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187NATURAL COW-POCK.—MR. M.AYO.-SCOTCH INQUESTS.
would only serve to interrupt the lectnres,which we had taken measures to publish infull.
Since tho above paragraph was in type,we regret to say that M. Broussais, as we
expected, has been compelled to suspendhis course of lectures until a more capa-cious amphitheatre than that of the Schoolof Medicine can be found for the delivery ofhis discourses. In case he resumes. them,we shall not fail to publish an account of thegreat physiologist’s lectures, which, con-
trary to what happens in so many cases, hewas unable to continue from the super-abundance of auditors.
WE forgot to announce last week a dis-covery which has made a great deal of noisein the French capital. The natural cow-
pock, so long sought after in vain, has atlength been discovered at Passy, a small
village, about a quarter of a mile from Paris.Unfortunately, the existence of the eruptionin the human subjects was not made until
the pustules were quite dried in the mammaof the cow which infected them; but con-comitant circumstances leave little doubt of
the reality of an eruption of cow-pockhaving been transmitted from a brute animalto the human subject.
THE concours for the chair of anatomy of.the Faculty of Medicine commenced on the14th inst. The candidates were, M. BUES-
CHET, M. BLANDIN, M. BROC, M. LAURENT,M.JOBERT, M. LEBAUDY, M. CHASSAIG-NAC, and M. MICHON.
MIDDLESEX HOSPITAL.
AMPUTATION AT THE HIP-JOINT FOR
NEURALGIA !
To the .Editor of THE LANCET.
SIR,—As the interests of humanity haveever found a warm and powerful advocate inyour pen, I trust that the above operation,performed under circumstances almost with-out a precedent, even in the annals of hospital surgery, will not be suffered to passaway in silence. It is owing to you, Sirand to your exertions, that hospitals hav(been at all restored to the original intentions of their benevolent founders, that th<poor can venture to look up to them in an,
way as their asylum when wounded or dis-eased, instead of being converted‘ into anarena for the exhibition of heartless but-chery, in which men *’ cut their way " to thetemple of Fame; but I fear that you have" scotch’d the snake, not killed it."The unfortunate patient to whose case
I implore your attention, had previouslyundergone three operations without havingexperienced the slightest relief. I will notclwell on the judgment displayed by Mr.Mayo, in amputating the limb in the first
instance, for a neuralgic affection. 1’1tat
may be a subject for further consideration.All that I desire, at present, is to call yourattention, and that of the governors of theinstitution, to the performance of so tre-mendous an operation, upon so hypotheti.cal a chance of relief, and after the seniorsurgeon, Sir Charles Bell, had protestedagainst it, and had declared in a letter to-Air. Arnott, that if the operation were per-formed it would b2 a disgrace to the institu-tion, and after the other surgeons, Mr. Ar-nott and Mr. Tuson, had declared that theywould not, under the circumstances of thecase, have performed it. But Mr. Mayosaid, "I will." I know that the defenceattempted to be set up is; that "the poorpatient desired it;" but this shadow of ashade of an excuse will not hold good foran instant, when I declare to you that formonths and months the most specious argu-ments and solicitations have been employedto obtain the poor girl’s consent, and I donot think that any one will venture to assertthat the dangers of the operation, and themonths of acute suffering which will in-evitably follow it, even under the mostfavourable termination, were ever pointedout to her.
Trusting that you will make full inquiriesinto the case, the full particulars of which,including its previous history, I will for-ward to you if you do not decline them in
reply to this offer,* I remain, Sir,, Your obedient servant,
HUMANITAS.April 23, 1836.
’’ We do not.—Ed. L.
REMUNERATION OF MEDICALWITNESSES
AT
INQUESTS AND TRIALS IN SCOTLAND.
To the Editor of THE LANCET.! SiR: During the whole of your verymeritorious exertions for obtaining remu-neration for medical practitioners whencalled to give evidence before the coroner,it has appeared to me very extraordinary
