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and declared that they would not sit at thesame table with me if they could avoid it.These opinions, much as I respected the

private virtues and acquirements of my col -leagues, did not influence me much on pointsin which the public was concerned. I

steadily pursued my objects, and year afteryear have proposed and reproposed, and whenbeaten have returned again to maintain myopinions: until now, when retiring from theoffice of president, I can fairly say there isnot one abuse or grievance remaining. Ibelieve I may say that much has also beendone for the advancement of science, for theimprovement of knowledge, and that little ornothing has been left undone which can givepersonal ease, comfort, or satisfaction to themembers of the body generally:

11 might, if I pleased, congratulate my-self upon being, and having been, the mostsuccessful reformer in the profession, al-though I admit that many have talked andwritten a great deal more about abuses andgrievances than I have done, but no one hashad the good fortune to remove so many. Iapprehend, however, that the word reformdoes not bear with many gentlemen the samemeaning as is usually attributed to it, andthat with them it is understood to imply de-struction, or the subversion, not the reforma-tion, of the existing order of things, in whichsense I am not a reformer, for 1 am not a de-structive. Having on eight different occa-sions taken a solemn oath to preserve andmaintain the honour and integrity of the col-lege, it has not occurred to me that the bestway of doing this would be by aiding in theestablishment of one faculty, or any othersociety, by whatever name it may be called,which would interfere with the utility, therights, or privileges of the College of Sur-geons, and end in its destruction. AlthoughI have not supported any of these schemes,and have expressed my determination to re-sist them whenever officially called upon todo so, I have not yet had occasion to say oneword on the subject, having never met witliany one member of any government who didnot at once declare them to be visionary, andthat they had themselves never thought ofsubverting the existing ancient medical insti-tutions of the country, however earnestly de-sirous to see them undergo any alterationand improvement that could tend to the ad-vancement, honour, and character of the pro-fession. It has been urged againstthe coun-cil of the College of Surgeons that it is self-elective, and its examiners are appointed forlife, two points which it is not in the powerof the council to amend without an alterationof their charter; and in the year 1834, a sup-plemental charter and ordinance were pre-pared, and steps were taken by the councilof the college to obviate these evils, and to

appoint examiners in midwifery. Theseimprovements were deferred in consequenceof the introduction of Messrs. Warburton

and Hawes’ Bill into Parliament, which, ifthey did no more, have at least preventedthe council of the college from trying to effectthese desirable objects. I will not relax in

my efforts while anything remains to be done,which, in my opinion, is likely to be advan..tageous to the public and the profession;and I shall be at all times happy to advisewith you or any other gentlemen who maythink my services likely to be of use to them.I am, my dear Sir, very faithfully yours,

" G. J. GUTHEIE." To Thomas Hovell, Esq.,

Senior Member of the Deputation fromthe Surgeons of the London Unions,to the President and Vice-presidentsof the Royal College of Surgeons."

" G. J. GUTHRIE." To Thomas Hovell, Esq.,

Senior Member of the Deputation fromthe Surgeons of the London Unions,to the President and Vice-presidentsof the Royal College of Surgeons."

PETITIONS

AGAINST

NEW CHARTERS TO THE OLDCOLLEGES.

(From the 11 Great Northern Advertiser.")IN the House of Commons, on Tuesday,

the 5th instant, some questions were put toSir James Graham by Lord John Russell,from the answers given to which, it wouldappear that the Home Secretary intends, be-fore the close of the present Parliamentarysession, to ask leave to introduce a Bill forenabling the Crown to grant new charters tothe Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons inLondon, which would come into operationimmediately, while the Medical ProfessionBill, which the right honourable secretarymeans to submit to Parliament, cannot bediscussed until next session.The council of the North of England Me-

dical Association, conceiving that the grant-ing of the said charters would prejudge thegeneral question of medical reform, have peti-tioned both Houses of Parliament not to au-thorise the giving of the said charters untilthe whole subject shall have been discussedby the Legislature. The council have alsotaken steps for sending petitions of a similarkind from Newcastle, Gateshead, Sunder.land, Durham, Carlisle, Berwick, Northand South Shields, &c. The following is acopy of their petition to the House of Com-mons, which has been duly signed and for-warded for presentation to Lord Howick.

(The Bishop of Durham has been requestedto present the petition to the upper house.)

To the Right HnnouraLle the Commons, &c.The Petition of the President, Vice-

Presidents, and Council of the Northof England Medical Association, as-sembled at .Newcastle-upon-Tyne,July 9, 1812,

Humbly showeth,-That your petitioners represent a society

consisting of one hundred and seventy duly

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qualified practitioners of medicine and sur-gery, resident in the counties of Durham,Northumberland, and Cumberland.That your petitioners have derived much

satisfaction from the announcement reportedto have been made to your honourable house

by one of her Majesty’s ministers, of his in-tention to ask leave to bring into Parliamenta Bill relating to the government of themedical profession in Great Britain andIreland.That your petitioners, although unable to

procure any authentic information respectingthe provisions of the above-named Bill, havebeen given to understand that a propositionis shortly to be made to your honourablehouse to enable her Majesty to grant newcharters to the College of Physicians and theCollege of Surgeons of London, and that itis intended that such charters, if granted,shall come into operation almost immediately,whereas the clauses of the aforesaid MedicalBill will not be discussed until the next ses-sion of Parliament.Your petitioners conceiving that the com-

munity at large of the United Kingdom isinterested in the proper regulation of themedical profession, not less deeply than arethe individual members thereof, beg respect-fully but earnestly to urge the claims of theprofession to the consideration of the Legis-lature. Feeling, moreover, assured that nomeasure relating thereto can be either satis-factory or beneficial, unless it be constructedon broad and general principles, and that thescope and character of any future enactmentfor regulating the medical polity of this

country, must be materially influenced by thepowers and authority which may be vestedin the presently existing medical corpora-tions ; they implore your honourable housenot to sanction the giving of any new charterto the College of Physicians, or to the Col-lege of Surgeons, in London, until opportu-nity shall have been afforded of discussingfully and carefully the provisions of theMedical Bill, which they believe the righthonourable the Secretary of State for theHome Department has signified his inten-tion of submitting to the notice of yourhonourable house.And your petitioners, &c.

THE NEW CHARTERS.

THE following letterfrom a highly respect-able and well-informed correspondent, fur-nishes an admirable commentary on Mr.Guthrie’s epistle, which will be found inanother page :-

To the Editor of THE LANCET.

Sir,-Petitions against the granting of thenew charters to the Colleges of Physiciansand Surgeons, of London, before the proper

consideration of the whole question of medi-cal reform by Parliament, have within thelast week been sent from this town. Thenumber of signatures attached to each wasfifty-six. The number of medical practi-tioners in Newcastle is nearly seventy. Someparties were from home, and a few wereoverlooked in carrying round the petitions.Five gentlemen only refused to sign them ;two of these are strongly opposed to anythingin the shape of reform, and would, therefore,probably object to the new charters as stre-nuously as to a new Medical Reform Bill ;a third believes that no reform is necessarybut self-reform; a fourth quite agrees withthe views of the petitioners, but has made ita rule for his own self-government not tosign petitions to Parliament; and a fifth didnot subscribe his name, from a misapprehen-sion of the object of the petitions.The only licentiate or member of the Col-

lege of Physicians in Newcastle signedthem; and I should suppose that nearlythree-fourths of the signatures were those ofmembers of the College of Surgeons. Surelythe 11 Gazette" will not insist that the Lon-don corporations represent the profession inNewcastle. I am, Sir, your most obedientservant,

A NEWCASTLE PRACTITIONER.

Newcastle-on-Tyne, July 18, 1842.

LUNATIC ASYLUM BUILT EXPRESSLY FOR

NoN-RESTRAINT.-In addition to the passagequoted in the last LANCET from the recent

report of the Glasgow Lunatic Asylum, Mr.R. G. Hill requests us to insert the followingextract from the Glasgow Herald, on the oc-casion of laying the first stone of the asylumnow building near that town :-

" In course of time, from the increasingnumber of the patients, and the rapid pro-gress of the city in the direction of the asy-lum, it became necessary to remove to a

greater distance ; accordingly the contri-butors and directors determined on erectinga new institution, on the principles,-First,of employing no mechanical personal re-

straint in the treatment of the patients, whichhad already been abandoned for a consider-able time ; and secondly, of having distinctbuildings for the accommodation of patientsof different ranks, divested of all gloom orappearance of confinement. These build-

ings, therefore, planned under the directionof William Hutcheson, Doctor of Medicine,and physician to the asylum, by CharlesWilson, architect, in Glasgow, were begunto be built by William Broom, mason, inNovember, 1841, being the first institutionof the kind erected on the principles above setfourth." ’