260

THE LANCET.

London, Saturday, May 19th, 1838.

ENCOURAGEMENT OF SCIENCE

A REPORT Of the Commissioners for Visitingthe University of Aberdeen contains some

recommendations which deserve to be well

considered.. Particularly the recommenda-tion to her MAJESTY to add £1422 to the an-

nual Crown Grants, which already amountto £1699. For it is very questionablewhether there would not be as much pro-

priety in withholding the Royal Grants alto-

gether from the University of Aberdeen, asin doubling their present amount. The first

step to be made in educational reform is

evidently the recovery of the vast sums nowpaid to sinecurists, and to the propagationof useless knowledge in the Schools andUniversities of the Country. And when

these sums are ascertained to be insufiicient,it will be time to call upon Parliament toinstitute Professorships, found Universities,and offer bounties on the dissemination of

knowledge. But in this case itmaywell bedoubted whether Aberdeen is the particularlocality where the national bounty shouldfirst be apportioned. The scanty populationof the North of Scotland evidently cannotsupport an efficient Medical School, and itwould probably be as wise to offer a bountyon the production of wheat in the Highlands,as to squander £3000 a year of the nation’s

money in diverting pupils from other Uni-versities. The Government may endow

Professorshins in fitipa where students Hff

numerous, and bring science within the

reach of the sons of the humbler classes, asis done in Paria: but it would be extreme

folly to leave dense populations unprovidedfor, merely to kindle luminaries that mayshed an unproStable radiance over the wastesof Scotland. The Commissioners advance a

fallacy on this question that does them littlecredit. " We feel bound," they say, " toexpress our conviction that zvhatezer may" be the case in richer cottntries, it is out ofthe question to expect that, in a eoMnh’y like" Scotland, the higher branches of learning’can be widely diffused, and their Profes-

sors adequately supported, at present,without a certain amount of encourage.

ment from the State." Did it not occur

to the Commissioners that in England, the

i richer country," the number that can

never enter the pale of the higher branchesof learning, is infinitely greater than in

Scotland? And with what grace can theycontend for the more urgent necessities of

Scotland, after having stated that it has

hitherto been one of the characteristic fea’

tures of the Universities of Scotland 11 that

they have placed the means of a liberaleducation within the reach of a large por.« tion of the humbler classes of Society"’" How few," exclaims Professor FoRBE9. awitness whom they examined, " for instance,have the benefit of a University education" in England, in proportion to the popula-tion, compared with those in Scotland,who have that advantage? "

But leaving the University of Aberdeen inthe undisturbed possession of grants to theamount of £1699 a year, from the National

Treasury, let us see whether a more usefuldistribution of these grants will not meet allthe exigencies of the case. The Commis.

sioners were directed to inquire as to 11 the

necessity of granting endowments to anynew Professorships that might be iosti.

tuted, and as to the best mode of pro.viding for such endowments /!’om the ex-

" isting funds and property of the said M-

" versities, or otherwise." Here the Com-

missioners have greatly erred : they havelooked for endowments exclusively fromthe National Treasury, and not from 11 the

existing funds of the Universities." The

( emolnments, in 1836, of the Professors of

King’s College amounted to f3412 17s.: ofMarischall College to £2566 14s. The

sources of Revenue in the two Universities

are the College Funds, Crown Grants, andFees :-

261BY NATIONAL GRANTS OF MONEY.

The partial amalgamation of the two The Commissioners propose that the

Universities is proposed by the Commis- regenerated University shall possess 4

sioners; and the principal new Professor- Professors of Divinity ; one, the Principal,ships to be founded are on Scottish Law, with an annual salary of £550, and 3 with

(instead of Civil), on Anatomy and Phy- E300 a-year each. To accomplish this pro-siology, Surgery, Midwifery, Materia Me- ject they ask for an addition to the Crowndica, Natural History, and Botany. They Grants of fl72 a-year. The 6 Medical Pro-

propose £1100 as the minimum endowment fessors are to have £100 each in the scheme.

of the 8 Chairs. The endowments of the This is so agreeable to the dark prejudicesGreek, Latin, Mathematical, Philosophical, of the north of Scotland, although it is

and Logical Chairs appear to be already not calculated to promote the substantial

adequate, interests of the people, that we must makeThere are upwards of 100 Medical a remark or two on the inutility of this

Students in Aberdeen, the two Universities bounty upon Theological Lecturing.having found it to their advantage, amidst In the first place,let it be recollected thatmutual enmity, to support a medical school the Christian Religion is not a Science.

which might be capable of meeting (how- CHRIST did not cast his doctrines into a sys*ever imperfectly) the requirements of the tematic form : nor do they admit the appli’Halts and Colleges. The Medical Profes- cation of experiment, induction, calculation,sor in Ring’s College has enjoyed an imme- or generalisation of any kind known in themorial sinecure : that venerable " Mediciner" natural sciences. And a revealed religionobtained jEl23 12s. from the College funds, admits of no discoveries: its doctrines are

and £87 15s. 3d. from Crown Grants (!), complete, unalterable, eternal. It is dini-

besides fees for Diplomas, in which he cult, therefore, to perceive the utility of

drove a very profitable commerce down to State bounties on systematic courses of a1826. The Professor of Medicine in Ma- religion which admits neither of investiga-rischall College obtaining only £3 a year tion, improvement, nor addition ; and it isfrom the College funds, and f43 17s. from easy to see the evils which are likely to nowCrown Grants, has been compelled to teach from the endowment of chairs, where the Pro*since the trade in Diplomas ceased, and in fessors can only indulge their genius by1836 received fees amounting tof62 14s. plunging into error. In Germany the endowedThe medical endowments together make Theological Chairs of the Universities havef 258 a year; which with the endowments given birth to endless mysticism and scepti-of the Law, and Natural History Professor- cism. STRAUSS has recently written " Dasships will make £655 of the £1100 required. Leben Jesu," to prove that jEsus CHRtST

Only £445 are unprovided. Now, it appears never existed: and has displayed a skill inthat £755 10s. of the Crown Grants are dialectics and criticism that still banles the

absorbed by the Theological Professors, attacks with which the German press teems.

who attract few auditors or fees : the If STRAUSS, like PRIESTLEY, had bestowedfees of the 7 Professors in the two Colleges equal pains on a scientific investigation, his

amounting (1836) only to j6l22. Would it acuteness might have stood him in goodnot, therefore, be for the public benefit if the stead, and his name might have had as fairCrown diverted the sum of JE445 from the a chance of immortality as the discoverer ofTheological Chairs to the Medical and oxygen. In Scotland, although theologicalScientific Professorships, leaving £297, the lucubrations may take a different turn when

surplus of the Crown Grants, to be added forced by the endowment of Chairs, it is notto the theological endowments from the Col- likely to take in a direction that will be morelege Funds? By this arrangement £1052 10s. beneficial to society. While, then, the utmostwould remain for Chairs of Divinity. freedom of teaching is given to the Church of

262 DEATH OF DR. E. HARRISON.

Scotland, it appears to be highly inexpedientto continue, much less to a.ugment,the CrownGrants to the theological chairs of the Uni-versities : and the inexpediency acquiresdouble force from the fact that the Church

of Scotland is not the Church of the greatmajority of tax-payers on whom the CrownGrants are levied.

Besides, Scotland is the last country in

the world where a Government bounty is

required to tempt men’s minds into the re-

gions of speculative theology. The immor-

tal ridicule of BURNS has not banished from

the " Holy Fairs," and Colleges, and strongholds of prejudice in that country, " the

twa like sisters twin," " Superstition, and

Hypocrisy:" nor is there any probability oftheir ever being exiled from Scotland, solong as they are supported there at otherpeople’s expense.We have shown, that when Government

endows Professorships, Aberdeen is one

of the last cities of the empire in which

they should be located ; that an increase of£1423 on the Crown Grants is unnecessary ;and that it will be for the best interests of

the Universities of Aberdeen to pay the

required sums, from the present Crown

Grants, to the Professors of Medicine and

general Science, instead of to the Professorsof Divinity.We have some further observations to

make when the Commissioners’ Report is

completed. The necessity for a Union ofthe Universities of Aberdeen has not dimi-

nished since 1826, when a stop was put tothe sale of Medical Degrees. The " povertyand not the will" of the Universities had

consented to the contraband trade, carriedon under ecclesiastical Principals ; and thedread of Sir ROBERT PEEL’S Commission, torescue them from crime, dried up the

springs of their prosperity. They could not

supply the elements of Medical Instruction;and the interests of the public would no

longer permit them to gain a subsistence bythe illicit distillation of Doctors.

DR. EDWARD HARRISON.

THIS amiable and well known physiciandied on the 6th instant, aged 72 years, atMarlborough, while ou his way to Devizes,to visit a patient. Much against the adviceof his friends Dr. Harrison had undertakenthe journey from London by a public con-veyance. On the road he experienced a

very frequent desire to empty the bladder,and the numerous occasions on which he

required to alight having drawn from theconductor rebuke, the Doctor, rather thancontinue to excite remonstrance, or annoyhis travelling companions, patiently bore hissufferings until he reached Marlborough,where he immediately retired to bed, andsent for medical aid, a total inability to passhis water having now occurred. The ca-theter was at once and perseveringly used,but in vain. A few days prior to his deathDr. Serney, the partner of Dr. Harrison,arrived from London, when the comatose

symptoms, and the distended state of thebladder, produced grounds for fearing that arupture of that viscus had taken place, andbeen followed by a partial reabsorption ofthe fluid, but the post-moitem exaniina-tion did not show any lesion whatever of its

’ walls, or much distension of the cavity.The prostate gland was much enlarged, andunnaturally hard. The bladder containedseveral calculi, and much soft calculousmatter, by which the now of urine throughthe catheter was prevented in an attempt atevacuation after death. Dr. Harrison hadsuffered from a calculous affection of thebladder for several years, and within the lasttwo years the accumulation had very muchundermined his health, and, it is said, some-what impaired, by its irritation, the facultiesof his mind.

In his last testament the Doctor has be-queathed the additional sum of 3000l. toJoseph Underwood, Esq. (a retired andwealthy East India practitioner), and the

other trustees, for the time being, of the in-stitution named Harrison’s Spinal In6r-mary, to be applied by them for the con-ducting of that establishment on the Doc-

tor’s peculiar plan of treating diseases ofthe spine, an account of which he directsshould be recorded and explained by Dr.

Serney and other medical gentlemen, whohave acted with him, or under his dii-ee-

tions, in practice, and adopted as a rule ofguidance in the cure of patients in the in-

firmary. Other institutions have also been, bequeathed money in the will, namely,

100/. to the University College Hospital,and 100l. to each of those institutions thatwere established by the Doctor at Horn-castle, in Lincolnshire. He had also given100G. to a committee of gentlemen, of whom

263REVIEW OF CARSWELL ON INFLAMMATION.

Mr. Hume, li.P., was at the head, and whonow hold the money, to be awarded

" as a Illustrations of the Elementary Forms ofstimulus for the writing of essays on Disease. By R. CARSWELL, M.D. Fasci-medical reform, we believe, but the terms Disease. By R. CARSWELL, M.D. Fasciof its appropriation are not understood pub- culus 12.—INFLAMMATION. London: Long.licly. man, 1838.

Dr. Harrison was descended from an an- T,,.,, Number completes Dr. Carswell’scicat family in Lancashire. He received a ,.,.,..good education, and having chosen medi- work in 12 fasciculi, as originally announced.

cine as his profession, was sent to Edin- Expensive publications in separate parts soburgh to prosecute his studies, where he often fall off, or fall altogether, that thevery diligently employed his talents, and public are grown naturally suspicious, andobtained the local honour of election as do not commence purchasing till all thePresident of the Royal Medical and Physi- . , , cal Societies of that University. In Edin- numbers have appeared. We have noticed

burgh he took the degree of M.D., and pub- several of the fasciculi as they came out,lished his thesis " De Opio." From that and can cordially apply the praises whichcity he came to London, and became a we bestowed upon individual parts to thestudent under the Hunters ; thence he went whole series of illustrations as they nowto Paris, and having completed his medical ,. education, ostablished himself asapracti- stand in a perfect form. Dr. Gal-swells illus-tioner at Horncastle, where he continued trations should be in the library of everyfor thirty years. The three institutions to medical practitioner in the kingdom ; theywhich, as having been the founder, he be- present a distinct view of nearly all thequeathed 3001., were the Horncastle Dis- pathological changes that take place in thepensary, the Lincolnshire Benevolent Medi- textures of the body, and a knowledg2 ofcal Society, and the Horncastle General textures of the body, and a knowledge ofBook Club." His exertions in the forma- these changes is the substratum of rnedi-tion of these managed to create for him cine.many undeserved enemies, the common fate Viewing inflammation in connection withof benevolent reformers.

_ _

, the vascular system, Dr. Carswell considersIn the year 1817 he came to London, for that all its varieties may be reduced ...the purpose of following exclusively his that all its varieties may be reduced to

treatment of spinal cases, conducted on primary and secondary forms. The primarymechanical principles, his theory being that forms are,—the ramiform, the capilliform,distortions of the spine depend in a partial the uniform, the punctiform, and maculi-dislocation of the vertebræ, from a relaxed form. In the first and second of these fiveor stretched condition of the ligaments. He treated with success many severe cases, forms the blood is accumulated in the arte-

notices of which he has recorded in his ries and veins; in the third it fills the

’-Pathological and Practical Observations whole capillary system; in the fourth, theon Spinal Diseases." He subsequently in- villosities of mucous membranes, or othertroduced to public attention his Infirmary isolated structures. The maculiform appear-for Spinal Affections, by a gift of since been ance very generally arises from rupture ofwhich added. the bequest of 3000l, has since been the capillaries and extravasation. As a

He would have died more wealthy than it general rule, the several degrees of innam-appears he has, had he not of late years mation are expressed by each of thesebeen very frequently and seriously imposed forms in the order in which they have beenon by adventurers and needy persons, who enumerated, the ramiform indicating thecontrived to turn his liberality of feeling enumerated, the ramiform indicating the

and opinion to their own account. He was least, the maculiform the greatest degree.probably more pleased to be considered sue- Inflammation is frequently mistaken. Thecessfully employed as a physician, and in section on its diagnostic character containsthe promotion of his views and opinions in a valuable analysis of the phenomena withthat capacity, than careful of the pecuniary which it is most liable to be confounded.profits which attended an extensive medical

We shall make one extract :-practice. which attended an extensive medical We shall make one extract:—" Diagnostic Characters of Inflammation.—

RICKETS.—Pulmonary tubercles are less Although the existence of inflammation is,frequently observed in children who die of in general, sufficiently characterised by itsrickets than in those cut off by any other physical characters, it may be, and fre-chronic affection.—P. H. G. quently is, confounded with other local

BONES.—Affections of the osseous tissue accumulations of blood, produced duringin children generally depend on the develop- life or after death. A mechanical obstaclement of tubercular matter in the interior of to the return of the venous blood ; the de-their structure.—P. H. G. pending position of organs, or gravitation;

264 MR. BATTLEY ON THE PREPARATION OF

and the transmission of the colouring matte:of the blood to neighbouring tissues byimbibition, are circumstances under whichthe local accumulations of blood, rednessand vascularity take place, which requireto be distinguished from similar changesproduced by inflammation. The differentialcharacters of inflammation and local con-gestion are founded on certain differencesin the physical characters of each, and inthe circumstances under which they respec-tively occur. Although similar forms ofredness and vascularity are produced in

both, it is perhaps only in mucous mem-branes that a difficulty arises in distinguish-ing the one from the other. So long as theredness and vascularity are confined to thecapillary vessels, or have their seat in thevillous or follicular structure, there can beno doubt as to their inflammatory nature.It is only when they become more generaland present the ramiform character, or whenthis character prevails, that any difficultyarises. This, however, is removed by anexamination of the neighbouring veinswhich, in mechanical congestion, will befound dilated, tortuous, or even varicose,according to the degree and duration of theobstacle by which it has been caused. Thecongestion of the veins may likewise betraced to its cause; to a tumour compress-ing them ; to disease of the liver, lieart, orlungs, which has obstructed the return ofthe blood through them. In inflammation,the local congestion commences in the capil-laries, afterwards extends to the small veins,but never to large branches ; in mechanicalcongestion, the blood accumulates first inthe trunks, which are always conspicuous,and afterwards in the branches and capil-laries. It is only when mechanical con-gestion is combined with inflammation thatthe anatomical diagnosis becomes difficultor impossible. In strangulated hernia, andintussusception, we are certain of the ex-istence of both kinds of congestion of theaffected portion of intestine from the natureof the causes in operation, viz., compressionor stricture on the one hand, and the in-fluence of a morbid stimulus on the other.But when mechanical congestion, producedby a remote cause, is combined with inflam-mation, it is impossible to’detect the exist-ence of this latter disease, or at least to

distinguish the one from the other with anydegree of certainty. The same may besaid of the combination of these two kindsof local congestion, under similar circum-stances, in other or-ans."Dr. Carswell proposes to publish coloured

representations of calculi, entozoa, and

monstrosities, when a second edition shallbe required. They will form an appendix,and may be obtained by subscribers in pos-session of the-first edition.

ON THE PREPARATION OF

ARTICLES OF THE MATERIA MEDICA,

WITH A DETAIL OF CERTAIN

PROCESSES EMPLOYED BY MR.BATTLEY.

Read at the Royal College of Physicians, SirHENRY HALFORD, Bart., President, in theChair, Monday, the 7th of May, 1838.

Laboratory, Saunderian Institution, RoyalOphthalmic Hospital, Moorfields,

April 28th, 1838.TO THE PRESIDENT AND FELLOWS OF THE

ROYAL COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS.

GEXTLEMEN :-My attention having beendirected, during the earlier part of my life,to the practice, and during a long period oftime, to the preparation, of medicine, I begyour permission to submit to you the fol-lowing observations, in the hope that theymay not be without effect in the treatmentof disease.The materia medica is presented to the

; physician by the hand of the pharmaceuticalchemist, both in its natural and its artificialstate.’ The natural takes precedence of the arti-ficial, being the medicine which a mercifulProvidence gives us to heal our sickness,and to obtain which manipulation need onlybe employed, as I conceive, to separate theremedial agents from their various admix-tures.The artificial state is the work of che-

mistry, as usually now conducted, proceed-ing by effecting the separation of the baseof the medicine from the combinations inwhich it is naturally held.Far from adopting this view of the sub.

ject, it has been my endeavour, generallyspeaking’, to maintain the combinationwhich nature has formed, and with fewexceptions, when separation becomes neces-sary, to effect the recombination of the sepa-)’?tted matter.At the outset of modern chemistry the

base of a thing so essential to life as atmo-

spheric air was seized upon with avidity;but in its application, as a remedy for dis’ease, vital air has not been found to be evena substitute, much less an improvement onpure atmospheric air, as it is given us in itsjust proportions by the Divine Artificer.

In the decomposition of the variousarticles of the materia medica art has suc-ceeded, to a certain extent, with some of theremedies, of which morphine and quininemay be referred to by way of illustration ;but it remains to be proved whether or nothese bases of opium and bark, even whenrecombined ivith acids, be equally efficaciousas when administered in their native com-bination, purified and concentrated only, asin the case of bark, or more freely divided,as in the case of opium, -