378 MEDICAL HANDBILLS.—REVIEWS

" And be it enacted, that the coroner only within whose jurisdiction the body of any person upon whose death an inquestought to be holden shall be lying dead, shall hold the inquest,notwithstanding that the cause of death did not arise within thejurisdiction of such coroner."

Thus, wherever the body is now found on which the law

requires an inquest to be held, the Coroner for that place hasjurisdiction, although the injury whichcaused the death may beknown to have occurred a hundred miles distant.

THE FOLLOWING HANDBILLS

have been forwarded to us for publication, by two highly respect-able medical practitioners, residing in the important and popu-lous parish of Islington, stating that they have been extensively’exhibited in the shop-windows of the streets within the last

fortnight, and requesting to know our opinion of their characterand probable effects on the good name and reputation of the pro-fession :-

"MR. BATEMAN "Dr. W. E. HUMBLE

Purposes (D. V.) to remove at HAS REMOVED FROM THE

Christmas to 6, Islington Green. BARNSBURY ROAD TO 6, MAN-" Mr. Bateman will continue CHESTER TERRACE, LIVER-" Mr. Bateman will continue POOL ROAD.

to see Patients gratuitously " DR. HUMBLE, who wasfrom a quarter before eight to lately Physician to who washalf past nine o’clock on Tues- lately Physician to the-Isling-day, Thursday, and on Tues- ton Lying-in Charity, and for-

merly Assistant Accoucheur tomornings. The entrance for University - College Hospital,GRATUITOUS Patients will be at and was a first-class graduatethe first door on the right hand in Medicine of his University,side up GADS Row, which is continues to see patients, GRA-opposite the coach-stand. continues every morningTUITOUSLY, every morning"Hughes, Printer, Islington from Nine till Eleven.

Green." " R. Boyd, Printer, Upper-street, Islington."

Is no reform wanted in the practice of medicine? These bills

reflect great discredit on the gentlemen by whom they havebeen issued. Such huxtering modes of acquiring a sixpennypopularity would not be tolerated if the profession were governedby a just and liberal system of professional representation.What could the projected Council of Health and Medical Educa-tion accomplish with regard to the authors of these bills?

Nothing. There is not a section or line of the Government Me-

dical Bill which would empower that body to interfere in such acase.

ADVICE TO GENERAL PRACTITIONERS AT THEPRESENT CRISIS.

To the Editor O/’TtIE LAKCET.

SiR,-At a time, like the present, so pregnant with evil to themedical profession, there cannot be too strongly urged upon everymember of that body, the necessity of tendering his assistance tooppose, with his best energies, the attempt now making to de-

grade and ruin the once respected (and now equally deserving)general medical practitioner. Knowing that you are ever readyto give any information that you possess in so just and righteousa cause, I trouble you with this letter, as it does not appear to mewhat association ought to receive the support of the generalmedical practitioners at large, such association having for itsentire aim the protection of the general medical practitioner. Such

information, I should imagine, will be useful to the medical body,generally, if published in your journal.For ntysetf, I would remark, that at the formation of a branch

of the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association in this county,I became a subscribing member, and, subsequently, one of itscouncil; but, finding the General Association conducted by amixture of qualified and unqualified persons, and disgusted by itslate proceedings, I have withdrawn from it. I also became anenrolled member of the General Medical Protection Assembly,held at Exeter Hall, and had intended a further subscription tothat body, but, previously to my so doing, I wish to be informed

by you, if the views entertained by that association are in accord-ance with those of Dr. Webster, or Mr. Pennington, and if not,to what association you recommend general practitioners in thecountry to subscribe ; as, being so far removed from the Metro-polis, they may otherwise, inadvertently, commit the error ofsupporting one that is most inimical to their interests.

In conclusion, I beg to say, that you may make whatever useyou like of this communication, and waiting your early reply,

Believe me. Sir. vour much obliged.THOMAS S. HODGE,

Member of the College of Surgeons of England,and Licentiate of the Company of Apothecaries,London, of fourteen years’ standing.

Sidmouth, Devon, December 16, 1844.

*,* Numerous other correspondents have been lesscandid andbold than Mr. HODGE, having written to us on this subject,for the most part, anonymously. We had always imagined thatthe honest performance of a public duty did not require that theactor in such a scene should be possessed of a large share ofmoral courage. If the members of the profession, generally,were to shrink from a frank avowal of their opinion at such acrisis as the present, it would have to be confessed that reform

was wanted from within rather than from without, and that thelabour of purification should at once commence, zealously, athome. In the next LANCET, we hope to be enabled to enter fullyinto the question to which Mr. HODGE has referred; but wecannot allow the present opportunity to pass without most

earnestly and implicitly recommending to general practitionersin the country, to convene meetings of their own body, and oftheir own bod,1f only, in the chief or county town of every shire,and appoint a secretary, (or secretaries,) who should be instructedto place himself in immediate communication with the Secretaryof the Apothecaries’ Society in London, and the Medical Asso-ciations of London. We cannot too strongly press the immediate

adoption of such a proceeding, and if it be carried into effect

without delay, before the 1st of January next, all the generalpractitioners of the United Kingdom might be placed in activecommunication with one another, and their intelligence, respect-ability, influence, and authority, brought to bear on any suggestedpoint of policy which they might approve, within an extremelybrief period. The propriety of the question which has been pro-posed to us in the manly letter of Mr. HODGE cannot be ques-tioned, and we earnestly hope that the reply which we have

given to it will be followed by practical advantage.

REVIEWS.

A Practical Treatise on Diseases of the Eye. By WILLI-,%,14JEAFFRESON, late Surgeon to the Bombay Eye Infirmary, &c.

So large is the number of works already published on ophthalmicsurgery, that we can scarcely conceive any addition to them to berequired. Our author seems to have felt how superfluous washis work, as he prefaces it with an apology, and states thatit " has been undertaken chiefly with the motive of inculcat-ing the necessity for regarding ophthalmic practice as but abranch of the whole science of practical medicine, and in orderto modify the more violent notions respecting the treatment ofdiseases of the eye, which are as yet even but too prevalent."Another motive for publication has been, an endeavour " to sim-plify his subject, so as to render assistance to the highly valuableand intelligent body of general practitioners." A better apologythan either of these appears to us to be, that the author wasinstructed by the Hon. East India Company to establish an EyeHospital at Bombay, where, in the course of ten years, no lessthan 53,359 patients, independently of those occurring in private