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point in balloons, &c. It seemed paradoxical to deny physio-logical experiments, but we did not prevent glaucoma or agueby physiology, but rather by empirical rules ; so was it withregard to chloroform and prevention of accidents. Oxygen,too, had been tried, but found wanting : the blood was notdeoxygenized, at least by chloroform. Anaesthesia was likehybernation. The blood would not take up pure oxygen. Ina case at a Borough hospital where oxygen was accuratelytried it proved useless. There was a fear that students trustedtoo much to a complex apparatus. They did not detect thedanger early enough. To them " mixtures" like those of thenew Pharmacopoeia, would be a sort of mitigation of danger-akind of drag to the wheel of anxsthetic progress. Nor didthe heart first stand still, as supposed by some ; it was a popularerror. While as to nitrous oxide, and even ether, they were bothnow given up in America, where they had been extensivelyadministered.

Dr. WYNN WILLIAMS recommended that in collapse fromchloroform warm port-wine should be injected by an O’Beirne’stube. He had tried this in collapses from other causes, and hadfound it to act energetically. It seemed, he thought, by in-creasing the warmth and by giving a stimulant at the sametime, to meet Mr. Savory’s remarks.

Dr. BALLARD objected to that part of the report in which theuse of chloroform in the convulsion of children was recom-mended. He was satisfied that it had no beneficial effect, andasked if its use had been recommended after a trial in cases.

Mr. CURLING said it was not recommended that chloroformshould be given until reaction set in after injuries, but then itacted beneficially in the operation by diminishing shock. In

reply to Dr. Ballard he said that the recommendations of theCommittee were based on a series of facts, and after a large ex-perience.

Dr. HARLEY said the action of chloroform on the corpuscleswas but slight, but if ether were added, it dissolved the wallsof the corpuscles. It had been long observed by Dr. Jack-son, of New York, that chloroform produced formic acid in thesystem; but it was impossible to trace the changes. If bloodwere shaken up with ether it would sometimes crystallize.Diseased blood would also sometimes crystallize spontaneously,while blood after slow death from chloroform, when shakenup with ether, always became like a mass of crystals.

(Dr. Harley then introduced to the notice of the Society aninhaler sent to him by Dr. Skinner, of Liverpool, and also aningenious apparatus, invented by Dr. Squire, for measuring accu-rately the per-centage of chloroform.)

Dr. PEARSON said he was surprised to find that chloroformwas more feared here than in Edinburgh, where it was invented.In Edinburgh apparatus was altogether disregarded. He feltcertain that it was safer to give chloroform without an inhalerthan with one.

Dr. HYDE SALTER said that chloroform might be given so asto prevent pain and yet not produce insensibility; for thishe could vouch, as he had experienced it himself. If, then, itcould be discovered how to do this, it would not only lessenthe risk, but would diminish the fear of the use of the drug.

Dr. WRIGHT said that the inhaler had been used a year inMr. Spencer Wells’s ovariotomy operations, but it was liableto the objection that a good deal of the chloroform escaped,and thus affected the bystanders.Mr. BIRKETT, one of the honorary secretaries, said that it

had been impossible for him to read the whole of the abstract,but he had only omitted those parts which the reporters hadagreed should be omitted.

Reviews and Notices of Books.Lectures on the Elements of Comparative Anatomy. By T. H.

HUXLEY, F.R.S. London: Churchill and Sons.

WE are glad to see Professor Huxley’s valuable HunterianLectures published as a convenient and portable volume, andto find from the preface that year by year each course is toappear in a similar form. Our readers had the opportunity,last year, of perusing the greater number of these lectures-allthose which relate to the structure of the vertebrate cranium-almost as soon as they were delivered; and, being excellentlyreported, and having numerous clear illustrations, many ofwhich were copied from the rapidly-formed diagrams made bythe lecturer at the time on the black-board, they possess a

value of their own. These diagrams, saved from oblivion bythe skill of a well-known eminent artist and zoologist, willretain their value to the student; and they give, in many in-stances, a clearer idea of structure than the most finished plates,which often confuse the eye of the learner by their complexity.In their present form these lectures are somewhat modi-

fied from the condition in which we reported them; andfrom page 1 to 112 the reader will find a masterly outline ofthe structure of the Invertebrata, and a comprehensive classifi-cation of the whole animal kingdom. We shall confine ourremarks to that portion of the work which relates to the struc.ture of the vertebrate skull, and therefore to those lectureswhich have already appeared in our pages.The skull with which we are all most familiar, and the

nomenclature of which has to be repeated throughout thewhole sub-kingdom, is the one belonging to our own species;and there is no little difficulty arising to the student fromhaving to take his start from this most highly modified craniumand face. Another difficulty, equal to the first, arises out ofthe fact that every student is fain to begin with the adult;rather than with the embryo; and a long and most painstakingcourse of investigation must be followed before he can becomean embryological expert-before the touch becomes sufficientlydelicate, the eye keen enough, and the hand possessed of thenecessary skill to copy the structures into which the wondrousvertebrate germ differentiates itself. This has always been thecase, and therefore the best authors have taken many thingsfor granted; so that the art of unlearning is next in value tothe art of learning; and the patient student of developmentfinds, day by day, that his most honoured masters must, forthe time, be held in suspect: for it is his business to " proveall things," and to " hold fast that which is good."The anatomical student cannot pass from the mammalian

skull to that of the bird without finding himself in perplexityat once: the occipital condyle has become single, and theupper part of the occipital squama-that which is developedin membrane-has disappeared. But the most puzzling boneis the basi-sphenoid, reaching from the basi-occipital to theseptum na,si, and throwing out processes which he will lookfor in vain in the human skull, and indeed in that of most ofthe mammalia. He will also find that the lower half of thethick posterior part of the bone is developed from a pair ofcentres which he will not remember to have seen in the mam-malian skull. It was a most happy suggestion of Prof. Huxleyto compare these large bones of the bird-and indeed of thetrue reptilia also-with the small " sphenoidal lingulæ" of thehuman skull: he was perfectly right in this identification,which is certainly of the greatest importance. In all the gill-bearing vertebrata the true basi-sphenoid is either quite abortedor most feebly represented; in them there is a long flat mem-brane-formed bone underlying the whole of the skull-base, saveits anterior and posterior ends : this bone has been most felici-tously separated by Prof. Huxley from its mere analogues inthe abranchiate vertebrates, and appropriately called the "para-sphenoid." But the masterpiece of this work is that partwhich treats of the auditory structures, and this whether weconsider it in its bibliographical or its observational aspect.By directing especial attention to this portion of the work (pages147 to 161), we are showing that our author is not a man who"cannot find his hands;" he well knows how to use them

both, and we cannot refrain from admiring that strength andclearness of mind which with equal ease deals with both authorsand organisms. Professor Huxley’s favourite author, Rathke,showed a great insight into this matter; but the whole ques-tion of its development in the vertebrata generally was nevermastered, nor half mastered, before these lectures were deli-vered. We intend to say that the main difficulty is over; notthat every bone in all the classes can, in this region of thehead, be put side by side with its true counterpart and homo-logue in all the class-groups. It is due to the great Germanembryologists to say that it is to them we owe the clear dis-

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tinction between bones formed in cartilage and bones formedin mere connective tissue. This piece of science, trnly socalled, is of vital and fundamental importance; and, to thestudent of the present day, it is pitiful to see the absurd

guesses as to true homology made by the greatest anatomistsof the old gradational school. Function generally settled thematter, than which nothing is more deceptive. No clear ideawas ever obtained of the primordial cartilaginous skull, withits facial basket-work; and the secondary splint-bones-merelycalcified patches of fibrous tissue-were continually confoundedwith primary and fundamental parts.

Sir Chas. Bell, in his work " On the Human Hand" (p. 170),showed himself to be greatly scandalized at the idea that thehuman " incus" and the ornithic " os quadratum" were homo-logous bones. No; they were created, he reverently believed,for totally distinct purposes; and, to his mind, there seemed tobe some lurking wickedness, as well as evident untruth, in sofoolish a comparison. With our modern lights this great authorwould have revelled in so fruitful and beautiful a discovery-thekey to the comparison of the mammalian face-bones with thoseof the ovipara generally. Now the science will grow apace;for we have found that the wings of transcendentalism are ofno service; and that in a bent and constrained posture-on ourvery hands and feet-we must be content to creep into thesedark caves, full of

" the hidden riches of secret places."One word of advice to the student: Begin at the beginning;

learn, by observation on the chick and the tadpole, what kindof a thing the notochord is, and where it ends anteriorly. Lookwell to the rafters of the cranium (" trabeculae cranii"); andto the subdivision of the body into its somatomes and metaso-matornes; and be sure for yourself that the primordial craniumis one and indivisible. Before all things it is necessary to do

this, or you will be tempted back again into the by-paths ofthe old and exploded heresies.

In the lamprey, the shark, the pike, the reptile, and thebird,-those various pages of the book of Nature,-our memberswere written; and it is the delightful work of the develop-mental anatomist to read the writing, and to make known theinterpretation. We believe that Prof. Huxley’s volume is byfar the best handbook the student has ever had put before him;and we heartily hope that the life of its distinguished authormay be as

" the life of a tree," so that the yearly volume mayin time grow into a library.

CORONERS’ INQUESTS WITHOUT MEDICALEVIDENCE.

To the Editor of THE LANCET.SIR,-I deem it my duty to lay before your readers the three

following cases of violent death, which have occurred in mypractice during the last twelve months; in each of which casesan inquest has been held, and in none of which has Mr. Birdthought fit to require the evidence of a medical man as to thecause of death.CASE I.-Some months since I was called in great haste to

see a man who had fallen off the shaft of a large market-gardener’s waggon, and over whose head the wheel had passed.On my arrival at the place where the accident had occurred, Ifound the man still alive, bleeding profusely from the nose andears : in a few minutes he had ceased to exist. I had the bodyconveyed to the nearest public-house, where, some days after-wards, a hurried inquest was held by Mr. Bird. No medicalevidence w6ts required; and a verdict of "Accidental death"

"

was returned. I wrote to Mr. Bird to know why I had notbeen required to give evidence as to the cause of death, whenhe politely informed me " he did not consider it necessary."CASE 2.-Some short time subsequently, a grave-digger,

while engaged in removing the struts which are used in shoringup the graves in the West Brompton Cemetery, by some chanceremoved the wrong one first, when the sides of the grave col-lapsed, and he was literally buried alive. I was at once sentfor, and remained for upwards of an hour while the unfortunateman was being dug out. When brought to the surface I foundlife was extinct. An inquest was held ; no medical evidence

was requil’ed ; and a verdict of "Accidental death" was re-turned.CASE 3.-On Sunday night, June 26th, at eleven o’clock, I

was hastily summoned to see a paralytic woman, who, whilesitting on a cracked chamber, smashed it in several pieces, oneof which entered the left gluteal region, quite close to therectum, wounding several of the large hemorrhoidal arteries.The bleeding was sudden and profuse, and on my arrival Ifound her cold and collapsed, and the blood still flowing persaltum. Procuring the assistance of my friend Dr. St. John,we secured the large vessels, and passing three hare-lip needlesthrough the wound, secured all with the figure-of-oo suture.The bleeding was completely controlled. Some days afterwardstraumatic delirium set in ; subsequently effusion on the brain ;and she died on the 1st of this month. Information was for-warded to the coroner. -Ye medical witness was examined. Iwas told that the inquest was to be held at a quarter past nineA.M., and at twenty minutes past nine I proceeded to thepublic-house. On my way there I was surprised to meet oneof the jury, who told me "it was all over," and the usual ver-dict of " Accidental death" returned.

This last case has determined me to make public Mr. Bird’smethod of holding inquests, which, sooner or later, must frus-trate the ends of justice.

I remain, Sir, your obedient servant,RICHARD DANIELL, F.R. C.S.I. (Exa.m.), &o.

Fulham-road, July 9th, 1864.RICHARD DANIELL, F.R.C.S.I. (Exam.), &c.

THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE ROYAL COLLEGEOF SURGEONS.

To the Editor of THE LA....""CET.

SIR,-A short time ago you were good enough to publish a.letter which I addressed to you on the subject of the examina-tions at the College of Surgeons. The remarks I then madereferred chiefly to the Membership ; will you allow me now to

say a few words about the Fellowship ?.

I have always been in the habit of regarding the Membershipas an imperfect degree. Like the B. A. or M. B. of our Univer-

i sities, it is a step to something higher; and it seems mostdesirable that every obstacle should be removed which prevents, men from becoming Fellows, and induces them to rest contentedwith the Membership.Excluding Graduates in Arts and those who were in practice

before 1844, the present regulations require that a man shall; either have spent six years at a recognised hospital, or that he: shall have been twelve years in practice, before he can offerr himself for examination. Now what is the value of these re-

quirements ? Do they imply any standard of knowledge ? Do

they give any guarantee which could not be better obtained bya searching examination, conducted partly on paper, partly atthe bedside, as I suggested in my former letter?

I On the other hand, there can be little doubt that they preventmany men from proceeding to the Fellowship. A young manwho leaves town as soon as he is qualified, and settles in thecountry at a distance from any recognised hospital, must give

up all hope of becoming a Fellow until he has been twelveyears in practice, no matter how distinguished he may have3 been as a student; and when he has been twelve years in prac-1 tice other considerations come into play. He will probably

have neither the time nor the inclination to read up anatomyand physiology; the expense may be a matter of importance to

) him. Moreover, he may not like, particularly if he is a patei’-familias, to run the risk of being plucked at the age of thirty-. three! And thus it happens that he is practically excludedL from a diploma which he would be glad to obtain, and which1 he would hold with credit.r I would, therefore, venture to suggest that these require-- ments should be withdrawn, and that their place should bel filled by some rule of this sort:-"iThat any Member shall be’ admitted to examination for the Fellowship who shall haveb completed three (or say four) years from the date of his Member-t ship." At the same time one would be glad to see the examina-

tion made more practical, and the standard raised as high as, the Council might think proper.; The other rules relating to the admission to the Fellowship9 might, perhaps, be revised with advantage; but my present- object is to draw special attention to the points that I haveb mentioned, because it seems to me that their effect is prejudicialto the best interests of the College and of the profession.1 I am, Sir, your obedient servant,6 Curzon-street, May-fair, June, 1864. 3I. FAIRLIE CLABKE.WM. FAIRLIE CLARKE.