It were in vain to deny the lamentable truth, that the medical profession has within the last few years, rapidly declined in public consideration and respect. It is quite true that this declension is vastly more obvious, has made infinitely greater strides in the sister island than amongst us. Within the last few years, however, the downward progress at this side the channel has assumed an activity which bids fair to assimilate the two countries in this not very desirable particular. Dr. Maunsell, we have seen, attributes this deterioration of the respect ability of the medical profession, to the fact" of the leading medical men of the present day having abandoned the higher and more honourable walks of their profession, to pursue exclusively, the less exalted, though more profitable trade of the empirical curing of disease." To this fact, doubtless, is attributable much of the evil; but there is another fact which is its grand and foremost cause, the handing over, namely, of the functions of the medical profession to shopkeepers. It may be argued, however, that the respectability of the medical profession, properly so called, whose members meddle not with the retail drug trade, should remain intact. But then the offices of the shop-keeper and physician tend to become so inextricably entangled, that unless their timely severance be effected, the dischargers of their respective duties must be content to take a nearly if not absolutely equal rank. Unfortunately, however, the evil does not end here. Whosoever touches pitch shall be defiled, and the mournful truth must be avowed, that in too many instances the physician has become virtually, though not legally, a partner with the medical shop-keeper, to the extent, at least, of helping the latter to a more quick and A extended sale of his stock in trade. letter, evidently the production of no common hand, which has recently appeared in the Dublin Medical Press, under the signature of " Verax," describes the state of things we allude to with so much truth and force, that we shall take the liberty of extracting the following passages from it : "The apothecary not receiving fees can only remunerate himself by the quantity of drugs he pours down his patient's throat. The poor patient becoming worse and worse, the apothecary thinks it high time to put on his cloak, and, therefore, calls for a consultation. A parley is then held between the patient's friends and the apothecary as to the consultee. If a young practitioner is mentioned, (apothecaries have a natural antipathy to young doctors, and still more so to young surgeons,) it may be urged, that the person mentioned is certainly very clever, but it cannot be expected that an ensign should have the information of a general, and that it is better to go at once to head quarters. (Apothecaries in Dublin, it seems, are fond of using military metaphors.) The old generals then pass in review-against one it may be urged, that he is a surgeon, and the case is pronounced to be medical. proposed, (an ignoramus who has not yet If a young physician is then acquired a knowledge of the utility of ordering draughts instead of mixtures,) it may then be discovered that the case is not strictly medical, but being partly surgical, or standing on neutral ground, that perhaps a surgeon well acquainted with medicine would be the fittest person. fact, if this objection does not occur, many others may be found to keep out obtrusive young gentlemen of either branch of the profession. * * In * * * At length, by some well-placed inuendoes, an oft-tried and true auxiliary is found out to be the best fitted for the occasion and draughts are ordered to be taken every third or fourth hour. If the patient dies, the apothecary's character is safe under the auspices of his friend's; but, if he lives, he is very well off to be only mulcted in an expenditure for medicines, varying from five to ten shillings a day (equal to an ensign's or a captain's pay) in addition to the doctor's fees daily of one, number of the visits. Between the two two, or three guineas, according to the functionaries all is transacted with the utmost decorum. The apothecary has no occasion to say to the doctor, 'protect me from the impertinence of animadversions-dose the patient as I would have dosed him myself, and our alliance, offensive and defensive, shall be as beneficial to you as to me.' Such amicable treaties are not unfrequent in this country.” Alas for the respectability of the medical profession, "Verax" speaks too truly,-" such amicable treaties are not unfrequent in this country;" and in illustration of this, we shall record an anecdote well known in the medical circles of Dublin, and to a knowledge of which we think the public are equally entitled. One Reilly, an apothecary, (long since removed from the turmoils of this world,) being in attendance on a patient respecting whose case a consultation was desired, the assistance of the most eminent physician of that day was obtained in conjunction with that of a gentleman still living, and now one of the brightest ornaments of the medical profession. After the necessary preliminaries, a prescription was handed to Reilly, who remonstrated with his superiors on the paucity of medicine which they had directed for his unfortunate client. The physician who had written the prescription turned to his brother consultant and exclaimed, surely, -, Reilly should be satisfied-we have ordered a box of pills, a mixture, and a blister. Well, well, gentlemen," responded Reilly, "live and let live, is a good old maxim, and I think it only fair to warn you, that I shall never twice call in a physician who does not put a leg of mutton in my pot." It is scarcely needful to add, save for the information of the uninitiated, that the physician, thus instigated by this unjust steward, took his bill quickly and wrote down four-score. It unfortunately so happens that those who are parties to the "amicable alliances" so well described by "Verax," are sometimes found amongst such of the profession as stand most prominently before the public; and when even eminent members of a liberal profession can derive their very eminence from such "amicable alliances," can it be matter of surprise that the profession "should have lost its ancient and respectable tone." But a second and most important cause of the decline and downfall of the dignity and importance of the medical profession is, undoubtedly, that assigned by Dr. Maunsell in the last passage which we have extracted from his discourse. Let us not be understood as in any, the remotest degree, undervaluing the practical application of medicine to the relief of individual suffering, for in this consists its very foundation, without which the data necessary for its higher and more general applications could not exist. The hackneyed truism, that communities consist of individuals, sufficiently testifies the indispensable importance of the application of medicine to the cure of individual cases of disease. It is needless, however, to pursue this argument further; we have but touched it, lest the feebler brethren might misunderstand us. But is it to be argued, that because the functions of the healing art, when applied in one direction, render services of the most incalculable value, that thence another and more extended sphere of usefulness is to be neglected? Illogical as would be such an argument, we have, nevertheless, shown that the conclusion it implies has been practically arrived at, the necessary result being a diminution of the respectability of the medical profession, precisely proportionate to the distance that separates it from those important questions involving the welfare of communities which naturally fall within the jurisdiction of state medicine. The evils flowing from the exclusive attention which most of the elders of the medical profession in these countries have paid to one of the practical applications of medicine, will, perhaps,be most conspicuously shown by referring to the incompetency evinced by a board of health, constituted of what are falsely called practical men. On the invasion of these countries by the cholera, a central board of health was appointed in London, composed of individuals undoubtedly eminent in the narrow circle of knowledge to which they had confined their studies. But what was the amount of benefit they conferred upon the nation? Precisely this,-an incalculable augmentation of the panic-terror which possessed the public mind-pushing up the price of cajeput oil by some 2 or 300 per cent. and finally, which was a benefit, their being cashiered for unfitness to discharge the duties assigned them. The following important passage in Dr. Maunsell's discourse bears so forcibly on this point, that we cannot better conclude our observations on this branch of the subject than by laying it before our readers at length: "The subject of EPIDEMIC DISEASES involves many other questions of great interest to the community, and which imperatively call for Politico-Medical consideration. The sources of these visitations, and the doctrine of contagion and infection, with the modes of destroying or preventing them, are still almost wholly unknown, indeed uninvestigated, Accordingly, when the country is invaded by an epiat least, systematically. demic, all is confusion-no one knows what to do, or where to look for aid. It is no person's business to attend to such matters specially, and, as a natural result, they remain altogether unattended to for a time; until at last, when fear seizes upon the multitude, confusion is worse confounded by the eager and inconsiderate interference of an unskilful crowd. Need I name, in confirmation of this picture, the epidemic fevers of Ireland, and the recent melancholy visitation of cholera ? In both, the country was so unprepared for, although, unhappily, far from being unused to such events, that the special interference of parliament was required. And when the combined wisdom of the nation was turned to the subject, what was the lame and impotent result? Serious as the subject is, no one, with the least capability of perceiving the ludicrous, can, for a moment, think with gravity on the course then taken to stay a formidable pestilence. Central boards of health were formed, of eminent private practitioners in medicine, many of them, indeed, possessing the indispensable requisite of a knowledge of practical medicine, but, from their very habits, unlikely to be acquainted with it in its more extended relations. These gentlemen, too, fully engaged as they were in their private business, were yet expected to discharge the onerous and irksome duties of members of a board of health without remuneration. To ask an Old Bailey lawyer to argue a point of constitutional law, and to require him to do it without a fee, would have been wisdom in comparison with this monstrous absurdity. But this was not all, under the auspicious guidance of these central bodies, local boards of health were constructed, altogether composed of individuals unacquainted with medicine, the commencement of whose operations, when once made conscious of their authority, was, in general, marked (at least in Ireland) by a battle-royal with the district medical man; the strife commonly arising in a difference of sentiment on the nature of contagion; upon which subject, the village attorney and shopkeepers of the board of health, feeling that they were made political physicians by act of parliament, thought they had as good a right to hold an opinion as the doctor. Being the strongest and most numerous, the board commonly prevailed, and then followed a series of pranks, any thing equal to which it would be difficult for the most fertile imagination to conceive. In a village of 200 or 300 inhabitants, seated upon a high road, I have known these sages to post pikemen at the outlets, for the purpose of preventing the passage of travellers, and to employ the police to burn articles of furniture which were being peaceably carried through the country. Of course, I need not say, that as the things I refer to happened in Ireland, the natural and necessary results were the most desperate and, often, sanguinary riots." We cannot, however, discuss thus incidentally the causes which have led to the existing downfall of the medical profession. We hope, on a future occasion, to consider this interesting subject at a length somewhat proportionate to its importance. For the present, we must conclude by again recommending Dr. Maunsell's discourse to the perusal of every one who feels an interest in attempting to alleviate those physical evils which seem constantly tending to augment as civilization advances. CONTINENTAL GOSSIPINGS. BY HARRY LORREQUER. CHAP. II. THE CAFE TORTONI-THE BOURSE-THE LEGION OF HONOR. NEXT to the man who selects Paris as a residence from motives of economy, no one will find himself more grievously disappointed than he who enters the Café Tortoni for amusement, -unless, indeed, from his thorough acquaintance with mankind in general, and that particular portion of it which inhabits Paris, he may be able and willing to indulge in that wide field for observation and remark this singular place affords. It is not long since the truth of this assertion was brought particularly home to me from a circumstance which occurred to an untravelled friend of mine. The evening of his arrival in Paris, he strolled from his hotel in the Rue Vivienne and soon found himself upon Brimful the Boulevard d'Italienne. of his long pent-up imaginings of the thousand and one pleasures with which that word is associated, he looked around upon the brilliantly illuminated shops, where the marble and plate glass united with gilding to produce that blaze of splendour which formerly one never expected but within the walls of a palace. He passed in turn the Café Chinois, the Café de Paris, the Café Anglais, and at last reached the Café Tortoni. Here, as the evening was a warm one in July, numerous tables were placed before the door, crowded with persons sipping their coffee and their ices, or indulging in the more classic delights of "ponche a la Romaine." My poor friend, whose head was half turned already by the splendour he had witnessed, resolved upon reposing his tired limbs in this happy locale, and enjoying to the full the pleasures by which he found himself surrounded. With some difficulty he procured a seat at a table which was already partly occupied, and, having ordered his coffee, set himself vigorously at work, to observe all and every thing about him. As was (it is some time since) the usual error with our untravelled countrymen, his opinions of France and Frenchmen were, in great part, derived from the impression produced by the older novelists and those ludicrous caricatures which our farces so frequently put forward, and he was perfectly prepared to hear nothing but the most trifling and frivolous conversation about him, and in fact, rather expected a rich harvest of amusement in the very serio-comic style of discussing the theatres, the opera, the fashions, and the beau monde, which, he was certain, would form the staple of the chit-chat on every side. What was his surprise to hear nothing but short, abrupt, half-finished, and to him, totally unintelligible sentences, which passed from one to the other in this great assembly, and which, by some secret understanding most puzzling to him, absolutely appeared comprehensible to the others. At first the din and buzz of voices rendered every thing indistinct and doubtful, but as, by degrees, his ears became acclimée to the place, such sentences as the following fell thick and heavy around him 66 Banque de la Belgique""Trois et demi"-" Bitumen bitumineux"" Asphalte de Lobsan"-" Coloré"- —“ Gaz portatif"-"Les omnibus de Versailles"-"Action prise"-"Capital dix millions"-mingled with calls for glace a la vanille, ponche au rhum, eau sucré, &c. "What can they mean ?" said he, at length. "This place, with all its air of aristocratic ease and splendour, seems little better than Lombard-street or the Stock Exchange. They may call us the nation of shopkeepers, but who would hear any thing like this at Crockford's or the Clarendon ?" It was only on the morning after that my poor friend learned that the Café Tortoni is merely a section of the Bourse, where all great loans and mercantile speculations are formed and discussed, as the betting on the Derby or the odds at the St. Leger are settled at Tattersall's. There is one great and most im portant difference in the character of all the late speculations here, contrasted with those in England. In our country we find a peculiar class of men, strictly mercantile, having their views exclusively towards commercial advantage, and making this the entire business of their lives. In France the spirit of commercial enterprise is only another name for a gambling speculation. There is a kind of dilletanti shareholder who dabbles in every thing in the market, and although he could not tell the difference between the mines of Mexico and those of Hayti, holds shares in both, and trades upon their fortunes. The fashionable idler, with his coat of half velvet, his porcelain-headed cane, his hair en jeune France, and his boots like enamel, pulls off his perfumed kid glove to examine a share in a new company for "incombustible blacking"-while a no less elegant and distingué lady, bejewelled and cashmered, examines her reticule for her "actions" in the new company for insuring the life of les animaux domestiques-such as lap-dogs and canary birds; and hence, scarcely can a speculation, no matter how useful or how promising, be started without entailing its share of ridicule from associating with others, whose absurdity invoked all the censure of the press. From attacks of this nature Louis Phillippe himself has not been excepted, and, under the soubriquet of Robert Macaire," some of the most caustic and bitter satire launched at the monarch, whose fondness for trafficking in "les actions de la Bourse" have elicited censure from even the better disposed portion of the Parisian journals. That the government in France have availed themselves of official information for the furtherance of mercantile speculations, has been often asserted, and the journals have not scrupled to charge the ministry, at different periods, with employing the telegraph in aid of their plans. How far this may or may not be true it is almost impossible to say, and, indeed, no merely circumstantial evidence should ever be accounted sufficient to establish so grave and weighty a charge. One anecdote I have, indeed, heard more than once, and always with the assurance of its perfect authenticity:-During the administration of Monsieur T siderable excitement prevailed upon the Bourse on the subject of a loan of several millions to contribute to the con success of the Carlist cause in Spain. Among the speculators in this loan were found the names of the Rothschilds, and others of the wealthiest men in France; the minister himself was also suspected, and with reason, to be favourable to the plan, and held, under another name, "actions" to a very large amount in the speculation. So far all was favourable, the shares rose daily, and even at a high premium it was almost impossible to procure them, when suddenly one morning a merchant appeared upon 'Change, and, with a most woe-begone expression of countenance imparted to some two or three dear friends that the news had just reached Paris of a dreadful engagement between the rival troops in Spain that the Christinos had gained a most decisive victory, and that the Carlist cause was almost ruined. The report flew rapidly from mouth to mouth, and the shares fell ten times more rapidly than they had ever risen, and those who had yesterday refused one-half premium were willing to give them at two-thirds loss. In the very crisis of this disaster, the commissaire of police appeared, followed by two gens d'armes, and approaching the merchant who had given the first information, arrested him publicly, for uttering false information-that no such news had arrived-and before the assembled multitude he was conveyed to prison for the offence. The result may be conceived. The shares rose rapidly once more, and at the closure of the Bourse had reached their former elevation. The next morning the Moniteur published officially the bulletin of the battle, which had been really gained by the Christinos. The merchant was liberated; but it was also found that Monsieur T had sold all his shares in a speculation which now was pronounced bankrupt. Of all the difficulties which assail English people, on their first visit to the continent, I know of none so generally prevalent, nor so hard to guard against, as the frequent mistakes they fall into with regard to the rank and social position of the foreigners they meet with. The man of rank with us is as certainly distinguished by his air and bearing, as the sea captain is discernible by his walk, or the Irish priest by his expression. There is no mistaking the English gentleman-no matter how far he be disguised in travelling costume and misplaced in his companions. Not so abroad. The prince, for aught his externals indicate, might be a pedlar; and I never yet met the man who could guess at first sight the rank of any foreigner he travelled with until he had spoken some time with him. The cordon which decorates the buttonhole of every second individual you meet, from its very frequency alone cannot be supposed to imply much; but the very little respect it ever inspires will be still further diminished on knowing that the wearer is as frequently an agent de la police" as a Chef d'escadron;" and, singular enough, while this is so, there exists 'a considerable jealousy concerning this really valueless decoration, of which I witnessed an instance some short time since. I give it from the note I made at the period. 66 66 Monsieur Augustin de la Maíte, a retired field-marshal, was this morning brought before the tribunal of the correctional "police" at Versailles, on the charge of having illegally worn the ribbon of a chevalier of the legion of honor. After the usual procés had been read, setting forth the offence, and witnesses produced in evidence, the accused was asked what defence he wished to enter? "I am, indeed, ignorant," said the veteran, with tears in his eyes, "if my name be inscribed in the registry of the herald-but this I assuredly do know, that I received this cross from the hands of Napoleon himself upon the battle-field of Wagram, at the moment when the shower of grapeshot, which left the brave General Lassalle dead at my feet, also gave me my twenty-second wound. This is my only title-I have never sought any other." And yet, after this short but eloquent appeal, the brave veteran, who had won every grade from simple soldier to general of brigade by his sword alone who had served under Dumourier, Jourdan, Marceau, Kleber, and Napoleon-whose blood flowed freely in every action, from Fleurus to Wagram, where his wounds at length disabled him-was condemned to a fine of fifty francs for having worn the ribbon of the decoration thus hardly won, his name not having been regularly inscribed. I cannot forbear quoting the antithesis to this instance. The Moniteur mentions, amongst its list of promotions, that M. Romieu, one of the |