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the present moment to medical men as referees in life- assurance matters may be it would be idle to guess-it is.doubtful whether there is sufficient evidence before the

public to enable an expert statistician to hazard a reasonable- estimate,—but two things are certain : firstly, that the sumis very large and not decreasing; and, secondly, that it is

- to the establishment of the New Equitable Life AssuranceCompany that the receipt of this sum by medical men is due.

ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS OFENGLAND.

AN ordinary meeting of the Council of the College was!held on the 12th inst., the senior Vice-President, Mr.

JMACNAMARA, being in the chair. ’

The committee on the circular to the Fellows on the

,question of the direct representation of the Members of theCollege on the Council presented a report, which stated thatthe circular was issued to 1150 Fellows on Oct. 1st, and that.s04 answers had been received, but it was consideredundesirable to open them at the present time. The com-xaittee also thought that the poll should be left open for fourmonths in order to allow sufficient time for answers to bereceived from the colonies and abroad, and recommendedthat an advertisement be inserted in the medical journals tothe effect that the poll will be closed on Jan, 31st, 1897. Thereport was approved.

The committee of management of the Conjoint ExaminingBoard made the following recommendations, which were

approved :-"1. That the following institutions be added to the list of recognised

places of instruction in chemistry, physics, practical chemistry, andbiology : (a) Tonbridge School; (b) Portsmouth Grammar School (with-,out biology) ; (c) Portsmouth Municipal Technical Institute ; (d) EtonCollege; (e) Dover Municipal Technical School (without biology);(f) Wedgewood Institute, Burslem (without biology); (g) City ofLondon College.

"2. That the following hospitals be added to the list of fever hospitals

recognised by the board: (a) Sheffield City Hospitals for InfectiousDiseases; (b) Newcastle-upon-Tyne Hospitals for Infectious Diseases."3. That the following asylums be added to the list of lunatic

- asylums recognised by the Board: (a) South Yorkshire LunaticAsylum, Wadsley, near Sheffield; (b) Northumberland County Asylum,Morpeth."

Mr. T. Pickering Pick, who retired by rotation from the- Committee of Management, was re-elected. The report fromthe Laboratories Committee was approved. It was as

follows :-"1. The work on Diphtheria for the Metropolitan Asylzuas Board.-

(a) Examination of Material for Diagnosis. Since June 5th 4360 speci-mens have been examined and reported upon. The average number ofspecimens examined per diem has been 55’89. The highest numberexamined on any one day was 158 and the lowest 9 specimens.(b) The Preparation of Antitoxic Serum. Since June 5th the Directorhas supplied 701 doses of antitoxic serum containing 4000 units and1358 doses containing 1000 units for the treatment of diphtheria in thehospitals of the Metropolitan Asylums Board, and all the demandshave been fully met. This is the first quarter during which doses of4000 units have been supplied to the hospitals under the Board. Duringthis period 4,162,000 units have been supplied, against 3,910,000 unitslast quarter, being an increase of 252,C00 units, equal to 252 doses of1000 units each." 2. Researches in connexion with the Grant from the Goldsmiths’

Company.-Dr. Sidney Martin having been appointed to the Professor-ship of Pathology at University College has been unable to report anyfurther researches. The committee have made further grants of J650 toDr. Cartwright Wood and .E75 to Dr. T. G. Brodie, both of whom are,continuing their investigations."

Mr. Henry Power having retired by rotation from theLaboratories Committee was re-elected for one year.

The senior Vice-President stated that the BradshawLecture would be delivered by Mr. Reginald Harrison onWednesday, Dec. 9th, at 5 o’clock P.M., the subject of thelecture being "Observations on Vesical Stone and ProstaticDisorders." "

A letter was read from the secretary of University College,Bristol, reporting the expiration of Mr. Bryant’s term ofoffice as a representative Member of the Council of thatCollege and mentioning that his re-nomination would givesatisfaction. Mr. Bryant was accordingly re-nominated.A letter was read from Dr. Liveing reporting that the RoyalCollege of Physicians of London had re-elected Dr. EdwardLiveing a member of the Committee of Management and hadre-elected Dr. W. D. Halliburton a member of the LaboratoriesCommittee.

THE BATTLE OF THE CLUBS.

PORTSMOUTH PROVIDENT MEDICAL ASSOCIATION.

WE have received from the honorary secretary of this newassociation a copy of the provisional scheme of the pro-posed constitution and rules which have met with the

approval of the committee of the Portsmouth MedicalUnion. The object of the association is stated as follows -To provide " medical advice and physic" for the working classes

living in the Borough of Portsmouth according to a sliding scale, andadjusted to their means, with the advantage of a selection of theirmedical attendant.

A general meeting of the members of the local professionwill be held at 5, Pembroke-road on Thursday next, Nov. 26th,at 4.30 P.M. to discuss the same. We regret that we cannotprint at length the various clauses of the constitution or therules, for both are worthy of attention. The constitution iswell shown, however, by the second and eighth clauses,which run as follows :-

2. The entire management of the association shall be vested in themedical staff forming the executive committee, which, together withthe honorary members of the staff, shall form the council of theassociation.

8. Practitioners in the town wishing to support the scheme of theassociation may be appointed honorary members of the staff.

The spirit of the movement is well shown in these clauses,which ensure, firstly, that the medical men shall managetheir own affairs; and. secondly, that no invidious distinc-tions will be allowed within their ranks.The regulations regarding the medical staff include the

following :-1. The appointment of medical officer is open to any medical

practitioner in Portsmouth (not practising as a homoeopath) who hasbeen in residence for a twelvemonth and who is not connected withany medical aid association where " touting" and canvassing m theinterests of a particular individual is carried on by its agents, and whohas not been adjudged guilty oftconduct injurious to the interests ofthe medical prolession. duct injurious two the interests of

4. All members of the staff must sign an undertaking (a) not to con-duct private clubs of their own at all (other than friendly societiesregistered under the Act); (b) to have no professional intercourse what-soever with any medical man who associates himself with any of thecompanies known as medical aid societies or with similar institutionsso long as the methods adopted by these societies include (1) can-

vassing for members in the interests of individual practitioners; (2) thevirtual sweating of their medical officers by not applying the fullmedical contributions of their members to the remuneration of theirmedical officers.

The scale of charges has been adapted to the propercarrying out of the avowed purpose of the association :-

Single members.-Earning 20s. a week and under 4s. per annum;earning from 21s. to 30s. a week 5s. per annum.Married members.- Earnings of family 20s. a week and under 4s. per

annum; family tickets at tne rate of 20s. per annnm. Earnings offamily 21. to ;)08. a week 5s. per annum ; family tickets at the rate of30s.perannum. Earnings ot family 31s. to 40s. a week 6s. per annum ;family tickets at the rate of 42s. per annum.Single persons earning over 30s. a week and married persons where

the income of the family exceeds 40s. a week will not be admitted to thebenefits of the association, and persons renting houses over £20 a yearwill be assumed to be earning over £2 a week.

Among the rules and regulations we select the following astypical of the practical nature of the movement :-

3. Every candidate shall be examined by the medical officer and mustbe "passed" by the committee one month before becoming eligible forbenefits

4. All rights shall be forfeited by any member found to have made afalse declaration or who at any time shall be discovered to be in receiptof an income rendering him or her in the opinion of the committeeunsuitable for membership.

5. Persons over sixty years of age will only be admitted at specialrates. Children under fifteen years will not be admitted withoutone of their parents. Infants under three months will not beadmitted.

6. Persons ineligible as ordinary healthy members may be admittedat increased rates.

The phrase in the regulations, " Medical advice," is in-

terpreted to mean advice at consulting-room and ordinarymedical and surgical attendance exclusive of fractures, dis-locations, severe injuries, and all operations beyond openingsuperficial abscesses. In these latter cases, as well as inconfinements, special arrangements must be entered into forpayment with the medical officer.The members of the staff propose to cooperate with one

another in cases requiring additional assistance at the

following rates-consultation fee, 10s. 6d. ; administrationof chloroform, &c., 10s. 6d. ; assistance at midwifery caseor at operation, 10s. 6d.The only possible comment upon the association Is that it

has laid itself out in a remarkably practical way to resist

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the evils rampant in so many localities. Its officers will be able to help the poor, preserve their own self-respect, and Iregulate their own charities. We wish it all success.

BECKENHAM MEDICAL SOCIETY.At a meeting of the above society, held on Nov. 13th,

Mr. Frank Sturges in the chair, the society were able tocongratulate themselves on the fact that, owing to the unani-mous support of the profession in the place, Mr. Bartonand Mr. Corbin have been enabled to resign their appoint-ments as medical officers of the London and Manchester andthe National Medical Aid Clubs, and thus these societieshave been deprived of their footing in Beckenham. Actingon a requisition signed by the medical men resident in thehamlet of Penge it was decided to extend the work of thesociety to that locality, and the signatories were all electedmembers of the society. The following resolutions, sub-mitted by a sub-committee appointed to inquire into the

working of slate clubs, were unanimously approved, subjectto the sanction of the new members, who are to be consulted.at a special meeting:-1. That the medical officer shall be a member of the club committee. 2. The wage-limit shall be 35s. a week.3. The doctor’s fee to be raised to 6s. per annum.4. A careful list of names and addresses to be given to the doctor

within fourteen days after each quarter-day, together with the fees forthat quarter, the club to make themselves responsible for the fees of allnames on the list." 5 All new members to be examined by the doctor, the fee for such

examination to be Is."6. Certificates to be paid for at Is. each except the one for the club

he is the medical officer of."It will thus be seen that in Beckenham, at any rate

the profession is earnestly and successfully prosecutingThe Battle of the Clubs."

It was further decided to give a unanimous support toDr. Glover, Dr. Rentoul, and Mr. Rivington in their candi-dature for the General Medical Council.

THE POSITION AT GREAT YARMOUTH.The state of affairs at Great Yarmouth, to which we have

already alluded, has progressed somewhat. On Friday,Nov. 13th, Brother F. W. James, Grand Master of the Not-tingham Order of Oddfellows, met a mass meeting ofmembers of friendly societies and spoke with a frankness ofthe position of the societies towards their medical men w

which should give pause to any practitioners so imprudentand untrue to the best interests of their profession as to havepondered the advisability of accepting office under theseinstitutions. "Dr. Moxon," said Grand Master James," has complained of misrepresentation of facts, and saidthat the doctors had not regarded the position as one

of master and servant, but as the relation of two

parties to a contract. Dr. Moxon did not say thathe was liable to be called upon the carpet and could,if his conduct was not satisfactory, be given the sack."Brother Rudling, treasurer of the Norwich Medical Institute,rushed into figures to show that medical men crushed eachother and that the institute secured better treatment for itsmembers than they could obtain in other ways and exactedhigher pay from the families than many medical men werewilling to do. He quoted the fact that the consultingphysician of his institution was Sir Peter Eade, as a proof,apparently, that the medical man who served them enjoyeda very respectable position-a view a little at variance withthat of Grand Master James. We feel certain that no respect-able medical man will work under these friendly societiesin Yarmouth in opposition to their brother practitioners,who have only demanded fair treatment, while it is highlyadvisable that Sir Peter Eade should take his name off theprospectus of an institution whose working in relation tothe interests of his own profession he probably does notunderstand.

MUNICIPAL HONOURS FOR MEDICALMEN.

THE office of mayor is a very fitting one for a medicalman, inasmuch as by virtue of that office he has not a littleinfluence over the proper working of those municipalmeasures which are framed with the object of improvingthe_public_health. It is not every one, however, who can

find the necessary time to devote to the duties which thisoffice entails upon him, and it is not surprising that moremedical men do not offer themselves for election. We wouldlike, however, to see a larger number of our profession fillingthis office, and as this year we are happily able to chroniclean increase in the number of medical mayors over last year,when there was a considerable falling off, so we hope in thefuture to be able to welcome a still larger number of medicalpractitioners upon whom have been bestowed the high civicoffice.Bangor.-Mr. H. Grey-Edwards, M.D., was born in 1857

and educated at Rossall School and Trinity College, Dublin,where he took the degrees of B.A., M.D., M.B., B.Ch. Heobtained, in addition to various prizes, the Surgical Travel-ling Scholarship value £100 and proceeded to Vienna forspecial study. He started practice in Bangor with the lateDr. Richards in 1879. He holds several public appointments.He has been a member of the town council for many years.During the last year he has taken the lead in introducing theelectric light into Bangor, and the municipal election thisyear was fought on the question of gas v. electricity. Thetown declared for electricity, Dr. Grey-Edwards being re-turned in the south ward by a majority of 3 to 1. Thecouncil thought that the results of the election made this afitting time to elect him mayor.

Bournemo?tt7t. -Alderman J. Atkinson Hosker, M.R.C.S.Eng., of Bournemouth went to Bournemouth in 1882, whenhe was appointed resident medical officer to the BoscombeHospital. On his resignation of that post in 1883 he wasappointed on the honorary staff of the hospital. In 1890he was returned as councillor for the borough at the headof the poll and was re-elected in 1893 unopposed. In 1894he was elected to the Aldermanic Chair. Alderman Hoskeris chairman of the sanitary committee and of the committeeof the Boscombe Club, president of the Boscombe WorkingMen’s Conservative Club, also of the Drummond Club, anda vice-president of the Philharmonic Society. He is a

director of the Electric Light Company, the Boscombe LandSociety, the Boscombe Pier Company, the Bournemouth,Boscombe, and Westbourne Omnibus Company, and servesalso upon various committees.

Conway.-Mr. R. A. Prichard, L.R.C.P. Edin., M.R.C.S.Eng., has been chosen by his fellow-townsmen mayor forthe third time. He has been in practice at Conway for overtwenty-five years and was president of the North WalesBranch of the British Medical Association. He holds unionand parish appointments and is senior Surgeon-Captain,2nd V.B. Royal Welsh Fusiliers.Harrvich,-Mr. Samuel Evans is a native of the Principality.

He was educated at Llandovery College, and entered Univer-sity College Hospital in 1866, and in 1870 obtained thequalifications of the Royal College of Physicians of Londonand Surgeons of England, and of the Society of Apothe-caries. In 1873 he joined in partnership the late Mr. Fresh-field at Harwich, and on his death in 1874 succeeded to theentire practice, which he has carried on ever since. He is aJ.P. for the borough, was elected to the Council in November,1895, and mayor in the present year.Leamington Spa.-Dr. T. W. Thursfield, who has been

elected mayor for the third time in succession, was born atKidderminster in 1839. His father was Thomas Thursfield,M.R.C.S. Eng., and for nearly thirty years the leadingmedical practitioner in that town. He was the son ofW. Thursfield of Broseley, Shropshire, who was a surgeon, andhis father was a medical man, so that the present mayor isthe fourth member in direct descent of the medical profession.He was educated at King’s College, London, and LancingCollege, Sussex. For four years he was a matriculatedmedical student at Aberdeen, graduated M. D. in 1860, andwas the first medical graduate of the new united universityof Aberdeen. After travelling for five years he settled inLeamington in 1866, became physician to the WarnefordHospital in 1882, president of the Birmingham and MidlandCounties Branch of the British Medical Association in 1888,and Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Londonin 1890. His municipal life dates from the time when hewas persuaded to join the committee of the Free Public

Library as non-municipal member in 1879. In 1880 he waselected chairman, and in 1881 he was elected councillor afterone heavy defeat, and in 1894 was elected mayor for thefirst time. Alderman Thursfield is a J.P. for the borough andfor the county of Warwick.Maidstone.-Mr. Josiah Oliver, Mayor of Maidstone,

entered at Charing-cross Hospital in 1366, and was admitted