1367.] The PuUiv Health. 001 



efficiently registered in London in 95 per cent, of all the deaths 

 registered. In the country the proportion of deaths satisfactorily 

 registered was much less. He stated with regard to compulsory 

 registration that people in England regarded inquiries into domestic 

 matters, such as births and deaths, as unnecessarily interfering 

 with their private ailairs, and it was in deference to this feeling that 

 legislation had not proceeded further. At the conclusion of the 

 discussion the chairman, Dr. Lankester, was requested to bring 

 before the Council of the Association the deficiencies of the 

 English Registration Act in relation to compulsory registration of 

 births and deaths, and also the necessity for requiring in Ireland 

 a medical certificate of the cause of death before permission was 

 given to bury the body. 



On Saturday Dr. Lankester read a paper on " Prison and Work- 

 house Dietaries." 



On Monday the question discussed in the Health Section was, 

 In what form and to what extent is it desirable that the public 

 should provide means for the recreation of the working men ? This 

 question was opened by a paper from Dr. Hardwicke, of London. 

 In the course of his remarks he recommended that public parks 

 should be formed for the purposes of recreation, more especially 

 for the sedentary classes of the population. Eeading rooms, with 

 indoor amusements, were better adapted for those who had been 

 engaged in open-air occupations. He urged the necessity of 

 recreation being encouraged on the Sunday, and recommended that 

 reading rooms be opened, and lectures be given on that day. He 

 suggested the formation of parks, working men's clubs, and other 

 places of recreation to be supported out of the rates of the parish. 

 A paper was also read by Miss Barham Corlett, in which she strongly 

 recommended the formation of city playgrounds for children. A 

 long discussion followed, in which various opinions w T ere expressed 

 as to the best way of providing the means of recreation. Mr. 

 Me Adam said that in Edinburgh the science classes, in connection 

 with the School of Art, had succeeded. Mr. Airlie, of Glasgow, 

 maintained that the working man needed amusement rather than 

 instruction, and that in Glasgow weekly concerts and soirees had 

 perfectly succeeded. Dr. Burtlett thought the working man should 

 be allowed at his club to take a limited quantity of beer if he 

 wished. Dr. Lankester advocated the introduction of unfermented 

 beverages in our public parks. To drink w r as a very natural desire, 

 and men were not satisfied with cold water, especially where it w r as 

 dangerous, and he thought the teetotalers ought to devise some re- 

 freshing beverage that was palatable, and could be sold at the same 

 price as London porter. 



Sir James Simpson, Chairman of the Health Section, delivered 

 his address on Tuesday Morning. There was a crowded audience. 



2n2 



