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RESPONSIBILITY OF MEDICAL PRACTITIONERS.
264 when the Board met to receive the applications, and after such applications had been sent in. I shall feel. Sir, deeply indebted if your Council will do me the honour of letting me know their verdict upon the question I have raised. I am, Sir, your very obedient servant, Tucs. MORLEY ROOKE, M.D., M. R. C. S. Eng. To Edmund Belfour, Esq., Sec. Royal Coll. Surg. Ena’., London.
twenty-nine
forms of apparatus for deformity of the lower shows Dr. Little’s shoe for varus and valgus,
I limbs. Fig. 45 (A)
Royal College of Surgeons of England, Loudon, August 19th, 1862. SIR,-I have laid before the Council of this College your letter of the 22nd ultimo, and am desired to acquaint you that it is not the practice of the Council to express an opinion on subjects of the nature of that contained in your communication. I am directed, however, by the President and Vice-Presidents to state, that in their opinion it would be an unjust reflection on the Ophthalmic Infirmary attached to Guy’s Hospital to consider it otherwise than an institution of repute. I am, Sir, your obedient servant, EDWARD TRIMMER, Dr. T. M. Eooke.
_____
Assistant Secretary.
RESPONSIBILITY OF MEDICAL PRACTITIONERS. As we anticipated, the evil results of the verdict in the case of Mr. Wakem have already commenced. Last week a man was brought before Mr. Selfe, at the Thames Police Court, charged with attempting to commit suicide, and with injuring his wife. Now, this man had been under the care of Dr. Lawrence Gill for an attack of delirium tremens. Restraint was advised ; but the friends of the patient did not attend to the recommendation. Dr. Gill, of course, with the circumstances of Mr. Wakem’s case so fresh in his memory, shrank from the responsibility of enforcing his own views. The result was nearly the death of two persons. The man cut his own throat and seriously injured his wife. We fear this is only the commencement of a series of such cases. FAILURE OF JUSTICE THROUG NEGLECT OF MEDICAL EVIDENCE. THE
man
Roberts,
who
was
acquitted
on
the
ground
of in-
sanity at the late Gloucester Assizes of the charge of murdering one of his children and attempting to murder another, is pronounced to be perfectly sane. The Secretary of State required certificate of the prisoner’s insanity, when he was examined Bleeck and Dr. Lyon, who were unable to discover the least symptom of mental derangement. The visiting justices have therefore transmitted to the Home Office a certificate which declares in almost direct terms that Roberts is in full possession of his faculties. The chief evidence on this point at the trial was given by his father and mother, who declared that he was considered silly by his family and neighbours. It was known at the time that the lenrned judge who presided at the trial did not concur in the verdict of the jury. In this case, if medical evidence had been produced at the trial, the true state of mind of the prisoner would have been ascertained, a vast deal of annoyance saved, and the unseemly annulling of the verdict of a jury would not have occurred. a
by Dr.
with the latest improvement and thumb-screw movements, having the advantage of bringing the motion of the lever coincident with the ankle-joint. Fig. 45 (B) shows a similar appa. ratus, with a new hinged rack-lever movement, propelling the long spring or firm lever, as the case may be, and allowing
partial motion at the ankle-an advantage over the firm rackjoint. Fig. 46 (A) is a very useful instrument, to which attention may be directed as presenting features of novelty, in that
it combines the power of eversion of the ankle and elevation of the toes in what is known as a walking instrument for varus. This instrument may be modified by reversing the action of the elevating spring for particular cases, so as to cause elevation of the heel. At Fig. 46 (B) we have a similar instrument, with firm upright, and screw regulating stop-joint at ankle, attached to a double-soled boot by means of a strap-socket, permitting it thus to be detached from the boot. This instrument is attached either outside or inside the leg, as the case may require, for varus or valgus, and either T-strap or instep-strap added. In his series of apparatus for treating contracted joints, Mr. Ernst shows an apparatus (Fig. 47) for extending contracted
THE
GREAT INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION. XIV. REPORT ON SURGICAL INSTRUMENTS. THERE ought not to be any case of club-foot unremedied if the number and variety are considered of the instruments designed for that purpose and exhibited in the International Exhibition. Commencing with the case of Mr. F. G. Ernst, of Calthorpe-street, whose orthopedic apparatus are in this department also of the highest order of merit. He shows some
fingers, consisting of a well-padded plate for the back of thehand, proceeding from which are five levers, furnished with fourteen rack-and-pinion joints for the extension of the contracted joints. Fig. 48 is an instrument for double contraction of the little toe, by means of a spring calculated to effect traction outwardly, and a ratchet-spring for downward pressure of the toe. This apparatus is reversed when required for the great toe. It is obvious that in these appliances lightness with strength is the test of excellence ; and it is by the combination of these two requisites that these apparatus merit the descriptive appellation "elegant."
twenty-nine
forms of apparatus for deformity of the lower shows Dr. Little’s shoe for varus and valgus,
I limbs. Fig. 45 (A)
Royal College of Surgeons of England, Loudon, August 19th, 1862. SIR,-I have laid before the Council of this College your letter of the 22nd ultimo, and am desired to acquaint you that it is not the practice of the Council to express an opinion on subjects of the nature of that contained in your communication. I am directed, however, by the President and Vice-Presidents to state, that in their opinion it would be an unjust reflection on the Ophthalmic Infirmary attached to Guy’s Hospital to consider it otherwise than an institution of repute. I am, Sir, your obedient servant, EDWARD TRIMMER, Dr. T. M. Eooke.
_____
Assistant Secretary.
RESPONSIBILITY OF MEDICAL PRACTITIONERS. As we anticipated, the evil results of the verdict in the case of Mr. Wakem have already commenced. Last week a man was brought before Mr. Selfe, at the Thames Police Court, charged with attempting to commit suicide, and with injuring his wife. Now, this man had been under the care of Dr. Lawrence Gill for an attack of delirium tremens. Restraint was advised ; but the friends of the patient did not attend to the recommendation. Dr. Gill, of course, with the circumstances of Mr. Wakem’s case so fresh in his memory, shrank from the responsibility of enforcing his own views. The result was nearly the death of two persons. The man cut his own throat and seriously injured his wife. We fear this is only the commencement of a series of such cases. FAILURE OF JUSTICE THROUG NEGLECT OF MEDICAL EVIDENCE. THE
man
Roberts,
who
was
acquitted
on
the
ground
of in-
sanity at the late Gloucester Assizes of the charge of murdering one of his children and attempting to murder another, is pronounced to be perfectly sane. The Secretary of State required certificate of the prisoner’s insanity, when he was examined Bleeck and Dr. Lyon, who were unable to discover the least symptom of mental derangement. The visiting justices have therefore transmitted to the Home Office a certificate which declares in almost direct terms that Roberts is in full possession of his faculties. The chief evidence on this point at the trial was given by his father and mother, who declared that he was considered silly by his family and neighbours. It was known at the time that the lenrned judge who presided at the trial did not concur in the verdict of the jury. In this case, if medical evidence had been produced at the trial, the true state of mind of the prisoner would have been ascertained, a vast deal of annoyance saved, and the unseemly annulling of the verdict of a jury would not have occurred. a
by Dr.
with the latest improvement and thumb-screw movements, having the advantage of bringing the motion of the lever coincident with the ankle-joint. Fig. 45 (B) shows a similar appa. ratus, with a new hinged rack-lever movement, propelling the long spring or firm lever, as the case may be, and allowing
partial motion at the ankle-an advantage over the firm rackjoint. Fig. 46 (A) is a very useful instrument, to which attention may be directed as presenting features of novelty, in that
it combines the power of eversion of the ankle and elevation of the toes in what is known as a walking instrument for varus. This instrument may be modified by reversing the action of the elevating spring for particular cases, so as to cause elevation of the heel. At Fig. 46 (B) we have a similar instrument, with firm upright, and screw regulating stop-joint at ankle, attached to a double-soled boot by means of a strap-socket, permitting it thus to be detached from the boot. This instrument is attached either outside or inside the leg, as the case may require, for varus or valgus, and either T-strap or instep-strap added. In his series of apparatus for treating contracted joints, Mr. Ernst shows an apparatus (Fig. 47) for extending contracted
THE
GREAT INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION. XIV. REPORT ON SURGICAL INSTRUMENTS. THERE ought not to be any case of club-foot unremedied if the number and variety are considered of the instruments designed for that purpose and exhibited in the International Exhibition. Commencing with the case of Mr. F. G. Ernst, of Calthorpe-street, whose orthopedic apparatus are in this department also of the highest order of merit. He shows some
fingers, consisting of a well-padded plate for the back of thehand, proceeding from which are five levers, furnished with fourteen rack-and-pinion joints for the extension of the contracted joints. Fig. 48 is an instrument for double contraction of the little toe, by means of a spring calculated to effect traction outwardly, and a ratchet-spring for downward pressure of the toe. This apparatus is reversed when required for the great toe. It is obvious that in these appliances lightness with strength is the test of excellence ; and it is by the combination of these two requisites that these apparatus merit the descriptive appellation "elegant."