357

THE LANCET.

LONDON SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 1846.

THE NEW MEDICAL SESSION.

AMIDST the rapid progress of events, the advent of a NEwMEDICAL YEAR is at hand. On THURSDAY next, the lst of

OCTOBER, the SESSION OF 1846-7 will commence in London,Dublin, Edinburgh, and other cities and towns of this

kingdom.On examining the PROSPECTUSES which have been issued by

the various Universities, Colleges, and Schools, we cannot dis-cover in them anything that is very remarkable as regardseither promises or arrangements. As respects the former,comparing them with those of preceding years, there is no

lack of allurement. In the latter, there is little or nothingmore to captivate than has been found in previously an-

nounced systems and plans. !The session, therefore, is likely to open, in divers places,

with much the same hopes and fears as, in former years, in-fluenced the minds and feelings of teachers and students.Stimulated-and not dishonourably-by the thought of ade-quate reward for their exertions, the professors fondly antici-pate full class-rooms, and their concomitants, well-filled

coffers. The students, on the contrary, caring little about thenumber of their companions, for the most part enter upontheir engagements and new studies with an ardent wish to

acquire a full knowledge of the science with which they haveundertaken to become acquainted. As the sessions advance

both teachers and pupils often exhibit much lassitude of action,and, until a new impetus is given to the course of medicalstudies generally, by an alteration of the law which shall con-fer upon the profession, as a body, the power of governingthemselves, a discreditable indifference will frequently beobservable amongst the teachers, and disreputable signs of idle-ness on the part of no inconsiderable number of students. Nextto the defective state of the law, the fault is often to be foundin the unfulfilled promises of lecturers, and in their lethargicand careless treatment of the subjects which they are boundto investigate and teach.The system of lecturing, generally, in our medical schools,

involves a profitless expenditure of time and money. The

student-hour after hour-from eight o’clock in the morninguntil eight at night, is compelled to hear sets of discourses, onfrom eight to ten different abstruse subjects, all of them re-

quiring an intense application of thought, the adoption of closemethods of arrangement, and special combinations of the

memory and reasoning powers. From its complexity, and theunfruitfulness of its results, the task thus imposed on theyouthful mind speedily becomes irksome, and, ultimately, isalmost shunned, from feelings of dislike, approaching even todisgust. In such a system, the mind finds no sources of relief.The resting places are not furnished which admit of satisfac-tory meditation. The student feels no assurance that he is

making progress with his studies. Hence he becomes dis-

satisfied, both with himself and his instructors. Animated,at the outset, by a fervent zeal in the cause of self-improve-ment, his energies are soon wearied and exhausted, from dis-covering that his time is worthlessly spent in the class-rooms.If the discourses which are read be fit to be heard, why are

they not fit to be printed; and why also could they not, withmore advantage, be examined, studied, and understood, in thecloset, at the bed-side of the sick, in the dead-house,.in thedissecting-room, in the laboratory, or in the museum 1 Insuch situations-in addition to the book-the student ought tohave at his elbow a real, a practical instructor,-one whocould answer abstruse questions, solve complex propositions,and remove those difficulties which are constantly being pre.sented to the youthful mind in the earlier pursuit of medicalstudies. But all the iniquities and absurdities of the existingsystem result from the exaction-by the various colleges-of"certificates of attendance" upon a certain number of " lec-

tures ;" or, in other words, by the compulsion to listen duringa certain number of months to ding-dong, monotonous, energy-destroying, and mind-confusing " lectures," delivered in thevarious THEATRES OF MEDICINE.

In consequence, then, of the regulations of the Colleges, thepainful duty devolves upon us of stating to the students, thatunless they produce the " certificates required by such regu-lations, they will not be admitted as candidates at the exami-nations for diplomas. Hence, under the force and operationof existing arrangements in the Colleges and Universities, andin the present defective state of the law, the students must

comply with those ordinances, or abandon the profession. But,at the same time, we feel equally bound to intimate to them,that their store of science and practical knowledge will be

scanty, indeed, if they derive it from no other source thanthe regular hackneyed and set lectures which they will heardelivered in the theatres. That appropriate lectures, on

proper subjects, occasionally delivered, may be attended withadvantage,-with much advantages,—no experienced personwill deny. But it may, with equal truth, be asserted, thata student in medicine, in order to acquire a scientific andpractical knowledge of his profession, must steadily and per-severingly work in the dissecting-room; he must himself workin the dead-house; he must himself observe at the bed-side ofthe sick, in the hospital; he must himself work and manipu-late in the laboratory of the chemist-or he must fail to acquirethat knowledge which will qualify him for the discharge ofthe important and onerous duties of his profession.Under such a plan as this, the instructed and the instructor

are brought into contact-into close proximity; and it is ab-solutely impossible that, without adopting it, the labour ofboth parties can be profitably pursued. But now, under the

existing arrangements,-under the operation of the odious"certificate" system, which is the opprobrium and bane ofthe medical education of the present day,-the lecturer jumpsinto the theatre at ten o’clock, opens his book, reads througha dull discourse of an hour’s duration, omits to illustrate, de-monstratively, a single subject on which he treats, and then,quitting the theatre, the student sees nothing more of himuntil the following day, when, having, in the meantime, at-tended half a dozen other teachers, equally dull and unin-structive, the routine-duty brings back again the first sleepymonitor of the previous day.

Irksome, indeed, is, and ever must be, the duty of pursuing, such a system, absurdly called study! That at no distant time, it must be radically changed for a better, is sufficiently evi.

dent, its only present advocates being its corrupt authors, in, the corrupt colleges, and the few other persons who so badly! profit by its obnoxious continuance.

358 SELECTION OF A SCHOOL OF MEDICINE.

In advising the students, then, to make the best of a de-fective arrangement, and in recommending them to comply,impiicitly, with the "regulations" which the law has empoweredcertain governing authorities to issue, we feel assured that, inthe present state of things, we are giving the advice which isbest calculated to promote their success and advancement.

They must be informed, that no amount of knowledge willprocure for them an examination, if they do not produce therequired "certificate" from the recognised" hospitals andschools. Amongst those establishments, therefore, they haveto make their selection. The metropolis contains numerousinstitutions which the students ’are invited to attend. It

is evident that the BILLS OF FaRE in most of them are

made as attractive as possible, some of them, probably, notwith a very strict regard to truth. In choosing their schools,, the pupils ought to act with extreme deliberation and caution.If they decide hastily, or without due inquiry, they may find,to their great annoyance, that they have made a bad or incon-venient selection, and that they have thus placed themselvesin a condition of discomfort which will continue to affect them

throughout the whole period of their residence in London.Some of the schools endeavour to attract by professions of" cheapness,"-as though cheapness in such an education as thatof medicine were to be weighed by a few. pounds sterling,more or less. At such schools students are invited to payin the lump for attending on all the requisite lectures

and hospital practice. At the same time, the name of thehospital, where it is stated they will have the opportunityof attending, is not given. As a rule, we believe that

the student would act wisely, by carefully and scrupulouslyavoiding any place which endeavours to attract, by pro-claiming that it is a cheap school, and that an entrance to it

may be obtained for less money than at other establishments.

The students themselves are exposed to some indignitiesthrough belonging to these self-proclaimed pauperized esta-blishments. If the talents of the lecturers be equal, and ifall the appliances and resources of their institutions be

adequate for the required duties, whence the necessity ofvastly underselling in a market of open competition ? It is

not for the advantage and welfare of a medical student that he should belong to a school, the name of which he is ashamedto avow in the presence of other medical students, or ofmembers of the profession. If he be influenced by a truescholastic ardour, he ought to feel proud of his school, and beenabled to speak of it with exultation, and in advocacy of its

capabilities, and the high character and acquirements of itsprofessors. In those places where cheapness is trumpetedforth as the leading inducement for students to belong to it,the school becomes known as a kind of pauper establishment,which is shunned and avoided by the more aspiring andemulous students; but, at all events, if there be any schoolwhere cheapness is held out as the only inducement to enter it,no discreet or thinking person can be ensnared by such anaked and undisguised bait.On former occasions we have urged-and we believe not

without effect-the propriety of fixing on a school which

contains ivithi)z itseyar the requisites for the completion of amedical education. The hospitals, in such cases, are, neces-

sarily, the great centres of attraction: Consequently, as ageneral rule, the students must find it to be to their conveni-

ence and advantage to belong to the schools which are irnme-diately connected with those institutions. All the great endowed hospitals of London have now attached to them their" SCHOOLS OF MEDICINE;" and, as a rule, the lecturers occupythe offices of physicians and surgeons in the hospitals.This arrangement is calculated, in a great degree, to promotethe successful progress of the student in his labours, becausethe theory which is taught in the school is, or ought to be

)

applied to practice under the direction of the medical teacherin the hospital. Besides, the student, in such cases, is not per-plexed by having, at mid-day, in the midst of very pressingduties and engagements, to quit an hospital in one street, toattend a distant lecture-room in another, or vice versa; but

commencing in the morning, in his working habiliments, heremains at the same establishment during the hours which heis required to devote to dissections, demonstrations, and lec.tures, and in attending in the laboratory and on the practiceof the hospital. Thus, all is within range-all is, as it were, atcommand, and may be attended without inconvenience andwithout loss of time.

It is a duty, probably, to except, on this occasion, the West-minster Hospital, which, we fear, cannot be said to have aschool. The downfall of the scholastic department of thatestablishment has, it is stated, been owing to a number ofunsatisfactory changes, and to the existence of cabals whichhave been injurious alike to the institution and the interestsof the students. Considering the venerable age of the hos-pital, the downfall of the school in connexion with it, suppliesthe materials for painful reflection, and furnishes a fruitfullesson to other establishments of the kind. In future yearsthe School of Medicine, in connexion with the WESTMINSTERHOSPITAL, from causes which the mind cannot now compass,may procure for it a high standard of reputation; but, judgingfrom recent occurrences, it is probable that it will be withouta single new student in the coming medical session.The utility of paying respect to the selection of a school

cannot well be overvalued. Economy of time and appro-priateness of arrangement, in these cases, prove of infinitecomfort and service. Frequently has it happened that nearlyone-third of the time of the student has been lost by his run-

ning, throughout the day, from theatre to theatre, and thenfrom the hospital, back again, to a dissecting-room situatedat a distance from it. What, therefore, we would endeavourto impress on the minds of those gentlemen who are about toenter for the first time to their medical studies in the hos-

pitals, is, that, in selecting a school, the most important itemfor their consideration is the choice of a hospital, and that inthe selection of the latter institution they should not be un-mindful of the character and capabilities of the lecturing estab.lishment; in other words, of the school. By thus carefully inves-tigating all the circumstances connected with both establish-ments-the two being, actually, in official connexion, the onewith the other-the fatal error will be avoided of selecting ahospital for attendance in one place, and the chief lectures ina medical school situated elsewhere,--in another street, or ina distant locality. We strongly urge on the students, gene-rally, the propriety and wisdom-nay, the necessity, of con-centrating in one spot, and, as it were, in one institution, andunder one roof, the educational labours, and duties which theywill daily be required to pursue and discharge. By such an

359CHEMICAL TESTIMONY IN COURTS OF LAW.

arrangement the saving of time will be immense, the amount Iof comfort indescribable, and the general advantage not easily to be appreciated. In fact, the bait of CHEAPNESS" is a

species of allurement which every intelligent student must re-

ject with deserved contempt.

THE CHEMICAL EVIDENCE AT THE TRIAL OFMARY NORTH.

LETTER FROM MR. ALFRED S. TAYLOR.

To the Editor of THE LANCET.SIR,—I beg to forward you the copy of a letter to Mr. Har-

rington, in reply to his communication in your last number,with some remarks upon one of the most flagrant instances ofthe perversion of chemical evidence in a court of law which Ihave ever met with.

Copy of a letter addressed to Mr. John J. Harrington." SIR,—I beg to call your attention to a most serious mis-

statement in a letter written by you to the editor of THELANCET, and published in that journal of Saturday last,(Sept. 12th,) page 304."In reference to Mary North’s case, you say-‘ the pri-

soner’s defence rested entirely upon this question, whethersulphuric acid, sugar, and water, mixed together in certainproportions, and aniseed, sugar, and water, mixed togetherin like proportions, would, in point of colour, a few minutesafterwards, produce a similar or a somewhat similar appear-ance. The girl’s life undoubtedly hung upon the result.’. "You have here, and throughout your letter, concealed fromthe readers of THE LANCET the very material (chemical) factstated explicitly by Mrs. Barker, (the chief witness for thecrown, and mother of the deceased child,) in her evidencebefore the magistrates, before the coroner, and at the trial incourt, at which you admit you were present, that the lump ofsugar and alleged aniseed (or, as you assume it, concentratedvitriol) were mixed in a white cup together, before any waterwas added. ’

"The experiment performed by Mr. Tatham in court, andwhich you consider so conclusively proves the girl’s inno-cence, was of an entirely different kind. Your counsel,Mr. Locke, required Mr. Tatham, as you admit, to mix thevitriol and water before the sugar was added! He also in-sisted, as you ought to remember, that Mr. Tatham shouldadd twice as much water as was employed in the previous ex-periment. Hence, while the evidence sworn to in court

proved that if Mrs. Barker had made a mistake, she musthave used concentrated oil of vitriol, which every chemistknows to be corrosive, and capable of carbonizing sugar,Mr. Locke (the counsel for the prisoner) made Mr. Tathamperform before the court the false experiment of using vitriolin an already much diluted state, in which condition its cor-rosive and carbonizing properties are of course destroyed toan extent proportioned to the quantity of water added.

" If you fairly perform the experiment in the way in whichMrs. Barker, according to her repeated statements, (andsworn evidence,) mixed the ingredients, using also the respec-tive quantities, (nearly equal parts,) you will find-if mynumerous experiments made before and since the trial do notmost seriously deceive me— that the results are entirelydifferent-that Mr. Tatham’s evidence was perfectly correct,and that Mr. Locke’s inference was drawn from an experimententirely irrelevant to the case: and yet you state that thegirl’s life hung upon the result !

I should have taken no notice of your letter, but you havedrawn my name into it. I trust that your sense of fair dealingand justice will lead you to correct, in the next number ofTHE LANCET, a most erroneous version of the facts of this im-portant case. Chemical results depend, not merely on themixture of bodies, but often, as in this case, most materially,upon the order in which they are respectively mixed-a factwith which you should have been acquainted before suggest-ing your cautions respecting chemical testimony. In thecourse of now sixteen years’ experience, I have never metwith a grosser perversion of chemical evidence in a court oflaw, than that made by Mr. Locke, apparently at your sug-gestion, in respect to the evidence given by Mr. Tatham atthis trial.-I am, Sir, your obedient servant.

" ALFRED S. TAYLOR.

I shall only further add, that Mr. Harrington returned areply to this letter, marked " strictly confidential." Much to

my regret, it cannot, therefore, be published. I must, how-ever, remark, that the contents of the stomach of this child,which were forwarded to me for analysis by the magistratesof Wandsworth, were black, and of the consistency of tar,intensely acid and corrosive. They consisted entirely of car-bonized blood and mucus, mixed with shreds of carbonizedmucous membrane ! Mr. Locke, aided by Mr. Harrington,persuaded the court and jury at Guildford, that the deceasedchild swallowed a mixture of vitriol and water, which had notthe property even of carbonizing sugar, according to the ex-periment performed by Mr. Tatham at Mr. Locke’s suggestion f

I have examined the stomachs of many persons poisonedby oil of vitriol, and by diluted vitriol, and the contents ofthe stomach of this child had all the appearance of the actionof concentrated oil of vitriol. It was so stated in my reportto the magistrates, before the importance of this questioncould be possibly known. I have not the slightest hesitationin saying, that, from the nature of the contents of the stomach,it is utterly imp8ssible that the vitriol could have been takenin a state so diluted as not to carbonize sugar in a fewseconds; yet by an experiment based upor false chemicalprinciples, the court and jury were induced to believe this;and the unprejudiced evidence of a respectable surgeon (Mr.Tatham) has been severely and unjustly censured. Thesworn evidence in court was, that the aniseed (or vitriol ?)and sugar were mixed together in the first instance; thequantity of each ingredient was also sworn to-one teaspoonfulof aniseed, one lump of sugar, and soon afterwards, a tea-spoonful of water. Mr. Harrington informs your readers,that the girl’s life hung upon the result of this experiment :whether, on mixing concentrated oil of vitriol with a lump ofwhite sugar, and afterwards adding water, the colour wouldbe different from that produced by mixing spirit of aniseedwith sugar, and then adding water ? I need hardly tell anyof your readers acquainted with chemistry, that the firstmixture (of vitriol and sugar) becomes intensely blackened;and I found in one experiment that it acquired a temperatureof 19-1°! while the mixture containing aniseed remains of apale-yellow colour, and the temperature is not affected byany chemical change ! The order in which the ingredientswere mixed was repeatedly sworn to in court, and this state-ment remained unaltered, in spite of Mr. Locke’s cross-exami-nation. The medical witnesses were therefore bound to take-this evidence as the basis of their opinion; and hence, to-

adopt Mr. Harrington’s argument, if the defence entirelyrested upon this question, of a change of colour, it rested, tosay the least, upon a grave mistake; and if the girl’s inno-cence would be established by there being no change of colouron mixing the ingredients, then-according to Mr. Harrington’sargument, the chemical facts being quite contrary to what hesupposes-he has conclusively proved that the prisoner wasguilty !-I am, Sir, your obedient servant,

ALFRED S. TAYLOR.

(LETTER FROM MR. GEORGE TATHAM.) .

To the Editor of THE LANCET.

SIR,—Your well-known impartiality and love of justiceinduces me to request that you will do me the favour to insertthe following remarks, in allusion to a statement containedin THE LANCET, of the 12th inst., addressed to you by Mr.Harrington, an attorney, misrepresenting-unintentionally, Imake no doubt-the evidence which I gave at the trial ofMary North, indicted at the last Surrey assizes, held at Guild-ford, for the murder of lliary-Ann Barker, by means ofvitriol.

After I had given the main part of my evidence, the follow-ing question was put to me by a juryman twice (for I madehim repeat it, that I might not be mistaken) :-What would be the difference in the appearance of aniseed,

such as that upon the table, and water, when mixed together,and vitriol and water, when mixed in the same proportions 1No mention was made of sugar by the juryman at the time,nor did he say, " a few minutes afterwards," as stated by Mr.Harrington. My reply was, that they would produce similar,or nearly similar, appearances. I then reminded the jury thatin the particular instance of Mrs. Barker’s mixture, she hadput sugar. In preparing this remedy for her infant, Mrs.Barker stated in her evidence, that she had always put aniseedfirst, then sugar, and lastly water. That she did so on the lastoccasion is amply verified bv her own statement from the veryfirst moment, as well as by the testimony given in my presenceby the accused person herself, who said she witnessed it, as