THE MEDICAL EXAMINER.
PHILADELPHIA, MARCH, 1850.
SYDENHAM SOCIETY.
By the late report of this Society, we learn that there have been
issued during the year ending May 1st, 1849, four volumes, viz.,
Rhazes on the. Small Pox and Measles ; the first volume of the complete
works of Hippocrates ; the first volume of the English edition of Syden-
ham, and the second volume of Rokitansky's Pathological Jinatomy.
The council have also secured the valuable services of Dr. Fleetwood
Churchill, (well known to the profession in this country as the author
of a treatise on Midwifery; a work on the diseases of Women; and
one on diseases of Children,) to prepare a volume of select mono-
graphs, principally by English authors, on the diseases peculiar to
women. This has been already issued in England, and contains much
valuable matter on the subject of puerperal fever; the whole work
indeed, with the exception of about fifty pages, being occupied with
this subject. Dr. Sharpey, it is also announced, will edit a volume
that will comprise the works of some of the most distinguished physiolo-
gical writers of the age of Sydenham. They likewise announce that
they will publish another selection from the clinical lectures of Dupuy-
tren, on the diseases and injuries of the bones, and one volume of the
British Medical Bibliography, already announced.
Our object in bringing this subject before our readers, is to direct
attention to the advantages gained by membership. The great aim in
the institution of this Society, was to meet certain acknowledged defi-
ciences in existing means for diffusing medical literature, which were
not likely to be supplied by the efforts of individuals. To carry this
object into effect, they propose a succession of publications, embracing,
among others, reprints of standard English works, which are rare
and expensive; miscellaneous selections from the ancient and from
the earlier modern authors, reprinted or translated 5 digests of the
works of old and voluminous authors, British and foreign, with occa-
sional biographical and bibliographical notices; translations of the
Greek and Latin medical authors, and of works in the Arabic and
other Eastern tongues, accompanied, when it is thought desirable, by
the original text; translations of recent foreign works of merit; origi-
nal works of merit which might prove valuable as books of reference,
but which would not otherwise be published, from the slender chance
of their meeting with a remunerating sale—such as Bibliographies,
alphabetical and digested Indexes to voluminous periodical publica-
tions, &c.
These works are handsomely printed and bound on a uniform plan,
and distributed to the members, subject, however, to a due share of the
carriage of the parcel in which the books are sent. The price of sub-
scription is five dollars, to be paid in advance, for which every mem-
ber is entitled to a copy of each work for the year for which he sub-
scribes. The price of the subscription may be forwarded to either of
the local secretaries, Dr. R. Dunglison, Philadelphia, or to Dr. Lee,
New York.
Those who are desirous of becoming members can do so by trans-
mitting their names and address, with the amount of subscription, to
either of the local secretaries above named.
No one who examines into this matter, can fail to be struck with
the advantages resulting from membership, in the value of the publica-
tions that have already been presented to the members, and the low
rate at which they are supplied. In the last two years, eight large and
handsomely printed volumes have been distributed, and the announce-
ment for the present year gives evidence of still greater liberality on
the part of the council. We trust that their efforts to disseminate
sound medical literature among the profession may meet with the
success it deserves.
Under the department of Surgery, in the Record of the present
number, will be found a report of a very ingenious and suc-
cessful operation for the relief of deformity from a burn, by Dr. S. P.
Hullihen, of Wheeling, Va. The report was sent to us in pamphlet
form, and we have been induced to present it to our readers, under the
conviction that they will form as high an estimate of the judgment
and surgical skill of Dr. H. as we have been led to do from its careful
perusal. We have also read with much pleasure an essay on cleft
palate and its treatment, and one on hare lip and its treatment, from
the same source.