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THE COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS AND DR. RAMADGE.
594 election of medical officers in March next, no gentleman holding any hospital appointment shall be eligible as a union medical onicer." " What are the circumstances" alluded to ?Why, in taking a resolution as a thesis on which to found a violent and abusive attack upon its proposer, seconder, and supporters, did you omit that part of it which referred to the groundwork on which it was based ? To reply to the first question would occupy more space than you would like to spare, and more time than I have at disposal just now. Suffice it to say, they are fully before the public here; and that the opinions of the majority of those best able to judge are with me. To the second question, I leave you to reply, merely stating, en
order that you may have an opportunity of hearing that report, lest any inference may be unfairly drawn from your silence. I am, Sir, your obedient servant, .
To Dr.
Ramadge.
Another letter, which
WM. MACMICHAEL, Registrar.
appeared in THE LANCET of August 28,
1847, ought sufficiently to have satisfied your correspondent that Dr. Ramadge was no advocate of an unqualified practitioner. As " A Licentiate" has perhaps never seen that letter, a perusal of it would probably set his mind at rest upon this
noint. In 1820, when Dr. Ramadge first became a member of the College of Physicians, the standard of medical education was very low. Desirous to obtain better information than thi passant, that I have my opinion on the matter. country afforded, he attended the lectures of the most eminent With the terms you apply to the three parties to the reso- men on the Continent. Finding that there were greater facilution above referred to, I am not disposed to quarrel. It is lities in the sister kingdom for the prosecution of anatomical perhaps that I have yet to learn that English farmers are a studies, he graduated there in arts as well as in medicine. By set of "jolterheads," that English tradesmen are an "ignorant" pursuing this course he was entitled to a degree, ad eundem, body of men, with " brains as thick as their own wares;" and at Oxford, and after the usual examination at the College of that everything emanating from any man not crowned with Physicians in London, he became a fello of that body. It grey hairs must necessarily partake of folly, or it maybe,’ was the manifest incompleteness of that system of medical something worse; and that the " intelligent town guardians" education, which, until the last few years, existed both at Oxnumber amongst them those only who favour THE LANCET and ford and Cambridge, combined with the superficial examinaits proteghs. At all events we will not discuss this question tion at the College of Physicians, that led Dr. Ramadge to now. All I wish to lay claim to for myself is a fair modicum hold in no high estimation those to whom these matters were of common sense; and while I claim no more than this for confided. In what favourable light could he view an English those who act with me, I cannot rest satisfied with a conces- university conferring degrees which privileged the possessors sion of less. to a monopoly of medical appointments ? Could he think Before editorial wrath, I think it would highly of the course of anatomical instruction at Oxford, when have been as well if you bad deigned to have read the re- the whole course of lectures was not sufficient to teach any marks by which the objectionable resolution was introduced. one, properly, the bones of the human body ? Did he hear Had you done so, you may have expressed yourself somewhat that dissections were carried on there ? No. Did he see any museum of morbid anatomy there, save in a little attic, a small differently. But now we come to neutral ground. On the first part of collection, unworthy to be dignified by the name of museum? the resolution we are agreed. I am not a whit less anxious No. The truth is, there were no professors for half the useful than yourself that those members of the medical profession branches of medical knowledge. What an absurd preliminary who hold union appointments may be properly remunerated, to the taking of a degree of medicine is it, to be told, as Dr. so that due care and attention to the poor may be guaranteed. Ramadge was, by the Vice-Principal of the Hall in which his But I maintain that the abuse of a trust reposed in their name was entered, to call on his (the Vice-Principal’s) wife, hands-the grinding down a druggist, by a contract for the and get a novel, or some pleasant book, in order that he might supply of medicines, " irrespective of the numbers of pre- while away the hour which should have been allotted to disscriptions sent," at a sum so low as to render it impossible for putation ! Having been accompanied by the beadle and the medicines of genuine or proper quality to be supplied-are above-named reverend gentleman to the place of his confinenot the proper means by which to secure such adequate re- ment, he was then shut up alone without any theme to dispute muneration ; but that the end would be better answered by a upon. The sun shining strongly, and not relishing this restraightforward statement that the remuneration is insuffi- straint, he succeeded in opening the door of the Disputation cient ; and that unless it is increased, they cannot conscien- Hall, and sauntered leisurely in front of the building, until,he tiously discharge the duties required of them. heard, as he supposed, the approaching footsteps of the beadle. I trust to your sense of fairness and candour for the inser- Who could go through this ordeal without holding it in contion of this reply to an attack, founded, I cannot but think, tempt ? However, this qualified Dr. Ramadge to practise as a on an of the real circumstances of the case, or on a physician over the whole of England, with the exception of perversion, perhaps, of the facts, by your " Cheltenham Cor- London and its environs. To exercise his profession in this great metropolis, it was respondent."—I am. Sir. vour obedient servant, FRED. BINOKES. necessary that Dr. Ramadge should present himself before the of Physicians for examination; this he did in the year *** We can answer the question of Mr. Binckes in a I College mentioned. I may just observe, en passant, that the moment. That portion of the resolution that he has quoted already which was then situated in the vicinity of NewgateCollege, was not forwarded to us in the letter which we received on market, is now’converted into butchers’ shambles. the subject.-ED. L. At the time alluded to there were no clinical lectures at any of our hospitals; no lectures on medical jurisprudence, nor on morbid anatomy. THE COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS AND In order to enable those interested in the matter to form a DR. RAMADGE. idea of the London College of Physicians, and to show just To the Editor of THE LANCET. how admirably fitted they were, in times gone by, as a govern-, SIR,—It is perfectly true that Dr. Ramadge did not receive ing body, to direct the medical profession, and to superintend any of the cholera circulars issued by the College of Phy- the several departments, where medicine was in any way insicians. The real cause of this treatment is the fact of his volved, I shall present a few of their misdeeds—Ex uno disce having written a letter, which appeared in your journal more omnes. than twenty years ago, descriptive of the incompetency of the We now come to what may be fairly considered the mainexaminers of apothecaries’ shops, as at that time conducted spring of the dreadful wrath of the College (Achilles’s wrath by the censors of the College of Physicians and wardens of the was nothing to it) against Dr. Ramadge. The two wardens of the Society of Apothecaries, with whom Society of Apothecaries. In proof of what I state, I send you a copy of a letter sent to Dr. Ramadge, and signed by the he was associated in office as inspector, were aged and infirm, registrar of the College. I may state, that to the purport of and seemed almost unable to support themselves without the letter he paid no attention. leaning against something, whilststanding in the Apothecaries’ College of Physicians, April 3rd, 1829. shops during the inspection. One of them, whose legs were SIR,—The report of the committee of the censors of the last much swollen, was at last unable to descend from the coach, three years having been this day read at the board of censors, and, indeed, at the latter part of this burlesque, they both recensors went into by which it appears that every member of that committee, mained in the coaches outside, whilstnothe active part whatever which was appointed to take into consideration "a letter re- the shop. In fact, the wardens took ceived from the Apothecaries’ Company," has disavowed the in the matter. One, indeed, owned afterwards, at the College taste nor smell. authorship of a paper published in THE LANCET, January 31, dinner, that he had neither no inconsiderable of It was a source the the I with desired annoyance to respectof am 1829, by exception yourself. censors to request that you will attend in your place at the practitioners, to see no less than seven or eight persons next comitia majora, to be held on the of this month, in enter their shops en masse, leaving their neighbours to put
fulminating your
ignorance
13-th
able
595 - their own charitable construction
upon
so.singular
a
The College of Physicians have a very important duty to prepared at perform, in seeing that the medicines, which areAnd as the Apothecaries’ Hall, are of a proper quality. army and navy receive their drugs from the Society, the Government of course presumes that all necessary pains are - taken by the College-to have competent persons to discharge
How far the College of Physicians mindful of their responsibility may be inferred from the absence of any sort of examination touching the knowledge of drugs possessed by the candidates for admission to the College, so that they may be able to distinguish .genuine from spurious specimens of medicaments. It may be mentioned here that the suggestion of Dr. Ramadge, as to the expediency of having younger men to accompany the censors in their annual visitations, has since been acted on. The College has -invariably evinced a decided preference
the duties of inspectors. were
.
of animal rather than intellectual gratification; and, instead of adding to their library, and forming a museum of morbid anatomy, wasted their scanty funds in expensive dinners. For years they had no modern publication on medicine, except such as were presented by a few authors. The splendid work of the immortal Laeunec himself, they never would have possessed, had it not been delivered to them through the hands of Dr. Ramadge as a presentation, with Laennec’s own auto-
graph.
It occurred to Dr. Ramadge, seeing the feasting going on, and aware how few of the members of the College had dissected a human body, supposing these men had the bodies of a number of suffocated persons presented to them in a dissecting room-did they possess sufficient knowledge to discover the cause of death ? Dr. Ramadge’s opinion, knowing how little attention was paid to pathological anatomy, was, that they did not. Believing the arrangements of the College for the admission of visitors to the Hunterian Museum of the College of Surgeons, and the non-existence of a printed catalogue of the specimens, did not meet the wishes of the medical profession, Dr. Ramadge, soon after he became a censor, drew the atten,tion of the Duke of -Somerset and other trustees to the terms on which the College of Surgeons had received this valuable collection from Government. His grace, who was chairman of -the trustees, and who took a lively interest in this matter, upon perusing a copy of the agreement, at once saw that the liberal intentions of the legislature were not fulfilled. It must strike the reader with surprise to be informed, that although five of the trustees were members of the College of Physicians, and, with the exception of its president, changed every year, yet no one before Dr. Ramadge inquired into the management of this museum, or gave himself the trouble to ascertain that the history of some of -the most valuable specimens was confined to the memory of a single individual. The independent and firm conduct invariably exhibited by Dr. Ramadge does not appear to have been at all times congenial even to the feelings of a President. It happened that Dr. Ramadge, as censor, once chanced to be rather late at examination, and Sir Henry Halford, the then president, who unhappily upon this, as upon most occasions, appeared much pressed for time, wishing to play the great man, endeavoured to extort an apology to himself and the censors for their detention. Knowing that he had always been first at his post, combined with the fact of having been on one occasion summoned an hour too early, Dr. Ramadge, indignant at such a demand, replied, that if an apology was due, it was due to him, and not from him, and that he considered time as valuable to him as to them. When the examination was concluded, Sir Henry Halford, in presence of the censors, came up to him, and taking him by both hands, begged that he would not think anything more of what had transpired. The President, who showed some ability in the composition of Latin verses, was doubtless aware, that whilst he had never with his own hands examined a human body, nor propounded a single pathological truth, Dr. Ramadge had for many years been constantly occupied in post-mortem examinations. This President, who, in his turn, had filled the office of inspector of apothecaries’ shops, and whose chemical knowledge was so profound, that he was once heard to ask whether tartar-emetic was as strong in Italy as in this country, had, beyond all doubt, a very good motive for levelling his anger at Dr. Ramadge, who had a worse than fruitless examidisplayed a hardihood to nation. Perhaps it is the remembrance of this memorable inquiry by one of their presidents that has induced the College,
,
expose
one of their circulars, to seek information from the profession as to the efficacy of tartar-emetic -in the -treatment of cholera patients. Although Dr. Ramadge was not chosen to deliver the Harveian Oration, when his turn was supposed to have arrived, the three gentlemen who have since successively officiated were not known in the profession as persons of any extraordinary professional attainments. I here beg leave to point out the humanity shown by the College, in the care they took of those receptacles of misery and destitution, scil. the lunatic asylums, foolishly consigned, originally, to their superintendence, but now very wisely taken out of their hands. The College of Physicians seemed regardless of their duty to the public, in reference to the inspection of private lunatic asylums. When Dr. Ramadge was censor, he called the attention of the registrar to the fact, that the inmates of these establishments were frequently treated with the utmost cruelty. He instanced one in particular, wherethe treatment was of a most revolting nature; the evidence subsequently given before the parliamentary committee showed that there were some inmates who were locked up from Saturday night to Monday morning, without the slightest regard being paid to the calls of nature. What a humiliating and disgusting spectacle to With their posteriors see those afflicted beings so neglected! painfully excoriated, and with vermin and ordure visible on their persons,-how-sickening the thought! In one very large lunatic asylum, kept by the father of one of the fellows of the College, the medical person appointed to visit it resided at such a distance, that his services werequite unavailable in the event of any sudden indisposition, such as apoplexy. Although Dr. Ramadge begged of the registrar, Dr. Macmichael, to call the attention of the commissioners for regulating mad-houses to many crying abuses existing in them, he failed to make any impression upon him. Indeed, the latter functionary deemed the animadversions on these sinks of inhumanity wholly undeserving of attention. Resolved, if possible, to bring the College to a sense of their duty, Dr. Ramadge again spoke to the registrar upon this subject, in the presence of two censors who are now living. He instanced, in addition to what he had previously communicated to this officer, the cruelty of one of the keepers at a public hospital, who had not scrupled, in his anxiety to perform his duty effectually, to knock down a patient with a broomstick. The Registrar, who was subsequently discovered to be one of the four commissioners for regulating mad-houses, alike obdurate upon this as upon every-other occasion, merely replied that the College had no right to interfere with the management of any of the public hospitals. That Dr. Ramadge had good ground of complaint may be pretty clearly gathered from the fact, that soon after the evidence taken before the parliamentary committee was published, the College of Physicians lost the appointment of commissioners for regulating inadhouses. A late Fellow of the College of Physicians was physician to Bethlem Hospital. How humane his notions were on the treatment of insane patients, may be seen from the fact of his kept a person confined more than twelve years with a having stout iron ring about his neck, moveable along an upright iron bar secured to the wall, to which ring a chain twelve inches long was attached. Moreover, the construction of his. manacles was so peculiar that he could not lie on his side One of the items of his system of treatment was to bleed and physic his unfortunate patients at given periods of the year. As a climax of the absurdities committed by the College of Physicians in their way of evincing the deep interest they take in the promotion of science, I may remark, that, just as the cholera was commencing to quit our shores, after mowing down our population, the College comes forth big with the important announcement-of what, think you, gentle reader?-.why, neither more nor less than that the cause of cholera did not consist in certain minute corpuscles called " cholera fungi," "annular rings," and what not. May we not now hope for something extraordinary to come forth from the College, when we find them attempting, and for the first time in their lives, the abstruse (to them at least) subject of pathology. After such a moral phenomenon, we may safely say, nil despera2idu2)z, " better late than never." I am, Sir, your obedient servant, A FELLOW OF THE COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS. Nov. 25,1849.
pheno- by
menon.
APPOINTMENT.—Professor Dumas, the celebrated chemist, has lately been appointed secretary of state for agriculture
and
commerce.
order that you may have an opportunity of hearing that report, lest any inference may be unfairly drawn from your silence. I am, Sir, your obedient servant, .
To Dr.
Ramadge.
Another letter, which
WM. MACMICHAEL, Registrar.
appeared in THE LANCET of August 28,
1847, ought sufficiently to have satisfied your correspondent that Dr. Ramadge was no advocate of an unqualified practitioner. As " A Licentiate" has perhaps never seen that letter, a perusal of it would probably set his mind at rest upon this
noint. In 1820, when Dr. Ramadge first became a member of the College of Physicians, the standard of medical education was very low. Desirous to obtain better information than thi passant, that I have my opinion on the matter. country afforded, he attended the lectures of the most eminent With the terms you apply to the three parties to the reso- men on the Continent. Finding that there were greater facilution above referred to, I am not disposed to quarrel. It is lities in the sister kingdom for the prosecution of anatomical perhaps that I have yet to learn that English farmers are a studies, he graduated there in arts as well as in medicine. By set of "jolterheads," that English tradesmen are an "ignorant" pursuing this course he was entitled to a degree, ad eundem, body of men, with " brains as thick as their own wares;" and at Oxford, and after the usual examination at the College of that everything emanating from any man not crowned with Physicians in London, he became a fello of that body. It grey hairs must necessarily partake of folly, or it maybe,’ was the manifest incompleteness of that system of medical something worse; and that the " intelligent town guardians" education, which, until the last few years, existed both at Oxnumber amongst them those only who favour THE LANCET and ford and Cambridge, combined with the superficial examinaits proteghs. At all events we will not discuss this question tion at the College of Physicians, that led Dr. Ramadge to now. All I wish to lay claim to for myself is a fair modicum hold in no high estimation those to whom these matters were of common sense; and while I claim no more than this for confided. In what favourable light could he view an English those who act with me, I cannot rest satisfied with a conces- university conferring degrees which privileged the possessors sion of less. to a monopoly of medical appointments ? Could he think Before editorial wrath, I think it would highly of the course of anatomical instruction at Oxford, when have been as well if you bad deigned to have read the re- the whole course of lectures was not sufficient to teach any marks by which the objectionable resolution was introduced. one, properly, the bones of the human body ? Did he hear Had you done so, you may have expressed yourself somewhat that dissections were carried on there ? No. Did he see any museum of morbid anatomy there, save in a little attic, a small differently. But now we come to neutral ground. On the first part of collection, unworthy to be dignified by the name of museum? the resolution we are agreed. I am not a whit less anxious No. The truth is, there were no professors for half the useful than yourself that those members of the medical profession branches of medical knowledge. What an absurd preliminary who hold union appointments may be properly remunerated, to the taking of a degree of medicine is it, to be told, as Dr. so that due care and attention to the poor may be guaranteed. Ramadge was, by the Vice-Principal of the Hall in which his But I maintain that the abuse of a trust reposed in their name was entered, to call on his (the Vice-Principal’s) wife, hands-the grinding down a druggist, by a contract for the and get a novel, or some pleasant book, in order that he might supply of medicines, " irrespective of the numbers of pre- while away the hour which should have been allotted to disscriptions sent," at a sum so low as to render it impossible for putation ! Having been accompanied by the beadle and the medicines of genuine or proper quality to be supplied-are above-named reverend gentleman to the place of his confinenot the proper means by which to secure such adequate re- ment, he was then shut up alone without any theme to dispute muneration ; but that the end would be better answered by a upon. The sun shining strongly, and not relishing this restraightforward statement that the remuneration is insuffi- straint, he succeeded in opening the door of the Disputation cient ; and that unless it is increased, they cannot conscien- Hall, and sauntered leisurely in front of the building, until,he tiously discharge the duties required of them. heard, as he supposed, the approaching footsteps of the beadle. I trust to your sense of fairness and candour for the inser- Who could go through this ordeal without holding it in contion of this reply to an attack, founded, I cannot but think, tempt ? However, this qualified Dr. Ramadge to practise as a on an of the real circumstances of the case, or on a physician over the whole of England, with the exception of perversion, perhaps, of the facts, by your " Cheltenham Cor- London and its environs. To exercise his profession in this great metropolis, it was respondent."—I am. Sir. vour obedient servant, FRED. BINOKES. necessary that Dr. Ramadge should present himself before the of Physicians for examination; this he did in the year *** We can answer the question of Mr. Binckes in a I College mentioned. I may just observe, en passant, that the moment. That portion of the resolution that he has quoted already which was then situated in the vicinity of NewgateCollege, was not forwarded to us in the letter which we received on market, is now’converted into butchers’ shambles. the subject.-ED. L. At the time alluded to there were no clinical lectures at any of our hospitals; no lectures on medical jurisprudence, nor on morbid anatomy. THE COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS AND In order to enable those interested in the matter to form a DR. RAMADGE. idea of the London College of Physicians, and to show just To the Editor of THE LANCET. how admirably fitted they were, in times gone by, as a govern-, SIR,—It is perfectly true that Dr. Ramadge did not receive ing body, to direct the medical profession, and to superintend any of the cholera circulars issued by the College of Phy- the several departments, where medicine was in any way insicians. The real cause of this treatment is the fact of his volved, I shall present a few of their misdeeds—Ex uno disce having written a letter, which appeared in your journal more omnes. than twenty years ago, descriptive of the incompetency of the We now come to what may be fairly considered the mainexaminers of apothecaries’ shops, as at that time conducted spring of the dreadful wrath of the College (Achilles’s wrath by the censors of the College of Physicians and wardens of the was nothing to it) against Dr. Ramadge. The two wardens of the Society of Apothecaries, with whom Society of Apothecaries. In proof of what I state, I send you a copy of a letter sent to Dr. Ramadge, and signed by the he was associated in office as inspector, were aged and infirm, registrar of the College. I may state, that to the purport of and seemed almost unable to support themselves without the letter he paid no attention. leaning against something, whilststanding in the Apothecaries’ College of Physicians, April 3rd, 1829. shops during the inspection. One of them, whose legs were SIR,—The report of the committee of the censors of the last much swollen, was at last unable to descend from the coach, three years having been this day read at the board of censors, and, indeed, at the latter part of this burlesque, they both recensors went into by which it appears that every member of that committee, mained in the coaches outside, whilstnothe active part whatever which was appointed to take into consideration "a letter re- the shop. In fact, the wardens took ceived from the Apothecaries’ Company," has disavowed the in the matter. One, indeed, owned afterwards, at the College taste nor smell. authorship of a paper published in THE LANCET, January 31, dinner, that he had neither no inconsiderable of It was a source the the I with desired annoyance to respectof am 1829, by exception yourself. censors to request that you will attend in your place at the practitioners, to see no less than seven or eight persons next comitia majora, to be held on the of this month, in enter their shops en masse, leaving their neighbours to put
fulminating your
ignorance
13-th
able
595 - their own charitable construction
upon
so.singular
a
The College of Physicians have a very important duty to prepared at perform, in seeing that the medicines, which areAnd as the Apothecaries’ Hall, are of a proper quality. army and navy receive their drugs from the Society, the Government of course presumes that all necessary pains are - taken by the College-to have competent persons to discharge
How far the College of Physicians mindful of their responsibility may be inferred from the absence of any sort of examination touching the knowledge of drugs possessed by the candidates for admission to the College, so that they may be able to distinguish .genuine from spurious specimens of medicaments. It may be mentioned here that the suggestion of Dr. Ramadge, as to the expediency of having younger men to accompany the censors in their annual visitations, has since been acted on. The College has -invariably evinced a decided preference
the duties of inspectors. were
.
of animal rather than intellectual gratification; and, instead of adding to their library, and forming a museum of morbid anatomy, wasted their scanty funds in expensive dinners. For years they had no modern publication on medicine, except such as were presented by a few authors. The splendid work of the immortal Laeunec himself, they never would have possessed, had it not been delivered to them through the hands of Dr. Ramadge as a presentation, with Laennec’s own auto-
graph.
It occurred to Dr. Ramadge, seeing the feasting going on, and aware how few of the members of the College had dissected a human body, supposing these men had the bodies of a number of suffocated persons presented to them in a dissecting room-did they possess sufficient knowledge to discover the cause of death ? Dr. Ramadge’s opinion, knowing how little attention was paid to pathological anatomy, was, that they did not. Believing the arrangements of the College for the admission of visitors to the Hunterian Museum of the College of Surgeons, and the non-existence of a printed catalogue of the specimens, did not meet the wishes of the medical profession, Dr. Ramadge, soon after he became a censor, drew the atten,tion of the Duke of -Somerset and other trustees to the terms on which the College of Surgeons had received this valuable collection from Government. His grace, who was chairman of -the trustees, and who took a lively interest in this matter, upon perusing a copy of the agreement, at once saw that the liberal intentions of the legislature were not fulfilled. It must strike the reader with surprise to be informed, that although five of the trustees were members of the College of Physicians, and, with the exception of its president, changed every year, yet no one before Dr. Ramadge inquired into the management of this museum, or gave himself the trouble to ascertain that the history of some of -the most valuable specimens was confined to the memory of a single individual. The independent and firm conduct invariably exhibited by Dr. Ramadge does not appear to have been at all times congenial even to the feelings of a President. It happened that Dr. Ramadge, as censor, once chanced to be rather late at examination, and Sir Henry Halford, the then president, who unhappily upon this, as upon most occasions, appeared much pressed for time, wishing to play the great man, endeavoured to extort an apology to himself and the censors for their detention. Knowing that he had always been first at his post, combined with the fact of having been on one occasion summoned an hour too early, Dr. Ramadge, indignant at such a demand, replied, that if an apology was due, it was due to him, and not from him, and that he considered time as valuable to him as to them. When the examination was concluded, Sir Henry Halford, in presence of the censors, came up to him, and taking him by both hands, begged that he would not think anything more of what had transpired. The President, who showed some ability in the composition of Latin verses, was doubtless aware, that whilst he had never with his own hands examined a human body, nor propounded a single pathological truth, Dr. Ramadge had for many years been constantly occupied in post-mortem examinations. This President, who, in his turn, had filled the office of inspector of apothecaries’ shops, and whose chemical knowledge was so profound, that he was once heard to ask whether tartar-emetic was as strong in Italy as in this country, had, beyond all doubt, a very good motive for levelling his anger at Dr. Ramadge, who had a worse than fruitless examidisplayed a hardihood to nation. Perhaps it is the remembrance of this memorable inquiry by one of their presidents that has induced the College,
,
expose
one of their circulars, to seek information from the profession as to the efficacy of tartar-emetic -in the -treatment of cholera patients. Although Dr. Ramadge was not chosen to deliver the Harveian Oration, when his turn was supposed to have arrived, the three gentlemen who have since successively officiated were not known in the profession as persons of any extraordinary professional attainments. I here beg leave to point out the humanity shown by the College, in the care they took of those receptacles of misery and destitution, scil. the lunatic asylums, foolishly consigned, originally, to their superintendence, but now very wisely taken out of their hands. The College of Physicians seemed regardless of their duty to the public, in reference to the inspection of private lunatic asylums. When Dr. Ramadge was censor, he called the attention of the registrar to the fact, that the inmates of these establishments were frequently treated with the utmost cruelty. He instanced one in particular, wherethe treatment was of a most revolting nature; the evidence subsequently given before the parliamentary committee showed that there were some inmates who were locked up from Saturday night to Monday morning, without the slightest regard being paid to the calls of nature. What a humiliating and disgusting spectacle to With their posteriors see those afflicted beings so neglected! painfully excoriated, and with vermin and ordure visible on their persons,-how-sickening the thought! In one very large lunatic asylum, kept by the father of one of the fellows of the College, the medical person appointed to visit it resided at such a distance, that his services werequite unavailable in the event of any sudden indisposition, such as apoplexy. Although Dr. Ramadge begged of the registrar, Dr. Macmichael, to call the attention of the commissioners for regulating mad-houses to many crying abuses existing in them, he failed to make any impression upon him. Indeed, the latter functionary deemed the animadversions on these sinks of inhumanity wholly undeserving of attention. Resolved, if possible, to bring the College to a sense of their duty, Dr. Ramadge again spoke to the registrar upon this subject, in the presence of two censors who are now living. He instanced, in addition to what he had previously communicated to this officer, the cruelty of one of the keepers at a public hospital, who had not scrupled, in his anxiety to perform his duty effectually, to knock down a patient with a broomstick. The Registrar, who was subsequently discovered to be one of the four commissioners for regulating mad-houses, alike obdurate upon this as upon every-other occasion, merely replied that the College had no right to interfere with the management of any of the public hospitals. That Dr. Ramadge had good ground of complaint may be pretty clearly gathered from the fact, that soon after the evidence taken before the parliamentary committee was published, the College of Physicians lost the appointment of commissioners for regulating inadhouses. A late Fellow of the College of Physicians was physician to Bethlem Hospital. How humane his notions were on the treatment of insane patients, may be seen from the fact of his kept a person confined more than twelve years with a having stout iron ring about his neck, moveable along an upright iron bar secured to the wall, to which ring a chain twelve inches long was attached. Moreover, the construction of his. manacles was so peculiar that he could not lie on his side One of the items of his system of treatment was to bleed and physic his unfortunate patients at given periods of the year. As a climax of the absurdities committed by the College of Physicians in their way of evincing the deep interest they take in the promotion of science, I may remark, that, just as the cholera was commencing to quit our shores, after mowing down our population, the College comes forth big with the important announcement-of what, think you, gentle reader?-.why, neither more nor less than that the cause of cholera did not consist in certain minute corpuscles called " cholera fungi," "annular rings," and what not. May we not now hope for something extraordinary to come forth from the College, when we find them attempting, and for the first time in their lives, the abstruse (to them at least) subject of pathology. After such a moral phenomenon, we may safely say, nil despera2idu2)z, " better late than never." I am, Sir, your obedient servant, A FELLOW OF THE COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS. Nov. 25,1849.
pheno- by
menon.
APPOINTMENT.—Professor Dumas, the celebrated chemist, has lately been appointed secretary of state for agriculture
and
commerce.