Mott, the latter of whom resigned because Dr. Detmold was appointed to the chair vacated by Dr. Dickson, who returns to Charleston-conducting himself in this matter, if we may speak so irreverently of the "Emperor of American Surgery," very much like a petted child. Dr. Detmold's self-denying and manly course is in striking contrast to Dr. Mott's. A new school it appears is to commence its courses this year, in New-York, under the name of the N. Y. Medical College. In the University of Penn., the chair vacated by the resignation of the venerable Dr. Chapman, is filled by Dr. Geo. B. Wood, while Dr. J. Carson succeeds Dr. Wood in the Professorship of Materia Medica. In the Medical College of Ohio, the faculty is in consequence of deaths and resignations, almost new. From the east they have taken Dr. John Bell of Philadelphia, and Dr. H. W. Baxley of Baltimore, as if in exchange for Drs. Bartlett and Gross, who go from Louisville, Ky. Dr. T. O. Edwards takes the chair of Materia Medica, where he will doubtless display the same energy to which we are indebted for all our protection against the importation of adulterated drugs. Dr. S. Hanbury Smith has left the professorship of theory and practice in the Starling Med. Coll., to superintend the Ohio Lunatic Asylum. Dr. S. M. Smith is transferred to his professorship from that of Materia Medica, and is himself succeeded by that excellent lecturer, Dr. Charles A. Lee. We are not aware that in any of these cases the "concours" system has been adopted; but we trust the time will come when the succession in these honorable and frequently lucrative places will depend on merit, not on clique or family, as is now sometimes the case. PREMATURE BURIALS. A good deal has been said of late in one place and another concerning the danger of premature burial. At Frankfort-onthe-Main, a system of watching corpses has been devised, by which the least movement of a finger would attract notice. A correspondent of the N. Y. Medical Gazette, states a fact with regard to it which should be in itself a sufficient answer to those horrible stories which periodically go the rounds. He says, "The establishment has been in use twenty years, in which time about three thousand bodies have been watched, and not one has been resuscitated." OVARIOTOMY. Prof. E. R. Peaslee operated for ovarian disease on the 21st inst., removing a tumor weighing 24 lbs. The incision extended from two inches above the umbilicus to the symphysis pubis. We understand that the patient has not had a bad symptom, and that the wound will heal by first intention, unless it be about a half inch in the skin merely. We expect to be able to report more particularly hereafter. THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF INSANITY. We have received the July number of this valuable periodical, edited by T. Romeyn Beck, M. D., and published by the New-York State Lunatic Asylum, at Utica. Its articles are "Observations on the Medical Treatment of Insanity-Report on the Past and Present condition of the Insane in Canada East-Report on the organization of Asylums for the Insane-On Insane Foreigners-On the necessity of a resident Medical Superintendent in an Institution for the Insane-The Brain is modified by habits-Mental embarrassment in Orthography-Proceedings of the Association of Medical Superintendents." A few interesting Selections and a Domestic Summary make up the number. The articles are all interesting. That on Insane foreigners, by Dr.Ranney of the New-York City Lunatic Hospital, points out the causes and peculiarities of the different forms of insanity affecting recent emigrants. He believes the chief causes to be the hopes with which they seek new homes in our Eldorado, followed by the exposure to the weather and impure air on the voyage, and the terrible depression consequent on their discovery that their hopes are blasted, and that they are penniless in a strange country without friends or acquaintance. It is a singular fact that melancholia, which from the nature of the causes we should suppose would be most common, has not been met with by him in a single case. Treatment has been very successful. The case of mental embarrassment in orthography consists of a letter from a young man twenty-five years of age, who complains to Dr. Fonerden of the Maryland Hospital for the Insane that he has never been able to learn to spell, notwithstanding the greatest perseverance and application, a peculiarity from which he has suffered intensely. We should be glad to give the proceedings of the Association of Superintendents in accordance with a resolution which was adopted, but they have been published in so many journals that we fear our readers might at this late hour think them a little passè. The association seem not only to enjoy themselves hugely, but to do much to improve the treatment and condition of the Insane. NEW-HAMPSHIRE JOURNAL OF MEDICINE, PUBLISHED BY G. PARKER LYON, 168 MAIN STREET, CONCORD, OPPOSITE THE CAPITOL. TERMS—One dollar a year, always in advance. Gentlemen who wish to subscribe to the Journal, will at once forward the cash to the publisher, either post-paid, or under the frank of the post-masters, who are allowed by law to frank subscriptions to periodicals-and the receipt of all moneys will be acknowledged in the next succeeding number of the Journal. Communications concerning the business of the Journal, must be addressed postpaid to the Publisher-all intended for publication, to the Editor, post-paid. RECEIPTS. One dollar has been received from each of the following named persons, for the New-Hampshire Journal of Medicine, volume one. II. M. Parker, Boston; E. Spalding, Nashua; Ezra Bartlett, So. Berwick, Me.; Asa Wheat, Canaan; George W. Garland, Meredith; John Clough, Enfield; S. G. Wood, North-Enfield; James Danforth, New-Boston; S. C. Dearborn, MontVernon; J. L. Swett, Newport; N. K. Kelley, Plaistow; E. G. Moore, Concord; Z. Gilman, Piermont; C. B. Hamilton, A. Smalley, Lyme; H. Eaton, Reed's Ferry; M. Merriam, Merrimack; Josiah Crosby, Manchester; M. A. Mack, NorthChichester; David Youngman, Winchester, Mass.; Otis French, Gilmanton; C. T. Berry, Pittsfield; D. Homer Batchelder, Londonderry; F. J. Parker, Boston; E. R. Peaslee, Hanover; James M. Nye, Lynn, Mass.; Thomas H. Currie, West-Boscawen; H. Eldridge, S. S. Stickney, Milford; F. P. Fitch, Amherst; N. Shannon, Loudon-Centre; A. H. Robinson, Salisbury; Blake, Tamworth ; Nathaniel Dorman, J. W. Lougee, Alton; Josiah Kittredge, Nashua; N. L. Folsom, J. H. Paul, L. G. Hill, Robert Thompson, A. Stackpole, A. G. Fenner, Jeremiah Horne, Dover; Calvin Topliff, Freedom; J. G. Pike, Rollinsford; Theodore H. Jewett, So. Berwick, Me.; John E. Tyler, Rollinsford; Reuben Hatch, Marlow; David S. Prescott, Temple; N. B. Baker, Concord; E. L. Griffin, L. W. Wilkins, J. H. Graves, W. H. Buxton, E. B. Hammond, J. C. Garland, Nashua; H. N. Mason, Wilmot-Centre; J. W. Lyman, S. H. Cleveland, Boston; H. G. Mc Intire, Goshen; Geo. B. Twitchell, Keene; Samuel Haskins, East-Lyman; E. K. Webster, Boscawen; Wm. B. Stevens, Concord; Ezra Farnsworth, Boston; D. W. Hazelton, Antrim; O. P. Hubbard, Hanover; J. S. Fernald, Barrington'; N. W. Oliver, Portsmouth; W. W. Brown, Manchester; Robert Lane, Sutton. Of Noah Martin, Dover, received for five copies; of Joseph Burnett, Boston, received for three copies. Drugs and Medicines. The subscribers embrace the present opportunity of tendering their thanks to the Medical Faculty throughout the state for past favors, and would still solicit a share of patronage. We have nearly completed one of the LARGEST AND MOST CONVENIENT DRUG STORES to be found in any country village in New-England, which we intend to keep supplied with articles of the first quality. It is vastly important that practitioners should confidently rely upon the quality and medical efficacy of the medicines they administer, especially of those in the form of EXTRACTS. It is our intention to furnish the PUREST that can be obtained. We have now on hand the Inspissated Ext. of BELLADONNA, 66 CONIUM, HYOSCIAMUS, LETTUCE, MANDRAKE, STRAMONIUM,&c. 66 66 66 66 66 66 66 HASKELL & MERRICK'S PULV. IPECAC, JALAP, OPIUM, SEM. COLCHICUM, GUM ARABIC, &c. Also, the different preparations of MANGANESE, and MATICO of the best quality. We have made arrangements to have a constant supply of PURE COD LIVER OIL. We keep the FOREIGN LEECHES, (Smyrna and Sweedish,) which we will pack so as to be sent to any distance with perfect safety. All orders for SURGICAL INSTRUMENTS will meet prompt attention. ner. To the Editor of the N. H. Journal of Medicine: Doubtless the readers of your journal have perused the articles on Quackery which have been published in the Boston Med. and Surg. Jour. the past year, and have considered the remedies proposed for that bane of society; and I would not trouble you or them with my ideas upon the subject, did I not believe they would be of some practical use to the younger members of the profession. First, I wish to call your attention to the class of patients who usually resort to quack medicines for relief. And I need not tell you they are those who have been laboring under some chronic, functional, or organic disease— mostly functional-of the liver, lungs, stomach, kidneys, vagina, uterus or colon, with all their neuralgias and nerve deranging, exciting or depressing iufluences-who have tried the "usual remedies of the apothecary doctors," till from nervous debility and want of resolution, common medicines in an unmixed state become loathsome, and the very thought of them disgusting in the extreme. This, to them, is as real as if the imagination did not exist. And such patients constantly demand new and strong assurances of a speedy recovery with equally new and better tasting prescriptions. When physicians fail to meet their demands, they resort to the quack, who ever stands ready to play upon their credulity, not by fair and encouraging speech only, but by syrups, panaceas, and elixirs. And here I come to my remedy, and give my opinion, founded on years of experience, that if physicians would humor the capriciousness of such patients by good nature and good medicine-ever ready to change the color, taste or smell, to evade disgust, there would be far less disappointment to both patient and practitioner, and they would be able to secure the entire confidence of their patients through the most tedious convalesence, and be able also to keep their "faith" through many chronic diseases which are now stumbling blocks over which many well meaning though credulous people fall from the hands of science into the deepest slough of quackery and ignorance. To this theory, if so it may be called, I think all will agree. But this is not enough. We must reduce it to practice if we would use it as a remedy against this worst of all diseases. Formerly, I could carry a day's supply of medicines in my vest pockets; but now I have my laxative syrups, cough syrups, alterative syrup, tonic syrups, &c., &c., and I am able to manage my chronic cases with much more ease, with a larger per cent. profit—and more, I save the mortification of seeing my patients recover under the expectant treatment of some cunning quack, who, while he pockets a handsome fee, wags his head at science by publishing to the world his wonder working humbug. There are but few medicines but what may be reduced to some palatable compound without impairing their efficacy. Now in studying for this great desideratum, and by cultivating a proper address, we shall be prepared to meet quackery in all its protean forms. I can recollect many chronic cases which passed from my hands to the hands of quacks during the first years of my practice, because I did not give them that attention they required—when I would turn my back upon them, saying, they are joined to their idols, let them alone, and comfort myself by the thought that I had at least got rid of their long, tedious complainings. More recently, many of those individuals have come under my treatment again, and by kindness and proper attention, I have put a new song into their mouth, even loud praise of calomel and blue pills,—now receive blessings instead of curses-a hearty good-morning, instead of the stiff, cool bow-and by the warm grasp of the hand, I feel that I have their entire confidence, and have thrown a barrier around them which will forever protect them from quack invasions. Depend upon it, the remedy for empiricism is in our own hands. It partakes more of individuality than one at first view might suppose. The first quack that ever entered New-Hampshire, and every one that has followed him, would have died of starvation, had a right feeling and right understanding universally existed between physician and patient; and we can place them now among the things that were, by kindness and attention to our patients. GEO. W. GARLAND. Meredith Bridge, October 15, 1850. |