Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1859-10-03 00:00:00

POST-OFFICE SAVINGS' B:LNKS,

TO THE EDITOR OF THE NORTHERN DAILY TIMES.

SIR,—It gives rcie

1 there is a

probability of the mac'elnery of the

st-offtee being

available for savings' banks. It is stated, I observe, that the

proposition emanates from Mr. Sikes, of the Huddersfield

Banking Company, who has just published a letter on the

subject addressed to the present Chancellor of the Exchequer

But, several years since, I had the honour of addressing a letter,

suggesting the same plan and the same rate of interest, viz.,

6d. per annum for every pound deposited—to his Grace the

Duke of Argyle, at that time Postmaster-General, which letter

was duly acknowledged by Mr. Hill, at the desire of his grace

I only allude to the subject to show that it is not new, as you

suppose, and this the authorities at St. Martin's-le-Grand can

verify.—Yours, &c.,

GEO. WCORQUODALE

Liverpool, Oct 1,1859

RaYAL-INF4-RMA-RY SCHOOL
OF MEDICINE.

The opening—of-the- winter lecture session, and dis-
tribution of prizes to deserving students, at this cele-
brated. School of Medicine, took place on Saturday
afternoon. There was a full attendance of students,
and many old practitioners also lent countenance 137
their presence. JOHN CROPPER, Esq., took the chair,
and called upon

Dr. COLLINGWOOD, who made a beautiful inaugural
address, of which the following. may be- taken as an
abstract commenced by remarking upon the
difficulty of selecting. a subject, or saying anything
in an introductOry address which could be regarded as

of whic!

audience was composed. Still he regarded
it as an agreeable privilege to hold, officially, the atten-
tion of such an assembly' for a single hOur: - His first
observations were addressed to' c3mmencing students

who, without exception, might be supposed to enter
upon their studies in a hopeful, in a willing, and in'a
;determined spirit, The thoughtful student came to his
task stimulated by example, and armed with hope. He
sees men filling various high and responsible stations in
life7--men who are regarded by their contemporaries with

esteem, and even with. veneration—men, Rho have
enriched science with the developments of their, intellect,
and, who have advanced their art by the philosophic
application of their long experience—he sees there men,
on the one hand, illuminating the brilliant intellectual
circle in which they move ; and, on the other,
ing their stores of knowledge to eager diicipleL
he knows that these were once, like himself, listeners,
and that by diligence and integrity he may aspire one
day.to occupy a p.oSition inferior to none of them. The
choice of medicine as a profession is a noble one,
and medicine is a -noble science, so long as its
prOfessors are united in brotherly concord : so

long as its
j-1

and envious:- b:

and
~so. long as.petty

s do not -disturb- t

harmonious tendencies of L. —Lung art, and the Philo-
sophic calm which should spread its infinnice over the
earnest searcher after truth in nature. Some of the
difficulties and temptations to which the'raedical'student
is exposed,_ were next dwelt upon. They were to be met
by manly , resistance, not by, pusillanimous retreat.
Nothing is worth acquiring, which does not coat some-
thing in the acquisition, and the greater the difficulty,
the greater the value of the victory achieved over it.
They would not arrest his career, but only act as a
healthy stimulus to his poivers—only arm him with
determination to go forward ; and only serve, therefore,
to ensure.hislinal achieveinent; and to enhanc.e the value
of 'success. There was one study, however, which was
worthy of extra diligence, inasmuch as it forms the pivot
upon which all the rest turn: This was anatomy—the
key-stone of the _,Esculapian arch—the Alpha and Omega
of medical and surgical science—and without which all
was empiricism and guess-work. It was to the develop-
ment of this science, and' of its handmaid, physiology,
that we mast look for the levers which must work tl-
progressive advance of scientific Medicine ; and.
second part of the address was devoted to a furtii,
illustration of this subject, showing_ how. the more
recent discoveries in minute anatomy and physiology
had promoted the advan -^

neclicit

from empi-

riefsn;', by
and establ

rational principles, principles, by affording palpable
shed data, upon which mizht be founded
iceessful modes

The: stuC

ultimate structure presents a no less inexhaustible field
afforded by other natural sciences;

search than th

generalizations arrived at—an instrument which ha
contributed vast!y, and will contribute
.yet more, to the
of physiological seence. The imperfect instru-
ment in the hands of Leuwenhoek and Swammerdam
afforded revelations which astonished the scientific world
two .centuries ago ; and the careful labour which had
been expended in recent times upon the construction of
achromatic lenses, has placed the histological knowledge
of our own day upon a firm basis. It is only, however,
'within the last ten years that the perfection of definition
and illumination have been attained which render the

1111t1,3SeqC the most powerful auxiliary in anatomical
analysis; and it is scarcely twenty years since the
science of embryology began its existence—a bantling
of the miscroscope ; a marvellous instance of the rapidity
of deVelopment which characterises the arts and sciences
in our own age, surpassed by no bygone 'era in human
history; No leudator temporis acti can venture in out

day to compar

it with the past,- with' any

the prose'