The Sun.
London, England, 1853-12-07 00:00:00

MEDICAL ADVICE ON THE SECRET INFIRMITIES OF
. YOUTH AND MATURITY.

- .
DR. SAMUEL LA'MERT, 37, BEDFORD-SQUARE, LONDON,
Doctor a 31edleine, and Matriculated Member of the University of
Edinburgh, Honorary Member of the London Hospital Medical
society, Licentiate of Apothecaries' Hall, London, &c., &c.
MAY be consulted, personally, or by letter, on
the various disorders of the nervous and generative system,
resulting from juvenile irregularities and excesses, which have pro-
bleed more misery in youth, degradation in manhood, and prema-
ture decay at all stages of life, than perhaps any other class of dis-
eases known to modern pathologists. Long and practical experience
In the treatment of these diseases has proved that there are in exist-
ence secret causes of self-acquired miseries and disappointed hopes in
existence, traceable to certain pernicious habits, to which Nervous
Debility, various forms of Insanity, Unheppy and Unfruitful Marri-
ages, ',potency, Local and Constitutional Weakness, and their
endless inodiflcations owe their almost entire origin,
It is absolutely necessary that all men should know that there are
princi:lis of personal management which cannot be violated without
incurring grievous penalties, and when wisdom and regret succeed
the heyday of inconsiderate self-indulgence, how these penalties
may be mitigated, how the sting of their bitterness may be removed,
and boy' the evil and its consequenc es may be avoided, and above all,
that the'e is scarcely any degree of physical infirmity or functional
derangement to which the timely aid of science cannot apply a cure.
DOCTOR LA'MERT has for a long series of years been engaged
In en extensive practice in the treatment of these delicate corn- ,
plaints, and is the only legally qualified Physician who, regardless
of the taunts and envy of the hypocritical and mock-modest, has had
the corridence, through the medium of the public press, to direct
attention to these enormous evils, from which no grade of society is
free. •fr selecting thl4 department of practice, he has been amply
rnwardal by the great success that has attended his efforts in the,
treatment of these cases, which are too generally confided to the
care of anqualifled and ignorant empirics, who, with their pirated
publications; assumed foreign names and titles, and pretended virtues
of their 'iatent nostrums, have inflicted serious injury on those who
have been induced to place faith in their pretensions.
At Mho for consultation daily from Eleven till Two, and from
Six till lght. All letters must contain the fee of It., and advice and
medicites can be forwarded to any initials or address._
_ _

"It is desirable that patients wishing to consult Dr. LA'MEAT
should first obtain a copy of his work on

' SELF-PRESERVATION.
A Medial Treatise on the Philosophy of Marriage and Nervous and
Generaive Debility, illustrated by fifty-coloured engravings, and des-
cribingln detail the various disorders resulting from secret habits and
mess& The perusal of this treatise will assist in the correct
descriplon of their cases, and may be had, price 2s 6d, in English,
Frown, Spanish, Dutch, Italian, or German, of Messrs. Piper
Brothers,and Co., 23, Paternoster-row; Hannay, 63, Oxford-street;
Mann,29, Cornhill ; Storle, Titehborne-street, Haymarket; or free
by pore, fbr forty-two stamps, to any address from the Author's resi-
dence, 37, BEDFORD•KIJAJLE LONDON.

The thirteenth annual meeting of this company was
held yesterday at the offices, in Leadenball-street, for
the purpose of receiving.the report of the directors, and
the declaration of a dividend. Captain Thornton, R.N.
in the absence of the chairman; Sir James Matheson,
Bart., M.P., was called to the chair.

Mr. C. W. HOWELL read the directors' report, of
which the following is copy : -
"TO THE PROPRIETORS OF THE 'PENINSULAR AND ORI-
ENTAL STEAM NAVIGATION COMPANY.

" London, Dec. G.
" Gentlemen—Pursuant to the notice, dated November
18, convening the annual general meeting of proprietors
for this day, the directors have now to submit to you their
report of the company's affairs for the twelve months
ending September 30, 1853. • A- statement of the accounts,
duly audited, together with the supplementarydocuraents,
have been laid on.'the board-room. table, during the last
seven days, for the inspection of such proprietors as might
be desirous of examining the same.
"The accounts of the year'S.operations exhibit the fol-
lowing results
Balance of net profits for the year ending
30th Sept., 1853, after providing out of
the earnings the usual reserves for wear
and tear at 74 per cent., insoraUce against
sea-risk at 4 per cent., and depreciation
at 5 per cent.
£62,438 1 8
Add the balance of undivided profits from
the previous year, as per balance-sheet. 16,169 2 3

Leaving disposable for dividend, Stc., for
the year.
Deduct dividend for the half-year ending
31st. March, 185$. 36,685 16 0

78,597 3 11

There remains. 41,911 711
From which has to be deducted the half-
year's dividend of 3 per cent., now About
to be recommended, and estimated to
amount to 37,500 0 0
A balance then remains, to
_meet contin-
gencies and to be carried to tha next
year's account, of . 4,411 711

THE GUARANTEE INSURANCE FUND.
At the last annual general meeting of the
company, this fund amounted to £201,624 14 9
Appropriation to this fund from the pro-
prietors' underwriting account, for the
year ending Sept. 30, 1853 12,000 0 0

And this fund now amounts to • . '1213,624 14 9

DEPRECIATION PIIND.
At the last annual meeting, this fund
amounted to £260,054 10 3
Add the usual 5 per cent. for depreciation
on the floating property for the twelve
months ending September 30, 1853

Making
Deduct amount expended during last year,
for extraordinary repairs and improve-
ments to several of the company's ves-
sels

And this fund now amounts to

PROPRIETOR'S UNDERWRITING ACCOUNT.
The balance to the credit of this account,
as exhibited by the accounts ending
30th September, 1852, amounted to ... 29,042 1 5
Deduct paid to proprietors as under-
writers, in January, 1853

Leaving a balance of
To which is to be added the annual pre-
mium on the estimated value of the
floating property of the company, for
the ordinary sea risks for the year end-
ing 30th September, 1853

There remains
Deduct amount carried to the insurance
fund to meet extraordinary casualties,
&c.

And a balance remains, at• 30th Septem-
ber, 1853, of .

£26,517 6 5

" ito casualties of importance having happened to the
company's fleet during the period embraced in this report,
the directors consider that a payment out of the premium
charged, of 14 per ,old share, and 10s. per new share, may
be made to the proprietors early in the ensuing year, as on
former occasions.

" THE CORRESPONDENCE WITH Tlls GOVERNMENT, IN
CONSEQUENCE OF THE DIFFICULTY OF PROCURING COALS
FOR CARRYING ON THE POSTAL SERVICE.—In their last
half-yearly report the directors alluded to the great dif-
ficultyland heavy expense to which they were subjected,
from the want of shipping, in endeaviuring to procure
supplies of coals for the company's stations in the Eastern
Seas, and their unsuccessful applicatioi. to the Govern-
ment for relief, by a temporary suspension of a portion
of the new postal service, or otherwise. Their corres-
pondence with the Admiralty on that occasion having
been made public, in a report of a committee on con-
tract packets, presented to Parliathent, the directors
have deemed it expedient to reprint 'it 'from that report,
and place it in the hands of the proprietors for their infor-
mation. A reference to it will have shown that the appli-
cation of the dir.-‘,..,...., requesting that the extraordinary
c.....,...a.uces which had caused the difficulty in procuring
oals, and which could neither have been foreseen nor con-
trolled by them, might be examined into, in order that
the company might obtain relief in the manner suggested
—was responded to, in the first instance, by an invitation
to surrender the contract for the whole service, in order
that it might again be submitted to public tender; and
subsequently by the proposal of conditions for a temporary
suspension of a part of the service, involving such a com-
promise of the company's interests as the directors could
not submit to with a due consideration of their duty to
you. With regard to the first alternative proposed—the
surrendoking•of the contract—the directors felt that they
might have accepted it with considerable pecuniary ad-
vantage to the company. To place this in a clearer point
of view, they would beg leave to advert to the circum-
stances under which the existing contract was obtained ;
namely, 1. It was subjected by the Government to the
most severe test of public competition, the service having
been divided into no less than five separate portions, to
enable parties of moderate means to compete for any por-
tion of it. 2. The cost of coals, at the time when tenders
were invited for it, was about one-half of what it after-
wards rose to, and has continued at, during the past year.
3. The terms on which the Peninsular and Oriental
Steam Navigation Company undertook the whole service
involved a financial advantage to the public, as compared
with the other offers made to the Government, of no less a
sum than 86,4001. per annum, or, for the whole term of the
contract, eight years, to 691,2001. Looking to these cir-
cumstances, it.must be sufficiently obvious that, if the pro-
posal of the Government had been accepted—the contract
surrendered—the operations of the company forthwith sus-
pended, except in so far as' the. requirements of passenger
and merchandiselrafficmil4ht have been remunerative—the
postal service with India, and the other important colonies
and possessions in the East, must have been interrupted to
such an extent as would have soon compelled the Govern-
ment to seek a new arrangement, either with this company
or some other parties, could other parties have been found
with sufficient means to undertake such an extensive ser-
vice. In either case, with such an enhancement of the cost
of fuel, and difficulty of procuring conveyance for it, and
with the knowledge that a rigid fulfilment of the contract
would be insisted on, without regard to unforeseen or un-
controllable circumstances, the public must have been sub-
jected to a greatly-increased payment for any new contract
which could have been effected. Fortunately, two favour-
able circumstances have occurred, that could have been no
more foreseen or calculated upon than the adverse ones just
referred to, which have hitherto obviated the necessity of
any such appeal for relief, either on account of a break-
down of the postal service, or pecuniary loss to the com-
pany. The first of these was the obtaining, through means
of the Government of Batavia, a large supply of coals,
though at a very heavy cost, for the Singapore and China
stations, at a time when tonnage from England for those
quarters could not be procured at any price. The second
was the unusually large exportation of specie to India
and China which has taken place during the last six
months, in consequence of the extraordinary state of
the exchanges with these countries. As that exporta-
tion has been made almost exclusively by the over-
land route and the company's ships, the increase thereby
derived to the company's income has been consider-
able— has served to counterbalance, to an important
degree, the enhanced cost of coals—and to produce that
state of the company's financial position exhibited by
the abstract of account now submitted, which, considering
the crisis that threatened the company at theiearly part of
the year, can scarcely fail to be satisfactory to the p prie
arp. The directors therefore trust that the r
course Nov-hich-
they adopted, under the very difficult lcircumstances in
which they were placed, may meet with your approval.
" CONTRACT FOR THE BOMBAY BRANCH OF THE INDIAN
MAIL SERVICE.—The East India Company having recently
determined to abandon the postal service between Bombay
and Suez, and Bombay and Men, the directors were in-
vited to submit aproposal to the Government for under-
.
taking a postal service twice a month between Bombay and
Aden, the mails at the latter place to be transferred to and
received from the company's steamers conveying the Cal-
cutta and China mails. The directors offered to undertake
that service at the same mileage rate as that of the exist-
ing contract for the India and China service, which offer
has been accepted.
" APPLICATIO OF THE COLONISTS OF VICTORIA (AUS-
TRALIA) FOR IMPROVED POSTAL COMMUNICATION.—The
directors have recently received a communication from an
association of landed proprietors, bankers, merchants,
traders, &c., of the colony of Victoria, transmitting copy of
a memorial to the Home Government, adopted at a public
meeting held at Melbourne, praying for certain improve-
ments in their postal communication with the mother
country, particularly that the steam communication via
Singapore and the overland route may be made monthly,
instead of every alternate month as at present, and request-
ing the co-operation of this company to effect the latter
object. The directors have sent a reply, to state that they
will be prepared, on a reasonable notice from the Govern-
ment, to !establish, on moderate terms, a monthly line of
steam packets with Australia. And that in the meantime
they have made arrangements, to be carried into effect with
the next outward overland mail of the 4th and Bth of Jan-
uary proximo, for accelerating and otherwise improving
the existing communication, by placing larger and more
powerful steam packets on that line than those (the Chusan
and Shanghai) which the company have hitherto been obliged
to employ on it. The Bombay and Madras, 1,300 tons and
280-horse power each, with screw propellers, are intended
to replace the Chusan and Shanghai, of about 700 tons
and 100-horse power each, the latter resuming the China
station, for which they were originally destined. By means
1 of such powerful vessels, and the, recent arrangement of
proceeding direct to Ceylon with the homeward mails, a
considerable acceleration of the Australian postal service
will be effected.

" STATE OF THE COMPANY'S FLEET.--The list prefixed
to this report exhibits the number, tonnage, power of ma-