THE ACTION FOR LIBEL IN YORKSHIRE

1346 THE ACTION FOR LIBEL IN YORKSHIRE.

ever, very hard to find. The depredations of the pirateshave naturally enough not been limited to foreignparts. Their ptedaceous instinct has found food nearer

home, and the American author has been made to sufferfrom the competition of English works, with the result thathis own copyright has been seriously depreciated. I’eoplehave, naturally enough, dispensed with contemporaryAmerican poetry at high prices when they could obtain asan alternative contemporary English poetry at low. Thisis the condition of things which has stimulated the AmericanCongress to action. It is the fetish of protection under anew guise, and our friends must not complain if in thesecircumstances the gift is accepted without any feeling ofgoodwill. On the other hand, the journalists and otherswhose work is excluded by the necessity of printing in thiscountry from the benefit of the new statute will rightly feelthat their position has been rendered the more manifestlyone of hardship by the invidious distinction that has beenput upon their work.

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THE ACTION FOR LIBEL IN YORKSHIRE.

THE action instituted by Mr. R. Dacre Fox, F R. C. S. Ed.,in the West Riding Division of the Yorkshire Assizes, whoclaimed damages for libel against the proprietors of a

patent medicine, has resulted in a verdict for the plaintiff,the jury awarding him f,1000 damages. We shall probablyhave something to say on this matter in a future issue.

THE DISCUSSION OF MEDICAL SUBJECTS IN

THE NEWSPAPER PRESS.

SOME medical men, and even some newspapers, seem tobe somewhat disturbed by our remarks on the contributionsto newspapers on the Koch treatment of tuberculosis. Weare not unreasonable or unpractical. The etiquette of theprofession has good grounds for its existence in reason andin the nature of things. And any departure from it is sureto be followed sooner or later, and generally quickly, byconsequences bad for the person violating the rules of pro-fessional custom, bad for others who are led to follow an evil

example, and bad for the public, who are hopelessly misledby vague newspaper statements of disease and its remedies.In some of our colonies men of high qualifications and goodprofessional history have taken to the most unblushingadvertisement of themselves as prodigies of skill for

curing all sorts of disorders. In connexion with this matterof Koch an Austiian physician is announced in the news !papers as curing consumption by "Dr. Brown-Sequard’suuid"more effectually than Koch. The following is taken from adaily provincial contemporary as a prominent paragraph,and corresponds with an advertisement to a similar effect inanother issue of the paper :-

"DR. KOCH’S TREATMENT FOR TUBERCULOSIS —Mr. ——,one of the medical staff of the ————— Hospital, yesterdayreceived a supply of Dr. Koch’s fluid, sufficient, we under-stand, to serve for upwards of five hundred injections.There will be a demonstration of the application of thetreatment at the Hospital on Thursday before amedical audience."

There can be no defence of such communications to news-

papers. If the design was to communicate with the pro-fession, the post or the medical journals would have been the

’’

proper medium. The most unseemly uses have been madeof Dr. Koch’s kindness in supplying his fluid. Such thingsare not only a breach of professional etiquette and tradition,but in the long run the public suffers and suffers mos.It is misled. Statements that need checking and correctionare put forth with confidence. Every day is showing moreclearly what an injustice has been done to Koch by theforced premature disclosure of his great discovery-for great

it is, whatever may be the limitations of it. But this is

nothing compared with the cruel disappointment created forthose who are led to expect more of the discovery than hehas ever promised or could promise. This is the kindof considerations which underlie the etiquette of the pro.fession. We repeat, we are not unreasonable. The

magnitude of Koch’s expressed hopes may perhaps ex-

cuse some haste and premature publicity in newspapers,But they should not be abetted and encouraged bymembers of a profession who cannot with impunity pre-scribe through newspapers or adopt them as media for thediscussion of the profoundest questions in pathology andtherapeutics.

FOREIGN UNIVERSITY INTELLIGENCE

Poitiers (School oj Medicine).-M. Bu.ffet-Delmas hasbeen appointed to the chair of Anatomy.

Rhei1ns (School oj Medicine).-M. Pozzi has been appointedto the combined professorships of External Pathology andOperative Medicine.Rouen (School of Medir.ine) -M. Cern has been appointed

Professor of Clinical Surgery, in succession to the lateM. Dumenil.

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DEATHS OF EMINENT FOREIGN MEDICAL MEN.

THE deaths of the following distinguished members ofthe medical profession abroad have been announced :-Professor Heinrich Jacobson, Director of the Jewish Hospital in Berlin -Dr. A. Knie of Moscow, a well-knownoperating surgeon, who wrote many articles both in Russianand German medical journals on colotomy, gastrotomy,and other abdominal operations.-Dr. Franz J. von Becker,professor of both Pharmacy and Ophthalmology in the Uni.versity of Helsingfors.

BESIDES Professor Bizzozero of Turin, another physicianhas been raised to the rank of Senator of the kingdom oItaly, in the person of Dr. Ottavio Morisani, Ordinary Pro-fessor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology in the University ofNaples. The cognate sciences have also been largely reco-gnised in the recent promotions to the Italian Senate-Dr.Blaserna, Professor of Acoustics in the Roman University,Signor Negri of Milan, the distinguished climatologist, andProfessor Capellini of Bologna, founder of the InternationalCongresses of Anthropology and Pre-historic Arch2ology,being among the number. -

WE are glad to learn that the report of Professor Weigert’sdeath, which was published in the German papers, was inocorrect. It is true that he has been suffering very severelyfrom a post-mortem wound, but he is now recovering.

THE Royal College of Surgeons, including the museumand library, will be closed on Thursday, Friday, and Satur-day, the 25th, 26th, and 27th inst.

MR. (} P. FIELD has been appointed Dean of St. Mary’sHospital Medical School.

ROYAL METEOROLOGICAL SOCIETY.-At the meet-ing of this Society, held on the 17th inst , the followingpapers were read :-Note on a Lightning Stroke presentingWille Features of Interest, by Mr. R. H. S,;ott, F.R.8. ; rNote on the Effect of Lightning on a Dwelling-house, byMr. A. Brewin ; Wind Systems and Trade Routes betweenthe Cape of Good Hope and Australia, by Captain M. W.C. Hepworth ; Report on the Phenological Observationsfor 1890, by Mr. E. Mawley ; and the Climate of HongKong, by Dr. W. Doberck.