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A CHAPTER IN CÆSAREAN SECTION
102 and that it had a strong claim to the title of "the female sex hormone." Its action on certain tissues in the male seems to be determined not so much by their visible character as by the fact of their development from structures which might have become female. The action of cestrin has certainlv not the teleological significance in the male which it has in the female. An important aspect of this work is the attempt to correlate modifications in the structure of oestrone with its selective action on tissues. Actually this was unsuccessful, but success would be important. Following our previous line of argument, however, it would not be surprising if oestrin had but a single fundamental action, whose particular manifestations in any tissue were determined by some characteristic of that tissue. Even if this were so, experiments with oestrin derivatives would be important for localising the active part of the molecule.
teristics,
A
IN
CHAPTER an
IN
entertaining
CÆSAREAN 1
volume
SECTION
written
for
the
centenary celebration of the Manchester Medical
Society, Dr. E. M. Brockbank does tardy justice to the memory of John Hull (1761-1843), first president of the society and a pioneer of Caesarean section. Hull was the son of an apothecary at Poulton-in-theFylde and was apprenticed to a Blackburn surgeon of the name of Lancaster with whom he began to attend lying-in cases when he was not more than 17 years old. Hull was an earnest and diligent student, and intent on taking the diploma of the Corporation of Surgeons he completed the fees required by selling a copy of his lecture notes to a fellow student. Dr. E. B. Leech has told us that these notes were written in a form of shorthand invented by "Dr." John Byrom, author of the hymn " Christians Awake." Hull kept down his personal expenses by living largely on bread and fruit-it was in fact a custom of his life to breakfast (and sometimes to sup) off bread and milk. In 1784 he returned to Blackburn with one guinea in his pocket, but in the following year Mr. Lancaster took him into partnership and it was not long before Hull bought the practice and married a sister of Dr. William Winstanley, hon. physician to the Manchester Infirmary. One of his early experiences was to deliver quintuplets which he preserved in spirit and are now in the Hunterian Museum. There was then no lying-in hospital at Blackburn, and in order to get the practice he wanted Hull moved to Manchester in 1796 and almost at once became engaged in a public controversy on Caesarean section which helped to establish his reputation. Before leaving Blackburn a pupil of his, Dr. Barlow of Blackrod, had performed what was believed by some to be the first Csesarean operation in England from which the mother recovered. This woman had fallen off a market cart and had her pelvis crushed so that subsequent natural delivery was impossible. Hull however believed that this operation was only a "gastrotomy," the uterus having previously been ruptured. Two years after he moved to Manchester, Hull was called in to a consultation over a woman who had been in labour for several days, and performed a Caesarean section, too late, as it turned out, to save the life of either mother or child. The incident led to an exchange of polemical reflections between William Simmons, senior surgeon to the Manchester Infirmary, and himself, conducted partly in Latin verse, partly in Greek quotation, which ended in 1 Manchester : Sherratt and Hughes.
Pp. 101.
5s.
the practitioners of the district into two> camps about the justification for performing theoperation. Those in favour of it were known as theCaesareanists and attached to, or supporters of, the Lying-in Charity, the opponents or anti-Caesareanists being some members of the Manchester Infirmary staff and their adherents. But Hull was undiscourageable and persisted in his teaching until he had established the necessity of Caesarean section in certain abnormal conditions of the pelvis and had showed that laparotomy could be done without destroying the mother and often without sacrifice of the child’s. life. Obstetrics also owes to him the picturesque name of phlegmasia dolens for the condition first described by the Manchester surgeon Charles White. It was probably his familiarity with systematic botany which gave him a happy facility of coining appropriate names. Later the post of physician was created for him at the Lying-in Charity, and this he retained until his retirement at the age of 76. Although Dr. Brockbank’s account of John Hull is the first biography of this great man, he appears several times in Mrs. Linnaeus Banks’s " The Manchester Man," in which history is mingled with romance. But Hull’s untiring activity as sketched by Mrs. Banks is a matter of fact. He rose at 6 A.M., and was often in the saddle soon after on his way to, Lancaster or Buxton or other distant places. After consultation at his rooms from 1 to 3 P.M., he visited in his carriage in which during the winter he had a small lamp so that he could read during his journeys. For besides his knowledge of the classics he had learned French, German, and Italian in order to keep in touch with all that was written on obstetrics.
dividing
INTERNATIONAL
NEUROLOGICAL
CONGRESS
THE second International Neurological Congress will be held in London next summer, from July 29th to August 2nd, under the presidency of Dr. Gordon Holmes, F.R.S. The first subject of discussion will be the epilepsies—aetiology, pathogenesis, and treatment-and the speakers will include Prof. J. Abadie (Bordeaux), Dr. Stanley Cobb (Boston), Dr. W. Spielmeyer (Munich), Dr. Wilder Penfield (Montreal), and Dr. L. J. J. Muskens (Amsterdam). On succeeding days there will be symposiums on the physiology and pathology of the cerebro-spinal fluid (Dr. L. Weed, Dr. G. Schaltenbrand, Dr. Riser, Mr. Hugh Cairns, and Dr. Georgi) ; on the functions of the frontal lobes (Prof. J. A. Barre, Prof. P. DelmasMarsalet, Prof. K. Goldstein, Prof. A. Donaggio, and Dr. Clovis Vincent) ; and the hypothalamus and the central representation of the autonomic system (Prof. Ariens Cappers, Prof. Le Gros Clark, Prof. W. R. Hess, Prof. Lhermitte, and Dr. Harvey
Cushing).
Hughlings Jackson lecture will August 2nd by Prof. 0. Foerster, of Breslau, and there will be receptions by the Royal Colleges and by the Section of Neurology of the Royal Society of Medicine. The meetings are to be held at University College and the executive officers of the congress are : Dr. Kinnier Wilson (secretarygeneral) ; Dr. Macdonald Critchley and Dr. E. A. Carmichael (assistant secretaries) ; and Dr. Anthony Feiling (treasurer). Dr. Wilson should be addressed at 14, Harley-street, London, W.I. The
be
triennial
given
on
06 BRISTOL GENERAL HOSPITAL.-A
sum of jB10,00& required by this hospital for structural alterations and new equipment for the X ray, massage, and electrical department.
is
teristics,
A
IN
CHAPTER an
IN
entertaining
CÆSAREAN 1
volume
SECTION
written
for
the
centenary celebration of the Manchester Medical
Society, Dr. E. M. Brockbank does tardy justice to the memory of John Hull (1761-1843), first president of the society and a pioneer of Caesarean section. Hull was the son of an apothecary at Poulton-in-theFylde and was apprenticed to a Blackburn surgeon of the name of Lancaster with whom he began to attend lying-in cases when he was not more than 17 years old. Hull was an earnest and diligent student, and intent on taking the diploma of the Corporation of Surgeons he completed the fees required by selling a copy of his lecture notes to a fellow student. Dr. E. B. Leech has told us that these notes were written in a form of shorthand invented by "Dr." John Byrom, author of the hymn " Christians Awake." Hull kept down his personal expenses by living largely on bread and fruit-it was in fact a custom of his life to breakfast (and sometimes to sup) off bread and milk. In 1784 he returned to Blackburn with one guinea in his pocket, but in the following year Mr. Lancaster took him into partnership and it was not long before Hull bought the practice and married a sister of Dr. William Winstanley, hon. physician to the Manchester Infirmary. One of his early experiences was to deliver quintuplets which he preserved in spirit and are now in the Hunterian Museum. There was then no lying-in hospital at Blackburn, and in order to get the practice he wanted Hull moved to Manchester in 1796 and almost at once became engaged in a public controversy on Caesarean section which helped to establish his reputation. Before leaving Blackburn a pupil of his, Dr. Barlow of Blackrod, had performed what was believed by some to be the first Csesarean operation in England from which the mother recovered. This woman had fallen off a market cart and had her pelvis crushed so that subsequent natural delivery was impossible. Hull however believed that this operation was only a "gastrotomy," the uterus having previously been ruptured. Two years after he moved to Manchester, Hull was called in to a consultation over a woman who had been in labour for several days, and performed a Caesarean section, too late, as it turned out, to save the life of either mother or child. The incident led to an exchange of polemical reflections between William Simmons, senior surgeon to the Manchester Infirmary, and himself, conducted partly in Latin verse, partly in Greek quotation, which ended in 1 Manchester : Sherratt and Hughes.
Pp. 101.
5s.
the practitioners of the district into two> camps about the justification for performing theoperation. Those in favour of it were known as theCaesareanists and attached to, or supporters of, the Lying-in Charity, the opponents or anti-Caesareanists being some members of the Manchester Infirmary staff and their adherents. But Hull was undiscourageable and persisted in his teaching until he had established the necessity of Caesarean section in certain abnormal conditions of the pelvis and had showed that laparotomy could be done without destroying the mother and often without sacrifice of the child’s. life. Obstetrics also owes to him the picturesque name of phlegmasia dolens for the condition first described by the Manchester surgeon Charles White. It was probably his familiarity with systematic botany which gave him a happy facility of coining appropriate names. Later the post of physician was created for him at the Lying-in Charity, and this he retained until his retirement at the age of 76. Although Dr. Brockbank’s account of John Hull is the first biography of this great man, he appears several times in Mrs. Linnaeus Banks’s " The Manchester Man," in which history is mingled with romance. But Hull’s untiring activity as sketched by Mrs. Banks is a matter of fact. He rose at 6 A.M., and was often in the saddle soon after on his way to, Lancaster or Buxton or other distant places. After consultation at his rooms from 1 to 3 P.M., he visited in his carriage in which during the winter he had a small lamp so that he could read during his journeys. For besides his knowledge of the classics he had learned French, German, and Italian in order to keep in touch with all that was written on obstetrics.
dividing
INTERNATIONAL
NEUROLOGICAL
CONGRESS
THE second International Neurological Congress will be held in London next summer, from July 29th to August 2nd, under the presidency of Dr. Gordon Holmes, F.R.S. The first subject of discussion will be the epilepsies—aetiology, pathogenesis, and treatment-and the speakers will include Prof. J. Abadie (Bordeaux), Dr. Stanley Cobb (Boston), Dr. W. Spielmeyer (Munich), Dr. Wilder Penfield (Montreal), and Dr. L. J. J. Muskens (Amsterdam). On succeeding days there will be symposiums on the physiology and pathology of the cerebro-spinal fluid (Dr. L. Weed, Dr. G. Schaltenbrand, Dr. Riser, Mr. Hugh Cairns, and Dr. Georgi) ; on the functions of the frontal lobes (Prof. J. A. Barre, Prof. P. DelmasMarsalet, Prof. K. Goldstein, Prof. A. Donaggio, and Dr. Clovis Vincent) ; and the hypothalamus and the central representation of the autonomic system (Prof. Ariens Cappers, Prof. Le Gros Clark, Prof. W. R. Hess, Prof. Lhermitte, and Dr. Harvey
Cushing).
Hughlings Jackson lecture will August 2nd by Prof. 0. Foerster, of Breslau, and there will be receptions by the Royal Colleges and by the Section of Neurology of the Royal Society of Medicine. The meetings are to be held at University College and the executive officers of the congress are : Dr. Kinnier Wilson (secretarygeneral) ; Dr. Macdonald Critchley and Dr. E. A. Carmichael (assistant secretaries) ; and Dr. Anthony Feiling (treasurer). Dr. Wilson should be addressed at 14, Harley-street, London, W.I. The
be
triennial
given
on
06 BRISTOL GENERAL HOSPITAL.-A
sum of jB10,00& required by this hospital for structural alterations and new equipment for the X ray, massage, and electrical department.
is