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A TABLET of richly carved Caen stone, with panel ofSicilian marble and serpentine marble columns, has justbeen placed in the Derry Cathedral 11 in memory of ThomasHenderson Babington, M.D., F.R.C.S.I., M.R.I.A., surgeonto the County Londonderry Infirmary, Mayor of Derry, whodied August 2nd, 1869, aged fifty-six years. His medicalbrethren in this city and neighbourhood have erected thistablet in testimony of their affectionate regard for him asa friend, and as a record of their appreciation of his dis-tinguished professional attainments and eminent publicservices." The monument is furnished from the estab-lishment of Messrs. Cox and Son, Southampton-street.,Strand.

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11 OuR lively neighbour the Gaul," having given small-pox a distinct impulse in London last year, is bestowing thesame delicate attention on our colonies. The French

transatlantic company’s steamer Caravelle has introducedthe distemper into Kingston, Jamaica, the inhabitants ofwhich, according to the Gleaner, are much exercised in mindas to the reception of the unwelcome guest. The Gleaner,a little late in the day, recommends vaccination.

THE Liverpool Health Committee have postponed theconsideration of the question of appointing a public ana-lyst pending the reconstruction of the Committee. In ad-

dition to the pecuniary remuneration awarded to Dr. Parkesand Dr. Sanderson, the Committee have proposed to theCouncil a special vote of thanks to those gentlemen fortheir invaluable sanitary report. -

DR. WHITMORE draws attention to the fact that in Mary-lebone the primary vaccinations performed by the publicvaccinator of the parish have fallen off considerably duringthe last two months. With the abatement of the epidemic,people become less solicitous about preventive measures-against small-pox as against other epidemics.

THE trustees of the Leeds Infirmary have received in-formation that Mrs. Brooke, of Gateford House, Selby, infurtherance of the desire of her late husband, the Rev.Richard Brooke, has bequeathed to that institution, as shehas done to the Royal Albert Asylum for Idiots, the sum of£30,000, one-half of which will be paid immediately.

WE are glad to hear that it is intended to remove the18th Hussars from Secunderabad to Bangalore. The regi-ment has been a long time in India, and the men are saidto have become a good deal enervated by the effect of theirtropical service. It was supposed that their susceptibilityto epidemic cholera was attributable to this cause.

THE lady medical students at Edinburgh, in spite of theannounced decision of the medical faculty of the Universityagainst their admission to the preliminary examination,resolved to present themselves before the examiners. On

Tuesday, therefore, they were examined by Prof. Balfourunder protest. ____

THE office of Inspector of Anatomy for England andWales, vacant by the death of Dr. Cnrsham, has been con-ferred upon Dr. John William Ogle, of St. George’s Hospital.

A DESPATCH from Constantinople records that cholerahas reappeared at the village of Haskeuci, and that sixtydeaths have already occurred.

M. NELATON, it is said, has announced his intention ofresiding permanently in England.

A NIGHT VISIT TO THE HAMPSTEADHOSPITAL.

As considerable reluctance to enter Hampstead Small-poxHospital has been excited in consequence of the evidencealready adduced at the official inquiry now proceeding, andas some local authorities have resolved that no patientsshall be sent until its termination, we have thought itdesirable to make a special inspection of the present con-dition of the hospital. With this object we paid a visitto the institution shortly before midnight on Mondaylast, and give our readers the benefit of the informa-

tion we obtained. We have no wish to prejudge theinquiry now going on with reference to the past manage-ment of the hospital; we merely speak of its presentstate. Our visit being totally unexpected, and at a veryunusual hour, we naturally experienced some little op-

position to our admittance, which was, however, soon

overcome. Our first object being to see the arrangementsfor night nursing, we asked to be conducted at onceto the sister in charge for the night. We found this

lady both obliging and communicative, and owing to

the courtesy shown us by herself and one of the juniormedical officers, we were enabled to see everything andanything that we desired. The arrangements for watchingand caring for the patients during the night were, on thewhole, thoroughly good. There was an experienced, properlytrained nurse in each ward, who, when there was any neces-sity for it, was assisted in her work by a convalescent patient.To supervise these nurses, there was likewise a night-sisteron duty, who visited each ward periodically, to ascertain thatthe nurses were at their posts and awake, and who by hersuperior intelligence and knowledge was enabled to renderassistance or give advice in cases which required it. The

actual state of things on Monday night was this : therewas one nurse in charge of every ward, excepting in thefemale convalescent ward, where there was no nurse at all.The patients here were all asleep and quiet; none of themwere likely to require medical assistance during the night,and they were to be visited at intervals by the nightsister. Considering the class to which these patients pro-bably belong, we must say that we think it is false economynot to subject them to constant supervision. The risk ofanything going wrong is of course comparatively small,but surely it would be as well, in an institution towardswhich the eye of the public is so critically directed, to makeassurance doubly sure, especially as the trouble or expensein doing so would be infinitesimally small. In one ward a maleconvalescent patient was assisting the nurse in her duties.The hospital is at present far from being overcrowded.Many of the wards are no longer in use, and in the wardswhich are still kept open there is a fair sprinkling of emptybeds. On Monday night there were about 130 patients inthe hospital.Nobody can fail to be struck by the wards in the Hamp-

stead Hospital. They are airy, spacious, warm, and sweet,and leave nothing to be desired in any way. There was

nothing the least offensive in the atmosphere of any of thewards, though the faces of many of their slumbering occu-pants showed that some at least of the causes of a vitiatedatmosphere were abundantly present. The waterclosetswere particularly free from any offensive odour.The supply of nourishment for the night may have been

sufficient, but it was, on the whole, scanty. In one ward,containing between twenty or thirty patients, the nightsupply consisted of about half a gallon of milk, no beef-tea,and no brandy or wine in case of emergency. An explana-tion was offered to the effect that the patients had alreadyhad their beef-tea, and about a third of them bad a half pintmLsg by the bedside partly filled with milk. We know it istrue that 11 you can’t eat your cake and have it," but still it ishardly good management not to be able in case of necessityto provide food and nourishment for patients sufferingfrom an acute fever. The milk seemed to be tolerably good,but with regard to the beef-tea, a sample of which we

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tasted, the less said the better. It was, in fact, but sorrystuff, with a strong smell of " Liebig

" and a thin ketchupytaste. Although perfectly cold, it was as limpid as purewater, and if it contained, as we suspect it did, as littlealbumen as gelatin, its nutritive value must have beenslight indeed. We do not think it merited the name ofbeef-tea at all, and was little more than an infusion of theextract of meat. There was nothing offensively nastyabout it.We were shown the bath rooms. They are large rooms

adjoining the ward, from which they are separated by solidpartitions and two doors, and they are provided with a largewindow communicating with the open air.The sister further showed us the method of tying down

in use at the hospital. A sheet is folded till it is about twofeet wide, and is then laid across the patient’s chest andpassed under his armpits, to be fastened to the head-railsof the bed. We know that much difference of opinionexists as to the best mode of treating delirious patients, andwhether a folded sheet or a couple of attendants is likely toprove the more irritating form of restraint; but we thinkthat no one could possibly object to the Hampstead methodon the ground that it would be more likely than othermeans to cause physical injury. We visited the lavatoryfor convalescent patients, which is fitted up in one of thehuts detached from the main building. We dare say itanswers the purpose well enough, but is utterly devoid ofany proper lavatory fittings. There is not a tap for eachbasin as there ought to be, and there is no proper arrange-ment for the waste. The basins, which are of tin, have tobe carried to a tap to be filled, and carried to a sink to beemptied. As a consequence of this the floor is coveredwith puddles of water. The round towels were not clean,but we have often used dirtier ourselves without thinking itnecessary to complain.Two of the huts have been fitted, the one as a recreation-

room, and the other as a sort of concert-room, where theconvalescent patients amuse themselves in various ways.The general impression left upon our mind after our visitwas that the hospital, in all essential features, was a remark-ably good one. The building was clean and airy, and ad-mirarbly adapted for its purpose, some of the wards beingof very striking proportions; the beds and bedding werefirst-rate; and the nursing, from what we saw and heard,appeared to be in the hands of thoroughly competent per-sons. We have purposely not omitted to mention anythingwhich struck us as being susceptible of improvement, butwe are bound to say that the bad points were more thancounterbalanced by much that was excellent and meritedour warmest approbation. Without, therefore, in any waycommitting ourselves upon the past, we may confidentlyassure the public that there is at present absolutely nodanger of any patient experiencing anything but properand kind treatment.

THE SOCIAL SCIENCE CONGRESS.

Our. business with the Congress that has just met andparted at Leeds is necessarily almost limited to the pro-ceedings of its Health Department. It is quite true thatevery one of the branches into which the work of the SocialScience Association is divided has some special grounds ofappeal to the medical profession-some special aspects a,s towhich members of that profession have unusual facilitiesfor discerning the hiding-place of truth amid the din ofcontroversy. But life is short; and our space is only toolimited. We must perforce turn away from many importantcollateral issues; and must be content to place before ourreaders a brief resunae of the labours of the health reformers

alone. The matter absolutely reported from their meeting-room by the local press., the mere hrief abstracts of papersand the ontlines of speeches, fills just ten yards of news-paper column in its smallest type, and amounts, in roundnumbers, to 36,000 words. It is impossible to avoid theinference that the wisdom of the department must havebeen flowing in a state of considerable dilution; but. we

-may reasonably hope that this circumstance may tend to

promote, rather than to hinder, its assimilation by thegeneral public.We referred last week to the important suggestions made

by Mr. G. W. Hastings with regard to the size of the areathat should be made the unit of future sanitary ad-ministration, and need not deal further with that branchof the subject. Immediately after the delivery of Mr.

Hastings’ address, the department proceeded to its properbusiness, under the presidency of Mr. Godwin, F.R.S. Thevice-presidents were Drs. Chadwick, Heaton, and Mouat,Messrs. Filliter, C.E., Rawlinson, C.B., C.E., and Powell.The secretaries were Captain Clode and Dr. Hardwicke;the local secretaries, Drs. Clifford Allbutt and Robinson.In all departments of the Congress questions for discus-

sion had been framed by committees, and papers bearingupon these questions took precedence of all others. In theHealth Department the question for the first day was-" What are the best and most economical methods of re-moving and utilising the sewage of large towns." Thepapers on the subject were by Mr. Rawson (manager of theA. B. C. process), Dr. Elliott, Mr. Symington, and Mr.McGowen. They were in each case written to advoca,tosome single method, not impartially to review the wholequestion ; and they led to a debate in which about eighteenor twenty speakers took part, but which, on the whole, waseminently unsatisfactory. It was quite manifest that many,of the speakers were practically acquainted with only onemethod of dealing with sewage, and that others were ac-quainted with none; while even the president, in his closingspeech, failed to give either a judicial summing up or ajudicial decision. He expressed a strong opinion, however,in favour of irrigation, and the best informed among thosepresent seemed very generally inclined to concur with him.On the second day the proceedings were commenced by

Dr. Acland, who read a weighty and well-considered paperOn the Sanitary Care of Villages and Cottages." Hismain object was to urge that the removal of refuse fromvillages or single cottages ought not to be left to the oc-cupier, but that it should be undertaken either by somepublic authority or by the landowner. He pointed out thatin any well-ordered modern town the poor have the cleansingand scavenging of the surroundings of their homes donefor them. In a village or isolated cottage the labourer,often ill-fed, always hard-worked, either performs this dutyhimself, or it is left undone. He has to do it before his

day’s work, after it, or by losing it. What this implies,only those who know the people well can j udge, and the re-sults are more injurious than can be readily estimated. Thecondition of closet accommodation in some villages andcottages is such as to be virtually inconsistent with a senseof domestic order, and is not seldom productive of the mostinjurious effects upon the health of the family. The wateris poisoned. Fevers are originated, and permanent ill-health is engendered through recurring bowel attacks. Anuntidy and miserable state of the surroundings becomes thehabit of the family. The children grow up with these as-sociations, having no other standard of decency. Theyhave known and desire nothing else. Many facts could be

L told to show the extreme gravity of this matter in ourrural districts-grave from its effects on the health of in-dividuals,-grave, more grave, from the effect on the moralnature by engendering indifference, and on the intellectual

L powers of observation and reasoning by breeding ignorance: and consequent false opinions on common matters of every-

day life. Dr. Acland further anticipated the possible ob-jection that the proper cleansing of rural dwellings would

’ be too costly, by pointing out that the rural populations arebecoming nurseries of town populations. They cast into

> the towns either a strong, decent, manly people, or an en-j feebled progeny, brought up unwisely. The rural districts

contain no less than 9,803,811 persons, having increased inthe last ten years by 668,428. The case of the villages is,therefore, apart from special humanity towards individuals,

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a truly national question; and, on the whole, there is nos doubt that an arrangement can be made in every rural dis-. trict whereby the poor labourer may have the necessaryl surroundings of his home kept in order for him, as is done

for the artisan in a town. It would conduce to his health’

and energy, and it would be both just and politic, since allwho believe in the existence of national health and nationalmorality feel that the agricultural labourers deserve the ut-

) most care of the nation.