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common lodging-houses, with a. view to ascertain if diseasebe engendered in such localities.The paper announced to be read at the next ordinary

meeting in February is, "The Origin and Progress of Choleraand Small-pox in Guernsey," by S. Elliot Hoskins, M.D.,F.R.S.The meeting was well and respectably attended; we

noticed Sir C. M. Clarke and many other gentlemen whomwe saw at the previous meeting.

MEETINGS OF THE MEDICAL SOCIETIES INLONDON DURING THE ENSUING WEEK.

Medical News.APOTHECARIES’ HALL.-Names of gentlemen who

passed their examination in the science and practice of medi-cine, and received certificates to practise, on

T7tursday, Jan. 2, 1851.PAREER, HENRY, Sheffield, Yorkshire.POLLARD, OLIVER COOPER, Chorley, Lancashire.T?3ohIPSON, CHARLES ROBERT, Westerham, Kent.WARD, JOHN DoxoN, Manchester.

PATHOLOGICAL SociETY.ňThe annual meeting ofthis Society was held on Tuesday evening last. The report,which described the utility and progress of this Society, wasread, and the following members were elected office-bearersfor the ensuing year:-President: P. M. Latham, lBI.D.- Vice-Presidents : Benjamin Guy Babington, M.D., F.R.S.; C. J. B.Williams, M.D., F.R.S.; F. H. Ramsbotham, M.D.; *H. BenceJones, M.D., F.R.S.; Caesar H. Hawkins, Esq. ; RichardPartridge, Esq., F.R.S. ; William Ferguson, Esq., F.R.S.;*Edward Stanley, Esq., F.R.S.-Treasurer: James Copland,M.D., F.R.S.-Council: Richard Quain, M.D.; John Scott,M.D.; Edward Bentley, M.D.; W. Jenner, M.D.; W. 3,flfntyre,M.D.; *W. Brinton, M.D.; *A. B. Garrod, M.D.; *J. W.Little, M.D.; *Edward Lloyd, M.D.; *T. Ogier Ward, M.D.;John Avery, Esq.; Prescott G. Hewett, Esq.; John Erichsen,Esq.; Alexander Shaw, Esq.; W. Coulson, Esq.; AlfredPoland, Esq.; Samuel Solly, Esq.; *William Adams, Esq.;*John Birkett, Esq. ; *George Critchett, Esq.—HonorarySecretaries: Thomas B. Peacock, M.D.; George D. Pollock,Esq. Those gentlemen whose names are marked with anasterisk have not been previously on the Council, or have notheld the same office.LIVERPOOL COLLEGE OF CHEMISTRY.—DISTRIBUTION

OF PRIZES.—Dr. Muspratt has awarded the gold medal to Mr.Alexander Crawford, of Belfast, for being the most accurate

qualitative analyst in his laboratory; and a silver medal toMr. Ralph William Forster, of Whitehaven, for the bestdissertation.

_______

PORTRAITS AND BIOGRAPHIESOF

Members of the Medical & Surgical Profession.The subject of the next Portrait and Biography (the 12th

: of the Series) will be‘ . JAMES SYME, ESQ., F.R.S.E.,

PROFESSOR OF CLINICAL SURGERY IN THE UNIVERSITYOF EDINBURGH.

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

WE would earnestly entreat of our correspondents, who may send commu-nications to this office intended for publication, to condense them into asbrief limits as possible. With the great number of papers already inhand awaiting insertion, and the many new departments which have beenadded to this journal, it becomes more and more difficult to find place forlong essays, and it will be impossible for us to do that justice which wedesire towards all our correspondents, unless they will mutually agree toadopt the most trite style of composition. Cæteris paribus, the shorter acommunication, the more readily do we find space for its appearance inour pages. -

Beta should take the recommendation of his regular surgeon with respectto the selection of another practitioner.

DISTINCTIVE DECORATIONS.To the Editor of THE LANCET.

SIR,—I have perused with pleasure the numerous letters contained inyour valuable paper from week to week, under the head of " Grievances atSt. Bartholomew’s," and more especially that part advising the propriety&c. for the student to wear the cap and gown; and I am quite sure thatwere the professors to propose such a thing, it would be warmly secondedby the numerous pupils of this establishment, though, for want of a leader,they refrain from " showing their colours." I cannot, of course, see anyutility in its being worn, except within the walls of the hospital, where itshould be enforced, though there certainly would be no "disgrace" in aman’s appearing with it elsewhere. While, on the contrary, I grant, Sir, thatit is by good breeding, and not by dress, that the test of gentility isproved; yet all must agree that a man is often judged by his appearance;and if the blue coat of the sailor and the red of the soldier be a passport tosociety, why should not the cap and gown of the medical student be thesame?,

Apologizing for thus troubling you, but anxious to utter the feelings ofthe body of students at St. Bartholomew’s,

I am, Sir, yours obediently,St. Bartholomew’s Hospital. AN OLD STUDENT AND PRIZEMAN.

A Qualified Surgeon asks it it be true that the name of Mr. Boddy waserased from the list of the council of the Medical and Surgical Practi-tioners’ Society in consequence of allowing his name to be used at the"Medical Hall" in Friar-street, Blackfriars-road ?

Mr. Haynes TValton.-We have always on principle and as a rule abstainedfrom admitting into our columns controversial communications whicharise out of, and properly belong to, the discussions which take place at themedical societies, and we believe that the propriety and expediency of con-tinuing such a course of policy cannot be questioned. The adoption of anopposite plan would bring to us an incalculable number of communications,in which we should find the chief materials of speeches that gentlemen hadintended to make; but which speeches, if made, would have subjectedthe speakers to prompt criticism sur le champ, and thus in a great varietyof instances, at once and without difficulty, the useful facts elicited wouldbe retained both in the minds of the auditory and in the reports of the dis-cussions, and the mere fringe or ornamental part would be lopped off as aworthless appendage. But where and when would controversies openedin the discussions in societies end if they were continued by the speakersin the medical journals? It may be easily conceived that within a shortperiod, if such controversies were opened, they would occupy the pagesof a weekly medical periodical, to the exclusion of all other articles.The letter of Mr. Walton now before us extends over six pages of letter-

paper, and, if published in the form in which it is now sent to us, thosesix pages would probably bring upon us a demand for the publicationof about twenty times six other pages on the same subject. We there-fore do not decline to insert Mr. Walton’s communication because we

disapprove of it, or because we consider that it should not be published;and we think that when the discussion to which it relates is renewed atthe Medical Society of London, the substance of it, if addressed by Mr.Walton to the members of the Society, would very appropriately appearin a report of the proceedings.

THE STUDENTS AT COUNTRY HOSPITALS.To the Editor 0/THE LANCET.

SIR,—Can you inform me, through the medium of THE LANCET, if at theprovincial hospitals the weekly board are in the habit of sending the namesof students attending their practice to the College of Surgeons.

I am, Sir, &c.,Dec. 31, 1850. A STUDENT.

*** The names of the students are sent to the College from the recognisedprovincial medical schools, but we do not understand that the weeklyboards of the hospitals interfere in the matter. It certainly does notappear to be connected with the functions which they ordinarily exercise.

Vigilans.-Renew the inquiry. The subject is not exhausted.

To the Editor of THE LANCET.

SIR,—May I request the favour of your informing me if the treatment ofparalytic disease by the process of manipulation has at any time beenbrought under your notice; for I have been informed by a patient that agentleman is performing some extraordinary cures by this mode of treat-ment.

It you can favour me with any observations on this ’° new light," youwill much oblige, Sir,Dec. 31, 1850.

’

ONE OF YOUR OLDEST SUBSCRIBERS.*** We have heard something of this matter before. Is it the last born of

the monster quackery-family? We are unable to satisfy the curiosity ofour querist, but possibly some of our readers may be well informed onthe subject.

Epidemiological .......................

Chemical, 142, Strand.................Medico-Botanical, 32, Sackville-st.Medico-Chirurgical, 53, Berners-st.Pathological, 33, George-street,

Hanover-square .....................Hunterian, 4, Bloomfield-street, {

Pharmaceutical, 17, Bloomsbury-sq.South London Medical, Borough ...Western Medical and Surgical......Medical Society of London, 33,

George-street, Hanover-squareHarveian, 21, Edwards-street,

Portman-square ..................

60

Dr. Ballard shall receive a private note.IF Benedick entertains a suspicion, it is evidently a most unjust one. The

facts stated are quite sufficient to prove that no deception has been prac-tised.

Chir2ergus.-We are not acquainted with the particulars of the evidencewhich was given. It may be laid down as an axiom that there is not anycondition of the female which can furnish conclusive evidence that thecrime had been committed. In such cases medical practitioners cannotbe too frank in stating what they do know, and in acknowledging whatthey do not know.

AN APPETOACITINO CENTENARIAN.To the Edidor of THE LANCET.

SIR,—In THE LANCET of last week there is an inquiry from one of yourconstant readers for the name and address of an approaching centenarian.He may find one of the name of Ann Flower, a widow, near the King’sHead, Loughton, Essex. Her native parish is Linton, in Cambridgeshire.She has had eleven children; all reach upwards of fifty years of age; and hasa twelfth approaching fifty. She is now in good health; she is a great greatgrandmother. She states that she was ninety-five years old last Whit-sunday; but her granddaughter, from whom this information is obtained,believes that she was then only ninety-four. I cannot learn her maidenname.

I am, Sir, yours respectfully,Dalston Rise, Jan. 2, 1851. J. OwEN EvANS, M.D. Lond.

Peregrine.-We should be glad to receive them.OuR correspondent at Bedford will find the cases inserted in THE LANCETof August 31st last, p. 262, and we beg our correspondent to refer to theindex on the title-page of the number in question.

Juve2zis should address a letter to the secretary of the Society of Apothe-caries.

TAUNTON GENERAL HOSPITAL-THE SUCCESSFUL CASE OF OVARIOTOMY.To the Editor of THE LANCET.

SIR,—Those members of the profession who may have chanced to readthe report of the case of ovariotomy in the Provincial Medical Jom nal ofOctober 30th, 1850, and also the report of the same case in THE LANCET ofDecember 21st, 1850, must have been struck with Mr. Cornish’s assumptionof the case to himself in the last-named journal, and will probably infer thatI had claimed a share in it to which I was not entitled.

I therefore desire to state that the case was exclusively under my careuntil the 25th of January, 1849, when, in consultation with the hospitalstaff, my proposal for the operation was adopted, after which it was trans-ferred to Mr. Cornish, whose duty it was to operate.Your long-tried sense of justice will, I am sure, prompt you to give early

publicity to this statement, which I have been very reluctantly iuduced tomake, in consequence of an almost verbatim copy of the report from ’I HELANCET having been published in two of our local newspapers! Had it notbeen for this last fact I should have allowed the matter to pass in silence,without obtruding on the profession an injustice personal to myself, in theconviction that those who know me would come to the right conclusionafter reading both reports.

I am, Sir, your obedient servant,FRANCfS HENRY WOODFORDE, M.D.,

Taunton, Jan. 4; 1851. Physician to the Taunton & Somerset Hospital.WE have forwarded to Mr. Alexander Walker, at Leith, a post-office order

for one guinea, received from Lieut. Macleod, R.N., through the hands ofEdwin T. Watkins, Esq., Towcester. Its receipt has been acknowledged.

TESTIMONIAL TO PROFESSOR GRANT.To the Editor of THE LANCET.

’SiR,-The Biography of Professor R. Grant, of University College, whichso recently gave additional interest to the pages of THE LANCET, exhibitsperhaps the most striking example in modern times of the unprofitableness,in a worldly point of view, of a devotion to pure science-of the vain hope Iof acquiring wealth, corporate emoluments, or state honours, in Great ’,Britain, by the mere enlarging the boundaries of human knowledge.

I, however, take up my pen to urge the carrying out of the proposal for apublic testimonial to this eminent but much neglected philosopher. Thetestimonial ought not to be confined to pupils or personal friends, but madeopen to all admirers of an ardent investigator of the works of Nature. J forone would most readily assist in so good a work. Dr. Grant is an oldacquaintance; his career has been marked ; but many circumstances haveprevented of late years any renewal of our intercourse. Your Portrait andBiography vividly brought up old recollections; what took place the lasttime I did see him was characteristic enough. I had graduated, and waspreparing to follow up my studies in London and Paris, when Dr. Grant re-turned from the Continent to Edinburgh, in company of my cousin, aScotch barrister, the successor of Sir Walter Scott in the sheriffship ofSelkirkshire, and we were invited to dine with the doctor in his lodgings tothe south of Edinburgh. A brace of ducks was the fare; but the future pro-fessor of zoology had removed the heads and necks from the web-footedcreatures, and had amused himself by making a dissection of the nervespreparatory to a demonstration for us, and a more beautiful dissection, aclearer demonstration, it never was my lot to see or hear.

Orsett, Essex, Jan. 7, 1851. D. C-.

To the Editor of THE LANCET.SIR,—I am most agreeably surprised to see a project on foot for pre-

senting Dr. Grant with a testimonial. I shall be happy to put down myname for £2 2s.A life annuity is the appropriate mode; a valuable microscope, unac-

companied by anything more substantial, would be little better than amockery.mockery.

Your obedient servant,Norwich, Bolton, Jan. S, 1851. FRED. WM. MARSHALL, M.B.

THE letter of a Very Old Subscriber, respecting the Norwich Life AssuranceOffice, cannot be published unless it be authenticated.

THE paper of Mr. Horace Dobell shall be published.THE Hospital Report by Mr. Robertson, and, if possible, the paper on

Arsenic, by Dr. Cattell, shall be published next week.Dr. Hutchinson Powell will find a packet and letter left addressed for him atour office.

SELF-SUPPORTING DISPENSARIES.To the Editor of THE LANCET.

SIR,—Numerous engagements have precluded me from completing acommunication I purposed forwarding to you this week, and my attentionwas directed only yesterday to the article in your Notice to Correspondents.In the few unpremeditated sentences I addressed to the gentlemen at Dr.Little’s on being suddenly and unexpectedly called to the chair, it did notstrike me to give the data upon which my statement as to remuneration isfounded, as the calculation might be so easily verified. I cannot for amoment presume you are influenced by other than good faith in your oppo-sition to Mr. Smith’s system. How then can you publish without inquirythe unwarrantable assertion, that this gentleman received fifty guineas forhis attendance at my house? A nobleman, at Mr. Smith’s suggestion, haspaid through me £50 to the society.

I am, Sir, your obedient servant,Savile-row, Jan. 8, 1851. JOSEPH MOORE.

*,* We can assure Dr. Moore that we are expecting his communicationwith much anxiety. If it can be proved that the general adoption of Mr.Smith’s plan would secure to medical practitioners such an amount ofremuneration as two guineas a case for paupers and for persons onedegree above pauperism," our opposition to the scheme will be broughtto a conclusion. With reference to our remaik in the last LANCET, thatMr. Smith had said that he had received fifty guineas for coming toLondon to attend at Dr. Moore’s, we can assure the doctor that the

, statement was not made by us without sufficient authority. A gentleman! who was present at the meeting informed us, that he heard Mr. SmithI make the statement in question, and we shall, without hesitation, furnish

Dr. Moore confidentially with the name and address of our informant.We feel confident, therefore, that the doctor will acquit us of the chargeof having made the statement without due inquiry.

THE letter signed Pro Bono Profess. is of too personal a nature for publica-tion.

STATISTICS OF HOSPITALS AND DISPENSARIES.To the Edilor ofTHH LANCET.

SIR,—I beg to inform the Dispensary Surgeon, whose letter appeared inthe last number of THE LANCET, that the governors of the Royal SouthLondon Dispensary publish an annual report, containing, inter alia, lists ofthe number of patients admitted, cured, and relieved, the number of deaths,and of patients under treatment. The report for the year 1849 gives the fol-lowing information in a table :-Total admitted, 3073; cured, 2405; relieved,442; died, 40; under care, 186. The cost of the drugs and chemicals was£219 8s. 4d. Leeches are not now snpplied to the patients by the charity ;but I believe they were formerly. The annual expenditure of the charity isabout £680.

I am, Sir, your obedient servant,New Kent-road, Jan. 2, 1851. T. C. LEWIS.

ERRATUM.—It was Mr. J. M. Sutton (not Sulton, as printed in THE LANCET,p. 33) who was admitted a member of the College of Surgeons on Dec.20th last, and is about to proceed to Jamaica as a volunteer medicalattendant on cholera patients in that island.

COMMUNICATIONS LETTERS, &c., have been received from -- Peregrine;A Qualified Surgeon; Juvenis; Mr. Hooper; Mr. Henry; Mr. Farrage,(Rothbury;) Dr. Charles Edwards, (Cheltenham;) Mr. Delf; Chirurgus;Mr. Thornton, (St. Mark’s Hospital, Dublin, with inclosure Senex;Mr. J. Ashbury Smith; Mr. Trenerry, (Gibraltar;) Dr. Hutchinson Powell;Dr. G. Merryweather, (Whitby;) Dr. Woodforde, (Taunton ;) Benedick;Dr. E. Ballard, (Retford;) Mr. J. M. Thiselton; Dr. Cattell, (Braunston;)Dr. Nelson, (Birmingham;) Mr. Haynes Walton; Dr. S. Edwards ; D. C.;Mr. H. B. Dobell; Professor Syme; Dr. Sheridan Muspratt, (Liverpool,with inclosures;) Dr. Beneke; Mr. Bakewell, (Longton, Staffordshire;)A Very Old Subscriber; X. Y. Z. ; B. C., (Loughborough;) Justitia, (withinclosure;) Mr. Self, (Commercial-road;) Mr. T. C. Lewis; Mr. JohnLyte, (with inclosure;) Dr. J. 0. Evans, (Dalston;) Mr. W. T. Gage,(Taunton;) Mr. Swann, (Farnsfield, Notts;) One of our Oldest Sub-scribers ; A Student; Mr. E. Wade, (Cross, Somerset;) Mr. Fletcher,(Liverpool Infirmary ;) Mr. Hitchins, (Lincoln;) Mr. Eddowes, (Lough-borough ;) Dr. Glover; Mr. Worthington, (Lowestoft;) M. D.; A CountrySurgeon; Mercury; Dr. H. Hastings, (Cheltenham;) M. B., (Wainfleet;)Mr. J. H. S. Wildsmith; Mr. Samuel Smith ; Mr. B. F. Matthews, (Bed-ford ;) J. A. B.; Mr. Eddowes, (Pontisbury;) Mr. Lonsdale; M. M.;A Poor Gentleman; Mr. H. B. Dobell, (second communication;) Beta;An Old Subscriber; Dr. F. W. Marshall, (Horwich;) A. B., (Hereford;)Dicor Opiferque per Orbem ; Dr. Ashton, (Stockport ;) Dr. Lyell, (New-burgh, Fifeshire;) Dr. Row, (Beckley;) Mr. J. Abell, (Mitchel Dean ;)Mr. Berry, (Harrogate, Yorkshire;) Mr. T. Leeson, (Snaith;) Mr. G. P. R.

Pulman, (Crewkerne;) Mr. Hagyard, (Hunmanby, Yorkshire;) MrSmithson, (West Town, Dewsbury;) Mr. John Francis, (Market-Har-,borough;) Mr. John Morley, (Barton.on-Humber;) Mr. J. E. Pegg,(Leeds;) Mr. J. R. Higgins, (Axbridge, Somerset;) Mr. H. Parfitt,(Maidstone, Kent;) Mr. W. Hamilton, (Wicklow, Ireland ;; Dr. Ramsay,(Gloucester;) Mr. E. Edwards, (Crewe;) Mr. Atkinson, (Kilham Mr.G. Thompson, (Padiham;) ;) Mr. G. White, (Didmaston, Wootton-under-Edge, Gloucestershire;) Mr. J. Beggs, (Bellingham, Northumberland;]Mr. R. Bell, (Cockermouth;) Mr. J. R. Rose. (Diss, Norfolk;; Dr. Sheehan,(Buttevant, Ireland;) Mr. A. H. Churchill, (Gravesend;) Dr. Beamish,(Ramsgate;) Messrs. J. Shaw & Sons, (Nottingham;) Dr. J. Kendrick,(Warrington, Lancashire;) Dr. J. Bailey, (Wednesbury, Staffordshire;)Mr. George Garson, (Stromness, Orkney;) Mr. F. Walker, (EastockLoughborough;) Dr. Gilbert, (Lurgan, Ireland;) Mr. J. B. Brown,(Galashiels;) Mr. St. John Lucas, (Alford, Lincolnshire;) Mr. T. Atkin.son, (Brading, Isle of Wight;) Medicus, (Kensington ;) Mr. Thomas

H. Thompson; One of our Earliest Subscribers; and others.