with imported ones, which are free. This is urged as a reason why the tax should be abolished! If we manacle our own productions and leave foreign competition unfettered, surely this, instead of violating the principle of free trade in our own interests, would be running it to seed in an opposite direction !

If this be a question of general public interest, then surely the general public are entitled to have facts placed before them in a straightforward simple manner. On the 17th of May last a circular was issued from Somerset House, signed W. H. Cousins, and addressed to the principal wholesale medicine vendors-i.e., to those wholesale firms whose business it is to stock patent proprietary medicines of all descriptions for supply to the ordinary channels of trade (principally to retail druggists), of which the following is a copy :

Inland Revenue, Somerset House, W.C., 17th May, 1884. Gentlemen, The Board of Inland Revenue have reason to believe that some misapprehension is prevalent with regard to the liability to Stamp Duty of Foreign Medicines imported into this country and subsequently exported for sale abroad.

In these circumstances they have directed me to point out to you and to the other principal dealers in Patent Medicines and Proprietary Articles that all Foreign Medicines (except pure drugs) are liable to Stamp Duty; and that if exported by English houses to meet orders received from abroad, or from Ireland, the Isle of Man, or the Channel Islands, they must be stamped.

Where, however, an English house merely acts as Agent for the Foreign Manufacturer, and passes on Medicines in bulk to other Agents residing out of Great Britain, without any actual sale taking place, a Stamp is not required.

W. H. COUSINS.

I enclose for your information Extracts from the Acts of Parliament imposing and regulating the Medicine Duty. I am, Gentlemen, your obedient Servant, Let it be particularly noted that this circular was issued to the wholesale trade, and not to the manufacturers of patent medicines, and that, referring as it does to "foreign medicines," the home manufacturer is not placed in the disadvantageous situation mentioned by "NonPractitioner."

America sends us a great many medical specialities which have hitherto i.e., prior to May 17th-found their way into the English market free of duty, notwithstanding that English pharmaceutical preparations entering her ports are heavily mulcted. It is these American preparations which will in future be chiefly affected, so that, after all, the advocacy for repeal is more in the interests of the American speciality

manufacturer than the English one.

Coming now to the second letter, I would say that it is by no means clear that Charlatanry would cease with the abolition of the stamp. It may be quite true; and no doubt is so, that facts are often so arranged by some makers of nostrums as to convey on the face of them a totally erroneous impression. But would the extinction of the stamp be a death blow to the ingenuity of the quack? Let the "Member of the Royal College of Physicians" pay a visit any Friday to the Metropolitan cattle market, and he will probably be convinced that the public can be persuaded to try medical experiments without that great power of evil, the patent medicine stamp. This place is merely one among thousands where quackery requires no "Government endorsement." As to the question" Should a Government lend itself to puffing the deleterious stuff which charlatans palm oft upon a credulous public?' I reply certainly not; and I, for one, would not so grossly insult Government as to insinuate that they ever did any such thing. Licences are granted to drivers of hackney and stage carriages, and these drivers wear each his distinguishing number, but that is no guarantee of safety to the passenger-no assurance that the cabman will not attempt to overcharge, or that he will treat his fare with strict courtesy at pay-time. If the public be credulous, can legislative wisdom change that condition? Possibly; but only by an educational process, and not by enactments aiming at making gullibility impossible.

But is "Member of the Royal College of Physicians" incorrectly informed? or is he himself practising that which he condemns in the charlatan? I will be charitable enough to suppose the former, and for his benefit state very plainly and clearly, that the stamp does not touch the alkaloids. Quinine, for instance, is NOT HELD LIABLE TO STAMP

To the Editor of the "Midland Medical Miscellany." SIR,-There are a few facts in connection with patent medicines that appear to have been overlooked by those who have recently clamoured so loudly for the immediate repeal of the Patent Medicine Stamp Act. First, the present Pharmacopoeia contains a number of preparations remedies; thus, black drop, Ward's paste, Daffy's elixir, Huxham's which are simply imitations of well known patent medicines, or secret tincture of bark, De Valengin's solution, Fowler's solution, Turlington's drops, Dover's powder, Singleton's ointment, and many others, have Of the more recent secret official imitations in the Pharmacopoeia. Preparations which have been thus imitated may be mentioned Bishop's citrate of magnesia, Schacht's liquor bismuthi, Condy's fluid, etc. These official imitations are by no means always preferred by medical men to the original preparations, which are not unfrequently specially ordered by name on physician's prescriptions. It is obvious therefore, that if, as stated in the Lancet, "scarcely a day passes without the record in the papers of an inquest on some poor deluded victim who has been sent to his last account from an overweening confidence in one or other of the have been sent on the same road by an overweening confidence in much belauded patent medicines," it is impossible to say how many may physician's prescriptions, which contain imitations of these same preparations. Second, the records of the past few years give the direct lie to the above statement quoted from the Lancet. On turning during the year 1883, it will be seen that there were 8 deaths from to the Registrar General's report on deaths from poisoning, patent medicines, and 8 from chlorodyne, against 20 from chloral hydrate, 129 from opium and its preparations, 20 from alcohol, 50 from carbolic acid, 16 from oxalic acid, 121 from strychnia and nux vomica, 24 from prussic acid and oil of almonds, 22 from potassium cyanide. It will be observed from the above abstract, that the public safety is less endangered by the use of patent medicines than by substances used in prescriptions, such as opium, chloral hydrate, strychnia, prussic acid, and In the report for the year 1884, the deaths are given as 4 from patent medicines, and 6 from chlorodyne, while the deaths from chloroform are 5, ether 1, chloral 15, opium and its preparations 116, alcohol 26, oxalic acid 26, carbolic acid 34, strychnia and nux vomica 23, prussic acid and oil of almonds 15, and potassium cyanide 16; there are also 8 deaths from poisonous fish and meat. It is thus evident that the danger to the public from taking 19,000,000 packets yearly of patent medicines is an extremely small percentage, considerably less indeed, in all probability, than from pharmacopoeial medicines used in

carbolic acid.

prescriptions.

Third, certain patent medicines have died out. This result is bound to follow if the medicines themselves are worthless, or do not effect what the advertisement professes. The obvious conclusion remedies, while a few, such as chlorodyne, which are preferred by the therefore is, that many patent medicines are fairly good domestic medical profession to the official preparations, cannot be refused to the public on the ground of danger any more than the repetition of a physician's prescription without his authority. Patent medicines are usually taken for one of the following reasons:-First, because the patient hopes to avoid a doctor's bill by the use of a well-known medicine, from which others have found benefit; second, because they see them advertised; and lastly, on the recommendation of a friend, The who has already been relieved of pain or disease by their use. first time a patent medicine is taken it may be regarded as an experi ment, in which the patient takes the risk; but the second time the patient takes it, it is because beneficial results have been found in his or her case to follow its use. Patent medicines thus proved, not unfrequently become established as domestic remedies. With regard to the future of patent medicines, it seems to have escaped observation by those who are so anxious for the repeal of the patent Medicine Stamp Act, that the removal of the tax (for it is nothing more) would be the taking of £160,000 yearly out of the national income, which would have to be added to the income tax, or obtained by some more objectionable tax, while it would naturally increase the sale of patent medicines by allowing the proprietor the value of the stamp to spend

in additional advertisements.

London, October 21st, 1884.

VERITAS.

VOL. III.

Ellustration.

THOMAS M. DOLAN, M.D.

FOR our memoir this month we have selected a typical example of the general medical practitioner and poor-law medical officer. Thomas M. Dolan, M.D. Durh., F.R.C.S. Edin., and L.S.A. Lond., was born at Cashel, county Tipperary, a place celebrated for the interesting ruins of Hare Abbey or Grey Friars, the Dominican Abbey, and those on the celebrated Rock of Cashel. This city was formerly the metropolis of the Kings of Munster, and in the cathedral was deposited the Lia Fail, or fatal stone, on which they were crowned. In 513 Fergus, a prince of the Royal line, having obtained the Scottish throne, procured the use of this stone for his coronation at Dunstaffnage, where it continued until the time of Kenneth II., who removed it to Scone, from whence it was removed to England by Edward I. in 1296. It is now under the coronation chair at Westminster. He received a liberal education at Ushaw College, Durham, a college specially distinguished for its course of Litera Humaniores, and subsequently studied at Steevens's Hospital, Dublin, and after obtaining three diplomas in August of 1866, commenced practice in Halifax in November of the same year.

In 1869 Dr. Dolan was appointed medical officer to the Halifax Union Infirmaries, which position he has retained up to the present time. At the time of his appointment the wards placed under his charge were of the old workhouse character, but upon the attention of the Halifax guardians being drawn to their shortcomings, they at once proceeded to erect infirmaries, which may fairly vie with any similar institution as regards structure and general requirements. Workhouse infirmaries, although not at present fully recognised as fields of observation, supply abundant means of pursuing practical medicine in its various branches; and the work done by such men as Hutchinson, of spirometer fame,

No. 36.

North, of York, Stretch Dowse, of London, and Alexander, of Liverpool, furnishes abundant evidence of their value as a field of medical research.

In the Halifax district hydrophobia being of comparatively frequent occurrence, Dr. Dolan's attention was thus directed to this disease. This resulted in the production of his work on "Hydrophobia," published in 1878. The favourable review of this work by Sir Joseph Fayrer, in "Brain," at once attracted attention. once attracted attention. The first edition was published without a name; the second edition appeared with the author's name; and of it Sir Joseph Fayrer writes: "It is by far the most complete work on the subject I have seen, and I am very glad to find it has been, as it deserved to be, so successful." In the hydrophobia competition, offered by F. V. Bennett Stanford, in 1879, Dr. Dolan sent in a contribution which was regarded of such merit that it obtained a recommendation from the adjudicators-Drs. Brunton, Dickinson, and Ferrier-that the sum of £50 should be specially raised and awarded to him. This competition was open to all nationalities; there were nineteen competitors, and the first prize was awarded to M. Bourrell, a veterinary surgeon, of Paris.

Dr. Dolan's contributions to medical literature have been numerous. It is only by a systematic method, study, and application, that a general practitioner could have accomplished so much work; but the writings of Dr. Dolan prove how much can be done even by a practitioner holding important public appointments, and, besides, enjoying a large clientèle. He has by his pen advocated the cause of the poor-law medical officer. In 1875 he published in the Medical Press and Circular a series of articles on Life Assurance for Poor-Law Medical Officers; and in 1881 he obtained the prize of £100 for the best essay on Life Assurance-a competition instituted by the Equitable Life Assurance Company of the United States, in which there were one hundred and sixty-three competitors. The judges for this competition were S. E. Hall, Esq., and Cornelius