The correspondence relating to the Lancet Sanitary Commission : (which appeared lately in The Times) / examined by James Caesar Durnford, John A. Power and Raymond S. Daniell ; with an appendix of documents.

  • Durnford, James Caesar.
Date:
1856
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The correspondence relating to the Lancet Sanitary Commission : (which appeared lately in The Times) / examined by James Caesar Durnford, John A. Power and Raymond S. Daniell ; with an appendix of documents. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    LETTER VII. [Dr. Letheby, not satisfied with attacking Dr. Hassall in the Times, continues the correspondence in the Medical Times and Gazette, in the following letter, which is in many parts nearly verbatim a copy of his last letter to the Times. To this letter Dr. Hassall did not attempt to offer any reply, preferring to treat it with silence. Some of its state- ments are refuted in the appendix.] THE HASSALL TESTIMONIAL. To the Editor of the “ Medical Times ” and “ Gazette.” Sir, — In the Medical Times of last week you allude to the proposed testimonial to Dr. Hassall as a premature affair, seeing that the services of other persons have been engaged in the same inquiry, and with equal success. I am quite sure that the correspondence which has been pub- lished in the Times during the last week will show that the testimonial is not only premature, but also, as I think, unmerited; that Mr. Wakley, Mr. Postgate, Mr. Miller, and myself have had no incon- siderable share in the work which Dr. Hassall claims as his own. In fact, as regards my own share in this investigation, it will be manifest, from an examination of the Commission Reports, that Chymistry has done more to expose the character of the frauds practised on the people than the microscope possibly could have done. The former has exhibited the kinds of adulteration which are mischievous to the health of the people ; the latter merely those which are frauds on the pocket. What matters it, in a sanatory point of view, that the starches are sub- stituted for each other, and that wheat-flour, or barley-meal, is the stock material for increasing the weight and bulk of substances; but when we come to find that the mineral acids, the filthy earths, and the poisonous metals are resorted to as a means of masking fraud, then, indeed, are we in a condition to show that it is high time to have a parliamentary inquiry into such a matter. To Mr. Wakley is due the honour of having initiated this inquiry; and I wish that 1 could say as much in favour of Dr. Hassall. A public opinion has, however, been formed on this subject; and, to judge from the leader in the Times of the 24th instant, it would appear as if Dr. Hassall is the only man who has the smallest claim to public praise. This, however, has been set right within the last few days; and now I will trespass on the attention of your readers for a short time, while I recount the many instances in which chymistry has been made the means of exposing the frauds in question. As early as the spring of 1851, Dr. Hassall put himself in communication with me on the subject of the chymistry of his inquiry. From that time 1 have been constantly referred to, and have made nearly 300 analyses, of one sort and another, for him, and have given written and verbal