94 
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EDITORIAL. 
Transactions  of  the  Medical  Society  of  the  State  of  Pennsylvania  at  its  An- 
nual Session,  held  in  Philadelphia,  May,  1852.    Vol.  II.    Published  by 
the  Society,    pp.  14G,  octavo.    Philadelphia,  1852. 
Transactions  of  th  e  Medical  Association  of  the  State  of  Missouri  at  its  Second 
Annual  Meeting,  St.  Louis,  April  19th,  20th,  21st,  1852.     Vol.  II.  pp. 
116.    St,  Louis.  1852. 
Transactions  of  the  Animal  Meeting  of  the  Medical  Society  of  the  State  of 
Georgia,  held  in  the  City  of  Augusta,  Apr  il,  1852. 
The  publications  above  noted,  with  others  of  the  same  nature,  are  results 
of  the  general  organization  of  the  medical  profession  in  the  United  States, 
reacting  on  the  local  societies,  exciting  in  them  an  interest  not  before  ob- 
served, and  producing  a  series  of  observations  or  medical  statistics,  the 
local  peculiarities  of  disease,  the  topography  of  the  counties,  and  much 
other  information  interesting  to  the  medical  profession.    We  hope  like 
effects  may  result  from  the  organization  of  pharmaceutists  which  is  just 
commencing.    A  spark  of  the  proper  spirit  has  been  elicited  from  New 
England,  (see  page  22,)  and  we  trust  other  sections  will  not  be  wanting  in 
regard  for  the  cause  of  reform. 
Jean  Joseph  Welter,  the  inventor  of  the  instrument  called  "  Welter's 
Safety  Tube,"  and  of  other  useful  chemical  apparatus,  died  on  the  8th  of 
July,  at  Paris,  in  the  89th  year  of  his  age.  He  was  the  friend  and  co- 
laborer  of  Gay  Lussac,  and  a  corresponding  member  of  the  Chemical  Sec- 
tion of  the  French  Institute. 
Dr.  Thomas  Thomson,  Regius  Professor  of  Chemistry  in  the  University  of 
Glasgow,  died  on  the  2d  of  July,  at  the  age  of  seventy-nine. 
Dr.  Thomson  was  the  youngest  son  of  John  Thomson  of  Crieff,  (Scotland.) 
He  received  a  thorough  classical  education  at  the  University  of  St.  Andrews. 
In  his  twenty-third  year  a  taste  for  chemical  science  was  awakened  by  his 
attendance  on  the  lectures  of  the  celebrated  Dr.  Black,  and  about  five  years 
after,  in  1800,  he  commenced  lecturing  on  chemistry,  which  he  continued 
during  forty-six  years.  His  s}rstem  of  chemistry  first  appeared  as  a  separate 
work  in  1802,  having  previously  been  published  in  the  Encyclopedia  Britam 
nica.  He  has  the  reputation  of  having  first  used  symbols  to  express  chemi- 
cal composition,  and  was  one  of  the  earliest  supporters  of  Dalton's  Atomic 
Theory.  He  lectured  in  Edinburg  till  1811,  conducted  the  "Annals  of 
Philosophy  "  at  London  from  1813  to  1822,  and  lectured  in  the  University 
of  Glasgow  from  1817  to  1846.  He  is  the  author  of  various  works,  and 
among  them  a  History  of  Chemistry,  a  History  of  the  Royal  Society,  and 
Outlines  of  Mineralogy  and  Geology.  Dr.  Thomson  married  in  1816,  left  a 
son,  Dr.  T.  Thomson,  of  the  Bengal  army,  and  a  daughter  married  to  his 
nephew  and  successor,  Prof.  11.  D.  Thomson. 
