THE

EOYAL

IRISH

MEDICAL

BENEVOLENT

FUND SOCIETY.

(Communicated.) "We make

no

apology

for

publishing

the

following

extract from

the report of the above Society for the current year. Appeals to the liberality of Anglo (or a fortiori Hiberno) Indians are seldom made in

vain;

and

a

cause

which

appeals

at once to the

charitable feelings, the patriotism, and the professional esprit de corps of a large number of our readers, should need but little advocacy from us. A cursory glance over the Bengal Army List will show that there are a considerable number of Irish medical officers, of both services, employed in this Presidency. ourselves, in a few minutes, picked out from the list

"We have of the

Bengal Medical Department

the names of

twenty-five

Irishmen whom we know personally; and there are nearly as many moro whose patronymics, "racy of the soil," leave little doubt of their

nationality. Our correspondent Golandaz, in June, has given us an insight into the working of the Society. The calls on its resources are increasing every year, and can only be met by increased support from the profession. A very proper feeling exists among the members of the Society against soliciting the assistance of the laity, and in favour of depending wholly on contributions from members (especially Irish ones) of our profession. A wholesome spirit of rivalry with their brethren in the sister presidencies his letter of the 13th

should stimulate the Irish medical officers of Northern India by them long ago. "We hope that the omission will soon be repaired, and that to take a step which should have been taken

may be able to paraphrase the last and to announce that the Bengal letter, Joynt's Branch of the Society, though the youngest, is (owing to her and most flourishing of greater sphere of operations) the largest

before many months

we

sentence of Dr.

the three Indian sisters.* From Bombay, the account received from

Dr.

Joynt, the indefatigable

be heard with no small satisHonorary Secretary and Treasurer, will faction. " Eutkaoheebt, Bombay, 2Oth April, 1870.

I have much pleasure in sending you a draft for ?76 5s. 8d., (the for the Royal Irish of 777 rupees, collected in this Presidency the draft from Bombay, Medical Benevolent Fund Society. Since getting of 10 rupees iu I got 58 rupees from Aden, and another subscription to send you a draft for the India, and I have written to Dr. Kingstone which he will probably do 68 equivalent to this additional sum'of rupees, mail. I enclose a subscription list for the whole amount. week's this by and the friends who have so " I can assure you that it gives me, to be able to send you so large a zealously aided me, very great pleasure and to report that our distant branch continues to increase "

equivalent

contribution,

productiveness. I have still more gratification in announcing, (though, doubtless, you will have been apprised of the fact before this reaches,)

in

?

We will receive and forward contributions.?Ed., I. M, Q,

the INDIAN MEDICAL GAZETTE.

X74 that The

a

branch ha3 already been established in the Southern Presidency. that I gave expression to in my letter to Dr. Marks twelve

hope

months ago ed death of to

bear

on

seemed at one time to have been extinguished by the lamentDr. Montgomery; bat the same influence that was brought him has succeeded in stirring up another friend in the Madras

has already sent you a contrithe' young branch 'which he has planted. I did hope that I would be able to announce that something had already been done in Bengal, as I know that my esteemed friend and colleague, Dr. Kingstone, whose persistent advocacy of the claims of the Society has been success, ful in awakening an interest for it in Madras, has for the last two years been trying to induce some of our brethren in Bengal to take the Society's I still hope that his exercause in hand, and form a branch at Calcutta. tions will not be without effect, and that the time is not far distant when

service, and I understand that Dr. King

bution from

Bombay branch, while steadily growing herself, will be the smallest sisters?only because her field of operation will be Believe me, yours very truly, C. Joynt." more limited.

the

of the three Indian

Dr. Henry King, Honorary Secretary and Treaorganizer, of the newly-formed branch at Madras:? " Madras, March 20, 1870. " My dead Sib,?At the request of Dr. Kingstone, I have attempted to form a branch of the Royal Irish Medical Benevolent Fund in this Presidency. I fear I am not sufficiently influential to do as much as I should wish in so good a cause, but I have done something, and I hope to be able to do more. I enclose a first of exchange for ?20 4s. 8d. (retaining the second)?the equivalent for 210 rupees." The

surer,

following

as

well

as

is from

the

Dr. Geoeoe Johnson concludes

Chirurgical Review,

points

on some

and apnoea with these remarks :? It is at once the interest and the

an

article in the Medico? pathology of cholera

in the

duty

of

England, both by

precept and by example, to give sanitary instruction to her two hundred millions of Hindoo subjects. Obviously it is right to

adopt measures for stamping out cholera, and for preventing spread from one part of India to another, and from India to Europe. Obviously, too, if cholera is to be finally extirpated, we must teach the natives of India that the only safeguard against this disease is to be found in cleanliness; that the drinking of foul water, however sacred may be the stream from which it comes, is always dangerous, and, in epidemic seasons, fatal ; and that so long as loathsome impurities which have once been thrown off from the body are permitted to re-enter its

the system, either with air or water, the scourge of cholera will continually recur. Lastly, it is the duty of Government to afford all towns

possible facilities for effecting a thorough drainage of villages, for obtaining a sufficient supply of pure

and

water, and for

drinking

water.

preventing

the

admixture of sewage

with

[August 1,

1870.