881PUPIL TEACHERS OF CRICKET.

render the want of fresh air especially injurious. The

Commissioners, we are glad to note, do not think that theseare inevitable evils, but, on the contrary, maintain that

proper sanitation and ventilation could be enforced. Whyare they not enforced ? Perhaps because public conscienceis not sufficiently keen on these subjects ? Let us hopethat the large publicity given to the Commissioners’ reportwill help to rouse that still small voice, and that the nationat large will at last understand how great is the extravaganceof cheap production when it means unwholesome surround-ings and injury to health. -

PUPIL TEACHERS OF CRICKET.

IT is now pretty generally acknowledged that, notwithstand-ing an occasional mischance of accident, no kind of physicalexercise is better suited than cricket to aid the developmentof healthy and ma,nly boyhood. The position occupied bythe national game in our school system, almost that of a sub-ject of education barely optional to the learner, is an abidingproof of its tried utility. In some schools the mark of

appreciation has reached an even higher level, as one

may see from a recent advertisement which offers to

boys good at cricket free education in a preparatoryschool and, if promising, preparation for a scholarship.The terms of this proposal certainly register a new

departure in the history of pupil teaching. Whetherthis is entirely commendable is another question. In one

respect it might prove useful-namely, in affording a fewhealthy, intelligent, and pushing lads, probably a minorityof eligible candidates, the opportunity of obtaining a bettereducation than they could otherwise afford. Great care,

however, would have to be taken to prevent this attractivepupil-teachership from becoming a mere refuge of the school-boy idler. Another possible evil would also have to be

avoided, and that is, perhaps fortunately, a much rarer one,the possibility of overwork, resulting from a double ambitionto excel as pupil in the class-room and as teacher and

champion in the cricket field. Let a strong boy risk it if hewill, but let another choose first the scholar’s part. After

all, study comes first at school, then the cultivation ofmuscle.

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THE DOGS’ HOME, BATTERSEA.

NOT only on the ground of humanity, but even more so inthe interest of public health, we would support the appealmade a few days ago at the annual meeting of the RoyalSociety for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals on behalf ofthe Dogs’ Home in Battersea. The secretary’s report of workdone in this institution during 1893 is instructive. From it

we learn that the total number of dogs brought to the homeduring the year was 17,250, an increase of 678 on the yearpreceding. Homes had been found for 3125 of these, 1963had been sold, and 1162 had been restored to their owners.No rabid animal had been found among the arrivalsfor nearly four years. The additional department for catshad accommodated 417 inmates-215 as "boarders" and

202 as "strays." Let us now ask ourselves what is the real

meaning of the above statement. We may note in the first

place that it implies a great reduction of animal suffering.The home does in effect for its four-footed occupants what’the workhouse does for destitute mankind: it shelters,clothes, and heals. It is, moreover, not without some com-mercial value, since in a measure it is self-supporting by the.sale of its more presentable inmates. Last, but by no meansleast, in importance is the fact asserted, and with truth, byits secretary, that the institution has exercised a decidedinfluence in the repression of the once prevalent scourge ofhydrophobia. It is well known that the germs of this disorderfind the most suitable soil for their development in animalswhose vital resistance has been lowered by neglect and

starvation. The nurture and restoration to health and

vigour of any such, or, if needful, their destruction, are

from a sanitary standpoint the chief purposes of the home ;while it is maintained, therefore, we may count with con-fidence on the abatement of a great public danger. Thereasons above given should furnish an ample justification ofthe claim for support now put forward on behalf of thisuseful institution, the expenses connected with which haveincreased by f:174 during the past year, chiefly in consequenceof an increase in the number of its canine inhabitants.

FEMALE LABOUR AND INFANT DEATH-RATE.

IF we may judge from the statements made by Dr. GeorgeReid, medical officer of health to the Staffordshire CountyCouncil, in a recent paper on Infant Mortality and the Em-ployment of Married Women in Factories, there exists in

certain manufacturing centres a relation between death-rateand occupation hitherto imperfectly, if at all, recognised.Against a total of 97 infant deaths in the rural counties

there are 169 in the mining counties and 218 in threetowns where a census of the kind in question was taken.Where no women were employed in factory labour the infantdeath-rate was 152 ; where some women were so employed itwas 166; in others where female labour was much in demandit reached 195. Another instructive parallel was that drawnbetween arrests for drunkenness and deaths from suffocationin Liverpool. On Saturday night, it appears, the maximumin both is usually recorded, Monday holds second rank, andthe rest of the week shows a fall. These observations areinstructive. They confirm conclusions already drawn andproved by experience as to the relation between drunkennessand overlaying of children. They suggest, if they do not asclearly prove, a similar connexion between child mortalityand conditions of labours, which, however, necessarily tend todraw the woman out of her proper sphere of home, to placeher in the labour conflict and to expose her to the passionsand temptations to indulgence engendered by reaction in thatstruggle. How to adjust conditions of work so as to retainher in the domestic circle is a problem we cannot pretend tosolve, but the facts above stated tend to show that it is notunworthy the attention of the employer of labour as well asthe social reformer.

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THE ANNUAL MEETING OF THE BRITISH DENTALASSOCIATION AT NEWCASTLE.

THIS meeting was well attended, notwithstanding thetime of the year, and papers of considerable interestwere read. Mr. W. H. Breward Neale, the retiring pre-sident, dwelt largely on the politics of the dental pro-fession and the good feeling which now existed betweendentists and the medical profession generally, which he

fervently hoped would be continued and increased. Thetreasurer (Mr. W. H. Woodruff) gave a satisfactory financialreport. The president, Mr. Charles Tomes, F.R S., who wasenthusiastically received, spoke of the history of the associa-tion, and said that, counted in years, it was very young-only twenty-one-and yet members were inclined to "clamourfor a degree of consideration which can only be accorded inthe fulness of time, if ever." He mentioned the great strideswhich had been made in the requirements by legislativeboards from dental students, and alluded to the patience,tact, nerve, and physique requisite to ensure success in

practice. A question which has for some years been dis-cussed in dental circles-viz., that of the advisability of’’ apprenticeships’’—was warmly debated, with the resultof a majority in favour of the old régime, but the prosand cons of this point are too many to go into here. Thedemonstrations were interesting, but there was nothing verynew in dentistry. Mr. Wardell, Mr. Oswald Fergus, andothers showed various methods of treatment and mechanical