The Sun.
London, England, 1840-03-17 00:00:00

TRIBUNAL DE COMMERCE OF

THE SEINE.

FIR WILLIAM TWYSDEN, BART. v. v. M. GENELLA, JUN
The present action was brought for the recovery o
7701., the amount of a bill of exchange, drawn by the
plaintiff in London, in the month of July last, accepted
by M. Genella, jun., and made payable in Paris.
M. SCIIAYE appeared for the defendant, and spoke
in the following words :
" The moral character of the two parees is the main
point to be considerel in the present question. The
defendant is a young man of regular habits, and whose
whole life has been spent in the bosom of his family.
The plaintiff is a man grown grey in gambling-houses.
Allow me, gentlemen, to give you a plain unvarnished
tale of all the circumstances preceding and attending
the bill of exchange on the merits of which you are now
called to decide.
" M. Genella left Paris on the 25th June last, for
Boulogne-sur-Mer, in company with M. Sarzana, 'or
the purpose of forming some mercantile connections in
London. In the diligence there was a M. Bourbel,
who soon scraped- an acquaintance with M. Sarzana.
" The three travellers alighted at the same hotel at
Boulogne, and after dinner sat down to play. M. Ge-
nella soon lost all he had about him, and remained with-
out a sous, excepting a bill of credit he had on London.
At Dover M. Bourbel took a post-chaise to London,
and the three persons played all the way to London ; and
M. Sarzana and M. Bourbel, although they acted as
partners, and dealt in turn, were constant losers, and
when they reached London they had lost 20/. A few
days after their arrival M. Bourbel introduced M
Genella to Sir W. Twysden, who took them to a gam-
bling house. M. Genella soon lost all the money he had
about him ; and Sir William, after having spoken apart
for a few moments with the croupier of the table, offered
M. Genella 401. worth of ivory counters, a very conve-
nient coin assuredly for gambling houses. M. Genella
accepted the offer, and, continuing to lose and to re-
ceive the said counters, found at the end of the evening
that he had lost 7101., which, with (301. he already owed
to Sir W. Twysden for anterior losses, formed the sum I
of 7701., which the phintiff is seeking to recover. "
M. Genella, on finding that he had lost so coconsider-
ablea sum, went out of his senses, and determined to
m k avt y with himself. He rushed from the gambling
house, wandered all night about the streets, and did not
get home till seven in the morning. Having been un-
able to procure fire-arms he sent for some laudanum,
which he swallowed.
" MM. Bourbel and Sarzana, who inhabited thenearly
same hotel as M. Genella, found the latter in
a dying state. A physician was immedi-
ately sent for ; and, thanks to the most ener-
getic remedies, M. Genella was soon out of danger. The first visit lie received was paid to him by Sir W.
Twysden, who came for the purpose of settling the debt
contracted at the gambling•house on the preceding
evening ; and M. Genella, whose faculties were evi-
dently impaired by the cruel crisis he had just expe-
rienced, signed, without any remark whatsoever,liti ac-
ceptance of the bill of exchange for 770/., which the
Baronet had had the precaution of drawing out before-
hand.
The Coml. found the bill of exchange regular, it
being drawn out according to the law of England. But
the debt a
judging gambling transaction, which cannot
be recovered by law in France, it declared itself incom-
petent, found a verdict for the defendant, and sentenced
the plaintiff to costs.

POST HORSE AND CARRIAGE DUTY.—The
Postmasters throughout the kingdom, but more especially such
as have to compete with railro.•ds, complain, and with much
justice, that notwithstanding :he promises that have been held
out to them, no measure has yet been adopted, or even intro-
duced, for their protection from the ruin which the present rate
of duties on horses and carriages menaces them with.
CHARTIST MEET' N G.—The Silurian states
that there was a very large meeting of Chartists last Tuesday
evening near Nantyglo. The object of the meeting was to
provide funds for the defence of the Chartist prisoners for trial
at Brecon Assizes, on the •34th inst. All passed off peaceably.

EDINBURGH, MARCH 12

LIBEL.-SYME V. LIZARS.
This case, in which Mr. Syme, Professor of Clinical
Surgery in the University of Edinburgh, was pursuer,
and Mr. Lizars, Professor of Surgery to the Royal
College of Surgeons, Edinburgh, was defender, came
on for trial to-day in the Jury Court, before the Lord
Justice-Clerk, 'as President of the Second Division of

the Court of Session, on the following issue :
" It being admitted that, during the year 1839, the
defender printed and published a certain work entituled
A System of Practical Surgery,' and that the said
work contains the following words :-4 In every opera-

ion for fistula, however unimportant it may seem, the ope-

rater cannot be too careful in averting hemorrhage, as
many have died from such neglect ; this was the fate,
indeed, of a respectable apothecary in this city. Nor is
it improper. as an additional warning, here to mention
another case which was under the care of our Pro-
fessor of Clinical Surgery a few years ago ; he crderated
on a gentleman for a slight fistula, left the part inade-
quately defended, and dreadful hemorrhage ensued ;
the Professor was sent for, arrived, groped about with
his knife, searching for a needle in a hayrick, I mean
for a blood vessel to be tied ; meantime the life of the
patient was saved by deliquium animi; but to this day
the wound remains unhealed, and the unfortunate
man a miserable nervous invalid from the excessive loss
of blood.'

Whether all or any part of the said words are of
and concerning the pursuer, and are false and calum-

nious, and to the loss, injury, and damage of the pur-
suer ?"

The DEAN of FACULTY appeared for the pursuer,
whose name and character, he said, as well as profes-
sional eminence, were well known to the public. The
pursuer had brought the present action for the purpose
of putting Mr. Lizars to the proof of the calumny
against him in regard to the surgical operation men-
tioned in the Issue. This was the fair course for the
vindication of his character, as it enabled the defender
to prove, and dared him to the proof of any part of the
statement he had made. The Dean commented at
considerable length on the paragraph quoted in the
Issue, both on its calumnious character and gross vul-
garity. He stated that although the defender might
have got an Issue under which he would have been en-
titled to prove his statement, he had shrunk from
doing this. It was not incumbent on the pursuer
to prove the falsehood of the statements in the
passage in question. This must be presumed if the
defender did not undertake a proof tl the contrary.
That they were calumnious it was not necessary for
him to state. Every one who read the passage must
be satisfied of this. The action was brought either
that the defender might retract or apologise, or to dare
him to the proof. The pursuer did not want damages
to add to the ample emoluments of his professional in-
come. He wanted such a verdict as would establish
the falsehood of the paragraph. He was still willing
even now to accept of a retractation and apology ; but
if the defender would neither retract air apologise, it
was the business of the jury to mark their opinion of
the calumny by their verdict.
Dr. Davidson, Abercromby-place, being sworn—l
have been a physician for twenty years. Dr. Syme is
Professor of Clinical Surgery in the University of Edin-
burgh, and practises. I have frequently consulted
with him, and seen him operate in cases of fistula and
other cases. Fistula is often met with in consumptive
complaints. The healing in such cases depends much
on the healthy state of the patient. I have seen the
passage in the Treatise of Mr. Lizars, which is the
subject of this action. The statement in that passage
must have an injurious tendency to the pursuer. It is
an allegation of gross maltreatment and neglect, and
also of not properly guarding against the alleged over-
sight ; and with those who might not otherwise have
confidence in Dr. Syme, it might produce in them great
distrust.

Dr. TRAILL, Professor of Medical Jurisprudence in
the University of Edinburgh, having been called, Mr.
ROBERTSON, Counsel for the defender, said he would
hold Dr. Traill, and all the other medical witnesses
intended to be produced by the pursuer, as concurring
with Dr. Davidson.
The DEAN of FACULTY then stated, that Dr. Bell, of
Dundee, Dr. Dewar, of Dunfermline, and Mr. William
Wood, surgeon, in Edinburgh, were in attendance to give
their evidence to the same effect as Dr. Davidson.
Mr. ROBERTSON, for the defender, stated that Mr.
Lizars's book was published in July, 1839, and the
summons was executed on the 30th of August, the
following month. No demand for apology was
made. No sooner was the book out. than the
sharp-eyed keen-edged Dr. Syme came with his ac-
tion. The paragraph was contained in a book on
Diseases of the Rectum, as to treatment of which
theta seemed to be a great war among the doctors,
so much so, that they were divided into two parties,
who might be styled Plugites and anti-Plugites—
lint and ligatures being the opposing modes of treat-
ment ; and there was war to the knife on the great
Plugging question. He hoped it would not end in a
new College Row. The odium medieum had existed
since the days of Esculapius downwards. After advert-
ing to the graceful style in which medical authors ge-
nerally indulged towards one another, and quoting a
passage from a recent medical author in illustration of
the great latitude which was in use in treating on me-
dical subjects, he said he might go through books, pas-
sage after passage, containing cases of hemorrhage
which had occurred from inadequate defence, and to
which exception might be taken in the same way as
in the present instance. He complained that the de-
fender w s not asked for an apology out of doors. The
pursuer said he wanted a public vindication, and he
wanted no money—not be, he wanted his character
vindicated—a man whose reputation for eminence in his
profession was European—and he fires off his summons
immediately after he sees the passage. He bottles
himself up till the day of trial comes forward, and
focuses the defender of gross calumny, and total
d ;stitution of the feelings of a gentleman, and then asks
for a retractation and apology. The action was con.
temptible and ridiculous. The great fistula case would
not raise the pursuer in the estimation of the public, nor
gain for our University an extended reputation, directed
as it was by a Professor against his rival, whom he con-
sidered more obscure—excluding by a summons one
gentleman's explanation to another—demanding an apo•
logy in a Court of Law after abusing the defender as a
dog, and wanting the feelings of a gentleman. What
damages the pursuer was to get he did not know ; but
if anything could have sunk the pursuer, it would have
been his coining into Court with a rival Doctor.
The LORD JUSTICE CLERK summed up, and com-
mented on the paragraph, and the evidence led. That
the passage was of a calumnious and injurious tendency,
no man o the slightest understanding could doubt. It
was not the province of a Jury to award vindictive da-
mages. The pursuer here did not want pecuniary com-
pensation, but a vindication of his character.
The Jury having retired and been enclosed, returned
a verdict for the pursuer—Damages, 50/.