The Sun.
London, England, 1868-08-04 00:00:00

FORESTERS" ANNUAL PARLIAMENT.

Over 300 delegates have met at Wolverhampton at the
annual " Parliament of the Foresters' Society." Monday's
demonstration is described as far outdoing anything else
of the kind that has yet been attempted. It is computed
that about 4,000 people took part in the procession. The
streets were here and there festooned, and at different
points of the route taken by the procession to the grounds
where the fete was held in celebration of the occasion,
triumphal arches were erected. The mayor of the borough
was in the procession, and the town kept holiday. The
Investigation Committee and the Audit Committee report
the continued prosperity of the society during the
year. In that time 12S new courts had been opened.
The Executive Council had corresponded and had inter.
views with the Earl of Lichfield during the year with
reference to his lordship's proposed Friendly Societies Bill.
The committee regretted that notwithstanding the subject
had on previous occasions been brought before High Court
meetings, yet that the laws of the orderrelating to:beer, &c.,
" are very frequently violated, and in many instances, we
have reason to believe, systematically evaded by charging an
extortionate amount as rental of court-room. We also find
that large rums have been taken from the management
funds for the carrying out of anniversaries, processions,
&c." The auditors' report sheaved that the assets of the
High Court Fund exceed the liabilities by £4,290, an
increase upon last year of £127 ; but that on the High
Court sick and funeral account there is a loss on the year
of £24. The amount received during the year on the life-
boat fund account was set down at £269. These report;
together with motions that have been set down for dis-
cussion, will occupy the High Court meeting throughout
the rest of the week.

SIR J. SIMPSON ON MEDICAL PROGRESS.

At the close of the ceremony of " capping" the mentcal
graduates of the University of Edinburgh, on Saturday,
Sir James Simpson delivered an address. In the course
of his remarks, he said : A most extensive field for now
investigations lies temptingly open for the young and
ambitious physician in the almost innumerable series
of new chemical compounds which modern organic
chemistry has evolved. It may be that the
day will come when our patients will be asked
to breathe or inspire most of their drugs instead
of swallowing them ; or at least when they will be
changed into pleasant beverages instead of disgusting
draughts and powders, boluses, and pills. But that day of
revolution will not probably be fully realised until those
distant days when physicians—a century or two hence—
shall be familiar with the chemistry of most diseases;
when they shall know the exact organic poisons that pro.
duce them, with all their exact antidotes and elimi•
natories ; when they shall look upon the cure of some
maladies as simply a series •of chemical problems and
formulae ; when they shall melt down all calculi, nccrosed
bones, &c., chemically, and not remove them by surgical
operations ; when the bleeding in amputations and other
wounds shall be stemmed, not by septic ligatures oz
stupid needles, but by the simple application of
haemostatic gases or washes ; when the few wounds then
required in surgery shall all be swiftly and immediately
healed by the first intention ; when medical men shall be
able to stay the ravages of tubercle, blot out fevers
and inflammations, avert and melt down morbid growths,
cure cancer, destroy all morbific organic germs and for.
ments, annul the deadly influences of malaria and con.
tagions, and by those and various other means markedly
lengthen out the average duration of human life ; when out
hygienic condition and laws shall have been changed by
State legislation, so as to forbid all communicable diseases
from being communicated, and remove all causes of sick.
ness that are removable ; when the rapidly increasing length
of human life shall begin to fulfil that ancient prophecy,
" the child shall die an hundred years old ;" when there
shall have been achieved, too, advances in other walks of
life far beyond our present state of progress ; when houses
shall be built and many other kinds of work performed by
machinery, and not by human hands alone ; when the
crops in these islands shall be increased five or ten fold,
and abundance of human food be provided for our increased
population by our fields being irrigated by that waste
organic refuse of our towns which we now recklessly
run off into our rivers and seas ; when man shall have in•
vented means of calling down rain at will ; when he shall
have gained cheaper and better motive powers than
steam ; when he shall travel from continent to continent
by submarine railways, or by flying and ballooning throngt
the air; and when—to venture on only ono illustration
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