43THE INTERNATIONAL MEDICAL CONGRESS.

it might be turned to account for city purposes. He was the

first really effective contributor to the Royal Infirmary, onwhich the prestige of Edinburgh as a medical school so

intimately depends. He was, also, on a similarly munificentscale a benefactor of the Royal Lunatic Asylum, and, indeed,laid every medical charity in city and suburb under theheaviest obligations. During the terrible cholera visitationof 1832, at a time when the strangeness and intractability ofthe disease induced a panic in the community, he visited thedown-stricken of the humbler classes in the Canongate andother poor quarters of Edinburgh, and in spite of the remon-strances of friends, medical and other, he continued his

daily rounds till the epidemic had disappeared, and then heconveyed the more urgent of the convalescents to Penicuickfor the benefit of country air. Throughout his long lifehe never ceased to give the poor and the suffering the helpthey required-not in the way of indiscriminate charity, butafter the bestowal of thought on each individual case intowhich he had made personal investigations. Education, frominfancy to adult age, was another object on which he lavishedhis time, his consideration and his means, and the Cowan

Institute, which perpetuates his name, is but the fittingculmination to a series of kindred undertakings on a smallerscale for the intellectual and moral development of the placein which his lot was cast. Such a career is well worthy ofrecognition in the columns of THE LANCET, and especiallyat a time when social problems are daily acquiring amore pressing character and when the healing art, in its

widest interpretation, has need of every auxiliary the layworld can contribute for the rehabilitation of the presentand the prophylaxis of the future.

THE INTERNATIONAL MEDICAL CONGRESS.

OUR own correspondent, writing from Rome on June 24th,says: "His Excellency Signor Genala, Minister of Public

Works, in an important State paper just issued, announces thatthe Policlinico,’ in part of which the International MedicalCongress will hold its sittings, will receive the first instalmentof the sum (10,000,000fr. or £400,000) reserved for the com-pletion of the building quccna prim?t,27i, four years being thetime estimated as likely to elapse before it can really be pro-nounced un fait accompli. In addition to the portions of itnow in a finished state, the clinical wards and the construc-tion of the departmental accommodation in connexion withthese will be proceeded with at once. With the balance ofthe above-mentioned sum (should such there be) the Govern-ment, in accord with the Amministrazione Ospitaliera,contemplates the institution of one or more pavilions in thegrounds of the Policlinico for supplementary hospitalpurposes. Meanwhile the Segreteria Generale of the

Congress continues to receive acceptances from variousforeign Powers of the invitations it sent them to take part inthe sittings. A strong representative body from the SpanishGovernment schools and services has already been nominated,in which it will suffice to mention Dr. Angelo Fernandez Caro,Senator of the kingdom and Sub-inspector of Hygiene, as dele-gate of the Admiralty of Spain. Bavaria, according to acommunication from its Minister of Foreign Affairs, has alsocompleted and sent in its list of representatives. From the

War Minister of the same Government a circular has beenreceived by all the army medical officers in the Bavarian

service, intimating to them the date of the opening of theCongress and expressing the hope that, in as large numbersas possible, they will avail themselves of the opportunity ofattending its sittings. The organising committee of the

Esposizione Internazionale di Medicina e d’ Igiene, to beheld from Sept. 15th till Oct. 15th following, has alreadyremoved its secretarial and presidential offices to the Palazzodi Belle Arti in the Via Nazionale, where the utmost energyis being put forth for the arrangement of the exhibits, which

will be on view in the spacious halls of the palace itself andin the contiguous gardens. So great has been the influx ofmedical, surgical and hygienic products and articles fromAmerica and the Continent of Europe that the committeehave had to postpone the final day for sending them in tillJuly 31st. This it has agreed to do at the instance of theCommendatore Luigi Pagliani, Director-General of PublicHealth at the Ministry of the Interior, Rome, to whom allapplications on the part of intending exhibitors should beaddressed without delay."

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A LAUNDRY HOME AT BIRMINGHAM.

WE may take it as an evidence of healthy nationalfeeling that it has inspired a variety of enterprises devisedfor the purpose of raising to a life of use and happinessmany of those unfit for ordinary occupations, and whomthe hard law of selection would condemn to extinction.

Amongst such enterprises will rank that which is associatedwith the Laundry and Homes of Industry in Birmingham.The purpose of this establishment is to provide for

girls of weak intelligence or will who cannot take their

places in life beside their stronger sisters, and thereforewould easily lapse into the depraved and criminal classes.The institution comprises, besides the laundry, two

homes, and will accommodate sixteen or seventeen in-

mates. A small charge, 5s. per week, is paid in eachcase by relatives, local guardians or other interested

persons. Besides laundry work, some attention is given toeducation, both religious and secular. The scheme has hadbut a year’s trial, yet its history has not been unmarked byencouraging proofs of vitality. The establishment is partiallyself-supporting, and its methods are appreciated by the girl&themselves. Its further development will be watched withinterest, and we trust will not be suffered to languish forwant of its due share of material support, which, whether it.comes in the form of money or other gifts, will certainly bewelcome.

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THE PERPLEXITIES OF THE METROPOLITANASYLUMS BOARD.

MR. COHEN continues the useful function of trying te.

elicit the real facts of the case from the President of the:Local Government Board. We are glad that this sub-

ject, to which we have been trying to rouse attention forsome months, is being considered. The chairman of the

Board, at the recent fortnightly meeting, gave several illus-trations of the misery and disease which exist in the housesof the London poor, for whom these hospitals were built, andwho cannot be received for want of room. One reasonelicited for there being fewer beds for use is that small-poxpatients compete this year with those suffering from scarletfever for accommodation. It seems to us that of the two>

the scarlet fever patient should be first considered. Nobodyneed suffer from small-pox now unless the precaution ofrevaccination is neglected. Any person can be protectedif early recourse to the vaccination officer is made. Forscarlet fever, on the other hand, there is no such protec-tion, and it is sad to think of its existence in the crowdedhomes of the poor, some of whom are perhaps carryingon a small trade. This is a question that will have tan

be settled on some broad principles rather than on individualcases of hardship, but these cannot be disregarded. Theyserve, indeed, to elucidate the whole subject in all its.

many bearings, and are very painful and discreditableto our civilisation. Such a letter as that of Mr. Wm. F.

Blyth of Bethnal-green to the Eveniiig News and Post, de-tailing the occurrence of a case of diphtheria in a boy whomhe was asked to see " of his charity," living in a single roomwith three or four others-various other cases following in thesame house-must excite attention. In one case five personsslept in the same room with the child ill of diphtheria and