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many still publish, the advertisements of persons who eitherin fact sell, or fraudulently pretend to. sell, dangerousdrugs for illegal purposes, while the police make no effortto stamp out the advertisements and the trade which theyenable to exist. Mr. Justice Darling uttered both his recentwarnings in Birmingham, the town in which T. Ottey, oneof the worst of the advertisers to whom we drew attention in Iour series of articles on the subject, has long traded, whilenewspapers in the Midlands and elsewhere have circulated

his advertisements. In these circumstances Mr. Justice

Darling’s utterances appear to us to be neither uncalled-for nor ill-timed. They had no reference to respectablenewspapers, and there was no need for any respectablenewspaper to apply them to itself or to feel aggrieved, eitherin the case dealt with by the Argus article or in that of theadvertisements of cures for " obstructions."

A TRIBUTE TO SIR MICHAEL FOSTER.

SIR MICHAEL FOSTER’S election to the great council ofthe nation has been made the occasion of a graceful tributebeing paid to him by some of his old Cambridge pupils.It was in its inception purely of a private nature and tookthe form of a letter signed by, amongst others, Francis

Darwin, W. H. Gaskell, L. E. Shore, H. Marshall Ward,A. C. Haddon, and Walter Heape, and expressed 11 the

loyalty, respect, and cordial friendship " of the signatories.They say that they can ill afford to lose either the weightof Sir Michael Foster’s name or his guidance at their councilsand they can hardly imagine a greater misfortune than thebreaking of the bond between him and themselves. " But,"they continue, "we rejoice that an arrangement has beenarrived at which will allow your interests still to centre in

Cambridge, giving you at the same time the opportunity ofworking in a wider field, where you may do for Englandwhat you have already done for Cambridge and where yourservices to learning may benefit not only England but thewhole English-speaking race." Sir Michael Foster has won

fame and honours in foreign countries as well as in his ownland, but few things, we imagine, will have pleased him morethan this simple and spontaneous proof of the esteem andaffection in which he is held by those whom he has trained.The work of a teacher is always hard and ofttimes disappoint-ing, but there can be no greater pleasure to a teacher thanto know that his efforts are appreciated and bring forth suchfruit as he would desire.

GUARDIANS AND VACCINATION.

WHEN last year the Leicester guardians refused to carryout the law by appointing a vaccination officer there wereother districts in.the Midlands containing a large number ofconsistent opponents of vaccination which had, like

Leicester, returned guardians to office practically pledged towithstand and render nugatory the Vaccination Act. Inmore than one of these cases as well as in that of Leicester

legal proceedings were commenced by the Local Govern-ment Board with a view to compel the appointment of avaccination officer, and in the districts where this happenedthe proceedings against the Leicester guardians, whichculminated in their committal for contempt of courtand ultimate surrender, were naturally watched withinterest. In such circumstances as these it was bornein upon the guardians of Wellingborough, among others,that to disregard the order of the court was, as we expressedit at the time, as ineffectual a manner of resisting the opera-tion of an Act of Parliament as to try to stop a steam-rollerby sitting down before it and making faces. Accordinglywhen the Leicester guardians acknowledged defeat the

Wellingborough guardians ceased to court it, complyingwith the law without further compulsion being exercised

upon them. In preparing for resistance, however, theyhad apparently incurred law expenses to the extent

of .f.43 10s. and this sum they put down in theiraccount to be paid out of the funds of their district,should it be passed by the auditor to whom the accountshad to be in due course submitted. This gentleman veryproperly refused to do anything but surcharge it to the

persons responsible for its expenditure, holding an adjournedaudit to allow them to protest should they choose to do so.A Mr. Abbott appears to have said at the adjourned auditthat at the request of his constituents he had given a pledgeto do all he could to make the Act a dead letter and to

prevent prosecutions for non-compliance with it. A

number of Mr. Abbott’s colleagues were equally candid inthe avowal of their intentions and motives, and the auditorcan hardly have felt any hesitation as to the course which itwas his duty to adopt. He accordingly surcharged those whowere present when the cheque for the amount under discus-sion was signed and who had taken part in the affair

throughout. It will be observed that no pretence was madeto assert any obscurity of the law or to claim that the legalexpenses had been incurred in order to assert or defend anyright genuinely believed to exist, and it may be pointedout that although the auditor disallowed the charge in hisown discretion had he failed to do so any ratepayer mighthave appeared and objected to it. Presumably otherauditors have done the same in similar cases ; should theynot have done so it is to be hoped that ratepayers will callattention to the burden of fruitless litigation improperlycast upon the rates. -

"IS INSANITY INCREASING ?"

A PAPER was read at the Manchester Statistical Society onMarch 14th by Dr. J. M. Rhodes, who was for some years thechairman of the Chorlton Board of Guardians and is now thechairman of the Ohorlton and Manchester Joint AsylumsCommittee, with the title, "Is insanity increasing?". Dr.

Rhodes pointed out that according to the fifty-third annualreport of the Commissioners in Lunacy the total number oflunatics in England and Wales on Jan. 1st, 1899, was 105,086,being an increase in a year of 3114, "the largest annualincrease yet recorded." But we are not alone. " In Francethe last decennial return shows that the ratio of certi-ned insane has increased from 247 to 252 " and

the ratio of persons admitted with folie alaokoliq1ttJ hasincreased in the 10 years by fully 100 per cent. Germanyalso gives the large increase of 6000 in 10 years. Denmarkhas a much lower ratio than other European countries, butit has risen from 137-3 to 165 per 100,000 during the sameperiod, the greatest increase being in Copenhagen where thecases are one in 300 against one in 400 for the rest of thecountry. The increase in Belgium is large and steady,and the statistics are remarkable as showing the greatpreponderance of unmarried cases, 7600 of the total beingsingle and only 2300 married or widowed. In Englandthe married or widowed exceed the single, the numbersbeing 10,272 married to 7744 single. Italy also shows anincrease of 24 per cent. in four years, and as in

Belgium the unmarried exceed the married insane, in

the former nearly in the proportion of two to one.

In the United States during the two decades from 1860 to1880 the insane increased in number by nearly 400 per cent.,but the rate of increase in the last decade was not so great.From the varying legal enactments dealing with the treat-ment of lunacy in different countries, however, it is

difficult to make safe comparisons. From statistics givenby Dr. Rhodes it would appear that some insanity is

part of the price of civilisation, and it seems also

that the standard of the civilisation of a country can

be gauged by the provision it makes for the insane.