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FROM THE LANCET, SATURDAY, Sept. 27th, 1828.
881 effects of dilatation. He thought that some surgical pro- passport to the wise men assembled in solemn conclave at cedure might be devised in order to diminish the size of the Apothecaries’ Hall. This body of self-elected Examiners dilated stomach and avoid the risks of gastro-enterostomy or (being a century behind the better educated general prac-
titioner in literary and professional acquirements) have opinion, the presence of a scarcely intellect sufficient to enable them to undertake an was an essential point in the diagnosis of adequate professional examination. Creatures, therefore, of palpable tumour these cases. He did not agree with Dr. Hutchison’s views this mediocre description, pass as a matter of course; and and could not accept the diagnosis of stenosis in the cases apothecary being now legally tacked to his name, surgeon also is immediately appended, and then the bluster and which he had mentioned. Dr. MACHELL said that cases of congenital pyloric stenosis pomp of a new and important office is observed to This was evidenced by the commence. were not common in Toronto. A fellow of this origin and character (called, perhaps, in fact that up to the present no case had been admitted as such into the Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto. The the absence of a better-informed practitioner, to a case same applied to the Infants’ Home, where many of the strictly under his neighbour’s care) commences with infants were nursed and looked after from birth up to two denouncing, in a bold and clamorous manner the measures which have been pursued, and promises to cure the patient years of age. Remarks were also made by Dr. PORTER (San Francisco) in quick time. Nature kindly seconds his impudent preand by the PRESIDENT, and Dr. CAUTLEY and Mr. STILES tensions, and this daring charlatan, in spite of his own mischievous principles, (if, indeed, he have any to direct briefly replied. The business of the section concluded with a paper by his treatment,) exults in finding, by an unexpected and propitious turn-up, he has out-witted his less arrogant and Dr. ALBERT E. VIPOND (Montreal) on pretending rival, and obtained credit for superior discernThe Glandular System in Infectious Diseases. ment in that circle to which he has been, by mere accident, He discussed in detail the significance of enlargement of the introduced. lymphatic glands in the various infectious diseases and Believe me, Sir, this is not an overcharged statement, it is pointed out that as this enlargement appeared some days a true picture of the history of several individuals well before the development of the diseases it formed a valuable known to the writer of this letter, and also to many of the aid to diagnosis and enabled isolation to be carried out more more members of the If profession. any candid respectable effectually, mind can doubt the truth of the assertion, let him convince himself ; and if he will only take the trouble to walk from the central bridges to the southern or eastern extremities of this great town, and observe, where only chemist and druggist were a year or two since recorded, surgeon and apothecary are now inscribed; and if the inquirer will FROM refer to the list of the College of Surgeons published every THE LANCET, SATURDAY, Sept. 27th, 1828. year, he will no longer doubt the fact of the appellation of surgeon being gratuitously assumed by such honourable INUTILITY OF THE APOTHECARIES’ ACT. The public, particularly parents and guardians, persons. should be cautioned against such designing impostors, who To the Editor of THE LANCET. ara in the habit of living upon premiums thus surreptitiously recent letters which have appeared in several obtained, and have not capacity sufficient to direct the SIR,-The numbers of your invaluable publication upon the inutility elementary studies of the unhappy youths consigned to their of the Apothecaries’ Act, and the abominable and destructive barbarous tutorship, nor liberality of mind to treat them practices of unqualified pretenders to medical science, must with the courtesy becoming a gentleman. Connected with have excited one common feeling of indignant regret in the this irregular and disgraceful introduction to the profession, minds of every well-educated and genuine member of the may be fairly said to emanate the degrading system of profession. Unfortunately the evil is not confined to the farming the medical attendance of the poor in populous north of England, nor to any particular district or county. and extensive parishes. Were it not for these interlopers, Ignorant and unprincipled pretenders to pharmacy and sur- those fungoid excrescences in the shape of licensed apothegery are to be observed, and might be pointed out to public caries and self-constituted doctors, no surgeon, of competent reprehension in every part of this widely-extended metro- education and acknowledged talent, would condescend to polis. Probably it may be conferring a favour upon the accept such a disproportionate measure of remuneration, public to describe the general mode by which these alike repugnant to the moral and healthy condition of the aspirants to Æsculapian fame attempt to possess themselves poor, and derogatory to the character of an honourable and of medical honours. Their origin is usually very humble. useful profession; but the respectable surgeon is compelled, A capacity to write a legible hand, and work the first four in defence of his own interest, to succumb to a precedent, rules of arithmetic, at the age of thirteen or fourteen years, and adopt a practice he abhors. The remedy for this, as well as other grievances in the recommends them to the notice of some mechanic or artisan, who, upon trial, finding the boy either too dull or too lazy profession, lies in an appeal to the legislature. If we to learn his handicraft, discharges him from his service. succeed, as I hope we shall, in obtaining a new charter Chance now introduces him as a basket-boy, or general for the College of Surgeons, this evil, among many others, drudge, into a druggist’s shop. After filling a situation of we may hope to see reduced. The character of the profesthis degrading nature for two or three years, he contrives sion advanced, by giving its constituted members authority to advance a step by entering the service of the general to charge for visits and time, instead of cramming a superpractitioner. By observation, he acquires the names of fluous quantity of medicine down the throats of patients, in drugs, and, after a time, makes up medicines. A further order to make out a charge. A revolution must take place advance is now sought, and by paying his half crown to in the present system of remuneration. The Trading Act the beadle of Apothecaries’ Hall, he obtains a situation as of 1815, has been found altogether inoperative to prevent a dispenser of medicine to some practising apothecary. unqualified persons, and it is evaded every day with perfect Recruiting his finances in such a situation for a few years, impunity! he then proceeds to open a retail druggist’s shop, in some The College of Surgeons have no power to restrain leading street or neighbourhood. The rent of the house is adventurers from infringing its supposed rights, consequently made by taking lodgers ; the vending of salts, senna, and the privileges of its members between the two imbecile other wares, furnishes a scanty income. Our adventurer corporate bodies are totally sacrificed. Happily for the next proceeds to advertise for an apprentice : obtaining a profession, by the united energies of your talents, and the premium of 150 or 200 guineas. In six months, this youth commanding influence of your weekly Journal, a new era is left to manage the shop, and the master now, for the has dawned upon the destiny of surgery ; public feeling and first time, professes to be seeking knowledge. With the public opinion has been aroused. In vain may the advocates cash thus obtained from a deluded and too credulous of monopoly, and the influence of the whole body of corparent or guardian, he proceeds to enter himself a ruptionists, attempt to stem the force of equity and of medical student. Two courses of anatomical lectures, two truth upon the minds of the community ; and that its on the practice of physic, one on materia medica and claims may be fully and speedily recognised and perchemistry, and one on the theory and practice of midwifery, manently secured, is the fervent wish of your devoted friend and a forged indenture of apprenticeship for five years to and constant reader, A DEGRADED MEMBER OF THE COLLEGE. some reputed apothecary, furnishes our hero with a legal
pyloroplasty.
Dr. VINCENT said
that,
in his
Looking Back.
,
,
titioner in literary and professional acquirements) have opinion, the presence of a scarcely intellect sufficient to enable them to undertake an was an essential point in the diagnosis of adequate professional examination. Creatures, therefore, of palpable tumour these cases. He did not agree with Dr. Hutchison’s views this mediocre description, pass as a matter of course; and and could not accept the diagnosis of stenosis in the cases apothecary being now legally tacked to his name, surgeon also is immediately appended, and then the bluster and which he had mentioned. Dr. MACHELL said that cases of congenital pyloric stenosis pomp of a new and important office is observed to This was evidenced by the commence. were not common in Toronto. A fellow of this origin and character (called, perhaps, in fact that up to the present no case had been admitted as such into the Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto. The the absence of a better-informed practitioner, to a case same applied to the Infants’ Home, where many of the strictly under his neighbour’s care) commences with infants were nursed and looked after from birth up to two denouncing, in a bold and clamorous manner the measures which have been pursued, and promises to cure the patient years of age. Remarks were also made by Dr. PORTER (San Francisco) in quick time. Nature kindly seconds his impudent preand by the PRESIDENT, and Dr. CAUTLEY and Mr. STILES tensions, and this daring charlatan, in spite of his own mischievous principles, (if, indeed, he have any to direct briefly replied. The business of the section concluded with a paper by his treatment,) exults in finding, by an unexpected and propitious turn-up, he has out-witted his less arrogant and Dr. ALBERT E. VIPOND (Montreal) on pretending rival, and obtained credit for superior discernThe Glandular System in Infectious Diseases. ment in that circle to which he has been, by mere accident, He discussed in detail the significance of enlargement of the introduced. lymphatic glands in the various infectious diseases and Believe me, Sir, this is not an overcharged statement, it is pointed out that as this enlargement appeared some days a true picture of the history of several individuals well before the development of the diseases it formed a valuable known to the writer of this letter, and also to many of the aid to diagnosis and enabled isolation to be carried out more more members of the If profession. any candid respectable effectually, mind can doubt the truth of the assertion, let him convince himself ; and if he will only take the trouble to walk from the central bridges to the southern or eastern extremities of this great town, and observe, where only chemist and druggist were a year or two since recorded, surgeon and apothecary are now inscribed; and if the inquirer will FROM refer to the list of the College of Surgeons published every THE LANCET, SATURDAY, Sept. 27th, 1828. year, he will no longer doubt the fact of the appellation of surgeon being gratuitously assumed by such honourable INUTILITY OF THE APOTHECARIES’ ACT. The public, particularly parents and guardians, persons. should be cautioned against such designing impostors, who To the Editor of THE LANCET. ara in the habit of living upon premiums thus surreptitiously recent letters which have appeared in several obtained, and have not capacity sufficient to direct the SIR,-The numbers of your invaluable publication upon the inutility elementary studies of the unhappy youths consigned to their of the Apothecaries’ Act, and the abominable and destructive barbarous tutorship, nor liberality of mind to treat them practices of unqualified pretenders to medical science, must with the courtesy becoming a gentleman. Connected with have excited one common feeling of indignant regret in the this irregular and disgraceful introduction to the profession, minds of every well-educated and genuine member of the may be fairly said to emanate the degrading system of profession. Unfortunately the evil is not confined to the farming the medical attendance of the poor in populous north of England, nor to any particular district or county. and extensive parishes. Were it not for these interlopers, Ignorant and unprincipled pretenders to pharmacy and sur- those fungoid excrescences in the shape of licensed apothegery are to be observed, and might be pointed out to public caries and self-constituted doctors, no surgeon, of competent reprehension in every part of this widely-extended metro- education and acknowledged talent, would condescend to polis. Probably it may be conferring a favour upon the accept such a disproportionate measure of remuneration, public to describe the general mode by which these alike repugnant to the moral and healthy condition of the aspirants to Æsculapian fame attempt to possess themselves poor, and derogatory to the character of an honourable and of medical honours. Their origin is usually very humble. useful profession; but the respectable surgeon is compelled, A capacity to write a legible hand, and work the first four in defence of his own interest, to succumb to a precedent, rules of arithmetic, at the age of thirteen or fourteen years, and adopt a practice he abhors. The remedy for this, as well as other grievances in the recommends them to the notice of some mechanic or artisan, who, upon trial, finding the boy either too dull or too lazy profession, lies in an appeal to the legislature. If we to learn his handicraft, discharges him from his service. succeed, as I hope we shall, in obtaining a new charter Chance now introduces him as a basket-boy, or general for the College of Surgeons, this evil, among many others, drudge, into a druggist’s shop. After filling a situation of we may hope to see reduced. The character of the profesthis degrading nature for two or three years, he contrives sion advanced, by giving its constituted members authority to advance a step by entering the service of the general to charge for visits and time, instead of cramming a superpractitioner. By observation, he acquires the names of fluous quantity of medicine down the throats of patients, in drugs, and, after a time, makes up medicines. A further order to make out a charge. A revolution must take place advance is now sought, and by paying his half crown to in the present system of remuneration. The Trading Act the beadle of Apothecaries’ Hall, he obtains a situation as of 1815, has been found altogether inoperative to prevent a dispenser of medicine to some practising apothecary. unqualified persons, and it is evaded every day with perfect Recruiting his finances in such a situation for a few years, impunity! he then proceeds to open a retail druggist’s shop, in some The College of Surgeons have no power to restrain leading street or neighbourhood. The rent of the house is adventurers from infringing its supposed rights, consequently made by taking lodgers ; the vending of salts, senna, and the privileges of its members between the two imbecile other wares, furnishes a scanty income. Our adventurer corporate bodies are totally sacrificed. Happily for the next proceeds to advertise for an apprentice : obtaining a profession, by the united energies of your talents, and the premium of 150 or 200 guineas. In six months, this youth commanding influence of your weekly Journal, a new era is left to manage the shop, and the master now, for the has dawned upon the destiny of surgery ; public feeling and first time, professes to be seeking knowledge. With the public opinion has been aroused. In vain may the advocates cash thus obtained from a deluded and too credulous of monopoly, and the influence of the whole body of corparent or guardian, he proceeds to enter himself a ruptionists, attempt to stem the force of equity and of medical student. Two courses of anatomical lectures, two truth upon the minds of the community ; and that its on the practice of physic, one on materia medica and claims may be fully and speedily recognised and perchemistry, and one on the theory and practice of midwifery, manently secured, is the fervent wish of your devoted friend and a forged indenture of apprenticeship for five years to and constant reader, A DEGRADED MEMBER OF THE COLLEGE. some reputed apothecary, furnishes our hero with a legal
pyloroplasty.
Dr. VINCENT said
that,
in his
Looking Back.
,
,