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EXCISION OF THE TONGUE.
It may be true that in this country diarrhoea gene- Mr. will shortly present himself for examination at the rally precedes cholera. Not always, however; for in this small College. This person is a homoeopathic practitioner, residing I request you, as the President, to protect those seaport (Boston) in 1848 several cases of death occurred within at a few hours, in which no premonitory symptoms could be members of the College who reside in the above place, by reto examination, unless he will sign a traced. fusing to admit Mr. In the summer of 1855, I was attached to Balaklava General written agreement to forfeit and return his diploma upon proof Hospital, and had also sole medical charge for several weeks of of his having practised homoeopathically at any time after the the Croat Hospital Marquees on the hills above Kadekoi. The date of the said diploma. I am, Sir, yours truly, inmates of the Croat Hospital comprised a motley crew of sick T. W. B. December, 1857. camp followers and foreign transport drivers, Turks, Arabs, Armenians, Greeks, &c., about fifty or sixty patients per day. how far the It be sanctity of an oath ** may questioned The patients in the Balaklava Hospital (about 200) comprised be men who pursue a practice which they by might respected men of the Land Transport and Army Works Corps, soldiers of know to be fraudulent and delusive.-SuB-ED. L.
cipated.
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-.
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the line seized with sickness in Balaklava, commissariat artimen sent from ships in the harbour, &c. More than half the chronic cases in both hospitals consisted of dysentery and diarrhœa, or typhus invariably terminating in obstinate diarrhoea. Cases of cholera were constantly being brought in from the camp, the road, the town, and the working corps employed about the hospital. These cases were generally fatal in from three to twelve or fourteen hours. A few of the stoutest and most healthy died in less than two hours. In only five instances did cholera (in my experience) attack our diarrhoea patients in hospital, though the huts were crowded, the beds touching each other. Of these five cases, four yielded readily to treatment; one died, but lingered thirty-six hours. Our worst cases of cholera were seen in strong, burly English navvies, many of them not twenty-four hours landed. These men have been known to drop their pickaxes, and fall upon the rails without premonitory symptoms, (so far as could be ascertained,) and after a few efforts to vomit, the coldness, lividity, stupor, and collapse of cholera have immediately succeeded. In these cases recoveries were indeed rare; yet recoveries occasionally did take place in cases given over as the most hopeless, and in which all external and internal remedies had yielded the least promise of a favourable result. I am, Sir, yours, &c., WALTER CLEGG, M.R.C.S. M.R,.C.S. ENG., Staff Assistant-Surgeon. Late Staff Boston, December, 1857. Assistant-Surgeon. zans,
previously
EXCISION OF THE TONGUE. To the Editor
SIR,-Having lately cancer
been
of THE LANCET.
requested to
of the
in your
attend
tongue, I read with great interest journal of December 19th, relating to
a
patient with
the paragraph the operation
performed on the 8th of that month at Edinburgh. Informa. tion on one point is, however, much to be desired-viz., Mr. Syme’s reasons for preferring the knife to the ecraseur. During
last summer I saw the latter instrument used several times by M. Chassaignac at the Hopital la Riboisire in various operations, and once on the dead subject, at the Ecole Pratique, Paris, for removal of the tongue. In my opinion, M. Chas. saignac has fully proved this instrument preferable to the knife in this operation. May I therefore request Mr. Syme to favour the profession, through your columns, with his views on this subject, as I conceive it to be one of great interest to all surgeons, particularly to those who have not condemned the use of the ecraseur in every case. I am, Sir, your obedient servant, INQUIRER. December, 1857. here one of The is much *** question propounded importance, and the interests of science will be advanced by its being answered. -SUB-ED. L.
THE
COLLEGE OF SURGEONS AND HOMŒOPATHY.
DENTISTRY
To the Editor of THE LANCET. LANCET of the 12th December contains a letter SIR,-THE respecting Homoeopathy and the College of Surgeons. I trust it will receive from the profession the attention it deserves. From the present government of the College of Surgeons legitimate practitioners have little to expect in the way of assistWere the Council anxious to suppress this species of ance. - quackery, how’easily might they add a clause to the declaration (signed by each candidate before he receives the diploma), to the effect that he was not practising, nor had any intention of practising, homoeopathy. Were the Council elected by the members of the College, they would be responsible for their trust, and could be called to account by their constituents; we should then see some effort on their part to protect the legiti-
To the Editor of THE LANCET. observe an interesting communication from Dr. SIR,-I Roberts, of this city, in reply to an article, entitled " A Fact for Dentists," which appeared in your journal of Dec. 12th. Dr. Roberts has, however, overlooked one circumstance, which I am sure he must have met with, as apt to lead to mistakes in reference to the occurrence of a third dentition-I mean those cases where certain teeth have been suppressed until a late period of life, when they at last make their appearance. We know that in some of the lower animals this suppressionnot absence-of the teeth is common; and the same takes place in the human subject in some instances. In this way, as I have been in the habit of inculcating in my lectures, supposed cases of third dentition may be very easily explained. I am, Sir, your obedient servant, JOHN- SMITH, M.D., JOHN M. D., Lecturer on Dental Surgery, Surs’ery, Medical School, Hall. Dundas-street, Edinburgh, Dec. 1857. Surgeons’ Hall. Surgeons’
mate
practitioner.
Let us, for a moment, consider the following instance, not, let me add, altogether an imaginary one. A certain individual, who has not served an apprenticeship to a medical man, and who perhaps has been a schoolmaster, a shopkeeper, or a barber, takes up the idea that he will commence practice as a ON A CASE OF FACIAL PARALYSIS. hommopathic doctor. Accordingly, he purchases a box of To the Editor of THE LANCET. globules and a homœopathic domestic vade-mecum, becomes involved in the and of aconite case of facial paralysis reported by Dr. Duncan in nux, physics SIR,-The deeply mysteries his poor neighbours, and, having gradually gulled the public, THE, LANCET of the 12th Dec. is so like one at present under works his way into practice. This highly-respectable and ac- treatment in the Sheffield General Infirmary that I have vencomplished practitioner soon finds that, having no legal quali- tured to send you a brief outline of it. fication, he is often in danger of a verdict of manslaughter. Henry Horton, aged twenty years, was admitted under Mr. Accordingly, he pays the hospital fees, and enters to lectures Jackson, Nov. 5th. The patient states that six days since he and hospital practice, in due time obtains the diploma of the was going down a flight of stone steps with a basket of files on College of Surgeons (for these gentlemen seldom trouble the his head, when his foot slipped and he fell, the right side of his Apothecaries’ Society), and then woe to the man who denounces face coming against the rounded edge of one of the steps. A the homœopath as a quack ! The public look calmly on, watch little blood came from the right ear and nostril immediately the process, and very naturally and properly conclude that the after the accident, but it did not continue, and the only inconvenience which then remained was slight headache. Two days College of Surgeons sanctions homœopathic practice. Let me suggest to any practitioner or student who becomes after, he noticed that he had no use of the right side of his aware that a homoeopath is about to present himself at the face, the cause of the discovery being that he was unable to College, to forward a note to the President, worded somewhat indulge in a whistle, which appears to have been a favourite as follows:pastime of his; and when washing his face the soap got into To the President of the College of Surgeons,or Chairman oj his eye, from inability to close the lids properly. When he Sir:I beg to inform you that came to the Infirmary, there was n, contusion over the right the Board of Excc-nziners. -
22
cipated.
-
-.
-
the line seized with sickness in Balaklava, commissariat artimen sent from ships in the harbour, &c. More than half the chronic cases in both hospitals consisted of dysentery and diarrhœa, or typhus invariably terminating in obstinate diarrhoea. Cases of cholera were constantly being brought in from the camp, the road, the town, and the working corps employed about the hospital. These cases were generally fatal in from three to twelve or fourteen hours. A few of the stoutest and most healthy died in less than two hours. In only five instances did cholera (in my experience) attack our diarrhoea patients in hospital, though the huts were crowded, the beds touching each other. Of these five cases, four yielded readily to treatment; one died, but lingered thirty-six hours. Our worst cases of cholera were seen in strong, burly English navvies, many of them not twenty-four hours landed. These men have been known to drop their pickaxes, and fall upon the rails without premonitory symptoms, (so far as could be ascertained,) and after a few efforts to vomit, the coldness, lividity, stupor, and collapse of cholera have immediately succeeded. In these cases recoveries were indeed rare; yet recoveries occasionally did take place in cases given over as the most hopeless, and in which all external and internal remedies had yielded the least promise of a favourable result. I am, Sir, yours, &c., WALTER CLEGG, M.R.C.S. M.R,.C.S. ENG., Staff Assistant-Surgeon. Late Staff Boston, December, 1857. Assistant-Surgeon. zans,
previously
EXCISION OF THE TONGUE. To the Editor
SIR,-Having lately cancer
been
of THE LANCET.
requested to
of the
in your
attend
tongue, I read with great interest journal of December 19th, relating to
a
patient with
the paragraph the operation
performed on the 8th of that month at Edinburgh. Informa. tion on one point is, however, much to be desired-viz., Mr. Syme’s reasons for preferring the knife to the ecraseur. During
last summer I saw the latter instrument used several times by M. Chassaignac at the Hopital la Riboisire in various operations, and once on the dead subject, at the Ecole Pratique, Paris, for removal of the tongue. In my opinion, M. Chas. saignac has fully proved this instrument preferable to the knife in this operation. May I therefore request Mr. Syme to favour the profession, through your columns, with his views on this subject, as I conceive it to be one of great interest to all surgeons, particularly to those who have not condemned the use of the ecraseur in every case. I am, Sir, your obedient servant, INQUIRER. December, 1857. here one of The is much *** question propounded importance, and the interests of science will be advanced by its being answered. -SUB-ED. L.
THE
COLLEGE OF SURGEONS AND HOMŒOPATHY.
DENTISTRY
To the Editor of THE LANCET. LANCET of the 12th December contains a letter SIR,-THE respecting Homoeopathy and the College of Surgeons. I trust it will receive from the profession the attention it deserves. From the present government of the College of Surgeons legitimate practitioners have little to expect in the way of assistWere the Council anxious to suppress this species of ance. - quackery, how’easily might they add a clause to the declaration (signed by each candidate before he receives the diploma), to the effect that he was not practising, nor had any intention of practising, homoeopathy. Were the Council elected by the members of the College, they would be responsible for their trust, and could be called to account by their constituents; we should then see some effort on their part to protect the legiti-
To the Editor of THE LANCET. observe an interesting communication from Dr. SIR,-I Roberts, of this city, in reply to an article, entitled " A Fact for Dentists," which appeared in your journal of Dec. 12th. Dr. Roberts has, however, overlooked one circumstance, which I am sure he must have met with, as apt to lead to mistakes in reference to the occurrence of a third dentition-I mean those cases where certain teeth have been suppressed until a late period of life, when they at last make their appearance. We know that in some of the lower animals this suppressionnot absence-of the teeth is common; and the same takes place in the human subject in some instances. In this way, as I have been in the habit of inculcating in my lectures, supposed cases of third dentition may be very easily explained. I am, Sir, your obedient servant, JOHN- SMITH, M.D., JOHN M. D., Lecturer on Dental Surgery, Surs’ery, Medical School, Hall. Dundas-street, Edinburgh, Dec. 1857. Surgeons’ Hall. Surgeons’
mate
practitioner.
Let us, for a moment, consider the following instance, not, let me add, altogether an imaginary one. A certain individual, who has not served an apprenticeship to a medical man, and who perhaps has been a schoolmaster, a shopkeeper, or a barber, takes up the idea that he will commence practice as a ON A CASE OF FACIAL PARALYSIS. hommopathic doctor. Accordingly, he purchases a box of To the Editor of THE LANCET. globules and a homœopathic domestic vade-mecum, becomes involved in the and of aconite case of facial paralysis reported by Dr. Duncan in nux, physics SIR,-The deeply mysteries his poor neighbours, and, having gradually gulled the public, THE, LANCET of the 12th Dec. is so like one at present under works his way into practice. This highly-respectable and ac- treatment in the Sheffield General Infirmary that I have vencomplished practitioner soon finds that, having no legal quali- tured to send you a brief outline of it. fication, he is often in danger of a verdict of manslaughter. Henry Horton, aged twenty years, was admitted under Mr. Accordingly, he pays the hospital fees, and enters to lectures Jackson, Nov. 5th. The patient states that six days since he and hospital practice, in due time obtains the diploma of the was going down a flight of stone steps with a basket of files on College of Surgeons (for these gentlemen seldom trouble the his head, when his foot slipped and he fell, the right side of his Apothecaries’ Society), and then woe to the man who denounces face coming against the rounded edge of one of the steps. A the homœopath as a quack ! The public look calmly on, watch little blood came from the right ear and nostril immediately the process, and very naturally and properly conclude that the after the accident, but it did not continue, and the only inconvenience which then remained was slight headache. Two days College of Surgeons sanctions homœopathic practice. Let me suggest to any practitioner or student who becomes after, he noticed that he had no use of the right side of his aware that a homoeopath is about to present himself at the face, the cause of the discovery being that he was unable to College, to forward a note to the President, worded somewhat indulge in a whistle, which appears to have been a favourite as follows:pastime of his; and when washing his face the soap got into To the President of the College of Surgeons,or Chairman oj his eye, from inability to close the lids properly. When he Sir:I beg to inform you that came to the Infirmary, there was n, contusion over the right the Board of Excc-nziners. -
22