December 25, 1885.] 



SCIENCE. 



571 



the • composition,' as it may well 

 be called. She is kneeling with 

 one knee on the patient's knees ; 

 and her Derby hat, French shoes, 

 train di-ess, and extraordinary 

 coiffure and earrings would pro- 

 claim her rather a devotee of 

 fashion than of science. The 

 assistant, whose left arm is appar- 

 ently dislocated, and the cheering 

 relics of former patients displayed 

 on the top shelf of the showcase, 

 complete a picture that is unique 

 in medical illustrations, so far as 

 we are famihar with them. 



Dr. Mildred M. PhiUps, in a 

 communication to the Alumnae 

 association of the college, gives a 

 translation of the character seen 

 in the cut, a part of which is as 

 follows : — 



" A knowledge of the Rhyming 

 medical adviser is considered a 

 sufficient quahfication to be a 

 practising physician. Such igno- 

 ramuses [as those thus qualified] 

 recklessly prescribe for disease, 

 and ignorantly trifle with men's 

 lives. If a patient dies, it is 

 charged to his fate, and the 

 doctor is not held responsible by 

 the law. If a patient survives, 

 he praises the skiU of the doc- 

 tor." 



The article in the pamphlet 

 from which the cut is taken 

 gives a short account of the opera- 

 tion, and then adds, "If this 

 disease had not met with this 

 doctor, it could hardly have been 

 reheved. If this doctor had not 

 met with this disease, who could 

 have known any thiag of such 

 divine skill? 



"When Chinese doctors hear 

 of this, their tongues will become immovable, 

 and their heads will hang down. " 



DOCTORS AND THEIR WORK. 



English medical annals contaui many names 

 both familiar and honored the world over. It has 

 not been a difficult matter, therefore, for Mr. 

 Bettany to prepare a fair history ^ of the progress 

 of medical science in England during the past 



1 Eminent doctors. Their lives and their work. By G. 

 T. Bettany. London, Hogg, 1885. 8°. 



tlu'ee hundred years. Begmning with Harvey 

 and Sydenham, and endmg with Sir James Paget 

 and Sir Joseph Lister, the author has sketched 

 the lives of a succession of scientific men, eminent 

 in the various departments of medicine and sur- 

 gery, of whom any country may well be proud. 

 It is, perhaps, from such memoirs as these that 

 the history of progress in medicine can be most 

 pleasantly traced. The personal element in science 

 is often neglected, but always repays tavestigation. 

 And nothing is more entertaining than to notice 

 how the pure scientific spirit in search of facts 



