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’vp2clation Emunerated in 1891 and 1901 ix the C21Administrative Counties of England and Wales. >I< I Population NlI1tmerated in 1891 and 1901 in the 62 Admini-strative Cmtnties of England and Wales-continued.

THE MEDICAL GRADUATES’ COLLEGEAND POLYCLINIC.

THE festival dinner of the Medical Graduates’ Collegeand Polyclinic was held at the Hotel Cecil on Wednesday,May 22nd, when the Right Honourable A. J. Balfour, M.P.,presided.The loyal toasts, which were proposed by the chairman,

having been duly honoured,Mr. BALFOUR gave the toast of the evening. He said that

he proposed the toast with deeper feelings of responsibilitythan usually oppressed a person in his position, because heknew that he was pleading a cause which had not behind itany great wave of popular feeling or emotion, a cause whichdid not readily or immediately appeal to the man in thestreet, and yet it was a cause in which the whole communitywere deeply and profoundly interested. It was a cause whichtouched every one of them as human beings and whichaffected not only their own happiness, their own lives, andthe happiness and the lives of those nearest and dearest tothem, but the future generation whom it was their busi-ness to aid. The " Polyclinic" was an institution whichwas in this country as yet young, though well knownand fully recognised in almost every civilised countryin the world. It was an institution with many sides ofactivity and utility. He would not attempt to dwell uponthem all, but there were three which would specially appealto his audience. The first sign of the activity of thisinstitution might be perhaps described as strictly and

directly philanthropic-that is to say, it brought directlyhome to those most in need of it and to those who could nototherwise afford it medical assistance, medical advice, andmedical knowledge which would not under other circum-stances be at their command. For the Polyclinic didsomething which the great hospitals in this countrycould not do and did not attempt to do. The

Polyclinic did give, and hoped to give in ever-increasingmeasure, to a class who could not otherwise get it, expertmedical advice which at present was at the command onlyof the well-to-do. The Polyclinic was also designed to giveopportunities of medical education to those who had gonethrough the ordinary courses which qualified a man to

practise but who had little opportunity of keeping themselvesabreast with the ever-growing mass of medical knowledge.There was yet a third branch of the activity of the Poly-clinic to which he would venture to call the attention ofthat audience, and it was perhaps the branch which they inthis country were most apt to neglect. The growth ofmedical knowledge was one of the most remarkable scientificfacts of the last half-century, for it was in the last half-century that the medical profession had become not merelyadmirable masters of the practical art of healing, butacquainted scientifically as well as empirically with thecauses of many of those maladies with which they had to deal.Could they, he asked, honestly say that in the great develop-ment of medical knowledge and therapeutic science thiscountry had taken the lead which it ought to have taken? 1When he had made all allowance for the great claims on thegratitude of the world for anaasthetics and antiseptics thefact remained, so far as he could judge, that we could notsay as compared with Germany or with France or with Italythat we had done all that perhaps we might have done aspioneers of medical discovery. If the question were to be

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answered in the negative did they not think that the

public, the unprofessional and the unscientific public,were in part to blame for that state of things ?Did they think that England had shown a recognitionof the duties which fell upon her in this matter ? 7

They were proud to say that in this country theyleft to private enterprise and to private benevolenceduties which in other and less fortunate countries wereentrusted to the Government. That was true, but if thatpolicy was to be successful they must have the privateenterprise and private benevolence, and had they shownthe possession of those great qualities in that particularto the extent that they ought to have done ? 7 Person-

ally he grieved to say that he had no doubt as tothe answer that should be given. He did not believethat any man who considered the equipment of theiruniversities, of their medical schools, and of otherplaces of education could honestly say in his heart that theyhad done enough to equip research with all the costlyarmoury that research must have in these modern days.The richest country in the world lagged behind Germany,France, Switzerland, and Italy. Was it not disgraceful?Were they too poor or were they too stupid ? Didthey lack the imagination required to show whatthese apparently remote and abstract studies did forthe happiness of mankind ? They could appreciate thatwhich obviously and directly ministered to human advance-ment and human felicity, but they seemed somehow oranother to be deficient in that higher form of imagination,in that longer sight, which recognised in studies deficient inobviously necessary or immediate result the foundation of aknowledge which would give far greater happiness to

mnkind than any mere immediate material industrialadvancement could possibly effect. He greatly feared thatlacking that imagination they had allowed themselves to

flag in the glorious race which was now run by civilisedcountries in the pursuit of knowledge, and that theyhad permitted themselves to far too large an extentto depend upon others for those additions to knowledgewhich surely they might have made for themselves. Hehoped that the result of that evening might be that thePolyclinic which was devoted to the great cause ofresearch might obtain that assistance which was required tomake it the useful institution that it potentially was andthat it only required their aid fully and perfectly to become.He hoped he had not pleaded in vain, at all events the causewas one in which he firmly believed, and if this countryallowed itself to be passed in the race he should regard it asa greater national calamity than the loss of a market here orsome national contretemps there. He should feel that the

highest life of the nation had proved itself inadequate to thenational necessities and needs.

Sir W. BROADBENT, in responding, said that it was im-possible to over-estimate the gain to the Polyclinic of Mr.Balfour’s advocacy. He was not only leader of the House ofCommons but in this country one of the leaders of thought.At the Polyclinic no patient was made the subject of experi-ment which was not as much for the benefit of the patientas of the hospital, and the patient was watched with avigilance and intelligence which was not possible in the bestorganised hospital.Mr. JONATHAN HUTCHINSON said that the Polyclinic was I

in correspondence with medical men in all parts of the world,and his experience was that patients had no objection to theclosest investigation of their cases if it would be of serviceto their fellow-creatures.The DUKE of MARLBOROUGH then proposed the toast of

"The Empire," to which Sir J. COCKBURN, Agent-Generalfor South Australia, replied, remarking that the Polyclinicwas essentially an Imperial institution and promised to bethe Mecca of medical lore.Mr. LIONEL PHILLIPS also responded, and the " Health

of the Chairman," proposed by the BISHOP of LONDON,terminated the proceedings. ,

VITAL STATISTICS.

HEALTH OF ENGLISH TOWNS.

IN 33 of the largest English towns 6704 births and 3689deaths were registered during the week ending May 18th.The annual rate of mortality in these towns, which had de-clined from 20-2 to 16-5 per 1000 in the seven preceding

weeks, rose again last week to 16’8. In London the death-;rate was 15’8 per 1000, while it averaged 17’4 in the32 provincial towns. The lowest death-rates in thesetowns were 8’9 in Croydon, 12’6 in Brighton, 12’8 inLeicester, and 14’0 in Oldham ; the highest rates were 20’0in Liverpool, 20 7 in Manchester, 22’0 in Sunderland, and22-1 in Preston. The 3689 deaths in these towns in-cluded 372 which were referred to the principal zymoticdiseases, against 394 and 381 in the two precedingweeks; of these, 150 resulted from whooping-cough,81 from measles, 48 from diarrhoeal diseases, 45 fromdiphtheria, 31 from scarlet fever, 16 from fever ..(principally enteric), and one from small-pox. No deathfrom any of these diseases occurred last week inHuddersfield ; in the other towns they caused the lowestdeath-rates in Plymouth, Norwich, and Newcastle, and thehighest rates in Swansea, Salford, Sunderland, and Gates-head. The greatest mortality from measles occurred inPortsmouth, Wolverhampton, Birmingham, and Sunderland; yand from whooping-cough in West Ham, Wolverhampton,Bristol, Birkenhead, Preston, Bradford, Hull, Sunderland, andGateshead. The mortality from scarlet fever, from " fever,"and from diarrhceal diseases showed no marked excess

in any of the large towns. The 45 deaths from diphtheriaincluded 14 in London, four in Burnley, four in Leeds, three inSheffield, and three in West Ham. One fatal case of small-poxwas registered in Liverpool, but not one in any other ofthe 33 large towns ; and no small-pox patients were undertreatment in any of the Metropolitan Asylums hospitalsduring the week ending May 18th. The number of scarletfever patients in these hospitals and in the London FeverHospital at the end of the week was 2052, against 1705and 1913 on the two preceding Saturdays ; 323 new caseswere admitted during the week, against 198, 371, and 397 inthe three preceding weeks. The deaths referred to diseasesof the respiratory organs in London, which had been286, 251, and 237 in the three preceding weeks, rose

again last week to 249, but were 46 below the correctedaverage. The causes of 30, or 0’8 per cent., of the deaths inthe 33 towns last week were not certified either by a regis-tered medical practitioner or by a coroner. All the causesof death were duly certified in London, West Ham,Leicester, Bradford, Newcastle, and in 13 other smallertowns ; the largest proportions of uncertified deaths wereregistered in Birmingham, Liverpool, Blackburn, andSunderland.

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HEALTH OF SCOTCH TOWNS.

The annual rate of mortality in the eight Scotch towns,which had decreased from 24’1 to 19’3 per 1000 in the six

preceding weeks, rose again to 20’2 dming the week endingMay 18th, and was 34 in excess of the mean death-rateduring the same period in the 33 large Englishtowns. The rates in the eight Scotch towns rangedfrom 16’0 in Dundee and 18 in Perth and inPaisley to 21-6 in Greenock and 23-5 in Perth. The633 deaths in these towns included 41 which resultedfrom whooping-cough, 18 from diarrhoea, 15 from measles,six from diphtheria, four from " fever," three from small-pox, and two from scarlet fever. In all, 89 deaths werereferred to these principal zymotic diseases last week, against83 and 99 in the two preceding weeks. These 89 deathswere equal to an annual rate of 2-8 per 1000, which was1’1 above the mean rate last week from the same diseasesin the 33 large English towns. The fatal cases of whooping-cough, which had been 39 and 49 in the two preceding weeks,declined again last week to 41, of which 18 occurred inGlasgow, 14 in Edinburgh, five in Dundee, and two inLeith. The deaths from diarrhoea, which had been 12and 20 in the two preceding weeks, declined again to 18last week, and included 10 in Glasgow, four in Edinburgh,and two in Dundee. The fatal cases of measles, whichhad been 17 in each of the two preceding weeks, decreasedlast week to 15, of which nine were registeredin Glasgow and four in Edinburgh. The deaths fromdiphtheria, which had been two and four in the two

preceding weeks, further rose to six last week, and includedfour in Glasgow, where two of the four fatal cases of"fever also occurred. The deaths from small- pox, whichhad been three, three, and one in the three preceding weeks,rose again to three last week, and were all registered inGlasgow. The deaths referred to diseases of the respira-tory organs in these towns, which had been 169, 125, and