was likely to cease, and what did I really intend to do with myself now that I was in a position to obtain a livelihood ?" The query was a distressing poser to me, for, up to the time of it being thus pointedly put, I had not given the subject one second's consideration. Consequently, when my guide, friend, and bursar thus took me to task, I became utterly bewildered; the few words that he spoke were equal in effect upon me to what might have been printed in a folio volume-physiologically speaking-they might be regarded as a tiny portion of "Liebig's Extract of Beef," possessing equal, if not superior, "nutritive" properties to a sliver "off the round." I assured my relation that I had not paid any attention to the "worldly" side of life's picture; that, as he desired it, I should do so, and finally I promised to inform him, ere the close of the week, the result of my deliberations. Within the time specified, I duly kept my promise, and took the opportunity to state that I had thought over the subject of my medical future, but had not arrived at a satisfactory result, sought from him an extension of time for the purpose, obtained it, and promised to decide speedily. The fact was-this is entre nous—as my relation, bless his heart! is yet in the flesh-the fact was, that Cupid had enslaved me; I was desperately in love-fell into it sudden-as an apoplectic sparrow drops from an eave into a water-butt that may be beneath it, and I knew what would occur which did occur subsequently—whenever I concluded my deliberations. I should be called on to pack up and be off without further delay or procrastination, a calamity in such cases generally regarded as most disastrous in its consequences. Yet philosophers affirm that love, and absence from the object of it, is far less fatal to the human constitution than the "red gum" to babies. At length the crisis came. "Well," said my relation to me one night,-" well, are you for the Army, eh ?" "No, Sir," I replied. "Well what, Sir, eh? Why not the Army, eh ?" "Well, Sir, the fact is I know many fellows in the Army, and they consider it nothing to boast of as a field for the employment of professional skill, or as a means to realise an income proportionate to the position a fellow is compelled to maintain, unless private resources be employed to fill up any deficiency, and you know too well, Sir, that my resources-monetary, I mean—are nil." "Well, there's the Navy; the pay, I believe, is good, and the opportunity to be frugal unlimited. There's young Ruffkins, of Reefstown; he's in the Navy. He was at home, on leave, last summer-a tremendous swell, and happy as a lark-the Navy, eh?" "The Navy is worse than the Army, Sir. Scalenus, and many fellows that I know, left the service in disgust." "Not steady fellows. Scamps, I presume?" "No, Sir; steady fellows, and many more would leave the Naval Service too, if a fair chance to succeed otherwise offered for their acceptance." questing you to commence active professional life, both for your own sake, for your family's sake, and for my ease of mind. So choose your own path, and I shall assist you to tread it as a gentleman should; you understand?" "I do, Sir. I told you why I objected to the Army." "Yes; but you did not tell me why you objected to the Navy." "Well, Sir, Scalenus and others often tell our fellows that a surgeon in the Navy is not a privileged person— he is only tolerated-tolerated for the "ship's" comfort and preservation, and looked on as a piece of machinery to be put in requisition when desirable--for although styled a "commissioned officer," he is always told on board that he holds no rank. This may be hard enough for a gentleman of education to stand, but he is also compelled to make an animated pump-handle of his right arm, and to salute when off duty in the public streets (like a private soldier), not only the commander of the vessel in which he serves, but likewise that of any and of every other vessel, whether small or large, on promenade or at concert, anywhere and everywhere they may crop up! Now, imagine Cerebrum, well and respectably brought up, highly educated and gentlemanly, having to raise his pump-handle to Sartorius, who joined the service at the mature age of fourteen years, and who is son of Nell Gwynn, the bumboat woman, or of Barbary Pegof Brighton. Why Private Juniper of the Guards is not obliged to salute any but the officers of his corps. "Do you tell me so ?" "I do; and I also tell you that a naval surgeon has often to wait the personal convenience of the officer on duty for many of the necessary privileges he may be entitled to, such as the use of a boat to go on shore, &c., although I have heard that in the French and other Naval Services part of the system is that, at a certain hour daily, a boat is in readiness with its crew waiting orders to carry on shore all officers off duty, and who may desire change of scene." 66 'That's as it should be, and it is otherwise in the British Navy ?" "I have been told so, and have full faith in the credibility of my authority. Yet there is a worse feature in the service. It is this-that in the Navy you are nearly one-fifth portion of the entire time on half-pay,and such time does not count in your promotion nor in your pension; thus, before a naval surgeon can retire on what is called twenty-five years' service, he is compelled to actually be from thirty to thirty-five years in the service. Nor has he a claim for promotion nor for pay proportionate to the gross time he may be in the service, but only for the actual time served, so that the whole of the time which he may be on the half-pay list is absolutely so much time lost to himself and to his future prospects, which prospects we can scarcely assume to be brilliant, if we consider for a moment that his age, on retiring after twenty-five years' active service, must be three score years or thereabouts." This is a glaring injustice to the naval surgeon. Eh? I couldn't stand it! Bless me no !" "But Sir, in the army full time from date of entrance, "You astonish me; you object to become an Army Sur- whether on the Staff or otherwise, is allowed to him in geon; well, I don't much mind that. You reject the Naval promotion and in his retiring pension. In a word, an Service; why you do so I should much like to be in- Army surgeon retiring on twenty-five years' service ranks formed; at the same time, now listen. I do not want to as Deputy Inspector-General. A Navy surgeon may be force you into either service, yet I decidedly insist on re-thirty or thirty-five years in the service, and may not have served twenty-five years, consequently, he cannot retire with equivalent advantages to those of the Army surgeon. Well, well, what a pickle, go on boy. You see Sir, there is a difference in the Navy between time in the service and active service; the former is the grain with the hull and the stalk, the latter the grain only. Labour and seed and a fertile soil are employed to produce the hull for the winds and the grain for the market. Regard the grain as the active service in the Navy, the hull as the time on the half pay list, and the stalk, bearing both grain and hull, the full time a fellow serves." "What robbery! Then if two brothers join the Army and Navy as surgeons, at the same time, the naval sureon must remain many more years than the Army surgeon, ere he can retire on pay and with rank equal to his brother owing to this half-pay list bugbear, eh? 66 Precisely so, Sir, that's correct; and although he may have seen far more perilous service, and have roughed it in all quarters of the globe." "Well, I never." Nor I, Sir; and now that we're on the subject I just remember having read something to the effect that naval surgeons should not be entitled to receive their shares of prize money nor decorations, unless on extraordinary occasions. 66 Monstrous. Who is to blame for all this, the Admiralty, eh ?" "Both the Admiralty, the surgeons in the service, and the profession outside of it. Would you believe, Sir, that I have been told that at Boards for medical survey, nonmedical officers-naval officers, in fact-sit, discuss, and vote on thosh purely medical questions!" THE PROJECTED APPOINTMENTS AT THE IN our recent notice of the changes which are pending in this Institution, we stated that Professor Wyville Thompson would probably occupy the chair of Zoology, Botany. This statement is not accurately correct. The now held by Professor Traquair in addition to that of Professorships of Zoology and that of Botany are perfectly distinct at present, and their amalgamation is only a surmise. Professor Traquair is now, and will remain (unless he should seek for and obtain the chair, about to be vacated by Professor Thompson at Belfast) Professor of Zoology at the College of Science. Professor Thompson has been already appointed to be Botanical Professoriate, but whether he will accept the election and leave Belfast, whether Professor Traquair will succeed him there, or whether, if so, the Professorships of Botany and Zoology in the College of Science will be incorporated into one, is at present matter for speculation. The impression is current that Professor Thompson will hardly vacate his present office unless he is appointed to the Professorship of Botany in the University of Dublin, without which his acceptance of office at the College of Science would envolve a very serious loss of income. Correspondence. [We are happy to give space to the following letters, which have been forwarded to us for publication; if, on enquiry, the facts stated prove true, the sooner the stigma be removed the "Then the Naval Medical Service must be a muddle of better for the credit of the profession.] red tape and humbug. TO THE EDITOR OF THE MEDICAL PRESS AND CIRCULAR, Above all, Sir, surgeons are denied not only rank on board ship, but even on shore in their social capacity. Now published this day, containing what I believe to be a gross SIR,-I forward by this post a copy of the Somerset Gazette, as an example of this, let us suppose a medical officer in libel on the profession of surgery, of which the College is the company with a sub-lieutenant, or even a midshipman in-natural guardian. The passage to which I refer, is to the effect vited to dine at a private gentleman's table, either officer, the very “middy" according to the Admiralty regulations, takes precedence of the medical officer, no matter what his supposed rank may be, even were it that of a deputy-Inspector General of fleets, &c. "You are right my boy, not to join, don't." "Indeed I will not, Sir, nor will I advise any fellow with whom I am acquainted to do so until those glaring wrongs be rectified." "Bravo! But what do you intend to do, try a Poor-law appointment, and eat your way up, as lawyers do, eh ?" "No, Sir, until the Poor-law Boards are by Act of Parliament compelled to pay their medical officers £365 per annum, which is less than a guinea a day,—certainly not exorbitant pay for which to get thoroughly competent medical practitioners to conscientiously discharge the duties, I do not purpose to try that quarter; and you know full well, Sir, that local interest and influence are at present the great sources through which candidates, in most instances, obtain dispensary and union appointments. Competency and ability to perform the duties of the appointments are quite a secondary consideration." "Well, what's your game, eh?" "I think, Sir, I'll seek in London fame and fortune." "Well, well, likely you're wise. I'm satisfied. Bow Bells, Whittington, and London; ding dong; good night." QUID NUNC. that" in past times Mr. Oakley (the governor of the jail) has sion to perform the duties of hangman," and I think it devolves actually had application from members of the surgical profes on the College of Surgeons to demand some explanation of this most extraordinary statement. I wrote to the editor a note, of which I enclose a copy, but feel quite powerless to enforce justice against such odds. TO THE EDITOR OF THE SOMERSET GAZETTE. SIR,-An article in the Somerset Gazette of to-day, contains a statement that "in past times Mr. Oakley has actually had application from members of the surgical profession, (why did he not include the clergy and legal professions?) willing to perform the office of hangman." A gentleman such as Mr. natural instinct of which is the saving of human life, without Oakley would not wantonly slander a noble profession, every some colourable pretext for so doing. Tramps and scoundrels of every kind have from time to time applied to me for money and assistance on the plea that they were medical men, but in every case in which I have taken the trouble to investigate, I have found their statements wholly false, that they never were members of the profession at all; the highest claim to that title ever found by me amongst them was that at some time or other they had been employed by medical men to assist them when in want of help. DEATH OF DR. O'FERRALL, OF DUBLIN. WE sincerely regret that we have to announce the death of Dr. Joseph M. O'Ferrall, which occurred on Wednesday last, the 23rd inst, at his residence, 15 Merrion square, North. For some years he had suffered from defective vision, yet, nevertheless, so valuable was his diagnostic skill, and so excellent his judgment, that he was extensively consulted by his professional brethren and the public up to the week in which his lamented decease took place. He commenced his professional career as an apprentice of the illustrious Richard Carmichael, the teacher of so many eminent surgeons. His industry was remarkable from the outset, and he utilised to the fullest extent the great opportunities which the House of Industry Hospitals then afforded. Professer R. W. Smith has informed us that he resided in the Richmond Hospital for no less a period than five years. He became a licentiate of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1818, and five years afterwards, an unusually short interval, was chosen a member of that body. Having located himself in Sackville street, the public soon became aware of the fulness of his professional knowledge, and he rapidly acquired an extensive practice. Unable to procure an appointment to any of the then existing hospitals, he gladly availed himself of the connection with St. Vincent's Hospital, which he retained from 1834, when it was founded, to the day of his death. At first he was the sole medical officer, but afterwards, the late lamented Dr. Bellingham was his colleague, and since his decease, Dr. O'Ferrall acted as Chief of the present staff. Many of the clinical lectures therein delivered, and most of the numerous essays on the cases there presented to his observation, have been published in the Dublin Quarterly Journal, the Transactions of the Pathological Society, the various series of the Hospital Gazette, and in this Journal. His various contributions number 125, and as all exhibit a diagnostic skill rarely equalled, contain valuable practical suggestions, and are written in a clear, concise, and scholarly manner, they are well worthy of republica tion. A few of the more original of these essays may be enumerated :-"On Ileo-cæcal Abscess;" "The Pathology and Treatment of Varicose Veins ;" "On the Cure of Popliteal Aneurism by Compression of the Artery at the Groin ;""The Diagnosis of Hip Disease ;" "On Abscess, with Fistulæ of the Breast ;""On the Structure and Diseases of an Apparatus surrounding the Eye-ball, and a New Operation for Extirpation of that Organ ;" " The Treatment of Anthrax." The operative procedure which has made his name most famous is the elevation of a tumour, or other part about to be removed, for the purpose of emptying it of blood as fully as may be. A MOST brilliant career of usefulness and talent has been brought to a termination by the early death, last week, of Dr. Ryan, late of Middleton, Co. Cork, who, at the early age of twenty-four years has been shorn of the rewards of a very zealous studentship in medicine. He had gained the highest qualification in his profession-the Directorate in Medicine, the Mastership in Surgery, and the Baccalaureate in Arts, and had signalised his competition for these by obtaining a gold medal in Medicine, and another in six languages in the Queen's University in Ireland. Our profession can ill spare so promising a member, and it could, perhaps, have better spared one whose genius had had time to germinate. SULPHATE OF NICKEL IN NEURALGIA. THE interest of the following remarks does not lie in the employment of the sulphate of nickel in neuralgia, but in its therapeutic effects. We are told that it is a gentle tonic, acting like the preparations of iron and quinia. In this case, however, it seemed to exercise a sedative influence, more closely resembling that of the bromide of potassium. During the last two months the paroxysms have been very Mrs. B. has suffered with neuralgia more than three years. violent and frequent-occurring every few minutes. She has taken iron, quinine, arsenic, strychnine, colchicum, aconite, morphine, chloroform, valerian, zinc, mercury, electricity, and many other remedial agents, with only temporary relief. As Prof. Simpson had used the sulphate of nickel successfully in a case of severe and obstinate periodic headache, I concluded to try it, and began February 19th by giving her half-grain doses three times a day. In less than a week the paroxysms were reduced to only one within twenty-four hours; this came On last Sunday (March 1st) it did not commence sulphate, notwithstanding she had taken her regular doses until about 3 p.m. I was present and gave one grain of the that day. Its sedative action was speedily manifested in reducing the pulse and producing sleep. All symptoms of the paroxysm disappeared, and Mrs. B. states that they did not return until 7 o'clock. In this case the sulphate of nickel has given more permanent relief than anything else; Mrs. B. tells me that it soothes her quicker than morphine, and is not followed by any unpleasant effects.-Richmond Medical Journal. on at noon. NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS. A. B. L.-You will find the subject treated in the last volume of the "Philosophical Transactions." ANTI-HOMEOPATH.-You were right in declining to meet in consulta tion, as there could be no discussion between parties, one of whom is committed to dogma the other denies. MR. ADAMS.-The case shall appear if a report be sent. DR. HUMBY.-The opinion of our contemporary in questions of praetical medicine is not likely to arrest the attention of the profession. art's, and those of Messrs. Bailey, of Wolverhampton. He prefers the latter, as they more completely burn out. They can be had in London from Hooper, of Pall Mall, and most chemists. SULPHUR PASTILLES.-A correspondent has tried Duncan and Flock DR. PRATT, POOLE.-Your kind suggestion shall secure our best attention, We propose to devote a port on of our space for the future to a record of Continental progress in the English language. DR. LAMPREY.-The Case of Enchondrom" received with thanks. The illustrations, though very graphic, are hardly finished with such accuracy as to fit them for our columns. We have sent them to the enhave had them already engraved in a different form from the proofs sent? graver for his opinion. Do we understand your letter to imply that you We shall be glad to receive the other cases. In our last attention was drawn to an "Extraordinary Case of Epilepsy," communicated to the Surgical Society by Dr. Kirkead. The author's name should have been Kinkead, and not as erroneously printed. SIR, To the Editor of the Medical Press and Circular. (about to become vacant), will you allow me to state that I have no intenSeeing my name mentioned in connection with the Belfast Chair, tion of offering myself for the Professorship, which, however, ten years ago would have been for me an extremely inviting opportunity. I am, Sir, Your obedient servant, T. S. COBBOLD, M.D., F.R.S. Swiney Lecturer on Geology. DR. ALFRED CLARKE, SHORNCLIFFE.-We shall at all times be glad to be too lengthy. The disease, which, after several months of suffering, terminated fatally, was of a paralytic character, first attacking one lower extremity, and then the other. A few hours before his death, he was attacked with difficulty of breathing, which his professional brethren who attended him regarded as solely due to paralysis of the diaphragm, and publish the transactions of the society mentioned, should the reports Lot wholly beyond the power of remedies. In private life Dr. O'Ferrall was most warmly esteemed, and his removal, as a generous patron of art, will be deeply felt. DR. WILSON YARM will please receive our best thanks. "DR. BARTON on Syphilis" is unavoidably held over till our next. THE valuable proceedings at the meeting of the Junior Surgical Society will appear in our next. CONTENTS. VOLUME VI. JULY TO DECEMBER, 1868. ABATTOIRS and the haunt of animals, 91. Abdominal aneurism, 330. Abergele catastrophe, the victims of Aberdeen Royal Infirmary and Lunatic Aberdeen University, 261. Dr. H. M. James on, 5. Apothecaries' Society of London, 255. Army medical department-examina- Army medical department-official regulations Vol. 6, 249. Army medical service, 245. Austria and the cattle plague, 47. BAMBERGER, Professor, on acute poi. soning with phosphorus, 106, 132. Bequests to medical charities, 530. Colour-blindness, 323 CORRESPONDENCE.“ A Conservative M.D. Ediu., on the A Conservative M.D. on the contest A Governor of a London hospital on A medical student on fistula in 'ano,' A member of the profession on the dis- 240 An hospital physician on sick clubs, Armstrong, Dr. C., on the representa- tion of the Universities of Glasgow Ashe, Dr., on medical reform, 68, 153 Azygos on chilblains, 460 Barton, Dr., on the nature and treat- ment of syphilis, 507 Butler, Mr. N. J., on the treatment of acute rheumatism, 133 Cognovi on reform in medical educa- Crisp, Dr., on the Carmichael prize essays, 88; on medical reform, 505 Donovan, Dr., on iodide of sulphur in 69 Drysdale, Dr., on Dr. P. James' plan Graham, Dr., on the poisonous effects of " cytisus laburnum," 110 Griffith, Dr., on Dr. MacCormac's Hearne, Mr. E., on the medical Hutchinson, J., on the Oxford Meet- Hyne, Mr., on medical representation Lewis on treatment of the apparently MacCormac, Dr. H., on ventilation, Madden, Surgeon-major, on com. pound and comminuted fracture of Mapother, Dr. E. D., on medical re- M.D. on the title of doctor, 240, 301 Not a Disciple of Malthus on Lord Nourse, Mr., on the Sanitary Museum Phelan, Mr. D., on puerperal fever in Reid, Dr., on underpaid poor-law tation of the profession on the Williams, Dr., on reform in the Croup, lime inhalation in, 194 Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, 513 Elections at the King's and Queen's Extractum carnis, 551 Eye diseases and injuries, Dr. A. H. Professor Bamberger on acute poison- Forensic medicine (Review), 102 Gall-stones, 519 Gamgee's experiment on blood, 86 Glasgow and Aberdeen Universities, Glasgow Faculty of Physicians and Glasgow University new buildings, Groundless charge against a medical Guy's Hospital, London, 89 Hamilton, Mr. E., on the spinal ice- Hargraves, Dr. William's introduc. tory lecture at Royal College of Harley, Dr. John, testimonial to, 90 Hayden, Dr. Thomas, on the patho- Health of London, the, 19 Heat-stroke, Dr. C. Handfield Jones HOSPITAL REPORTS. |