infants, within the first year of their lives throughout England and Wales, is between 17 and 18 per cent. In the agricultural counties of Northumberland, Wilts, and Somerset, the deaths are under the average, being a little above 16 per cent., and in Surrey and Sussex fall as low as 12 and 13. These statistics also assert that the mortality in manufacturing towns is higher than the average. It appears there that the highest death rate is at Ashton-under-Lyne (which is stated to be a manufacturing town), where the deaths are above 25 per cent., and that the lowest death rate is at Glendale, in Northumberland, where only eight die out of every hundred. (Glendale is, I know, a purely rural district.)

These statistics are old, being taken from Dr. Gairdner's paper on infant mortality, read at the Social Science Congress, in 1860. The question is, therefore, it appears to me to be, whether Mr. Whateley Cooke Taylor is mistaken, or whether, during the last twenty years, a great change has taken place in the respective healthiness of manufacturing towns and the country. I should be glad to know where some more modern statistics on the subject are to be found.

As I entirely agree with the general scope of Mr. Taylor's paper, it may be thought not worth while to question his assertions on this point, but experience has shown that uncontradicted misstatements do much harm, and country people have habitually allowed false statements with regard to their affairs to pass unnoticed, until at last some erroneous impressions become general on many points. This seems to be the beginning of a new false impression, so I think that the point ought at once to be inquired into and the truth ascertained.

Yours truly,

JESSIE BOUCHERETT.

FOREIGN NOTES AND NEWS.

FRANCE.

A RECENT Co-operative Association, called the Association du Familistère de Guise, lately published its report. It was founded

by M. Godin. The Association is remarkable for having ladies as members-there are seven out of sixty members. A lady is the indefatigable Secretary, and women can become members of the Administrative Council. The institution is said to be very useful, and is certainly financially prosperous.

THE classes of commercial instruction established by the City of Paris were attended last year by 454 young men and 525 women. ANOTHER Lyceum for girls has been opened at Besançon.

ITALY.

La Donna informs us that a lecture was lately given to the Alpine Club in Turin by the Countess Carolina Palazzi-Lavaggi, upon lady Alpine explorers. She said women were excluded from the English and Swiss Alpine Clubs, but were admitted into those of Italy. Amongst Italian ladies the names of Signore Boarelli and DefilippiSella, the Princess di Teano, the Countess Luisa Rignon, and Signorina Guicciardi deserved honourable mention. There was nothing in an ordinary ascent to overtax a woman's powers, and the lecturer warmly advocated the extension of such active and athletic exercise as likely to be generally conducive to the health of her compatriots. SWITZERLAND.

THE Tribune de Genève says that the Society of Public Utility is endeavouring to found asylums for respectable hard-working girls, similar to those for young boys.

THE meetings of the British and Continental Federation for the Suppression of Vice, concluded on September 22nd, at Neufchatel, by an address from M. Fallot, of the Free Protestant Church of Paris. More than 1000 persons were present. This number shows the great interest taken in Switzerland in the work of the Federation, for the total population of Neufchatel is little over 15,000. The Conference discussed the propositions of the Committee of the House of Lords on the white slave trade, and expressed strong approval of the proposition of that Committee to raise the age of protection of girls by law. Dissent was expressed from those propositions tending to give increased discretionary power to the police.

RUSSIA.

THE Official Messenger of September 1st, announces that, by order of the Emperor, the admission of new pupils to the course of medical training for women at the Nicolai Military Hospital in this city will be discontinued after the present term. The students will, however, be allowed to conclude their course, after which the clinical instruction for women at the hospital will be abolished. The educational appliances, library, &c., are to be handed over either to the Military Academy of Medicine, or to any establishment that may be prepared to open courses of medical instruction for women.

A NEWSPAPER, of which women are the sole editors and managers, has been established in Moscow. It is called the Friend of Women.

GERMANY.

THE Crown Princess of Germany has become patroness of a new institution in Berlin for the training of married women and girls as

nurses in private families. The manageress, Mdlle. Fuhrmann, is now in London studying the systems of various establishments. There will be a wing set apart for invalid nurses. The institution, which is to be called the "Victoria," will be opened some time this year.

WOMAN'S WORK IN GERMANY.-In Germany, in 1881, a census was made of the condition of trades. From an abstract published recently of the results of this statistical inquiry it appears that women are taking a more and more active part in trades and industries. Most female working people are engaged in the textile branches, in victual trades, and in leather and paper manufactures. The age of those females is between twelve and twenty-seven years. In all 345,753 female labourers are engaged in the 93,554 German manufactories, which also give employment to 1,636,099 men. no manufactory in which female workers are not engaged.

BELGIUM.

There is

MDLLE. LEOPOLDINE DE BLOCQ, of Charleroi, who is well known for several interesting lectures on natural history, has successfully passed her examination in Natural Science, before the Central Jury at Brussels. She intends to enter the medical career.

A YOUNG lady, Marguerite Cauler, daughter of a Belgian journalist, has been presented, amidst general congratulations, with the Civic Cross, first class, for having saved from drowning a young man at the sea-side town of Blankenburg.

UNITED STATES.

OREGON.-Another important item of news comes to us from the States, this time from Oregon. The Women's Suffrage Constitutional Amendment, proposed by the Legislature, of 1880, has been sympathetically ratified by the Legislature of 1882. The vote in the Senate, on October 3rd, was 21 yeas to 7 nays, and in the House of Representatives, the following day, by 47 yeas to 9 nays. These majorities are greater than the most confident champions of the cause had anticipated, neither was it a party measure, being supported by both Republicans and Democrats. The New Northwest says: The opposition to the measure came from both Republicans and Democrats, but was limited and mild, the objecting gentlemen apparently realising the hopelessness of attempting its defeat! The measures will now, according to the law for Constitutional Amendments, be submitted to the voters of Oregon.

NEBRASKA. The National Woman's Suffrage Convention has met in Omaha this year Resolutious were adopted declaring it the paramount duty of Congress to submit a sixteenth amendment to the Constitution establishing woman suffrage; declaring that as "the action of the State Convention of the Republicans in Kansas and Indiana, the Democrats in Massachusetts, and the Prohibitionists in Chicago, indicates a recognition of the strength of our platform and the near approach of the full recognition of woman's political rights, that it is the duty of the Legislatures of Iowa, Oregon, and Indiana to ratify the proposed Woman Suffrage Amendments, and that the enlargement of woman's political freedom in Ireland, Scotland, India, and Russia, are encouraging signs."

A NEWSPAPER, called The Woman's Own, has just been commenced in Indianapolis, Indiana, in the interest of Women's Suffrage.

WOMEN LAWYERS.-The Supreme Court of Connecticut has admitted a woman to the bar. Miss Mary Hall, of Hartford, has passed a satisfactory examination in the knowledge of law. The Court below reserved the question of her eligibility for the opinion of the higher Court, which has thus confirmed it.

PENNSYLVANIA is now the only State which has persistently refused women admittance to the bar. A lady in that State has been trying for seven or eight years to gain admittance, but the Court refuses to allow her to enter under the existing statutes, and the Legislature refuses to pass a new law.

MARIA MITCHELL, professor of astronomy in Vassar College, has just received the degree of LL.D. from Hanover College, at Madison, Ind. This is, we believe, the first instance in which the degree of LL.D. has been conferred upon a woman, and Hanover College has the credit of it.

THE Connecticut State law has just been amended by the House of Representatives, so that women, as well as men, may vote on the election of trustees of Methodist Churches.

THE University of Mississippi has opened all its departments to the admission of women.

THE largest sheepowner in Texas is a woman known as the "Widow Callahan." Her sheep, more than 50,000 in number, are divided into flocks of 2,000 head each.

UNDER a new law three women are to be appointed in each county of Ohio in conjunction with two men, as a board of visitors for the charity and correctional institutions. They are to serve without

pay.

CANADA.

A LADY is exercising the profession of dentist at Quebec. She is hotly opposed by the local newspapers, who accuse her of usurping an occupation unfitting for her sex, and the Catholic clergy of two parishes have forbidden their parishioners to employ her. It seems that Canada has still much to learn.

THE first College in Canada to grant the degree of B.A. to a woman was that of M. T. Allison, in New Brunswick, at its recent convocation. The lady was Miss Harriet Starr Stewart. She wore the usual college cap and gown as she came in with her fellow graduates, and her address was received with applause.

SEVERAL ladies are studying at the different colleges of the Provinces, so that we may look for many graduates in future years.

MUNICIPAL VOTE FOR WOMEN.-The Citizen of Toronto, September 29th, says :-"The action of the Toronto City Council, in the spring, in taking the trouble to inform lady ratepayers that they had legal ability to vote for the bonus by-law, shewed a favorable feeling in that body towards municipal suffrage for women, which has had a certain amount of effect. A due effect, we can scarcely call it, because no lady took the trouble to give a sign either by a letter to the papers, a message to the Toronto Women's Literary and Social Progress Club, the seat of the Women's Suffrage agitation,

or by any other means, that she appreciated her privilege or was interested in the general result upon the rights of women. The indifference thus manifested is the great enemy to all progress in Canada. It is harder to move than opposition, prejudice, or any active foe. If our Toronto ladies are not too careless to have any thoughts on this important subject, let them signify their ideas by means of the public press; and we here reiterate what we have often said before, that the columns of the Citizen are always open to correspondence on this and similar subjects. If they want associates, or assistants, or antagonists, the Toronto Women's Literary and Social Progress Club is always ready to take up the cudgels on behalf, or in defence, of any proper women's rights; and if they seek for inspiration or information, they may have it from the same source."—It affords us the highest satisfaction to find that the ladies of Renfrew are not blind to their privileges, nor indifferent to their duty in the matter of voting, as the following cutting from the Toronto Mail will show Ladies voted in Renfrew upon the by-law to grant a bonus of 3,000 dols. to secure the junction of the Kingston and Pembroke railway with the Canadian Pacific at this point. Had the ladies not come to the front the by-law would have been lost, as there were not sufficient masculine property-holders in town to give in votes the requisite majority."

INDIA.

WOMEN CLERKS IN INDIA.-The recent determination of the Postal Department of the Government of India to adopt the English system of employing women clerks in the post-offices has taken a practical shape in the appointment of a young lady bearing the euphonious name of Miss May Maiden to a post in the money department of the post-office at Bangalore. Miss Maiden is a daughter of the late Captain Maiden, who died in Cochin.

Madras Native Opinion says that one of the six lady students at the Madras Medical College is a native christian, Miss Kristy, whose parents were originally Brahmins. She has acquitted herself well in all the examinations of the late session, and has prizes awarded to her for proficiency in Anatomy and Materia Medica.

WE are glad to hear that the National Mahomedan Association has appointed a Committee for considering what methods can be adopted for the improvement of female education in the Mahomedan community, and to hold a Conference on the subject with the Committee of the Bengal Branch of the National Indian Association.

It seems very hard that a woman should be prosecuted for bigamy when her husband is free to take two wives, yet such is the Indian law. "The Indian papers report a case in which there appears to have been a lamentable conflict between law and justice. At the Bombay Sessions a woman was sentenced by Mr. Justice Latham to three months' imprisonment for bigamy. As there is no doubt that she had married a second husband during the lifetime of her first consort it might, perhaps, be thought that the sentence is by no means too severe, but a bare statement of the facts will show that she has been far more sinned against than sinning. It is not creditable to the judicial system that the woman should have been kept