THE TABLE-TURNING DELUSION.

17 It is almost in vain that physiologists, pathologists, and chemists are constantly contributing to the advancement of the science of medicine, since the results of their labours are practically defeated and set at nought by adulterations so scandalous as those revealed in the present and former Reports " on Drugs and their Adulterations :’ The time must come, and that ere long, when offences of this description will be viewed in their proper light, and men guilty of them will find themselves placed where they ought to be-at the felon’s bar. To adulterate medicines which are so frequently the salvation of life is not a simple act of dishonesty, but it amounts to a crime of the deepest dye, for which every man guilty of it will one day be answerable. Since the powder of ipecacuanha is so extensively adulterated, it follows that all the other pharmaceutical preparations into the composition of which this drug enters are also adulterated, as Pulv. Ipecac. Co., Pil. Conii Co., Pil. Ipecac, c. Opio, and Pil. Ipecac. c. Scilla.

OBITUARY. WM. FREDERICK

BARLOW, Eso,., F.R.C.S.

the 24th of June, unexpectedly, after a short DIED, illness, and prematurely in his thirty-seventh year, at his father’s house, Writtle, near Chelmsford, William Frederick Barlow, Esq., F.R.C.S., resident medical officer at the Westminster Hospital. His friends had noticed that for the last few weeks lie had occasionally suffered from an unusual degree of mental excitement, and on more than one occasion his manner had surprised, though not alarmed, those in habits of intimacy with him. On the 15th and 16th of June he complained of headache and of having had no rest for the preceding nights. On the 17th the headache became much aggravated, with great restlessness and excitement and some febrile disturbance. Opium relieved him, and after a few hours’sleep he appeared better; and on the 18th his immediate removal from the hospital was suggested. This did not take place till the 20th. In the meantime, on the 19th, a return of headache, with much excitement of manner, accompanied by great physical prostration, warned his friends in the hospital of the increasing danger of his symptoms. On the 20th, being better from a few hours’ sleep, he went home, and bore the journey to Chelmsford very well, feeling refreshed by the change. A few hours’ sleep, by the aid of morphia, on

produced

a

short but evanescent

hope

of

improvement.

In

the course of the 21st, symptoms of exhaustion and prostration of a very alarming character supervened, which ammonia and stimulants only temporarily relieved. On the 22nd he was

by Dr. Basham, who found the pulse rapid, irritable, small, and compressible, 140, and the respirations much accelerated. This condition appeared to be caused by nervous excitement, as earlier in the day the pulse had been below 100, and later in the evening the circulation again became calmer. There was some trifling mucous wheeze in the large air-tubes, but no pulmonary congestion; the abdomen was soft and elastic, free from pain; the bowels operated, favourseen

ably, and

the

dejection presented no unfavourable appearance.

the last paper he ever wrote, and published on the day after his death, will well illustrate the eminently philosophic and practical tendency of Mr. Barlow’s mind. He was early struck with the importance of the subject on which he was writing, " Degeneration," and in this eloquent paragraph exposes one of the great weaknesses of the present day-a weakness which tends to withdraw the mind lost in the pursuit of isolated observations from all chance of arriving at general conclusions. Thus writes Mr. Barlow :"Let this affection [degeneration], like every other, be, wherever possible, viewed carefully in its every relation. Of what significance is a slight spot of atheroma when regarded in true connexion with it ! In the varied processes of the human body, be they of health or sicknpsg, there is no such matter as an accident, no such thing as a trifle. The fall of an eyelash typifies death; the least speck of arterial atrophy or degeneration is in accordance with a law not less fixed than that whereby man, regarded as a complex whole, becomes ’developed into dissolution.’ Let us not forget conclusions in phenomena, nor think that mere observation will avail. If we view principles without reference to facts we shall soon be advancing beyond our depth; but if we view facts without reference to principles, we shall be as young children seeking pebbles on the shore." His education was extended; his taste in literature and art was correct and pure. In conversation he was full of vivacity and energy; and while his thoughts were always highly suggestive, his expressions were pointed, well-chosen, and appropriate. In disposition he was most amiable; it was rare that an ill-natured expression escaped him; and if the follies of men, or the conduct of the ungenerous or mean excited his censure, if it was severe, it was neither cynical nor morose. He was much esteemed by the pupils at the hospital, who each and all looked up to him with respect and confidence. By none will his loss be felt more deeply than by the physicians and surgeons. With some of them he was on terms of the closest friendship and intimacy; they fully recognised his worth, and appreciated his talents. His judgment was sound, his experience mature, and the patients left in his charge were inspired by the confidence that whatever had been directed by their physician would be faithfully administered and carried out. In him the governors of the hospital have lost a valuable medical officcr. It has been stated that his temperament was quickly susceptible of excitement; and it is to be lamented, that of late the governors have shown more zeal in what they believed to be a laudable desire tore-adjust and perfect the regulations of his office, than respect for his feelings, or appreciation of his zeal in the performance of his duties. It is well known that he felt keenly and poignantly the vexatious regulation, recently adopted, requiring him to sign his name each time he went into a ward: to him it was an almost hourly-recurring intimation that he was suspected of neglecting duties which neither the assurance of the physicians or the patients themselves could convince these zealous governors had been regularly performed.*>B< Excitement thus brought on, constant application to his favourite researches, and the little leisure lie allowed himself for air and exercise, probably led the nervous system into a state least capable of resisting the conditions of exhaustion and prostration that so rapidly followed the first indications of febrile disturbance. His career in life has been early closed, but it has been neither useless nor unknown. His bright example will not be forgotten; his memory will live, and his name be respected by all those acquainted with his researches, or conversant with the contributions that he has added to the medical literature of his

a quieter aspect than before he left the there had been some slight recurrence of His mind was nervous excitement since his return home. quite intact, although there was an irritability quite foreign to him in health. He said he felt stronger than before he left day. London. As his temperament was naturally very excitable, it was hoped that, if sleep could be obtained, the excited state THE TABLE-TURNING DELUSION. of the circulation would subside, and a favourable change, aided by nutrients and stimulants, might be expected to THE following letter from Professor Faraday is extracted follow. On this only could a favourable prognosis be enter- from ’l’lte Times of Thursday last :tained. Symptoms of exhaustion, however, appeared on the 1’0 the Editor of Tlte Times. 23rd; the pulse increased in frequency; no change took place, have recently been engaged in the invest’gation of SiR,—I and he gradually sank and died on the morning of the 24th tahle-turning. I should be sorry that you should suppose I of June. on my own account, for my conclusion Mr. Barlow’s talents were of no ordinary character, and he thought this necessary its nature was soon arrived at, and is not changed; devoted them with untiring zeal and energy to enquiries into respecting I have been so often misquoted, and applications to me for subjects of a profound and philosophic character. He con- but if I enabled myself by I tributed many valuable papers to the medical journals. His an opinion are so numerous, that hoped, to give a strong one, you would consent to convey it experiment memoirs on Reflex Phenomena, on Rigor Mortis, and Fatty to all persons interested in the matter. The effect produced by Degeneration are well known. A communication in a late tabie-turners has been referred to electricity, to magnetism, to volume of the ffledical and Chirurgical Transactions on the Relation of Sleep and Convulsive Affections, favourably ex* A day or two before he was taken ill, Mr. Barlow remarked to one of hibits the reflective tendency of his mind, and the vigorous the surgeons of the hospital, "A board-room committee killed John Hunter character of his style. The following paragraph-the last of Ifeel as if it would kill me."

The countenance had

hospital, although

______________

18 to the great body who have believed and borne testimony, I think, in the cause of error. I do not here refer to the dis. tinction of those who agree with me and those who differ. By the great body, I mean such as reject all consideration of the equality of cause and effect, who refer the results to electricity and magnetism-yet know nothing of the laws of these forces j or to attraction-yet show no phenomena of pure attractive power; or to the rotation of the earth, as if the earth revolved round the leg of a table ; or to some unrecognised physical force, without inquiring whether the known forces are not sufficient ; or who even refer them to diabolical or supernatural agency, rather than suspend their judgment, or acknowledge to themselves that they are not learned enough in these matters to decide on the nature of the action. I think the system of education that could leave the mental condition of the public body in the state in which this subject has found it must have been greatly deficient in some very important principle. I am, Sir, your very obedient servant, M. FARADAY. FARADAY. Royal Institution, June2S, 1853.

to some unknown or hitherto unrecognised physical power able to affect inanimate bodies-to the revolution of the earth, and even to diabolical or supernatural agency. The natural philosopher can investigate all these supposed causes but the last; that must, to him, be too much connected with credulity or superstition to require any attention on his part. Believing that the first cause assigned-namely, a quasi involuntary muscular action (for the effect is withmany subject to the wish or will)-was the true cause, the firstpoint was to prevent the mind of the turner having an undue influence over the effects produced in relation to the nature of the substances employed. A bundle of plates, consisting of sandpaper, mill-

nothing

attraction,

as

board, glue, glass, plastic clay, tinfoil, cardboard, gutta percha,

vulcanized caoutchouc, wood, and resinous cement, was therefore made up and tied together, and being placed on a table, under the hand of a turner, did not prevent the transmission of the power; the table turned or moved exactly as if the bundle had been away, to the full satisfaction of all present. The experiment was repeated, with various substances and persons, and at various times, with constant success ; and henceforth no objection could be taken to the use of these substances in the construction of apparatus. The next point was to determine the place and source of motion-i. e., whether the table moved the hand, or the hand moved the table; and for this purpose indicators were constructed. One of these consisted of a light lever, having its fulcrum on the table, its short arm attached to a pin fixed on a cardboard, which could slip on the surface of the table, and its long arm projecting as an index of motion. It is evident that if the experimenter willed the table to move towards the left, and it did so move before the hands, placed at the time on the cardboard, then the index would move to the left also, the fulcrum going with the table. If the hands involuntarily moved towards the left without the table, the index would hands moved, the go towards the right; and if neither table nor The result was, that mdex would itself remain immovahle. when the parties saw the index it remained very steady; when it was hidden from them, or they looked away from it, it wavered

Correspondence. "Andi alteram partem."I

THE

about, though they believed that they always pressed directly downwards; and when the table did not move, there was still a

QUESTION OF MEDICAL REFORM. To the Editor of THE LANCET.

SiR,--The race of the boastful, swaggering, disputatious Pistol, who insists on dividing all companies, however well agreed, and disturbing all occasions, however common-place, is by no means extinct even in our own profession. A gentleman, who for a long time obtained an enviable notoriety in your pages in the year 1845, is again desirous of exhibiting himself on the world’s wide stage, and is no doubt destined to gather fresh and unfading laurels in his vocation. Be it known to you that Mr. Kelson, of Seven Oaks, Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, a gentleman apparently very much at ease with himself, has written a letter to Lord Aberdeen, the first Minister of State, and has, through his lordship’s kind indulgence, been permitted to lay the same before the public, who are deeply concerned with the subjectmatter it contains. You must have been edified, Mr. Editor, by its perusal, and yon will ascertain beyond all doubt, clear to demonstration, that your labours for the improvement of the profession during the last thirty years have been quite thrown away - nay, I think, to your humiliation, and perhaps your mortification, you will find that they have been futile and misspent. Mr. Kelson has made the discovery that no medical reform is wanted; that only a very insignificant portion of the medical world are desirous of it; and fearful that Lord Aberdeen might be deceived by the representations of the deputations advocating the Medical Reform Bill of the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association, who have recently been importuning him, he has written this document to put his lordship in possession of the present existing state of things! The information so conveyed will be "nuts" to his lordship, who having loads of other business pressing heavily on him, will be glad to be exonerated from the additional burden of a medical bill; and if he have a proper sense of services rendered, can do no less than reward his talented correspondent proportionately to the importance and value of the discovery communicated, and when next Mr. Kelson addresses his lordship, he will doubtless conclude with-

resultant of hand force in the direction in which it was wished the table should move, which, however, was exercised quite unwittingly by the party operating. This resultant it is which, in the course of the waiting time, while the fingers and hands become stiff, numb, and insensible by continued pressure, grows up to an amount sufficient to move the table or the substances pressed upon. But the most valuable effect of this test-apparatus ’i (which was afterwards made more perfect and independent of the table) is the corrective power it possesses over the mind of the table-turner. As soon as the index is placed before the most earnest, and they perceive-as in my presence they have alwaysI are pressing done-that it tells truly whether only or obliquely, then all effects of table-turning cease, even I though the parties persevere, earnestly desiring motion, till they become weary and worn out. No prompting or checking of the hands is needed-tTte po2cer is gone ; and this only because the ’, parties are made conscious of what they are really doing mechanically, and so are unable unwittingly to deceive themselves. I , know that some may say that it is the cardboard next the fingers I which moves first, and that it both drags the table and also the ’ table-turner with it. All I have to reply is, that the cardboard may in practice be reduced to a thin sheet of paper weighing only a few grains, or to a piece of goldbeaters’ skin, or even the end of the lever, and (in principle) to the very cuticle of the ’ fingers itself. Then the results that follow are too absurd to bei admitted: the table becomes an incumbrance, and a person holdQuel honneur 1 ing out the fingers in the air, either naked or tipped with goldQuel bonneur ! beaters’ skin or cardboard, ought to be -drawn about the room, Ah! monsienr, le Senateur, &c.; but I refrain from considering imaginary yet consequent Je suis votre serviteur. results which have nothing philosophical or real in them. I have been happy thus far in meeting with the most honourable But, Mr. Editor, it is obvious that Mr. Kelson is quite as and candid though most sanguine persons, and I believe the mental desirous that the public should be cognizant of his merits as well check which I propose will be available in the hands of all who as Lord Aberdeen. I therefore appeal to you, as the guardian of desire truly to investigate the philosophy of the subject, and, the public, to submit the contents of this letter to your Analytical being content to resign expectation, wish only to be led by the Commission. "All is not gold that glitters," and spurious gold facts and the truth of nature. As I am unable, even at present, has recently arrived from Australia and California ; every article to answer all the letters that come to me regarding this matter, should therefore be tested as to whether it is genuine or not; and perhaps you will allow me to prevent any increase by saying if Mr. Kelson’s information prove genuine, a world of trouble that my apparatus may be seen at the shop of the philosophical will be saved to us all. instrument maker-Newman, 122, Regent-street. Setting aside, however, all recondite art, allow me in simple Permit me to say, before concluding, that I have been greatly earnestness to ask-Is this Mr. Kelson the same individual who startled by the revelation which this purely physical subject has (as secretary of a meeting of fellows of the College of Surgeons, ’made of the condition of the public mind. No doubt there are which took place on the 9th of October, 1845, at the Golden many persons who have formed a right judgment or used a Cross, and at which meeting not a dozen gentlemen were pre. cautious reserve, for I know several such, and public communi- sent) addressed a memorial to Sir James Graham, then Home cations have shown it to be so ; but their number is almost as Secretary, endeavouring to prevent justice being doue to many of

they

downwards

I,