,peezifurn. CONTENTS. PAGE EDITORIAL THE MEDICAL SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE 2 THE AUSTRALIAN MEDICAL IN EUROPE .. 7 NOTES AND COMMENTS I0 THE NEW CURRICULUM, BY SENIOR 13 ANNUAL MEETING OF THE M. S. S. 16 A BACTERIOLOGICAL TRAGEDY 17 CORRESPONDENCE-UNQUALIFIED MEN AS Locum Tenens 18 ANNUAL HARE AND HOUNDS RUN AND DINNER 19 OBITUARY .. 20 HONOUR LISTS, I900.. 20 SPICULA 21 OLD BOYS 22 Melbourne: PUBLISHED BY THE MELBOURNE MEDICAL STUDENTS' SOCIETY. PRINTED BY AUSTRAL PUBLISHING CO., ELIZABETH ST., MELBOURNE. TELEPHONE No. 902 MEDICAL SUPPLY DEPOT. DENVER BROTHERS Surgical Instrument, Truss Makers, & Importers of ANTISEPTIC DRESSINGS & HOSPITAL SUPPLIES, Corner Swanston & Lonsdale Sts., MELBOURNE. By A ppoinl meld : — Melbourne, Alfred, Women's, Children's, Homeopathic, Leading Country and Intercolonial Hospitals. Sole Makers Ambulance Cases Victorian Railways. AGENTS FOR AGENTS FOR J. Ellwood Lee Co., Arnold & Sons, U.S. America, Surgical Instruments, Antiseptic Dressings. London. John Milne, London, Antiseptic Dressings. Joseph Gray & Sons, Surgical Instruments, A. A. Marks, Sheffield, England. New York, U.S.A., Patent Artificial Limbs. FINEST FRENCH OSTEOLOGICAL PREPARATIONS. Students' Half-Skeletons in Cases (articulated and dkarticulated), Skeletons, Skulls, Selected Disarticulated Skulls, Anatomical Papier Mache Models, &c., &c. Note.—Special Discount allowed to Students off Surgical Instruments. DISSECTING CASES, STETHOSCOPES, MICROSCOPES, THERMOMETERS, SCALP'LC , SCISSORS, MICROSCOPIC INSTRUMENTS, HISTOLOGICAL SETS, &C., &C., in Large Variety. Operating and all Surgical Instruments made on LATEST ASEPTIC PRINCIPLE and always kept in stock. REPAIRS OF EVERY DESCRIPTION NEATLY EXECUTED. 'Pew 3oobs Errivina by Every Mail. T ke: SpeeLactm. THE JOURNAL OF THE MELBOURNE MEDICAL STUDENT'S I Single Copy, 2/- No. 46. MAY, 1900. PRICE ExtraCopies,x/- Editorial. THE War—the all prevailing topic—has provided an excellent °PPortunity for undergraduates and graduates of the Medical School to see active service, and it has been availed of, wherever possible, by our men, amongst whom we are fairly justified in including the well known and popular surgeon, Sir Thomas Fitzgerald. He is now in South Africa acting in the important and responsible position of Consulting Surgeon to the Imperial Forces; a position which can only be occupied by men who have proved themselves by their work as eminently suited for it. Amongst others may be mentioned the late Dr. Hopkins, who has been praised everywhere for his gallant deeds in attending the wounded, and also Dr. Buntine, who has endured the privations and troubles of the famous siege of Ladysmith, during which he was specially mentioned for rescue work under heavy fire. The late Lieutenant J. C. Roberts, and Lieutenant Tremearne, were medical students when the call for volunteers for Africa was made, and they were accepted out of a large number of applicants for the positions of officers of the First Contingent. THE new Curriculum has been in full working order since the beginning of the year, and defects in it, which were noticed when the proposed reforms were first mooted, are by no means so bad now as they seemed then. The proposal to do away with lectures for the Fifth Year was not carried into effect, although it would be welcomed by a large number of those who have to attend them, but it is only by systematic lecturing that men are able to keep up systematic work which as a rule means success, and also that the points in various diseases which are lot made much of in the text books can be enlarged upon by the lectures with advantage to those attending. 2 THE SPECULUM. May, rgoo. In order to carry out the various reforms brought on by the new Curriculum, new buildings have been erected; but in spite of old promises, the Students' Society have not so far succeeded in obtaining new rooms in which to carry out " their new Curriculum." The President of the Society, in his address as Chairman at the Annual Meeting, still held out hopes of an improvement of the present state of affairs, and members are hoping that the time is not far distant when they will have commodious rooms, properly fitted up, in accordance with the importance of Society. their The Medical School of The University of Melbourne. BY DR. J. E. NEILD. THE late Sir Anthony Brownless was the founder of the Medical School of the University of Melbourne. He was appointed a member of the Council in 1855, and he commenced at once to advocate the desirability of its establishment. But he met with little encouragement, either in the Council, the public, or the medical profession. The Act of Incorporation of the University provided for the granting of medical degrees, but not for medical teaching. The project, therefore, was regarded as premature, and therefore unnecessary. In 1857, Dr. Brownless presented his scheme to the Council, but it was not received encouragingly. It was not until five years later that it grew into definite form. Meanwhile a sort of beginning was made in an informal manner by Dr. Eades and Dr. Macadam, who lectured severally on Materia Medica and Chemistry, in the laboratory of the latter, at the rear of the Public Library. And this was really the actual beginning of the Medical School. On the 15th of December, 1861, Dr. Brownless persuaded the Council to pass the regula- tions for the Medical School. A little later he obtained permis- sion to erect the original buildings. His own wish was to attach them to the other structures, but the Council were shocked at the proposal. It would never do, they said, to allow the odour of a dissecting-room to come betwixt the wind and their corporate nobility, and so a quarter of a mile was interposed betwixt Arts and Medicine. Their dislike was further emphasised by building the school in a cockneyfied classic style, of brick and stucco. It was not ready for occupation until about April, 1864. The first appointment of a lecturer was made in January, 1862, Dr. Macadam being chosen as Lecturer on Chemistry. And his name was the first of all the medical teachers to appear in the May, 190o. THE SPECULUM. 3 Calendar (1862-3). At a somewhat later period, Dr. Eades was elected Lecturer in Materia Medica, Therapeutics, and Medical Botany. Professor Halford arrived from England in the latter Part of 1862, and on May 1st, 1863, he gave his introductory address in the Mathematical Theatre. Thenceforth the work of the School went regularly on, and the teaching staff, as published in the Calendar for 1863-4, consisted of Professor Halford, Dr. Macadam and Dr. Eades. The first class of medical students Were Patrick Moloney, who has long held a leading place in the medical profession in this city, and is at present in Europe; William Carey Rees, who died some years ago, and Alexander Mackie, who fell away from his allegiance to medicine and entered the Presbyterian ministry. Curiously enough, 20 years later he returned to the medical fold, and proceeded to complete his qualification, but he died before obtaining his degree. I may here mention parenthetically that in 1862, the Council issued special regulations for the admission to examination for medical degrees of medical practitioners holding any British medical qualifications recognised by the Medical Board of Victoria. Accordingly in the February Term of 1862, six gentlemen presented themselves for examination. Of these only three were successful, and this unfavourable result had the effect of deterring others from presenting themselves, and in the subsequent years, 1863 and 1864, and later in 1879, there were only five other candidates for examination. After that date the Special regulations were rescinded; the severity of the examiners having barred further applications for the honour of an alliance with the University. Continuing our history of the progress of the School, as it had now been fairly started, the Council proceeded to appoint the rest of the lecturers as they were required, so that on its comple- tion it consisted of Professor Halford, in Anatomy, Physiology and Pathology ; Dr. Macadam in Chemistry ; Dr. Eades in Materia Medica, Therapeutics and Medical Botany ; Dr. Rob- ertson in Medicine ; Dr. Barker in Surgery ; Dr. Tracy in Obstetric Medicine and the Diseases of Women and Children, and myself in Forensic Medicine. Of this list, with the excep- tion of Professor Halford and myself, all are dead. And as Professor Halford has permanently retired from the University, remain as the sole representative of the original staff of teachers. I will ask to be permitted to speak personally of these Illy colleagues in the early days of the School. Professor Hal- ford has been my intimate and dear friend from the date of his arrival in the colony. We worked diligently together in those early days, and I never knew a man more earnest, more sincere, and more genuine in the honest pursuit of medical science than 4 THE SPECULUM. May, Iwo. he. When he arrived here, the Medical School was not built, and his lecture room and dissecting room consisted of a stable and coach house at the back of his residence in Madeline-street. I had the honour and privilege of being his pro-sector, and it was my further great privilege to work with him in his enquiries into many subjects, including the structure of the chiropodous apes, and, still later, into the pathology of snake-poisoning. In all these, and other allied questions, Professor Halford showed a zealous spirit of investigation which has entitled him to rank as one of our foremost scientific workers. He is now, to use a familiar phrase, " out of the running," but he has done enough to entitle him to perpetual and grateful remembrance.