GRATUITOUS ADVICE.

19 the oldest and most respectable members of the College of Surgeons, who, by the restrictive character of the Charter of the

excluded from the fellowship? If this be the opine to be the case, his courage or his assurance, or both, must be equal to that of a noble lord who, though a civilian, proposed to take upon himself the office of commander-in chief of the British army. Mr. Kelson says in his letter to Lord Aberdeen-" In 1845, I took great pains to obtain the opinion of a large proportion of the medical body, whose reputation, skill, and high character, are 4nimpeachable; more especially of the medical men in the provinces ; and from the opinions thus obtained a memorial was Addressed to the then Secretary of State for the Home Department against medical reform." Now, Mr. Editor, either Mr. Kelson does not know what his own memorial contained, or he has attempted to deceive

College, had been

tame person, which I

Lord Aberdeen. His memorial was not on medical reform as a general question, but was a counter-memorial to one from Bristol, exclusively on the one subject of the admission of members of the College of Surgeons to the fellowship ! ! I have before me the actual memorial forwarded to me in 1845 by Mr. Kelson, impudently soliciting five or ten shillings to cover expenses ; and, although extensively circulated, I never heard that it obtained more than sixty-five signatures, if so many. But, Sir, if I interpret rightly the extract I have made from

those who have filled an assistant’s situation can for a moment imagine the trials, anxieties, and difficulties, he has to contend with. In every step he takes his character is at stake-one rash act may for ever ruin his character ; great, then, must be the circumspection and prudence used by a young man placed without friends in this trying avocation, for should one of the body he represents misconduct himself, of course, in the generality of cases the whole are judged from the few. Now, as a preliminary step amongst us, an amalgamation will work great good, and I trust all those interested in the well-being of assistants, will come boldly forward and declare themselves willing to aid us in this important work. In your review of this subject you think the name of college does not seem appropriate for this scheme ; in my letter advocating this cause I only suggested the title of College, and should, on consideration, be of opinion that the name of college would not be expedient, and would, in lieu thereof, substitute the title of " The Medical Assistants’ Provident Institution." In conclusion, I cannot but express my thanks for the good your journal, by its instrumentality, has wrought in this cause, and hope it will ever be open to hear both sides of a question impartially, giving the decision upon the subject with due weight of evidence pro and con. I would notice Quartus’ and Unus Alter’s letters, likewise Iota’s, but I feel convinced it would be better for us to send in our names immediately, and lose no time in forming a committee ; then call a general meeting at London of all that can attend, and hear the different views of the intended supporters as to what seems the best method of establishing, on a good foundation, an institution for the attainment of our views.. Hoping this letter will meet with your earliest attention, I remain, Sir, your’s truly, A MEDICAL ASSISTANT AND &PHgr;&lgr;&thgr;&rgr;&ohgr;. Jane, 1853.

Mr. Kelson’s letter to Lord Aberdeen, he would insinuate that the memorial expressed the opinions of a large proportion of the medical body (" whose reputation, skill, and character, are unimpeachable") against medical reform as a general subject, and not simply against the admission of a few members to the fellow. ship of the College of Surgeons (?) ! ! Is it so, or is it not so? How flattered Lord Aberdeen will feel when informed that this memorial emanated from a meeting at the Golden Cross of not a dozen medical men! How highly he must think of his correspondent, when made acquainted with the fact that his predecessor in office, Sir George Grey, rejected the prayer of it, and actually admitted the whole of those to the fellowship whom ’, Mr. Kelson and his memorial prayed to exclude ! ! ! Does Mr. Kelson recollect the report on his memorial of the Bristol Committee representing one thousand surgeons? " The Committee of the Bristol Association of Surgeons, feeling that no public document, however mean and trivial m its character, should," &c. &c. And this mean and trivial memorial he now attempts to foist on Lord Aberdeen, to show that a majority of the medical body are not solicitous of reform, and that the recent deputations have importuned and deceived him ; whereas, in fact, the memorial does not embrace one single principle, point, allusion, or question of any kind contained in the Medical Reform Bill laid before his

lordship. -

You,

Mr.

Editor, will, I hope, considerately explain

To the Editor of THE LANCET. SIR,-I hope that a College or Institution for Medical Assistants may be established; and I shall be happy to-subscribe to it. I trust that the medical practitioners of this country will support a measure so well calculated to promote the welfare ot those that are struggling to become qualified members of

the profession.

Chatham, June,

to Mr.

put upon it !You will also perhaps enumerate to him how many members of the profession advocated medical reform, in 1845,

under the banners of the National Association, the Associated Surgeons, the Bristol Association, the Associations of Essex, Nottingham, Manchester, Shropshire, Yorkshire, and other places; and having done all you can to convince him, be not Surprised to findThat a man convinced against his will Is of the same opinion still."

Yours &c., 18MI.

Sir, your

obedient servant, JAMES BROWN, M.D.

FREDERICK

GRATUITOUS ADVICE. To the Editor of THE LANCET. SiR,-The abolition of gratuitous assistance from the profession, appears to be one of the most vital and important subjects which can claim attention at the present moment, and I for one would lend my every energy to organize a society, having for its object the destruction of the hydra-headed monster-informe, ingens, cui lumen adentptum. Gratuitous advice is a senseless abomination, which yields no profit, and eats into the very vitals of those who engage in it. The more closely it is examined the more rotten does the system appear. The finest talents have been prostituted to its baneful influence. Practice, except in a few, very few instances, is seldom obtained; and its most devoted slaves, those who have toiled long and arduously in our metropolitan hospitals and dispensaries, would, I am sure, candidly confess how few patients can be traced to their wearying performance of unpaid duties. If this axiom be founded on fact, what fools are they or we to pamper to the depraved and morbid appetite of the public. Is there one single article besides provided ’at our many noble institutions gratuitously ? If the baker, the butcher, the water company, the linendraper, the lawyers supply their wares gratis, by all means let our advice be tendered in a like spirit, and let us vie one with another in charity, but sunt certi denique fines quos ultra citraque nequit

Kelson how many letters appeared in your columns, in October and November, 1845, inquiring if his memorial was a hoax, and considering that the most charitable construction which could be

June,

I am, 1853.

ALETHES.

PROPOSED ASSOCIATION OF MEDICAL ASSISTANTS. To the Editor of THE LANCET.

SIR,-Being the proposer of the scheme for an institution to benefit medical assistants, I have read with great interest the correspondence my letter elicited, but more especially from Quartus and Unus Alter. The practicability of an association or institution for this purpose is very obvious. Your very able leading article on the question of medical assistants settles this point in reference to the utility of such a proprsition. Are not the employed of to-day the employers of to-morrow ? and is it not considered to be the pride and glory of Britain, that from an obscure sphere an individual may rise to eminence by using talent and industryso whatever circumstance or society has a tendency to soften the rugged paths of human life, tends also to improve the social and domestic happiness of the reciprocants, therefore must be entitled to general encouragement. None but . ’ ,

consistere rectum. The proposition I have to make is this:lst. To organize a society, to be called " The Anti-Gratis Society," whose object shall be, by committees, to wait upon every member of the profession practising gratuitously or for nominal salaries, and to request him to abandon the practice. Then to publish pamphlets urging in the strongest terms the good to be derived from the abolition of all sign-boards which lead the public to imagine they can obtain advice for nothing. 2nd. To call upon every legalized member of the profession to abandon their shops, which are a fruitful source of disappointment and disgust. In a day-within a post-the whole profession could become erect. At a specified time the

20 members of our body should strike a blow which shall be re- would allow till eleven o’clock the following day for Dr. Drury membered for ever. There should be nohesitation or drawing to be brought up to swear to the truth of his own certificate back. We could afford to subscribe for cases of individual and handwriting, an unnecessary attendance, highly inconhardships; and on a certain day every club and union appoint- venient to the doctor, and expensive to my friend. should be given up to the authorities who have so long Are, therefore, medical certificates to be treated as a nullity? ment insulted us by their parsimonious salaries. And is the above treatment the law of the land, or merely To carry out Free-trade one hundred thousand pounds was Commissioner Fonblanque’s Christian practice of it. If the readily subscribed; to emancipate our profession ten thousand latter, the sooner the Lord Chancellor alters it the better. would be amply sufficient to meet every emergency, and to I am, Sir, your obedient servant, A LOVER OF JUSTICE. If ever there was a time more propitious erase the wrong. June, 1853. than another it is this. On all sides people are prosperous and no doubt in some and * * The proceeding appears harsh, thriving; the poor are but an unit of the population, therefore instances is but it has and law in its support. Cases custom so, we should commit very little injustice towards them. By withdrawing our eleemosynary aid we should raise the standard have occurred before now in which the certificates of medical and tone of morality amongst the working classes, and preventt practitioners have been forged, and the ends of justice thereby them from running into pauperism at every gust of sickness, frustrated. The course pursued by the commissioner was for we have panperized many a thousand by the readiness to be offensive to Dr. Drury.-SuB. not intended with which we have taught them to accept our charity. Our evidently En. L. would no longer become the resting-place of the hospitals lazy, and their funds swallowed up by the dissipated. Dives would make way for Lazarus, and the crumbs which have THE COUNCIL OF THE COLLEGE OF SURGEONS. fallen from the rich man’s table would be consumed by deTo the Editor of THE LANCET. serving objects. Alas, what dreadful waste does an unpaid SIR,-I differ from a "Fellow by Examination" and a medical officer bring upon these institutions! For the goodwill of a few favoured servants of the subscribers, he squanders " Fellow of the College," (vide THE LANCET, June llth and with unsparing hand quinine, mutton chops, flagons of wine, 18th,) and think the proceeding infamous, when I remember and seas of Barclay’s beer. Chlorotic serving-maids are re- how and for what reasons the fellowship was originally contained for months under treatment; fever cases are poisoned ferred ; first, with rare modesty and great personal considerawith wine; and syphilitic clerks are sarzse-iodided to their tion, on the Council by the Council, then on their friends, heart’s content. The workhouse wards are all the time preg- without in either case fee, examination, or trouble. It cernant with diseases of the most dreadful caste, which are all tainly appears to me, after this, infamous to compel old ill-physicked and ill-fed, because abandoned by physicians members of the Collpge of Surgeons to beg for signatures and whose only care is to get recommendation where they cannot pay £10-for what ? not honour, but simply the power of electing men to look after their property. No doubt, the obtain pay. In thus animadverting upon our hospital system, I mean no "Fellow by Examination" has just cause for complaint; but, with the College antecedents, and an unjust, un-English job disrespect to the numerous highly-gifted and laborious gentle- before his eyes, how came he to go there for such a thing? men who for the most part occupy the posts in these institu‘‘ tions. They would do well, if an organization is effected, , ]Perhaps " a Fellow by Examination," and a Fellow of the the will blackball who received boon, evidently College," voluntarily to come forward and tender all the advice which candidates for re-election until full justice is done to every their experience affords. Some I dare say have done well in giving gratuitous advice; but others can tell a different tale- member of the ICollege. remain, Sir, your obedient servant, a tale of midnight toil, and broken purse, and wearied spirit.‘ A MEMBER OF SEVERAL YEARS’ Abolish the system, and they would find much glory in the 1853. STANDING, WHO BEGRUDGES June, act: they would see a noble and glorious profession spring PAYING £10 FOR HIS RIGHT. from the Slough of Despond, and mount to a pinnacle far the and publish the genuine has P.S.--Do, than other attained. We should Sir, Council, analyze profession higher any yet not be advertised for by a Chorley clergyman, or held so cheap fellows, that we in the country may employ them. by Reigate guardians. We can challenge a Chorley divine, in conclusion, and say that no minister of the Gospel ever COURT OF QUEEN’S BENCH, JUNE 22. performed his duty so well as the meanest Poor-law doctor. I cannot forbear to retaliate at this indignity. A lover of our (Sittings at Nisi Prius, at Westminster, before Lord Chief Justice Church and its worship, when carried on without absurdity Campbell and a Special Jury.) and nonsensical whimsicality, I cannot, connected as I have SLANDER.-FENNELL V. ADAMS (CLERK). been for years with Union practice, let this opportunity slip THIS was an action to recover damages for certain slanderous without saying that the sick-beds of the poor are abominably to have been uttered by the defendant, and comneglected by the village pastors. Thousands have died without words alleged plained of by the plaintiff as prejudicial to his professional a visit or a friendly word at parting; young women with a frail accouchement unreproved lie in again; bereaved mothers character. The defendant pleaded " Not Guilty," and justification." pray for a second loss, for they have no one to tell them of Mr. M. Chambers, Q.C., Mr. Sergeant Wilkins, and Mr. the value of each human life; and to the spiritual destitution of the poor in sickness can be traced much of their future Peterdorffs appeared for the plaintiff; the Attorney-General, Mr. Bramwell, Q.C., and Mr. Hall were for the defence. degradation and abasement. Mr. Chambers stated the case, from which it appeared that Sat verbum sapientibus. the plaintiff is a surgeon at Wimbledon, and is medical officer I remain, Sir, with every respect, of an institution there called " The Maternal Society," of which Yours obediently, the wife of the Rev. Mr. Adams, the defendant, was the treasurer. MEDICUS Trinity-street, June, 1851. The charge against the plaintiff was one seriously calculated to affect his professional reputation. The words complained of were to the effect, that the plaintiff bad, in many cases, been very MEDICAL CERTIFICATES. negligent in his attendance upon various females in their period To the Editor of THE LANCET. of labour, in the institution, and that several children had been wS’IR,-On Friday last a friend of mine was attacked with consequently strangled in their birth. To refute those charges, the learned gentleman called English cholera, and having a witnesses’ summons to attend The plaintiff, Mr. Edward Fennell,-who deposed that he is the Court of Bankruptcy, he sent a certificate from Dr. Drury to that effect, which was only then received on an affidavit a surgeon, residing at Wimbledon, and had been pupil of Dr. being sworn and annexed that it was the certificate of Dr. Stevenson and of Dr. Sweetham. In 1834 he purchased Dr. Drury, who was a physician living in Albion-street, and was Wright’s practice at Wimbledon, and paid £1000 for it, and he was subsequently appointed to the Kingston Union, and to the Mr. B.’s regular medical attendant. A further summons was then granted for the Tuesday " Wimbledon Maternal Society." In 1849 he received a letter following, upon which occasion Dr. Drury’s patient was much from the Hon. Mrs. Adams, treasurer of the Maternal Society, worse, and a certificate to the effect that he was still and wife of the defendant, who is curate of Wimhledon. The suffering from English cholera, which was then complicated letter contained general complaints, charging him (plaintiff) with with dysentery, was sent to the Bankruptcy Court, which neglect of the female patients, but not naming any particular case. Commissioner Fonblanque refused to take, and actually granted He called on Mrs. Adams in consequence, and she then mentioned the warrant for arresting a man dangerously ill! saying he case of Mrs. Gregory, who was the wife of the coachman of ____________

the