THE FIRST INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS ON INDUSTRIAL DISEASES.

THE FIRST INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS ON INDUSTRIAL DISEASES.

forward to re-election and we have little doubt that his name will be found amongst the successful candidates. The other member seeking again the suffrages of the Fellows is Mr. F. RICHARDSON CROSS of Bristol. He is a well-known ophthalmic surgeon and holds that position on the atafr of the Bristol Royal Infirmary. As we have already said, there are three candidates who have not yet held office and these are in order of seniority as

Mr. W. BRUCE CLARKE of St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, Mr. G. A. WRIGHT of Manchester, and Mr. CHARTERS J. SYMONDS of Guy’s Hospital. Mr. BRUCE CLARKE was a candidate for the Council last year but he retired after the nomination, and before the day of election, and therefore received only a few votes. He is at present a member of the Court of Examiners of the College. He was at one time one of the secretaries of the Association of Fellows and this fact shows that he takes an interest in the affairs of the College. Mr. G. A. WRIGHT of Manchester is surgeon to the Manchester Royal Infirmary and professor of systematic surgery at the Owens College. He is the most distinguished surgical representative of a medical school which has for some years sent no member to the Council of the College. Further, his candidature is being supported by the Manchester and District Society of Fellows of the R3yal College of Surgeons of England and support such as this from those who know him is of the greatest value as an indication of the estimation in which he is held. The third new candidate is Mr. CHARTERS J. SYMONDS. He obtained his Fellowship in 1881, later than either of the other candidates, but his Membership dates from 1875. He also possesses the degrees of Doctor of Medicine and Master of Surgery of the University of London.

Fellows:

He is surgeon to Guy’s Hospital. There are many considerations which enter into the question of the choice of candidates for such a post as that of member of the Council of the College. - The medical,

school to which the candidate is attached has much effect for it only too often happens that a candidate from a particular school receives votes from those who have studied at that school merely because of his connexion with that

teaching body. In the same spirit many provincial Fellows vote for provincial candidates merely because they are proThus at this very election a circular has been we have already referred, by the Manchester and District Society of Fellows urging the Fellows of the

vincial.

issued,

College

to which

to vote for Mr. WRIGHT because he is

a

provincial

1771

prepared and digested so as to be ready for absorption. This work is arduous and takes up much of the time of those members of the Council who serve on the committees. Now it is quite possible for a provincial Fellow to attend the monthly meetings of the Council and we have nothing to say against the assiduity of the provincial members in attending the monthly meetings, but with regard to the committee meetings the case is far otherwise. It is practically impossible for a provincial Fellow to attend regularly the meetings of the committees, therefore they are rarely appointed members of the committees, while London Fellows have to bear an undue share of the burden of the work of the College. These facts must always prevent provincial Fellows being represented on the Council by a number proportionate to their numerical importance. Still, there should be some provincial Fellows on the Council and we are inclined to think that four is a very reasonable number when we take into consideration all the facts. Another consideration which should have weight with the Fellows in their choice of a candidate is the question whether the candidate is or is not an examiner at the College at the time of election. Undoubtedly the Court of Examiners should be represented on the Council, for in no other way would it be possible to know fully the thoughts of the examiners as to the status and mode of carrying on the examinations of theCollege. Therefore, a certain number of the members of the Council should be examiners, but on the whole it is better that the number of those who are at the same time members of the Council and examiners should be strictly limited. It must not be forgotten that in many institutions it is not permitted that members of the governing body should also hold’ positions from which they receive emoluments. Therefore, of two candidates otherwise equally suitable, if one is an examiner at the College and the other is not, there are arguments in favour of selecting that candidate who does not hold an examinership at the College. We have gone somewhat fully into the consideration of the main points which should influence a Fellow in giving his vote, though there are several to which we have not alluded. There is, however, one further point to which we should like to draw attention and that is the sinfulness of "plumping." The plumper fails to do his duty as a voter ; he only concerns himself with the success of one candidate and confesses to an utter indifference as to the remainder of the candidates who may be chosen. Such an indifference may be all very well in political matters but it is inadmissible in a matter which concerns the well-being of the science and art of surgery in this are

With the candidature of Mr. WRIGHT we have every sympathy, not merely because he is connected with a provincial school but because he would be a valuable country. addition to the Council. The circular mentioned points out that of 1341 Fellows 612 are resident in the provinces and therefore it claims that the representation of this large number by only four members of the Council is inadequate. " Ne quid nimie." It appears to be forgotten that a Fellow is appointed THE FIRST INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS ON a member of the Council not merely to represent a cerINDUSTRIAL DISEASES. tain section of Fellows but to do the work of the Italian AN Council. Now, the work of the Council does not consist correspondent writes: 11There is no joy modern in labour,’ says Ruskin-a remark which would only of the 11 meetings of the Council ; these are unbe less true if labour were carried on under more favourdoubtedly important, but still more important are the able sanitary conditions. To define the terms under numerous, the very numerous, committee meetings in which which the labourer can live and thrive with the maxithe real work of the Council is done. It is at these com- mum of cheerfulness and the minimum of risk was the mittee meetings that the matters brought before the Council subject that in Milan on Saturday, June 9th, brought Fellow.

Annotations.

1772 the first Congress, on an international scale, that but positively beneficial, after which a report by the has yet taken it in hand. Assembling in the Villa Reale President (Dr. De Cfistoforis) on Maternity and Labour in numbers which included representatives of every attracted many ladies among the auditors, its position European State, the Congress was opened by an able being luminously and effectively supported by the disaddress from its President, the veteran physician, sanitary tinguished Florentine gynaecologist, Professor Pestalozza. reformer, and Senator of the Kingdom, Dr. De Cristoforis. Much interest was evoked by Professor Massalongo’s thesis Noting his announcement that, for the first time in civilised on Tuberculosis and the Legi-slature as regards Labour, at experience, there will shortly be established in Milanuna the close of which, after a full and effective debate, the clinica per le malattie del Lavoro,’ I must pass on to the Congress came to a unanimous resolution calling for comagenda paper as worked out in the four ensuing days-a bined action on the part of the Governments throughout the wide, not to say weltering expanse, over which I shall have world for carrying to a successful issue the crusade against to speed in swallow fashion, skimming and dipping. First a now demonstrably preventable disease. Communications came Dr. De Giovanni of Padua (happily restored to health) followed on ankylostomiasis and the maladies that beset the labourer in Alpine tunnels, onSaturnismus’ and on ’IndividualitA e Malattie Profesionali,’ insisting on the choice of an cccupation being determined not by personal ’ La Questione del Piombo’ (lead), in the handling of which predilection but by the possession of the physical and mental the GermanCongressisti’ took a prominent part, winding qualifications which admit of its being safely and satisfac- up with practical suggestions for the protection of the torily carried out.Night Labour’ was the next paper-a worker, and on the perennial theme of ’malaria,’ which report on its dangers and the lesions it causes, by Dr. Carozzi provoked a pitched battle between Professor Grassi and Dr. Gardenghi, who showed (inter alia) the anoemia and Professor Celli of Rome, in which the latter produced by working in artificial light, the inadequate seemed to have the advantage, particularly in vindicating reparation of an exhausted system by sleep during the day, the success of quinine prophylaxis as recently practised in and the temptation to find in alcohol the energy and alacrity the Agro Romano. Other ground was effectively covered by thus withheld. Theextra-social’ life led by the night- experts on the lesions caused by the sulphur industry in worker they hold responsible for a good deal of themorbid Sicily and on the hygiene of factories dealing with sulphate temperament’ often noted in his class. An animated dis- of copper, till finally the Congress closed its cussion ensued which ended in an’affirmation’ on the with the impression unanimously shared that State medicine part of the Congress thatnight work is anti-physiological ; had made a notable and most promising start, in an interthat minors ought never to be employed in it, and that when national sense, with every prospect of revolutionising the social or technical reasons make it indispensable special con- conditions of labour in the best interests of employers as well ditions should be devised and enforced for minimising its as of employed." disadvantages.’ Professor Albertoni of Bologna followed "THE REVIVAL OF ’UNCTION.’" with an instructive exposition of the Balance between OUR attention has been called to a curious correspondence Alimentation and Labour, a subject which he has made his in the above title which has recently occupied a conand it sometimes its under the discussion own, evoked, pathetic the fare under which siderable of scanty (or worse) portion of the columns of the Yorks7tire Post and presentation severe and continuous work is carried on in Italy, was which deals with alleged examples of the recovery of sick wound up with practical suggestions for which the Congress persons under the treatment recommended in the Epistle might have made itself collectively responsible. On the General of that St. James who is supposed to have been Bishop ensuing day (the 10th) Dr. Pieraccini read a carefully con- of Jerusalem in the early days of the Christian Church and ceived and illustrated paper, to the conclusions of which the whose letter was declared to be canonical by the Council of Congress after due debate adhered unanimously, expressing Laodicea, A.D. 363. The correspondence commenced by a the hope thatmaintaining in force the physiological limita- letter from a reverend gentleman named Saywell who, comtions to the hours of work for women and children, an ’ menting upon a passage in the " London Letter" of our conInternational Conference should study and propose for male temporary, proceeded to describe an alleged experience of his adults the maximum time-limit allowed by physiology for own " 18 or 20 years ago," in which a " Mr. N.," not farther the various industries and industrial occupations.’ Dr. described, but suffering from "acute pneumonia,"had been Zanoni’s proposal that the maximum limit of the physio- "given up" by his medical adviser and although conscious was logical day and the capacity of each worker for his "in extremiswhen Mr. Saywell applied the Jacobean treatallotted task should be determined by medical visits ment of unction and prayer, with the result that the patient, had many to approve it but failed to get unanimous a quarter of an hour after Mr. Saywell’s departure, "sat up adhesion, and after it came a really brilliant paper by in bed and asked for a mutton-chop." It seems to be implied Professor Crisafulli who dwelt on Phrenasthenia and in the narrative, although it is not expressly stated, that the Delinquency in relation to certain Conditions of Labour. patient survived both the mutton chop and the pneumonia, This exposition might have been more in place at the recent and the story calls forth from another correspondent, Mr. Congress on Criminal Anthropology ; all the same, it was full Styring, a not unnatural expression of regret at the lapse of of independent observation and striking suggestion and went time and the absence of details. Mr. Styring asks for a far to prove that Ruskin’s ’absence ofjoy’ might have its exit more recent example of the same kind and also for the full in thecommission of crime.’ Next in succession were Pro- name of "Mr. N.,"apparently with a view to further fessor Schrotter on the Pathology of Divers nd Dr. Giglioli inquiry into the history of his case. Mr. Saywell replies that if Mr. Styring will come to him he will give him the on the Pathology of Work in Compressed Air, whose report " in of the man’s name and address and offers as a " more recent case after due a recommeadation culminated, discussion, Congress that a commission, composed of Professor Schrötter, one in which "two old Wesleyans"were supposed to be Dr. Giglioli, Professor Langlois, and Professor Glibert, should dying from bronchitis and in which they both recovered be charged with the formulation of rules to be adopted by all after receiving the Communion from him. In this instance workers in compressed air (divers, submarine crews, navvies he apparently neglected the teaching of St. James, in tunnels, and such like). Among the papers that followed for there is no mention of anointing and the sufferers not in extremis," as they are said to have was a highly important one by Dr. Lussana and Dr. Albertoni were on Alcohol and Muscular Exertion, valuable in its specificareceived the Sacrament " reverently." Another corretion of the conditions under which wine (as drunk in Italy), spondent points out that the supposed recovery of the in combination with food, is not only not contra-indicated patient suffering from pneumonia sinks into insignificance

together

proceedings

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