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the unfortunate delay in dealing "promptly" (to use Mr.Gill’s own term) with the conditions tending to the spreadof this disastrous epidemic, and we need not go beyondDr. Barry’s official report for a full confirmation of whatwe have stated. We have received a letter from Mr. HughRees, written in reply to that of Mr. Gill published in thelocal papers. The communication, which is too long forinsertion, entirely confirms the statements we have thoughtit right to make in regard to this matter.-ED. L.

PROFESSOR PACINI’S LETTER.To the Editor of THE LANCET.

SIR,-On receiving my copy of your last impression I

found, to my great regret, that some misprints in the copyof Professor Pacini’s letter had escaped my notice when cor-recting the proof. I shall esteem it a favour if you willallow me now to correct the following errata :-Line 2 ofthe letter, for "ella"read Ella line 4, for " dictro" readdietro; line 11, for "attribuarla" read attribuirla ; line 14,for " morte" read morti ; line 16, insert " dei" before Lincei;line 18, omit the apostrophe after "del"; at the conclusion,for " afft" read affss°.—I am. Sir. vours trulv.

GEORGE JOHNSON.

A SIMPLE OPERATION FOR VARICOCELE.To the Editor of THE LANCET.

SIR,—I have for some time adopted a mode of ligature forvaricocele which has been found to answer very well. It isa modification of M. Ricord’s plan, and will be readilyunderstood by the accompanying diagram. The skin of the

scrotum, with the veins, ispinched up in the usual way,a needle armed with silk is

passed beneath the vein, punc-turing the skin at the oppositeside, and the needle with-drawn, leaving a loop of silk

projecting. A second needle is now passed in the oppositedirection between the veins and the skin, leaving a loopalso. The free ends of the ligature are then passed oneunder and one over each loop, drawn up tight, tied, and cutoff short, the knot on each side sinking subcutaneously. Theafter results are the same as in the cases described by Mr. A.Barker. The performance of it is quick, simple, and efficient.

I am, Sir, your obedient servant.W. DUNNETT SPANTON.

"THE QUEEN’S UNIVERSITY DEGREES."To the Editor of THE LANCET.

SIR,—My attention has just been drawn to a letter inyour issue of the 7th inst., in which Dr. A. H. Jacob admitshaving stated to the Royal Medical Commission that " astudent attending a Queen’s College may obtain all the

lectures necessary for a Queen’s University degree in twoyears," and refers to the Queen’s University of Irelandcalendar as proving that " two courses of lectures at mostwere required by the University in any subject and thesewere readily obtained in two years." Now the fact that twocourses at most were required is undoubted, but this doesnot prove that all the lectures could be taken out in twoyears, and in a Queen’s College. As a matter of personalexperience, I may say that I tried at Cork to take lectures inanatomy and medicine in the same year, and (after payingmy fees, a fact which may have aided my memory) found Icould not do so, as both lectures were delivered at noon andon the same days (vide Queen’s College of Cork Calendar).Now, as two courses of lectures in anatomy are required andone in medicine Dr. Jacob’s general statement about theQueen’s Colleges falls to the ground. Other instances oflectures " clashing could easily be given, and to show thestrictness with which the "two-thirds" rule is carried outlet me add that I have known a student who required acertificate of having attended fifty lectures, to be refused anycertificate as he had attended only 75 lectures out of a courseof 120, and the incident was not considered at all singular.

Passing over the curious statement that twenty-fourmonths’ hospital attendance is equivalent to two years andthree months, which, as the hospital year has only ninemonths, seems very strange arithmetic, we read "that

difficulty was always easily adjusted with the hospitalauthorities." The only meaning I can attach to these wordsis that the hospital authorities conspired with the studentsto cheat the Queen’s University of Ireland by means offalse certificates, and that this odious charge is not truealways must be known to every medical man, so I contentmyself with denying that such a thing could be done in theCork hospitals, and shall be glad to hear what evidenceDr. Jacob has of its feasibility in the other hospitals whichcould be attended by a "student attending a Queen’scollege "—i.e., Belfast or Galway. Judging from an uncon.tradicted letter in a recent number of THE LANCET, in

’ which it was stated that apothecaries’ apprentices obtain; bogus certificates from certain hospitals or schools, andespecially from the careless way Dr. Jacob speaks of so

grave an offence, it might be perpetrated in Dublm, but thena student cannot be in Dublin and "attending a Queen’sCollege " at the same time. And if the Queen’s Universitywere cheated why should Dr. Jacob think the crimes ofhospitals faults in its curriculum? Could even he, withhis evident experience, distinguish a false from a true cer.

tificate ?Dr. Jacob concludes his letter with the remark : "There.

fore it is quite true, as I stated, that a student could (andmany did) complete his entire curriculum in a couple ofmonths over two years." But this is decidedly not whatDr. Jacob stated, for he told the Commissioners nothingabout the " couple of months," and he now omits all reoference to the Queen’s Colleges. And what can Dr. Jacobmean by "a couple of months," which he elsewhere calls"three months from November," only to add that they were’’ always evaded? How could it benefit a student to havecompleted his curriculum at mid-winter, when the nextQueen’s University of Ireland examination would be inJune?

I have known over 500 Queen’s University of Irelandstudents, and have prepared many of them for examination,and am able to say positively that very few of them, cer.

tainly not 5 per cent., took out their College lectures ineven three years, that none of them took them out in twoyears, while the complete curriculum (college and hospital}always occupied four, and frequently five years.In conclusion, I call upon Dr. Jacob to inspect the time-

tables contained in the Queen’s College of Cork calendar,and having satisfied himself of the inaccuracy of his state.ment as to the Queen’s Colleges generally, to withdraw it(at least as far as concerns Cork), and further, to informthe Royal Commissioners that what he stated, or meantto have stated, was that the hospitals cheated the Queen’sUniversity, so as to enable a student to complete his curri.culum in a "couple of months" over two years, and notthat a student could honourably complete it within twoyears, as the Commissioners and the public.understood.

I am, Sir, yours faithfully,Oct. 10th, 1882. W. R. F.

B* We select this letter for publication out of a iiumbeiof long ones on the same subject, for which it is impossibleto find room. The writer of one of reasonable length sus," I should like to know even one of the many cases whichDr. Jacob has known to have been admitted graduates inmedicine long before the lapse of the statutory four

years."-ED. L.

NEWCASTLE-ON-TYNE.

(From our own Correspondent.)

THE annual meeting of our Hospital Sunday Fund washeld on the 5th ult., when the committee was glad to be ableto again report an increase in the aggregate amount of the1881 collections over those of 1880. There has been in the

year a slight decrease in the sums collected at places ofworship, which has been more than covered by the wo,k.men’s collections for the Hospital Saturday Fund. The rela-tive figures are as follows :-Places of worship collections.1880, £1943 5s. 7cl.; in 1881, £1911 3s. 7d., a deeres.e of