OBITUARY. 
419 
channel of introduction holds out such advantages as to induce 
those who had hopelessly relinquished inhalation to commence 
a fresh set of experiments ; and we should hope they will do so, 
and that it will not be long before we hear from some of our friends, 
informing us of their success : should which be such as Dr. 
Perogof has represented, we may hope that our practice, in more 
ways than one, will benefit by such a valuable addition to our 
pharmaceutical appliances. 
The Medical Registration Bill and Medical Law 
AMENDMENT Bill, have been withdrawn by Mr. Wakley, there 
being no hope of carrying them during the present Session of Parlia- 
ment. 
OBITUARY. 
Died, on the 4th inst., in the 86th year of his age, Mr. John 
Read, Inventor of the Stomach-pump. Veterinary no less than 
human surgery acknowledges a lasting debt of gratitude to Read’s 
mechanical genius. And what made this genius shine the brighter 
was his anxious desire, on every occasion, to lend it where it was 
needed without any present reward, or even any certain prospect 
of a future one. There was, in fact, a great deal more about his 
character of the man of liberal-mindedness than of the mercenary 
tradesman; — he appeared to possess that attribute of true genius — 
an indifference to the marketable value of his productions. 
“ Mr. Read,” — we learn from The Lancet — was born and lived 
long in a humble station of life. He had devoted himself from 
natural inclinations to the study of hydraulics, and the invention 
of the stomach-pump arose out of the illness of a fellow-servant 
(he was then in the service of Dr. Marriott, a clergyman, in Kent), 
in which the medical man in attendance lamented the want of 
some means of injecting fluid into the stomach and bowels. He 
speedily produced an apparatus, which, with very slight alteration, 
is the stomach-pump of the present day.” 
MISCELLANEA. 
The Members present at the General Meeting amounted to 
fifty , instead of “ only about forty,” as will appear from the follow- 
ing list of their names : — 
