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Medicine and in Surgery, is at present frequently preparing for two and occasionally for three examinations at the same time. The studies for one examination clash, to some extent, with those for another, and under this influence, and that of the want of a practical character in many of the examinations, the student, towards the end of his career, when he ought to be making himself more and more familiar with disease at the bedside, frequently deserts the wards to be " erammed by the grinder." It.is extensively felt by the profession that these great evils, which weigh immediately.upon the public good, can only be remedied by a direct resort to the Legislature. The proposed remedies are threefold :

Consulting Physician to the Hospital, etc.GENTLEMIEN, I need not say to you, witlh whom I have so often worked with pleasure in these wards, what very great delight it is to me to come for one hour amongst you. My subject, as you will have seen from the announcement, is the influence of distension of the abdomen on the functions of the heart and lungs.Since the chest is divided from the abdomen by the diaphragm, which forms the floor of one cavity and the roof of the other, the ascent or descent of that movable partition while it enlarges one cavity encroaches upon the other. When the chest enlarges, it enlarges in two directions; one outwards over its whole circumference by the expansion of the walls of the chest, the other downwards by the descent of the diaphragm.When the abdomen is enlarged, it is enlarged also in two directions; one outwards and downwards with the extension of the walls of the abdomen, the other upwards by the elevation of the diaphragm. When the abdomen is extremely distended, the whole cavity becomes oval in form, or shaped like a balloon, as you may see in this diagram; the outer part of it presses outwards, and the upper part of it presses upwards. The cage of the chest is raised by this upward movement. The whole of this wide cone formed by the upper part of the large oval abdomen, acting upon the lower ribs, forces them asunder to the right and to the left, and lifts up the whole front of the cage of the chest. The more important effect, however, of this distension is to lift up the heart at the centre of the chest, and the right and left lung on each side of it. When these organs are raised, as the cage of the chest in front of those organs is raised also, the apparent elevation of the heart is much less than the real elevation.Distension of the abdomen may be caused by the distension of the stomach, the colon, and the small intestines, either singly or in conjunction ; by the presence in the cavity of the abdomen of gas and of fluid; by the enlargement of the liver; and by tumours and cysts.Swelling of the stomach and bowels with gas is caused not by the secretion of the gas from the living structures, but by its formation from the food taken into the stomach. This diagram, taken from a poor woman who literally died of starvation owing to cancer in the oesophagus, presents a perfect clinical proof of what I have said. You will observe, that there is neither gas nor food in the whole digestive canal. The stomach is like an intestine. The great intestine is smaller than a small one. The food that is in the stomach, and the food that has passed from the stomach into the intestines, are the cause and source of the gas that they contain.The heart, as you may see in these diagrams, rests upon the stomach.When the stomach is greatly swollen, the heart and the lungs, if healthy, suffer but slight inconvenience when rest is preserved; but moderate exertion, and especially quick walking, or the ascent of a hill, will often bring great distress in the region of the heart, and even actual angin...

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The address will be delivered on an early day of the meetiDgs, and in some convenient locality, of which due notice will be given at the timne.