78 BRITISH ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE.

extraordinary, indeed so disgraceful a circumstance, that a prioriwe should have said that it could only be accounted for by grossmismanagement; and a close investigation of the facts of the caseproves that mismanagement is, in reality, the cause of the presentstate of things. It appears that the medical section possesses nointernal machinery whatever to ensure, or even to promote, theobjects for which it was instituted. There is no permanent bodyto look after its interests, and the secretaries, who are onlynamed a month or two previous to the annual meeting, have nopower whatever as regards the communications addressed to thesection for perusal at the meeting. Most of the communications

are forwarded at once by their authors to the town at which theAssociation assembles, and are found there by the secretarieson their arrival. Then, indeed, a committee is appointed Ito which all papers are referred previous to being read; Ibut how is it possible for that committee, in the course of afew hours, in the midst of the hurry and bustle of the generalmeeting, carefully to peruse perhaps twenty or thirty communica-tions, to weigh their merits and demerits, to accept that which isgood, and to refuse that which is bad or indifferent ? It is im-

possible, and consequently it is not done. Such a course also isattended with another disadvantage. The medical gentlemenresiding in the locality where the Association meets think it anabsolute duty on their part to contribute to the proceedings ofthe medical section, and are consequently induced, partly fromthis motive, and partly from a wish to make a respectable ap-pearance before their fellow-citizens, to send in reports of cases&c., which, although good and interesting in themselves, havenot that scientific value which alone ought to warrant their

being read before probably the highest scientific body of GreatBritain. Yet the members of the committee, who are partlythrown, as it were, on the hospitality of their medical brethren inthe town where the meeting takes place, cannot be so ungraciousas to refuse these communications, so that nearly all are accepted.Our readers would scarcely believe how difficult it is found to

contend with the local and general influence which is broughtdirectly to bear on the medical section. At Manchester, two yearsago, a paper on mesmerism was urgently pressed on the secretary,but firmly rejected by him; and in a second edition of a localjournal, which was printed on the same day, at the expense of theauthor of the paper, the secretary was most scandalously attackedand abused for his very praiseworthy conduct. Again, this year,at York, the section has had to defend itself from papers on secretcures for sciatica and tic-douloureux, and other similar attemptsto gain publicity through its means.Can we be surprised that the medical section should fall into

discredit when thus managed ? Can we be surprised that thefirst men of the day should so seldom send an account of theirresearches and discoveries to it, knowing, as they do, that theircommunications will be lost amongst a crowd of insignificantpapers? or that the proceedings of the section should be so miserablyattended; for it appears that half a score of persons are gene-rally considered a respectable audience ? Certainly not; and wethink that we are fully justified in attributing to this defective or-ganization the inefficiency which that department has hithertoshewn.Is the medical section, however, to be extinguished, because,

owing to a defective organization, it has not produced the resultsthat were expected from it, and which might still, we think, beproduced under different management ? To such a proposal weare decidedly opposed, because we sincerely and truly believe,that in consenting to its destruction, the medical profession wouldbe sacrificing its dignity and scientific interests. Indeed, we can-not express how much we are surprised to find gentlemen towhose labours the profession owe so much, at the head of themovement which is attempting to banish medicine as a sciencefrom the British Association.

They who are favourable to the change assert-first, the pre-

sent inefficiency of the medical section; and secondly, the NON-SCIENTIFIC character of medicine! The first objection we haveanswered; to the second we can only reply, that the assertion thatmedicine is not a science, and consequently not worthy to take arank in the British Scientific Association, is unworthy of anyeducated medical practitioner of the present day, and one whichwe should scarcely have expected even from the follower of a.quack. It is, we may remark, an illustration of one of the principaldangers which bestrew the path of the medical student in the pre-sent day. Many clever men, in their ardent pursuit of what areappropriately termed (in a medical sense) the accessory sciences- viz., chemistry, botany, physiology, &c., lose sight of the endwhich they at first intended to attain, and devote themselves.nearly entirely to the study of these sciences. The result is, thattheir practical knowledge of pathology and therapeutics remainsobscure; they see nothing but difficulties; and are thus led to denyto medicine the rank and science to which it can most undoubtedlylay claim.

In the first days of the British Association, medicine wasrepresented by the section of anatomy and physiology. It was

subsequently felt that the selection of one or two of the scienceson which medicine is founded, to the exclusion of others, and tothat of the superstructure to which they all contribute, was un-justifiable, and the section of medical science was very correctlysubstituted. We sincerely hope that the general committee, whichhas taken the ensuing year to consider the matter, will not be in-duced by any personal influences to adopt a step which, we arecertain, would meet with the disapprobation of the immense ma-jority of those who constitute the medical profession. We trustthat it will leave the section as at present one of " medical science,"merely adopting some better system of organization. We mustnot forget to remind our readers that, even under its present con-stitution, the medical section has added many valuable researchesto medical knowledge. Even at the meeting at York, severaltruly valuable and scientific communications were contributed byDr. Hodgkin, Dr. Heming, Mr. Erichsen, Mr. Blake, and others;and had all the medical papers been read before that section, thelist would have been still greater. Thus the paper of Colonel

Sykes on the rate of mortality in Calcutta, was certainly as mucha medical as a statistical paper. We may say the same of the

paper of Dr. Laycock, on the sanatory condition of York; of thatof Dr. Thurnam, on the relative liability of the two sexes to insa-nity ; of that of Dr. Glendinning, on the statistics of health, deducedfrom the records of the Marylebone Infirmary.We wish it to be well understood, that in the preceding remarks

we do not mean to impute the slightest blame to the medical gen-tlemen of York; we owe it to them to state, that they exertedthemselves to the utmost to give éclat to the proceedings of themedical division of the Association. Great credit also is due tothe office-bearers of the late meeting, more especially to thesecretaries, Mr. Erichsen and Dr. Sargent. These gentlemen didall in their power to uphold the integrity of the medical section,and have thus deserved the respect and confidence of their pro"fessional brethren.

THE BIRMINGHAM GENERAL HOSPITAL.

OuR table for some.weeks past has been covered with commu-nications on the nffairs of the GENERAL HospiTAL at Birmingham.We promised to notice the subject; but we have approachedits consideration with no small reluctance, since, in the course ofits exposition, one of two things must become painfully manifest,either that abuses and corruption of the grossest description havepervaded the management of the institution for a prolongedperiod, or else that much malevolence has instigated the conductof the gentlemen who would stigmatize its managers with theblame of so much mischief The principal complainants inthe case-gentlemen who have long maintained a respectable

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standing among the medical practitioners of Birmingham-areMessrs. GuTTERIDGE and LEDSAM. The latter of these gentle-men very boldly assailed the character of certain matters in theBirmingham General Hospital as long ago as January, 1843, ina communication to a local newspaper, the major part of whichwas republished in THE LANCET for February 11th of that year,under the equivocal title (for want of a better term) of " a Brum-magem libel." On that occasion, in reference to the main chargeembodied in the said " libel," we remarked, that " if the statementwere false it should never have been made, if true, it ought neverto have been retracted;" and that remark we repeat now.* Mr.

GUTTERIDGE, who seems to have taken up the matter altogethersubsequently, has produced and sent forth to the world a longseries of letters, addressed to the members of the committee andother governors of the Hospital; and in one of the latest of thesehe complains of having been mulcted in " a penalty of five hun-dred pounds, in the shape of expenses to which he has been put,in contending for his personal and professional rights." But as

this tax or penalty has been wholly voluntary, and (as he himselfadmits) had a self-reflecting object, we do not see that Mr.GuTTERIDGE is entitled to any peculiar public sympathy on thataccount Virtue is said to be its own reward, even when a sacri-fice is made for the benefit of others, and Mr. GUTTERIDGE doesnot strengthen his cause by becoming querulous on the subject ofhis sacrifices, even when they are made in behalf of a "great publicprinciple," which he has struggled to maintain. However, we dorecognise, by the adjuration of a great public principle, someclaim to attention at least, and we have never been disposed toI eave those surgeons who contend in singleness or earnestness ofpurpose for the public good, to fight out their battle unassisted.We will proceed, therefore, dispassionately to lay before the medi-cal public of the kingdom the principal points of contention

which form the groundwork of multifarious printed addresses,leaving it to the same public to judge of and determine themeasure of sympathy and support they ought to give to the com-batants.

From the letters of Mr. GUTTERIDGE, which have been placedin our hands, it is no easy task to separate what is of generalinterest from what is merely local and personal, and, indeed, the Isubject is difficult of comprehension to those not intimately ac-quainted with all the minute ramifications of this most knottydispute.Upwards of thirty years ago, says Mr. GUTTERIDGE, the

appointments of physician and surgeon to the BirminghamGeneral Hospital were obtainable by a description of purchase,which, though discreditable to the individual who resorted to it,had yet (he goes on to say) " the redeeming feature, that it

benefited the hospital funds. " A very questionable admission!And so thought the governors of that day, for they subsequentlypassed a law to prevent this particular abuse. But the openmeans of access to office by the direct use of a golden key beingclosed, a covert and indirect mode of obtaining entrance wasfound ; and the power of electing the Hospital officers is said tohave passed into the hands of certain ATTORNEYS of Birmingham,in so far that the reception-room of some of them is specified asbeing, at the present moment, a register-office for official appoint-ments, not only in the General Hospital, but elsewhere. This is thehead and front of the of’ending ; this charge forms the leadingcomplaint of the whole controversy, if controversy that can becalled where all the debating is on one side-for whether it be

owing to indifference or weakness, true as strange it is, that noanswer whatever has been yet put forth in print to any ofMr. GUTTERIDGE’S statements. Nearly all the other charges aremonster growths from this monster stem. Thus, on the 17th ofMarch, 1843, Mr. JUKES, a surgeon of the Hospital, having

* Mr. Ledsam positively asserts, that he merely retracted certain personalallusions. ’

signified his intention of vacating his office in the June followingit is said that the " attorneys" filled up the appointment as earlyas the 21st of April ensuing, although the legal day of electionwas not until the 16th of June. The nomination of a candidate,(Mr. GUTTERiDGE himself,) who had started as a rival to thegentleman temporarily appointed, the chairman, on the 16th ofJune, refused to put to the meeting; and the same chairmanis reported to have suppressed the reading of certain letters

having reference to the business before the meeting, until afterits dispersal ! A proceeding similar to the latter would appearto have taken place on the succeeding 15th of September, when aletter sent to the chairman of the quarterly board by Mr. GUTTE-RIDGE, who claimed " to be acknowledged as a surgeon of

the Hospital, under the proceedings of the 16th of June," waskept until the matter to which it referred had been decided. Haee

inter alia. Mr. GUTTERIDGE complains-with what cogency wecannot say-that the parties he inculpates have tampered withand corrupted the press-have excited the governors of anotherinstitution in the town to hostility against him, and packed a com-mittee at the Hospital, which refused to call the chairman of the15th of September to account for his conduct, and finally votedMr. GUTTERIDGE’S charges " utterly unfounded," and his letters" unwarrantable and unjustifiable."Undaunted by these rebuffs, with most indomitable persever-

ance, Mr. GUTTERIDGE appears again before the Board, on the15th of December, to urge his claims. But he was once more

foiled.

It is difficult to divest any portion of the subject of its bearing apersonal character. Individuals, as well as bodies, are subjectedto accusations, and some of them are of a very grave complexion.Thus Mr. GUTTERIDGE distinctly asserts that one " attorney" received a hundred pounds for influencing a medical election in1835, designates his proceedings as " unlawful," and accuses thatparty of purposed misrepresentation. He states, that by theassistance of the attorneys’ clerks," a place in the Hospitalwas foundfor Dr. BLAKISTON, who, having been a clergyman, had thoughtfit, on the plea of " physical infirmity," to take up the professionof medicine, though contrary to the canons of the church, andalleges that he still continues in " holy orders." If these asser-tions be all capable of proof, they make a strong case. Weadmit also that the profession of medicine is an unfit sphere for aprofessor of religion, and on this head we will quote a pas-

sage in Mr. GUTTERIDGE’S own words. "The reverend gentlemanis in full orders, and consequently bound for ever to the ministryof the church. The physical infirmity which he alleges renderedhis cessation from active duty indispensable, has for several yearsceased to exist, if any judgment at all can be formed from hisvocal powers in singing and oratory; and therefore no excuseremains for his longer absenting himself from his pastoral charge.The interests of humanity, too, as well as the obligations of hissacred character, demand his return to the proper sphere of hislabours, for the art and mystery of Physic require more profoundstudy to qualify for safe practice than his reverence appears tohave been able to give to it in his seclusion from the duties thatdevolved upon him as a clergyman." This last allusion appears tohave a particular reference to a case which occurred not long agoin the Hospital, and which is thus related in one of Mr. LEDSAM’slate printed letters.

" The patient was a boy in the hospital, eighteen years old,afflicted with chorea (commonly called St. Vitus’s Dance);morphine in grain doses was ordered, and partially administered;after that, he was ordered to take prussic acid, of the LondonPharmacopoeia strength, in the following doses: TEN DROPSEVERY TWO HOURS; THE DOSE TO BE INCREASED FIVE DROPSEVERY TIME. Three doses of ten drops (without the increase asordered) were swallowed by the patient in the space of four hours.The effect was mortal; no sign of disease was found after deaths-only lumbrici in the intestines!"

Is this statement true or false?

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The Birmingham General Hospital affair mainly hinges ontwo allegations-that of the inordinate interference of certainparties in the conferring of hospital appointments, and the incom-petence of certain medical officers holding those appointments.The former question has been chiefly canvassed by Mr. GUT-TERIDGE, the latter by Mr. LEDSAM. Of the fact, that the legalprofession has monopolized much of the power and influence thatof right belongs to the medical, there can be no doubt. The

state of the case in this and other respects is thus happily ex-pressed by Mr. GuxxExiDCE:= The legal profession enjoyscountless public advantages -honours and riches, peerages,

judgeships, and offices of profit innumerable: the medical pro-fession, on the contrary, has few of a public nature; its most dis-

tinguished posts are nearly all, as in the present instance,honorary, yet not sinecure; and though laborious, not stipendiary."In reference to the medical portion of the question, Mr. LEDSAMreverts, in his last letter, to the case forming the subject of the" Brummagem Libel." But a loud and grave charge against asurgeon of high standing and undoubted science and skill, onaccount of a solitary error in practice, even if committed, is notjust, and the accusation of itself requires no serious notice-a factwhich seems to be almost admitted by Messrs. GuTTERiDCtE andLEDSAM. That a surgeon, in the course of a long professional.career, should commit a single error, (and in a difficult operation,too,) is no reason why be should be hunted and run down. The

man who never made a mistake in his profession might be exhi-bited as one of the rarest of all human curiosities.. We regret the introduction of personal amongst public charges.The case of the Birmingham Hospital has no occasion for adven-titious matter; it presents features of its own sufficiently odiousand despicable. If we may judge from the ex parte statementsof Messrs. GUTTERIDGE and LEDSAM, (and in the absence of anycounter-statement whatsoever, on what else can we found a judg-ment?) a system of jobbing has prevailed in the BirminghamGeneral Hospital not surpassed by any that were redolent in theLondon hospitals before THE LANCET had forced upon them thework of reform. Without purity of election, able and honestpublic servants are not to be expected; and evils such as those ofwhich the supporters of the Birmingham Hospital have the mostright to complain, are the natural results of a state of thingsin which appointments are gained by favour, money, and intrigue,rather than by merit. We warn the governors of that establish-

ment, that if they continue to tolerate such reprehensible pro-ceedings as those which ushered in the advent of Mr. CROMPTONto office, they will go the right way to foster occurrences thatwill make the medical and surgical practice of the Hospital a by-word and a disgrace. We make this remark wholly without per-sonal reference to Mr. CROMPTON-Of whom we know nothing;but it is impossible for us to speak of the proceedings of themanaging committee in April, 1843, and subsequently, withoutindignation and contempt. One of the Hospital surgeons simplyannounces his intention of resigning at the end of three months.Immediately, (and every one must call tip vividly the idea ofa pack of hungry vultures pouncing upon the carcass still

warm with life,) a party of governors, acting, Mr. GUTTERIDGEsays, under the guidance of the attorneys, arrange to putin a nominee of their own-contrary to the strongly expressedopinion of the Chairman of the Board -contrary to the

fundamental laws of the institution, which permitted no elec-

tion of a surgeon except at a quarterly Board, and of nofifth surgeon at all. Yet this surgeon they put in, virtuallyexpelling one who had not yet retired, and who had faithfully ’,served the Hospital for thirty years! In spite of the expressedopinion, sought by themselves, of her Majesty’s attorney-general,that their proceedings were irregular, illegal, and invalid," the com-mittee force their nominee into office, and hold him there--pro-mittee force their nominee into oimee, and hold b!m there—pro-visionally,-however, for they refused to elect, on the 16th of June,a permanent successor to Mr. Jukes, an election they were bound, i

by their own laws, to make, on that day; and there stood beforethem a competent candidate, who had complied with the conditionsof all their own regulations! How to getrid of the claims of thiscandidate was a puzzling matter; for the refusal of a weeklyBoard to attend to his testimonials had not deterred him from

presenting himself on the 16th. But the chairman on that day,Mr. CHARLES SsAw,—although the candidate in question hadbeen both nominated and seconded,—actually refused to put hisnomination to the vote, regardless of remonstrances from theEarls of BRADFORD and DARTMOUTH, from Mr. G. BARKER,Mr. HARROLD, and others.Such are the doings sanctioned and carried on by the Managing

Board; and by a most dishonest piece of trickery, the letters ofthe above-named noblemen were studiously kept back until theirproduction was of no service. Stirred up, most unwillingly, bythe lacerating exposures of their conduct sent forth by Mr. GuT-TERIDGE, the Board next appointed a so-called 11 committee ofInquiry." One part of this committee’s duty was to inquire intothe allegation against Mr. G. WHATELEY, that he had taken a bribeto influence a medical election at the Hospital. On this particularhead we shall not now touch further than to observe, that thewilfulness with which this same committee, in their turn, refusedto call before them Mr. CHARLES SsAwto answer for his conductrenders all its proceedings utterly worthless. In the hope toobtain the appointment of a more actively inquiring committee toinvestigate their charges, Messrs. GuTTERiDGE and LEDSAN

repaired to the general meeting at the Hospital on the 20th ofSeptember last -but only to find their just demand for theappointment of an " impartial tribunal" rejected.

It is to be regretted that Messrs. LEDSAM and GuTTERiDGEhave so freely cast away the chance of an alliance with Mr.Hodgson, who, if the words attributed to him were really his own-viz., " that the whole establishment wants a thorough routingout, even down to the kitchen department," is certainly not inlove with the conduct of affairs at the General Hospital. But

standing forward as they have done, unassisted, against a host ofopponents, proves that the assailants of the rotten mode of elec-tion which prevails in the BIRMINGHAM GENERAL Hospital,are not to be easily intimidated or diverted from pursuing theirdetermined purpose of exposure and correction. We would

therefore earnestly intreat of Messrs. GUTTERIDGE and LEDSAMto avoid, or treat with becoming indifference or contempt, all merelypersonal matters and disputes, and continue to labour, with

gigantic strength, to exterminate that monster source of dangerand mischief in a charitable medical institution-a corruptsystem of electing the medical officers. By so doing they willbe sure both to earn and to receive the gratitude of the humane,the intelligent, and the honest portion of the community.

REVIEWS.Illustrations of the Theor.1! and Practice of Ventilation ; withRemarks on Warming, Exclusive Lighting, and the Communica-tion of Sound. By DAVID BOSWELL REID, M.D., F.R.S.E.London: Longman and Co. 1844. 8vo. pp. 451.

THERE are few subjects connected with hygiene which are moreimportant than that of ventilation, and yet there is none whichis more neglected, not only by the non-professional, but by theprofessional public. Even in the works professedly treating ofhygiene, the laws which regulate ventilation, or the renovationand purification of the air by which we are surrounded, arescarcely alluded to, although its value is generally admitted, andfully appreciated. Dr. Reid, whose labours in the cause havegiven him an European reputation, has undertaken to fill thelacuna by the treatise which we have before us. In it he has

most elaborately investigated the theory and practice of ventila-tion in all its bearings, and accumulated such a mass of informa-tion as to render it by far the most interesting and valuablework on the subject that has yet been published.