376

Pater, whose plans we took some pains to

explain and advocate in THE LANCET a fewyears since?

ARREST OF DEVELOPMENT A corre-

spondent informs us that Dr. ASHBURNER(although not a teacher in the school) hasrecently discovered that the majority of hiscolleagues at the Middlesex Hospital havenot cut their wisdom-teeth, but that theDoctor is in error in supposing the fact to besingular, Dr. Cox having proved that Dr.A. had not cut his own at the " years ofdiscretion." Our correspondent thinks, how-ever, that the really remarkable part of thecase is that so many individuals are to befound in one establishment presenting thisphysiological anomaly. Sir PETER LAURIE,it is added, is to suggest the subject to Dr.SUTHERLAND, for investigation at BethlemHospital.MR. B. PHILLIPS was, on Tuesday,

elected assistant-surgeon to the WestminsterHospital.

APOTHECARIES’ HALL, LONDONNAMES of gentlemen who received certi-

ficates of qualification to practise as apothe-caries, on Thursday, Dec. 7, 1843 :-DavidPeter Evaus, Belper, Derbyshire ; EdwinSwinfen Bellyse, Audlem, Cheshire ; JohnFarr Mayhew, London.

CORRESPONDENTS.The communications of many correspond-

ents, acknowledged or unacknowledged tohave been received, are in type, and will bepublished at the earliest moment that spacecan be found for them in our pages.

Chirurgits complains that a few dayssince a friend of his, who had been diningout, and was returning home rather late,experienced retention of urine, and being Z5

near Charing Cross Hospital, rang the bell,but, to his surprise, could obtain no answer,after some time, during which he was snifel’-ing the greatest pain, and was obliged to goelsewhere to get relieved. C/til’llrgus adds,11 Should not this be looked to? Are per-sons to lose their lives through the negli-gence of those appointed to render assist..ance ? Surely this hospital must be verybadly managed."-We reply that the patienthad no claim for relief at the hospital if hewas able to pay any one of the many sur-

geons in private practice within reach ofwhose bells he must have been in the Strand.Respecting the non-appearance of a porterat the door, Chirurgus, in making his com-plaint, must remember that porters cannotbe expected to answer-anonymous rings.To the Editor.-Sir : Another paper ap-

pears in last week’s LANCET (page 323) onthe curative effects of naphtha. How is itthat the profession is so profoundly silentas regards the efficacy of this medicine in

phthisis, so much as might be expected afterthe recommendations of its original intro-ducer and supporters ? I fear that no de-

pendence can be placed on its virtues, tried,as it must have been, by many during thelast six months. Who doubts the almost

specific action of mercury, sulphur, iodine,arsenic, colchicum, digitalis, and secale cor-nutum. Is naphtha to be classed with them,or is this only another plan of advertisingoneself, seeing that the communications ofthe originator are sent about to all thejournals, high and low, like the hand-bills ofpuffing tradesmen-quack here, quack there,quack everywhere, even in the most despi.cable concern that ever disgraced the medicalpress? Your obedient servant,

NON-SEQUITUP.

To the Editor.-Sir: Might a student be.come acquainted with anatomy by the use of"Quain’s Plates," without confusing hisideas of the relative situation of muscles,nerves, arteries, and ligaments, &c., beforecommencing dissection at the schoola.Your’s respectfully,-A READER. %* Hemight learn many details without confusion,but pictorial anatomy is only a deceptivesubstitute for dissection. Once on a time,a curate, newly ordained, retired to hisuncle’s villa to practise extemporaneouseloquence. Many times he locked himselfinto the summer-house, and, from the openwindow, addressed the sprouting vegetablesin the garden below, and at last with greateffect. He then returned to town, and onthe next Sunday announced his text inthe pulpit of the parish church before a

thousand souls, living and devout ; but histongue clave to the roof of his mouth, hislips were dry, not one head of discoursecould he pronounce. Happily, speech itselfhad not wholly failed him. As a new dis-

covery may flash, after weeks of toil, uponthe chemist, so, with a startling convictionof the truth following a minute’s pause, hesuddenly closed the sacred volume, and ex-claimed, 11 my friends, my friends! I per-ceive that you are not cabbages," promptlydismissing the men and women to their homes.

i An Anxious lnquirel’,-" A.," having soacted as an apothecary, is liable to a prose-cution for the penalties, but it is not likely,in the present day, that the attempt to re-

cover them would be made.

A Constant Reader at Bury St. Edmundsis informed that the microscope was adver-tised by Mr. West, optician, 83, Fleet-street.The notice was printed on the wrapper ofTHE LANCET for November 9, 1839.The paper from Howden will be inserted.

The diagram will be engraved in London.ERRATUM.—In Mr. Chippendale’s table of

dispensaries the number of patients at the

Metropolitan Free Hospital should havebeen 7091, instead of 9091.