1188 THE FOURTEENTH INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF MEDICINE.

health in the Catholic University Medical School, Dublin,and examiner in sanitary science in the Royal University,as delegate to attend the International Health Congress tobe held at Brussels in September.

THE annual dinner of the’ Pharmaceutical Society of GreatBritain will take place in the Whitehall Rooms of the H6telMctropole, London, on Tuesday, May 19th next, at 7 P. M.

THE Paris Societe de Pharmacie has elected Dr. D.MacAlister of the University of Cambridge a correspondingmember of the Society.

THE FOURTEENTH INTERNATIONALCONGRESS OF MEDICINE.

(FROM OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.)

Madrid, April 17th.STARTING from England, Paris is naturally the first stage

on the road to Madrid, and here it must be confessed the

Congress news was not encouraging. First of all, the

French railway companies had never so much as heard ofthe International Congress of the Medical Press, but were

quite ready for the influx of travellers desirous to attend theFourteenth International Congress of Medicine. A reductionof 50 per cent. has been promised on the railway fares and isgranted, but no congress should ever be satisfied with suchan assertion, however correct in the literal sense. It isalways necessary to go into details. In this instance thedetails are numerous and have in some instances provedfatal, for instead of reducing they have considerablyincreased the expenses incurred. The reduction undoubtedlyis granted, but the intending traveller must not only possessall his papers in perfect order but when he presents themat the railway station he is told that they must be counter-signed by the secretary of the Orleans Railway Company,not at the railway station, but at the head offices in thecentre of the town, and that this will only cover the journeyfrom Paris to Bordeaux. For the rest, from Bordeaux to theSpanish frontier he must obtain the signature of the Midior Southern Railway Company, which is quite a differentcompany and its offices are in another street. Further, ifthe intending traveller happened to be a French medicalpractitioner he was informed that the railway companysecretaries would not give their signatures unless his paperswere signed by Dr. Brouardel who until recently was deanof the Faculty of Medicine and is going to Madrid where hewill preside over the French delegation. As might well beexpected, Dr. Brouardel protested vehemently. He was nota clerk that he should be called upon to sign railway passes.It was no concern of his ; why should he be expected tocertify to the bona fides of every French medical prac-titioner ? 7 Such a work would require time and as a resultthe applications that were made to him involved a delayof at least 24 hours. So many were the complaints thusoccasioned that one of the railway officials suggested that itmight be avoided by the French practitioners professing tocome from the French-speaking provinces of Belgium. It isin consequence of this suggested stratagem that an extra-ordinary number of members will appear to have arrivedfrom Mons in Belgium. However, and in spite of everyeffort, it took at least four days to obtain all the necessarysignatures. It is true that for the modest charge of onefranc an agency undertook to attend to these formalities, butmany do not care to trouble an agency from which they arenot obtaining hotel and other tickets, and the agency itselfwas complaining about the amount of unrequited work thusentailed.

Dr. Blondel, as general secretary of the InternationalAssociation of the Medical Press, has been striving to facilitatematters and has suggested that a special office should beopened at the Orleans station where all the formalitiescould be gone through at once and on the spot and thusthe delay be saved of some four days in Paris. One ofthe two companies had assented to this when I leftParis. If the other company also agrees then the troublesdescribed will cease to exist. In the meanwhile I had fortravelling neighbour on the way southwards from Paris a

member of the Congress who had come with his wife fromPoland. He entered France at the frontier between Metzand Nancy. There no one knew anything about the Congressand any reduction on the fare was refused, but he didobtain a statement that he had paid full single fare andtherefore vaguely hoped that somehow or other he would be

, allowed to return for nothing. In Paris he was treated most

politely, but it took him the full four days to obtain thenecessary signatures. During this time he calculates thathe spent 250 francs and that the value of the reduction inrailway fares that he obtained will amount to 120 francs, sothat he is distinctly a loser by the transaction. Further,having thus lost four days he is no longer able to carry outan intended trip to Andalusia before the Congress meets.

Over and above these difficulties the most alarmingrumours have been in circulation a.s to the exorbitant pricesof the hotel accommodation in Madrid. My Russian fellowtraveller had sent 50 francs to Madrid so that a room mightbe secured for him ; the receipt of the money had never beenacknowledged and he had not any idea whether any effortshad been made on his behalf. On arriving in the earlymorning at Madrid I found the agents at the station talkingglibly of 60 and 70 pesetas per day for a room, that 6000 or

i 8000 members of the Congress were expected, and that there

were only 3000 rooms available. In Paris I had been assuredthat out of 400 French medical practitioners who had enrolled

themselves as members of the Medical Congress and hadpaid their subscriptions, only 160 were really going, the

! others being deterred by the fear of exorbitant charges and, formalities and difficulties. All these rumours have a founda.

tion of truth. There certainly have been difficulties and lossof time incurred with the companies, though this has beenobviated by the travelling agencies when employed forthat purpose. On the other hand, it is some of these

i travelling agencies that are, I was assured, responsible forthe alarming rumours concerning the prohibitive chargesmade at the hotels. There are some six hotels at Madrid

r that are known to the travelling public all over the world.r They are cosmopolitan hotels, such as may be found in any

large town and where the traveller who, though abroad,wants to change his immediate surroundings as little as

possible, will find much the same accommodation as exists inmost other parts of Europe. Some agents made a descentupon these hotels and themselves hired the greater part oftheir rooms. Having thus secured a monopoly and made a" corner in rooms they ran up the price to fancy figures.At the offices of the Congress I was told that Dr. Brouardelhad been asked 200 pesetas per day for a room in one of thewell-known hotels. Another delegate, an Englishman Ibelieve, is actually paying 150 pesetas per day for one largeroom on the second floor in another of these hotels. Had themembers of the Congress been able to deal directly with theproprietors or managers of the hotels they would have hadto pay more than the usual prices but nothing like suchextravagant charges.

All this is the more regrettable as after all there is nodifficulty whatsoever in getting rooms and at reasonablerates. The organisers of the Congress appointed a longtime ago a special committee to look after this matterunder the management of M. Ulrich Frei. Any numberof inhabitants of Madrid have been to this committee andoffered one or two rooms in their own private houses, andthese, together with the hotels and boarding houses that arenot known internationally, suffice for all purposes. If it werenecessary sleeping accommodation could be found for 10,000visitors, and even according to the most sanguine expecta-tions there will not be more than about 5000 Spanish andforeign members of the Congress. At the offices on theevening of April 16th the names of 2180 foreign members,who are to be accompanied by 630 ladies, had been inscribed.But it is quite certain that many persons who have paidtheir subscription will at the last moment alter their mindsand not come. On the other hand, there are many otherswho never intended to come and will join only at thelatest hour. According to one of the committee men in

charge of the correspondence, &c., the number of membersactually present at the Congress, counting both Spanishand foreign members, will not amount to 3000. As alreadystated the most sanguine scarcely count on more than 5000.Therefore there should be no difficulty about securing roomsand any extortion that has been practised has been due to"rigging the market " and not to any paucity of accommoda-tion. This is a somewhat serious matter. If the repre-sentatives of the medical profession cannot meet withoutgiving rise to a sort of conspiracy to extort from them

1189THE FOURTEENTH INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF MEDICINE.

1190 THE FOURTEENTH INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF MEDICINE.

extravagant payments some measure must be taken to checksuch practices. Combination must be met by combination,and this to some extent is what has actually been done by thecreation of the Service des Logements. I was pleased tofind on arriving at Madrid that what was stated in THELANCET on this subject in the issue of Feb. 14th (p. 456)has proved to be correct. Nor is this all. This Servicewill have its agents now at the railway stations to await thepassengers and give them every help the moment theyarrive and thus, if possible, prevent their falling into thehands of the harpies who are seeking unduly to exploit thesituation. It only remains for the medical men to supportthe organisation formed by their fellow medical men of thereception committee and not be led into the toils of thosewho have sought to create a monopoly and then to practiseextortion by pretending that there is no room.

=- . Madrid, April 18th.It has been not only a matter of difficulty to lodge

satisfactorily all the members of the Congress owing tothe reasons which I have just set out but it has alsobeen very difficult to find a suitable meeting place forthe Congress itself. There are 16 sections, each needing ameeting place of its own, and then there are all the offices,secretaries’ rooms, &c., that likewise take up much space.Naturally the Faculty of Medicine seems an appropriate placefor the holding of a medical congress. It is, however,an old building attached to a large and antiquated hospitalat the far end of the Calle Atocha. This is a populous part ofthe town, the approaches are not of the best, and, in a word,it is not the sort of neighbouihood which the organisers ofthe Congress particularly cared to show to their foreignguests. Thus, while it was admitted as a sort of abstract

principle that the Congress should meet at the Faculty ofMedicine, yet everyone concerned was firmly determined thatmuch better premises should be obtained. That this shouldbe so was the more natural as a precedent had already beenestablished in 1898, when the Ninth International Congressof Hygiene and Demography met at Madrid. Like the

Ring Strasse at Vienna, so also at Madrid, there is a

magnificent garden thoroughfare which constitutes thefashionable lounge and is known as the Prado. Itis so broad that it holds several rows of trees, with

gardens and fountains interspersed amid the junctionof roads. Palaces, picture galleries, the monumentalNational Bank, and other splendid buildings line the sidesof this, the Champs Elysees of Madrid. Among these build -ings is the, comparatively speaking, new Palacio de laBiblioteca y Museos Nacionales. This enormous buildingwas commenced in 1866 and concluded in 1894 On the

ground floor there are the natural history and the archeo-logical museums, while on the first floor there are a greatnumber of palatial rooms containing the museum of modernpainting and art. It was in these rooms and surrounded bysplendid pictures that in 1898 the various sections of theCongress of Hygiene and Demography met. But thereis also within this vast building the national library,containing some 30,000 very rare and valuable MSS.and more than 500,000 printed volumes. Here it isthat the hitch in the arrangements has arisen. Thechief librarian, as one of his enthusiastic admirers ex-

plained to me, is one of those remarkable men who maybe seen perhaps once in 200 years. His knowledge ofbcoks is so extensive and minute that it can only belooked upon as marvellous. It seems as if he could not

forget anything he has ever read and he will frequently alsoremember the page and the line where any particular passageoccurs. To have secured the services of such a scholar aschief librarian is naturally most fortunate and all Spanishstudents are proud of their celebrated librarian. Now this

explains the difficulty in which the organisers of the MedicalCongress jound themselves. They wanted the Congress tomeet at the museum ; but the librarian replied that themuseum was in no wise connected with medical science,that students came from all parts of the world to study inthe library under his charge, and that it was not right todisturb them. The objections that any other librarian mighthave made would probably have been set aside with but littlescruple or het-itatim, but in this case the great admirationand respect felt for so remarkable a person as the presentlibrarian made the authorities hesitate acd postpone theunpleabant tak. At last, however, the librarian was sentfor by the Government and given to understand that thiswas a question of international politics, that the premises

belonged to the nation, and that the nation was anxious to-give its foreign guests the best possible reception. So the-librarian had reluctantly to consent to the closing of thelibrary for a few days.But now another obstacle had arisen. The museum, it will

be seen, is a huge building, simple in character, with the ex-ception that there are a projecting monumental entrance andcentral facade. (See Fig. 1.) Here are a flight of steps leadingup to three splendid art ironwork doors. On the floor aboveare a colonnade and balcony and over this are some splendidsculptures. When the building of the museum was com-

pleted the sculptures were but partly done. The sculptor hadmuch to do, the statues were being carved at Carrara in Italy,and there was no knowing when they would be completed.Therefore and so as not to spoil the general effect of thebuilding, and, indeed, so as to be the better able to judgewhat this effect would be, plaster models of the proposedsculptures were put up and there they have been for someyears. A few months ago, however, the statues were at lastcompleted. They arrived at Madrid and were given up tothe authorities. Of course the thought naturally arose

that it would be well if the plaster models could beremoved and the real sculptures put up before the Con-gress assembled. Seiior Sagasta was then Prime Mini-ster and a well-known architect, Senor Mariano Belmas,was asked if this could be done in time for the Con-gress. 1 hc ugh it would be necessary to erect very solidand elaborate scaffolding so as to take heavy statuaryup to the height of the roof safely, still Señor Belmasundertook to do it all in time. The work was begun butshortly afterwards, as all the world knows, Spain lost oneof her greatest ate-men—Senor Saga"ta died. The Liberalparty, deprived of his able leadership, collapsed and theConservatives came into power. But Senor Belmas is not

only an architect, he is also a Senator and was wont to voteon the Liberal ide. Now it somehow happened that somedifference arose between him and the sculptor. The Con-servative Government thereupon informed Senor Belmasthat he need not trouble about the matter any more

as they would appoint some other architect to finish thework. All this concerns the Medical Congress because this

I FiG. 2.

L Entrance to the Museum, 5hoBBing plaster statuary.

i policy of 11 ebangiing horses while crossing the stream" hasi occasioned such delay that the scaffolding is still there:andi it is doubtful whether it will be possible to get it all downj before the Congress is over. In the meanwhile the membersi of the Congress will have to enter the museum by some backj doors instead of ascending the majestic flight of steps and! passing under the art sculptures which have now just9 been hoisted into theii placesbut rare still hidden by the

1191FOOD IN WAR TIME : A ROYAL COMMISSION APPOINTED.

surrounding scaNuJdin. This miscitlculdtivli and. delay arecharacteristic, a little casa España of itself.

Fir. 3.

Entrance as it is, with scaffolding erected before it.

Other more serious delays have also happened. Themembers of the Congress will not mind much by which doorthey enter, but many complaints have been made becausethe various reports which were to serve as the basis ofdiscussion in the different sections have not been sent out.Theoretically, these reports should be circulated among themembers of the sections whom they concern some six weeksbefore the Congress meets and they can then be studiedand the members can prepare their criticisms. Thus carefullythought out arguments could be brought forward during thediscussions at the meetings of the sections. This, how-ever, has not been done. The reports are not printed andthere is no likelihood of their being published till longafter the Congress ends. This, however, is not the fault ofthe organisers of the Congress. The reporters who wereappointed have, for the most part, delayed and postponeddoing the work, and finally nearly all the reports came intogether at the eleventh hour. It was simply useless toattempt to do anything with them. Madrid is not a townlike Paris or London. In Paris there are a good manyEnglish compositors, and in London there is no lackof type-setters who can set up French manuscripts. Thisis not so in Madrid. Therefore the proofs have to becorrected and re-corrected over and over again. Thereis a circular now in hand which has taken more thantwo months to print and my informant had only justcorrected what he hoped would be the last revise. Thuseven to-day the definitive programme of the Congress is notyet printed and it will be fortunate if it is ready a few hoursbefore the Congress begins. this is not altogether the faultof the organisers of the Congress, for the facilities that existin great commercial centres such as Paris and London cannotbe expected in a small and purely political town like Madrid.On the other hand, the members of the reception committeeare very much alert and are with never-failing courtesyever ready to help and to advise the new arrivals.

Ia<1ricl, April 19th.It is not one Congress but a whole series of Medical

Congresses that is about to be held. This series will beerinat 3 o’clock to-morrow afternoon, April 20th, when theMinister of Public Instruction will open the International

Congress of the Medical Press. This Congress will meet atthe Madrid University, and though it is said that no lessthan 100 Spaniards who claim to be connected withmedical periodicals will be present the attendance fromother countries will be small. This is due to some extent

to the alarm caused by the rumours prevailing concerningthe exorbitant charges made for rooms in Madrid, a questionwhich I have already fully explained. In the evening thePresident of the Congress, Dr. Carlos M. Cortezo, willreceive the delegates at his own house, and it is only on theTuesday morning that the Congress will really get to work,when the general secretary, Dr. Angel de Larra, will readthe correspondence and report on the general situation. Inthe afternoon of Tuesday there will be a further businesssitting and in the evening the representatives of the medicalpress are to be received and entertained by the GeneralAssociation of the Political and Literary Press. On Wednes-day morning all business must be concluded, for there is tobe a midday banquet, followed by the formal closing of theCongress, and then a reception at the town-hall and somerepresentation at a theatre. As yet I only know of delegatescoming from Belgium, France, Italy, Germany, Norway, andGreat Britain.Then on the Thursday the great International Congress of

Medicine will begin, or rather the opening ceremony willbe held in the Theatre Royal. The stage will serve as theplatform where the King, the Queen Mother, the Ministers,and the principal personages of the Congress will be seated.The members of the Congress will occupy the floor of thegreat building, while in the boxes and galleries ladies andfriends will be able to obtain a good view of all the proceed-ings. Many of the projected receptions and entertainmentshave already been announced. Their Majesties will throwopen the palace to the congressists and there is also to be aRoyal garden party. The Government and the municipalityare likewise preparing entertainments for the members of theMedical Congress. But the definitive programme has not yetbeen published ; indeed, the last details will only be settledto-day-that is to say, only four days before the Congressactually meets. It will conclude on April 30th, but onthe very next day another Congress will commence. Thisis a congress of Spanish-speaking European and Americanmedical men. The Spanish-American Congress, as it is

briefly called, will only sit for two days. Finally, on

May 3rd the fourth and last Medical Congress will meet.This is a purely Spanish national Medical Congress whichis convoked to discuss questions of medical deontology orethics. But somewhere amid these four Congresses there isto be a meeting of medical men and other persons who insome official capacity are concerned in the preservation ofpublic health. The Deontological Congress will close on

May 5th. Thus a whole fortnight is to be devoted to thesefour Medical Congresses. The population of Madrid willnever before have heard so much about medical men andtheir concerns, The daily papers are already publishingcolumns of personal details concerning the leading membersof the forthcoming congresses, and yet in the midst of it allthere is to be a general election and there are ugly rumoursconcerning hunger riots in the south of Spain. It is perhapsnot the least of the many compliments medical science isdestined to receive during the course of the next few days,that no amount of home troubles or difficulties have made theSpanish Government and the organising committees falter forone moment in their determination to hold these Congressesand to make the members thoroughly welcome.

FOOD IN WAR TIME: A ROYAL COM-MISSION APPOINTED.

THE King has been pleased to appoint a Royal Com-mission to inquire into the conditions affecting the importa-tion of food and raw material into the United Kingdom intime of war. The reference to the Commission is "to

inquire into the conditions affecting the importation of foodand raw material into the United Kingdom in time of warand into the amount of the reserves of such supplies exist-ing in the country at any given period and to advise whetherit is desirable to adopt any measures, in addition to themaintenance of a strong fleet, by which such suoplies can bebetter secured and violent fluctuations of price avoided."The following are the names of the Royal Commissioners :-H R H. the Prince of Wales ; Lord Balfour of Burleigh(Chairman), Secretary for Scotland ; the Duke of

Sutherland ; Lord Burghclere, formerly Minister of Agricul-ture ; the Right Hon. Henry Chaplin, M.P., formerlyMinister of Agriculture ; the Right Hon. J. L. Wharton,