THE MEDICAL EXAMINEE.
PHILADELPHIA, OCTOBER, 1853.
Since the issue of our last number, the yellow fever has continued to
present a few cases, all of which have, we believe, been traceable to the
same circumscribed area in the south-eastern part of the city, which we
have already alluded to. The general health of the town has been re-
markably good, the bills of mortality being less than for corresponding
periods of last year; and the fever may be said to be dying out, as the
cases are not only diminished in number, but are much less malignant
in type, than during the first period of its appearance. The frost,
which may now be daily expected, will no doubt extinguish entirely the
smouldering embers of the disease. We shall give in our November
number, a conclusion of the account of the visitation of the fever,
which was published in the September number.
MEDICAL DEPARTMENT OP PENNSYLVANIA COLLEGE.
Professor Henry S. Patterson, who has for many years so ably filled
the chair of Materia Medica and Therapeutics in this Institution, has re-
tired from the active performance of the duties of that department, in
consequence of enfeebled health, and has been appointed Emeritus Pro-
fessor.
The vacancy thus created, has been filled by the election of Dr. John
B. Biddle, of Philadelphia, one of the editors of the Medical Examiner,
formerly Professor ©f Materia Medica and Therapeutics in Franklin
Medical College, and Lecturer on the same branches in the Philadelphia
Medical Institute.
Dr. Biddle has earned an enviable reputation as an accomplished and
able teacher, and it is confidently believed that the interests of the
School, and especially of the department of Materia Medica, so happily
and brilliantly illustrated by his predecessor, will lose nothing in being
committed to his hands.
The numerous friends of Dr. Patterson, we arc sure, will join us in
our heartfelt wishes that the repose he now seeks from arduous duties,
may result in his entire restoration to health and usefulness. S.