MEDICAL NEWS.
The New York Medical Gazette appears in a new and improved
dress, and is henceforward to be published monthly. It has taken a
firm hold of the Profession.
The British and Foreign Medico-Chirurgical Review has
adopted the plan of affixing the names of reviewers to many of the
reviews which appear in that Journal. The Journal, it should, how-
ever, be borne in mind, is published without the usual responsibility
of editorial names, and it is not intended “ to lay aside altogether
the incognito” in reviews.
At a meeting of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, held
February 2d, 1853, the following gentlemen were elected Delegates to
the American Medical Association : Isaac Hays, George Fox, Henry
Bond, W. S. W. Ruschenberger, G. Emerson, J. Rodman Paul, Chas.
Evans, William Ashmead, John Bell, Ed. Hallowell, Alfred Stille,
Joseph Carson, R. La Roche, Ed. Hartshorne, Robert Bridges.
Northern Medical Association.—At a meeting of the Northern
Medical Association, held January 6,1853, the following members were
elected officers for the present year :
President.—Dr. Benjamin S. Janney.
Vice-President.—Dr. N. L. Hatfield.
Counsellors.—Dr. Joseph R. Bryan, John F. Lamb, Isaac Reming-
ton, Wm. Mayburry, and John Uhler, Jr.
Secretary.—Dr. J. Henry Smaltz.
Corresponding Secretary.—Dr. Isaac Remington.
Reporting Secretaries.—Drs. John Rhein and C. P. Turner.
Delegates to the American Medical Association.—Drs. L. Curtis, B.
S. Janney, N. L. Hatfield, J. F. Lamb, R. J. Leyis, and Isaac Re-
mington.
The Naval Medical Examination Board met at Philadelphia
on the 15th of December, and has reported the following Assistant
Surgeons as qualified for promotion : 1, Wm. Lowber; 2, P. J. Hor-
witz; 3, B. Rush Mitchell; 4, D. E. Phillips; 5, Jas. Hamilton; 6,
J. L. Burtt. Thirty-four candidates for admission into the Navy as
Assistant Surgeons, were examined, and the following nine were selected
as the best qualified: 1, James II. Stuart, of Pennsylvania; 2, J. Pem-
broke Thorn, of Virginia; 3, John M. Browne, of New Hampshire;
4, John T. Taylor, of Delaware; 5, Henry Clay Caldwell, of Virginia;
6, Thomas J. Turner, of Pennsylvania; 7, William T. Hord, of Ken-
tucky; 8, Wentworth R. Richardson, of Massachusetts; 9, A. Clarkson
Smith, of Pennsylvania.
The Medical Profession in Paris.—The Medical Directory of
Paris, published by L' Union Medicate, gives the following numbers as
to our Parisian brethren. Doctors of Medicine and of Surgery, 1337 :
officiers de sante (an inferior grade,) 179 ; pharmaciens, 423 ; midwives,
277. From the 1st of January, 1851, to 31st of December, 1852,
there died in Paris 39 doctors of medicine; in the two previous years 64
had died. In the year just elapsed, 88 new practitioners set up in the
capital. This year’s list contains 15 medical men less than the last.
The Directory also gives the numbers in the districts surrounding Paris,
and from these statements it would appear that there is a great dispro-
portion between doctors and patients. There are in fact less than 500
inhabitants for one medical man ; and when it is considered how many
of these apply to public institutions, very little is left for individual
practitioners. L'Union Medicate warns young men from settling in
Paris, as the exuberance of professional men is enormous.—London
Lancet.
Death of Dr. George Gregory.—This distinguished author and
physician died after a severe illness, on Wednesday, the 25th of Janu-
ary last, in London. He was well known to the Profession and to the
public as the Physician to the Small-pox and Vaccination Hospital, as
a Lecturer on the Practice of Medicine at St. Thomas’s Hospital, and as
the author of treatises on the theory and practice of medicine, and on
eruptive fevers, as well as of several papers which have from time to
time appeared in the li Transactions” of the Royal Medical and Chirur-
gical Society, and in other journals. His first work has been so
highly appreciated, that it has not only gone through six editions in this
country, but has been most favorably received in the United States of
America, and in our East Indian territories, and is still used as the text-
book of most of the Army medical officers.—London Med. Times and
Gaz., Jan. 29, 1853.
Death of Sip. William Newbigging.—We have to record the death
of this highly respected surgeon, which took place at his residence in
Edinburgh, on the 23d of October last. Mr. Newbigging was born at
Lanark in 1772 ; and, after pursuing his studies at Edinburgh, became
a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh in 1799.
Sir William was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, was
formerly President of the College of Surgeons, and Vice-President of
the Wernerian Society. The interest which he took in the cultivation
and advancement of useful knowledge led him, when his retirement from
practice left him more at leisure, to become a fellow of the Scottish
Society of Arts when he was in his 77th year.—London Journ. Med.
Science.
Obituary—Mr. Alexander Walker, the ingenious author of a work
on the “Nervous System,” and others on “Beauty,” “ Woman,” “ In-
termarriage,” &c., which displayed much original research, died at an
advanced age at Leith, on Tuesday, December 7th.—London Lancet.
Death of Jonathan Pereira, M. D , F. R. S., &c. In all ages and
in all conditions of society it has been customary, on the death of any
distinguished individual, to commemorate the name of the deceased
by recording the good deeds which in life rendered him illustrious.
This has been done, not so much, perhaps, as a tribute of respect to
the dead, as an incentive to the practice of virtue by the living; and
surely there is no character which presents so many opportunities for
useful comment and example as that which, amidst the difficulties of
circumstances, has triumphed over obscurity, and risen into honorable
fame. This was the case with the late Dr. Pereira, whose determination
of purpose and untiring industry enabled him to accomplish more in the
the space of one short life than is usually effected in that of many
longer ones.
The subject of our present memoir was born in the parish of Shore-
ditch, in London, on the 22d of May, 1804. He received the rudiments
of his education at some of the small schools in the neighborhood; and
when he was about ten years of age he was placed under the tuition
of a classical master of no ordinary attainments. This gentleman kept
an academy at No. 10 Queen street, Finsbury, and Pereira remained
with him for a period of four years, during which time he obtained the
friendship of his preceptor, who was accustomed to speak of him as a
hoy of considerable merit. When he left school he manifested a strong
desire to enter the medical profession; and accordingly at the age of
fifteen, or a little earlier, he was articled as an apprentice to Mr. La-
tham, an apothecary of the City-road. There he remained between two
and three years, when his master became the subject of mental disease.
This led to the breaking up of the practice and to the cancelling of
Pereira’s indentures. While he was with Mr. Latham he studied
hard at his classics, and he drew a vocabulary of Latin terms for his
guidance in dispensing.
At the close of the year 1821 he became a pupil at the General Dis-
pensary in Aldersgate street, and he there attended the prelections of
Dr. Clutterbuck on chemistry, materia medica, and practice of physic.
He also availed himself of the lectures which were occasionally given
by Dr. Birkbeck, on natural philosophy, and by Dr. Lambe, on botany.
In the year following he entered to the surgical practice of Saint Bar-
tholomew’s Hospital. While thus engaged in the prosecution of his .
studies, a vacancy occurred in the office of apothecary at the Dispensary.
This appointment he was anxious to secure for himself, but as he was
not yet qualified for it, it was necessary that he should proceed at once
to the hall, and obtain its license: this he did on the 6th of March,
1823, when he was only eighteen years of age. In the same month,
he was appointed to the Dispensary, and we may date his illustrious ca-
reer from that time. The salary at the Dispensary was not large—it
was, in fact, only £120 per annum; and, with the view of increasing
his income, he formed a class for private medical instruction. This he
had but little difficulty in doing, as the lectures at the Dispensary were
largely attended. His success in that undertaking was very great, and
he thought it desirable to publish a few small books on the subjects in
which he found his pupils most deficient. These were a translation of
the “ Pharmacopoeia ” for 1824, with the chemical decompositions; the
“ Selecta e Prescripts;” a manual for the use of students ; and a
“ General Table of Atomic Numbers, with an Introduction to the Atomic
Theory.” These works were published in the course of the years
1824-5, 6 and 7; they had a very extensive sale, and two of them
are in existence at the present time.
In the year 1825 he passed the College of Surgeons, and in the year
following he succeded Dr. Clutterbuck as a lecturer on chemistry.
At that time he was only twenty-two years of age, but his appearance
was commanding, and he therefore looked much older. His first lec-
ture was given to a large class of pupils and friends. It was emi-
nently successful, and he received the warm congratulations of his nu-
merous admirers. Then, as ever afterwards, he sought to dazzle by
the novelty of his facts and the profusion of his illustrations. His
lecture-table was covered with specimens, and, among other things, he
exhibited the new element, bromine, which Bolard, of Montpelier, had
just then discovered.
In the course of a year or two after that time, he began to collect the
facts for his “ Materia Medica.” He saw that the whole subject of
pharmacology was involved in the greatest confusion, that its principles
were misapprehended, and that its doctrines were founded in absurdity
and conjecture. From this chaos and darkness he determined to re-
lieve it. Accordingly, he commenced a diligent search for all the facts
of the science; he studied the ancient fathers of physic, and made
himself master of the literature of the subject, from the earliest pe-
riod of history; he collected the works of English writers, and he un-
dertook the study of French and German, in order that he might read
those of the Continent. At that time he devoted his whole energies to
the subject, and worked for about sixteen hours a-day. He was accus-
tomed to rise at six in the morning, and to read, with but little inter-
ruption, until twelve at night. This he continued to do for several
years; and had he not been possessed of an iron constitution, of great
physical endurance, and of a most determined purpose, he would un-
questionably have sunk under it. As it was, the closeness of his ap-
plication occasioned several slight attacks of epilepsy, and a frequent
determination of blood to the head. After a short time he began to
give lectures on materia medica, as well as on chemistry, at the Dis-
pensary ; and he must have been so completely engaged that he could
not find leisure for original investigation. In fact, from the year 1827
until that of 1835, his name appears but once in the journals of the
time. This occurred in 1829, when he published a short paper in the
London Medical and Physical Journal, on the adulteration of hydriodate
of potash.
In the year 1832 his affairs were in so prosperous a state that he ven-
tured to leave the Dispensary, and to get married. lie resigned his
appointment in favor of his brother, and he commenced practice as a
surgeon in Aldersgate street. A reference to The Lancet of the time
will show that he left the Dispensary about twelve months before the
notorious quarrel occurred at that Institution. It is probable that he
foersaw the approaching storm, and retired from the falling house; but
be that as it may, he had, in the year of his marriage, joined the new
medical school in Aldersgate street; and in the year following he was
elected to the Chair of Chemistry in the London Hospital. For a pe-
riod of six years he lectured at both of these places on three subjects
—namely, on Chemistry, Botany and Materia Medica; and during
the whole of each winter session he was accustomed to give two lectures
daily. While he was at the Aldersgate Medical School he became
very intimate with Dr. Cummin, who was then the editor of the late
Medical Gazette; and in consequence of this and also of his great
popularity as a teacher, he was engaged to publish his lectures on Ma-
teria Medica in that journal. They extended over a period of two years,
viz., from 1835 to 1837, and amounted to seventy-four in number.
There can be no doubt that they greatly added to his reputation; for
we find that they were translated into the German, and re-published in
India. In 1839, he re-produced them in another form—viz., in his
“ Elements of Materia Medica,” and this work was so much appreciated
that the whole of the first part was bought up long before the second
was ready for delivery. A second edition was therefore immediately
called for, and it appeared in the year 1842. Before this date, how-
ever, viz. in 1839, he had been chosen Examiner in Materia Medica in the
University of London ; and in 1841 he had been elected Assistant-Physi-
cian to the London Hospital He took his degree at Erlangen, in 1840,
and he obtained his license at the College of Physicians directly afterwards.
About the same time he was invited by some of the authorities of St.
Bartholomew’s Hospital to lecture at the medical school of that Insti-
tution, and the arrangements for his so doing had been almost com-
pleted, for a syllabus of the course was actually published; but when
it was notified to him that he would be required to give up his other
appointments, he refused to relinquish his position at the London Hos-
pital, at which institution he had experienced great kindness. He im-
mediately afterwards, however, gave up the Aldersgate School.
In 1842, he gave two short courses of lectures at the rooms of the
Pharmaceutical Society, and, in the year following, he was appointed its
first professor. During that year he published his work on Food and
Diet, and he was elected on the Council of the Royal Society. By that
time, his practice as a physician had become rather extensive, and as
it was rapidly increasing, he determined to throw aside his more scientific
pursuits. Accordingly, in 1844, he resigned a part of the course of
chemistry at the London Hospital into the hands of Dr. Letheby; in
1845 he gave up a larger portion of it; and in 1846 he relinquished it
altogether. He continued, however, to lecture on Materia Medica at
both the hospital and the Pharmaceutical Society, and there is no rea-
son for believing that he contemplated any change in this matter* until
the new regulations of the Apothecaries’ Society transferred his course
to the summer session. This arrangement interfered with his usual
habits, and also with his ideas of the importance of the subject, and
consequently, in 1850, he resigned his lectureship at the hospital,
though he still continued to deliver a winter course at the Pharmaceuti-
cal Society. In 1845, he was elected a fellow of the College, and, in
1851, he became a full physician at the hospital. He had now reached
the summit of his ambition : his reputation as an author was estab-
lished, and the rewards of industry were falling thick about him. He
was a fellow of many scientific societies, he was in constant communi-
cation with the learned of all countries, he was intimately connected
with many of the greatest institutions of the metropolis, and was, in
fact, their brightest ornament; he had collected around him a large
circle of friends and admirers, and he saw before him the prospect of
wealth and happiness. In the midst of all this, however, he was
stricken down, and that so suddenly, that he had hardly time to take
leave of those who were about him. He died on the 20th of January
last, and within one week of health and hope he was placed in his last
resting place. His funeral took place at Kensal-green on the Thursday
following, in the presence of a large number of friends and pupils, who
mourned in silent grief.
A retrospect of the labors of this distinguished physician will show that
he was a man of no ordinary capacity, that he was characterized by qual-
ities which always ensure success. He had an unquenchable thirst for
knowledge, an indefatigable spirit, unbounded industry, and a determi-
nation of purpose that was irresistible. Whatsoever he did he did well,
and he therefore made his performances as valuable to others as they
were creditable to himself. This is evidenced by the works to which
we have alluded, for they have made for him the reputation which he
possessed, and have given to others the means of acquiring knowledge
which is not to be found elsewhere. The great peculiarity of his ef-
forts is, that he aimed more at bringing within our reach the treasures
of other men’s minds than of exposing those of his own. He has, in-
deed, been charged with a want of originality, and, most certainly, if
we estimate him by the value of his own independent researches, he is
open to such a charge; but it must also be admitted that it is an
equally useful element of the human mind, that faculty which urges
men to gather up the scattered facts of science, and to mould them into
a shape that may be made available to all. This has our author ac-
complished, and the result of his labors will endure beyond the efforts
of originality, for they will last through all time, as a monument of
his industry.—London Lancet, Feb. 1853.
Death from the administration of chloroform.—A person
named Henry Ilollingworth, a factory operative from Newton-moor,
near Hyde, has fallen a victim, at the Manchester Royal Infirmary, to
the use of chloroform, administered to nullify the pain consequent upon
a severe operation. An inquest was held on view of the body by Mr.
Herford, coroner for the borough, when the following evidence was
^iven :
Mr. John Wright Baker, house-surgeon at the Royal Infirmary, said
the deceased was admitted on the 16th Dec., on account of a malignant
tumor on the right thigh, to remove which an operation was performed,
as it was looked upon as a cancerous tumor, though enveloped in much
doubt, as those tumors often are. He was in a bad state of health when
admitted, and everything was done to improve bis health previous to the
operation. A consultation, as I understood, had been held previous to
his admission, and it bad then been determined that the operation should
be performed, of course with the consent of the patient. The consulta-
tion was of all the medical men of the infirmary. The deceased, the day
before the operation, said he was ready for it, but wished to have chlo-
roform. Almost every patient takes it. I said he should have it if he
wished it, and that he would feel no pain, and that I would do all I
could to support his strenth. I dil not give him any caution. We
have given chloroform frequently, and never had a fatal case before. At
eleven o’clock on Friday, the 24th Dec., the operation took place. There
were present Mr. Jordan, as the operator, Mr. Beever, as his assistant
in the operation, Mr. Wilson, Dr. Renaud, and Dr. Wilkinson (all
members of the honorary medical staff of the infirmary,) and myself.
Mr. Frederick Heath, a qualified surgeon, administered the chloroform.
The man was very much excited, struggled, and talked fast. The chlo-
roform was administered slowly, and every precaution was taken to pre-
vent any danger ; and the medical men remarked two or three times how
very long it was in taking effect. He at last became insensible in about
seven minutes at least. Mr. Jordan commenced the operation by an
incision into the skin covering the tumor. I was assisting the surgeon
when Mr. Heath directed my attention to the patient’s face. This was
about five minutes after the operation had commenced. I then observed
congestion about the face, but there was no stertorous breathing. His
pupils appeared almost to have ceased to act. His breathing was be-
come exceedingly slow, and he seemed to be sinking fast. I directed
the attention of the operator and other medical men to these symptoms.
The operation was then suspended, and means resorted to for restoring
animation, but the pupils had ceased to act, and bad become fixed almost
immediately. He gave one strong gasp, and then to all appearance was
dead. In administering the chloroform, successive doses were given
until it took effect. Every dose consisted of a drachm, taken at inter-
vals in an inhaler. Constitutions differ with regard to the effect pro-
duced by chloroform, but we use every precaution to prevent injury;
and I am satisfied that the surgeons did their duty in the administration
of the chloroform and in the operation.
Mr. Jordan was examined, and stated, in corroboration of Mr. Baker’s
evidence, that more time elapsed than usual before insensibility was pro-
duced, and then it was not complete, for after the incision was made,
the man, more than once, said a cat was scratching him. Chloroform
was generally administered in cases of operation, unless there were cir-
cumstances which, in the opinion of the surgeons, rendered it undesirable.
Mr. Heath was a competent person to administer chloroform. The post-
mortem examination showed that asphyxia, caused by chloroform, pro-
duced the death. There was a congestion both of the brain and lungs.
Verdict—“ Died from the effects of chloroform.”
It is, we understand, the determination of the medical staff in all
cases requiring the use of this deadly though valuable agent, to have
one person to administer it, and another to scrutinize the effects upon
the patients, in order to avoid a second fatality of the kind.—London
Lancet.
The Founder of the British Museum.—Sir Ilans Sloane was
born, according to some documents in the library of his splendid collec-
tion at the British Museum, in the County Down, Ireland, at a place
called Killeagh, April 16, 1660. lie stated in his will that the collec-
tion he was bequeathing the nation was richly worth £80,000. It
contained 200 volumes of dried plants in the form of a hortus siccus,
30,000 mineral and other specimens of great interest in natural history,
with a library of 50,000 volumes, and 3566 very rare manuscripts.
There are two pictures of this great and talented Irishman in the
M useum. One would like to see them more generally known. It
appears, from the little written of Sir Ilans Sloane, that it was in Ulster,
in Ireland, he first imbibed that love of scientific pursuits that has since
rendered his name, and we fear only his name, illustrious: in France
and Ireland, in fact, was laid the foundation of his great museum. Like
Hunter, Mozart, Goldsmith, Ilaydn, Johnson, and a legion of other
great men, we find Sloane in early years struggling a good deal with
adversity. Before he was of age he had several severe attacks of
haemoptysis, which threatened him with an early grave, like Laennec,
Bichat and others; death, however, spared him till he had done his
work. Stahl, Ray, and another great countryman, Robert Boyle, were
then in the ascendant, all of whom were known to Sloane, and helped
to form his mind. And yet who thinks, amid the winged bulls from
Nineveh, and the magnificent collection crowded at present in the huge
building of the British Museum, of Sir Hans Sloane or Boyle. We
think of Watt whenever we see a steam engine, because with one happy
thought he has made it the last wonder of the world in a utilitarian point
of view; the great workers in the mine of abstract science and philoso-
phy we disregard. In 1683, young Sloane set off for France, and there
seems to have been delighted with the botanical collections and lectures
of Tournefort, and spent a year collecting plants for the museum. We
find him next going out to the West Indies, a young man, under 30,
physician to the Duke of Albemailc, and in spite of many crosses and
disappointments, still further adding to his specimens 800 species ?of
rare and valuable tropical plants. These two collections form the first
nucleus of the British Museum. It seems all this time he never forgot
his native country, Ireland, and we should in all probability have those
specimens now in Trinity College, Dublin, and the British Museum
(which would be a great blessing) quite a different institution, but that
Sloane got married to a very rich wife, and settled permanently in Lon-
don. In 1693, he became Secretary of the Royal Society, and in 1727,
was appointed physician to the king, aud succeeded the great Newton as
president of the Royal Society. George I. made Lira a baronet, and he
died, at the age of 93, in 1753.—Dublin Medical Press.
Five Cases of Persons struck by Lightning. — In five men
who suffered from this accident, M. Minourid observed burns presenting
black eschars, with destruction of the epidermis, rete mucosum, and of
apart or the entire thickness of the dermis, covered with a dark-colored
phlyctenae, surrounded by an erythematous redness; the eschars were
large, irregular, ill-circumscribed, oval, or round, separated from each
other by spaces of inflamed skin; no part of the body escaped, but
they were particularly well marked on the outside of the lower extre-
mities. It is remarkable that nowhere did the burn extend deeper than
the dermis (the burn of the fourth degree of Dupuytren.) Would it
appear, then, that the subcutaneous cellular tissue is a non-conductor of
electricity ? Of ordinary burns, those which most resemble the effects of
lightning are caused by gunpowder explosions; but the latter differ
essentially, by bearing the marks of the grains of powder in the skin.
In one of these men who died instantly, the writer observed that,
though it was then the month of December, and the body had been left
during the night merely covered with a cloth, and exposed to the air,
yet after a period of thirteen hours, it was yet warm.—Mnna.li Univer-
sali di Medicina.