proposal should have the support of, and be in close connection with, the friendly societies. These will supply a nucleus for organisation, round which many who do not belong to such societies will speedily rally.

* Lord Shaftesbury, in opening the Shaftesbury Park, stated—and the statement has been confirmed by others-that the aggregate receipts of the wageearning classes in this country are not less than £400,000,000 per annum; and that of this sum at least one quarter is expended upon harmful things or upon things that could easily be dispensed with. If this is the case, we may reasonably expect that working people should do more for themselves than they now do; and in particular, we may fairly expect that they should cease to depend entirely upon charity for their medical relief, and that they should in a great degree provide for themselves, at least in all ordinary ailments. And there is no way in which they can do this so easily and so satisfactorily as by associating themselves together in provident medical societies. The principle on which provident dispensaries are carried out is that each member should make a small but continuous payment from week to week, or from month to month, and that this entitles him to medical attendance and medicine when he is ill. The payment is usually about a penny or a penny halfpenny a week for each adult, and a halfpenny a week for each child; but it is seldom that more than four children in a family are charged for. These payments are so

small, that they are certainly within the reach of the great mass of the working classes, and where they can be induced to join in sufficient numbers the dispensaries are reasonably remunerative to the medical men who are connected with them.

MANY persons feel that they can preserve their own self-respect and avoid the pain of accepting charity when they are ill by giving of their means towards the support of hospitals during their times of health and prosperity. A man must be thrifty in order to

be generous, and the founders of our great institutions for the benefit of mankind were notably industrious, careful, self-denying men, who were thus enabled to confer lasting blessings on their fellow-creatures. The poor man or boy who saves his pocket-money and denies himself some indulgence that he may contribute to the Saturday or Sunday Hospital Fund, knows something of the spirit that filled the minds of the great men of past times, who lived poorly themselves in order that they might have the more to give to others and to carry out plans which have made their memories blessed for generations after they were dead.

The hospital collections known throughout England as the Saturday and Sunday Hospital Funds are means whereby persons who may or may not ever need the aid of an hospital can help without ostentation to carry on the good work. Hospitals have been much abused of late years, and the purposes for which they were originally founded greatly overlooked. They were never intended to be used by such persons as could well afford to pay for advice, medicine, and attention in illness, but for those really indigent persons who without such help must of necessity perish and die. It must always be remembered that even the improvident and the sinful in this world have claims on the care and tender charity of those who are themselves happier and more fortunate; and this principle was recognised in olden times as strongly as it is now, though in a different form. Charity, as such, is now seen

to be in most cases but poor help; it is apt to undo the very good it seeks to effect; and to give without fee or reward the assistance which ought to be earned and paid for, is only to take away a motive for work, and to keep people poor and thriftless, or, as is now the phrase, "to pauperise" the receiver of such charity. In no direction is this tendency more evident than in the matter of medical attendance. Numbers of persons make a practice of using the resources and funds of our public charities and hospitals who ought to feel ashamed of doing so, and who are quite as able to pay their doctor and their chemist as they are to pay their house-rent and tailor, for it must be remembered that "the labourer is worthy of his hire," and that what is not paid for, and obtained with very little trouble, is seldom worth much and is but little valued.

Hospitals ought only to be used by the truly necessitous, or in cases of accident, sudden and unlooked-for illness, or when the special care and treatment of a staff of competent doctors and nurses is eminently necessary; and even in these cases, it is a good sign when a patient who has been benefited is anxious and willing to contribute towards the support of an institution from which he has derived benefit. It sometimes happens that accident compels a well-to-do patient to take refuge in one or other of our national hospitals, and the skill and care of the good doctors and nurses are the means of restoration to health. But lately, the newspapers

record the fact of a gift of £500 to St. Bartholomew's Hospital* from a gentleman who, after a terrible street accident, was taken in there, carefully nursed and tended, and perfectly cured. It was but a just recognition of his debt to the charity.

It is not necessary that men should be rich in order to be helpful to each other. John Pounds was not a rich man, yet by his influence ragged-schools were established. He was temperate and selfdenying, and saved enough from his earnings to buy food for his pupils. He attracted them by his kindness, and sometimes with the gift of a "hot potato," and sent them out into the world with something in their hearts which helped them to become good men and true citizens.

Thrifty, prudent men, who by their good management and careful living become rich, have the reward and satisfaction not only of possessing ample means for their own use, but of doing good work in the world.

One of the greatest of our national hospitals, which is so well endowed as not to call on the public for any contributions, nor to require private gifts, owes its existence to the successful business ability and careful saving of a small bookseller and stationer in London.

Thomas Guy, after whom the great hospital which stands in a central part of what is known as the Borough in London was named, and at whose sole cost and charges it was founded, was born in the year 1645, in the parish of St. John