STREET NUISANCES.

THE HEALTH OF THE POPE. It consists of two houses, one for the children of the upper classes and one for those of the labouring classes. In the - cookery school they have to settle themselves what is to be cooked each day and how much they will spend. "To aid them in their selection and choice of comestibles a list is hung up on the wall, whcreon the exact amount of nourishment each food substance contains is carefully explained-for instance, how muchgood nourishment’ there is in meat, flour, vegetables, groceries respectively ; and on this list it is also clearly shown on good scientific principles how much of each nourishing substance every individual requires per diem. After con.sulting this chart and making their little list of require.ments and liabilities, the girls go out into the garden and gather the herbs and vegetables, which they are taught to cultivate themselves, and then they go and buy the meat, -groceries, &c., from a lady superintendent at the store-room. The girls are taught to enter all these various items of their .expenditure in carefully kept account-books, and then they start their cooking operations : one makes the fire while In two hours everyanother prepares the vegetables &c. thing must be finished and the little dinner ready. They cook it themselves." ’Then they have to " wash up," and afterwards they go home. We believe the School Board teach cookery, but we doubt if their course is as thorough as the German one, and we would adjure our English millionaires to follow the example set by their foreign brother in the possession of this world’s goods.

f till

swing, as itwas about two months ago, to walk down Piccadilly or the Strand was a positive penance. At every step a siren or harpy-we will not be too careful to discriminateappealed for pence for the little ones" or "the destitute washerwomen"" or "the young Bethelites’ country holiday fund." We have no doubt that the pennies of the charitable reached their due destination, but what we complain of in method of collection is that there is no guarantee to the this effect that the money is properly applied. In the Hospital Saturday Fund street collection this objection, of course, does not apply, but we fancy we are right in saying that the street collection of the Saturday Fund has fallen off by about £1900and this result is probably owing to the disgust of street collections which the numberless imitations have inspired. Mr. Loch says we must trust to persuasion rather than legal action ; but, in our opinion, if the officials responsible for the

sending out these beggars-if, indeed, there are any officials-and, if not, the beggars themselves, were punished under the Vagrancy Acts, something would be done to make the streets a little less odious than they are at present. Organs, newspaper boys who yell, street-sellers of toys that whistle or squeak-all ought to be suppressed as well. The charitable beggar is, however, in some way the most offensive of the lot, and we can only rejoice that by this very multiplication he seems to be tending towards extinction.

HOSPITAL PATIENTS IN VIENNA.

THE HEALTH OF THE POPE. OUR Rome Correspondent writes :—" The al fresco life His Holiness leads in the beautiful demesne between ’the Vatican Palace and the Janiculanhas told favourably on his health, which, all things considered, was never better than to-day. For one thing, he has no threatening of those fainting fits (deliqui) which, in the spring months especially and during the exigencies of urgent business, were apt to overtake him. With due allowance for the anæmia senilis, of which he has more than the average octogenarian’s share, this result is of very - good omen. The Commendatore Dr. Lapponi, are7tiatro to His Holiness, in reply to an interrogatory addressed to him the other day, felt warranted in saying:If nothing unforeseen happens, the Holy Father’ss consti,tution is so sound that he might well attain his hundredth year.’ No one is more familiar with that constitution, I may add, than Dr. Lapponi, who was Leo XIII.’s medical adviser as far back as the days when he was Cardinal Archbishop of Perugia. The moment His Eminence .became supreme pontiff he would have no other body-physician than Dr. Lapponi, and certainly the he has enjoyed under a mental ,measure of health and even physical strain that would have tested the vitality of far younger men says much for the judgment and ,care with which his health is safeguarded. Besides following scrupulously Dr. Lapponi’s prescriptions, Leo XIII. ’observes the simplest diet compatible with effective slisten.ance. ’Little at a time and often’ is his rule, his principal meal consisting of a cup of strong soup, a slice of boiled beef with a yolk of egg, and a wineglassful of Bordeaux or -well-matured Marsala. Truly a commendable example of

473

THE attendance of comparatively well-to-do persons in the out-patient rooms of the various London hospitals has long been a subject of complaint. Both general practitioners and the opponents of indiscriminate charity have lifted up their voice against the evil, the reality and magnitude of which are unquestionable, but no adequate or satisfactory method of dealing with it has yet been put into practical operation. The same question has for some years been engaging the attention of the medical profession in Vienna, and according to our correspondent in that city there is a prospect of united action being taken in the matter. The Vienna practitioners complain that not only do persons well able to afford the usual fees attend the out-patients’ department of hospitals, but they become paying in-patients at charges so low as to be unremunerative to the institutions, the deficiency being supplied out of the grants provided by the State. In many cases, however, such in-patients when suffering from surgical ailments are influenced by the fact that antiseptic operations cannot be performed in ordinary lodgings. The medical men of the present day are as ready as any of their predecessors to relieve the really necessitous, but it is felt that there is a growing tendency on the part of the general public to seek low-priced medical advice, a state of things which is injurious to the true interests of all parties concerned. With a view to solve the problem, our Vienna colleagues propose that only those patients who can show proof of straitened circumstances shall be entitled either to gratuitous medical aid or to hospital treatment at reduced scales of payment. If the idea reaches the practical stage the results of the experiment will be watched with keen and general interest. -

"

plain living and high thinking.’

STREET NUISANCES. IN the Times of Aug. 20th is a letter from Mr. C. S. Loch, the secretary of the Charity Organisation Society. We commend this letter to everyone who is interested in the cause of charity. The Hospital Saturday street collection was - bad enough, but of late an innumerable number of societies have started street collections, and when the craze was in 1

THE LANCET,

July 13th, p. 128.

MISLEADING ABBREVIATIONS OF DIPLOMAS.

DEGREES AND

IT is not proposed to discuss here in any way whether or not it is desirable that medical men should place after the letters or

denoting their degrees and diplomas the university examining board from which such degrees and diplomas

obtained. This question is one which must, we fear, be determined in large part by the exigencies of time and place. What, however, we would briefly refer to is the necessity, or, at any rate, the desirability, of adopting in were