230

THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE and I am certain that with the present feeling every loop- hole of escape will be seized upon to evade notification by OF SURGEONS, EDINBURGH. the practitioner in attendance. There is little doubt that To the Editor of THE LANCET. Mr. Gray’s Bill must be materially changed before it will be received with of favour. The also to the above is a or not any degree payment SiR,—Whether bogus qualification the medical attendant of one shilling for each certificate I am not in a to but Mr. is position say, Berry quite wrong cannot be considered as munificent. The entire subject is, when he hints that the M.D. Aberdeen might just as well however, one which may be regarded with very different be viewed in the same light. feelings ; and the proposal of Dr. McDonnell, that the I admit the M.D. Aberdeen is given bv promotion, after question should be thoroughly investigated by a select committee of the House of is one of the M.B. has been two years in practice; but then only on Commons, deserving certain regulations being fulfilled. When I went in for the consideration. The annual of the subscribers to the Belfast M.D., two years ago, I had to lodge with the Dean of the meeting for was held in the Faculty of Medicine a thesis, to be approved by the Faculty Hospital Sick Children, Queen-street, over the of Medicine; I had to go up to Aberdeen to be examined in Clarence-place Hall, last week, presided by Hon. Logic, and also in Greek, in the latter because I had not R. O’Neill. Resolutions were adopted congratulating the Committee on their success in off the debt on the previously passed in it, as it is not a subject for paying compulsory and the Ladies’ Committee for their the M.B., nor with any of the other examining bodies before building fund, thanking constant attention to matters connected with the best whom I have appeared. I do not think I have any reason for it a interests of the hospital. A vote of thanks was also accorded considering bogus degree. the Believe me, Sir, yours truly, to medical staff. The recent concert for the benefit of St. Mark’s Cardiff, Feb. 1st, 1881. FRED. EVANS, M.D. Aberd. Ophthalmic Hospital, , has resulted in a sum of jE66 12s. 4d. having been obtained for the funds of the institution. Dr. IRELAND. James Little has been appointed consulting physician to the hospital, in the vacancy caused by the decease of Dr. (From our own Correspondent.) Alfred Hudson. In consequence of the prevalence in certain parts of ALTHOUGH it is usual for a candidate for the Vice-Pre- England of foot-and-mouth disease, the Lord-Lieutenant sidency of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland at the and Privy Council have published an order prohibiting the into or in Ireland of any animal from close of the year to declare his intention of forward importation landing coming Great Britain. The order came into force on the lst inst., for election in the following June, up to the present time no and continues during the present month. name has been put forward for the office now held by Mr. The annual meeting of the friends of the Dublin Hospital Chaplin of Kildare. It is, however, believed that if Mr. Sunday Fund was held last Monday, presided over by His Grace the of Dublin. From the annual John Kellock Barton, a senior Member of Council, surgeon Archbishop report i of the Council I learn last collections were made in to the Adelaide and Lecturer on in that, year, Hospital, Surgery the 229 of the total amount contributed being Carmichael School of would stand for the Vice- places worship, Medicine, f4050 7s. 9d., showing a decrease of 9264 118., as comparea. Presidency, he would be returned unopposed. with 1879. After payment of the ordinary expenses, a sum At the annual meeting of the Cork Ophthalmic and Aural of ae3870 was available for distribution; and the Committee Hospital, held recently, it was shown that the total expenses of Distribution have decided to divide the sum of 63750 for the past year amounted to .E480, of which the intern among the sixteen participating hospitals. A proposition of patients contributed £227. It will thus be noticed that one- Lord Plunket, that the advantages of the fund should be half of the total expenditure was obtained from the patients extended to institutions for nursing the sick poor at their admitted to the wards, a fact sufficient to show that the work own homes, more particularly St. Patrick’s Home for done at this institution is those ad- Nurses for the Sick in was to the appreciated by seeking Poor, York-street,’ put mission, more especially as the charge for intern patients has meeting, and negatived. of late been increased. During the past year 802 patients were treated at the At the fourth annual meeting of the Dublin Branch of the Fever Hospital, of which number 200 were admitted British Medical Association, held last week, Dr. Robert into hospital, and the remainder treated as out-door McDonnell, the outgoing President, delivered an address patients. The sanitary state of the hospital has been good, more especially directed to the compulsory notification of and the attendance of patients exceeded that of any previous infectious diseases, a subject ’which he trusted would ere year since the hospital was first established. long be so far brought into action in Dublin as to sensibly It is rumoured that Dr. McDonnell, F.R,S., may pro. diminish the high death-rate for which that city is un- bably succeed the late Dr. Hudson, as Crown representative happily notorious. The President alluded to Mr. Gray’s on the General Medical Council. Bill, which proposes to throw on the medical attendant-if one be in attendance-the duty of informing the sanitary authority when any inmate of a building used for human habitation is attacked by small-pox, cholera, scarlatina, PARIS. typhus, typhoid, puerperal, or relapsing fever,:diphtheria, (From our own Correspondent.) measles, or erysipelas, and observed that he would hesitate this the of the committal to support clause, not ,on ground THE Paris Court of Appeal was recently the scene of a of breach of confidence the medical but any by attendant, most exhibition, and one which is because he doubted if it was the best method of extraordinary probably attaining in the annals of medical Unim- the object in view. It was also open to doubt whether the unique jurisprudence. proposal would work well, which requires that the medical portant as it was in itself, the case which called forth the attendant should give notice to the master of the house, evidence about to follow is worthy of record, as it gives a and on such the householder shall be to notice required better idea of the progress of psychological science in France communicate with the Both of these sanitary authority. than all the annales and 1’evues issued all the the medical attendant to take the by professors propositions oblige in the It is from the Union Meclacale that the initiative, but Dr. McDonnell was disposed to think country. extract is that it would be a just as well as a wiser course taken. to throw on the householder the initial step, and that Last October a young man had been condemned to three it should be the duty of the latter to ascertain from months’ imprisonment under the following circumstances:- the medical attendant whether the disease was infectious. " Deux agents des mceurs avaient surpris le pruvenu The importance of the compulsory notification of,infectious dans un urinoir de la rue Sainte-Cecile. Didier, de- disease is denied by none, but the detail as to who is to be posaient-ils, commettait, senl, un acte obscene, et ih I’avaipnt the party-the householder, or the medical attendant-to observe dudehors pendant pres d’nn quart d’heure." The inform the sanitary authority as to the existence of a con- accused replied, that the police had sworn false.7, and tagious disease in a household is the real practical difficulty. that he had no memory of anything of the kind. H I know that the feeling among the profession in Dublin is appealed from the decision of the court, and beed much against the onus of taking the initiative in the matter, the eminent alienist, Dr. Mottet, who lwl trt<1ced