xvi THE ROYAL HUMANE SOCIETY 227 



memoirs. He now approached Hawes and objected to 

 his bearing the expense of the effort. Their private 

 friends were called together to the Chapter Coffee-house 

 in 1774, and the Humane Society was founded by a group 

 of thirty- two gentlemen. Lettsom was one of those who 

 warmly supported it, and other names included those of 

 Heberden and Oliver Goldsmith. Medals were promised 

 for essays on the nature of death by drowning, and the 

 best treatment to obviate it. Methods for use in these 

 emergencies were drawn up and publicly issued, and 

 rewards offered for their employ a larger sum if the 

 result was successful. Like most good efforts the society 

 had to face ridicule at first, but it soon won recognition, 

 and the Royal Humane Society for it received the 

 king's patronage in 1784 is now one of the established 

 institutions of the country ; its work in saving life has 

 been of signal value. Hawes gave it his unremitting care 

 until his death in 1808, and the wandering Cogan never 

 forgot it, founding a branch at Bath and remembering it 

 in his will. Members of the Hawes family still serve 

 upon the committee of the society, and administer the 

 (Anthony) " Fothergill Trust Fund." l 



REGISTRATION OF BIRTHS AND DEATHS 



In the year 1754 Fothergill took steps to bring the 

 need of a proper registration of births, burials and 

 marriages before the authorities. 



The weekly Bills of Mortality in London had been in 



1 Observations on a Case published in the Medical Essays, of recovering a 

 Man dead in Appearance, etc., Phil. Trans, xliii. 275 ; Foth., Works, i. 267 ; 

 see also Med. Essays, Edin., 1744, v. pt. ii. 605 ; Med. Register, Lond., 1779, 

 p. 46 ; Ann. Med. Rev. and Reg., 1808, p. 367 ; Mem. Lettsom, i. 58, 174, 186 ; 

 and his Hints, ii. 277-315 (silhouette of Hawes and fine portrait of Cogan) ; 

 [Wadd] Nug<z. pp. 198, 220 ; J. Baron, Life of Jenner, i. 567 ; Falconer's and 

 Kite's prize Essays, Roy. Humane Soc., with Lettsom's addresses prefixed ; 

 Reports of the Society, and information from the Secretary, Major F. A. C. 

 Claughton. John Hunter, at the request of a member of this society, laid his 

 observations on the loss and recovery of the actions of life before the Royal 

 Society in 1776. See Phil. Trans. Ixvi. 412, and J. Hunter, Obs. on Animal 

 CEconomy, 2nd ed., 1792, p. 129. He advocates injecting oxygen through the 

 nostrils by means of bellows. 



