knowledge" and "study of practical pharmacy" is not defined. Irish pupils going to London are said to take with them "a certificate" to that effect from any apothecary, which is procured for a trifling douceur. Candidates for the membership are required to attend an hospital for three years, nine months in each year. All the Dublin hospitals are recognized. Candidates are also required to attend. lectures on anatomy and physiology, and demonstrations with dissections for three winter sessions, surgery for two, and the practice of physic, chemistry, materia medica, and midwifery, for one. Candidates for the membership are examined in anatomy and surgery only. In England the qualification to practice medicine and pharmacy is derived from the Apothecaries' Company, and no man is considered a general practitioner there, or eligible as medical attendant to mixed medical charities, unless he holds their license. The College of Surgeons in England, therefore, does not examine in practice of medicine or pharmacy, or pretend to give any authority to practice either. Neither do they require their members to learn or to answer in medical jurisprudence, considering that medical witnesses should have. the full qualification of general practitioner. In fact, it appears that the college wish it to be understood that their members are qualified as mere or "pure" surgeons only, and leave them to obtain their qualifications to practice medicine from the medical colleges, and pharmacy at the apothecaries' halls.

With respect to certificates, the London College recognizes all schools and lectures without exception. They state, however, in the above regulations, that, in common with all the other colleges, they reject the certificates of persons who lecture on more than one branch, and therefore refuse the certificates of professors or lecturers who lecture on surgery as well as on anatomy and physiology, but they allow this rule to be evaded. Certificates are not recognized from Dublin, unless the name of the candidate who produces them shall have been returned to the college as having been in attendance on the 25th of November, the 10th of February, and the 10th of May; at which periods the professors, lecturers, and hospital surgeons, are required to return the names of the students then attending, with the dates of entry, and periods for which they have entered, "with remarks." "It is required that the dates of commencement and termination be clearly expressed." Students should henceforth be very careful not to rest satisfied with having their names entered into these returns, unless they are really in Dublin and actually "attending" the lectures and hospitals, because any falsehoods in the returns may subject them to the penal provisions of the charter. It is the person who holds, uses, or presents false certificates, who is to be punished, the person who signs and grants them is not held answerable.

There are various methods by which students whose other avocations or limited finances prevent them from complying with the printed regulations of this college can obtain an examination; and as the council appears disposed to afford gentlemen so circumstanced all reasonable facilities towards obtaining a diploma, they can scarcely

be blamed for availing themselves of them. An experienced private examiner can explain more to them respecting this matter than we care to mention.-Dublin Medical Press.

Progress of the Cholera.-We copy the following from the Times newspaper, and we do so at the risk of exciting perhaps unnecessary alarm. It is obvious that the medical profession should not be kept in the dark with respect to such a matter, if for no other reason, for this, that they should be prepared, not only to meet real danger, but to resist and expose any attempt to create premature or uncalled for apprehensions for placehunting or puffing purposes.

"We have received from our correspondent at Trebizonde a letter dated the 26th of September, from which, with deep regret, we make the following extract:

"The cholera has passed the line of the Russian quarantine on the borders of the Caspian Sea, and is raging throughout all the Tartar villages of the district of Salgau and of Leukeran. A considerable number of Cossacks, from the cordon on the Persian frontier, have likewise been attacked. At Rescht, a Persian city in the province of Ghilan, the cholera is still making incessant ravages, which have now continued during two months. The sanatory state of all the towns to the west of the Caspian Sea, from Bakou to Astrachan, is very unfavorable. Dysenteries and diseases of the stomach (frequently mortal) prevail in those towns, particularly amongst the troops in the garrisons. These maladies are probably the forerunners of the real Asiatic cholera-a phenomenon rather curious, which has been again observed latterly in Persia. There prevailed at Teheran, at Astrabad, at Meschid, and at Ispahan, a malady a considerable time before the appearance of the cholera, of which the symptoms resembled the Indian disease. The caravans which arrived from Teheran eight months since spoke of the existence of the Scourge which was mistaken for the cholera. A French physician, who resided at Teheran at that period, and who passed through our city a few days since, assured us it was the cholerine, such as had likewise been observed in several towns of Europe in 1833 and 1834* as a precursor of the cholera. The population of Teheran, which had been estimated at 80,000 is reduced by the ravages of the cholera to 60,000. The foreign ministers and their attendants had not dared to return to the city, but still continued to reside at Mount Alburs, in the neighborhood of Schemen, to the north of Teheran. The Russian authorities at Tiflis are well aware of the appearance of the cholera in that neighborhood, and the inhabitants of Tiflis have fled, but up to the 12th of September no official announcement had been made of the fact. Perhaps this course was pursued in order to prevent the merchants from becoming alarmed, and a consequent interruption of commercial affairs."-Ibid.

*This is a mistake. The cholera set in in Paris on the 28th of March, 1832.

Free trade in Medicine and Surgery.—The people called "statesmen" as a grove is called lucus, a non lucendo, have taken into their wise noddles the strange crotchet that every man, woman, and child in England, inherits and enjoys the unquestionable right to cripple, poison, mutilate, and slay all and every her Majesty's subjects, provided they consider that they can thereby put money in their purses, and all dyspeptic lawyers and constipated jurymen have evidently arrived at the same conclusion. Mr. Warburton, the great theoretical medical reformer, by his advocacy of cheap-doctoring and free trade in drugs, did much to perpetuate this delusion, and Sir James Graham by his abortive bill contributed to the same end. Every day's experience, however, proves that there must be an end to this nonsense. The recorded deaths from the mal-administration of drugs form a frightful catalogue of wanton outrages within the present year, and the evil every day increases. The following is another example of the toleration extended to the base and ignorant who have the temerity to trifle with life in this way. Judges, lawyers, and jurors have become so familiarized with such displays that they have now become subjects of jest, or occasions for cracking jokes on the doctors.-Dublin Med. Press.

"A report having been circulated that a man named William Myhill, a small farmer and carpenter, residing at Horsey, in the county of Norfolk, had died from the effects of some medicine which had been administered to him by his wife, Mr. Pilgrim, the county coroner, directed the body to be exhumed, and on the 24th of last month held an inquest at Catfield, where the body had been interred. Several witnesses were examined, but the chief evidence offered was that of the servantmaid, who, in a long statement, disposed to her mistress having obtained some medicine of a person living at Reepham, which she administered to the deceased just previous to his death, and then requested her (the servant,) not to say anything about it to any person, but to deny it if she was asked any questions on the subject. On Friday, October 2nd, the inquiry was resumed, when amongst other witnesses who were examined as to the wife having administered something to the deceased, was a Mr. Staples of Reepham, who calls himself a chemist and druggist. He deposed as follows:

"I vend drugs and prepare them, but I do not profess to be a surgeon. Some short time since Mrs. Myhill, the wife of the deceased, came to me and stated that her husband was very bad. I prescribed for the deceased from the representation made to me by his wife. I cannot say what she stated. I made up some medicine according to the nature of the disease. I was not told what was the matter with him, but I found it out by my study, my science, and my search. I do not recollect that I ordered brandy and water, neither do I exactly recollect what I did prescribe. At the time I put it on a slate, but it was afterwards rubbed off. The medicine was to relieve the pain-it was not opening medicine. Mrs. Myhill was to have called upon me again, and let me know how her husband was, and to tell

me the effect the medicine had upon him. I am perfectly satisfied that the medicine I prescribed could not do him any harm, but I did intend that it should do him good. I considered that the deceased was in a very bad state, and that I ascertained from my research in science, and study from my books of knowledge. If a person came to me and represented their case, I should not be governed by what he said, but I should be governed by the rule of science and my books of knowledge. 'I could by searching those books ascertain more of their disease than any person could inform me. It is a very common practice with me to prescribe for persons I have never seen, nor yet had a description of their complaints. I neither want to know the name of the party, or where they come from, or any description whatever of their complaints, as I can always find every thing out by the rule of science, my study, and from my books of knowledge. If any person had come to me after the death of Myhill, I could have stated the cause of his death, but the time is now so far gone that I cannot. He again repeated his powers of discovering the complaints of persons by the aid of his books, which was the cause of much merriment to the coroner and the jury, who looked with some suspicion upon the many cases [cures?] he pretended to have effected by his books, his science, and his study.

After this evidence, which put a very different aspect upon the inquiry, the surgeons, who had analysed the stomach, said that they had not been able to detect the presence of any metallic or vegetable poison; and, from the appearance of the lungs, were of opinion that the deceased died from natural causes. The jury returned a verdict accordingly."-Norwich Mercury.

A New and Original Curiosity of Medical Literature.-Wonders will never cease. Who could have thought some time ago that a "celebrated obstetric physician" in the metropolis could treat a lady in the country by electrical telegraph, yet to that complexion has it come.-Ibid.

“Consultation per Telegraph.-The services of the electric telegraph between Norwich and Shoreditch were put into requisition on Thursday in a novel manner, being made the means of communication between a physician in London and his patient in the former place. On Wednesday Dr. L., a celebrated obstetric physician, was sent for from London to attend a lady, lying there in a dangerous state; on his return to town, he left instructions to the medical attendant to convey information of the state of the patient the next morning by means of the telegraph. This was promptly done on Thursday morning, and the prescription was as promptly returned. This it would appear, was repeated more than once, the services of the telegraph being continued for four hours. Unhappily the telegraph completed its communication by announcing the death of the lady."

Essex Herald.

The Asiatic Cholera in Persia.—According to the Gazette Médicale, six Princes and several Princesses of the Court of Persia have been cut off by the Asiatic cholera. The mother of the Prince Royal, and the only daughter of the Schah, had been attacked, but had recovered under the treatment of Dr. Cloquet. Among the victims is the celebrated Mirza-Aboul-Assan-Khan, minister of foreign affairs, -who was ambassador to this country in the year 1820. Another minister of the Schah, the Visier of the Prince Royal, and other high functionaries of the Court, have also been cut off by cholera. The disease appears to have been particularly fatal among the upper classes. It was spreading in all directions, and had taken the course of Astrachan and Moscow. It was expected, however, that its progress would be arrested by the cold of winter.-London Med. Gaz.

On the Influence of Vaccination in Diminishing the Mortality from Small-Pox.-Much has recently been said respecting the frequency and fatality of small-pox, at the same time that doubts were often expressed as to the afficacy of vaccination in preventing that virulent disease. Should any person still entertain such opinions, his fears must be very considerably diminished by the facts stated at page 62 in the Seventh Report of the Registrar-General, just published. According to that official document, the number of deaths from smallpox, throughout England and Wales, during five consecutive years, were as follows:-In 1838, 16,268 persons died of that disease; in 1839, 9,131; in 1840, 10,434; in 1841, 6,368; and in 1842, only 2,715 deaths are reported.-Ibid.

Employment of Gun-Cotton in Cupping..-The Prov. Med. and Surg. Journal of Dec. 9th contains the following announcement:"It may be useful to know the value of gun-cotton in exhausting the air from cupping glasses; having so employed it myself on several occasions, I can recommend it as possessing a decided superiority over spirit; besides, its lightness and portability is an advantage at times. A very small portion is placed within the glass, and before a piece of lighted paper can be well introduced, from its highly inflammable nature it becomes ignited, imparting to the surface enclosed merely an agreeable warmth."