THE

was required to have his head shaved and to be rebaptized, before they would consent to grant him his domicile, which he in consequence declined accepting. He also retired. Both these individuals addressed letters to me before their departure, requesting that, if I visited England, I would make the bad treatment which they had experienced known in common with my own complaints. A Scotchman also, by the name of Reid, who had entered into a contract with the Government to construct a wharf, complained to me about the remiss manner in which the island authorities fulfilled their promises, and expressed a strong desire that Government would send out a Consul in order to protect the interests of British subjects. He gave me a copy of the contract into which the Government had entered with him, in order that I might make use of it to show the importance of British transactions at Porto Rico, and the consequent claim there was on the Government for protection. At the same time, two captains of British merchant vessels complained to me about annoyances and impositions to which they had been subjected, and requested, if I had occasion to represent the injustice under which they had heard I had suffered, that I would make a point of representing, at the same time, what they had experienced. They also addressed letters to me on their respective grievances.

I had now nearly made up my mind to proceed to England, in order to lay my case before the Secretary for Foreign Affairs, as I thought I had exhausted every expedient to obtain my rights, but without effect.

At this juncture, however, I was informed by the two captains just alluded to, one morning, before I was dressed, that Lord Elgin had just arrived; they stated that they thought, perhaps, I would wish to see him, and therefore they had come to inform me of the fact. Lord Elgin was just about leaving the island with his countess when I requested he would afford me an opportunity of saying a few words to him before he took his departure. The steam of the Medina, the vessel in which he was proceeding to take charge of the Government of Jamaica, was up, and the mailboat and company were waiting, so that my interview with his lordship was necessarily short, although important. It ended in his requesting me to write to him, and to refer him to some friends in Jamaica, and a promise, on his part, to do what he could to help me. The Medina was wrecked not many hours after Lord Elgin and I parted. It would seem as if an evil genius had crossed his path. The letter which I addressed to Lord Elgin after his departure is as follows:

"Porto Rico, May 14, 1842. "To the Right Honourable the Earl of Elgin, Governor of Jamaica, &c. &c. "MY LORD,-Referring to the brief conversation I had the honour of having with your lord ship in this city, I beg to forward the accumpanying copy of my communication to Sir Charles Metcalfe, in November last year (the substance of this communication has already been stated). From this your lordship will learn the circumstances of my case previous to the present time. "I may add that, although I have had frequent subsequent interviews with the Captain-General of this island, with a view of moving him to grant me my liberty to practise in the country, he still remains immoveable on this point. The last time I saw him was about a month ago, when he told me that he was sorry he could not comply with my request. I have been a serious loser by these restrictions; and some pecuniary matters, which I should otherwise have attended to, have been unavoidably neglected.

"I am not the only British subject who has been suspected and inconvenienced. Two young men arrived here a few weeks ago from the island of Trinidad, with a view of establishing themselves in agricultural pursuits; but they were obliged to leave the island on account of not being able to find security for their good behaviour sa strict is the Government at present, and so jealous with regard to the admittance of British sub

MEDICAL TIMES.

jects, that some resident agent or minister is
much required to whom recourse may be had by
those who come to establish themselves in the
country.

"I am sure I should have had no difficulty if
there had been a resident British Consul here.
It is now ten months since I was restricted in the
exercise of my rights, and I am almost in despair
of regaining them; and although these restrictions
have been prejudicial to my pccuniary interests,
in a considerable amount, still my claims are of
such a delicate nature that I do not expect to get
any compensation for my losses from this Go-
vernment. I hope, however, that some measures
will be taken to prevent the recurrence of such
difficulties to others, and that your lordship will
be able, through the information which you may
receive in Jamaica respecting my character, to re-
move from the mind of the Captain-General of
this island any idea which he may have formed
of the revolutionary nature of my mind.

"If your lordship will have the goodness to
address his Excellency on the subject, I do not
doubt but that he will relax his rigour, and allow
me freely to practise my profession.

"I have been obliged to turn my attention,
during my comparative confinement here, to some
occupation, and I have translated the regulations
respecting the commerce and shipping of this
I have also re-
island, including the duties imposed on British
manufactures and tonnage, &c.
vised and enlarged the Commercial Report, which
I forwarded to Lord Palmerston last year, and
have collected general information which it may
be of service to her Majesty's Government to
know.

"I had an intention, which I have not yet wholly
abandoned, of going to England in order to lay
my case before Government, and at the same time
a view of inducing the ap-
to present the papers containing the information
in question, with
pointment of British Consul; but if your lord-
ship will take an interest in my case I shall wait
the result. I am aware that I have no particular
claim on your lordship's favour, but I have a
general claim which I feel persuaded your lord-
ship will not deny. It is that claim which every
unfortunate, oppressed man makes when he
appeals to a powerful, a noble, and a good man;
and this claim is seldom denied when directed to
one such as I have described. I feel that your
lordship admitted this claim when you promised
to extend to me that protection which might be
in your power.

"I have the honour to be, my lord,
"Your lordship's most obedient humble servant,
"D. M. REED.
(Signed)
"P.S.-I was this morning called up to the Go-
vernment-house, and asked by the Lieutenant-
Governor if the Governor of Jamaica had been
here. I answered that your lordship had called
here, in the steamer, going from Great Britain to
I said I believed your lordship had
Jamaica.
been informed that the Captain General was
absent. The Lieutenant-Governor then observed
that he represented the Captain-General in his
absence, and that he was sorry that he did not
know of your lordship's presence in the capital,
"D. M. R."
in order that the due honours might have been
observed.

I had forgotten to state previously that during
my interview with Lord Elgin, I had referred him
to the Bishop of Jamaica and to Wm. Ramsay,
Esq., Secretary-General of Police-gentlemen to
whom I was personally known when I resided in
Jamaica. But as I had been some time absent
from Jamaica, and during that time had had no
communication with either the Bishop or Mr.
Ramsay, I thought it advisable to inform them
what I had done; accordingly I addressed the fol-
"Porto Rico, May, 1842.
lowing letter to the Bishop :-
"MY LORD, I took the liberty the other day
The case was as fol-
of referring Lord Elgin to your lordship for in-
formation respecting me.
lows:-I have been somewhat oppressed by the
Governor of Porto Rico. I had previously written

to Sir Charles Metcalfe for protection, who ex-
tween the Governor of Porto Rico and myself.
When Lord Elgin landed here, some days ago, I
pressed his inability to interfere in questions be
addressed myself to his lordship, who expressed
a desire to serve me, but observed that he had no
I referred him to
previous knowledge of me.
your lordship and to Mr. Wm. Ramsay, as being
gentlemen whom his lordship would be most
likely to see shortly after his arrival at Jamaica.
For this reason I now take the
I have been seven years absent from Jamaica, and
it is not unlikely that your lordship may have for-
gotton me.
liberty of stating that I am a brother of the Rev.
Wm. Reed (formerly the Bishop's chaplain), now
residing in York; that I had the honour of being
you at his house in Spanish Town, besides of
introduced to your lordship by him, and of seeing
dining and visiting at your lordship's residence at
these minutiæ, appreciating the motive of my re-
ference and the desire which I have of justifying
St. Andrew's. I trust your lordship will excuse
it; and that, if Lord Elgin appeals to you for in-
formation respecting me, your lordship will supply
such as can be obtained, if necessary, from my
friends Drs. Spalding, of Kingston, and Cooke, of
St. Thomas-in-the-East-gentlemen well known
to your lordship, and to whom I am most inti-
"I have the honour to be, my lord, your lord-
mately known.
ship's most obedient humble servant,
"D. M. REED."
(Signed)
I addressed a letter to the same effect to Mr.
Ramsay. Some time afterwards, however, before
I had received any answer to my letter to Lord
Elgin, I had a passage on board a vessel pro-
ceeding to England offered to me on very advan-
fuse. I therefore informed Lord Elgin of my
tageous terms, which I did not think proper to re-
any communication which he might think proper
to make to me, to England. I arrived in England
intended departure, and begged he would direct
to endeavour to get an interview with
about the middle of July, 1842, and I met my
brother, the Rev. Hugh Reed. My next step
matter. However, I called at the Foreign-office,
Lord Aberdeen, but this I found was no easy
into the library, while some inquiries were made
of the gentlemen within. The answer which I re-
and made known my object. I was shown into
ceived was to the effect that Lord Aberdeen never
saw any one without an especial appointment.
in the lobby-of course I had no opportunity
of saying a word to his lordship on that occasion,
As I was leaving the library, however, I met him
but I went home and wrote him a note, stating
that I just returned from the West Indies, and
begged the favour of an interview in order to com-
municate to him some events that had occurred at
Porto Rico, affecting the rights of her Majesty's
and signed "D. M. Reed." His lordship's reply
subjects. My note was dated "Rectory, Stepney,"
was as follows:-" Lord Aberdeen presents his
compliments to Mr. Reed, and, as his time is very
much occupied, he requests that Mr. Reed will
have the goodness to state in writing any commu-
nication that he may wish to make with regard to
fers in his letter of yesterday's date.-Foreign-
the events in Porto Rico to which Mr. Reed re-
office, August 2, 1842." This letter was addressed
to the Rev. David Reed, Rectory, Stepney.

was

(To be continued.)

NOTE. There is an apparent discrepancy in my statements of the cause of the retirement from Porto Rico of the two young men who could not apparent. The explanation is as follows:-Before obtain their domicile, but this discrepancy is only a foreigner becomes domiciled he must give secase of the young men, the ostensible motive of curity for good conduct; but after he becomes dotheir leaving the island, as is stated in my letter to miciled security is no longer necessary. In the Lord Elgin, was the withdrawal of the security they first came to the island; but the causes which that had been given for their good conduct when Id to that withdrawal are as I have stated in the body of this article.

R. Acid. nitric. dil., m. xv.; decoct. cinchonæ, 3jss. ter dic.

6. There is now a large swelling involving the right side of the chest above the mamma; pain is severe there; there is now no doubt of the existence of matter in considerable quantity, and it

a slight abrasion of the cuticle on the index finger to be under the skin. I introduced a narrow bis- scalp wound, about an inch and/or Inferior

toury into the most prominent part of the swelling,
about half an inch in depth, but no matter ap
peared. Feeling certain of its presence, I carried
the knife completely through the pectoral muscle
until it come in contact with one of the ribs, when
a large quantity of healthy pus escaped; I intro-
duced my finger into the wound, and could feel a
large cavity extending on all sides. She experi-
enced much relief from the operation. Catapl.

R. Quin. sulph. gr. ij. ter die.

9. Has been much relieved, but is still very weak; there is a profuse discharge of healthy pus from the wound, and the swelling has almost all subsided; has some cough at night, and expectorates some

redness pee; she cannot bear the least mucus; pulse still frequent and irritable.

movement of the limb; there is a slight abrasion on the index finger; the axilla is painful, but there is the constitutional symptoms are very

Wellingenance is pale and anxious; there is did so; at the lower part of left lung the breath- feels tolerably easy; pulse 80, soft, full, and re

ing is mixed with sibilant and crepitant râle, and
there is some bronchial breathing, and some dul-
ness on percussion; she has been accustomed to
a winter cough. Applic. empl. lyttæ inter scapulas.
R. Ammoniae carb. gr. vj.; vin, antim., m. xxx.
4tis horis.

R. Hyd. chlor., gr. ij. ; p. opii, gr. bis die.
12. Is much better; breathing is clearer on both
sides of chest ; there is merely a loudness of the ex-
piratory murmur on left side, mixed with moist

a fulare more swollen and puffy; there is also crepitus; wound still discharging.

27. Is better, but feels much depressed; the professor of the School of Pharmacy, visited, on sick, his pupils set.eebler as been

5 P.M. Pulse 105, fuller; oozing from the ear amination for the degree shall in future be passed has almost ceased, as well as the strabismins of at the expiration of four years' study.' right eye; breathing more natural, but he is not

CASE 3.--John Salter, aged 14. Admitted July | injury in this situation. Pulse 92, small; pupils 25th, 1845, at a quarter past five P.M., under Mr. natural. Kente. One P.M. Pulse 92, a little stronger, and regular ; pupils natural.

of its course, and in front of the opening the suture THE

was slightly separated, to the extent of about an inch and a half in length, which led into a fracture running into the left part of the frontal bone, close to the superior longitudinal sinus, and into the cribriform plate of the ethmoid, where it terminated on the left side of the crista galli; an effusion of blood was traced between the bone and the dura

mater, in the course of the fracture, but it was very slight; patches of concrete lymph were also found between the bone and the dura mater in se

veral places, but principally in the neighbourhood of the opening made by the trephine. On easily separated from the bone than it was on the right. The superior longitudinal sinus presented in its anterior half a healthy appearance, but in the

the left side the dura mater was much more

MEDICAL TIMES.

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 17, 1846.

Hine mens animusque

Fert et amat spatiis obstantia rumpere claustra.

HORACE.

MR. ERASMUS WILSON, the medical oracle of
the inquest at Hounslow, has the honour of
teaching physiology to such pupils as (in the
verdancy of primal sessionship) may have en-
tered to him in the Middlesex Hospital School.
He is to be excluded from the hospital-but
may teach in the school. Well, we are glad of

affairs. A ward full of inmates labouring under

thoracic inflammation might not like to have "pulpy softening" placed on their backs-will they, nill they; nor be treated at all hazards for ruptured muscle. We fancy there are worldlyminded men about, with a leaning towards life, to whom such happy innovations would be far less welcome than to the learned "Coroner Quackley."

On the whole, then, dazzling as are Mr. Wilson's new discoveries (and we hold, after Boerhaave, that the new discoveries are all the more valu

able from being à propos and well-timed), we

posterior half it was filled with lymph and pus, it. Wilsonian physiology is so rare a thing of do not fancy him injured-that is, much injured

mixed with fibrinous coagula. The cavity of the

arachnoid on the left side contained a very large quantity of puriform fluid, of a deep yellow colour, and both layers of arachnoid were on their free surfaces covered with large quantities of lymph; these appearances were confined to the two anterior thirds of the left hemisphere, the posterior third of the membranes being healthy in appearance. Large patches of blood were found adhering to the free surface of the parietal arachnoid, corresponding to the anterior part of the left hemisphere, and these patches were for the greater part covered with a thick layer of recently-effused lymph. A few very small patches of lymph were found in the cavity of the arachnoid on the right side; but otherwise the membranes on this side presented a healthy appearance. Lymph was also found in the sub

arachnoid tissue and in the pia mater on the left side, corresponding to the above-mentioned parts of the left hemisphere, between the convolutions of which it in some places dipped down. The grey

substance of the brain in contact with the lymph was of a dark leaden colour; some clear fluid was found in the ventricles, which were somewhat dilated. Cerebellum, pons, and medulla oblongata,

healthy.

case occurring between October 11, 1845, and the

day when the reports are given in to the arbitrators,

will be open to the competition. Mr. Dyer's case of delirium tremens has been re

ceived.

Mr. Lambert.—We do not know the best. A good
Institution is the General Lying-in Hospital.
We do not know the terms. Dr. Rigby is one of
the physicians.

A Student tells us the fees of the College Medical
Classes at the University of Edinburgh are
£4. 48., not £3. 5s.

Dr. Gore is thanked for his obliging communication.
The statement signed X. Y. should have been authen-
ticated.

Dr. Moses' contribution has been received.
The papers communicated by Mr. Petigrew, showing
the manner in which the rulers of St. George's
Hospital patronise clinical instruction, shall be
noticed next week.

Mr. Brockman's case shall be noticed in our next
number.

H. R.We will make inquiry, and give the required

information next week.

Mr. Bosquet's query, we fear, was misdirected.
W. B. H. (Brompton) is thanked, but we must de-
cline noticing the misstatement. He must appeal
to that unknown quantity the justice of the
offending party.

Medicus. The same reply. The remedy is not to
read the work.

H. H. may send us the papers.

its kind that it is wisely deemed worthy of pro-
pagation. Understood, indeed, by contraries,
it is no intolerable help to correct principles.
The happy world of 1850, therefore, will have
some half dozen disciples, as useful beacons in the
ocean of medical science, and as able to steer
courses in the successful exploration of new
discoveries to suit a friend's emergencies, as
their preceptor in 1846.

-by his inexorable exclusion from the hospital.
To find out what is not, is quite a different office
from curing what is; and patients, who discern
danger as keenly as Indian vultures scent car-
which Wilsonian principles would duly secure
rion, have not that love of the "post of honour"
them. True, Mr. Lonsdale has little or no
claim on the hospital or its governors; true,
he is excluded by that fundamental rule, “ No
We shall have pre-accoucheur shall be eligible to the hospital sur-
served-shall we say in integrity?-the great geonship"; but the candidateship of Wilson cha-
sect of Wilsonites-i.e., dissenters in physiology, racteristically exercises a magic influence: the
nonconformists in general anatomy-gentle- want of claims is overlooked; the fundamental
men as useful in the region of physic as the rule abrogated, and the happy Mr. Lonsdale—
posts marked "dangerous" in the world of above all things happy in his opponent—is in-
skating.
stalled surgeon. The fact is remarkable: it
soundness of Mr. Wilson's surgery and physi-
may supply some small doubt as to the strict
ology; the imputation is the more to be re-
gretted since the whole medical committee
joined in the deplorable offence; yet still,

As a co-proprietor of the school, Mr. Wilson
has an undoubted right to teach what he
pleases; and as a British subject, is free from any
necessity of teaching what he does not know.
The law is quite in his favour. The statute
about money got under false pretences by no
means touches the case. Science does not
oblige her followers to believe what they cannot
comprehend, or teach what they do not un-
derstand; and empiricism is, at least, as liberal.
A new discovery is surely an allowable substi-
tute for an old fact, and to reach remote gene-
ralizations unaided by data is no crime by act of
Parliament. A first year's pupil must be pre-
cocious if he find himself more right than his
teacher; and if the youth, against all obstacles,
do go ahead, why then the old proverb has
provided for "the hindmost." At all events the
neophyte may take lessons ad lib. in practical
patience. Wilson will be a teacher to him not
less of the virtues, than of the sciences. Cer-
tainly not less. The pupil, remembering this,
will be consoled, or will over-estimate his losses.
But though agreeing with Mr. Wilson in his
absolute and indefeasible right, in common
with any other British subject, to teach general
anatomy and physiology, and, what is more
than that, his views on those subjects; nay,
while thinking it little short of an iniquity in his
colleagues to aim at the breaking up the school,
rather than suffer the formidable contingency of
his aid;—we cannot so far carry our kindness to
the learned discoverer as to assert that the
Governor of the Hospital has exercised an
illegal discretion in excluding him from its
surgeonship. New discoveries are all very ex-
cellent on the dead subject, but on an hospital
patient they might be less brilliant. There is
such a levelling power about them that they
might possibly add frightfully to the already
enormous list of Mr. Wilson's post-mortem

on a review of the whole matter, we see nothing that can be fairly complained of. Mr. Wilson's principles of physiology are undoubtedly most singular-as peculiar in their nature as they are appropriate and well-timed in their applications-but we would be far more content to hear Mr. Wilson solemnly swearing to them before his friend the Coroner, than seriously putting them in practice on a patient; unless, indeed, it were a patient with as good a title to it as his friend's, the pure-minded and dignified magistrate. Besides, let us regard, if not the purity, at least the efficiency of coroners' courts. How could Mr. Wilson, with the respectable position of surgeon to a London boshumble exigencies (so indispensable to Copital, keep up and thoroughly discharge the roner Quackley") of ex-officio witness to his court? The curious justice-firm of " Wakley and Co.," so long known for its active trade in mock grievances, would lose its most effective partner. No, no: sooner even spare Mr. Wilson the school, or the school Mr. Wilson, than remove so useful an appendage to Quackley inquest law.

Sharing the common fate of all great innovations-those of Mr. Wilson meet with little sympathy and (we are bound to confess it) no respect from his distinguished contemporaries. Every surgeon, every physiologist is banded against him. Sir George Ballingall, who considers himself, and is (droll enough) considered by others, a very conclusive testimony on these subjects, assures us :—

"Mr. Wilson's views on the deep-seated

THE MEDICAL TIMES.

muscles of the back are not only novel, but in in people's faces? Must we really take the a great measure unintelligible."

46

Are we to believe this? Is it credible? "Unintelligible." Is Sir George serious? When five medical men could have their reputations ruined-a friend in a pinch served, and a violent popular ferment kept up-only by a "novel discovery never before made," is it "unintelligible" that that discovery, just in the nick of UNINTELLIGIBLE! time, should be made? Sir George, think again. What! when a politico-juridico-journalistico-trading firm on its last legs just starts a capital "spec" in the judicial line-and only wants a few "novel views on the deep-seated muscles" to get up a magnificent field-day—isit “unintelligible" that the "standing witness" of the inquest courtits ex-officio post-mortem examinator-should supply these views?

Sir George does not live as far north as we fancied. But let us hear again what he writes

to us:

"That Dr. Warren has suffered much mental anxiety and distress from circumstances connected with the unfortunate case in his regiment, I have reason to know, although I do not see a shadow of blame which can be attached to him. I shudder to think how often a similar misfortune might have befallen myself. That Colonel Whyte and Dr. Warren have escaped a burst of popular outrage, considering the attempts so unjustly made to criminate them, is to me matter of some surprise."

There we have the innocent Sir George again! So tender to Dr. Warren, he wholly overlooks both the wants of the head of the firm, and the hard position of its medical subaltern. is obviously ignorant of the social necessities of some portions of the metropolitan population,

He

Sir

and forgets that, after all, men must live. George "shudders" at the proceedings of our novel court of coronatorial equity! He is horror-struck at the sacrifice of an innocent and worthy brother practitioner! True, the deed was nefarious very; but, then, has it not vitally served the turn of the actors? and has not poor Dr. Warren his innocence to console him? Simple Sir George!

trouble to demonstrate with chemical precision
that it is but dust? But enough: we have
talked so much of the filthy subject that we
seem to be inhaling the odour of that unholy
inquest court, almost in contact with the obscene
harpies that infest it!

"Quot incrementa scientia, quot præcipue medicina,
intra paucos annos accepit, haud quisquam ignorat. Phi-
losophorum medicorumque industria, non modo vias notas
excoluit, et ampliavit, verum etiani tramites novos os-
tendit feliciterque patefacit."-BEST.

IN concluding our article, a fortnight ago, on
vaccination, we promised to resume the subject
on a future occasion. It will be remembered
that we descanted upon the popular prejudices
concerning it, and stated the chief causes of
them. Of these we observed that certain are
due to ourselves, as a consequence of inatten-
tion to the character of the virus used; the
health of the subject from which it is taken, as
well as of the one to which it is applied; and
the mode of performing the operation.

To begin with the last, it is one of the many
proofs extant of the desirableness of attending
scrupulously to minor surgery. The ambition
of the majority of young men is to see, and to
be successful in, capital operations! If they
can dexterously sweep off a man's thigh-dash
spiritedly into his bladder and extract a cal-
culus-or cut down upon and reduce his hernia
in about the same space of time it takes an
ordinary mortal to pare an ordinary corn-they
have reached the Olympus-heights of surgery!
These obligations of private practice, which may
perhaps occur to them once in their lives, they
especially prepare themselves for, neglectful of
that smaller surgery that is apt to demand
their manipulations every day. It is for this
reason that the commonplace, unfashionable,
unsurgeon-like duties of tooth-drawing, bleed-
ing, vaccinating, &c., are often performed with
so much unskilfulness. We have known a
surgeon confess his inability to extract the
tooth of a patient and lose that patient in
consequence; we have known another try to
bleed, and send his lancet smack through the
vein into the artery beneath it; a third, to snip
the franum linguae and nearly bleed the child
to death; and a fourth, to vaccinate over and
over again, without communicating the virus.
All these things have been traceable to bad
surgery-the consequence of imperfect initia-
tion into the ceremony and substance of these
"unconsidered trifles" during the period of
studentship.

This is one of the causes of the unpopularity
A mother wants it performed
of vaccination.
upon her child, and requests that her surgeon

Sir George takes some trouble to prove that the learned nonsense talked about burns and sensitiveness of the skin was really only nonsense. He assures us that burns have no analogy to flogging wounds; that burns cause their general effects immediately, or not at all; that there is no instance on record of "death from burns when the injury is confined to so limited a surface as that involved in the ordi- will attend to it directly that he has any matter nary mode of inflicting punishment"; and he re- he can recommend. He calls in due course, minds us that the "useful witness himself at-vaunts the virtues of his virus, and inserts it tributes the death not to the state of the skin, but to the deep-seated muscles." But of what avail all this, but to light candles to the sun? "New discoveries" of the kind so useful at Hounslow hardly uphold themselves by their own specific gravity. They must be propped up in every conflicting and varied form, if there is to be any chance of their standing. Besides, after making a grand discovery, is there to be no license from it for throwing dust

into the arm of the child. After the lapse of a
week, nothing is seen but a scratch; and a se-
cond attempt is made. This again fails, and
there is a repetition, until the parents are tired
of it, and close all further meddling with the
sweeping conclusion that it is altogether
"humbug." The failure has been owing to the
manipulator scratching so deeply with his lancet
that the exuded blood has encompassed the virus
and prevented its absorption.

A second case occurs, and, instead of the pock rising and maturing healthily, it furnishes pus, or ichor, or bloody serum, in place of lymph; and round the deposit, to an indefinite extent, is an erysipelatous-looking inflammation. After ral, the sore heals, and the child gets well; but much trouble and treatment, both local and geneshortly afterwards takes the smallpox, and suffers from it severely. These are sad cases, but they are

not uncommon.

An investigation into them generally terminates in the conviction that the untoward circumstances were due to the matter itself being unhealthy, or too old before its removal from the pock; to the child from which it was taken being disordered or diseased; or like condition. the one to which it was administered being in a

These are items of the most serious consequence, and yet are often neglected as though they were of no consideration at all. As a rule, the pock, however healthy-looking, of a child, it is advisable never to vaccinate with virus from itself diseased, or of diseased parents. It is well known that the lymph of a healthy-looking pock, of a constitutionally healthy child, has become deteriorated by that child catching cold or being seized with bowel complaint during the maturation of the pock; and that this said lymph has been the cause of painful, oculated with it. On the other hand, the healthy nay dangerous, symptoms to a sound child invirus of a healthy source has propagated itself mischievously, and sometimes fatally, when impregnating a subject diseased or disordered at the time of taking it. The observations made on the case above are applicable also to this one-even a slight deviation from health on the part of the recipient may alter the properties and produce of the inserted matter. In fact, a child should never be vaccinated without its state of health being first clearly ascertained, and any defects capable of relief being scrupulously remedied. The state of the weather, again, is of the utmost consequence to vaccination; this should never be performed in a sickly season, or during very hot weather. In either case it may happen that the matter will not take, or that it will run an unhealthy course. A very common consequence of vaccinating in hot weather is a secondary cutaneous ailment papular, pustular, vesicular, or futfuraceous. Sometimes this trouble is lasting, and gives the parents the idea that it is the sole consequence of vaccination; against which they forthwith acquire a prejudice they never fail to utter within the length and breadth of their acquaintance.

These are things, amongst many others we could name, that have operated to the injury of the cause of vaccination. The prejudices of vulgar minds are easily ministered to, and not becomes us, in all our professional intercourse easily overcome; for which reason it especially with the world, to guard against imposing upon "Little errors," as the Chinese proverb says, it, and upon ourselves, as much as possible. "like straws thrown upwards, show best the true nature and course of the current"; and few

errors commit a man more to the invective and The common opinion of society is, that if an individual prejudice of party than small ones.