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THE Report of the Select Committee appointed by theHouse of Commons to inquire into the registration of legally-qualified practitioners in medicine and surgery, and into thelaws and charters relating to the practice of medicine and

surgery in Great Britain and Ireland, has been printed, and de-livered to members of Parliament. The witnesses examined

were, on the part of the College of Physicians, Drs. PARIS,G. BURROWS, F. HAWKINS, E. J. SEYMOUR, and W. HOLLAND; onthe part of the College of Surgeons, Messrs. LAWRENCE andGnEEf.and Sir B. BRODIE. These gentlemen were the prin-cipal witnesses against the Registration Bill, so that the evi-

dence contained in this volume must not be considered in the

nature of a discussion of the Bill, or of the principle of re-

gistration, but as a concentration of all the arguments whichmen of ability, and wholly hostile to the measure, could bringagainst it. The Committee sat from the fourth of June to

the fifteenth of July, and the volume of evidence consists offifty-two large parliamentary pages. The Appendix containsa digest of the evidence; but we shall next week commencethe publication of the most interesting portions, so that theprofession may see and appreciate at their true value thearguments against the Bill of last Session.

AT the Shoreditch County Court, on Monday last, thelearned judge, Mr. Sergeant STORES, took the opportunity,when delivering judgment in the case of MOORE v. CORNISH,to observe that he had no conception, before he pre-

sided ill that court, of the infamous treatment medical menreceived from those who were indebted to them. Every day’sexperience showed him, that while medical men, as creditors,were most considerate of the circumstances of their debtors,patient in waiting for their remuneration, and moderate intheir charges, their debtors, almost without exception, wereunjust, calumniating, and ungrateful in the highest degreetowards them. The learned judge highly applauded thegeneral humanity and ability of the members of the medicalprofession, and declared that he considered the nation at

large owed them a deep debt of gratitude, which never couldbe repaid; and seeing a number of THE LANCET in the ledgerhanded up to him, to examine the account in dispute, thelearned Sergeant took occasion to pass a high eulogium onTHE LANCET, as the unflinching advocate of the respectabilityand rights of the profession.While feeling pleasure in recording the learned judge’s re-

marks, we think it would not be out of place to observe, thatthe county courts are not such cheap places for law as

they ought to be, and that they press hardly upon thedefendants, who perhaps deserve very little commiseration.

Its expensiveness tends to defeat, to a certain extent, theobject in view, by making it worth the while of a certain

class to remove their residence after a judgment has beenobtained against them. For instance: the debt of the de-

fendant, in this case, was £2 7s.; summons, 4s. 6d.; hearing,&s. 7d.; administering oaths, 9d. ; and the award, being 5s.per month, renders it more than probable that the defendantwill remove before the plaintiff gets even his costs refundedto him; while the fee of 3d. per month for searching the books,to ascertain if the instalments are paid up, is a drawbackon the plaintiff.However, there is one advantage, the medical man has the

treatment of a gentleman, and this is altogether different from

what he was subjected to in theabolishel courts of conscience;there he was insulted at every turn, his bills unjustly cutdown by the commissioners, jeered at if his account was

small, and abused for over-charging and exaction, by menwho would assert that they thought two shillings a daymore than sufficient, let the case have been what it might,two or three visits, day or night included. But perhaps thewonder will cease at their prodigal liberality, when it is re-membered that the commissioners of the courts of conscience

were the defendants, landlords, or landlords’ agents, andmembers of the various boards of poor-law guardians; andnot unfrequently the defendants were relatives of the commis-sioners who decided the cases. We advise medical men to

make use of the new county courts. The enforcement, by thegeneral practitioner, of the payment of just debts, will onlymake him and the profession the more respected.

A Glance at the Introductory Lectures.

THE session has commenced under ordinary circumstances;it may be said that there is scarcely a change worthy ofspecial notice, except that at University College there was nogeneral introductory address. The number of students whohave entered the various classes up to the present time is byno means large. It will be seen by the lecture of Mr. Green,that the collegiate system has been begun at St. Thomas’s

Hospital; we say begun, for even its founders admit that atpresent it is only in its infancy. We give below a shortaccount of some of the principal introductory addresses de-livered at the metropolitan schools. Next week, some of theaddresses at the provincial schools will be given.

ST. THOMAS’S HOSPITAL.Mr. GREEN opened the session at this school with one of his

usual eloquent addresses. He spoke of the importance ofhope as a stimulus to exertion, particularly in the young, andinsisted that nothing of any great importance was achievedwithout it. With respect to the school attached to the hos-pital, he might, after mentioning many other advantages,allude to a most important improvement which had beenmade this session in the establishment of a chair of pathology,the gentleman who filled the office of teacher in that importantbranch of medical science being his former apprentice andfriend, Mr. Simon, whose work on the thymus gland was asufficient guarantee of his fitness for the office. In order thatthe hospital of St. Thomas might not be behind any of themetropolitan schools of medicine, the ruling body had com-menced a collegiate establishment in connexion with it; itwas not at present so perfect as was desirable; it would nodoubt be a rapidly improving institution. He said, in regardto raising the character of the profession of medicine, that hetrusted its connexion with the University of London wouldtend to unite the three great professions of divinity, law, andphysic; that this connexion would produce an unanimity offeeling throughout the members thereof, who, being dispersedthrough the towns and villages of the empire, would gatheraround them all that was purest and noblest in human nature,.forming, as it were, the nuclei round which the crystallizationmight attach its brilliant and pure particles. The teachers ofthat school would be found efficient and active in their duties.The school possessed advantages second to none in the metro-polis. The teachers had a great advantage in the means theypossessed of displaying their talents, as they had in the wardsof the hospital a cyclopædia, as it were, of living facts con-stantly before them. The lecturer then urgently called uponthe students present to act in every pursuit and walk of theirlife as gentlemen, not only for their own sakes, but for the sakeof the profession, and of those above them. He appealed to themto be kind even to the poorest patient, for sickness made all menequal, and he trusted the sick poor would be treated by themas brothers. He then passed a high eulogium on the hospital,and the mode in which it was conducted, and gave a lengthenedand eloquent description of the various claimants who looked

I for relief and comfort within its walls.