ambitious, and at the same time less general, than yours. It has been an attempt to show that what is proposable by the sanitary scholar, if I may so express myself, is not merely proposable, but practicable. I have looked back at the course of sanitary science, as we for a long time have seen it together, in its progress, and I have tried to look upon all the difficulties that lie in the way of the realization of our hopes,— the hopes of securing some kind of national sanitary organization. From these two points of view the

plan I have ventured to conceive is laid out.

It is the duty of members of societies such as ours thus to learn and suggest. It is the duty of those who, for the time, stand over us and govern us, to consider our learning and suggestion when we tender what we have to say with due respect of expression and loyalty of intent. I have spoken, I hope, in this spirit, thinking of no parties in the State, but of the State as one party, waiting for perfection of Health in all its ranks and all its boundaries. We Sanitarians 'serve and wait,' and therewith are content. We grudge no Prime Minister, no Cabinet, the endless honour and gratitude that would be earned by the device of a method that shall make the Health and thereby the Wealth of the Nation a primary and special care of the Government. We ask only that we may be permitted to see the desire of our hearts,

from which our labours have sprung, recognized; and, that we may be the first to thank the political leader or leaders who shall embellish this present reign by the construction or introduction of a great measure for the Health of the Commonwealth.

Some nineteen hundred years ago there died in tragic splendour a great Emperor who had made an era in the history of the world. It was his chiefest triumph that, having found the city from which he ruled a city of mud, he left it a city of marble. For nearly nineteen centuries the name of that great man has been kept alive, a household word, in one sentence,-Saluti Augustæ,-by which has been typified, not the man alone, but his era and the work of it. To salute those who should be greeted with the best of greetings, that motto, time out of mind, has been employed. I would not for a moment reduce its ancient and well-deserved honour; but I would, if I could, let the work of this time eclipse it, so that henceforth Saluti Victoriæ should be the motto of a later and greater Era and Empire.

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II.

WILLIAM HARVEY.

A BIRTHDAY PROLOGUE.

VADE mecum. Let us think of a fine first of April morning, in the year of our Lord one thousand six hundred and twenty-nine, and let us in imagination go into Smithfield,—field of the noble army of martyrs,—and a field which every stranger from the country new to London would surely visit.

as now, we see standing across one side of the

Then,

square

a great house for the reception and treatment of It is the house founded by Rahere,

sick people. Bartholomew's Hospital.

As we look at this house of the sick we see passing to it from another house on the western side of Smithfield, an energetic, brisk-stepping man, past the meridian of life, who evidently has business before him of importance. He is a little man, below the middle stature, and his face, which is round, is 'olivaster in

colour, wainscot like.' His hair is raven black.

His eyes are small, very black, and sparkling. His features are expressive of energy, vivacity, penetration, courage. His temperament, as we should say in these days, is nervous and bilious, the nervous preponderating. He is not really an irritable man, but quick and soon on fire. He wears a short dagger, as is the fashion of the day amongst gentlemen; and there, at the door of the hospital, where he is now speaking with some other gentleman, friend or brother worker, he gets into an argument and, as you observe, unsheathes his little dagger automatically, and, holding it in his right hand, lays the flat surface of the blade across his left hand, as if clenching an argument, or directs the point, with energy, in some new direction, as suggesting a statement, reason, or qualification. You might think this an ebullition of temper, if you did not know the man. You soon see you are deceived. That polished movement and farewell indicates a thoroughbred gentleman, with no little affectation of courtly polish, and you observe that the friend spoken to departs smiling and satisfied. The friend is clearly proud of an interview, which he will not fail to talk of to his neighbours and family, for in the interest it has excited in his mind he almost forgets to pick his way over the big stones which loosely cover the rough pavement, and has nearly gone down

on his nose. He must be careful. Everybody must be careful of tripping, physically as well as politically, in the reign of Charles the First.

At a respectful distance, we will venture to follow, into the house of the sick, him in whom we have become so much interested. He is, we detect, treated with great reverence, and we quickly discover his vocation to be that of the healer of those who are there to be healed. He has removed his King Charles hat by this time, and has thrown off his loose cloak, whereby we are able to distinguish that the short stature of the man is not thrown out of symmetry by great girth of body and limb. He has a lithe and spare body, on which body is set a head of fine proportion. The forehead is high and broad; the nose well chiselled and slightly Roman; the cheeks flattened; the lips compressed and thin; the chin curved and pointed. From the extremity of the chin and lower line of the lower jaw depends a pointed, neatly-cut beard, and from the upper lip, curving gracefully down on each side, is what we moderns know as a moustache. The raven hair on the head is combed straight back in neat and comely style.

The dress of our man is, according to the professional taste of the day, of rich black cloth. He has rather a full doublet, with sleeves cut somewhat

D