THIS esteemed member of our profession died at Ashford on the 7th instant, at the age of 63. He was descended from a highly respectable family, for a long period resident in Kent. He was the second son of Mr. William Whitfeld, who had an extensive medical practice in Ashford and neighbourhood for upwards of forty years. In i829, after the completion of his medical studies at the Middlesex Hospital, he joined his father. During the latter part of his professional career he took into partnership

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... r. Lewis Paine, Dr. Maund, and Mr. E. W. Thurston, successively, and he was arranging his retirement from practice just previously to his decease. The manner in which he exercised his profession, rather by advice than by the excessive use of drugs, moderated his income; but those who had faith in and acted upon his judicious advice had reason to be grateful. He was a hearty supporter of every institution in his town which had for its end the social wellbeing of mankind, or their material and intellectual advancement. Throughout his professional career he was a reformer of all abuses and follies. In 1845, he published a pamphlet on tight lacing and its consequences. Subsequently, he endeavoured to attract attention to the general laws of health, especially inculcating the importance of ventilation in sleeping apartments and in all inhabited buildings, and pointing out the evils arising from neglecting to take a requisite quantity of sleep. He was also a warm supporter of the temperance movement, and was himself an abstainer from all exciting fluids, though he did not hesitate to recommend their use as medicine in illness. The Ashford Mechanics' Institute owes its origin and continued existence to his strenuous exertions and pecuniary assistance. He took upon himself, with the co-operation of the committee, to provide it with lecturers, undertaking to pay all the expenses, and when the receipts were insufficient for the purpose he always paid the deficiency out of his own purse. He was a most useful member, first of the old body of Town Commissioners, and when that body was abolished, of the Local Board; always advocating progress, whether in drainage or other sanitary matters, or in other improvements for the comfort and convenience of the inhabitants. At the time of the formation of the Ashford Cemetery, he worked energetically and successfully to carry the erection of mortuary chapels, and, as a member of the Burial Board, he was a regular attendant. His great desire (says the Kentish Express, from which we quote) to advocate everything for the improvement of the town, or the benefit of its inhabitants, is so well known that it would be superfluous to enumerate more of the advantages which the town and neighbourhood owe to his exertions. His funeral took place of Wednesday evening, and was attended by a general and spontaneous manifestation of respect from the inhabitants of the town and neighbourhood. In the funeral procession, which comprised 300 persons, were, with others, the Chairman and members of the Ashford Local Board; the clerk; Dr. Bowles (Folkestone); Messrs. W. Sheppard (Ashford); F. Pittock (Sellindge); and W. F. Brook (Wye)representatives of the South Eastern Branch of the British Medical Association, of which Mr. Whitfeld had long been a member; then came a long train of clergymen, dissenting ministers, professional gentlemen, tradesmen, employes of the South Eastern Company, members of the Institutes, the Ashford Fire Brigade, and other local bodies. All the medical gentlemen in the town attended. MEDICAL NEWS. CHARING-CROSS HOSPITAL. THE prizes to the students of the medical school attached to this hospital were distributed on July 12th, in the presence of a large number of ladies and gentlemen. Professor Owen presided. The following prizes were awarded:-Governors' Clinical Silver Medal, Mr. Kidd. Botany, a silver medal, Mr. Noakes; certificates of honour, Mr. Leigh, Mr. Drake, and Mr. Graham. Materia Medica and Therapeuticssilver medal, Mr. Atkinson; certificates of honour, Mr. Leigh and Mr. Noakes. Midwifery, silver medal, Mr. Towt; certificate of honour, Mr. Conolly. Pathology and Morbid Anatoiny-silver medal, Mr. Hyde; certificate of honour, Mr. Conolly. Forensic Medicine-silver medal, Mr. Conolly; certificate of honour, Mr. Rix. Practical Chemnistry-silver medal, Mr. Leigh; certificate of honour, Mr. Noakes. Senior Anatomy-silver medal, Mr. Leigh; certificate of honour, Mr. Walker. 7unior Anatomy-bronze medal, Mr. Routh; certificate of honour, Mr. Taylor. Chemistry-silver medal, Mr. Lea; certificates of honour, Mr. Taylor and Mr. Whitelam. Senior MNeine-silver medal, Mr. Gosse; certificate of honour, Mr. Towt. 7unior Medicine -bronze medal, Mr. Gravelle; certificate of honour, Mr. Leigh. Senior Physiology-silver medal, Mr. Noakes; certificates of honour, Mr. Drake and Mr. Burroughs. ?unior Physiology-bronze medal, Mr. Chittenden. Surgery-silvei medal, Mr. Hyde; certificates of honour, Mr. Towt and Mr. Kidd. Professor Owen, after distributing the prizes, delivered a short address in which he referred to the probable future of medical science. Taking the present state of ophthalmic surgery as an illustration of the way in which a perfect knowledge of the anatomy of an organ, and a perfect knowledge of its special function, enable the surgeon to predict the course of its diseases and the results of his treatment, as well as to produce effects which the unin. structed would almost call miraculous, he held out the hope that a similar knowledge of structure and function, and similar powers thence arising, would in due time be gained with regard to other portions of the frame. He dwelt also upon the value of prizes as incentives to mental effort, the effects of which endured whether the prize was gained or not, and spoke of the good social influence of such gatherings as that over which he had been called upon to preside. ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS OF ENGLAND.-The following gentlemen passed their primary examinations in anatomy and physiology, at a meeting of the Court of Examiners, on July 13th; and, when eligible, will be admitted to the pass. examination: