44 seems to consider, that the formation of the The practice mentioned in this paper I slough was not so much the effect of in- have recommended in other cases, not only tensity and degree, as the peculiar kind of of smaU-pox, but of severe varicella, and inflammation. In reply we must observe, found it successful. I now beg leave to lay that peculiarity of inflammation is a thing it before the profession, most of whom, in we know little about, except from its ten- civil life, will have better opportunity of dency and effects; that if a healthy adhe- meeting with the disease, and judging of sive inflammation be produced where an the merits of the practice, than military unhealthy tendency to the production of medical men, the vaccine system being too certain known effects existed, then the ex- rigidly enforced to met often with this istence of that peculiarity of action became formidable disease in the army. Whether of little consequence, being so easily de. this disease, thus destroyed in its infancy, stroyed. We must also take into consider. can have the effect of preventing its recur. ation, that since the days of the justly rence in after-life, must be as yet only mat. celebrated Ilunter, opinions have changed ter of speculation, but that would appear to with respect to the nature and texture of be of little consequence, as the treatment the skin itself, many, both in Great Britain that once could so easily check the disorder and on the Continent, being very doubtful is always at hand to remove it. of a rete mucosum. We also know, that Dublin, 14th Feb. 1829. the interior of the corion, or side next the body, is more permeable than the side next the surface ; that the vessels on this outer surface are more delicate and smaller than BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE LATE those of the inner, and that, for many rea- JOHN HENNEN, M.D. sons, it is here cutaneous diseases com- D. Westminster monly exist. Reflection will also teach us, By O. EDWARDS, Esq., that inflammatorv affections of the skin Hospital. will, pari passu, often run their course and Ir the following notice of the profes- terminate much like inflammatory affections sional career of one of our first military sur- elsewhere, thus showing obedience to the geons be deemed wotthy of insertion in your same laws ; thus a portion of blood is thrown widely-circulated Journal, it is quite at your upon a part, no matter what the causes service. simple or specific, a small red pimple is Dr. John Hennen, who lately fell a vic- observed, whether itchy or otherwise; it tim to the malignant epidemic fever at may remain a short time, then gradually dis- Gibraltar, was descended from a very re- appear, or be resolved; it may end so far spectable family in the county Mayo, Con- in effusion, that a papula surmounts it ; this naught. The first of his ancestors that set- papula is either opened or bursts ; the ex- tled in the sister kingdom was a confidential ternal air absorbs its more, and presses to.. follower of Oliver Cromwell, and was re- gether its less, fluid particles, and a scab warded for his services to that great forms, adhesion takes place to the parts usurper, by -an extensive grant of land near beneath, and, covered by nature’s dressing, Castlebar. The family of the Hennens the part gets well and the scab falls off. The have ever since been respectable land- cuticle may have been also thickened, or at owners in that neighbourhood, and the least not yield, then the effused fluid, find- patrimonial estate is still held by a lineal ing no exit, reacts by pressure on the origi- descendant of the first settler. nally inflamed part, which being excited to John, the younger of the two sons of greater action, a suppurative one is induced, James Hennen, Esq., was born at Castlebar and pustule is the result. Should the por- in the year 1779. He acquired the first tion of disease be more highly excited, and rudiments of his education in a respectable more extensive, the surface of the coricn is boarding school at Limerick; and, at a drawn into disease and sloughs, u’.ceraticn suitable age, he was bound apprentice to must succeed to throw off that slough, and Mr. J. Hennen, a surgeon and a near rela- when the part heals pitting must naturally tion, who enjoyed an extensive practice in be expected. It has been asked, by a ta- his native town. In the autumn of 1797, lented writer,—" If the pock does not sup- young Hennen was sent to Edinburgh, purate, will tlie slough ever be found ! I; where he was more distinguished for the it willuot, then the suppuration is as much beauty of his person, and the urbanity of his as the slough itself." I think not, to) manners, than for application to his studies. should suppuration exist, the matter be With an improvidence, which was cliarac- evacuated ly puncture, be absorbed by lint teristic or his whole life, he contracted a and the apex and base unite, no patting ha marriage before lip was eighteen years old, followed, therefore it would appear that with a young lady of good family and great no slough existed, nor ulceration became accomplishments, but who was still younger- necessary for its expulsion. than himself. ile hall littl0 cause, how- 45 ever, to regret this apparently imprudent succeeded the actions at Waterloo, he union with Miss Malcolm. She proved for I exerted even more than his wonted energy, twenty years a faithful and affectionate and contributed greatly to form those ex- companion, and partook with him in all the Ie cellent arrangements which were adopted in dangerous services in which he was subse- the management of the wounded thousands quently engaged. In 1799, he joined the of friends and foes. army of Sir Ralph Abercromby, with the The severe bodily and mental fatigue, rank of hospital mate, and was soon pro- and the long-enduring privations which he moted to the assistant-surgeoncy of the occasionally underwent, had made him, 40tli regiment of infantry. In 1800, he whilst campaigning, contract a habit of con- accompanied the expedition to Egypt, and tinual smoking ; and his constant activity was slightly affected with the ophthalmia brought him, frequently, under the eye of which proved so severe a scourge to our the Duke of Wellington. The following troops. John Hennen was naturally a man anecdote respecting him was long current of very quick observation, and soon became in military circles. On the celebrated 17th convinced of the necessity of supplying the of June, 1315, Mr. Hennen being on duty in deficiency of his early education, and apply- the presence of the Duke, whose attention ing his opportunities of acquiring know- had been caught by the ever-burning cigar, ledge to the improvement of his mind ; with his Grace observed, "Well ! Hennen, is what success his exertions have been at- that the fortieth cigar to day?" No, my tended, those who have had the happiness lord," replied the surgeon, " it is only the of enjoying his richly varied and deeply thirty-eighth." erudite conversation, can fully appreciate. In the autumn of 1315, he was raised to On his return from Egypt, he was stationed the rank of deputy inspector of hospitals, successively at Malta and at Gibraltar, and was placed on the Home Staff, at Ports- where he acquired a familiar knowledge of mouth. The leisure which he enjoyed in the lingua Franca and the expressive lan- this district, enabled him to complete his guage of Spain. On his return to England, book on the " Principles of Military Sur- he was removed to the 7th Garrison Bat- gery." This work was received with uni. talion, and remained some time quartered versal approbation. The clear and rational in the north of Ireland. About the spring views which it presented of the nature, of 1806, he was appointed surgeon of the consequences, and treatment of the injuries 2d Battalion of the 30th foot ; and we find sustained in war, illustrated, as they were, him in Portugal, with his regiment, under by a series of authentic and well-marked, Sir A. Wellesley in 1807. In 1809 he was and relevant cases, established the reputa- in Cadiz during its bombardment by Mar- tion of the author. In 1820, he removed shal Soult; and afterwards was actively to Edinburgh, and experienced an irrepara- and unremittingly engaged in his arduous ble loss in the death of Mrs. Hennen. In duties, during the whole of the Peninsular the beginning of that year he took the de- campaigns. I-lis energetic promptitude and gree of M.D. Soon after, he became editor indefatigableness soon obtained for him the of the Edinburgh illedical and Surgical friendship and good offices of Dr. M’Gregor, Journal, and delivered a course of lectures the chief of the medical staff, who intro- on military surgery. In the springof 1825, duced him to the favourable notice of the he was appointed principal medical officer commander-in-chief. The medical care of a atI Malta and the Ionian Islands. During division of the army was entrusted to him.his residence on this station, he drew up an That service was performed with the great- extremely accurate, comprehensive, and in- est efficiency and integrity, and called forth teresting topographical history of those the approbation of his superior officers. islands, which lies in MS. in the office of During the actions in the Peninsula, and, the Army Medical Department. In Janu- indeed, from his first entrance into the ser- ary 1826, he was appointed inspector, and vice, lie made a practice of writing a history transferred to Gibraltar, where he imme- of everv remarkable case that came under diately commenced, and perseveringly car- his observation. These cases furnished the ried on, a minute and critical inquiry into all materials of the excellent work which he the predisposing and exciting causes that afterwards published on the " Principles of have tended, at different times, to produce Mititary Surgery." At the peace of t814, epidemic diseases which raged on that he returned to Scotland, and established thedevoted rock. This masterly analysis is also himself as a general practitioner at Dum- extant, in MS., at the Army Medical De- fries, the birth-place of Mrs. Hennen. He partment office. In September of last year, had scarcely furnished his house, however, the last fatal epidemic broke out in the gar- before he was again summoned to active rison, and the Doctor made the most stre- service, and lie proceeded, with his eldest nuous efforts to resist the progress of the son and daughter, to join the army’in I but in vain; the whole community Flanders. In those which became involved in the trying scenes, malady,,, contagious vortex, 46

and this indefatigable officer, worn out by The Registrar read the Minutes of the the fatigues of his public duties, and agi- two last meetings, and intimated that he tated by the suffprings of his family, became had conveyed the Petition of the Society obnoxious to pestilential causes, and fell an upon the subject of dissection to Mr. War- easy prey to that destructive disease, on burton, who had promised to present it, with the 3d November, 1823, in the 49th year another he had from Norfolk, to the House of his age, and the 29th of his servitude. of Commons within a very short time. In person, John Hennen was tall and The PRESIDENT observed, that the Coun- portly ; the expression of his countenance cil were detained below upon a subject of was severe, but not without dignity. Per- very great importance to the Society, but, haps the distinguishing excellence of his he hoped some gentleman would, in the mind may have consisted, in what Locke time, introduce a subject for has aptly termed, " large sense." This meansion. discus- attribute is very evident in his works. He Dr. RAMADCE related a case of tic dou- was also possessed of acute powers of ob- loureux, which had been occasioned in a servation. The deficiency of his early edu- very singular manner. A gentleman moist- cation had been long supplied by the ex- ened two small pieces of zinc and copper ertions of his after-life, and few men could together, with which he touched the tip of be found, in the circle of our profession, his tongue ; the following evening he re. endowed with greater variety and depth of peated the experiment, and next morning knowledge. He was critically acquainted he had a violent attack of tic douloureux. with the Greek and Latin Classics, and was, He compared the peculiar sensation it occa- for a layman, extraordinatily skilled in Bibli- sioned to that of a piece of hot iron being cal learning. The kindness and guilelessness run up through the nose to the lachrymal of his heart were shown in every act of his duct, and into the brain. After he had been life ; but that improvidence, which was a some time free from the attacks, being part of his character, and the expenses ne- anxious to ascertain whether he was per- cessarily incurred in so stirring a life as manently so or not, he touched the inner tlat of a military surgeon, prevented him surface of the middle of the upper lip with from making any large provision for his his finger, which instantly brought on the family. Having married again, in 1825, he attack. He ’renewed this at several ixiter- leaves behind him a widow and five chil- vals with the same result. The patient like- dren. wise laboured under dyspepsia and fulness The third edition of his work, on the of the head. He (Dr. llamadge) recom- " Principles of Military Surgery," is now mended him to lose blood from the arm, or- preparing for the press, to be published for ,dered him aperients, and afterwards admi- the benefit of his family, and a subscrip- nistered the carbonate of iron and sub-car- tion has been set on foot, at Gibraltar, for bonate of soda, which produced a complete the purpose of erecting a monument to hiscure in the course of a fortnight. The pa- memory, to which all, from the Governor tient had been ill ten days before he had downwards, have liberally contributed. culled on the Doctor. The pain during the a sufficient surplus should remain, it is pro.If attack did not follow the course of the fas- posed to present some token to his talented cial ue:ve. daughter, (whose age excludes her from the Dr. JOHNSTONE considered this case in- provision which Government supplies to teresting, it having arisen from so triiling the younger children,) of the respect in a cause. The liain, in these cases, fol- which her virtues are held by the iiihabit- lowed no particular course, but darted in ants. A list for subscriptions lies open at every possible direction. The carbonate the Army Medical Department Otfice. of iron was the general remedy. These Westminster, 30th March, 1829. minor cases of tic douloureux had, of late, been much more frequent than formerly. Dr. llilne, of Naples, had laboured under the disease for eighteen months, before LONDON MEDICAL SOCIETY. there was any restoration of the strength of the nerve, and, at the expiration of that pe- Monday, March 30, 1829. riod, the power of the nerve returned. One patient of his, in the neighbourhood of Lon- don, had been aftlicted with it for nine Mr. in the Chair. CALLAWAY, President, months, without any amelioration of the TIC DOULOUREUX.—FLUIDITY OF THE BLOOD disease. As the e3-e was very apt to re- AS PROOF, OR NO PROOF, OF UNNATURAL main open during the night, unless care was DEATH. taken to close it, and to keep it shut, it be- THE Presld&ttt took the Chair at ten mi- came particularly important to attend to nutes past eight o’clock, but there were very this, lest, from being open and unprotected, few members in the room. inflammation should ensue. One case he