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Nov. i, 1S85.] The Australasian Scientific Magazine. 
before him. At the interview Mr. Service asked that a written statement 
of the history of the society’s position with regard to its past and present 
sites, together with its revenue and other particulars, should be prepared 
and forwarded to him, when it would be considered by the Cabinet. That 
was accordingly done, and at the same time a request was made for a loan 
of ,£10,000 from the Government, to enable the society to pay off its 
overdraft and carry out further improvements at the show-grounds, to be 
repaid in ro equal instalments. Failing this request being granted, it was 
asked that the Government should give the society power to offer the 
security by which the amount required could be borrowed. No reply had 
been received from the Government. A letter was read from Messrs. W. 
M’Nab and Bros., of Oakbank, Tullamarine, offering ,£5 towards estab- 
lishing a Victorian Ayrshire Derby sweepstakes similar to the one held in 
Scotland every year. The letter was referred to the show committee. On 
themotion of the chairman, it was decided to elect Mr. Thos. Bent, M.L.A., 
an honorary member of the society, in recognition of the interest which he 
had taken in getting cheap railway fares to the show-ground. 
BRITISH MEDICAL ASSOCIATION. 
The monthly meeting of the Victorian branch of the British Medical 
Association was held on Thursday evening the 30th of September, in the 
hall of the Royal Society, the president, Dr. L. Henry, in the chair. The 
election of the following new members were announced, viz., Dr. Simp- 
son Flett, of Fitzroy, and Dr. Cowper Johnson, of St. Kilda. Dr. Neild 
read a letter he had received from Sir Richard Owen, the well-known 
scientist, in acknowledgement of a letter of congratulation which, as honor- 
ary secretary, he had forwarded to him on his 8 1st birthday. Dr. Neild 
read for Dr. Whitcombe, of Ballarat, a paper, entitled, “The Removal of 
Hyd.itid Cysts by abdominal section.” Dr. Springthorpe read an interest- 
ing paper entitled, “Some Points of Interest in the late Epidemic,” in 
which he had collected together a large mass of material in the shape of 
reports from various medical men both in Victoria and the cither colonics 
on the subject. He suggested that the association should further extend 
the inquiry by the issue of cards of queries in the manner of the London 
Committee of Collective Investigation, to be circulated amongst the pro- 
fession. This suggestion was adopted with a recommendation to the 
council to carry it out. In the discussion which followed, the president 
expressed an opinion as to the pathology of the disease, that the affection 
was in all probability caused by the presence in the atmosphere of an irri- 
tant operating upon the pneumo-gastric nerve. All the phenomena, he 
thought, could be explained on this assumption. The next paper read 
was by Dr. Griffith, entitled, “ Notes on Lunatics as Seen in General 
Practice.” Exhibits were furnished by Messrs. Francis and Co., among 
which were Koch’s Meat Peptone . , an agreeable form of exhibiting genuine 
extract of meat ; the Extractum Hamamelis Virginicm, a substitute for the 
more expensive Hazeline; and a natural and very agreeable mineral water 
from the Roman Spa near Echzell. 
