49CONSECRATION OF THE RA.HERE LODGE OF FREEMASONS.

3. The proportion these bear to the total number of certificates issuedin these divisions.

4. Whether the certificates signed by the aforesaid doctors are

examined with (a) the knowledge and (b) the permission of the signa-tory in each case.

The following is the answer by Mr. Sharp (Chairman ofthe School Accommodation and Attendance Committee) tothe foregoing questions :-

" It may be well to premise my remarks by observing that Mr. Rileylabours under a misconception in assuming that the local medical menappointed by the Board have consented to ’examine medical certifi-catts,’ or that medical certificates will be submitted for examination tothe aforesaid doctors.’ These local medical men have been appointed’to examine cases in which the medical certificate produced is con-sidered by the divisional superintendent to be doubtful, or in which itis desirable to have a definite medical opinion."’

"

Mr. Sharp then said that categorical answers would be mis-leading to the Board, so he preferred to make the followingstatement. After quoting his letter, which appeared in ourcolumns of April 30th, 1895, he continued :—

From the foregoing statement it will be seen that it is incorrect tosuppose that all the cases which have been submitted to the localmedical men appointed by the Board have been cases in which certifi-cates have been given by other medical men, but which have been con-sidered for some reason or other to be unsatisfactory. As a matter offact, so far as I have information, the majority of the cases which havebeen submitted to these gentlemen have been cases in which no medicalcertilieate has been produced by the parent, and in which it was con-siclered by the divisional members to be difficuit, if not impossible, toobtain such certificate. With reference to the latter cases, I mightmention that, in some parts of London, at any rate, I have evidencethat district medical officers of the guardians refuse to furnish, withoutpayment, such certificaates to persons in receipt of parochial medicalrelief. In these cases, therefore, the divisional committee must, inorder to satisfy themselves as to the correctness, or otherwise, of thestatement made by the parent as to the alleged illness of the child,either at once proceed with the prosecution before a magistrate orobtain a medical opinion in their own behalf. In those cases in whichthe child is ascertained to be unable to attend school, the Board aresaved both the expense and the odium of unsuccessful legal proceed-ings, and the parent is saved the unnecessary pain and annoyance of aprosecution before a magistrate."

We should like to know what is the difference between"examining medical certificates considered to be doubtful "and "examining cases in which the medical certificate isconsidered to be doubtful." After this preface Mr. Sharpchanged his ground and went on to explain that mostof the cases submitted to the medical men were those inwhich no medical certificate had been obtained. If this isall the Board wanted why did it not accept Mr. Riley’aamendment of May 30th?

Mr. Sharp’s statement is simply playing with words. Wewill put the whole case in plain language. 1. The Board, bymeans of its divisional superintendents, considers certainmedical certificates to be doubtful. 2. These certificates arepresumably signed by qualified medical men. 3. The Boardhas appointed certain other medical men to examine theseparticular cases in which the certificate is consider6ddoubtful. 4. That is to say, the Board has appointed oneset of medical men to revise or examine, or set aside thediagnosis and opinion of another set of medical men. Let i

Mr. Sharp deny this if he can without beating about thebush. We warn the School Board, as we warned it in ourishue of June 8h, that the result will be that no medicalman will sign certificates at all, but will rather give evidencein case of a prosecution, and then, as Mr. Sharp patheticallyputs it, the Board will "incur the odium of unsuccessfullegal proceedings," and, in our opinion, it will well deservethis result.

CONSECRATION OF THE RAHERE LODGEOF FREEMASONS.

SATURDAY last wa3 a red-letter day for St. Bartholomew’sHospital. In the great hall of the hospital a new MasonicLodge was consecrated, named after Rahere, the founder ofthe hospital seven and a half centuries ago. Everythingcombined to make the function a success-a bright andsunny summer’s afternoon, the presence of H.R.H. thePrince of Wales, the Grand Master, and a brilliant repre-sentative gathering of those whose names are equally wellknown in Masonry and Medicine.At 5 o’clock lodge was opened, the Master’s chair being

occupied by Bro. E. Letchworth, Grand Secretary. Shortlyafterwards the Prince of Wales arrived, accompanied by theCrown Prince of Denmark, who is Grand Master of the Free-masons of his own country. The Earl of Lathom, Pro-Grand

Master of England, acted as consecrating officer and thentook the chair. He was supported on his right by the Princeof Wales and the Crown Prince of Denmark, while the 8enior-Warden’s chair was occupied by Lord Roberts of Candahar,Grand Senior Warden, the Junior Warden’s chair beingfilled by Lord Skelmersdale. The duties of director ofceremonies were undertaken by Bro. Frank Richardson ; theDean of Gloucester, Grand Chaplain, acted as chap’ain ; andBro. P. H. Waterlow, Past Grand Deacon, as inner guard.The brethren received the two Grand Masters in due

Masonic fashion, and accorded to each the salute due to hisrank. The lodge presented a very brilliant spectacle, over300 grand officers and brethren being present. Among themwe noticed :-Viscount Dungarvan, Provincial Grand Masterof Somerset; Colonel Le Gendre Starkie, Provincial GrandMaster of East Lancashire ; General Laurie, Past GrandWarden; W. M. Stiles, Grand Treasurer; Rev. CooperSmith, D.D., Past Grand Chaplain ; Lennox Browne,Past Grand Director of Ceremonies ; R. LovelandLoveland, President of the Board of General Pnrposes r .R. Horton Smith, Q C. ; H. F. Frost, Grand Organist ; %E. Cutler. Q.C., Past Grand Organist; Dr. Balfour Cockburn,Provincial Grand Master of Guernsey and Alderne ; Dr.Hugh Mackintosh and Bro. Chas. Martin, Past Assistant.Grand Directors of Ceremonies ; the Earl of Euston, Pro-vincial Grand Master, Northamptonshire and Huntingdon-shire ; Alderman Walter Vaughan Morgan ; General J. C.Smith, Past Grand Master of Illinois. There were presenta large number of medical brethren, including Bros. ReginaldHarrison, Henry Morris, Edmund Owen, W. P. Hemcham,Samuel West, Arbuthnot Lane, A. A. Bowlby, R J. Reece,.Eisex Wynter, Leopold Hudson, Howard Tooth, Alban Doran,W. H. H. Jessop, Bruce Clarke, H. J. Waring, C. A. Parker,Danford Thomas, and F. W. Clark.The impressive ceremony of the consecration was pro-

ceeded with, the Earl of Lathom giving the invocation,while the Dean of Gloucester delivered the oration, and theanthems were sung by Bros. Frost, Kenningham, Fryer,and Stubbs. The Grand Master then constituted the lodge,the following officers being appointed :-Bros. ClemertGodson, M D, P.G.D. (W.M.); Thomas Trollope, M.D., P.G D.(Acting I.P.M.) ; Alfred Cooper, F.R.C.S., P.G D. (8 W.) ; ;.W. J. Walsham, F.R.C.S., P.M. (J.W.); D’Arcy Power,F.R.C.S., P.M., P.G.J.W. Warwickshire (Treas.); T. G. A.Burns, M.R.C.S., P.M., P.PGD. Surrey (Sec.); WalterGdpper, M.B., P.M. (S.D.); Phineas S. Abraham, MD.(J.n.); G H. R. Holden, M.D. (LG.); F. Swinford Edwards,F.RC.S. P.M. (D.C.); J. H. Gilbertson, M.B.C.S, P.M.,P.P.SGD. Herts (Stwd.); C. B. Lockwood, F.R.C.S.,W.M. 1150 (Stwd); C. P. White, M.B. (Stwd.) ;Ernest Clarke, F.R.C.S. (Org.); Madden, Librarian ofSt. Bartholomew’s Hospital (Tyler).Among the other founders of the Lodge are Bros.

W. Haig Brodie, B. Latter Tandy, A. G. R. Foulerton,H. D. Lauchlan, G. H. Forman, J. E. Sandilands, C. AParker, A. A. Bowlby, F. W. Clark, W. T. PartnerJ. Pickett, and R. J. Reece.

’

The first act of the new Lodge was to enrol its first

honorary member in the person of the Prince of Wales.The Benediction having been pronounced, Their RoyalHighnesses took their departure, and on leaving the hospitalreceived an ovation from the students gathered in the

quadrangle. The guard of honour was furnished by theSt. Bartholomew’s Hospital Company of the VolunteerMedical Staff Corps. The brethren afterwards adjourned toa banquet at the Albion, Aldersgate-street, the toast of"The Visitors" being responded to by General Smith ofIllinois.We wish this new professional lodge every success ; it has.

received a magnificent christening, and the number of joinmgmembers is already very large.

A MAHOMEDAN DOCTOR ON THEMECCA PILGRIMAGE.

MUCH has been written concerning the pilgrimage to

Mecca, but, as a rule, such writings are somewhat one-sided.Either the writers are Mahomedans who know nothingof the Western exigencies with regard to sanitation, or elsethey are not Mahomedans, and are therefore out of

sympathy with the pilgrims, are not allowed to approach the

50 THE NEW WATER SCHEME FOR BELFAST.

holy places, and consequently often criticise what they havenot been able to see. Dr. Saleh Soubhy, as Doctor andLaureate of the Paris Faculty of Medicine, may be expectedto take a Western European view of the sanitary diffi-culties attending the pilgrimage; while, as a goodMahomedan, he is in full sympathy with the pilgrims.This sympathy does not render Dr. Soubhy blind to thegrave dangers caused by the utter want of sanitation.Speaking of the town of Djeddah, where the pilgrims land,he says : " The cleansing of the town is a matter of theatmost simplicity; the rain does this work, and I must hastento add that it only rains once or twice in the year-and then ! It is not necessary to make a great effort of imagination tohave some idea of the state of affairs within the town.The entire surface of the soil is encumbered with thedebris of vegetables, with spoilt fruits, and refuse of alldescriptions, and giving off all sorts of odours. Hornedanimals, donkeys, horses, camels, and wild dogs leavethe trace of their passage, but we must not complain ofthis, for the dogs and goats which wander everywhereare, after all, the only scavengers of the town, as they eatmuch of what would otherwise decompose on the soil. Onthe other hand, the population which crowd on a relativelyrestricted space have a system of drainage that is reallysurprising. It is a country of expedients. Nothing is moresimple. When a cesspool is full a hole is dug close at handand the contents of the cesspool are emptied into it. The holeds then covered over. Of course, infiltrations from these holesleach the neighbouring wells, whence the water is drawnwhich the pilgrims drink." When we consider the greatheat that prevails in the daytime, and the damp that reignsat night, it is not surprising that cholera often breaks out atDjeddah. The water is extremely foul. Large animalculacan be seen in it, even without the aid of a microscope. TheTurkish Government has given a considerable sum to con-struct an aqueduct to bring good water to the town, butsomehow the canal has never worked properly. This failureis attributed to the action of the proprietors of the wells,who desire to preserve their lucrative privilege of selling foulwater to the camel drivers and pilgrims.

Dr. Soubhy next protests against the folly of womenattempting the pilgrimage during the period of gestation.He describes how the oscillatory movement of the camelproduces miscarriages, followed frequently by haemorrhageand the death of both mother and infant. The caravan,however, cannot stop, and it is impossible to nurse effi-ciently the mothers while the march continues. If any portionof the caravan stopped it would certainly be attacked by theBedouins, who, Dr. Soubhy explains, are not true Mahome-dans. On questioning a Bedouin as to the nature of his harvesthe cynically replied, "My harvest is the pilgrim." Speak-ing of Mecca, Dr. Soubhy contents himself with sayingthat the condition of the town is very similar to what hesaw at Djeddah. Nor does he say anything about thedanger of contamination at the holy well of Zimzim. Hesimply relates that, according to popular belief, this wellleads to Paradise. Consequently several pilgrims havethrown themselves into the well. As the bodies were

never recovered it is natural to conclude that there areeubsoil currents of water of considerable dimensions andpower. This may be some protection. The Sultan has,however, now caused a high railing to be placed roundthe well so that the faithful cannot so easily jump’into the water, and must perforce wait till a more

natural death opens the gates of Paradise. Speaking- of the Courban-BaYran festival, Dr. Soubhy estimates thatat Mouna some 900,000 animals are sacrificed. Thiscustom, at least, he has the courage to denounce. " Itis easy to imagine what dangers this state of thingsmay engender, what epidemics may be caused by thesethousands of carcases in putrefaction, and how insufficient isthe recent order, emanating from the Turkish Government, tobury this multitude of carcases." To barn the carcasesand convert them into animal manure would be a better andmore profitable solution of the problem.

In an appendix dealing purely with the sanitary questionDr. Soubhy suggests that a railway from Djeddah to Mecca,then to Medina and Yambo, would pay and would save agreat loss of life resulting from the painful journeys onfoot across the deserts. He also urges that children underten years of age, women in the period of gestation,the old and infirm, those who have not been vaccinatedwithin three years, and those who have not sufficient meansifor their maintenance, should not be allowed to embark on

the pilgrimage ; that those who are allowed to start shouldhave a circular given them indicating what sort of clothesand provisions they should take ; and that portablepharmacies should form part of the luggage of every caravan.’There are no pharmacies, it appears, at Mecca, Mouna, andYambo, yet thousands of pilgrims pass through these placessuffering from diarrhoea, fever, purulent ophthalmia, andabscesses. Then the Red Sea ships are not only overcrowdedby pilgrims, but also by the unnecessary luggage they takewith them ; and we are assured that there are often morepilgrims on board than the number sanctioned by the law.Nor are the rules as to the presence on board of a surgeonand of a medicine chest strictly observed. As for the sani-tation of the towns, as there is the desert close at hand itwould be easy enough to dispose of the sewage if a systemof drainage was established.

Finally, Dr. Soubhy quotes the Prophet, who said, "Youmust avoid entering a country contaminated by an epidemic,so as to respect the will of God (God having said, Thou shaltnot throw thyself into danger), and you must not leave acontaminated country, so as not to show that you are flyingfrom the will of God." In accordance with this Dr. Soubhyproposes that pilgrims from the south-India, Java, &c.-

coming from countries where cholera is endemic should visitMecca alternate years, taking the uneven numbers, 1895,1897, &c. Pilgrims from the north-Turkey, Egypt, Morocco,Algeria, &c.-could go in the years with even numbers,1896, 1898, &c., and thus avoid meeting those who camefrom cholera-infected countries, and in this manner carry outthe precept laid down by Mahomed.

THE NEW WATER SCHEME FOR BELFAST.

ON June 25th, on the invitation of the Chairman of theBelfast Water Commissioners, a number of Belfast merchantsand others visited the " Silent Valley," the site of the pro-posed new reservoir, which it is thought will be completedwithin another year. This Silent Valley is situated in aremote but charming district in the Mourne Mountains,about five or six miles from the well-known seaside resort,Newcastle, in county Down. This new water scheme is byfar the most important ever undertaken for Belfast,and it is said it will cost upwards of three-quartersof a million pounds sterling. The new catchment area isupwards of 9000 acres in extent, but it can be added toin the future. It has an elevation varying from 450 ft. tonearly 2800 ft. above sea-level, and it consists of highmountain slopes, largely composed of granite and boulderson the surface; hence it is of the very best description for adomestic water-supply. Another advantage it possesses is thatit is free from cultivation and pollution of any kind, isuninhabited, and is in close proximity to the sea. Thewhole of the lands in this area will be purchased by theBelfast Water Trust to preserve its present character and toprevent risk of any future pollution. At present the wateris collected by the Kilkeel and Annalong rivers, whichempty themselves into the sea between Kilkeel and Newcastle.The Kilkeel river will be intercepted in the " Silent Valley"by means of a large storage reservoir having an earthenembankment some 520 yards long across the valley, and itwill be upwards of 90ft. high over the present river-bed.The top water area will be nearly 250 acres, and the totalholding capacity will be 2850 million gallons of water. Thetotal supply available from the whole of the Mourne districtswill be, when fully developed, about 30,000,000 gallons perday. The supply will be drawn from this reservoir for usein Belfast through a number of large-geared valves atdifferent levels on the outlet standpipe, which will allow thewater to pass in large or small quantities through the mainoutlet tunnel into the main gravitating conduit, which willbe formed of concrete, having a maximum carrying capacityof 30,000,000 gallons per day, the size being 5ft. 6 in.by 5 ft. 6 in., and with a regular fall of 18 in. per mile. Themain conduit will be continued along the mountain slopes tonear Newcastle, where it will be carried through SlieveDonard and St. Thomas’s Mountains in a tunnel some twoand a quarter miles in length, with a fall of 12 in. per mile,and a maximum capacity of 30 000,000 gallons per day.Some parts of this tunnel will be 600 ft. below the surface ofthe ground. The service reservoir will be made large enoughto meet the demands of the city, having a storage capacity