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THE WESTERN JOURNAL.

Vol. II.-No. XII.

LOUISVILLE, DECEMBER 1, 1840.

TO READERS AND CORRESPONDENTS.

This number completes our second volume. The first number of the third, will appear on the first day of January. We thank our friends for their numerous contributions, several of which are now on hand, awaiting an opportunity for publication. As our limits scarcely permit the insertion of all that we receive, we respectfully suggest to those who may favour us with communications to compose them in as condensed a style as possible. Whatever may be our own sins of diffuseness, we ask conciseness from others; beseeching them to follow our precepts rather than our example.

It must we think be admitted to be possible, indeed, we may affirm, quite easy, with a copious vocabulary of words, and an amplitude and diversity of illustration, ambitiously and profusely poured out, so to obscure a simple or uncomplicated idea, or bury up and deeply inhume, a small fact, that the reader, profoundly and thoroughly mystified and fatigued by his efforts at exhumation and development, shall, at length, endeavour to escape from the circumlocution in which he finds himself involved, by an ornate, laboured and ostentatious style, and in a moment of discouragement or despair, give up, relinquish or renounce the object, to which the annunciation of the

author had primitively or originally invited or drawn his attention; and concerning which he might, in the beginning, have felt and cherished a most lively, philosophical, and astute inquisitiveness. It is, also, possible to exclude from a paper every fact and thought not entitled to admission; to use words of definite meaning, and reduce them to the lowest number compatible with perspicuity; to arrange them with method; to lay down promises clearly and deduce conclusions forcibly; in short, to treat the reader, as a philosopher seeking for knowledge-not as a sciolist satisfied with words. To vary our phraseology, narrative calls for simplicity, and logic for compactness of style-and as every medical paper is made up of one or both these elements, it will, cæteris paribus, prove interesting, in proportion to the precision and vigour with which it is written.

D.

MEDICAL CONVENTION OF KENTUCKY.

On the 22d of November, 1839, the physicians of North Eastern Kentucky held a meeting at Washington, and among other resolutions adopted the following:

"Resolved, That this Association respectfully urge upon the physicians of Kentucky, the expediency of forming district and county societies, for the promotion of medical science; and also, that a State Convention be held in Frankfort, on the second Monday in January, 1841, for the purpose of organizing a State Medical Society."

As the time for the proposed Convention is approaching, we beg leave to invite the attention of our Kentucky readers, not only to the meeting, but to a consideration of the objects which ought to receive attention. The gentlemen who have called it, had in view the "organizing of a State Medical Society;" but when they and their brethren assemble, it will be as competent for them to do any thing else, as that which has been named.

The formation of district or county societies and a State Society, may be attended with benefits to the profession; but we are obliged to confess, that our observations on the modus operandi, and effects

of that organization, in a neighbouring State have not given us a very high opinion of its adaptation to the West. It was there kept up, as a kind of forced condition, for many years, during which no results were obtained that could, to a considerable degree, gratify any one who looked to more than mere formal meetings, thinly and reluctantly attended. We admit that this may have been less the fault of the system, than of the physicians among whom it was introduced; but it signifies little where the blame lies, if good fruits are not shed upon the community. A radical difficulty of this method is its complexity.

Another, exempt from this objection, is the voluntary meeting of any or all of the physicians, once a year, on the plan of the British Scientific Association, borrowed, we understand, from Germany. Such meetings might be held at Frankfort, or, successively, in the different large towns of the State, whereby all our brethren would be, progressively, included. A Convention of this kind would be generally attended, by a much larger number of the profession, than the meetings of a society composed of delegates, and its recommendations would, we are disposed to think, be more authoritative, while the simplicity of the whole operation, would be calculated to secure its perpetuity. We are, however, far from having formed a definitive opinion on the relative merits of the two methods, and have thrown out these hints for the purpose of exciting those who may design to visit Frankfort, to reflection on the subject.

That much might be done to arouse the profession of the State into greater activity, as well as to promote a feeling of brotherly kindness, and enkindle an esprit du corps, cannot be doubted. The question is as to the mode; and on this point, we trust that the respectable gentlemen who have proposed the meeting, for the second Monday of January, will come prepared with some well digested plan. D.

MEDICAL OBITUARY.

DUDLEY WOODBIDGE RHODES, M. D. It is with grief that we record the death of this gentleman,-a talented physician and one of the most estimable citizens of Zanesville, Ohio. Dr. Rhodes was a

native of Stonington, Connecticut, and studied his profession in Hartford, under the direction of the late and much respected Dr. Mason F. Coggswell, the projector of the Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb in that city. During the last war with England, Dr. Rhodes entered the medical staff of the Army, and afterwards emigrated to Zanesville, where he continued in the diligent practice of his profession, to the time of his death, on the 18th of October last. Our acquaintance with him commenced in the autmn of 1815 when, a young man, he was but beginning his labours, in the town, where he afterwards became distinguished and beloved. He was then, what every young physician should be, amiable, benevolent, cheerful, temperate, studious, and devoted, in soul and body, to the interests of those who employed him. The fruits of these semina of character, were what they must always be, the esteem and respect of the community, its confidence, its patronage, and its grief when he died.

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We saw Dr. Rhodes in the month of August last, when he did not appear to be in good health, but was diligently occupied in the duties of his profession. In this occupation he continued until about the 10th or 11th of October. On the 12th he sent for his faithful friend and pupil Dr. Moorehead, who, as he informs us, found him in his office complaining of an excruciating pain in the forehead, with a firm pulse. Dr. M. proposed blood-letting, but his patient objected, and the next day visited a patient in the country and soveral in the city. On the 14th he was worse and kopt his bed most of the day. On the 15th he was lethargic, and another medical friend, Dr. Safford of Putnam, was called into consultation. As it is not our design to report his case in this notice, we shall only add, that on the morning of the 18th his symptoms were decidedly apoplectic, and that he expired at one o'clock.

A post mortem examination of the brain was made and disclosed an abcess in each anterior lobe of that organ, containing about an ounce of pus, with decided softening of the surrounding cerebral sub

stance.

Referring to these manifest ravages of inflammation, Dr. M. remarks—“I cannot but regret the misfortune of not being able to prevail on my patient to permit the active treatment which I proposed on my first and immediately subsequent visits. Most of the symptoms except the cephalalgia, were of such a mild and obscure

character that he could with difficulty be prevailed upon to do any thing of an effective character. Physicians, gonerally, as far as my observation has gone, are unmanageable patients; and no class of men are more likely to deceive themselves. I doubt, however, whether any plan of treatment, adopted after I was called in, would have saved him, as his family inform me, that for some weeks previous to his being taken down, he frequently complained of headache, and that his memory was impaired. Thus, it would appear, there was a morbid action in his brain, for a considerable time before any treatment commenced."

In this opinion we concur, from having observed in visiting several patients with our deceased friend, that his memory of the symptoms and treatment of the preceding day was imperfect. To this enfeeblement of mind, the direct consequence of his cerebral disease, we may ascribe his error in refusing to submit to the only treatment which could have saved him.

On the day of his interment the physicians of Zanesville, and its vicinity, held a meeting of which Dr. Mitchell was chairman and Dr. Hildreth secretary, when the following preamble and resolutions were unanimously adopted:

"Whereas it has pleased the Almighty to remove from amongst us, and from the sphere of his usefulness, our late friend and brother practitioner, Dr. D. W. RHODES: therefore,

"Resolved, That we view with deep regret this dispensation of Divine Providence, inasmuch as it has borne from us one, who has for many years stood so deservedly high in his profession; and who has been most indefatigable in his exertions to alleviate the sufferings of his fellow-men.

"Resolved, That in the death of Dr. RHODES this community has sustained a loss, which will be most severely felt by those who in the hour of affliction, have so long relied upon his skill and judg

ment.

"Resolved, That we deeply sympathize with his bereaved family, in their painful and melancholy loss.

"Resolved, That in testimony of our regard for the deceased, we wear crape on the left arm for thirty days.

"Resolved That a copy these resolutions be presented by Dr. MOOREHEAD to the family of the deceased, and that they also be published in the papers of this town.

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Resolved, That we adjourn to meet at the late residence of Dr. RHODES, at the hour appointed for his funeral, and that we attend the same in body."

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