August 20,1870.] 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
153 
I claim for it, moreover, that in its hold, as well as 
in its milder and more conservative measures, it realizes a 
larger and more uniform amount of success; is thus a 
more useful and reliable agent than the art of former 
days—a success which is the more satisfactory that, 
though brilliant, it is the result of sound principles, in¬ 
dustriously sought after and carefully carried out. 
After illustrating these views at length, tracing out 
the principles that lead to the success of modem surgery, 
and discussing various new methods of procedure, which 
would be out of place to describe in this Journal, Mr. 
Heath went on to speak of improved education, placing 
at the disposal of the student means of learning the use 
of his hands, as one of the chief causes of increased ope¬ 
rative skill. 
The interchange of knowledge, by means of the 
periodicals of the day, the rapidity with which a new 
and improved proceeding or a brilliant operation be¬ 
comes known throughout the profession, tends also to 
the general level of our success. Moreover, I will ven¬ 
ture to say that an association like this, which gives to 
us obscure provincials the opportunity of seeing and 
hearing the brighter luminaries of our time, that brings 
vividly to our minds every advance which from year to 
year may be made in our art, exerts a more potent in¬ 
fluence upon the origination and spread of improvements 
and in the upraising of the general standard of profes¬ 
sional power than has yet been recognized. 
I have also made it apparent that our special branch 
of surgical art is not stationary, but progressive; and 
that we may fairly challenge comparison with other aits 
and sciences, both as to the amount and rapidity of our 
progress. 
As the world grows older, as the results gathered by 
past workers and thinkers accumulate, each succeeding 
generation stands on more advanced ground than its 
predecessors; facts already ascertained furnish a basis 
whereon to build new and truer theories, more efficient 
instruments are at command to investigate and to con¬ 
struct ; thus the arts and sciences which increase our 
knowledge teach us the properties and conditions of 
matter, tell us of the true place and value of this little 
world in the crowded universe, or forge us weapons to 
fulfil our destiny and subdue the earth, press onwards 
with more and more rapid strides. 
Our fellow-workers, the physiologist, the chemist, 
and the physician, are not idle ; the innermost recesses of 
living things are made to give up their secrets; the mys¬ 
teries of life in health and in disease are wrested from the 
minute molecules of structure; new drugs rise from the 
alembic; strange plants yield up their juices and their 
fruits to soothe our pains or cure maladies hitherto incur¬ 
able ; and, with greater knowledge and more effective 
means, the physician advances to the combat of disease 
with bolder and more certain steps, with greater assu¬ 
rance of victory. 
"What have we, the votaries of the knife, to show be¬ 
side these marvels ? If we cannot answer this question, 
this address has been written in vain. Gibbon asserts 
that the meanest insect which crawls along the dome of St. 
Peter’s is more worthy of regard, more wonderful than 
that magnificent structure. Human life is surely more pre¬ 
cious than the appliances which are subservient to it; but 
life itself maybe far below its value, or a mere burden, when 
cumbered by painful disease or by deformity. We have 
seen with what audacity the modern surgeon encounters 
the most formidable enemies of life, what slight traces 
of his work he leaves behind, how limbs are preserved 
and yet the diseased part taken away ; with what facility 
the cripple is rendered active, the humpback made 
straight, deformities conjured into symmetry; with what 
safety the thickened lens is taken away from the eye, 
the torturing stone extracted from the bladder. We 
know with how much confidence he can say to yon 
poor wretch writhing in inextinguishable sickness, Suffer 
me to put you to sleep for a brief space ; I will undo in 
a few minutes the cause of your complaint; you shall 
be a sound man in not much longer time than would see 
you in your grave without such assistance. That hag¬ 
gard creature, too, whose form is rendered misshapen, 
whose life is being exhausted by a monstrous growth, 
whilst she is unconscious he will take away the encum¬ 
brance that oppresses her, raise her in a few weeks from 
her bed of suffering, and restore her to the world a fresh 
and blooming woman. 
But we must not boast too much; we must confess 
that there are still foes whom we cannot yet overcome ; 
still wide domains where the great enemy death remains 
victorious, but which it is for us and our successors to 
rescue from his scythe and bring under the dominion of 
the knife. 
Nevertheless what I have been able to relate of the 
achievements already accomplished, will suffice to show 
that operative surgery has not stood still whilst other 
arts have advanced; that, if we do not occupy the fore¬ 
most place, we are at least well to the front in that glo¬ 
rious race which they win who do the most to diminish 
human suffering and prolong life ; to elevate and im¬ 
prove the condition of man. 
In the Medical Section— 
Dr. John C. Murray read a paper on “ Snuff-taking,” 
in which he stated that according to the experience of 
himself and others, the habitual snuffer seldom or never 
dies from consumption. He further declared that six 
cases of recovery from phthisis had come under his own 
notice consequent upon free snuff-taking. He concluded 
that snuff-taking is in some degree preventive of con¬ 
sumption, and its frequent concomitant bronchitis, in 
virtue, perhaps, of its derivative and quasi counter- 
irritant action. The way to cure a cold, according to 
Dr. Murray, is to have recourse to snuff-taking at once. 
The Public Dinner of the Association took place in 
the Town Hall in the evening, and the satisfaction of the 
members was warmly expressed for the facilities afforded 
so willingly by the corporation for the transaction of the 
Association business. 
On Friday there was an excursion to Durham Univer¬ 
sity, where honorary degrees were conferred on several 
members. The following papers were read at the sec¬ 
tional meetings:— 
Professor Hughes Bennett read an interim report by 
committee investigating the antagonism of remedies, and 
illustrated the subject by experiments on some rabbits. 
Having given one rabbit the 150th part of,a grain of 
strychnia, by which it was killed, he next injected the 
same dose into a second rabbit, as well as 12 grains of 
hydrate of chloral. The second rabbit, after having 
been thrown into a deep sleep, recovered, and appeared 
none the worse for the experiments made upon it. 
Dr. J. Henry Bennett contributed a paper “ On the 
Climate of Algeria,” in which he brought forward im¬ 
portant facts deduced from an exploration of Algeria 
made in th'e spring of 1869. Algeria is a kind of Swit¬ 
zerland, extending above 400 miles from east to west, 
from Tunis to Morocco, and about 120 from north to 
south, from the Mediterranean to the desert of Sahara. 
This region is entirely occupied by the Mount Atlas, 
which divides into three ranges, running from east to 
west—the Lesser Atlas, the Middle Atlas, and the Greater 
Atlas,—with connecting buttresses, intervening valleys 
and elevated plains. These mountains, not attaining an 
elevation of above 7000 feet, do not reach the line of eternal 
snow, so there are no glaciers to form large rivers. But 
they are high enough to precipitate rain and snow in 
winter from moist air. The constant rarefaction of the 
atmosphere over the immense desert of Sahara causes, 
nearly all the year round, a rush of cooler air from the 
northern quarters—that is, from the Mediterranean and 
the Atlantic, the atmosphere being thus all but constantly 
charged with moisture winter and summer. Rain and 
snow fall in abundance during the six months of winter; 
