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recognised in the election of Poor-law Medical Officers. From ’’

this list the name of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edin- burgh, recognised as giving a surgical licence, has been omitted. IThis must have occurred per incuriam, as the original official documents, received by me this day, contain the name of thisCollege in its proper position. As this omission in your widelycirculated periodical will be productive of injury to the interestsof the College and its numerous licentiates in England, I haveto request that you will correct it in your next number in sucha manner that the correction may be as readily observable asthe error in THE LANCET of the 14th instant.

I am, Sir, your obedient servant,DOUGLAS MACLAGAN,

President of the Royal College of Surgeons, Edinburgh.The Royal College of Surgeons, Edinburgh, Jan. 16th, 1860.

* The omission was purely accidental.

DOUGLAS MACLAGAN,President of the Royal College of Surgeons, Edinburgh.

To the Editor of THE LANCET.

SIR,-The General Order just issued by the Poor-law Board,on the qualifications of their medical officers, is an interestingone at the present crisis in medical politics. It is observable,however, that gentlemen possessing the very first qualificationenumerated in the list are practically disqualified from holdingoffice under boards of guardians, for the obvious reason thatthey are prohibited by their College from practising pharmacy,while their contract with the guardians would bind them to" supply the requisite medicines" to their union patients.While, therefore, the L.R.C.P. Lond. is admitted to office bythe Poor-law Board, he is prohibited from such office by hisown College; so there is an end of him, at any rate. But whathave the Universities of Dublin, Durham, and St. Andrews-" Universities of the United Kingdom, all of them-done that Ithey should be left out of the list ? They are legalized by theMedical Act, the provisions of which are referred to by theBoard as calling for the General Order, and they may, if theychoose, "supply the requisite medicines" to their patients.

" The Poor-law Board have," they say, " at present no ade-quate information as to the nature" of their degrees and licences;so they reject them or admit them only on the degrading con-dition of a special petition or application under a generalizingclause, and that while they admit the L.R.C.P. Lond., of thenature of whose qualification their " information" cannot bevery" adequate," assuming, as they clearly do by allowing thecontract, that he can "supply the requisite medicines to hispatients !"

I am, Sir, your obedient servant,January, 1860. M.D. ST. AND. & L.R.C.P. EDI-N.

’ Members of the London College of Physicians are notexcluded. The qualification is not incompatible with holdinga workhouse appointment; indeed, there is at least one ex-ample of this.

M.D. ST. AND. & L.R.C.P. EDIN.

FATAL HÆMORRHAGE FROM VARICOSEVEINS.

To the Editor of THE LANCET.

SIR,-About five years since, I attended the wife of a milk-man in Northampton with a varicose ulcer of the leg, whichyielded to the ordinary treatment of rest and bandaging, andthe wound healed up. I gave her strict injunction to wear thebandage for life, and pointed out the danger of leaving it off;notwithstanding which, about twelve months afterwards shediscontinued its use, and on her return homewards from thetown haemorrhage occurred, and when she arrived at home shebecame faint, fell down on the floor, and expired. I was sentfor, and found her lying in a pool of blood.

. JAMES MASH,Senior Surgeon to the General Hospital,

January, 1860. Northampton.

JAMES MASH,Senior Surgeon to the General Hospital,

Northampton.

MEDICAL TRIALS.

WINGHAM PETTY SESSIONS.

CONVICTION FOR ILLEGAL PRACTICE.

THURSDAY, JAN. 12TH.

CHARLES HovELL, son of the late Charles Hovell, surgeon,of Canterbury, was charged with practising as a surgeon with-out proper qualification. There were two informations againstthe defendant-one for using the term surgeon, as applied to

himself; and the other for practising. Both informations werelaid under an Act of Parliament passed in 1858, and quoted as" The Medical Registration Act," and the proceedings hadbeen taken in accordance with instructions from the East KentMedical Registration Association. The defendant pleadedNot guilty." Mr. Fielding, of Canterbury, appeared in support of the in.formation.The defendant denied the charge of falsely using the name

of surgeon, implying thereby, or with a view of making thepublic believe, that he was registered under the new MedicalAct, or that he had a diploma.

Mr. FIELDING referred to the Act, and briefly described itsvarious provisions. Section 27 was a rather important one,

bearing on the case then before the Bench. It provided forthe publication, under the supervision of the General Councilin London, of an official Register, which should be taken asevidence in a court of justice. The absence of the name of anyparty practising as a physician must be taken as prima facieevidence of his not being qualified, and the onus of provinglegal qualification would, in such a case, rest upon the de.fendant. He would hand in the Register, which did not con.tain the name of any Charles Hovell residing in the county ofKent. He would now proceed to the circumstances of thecharge against the defendant Hovell. He should be able toshow to the Bench that the defendant resided in Wingham,and that on the day mentioned in the summons he had a plateon his door containing the words " Hovell, surgeon." If, ashe should be able to show, the defendant resided in the house,it must be taken to apply to him, unless he could prove to thesatisfaction of the Bench that it applied to some other partythere. He should prove that the defendant paid the rates forthe house.

CLEMENT HARRIS, overseer, proved there was a brass plateon the street-door, engraved "Hovell, surgeon." The platewas on the door up to this week, but was removed on Mondaynight. It had been there two years or more.Mr. FIELDING. -That is the case, your worship.The defendant, in reply to the charge, said he had acted as

assistant to his late father ever since he had been home fromsea. In the first instance he resided at Ash, where the plateupon the door was used by his father, who practised there as asurgeon until the defendant removed to Wingham. It wasthen removed, by his father’s orders, to the house at Wingham,which was taken by his father, and where he (defendant) re-sided and acted as his father’s assistant. Up to the time ofhis death, his father used to come to Wingham to see patients,and the business was always carried on in his name. Whenhis father was not there, the patients were, of course, intro-duced to him (defendant); but it was well understood that heacted as his father’s assistant, and that he was not qualified topractise on his own account. When his father died, he re-ceived no instructions from the executors to remove the platefrom the door, and the necessity for doing so never occurred tohis mind. But by the keeping it on the door he never intendedto deceive the public, as all his late father’s patients were fullyaware that he did not hold a diploma from any of the halls ofmedicine or surgery. The plate was removed from the door onthe Monday night previously by some of his many friends inthe parish, who thought by so doing they would be renderinghim a service, but it appeared they were mistaken. He didnot give any order for its removal, nor was he aware by whomit was removed.Mr. Fielding then proceeded with the second case, the charge

being for practising as a surgeon in the parish of Ash, withoutbeing duly qualified. He then calledMr. J. L. LASS, who deposed-I reside at Sandwich, and

am Registrar of Births and Deaths. I produce the certificateof the death of John Wall, which was received by me on the27th of October.The certificate produced by the witness was one of those

which the defendant stated he was authorized, as assistant tohis father, to fill up. It stated that the deceased had been at-tended during his illness by the defendant, as assistant to" Charles Hovell, surgeon, late R.N."Mr. Fielding then put in evidence a certified copy of the

registry of the death of Chas. Hovell, Surgeon, of Canterbury,which took place in July last.

This was the case for the prosecution.The defendant explained how he came to give the certificate.

His father used to supply him with a number of forms properlysigned, which only required filling up. At his father’s deathhe had a number of those forms by him, and that produced bythe witness Lass was one of them. There was no intention,

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however, to mislead the public in any way, as his father’sdeath was duly notified to his patients.The CHAIRMAN said the Bench had no hesitation whatever

in convicting the defendant of the charges laid against him byMr. Fielding, in accordance with the instructions from theEast Kent Medical Registration Association. But as that wasthe first case which had occurred in the neighbourhood, theBench were not disposed to infiict the full penalty, and Mr.Fielding had stated his intention not to press for a convictionin both cases. One of the charges would, therefore, be with-drawn ; and in the other the Bench would inflict a penalty of£10, which would be levied by distress, in the first place, butfailing that the defendant would be committed to prison forsix weeks.The defendant applied to be allowed till the next meeting of

the Court to pay the fine, and the magistrates granted the ap-plication.

NEWARK COUNTY PETTY SESSIONS.

WEDNESDAY, JAN. 11TH.A CASE of considerable interest to the medical profession and

the public came before the Bench. The defendant was Mr.Joseph Chamberlain, who has recently come to reside at Syers-ton, near Newark, and has passed as a medical practitioner.Mr. W. Scarborough, of the same village, was the informant,and charged Mr. Chamberlain with wilfully and falsely pre-tending to be a surgeon on the 16th of June last.From the evidence of Mr. Scarborough and other witnesses,

it appeared that at the time named in the information, as wellas before and subsequent to it, the defendant represented him-self to be a surgeon, verbally and by having fixed on the gateleading to his lodgings a board bearin? his name and the titleof "surgeon," and the issuing of cards with similar wordsprinted on them. The board was daubed over about the 19thof September, and another sign was put up bearing the words"legally qualified and registered medical practitioner."The Medical Register was then put in by Mr. HEATHCOTE,

on the part of the prosecution, in which the defendant’s nameappeared only as "Licentiate of the Society of Apothecaries,"and not as a surgeon.Mr. PRATT, for Mr. Chamberlain, objected that the Register

was not evidence that his client was not registered on the 16thof June, as it only contained the names registered to the 1st ofJanuary, 1859, and a person might have been registered since,and the prosecution ought to produce evidence that his clienthad not been so rellistered.The Bench, however, after referring to the Act of Parlia-

ment, decided that it was for Mr. Pratt to show he had beenregistered, and in the absence of such proof the defendant wasconvicted in the mitigated penalty of £5 and costs.Mr. PRATT then gave notice that he should demand a case

for the opinion of a superior court, whether the magistrateswere right in requiring him to prove the subsequent registra-tration, to which the Bench consented.** It will be perceived that in this case the onus of showing

that the defendant had been registered as a surgeon since thepublication of the Medical Register was held by the Court torest with himself-a decision entirely opposite to that of Mr.Jardine at Bow-street, in the case of Henry Scott.

HOSPITAL SHIPS FOR CHINA.

THE Secretary of State for War having decided upon theemployment of hospital ships for the war in China, the ArmyMedical Department has been busily engaged in carrying outthe plans for that important service.The vessels appointed by the Admiralty are four in number.

Two of the largest, already in the Chinese seas, are to be

"stationary hospital ships," being anchored in localities mostfavourable for the health of the patients. The others-to beemployed as "temporary hospital ships "-have just left fortheir destination, having been fitted out at Deptford, underthe personal direction and supervision of Mr. Alexander,Director-General, Army Medical Department; and Dr. Maple-ton, an officer who, it will be remembered, so satisfactorilydischarged a similar duty during the Crimean war. The tem-porary hospital ships are screw steamers-the Melbourne andthe Mauritius. They will receive the sick and wounded fromthe shore, and convey them to the stationary hospitals.Each vessel has accommodation for 200 sick. The arrange-

ment of the beds and other details are admirably adapted tothe comfort and health of those brave fellows whose limbs andconst:,ULitiolis suffer in their country’s cause. Every bed is pro-vided with a kind of cradle underneath, for the occupant’sknapsack, clothes, &c. Over his head is a swinging tray,raised or lowered at pleasure, for holding medicine, cooling;drink, or meals; and also within reach, a long handle attachedto a rope, by means of which he can turn or raise himself inbed without assistance.The subject of ventilation has evidently received maturest

consideration, and looking at the number of funnels and air-shafts (made so as to exclude water), there can be no doubtthat in this respect also complete success will be attained.About two hundred men of the new " Army Hospital Corps"’are on their way in these vessels, to be distributed, on arrivingin China, amongst the four hospital ships, where their dutieswill be confined exclusively to attendance upon the sick. Newpatent bakeries are fitted up on deck for the supply of bread.There are also washing machines, lavatories, and baths; andappliances of every conceivable description for the use of thepatients. Medicines of all kinds (not forgetting the mostessential one,

" quinine,") and medical comforts in abundance;in fact, everything that foresight could suggest, has beenliberally provided by the authorities.On the deck of the Mauritius is an apparatus capable of’

producing forty gallons of distilled water a day. This waserected at the captain’s own expense, he knowing from expe-rience that the water to be obtained in China is loaded withimpure matters, especially hurtful to invalids. The surgeries,- judiciously placed near the centre of the vessels-are roomyand well lighted; the bottles, jars, and drawers, neatly labelledand arranged, give the whole the appearance of a London dis-pensary, and, for all practical purposes, there is no differencebetween them. ’Messrs. Savory and Moore, of Bond-street,having been entrusted with this part of the proceedings, allpoisonous medicines are contained in their patent safeguardbottles (described in THE LANCET of Feb. 19th, 1859). An

operating table (upon an improved plan) stands in the middleof the surgery, under a skylight, the top of which is movable,so that wounded men requiring surgical assistance can belowered directly on to it, instead of being carried down thecompanion.

Altogether these ships are fitted up in a very superior manner,.and give evidence throughout of much anxious thought andsound judgment, as well as zeal and energy, in the design andexecution of the work, for which too much praise cannot babestowed upon the Medical Department of the Army.

PARISIAN MEDICAL INTELLIGENCE.

(FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT.)

M. VRIES, alias Dr. Noir, is so well known to the readers ofTHE LANCET, that I need not draw his portrait. I may, how-

ever, inform you, that the facts elicited in the course of his

trial, which has now terminated, have excited a great deal ofill-feeling against our venerable maître Velpeau. When Prof.

Velpeau allows himself to be misled by M. Broca and others totrouble the Academic des Sciences with the hocus-pocus ofhypnotism, it can have no other effect than that of lowering,for the time being, the legislature of science, and of affordinga few days’ amusement in the cliniques until the subject isconsigned to Lethe. But the consequences are mischievouswhen he takes up such subjects as Vris.The history of that individual is rather remarkable. His

age is fifty-five; a native of Surinam. In 1852, he made hisdébût in London in the capacity of a religious reformer, wherehe tried to attract public attention by placards announcing acrusade against popery, and to collect funds for the erection ofa temple for a new sect of his own creation. Still later, heoffered his services to the London Cancer Hospital, where, aftersome trial, he was declared to be a swindler. In 1854, we findhim in Paris pestering the authorities with a new invention ofhis " to substitute the use of electro-magnetism for that ofsteam," and a commission was appointed to examine into thenature of his alleged new discovery. His next move was toprison for debt, where he spent seven months. This time wasno loss to him or to the world, for he used his leisure hours tomature new plans of escroquarie. He met there with a kindredspirit, M. Tennesse, whom he engaged to act as an adjuvantin his future campaign.

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