The Sun.
London, England, 1864-03-30 00:00:00

IBER.

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

POST.—The Tercentenary Commemoration of
Shukspere has assumed a definitive shape both in
London and at Stratford-on-Avon, and we have

now before us the programmes of the two commit-
We will not go into details for the sake of

ees.

drawing invidious distinctions, but it is not in human
nature to shut one's eyes to a gigantic disparity, and
therefore we cannot help seeing that it is not in
London—the centre of wealth, art, science, talent,
and dramatic resources—that the Poet of England
will be properly honoured, but most happily, as most
properly, in his own little picturesque town in the
centre of the great central plain of England. The

proceedings of the London tionamitte,! are a decided

Whether it was that the committee was not.

well selected, or that the committee left all to their
secretaries, or the secretaries acted without the
committee, or both secretaries and committee

were at fault in the original conception of the kind

of festival, or petty jealousies crept in, or mere
haDgers-on sought to push themselves into notoriety
by assuming a leading part in the proceedings—we
cannot tell. What we have to guide us in forming
an opinion is that, and only that, which every one
may see in the public advertisements. There we
learn that on the 23d of April, under the auspices

of the London Committee, the toundation•stonj of a

statue to Shakspere will be laid somewhere in Lon-
don, probably in the Green-park, on a mound which
has no single recommendation for the purpose but
that of being a mound. We have looked at the spot,
and, unless we are smitten with blindness in the
matter of art, we say that nothing will look
more uncouth and out of place, whether seen

from Piccadilly or Constitution-hill, than such
au erection as the British public is now asked
to raise to the honour of the Bard who has
done more to show the wonderful facility of our

We read in one of our Dublin contemporaries tho follow'
ing interesting particulars :—Speaking of the cases in the
Cork Lunatic Asylum, Dr. Power, the resident physician,
states—After about four months' use of it, I found that
17 persons had been perfectly cured by it and sent home to
their friends. The cases to which I now allude were a
long time in the house, and classified with the incurables.
After some months' further experience of its beneficial
action, new arrangements were wade which enabled me to
use it more generally and more frequently ; and since then
from 50 to 80 patients are daily submitted to its influence,
many for its remedial action, but the greater number for
motives of cleanliness ; even these latter are wonderfully
improved in appearance by its use, and have acquired the
ruddy glow of health, instead of the pale and sickly look ef
invalids. Of course out of more than 500 patients in the
institution all were not expected to recover, nor were they
all under treatment for the purpose; but the best way °
shewing the effects of the bath would be by statistics. •L"
was only fair to conclude that if the proportion of cures had
been:greater since the introduction of the Turkish bath than
before it, this bath must have had some influence in Pre"
during that desirable result. I see by my notes that
for the year ending March, 1861, the cures wer°
59 per cent, ; but for the nine months ending the 3let
December last, during which period the bath had been le
use, the percentage of cures was 76—that is 74 had been
cured out of 96 entered. That was more than double the
cures produced in any asylum in England. When the bath
was not in being in 1860, the deaths were 48—in the
nine
months ending 31st December, 1861, 18, or at the rate of 24
for the 12 months—i.e , exactly one half the number. The
patients after the first few baths all seemed to be ranch
pleased with it, and were afterwards longing for the tim°
when it was to be administered. Those who suffered are'
lapse after having been sent out oared, showed no twill'
lingness to return to the asylum, and even asked to be taken
there at once, in order that they might get the bath, as the::
considered nothing else would cure them. I have never
seen any ill effects from the bath, except a little nausea and
a slight fainting in a few instances. But after a bath of
two these effects disappeared. Up to that time I have need
.
it on more than 900 cases, and since March, 1861, 30 idiobo
patients have been removed to a higher class and rendered
capable of enjoyment and of doing work about the estalr
lishment. I would recommend the introduction of the
Turkish bath into all public institutions, and I am firma
convinced that it has as beneficial an influence on the system
, as air and exercise.