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be established in Cork ; and if the suggestion be carried out,it must materially benefit the various charitable institutionsin that town.

Dr. George Hickson has been elected, without opposition,coroner for the southern division of the county of Kerry.Dublin, Jan. 29th, 1884.

BELFAST.

(From a Correspondent.) )

EXTRAORDINARY PERSONATION CASE.

ON Sunday week the police conveyed to the Royal Hos-pital a person known as "John Coulter," who had beenemployed for twelve years by the Belfast Harbour Com-missioners as a labourer, and who had received serious

injuries by falling downstairs in a house in the town. The

patient, who had sustained a compound fracture of the skull,died in a few hours after admission to hospital; and amedical examination disclosed the extraordinary fact thatthe deceased was a woman. From the evidence broughtforward at the inquest, it would appear that the woman,who was fifty years of age, while employed as a male servanton a farm near Dungannon, was married to the daughter ofher master. The pair were married for twenty-nine years,but for the last six lived apart, owing to the dissipatedhabits of the deceased. No one ever suspected the sex ofthe woman, and altogether the circumstances of the case aremost peculiar. The deceased was of a masculine appearance,with good muscular development, and apparently had neverhad any family. At the conclusion of the inquest the"wife," in reply to the coroner, who asked, " Who will takecharge of and bury the body ? " said, " I will take chargeof him and bury him."

THE ULSTER EYE, EAR, AND THROAT HOSPITAL.The thirteenth annual meeting of this hospital was held

on January 23rd, in the Board-room, Clifton-street. Thereport shows that the total number of patients in attendanceduring the year was 2008. Of these 102 continued inattendance from the previous year, and 215 were admittedas intern patients. The aggregate of attendance at theextern department was 10,889. The total number of daysof residence of the 215 intern patients reached 6360, beingan average of twenty-nine days for each patient. Thefinancial return, submitted by the hon. treasurer, was verysatisfactory. The income was £718 2s. 8d., whilst the ex-penditure amounted to £797 7d. The excess of expenditureover income is exceptional, a sum of fl29 9s. 3d. havingbeen incurred for the repairing, painting, and replenibhingof the hospital. In consequence of the large number ofpatients seeking admission the question of extension of thehospital has come before the committee, and three of themembers of the board have taken, and now ofler on the sameterms as they have obtained it, thirty feet of additionalground, which would serve admirably tor the ultimate ex-tension of the hospital. The proposed addition would, it isestimated, cost about ilOOO. The report is very satisfactory,and shows that, under Dr. McKeown’s skilful care, thehospital is doing good work.

THE BELFAST HOSPITAL FOR SICK CHILDREN.

The annual meeting of the friends and supporters of thisinstitution, which has been called the popular charity ofBelfast, was held in the hall of the Constitutional Club onJanuary 25th. From the report of the medical and surgicalstaff, which was read by Dr. Bers, we gather that 313patients were admitted into the hospital during the pastyear; of these 195 were medical, and 118 surgical, cases.

During the same period 7244 children attended the out-

patient department. The exceptional opportunities affordedby thIs hospital for acquiring a knowledge of the diseases ofchildren are fully appreciated by the senior students, ofwhom twenty-four aie attending the cl nique during thepresent session. During the past summer the interior of thehospital has been painted throughout, and the public, aswas stated in the secretary’s report, may feel with some par-donable pride that they have now a hospital which cancompare on favourable terms with any institution of the kindin the United Kingdom. The funds required to pay theexpenses of the painting were for the most part raised by anamateur concert, whereby £118 2s. was realised for the

object required. This sum, together with donations and abalance from the building fund, was increased to £174 38. 5d.,the total amount expended for the painting amounting to:B173 6s. 3d., thus detraying the whole cost without drawingon the funds of the institution.

Obituary.CARL VON HECKER.

ALTHOUGH Professor von Hecker died on Dec. 14tb, 1882,his death has been a matter of doubt to many of those to whomhis name and his works are well known. His death is, how-ever, a matter of fact. Carl von Hecker, who was Professor ofMidwifery and Director of the Lying-in Hospital and Schoolof Midwives at Munich, was the only son of a well-knownprofessor of medicine in Berlin, and was born in 1827. Hiseducation was gained at Cologne, Heidelberg, and Berlin,at the last of which places he graduated in medicine in 1848.After completing his military service as army surgeon hewent to Vienna to study midwifery, and next acted asas;istant to Professor von Busch at Berlin, soon gaining theposition of a privat docent, and then of assistant-physician.In 1858 (at the age of thirty-one) he was appointed to thechief midwifery chair at Marburg, and a few weeks later tothat at Munich. In 1861 he was offered the chair at

Gottingen, and in 1863 the same chair at Konigsberg, bothof which offers he refused, remaining faithful to Munich,with which his name is so closely associated. Von Heckerwas one of the very best specimens of a scientific obstetrician.Starting with an upright honourable soul and a thoroughlytrained mind, he employed his opportunities first andforemost for the good of others and the advancement of hiscalling, especially (but by no means exclusively) of thedepartment to which he more particularly devoted himself.Obstetrics in the hands of such a man, untainted bymeanness or zn cteediness, becomes a study and a pursuit ofgreat elevation, as it is always one of extreme responsibility.In the literature of his subject he has left so many memorial of himself that enumeration is impossible. All of them bearthe impress cf his powerful and wholesome mind. Amongthem may be mentioned the following :-" De RetroversioneUteri Gravidi," 1853 ; " Klinik der Geburtskunde," 1861 (inassociation with Professor von Buhl) ; and " Beobachtungenund Untersuchungen aus der Gebiiranstalt, München," 1881(being the record of twenty years from 1859 to 1879,and of more than 17,000 labours). Besides these, we maypoint to his numerous and important contributions to theArclciv ficr Gynakolologie (of which he was one of the editors),a most important article in which related to face presen-tations. Von Hecker was a great authority on torensicmedicine, and bore almost every honour which could beconferred on a distinguished physician in Germany whomthe State and the sovereign combine in "delighting tohonour." He was one of the most respected honorary Fellowsof the Obstetrical Society of London. As in medicine hewas many-sided, always seeking for analogies throughoutthe range of its branches, and in no sense a specialist, thoughchiefly devoting himself to obstetrics, so also he embracedmore than medicine and more than science in his sympathies.Like so many of the busiest of his profession, he could notlive without a second life outside his daily calling, butdepended for his refreshment on music, to which he wasdevoted, and which, no doubt, helped to brace him for manya precise and laborious investigation. He died of apoplexy,having suffered almost constantly from pain down the leftarm for three years, together with considerable impailmentof health ; but he died in harness. It is doubtful how farour English system of prolonged juniority until advancedmiddle age (when enterprise is apt to be diverted from in-

vestigation towards the pursuit of wealth) is productive ofgood results. In Germany they do these things differently,and von Hecker can hardly be quoted as an instance infavour of keeping a young man back. Appointed at thirty-one to a post of the greatest importance, his opportunitieswere all too little for his eagerness. In England most of thebest work is done by men sti11 young, while very few indeedcontinue to do scientific work when they cease to be young.To those who do so continue when their name is alreadymade all honour be given. Most, however, act like thepoet’s horse, who senio confectac’ quiescit.