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TOOTH-ACHE TREATED WITH VIENNA PASTE.
347 for the supply of medicines, exclusive of time and labour, for which every carpenter and bricklayer charges, besides his nails and bushels of mortar, &c. I have for many years kept strict accounts of this kind, charged at a very low rate, and which, Mr. Editor, perhaps you will allow me to submit to your attention, and insertion in a subsequent number, if you deem them befitting a place in your columns, as it will show the inadequacy of the remuneration. I have taken the three past years, and find the number of cases attended was 1120, the amount for medicines supplied, 2551. 4s., sum received, 132l., leaving me minus 1231. 4s. It is very true, it may be said, there are extras for vaccination, labours, &c., but for these a full and adequate amount of time, talent, and labour &c. is given. I trust, Sir, you will excuse so lengthened an address. The subject of the payment of Union medical officers is one of vast importance to our common humanity, and very few are aware of the almost thraldom attached, the annoyances of one kind or other so frequently met with, the great amount of labour, and time, and medicine bestowed; and I can prove that moreattention is required and given to the sick poor, than many of our private patients expect or desire. I have the honour to remain, Sir, Your obedient and obliged servant, February, 1846. AN UNION MEDICAL OFFICER.
TOOTH-ACHE TREATED WITH VIENNA PASTE. To the Editor of THE LANCET. SiR,-It may not be without interest to the medical profession generally, more especially to those gentlemen who practise in the country, to know that very great relief may be
afforded, in attacks of tooth-ache, by the application of anhydrous lime and caustic potass, commonly called pâte de Vienne. I have used it for a considerable period of time, and
with almost uniform success. The method which I generally adopt for its application, consists in making a thick paste of the above powder, by means of pure alcohol. I then take a sufficient quantity, in the shape of a small pill, on the end of a silver probe, and introduce it into the cavity of the tooth, which should previously be well dried. After remaining in contact with the carious portion of the tooth for three or four minutes, the paste may be removed, and the mouth well rinsed with tepid water; after which fill the cavity with fine cotton. Great care is requisite to guard against any portion of the paste falling into the mouth, or upon the fauces, the effect of which would be instantly to create a painful slough. I am, Sir, your obedient servant, CHARLES STOKES, Dentist, Member of the R.C.S. Eng. Brook-st., Hanover-sq., Feb. 1846. I
ON THE MEDICAL
TITLES, "PHYSICIAN," "SURGEON," "ACCOUCHEUR," AND "GENERAL PRACTITIONER."
To the Editor of THE LANCET. SIR,—With part of Mr. Lawrence’s " Oration" for my text, but as briefly as possible, for you have not much space :— "The public, knowing pretty well what is meant by a physician, a surgeon, or an apothecary, will be sorely puzzled when they come to deal with the general practitioner :’ And why ? I suppose, on account of the name; because the word "practitioner" does not necessarily imply the sciences practised. Let us see whether, in their origin, any of the other three terms are at all more significative: "Physician," in English alone, by common usage, means a person who visits medical cases only, and writes prescriptions. The word properly means, a man acquainted with physics or natural sciences, not necessarily medicine. In a certain wellknown title-page, the words,Francis Moore, Physician,’ can only mean that the author is an almanack-maker. The word scribe" would more accurately define the present practice oi physicians. Surgeon"-corrupted from chirurgeon," from the Greek, &khgr;∈xe‘p ∈&Ugr;o&ngr;—signifies, properly, any one who works with his hand. A carpenter, a shoemaker, or a barber-all are equally entitled to be called " surgeons," for anything the word really "
"
"
means. "
Apothecary" °‘apotheca" in Latin—signifies a warehouse. apothecaries were shopkeepers; they literally s ld everything. The term apothecary," in the present day, is, The old
"
if anything, less applicable than either of the other meaningless appellations. Another word, now much used—"Accoucheur"—means a person that puts another to bed. A chamber-maid, therefore, is an accoucheur, or rather, perhaps, an accoucheuse. Certainly, no one is " puzzled" with these appellations, because common consent and common usage have invested them with certain meanings. If the word ‘ practitioner" is as well understood, which it now is, it is as good a word as any of them. Mr. Lawrence insults the general practitioners, and calls them "tradesmen," because the word "apothecary," now becoming obsolete, means shopkeeper. As well might Mr. Lawrence be called a mechanic, because the word "surgeon" means handicraftsman. It is certainly at the almost obsolete name of "apothecary" that the insult is directed. Mr. Lawrence can hardly be so ignorant as not to be aware that in everything but name, the physicians of old (the medici) were, to all intents and purposes, what is now well understood by the term "general practitioners:" they practised and supplied what drugs or applisurgery as well as medicine, If we are " tradesmen," so were they. were required. I am, Sir, your obedient servant, R. U. WEST. Hogsthorpe, March, 1846.
cations
I
THE WATER OBSERVATIONS ON LAST CENTURY.
MANIA IN THE
To the Editor of THE LANCET. of December last contains a SIR,—THE LANCET of the 20th and remarks, headed, " The Water Cure in the Olden Your correspondent might readily have found abundant authenticated evidence of the water mania having been in full cry at a considerably earlier period than the one he mentions. In 1701, at all events, the omni-curative properties of aquæ pursæ were as highly vaunted and insisted on by one party, and as rationally questioned by another, as they are at the present day ; moreover, the means and appliances then directed for its external use, together with the rules for its internal exhibition, are all but identical with those which have been the most recently proposed. In fact, the chief perceivable difference between the old and the modern practice consists merely in the latter being represented by the elegant term hydropathy. Of the popular origin of the water cure (properly so called) there is no reason to doubt. For a long time previous to the commencement of last century, it appears to have been a. common, though strange enough custom, with the denizens of certain of the English manufacturing districts, after enjoying a dip in some river, or other convenient cold bath, to put on their dry body-clothes over the dripping linens which they had purposely worn whilst in the water; and, thus habited, pursue their usual avocations all day, for sake of the cooling and exhilarating effects said to have been thereby induced ! The supposed benefits derived from this kind of experimenting on those in health-together with reported cases of cures effected on invalids after (in spite of ?) their accidentally tumbling into water, &c.-speedily suggested the notion of the curability of disease by a similar plan of treatment. Accordingly, patients of all sorts were subjected to the wet-linen system for almost every variety of ailment and with variously stated success. Nor was this usage confined to adults; children, from a year old and upwards, affected with rickets, &c. &c., were, for weeks together, every night encased in shifts and caps wetted with the coldest spring water, and in this condition carefully muffled over head and ears in dry warm blankets, and kept steaming in bed till morning. More resolute procedure assuredly never was ventured on by advice of any modern school of hydropathists ! Simple immersion of the body in cold water has, in all ages, been held in high estimation, as a remedial measure, by most nations of the world. The remotest histories of Greece and Rome furnish ample proof on the subject; every reader of the classics can remember numerous quotations in point. It is amusing to peruse the extensive, incongruously assorted, catalogues of bodily ills, which medical writers of antiquity have confidently asserted to be removable by this means alone. It need hardly be added, that, in our own country, the uses and abuses of bathing, cold as well as hot, have long been thoroughly understood by every judicious, scientific, regular medical practitioner, and require no further allusion.
letter Times."
to
Your ii-in,4f obedient
Edinburgh, 1846.
aPrvanf
JOHN
MAYNE, M.D.
TOOTH-ACHE TREATED WITH VIENNA PASTE. To the Editor of THE LANCET. SiR,-It may not be without interest to the medical profession generally, more especially to those gentlemen who practise in the country, to know that very great relief may be
afforded, in attacks of tooth-ache, by the application of anhydrous lime and caustic potass, commonly called pâte de Vienne. I have used it for a considerable period of time, and
with almost uniform success. The method which I generally adopt for its application, consists in making a thick paste of the above powder, by means of pure alcohol. I then take a sufficient quantity, in the shape of a small pill, on the end of a silver probe, and introduce it into the cavity of the tooth, which should previously be well dried. After remaining in contact with the carious portion of the tooth for three or four minutes, the paste may be removed, and the mouth well rinsed with tepid water; after which fill the cavity with fine cotton. Great care is requisite to guard against any portion of the paste falling into the mouth, or upon the fauces, the effect of which would be instantly to create a painful slough. I am, Sir, your obedient servant, CHARLES STOKES, Dentist, Member of the R.C.S. Eng. Brook-st., Hanover-sq., Feb. 1846. I
ON THE MEDICAL
TITLES, "PHYSICIAN," "SURGEON," "ACCOUCHEUR," AND "GENERAL PRACTITIONER."
To the Editor of THE LANCET. SIR,—With part of Mr. Lawrence’s " Oration" for my text, but as briefly as possible, for you have not much space :— "The public, knowing pretty well what is meant by a physician, a surgeon, or an apothecary, will be sorely puzzled when they come to deal with the general practitioner :’ And why ? I suppose, on account of the name; because the word "practitioner" does not necessarily imply the sciences practised. Let us see whether, in their origin, any of the other three terms are at all more significative: "Physician," in English alone, by common usage, means a person who visits medical cases only, and writes prescriptions. The word properly means, a man acquainted with physics or natural sciences, not necessarily medicine. In a certain wellknown title-page, the words,Francis Moore, Physician,’ can only mean that the author is an almanack-maker. The word scribe" would more accurately define the present practice oi physicians. Surgeon"-corrupted from chirurgeon," from the Greek, &khgr;∈xe‘p ∈&Ugr;o&ngr;—signifies, properly, any one who works with his hand. A carpenter, a shoemaker, or a barber-all are equally entitled to be called " surgeons," for anything the word really "
"
"
means. "
Apothecary" °‘apotheca" in Latin—signifies a warehouse. apothecaries were shopkeepers; they literally s ld everything. The term apothecary," in the present day, is, The old
"
if anything, less applicable than either of the other meaningless appellations. Another word, now much used—"Accoucheur"—means a person that puts another to bed. A chamber-maid, therefore, is an accoucheur, or rather, perhaps, an accoucheuse. Certainly, no one is " puzzled" with these appellations, because common consent and common usage have invested them with certain meanings. If the word ‘ practitioner" is as well understood, which it now is, it is as good a word as any of them. Mr. Lawrence insults the general practitioners, and calls them "tradesmen," because the word "apothecary," now becoming obsolete, means shopkeeper. As well might Mr. Lawrence be called a mechanic, because the word "surgeon" means handicraftsman. It is certainly at the almost obsolete name of "apothecary" that the insult is directed. Mr. Lawrence can hardly be so ignorant as not to be aware that in everything but name, the physicians of old (the medici) were, to all intents and purposes, what is now well understood by the term "general practitioners:" they practised and supplied what drugs or applisurgery as well as medicine, If we are " tradesmen," so were they. were required. I am, Sir, your obedient servant, R. U. WEST. Hogsthorpe, March, 1846.
cations
I
THE WATER OBSERVATIONS ON LAST CENTURY.
MANIA IN THE
To the Editor of THE LANCET. of December last contains a SIR,—THE LANCET of the 20th and remarks, headed, " The Water Cure in the Olden Your correspondent might readily have found abundant authenticated evidence of the water mania having been in full cry at a considerably earlier period than the one he mentions. In 1701, at all events, the omni-curative properties of aquæ pursæ were as highly vaunted and insisted on by one party, and as rationally questioned by another, as they are at the present day ; moreover, the means and appliances then directed for its external use, together with the rules for its internal exhibition, are all but identical with those which have been the most recently proposed. In fact, the chief perceivable difference between the old and the modern practice consists merely in the latter being represented by the elegant term hydropathy. Of the popular origin of the water cure (properly so called) there is no reason to doubt. For a long time previous to the commencement of last century, it appears to have been a. common, though strange enough custom, with the denizens of certain of the English manufacturing districts, after enjoying a dip in some river, or other convenient cold bath, to put on their dry body-clothes over the dripping linens which they had purposely worn whilst in the water; and, thus habited, pursue their usual avocations all day, for sake of the cooling and exhilarating effects said to have been thereby induced ! The supposed benefits derived from this kind of experimenting on those in health-together with reported cases of cures effected on invalids after (in spite of ?) their accidentally tumbling into water, &c.-speedily suggested the notion of the curability of disease by a similar plan of treatment. Accordingly, patients of all sorts were subjected to the wet-linen system for almost every variety of ailment and with variously stated success. Nor was this usage confined to adults; children, from a year old and upwards, affected with rickets, &c. &c., were, for weeks together, every night encased in shifts and caps wetted with the coldest spring water, and in this condition carefully muffled over head and ears in dry warm blankets, and kept steaming in bed till morning. More resolute procedure assuredly never was ventured on by advice of any modern school of hydropathists ! Simple immersion of the body in cold water has, in all ages, been held in high estimation, as a remedial measure, by most nations of the world. The remotest histories of Greece and Rome furnish ample proof on the subject; every reader of the classics can remember numerous quotations in point. It is amusing to peruse the extensive, incongruously assorted, catalogues of bodily ills, which medical writers of antiquity have confidently asserted to be removable by this means alone. It need hardly be added, that, in our own country, the uses and abuses of bathing, cold as well as hot, have long been thoroughly understood by every judicious, scientific, regular medical practitioner, and require no further allusion.
letter Times."
to
Your ii-in,4f obedient
Edinburgh, 1846.
aPrvanf
JOHN
MAYNE, M.D.