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PRIVATE HOSPITALS.
255 duties of his office in the most admirable manner, feeling it to be his duty to visit the College every day and not to leave the work to the permanent officials of the College. Mr. Christopher Heath was chosen to complete Mr. Hulke’s second year of office and was re-elected in July, 1895. That he has not been re-elected again, but has been replaced by Sir William MacCormac, has been due apparently to adventitious circumstances. He filled the office of President with credit and has recently displayed a conciliatory spirit and a disposition to be influenced in the direction of progress and development of the College. Apart from any occult whispers which are apt to circulate before elections in a close body like the Council of the College, the most influential consideration with the members of the Council was probably the fact that both Mr. Heath and Sir William MacCormac are approaching the termination of their tenure of office as councillors. Mr. Heath’s term of office will expire in July, 1897, and that of Sir William MacCormac in July, 1899. If Mr. Heath had been re-elected he would not have gone out of office as a councillor next year, but would have continued on the Council for another year at least, and the same result would then in all probability have been arrived at by the election and re-election of Sir William MacCormac in succession to Mr. Heath. As it is, Mr. Heath will retire from the Council at the regular time, and Sir William MacCormac can enjoy a two years’ term as President and also retire from the Council on the completion of his eight years as councillor. These considerations, we believe, had a direct effect upon the voting for the presidency, and might have had a more marked effect if they had been known to all the members of the Council. Political bias could scarcely have operated to any appreciable extent, for Mr. Heath and Sir William MacCormac have voted together upon the question of the direct representation of the Members of the College on the Council, the dominant question at the present time. From this point of view we do not think that the change will have any effect, but it is satisfactory to note that the new Vice-Presidents, Mr. Macnamara and Mr. Langton, who have succeeded Mr. Harrison and Mr. Pick, are both favourable to the representation of the Members of the College on the Council by Fellows of the College.
DEATH BY LIGHTNING STROKE.
distance. There were no other marks on the The witness found a nosebag on a tank on body. which the deceased had evidently been sitting, and a hole was burned right through it, bearing out the theory that the current had passed down the man’s spine. Between the tank and the front of the cart were two zinc pails which the lightning struck, both of which were fused. The current then passed through the cart and apparently struck the horse. The jury returned a verdict of ’’Accidental death caused by lightning." In answer to a juror, who asked whether it was usual for bodies to be perfectly nude in mortuaries except for a piece of sacking, the coroner said in such cases as the present the body was usually covered with sacks or something of the kind. Mr. Wallis considered such a course did not show proper respect to the dead. He had, he said, lodged a complaint with the medical officer of health and asked him to request the district council to provide a piece of waterproof sheeting for future use. some
PRIVATE HOSPITALS. THE commercial element associated with the establishment of private hospitals by medical men calls for some comment and is open to criticism in the interests of the profession. The impetus to the development of such hospitals, or homes as they are often called, no doubt arose in the enthusiasm which pervaded some branches of the surgical art, more especially in the direction of gynaecology. The arrangements for nursing and the necessity for special nursing contributed in some measure to the plea for more direct supervision on the part of the operator. The system has grown to proportions which tend to absorb the professional in the commercial management and to make the result a financial success rather than a means to the conduct of pure practice in the treatment of disease. Such an idea is contrary to the true interests of the profession ; it must necessarily be degrading to the position the surgeon ought to occupy and it is a violation of the best traditions of our art. Nursing in the present day has reached a degree of perfection in which confidence may be placed, and there is an abundant supply of able and competent women to whom the management of institutions of this kind would be a congenial and fitting mode of livelihood. The engagement of the medical man in a pursuit which combines the trade aspect and the treatment of a patient under such circumstances is
A THUNDERSTORM of much severity passed over East Sussex on July 15th. A fatality occurred at BexhillTHE SHERIFF OF BONNIE DUNDEE. on-Sea. A young man aged twenty years was driving A DUNDEE dyer was recently charged with having a horse and water-cart after delivering a load of water a police constable’s eye so that to avoid sympathetic injured He was sitting on the cart, or rather trouble it had to be removed. He at a brick-field. pleaded guilty and was on a galvanised iron tank in the cart, and driving in the sentenced to nine months’ imprisonment. There is nothing, thick of the storm. He was passed by a brewer’s van, unfortunately, very uncommon about this episode; but what the driver of which looked round several times afterwards we are concerned with are the singularly foolish remarks of on account of the vivid lightning and the heavy thunder the sheriff upon a purely medical subject. Judicial ignorance and rain. The last time he did so he saw the man and the is often assumed-everyone remembers the late Lord Chief horse lying in the road, and the animal’s head moved Justice asking in his silvery voice: "And who is Connie once. At the inquest on the 17th Mr. F. M. Wallis said he Gilchrist? " when that young lady was at the height of her found the deceased thrown across the horse on the near side But the Dundee sheriff’s ignorance was more fame. and lying on his back. As he appeared to have been and presumably real. He could not believe in amazing sitting on the tank he would naturally have fallen "sympathy" between two eyes. To quote the newspaper in that position. There was no sign of disturbance or scuffle he continued :in the road, and from the position of the cart and the man reports "It appeared that the eye was to be treated as totally he had no doubt that the deceased and the horse had been That was in accordance with medical practice struck and killed at the same moment. Death had un- and medical theories nowadays, and he could not resist doubtedly been caused by lightning. The first contact with saying when he was going to punish the man because of the electric current was at the back of the head. The hair. medical theories and the use of medical theories that he did not believe in the necessity for scooping out an injured eye was burnt off a spot about the size of a five-shilling piece, in order to save the other. He had a number of acquaintand the rest of the hair was singed. The current, it appeared, ’. ances who had lost the sight of one eye temporarily. One then passed down the spine, leaving a black, charred line ofof them lost his sight for about six months, and, according the breadth of about three fingers, until it reached theto the of practice doctors nowadays, the eye would probably buttock, where it had expanded and torn off the skin forhave been taken out. Fortunately for him, when he went to
destroyed.
DEATH BY LIGHTNING STROKE.
distance. There were no other marks on the The witness found a nosebag on a tank on body. which the deceased had evidently been sitting, and a hole was burned right through it, bearing out the theory that the current had passed down the man’s spine. Between the tank and the front of the cart were two zinc pails which the lightning struck, both of which were fused. The current then passed through the cart and apparently struck the horse. The jury returned a verdict of ’’Accidental death caused by lightning." In answer to a juror, who asked whether it was usual for bodies to be perfectly nude in mortuaries except for a piece of sacking, the coroner said in such cases as the present the body was usually covered with sacks or something of the kind. Mr. Wallis considered such a course did not show proper respect to the dead. He had, he said, lodged a complaint with the medical officer of health and asked him to request the district council to provide a piece of waterproof sheeting for future use. some
PRIVATE HOSPITALS. THE commercial element associated with the establishment of private hospitals by medical men calls for some comment and is open to criticism in the interests of the profession. The impetus to the development of such hospitals, or homes as they are often called, no doubt arose in the enthusiasm which pervaded some branches of the surgical art, more especially in the direction of gynaecology. The arrangements for nursing and the necessity for special nursing contributed in some measure to the plea for more direct supervision on the part of the operator. The system has grown to proportions which tend to absorb the professional in the commercial management and to make the result a financial success rather than a means to the conduct of pure practice in the treatment of disease. Such an idea is contrary to the true interests of the profession ; it must necessarily be degrading to the position the surgeon ought to occupy and it is a violation of the best traditions of our art. Nursing in the present day has reached a degree of perfection in which confidence may be placed, and there is an abundant supply of able and competent women to whom the management of institutions of this kind would be a congenial and fitting mode of livelihood. The engagement of the medical man in a pursuit which combines the trade aspect and the treatment of a patient under such circumstances is
A THUNDERSTORM of much severity passed over East Sussex on July 15th. A fatality occurred at BexhillTHE SHERIFF OF BONNIE DUNDEE. on-Sea. A young man aged twenty years was driving A DUNDEE dyer was recently charged with having a horse and water-cart after delivering a load of water a police constable’s eye so that to avoid sympathetic injured He was sitting on the cart, or rather trouble it had to be removed. He at a brick-field. pleaded guilty and was on a galvanised iron tank in the cart, and driving in the sentenced to nine months’ imprisonment. There is nothing, thick of the storm. He was passed by a brewer’s van, unfortunately, very uncommon about this episode; but what the driver of which looked round several times afterwards we are concerned with are the singularly foolish remarks of on account of the vivid lightning and the heavy thunder the sheriff upon a purely medical subject. Judicial ignorance and rain. The last time he did so he saw the man and the is often assumed-everyone remembers the late Lord Chief horse lying in the road, and the animal’s head moved Justice asking in his silvery voice: "And who is Connie once. At the inquest on the 17th Mr. F. M. Wallis said he Gilchrist? " when that young lady was at the height of her found the deceased thrown across the horse on the near side But the Dundee sheriff’s ignorance was more fame. and lying on his back. As he appeared to have been and presumably real. He could not believe in amazing sitting on the tank he would naturally have fallen "sympathy" between two eyes. To quote the newspaper in that position. There was no sign of disturbance or scuffle he continued :in the road, and from the position of the cart and the man reports "It appeared that the eye was to be treated as totally he had no doubt that the deceased and the horse had been That was in accordance with medical practice struck and killed at the same moment. Death had un- and medical theories nowadays, and he could not resist doubtedly been caused by lightning. The first contact with saying when he was going to punish the man because of the electric current was at the back of the head. The hair. medical theories and the use of medical theories that he did not believe in the necessity for scooping out an injured eye was burnt off a spot about the size of a five-shilling piece, in order to save the other. He had a number of acquaintand the rest of the hair was singed. The current, it appeared, ’. ances who had lost the sight of one eye temporarily. One then passed down the spine, leaving a black, charred line ofof them lost his sight for about six months, and, according the breadth of about three fingers, until it reached theto the of practice doctors nowadays, the eye would probably buttock, where it had expanded and torn off the skin forhave been taken out. Fortunately for him, when he went to
destroyed.