purdon, of Belfast, in a paper lately publishedon

11 Ozokerit as a Therapeutic Agent," states that he hasfound this substance useful in the treatment of certainforms of cutaneous disease. Ozokerit is a vegetable waxfound in Moldavia and places near the Caspian Sea. Inthe crude state it is of a dirty greenish colour; it readilymelts, and is of light specific gravity, but when refined isof a snow-white colour. The crude variety, and a yellow oilproduced by distillation are, however, the best for medicalpurposes. Its action appears to be similar to that of tar,being that of a stimulant to the diseased skin ; and it isonly suitable for chronic affections, as eczema of longstanding, and unaccompanied by much infiltration of thesubcutaneous cellular tissue, psoriasis, tinea tonsurans, andscabies. To apply it, it may be mixed with glycerine forprivate practice, or with linseed oil for hospital use. Theoil can be used combined with lard, but is inferior to thecrude material.An illuminated address, magnificently bound in a book

form, has just been presented to John Morrison, M.D.,F.R.C.S., late medical officer of the Rathfriland-roadHospital, Newry, upon the occasion of his retirement fromhis official duties. Dr. Morrison had been for upwards offorty years attached as medical officer to the Newry Fever

Hospital, and was much esteemed by numerous friends forhis kindness of manner and professional ability.The barque Tongoy, from Altala, arrived lately in

Queenstown Harbour with scurvy on board. Nearly all thecrew, I understand, are laid up from this cause, and thecaptain and chief officer are reported to be very bad cases.Dublin, Nov. 22nd, 1871.

PARIS.(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

I AM told that the question of the transference of theFaculty of Strasburg, which has given rise to so much

speculation in the medical circles of this country, and to averitable conflict of interests between the cities of Lyonsand Nancy, is about to be settled in a way which must turnout to the advantage of science, and to the entire satisfac-tion of the two towns which I have named. Instead of one

Faculty there will be two. Lyons will be endowed with acomplete Faculty, especially practical and clinical, utilisingthe considerable resources which that town possesses inthe way of nosocomial institutions and asylums, whilstNancy will be chosen for the installation of a more theo-retical Faculty, provided with large laboratories and col-lections for the teaching of the medical sciences, and withthe special object of informing the French savants of allresearches that are carried on in Germany. The presentprofessors of Strasburg would be invited to occupy chairsin Lyons similar to those which they held before thelate war.The Fellows of the Societe Medico-Pratique of Paris have

just taken a most important step in deciding to erase

from the list of honorary or corresponding members allthose who belong to the German nationality. It is butjust to note that they have not taken it without institutingan inquiry into the numerous charges which have beenbrought forward by French medical men against theirGerman confrères for the unprofessional conduct of thelatter during the late war. Whether these complaints arewell founded or not, and whether they apply to a verylimited or a too extensive number of individuals, are

not the questions which have mainly led the members ofthe Societe Medico-Pratique to adopt such a course. It isbecause the protest which they entered against such pro-ceedings has not been responded to by their German cor-responding members, and these latter have not openlyand collectively disavowed and blamed the committal ofsuch acts, their silence having had placed upon it the veryworst construction by their French associates.

Recently the General Medical Association of France helda meeting in the large amphitheatre of the Assistance Pub-lique of this city. The meeting was purely a business one.Among the matters discussed there is one which I speciallywish to submit to the attention of your readers. It appearsthat there are many complaints among the French medicalbody in respect of the great number of foreign medicalmen who practise without being regularly qualified or

authorised to do so. This fact applies to Paris, as well asto the localities of the South of France, and the GeneralAssociation has been made acquainted with these grievancesof the French practitioners, and is to consider resolutions onthe subject at its next sitting. The illegal practice of me-dicine is also and especially a subject of much complaintamong our Gallic confreres. It was stated at the meetingthat many provincial members of the Association hadabandoned the Society through disgust at not seeing theAssociation (whose duty it is to do so) take proper measuresof repression against the thousands of individuals whomeddle with the practice of medicine. Among the resolu-tions adopted at the meeting were the following:-1. Thatthe President of the Association be elected by the universalsuffrage of all the members of the Association in France;consequently, that on the appointed day all the local so-cieties do meet and vote by secret ballot out of a list ofcandidates presented by the local societies and GeneralCouncil. 2. That the three local societies representing theAssociation in Alsatia-Lorraine be maintained. 3. That thestatutes of the Association be revised.There has been much controversy here of late in the

799

general press touching the sanitary condition of the Frenchtroops around Paris. Evidently the subject has been dis-cussed with much party feeling. Notwithstanding the

gloomy accounts given of the health of the troops, it is butfair to say that their sanitary condition is really abovepar. The returns of the military hospitals give obviousproof of this fact, as also the statements of the army me-dicalofficers. At the same time it must be stated that thisexcellent state of health is not entirely owing to the pro-visions which have been made for the encampment of thetroops around Paris. Both the huts which have been built,and the situations which have been chosen for a winter en-campment, require to be altered or perfected in view of aprolonged sojourn of the soldiers during the cold weather.The Government is now occupied in completing thesemeasures.

Paris. November. 1871.

VIENNA.

(FROM A CORRESPONDENT.)

Ir appears from the report of the Vienna General Hospitalfor 1870 that 21,657 cases in all were under treatment, ofwhich 13,075 were cured ; 2898 improved ; incurable, 1309 ;died, 2689. Of acute rheumatism 465 cases were admitted,12 of which died, and in 98 heart complications weredeveloped. The most notable point in connexion withthese figures is the very large proportion of heart compli-cation in rheumatism, and this I have no hesitation in

attributing to want of care in preserving the skin fromcold. The blanket treatment seems to be quite unknownon the Continent; and patients’ chests are exposed with afreedom and frequency quite incompatible with successfulresults.

Professor Billroth dedicates the last section of his veryinteresting H Surgical Reminiscences of the SummerSemestre of 1871," to the subject of ovariotomy.* Heexpresses his personal gratitude to Mr. Spencer Wells formuch valuable adviee, and mentions a visit from a formerpupil just returned from England, where he had seen thateminent surgeon perform his 427th operation. After re-

ferring to the melancholy scenes witnessed in former years,where poor sufferers from this terrible disease were allowedto die unrelieved, he mentions the well-known fact thatthe operation is really much less dangerous than thighamputations and many others, and hopes that the risinggeneration will do all in their power to efface the stilllingering prejudice against it. He has every reason to besatisfied with his own success, which gives a proportion ofeight recoveries to one death.

I may mention that Dr. Czerny, first assistant to Bill-roth, whose operative courses are held in such high esteemhere, has just been appointed Professor of Practical Surgeryin the University of Freiburg.No doubt you have heard something of the Frau Dal Cin,

an Italian peasant, whose extravagant surgical perform-ances have formed a leading topic in medical circles here.Some months ago she arrived in Vienna, took a large house,and established herself in practice as a bonesetter, withsuch success as to command a most extensive clientele.Her skill in treating cases of contraction and other de-formities was stated to be wonderful, and to such a heightdid the furor reach that the Minister of the Interior adoptedthe somewhat unusual course of appointing a commissionto report on the subject. Accordingly, four learned doctorsmade a thorough investigation, and found, as might havebeen expected, that the whole affair was sheer quackery,and that her manipulations were too feeble and harmless tosuffice for the reduction of even an ordinary case of dislo-cation. The affair seems to have assumed much more im-

portance than it really deserved, and the consequentnotoriety cannot fail to be of essential service to the irre-gular practitioner concerned.The Imperial Society of Vienna resumed its sittings on

the 13th instant, when Dr. Neumann communicated a mostinteresting paper on the results of his researches on thecutaneous absorption of mercurial ointments and of thecorrosive sublimate.

Vienna, Nov. 1871.* Vide Wiener Medizinische Wochenschrift, Nov. llth, 1871.

Obituary.JOHN STEGGALL, M.D.

DR. STEGGALL, who for many years occupied a prominentposition as a medical tutor, preparing candidates for theseveral examinations, died on November 21st after a shortillness. The son of a Suffolk clergyman, he received aliberal education, and having become a Member of the,College of Surgeons in 1825, he prosecuted his studies inItaly, and took the degree of M.D. of Pisa and Bologna in1826. Dr. Steggall embarked successfully in general prac-tice, but this he relinquished in 1836, when he became aMember of the College of Physicians, and was for manyyears physician to the Metropolitan Free Hospital. Oflate years Dr. Steggall had devoted himself almost entirelyto the work of tuition, in which he was very successful,having the faculty of attracting pupils by his systematicand clear method of stating a subject for their considera-tion. He was the author of the well-known manuals forthe College of Surgeons and for the Apothecaries’ Hall,which had a large sale, though the recent modifications andimprovements in the examinational tests at the former in-stitution rendered the works somewhat obsolete. He also

published translations of Gregory and Celsus for the as-sistance of the student. Dr. Steggall was a lover of thefine arts, and improved his taste by his residence in Italy;for an amateur he produced some very creditable paintings.He married an Italian lady, and has left a family, one ofwhom is an able member of the medical profession.

THOMAS ANNANDALE, M.R.C.S. ENG., L.R.C.S. EDIN.,NEWCASTLE-ON-TYNE.

Mr. THOMAS ANNANDALE died suddenly at Wetheral,near Carlisle, on the 14th of November. He was bornin 1808, and commenced his professional studies as an

apprentice in Edinburgh with the late Dr. Aitken. After

attending the various classes required, he became a licen-tiate of the Edinburgh College, and then acted as house-surgeon to the late Mr. Liston in the Royal Infirmary. Hedevoted himself specially to the study of anatomy and sur-gery, spending some time in Dublin in order better toacquire a practical knowledge of these subjects. Havingobtained the M.R.C.S. and L.S.A., Mr. Annandale settled inhis native town, Newcastle-on-Tyne, and soon acquired alarge general practice in the town and neighbourhood. Hewas at first unsuccessful in his application for the office ofSurgeon to the Newcastle Infirmary, but, at a later period,he received the appointment, and held it until about fiveyears ago, when an attack of paralysis obliged him to giveup his practice. He retired to Wetheral, near Carlisle,where he recovered in great measure, but a few months agohe received a blow on the head and a severe shock whiletravelling in the Scotch express train which came into col-lision near Newcastle. He was never well after this in-

jury, and died suddenly with symptoms of apoplexy aftercomplaining of slight sickness. His great abilities as asurgeon and operator were always acknowledged, and wereheld in high esteem by the late Mr. Liston, and there is nodoubt that if circumstances had permitted him to devote

, himself more exclusively to surgery he would have taken a. high position in connexion with it. Mr. Annandale wasL one of the first surgeons in this country to practise the: operation of subcutaneous tenotomy (in the year 1838)., As a man, Mr. Annandale was remarkable for his thorough

honesty and uprightness, and was deservedly beloved, and respected by his friends and patients. His peculiar, kindness to his hospital and poorer patients was well known,. and the news of his death will give rise to many heartfelt; and grateful testimonies of sorrow on "Tyne side."

DUMB MADNESS AMONG FOXHOUNDS.-It has beenL decided, at a meeting of country gentlemen interested inj the Durham County Foxhounds, that the whole pack shall

be destroyed, in consequence of the appearance amongst, them of a curious malady called U dumb madness," said to

resemble a combination of diphtheria and hydrophobia, aswell as of the outbreak of the latter disease pure andsimple.