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carbonic acid, melts 104 parts of ice, the165.2 grains of carbon should melt 17,180grains of ice.—Journal of the French In -

stitute, No. 81.

INTERCEPTED LETTER.

"DEAR Sm HENRY,—I perused your letter with no ordinary emotions. Withregard to the numerous paragraphs pub- ’i

lished in the newspapers by a Mr. GUTH-RIE, Sir ASTLEY COOPER and myselfagree most perfectly with you, and there cannot be a doubt that such a system oradvertising is highly disreputable to theprofession.

" With sentiments so completely in ac- cordance v.ith your own, I expressed my-self in as strong terms on the subject as Icould venture to use, and hinted the pro-priety of a yuiel retreat. But the modestauthor has such a spirit, that 1 had little icontrol over him, and, in plain English, ’iam really afraid of him. And when I ex-plain to you his whole history, and all ithat I have done for him which I thought Iit my duty to do, I feel convinced, my dear iSir HENRY, that you will sympathize with me upon this occasion. To tell you everything about him is also but justice to my-self; and if the public knew only one halfof all that I have had to contend with onhis behalf, they would not be surprised atthis advertising system, which he hasnow set a going upon so large a scale." I must begin this narrative by telling

you, that I got hampered with Mr. GUTH-RIE very early in liie. His father, a nativeof Ireland, was a prosperous man, and rear-ed np his son, GEORGE JAMES, my protege,for the medical department of the army.At that time scarcely any education was ue-cessary for this branch of the service, andas the Guards were considerably betterthan other foot regiments, I have heard Mr.HAY, then surgeon to the Guards, declarethat Master GEORGE’S father, ever anxi-ous for his son’s welfare, offered him a

ten-pound note to use his interest in hisbehalf to get him an appointment in thehousehold troops.

" Young GUTHRIE was not immediatelyunder my command, until I took chargeof the army during the Peninsular war.At that time I kept the medical officersunder such strict discipline, that theydurst not sav that their lives were theirown, so that the true character of GEORGEwas not developed until his services wereno longer required, the blessings of peacehaving succeeded the horrors of war. Hethen fastened himself upon me, and I havenever been able to get away from his gripesince. He took the impudent liberty, con-

trary to my wish, of planting himself nextdoor to the Medical Board, for the avowedpurpose of being always in readiness to

attend any sick officers who might presentthemselves to the Board, or might requirecertificates; and, besides, the circumstanceof his residence being next door to myown, gave him the appearance of havingsome direct connexion with the Board.At this period, however, I found him byno means clualified for private practice,although he had cut off plenty of legs andarms in the wholesale way, as we are ob-

liged to do in the army. He, therefore,very judiciously became a pupil of Sir’ CHARLES BELL, who taught him the rudi-ments of anatomy and dissection (andwho, by-the-by, never hesitated to spreadcharges of GEORGE JAMES’-: subsequenti piracies from him), and this enabled

him to compile his book on gun..shot wounds, a werk for which be cer-tainly got some credit among those whoknew nothing about the distortion ofthe materials, and the mallufacture of thecases.

" At this time Sir WILLIAM ADAMS was

annoying me very much by attending theophthalmic cases in the army, and I was,therefore, determined to crush him.Now, GEORGE JAMES was the very

i iiiart for this purpose, but to induce him

to promote my object it was necessary toi make it answer his own. Accordingly itbecame necessary for us to start an Eye-Infirmary, and to appoint GEORGE JAMESto the important office of oculist, but hav-ing had no opportunities of seeing di-4ease(Ieyes, you may suppose the havoc madeamongst the poor blind at our new insti-tution, and hence it got the name of theBlind Manufactory. I now recommend-ed GEORGE JAMES to publish a bookon diseases of the eye, and this ad-vice he adopted. It was a very largebook,—equal in size to any publishedsince, but it was an omnium gathe,-2t&t.from the German authors. I recommend-i ed to him two German translators, for,as you may suppose, he was perfectly ig-norant of the German language, and theyhatched amongst them the production towhich I allude. But notwithstanding this,and all my efforts, the institution did not; succeed, and the system that went on init gave me great uneasiness. At last it be-came exposed in THE LANCET, by a cor-respondent calling himself’ AciES;’ butwe all thought we knew the author, andwe determined, as you perhaps may recol-lect, to prosecute the editor for a libel, notexpecting to get anv money, but with aview to expose the infamy of the libeller.

Accordingly we had every respectablepractitioner we could find, subpœnaed to

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puff the oculist. But, at the twelfth hour,we withdrew, as the principal evidence wasthe handwriting of the libeller, which wecould not get for less than fifty pounds.

"Matters got worse and worse after this,and Dr. FORBES, a most kind and atten-tive officer of the hospital, whom 1 had in-duced to become physician, was now sodissatisfied with its management that hedetermined to bolt. Nothing, in fact, inthe way of promise would persuade him toremain, and, in short, he became so dis-gusted with GEORGE J.’s conduct, thathe was induced to publish a statement,in which he went so far as to use thesewords : The business at the Eye Infir-mary has for a long time been conducted,not only in a very negligent, but, in manyrespects, in a very disgaceful manner.Mr. GuTHRIE is so irregular and uncer-tain in his attendance, often not coming atall, that the patients are frequently obligedto go away, although coming from a con-siderable distance, without being able tosee him.’ Matters did not end here, andbeing an old soldier, I saw an approach-ing storm, and then GEORGE J. got intonew troubles. Dr. FORBES’S exposure ofthe unfortunate practices which went onat the Eye Infirmary, particularly theconduct of the surgery-man DA VIS, whomMr. GuTHRIE absolutely employed as akind of assistant, it became a great ob-ject to secure Dr. FORBrs’s retreat. Find-ing lesser measures would not succeed,another project was adopted, and I am credibly informed that the present drama-tic performance at the Olympic Theatre,entitled Fighting by Proxy, was foundedon the occurrence, and the character whichLISTON acts, of Mr. Flinch, is a portrait ofno less a man than GEORGE JAMES himself.

" These events are sufficient to give you,my dear Sir HENRY, an idea of the workI have had to go through in my dealingswith the late President of the College, andwill also no doubt account to you, most

satisfactorily, for the line of conduct hehas pursued in public life since these

events, up to the time of the puffs. I there-fore beg you will clearly and distinctlyunderstand that I consider my handswashed of the party; and that I am ac-

countable in no way whatsoever, either tothe College of Surgeons or the College ofPhysicians, for any part of his conductwhich may have infringed upon the lawsof those distinguished bodies. I am quiteaware of the distressing situation in whichhe has placed us all, and the opportunityhe has given to his enemies to expose him.

I remain, with great respect,Your obliged and devoted servant,

"J. M."A.M. B., Berleley-street, Dec. 25, 1834."

MARYLEBONE INFIRMARY.

, To the Editor of THE LANCFT.

SIR,—The Medical Gazette has giventhe state of the poll, on the election of aphysician to the Marylebone Infirmary.

Perhaps it may be equally useful to theprofession that something more should bestated than the mere numbers on that oc-

casion.Be it known, then, that the affair be-

came a mere party question. Of thetwo gentlemen whose causes were themost warmly espoused, the first was ofone political party, the second of the other.Dr. Marshall Hall resolved, it seems, tostand upon the basis of professional meritsalone.

Now, let your readers judge of the re-suIt! Is it honourable to our profession-is it honourable to the candidates, is ithonourable to the electors (the guardiansof thepour’.), that politics and party, mereparty, should decide such a question asthat of the choice of a physician for the" poor," irrespective of professional stand-ing and labours ? For, without giving theleast possible offence to either of the othercandidates, we may surely affirm that theyhave not, as yet, deserved quite so well ofour profession as Dr. Marshall Hall. Andis it not tleplorable--is it not sickening-to think that, in order to obtain a useful

appointment of this kind, the members ofour profession must first meanly stoop toact the part of partizans ? Is there nomode of rescuing us from such degrada-tion as this ?

And is there no mode of rescuing usfrom this farce of committees to examinethe testimonials,*—from this mockery ofelections to determine the merits-of can-didates ? Will any man of high reputa-tion in his profession, and of independenceof feeling and character, be again foundto become a candidate under circum-stances so unworthy and so degrading?

It avails little, however, merely to de-claim against injustice. The writer of thisshort note, therefore, suggests that thei directors and guardians of the poor ofMarylebone would confer a great benefitupon the poor, themselves, and us, byplacing the nomination of their medicalofficers, under proper regulations, in thehands of a select number of men, removedfrom the scene of action, and honourablyknown in our own profession.-I am, Sir,

Surely Dr. Marshall Hall did not condescend tosend "testimonials!"—Correspondent.