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Pomeroy White, of Hudson, was the first surgeon in this country who tied the internal iliac artery. We can not leave these notices of chirurgery, without mentioning the high merits in that department of Alexander H. Stevens, John C. Cheesman, and J. K. Rodgers.

Physiology has only recently engaged attention in this state. A young Canadian received a musket-shot in the side, which carried away a portion of the walls of the thorax, and perforated the stomach. He recovered from the effects of this injury under the care of Dr. Beaumont, a surgeon in the army, residing in this state; but a fistulous opening in the stomach remained, through which articles of food might be introduced or withdrawn, and the aperture permitted visual observations of the organ. The case was rare, and almost unique in the annals of medical science, and certainly in no other instance had such an one been made so profitable to physiology. By a series of observations and experiments, continued for a long time, Beaumont arrived at these results: 1st. The existence of a gastric juice secreted by the stomach, and exciting a solvent action on food. 2d. This gastric juice is found in the stomach only when it is excited by the presence of food or other irritants. 3d. The period required by the stomach for digesting different substances, the effects of various agents and the phenomena attending the different stages of digestion. These observations were made at intervals from 1825 to 1833, and were published in the latter year at Plattsburgh. The government of the United States made a marked acknowledgment of this eminent contribution to medical science.

Dr. Dyckman's dissertation on the pathology of fluids is held in high estimation. In the same class of publications may be noted "An Essay on Poisons," by Henry W. Ducachet; and "Experiments on the Blood," by Dr. Macneven. Investigations, to considerable extent, have been made by Dr. Francis, on the hydrostatic test of Hunter, to ascertain the viability of fetile and infantile life.

Independently of the connection of physiology with the medical art, the science has recently acquired interest as a part of general education in our colleges and academies, and forms the subject of a popular treatise written by Dr. Lee, of New York, and introduced into the school district library. The diffusion of such knowledge throughout the country reacts upon the pro

fession, and encourages its members to more careful and accurate investigation of the physical constitution.

Dr. Stringham of Columbia College, and of the College of Physicians and Surgeons in the city of New York, delivered very interesting lectures upon medical jurisprudence. The course of instruction upon the same science has been continued in that institution by John W. Francis, and John B. Beck. Dr. Francis has published several essays on subjects falling within that department; and has dwelt upon its relations to the science of obstetrics in his edition of the work of Dr. Denman. Dr. Blatchford of Troy, in 1817, published an essay on feigned diseases, which contains the results of much curious observation. T. Romeyn Beck and John B. Beck have given us, under the name of the former, a volume on the science of medical jurisprudence, which has contributed to modify, in many important features, our code of criminal law; and which is admitted in Europe to be the best work on the subject written in our language, and to display more discriminating and patient research, free from ostentation of learning, than any work in the same department now extant.

The periodical medical journals merit at least a passing notice. The Medical Repository was begun by Drs. Smith, Mitchill, and Miller, in 1797, and continued through twenty-three annual volumes. The American Medical and Philosophical Register appeared in 1810, and was conducted by Dr. Hosack and Dr. Francis. The New York Medical and Philosophical Journal was published in 1809, and the two succeeding years, under the superintendence of Dr. Smith, Dr. De Witt, and Dr. Macneven. The New York Medical and Physical Journal was commenced in 1822, and continued several years, by Drs. Francis, Beck, and Dyckman. The New York Medical and Surgical Journal, extending to four volumes, was published anonymously in 1840 and 1841. The New York Medical Gazette is a contemporaneous work.*

So intimate has been the connection between political science and jurisprudence, and so much have the members of the legal profession been identified with the patriots and statesmen who have overthrown a system incompatible with the development

*Notes concerning Surgery and Physiology were furnished by Thomas Hun, M. D.

of the state, and perfected a republican government in its place, that we shall not assign to the bar a distinct place in these notes, but shall occasionally advert to its condition and progress in a brief sketch of the political history of the state.

As we have seen, the germ of New York was a shoot from a commercial aristocracy. The Dutch, who had no popular liberty nor representative legislation at home, bestowed no thought on colonial representation. The company by whom the colony was founded had an absolute power over its government.*

The form of government established was essentially feudal. Charters were given to patroons, conveying large grants of land to be occupied by a tenantry, over whom the proprietor exercised military and judicial authority, personally presiding in his courts of justice; but in important cases appeals were reserved to the governor.† Such jurisprudence, as was then known in the colony, was derived from the civil law. The institution of human slavery was contemporaneous with the foundation of the colony, "the company pledging itself to furnish the colonial manors with negroes, if the traffic should prove lucrative." No legal provision was made for the diffusion of religion or knowledge. The jealous spirit of commercial monopoly in Holland forbade the colonies to make any woolen, linen, or cotton fabric, on penalty of exile; and to impair the monopoly was punishable as a perjury. The first fruits of such a charter were seen in the venality of the directors and agents of the company, who soon appropriated to themselves, under pretence of founding settlements, all the important points where the natives came to traffic, and jars and dissensions between the feudal possessors and the government necessarily followed. Nor did the inhabitants of the province immediately gain political advantages from the conquest by the English. Nichols, by whom the reduction. of the colony was effected, and who was the first English governor, during his short stay in New York, enriched himself as did many of his successors, by making new grants of land and exacting compensation for confirming those previously made. The governor chose his own council, and exercised executive and legislative powers. A court of assize was constituted, but the justices were appointed by the governor and dependent on him, and served only to increase his importance while diminish+ Kent.

* Bancroft.

Barnard's Discourse.

Bancroft.

ing his responsibilities. He called a convention of two deputies from each town, but conceded to that body no legislative powers; and the assembly, after settling the civil divisions of the colony, concluded their labors with a loyal address to the proprietor and retired, without having transcended the limits assigned by his representative. Yet the inhabitants had suffered so long the inconveniences of arbitrary government, and indulged such high expectations of participating in the enjoyments of the rights of subjects, on becoming a part of the British empire, that a spirit of liberty was awakened among them, which was never afterward to be repressed.

Governor Lovelace, the successor of Nichols, continued to exercise the same unlimited authority, and levied taxes and imposed duties, without consulting the inhabitants. The people assembled, in many places, and addressed to the court of assize, petitions, in which they reprobated their exclusion from legislation, and the principle of taxation, without consulting the people, as inconsistent with the English constitution. Failing to obtain any important concessions, the inhabitants in several towns resolved to withhold payment of taxes. These resolutions were laid before the court of sessions of the West Riding, whose jurisdiction then extended over Staten Island, Newtown, and Kings county. That court, assisted by the colonial secretary, and one of the council, adjudged the representations scandalous, illegal, and seditious; and the papers having been laid by the governor before his council, were, in pursuance of their orders, burned by the common hangman.*

The new patent granted to the Duke of York, in 1674, made no concession of popular rights, but confirmed his power to enact all such ordinances as he or his assigns should think fit, reserving a right of appeal to the king and his council. No person could trade with the province, without the proprietor's permission, and he was authorized to establish such imposts as he should think necessary. The arbitrary proceedings of Andross, in 1675, called forth meetings, in which the people expressed a firm determination to persist in their claims for a representative legislature. Those claims were submitted, by the governor, to his patron. James replied, "I can not but suspect assemblies would be of dangerous consequence; nothing being more known, than the apt

* Dunlap.

ness of such bodies to assume to themselves many privileges which prove destructive to, or very often disturb the peace of the government, where they are allowed; neither do I see any use for them. Things that need redress may be sure to find it at the quarter sessions, or by appeals to myself." The discontent of the colonists was not allayed by this answer. The governor proceeded to England for instructions, and returned with the information that the proprietor had condescended to limit to a term of three years the existing arbitrary imposts; a concession, which only served to excite universal disgust. The influence of William Penn, however, prevailed upon the Duke of York, and he granted, in 1683, what was called a "charter of liberties." It declared that supreme legislative power should for ever reside in the governor, a council, and the people; and gave to freeholders and freemen the privilege of voting for representatives. The assembly consisted of seventeen members, a number which was gradually increased to twenty-seven before the commencement of the Revolution; and the charter declared that no tax should be assessed on any pretence whatever, without consent of the assembly. But the governor was appointed by the proprietor, and the council were appointed by the governor, and both the governor and proprietor retained the right to negative all bills, and to prorogue and dissolve the assembly. No sooner had the duke ascended the throne of England, than he sought to overturn the constitution which had thus been founded. He decreed a direct tax upon the colony, by ordinance, and instructed the governor to reorganize the council, and to make laws, levy taxes, and control the militia, with the consent of the council alone; and added to these instructions an injunction to suffer no printing-press to be established in the colony.

The Revolution of 1688 was hailed throughout the colony as the harbinger of liberty. The general assembly was again reorganized, and the government assumed forms somewhat conducive to the maintenance of law and order; but still denying to the people rights enjoyed by their fellow-subjects in England, and maintaining a policy injurious to the growth and prosperity of the colony. The governor was directed by Queen Anne to take especial care that the Almighty should be devoutly and duly served according to the rites of the church of England, and to give all possible encouragement to trade and traders, "particu

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