FOREIGN HONORS CONFERRED UPON DR. W. J. HOLT, OF AUGUSTA.— Dr. Holt, while still in the Russian service in the Crimea, was appointed a Member of the Order of St. Anne. He has just received, through the Russian minister in this country, the "Decoration" of Commander of the Imperial Order of St. Stanislaus, in consideration of his services in the Crimea. This last is a cross of massive gold, elaborately wrought, and is a marked testimonial of the Czars appreciation of the ability with which the surgeon's duties were discharged.

We are gratified to call attention to our original department. Professor Joseph A. Eve's article on Diseases of the Cervix Uteri, will be read with much interest by our subscribers, on account of the great reliability of the opinions and precepts of one so experienced, and withal, so recondite in his important department. An earnest worker and teacher in Obstetrics for nearly twenty years, as Dr. Eve has been, must have arrived at such truth in the Art, as to render his words "apples of gold in pictures of silver," to the young practitioner. His truly practical paper will be completed in our next number. Several of our Faculty are engaged in preparing valuable all of which will find issue in our pages.

papers,

MEDICAL COLLEGE OF GEORGIA.-This Institution will begin its 26th annual session on the first Monday in November, with an Introductory Lecture from Professor H. V. M. Miller. The prospects for an increased class are most encouraging. Relying upon the experience of our Faculty, the completeness of our arrangements and appliances for the teaching of the true principles of Medicine, and above all, upon the faithful spirit which moves every member of our corps to do well his part-we proudly refer to our influential alumni, now nearly one thousand in number, to vindicate the claims of Augusta, as an efficient school of Southern Medicine. We call the attention of our readers to the Circular published under cover of our July number.

This excellent Jour

MEMPHIS MEDICAL RECORDER. EDITORIAL CHANGE. nal comes to us in the present number under an entirely new and much improved form. Its late editor, Prof. A. P. Merrill, has devoted five years most laboriously and successfully to its interests, and now resigns the work into the hands of Daniel F. Wright, M. D., Professor of Physiology and Pathology in the Memphis Medical College. Professor Wright is by no means, a stranger to the duties of the Editorial office, and still less is he a stranger to the readers of that Journal or to the Profession. He has been long known as one of its ablest contributors and most astute reviewers. We welcome him most cordially into the fraternity, and we wish his readers, as well as the editor, well, when we desire for this Journal an extended

circulation. The present number contains an elaborate and valuable article, by the new editor, on the Pathology of Zymotic Fevers-an Appendix to the Report on the Nosology and Meteorology of Memphis, Tenn. These views are striking, and we intend to present them shortly to our readers. The typographical execution of this Journal is very creditable. It is published every two months by the Memphis Bulletin Company.

THE MEDICAL Independent-A NEW ACQUAINTANCE.-We have received three numbers (June, July and August) of this new monthly Journal, and are pleased to place it upon the list of our Exchanges. Each of the numbers we have seen contain much valuable original matter, and well selected articles from domestic and foreign Journals. The Independent is edited by Moses Gunn, A. M., M. D., Professor of Surgery in the University of Michigan, and L. G. Robinson, M. D., and is published in Detroit, by H. Burns. A personal acquaintance with its editors, formed during the last meeting of the Association at Nashville, renders it a welcome comer to our sanctum. We wish them a wide circulation, and a long, happy and useful

career.

"Woe worth the chase, woe worth the day-
That cost thy life my gallant Bay."

"We notice in one of our exchanges," says the Western Lancet, the recent death of a horse owned by Dr. Edward Dorsey, of Hagerstown, Md., in the 45th year of his age. The Doctor had used him in his practice for thirty-seven years. He well deserves an obituary.

On the Cutaneous Degeneration of Warty Excrescences. By Mr. BUTCHER, Surgeon to Mercer's Hospital.-In this paper, Mr. Butcher relates seven cases which illustrate that association between warty excrescences and cancerous degeneration, which has not met with all the careful attention from writers to which it is entitled. These cases show very clearly that, when once the ulcerative process is set up, there is never any amelioration, ever so temporary, no attempt at cicatrization; and that there is in addition a great liability to the appearance of encephaloid disease, either on the site of the original tumor or in the line of absorbents connected therewith.

In the same paper, moreover, Mr. Butcher relates four cases of encephaloid cancer occurring as an isolated manifestation of malignant disease. [Dublin Quarterly Journal of Med. Science.

Ergotine in Epidemic Diarrhoea. By M. MASSOLA.-In a communication to the Academy of Medicine in Paris, M. Massola states that he found great benefit from the use of ergotine in the fatal epidemic diarrhoea, which prevailed so extensively among the Sardinian troops in the recent campaign in the Crimea. From fifteen to twenty grains were added to viii of water, and a tablespoonful of this mixture was given every half hour. M.

Massola states that astringents, tonics, opiates or stimuli, were of little avail as compared with the ergotine.-[Gaz. Hebdom. de Méd. et Chirurg., and Rankiny's Abstract.

On the Removal of Tumors. By Dr. SIMPSON, of Edinburgh. Dr. Simpson's plan is to introduce a hollow acupuncture needle or very small trocar into the tissue of the tumor, and inject a small quantity of chloride of zinc, perchloride of iron, creasote, or some other irritating solution. The effect of this operation is to destroy the vitality of the tumor, and to allow it to be separated by a process of enucleation,-[Med. Times and Gaz.

Costly Medicine.-A London (Eng.) paper says: "The consumption of wines in our public hospitals constitutes one of the heaviest items of their expenditure. The wine account a Guy's Hospital last year was £1083; the spirit account, £376-total, £1459. At St. Thomas's the wine account was £629; spirit account, £521-total, £1150; or £2609 in one year in the borough hospitals alone.-[Boston Med. and Surg. Journal.

Medical Ethics.-A letter of advice equivalent to a consultation, and should be in like manner remunerated.

MESSRS. EDITORS,-Suppose you were to receive a letter, filling full three pages of fair foolscap, and reciting all the facts (to the writer) of a case, reporting the treatment, and finally asking an opinion and an advice-but containing neither fee nor postage stamp. What would you do? Would you read it? Suppose you do read it, but can really make no opinion, either of diagnosis, prognosis or treatment. Would you answer it?

Again: Suppose you receive another letter from another source, without any enclosure. Suppose you can form an opinion about the disease, and might recommend a treatmeat. Do you feel bound to answer it?

One largely afflicted brother in this way, impatiently waits an answer. XENOPHON.

With regard to Xenophon's first question, we think the practitioner is not bound to take notice of a letter containing neither fee, postage stamp, nor an intelligible account of the case. He may, if he pleases, put the letter in the fire. We should read it, but should not, under ordinary circumstances, answer it.

As to the second query, we should withhold an opinion until the fee were paid, if the request came from an unknown party. We should not feel bound to answer it.

A person writing a description of a case, and requesting in answer an opinion or advice, is bound to enclose in his letter the usual fee, or to ask the amount owing, and to transmit it by return mail. (The fee for a letter of advice, established by the Boston Medical Association, is from five to ten dollars.) It is always understood that a business letter requiring an answer (except between regular correspondents), should contain a postage stamp.

We state our opinion in general; of course there are exceptions. A former pupil or a personal friend has a right to ask an opinion without being expected to pay for it; but this privilege is not to be abused, especially in a case really requiring a consultation, the patient being able to pay. When the patient is too poor to pay the fee, if this is distinctly stated, the

party giving the opinion will ask no compensation. In short, a letter of advice is the same thing as a consultation, and the writer is not only entitled to his fee, but ought to insist on receiving it, where the advice is regularly sought, and the patient able to pay.-[Boston Med. and Surg. Jour.

Prizes for the Massachusetts Medical Society.-The Massachusetts Medical Society is authorized, by a donation from one its members, to offer the sum of one hundred dollars for the best dissertation adjudged worthy of a prize on the following theme, viz: "To what affection of the lungs does bronchitis give origin?" The above is open to physicians of every country. The latest article on the relations of bronchitis to other diseases of the lungs was written by Dr. W. F. Gairdner, of Edinburgh, in 1850. A review of the paper can be found in the British and Foreign Medico-Chirurgical Review for April, 1852. Each dissertation should be designated by a motto, and accompanied by an envelope, superscribed with the motto, and containing the writer's name and address. The sealed packet, accompany. ing the successful dissertation, will be broken and the author's name announced at the annual meeting of the Society in May, 1858.

Dissertations for the above prize must be sent (post paid) to the Corresponding Secretary, Dr. Benj. E. Cotting, Roxbury, Mass., on or before April 15th, 1858.

Yours truly,

J. B. ALLEY, M. D.
Rec. Secretary.

HOMEOPATHY.-When all the world elsewhere seem to have abandoned this apostacism, what a pity that in certain parts of our country it should still exist!

Death of Homœopathy.-I have another death to record, but with feelings very different from those which prompted me to do so in Scoresby's ase. It is the death, not of an individual, but of one of the instruments of a system which is fast on the wane, and will shortly be reckoned as one of the "strange things that were." The London Homeopathic Hospital, devoted to this delusion in London, has closed its doors! The Lancet says, while recording the melancholy event, that, "like all quackeries, it had its day; like all quackeries, it has been supported by the shallow, weak and credulous, on the one side, and the charlatan and the rogue on the other. Such alliances are invariably broken when either the eyes of the one are opened, or the rapacity of the other is not gratified." Poor Lord Robert Grosvenor, the champion of Homoeopathy, has confessed himself diddled, and declares he has been humbugged from first to last. He now employs a regular practitioner.-[London Cor. of the Montreal Med. Chronicle.

London Homœopathic Hospital.-The last hospital devoted to this delusion in London has closed its doors. It has dwindled down into a "temporary office" and a "dispensary for out-patients. We hear much of the success of Homoeopathy, and yet the friends of the humbug cannot subscribe sufficient funds to support a "hospital" even at a private house. Like all quackeries, it has been supported by the shallow, weak and credulous on one side, and the charlatan and the rogue on the other. Such alliances are invariably broken when either the eyes of the one are opened, or the rapacity of the other is not gratified. [Lancet, April 4, 1857.-Med. News and Library.

Creosote in Dysentery, with Cases. By WILLIAM H. McMATH, M.D., of Lewisville, Lafayette County, Arkansas.

Having for the last two years been witnessing the effects of Creosote in Dysentery, I feel that I should be recreant to my responsible trust as a physician, did I not make the same public through the pages of some medical journal, to the profession generally. Hence, I send this article to the Southern Medical and Surgical Journal. Whether this remedy will prove to be as valuable as my experience seems to indicate, remains yet to be proved; and it is with the view to elicit such evidence, that I make this publication. This is the formula that I am in the habit of using:

Of the above mixture, I am in the habit of giving to an adult, a teaspoonful every two or three hours, until it checks the blood and mucus in the evacuations from the bowels. It is sometimes the case, in a very irritable state of the bowels, that yellow, green or dark serous evacuations will continue after the blood and mucus have been checked, which the creosote appears not to be so effectu