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the ground that they have only a life-interestin their estates. They consider, as a body, Ithe life-interest and the entail of more value

than the unconditional interest enjoyedwithout the entail. The CHANCELLOR OF THE

EXCHEQUER is bound to take their own mea-

sure of value, and must arrive inevitably atthe same conclusion.

The profits of some trades and professionscan be transmitted unimpaired to children,provided the children have the industry and

capacity of the parents ; or the introductionto the practice-the " goodwill" of the busi-

ness-may be sold; but the gain from thissource is an inadequate compensation for the

contingencies of sickness, infirmity, and theuncertainty of practice. Moreover, on the

assumption we have made all along, the

wages of labour, comprising the greater partof the professional man’s income, will be

taxed at the same rate as the rent of land, orthe interest of capital ; a concession in favourof land and fundholders, of much more valuethan the advantage derivable from the sale

or transmission of " goodwill."Land cannot evade the tax any where but

in the Legislature ; and there may be somedifficulty in ascertaining the real incomes ofconsulting physicians and surgeons ; whenceit will be, perhaps, supposed that their

incomes will be under-rated. But the pro-

bability is that, as men of honour, they willreturn the true amount; for they are as

much interested in overstating as in under-

stating their professional incomes. The caseis well known of Sir EVERARD HOME, whoburnt JOHN HUNTER’S papers, and unfortu-

nately acted under no restraint of moral

principle : he exaggerated his income in thereturn under the old tax. The objection doesnot apply to the general practitioners, whokeep day-books and ledgers. After all, tomake the tax just, will be the best safeguardagainst evasion.

PHTHISIS.—In a report on phthisis madeat Martinique by M. Rufz, the reporterobserves, that phthisis is less an hereditarydisease transmitted from parent to child, thana congenital disorder proper to childrenissuing from the same family.

ROYAL MEDICAL AND CHIRUR-GICAL SOCIETY.

Tuesday, April 12, 1842.

Dr. WILLIAMS. President.

THE PLAGUE AND THE QUARANTINE LAWS," Notice of Cases of Plague contracted in the

Lazaretto of Constantinople, in a Letteraddressed to John Dary, M.D., F.R.S.,Inspector- General of Military Hospitals,By Mons. PEZZONI, Conseiller d’Etat aS. M.l’Empereur de toutes les Russes;attach a la Legation Imperiale pris laS. Porte, in proof of the Contagion ofPlague; with Remarks by the former."Communicated by Dr. HODGKIN.

DR. DAVY observes, that the long agitatedand very important question, whether theplague is truly a contagious disease, or

merely an endemic or epidemic, is not de-cided, appears clearly from two of the latestworks published on the subject, viz., thoseof Clot Bey and Mons. Boulard. By theformer an attempt is made to prove that theoriental plague is not contagious ; whilst bythe latter the contrary is maintained. Thisdifference of opinion is the more remarkable,as their researches were conducted chieflyin the same country, Egypt, and about thesame time, and in part in conjunction, bothof them having belonged to a commission,which, for a considerable time, devotedthemselves to the investigation of the maladywithin the walls of a plague hospital. Dr.

Davy remarks, that it is very desirable this

question should be brought to an end; forwhilst it is undecided, there is little proba.bility of anything of moment being attemptedin regard to the quarantine laws, whichstand in so much need of being revised andreformed.

Dr. Davy states, that he left England inNovember last, employed by her Majesty’sGovernment on particular service, with in-structions from the foreign secretary to makeespecial inquiries on the subject in question,in connection with the quarantine system.His mind, he says, was in a state of doubton the point at issue, but if he had a bias, itwas rather in favour of the noncontagionist,At Constantinople he found all the medicalmen of any experience decided contagionists,but his own opinion remained the same tillthe month of J une, when some facts came tohis knowledge which appeared to be demon-strative that plague is really contagious,These facts were briefly the following :-Ata time when Constantinople and its neigh-bourhood were free from plague, and hadbeen so for three years, a vessel arrived fromEgypt with cases of the disease on board,which, with the whole of the crew and pas.sengers, their effects, and merchandise, weredisembarked, and placed in quarantine in

the Lazaretto. Of the guardians andporters employed on this service, two con-

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tracted the disease, one of whom died ; they that he had no kind of fear of the disease,entered on the duty in good health ; they for he did not believe it to be contagious.belonged to a population of 800,000 souls, He would ask the advocates of contagion,free even from the suspicion of plague, and how they explained the fact that the diseasehad been so for three years, and which re- almost alwa3 s commenced its ravages aboutmains free up to the time of Dr. D.’s depar- the 17th of December, assumed a milder

ture, the latter end of September, unless an character the latter end of the followingexception be made in the case of a monk May, and disappeared about the 17th of

just liberated from the Lazaretto, and who, June? If the disease were really conta-it cannot be doubted, contracted the disease gious, how was this to be explained ? Hewhilst confined there. These two cases, would relate a circumstance which occurredwith a notice of the monk and the son and during his sojourn in Egypt at the time thedaughter of the surveyor of the Lazaretto, plague was prevalent. Two young surgeonsare the subjects of the letter addressed by were ordered out to that country to takeM. Pezzoni to Dr. Davy. The author is a charge of the plague hospital, and were halfgentleman long resident in Constantinople, a dead with fright in consequence; they ap-member of the Superior Council of Health, plied to him, and stated their mission; heand who for many years has specially di- told them there was nothing to be alarmedrected his attention to the question of the at, he had himself been a long time in

contagion of plague. charge of the hospital, and was as heartyM. Pezzoni details very fully all the par- and as well as ever. He recommended them

ticulars connected with these cases ; and to take off their dandy jackets, put on somethere is appended to the letter a table of the old things, and set to work with confidence.patients admitted into the hospital of the Their fears were not, however, to be over-

Lazaretto from the 8th June to 15th August, come, and he accordingly wrote to the in-as also a declaration on the part of M. le spector of hospitals to send older hands to

Dr. Robert, the director-general of quaran- the task : the two "dandies" never went attine, as to the existence of the disease. all into the hospital, but died of the plagueOurlimits will not allow us to enter into these about a fortnight after landing in Egypt. Ifinteresting details, but we may state that the plague were contagious, in what wayDr. Davy expresses his desire that the facts did the contagion cease to act? Let thebrought forward by M. Pezzoni should have contagionists bear in mind that the diseasethe same weight with others as they have invariably commenced in the interior of thehad with himself; and he held conclusive country, and according to the direction of thethat plague can be propagated by contagion wind so was the course which the diseasein persons in good health, and in a place and followed. With respect to the treatment

atmosphere in a healthy state. Dr. Davy pursued, some, among the chief of whomadds, that about the same time that the was Dr. White, had carried bleeding to aproofs of the contagious nature of plague great extent; others had employed bark ;were afforded in the Lazaretto of Constanti- others opium. The different modes of thenople, a similar case occurred in the Laza- rational kinds of treatment seemed to be at-retto at Malta; the facts relative to which tended with about an equal success, one-have been recorded by Dr. Gravagna, the half of those attacked usually dying : heprincipal health officer. Dr. Gravagna rea- was led to a plan of treating the diseasesons much in the same manner as M. Pez- from a circumstance too memorable for himzoniagainst the non-contagionists, consider- ever to forget. He was at a grand enter-

ing the occurrence of plague in a Maltese tainment given to the officers by Sir Davidwho communicated with plague patients in a Baird, and was sitting at the lower end ofship from Alexandria (that city bemg then the tent near to the late Sir John Moore ; ainfected with plague), as proof demonstra- servant man in the act of lialiding that distin-tive that the disease can be propagated by guished officer a glass of wine, became sud-contact.

, denly pale, the face almost instantly assum-"If," adds Davy, " this be admitted to ing the colour so peculiar to the low typhoid

be proved, an important step surely has fever. The man died of the plague the fol-been made in the inquiry, which, followed lowing day. Reasoning upon the cause ofup with caution, may ultimately bring the the blood leaving the capillaries, he was ledinvestigation to a satisfactory end, so that to the employment of the warm-bath, and toour knowledge of plague may be on a simi- the administration of stimulants, such as

lar footing to that of variola, or any other ether and brandy, with the view of gettingdisease which can be mentioned, that has the skin to act ; when perspiration occurred,been carefully and dispassionately studied." the patient was safe. He never lost a pa-Mr. DAVIES had had much experience of tient after the adoption of this treatment ; he

the plague. He had at one time a plague always took care to have a warm-bath readyhospital under his care, had slept in the tent for use. With regard to buboes in plague,with plague patients, and therefore felt com- where they went on to suppuration, the pa-petent to give an opinion of the nature of the tient recovered, as he did also if you coulddisease. In the first place, he might state produce well the smallest degree of ptyalism.

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He considered the quarantine laws unjust ple, did not make its appearance until someand unnecessary, and in many instances the time after the vessel had left Alexandria,causes of much disease, from keeping The germs of the disease must then haveanxious persons six weeks unnecessarily from been imbibed at Alexandria; might not, then,landing. the quarantine, by detecting the latent germ

Dr. JAMES JOHNSON remarked, that seve- in some cases, prevent personal contact,ral physicians who had written upon the and thereby the spread of the disease?plague had observed the same facts at the Mr. Davies had not proved the plague tosame time, but had drawn opposite conclu- be non-contagious with any other facts thansions from them: this arose from one set of would apply to any other well-known con-them having made their observations through tagious disease, which might originate in

green glasses, the others through blue ; one one way and be propagated in another. Thisobserved the disease to have its origin in the was the case with typhus, which, when oncemud of the Nile, and therefore considered it produced, lie believed was unquestionablyan epidemic ; another had remarked its contagious ; all evidence on the matter, hespreading from buboes, and considered it thought, favoured this opinion. The immu-contagious. We all knew, however, that a nity from the disease enjoyed by Mr. Daviesdisease might originate in one way, and be was no proof of the plague not being conta.propagated in another; that it might arise gious, it only showed a peculiarity of systemfrom the soil, and be propagated by personal not favourable to the contraction of the dis-contact. All contagious diseases must have ease, a fact observed in all other contagioushad an origin. What answer could we give diseases. We could only answer Mr.to the question of how did syphilis arise? Davies’s question, regarding the origin andShould we say with the Irishman, that the subsidence of the disease at particularfirst man who had it, got it from the man be- periods, by remarking, that all contagiousfore him ? (Laughter.) Syphilis must have diseases were occasionally epidemic, andoriginated in one way, and have been propa- prevailed or ceased in the same manner thatgated in another: the plague, perhaps, might plague did. Dr. Addison then entered athave its origin in the soil, and be propagated some length into the question of the conta-by contact. As to its being conveyed to this gious nature of typhus fever, and animad-country by goods, it never yet had been so, verted strongly on the ill-judged and mis-and he believed never would ; it would only chievous benevolence of those who institutedbe prevalent in certain soils and in certain establishments for the reception of feveronly;seasons ; like the Barbadoes leg and other he thought the placing of fever patients toge-localised diseases, it could not be communi- ther in this way was neither doing justice tocated everywhere: the cholera was not them, to the medical ofticers, nor to the stu- ,

brought to this country, but came of its own dents. It was well known that every personaccord ; and when it did come, there were connected with the Fever Hospital had suf-

plenty of contagionists who said it would re- fered from the disease.main, and be propagated by personal contact. Mr. CAESAR HAWKiNs remarked, that weThese persons, however, had been deceived. were in want of facts regarding the plague, ;,He did not quite agree with Mr. Davies, without which we should not be able to ar- -that the plague was altogether without con- rive at an accurate conclusion as to its truetagious properties ; indeed, the matter of nature. To show how difficult it was on

buhoe had, when inoculated into a person, some occasions to arrive at the origin of con-given origin to the disease. tagion in some well-known contagious dis-Mr. DAVIES admitted the accuracy of the eases, he related the following fact :-Many

last statement made by Dr. Johnson; but years since, when he was demonstrator ofthen it must be remembered, in cases of ino-. anatomy at the Great Windmill-street School,culation that there was necessarily a breach the body of a person was brought in who iof surface, a widely different state of things had died of small-pox. Immediately it wasthan a mere personal contact with a plague discovered that such was the case, the bodypatient. Dr. White, whom he had alluded to was placed in the middle of the museumwhen speaking of the treatment of thedis- connected with the establishment, and theease, had, after many attempts, succeeded in pupils did not even know of its presence;killing himself by the inoculation of the they merely passed the door of the museummatter of a plague buboe ; but then other on going to lecture; but six of them becamemorbid matters, such as that from puerperal affected with the disease, and became locatedperitonitis, would have produced the same at various parts of the town. The mode inresult, which the disease had been propagated in

Dr. ADDISON did not believe that"-the these cases would have been quite inexpli.plague would be brought into this country cable in the absence of the knowledge of theby merchandise; but he could not regard the fact he had mentioned.

quarantine laws as useless. He referred to Mr. DAVIES saw no kind of benefit whichthe statements made in the paper to the could possibly arise from the quarantineeffect that the plague on board the ship laws, they were not only useless but incon’which conveyed the disease to Constantino- sistsnt. Thus, for instance, a man-of w

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arriving at Spithead with the yellow flagfloating at the mast-head, was only kept inquarantine for fifty or sixty hours, while atransport under similar circumstances wasdetained for six weeks ! He was quite at aloss to understand how the rank of the com-manding officer could have an influence onthe contagious results of the disease.Dr. TRUMAN believed that the quarantine

laws required revision, but could not admitthat they were useless; he thought them anecessary safeguard. It by no means fol-lowed that because adisease was contagious,that all persons who came under its influenceshould be attacked and die. How manycame in contact with cholera patients, anddid not contract the disease ! He repeated,that he thought the quarantine laws shouldbe amended, but not abolished.

Dr. GREGORY said, that only one personhad risen to advocate the non-contagiousnature of the plague : he was gratified atthis, because he should regret that it shouldgo abroad that the society had deliberatelycome to the conclusion that the plague wasnot contagious. The absence of fear in Mr.Davies was no argument in the question ; apractitioner in the Ionian Isles had the samefearlessness of the disease, but died from itin consequence of going into the Plague Hos-pital. The arguments which had been ad-duced against the contagious nature of theplague, applied with equal force to small-pox. He recollected going round the hospi-tals in Paris, and finding in the Hotel Dieueight or ten cases of small-pox scatteredabout the wards, and yet no instance hadbeen known of the disease having spreadfrom these cases. Here, some would say,-was a clear proof that the disease was not

contagious, but merely an endemic affection :so, when small-pox patients were traced fromthe hospital to their homes, the family wouldoften assure the inquirer that the patientshad never come in contact with a personaffected with the disease. You would not,however, assert, in the face of the abundanceof evidence to the contrary, that from thesefacts the small-pox was not contagious.Dr. WEBSTER considering that Mr. Davies

spoke from personal experience, and theother spealiers from hearsay, should attachmore importance to the observations of theformer than to those of the latter. He hadbeen struck when in the Levant with thefact, that all the medical men who had inte-rest in the quarantine laws were contagion-ists ; whilst those who had no interest in thematter, and judged from the facts they ob-served, were often of the contrary opinion.The late Sir Thomas Maitland, the governorof the Ionian Islands, never paid any respectto the quarantine laws ; he (Dr. W.) believedthat when the disease prevailed at Malta, noEnglishman had been attacked by it. He

thought the quarantine laws vexatious andunnecessary.

Mr. ARNOTT had had no personal experi.ence in the matter under discussion. Thereasoning respecting the nature of small-poxdid not hold good with respect to plague, forthe former spread itself throughout the worldin all climates and seasons, whilst theplague was confined to the Levant: the factsrespecting the last-named disease were sodoubtful, that it would be well if we couldarrive at a satisfactory conclusion by experi-ment. The quarantine laws when altered,must be altered simultaneously by othercountries as well as England.

Dr. WEATHERHEAD thought the very dif-ference of opinion which existed regardingplague justified some kind of quarantine.He objected that the evidence in the paperread to the society was too meagre to formany opinion upon.

WESTMINSTER MEDICAL SOCIETY.

Saturday, April 23, 1842.

Dr. GOLDING BIRD, President.PECULIAR POWER IN THE DIAI’HRAGM.-SUD-DEN DEATH.-DROPSY WITHOUT OBVIOUS

CAUSE.-SULPHURIC ACID IN SCABIES.

DR. CTIOWNR related some particulars of thecase of a woman in the Charing-Cross Hos-pital, suffering under hysterical nervous

pains of the left knee and hip. The onlypeculiarity in her case consisted in herhaving the power of producing a sensation,when examined, as though she had a move-able tumour under the cartilages of the ribs,on the left side. The movement of thetumour was synchronous with the action ofthe diaphragm, and seemed to depend onsome power she possessed over that muscle.When she was talking, or when her atten-tion was directed to any object, the tumourcould no longer be felt. The tumour wasnot in the situation of either of the recti, andwas different from the swellings sometimesproduced in these muscles.

CASE or SUDDEN DEATH FROM SPASM OF THE

HEART.

Dr. G. BillD related the case of a littleboy, about nine years of age, who had reco-vered from a slight illness, with which hehad been affected for two or three days.One morning early he was found dead be-tween two other children in bed, havingdied apparently without a struggle, andwithout any previous symptom whatever,

eexcept the occurrence of bilious vomiting thenight previous. On examining the body

. thirty-six hours after death, the only appear-aet;es at all worth mentioning were a con-gested state of the longitudinal sinus, and theI entire surface of the brain ; there was noeil’usion in the arachnoid and ventriclesthere was no unusual number of bloodyI points in the substance of the brain. Both

ventricles of the heart were much con-