EXPULSION OF DR. HENRY M. HOOKE, OF LOWELL, FROM THE MASSACHUSETTS MEDICAL SOCIETY.

DR. HENRY M. HOOKE, of Lowell, has been expelled from the Massachusetts Medical Society on the following charges preferred against him by the Middlesex North District Medical Society:

1. For infraction of the tenth by-law of the Massachusetts Medical Society, in offering to the public, while exercising the duties of a physician, medicines the composition of which he keeps a secret, thereby offering to cure disease by such secret medicines; in establishing, or causing to be established, for his benefit, and supporting a certain nostrum and drugshop, on Merrimack street, in Lowell, kept by a Mrs. Clayes or Mrs. Lane, at which shop only his prescriptions can be made up, the said prescriptions being written purposely so as to be unintelligible to all other apothecaries; in publishing his card in, and writing medical articles as advertisements for a notoriously vile and quackish paper called the Medical Expositor, the editor and proprietor of which is and has been for years, as is well known, an irregular practitioner, who has recently been convicted by a jury for libel against a worthy citizen of this place, and paid the penalty therefor, by three months' imprisonment in the House of Correction, at Cambridge.

2. For conduct unbecoming and unworthy an honorable physician and member of this Society, in rudely and peremptorily refusing to pay his arrearages and annual assessments due to the Society, when called for; in manifesting hostility to the Society and its interests, by speaking of it in terms of disparagement and contempt; in frequent violations of the recognized code of Medical Ethics, in visiting, advising, and prescribing for patients while under the charge of other physicians, without the consent or knowledge of said physicians; in false and dishonorable conduct in consultations, by which he has impaired or destroyed the confidence of the patient and friends in the consulting or attending physician with whom he had met; and in other irregular and disreputable acts, equally adverse to the welfare of the public and to the interests and dignity of the profession.

The board of trial, regularly appointed by the President of the Massachusetts Medical Society, met at Lowell, on the 15th ult., and duly considered the above mentioned charges, preferred against Dr. Henry M. Hooke by the Middlesex North District Medical Society; whereupon, it was voted that the charges preferred against Dr. Henry M. Hooke, of Lowell, by that Society, have been substantiated, and the said Henry M. Hooke be, and hereby is, expelled from the Massachusetts Medical Society.

PRELIMINARY LITERARY EDUCATION AGAIN REQUIRED FROM MEDICAL STUDENTS IN FRANCE.

OUR readers may recollect that in 1852 an imperial decree removed the obligation, formerly imposed on students, to produce the degree of Bachelor of Letters (tantamount to our B. A.) before commencing their medical studies. Proficiency in the sciences allied to medicine was alone required. It has, however, been found that the absence of a literary education had a very unfavorable effect upon the young men entering upon their medical studies. The Superior Council of Education was consulted on the subject, and the members were almost unanimous in the opinion that the former state of things should be reëstablished. The Minister of Public Instruction, M. Rouland, also approved of the change; and upon his report to the Emperor, the decree has just been issued requiring every student to be possessed of the degree of B. A. before registering at the faculty. The first year is devoted to the study of the allied sciences as far as they bear upon medicine; and a modified degree of Bachelor of Science is, after examination, conferred upon the student who has completed his first year. The bona fide medical studies then begin, the young men are examined at the end of each session, and the last examination takes place when the four years are completed.-Lancet, Oct. 16, 1858.

Selected Papers.

THE GREAT TELEGRAPHIC PLATEAU.

[WE find the following communication in the Washington Union, and, as it involves a matter pertaining to the physical geography of our globe, we transfer it to our pages. We are rather surprised that the Sillimans refused to insert it in their American Journal of Science, especially since it is a reply to a communication published in their columns, in which Lieutenant Maury's position with regard to the telegraphic plateau was assailed. Lieutenant Maury replies with much force, and it is but fair that both sides should be heard. As for ourselves, we congratulate the American public in that the reply was denied an insertion into Silliman's Journal, as it has consequently caused its publication in the newspapers, by which means it finds its way to all classes of readers, and not to a few scientific men merely. We think it due to Lieutenant Maury that our secular press should extensively republish the article, and thereby give him a fair hearing throughout the country.-R. O. C.]

OBSERVATORY, WASHINGTON, September 21, 1858. GENTLEMEN: I have attentively considered your note of the 17th, declining to publish without alteration a communication in reply to Article XVII. in the September number of your journal on "Deep Sea Soundings" by the Coast Survey.

You observe that this article (XVII.) does not go forth with the weight and authority which only the name of Trowbridge or Bache can give it; but it goes forth under the official stamp of the Coast Survey, and with all the authority which the name of that establishment can give it. You also perceive that in that article the labors of the Observatory are appropriated without acknowledgment.

It was the object of the paper which you have declined to publish to make reclamation of the property of the Observatory, to show that the Coast Survey has attempted to come between the Observatory and the fruits of its labors, and has actually laid violent hands upon the materials collected for its own specialities.

It was, moreover, the object of that paper to show that certain conclusions announced through your journal by the Coast Survey in its paper

aforesaid depend upon observations and experiments made by or for this office, and are not warranted by the facts of the case.

When papers are offered to your journal by the Coast Survey, I do not hold you bound to look behind that establishment to see whether it have legitimate possession of the materials for such papers. But when, as in this case, you have unwittingly given the authority of your journal to such a paper, you nevertheless, though unwittingly, lend the name and authority of the most influential scientific journal in the country to assist in the perpetration of an outrage and a wrong. I therefore submit it is not fair to deny me a hearing.

If, upon reconsideration of the matter, you still decline my paper, I hope you will publish in your forthcoming number this, my remonstrance, and oblige Yours truly,

Messrs. SILLIMAN & DANA,

M. F. MAURY.

Editors of the American Journal of Science and Arts, New Haven, Connecticut.

ON THE ARTICLE XVII., "DEEP SEA SOUNDINGS" BY THE COAST SURVEY, BY M. F. MAURY.

No. 77 of this journal, September, 1858, contains a paper "On Deep Sea Soundings, by Prof. W. P. Trowbridge, assistant United States Coast Survey. Report to Prof. A. D. Bache, Superintendent United States Coast Survey. Published in this journal by permission of the department."

This, it is perceived, is an official emanation from the office of the Coast Survey. It is not a review by Mr. Trowbridge or Mr. Bache of the work of the Observatory, for in that case I should not object; but it is the Coast Survey turning critic to play censor upon the Observatory. And, inasmuch as this is not only a mischievous and improper interference of one bureau of the government with another, and a hindrance to science, but also as the labors of the Observatory are in that paper appropriated extensively and used freely without acknowledgment, I have something to say.

And, in the beginning, it may be well to state how far seaward the legitimate field of the Coast Survey extends. According to law it extends twenty leagues from the shores of the United States, except in the case of George's Bank or other shoals, when it may go beyond the twenty leagues, and extend to the Gulf Stream and no farther.* There

"AN ACT TO PROVIDE FOR SURVEYING THE COASTS OF THE UNITED STATES. "Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, That the President of the United States shall be, and he is hereby, authorized and requested to cause a survey to be taken of the coasts of the United States, in which shall be designated the islands and shoals, with the roads or places of anchorage, within twenty leagues of any part of the shores OF THE UNITED STATES; and also the respective courses and distances between the principal capes or headlands, together with such other matters as he may deem pro

fore the Coast Survey has officially no more to do with the telegraphic plateau than it has to take up the time of its assistants in reviewing the decisions of the Supreme Court or discussing the Dred Scott case.

The Superintendent of the Coast Survey has once before been rebuked by the Navy Department for laying improper hands upon the property of the Observatory, intermeddling with its affairs, and seeking to come between it and the public. He has laid the Coast Survey liable to the charge of reaping where it has not sown; and in this paper further grounds for this charge are afforded, for that the Superintendent intends to lay claim to all deep-sea soundings, as a Coast Survey idea, is there intimated clearly enough.

"The explorations of the Gulf Stream by officers of our navy, in connection with the survey of the coast, first gave rise to systematic efforts to determine sections of the bottom of the sea along continuous lines of great depth."-P. 159.

Old sailors will laugh at this and the navy call it cool.

However, all the deep-sea soundings that have been made by the navy, and to which reference is made in this remarkable paper, have been made especially for the purpose of assisting this office in its investigations.

They were made by order of the Navy Department, and by virtue of the law of March, 1849, which is as follows:

"And be it further enacted, That the Secretary of the Navy be directed to detail three suitable vessels of the navy in testing new routes and perfecting the discoveries made by Lieut. Maury in the course of his investigations of the winds and currents of the ocean; and to cause the vessels of the navy to coöperate in procuring materials for such investigations, in so far as said coöperation may not be incompatible with the public interests: Provided, That the same can be accomplished without any additional expense." Approved March 3, 1849.

Under this law all the deep-sea soundings, except Dayman's, R. N., alluded to, and all the data used in this extraordinary Coast Survey paper, for discussing the rate of descent for the deep-sea plummet, were obtained. They were published in the 5th, 6th, and 7th editions of Sailing Directions, issued from this office; but neither of these works, nor so much as the name of the Observatory, is once mentioned, either by the Superintendent or his assistant.

It was under this law of 1849 that the soundings by Berryman in the Arctic and which the Coast Survey also undertakes to discuss in advance of their regular publication by this office-were made on the "telegraphic plateau." On his return, the official journal of that cruise, with the charts and soundings, was sent to the Observatory. The origi

per for completing an accurate chart of every part of the coasts within the extent aforesaid.

"SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That it shall be lawful for the President of the United States to cause such examinations and observations to be made, with respect to St. George's Bank, and any other bank or shoal, and the soundings and currents beyond the distance aforesaid to the Gulf Stream, as, in his opinion, may be especially subservient to the commercial interests of the United States."

Approved Feb. 10, 1807.