THYMUS EXTRACT IN GRAVES'S DISEASE.

INVITATIONfi TO TENDER FOR THE POST OF HEALTH OFFICER.

571

jerky. Although he was affectionate and fond of animals We are assured by the treasurer of the University that it is and pictures he was very deficient mentally. Dr. Collins groundless and unwarrantable. The authorities will have regarded the case as one of "hereditary cerebellar ataxy,"a none of it. Donors of funds may therefore give to the cause disease to which Nonne in particular has directed attention. of education with a prospect of receiving their money’s The hereditary character is not constant, but the disease is worth in the actual service of learning. Some initial outlay one of the group of family diseases, and its close relationship on entertainment was doubtless excusable and even advisable. to Friedreich’s ataxy is obvious. Dr. Collins’s case differs in Whether the limits imposed by a wise economy have been exceeded or not we are not in a position to state ; at all some respects from cases of this disease hitherto described, but the correspondence in general character of the symptoms events the indispensable festival is over and the time for is probably sufficient to stamp it as belonging to the same work has come. ___

class. ___

THYMUS EXTRACT IN GRAVES’S DISEASE. INVITATIONS TO TENDER FOR THE POST OF HEALTH OFFICER. THE

Farnborough Urban Council have succeeded in lowering the status of medical officer of health in their district to a level which, we venture to hope, is nowhere else even thought of. Just as sanitary authorities ask scavengers to tender for the removal of filth so that it may be done on the cheap, so have the Farnborough Council invited tenders for the first time in this country for the work and duties of medical officer of health ; and we cannot but regret to add that they received tenders as the result of their trade advertisement. The Local Government Board seem to have done all they could to frustrate this attempt at putting professional services on the lowest trade level; for, having seen the advertisement, which applied to the post of inspector of nuisances as well as of medical officer of health, they informed the district council that they should hold any appointments made under that advertisement as invalid. But this difficulty can be evaded, for, according to the Aldershot News, the council will readvertise at the salary which they have decided to give on the tenders received, and then appoint the officer of health whom they have selected under the new advertisement. The introduction of this commercial phase into professional appointments deserves the serious consideration of the medical profession as a whole. Even artisans and workmen have combined against being undersold, and the medical profession may have to adopt similar procedures with regard to clubs and public appointments. The matter will, in the first instance, doubtless be dealt with by the Incorporated Society of Medical Officers of Health. ___

A FIRST COURSE IN

EDUCATION.

IN a recent number of the Boston Medical and Burg-ieal To2crnal Dr. Edes reports a case of a woman aged thirty-four who, after much personal worry and anxiety, became nervous, 3motional, and sleepless, and had severe pain in her rieck, chest, and arm. On admission to hospital she was found to have an enlarged thyroid gland, prominent eyes, and a rapid and irregular heart. There was a slight systolic bruit to the left of the sternum. She was at first treated with dried thyroid gland, but without benefit. Later she had a course of bromide of potassium, then splenic extract of two kinds, and the restlessness diminished somewhat, although the rapidity of the pulse remained unaltered. She began finally to take an extract of the thymus gland. She continued this for two months, but without very marked benefit. She was, however, discharged "relieved." She was seen two months later, when she had been a month without taking the thymus gland. She had attempted to go to work, but had not been fit for it. She resumed the thymus gland and the pulse a month later was 94. She She was feeling much better and was able to resume work. was last heard of as employed actively at a shop during the busy Christmas season. Dr. Edes mentions several other cases in which thymus gland has been given, and in many apparently with such good results as to justify more extensive trial. __

ON Monday last the executive committee of the General Medical Council met and had various matters of importance under their consideration, including returns on the disciplinary functions of the examining bodies and communications with the Privy Council Office on the subject of the appointment of assistant examiners to the Apothecaries’ Hall of Dublin. ____

THE fact that some regard for the demands of appetite is. usually associated with intellectual discussions is not a AT a meeting of the Middlesex Hospital Medical School peculiar characteristic of any one people or state of society. Committee on the 22nd inst. Dr. Arthur Robinson of Owens The dining table, which in these islands constitutes a signal College was nominated to the Lectureship on Anatomy, and of concourse to groups of men who agree for the time to Dr. R. A. Young, B.Sc., to the Lectureship on Physiology, think, speak, work, or give in common, is only our national to fill the vacancies occasioned by the retirement from these symbol of obedience to a world-wide custom. Other offices of Mr. Bland Sutton and Mr. B. T. Lowne respectively. peoples in like spirit exhibit their conformity to the same ruling principle. Not even savage tribes are exempt from His ROYAL HIGHNESS THE PRINCE OF WALES, E.G., will its control. The calumet, the gourd of mate-tea, with a the foundation stone of the new out-patient department lay variety of other means of solace, both civilised and savage, of the Sussex County Hospital, Brighton, on Satur ay next, testify to a universal agreement in activity between Feb. at 12.30 P.M. 29th, the forces of mind and body. It was recently asserted that the Chancellor of the Exchequer had discovered one more illustration of this truth in connexion with the stillBVIGAN MEDICAL SocIETY.-The annual xneetnascent University of South Wales and Monmouthshire. A of the above society was held on Feb. 12th, when the ing of the Government grant of L3000 verylarge proportion office-bearers were elected for the ensuing year :following was said to have disappeared in the form of refreshments. President : Mr. C. R. Graham, M.R.C.S.Eng., L.R.C.P. Ed. The representatives of learning in the Principality had Committee : Messrs. C. R. Graham (President), W. Mitchell evidently not been backward in vindicating the claims of Roocroft (ex-President), Monks, Brady, Cowan, Benson, and intellect upon the senses. The young university, like a Molyneux. Treasurer: Mr. G. H. Monks, L.R.C.P. & S. Ed. F.R.C.S.I. The annual dinner Secretary : Mr. Wm. vigorous boy, required food for its healthy growth and it was then held. ThereBerry, were a good number of members and had been satisfied. It was further suggested that other visitors present, amongst whom were Professor Banks grants from private persons might be applied to a like purpose. (Liverpool), Dr. Ashby, Mr. Judson, Dr. Bury, and Dr. Donald The suggestion, generous though it is, will not be taken up. (Manchester).

THOMAS

572

THOMAS THE

FOUNDER

WAKLEY, THE

FOUNDER OF "THE LANCET": A BIOGRAPHY.

WAKLEY, OF " THE

LANCET."

A BIOGRAPHY.1

CHAPTER IX. The First Ten Years of THE LANCET.-Thier Stormy Character,-The Question of Oopyright in Lectures.-Sir Astley Cooper.-His Opinion on the Publication of His Lectures.-His Detection of the Un7zno7vn Editor.-An Amicable

Compromise.

these actions will be detailed in full in ensuing chapters, for they constitute a most interesting phase in the history of medical reform. It is sufficient here to state, as indicating the sort of lines upon which THE LANCET was conducted, that six of these actions were actions for libel, the aggregate sum of £8000 being claimed for damages, and the aggregate sum of £155 Os. 0¼d. being awarded, while the Editor’s costs were largely defrayed by public subscription. The best method of dealing with these years will not be to treat the events in strict chronological order, for these at times occurred so thickly that their consequences were constantly overlapping, and a narrative of them would make the story almost impossible to follow, even if the reader were assisted in the most careful and elaborate manner by dates. It will be better to consider one case or set of cases separately from start to finish, and at the conclusion of the first decade of THE LANCET’S work to summarise the work accomplished, the battles lost and won, and the good or ill done to the world and the medical profession.

FOR the first ten years of its existence THE LANCET was a duelling ground for a series of fierce encounters between the Editor and the members of the privileged classes in The lectures of certain of the great hospital medicine. surgeons and physicans were reported in its pages to the exasperation of the deliverers and the delight of the profesWakley’s first contest with the law in the character of Editor sion at large and the students. The great men feared lest their of THE LANCET does not provide any sensational material. fees as teachers in the metropolitan schools should diminish It was the longest and most expensive suit that he was ever if the cream of their teaching could be bought for sixpence a engaged in, and the real question at issue was a much week instead of for .65a session ; while every medical man broader one than was stated in the pleadings or than is or student, unable by circumstances to attend the classes of represented by the precedents which Lord Eldon’s judgments his leaders, rejoiced in the chance offered to him of have since formed. It was the question of the legality of acquiring familiarity with their methods and theories the publication of certain lectures addressed to medical through the medium of print. The meetings of the medical students by Abernethy, at that time the senior surgeon societies, again, were reported at the length that their im- at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, and the person of proportance warranted-a proceeding which the officials of the fessional eminence selected by Wakley to succeed Sir societies objected to as an infringement of the copyright; for Astley Cooper as the chief attraction in his columns. For this they considered that the editor of the Transactions of the publication of Sir Astley Cooper’s lectures in the the society, a person appointed by themselves, enjoyed as place of honour of the new paper had proved a fine stroke a matter of common sense as well as common law. Briefly of journalism-of that there can be no doubt. The from the beginning the hospital surgeon and physician were lectures possessed all the qualifications that an editor ranged in unbroken phalanx in opposition to the new and, as would shrewdly desire for his most important articles. they considered it, mischievous journal. The officials of the They were excellent in material, wise, practical, easy to medical societies followed suit; and the office-bearers in the follow, and really informatory and valuable. A large medical corporations, the practices in two of which were class of readers might be expected to constantly buy a scathingly reviewed in early issues of THE LANCET, were not paper which contained such contributions. To those seeking slow to scent their foe. Everyone who had anything to gain instruction in the broad roads of surgery as much as to by the peaceful reign of existent methods in school, hospital, those desirous of revising their knowledge of the obscurer or corporation-a definition which included most of the by-paths the light shed upon their course from the clearest influential members of the profession-looked with uneasiness surgical intellect of the day was equally valuable; and the at the growing power and popularity of the new journal. Editor could confidently count upon a regular clientèle, Wakley, for his part, was quick to discover his enemies, desirous of obtaining such help and such only from the and their tactics dictated his. He found himself denounced paper and quite indifferent to questions of medical policy as a literary pirate and a disseminator of moral garbage. or medical reform. In short these lectures attracted and His replies were chiefly in the nature of reflection on the held readers. Hardly less important from a business point complete and. fretful ineptitude of his denunciators. He of view was the prestige that their publication conferred at pointed to his growing circulation, scattered with doubtful once upon THE LANCET. For they had what first-class and taste but cruel point a few nicknames, and hinted at useful work does not always have-that is, a widely known astonishing revelations of abuses arising out of the fact that and distinguished name appended to them. Sir Astley publicity had hitherto been avoided by hospital officials. Cooper’s was at the time a name to conjure with. He was at As a natural pendant to his assertion that the elections the very highest point of his professional fame, his unrivalled to the staffs of the various metropolitan hospitals were surgical reputation being enhanced by his wealth, his made at the instigation of pure nepotism, accounts were handsome person, his popularity with his pupils, his recent given in the pages of THE LANCET of maladministra- title, and his acknowledged position in the social world. tion in the schools and malpraxis in the wards. And upon It was impossible for the public or the profession, for rival these came action and cross-action. Certain of the criticised journals or for the frightened owners of vested interests, to were compelled to proceed legally against their critic, while really cry down THE LANCET as a worthless gutter protheir defence outside the law-courts, too keenly and bitterly duction while Wakley was issuing in its pages week by week undertaken by friends or rival journals, on more than one the work of such a man, and doing so without formal protest occasion laid the defenders open to counter-charges of mis- from the lecturer. The plan was tried with exemplary representation. In the first ten years of the existence of THE assiduity by numerous persons for upwards of ten years, but LANCET the Editor was engaged in no less than ten actions, his the note of scientific importance once struck by the Editor opponents being eight separate persons. The proceedings in gave the key to his journal. That Sir Astley Cooper himself did not resent the 1 Chapters I., II., III., IV., V., VI., VII., and VIII. were published publication of his lectures in THE LANCET is certain. We in THE LANCET, Jan. 4th, 11th, 18th, and 25th, Feb. 1st, 8th, 15th, and 22nd, respectively, have his own opinion on the matter, as stated to his