ANONYMOUS CORRESPONDENTS OF THE LANCET. 81 some time or other, that in pinning their faith to it, they had committed an egregious error. MR. NEWNHAM'S CASE OF MALIGNANT SIR, SURGICAL JOURNAL. I have perused with much interest, the case detailed by Mr. Newnham in your Journal of the 3d instant; the feeling of interest being probably increased by my having a dear relative suffering at the present time from disease of the shoulder, equally sudden in its access, though I trust not equally malignant in its character." But the question of fracture or nonfracture, reminds me forcibly of the Chameleon, and induces me for once "to find a tongue," and say, they both are right and both are wrong." It has been long popularly credited that there are medical agents, capable of inducing the uterus to expel TO THE EDITOR OF THE PROVINCIAL MEDICAL AND its contents, when in an impregnated-state, more especially in the early months; and I am myself so convinced that such is really possible, that were it absolutely necessary to cause abortion in a pregnant woman, I have but little hesitation in saying, I could produce it by the aid of a drug. Dr. Shapter, I trust, will not mistake me, when I thus appear to come forward empirically. I dissent from his opinion, and believe that he commits an error. As facts are stubborn things, and upon these I ground my reasons of non-concurrence to the Doctor's statement, I will, without minutely entering into each case, briefly mention what has fallen under my own knowledge. Within the period of eighteen months I have attended three young unmarried females. They were not considered seriously ill, but their melancholy depression of spirits and general debility, had given rise to some uneasiness and alarm on the part of their parents. Each of them, when closely interrogated, confessed to having been enceinte, and rather than risk the disgrace of giving birth to a living child, had had recourse to "herbs," which in two cases, their seducers had administered to them, in the other, an old midwife, and which had caused abortion in each, at or about the third month. These are not solitary cases, but I believe they are constantly occurring, and rather on the increase than otherwise, and however startling to some it may appear, I fear it is too true, that the law of the land holds out strong temptations for the commission of a crime so revolting and utterly at variance to nature's dictates; for can we feel surprised, as in the case of a girl who has yielded to her seducer, rather than be immured probably a life-time in the dreaded union house, she should stifle her better feelings and consent to rid herself of a burthen, when this can be effected simply by taking drugs, which she has no idea may prove injurious to her constitution. I will not prolong this note to a greater extent; others may feel desirous of giving their opinions, and -April 20, 1844. I am, Sir, ANONYMOUS CORRESPONDENTS OF THE In justice to the editor of a weekly contemporary, we are bound to state that he asserts that the forged letter from Nottingham, against the Provincial Medical Association, was directed from Nottingham by mistake, and that he had positively received at least fifty more letters, more severe, on the same subject. It is strange that fifty-one letters should be sent so opportunely; and still stranger, that the one selected should turn out an imposture. Of course, no one will suppose the worthy editor so much to forget the gentleman, and play the vile person, as to assert by wholesale, and in a way so palpable, that which is not; but this certainly is somewhat of the marvellous. There can be no doubt after the exposé from Nottingham, that it was a great "mistake" to date the letter from there. Medical Times. I have not the pleasure of a personal acquaintance with Mr. Newnham, but I know him by reputation, and that is quite a sufficient guarantee for his diagnosis being correct. It seems also that the judgment of the London surgeons is beyond suspicion. How then can this discrepancy of opinions be reconciled? Simply by taking a hint from the Chameleon, and looking at the relative times when the inspection of this case took place. Upon a careful perusal of the case, I cannot doubt that malignant disease of the bone existed when Mr. Newnham was first consulted; and if we look at the awfully rapid progress of the disease afterwards, it surely is not incredible, that between May and August, the disease had so far advanced as to have destroyed the continuity of the bone, and produced the fracture which was then discovered. If this view of the subject be correct, it solves every difficulty, and, I trust, will allay every unpleasant feeling in the minds of the medical attendants, and soothe the breast of the afflicted parent. I will close these remarks with a case which I consider in point. An aged relative of my own, had undergone the operation for scirrhous breast, at the age of 65. The operation proved so successful, that for ten years afterwards she enjoyed perfect health; but at the time I speak of, ulceration of the old cicatrix had just taken place, and she was also suffering from pain in the hip, which was treated as sciatica. In merely walking from her sofa to the dinner table she complained of sudden pain in the hip, and exclaimed that her thigh was broken. She was placed upon her sofa, her piedical attendant was summoned, and an express was sent for me. In his note to me the surgeon said "he should really have thought there was a fracture, had not the circumstances seemed to render it impossible." But it was not impossible; when I arrived, retraction and eversion had taken place, and a fracture of the cervix femoris was evident beyond all doubt. She lived two years after this, and died of cancer of the breast. This case shews the insidious manner in which cancerous disease destroys the continuity of bone. In conclusion, Sir, you have expressed a wish to receive original communications from the Members of our Profession. Few men can look back upon a long practice without recalling cases deeply interesting to themselves, and perhaps useful to the profession. If you can put up with my plain and homely style of writing, I shall be happy occasionally to send you a On the 21st of October, 1843, I was requested to visit Mr. B-, in a neighbouring village, and found the glands of the throat and face much enlarged and inflamed, the submaxillary and sublingual in particular; the tongue was also swelled, and under it two nipple-like eminences, of a bright red appearance, were very prominent and painful. The patient was placed under strictly antiphlogistic treatment, leeches and fomentations were used, and on the following morning all the severe symptoms had subsided. He now informed me that early in the morning a stone had jumped into his mouth from under the tongue, which proved to be a salivary calculus then weighing six or seven grains, and had been ejected from one of the Vivonian ducts, which was still much dilated, and corresponded to the shape of the deposit. From this time the swelling and irritation in the glands, &c., disappeared, and he has since had neither sore throat nor pain of face, which he had been seldom free from for a considerable time previously. The calculus resembles in colour Dr. Prout's admirable representations of the oxalate of lime series of calculi, and is pear-shaped. Although the case occurred on the Yorkshire Wolds, where strata of limestone abound, and consequently the water is much impregnated with salts of lime, yet I do not think one case proves that such causes alone produced it. Pocklington, Yorkshire, April 4, 1844. We think it may be of service to the majority of the members of the Provincial Medical Association, as well as to the Medical Officers of the Ely Union, that a statement should appear in your next number of the names of the several Unions, in which a sum of not less than 2s. 6d. has been sanctioned by the PoorLaw Commissioners to be paid for each successful case of Vaccination, either at a home-station or otherwise. The Medical Officers of the Ely Union have been offered 2s. per case for vaccinating at a home-station, and 2s. 6d. in parishes at a distance. Well knowing the difficulty of getting persons to attend a second time for the purpose of inspection, we are unwilling to take a less sum than 2s. 6d. in all cases, but we have been met by a statement that in no Union has the sum of 2s. 6d. been sanctioned for general adoption. ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS. J. S. Balley; J. H. M'Greal; J. Skelding; J. H. TO CORRESPONDENTS. In consequence of an irregularity in the delivery Ambidexter; Dr. Bell Fletcher; Mr. C. Hawkins; The Report of the Proceedings of the Birmingham We beg to direct attention to the letter of the Medical It is requested that all letters and communications be sent to Dr. Streeten, Foregate Street, Worcester. Parcels, and books for review, may be addressed to the Editor of the Provincial Medical and Surgical Journal, care of Mr. Churchill, Princes Street, Soho. PROVINCIAL MEDICAL & SURGICAL JOURNAL. SHEFFIELD MEDICAL SOCIETY. been his guide in the discharge of his ordinary duties, in connection with your Society; and he will follow it steadily in the performance of this, his last act under an appointment, from which he will retire with the conviction that he has acted fairly towards those who placed him in office. The history of the past furnishes gratifying anticipation for the future; indeed, you could not reasonably have expected better things than you have realized already. There have been only three meetings this session, at which some interesting morbid specimen was not laid before you, and generally several were exhibited on the same occasion. No difficulty has been encountered in obtaining papers; and when the numerous demands made on the time of medical practitioners are con Summary of the Scientific Transactions of the Session, beginning October 6, 1842, and ending April 20, 1843. By J. LAW, ESQ., Member of the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons, Glasgow. Reviews of the past sessions of scientific societies are allied to valedictory addresses; and in the preparation of them, the judicious omission of objectionable matter is not less difficult than a wise selection of suitable materials. Addressed to the members collectively and individually, and presenting, in a condensed form, abstracts of their sessional transactions, these documents require very delicate management. When the greatest pains are taken to please, offence may easily be given; and even the smooth language of pane-sidered, it is, you will allow, a suitable theme for gyric, merited or unmerited, is not always acceptable. In the present instance, the difficulty is not diminished by the presence of those whose names occur in the retrospect; for it is a trite observation, that to praise a man in his own hearing, without making him feel uneasy, demands good taste, sound judgment, and tact, the result of experience. Deficient in these essentials to a satisfactory performance of his task, what shall the writer do? He was desirous your annual summary should possess the value and authority to be derived only from large experience and superior talents; but the decision of your President having prevented the gratification of this desire, the Secretary sees no way of escaping from a duty, to which he now proceeds with many misgivings, relieved only by the conviction that your kind partiality will exceed the defects of his performance. The Society has held fourteen meetings in this hall, during the present session. Over the reports of the transactions of these meetings, personal feeling has had no control: they have been framed under the influence of a sincere desire to do justice to all, by a fair and impartial epitome. If, in any instance, what ought to have been forgotten, has been preserved; if, in any instance, an unusually valuable observation has not received a local habitation, still the intention of your Secretary was right, either his judgment or his memory defective. “Fiat justicia ruat coelum." This sentiment has No. 7, May 15, 1844. congratulation, that the Society has been only once H 84 SHEFFIELD MEDICAL SOCIETY. If, now and then, two discordant strings were touched by the finger of chance, their transient and scarcely audible vibrations have served only to relieve the pure harmony of mutual forgiveness, in which the discord was instantly drowned. Long may your friendly professional intercourse offer an agreeable refuge from the daily anxieties of medical practice. A question has presented itself to the mind of the writer, which, perhaps, you will allow him to communicate. Does your present pros perity justify the expectation that a proposal for raising a library and a museum would be favourably received? Surely it is not a wild expectation that eventually your Society may possess these desiderata. The advantages of a permanent joint-stock library are sufficiently obvious; and are connected with the pecuniary value of the works which compose it. Bateman and Willan's beautiful work on diseases of the skin, which was laid before you on a recent occasion by Mr. Turton, is one of those elaborate productions whose costliness, with respect to many private individuals, amounts to a prohibition. The circumstances of the medical practitioner will seldom allow him to purchase all, or even a considerable number, of the works, to which it is desirable that he should have at all times easy access. Thirty or forty individuals may purchase all these, and each one of the purchasers may enjoy the same “dominium utile" in the joint-stock library as in his own. If it were judiciously managed, it would scarcely be less convenient to call it ours than mine. The difference is only in the "dominium rectum." A permanent collection of standard works is clearly a desideratum. Then, what shall be said of a museum? By imparting durability to the perishable illustrations of pathological phenomena; by presenting these in the compendious form of a classified arrangement, a good museum invests medical science with an irresistible fascination, and fosters an active spirit of inquiry. Books may teach wrong, a museum must teach right. It is, indeed, an infallible oracle; for nature is the priestess. Her revealings are ever replete with valuable instruction to those, who, understanding her language, consult her with the humble teachableness, characteristic of the candid inquirer after truth. You must now follow the writer in a somewhat laborious journey through the regions of the past session. Every scene must be revisited, every thing of interest recorded; the mist of oblivion must not be disturbed where it conceals defects; but it must be dispelled from every object which it is desirable to bring into relief. You have among you one, whose abilities, attainments, and experience, eminently qualify him for this kind of travelling. He performed a similar journey last year; and the sketches produced by him on that occasion are exceedingly effective. They evince, indeed, a creative power, by which an entirely new and improved character is imparted to the objects delineated. The obvious deficiences of the present attempt, will stand in awkward contrast with the excellencies of the spirited production of Dr. Favell; but while the latter obtained unanimous applause, the former solicits only patient endurance. Sequor, sed minore progressu. The papers, morbid parts, &c., which it is necessary to review, are forty-seven in number. They are presented before you in a comprehensive classification, prepared with some pains, and as little liable to objection, perhaps, as any other that could have been devised. Each is numbered, and the name of the contributor, with the date and page, is attached. The whole are arranged in eight classes. ARRANGEMENT OF THE PAPERS, CASES, DISEASED PARTS, BOOKS, INSTRUMENTS, &c., BROUGHT BEFORE the SHEFFIELD MEDICAL SOCIETY, DURING THE SESSION BEGINNING OCTOBER 6, 1842, AND ENDING APRIL 20, 1843. 46 Paper on six cases of fever occurring in one family 47 Paper on the relation of chemistry to physiology The resume baving, as you will perceive, a very extensive range, must necessarily be either too long or incomplete. Many things will be barely mentioned, and only the more interesting portions of the transactions of the past session brought prominently forward. CLASS I. No. 1: The steatomatous tumour, which had been growing 11 years, was removed by Mr. Thomas, in October last, from the back of an infirmary patient. Before removal, it measured nine inches over the surface in one direction, and seven inches in another. It had never been painful, and was Mr. H. Jackson Dec. 29, 42 120 having Mr. Porter Nov, 17, 42 86 Jan. 13, 43 133 135 175 185 Dr. Favell Mr. Boultbee Mar. 23, 43 troublesome only on account of its size, which prevented the free movements of the scapula. No. 2, is a small scirrhous tumour removed by Mr. H. Jackson, together with a portion of the superior maxillary bone, to which it adhered, from an infirmary patient in December last. The first patient recovered without an untoward symptom; the second is now convalescent. No. 3, is an instance of cancer of the womb and ovaries with scirrbous tubercle of the meso-rectum. It is now pretty well established that all these growths are essentially parasitical; and that whether they originate in inflammation or not, they depend |