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660 from sickness and invaliding. It is very important, too, to avoid over-pressure in trying to form raw recruits into com- plete soldiers in the shortest possible time. Their habits of life are suddenly changed, they have often been underfed before enlistment, and are easily fatigued, and with one thing and another they find they have no time to them- selves. It is not surprising that, under such circumstances, the recruit acquires a distaste for the service. We feel bound to say, however, that much more care is exercised nowadays in this respect. We think the Committee is right in urging the claims which our discharged soldiers and sailors have upon the State for employment in any posts for which they are qualified, as recom- mended in the report of Mr. Childers’ Committee, and believe that it would give an impetus to recruiting. The day has gone by for exclusive privileges, and the Guards, ,as we have said already, should take their turn of foreign service, as far as the Mediterranean stations are concerned at any rate ; and if there were a battalion of Footguards composed of soldiers selected from our infantry for physique and war service it would be a popular measure. Moreover, the stimulus of reward of some kind is necessary for soldiers as for other people. If it cannot be given in the way of in- creased pay it might be in another direction-viz., a greater number of commissions might be open to the rank and file than at present. To conclude, it seems to be generally agreed that there must be as many battalions at home as there are abroad if the existing system is to work properly at the present time. .And as regards the near future, the soldier’s pay and .advantages will have to be increased if a voluntary army of adequate strength has to be maintained. The appointment of committees and the adoption of different expedients will only postpone a decision of this question for a season. ROYAL MEDICAL BENEVOLENT COLLEGE. DR. C. HOLMAN, treasurer of the College, asks us to .publish the following appeal :- The Council are of opinion that on no previous occasion since the establishment of the College has so important a ,,proposition been brought before their subscribers and before the profession at large. They earnestly hope that many medical men will exert themselves amongst their friends and patients, and make the ensuing festival a successful eeginning of an alteration the benefits of which, to both pensioners and scholars, are simply at present not to be - calculated. Dear Sir,-On Tuesday, April 5th, the Right Hon. the Lord Mayor of London has consented to take the chair at the biennial festival of the ’College. At this dinner the Council desire to raise funds : 1. To assist in meeting the annual outlay for the support of the fifty pensioners and ’fifty foundation scholars, an outlay amounting to between f:5000 and £6000. 2. To aid in raising a sum of about .626,000, so that the Council may give the pensioners augmented incomes, and thus dispense with their compulsory residence at Epsom College, and enable them to spend their declining years amongst their relatives and friends. That this is a truer form of charity has been of late years fully ,recognised ; the system of pensions as opposed to compulsory residence in almshouses has been adopted by H.M.’s Government in the case of ,the Greenwich Hospital, and by many of the best known charities in England. The suggestion, however, has in addition to its charitable side one which the Council submit is of almost as great importance. It has been forced on the Council that the school cannot be carried on as it should be unless its accommodation is in all ways increased. Thanks to the unremitting and successful efforts of the head master :a,nd his staff, the school is full, and from the inquiries made respecting -it, and from the number of names down on the list waiting for admis- sion, there appears no reason to doubt that this satisfactory state of things will continue. Even, however, with the present numbers more room is wanted for convenience, and therefore efficiency, in teaching and for general school purposes, so that if the numbers are to be increased an immediate and large extension of accommodation must be provided. This weighs very heavily on the Council who have the management of the school, and hence their urgent appeal to the public. Any enlargement of the existing school buildings must, even when carried to its utmost limit, be a mere palliative, so that new buildings are essential; and if the pensioners could be provided for elsewhere the buildings they now occupy could be at once utilised, and so provide for an important part of the necessary extension. Thus a double benefit to the pensioners and to the school would accrue, and in this benefit the boys on the foundation, who are an integral part of the school, and who differ from the rest only in that they are educated and maintained free of cost to ,their relatives, take their full share. The Editors of THE LANCET, impressed with the value of this scheme, have most liberally offered .61000 if the full amount be collected. Some of the public recognise the very important services which the medical profession render to the community, and to them it is hardly necessary to appeal, or to do more than to state that money is wanted urgently for the objects set out above, to secure their cooperation. Many, however, do not recognise the peculiar position in which a medical man stands. He is bound (if he does his duty, and there are few who do not) to hold himself at all times and in all weathers at the disposal of those who may want his help. He attends the poor as well as the rich, he goes to places and houses insanitary as well as sanitary, he exposes his life in all climates and at all seasons, with the result that the lives of medical men are shorter than those of men following other professions, and the time within which they can provide for their families is proportionately shorter. " The medical death-rate is far in excess of the rates in the other learned professions, and also of the rates in most trades and industries..... The general result of the comparison is to show that, with very few exceptions, the mortality of medical men is higher under every heading than the mortality of males generally, and that under some of the headings the medical mortality is twice or thrice, or even more times, greater than the average." 1 All these facts show how difficult it must be for medical practitioners to make adequate provision for their families, a.nd accounts in some measure for the very large amount of distress which necessarily exists amongst the widows and orphans of medical men. The Council earnestly hope that you will aid them in the great work they have in hand : firstly, in meeting the necessary annual outlay to fulfil the trust bequeathed to them by the founder ; secondly, to secure at as early a date as possible an improved position for the pensioners; and, thirdly, to assist them in maintaining the school in its present state of efficiency, and in raising it to the level of the first schools of the country, a position to which it is fast attaining. We shall gladly take charge of any donation or subscription you will kindly entrust to us. Ten guineas, or one guinea annually, constitute a governor.-We are yours very faithfully, J. FAYRER, M.D., F.R.S., K.C.S.I., Chairman of Council. C. HOLMAN, M.D., Treasurer. J. L. PROPERT, M.B., Chairman of Festival Committee. J. B. LAMB, Secretary. 37, Soho-square, W. THE ROYAL BRITISH NURSES’ ASSOCIATION. THE Draft Charter submitted by this Association, with its petition for incorporation, to the Privy Council recites in the name of Her Majesty- " That it has been represented to us by our most dearly beloved daughter Helena, Princess Christian of Schleswig- Holstein, Princess of Great Britain and Ireland, that in 1887 a Society was established in London called the British Nurses’ Association,’ which has since its establishment been joined by more than 3000 nurses, each one of whom has been engaged for three years or more in attendance upon the sick; that the said Association was not established for the purpose of gain, but for the purposes of the improvement of the profession of nurses and of the promotion of their efficiency and usefulness and of assisting them by various benevolent schemes; that in furtherance of the said objects a list of nurses has been compiled and published setting forth the names and addresses of nurses, with the names of the hospitals or institutions at which they have been trained and the length of training which each has received, thus enabling the public to form a more accurate judgment of the professional education and experience of the nurses so registered ; that a benevolent fund has been established for the purpose of giving aid to nurses, and that the manage- ment of the said Association is vested in certain eminent members of the medical profession, matrons of hospitals, and other persons interested in nursing; and that in 1891 we were graciously pleased to confer on the said Associa- tion the prefix and title of ’Royal’ and to command that the said Association should be styled the Royal British Nurses’ Association."’ It then proceeds, after some additional and merely formal recitals, to declare —" That our said most dearly beloved daughter Helena, Princess Christian of Schleswig Holstein, Princess of Great Britain and Ire. land, our trusty and well-beloved Sir James Paget, Baronet; Sir Spencer Wells, Baronet; Sir William Savory, Baronet; Sir Richard Quain, Baronet; Sir Joseph Fayrer, Knight Commander of the Most Exalted Order of the Star of India,; Sir Henry Thompson, Knight Bachelor; Sir James Crichton Browne, Knight Bachelor; Sir Dyce Duckworth, Knight Bachelor; Sir Edward Sieve- king, Knight Bachelor; Sir Alfred Garrod, Knight Bachelor; Sir George Humphry, Knight Bachelor; Robert Brudenell Carter, Fellow of the Royal College of Snr. geons of England ; John Williams, Doctor of Medicine; William Bezly Thorne, Doctor of Medicine; Bedford 1 William Ogle, M.D.Oxon., F.R.C.P., Registrar-General.
