48 THE LONDON CUTANEOUS INFIRMARY.-UNIVERSITY OF LONDON.

more. Charities destined to receive them ought therefore to besituated on the outskirts of the town, where the air is not conta-minated by the thousand emanations of cities, and where groundsmay be obtained in which they can take exercise. If it were

found that the remoteness of such a locality diminished the utility-of a charity by preventing the poor from applying for assistance,it would be an easy matter to separate the consulting from thereceiving department. Let a dispensary be retained in the cityfor the facility of consultation, whilst the wards in which thepatients are received and treated, are established in a more healthylocality. Thus proper ground for exercise might be procuredwheres, in the house in Bridge-street, as it would be impossibleto allow the patients to promenade in the streets, they wouldhave to remain confined to a room or two during the entireterm of treatment, which in skin diseases is seldom very short,although not only perfectly able to walk about, but absolutelyrequiring exercise and fresh air as parts of their treatment. It

must be allowed by all that the choice of the locality, on the partof the institution, is singularly infelicitous. That the proposedsituation would be a good one, in a "business" point of view, thereis no denying; that, even in a hygienic sense, it is a slight improve-ment on its present position in London Wall, owing to the

proximity of the Thames, and the greater purity of the atmo-sphere, is probable. But the managers of a public institution,even so modest a one as the Cutaneous Infirmary, when theycontemplate changing its site, ought not to be contented

with a slight improvement. They should endeavour to adoptsuch a plan as will give their patients every possible advantage,and one of the most important points in all hospitals is the

greatest attainable purity of atmosphere. Instead of comingfurther into London, the Infirmary ought to go further out; it

ought to try to get quite on the outskirts of town. At a

meeting held last Monday week, at Radley’s Hotel, convened on arequisition signed by seventy of the most influential householdersof the vicinity, petitions to the Court of Common Council and tothe Court of Sewers were unanimously agreed to, and a com-mittee was requested to wait upon the managers of the Infirmary,to represent the state of feeling in the neighbourhood upon thesubject of its erection. We have not yet heard the result of thesemeasures, but cannot for a moment suppose that the authoritieswill allow the establishment of the Infirmary in Bridge-street.

In the next LANCET we shall probably be sufficiently faradvanced in our inquiry into the alleged abuses of the GeneralHospital at Birmingham, as to be able to state a considerable

portion of the case of the malcontents.

UNIVERSITY OF LONDON.

WE are desirous, in the most prompt manner, to correct someerrors which appear in our notice of the regulations for

medical degrees in this university, inserted in the last LANCET.It is there stated, (p. 1 of this vol.) that the first examination forthe degree of Bachelor of Medicine commences on the first Mon-day in July; and the second examination for the same, on thethird Monday in July. Instead of these periods, the publishedregulations of the university for 1844, state that-for the degreeof Bachelor of Medicine-

The FIRST EXAMINATION shall take place once a-year, andcommence on the first Monday in 4M."—Regul. p. 12.

The SECOND EXAMINATION shall take place once a-year, andcommence on the first Monday in November."-Regul. p. 16.

*** We earnestly recommend our readers to refer to the Stu-dent’s Number of last week, and make the above corrections atonce.

REVIEWS.

Chemistry, as exemplifying the Wisdom ctnad Beneficence of God.By GEORGE FowNES, Ph.D., Chemical Lecturer in the Md-dlesex-Hospital Medical School. London: J. Churchill, 1844.8vo, pp. 184. (The Actonian Prize Essay.)This interesting work of Dr. Fownes originated in a recent

munificent bequest, the particulars of which are as follow:- -

" In the year 1838, Mrs. Hannah Acton, widow of the lateSamuel Acton, Esq., of Euston-square, from motives of respectand regard for the memory of her deceased husband, and in orderto carry into effect his desire and intention, caused an investmentto be made of the sum of one thousand pounds, in the three percent. Consol. Bank Annuities, in the names of the trustees ofthe Royal Institution of Great Britain, the interest of which wasto be devoted to the formation of a fund, out of which the sum ofone hundred guineas was to be paid septennially, as a reward orprize to the person who, in the judgment of the committee ofmanagers for the time being of the institution, should havebeen the author of the best essay illustrative of the wisdom andbeneficence of the Almighty, in such department of science asthe committee of managers should, in their discretion, haveselected-the form and conditions of the essay being also, in

great measure, left to the choice of that body. ’1 he subjectchosen for the prize of the first period of seven years was,11 chemistry, as exemplifying the Wisdom and Beneficence ofGod."

The prize was awarded, in April last, to Dr. Fownes, the suc-cessful candidate, who has been allowed, by the committee ofmanagers of the Royal Institution, to publish his treatise. This

Dr. Fownes states that he has done, without alteration from theoriginal manuscript, the property of the institution.We are not at all surprised that Dr. Fownes should have been

the successful competitor, for his treatise is certainly a mostscientific, talented, and interesting work. Following in the foot-steps of the learned authors of the Bridgewater treatises, he hasbeen able, by taking a general view of chemistry in its relationto the earth, the surrounding atmosphere, and to animal and

vegetable physiology, to accumulate an immense number of

facts, affording the most satisfactory proofs of design, and of thewisdom, power, and benevolence of the Deity.

Dr. Fownes divides his subject into four sections: the chemicalhistory of the earth and atmosphere; the peculiarities whichcharacterize organic substances generally; the composition andsustenance of plants; and the relations existing between plantsand animals. A slight sketch of the leading chemical lawswhich govern each of these sections, as also of the present stateof our knowledge with reference to them, is first given; and themanner in which the laws are conducive to the integrity andwelfare of the animated world is then forcibly explained andillustrated. Dr. Fownes has thus been able to present to his

readers, in the most clear and readable manner, a summary ofthe modern discoveries of chemistry as applied to agriculture, onthe one hand, and to the vegetable and animal kingdom on theother. Even the experienced chemist will find applications ofphenomena familiar to him, which must strike him as novel;whilst the tyro will not only acquire a vast fund of invaluableinformation respecting inorganic, and more especially organicchemistry, but must be deeply impressed with the sublime pro-fundity of the facts unfolded to him. Such is the rapidity withwhich chemical science progresses, that although the treatise wasonly written, we may say, a few months ago, additional light hassince been thrown on one or two points discussed by Dr. Fownes;but this in no way detracts from the completeness and correctnessof his work. Indeed, the fact would not have been worth mention-ing, were it not to illustrate the difficulty of keeping pace with theprogress of modern science. Dr. Fownes is an elegant andgraphic writer. As a specimen of the forcible manner in whichhe handles the subjects of which he treats, we will extract the

following passage, descriptive of the generation of animal heat.

49

" The internal capillary combustion is the source of animalheat.-Every part where blood-vessels are to be found; everypart where nervous influence is perceptible; every organ, everytissue; muscle, and brain, and nerve, and membrane, wasteaway like a burning taper, consume to air and ashes, and passfrom the system, rejected and useless; and where no means areat hand for repairing these daily and hourly losses, the individualperishes-dies more slowly, but not less surely, than by a blazingpile. He is, to the very letter, burned to death at a low tempera-ture; the various constituents of the body give way in succession;first, the fat disappears; this is the most combustible, but at thesame time the least essential; it is sacrificed; then the musclesshrink, and soften, and decay. At last the substance of the brainbecomes attacked, and madness and death close the scene. Thisis starvation!"We recommend the work strongly to our readers. To those

who studied at a time when little attention was paid to organicchemistry, it will prove invaluable, from the very clear andconcise manner in which the leading facts of that science arepresented.

MEETINGS.

THE GOVERNMENT MEDICAL REFORM BILL.

MEDICAL PROTECTION ASSEMBLY.

ON Monday evening about 350 gentlemen of the medical profession met at Exeter Hall, to agree to a protest against Sir JGraham’s proposed Medical Reform Bill.Mr. DAms, of Hampstead, was called to the chair.In opening the business of the meeting, the Chairman said, thE

fee-simple and estate of the medical professor was attacked by th(bill proposed to be introduced by Sir J. Graham. This was n01the first attack which had been made on their profession. ThEfirst was the odious Poor Law, which was put forward as a

feeler. (Hear, hear.) That law he need not describe-it was a

most odious and execrable one. (Loud cries of "Hear, hear.")The next attack or feeler was the charter granted to the Collegeof Surgeons, and this bill was really the coup de grace. (Hear,hear.)

Mr. ASBURY moved the first resolution. It related to the firstclause of the bill, which went to repeal the Apothecaries’ Act.This clause threw the profession entirely open. If the bill passedin its present shape, the general practitioner, who had spent a for-tune on his education, under the faith of the existing law, would:find his profession thrown open to any one. The plague ofLondon would not be a greater curse to the inhabitants than thisbill, if it passed. This was a bill of universal suffrage in physic.He concluded with moving the first resolution:-

" That it is proposed in the bill to repeal so much of the 55th.

of George III., cap. 194, commonly called the Apothecaries’Act, as relates to the penalties for practising as an apo-thecary without having obtained a certificate,’-that provi-sion of this existing statute being the only foundationwhich sustains the decisions of the courts of law againstunqualified practitioners in medicine; and we feel that thedestruction of the single barrier which now separates com-petently-educated practitioners in medicine from merepretenders to medical skill would be a direct attack uponthe just rights of the profession, and prove most dangerousto the public health."

Mr. JAlIIES seconded the resolution, which was agreed to una-nimously.

Dr. LYNCH moved the second resolution, and said that the bill ofSir James Graham was evidently the production of two parties-of a free-trader, who allows his crotchets to carry him to absurdextremes, and of a monopolist or oligarchist, who is anxious toperpetuate the degrading distinctions which exist in the profes-sion. The bill partakes of all the vices and deformities of suchan unnatural paternity. Sir James Graham has, by some mys-terious agency, allowed himself to be inoculated with the folly ofthe one and the mischief of the other. He advocates free tradein poison, though he is opposed to free trade in bread. He with-holds the self-government from a learned profession, though hehas given it to every corporation in the kingdom, and he main-tains those divisions in a science which is one and indivisible,which are unknown in nature and unpracticable in medicine, andwhich have been the bane of the profession, by fostering and keepingalive jealousies and heart-burnings amongst men who ought tobe equal and united. Our very existence as a profession is threat-ened. Annihilation stares us in the face. The tide of quackery,

hitherto pent up, is to be let loose. The quack, whom Swift cor-rectly describes as a vampire that lives on human blood, is here-after to have the fullest liberty to puff himself into practice, as aman possessing skill and knowledge, with the express sanction ofan act of parliament. What man in his senses would put his soninto an arduous, expensive, and often perilous avocation, when hehas to run the gauntlet for a livelihood with a daring, unprin-cipled, and reckless empiric ? Napoleon, with the eagle-eye ofgenius-with his wonderful, intuitive sagacity-saw the evilsquackery entailed on society, and at once prevented it. From thestatistics of mortality at Manchester, we learn that only four percent. of the children attended by medical men died. One-third ofthe deaths there, were from remediable diseases. They werekilled, says the registrar, by ignorant persons. Every street, andevery city, presents to your view the unfortunate dupes of theircruelty and cupidity. With their shattered frames, their hopesand future happiness blasted, life itself made a burden-the deadtell no tales-they leave no mark; " they are gone to the bournewhence no traveller returns;" they are no longer reproving re-cords of such an infamous traffic in human blood. If they couldthrow off the cerements of the tomb, and appear in long regi-mental array before Sir James, appalled by this bloody pano-rama, he would abandon his abominable bill-a bill which " TheTimes" newspaper has aptly designated a bill to injure anddestroy human life in Great Britain. No lawyer is allowed togive advice or to plead without previous examination. No clergy-man is allowed to cure souls without a similar test. No engineer-no officer in the army or navy, can take command withoutgiving evidence of competency. This is done for public protec-tion-for the safety of life. A man was fined, the other day, ;E25,for pretending to be an attorney. This was done for the pro-tection of property. The Trinity Board requires that every pilotwho navigates our coast should know his business. Yet the pro-fession in whose hands the legislature is compelled to entrust themost awful responsibility is to be open to every adventurer whochooses to practise it. He may obtain money under false pre-tences. No legislation could entirely prevent it; but hereafter itis to be openly and directly encouraged. To a man who pro-perly pursues the study of his profession, how vast and varied therange that lies before him-Sir James knows not, he cannot ap-preciate it; it extends from the simplest process of pharmacy tothe most sublime abstractions of transcendental philosophy. Hetakes within the field of his observation the relative properties andaffinities of all created things. It brings to its aid the result ofevery other science. Nothing on, or above, or under the earth,can be excluded from the legitimate knowledge of the accom-

plished practitioner. When this is done, what are the emolu-ments ? What the prospects ? What the honours ? What therewards? What the incentive to exertion or discovery ? None,really none whatever. A brilliant party speech may ennoble alawyer; a fortress taken may command the laurel and the star andgarter. By the barbarous and ignorant feudal laws, a discoverylike Jenner’s, which has saved millions, is precluded from thepeerage-although a discovery in medicine is not confined toone country; it extends to all the world, and to the end of time;it is universal, it is eternal. There are some ignorant and shallow-pated people who think it witty to revile medical men. Theyfancy themselves little Molieres. They know not that most ofthe practical triumphs in science are to be tra,ced to medical men;that the knowledge of the power of steam, which has revolutionizedthe world, and other mighty miracles which chemistry has accom-plished, are due to their labours. They know not that me-dicine has long been an inductive science, rich in accumulatedfacts, bearing upon the happiness of mankind, and in the infe-rences of numerous minds successively enlightening each other.Sir James, like the despot of old, wishes to have the governmentin his own hands; but we must be left to manage our own affairs.The composition and constitution of this council of health is a.

naked, undisguised conspiracy against the welfare and inde-pendence of the profession. We have now the age of brass; itwould then be of iron. Bad as it now is, it would be infinitelyworse then; the home secretary would be omnipotent. Whatsuccessful opposition would the few medical men at the boardgive him? Would they be disposed to offer any? Who are they?They are the representatives of the corrupt corporations, whoseinterests are at variance with the great body of the members, andwhose mercenary official career has retarded science: from suchmen we could expect neither consideration, respect, nor protection.They would form a mere cloak for any arbitrary act which ahome secretary might adopt. Sooner than submit to the enactmentof such a council, we would struggle for a college of our own,for the consolidation of the Hall and College of Surgeons into acollege of medicine and surgery, where men of intellect andscience would be placed in situations of emolument and honour.