The Sun.
London, England, 1869-10-04 00:00:00

ROYAL HOSPITAL for INCURABLES,
West-hill Putney-heath.

Established. 81st July, 1854.

This Institution exists for the comfort and relief of per-
sons (being above the pauper class) afflicted with incur-
able bodily disease.
Relief is afforded-Ist. By supplying a home, with
medical attendance, nursing, and all requisites for the in-
valid.
2d. By granting an annuity of £2O to patients at thei
own homes.
A uew wing to the Hospital has just been completed
at a cost of upwards of £lO,OOO, and FUNDS are urgently
NEEDED to liquidate the expenses incurred.
There aro 120 inmates and 237 pensioners, all entirely
dependent upon voluntary subscriptions.
Nearly 300 approved applicants are awaiting election
For the maintenance of present operations, for the ex
tension of the benefits of the Charity, donations, and espe-
cially annual subscriptions, are earnestly solicited. Life
subscriptions, £5 ss. and upwards; annual subscriptions,
half a guinea and upwards, with votes in proportion.
Information will be supplied, with the g-eatest pleasure,
upon application to the Secretary, by whom contributions
will be thankfully received.
FREDERIC ANDREW Secretary
No. 10, Poultry:, London, E.O. September 1868.

11)0YAL FREE HOSPITAL, Gray's-inn-road,
in the immediate vicinity of the Groat Northern
Railway Terminus, King's Cross.
Patron—Her Most Gracious MAJESTY the QUEEN.
Pico-Patron—
His Royal Highness the Prince of WALES, K.G.

President—His Grace the Duko of BUCCLEUCH, K.G.
This Hospital, founded iu the year 1818, the first to
establish the principle of free admission to the sick poor,
without the delay and difficulty of Govarnors' orders, is
wholly dependent far support on voluntary contributions
and legacies.
It affords relief to a largo number of in-patients, and, in
addition to this, the average number of attendance of the
destitute sick has for a considerable period averaged be-
tween 3,000 and 4,000 weekly.
Tho Committee earnestly solicit the assistance of the
benevolent, as the premises of this hospital are capable of
containing several hundred more beds had the Committee
the requisite funds to maintain them.
Contributions are received by their bankers, Messrs.
Brown, Hansom, and Co., Abchurch-land ; also by Messrs.
Coutts and' Co.; Drummond and Co. ; Glyn and Co. ;
Herries and Co. ; Ransom and Co. ; Prescott, Grote, and
Co.; Smith, Payii.3, and Co.; Barclay and Co. ; Williams,
Deacon, and Co. ; Nisbet and Co.,:Borners-streot ; and at
the Hospital front.lo till 5.

On Friday most of the medical schools in connection
with the great metropolitan hospitals were opened for the
winter season, and addresses were delivered by some of the
most distinguished professors. Amongst the most gene-
rally interesting was the address by Dr. Johnson, at
King's College. Tracing the progru,s and &vele' ment of
medical science, the learned doctor observed that acme of
the greatest triumphs of medical discovery have been
effected by researches throwing light upon the
causes of disease, and consequently uhon the means
of prevention and of cure. Thus that terrible disease
called sea scurvy was traced to a deficiency of fresh vegeta-
bles in the diet; the various sources of chronic poisoning by
lead have been made known, and ague has been traced to
the influence of malarious exhalations from undrained
marshes. Within the last few years it has been gradually
ascertained that in the great majority of cases of ague and
of typhoid or enteric fever water is the vehicle of the poi-
son. The discovery has brought prominently into notice
one of our most glaring sanitary defects. Formerly, in
towns especially, cesspools and wells for the supply of
drinking water were placed in such close proximity that a
nutual interchange of their contents was of frequent
occurence. Lately, cesspools and wells have been simul-
taneously abolished, and now the excreta are
poured into those very rivers from which our
drinking water is mainly derived. Thus, with a
blind perversity, we have acted as if with a determination
to inflict upon ourselves all the loathsome abominations
;nvolved in the curse of Rabshakeh. The discovery that
water contaminated by sewage is the vehicle by which,
mainly, though not entirely, cholera is communicated has
rendered it more than ever certain that the discharges
from the alimentary canal, which are known to contain
the specific poison of the disease, are the result of an
effort Lto expel the poison from the system. The
physiology of the process appears to be this—certain
effete and noxious matters, which have been once
thrown off from the system, being rendered additionally
noxious by the presence of a specific poison, are re-intro
duced through the agency of drinking water. Then, after
7eing absorbed and undergoing a rapid process of multipli-
Cation, they are again ejected through the natural outlets
of the body. The history of medicine affords many illus-
trations of the mischievous influence of wrong theories upon
practice. The cotemporaries of Sydenham believed that the
maturation of the pustules of smallpox requires a high tem-
perature for its completion. This they endeavoured to
secure by closed doors and windows and heaps of bed
clothes. The patients, therefore, were poisoned by foul
air, and the mortality was excessive. Probably no theory
of disease has ever led to so great a sacrifice of life as that
which, attributing the collapse of cholera to the discharges
from the alimentary canal, suggests a treatment whose
main object is to arrest those discharges by astrin-
gents. and especially by opiates. This theory has
now few defenders. Careful observation has shewn
that the choleraic discharges, so far from being
the main cause of collapse, are as essential a condition
of recovery from collapse as the eruption in small-pox is
essential to recovery from that disease, and the sudden"
arrest of the choleraic discharges by opiates- is as fatal a
mistake as the repression of the variolous eruption by the
cold wet sheet. That the fatal results of the opiate
treatment should not have led to the earlier abandonment
of the erroneous theory upon which it was based, is
an illustration of the doctrine propounded by the historian`
Buckle, that an erroneous theory is .never abandoned
because it produces injurious results. A theory once be-
lieved will continue to be believed until advance of know-
ledge shakes its foundation. Most of those diseases that are
curable by any means are curable by the unaided powers of
nature, and the chief art of the physician, as of the sur-.
geon, consists in regulating and directing those natural
forces which will cure a fever or an inflamed lung as surely
as they will heal a wound or mend a broken bone. The most
competent observers agree in opinion that the specific reme-
dies are few in number, quinine, mercury, iodide, and bro-
mide of potassium may be looked upon as specifics, but to'
ensure their curative action they must be given full and not
in infinitesimal doses. Physicians of the present day are
sometimes charged with a want of faith in the power to cure
disease. To this charge we plead not guilty. It is true that
we have learnt that the use of drugs is more limited than
we formerly believed. Yet we have an increased confidence
in our power of dealing with disease, both in the way of
prevention and cure ; and a firm conviction that we have
acquired greater skill in the use of particular remedies. In
the treatment of a fever we trust snore to good nursing and
judicious feeding than to medicines, yet we give medicines
when they are needed. So, in the management of many
chronic diseases, we know that the secret of success consists
in discovering and avoiding the cause, and not in the blini
administration of drugs.

At the Middlesex Hospital, Dr. Livring adverted to that
interesting question—the admission of women to medical
practice. There could be no doubt that women would, ere
long, be admitted to medical degrees in England, as they
were in many other countries of Europe and in America.
Instead of hastily condemning this innovation as a neces,
sary evil, he would ask them to bear in mind—what no
one would venture to deny—the existence of a very great
and daily-increasing number of well-educated women,
who could barely earn a subsistence by teaching, needle-
work, and other like occupations, and of a still larger
class who were dependent through life upon the charity of
friends and relations. If superfluous energy and wasted
talent could be turned to good account, there was some-
thing gained, and the throwing open any new and legiti-
mate sphere of employment to educated women would be
an undoubted advantage to themselves, and possibly to
society at large.
At Westminster Hospital, Dr. Walter declined to enter
into the question of the advisability of having women as
practitioners. lie bad, however, seen some of these lady
candidates, and all he could say was, that the gentlemen
would find them no contemptible competitors.

A COURAGEOUS GENTLEMAN.—The other night
the house of Mr. Hemphill, a gentleman residing at Spring-
hill, county Tipperary, was attacked by a band of marau-
ders, who, in the most threatening manner, demanded his
arms, and en being refused, proceeded to break in
the ball door. The cool determination of Mr.
Hemphill, who was the only man in the house,
however, baulked them. Stationing himself behind the hall-.
door, armed with revolver and fowling-piece, he repeatedly
threatened to fire upon them. They persevered in their
efforts, and when the bolts sheaved spmptoms of yielding,
Mr. Hemphill gave them a last caution, and prepared to
carry out his threat ; but the ominous click of the locks, as
he prepared for action, made their Ccliya,g? !.'Foiate. and
the ruMarts took to flight,

OITY OF LONDON BONDS.—£SOO,OOO.
N.J Remaining Portion of the Loan of £600,000 autho-
rised to be raised by the " Holborn Valley Improvement
(Money) Act, 1869," 32 and 33 Vict., cap. 20.
The Improvement Committee of the Corporation of
London, being authorised by the Court of Common Coun-
cil to acquire the remaining property in connection with
the Holborn Valley Viaduct and Improvements, the under-
signed is directed by the Finance Committee of the Corpo-
ration to negociate the disposal of City Bonds for £500,000,
being the remaining portion of £600,000 authorised to be
raised by the above-mentioned Act.

The Bonds will be issued at par, under the common
seal of the Corporation, for sums of £l,OOO, £5OO, or
£lOO respectively, for a period of twelve years, and bear-
ing interest payable half-yearly, by means of coupons, at
the Bank of England, at the rate of £1 ss. per cent. per
annum.

The security provided by Parliament for these purposes
is the net produce, subject to existing charges, of the duty
of 4d. per ton on coals brought into London, continued by
the Act 31st and 32nd Vitt., cap. 17, until the sth July,
1889, and chargeable for the purposes of these improve-
ments to the sth July, 1888. Th 3 prior charges on the
fund now eonsist of bonds amounting to £1,260,000, issued
in respect of the Cannon-street and Holborn-valley Im-
provements. In the event of the fund so continued proving
insufficient, the Corporation secures payment of interest
and principal, out of thoir own proper revenues, as pro-
vided by tho Act.
Parties desiring to tender for any of the said bonds must
make application at the Bank of England (Private Draw-
ing Office), in the form annexed: such applications to be
accompanied by a payment or remittance to the said Bank
of 10 per cent. upon the amount applied for Applications
rill not be received later than three o'clock on Tuesday,
ihe sth inst.

Allotment will take place at this office by J. T. Bedford,
Esq., the Chairman of the Finance Committee, and by the
undersigned, on Thursday, the 7th instant, and in the
event of an amount greater than the sum of £500,000
being offered, a rateable allotment (not less than £lOO in
any csse) will be paid to each applicant.
The balance of the amount allotted must be inid at this
Office not later than Friday, the 22d of October instant.
Upon payment of the balance Scrip Receipts will be issued
to parties producing their Letters of Allotment and Bank
of England Deposit Receipts ; such Scrip Receipts will be
exchanged for Bonds, so soon as they shallhave been pre-
pared and sealed by the Court of Common Council.
Interest will commence from the dates of payment in
full, respectively.
Printed forms of application v, ill bo furnished at this
Office, and at the Bank of England.
BENJAMIN SCOTT, Chamberlain.
Chamber of London, Guildhall, Oct. 1, 18G9.

FOCM OF APPLICATION.
City of London Fonda, £300,000, part of Loan of
XBOO,OOO. Holborn Valley Improvements (Act 32 and 33
Viet., cap. 20).
To the Chamberlain of the City of London.
hereby tar der the snm of pounds, by
way of deposit of 10 per cent. upon the snm of
pounds, on account of the Loan of .£500,000, part of
X 600,000, authorised to bo raised by the Corporation of
London, under the abovementioned Act for completing the
purchase of lands and the execution of works connected
with the Holborn Valley Viaduct and Improvements; and
r.squest that City Bonds may be delivereA to me, or to
my order, in respect thereof, in accordance with the an-
nouncement in respect of the said loan, which has been
made public, viz.:

(If I;onds of particular amounts are required, liere state
details.)

Bonds for £l,OOO each
Bonds for £•500 each
Bonds fcr £lOO each
Total
, ,
Name in full
Address in full -
Quality or description
/Dated this day of October,lB69.