the dramatis personÆ of the tercentenary festival of the university of edinburgh

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do. ANGEL MONEY has been appointed Assistant Phy-sician to the Hospital for Sick Children, Great Ormond-street, in the place of Dr. Barlow, promoted to the post ofPhysician to the institution.

IN a letter to the Lord Chancellor, dated April 6th, theEarl of Shaftesbury has expressed his decision to resign hisseat on the Board of Commissioners in Lunacy.

THE

DRAMATIS PERSONÆ OF THE TERCENTENARYFESTIVAL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF

EDINBURGH.

WE have good news for the alumni and graduates of theEdinburgh University. The event of the Tercentenary wasone not likely to be forgotten. In itself it was one of themost remarkable gatherings of the men of light and leadingin history. It produced, too, the " Story of the University,"by the lamented and accomplished principal, Sir AlexanderGrant, which is in itself guarantee that it will not beallowed to be forgotten. But as if this were not

enough, a most exquisite volume of "Portraits of the

High Officers and Professors of the University of Edinburghat its Tercentenary Festival" has been published at the

University Press by Messrs. T. and A. Constable. The

volume before us, which is so charming as to disarm allcriticism, is in a quarto form; but we gather that there area certain number of folio copies to be had by those stillmore luxurious in their literary tastes. For ourselves, weare well content with and very grateful for the quarto form,which makes one of the pleasantest and most valuableadditions to a library which we have seen for many days,and which cannot be too much praised either as regards thework of the printer, the compiler, or the artist. The artistis Mr. William Hole, A.R.S.A., who had already given someartistic intimations of the vivid impression made on hismind by the chief actors of the Tercentenary. In the fortyor fifty portraits now presented to the public, the art ofetching appears to the greatest advantage, and will handdown to a remote time a representation of the present pro-fessors. Even those learned professors whose physicalqualities do not facilitate the etcher’s art come out in

style so natural and life-like as to be most interesting.And in the case of a few of the portraits, the result ismost effective, as in that of Sir Stafford Northcote,of the lamented Principal, of Professor Blackie and his

successor, of Professor Masson (in his slippers, sitting cosilyby his fireside, and, low be it spoken, in the obvious enjoy-ment of his meerschaum), of Professor Turner, of ProfessorFraser, of Professor Douglas Maclagan, of "John Chiene,"of Professor Grainger Stewart, of Professor Rutherford, I,and of Professor Greenfield. Perhaps the most strikingpiece of art in the book is the portait of Professor

Giekie, sitting on a boulder, a hammer in one handand a geological specimen in the other style. The interestof the volume is greatly, if pathetically, enhanced by afrontispiece entitled " 7M’<8 Quaedam," and giving theheads of professors and others recently dead who have shedlustre on the university, and whose fame still gives a strangefascination to the school-notably Sir William Hamilton,John Goodsir, David Brewster, James Syme, J. Y. Simpson,J. Hughes Bennett, R. Christison, J. H. Balfour, T. Carlyle, andothers. Though the etchings and the general style of the bookare the chief attractions of this happily conceived work, weshould do great injustice to its promoters if we did not saya word in praise of the biographical sketches which areattached to each portrait. They are remarkably well done,occasionally perhaps betraying a little too much local com-

placency, but generally most readable and instructive. Wecannot too strongly express our pleasure in possessing such amemento of so eventful an occasion. The only qualificationof our satisfaction we have to make in our announcementof the book is that the number of copies is, we presumenecessarily, limited. The impression for sale of the foliocopies is 100, that of the quarto 750. Beati possidentes! /

INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF HYDROLOGYAND CLIMATOLOGY.

THe first International Congress of Hydrology and Clima-tology will be held at Biarritz in October, 1886. Amongstthe principal questions which will be brought before themembers of the Congress are the following :-The Influenceof the Phenomena of the Air on Mineral Waters, theElectrical Phenomena which manifest themselves in the

presence of Mineral Waters, the Combinations which formSulphur in the Waters termed Sulphur Waters, the Differ-ences of Action between Fresh and Salt Water in Hydro-therapy, the Hygienic and Dietetic Rules to be observedwhilst undergoing a course of Thermal Treatment, the dailyVariations of Temperature in Sanitary Stations, GeneralCharacters of the Geological Constitution of the Pyrenees,the Hygienic Conditions which ought to prevail at Summerand Winter Health Resorts, the Influence of Sea Air uponScrofulous Affections, the Influence of Winds, Quarantineby Land and Sea, &c. The Congress will last for eightdays, and excursions to various places of interest in theneighbourhood will take place. The honorary president isthe Minister of Commerce, and the acting president willbe Dr. Durand-Fardel, the post of general secretary beingfilled by Dr. F. Garrigon.

Public Health and Poor Law.LOCAL GOVERNMENT DEPARTMENT.

REPORTS OF MEDICAL OFFICERS OF HEALTH.

Worcester Urban District.-In submitting his eleventhannual report to the Town Council of Worcester, Dr. Strangegives marked attention to cleansing of ashpits and cesspits,to the care of sewers and house-drains, and to the supply ofdrinking water to the inhabitants; and he does so withspecial reference to a somewhat heavy visitation of entericfever from which the city has suffered. In the first place,Worcester still exhibits some of the old huge ashpits andcesspits, receptacles which were contrived in days whensanitary authorities were all but unknown, and whenscavenging was a thing to be carried out as seldom aspossible. Now, however, we know that these accumula-tions are hurtful in the extreme, and it should be a firstobject of the authority to get rid of such nuisances,especially in view of the risk they are to health. Much is,fortunately, being done in this direction, and it is to behoped that there will be no need to recur to them in futurereports, except as barbarisms of the past. As to the sewers,it is stated that complaints are made with respect to theemanations from the ventilators; but we can hardly agreewith Dr. Strange that, inasmuch as these ventilators are onlydischarging their proper function, it is unwise to complain ofthem. Sewer ventilators should not stink. If they do, theyare either not sufficiently numerous, or the sewers do notproperly cleanse themselves, or else offensive house-drainsare connected with them and foul them. If the sewers andhouse-drains are properly constructed so as to contain nostagnant contents, and if the ventilators are so numerous thata large number of them act as fresh-air inlets to dilute thesewer air before it escapes, then nuisance should not arise.But we fear that faulty conditions as to this exist in Wor-cester ; for Dr. Strange talks of sewer air being forced backinto dwellings unless it can escape into the streets. Such aforcing back should be impossible if there were an absolutebreak between the interior of the houses and the interiorof the drains. In many hundred cases this break has now