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