Albany Medical College-Professor T. R. Beck.-We are glad to see that Dr. Beck's talents as a teacher are not to remain fallow. He has been recently appointed Professor of Materia Medica in the Albany Medical College. He has likewise been chosen Secretary of the Board of Regents of the University of the State of New York.

Medical College of Ohio.-Professor Harrison, of Cincinnati, has been elected to the chair of Materia Medica in the Medical College of Ohio, in the place of Dr. Oliver, who resigned after one year's service.

Philadelphia Hospital.-William H. Gillingham, M. D., has been elected one of the attending physicians of the Lying-in-Department of the Philadelphia Almshouse and Hospital, in the place of Professor James M'Clintock, resigned.

University of Maryland.-Dr. Samuel Chew, of Baltimore, has been appointed to the chair of Materia Medica in the University of Maryland—vacant by the death of Dr. Samuel C. Baker. Dr. Chew is, to our knowledge, a talented and well read physician.

Asylum for the Insane of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.-The legislature, at the last session, passed a law for the establishment of a State Asylum or Hospital for the Insane Poor. The appointment of commissioners for the erection of the building, and trustees for the management of the institution, was vested in the governor, who has appointed the following gentlemen:—

Commissioners.-John K. Kane, George Rundle, John W. Ashmead. Trustees. For one year.-Richard Rush, Dr. George M'Clellan, John White.

For two years.-Isaac Collins, Michael W. Ash, C. Wallace Brooke. For three years.-Jacob Lex, Dr. Robley Dunglison, James Campbell. The Bill, for the passing of which we have strenuously laboured for the last few years, is as follows::

AN ACT TO ESTABLISH AN ASYLUM FOR THE INSANE OF THIS COMMONWEALTH. SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in General Assemby met, and it is hereby enacted by the authority of the same, That there shall be erected, as soon as conveniently may be, upon some suitable site to be determined and obtained as is hereinafter provided, a public asylum for the reception and relief of the insane of this commonwealth.

SEC. 2. That three suitable persons shall be appointed and commissioned by the governor to select and purchase a site for said asylum, and to contract for and superintend the building thereof. Provided, That the persons so appointed shall receive no compensation for their services, but their ne cessary expenses to be paid in the manner hereinafter prescribed.

SEC. 3. That the site and necessary grounds for said asylum shall not cost more than ten thousand dollars, and the building shall be planned and arranged for the accommodation of three hundred patients and the necessary officers, and with reference to the future enlargement of the same.

SEC. 4. That the governor be and is hereby authorised to borrow, on the credit of the commonwealth, at such times and in such sums as may be required by the provisions of this act, the sum of one hundred and twenty thousand dollars, at a rate of interest not exceeding six per cent. per annum. The said loan shall be styled the loan for the Pennsylvania Insane Asylum, and shall be reimbursable at any time after the expiration of five yearsshall be transferable as other loans of this commonwealth are, and the interest thereof shall be payable semi-annually. And from the avails of the loan, the said commissioners shall have authority to draw on the treasurer of the commonwealth for a sum not exceeding forty thousand dollars on the first day of January, eighteen hundred and forty-two, and for the like sum on the first day of January, eighteen hundred and forty-three, and for the like sum on the first day of January, eighteen hundred and forty-four; and said commissioners shall, on or before the first day of October, eighteen hundred and forty-two, eighteen hundred and forty-three, and eighteen hundred and forty-four, respectively, render to the proper accounting officer of the commonwealth an exact account of all the contracts, expenses, and liabilities, which they have incurred or authorised in the execution of their commission, with vouchers for the same; and in case of their failure to do this, their authority to draw, as aforesaid, shall thereupon cease and become extinct; and said commissioners shall so build, finish, and furnish said asylum, that the whole expense of land, buildings, and furniture, with suitable apparatus for heating the rooms, for cooking, and for furnishing water for all the uses of the establishment, to accommodate three hundred patients and the necessary officers and attendants, shall not exceed one hundred and twenty thousand dollars. Provided, That the commissioners appointed by this act, before entering upon their duties, shall give bond with such security as may be required by the executive for the faithful application of the proceeds.

SEC. 5. That the interest of said loan shall be refunded to the commonwealth semi-annually, out of the receipts of the asylum.

SEC. 6. That the government of said asylum shall be vested in nine trustees, to be appointed by the governor, who shall serve without compensation; of those first appointed, three shall serve for one year, three for two years, and three for three years, and at the expiration of the respective periods, the vacancies to be filled by appointments for three years; and should any vacancy occur by the death, resignation, or otherwise of any trustee, such vacancy shall be filled by an appointment for the unexpired time of such trustee; the said trustees shall have charge of the general interests of the institution-they shall appoint the superintendent, who shall be a skilful physician, and shall always reside at the asylum, and they shall make such by-laws and regulations as they may think necessary; they shall also appoint a treasurer, who shall be approved by the governor, and give sufficient bonds to the commonwealth for the faithful discharge of his duties, and they shall appoint such other officers and assistants, and fix upon the compensation for their services, as may be necessary for the efficient and economical administration of the affairs of the institution. Said trustees shall have power to take and hold in trust, for the use and benefit of said asylum, any grant or demise of land, and any donation or bequest of money or other personal property, to be applied to the maintenance of insane persons in, or to the general use of, the asylum.

SEC. 7. That in the month of January, annually, the trustees shall cause to be laid before the legislature, a full account of the condition of the institution during the preceding year, and of the receipts and disbursements, both of which reports shall be made up to the end of the year preceding.

SEC. 8. That the proper courts of this commonwealth shall have power to commit to said asylum any person who, having been charged with an offence punishable by imprisonment or death, shall have been declared by the verdict of a jury or otherwise, to the satisfaction of the court, to have

been insane at the time the offence was committed, and who still continues insane.

SEC. 9. That if any person shall apply to any court of record within this commonwealth, having final jurisdiction of offences which are punishable by imprisonment for the term of ninety days or longer, for the commitment to said asylum of any insane person within the county in which such court has jurisdiction, it shall be the duty of said court to inquire into the fact of insanity; and if such court shall be satisfied that such person is by reason of insanity unsafe to be at large, or is suffering any unnecessary duresse or hardship, such court shall, on the application aforesaid, commit such insane person to said asylum.

SEC. 10. That it shall be the duty of the court, in all cases where they shall commit any person to the asylum, to certify to the trustees the legal settlement of such person, if he or she shall have any legal settlement within this commonwealth; and if such person shall have no such settlement, then to certify the place of residence of such person at the time of offence committed or application made, and the poor district so certified to be the place of settlement or residence of such person, shall be chargeable with the expenses of his or her care and maintenance, and removal to and from the asylum. Provided, That the settlement or residence of any such person shall not be so certified, until after due notice shall have been given to the constituted authorities having charge of the poor in the district, to be charged thereby.

SEC. 11. The several constituted authorities having care and charge of the poor in the respective counties, districts, and townships of this commonwealth, shall have authority to send to the asylum such insane paupers under their charge as they may deem suitable subjects for its treatment, and they shall be severally chargeable with the expenses of the care and maintenance, and removal to and from the asylum of such paupers.

SEC. 12. That in the admission of paupers to said asylum, precedence shall always be given by the trustees to cases in which the disease is of recent origin; and if the trustees shall in any case deem it for the interest of the asylum, or of the patient, that he or she should be removed, the superintendent shall give notice to those who are responsible for his or her support, and if he or she shall not be removed within thirty days after such notice, the trustees may cause him or her to be removed, at the expense of the person or persons, body corporate or politic, who may be liable for his or her support.

SEC. 13. If the guardians, directors, or overseers of the poor, to whom any patient who shall be in the asylum is chargeable, shall neglect or refuse, upon demand made, to pay the trustees the expense of the care, maintenance, and removal of such patient, and also of the burying such patient, if he or shall die in the said asylum, it shall be the duty of the court of quarter sessions of the county in which such patient was certified to be settled or to have resided, or from which he was removed to the asylum, by any of the constituted authorities therein having care and charge of the poor, upon complaint to the said court made by the said trustees to compel payment by said guardians, directors, or overseers, of all such expenses in the manner directed by law in the case of a judgment against overseers.

SEC. 14. The governor, judges of the several courts of record in this commonwealth, the members of the legislature, and the grand jury of the county in which the same may be located, shall be ex-officio visiters of the institution

Approved this fourth day of March, A. D. eighteen hundred and forty-one.

DAVID R. PORTER.

A few Hints addressed to Medical Students about to Visit the Parisian Hospitals. By a Physician.-These hints, (says the editor of the MedicoChirurgical Review,') are mostly worth having. We shall take one or two of them. And first a hint on lodgings and eating.

It is a matter of experience known to all the medical men of Paris, that a large proportion of the medical students are attacked with fever within a very short period of commencing their studies. Now, though this may be accounted for in many ways, and may arise from various causes, yet it is generally allowed that the situation selected for their lodgings is of itself sufficient to be an exciting cause of disease. A more unhealthy situation than some of those small and narrow streets and alleys that abound near the Ecole de Médecine cannot be conceived. In these parts the medical students chiefly reside, for the sake of convenience and economy; here they congregate together in the miserable maisons garnies, living, as they occasionally do, two or three in one apartment. The cheap restaurants, or eating-houses, that also here abound, only add to the general wretchedness of the scene, wherein, under the semblance of comfort and economy, the student is offered his dejeuner à la fourchette for sixteen sous, and his dinner de quatre plats for twenty-two sous. To many, this may appear of little importance, and to be little connected with the subject under consideration; but reason and experience will draw a different conclusion. Is it possible that the body, accustomed to nutritious and healthy food, to all the comforts of English living, to fresh and wholesome atmosphere, can meet with so sudden and so great a change as this, and not be affected by it? What quarter, then, of Paris is to be selected by the student? If the faubourg St. Germain side of the Seine must be chosen, from its contiguity to the hospitals, the rue de Seine St. Germain, or the rue de Sts. Pères, affords a far more healthy and open situation than the localities previously mentioned. True it is, that apartments may be somewhat more expensive, yet surely it is far preferable to sacrifice a small sum of money for the sake of health, than to run the risk of becoming the victim of low typhoid fever The Tuilleries side of the water is colonised to a great extent by the English, and is certainly preferable to the faubourg St. Germain. Here lodgings are to be had tolerably cheap, but depend much on situation. In the faubourg du Roule, the continuation of the faubourg St. Honoré, lodging may be procured at a moderate price, and the situation is very healthy, but it is some distance from Hôtel Dieu, La Charité, La Pitié, &c. It is, however, contiguous to the Hôpital Beaujon, to which M. Louis has lately been appointed, during the alterations that are taking place at Hôtel Dieu. Again, with regard to meals: one wholesome dish in a respectable restaurant's, is far better than four offered for the same money in many of the cheap eating-houses. For two francs, a good dinner may be procured, and a déjeuner or breakfast for thirty sous, in many a clean and wholesome restaurant's. The great difference that exists between French and English living, must more or less affect every constitution, however strong it may be. It is scarcely possible to conceive of two greater extremes. In Paris, there are a set of small hotels which profess to give English dinners. These are generally as dear as they are bad; but one or two are to be found in the neighbourhood of the Boulevards des Italiens, where, at times, a tolerable English dinner is to be met with in these, as must of necessity happen in places of like description, the company is not of the most select order; but if this can be dispensed with, it is certainly worth the while of those who are suffering from the dyspepsia of Parisian cookery to try for a time the change.

Walking the Hospitals should not be entered upon for the first three weeks after the arrival of the student in Paris. The atmosphere of Paris is very peculiar, and this is exemplified in the numerous patients that enter its hospitals, the victims of its effects on the constitution. It is a question that is

1 ' July, 1841, p. 174.

asked of every patient, how long has he been in Paris? The first month is the most trying period; before, then, the student commences his labours, he should, to a certain extent, have become habituated to the change of air; his constitution should have time to accustom itself to the peculiarities of difference.

What Hospitals are worth attending?—Of the Parisian hospitals, there are none that offer such a concentration of medical skill as La Charité. This is situated in the rue des Sts. Pères, and contains between five and six hundred patients. MM. Andral, Cruveilhier, Velpeau, Rayer, Bouillaud, Fouquier, are all to be found within its wards.

He who would learn accurate diagnosis, who would study the use of the stethoscope in its mean, and not in its extreme; he who would learn pathology, by close attendance to the dead house, should follow the service of M. Andral. There are few so free from that national error, excitement, as this celebrated man.

No hospital is better known to us by name than Hôtel Dieu. It was the largest in Paris, containing at one time twelve hundred beds; but its size is much diminished, owing to the improvements which are being made in its immediate vicinity, which have rendered it necessary to pull down one of its largest wings.

Of the surgeons attached to this hospital, are men whose names are familiar to all in the profession, as MM. Roux and Breschet. The former makes his daily visit, at half past six in the summer, and at seven in the winter months, and this is followed by his clinical lecture in the amphitheatre of the hospital. M. Breschet commences his rounds at nine o'clock.

There are no less than ten physicians attached to this hospital. Amongst the most celebrated are Chomel, Magendie, and Louis. M. Chomel lectures from nine to ten on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Fridays.

Another hospital that is generally visited by foreigners, is the Hôpital St. Louis, in which an opportunity is particularly afforded of studying diseases of the skin. It is situated within five minutes' walk of the rue du faubourg St. Martin. One of the streets leading out of this, called the rue des Recollets, will be found the direct way to this hospital, which is situated in the rue de l'Hôpital, directly in front of the canal that is at the end of the rue des Recollets. Here it was that Alibert and Biett collected their vast mass of information, and were to be found morning after morning in the midst of their squalid band of patients. But now no more remains of them than a dirty marble bust of the former-soiled by the hands of the numerous patients that mount the staircase where it is placed-to mark the haunt of this once celebrated man. Time makes sad changes in our profession, as in every other, and to this the Hôpital St. Louis bears ample testimony. MM. Lugol and Emery are the only remains of the former days of St. Louis. M. Lugol is, in every sense of the term, a great man. He styles himself "Le grand lustre du monde." It is curious to follow him in his scrofulous wards, and there hear him descant on the miraculous powers of iodine.

Near to the Hôpital des Veneriens is the Maison d'Accouchement, or Hospice de la Maternité. There is much difficulty in gaining admission here, as no medical man has a right within its wards, excepting those that are officially attached to it. There are between four and five hundred beds within it.

The Hospice de la Salpêtrière is an establishment on a very large scale. It contains between five and six thousand beds, entirely for women. Of these, a certain number are appropriated to old and infirm persons, others are set apart for patients labouring under incurable diseases. Here it was that M. Cruveilhier compiled his admirable work on pathological anatomy, the dead-house affording no small supply of diseases, in their most hideous forms. A certain portion of this establishment is allotted to those who are of unsound mind, their number varying from a thousand to twelve hundred. The Bicêtre is for men what the Salpêtrière is for women.