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THE MEDICAL PROFESSION

AND ITALIAN INDEPENDENCE.

[We feel certain that our readers will feel interested in the information contained in the following translation of an article which has appeared in the last number of the Gazette Sebdomadaire.]

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"Foremost among these is Charles Louis Farini, ex-Minister of Public Instruction and of the Interior, and now Lieutenant General of the Neapolitan Provinces. A pupil of Professor Buffalini, of whose doctrines he is an eloquent defender, his own works have chiefly related to Legal Medicine and Hygiene. Compromised in the Bolognese insurrection of 1831, then 21 years of age, he sought refuge in Paris, whence he went at a later period to Florence. There, his relations with Buffalini did not engage all his time or thoughts, for, in 1844, we find him preparing a document insisting, in gentle terms, but firmly, upon reforms at the hands of the Pope, and intended, in case of failure, to serve as a manifesto for a new rising in the Romagna. The Roman Republic of 1849 found him espousing the cause of the moderate party; and belonging to the public administration as Director of the Roman Council of Public Health, he resigned his post rather than swear fealty to a Republican Constitution. In a pamphlet which he published, while he commented severely upon the Republic, he did not flatter the restored Government, and he went into exile after the reintegration of the Pope by the French arms. This proved for him a most fortunate banishment, for he rapidly acquired in Piedmont a most important position, having two Ministerial Portfolios successively confided to him. In the Cabinet he was one of the wan nest and most useful supporters of Cavour's foreign policy; and his services after the peace of Villafranca, in securing the incorporation of Parma, Modena, and Bologna with Piedmont, are well known. Whether as Minister of the Interior at Turin or Lieutenant-General at Naples, he has always constantly defended, together with the cause of a united Italy, local traditions, and administrative decentralisation. Farini is anything but what is called an agitator. He is a man very devoted to certain principles, and very resolute in inducing their prevalence, displaying to this end much activity and intelligence; hut he is exempt from all revolutionary passion, as indeed is now seen, even at Naples, by his energetic repression of extreme parties.

"A short time since, when the important occurrences of the day called together the Turin Parliament, and the Cabinet of Cavour was menaced with opposition, one of the members was the object of particular attention. It was asked what course would be taken by Bertani, the friend and confidant of Garibaldi, —hot-headed, but faithful and resolute. He is the chief editor of the Gazzetta Medica di Lombardia and Gazzeta Medico di Sardinia; and has been a chief agent in bringing about the kind of federalism which prevails among the Medical Journals of the Peninsula. In the above-named Journals he has published some important articles on Orthopaedy, and an attractive Medical History of the Campaign of Rome, where he acted an heroic part. A native of Milan, he acted admirably during the five days of 1848, now as a tribune, now as a soldier, at one time flourishing his sword at the barricades, and at another his history at the ambulances. After the battle his compatriots placed him at the head of a Military Hospital, which lie organised with wonderful rapidity, admitting more than a thousand wounded in less than a fortnight. He exhibited the same ardour and devotion during the siege of Rome, treating French and Italian wounded with the same care as they lay side by side. Exiled from Milan, he established himself at Genoa, where he soon acquired a large practice and commenced as Medical journalist. During the Italian war, Bertani has had the direction of the Medical Service of the Garibaldian Legion, which he joined at the frontier of Lombardy. There again, thanks to his wonderful activity, and to the authority he knew how to maintain, he organised, while on the march, an ambulance service which any regular force might be proud of. One day his Hospital corps passing, with its baggage, before a corps of the French army, excited, by the singularity of its accoutrements, the risibility of the soldiers; but when the vast number of litters borne by magnificent mules, defiled past, exclamations of surprise and admiration burst forth on every side.

Remarkable is it, too, that after so many bloody conflicts, and after the marches and counter marches, which have conferred on Garibaldi's legion the epithet of' foot cavalry, all the materiel has been returned intact to the public magazine, and even increased by some captured Austrian ambulances. As a reward Bertani has received the Cross of Savoy, one of the most coveted of military distinctions. Returned home, he has published in the Politechnico a Medical History of the Italian Campaign, said to be remarkable for its learning and vigour. When Garibaldi undertook his Sicilian expedition, he could not do without his beloved Bertani. This time, however, in place of putting the wounded under his charge, he confided to him the still more important and delicate mission of centralising the popular subscription, amounting to more than twenty million francs, and of recruiting, clothing, and expediting the reserves. His house at Genoa now became transformed into a ministerial office, where seven secretaries and ten committees were constantly at work, and whence were sent out 2400 volunteers in less than four months. After the Dictator and the Minister, Bertani has certainly done more than any other man for the Italian revolution. His intimate connexion, and perfect understanding with the General, have necessarily mixed him up with the political altercations which have taken place between Turin and Naples; and he has been accused of having inspired or signed certain decrees. But no one has ever cast any doubt upon the entire sincerity of his opinions, and the superior intelligence which he has exhibited.

"The Expeditionary Corps of Garibaldi contained several Medical notabilities, some being attached to the ambulances, while others exchanged the instrument-case for the musket or the sabre—all having become innured to arms during preceding campaigns. At the head of the Medical Department was placed Ripari, of Cremona, who having already at Rome filled the office of Chief Medical Officer of the Garibaldian Legion resumed it in the Neapolitan States. He passed seven or eight years in the prisons of Pagliano as a political detenu, and he states that he at last owed his deliverance to a French lady, foster-sister of' a most high and all-powerful personage to whom many other Italian exiles have become attached by ties of gratitude. After Ripari all we can mention from personal knowledge are Marozzi, of Pavia, a veteran of the Venetian army under Manin, and familiarised by long acquaintance with bombs, cholera, and famine—Brambilla and Gemelli, distinguished Surgeons of the great Milan Hospital, who both accompanied Garibaldi to Sicily as they had already followed him in Lombardy, and both received the medal for military valour— and Cristoforis, brother of the captain of that name, and author of a remarkable memoir, based on experimental researches on Sub-periosteal Section of the Pubis, which recently appeared in Omodei's Annali. Among the Physicians who served as officers or as simple soldiers were Andrea Bianchi, a Deputy of the Turin Parliament, who marched out knapsack on his back and fought bravely on the banks of tie Volturno — Boldriui, a man of great courage — Sacchi, mildness itself at home but a very devil in battle, whom the caresses of wife and children could not retain—and Tommasi, a pupil of Buffalini, a first prize holder and afterwards Prosector of the Medical School at Florence.

"We are only here speaking of those of our confrères who followed Garibaldi into Southern Italy. The list would be too long were we to name all those who have distinguished themselves either in the regular army arriving in aid of the insurrection, or in the war of 1859. Two, however, we will advert to, —Professor Cortesi, of Padua, and Maestri. Cortesi, who belongs to the Piedmontese army, is the author of some good memoirs on Military Surgery; and Maestri, who as Regimental Surgeon made the campaign of Italy in Garibaldi's Legion, was formerly a Director of a motion de sante at Milan. He was wounded near Brescia, and received the medal for military valour. During the great insurrection of 1849 he was taken prisoner with arms in his hands, and was well nigh being shot. Excluded from the Austrian amnesty, he emigrated; and it is only through recent events that he has been enabled to return to his round y. He belongs to the Medical Press of Italy.

"A special mention is also due to those Civil Practitioners whom circumstances have called to manifest their devotion to the national cause. The battles of 1859 overcrowded all the Hospitals of Northern Italy with the wounded. A sanitary commission was organised, and large Hospitals were opened for the wounded and sick of the three belligerent nations. After the battles of Magenta and Melagnano, a few hours sufficed to open twenty-four Hospitals in the city of Milan, where nearly twenty-six thousand soldiers were provided for by 280 Civil Practitioners. After Solferino, Brescia, with a population of 30,000 souls, opened thirty-two Hospitals, and received patients therein equal in number to one-half of its inhabitants. In the various localities the Practitioners of the towns and villages rushed to the succour of the wounded, even to the field of battle and under the fire of the enemy. This heroic conduct has been fully appreciated by the military Medical officers of both the National and the French armies; and between the military and civil Practitioners, between the heads of the French Medical Service, and the Physicians of the improvised Hospitals, there has taken place an interchange of correspondence, in which gratitude and sympathy have dictated sentiments and expressions naturally called forth by events of such importance. During all the vast rush of emotions under which all Lombardy has been in ecstasies, filling the Corso or la Scala of Milan with tumult and vivat, and crowding the ladies with their handkerchiefs to the balconies, there has been established in the Medical atmosphere a more restrained, deeper, and more durable current, in harmony with the grandeur of their great united work of courage and charity. Fourteen crosses of the Legion of Honour have been distributed among the Italian Practitioners: of this number the Medical Press has received four, in the persons of Strambio, editor of the Gazzetta Medica di Lombardia; Borelli, editor of the Gazetta Medica dei Stati Sardi; Griffini, editor of the Annali Omodei; and Massore, editor of the Liguria Medica. The distinction was intended to recompense the intelligent zeal which they had shown in the establishment of Provisional Hospitals. M. Marzolo, a Practitioner of Padua, had manifested so much humanity towards the wounded of the enemy, that the Austrian government felt itself compelled to decree him a medal. But Hippocrates still lives, and the present was refused.

"Finally, besides these confrères who have thus become directly mingled with the Italian movement, there are others who have served it, and still serve it, in the Chambers; and several of these, notwithstanding numerous occupations either professional or scientific, find time to take an active and brilliant part in the Parliamentary debates. Among these are Professor Bo, who has taken a part in the International Commission on Quarantine, Tommati, Professor of Anatomy, Grillenzoni, Professor of Obstetrics at Bologna, Maria, one of the founders of the Medical Association of Upper Italy, Lanza, who has been successively Minister of Public Instruction and of Finance; Borelli, formerly attached to the provisional Hospitals, also a very active Member of the Turin Parliament. Finally, there is the illustrious Senator Matteuci, the important part played by whom is well known. Although the Medical Profession has not the honour to number him in its ranks, his labours have a direct bearing upon Medicine, and no one can be ignorant of the beautiful applications which he has made of physical science to physiology."












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