932

IRELAND.

(From our own Correspondent.)

THE MEDICAL ACT AMENDMENT BILL.

THE Fellows, Members, and Licentiates of the College ofPhysicians are very dissatisfied with the amount of repre-sentation accorded to them on the Medical Board by the newMedical Bill. It is intended to petition Parliament to allowthe College to return to the Medical Board an equal numberof members with each of the other medical authorities inIreland constituting that Board. A meeting of Licentiatesof the Apothecaries’ Hall will be held this week to considerwhat steps should be taken in reference to the Medical Billat present under the consideration of Parliament.RADICAL CURE OF INGUINAL HERNIA BY DISSECTION.

At the last meeting of the surgical section of the Academyof Medicine, Mr. William Stokes exhibited a patient whomhe had operated on by this method for a strangulatedinguinal hernia of the left side. The other side had beenoperated on in Liverpool some time since by the ordinarymethod, aud had failed. Mr. Stokes dissected down to thepillars of the ring and stitched them and the peritoneumtogether with a piece of catgut. The operation was per-formed five months ago, and has turned out most successful.Mr. H. Gray Croly exhibited also on the same occasion apatient with inguinal hernia in which the same method wasused with a similar result.

HÆMORRHAGIC ULCER.

At the same meeting of the Academy of Medicine, Dr.E. D. Mapother exhibited a girl who was the subject of ahaemorrhagic ulcer of the head. The girl, who was sixteenyears old, had menstruated scarcely at all; but a wound ofthe head which she had received about thirteen vears sincehealed and remained so until the 26th of March last,when it reopened and an oozing of blood took place, oneday as much as two ounces having come away. On theSaturday previous to the meeting of the Academy deliriumof an active character took place; there was, however, nopyrexia ; and Dr. Mapother believed it to be hysterical.There can be little doubt as to the connexion of the ulcerwith the almost total suppression of the catamenial period.BIOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION, TRINITY COLLEGE, DUBLIN.The last meeting of the University of Dublin Biological

Association for the session was held on the 17th inst., whenan address was delivered by Dr. J. Magee Finny, a Vice-president of the Association, on the subject of "The Col-lective Investigation of Disease." Dr. Fiunny gave an addresswhich was listened to with marked attention ; and hispaper was supplemented by a very interesting statementwhich was given by Dr. G. F. Daffev, Honorary Secretaryof the Dublin Branch of the British Medical Association.

ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS.

The annual elections for Council and other officers of theCollege will take place on the first Monday of next month.As candidates besides the outgoing members, who will offerthemselves for re-election, it is probable that Messrs. Baker,Meldon, Franks, and others will compete for a seat on theCouncil.

KILDARE COUNTY INFIRMARY.

At the County Presentment Sessions, held at Naas thisweek, an application was made for E700 for the support ofthis institution. At the previous Session a similar applica-tion was thrown out, and had the presentment made thisweek been also rejected, the hospital would have beenclosed for want of tunds to maintain it efficiently. After along discussion the amount applied for was granted by amajority of two votes.

PHARMACEUTICAL SOCIETY OF GREAT BRITAIN.-The annual dinner of this Society was held on Tuesday atWillis’s Rooms, and was well attended. The toasts, "TheHouses of Parliament, "The Lord Mayor and Corporationof London," "The Learned Societies," "The Medical Pro-fession,’ "The Prosperity of the Pharmaceutical Society,"and "The Guests," were responded to respectively by Mr.Torrens, M.P., the Lord Mayor, Professor Odling, Sir JosephFayrer, The President (Mr. Carteighe), and Professor SirF. Abel.

Obituary.THE RIGHT HON. SIR JOHN McNEILL, G.C.B.WE regret to record the death at Cannes, on the 17th inst

of the Right Hon. Sir John McNeill, G.C.B., in the eighty.eighth year of his age. Sir John was the younger brother ethe late Lord Colonsay, one of the Lords of Appeal, and wa,born in August, 1795. He was educated for the medical

profession and took the degree of M.D. In 1816 he entere,,,the medical department of the Honourable East India

Company as an Assistant Surgeon, and in 1824 was promoted to the rank of Surgeon. He was appointed Surgeonto the Envoy at the Court of Persia, and served in thatcapacity till 1836, when he retired from the medical serviceon being appointed Envoy in succession to Sir J. Campbell,which post he filled for some years. After his return homehe was in 1845 appointed chairman of the Poor. Law Boardin Scotland, an office which he filled most efficiently fortwentv-three years. In 1855, at the request of Lord Panmurethen War Minister, Sir John proceeded to the Crimea, withColonel Tulloch, to inquire into the "whole arrangementand management of the commissariat department,’’and also"into the alleged delay in unshipping and distributing theclothing and other stores supplied for the use of the troopsTheir very able report was presented to Parliament in 1856and gave rise to much discussion; and a board of generalofficers was assembled at Chelsea to consider certain of thematters referred to in it. After the Board had reportedthe subject was brought before the House of Commons.which, by a unanimous vote, prayed Her Majesty to confersome mark of distinction upon the Commissioners in reco.gnition of their services, and, in compliance with this prayer,Sir John was made a Privy Councillor. Although Sir Johnwithdrew from the active practice of his profession so longago as 1836, he continued to the end to take an interestinall that belonged to it, and especially to the Army andIndian Medical Services. For the last few years his healilihad been gradually failing, but his intellect remained brightand clear to the very last. It is little more than a year sincehe published a second edition of Sir A. Tulloch’s review ofthe " Crimean Commission and the Chelsea Board," with apreface, in which he exposed certain misstatements inMr. Kinglake’s sixth volume and vindicated the course hepursued with respect to that inquiry. His preface is wdiworthy of perusal, and especially just now when so mu6is being said of the alleged shortcomings of the medicalservice in Egypt. Sir John McNeill was a man of markedadministrative ability, of unflinching firmness, and 01great courtesy. He was full of information, was a m(6:agreeable companion, and his loss will be deeply felt boy allwho were so fortunate as to be included in the circle of hisfriends.

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ROBERT DRUITT, M.D., F.E.C.P., F.R.C.S. Exe.’

WE regret to note the death on the 15th inst., at the ageof sixty-eight, of Dr. Druitt. He received his education at

Winchester, and after pursuing his medical studies at King’sCollege and Middlesex Hospitals, obtained the Apothecarieslicence in 1836, his Fellowship of the London College e!Surgeons in 1845, and the F.R.C.P. Lond. in 1874. Dr,Druitt was a ready writer. His article on Inflammation inCooper’s Surgical Dictionary" obtained deserved admira-tion as a full and lucid description of the subject as it wasunderstood at the time in which it was written. Thedeceased was for a decade the Editor of the Medical Timeand Gazette, and was, in addition, well known as the authorof the "Surgeon’s Vade Mecum," the eleventh edition 4which was brought out in 1878, a strong testimony of itsvalue and the favour it has found in the eyps of studentsand practitioners alike. The deceased was also the authorof a Report on Cheap Wine, a second edition of whichappeared in 1873, of a paper on "Degeneration of thePlacenta," which appeared in the Medico-Chirurgical Trans-actions, vol. xxxvi. ; and of other literary contributions.Although in 1872 Dr. Druitt was compelled by repeatedattacks of hasmatinuria to abstain from all active professional work, his death has removed a prominent figure fromthe world of Medicine.