August 20, 1891] 



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The meeting next discussed the place of the next Congress ; \ 

 we have already stated that Budapest wa? fixed upon. 



Vote-! of thanks completed the busine-ss Among these, Dr. i 

 Sell (Germany) mived the following resolution : — 



•'That His Royal Highness the President be respectfully re- 

 quested to convey to Her Majesty the Queen the dutiful thanks i 

 of this Congress for Her Majesty's gracious act in becoming I 

 Patron of the Congress, and for the magnificent hospitality 

 shown by Her Majesty to members of the Congress during their 

 sojourn in England." . 



Prof. Ku>;y (Austria) seconded the resolution. 



Colonel Woodhall ( United States) said that all members of 

 the Congress must desire to express their gratitude for the way 

 in which they had been received by that gracious lady Her 

 Majesty the Queen, whose purity and dignity of life had enabled 

 her to extend her empire of love and respect over even American 

 citizens. 



The resolution was unanimously agreed to. 



His Excellency M. Gennadius, the Minister for Greece, 

 moved the following resolution : — " That the best thanks of the 

 Congress be dutifully tendered to His Royal Highness, the 

 Prince of Wales, the President of the Congress, for the untiring 

 interest which His Royal Highness has manifested in the Con- 

 gress, and to which the success of the Congress is to be largely 

 attributed." 



Finally, the Chairman proposed a vote of thanks to the officers 

 of the Association, whose unsparing work and indefatigable energy 

 had so largely conduced to the success of the undertaking. He 

 coupled with the vote the names of Dr. G. V. Poore, the hon. 

 secretary-general, Prof VV. H. Corfield, the hon. foreign secre- 

 tary, and Mr. Malcolm Morris, the hon. secretary of the reception 

 committee. 



The vote was warmly received, and was unanimously adopted. 



The Permanent International Committee have ap- 

 pointed the following International Sub-Committee to 

 prepare a scheme for the organization of future Con- 

 gresses. The Sub-Committee consists of Prof. Dr. 

 Brouardel, Hon. LL.D. Cantab. (France), Prof. Dr. 

 Fodor, Hon. LL.D. Cantab. (Hungary), and Prof. Cor- 

 field (England), to represent Hygiene ; and M. Korosi 

 (Hungary) and Dr. Janssens (Belgium) to represent 

 Demography. 



It is understood that the Sub-Committee will consider 

 the advisability of forming Permanent Committees in 

 various country, the plan of having Committees outside 

 the country in which the Congress is held having proved 

 so successful in obtaining Foreign Members for the 

 London Congress, at which it was adopted for the first 

 time. 



This week we give an account of the work done in the 

 Section of Preventive Medicine. 



In this Section the President, Sir Joseph Fayrer^ 

 K.C.S.I , F.R.S., commenced the proceedings by de- 

 livering the following inaugural address: — 



My first duty on occupying this seat is to make fitting 

 acknowledgment of the honour which has been conferred on me, 

 and to assure those to whom I am indebted for it that, as I ap- 

 preciate the distinction highly, so, with the aid of my colleagues 

 in this Section, and the support of the many eminent men of 

 science who will take part in its work, I hope to discharge 

 faithfully the important trust reposed in me. My next and 

 most agreeable duly is to offer to all who honour us with their 

 presence, or who propose by co-operation to forward the ob- 

 jects of the Congress, a most hearty welcome and cordial re- 

 cognition of the interest in it manifested by their presence ; to 

 express a hope that the deliberations and conclusions which re- 

 sult from their wisdom and experience may advance our know- 

 ledge, and tend to enhance the welfare of the human race. This 

 hope is based upon the universal recognition of the need of, and 

 capacity for, improvement in the conditions upon which physical 

 well-being, immunity from disease, and prolongation of life 

 depend ; and this is evinced .by the assembling together in 



this Congress of men of science from all parts of the world, who 

 have devoted themselves to the great international, humani- 

 tarian purpose of ameliorating the conditions of mankind every- 

 where, so far at least as the application of the laws of health, 

 and to s)me extent those of sociology, can affect this consumma- 

 tion. To all, then, we in this great city, who are interested in 

 the progress of hygiene and demography, offer our cordial greet- 

 injj, and express an earnest desire that our visitors may derive 

 pleasure and benefit from their sojourn in London, and from the 

 proceedings of the great assembly of which they form so im- 

 portant a part. 



Before I invite Dr. Cuningham to open the first subject for 

 discussion, it is right that I should make a few preliminary 

 remarks on the general scope and objects of the work 

 comprised in this section. I do not intend to occupy much 

 of the short and valuable time at our disposal by discussing 

 any special subject, or by anticipating that which those who 

 follow me may have to say, but shall confine myself to a brief 

 notice of the present aspects of preventive medicine, its recent 

 development, how much it has operated and is now operating for 

 the public good, how slowly but surely it is dispelling the cloud 

 of ignorance and prejudice which has overshadowed and im- 

 peded the progress of sanitation, and how it is gradually imbuing 

 the public mind with the conviction that prevention is better and 

 often easier than cure, that health may be preserved, disease 

 avoided, and life prolonged by the study and observance of cer- 

 tain well-known laws, which, correlating the individual with his 

 surroundings, determine his well-being when conformed to, 

 deteriorate or prevent it when neglected, and should en- 

 force the maxim, " Venienti occurite morbo." Unprece- 

 dented progress in human knowledge characterizes the 

 present century, and has not been wanting in preventive 

 medicine. It is, however, during the last half of it that advance 

 has been most re narkable, whilst it is in a later part of that 

 period, that it has so established itself in the popular m.ind as to 

 have passed from the region of doubt and speculation into that 

 of certainty. It is now pretty generally understood that about 

 one-fourth of all the mortality in England is caused by prevent- 

 able disease, that the death-rate of large communities may be 

 reduced much below that at which it has been wont to stand, 

 the average duration of life may be made to approximate nearer 

 to the allotted fourscore, and that the conditions of living may 

 be greatly ameliorated. The chief obstacles to improvement 

 have been ignorance and want of belief; a belter knowledge 

 of the laws of life and health, a more rational comprehension 

 of the nature and causes of disease, are gradually but surely 

 entailing improvement in the conditions of living and in 

 the value of life, and the diminution and mitigation, if not 

 extinction, of morbid conditions which have in past times proved 

 so injurious or destructive to life. In short, as Dante says : 



" Se' 1 mondo laggiu ponesse mente 

 Al fondamento che natura pone, 

 Seguendo lui avria buona la gente." 



" Paradiso," viii., 142. 



Such are the subjects contemplated in the work of this Section, 

 and as far as time permits the most interesting of them will be 

 discussed. Those selected are of great importance in their 

 relations to public health ; let us hope that observers who have 

 formed their opinions from experience in other countries and 

 under different circumstances may throw new light on them. 



In the brief space of lime at my disposal it would be im- 

 possible to give a continuous outline of the progress of 

 preventive medicine during the past, or to trace its growth 

 and development out of ignorance and superstition to its 

 present well-established foundation on a scientific basis. It 

 is of happy augury for mankind that the subject of public 

 health is now fairly grasped by popular sentiment, and 

 that, though ignorance, opposition, and vested interests 

 still conte>t the ground, progress is sure, and the light of 

 science is illuminating the dark places. It is now better appre- 

 ciated than it ever has been, that the causes which induce disease 

 and shorten life are greatly under our own control, and that we 

 have it in our power to restrain and diminish them, and to 

 remove that which has been called "the self imposed curse of 

 dying before the prime of life." It is, indeed, only recently 

 that the resources of medical science have been specially devoted 

 to the prevention as distinguished from the cure of disease, and 

 how far successfully I hope in a few words to show, whilst I 

 trust the proceedings of the various Sections of this Congress 



NO. 



38, VOL. 44] 



