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THE PUBLIC HEALTH. 
Lonpon.—After the reading of Mr. Rumsey’s able address on 
“State Medicine,” at the meeting of the British Medical Association 
in Dublin, a joint committee of that Association and the Social Science 
Association was formed, for the purpose of taking into consideration 
the best means of securing further sanitary legislation and, more 
especially, the revision and consolidation of existing sanitary laws. 
The committee has had several meetings, and an active correspond- 
ence has been carried on amongst its members. The result has been 
the publication of two separate documents, a “ memorandum” and 
a ‘‘memorial,” which have been submitted to Her Majesty's Govern- 
ment. On Friday, the 2nd May, a numerous deputation of members 
of parliament, members of the jot committee of the two Associa- 
tions, and medical officers of health from various parts of the country 
formed a deputation to wait on the Duke of Marlborough, as Presi- 
dent of Her Majesty’s Privy Council, the Right Hon. the Earl of 
Devon, President of the Poor Law Board, and the Right Hon. 
Gathorne Hardy, the Home Secretary, for the purpose of urging 
the object of the memorial, which was to promote a better adminis- 
tration of the laws relating to registration, medico-legal inquiries, 
and the improvement of the public health. 
If past experience had not demonstrated the almost utter 
hopelessness of pressing upon Government officials the necessity of 
amending the condition of our sanitary laws, it might have been 
hoped that the imposing demonstration that waited on the Govern- 
ment in May would have produced some impression. 
Almost all sections of the medical profession and of the societies 
interested in sanitary matters were represented. The president 
elect of the British Medical Association, the president of the 
Medical Council of Great Britain, the late president (Sir Thomas 
Watson) of the College of Physicians were there. Dr. Rumsey, of 
Cheltenham, Dr. Farr, of the Registrar-General’s Office, Dr. Guy, and 
Mr. Chadwick were there. The deputation was, in fact, a parlia- 
ment, a body of men who thoroughly understood the great questions 
they were about to urge upon the Government, and who if repre- 
sentative institutions were in this country what they ought to be 
would not be suing to be heard, but would be placed in a position 
where they might legislate on the great subject they so thoroughly 
understand. The memorial of the deputation in the first place sets 
forth that the time has come when the imperial parliament ought to 
take seriously into its consideration the question of whether any of 
