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students flock here by the hundreds. Be- sides, the professors of the University, or the ’Medical Faculty,’ as they call them-’ selves, there are many private lecturerswho have very good faculties, and supportthe reputation of the Edinburgh school.These two sets of teachers hate each other, just as the authorized teachers with us Ihate the London University men and all mushroom schools. The first 1 would call the Radicals, and the other the Bats. TheScotch Bats have little support, and, likeall of us who are in a declining state, arepuzzled what to do. Paltry as their classfees are, some of them think that the

price ought to be lowered, and that theyshould make fewer classes necessary to ob-tain a degree; but the most sensible of theprofessors are resolute in keeping up theprice, and will not yield one farthing. Thisis iust what we do at Bartholomew’s.

" 6th day. Visited some of the teach-ers’ class-rooms and museums. BothMACKINTOSH and LISTON have some ex-cellent preparations. LISTON gave me anexostosis of the last phalanx of the toe,which I shall show off for something newwhen I return. I also carried off a pairoidissecting forceps, very superior to ours;and a pair of LISTON’S stone-forceps, thEextremities of which are lined with a pieceof cloth to prevent the stone slipping. was so delighted with my visit here, thatI told them all I would return next sea-son. To-morrow I start for Glasgow, anchave taken an outside place."

WESTMINSTER MEDICAL SOCIETY.

Saturday, March 29, 1834.

Dr. GEORGE GREGORY in the chair.

ONE OF THE "HIGH-MORAL-FEELING"MEN.

IT was some time since stated that this

Society had instructed a committee of itsmembers to draw up a petition to Parlia-ment, founded on the resolutions adoptedduring the late debates on medical reform.The petition being prepared, it was laid

Bon the table at the meeting of the Lithult., and received the approval of the So-ciety, and on the following Saturday was made the subject of a "fabrication" inMessrs. Longman’s periodical, of which notice was taken in the following mannerat the Society on Saturday last :-

Mr. HUNT, in a brief speech, appropriateto the occasion, adverted to the high cha-racter of the Society, and its usefulness inthe profession, and deemed it exceedingly

proper that the gross misstatements andlibels which were contained in the article inquestion, should be noticed and reprobatedby the members, as a body. The editor ofthe journal was probably not the writer ofit, but had been imposed on by some de.signing person to insert this piece of fic-tion as a communication of truth, and hetherefore trusted that the author of thearticle would, if he were now in theroom, show himself manfully to the So-

ciety, and, if still disposed to defend his

falsehoods, afford him (Mr. Hunt) the op-portunity of denying and exposing them.It would be but an act of justice on thepart of the anonymous writer to step for-ward, were it only to prove, by acknow-ledging his libel, that the gentleman whonow sat in the chair (Dr. Gregory) hadbeen most shamefully traduced by publicreport.

Mr. COSTELLO wished Mr. HLint to hemore explicit in his references, as he didnot at present exactly understand whathe meant.

Mr. PETTIGREW also hoped that Mr.Hunt would make a specific charge, as heat present knew nothing of the matter,not having himself either read the articlesreferred to, or seen any numbers of thepublication in which remarks on the So-ciety had appeared. Would Mr. Hunt beso good as to state exactly what were the ,

contents of the libel ? He (Mr. Pettigrew)felt anxious on the subject, because hewas chairman on the evening referred to,and was not aware that irregularity of anykilid had occurred in the proceedings.

Mr. HUNT said that the report wasmeant to be humorous, but that its distin-guisliing character was untruth, from be-ginning to end. The Secretary had bet-ter read it. (The Secretary went throughthe task.) The members could now judgeof its falsitv. It could not have emanatedfrom the conductors of the journal. Theywere all members of the Society, andwould not, of course, thus slander anony-niouslv their professional brethren. Someartful individual, not a member, musthave imposed on them, and he trustedthat the Society would deny the state-ments. Though it might not be worthyof them to turn aside the shafts of ridi-

cule, yet those of falsehood ought to berepelled, and he who had now shot at themfrom his place of ambush merited rebukeas deservedly as he had excited contempt.(Hear, hear.)

Dr. JAMES SOMERVILLE thought thatMr. Hunt had taken some wrong view ofthe matter. He had, for instance, insi-nuated that the writer was a member of

the Society.Mr. HUNT. It is so reported.

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Dr. SoMERViLLE. Well; it ought not toruffle our tempers. He (Dr. S.) would

simply have a word or two altered at theclose of the report, and then the paragraphwould stand thus, with perfect truth ;-" Are the members of this once-respect-able Society aware, that the writer of thereport is making himself very ridiculousin the eyes of the profession, and of thatlarge portion of the public which is everon the watch for matter of amusement?"(Hea2-, hear.)Dr. JAMES JOHNSON also thought that

the alleged report should be passed overwith contempt. (Hear, hear.) The parti-san scribbler, when he stated that the So-ciety, " instead of praying for the consti-tution of one faculty, or academy of medi-cine, prayed that Parliament would appoint a governing body or council, for theguidance and the regulation of the profes-sion"-had caught at a word, and lost sightof the subject. The report in the Gazettewas merely a piece of spite, perpetratedbecause the writer’s views had not been entertained by the Society on a former Ioccasion. ,.Mr. COSTELLO considered that the poor

creature who wrote the report was quiteunworthy of their anger, though his arti-cle, he believed, was a lie from beginningto end. In one part, for instance, thefabricator of this diatribe stated that " aMr. Costello had been one of the moststrenuous supporters of the one-facultyscheme in the early part of the drama,"though it was a fact that he (Mr. C.) was noteven in this country at the time the reso-lution was penned and the proceedingswere arranged, and he had had no act,hand, or part, in their institution. Ifhe wished to speak seriously of the con-temptuous designation used with referenceto himself, he might appeal to the mem-bers whether he had not, since he hadbeen amongst them, ever exerted himselfto promote the objects of the Society(Hear.) He might be excelled in powerand talent by others, but he would yieldto none in zeal for the diffusion of medical

knowledge. He entertained, however, noother feeling than one of pity for thewriter of the report, which was so farfortunate, as it left his (Mr. C.’s) bene-volence free to make the libeller a prescntof his courtesy. (Heczr, hear.)

Mr. SMITH considered that the wholereport in the paper was a most ridiculousstatement,—written, as was often the case,only to amuse the profession ; and thatsuch trash was not worthy of notice.

(Hear, hear.)Mr. SALMON could not consent to this

abrupt dismissal of the subject. Thestatements as to the inconsistency of the

Society on the one-faculty question de-manded refutation, and the article was ofsuch a character that it was unworthyof any publication to insert it in its pages.

Dr. GREGORY rose and said, that thiswas the second time he had been the suh.

ject of reflections in the Society connect-ed with the reform question. Mr. Hunthad charged him on a previous eveningwith having penned in Dr. Somerville’sprivate room a resolution which he had’afterwards opposed in that Society. Hehad already denied this insinuation else-where, and he now again said that he didnot oppose a resolution on one occasionwhich lie had defended on another. Hehad always opposed an amalgamation of

the profession-a one-faculty scheme. Ilehad supported a governing body or coun-cil at Dr. Somerville’s, and in this roomhe distinctly stated that such a councilhad his approbation. This was what wasmeant by the resolution penned at Dr.Somerville’s, but the idea therein em-bodied had been so misconstrued in a

publication to which he need not furtherallude—he meant THE LANCET—that theresolution had come to express what the

Society did not mean. If the Society,however, now meant to imply by a" governing body" what Dr. Somervilleintended when he first proposed it, leav-

, in3 the Government of the country to

state how that -body should be consti-tuted, he (Dr. G.) would say that thewriter of the oflensive report had grossly

’ libelled the Society; but as long as he(Dr. G.) found a resolution on the booksof the Society so inconsistent with the

. prayer of the petition as was the " eighthresolution," the former not saying cue

word about the one-faculty scheme, and: the latter expressly proposing it, he should- refuse to sign the petition. If the one-

faculty resolution, however, were erasedf from the uooks, he would put his name atonce to the petition, and say that a better’ petition could not be put forth on the sub-i ject by any Society.

Mr. CosTELLO said, that it was not cor-rect to say that the resolution and theclause in the petition were inconsistent,and meant different things. The intentof the petitioners was, by that clause, topray for one faculty, and if he had anyknowledge of the meaning of words, thepetition did embody the object of the reso-lution.

Dr. GREGORY. To this petition I cor-dially give my consent, and will sign it ifthe Faculty resolution be withdrawn fromthe books.Mr. HUNT thought that the conduct of

Dr. Gregory ought to be briefly reviewed,to see whether he was justified by his

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original proceeding and professions, inpursuing the course he had subsequentlyadopted, or whether the whole affair wasnot a manœuvre. When the eighth reso- Ilution was first framed at the house of Dr. i

Somerville, a conversation arose as to the Iwords that should be used in it. It ended

by the drafts of that resolution, which had Ibeen framed in committee, being handedto the President, at his request, for him to’frame one which should embrace the ob-ject proposed, and I declare to the Society I(continued Mr. Hunt), on the word of agentleman, that the eighth resolution, asproposed to, and carried by, the Society, iwas perfected by the President himself,- by the very gentleman who afterwards.managed to temporarily annihilate it in Ithe Society, to the astonishment of every ,member of the Committee who knew that ;it was Dr. Gregory who had constructed Ithat resolution.

Dr. SOMERVILLE said he had kept awayfrom the Society for some evenings after Ithe vote against the eighth resolution, be-cause he would not be tempred to state in ’public the particulars of private conversa-tions, but as the veil had been so far re- moved from what passed at his house, hehad now no objection to state the facts’bearing on this question. lie (Dr. S.) ihad laid before the Committee on that ioccasion a series of resolutions relative to Ithe subject of medical reform, which were iall duly considered. Two versions of theeighth resolution, however, were pre-pared, one by himself, and the other,!which was considered as an expansion ofhis (Dr. S.’s), by Dr. Johnson. Whilethe decision on these two was pending,Dr. Gregory said,—" Gentlemen, leave itto me, and 1 will make a resolution onthe subject which shall be perfection," 1and so he dicl, and said when he hadfinished it, that it was now an " excellentresolution." Dr. Gregory then drew up aprogramme of the intended proceedings ofthe Society, in which the various "actors,"as they were called by the author of thereport in the Gazette, who enacted the:" drama," as the proceedings also were fcalled by him, had their several parts, as Ismovers and seconders, awarded to them, and this programme he (Dr. S.) now hadby him, in Dr. Gregory’s own hand-

writing.Mr. STODART here said, that he had

copied the resolution which was given toDr. Johnson to move, from a document inDr. Gregory’s hand-writing.

Dr. GREGORY again rose, when therewas a call of ‘° Leave the chair." He said hehad taken a series of resolutions with himto Dr. Somerville’s, in one of which hemade an allusion to a " governing body."

He found Dr. Somerville prepared withresolutions, in one of which a " Faculty "

i or " Academy was proposed. Some dif-

ference of opinion arising as to the termsof the resolution, he (Dr. G.) said, that tomake matters sure, he would frame the8th resolution himself, and would put intoit, that this " Faculty " or " Academy

"

should have control over the whole "go-verning body" (so said Dr. G., but we

suppose he meant " over the whole pro-fession"). They (the Committee) nevercontended for any such thing as an amal-gamation or union of the whole of the! profession; and when he (Dr. G.) read!Dr. Somerville’s speech introductory to’ the question, in THE LANCET, he was sur-I prised at the construction put hy Dr. S. onthe words " one Facultv." He would; now ask Dr. Somerville whether, when he! (Dr. S. laid those resolutions before themat his house, he contemplated the esta-blishment of such a Faculty as was advo-cated in his reported speech ? Was his(Dr.S.’s) speech in THE LANCET a correct’ statement of his views and of what he said. in the Society ?

Dr. SOMERVILLE replied, that THE LAN-CET had omitted some things which he’ might have wished to have had reported,and had reported others which he had ra-ther should not have appeared, as theywere not necessary to the strengthening ofhis case; as, for instance, his remarks re-specting Dr. Thompson and the College ofSurgeons, which he afterwards referred toin a note inserted in THE LANCET soonafter the debate was published.! Dr. JOHNSON said that the members

could not be answerable for all the ver-sions of their remarks furnished by thejournals, or the interpretations there puton them. If any person wished to know,on the present occasion, what was meantby the Society with reference to this ques-tion, the words of the Society should betaken from the acknowledged resolution;and that, he (Dr. J.) declared, was in norespect inconsistent with the clause in thepetition. (Hear, hear.)

f Mr. HuxT, before closing the debate,begged the Society to obsene, that theynow had it on the personal testimony oftwo most respectable witnesses, that Dr.

Gregory actually penned the resolution inprivate, which he had afterwards, to theastonishment of every hearer who wascognizant of that fact, opposed to the ut-most in public.

Dr. GREGORY. And I should have sup-ported it in public, but for Dr. Somerville’sstatements, after which I opposed it, as

the resolution and the petition do not now

mean the same thing.

Mr COSTELLO said, it would take the

62

ground completely from under the feet of!the traducer, if the Society were to esta- :,blish, by a vote, that the meanings weresynonymous. (Cries of " No, no; it is notnecessary.")Dr. GREGORY. In that case the peti-’

tion should be altered, and the eighth re- solution inserted in the place of the lastclause, and then let Parliament judge whatsort of a-[we lost the close].

Dr. SOMERVILLE hoped that Mr. Cos-tello would not press the point, as he

thought Dr. Gregory had given the So-ciety all the explanation that was con-venient on the subject. (Laughter.) From iwhat he knew of Dr. Gregory, he was (certain he would go through fire and waterto serve the Society, whether in speakingor writing. (Lauglder again.)

Dr. GREGORY. Does Dr. Somervillewithdraw the comments he made in his!speech on the one-faculty scheme ? If so,I will sign the petition.Mr. SALMON said it was preposterous to

ask such retraction of any member, as theequivalent for such a valuable considera-tion as the signature of the President.He was greatly surprised at the mannerin which the President had evaded the

charge brought against him of having li-belled the Society in anonvmous articlesin a medical periodical. (Hear, hear.)[We did not catch the exact words of Mr.Salmon, but this was the etfect of hislatter observation.]

Dr. SoMERVm.Lr,, in some concludingremarks, intimated that Dr. Gregory neednot be so anxious to cherish an oppositionto the institution of one faculty of medi-cine, for the feeling in its favour wasalmost universal in the profession. Hewas himself, even, startled to find the in-

voluntary and almost unanimous opinionwhich prevailed amongst the high anddistinguished medical gentlemen who hadas yet been examined before the Par-

liamentary Committee, in favour of suchan union of the profession. Their evi-dence, almost without exception, went toadvocate the institution of one faculty.(Hear, hear.)

[Some medical cases were then related,a report of which we must postpone].

WESTMINSTER MEDICAL SOCIETY.

To the Editor of THE LANCET.

SIR,—As a member of the profession re-siding at the west end of the town, I at-

tend occasionally as a visitor at the meet-ings of the Westminster Medical Society.

! As the gentleman who reports for yourjournal was present at the discussion oflast Saturday, it does not become me to

make any report on the proceedings, or toanticipate the terms in which the writerof the sketch in Dr. Macleod’s pamphletwill be characterised in your report; butwell do I recollect the epithets which werebestowed on that individual by several of

the speakers,-Dr. George Gregory in thechair. Now, sir, my object in writing toyou is to make known the astounding factthat Dr. George Gregory himself was thewriter of the article which called forth thei indignant animadversions and feelings of

the members ; and there sat Dr. G. Gregoryas president, thus hearing his characterand conduct most appropriately represent-ed. I am enabled to make known thatDr. G. was the writer of the article, becausehis vanity fooled him into this admission tomore than one person, at a time anterior tothe discussion on Saturday evening. WereI a member of the Society, I would not

only accuse him of the offence, but, on theauthority of his own statement, I wouldmove for his expulsion: and if he be notexpelled I know what will be said, as wellas what will become, of the " oyiee-respect.able" Medical Society of Westminster.

! I am, Sir, your obedient Servant.A WEST-END PRACTITIONER.

March 31st, 1834.

LONDON HOSPITAL.

DISLOCATION OF THE HEAD OF THE RIGHT’! FEMUR INTO THE FORAMEN OVALE.

1. D., ætat. 35, was admitted into Mel-lish’s Ward on the night of the 10th of Fe- bruary, under the care of Mr. ANDREWS,in consequence of having been thrownfrom a cart a short time previous to hisbeing brought to the hospital.On being placed on the bed, one leg

was found to be widely separated fromthe other, and any attempt to bring themtogether caused considerable pain. Thefoot was in a natural position, without in-clining to either side, and resting uponthe heel. There was decided flatteniug ofthe hip, and increase in the length of thelimb to nearly two inches. He cannot

say in what position he fell on the ground,- whether the legs were separated at thetime or not. On being removed to theoperating theatre, attempts at reductionwere made for more than an hour and ahalf, without success; when the operatorswere obliged to desist, in consequence ofone of the hooks of the’ pulleys becomingstraightened. Great difficulty was expe-