obtained by the Society's officers. Among the speakers was the Right Hon. W. E. FORSTER who said he was once asked by a lady to go and see a pigeon-shooting match. His reply rather astonished her. He said he was a good deal older than she was, but he nevertheless hoped to see the time when the men who engaged in this sport would run the chance of having to undergo hard labour, and the young ladies who went to see them, of picking oakum. She was at first surprised, but on his giving her his reasons she seemed convinced, and he did not think she had been to one of those meetings since. The report was adopted unanimously. Shortly afterwards the Princess Beatrice arrived, she having promised to distribute the prizes won in the essay competition started by the Ladies' Committee. Fifty young women, girls, and youths were handed the books which they had won, by her Royal Highness, who, a vote of thanks having been passed to her, immediately afterwards left the hall.

THE Cheshire Girls' Friendly Society, Lady Mary Egerton, diocesan president, held its annual meeting at Chester, on June 29th, when about 900 girls from Chester, Macclesfield, Birkenhead, Crewe, Runcorn, Northwich, Congleton, and other parts of the country, attended divine service at the Cathedral.

THE SALVATION ARMY.-Her Majesty has caused the following letter to be written to Mrs. Booth:

Windsor Castle, 30th June, 1882.

"MADAM,-I am commanded by the Queen to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 27th inst., and to assure you that her Majesty learns with much satisfaction that you have, with the other members of your society, been successful in your efforts to win many thousands to the ways of temperance, virtue, and religion. I regret, however, to have to inform you that her Majesty cannot contribute to the fund you are now endeavouring to raise for the purchase of the Grecian Theatre.—I have the honour to be, madam, your obedient servant,

"HENRY F. PONSONBY."

THE CONSUMPTIVE HOSPITAL, BROMPTON.-H.R.H. the Princess of Wales has signified to the committee her willingness to become a patroness of the Institution,

and to allow a gallery in the new Hospital to be named after her.

CORRESPONDENCE.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE "ENGLISHWOMAN'S REVIEW."

MADAM,-As some of your readers may, like myself, imagine that the Lancet keeps, to a certain extent, pace with the times, and thus be led to place too much stress on its utterances, I should like, with your permission, to draw attention to the manner in which medical women are spoken of in its pages of June 17th, and the way the question of placing no obstacle in the path of women who wish to study for the profession is discussed. In reading its article on the subject, we imagine ourself in the year 1862.

Of course the early career of the Lancet, the line it took up in the question of mesmerism, and the line it now takes up regarding the ancient practice of vivisection, for which there is a mania now-a-days, just as there is a mania for old-fashioned monstrosities in other departments of science and art, prepares one for a clinging to old ideas and methods on its part; but, yet I confess, for the latest development of this tendency, even I was not prepared.

I remain, Madam,

Yours ever,

The sentence in question of the Lancet is:

A. G.

"Certain persons have succeeded in passing the examinations thrown open to them, and others may do the same; but the common sense of the world and the good sense of the sex will no more permanently tolerate the unseemly invasion of an unsuitable province of labour, than women as a class, will ultimately show themselves fitted for the discharge of the duties they have rashly, and as we believe indecorously, undertaken." This will be amusing reading to the granddaughters of this generation.-ED.

FOREIGN NOTES AND NEWS.

FRANCE.

A PETITION for Women's Suffrage signed by 972 persons of whom 389 were women has just been rejected by the Chamber on the ground, according to M. Cavaignac, that such a law is the prelude of a reform in Civil laws, and is still far off; that the small number of signatures proclaim that the movement is not yet ripe; that if women sat in the Legislature, they would, perhaps, introduce into its deliberations considerations apart from that of the public good which ought to guide them solely; and that the women who have hitherto mingled in political struggles have not given proof of the qualities of maturity or reflection which ought to guide the statesman or stateswoman.' French statesmen do not seem to be so much wiser or more liberal than our own.

THE prize of 1,000 francs offered by M. Isaac Pereira, a French banker, for an essay upon the extinction of pauperism, has been won by a woman. A year was given for studying the subject, and among the competitors were Germans, Italians, English and French. Madame Cassimir Ladreyet is a Frenchwoman, who has been for some time resident in Boston.

TELEGRAPHY.-Twenty additional women have been appointed telegraphists at the Paris Bureau Central, and a similar number at Toulouse.

STENOGRAPHY.A great number of women in Paris have learned and are practising stenography. The Association Stenographique has lately distributed a large number of prizes, and the ladies who have been crowned are Mdlles. Pauline Nattier, Hermanie Le Parquois, Valerie Morèle, and Marie Leon. Public congratulations were then addreased to the Professors Madame Berrier, and Mdlle. Flotte. This is a new profession that is open to women.

MME. CLEMENCE ROYER has given a lecture on the Theory of Cohesion at a series of free lectures at the Trocadero.

THE professorship of literature at the Superior Municipal school for young girls, Rue de Jouy, has been confided to Mdme. Euphemie Garcin, author of La Femme de lettres pauvre au XIXe siecle, and many other works.

CONCOURS REGIONAUX.-Two other ladies, Mme. Laure Poinsignon at Niort, and Mme. Berthault at Nantes have received prizes at the concours regionaux for excellent poultry yards.

ANOTHER lady Mdme. Rouvriere at Tarn has received a prize for her excellent poultry.

AT the concours regional of Albi, a jury of ladies was appointed to adjudge the medals and prizes for the exhibitors of cut flowers and bouquets.

THE Gazette des Femmes calls attention to a recent meeting of the Union des Femmes de France, a society for the care of wounded or sick soldiers. Branch committees are already at work iu Belfort, Montbeliard and Rheims. The President of the Society is Mdme. Koechlin-Schwartz. Although it has only been established a year, it has already been able to send assistance to the French soldiers in

Tunis the ultimate object of the society is to organise ambulances and military hospitals in all the departments, to be at the service when required of the military authorities.

THE general inspection of infant schools (écoles maternelles) for the year, 1882, has been divided among the following lady-inspectors; Mdme. Davey, Academy of Poitiers; Mdme. Kergomard, Toulouse, Clermont and Grenoble Academies; Mdlle. Mattratt, Caen, Rennes and Lyons Academies; Mdlle. Veyrieres, Besançon and Dijon Academies; Mdme. Dillon, Paris and Nancy Academies. Mdme. Dillon has been also appointed to inspect the teaching of English in the normal schools of the Paris Academy.

MDME. ESTELLE GUILHOU, landowner at Samadet, Landes, has after numerous experiments in planting vines, rendered important services to viti-culture. The jury of rewards in the district of Dax has awarded her a silver medal for her services.

THE Countess d' Haussonville, who died lately at the age of sixtyfour, was the grand-daughter of Mdme. de Stael. She was born Princess Louise de Broglie, and her political and literary salon was celebrated. She was herself author of several works. Her first, which she issued anonymously, in 1858, was on the theme of Robert Emmet.

GERMANY.

WE regret to record the end of the Deutsche Frauen Anwalt, the organ of the Lette Verein, which Miss Jenny Hirsch had carried on for several years with great ability.

SPAIN.

IN Madrid, the supreme council of education decided to recommend to the Government legislative and administrative reforms to promote the spread and improvement of the education of women. A remarkable report by the council shows that several hundred Spanish girls and women are attending the lectures and classes of the free institute, founded for them six years ago in Madrid, and hundreds taking their degrees as teachers or professors for their own sex. Many have vainly asked for admission to the telegraph offices and the post-offices, and to commercial pursuits, to all of which the council recommends that women be admitted, and that means be provided to aid in their education.- Women's Journal.

RUSSIA.

THE Journal of the Indian Association this month contains a most valuable article on women doctors in Russia, translated from the Moscow Kuryerr, of May 23rd. The rise and progress of medical instruction for women in Russia is so little known, that we do not hesitate to reproduce a portion of it.

"But it is not more than ten years ago that this general recognition became a reality and received, so to say, flesh and blood. One of the first questions which presented itself in its turn was that important one of women doctors. In 1870, the Medical Council General, of Moscow, recorded it as necessary and advisable, "That to such persons of the female sex as are desirous to consecrate their lives to usefulness in the practice of midwifery and medicine, access should

be given to the auditory (slushaniya) of the general courses of instruction, with the condition that on their completing a course of four years, according to a programme laid down by the council, and after undergoing an examination qualifying for the profession of accoucheur, they should be granted the right of independent medical practice, with prerogatives of speciality as accoucheurs and gynekologists, and for the treatment of syphilis with women and children, and diseases of children at the breast."

The Council of the Ministry of Public Instruction, while not denying the utility of strengthening and extending the medical education for persons of the female sex, with the gift to them of the right of independent practice in a definite circle of diseases, considered it at the same time indispensable that the medical courses for women, in the Universities, should be separated from those of the male students. For ourselves, we are clearly of opinion that this conclusion of the Ministry of Public Instruction was far from being an encouragement to the solution of the question of female medical education; and, in fact, the question was again laid aside for some time, and it was only two years subsequently, viz., on the 5th of May, 1872, that an ukase was issued by the supreme Government to open to female sttudents, as an experimental measure, the Imperial Medico-Surgical Academy for a four years course of study in the highest branches of midwifery.

This first serious step towards the solution of this important question constitutes one of the most brilliant pages in the series of public acts of the late War Ministry of Count Miliuitin. The various restrictions which had been imposed on the medical courses of instruction for women by the Ministry of Public Instruction, were not considered necessary or advisable by the more liberal Ministry of War.

Until the year, 1876, the courses of medical education for female students existed on the basis of a temporary and experimental measure. In that year the location was changed from the MedicoSurgical Academy to the Nicolaeffski Military Central Hospital, in which various necessary arrangements were made to suit the requirements of this class of students. The term of study was at the same time extended and fixed at five years. In this manner were at last placed on a permanent footing the medical courses of instruction for females, which have already produced many women doctors of practical knowledge and experience in the higher branches of medical science.

But though issuing from their courses with the highest medical attainments, the women doctors, owing to popular prejudice and the novelty of their situation, did not find themselves at once on a level with doctors of the sex from which the public had hitherto been accustomed exclusively to seek medical aid; but time and practice wrought their work; the women doctors, though severely handicapped by popular prejudice, went forth to medical service in the country states (Zemstwo) and brilliantly, and in a practical manner, demonstrated their full measure of usefulness in the alleviation of human suffering. Their activity and usefulness in remote parts has been recorded in many official reports as even greater than those of