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THE ANALYTICAL SANITARY COMMISSION. SNUFF, AND ITS ADULTERATIONS. We are compelled to postpone the publication of the Report on Snuff, and its Adulterations, until next week, owing to press of matter. _______ DRUGS, AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS. THE REPORT OF THE COMMISSION ON OPIUM, AND ITS ADULTERATIONS, Is in a forward state, and will be published immediately after the Report on Snuff, and its Adulterations. TO CORRESPONDENTS. Mr. R. Gardiner Hill.-We have received a very long communication from this gentleman, complaining, as might be expected, of the view we have taken of his claim to be the originator of the system of" " non-restraint" in lunacy. The letter consists of little more than a repetition of arguments which have been already reiterated usque adraitseain. Mr Hill is far more largely in- debted to his good fortune in coming under the instruction of such a master as Dr. Charlesworth than to any merit of his own. The system of non- restraint did not, and could not, as every one acquainted with the subject well knows, burst forth into maturity in a day. It required long prepara- tion, patient zeal, and gradual ameliorations. All this had been going steadily forward for many years under Dr. Tuke and Dr. Charlesworth. Mr. Hill fell upon happy times. The work was done. The feasibility of the system was demonstrated. Long intervals of total freedom from restraint t had been passed in the Lincoln Asylum. Reforms and substitutory appli- ances were constantly progressing. Under Mr. Hill’s house-surgeoncy the intervals were increased; but restraint was not, as we have seen, abolished by him. He was unequal to the task which has since been accomplished. Mr. Robinson’s letter arrived too late for insertion in this week’s number. THE publication of Jjff. Willing’s note would only lead to a demand for the insertion of other communications on a very uninteresting subject. Mr. Willing should know that he has given great offence by parading his prac- tice as an apothecary, when, as our correspondents contend, he does not hold a proper legal title for so doing. A. S. T.-No such publication is known to us. Chirurgus, (Leamington.)-The acknowledgments of Mr. Prichard,. respecting the "table-tnrning" humbug, are straightforward. It is to be regretted that any medical practitioner should be led away by such absurd vagaries. S. E. M.-The Medical Protection Society, 41, Lincolu’s-inn-fields. THE NAUSEATING EFFECTS OF OPIUM. To the Editor of THE LANCET. SIR,- Your correspondent, "Medicus," in last week’s journal, having in two individuals of the same family found nausea and retching to continue for seven or eight hours after the exhibition of opium or of muriate of morphia, wishes to be informed how such nausea may be controlled, or what is the best substitute for opium in arresting diarrhoea in such patients. This nausea is almost invariably prevented by giving an excess of some mineral or vegetable acid, and I would advise him to administer dilute si-il- pliuric acid, thirty minims, with or without tincture of opium, ten, twenty, or thirty minims, according to circumstances. The dilute sulphuric acid will of itself often control diarrhoea; but when combined with opium, it is not only more powerfully astringent, but it also very much mitigates the distressing effects so often produced by opium. Morphia is not generally used for controlling diarrhoea; but should your correspondent consider its administration peculiarly indicated, the nausea will be prevented by ordering with each dose of the hydrochlorate of morphia, twenty, thirty, or forty minims of the dilute hydrochloric acid, or, if the acetate of morphia be employed, by giving with each dose one or two drachms of the dilute sulphuric acid. I am, Sir, your obedient servant, Tavistock-square, Nov. 1853. JOSEPH WILLIAMS, M.D. X Y. Z.-It is difficult to offer advice in such a case. The poor generally, however, are very ready to find out such institutions, without any extraor- dinary means being taken to advertise them. A Scotch Practitioner.-The circular of Archibald William Cockburn, ,M.D., &c., of Kensington, and Dr. Pattison, has been received. It may be somewhat more " respectable" to send such circulars than to advertise by means of little dirty pieces of paper thrust into the passenger’s hand at the corner of a street. Experience has fully shown that there is no "certain cure for cancer." ’ P. L. G.-It is quite possible for a person with fracture of the small bone of the leg (fibula) to walk a considerable distance. ,I Lover of Justice and -Fair PLay.-1. There is no provision in the New Vaccination Act for the payment to a surgeon for vaccinating, unless he has been ppeeially appointed for that purpose by the board of guardians.- 2. The Act authorizes the guardians to divide a parish or union into dis- tricts ; but this is left much to the discretion of the guardians.-3. All con- tracts at present in force are left untouched by the Act. In all new contracts the fees to be paid must be in accordance with the Act.-4. This question is answered partly in No. 1. It is understood, however, that the vaccinator is appointed only to one district, to which he is expected to confine his operations. 3V)’. Russell’s request shall receive attention. A Constant Reader and Quarantine Surgeorz.-Surely our correspondent has not taken office with an ignorance of the duties which he has to perform. The principal efforts of the officer are directed to the strict examination of the sanitary condition of all vessels entering the port to which he is attached. He has the power of enforcing evidence upon oath. Mr. Taylor’s article, on the "Modus Operandi of Mercury in the Cure of Asiatic Cholera," shall be inserted. R. Z., (union surgeon.) Our correspondent acted perfectly right in the matter. It is quite clear that the Vaccination Act did not contemplate the gratuitous vaccination of the children of persons well able to pay moderately for it. When such persons make application, it would be well to remind them that the receipt of such gratuitous services classes them with paupers. An Old Subscriber.-Next week. M.D.-The advertisement of Dr. Potts, of the H.E.I.Co.’s Service, inserted in the Dumfries Herald, is not creditable to his judgment or professional posi- tion. GRATUITOUS SHIP-SURGEONS. To.the Editor of THE LANCET. SIR,-I feel sure you have the interests of the poor members of my profes- sion so much at heart as to permit me, through the medium of THE LANCET, to warn them how they give up their situations, and set off to Australia; acting as ship-surgeons gratis, and landing without funds in a land where everything is dear. Entreat them to weigh well what their chances of earning anything will be in a city like Melbourne, where, by the last census, there was " one doctor to every thirty inhabitants." If they saw surgeons working on the roads, selling apples, acting’ as waiters in low public-houses, or entreating a free passage home (either as surgeons, stewards, or cuddy-servants to ships) from every captain that sails from "Hobson’s Bay," or haunting every one they know for interest to get into the police-in short, if they could see gen- tlemen obliged for bread to enter into a contest with the strong working population, they would weigh their chance of success better than they do. "Oh, Sir," said a gentleman from London to me in Melbourne last June-"Oh, Sir, I gave my services as surgeon to a ship without pay, and landed here with but j620; that was soon gone, and now the same captain refuses to take me back, as he is not obliged here to have a surgeon on the home voyage." This man had been only seven or eight weeks in the town; he seemed ill, and entreated me to use my influence to get him home in any situation on board my ship. Hundreds are in the same situation; yet I hear that ships are sailing every day from London, and getting men to go as surgeons without pay for their services. Stewards get pay, and "work their passage" also; but doctors are content to land in a strange town, without having made as much going out as would bring them back again. In Liverpool I hear merchants are giving from £30 to £50 for the voyage to respectable medical men, and this sum will enable them to get back if they see starvation before them in Melbourne. Pray ask merchants in London to give a mite of their enormous gains to their poor medical officers, and in doing so believe that the money will find its way into their pockets again when their ship is returning. , Please excuse this long letter, and believe me to remain, dear Sir, Your old friend and servant, London, Nov. 1853. LATE A SHIP-SURGEON, Dr. Brinton’s paper, on the " Treatment of Fever at the Royal Free Hospital," has been received, and will be published at an early date. Mr. John Bassett, (Coventry.)-V’e have analyzed the sample of tea forwarded by our correspondent, and find it to be ordinary Chinese green tea-that is, it consists of the tea-leaf, artificially coloured or glazed with Prussian blue, turmeric, and a white powder, most probably Kaolin or China clay. The sample sent certainly does not contain any admixture with leaves other than those of the tea-plant, but these have been very highly coloured. C. T.-Such a recovery is possible. SEVERAL communications already in type are unavoidably postponed. COMMUNICATIONS, LETTERS, &c., have been received from - Dr. Radford; Mr. T. B. Lewis; M.D.; Mr. F. Winsor; Facts Suffice; W. Z. W.; A Con. stant Reader of THE LANCET; Dr. de Lisle, (Guernsey;) Mr. Philbrick, (Colchester;) Mr. Waddington, (Margate;) Mr. S. Taylor, (Old Kent-road;) Dr. Ayre, (Hull;) Dr. Gibb; Dr. John Ogilvy, (Assistant-Surgeon 33rd Regiment, Athlone Barracks;) Mr. Charles King; Mr. Anderson ; Dr. Williams, (Gloucester;) Mr. F. A. Bulley; A. S. T.; R. Z.; Mr. J. Walker; Mr. R.. Ellis; M.R.C.S. and L.A.C.; Mr. H. W. Horsell; Dr. Pidduck; Fides; Mr. W. E. Cass; Mr. J. W. Baxter, (Emsworth, with enclosure;) Mr. R. Abercrombie, (West Bromwich, with enclosure;) Dr. Birch, (Swineford, with enclosure;) Mr. T. Parnell, (Wells, with enclosure;) Mr. N. Crabb, (Poole, with enclosure;) Mr. T. W. Bennett, (Manchester, with enclosure;) Mr. S. Knaggs, (Huddersfield;) Mr. John Perkins, (Brussels;) Mr. John Russell, (Merthyr Tydvil;) Dr. Slevin, (Longford, with enclosure;) Mr. T. H. Maynard, (Hillington;) Mr. G. Foote, (Kingston, with enclosure;) Mr. R. Gardiner Hill; Mr. J. Bassett, (Coventry;) X. Y. Z.; A Scotch Practi- tioner ; P. L. G.; A Lover of Justice and Fair Play; C. T.; S. E. M.; A Constant Reader and Quarantine Surgeon; Chirurgus, (Leamington;) Dr. Joseph Williams; Late a Ship-Surgeon ; Mr. Barker, (Islington;) Messrs. Hill, Davidson, and Hill, (Glasgow;) An Old Subscriber; Mr. Robinson, (Ware;) &c. &c.
