1023THE HUXLEY LECTURE -:4ZEDICIN AT THE CHURCH CONGRESS.

statement shows the immense surplus pecuniary advan-

tages which have been secured from the fees for the

examinations and diplomas of Members of the College. The

second argument used by the Society of Members, that" itwould be for the benefit of the College if the Council were

representative of the whole corporation instead of only a

part of it, and it would then occupy an infinitely strongerposition in dealing, not only with all public questions,but with its own Members," is unimpeachable, and is

most inadequately answered by the Council and with muchconfusion of thought. The Society of Members uses the

word representative in one sense and the Council in another.The society speaks of the advantage which the College as agreat professional institution would derive in dealing with

public questions from the representation of the Members. ’’,,The Council argues that the promotion of the art andscience of surgery would not be advanced by such repre-sentation, for that is the real meaning of the reply. It is

very easy to show that even on this ground the Councilis in error. The Members of the College are dailypractising and promoting the art and science of surgery.

Representation would bring them into closer relations withthe higher practitioners of surgery, would raise their status,and enable the Council more effectually to influence them.How could this be otherwise than beneficial to the science

and art of surgery ? 7 The Members are not asking for apreponderating influence, they are not asking even for anequal influence. Their greatest claim at the present timehas been that they should obtain a fourth part of the seats inan enlarged Council, and no doubt they would be fatiguedwith much less. In fact, they ask only for a voice

in the management and for a channel through which

their wishes and wants may be made known, and the

answer of the Council to this most just and necessaryclaim does not touch the fringe of the valid argu-ments in its favour, although it suffices as a re-

sponse to some of the pleas of the Society of Members.thus imparting an air of conclusiveness to the circular

which in reality it lacks. In our opinion, it was a

tactical error for the Society of Members not to con-

tinue to pursue a policy of masterly inactivity, leaving tothose Fellows and members of Council who are favourable

to the concession of some of their claims to formulate

such arguments as were necessary for the occasion and not

readily or lightly to be answered. Moreover, it would havebeen better, if anything were said at all, to have expressedthe willingness of the Society to give a fair trial to any planof representation which might meet the approval of theFellows and the Council instead of dwelling on the difficultiesand drawbacks attending representation of the Members byFellows of the College. We shall return to this subject.In the meantime our advice to our readers with regard to

signing this circular is that they hold their hands. There

can be no hurry, and it is better to consider first and signlater. ITHE EXAMINATION OF PLUMBERS.—Twenty-one I

operative plumbers were examined in handicraft skill andknowledge of subjects relating to internal and external

plumbing and house drainage previously to enrolment on theNational Registration of Plumbers at the Borough Poly-technic Institute on the 26th ult. Seven candidates suc-ceeded in passing the full examination.

Annotations.

THE HUXLEY LECTURE.

.. Ne quid nimie: °

THE Huxley Lecture on Recent Advances in Science andtheir bearing on Medicine and Surgery delivered at theCharing-cross Hospital Medical School on Monday last byProfessor Michael Foster, attracted, as might have beenexpected, a large audience of practitioners as well as

students. An abstract of the lecture will be found else-where in our impression of to-day. In choosing illustra-tions of the bearing of recent advances in science onmedicine and surgery Professor Foster confined himself

entirely to that branch of science with which he is so

eminently familiar-viz., the science of physiology-andchiefly to three points : the observations of the BrothersWeber on the inhibitory action of the vagus ; the discoveriesby Bernard of the effects of section of the sympatheticnerve in the neck-leading to all the advance in physio-logical and medical knowledge included in the word " vaso-motor,"-and of the formation of glycogen in the liver;and the observation by Waller of the dependence of thenutrition of a nerve on its continuity with the central nervecell of which it is a process. These observations weredoubtless of the nature of revelations and are calculated tobe more and more helpful to physiologists and physicianstrying to understand the action of organs and tissues inhealth and disease. Professor Foster was careful to showthat all these discoveries resulted from experiments on livinganimals. He maintained that Engiish physiologists, con-sidering the unreasonable restrictions under which theylaboured, did work which would compare favourably withthat of physiologists in other countries. Not the least

interesting part of his address was that in which he triedto show that Huxley was essentially a physiologist ratherthan an anatomist. It is natural that Professor Fostershould seek to claim for his special branch of knowledgeone with whom he is so gratefully associated, and there is.doubtless much in Huxley’s work and in his contribn-

tion to science which is beyond all the bounds of mere

morphology. Especially is this seen in his reception ofthe new lights of biology and his contribution to the accept-ance and inauguration of Darwinian theories. ProfessorFoster showed how, in Huxley’s student days, human

anatomy was the only one of the sciences so far advanced asto be available for purposes of mental training, and he

justified the medical authorities of the day in requiring thatthe student’s chief attention should be directed to it. How

successfully Huxley used this instrument need not be told,for by such use he was trained to be not only the foremostanatomist of his day but a leader of thought in all collateralsciences and in nearly all branches of human knowledge.

MEDICINE AT THE CHURCH CONGRESS.

WE are glad to see that the divorce which used to exist,and which many men eminent upon either side apparentlythought ought to exist between science and religion, is in afair way of being done away with. Two papers were read atthe Church Congress-one by Dr. Harford-Battersby uponthe Training of Medical Missionaries, and one by Dr. Thurs-field upon the Relation between Sanitary and ReligiousPrinciples. The former speaker laid stress upon the

necessity for missionaries using every precaution to keeptheir health, although they might expect Divine protection.He was quite right. 11 Trust in God and keep your powderdry " is the motto for everyone, and to sleep half-starved ina malarious district without taking any precautions is

to tempt Providence. The old commentators upon

1024

Psalm XCI. were wont to lay stress upon the fact that

angelic protection was guaranteed only to those in

a "way "-i.e., in a marked-out path-and that when

the Devil quoted this verse he left out the phrase" in all thy ways." A missionary need not, and should

not, live a life of ease, but over asceticism defeats its

own object. Dr. Thursfield, in his admirable address,pointed out that the offices of priest and of public healthguardian were anciently combined and that, though theywere now separated, the chief difficulty that both callingshad to fight against was want of faith. He pointed out howmuch good both parish priests and lay workers could do asauxiliaries to the official sanitary staff, especially in regardto the prevention of infection. As to the burial of personsdead from an infectious disease he asked for some expres-sion of authoritative opinion as to whether or no the bodyshould be carried into the church. The question of infection iarises not so much from the presence of the body but ofmourners from an infected house with, very likely, infectedclothing. For ourselves we see no necessity for the bodybeing taken into the church (in fact, the rubric providesfor the alternative course), for its mere presence in, or

absence from, the building does not in the least influencethe validity of the rite of burial. Ritual for the pure sakeof ceremony is a farce and, although valuable and evennecessary as a means of teaching, loses its essential qualitieswhen it becomes either meaningless or harmful.

FEES FOR MEDICAL WITNESSES.

ON Friday, Oct. 2nd, a case was tried in the Leeds countycourt which exemplifies the hardships to which medicalwitnesses are exposed. A chimney repairer sued a chimneybuilder for injuries received in the course of work. Mr.

McCann, a medical man, was called to give evidence,but declined unless he were to have an assurance

given him that his fee would be paid, since upon a

former occasion he had not been paid. His Honour JudgeGreenhow observed that the medical gentleman was

within his right, but that if the medical profession generally.refused to step into the witness-box without being paid itwould practically deprive every poor man of his right torecover in an action. He did not see why a solicitor shouldbe asked to give his personal liability for a medical witness’scosts. Neither do we ; but surely if any litigant is able toafford to pay his lawyer he ought to afford to pay his witness,unless, indeed, in the case of those lawyers who may beof the kind alluded to by Mrs. Cluppins, who, according toMr. Weller, said-referring to two well-known attorneys-" What a wery gen’rous thing it wos o’ them to have takenup the case on spec, and to charge nothin’ at all for costsunless they got ’em out of Mr. Pickwick."

MURDER MADE EASY.

AN inquest was held recently at Hanley upon the body ofan infant aged eighteen hours. The child perished fromover-laying, and the father very rightly as soon as he heardof the death reported the matter to the police. The midwifetook away the body of the child saying " that she had acertificate that would bury any child under four days old

"

and that the father had no business to have told the police.We append the evidence of the midwife as taken from theStaffordskire Sentinel :-Hannah Bossons stated that she was a midwife, living at 90, Market-

street, Hanley. She was seventy-four years of age. She attended atthe birth of the deceased. On the Wednesday evening she went toWall’s and saw Mr. Wall. She said she would take the bodv. He saidhe had told the police that the baby had been found dead in the bed,and said she had better not take the body away. She told him he hadno business to have told the police. She took the body away in a boxto her house, from where she intended to take it to the cemetery forburial. She got a little girl to write her certificate to give to the grave-

diggers. The paper read as follows: "This is to certify that Mrs.Bossom, midwife to a male child two days’ old, born September 28th,

of Mrs. Walls, the wife of Joseph Walls, No. 6, Rutlum-street, Booden-lane.-Signed by Mrs. Bossoms, 90, Market-street, Hanley." Shealways gave those "certificates" when she took a child to be buried,For a stillborn child being buried she paid 3s., and for a child that hadlived for a few hours she paid 4s. She got something for takingbabies.The coroner: Does anyone else do this sort of thing ?Witness: Oh, yes, lots.Coroner: I wish I could get hold of them. And if you had been

twenty years younger -Witness (laughing) : I should catch it I reckon. (Laughter.)Coroner: Can you give me the names of any more who do this ?Witness : Oh, there are lots who run away with babies. (Laughter.)The coroner: This is a very wrong thing for you to do. You know

you might be taking a child that had been murdered to be buried. Doyou ever say a child is stillborn when you take it to be buried?

Witness : Oh, no, I don’t. My conscience wouldn’t allow me to.Coroner : Dj any of the other midwives ?Witness (smiling): Ay, lots of them.Continuing witness said that for a child that died after living four

days she had to get a doctor’s certificate.

It would appear from this aged lady’s artless statementthat in Hanley at any rate, and doubtless in many other

districts, infants up to four days of age can be "removed "

with a very fair chance that nothing more will come out aboutthe matter. We are glad to see that a juryman suggestedthat it would be well if it were made necessary for stillbornchildren to be so certified by a medical man, and we hopehis suggestion will be acted upon. The matter should notbe left in the hands of such ignorant people as the followingcertificate shows this class of midwife to be. We omit namesand place.

Aug. the 26.this is to certify that Anie - the wife of - - whas

delived on the 26 Aug. of a still born child1004 - St E——— ——

Midwife

No undertaker or grave-digger should be able to bury anyhuman body without a certificate from a qualified practi-tioner. Of course, the back-garden burial would still go on,but the law would have done its best to prevent scandal.

A MINT IN THE SEA.

iN tms goicl-seeiiing age tne announcement tnat sea-watercontains a fairly uniform though small quantity of gold issure to attract the interest of speculators. This will beso especially when they learn that there exists in solu-tion in sea-water many millions of tons of gold. Suchwould appear to be the case, according to Professor

Liversidge, the Professor of Chemistry in Sydney Uni-

versity. In a very remarkable and exhaustive series of

experiments which he has made there is considerableevidence in favour of gold being present in sea-wateroff the New South Wales coast in the proportion ofabout half to one grain per ton, or in round numbers from130 to 260 tons of gold per cubic mile. This, of course,means an enormous amount for tha whole of the ocean, thecubic contents of which are put down approximately at

400,000,000 cubic miles, and if the gold be uniformly presentat the rate of one grain per ton the total amount would beover 100,000,000,000 tons of gold. If only a loadstone forgold could be found which would attract gold and separateit from its solution doubtless a very important stimuluswould be given to the dividend earning capacity of our

ocean liners. Thus, in addition to carrying passengersand cargo, they would plough the deep to reap a richharvest each passage by hanging a dredger, so to speak,astern which at the end of the voyage would be relieved ofits auriferous and valuable collection. We fear, however,that the precious metal will not be recovered from the seaas easily as this considering its strong affinity for the saltsof sea water. Otherwise gold would soon cease to be a raremetal, and this fact would also place bi-metallism in a

very serious position. These .observations are not withoutsome bearing on medicine, since recently the value of

gold salts in therapeutics has been recognised, and it

cannot be doubted that the cheapening of gold wouldlead to their application being extended in this direction.Apart from these considerations, Professor Liversidge’s