The Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society of London CENTENARY 1805-1905 The Royal Medical AND ChIRURGICAL SOCIETY OF London Centenary 1805-1905 WRITTEN AT THE REQUEST OF THE PRESIDENT AND COUNCIL BY NORMAN MOORE, M.D., F.R.C.P. HON. LIBRARIAN ANO STEPHEN PAGET, F.R.C.S. HON, SECRETARY THE ABERDEEN UNIVERSITY PRESS LIMITED 1905 This book has been written, at the request of the President and Council, for the Centenary Festival of The Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society of London. It contains Chronicles of the Society from 1805 to 1905, and a short account of its Presidents, The Chronicles, compiled by one of the Sec- retaries from the Minute-books, Proceedings, and Transactions of the Society, are of course imperfect. It was not possible to set forth a whole century of life, or to put in historical form the work of the present time. The plan of this part of the book was only to give in outline a history of our Society, which should be welcome to its present Fellows, and should commemorate, in our Festival, our Founders and Benefactors. The account of the Presidents is drawn from the usual sources of such biographies. It endeavours, chiefly by quotations from their writings, to put before the Society some characteristic of each President, or of the knowledge prevalent in his day. It has been composed with the intention of the sage of old, " Let us now praise famous men, WB I FES and our fathers that begat us." N. M. S. P. CONTENTS. PART I. I. The Founding of our Society . II. Verulam Buildings, 1805-1810 . III. 3, Lincoln's Inn Fields, 18x0-1819 . IV. 30, Lincoln's Inn Fields, 1819-1820 . V. 57, Lincoln's Inn Fields, 1820-1834 . VI. 53, Berners Street, 1835-1861 . VII, First Proposal of Union, 1860-1861 VIII, 53, Berners Street, 1862-1870 , IX. Second Proposal of Union, 1868-1870 X, 53, Berners Street, 1871-1889 , XI, 20, Hanover Square, 1890-1905 PAGE I 8 22 44 47 71 116 122 135 145 182 PART II, The Presidents of The Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society 207 Appendix 3H Index to Part 1 321 Index to Part II. 333 I. THE FOUNDING OF OUR SOCIETY. Lin ACRE, who in 15 18 founded the College of Physicians, may be accounted the first parent of all Medical Societies in London. If we look back beyond Linacre, we may trace their origin to the Academies of the Renaissance in Italy, which he took as his model : and they, in their turn, were modelled on the Academies of Ancient Greece. The College of Physicians, as Linacre had foreseen and desired, brought together, in London, those who were skilled in the science and art of Medicine, to talk over their observations. Glisson's work, for example, the famous Tractatus de Rachitide, arose out of discussions held within the College. Later, we may trace the influ- ence of the College of Physicians in the founding of the Royal Society, and in the rise and advancement of the London Societies of the eighteenth century. The greatest of them all, the present Medical Society of London, was founded in 1774 ; which brings us to the times of Heber- den and of the Hunters. Dr. Newton Pitt, in his Oration before the Hunterian Society in 1 896, gives an admirable account of the Medical Societies of London in John Hunter's time, and of their fortunes during the years which followed Hunter's death. 2 THE FOUNDING OF OUR SOCIETY The sudden loss of his personal influence and presence fell heavily on them : he had held, among surgeons, the place that Johnson had held in the world of critics and authors : and that might be said of him, which was written of John- son — He has made a chasm, which not only nothing can fill up, but zvhicli jiothing has a tendency to fill up. John- son is dead. Let us go to the next best : there is Jiobody ; no man can be said to put you in mind of Johnson, Hunter had founded, or had helped to found, more than one of the Medical Societies of London. The Lyceum Medicum Londinense had been made by him, and had met always in his Museum, at the back of his grand house in Leicester Square. The little narrow Societies, which existed more for the exclusion than for the admission of members, and met at taverns or coffee-houses, to dine and talk after dinner, had quoted him a thousand times. His death shook the whole fabric of medical teaching in London : and the general unsettlement seemed to offer room and opportunity for a new Medical Society. More- over, the times were changing ; the private Schools of Medicine were beginning to grow old ; and the fashion of dining and debating at the Crown and Anchor or at Slaughter's Coffee-house, was going out. But the immediate cause of the founding of our Society was the unhappy state of the Medical Society of London, which for twenty-two years, from 1 786 onward, was under one President, Dr. James Sims. That Society shows no trace now of the loss of strength and of distinction which it then suffered. But, after nineteen years of Dr. Sims, certain of its Fellows found his rule intolerably irksome ; and on Wednesday, May 22nd, 1805, ^ meeting was held at the Freemason's Tavern, and our Society was founded. The minutes of that meeting are as follows : — THE FOUNDING OF OUR SOCIETY 8 At a Meeting of Physicians and Surgeons held at the Free- mason's Tavern on the 22nd May, 1805, Dr. Saunders in the Chair Resolved unanimously 1. That a Society comprehending the several Branches of the Medical Profession be established in London, for the purpose of conversation on professional Subjects, for the reception of communications, and for the formation of a Library. 2. That this Society be denominated the Medical and Chir- URGiCAL Society of London. 3. That its Meetings be held in some central Situation. 4. That its affairs be conducted by a President, four Vice- presidents, a Treasurer, three Secretaries (one of whom shall be foreign Secretary) and a certain number of Members, who together shall constitute the Council, and shall be elected annually. 5. That no Gentleman be eligible to the Office of President or Vice-president for more than two years in Succession. 6. That a certain number of the Council go out annually. 7. That Six Guineas be the Sum subscribed on admission, and that three Guineas annually be subscribed for the use of the Society. 8. That after the organisation of the Society, all admissions into it be by ballot, and that no person be declared elected unless he have in his favour at least three-fourths of the Members voting. 9. That the following Gentlemen be considered Members of this Society, viz., Mr. Abernethy Mr. Cooper Mr. Moore Mr. Addington Dr. Curry Dr. Myers Mr. Aikin Mr. Dimsdale Mr. Pearson Dr. Babington Sir W. Farquhar, Bt. Dr. Saunders Dr. Baillie Mr. Forster Mr. Thomas Dr. Bateman Dr. Frampton Mr. V^ilson Dr. Blane Dr. Garthshore Dr. Marcet Sir Wm. Blizard Mr. Heaviside Dr. Yelloly Dr. John Clarke Mr. Hunter 10. That a Committee be appointed to digest a plan for the Management of the Society on the foregoing basis, which is to be laid before the Members at large for their con- sideration ; and that this Committee also report on such matters as are likely to forward the object proposed. 4 THE FOUNDING OF OUR SOCIETY 11. That the Committee consist of the following Gentlemen, five to be a quorum — Mr. Abernethy Dr. Frampton Mr. Cooper Dr. Babington Mr. Forster Dr. Curry Dr. Baillie Mr. Heaviside Dr. Clark Dr. Bateman Dr. Marcet Mr. Thomas Dr. Blane Sir Wm. Blizard Mr. Wilson Sir William Farquhar Dr. Saunders Dr. Yelloly 12. That the Committee be authorized to invite certain Gentlemen (whose names were then agreed upon) to become Members of the Society without Ballot. 13. That Gentlemen who have eminently distinguished them- selves in Sciences connected with Medicine, but who are not of the Medical Profession, or do not practice therein, be admissible as Honorary Members. 14. That the following Gentlemen be invited to become honorary members : — Sir Jos. Banks, Bt., K.B. Mr. Hatchett Sir Chas. Blagden Mr. Howard Dr. Aikin Mr. Tennant Mr. Davy Dr. Wollaston 15. That the Committee be empowered to call a General Meeting of the Members of this Society, as soon as their report shall be ready for inspection. 16. That Dr. Yelloly be requested to act as Secretary. 17. That the Committee hold their first Meeting on Saturday next, the 25th inst., at 9 in the Evening precisely, at this place. The Committee met on May 25th, June ist, 7th, and nth, and worked hard. A letter was issued, in accord- ance with resolution 1 2, and twenty-eight members were elected without ballot. Statutes were framed, on the lines of those of the Royal, the Antiquarian, and the Linnasan Societies ; and a list of Officers, and a Report, were pre- pared. On June 14th and 28th, General Meetings of the Society were held : the first, with 30 members present, at the Freemason's Tavern ; the second, with 20 present, at the Crown and Anchor in the Strand. At these meetings, the statutes were read, amended, and approved ; the list of THE FOUNDING OF OUR SOCIETY 5 officers, submitted by the Committee, was adopted without alteration, and they were elected to hold office till March I st, 1 806 ; the report was read ; and the resolutions passed at the Founders' meeting were unanimously approved, and ordered to be printed and circulated among the members. It is to be noted that March ist was ordained, by our original statutes, for the Anniversary Meeting of our Society : but the Minute-books do not say why that day was chosen. Of these original statutes, two are to be noted, which were bound to be set aside, sooner or later : — (i) The President shall take precedence of every Member of the Society, at their ordinary place of meeting, and also in all places where any number of Members meet as a Society, Council, or Committee : and being in the Chair is to be covered, while speaking unto or hearing particular Members, notivithstanding their being uncovered. (2) The business of the Society at their ordinary Meetings shall be to converse upon professional subjects, and to read and hear Letters, Reports, and other papers on Medicine or any of its branches. Written communications, however, shall not be subject to discussion. This dislike of formal debate is expressed again in the Report, written by Dr. Marcet, Mr. Astley Cooper, and Dr. Yelloly :— "The Collection of an extensive and select professional Lib- rary, the formation of a responsible centre for the recep- tion of important communications, but, above all, the affording an opportunity for an easy and agreeable exchange of practical knoudedge — are the dignified and important objects for which this Society has been established.' The Officers, Council, and Trustees, elected on June 28th, were as follows : — Presiden t Dr. Saunders Vice-presidents Dr. Cooke Sir Wm. Blizard Dr. Babington Mr. Abernethy 6 THE FOUNDING OF OUR SOCIETY Treasurer Mr. Cooper Secretaries Dr. Yelloly Mr. Aikin Foreign Secretary Dr. Marcet Council Dr. Baillie Sir Walter Farquhar, Bt. Dr. Pitcairne Dr. Bateman Mr. Forster Dr. Reynolds "! Dr. Blane Dr. Frampton Mr. Thomas Dr. Curry Mr. Heaviside Mr. Wilson Trustees Mr. Abernethy Sir Walter Farquhar Dr. Baillie Dr. Marcet Mr. Cline Dr. Yelloly Mr. Cooper During July and August, the Council held three meetings at the Crown and Anchor Tavern. Their first business was to appoint a Sub-committee to enquire concerning a proper house for the use of the Society : they had also to appoint a Clerk, who should collect the admission fees, copy the Minutes, and take charge of the house and furni- ture. Mr. Thomas Levick, clerk to Mr. Murray of Bed- ford Row, and collector to the Royal Jennerian Society, was accordingly chosen, to live in the Society's house, till a permanent clerk should be appointed ; and received his coals and candles, and a gratuity. The choice of a house was more difficult. The Sub-committee had made an offer to Mr. Dawes, of Little Queen Street, for 74, Lamb's Conduit Street, at ;^90 a year, on a lease terminable in two years : but Mr. Dawes changed his mind, and would not let his house to the Society. On Aug. 21st., Dr. Yelloly reported to the Council that " eligible apartments had presented themselves at 2, Verulam Buildings, Grays Inn, which had been seen by the President and several Members of the Council, and highly approved." The owner, Mr. Egerton, would let them for £go a year, on a THE FOUNDING OF OUR SOCIETY 7 lease terminable in three years. There was only one room for a Clerk on the basement floor : but they might be able to get another room, or to rent one in the neighbourhood. The Council at once resolved to take these apartments : they sent a letter to the members of the Society, saying ihat the arrangement was made " only for a short period, in order that the convenience of Members, and the ad- vancing circumstances of the Society, might be consulted, before a permanent situation was decided upon : " and, in December, our Society met, for the first time, in rooms of its own. The old Minute-books seem to show that Dr. Saunders, Dr. Marcet, Dr. Yelloly, and Mr. Cooper, were chief among our Founders : and the late Mr. J. B. Bailey has said that Dr. Marcet and Dr. Yelloly were the "real Founders." But we commemorate, without question of precedence, our Founders, one and all : for they were all of the same mind. II. VERULAM BUILDINGS, 1805-1810. Verulam Buildings, the one unsightly part of Gray's Inn, are a dull row of chambers, looking on Gray's Inn Road. The numbering of the staircases has not been changed since 1805 : and Mr. MacAlister lately made enquiry, and found that Mr. Egerton's rooms were on the ground floor of No. 2, on the right hand as one goes up the staircase. We may be sure that the Society put good furniture into them, and made them comfortable : for, in March, 1806, the Council ordered payment of bills amount- ing to £244. 4. o, including jCg. 8. o to a glazier, £46. o. o to a carpenter, and ;;^40. 8. o to an upholsterer. Which seems to show that Mr. Egerton had made a good bargain : and this estimate of him is confirmed, when we find the Council paying him not in pounds but in guineas. During these early years, the meetings were small : the average attendance at ordinary meetings, at Verulam Buildings, was as follows — Members Visitors 1806 .13 3 1807 12 2 1808 12 4 1809 12-5 3 The Minute-books leave us to guess whether the members sat where they liked, or all round a table, or in rows. And (8) THK SOCIKTY'S FIRST HOMK : 2, VKRULAM BUILDINGS. Front Room : Three Windows on Right. The Front Uooni. used as I.ibrarv. The Hack Room (overlookins" garden) used as Library and Meeting- Room. VERULAM BUILDINGS, 1805-1810 9 it was not till 1832 that tea and coffee were provided after the meetings. In December, 1805, the Council held three meetings, and made diverse domestic arrangements. They also decided that the ordinary meetings should be on alternate Wednesdays at 9, and should continue /cr an hour or more at the discretion of the President. That Medical Pro- fessors of the Universities should be eligible for membership without contribution or subscription ; and that Practitioners in Pharmacy should not exceed one-third of the whole number of resident members. That Mr. Levick should receive a gratuity of 10 guineas ; and that a door-keeper should attend at the times of the meetings, and should be provided with a great -coat, and be paid two shillings for each meeting. Also, they ordered the following periodical publications to be laid on the Library table : — Medical and Chirurgical Review. Medical and Surgical Journal. Medical and Physical Journal. Nicholson's Journal. Monthly Review. The contrast is pleasant, between this list and the long rows of journals which now lie on our Library tables. On December i8th, was held the first meeting of the Society, with an address from the President, On the par- ticular objects of the Society, and the best means of carrying them into effect. On Christmas Eve, there was a special meeting, for some formal business : Londoners, a hundred years ago, took no great trouble either to observe or to evade Christmas. 1806. That the infant Society might not be disturbed by an election, the Officers and Council were re-appointed till 10 VERULAM BUILDINGS, 1805-1810 March, 1 807. They had not much to do this year, and held only three meetings. On March 1 8th, they instituted a Library Committee, for the purchase of books, and au- thorized the expenditure of ;i{rioo. In August, they drew- up a long Report for the Society, speaking with pride of the success already attained, and expressing their hope that they might soon publish some papers : — "The public meetings of this Society have already been en- riched by several truly valuable communications of the kind the most to be desired — interesting cases of diseases illustrated by anatomical examination, improvements in particular points of medical practice, remarks selected from the common routine of daily business and freely offered for the purpose of information or candid discus- sion — and, on the few meetings when no written com- munication has been made, the evenings have been spent in instructive conversation." On January 15th, at a meeting of 18 members and 5 visitors, our Society held its first debate on subjects medi- cal and chirurgical. Members were proposed ; books were presented ; papers were read by Sir William Blizard and Dr. Marcet ; and cases were related by Sir William Blizard, Mr. Cooper, Dr. Babington, and Mr. Wilson. The statute forbidding the discussion of written com- munications was disregarded : a case mentioned in Dr. Marcet's paper was capped by Mr. Wilson, who described a specimen from a similar case. And it is plain, from the following notes in the Minute-book, that our Society dis- cussed every communication : — March 28th. Dr. Farre's paper on a case of tubercular disease of the liver. "The remaining part of the Evening was occupied principally in conversation on the nature and treatment of tubercular affections of various viscera." April gth. Dr. Marcet's paper on a case of poisoning tfith arsenic and corrosive sublimate taken together. "The remainder- part of the evening was occupied in conversation on the VERULAM BUILDINGS, 1805-1810 11 deleterious effects of Arsenic, Corrosive Sublimate, and Opium, and the best means of obviating them." May 28th. Dr. Pearson's paper on the treatment of hooping- cough. "The remainder of the Evening was occupied in conversation on the subject of Hooping Cough." On February 12th, there was no paper, and no case was related : the members therefore debated over a book — the new edition, just out, of Hamilton s Observations on Purgative Medicines: — "An interesting conversation took place on the use of pur- gatives in Typhus and some other diseases, suggested principally by Dr. Hamilton's work upon that subject. The experience of most of the members present concurred with that of Dr. Hamilton on the efficacy of purgatives in Typhus, particularly when there is considerable dis- position to congestion in the head. A case was also mentioned in which a brisk cathartic of Cal : and Rhubarb twice repeated removed an Obstinate case of Chorea Sancti Viti." At two meetings, there was neither paper nor case : and the Minutes do not so much as say that there was any conversation. Among the papers read at this first Session of our Society, and published in the first volume of our Trans- actions, were 1. A Case of Aneurism of the Carotid Artery. By Astley Cooper, Esq., F.R.S., Surgeon to Guy's Hospital. 2. On a diminution, in consequence of disease, of the Area of the Aperture by which the left Auricle of the Heart com- municates with the Ventricle of the same side. By John Abernethy, Esq., F.R.S., Assistant Surgeon to St. Bar- tholomew's Hospital. 3. An account of a peculiar Disease of the Heart. By David Dundas, Esq., Serjeant-Surgeon to His Majesty. Here we have the first case, in this country, of ligature of the common carotid for the cure of aneurysm ; and the first careful descriptions, in our language, of mitral stenosis, 12 VERULAM BUILDINGS, 1805-1810 and of acute rheumatic endocarditis and pericarditis, / Aave not found it adverted to, says Abernethy, in any books. And, / do not believe any account of it, says Dundas, is to be found in any medical author. Thus our Society, being but a few months old, had already received com- munications of the very utmost importance. 1807. J The Council's chief work, this year, was the selection of papers for publication. Of 22 papers, 13 were ordered to be published, 2 were referred for further consideration, 4 were "ordered to be added to the manuscripts of the Society," and 3 were withdrawn by the authors. An agreement was made with Messrs. Longman & Co. for the printing of a volume : the Society was to have half the profits attending the sale, and to be subject to no risk, and to take at booksellers' price what copies were needed. On November 5th, the Council resolved, somewhat pre- maturely, That the Members be i^iformed that the first Volume of the Society s Transactions is now in the Press. At the Annual General Meeting, the President and Secretaries were re-elected : and the hour of the ordinary meetings was fixed at 8 instead of 9. In November, the Council resolved that it should be 8.30. The Society's accounts, on Jan. 15th, were audited and found as follows — Receipts, £6o\. 13. o. Expenditure, ;^390. 17. 9, Balance, ^210. 15. 3. The booksellers' bills, this year, amounted to ;^io8. 6. o. An additional room below-stairs was taken for the use of Mr. Levick the Clerk : and a security of ;^200 was required of him, which was afterwards reduced to i^ioo. The papers of 1807 seem to show some falling-ofif, as compared with those of 1 806. But, among them, was " a Communication of the Nature of Light and Heat, presented I VERULAM BUILDINGS, 1805-1810 13 by Richd. Saumarez, Esq., a member of this Society, and thanks voted for the same," It was not published in the Transactions, and the Minutes do not give an abstract of it : but we see that the Society took a wide and liberal view of its relation to the sciences. Also, there was Dr. Bostock's elaborate paper on the Gelatine of the Blood, read Dec. 24th, 1 806, and Jan, 7th, 1 807 ; the first paper in Physiology read before our Society. At two meetings, there was no paper ; and the conversa- tion was allowed to range far and wide : — May 2yth. " The Evening was occupied in Conversation on Ophthalmia, Burns and Scalds, Stricture of the Rectum, and Bulimia Syncopalis," June loth. " The Evening was occupied in Conversation on the Use of Cold in Gout, on Tinea Capitis, on Hydro- phobia in a Horse, and on Chronic Croup." 1808. The year began badly, with ill-attended meetings : only 5 at the first, and only 7 at the second. Perhaps Dr. Saunders was tired of his Presidency : for he did not attend the last five meetings before the Annual General Meeting. Dr. Baillie succeeded to him ; and the average attendance, for the next three meetings, was 29 members and visitors ; then the attendance dropped to single figures again. In November, the day and the hour for ordinary meetings were fixed by the Council for alternate Tuesdays at 8,30. The accounts of the Society were audited in February, and found as follows — Balance after last audit, £210. 15. 3, Received since, ;^I73. 5. o, Expenditure, ^^264. 5. 5, Bal- ance, ;^ II 9, 14. 10. In November, Mr. Levick resigned; and Mr. Thomas Nicholls was appointed, on the recommenda- tion of a solicitor in Old Jewry. The Keys of the Apart- ments were surrendered by Mrs. Levick, and were handed 14 VERULAM BUILDINGS, 1805-1810 over by the Council to Mrs. Nicholls. A collector was also appointed, to collect subscriptions now due, at the rate of sixpence in the pound; which, in 1810, was in- creased to ninepence. The Library at this time contained, at a rough guess, some four or five hundred volumes. Mr. Levick had charge of them ; and the little room was always open to members ; but no rule had been made allowing them to borrow the books. On November 17th, at a meeting of the Council, it was resolved That the Library be open for two hours every week for the delivery and return of Books, and also an hour before every meeting of the Society. That the day and hour be Tuesday between twelve and two o'clock. That Two books be allowed each member at one time, and that the books be not retained more than a fortnight, under a fine of 6d. per day. That proper Books be got for inserting the names of Books delivered and of members who take them out. That a book of desiderata lie upon the Library Table. Among the papers read and published this year, two are to be noted, as representing the interests of Anatomy and Physiology : — ■ 1. A Description of two Muscles surrounding the membranous part of the Urethra. By James Wilson, Esq., F.R.S., etc. 2. A case of Tumour in the Brain, with remarks on the Pro- pagation of Nervous Influence. By John Yelloly, M.D., Physician to the London Hospital. Dr. Babington's paper on a case of exposure to the vapour of burning charcoal, and Dr. Marcet's paper on a case of hydrophobia, are also to be noted, as admirable examples of a vivid, sensitive, almost melodramatic style, which might be compared to a picture by Hogarth. On April 27th, at a meeting which was attended only by the President, the Secretaries, and three members, a VERULAM BUILDINGS, 1805-1810 15 letter was read, from Mr. Davy of Bungay to Mr. Astley Cooper, which deserved more attention than it received. *' It contained," says the Minute-book, "the case of a Lady who had dislocated the clavicle at its junction with the Sternum, which resisted all attempts at reduction, and by its unnatural pressure on the trachea had produced a very serious difficulty of respiration. Mr. Davy produced a cure by incision on the displaced head of the bone and by re- moving it by means of a saw. Mr. Davy promises a further account of this singular case in a Communication to the Society. The remainder of the Evening was spent in medical conversation." Surely, a resection of the sternal end of the clavicle, in 1 808, should have been recorded as a landmark in surgery. On December i6th, a very important matter came be- fore the Council — a letter to Dr. Yelloly, from Mr. Good, one of the Secretaries of the Medical Society of London : — Dear Sir, I have the honour of informing you that the Medical Society of London has appointed a select committee, con- sisting of Mr. Ware, Mr. Norris, Mr. Clutterbuck, Mr. Lewis, and myself, to meet a select committee of the Medical and Chirurgical Society, consisting of the same number, in order to carry into effect the desirable object of an union. In consequence of which, our own Com- mittee proposes to confer with yours upon this subject, alternately at the respective houses of the two Societies ; and will, for this purpose, if convenient, open the con- ference at the house in Verulam Buildings, on Saturday the 24th inst. at seven o'clock in the Evening, or on any other Saturday at the same hour that the Committee of the Medical and Chirurgical Society may prefer. I gladly avail myself of this opportunity of offering you my per- sonal esteem, and am, Dear Sir, Your obedient faithful Servant, J. M. Good. What would have happened, if the two Societies had been united ? There was no other Medical Society in I 16 VEKULAM BUILDINGS, 1805-lSlO London, save the Hospital Societies, and here or there some useless little club still haunting a tavern or a coffee- house. No Societies in the suburbs; none, or next to none, in the provinces; nothing, between London and Edinburgh ; no Society for any special branch of Medicine or Surgery. One central Society, catholic in its influences, and of undisputed authority, would have gathered to itself, at once, all the best men of our profession in London, and all the best work ; it would have founded, as the need arose for them, departments for each special subject; it would have lived an immortal life. The dream may, even now, come true: but in 1808 it came to nothing. On Christmas Eve, (our Society seems to have had a strange liking for business on Christmas Eve) a conference was held : and what happened is told in a long report, from our Society's Committee, to the Council : — "... Viewing the augmentation of numbers and property which would result from an union with the London Medical Society, and considering the advantages which might arise to the profession from the formation of one great body, it appeared to your Committee, that such union was desirable ; but at the same time they were convinced, that many circumstances required considera- tion and arrangement, in order effectually to guard those principles of independence, utility, and respectabilitj', on which the Medical and Chirurgical Society was founded, and in consequence of which it has obtained the support of so many gentlemen of the highest professional reputa- tion." The Committee of our Society therefore armed them- selves with three questions, which, a/Ur much preliminary and general conversation, they put to the Medical Society's j Committee ; who retired, to think-out the answers. The questions were I. Whether it appears desirable that a Society should be formed, by the London Medical and Medical and Chi- VERULAM BUILDINGS, 1805-1810 17 rurgical Societies, which should be altogether new, tho' composed of the members, and possessing the property, of both. 2. Whether the object of that union would be, to form a Society likely to answer the purpose of communication between the various branches of the profession more effectually than either of the two Societies now in ex- istence. 3. Whether consistently with this principle a change of place and a change of name should be considered as a basis. The answer of the Medical Society's Committee is reported as follows: — "It was stated, that tho' an union was much desired, yet many difficulties would occur in assenting to a change of place and name, from the peculiar tenure of the principal part of the Medical Society's property. The former difficulty, they were of opinion, might perhaps be sur- mounted ; but they considered it as an essential basis of discussion, that the name should be allowed to remain unchanged. For this stipulation various reasons were assigned ; but more particularly that the change of name would endanger the security of the Society's property." Hereupon our Society's Committee declared "that the only basis, on which any negotiation on the subject of an union would be entered upon, was a mutual concession of place and name, so as to avoid the imputation or inference that either Society had entered into, or been absorbed by, the other." Then the two Committees agreed that there was no need of further conference : and so ended that first hope of union. January, 1809 — May, 18 10. In 1809, the first volume of our Transactions, long promised, was published. Copies were given to each member, resident in London or non-resident, and to the Royal Society, the College of Physicians, and the Medical Society. The name of Transactions was Dr. Baillie's i 18 VERULAM BUILDINGS, 1805-1810 choice : he had been requested by the Council to decide between Transactions and Records. A Preface was written by Dr. Baillie, Dr. Birkbeck, Dr. Yelloly, and Mr. Aikin : and, like most things written by many hands, it is dull. But it states clearly the original purpose of the Society's meetings : — " The reading of such communications as are presented to the Society, forms one part of its ordinary business. The interchange of practical knowledge, in the way of easy conversation, is the other ; and the President and Council have much satisfaction in noticing the important advan- tages which have resulted, and still continue to result, from the opportunities which are afforded, in a meeting of liberal and enlightened professional men, of stating difficulties, imparting observations, or suggesting im- provements in practice. In furthering this important object, the union of gentlemen in both branches of the profession affords a greater facility of obtaining accurate information on many points of practice, than could have been derived from a Society composed of either physicians or surgeons alone. It may be proper however to remark, that it does not at all enter into the plan of this institu- tion, to suffer its proceedings to assume the form of debate or disputation." And we are left to ourselves to find the difference be- tween debate, or disputation, which were insufferable, and easy and instructive conversation, which at so many meet- ings had been the only fare provided. But the end of those Evenings spent in Conversation was at hand. There were five of them in 1 809, and then they stopped : they were overwhelmed by the rising flood of written communi- cations. The list of members from 1805 to March, 1809, which was printed in this first volume of our Transactions, con- tains 99 names, including honorary and non-resident mem- bers, and those who may be called suburban members. Seeing the difficulty and the expense, a hundred years ago, 4 VERULAM BUILDINGS, 1805-1810 19 of getting from Richmond or Clapham to Verulam Build- ings, we may fairly assume that not more than 70 members could attend the ordinary meetings. The average attend- ance was 12, or I in 6. It would be pleasant, if the attend- ance at all our meetings now were in that proportion. A list of donations to the Library, printed at the end of the volume, contains 89 works, 36 of them in Latin, 4 in French, and the rest in English : none in German. But these donations were become but a small part of the Libraiy. So much money was spent on books, that the Council, about this time, declared with pride that the Society's funds went out, in books, etc., as fast as they came in: and the 18 10 audit showed a balance of ^47. 19. i, and no more. In November, 1809, Dr. Roget, "a Country Member, having come to reside in Town," intimated to the Council that he was willing to undertake the arrangement of the Library : and it was resolved that his services be thankfully accepted. At the Annual General Meeting in 1810, Sir Henry Halford was elected President. Dr. Baillie, with his vast practice, had found it impossible to preside over all the meetings ; he had attended only ten out of twenty meetings, Jan.. 1809 to March, 18 10: and he expressed regret, in a very courteous letter. The Secretaries were re-elected. Among the papers read during this time, were 1. Second case of Carotid Aneurism. By Astley Cooper, F.R.S. 2. Observations on the Distemper in Dogs. By Edward Jenner, M.D., F.R.S. 3. Two cases of Small-pox Infection communicated to the FcEtus in Utero. By Edward Jenner, M.D., F.R.S. 4. A case of Aneurism by Anastomosis in the Orbit, cured by the Ligature of the common Carotid Artery. By Benjamin Travers, Demonstrator of Anatomy at Guy's Hospital, etc. 20 VERULAM BUILDINGS, 1805-1810 5. A case of an Un-united Fracture of the Thigh, cured by sawing off the ends of the Bone. By Griffith Rowlands, M.R.C.S., Senior Surgeon to the General Infirmary, and Surgeon to the Lying-in Charity, Chester. 6. A letter on Dysenteric diseases as they have appeared in the British Army in different parts of the world, especially during the late Campaigns in Spain and Portugal. By William Ferguson, Esq., Inspector of Hospitals to His Majesty's Forces. This letter was the first of the many communications, touching the health of our Navy and Army, which are forgotten now, but would be useful in history. It was read on Jan. 1 6th, 1 8 1 o : on which day, the Society elected as a member one who became its illustrious Presi- dent, Mr. William Lawrence, of Giltspur Street, Demon- strator of Anatomy at St. Bartholomew's Hospital. Nine days later, (as though the coming of young Mr. Lawrence had broken the enchantment of Verulam Build- ings) the Council received notice to quit. Mr. Egerton wished to sell the rooms. Our Society, having lately had less than ^50 in hand, feared to make any great venture. Happily, the Geological Society was willing to keep house with them. No time was to be lost ; the two Societies found an eligible house in Lincoln's Inn Fields : and on May 8th, 1810, our Society held its last meeting at Verulam Buildings. These rooms of our Society, which were its first home, are barrister's chambers on the ground-floor of No. 2 stair- case, on the right hand as one stands facing the stairs. They open one into the other by a narrow doorway : and the back room has a delightful look-out over Gray's Inn Gardens. The small front room was the library : the large back room was the meeting room. In 1805, the back room had been divided, by a partition-wall, into two rooms VERULAM BUILDINGS, 1805-1810 21 of unequal size : the Society removed this partition-wall, and restored it when they left Verulam Buildings. They must have had a very comfortable and pleasant room, quiet and well suited for meetings. The basement-rooms, which were thought good enough for the Clerk and his wife, are very dismal. A hundred years ago, fresh air and light were not always held essential to health and comfort. And the Minutes of Council, June 30th, 1809, give an amusing instance, how simple were the first habits of our Society at home. One of the basement-rooms had to be given up to a former tenant : — "As Mr. Nicholls the Clerk will then be deprived of one of his rooms, he requests (the remaining one not being sufficient for his accommodation) that he maybe allowed to occupy the Library, when it is not wanted for the pur- poses of the Society, and to put up a press Bedstead in a corner of the meeting room, and another in the library : one to be furnished by himself, the other by the Society. " Resolved, That Mr. Nicholls be allowed to occupy the Library when it is not otherwise wanted, and to procure a press bedstead at the Society's expense for his accommodation, to stand in the further Corner of the meeting room." Doubtless, on alternate Tuesdays at 8.30, the old rooms are haunted. The delicate, urbane, tired ghost of Baillie, who has just been to Windsor to see His Majesty the King, takes the Chair: Astley Cooper, hearty and sub- stantial even in the world of spirits, and solemn young William Lawrence, and Marcet, and Yelloly, are there, and one or two Practitioners in Pharmacy ; and the Evening is spent in easy and instructive Conversation. Then, at the discretion of the President, they vanish ; and the ghosts of honest Nicholls and his wife rise from the basement. III. 3, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS, 1810-1819. The plan, that our Society and the Geological Society should keep house together, had been approved at a Council Meeting on Jan. 25th, 18 10, and at a General Meeting on Feb. 27th. Several conferences had been held between representatives of the two Societies, and the terms of the agreement, on behalf of our Society, had been drafted by Mr. Astley Cooper and the Secretaries. The house, No. 3, Lincoln's Inn Fields, on the North side of the Square, next door to Mr. Cline's, belonged to a Mr. Hughes: the lease was for 14 years, rent no guineas, premium ;^50, and rates and taxes about ^80. Mr. Greenhough, President of the Geological Society, lent at interest the money needed for the premium, fixtures, etc. ; and a push was made to get in, at once, all subscriptions due or overdue : for our Society was poor indeed, and had to pay the rent of Verulam Buildings till Michaelmas. Probably Dr. Babington, who belonged to both Societies, was active in bringing them together. Among the terms of agreement, were the following : — The first room on the ground-floor to be occupied by the Medical and Chirurgical Society exclusively. The whole of the second-floor to be occupied by the Geolo- gical Society exclusively. The first-floor to be appropriated to the meetings of the two Societies. (22) 3, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS, 1810-1819 23 The remaining part of the house to be appropriated in such a way as may be mutally deemed most expedient. In case of the lower room being at any future time too small for the Medical and Chirurgical Society's Library, this Society to have book-cases, at their own expense, in the meeting-rooms. One Clerk was to serve both Societies. Mr. Nicholls found the work excessive, and resigned ; and Mr. Jones was appointed, with leave to occupy such rooms as were not in use, and with ;^io a year for a maidservant. In Sept., i8io, Mr. Jones resigned, for family reasons; and the Council appointed Mr. Yeoman, Eight years later, they had reason to regret their choice, i8ii. At a General Meeting, Jan. 29th, certain changes were made in the Statutes, Henceforth there were to be two Treasurers. Also, it was resolved that foreigners, eminent in science or in practice, should be eligible as Foreign Members, up to the number of twenty. The old definition of Resident Members, " within the reach of the twopenny and threepenny post," was altered to " within five miles of the Society." Also, it was resolved that the Library should.be open from 2 to 5 on Mondays and Thursdays ; that a member might take out three books at a time ; and that pamphlets and journals might be kept for a week, and other books for a fortnight. This last rule was brought into action, on Christmas Eve, against Mr. John Want, Surgeon to the Northern Dispensary, and he was fined five shillino-s a volume for books not returned. The story of his subsequent contumacity, and expulsion from the Society, belongs to 18 14. The accounts, audited on Jan. 1 5th, showed a balance of ;^i6, 2. 6^, and no more. We may see, in this poverty, the reason why the Council, in December, resolved that 24 3, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS, 1810 1819 the second volume of the Transactions should be given to those only, of the non-resident members, who had con- tributed papers to the volume. Save the bringing-out of the Transactions, no important business came in i8ii be- fore the Council. Everything, as they say in their Preface, was going well : — "The effect produced by the First Volume has been evidently favourable to the advancement of the Society. The number of its members has increased ; its meetings have been better attended; and, above all, a more abundant supply of communications has been received. The library also has been gradually improving; a house has been obtained in a more central and suitable situation ; and, in short, the Society has assumed a position which augurs most favourably for its permanent and increasing utility." Among the papers read this year, and published, were 1. Experiments on the Urine discharged in Diabetes Mellitus, with remarks on that disease. By William Henry, M.D., F.R.S., Physician to the Infirmary, Dispensary, and Lunatic Asylum at Manchester. 2. Experiments and Observations on the Serum of the Blood. By John Bostock, M.D., of Liverpool. 3. A case of Recovery from the effects of Arsenic ; with re- marks on a new mode of detecting the presence of the metal. By Peter M. Roget, M.D. 4. Account of a singular and fatal disease occurring in several persons of the same hamlet. By Mr. Henry Gervis, Surgeon at Ashburton. This paper might well be re- ferred now to a Committee of our Society, for diagnosis of the disease. Two papers, not published, are also of interest. One, by Mr. Fergusson, Inspector General of Military Hospitals, on Ophthalmia in the Army, giving an account of cases where the disease had been produced by fraud ; the other, by Mr. Crowfoot, on recovery after the breech-pin of a gun had been driven into the left frontal lobe of the brain. 3, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS, 1810-1819 25 I8l2. The paragraph, just quoted, from the second volume of our Transactions, must not be taken to mean that any- great increase, either in the number of members or in the attendance at the meetings, was the immediate result of the move to Lincoln's Inn Fields. The average attendance at ordinary meetings was as follows : — Members Visitors l8l2 17 5 1813 18 3 1814 15 3 1815 20-5 4 Nor was there any rapid increase in the number of members. But the papers sent in did increase at a wonderful rate. We may fairly say that our Society, within ten years, had come to be primarily a publishers' company. From the first, the Transactions had been put under the authority of the Council : and the Preface to the first Volume (1809), shows that the Council took very seriously this part of their work : — "The papers which come before the Society have necessarily various degrees of value ; and, in considering their merits with a view to publication, it is wished equally to avoid the extremes of fastidiousness, and want of discrimina- tion." It was nothing, that a paper should be read before the Society : but it was an honour, and a great advantage in practice, to have a paper in the Transactions. The honour was not to be had for the asking : there came a time when more than 50 per cent, of the papers failed to obtain the imprimatur of the Council. And the advantage in practice was great, because the present Medical Journals, and Transactions of many Societies, and Hospital Reports, were not in existence ; so that our Transactions were read 26 3, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS, 1810-1819 far and wide. Other important affairs, beside the editing of the third volume of Transactions, came in i8i2 before the Council, (i) Dr. Bateman, a member of Council, was appointed to the newly-created office of Librarian : promise was made of a printed Catalogue : and nearly £200 was voted for books. (2) To deal with the increased number of papers, an extraordinary meeting was arranged, for September. (3) A letter was sent to the physicians and surgeons of Provincial Hospitals, to the Medical Pro- fessors of our Universities, and to the authorities of the Royal Colleges, inviting their co-operation in the objects of the Society. (4) Foreign Members were elected — Blumenbach, Corvisart, Odier, Rush, Savatier, Scarpa, Soemmering, and Vieussieux. (5) The number of the Council, including the President, was fixed at 21 instead of 22. But the chief event, this year, was the attempt made to obtain a Charter. For two years, this fight was maintained against the Royal College of Physicians, and before the Privy Council ; and then was lost. The whole story is too long to be told here : but an outline of it must be given, from the old Minute-books. The first entry is dated Feb. 14, 1812 : — The Council being informed by the joint Treasurer, Br. Yelloly, that there is a prospect of obtaining a Charter of Incorporation from the Prince Regent, and that Sir Henry Halford had already spoken to the Prince Regent, who received the application very graciously, and that Mr. Ryder, the Secretary of State for the Home Depart- ment, was also favourably disposed to the measure. Resolved, That a petition be presented to the Prince Regent in Council for a Royal Charter of Incorporation, and that it be signed by Sir Henry Halford the President, Dr. Saunders and Dr. Baillie the past Presidents and by the Trustees of the Society. 3, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS, 1810-1819 27 This petition, and the draft of a Charter, were approved by the Society ; and a Charter Committee was appointed. In the petition, they who signed it stated emphatically that they had not the least desire that their Society should in any way interfere either with the Royal College of Physicians or with the Royal College of Surgeons — to which respectable bodies belongs solely the regulation of the professions of PI ly sic and Surgery, and the guarding them against the intrusion of ill-qualified persons. All that the Society wanted was the power to make bye-laws for the regulation of its private concerns, and that increase of stability and effect which a Royal Charter is supposed to ensure. The Metropolis of a sister Kingdom possessed a Medical Society, which had received, by means of a Charter, a great access of these good qualities : but, in London, Various medical associations had existed at different times, during the last eighty years, which from the tvant of some efficient bond of union had soon become inert, or altogether ceased to exist. They prayed therefore for a Charter, and for the Prince Regent to be Patron of the Society. But, when July came, the Charter Committee had to report to the Council as follows : — "In consequence of opposition having been made by the College of Physicians to the granting a Charter to the Society, Counsel was heard by the late Attorney and Solicitor Generals, Sir Vicary Gibbs and Sir Thomas Plumer, in favour of and against the grant of a Charter. These law-officers did not sanction any opinion that the granting such Charter would interfere with the privileges of the College ; but they reported to the Privy Council that the objects of the Society might be very well attained without the aid of a Charter; and that they did not see any sufficient reason for saying that it is advisable for the Prince Regent to comply with the request of the peti- tioners." 28 3, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS, 1810-1819 The College of Physicians was afraid that our Society, under a Charter, might elect as members of its body^ and grant marks of distinction to. Doctors or Bachelors of Physic ivho were neither Fellows, Candidates, or Licenti- ates of the College ; and might thereby create a degree of rivalship and dissention between the College of Physicians and the Society. To this objection, our Society replied that it was willing to insert two clauses in the Charter ; one, forbidding the election, as a resident member, of any physician who had not been examined and approved by the College; the other, safe-guarding all the privileges and immunities of that body. This offer was put for- ward in a memorial to the Prince Regent, praying that the case might be heard before the Privy Council : and the memorial was referred by the Privy Council to a Committee of its Lords. A polite letter, saying what had been done, was sent by our Society's solicitor to the solicitor of the College of Physicians ; and all the answer that it got was this : — Nov. 24, 1812. Sir, In answer to your favour of the 17th inst, I beg leave to inform you, it is the intention of the College of Physicians to oppose the granting of a Charter to the Medical and Chirurgical Society. I am, &c. (signed) Jno. Roberts. And at this point the Minutes stop, and are silent for some months, as it were speechless with indignation. Among the papers read during 181 2, were : — 1. Papers in Anatomy, Physiology, Animal Chemistry, and Pharmacy, by Mr. Charles Bell, Prof. Berzelius of Stock- holm, Dr. Marcet, and Dr. Bostock. 2. Papers by Sir Gilbert Blane on the health of the Army in Walcheren, and by Mr. Fergusson on the Venereal Disease among the Navy and Army in Portugal. 3. Dr. Curry's account (23 pages) of his own case. 3, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS, 1810-1819 29 Thus wide was the range of our Society's early work. For historical interest, we must note the meeting of Jan- uary 21. There was an excellent account given of a case of perforation of the vermiform appendix : there was an old-world case of Apoplexy induced by drinking a large quantity of Water : and there was a paper, On the Con- tagious Nature of Erysipelas, by Richard Bright, Esq., of Peter House, Cambridge. This paper was based on cases in Guy's Hospital during May-July, i8ii. It was not published; and Bright in 1813 wrote De Erysipelate Contagiosa for his M.D. thesis at Edinburgh. At this meeting, also, Dr. John Elliotson of Clapham was pro- posed for membership ; who afterwards became President of the Society, at the time of the granting of our Charter. 1813. In the summer of 1 8 1 3, the College of Physicians brought against our Society this serious charge, that the signatures of Sir Henry Halford, Dr. Baillie, and Dr. Saunders, had been affixed to the memorial to the Privy Council without the leave or the cognisance of those gentlemen. And it is true, that they had not with their own hands signed the memorial : indeed, there is no evidence that they had even consented that their names should be used. But Dr. Baillie had seen it, and Sir Henry Halford had heard of it, and neither of them had disapproved of it : and Dr. Saunders was ill, and away from London, and could not be called as a witness. Moreover, the memorial was practically a continuation of the original petition ; and an eminent Solicitor had declared that a renewal of the signatures was not necessary. All these arguments were put before the Privy Council, by the Council of our Society, in a vigorous counterblast against the College of Physicians. Only a part of it need be quoted here : — 30 3, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS, 1810-1819 " When a petition has been signed and presented by a number of individuals, on behalf of a body which they represent, the Body itself is fully competent to prosecute the busi- ness, through its different stages, on the principles of the original application, without havingrecourse to a repetition of the particular signatures. For, the original document being a distinct ground of procedure, the Society presume that anything cormected with it (and, more especially, matters of explanation and conciliation) may be appended to it, as long as the business remains undertermined. This, indeed, was the view which the Solicitor of His Majesty's Privy Council took of the transaction ; for, upon being consulted by the Society as to the mode of proceeding, he expressed his opinion, that a renewal of the signatures was not necessary." Thus our Society defends itself : but the charge of sharp practice could not fail to injure its cause before the Privy Council. No other affairs of importance happened in 1 8 1 3. The balance of the funds was jC8g. 12. 11^. The radius of " resident " members, which had been 20 miles, and then 5 miles, was now made 7 miles. At the Annual General Meeting, Sir Gilbert Blane was elected President. Mr. Aikin, who had been Surgical Secretary since the founding of the Society, resigned ; and Mr. Lawrence was appointed. The office of Foreign Secretary was abolished. In July, two extra meetings were held, to deal with the rush of papers. Thirty-three papers were read this year, in full or in abstract. Among them, were Brodie's first paper on Diseases of Joints ; Rostock's analysis of the bones in MoUities Ossium ; and Bell's account of the Muscularity of the Uterus. Also, (i) Observation on the Ligature of Arteries. By Benjamin Travers, Esq., Surgeon to the Hon. the East India Company, etc. (2) A Practical Essay on Hemeralopia. By Mr. R. \V. Bampfield, Surgeon of the Royal Navy. 3, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS, 1810-1819 31 (3) Observation on the Comparative Prevalence, Mortality, and Treatment of Different Diseases. By Sir Gilbert Blane, M.D., F.R.S., Physician in Ordinary to the Prince Regent. (4) On the effects of evacuating the Aqueous Humour in In- flammation of the eyes. By James Wardrop, Esq., F.R.S. Also Sir Henry Halford's account, not published in our Transactions, " Of what appeared on opening the Coffin of King Charles the first, in the Vault of King Henry the eighth, in St. George's Chapel at Windsor." He published elsewhere this strange experience : and Dr. Norman Moore has quoted it, in its proper place, in the present Centenary Book. The story is still told, within the precincts of the glorious building, how the Prince Regent graced the cere- mony, and how one of his gentlemen took hold of the King's beard, and some of the hairs came away. But there is a good sequel to that story. Many years later, a certain family had in its possession one of the cervical vertebrae, showing the mark of the axe. By the piety of our present King, and the loyalty of a President of our Society, the relic was restored to the coffin whence it had been stolen. 1814. On Feb. 22nd, in " the Cock-pit," the Privy Council heard the application for a Charter: Sir Samuel Romilly and Mr. Adam appearing for our Society. On June 27th, Dr. Yelloly announced to our Council that the Privy Council had reported against the granting of a Charter. Many affairs, this year, came to be considered. The Library was growing apace, and had extended itself into Mr. Yeoman's sitting-room : a printed Catalogue was almost ready for press : and French and German books were beginning to dispute with English and Latin for room on the shelves. Foreign books, in 181 3, were not 32 3, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS, 1810-1819 to be got SO easily as we get them now. Thus we read in the Minutes of this year — Council Meeting, Feb. 2^rd. " Some books were ordered from Leipsic, there being now an opportunity of procuring them by means of a Leipsic Bookseller who is in town." Council Meeting, Sept. 28th. "Dr. Yelloly communicated to the Council, that he and Dr. Bateman, having been lately in Paris, had, with the assistance of Professor Thomson of Edinburgh, selected and purchased a large number of foreign books for the Society." Other resolutions were (r) That the Catalogue should be sold, not given, to members. (2) That non-resident members should be entitled to all future volumes of Trans- actions on a single payment of four guineas. (3) That the Foreign members should be called Honorary Foreign Members, and should receive a Diploma. (4) That an appropriate device and motto should be found for a Seal for the Society. (5) That Dictionaries of the following languages, vz:s., Latin, Greek, French, German, Italian, and English, be provided for the Library : and not to be allowed to circulate. This year, for the first time, we read of communications made to the Society at the special request of the Council : — Council Meeting, Aug. 10th. Mr. Travers having stated to the Council, through Dr. Yelloly, that there was a proba- bility of obtaining the History of a successful case of the Operation of tying the internal iliac artery, performed by a surgeon in Ceylon who had lately arrived in London, and could not have communicated it to the Society prior to its last meeting, Resolved, That under these peculiar circumstances the President be authorised to call a special meeting of the Society, for the purpose of reading such paper when presented. Council Meeting, March ^'^th. Resolved, that Dr. Yelloly be authorised to communicate to Dr. Spurzheim, who pub- lished a work on the brain in conjunction with Dr. Gall, 3, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS, 1810-1819 33 and who is lately arrived in London, the wish of the Council that he would favour the Society with a demon- stration of his anatomical discoveries. Thus our Society made haste to give honour where honour was due, not to phrenology, but to the splendid work done by Gall and Spurzheim in anatomy. Two lectures were delivered by Dr. Spurzheim, and he pro- mised, and perhaps gave, two more : it seems that the lectures were well attended, for the Council paid a bill of £2. 18. 6 for extra seats. On June 21st he was elected a Member of our Society. Two personal matters, of some interest, came this year to be considered. One was a letter of thanks from H.R.H. the Duke of Kent, to whom the President had sent a copy of a paper by Dr. Gilpin, Deputy Inspector of Hospitals,, on an Epidemic Fever at Gibraltar : — "... The Duke of Kent cannot resist, upon this occasion, expressing the pride he feels in reflecting that, during the year oi his command at Gibraltar, viz., from May 1802 ta May 1803, there were but thirty-nine deaths among the Military, although the average number of all former years had been two hundred ; and that he ascribes this altogether to his unceasing exertions to guard against drunkenness, to enforce cleanliness, and to keep the soldiers more or less in a constant state of useful but moderate occupation." The other personal matter was the case of Mr. John Want, Surgeon to the Northern Dispensary, and one of the editors of the Medical and Physical Journal. In 1 8 1 1, for his persistent failure to return some books to the Library, he had been fined : and had at last sent the books, but not the fines. In February, 18 14, he asked leave to publish in his Journal a monthly report of the Society's proceedings ; and his request was refused. In December, he published a notice of the contents of a paper read before the Society in November, The Council 34 3, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS, 1810-1819 were furious : they drew-up a long Report to the Society, and arranged a dismal little ceremony : and in January 1 815 the Society held two Special Meetings. On Jan. 17th, it was agreed by 37 votes to 3 that Mr. Want had rendered himself liable to expulsion ; and on Jan. 24th, by 26 votes to 5) he was expelled. If it were not for those unpaid fines, we might honour him as an innocent victim of the old hateful doctrine that facts of medicine and surgery might be locked-up like private property. Thirty-two papers, some of them very long, were read this year. Among them, were Mr. Fergusson's paper (not published) on the Diseases of the Army in the Peninsula : papers by Dr. Clarke and Mr. Coley on the removal of loose cartilages ; a further paper by Brodie on diseases of joints ; and Lawrence's description of an acepha- lous foetus. Also, papers on Cynanc/ie Laryngea, by Mr. Wilson and Mr. Roberts, which are two out of many instances of the hopeless confusion over laryngeal diseases in the days before the laryngoscope : and a paper by Mr. Phillipps on Locked Jaw, making no clear distinction between hysterical trismus and genuine tetanus. Also, a paper by Dr. Hutchison, of Deal, on the treatment of erysipelas by incision ; which gives a frightful picture of cases of cellulitis left to themselves, and suggests, as some- thing absolutely new, that incisions should be made early in the disease. J 1815. Our Society, this year, numbered 171 ordinary members : of whom 31 had entered between March i, 18 14, and March i, 181 5. The average attendance at meetings dur- ing 1 81 5 was 205 members and 4 visitors. The Transac- tions were a goodly volume of 6^6 pages. In the Preface, the President and Council praise the growing utility and 3, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS, 1810-1819 35 reputation of the Society : they hope t/iat the Library, which they believe at present to be much more comprehen- sive and valuable than any collection of medical books hitherto formed in England, will soon arrive at a degree of perfection worthy of the Society and of the Country : and they are justly proud of the help given to our Society by the Public Services — "From the Articles of this year it will be perceived, not only that the Medical Department of the Army has continued its communications, but that one of the branches of the Legislature, the several Public Offices of the Navy, and the Honourable East India Company, have allowed the Society access to their records, from which much in- teresting and valuable information has been derived." No great affairs in 1 8i 5 occupied the Council. Mr. Cline was elected President : a Committee of Papers was in- stituted, with Sir Gilbert Blane as Chairman : a Latin diploma was composed for ordinary members, and another for Honorary members : the sum of ^50 was voted for a copy of Caldani's Anatomical Plates : the familiar device of our seal was approved and adopted : and the Geological Society gave notice of its intention to move. Also, the following Draconian Statute was framed : — Any Member publishing, or causing to be published, any of the proceedings of the Society, whether oral or written, without having obtained permission from the Council, shall be liable to ejection : and any visitor guilty of the like offence shall thereby be rendered inadmissible as a visitor in future, and ineligible as a member. Among the thirty -two papers read this year, or taken as read (for the Minutes of June 20th and July 1 8th say The time of the Meeting being nearly spent, the following papers were only read in part — The evening being far advanced, the following papers were presented to the Society, and referred to the Council for examination) were the first of 36 3, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS, 1810-1819 Howship's papers on the Formation of Bone, a further paper by Brodie on the Diseases of Joints, Kinder Wood's description of Noma Vulvas, and a paper by Albers of Bremen on Argyriasis, probably the first account ever published of this condition. Also, papers by Calvert, MacGregor, and Sir Gilbert Blane, on the Plague in Malta, and on the Health of the Navy and the Army. But the chief honours of the year fell to Lawrence ; who, beside being Secretary, contributed three papers (i) On some affections of the Larynx, which require the operation of Bronchotomy, (2) Two Cases of the true Elephantiasis, or Lepra Arabum, (3) A new method of tying the arteries in Aneurism, Amputation, and other Surgical operations. In this last paper, he recommends, as a new method, that the ligature should be cut short, not left hanging out of the wound. 1816. During 181 5, there had been frequent talk of moving, with the Geological Society, to a house in Russell Square : but nothing came of it, and in the summer of 1816 the Geological Society took its leave, and went to Bedford Street ; which gave the more room to our Library, and to Mr. Yeoman. This year, also, the Catalogue was pub- lished : and, at the last meeting of the year, the Society, in phrases of unmistakable enthusiasm, voted its thanks to Dr. Bateman, to Dr. Yelloly, to the Secretaries, and to all who had helped in that work. From the beginning, our Society had set itself to create a Library that should exalt it high above all other Societies ; and had spent on books every penny that it could spare. Ninety years ago, the buying of foreign medical books was an elaborate affair: we find, in 1816, Albers of Bremen getting books for the Society, and sending the bill to the Council in n'x 3, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS, 1810-1819 37 dollars ; we find the Council requesting Sir Gilbert Blane to apply for remission of the duties upon foreign books imported ; and, in the Council Minutes of March 1 3th, we read — "It was reported by Dr. Yelloly, that Monsieur Thiebaut de Berneaux, Librarian to the King of France, had, at the request of Dr. Granville, procured a set of the Memoires de I'Academie des Sciences in 163 volumes, and of the Annales du Museum in 20 volumes, on very reasonable terms, for the Society : and that he was also disposed to take any trouble in the procuring of books for the Society, without remuneration." The thanks of the meeting, and a copy of Witherby's Botany, were given to M. de Berneaux ; and, in August, a bill of £iS9- II- o was paid for foreign books. Other business, this year, was the selection of our motto, from Martial, Non est Vivere sed Valere Vita ; and the institution of written orders for the borrowing of books — because some person unknown had taken-out two books in Dr. Goode's name, and Dr. Goode had been fined. The Catalogue was ordered to be sold at fourteen shillings to members, and at a guinea to the public : and 250 copies were printed. At the meetings, the average attendance was 24 mem- bers and 6 visitors : and 40 papers were read or taken as read. Among them, were 1. Our only publication in Latin : Somerville's Observationes qiicsdam de Hottentotis. 2. Morel's case of Resection of the Head of the Humerus. 3. Stanley on the condition of the Bones in Rickets. 4. Crampton and Travers on Rupture of Gastric Ulcers. 5. Blagden's case of Haemophilia. 6. Maunoir on Artificial Pupil. 7. Nicholl's case of Colour blindness. There was also Bell's paper, which unhappily was not published, on Diseases and Wounds of the Larynx, and 38 3, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS, 1810-1819 on the operation of Laryngotomy. The mere abstract of it in the Minutes gives only his summing-up — Has not the operation of bronchotojny been often delayed till an improper period? Has not this introduction of a tube sotnetimes de- feated its own object ? Is it known that the operation may be done with a lancet and the end of a teaspoon, where a more complicated apparatus would endanger suffocation ? And, for all who love the history of the Navy, there was Quarrier's Report of the Wounded on board H.M.S. Leander, with its account of the cock-pit : — " Indeed, gentlemen, no language can pourtray the horrors of the Leander's cock-pit for a period of thirteen hours. Sixty-five men were wounded and several killed by the first and second broadsides; two poor boys were most dreadfully burned by a red-hot shot blowing-up the cart- ridge, which one of them was carefully guarding. The small space occupied for their accommodation was in- stantly crowded to excess: without air; panting for breath ; bathed in a most profuse perspiration, and un- able to stand upright, these men were to be attended to; water! water! was the incessant cry. . . . You may figure to yourselves the condition of the miserable sufferers in the black hole at Calcutta, and you will have a correct picture of our condition. Under these disad- vantages and difficulties our operations were performed, and the poor patients were afterwards exposed to the double danger of being trampled on by those who were rushing forward for relief." 1817. History, not only naval but national, runs its thread in and out of the old Minute-books : and here, Nov, 11, 181 7, we read — "In consequence of the calamitous event of the death of the Princess Charlotte, which has diffused such general affliction throughout the nation, it was agreed, before proceeding to any business, to adjourn the meeting till after the funeral of her Royal Highness had taken place." 3, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS, 1810-1819 39 Within the Society's own affairs, there was no great change. The Council resolved that the Library should be weeded of duplicate copies ; that it should be open for three afternoons a week ; that members should be allowed to take-out eight books, but not new books, journals, etc., less than a month old ; and that the Secretaries should be requested to adopt measures for procuring the Theses of Edinbro', Glasgow, and Dublin. W ith regard to the Transactions, it was resolved that non-resident members should henceforth pay 6 guineas, not 4, for them : and a beginning was made of the exchange of Transactions with foreign Societies. With regard to the meetings, it was resolved that the Secretaries should be authorized to select for reading such parts of voluminous papers as might appear most interesting. Resolved, also, that a License for meetings, under the late Act of Parliament, be obtained from the Middlesex Magistrates. In March, Dr. Babington was elected President. In October, because of other work, Mr. Lawrence resigned, and Mr. Earle took his place as Surgical Secretary. The principle of the alternate election, as President, of a Physician and a Surgeon, was adopted this year. The Society's accounts for 181 7 are worthy of note. The year's profit on the Transactions (including the sale of second editions of back volumes) was ;i^io6. 9. 6. No less than 22 members were in arrears with their subscrip- tions for one or more years : and the balance in hand was £S^- 8. 5. On books and binding, the Society spent £414. 15. 9. The wisdom of this spendthrift policy was justified by the steady increase of the average attendance at meetings ; which in 181 7 was 27 members and 6 visitors. Among the 32 papers of the year, were those by Prout on the nature of some of the proximate principles of the urine, by Fergusson on Yellow Fever in the West Indies, 40 3, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS, 1810-1819 and by Holland on Pellagra : Stanley's case of Hernia Cerebri, and Wardrop's and Pearson's case of nei-ve- troubles after injury of the hand. Also, an unpublished paper, by Robert Reid, of Dublin, on Tetanus. From the abstract in the Minutes, it is plain that he localized the disease in the spinal cord. Lane's case of an ill- conditioned ulcer of the tongue, successfully treated by arsenic, and Bostock's case of loss of power over the voluntary muscles, are to be noted, as problems left with- out solution. January, i8i8 — Sept., 1819. During 1818, and the spring of 18 19, no very important business came before the Council, save the nomination of Astley Cooper as President. In June, 181 8, Dr. Yelloly, who was leaving London, wrote a farewell letter to the Council ; and, in consideration of his long and important services, and his pecjiliar cojtnection with the Society, per- mission was granted that Library books should be sent to him at his house near Norwich. Among other business in 1 818, (i) Rules were made to prevent the intrusion of non-members into the Library. (2) Mr. Samuel Cooper was appointed Joint-Librarian with Dr. Bateman. (3) A remission of the duty on two cases of German books was obtained from the Treasury. (4) An enquiry was made, as to the proportion of resident members practising pharmacy. In June, 1819, came trouble with Mr. Nurse, the Society's landlord. So far as the Minute-books are our guides, it seems that Mr. Nurse offered to take-over the remainder of the lease. Then Mr. Duncombe, at No. 4, offered his house to the Society : who declined it, and offered him the lease of No. 3. Then, while Mr. Nurse and Mr. Duncombe were deliberating, the Society made an offer of ;^4000 to Mr. Justice Best for his house, which was also in Lincoln's 3, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS, 1810-1819 41 Inn Fields. In July, this ofifer was refused. In August, Mr. Nurse, who was furious, because the back-premises of his house had become a sort of No Man's Land between our Society and the Geological Society, sent for the key of the house, threatening immediate action. Then our Society tried to get Mr. Topping's house, ^6, Bedford Row, at £^o a year, with a premium of ;^750 ; but Mr. Topping forth- with raised his price. Then they heard of Mr. Richards' house, 30, Lincoln's Inn Fields; and, before the end of August, agreed to take it for one year, for ^200. Mr. Nurse was pacified with ;^90. 11. o: and, in September, our Society moved to No. 30. The profit, in 181 8, on the sale of Transactions, includ- ing back volumes, was £147. 11. o: and in 181 9 it was ;^240. 2. 1 1 . The average attendance at meetings in 1 8 1 8 was 30 members and 7*5 visitors. At the meeting on March 17th, the Chamberlen instruments were presented to the Society by Dr. Carwardine. The meeting on Nov. 24th was adjourned before business, because of the death of Queen Charlotte. Between January 181 8 and June 1819 (no ordinary meetings were held after June, till the Society met in their new house) no less than y6 papers were read, or taken as read. How can we, as it were at a glance, review this great array ? (i) The range of the Society's work was not limited to subjects purely Medical or Chirurgical. Anatomy is re- presented by Shaw on the Membranous Urethra, and Yelloly on Anatomical Displacements of the Colon : Physiology, by Bell on the Teeth, Swan on the Physiology of the Ear, James on the Physiology of Arteries, Swan on the Extensibility of Tendons, and Blundell on the Physi- ology of Generation. Even Pharmacy is represented, by Barry on the Making of Pharmaceutical Extracts in vacuo. 42 3, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS, 1810-1819 (2) Our Society received communications from all parts of the world. Here are papers or letters from New York, Bremen, and Zurich : and cases of snake-bite, and a case of shark-bite, and the dismal case of a Jamaica slave, who had a blood-cyst on the forehead — /ler Master refused to cojisent to any operation, and in about five months the surface sloughed and the patient sank from repeated bleedings. Here are records of Yellow Fever in Antigua, Epidemic Fever on the East Coast of Africa, Elephantiasis in Hindostan, Asiatic Cholera, Post-mortem Changes in Hot Climates, Yellow Fever in Grenada, and Diseases in Hayti and St. Domingo. This last communication, from Mr. Birt of Hayti, came in answer to a letter, and a string of questions, from the President : Mr. Birt answers them all, and says / shall always consider it a great honour to be employed in any way, and signs himself, Yours most devotedly — a pleasant reminder now of Sir Astley's hold over men's hearts. (3) The papers by Blundell on Transfusion of Blood, by Howship on the Union of Fractured Bones, and by Travers on the Use of the Temporary Ligature in Aneurism, are notable for the conjunction in them of experiment and practice. (4) There are many contributions which are of value for a history of Clinical Medicine and Surgery. Especially, Bostock's case of a Periodical Affection of the Eyes and Chest, which is probably the first record of Hay-Fever. Also, the papers by Quadri and Coates on the treatment of Bronchocele by the seton, and by ligature of the superior thyroid artery ; Vose's case of Hydrocephalus cured by tapping ; and Hutchison's paper on the infrequency of Calculus among sea-faring people. Also, three papers which were not published ; Kinder Wood on the Excision of Metatarsal Bones, Dunn on the Division of the Saphena 3, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS, 1810-1819 43 Vein for the cure of Varicose Ulcer, and Marshall Hall's admirable account of Cancrum Oris — his iirst communica- tion to the Society, and perhaps the first description of the disease. (5) Valuable, also, as records of methods happily gone out, are the papers on those mysterious diseases Croup and Cynanche ; and Colley's account of the treatment of Cancer of the Rectum in the days before colotomy ; and Wardrop's paper on the Bleeding of patients ad deliquiuni before operation, in the days before anaesthetics. And, for a vivid account of the suffering of those patients, we have Marcet's transcript of the patient's own experiences during lithotomy — a " human document " of singular in- tensity. (6) Finally, there is a prophecy of Surgery, and that in a paper in Physiology. Blundell, in his paper on the Physiology of Generation, describes his experiments on rabbits : then he goes on — » "To close the abdominal opening, the Glover's suture will serve as well as any other ; nor does the including the peritoneum in the stitches, so far as I have been able to observe, materially increase the risk of a general inflam- mation. And here I may be permitted to remark, that from various observations upon brutes, as well as my fellow- creatures, I cannot forbear imagining, that the risk of exten- sive inflammation, from local injury of the peritoneum, has been exaggerated, perhaps greatly. The high importance of this principle in surgery, is too obvious to require a comment. It is one of those grand practical points, which ought not to be decided by a few casual facts, much less by authorities, however venerable ; but, like every other principle of a solid philosophy, by various, deliberate, and unbiassed experiment and observation." Thus far had our Society come in nine years, from the little meetings and informal conversations which had been held at Verulam Buildings. IV. 30, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS, 1819-1820. Mr. Richards' house was used by our Society as a sort of look-out for a resting-place. In November, 1819, they made an offer for No. 4, Lincoln's Inn Fields, at £160 a year : in March, 1820, they offered £iyo. In June, 1820, they found that the necessary repairs would cost ^^740, and withdrew their offer. That same month, they in- spected Mr. Debarry's house, 57, Lincoln's Inn Fields. The Astronomical Society wished to keep house with them : the rent of rooms enough for the two Societies was only ;^I40 a year: and, in September or October, 1820, our Society moved in. On Dec. ist, 1819, came trouble. Mr. Yeoman, the Clerk, had been for some short time under suspicion of the Council : and now, Being called in and desired to give up his receipt-book, after some hesitation he acknowledged that he had received many contributions ivhich he had not ac- coufttedfor, amounting as he supposed to one Jiiindred and forty pounds. The old Minute-books are dramatic here, with their change from Mr. Yeoman to Yeoman, and the sudden change, in the middle of the abstract of a paper, from one handwriting to another. He got no mercy from the Council : his house was sold over his head, his furni- ture was sent to auction, and his surety was compelled to pay the remainder of the debt. Mr. Joseph Law (44) 30, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS, 1819-1820 45 was appointed in his place; and various safeguards were imposed. The average attendance of meetings at Mr. Richards' house was only I9'5 members and 6 visitors. This falling- off was chiefly due to the very small meetings about the time of the death of His Majesty King George the Third : in respect to whose memory, a meeting was adjourned. The number of papers read, or taken as read, was forty- three. Of these, the most notable were the three short communications by Mayo, Dickinson, and Earle, on Lithotomy for very large Calculi, illustrating the dangers and difficulties of such cases, in an age when the supra- pubic operation had " become obsolete in this country : " with an unpublished letter, in the Minutes, from Mr. Vose to the President, giving an account of an operation by Signor Barbantini of Lucca : — " The Stone, which weighed g ounces, was removed thro' the Rectum : the parts divided were some lines of the trans- versus perinasi, the Sphincter ani, in its whole extent, the anterior part of the Rectum, and the posterior part of the lower fundus of the Bladder. The Prostrate was un- touched, the incision into the Bladder beginning a few lines behind it. No bad s3'mptoms followed the opera- tion, and the Patient recovered." Another unpublished paper was that by Dr. Storer, " On a case of Phrenitic Affection supervening on Phthisis Pulmonalis, and superseding the further progress of that disease " ; doubtless, a case of tubercular meningitis. A few months later, Dr. Gregory communicated to the Society his " Observations on the Scrofulous Inflammation of the Peritonoeum, occurring in Children, and frequently denominated Marasmus," which is perhaps the first descrip- tion, in this country, of tubercular peritonitis. Mr. Earle's paper on Renal Calculi, and the possibility of their origin from some injury or disease of the kidney, 46 30, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS, 1819-1820 \ should also be noted : and two letters (not published) from Dr. Wood and Dr. Sims, commenting on Dr. Bostock's de- scription of Hay-Fever. Dr. Sims says that he has known many such cases, and " is inclined to attribute it to some irritating substance, widely diffused in the atmosphere during the period of hay-making : perhaps the pollen of some of the grasses or other plants, which may excite on the membrane lining the nostrils an effect analogous to that which is in some persons produced by the effluvia of Ipecacuanha when powdered." I V. 57, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS, 1820-1834. Mr. Debarry's fine house, on the West side of Lincoln's Inn Fields, had rooms enough and. to spare. The arrange- ment was, that he should keep the first floor for his own use : that our Society should pay him ;!f 140 a year for the basement, the ground floor, and two rooms on the second and third floors : and that the Astronomical Society should pay 50 guineas a year to our Society for an attic, and for the occasional use of the meeting-room, ante-room, and council-room. A few months later, December, 1820, Mr. Debarry gave up his rooms, and our Society took-over the whole house, at ;^250 a year, and ^^^150 for fixtures. In July, 1 82 1, they let the first floor, with some rooms at the top and bottom of the house, at ;^I40 a year, to a Mr. Cuthbert, of Grosvenor Square : of whom we learn that he was not yet come of age, and that in 1823 he was behind- hand with his rent. We need not go into all the shifting of tenants and of rents. In 1823, our Society paid only ;C204. 4. 2, and received from Mr. Cuthbert ;^I38. 10. o, and 50 guineas from the Astronomical Society. In 1825, our Society paid £igo, and received from Messrs. Crowder, Mr. Cuthbert's successors, 200 guineas, and 50 from the Astronomical Society. In 1828, a Mr. Briggs had for a time succeeded Messrs. Crowder, and was paying only ;^I40. Anyhow, our Society had made a good bargain (47) 48 57, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS, 1820-1834 with Mr. Debarry. But the rates and taxes were heavy, £i6o or more. The period of our Society's life in this house was four- teen years. For the first four or five years, all went well. Then the attendances began to fall-off. Now and again, they would recover the lost ground : but, if we take one year with another, we find steady failure of strength. Thus, at the four meetings in Jan. -Feb. 1831, the average attendance of members was 9 : at the four corresponding meetings in 1832, it was 7. After that, as it were for very shame, there was an improvement, and some of the meet- ings were well attended. What was the cause of this long spell of depression ? It was not the fault of any President : those four meetings in 1832 had Lawrence for President, who could both deserve and command success. And it was not the com- petition of any new Society : for there was none. Partly, it was the wearisome length of some of the papers, extend- ing over two or even three meetings. Partly, it was the change of the centre of gravity of consulting practice. Lincoln's Inn Fields had ceased to be " central ". The light was fading over Bedford Row and Great Coram Street : London was moving West. Again and again, the proposal was made, that our Society also should go Westward. At last, in 1834, with our Charter, came the move to Bemers Street ; and at Bemers Street the attend- ance at meetings rose, till it reached its zenith. Sept. 1820 — Dec. 1821. Except the adjustment of rents and the allotment of rooms, no important business came at this time before the Council. In March, 1821, Dr. Cooke was elected Presi- dent, and Mr. Earle joined Dr. Roget as Secretary. The Clerk, Mr. Law, resigned ; and Mr. Raven, a medical man, 57, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS, 1820-1834 49 was appointed. The average attendance at meetings in 1 82 1 was 28 members and 11 visitors. Papers presented, 36 : published in Transactions, 1 8 : thus 50 per cent, were lost of all papers submitted to the Council. Among the published papers, were (i) Papers by Hutchison and Coindet, with references to the discovery and first use of iodine in the treatment of bron- chocele and enlarged glands. (2) Martineau's paper on Lithotomy, giving the stock argu- ments of the time against the supra-pubic operation, with an estimate of the mortality after the lateral operation. (3) Dunn's case of Partial Excision of the Bones of the Foot ; one of the first operations of this kind. He gives a good picture of the difficulties of surgery in country practice: how he consulted his library, and found no help in Bell or Hey — then the operation. A deluge of blood followed : the boy fainted : my assistants, who were only two apprentices of fourteen years of age, a woman, and two labouring men, were so sick and alarmed as to desert the room. Also, his paper on the Removal of the Ends of the Bone in two cases of Compound Fracture. (4) Porter's and Hunt's papers on Tracheotomy. Hunt's case was the first recorded instance, in this country, of successful tracheotomy for the removal of a foreign body. Among the unpublished papers, were (i) Prof. Thomasini, of Bologna, on the Comparative State of Medicine in Italy and in England. " He adverts," say the Minutes, " to the essential difference which subsists in the foundations of the art of medicine, and of medical reasonings, in the two countries : that which prevails in England resting principally on direct observation and ex- perience, to the exclusion of speculative doctrines and deduction from general principles. Knowledge thus ex- clusively empirical, he contends, will necessarily be imperfect and incapable of application to new and un- foreseen combinations of circumstances." (2) Dobson's case of Empyema, cured by Paracentesis. This was the first case of its kind communicated to our Society ; and it was read fourteen years before Roe's paper on the same subject. The operation had fallen D 50 57, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS, 1820-1834 into discredit : and, between 1812 and 1822, only g cases had been published, either in this country or abroad. (3) Robert Williams' paper on the Abuse of Mercury : founded on two cases of "unquestionable organic disease of the liver," doubtless malignant disease, in which mercury was exhibited largely, and for a considerable length of time, and totally failed of affording the least benefit. " He is led to think, from his experience, that in nine cases out of ten in which this remedy is now employed, it would be much more advantageous to the patient if it were not employed at all." Ten or twelve years later, his name was honourably associated with the earliest use, in this country, of iodide of potassium in cases of syphilis. 1822. This year, Sir Henry Halford presented a clock to the Society : arrangements were made for an Anniversary Dinner : and the Council determined to adjudge a Prize for the best paper of each Session, and approved the sug- gestion that it should be a gold medal. Reference is made to this plan in the Preface to Vol. xii. of the Transactions ; but it was not carried into effect. On Jan. 30th, it was ordered by the Council, T/iat all new English medical publications be sent-in as soon as published, subject to their being returned to the booksellers, if presented by the authors to the Society. A strange con- trast, between the output of medical books then and now. In 1 82 1, the year's profit on the sale of the volumes of the Transactions had been £it,^. g. 11. In 1822, it fell to ^22. 13. 10. The Council enquired of Messrs. Longman the reason of this fall : and, in their reply, Messrs. Long- man incidentally say, " since the first publication, ten years ago, the publishers have paid to the Society, in Cash, ^1029. 15, 3: in books at the cost price, ;i^63i. 12. 2: Total ;^i66i. 7. 5. Average o^ £166 per annum in money and books." 57, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS, 1820-1834 51 The average attendance at meetings was 29 members and 12 visitors. On Nov, 12th, Dr. Marcet having died, the meeting was adjourned for a week : Royal honours for a Founder of the Society. Among the thirty-two papers of the year, were (i) Marcet's two papers, a few months before his death : one, the well-known case of the sailor who swallowed, in all, 35 clasp-knives : the other, on a singular variety of Urine •which turned black. Dr. Garrod has drawn attention to this observation, in his Contribution to the Study of Alkaptonuria. (Trans. Ixxxii. 37.) (2) John Shaw on Partial Paralysis ; with many cases of facial paralysis, and many references to Bell's work. This important monograph is in striking contrast with Swan's theory, in 1820, of the possible value of the facial nerve as an organ of hearing. (Trans, xi. 331.) (3) Earle's two papers : one, On the influence of Local Irrita- tion in the production of diseases resembling Cancer ; the other. On the treatment of Un-united Fractures : and here he says of a case, Did the want of union depend on any peculiarity of constitution in the individual, arising from causes over which we have no controul '? A II the circum- stances of the case seem to favour such an opinion. (4) Bell on the Varieties of Diseases comprehended under the name of Carcinoma Mammas. No mention is made of the use of the microscope. He says, of the prevalent use of quack medicines. By much the larger portion of patients received into the cancer ward of the Middlesex Hospital have spent their last penny in attendance on a set of the most un- feeling wretches that ever disgraced a country. 1823. At the Annual General Meeting, Mr. Abernethy was elected President : Dr. Gordon and Mr. Earle were Secre- taries. No other business of importance came before the Council, save that Mr. Raven finished a Catalogue Rai- sonne of the Library ; and that leave was given to Messrs. Longman to supply to ojie of their correspondents in America 1000 impressions of the plates illustrative of the 52 57, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS, 1820-1834 M^d Chir. Transactions^ charging for them one-third of the original cost of the engravings ; the Society to be entitled to one-half of the sum proposed to be paid. The average attendance was 30 members and i o visitors. Of the 36 papers of the year, only 1 6 were published. Of the first 20 (Jan.-April), only 7 were published. Among the published papers, were (i) Two in Pharmacology ; Pope on the Comparative Virtues of different kinds of Sarsaparilla, and Elliotson's Illustra- tions of the Medical Properties of Quinina. The latter paper gives an excellent account of the introduction of quinine into practice. (2) Jacob on the Anatomy of the Eye. (3) Davis on the Proximate Cause of the Disease called Phlegmasia Dolens. (4) Yelloly on a Preternatural Growth in the Living Mem- branes of Arteries. (5) Earle on Chimney-sweep's Cancer. But the unpublished papers are more worthy of note now than the published. Coley's and Outlaw's cases of Rup- ture of the Uterus, and Bowen's observations on Cataract, might well have been published : and there are three papers of signal interest in the history of medicine and surgery : — (i) Forbes on a case of Diseased Heart, with some observa- tions on the use of the Stethoscope in the Diagnosis of diseases of the Chest. "The author," say the Minutes, " cites an instance related in the Dublin Hospital Reports, in which a very erroneous diagnosis, as appeared subse- quently on dissection, had been given in a case of organic lesion of the heart. This error, he contends, might have been avoided by the use of the instrument of Laennec, and which he has called the Stethoscope. A case occurred to the author, in which he was able to pro- nounce, by the aid of this instrument, that there existed Hypertrophia with enlargement of the Ventricles and Aneurism of the Aorta. The result of the dissection, proved the correctness of this diagnosis. The author considers the instrument as affording valuable information of the state of the lungs in chronic peripneumony." 57, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS, 1820-1834 53 (2) Tyrrell on an Operation for Fractured Spine. "The spinous processes and — (? arches. A space is left, in the Minutes, for the missing word) of the last dorsal and first lumbar vertebrae were removed, and nearly two inches of the sheath of the cord were exposed. The patient, after the operation, felt distinctly on being pinched inside of the thigh." (3) Blundell, on Experiments and Observations on Injuries of the Belly, considered in their relation to Abdomina Surgery. After a description of some surgical experi- ments on rabbits, the Minutes go on as follows: "The author proceeds to relate a variety of cases, in which the human belly sustained the severest injuries, for the most part without fatal results. ... On the united authority of these experiments and cases, the author thinks the following inferences may farther be drawn (ist) That the generally received opinion, that inflammation in a spot of the peritonoeum will almost invariably diffuse itself over the greater part of that membrane, is un- founded in truth. (2nd) That extensive divisions of the peritonoeum are not of necessity fatal ; and that the womb, spleen, and ovaries may be taken away without necessarily destroying life. " Reasoning from these facts and observations, the author proceeds to suggest the consideration of some operations which hitherto have not been considered justifiable by British Surgeons, such as a division of both the Fallopian tubes, the extirpation of the healthy ovary, the extirpation of the ovarian cyst in dropsy, or a portion of it, the removal of the cancerous womb, the puerperal uterus, and part of the bladder and spleen." Of these three prophets without honour, Dr. Forbes was Senior Physician to the Chichester Dispensary : Mr, Tyrrell was Surgeon to St. Thomas' Hospital : and Dr. Blundell was Lecturer on Physiology and Midwifery at Guy's Hospital. 1824. In October, 1824, Mr. Raven absented himself from the Societys' house, having defrauded the Society, one way 54 57, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS, 1820-1834 and another, of more than ;i^ioo. He left behind him some silver spoons, which the Council sold : they also accepted the payment of £io6. I2. o from his surety, Mr. Cross of Norwich. Later, Mr. Raven's "effects" were sold for jCiy. o. 6. Mr. Lambe was appointed in his place, and had to find security for iJ"soo. The average attendance at meetings was 24 members and TO' 5 visitors. Only twenty-eight papers were read or taken as read : and only eleven of them were published. Among the eleven, were (i) Breschet on a New Variety of Extra- Uterine Pregnancy, Graviditas in Uteri Substantia. The first case of the kind published either in France or in this country. (2) Marshall Hall on the Effects of the Loss of Blood : a severe condemnation, from the point of view of Physio- logy, of the indiscriminate use of bleeding. (3) Elliotson's case of Ruptured Gastric Ulcer, with references to similar cases. (4) Burnett's case of Epilepsy, associated with remarkable Slowness of the Pulse. (5) Bostock's Observations on the Saliva during the action of Mercury upon the System. Among the unpublished majority, there is one paper of the utmost importance, on three cases of Osteo-Sarcoma, in which the right side of the lower jaw was removed, after tying the carotid artery : by Valentine Mott, Professor of Surgery in the University of New York, Two of the cases were successful : in the third, the patient died of pneumonia and pericarditis. Also, there is a paper by Carson on Pleural Adhesions, giving an account of a case where he opened the pleura to bring about collapse and quiescence of a phthisical lung. (A similar case was recorded in 1885 by Dr. Cayley and Mr. Hulke, Clin. Soc. Trans, xviii. 278.) 57, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS, 1820-1834 55 1825. On March 30th, at a meeting of the Council, one of the Librarians, and both the Secretaries, resigned. At a Special General Meeting, on May 6th, their successors were appointed, and a resolution was passed, T/iai notice be hencefoi'th given by the Secretaries to the Members of the Society, and to the Authors of Papers, of the subject of such Papers, at least one week previous to their being read. These resignations and this resolution, taken together, suggest that there had been some irregularity in the putting-through of papers for the Transactions. And, in the volume published this year, we find four, of which nothing is said in the Minutes. They are dated as read on June 9th, June 1 3th, and June 23rd, 1 824. No meetings (unless the Minutes are all wrong) were held on those days. There was a meeting on June 8th, and then none till Nov. 9th. The two dated June 23rd were ordered to be printed at a Council-meeting on June 30th, 1 824. The paper dated June 13th was not ordered for printing till July, 1825. The paper dated June 9th seems to have got into the Transactions by its own exertions, without any assistance from the Council. In April of this year, the Council received the following requisition, signed by three members : — "We the undersigned members of the Medico-Chirurgical Society, beg leave to propose to the Council an alteration in the mode of carrying-on the Meetings of the Society ; namely, that a viva voce discussion, founded on questions to be proposed by individual members, be added to the reading of papers. And we beg that you will take this into your serious consideration." And, at the special meeting of May 6th, it was proposed but not carried. That when there are no Papers, a subject be proposed by the President for the consideration of t/te 56 57, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS, 1820-1834 Society, and that notice be sent I'ound to the members at least one week previously. It is probable that the meetings were getting dull. More talk was wanted, and less reading. In November, the Council resolved to call a Special Meeting, To take into consideration, and to determine upon, the Propriety of removing the Society, from Lincoln's Inn Fields, Westward, on the expiration of the first j years of the term of their present lease. In December, this Minute was not confirmed. . The average attendance during 1835 was 20*5 members and 8' 5 visitors. A Special Meeting, to vote an address of condolence, was held after the death of Dr. Baillie. Only twenty-two papers v^ere read ; and only nine of them were published. At one meeting — so far as the Minutes go — there was no paper. Among those published, were (i) Marshall Hall and Higginbottom, on Destructive Inflam- mation of the Eye occurring in the Puerperal State, and apparently from constitutional Causes : five cases, all of the left ej'e, and all ending in death. (2) Wardrop's original case of Distal Ligature for the cure of Carotid Aneurism. (3) Rogers' case where a Breech-pin was blown into the left frontal region of the Brain : recovery after operation- A case exactly similar was read before the Societj- by Mr. Crowfoot in 181 1, but was not published. (4) Gregory and Hewitt on Hydrophobia. It is to be noted, that Gregory takes the throat-symptoms as of the essence of the disease — The true nosological situation of hydrophobia is in the genus Cynanche. Among the unpublished papers, were (i) Walkinson's case of Amputation in Utero : the left foot was found loose in the vagina, having been severed, ap- parently, two months before birth. (2) Jowett's case of Empyema : recovery after operation. With a careful account of the physical signs. (5) Cribb's Enquiry concerning the vaccine and variolous diseases in Cambridge during 25 years. 57, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS, 1820-1834 57 {4) Allen on the Natural Divisions of Insanity. This essay is remarkable for its faith in Phrenology — The author noticed an increase of heat observable in certain parts of the head, when the mental faculty corresponding to the same, according to the commonly received system of phrenology, is peculiarly excited. (5) An admirable account, by Egan, of Traumatic Tetanus as it occurs in the Horse. 1826. In March, the Council resolved to put before the Society the question of moving Westward. On April 20th, at a Special Meeting, the Society desired the Council to make enquiries, and to report thereon before the end of the Session. The Council deputed Mr. Amott and Dr. Gregory to make the enquiries ; and there the matter dropped. Other resolutions of Council were as follows, (i) That in future all books laid on the Council table for the approval of the Council shall previously have been seen by, and brought forward with the sanction of, one of the Librarians. (2) That no books be issued in future to any member, not applying personally or by his servant, except a written letter be addressed to the librarian in each particular in- stance. (3) That the remaining copies of the Catalogue be given to the members, in order of seniority ; and that the money be refunded, to those members who have purchased the Catalogue. The sum thus refunded was £2. 16. o. : which seems to show that only four members had bought the Catalogue. A supplementary catalogue was ordered to be printed, and to be given to all members. The average attendance, this year, was 18*5 members and 10 visitors. Only twenty -one papers were read ; and only five of them were published. Thus 75 per cent, were lost of all communications to the Society. At one meet- 58 57, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS, 1820-1834 ing, there was nothing. The standard of the papers was not high : and the unpublished appear now quite as good as the published, if not better. Altogether, it was an un- profitable year. Among the published, there is historical interest in Orton's case of Amputation at the Hip-joint, and Thomas' account of an Extraordinary Case of Ovarian Dropsy. Among the unpublished, were (i) Chevalier on the local use of the Extract of Belladonna : of which he speaks as of a new method of treatment. (2) Mayo's case of death from a pedunculated growth, of many years' duration, overhanging the Glottis : one of innumerable instances, how laryngology was impossible without the laryngoscope. (3) Caesar Hawkin's first contribution to the Society; on Syphilitic Pains and Diseases of the Bones. No mention of the iodide of potassium. (4) Thorburn's case of Ligature of the External Iliac. (5) Pearson's case of a pulsating abdominal tumour, mistaken for aneurism of the Common Iliac, and found to be due to the opening-up of a lumbar artery by extension of spinal caries. (6) Hick's case of removal of a portion of the Thyroid Gland, with relief of pressure-symptoms. It is impossible to see now why these contributions were not thought worthy by the Council of a place in the Transactions. 1827. A better year, in every way. Nineteen ordinary meet- ings were held : the average attendance was 27 members and 14 visitors: 28 papers were read, and 18 of them were published. The accession of Mr. Travers to the Presi- dency seems to have restored the old spirit of the Society. Moreover, Lawrence this year contributed three, and Norman of Bath four papers : and there were no blank meetings. Lawrence's work, in full, occupies 264 pages of the Transactions : and the three meetings which were 57, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS, 1820-1834 59^ given, in whole or in part, to the discussion of Erysipelas,, had a total of 222 attendances. Among the published papers, were (i) Lawrence (a) On the Nature and Treatment of Erysi- pelas, (b) On Dislocations of the Vertebras, (c) On the Treatment of Nasvi Materni by Ligature. (2) Merriman's Calculations respecting the Period of Par- turition. (3) Earle on Paraplegia. (4) Wallace on a Peculiar Inflammatory Disease of the Eye.- Among the unpublished, were (i) Wise on the Concrete CEdema of Infants. (2) Lefevre's cases of Caesarean section, and of operation for extra-uterine gestation : recovery in each case. It is strange to find, among the unpublished, Norman's case of Ligature of the Innominate for Aneurism of the Right Subclavian. " The author had intended to tie the subclavian artery, but frustrated by the situation of the tumour he passed a ligature with some difficulty round the innominata. In five days the patient died of peri- carditis and inflammation of the inner membrane of the aorta. The author thought it probable that this result was the consequence of a ligature being placed on a vessel so near the heart." 1828. In February, the Council had to consider a case similar to that of Mr. John Want in 181 4: but, this time, the offender was Dr. James Johnson, one of the Society's Librarians: who, being editor of the Medico-Chirurgical Review, had published in that Journal an account of the proceedings of the Society at its last two ordinary meet- ings. For this misdemeanour, v^ry injurious to the In- terests of the Society^ and very improper^ he was rebuked, and resigned his charge of the Library: and there was 60 57, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS, 1820-1834 talk of reprinting and sending-out to all members the statute of 1 815. About this time, the Minute-books mention a Petition to Parliament, laid on the Society's Table for signatures : but the blank page, left for " the following Petition," is still blank. In June, Mr, Lambe the Clerk resigned ; and Mr. Blount was appointed. Sixteen meetings were held, with an average attendance of 24 members and 14 visitors. Twenty-three papers were read : but only nine of them were published. Among these, were two long and notable monographs, Arnott on the Secondary Effects of Inflammation of the Veins, and Brodie on Injuries of the Brain. Also, two papers by Bostock, on the Analyses of Sweat and of Hydrocele- fluid ; and a third, on Hay-fever. Also, a case of Rupture of the Stomach, by Weekes ; the first, perhaps the last, con- tribution made to our Transactions by a House-Surgeon. Finally, two essays which are of special interest — (i) Observations on Depositions of Pus and Lymph, occur- ring in the Lungs and other Viscera, after Injuries of different parts of the Body. By Thomas Rose. These cases are typical examples of pyaemia ; but the author does not use that word. He quotes and confutes a lot of old doctrines ; and is of opinion that these abscesses are due to the disturbance of the nervous system resulting from the injury. They are to be classed amongst the effects of con- stitutional irritation arising from local injury. (2) Two cases of Fracture of the Thigh-bone, concurring with Cancer in the Breasts in both patients. By Thomas Salter. He says that it is hard to determine whether the disease in the bone be in itself actually of a carcino- matous nature, or of some other kind excited by the cancerous virus in the liabit. Among the unpublished papers were Cheshir's account of the inclined plane for fractured thigh : and a long essay 57, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS, 1820-1834 61 by Marshall Hall, of the very highest value, entitled, Some Observations upon the due Institution of Blood-letting. 1829. A bad year: the average attendance was only 17 mem- bers and 8 visitors ; only fourteen papers were read, and seven published ; and eight whole evenings, and parts of two more, were spent over four of them. In March, Dr. Roget was elected President. Mr. Blount the Clerk re- signed, and was succeeded by Mr. Courtland. Among the published papers, were Travers' Observa- tions on the Local Diseases termed Malignant, and Hodgkin's paper On the Anatomical Characters of some Adventitious Structures. Of these two long and import- ant monographs, it is to be noted that they do not once refer to any use of the microscope. There are also James' remarkable case of Ligature of the Aorta through a median incision : Lee on Phlegmasia Dolens : and a curious essay by Elliotson on three cases of Acute Tetanus, which he treated, believing that tetanus was analogous to neuralgia, paralysis agitans, and chorea, with huge doses of the sub- carbonate of iron ; and two of the patients made a rapid recovery. Of the unpublished papers, Lawrence on the Venereal Diseases of the Eye is especially worthy of note. He gives an admirable description of gonorrhceal ophthalmia ; he admits the fact of contagion, yet is inclined to refer the occurrence of the disease to the state of the constitution : for treatment, he urges the absolute necessity of large and repeated bleedings. Other communications which might well have been published are Heming on a peculiar Disease of the Tongue (? ichthyosis linguae) and Williams on a Rupture of the Tricuspid Valve. €2 57, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS, 1820-1834 1830. In April, the Council again considered the question of moving Westward ; but having heard the statement of the Treasurers as to the finances, were of opinion that it was not expedient to appoint a Committee to seek for a house. In May, they resolved to appoint a Committee to inquire whether any measure could be adopted for the reduction of the expenditure of the Society : and in July they re- solved to inquire as to the expense at which the Society could themselves print the Transactions. The average attendance was 1 3 members and 55 visitors. Sixteen meetings were held, 21 papers read, and 13 published. Among the published, were (i) Barlow's case of Death from Air entering a Vein during operation — a danger almost unknown amongst surgeons, even in the present century. (2) EUiotson on Glanders in the Human Subject ; which is almost the first record of this disease, and is most admir- ably written. (3) Crampton's case of Ligature of the Common Iliac, with an account of the high incision, and of each step of the operation — Assuredly a more striking view has seldom been presented to the eye of the surgeon ; the parts were unohscured by a single drop of blood ; there lay the great Iliac Artery, nearly as large as my finger, beating awfully at the rate of 120 in a minute, its yellowish white coat contrasting strongly with the dark blue of the Iliac Vein. . . . Nothing could be more easy than to pass a ligature round an artery so situated. Among the unpublished, were Stafford's account of the use of the Lancetted Stilette, an early example of internal urethrotomy : and Earle's long paper on the Mechanism and Diseases of the Spine, which occupied two whole evenings and parts of three more. Also, Dr. Doucet's three incredible cases of Traumatic Tetanus, all cured by Cold Affusion : ^/le plan adopted was that of pouring a large quantity of cold water over the patients, and following 57, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS, 1820-1834 63 /'/ Iry warmth and friction. The smallest quantity of Water employed at once was 15 Buckets, and the largest 26, repeated as often as the symptoms became severe. Our Council might well appoint a Committee, now, to consider and report on some of these unpublished writings which are buried in the old Minute-books. Also, there is a paper, which took a whole evening, by Dr. Sims, on the Researches of J, and C. Wenzel on Epilepsy. "The object of this paper is to correct an error which originated in the French Translation of J. Wenzel's work on Epilepsy, and into which the profession in this country has by it been led. In the Translation, the word cervelet was used throughout, wherever hirnanhang (Pituitary Gland) was employed in the original." 1831. In February, the Council agreed as follows : That the Council, having taken into consideration the present state of the Society, are of opinion that such state may be attributed in great measure to the presetit situation of the Society's house ; and therefore that it is desirable that the Society should be reinoved to some more convenient part of the Metropolis Westward. A letter was sent to all mem- bers, to be answered Aye or No. Less than 10 per cent. of the members took the trouble to answer. Ayes 21, Noes 3, Neutral 7. We cannot doubt that the Society was in a bad way. Happily, in September, on the motion of Mr. Coulson, the Council resolved to give up that old belief, that its proceedings were a sort of private property : and on October 25th, by desire of the Council, the Society re- pealed the statute of 1 8 1 5 which had forbidden members to publish, without permission of Council, reports of the 64 57, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS, 1820-1834 meetings. It was, perhaps, the best day's work that our Society has ever done. In September, also, the Council approved a plan for Collective Investigation : and expunged the law, which had always been a dead letter, that written communica- tions should not be subject to discussion : and altered the time of the meetings from g back to 8.30. By these three acts, it hoped to strengthen the Society. Moreover, it chose Lawrence for the Presidency. The plan for Collective Investigation, to enable each individual member sooner or later to contribute to the general object, came to nothing, but deserved a better fate. There were to be one or more Committees : each to be composed of a Vice-President, two members of Council, and three ordinary members, one of whom, at least, must be in general practice. As instances of subjects to be investigated, the Council suggested (i) an epidemic of Pertussis, Scarlatina, or Dysentery, its prevalence, symp- toms, peculiarities, and treatment : (2) the disputed or disputable action of remedies, e.g., Strychine in Paralysis, Iodine in Tumours, Belladonna in Pertussis, etc. Fourteen meetings were held this year : the average attendance was 16 members and 6 visitors. That it was not less, was due to Lawrence : for, if we omit three meetings which came just after his accession, and three at which his work was read or discussed, there remain 8 meetings with an average of only 10 members and 3 visitors. Fourteen papers were read ; of which, 1 1 were published : but some of these were but a few pages. Lawrence con- tributed three of them : On Tumours (50 pages) ; on a Dislocation of the Ankle ; and on a Case of Active In- flammation of the Pancreas, ending in Death, which is perhaps the first recorded case of " acute pancreatitis.'^ 57, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS, 1820-1834 65 Babington's Experiments on the Blood, Lee on Uterine Inflammation in Puerperal Women, and Barlow's case of Fractured Spine treated by Extension, are also to be noted. Among the unpublished contributions, as it were a comment on Lee's paper, is a note, anonymous, from a practitioner who from the post-mortem examination of a case of puerperal fever had infected three puerperal cases and a case of venesection. All four patients died. 1832. Though the meetings were few and ill-attended, there was a slight improvement, this year, of the Society's fortunes. A Committee was appointed to consider the move Westward. Tea and coffee, after 27 years of abstin- ence, were provided at the meetings. The office of Clerk, on the resignation of Mr. Courtland, was abolished : and Mr. Williams was appointed Assistant to the Librarians, to deliver out the books, under their superintendence. Only 1 3 meetings were held. The average attendance, from January to May, was only 9 members and 7 visitors : but in November it began to amend ; and, for the whole year, was 14-5 members and 8' 5 visitors. Sixteen papers were read : and they all, save one, were published. Among them, were several of historical importance : — (i) Hodgkin on some Morbid Appearances of the Absorbent Glands and Spleen. (2) Brodie on Cases of Chronic Abscess of the Tibia. (3) Three communications, by Bright, Elliotson, and Lloyd, on the Pancreas and Duodenum, and on the Discharge of Fatty Matter from the Bowels. (4) Marshall Hall's Experimental Investigation of the Effects of Loss of Blood. His use of the thermometer is to be noted : also, his description of a "functional murmur," a brnisseinent in the action of the heart, which might lead to the erroneous conclusion that there was disease in this organ and its valves. E 66 57, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS, 1820-1834 (5) Travers' additional Observations on the Local Diseases termed Malignant. In this second monograph, 123 pages long, he does refer, but only once, to microscopic structure : / macerated the remnant of the tumour (cancer of the breast) and examined it carefully through a magnifier. It was reticulated,^ and most analogous to a section of dry sponge. (Trans, xvii. 323.) Other papers, worthy of note, are Shaw's account of the Conformation of the Skeleton in Rickets; Hawkins (i) on the uselessness of Styptics, (2) on Cysts and Abscesses of the Liver : and Wood on Laryngitis, Bronchotomy, and Cut Throat. The one unpublished paper is a curious account of a case of " Traumatic Tetanus," which shows how vaguely the word Tetanus was applied. The patient was bitten on the hand, by a lunatic, on a Wednesday ; had " complete opisthotonos " on the Thursday ; and was convalescent on the Friday. 1833- In June, eight members were threatened with expulsion, if they would not pay their subscriptions : and, in No- vember, one of them was expelled. In November, also, Messrs. Crowder gave notice of quitting the Society's house. This loss of good tenants precipitated the move Westward : and a Sub-committee was appointed to look- out for an eligible situation not further West than Charing Cross. Only 1 2 meetings were held this year. Average attend- ance, 1 5 members and 9 visitors. At the Annual General Meeting, Dr. Elliotson was elected President : who was also, at or about this time. President of the Phrenological Society. Twenty papers were read, and eleven published : they are of less importance than those of 1832, but they include 57, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS, 1820-1834 67 Arnott's case of CEsophagotomy, the first in this country ; Elliotson's additional case of Human Glanders ; and Hilton's account (unpublished, read Jan. 22nd, 1833) of Trichina Spiralis — Notes of a peculiar appearance in Human Muscle, probably depending upon the formation of very small Cysticerci : — "On dissection, the attention was arrested by a mottled appearance of the pectoral muscles; and the same phenomenon presented itself in all the voluntary muscles, and in those of respiration. Between their fibres, and having their long axis parallel to them, there were situate several oval bodies, transparent in the middle, and opaque at either end, altogether about ^V of an inch in length. No organization could be discovered with a microscope. Exposed to gentle heat, putrefaction went on as usual, without any signs of life in these small bodies." Hilton was at this time a Demonstrator of Anatomy at Guy's Hospital. In the London Medical Gazette of this year, he published a full account of these observations. 1834- The Year of the Charter, and of the move Westward. That we may be free to contemplate these great events, let us dismiss the ordinary work of the Society. Thirteen meetings were held, with an improved attendance : i g papers were read, and 9 published. Among the published, were Lee on a case of Pulmonary (septic) Phlebitis ; Seymour on the use of the Acetate of Morphia in cases of Insanity ; and Cock on Malformations of the Internal Ear in cases of Congenital Deafness — the first dissections of this kind brought before the Society, seven years before the first of Toynbee's reports. Among the unpublished, were one by Marshall Hall on Njevi, classifying them as arterial, venous, and capillary ; and one by Sauvan on 68 57, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS, 1820-1834 Venereal Diseases, affirming clearly that gonorrhcEa is due to a " specific virus." Let us dismiss, also, the lesser affairs of the Council. In April, they decided to take in the Lancet, and to pro- cure, if they could, the back numbers. In June, Dr. Hecker of Berlin sent them his book, and asked them to appoint a Committee to report on it, and they politely declined. In July, they decided to take in the London Medical and Surgical Journal. Paullo niajora canamus : let us celebrate the Charter, and the Exodus from Lincoln's Inn Fields. Here are the bare facts, from the old Minute- books : — April ly. No house having been found, and taking into account the high probability, admitted by most or all the gentlemen present, that we should be enabled to procure a Charter before long, and subsequently , as a Chartered Society, to obtain apartments in Somerset House, or some other public building, the Council is minded to remain in the old house as yearly tenants, if the Landlord will let them. April 28. Council. Unanimously agreed, That the possession of a Charter ivould be very desirable, and that consequently the Society should without delay be called together to consider of the propriety of appointing a deputa- tion to wait on the Secretary op State for Domestic Affairs, to ascertain the feelings of Government on the subject. May 8. Draft of Charter, and petition, revised and approved by the Council. fune 25. The Landlord refuses to let the house in apartments. fuly 23. Special General Meeting. The Council is empowered to take apartments at 53 Berners Street. August. The Charter receives the sanction of the Law Officers of the Crown. The agreement for the apartments 57, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS, 1820-1834 69 is signed. The sum of ;6^400 to be raised for the expenses of the Charter and of the move Westward. Se/>t. 8. Council. TAe President is requested to ascer- tain at the Home Office the future title of the Society, and to procure, if possible, the adoption of the title. Royal Society of Medicine and Surgery. Oct. 6. Council, at the President's house. A letter from Dr. Yelloly, objecting on legal and prudential grounds to the proposed change of the Society's style and title. Agreed, to make no change, save the addition of the word Royal, and the substitution of Fellows for Members. Agreed also, that the medical journals be kept, during the move, at Mr. Coulson's house : and that the Drapers' Society remove their brass-plate from Berners Street. Nov. 4. Council, at the President's House. The Trea- surer reports that he has but £\ in hand, and that a quarter's rent of £^0 is impending. An insurance-policy is reported as lost, and not to be found anywhere. Cost of the Charter, ;^288. 7. 6. Nov. 1 1 . Special General Meeting, at the President's House. The Society receives from its President the Charter, naming the King as Patron, Dr. Elliotson as first President, and Sir Astley Cooper and Dr. Yelloly as first Members of Council ; and giving to all the Members the style and title of Fellows of the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society of London. The terms of agreement were that our Society should occupy the ground-floor of 53 Berners Street, with three rooms in the basement ; that the proprietor, Mr. Scott, should build and finish for occupation at Michaelmas a Library and ante-room at the back of the house ; and that the Society should pay a clear annual rent of £2 1 o, free of 70 57, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS, 1820-1834 rates and taxes, and should have the option of taking a lease. During the move, the meetings were held at Dr. Elliotson's house in Conduit Street. On February 14th, 1835, was held the first meeting at 53, Berners Street. Here our Society stayed for fifty-four years, from 1835 to 1889. It would be tedious, in one chapter, to go over the history of half a century and more. During that long period, two attempts were made to bring about the unity of diverse Medical Societies in one Royal Society of Medicine : and it may serve to break the monotony of these Chronicles, if a separate chapter be given to each attempt. 53. BKKNKKS STKKKT. VI. 53, BERNERS STREET, 1835-1861. 1835. The Council this year, in the selection of a President, were embarrassed between their wish to nominate Sir Benjamin Brodie and Mr. Earle's claim of seniority. Finally, Mr. Earle was chosen. Afterward, a Committee was ap- pointed to enquire whether seniority should be allowed to govern the election of officers. The Committee reported, at great length, that the Presidency of other learned Societies did not go by seniority ; and that it had not always gone that way, and ought not, in our Society. In July, leave was granted to Dr. Spangerberg to have copies made of the Chamberlen instruments. (The same permission was given to Prof Nagele in March, 1836.) This month, also, the Phrenological Jour}tal, and Ren- shavus Medical and Surgical Journal, were ordered " for the present." In November, " The President communicated to the (Council) meeting that an application had been made to him, on the part of the Lancet weekly Journal, for per- mission for a gentleman, connected with that periodical, to make analyses of the papers read before the Society. And it was agreed that no such concession should be made by the Council ; and Mr. Williams received instructions that (71) 72 53, BERNERS STREET, 1835-1861 for the future the Law respecting visitors must be strictly enforced." The average attendance this year rose to 25 Fellows and 16 visitors: 15 meetings were held, 17 papers read, and 1 1 published. Among the published, were (i) Bright on the Diagnosis, by Touch, of Peritoneal Adhe- sions : / have observed on several occasions, that when the circumstances of the disease had rendered it probable that ad- hesions might take place between the viscera and the peritoneum of the abdomen, a very peculiar sensation has been communi- cated to the touch, varying between the crepitation produced by emphysema and the sensation derived from bending new leather in the hand. With many illustrative cases. (2) Lee on the Functions of the Foetal Kidney. (3) Sims' three papers (150 pages in all) on Diseases of the brain. (4) Stafford on Dissection Wounds : with many cases of great interest. Two whole evenings were given to the subject. (5) Elliotson on the Medicinal Properties of Creasote. This was the first paper read at Berners Street ; and was read at the last ordinary meeting under Elliotson's Presidency. Having heard in 1834 of this new drug, he had tried it in diverse diseases — phthisis, epilepsy, neuralgia, Asiatic cholera, obstinate vomiting, and diabetes — also as an ex- ternal application. He quotes and praises Berkeley on Tar-water. He should have quoted, also, that line from Berkeley, Westward the course of Empire takes its te'ay. Among the unpublished, "a communication was pre- sented by the President (March 24), giving an account of some peculiar animalculi discovered in the muscles of two individuals in the dissecting Rooms of St. Bartholomew's Hospital, with some account of the symptoms which pre- sented themselves in one of the cases. The paper was accompanied with drawings. The author was Mr. Paget." Also, Mr. Baxter's case of vesico-vaginal fistula, not pub- lished, is to be noted, as an instance of the need of plastic surger}'. The treatment was the actual cauter)', and the 53, BERNERS STREET, 1835-1861 73 prone position : the patient remained constantly on her face during 22 months. 1836. A year of many affairs ; and the Council held twenty- one meetings, and dealt with the business as follows: — (i) Finance. The March audit showed a balance of £"19. 6. o| due to the Treasurer from the Society. In May, the Council appointed a Committee to enquire into the cost of the Transactions. The Committee advised that the Transactions should be left in Messrs. Longman's hands ; that the stock of back volumes should be sold ; and that the Society should make the authors of papers pay all the cost of coloured plates, and half the cost of all other plates. (The average cost of plates was ;^85. 10. per volume.) In July, for further economy, tea and coffee were abolished, unless at the expense of the individual Fellows requiring it. In November, they were restored. (2) Standing Orders. In March, the Council resolved that Standing Orders should be drawn up without delay. A Committee was appointed ; and in May the Standing Orders were received and entered on the Council-Minutes. (3) Honorajy Fellozvs were nominated in April, as follows — Dr. Dalton, Dr. Buckland, Prof. Sedgwick, Sir William Hooker, and Sir David Brewster: Prof. Orfila, Prof de Candolle, Prof. Physick of Philadelphia, Baron Humboldt, Dr. Edwards of Paris, Dr. Eckstrom, and Prof. Oersted. (4) Papers. It was resolved in Council that all papers, received by the Secretary, be presented by him to the Council, and referred by them to a Committee of Papers, consisting of the President, the Secretaries, and two Members of Council. This Committee to report to the 74 53, BERNERS STREET, 1835-1861 Council, and the Council then to decide, and instruct the Secretaries accordingly, (5) Publication of Papers. Every paper to be referred to two or more Fellows for their opinion. An abstract of every paper to be read in Council, previous to the ballot for publication. No paper to be published which had not been read before the Society. (6) Reports in the Journals. In January, the Council resolved to publish short notices or abstracts of papers, " with the authority of the Society." In February, they gave up this plan of official Bulletins, for fear of the ex- pense ; and resolved. That the Editors or Publishers of any medical or scientific journal be permitted to copy and publish, the secretaries abstracts of the papers read at the meetings tipon sending a written application to the Council, and agreeing to publish such abstracts entire. In June, Dr. Cummin obtained leave to publish them in the Medical Gazette. The average attendance this year (we may except the meeting on Dec. 27, which seems to have been called by mistake, for nothing was read, and only 12 Fellows and visitors came) was 36 Fellows and 19 visitors ; a good record of the success of the move to Berners Street. Of 26 papers read or taken as read, 15 were published. Among them, were (i) Brodie on Injuries of the Spinal Cord. He speaks of tak- ing the temperature of a case {Trans, xx. p. 146) : the first mention, in our Transactions, of a patient's tem- perature. His remarks on surgical interference, also, are of great interest. (2) Thomson on Black Expectoration and Black Pigment in the Lungs. (3) Gulliver's Experimental Enquiry into Necrosis. (4) Liston on Tumours of the Mouth and Jaws : with refer- ences to all recorded cases, fifteen in all, of partial or complete removal of the superior maxilla. 53, BERNERS STREET, 1835-1861 75 (5) Burnc on Diseases of the Ccecum and Appendix Vermi- formis : a contribution of great historical value. Also, the following cases : (i) Smith's case of Artificial Respiration, averting death from Opium-poisoning : // was detertnined, as the only remaining chance, to try the effects of artificial respiration; there being at this time no pulse whatever at the wrist. . . . The mouth and one nostril being closed, a pair of common bellozvs was applied to the other nostril, and the chest was in that way inflated, and alternately emptied by pressure on the chest and sides. (2) Johnson's case, not published, of periodicity in Mono- mania — alternate days of illusion and freedom from illusion. (3) North's case, not published, of double Congenital Dislocation of the Hip-Joint. 1837. This year's affairs in Council were of no great moment. (i) A new Catalogue was put in hand. (2) A plan for a biennial prize was proposed, but not adopted. (3) The editor of the British A nnals of Medicine obtained leave to publish abstracts of papers. (4) There was talk of taking a lease of the Society's apartments. (5) Mr. Arnott, at a Council-meeting in December, moved That the present practice of electing to the Presidency the same Fellow for two years in succession is inexpedient, and ought to be abandoned ; and the motion was lost. At the Annual General Meeting, Dr. Bright was elected President. Mr. Earle, leaving office, addressed the meet- ing, and alluded to the death of three Fellows during the past year ; and thus instituted the custom of the Presi- dent's address, with its Ave et Vale to those Fellows who have lately died. In July, a Special Meeting was held, to approve an address to Her Majesty Queen Victoria on her Accession. 76 53, BERNERS STREET, 1835 1861 Ordinary meetings, 14: papers read 24, published 10 : average attendance, 35*5 Fellows and 14 visitors. Among the published, were (i) Bostock's Observations on the Constitution of the Urine ; an appeal for the more systematic examination of the urine in practice, with the use of definite standards and a definite nomenclature. By an apt chance, this was the first paper read during Bright's Presidency. (2) Clendinning on the Weight of the Vital Organs in Health and Disease. (3) A Report, by Budd and Busk, on 20 cases of Malignant Cholera on board the " Dreadnought ". (4) Hawkins on Malignant Diseases of the Skin of the Face. (5) Travers' case of Removal of the Clavicle; with refer- ences. Among the unpublished, were (i) A case of Ligature of the Common Iliac, by Prof. Salomon of St. Petersburg. (2) Whipple's two cases of division of the Achilles-tendon in Talipes Equinus, reported as a new thing in surgery — Various instrumental means of relief had been employed for several years, under the superintendence of a Gentleman cele- brated for the management of deformities, and the advice and assistance of many medical men of eminence. (3) Observations on Amputations, by Phillips, based on 640 collected cases from different countries : he advises, in amputations for chronic suppurative diseases, that an artificial suppurating surface, by seton or issue, should first be established, to obviate many of tlie evils resulting from immediate union and to render unnecessary the recourse to secondary union. Also, two papers, by Wilson and by Stafford, on Hys- terical Paralysis, Contracture, Paresthesia, etc. Wilson's paper, which was published, gives a strange picture of these cases and their treatment ; Stafford's, not published, gives a strange theory — Pains, spasms, pa/sy, and imiscular contraction of the litnbs, and othe7' symptoms, are common both to cases of local hysteria and to diseases or injuries of 53, BERNERS STREET, 1835-1861 77 t/te spinal cord: and accordingly the Author infers that both classes of cases have a common origin in a congested or inflamed condition of the spinal cord. 1838. In January, a lease of the Apartments, at ;i^i8o, was taken for 1 7 years. Also, the new Catalogue was finished and presented to the Council. In May, it was proposed to appoint a Committee to report on Mesmerism : Non placet. In May, also, the Mercantile Committee on Post- age asked the Society to sign a petition in favour of General Penny Postage : Non placet. In August, the Council decided to have the Apartments lighted by gas. In December, the Secretaries were told that they must find some way of dealing with voluminous or otherwise unusual communications ; and a Committee was appointed to consider this proposal. That, in any future volume of the Society's Transactions, a history of the Proceedings of the Society should be prefixed ; in which should be embodied abstracts of the accounts of interesting cases, and of papers read at the meetings which are not held in every zvay fit to appear in their entire state as part of the Society's Transactions. Meetings held, 13: average attendance, 33"5 Fellows and 1 2 visitors : papers read 22, published 1 5. Among them, were (i) Thurman on Aneurisms of the Heart; with references to 74 recorded cases. (2) Budd on "Concentric Hypertrophy" of the Heart. (3) Bright's cases of Spasmodic Disease accompanying Affec- tions of the Pericardium : with especial reference to the association between rheumatism and chorea— ^/^o^<^/^ / doxiht not that in some cases the coverings of the cerebrospinal mass are implicated, yet I believe that the much more frequent cause of chorea, in conjunction with rheumatism, is the inflam- 78 53, BERNERS STREET, 1835-1861 mation of the pericardium ; and that the irritation is com- municated thence, probably, to the spine ; just as the irritation of other parts, as of the bowels, the gums, or the uterus, is communicated. Also, further observations by Thomson and Burne ; and Lee's case of Supernumerary Breasts, probably the first recorded in this country ; and Arnott's case of Removal of Half the Tongue with Ligatures. Among the unpublished, were, Stafford on the Division, by a special instrument, of Stricture of the Rectum ; and Hope on the Pulse in relation to Diseases of the Heart. Hope alludes to /it's discovery of mitral regurgitation in 1825, and of the murmur indicat- ing that disease : also to the existence of aortic regurgita- tion, proved by the Author in 1 831 -1835: also to his discoveries as to the cause of the second sound of the heart. He enumerates, also, sixteen leading varieties of the pulse. On Dec, 1 1 th, we read in the Minutes, " A large portion of the evening having been taken-up by a conversation on the present increased prevalence of small-pox, the remain- ing time was insufficient for reading the papers accepted, and they were consequently postponed." 1839. There was much talk, this year, of the great expense of the Transactions. A question of profits, due from Messrs. Longman to the Society, was submitted to a paid account- ant, and to our Society's advantage. We read, also, of a Committee appointed to consider composition-fees ; of leave given to the Society for the Relief of the Widows and Orphans of Medical Men to hold its quarterly Courts at Berners Street ; and of a proposal from M. Fontaine, that our Society should appoint a Commission to see him transfer the Vaccine Disease from the human subject to the cow : Non placet. 53, BERNERS STREET, 1835-1861 79 In March, Sir Benjamin Brodie was elected President : and was welcomed by a meeting of y^ Fellows and 41 visitors. Number of meetings, 13 : papers read $^, published 24 : average attendance, 49 Fellows and 25 "5 visitors — Redeunt Satiirnia regna. This year, Marshall Hall communicated to our Society the first of his Memoirs on the Nervous System ; and Gulliver, his three papers on the Softening of Coagulated Fibrin, and the Structure of Pus Corpuscles. In one of them, he describes the round corpuscles of pus taken from animals having oval blood-disks : in another, not published, he describes at great length the nuclei of pus-corpuscles, which he believes have not been hitherto described, and which he regards as important. . . . The author proposes to designate the little central bodies Pus- molecules. Another paper, only six pages, is of some historical value ; Lever's Statistical Notices of 1 20 Cases of Carcin- oma Uteri. In 1839, ^he numerical method, the tabulating of large numbers of cases in a forest of parallel columns, which is now a matter of instinct with us, was a new idea. It came out of the work done by Louis of Paris. As Lever says — "The value and utility of the numerical system are now ac- knowledged by many of our most talented and zealous practitioners. The patient and interesting labours of M. Louis have tended, in a great measure, to effect this change in the opinions of the profession. . . . Before I entered upon this investigation, I held many opinions with regard to this disease, totally opposite to the deduc- tions which are to be drawn from the table — thus afford- ing a strong argument in favour of medical statistics." Other papers worthy of note were Travers on Strangu- lated Hernia, with a vehement protest against operation without opening the sac ; Nasmyth on the Structure of the 80 53, BERNERS STREET, 1835-1881 Teeth ; and Budd on the Pathology of the Spinal Cord, with an appeal for a more rational treatment of Tetanus — Hitherto^ the treatment of tetanus has been conducted in violation of all known physiological principles. 1840. Loyal addresses were presented, this year, on the Queen's marriage, her escape from assassination, and the birth of the Princess Royal : and Her Majesty became Patroness of our Society. Other business of the year was — (i) A petition of Fellows against the coldness and discomfort of the Library : much trouble was taken over this matter, and two Arnott's stoves were installed. (2) The recogni- tion of Pathology as a special department of the work of the Society. On Jan. 28th, a Committee was appointed to consider and report on the details of the mode of holding meetings for tJie cultivation of Pathology, chiefly by the ex- hibition of anatomical specimens. The Committee reported in favour of holding seven extra meetings, during March- July, for the demonstration of specimens recent or pre- pared, drawings, or casts of morbid structures. There is no mention of the use of the microscope. It is certain that some, at any rate, of these meetings were held, though there is no mention of them in the Minutes of Meetings : for, on June 30th, papers contributed at them were referred, by the Council, to the Committee; and on July loth, the Committee reported that these papers were too few to be worth adding to the Transactions. Ordinary meetings, 15: papers read 29, published 21 : average attandance, 46 Fellows and 20 visitors. The honours of the year belong to Marshall Hall, for his second, third, and fourth Memoirs on the Pathology of the Nervous System. Other published papers were 53, BERNERS STREET, 1835-1861 81 (i) Burton on the Blue Line in Lead-Poisoning : an interest- ing phenomenon which, so far as I can ascertain, has not hitherto been recorded. (2) Listen's description of the loops of capillaries in Granu- lation-tissue : with his warning against the mischievous effects of squeezing-together the sides of suppurating cavities — a proceeding adopted through a blind and thoughtless observ- ance of the bad practice of others. (3) Dalrymple on the Rapid Organization of Lymph in Cachexia : e.g., the greater tendency to the effusion and organization of fibrin in syphilitic iritis than in simple iritis, the former cases being debilitated by excesses, ir- regularity of moral habits, or the mal-administration of mercury in the primary disease. / do not hesitate to de- clare my belief that the decline of health is the cause, rather than the effect, of this rapid organization. . . . It cannot be denied that in practice it would become important, should future inquiry determine that the organizable elements of the blood become sooner and more completely organized in the debilitated and cachectic subject. (4) Rutherford Alcock on Injuries of Joints, and their Treat- ment. Among the unpublished, were — Robert Hutchinson on the Frequent Identity of Puerperal Peritonitis with Epi- demic Erysipelas (with some terrible examples of case-to- case infection) ; and Jeffreys, on the Increase of Opium- eating in England — T/te author solicits froin the Society some declaration which might have the effect of diminish- ing the practice. 1841. Business of the year, (i) Dr. Robert Williams was elected President. (2) Honorary Fellows were elected — Herschel, Whewell, Brande, and Robert Brown ; Andral, Ehrenberg, Jackson of Boston, Larrey, Louis, Magendie, Mijller, Panizza, and Warren of Boston. (3) An offer of 1 00 guineas, " for certain specified purposes," made by a Mr. Dodson, was politely declined. (4) It was again pro- 82 53, BERNERS STREET, 1835-1861 posed that the Presidency should be for one year only. (5) Committees of Reference were appointed, in Medicine, Surgery, Anatomy, and Midwifery, and one in Botany, Chemistry, Pharmacy, and Materia Medica, to deal with papers read before the Society. Meetings held, i6: papers read 32, published 19: aver- age attendance, 5 1 + 24. Toynbee, this year, communi- cated to the Society the first set of that series of dissec- tions of the ear which did so much for aural surgery in this country. Ure described his discovery of the substitution of hippuric acid for uric acid : / ascertained in the course of last summer, by repeated experiments , made first of all upon myself, and afterwards upon individuals labouring under gout, that this substitution could be perfectly accom- plished without the slightest risk of affecting the general health, or of irritatittg the vital organs. The substance employed for this purpose was the benzoic acid. Paget and Budd contributed their observations on Symmetry in Disease : and Potter, a statistical paper, after the new method, on the results of Amputations at University College Hospital (Liston's added remarks on the dressing of the stump are to be noted : Trans, xxiv. 166). Of the other papers, Caesar Hawkins on Cancer of the Spine, and Martin, of Calcutta, on 2393 cases of Hydrocele treated by injection of tincture of iodine instead of the usual port- wine, are of interest : the latter was not published. Also, the cases reported by Silvester, Holberton, and Soden ; and, in Stanley's paper on Dislocations of the Hip-joint, what looks like the first recorded case of Charcot's Disease. {Trans, xxiv. 123.) 1842. Business of the year, (i) Loyal addresses were pre- sented on the occasion of the birth of our present Patron, 53, BERNERS STREET, 1835-1861 83 His Majesty the King. (2) In April, the Editor of the Medical Times asked leave to send a reporter to the meet- ings, and was refused: whereat he wrote a letter to the Council, "couched in disrespectful terms." In May, the Editor of the Provincial Medical Gazette made the same request : and it was granted. (3) In June, a memorial was sent to the Council, signed by 32 Fellows, "recom- mending that the Presidency should be considered a strictly annual affair for the future." N on placet. (4) In July, Dunn's paper on a case of Tubercular Meningitis was ordered for publication on condition that the authoi" consent to omit his phrenological observations . (5) On Nov. 22nd, before a record audience of 169, a paper was read on a case of Amputation of the Thigh during Mesmeric Coma ; by two authors, neither of them Fellows of the Society. It was not published, nor even submitted for publication ; there is no abstract of it in the Minutes ; and the Minute saying that it was read was excepted from confirmation. In March of next year, Dr. Elliotson and two other Fellows retired from the Society : Victrix causa Diis placuit, sed victa Catoni. Meetings held, 1 5 : papers read 28, published 1 6 : aver- age attendance, 59*5 + 28. It cannot be said that the papers, this year, were all of them worthy of such large audiences. But, among them, were Green on Tubercle of the Brain in Children, with tables of 30 cases ; Curling on Ulceration of the Duodenum after Burns ; Stafford's case of Congenital Cataract, with recovery of sight after operation at the age of 23 ; and Ancell's curious case of Multiple Tumours. 1843. In January, the Council ordered that a reporter be ad- mitted from the Medical Times, upon the recommendation 84 53. BERNERS STREET, 1835-1861 of the President. In March, the Editor of the Illustrated Polytechnic Review applied for a similar privilege ; and was told that he might take a copy of the abstracts. In July, it was resolved, That a letter be sent to the Editors of the four weekly Medical fournals to inform them, that the Council have observed that some reports of their papers have been published, which had not had the previous sanction of the Secretaries ; and to remiiid them, that such publication is contrary to the regulation by which permission was given to them to publish a notice of the papers read at the meetings of the Society. In April, the Sydenham Society was allowed to use the Council-room for its meetings, for a period of three months. In November, it was resolved. That Fellows, and others through the medium of Fellows, be permitted to exhibit objects of interest, connected with medicine and the auxiliary sciences, at the Society s meetings, provided the consent of the President and Secretaries be previously obtained. In December, Lawrence proposed "That the Council shall have the power of nominating, for election to the Society, gentlemen practising any special department of Medicine or Surgery, who may be distin- guished for their scientific attainments or practical pro- ficiency, although they should not belong to any of the classes specified in Rule iv. Chap, i." This motion was lost, at the next Annual General Meeting. Mr. Stanley, this year, was elected President. Meetings held during the year, i 5 : papers read 38, published 29 : average attendance, 65 + 31 . Among the papers, were 1. Toynbee's second series of Dissections of the Ear. 2. Robinson's experiments on Blood-pressure and Albumin- uria. 3. Gulliver on Fatty Degeneration of the Arteries. 53, BERNERS STREET, 1835-1861 85 4. Three papers by Bence Jones, on Calculi, Uric Acid, and Diabetes. 5. Papers by Listen, Lloyd, and Dalrymple, on the presence of spermatozoa in hydrocele-fluid. 6. Webster's Statistics of Bethlem Hospital : with references to the old brutal treatment of the insane, and its resultant frequency of suicide, and with Lawrence's elaborate tables of 72 post-mortem examinations at the Hospital. Webster also refers to the controversy between the Anatomists and the Vitalists. 7. A curious communication, not published, by Robert Williams, on the Decrement of Weight in Phthisis. The author states that some years ago he began a series of experiments on possible remedies in Phthisis, satisfied that general treatment was of little avail, and that the cure of the disease must be sought from a specific remedy. This series embraced preparations of platina, palladium, osmium, iridium, titanium, chromium, and cerium. He subsequently tried every seed that Messrs. Charlwood of Covent Garden could furnish ; and he had previously tried every wood, every bark, and every gum he could obtain. Nothing appeared beneficially to influence the disease. No injury, how- ever, was done, except in two cases treated with white hellebore. Also, Clendinning on Indian Hemp, and Hunt on Chlorate of Potash : Brodie's account of Mr. Brunei's case : and Bransby Cooper's case of the Entry of Air into a Vein. Two papers, by Ure and Flocken, not published, on ophthalmic cases, serve to show the hopelessness of ophthalmology without the ophthalmoscope. An account, by Bell, of an Epidemic Disease at Teheran, might well be referred now, for a diagnosis, to a Committee of our Society. Finally, there was Wilson's case, not published, of " Dual Consciousness ; " which must be rescued, here, from its place of interment in the Minute-book : — "A boy, aged 14, in the Middlesex Hospital. . . . For three or four days, his appetite inordinate, seizing on any article of food he could meet with in the Ward, tho' allowed full diet. When not eating or seeking for food, 86 53, BERNERS STREET, 1835-1861 he generally slept night and day. This abnormal state continued for three or four days, when he recovered his natural state of sleep, appetite, and consciousness. Then he had no recollection of what he had done or of what had happened to him since his admission. He was shortly discharged, but twice re-admitted, each time presenting the same symptoms, that is, alternations of consciousness and unconsciousness." 1844. The new Catalogue was published this year, and a copy was given to each Fellow. It was again proposed to make the Presidency annual. Proposed, also, to exempt from further payment all Fellows of 30 years' standing : Non placet. Five Fellows were erased from the register for non-payment. Meetings held, 1 5 : papers read or taken as read 40, published 26 : average attendance, 67 + 24. Among the papers, were 1. Burrows on a case of Cancer of the Lung; with special reference to the physical signs in such cases. 2. Davy on the Composition of Meconium and Vernix; with special reference to their characters under the microscope. 3. Green's Tabular View of the seat of Tubercle, in 180 cases of tubercle of the lungs in children. 4. Paget on Obstruction of the branches of the Pulmonary Artery; and Peacock on Obstruction of the Vena Cava Superior. 5. Reid on Tubular Expectoration from the Bronchi. 6. Solly on Mollities Ossium. But the great interest of this year belongs especially to operative surgery. Wilson on Tracheotomy ; Fergusson on the operation for Cleft Palate : Roe, and Thompson, on the operation for Empyema : Greenhow, Bransby Cooper, and Phillips, on Ovariotomy — here, in these seven papers, is matter enough for many pages of com- mentary. Especially those by Roe and Phillips afford 53, BERNERS STREET, 1835-1861 87 vivid pictures, in Roe's description of the bad times just before the restoration of the Hippocratic operation for Empyema, and Phillips' passionate appeal to the elders of the Society not to shrink responsibility over the question of Ovariotomy. 1845. Business of the year, (i) Dr. Chambers was elected President. In June, from over-work, he resigned office ; but in July withdrew his resignation. (2) Report of the Publication Committee ; the expense of coloured plates to be borne by the Society. (3) Mr. Erichsen presented a manuscript Index of the Transactions. (4) Dr. Merriman presented an Index Medicus of various Medical Journals, arranged according to their subjects. (5) The Editor of the Medical A rgus was allowed to send a reporter to the meetings. (6) It was proposed to take in the Quarterly Review and the Edinburgh Review : Non placet. (7) A Mr. Byrne offered to take the upper part of the house as an Academy for Dancing : Non placet. Meetings held, 15 : papers read or taken as read 40, published 22: average attendance, 66 + 25. Among the papers, were 1. Baly, (160 pages) on the Mortality in Prisons, and the Diseases most frequently fatal to prisoners. He finds, first, that i'nprisonineiit continued for periods of 2, 3, or 4 years, produced everywhere a high rate of mortality ; and secondly, that in all the prisons, including the Millbank Penitentiary to which he was physician, the increased mortality was chiefly due to tJie prevalence of one and the same disease, namely, tubercular scrofula. The chief causes of the disease were deficient ventilation, cold, sedentary occupa- tions and want of active bodily exercise, a listless if not dejected state of mind, and poorness of the diet. 2. Taylor, (118 pages) on some of the Causes of Pericarditis, especially acute rheumatism and Bright's disease of the kidneys. 88 53, BERNERS STREET, 1835-1861 3. George Johnson on the Minute Anatomy and Pathology of Bright's disease. 4. Rainey on the Minute structure of the Lungs, and on the formation of Pulmonary Tubercle. He is of opinion that the tuberculous matter is poured from the free surface of the pulmonary membrane into the interior of the air cells. 5. Stanley on Pulsating Tumours of Bone. 6. Fergusson's case of Excision of the Head of the Femur : the second successful case in this country. With refer- ences to the history of this operation. 7. Evans' case of Lumbar Colotomy, "Callisen's operation modified by Amussat." The eleventh case on record. Among the unpublished, were (i) Ilott and Wilson on a case of Traumatic Tetanus, successfully treated by Stimu- lants — two gallons of brandy in 8 days, beside wine : Tetanus, like Fever, is a disorder of the entire system, continually operative in the entire blood. It requires time for its development, time for its cure. The treatment must adapt itself to the general business of nutrition : no narcotic poisons, no fatal drugs. (2) Tatum on Three Cases of Hard Circumscribed Tumours in Muscles, disappearing under the influence of the Iodide of Potassium. In the abstract in the Minute-book, nothing is said of syphilis : but we can hardly doubt that the tumours were gummata. It is a pity that this communication was not published. 1846. This year, the Pathological Society was founded : and, in June, it sent the following letter to the Council of our Society — Gentlemen — We have been directed by the Council of the Pathological Society of London to enclose the accom- panying prospectus, which will be found to embody the plan upon which the Society is based. The Society now numbers 90 Members, many of whom are Fellows of the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society. It has been thought advisable that the meetings should take place 53, BERNERS STREET, 1835-1861 89 in as central a situation as possible. Having this object in view, and being of opinion that the Pathological Society will in no way interfere with the province, or detract from the usefulness, of the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society; being also desirous of securing its countenance and co-operation, the Council have unani- mously resolved. That application be made to the Council of the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society for the use of their rooms for the purpose of their meetings on alternate Tuesdays from October to June. We have therefore to request that you will be pleased to take this proposal into your consideration. Signed, Edward Bentley, Nathaniel Ward, Hon. Secretaries. In July, "after considerable discussion," the reply was, T/ia^ the Council of the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society having considered the application made to them by the Pathological Society, beg to express their regret that they cannot comply with the request. Other business of the year, (i) To save money, a smaller type was used for the Transactions. (2) The "advertisement," disclaiming responsibility for opinions of authors, was first printed in this year's Transactions, vol. xxix. (3) A letter was received from Dr. Elliotson, with an account, in print, of an amputation lately per- formed in France without the slightest sensation, (4) Re- vision of Bye- Laws. Meetings held, 1 5 : papers read or taken 40, published 19: average attendance, 70 + 28. Among the papers, were 1. Rainey on the Ganglionic Character of the Arachnoid Membrane, and Toynbee on the Intimate Structure of the Kidney and its changes in Bright's disease. These two papers show a marvellous advancement of micro- scope-work. 2. John Hutchinson, (116 pages) on the Capacity of the Lungs, and on Respiration ; with an account of his Spirometer. 90 53, BERNERS STREET, 1835-1861 3. Robert Thomson on the relation between the constituents of the Food, and the Systems, of Animals. With an analysis of the proportions of starch and gluten in vari- ous cereals ; and suggestions for the use of mixed grains in bread-making. 4. Liston on a case of Ligature of the External Iliac for a False Aneurism in the Femoral Region, due to a bullet- wound. Liston's conduct of this case (which seems to have been an injury in a duel) had been severely criti- cised : and, in his paper, he hotly defended the operation, and appealed to the Society. The Council resolved that he must, for publication, omit all personal matter, particu- larly the appeal to the Society at the end of the paper, and the reference to the parties concerned. 5. Jackson on a Particular Derangement of the Structure of the Spleen. He gives an exact and perfect description of embolism of the spleen and kidneys following valvular disease of the heart ; but fails to interpret the case. The date of Kirke's paper on Embolism is 1852. The con- trast between the two is curiously vivid. 6. Cumming's observations on the reflection of light from the Fundus of the Eye; and its application to the detection ot disease of the retina. It is remarkable that he used a lens, yet was not led to invent an ophthalmoscope. He notes that Beer and Lawrence had observed vessels in the fundus of the eye, in cases of "cat's-eye amaurosis ". 1847. Business of the year, (i) Mr. Arnott was elected Presi- dent. (2) It was proposed that the Society should either take the whole house on a lease, or should build-out at the back of the Library : No?i placet. An upstairs room was rented at i^20 a year for the surplus books. (3) New Standing Orders were instituted for the Librarians : and a Committee of twenty-one Fellows was appointed to enquire into the deficiencies of the Library, and to prepare lists of books to be purchased. (4) Six Fellows were erased from the register for non-payment. (5) In August, the Council resolved, That in consequence of some remarks 53, BERNERS STREET, 1835-1861 91 made respecting the want of originality in parts of the papers of Dr. fohnson and Mr. Simon, a note be added as a postscript to the above papers, by the Editor, pointing-out the recent investigations which have been made in rental pathology, more especially in Germany, and which appear to have a bearing moi'e or less direct on the contents of the above papers : and further that Dr. Baly be requested to furnish the necessary materials for such note. But, in October, the Council resolved, That it is inexpedient for the Society to depart from the spirit of the Advertisement inserted at the commencement of the Volume, either in corroborating statements or supplying deficiencies in any of the papers contained in the Volume. All the same, the note is there. {Trans, xxx. 235.) Meetings held, 1 5 : papers read or taken 36, published 22 : average attendance, 74 + 22. One paper, read May 1 1 th, but not published, deserved publication, because it mentions, for the first time in our Society's history, the use of ether. (The first operation under ether, the Massachu- setts case, was on Oct. i6th, 1846.) It was an account by Pollock, of St. George's Hospital, of a case of Tetanus, fatal in 3 days : he could hardly have found an occasion less favourable — An ineffectual attempt was made to affect the patient tvith the vapour of ether. The irritation and distress occasioned by the attempt to administer the vapour were such as to forbid perseverance in this endeavour to relieve his frightful sufferings. Other notable papers, this year, were (i) Golding Bird and Hilton on a case of Internal Strangula- tion, relieved by operation : a splendid contribution to our Transactions, and of the utmost importance. Re- corded experience is almost barren in information regarding tlie results of attempts made to relieve internal strangulation by surgical interference. . . . I believe this to be the first recorded instance of any surgeon in this country having succeeded. . . • 92 53, BERNERS STREET, 1835-1861 / trust it will be considered by the Profession as a step in the right direction. (2) Burd's case of Ovariotomy during Pregnancy, with re- covery : An occurrence which, so far as I know, has not before been recorded. (3) Papers by Simon and Johnson on Inflammation of the Kidney. (4) Phillips on Intestinal Obstructions : with references to 169 recorded cases. (5) Bence Jones on the decrease of the phosphates in urine in delirium tremens, and their increase in inflammation of the brain. (6) Burrows on Tubercular Pericarditis. (7) Worthington's case of CEsophageal Pouch. And, among the unpublished, Letheby on the detection of Poisons in the Urine ; Fergusson on an operation for strangulated hernia in a baby — he observes that he has never seen the operation performed on any patient under the age of puberty, excepting in this instance ; and Budd on the identity of acute oedema of the larynx (Oynancke Laryngea) with erysipelas. 1848. Business this year, (i) Purchase was ordered of 432 works, on the recommendation of the Library Committee, at a cost of;^253. 10. 9: English 57, French 153, German 175, Italian 5, Latin 42. (2) It was proposed, but not confirmed, That the ballot for election of Fellows should be held on alternate meetings only, to avoid unnecessary interruption. (3) A long Report was presented to Council, as to the best way of dealing with papers, before and after acceptance. It called attention to the fact that viany valu- able communications, which under other circumstances would doubtless be offered for the Medico-Chiru7'gical Transactions, find their way into the numerous periodicals which now afford to Authors more speedy means of making their observations known to the Profession. 53, BERNERS STREET, 1835-1861 93 Meetings held, 1 5 : papers read or taken as read 42, published 28 : average attendance 72 + 23. The papers this year were, for the most part, short, and about 50 per cent, of them referred to single cases; the only long one, 145 pages, was by Gibson on the Movements of Respiration in Disease. But many of them have his- torical interest : — (i) Spencer Wells' first contribution (not published) to the work of the Society : Remarku upon certain sanative effects of Galvanism, as observed in the practice of Dr. Coseviva, at the Civil Hospital of Corfu. (a) Sir Alfred Garrod's first contribution : On certain Patho- logical Conditions of the Blood and Urine in Gout, Rheumatism, and Bright's Disease. (3) Routh on the causes of the Endemic Puerperal Fever at Vienna : with an account of Semmelweis and his work. (4) Fergusson's case of Resection of the Scapula: one of the earliest instances of this operation. (5) Hilton's case of Abdominal Section for relief of Obturator Hernia. (6) Druitt's case of Abdominal Section for relief of Internal Strangulation. (7) Mackenzie's case of Cysticercus in the Anterior Chamber of the Eye. The mention of the anaesthetics, in Fergusson's and Hilton's cases, is to be noted. In Fergusson's case, ether: One of the most formidable and severe operations as yet effected under the influence of ether. In Hilton's case, chloroform : Administered by Dr. Gull. A napkin was folded into the form of a hollow cone, with the apex open, a piece of sponge was placed within it, and the chloroform poured upon it. In Druitt's case, no anaesthetic : We did not use the chloroform, because the patient was subject to epileptic fits. In Mackenzie's case, no anaesthetic : Had the patient been younger and not very staid, I should have put her under the influence of chloroform. Other published papers were Rainey on the Minute 94 53, BERNERS STREET, 1835-1861 Anatomy of the Lung : Thurnam on two cases of Arrested Development of Hair, Skin, and Teeth : Thompson on the use of Bismuth : and a curious essay by Luke, defend- ing the operation for strangulated hernia without opening the sac. Among the unpublished, were Gregory on the Ochletic Miasm, as he is pleased to call the diseases of over-crowded wards ; and Acton's description of his in- vention of Collodion — The Author states that he has been engaged in performing various experiments with solutions of gun-cotton, guttapercha, caoutchouc, with a view of test- ing their propei'ty of protecting the surface from the influ- ence, by contact, of contagious poisons, etc. 1849. At the Annual General Meeting, Dr. Addison was elected President. On May 8th, at a Special General Meeting, it was decided to take over the whole house, at ;^2io per annum. (A few months later, the Society bought out Mr. Scott's interest in the house, and obtained the house for £160 per annum on a lease of 54 years.) In May, also, a plan was laid before the Council for publishing an abridgement of the whole series of the Transactions, In November, there was a renewal of the plan for Col- lective Investigation by the Fellows of the Society and other members of the profession ; to be effected by the distribution of forms for the collection of facts concerning diseases, such as Fever, Cholera, Hernia, Erysipelas, etc. Meetings held, 15 : papers read or taken 28, published 10: average attendance yi-\-iy. At the last meeting of the year, Dec. nth. Gull was admitted a Fellow, and Jenner's paper was read on Typhoid, Typhus, and Relaps- ing Fever. Other papers were (i) Toynbee on a further series of dissections of the Ear, making 915 in all. 53, BERNERS STREET, 1835-1861 95 (2) Garrod on his discovery of Oxalic Acid in the Blood. (3) Webster on a further series of post-mortem examinations at Bethlem Hospital, making 175 in all. (4) Campbell de Morgan on division of the Tendo Achillis in certain fractures of the Leg. Also, Dunn on a case of Apoplexy of the Cerebellum, with arguments in favour of the localization of sexual instinct in the central lobe : and Roe, not published, on Paracentesis in Pneumothorax, with references to 19 recorded cases. 1850. In April, the Pathological Society proposed a confer- ence, as to the expediency of making some arrangement to unite the interests of the two Societies : and three repre- sentatives from each Society were appointed to consider the matter. The Pathological Society proposed to our Society two alternative plans : — 1 . That the Pathological Society should become Tenants of our Society, either paying for the use of rooms, etc., or admitting our Fellows free into its membership and giving them its Transactions. 2. That the Pathological Society should be united to our Society, retaining its designation and privileges, and having its own Officers and Council. That its Transactions should be published in conjunction with those of our Society for distribution to our Fellows, and also separately for its own Members. That its Members should be en- titled to become Fellows of our Society by election and subscription without entrance-fee. That our Fellows should be entitled to attend and take part in its meetings. That its funds should be received by our Society. In May, our Society appointed a Committee to consider whether the Pathological Society could be advantageously received as Tenants. In June, this Committee reported 96 53, BERNERS STREET, 1835-1861 that they had great misgivings as to the prudence of the plan ; that so many meetings would tend to diminish the ordinary attendance at our meetings ; that the Exhibition of many recent specimens by a Society over which our Society could have no controul would probably create a nuisance to our Society; and that no rent which the Pathological Society could reasonably pay, or our Society could fairly demand, would be compensation for these inconveniences. Other business during the year. (i) At a Special General Meeting in October, it was decided to sell £6oo stock to meet the expenses of the lease and of repairs. A further plan, for enlarging the meeting-room at a cost of ;^i,ooo, was postponed ; and in 1851 was finally rejected. (2) An application from the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, for the use of the Society's rooms, was refused : a similar application, from the Epidemiological Society, founded this year, was granted. (3) The Medical Gazette was allowed to send a reporter to the meetings : and it was resolved, That a table be provided for the use of the reporters. Meetings held, 15 : papers read or taken 31, published 26 : average attendance 78 -}- 28"5. At two meetings, the attendance was 134 + 75 and 124 + 67 ; Dr. Robert Lee was "up," if that word may be pardoned, full of fury against the indiscriminate use of the vaginal speculum, and the application of caustics to the os uteri, and a bitter opponent of all enthusiasm for ovariotomy. His paper on the Use of the Speculum in the Diagnosis and Treatment of Uterine Diseases is not pleasant reading, with its savage denunciation of meddlesome or brutal treatment. His analysis of 162 cases of Ovariotomy in this country ends thus — In 60, the ovarian disease could not be removed ; 10 of these proved fatal. Of the remaining 1 02 cases in 53, BERNERS STREET, 1835-1861 97 wJiich the operation was conpleted, 42 terminated fatally. The present condition of the 60 patients who recovered is very imperfectly known. Other papers were 1. Quain on Fatty Diseases of the Heart. 2. Bence Jones on a case of Chylous Urine, cured by the administration of Gallic Acid. 3. Curling on two cases of Absence of the Thyroid Body, with Supraclavicular Swellings and Defective Cerebral De- velopment. This historical communication is only 3 pages long. Also, MacLachlan's case of Mediastinal Abscess ; Mac Intyre's case of Mollities Ossium with excess of animal matters in the urine ; and Dunn's case (not published) of Apoplexy followed by Aphasia. This last paper assigns to Gall, not without reason, the discovery of the speech- centres : but makes no mention of Bouillard or of Dax. 1851. This is the annus mirabilis of our Society. The aver- age attendance at the meetings was 87 Fellows and 33 visitors. The number of Fellows, exclusive of Honorary Fellows, at this time was 297 : it follows, that 30 per cent. of the whole body of Fellows attended each meeting. If that proportion of Fellows attended now, we should have meetings of 240, without counting visitors. No less than 41 papers were read or taken as read, and 25 published: the rush was so great, that at the final meeting in June 14 papers were read in abstract, and the minutes of that one meeting fill 18 closely-written folio pages. At the Annual General Meeting, though the business was merely formal, 121 Fellows were present. At a meeting in November, the subject of Ovariotomy attracted an audi- ence of 145 Fellows and 70 visitors. No wonder, that the Report of the Council is full of jubilation — The Council G 98 53, BERNERS STREET, 1835-1861 /eel that whether they regard the addition made to the number of Fellows ; the return of valuable Fellows who had seceded; the crowded state of the Meeting Room ; the number and character of the papers presented ; or the interesting discussions to which they gave rise ; the past Session has been, so far, one of the most important in the history of the Society. It may be well to put here the Society's balance-sheet for March i, 1850— Feb. 28, 1851. Business of the year, (i) Dr. Hodgson was elected President. (2) The Index to the Transactions, vols, i.- xxxiii., was published. This admirable work, begun by Dr. Hall, and abandoned by him, "on account of unfore- seen difficulties of an extensive parochial and private practice," was completed by Dr. Hennen, a past Librarian of the Society. (3) Certain changes were made in the method of election of Fellows. (4) The Library was ordered to be open from i to 6 daily. (5) Abstracts of papers were ordered to be furnished by the Secretary, not by the authors. The Lancet was reminded that it must publish not its own abstracts but those supplied by the Secretary. (6) Two works on Mesmerism were presented to the Library, Resolved, That they be received ; but that the usual courtesy of acknoivledgment and thanks be with- held, and that the gifts be not annoimced. Among the many papers of this year, were (i) John Marshall on the employment of the Heat of Elec- tricity in Practical Surgery: with an account of his in- vention of the Galvano-cautery. (2) Barnes on Fatty Degeneration of the Placenta. (3) Bellingham and Hewett on Compression of the Femoral Artery for the cure of Popliteal Aneurism : with a table of the cases so treated in Dublin during 1843-1850. (4) Schonbein on some Secondary Physiological Effects pro- duced by Atmospheric Electricity : with an account of 53, BERNERS STREET, 1835-1861 99 Receipts. Ordinary Income. £. s. D. 282 Annual Sub- scriptions . . 888. 6. o. 19 Admission Fees 119. 14. o. 2 Composition Fees for Transactions . 12. 12. o. 15 do., in lieu of further Annual Pa)fments . . 78. 15. o. Interest on ^"2,700 Stock . . . 78. 12. o. Fines . . . 5. 2. o. From Messrs. Long- man, on account of Sale of Vol. xxxiii. and others . 42. 19. 6. One Quarter's Rent of Stables . . 8. 14. 6. Extraordinary Income. By Sale of ;^6oo Stock, by order of a Special Meeting of the Society . 573. 3. 9. ;Ci,8o9. 19. 7. Receipts ;^i,8o9. ig. 7. Payments 2,118. 7. 5. Balance due to Treasurer . . ;^'3o8. 7. 10. 67. 155- 44. 140. Payments. Ordinary Payments. £■ Balance duetoTrea- surer on March I, 1850. Rent (less Pro perty Tax) . Taxes Sub- Librarian'! Salary . Sub-Librarian's Gratuity Page's Wages . ,, Clothes Books purchased Books bound . Assurance of Lib rary Expenses of Supple mentary Cata logue . Tradesmen and Petty Cash . Expense of Vol xxxiii. . 21. o. 24. 6. 6. 8. ig6. II. 25. 2. 13. ID. o. 206. 9. 10. 219. I. o. 10. ID. O. Extraordinary Payments Actuary, for cal- culations as to Composition Fees Assurance of Pre- mises for 7 years Purchase of Mr. Scott's Interest in Lease . Law Expenses of Lease . Architect, Repairs, Furniture, Gas Fittings Investment of Com position Fees 41. 8. 248. 17. 9. 47- 561. 6. 9- 78. 15- 0. £2,11 8 7. 5- 100 53, BERNERS STREET, 1835-1861 his discovery of Ozone : the peculiar gaseous matter, which I have named ozone, and have shown to be formed out of oxygen when subjected to electrical influences. Schonbein was Pro- fessor of Chemistry at Basle : his paper was communi- cated by Faraday. (5) Bowman on his Operation for Epiphora. (6) Toynbee's Observations on those Affections of the Ear which produce Disease in the Brain. Also, single cases of great interest — Obre's case of Strangulated Obturator Hernia ; Luke's case of Inguinal Colotomy, one of the first records of Littre's operation in this country ; and Meryon's cases, in one family, of Granu- lar and Fatty Degeneration of the Voluntary Muscles, which seem to be the first recorded examples of Pseudo- Hypertrophic Paralysis. Among the unpublished, were Spencer Wells on the Benefit derived from Chloroform in Phthisis and Asthma, and Dunn on the Inhalation of Chloroform, its Anaesthetic Effects and Practical Uses. I 1852. ■ Business of the year, (i) In January, the Society for the Relief of Widows and Orphans of Medical Men applied for house-room at Berners Street : and it was agreed that they should have the two back rooms on the first floor, with the occasional use of the front room, for 50 guineas per annum. (2) In March, it was resolved That the funds \ of the Society shall at all thnes be devoted to the purposes for which it was instituted ; and no' dividend, gift, division, or bonus in money shall at any time be made unto or be- tween any of its members. This was done, that the Society might take advantage of the Act exempting Libraries and Scientific Institutions from parochial taxation : but, in 1853, ^he Society found that no exemption was granted to Scientific Institutions which took tenants. (3) In 53, BERNERS STREET, 1835-1861 101 April, the Pathological Society again asked leave to use our Society's rooms. It was resolved TAa^, desirable as an amalgamation of the two Societies might be, the afford- ing to the Pathological Society the convenience of the Rooms of this Society is not expedient. But the Patho- logical Society wanted house-room, and nothing else : and the matter dropped. (4) A letter was received by the Council from Dr. Barker, Physician to St. Thomas' Hos- pital, very angry that a candidate was up for election whose only stated qualification was the M.B. of Cam- bridge : This degree, he said, does 7iot constitute him either a Physician, Surgeon, or General Practitioner. It does not profess to be and has never been regarded as a title to practice any branch of Medicine even within the precincts of the University of Cambridge. Meetings held, i 5 : papers read 32, published 22 : aver- age attendance 79 + 25*5. Kirkes, on May 25th, described to our Society his discovery of Embolism — the Detachment of Fibrinous Deposits from the interior of the heart, and their mixture with the circulating blood : one of the finest monographs ever written in Pathology. Other papers were (i) Cock on the Operations usually adopted for Retention of Urine : with special reference to Puncture through the Rectum. (2) Hassall on the development of Torulas in the Urine. (3) Moore on a case of Cancer of the Prostate, in which the Urine contained Cancer-cells : It is worthy of remark that microscopic examination of an excretion, though an mtusual practice, might have the effect of determining the nature of a doubtful case. (4) Papers on Colotomy, by Hawkins, Adams, Clement, and Baker. Of one of his cases (right lumbar colotomy, Oct. 1841) Clement says, / believe this operation was the first performed in England according to the directions of Mons. Amussat. Mr. Teale, of Leeds, performed the second : and the late Mr. fukes, of Birmingham, the third. 102 53, BERNERS STREET, 1835-1861 Two unpublished communications have an odd sort of interest. One was by Gregory, on Vaccination tested by the Experience of Half a Century : he looks back with regret, laudator teuiporis acti, to the days before inocula- tion had been made illegal : If the Legislation could not or would not enforce Vaccination, the restriction on Inocula- tion should be re^noved. The other, by Nelson of Montreal, was neither published, nor even put in abstract in the Minute-book. We have no trace of it, save its title. But what a title ! Mode of treating Fractures of the Thigh without Splints, without Extension, and without Pain, making a perfect cure in all cases without atiy shortening or deformity of the limb, leaving it symmetri- cal with the unbroken one. It is hard to forgive the Council for the loss of this communication. 1853. Business of the year. (i) Dr. Copland was elected President. (2) A proposal to hold " one or more Con- versaziones " this year in the Society's rooms was con- sidered, but not carried into effect. (3) The Medical Association fournal was allowed to send a reporter to the meetings. (4) The question was raised, as to the eligibility of a candidate for the Fellowship, not possessing a?ty License to practise as a Physician, or any other prof cssional position beyond that of the Academic Degree of Doctor of Medicine of the University of London. (5) New rules of procedure were made for the election of Fellows. Meetings held, i 5 : papers read or taken t^j, published 22 : average attendance 70 + 24*5. Among the published, were (i) Two further communications by Toynbee on the Pathology of the Ear. (2) Humphry, Hodgson, and Teale, on Hypertrophy of the Tongue. 53, BERNERS STREET, 1835-1861 103 (3) Wharton Jones on the State of the Blood and the Blood- Vessels in Inflammation : a further series of observations with the microscope. (His earlier papers are in the Guy's Hosp. Reports, vii. i. 6, and the Philosophical Transac- tions of the Royal Society for 1852.) (4) Syme's account of his method of operation for Stricture, with a grooved director, (5) MacKenzie on Phlebitis and Phlegmasia Dolens. (6) Bowman on a modification of the operations for Cataract and for Artificial Pupil. Among the unpublished, was Robert Lee's denunciation of the use of Chloroform in Confinement. Seventeen cases of its pernicious effects, he says, came directly under his observation. In the first and second cases, the con- tractions of the uterus were arrested by the chloroform, and delivery was completed by craniotomy. In seven cases, insanity and great disturbance of the brain followed its use. In five cases, the necessity for the forceps was attributed to its use. In four cases, its use was followed by dangerous and fatal phlebitis or peritonitis. In one by epilepsy, and in one by syncope. TAe greatest levity had characterized its einploynient. Appeals had been made with- out scruple to the natural timidity ofzvomen. Conceited and ignorant women of fashion made a pastime of this as of other quackeries , and the cause of humanity was placed in the hands of the most presumptuous and frivolous. 1854- There was talk, this year, of obtaining rooms for the Society in Burlington House. A deputation, in July or August, had an interview on this matter with the Chief Commissioner of Woods, and presented a memorial to him : and another memorial was to be presented to the Prime Minister ; but there is no record that this was done. Also, a change was made in the qualifications of candi- 104 53, BERNERS STREET, 1835-1861 dates for election. The words, Physicians, Surgeons, and General Practitioners, were changed to Fellows and Members of the Colleges of Physicians or Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland, Doctors and Bachelors of Medicine of the Universities of Great Britain and Ireland, Members of the Faculty of Physicians and Sujgeojis of Glasgow, Licentiates of the Apothecaries of London and Dublin, and Foreigners whose qualifications are satisfactory to the Council. But the chief event of 1852 was the fight over the Lancet and the Medical Circular. At the Annual General Meeting, it was resolved, then and there, to recommend That the Council should withdraw the Lancet from the Library, and should consider the propriety of withdraw- ing the Medical Circular. On March 14th, the Council received a memorial, signed by 104 Fellows, protesting against these resolutions, and declaring that the objects of the Society imperatively required the freest access to all sources of medical information. On March 24th, at a Special General Meeting, 189 present, the President and Sir Benjamin Brodie advised the Society to let the matter drop ; Brodie, especially, urged all, and especially the young, to abstain from Medical Politics, and to keep clear of ex- citing and irritating discussions ; and the meeting resolved to leave things to the Council. On March 28th, the Council received from Mr. Campbell de Morgan a memorial, signed by 151 Fellows, protesting that the re- solutions of the Annual General Meetino- must not be burked in that way : but the Council decided to make no change. In June, a sort of censure, signed by loi Fellows, was transmitted to the Council ; but this unconstitutional method of agitation had no result. In November, the Council sent to each Fellow a printed statement, justifying its action, and moralizing, with a good deal of spirit, over 53, BERNERS STREET, 1835-1861 105 the whole affair : A// respectable Members of the Profession must concur in thinking it reason for very great regret, if scientific journals are perverted to the advocacy of private interests, or occupied with the vulgarity of personal re- crimination. But the Council have also reflected, that if t/iese faults be with justice imputed to Medical periodical Literature, the reproach of their existence cannot fall ex- clusively upon the Press, journals can have no separate interest in persotial puffing or personal detraction. The prevention of these evils must depend, not on the exclusion of this or that journal from the Reading Room of the Society, but on the cultivation of high self-respect in the Profession, and a general contempt being shown for those successes which are gained by self-advertisement. Meetings held, 15 : papers read or taken 35, published 20: average attendance 65 + 15. (If we omit a meeting held on March 14th, which may have been crowded merely by the excitement over the medical journals, the average attendance was only 60 + I4'5.) It is to be noted that the average total attendance in 1851, the annus mirabilis, was 120: in 1854 it was 80. We can hardly err, if we attribute this falHng-off to the counter-attractions of the Pathological Society. Among the published papers, were (i) Garrod on the Thread Test for Uric Acid, and on Gout and Rheumatism. (2) Addison on the Keloid of AUbert, and on True Keloid. (3) Handfield Jones on morbid changes in the mucous mem- brane of the Stomach. (4) Webster on a further series of 115 post-mortem examina- tions at Bethlem Hospital. (5) G. M. Jones on Excision of the Knee-joint : with a table of all recorded cases, thirty-three in all, between 1762 and 1854, and an account of the earliest operations. (6) Spencer Wells on Wiitzer's operation for the Radical Cure of Inguinal Hernia: with references to the opinion of the profession concerning such operations. The balance 106 53, BERNERS STREET, 1835-1861 of opinion is decidedly against any operation for the radical cure of hernia. The various modes of operating have been often followed either by death, dangerous peritonitis, gangrene of the soft parts, or by recurrence of the protrusion. So far as any proceeding implies either opening of the hernial sac, its destruction by the cautery, or caustics of any kind, its scarifica- tion, the introduction of foreign bodies into it, or the applica- tion of a ligature around its neck, every man of sound judg- ment must agree with the general opinion. Among single cases of interest, were Statham's case of excision of the Astragalus for tubercular disease, perhaps the first of these operations in this country : Mott's case of Pachydermatocele : Chamber's case of Mollities Ossium, with quantitative estimate of the urine : Curling's case of Traumatic Aneurism of the Ophthalmic Artery : and Gadgets case of Upward Dislocation of the Femur. 1855. This year, after more than 25 years of service to the Society, Mr. Williams the Sub-Librarian retired, and received a pension ; and was succeeded by Mr. Wheatley. At the Annual General Meeting, Mr. Caesar Hawkins was elected President ; a final attempt was made by Mr. De Morgan to have the Lancet excluded from the Library : and a Bye-law was instituted for the regulation of resolu- tions at General Meetings. These events, and the long struggle to be free from the payment of parish rates, are all that mark the year. Meetings held, i 5 : papers read 29, published 1 7 : aver- age attendance 51+8. Thus, in four years, the attend- ances had lost exactly one-half of their strength. It is to be noted, that the falling-off of visitors was proportionally greater than that of Fellows. Among the published papers, were (i) Garrod on the use of Bicarbonate of Potash in Acute Rheumatism. 53, BERNERS STREET, 1835-1861 107 (2) Gull on Cases of Phlebitis with Pneumonia and Pleurisy from Chronic Diseases of the Ear. These were almost the first cases recorded in this country of septic phlebitis from mastoid disease. (3) Brodie on Lithotrity. (4) Hanfield Jones on Degeneration of the Pancreas. (5) W. Budd's Researches on Gout. (6) Sutherland on Cases illustrating the Pathology of Mania and Dementia. Also, Paget's account of a growth of Cartilage in a Testicle and its Lymphatics ; and Teale's case of a de- tached piece of Articular Cartilage remaining as a loose substance in the Knee-joint. 1856. The chief affairs of this year were as follows, (i) Foreign Honorary Fellows were elected — Chomel, Dubois, Langenbeck, Stromeyer, Velpeau, and Virchow. (2) On May 27th, the Council resolved, T/iat Proceedings of the Society be published frotn time to time, giving an abstract of all the papers deemed worthy of being read to the Society. The institution of these Proceedings, for the speedier publication of facts communicated to the Society, was very carefully arranged ; and the original rules for them are printed in vol. xxxix. of our Transactions. The Proceed- ings were to be published about every two months, and sent to each Fellow, and sold to non-Fellows : but the rule that they should be sent to the Journals, instead of the ab- stracts formerly furnished by the Secretaries, was annulled in November, and it was resolved that the Secretaries should furnish the reporters with abstracts of all papers, on the same conditions as heretofore. Resolved, also, that there was no longer any need to write abstracts of papers in the Minute-books. (3) The new Catalogue, made by Mr. Wheatley, under the superintendence of Mr. Dixon, was 108 53, BERNERS STREET, 1835-1861 finished : the number of works in the Library was about 17,000. It was afterward discovered that the printers had used a paper inferior to that which had been specified : and their bill was amended in proportion. (4) At the end of the year, it was at last resolved in Council that the Patho- logical Society should be allowed to use our Society's rooms. Meetings held, 15: papers read 32, published [i.e., in the Transactions) 19: average attendance, 48 + 7*5. Among the papers, were (i) Edward Smith on the hourly rates of the pulse and the breathing, in health and in phthisis, (a) Gull on cases of Paraplegia associated with Gonorrhoea and Stricture. (3) Pollock on the Operation for Cleft Palate. (4) Hinton on the Pathology of the Ear, with 56 dissections. (5) Fergusson on the Treatment of Aneurism by Manipulation. (6) Ellis on the Anatomy of the Bladder and Urethra. Also Savory's case of Obliteration of Arteries ; and a paper by Toynbee, not published in the Transactions, on 41 1 cases of Deaf-Mutism. 1857. Business of the year, (i) Sir Charles Locock was elected President. (2) The Pathological Society agreed to pay £^0 a year for the use of the meeting-rooms. (3) On Dec. 8th, Mr. Curling reported to the Council Tkat the Society had been quite successful in the recent appeal to the Court of Queen's Bench on the subject of assessment of the Parochial Rates ; which the Court had ordered to be reduced from £l^^ to £']^ per annum. He estimated the average annual gain to the Society at £\/\. 17. 3. The law expenses, from 1855 to 1857, over this question of the rates, came to ;^72. 2. 3. The Society now had the pleasure of paying the reduced rates for those three years during which the matter had been in dispute. 53, BERNERS STREET, 1835-1861 109 Meetings held, 1 5 : papers read 37, published in Trans- actions 18 : average attendance, 48 + 9" 5. But, if we leave out the meeting of Feb. 24th, when 89 Fellows and 45 visitors came to hear Syme, the average attendance was 45+7. Among the papers, were (i) Jenner on the Determining Causes of Vesicular Emphy- sema of the Lung: Powerful expiration is infinitely the most frequent cause. (2) Thompson on 50 Dissections of the Prostate : and on Prostatic Calculi. (3) Syme's papers on a case of Removal of the Scapula for Osteo-sarcoma — an operation which, so far as I am aware, is new in the practice of surgery : and on a New Method of operating for Impermeable Urethra. (4) G. F. Wilks on a case of Addison's Disease : and George Harley on the Histology of the Supra-renal Capsules. (5) Aitken on the effects of the Bulgarian Campaign on the subsequent health of the British Troops in the Crimea. (6) Garrod's Therapeutic Communications on Liquor Potassae, Belladonna, and Stramonium. (7) Edward Smith on the Influence of the Labour of the Tread-Wheel over Respiration and Pulsation, etc. : — an uneven punishment; a punishment unfit for the age, and certain, if long continued, to induce disease and a premature death. It is so much of human flesh and life wasted. (8) A further paper by Robert Lee, full of fury, on the indis- criminate use of the vaginal speculum : The speculum emanates from the syphilitic wards of the hospitals at Paris, and it would have been better for the women of England had its use been confined to those institutions. Also, Milton's case of Scirrhus of the Male Breast ; Mackenzie's case of Photophobia cured with inhalations of Chloroform ; and Murchison's case of self-inflicted Gas- tric Fistula, 1858. Important business, this year, m/ : save that the Ob- stetrical Society was allowed to use the meeting-rooms, on payment of 20 guineas yearly. 110 53, BERNERS STREET, 1835-1861 Meetings held, 15: papers read 33, published (Trans.) ly. average attendance, 50 + 8-5. Among the papers, were (i) Murchison on the Etiology of Continued Fever. (2) Wilson Fox on the Pathology of the Glandular Structures of the Stomach. This important communication, the outcome of work done at Berlin under Virchow, contains references to the discovery of amyloid degeneration, and to the histological methods of the time. (Trans, xli. pp. 363, 388.) (3) Marcet on the Methods of Analysis of Faeces. (4) Hulke on the Pathology of Glaucoma : with especial reference to the microscopical changes in the retinal capillaries. (5) Toynbee (not published in the Transactions) on Ankylosis of the Stapes to the Fenestra Ovalis, associated' with Rheumatism and Gout, illustrated by more than 100 dissections. (6) Humphry on thirteen cases of Excision of the Knee- joint. (7) Ogle on the influence of the Cervical Sympathetic on the Eye. (8) Garrod on the Urine in Gout, and on the influence of Colchicum. Also, the cases recorded by Hutchinson, Coulson, and Birkett, of Addison's Disease, Hydatid Disease of Bone, and Vesical Polypi in Childhood: and the interesting paper (Proceedings) by Rennie on the harmful Excess of Diet supplied to our convicts in Freemantle, Western Australia (bread 27 oz., meat 16 oz., etc?)-, and Markham's paper (Proceedhigs) on the past and present opinions regarding Venesection. 1859- Business of the year, (i) Mr. Skey was elected Presi- dent. (2) Quekett, Henle, Rayer, and Vrolik were elected Honorary Fellows. (3) It was resolved, That the Society become a Corporate Member of the Association for the 53, BERNERS STREET, 1835-1861 111 Promotion of Social Science. Our Society belonged also, at this time, to the Sydenham, Cavendish, and Ray Societies. (4) Resolved also, That the British Medical Journal be allowed to send a Reporter to the meetings this session. (5) It seems that some doubt was already felt as to the advantage of publishing the Proceedings : for, at the Annual General Meeting (143 present), it was resolved to refer to the Council the question of publication of Pro- ceedings. In April, the Council decided to continue them. Meetings held, 15: papers read 35, published {Trans.) 25 : average attendance, 57 + 7"5. On Feb. 8th, Spencer Wells gave an account of Five Cases of Ovarian Disease, in three of which Ovariotomy was performed successfully. (The fourth case died after operation, and in the fifth the operation was abandoned, because the intestines were in front of the tumour.) In November, he gave an account of Three Cases of Tetanus treated with Curari. (Two of them were after Ovari- otomy.) His remarks on tetanus, published more than twenty years before the work of Nicolaier, are to be noted : — " I would suggest very respectfully to the Fellows of this Society, that more accurate observation of what may be called the Natural History of Tetanus is much needed. ... It is most important, to discover whether we may not have two very different conditions confounded under the single term tetanus; whether in some cases we have spasms dependent upon irritation of a peripheral nerve and increased reflex excitability, and in other cases a blood-disease caused by the absorption of a morbid animal poison, developed by perverted secretion of the wounded sur- face, which poison is analogous in its effects, and possibly in its composition, to urea, strychnine, and the poison of hydro- phobia. . . . Much light may be thrown on this interesting question by noting the effects produced on animals by inocula- 112 53, BERNERS STREET, 1835-1861 tion of the secretions of the wound, or of the blood, or juice of muscle, or of the urine and other excretions of tetanic patients." (Proc. iii. 157.) Other papers were (i) A further communication by George Johnson on Bright's Disease. (2) Bryant on the Causes of Death after Amputation, based on 300 cases in Guy's Hospital : Pycemia is the cause of death in 42 per cent, of all fatal cases of amputations ; and in 10 per cent, of all amputations. {Proc. iii. 34.) (3) Ernest Hart and Shaw on the Cure of Popliteal Aneurism by Flexion of the Knee. Hart's case was the first where this method, discovered by him, was tried. (4) Sibley on the Statistics of Cancer, based on 519 cases at the Middlesex Hospital. (5) Goodfellow on the Drainage of Empyema by a Counter- opening; with an account, as of a new discovery, of the use of drainage-tubes. {Proc. iii. 94.) (6) Adams on the Repair of Tendons. (7) Skey on cases of Operative Re-fracture of Bone. (8) Birkett on cases of Reduction en masse of Hernia. Also, Ogle's case of Intra-Cranial Aneurism with " in- duced paralysis ; " Ringer's observations on the urinary secretions during a fit of ague ; Nunneley's cases of Orbital Aneurism treated by ligature of the common carotid ; and Southam's case of Recto-Vesical Lithotomy. i860. During 1860-1861, the first attempt was made toward the Union of the Bemers Street Societies : a separate chapter must be given to the story of that event. Other business of i860, (i) The Supplemental Cata- logue, and the Index, were finished : the latter to be sold at 5s. to Fellows and 7s. 6d. to non-Fellows. (2) Leave to send a Reporter to the Meetings was granted, or re- newed, to the Editors of the various Medical Journals ; and was refused to the Editor of the Morning Herald. (3) On 53, BERNERS STREET, 1835-1861 113 July loth, it was resolved, that a letter be addressed from the Council to Lord Granville, as President of the Privy Council, requesting permission for the Society to hold its meetings for the future in Burlington House. Meetings held, 1 5 : papers read 40, published ( Trans.) 24 ; average attendance 51+9. Among these many papers (16 were taken as read at the last meeting of the session 18 59- 1860) were (i) Dickinson on the Microscopic Changes in the Kidneys in cases of Albuminuria. (2) Ringer on the relative amount of Sugar and Urea in the Urine in Diabetes Mellitus. (3) Wood on the Radical Cure of Hernia ; with an account of his operation, and of the principles on which he de- signed it. {Trans, xliii. 76.) (4) Syme on the Treatment of Axillary Aneurism, with cases of operation by the laying-open of the sac ; and with references (i) to the use of compression of the artery, above the sac, through a small incision, (2) to the first operation, in this country, for the removal of the superior maxilla, May 15th, 1829. (5) Curling on Operation for Imperforate Anus ; with an analysis of 100 cases. (6) A further paper by Hulke on Glaucoma : with an account of his introduction of Iridectomy into this country in 1857. (Trans, xliii. 247.) (7) Webster's account of the Leper Hospital at Granada ; with a reference to a case, supposed to be the last in- digenous case of the disease in this country. {Trans. xliii. 32.) (8) Bowles on the conditions and treatment of Stertor. (g) Messer's report on 100 dissections of the Prostate Gland in Old Age. 1861. Business of the year, (i) Dr. Babington was elected Pre- sident. (2) In February, the Council were informed that their letter to Lord Granville had been referred by him to the Senate of the University of London, and the Council H 114 53, BERNERS STREET, 1835-1861 of the Royal Society : that the former body had made no objection to the plan, but the 'Council of the Royal Society had answered that, having carefully considered this sub- ject in 1858, they had come to the determination that it was impossible to admit any other scientific Society as permanent tenants, for want of accommodation, at present. (3) In March, the Junior Medical Society asked leave to hold monthly meetings of Students in the Library of our Society, rent free : N on placet. (4) In December, in view of the Great Exhibition of 1862, and the meeting of the British Medical Association in London, it was proposed to give a Conversazione ; but the proposal was not carried into effect. (5) On Dec. 31st, at a Special General Meet- ing, the Society approved an address of condolence to the Queen on the death of the Prince Consort. Meetings held, 15; papers read 37, published {Trans.) 24 : average attendance 42 + 8. Among the papers were (i) Christian, and Waters, on the Methods of restoring the Apparently Drowned : with a letter from Brodie. {Proc. iii. pp. 315, 386, 392.) (2) Bryant on Compound Fracture, with an analysis of 302 cases. (3) Humphry on the Growth of the Long Bones and of Stumps. (4) Sansom on the Action of Chloroform ; with special refer- ence to his microscope-work on the blood. (5) Moore on Division of the Gustatory Nerve in cases of Cancer of the Tongue. Also, Weber's case of Disease of the Pons Varolii ; Pemberton's case of Aneurismal Varix following long- continued compression of the Femoral Artery; and Wade's case of Aortic Aneurism communicating with the Pulmonary Artery — the first case in which this lesion had been physically diagnosed during life. Also, a curious 53, BERNERS STREET, 1835-1861 115 paper by Ballard, on Fruitless Sucking as a cause of Idiocy ; and a paper by Henry McCormac, on the True Nature of Tubercular Consumption, which is in marked contrast with Villemin's work five years later. (Proc. iii. 374, 3790 VII. FIRST PROPOSAL OF UNION, 1860-1861. In 1808, the Medical Society, and in 1850 the Pathologi- cal Society, had proposed union with our Society ; and these proposals had come to nothing. In i860, our Society proposed union with those other Societies which met at Berners Street ; the Pathological, the Obstetrical, and the Epidemiological. The first mention of this plan is in the Minutes of Council, May 8th, 1 860 : when it was resolved. That a Committee be appointed, consisting of the President and Secretaries, with Dr. Williams and Mr, Shaw, to confer with the respective Councils of the Patho- logical, Obstetrical, and Epidemiological Societies on the subject of the amalgamation of these Societies with the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society : and a letter was sent to the President of each Society, asking for a confer- ence on the possibility of uniting in one comprehensive body the different Societies which are engaged in prosecut- ing distinct departments of Medical Science. On July 19th, four Committees, one from each Society, met, and resolved unanimously. That it is the opinion of this Meeting, that it would tend to the advancement of Medical Science that the Royal Medical and Chirurgical, the Pathological, the Epidemiological, and the Obstetrical Societies should be united under one head, and that these different branches of Medical Science should be carried-out in corresponding (116) FIRST PROPOSAL OF UNION, 1860-1861 117 Sections of one Society. A Sub-Committee was formed, of Mr. Charles Hawkins and one Secretary from each Society, to prepare a plan for carrying this resolution into effect. On Aug. 9th, the four Committees met again, and ap- proved the following scheme to be printed and distributed among the Societies : — Scheme Proposed by the Joint Committee. i. That the united Society be divided into the following Sections : 1. Practical Medicine and Surgery. 2. Pathology and Morbid Anatomy. 3. Epidemiology and Hygienics. 4. Obstetrics and Diseases of Women and Children. 5. Physiology (including Anatomy and Animal Chemistry). 6. Psychological Medicine. 7. Medical Jurisprudence. ii. That the Treasurers of each Section respectively receive the subscriptions to such Section, and defray from their own funds the expense of publishing their Transac- tions, and other necessary outlay. That the surplus, if any, be paid into the General Fund, and any deficiency be supplied from that Fund. iii. That Fellows of the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society {i.e. of the Societies when combined) be Members of all the Sections, and have a right to attend all Meetings of such Sections. iv. That persons, not Fellows of the Society, be admitted Members of any particular Section on payment of an annual sum, and be designated Members of such Section, and Associates of the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society {i.e. of the Societies when combined). V. That each Section elect annually a President and other officers for the management of the affairs of its own 118 FIRST PROPOSAL OF UNION, 1860-1861 department, and also from time to time elect Members who are not Fellows of the Society. vi. That in the Annual Nomination of Fellows recom- mended by the Council for election as President and Council of the united Society for the ensuing year, two at the least be elected from among the members of Com- mittee of Management of each of the several Sections. vii. That Members of each particular Section have the right to attend all meetings of such Section, and to be admitted to the use of the Reading-room, but not to re- move from the Library any books, except such as belong to the Section. viii. That it be the business of the Committee of each Section to prepare a report of the proceedings of the past Session, to be read at an Annual Meeting to be held for that purpose. This scheme was submitted by our Council to our Society's Solicitor ; who, while pointing-out possible objec- tions that might be raised against it, as containing matters not contemplated or expressed in the Charter^ still gave it as his opinion that, with such an object in view, the Society would be justijied in acting upon it, providing only a Re- solution was passed to the effect that the expenditure of the several Sections be subject to the control of the Council of the Society. In November, before calling a General Meeting, our Council again asked Mr. Wilde's (the Solicitor's) opinion of the scheme : and, in December, he wrote, that the Charter did not contemplate the existence of Associates ; still, he was of opinion that such Associates might be created by the enactment of Bye-laws, and that the Society might take the risk of any subsequent charge of illegality, and thus avoid the expense of an additional Charter. FIRST PROPOSAL OF UNION, 1860-1861 119 This letter was referred to the Joint Committee : and in February, 1861, that Committee reported, TAat the best course for adoption in present circumstances would be that tlie Society should apply for a supplemental Charter. On April 5th, 1861, at a Special General Meeting of our Society, 82 present, the resolution of the Joint Committee (July 19, i860) was adopted and carried: no resolution was brought forward as to the need of a supplementary Charter : and the meeting was adjourned. Our Council now reported progress to the other Societies ; and added, that they would be glad to receive any sug- gestions on the subject, and that no definite scheme had yet been adopted by our Society. Thereupon, the Council of the Obstetrical Society held a meeting, at which great difficulty was felt fro7n the absence of any definite plan of amalgamation ; and passed a resolution. That this Cotmcil is not prepared to come to any decision in favour of the proposed amalgamation of the Societies. The Epidemio- logical Society held a Special General Meeting, and passed resolutions in favour of union under a supplemental Charter. The Council of the Pathological Society held two meetings, and agreed that they had no suggestion to offer, but would be prepared to consider any propositions from our Society, provided there was no interference of the usefulness of the Pathological Society. There came also this letter, to our President, from Dr. Robert Lee — Sir, I beg that you will, with the least possible delay, bring before the Council the consideration of the expediency of henceforth reserving the premises, Officers and Servants for the sole use of the Society. The Council of our Society, now that the proposed Union seemed impracticable, turned their attention to a proposal that Committees should be appointed for Scientific Investigation ; and, during May and June, discussed diverse 120 FIRST PROPOSAL OF UNION, 1860-1861 propositions concerning this matter. On July 9th, they received the following Memorial, signed by 103 Fellows: — "As it appears that the proposed amalgamation of the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society with other societies is not likely to take place, the undersigned Fellows are desirous of urging on the Council of the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society the propriety of considering how far it may be expedient to carry out certain propositions, recently the subject of discussion, by sections of the Society selected for that purpose." And the Council forthwith passed these two resolu- tions : — (i) Moved by Mr. Paget, seconded by Mr. Pollock. That the proceedings of the Council in relation to the proposed amalgamation of the Societies be reported to the General Meeting ; and that it be stated that, on a full considera- tion of the proposal, the Council are of opinion that the amalgamation cannot be satisfactorily effected without an alteration of the Charter of this Society ; which altera- tion, under present circumstances, the Council are not prepared to recommend. (2) Moved by Dr. Williams, seconded by Mr. Paget. That the Council from time to time appoint Committees from among the Fellows of the Society for the purpose of investigating questions of scientific medical interest. That such investigations be carried on at the expense of the Society: that the reports of such Committees be published in the Proceedings or Transactions as the Council may think fit : and that the foregoing resolution be submitted to a General Meeting of the Society. At this General Meeting, on July 23rd, present 52 Fellows, all consideration of the proposed Union was put aside ; and the plan for Committees of Investigation was unanimously adopted. In August, the Council resolved, T/ml a Committee be appointed, consisting of Fellows of the Society, for the purpose of investigating the subject of Suspended Animation, and the best methods of restoration from it. FIRST PROPOSAL OF UNION, 1860-1861 121 Thus, after eighteen months, the plan of Union failed ; and in its place our Society took up, forty-four years ago, that hard task of deciding the best method of restoring Suspended Animation. It would be outside the purpose of these Chronicles to estimate the loss of these eighteen months. An account of the General Meetings in April and July, 1861, is given in the Proceedings, vol. iii., 363, 415- VIII. 53, BERNERS STREET, 1862-1870. 1862. Business of the year, (i) Daubeny, Cruveilhier, and Pirogoff were elected Honorary Fellows. (2) It was proposed that the Meeting-room should be enlarged, at a cost not exceeding ;^2,ooo : but this plan was not carried into effect. (3) The rents paid by the Obstetrical and Pathological Societies were raised. (4) Bye-Laws were enacted for Scientific Committees. (5) The Committee on Suspended Animation presented a Report ; which was read at a Special Meeting in July. See Trans, xlv. 449. (6) In November, a Committee of fifteen was ap- pointed, To enquire into the uses, and the physiological, therapeutical, and toxical effects of Chloroform ; as well as into the best mode of administering it, and of obviating any ill consequences resulting from its administration. (7) In December, on Brodie's death, a letter of condolence was sent by the Society. Meetings held, 16: papers read, 38, published {Trans.) 25: average attendance 44+11 : but, if we omit one meeting, when i 59 Fellows and visitors attended to hear Dr. Robert Lee criticize Ovariotomy, the average attend- ance was 40 + 8. At the meeting on May 1 3th, Czermak exhibited his laryngoscope, and showed its use in examin- (122) 53, BERNERS STREET, 1862-1870 123 m£- the physiological and pathological conditions of the interior of the Larynx. Among the papers, were (i) Vandyke Carter on Filariasis. (2) Greenhow on Brass-founder's Ague. (3) Sydney Ringer on the Temperature and Urine in Scarlet Fever. (4) Dickinson on the treatment of Acute Rheumatism. (5) Bryant's Analysis of 230 cases of Lithotomy. (6) Morrant Baker's Analysis of 500 cases of Cancer. (7) Reed's cases of Intus-susception. Also, further communications by Humphry on the Growth of Bones, and by Ernest Hart on the Treatment of Aneurism by Flexion ; and a further case by Syme of the Old Operation for Aneurism ; and, above all, Spencer Wells on the History and Progress of Ovariotomy, with a tabular statement of his own first 50 cases. It is a very short communication {Trans, xlvi. 33), but it will always be one of the classics of medical literature, and one of the chief treasures of our Transactions. 1863. Business of the year, (i) Mr. Partridge was elected President. (2) It was proposed in Council, and considered at the Annual General Meeting, that there should be Foreign Corresponding Fellows : but this proposal was withdrawn in May, probably because the Charter made no provision for such a body. (3) A Fellow having been condemned to imprisonment for perjury, his name was removed at a Special Meeting of the Society from the list of Fellows. (4) On the occasion of the marriage of our present King, a meeting was put off, and £^ was spent on the illumination of the Society's house. (5) The Soden Collection, comprising four volumes of portraits, and two of caricatures and autographs, was presented to the Library. I 124 53, BERNERS STREET, 1862-1870 (Proc. iv. 225,) (6) An annual subscription was ordered to be paid to Kimpton's circulating Library. (7) At a Meeting of Council, March 24th, the Librarians asked leave to purchase Professor Huxley's " Man's Place in Nature," and Sir Charles Lyell's " Antiquity of Man " : Placet. (8) Further Bye-laws were enacted for the Scien- tific Committees. The Address of the out-going President {Proc. iv. 192) should be read by all who care for the history of our Society. Meetings held, 14: papers read 33, published {Trans?) 21: average attendance, 40*5 + 8. Among the papers, were (i) Chambers on the Treatment of Continued Fever. (2) Greenhow on Diphtherial Paralysis. (3) Harley on Calabar Bean. (4) Curling on Sterility in Man. (5) Thompson on Dilatation of Stricture. Also, many good records of single cases ; especially, Durham's case of Cyst of the Epiglottis — the first instance in our Transactions of the use of the laryngoscope for operative surgery. Also, a curious paper by Dix, on the use of Wire as a Temporary Ligature ; which should be contrasted with Lawrence's unpublished paper, thirty years earlier, on the cutting-short of the silk ligature. 1 864. This year was void of all important business, save that the Report of the Scientific Committee on the Uses and Effects of Chloroform was read at a Special Meeting, July 5th. {Trans, xlvii. pp. 323-442.) Bonders was elected an Honorary Fellow ; the Squibb collection of portraits was purchased, and many other portraits were presented to the Society by Mr. Curling, Mr. Charles Hawkins, and 53, BERNERS STREET, 1862-1870 125 others: and|theref wasjagain some talk, which came to nothing, of moving to Burlington House. Meetings held, i6: papers read 30, published (Trans.) 20: average attendance 47 + 9*5, a notable increase. Among the papers, were (i) Habershon on Implication of the Vagus in Aneurismal Tumours, (a) Harley on the Endemic Haematuria of the Cape of Good Hope. (3) Savory on the Absorption of Dead Bone : The absorption of dead bone, when in contact with living bone, is determined by the pressure to which it is subjected. (4) Bickersteth on the use of Drills or Nails for the Union of Un-united Fractures; with remarks on the application of this method to certain cases of recent fracture. (5) Moore on the insertion of Wire for the Consolidation of certain incurable Aneurisms. (6) Wilson on the Origin, Structure, and Development of Cystic Tumours of the Ovary. Also, cases by Bryant of Calculus in the Female Bladder, and by Murray of cure of Aneurism by Compression of the Abdominal Aorta ; and further cases by Nunneley of Vascular Protrusion of the Eyeball. Also, an account by Morell Mackenzie of Babington's Laryngoscope. (Proc. iv. 340.) 1865. Business of the year, (i) Dr. (afterwards Sir James) Alderson was elected President. At the Council-meeting for the nomination of Officers, the votes were equal between Dr. Alderson and Dr. Burrows ; and the President reserved his casting vote. At the next meeting, Dr. Alderson was nominated. (2) Two Scientific Committees were ap- pointed, id) To investigate the remedial effects of Electricity, {b) To investigate the physiological and therapeutical effects of different substances introduced Hypodermically 126 53, BERNERS STREET, 1862-1870 in the human subject. (3) A Committee was appointed to revise the Standing Orders. (4) At the Annual General Meeting, it was proposed That for the future the Proceed- ings be published as an appendix to the annual volume of Transactions^ omitting the abstracts of those papers which are published in extenso in the Transactions : but it was resolved, That the publication of the Proceedings be continued in its present form ; if possible, appearing more frequently. (5) There was again talk of moving to Bur- lington House, or of building a grand new house with a more public aspect and of a more imposing appearance, where many Societies should be united under one roof. (See the out-going President's Address, Proc. v. p. 51.) Meetings held, 15 : papers read 34, published {Trans?) 19 : average attendance, 46 + 7. Among the papers, were (i) Desvignes, Hunter, and McCraith, on the Hypodermic Administration of Quinine and other drugs. Desvignes gives historical references to the invention of this method. {Proc. v. ig.) (2) Spencer Wells' Second Series of 50 cases of Ovariotomy. hi both the first and second series of 50 cases the results arc precisely the same, namely, 33 recoveries, and 17 deaths. (It is to be noted that the mortality of his Hospital cases, in this first 100, was 29"6 per cent. ; and of his private cases, 39*1 per cent.) Opposition to the principle of the operation has almost ceased, and it is recognized almost universally in this country and in America as a lawful or "legitimate" operation, and the influence of British example is extending to France and Germany. (3) Longmore on Osteo-myelitis in Gun-shot Wounds. (4) Thomas Smith on the Obstacles to the re-establishment of Natural Respiration after Tracheotomy. (5) William Roberts on the Solvent Treatment of Urinary Calculi. (6) Laycock on the Influence of Nerve-centres on the pro- duction and prevention of Dropsies and Dropsical Effusions. (7) Lockhart Clarke on the Pathology of Tetanus. (8) Sutton on Fibroid Degeneration of the Lung. 53, BERNKRS STREET. Library and Meeting Room. Kesideut I/ibrarian's Room. 53, BERNERS STREET, 1862-1870 127 Also, the cases recorded by Hillier, Gordon, and Morrant Baker, of Congenital Hydronephrosis, Trephining of the Spine, and Haemophilia. 1866. Business of the year, (i) At a Special General Meet- ing, July 26th, 24 Fellows present, the Society resolved to purchase the Lease of 53 Berners Street, for 38 years, for ;^2000, subject to a ground-rent of ;^I4 per annum. Hitherto the rent had been ;^i6o. To replace the ;^2000 within 38 years, they determined to fund annually the sum of ;^25. 18. o. The expenditure would stand thus I- s. D. Interest at 3J p. c. on /"aooo . 70. 0. 0. Ground Rent 14. 0. 0. Sinking Fund 25. 18. 0. ;{'I09. 18. O. Thus the Society would save ;^50 a year. {Proc. v. p. 220.) (2) It is strange, four months later, to find the Council again discussing the plan of moving to Burling- ton House. On Nov. 13th, they resolved Tka^ the Presi- dent be authorized to apply to the Commissioners of Woods and Forests for accornmodation for the Society in the new buildings proposed to be erected in Burlington House. A letter was sent, enumerating our Society's claims on the consideration of the Government : but the answer was, That there is little likelihood of accommodation being found at Burlington House for any Societies other than those now provided with rooms in Government buildings. (3) Murchison and Hannover were elected Honorary Fellows. (4) Leave was asked, that a collecting-box for the Medical Benevolent Fund should be placed in the Society's entrance- room ; Non placet. (5) An offer was received from the 128 53, BERNERS STREET, 1862-1870 Editor of the Globe, to insert notices of the Society's meetings in his paper : Non placet. Meetings held, 15: papers read 31, pubHshed {Trans.) 16 : average attendance, 48 + 7. Among the papers, were (i) Harley on Hydatid Cyst of the Liver; with a table of 100 cases. (2) Toynbee's Eighth (and last) Series of Observations on the Diseases of the Ear. (3) Weber on Chronic Albuminuria. (4) Fenwick on the Detection of Lung-Tissue in Phthisical Sputa. (5) Barwell on Lateral Curvature. Also, Sibley's case of Multiple Neuromata, Radcliffe's case of Acute Myocarditis, Durham's case of Radical Cure of Hernia, and Heath's case of Innominate Aneurism successfully treated by Ligature of the Carotid and Sub- clavian Arteries. 1867. Business of the year. (i) Mr. Solly was elected President. (2) There was further talk of Union. This time, it is the Medical Society that makes the proposal. On Jan. 8th, at a meeting of the Council of our Society, a letter was read from the President, in which he an- nounced that he had received a visit from Dr. Hare as President of the Medical Society, who had been requested to ascertain whether the Council of our Society would be willing to join a deputation from the Medical Society to confer on so7ne plan, having for its object the amalgamation of the Medical Societies of London, in regard to some building of architectural character which ought to serve them all. It was resolved, That the Council would be willing so far to accede to the propositio7i of the Medical Society, made through its President, as to meet representa- tives from, each of the other Medical Societies of London to take the subject into consideration. Here the matter seems 53, BERNERS STREET, 1862-1870 129 to have dropped. (3) At the Annual General Meeting, it was proposed by the Council, Tkaf no candidate for the Fellowship who shall have been balloted-for and rejected shall be subsequently admitted as a visitor at any meeting of the Society. After considerable discussion, the motion was withdrawn. (4) The Report of the Committee on the Hypodermic Use of Drugs was read at a Special Meeting on June 8th. It ascribes the first use of this method in practice to Dr. Alexander Wood. (5) Leave was given to the Medical Teachers' Association to hold a public meeting at Berners Street. (6) A petition For the Representation of the Registered Practitioner in the Medi- cal Council was received ; but it was held to be more suited for signature by individual members of the profes- sion than for signature by our Society as a Corporate Body. (7) It was debated, whether the Council should send a representative to the Paris International Medical Congress ; and it was agreed That the Council do not consider that the questions to be then entertained enter stifficiently within the scope of the Society to induce them to • send a representative to the Congress. (8) On Dec, 1 8th, it was resolved That permission be granted to the Clinical Society of London to hold their Meetings in the Rooms of this Society, until such time as the Council shall have decided what final arrangements shall be made between the two Societies. Meetings held, 16: papers read 36, published {Trans.) 26: average attendance 53*5 + 10. At the meeting on Jan. 8th, A paper was read ; but on its appearing that it was not written by a Fellow, nor communicated by a Fellow, the discussion was stopped, and the reception oj the paper was declared illegal. This year's Transactions, being the fiftieth or Jubilee Volume, was larger than usual, and was published at the 130 53, BERNERS STREET, 1862-1870 cost of ;^450. 1 8. 2. The illustrations cost ;^i85. 15. 11, and the tables alone, for two papers, cost nearly £100. The sale of the volume to non-Fellows realized ;^59. 9. 10. Among the many papers of this year, beside the Report of the Committee on the Hypodermic Method ( Trans. 1. pp. 561-643), two, at the least, stand for ever as land- marks : — Marcet on the Inoculation of Animals as a means of Diagnosis in Tubercular Phthisis, and Charles Moore on the Influence of Inadequate Operations on the Theory of Cancer. When I became acquainted with Villeinins discovery, says Marcet, / happened to be en- gaged with an investigation of the expectoratio?is in phthi- sis, and it struck vie that, if his results were correct, by inoculating the expectorations of phthisical patients contain- ing tubercular matter to healthy rabbits or guinea-pigs, these animals would become tubercular ; thus, I thought that a physiological method of diagnosis of great import- ance might be arrived at. And the summing-up of Moore's paper marks, in half-a-dozen lines, the end of the old way of thinking about malignant disease : The recurrence of Cancer is due to local conditions. These conditions are not regional I neither are they organic. Centrifugal disper- sion, fiot orgastic origin, determines the recurrence of Cajicer. Other notable papers were (i) Spencer Wells on 100 further cases of Ovariotomy; 72 re- covered, 28 died. In this series, the proportion between the deaths in Hospital practice and those in private practice was the reverse of that of the first 100 cases: it is probable that the difference in the two series is only acci- dental. (2) George Johnson, McCloy and Robertson, and Sedgwick, on Cholera. (3) Squarey on the Temperature and the Urine in Typhus Fever. (4) Dickinson on the Nature of Amyloid Degeneration. 53, BERNERS STREET, 1862-1870 131 (5) Gee on Enlargement of the Spleen in Hereditary Syphilis. (6) Lane and Gascoyen on Boeck's method of Syphilization : We are decidedly of opinion that syphilization is not a treat- ment which can be recommended for adoption. Even if it could be admitted to possess all the advantages claimed for it by its advocates, its superiority would not sufficiently compensate for its tediousness, its painfulness, and the life-long marking which it entails upon the patient. (7) Jonathan Hutchinson on Tobacco Amaurosis. (8) Lockhart Clarke, and Bastian, on Muscular Atrophy from Central Nervous Disease. Also, Moore's case of Periodical Inflammation of the Knee-joint ; Ryan's case of Atelectasis Pulmonum ; and Cockle's cases of Aneurism. In Dawson's paper on the Formation of Tubercle {Proc. V. 266) mention is made of "sun-pictures" of the micro- scopic structure of the disease : which is the first reference in our Proceedings to the use of photography in micro- scope-work. 1868. Business of the year, (i) The first move was made, early this year, toward a new plan of Union. But a separate chapter is needed for the long history of this plan, which came so near to achievement, and then at the last moment failed. (2) Honorary Fellows were elected — Darwin, Hooker, Huxley, Lyell, and Tyndall ; Gross, Kolliker, Larrey, and Nelaton. (3) The Clinical Society, unwilling to pay 4 guineas a night for the use of our Society's rooms, offered to pay 30 guineas a session ; but this offer was not accepted by our Society. (4) At the Annual General Meeting, it was agreed That the Council may have the power of admitting, foj" a period not exceed- itig twelve months ^ viedical officers of the A rmy and Navy, temporarily resident on duty in Londofi, to consult books and periodicals in the Reading-room, and to attend the 132 53, BERNERS STREET, 1862-1870 ordinary scientific meetings of the Society. (5) A paper called " Scientific Opinion " asked leave to publish notices and abstracts of the Society's meetings : Non placet. (6) Revision of Bye-Laws. The President's Address this year {Proc. vi. 38), with its references to the history of the Society, and to the deaths of Lawrence and Faraday, and the Report of the President and Council, with its account of the growth of the Library, are to be noted. Meetings held 15: papers read 33, published {Trans.) 18: average attendance 465 + 7. Among the papers, were (i) Thomas Smith on the Cure of Cleft Palate by Operation in Children ; with a description of his gag, and an account of II cases, in all of which chloroform was administered for the operation. (2) Clifford Allbutt on the State of the Optic Nerves and Retinae as seen in the Insane : with tables of the ophthal- moscopic appearances in 214 cases. (3) George Johnson on 7 cases of Removal of a Morbid Growth from one of the Vocal Cords, by the use of a Snare. With an account of the first use of the laryngeal snare, in 1861, by Walker of Peterborough. (4) Bryant on the Torsion of Arteries ; with special reference to experimental work. (5) Hinton on the Operation for Pus in the Mastoid Process r with references to the earliest records of the operation^ 14 cases, all of them on the Continent. (6) Callender on Non-uniting Fractures. (7) Douglas Powell on Tubercular Pneumothorax. (8) Broadbent on the Chemical Groups: An attempt to apply Chemical Principles in explanation of the Action of Remedies. (9) Birkett on Sero-Sanguineous Cysts in the Neck and Axilla. (10) Papers by Henry Lee and Humphry on Excision of Joints, and by Hulkeand James West on Excision of the Wrist-Joint by Lister's Method. Also, Furner's case of Double Axillary Aneurism ; and cases of Acute Progressive Paralysis, and of Progressive 53, BERNERS STREET, 1862-1870 133 Muscular Atrophy, reported by Harley, Zachariah John- son, and Lockhart Clarke. 1869. Business of the year, (i) Dr. (afterwards Sir George) Burrows was elected President. (2) The plans for the Union were amended and approved, and many Special Meetings were held for the furtherance of the work. (3) The Medico-Psychological Association asked and received leave to meet at Berners Street. (4) A like request was made, in January, by a Committee formed to promote the foundation of a Scholarship in memory of the late Dr. Marshall Hall, and was granted. (5) A Scientific Com- mittee was appointed, to investigate Pacini's and Dr. Bain's method of restoring Suspended Animation. Meetings held, 15 : papers read 25, published (Trans.) 20 : average attendance, 49 -|- 8. Among the papers are three, at the least, which deserve to be called classics : they are those by Gull and Sutton on the Natural History of Rheumatic Fever, by Thomas Smith on Nephrotomy as a means of treating Renal Calculus, and by Meyer on Adenoid Vegetations. Other notable papers were (i) Wood on Extroversion of the Bladder and Epispadias ; with Eight Cases treated by Plastic Operations. (2) Sansom on the Sulpho-Carbolates in the treatment of Phthisis and the Zymotic Diseases. (3) Spencer Wells on a Third Series of 100 cases of Ovario- tomy : 77 recoveries, 23 deaths. (4) Weber on the treatment of Phthisis by Prolonged Resid- ence in Elevated Regions. 1870. Except for the progress and failure of the plan for Union, this year was without any events of importance. A catalogue of the Society's collection of portraits was 134 53, BERNERS STREET, 1862-1870 made by Mr. Wheatley. A further meeting was held, at Berners Street, by the Marshall Hall Memorial Association. The Clinical Society renewed its proposal to meet at Ber- ners Street. A resolution of Council, that the Proceedings should no longer be published after the end of the Session, was not carried into effect. The Report of the Scientific Committee on Bain's and Pacini's Methods of restoring Suspended Animation was read at an ordinary meeting in June {Proc. vi. 299). Meetings held, 13 : papers read 19, published (Trans.) 12 : average attendance, 42 + 7. These lowered figures, and the falling-off of the number of new Fellows during 1 869-1 870, show that the long uncertainty as to the Union had unsettled the ordinary work of our Society. Among the papers, was Thompson's Analysis of 184 cases of Stone in the Bladder of the Adult treated by Lithotrity. Also, Dickinson on certain Morbid Changes in the Nervous System associated with Diabetes ; Ogle on Anosmia ; Sedgwick on Temporary Glycosuria as a sequel to Cholera ; and Harley's further account of En- demic Haematuria. IX. SECOND PROPOSAL OF UNION, 1868-1870. On Jan. 7th, 1 868, at a Council Meeting, A letter from Dr. D obeli zvas read, enclosing the prospectus of a ^^ Thera- peutical Society" which he stated was in contemplation, and asking the Council to consider whether the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society could organise a " Thera- peutic Section" and thus obviate the necessity of founding another Society. On March 24th, the Council resolved, That inasmuch as the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society was incorporated ^^for the cultivation and promotion of Physic and Surgery, and of the branches of Science connected with them" and as several Societies have recently arisen in London for the cultivation and promotion of the branches of Science connected with Physic and Surgery, independent of the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society, a Committee be appointed to consider and to report to the Council whether any, and what, steps should be taken to unite these several Societies, or any of them, with the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society. At a Meeting of Council on Nov. loth, a Report from this Committee was read ; but at the request of Dr. Pitman, it was withdrawn for the present. On Feb. 9th, 1869, this Report was again read. At successive Meetings of the Council, on March 17th and 25rd, and on April 2nd, 15th and 19th, it was considered (135) 136 SECOND PROPOSAL OF UNION, 1868-1870 and amended. On May 3id, 17th, and 27th, at successive Meetings of the Society, it was again considered and amended. It was then submitted to a Joint Committee of the Societies concerned, and was for the third time considered and amended. On Feb. 22nd and March 14th, 1870, it came again before our Society, and was again considered and amended. Then, approved at last, and on April 12th confirmed, it was submitted to the Societies concerned. Four of them expressed their assent to the scheme : two of them ex- pressed their dissent from it. On Oct. 25th and Nov. 8th, it came finally, thus enfeebled, back to our Society ; and, after two and a half years of talk, was set aside by an amendment which led nowhere and committed nobody to anything. The time and the trouble thus spent are incalculable ; and there is no evidence that any sort or kind of ad- vantage came to our Society, or to any of the Societies concerned, from the failure of the scheme. But these Chronicles must not go beyond a bare statement of events. The Committee appointed in March, 1 868, had suggested that the new Society should be entitled T/ie Royal Academy of Medicine. At the meeting of our Society on May 3rd, 1869, objections were raised against this title, and it was changed to that of The Royal Society of Medicine. The Committee had also suggested that the following Sections should be formed : — 1. Medicine and Surgery. 2. Obstetrics. 3. Psychological Medicine. 4. Clinical Medicine and Surgery. 5. Pathology and Morbid Anatomy. 6. State Medicine (comprising Epidemiology, Public Health and Medical Jurisprudence). SECOND PROPOSAL OF UNION, 1868-1870 137 7. Physiology and Anatomy (including Physics and Chemistry in relation to these subjects). 8. Materia Medica and Pharmacy. 9. Comparative Pathology. This list was amended by the Council of our Society, on March lyth, 1869, as follows : — 1. Medicine and Surgery. 2. Obstetrics. 3. Psychological Medicine. 4. Clinical Medicine and Surgery. 5. Pathology and Morbid Anatomy. 6. State Medicine — comprising Epidemiology, Public Health, and Medical Jurisprudence. 7. Physiology and Anatomy. (Each Section to entertain questions of Therapeutics, Chem- istry, and Physics, so far as they might bear on its special subject.) Against this list, at the Meeting of our Society on May 1 7th, 1 869, no less than eight successive amendments were moved, and lost : and the list was carried. But the Joint Committee, when it came to them, amended it as follows : — 1. A Medical Section. 2. A Surgical Section, 3. An Obstetrical Section. 4. A Pathological Section. 5. A Psychological Section. 6. A Clinical Section. 7. An Epidemiological Section, including also Hygiene and Medical Jurisprudence. Then our Society, on Febraary 22nd, 1870, amended it again, as follows : — 1. A Medico-Chirurgical Section. 2. An Obstetrical Section. 3. A Pathological Section. 4. A Psychological Section. 5. A Clinical Section. 6. An Epidemiological, Hygienic, and Medico-Legal Section. 7. A Physiological and Anatomical Section. 138 SECOND PROPOSAL OF UNION, 1868-1870 Here, in this contention over the indivisibility of Medicine and Surgery, was a great hindrance, thirty-five years ago, to the cause of Union. The Council of our Society bound themselves, at a meeting held a few hours before the meet- ing of the Society, Feb. 22, 1870, ^0 oppose the separation of Medicine from Surgery^ and to lay the resolutions of the foint-Committee before the Society without the support of the Council. Dr. Burrows, a few days later, in his Presi- dential Address, March i, 1870, said. You have already negatived the proposal that this Society should be severed into two separate sections — the one medical, the other surgi- cal I cannot refrain from congratulating you upon this decision ; for an opposite one would, I believe, have been most detrimental to the whole profession, and would have done much to encourage still further the tendency to the study and practice of specialties. The Obstetrical Society took the opposite view ; and, at the final Meeting on Nov. 8, 1870, Dr. Wynn Williams declared. That the Obstetrical Society would not have objected to the scheme proposed by the foint-Committee, but could not agree to Medicine and Surgery being included in one Section. Thus it seems certain, that the failure of the plan of Union was greatly due to this academic difficulty over the arrangements of the Sections. There is no evidence that the plan failed either through the weariness of interminable meetings and conferences, or through any feud between this and that Society : though, of course, these elements of failure may have been of some influence. We are left, after all, face to face with that amazing statement made ex cathedra by one of the wisest of our Presidents — that Medicine and Surgery must not be separated, even within one Society and under one roof, lest the separation should give too much encouragement to the study and practice of their special departments. Here was a difficulty which SECOND PROPOSAL OF UNION, 1868-1870 139 would have been solved by Time ; given a Royal Society of Medicine, that Society would have created its own Sec- tions. But, with the usual result, the cart was put before the horse ; and so elaborate were the arrangements for the work of the new Society, that it never got to work. The arrangements, approved and confirmed by our Society on April 1 2th, 1 870, were as follows ; — I. That a new Society be formed, and incorporated by Royal Charter, under the title of the Royal Society of Medicine ; and that this Society comprise Sections for the main branches of Medicine and the collateral Sciences. II. That the following Sections be formed : — 1. A Medico-Chirurgical Section. 2. An Obstetrical Section. 3. A Pathological Section. 4. A Psychological Section. 5. A Clinical Section. 6. An Epidemiological, Hygienic, and Medico-Legal Sec- tion. 7. A Physiological and Anatomical Section. Each Section will entertain questions of Therapeutics, Chemistry, and Physics, so far as they bear on its special subject. III. That in the formation of the new Society power be taken which shall enable the Society to add new Sec- tions, or to modify the existing ones with the consent of their Members. IV. That the general management of the Royal Society of Medicine be under the control of a General Council, consisting of a President, two Treasurers, two Librarians, two Secretaries, the Presidents of the various Sections, and two additional Members to be elected by each Sec- tion. At least one-third of the Members of the General Council shall go out of office annually. V. That the Presidents of the several Sections be ex officia Vice-Presidents of the Society. VI. That the President, Treasurers, Librarians, and Secre- taries of the Society be nominated by the General Council. VII. That the President, Treasurers, Librarians, and Secre- taries be elected annually from amongst the general body 140 SECOND PROPOSAL OF UNION, 1868-1870 of the Fellows at a General Meeting; and that the two representative Members of each Section in the General Council be elected by the Members of such Section at its Annual Meeting. VIII. That the President of the Society be chosen annually from amongst the past or present Presidents of Sections, and be ineligible for re-election ; and that the President of the Society cease, on his election, to be a President of a Section. IX. That the Royal Society of Medicine hold not less than four meetings in each year for the discussion of such questions as may have been referred to the Society by the General Council. The election of Fellows shall take place at these meetings. The Society shall also be em- powered to appoint Committees which shall investigate and report on such subjects as may be submitted to them. X. That the moneys, books, premises, and other properties belonging to any of the Societies which shall join in the proposed amalgamation, become the property of the Royal Society of Medicine; and that the entire manage- ment of the funds of the Society be in the hands of the General Council. XI. That there be at least three Trustees, in whom the property of the Society shall be vested ; that they be nominated by the General Council, and elected by the Society at a General Meeting; and that they hold their appointments during the pleasure of the Society. XII. That all Fellows or Members of the following Societies, viz., the Royal Medical and Chirurgical, the Pathological, the Epidemiological, the Obstetrical, the Clinical, and the Medico-Psychological Association, be Original Fellows of the Royal Society of Medicine with- out further nomination or election, provided they make the payments hereafter to be arranged. XIII. That power be taken by the Charter to incorporate additional Medical Societies after the proposed Society shall have been formed. XIV. That Fellows, Members, or Licentiates of the College of Physicians or Surgeons in Great Britain and Ireland — Doctors or Bachelors of Medicine, or Masters or Bachelors of Surgery, of the Universities of Great Britain and Ireland or of the British Dominions — Mem- SECOND PROPOSAL OF UNION, 1868-1870 141 bers of the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow — Licentiates of the Society of Apothecaries of London, or of the Apothecaries' Hall of Ireland, or Foreigners whose qualifications are satisfactory to the Council — be eligible for admission into the Society by nomination and election, as at present is arranged in the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society; and that their recommendation be signed by three Fellows of the Society, two of whom, at least, shall be Members of a Section to which the Candidate declares himself desirous of becoming attached. XV. That all Fellows of the Society shall pay to its funds an Annual Contribution of Three Guineas, which shall make them Members of any one Section with the privi- lege of using the Library of the Society. XVL That any Fellow who is a Member of two or more Sections may retire from all but one of them without resigning the Fellowship of the Society. XVn. That any Fellow may join any Section or Sections other than those he has originally joined without further election. XVin. That any person who is eligible as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine be eligible for election as a Member of any Section, on his complying with the regu- lations required ; and that the manner of election of such Member be regulated by each Section as it may think fit. XIX. That every Fellow of the Society shall pay an addi- tional Annual Contribution of One Guinea to the funds of each additional Section to which he may belong. XX. That each Member of a Section shall pay an Annual Contribution of One Guinea, which shall entitle him to attend the Meetings of such Section and to a copy of its Publications. XXI. That provision be made in the Bye-Laws of the Royal Society of Medicine for a diminution in the subscription of those Fellows who may belong to more than three Sections. XXII. That the Library and Museum of the present Ob- stetrical Society be kept separate from the General Library, and maintained at the expense of the Obstetri- cal Section; and that the Members of the Obstetrical Section be entitled to appoint their own Librarian and 142 SECOND PROPOSAL OF UNION, 1868-1870 to the privilege of using the Obstetrical Library and Museum without further payment than the Annual Con- tribution of One Guinea. XXIII. That deductions from future payments to the Society be allowed for any Admission or Composition Fees which may have been already paid to any of the Societies enumerated in Resolution XII., as provided in the Bye-Laws of those Societies. XXIV. That the privileges of the Non-Resident Fellows or Members of the existing Societies be preserved ; and that the Royal Society of Medicine and its several Sections be empowered to elect Non-Resident Fellows and Mem- bers on such terms as shall be specified in the Bye-Laws. XXV. That the Members of each Section elect annually the President, Vice-Presidents, Secretaries, and Council, of that Section. The President of each Section and the representative Members of the Section in the General Council must be Fellows of the Society. XXVI. That the Council of each Section have the entire control of the internal business of their own Section, subject to such general arrangements as shall be made by the General Council of the Society; and that they publish annually, or at such periods as shall hereafter be arranged, the Transactions of their own Section, pro- vided the expenditure of each Section, for Transactions and other special purposes, do not exceed three-fourths of the income derived from the Annual Contributions of its Members and from the proceeds arising from the sale of its Transactions. XXVII. That the General Council of the Society may, under special circumstances, make special grants in aid of the publication of Transactions or other expenses of any Section. XXVIII. That the proposed Society comprise a grade of Honorary Fellows, to be elected for life from British subjects who have eminently distinguished themselves in Medicine, in Surgery, or in the Sciences connected therewith, but who do not practise the medical profes- sion ; and from Foreigners who have eminently dis- tinguished themselves in Medicine, in Surgery, or in the Sciences connected therewith. That such Honorary Fellows be elected by the Society at a General Meeting, on the recommendation of the Council. SECOND PROPOSAL OF UNION, 1868-1870 143 XXIX. That each Section retain as Honorary Members those Honorary Fellows or Members of the present cor- responding Society who may not be elected Honorary Fellows of the Royal Society of Medicine ; and that for the future each Section shall have the power of electing Honorary Members not exceeding ten in number. XXX. That the power of removing a Fellow from the General Society, or a Member from any of its Sections, be provided for in the Bye-Laws of the Society, in a manner similar to that specified in the Bye-Laws of the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society. And, lastly, That this Society, while not objecting to any modifications in the details of the scheme now agreed to, does not feel disposed to accede to any essential change in that scheme. George Burrows, President. i4^/j March, 1870. It was moved by Mr. T. Holmes, seconded by Mr. George Pollock, and carried unanimously, that the above Reso- lutions, adopted by the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society at Special General Meetings held on Tuesday, February 22, and Monday, March 14, 1870, be taken as read and confirmed. The Meeting then resolved "That the Secretary be directed to communicate these Resolutions to the Secretaries of the other Societies which had been invited to join in the proposed scheme for the union of the Medical Societies of London, under the title of the ' Royal Society of Medicine.'" On Oct. 25th, 1870, at a Special Meeting of our Society, the Council reported that the Pathological, Clinical, and Epidemiological Societies had expressed their readiness to acquiesce in the proposed plan ; but the Obstetrical Society, and the Psychological Association, had declined to co-operate with the other Societies. A long discussion was held {Proc. vi. 303). " Remarks in opposition to the further carrying-out of the scheme on an imperfect scale were made by Mr. Paget, Mr. Curling, Mr. Hulke, 144 SECOND PROPOSAL OF UNION, 1868-1870 Dr. Murchison, Dr. Squarey, Dr. Douglas Powell, Mn Gay, and Mr. Savory. Dr. Quain spoke as to the small probability of an imperfect .scheme being accepted by the Pathological Society on its being returned to them for their approval ; Dr. Barnes made some observations explanatory of the reasons for objecting to the project on the part of the Obstetrical Society ; and Dr. Wm. Wood spoke for the Medico-Psychological Association. Replies in favour of the scheme were made by Mr. Brudenell Carter, Dr. Barclay, Mr. Brooke, Mr. Gascoyen, and Dr. William Ogle, on the ground principally that the Society had gone too far to retreat, its decision having been already given in favour of the scheme by considerable majorities." Finally, it was pro- posed by Mr. Paget, seconded by Dr. Ouain, and resolved, That the Council be requested to consider whether, while maintaining the Charter and Constitution of the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society, it may be possible to obtain a more complete co-operation with the Patho- logical, Obstetrical, Clinical, and Epidemiological or other Societies for the promotion of Medical Science. A second Meeting, Nov. 8, 1870, was held that this resolution might be proposed for confirmation i^Proc. vi. 308). There was a long discussion, 90 Fellows were present, and a last fight was made for the cause of Union : then the resolution was put from the Chair, and by 41 votes against 36 was confirmed. In the course of the discussion. Dr. Moxon stated that the majority of the Council of the Pathological Society were opposed to the scheme : Dr. Pitman said that there would be no chance of the Charter being abrogated, and of a new one being obtained, with the opposition of so many of the Fellows : and other speakers appealed to the Society, not to throw overboard its own scheme. But overboard it went ; and that, without any advantage to the ship of our Society. X. 53, BERNERS STREET, 1871-1889. They who care for the history of our Society should study the Presidential Addresses of Sir George Burrows in 1 870 and 1 871 {Proc. vi. 252, 340). He gives a fair and clear account of the fortunes of the plan for Union ; and foretells, with absolute truth of vision, the unavoidable loss that was to come on our Society (and not on our Society only) through the multiplication of Special Societies, Hospital Reports, and Medical Journals. Some of his remarks on these two subjects may well be reprinted here : — I. "The attempt to accomplish an amalgamation of our own with other kindred medical societies, and to establish a conjoint society on a broad basis, under the title of a Royal Society of Medicine, has unhappily failed. Eight years ago, a similar attempt was made during the Presidency of the late Dr. Benjamin Babington, and with the same want of success. The idea of collecting the disjecta membra of scientific medicine, and combining them in one body, was captivating to the imagination ; and, if it could have been worked- out as was contemplated by its promoters, it would undoubtedly have conferred many advantages upon all who entered the new Society hereafter. But, to carry out the con- templated scheme, it was necessary to concilate the separate interests — the feelings, and, may I venture to say, the prejudices of the existing members of the different learned Societies it was proposed to amalgamate. Difficulties which for some time ap- peared insuperable were met, and almost overcome, when, after oft-repeated meetings of Councils and Societies, and protracted (145) K 146 53, BERNERS STREET, 1871-1889 and acrimonious discussions, the Scheme of Amalgamation, which had cost so much valuable time in preparation, was superseded by a Resolution of our own Society. . . . " As your President, I certainly regret that it should have fallen to my lot to preside at so many meetings of the Council and the Society to discuss this topic, and to have witnessed so much energy and painstaking ending in an abortive issue. With what- ever favour I may have looked upon the original scheme of amalgamation, involving important organic changes in the con- stitution of our Society, I certainly could not desire that it should succeed when I witnessed the strenuous and decided opposition it met with from many of our own Fellows, and the lukewarm support it received from other Societies for whose advantage it was cer- tainly intended. Although unanimous support was not to be ex- pected for a scheme involving so many changes, still, a more general concurrence might have been anticipated : and certainly, after the manifestation of such determined opposition it would have been unbecoming and impolitic to persevere with the original proposals. "The agitation which has existed within our body during the past two years has, I believe, been attended with unfavourable effects upon the scientific work and the material prosperity of our Society. Energetic minds that would have been devoted to the preparation of papers for our meetings, and time that would have been devoted to attendance and discussion on professional ques- tions, have been occupied in preparing and perfecting the proposed scheme of amalgamation. The unsettled state of affairs, and the prospect of some great change in our constitution, deterred many from coming forward for admission to our Fellowship. I earnestly trust that our Society may now be allowed a period of repose from the disturbing influence of projected changes, and that angry feelings engendered b)' recent discussions may be allowed to subside, and that we may for a time meet for the exclusive objects of the advancement of knowledge and mutual instruction." II. ". . . If I now proceed to take a look into the prospect of the future existence of this Society, I confess that it is not without some misgivings and apprehension that its meridian splendour has already passed away. " Some years after the formation of this Society, there sprung up in the metropolis a weekly metropolitan medical press, afford- ing every facility and temptation for the publication to the profes- 53, BERNERS STREET, 1871-1889 147 sional world of any original investigations, or of the clinical history of any series of interesting cases. . . . The periodical weekly journals have withdrawn, and necessarily must continue to with- draw from our cognisance, much that would otherwise have been thrown into papers to be read and discussed at our ordinary meetings. " More recently, the publication of annual reports of the most interesting cases observed in the great metropolitan hospitals has withdrawn a large mass of practical knowledge from our arena, and has engrossed a large amount of the mental energy of the contributors to those reports, which would probably have been bestowed upon our Society in the form of written papers, or ex- pended in oral discussions at our meetings. " And lastly, but not least, in the influences at work detrimental to the continued great success of this Society, I must mention the rapid successive formation of new Societies, offshoots from this parent-stock, but limiting their attention to particular or special branches of medical and surgical knowledge, which was formerly brought to this Society as into a common arena or exchange." 1871. Business of the year. (i) Mr. Curling was elected President. (2) A request was made by the Marshall Hall Memorial Committee, that our Society would undertake the administration and management of the Memorial Fund : and a Sub-committee of the Council was appointed for this purpose, (3) Plans for the building-out of a new Reading- room, behind the Meeting-room, on the site of the stables, were approved, and the work was begun. (4) The Index to the Transactions, vols, i.-liii., compiled by the Sub- Librarian, was printed and published. Meetings held, 16: papers read 29, published (Trans.) 18: average attendance, ^6'$ + 8. But, if we omit the two meetings for the hearing and discussion of Hutchin- son's paper on Vaccino-Syphilis, the average attendance was 32" 5 -f 4" 5. This paper, and the report of the Com- mittee appointed to examine the cases, are published in 148 53, BERNERS STREET, 1871-1889 the Transactions, vol. liv. pp. 317-350 : and it is probable that no communication ever made to our Society had a more profound effect on the profession and the country. Other notable papers of the year were (i) Hilton Fagge on Sporadic Cretinism, occurring in Eng- land : with special reference to the counteracting influence of the thyroid gland: It appears to me, from the facts above stated, that a certain antagonism exists between goitre and cretinism. (2) Hutchinson on Xanthelasma Palpebrarum : with special reference to its association with jaundice and sick head- ache. (3) Little on a case of Subcutaneous Osteotomy of the Femur : This case is, I believe, the first instance of subcutaneous osteo- tomy fur the relief of a completely ankylosed large joint per- formed in this country. (4) Paget on the removal of Tumours from Bone. (5) Spencer Wells on a fourth series of 100 cases of Ovario- tomy : 78 recoveries, 22 deaths. Ten years ago, an esti- mated mortality of even 22 per cent, would have been received as far too favourable. Yet it has been attained; and, after very full consideration, I venture to express the conviction that the mortality may be reduced to 15, or even to 10 per cent. (6) Ogle on Dextral Pre-eminence. (7) Warrington Haward on Ether and Chloroform as Anaes- thetics : with special reference to the disuse into which ether had fallen, and the almost complete substitution of chloroform for ether in this country. It is sometimes useful to recall attention to neglected or forgotten remedies or methods of treatment. (8) Durham on five cases of Division of the Larynx for the removal of Morbid Growths : with an account of thirty- two other recorded cases. 1872. Business of the year, (i) At the Annual General Meeting, it was resolved that the Marshall Hall Memorial Fund be invested in the names of three Trustees appointed by the Society : and that a prize be given at intervals of 53, BERNERS STREET, 1871-1889 149 not less than five years, for the best original work, done during the previous five years and recorded in the English language, in anatomical, physiological, or pathological re- search relative to the nervous system (Proc. vii. p. 32). (2) The new Reading-room was finished, with an upper room and a staircase, etc. The amount of space thus gained gave additional shelf-room for 27,000 volumes. The entire cost of these improvements, with painting and decoration of the Meeting-room, was £1884. 12. o. The Society for the Relief of Widows and Orphans of Medical Men now gave-up for Library use the room which it had rented, and had the use of a small room rent-free, with the occasional use of the Meeting-room. (3) Claude Bernard was elected a Foreign Honorary Fellow of the Society. (4) In June, a Conversazione was held, at a cost of £S2i- 4- II- (5) Ari Ophthalmological Congress, this year, was held in the Society's rooms. Meetings held, 14; no meeting was held on Feb. 27th, being Thanksgiving Day for the recovery of our present King. Papers read 25: published {Trans.) 18: average attendance, 44*5 + I2"5. On May 28, Gull and Sutton communicated to the Society their observations on Arterio- Capillary Fibrosis : and, on Dec. loth, George Johnson's paper was read, opposing them. (If we omit these two meetings, the average attendance during 1 872 was 40 + 7'5.) At the December meeting, it was resolved that the Council be asked to appoint a Committee on this subject ; but the Council found it impossible to secure the co-operation of Fellows whose decision would carry sufficient weight [Proc. vii. 127). Among other papers of 1872, were (i) Broadbent on the Cerebral Mechanism of Thought and Speech. (2) C. T. Williams on the Effects of Warm Climates in the Treatment of Pulmonary Consumption. 150 53, BERNERS STREET, 1871-1889 (3) Dickinson on the Morbid Effects of Alcohol, as shown in Persons who trade in Liquor. (4) Ransome on the Respiratory Movements in Man. (5) Spencer Wells on a fifth Series of 100 cases of Ovario- tomy. In this paper, he takes the whole results of his 500 cases. In 349 cases, the pedicle has been secured by a clamp outside the abdominal wall ; of these cases, 280 recovered and 69 died, a mortality of 1977 per cent. If an attempt be m.ade to carry out the extra-peritoneal method in any other way, there is far less complete security against the sinking in- wards of the strangulated dying portion of the pedicle. Such substitutes for the clamp have been tried in 49 cases, with a result of 33 recoveries and 16 deaths, a mortality of 32"65 per cent. But even these imperfect attempts to practise the extra- peritoneal method have given far better results than the old method of tying the pedicle, allowing it to sink into the peri- toneal cavity with the ligature, and keeping the lower ends of the wound open by the ends of the ligature until it separates and comes away. Of 14 cases so treated, 8 died and 6 re- covered. The intra-peritoneal method has been practised in 88 cases, with a result of 54 recoveries and 34 deaths, or a mortality of 38'63 per cent., just double that of the extra- peritoneal method when carried out by the clamp. Also to be noted are the cases of Abdominal Aneurism treated by Compression of the Aorta, recorded by Moxon and Durham, Bryant, and Bloxam : and Mahomed's sphygmographic tracings in the former case, which were the first published by our Society, Also, William Murray's cases {Proc. vii. 72) of Internal Aneurism: to whom is due, say Moxon and Durham, all the credit of having initiated the method of treatment we have adopted. Also, Bickersteth's case of Subclavian Aneurism treated by Compression, followed by Ligature, of the Innominate: and William MacCormac's case of Simultaneous Resection of the Shoulder-Joint and Elbow-Joint of the Right Arm. 1873. A year void of business of importance, save that Dr. C. J. B. Williams was elected President ; and Sir Robert 53, BERNERS STREET, 1871-1889 151 Christison, Prof. G. G. Stokes, Agassiz, Helmholtz, and Hofmann were elected Honorary Fellows. The Chamberlen instruments were lent to the International Exhibition at South Kensington, which seems rather a strange procedure. The Council were asked to file T/ie Times for the use of the Society : Non placet. And it was agreed in Council that there ought always to be two General Practitioners, instead of one, on the Council. Meetings held, 15: papers read 27, published (7"r««j".) 21 : average attendance 39 + 8. On May 13th, Burdon Sanderson's paper was read, On the Infective Products of Acute Inflammation. Here, at that meeting, bacteriology was brought before our Society, for the first time, as a science : and in all the long line of our Transactions there is no communication of more profound significance. Other papers of the year were (i) Tufnell on the Successful Treatment of Aneurism by Posi- tion and Restricted Diet. (2) Rattray on an Analysis of Ship-Air and its effects : with special reference to the over-crowding and bad ventila- tion of ships, and to the high sick-rate and death-rate of seamen. (3) Hutchinson's second Report on Vaccino-Syphilis : with references to earlier cases, including the case brought before the Clinical Society by Sir Thomas Smith. (4) Vandyke Carter on the Pathology of Leprosy. (5) Wilson Fox on the Temperature, Pulse, and Respiration in Phthisis ; and Symes Thompson on the Elevated Health Resorts of the Southern Hemisphere. (6) Boyd on Preternatural Cavities in the Brain of the Sane and the Insane. Also, Callender's case of a Needle removed from the Heart ; Lawson Tait's case of Operation for Extra-uterine Pregnancy ; and Hutchinson's case of Operation for Intus- susception. 152 53, BERNERS STREET, 1871-1889 i874- Business of the year, (r) The great Catalogue and Subject-Index were put in hand. (2) A second Con- versazione was held, at the end of the Session, at a cost of £S^. 7. 9. (3) It was proposed by the Council that the Transactions and the Proceedings should be published to- gether in one volume ; but, at the Annual General Meeting, it was resolved by a large majority that no change should be made. (^Proc. vii. 227.) (4) The Library hours were fixed at I -6, instead of i -5 : the Secretaries were authorized to give permission for the use of the Library and Reading Room, during two months, by any foreigner visiting this countiy : and a work by Bergeret, which, though purchased by the Library Committee, was unfit for the Library, was ordered to be destroyed and not entered in the Catalogue. Meetings held, 15 : papers read 25, published {T?-ans.) 19 : average attendance 32 + 6. Among the papers, were (i) Mahomed on the Etiology of Bright's Disease and the Pre-Albuminuric Stage. (2) Samuel West's Observations upon the Elimination of Urea in certain Diseases. (3) Marsh on the Treatment of Rickety Deformities of the Legs by Operation. (4) Fairlie Clarke on Ichthyosis Linguse. (5) Rivington on Dislocation of the first and second Pieces of the Sternum. (6) George Johnson on the Laryngeal Symptoms due to Pres- sure on the Vagus and Recurrent Nerves. Also, Lawson Tait's case of Removal of a large Fibro- Myoma of the Uterus, and Lockhart Clarke's case of Pseudo-hypertrophic Muscular Paralysis. 1875. Business of the year, (i) Sir James Paget was elected President. (2) William Stoker, John William Draper, and 53, BERNERS STREET, 1871-1889 153 Luigi Porta, were elected Honorary Fellows. (3) A Scien- tific Committee was appointed, in December, " to examine into the relations existing between the diseases commonly known respectively as Membranous Croup and Diphtheria." (4) It was decided that Fellows should receive 50 copies, instead of 25, of their papers published in the Transac- tions. (5) A letter was received from the Secretary of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, asking that he and two others might be present " as mute spectators " to report on any operations on living animals performed at Berners Street. Answered, that the Society zs not at present engaged-iJi or contemplating any experiments involving vivisections. If the Society should undertake any further scientific investigations rendering such processes necessary, they would certainly decline the presence or interference of any unqualified witnesses. Meetings held, 15 : papers read 28, published {Trans.) ly : average attendance 42 + 7. Among the papers were (i) Marcet on Laryngeal Phthisis : with an analysis of 70 cases. (2) Ord's Observations on some of the circumstances deter- mining the Forms of Crystalline Deposits in Urine, and on some of the conditions under which Renal and Vesical Calculi are produced. (3) Acton on the Prevalence and Severity of Syphilis among Troops quartered in London, compared with Paris and Brussels. (4) Wickham Legg on the Histology of the so-called Nutmeg Liver. (5) Dickinson on the Pathology of Chorea. (6) Semple on Diphtheria, and its relation to so-called Croup. (7) Pavy on the presence of Sugar in Healthy Human Urine. (8) Welch on Aortic Aneurism in the Army. Also, Hughlings Jackson's case of Spasmodic Affection of the Right Arm and Leg, in a man who had received a blow on the left side of the head : and the cases of Operation 154 53, BERNERS STREET, 1871-1889 for Intus-susception, recorded by Marsh, Hilton Fagge and Howse, and Hutchinson : and Bryant's account of the Diagnostic Value of the Ilio-Femoral Triangle. 1876. Business of the year, (i) Billroth and Milne Edwards were elected Honorary Fellows. Traube, who had also been nominated, died before the time of election. (2) A Conversazione was held at the end of the Session. (3) Three delegates were sent to the International Medical Congress at Philadelphia : their Report is published in the Proceedings, viii. 129. (4) A petition, signed by about 1 50 Fellows, for the amendment of certain clauses in the " vivisection bill," was forwarded to Lord Cardwell. The Metropolitan branch of the British Medical Association asked leave to hold a meeting at Berners Street to con- sider the bill : Non placet. Meetings held, 15: papers read 30, published {Trans.) 23: average attendance 37'5 + 5. On Nov. 14th, a com- munication from the President was read, On a form of Chronic Inflammation of Bones (Osteitis Deformans). Other papers of the year were (i) E. L. Moss on Pathological Absorption Spectra. (2) Butlin on the minute anatomy of two breasts with Chronic Eczema of the Areola. (3) Douglas Powell on some effects of Lung Elasticity in Health and Disease. (4) Thin on the Histological Changes in Epithelioma. (5) Two papers by Henry Morris on Hydronephrosis. (6) Galabin on the Causation of the Water-hammer Pulse. (7) Morrant Baker on the use of Flexible Tubes in Tracheo- tomy. Also, Gascoyen's case of Sphacelus of the Thyroid Gland : Ord's case of Pseudo-hypertrophic Paralysis : and 53, BERNERS STREET, 1871-1889 155 Hulke's case of the Removal of a Tracheotomy Tube from the Right Bronchus. 1877. Business of the year, (i) Dr. Charles West was elected President. (2) The new Catalogue, and the Subject- Index, were finished and ordered to be printed. (3) The use of the Society's Meeting-room was granted to the Committee of Librarians. (4) It was proposed that the Society should investigate the subject of Animal Vaccina- tion ; and Dr. Martin, of Boston, U.S.A., offered to come to England to demonstrate his views before the Society r but it was decided that the proposal did not come within the legitimate sphere of the Society's work. Meetings held, 15 : papers read 27, published (Trans.) 19: average attendance, 38 -|- 6. On February 27th, Spencer Wells' paper was read. On 300 additional cases of Ovariotomy. On Oct. 23rd, Ord's paper was read, On Myxcedema ; a term proposed to be applied to an essential cottdition in the " Cretinoid" Affection occasionally obsei^ed in Middle-aged Women. Other papers of the year were (i) Henry Morris on Dislocations of the Thigh. (2) Morrant Baker on "Quiet Necrosis." (3) Gowers and Sankey on the Pathological Anatomy of Canine Chorea. (4) Paget on Branchial Fistulse on the External Ear. (5) Sansom on a Case of Noma, in which Moving Bodies were observed in the Blood during Life. (6) Coats and Gairdner on the Pathology of Tetanus and Hydrophobia. Also the case recorded by Holmes, of a Direct Wound of the Ureter ; and Barwell's case of Double Distal Liga- ture for a Large Aneurism of Aorta, Innominate, Subcla- vian, and Carotid. 156 53, BERNERS STREET, 1871-1889 1878. Business of the year. (i) Honorary Fellows were elected — Sir John Lubbock, Prof. Baccelli, Dr. Gueneau de Mussy, Prof v. Scanzoni, and Prof Schwann. (2) At the Annual General Meeting, the Marshall Hall Prize was presented to Dr. Hughlings Jackson. (Proc. viii. 289.) (3) At a meeting on Oct. 22nd, Dr. Andrew presented the Report of the Scientific Committee on Croup and Diphtheria. This Report, 168 pages, is published in the Transactions, vol. Ixii. (4) In April, a communication having been received from the Royal Humane Society, the Scientific Committee on Suspended Animation was re-appointed, " with power for its surviving members to add to their number." (5) In May, at a meeting of Council, it was resolved, That the Society contribute fifty guineas to the Harvey Memorial Fund. This action of the Council led to a long controversy in subsequent years. Meetings held, 14: papers read 31, published {Trans?} 22 : average attendance, 40 + 6. Among the papers, were (i) Poore's Analysis of 75 cases of "Writers' Cramp" and Impaired Writing Power. (2) Sir Henry Thompson's Analysis of 500 cases of Operation for Stone in the Adult Male. The entire series of the calculi was shown at the meeting. (3) Laidlaw Purves on 100 cases of Paracentesis of the Tym- panic Membrane. (4) Hutchinson on Ophthalmoplegia Interna. (5) Butlin on the Microscopic Anatomy of Chronic Super- ficial Glossitis. (6) Cripps on Ligature of the External Carotid in Punctured Wounds of the Throat and Neck. (7) Vandyke Carter on the Spirillum Fever of Bombay. Also, Broadbent's case of Amnesia ; Semon's case of Thyrotomy for a membrane obstructing the larynx ; 53, BERNERS STREET, 1871-1889 157 Harley's additional case of Atrophic Sclerema ; and Bar- well's three additional cases of Distal Ligature of the Carotid and Subclavian Arteries for Innominate Aneurism. 1879. This year, the great Catalogue and Subject-Index of our Library were published, after five years' work, at a cost of ^614. 7. o, in three Volumes containing 2017 pages. The Library in 1856, when the previous Catalogue was published, contained about 17,000 volumes: it now contained more than 31,000. And, in the Preface to the new Catalogue, there is a retrospect over the changes wrought in scientific and medical literature during the 23 years between 1856 and 1879. ^^ ^^ of interest to us now, 26 years later, to see what subjects, in 1 879, seemed the chief discoveries to those who were then looking back over their quarter of a century. The list is as follows : — " Protoplasm and the Cell Theory of Development — Darwin- ism and the Origin of Species, Man's antiquity and place in Nature — Anthropological Science and the establish- ment of Anthropological Societies — the new Chemical Notation — the Cerebral Localisation of Function and Disease — Progressive Muscular Atrophy, Locomotor Ataxy, and Aphasia — the literature of Ozone, with the exception of the work of its discoverer Schonbein, of Embolism, excepting the paper of Kirkes, and of Bronzed Skin with Disease of the Supra-renal Capsules, with the exception of the classical work of Addison — Syphilitic Brain and Visceral Disease — the literature of Diphtheria since the later attention drawn to it by the Epidemics of 1855-8 — the naming and identification of Enteric Fever — Hospitalism, Pyaemia, Septicaemia, and Wound Fever — the Cattle Plague and Trichinosis — the observation of the Temperature of the Body in Health and Disease — the climate of Mountainous Regions in Phthisis, and the most important part of the modern literature of Balneo- logy and Mineral Waters — the larger proportion of the literatures of Ovariotomy and of Excision of Joints — 158 53, BERNERS STREET, 1871-1889 Electrolysis — Skin Grafting — the discovery and use of the Laryngoscope — the literature of the Ophthalmoscope (with the exception of the works of Van Trigt and Jaeger) — Iridectomy in Glaucoma — the Endoscope — Hypodermic Injection — the Antiseptic System, and the disinfecting power of Carbolic Acid — the plans of treatment by Marshall Hall and his successors for recovery from Apparent Death — the establishment of Physiological and Pathological Laboratories at home and abroad, and the issue of their Reports — And the whole modern body of Military Medicine, Surgery, and Hygiene, gained from the experience of the long series of wars which have followed in quick succession on the Campaign in the Crimea." The " exceptions " in this goodly list are those dis- coveries which were made just before the compilation of the 1856 Catalogue, and therefore hardly come into this retrospect over a quarter of a century. Thus, Schonbein's paper was read in 1851, and Kirkes' paper in 1852. Addison's book on the Supra-renal Capsules was published in 1855 : and it will always be matter for regret that the importance of his earlier work was not at once recognised by the Council of our Society. Other business of the year. ( i ) Mr. (afterward Sir John) Erichsen was elected President. (2) On October 28th, the Report of the Committee on Suspended Animation was read and discussed. (3) At the Annual General Meeting, the proposal of the Council, that the Society should contribute 50 guineas toward Harvey's statue at Folkestone, was discussed, opposed, and finally approved. In April, Mr. Arnott informed the Council that he had taken legal advice from Mr. Vaughan Hawkins, O.C. ; and that Mr. Hawkins was of opinion that the proposed payment was not withi?i the competence of the Society. In May, the Society's Solicitor took the advice of Mr. Bevis, Q.C., and Mr. Bevis agreed with Mr. Hawkins. 53, BERNERS STREET, 1871-1889 159 In December, Dr. Quain informed the Council that he had taken the opinion of Mr. Joseph Chitty, Q.C. ; and that Mr. Chitty held that the proposed payment was within the scope of the corporate powers of the Society. At the Annual General Meeting in i88o, after much discussion, the original vote in favour of payment was left unrescinded. Meetings held, i6: papers 25, published {Trans.) 19; average attendance 42 + 7. Three whole meetings were spent in discussion of the Report on Croup and Diphtheria, and were all well attended. If we omit these meetings, the average attendance for the year was 36 + 4. Among the papers of the year, are many of historical value ; — (i) Gowers on a Study of the so-called Tendon Reflex Phenomena. (2) Hutchinson on Ophthalmoplegia Externa : So far as lam aware, this group of cases has not as yet found any record in English medical literature. (3) Savory and Butlin on Perforating Ulcer ot the Foot : The disease has hitherto attracted comparatively little atten- tion in this country, and is hardly alluded to in our surgical literature. (4) Garlick on the Ophthalmoscopic Appearances in the Tubercular Meningitis of Children. (5) Christopher Heath on the Diagnosis and Treatment of Ruptured Bladder, with an account of a case where he sutured the rent in the bladder. The second recorded case of this operation. Mr. Willett's was the first. (6) Hulke, and Sampson Gamgee, on cases of cerebral abscess incised and drained. {7) Harwell on the Ox-Aorta Ligature. (8) Humphry on a case of Removal of a Tumour of the Bladder by Perineal Incision. The second recorded case of this operation in this country. Mr. Crosse's was the first. (9) Lawson Tait's case of Cholecystotomy with Removal of Gall-stones: the first successful case recorded of this operation. It had been done once, but without success, by Dr. Marion Sims; the first suggestion of it had come from Dr. Handfield Jones : To my good fortune it has fallen 160 53, BERNERS STREET, 1871-1889 to be the first to folbw out Dr. Handfield Joiics^ idea and Dr. Sims' plan successfully. The whole paper is full of histori- cal interest. {Trans. Ixiii. 17.) 1880. No important business of any kind. Meetings held, 1 5 : papers read 24, published (Trans.) 21 : average attend- ance, 33 + 4" 5. On Jan. 27th, was read Christopher Heath's case of Subclavian Aneurism, treated by the introduction of needles into the sac. On Feb. 24th, Vandyke Carter's Contribution to the Experimental Pathology of Spirillum Fever, with its account of the transmission of the disease by inoculation from man to monkeys. On March 9th, Arthur Barker's case of Neph- rectomy by Abdominal Section, with its account of Simon's experiments, and of the history of the operation. On Feb. loth and Dec. 14th, the criticisms by Lawson Tait and Bantock of " Listerism." Other notable papers, this year, were (i) Pavy on the Estimation of Uric Acid by its reducing action upon the ammoniated cupric test. (2) Lawson Tait on the treatment of Pelvic Suppuration by abdominal section and drainage. (3) Champneys on Artificial Respiration in Still-born Children. (4) Douglas Powell and Lyell on Basic Cavities of the Lung treated by Paracentesis. Also, Eve's cases of direct backward dislocation of the femur ; Morris's case of Aneurism of the External Carotid, treated by the old operation ; and Lawson Tait's third case of Extra-uterine Gestation treated by abdominal section. 1881. This was the year of the International Medical Congress in London ; and the library and rooms of our Society were open to all members of the Congress. No important 53, BERNERS STREET, 1871-1889 161 business came before the Society ; save that Dr. Barclay was elected President, and that the title of Resident Lib- rarian was instituted in place of that of Sub- Librarian. Mr. Erichsen, the out-going President, in his Address at the Annual General Meeting, took occasion to express his hope that the union of Medical Societies of London might yet be accomplished : — "There are few resident Fellows of this Society who do not belong to one or other of those associations of more recent origin that hold their meetings in this room. Could not some community of organisation and of action, as well as of locality, be established between them and us ? Might we not thus add to the strength, not only of the parent but of the branch societies ? — simplify, harmonise, and economise their working both in time and expense, and systematise in some way the arrangement and the distribution of papers to one or other of the societies, which appears now to be often determined by mere chance or caprice." Meetings held, 15 : papers read 27, published {Trans.) 18: average attendance 36+5. At one meeting, May loth, the author of a paper was unable to attend ; no other material for discussion had been got ready, and the meet- ing was perforce adjourned. This year is memorable for the vigorous counterblast raised by Mr. Knowsley Thornton and Sir Spencer Wells against the critics of " Listerism." Mr. Thornton, at the first meeting of the year, presented to the Society the tables of 172 Antiseptic Abdominal Sections : — "The cases have all been treated on one common plan, viz. by Lister's method. When I say this, I mean, by Lister's own method, to the exclusion of all so-called modified Listerism. They have nearly all been also treated by 'complete intra-peritoneal ligature.' "There is, I am afraid, a growing tendency to ascribe to Lister's method bad results, which should more properly be ascribed to imperfect knowledge of Lister's teaching, L 162 53, BERNERS STREET, 1871-1889 and to consequent imperfect application of his method. As a result of this imperfect knowledge and performance, we have endless varieties of so-called modified Listerism, the modification generally striking so deeply at the foundations of true Listerism that it is an absurdity to attempt to connect such methods with his, even in name. "The fact that, by a rigid adherence to the teachings of my old master, I have in one of the operations (ovariotomy) steadily improved my results, lowering my rate of mor- tality from 23*94 P^'' ^^"^- to 4 per cent., is to me a sufficient reward for resisting this craze for variety." Sir Spencer Wells, on Feb. 22nd, presented 200 addi- tional cases of ovariotomy, making 1000 cases in all: and said " To my mind, one great merit of the antiseptic system is, that it has made the intra-peritoneal method, which was formerly the less, now the more successful method of dealing with the pedicle. . . . Another great gain from the antiseptic system is that drainage of the peritoneal cavity is now scarcely ever necessary. . . . My own ex- perience has not only convinced me that by the use of antiseptics — especially of phenol — the success of ovario- tomy has been remarkably increased, that a much smaller proportion of deaths to recoveries has been obtained ; but, further, that those who have recovered have suffered much less from fever, while convalescence has been more rapid than it used to be." Beside Mr. Thornton, with his loyal outspoken devotion to Lister, and Sir Spencer Wells, with more measured but not less positive gratitude, three papers were read this year, all bearing more or less on " Listerism." These were by Mr. Frederick Treves, Mr. Barwell, and Mr. Dent, on the choice of the right substance for the ligature of large vessels in continuity. Other notable papers were (i) Lawson Tait on thirty-one cases of Removal of the Uterine Appendages for the arrest of Uterine Haemor- rhage : with twenty-seven recoveries. (2) Arthur Barker on two cases of Nephrectomy by Lumbar Section ; with tables of all recorded cases. 53, BERNERS STREET, 1871-1889 163 (3) Hutchinson on Gangrenous Eruptions in connection with Chicken-pox and Vaccination. (4) Henry Lee on the Radical Cure of Varicocele by the Open Method. (5) Ransome's Further Observations on the Value of Stetho- metry. (6) Hilton Fagge on a Probable Cause of Lead Colic. (7) Spencer Wells on a case of Excision of the Gravid Uterus, with Epithelioma of the Cervix : the first recorded case of this operation in this country. Also, Mr. Lawson Tait's three cases of Hepatotomy ; Mr. Morgan's cases of Macrostoma ; Mr. Croft's demon- stration of the application of the plaster splints which bear his name ; and the cases of removal of tumours of the bladder, recorded by Mr. Reginald Harrison and Mr. Berkeley Hill. 1882. Business of the year, (i) At the end of one year, Dr. Barclay resigned the Presidency ; and Mr. John Marshall was elected. (2) The time of the Annual General Meeting was changed from 8.30 to 5.30. (3) In March, an Address was sent to Her Majesty the Queen, on the occasion of an attempt against her life. (3) The difficulty over the 50 guineas to the Harvey Memorial Fund was at last solved by the opening of a subscription-list, {Proc. ix. pp. 121,1 44.) (4) In November, that faithful servant of our Society, Mr. Tapson, was appointed Assistant to the Resident Librarian. (5) Certain important changes were made in the procedure of the meetings. These changes were described as follows by the President, at the first meeting in October : — "The first of these changes consisted in having the abstracts of the papers to be read before the Society printed a few days before the meeting, so as to enable any Fellow, in- terested in the subjects, and intending to discuss them to obtain such printed abstracts on application to the Resident Librarian. The second proposal was, that the 164 53, BERNERS STREET, 1871-1889 President should exercise his discretion in such cases as might seem desirable to him, and, subject to the wishes of an author, invite the latter to read his paper himself instead of delegating this duty to one of the Honorary Secretaries as heretofore. . . . Thirdly, it was thought desirable that the discussions upon the papers should be more fully reported than hitherto, and therefore it was proposed that, in addition to the reports now published in the medical journals, a record of these discussions should appear in the Proceedings of the Society. . . . Lastly, it was proposed to endeavour to bring under the notice of the Society at each Meeting some objects of interest, either scientific or practical ; such, for example, as recently invented apparatus or instruments, any novelties having direct application to medicine or surgery, and microscopical, pathological, or anatomical prepara- tions illustrative of recent discoveries or methods of research." Meetings held, 1 5 : papers read 26, published ( Trans.') 16 : average attendance, 34*5 + 8. On May 23rd, a great demonstration in bacteriology was given by Mr. Watson Cheyne and Mr. Nelson, Mr. Horsley, and Mr. Dowdes- well. (Proc. ix. pp. 1 65-1 70.) On Nov. 14th, Mr. A. P. Thomas, Dr. Cobbold, Dr. Radcliffe Crocker, Dr. Bastian, Prof. Ray Lankester, and Dr. Stephen Mackenzie, de- monstrated Fasciola Hepatica, Bilharzia Haematobia, Trichina, Filaria, and other parasites. It is no wonder that these meetings were well attended : and, if we except them from the list, the average attendance was 29*5 -I- 4, Among the papers, were (i) Angel Money on the great frequency of Cardiac Murmurs in the Puerperal State. (2) Theodore Williams on Albuminuria in Phthisis. (3) Samuel Fenwick on the variations in the amount of Sul- phocyanide of Potassium in the Saliva. (4) Ringer and Sainsbury on the action of Salts of Potash, Soda, and Ammonia on the Frog's Heart. (5) Treves on Resection of Portions of Intestine ; with a case of resection of a part of the descending colon : This is 53, BERNERS STREET, 1871-1889 165 the third time, I believe, that the operation has been performed in this country, and it is, so far as I am aware, the only in- stance on record where a portion of the colon was excised througJi an incision in the middle line. (6) Semon on the removal of Laryngeal Growths by the Endo-laryngeal Method. (7) Davies CoUey on Malignant Pustule. Also many valuable cases, or groups of cases ; among them, Mr. Bryant's case of Excision of a Stricture of the Descending Colon, Mr. Barwell's case of Dislocation with Torsion of the Astragalus, and Sir James Paget's addi- tional cases of Osteitis Deformans. 1883. Business of the year, (i) The Marshall Hall Prize was awarded to Dr. Ferrier : and, by the request of the Council, at the first meeting in October, present 72 Fellows and 1 5 visitors, he read a paper " On Cerebral Localiza- tion : a Review and a Forecast." (2) An increase was made in the rents to be paid by the Societies for the use of the Berners Street rooms. (3) Honorary Fellows were elected — William Carpenter, Edward Frankland, William Kitchen Parker, and Allen Thomson : Charcot, Bigelow, Du Bois Reymond, and Pasteur. (4) The Council was informed that a Fellow of the Society had been guilty of unprofessional conduct, in that he had twice administered nitrous oxide for an unqualified practitioner, a well-known bone-setter. The Council decided that his name should be removed from the list of Fellows, and he resigned his Fellowship. Meetings held 15 : papers read 32, published {Trans.) 24 : average attendance, 38*5 + 8. Partly by exhibitions of specimens and cases, partly by the careful grouping of papers on special subjects, partly by the reading of papers 166 53, BERNERS STREET, 1871-1889 not by the secretaries but by the authors, the meetings this year were made of great interest. Thus, on Jan. 23rd, Sir Henry Thompson read his two papers on Tumours of the Bladder, and there was an exhibition of specimens, etc. On Feb. 1 3th, cases of operation for Aneurism were read by Mr. Heath, Mr. Howard Marsh, and Mr. Morris ; and specimens were shown by Mr. Morris, Mr. Horsley, and Mr. Stanley Boyd. On Feb. 27th, and March 27th, papers were read on Scurvy and Scurvy-Rickets, by Dr. Neale, of the Eira Arctic expedition. Dr. Hale White, Mr. Page, and Dr. Barlow ; and among the speakers were Dr. Colan, Dr. Donnet, Dr. John Rae, Sir William Smart, Dr. du Chaumont, Sir Joseph Fayrer, and Dr. Reginald Thompson — all of them travellers, explorers, or naval surgeons. Dr. Barlow's paper, on Scurvy-Rickets, with its analysis of all cases recorded in this country or on the Continent, is one of our classics. (For the first case recorded in this country. Sir Thomas Smith's case, see Trans. Path. Soc, 1876, xxvii. 219.) On ,May 22nd, papers on Operations on the Kidneys were read by Mr. Knowsley Thornton, Mr. Rawdon, Sir Spencer Wells, and the President ; and specimens were shown by Mr. Berkeley Hill, Mr. Lawson Tait, Mr. Barker, and Mr. Marcus Beck. Among other papers, were (i) Dr. Samuel West's case of Purulent Pericarditis, treated by Paracentesis and by free Incision ; with Recovery : The present case is the second 0/ this kind recorded, and the first in this country. 2) Mr. Hutchinson on High Amputation for Senile Gangrene : The practice of amputation for this disease has I believe been almost universally discouraged from the belief that it is generally followed by sloughing of the stump. I wish to urge that this occurs only when the part is removed too near to the disease. ... //, however, we go much higher up and ampu- tate through parts which are still ivell supplied with blood, 53, BERNERS STREET, 1871-1889 167 the results are quite different. By operations of this kind I believe I have repeatedly saved the patienfs life. (3) Mr. Willett and Mr. Walsham on a Second Case of Mal- formation of the Shoulder-Girdle. (4) Sir Henry Thompson on a further series of cases of Re- moval of Tumour of the Bladder, making 12 cases in all. (5) Dr. Thin on the Bacillus of Leprosy : The evidence of the association of a bacillus with the leprous infiltration at pre- sent stands thus : It has been found in Norwegian leprosy by Hansen and other Norwegian observers ; it has been found by Cornil and Suchard in specimens taken from the leper asylum of Grenada, and from a patient under treatment in Paris; it has been found by Koebner in a patient who had contracted the disease in South America ; by Majocchi and Pellizzari in two patients from the Island of Elba ; and I have now found it in skin excised from patients in China, in the West Indies, and in the larynx of a leper who was born and died in Australia. The intimate association, therefore, of the parasite with the disease seems indisputable. (6) Dr. Sidney Ringer and Dr. Harrington Sainsbury: In- vestigation into the action of the Digitalis Group. (7) Mr. R. W. Parker on a case of Aneurism in a boy : with a table of all recorded cases of spontaneous external Aneurism in persons under 20 years of age. Also, Dr. Percy Kidd's cases of Congenital Syphilis of the Larynx, Mr. Cowell's cases of Congenital Dislocation of both Femora, and Dr. Colcott Fox's cases of Erythema Gangrenosum. Altogether, it was a memorable year : and the President was one of the best of all our Presidents. His valedictory Address (Trans. Ixvii. i) should be carefully read by all who care for the histoiy of our Society. 1884. Dr. George Johnson was elected President this year. On January 9th, Mr. Wheatley died. He had been in charge of the Library since 1855 : long before that, in 1 84 1, he had made a catalogue of the books. The story of 168 53, BERNERS STREET, 1871-1889 his life, and of his devotion of himself to others, was well told in the President's Address this year. The Council, at a special meeting, expressed their sorrow : and contri- butions to help those who had been dependent on him were made from all the Societies for which he had worked. On Feb. 1 2th, the Council appointed, out of ninety-three candidates, Mr. J. B. Bailey, Member of the Library As- sociation, and Sub-Librarian of the Radcliffe Library. Other affairs of the year were as follows (i) Loyal Addresses were presented on the occasion of the death of H.R.H. the Duke of Albany. (2) The Metropolitan Counties Branch of the British Medical Association asked leave to make use of the meeting-rooms ; but the Council had to reply that the rooms were already fully occupied by the many Societies meeting at Berners Street. (3) It " came to the knowledge " of the Council, that three out of four signatures appended to a candidate's proposal-paper had been put there by Fellows who had not personal know- ledge of the candidate. His name therefore was with- drawn from the list of candidates for election, and a notice to that effect was affixed to the ballot-box, (4) The Library-privileges of Honorary Fellows were extended. (See Proc. i. n.s. p. 219.) Meetings held, 16: papers read 30, published [Trans^ 22 : average attendance, 44*5 + 8*5. It is of interest to note the records this year of operations for cavities in the lung — the cases read before the Society by Dr. Cayley, Mr. Pearce Gould and Dr. Biss ; and the discussions on them. Also, the papers by Dr. Broadbent and Dr. Sharkey (June loth) bearing on the subject of cerebral localiza- tion ; and the discussions on them. Other papers were (i) Treves on the Direct Treatment of Psoas Abscess with Caries of the Spine: with an account of three cases of operation through the sheath of the erector spinse. 53, BERNERS STREET, 1871-1889 169 {2) Horsley on the Nervi Nervorum. (3) Broadbent on a form of Alcoholic Spinal Paralysis. (4) Chavasse on Neurectomy of the Second Division of the Fifth Nerve. (5) Bland Sutton on the value of the Systematic Examina- tion of Still-born Children. Also, many cases of great importance : among them, Mr. Adams' cases of Dupuytren's Contraction, Mr. White- head's case of radical cure of Spina Bifida, Mr. Morns' case of Lumbar Nephrectomy, and Dr. Radcliffe Crocker's cases of Kaposi's Disease. And the year ended well, with the discussion on Dr. Percy Kidd's paper On the Distribu- tion of the " Tubercle Bacilli " in the Lesions of Phthisis. 1885. No important business came this year before the Coun- cil. Meetings held, 1 7 : papers read 26, published ( 7"r(a:«j-.) 25: average attendance, 45 + 12*5. In January, two meet- ings were given to the adjourned discussion on Dr. Kidd's paper. On March loth, Mr. Treves and Mr. Marsh read their cases of Acute Peritonitis treated by Abdominal Section: these, and the discussion which followed them, (Proc. i. n.s. p. 362) possess historical value. On March 24th, present 84 Fellows and 57 visitors, the President's paper was read. On the Etiology, Pathology, and Treat- ment of Cholera; there was an exhibition of specimens and cultivations by Dr. Klein, Mr. Watson Cheyne, Dr. Heneage Gibbes, Dr. Warden, and others ; and the debate was adjourned. On Nov. 24th, specimens of Actinomy- cosis were exhibited, and Dr. Sharkey and Dr. Acland withstood Dr. George Harley over them. Thus the year, barren of business, was fruitful of new works medical and chirurgical. Among other papers, were 170 53, BERNERS STREET, 1871-1889 (i) Dalby on Perforation of the Mastoid Cells. (2) Ormerod's Account of Two Families, several members of which were Ataxic. (3) Doran on so-called Non-Ovarian Dermoid Tumours. (4) Hale White on the Pathological Histology of the Semi- lunar and Superior Cervical Sympathetic Ganglia. (5) Angel Money on the Experimental Production of Chorea and other results of Capillary Embolism. (6) Baker and Bowlby on Diffuse Lipoma. (7) Stevenson Thomson on Scarlatinal Albuminuria and the " Pre-albuminuric Stage". There were also the cases of Aneurism, recorded by Mr. Lunn and Dr. Benham, and Mr. Morris : and Dr. Beevor's cases illustrating Localization in the Brachial Enlargement of the Cord : and Mr, Barker's case of Malignant Pustule. Also, the historical case of cerebral tumour, by Dr. Hughes Bennett and Mr. Godlee — t/ie first case recorded in this country in which a cerebral tumour was diagnosed by the syjnptoms observed, without visible or tangible external signs, and was in consequence operated on and successfully removed. 1886. Save the election of Mr. George Pollock as President there was no important business this year. In January, the Library was ordered to be closed henceforth on Bank Holidays. In May, it was resolved that a circular be sent to all Fellows, asking them to present to the Library copies of their works, or of new editions of them. In June, the Council considered the purchase of the Dictionary of National Biography : Non placet. In November, the ques- tion was raised as to the advisability of securing a new site for the Society's premises on the Embankment : // was agreed to postpone the consideration of the subject, as a Sub-committee of the two Colleges had not reported to what use the ground co2ild be best put. In December, the selling 53, BERNERS STREET, 1871-1889 171 price of the Transactions was ordered to be fixed hence- forth by a definite scale, according to the cost of produc- tion. Meetings held, i6 : papers read ^^, published (Trans.) 30: average attendance, 35 + 7. On March 30th, at a Special General Meeting, there was a discussion on Supra- pubic Lithotomy ; papers were read by Mr. Barwell, Mr. Rivington, and Mr. Jacobson : and the report in the Proceedings^ ii. n.s. pp. 91-100, is of great historical value. Mr. Jacobson, in his reply at the end of the discussion, made a very happy use of two novel arguments :— "Looking at the question with our present anatomical know- ledge and means of operating, and without our prejudice in favour of lateral lithotomy, I do not think, if any operation were for the first time put before us, we should hesitate for a moment in adopting the suprapubic method. We should never think of reaching the bladder by the perinaeum. I would also ask, what would be the position of this question at the present time, if Cheselden, after operating successfully, with comparatively clumsy ap- pliances, on seven out of eight cases of children, had directed his sagacity of mind and skill of hand towards perfecting the suprapubic method, instead of turning aside to lateral lithotomy ? For my own part, I think that in that case the question of suprapubic as against lateral lithotomy would have been quite settled, and this evening's debate would not have been necessary." Among other papers this year, were (i) Gostling on the Increase in number of White Corpuscles in the Blood in Inflammation. Blood-counts made during a resident appointment at University College Hospital. (2) William Ogle on the Mortality in the Medical Profession. (3) J. E. Squire on Enteric Fever at Suakin. (4) Champneys on the development of Mammary Functions by the Skin of Lying-in Women. (5) Bellance and Edmunds on the Ligature of the Larger Arteries in their Continuity : an Experimental Enquiry. (6) Lockwood on the Morbid Anatomy and Pathology of Encysted and Infantile Hernia. 172 53, BERNERS STREET, 1871-1889 (7) Knowsley Thornton on 300 additional cases of Complete Ovariotomy, and 20 cases of Exploratory Operation. (S'l Treves on Richter's Hernia. Among the cases, were Mr. Sutton's case of " Harlequin- foetus ; " two cases of Bronchiectasis treated by Para- centesis, recorded by Dr. C. T. Williams and Mr. Godlee ; two cases of Removal of the Spleen, by Mr. Knowsley Thornton ; Dr. Barlow's case of Disseminated Myelitis occurring in the course of Measles ; and the important case, recorded by Mr. Langton and Mr. Bowlby, of Multiple Embolism followed by the Formation of Aneurysms. 1887. Business of the year, (i) A loyal Address was pre- sented to Her Majesty the Queen, on the occasion of her Jubilee. (2) In May, by the death of Dr. Wilson Fox, the office of Honorary Medical Librarian fell vacant : and Dr. Gee was appointed. (3) In June, Honorary Fellows were elected — William Henry Flower, Michael Foster, and Sir William Turner : Billings, Esmarch, and von Volkmann, (4) On August 9th, Mr. MacAlister was appointed Resident Librarian : whose work, these eighteen years, is above the need of praise here. Besides, it would take the present scribe so long to express his thanks that he would never arrive at eulogy. Meetings held, 15 : papers read 28, published (Trans.) 22: average attendance, S7 + ^- Some of the discussions this year were of signal interest : those, especially, which followed the papers by Dr. Symons Eccles on the Physio- logical Effects of Massage, by Mr. Morris and Mr. Bennett on Rupture of the Bladder, by Dr. Ewart and Mr. Benham on a case of Empyema with Gangrene of the Lung, by Mr. Godlee and Mr. Parker on cases of Suppression of 53, BERNERS STREET, 1871-1889 173 Urine with Renal Calculi, and by Mr. Barker, Mr, Stan- more Bishop, and Mr. Malcolm, on the Surgery of the Intestines, and on the Condition and Management of the Intestines after Abdominal Section. Among other papers were (i) Cant on "Induration" in the Primary Lesion of Syphilis in Women ; notes founded on about 3300 cases. (2) Poore's Analysis of 93 further cases of Writers' Cramp and Impaired Writing Power ; making a total of 168 cases. (3) Haig on the relation of a certain form of Headache to the excretion of Uric Acid. (4) Finlay on Alcoholic Paralysis (Multiple Neuritis). (5) A. E. Garrod on the theory of the Nervous Origin of Rheumatoid Arthritis. (6) Hutchinson on a form of Inflammation of the Lips and Mouth, which sometimes ends fatally, and is usually attended by some Disease of the Skin. Also, Dr. Hebb's case of Actinomycosis ; the cases re- corded by Dr. Pringle and Mr, Morris, and by Dr. W. H. White and Mr. Pearce Gould, of the treatment of Aneurism by the introduction of Steel Wire ; and Mr. Bland Sutton's case of division of the third branch of the Fifth Nerve at the Foramen Ovale. Business of the year, (i) Sir Edward Sieveking was elected President. (2) The Marshall Hall Prize was awarded to Dr. Gaskell : and, at a Special Meeting of the Society, on May 25th, he gave an address " On the Rela- tions between the Function, Structure, Origin, and Dis- tribution of the Nerve-fibres which compose the Spinal and Cranial Nerves." (3) In June, the Council decided that the Proceedings should be printed hnmediately after each meeting, and should be sent post-free to every Fellow who should express a wish to receive them. This im- 174 53, BERNERS STREET, 1871-1889 mediate issue of the Proceedings was one of the first im- provements devised by Mr. MacAh'ster. (Trans. Ixxii., xcii.) (4) In July, a Fellow of the Society, resident in New Zealand, having left consulting practice for general practice, tendered to the Council his resignation of the Fellowship. The Council made haste to assure him that his resignation was unnecessary, and that they honoured his motives. Meetings held, 16: papers read, beside Dr. Gaskell's address, 25, published (Trans.) 24: average attendance, 40 + 7. The work of the year was mostly chirurgical : and some of the papers are among the classics of our literature. On Feb. 14th, Mr. Treves' paper was read, on Relapsing Typhlitis treated by Operation. On June 12th, Sir William Gowers and Mr. Horsley communicated to the Society their case of Tumour of the Spinal Cord, Operation, Re- covery. On Nov. 13th and Dec. nth, papers were read by Mr. Edmund Owen, Mr. Barker, and Mr. Bilton Pollard, on Arthrectomy, and on Primary Union after Ex- cision of the Hip-Joint for Tuberculous Disease. Many separate cases in surgery, of signal value, were reported during the year : among them. Sir Spencer Wells' case of Removal of the Spleen, Mr. Barker's two cases of Cerebral Abscess, Mr. Thomas Smith's case of Removal of a Foreign Body from the Left Bronchus, and Mr. Walsham's case of Intra-peritoneal Rupture of the Bladder. Among the medical papers, were those by Dr. Hale White on the Variations of the Thyroid Body, by Dr. C. T. Williams on the Treatment of Pulmonary Consumption by residence at High Altitudes, and by Dr. W. R. Smith on the ^Fitio- logy of Puerperal Fever. In fine, it was a good year's work : and, now that these Chronicles are come toward the end of this long period from 1834 to 1889, we may well doubt whether our Society, while it lives to itself alone, will ever surpass the level of its life at Bemers Street 53, BERNERS STREET, 1871-1889 175 Perhaps, like Tithonus, it asked and obtained from the Gods, a hundred years ago, the gift of immortality, but forgot to ask also for everlasting youth. Here, before we are done with Bemers Street, let us note the Reports for i888, which were read at the Annual General Meeting, March ist, 1889. (Proc. i. as. p. 81.) The number of Fellows was 769. The number of volumes in the Library was 31,320. The accounts for 1888 were as follows : — Income. Balance in Hand, Jan. I, 1888 Subscriptions, Admission Fees, Composition Fees, Fines Sale of Transac- tions and Pro- ceedings Contributions from Societies toward expenses of Rooms . Interest on In- vestments, etc. . £. s. D. 203. 17. II. 337- 17- 6. 65. 7- 6. 238. 19. 0. 59. II. 10. Expenditure. £■ s. D. House Rent, Taxes, etc. 59- 10. 3. Lighting and Heat- ing . 73- 12. 2. Repairs, etc. , 91. 3- 5- Expenses of Meet- ings . 19. 3- 10. Stationery, Post- age, etc. 50. 13. 4- Salariesand Wages 498. II. 8. Library . 352. 7- 10. Transactions and Proceedings 332. 19. I. Sundry Disbursements — Legal Expenses I. I. 0. Cost of Trans- ferring Stocks 2. 14. 6. Life Subscrip- tions invested 47- 5- 0. Petty Cash Pay- ments 3- 9- 5- Balance — Balance at Bank on Deposit 326. 13- 10. Subscriptions in hand 24. 17- 2. Petty Cash in hand 21. II. 3- ;fl905- 13- 9. ^^1905. 13. 9. 176 53, BERNERS STREET, 1871-1889 Stock Account. £■ s. D. Amount of Stock, Dec. 31, 1887. . 3040. 4. 4. Since purchased . 45. 11. g. £308^- 16. I. s. i>. Stock standing in names of Trus- tees, Dec. 31, Amount of Stock, Dec. 31, 1887. . Dividends for 1888, less Expenses : Expended in pur- chase of Stock, producing . £. s. D. 678. 17. 7. /■690. 9. o. 1888 . . . 3085. 16. I, ;C3o85. 16. I. 'all Fund. £■ Sold to produce s. D. amount of Prize 91. 2. 0. Stock standing in names of Trus- tees, Dec. 31, 1888 . . . 599. 7- 0. ;f690. 9. o. The increase of the Library, and of the journals in the reading-room, was become an urgent difficulty. In the Report of the President and Council, read March ist, 1890 (Trans. Ixxiii), we find it written as follows: — " It had for some time past been felt that the premises in Berners Street occupied by the Society since the year 1834 had become both inconvenient and inadequate. Every year there was increasing difficulty in placing the books of the constantly growing Library. The room used for the Society's meetings, the Council room, and the Committee rooms, all contained books ; and, as the meeting-room was the only place available for study, its furniture had to be re-arranged for every meeting that took place. The small reading-room was very crowded and uncom- fortable, and had no sufficient space for the current journals. Moreover, during recent years an increasingly large number of the Fellows of the Society had moved towards the west of London, so that the situation of the Society's house was in this relation far from central. "It had also become apparent that the state of the house necessitated a considerable expenditure upon repairs, 53, BERNERS STREET, 1871-1889 177 besides the alterations needful for providing for the books in a manner which was at the best but inconvenient and temporary, as well as expensive. "All these considerations pointed to the desirableness of seek- ing other and more commodious premises : in favour of which, was also the fact that the lease of the Berners Street house had only sixteen years to run, and was therefore becoming yearly less saleable." Thus the auspices were favourable ; and, at the beginning of 1889, the opportunity came. That is to say, it was made to come. The " assiduous enquiries of our Resident Librarian " found us our present home : he would not let the chance be lost, he held the whole thing together, under- stood it all, inspired everybody : and, as one reads and reads again this part of our Society's history, his name stands out clear among our benefactors past and present, whom in this Centenary Year we are especially bound to honour. 1889. That we may be free to contemplate the move from Berners Street to Hanover Square, let us first dismiss the other affairs of this year, (i) In January, the Council agreed, T/ia^ m view of the increased cost of the Transac- tions^ the Composition Fee for Country Fellows should be raised from 6 to 8 guineas. (2) In May, at the sugges- tion of Dr. Symes Thompson, the Council agreed, That a Scientific Committee be appointed for the purpose of in- vestigating questions of importance in reference to the Climatology and Balneology of Great Britain and Ireland^ and to report thereon to the Cojincil from time to time. (3) In June, the President brought before the Council the question of appointing a Committee on Suspended Anima- tion : and it was agreed TJiat the Secretaries should communicate with possible members of such a Committee, M 178 53, BERNERS STREET, 1871-1889 zat't/i the view of ascertaining if they would act. This revival was effected by Dr. Bowles' paper On the Resus- citation of the Apparently Drowned, read May 28th. (4) In July, in consequence of a letter from Dr. Lee, a Committee was appointed to enquire into the working of the system of Referees for papers. (5) In November, at a meeting of the Council, the question was raised whether a new series of the Transactions should be begun, to mark, as in 1835, the change of residence : Non placet. Meetings held, 15 : papers read, 24, published {Tt-ans.) 22 : average attendance 38 + 7'$. Among the papers, were (i) Papers by Herringham and Garrod on Chorea. (2) Arbuthnot Lane on Lateral Curvature. (3) Knowsley Thornton on 25 cases of Nephrectomy by Ab- dominal Section. (4) Roughton on Blood-Tumours of Bone. Also, many cases of importance : the case of Actinomy- cosis, by Dr. Powell, Mr. Godlee, Mr. H. H. Taylor, and Dr. Crookshank ; Dr. Radcliffe Crocker's case of Pem- phigus Vegetans, the third instance recorded in this country ; Mr. Godlee's case of Dermoid Cyst in the Chest ; Mr. Bennett's case of Division of Posterior Roots of Spinal Nerves ; the case of Gangrene of the Appendix recorded by Sir Dyce Duckworth and Mr. Langton ; Mr. Sutton's case of Ruptured Tubal Pregnancy ; and Mr. Mayo Rob- son's case of Cholecystenterostomy, the first of these opera- tions in this country. The first note, in the Minute-books, of the move to Hanover Square, is dated Feb. 20th, 1 899 : on which day a Special Meeting of Council was called, to consider the opportunity which now offered of securing New Premises in Hanover Square. At this meeting, a Committee was 53, BERNERS STREET, 1871-1889 179 appointed, to report on the title to the premises, and on the price asked for them ; and to provide a valuation, and a financial statement of the present and prospective liabilities and income of the Society. On Feb. 23rd, the Council decided to call a Special General Meeting, at eight days' notice. On Feb. 27th, the Committee reported to the Council, with much else, that the house might be had for ;^2 3,000 : and a resolution, met by a counter-resolution which was lost, was carried in favour of purchase. On March 4th, at the Special General Meeting, the Society approved this resolution, and authorized the Council to carry it into effect, and to appoint a Building Committee. On March nth, at a second Special General Meeting, the resolutions of March 4th were confirmed. The Building Committee, on the very first day of its legal existence, issued a circular to the Fellows, inviting immediate sub- scriptions to a Debenture Loan, that by payment of iJ" 1 0,000 immediate possession of the premises might be secured. Subscriptions to the amount of ^7500 were called up at once ; the further sum of ^3016 was realized by sale of investments; and on March 21st the contract was sealed, the ;^i 0,000 paid, and the deed done. It was quick work : one can feel, even now, under the stolid Minutes, the risk and excitement of the great venture. There came a time when the whole thing was on the edge of failure, and some kind of promise must be made without delay, or the chance of getting the house might be gone. And, at that crisis, Mr. Macnamara saved the position by saying outright that he would buy the property as a private investment sooner than let it be lost altogether. The great house had stood unoccupied for ten years. All that time, it had belonged to Lord Abercromby, who had bought it for about ;^24,ooo, but had not regularly occupied it, hoping to sell it at a large profit, and had even 180 53, BERNERS STREET, 1871-1889 refused an offer for it of £t^o,ooo. In i888, it had at last been sold, for a much less sum : and there had been talk then of building a Concert Hall over the garden behind the house. Beyond the long garden (which had been lent, now and again, for fashionable garden-parties) was a group of stables, etc., on a part of the Conduit Mead Estate, called Bering Yard, having an entrance into Bond Street. The house, and the larger anterior portion of the garden, were freehold : the rest of the garden, and the stables, etc., were held from the Corporation of the City, under a renewable lease, at a ground rent of £^. 15. o per annum. The remainder of this lease was only for 37 1 years : the Council therefore decided to obtain a new lease, and on June 19th agreed to accept from the City Lands Committee a lease for 80 years at £^0. On August 13th, they assigned a lease of the Berners Street house to Messrs. Phipps and Dawson, Electrical Engineers, at ;^450 a year. In October, the Medical Society of London offered the free use of its rooms to our Society, and to the Clinical and Pathological Societies, till the end of November. Our Council returned its cordial thanks for this liberal and courteous offer : but had no need to accept it. On October 22nd, our Society held its first meeting at Hanover Square. Present, 78 Fellows and 9 visitors. The President gave a short address of welcome ; and a paper was read, by Dr. Thomas Oliver, on Lead-poisoning. In October, also, the Building Committee reported to the Council thai Messrs. Nightingale's tender of £6840 for building-work had been accepted, and that the work had begun in July. That arrangements had been made for holding the first few meetings in the front Library room : and that the Pathological and Clinical Societies had courteously deferred their first meetings. That the Society had arranged to accommodate, as tenants, the Obstetrical,. 53, BERBERS STREET, 1871-1889 181 Microscopical, Gynaecological, Clinical, and Pathological Societies, the Quekett Club, and the Society for the Re- lief of Widows and Orphans of Medical Men ; and Mr. Ashdown in the basement, and Mr. Nickolls in the stables. These rentals, p/us ^450 rental from Bemers Street, would give a yearly income of ^^1437. 10. o: and some of the rooms would still be unlet. An Endowment Fund was instituted, with the gift of ;;^ioo from Dr. Quain ; and was increased by gifts from Mr. Hussey of Oxford and from our present President : and it was resolved in Council that the capital of the Fund should under no circumstances whatever be alienated. The members of the Building Committee were Mr. Timothy Holmes, Chairman, Dr. Cheadle, Dr. Gee, Dr. Hare, Dr. Isambard Owen, Mr. Alfred Willett, Mr. R. W. Parker, Mr. Warrington Haward, and Mr. Clinton Dent. The architect was Mr. Flockhart. The builders were under contract to finish the work by October 7th : but the Dock Strike, interfering with the delivery of iron-work, delayed them ; and there was the further delay of the usual " friction " with an adjoining householder. Because of these delays, the Library books, which should have been moved straight from Berners Street to Hanover Square, had to be warehoused for some months. Here, at the end of the life at Berners Street, these Chronicles must change their style. They are come, at last, so near to our own time, that they must no longer pretend to estimate, or to put in order of importance, the papers read before the Society. It is well, if they have given thus far no offence. It will suffice, henceforth, to record the affairs of each year, from 1 890 to this present year of our Centenary Festival. XI. 20, HANOVER SQUARE, 1890-1905, 1890. At the Annual General Meeting, the President and Council reported the progress of the building works, up to March, 1890. The large Meeting-Room, and the North Room, were finished. An agreement had been made with Messrs. Webb Miles, of Brook Street, that, if the Society would build workshops for them on the site of the stables in Bering Yard, they would rent them. Dr. Hare, at the Annual General Meeting, said, " It had actually been decided to let the leasehold stables at the back for £120, when Mr. MacAlister secured a tenant who, after some negotiation, agreed to pay the Society ^350 a year if they would build him new premises on the site at a cost of some £1 300 — that is to say, a net increase of ^230 was secured on a lease of sixty-seven years for an expenditure of ^^1300." The electric light, with dynamo and accumulator, had been installed on the premises : and the drainage had been com- pletely renewed. The number of tenants accommodated was increasing. The other chief affairs of the year were as follows, (i) In January, the Committee appointed to consider the system of reference of papers made their Report to the Council, recommending, with much else, that every paper (182) 20, HANOVER SQUARE. (As seen from the Garden.) 20, HANOVER SQUARE, 1890-1905 183 read before the Society should be published in the Trans- actions, unless there should be some very special reason against its publication. This recommendation was con- sidered at a Special Meeting of the Council, but was not adopted. (2) In January, it was resolved that the Library should be open from 2 to 7, instead of i to 6. It was proposed, also, that a room should be set apart for tea and coffee of an afternoon : but this question was postponed, for fear lest the Society should be made liable to rates as a Club. (3) In Februaiy, Sir Edward Sieveking gave to the Society the jewel which is worn by the President in office. (4) At the Annual General Meeting, Mr. Timothy Holmes was elected President, and was invested with the jewel, and received the silver master-key, Mr. MacAlister's gift to the Society. (5) In March, also, a Committee, appointed to consider whether any change should be made in the hour of the Council-meetings, reported to the Council that no change should be made in the hour of the ordinary monthly meetings — 7 or 7.30 — but that special meetings should be called for any press of business. (6) In May, the Council received an offer, from Dr. Charles West, to write a history of the Society, on the lines which have been followed in this Centenary volume. In June, this offer was declined. The Minutes do not say why it was not accepted. (7) In June, also, the Council unanimously agreed to give to Mr. MacAlister a token of their gratitude for what he had done for the Society during the move from Berners Street, and afterward. (8) In November, a Committee was appointed, of Mr. Henry Power, Dr. George Harley, Mr. Pick, Dr. Klein and Dr. Schafer, to investigate again the old subject of Suspended Animation, (9) In November, also, certain changes were made in the Standing Orders as to the method of ballotting for candidates. 184 20, HANOVER SQUARE, 18901905 Meetings held, 15: papers read i g, published (Trans.) 18: average attendance, 40*5 + 6. 1 891. It is not possible to review all the financial and admini- strative work of these first years at Hanover Square. The general management of the estate, the adjustment of its rents, the growth and development of the premises, must be studied in the Presidential Addresses, and in the Reports of Committees, published in our Transactions. It is a wonderful contrast, to the simplicity of Verulam Buildings, the two small rooms there, with the few books, and the press-bedstead stuck in a corner of one of the rooms, and the Clerk and his wife lodged in a gloomy little basement. We are become estate-holders : and the administration of our estate, which is the home of so many illustrious Societies and Associations, may not be described in one or two pages. An important Report from the Building Committee, amended and adopted by the Council, Feb. 5th, 1891, is published in our Transactions, vol. Ixxiv. From it, the following paragraphs are taken, to show how things stood about the beginning of 189 1. The building operations were nearly completed : the new lease of the leasehold part of the property could almost immediately be granted, and the time was approaching when the security for the Debenture Loan might be com- pleted, and the Debentures issued. The original scheme of Feb. 1889 had been far sur- passed. " It was soon found," says the Report, " that it would be greatly to the advantage of the Society to enlarge the original scheme in three important particulars." I. The house had been raised another storey, and the 20, HANOVER SQUARE, 1890-1905 185 old attic floor had been converted into good substantial rooms. This improvement, which cost about ^^"1400, enabled the Society to make ^^310 a year by letting the rooms on the second floor to Mr. Belcher and to the Royal Microscopical Society. 2. That the meeting-room might be kept free from books, the Library had been extended over a part of the garden. That the Pathological and Clinical Societies might have a separate room for the exhibition of patients or of specimens, the North Room had been built. These additions to the building-works, with all extras and altera- tions, had raised the sum payable to the contractor, Mr. Nightingale, to ^^"83 39 : which had all been paid, except £^0 ; and even against that ;f 30 a set-off might be shown. 3. The workshops for Messrs. Webb Miles had been built on the site of the stables in Bering's Yard. The cost of this building had been about ^^"1500: Mr. Webb Miles paid a rent of ;^350, on a long lease. The stables had let for only ;^ioo : they would have been rather a nuisance to the Society : and, when the workshops had been built in their place, there was still left space enough for an accumulator room. The house, at this time, accommodated as tenants sixteen Societies, Associations, or individuals, paying rents which amounted to ^1506. Total, including ;^450 from Messrs. Phipps and Dawson, for the rent of the Berners Street house, and ;^350 from Messrs. Webb Miles = ^2306. The rents from tenants, when our Society was at Berners Street, had been ;^242. The electric light had been introduced into the house, by a private installation. The portico was a-building, after some hesitation because of economy, and some delay because of the London County Council. To meet the increased expenses, the Building Com- 186 20, HANOVER SQUARE, 1890-1905 mittee recommended that the Society should authorise an addition, within the limit of £6ooo, to the amount of the original Debenture Loan, The members of the Committee of the Debenture-holders had already expressed their individual assent to this extension of the Loan ; and the Resident Librarian had already received applications for additional Debentures in excess of the sum required. The end of the Building Committee's Report is as follows : — - " When the few remaining additions to the building are completed, and the accounts are settled, the functions of the Building Committee will have ceased. Their labours have not been light, for, down to the end of the year 1 890, seventy-eight meetings have been held ; but they have been most interesting, and, the Committee hope, have resulted in lasting advantage to the Societ}'. " The complicated transactions confided to the Committee could not have been successfully conducted without efficient professional assistance ; and it would be an unpardonable negligence not to record the deep debt of gratitude which the Society owes to Mr. William Flockhart, the architect, under whose advice the buildings have been completed, and to Mr. Thomas Beaumont, the solicitor, by whom the numerous, and in some cases difficult, legal questions have been settled to the best advantage of the Society. The Council is already aware that in every detail of the Com- mittee's work, from the least to the greatest, the zeal, energy, and ability of Mr. MacAlister, the Resident Lib- rarian, have rendered services which are simply invaluable." This Report from the Building Committee was con- sidered and adopted at a Special General Meeting, on Feb. i8th, 1 891 : and the Council were empowered to raise the additional sum of i^6ooo. The Endowment Fund, at this time, was increased to 20, HANOVER SQUARE, 1890-1905 187 the sum of ^374 by the gift of ;^I24 from Mr. E. U. Berry. At this time, also, the presidential table was presented to the Society by Mr. Timothy Holmes. On June 23rd, a Conversazione was held in the Society's house, at a cost of ;^i 50. About 3000 Fellows and guests were present : it had been intended to make use of the Square gardens, but this adventurous plan was frustrated by bad weather. In November, it was resolved by the Council that the radius of residence should be 1 5 miles from Hanover Square. In November, also, certain changes were made in the scale of composition-fees. Meetings held, 16 : papers read 24, published (Trans.) 20 : average attendance, 48 + 6. Two of the discussions, this year, are of historical interest ; the one, on Dr. Pye Smith's paper on Venesection, the other, on Mr. Watson Cheyne's paper on Tuberculin. (Proc. iii. n.s. pp. 48, 124.) 1892. On Feb. 29th, the day before the Annual General Meet- ing, our Society held its first House-dinner; and 100 Fellows attended. At the Annual General Meeting, Sir Andrew Clark was elected President. The final Report of the Building Committee, dated Jan, 27th, was read and adopted. It stated that two more tenants, the Huguenot Society and the Society of Medical Officers of Health, had been accommodated ; and that the Congress of Hygiene had met at our Society's House. The Royal Microscopical Society had registered itself under the Literary and Scientific Societies Act, and had thus been exempt from rates, which under the lease would have 188 20, HANOVER SQUARE, 1890-1905 been paid by our Society. The Building Committee was now dissolved, and the House Committee was instituted, for the conduct of business not connected with the scien- tific work of the Society. On Feb. 9th, loyal addresses were sent, in the name of the Society, on the occasion of the death of H.R.H. the Duke of Clarence. In May, the Association of Fellows of the Royal Col- lege of Surgeons asked leave to hold its annual meeting at the Society's house : Non placet. In June, the Library hours were fixed at 1.30-6.30. Among the additions to the Library, about this time, were 90 volumes of pamphlets on Diseases of the Lungs, given, through Dr. Coupland, by the executors of Dr. Wilson Fox ; the " Encyclopaedia Brittanica," given by Sir Andrew Clark ; and the earlier volumes of the " Dictionary of National Biography," given by Dr. Tooth. Meetings held, 15 : papers read 23, published {Trans.) 20 : average attendance, 41+4. 1893. At the Annual General Meeting this year, the Marshall Hall Prize was awarded to Dr. Gowers. Sir Andrew Clark's Presidential Address should be read by all Fellows of our Society, for his sake. When November came, he was dying ; and, on November 6th, he died, the only President of our Society who died during his time of office. The Senior Medical Vice-President, Dr. Church, acted as President till March, 1894. Sir Andrew Clark, up to the time of his last illness, was working hard to bring about the unity of the Medical Societies of London. He did not believe that any complete fusion or absorption of them in one Society was possible : but he did believe 20, HANOVER SQUARE, 1890-1905 189 that federation was possible. And, in his Presidential address, he spoke as follows : — " The more this subject has recurred to my thoughts, the more regret I have felt that the scheme for the organ- isation of a Royal Academy of Medicine — calculated to bring together for their common help all the investigators in the various departments of medicine ; to economise the expenses of their technical work ; to provide a common centre for the collection, collation, comparison, and criti- cism of their respective researches ; to constitute a body sufficiently representative and sufficiently powerful to de- fend the rights and promote the just interests of the medical profession ; and to create a fountain of honour for the reward of all who distinguish themselves in the science or art of physic — should be finally abandoned. And this regret becomes the more keen when a study of the histories of the medical academies of other countries make it plain that such an abandonment is unnecessary ; for I have myself sufficient faith in the practical wisdom and good feeling of the members of the metropolitan medical societies to believe that all the grave difficulties standing in the way of the organisation of a great academy of medicine and surgery might, through judicious negotia- tion, be overcome by substituting as the motive power the working idea of federation for the unworkable idea of fusion. By working on the lines of federation each society might continue to preserve its automy intact, and no con- ditions would be imposed upon it beyond those essential to the organisation of the institute and the maintenance of its solidarity. Every society would thus possess and exercise a twofold life, — an individual life and a corporate life ; and whilst the one would not interfere with the other, both would co-operate in the building-up of a great society which would adequately represent the 190 20, HANOVER SQUARE, 1890-1905 growing importance, power, and dignity of the medical profession. " There is not the time, and this is not the occasion, to propound in detail any scheme of federation. To-day I content myself with this narrow notice of the subject, but at no distant date I hope to have the opportunity of sug- gesting for serious consideration the outlines of a plan for the creation by federation, of a Royal Academy of Medi- cine and Surgery." Except the death of Sir Andrew Clark, no great events marked this year. The question arose, in the early part of the year, whether the Society, from a financial point of view, was so prosperous as it appeared : a Committee of Enquiry was appointed ; and for the sake of economy, it was proposed that the Proceedings should be left off, and that the Librarian should not reside in the Society's house : but these proposals were not carried into effect. The number of the Society's tenants was increased, though the Society for the Relief of the Widows and Orphans of Medical Men ceased to be among them. Meetings held, 15 : papers read 21, published (Trans.) 19: average attendance 39 + 3. 1894. At the Annual General Meeting, Mr. Hutchinson was elected President. In May, the Council had to face this difficulty, that there was a dearth of papers : and a Committee was appointed, to report what should be done. In July, their Report was presented ; in October, it was modified and adopted, and the necessary changes were made in the Bye-laws. The rules recommended by the Committee were in due time confirmed by the Society. They were as follows : — 20, HANOVER SQUARE, 1890-1905 191 1. Papers accepted for reading are thereby accepted for publication — either in the Transactions or in the Proceed- ings, as may be determined by the Council. 2. Papers will be printed before being read, and be ob- tainable (in proof) on application at the Society's rooms. 3. Fellows may read their own papers. 4. The Transactions are to be published in three parts (in paper covers) during the year, vts., on February 1st, May 1st, and August ist, as well as annually (bound as heretofore) ; and Fellows are free to choose in which form they will receive them. 5. Papers are to be issued separately for sale (by the Society only) as early as possible after the issue of the part, at a price to be affixed to each. 6. Some of the ordinary meetings are to be devoted to discussions and demonstrations on special subjects, to be introduced by a short paper or papers by Fellows of the Society, or others, at the request of the Council. Here, in the second of these new rules, our Society did itself more harm than good. It had hoped, by this rule, to enlarge and strengthen its meetings. " 1 may suggest," said the President, at the next Annual General Meeting, *' that it is possible, under this plan, that papers may but seldom be read in full, the author being requested rather to explain his salient points, and thus save the time of the meeting and the patience of the audience. In this way much more time will be secured for the discussion, and those who take part in it will have had better opportunity for preparation. Surely it is in the discussion that the principal advantage of a Society's meeting over mere publication consists." But this rule enables every one of us to read, even before the meeting, every word of the paper. It is " something to read," in the carriage, or on the underground railway, 192 20, HANOVER SQUARE, 1890-1905 or at homejiof an evening : there is no need, henceforth^ to hurry over dinner, to face the weather again, or to sit through the formalities of a meeting : it is so easy for us^ and so soon done, to read what the author is going to say> and decide that we have had a case like that, or that we shall never have a case like that ; and then, having read the paper in a few minutes, to keep it for reference, and to read the subsequent discussion, at our leisure, in the medical journals. Beyond all doubt, among the causes why some of our meetings now are so ill-attended, are to be reckoned the influences of this too comfortable rule^ and the lateness of the usual hour for dinner : they may seem trivial, but they are always at work against our Society. No other business of importance came this year before the Council. The necessary changes were made in the Bye-laws, to meet the new rules : the subscription to Lewis' circulating library was increased to ;^i 5 : and, in November, the Council sanctioned the appointment, as a tentative measure, of a pupil-assistant in the Library. Meetings held during the year, 15: papers read, 23, published (Trans.) 21 : average attendance, S7 + 6. A Special General Meeting was held on July 3rd, to hear and discuss a communication from Lt.-Col. Lawrie on the results of the Hyderabad Chloroform Commission. If we except this crowded meeting on July 3rd, the average attendance was 35*5 + 4. 1895. In February, by the death of Mr. Hulke, the office of Senior Honorary Librarian fell vacant ; and Mr. Godlee was appointed. In May, by the death of Mr. Bostock, the office of Senior Treasurer fell vacant ; and Mr. Warrington 20, HANOVER SQUARE, 1890-)905 193 Haward was appointed. This year also, by the deaths of Huxley and of Pasteur, our Society lost two of the greatest of its Honorary Fellows. And no President of our Society, in his Presidential Addresses, has ever surpassed that phrase in Mr. Hutchinson's obituary notice of Huxley, "It may be said with truth that no man more definitely /I'ved into the very structure of the century than he." Mr. Archibald Clarke was appointed Sub-Librarian this year : for whose help and courtesy so many of us are grateful : Floreat. At the Annual General Meeting, the President alluded to the possibility of union between the Societies meeting at Hanover Square, and was opposed to it : — " The affairs of the Pathological, the Clinical, and the Obstetrical Societies are managed better by their own councils with their own responsible officers than they would be if they were merely branches of a larger body. More zeal accrues to each, and better work and more of it is done on their present basis than would be if amalga- mated. So far as accommodation under the same roof goes, the amalgamation is already effected, and in reference to the expense of publishing Transactions it is very doubt- ful whether anything could be gained. As regards the constitution of an Academy of Medicine, which would have other functions than those which our Society now exercises, it may, I think, be doubted whether such aspirations are wise." In preference to any such union, he expressed his hope that the new rules (1894) would restore strength to the Society's meetings ; and that a way might be found " to devise some affiliation scheme which should enable the members of sister institutions to have access to our rooms when visiting London, and to attend our meetings on equal footing with ourselves." N 194 20, HANOVER SQUARE, 1890-1905 In July, the Committee on the Climatology and Balneo- logy of Great Britain and Ireland published their first Report, a goodly volume, which had cost them years of work. Toward the end of the year, the question arose whether the Council could vote a subscription to the Huxley Me- morial Fund. Mindful of the trouble that had arisen over the Harvey Memorial Fund, the Council answered that they had no power, under the Charter, to vote money for such a purpose. Meetings held, 15 : papers read 10, all of which were published in the Transactions : average attendance, 39 + 9. But these figures need some explanation. The small number of papers was due to two causes, (i) The dis- cussion was, on two occasions, adjourned to the next meeting. Thus four meetings were spent over two papers, Dr. Semon's paper on Acute Septic Inflammations of the Throat, and the paper by Dr. Hewitt and Mr. Sheild on Posture in its relation to Surgical Operations under Anaes- thesia. (2) Two special debates, arranged by the Council through a standing Committee, were held, and each of them occupied two meetings. One of them, opened by the President, was On Affections of the Nervous System occurring in the early {secondary) stages of Syphilis, The other, opened by the President, Dr. Washbourn, Dr. Kingston Fowler, Dr. Phineas Abraham, and Mr. Ernest Lane, was On the Possibilities as to the Latency of Para- sitic Germs or Specific Poisons in Animal Tissues, as iii Hydrophobia, Erysipelas, Syphilis, Leprosy, Ringworm, Tuberculosis, etc. These two debates were largely attended, and no wonder. If we exclude them from our calculations, the average attendance for the year was not 39 + 9, but 29 + 5*5. 20, HANOVER SQUARE, 1890-1905 195 1896. Dr. Dickinson was elected President this year. Many affairs came before the Council, and eighteen Council-meetings were held. The most important business of the year was the replacing of the original 4 per cent. Debenture Loan by a new Loan at 3 per cent. This change was first proposed by Mr. MacAlister, in March, in a letter to the House Committee. It was brought before the Council, on May 19th, by the Treasurers. A Committee of the President, the Senior Treasurer, and the Chairman of the House Committee, negotiated with the original debenture-holders, and with other Fellows willing to take up the new bonds. A valuation was made of the Society's premises and property : and the premises alone, without their contents, were valued at ;^5i,i5o. To pay off the original loan, the sum of ^^3 5,800 was required : but, as many of the debenture-holders were willing to accept the lower rate of interest, it was only necessary to raise ;^ii,i50 to pay off those who were not. The new debentures were issued on Nov. 23 ; and by Nov. 30 the conversion of the loan was completed. This change brought to the Society a profit of ;^358 a year. Other affairs of the year, (i) In June, a Committee was appointed to revise the Bye-laws and Standing Orders of the Society. These are printed in the Transactions, vol. Ixxxi. (2) Leave was given to Dr. Elkind to trans- late into German the report of the debate on Latency of Diseases. (3) In October, the Pathological Society cele- brated its Jubilee. (4) On Oct. 28, our Society held a dinner, at the Hotel Cecil, which was attended by 137 Fellows and guests. Honorary Fellows were elected — Lord Kelvin, Czerny, 196 20, HANOVER SQUARE, 1890-1905 Erb, von Bergmann, Fournier, Gerhardt, Koch, Laveran, Pierre Marie, Kocher, Weir Mitchell, and Mirza Ali. Meetings held, 15 : papers read 23, published (Trans.) 17 : average attendance, 35 + 6. In February, there was a debate, opened by Dr. Marshall and Dr. Thin, On The Parasite of Malaria. The debate was adjourned : and both meetings were well attended. If we exclude this debate from our calculations, the average attendance for the year was 32*5 + 4. 1897. \ No business of great importance occurred during this year, (i) A loyal address, on the occasion of the Second Jubilee, was presented to Her Majesty the Queen : and, at the meeting on June 1 1 th, our Society approved the pro- posal, made by the Royal Society, that a Victoria Research Fund should be established for the encouragement of research in all branches of science. (2) In May, the Council reduced the radius of " resident Fellows," making it 7 miles from the Society's house. (3) In June, they considered a plan for building two rooms, for the Odonto- logical Society, over the North Room : Non placet. (4) In November, they considered a plan for leasing, to that Society, the rooms occupied by the Resident Librarian : Non placet. (5) In December, Dr. R. Barnes presented to the Society his two debentures, each for ;^ioo. Meetings held, 15 : papers read 22, published {Trans.) 1 5 : average attendance, 29'5 + 4. In December, two meetings were given to a debate On the Prevention of Enteric Fever, opened by Dr. Poore. If we except this debate, the average attendance was 24 + 3. 1898. Mr. Bryant was elected President this year. The Council were involved, all this year and part of the next» 2C. Hanover Square. Looking westward towards Jleetiug Room. 20, HANOVER SQUARE, 1890-1905 197 in a series of small troubles. There was a tenant who could not stay and would not go, a dispute over a parti- wall, and a battle royal with a neighbour over Bering Yard. Innumerable pages of correspondence with solici- tors occupy the Council-Minutes : it was a weary time of disputation over difficulties which had nothing to do with the proper work of our Society, and brought no great advantage to anybody. Other affairs of the year, (i) The Library hours were extended to their present generous length, ii to 6*30. (2) The House Committee was made a Committee of the Council. (3) On Feb. 17th, the Society held a Dinner, at which 88 Fellows and guests were present. Meetings held, 15 : papers read 16, published (Trans.) 14: average attendance, 27+5. The debate on the Pre- vention of Enteric Fever, which had occupied the two last meetings of 1 897, was finished at the first meeting of 1 898. The next three meetings were occupied over the discussion of Mr. Sheild's paper on Latency and Freedom from Recurrence after operations for reputed Carcinoma of the Breast. The attendance at these three meetings was 29 + 3' 43 + 7) arid 34 -F 7 : and these figures seem to be evidence, that the printing of a paper before it is read tends rather to diminish than to increase the attendance at our meetings. 1899. At the Annual General Meeting, the Marshall Hall Prize was awarded to Dr. Sherrington : and, on May 23rd, he gave an Address on " The Spinal Animal". In November, the Council received from Mr. Gant the generous promise of a large bequest, to be spent either on the Library or on the appointment of Lecturers. On November i8th, the Society held a dinner at the 198 20, HANOVER SQUARE, 1890-1905 Whitehall Rooms, at which 1 24 Fellows and guests were present. Other business of the year, (i) In March, the Trustees for the Debenture-holders requested the Council to con- sider whether any steps should be taken to obtain a renewal of the lease of 53, Berners Street. (2) In April, the Council appointed a Sub-committee to consider and report upon a proposal to constitute one or more sections of the Society, for the study of special subjects. (3) In October, there was again a dearth of papers ; and a Com- mittee was appointed to consider the best mode of securing suitable material for the meetings of the Society. Meetings held, 14: papers read 16, published (Trans.) 14 : average attendance 28 + 6. The last three meetings of the year were given to a debate, opened by Dr. Kings- ton Fowler, On the Open- Air Treatment of Tuberculosis. If we exclude from our calculations the attendances at this special debate, the average attendance for 1 899 was 21+3. 1900. Dr. Pavy was elected President this year. In March, a Committee was again appointed to consider how to secure a better supply of material for the meetings. They recommended (i) That the issue of the Proceedings as a separate publication should be discontinued, (2) That every paper read before the Society should be published in the Transactions. (3) That a report of the discussion on a paper should be published in the Transac- tions, after it had been considered by the Council. (4) That, after a paper had been read before the Society, the author might publish it in the scientific or medical periodicals, provided that the periodicals made the usual acknowledgment to the Society. 20, HANOVER SQUARE, 1890-1905 199 These recommendations were adopted by the Council ; and the necessary changes in the Bye-laws and Standing Orders were confirmed by the Society at a Special General Meeting in June. Thus, five years ago, our Society de- stroyed the last vestiges of that ancient notion, that the facts of science and practice may be regarded, even for a few months only, as private property. Henceforth, every- body was free to publish his paper, that same week, in the medical journals. And these new rules were more than a mere expression of belief that no Council, no Society, has the right to stand between a man and his work ; they were, also, the recognition of the rights of the press, and of the debt that our Society always owes to the journals. Other business, in 1900, was as follows. (1) At the Annual General Meeting, an Interim Report was pre- sented from the Committee on Suspended Animation. (2) The proposal by the Royal Society, of an International Catalogue of Scientific Literature, was approved at a Council meeting in June ; and Dr. Norman Moore, Dr. Brodie, and Mr. Shattock were appointed to assist in pre- paring the Catalogue of Experimental Pathology and Animal Bacteriology. (3) In July, the Council decided to build a room over the North Room, for the use of the Odontological Society, (4) In December, they decided to apply for a renewal of the lease of the Berners Street house. (5) In December, also, the printing of abstracts of papers was discontinued, for greater economy. Meetings held, 13 ; papers read, 19. At the two meetings in May, Addresses were given by Mr. Treves, Mr. Dent, and Sir William MacCormac, " On the Wounded in the present War." Never has our Society held two such meetings. At the first, 351 Fellows and visitors; at the second, 150. Early in the year, two meetings were given to the reading 200 20, HANOVER SQUARE, 1890-1905 and discussion of papers by Mr. Ballance, Sir William Dalby, and Mr. Cumberbatch, on the Complete Mastoid Operation. At the last meeting of the year, papers were read by Dr. Manson, and by Dr. Sambon and Dr. Low, on the Mosquito Theory of Malaria, and a demonstration was given by Dr. Rees. Apart from the two stupendous meetings in May, the average attendance was 24 + 6" 5. 1901. On the death of Her Majesty Queen Victoria, meetings of the Council and of the Society were adjourned, and a loyal address of condolence to His Majesty the King was presented by a deputation from the Society. In March, His Majesty became our Patron. Certain changes, made this year in the administration of the Society's affairs, are described in the 1902 Report of the Council. "In view of the termination, in 1904, of the Berners Street lease, which produces a profit rental of about £43Sy and of the fact that the income of the Society would then be insufficient, without interference with the vigorous working of the Society, to meet the annually increasing expenditure and the repayment of the debentures, the Council felt impelled to take into serious consideration the utilisation of other resources. They came to the conclusion that the best and, as it appeared, the only adequate means of increasing the income of the Society, to meet the prospective loss of rent, was to let off the rooms hitherto occupied by the Resident Librarian." Moreover, it had become impossible for one man to be responsible both for the business affairs of our Society and for the Library. Mr. MacAlister, therefore, was appointed Secretary and Consulting Librarian ; and Mr. Clarke, Librarian. And the Bye-laws were altered in accordance with these changes. 20, HANOVER SQUARE, 1890-1905 201 In May, the Committee on the Climatology and Balne- ology of Great Britain and Ireland presented their second Report to the Council — a second volume, full of hard work ; and the Council resolved that looo copies should be printed. In July, congratulations were sent to Prof. Virchow on his 8oth birthday. In August, a new lease was signed with the Odontological Society. In December, the Council resolved to install a lift in the Society's house. Meetings held, I2. (The meeting of Jan. 22nd was adjourned, and a Special Meeting was held for the Address of condolence because of the death of H.M. Queen Victoria.) On March 12th, a discussion On Ivi- viunity was opened by Dr. Sims Woodhead : and, seeing the list of the speakers, one can only marvel that the debate was so ill-attended. At the last meeting of the year, Dr. Monckton Copeman gave an Address On Modern Methods of Vaccination and their Scientific Basis. The average attendance for the year was 22 + 5. 1902. Mr. Alfred Willett was elected President this year. Other events of the year were as follows, (i) In February, the Society held the usual biennial dinner. (2) In March, it received, from an anonymous donor, not a member of our profession, the gift of the Epidiascope. (3) Leases were signed with the Optical Society, the Society of Psychical Research, and the Irish Literary Society. (4) The Laryngological Society entered into an agree- ment whereby its Library should be under the care of our Society. (5) In December, a Sub-committee reported to the Council in favour of the institution of the "Service Fellowship." Meetings held, 15: papers read, 13. The first two 202 20, HANOVER SQUARE, 1890-1905 meetings of the year were given to the adjourned discus- sion on Dr. Monckton Copeman's Address, Average attendance during the year, 215 + 7. 1903. At the Annual General Meeting, the Marshall Hall Prize was awarded to Dr. Head. On June 9th, at a Special Meeting, the " Service Fellow- ship " was instituted, whereby Medical Officers of the Navy^ Army, and Indian Medical Services, on active service, are admitted to the Society on the same terms as Non-resident Fellows, but pay no annual contribution for any complete Society's year passed outside the United Kingdom, pro- vided that due notice has been given to the Society. Nor is it necessary that their nomination-papers should be signed by three Fellows having personal knowledge of them : it is enough that they be signed by one Fellow having personal knowledge, and two Fellows who are Members of Council. During the year, our Bye-laws and Standing Orders were carefully revised : and were printed in the Trans- actions, vol. Ixxxvi. " For this most important work," as the President said, " requiring a very thorough knowledge of the Society's inner life, we are indebted to Mr. Dent more than to any other individual." In February, by the bequest of Mr, E, U, Berry, our Society received the sum of ;i^300. By the help of this gift, the new Card Catalogue of the Library was set in hand. Meetings held, 15 : papers read, 17, On May 26, Prof. Schafer communicated to the Society the Report of the Committee on Suspended Animation. On Dec. 8th, his paper was read, on a simple and efficient method of per- 20, HANOVER SQUARE, 1890-1905 20S forming Artificial Respiration in the Human Subject, especially in cases of Drowning. The average attendance for the year was 20 + 6. If we omit the two meetings in May, it was 18 + 3. 1904. Sir Richard Douglas Powell was elected President this year. Doniine salvuin fac Prasideui nostrwn. Even in 1903, a beginning had been made of the plans for our Centenary Festival. On March 9th, 1904, a Centenary Committee was appointed. Other business of the year, (i) In April, a Sub-committee was appointed to consider what steps should he taken to increase the attendance at our ordinary meetings. (2) By the bequest of Dr. George Thin, our Society received the gift of ^100. (3) Tablets of brass were placed in our Meeting-room, in- scribed with the names of the Marshall Hall Prizemen, and of the benefactors of our Society. (4) With the end of this year, came the end of the Berners Street lease. Meetings held, i 5 : papers read, 25 : average attendance, 1 8*5 + 7. Two evenings were given to a debate, introduced by Dr. Hewitt, Dr. Waller, Dr. Levy, Dr. Edgar Willett, and Mr. Collingwood, On methods of inducing Chloroform- Anaesthesia. If we exclude this discussion, the average attendance was 18 + 4. From 1890 to 1904, the average attendance was as follows : — Fellows Visitors 1890 . . 40-5 6 I89I . . . . 48 6 1892 . 41 4 1893 . . . 39 3 1894 . • 35'5 4 1895 . . . . 29 5-5 204 20, HANOVER SQUARE, 1890-1905 ellows. Visitors. 32 4 24 3 27 5 21 3 24 6-5 22 5 21-5 7 i8 3 i8 4 1896 1897 1898 1899 1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 From these figures, the special discussions are excluded : for we want to see the one sign of old age in our Society, the falling-off of the attendances at those meetings where no special attempt has been made to bring together a large number of Fellows and visitors. Our Society cannot live on full-dress debates, and nothing else. That these greater occasions attract greater audiences, was pleasantly proved, in this our Centenary Year, by the well-attended debate, which occupied three meetings, on Sir Frederick Treves' Address on the Subsequent Course and Later History of Cases of Appendicitis after Operation. Here, these Chronicles end, with the record of that goodly debate, and with the list of our new Honorary Fellows : — H.R.H. The Prince of Wales Lord Lister Lord Rayleigh Sir William Ramsay Sir Samuel Wilks Sir William Gairdner Dr. Gaskell Dr. Robert Barnes Professor Nothnagel Professor Welch Professor Marchiafava Professor Pavloff Professor Kitasato Professor Bohr Professor Ramon y Cajal Floreant. 20, HANOVER SQUARE, 1890-1905 205 At the Annual General Meeting this year, the President commended to our Society that plan of Union between Medical Societies in London, which has been the dream of so many of his predecessors. And it was agreed, on a resolution moved by Sir Thomas Smith, seconded by Mr. Goodsall, that our Council should arrange a Conference. On April loth, at the Royal College of Physicians, a general meeting of the Societies was held. Sir William Church, who had called the meeting, presided over it : and more than 150 members of Societies were present. It was moved by Sir Frederick Treves, seconded by Sir Thomas Smith, and agreed. That in the opinion of this meeting, convened by the President of the Royal College of Physicians, and composed of Fellows and Members of the Medical Societies of London, it is highly desirable that an effort should be made to unite the principal Societies into a new Body, to be known as the Royal Society of Medicine. A Committee was appointed, with Dr. Latham as Secretary. And it was agreed, on a resolution moved by Dr. Fawcett, seconded by Mr. Pendlebury, That a general meeting of the Societies concerned be con- vened, if possible, in July next, to receive the report of the Committee. Thus our Centenary Festival comes, as it ought, while we are waiting to see what will happen during the next few months. It is Prophets that we want, not Chronicles. A hundred years ago, our Society began in schism from that Society with which it now desires to be at unity. Old age, if it be here at last, is dealing with us very gently ; there is no sign that we are near the end of our time, save that our ordinary meetings are ill-attended : and this enfeeblement of our meetings is partly due to acci- 206 20, HANOVER SQUARE, 1890-1905 dental influences — the lateness of the modern dinner-hour, and the bad rule of printing papers before they are read. It is a gracious and happy old age, with a clear conscience. And some of us think that our Society, if it could be sure that it would thereby promote the advancement of the whole profession, is not unwilling, now, to say its A^unc Diniittis : looking forward, not to extinction, but to unity in that new Royal Society of Medicine which it has often seen as in a vision. THE PRESIDENTS OF THE ROYAL MEDICAL AND CHIRURGICAL SOCIETY. The Society since its foundation as the Medico-Chirurgical Society in 1805 has had fifty presidents. The first four were physicians, and were succeeded by a surgeon, and since his time a physician and a surgeon have been alter- nately elected. 1.-1805. The first president was William Saunders, a Doctor of Medicine of Edinburgh, a Fellow of the College of Physicians of London, and physician to Guy's Hospital. He took his degree at the time of the controversy on the nature of the Endemial Colic of Devonshire which arose upon the observations of Sir George Baker, who showed that the disease existed where cider was made in leaden vats and was absent where the same liquor was made in wooden vats, and thus established the conclusion that the local disease had a preventible cause, and so led to its prevention as well as to a great increase of knowledge of the poisonous effects of lead. A great many pamphlets were written on the subject, and Dr. Saunders, who had learned all the chemistry of the time at Edinburgh, defended the views of Baker in " A Letter to Dr. Baker on the Endemial Colic of Devon- shire" (1767) : and *' An Answer to Geach and Alcock on the Endemial Colic of Devonshire " (1768). (207) 208 THE PRESIDENTS OF THE The discussion established the soundness of the conclu- sions of Baker ; they were universally accepted, and cases of disease due to lead poisoning were greatly diminished in number at once, while further diminution has been the result of continued observation in the same direction. Dr. Saunders, who had worked at some of the chemical experiments of Baker, became a friend of that learned and generous physician, who helped his progress in his profes- sion in several ways. He was, on Baker's recommendation, elected physician to Guy's Hospital in 1770, and on his nomination, Baker being then President, was elected a fellow of the College of Physicians in 1790. Sir George Baker lived till 1809, so that he had the gratification of knowing of the election as President of the new Medical and Chirurgical Society of the able physician whom he had encouraged and aided at the beginning of his career in London. It is interesting to consider how our first president is thus connected with one of the greatest periods of English literature and English science. Sir George Baker was famous at Eton for his classical attainments, and came to King's College, Cambridge, on the very day of the funeral of Richard Bentley, the greatest of English scholars and the friend of Sir Isaac Newton. There, said some of the learned men of Cambridge, stands a young man who may in the University continue the glory which Bentley has given it. The prediction was not fulfilled. Baker aban- doned the critical study of Greek and Latin for the wider field of physic, though by helping Richard Porson to enter and to remain at the University he had a share in the production of a second classical luminary at Cambridge. It was the same generosity, a characteristic of his nature throughout life, which led him to do all he could to help the professional advancement of Dr. William Saunders: ROYAL MEDICAL AND CHIRURGICAL SOCIETY 209 and it is pleasant thus to connect, by never so slight a thread, our first president with the age of Bentley and of Newton. Dr. Saunders was born at Banff, where his father was a physician, in 1743, and died at Enfield, after a retirement from practice of about three years, in 18 17. He had a large practice in the City of London, lectured on medicine at Guy's Hospital, and wrote treatises on the therapeutic use of antimony (1773), on the effect of mephitic acid as a solvent of calculi (1777), on the value of red Peruvian bark (1782), on diseases of the liver (1793), on the chief mineral waters (1800), and on the hepatitis of India (1809). His lectures on medicine are lucid and well arranged. A single passage will illustrate the difference between the general view of the subject taken at the time of the foundation of this Society and that pre- valent at its centenary : — " Many diseases which arise from specific contagions, as the small-pox, measles, etc., have a regular succession of symptoms and fixed periods of action : but to this there are so many exceptions and the progress of symptoms is so liable to interruption that we cannot lay down any precise rule, nor depend always on our simple plan of operations. " Hippocrates and many other learned physicians have thought that critical days or periods might be accurately marked, from their regular and periodical returns, especi- ally in acute diseases and even in the fevers of our own country. The critical days of continued fevers, are the 3rd, 5th, 7th, 9th, nth, 14th, 17th, and 20th. The regular course of nature may be interrupted, accelerated, or retarded by various circumstances in the animal economy, as well as by injudicious practice." ^ ^MS. notes of his lectures made by James Perchard Tupper in 1795. In the library of the Society. O 210 THE PRESIDENTS OF THE Dr. Saunders' portrait hangs in the entrance hall of the Royal College of Physicians. II.— 1808. Matthew Baillie was the second President of the Society, and his is undoubtedly the greatest name in the list of the physicians who have filled the chair. His "Morbid Anatomy of Diseases" published in 1795 is one of the great books of English medicine, and though larger collections of facts have since been made, the ex- cellence of its method entitles it to a place among those books which no real student of medicine will leave unread. The Sepulchretum of Bonetus and other collections of post-mortem observations had long been before the medical world, and the justly celebrated work of Morgagni, " De Sedibus et Causis Morborum," contained histories of cases followed by accounts of the anatomical conditions found in the patients after death, but Baillie was the first medical writer to treat morbid anatomy as a subject by itself. He describes, almost entirely from his own observations, the morbid appearances found in each organ of the body, and since he gives exact descriptions of what he saw, most of his descriptions remain of value in spite of the changes of pathological explanation which have taken place since his time. He was the first to demonstrate the true nature of the large branching post-mortem clots found in the heart, and before his time known as " polypi of the heart," and he was also the first to distinguish common renal cysts on the surface of the kidney from hydatid cysts. In his chapter on " common tubercle of the liver " he shows that he had accurately defined cirrhosis of the liver, which up to his time had been classed with scirrhus tumours. ROYAL MEDICAL AND CHIRURGICAL SOCIETY 211 " One of the most common diseases in the liver, is the formation of tubercles in its substance. This disease is hardly ever met with in very young persons, but frequently takes place in persons of middle or advanced age : it is like- wise more common in men than women. It is more apt to occur in those who have been accustomed to drink spirituous liquors, but it will likewise frequently take place in persons who have not indulged in this bad habit, and who have lived with general temperance. " The tubercles which are formed in this disease occupy generally the whole mass of the liver, are placed very near each other, and are of a rounded shape. They give an appearance everywhere of irregularity to its surface. When cut into, they are found to consist of a brownish or yellowish white solid matter. They are sometimes of a very small size, so as not to be larger than the heads of large pins ; but most frequently they are as large as small hazel nuts, and many of them are sometimes larger. When the liver is thus tuberculated, it feels much harder to the touch than natural, and not uncommonly its lower edge is bent a little forward. Its size, however, is gener- ally not larger than in a healthy state, and I think it is often smaller. If a section of the liver be made in this state, its vessels seem to have a smaller diameter than they have naturally. It very frequently happens that in this state the liver is of a yellow colour, arising from the bile accumulated in its substance ; and there is also water in the cavity of the abdomen, which is yellow from the mixture of bile. The gall-bladder is generally much contracted, and of a white colour, from its being empty. The bile, from the pressure of the hard liver upon the pori biliarii, does not reach the ductus hepaticus, and therefore cannot pass into the gall-bladder. The colour of the skin in such cases is jaundiced, and in general it remains per- 212 THE PRESIDENTS OF THE manently so, as it depends on a state of liver scarcely liable to change. This is the common appearance of what is generally called a scirrhous liver: but it bears only a remote resemblance to scirrhus, as it shows itself in other parts of the body. 1 should therefore be disposed to consider it as a peculiar disease affecting this viscus." He gives good descriptions of simple ulcer of the stomach and of the intestinal ulcers of enteric fever, though he did not attain to a full knowledge of their pathology. Matthew Baillie was born at Shotts in Lanarkshire, October 27, 1761. His mother was sister of two of the greatest of British anatomists, William and John Hunter, and his father became a professor in the University of Glasgow. Matthew's education was begun at the gram- mar school of Hamilton, continued at the University of Glasgow and at Balliol College, Oxford, and completed at William Hunter's house and museum in Windmill Street. He graduated M.D. at Oxford in 1789 and was elected a fellow of the College of Physicians in 1790. He was physician to St. George's Hospital from 1787 to 1799 and attained to a very large private practice. He died December 23, 1823, is buried at Duntisbourne in Glou- cestershire, and has, as he so well deserves, a monument in Westminster Abbey, HI.— 1 810. The third President, SiR HENRY Halford, was not, like the second, a great contributor to medical science, but he was the chief figure in the medical profession of his time — a man with some of the accomplishments of uni- versities and some of those of courts, able to use skilfully the prevalent medical knowledge of his day, and so much consulted by the public, that he had little time left in i ROYAL MEDICAL AND CHIRURGICAL SOCIETY 213 which to commit to writing the numerous observations which his great practice gave him the opportunity of making. He was the second son of Dr. James Vaughan, a phy- sician at Leicester, the third of whose sons became a judge in the Court of Common Pleas, the fourth Warden of Merton and Dean of Chester, and the sixth an ambassador. Two became Privy Councillors and three fellows of colleges at Oxford or at Cambridge, so that the family was ac- customed to the atmosphere of success. Henry, in con- sequence of the death of his elder brother, succeeded to the estate of his grandmother's family and adopted their surname of Halford. He was born at Leicester, October 1 2, I y66, was educated at Rugby School, at Christ Church, Oxford, and at the University of Edinburgh, and gradu- ated M.D. at Oxford in 1791. In the following year he settled in London and became a fellow of the College of Physicians in 1794. Before he had been in London a year he was appointed Physician-extraordinary to the King, and he rapidly attained a large private practice. He lived in the full sunshine of royal favour during the later years of George HI. and the reigns of George IV. and William IV., and also enjoyed the approval of his medical con- temporaries for he was chosen President of the Royal College of Physicians in each year from 1820 to 1844- He obtained from the Crown a grant of the land upon which the building of the College at present stands and to which it removed from within the city of London in 1825. Sir Henry Halford was created a baronet in 1809 and was granted supporters and honourable augmentations to his arms. His portrait with the star of the Guelphic order on his coat was painted by Sir Thomas Lawrence and is in the College of Physicians, and it seems fitting that his honours and personal dignity should thus have 214 THE PRESIDENTS OF THE i been recorded by the great court painter of that period. The extensive private practice to which Halford attained so early had the disadvantage of preventing him from enjoying that continuous professional study which is only to be attained in a hospital. He was physician to the Middlesex Hospital for seven years only, from 1793 to 1800. His works are two Latin Harveian orations and a few essays, the most interesting of which is " An account of what appeared on opening the coffin of King Charles I." The coffin was opened in the vault of St. George's Chapel Windsor, April i, 181 3, in the presence of the Prince Regent, the Duke of Cumberland, Count Miinster, the Dean of Windsor, B. C. Stevenson and Sir H. Halford. The description is a good example of his style : — "At length, the whole face was disengaged from its covering. The complexion of the skin of it was dark and discoloured. The forehead and temples had lost little or nothing of their muscular substance ; the cartilage of the nose was gone ; but the left eye, in the first moment of exposure, was open and full, though it vanished almost immediately : and the pointed beard, so characteristic of the period of the reign of King Charles, was perfect. The shape of the face was a long oval ; many of the teeth remained ; and the left ear, in consequence of the inter- position of the unctuous matter between it and the cere- cloth, was found entire. " It was difficult, at this moment, to withhold a declara- tion, that, notwithstanding its disfigurement, the counte- nance did bear a strong resemblance to the coins, the busts, and especially to the pictures of King Charles I. by Vandyke, by which it has been made familiar to us. It is true, that the minds of the spectators of this interest- ^^S sight were well prepared to receive this impression ; but it is also certain, that such a facility of belief had been ROYAL MEDICAL AND CHIRURGICAL SOCIETY 215 occasioned by the simplicity and truth of Mr. Herbert's Narrative, every part of which has been confirmed by the investigation, so far as it had advanced : and it will not be denied that the shape of the face, the forehead, an eye, and the beard, are the most important features by which resemblance is determined. " When the head had been entirely disengaged from the attachments which confined it, it was found to be loose, and, without any difficulty, was taken up and held to view. It was quite wet, and gave a greenish red tinge to paper, and to linen, which touched it. The back part of the scalp was entirely perfect, and had a remarkably fresh appearance ; the pores of the skin being more distinct, as they usually are when soaked in moisture ; and the tendons and ligaments of the neck were of considerable substance and firmness. The hair was thick at the back part of the head, and, in appearance, nearly black. A portion of it which has since been cleaned and dried, is of a beautiful dark brown colour. That of the beard was a redder brown. On the back part of the head it was more than an inch in length, and had probably been cut so short for the convenience of the executioner, or perhaps by the piety of friends soon after death, in order to furnish memorials of the unhappy king. " On holding up the head, to examine the place of separa- tion from the body, the muscles of the neck had evidently retracted themselves considerably ; and the fourth cervical vertebra was found to be cut through its substance trans- versely, leaving the surfaces of the divided portions per- fectly smooth and even, an appearance which could have been produced only by a heavy blow, inflicted with a very sharp instrument, and which furnishes the last proof wanting to identify King Charles the First." Halford died in his house in Curzon Street, March 9, 216 THE PRESIDENTS OF THE 1844, and his biography was written a few years ago at the desire of Sir Andrew Clark by Dr. William Munk, a former fellow of this Society, who knew and admired him, and who sums up both the merits and the position in medical history of our third President in a statement of his reason for writing the book. " The object of these pages is to perpetuate the knowledge of so distinguished a physician, scholar, and member of society, and to rescue Sir Henry Halford's memory from the oblivion into which it was fast falling." IV.— 1813. Sir Gilbert Blank, physician to St. Thomas's Hos- pital, the fourth president of this Society, owes his fame to work of a kind different from that of any of his three predecessors. He is remembered as the chief medical adviser of the Navy, and as the originator of important reforms in the diet of sailors and the prevention of disease in ships. James Lind in his " Treatise on the Scurvy," published in 1754, and in his subsequent writings, was the first thoroughly to investigate the diseases of seamen, and to point out how to prevent scur\y, the chief cause of mortality in ships, a mortality which exceeded that from wounds in time of war. Blane enforced in the Navy the principles of diet which Lind had first enunciated but which were not for many years accepted by the Admiralty. The shortening of voyages due to the introduction of steam, and the knowledge of ventilation and of the general principles of hygiene which have prevailed in later years, have made it difficult in our days to appreciate the enor- mous benefit which the enlightened proceedings of Blane conferred upon sailors throughout the world. In a paper read before our Society ( TransactionSy vol, vi.) ROYAL MEDICAL AND CHIRURGICAL SOCIETY 217 Sir Gilbert Blane demonstrates the improvement which had taken place in the health of the Navy and the means by which this beneficial change had been produced. Speaking of scurvy he says : " The Navy continued to suffer severely from this disease, till the order for a general supply of lemon-juice, twenty seven years ago. This salutary measure was accomplished by a representation from the Medical Board of the Navy in the year 1795, during the administration of Earl Spencer, from whose enlarged and benevolent mind everything was to be expected. One of the most impressive parts of their argument was built on the report of the effects of it in the Suffolk of 74 guns. This ship sailed from England on the second of April, 1 794, and an experiment was made of supplying her with a quantity of lemon-juice, sufficient to serve out two-thirds of a liquid ounce every day, to every man on board. This was mixed with their grog along with two ounces of sugar. She was twenty-three weeks and one day on the passage, without having any communication with the land, and arrived in Madras road, on the 1 1 th of September, without losing a man, with only fifteen men on the sick list, all slight cases, and none of them affected with the scurvy. This disease appeared in a few men in the course of the voyage, but soon disap- peared on an increased dose of lemon-juice being ad- ministered. Let this fact be contrasted with the state of the Channel fleet in 1780 as described by Dr. Lind . . . , which was over-run with scurvy and fever, and unable to keep the sea, after a cruise of ten weeks only : and let the state of this fleet be again contrasted with that of the Channel fleet in 1800, . . . which by being duly sup- plied with lemon-juice, kept the sea for four months without fresh provisions, and without being affected with scurvy. It appears . . . that during nine years of war 218 THE PRESIDENTS OF THE ' preceding the general supply of lemon-juice, the annual average of sick sent to hospitals, was one in 3.9 of the whole men in the Navy, but that in the nine succeeding years, the proportion was one in 8"4. Other causes, particularly the improved methods by which fevers were diminished, contributed greatly to the decrease of sickness, so that it may be difficult to assign precisely what is due to lemon-juice. But what admits of no ambiguity, is that, ever since the year 1796, scurvy has almost disappeared from ships of war, and naval hospitals." Sir Gilbert Blane was born at his father's house of Blanefield, Ayrshire, August 29, 1749. He studied in the Universities of Edinburgh and Glasgow, and graduated M.D. at Glasgow in 1778. He sailed as physician to Admiral Rodney in the West Indian expedition of 1779 and was present at six general engagements. After his return he was physician to St. Thomas's Hospital, London, 1783 to 1795. Blane's public services were rewarded by a baronetcy in 181 2. He died June 26, 1834. He was a licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians, and his portrait by Sir Martin Archer Shee is preserved in the College, v.— 1815. Henry Cline was master of the College of Surgeons in 18 1 5, the year in which he was elected president of our Society. He was one of the chief surgeons of his time and the first surgeon to occupy the chair. He was born in London in 1750, and after education at the Merchant Taylors' School was apprenticed to Thomas Smith, then surgeon to St. Thomas's Hospital. In 1774 he received his diploma, and in 1784, on the death of Smith, became surgeon to St. Thomas's Hospital where he held office till ROYAL MEDICAL AND CHIRURGICAL SOCIETY 219 i8ir. His pupils presented his bust by Chantrey to the hospital. One of them, Sir Astley Cooper, exceeded him in fame and in extent of practice, and was the next surgeon to preside over the Medical and Chirurgical Society. Cline became president of the College of Surgeons in 1823 and died January 2, 1827. A splint which he de- signed with a support for the foot and an opening for the external malleolus is still remembered among surgeons, and a few years ago was in general use. The " Diversions of Purley " of Home Tooke as a treatise on language has fallen into deserved neglect, but its singular title will probably long preserve its memory among frequenters of libraries, and those who open it if they are induced to look further than the picture of Hermes which is the frontispiece may come upon a passage showing the friendship of the author for Cline, and thus indicating the social and political leanings for which he was well known in his own day. " B. — What can you set up, in matter of language, against the decisive authority of such a writer as Horace ? " usus, Quern penes arbitrium est et jus et norma loquendi." '^ Home Tooke. — I do not think him any authority whatever upon this occasion. He wrote divinely : and so Vestris danced. But do you think our dear and excellent friend, Mr, Cline, would not give us a more satisfactory account of the influence and action, the power and pro- perties of the nerves and muscles by which he performed such wonders, than Vestris could ? who, whilst he used them with such excellence, did not, perhaps, know he had them. In this our inquiry, my dear Sir, we are not poets nor dancers, but anatomists." 220 THE PRESIDENTS OF THE i VI.— 1817. ^ Dr. William Babington was born, in 1756, at Port- glenone, an ancient village on the broad and slow-flowing Ban, famous as a place of contest and of commercial transit between Ultonia and Ulidia, the greater and the lesser Ulster. He was first apothecary (1781) and then physician (1796) to Guy's Hospital, a career like that of Dr. Francis Bernard, a century before, at St. Bartholomew's. He gradu- ated at Aberdeen in 1795, and in 1796 became a licentiate of the College of Physicians. He resigned his physiciancy in 1 811, and in 1827 was elected a fellow of the College of Physicians. He was one of the founders of the Geological Society, was its president in 1822, and published two books on Mineralogy, " A Systematic Arrangement of Minerals," and " A New System of Mineralogy " : and he lectured on chemistry at Guy's Hospital. He published in our Trans- actions "A case of exposure to the vapour of burning charcoal" (vol. i.). The greater part of his time was occupied by a large professional practice in the midst of which he was inter- rupted by an attack of influenza which proved fatal in four days. He died April 29, 1833. He is commemorated by a marble statue in the south transept of St. Paul's Cathedral. His son was also president of this Society, became physician to Guy's Hospital, and his daughter married Dr. Richard Bright, president of this Society in 1 837, so that one household may be said to have included three presidents of the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society. His "Outlines of a course of lectures on the Practice of Medicine as delivered in the Medical School of Guy's Hospital " by himself and James Curry, M.D. (London, 1802-6) are interesting as illustrating the path- ology and therapeutics of his period : — ROYAL MEDICAL AND CHIRURGICAL SOCIETY 221 " 0/ Rheumatism. "375- A denomination of disease including affections which, though connected with, and often changing into each other, yet differ considerably both in their respective assemblage of symptoms and method of cure. " 376. Imperfectly described by Hippocrates, etc., under the ambiguous term of apQpni^ : first accurately discrimi- nated by Ballonius, and by him called rheuinatisinus ; — original meaning of the name. " '^TJ . Most commonly distinguished into acute — and chronic: — often denominated also from the part affected, as Odontalgia, — Pleurodyne, — Lumbago, — Ischias. — In- sufficiency of these distinctions shewn. — Another proposed, accordingly as the inflammation is — a. tonic, — b. atonic, or — c. absent ; a. rheumatitis (acute rheumatism of authors) — b. rheumatagra (acute chronic rheumatism, — Scorbutic rheumatism of Sydenham, — Rheumatic Gout) — c. rheu- matalgia (chronic rheumatism of authors, — Arthrodynia, CuUen). " 378. Character of Rheumatitis — Obtuse tensive pain, swelling, and redness, attacking the larger joints more especially, — proceeded or soon followed by Synocha fever (173), — generally accompanied by profuse partial sweats, — and often shifting its situation, with fresh exacerbations of fever : — lasting from two to several weeks, and then either going off entirely without desquamation, or chang- ing to " 379. Rheumatagra ; in which the joints last occupied by Rheumatitis, especially the ancles and knees, remain swelled, stiff, and painful, sometimes with CEdema, for many weeks, or even months, — the pain generally aggravated at night, or by external heat, — but attended with little or n o pyrexia, — and not followed by any chalky concretions. 222 THE PRESIDENTS OF THE " 380. Rheum atalgia, often after rheumatitis or rheuma- tagra, but frequently also without any previous inflamma- tion or swelling, certain joints or muscles become affected with pain and stiffness, felt especially on motion, — often accompanied by spontaneous coldness and even paralytic torpor, — relieved by external warmth, — and much influ- enced by atmospheric changes. "381. Predisposing Causes of Rheumatitis and Rheuma- tagra, (377-8) — Irritable and plethoric, or sanguineous- habit ; — period of life ; — sex ? — indolence, — changeable climate and season ; — (d) preceding attacks of rheumatitis ; — scorbutic (?) habit, — mercurial irritability. " 382. Exciting Causes ; — Cold suddenly applied, especi- ally when the body is overheated or fatigued ; — certain unknown changes of atmosphere ; — general febrile com- motion however produced. — Syphilitic taint ? "383. Diagnosis, sometimes difficult between rheuma- tism and gout, not only from their general resemblancCj but from their being frequently combined : — circumstances generally distinguishing them, — in patient's age, — sex, — condition and mode of life, — hereditary tendency, excit- ing cause, — mode of attack, — symptoms during the pro- gress — and, termination of the complaint. — Rheumatic pains, how distinguished from syphilitic ones. — General character of rheumatic inflammation, and an examination of the humoral doctrine repeating it. "384. Prognosis — in general favourable ; but sometimes in rheumatitis, metastasis suddenly takes place to the brain, chest, or stomach, and proves quickly fatal : — in- stances of each of these. — Tendency to relapse. — Symptoms denoting a favourable termination. — Rheumatagra gener- ally tedious and difficult of cure ; and in scrophulous or rachitic habits, sometimes ends in a state of the joints very analogous to white swelling. I ROYAL MEDICAL AND CHIRURGICAL SOCIETY 223 "385. Treatment of Rheumatitis, — Venesection; caution against the Boerhavian notion respecting it. — Leeches. — Blisters ? — •Purging ; — different modes of proper, according to the period of the complaint, etc. — Diluents — Sudorifics ? rules for their management. — Nitre ? Digitalis. " 386. Treatment of Rheumatagra ; — mild diaphoretics ; — tepid bath ; — local bleeding ; — blisters ; — tonic bitters as Cinchona ; — Mist. Myrrhae e Ferro, etc. ; — diffusive stimulants, — Dec. Dulcamara ? — Pil. Calomel : cum Antimonio. — Whey diet ; — Sudatorium ; — Douche ; — Electricity? or Galvanic aura. — Salt brine. " 387. Treatment of Rheumatalgia ; — Stimulant diaph- oretics, e. gr. Guaiacum, — Ammonia ; — Sim. Sinapeos, — Infus. Raph. rust ; — Dec, Mezerei Rhododendron Chry- santhemum ; — Pil. Plummeri ; — Sulphur; — Ol. Terebinth, — 01. Jecoris Asellii, etc. — External remedies : — Tepid and vapour bath ; various epispastic, rubefacient, and stimulant plasters, liniments, and embrocations ; Cabbage leaves. — Friction, Champooing ; — Electricity, — Galvanic aura ; — actual cautery, — Moxa." VII.— 1819. Sir Astley Paston Cooper, Bart., was born in Norfolk, where his father was a clergyman, August 23, 1768. His grandfather had been a surgeon at Norwich and his uncle was surgeon to Guy's Hospital. He was apprenticed to Henry Cline, and after study at Guy's, St. Thomas's, Edinburgh and Paris he became surgeon to Guy's Hospital in 1800. In 1804 he published the first part of his well-known treatise on hernia, in 1 807 the second part, and in 1 822 his work on " Dislocations and Fractures of the Joints." He attained to the largest practice of any surgeon of his time, and his practice was not confined to 224 THE PRESIDENTS OF THE operations and consultations on surgical cases, for his opinion and treatment were often asked in cases of all kinds, and nearly every patient was impressed with the soundness of his advice. He was elected President of the College of Surgeons in 1827, and a second time in 1836. He died February 12, 1841, and was buried at Guy's Hospital. His statue stands in St. Paul's Cathedral, not far from that of Dr. Babington. He wrote several papers in the Trans- actions and was the first Treasurer of the Society. He drew his own professional character in a manuscript, which was discovered after his death, and has been printed by Sir Samuel Wilks.^ " Sir A. Cooper was a good anatomist, but never was a good operator where delicacy was required. He felt too much before he began ever to make a perfect operator. Quickness of perception was his forte, for he saw the nature of disease in an instant, and often gave offence by pouncing at once upon his opinion. The same faculty made his prognosis good. He was a good anatomist of morbid as well as of natural structure. He had an excel- lent and useful memory. In imagination he was vivid. His principle in practice was never to suffer any who con- sulted him to quit him without giving them satisfaction on the nature and proper treatment of their case. My own success depended upon my zeal and industry, but for this I take no credit, as it was given to me from above." VIH.— 1821. Dr. John Cooke, who was born in Lancashire in 1756, studied medicine at Guy's Hospital and afterwards at Edinburgh, and took the degree of M.D. at Leyden. The controversy on the safety or danger of using cinchona ^ "A Biographical History of Guy's Hospital." London, 1892. ROYAL MEDICAL AND CHIRURGICAL SOCIETY 225 bark in a variety of circumstances which began with the introduction of that valuable drug in 1 640 was not yet quite ended at the time of his graduation, and he read a thesis on the use of Peruvian bark in cases where there is no rise of temperature. He was physician to the London Hospital from 1784 till 1 807, and was the first person to deliver clinical lectures there. He was elected a fellow of the College of Physicians in 1807. He published (1820 to 1823) "A Treatise on Nervous Diseases," which sets forth all then known on diseases of the nervous system, a book worth reading and comparing with such a modern treatise as that of Sir William Gowers by those who desire to know how much progress medicine has made in the last hundred years. Apoplexy, hemiplegia, paraplegia, paralysis of separate nerves, epilepsy, lethargy and hydrocephalus are the diseases described. Cooke quotes the opinions of ancient and modern writers from Hippocrates to Bichat, and discusses them in the light of his own clinical experience, showing thorough acquaintance with every book he quotes. The nature of the relation between apoplexy and hemi- plegia was not clear to him, and he was uncertain whether the loss of speech which we call aphasia was due to im- paired memory or to paralysis of the tongue. He was uncertain whether Charles Bell's opinion, " in some respects similar to those of Erasistratus and Hero- philus," as to the distinction between motor and sensory nerves was sound, and says " If we could show that the nerves of sense agree in their origin and appearance through their course and differ from those of motion in both these respects, whilst at the same time they agree with one another, there would be a stronger ground for the distinction supposed betwixt 226 THE PRESIDENTS OF THE nerves of sense and of motion ; but till this be demon- strated, the question must be considered as involved in great obscurity." Dr. Cooke died January i, 1838. An engraved portrait of him is preserved in the library of this Society. IX.— 1823. John Abernethy, surgeon to St. Bartholomew's Hospital, was the most famous teacher of his time. I have known six men who attended his lectures. They were unanimous in the opinion that he was the best teacher to whom they had ever listened, and considered themselves fortunate to have been pupils of such a man. Several other pupils have left descriptions of his lectures which show his excellence. Sir Benjamin Brodie, the surgeon, says in his autobio- graphy :— " Mr. Abernethy was an admirable teacher. He kept up our attention so that it never flagged, and that which he told us could not be forgotten. He did not tell us so much as other lecturers, but what he did he told us well. His lectures were full of original thought, of luminous and almost poetical illustrations ; the tedious details of descrip- tive anatomy being occasionally relieved by appropriate and amusing anecdotes. Like most of his pupils, I learned to look upon him as a being of a superior order." Dr. Peter Mere Latham, physician to St. Bartholomew's, says : — " We never left his lecture room without thinking him the prince of pathologists, and ourselves only just one degree below him." George Macilwain, afterwards his biographer, was un- ROYAL MEDICAL AND CHIRURGICAL SOCIETY 227 willing to become a medical student, but Abernethy's lecture immediately encouraged him. " Painfully depressed in spirits, I took my seat at the lecture. When Mr. Abemethy entered I was pleased with the expression of his countenance. I almost fancied that he could have sympathized with the melancholy with which I felt oppressed. When he commenced I listened with some attention ; as he proceeded I found myself entertained, and before he concluded I was delighted." John Abernethy was born in the city parish of St. Stephen's, Coleman Street, April 3, 1764. His parents were both natives of Antrim, and his ancestors had lived for many generations in Ulster where some of them were famous for eloquence. His grandfather was the only sur- vivor of a family of children who fell victims to an epidemic of measles within the walls of Londonderry during the siege of that city in 1689. Abernethy was educated at Wolverhampton Grammar School, and in 1 779 became the pupil of Sir Charles Blicke, surgeon to St. Bartholomew's. He was elected assistant surgeon in 1787 and surgeon in 1 8 1 5 , and lectured in the school first on anatomy and then on surgery. His writings, contained in two volumes, are clear and interesting, but his power of expression was better displayed in his lectures. He thoroughly under- stood the art of interesting his audience and of impressing important points upon the mind of every student who heard him. Some of his hearers have described how he seemed to each man to be particularly lecturing to him. In a lecture, speaking of the course of the axillary artery, he is thus reported by Mr. Macilwain : " Ah," said he, " there is no saying too much on the importance of recollecting the course of the larger arteries : but I will tell you a case. There was an officer in the navy, and as brave a fellow as ever stepped, who in a sea-fight received a severe wound 228 THE PRESIDENTS OF THE in the shoulder, which opened his axillary artery. He lost a large quantity of blood, but the wound was staunched for the moment, and he was taken below. As he was an officer, the surgeon, who saw he was wounded severely, was about to attend him before a seaman who had just been brought down. But the officer, though evidently in great pain, said : ' Attend to that man, sir, if you please, I can wait' Well, his turn came ; the surgeon made up his mind that a large artery had been wounded ; but, as there was no bleeding, dressed the wound, and went on with his business. The officer lay very faint and exhausted for some time, and at length began to rally again, when the bleeding returned. The surgeon was immediately called, and, not knowing where to find the artery, or what else to do, told the officer he must amputate his arm at the shoulder joint. The officer at once calmly submitted to this additional, but unnecessary suffering ; and, as the operator proceeded, asked if it would be long. The surgeon replied that it would soon be over. The officer rejoined : ' Sir, I thank God for it' But he never spake more. Amidst the death-like silence of the class, Abernethy calmly concluded : ' I hope you will never forget the course of the axillary artery.' " He died at Enfield, April 20, 1831. His portrait by Sir Thomas Lawrence hangs in the great hall of St. Bartholomew's Hospital, beside the portrait by Sir Joshua Reynolds, of Percival Pott, the teacher whom Abernethy most admired. X.— 1825. Dr. George Birkbeck, son of a banker at Settle, was born in Yorkshire, and graduated M.A. at Edinburgh in ROYAL MEDICAL AND CHIRURGICAL SOCIETY 229 1799. At that University he became acquainted with Henry Brougham (afterwards Lord Brougham), the chief founder of the University of London, and the friend and ardent advocate of popular education. The influence of Brougham's inspiring conversation probably turned Birk- beck's mind in the direction with which his fame is chiefly associated. He became Professor of Natural Philosophy in the Andersonian Institute of Glasgow, and there gave additional and gratuitous courses of lectures to working men. He made his lectures as simple and as interesting as possible, and his audiences were large and grateful. " His object at the commencement," says a writer who had studied his history and admired his achievements, " was to teach mechanics as much science as was connected with their own particular trade. There is a little painting in the Committee-room of the London Institute, represent- ing the circumstance which induced him to go even thus far. He happened to be in a workshop, and was explain- ing some process to one of the men, who listened attent- ively. The rest gathered round — there was a look of in- telligence "amongst them, an expression of a desire to be taught. The Doctor observed it, raised subscriptions, and opened an evening school. At first a few, then numbers began to attend. The difficulty was not to find scholars but teachers. A thirst for general information began to spread. The working class felt a pride in learning. A house was purchased by themselves for the purpose. They built a theatre to accommodate a thousand persons, and it is not unfrequently filled by their own members. An im- provement is never long limited to one place. Similar institutions sprung up throughout the country." ^ Now that England and Wales, which in Birkbeck's time 1 R. R. R. Moore, " Lecture on the Advantages of Mechanics' Institutions." Dublin, 1839. 230 THE PRESIDENTS OF THE had only two, have nine active universities, while universit)- colleges and technical institutes are distributed throughout the country and all men are agreed as to the advantages of the best possible education for everybody, it is difficult to realize how great was the work of Birkbeck, of Brougham and their associates in convincing the nation that higher education ought to be within easy reach of every one. Their efforts were unsupported by Parliamentary grants or local rates, they themselves were generally spoken of as misguided or mischievous enthusiasts, and their only re- ward was the satisfaction of being certain in their own minds of the usefulness of their work. It adds to the honour of our Society that it chose Birkbeck as its Pre- sident. Birkbeck settled in London in 1805, and in 1808 became a Licentiate of the College of Physicians. He attained considerable practice in the city and was Physician to the institution now known as the Royal General Dispensary in Bartholomew Close. He was the first president of the London Mechanics' Institution which in honour of him has since been called the Birkbeck Institution. He lent ;6^3,700 in aid of its construction ; delivered the opening address February 20, 1824, and with Lord Brougham was one of the original trustees. Many similar foundations followed throughout the country. He was one of the founders of '' that proprietary institution in Gower Street," as its opponents described it, which was the first attempt towards the foundation of a University in London, and which led to the incorporation of a University, and itself became University College, now in accordance with the feelings of its original founders about to become an in- tegral part of the University which its originators contem- plated as an essential addition to the intellectual life of London. ROYAL MEDICAL AND CHIRURGICAL SOCIETY 231 There is an engraving of his portrait in the collection of the Society. He died December i, 1841. He is perhaps the only president of the Society after whom one of the streets of London is named (Birkbeck Street, Bethnal Green). XI.— 1827. Benjamin Travers, surgeon to St. Thomas's Hospital, was born in the city of London where his father was a sugar baker. He was a pupil of Sir Astley Cooper, and became a member of the College of Surgeons in 1806. In 181 3 he was elected F.R.S., and in 181 5 became sur- geon to St. Thomas's Hospital. He worked diligently as surgeon to the London Infirmary for diseases of the eye from 1810 to 1816, and attained a considerable repu- tation as an ophthalmic surgeon. The Royal College of Surgeons elected him President in 1847 and in 1856. He died March 6, 1858. His bust is at the Royal College of Surgeons, and his portrait was painted by C. R. Leslie. His works were " An Inquiry into the Process of Nature in repairing injuries of the Intestines," 181 2, "A Synopsis of the Diseases of the Eye," 1820, two treatises on " Constitu- tional Irritation," 1826 and 1835, and "The Physiology of Inflammation," 1 844. In an essay " On wounds and liga- tures of veins " ^ Travers writes : — "Although it is clear that veins undergo obliteration, I do not think it is by a union of the sides of the vein, as is the opinion of Mr. Hunter, Mr. Hodgson, and others, or as we observe to be the case in arteries under high in- flammation. The tube, of little less than its ordinary size, ^" Surgical Essays " by Astley Cooper, F.R.S., Surgeon to Guy's Hospital, and Benjamin Travers, F.R.S., Surgeon to St. Thomas's Hospital. London, 1818. 232 THE PRESIDENTS OF THE is obstructed by masses of lymph ; or not at all reduced in its calibre, where obstruction simply has taken place, is filled by layers of coagula ; but there is no tendency to contraction of the canal, nor any disposition to adhesive union of the sides of the tube, and indeed the excessive secretion in the one case, and the massive coagulum in the other, are equally barriers to such a union. That the sides of the vein do not coalesce, is still more strikingly shewn by the mode of obliteration which is sometimes seen between the seat of inflammation and the heart, where an extensive furring of the inner membrane has taken place, and probably betwixt the heart and a wound or ligature. That appearance stops abruptly, the mem- brane resumes its healthy character, and the tube is gradually contracted to obliteration by an interstital deposition in the coats of the vein, by which it is rendered a round solid cord of a cartilaginous hardness, in its trans- verse section narrower considerably than that of the healthy vein. Although imperforate from compression, the canal is readily discovered by a longitudinal section." XII.— 1829. Dr. Peter Mark Roget, whose father was a native of Geneva, and minister of the French Church in Thread- needle Street, was born in London, January 18, 1779. He graduated M.D. at Edinburgh when only nineteen years of age. After travels he settled, in 1 804, at Manchester, and became physician to its Infirmary, and with his colleagues on the staff founded the medical school there. In 1808 he came to London, became a Licentiate of the College of Physicians and in 1831 a Fellow. He delivered the Gulstonian lectures in 1832, gave many courses of popular lectures on Physiology, and lectured on medicine at the ROYAL MEDICAL AND CHIRURGICAL SOCIETY 233 medical school of Windmill Street. In 1823 he was nominated by the Government of the day to conduct the medical treatment of the epidemic of dysentery then going on in the Penitentiary at Millbank, which is now happily replaced by the Tate Gallery. He was elected F.R.S. in 181 5, chiefly in consequence of his paper on a logo-logarithmic rule which he had constructed, and in 1827 became secretary of that Society. He wrote a Bridgewater Treatise, " Animal and Vegetable Physiology considered with reference to Natural Theology," treatises in the Library of Useful Knowledge, articles in " Rees' Cyclopaedia " and the " Encyclopaedia Britannica." In 1852 he published the book which makes his name known to every one who has looked at the contents of the shelves of nineteenth-century libraries, the " Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases, classified and arranged so as to facilitate the expression of Ideas and assist in Literary Composition." How to write a language well can only be learned by a study of its literature, and he who knows thoroughly a few good books, will be better fitted for composition in English than any work of reference can make him. Bysshe's " Art of Poetry " never made a poet, and Roget's " Thesaurus " is unlikely to have formed a single good prose writer. But there are many who are ignorant of literature, yet wish to write well, and it is to the hopes of such that the produc- tion of thirty-three editions of Roget's "Thesaurus" from 1852 to 1875 is due. The preparation of the work was a source of pleasure to the author for fifty years. He died September 1 2, 1 869. An engraving by Eddis of his portrait is in the collection of the Society. The powers of Dr. Roget's mind are perhaps seen at their best in his clear description in the Philosophical Transactions of his rule. His Physiology is a lucid ex- 234 THE PRESIDENTS OF THE position of what was then known, and Hke all his writings shows that he had considerable literary as well as scientific attainments. A paragraph on sleep is a fair example of his style : — " Neither is the mind wholly inactive during sleep ; it is still occupied with a succession of ideas, which is often more rapid than when we are awake ; the imagination is even more vividly exerted, and the images that pass before the mind are considered as realities. This constitutes dreaming, a state which is characterized also by the peculiar circum- stances of the want of all voluntary power of directing the succession of ideas. Trains of ideas and images commence and follow one another, being indissolubly linked together by those laws of association which are independent of volition." XIII.— 1831. Sir William Lawrence, Bart., was the son of a surgeon, and was born at Cirencester, July 16, 1783. After education at a private school he was apprenticed to Abernethy in 1799, and studied under him at St, Bartholomew's Hospital, to which Lawrence became assist- ant surgeon in 181 3, and surgeon in 1824. He held office in the latter capacity for forty years, and throughout this time his was the paramount influence in its school. His lectures on surgery were admired by those who attended them and I have heard Sir George Humphry, Mr. Luther Holden and Sir William Savory praise him as a lecturer and as a teacher at the bedside. He was President of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1846 and in 1855, and was an examiner there for twenty-seven years. He died July 5, 1867, Eighteen papers by him, besides two of which he was ROYAL MEDICAL AND CHIRURGICAL SOCIETY 235 joint author, appear in our Transactions, and he wrote many more in medical periodical publications. His treatise on Hernia (1806) shows his thorough knowledge of anatomy and extensive surgical observation, and as well as that on Diseases of the Eye (1833), '^^^ ^'^^ many years a work of authority. His portrait by Pickersgill hangs in the great hall of St. Bartholomew's Hospital, and the College of Surgeons has a fine marble bust of him. The great power which he exercised in the positions to which he attained is easily understood when this representation of his well-formed head, fine features and resolute expression is studied. His rhetorical power was considerable, and one variety of its exercise is shown in the conclusion of his Hunterian oration (1846): — '• In the midst of life we are in death. On the i6th October, 1793, Mr. Hunter rose at break of day, as was his custom, and repaired to his dissecting-room, where he was joined by some zealous and industrious students, such as he liked to have around him, and to employ as assistants. " Having completed to his satisfaction a difficult piece of minute dissection, he was in high spirits. Going down to breakfast, he repeated gaily some lines of a Scotch song — a thing very unusual with him. It was, says his faithful friend Mr. Clift, and tears filled his eyes as he spoke, the melody of the dying swan. He left home at his usual hour in excellent health, and after paying some pro- fessional visits, went to a meeting of governors at St. George's. He was seized in the board-room of the hospi- tal, and, being conveyed into an adjoining apartment, fell dead into the arms of one of his colleagues. " It was the same day, and nearly the same hour, that the unfortunate Queen of France was murdered on the scaffold. 236 THE PRESIDENTS OF THE " The lovers of science were struck with consternation. The loss seemed irrecoverable. But the great genius lives again in the ample stores of knowledge left behind him ; in his numerous writings ; in the great repository of his labours which is the pride and ornament of this College ; published, explained, enlarged, illustrated, since his death, and thus rendered more accessible and more available for the extension and diffusion of science than they had been during his life. The luminary of anatomy and physiology was not extinct ; it had descended below the horizon, but it rises again with greater brilliance, to shed the diffusive radiance of genius and intelligence over ages yet unborn." XIV.-1833. John Elliotson was elected in 1833, and was the first president of the Society after its incorporation as the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society of London in 1834. He was born in Southwark, where his father was a druggist, on October 24, 1791, graduated M.D. at Cambridge in 1821, and was elected a fellow of the College of Physicians in 1822. He was elected physician to St. Thomas's Hospital in 1823, and in 1834 was made senior physician to Uni- versity College Hospital and left St. Thomas's. He was also professor of medicine in University College. His portrait is at the College of Physicians. His lectures were clear, showing much reading and great clinical experience. He was a most painstaking teacher in the wards, and a copious writer. He attained a high place among the physicians of London, and might long have enjoyed its advantages had he not lost the confidence of his contemporaries by the unscientific way in which he treated the subject of mesmerism. His use of mesmerism in the wards was censured by the Council of University ROYAL MEDICAL AND CHIRURGICAL SOCIETY 237 College, and he resigned his posts at the Hospital in December, 1838. His judgment seemed to become im- paired. He founded a Mesmeric Infirmary, presided over a Phrenological Society, and published a monthly periodical called " The Zoist, a Journal of Cerebral Physiology and Mesmerism " ; a curious example of the fact that an aca- demical education and the prolonged mental exercises of a scientific profession are not always sufificient to prevent those infirmities of intellect and irregularities of thought which we generally attribute to imperfect education, and particularly to the want of scientific training. His controversial writings do not give a just idea of his mental capacity and medical knowledge. His Lumleian lectures of 1 829, " On recent improvements in the art of distinguishing the various diseases of the Heart," show how well versed he was in auscultation at a time when it was the latest addition to the methods of medicine, and his " Principles and Practice of Medicine " contain many admirable passages. His account of Pericarditis is an interesting illustration of the knowledge of the time and of his own practice : — " The diagnosis of pericarditis is thought by many to be extremely difificult. Laennec declares that he has fre- quently suspected it where it was not found, and found it where he had not suspected it. By close inquiry into the existence of all the marks just mentioned, I confess the diagnosis has never proved difficult to me. I would par- ticularly lay stress upon the extension of the pain from the region of the heart to the scapula, shoulder, and a certain way down the arm — symptoms which patients will not always mention unless questioned respecting them : and its increase on strong pressure upon or between the ribs and cartilages over the heart, and upwards under the cartilages of the left false ribs. These two points I do 238 THE PRESIDENTS OF THE not remember to have seen mentioned anywhere, and the others are not dwelt upon in some of the best books. In Andral's " Clinique Aledicale " pain of the epigastrium on pressure is said to have occurred in some cases, but the point is not spoken of as if inquired into : in one case only is the extension of pain to the arm mentioned : and its extension even to the shoulder does not seem to have formed an object of inquiry. " I am certain that, by a scrutinising examination, the existence of pericarditis will very rarely be mistaken : and from this conviction, and the frequency of its occurrence during acute rheumatism, I make it an invariable rule to examine the cardiac region by the touch and hearing in every case of acute rheumatism, as the usual seats of hernia are examined by us all in cases of colic and intestinal inflam- mation. Were this rule universally obser\'ed practitioners would not be occasionally surprised by the death of patients in what had been considered merely acute rheumatism. "Although the consideration of treatment forms no part of my purpose, I may be permitted to remark, that I think I have observed free local bleeding more serviceable than general ; and that mercury is of equal efficacy in acute pericarditis as in other acute inflammations, over which, wherever they may be situated, a very extensive experi- ence of many years has fully satisfied me, conformably with the observations of so many able physicians, that it possesses far, very far, more power than any other medicine. Bleeding and other ordinary measures cure cases of severe inflammation every day, and, in cases of little danger, may be relied upon. But they frequently fail in cases of in- tensity ; and I know that if, in addition to suitable bleeding, mercurial ptyalism is quickly induced, active inflammation will very rarely destroy, and that, not only is fatality almost always prevented, but far less bleeding is required. ROYAL MEDICAL AND CHIRURGICAL SOCIETY 239 This has been my practice from the commencement of my professional life, and I have never met with the neces- sity for those frightful bleedings of quart after quart, recorded from time to time in our publications, when I also employed mercury with freedom. I have given the antimonium tartarisatum in quantities of a scruple and half a dram every twenty-four hours, hydrocyanic acid, and other medicines recommended by the Italians, but found them all greatly inferior to mercury. Among the best unquestionably is colchicum, and its power over active gout and rheumatism of the extremities is universally ac- knowledged to be very great. After the violence of acute pericarditis is subdued, it appears of use in restraining the morbid irritability which sometimes still continues in the heart ; and several chronic cases, of which I have despaired, have gradually recovered under perseverance in its use for many months." It is impossible to describe his career without mention- ing the unhappiness of its last thirty years, a long period of unsuccessful controversy which ended July 29, 1868. We may be glad that his early promise, his rapid suc- cess, his laborious teaching, his humane disposition and his mental powers are commemorated by one of those monuments quod nee Jovis ira nee ignes Nee poterit ferrum nee edax abolere vetustas. This honour he received from the most critical and penetrating student of human nature of his time in the dedication of " Pendennis ". "To Dr. John Elliotson, " My dear Doctor, " Thirteen months ago when it seemed likely that this story had come to a close, a kind friend brought you 240 THE PRESIDENTS OF THE to my bedside whence, in all probability, I never should have risen but for your constant watchfulness and skill. I like to recall your great goodness and kindness (as well as many acts of others, showing quite a surprising friendship and sympathy) at that time, when kindness and friendship were most needed and welcome. " And as you would take no other fee but thanks, let me record them here in behalf of me and mine, and subscribe myself, '' Yours most sincerely and gratefully, " W. M. Thackeray." XV.-1835. Henry Earle, surgeon to St. Bartholomew's Hos- pital, was the third son of Sir James Earle, surgeon to St. Bartholomew's Hospital. His mother was a daughter of Percival Pott, the celebrated surgeon. Earle was born in Hanover Square, June 28, 1789, and died at his house 28 George Street, Hanover Square, January 18, 1838. He was elected assistant surgeon to St. Bartholomew's in 18 15 and surgeon in 1827. His bust is at St. Bartholomew's Hospital. He published twelve papers in the Trans- actions of our Society. In 1823 he published "Practical Observations in Surgery." The book contains six chapters : one describes a bed for cases of fracture of the legs which he had devised, and the others are on an injury to the urethra, on the mechanism of the spine, on injuries near the shoulder, on fracture of the olecranon, and on certain fractures of the femur. Sir Astley Cooper maintained, in opposition to this last essay, that fracture of the neck of the femur never unites, and Earle defended his own views in " Remarks on Sir Astley Cooper's Reply." There was no ground for Cooper's assertion that Earle's ROYAL MEDICAL AND CHIRURGICAL SOCIETY 241 Statement was due to a wish to depreciate Guy's Hospital and its teaching. Earle was often attacked and ridiculed in the chief medical journal of his time, but a careful ex- amination of these attacks discovers nothing to his real discredit, and nothing more deserving of ridicule than that he was of short stature. In his " Practical Observations on fractures of the thigh " (London, 1823) he says : " I have reserved to the last the highly interesting specimens in the possession of Mr. Abernethy, which were found by Mr. Stanley in the body of a subject in the dissecting-room. As it is Mr. Stanley's intention to publish a description of these bones, I will only so far anticipate that gentleman's account by stating, that they were both found in the same subject ; that the fracture on the right side was entirely within the articula- tion, and on the left side partially ; that there was very little shortening of the limbs, arising only from the loss of obliquity in the neck ; and, lastly, that the most perfect osseous union has taken place, which can be traced through the whole substance of the neck, in the different sections which Mr. Stanley has made. " This case must, I think, be admitted by the most scep- tical, and must at one place the possibility of such an oc- currence on the firm basis of actual demonstration. Nothing is known respecting the case, either as to the mode of treatment, or whether both the bones were fractured at the same time. " If it were allowable to hazard an opinion on the subject, I should feel disposed to attribute the accident to a perpen- dicular fall, which may have broken both necks at the same time: and I think it is highly probable that the firm and perfect union which has taken place may be referrible to the total inability to move either the pelvis Q 242 THE PRESIDENTS OF THE or extremities which must have been the necessary conse- quence of such an accident ; for it is hardly possible to conceive a more totally helpless state than that to which a person under such circumstances would be reduced. " Whether this opinion be correct or not the fact of bony union cannot be controverted ; and one single fact of the possibility of such an occurrence is sufficient ; for the first great cause Acts not by partial, but by general laws ; and we may hence conclude, that bony union is possible under more favourable circumstances than have usually occurred." XVI.— 1837. Dr. Richard Bright. — The lantern of Aristotle is too small to do more than transmit one ray of the brilli- ancy of that luminary of the ancient world, and the fame of Archimedes would have remained firm and unshaken without being attached to time by his screw ; but these ancient examples show that the custom of affixing the names of discoverers to natural objects began in the earliest days of science. It was confirmed by the anatomists of the Renais- sance and their successors, who are commemorated in the heart and the brain and throughout the human frame, and has since been used by physicists and chemists and the followers of the system of scientific nomenclature begun by Linnseus. In later times this method of commemora- tion of discoverers has been extended to the names of diseases. Three physicians connected with Guy's Hos- pital have received this honour, of whom the most famous and widely known is Bright. Bright's disease is a term used all over the world, and unlikely to fall out of use since it is applied to a group of morbid conditions, of ROYAL MEDICAL AND CHIRURGICAL SOCIETY 243 which if some are detached and proved to be distinct others will remain. Richard Bright, an observer whose labours in morbid anatomy and medicine will always be remembered, was born at Bristol, where his father was a banker, in 1789. Bright studied at Edinburgh and at Guy's Hospital, and it is an addition to the honours of the most ancient of the colleges of Cambridge that he was one of its undergradu- ates. He graduated M.D. at Edinburgh in 181 3. He had travelled to Iceland before his degree, and after it in 1 814 went through the Netherlands and Germany to Hungary, returning by way of Belgium a fortnight after the battle of Waterloo, and visiting the wounded in hospital at Brussels. His " Travels from Vienna through Lower Hun- gary " were published in quarto in 1 8 1 8. In 1 820 he became assistant physician to Guy's Hospital and in 1 824 physician, and held the office till 1 843. He was elected a fellow of the College of Physicians in 1832, and gave the Gul- stonian lectures in 1833 on Renal Disease. At the end of the eighteenth century Dr. John Blackall had observed in the wards at St. Bartholomew's the presence of albumen in the urine of a patient with dropsy, and in 181 3 in his " Observations on the nature and cure of dropsies " pointed out that renal disease with albuminuria was a cause of dropsy. As a member of the hospital in which John Blackall was educated and of the college of his learned grandfather, Ofspring Blackall, I hope that I may not be considered partial in thinking that insufficient praise has been given to Blackall for his observations by subsequent writers. Bright himself was perfectly just to his prede- cessor and says : " The observations which I have made respecting the condition of the urine in dropsy are in great degree in accordance with what has been laid down by Dr. Blackall in his most valuable treatise." 244 THE PRESIDENTS OF THE Bright investigated many more cases and arrived at more definite conclusions, and directed attention to the symptoms which accompany chronic renal disease with a force which is not to be found in BlackalL Bright laboured incessantly in the wards and in the Post-Mortem Room. He published in 1827 and 1831 " Reports of Medical Cases." The generalizations are much fuller than those of Matthew Baillie's " Morbid Anatomy," and the treatment of the subject begins in the consideration of the symptoms and goes on to the morbid conditions of the diseased organs, while Baillie's book may be said to begin the subject in the post-mortem room and to dwell upon the changes of organs first. Bright discusses particular cases at length after the manner of the Observa- tiones Medicae of Nicholas Tulpius, but is superior to that admirable physician in the way in which he has grouped cases so as to force sound general conclusions on the mind of the reader. The first volume is the most striking part of this great book. It begins with " Cases illustrative of some of the appearances observable on the examination of diseases terminating in dropsical effusion." The precise and luminous Boerhaave in his Aphorisms, which represent the whole of medical knowledge as it was in his time, adds little to what was expressed by Quintus Serenus Salmonicus on Dropsy in the third century. Corrupti jecoris vitio vel splenis acervo Crescit hydrops ; aut cum siccatae febre medullce Atque avidas fauces gelidum traxere liquorem : Turn lympha intercus vitio gliscente tumescit, Secernens miseram proprio de viscere pellem. Disease of the liver, obstruction of the spleen, swallowing of cold fluids in a fever, lymph causing the body to swell, and raising the skin from each organ which it should cover : ROYAL MEDICAL AND CHIRURGICAL SOCIETY 245 the verses display almost the whole pathology of dropsy up to 1728. William Heberden, one of the greatest of English physicians, whose commentaries on "The History and Cure of Diseases " were published in 1 802, the year after his death, in his forty-eighth chapter says of dropsy : — " Swellings of the ancles or legs towards evening, which vanish, or are greatly lessened in the morning, are very common in women while they are breeding, and in hot weather ; and in both men and women, when they are recovering from a long illness, and in old age, and after the gout, or any hurt of the legs. These swellings cease of themselves, or continue without any danger, and there- fore require no medicine. But where persons after having laboured for some time under complaints of the lungs, or of the bowels, begin to find a swelling in the legs, it is a sign of some deep mischief in the breast or abdomen, the swelling will most probably increase to a fresh dropsy, and the case end fatally. " A dropsy is very rarely an original distemper, but is generally a symptom of some other, which is too often incurable ; and hence arises its extreme danger." The first two pages of Bright's quarto volume show how much he had advanced the subject : — " The morbid appearances which present themselves on the examination of those who have died with dropsical effusion, either into the large cavities of the body or into the cellular membrane, are exceedingly various : and it often becomes a matter of doubt how far these organic changes are to be regarded as originally causing or subsequently aiding the production of the effusion, and how far they are to be considered merely as the consequence either of the effusion or of some more general unhealthy state of the system. If it were possible to arrive at a perfect solution 246 THE PRESIDENTS OF THE of these questions, we might hope to obtain the highest reward which can repay our labours, — an increased know- ledge of the nature of the disease, and improvement in the means of its treatment. " One great cause of dropsical effusion appears to be obstructed circulation ; and whatever either generally or locally prevents the return of the blood through the venous system, gives rise to effusions of serum more or less exten- sive. Thus, diseases of the heart which delay the passage of the blood in the venous system, give rise to general effusion, both into the cavities and into the cellular tissue. Obstructions to the circulation through the liver, by causing a delay in the passage of the blood through the veins connected with the vena portae, give rise to ascites. The pressure of tumours within the abdomen preventing the free passage of blood through the vena cava, gives rise to dropsical effusion into the cellular tissue of the lower extremities, and not unfrequently, the obliteration of par- ticular veins from accidental pressure is the source of the most obstinate anasarcous accumulation. " These great and tangible causes of hydropic swellings betray themselves obviously after death, and are often easily detected during life : — yet they include so great a variety of diseases, that they still present a very wide field for the observation of the Pathologist. The different diseases of the heart and of the lungs on which dropsy depends, and the various changes to which the liver is subject rendering it a cause of impediment to the circula- tion, are still open to much investigation. In fatal cases of dropsy we likewise find the peritoneum greatly dis- eased in various ways ; frequently covered with an ad- ventitious membrane more or less opake, and capable of being stripped from the peritoneum, which is then left with its natural shining and glossy appearance. At other ROYAL MEDICAL AND CHIRURGICAL SOCIETY 247 times the peritoneum is itself altered in structure, or is affected with tubercular or other diseases, presenting an accumulation of morbid growth. " There are other appearances to which I think too little attention has hitherto been paid. They are those evidences of organic change which occasionally present themselves in the structure of the Kidney ; and which, whether they are to be considered as the cause of the dropsical effusion or as the consequence of some other disease, can- not be unimportant. Where those conditions of the kidney to which I allude have occurred, I have often found the dropsy connected with the secretion of albuminous urine, more or less coagulable on the application of heat. I have in general found that the liver has not in these cases betrayed any considerable marks of disease, either during life or on examination after death, though occasion- ally incipient disorganization of a peculiar kind has been traced to that organ. On the other hand, I have found that where the dropsy has depended on organic change in the liver, even in the most aggravated state of such change no diseased structure has generally been discovered in the kidneys, and the urine has not coagulated by heat. I have never yet examined the body of a patient dying with dropsy attended with coagulated urine, in whom some obvious derangement was not discovered in the kidneys." In his first volume he also treats of morbid conditions of the liver, lungs and intestines ; in the second and third chiefly of the brain and nervous system. The generalization at which he arrived that in many cases of dropsy definite anatomical change is to be found in the kidney, entitles Bright to the honours of a discoverer. In other parts of his writings it may be noticed how careful an observer he was even when he failed to interpret the meaning of what he saw clearly and described ac- 248 THE PRESIDENTS OF THE curately. In his cases illustrative of the morbid appear- ances which occasionally take place in the intestines during the progress of fever, more than one case of enteric fever is clearly described, though the observer reached no con- clusion as to the entity of the disease. "CASE LXXVI. "Charles Groves, aet. 25, was admitted into Guy's Hos- pital, October 13th, 1826, with well marked fever, which had already existed three weeks. I saw him on the 23rd lying on his back in a doze, his tongue dry and brown, and red at the tip. Pulse frequent, not apparently very weak, but changing quickly as to frequency, particularly when he was spoken to. His eyes were suffused. His hands were in a constant state of agitation, as if he were half-clasping them towards one another to inclose some object between his fingers. He muttered indistinctly when addressed. The skin of the body felt hot. His bowels had been for about four days in a constant state of purging. He died on the following day. "Sectio Cadaveris. " The lungs were harder than natural, apparently from a high state of congestion, and on squeezing them a good deal of serum mixed with air and blood escaped ; no part was perfectly natural, and one or two portions of the ex- tent of half an orange were more deeply red, and filled with bloody effusion. This condition of the lungs did not appear the genuine result of inflammation, but of conges- tion. The lining membrane of the trachea was vascular and of a brown colour, likewise from congestion, A co- agulum had separated from the blood in the cavities of the heart. The liver was healthy, neither dark in colour nor turgid. Spleen natural and soft. Pancreas healthy, ROYAL MEDICAL AND CHIRURGICAL SOCIETY 249 gall-bladder rather large. The lining membrane of the stomach in general pale, and slightly hard. Intestines inflated, and appearing externally vascular, but not to any great degree. About two feet of the ilium close to the colon was highly coloured with turgid vessels. On open- ing the whole alimentary canal the internal surface was healthy till within two feet of the colon : here patches of vascularity showed themselves, of a very deep colour, and some insulated ulcers, which were always on the side opposite to the insertion of the mesentery. This appear- ance increased on approaching the colon, and the last foot was very much ulcerated quite to the valve ; and on the valve itself was situated a large ulcer. These ulcers varied from the size of a small pea to the size of a half- crown ; but they were generally oblong rather than round : they were seen in different states ; some were simple elevations, of the size of a shot, like yellowish deposits underneath the mucous membrane, or enlarged mucous glands ; others had on the upper part of this small elevation a more yellow spot, and surrounding this a slight zone of inflammation ; in others this yellow was becoming like a slough with a slight breach of surface ; in others this was much increased, of the size of a silver twopenny piece, with a decided ragged slough, apparently tinged by the faecal matter ; in others this slough was removed, and the vessels underneath showed the direction of the muscular fibres ; in others, particularly the larger ones near the valve, the whole was filled with a knotty irregular granulation, looking like a fungous increase from the mucous glands, and the edges were elevated. The caput caecum coli likewise presented ulcerations resembling the smaller ulcers which were covered with a ragged slough in the ilium ; there were about eight or ten of such ulcers in the caecum, and the whole mucous membrane in this 250 THE PRESIDENTS OF THE part was thickly strewed with small miliary elevations, which were light coloured on the red ground-work. The colon itself from this point was healthy. The vermiform process was small, and in no ways thickened or affected by the disease." Bright died December i6, 1858, at his house in Savile Row. His portrait is in the reading room of the College of Physicians. XVII.— 1839. Sir Benjamin Collins Brodie, Bart., surgeon to St. George's Hospital, and serjeant-surgeon to Queen Victoria, was born at Winterslow, Wiltshire, of which parish his father was rector, in 1783. He studied medicine in London, attending the lectures of Abernethy, and dis- secting in the school founded by William Hunter in Great Windmill Street, and in 1 803 joined St. George's Hospital as a pupil of Sir Everard Home. As a student he made the acquaintance of Lawrence, the surgeon, and they were life-long friends. After holding the posts of house surgeon and of demonstrator of anatomy at St, George's, Brodie was appointed assistant surgeon in 1808. In 1810 he was elected F.R.S., and in 1811 received the Copley medal for two papers, one " On the influence of the Brain on the action of the heart and the generation of animal heat," and the other " On the effects produced by certain vegetable poisons." In 18 18 he published "Diseases of the Joints," a book of which five editions appeared. He became surgeon to St. George's Hospital in 1822, and president of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1844. He was chosen president of the Royal Society in 1858, and resigned the office on account of failing eyesight in 1 861. His " Psychological Enquiries," published in 1854, ROYAL MEDICAL AND CHIRURGICAL SOCIETY 251 were much read. Their intention is to make clear the relations of the body and the mind ; and their form is taken from the seven dialogues of Berkeley in which Alciphron and Euphranor, Lysicles and Crito discuss the greatest subjects of human thought. Eubulus, Crites and Ergates are the interlocutors, of whom ep^ar/??, the practitioner, represents Brodie himself, and supplies all the anatomical and physiological informa- tion of the discussion. Crites is a barrister and Eubulus is a man of judgment who has been obliged, by reasons of health, to retire into the country from a public office. His house is the scene of the dialogues which are six in number. They set forth what was then known on the functions of the nervous system and their relations to mental operations, illustrated by pleasantly told anecdotes of great men and discussion of some passages in great books. The voice, the expression of face, the gestures, gave a force and unity to the philosophical discussions of the Stagyrite and his peripatetics which can never be present in imaginary conversations, and even in a writer so great as Berkeley, the reader, however carried on, feels at the end that he would have enjoyed the learning, subtlety and force of argument more had it been put in a direct form. This want of reality in the conversation Brodie could not avoid, but the variety of the facts related and the simple expres- sion of medical knowledge, with which most readers were unfamiliar, seemed to put abstruse things within the com- prehension of those who had been curious to know them but had before imagined them beyond reach. Thus the book came to be widely read by intelligent people and added much to Brodie's reputation. An Elizabethan surgeon, speaking of book-learning in members of his profession says, " as to reading I care not, so he be a good artist," and this was the view of Cline, 252 THE PRESIDENTS OF THE Astley Cooper and many other great surgeons. Brodie occupied a new and original position as a surgeon at the top of his profession who was at the same time in touch with both the scientific and the literary intellectual life of his period. He died at Brome Park in Surrey, October 21,1 862. In one of the dialogues there is a description of a case of aphasia, of which the explanation was of course un- known in the time of Brodie : — " In mother case, a gentleman who had previously suffered from a stroke of apoplexy (but recovered from it afterwards) was suddenly deprived of sensation on one side of his body. At the same time he lost the power not only of expressing himself in intelligible language, but also that, of comprehending what was said to him by others. He spoke what might be called gibberish, and it seemed to him that his friends spoke gibberish in return. But while his memory as to oral language was thus affected, as to written language it was not affected at all. If a letter was read to him, it conveyed no ideas to his mind ; but when he had it in his own hand, and read it himself, he understood it perfectly. After some time he recovered of this attack, as he had done of that of apoplexy formerly. He had another similar attack afterwards." A passage in Brodie's autobiography shows the learned company he early fell among : — "It was during the period of which I am now speaking, and not very long after I had ceased to be house-surgeon, that Mr. Home introduced me to Sir Joseph Banks. Sir Joseph took much interest in any one who was in any way engaged in the pursuit of science, and as I suppose partly from Home's recommendation and partly from knowing that I was occupied with him in making dissections in comparative anatomy, was led to show me much kindness ROYAL MEDICAL AND CHIRURGICAL SOCIETY 253 and attention, such as it was very agreeable for so young a man to receive from so distinguished a person. He invited me to the meetings which were held in his library on the Sunday evenings which intervened between the meetings of the Royal Society. These meetings were of a very different kind from those larger assemblies which were held three or four times in the season by the Duke of Sussex, the Marquis of Northampton, and Lo d Rosse, and they were much more useful. There was no ;rowding together of noblemen and philosophers, and would be philo- sophers, nor any kind of magnificent display. Th ^ visitors consisted of those who were already distinguished by their scientific reputation, of some younger men who, like myself, were following these greater persons at a humble distance, of a few individuals of high station who, though not working men themselves, were regarded by Sir Joseph as patrons of science, of such foreigners of distinction as during the war were to be found in London, and of very few besides. Everything was conducted in the plainest manner. Tea was handed round to the company, and there were no other refreshments. But here were to be seen the elder Herschel, Davy, Wollaston, Young, Hatchett, Wilkins the Sanscrit scholar, Marsden, Major Rennell, Henry Cavendish, Home, Barrow, Maskelyne, Blagden, Abernethy, Carlisle and others who have long since passed away, but whose reputation still remains, and gives a character to the age in which they lived. "In the course of the first few years which elapsed after my introduction to Sir Joseph Banks, I derived so much advantage from the society which I met in his library, and occasionally at his dinner table, that I feel it in some measure a duty not to omit some further notice of this eminent individual. I have been informed by those who might be supposed to be well acquainted with his history, 254 THE PRESIDENTS OF THE that as a boy at Eton he was a very indifferent student of Greek and Latin, and that he was himself mortified to find how much less a proficient he was in the school exercises than his fellow-pupils. But even at this early period he began the study of plants ; examining the different parts of their structure, and laying the foundation of that exten- sive knowledge for which he was afterwards distinguished in this department of natural history. Having inherited a considerable fortune, he had no taste for the usual trifling pursuits of afifluent young men, and being of an enterprising disposition, he obtained permission to accompany Captain Cook in one (I believe the first) of his voyages of discovery in the Pacific Ocean. I do not know how soon it was after his return to England that he was elected President of the Royal Society, superseding the former President, Sir John Pringle. His election took place after a severe contest, in which his principal opponents were the mathematicians, with Dr. Horsley, the Bishop of Rochester, at their head. He was created a Baronet, a Civil Knight of the Bath (corresponding to the G.C.B. of the present time), and a Privy Councillor. He was annually re-elected to the presidential chair, for many years, resigning the office as soon as he found that his declining health prevented his attending the meetings, that being not long before he died, " His London residence was in Soho Square, there being extensive premises behind his dwelling-house, which con- sisted chiefly of books on Natural History and the trans- actions of learned societies, and was probably in these departments unrivalled in the world. His principal lib- rarian was a Swede, Dr. Dryander ; and under his superin- tendence the library was so well managed, that although books were lent to men of science in the most liberal manner, I believe that not a volume was ever lost. Dryander was indeed a pattern as a librarian. The library ROYAL MEDICAL AND CHIRURGICAL SOCIETY 255 over which he presided was to him a// in all. Without being a man of science himself, he knew every book, and the contents of every book in it. If any one enquired of him where he might look for information on any particular subject, he would go first to one shelf, then to another, and return with a bundle of books under his arm containing the information which was desired." XVIII.— 1841. Dr. Robert Williams, physician to St. Thomas's Hospital, was born in London in 1787, and graduated M.B. as a member of Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1810, and M.D. in 1 816. He became a fellow of the College of Physicians in 181 7, and was physician to St. Thomas's Hospital from 1817 till his death in 1845. He was an original investigator in Therapeutics, and made the im- portant discovery of the value of iodide of potassium in the treatment of the later stages of syphilis. In his " Elements of Medicine " there are many interesting dis- cussions of methods of treatment, and the book itself has an original form, the classification of diseases as the results of various poisons introduced into the system. The differ- ence between the arrangements of general hospitals at the present day and in 1836 when this book was published are shown in his paragraph on the infecting distance of small-pox : — ^^ Infecting Distance. — The distance the poison may extend around the patient's person, before it becomes so diluted by admixture with atmospheric air as to be capable of communicating the disease, is not determined ; but it is probably very considerable. Dr. Haygarth, in his work on Infectious Fevers, says (p. 53) ' that during his long attention to this subject, not a single instance has occurred 256 THE PRESIDENTS OF THE to prove that persons liable to the small-pox could associate in the same chamber with a patient in the distemper without receiving the infection.' The experience of Dr. Haygarth is supported by the observations of the pro- fession at large, and has often been verified at St. Thomas's Hospital ; for rarely has the small-pox appeared within the walls of that establishment without spreading, not only in the same, but also in the contiguous wards ; and, on one occasion, even to the wards on the opposite side of the quadrangle. In a recent instance, a person caught the small-pox that lay at least thirty feet distant from the infected patient. It is impossible in any case to separate from this question the possibility of the disease having been conveyed by the students, the nurses, or by the physicians ; still there are many instances in which the supposition of fomites cannot enter, as when the disease is caused by passing an infected child on the opposite side of the street, a circumstance which has often happened, and which distinctly shows that this baneful poison will spread so as to communicate the disease many feet even through the open air. The infecting distance of the variolous poison, therefore, cannot be less than from thirty to fifty feet." XIX.— 1843. Edward Stanley, surgeon to St. Bartholomew's Hospital and president of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1848 and 1857, was born July 3, 1793, i" London, and after education at Merchant Taylors' School studied at St. Bartholomew's Hospital to which he became assistant surgeon in 18 16, and succeeded Abernethy as lecturer on Anatomy in 1826. He was full surgeon from 1838 to 186 1, and died suddenly in the hospital where he had been at- k ROYAL MEDICAL AND CHIRURGICAL SOCIETY 257 tending an operation, May 24, 1862. A ward in the hospital bears his name, and his bust is in the fine library of the school. He published " Illustrations of the effects of disease and injury of the bones " and " A treatise on diseases of the bones" (1849), ^ manual of anatomy (181 8), "An account of the mode of performing the Lateral operation of Lithotomy " (1829), and an Hunterian oration (1839). He greatly enlarged the Museum of St. Bartholomew's Hospital and made a systematic catalogue of the specimens. The Battle of Trafalgar took place in the year of foundation of our Society so that it seems appropriate to quote from his " Treatise on diseases of the bones " Stanley's account of the results of a wound received in that famous sea fight : — '■^Phagedenic Ulcer in the Tibia. — In the year 1805, ^t the Battle of Trafalgar, a sailor received a blow on the front of his leg. Ulceration of the soft parts ensued. The ulcer healed but there remained a constant aching in the bone. Several years afterwards, ulceration recurred in the same parts, and it then extended into the tibia. In the year 1818, he was admitted into St, Bartholomew's Hospital, with a wide and deep ulcerated hollow in the front of his leg. The surface of this hollow was formed by large and hard granulations, from which a profuse thin and foetid discharge constantly issued. The limb was amputated, and, on examining it, I found that four inches of the tibia, in nearly its whole thickness, had been removed by ulceration, and that the remaining portion of the shaft of the bone was much thickened and indurated, " Phagedenic Ulcer in the Tibia. — A man, seventy years of age, was admitted into St, Bartholomew's Hospital, under the care of Mr. Earle. He stated, that ten years R 258 THE PRESIDENTS OF THE previously he began to suffer severe pains in his limbs, which were considered rheumatic, and that soon after- wards, the bones of his legs, thighs, and arms began to enlarge ; that two years previously he received a blow on the front of the left leg, which was followed by abcess and ulceration in the soft parts, extending through the periosteum and deeply into the substance of the bone. From these diseased processes, the limb had been the source of such constant suffering that he solicited its removal. On examining the limb, I found the shaft of the tibia enormously enlarged, and indurated throughout, with a deep chasm in its lower and front part, occasioned by the ulceration of the thickened bone. Above and below this chasm, the medullary tube was closed for some way by osseous deposit : but beyond this, the tube was free, and the medulla within healthy. The inter-osseous ligament was ossified throughout, and the fibula was much increased in thickness. " Seven weeks after the amputation, the man died suddenly, and, on examining his body, an ulcer was found in the stomach, penetrating its coats, through which its contents had escaped. The tibia of the opposite limb, both thigh bones, and all the long bones of the upper limbs were greatly enlarged and indurated. " The peculiar ulceration of bone described in the fore- going cases, is analogous to certain examples of ulceration in the skin and subjacent soft tissues, spreading widely and deeply, and presenting such peculiarities of character, that it is often regarded as carcinoma to us," It was Abernethy who encouraged Stanley in the study of morbid anatomy, and that Stanley was grateful to his teacher throughout life is shown in his Hunterian oration of 1849 • — " To have hesitated, gentlemen, in appearing before you ROYAL MEDICAL AND CHIRURGICAL SOCIETY 259 on this occasion, would have been to do no honour to the memory of my earliest instructor in surgery, for I was the pupil of Mr. Abernethy, — one of those who listened with delight through a long series of years, to his animated ex- positions of the doctrines of John Hunter. Rightly has it been observed, that many are able to reach the summit of a science, who are not capable of leading others to it ; that there is often more difficulty in descending to teach, than in persisting to rise. How effectually did Mr. Abernethy master this difficulty was warmly acknowledged, on the various occasions of his appearance in the theatre of this college. Gratitude, and respect to his memory are justly due for the excellence of his instructions, enlivening, as he did, the driest details of his subject, communicating to others the enthusiasm for surgery which he so strongly felt. An old pupil presenting his first publicatio/n, inti- mated that with whatever zeal he had studied surgery, was a consequence of the enthusiasm derived from the attendance on his lectures. Mr. Abernethy, with his usual readiness of reply, simply reminded him, * that it required only a spark to excite the blaze of the largest fire.' Through his advocacy of the doctrines of Hunter, Mr. Abernethy reached the highest excellence as a teacher, inculcating the study of surgery as a noble occupation, and the practice of it with honourable and benevolent feelings." XX.— 1845. Dr. William Frederick Chambers was born in India in 1786. He was eldest son of William Chambers, of the East India Company's service. He was educated at Westminster School and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he took his decree in 1808 and became M.D. in 260 THE PRESIDENTS OF THE 1818. In 1816 he became physician to St. George's Hospital, and was elected a fellow of the College of Phy- sicians in 1819. From 1836 to 1850 he had a larger practice than any other physician of the time in London, He is said by Dr. Munk to have left sixty-seven quarto volumes of manuscript of four hundred pages each of notes of cases but printed no works. His portrait is to be seen at St. George's Hospital. He died at his country house near Lymington in Hampshire, December 17, 1855. XXI.— 1847. James Moncrieff Arnott was born in Fifeshire in 1794, and after education at Edinburgh became a member of the College of Surgeons in 18 17. He was President of that College in 1850, and in 1859 ^^ ^^^ surgeon to the Middlesex Hospital. After twenty years retirement he died in 1885. In our Transactions he published eight papers, six on the operative treatment of difificult cases, one on the secondary effects of inflammation of the veins and one on an osseous interine tumour. In his Hunterian oration (1843) he gave an admirable account of the discoveries of Sir Charles Bell : — "There remains to Bell clearly and unequivocally the merit of having first shown — " That in investigating the functions of the nervous system, we must direct our attention to the roots and not to the trunks of the nerves. " That the nervous trunks conveying motion and sensa- tion, consist of two distinct sets of filaments in the same sheath. *' That the filaments for motion form a distinct root from those of sensation, and that the anterior roots are for ROYAL MEDICAL AND CHIRURGICAL SOCIETY 261 motion ; leaving it to be inferred that the posterior are for sensation. " That the portio dura is a nerve of motion, and the fifth a nerve both of motion and sensation, " And lastly, of having been the first who, dissatisfied with the observation and study of the mere form of the various parts of the nervous system, applied the method of experi- ment to aid him in determining their functions, " In a word, there belongs to Bell the great discovery, the greatest in the physiology of the nervous system for twenty centuries, that distinct portions of that system are appropriated to the exercise of different functions. " Valuable practical precepts were immediately deduced from these discoveries, and at once applied by Sir Charles Bell and Mr, John Shaw, Perhaps the most important was the distinction of a local paralytic affection from that which depends on disease of the brain, I shall not detain you with cases of this kind, which, since the introduction of this new principle in the recognition and diagnosis of nervous diseases, have been accumulated in the records of medicine. The doctrine, however, and the consequences which ignorance of it occasioned, are well illustrated by a remarkable anecdote in a work where we should not be apt to look for ph\'siological instruction, I mean Grimm's Correspondence ; and as the story is little known, I will take the liberty of narrating it: — " A physician in Paris, on paying his visit one day, found an Abbe playing at cards in his patient's chamber. Struck by the unfavourable aspect of the Abbe's face he informed him that he had not a moment to lose, but must be carried home instantly. The Abbe, overpowered with terror, was taken to his lodgings, where, for several days he was bled, cupped and purged, till he was brought to the brink of the grave; yet his face still bore the appearance which had 262 THE PRESIDENTS OF THE SO much alarmed the physician. The brother of the patient at length arrived from a distant part of France, and asked what was the matter with his unfortunate relation. ' Don't you see,' said the bystanders, ' his mouth is all on one side?' 'Alas!' he replied, 'my poor brother has had his mouth on one side these forty years.' " Such cases will, in future, present no difficulty even to the beginner, and we recognise at once in Charles Bell the great characteristic of genius, that of giving the clearness of certainty to what before was either utterly unknown or but obscurely suspected. " Supposing, however, that this were the sole practical lesson as yet deduced from Sir Charles Bell's discoveries, it would be unjust to measure their merit by this alone. Independently of the direct instruction to be derived from them, they have brought physiologists into the true path ; and should the thick veil which nature has thrown over the operations of the nervous system be once drawn up, it will ever be remembered that Charles Bell first constructed the machinery for raising it." XXII.— 1849. Dr. Thomas Addison, whose name is known in the world of medicine in relation to the peculiar pigmentation of the skin which accompanies certain morbid changes in the supra-renal capsules, was of a Cumbrian yeoman stock, and was born at Long Benton in Northumberland in 1793. He graduated M.D. at Edinburgh in 181 5, and was ad- mitted a Licentiate of the College of Physicians in 1819. He was appointed assistant physician to Guy's Hospital in 1824, Lecturer on Materia Medica in 1827, and Physician in 1837. At the same time he became the colleague of Dr. Richard Bright as lecturer on medicine, and in 1838 ROYAL MEDICAL AND CHIRURGICAL SOCIETY 263 was elected a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians. He demonstrated in papers in our Transactions that the air cells and not the interstitial tissues of the lungs are the seat of disease in pneumonia. In 1855 he published a quarto volume with illustrations " On the constitutional and local effects of disease of the supra-renal capsules." Trousseau, with that generous desire to honour scientific discovery which is characteristic of the learned men of France, gave Addison's name to the disease in one of his famous clinical lectures (Clinique Medicale, vol. iii., 533. Paris, 1865;. The Biographical History of Guy's Hospital says that during his lifetime Addison's writings "contributed little to the reputation which he then enjoyed. This, which was very great, was entirely owing to the personal influence which he exerted on his pupils and others who came in contact with him." He died at Brighton, June 29, i860. A bust of him by Towne, which is described as an ad- mirable likeness by those who knew Addison, is in the Musuem of Guy's Hospital. Some passages from his treatise on supra-renal disease show his clinical acumen : — " The leading and characteristic features of the morbid state to which I would direct attention are, anaemia, general langour and debility, remarkable feebleness of the heart's action, irritability of the stomach, and a peculiar change of colour in the skin, occurring in connection with a diseased condition of the ' supra-renal capsules.' "As has been observed in other forms of anaemic disease this singular disorder usually commences in such a manner that the individual has considerable difficulty in assigning the number of weeks, or even months, that have elapsed since he first experienced indications of failing health and strength ; the rapidity, however, with which the morbid change takes place varies in different instances. 264 THE PRESIDENTS OF THE *' In some cases that rapidity is very great, a few weeks proving sufficient to break up the powers of the constitu- tion, or even to destroy life, the result, I believe, being determined by the extent, and by the more or less speedy development of the organic lesion. " The patient, in most of the cases I have seen, has been obsei^ved gradually to fall off in general health ; he becomes languid and weak, indisposed to either bodily or mental exertion ; the appetite is impaired or entirely lost ; the whites of the eyes become pearly ; the pulse small and feeble, or perhaps somewhat large, but excessively soft and compressible ; the body wastes, without, however, pre- senting the dry and shrivelled skin and extreme emaciation usually attendant on protracted malignant disease ; slight pain or uneasiness is from time to time referred to in the region of the stomach, and there is occasionally actual vomiting, which in one instance was both urgent and distressing ; and it is by no means uncommon for the patient to manifest indications of disturbed cerebral circu- lation. " Notwithstanding these unequivocal signs of feeble circu- lation, anaemia and general prostration, neither the most diligent inquiry nor the most careful physical examination tend to throw the slightest gleam of light upon the precise nature of the patient's malady ; nor do we succeed in fixing upon any special lesion as the cause of this gradual and extraordinary constitutional change. " We may, indeed, suspect some malignant or strumous disease — we may be led to inquire into the condition of the so-called blood-making organs — but we discover no proof of organic change anywhere — no enlargement of spleen, thyroid, thymus, or lymphatic glands — no evidence of renal disease, of purpura, of previous exhausting diar- rhcea, or ague, or any long-continued exposure to mias- ROYAL MEDICAL AND CHIRURGICAL SOCIETY 265 matic influences ; but with a more or less manifestation of the symptoms already enumerated we discover a most remarkable and, so far as I know, characteristic discoloration taking place in the skin — sufficiently marked, indeed, as •generally to have attracted the attention of the patient 'himself or of the patient's friends." XXIII.— 1851. Joseph Hodgson was bom in 1788 at Birmingham, where his father was a merchant. After education at King Edward VI.'s School in his native town, he became a student of St. Bartholomew's and a member of the College of Surgeons in 181 1. He practised in the city of London till 18 19, and then returned to Birmingham, where for thirty years he had a large surgical practice and was like his contemporaries, Travers and Lawrence, dis- tinguished as an operator on the eye. In 1849 ^^ returned to London, and in 1864 was elected President of the Royal College of Surgeons. He died in February, 1869. He wrote a " Treatise on the Diseases of Arteries and Veins" (London, 18 15) which was translated into German ( 1 8 1 7) and into French ( 1 8 1 9). It is dedicated to the Master, Governors, and Court of Assistants of the Royal College of Surgeons in London, and is an enlargement of an essay which obtained the Jacksonian prize. It has four parts : I, on the diseases of arteries in general ; II, on aneurism ; III, on wounded arteries ; IV, on the diseases of veins. It is interesting to observe how little attention had been paid at that time to the appearances of valvular disease of the heart. " A peculiar fungus sometimes grows from the semilunar valves of the aorta," says Hodgson, and adds, " This condition of the semilunar valves of the aorta is not very frequent, and a similar growth has been observed 266 THE PRESIDENTS OF THE to take place from those of the pulmonary artery and from the mitral and tricuspid valves." His account of the effect of the pressure of an aneurism on bone is illustrative of the state of knowledge at the time : — "When an aneurismal sac invades the structure of a bone, the latter appears curious and corroded. This cir- cumstance has been variously explained. Some of the older pathologists contended that the blood possessed a solvent power over bone, which was chemically dissolved when it came in contact with that fluid. Others have attributed it entirely to the attrition of the circulating blood. Hunter and Scarpa imputed it to the absorption of the bony matter from the pressure of the sac, which undoubtedly is sufficient to produce the effect, and con- stantly excites absorption of the soft parts in the vicinity of the tumour. The removal of the periosteum, which generally precedes the destruction of the bones, may also- in some degree account for this circumstance. The vessels which supply the earthy matter being removed, the forma- tion of bone does not continue, and that which remains presents a rough and curious appearance. Absorption however is unquestionably the principal agent in the pro- duction of this effect, for it is impossible by any other process to account for the irregularity with which the de- struction of the bones takes place, and which gives to them the curious appearance. Aneurism sometimes produce excavations in bones which are still covered with mem- branes. In such instances the bone is not divested of the source of its nutrition, and the blood is not in contact with its substance. Absorption therefore from pressure can alone have effected its removal," ROYAL MEDICAL AND CHIRURGICAL SOCIETY 267 XXIV.— 1853. Dr. James Copland was perhaps the most voluminous MTiter among our presidents. He was born in the Orkney Islands in 1791, went to a private school at Lerwick and studied at the University of Edinburgh where he graduated M.D. in 18 1 5. Copland gave thirty years of his life to the composition of the " Dictionary of Practical Medicine," of which part i. appeared in 1832 and the last part in 1858. He wrote much in the " Quarterly Journal of Foreign Medi- cine," and from 1822 to 1827 was editor of the "London Medical Repository," in which he also wrote many articles. He then planned an " Encyclopaedic Dictionary of the Medical Sciences," in which he was to be assisted by Dr. Robley Dunglisson, afterwards the most copious medical writer of the United States. The scheme fell through, and in the end Copland wrote his Dictionary without aid from any colleague. He annotated Richerand's "Physiology" (1824), and wrote "Pestilential Cholera" (1832), "On the Causes, Nature and Treatment of Palsy and Apoplexy" (1850)^ and " The Forms, Complications, Causes, Prevention and Treatment of Consumption and Bronchitis, comprising also the Causes and Prevention of Scrofula" (1861). He was- elected a fellow of the College of Physicians in 1837 and held many offices in the College. He died at Kilburn in 1870. '•^Description of Pestilential Cholera. — (i) Numerous attempts have been made by writers on the present destructive pestilence, to show that it is essentially the same disease with that form of cholera which has appeared at various times in warm climates. After the best atten- tion I can give to the subject — from the history of the present malady furnished us by the very numerous authors. 268 THE PRESIDENTS OF THE who have closely observed its phenomena — and from an extensive experience of those varieties of cholera which occur in this country during warm seasons, and in the more unhealthy localities in intertropical countries, I am entirely convinced that the pestilence which has ravaged the East, and is gradually extending itself over Europe, is not only distinct from all visitations of the disease to which the name Cholera has been attached, and with which the history of medicine has made us acquainted, but is altogether a new disease, one totally unknown to medical science previously to the year 1817, when it first made its direful irruption in Jessore, a populous and un- healthy city in the centre of the Delta of the Ganges." XXV.— 1855. CiESAR Henry Hawkins, surgeon to St. George's Hospital, was born at Bisley in Gloucestershire. His father was vicar of that parish, and was son of Sir Caisar Haw- kins, sergeant- surgeon to King George H. and King George HI. and the great-grandson of Colonel Caesar Hawkins who was in the service of King Charles I. One of the brothers of our President became Provost of Oriel and another physician to the Middlesex Hospital. He received his school education at Christ's Hospital and his medical education at St. George's Hospital, at the Windmill Street School, and at other private schools of medicine. He was a pro- sector at the Windmill Street School, worked with Sir Charles Bell there, and was afterwards the survivor •of the staff of the school which William Hunter founded. When the originality of Bell's great discovery was attacked Hawkins successfully maintained the priority of Bell's conclusions as to the functions of the nerves. At the .final dissolution of the school he gave half of its museum ROYAL MEDICAL AND CHIRURGICAL SOCIETY 269 to St. George's Hospital. From 1829 to 1861 he was surgeon to that hospital, was President of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1852 and 1861, and President of the Pathological Society in 1849. ^^ 1862 he was ap- pointed sergeant-surgeon to the Queen, being the fourth of his family who had held that office under the house of Hanover. He died July 20, 1884. Hawkins reprinted his numerous papers in two volumes in 1874, ^^^ it would be greatly to the advantage of sub- sequent students who endeavour to ascertain the work done by their predecessors if every eminent member of our profession who lived to enjoy old age were to devote part of it to such a collection. The volumes of Hawkins contain nine hundred closely printed pages of observations and lectures, and are striking proofs of the continuous industry of his life. His clinical lectures are simple and lucid. A passage in " Clinical remarks on injury and disease of cervical vertebrae," delivered May 25, 1847, is a good example: — " Here, then, the patient seems clearly to have been ad- mitted with a disease of the intervertebral substances, not the result of an accident, but arising either spontaneously^ or (and this brings us back to the commencement of the case) in connection with the following circumstances. — He first presented himself at the hospital on January 19th, and was admitted into Cholmondely ward : he then stated that ' three weeks ago he swallowed a fragment of mutton bone^ which had remained in his throat ever since. A probang was passed the day after the accident, by a surgeon in the country, without any benefit: at the end of a fortnight, a probang was again passed. Previous to this time he had swallowed fluids only, but after the second passing of the probang, he could swallow small pieces of fat, and other soft food. For the first fortnight the pain was very severe^ 270 THE PRESIDENTS OF THE but is now less so, and is chiefly referred to a spot just above the sternum ; he has much expectoration ; and has lost flesh lately.' " Bougies and forceps of different sizes were passed two days after his admission, and an imperfect sensation felt as of the bone just above the sternum ; but the bougie passed beyond the part nearly to the stomach ; mucus and a little blood came away on the instruments. This pain and distress were all referred to one spot, which was tender, across the neck, close to the sternum ; tenderness and pain were nearly equal on both sides of the trachea, but perhaps more on the right, where the sensation above mentioned was experienced. There was also slight fulness in the same part, but scarcely, if at all, greater on the right side than on the left : a mustard poultice was ordered to the tender spot. " In this case you see there was a history of a bone having lodged in the oesophagus, and remaining there for a space of three weeks. Now, a man who has, or believes he has, a foreign body in his oesophagus, will present, in any case, a subject for anxious consideration ; and, in the first place, the question arises, whether the sharp irregular bone, in passing down into the stomach, might not have produced some degree of laceration, and so the consequent inflam- mation give rise to a sensation at that part, the same as if the foreign body were still alive there ; this is not an un- frequent occurrence, and the application of leeches and a poultice, succeeded perhaps by mustard poultices, or a blister, may be required to prevent ulceration, and the formation of abscess by the side of the oesophagus. But three weeks is a longer time than you would expect these effects to remain, unless something more than a mere bruising or laceration had taken place. I need not tell you that, in by far the greater number of cases, a foreign body, once in ROYAL MEDICAL AND CHIRURGICAL SOCIETY 271 the oesophagus, will pass into the stomach. There naturally exists some degree of constriction about the situation of the cricoid cartilage, the ring of which being perfect, renders the CESophagus capable of a less degree of dilatation ; but if the body has once passed this, there is nothing in the tube itself to prevent its generally passing into the stomach. In consequence of the source of fallacy from laceration I before alluded to, and of the improbability of a substance remaining impacted so low down, no operation can be thought of unless there is positive evidence that it really •is there, and only gentle and judicious attempts must be made to push down or extract the body supposed to be lodged, lest such attempts themselves occasion further mis- chief. Any foreign body will generally pass on, but still cases may occur attended with much risk and danger. Here is a piece of bone which lodged in the oesophageal canal. Ulceration took place, and an abscess formed, which, bursting into the mediastinum, produced inflam- mation of both pleurae, and terminated in death. The patient, indeed, was a quadruped, but the same thing happens also in human patients. Very nearly at the same time Smith was admitted, there was a patient in the Middlesex Hospital, in whose oesophagus a foreign body had lodged, and the question of propriety of performing oesophagotomy was considered. There was not thought to be sufficient certainty of its presence to warrant the opera- tion, and the patient died from exactly the same cause as the dog from whom this preparation was taken." XXVI.— 1857. Sir Charles Locock, Bart, was son of Henry Locock, M.D., and was born at Northampton in 1799. He resided as a pupil in the house of Sir Benjamin Brodie and gradu- 272 THE PRESIDENTS OF THE ated M.D. at Edinburgh in 1821, Dr. Gooch, whose ill- health compelled him to give up work, helped Locock to midwifery practice and he soon attained success. He lectured (1834-5) on midwifery, at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, and in 1836 he was elected a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians. As first physician accou- cheur to Queen Victoria he was in attendance at the birth of all her children, and in 1857 was given a baron- etcy. He was one of the earliest advocates of the use of bromide of potassium in epilepsy. He died July 23, 1 875. In the "Library of Medicine" (1840), edited by Dr. Alexander Tweedie, he wrote the articles on Infantile gastric remittent fever, and on Puerperal fever. The term infantile gastric remittent fever is no longer in common use, but it is easy to recognise the disease he describes : — - " I. Symptoms of the acute form. — It is not in earliest infancy that this disease is most commonly met with — indeed, many have denied its existence in children during the period of lactation. It is most frequent from the age of two to six, but preserves its peculiar character up to the age of puberty, though the older the child grows, the less marked are those peculiarities of type. In the acute form, the symptoms often come on very suddenly. The child perhaps goes to bed apparently as well as usual, and in an hour is found with a burning skin, a flushed counten- ance, and injected eye, and a very rapid pulse, varying perhaps from 120 to 160. There is intense thirst, with a. dry tongue, which soon becomes coated and covered with a thick white fur ; the child is restless and wide awake, often delirious, but able to answer questions or do as directed. If old enough, the child often complains of pain in the head and sometimes in the abdomen, the parietes of which are generally more hot than any other part of ROYAL MEDICAL AND CHIRURGICAL SOCIETY 273 the body ; indeed, the feet are often cool or cold. There is occasionally sickness and vomiting of sour and offensive, or of greenish or yellow fluid. If the proper remedies be used, in a few hours the skin becomes cool, perspiration breaks out, the tongue is found to be moist, the pulse softer and more quiet, the child falls into a deep and refreshing sleep, and on awakening appears nearly as well as the day before." XXVII.— 1859. Frederic Carpenter Skev, surgeon to St. Bar- tholomew's Hospital, was the son of a Russia merchant in London, and was born in 1798 at Upton-on-Severn. After some brief studies at Edinburgh and in Paris he came to St. Bartholomew's Hospital as a pupil of Abernethy, and became a member of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1822. In 1827 he was appointed assistant surgeon and in 1854 surgeon to St. Bartholomew's, and was elected President of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1863. He died August 15, 1872. The influence of Abernethy's views is to be discovered in his writings. His treatise on Hysteria, like some of the writings of Lawrence, Brodie and Solly, shows that the surgeons of the first half of the eighteenth century were often concerned in the treatment of cases which would at the present day be considered rather medical than surgical. His lectures " On the prevalent treatment of disease" (1853) are an interesting series of cases which show that Skey had by direct experiment ascertained the value of open air and careful feeding in phthisis : — " I cannot refrain from detailing the exact treatment I adopted in a case that came under my charge last S 274 THE PRESIDENTS OF THE summer. A young lady, aged twenty-one, had the follow- ing symptoms : — From having been healthy and stout, she became greatly emaciated, lost appetite, strength, sleep. From having been accustomed to active exercise, she was unable to mount to her bedroom without sitting down on the stairs. Her weakness was extreme. Cough followed, night sweats, and two attacks of haemoptysis. The blood discharged, however, was inconsiderable. The stethoscope detected disease of both lungs, interrupted breathing, bronchophony, dulness on percussion ; the signs were more plainly marked on the right side, beneath the outer half of the clavicle. I had her carefully examined by a medical friend, far more experienced than I, in this de- partment of practice ; he confirmed my opinion, and added other not less unequivocal signs of disease which had escaped my observation. This occurred during the in- tensely hot weather of last July. I was most anxious to save the life of this poor girl, and yet I confess in all candour that I had no hope of her recovery from ordinary treatment. I thought if she mu'^t die, I might as well take the responsibility of her charge as coTsign her to the care of another, and I took her into my own house, some few miles out of town, 'n the neighbourhood of Hampstead, where my family was then residing. The cool air revived her, and she began to take food, though sparingly. While the weather was yet hot, I ordered her to take a cold bath ever}' day. I gave her steel in the form of Schwalbach water, twice a day, to the amount of two-thirds of a quart bottle. Twice a day, two drachms of compound tincture of bark. Thrice in the day, a full dessert-spoonful of cod-liver oil. Every morning, a lini- ment of cantharides and turpentine to the upper part of the chest, alternately in front and on the back. She occupied a room without a curtain, and often slept with ROYAL MEDICAL AND CHIRURGICAL SOCIETY 275 the window slightly open. She ate meat three times in each day, and she drank three full glasses of sherry, during the remaining meals. " Under this treatment her strength increased, and her general aspect greatly improved ; she gradually acquired strength to take exercise, and walked for half an hour two or three times a day, till she eventually reached six miles per diem. She rode on horseback for one hour. When she first became an inmate of my house, her weight was 7 St. 6 lb. She was weighed every fortnight, and gained steadily 2 lb., notwithstanding her active exercise, to which indeed she now devoted the greater part of every day. In fourteen weeks she gained 1 1 lb. in weight. I ordered her to be incased in flannel down to the wrists and ancles as the weather became colder, and on the accession of the slightest sensation of chill, to take hot wine, or brandy and water. Her pulse fell from ninety-five to seventy-two. At the expiration of four months no morbid sound was audible." XXVIII.— i86i. Dr. Benjamin Guy Babington, the twenty-eighth president, was son of Dr. William Babington, the sixth president. There are many instances in the list of presi- dents, of pupils succeeding their teachers in the office. Thus Sir Astley Paston Cooper was the pupil of Henry Cline ; Lawrence, Earle, Brodie, Skey and Burrows were taught by Abernethy ; Paget, Hutchinson and Willett by Lawrence ; Locock by BroJie, Solly by Travers. The presidency might seem to have been transmitted by marriage, for Dr. Richard Bright was son-in-law of Dr. William Babington ; while Sir George Burrows was son-in-law of Abernethy and Mr. Alfred Willett son-in-law of Burrows; but Dr. 276 THE PRESIDENTS OF THE Benjamin Guy Babington is the sole instance of a son succeeding his father in the presidency. He was born in 1794, and received his school education at the Charter- house. He then went into the Navy and served as mid- shipman in the battle of Copenhagen. Leaving the Navy he went to Haileybury, and thence in 181 2 into the East India Company's service in Madras. He mastered Tamil, and published in 1822 a translation into English of the Tamil grammar of C. J. Beschius ; but finding the climate of India injurious he decided to make medicine his pro- fession and returned to Europe, studied at Guy's Hospital, graduated M.B, at Pembroke College, Cambridge, in 1825, and M.D. in 1830. He was elected a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in 1831. In " Some considerations with respect to the blood " (Transactions, xvi.) he pro- posed the term " liquor sanguinis," which has ever since continued in use. He was interested in the history of medicine, and translated Hecker's " Epidemics of the Middle Ages," In 1837 he became assistant physician and in 1840 physician to Guy's Hospital, where he held office till 1855. He was the first president of the Epi- demiological Society, a position for which his study of the history of epidemics and the large knowledge of Cholera which he had acquired in India eminently fitted him. He invented in 1829 a " glottiscope," an oblong mirror for obtaining a reflection of the epiglottis and laiynx, which Hodgkin called in a lecture "the speculum laryngis or laryngiscope, invented by my friend Dr. Babington in 1829".^ After a life of continuous and varied intellectual exer- tion, he died April 8, 1866. Babington wrote an excel- 1 Wilks and Bettany, " History of Guy's Hospital." London, 1892, p. 236. ROYAL MEDICAL AND CHIRURGICAL SOCIETY 277 lent " Report on the Cholera which visited Her Majesty's Black Sea Fleet in the autumn of 1854," based upon the answers to questions addressed to the medical officers of the fleet. " The most striking fact it (the Report) contains is, in my opinion, the great disproportion between the liability to cholera of the officers and that of the men under their command. Out of 884 officers in the Black Sea on board the ships mentioned in this report, there were but five who took the disease, and of these one was a gunner and one a boatswain, whose habits, probably, assimilated more to that of foremast men than of officers of the quarter-deck. This gives a proportion of i to 1 77 : while in the case of the men who, exclusive of officers, amounted to 11,488, there were 705 attacks, or i in about i6"29. "In the Baltic, where there were in the seven ships, from which we have reports, 183 officers, there was not a single case of cholera among them ; while among the men, who, exclusive of officers, amounted to 1841, there were 49 attacks, or i in T,yS7- " Now, if we assume the exciting cause to have been in both classes the same, or nearly the same (and whether we look to atmospheric influence or an emanation from the bodies of the men, we can scarcely refuse to admit this, since all were living almost promiscuously in the same vessel), we are forced to attribute the difference chiefly to the predisposing and, in a great measure, preventable causes, and thence to coincide with those who recommend as prophylactics, cleanliness, ventilation, good clothing, and diet (fresh provisions), temperance, moderation in exertion and amusement. Whether the spirit drinking of the men may predispose to the disease, more than the wine drinking of the officers, is a question worthy of 278 THE PRESIDENTS OF THE further investigation. There ought to be some discover- able cause for so vast a difference." XXIX.— 1863. Richard Partridge, surgeon to King's College Hos- pital, was seventh son of Samuel Partridge of Ross in Herefordshire, and was born in 1805. He studied at St. Bartholomew's Hospital and became a member of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1827 and was elected its president in 1866. In 1831 he was appointed the first demonstrator of anatomy at King's College. " It was at this time," says a writer ^ who was his contemporary, " that Mr. Partridge distinguished himself by his detection of the murder of an Italian boy whose body was brought to the dissecting-room of King's College by the notorious coadjutors of Burke and Hare, of Edinburgh — Bishop, Williams, and Shield. On inspection of the body, Mr. Partridge suspected some foul play had been practised. . . . The body of the unfortunate Italian boy, Carlo Ferarri, on the arrest of the murderers, was removed to the watch-house of St. Paul's, Covent-Garden — a miserable little building situated between the portico of the church of St. Paul's and the corner of Henrietta Street, long since taken down. The writer of this sketch was present at the post-mortem examination, and he has a vivid recol- lection of the circumstances attending it. The day was hot and sultry ; the room in which the body lay, small and close. There were present — Mr. Herbert Mayo, Mr. Partridge (a very young-looking man, with a florid com- plexion, light hair, and somewhat of an effeminate appear- ance), Mr. Geo. Beaman, and Mr. John Witherfield, who attended as the surgeons of the parish. I was there as ^ "Medical Times and Gazette," March 29, 1832. ROYAL MEDICAL AND CHIRURGICAL SOCIETY 279 representative of Mr. Charles Snitch, the surgeon of the F Division of Police, and Mr. D. Edwards as assistant to Mr. Beaman. The teeth of the murdered boy had been removed, and sold to a dentist in Newington Causeway. The post-mortem examination was made by Mr. Beaman an accomplished anatomist, who had been shortly before connected with the celebrated school of the Graingers in Webb Street in the Borough. The examination of the internal organs having been made, and no signs of injury detected, Mr. Mayo, who had an impediment in his speech, stuttered out, ' By Jove ! this boy died a natural death.' Mr. Beaman, however, suggested that the exa- mination must be carried further, and proceeded to exa- mine the spine. The upper cervical vertebras were found to be fractured, and Mr. Mayo immediately exclaimed, ' By Jove ! this boy was murdered.' Evidence on this point was forthcoming at the trial at the Old Bailey. It appeared that the mode by which the murderers effected their object was to fracture the spines of their victims and then plunge them headforemost into a butt of water. It is due to Professor Partridge to state that by his skill and experience he put a stop to the infamous system of ' burking ' living bodies for the purposes of dissection after they had been murdered." From 1836 to 1840 Partridge was on the surgical staff of Charing Cross Hospital, and from 1840 to 1870 he was surgeon to King's College Hospital. He was appointed professor of anatomy at the Royal Academy. In 1862 he was sent to Spezzia to treat Garibaldi for a bullet wound of the right ankle but failed to discover the bullet, the presence of which the ingenuity of Nelaton afterwards demonstrated. The Rontgen rays now enable much less skilful anatomists than Partridge to be certain on such points. 280 THE PRESIDENTS OF THE Partridge died March 25, 1873. ^^is portrait is pre- served in the collection of the Society. He himself had considerable artistic talent, which is apparent at the present day in a second generation, for the design of the table-card for the centenaiy dinner of the Society is from the pencil of Mr. Bernard Partridge, his son, whose cartoons in " Punch " so happily express the political situations of our own time. XXX.— 1865. Sir James Alderson, son of Dr. John Alderson, a doctor of medicine, was born at Hull in 1794. He received his academical education at Pembroke College, Cambridge, went out as sixth wrangler in 1822 and was elected a fellow. In 1829 he graduated M.D. at Oxford, and was elected a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of London in 1830. For about twenty years he practised as a physician in Hull, and thence in 1850 migrated to London where he lived in Berkeley Square. In 1851, on the foundation of St. Mary's Hospital, he became one of its physicians and held office till 1867 when he was elected president of the Royal College of Physicians. He was knighted in 1869 and appointed physician ex- traordinary to the Queen in 1874. He died in 1882. His account of the " Pathology and treatment of Acute Rheumatism" (1853) contains remarks on treatment in- teresting as being perhaps the last passage of the old controversy on the danger of a administering cinchona bark, and generally as giving a view of the then prevalent opinions on the treatment of the disease: — " The fact is, the beneficial action of bark is, in the early stage of rheumatism, most questionable : my own opinion is that it is only when bleeding, used with judg- ROYAL MEDICAL AND CHIRURGICAL SOCIETY 281 ment, has prepared the way, or when the maximum point "is passed, that any real advantage can be derived, while a certain degree of doubt or actual danger attends its earlier use. " Though the alkaloid colchicia has never yet been analyzed, colchicum is known to be one of those poisonous vegetables from which these essential principles are ex- tracted. It has been too favourite a remedy to permit us to omit to notice it, nor can we deny that it has the property of acting directly upon the diseased state of the blood. " The degree of benefit which has been derived from it is a fact coincident with our view of the disease, for, acting as a violent irritant of the mucous membrane, it draws from the blood, in the form of secretion, its richer con- stituents. "The effects, however, are so variable in different constitu- tions, and its properties so diverse in different preparations depending on casual circumstances, that its action lies too much beyond the power of calculation to make it a very safe or desirable remedy. " I am disposed to attribute some of the sudden cures ascribed to colchicum to the circumstance that the local affection usually disappears after a brief space, with or without the application of any remedy, by the self-relieving process, which has been the foundation of nearly all our remarks. This relief, which is certain to happen, is almost certain, from its suddenness and completeness, to be attri- buted, by the patient at least, to the last-taken medicine." XXXI.— 1867. Samuel Solly, son of a Baltic merchant, was bom in 1805 in that eastern part of the city of London known as 282 THE PRESIDENTS OF THE St. Mary Axe, and died in Savile Row in 1871, His bust is preserved at St. Thomas's Hospital. He became art apprentice of Benjamin Travers, then surgeon to St.. Thomas's Hospital, and was qualified to practice in 1828. In 1 841 he was appointed assistant surgeon, and in 1853 surgeon to St. Thomas's Hospital. He lectured there on anatomy and physiology and on surgeiy. He painted in water-colours, and some of his pictures were exhibited at the Royal Academy. He published " The Human Brain " (1836), a work on human and comparative anatomy; "Surgical Experiences" (1865) ^^^ various memoirs and papers. He was interested in nervous diseases, and an example of his practice is given by him in his " Human Brain," second edition, 1847: — "Early in the year 1845, when the railway mania was at its height, I was requested to visit a gentleman at an hotel in the City, who was quite insane. When I entered the room he immediately ordered, in a loud,, authoritative tone, his attendant to leave the room. He looked at me to know if he was to do so, and as I was quite sure that I should be of little service if I did not obtain the confidence of my patient, I immediately assented.. My patient, who was a fine tall muscular man, was lying on the sofa ; he now rose and asked me what I wanted. I told him that I came to prescribe for him, as I under- stood that he was not well. He then asked me if I was a physician or a surgeon. On my informing him that I was the latter, he said ' Very well, that will do, they are not humbugs generally.' He then said, ' But I want no medical advice, I never was better in my life,' and began talking incessantly, telling me he had made an enormous fortune in railways, and how the Almighty had enabled him to do so. His conversation was rambling, incorrect. ROYAL MEDICAL AND CHIRURGICAL SOCIETY 283 and founded on the most absurd delusions. His head was hot, and his face flushed, and he had had no sleep for several nights. I learned that he had first shown decided mental derangement only a few days previous to my visit. Morphia had been administered in large doses, but without the slightest effect. He was always worse at night. I ordered forty leeches to the forehead, fomentations to promote bleeding, and aftei^wards cold lotions ; five grains of calomel with rhubarb and jalap, and a second draught in the morning. I found him more tranquil the next day, having had about an hour's sleep. I repeated the leeches and the calomel. On the third day he was so rational and quiet that he accompanied me in my own carriage, the attendant riding on the box, to a cottage in the neighbourhood of the Regent's Park. Here I pursued the same plan of treatment, leeching the head freely, but always first persuading him that they were necessary for his recovery. Each night he got a little more sleep, though it was slow in returning. About the fifth night he slept quite naturally and without a grain of opium in any form. I gave two grains of grey powder, with a grain of aconite, three times a day. He took a great deal of exercise, and recovered perfectly in a fortnight from the date of my first visit. " If a different course of treatment had been pursued in the case, I have very little doubt he would have been rendered a confirmed lunatic. If, for instance, the straight waistcoat had been applied at night when he was noisy and riotous, instead of being soothed and talked to kindly,.. or if he had been confined in one of the old-fashioned insane establishments with barred windows and bolted doors, the disease would have been confirmed, and the. brain most probably irremediably injured. Harsh treat- ment to a lunatic produces as much mischief to his in- 284 THE PRESIDENTS OF THE flamed brain as the jolting of a waggon without springs would to a compound fracture of the leg." XXXII.— 1869. Sir George Burrows, Bart., was the son of Dr. George Man Burrows, a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, and was born in Bloomsbury Square, London, November 28, 1 801. After education at a private school he attended in 181 9 the lectures of Abemethy at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, and in 1820 entered at Caius College, Cambridge. He was tenth wrangler in the mathematical tripos of 1825 in which Challis, afterwards Plumian Professor of Astronomy, was senior wrangler. Burrows w^as elected a fellow of Caius and became mathematical lecturer there, and was a senior and contemporary in that society of Sir George Paget, who became Regius Professor of Physic at Cambridge, and was his successor as President of the General Medical Council. Burrows graduated M.B. in 1826 and M.D. in 183 1, and improved his medical knowledge in Italy, France and Germany. In 1832 he was elected a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians. Assistant physicians had from time to time been appointed at St. Bartholomew's Hos- pital from the time of Queen Elizabeth, but no regular succession of those officers had existed till Burrows was appointed in 1834. He became physician in 1841 and held office till 1863. At St. Bartholomew's and in the College of Physicians he was profoundly trusted, and his advice on professional conduct often sought. Of his pro- fessional writings he himself attached most importance to his book " On disorders of the Cerebral circulation and on the connexion between affection of the brain and diseases of the heart " (London, 1 846), which includes his investiga- ROYAL MEDICAL AND CHIRURGICAL SOCIETY 285 tions as to the effects of varying conditions of pressure on the cerebral circulation. In his portrait by Knight, which hangs in the great hall of St. Bartholomew's Hospital, a prepared brain is placed at his side in allusion to this work. He married a daughter of John Abernethy, our ninth president, and his daughter married Mr. Alfred Willett, our forty-ninth president. Burrows was president of the Royal College of Physicians from 1871 to 1875. He died at his house, 18 Cavendish Square, on December 12, 1887. The last paragraph of his chief work is of historical interest as illus- trating the difference of practice between 1846 and 1905 : — " In all cases of pericarditis, excepting in patients affected with tubercular disease of the lungs, or in the very anaemic and cachectic, 1 employ mercurial preparations as freely as in acute inflammations of other parts. An in- genious writer has affirmed that the employment of this mineral in the treatment of rheumatic affections of the heart is based upon a false analogy between these specific and idiopathic inflammations of similar parts. I must confess, that, to my comprehension, the analogies between rheumatic and other inflammations of the pericardium or endocardium are sufficiently close to justify the employ- ment of so powerful a combination as calomel combined with opium, to reduce the inflammatory actions. My ex- perience fully confirms the propriety of employing this combination. I believe my method of prescribing these drugs does not differ from that in common use among physicians of the present day. I administer a few large doses of calomel, varying from five to ten grains, combined with a grain of opium, and then continue half the dose of the same combination at moderate intervals, until the urgent symptoms abate, or the mouth becomes distinctly affected by the mercury. I sometimes, although rarely, 286 THE PRESIDENTS OF THE order mercurial inunction, together with the internal ad- ministration of the calomel." XXXIII.— 1871. Thomas Blizard Curling was bom in 181 1, and was nephew of Sir William Blizard, surgeon to the London Hospital. At twenty-one he became a member of the College of Surgeons, and at twenty-two was appointed on the surgical staff of the London Hospital. He resigned the post of surgeon in 1869 and in 1873 became President of the Royal College of Surgeons. Thirteen papers by him appear in the transactions of the Society. The sub- ject of one at least, " Ulceration of the duodenum in cases •of bum," still excites discussion. Besides a Jacksonian prize essay on Tetanus (1836) his <:hief works were a " Practical Treatise on Diseases of the Testis" (1843), which went through a second (1855) and a third edition (1866), and was translated into French (1857) and into Chinese (1874): and "Observations on Diseases of the Rectum" (185 1), of which a fresh edition appeared in every decade up to 1876. These works indicate the parts of surgical practice in which he was most often consulted. His argument on the relation of burns to duodenal ulcers is perhaps the passage in his works most often mentioned at the present day : — " In the preceding observations, the origin of the mis- chief in the intestine may be traced from the period of the injury to the skin, and referred to acute inflammation, ending in ulceration of a defined portion of the mucous membrane of the duodenum, proceeding rapidly to perfora- tion, exposing the pancreas, and sometimes laying open the branches of the hepatic artery passing between this ROYAL MEDICAL AND CHIRURGICAL SOCIETY 287 .gland and the intestine, and sometimes opening a com- munication with the serous cavity of the abdomen, pro- ducing peritonitis, and thus causing death. It has been noticed by authors, that in cases of extensive burn, patients often appear to be going on well, the constitution seeming to bear up against its destructive effects, when the powers suddenly give way, and the patient rapidly sinks. In many of these cases, if inquiry had been made, it would very probably have been found that the unfavourable change had resulted from the occurrence of haemorrhage or perforation from an ulcer in the duodenum." XXXIV.— 1873. Dr. Charles James Blasius Williams was the president by whom I was admitted into the Society, and as he shook hands with me I regarded him with interest and respect as a man who had learned auscultation from Laennec himself. Williams was born in Wiltshire in the Hungerford Alms- house, of which his father, a clergyman, was Warden. He was born in 1805, and like the late Marquis of Salisbuiy, on February 3rd, the Feast of St. Blaise, the bishop to whom he owed his last Christian name. It is an example of the care with which historians should draw inferences without full investigation that Williams' father, who might have been supposed a New Whig from giving his son the two Christian names of Fox, the chief man of that party in 1805, was in fact a Tory and had no such intention. St. Blaise was even in recent years commemorated in a septen- nial procession at Bradford, in Yorkshire, as the mediaeval patron of woolcombers and woolstaplers, yet the father of Williams had no connexion with these occupations and none with Bradford. Williams entered the University of 288 THE PRESIDENTS OF THE Edinburgh in 1820, and there graduated M.D. in 1824. In 1825 he attended Laennec's clinique at La Charite^ and has left an interesting account of that great teacher in " Memoirs of Life and Work," published in 1 884 : — " After due consideration, I resolved to make the hospital of La Charite and the clinique of Laennec, the chief field of my work. His visit was from ten to twelve in the forenoon, giving ample time for the examination of patients, and the demonstration of the signs of auscultation to the students. M. Laennec at the bedside always spoke in Latin, to avoid alarming the patients by the description of their maladies ; and also for the benefit of many foreigners attending the clinique, who might not understand French. The visit was terminated by a clinical lecture in French ; unless there was a post-ino7'tein examination, which he superintended, with the safeguard of a long pair of forceps in his hand, and the free use of chloride of lime in the room. He was always fearful of infection, and was not aware that he was already consumptive. He died of phthisis little more than a year after. Yet although very thin, and sometimes becoming exhausted with long exer- tion, his vivacity and quickness of perception and intellig- ence were unimpared, and showed the integrity of those wonderful powers of observation and reflection, by which he had become the discoverer of a new system and a new art. " We counted ourselves fortunate in thus having the personal instructions of the great master, when most matured by the latest observations and practice. It was surprising how little he was valued by French students.. Those who attended his clinique were chiefly foreigners ; and at his lectures on medicine at the College of France^ there was only a sprinkling of his own countrymen. They are attracted more by the impetuous Broussais, who capti- vated them by a grand idea — a sweeping hypothesis, with- ROYAL MEDICAL AND CHIRURGICAL SOCIETY 289 out troubling them with the details of objective facts, or careful observation. Broussais generally ascribed diseases to inflammation ; and his treatment lay chiefly in different modes of blood-letting and starvation. I soon found that Laennec had a bias, from his opposition of these views, to go to the other extreme, and deny the existence of inflam- mation, where it really exists. Andral took an eclectic view of the question ; and guided by Laennec's ausculta- tion (only without the stethoscope), compared with the investigations of pathological anatomy, succeeded in giving a more rational and complete view of the processes of disease, than had been attained by either Broussais or Laennec before him. It was my good fortune to be in a position to profit also by his labours, at the same time that I was attending the wards of Laennec." Williams returned to London in 1827, and in 1828 published "Rational Exposition of the Physical signs of the Diseases of the Lungs and Pleura," dedicated to Sir Henry Halford. In 1839, when ElHotson resigned, he became Professor of Medicine at University College, and in 1 840 was elected a fellow of the College of Physicians. When the Pathological Society was founded in 1 846, he was chosen its first president. He attained to large practice and was appointed physician extraordinary to the Queen. He died at Cannes March 24, 1889. XXXV.— 1875. Sir James Paget, Bart., in his notes on his own career, acknowledges with gratitude the teaching of four presidents of this society — Earle, Lawrence, Stanley and Burrows, and he himself had an important influence in the education of two presidents, Mr. Jonathan Hutchin- son and Mr. Alfred Willett. The story of his life is set forth in his memoirs and T 290 THE PRESIDENTS OF THE letters edited by his son, the present secretary of the Society. It is the history of a man who aimed at success and attained it, but whose affection for his work and untiring assiduity in it, whose anxiety to discharge to the utmost every public duty, and whose admirable life in the relations of home and friendship exalt his permanent reputation, so that had his life not been crowned by success, its history would still have deserved remembrance and excited admiration. He was bom at Great Yarmouth, where his father was a shipowner, on January 1 1, 1814, entered at St. Bartholo- mew's Hospital in 1 834, and there was in succession Curator of the Museum (1836), Demonstrator of Morbid Anatomy (1839), Lecturer on General Anatomy and Physiology (1843), Warden of the College (1843-51), Assistant Sur- geon (1847), and Surgeon in (1861). In 1871 he retired from the staff of the hospital, after thirty-seven years of unremitting toil. From the time that he became surgeon to St. Bartholo- mew's till he retired altogether from practice, he was the chief man among surgeons, and his was the most trusted opinion in surgical questions. At the College of Surgeons, at this Society and the Royal Society, in the General Medical Council and at the International Congress of Medicine he discharged to the utmost every duty which belonged to his position. Besides his example as a man he left behind him permanent additions to knowledge. In 1874 he described a form of disease of the breast which is named after him, and in 1876 discovered Osteitis deformans. A delightful hospitality and a general kindness to his con- temporaries and to those who were beginning the labours of a medical career, and indeed to every man he came across, must be added to the sum of the useful work of his life. ROYAL MEDICAL AND CHIRUKGICAL SOCIETY 291 He lectured and spoke in public with a skill which always charmed his hearers, and if he sometimes seemed, when he described men after dinner, A flattering painter who made it his care To draw men as they ought to be, not as they are, he was on more serious occasions the lucid exponent of principles based upon innumerable notes and precise ob- servations. His whole audience attended to every sen- tence, and left the lecture room at the end feeling informed where they had been ignorant and illuminated where they had been in the dark. He died December 30, 1 899, honoured and beloved by a great multitude who had known him personally, and by the profession of medicine throughout which his name and his works were studied and admired. His power of clear description is well shown in his paper read before this Society on Osteitis deformans : — " I hope it will be agreeable to the Society if I make known some of the results of a study of a rare disease of bones. " The patient on whom I was able to study it was a gentle- man of good family, whose parents and grandparents lived to old age with apparently sound health, and among whose relatives no disease was known to have prevailed. Especi- ally, gout and rheumatism, I was told, were not known among them ; but one of his sisters died with chronic cancer of the breast. " Till 1854, when he was forty-six years old, the patient had no sign of disease, either general or local. He was a tall, thin, well-formed man, father of healthy children, very active in both mind and body. He lived temperately, could digest, as he said, anything, and slept always soundly. " At forty -six, from no assigned cause, unless it were that 292 THE PRESIDENTS OF THE he lived in a rather cold and damp place in the North of England, he began to be subject to aching pains in his thighs and legs. They were felt chiefly after active exer- cise, but were never severe ; yet the limbs became less agile, or, as he called them, ' less serviceable,' and after about a year he noticed that his left shin was misshapen. His general health was, however, quite unaffected. "I first saw this gentleman in 1856, when these things had been observed for about two years. Except that he was very grey and looked rather old for his age, he might have been considered as in perfect health. He walked with full strength and power, but somewhat stiffly. His left tibia, especially in its lower half, was broad, and felt nodular and uneven, as if not only itself but its periosteum and the integuments over it were thickened. In a much less degree similar changes could be felt in the lower half of the femur. This limb was occasionally but never severely painful, and there was no tenderness on pressure. Every function appeared well discharged, except that the urine showed rather frequent deposits of lithates. Re- garding the case as one of chronic periostitis, I advised iodide of potassium and Liquor Potassse ; but they did no good. " Three years later I saw the patient with Mr. Stanley. He was in the same good general health, but the left tibia had become larger, and had a well-marked anterior curve, as if lengthened, while its ends were held in place by their attachments to the unchanged fibula. The left femur also was now distinctly enlarged, and felt tuberous at the junction of its upper and middle thirds, and was arched forwards and outwards, so that he could not bring the left knee into contact with the right. There was also some appearance of widening of the left side of the pelvis, the nates on this side being flattened and lowered, ROYAL MEDICAL AND CHIRURGICAL SOCIETY 293 and the great trochanter projecting nearly half an inch further from the middle line. The left limb was about a quarter of an inch shorter than the right. The patient believed that the right side of his skull was enlarged, for his hat had become too tight ; but the change was not clearly visible. " Notwithstanding those progressive changes, the patient suffered very little ; he had lived actively, walking, riding, and engaging in all the usual pursuits of a country gentle- man, and except that his limb was clumsy, he might have been indifferent to it. He had taken various medicines, but none had done any good, and iodine in whatever form, had always done harm. " In the next seventeen years of his life I rarely saw him, but the story of his disease, of which I often heard, may be briefly told and with few dates, for its progress was nearly uniform and veiy slow. The left femur and tibia became larger, heavier and somewhat more curved. Very slowly those of the right limb followed the same course till they gained very nearly the same size and shape. The limbs thus became nearly symmetrical in their de- formity, the curving of the left being only a little more outward than that of the right. At the same time, or later, the knees became gradually bent, and, as if by rigidity of their fibrous tissues, lost much of their natural range and movement. " The skull became gradually larger, so that nearly every year, for many years, his hat, and the helmet that he wore as a member of the Yeomanry Corps, needed to be en- larged. In 1 844 he wore a shako measuring twenty-two and a half inside; in 1876 his hat measured twenty-seven and a quarter inches inside. ... In its enlargement, how- ever, the head retained its natural shape and, to the last, looked intellectual, though with some exaggeration. 294 THE PRESIDENTS OF THE " The spine very slowly became curved and almost rigid. The whole of the cervical vertebras and the upper dorsal formed a strong posterior, not angular, curve ; and an anterior curve, of similar shape, was formed by the lower dorsal and lumbar vertebrae. The length of the spine thus seemed lessened, and from a height of six feet one inch he sank to about five feet nine inches. At the same time the chest became contracted, narrow, flattened later- ally, deep from before backwards, and the movements of the ribs and of the spine were lessened. There was no complete rigidity, as if by union of bones, but all the movements were very restrained, as if by shortening and rigidity of the fibrous connections of the vertebrse and ribs. "The shape and habitual posture of the patient were thus made strange and peculiar. His head was advanced and lowered, so that the neck was very short, and the chin, when he held his head at ease, was more than an inch lower than the top of the sternum. " The short narrow chest suddenly widened into a much shorter and broader abdomen, and the pelvis was wide and low. The arms appeared unnaturally long, and, though the shoulders were very high, the hands hung low down by the thighs and in front of them. Altogether, the atti- tude in standing looked simian, strangely in contrast with the large head and handsome features." Paget wrote many biographies and descriptions of men, and of these a passage on John Hunter is characteristic : — *' From the few records that we have of him it is clear that he was a rough and simple-mannered man, abrupt and plain in speech, warm-hearted and sometimes rashly generous, emotional and impetuous, quickly moved to tears of sympathy, quickly ablaze with anger and fierce words, never personally attractive, or seeming to have great mental powers, and always far too busy to think of ROYAL MEDICAL AND CHIRURGICAL SOCIETY 295 influencing those around him. He had few friends, he gained the personal regard of very few, and no one ever paid him the homage of mimicry. The vast influence which he exercised on surgery and surgeons was the outcome of the scientific mind." Sir James Paget's portrait by Millais hangs in the Hall of St. Bartholomew's Hospital. He stands by a great slate in a lecture theatre intent on his subject as carefully arranged in his mind, and about to express it to an audience that will be interested from the first word to the last. XXXVI.— 1877. Dr. Charles West, born in London, August 8, 1816, was the son of a schoolmaster, and was educated in his father's school till he entered St. Bartholomew's Hospital as a student in 1833. He completed his medical studies at Bonn, Paris and Berlin, and graduated M.D. at Berlin in 1837. He next studied obstetrics in Dublin, and re- turned to practice in London, where in 1845 he was ap- pointed lecturer on Midwifery in the Middlesex Hospital. He there gave in 1847 the lectures on the diseases of infancy and childhood which were published in 1848. The book was based on the elaborate French treatise of RilHet and Barthez, and was far more complete than the useful " Treatise on the Disorders of Childhood " of Michael Underwood, which in its ten editions was from 1784 to 1 846 the best book in English on the Diseases of Children. West's clear and easy style caused his book to be widely read, and excited greater interest in the subject than had existed before. Seven editions appeared as well as transla- tions into several foreign languages. The account of hooping-cough is a good example of the 'contents ofthe book : — 296 THE PRESIDENTS OF THE " An attack of hooping-cough usually begins with ca- tarrh, and presents at iirst little or nothing to distinguish it from a common cold, except that sometimes the cough is attended almost from the outset with a peculiar ringing sound. By degrees the catarrhal symptoms abate, and the slight disturbance of the child's health altogether ceases, but nevertheless the cough continues ; it grows louder, and lasts longer than before, and assumes some- thing of a suffocative character, in all of which respects a tendency to exacerbation towards night becomes early apparent. As the cough grows severer, its peculiarities become more and more manifest ; during each paroxysm the child turns red in the face, and its whole frame is shaken with the violence of the cough. Each fit of coughing is now made up of a number of short, hurried, expirations, so forcible, and succeeding each other with such rapidity, that the lungs are emptied to a great degree of air, and the child is brought by their continuance into a condition of impending suffocation. At length, the child draws breath with a loud, long, sonorous inspiration — the /loop from which the disease receives its name, — and the attack sometimes terminates. More often, however, the hoop is followed by but a momentary pause, and the hurried ex- piratory efforts begin again, and are again arrested by the loud inspiration ; perhaps only to recommence, until, after the abundant expectoration of glairy mucus, or retching or actual vomiting, free inspiration takes place, and quiet breathing by degrees returns. If you listen to the chest during a fit of hooping-cough, you will hear no sound whatever in the lungs ; but when the hoop occurs, you will once more perceive air entering, though not penetrating into the minuter bronchi. It is not till the fit is over, and respiration once more goes on quietly, that the air reaches the pulmonary cells again ; but then you will hear vesicular ROYAL MEDICAL AND CHIRURGICAL SOCIETY 297 murmur as clear as if nothing ailed the child, or at most, interrupted only by a little rhonchus, or slight mucous rale. If the cough be severe, quiet breathing does not return, nor the vesicular breathing become audible, till some time after the paroxysm is over ; and occasionally, short and laborious breathing ushers in each fit of coughing. The child seems to have a presentiment of coming seizure, its face grows anxious, it looks up at its mother, and clings more closely to her ; or if old enough to run about, you may observe it, even before its breathing has become manifestly affected, throw down its playthings, and hasten to seize hold of a chair, or of some article of furniture, for support during the approaching fit of coughing." West was appointed lecturer on midwifery at St. Bar- tholomew's Hospital in 1848, and held office for twelve years. He was elected a fellow of the College of Phy- sicians in the same year. The substance of his lectures at St. Bartholomew's is contained in the " Lectures on Diseases of Women," published in 1856. On its founda- tion in 1852 he became senior physician to the Hospital for Sick Children in Great Ormond Street, of which he was one of the chief originators, and he retained the ofifice for twenty -three years. He died in Paris, March 19, 1898. XXXVn.— 1879. John Eric Erichsen, president of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1 880, was the son of a Danish banker, and was born at Copenhagen in 18 18. He received his pro- fessional education at University College Hospital and was house surgeon there after he qualified as M.R.C.S. in 1 839. In 1 848 he became assistant surgeon to the hospital and in 1850 surgeon and professor of surgery. He was 298 THE PRESIDENTS OF THE appointed in 1877 the first inspector of vivisection. He published in 1853 " The Science and Art of Surgery,'' which went through ten editions and was for about forty years the chief standard text-book in surgery. He died in 1896. A passage in his book " On Hospitalism " shows the state of surgery and of surgical opinion at the close of his life :— "The 307 amputation cases that have occurred in my wards have all, I believe, without a single exception, been done by the flap operation. The patients have been sub- jected to various methods of treatment. In the early periods, up to twenty-five years ago, Liston — ^and I, acting afterwards on his precepts — generally treated amputa- tion wounds by leaving the flaps open, with a piece of wet lint interposed, but otherwise fully exposed to the air for from four to six hours, until all oozing had ceased and the cut surfaces had become glazed. The flaps were then brought together, a strip of water-dressing laid along the edge of a wound, and an attempt made to procure union by adhesion. I afterwards employed different methods of treatment, generally bringing the flaps together immedi- ately after the operation was completed, and dressing the stump in the operating theatre, sometimes washing the surface with a solution of chloride of zinc, with alcoholised water, or carbolised solutions. But whatever method of treatment was adopted, the mortality was, as nearly as possible, the same, ranging, as I have stated in the first lecture, from 23 to 25 per cent. ; in fact, it is quite certain that no influence whatever has been exercised on the result of my practice by any method of local treatment that has been adopted. " Of the antiseptic treatment I can as yet say nothing positive ; it has been . tried in some cases in my wards, ROYAL MEDICAL AND CHIRURGICAL SOCIETY 299 and with success, but not, as yet, in a sufficient number for me to come to any conclusion as to its utility in opera- tion wounds. Of its great advantage in chronic abscesses I have seen enough to leave no doubt on my mind. Theoretically, ' the antiseptic method ' is perfect. It fulfils all the requirements that can be desired in the management of a wound. It may be, and I believe it is, equally good in practice, but, as I have already said, this is a point yet to be determined. The essential points in the local treat- ment of any wound are, absolute rest, scrupulous attention to cleanliness, the absolute purity, so far as freedom from all decomposable organic matter is concerned, of every- thing that is brought into contact with it, be it air, or instruments, or dressings, or surgeon's fingers, and close personal supervision. In all these respects the antiseptic treatment of Lister, and Callender's method of managing stumps, leave nothing to be desired ; and, if I were to venture an opinion upon a subject which is still sub judice, I should say that it is in this that their great merit in practice consists ; and indeed, rest, cleanliness, isolation, and ventilation are the great points on which Callender lays, and justly, so much stress. But we have, as yet, to learn the real value of antiseptic methods of treatment ; and this can only be done by the observation of a very extended series of cases in which these plans of treatment have been employed, and comparing the results thus ob- tained with an equally extensive set of cases treated by other methods under as nearly as possible the same con- ditions in the same hospital." XXXVIII.— 1881. Dr. Andrew White Barclay was born in 1817 at Dysart, in Scotland, was educated at the High School of 300 THE PRESIDENTS OF THE Edinburgh, and graduated M.D. in the University of Edinburgh in 1839. ^^ ^^43 ^^ went to Cambridge and there took the degrees of M.B. in 1847 and of M.D, in 1852 as a member of Caius College. He was elected a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in 1851, and in 1857 became assistant physician to St. George's Hospital, He was elected physician to that hospital in 1862 and held office till 1882. He lectured there first on materia medica and afterwards on medicine, and in the latter part of his life was medical officer of health for Chelsea. He died April 28, 1884, Iri the Medico-Chirur- gical Transactions (vols, xxxi. and xxxv,) he published papers on valvular disease and in Holmes' " System of Surgery " articles on Delirium Tremens and on Croup and Diphtheria, at that period considered as similar but distinct diseases. A passage from his Harveian oration delivered in 1881 illustrates his turn of thought : — " The clear perception of truth, the faculty to analyse and the power to grasp it in all its bearings, belong but to a few gifted individuals. Even to them, the cultivation of these talents is of the utmost importance ; to the great majority of us, such education of mind is absolutely essential if we would arrive at truth. Almost all the mistakes into which men of pure and simple aim have fallen may be traced to the imperfect development of the logical faculty. Without it true theories and correct practice are equally impossible. Where was it, we may well ask, when in Paris half a century ago, patients were actually bled to death in rheumatic fever ? Where is it now, in this enlightened country of ours, as we draw on towards the end of the nineteenth century, when we find the sustaining treatment in enteric fever pushed to such an extreme that the alimentary canal becomes over-loaded with undigested aliment, and the consequent tympanitic ROYAL MEDICAL AND CHIRURGICAL SOCIETY 301 distension of the bowel bursts the slender bonds, which have hitherto saved from rupture the thinned walls of a deep ulcer, and the patient from a fatal peritonitis ? Alas ! medical science is ever bending the knee to the idols of fashion and prejudice, forgetful of her high mission, to seek after and follow only the truth." XXXIX.— 1882. John Marshall was son of a solicitor at Ely, and was bom there in 1819. He studied at University College, London, and became surgeon and professor of surgery there. In 1883 he was elected president of the Royal College of Surgeons, and in 1 887 president of the General Medical Council. He was a man of extraordinary industry, dissected, wrote and lectured much, and filled up every interstice of his time by acting as an examiner and by meetings of societies and of innumerable committees in which he furthered many varieties of useful work. In the Philosophical Transactions is published his paper " On the Development of the Great Veins, including an account of the remains of the primitive vessels and of a vestigial fold not previously described," This vestigial fold bears his name, and forms for Marshall a lasting memorial like the corpus of Julius Caesar Arantius or the duct of Leon- ardus Botallus. He was one of the editors of " Quain's Ana- tomy" and in 1 867 he published a physiology in two volumes. He lectured on anatomy at the Royal Academy and published a large " Anatomy for Artists," He was asso- ciated with Sir George Young as one of the earliest and strongest supporters of the Association for establishing a teaching University for London, one of the forces which brought about the recent fortunate reconstitution of the University of London. The Royal College of Surgeons has his bust in marble. 302 THE PRESIDENTS OF THE He died in January, 1891. The enthusiasm for human anatomy which he retained throughout life is shown in a passage of his " Anatomy for Artists " :— " In symmetry of construction and outward form, animals generally, being living machines intended for locomotive action, requiring the power of balancing and moving them- selves upon or in the earth, on the surfaces of trees or plants, upon or in the water, or through the air, as the case may be, are, as a rule, quite upon an equality with man. So also they resemble him in exhibiting axial simplicity, serial repetition and manifold homologies, with contrasts, of parts. But, in refined proportions of length, breadth and depth, in the well-balanced ratios of different parts to each other and to the whole, in subtilty and grace of outline, in fulness of detail, in ever-varying undulations of surface, in richness of local modelling, in the exquisite hue and lustre of the skin, and in the peculiar capillar}-' adornment of the head, the human form, when met with in perfection, whether in infancy, youth, manhood, woman- hood or age, far transcends that of even the most elegant and beautiful of the mammalian group to which man him- self belongs." XL.— 1884. Sir George Johnson, the fortieth president, was physician to King's College Hospital. He was born in 1 81 8 at Goudhurst in Kent, studied medicine at King's College, London, and graduated M.D, in the London University in 1844 after obtaining many distinc- tions at his several examinations, both at his medical school and in the university. He became a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in 1850. In 1856 he was ROYAL MEDICAL AND CHIRURGICAL SOCIETY 303 appointed physician to King's College Hospital and lectured in that school on Materia Medica and Thera- peutics from 1857 to 1863, and on the Principles and Practice of Medicine from 1 863 to 1 876. His principal writings are those on Renal disease and on the Cholera, and both subjects involved him in active controversy. As regards Cholera he maintained that choleraic collapse was the result of extreme constriction of the pulmonary arterioles excited by the poisoned blood, and that the right treatment of the disease was by castor oil and not by opium. As regards the granular kidney Johnson pointed out that its capillaries were thickened as well as capillaries elsewhere in the arterial tract, and maintained that this thickening was an hypertrophy of their muscular coat due to persistent contraction, caused by a vaso-motor influence, itself excited by a poisonous substance in the blood, the result of imperfect excretion by the diseased kidney. These controversies moved Johnson profoundly, and he spoke of the castor oil treatment of cholera and the " stop- cock action " of the arterioles with a warmth resembling that of the political partizans of the days of passive obedi- ence and non-resistance. In a manuscript note, published after his death, he says : — " The most anxious period of my life was that in which I first entered upon the controversy as to the pathology and treatment of cholera after the epidemic of 1854. My friend Dr. Todd knew that I was preparing to publish particulars of the cases which I had treated by evacuants, together with my views as to the nature of choleraic collapse. He said to me, ' I believe that in the main you are right, but you will not convince the profession that you are, and in the attempt to do so you will suffer serious harm to your reputation and your prospects. I therefore advise you to publish no more on the subject.' I told 304 THE PRESIDENTS OF THE him that I could not act upon his advice, and that with a firm belief that I was right I would not shrink from con- tending for what I held to be true, however unpopular it might be. I have never regretted that I did not accept Dr. Todd's well-meant advice, for I am persuaded that the time will come when Sir Thomas Watson's judgment of my cholera theories and practice will be universally acknow- ledged to have been just." Sir George Johnson died June 3, 1896. His portrait was painted by Frank HoU and given to him by the staff and past and present students of King's College Hospital. XLI.— 1886. George David Pollock, surgeon to St. George's Hospital, was born in 18 17, and was second son of a dis- tinguished brigade major in the Bengal Artillery who after- wards became Field-Marshal Sir George Pollock, Bart. He was educated at St. George's Hospital where he was house surgeon to Sir Benjamin Brodie, and in 1 846 came on to the surgical staff. He held office at St. George's for thirty- six years, and died February 14, 1897. He was President of the Pathological Society as weli as of our own. He improved the operation for cleft palate, and in Holmes' " System of Surgery," he wrote on injuries to the abdomen and on Diseases of the Mouth, Pharynx and Intestines. These articles are written in a c'ear and concise style, of which the conclusion of that on stricture of the GEsophagus is a good example : — " Mr. Durham has made a happy suggestion in advoca- ting the use of a flexible bougie, to be retained for some short time in the oesophagus in some forms of stricture. We have already alluded to a case under our own obser- vation, in which the daily use of a catheter has been followed by great amelioration to health, and great com- ROYAL MEDICAL AND CHIRURGICAL SOCIETY 305 fort to the patient, and has now been uninterruptedly in use some five years. Such, however, could only have been the result in a simple, not a cancerous, stricture. " As already stated, so it will be found in practice, that when, with severe stricture, maintenance of life depends on a small quantity of fluid food, loss of flesh and general deterioration become so rapid and complete, that a patient will die much sooner than may often be anticipated, with all his faculties clear to the end. " Under such circumstances any operation may even prove too late. The patient may be too much reduced to be able to rally after its performance ; or too much ex- hausted to profit by the food supplied through the artificial opening ; or even it may be that in such a reduced condi- tion sufficiently healthy lymph may not be thrown out so as to secure such adhesion of the opposed surfaces of stomach and external wound as is requisite for the success of the operation. In a case recently under the notice of the author, such a result followed the operation ; and when the sutures were removed, the adhesions were not suf- ficiently organised to maintain the parts in opposition," XLII.— 1888. Sir Edward Henry Sieveking, physician to St. Mary's Hospital, was of North German descent, but was born in the quiet recess of the eastern part of the city of London which bears the name of the mother of Con- stantine, and which shut in by gates seems to retain to this day something of the character of the religious enclos- ure which once occupied its site. He received medical education at Berlin, Bonn, University College, London, and Edinburgh, at which university he graduated M.D. in 1 84 1. He practised in Hamburg till 1847, and then be- 306 THE PRESIDENTS OF THE came a member of the Royal College of Physicians of Lon- don and assistant physician to St. Mary's Hospital, on the staff of which he continued for forty years. He translated Rokitansky's " Pathological Anatomy " and Romberg's "Nervous Diseases," and published in 1854 a "Patholo- gical Anatomy" with Dr. Handfield Jones, and in 1858 a treatise on Epilepsy, Sir Edward Sieveking was knighted in 1886, and in 1888 was made Physician in Ordinary to Queen Victoria. He had before been Physician to the Prince of Wales, Physician Extraordinary to the Queen ; on the accession of King Edward VH. he was appointed Physician Extraordinary to the King, He presented to the Society the badge which succeeding Presidents have worn. It was owing to his exertions that the manuscript notes of Harvey's lectures of 161 6 were published in autotype. He died at his house in Manchester Square, February 24, 1904. "No one can be more sensible of my inadequacy to fulfil the task which you. Sir, with too indulgent trust, have imposed upon me. But though I crave your merci- ful consideration for my effort, I cannot but admit that I owe you, Sir, a debt of gratitude for having imposed upon me what has indeed been a labour of love — that of again poring over Harvey's works and studying those of his con- temporaries. Every page that I have read has only served to convince me, more and more, of the magnitude of the obligations that this College and all generations of medical men who have lived, or will live, after Harvey, are under to him. Would that I could hope to have added the smallest tribute worthy of so great and good a man to the many offerings that his grateful successors ha\'e paid to his memory. But, while conscious of my own un\\'orthiness to dilate on so great a theme, I have no fear that, for want of better advocacy, the power of the Harveian spirit will ROYAL MEDICAL AND CHIRURGICAL SOCIETY 307 cease to prevail in English medicine, while so many- illustrious workers as grace the present roll of the Royal College of Physicians are evidences of its continued in- fluence. " Though I may not have proved what none but future physicians may fitly endorse, I cling to the belief that in no period of the past has this College been so fully imbued with a consciousness of its high calling, and a desire ade- quately to fulfil its important duties, as in the present; and that the many labourers in the fields that Harvey cultivated justify a humble admirer of the many distin- guished contemporaries, with which it is my honour to be acquainted, in designating the present age as especially de- serving of the title of the Harveian era of medicine." XLIV.— 1892. Sir Andrew Clark, Bart, was elected president in 1 892 and died November 6, 1 893, the only president who has died during his year of office. He was born in Scot- land in 1825 and had no advantages of birth. His first occupation was that of serving-boy to Dr. Matthew Nimmo of Dundee, but in 1 844 he became qualified to practice, and in 1846 entered the medical service of the Royal Navy. He worked at Haslar till 1853 when he left the Navy and became curator of the Museum at the London Hospital. In 1854 he was elected assistant physician to that hospital and was physician from 1866 to 1886. He was elected a fellow of the Royal College of Phy- sicians in 1858 and became its president, March 26, 1888. He had probably the largest practice of any physician of his period, and was of so sympathetic a nature that every patient he saw felt that Clark was anxious for his improve- ment and recovery. No man ever worked harder at his 308 THE PRESIDENTS OF THE profession, and his short intervals of patients and official business were given to moral science and theology. When the remains of Harvey were translated from a ruinous vault in the churchyard of Hempstead, Essex, into a white marble sarcophagus within the parish church by the College of Physicians, one of the present librarians of our Society travelled in the railway carriage to Saffron Walden with two presidents of the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society. Clark took with him a volume of the abstruse sermons of Bishop Butler to read in the train, while the other president was noticed to be reading his own Harveian oration. He presented the " Encyclopaedia Britannica " to the Society, and was willing to pay no less than ten thousand pounds to help the pecuniary arrangements necessary on the removal from Berners Street to Hanover Square. A bibliography of his medical writings, which are over one hundred in number, has been published by Professor Sheridan Delepine. I His portrait was painted by G. F. Watts, R.A., and by Frank Holl, R.A. He died November 6, 1893, and his place as president was filled by Sir W. S. Church, the senior vice-president till March i, 1894. Sir Andrew Clark took an active part in all discussions at which he was present, and delighted in philosophical and theological conversation, always expressing his opinion with warmth but without bitterness. In an address which he delivered to our Society on March ist, 1893, he mentioned an address by Dr. Walter Hayle Walshe. Walshe had declared that physiology was of little service to pathology, and that no hypothesis can ever form an actual part of any science. Clark ex- pressed a different opinion. ROYAL MEDICAL AND CHIRURGICAL SOCIETY 309 " With all its flow and glow of language, all its per- suasive eloquence and all its brilliancy of setting, I regard this address as the most unsound that ever was penned by a distinguished man writing on his own subject. Unless I am hopelessly befogged, pathology is physiology, acting merely under altered conditions, and physiology is the only safe and true way to the right understanding of pathological actions and products. And, furthermore, when I consider the bold averment that no hypothesis can ever form an actual part of any science, I become filled with amazement, and fear that I have read, thought and reasoned in vain. Is not the application of the law of gravitation to the explanation of the physical pheno- mena of the universe an hypothesis ? Is it not the biggest of all hypotheses ? Does it not embrace infinity : and is it not confessedly inadequate to the solution of all the physical facts of the universe ? Is it not merely the best attainable explanation ; and may not even the law of gravitation itself be superseded to-morrow by a larger law which shall not be found anywhere at fault ? Did not Newton discover many of the leading laws of optics from the adoption of his corpuscular theory of light? Did not Sadi Carnot deduce the law of thermic action still known by his name from an hypothesis respecting the nature of heat, now known to be erroneous? Does not the chemist represent the proportion of weight in which substances combine as atoms of definite weight, and the resulting compounds as definite groups of such atoms? Now this hypothetical coinage has been one of the most useful factors in the progress of chemistry, and yet the symbols are wholly inadequate representations of the facts, and the facts and the symbols are not one. Why, science is instinct with hypotheses ; they surround, penetrate, determine, control, and guide it. Without 310 THE PRESIDENTS OF THE SOCIETY hj'pothesis science would neither live, move, nor have its being." The president of 1890, XLIII., Mr. Timothy Holmes, sometime surgeon to St. George's Hospital, as \\'ell as the presidents since 1894, are happily able to aid in person the celebration of the centenary of the Society, They are : — XLV. — 1894: Mr. Jonathan Hutchinson, surgeon to the London Hospital. XLVI. — 1896: Dr. William Howship Dickinson, of Caius College, Cambridge, physician to St. George's Hospital. XLVII. — 1898 : Mr. Thomas Bryant, surgeon to Guy's Hospital. XLVHI.— 1900: Dr. Frederick William Pavy, F.R.S., physician to Guy's Hospital. 1 XLIX.— 1902 ; Mr. Alfred Willett, surgeon to St. Bartholomew's Hospital. L. — 1904 ; Sir Richard Douglas Powell, Bart., President of the Royal College of Physicians, under whose presidency the Society has attained its centenary. APPENDIX. REPORT OF THE COUNCIL PRESENTED TO THE ANNUAL MEETING, MARCH isr 1905. The Council has every reason to congratulate the Fellows that the last financial year of the Society's Centenary finds its affairs in a more flourishing condition than at any previous period of its history. This is the more noteworthy, as it coincides with the falling in of the Berners Street lease, from which the Society enjoyed a net annual income of ;^436. During the past year 14 new Honorary Fellows (7 Foreign and 7 British) and 26 new Ordinary Fellows have been elected, including 15 Resident, 9 Non-resident, and 2 Service Fellows. On the other hand, the Society has to record the loss, by death or resignation, of i Honorary Fellow and 35 Ordinary Fellows. This number includes several Non-resident Fellows, who have passed away during the last few years, whose representatives did not announce their decease to the Society. At the present time the roll stands as follows : — Honorary Fellows — British . . . .12 Foreign .... 20 — 32 Ordinary Fellows — Resident . . . • S38 Non-resident . . '279 Service . . . .11 828 860 (311) 312 APPENDIX It was hoped that a larger nuniV)er of candidates would have applied for the Service Fellowship, but it takes some time for a new privilege of this kind to become generally known, and it may be considered desirable to take some special steps for announcing to the Members of the Services that the Society welcomes them on terms of special privilege. The interest in the meetings during the past session has been well maintained, and, although there is still room for improvement in the matter of actual attendance, the value of the discussions is evidenced by the reports, which are now printed in the " Transactions ". The Council appointed a Special Committee to consider what steps might be taken to improve the attendance at meetings, and as a result of this Committee's report, the Council has adopted the following measures, which it trusts will be appreci- ated and used to their fullest extent by the Fellows ; — (i) Abstracts of the papers to be read will be issued in ad- vance to any Fellows who apply for them, and Fellows who desire it can register their names to receive them -^ regularly by post. f (2) Authors are invited to supply lists of all persons they think likely to be interested in their papers, including members of the profession who are not Fellows of the Society, and abstracts are also sent to these, with invita- tions to be present at the meeting. (3) The Council has also decided to hold at least one special discussion in each session. The first of these was held yesterday on " The subsequent course and later history of cases of appendicitis after operation," and its undoubted success, both as regards the large attendance and the high quality of the discussion, fully justifies the action of j the Council. 9 The Congress on School Hygiene, held in Nuremberg last year, was attended on behalf of the Society by Sir Lauder Brunton and Dr. Clement Dukes, who were delegated for this purpose, and reported on the work of the Congress to the Council. At the Sanitary Institute Congress, the President of the Society, Sir Richard I")ouglas Powell, kindly undertook to I APPENDIX 313 represent the Society. At the Congress of School Hygiene for this year, held last month, Dr. Clement Dukes was again appointed delegate of the Society, and will report thereon in due course. The War Office, in connection with its special Committee of Inquiry on the subject of venereal diseases, invited the Society to assist it by expert evidence. The Council appointed Mr. Edgcombe Venning to represent them for this purpose, and he appeared before the Committee and gave evidence. It is worthy of mention that our Secretary was specially invited by the Commissioners of the St. Louis Exhibition as one of a select few, representing European librarianship, to attend the International Library Conference at St. Louis, but, unfortunately, the condition of Mr. MacAlister's health made it impossible for him to accept the invitation, mi . The never-ending problem of book storage has been solved, for a few years at least, by the construction of a large book store behind the Meeting Room, which will hold at least, 10,000 volumes, and the addition of two large bookcases in the corridor ; and within the last few weeks, a contract has been entered into for the ventilation of the North Room and the corridor on the Glover Lyon system. M The Special Report upon Suspended Animation in the Apparently Drowned, drawn up by Professor Schafer for the Committee appointed to investigate this subject, has been pub- lished, and forms a most valuable addition to our knowledge on this difficult subject. It is to be sold to the pubhc at 5s., but can be purchased by Fellows at cost price, viz., 3s. 6d. Centenary. — Immediately after the last Annual Meeting the Council appointed a special Committee to draw up a pro- gramme to arrange for the celebration, in a fitting manner, of , ^ the Society's first Centenary. The Committee consists of — P The President — Sir Richard Douglas Powell. Dr. Newton Pitt, ^ rr r. . • \ Hon. Secretaries. Mr. Stephen Paget, J 314 APPENDIX Sir William S. Church, ,, ,„ , . Hon. Treasurers. Mr. Warrington Haward, Mr. Alfred Willett, the late President. Mr. Clinton T. Dent. Mr. RickmanJ. Godlee. Mr. A. Pearce Gould. Dr. Norman Moore. Sir James Reid. The Fellows have already been briefly informed by circular of some of the proposals of the Committee, but they may be repeated here : — The Issue of a Centenary Volume. — This volume, which is being edited by Dr. Norman Moore and Mr. Stephen Paget, will contain an account of the chief incidents in the history and development of the Society. It will form a substantial volume of about the same size as the " Transactions," and will be pre- sented to each Fellow. A Special Meeting will be held on the Centenary day, May 22nd, when an address will be delivered by the President, and he will welcome in the name of the Society the new Honorary Fellows who were elected at the last Ballot, viz. : — foreign. Professor H. Nothnagel (Vienna). W. H. Welch (Baltimore). E. Marchiafava (Rome). I. P. Pavloff (St. Petersburg). KiTASATO (Tokio). Chr. Bohr (Copenhagen). S. Ramon Y Cajal (Madrid). British. The Right Hon. Baron Lister, O.M., F.R.S., D.C.L., LL.D., D.Sc, F.R.C.S. APPENDIX 315 The Right Hon. Baron Raylkigh, O.M., F.R.S., D.C.L., LL.D., Sc.D. Sir William Ramsay, K.C.B., F.R.S., LL.D., D.Sc, F.C.S. Sir Samuel Wilks, Bart., M.D., F.R.S., LL.D., F.R.C.P. Sir William Gairdner, K.C.B., M.D., F.R.S., LL.D. W. H. Gaskell, M.D., F.R.S. Robert Barnes, M.D., F.R.C.P. The Marshall Hall Prizeman, Dr. Henry Head, F.R.S., will give an address on his recent work, under the title " The Afferent Nerves under a New Aspect," on Tuesday, May 23rd, at 5 p.m., in the Society's Hall. A Banquet will be held on Monday, May 22nd, at the Hotel Cecil, when the Society will entertain H.R.H. The Prince of Wales and a number of distinguished guests. A Conversazione will be held on the evening of Wednesday, May 24th. During the week there will be an Exhibition in the Society's rooms illustrating the progress of medicine in the year 1805. Report of the Hon. Treasurers : — "The Hon. Treasurers can congratulate the Society on its financial position. " The past year was the last in which the Society will receive the rent of its former quarters in Berners Street ; the net loss owing to the termination of the lease amounting to ^^436 los. 5d. It has for some years been a source of anxiety to the Treasurers as to how the Society would bear this diminution of income. Owing to the changes which have been made in our premises, enabling us to let more of our rooms, and other arrangements also proposed and in great measure 316 APPENDIX carried out by our Secretary, the loss of the Berners Street rent has been made good, and a net increase of ;^32o per annum has during the last two years been secured. " The receipts during the past year, including a legacy from the late Dr. George Thin of jQioo, have exceeded the expenditure by jQ6o^ 15s. sd. "W. S. Church. " Warrington Haward." Report of the Ho7i. Librarians : — "The changes affecting the Library Catalogue and the shelf arrangement of the books are nearing comple- tion. The card catalogue is ready and the cards are arranged in the drawers of a cabinet which will shortly be fitted up in the Library to the left of the catalogue desk. The new catalogue will be in working order before the Centenary Celebration. "The re-numbering of the books is now practically com- pleted, and the transference of the accession number to the new cards is now commencing. " The room acquired at the back of the Meeting Room alluded to in the last report has been fitted up with shelves and is now in use. " The number of books and pamphlets added to the Library during 1904 was 615, of these 287 were pre- sented by Fellows and others. "The number of issues of books, apart from those used for reference purposes in the Library, was 3,927, an increase upon the figures of the previous year. The actual number of Fellows and others visiting the Lib- rary was 4,701, giving an average of 427 per month, in the course of the year of eleven months. "Three hundred and seventy-six volumes were borrowed APPENDIX 317 from Lewis's Library, against 373 in 1903, and 331 in 1902. " It has been decided to include in the proposed Centen ary exhibition, all the books in the Library published in 1805." February 15/A, 1905. Q OOOir)>- t^ Tt- ^ N O -st- o o Q O O "2 l-l H VD N O O HI CO ID OO HI C .w c < M oo Tf- M f~ O " Q- MN O M wooOOOOwOfOO '-t? rOi-ii-iOi-iM(Niini-i(>r) o Q N O WW >-l M , 00 r}- N N w t^ ro M rOOO M ->r 0^ T)- M in -+ in (I] Cd C C •s =« . n! en 4) a- fa W •aii % t - 3 o ^ w .2 u . W) I? . ^ c *^ • r/l tS etc. . ighting, Warmin rinting, Statione Telegrams eeting Expenses iscellaneous Dis o ii C — O , etc. Purchase New Cat rt I- CO. O lU Si o U^X JO- 2S CdQ j:^ (318) . .CQ w c M — ii o « 5 .ti "^ D '? ECS ■<-• g 5 aj o c-^ Q. O O cj -w O 5 =5 c fa fa u jC/3 CO .5^ cS.-C CO 1) CO .S "^ CO O ^ 1 lu C b o E: o O M ^ ^ VO M J2 Si m < Property 'urniture -itten off a X) 15 M > ;. . , N m in 00 «J^ u OS CJ 3 ■^^ !/) J C30 in •-1 fO -a c S Ul ?5 i" u u 1) 00 u-i ^ 00 U Ui P 3 > vo ro 3 C 5 c CO (U O a> w M ca j-i ■'-' a. D CO . CO < . O _3 mber, 1903 ascope k of Sus- ion Corn- over Ex- the year O V . Q. tJ ■>-• <" ss u 3 2 ^ P e i7 u o 'c51! o a. CO C/3 QW^ 1 • to •*-' u- "*- 2 "^ C C ttJ ded Ai tee's R' s of In 3 -5 T^ OJ /- )-< ."^ 1 C ri 03 c ^ "I c n P >, o Sic ^-a cu j3 _rt _3 _3 c^ cti rt 3a>> 0- M o~t " Q cd J X H HH X) £ Z & rrt C/3 •a :^ C OS w z t« « (319) INDEX TO PART I. Abdominal section, Blundell on, 43, 53 ; for internal strangulation or intus-susception, 91, 93, 123, 151, 154 ; in a case of obturator hernia, 93 ; for pelvic suppuration, 160 ; Knowsley Thornton's cases, 161 ; for acute peritonitis, 169 ; after- treatment, 173. Abercromby, Lord, 179. Abernethy, Mr., 3, 11, 51. Abscess of bone, I3rodie on, 65. Absorption spectra, Moss on, 154. Accession of H.M. Queen Victoria, 75- Actinomycosis, 169, 173, 178. Addison, Dr., 94; Addison's disease, 109, no. Adenoid vegetations, Meyer on, 133. Adventitious structures, Hodgkin on, 61. Air entering a vein, 62, ."5. Albuminuria in phthisis, 164 ; in scarlet fever, 170. Alcohol, Dickinson on, 150 ; Broad- bent, 169 ; Finlay, 173. Alderson, Sir James, 125. Alkaptonuria, 51. Amputation in utero, 56. Amputations, papers on, 58, 76, 82, 112. Amyloid disease, first mention of, no, 130. Anaesthetics, first references to, 91, 93 ; papers on, 100, 109, 114, 148, 194 ; Dr. Robert Lee on use of chloroform, 103 ; Scientific Com- mittee on, 122, 124; Hyderabad Commission, 192; debate, 203. Aneurism, 11, 19, 56, 58, 59, 114, 125, 131, 132; distal ligature, 56, (321) 128, 155, 157 ; compression of artery, 98 ; manipulation of sac, 108 ; flexion of limb, 112, 123 ; old operation, 113, 123, 160; com- pression of artery through a small incision, 113; aneurismal varix due to compression, 114; com- pression of aorta, 125, 150 ; in- troduction of wire into sac, 125, 173 ; Tufnell's diet, 151 ; intro- duction of needles, 160 ; aneurism in early life, 167. Aneurism, of the heart, 77 ; intra- cranial, 112. Annual General Meeting, 5, Annus mirabilis, 97. Anosmia, Ogle on, 134. Anthrax, 165, 170. Anus, imperforate, 113. Aorta, ligature of, 61. Aortic aneurism communicating with pulmonary artery, 114. Aortic regurgitation, Hope on, 78. Appendix vermiformis, diseases of, 29, 75) 78, 178 ; Treves, 174, 204 ; debate, 204. Arachnoid, Rainey on the, 89. Argyriasis, 36. Arnott, Mr., 90. Arrested development, Thurnam on, 94. Arsenic, Roget on testing for, 24. Arteries, physiology of, 4 : ; endar- teritis, 52 ; fatty degeneration of, 84 ; obliteration, 108. Arterio-capillary fibrosis, 149. Artificial respiration, 75, 160 ; Schafer on, 203. (See also Sus- pended animation.) Assistant librarian, the office of, in- stituted, 65 ; abolished, 200. X 322 INDEX TO PART 1 Association of Fellows of Royal College of Surgeons, i88. Astronomical Society, 47. Ataxia, Ormerod's cases of, 170. Atelectasis pulmonum, 131. Attendance at meetings, 8, 19, 25, 39, 48, 97, 105, 106, 134, 203. B. Babington, Dr. Benjamin, 113. Babington, Dr. William, 3, 22, 39. Babington's laryngoscope, 125. Bacteriology, 164 ; Burdon Sander- son's paper, 151. Bailey, Mr. J. B., 7, 167. Baillie, Dr., 3, 13, 17, ig, 29, 56. Baker's tracheotomy tubes, 154. Balance-sheet, 1850, 99 ; 1888, 175. Barclay, Dr., 161. Beaumont, Mr., 186. Belladonna, papers on, 58, 109. Bennett, Sir W., 178. Benzoic acid, Ure on, 82. Bergeret, his book ordered to be destroyed, 152. Berners Street, 70, 127, 147, ii9, 180, 198, 203. Berry, Mr. E. V., 202. Bethlem Hospital, 85, 95, 105. Bismuth, Thomson on, 94. Bladder, anatomy of, 108 ; diseases, no, 125 ; extroversion, 123 ; suture of, 159, 172, 174 ; removal of tumours from, 163, 166, 167. Blane, Sir Gilbert, 30, 35. Blood, Bostock on the, 13, 24 ; Babington's experiments, 65 ; Robinson's, 84 ; Garrod, 93, 95, 105 ; Sansom on the blood under the action of chloroform, 114; Sansom on the blood in noma, 155 ; Gostling on blood-counts, 171. Blood-pressure and albuminuria, 84. Blount, Mr., 60. Blundell, Dr., 42, 43, 53. Bones, growth of, 36, 42, 114, 123 ; abscess, 65 ; Gulliver's experi- ments on necrosis, 74 ; tumours, 88, 148; hydatid, no; fractures, compound, 114 ; un-united, 125, 132 ; absorption, 125 ; osteo-mye- litis, 126 ; osteotomy, 148, 152 ; osteitisdeformans,i54; quiet necro- sis, 155 ; blood-tumours, 88, 178. Bostock, Dr., 13 ; Mr., 192. Bowman, Sir William, 100. Brain, injuries and diseases of, 14, 24, 40, 56, 60, 72, 83, 114; cere- bral abscess, operation for, 159, 174 ; cerebral localization, 168 ; cerebral tumour, operation for, 170. Branchial fistulae in the ear, 155. Brass-founder's ague, Greenhow on, 123. i Breast, cancer in male, 109. "| Breasts, supernumerary, 78. Bright, Dr., 29, 75. Bright's disease, George Johnson on, 88, 92, 112 ; Toynbee, 90 ; Dickin- son, 113 ; Weber, 128; Mahomed, 152. British Medical Association, 114, 154, 168. Brodie, Sir Benjamin, 30, 60, 79, 122. Bryant, Mr., 196. Building Committee, 181, 184 ; becomes the House Committee, 188. Burlington House, plan for moving to, 103, 113, 114, 125, 126, 127. Burrows, Sir George, 133, 138, 145. Bye-laws, revision of, 89, 132, i ,5, 202. Cesarean section, Lefevre's cases, 59- Calabar bean, Harley on, 124. Calculus, rare among sea-faring people, Hutchison, 42 ; renal, 45. Cancer, papers by Bell, 51 ; Earle, 52 ; Salter, 60 ; Travers, 61, 66 ; Lever, 79 ; Burrows, 86 ; Sibley, 112; Baker, 123 ; Moore, 130. Cancrum oris, Marshall Hall on, 43. Canine chorea, 155. Cannabis indica, 85. ■■ Cases for diagnosis, 24, 40, 85. ■ Catalogue of library, 26, 32, 36, 51, 57. 77- 85, 107, 112, 152, 155, 157 ; card-catalogue, 202. Catalogue of portraits, 133. Cataract, papers on, S3, 103. Cellulitis, treatment by incision, 34 Centenary Festival, 203. Chamberlen forceps, the, 41, 71, 151. Chambers, Dr., 87. INDEX TO PART I 323 Charcot's disease, 82. Charles I., the opening of the coffin of the King, 31. Charlotte, death of Princess, 38. Charlotte, death of Queen, 41. Charter, 26, 28 ; petition refused in 1812, 31 ; granted in 1834, 68. Chemical groups, Broadbent on, 132. Chimney-sweeps' cancer, Earle on, 52. Chlorate of potash, 85. Chloroform, first mention of, 93 ; in phthisis and asthma, 100 ; in con- finements, 103 ; in photophobia, 109 ; its action on the blood, 114 ; committee on chloroform, 122, 124 ; Warrington Haward on the disuse (1871) of ether, 148; Hy- derabad Commission, 192 ; debate, 203. Cholecystenterostomy, Mayo Rob- son on, 178. Cholecystomy, Lawson Tait's first case, 159. Cholera, 42, 76, 130, 134, 169. Chorea, Bright on, 77 ; Dickinson, 153 ; Angel Money, 170 ; Herring- ham and Garrod, 178. Chyluria, Bence Jones on, 97. Clark, Sir Andrew, 187, 188. Clarke, Mr. Archibald, 193, 200. Clerk, the office of, instituted, 6; abolished, 65. Cline, Mr., 34. Clinical Society, 129, 131, 134. Cock-pit in battle, Quarrier's account of a, 38. Colchicum, Garrod on, no. Collective Investigation, 64, 94. Collodion, Acton on, 94. Colon, displacements of, 41. Colotomy, treatment in times before, 43 ; lumbar, 88, loi ; inguinal, 100 ; removal of part of colon, 164. Colour-blindness, Nicholl's case of, 37- Committee of papers instituted, 73, 178, 182 ; of reference, 82. Committees (Scientific) on suspended animation, 120, 122, 133, 134, 156, 158, 177, 183, 199, 202 ; on chloro- form, 122, 124 ; on electricity, 125 ; on hypodermic method, 125, 129, 130 ; on vaccino-syphilis, 147 ; proposed, on arterio-capillary fibrosis, 149 ; on croup and diph- theria, 153, 156 ; on climatology and balneology, 177, 194, 201. Comparative prevalence of diseases, Blane on, 31. Composition-fees, 78, 86, 177. Conversation, evenings spent in, 10, II, 13, 18, 78, Conversazioni, 102, 114, 149, 152, 154, 187. Convicts, diet in Australia, no. Cooke, Dr., 48, Cooper, Sir Astley, 3, ri, 40, 42, 68. Copland, Dr., 102. Council, number of, 26 ; composition of, 151. Courtland, Mr., 61. Creasote, Elliotson on, 72. Croft's splints, 163. Curling, Mr., 83, 97, 147. Cynanche, 34, 43. Cysticercus in the eye, 93. Cyst of epiglottis, Durham's case (first mention of use of laryngo- scope in surgery), 124. Cysts of neck and axilla, 132. Czermak demonstrates his laryngo- scope, 122. Deaf-mutism, Toynbee on, 168. Debenture loan, 179, 186 ; conver- sion of, 195. Degrees and qualifications, loi, 102, 104. Delirium tremens, Bence Jones on, 92. Dering Yard, 180. Dermoid cyst in the chest, 178. Dextral pre-eminence. Ogle on, 148, Diabetes, 24 ; Bence Jones on, 85 ; Ringer, 113 ; Dickinson, 134. Dickinson, Dr. W. H., 195. Digitalis, 167. Dinners of the Society, 50, 187, 195, 197, 201. Diphtheria, 153. Diphtheritic paralysis, 124. Diploma of the Society, 35, Discussion of papers, original sta- tute against, 5, 10, 18 ; proposal for discussions without papers, 56 ; statute expunged, 64. Dislocations of clavicle, 15 ; of vertebra, 59 ; of ankle, 64, 165 ; hip, congenital, 75, 167 ; hip, trau- 324 INDEX TO PART I matic, 82, 106, 155, 160 ; sternum, 152. Dissection-wounds, Stafford on, 72. Distemper in dogs, Jenner on, 19. Drainage-tubes, 112. Dropsy, influence of nervous system on, 126. " Dual consciousness," 85. Dundas, Mr., 11. Duodenal ulcer after burns, 83. Eczema of nipple (Paget's disease), Butlin on, 154. Egerton, Mr., 6, 8. Election, rules for, 92, 102, 104, 129, 168. Electricity, Spencer Wells on, 93 ; Scientific Committee on, 125. Elephantiasis, Lawrence on, 36, 42. Elliotson, Dr., 29, 66, 68, 83. Embolism, Jackson's description, 90; Kirkes' discovery, loi ; followed by aneurisms, 172. Emphysema, Jenner on, 109. Empyema, papers on, 49, 56, 86, 87, 112, 172. Enchondroma, Paget's case of, 107. Endemic haematuria, 125, 134. Endowment fund, 181, 186, 196. Epidemiological Society, the, 96, 116. Epidiascope, the, 201. Epilepsy, Burnett on, 54 ; Sims, 63. Epiphora, Bowman on, 100. Epithelioma, Thin on, 154. Erichsen, Sir John, 158. Erysipelas, Bright on, 29 ; Hutchi- son, 34; Lawrence, 58 ; its identity with puerperal peritonitis, Hut- chison, 81 ; with oedema of the larynx, Budd, 92. Ether, a " neglected method " in 1871, Warrington Haward on, 148. Excision of bones and joints, papers on, 15, 37, 42, 49, 54, 74, 76, 88, 93, 105, 106, 109, no, 132, 150; Fergusson on excision of head of femur, 88 ; arthrectomy and pri- mary union, 174 Exhibitions of specimens, etc., 84, 164, i66, 169. Experiments on animals, 153, 154. Expulsion, ceremony of, 34, 123. Extroversion of bladder, Wood on, 133- Faeces, discharge of fatty matters in, 65 ; analysis of, no. Faraday, 100, 132. Fawcett, Dr., 205. Fevers, continued, no, 124. Fibrin, Gulliver on, 79. Fibroid disease of lung, 126. Fibrosis, arterio-capillary, 149. Filariasis, 123, 164. Flexion of knee, for cure of popliteal aneurism, Ernest Hart's papers, 112, 123. Flockhart, Mr., 181. Forbes on the stethoscope, 52. Foreign books, difficulty of procur- ing, 31, 37- I oreign corresponding fellows pro- posed, 123. Foreign members, 25, 26, 32. (See Honorary Fellows.) Foreign secretary, 3 ; office abol- ished, 30. Founders of the Society, 2-7. Fox, Dr. Wilson, no, 172. Fractured thigh. Nelson on, 102. Functional murmurs, first mention of, 65. Fundus oculi. Gumming on the, 90. G. Galvanism, Spencer Wells on, 93. Galvano-cautery, John Marshall's invention of the, 98. Gangrene, senile, Hutchinson on high amputation, 166. Gant, Mr., 197. Garrod, Sir Alfred, 93. Gastric ulcer, 54. Generation, Blundell on, 41. Geological Society, 22, 36. George HL, death of the King, 45. Glanders in man, Elliotson on, 62, 67. Glaucoma, Hulke on operation for, no, 113. Glisson, I. Glycosuria, temporary, after cholera, I34- Gonorrhcea, Sauvan on, 68. Gonorrhceal ophthalmia, Lawrence on, 61. Goodsall, Mr., 205. INDEX TO PART I 325 Gout, papers by Budd, 107 ; Garrod, no. Gowers, Sir William, 225. Granulation-tissue, Listen on, 81. Gregory, Dr., 45. Gull, Sir William, 94, 107, 108. Gummata in muscles, 88. Gustatory nerve divided for cancer of tongue, C. Moore's paper, 114. Gynaecological Society, 181. H. Haemophilia, 37, 127. Halford, Sir Henry, 19, 29, 31, 50. Hall, Marshall, early papers, 42, 43 ; memoirs on nervous system, 79, 80. Hanover Square, the move to, 176, 178. Hare, Dr., 128. " Harlequin-fcetus," Bland Sutton's case, 172. Harvey memorial fund, 156, 158, 163. Hawkins, Mr. Caesar, 106. Hawkins, Mr. Charles, 117. Hay-fever, Bostock on, 42, 46, 60. Heart, injuries and diseases of, 11,78, 97, 128, 151 ; rupture of a valve, 61 ; functional murmur, 66 ; aneurism of, 77 ; concentric hypertrophy, 77 ; Hope on his discoveries, 78 ; Quain on fatty diseases, 97 ; myo- carditis, 128 ; a needle removed from the heart, 151. Hemeralopia, Bampfield on, 30. Hernia, anatomy of, Lockwood, 171. Hernia, radical cure, papers by Spencer Wells, 105; Wood, 113; Durham, 128. Hernia, Richter's, Treves on, 172. Hernia, strangulated, papers by Travers, 79 ; Fergusson, 93 ; ob- turator, papers by Hilton, 93; Obre, 100 ; operation without opening sac, 94; reduction en masse, 112. Histology, methods of, no. History of the Society, 183. Hodgkin's disease, 65. Hodgson, Dr., 99. Holmes, Mr. Timothy, 155, 181, 183, 187. Honorary Fellows (see also Foreign Members), 4, 73, 81, 107, no, 122, 124, 127, 131, 149, 151, 152, 154, 156, 165, 172, 195, 204. Horsley, Sir Victor, 164, i6g, 174. Hospital reports, 147. House-surgeon, paper by a, 60. Hughlings Jackson, Dr., 153, 156. Huguenot Society, 187. Hulke, Mr., 192. Hutchinson, Mr., 166, 173, 190, 194. Huxley and Lyell ; the librarians ask leave to purchase their books, 124. Huxley memorial fund, 193, 194. Hydatid disease, no, 128. Hydrocele, Martin on injection of tincture of iodine, 82. Hydrocephalus, Vose on tapping, 42. Hydronephrosis, congenital, 127 ; Morris, 154. Hydrophobia, papers by Marcet, 14 ; Gregory, 51 ; Coats and Gairdner, 155- Hygiene, Congress of, 187. Hypodermic method, 126, 129. Hysteria, theory and treatment of, 76. I. Ichthyosis linguae, 61, 152. Idiocy due to fruitless sucking, Ballard's paper on, 115. Iliac artery, ligature of, 62, 76. Ilio-femoral triangle, Bryant on, 154. Immunity, debate on, 201. Inadequate operations for cancer, Moore's paper, 130. Inclined plane for fractured thigh, 60. Index medicus. Dr. Merriman's, 87. Indigenous leprosy, reference to sup- posed last case in this country, 113- Inflammation, Wharton Jones on, 103. Innominate artery, ligature of, 59, 128, 150. International Catalogue of Scientific Literature, 199. International Medical Congresses, 129, 154, 160. Intestines, surgery of the, 172. Intracranial aneurism, Ogle on, in. Intus-susception, operation for, 123, 151, 154- Iodine and iodide of potassium, 49, 50, 58, 88. Iridectomy, Hulke's account of first operations in this country, 113. Irish Literary Society, 201. Italy, medicine in, compared with England, 49. I 326 INDEX TO PART I J. Jacksonian epilepsy, 153. Jacobson, Mr., 171. Jenner, Edward, 19. Jenner, S^r William, 94, 109. Johnson, Dr. George, 88, 92, ii2, 167. Joints, injuries and diseases of, Brodie, 30, 34, 36 ; Rutherford Alcock, 81. Jones, Mr., 23. Journals, medical, 146 ; list in 1805, 9 ; exclusion of reports from, 33, 35) 59 ; reports sanctioned, 63, III, 112; reporters excluded, 71; abstracts furnished to journals, 74, 75, 84, 102 ; reporters admitted, 83, 87, 96 ; influence of journals, 92, 105, 146, 199 ; proposal to ex- clude two journals, 104-106. Jubilee of H.M. Queen Victoria, 172. Junior Medical Society, the, 114. K. Keloid, Addison on, 105. Kent, the Duke of, 33. Kidney, Lee on the functions of the fcetal, 72 ; Toynbee on micro- scopic structure, 89 ; Dickinson, 113 ; operations, 166. Kimpton's library, 124, Kirkes on embolism, loi. Laminectomy, an early case of, 53. Laryngeal phthisis, 153. Laryngeal snare, first use of, 132. Laryngological Society, the, 201. Laryngology and the laryngoscope, 53, 58, 122, 124, 125 ; George Johnson, 132, 152 ; Durham, 148 ; Marcet, 153. Latency ot germs, 194, 195 ; of cancer of the breast, 197. Lateral curvature, Barwell on, 128 ; Arbuthnot Lane, 178. Latham, Dr. Arthur, 205. Latin, a paper in, 37. Law, Mr. Joseph, 44. Lawrence, Sir William, 20, 30, 36, 58, 64. Lead-poisoning, Burton on, 81 ; Hilton Fagge, 163 ; Oliver, 180. Lee, Dr. Robert, 96, 119, 122. Leprosy, 113; Vandyke Carter on, 151 ; Thin, 167, Levick, Mr., 6. Librarians, committee of, 155. Library, first rules for, 14 ; arranged by Dr. Roget, 19 ; Dr. Bateman, first librarian, 26 ; first catalogue, 26, 36 ; increase of library, 31, 35, 92, 132, 157, 176 ; rules for, 39, 40, 57, 90, 98, 152, 183, 188, 197; pupil-assistants, 192. Library Committee instituted, 10, 90. Licence for meetings, 39. Ligature of arteries, 30, 32, 36, 42, 56, 58, 59, 61, 62, 76, 90, 124, 150, 156, 162 ; Lawrence on ligatures cut short, 36 ; Travers on tempo- rary ligature, 42 ; Ballance and Edmunds, 171. Linacre, i. Lincoln's Inn Fields, 22, 40, 41, 44, 47, 68. " Listerism," 160, 161. Listen, Mr., 82, go. Lithotomy, papers on, 45, 49, 112, 123; patient's account of his own case, 43 ; lithotomy/er rectum, 45, 112; supra-pubic lithotomy, 45, 49, 171- Lithotrity, Brodie on, 107 ; Sir H. Thompson, 134, 156. Liver, cysts and abscesses, Hawkins on, 66 ; hydatid disease, Harley on, 128 ; Lawson Tait on hepa- totomy, 163. Locock, Sir Charles, 108. Longmans, Messrs., 12, 51. Loose cartilage, 34 ; Teale's case, 107. Lungs, Rainey on microscopic struc- ture of, 94 ; Sutton on fibroid disease, 126 ; Ryan on atelectasis, 131 ; Douglas Powell on elasti- city, 154 ; on paracentesis for basic cavities, 160, 168 ; for bron- chiectasis, 172 ; gangrene of lung, 172. Lymph, Dalrymple on its rapid or- ganisation in cachexia, 81. M. MacAlister, Mr., 172, 174, 177, 182, 183, 195, 200. Macnamara, Mr., 179. INDEX TO PART 1 327 Macrostoma, Morgan on, 163. Malaria, debate on, 196, 200. Marcet, Dr., 7, 14, 51, 130. Marshall, Mr. John, 98, 163 Marshall Hall fund, 133, 134, 147. Marshall Hall prize, 148 ; awarded to Dr. Hughlings Jackson, 156 ; Dr. Farrier, 165 ; Dr. Gaskell, 173 ; Dr. Gowers, 188 ; Dr. Sher- rington, 197 ; Dr. Head, 202. Massage, 172. Mastoid disease, Gull on secondary phlebitis, 107 ; Hinton on opera- tion, 132, with references to history of the operation ; Dalby, 169 ; Ballance, Dalby and Cum- berbatch, 200. Measles followed by disseminated myelitis, 172. Meconium, composition of, 86. Mediastinal abscess, 97. Medical benevolent fund, 127. Medical Council, 129. Medical Officers of Health, Society of, 187. Medical societies in Hunter's time, 2. Medical Society of London, the, 3, 15, 128, 180. Medical Teachers' Association, 129. Medico- Psychological Association, 133- Meetings, time of, 9, 12, 64, 163, Meningitis, tubercular, 45, 83, 159. Mental diseases, papers on, 57, 85, 95, 105, 107. Mercury, the abuse of, 50 ; its action on saliva, 54. Mesmerism, 77, 83, 89, 98. Meyer on adenoid vegetations, 133. Microscope, first mention of the use of the, 66, loi. Microscopical Club, 181. Mitral regurgitation, discovery claimed by Hope, 78. Mitral stenosis first described by Abernethy, 11. Mollities ossium, 30, 86, 87, 97, 106. Moore, Charles, on inadequate oper- ations for cancer, 130 ; periodical inflammation of knee joint, 131. Morphia, first mention of, 67. Mortality in the medical profession, W. Ogle on, 171. Motto of the Society, 37. Murmur, functional, 66. Myoma uteri, Lawson Tait on, 152. Myxoedema, Ord on, 155. N. Naivus, papers on, 59, 67. " Natural history of tetanus," 11 1. Navy and Army, papers on health of, 20, 24, 28, 33, 34, 35, 36, 38, 109, 151, 153. Nephrectomy, Barker on, 160, 162 ; H. Morris, 169 ; K. Thornton, 178. Nephrotomy, 133. Nerve-roots, division of, 178. Nervous system, Marshall Hall on, 79, 80 ; Lockhart Clarke, 131, 132, 152-154 ; Laycock, 126 ; nervi nervorum, Horsley on the, 169 ; Beevor on localization, 170 ; Hutchinson on syphilitic afi"ec- tions, 194. Neuromata, multiple, 128. Nicholls, Mr., 13, 21. Noma vulvae, K. Wood on, 36. Numerical method, introduction ol the, 79. Nutmeg liver, Legg on, 153. O. Obstetrical Society, the, 109, 116. Ochletic miasm, Gregory on the, 94. Odontological Society, 196, 199, 201. Esophageal pouch, Worthington's case of, 92. Qisophagotomy, 67. Ophthalmological Congress, 149. Ophthalmology, papers on, 31, 37, 52, 59, 85, 90, 93, 100, no, 113 ; Clifford Allbutt, 132. Ophthalmoplegia, Hutchinson on, 156, 159. Opium-eating, Jeffreys on, 81. Optical Society, the, 201. Orbit, aneurism of 19, 106 ; Nun- neley on vascular tumours of, 112, 125. Osteitis deformans, Paget on, 154, 165. Osteo-myelitis in gunshot wounds, 126. Osteotomy, Little on, 148 ; Marsh, 152. Otology, papers by Swan, 41 ; Cock, 68 ; Toynbee, 82, 84, 94, 98, 102, 328 INDEX TO PART I io8, no, 128 ; Hinton, 108. (See also Mastoid Operation.) Ovarian cysts, 58, 125. Ovariotomy, early papers on, 86, 92, 96, 97 ; during pregnancy, Burd's case, 92 ; Spencer Wells, in, 123, 126, 130, 133, 148, 150, 155, 162 ; Knowsley Thornton, 161, 172. Ox-aorta ligature, 159. Ozone, Schonbein's discovery of, 100. Pachydermatocele, Mott's case of, 106. Paget, Sir James, on trichina spir- alis, 72 ; on symmetry in disease, 82 ; on removal of tumours from bone, 148 ; elected President, 152 ; on osteitis deformans, 154, 165 ; on branchial fistulse, 155. Palate, cleft, 86, 108, 132. Pancreas, diseases of the, 65, 107. Pancreatitis, acute, early cnse of, 64. Papers, read in abstract, 35, 39, 97; rules for, 39, 55, 74, 77, 91, 92, 98, 129, 182, 190, 198 ; wide range of, 41 ; undue length of, 48 ; unpub- lished, 57; a discussion stopped, 129; copies of papers, 153. Paracentesis pericardii, 166. Paracentesis tympani, 156. Paralysis, Bostock on, 40 ; Shaw, 51; Earle, 59 ; Gull, 108. Paralysis, papers on, Shaw on Bell's work, 51 ; Earle, 59. Paraplegia associated with gonor- rhoea and stricture. Gull on, 108. Partridge, Mr., 23. Pasteur, 193. Pathological Society, founded, 88; proposal of tenancy, 89, loi, 108; proposal of union, 95, no; counter- attractions of, 105 ; jubilee of, 195. Pathology, special meetings for, 80. Pavy, Dr., 198. Pellagra, Holland on, 40. Pemphigus vegetans, 178. Pendlebury, Mr., 205. Perforating ulcer of the foot, 159. Pericarditis, Dundas on, 12 ; Bright, 77 ; Taylor, 87 ; Burrows, 92 ; S. West on operation for, 166. Periodical inflammation of knee- joint, 131. Peritoneal adhesions. Bright on, 72. Peritonitis, tubercular, Gregory on, 45- Pharmacology, papers in, 41, 52. Phlebitis and phlegmasia dolens, 52, 60, 103, 107 ; pulmonary phlebitis, Lee, 67 ; Gull, 107. Photography, 131. Phrenology, 33, 57, 66, 71, 83, 95. Phthisis, 54, 8^. 86, 88, 108, 115, sqq. ; Robert Williams on a speci- fic remedy, 85 ; Green on seat of tubercle, 85 ; treatment by high altitudes, 133, 151, 174 ; sulpho- carbolates, 133 ; warm climates, 149; open-air treatment, 198. Physicians, College of, i, 26-30. Pitt, Dr. G. Newton, i. Placenta, Barnes on fatty degenera- tion of, 98. Plastic bronchitis, 86. Pleura, Carson's operation on the, 54. Pneumothorax, paracentesis in, 95 ; tubercular, 132. Pollock, Mr. George, 170. Posture in operations under anaes- thesia, 194. Potassas, liquor, 109. Powell, Sir Richard Douglas, 132, 144, 154, 160, 178, 181, 203. Practitioners in pharmacy, 9, 40. Pregnancy, extra-uterine, 59; Law- son Tait on, 151, 160. Pregnancy j« iitcrl substantia, 54. Pregnancy, Merriman's tables of, 59. Presidency, the, not to go by senior- ity, 71 ; physician and surgeon al- ternately, 39 ; biennial, not annual, 75, 82, S3, 86 ; voting equal at a meeting of Council, 125. President's address, the, 75. Presidential badge and master-key, 183 ; presidential table, 187. Primary union, "evils" of, 76. Prince Consort, death of H.R.H. the, 114. Prince Regent, the, 27, 31. Prisons, mortality in, 87 ; Baly on its causes, 87 ; E. Smith on the wrong of the tread-mill, 109 ; Ren- nie on dietary of convicts, no. Privy Council, the, 28. Prizes, early proposals for, 50, 75. Proceedings, proposal for publish- ing, 77; publication of, 107, in, 126, 134, 152, 173 ; proposal to cease from publishing, in, 190; cessation, 198. INDEX TO PART I 329 Progressive muscular atrophy, 133. Prostrate gland, 109, 113. Provincial hospitals, letter to, 26. Pseudo-hypertrophic paralysis, first mention of, 1 00 ; Lockhart Clarke, 152 ; Ord on, 154. Psoas abscess, Treves on, 168. Psychical Research, Society of, 201. Puerperal fever, 65, 93, 174. Puerperal state, cardiac murmurs in, 164. Pulse, Hope on sixteen varieties of, 78. Pus-corpuscles, Gulliver on, 79. Pyemia, Rose's theory of, 60 ; Bry- ant on, 112. Quacks, Bell on, 51. Quain, Sir Richard, 97. Quarrier, 38. Quekett Club, 181. Quinine, Elliotson on, 52. Rates and taxes, 100, 106, 108, 187. Raven, Mr., 48, 53. Renal calculus, Earle on, 45 ; T. Smith on nephrotomy for, 132 ; Godlee and Parker, 172. Resection of bone, early case of, 15- Residence, radius of, 23, 30, 187. Retinoscopy, Clifford Allbutt's paper, 132. Retrospect, 1856-79, 157. Rheumatism, treatment of, papers by Garrod, 106 ; Dickinson, 123 ; Gull and Sutton, 133. Rheumatoid arthritis, A. E. Garrod on, 173. Rickets, Stanley on, 37 ; Shaw, 66. Roget, Dr., 19, 61. Roval Medical and Chirurgical Society of London : its founding, 2-7 ; at Verulam Buildings, 8-21 ; at 3, Lincoln's Inn Fields, 22-43 ! at 30, Lincoln's Inn Fields, 44-46 ; at 57, Lincoln's Inn Fields, 47-70 ; receives its charter, 69 ; at 53, Berners Street, 71-116, 122-134, 145-181 ; at 20, Hanover Square, 182-206. Royal Society of Medicine, 69, 136, 206. Ruptured tubal pregnancy, 178. Saphena vein, division of, 42. Saunders, Dr., 3, 13, 29. Scapula, removal of the, 93, 109. Scleroderma Infantum, 59. Scurvy and scurvy-rickets, 166. Seal of the Society, 35. Sections proposed for special sub- jects, 198. Semmelweis, Routh's account of, 93. Septic inflammations of throat, Semon on, 194. Service Fellowship, 131, 201, 202. Shoulder-girdle, the, 167. Sieveking, Sir Edward, 173. Skey, Mr., no. Skin, development of mammary functions in, paper by Champ- neys, 171. Small- pox communicated to foetus, Jenner on, 19 ; a conversation on, 78. Smith, Sir Thomas, 205 ; on tracheo- tomy, 126 ; on the operation for cleft palate, 132 ; on nephrotomy, 133 ; on vaccino-syphilis, 151 ; on scurNy-rickets, 166 ; on removal of foreign body from bronchus, 174. Soden collection of portraits, 123. Solly, Mr., 128. Solvents for calculi, 126. Somerset House, talk of moving to, 68. Specialism, 84, 138. Speculum, the vaginal, 96, log. Spencer Wells on galvanism, 93 ; on chloroform in phthisis and asthma, 100 ; on radical cure of hernia, 105 ; on tetanus, in. (See also Ovariotomy.) Spermatozoa in hydrocele-fluid, 85. Sphygmographic tracings, Mahomed, 150. Spinal cord, Brodie on, 74 ; Budd, 79 ; Gowers and Horsley, removal of tumour, 174. Spine, injuries and diseases of the, 53, 62, 65, 82, 127. Spirillum-fever, Vandyke Carter on, 156, 160. 330 INDEX TO PART I Spirometry and stethometry, papers by Hutchinson, 89 ; Gibson, 93 ; Ransome, 150, 163. Spleen, Jackson on a particular de- rangement (embolism), 90 ; Gee on enlargement in hereditary syphilis, 131 ; removal of the spleen, 172, 174. Sporadic cretinism, Hilton Fagge on, 148. Spurzheim, special lectures by, 32, 33- Sputa, pigment in, 74, 78 ; lung- tissue in phthisical sputa. Fen- wick, 128 ; inoculation of animals with phthisical sputa, Marcet, 130. Squibb collection of portraits, 124. Standing orders, 73, 183. Stanley, Mr,, 84. Stapes, ankylosis of, no. Sterility in man, Curling on, 124. Sternum, dislocation of, 152. Stertor, Bowles on, 113. Stethoscope, Forbes on the, 52. Stomach, ulcer of, 37, 54 ; foreign bodies in, 51; rupture of, 60; diseases of, 105, no; fistula, self- inflicted, 109. Stramonium, Garrod on, 109. Stricture, associated with paraplegia, 108 ; treatment by dilatation, 124. (See also Urethrotomy.) Stumps, dressing, in 1841, 82 ; growth of, 114. Styptics, Hawkins on uselessness of, 66. Sulpho-carbolates, Sansom on the, 133- Sulphocyanide of potassium in saliva, 164. Superior maxilla, removal of, 74 ; date of first operation, 113. Supraclavicular swellings. Curling on, 97. Suprapubic lithotomy, "an obsolete operation," 45, 49 ; restored, 171. Suprarenal capsules, 109. (See also Addison's Disease.) Surgery, Blundell's prophecy, 43, 53- Suspended animation (treatment of the apparently drowned), 114 ; a committee appointed to investi- gate the subject, 120, 133, 134, 156, 158, 177, 183, 199, 203; Bowles on, 178 ; Schafer, 203. Sweat, Bostock's analysis of, 60. Sydenham Society, 84, in. Syme, Mr., 103, 109, 113. Symmetry in disease, 82. Sympathetic system. Ogle on, no; Hale White, 170. Syphilis, papers on, 58, 88, 131, 147, 153. 173 ; syphilization, 131 ; vaccino-syphilis, 147, 151 ; de- bate on affections of nervous system, 194. Tapson, Mr., 163. Tea and coffee at meetings, 65, 73, Teeth, Bell on the, 41 ; Nasmyth, 80. Temperature, mentioned by Mar- shall Hall, 65 ; first mention of a patient's, 74. Tendon-reflex phenomena, 159. Tendons, extensibility of, 41 ; first mention of tenotomy, 76 ; for ad- justment of fractures, 95 ; repair of tendons, 112. Tetanus, early papers on, 34, 40, 57, 61, 62, 66, 80, 88 ; Spencer Wells on, in; Lockhart Clarke, 126; Coats and Gairdner, 155. Thanksgiving Day, 149. Theses, procuring of, 39. Thin, Dr. George, 203. Thought and speech, mechanism of, 97, 149- Thread-test for uric acid, 105. Thyroid gland, 42, 58, 148, 154 ; early case of partial removal, 58 ; Curling on its absence, with cre- tinism, 97 ; sloughing of, 154 ; weight of, 174. Thyrotomy, Durham on, 148 ; Semon, 156. Tobacco-amaurosis, Hutchinson on, 131- Tongue, ulcer of, 40 ; ichthyosis, 61, 152 ; removal by ligatures, 78 ; hypertrophy of, 102 ; cancer, 114 ; chronic superficial glossitis, 156. Torsion of arteries, Bryant on, 132. Tracheotomy, 36, 38, 49, 66, 86, 126 ; for foreign body, 49, 85, 155, 174 ; Baker's tubes, 154, 155. Transactions of the Society, 25, 191 ; first volume, 12, 17 ; selection of papers for, 25, 35, 55 ; profits from, 39, 50 ; illustrations sent to INDEX TO PART I 331 America, 51; expense of transac- tions, 62, 73, 87, 89; expense of illustrations, 73, 87 ; MS. index by Mr. Erichsen, 87 ; change of type, 8g ; disclaimer by Council, 89 ; comments on published papers, 91 ; plan for an abridg- ment of the transactions, 94 ; index by Dr. Hennen, 98 ; jubilee volume, 130; index by Mr. Wheat- ley, 147 ; price of the transactions, 171. Transfusion, Blundell on, 42. Travers, Mr., 42, 58. Tread-mill, the, E. Smith, 109. Treves, Sir Frederick, 161, 164, 168, 172, 174, igg, 204, 205. Trichina spiralis, 164 ; Hilton, 67 ; Paget, 72. Tubercle, early papers on, 10, 45 ; Green, 86 ; Rainey, 88 ; Dawson, 131 ; Kidd, 169. Tuberculin, Watson Cheyne, 187. Tumours, Lawrence on, 64 ; Liston on tumours of mouth and jaw, 74 ; Ancell's case of multiple tumours, 83 ; Stanley on pulsating tumours of bone, 88 ; tumours of bladder, 166. Tumours of bone, 88, 148. Typhoid and typhus, 94. Typhoid, 171 ; Poore on prevention of, 196. u. Union proposed between societies, 95, 116, 128, 131, 133, 135-145, 205 ; opinions of Burrows, 145 ; Erichsen, 161; A. Clark, 189; J. Hutchinson, 193. Urea, S. West on estimation of, 152. Ureter, wound of, 155. Urethra, anatomy of, 14, 41 ; proxi- mate principles of, 39. Urethrotomy, 62 ; Syme on, 103, log. Uric acid, Ure on, 82 ; Bence Jones, 85 ; Garrod, 105 ; Pavy's method of estimating, 160 ; Haig, 173- Urine, in diabetes, 24 ; Marcet and A. E. Garrod on alkaptonuria, 51 ; Bence Jones on the cure of chy- luria by gallic acid, 97 ; systematic examination of, 76 ; detection of poisons in, 92 ; Cock on operation for retention, loi ; development of torulae in, loi ; examination for cancer-cells, loi ; in mollities ossium, 106; in gout, no; in ague, 112; in scarlet fever, 123; in typhus, 130 ; Ord on crystalline deposits, 153 ; Pavy on sugar in healthy urine, 153. Uterine appendages, removal of, Lawson Tait's paper, 162. Uterus, Bell on muscularity of, 30 ; rupture of, 52 ; cancer of, Lever's tables, 79 ; Spencer Well's case of excision of the gravid uterus, 163. V. Vaccination, Gregory on, 102 ; animal vaccination, 155 ; Cope- man on modern methods, 201. Vaccinia, 56, 78. Vaccino-syphilis, 147, 151. Vagus, pressure on the, 125, 152. Varicella gangrenosa, 163. Varicocele, the open operation for, 163. Varix, aneurismal, 114. Venesection, Wardrop on, 43 ; Mar- shall Hall, 54, 61, 65 ; Markham, no ; Pye Smith, 187. Verulam Buildings, 6, 20. Vesico-vaginal fistula, 72. Veterinary Surgeons, Royal College of, 96 Victoria, death of H.M. the Queen, 200. Victoria Research Fund, 196. Virchow, Prof., 201. W. Want, Mr. John, 23, 33. Wardrop's operation, 56. Wasting in phthisis, Robert Wil- liams on, 85. Water-hammer pulse, Galabin on, 154- Webb Miles, Messrs., 182, 185. Weight of organs in health and disease, Clendinning on, 76. Wells, Sir Spencer, early papers, 93, 100, 105, III. (See also Ovari- otomy.) 332 INDEX TO PART I West, Dr. Charles, 155. Westward, moving, 48, 56, 62, 63, 66, 68. Wheatley, Mr., 106, 167. Widows and Orphans of Medical Men, Society for Relief of, 78, 100, 149, 181, 190. Wilde, Mr., 117. Willett, Mr., 167, 201. Williams, Mr., 65. Williams, Dr. C. J. B., 150 Williams, Dr. Robert, 81, 85. Wire as a temporary ligature, 124. Wounded in South African War, the, igg. Writer's cramp, Poore on, 156, 173. Written orders for books, 37. X. Xanthelasma palpebrarum, Hutchin- son on, 148. Y. Yelloly, Dr., 7, 8, 14, 40, 68. Yellow fever, 39, 42. Yeoman, Mr., 23, 44. INDEX TO PART II. Abernethy, John, 226, 256, 258, 273. Addison, Dr. T., 262. Albuminuria, 243. Alcock, answer to, 207. Alderson, Sir J., 280. Alderson, Dr. John, 280. Antimony, 209. Antrim, 227. Aortic disease (Hodgson on), 265. Aphasia (Brodie on), 252. Arantius, 301. Arnott, J. M., 260. Arteries (Hodgson), 265. Artery (axillary, Abernethy on), 227. Artists (Anatomy for), 301. Assistant physicians, 284. B. Babington, Dr. B. G., 275. Babington, Dr. W., 220. Baillie, Dr. M., 210. Baker, Sir G., 203. Baltic merchant, 281. Banks, Sir Joseph, 252. Barclay, Dr. A. W., 299. Bell, Sir Charles, 225, 260, 268. Bentley, Richard, 208. Berkeley (Minute philosopher), 251. Bernard, Dr. Francis, 220. Beschius (Tamil grammar), 276. Birkbeck, Dr. G., 228. Birmingham, 265. Blackall, Dr. John (of St. Bartholo- mew's), 243. Blackall, Ofspring (of Catharine Hall), 243. Blaise, St. , 287. Blane, Sir G., 216. Blanefield (Ayr), 218, Blicke, Sir C, 227. Blizard, Sir W., 286. Boerhaave, 244. Bonetus (Sepulchretum), 210. Botallus, 301. Bradford, 287, Brain (Solly on the), 281, Bright, Dr. R., 242. Brodie, Sir B. C, 226, 250, 252, 271. Brome Park, 252. Brougham, Henry, Lord, 229. Bryant, Mr. T., 310. Burrows, Sir G., 284. Burrows, Dr. G. M., 284. Butler's sermons, 308. Bysshe (Art of Poetry), 233. c. Calculi (solvent of), 209. Cannes, 289. Cerebral circulation (Burrows), 284. Chambers, William (H.E.I.C.S.), 259. Chambers, Dr. W. F., 259. Channel Fleet, 217. Chantrey (bust of Cline), 219. Chapel, St. George's, Windsor, 214. Charcoal vapour, 220, Charles I., 214, 268. Charterhouse School, 276. Children, diseases of, 295. Cholera (Babington), 277 ; (Cop- land), 267; (Johnson), 303. Church, Sir W. S., 308. Cider, 207, Cinchona, 224. Cirencester, 234. Clark, Sir A., 307. Clift, 235. Cline, Henry, 218. Clowes, William (on reading), 251. (333) 334 INDEX TO PART II Colic, Devonshire, 207. Cooke, Dr. John, 224. Cooper, Sir Astley, 219, 223, 231, 240. Copenhagen, 297 ; battle of, 276 Copland, Dr. James, 267. Cumberland, Duke of, 214. Cumberland, Goldsmith's lines on, 291. Curling, T. B., 286. Curry, James, 220, D. Dickinson, Dr. William Hovvship, 310. "Dictionary of Medicine" (Copland), 267. Diseases (named from discoverers), 242. Dislocations (Cooper), 223. Dispensary in Bartholomew Close, 230. Dropsy, 243. Dundee, 307. Dunglisson, Dr. R., 267. Duntisbourne, 212. Duodenum, ulcer of, 286. Dysart, 299. Earle, Henry, 240. Eddis (portrait of Roget), 233. Edward VII., King, 306. Elliotson, Dr. John, 236, 289. Ely, 301. " Encyclopasdia Britannica," gift of, 308. Enfield, 209, 228. Enteric fever (observed by Bright), 248. Epidemiological Society, 276. Erasistratus, 297. Erichsen, Sir John Eric, 297. Eton, 208. Fever, infantile gastric remittent (Locock), 273. Field-Marshal, 304. Fold, vestigial, of Marshall, 301. Fox, Charles James, 287. Fractures (Cooper), 223; (Earle), 241. Garibaldi, 279. Geach, answer to, 207. General Medical Council, 284. Geological Society, 220. George II., 268 ; III., 213 ; IV., 213. Glasgow (Andersonian Institute), 229. Glottiscope, 276. Goudhurst, 302. Gowers, Sir William, 225. H. Haileybury, 276. Halford, Sir Henry, 212, 289. Hamburg, 305. Hamilton (N.B.), 212. Hare and other murderers, 278. Harvey (autotype of MS. notes), 306. Haslar, 307. Hawkins, Cassar Henry, 268. Head of Charles I., 214. Heberden, Dr. William, 245. Hecker's " Epidemics," 276. Hempstead, 308. Hepatitis, 209. Herbert (Narrative), 215. Hermes, figure of, 219. Herophilus, 225. Hodgkin, Dr., 276. Hodgson, Joseph, 265. Holden, Luther, 234. Holl, F. (portrait of Clark), 30S ; (portrait of Johnson), 304. Holmes, Mr. Timothy, 310. Home, Sir Everard, 250. Hooping-cough (West), 295. Horace, 219. Hospitals : — Charing Cross, 279. Guy's, 207, 208, 209, 220, 223, 224, 241, 242, 243, 248, 262, 263, 270, 310. King's College, 278, 279, 302. London, 225, 286, 307, 310. Middlesex, 214, 260, 268, 269, 295, 310. St. Bartholomew's, 220, 226, 227, 228, 234, 235, 240, 243, 256, 257, 265, 272, 273, 278, 284, 285, 290, 295, 297, 310. St. George's, 212, 250, 260, 268, 300, 304, 310. INDEX TO PART II 335 Hospitals : — St. Mary's, 280, 305, 306. St. Thomas's, 216, 218, 219, 223, 231, 236, 255, 282. University College, 236, 289, 297. 301. 305- Hospitalism (Erichsen), 298. Humbugs (seldom surgeons), 283. Humphry, Sir George, 234. Hungerford Almshouse, 287. Hunter, John, 212, 294. Hunter, William, 212, 250. Hutchinson, Mr. Jonathan, 310. Hysteria (Skey), 273. I. Iodide of potassium, 255. Johnson, Sir George, 302. Joints (Brodie), 250. K. Kidney (cysts of), 210; (disease), 243. Kilburn, 267. Knight (portrait of Burrows), 285. L. Lsnnec (Williams, C. J. B.), 288. Laryngiscope, 276. Latham (on Abernethy), 226. Lawrence, Sir Thomas (portrait of Abernethy), 228 ; (portrait of Hal- ford), 213. Lawrence, Sir William, 234, 250. Lemon-juice, 218. Lerwick, 267. Leslie, C. R. (portrait of Travers), 231. Lind, James, 216. Liquor sanguinis, 276. Liver, cirrhosis of, 210. Locock, Sir Charles, 271. Locock, Dr. Henry, 271. Logical faculty (Barclay), 300. Long Benton, 262. Lunatic (on surgeons), 282. Lymington, 260. M. Macilwain (on Abernethy), 226. Major (in Army), 304. Marshall, John, 301. Mechanics' institutions, 229. Memoirs (of Paget), 290. Mephitic acid, 209. Merchant Taylors' School, 218, 256. Mesmerism, 236. Millais (portrait of Paget), 220. Millbank Penitentiary, 233. Mineral waters, 209. Mineralogy (Babington's), 220. Moore, R. R. R. (anecdote of Birk- beck), 229. Morgani, 210. Munk, Dr. William, 216, 260. Munster, Count, 214. N. Navy (health of), 217. Nervous diseases (Cooke on), 225. Newton, Sir Isaac, 208. Nimmo, Dr. Matthew, 307. Nineteenth century (early surgical practice in), 273. Northampton, 271. o. CEsophagus, stricture of (Pollock on), 304. Oriel (Provost of), 268. Osteitis deformans, 290. Ovid, 239. P. Paget, Sir James, 289. Partridge, Bernard (an accomplished artist), 280. Partridge, Richard, 278. Partridge, Samuel, 278. Pathological Society ,^ 269. Pavy, Dr. F. W., 310. •' Pendennis," 239. Pericarditis (Elliotson on), 237 ; (Burrows on), 285. Peruvian bark (red), 209. Peterhouse, 243. 336 INDEX TO PART II Phthisis, treatment of (by Skey), 273- Pickersgill (portrait of Lawrence), 235- Pollock, George David, 304. Polypi (of the heart), 210, Porson, Richard, 208, Portglenone, 220. Pott, Percival, 228, 240. Powell, Sir Richard Douglas, 310, Presidents, number, 207 ; kind, 207 ; relationship of, 275. Prince Regent, 214. " Psychological Enquiries " (of Brodie), 250. " Purley (Diversions of)," 219. Q. " Quain's Anatomy," 301. Reynolds, Sir Joshua, 228. Rheumatism, William Babington on, 221 ; Alderson on, 280. Richerand's " Physiology," 267. Roget, Dr. P. M., 232. Rokitansky's " Pathological Anat- omy," 306. Romberg's " Nervous Diseases," 306. Rugby School, 213. Russia merchant, 273. Saffron Walden, 308. Salisbury, Marquis of, 287. Salmonicus, Q. S., 244. Saunders, William, M.D., 207; lec- tures, extract from, 209 ; portrait, 210. Savory, Sir W. S., 234. Scurvy, 216. Sergeant-surgeons, four in family, 269. Serving-boy, 307. Settle, Yorkshire, 228. Shee, Sir M. A. (portrait of Blane), 218. Shotts, Lanarkshire, 212. Sieveking, Sir Edward Henry, 305. Skey, Frederic Carpenter, 273. Slaney, Edward, 256. Smith, Thomas, 218. Solicitor, 301, Solly, Samuel, 281. Southwark, 236. Spencer, Earl, 216. Spezzia, 279. St. Helen's Place, 305. St. Mary Axe, 282. St. Paul's Cathedral, 220, 224. Stevenson, B. C, 214. Stopcock action of arterioles, 303. Street named after Birkbeck, 231. Suffolk, H.M.S., 217. Surgeon (naval), ignorance of, 228. Surgeons, candour of, 282. Tamil grammar, 276. Teaching, University, 301. Thackeray, 239. Therapeutics (Dr. R. Williams on), 255- " Thesaurus " (Roget's), 233. Tooke, Home, 219. Towne (bust of Addison), 263. Trafalgar (wound received at), 257. Translation of Harvey, 308. Travels (of Bright), 243 ; (of Bur- rows), 284. Travers, Benjamin, 231. Treasurer (first), 224. Tulpius, N., 244. Tupper, James Perchard (notes), 209. U. Ulcer (of stomach), 212 ; (of enteric fever), 212. Ulidia, 220. Ulster, 220, 227. Ultonia, 220. University College, 230. University of London, 230. Upton-on-Severn, 273. V. Vandyke, 214. Vaughan family, 213. Veins (Travers on), 231. Vertebrae (injuries of), Hawkins on, 269. Vestris, 219. INDEX TO PART II 337 W. Walshe, Dr. W. H., 308. Watts, G. F. (portrait of Clark), 308. West, Dr. Charles, 295. Westminster Abbey, 212. Westminster School, 259. Whigs (new), 287. Wilks, Sir S., "History of Guy's Hospital," 263. Willett, Mr. Alfred, 310. William IV., 213. Williams, Dr. C. J. B., 287. Williams, Dr. Robert, 255. Windmill Street, 212. Windmill Street School, 268. Winterslow, 250. Wolverhampton School, 227. Woolcombers and woolstaplers, 287. Young, Sir George (services to edu- cation in London), 301. " Zoist, The," 237. THE ABERDEEN UNIVERSITY PRESS LIMITED V UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY Los Angeles This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. BiUMED Uq Form L9-40to-5,'67(H2161s8)4939 ii II, m 1^ 11 m ffffff 1 ill frfffff 1 ii^ 11