893

and her colonies ; from Germany, Austria-Hungary, Den- mark, Spain and Portugal, have already been received

intimations to the effect that in each of these States or

dependencies will be formed a committee to cooperate withthe central organising committee in Rome, so as to obtain asrepresentative a body of the profession-consultants, practi-tioners and lecturers-as the respective nationalities or com-munities can yield. Another important step in view of the

approaching Congress has also been taken. The directors of

the various continental lines of railway have been addressedby the organising committee with the object of makingtravel not only to and from but also within the peninsula.as convenient as possible. Many of those taking part inthe proceedings will be loth to leave Italy without availingthemselves of a probably unique opportunity of seeing thetreasures, archæological and artistic, to say nothing of thenatural beauties, of a country renowned in history and song.For the benefit of all such the organising committee are intreaty with the railway and steamboat companies and themunicipalities of the Italian kingdom for the chief conductand comfortable accommodation of visitors to the principalcentres of interest so as to ensure their enjoyment of the sameas expeditiously and satistactorily as may be. The organisingcommittee, indeed, have already received from the AustrianLloyd’s Steam .Navigation Company a spontaneous ojfer to

reduce its fares by 30 per cent., while one tourist agency,well known in Europe, is preparing a series of special trips,for which the cooperation of the Italian rail way and steam-boat services is in course of being engaged. With eachsuccessive international medical congress the facilities and

advantages placed at the disposal of its members seem to

be multiplied and perfected, and that which meets in Romein the last week of September, 1893, will, it is evident, marka distinct advance in these respects on the most brilliant ofits predecessors.

"

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THE METROPOLITAN ASYLUMS BOARD AND ITSCRITICS.

A VERY sharp passage of arms is taking place in The Timesbetween Ar. Littier, Q. C., chairman of the Middlesex CountyCouncil, and a member of the Metropolitan Asylums Board.Mr. Littler attacks the management of the Board and the

way m which they invade pleasant districts of London, orrather of the county of Middlesex, for the purposes of theinhabitants of London. The latest offence is the erection of

a hospital at Tottenham—for the present temporary-for thereception of scarlet fever cases. Vlr. Littler describes with

eloquence and with something of special pleading the

grievance of residents and owners of property in a

pleasant suburb who wake up one morning and hnd thattheir villas are to be confronted with a fever hospital. He

suggests that the Asylums Board should be swept away alto-gether, and each district be required to provide accommoda-tion for its own infectious cases. This is a very natural

suggestion, but it is not so practicable as it is natural. Evenif tne forty local authorities could all be got to do their duty,and if they could obtain convenient sites, the expense of sucha course would probably be greater than the present, great asthat is. Then, as the Asylums Board Manager says in Wednes-day’s l’dnaes, it has not yet been shown that scarlet fever ordiphtheria spreads unduly in the neighbourhood of hospitalsfor the reception of eazseb of these diseases, as has been provedin the case of small-pox. The question is a serious one. Wecannot help thinking that a demoralising facility for going intothe hospitals has been fostered, until those are tempted touse them who could isolate cases at home, to the grievousburden of the ratepayers. We agree with the Asylums BoardManager that it is not seemly to nave the repreaentatives ofpublic bodies arguing with each other in the public press.The development of the hospitals for infectious cases hasbeen carried already beyond the number contemplated by

the Royal Commission. The proper course, it seems to us,would be to appoint a Commission to inquire into the work-ing of the present system, its effect in restricting epidemics,its effect on districts in which great hospitals are placed andgenerally on its cost and its efficiency. It is quite possiblethat such an inquiry would result in upholding the presentsystem; but even so, it might suggest checks and restrictionswhich are now conspicuous by their absence.

THE SWEATING OUESTION.

THE report of the Stores Committee of the London CountyCouncil presented at the last meeting of that body affordsfood for reflection of a kind far from pleasant. Whetherthe contract system which has been adopted by the CountyCouncil in the past, and which seems to be still in favour,is the best that can be devised on economical groundsis a question which we do not now stop to discuss. Ourimmediate concern, as medical journalists, is rather with thebearing which that system has on the requirements of publichealth. On this point statements were made by certain ofthe speakers at the above-mentioned meeting which werethe reverse of reassuring. Under what conditions, for

example, can the manufacture of trousers be conductedwhen such articles of apparel can be produced for

3s. 6d. per pair f Imagination revolts at the picture ofsqualor, wretcnedness and filth, with their accompaniments ofdisease, implied by such surroundings as must necessarily beattendant on work so inadequately remunerated. There can,we think, be but scant disagreement amongst intelligentpersons who have the material, to say nothing of the moral,interests of the people at heart that the contract system hasso far and as a whole failed to be capable of being safe-

guarded against abuses the evils of which altogether out-weigh any advantages which may be derived from its adop-tion, except those which accrue to the contractor. Mr. John

Burns, M.P., struck a sympathetic cord when he stated "thathe would continue, in season and out of season, the endeavourto stamp out sweating in connexion with every department ofthe work of the County Council.

THE LATE POET LAUREATE.

IT was fitting that the poet who was the successor ofWordsworth and the follower of a long and illustrious line ofsuch poets as Byron, Shelley and Keats, and who for halfa century has mdisputably held the first place in thisVictorian age, should be buried in Westminster Abbey as thelast tribute of national honour and respect. If he did not

always express himself in the most flattering terms of themedical profession in his verses, he did so in grateful wordsof personal recognition of our services. Tennyson’s positionand experience were unique in many respects, and profoundlyaffected the spirit of his conceptions, the mould in whichthese were cast, and the garb in which he clad them. Sincetime began there has probably always been a conflict-variedaccording to the intellectual standard and tone and the

aspirations of the age-between reason and faith. But

Tennyson found himself in a new world of thought.He was not only a poet and idealist, but a meta-

physician and speculative philosopher. His was not a

scientinc caste of mmd, but the doctrines and discoveriesof science nevertheless forcibly impressed him. He was a

profoundly religious man, but no sectarian. Reverence,a sense of responsibility, a penetrating insight into the

mysteries of this world, conjoined with a firm belief

in the unity of purpose and harmony underlying the variedand complex phenomena of life, never forsook him.

The son of a clergyman, born into the world at a timewhen the finality of faith and knowledge was commonlyregarded as bounded by the limits of the current creeds of theday, he grew up to manhood to find himself confronted with