72 



MEETING OF THE PROVINCIAL MEDICAL AND SUR- 

 GICAL ASSOCIATION. 



The Anniversary Meeting of this Society, to the published Transactions of which 

 we have elsewhere called the attention of our readers, took place at Birmingham, on 

 the 18th of last month. Among the many eminent individuals who were present 

 upon this occasion were Dr. John Johnstone, of Birmingham, the President ; Dr. 

 Edward Johnstone, of Birmingham, and Dr. Carrick, of Clifton, Vice Presi- 

 dents ; Dr. Hastings, and Mr. Sheppard, of Worcester, Secretaries ; Dr. Kidd, 

 of Oxford ; Dr. Forbes, of Chichester ; Dr. Bardsley, Mr. Ransome, and Mr. Turner, 

 of Manchester ; Dr. Jeffries, and Mr. Dawson, of Liverpool ; Dr. Conolly, of 

 Warwick ; &c. &c. &c. These gentlemen, with other members of the Association, 

 including most of the resident Faculty in the town and neighbourhood, assembled 

 about 12 o'clock in the rooms belonging to the Philosophical Institution, when the 

 President, Dr. John Johnstone, took the Chair, and opened the Meeting in an 

 eloquent speech. The Report of the Council having been read by Dr. Hastings, 

 one of the Secretaries, and unanimously approved and adopted by the Members pre- 

 sent. Dr. Conolly was called upon to deliver the Address, which for purity of diction, 

 simple elegance of composition, and that genuine eloquence which proceeds from an 

 appeal to the finest feelings of the heart, has rarely been equalled, and we will 

 venture to say never surpassed. A review of the principal occurrences which had 

 taken place in connection with the objects of the Association during the past year, was 

 brought before the Meeting, and the progress made in the various departments of 

 Medical Science, was clearly and ably detailed. That portion of the Address in 

 which the eloquent author alluded to the loss sustained by the Association in the 

 decease of Dr. Darwall, Dr. Becker, and other eminent individuals, was peculiarly 

 striking, and in the sketch of the declining years of the late Dr. Gordon Smith, — a 

 man of high talent and endowed with all the finer feelings of human nature, the 

 touching manner in which were pourtrayed the struggles of such a mind with almost 

 every adverse circumstance which could embitter the cup of aifliction, and the final 

 sinking of the powers both of mind and body under the accumulated weight, made 

 an impression upon the minds of all who had the privilege of hearing it which will 

 not be easily effaced. A Report upon the present state of Anatomy was delivered 

 by Mr. Turner, of Manchester, in which an admirable sketch of the dementary 

 structures, and a new and highly ingenious classification of the several textures and 

 organs which enter into the composition of the animal frame, were concisely and 

 clearly stated. The views of John Hunter, Bichat, Dr. Wilson Philip, and other 

 Physiologists, upon life, were examined, and the light thrown upon this important 

 subject by modern researches in Minute Anatomy and Physiology detailed. In 

 entering upon the consideration of the texture of the vascular system, or the 

 arteries, capillaries, and veins, the author espoused the opinions of Dr. Hastings in 

 attributing the action of these vessels to a contractile or muscular force, and clearly 

 shewed that the tonicity of Bichat, a principle upon the existence of which the argu- 

 ments opposed to these views chiefly rest, was merely another name for the irritabi- 

 lity of Hallen. The discrepancies in the microscopic investigations lately undertaken 

 into the minute anatomy of the blood, muscles, and various other parts of the body, 

 were appealed to by Mr. Turner, to shew that little dependence can as yet be placed on 

 the results derived from this mode of examination. But even merely to allude to the 

 many interesting topics brought before the Society in this admirable Report is quite 

 out of our power upon the present occasion. A valuable Report was also read by- 

 Mr. Jennings, of Leamington, on the variations induced in the blood in certain 

 diseased conditions, and especially in Fevers, in Inflammation, in Rheumatism and 

 Gout, in Jaundice and in Scrofula. These researches are highly interesting and of 

 great importance, and will we trust be continued and extended by Mr. Jennings to 

 the other fluids of the body. A Report was made by Mr. Hebb, of Worcester, 

 upon a communication from one of the foreign corresponding members of the 

 Society, detaihng researches lately made in Holland. Several resolutions were 

 passed relating to the business of the Absociation, from which it appears that the 



