IN THE COURT OF APPEAL.

1007 On the following day (the twenty-third) those of the stances in which that could be done were clearly demembers of the Congress whose engagements admitted of fined and few. The rights of members of a corporation their remaining in Rome accompanied Dr. Baccelli to the depend primâ facie upon the general law as modified by the Policlinico, where the several departments of the institution terms of the Charter under which it exists. In the referred to in his opening address were found in a satis- present case the Charter re"ites the dissolution of the old Company, and as the plaintiffs in the action standfactorily forward state. and are bound to stand-upon the Charter, it would appear that they cannot at this stage go behind the defendant’s affidavit.. The materiality of the evidence in IN THE COURT OF APPEAL. question depended on whether the plaintiffs could or could not be heard to say that, in spite of the recital which the (Before Lords Justices LINDLEY and KAY.) Charter of the College contains, the rights conferred upon the old Company of Surgeons had not lapsed, but had Steele and others v. Savory and others. If been continued to the Members of the College. AN application made in this case by the plaintiffs for an it were open to them to press this contention, the order directing the defendants to make a further and evidence which the documents would afford might be better affidavit of documents was heard on appeal upon the very material; but at the present stage it did not appear 26th and 27th inst. Mr. J. Fletcher Moulton, Q C., and that they could adopt this line of argument at all and it be, therefore, that the expense of making a. Mr. Costelloe appeared in support of the appeal; Mr. further might search and a further and better affidavit of docu. Graham Hastings, Q.C., and Mr. J. R. Paget in behalf of ments, if that were ordered, would be simply thrown away. the respondents. He thought, therefore, that the case came within the ruleThe action is directed to obtaining a declaration from the which provides that, upon an application for the discovery Court that the Members of the College of Surgeons enjoy the of documents, the court or judge may refuse the same if right of meeting in their College Hall, or, as it is formally satisfied that such discovery is not necessary at that stage stated, a "right of free access singly and together to and of the cause or matter, and the appeal must be dismissed into the hall of their said College at all reasonable times for accordingly. Lord Justice Kay, in giving a concurring judgment, laid all lawful purposes connected with their Membership of the said College," the right being deduced from an alleged right down the ground of the rule that there can be no crossof the commonalty of the old Surgeons’ Company of similar examination upon an affidavit of documents, and no use of character. The statement of claim asks, further, for ancillary contentious affidavits upon an application of that kind, to relief. The defendants in the action, who represent the be that if such discussion were permitted litigants would governing body of the College, deny the alleged right, and set be oppressed by interlocutory proceedings directed to this up a by-law which contains the following provision : " No point, to prevent which, it had been found necessary to meeting or assemblage of Members of the College shall be allow a party upon his own responsibility, under the law of held in the Hall or Council House of the College, or in any perjury, to say what documents in his possession were or of its appurtenances, unless convened by or under the were not relevant to the issues in an action. He expressed authority of the President or Council." They further regret that in the present instance an attempt frequently allege that the Company of Surgeons was dissolved, and made before had been made again to break through this that after its dissolution the present College of Surgeons salutary rule, and that both parties had been led into the mistake of filing contentious affidavits upon such a point. was created by Charter in the year 1800, so that the rights The appeal was dismissed with costs. of freemen in the dissolved Company can have no bearing of of kind the Members the upon any rights College, ofinasmuch as these latter have an independent origin in the grant made by the Charter. The plaintiff, on the contrary, contend that the Company was never dissolved, OPENING OF THE MEDICAL SCHOOLS AT that the Charter to the College was in reality given to the GLASGOW. Company, and that the latter, under an altered name and with a remodelled constitution, does, in fact, exist in the

AT the University of Glasgow the session was opened on Royal College of Surgeons at the present day. The documents respecting which the further discovery was sought the 12th inst. by Professor J. G. M’KENDRICK, who took were supposed to bear upon this part of the controversy. They for his theme the life and work of Spallanza,ni, the famous consist of deeds and other instruments by which the devolu- Italian physiologist cf last century, a man who worthily tion of the Company’s property was controlled at the time of not only physiological science, but science in its passing from the Company to the College, and of others represented to the end of last century. Having given a most which in various ways illustrate the claims about the same general up of Spallanzani’s early life, his studies in account of in time put forward by the commonalty the Company interesting assertion of their rights, and’ the part which the Company law and divinity, his fondness for sport and athletics, notplayed in the promotion of the College Charter. It was withstanding his devotion to science and literature, thccontended in support of the appeal that, as one of the issues lecturer discussed more minutely the period during which in the case is the real identity of the present College first the chair of Logic in the University Spallanzani occupied with the old Company, all such documents become material of Natural History in Modena, of and then that of to which the are entitled Reggio, evidence, plaintiffs discovery. That, furthermore, as the rights enjoyed by members of the and in Pavia. At Pavia Spallanzani laboured assiduously Company formed upon the plaintiff’s case, the basis of the for fourteen years, producing in rapid succession the great claim put forward in behalf of Members of the College any contributions to science that had made his name famous. document which might tend to show what were the rights One of the first subjects be directed his attention to was of the members of the Company must be admissible in the generation of living being?, and he was the first evidence upon the trial, and proper, therefore, to be made to controvert successfully the fatCinating theory of sponthe subject of discovery for the purposes of the action. taneous generation. No one could over-estimate the TheCourt, without calling upon counsel for the de- important results which flowed from his investigation of fendants, dismissed the appeal. Lord Justice Lindley, in the nature of the minute organisms now known as bacilli, The measures of modern hygiene, by which delivering his judgment, observed that this was an unusual bacteria, &c. action, involving a question of extreme importance- contagia. and infectious diseases are at present kept in namely, Have the Members of the College the right to meet check and would be ultimately annihilated, the economic: unless convened by the governing body ? The learned judge results of the preservation of food, and the triumph of anti. thought that the by-law which had been called in question septic surgery could all be traced back to such work as did not in terms hit the point in discussion, because it refers Spallanzani’s. He was able to throw much light also on to the regulation of meetings which have been convened by the process of digestion. His experiments made upon the President and Council. Referring specifically to the birds, and latterly upun himself, showed that digestion point which had to be decided, he said that the affidavit depended partly on trituration, partly upon the chemical of documents which had been made by the secretary of action of the gastric juice, and partly upon heat. He denied the College was unexceptionable in point of form, and musti that any kind of fermentation or putrefaction occurred, and be acted upon unless it could be attacked, and the circum- held that the process was purely a chemical one that could I