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IRELAND.

(From our own Correspondent.)

ON the 26th inst. the Council of the Royal College of

Surgeons will proceed to appoint a Professor of Practicaland Descriptive Anatomy, in the room of Professor Bevan,deceased. The gentleman elected must conduct a class inhistology, and devote his entire time to the duties of theoffice. The selection will have to be made from a limited

circle, as there is a comparatively small number of com-petent medical men who will be willing to forego all other

emoluments, which is a necessary condition for the appoint-ment.A promising young physician, Dr. Reuben J. Harvey, of

Dublin, died last week of typhus fever, after a short illness.The deceased contracted the disease while acting as one ofthe visiting physicians to the Cork-street Fever Hospital. Dr.Harvey was a lecturer on Physiology in the CarmichaelSchool of Medicine, and recently vacated the post of

assistant-physician to the Richmond Hospital in order todevote more of his time to physiological research. He wasa graduate in medicine of the University of Dublin, an ex-medical scholar and senior moderator, a member of theRoyal Irish Academy, and in 1879 was elected a Fellow ofthe College of Physicians in Ireland. Dr. Harvey leaves awidow and family to mourn his untimely death.Mr. Thomas Strain, a citizen of Belfast, has on several

occasions been fined for refusing to permit his child to bevaccinated, and on the 15th ult. he was again summoned atthe instance of the Belfast Guardians for a similar offence.On this occasion, however, the magistrate dismissed the casewith costs against the guardians. There is no right ofappeal against this decision, which can only be reviewed inthe Court of Queen’s Bench, and is a matter for theconsideration of the Local Government Board. It is singularthat the magistrate in question last May fined Mr. Strain 20s.for refusing to have his child vaccinated. The action of theLocal Government Board is awaited with anxiety, more espe-cially as small-pox is graduallyspreading in Belfast. DuringChristmas week twenty-one additional cases were admittedinto the Belfast workhouse, while five were discharged, andtwo died, leaving ninety-six under treatment.The committee of the proposed Convalescent Home for

Dublin have finally determined to accept the offer of theGovernors of the Cork-street Fever Hospital, and will handover the subscriptions obtained for the purpose of increasingin that institution the accommodation for patients recoveringfrom infectious diseases.Measles is rather prevalent among the children in the

North Dublin Union Workhouse, and last week eighteendeaths took place from this affection.The Royal assent has been given to the Statutes of the

Royal University of Ireland; and it is probable that a ’’,meeting of the Senate will shortly be held to elect examinersfor the First University Examination, which it is believedwill take place in April.An election for a medical officer to the North Dublin Union,

at a salary of £ 150 per annum, will take place on Wednesdaythe 25th inst., when the Guardians will select a successor toDr. Kenny, who has been removed by a sealed order of theLocal Government Board.

PARIS.

(From our own Correspondent.)

IN the current number of the Gazette Hebdomadaire Dr.Barth contributes the last instalment of an interestingmemoir on the treatment of adynamic pneumonia by hypo-dermic injections of ether. Of thirty-five patients who wereadmitted into La Pitie hospital under his care, the largernumber recovered spontaneously or under ordinary treat-ment ; and the subcutaneous injection of ether was onlyadopted when all other remedies had failed. Fourteen cases,all of the most serious character, are related at full length ;and in eleven of these the patients recovered. The followingwill serve as an example:-A washerwoman, aged thirty-nine,

was admitted into La Pitie under the care of ProfessorBrouardel on the 3rd of November. She had been sufferingfrom typhoid fever for three weeks, and had frequently beendelirious. There were headache, cough, and constant diar.rhcea. The tongue was dry, the belly distended, and thebases of both lungs were congested. The morning tem-perature was 39°; the evening, 40° Centigrade. On the lOththe general condition was very serious : the face pinched,the extremities cold, the body covered with perspiration,great prostration of strength, extreme distension of thebelly. Tongue dry ; temperature 37’2° C. In the lower halfof the right lung and behind there was marked dulness,tubular souffle, and fine crepitant rhonchus. A blister wasapplied and ether injected to the amount of two grammesa dav. On the 12th the tongue was moist, the dulness andsouffle had almost disappeared, and the diarrhoea had stopped.On the 17th the injections were discontinued, and on the28th the patient was convalescent. Dr. Barth has also ob.tained good results from this method in puerperal fever,typhoid, and other affections, and another physician, Dr.Dupuy, has practised it with success in the algid period ofcholera.

, At the Societe de Biologie. M. Dumontpallier has

recently made a series of communications on metalloscopyand cognate practices, which go far beyond anything hitheitcpublished on the subject. He asserts that one of the patientsin his service, when hypnotised and prepared for experi-ment by the application of a silver brass plate on the leftside of the forehead, can be made to contract certainmuscles by the operator simply looking at them. In orderto show that the contraction is really due to what he termsocular influx (a form, no doubt, of the lately resuscitatedneuric force), a pane of glass is interposed between experi-menter and subject, and instead of looking directly at themuscle its image is stared at in a mirror. The ocular influxthus passes through the glass and is reflected by the mirror tothe muscle, which immediately enters into contraction. If adrop of water be allowed to fall upon the gastrocnemius ofthis patient, it at once contracts, and a second drop producesits resolution. Finally, and marvellous to relate, if,when this girl is awakening from her hypnotic sleep,M. Dumontpallier should look at the region of her leftthird frontal circumvolution, or should point at it withhis finger, she becomes aphasic ; a second look or gesturerestoring speech. A glance at the ascending frontal causes amovement in the arm, and so on.

Obituary.JAMES OLDHAM, F.R.C.S.

WE have to record the death of Mr. James Oldham of

Brighton and Hayward’s Heath. Mr. Oldham was residingat the latter place at the time of his death. He had retiredto his private estate there for more than a year. He wasborn on the 17th January, 1817 ; died December 26th, 1881.With untiring energy and devotion Mr. Oldham practisedhis profession in Brighton from the year 1842 until hisretirement about the time named, October, 1880. Hiseducation was private. He was apprenticed to Dr. Pye-Smith, the father of Dr. Pye-Smith of Guy’s ; entered atGuy’s October, 1838, and was dresser to Mr. Aston Key.Though not of a strong frame or constitution, Mr. Oldhamhad nevertheless been able to do the work of a very largeprivate practice, probably one of the largest in the country ;and, it may certainly be added, to the great advantage andsatisfaction of all who had the privilege of his care.The profession of medicine will never lose the respect

due to it from the public whilst maintained by such goodservices, and rendered with such delicate feeling and highsense of honour, as are daily afforded by gentlemen ingeneral practice of the type and character of Mr. Oldham.Happily, he was but one of a large class to be found in dis-tinguished positions all over the country. One of hisyounger colleagues in Brighton writes thus of him :—"Myacquaintance with him was of a personal kind from myearly boyhood, and all the time he was as kind to me as anelder brother, always taking an affectionate interest in mywelfare, and winning my love and esteem."Without being scientific, or learned in the scientific