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siination, and how much it adds to the fatigue of the practi-tioner, already, perhaps, jaded with the duties of the day-ifhe is willing to prosecute inquiry when consent is given. I

hope, however, that the great service which such laboursconfer upon medical science, and through it upon the publicwelfare, as well as the gratification and instruction they affordat our pathological meetings, will encourage members to in-creased assiduity. "-p. 13. ’

An lntroduction to Practical Pharmacy. Designed as a Text-book for the Student, and as cc Guide to the Physician andPharmaceutist, with many Formulas and Prescriptions.By EDWARD PARRISH, Principal of the School of PracticalPharmacy, Philadelphia. Philadelphia, 1856. pp. 544.With 243 Illustrations.

MR. PARRISH’S work will be found a very serviceable one bythe dispenser. It contains a considerable amount of informa-

tion, and is written in a style which is both practical and un-pretending. It is abundantly illustrated, even phials, pill-boxes,and spatulas being represented by the woodcutter; in someinstances, the woodcut is, we think, needlessly repeated. Theart of making paper filters is explained by the aid of elaboratediagrams. On the whole, this " Introduction" may be wellrecommended as an accurate and concise practical exposition ofthe subject with which it deals.

On (Edema Glottidis resultind from Typhus Fever. By THOMASADDIS EMMET, M.D.,&c. Pliiladelphia, 1856. pp. 20.AN excerpt from the American Jourraal of the Medical Sciences

for July, 1856, particularly worthy of the attention of practicalmen.

New InventionsIN AID OF THE

PRACTICE OF MEDICINE AND SURGERY.

VESBICH’S FEEDING BOTTLE.

THE invention consists in the application of an india-rubbervalve to the corks of infants’ feeding bottles, which opens byatmospheric pressure while the child is in the act of withdraw-ing the food, and remains closed and water-tight when thebottle is not in use. Hence, if the bottle be accidentally upsetat night, its contents will not run out, and the difficulty ofextracting the food resulting from the use of a solid cork iseffectually removed.

THE MEDICAL PROFESSION BILL, AND THEPROVINCIAL MEDICAL AND SURGICALASSOCIATION.

To the Editor of THE LANCET.

SIR,-I observe that your Hastings correspondent has oncemore entered the field to tilt with the above theme ; but, as hedeclares that he intended no disrespect to the Doctors of Me- dicine, admits his " ignorance," and is also facetious concern-ing " hornets" and " old navy surgeons" (the point of whichjoke I do not exactly see), I meet him in the same spirit, andwould not have replied at all, but that he repeats his old doc-trine, and seems to think that he has brought forward somefresh argument. If any one played the "hornet," it was him-self, in writing as he did. Sir Charles, and the other gentle-men, specially alluded to, felt the attempted sting to be be-neath their own notice, and I only drew my switch across theassailant’s flight, because I believed it barely possible that hemight have been put forth as a puppet, and used as a cat’s-pawby some more subtle actors behind the scenes. Therefore Ileave him to pursue his avocations in peace, and at once pro-ceed to rebut the statements which he makes upon the realsubject in question.

After repeating that "a large number of Graduates in Me-dicine are practising in England illegally," he asks "if theCollege of Physicians has no power to prevent this, where is

the necessity for a class of physicians styled Extra-Licentiates?""or why are Oxford, Cambridge, and the University of Lon-don empowered to grant licences to their graduates to practiseas physicians in England, but not in London?" Now, theanswer to this is, that there is no "necessity" for these Extra-

Licentiates ; and, although we admit that the College has thepower to permit whomsoever it pleases to practise as physician,yet it does not follow that it has power to prevent otherauthorities from exercising that same right, derived from a legalsource, and existing from a far more ancient date. We alsoknow that Oxford, Cambridge, Edinburgh, and even LondonUniversity itself, have no legal footing in London : not, how-ever, because their general authority has ever been annulled,but simply because it is curtailed by reason of a narrow localmonopoly, having been established under the corrupt despotismof Henry VIII., precisely in keeping with that of the skinners,fishmongers, and other crafts of " the City ;" and possibly, also,wi, h a view to counterbalance the then anti-Protestant teiiden-cies of the old universities. These universities possess the.regally-derived power of elevating learned men to the title anddignity of Doctor of Medicine, and, in the very act of so doing,as by a natural and necessary sequence of events, they givethem the right of teaching and practising. In fact, they arelawful physicians, because they are Doctors in Medicine, andcould never have become Doctors of Medicine without havingfirst proved themselves to be capable physicians. The College,on the other hand, can confer the licence of practising, butcannot create a Doctor of Medicine, and this privilege wasevidently allowed merely because there might be some menwho, not having had an academical education, and consequentlybeing ineligible for academical honours, might yet be wellenough qualified to exercise the art of healing. But it does.not follow that this act of sufferance, by liberally opening adoor to a new class, was to displace the more ancient and highergrades. It never was so intended, and, defacto, never did dis-place them. If the college authorities think otherwise, letthem forthwith try to exert such powers, and I venture to pre-dict that the effort will only reduce them to ruin and con-tempt.

Finally : to belong to a local corporation or college, whenpractising within its range, is necessary, and I can see no dis-honour in others, out of that range, belonging to the respectivecolleges of physicians, when they become true colleges of GreatBritain, and cease to be old-fashioned city guilds, and whentheir fellowships are really honorary. But I am sure that anyperson of common sense will at once agree with me, that forsuch gentlemen as Sir Charles Hastings, Sir James L. Bardsley,Dr. Symonds of Bristol, and Dr. Shapter of Exeter, and manymore whom it might seem invidious to mention, to go up ’’ toprove themselves men" ! before the respectable censors of PallMall, would be a simple farce and absurdity. Doubtless, allsuch gentlemen would cordially j,in in fellowship with theirLondon brethren for scientific and patriotic purposes, wheneversuch junction were proper and practicable ; but as for anypedantic attempt to impose upon the former the schoolboy dis-cipline of examination for a licence, let us hope to hear no moreof it. It is almost incredible that such a thing could be nowbroached by any sane person.-I remain, Sir, yours faithfully,Birmingham, A DOCTOR,Aug. 23rd, 1856. (and Member of the Association.)

DEATH OF WILLIAM YARRELL, ESQ., F.R.S.—This.distinguished naturalist expired suddenly, at Great Yarmouth,.on the 1st instant, in the seventy-second year of his age. Mr.Yarrell, as is well known, was formerly an extensive news-paper agent, but at the same time he was one of our bestnaturalists. This was shown in his beautiful and valuableworks on British Birds and British Fishes, and in several valu-able and interesting papers in the Transactions of the Linnæanand Zoological Societies. Mr. Yarrell, as an ichthyologist, inconjunction with the writer of this notice, solved the problemwhich had perplexed naturalists from the days of Pliny, as to,the history of the eel. He clearly proved that they were ovi-parous, had scales, and bred for the most part in the brackishwater at the mouths of rivers-thus removing many doubtsand difficulties on this curious subject. Mr. Yarrell has leftbehind him an interesting museum, chiefly of British NaturalHistory, and a valuable collection of books on that subject,much of which we should be glad to see transferred to theBritish Museum. Few people will be more regretted by anextensive circle of friends than Mr. Yarrell. He was kind,good, amiable, and hospitable; always ready to impart infor-mation, of which he possessed a great store.-Abriged fromTlte Times."

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