The stone itself, including the fragments, weighed nearly eight ounces, and, allowing half an ounce for the loss (though my assistant and others say there was more than a full ounce), the stone must originally have been nearly nine ounces in weight. It was smooth externally, and composed of circular laminæ, seemingly of triple phosphate formation, but hard and firm in its interior part. To its smooth surface, and the firm manner in which it was held by the bladder, may be attributed the comparative ease with which the patient rode on horseback for such a number of years, and which a loose body of such magnitude must have rendered impossible. This case has caused me much anxiety, yet I do not regret that the stone was not extracted on the first occasion, considering the difficulties I had to contend with, and had I persisted longer, or used more force to accomplish my object, the patient must have died from exhaustion and great constitutional injury. By delay, allowing him to recover himself, and keeping the wound open for future proceedings, all has done well, and although I am indebted to the opportune arrival of Mr. Fergusson, yet I feel confident that I would have been able to extract or crush with the forceps which Mr. Simpson has now completed for me.

The issue was most satisfactory. On the 5th March, it is reported that for three days no urine had passed by the wound, which was nearly cicatrised. On the 19th of April he was discharged perfectly cured.

MEDICAL REFORM BILL.

The prominent features-we might say the "form and pressure" of this longexpected Millennium-medicine have oozed out, so that its actual advent will not cause us to "burst with ignorance." We doubt whether the enactment of the new law will give general satisfaction, though we believe that its operation will be beneficial to the public. The main, we might almost say the whole tendency of the proposed Bill, is to raise and render uniform the education of the general practitioner-for it scarcely touches or notices the various Colleges and Corporate Bodies which now grant diplomas to practise medicine and surgery throughout the kingdoms.

Mr. Carmichael, who was in epistolary correspondence with Sir Benjamin Brodie during the incubation of the forthcoming measure, delivered an address to the Irish Medical Association, from which the following extracts are made.

"Although this Bill does not proceed to the full extent in reforming the profession that we deemed necessary at our former meetings, yet it fulfils our expectations to a very considerable extent, and will, no doubt, be found to confer important benefits upon society, while it will increase, in no slight degree, the utility and respectability of the medical profession in all its departments. It certainly does not, as we desired, unite physic and surgery into one faculty, by combining the Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons; but it enacts that all general practitioners shall, in future, undergo sufficient examinations in both physic and surgery for all practical purposes; and, as we may fairly estimate that nine-tenths of all medical and surgical cases in the united kingdom are now in the hands of general practitioners, the union of physic and surgery-one of the grand objects of medical reformers-is therefore all but established by this Bill.

"Neither does it in a decided way separate, as we desired, the practice of pharmacy from the practice of medicine; but the respectable portion of the general practitioners of England-and there are amongst them men of the highest medical attainments-no longer vend medicines; and I am informed, from the best authority, that the practice of keeping open shop for the sale of medicines is gradually getting into disrepute and disuse amongst them, and will, it is ex

pected, soon cease altogether. Besides, the druggists of England have lately obtained a charter empowering them to compound medicine. They will not be qualified or licensed to practise medicine, and therefore this distinct charter for pharmacy alone will tend, in no slight degree, to separate the practice of pharmacy from the practice of medicine. The cross-counter practice, however, as it is called, of English druggists, must be interdicted by some stringent regulations.

"Sir James Graham's Bill will not deprive, as we wished, the nineteen or twenty medical colleges or corporations of the licensing power, and substitute in their place three others in London, Dublin, and Edinburgh; but it will put a complete and efficient check upon venality and malpractices, by the establishment of a Central Council, with powers to regulate the examinations, and to dictate the quantum of qualification to be expected from candidates who seek to enter into the profession. This Council will therefore have the power of raising and equalizing the standard of medical education through every portion of the empire; so that the licensed and registered practitioners of England, Ireland, and Scotland, will be on a level, and qualified to fill any medical situation in the three countries; and thus another of the great objects of medical reformers will be obtained by this Bill-Equality of qualification and privileges throughout the empire."

"This Bill will also deprive the Apothecaries' Company of London of the power of granting licenses to practise medicine. This power was permitted in 1815 by an act of the Legislature, which a correspondent of the Times' newspaper describes to have been smuggled through parliament to aggrandize a trading company, and annihilated the respectability of the medical profession, and made it a mean calling; for, unfortunately for the public, it has been the instrument of transferring the medical care of the sick—in every rank and stationalmost entirely from the regularly-educated prescribing surgeon and physician, to the trading practitioner, whose system of drugging and drenching the dupes who employ him is a heavier burden upon the industrious and struggling classes than the poor-rate and income-tax both together.' We must agree with this writer; but, after the passing of Sir James's Bill, the Apothecaries' Company of London will be relieved from duties for which it was unfitted, and which it should never have undertaken, and will have more leisure to cultivate pharmacy, with its accessory sciences-chemistry, botany, and natural history."Dublin Medical Press.

On learning the foregoing particulars, Mr. Carmichael put himself in epistolary communication with Sir B. Brodie, and wrote him a long letter, suggesting many alterations, and, as he thought, improvements. The main modification was that of separating pharmacy from the practice of medicine and surgery-or, if that could not be done, to enable the practitioner to charge for his visits only, and include the medicines gratis. This plan, he thinks, would obviate all objections, and do entirely away with the vile practice of throwing in too much physic, as the sole chargeable article according to the existing law. We have often shewn that this attempt to include the physic in the fee would be abortive, inexpedient, or even impracticable. The present plan of making the medicines only chargeable in the bill, is, no doubt, an evil, leading to overdosing. But the other extreme of charging only for the visits, would give equal discontent. It is to be remembered that nine-tenths of the sick, whether rich or poor, are grumblers and ingrates. If we charge for the physic alone, then they accuse us of pouring down their throats three times as much as is necessary-if we charge for visits, including medicine, then we send them too little, or what is worse, we give them nothing but the coarsest and cheapest drugs, scarcely fit for dogs or horses, while we pay them far more visits than are necessary! The only effectual remedy, as we have often stated, is the dissociation of physic from pharmacy. Suppose the law enabled the practitioner to

charge five shillings for his visit, including medicine: would it not be infinitely better for him to receive 3s. 6d. for his visit, letting the 1s. 6d, go to the chemist who prepares the medicine?

The new law will raise the education of the general practitioner, as nearly as possible, to the level of the pure physician and the pure surgeon, and leave him still in the degrading position of dispensing as well as prescribing his own medicines. It will be beneficial to the public, however, by equalizing as well as elevating the standard of professional attainments.

THE LATE WILLIAM ALLEN.

The Vice President, in his address, gave a slight sketch of the career of Mr. William Allen, lately deceased. Mr. W. Allen, born Aug. 29, 1770, was the son of Mr. Job Allen, a member of the Society of Friends, and a silk manufacturer in Spitalfields. Mr. W. Allen, having in early life evinced a taste for chemical pursuits, was placed under the care of Mr. J. Gurney Bevan, under whose care he first acquired a practical knowledge of chemistry, and whom he afterwards succeeded in the concern. Here he was accustomed to rise at four or five o'clock in the morning, and sedulously apply himself to study, the usual hours of business being fully occupied. About the year 1804, he became connected as a public lecturer with the Medical School of Guy's Hospital, his coadjutors in the lectures being successively the late Dr. Babington, then the late Dr. Marcet, and afterwards Dr. Bostock. About this time also, he accepted the chair of Experimental Philosophy at the Royal Institution, which he held for several years. His talents as a philosopher brought him into habits of intimacy with the most distinguished scientific men of the day, Sir H. Davy, John Dalton, &c. His most intimate associate and friend was Wm. Haseldine Pepys, with whom he was for several years engaged in chemical investigations. The most prominent of these were communicated to the Royal Society, and printed in the Philosophical Transactions of 1807, 1808 and 1809. Of this Society he was elected a Fellow in 1807. After a life spent in the active pursuits of science, he died in a good old age, at the age of 74, on the 30th of last January.—Pharmaceutical Journal, Feb. 1, 1844.

WILLIAM DUFTON, M.R.C.S. Octavo, pp. gists preparing for Examination, &c. By