THE PROPOSED NEW CHARTER OF THE COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS.

429 " more curious than useful." He, we think, wisely condensed form, in this volume than has hitherto been given declines to make " any attempt to draw a parallel between the in any work of a similar size. Now, we are certainly not ancient heathen and the modern Christian;" and we could have going to find fault with the authors for the manner in which wished that our author had confined within brief limits the pro- they have executed their task, which has been performed minent and telling facts which Mr. Walker has so long and so ably, clearly, and systematically. But to talk of great condencontinuously furnished to the public from the charnel-houses of sation in a work of nearly 1000 pages almost seems facetious. this metropolis and elsewhere. The living must be again and It is not our intention to complain of the length of the book; again warned against the coming produce of a pestilential visita- on the contrary, weregard its present size to be necessary for tion which the supineness of our legislators and the criminal its completeness. It might have been well, perhaps, to have audacity of certain claimants of " vested rights" in the dead inserted some illustrations. As, however, it will be chiefly used in the dissecting-room, the omission may not be of much imcarcases of Christian men have united both to herald and welcome when it arrives. portance. The work will be found useful to the dissector, be The elaborate style of this lecture defeats, as we have said, he an old or young student. much of its intent, and we regret that the author, whilst culling so largely from antiquity, has paid so little attention, or not given sufficient care, to circumstances relating to the progress of this THE PROPOSED NEW CHARTER OF THE COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS. vital question in our own times; for example, he is at fault To the Editor of THE LANCET. (p. 50-51) both as to dates and circumstances. ’ Mr. Mackinnon’s Committee, " On the Effect of Interment of Bodies," published SIR,—Will you permit me to make the following addenda to its Report on the 6th of May, having commenced, as we learn my letter in your journal of April the 9th respecting the profrom Mr. Walker’s writing, by the examination of witnesses on posed Charter of the College of Physicians and the state of the finances of that college. The information at the present crisis I the 17th of March, 1842. think is very important :The Report states that " after a long and patient investigation In the appendix to the parliamentary evidence, 1834, (Blue your Committee cannot arrive at any other conclusion than that Book, page 14,) it is stated that from 1830 to 1834 the income of the nuisance of interments in large towns, and the injury arising this college was only X4115 16s. 5d.;the expenditure X4821 12s.; to the health of the community from the practice, are fully the deficiency being supplied by the annual subscriptions of the proved." And yet our author confounds the labours of a fellows. From 1823 to 1832, 117 licentiates became members of Parliamentary Committee, in 1842, with a Report by Mr. E. this college, paying X56 17s. each; but from this sum X24 15s. Chadwick, in 1843, one year afterwards. Thus the Reportof was deducted for government stamp, and for censors’, registrars’, Mr. Mackinnon’s Committee, and Mr. Chadwick’s, are two treasurers’, beadles’, and porters’ fees, giving an annual income different things-the former the act of a Committee of the of £375 11s. It may be important to observe that, according to House of Commons-the latter the compilation of an individual. the same evidence, (page 13,) out of 134 who appeared at the board for examination from 1823 to 1833, only seven It is easy to re-demonstrate what others have proved. The censors’ were rejected. ’° ample details of newly-discovered horrors" in 1843 were, as In 1831 the income of this college from all sources was we happen to know, discovered years previously, published, and X1099 17s. 9d. ; the expenditure X1225 7s. 3d. almost entirely through Mr. Walker’s energy, tact, and deterDuring the last two years, beginning January, 1851, and mination brought before Parliament by his petitions, and enforced ending December, 1852, twenty-three licentiates and ten extra licentiates have been admitted, bringing an income from this bv four examinations before Committees of the House of Commons source of S369 3s. in 1840-42. The Charters of the Veterinary College and of the PharmaAfter the as yet only very partially comprehended labours of ceutical Society are now before me. All the members of these the pioneer of this great question, it may seem strange that so bodies ha-e equal rights and privileges; elect their own councils; little progress in the way of reform should have been hitherto publish titeir annual accounts and proceedings; and in the former made. Vested interests, conjoined with the ignorance and apathy corporation a requisition signed by twenty-six members will ensure a general meeting to discuss any matter that may affect of the people, have, as we have explained elsewhere, served to the welfare of the profession. overlay or keep in apparent abeyance the successful issue of Mr. If horse-doctors and pharmaceutical chemists (so called) have Walker’s dangerous toil during years of hopeless, cheerless, and these privileges, let me, Sir, in sober earnestness, ask why they denied to the more intelligent members of the medical proheart-sickeping agitation; but when the recognition comes, as are feseion. come it must, all who have ranged themselves on the side of I am, obedient servant, public health, public decency, and public morality-all who have Parliament-street, April, 1853.Sir, your EDWARD CRISP, M.D. in any way assisted heartily and earnestly in any department of the great sanitary movement on which chiefly the regeneration of the peoples must depend-may again take heart, reON A CASE OF PUERPERAL MANIA. membering that the greatest obstacles are overcome by patience To the Editor of THE LANCET. and perseverance, though apparently insurmountable difficulties SIR,—The weekly perusal of THE LANCET often causes us to may present themselves, and the path may be steep and rugged; reflect upon cases which we have met with in our own practice. and so we bid a hearty welcome to our new acquaintance and This I experienced when reading the remarks of Dr. Tilt on a case fellow-labourer in the sanitary vineyard, commending him, of puerperal mania published in your journal of last week. Early when next he enters the field, to begirt himself with more in March I was sent for to Mrs. B-, who was confined in the She was labouring same month of the preceding year, (1852.) modern, because more effective weapons. under premonitory symptoms of mania. She had no particular illness during the twelve months, but suffered much from debitity. Being in narrow circumstances, she did not seek medical The Practical and Descriptive Anatomy of the Human Body. advice until she was unable to leave her bed. Lactation had gradually disappearing for some time. and the supply of By T. H. LEDWICH and E. LEDWICH. Dublin: Faaunin been milk was so scanty that she was on the point of weaning the and Co. Post 8vo, pp. 922. child. In spite of all treatment mania supervened and she died THE authors of this treatise are fully aware that they are in about a fortnight. The above arose entirely from the debililiable to a certain amount of censure for adding another tating effects of lactation, aggravated by her being unable to volume to the already great number of elementary works on precure the extra nourishment she required; and although ocnearly twelve months after delivery, yet I deemed it a anatomy. They plead, however, as their excuse, the necessity curring ; but according to Dr. Tilt I was guilty of the puerperal of a systematic description being followed in.a class-book for same errordisease as the author of the " Mirror" by placing puerperal students and the profession, and they think that they have mania on the registrar’s certificate. EDWARD F. EDWARD F. FUSSELL. FUSSELL. imparted a greater amount of anatomical information, in a Chislehurst, Kent, May, 1653.

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