EDITORIAL OBSERVATIONS. 
299 
of our journal being in the possession of our readers, the 
time will have arrived for the members of the profession 
again to exercise the important privilege which the law has 
placed in their hands. May we hope to see a larger assem- 
blage than heretofore ? And may we still further hope that 
our friends “ North of the Tweed’ 5 will give proof, by their 
presence, that the interests of the body, politic and corpo- 
rate, are especially cared for by them ? Be this as it may, 
we call upon the country members of England to be at their 
post, and to exercise their rights ; even if such should lead 
to the introduction of some new blood into the representative 
body. If they think it needeth it not, then good testimony 
will be given that the Council is the true exponent of the 
profession, and as such, its proceedings will carry with them 
the greater weight. 
We have already alluded to the importance of appointing 
an effectual executive, and to this we now return. Our 
readers are well aware that our respected predecessor in the 
conducting of this Journal, was at the time of his death a 
member of the Board of Examiners, a position he was well 
qualified to occupy, from his scientific and literary, as well as 
his practical acquirements. Composed, as the court is, in 
part, and rightly so, in our opinion, of men of high repute in 
the science of medicine, Mr. Percivall, from his knowledge 
of descriptive anatomy, gave important assistance to the 
anatomical section. His loss was felt to have created a void 
not easily to be filled, and as such the appointment of his suc- 
cessor required, at least, mature consideration. The time 
had arrived when the whole question of appointing exami- 
ners called for investigation, with a view to the adoption of 
those means which would secure for the future the selection 
of efficient persons for these offices. One of the objections 
to the present mode might be got rid of by the Council 
taking steps to obtain a list of names, from which it would 
have to choose. This, however, will not completely meet 
the exigency of the case, as we shall show by and by. 
There are those among us, resident in the provinces it may 
be, whose scientific acquirements, and we might add, laudable 
