NATURE 



337 



THURSDAY, AUGUST 13, 1891. 



THE INTERNA TIONAL CONGRESS OF 

 HYGIENE AND DEMOGRAPHY. 



THIS Congress, the work of which we refer to in 

 another column, which is now in full swing, pro- 

 mises to be one of the most important meetings of the 

 kind that has ever been held, not only in point of 

 numbers, but also on account of the far-reaching results 

 likely to accrue from it. 



A remarkable combination of circumstances has con- 

 tributed to its success. In the first place, it is held in the 

 country which has been the pioneer of sanitary work ; 

 and then it has the patronage of Her Majesty the 

 Queen, who, it is well known, takes a deep personal 

 interest in its success ; and has as its President, not 

 merely in an honorary sense, His Royal Highness the 

 Prince of Wales, who presided and gave an admirable 

 address of welcome at the splendid opening meeting on 

 Monday in St. James's Hall. 



This is the seventh of a series of similar Congresses 

 which have been held in various parts of Europe, 

 and one is tempted to ask what they have ac- 

 complished. An answer is at once forthcoming. 

 The all-important question of quarantine has been 

 discussed at several of these Congresses. Not to go 

 farther back than the Congress at The Hague, held 

 in 18S4, we find, from the excellent reporcs issued 

 by the editors of the Lancet, that then the feeling in 

 Europe was so strongly opposed to the English views as 

 to the inutility of quarantine and the superiority of our 

 method of medical inspection, that the English delegate 

 was not even allowed to explain the English position in 

 the matter, but the discussion was peremptorily close i, 

 on the ground that the subject had been sufficiently dis- 

 cussed on the previous diy. At the Vienna Congress, in 

 1887, quarantine was again discussed under the subject 

 of cholera ; and the veteran Pettenkoffer told the mem- 

 bers of various countries present that they had only to 

 follow the example of England, in looking after their 

 systems of water-supply and sewerage, and in isolating 

 cases of infectious disease, and they would be no more 

 afraid of cholera than the English were, even with their 

 continual communication with India, the home of that 

 disease, and would have no need of quarantine, with all 

 its vexatious and ineffective restrictions, and all its un- 

 necessary interference with commerce. Now, Continental 

 opinion is almost entirely on our side, and it is doubtful 

 whether there will be any serious discussion on the 

 matter. 



But there are many other subjects with which the 

 Congress will interest itself, and about which such an in- 

 terchange of views as can only be obtained at an Inter- 

 national Congress must be of the greatest benefit. The 

 whole subject of bacteriology has grown up within the 

 last few years, and one of the most important and best 

 attended Sections of the Congress is devoted to it, many 

 of the highest authorities on this subject having been 

 attracted here to take part in the discussion under the 

 presidency of Sir Joseph Lister. The abnormal pre- 

 valence of diphtheria, not only in our own large towns, 

 NO. IT 37, VOL. 44J 



but also in those of other parts of Europe and in America, 

 in many cities of which, especially in the Western States 

 of North America, it has become a veritable plague, is 

 likely to occasion an important discussion in Section I., 

 under the presidency of Sir Joseph Fayrer. The mention 

 of his name leads us to observe that India is well to the 

 front in this Congress, for not only have a number of 

 delegates been sent by her Provinces and Native States, 

 but they have also largely contributed to the funds of the 

 Congress. 



Influenza, too, our new plague, about which we seem 

 to know so little, might be discussed, as to its mode of 

 spread and methods of prevention, with great advantage 

 at a meeting where so much experience from all parts of 

 the world is focussed. 



An especial feature in this Congress is, as might be 

 expected in England, the prominence which is given to 

 engineering and architecture in connection with hygiene, 

 there being two separate Sections devoted to these 

 branches of the subject. 



The division of demography, too, which has been so 

 much talked about on account of its name, which was up 

 to the present time unfamiliar to English ears, and which 

 has been defined by some wag as " the art of drawing the 

 public," has attracted, under the presidency of Mr. Francis 

 Galton, many of the most eminent statisticians of Europe, 

 whose discussions cannot fail to promote the attainment 

 of more uniformity in the methods of statistical inquiries. 



This is an age of Congresses, and if they are, as it is 

 universally agreed that they are, of any U5i at all, it is 

 self-evident that the most useful and the most important 

 are the international ones. 



A LIFE OF DARWIN. 



Charles Darivin : His Life and Work. By Charles 

 Frederick Holder. (New York and London: G. P. 

 Putnam-'s Sons, 1891.) 



BETWEEN the voluminous "Life and Letters" of 

 his father, by Prof. Francis Darwin, and the brief 

 epitome of Darwin's work, by Mr. G. T. Bettany, pub- 

 lished in 1887 in the "Great Writers" series, there has 

 hitherto been a gap which has only been partially filled 

 by such books as Grant Allen's " Charles Darwin " 

 in the series of " English Worthies." In the first of 

 the works mentioned, our great naturalist is chiefly 

 allowed to speak for himself, while in the second we 

 have a digest of his scientific achievements. Although 

 it has been generally considered that the life of Darwin 

 from the time of the return of the Beaj^le was too un- 

 eventful to make an interesting biography, we have always 

 been of opinion that there existed sufficient material for a 

 popular " Life " of the very greatest interest provided that 

 this material could be skilfully and judiciously worked 

 up. The work under notice supplies this want, and 

 American and English readers are now provided with a 

 biography which is both entertaining and accurate. 



Of course the material out of which Mr. Holder has 

 woven his story is for the most part to be found in 

 Darwin's own writings, or in the " Life and Letters," and 

 readers who turn to the pages of this book with the hope 

 of finding new matter may be disappointed. But the 

 very circumstance that out of the familiar records of the 



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