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PREPARATION OF ACETIC ACID.
429 the " Dublin
LIBERAL ARRANGEMENTS
which,
IN THE
NEW CASTLE-ON-TYNE INFIRMARY. To the Editor
of THE LANCET.
SIR :-On reading your remarks
pamphlet respecting
on
the
Birmingham Infirgood deal struck by
the
mary, I have been a the contrast between the terms of admission at that Institution and at the Infirmary of this place. Our hospital contains about 160 beds, which are generally fully occupied ; but although, occasionally, afew additional beds may be prepared (which the wards will very
well permit,
patients
as are
they
are
never
Company of Apothecaries," Secretary to the Company, I feel
myself called
upon to contradict. I therefore request you will allow me, for the present, to disabuse the minds of your readers of any unfavourable impression which these statements may have occasioned, by giving this a place in your next Number; and, in the mean time, I will take care to forward to the 11 Association" such documentary evidence as will completely demonstrate their incorrectness. I remain, Sir, your obedient servant, CHARLES HENRY LEET, LEET, M.D. Dublin, Stephen’s Green West, June 4, 1840.
crowded)
placed in the same bed. The dressing is, generally, altogether performed by the private pupils of the surgeons of the establishment, who are four in number, an equal number of physicians, and a house-surgeon, make up the medical two
as
never
NOTE FROM DR. HURST.
To the Editor of THE LANCET. SIR :—There is no established chair of 99 Medical Jurisprudence" in the Royal staff. Belfast Institution. By the authority of the Pupils are admitted to see the practice, Joint Boards of Managers and Visitors I medical and surgical, of the Infirmary, for ’, gave a course of lectures (the first ever dea fee of five guineas per annum, which is livered there) on " Medical Jurisprudence appropriated, not to the benefit of the sur- and Police," in the Common Hall of the geons, but to the purchase of books for a Belfast Institution, during the last spring, professional library, to which the pupils to a class of thirty young gentlemen, which have free access, being allowed to take out lectures have been of3icially recognised by any books, under certain reasonable regula- the Dublin Apothecaries’ Hall, as well as by tions. I may add, that during the winter several other licensing bodies; but whether clinical lectures are given by the surgeons they shall be repeated or not, will depend in rotation, for the benefit of the pupils, entirely on future arrangements. from whom no fee is required for attending I have deemed this little piece of informathem. tion necessary, in reference to a statement The Operating Theatre, where operationsregarding me in your last Number, otherare frequent, is open to the pupils, and towise I would not have intruded myself on all medical practitioners who may feel dis- your notice at the present time. At a future posed to witness them. period I may have something to say anent As regards liberality and facility ofthe present conduct of the Dublin Apotheaccess, whether to pupils or other members caries’ Company, and their abettors, apolo-
5
of the profession, I believe the Infirmary off gists, and informers. Meanwhile, I remain, Newcastle will bear a favourable compari-your grateful and obedient servant, son with any hospital in the kingdom, whileJ CHARLES HURST HURST, M.D., &c. to the surgeons of the Institution, no emoluJune z10. London, ment whatever arises from fees of admission. A tolerably successful school of medicine has been established here, for a few years, PREPARATION OF ACETIC ACID. which, though not immediately connected with the Infirmary, excites no jealousy To the Editor of THE LANCET. Yout amongst its professional officers. IN the " Remarks on the Pharmacopoeia obedient servant, of the Royal College of Physicians, EdinT. M. GREENLOW. burgh, 1839, by Mr. Richard Phillips, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, May 23, 1840. F.R.S." (11 Medical Gazette," No. 33), the following occur on the directions for preacedum aceticum :paring the " APOTHECARIES’ COMPANY, I have attempted to follow this Istly, DUBLIN. process, and if (which I very much doubt) any one else ever did, he must, I think, have To the Editor of THE LANCET. found that it is much more easy to fail than SiR :-In the account of the proceedings to succeed in it." of the " British Medical Association," as 2ndly," I have not been able to find this reported in THE LANCET of last week, there word (acc1’ete) in any dictionary which I are certain statements made in reference to have consulted." -
430 stance, a cataplasm of hogs’ lard to the part,
3rdly, " Such, indeed, is the tenacity of this mixture, that cases may arise in which it may be usefully employed as a cement." Lastly, " The process is to be strongly condemned for its inconvenience and ex-
on linen, before the virus has been absorbed iato the system. I have the honour to subscribe myself, VIATOR. Bath, May, 1840.
spread
pense."
That Mr. Phillips has failed does not me, after the novelties which he has exhibited to the world in his Translations (so called) of the London Pharmacopoeia,-exhibitions which the Edinburgh College had prevented, by causing the Pharmacopœia of that College to be printed in
EPIDEMIC IN THE RIFLE BRIGADE.
surprise
" THE epidemic which has laid up so many of the privates of the Rifle Brigade, still prevails to a considerable extent. Upwards of seventy of them are now in the hospital, and every day is adding to their number. Some of the officers were affected with it, but we believe they are all now
I
English.
To find the word " accrete," I refer Mr. Phillips to the dictionaries of Crakelt and Walker. Accretion will occur " after concretion and pulverization." I have adopted this process during some years, and have never failed. The tenacity of the mixture is such, when properly managed, that it is useless as a cement, and I am of opinion that the process is to be commended. I admit that the quantities employed by me are upon a different scale from those used by Mr. Phillips. Instead of 140 grains, I invariably use 84 pounds of the acetate, and experience no « difficulty in clearing the apparatus for a second operation." Mr. Phillips is equally unhappy in his remarks on the acidum aceticum, S. L. I
completely recovered." ** The above paragraph
is copied from the" Windsor Journal," and, if correct, calls for inquiry on the part of Government, and the adoption of hygienic measures, of an active kind, for the prevention of the dis. ease. We should infer that the cause of the epidemic must exist either in the situation of the barracks, in the food, or in the accommodation provided for the men.
TEMPERATURE OF PLANTS.
repeating the experi. with the physiological Dutrochet, servant, needles of Becquerel and Breschet, and the GEORGE WHIPPLE. galvanometer of Gourgon, has observed that 22, Garnault-place, Clerkenwell, the temperature of plants increases until the June 8, 1840. ! afternoon, that it then diminishes, disap pears almost wholly during the night, and RATTLESNAKES DESTROYED BY returns on the following day. The maximum of inherent heat on the 29th of September, HOGS. at a quarter past one o’clock, P.M., in a leaf of the sedum cotyledon, did not young To the Editor of THE LANCET. exceed 0° 25 centigrade. In rainy and dull SIR :—In your Journal, Vol. 1, 1839-40, weather, the phenomenon was not so evi. page 497, with regard to the article "On dent as in a calm and clear atmosphere. In the Bites of Poisonous Snakes and Reme- these experiments, M. Van Beck’s results dies," allow me to state, that when I was in differed from those of Dutrochet, in finding the United States of America, it was a com- the living leaf of a lower temperature than mon practice among the farmers to turn their the dead leaf of the same plant, when the hogs upon those lands which were infested observations were conducted in the air. When with rattlesnakes, which reptiles were very made in an atmosphere impregnated with soon destroyed and eaten. In rocky districts, watery vapour, and beneath a bell glass, the the rattlesnake will retreat into holes, which heat of the living leaf was the greatest. are as closely watched by the hog, as a Dutrochet explains this want of agreement terrier would watch a rat’s hole, the hog by reference to his mode of treatment of the remaining until hunger compels the snake withered leaf. After destroying the vitality to quit and be killed, which the quadruped of the leaf by immersing it in hot water, he is not long in effecting. No harm ever re- dips it immediately into cold water, and sults to the hog from being bitten, though I keeps it well moistened during the experi. suppose, of course, that the bite is a com- ment, so that an evaporation equal to that Whether the mass of fat of the living leaf may be continued. If M. mon occurrence. under their thick skins, or the thickness of Van Beck allow the leaf after immersion in the skin itself, protects them, must be a hot water to dry gradually, the evaporation matter of conjecture ; but might not a know. will have ceased, and the temperature inthe ledge of this circumstance be turned to ac- living leaf be consequently lower than that count by those who have been wounded by of the dead when the experiment is made.any poisonous reptile;-applying, for in- 4bridged froan the Edin. New. Phil. Journal. remain,
obedient
.
most
respectfully, Sir,
your most
,
M. VAN BECK, in
ments of
LIBERAL ARRANGEMENTS
which,
IN THE
NEW CASTLE-ON-TYNE INFIRMARY. To the Editor
of THE LANCET.
SIR :-On reading your remarks
pamphlet respecting
on
the
Birmingham Infirgood deal struck by
the
mary, I have been a the contrast between the terms of admission at that Institution and at the Infirmary of this place. Our hospital contains about 160 beds, which are generally fully occupied ; but although, occasionally, afew additional beds may be prepared (which the wards will very
well permit,
patients
as are
they
are
never
Company of Apothecaries," Secretary to the Company, I feel
myself called
upon to contradict. I therefore request you will allow me, for the present, to disabuse the minds of your readers of any unfavourable impression which these statements may have occasioned, by giving this a place in your next Number; and, in the mean time, I will take care to forward to the 11 Association" such documentary evidence as will completely demonstrate their incorrectness. I remain, Sir, your obedient servant, CHARLES HENRY LEET, LEET, M.D. Dublin, Stephen’s Green West, June 4, 1840.
crowded)
placed in the same bed. The dressing is, generally, altogether performed by the private pupils of the surgeons of the establishment, who are four in number, an equal number of physicians, and a house-surgeon, make up the medical two
as
never
NOTE FROM DR. HURST.
To the Editor of THE LANCET. SIR :—There is no established chair of 99 Medical Jurisprudence" in the Royal staff. Belfast Institution. By the authority of the Pupils are admitted to see the practice, Joint Boards of Managers and Visitors I medical and surgical, of the Infirmary, for ’, gave a course of lectures (the first ever dea fee of five guineas per annum, which is livered there) on " Medical Jurisprudence appropriated, not to the benefit of the sur- and Police," in the Common Hall of the geons, but to the purchase of books for a Belfast Institution, during the last spring, professional library, to which the pupils to a class of thirty young gentlemen, which have free access, being allowed to take out lectures have been of3icially recognised by any books, under certain reasonable regula- the Dublin Apothecaries’ Hall, as well as by tions. I may add, that during the winter several other licensing bodies; but whether clinical lectures are given by the surgeons they shall be repeated or not, will depend in rotation, for the benefit of the pupils, entirely on future arrangements. from whom no fee is required for attending I have deemed this little piece of informathem. tion necessary, in reference to a statement The Operating Theatre, where operationsregarding me in your last Number, otherare frequent, is open to the pupils, and towise I would not have intruded myself on all medical practitioners who may feel dis- your notice at the present time. At a future posed to witness them. period I may have something to say anent As regards liberality and facility ofthe present conduct of the Dublin Apotheaccess, whether to pupils or other members caries’ Company, and their abettors, apolo-
5
of the profession, I believe the Infirmary off gists, and informers. Meanwhile, I remain, Newcastle will bear a favourable compari-your grateful and obedient servant, son with any hospital in the kingdom, whileJ CHARLES HURST HURST, M.D., &c. to the surgeons of the Institution, no emoluJune z10. London, ment whatever arises from fees of admission. A tolerably successful school of medicine has been established here, for a few years, PREPARATION OF ACETIC ACID. which, though not immediately connected with the Infirmary, excites no jealousy To the Editor of THE LANCET. Yout amongst its professional officers. IN the " Remarks on the Pharmacopoeia obedient servant, of the Royal College of Physicians, EdinT. M. GREENLOW. burgh, 1839, by Mr. Richard Phillips, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, May 23, 1840. F.R.S." (11 Medical Gazette," No. 33), the following occur on the directions for preacedum aceticum :paring the " APOTHECARIES’ COMPANY, I have attempted to follow this Istly, DUBLIN. process, and if (which I very much doubt) any one else ever did, he must, I think, have To the Editor of THE LANCET. found that it is much more easy to fail than SiR :-In the account of the proceedings to succeed in it." of the " British Medical Association," as 2ndly," I have not been able to find this reported in THE LANCET of last week, there word (acc1’ete) in any dictionary which I are certain statements made in reference to have consulted." -
430 stance, a cataplasm of hogs’ lard to the part,
3rdly, " Such, indeed, is the tenacity of this mixture, that cases may arise in which it may be usefully employed as a cement." Lastly, " The process is to be strongly condemned for its inconvenience and ex-
on linen, before the virus has been absorbed iato the system. I have the honour to subscribe myself, VIATOR. Bath, May, 1840.
spread
pense."
That Mr. Phillips has failed does not me, after the novelties which he has exhibited to the world in his Translations (so called) of the London Pharmacopoeia,-exhibitions which the Edinburgh College had prevented, by causing the Pharmacopœia of that College to be printed in
EPIDEMIC IN THE RIFLE BRIGADE.
surprise
" THE epidemic which has laid up so many of the privates of the Rifle Brigade, still prevails to a considerable extent. Upwards of seventy of them are now in the hospital, and every day is adding to their number. Some of the officers were affected with it, but we believe they are all now
I
English.
To find the word " accrete," I refer Mr. Phillips to the dictionaries of Crakelt and Walker. Accretion will occur " after concretion and pulverization." I have adopted this process during some years, and have never failed. The tenacity of the mixture is such, when properly managed, that it is useless as a cement, and I am of opinion that the process is to be commended. I admit that the quantities employed by me are upon a different scale from those used by Mr. Phillips. Instead of 140 grains, I invariably use 84 pounds of the acetate, and experience no « difficulty in clearing the apparatus for a second operation." Mr. Phillips is equally unhappy in his remarks on the acidum aceticum, S. L. I
completely recovered." ** The above paragraph
is copied from the" Windsor Journal," and, if correct, calls for inquiry on the part of Government, and the adoption of hygienic measures, of an active kind, for the prevention of the dis. ease. We should infer that the cause of the epidemic must exist either in the situation of the barracks, in the food, or in the accommodation provided for the men.
TEMPERATURE OF PLANTS.
repeating the experi. with the physiological Dutrochet, servant, needles of Becquerel and Breschet, and the GEORGE WHIPPLE. galvanometer of Gourgon, has observed that 22, Garnault-place, Clerkenwell, the temperature of plants increases until the June 8, 1840. ! afternoon, that it then diminishes, disap pears almost wholly during the night, and RATTLESNAKES DESTROYED BY returns on the following day. The maximum of inherent heat on the 29th of September, HOGS. at a quarter past one o’clock, P.M., in a leaf of the sedum cotyledon, did not young To the Editor of THE LANCET. exceed 0° 25 centigrade. In rainy and dull SIR :—In your Journal, Vol. 1, 1839-40, weather, the phenomenon was not so evi. page 497, with regard to the article "On dent as in a calm and clear atmosphere. In the Bites of Poisonous Snakes and Reme- these experiments, M. Van Beck’s results dies," allow me to state, that when I was in differed from those of Dutrochet, in finding the United States of America, it was a com- the living leaf of a lower temperature than mon practice among the farmers to turn their the dead leaf of the same plant, when the hogs upon those lands which were infested observations were conducted in the air. When with rattlesnakes, which reptiles were very made in an atmosphere impregnated with soon destroyed and eaten. In rocky districts, watery vapour, and beneath a bell glass, the the rattlesnake will retreat into holes, which heat of the living leaf was the greatest. are as closely watched by the hog, as a Dutrochet explains this want of agreement terrier would watch a rat’s hole, the hog by reference to his mode of treatment of the remaining until hunger compels the snake withered leaf. After destroying the vitality to quit and be killed, which the quadruped of the leaf by immersing it in hot water, he is not long in effecting. No harm ever re- dips it immediately into cold water, and sults to the hog from being bitten, though I keeps it well moistened during the experi. suppose, of course, that the bite is a com- ment, so that an evaporation equal to that Whether the mass of fat of the living leaf may be continued. If M. mon occurrence. under their thick skins, or the thickness of Van Beck allow the leaf after immersion in the skin itself, protects them, must be a hot water to dry gradually, the evaporation matter of conjecture ; but might not a know. will have ceased, and the temperature inthe ledge of this circumstance be turned to ac- living leaf be consequently lower than that count by those who have been wounded by of the dead when the experiment is made.any poisonous reptile;-applying, for in- 4bridged froan the Edin. New. Phil. Journal. remain,
obedient
.
most
respectfully, Sir,
your most
,
M. VAN BECK, in
ments of