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1192 keep to their old inferior kinds, and if they have a good sort it is not well grown, is badly selected, badly packed, and offered in a less attractive condition than its foreign rival. Spade culture was advocated as opposed to the plough, especially the steam plough. It seems that many social and economic difficulties would vanish if vegetarianism prevailed. A member of Parliament of that cult was wanted to put before its members from a vegetarian standpoint the great problem of taking labour from the congested towns to happy and healthy life on the land." Professor Mayor of Cambridge, the President of the society, said that when he first remembered Cheshire farm- houses a visitor was never offered anything purchased at a shop-it was all home-made. Now all this was reversed. Mr. Axon of Manchester, a,veteran in the cause, was very ’enthusiastic, saying it was not merely a system of dietetics, but "something that contributed to the simplification of life, to the elevation of morals, to the improvement of life generally, and to all good causes whatsoever....... It was the sister of all other good movements-of peace societies, purity societies, and thrift societies. The adoption of the vegetarian system by the nation would solve a great many of those grave and pressing problems which were perplexing alike statesmen and moralists all over England and Europe." This enthusiasm is harmless, and perhaps to a certain extent useful, in a nation of beef-eaters, while the vegetarians are to be congratulated on the happiness they evidently feel in being " so very superior." Nov. 5th. ______________ NORTHERN COUNTIES NOTES. (FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.) St. Oswald’s Homefor Friendless Girls. THE foundation-stone of this valuable institution was laid at Cullercoats last week by Mrs. J. R. Burn, in the presence of the Bishop of Newcastle, a number of local clergymen, .and others. The building is to cost £ 5600, of which sum Mr. J. R. Burn, with his usual liberality, has contributed £ 2000. The Society for Providing Homes for Waifs and Strays provides £ 500. The house will contain accommoda- tion for fifty children. It is a Church of England institution. Cruelty to Children. Hardly a week passes without the Society for the Preven- tion of Cruelty to Children bringing before the magistrates in this neighbourhood cases revealing shocking neglect of children by drunken parents. Mr. Barnado says that some of the worst examples of child degradation he has met with come from Newcastle-on-Tyne. A few days ago a man .and his wife were charged with exposing and neglecting their three children aged four years, two years, and six months respectively. Inspector Appleton found them all lying in an old pay office six feet square, on a miserable mattress, with only a few rags to covert hem. The children were benumbed with cold. The place was full of rags, bones, and pieces of old iron. They had slept there for four or five weeks. The infant had been born in an old coal-house. The father and mother were both drunkards. The infant weighed ’9 lb. The bench sent the parents to gaol and removed the elder children permanently from their custody. Amateur Operetta by Children. A new operetta, The Demon Spider, by Miss E. G. Simpson, a grand-daughter of a well-known local medical man, and Mr. ill. E. Lawson, was performed in the Art Gallery, New- castle, on Wednesday, Oct. 30th, for the benefit of the Royal Infirmary. The house was crowded. The characters were all taken by children, and Mr. J. H. Beer, in the absence of Mr. Lawson, kindly conducted. The Tyne Port Sanitary Authority. At a meeting to-day of the Tyne port sanitary authority it was arranged to advertise for a medical officer in the place of Dr. H. E. Armstrong. The duties were defined and the salary fixed at £ 150 per annum, the officer to reside at the mouth of the river. It was suggested that Dr. H. E. Arm- strong should be asked to accept the appointment of con- sulting medical officer, and in the public interest it is to be hoped this suggestion will be accepted, for there can be no doubt that the experience of Dr. H. E. Armstrong would be most valuable. Tynemouth Victoria Jubilee Infirmary. A cheque for .E2.000 has been received by the chairman of the above-named charity from Mr. R. T. Donkin, M.P., for the purpose of completing the hospital by the building of a new wing and a porter’s lodge, and providing furniture. This generous gift of the member for the borough will be thoroughly appreciated by the inhabitants of Tynemouth. Newcastle-on-Tyne, Nov. 4th. SCOTLAND. (FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENTS.) The Prosecutions by the Pharmaceutical Society. REFERENCE has already been made to prosecutions, at the instance of the Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain, against various persons charged with contra- vening the Pharmacy Act, 1868. Two of these cases were carried from the Sheriff’s Court to the Justiciary Appeal Court. One of the cases was against Mr. Hume of Edinburgh, who designated himself a " scientific instrument maker and technical chemist" and a "photographic chemist." The other was against Mr. Turnbull, and the question raised in his case was whether he had committed the offence of keeping open shop for the retailing, dispensing, or compound- ing of poison. Lord Trayner, in dealing with Mr. Hume’s case, recognised the difficulty of the case. The Act had been passed for the safety of the public and forbids anyone keeping open shop for retailing poisons or using the title of chemist unless qualified and registered as the statute pro- vided. He considered that the title "technical chemist" was within the statutory prohibition. The title of chemist was used in connexion with premises in which poisons were sold in small quantities, and the public, for whose safety and protection the Act was passed, were more likely than not to regard the title " chemist without paying any attention to, or perhaps understanding, the qualification technical." That the prefix of a qualifying adjective to the title chemist or druggist did not take the person using such title out of the statutory prohibition had been decided in England, where "botanical chemist" and "shipping druggist" " had been treated as con- traventions of the statute. Had these English decisions been to a contrary effect his lordship would not have dissented from them. They would then, he must admit, have been more in accordance with the inclination of his own mind. It was not desirable, however, that an imperial statute should be interpreted differently in different parts of the kingdom, and he was, therefore, prepared to follow them and decide accordingly. In doing so his lord- ship was doing the respondent no wrong or even putting him to any serious inconvenience, while he was only afford- ing to the public the protection which this statute intended. With regard to the other case, he held that the shop in question was the respondent’s shop, and it was certainly kept open, inter alia, for the sale of poisons in small quantities. The other two judges concurred in this finding. The agent for the Pharmaceutical Society did not ask for expenses, and stated that the society only wanted the point decided. The Lord Justice Clerk approved of this, as there was nothing whatever against the character of either of the respondents. They had not acted in a surreptitious manner at all. It was only technically that the court were obliged to come to the judgment they did. Opening of the Royal Edinbiurgh Hospital for Sick Children. On Thursday last week the new buildings of the Royal Edinburgh Hospital for Sick Children were opened by Her Royal Highness Princess Beatrice, who had travelled, accompanied by Prince Henry of Battenberg, from Balmoral for this purpose. Owing to the limited accommodation at the hospital comparatively few invitations were issued for the ceremony, even the staff of the Royal Infirmary not being honoured with them. After the usual preliminaries and the formal " I declare this hospital open," Her Royal Highness was conducted over the hospital. At each of the wards the Princess was asked to hand to each of the nurses a silver badge commemorative of the occasion. These badges were the gift of the physicians and surgeons to the hospital. The Princess named one of the wards the Beatrice " ward. The old Sick Children’s Hospital was situated in Lauriston-lane, but it was demolished a few years ago and the site sold to the Royal Infirmary for its extension. Since that time a building; c r Alorningside has been used as a temporary hospital. The
