1829

Arras, Angers, Besanoon, Caen, Clermont, Dijon, Grenoble,Limoges, Poitiers, Reims, Rouen, and Tours. In the former

students can study for the whole 16 terms of the curriculum,in the latter only for the 12 early terms, and in both casesthe final examination must be taken before a faculty. There

is a dean (doyen) at the head of each faculty who is appointedby the Minister of Public Instruction for a period of

three years, and is chosen from the titular professors. The

professoriate is divided into two classes-titular professorsand agrégés. The latter are appointed for stated periods,usually nine years, but the period can be extended

by the Minister. They assist in the examinations, replacethe professors when they are absent, and give courses

supplementary to those of the professors. There are two

varieties of the diploma of Doctor of Medicine in France-that of a university and that of the State. The

university diploma is open to foreigners; it is purelyacademic and is only of value as a scientific qualification.It does not confer the right to practise or any other of the

privileges of the State diploma. Certain regulations mustbe conformed to, certain examinations taken, and fees paidamounting to 1400 francs in order to obtain this diploma.For the State diploma the curriculum is four years, dividedinto 16 terms. Various examinations have to be passed, athesis written on some subject, and fees of 1390 francs paid.This part also contains information regarding the military,naval, and colonial medical services and the various associa-tions of students both in Paris and elsewhere.

The second part is devoted to the University of Paris, tothe hospitals and institutions in that city, and to the variousmedical societies. The Faculty of Medicine of the Universityof Paris was founded in 1808 in succession to the Ecole de

Sant6, which was itself the successor of the old Faculty ofMedicine suppressed in 1793 at the same time as the Collegeof Surgery. Full information is given of the various coursesof lectures to be given during the academic year 1908-09 andof the special courses to be held during the vacations. The

various hospitals of Paris are described, the staff of each is

given, and the courses of instruction and the clinical facilitiesafforded by each are set forth. A special chapter is devotedto the Pasteur Institute and Hospital. The institute is

described and the nature of the work carried on there is

briefly outlined. It is of interest to learn that since 1889

more than 1000 persons have attended the lectures and prac-tical courses of microbiological technique, while nearly an

equal number have attended the lectures only, showingwhat an important part the institute has played as aneducational body as well as a home of research. A

special chapter is devoted to the consideration of the

preliminary scientific education of the medical student whohas to produce a certificate of having passed the P. C. N.(i.e., physics, chemistry, and natural history). This pre-

liminary year is under the control of the Faculty of Science.The four dental schools in Paris are next described. The

dental course extends over three years and the examinationsare carried out by the Faculty of Medicine. The fees varyfrom 1000 to 1500 francs and the examination fees amount to

250 francs. The second part is brought to a close by an

interesting account of the various medical societies. The

constitution of the well-known Academy of Medicine is

detailed and the prizes offered by it, amounting to nearly60, are enumerated.The third part is concerned chiefly with the provincial

universities and schools, and gives the various courses of

lectures and practical work afforded in them. An interestingappendix to it gives brief details of foreign universities in

which the French language is employed, including the

Belgian universities of Brussels, Ghent, Liege, and

Louvain, the Universities of Geneva, Lausanne, Bucharest,and Jassy, and the Faculties of Medicine of the Laval

University in Quebec and Montreal. The fourth and

concluding part is specially addressed to the practitioner,It opens with some general advice to those newly quali-fied concerning registration, starting in practice, pro-

fessional secrecy, the signing of certificates, responsibility,and the many difficult problems with which the professionalman may be called upon to deal. The various laws, rules,and regulations concerning medical practice are then

summarised, including special laws dealing with the prac-tice of pharmacy and the supply of therapeutic serums andsimilar products. The various societies for professionalassistance and protection are next described, with their

objects and aims. The concluding section is devoted to thethermal stations and mineral springs of France and givesuseful accounts of the chief features of these waters and the

indications for their use. Le Progres Medical is to be con-

gratulated upon this very useful production ; it should be of

great value to all people in this country who are interestedin medical education in France and to those who proposeto pursue post-graduate or vacation courses of study in Parisor at any other of the great medical centres in France.

Annotations.

NATIONAL HEALTH.

"one quid nimis."

ON Dec. llth the third annual meeting of the NationalLeague for Physical Education and Improvement was heldin the Jerusalem Chamber adjoining the south side of

Westminster Abbey under the presidency of the Bishopof Ripon. His lordship, in moving the adoption of the

report and the accounts, said that the object of the leaguewas to make people as physically " I fit" as possible. It had

lately been realised that the mind could not be properlyeducated unless the body was so too. By means of propercare and forethought much infantile mortality might be pre-vented. The Lord Mayor, who seconded the motion, saidthat unless they began with the child they would never

teach the alphabet of regeneration. A pure milk supply wasof the most vital importance. He was going to do all hecould to make his year of office a children’s year.The report and accounts were adopted, the former con-

taining a recommendation that Poor-law authorities should begranted powers to acquire farms in Canada and other suitablesite? in the empire. The Archbishop of Canterbury said thatthey could not separate man into two parts. Both the

physical and the spiritual sides must be dealt with. It wasoften asked why the legislature did not do something, butthe legislature had done its part, it was owing to the apathyof the public that so little had been done. The meetingthen terminated. For our part we think that the problemswhich the league has set itself to solve are among the most

1830

difficult of those many problems which confront us to-day.The solution of them, not only in this country but in everymodern civilised country, lies at the very root of the modernindustrial system. It involves questions of child labour, ofthe labour of parents, of the labour of women in mills andfactories, of proper housing, and of provision of play-grounds. To solve the problems will require a system ofnational self-denial and of a real public spirit which atpresent seems to be absent. But the first step to the solu-tion of any problem is the wish to solve it and it is cheeringto find that the National League has at least got so far onits toilsome journey.

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A LONDON WORTHY AND TALL BUILDINGS.

THE Clarendon Press has issued recently a reprint of ’’ TheSurvey of London," made long ago by John Stow, the

famous Tudor tailor. It forms an archaeological documentof exceptional interest to all who feel any curiosity con-cerning the development of the greatest city that the worldhas ever seen. Mr. Charles Whibley bases an article in theDecember number of the National Review on this fascinatingvolume and calls attention to Stow’s great antipathy to tall

buildings. He lived in an age when the timber houses

which were destined to be swept away by the Great Firewere replacing many of the older stone buildings. This

pleased Stow the more in that men were not tempted torear their wooden structures high up into the air. Not

only did he inveigh against the iniquity of those who builtpresumptuously, but he quoted two "awful examples" "

of the fate which would surely overtake them. Alder-

man Angell Dune, who set a high brick tower uponhis house, was struck with blindness and unable to gazeupon his handiwork, and Richard Wethell was punishedfor the same offence by becoming in short time so tor-

mented with goutes in his joynts, of the handes and legges,that he could neither feed himself, nor goe further than hewas led, much lesse was he able to climbe, and take thepleasures of the height of his Tower." The object of theselofty houses seems to have been a display of importance. Atthat period they were certainly not erected with the aggres-sive motive which inspired the architecture of so manymedifeval Italian towns and which was, of course, the

desire of every family of consequence to possess a vantageground from which its members could shoot down upon theirneighbours’ houses in times of civil feud. Bologna andSan Gimignano, to name only two towns, have manybeautiful examples of such towers still standing. Neithercan their motives have been those which have led to theerection of such "skyscrapers" as disfigure New Yorkcity of to-day. Although many Americans of a3stheticsense would perhaps gladly inspire the streets of their

metropolis with something of the Tudor spirit, and sharethe pious assurance of John Stow that the sins of all modern.children of Babel will be visited upon their bodies, therecan be no doubt that the tall city building has come to stay.Modern economy of ground-space in cities and concentrationof business interests make this fact apparent, and London- streets architecture is fast responding to its insistent com-

mercial necessity. In a recent annotation we called atten-

tion to the fact that a man who lives at the top of

a high building has the advantage of exceptionally pureair to breathe. But there are many interests to consider in

a community and the blessing of the Londoner on the house-top is the bane of his brothers in the street. We cannot putthe case in better language than in that of Mr. Whibley’sarticle: ’’ London is a true city of the North, and cannotendure tall houses, which shut out the light and cast longshadows. Nothing should interrupt the rays of the sun,,alway3 too few, which fall upon its streets....... (London’s)

citizens are free to heap up mountains of brick and mortar, ofstone and iron....... in order that they may swell an over-full pocket, the poor wayfarer must walk up and down like apigmy at the bottom of a sightless airless tank." He mightalmost have written of certain streets "a septic tank," for theliving bacterial population of narrow thoroughfares whichare never exposed to the antiseptic rays of the sun must beinconceivably great. We can only hope that the widening ofstreets will in some measure keep pace with the upwardgrowth of the buildings which bound them, and that ourbuilding laws may forbid in perpetuity the appearance inany British town of such a skyline as appears to be in-

separable from the great business centres of America. If a

John Stow redivivus were to cross the Atlantic we fear thateven the full-flavoured breadth of the Tudor vocabularywould fail to do justice to his emotions on approachingNew York.

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REGISTERED MEDICAL WOMEN AND THEPOLITICAL FRANCHISE.

ON Nov. 2nd a committee of the Association of RegisteredMedical Women of the United Kingdom wrote to the PrimeMinister asking for an opportunity of laying before himcertain facts in favour of the extension of the politicalsuffrage to women. The request was supported by theresults of an inquiry which showed that of all the regis-tered medical women resident in the United Kingdom 538were in favour and 15 against the extension. The 16 signa-tories to this communication included Mrs. Garrett Anderson,M.D., Dr. Sophia Jex-Blake, Dr. Julia Cock, Dr. Jane H.Walker, Mrs. Mary Scharlieb, M.D., Mrs. Florence N. Boyd,M.D., and Dr. Louisa B. Aldrich-Blake. Mr. Asquith, in hisreply, expressed his interest in the figures submitted tohim and requested the association to make its representa-tions in writing, as he regretted that pressure of publicbusiness would prevent him from receiving a deputationof medical women. On Dec. 10th the same ladies, withthe addition of three others, forwarded a memorandum

to Mr. Asquith in support of their claims. We are

unable to print the document in full in this issue but

summarise its arguments, which, we may mention, are

expressed in studiously temperate language. The associa-

tion claims that : 1. Legislation not infrequently deals withmatters directly concerning medical practitioners, and theinterests of all such practitioners should be protected bythe vote. 2. Medical women are a tax-paying and self-supporting body and afford a striking example of taxationwithout representation, which is opposed to the first

principles of English liberty. 3. Many medical women aregraduates of a university and as such are entitled to the

university franchise, a privilege from which they have beenexcluded by an arbitrary decision. 4. Members of themedical profession are called on to perform servicesof an arduous and responsible nature to their fellowsand to give skilled advice to the State but receiveno recognition of these services. The voteless positionof women practitioners is especially anomalous, as theypossess legal power to deprive men of their right to vote bysigning certificates of insanity. 5. Work amongst all classes hasgiven medical women an especial insight into the disabilitiesfrom which their sisters suffer through lack of politicalrepresentation. The unhygienic conditions of poor womenand children and the problems presented by criminal andintemperate women and by prostitution are closely associatedwith the economic conditions of female labour. 6. Womenshould have a direct voice in legislation upon these mattersand also upon questions of education, religion, guardianshipof children, housing of the poor, and all issues of publichealth and morals. 7. The possession of the vote would