RHUBARB HALL.

RHUBARB HALL.

635 " I am informed by the registrars of deaths that where a medical man refuses to give a certificate of the cause of death, they (the registrars) mu...

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635 " I am informed by the registrars of deaths that where a medical man refuses to give a certificate of the cause of death, they (the registrars) must obtain the cause of death from the best source they can, and enter it. " They are not empowered to require the holding of a coroner’s inquest, unless they possess information that the death has been caused wilfully. " They are not required, in their instructions, to inquire on what grounds a medical man refuses to give a certificate. " If a medical man apprizes them that the death has arisen from the unskilful treatment of a druggist, it is not their province to notice the circumstance unless they choose to do so. "They are in the habit of receiving hundreds of certificates of deaths from druggists, and other unqualified practitioners, and use them, although knowing that such persons are not qualified medical men. " At least one death in ten is uncertified by a legally-qualified medical man. " They do not like to have coroners’ inquests, as it takes up their time, and is, likewise, objected to by the parochial authorities, on the ground of expense, and they fear to incur the ill-will of those authorities, by seeming officiousness. " The above points of information arederived from some of the registrars of this district, at various times, and in explanation of circumstances that have occurred in my practice, and I consider the facts well worthy of attention and alteration, as they not only show that the causes of death may be, and frequently are, entered erroneously, but that a vast DR. FLEETWOOD CHURCHILL’S OBSTETRIC amount of mortality is not to be attributed solely to locality, TABLES. but partly to the unskilful treatment of disease by illegal and To the Editor of THE LANCET. incompetent persons. "deduce, from the foregoing statements, that it should be SIR,—Isee that Dr. Lee has replied to my letter which you were so kind as to insert in your journal, by a republication imperative upon the registrar to require the coroner to hold of my original letter to himself, and a somewhat lame defence an inquest upon the bodies of all persons who have died, where for publishing a private letter, omitting, very wisely, all notice the survivors are unable to bring a certificate of the cause of of the much more serious charge I brought against him, of death from a qualified medical man, not only as a protection against murder, but against fraud of the cruellest kind, and as distorting my admissions into a statement utterly untrue. In my letter to him, I stated, "that being pressed for time, a more certain means of ascertaining the cause of death, for I employed a pupil (in whom I thought I could confide) to statistical and sanitary purposes.—I have the honour to retabulate Giffard and one or two others, and I have had the main, Sir, your obedient servant,-, " E. MOORE, M.D., M.R.C.S.E., L.A.C." vexation to discover more than one mistake." The " one or two others" were Smellie and Perfect-three authors in all; " General Reg’ster Office, 18 Nov. 1847. and in the table of haemorrhage there are statistics from have return to authors or "SIR,—I you my best thanks for the suggesthree-and-twenty reports. Dr. Lee’s version of my admission is, that " Dr. Churchill’s tions contained in your letter of the 14th inst., to which I will tables were composed by a pupil, and not by himself;" and I not fail to give my best consideration.—I havethe honour to appeal to your readers whether this is an honest and fair in- be, Sir, your faithful servant, " GEORGE GRAHAM, Registrar-General. terpretation of the admission in my letter. I trust, for Dr. " To E. Moore, M.D., Hackney-road." Lee’s sake, that his statistics are not magnified in like

met oppression in the way it ought to be met. (Hear, hear.) On the present occasion, however, they had a step farther to go in making their acknowledgments to the non-medical press, which was also entitled to their gratitude. (Loud cries of hear, hear.) For whilst the bought services of one nonmedical journal in Dublin had done all in its power to run them down, and employed its talent and ability to degrade them below the position of artizans or labourers, still the advocacy of the Evening Packet and Nation, and a few other papers, had been most powerful and effective. (Hear, hear.) Of the local press he need not speak, for in Cork they had been warmly supported. (Hear.) Under these feelings, then, he begged to lay the resolution before them, knowing that it deserved to be adopted with the same unanimity as the preceding ones had been. Dr. HARRIS seconded the resolution. It was next resolved that lithographed copies of the resolutions adopted should be forwarded to the gentlemen whom they were intended to compliment-namely, Messrs. Wilde, Jacob, Mollan, Graves, Cusack, and Stokes. Some routine business was next disposed of, and a warm vote of thanks being passed to the former chairman, (Dr, Lloyd,) the meeting separated.

Correspondence.

manner.

It would have been more manly and honest (and Dr. Lee RHUBARB HALL. an admirer of "frankness and candour"-in others!) had he To the Editor of THE LANCET. avowed his error, instead of passing it over in silence. As to the motive for publishing my letter, Dr. Lee may SIR,—The conduct of the Worshipful Company of Apothehave been actuated by a sense of duty to the profession, or it caries towards its licentiates has of late become so disgraceful may have been owing- to somewhat obluse perceptions of pro- and dastardly in the extreme, as to excite universal indignaIn this parish, chemists and druggists and quacks are priet.y. I rather think the latter, and therefore it would be tion. useless disputing the point with him. Your readers will form in every direction, in full practice, with impunity, dealing their own opinion, and will probably be mere cautious than I destruction around, without any efficient power to check their remorseless career. Like Burns’ Dr. Hornbook,— was in any communication they may make to him. The error about Giffard’s cases was a printer’s mistake; and Thus go they on from day to day, Thus do they poison, kill, and slay, Dr. Lee would have discovered this had he taken the trouble Wi’ their damn’d dirt; to add up the column. You will oblige me by inserting this note in an early number while the legally -qualificpractitioner, unlawfully deprived of his daily bread. is only called in at the eleventh hour, when of your valuable journal.—Yours faithfully, the patient has been drained of his last sixpence, to administer F. CHURCHILL. Stephen’s Green, Dublin, Nov. 1847. his gratuitous aid, and to convince the unfortunate dupe, or credulity. I remember the INFORMATION SUPPLIED TO THE REGISTRAR- his friends, of the folly of hiswould time when the said Company angrily raise its crest, if GENERAL RESPECTING DEFICIENCIES IN THE a poor student, during his pupilage, ventured to prescribe and PRACTICE OF HIS OFFICE. send a few doses of physic to a few of his admiring friends; and threaten the young aspirant, by official notice, with the To the Editor of THE LANCET. in them vested." Where, now, is the "virtue of the consider the SIR,—Should you following correspondence virtue of that power it is all vice ve2-s(2. Their beautiful power; with the registrar-general worthy of published, I motto, " Opiferque per orbem dicor," will no longer read in shall feel obliged by its insertion.-Yours obediently, its literal sense; like Otliello, its " occupation’s gone;" and EDw. MOORE, M.D., M.R.C.S.E.NG., & L.S.A. the identical Society which professed to protect the interests Thurlow House, Hackney-road, Dec. 1847. of the medical practitioners in England and Wales, has, in " To the Registrar-General of Births and Deaths, "time of need," lost its locomotive powers, and only "grovels Somerset House. much about home." Why, then, should the Society refuse to " SIR,—I beg to request your attention to the following part with a privilege which they have not the power to wield! statement, showing that the plan of registering deaths, as at Why not transfer to more able and more willing hands, that present conducted, is perfectly useless in a statistical point of duty which they dare not, because they say they cannot, perview, gives facilities for destroying life without detection, and form. The enclosed handbill is one, among many others, that are constantly in circulation in this and the adjoining parishes. decidedly requires amendment.

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636 Such

a state of things cannot last long; and with a full hope that your Registration Bill will eventually be confirmed by Act of Parliament, I remain, Sir, AN OLD PRACTITIONER OF TWENTY YEARS’ STANDING. Southwark, Oct. 1847.

grade."

SERIAL IRREGULARITIES. l’O tlLG’ L’CG2t0?’ OJ 1HE LANCET. SIR,—Professor Sharpey informed the students, at the commencement of the present course of lectures, that " Quain’s Anatomy" would be completed on the 1st of November. Professor Graham promised that the remaining numbers of his work on Chemistry should be published in time to keep up with his present course of lectures. Now both these gentlemen have broken their promises in a most

would dare to sneer at them, and no Dr. Burrows would presume to speak of them as men of an "inferior Perhaps on the southern side of the Tweed it may not be commonly known that William Hunter, Cullen, and Abercrombie, were all general practitioners, men who for many years practised medicine, surgery, and midwifery; and who even dispensed their own medicines. Alison and Christison were, till lately, family doctors, and it was only when death had cleared the way, by removing Abercrombie, that they were called, by the almost universal consent of the profession, to the dignity and emoluments of pure consultants. Alison and Christison are known over the whole world as men possessed of the highest scientific eminence, and of vast hospital experience, but these recommendations would not have ensured them their present position as consultants, had they not also been known by the profession to have enjoyed the benefits of family practice. Let it be proclaimed that general practice increases the accomplishments and available knowledge of the physician. Let this never be lost sight of; here, in Edinburgh, no one would dare to maintain the opposite proposition. How could they ? For, I ask, do nobler names adorn the annals of medical science than William Hunter, Cullen, Abercrombie, Christison, and Alison ? Let the general practitioners of England be true to themselves, and indignantly resist the attempt which is now being made by a monstrous coalition of incorporated, irresponsible, and selfish physicians, surgeons, and apothecaries, to enslave and degrade them. Let Drs. Paris, Burrows, and Co., and the whole community, be loudly told, that it is not general prac tice, but aiding and abetting quackery, that degrades the medical practitioner, and unfits him to take the position of a consultant. In the meantime, let us all unite in one grand struggle on behalf of Mr. Val:ley’s Bill, which, though not all that is required, is a long step in the right direction. I am, Sir, your obedient servant, SCOTUS. Edinburgh, Nov. 1847.

rence

flagrant manner.

To you, Sir, as the student’s friend, we must look, for the reform of such abuses.-I remain, Sir, your obedient servant, A JUNIOR STUDENT. November, 1847.

PALL-MALL PHYSICIANS v. GENERAL PRACTITIONERS. To the Editor of THE LANCET. SIR,—I have been particularly struck with the disingenuousness and senseless self-glorification which pervades the evidence given before the Medical Registration Committee, by the officials of your London College of Physicians, while I have greatly admired the tact and sagacity of the members of

tribunal, who, from possessing a good knowledge of the subject, have been enabled, by cross-examination, to make these gentlemen turn to foolishness their own clumsy, though carefully-concocted, objections to Mr. Wakley’s Bill. One very important and startling fact has come out, especially from the evidence of Dr. George Burrows, reprinted in THE LANCET, that jealousy at the increasing reputation of general practitioners is the practical (though somewhat concealed) objection to the registration scheme, and, indeed, to I

that

every measure calculated to elevate and protect that class of medical men to whom the health of the community is chiefly entrusted. Mr. Lawrence, of oration notoriety, has certainly found worthy allies and imitators. General practitioners must, without exception it appears, be tabooed as of "inferior grade" and imperfect education," lest, I presume, the physicians and surgeons of the obstructive corporations of Pall Mall and Lincoln’s-Inn-fields be unable to keep their ground! I hopenow that the men who pretend to be of the " superior grade" have unmasked themselves—an indignant profession will quickly deal with them according to their deserts. Let them be told, that so long as they strive to undervalue their brethren in general practice-so long as they strive to exalt prescribing druggists into the position of the old apothecaries, and so long as they flirt with quackery in palaces and other high places, they must be treated as the worst enemies of legitimate medicine. It is desirable that there should exist Royal Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons; but then these bodies should be composed of the 61ite of the profession, chosen from the whole medical community, perhaps by concours. I make this remark to show that I have no radical objection to grades in our profession, provided there be some guarantee that those occupying the high places are entitled so to do. If the colleges were composed of really great men, they would not dread, and attempt to repress the rapid and secure progress by which general practitioners have long been advancing (by virtue of their scientific attainments) to public confidence. General practice is not inimical to scientific eminence and profound research, while it conduces as much, if not more, than hospital or consulting-room experience, to beget practical tact, and to make knowledge available at the bed-side. It is only in general practice that the medical history of families Can be studied through the course of years, and the influence of age and sex be accurately appreciated. Physical diagnosis and much of the natural history of disease may be learnedin hospitals, but there is a and perhaps best learned practical tact, and nice appreciation of minute differences, which can only be imparted by extensive family practice. The general practitioners of England ought to take a lesson from their brethren in Scotland, who demand science and an available knowledge of disease,-not a parchment from

Medical News. UNIVERSITY OF LONDON.-SECOND EXAMINATION FOR THE DEGREE OF B2CIIELOR OF MEDICINE. 1847.—Excamination for Honours. (The names are arranged in the order of proficiency.)—Physiology and Comparative Anatomy: Henry Wiglesworth, (Scholarship and Gold Medal,) University College; Peter Eade, (Gold Medal,) King’s College; William Henry Greenwood, Guy’s Hospital ; John Braxton Hicks, Guy’s Hospital.—Surgery: Peter Eade, (Scholarship and Gold Medal,)

King’s College; John Cooper Forster, (Gold Medal,) Guy’s Hospital; Henry Isaac Fotherby, Guy’s Hospital; John Braxton Hicks, Guy’s Hospital.—Medicine: Peter Eade, (Gold Medal,) King’s College; Walter Johnson, (Gold Medal,) Guy’s Hospital; Gopal Chunder Seal, University College; Henry Isaac Fotherby, Guy’s Hospital; John James Rygate, London Hospital; John Braxton Hicks, Guy’s Hospital; William Henry Greenwood, Guy’s Hospital.—Midwifery: H. Wiglesworth, (Gold Medal,) University College; J. Cooper Forster, Guy’s Hospital.-Examination for the Degree of Doctor of Mediciaze, 1847.- First Division: Thomas Herbert Barker, University College; Henry Bateson, Guy’s Hospital; Bose Bholanoth, University College; Arthur Hadwen, University College; Nicholas Parker, London Hospital; Peter Redfern, 1, Surgeon’s-square, Edinburgh; William Henry Williams, University College.-Second Division: Hugh Bell, Guy’s Hos-, pital; Thomas James Sturt, King’s College. ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS. - The following gentlemen, having undergone the necessary examinations for the diploma, were admitted members of the College, on the 3rd instantviz., Messrs. William England, Dudley; William Scovell Savory, New North Iload, Islington; Harvey Buchanan Holl, Michael’s Grove, Brompton; John Bustin, Hetton le Hole, Durham; Robert Montgomery, Dub1in; John Griffiths Doidge, Launceston, Cornwall; John Frederick Stevenson. BirkenCheshire; Thomas Godwin Salt, Rugeley, Staffordshire; William Davies, Merthyr, (Glamorganshire; Charles Forbes, Royal Navy; Adolphus John Gee, Brompton; ’William Morris, Petworth, Sussex; and Anthony Dickson Home, Berwickupon-Tweed. APOTHECARIES’ HALL.—Names of gentlemen who passed their examination in the science and practice of medicine, and Oxford, Cambridge, or Pall Mall,—as indispensable qiiali- received certificates to practise, on Thursday, December 2nd, fications in those called to consulting practice. If the 1847 :-Edward Henry Malton, Glastonbury; Thomas William general practitioners of England were as jealous of their Crosse, Norwich ; James Horniblow Williams, West Stockclaims to consideration as we are in Scotland, no Mr. Law- with, Bawtry.

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