The following names were registered at the meeting of the Medical Board on the 3rd of November : Stephen Maberley Smith, Melbourne Lying-in-Hospital, M.R.C.S. Eng. 1875, L. et L.M.R.C.P. Ed. 1876 ; ',George Farquhar Davidson, Sale, M.B. Ed. et Aberd. 1871. Addi-
1876.] Local Topics. 371
tional qualification registered : Thomas Rowan, Melbourne, M.B. Melb.
1876. Names of practitioners erased : H. Bath, Tarraville, John Hooper, Ararat, W. Loftus, Belfast, W. Sharp, Ararat, deceased.
The following appointments were made during the month of November. Officers of Health : Dr. John Cruikshank for the city of Sandhurst ; Dr. W. H. Syme for the borough of Stawell ; Mr. R. Stewart for the shire of Ripon ; Dr. J. C. Duncan for the shire of Wodonga ; Mr. Benjamin Warren for the shire of Omeo.
Vaccinator : Mr. A. J. W. Pettigrew for the district of Camperdown, vice Mr. T. M. Austin resigned. Resident-surgeon of the Hospital for Sick Children : Dr. William Stewart ; Dr. Hardy as honorary- surgeon to the Alfred Hospital, attending the out-patients, vice Dr. Dempster resigned ; Mr. Angus Munro as resident-surgeon to the Alfred Hospital, vice Dr. Glendinning resigned.
In October, Dr. S. M. Smith was elected resident-surgeon of the Lying-in Hospital.
Dr. J. D. Thomas has resigned the senior house-surgeonship of the Adelaide Hospital, and Dr. Gardner has been appointed in his place.
At a meeting of the committee of the Lying-in Hospital, held on the 10th, it was resolved that it is desirable one honorary medical officer should retire at the end of five years, and should not then be eligible.
The month of November records three sudden deaths of medical men, namely, of Dr. W. Gordon by suicide by chloroform on November 18 ; of Dr. W. H. Hinchcliff of apoplexy, at Mortlake, on November 23rd ; and of Dr. Jay, formerly senior house-surgeon of the Adelaide Hospital, of apoplexy, at Wallaroo, S.A.
At a meeting of the Hospital Sunday Committee held on the 23rd, the hon. secretary presented a report showing that £4389 12s. 4d. had been received, and that amounts not yet to haul would probably increase the total to £5000.
The ordinary monthly meeting of the Microscopical Society of Victoria was held at the Morgue, on November 30, Mr. T. S. Ralph (president) in the chair. The president exhibited a new species of
Vallisneria, and compared it with V. Spiralis, also the fungus Diachcea Elegans from Tasmania. The Rev. J. J. Halley exhibited a new diatom from the Congo River, and furnished descriptive notes thereon, lately read at the Queckett Club, London. A paper entitled " Notes
•on the Examination of Thin Slices of Rocks under the Microscope, by means of Polarised Light," written by Mr. A. W. Howitt, F.G.S., was read. The paper described the various means of testing the structure and nature of the mineral constituents of rocks by ordinary as well as by polarised light, and assigning them their ultimate crystallised form. The illustrative objects were from Gippsland and Tasmania. An echinus, sent by the treasurer, Mr. Robertson, from the neighbourhood of Portsea, was also exhibited.
The Chief Secretary lately received a report from Dr. M'Crea respecting the condition of the Chinese lepers at Ballarat. He visited the lepers for the second time on the 23rd inst., and minutely examined them. In one case some of the ulcers formerly noticed had healed,
,whilst others on the same individual were spreading, and the disease
on the whole was on the increase. In all the other cases there were no signs of amendment, and in many the disease was steadily on the increase.
The following telegram was received on the date attached :—" St.
Arnaud, 27th November. Dr. Charles Turner, charged on a coroner's
372 Notices to Correspondents. [Nov..
warrant with the manslaughter of Flora M`Lennan during childbirth,, was brought up here to-day before Mr. Ogier, P.M., and committed for trial at the next Ararat Assizes. Bail was accepted, himself in.
£400, and two sureties, each £200. The prisoner reserved his defence.
He was arrested by Constable Mawley. The evidence was of a most revolting character."
An inquest was held on the 27th, at Footscray, upon a woman.
named Thompson, who died suddenly after taking some powders ordered by Mr. Cobb, M.R.C.S., and which should have contained.
salicine, but which was afterwards shown to have contained atropine.
In-the Castlemaine Representative of October 19th is the following :
" Two deaths, arising as is alleged from either the frightful ignorance or the gross stupidity of an accoucheur, occurred on Sunday last (says the Ballarat Star) at Mount Doran. A medical practitioner named_
Wm. Griffiths, a licentiate of the Apothecaries' Society, London, was called upon on Wednesday, the 18th instant, to attend a Mrs. Mary Callanan during her confinement, and the case presenting some, to him, unusual features, he became nervous, and lost all presence of mind.
The labour was a protracted one, and Mr. Griffiths, thinking that the child was dead, introduced an instrument for the purpose of opening the head. This instrument broke, and he supplied its place with an inch auger, but becoming too nervous to finish his work with this horrible makeshift, he instructed the frightened women in attendance to send for another medical man. Dr. Sperling, who was sent for from Buninyong, arrived at Mount Doran a little before midnight, and
delivered the child (a boy) in about half an hour, but it had sustained such frightful scalp wounds it was impossible that it could live. The unfortunate mother was in quite as bad a state, as the womb had.
been penetrated, and other internal injuries inflicted by the auger.
Inflammation set in, and on Sunday morning she died, and after a few hours the baby also expired. Au inquest was held on the body of Mrs. Callanan on Tuesday, by Mr. Gaunt, when Mr. Bunce gave evidence as to the cause of death, Dr. Sparlina
b
being also an import- ant witness. The details given by these gentlemen were so shocking that Mr. Griffith was committed to take his trial at the next General Sessions for manslaughter, and was on Tuesday evening lodged in
the city watchhouse."
BIRTH.
JAMES. —At Hamilton, the wife of Henry James, M.R.C. S. Eng., of a eon.
DEATH.
STI LLMAN. —On November 25, at Richmond, of phthisis, Thomas Stillman, L.S.A. Lond.
aged 51 years.
NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS.
Communications have been received from Baron von Mueller, The Solicitor General, Mr. Tually, Dr. Peacock, The Librarian of the- British Museum, Dr. Singleton, The Editor of Triibner's Record.
The following publications have been received : The Lancet for Aug. 26, Sept. 2, 9, 16; The British Medical Journal for Aug. 26, Sept. 2, 9, 16 ; The Medical Press and Circular for Aug. 30, Sept. 6, 13 ; The Students' Journal for Aug. 26, Sept. 9 ; The Glasgow Medical Journal for July ; The London Medical Record for Sept. 15 ; The Anglo-Indian Commercial Advertiser for Aug. 31 ; Triibner's American and Oriental Literary Record for August ; Canada Medical and SUrgical Journal for September ; The New York Medical Record for September 9, 16, 23, 30 ; An Essay on New South Wales, by G. H. Reid.