The Freedom of Dublin

**

My Freedom Of The City**

I shall never forget the emotion which I felt when on Monday, the 24th February, 1911, I was made an Honorary Freeman of my native city of Dublin. The ceremony took place at a meeting of the Corporation, presided over by the Lord Mayor. A large assemblage was present, including many distinguished persons. The compliment I felt to be greatly enhanced by the motion to confer the freedom of the city upon me being carried without a single dissentient voice.

At the conferring of the freedom, and at the meeting of the Corporation at which the unanimous resolution to confer it was passed, very complimentary references were made to me by the Lord Mayor and many members. I quote from the “Irish Independent” the following remarks made by Alderman Thomas Kelly, leader of the Sinn Fein party in the Corporation

“Alderman Kelly said his first impression of Sir Charles Cameron was that he was a diplomat of the first water (laughter); a man who had kept his position there by sheer diplomacy, and who had been ‘all things to all men.’ But he was not long connected with the Public Health Committee as Chairman when he formed a very different opinion of him. (Hear, hear.) He found him to be a man whose earnest wish was to lift the city from its notoriety of having the highest death-rate in Europe. Were his actions backed up by the Council and by his subordinates, he (Alderman Kelly) had not a doubt they would be in a much better position than they were to-day. It was not because of Sir Charles’s charity, not because he was a Unionist or a Protestant, but because he believed Sir Charles had done more than a man’s part in trying to combat disease in Dublin that they wished to honour him. (Applause.)”

I trust I shall be excused for stating that I have never instigated, directly or indirectly, the conferring of any honour on, or compliment to, myself, but it is a pleasure to me that I have done so for others who deserved them. I have, nevertheless, been fortunate in being made a honorary fellow or member of many societies and institutes, of which I may mention the following :-The Royal Academy of Medicine of Sweden, the State Medical Society of California, the Royal Hibernian Academy, the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland, the Royal Institute of Architects, Ireland; the Apothecaries Hall, the Institute of Civil Engineers, Ireland; the Hygienic Societies of Belgium, Paris, and Bordeaux; the New York Agricultural Society, the Institute of Sanitary Engineers, London; two Irish Veterinary Associations, etc.

The freedom certificate, beautifully illuminated, was presented to me in a massive casket purchased by members and officers of the Corporation. It is composed of bronze and Irish marbles, and was made by Messrs. J. & C. M’Loughlin, of Dublin, from a design by Mr. W. Cranwill Wilson, architect.

The conferring of the freedom of the city upon me was made the occasion of several valuable presentations to me. The Municipal Officers’ Association gave me a diamond pin, and entertained me at dinner. The superior officers of the Public Health Department entertained me at luncheon, and presented to me a beautifully carved chair, a replica of the Speaker’s chair in the Irish House of Parliament.

I received from the sanitary officers a large silver loving cup and an illuminated album.

The Corinthian Club entertained me at a dinner at which the Earl of Aberdeen, Lord Lieutenant, presided. During the dinner I received a “Confirmation of Arms,” prepared under the direction of Captain Wilkinson, Ulster King-at-Arms: it is a work of art. The Countess of Aberdeen, who was present, added some very kind words to those of the Lord Lieutenant, who proposed the toast of my health.

I have received much kindness from their Excellencies during both their former and present sojourn in Ireland. These acts of kindness form some of the most pleasurable of my reminiscences.

I received a great many letters from friends, expressing their congratulations; amongst others, one which I especially valued, and which is as follows:-

“Archbishop’s House,

Dublin,

23rd February, 1911.

Dear Sir Charles,

Allow me first to congratulate you on the well-deserved honour that has been paid to you. I had some hope to be able to be present in the City Hall on the occasion, but I am very much overworked just now, and an unexpected engagement that I had to keep deprived me of the pleasure.

As to the Lenten regulations, when I saw the direction about the closing of schools, I at once applied to the Holy See for the faculty to enable me to use my own discretion as to the relaxation to be given this Lent. I mentioned the action of the Municipal Public Health Department, and as a matter of course I had a wire complying with my request.

You will see by the regulations, when published on Sunday, that every possible relaxation has been made, short of doing away with this year’s Lent altogether.

Faithfully yours,

WILLIAM J. WALSH,

Archbishop of Duhim.

P.S.-You and I have been working together for many years, and I don’t think anyone will he found to say that the city is the worse of it.- W. J. W.”

His Grace has always taken the keenest interest in matters affecting the health of the city. During the last epidemic of smallpox, it was chiefly owing to his action that the vaccination and revaccination of children was extensively carried out.

Only 16 persons have received the honorary freedom of the city. The small number of freemen include Daniel O’Connell, General Grant (President of the United States), and Mr. Gladstone **

How The Poor Lived In Dublin.**

During the 32 years that I have been the Chief Health Officer of Dublin, I have seen much of life amongst the poor and the very poor, and I have many remembrances of painful scenes that I have witnessed in their miserable homes.

I have long been of opinion that the proportion of the population belonging to the poorest classes is greater in Dublin than it is in the English and Scotch towns. There are many proofs of the poverty of a considerable proportion of the population of Dublin. For example, in 1911 41.9 per cent of the deaths in the Dublin Metropolitan area occurred in the workhouses, asylums, lunatic asylums, and other institutions. In the English towns the average proportion of the deaths in institutions is about 22 per cent.

Another proof of poverty is the large number of families who reside each in a single room – 33.9 per cent of the total families. [Census of 1911] In Belfast, with few exceptions, each family occupies more than one room. In many of the English towns not more than 10 per cent of the families occupy but one apartment.

Tenements are generally placed under insanitary conditions. Dr. Russell, Medical Officer of Health, has shown that the dwellers in these tenements (or “houses” as they are termed in Scotland), consisting of a single apartment, have a much higher death rate than is the case of those who have two or more rooms. It has also been proved that the one-room denizens suffer more from tuberculosis of the lungs.

Whilst desirous that the artisans and their families should have healthy dwellings, I have been far more anxious about the condition of the labourers and other workers at small wages. I have always maintained that it is only for these workers municipalities should provide dwellings, even at some cost to the ratepayers. The expenditure of public money in the erection of dwellings to be let at from 3/6 to 7/6 per week does not benefit the whole community. The persons who are able to pay such rents should be allowed to deal with the ordinary house owners.

In the case of one-room tenements, the occupants are usually very poor, and unable to pay for more accommodation. The wages of unskilled labourers are rarely more than £1 per week; many earn only from 15*/- *to 18/- weekly.

Even when the labourer is a sober man, and has a small family, he cannot enjoy much comfort on the higher rate of wages. When he is of the inferior order, has a large family, and precarious employment, it is easy to imagine his deplorable condition. Now, if the Municipality provided for this class of worker a two-apartment dwelling at 2/6, or if possible 2/-, per week, though at some expense to the ratepayers, the general public would at least be benefited from a health point of view.

In the homes of the very poor the seeds of infective disease are nursed as it were in a hothouse. They may spread from the homes of the lowly to the mansions of the rich. Insanitary homes cause illness and consequent poverty, and poverty causes the poors rate to go up.

The poverty of a considerable proportion of the population is shown by the large number of persons who are obliged to resort to the pawnbroker - “the banker of the poor.” No inconsiderable number of the poor get out of their beds, or substitutes for them, without knowing when they are to get their breakfast, for the simple reason that they have neither money nor credit. They must starve if they have got nothing which would be taken in pawn. But articles of very small value will be accepted by the pawnbroker, and some item or items of a slender wardrobe are exchanged for the price of one or more meals. So small a sum as sixpence may be obtained in this way. When work is procured the articles are, as a rule, released from pawn.

The number of articles pawned in the City of Dublin is very large. From enquiries which I made some years ago I ascertained that in a single year 2,866,084 tickets were issued, and the loans to which they referred amounted to £547,453, or at the rate of £2 4s per head of the population. By far the larger proportion of the borrowers belonged to the working classes. Some families pawn their clothes regularly every week, thus living a few days in advance of their income.

The ordinary money-lender may charge any amount of interest on his loans - 60 per cent is not uncommon; but the interest charged by the pawnbroker is limited by law to 5d per £ per month for sums under £10. A month’s interest may be charged though the article may be redeemed within a shorter period.

The general state of things is the following:- The artizan or labourer is out of employment, perhaps for a week or a few weeks. How is he and his family to live until he regains employment? He may not be able to get credit with the food purveyors, and if he does he will, as a rule, be charged more on credit than he would for ready money. To persons so situated the pawnbroker is often the only “friend in need,” failing whose assistance the resource might be the workhouse.

The business of the pawnbroker is one of great antiquity, as may be seen in the story of Judah and Tamar in Genesis xxxviii. 18. **

Earnings Of The Poor.**

Many thousands of families have weekly incomes not exceeding 15s. There are instances where the income is as low as 10s. and even less. Here is an example:- A family, man and wife, resides in Dame Court. His occupation is that of a tailor, but he can only earn 10s. a week. His rent is 2s. 6d., which leaves 7s. 6d. for food, fuel, light, clothes, bedding, etc. Their breakfast consists of dry bread and tea. They have only another meal, dinner and supper combined: it consists of dry bread and tea and herrings, occasionally porridge. It may appear strange that a tradesman could earn only 10s. per week; but such is often the case owing to irregular employment and the poor payment for the making of the cheaper kind of clothes. Shoemakers frequently can only make from 15s. to 20s. a week, owing to the reduced price for hand-made shoes. The use of machinery in the manufacture of boots and shoes has greatly lessened the earnings of the shoemakers who work in their own homes. The great majority are living in very inferior dwellings, and they have but a poor diet. On the whole, they are no better off than the labourers.

I have rarely met a poor man of mature age who was a celibate. A man’s desire for matrimony appears to be inversely to his means for maintaining a family. It is rich men who remain in so-called “single blessedness.”

Dublin is not much of a manufacturing city. Its importance is due to being the centre of the Local Government of Ireland, the seat of the Superior Courts of Law, the headquarters of the Medical Profession, and the Banking and Insurance business, the seat of two Universities, and its large business as a port. There is comparatively less work for females in Dublin than in most English towns.

The disadvantage of want of employment for women is the smaller average earnings of families, with consequent lower standard of diet, lodging and clothing.

Amongst the labouring population the children are worst off for proper clothing. They rarely get new articles to wear, and are frequently clothed in the worn-out garments of their parents, ill-adjusted to the size of their new wearers.

Thousands of children go with naked feet even in winter. The want of warm clothing in winter often lays the foundation of future delicacy, and renders them less liable to resist the attacks of disease. The want of good food and warm clothing often causes the fatal sequelae to attacks of measles. Amongst the rich this disease is rarely fatal; but the children of the poor offer up many victims to it - not so much during the attack, but in bronchial and other affections which supervene as consequences of neglect, insufficient clothing and nourishment. The Police-Aided Society for Providing Clothes for Poor Children performs good work in Dublin, and deserves more support than it receives from the general public.

A humorist once said that half the population of Dublin are clothed in the cast-off clothes of the other half. This is true to a large extent.

The diet of the labourers, hawkers, and persons of the same social position is generally very poor and insufficient. The constant items are bread and tea. Butter is not always obtainable. Cocoa is largely used; coffee, never. Very little home-made bread is used. The bakers’ bread is of good quality, for even the very poor will not purchase inferior bread. Oatmeal porridge is not so generally used as it ought to be.

Indian corn, formerly much employed in the dietary of the poor, now rarely enters into their cuisine.

Beef and mutton are not often found on the tables of the poor. When they are it is generally for the breadwinner of the family. They are fried or boiled, for there is no way of roasting them. Pork is not much in demand, except in the form of “crubeens,” or feet of the pig. Bacon is largely used, sometimes as rashers, but more frequently it is boiled with cabbage. The inferior American kind is, owing to its cheapness (5d. or 6d. per lb.), mostly in use.

Puddings, pies, and tarts are practically unknown. There are no ovens to bake them in, nor, as a rule, any knowledge of how they should be made. In very few of the primary schools for girls is cooking taught.

As regards vegetables, few kinds, except potatoes and cabbage, are used. Peas and beans are rarely seen on the table of a labourer’s family.

The milk frequently used is condensed skim milk, which is purchased at 1d. to 3d. per tin. There is no fat (the most valuable constituent of milk) in separated milk, and it is, of course, quite unsuitable for infants. The proportion of condensed whole milk to condensed separated milk is very small. The women have been cautioned not to feed infants with the separated milk.

Owing to the scarcity of employment for women, the vast majority of them remain at home, and can, therefore, unlike factory women, nurse their children. The proportion of bottle-fed to “nursed” children is not large in Dublin, and greatly accounts for the comparatively low infantile mortality in a city where the adult death-rate is so high.

Milk is much used in the diet of children of all ages, and it is largely the condensed separated milk which the elder children use. This article, of course, is very inferior to the condensed whole milk, and although the former costs much less, the whole milk is the proper kind for children.

Not much fruit appears on the tables of the poor. Oranges and apples are sometimes given as a treat to their children. They also get inferior kinds of sweetmeat. Amongst the very poor fruit and sweets are practically unknown.

As is well known, there is a large consumption of whisky and porter amongst the labouring classes. In many instances an undue proportion of their earnings is spent on these beverages, with consequent deprivation of home comforts and even necessaries.

The workman is blamed for visiting the public-house, but it is to him what the club is to the rich man. His home is rarely a comfortable one, and in winter the bright light, the warm fire, and the gaiety of the public-house are attractions which he finds it difficult to resist. If he spends a reasonable proportion of his earnings in the public-house, is he more to be condemned than the prosperous shopkeeper or professional man who drinks expensive wines at the club or the restaurant, spends hours playing billiards or cards, and amuses himself in other expensive ways?

At the same time, it cannot be denied that there is,** **too much intemperance amongst the working classes, and that the women, who formerly were rarely seen intoxicated, are now frequently to be observed in that state. The publicans themselves dislike drunkards. Their best customers are the men who spend a moderate proportion of their wages in drink, for the drunkards lose their situations, or, if tradesmen, neglect their work, and thereby reduce their incomes.

I give a few examples of the diet of the poor. They are not exceptional ones:- Click here for Table.

It is not in the power of the Sanitary Authorities to remove many of the evils from which the poor suffer. They cannot augment their deficient earnings: they can only employ a very small proportion of them as labourers in the various civic departments. They can, however, soften the hard conditions under which the poor, especially the *very *poor, exist. How? By providing them with homes superior to those they now have, without increasing their rents. The most urgent want of the labourers and the poorer tradesmen is better dwellings. This is a measure that should be carried out liberally.

Consumptives are not kept for any length of time in the general hospitals, and but very few gain admission to the Consumption Hospital at Newcastle. They are, therefore, obliged to live with their families, sleeping in the same room with other persons, and infecting them. The operation of the Insurance Act now provides treatment for the poor consumptives.

If it were possible to provide the very poor children, who are now obliged to go to school, with a meal, much good would result. There is little doubt that many of the school-children have to learn their lessons on empty stomachs.

Madame Gonne has recently organised a society with the object of providing a daily meal for poor children.

I would like to bear testimony to the wonderful kindness which the poor show to those who are still poorer and more helpless than themselves.

 

APPENDIX. *

From ‘Contemporary Medical Men,’ by John Leyland, vol. ii, Leicester, 1888. *

Sir Charles Alexander Cameron**

M.D., M.K.Q.C.P.I., F.R.C.S.I., Ph.D. D.P.H.Cam~dge.

A Biography**

Sir Charles Cameron was born in Dublin on the 16th of July, 1830. He is the only surviving son of Ewen Cameron, by his wife, Belinda, daughter of John Smith, of the County of Cavan. Ewen Cameron served with distinction in the Peninsular War, and in the expedition against the United States in 1812, and was severely wounded eight times. According to McKenzie’s “History of the Clan Cameron,” second edition, page 415, he was the grandson of the amiable and unfortunate Archibald Cameron (younger brother of the “Gentle Lochiel,” chief of the Clan Cameron), who was executed for having taken part in the rising of 1745, in favour of Prince Charles.

Sir Charles received his earlier education in Dublin and Guernsey. His father desired that he should enter the army, but, dying when his son was only 14 years old, this wish was not realised. Having studied chemistry under the late Dr. Aldridge, of Dublin, and pharmaceutical chemistry under the late Mr. Earl of the same place, Mr. Cameron was, in 1852, elected “Professor” to the Dublin Chemical Society, which had been founded in that year. There was at the time no popular institution in which chemistry was taught in Dublin, but this society in some measure supplied the want, and it continued in existence until 1861, when it expired, there being then in good working order the Royal College of Science for Ireland.

Mr. Cameron’s lectures in connection with this society attracted considerable attention, and, before his 23rd year, he was engaged by several Dublin and provincial institutions to deliver popular lectures on various scientific subjects, which he continued for many years with the greatest success.

Mr. Cameron studied medicine and surgery in the School of Medicine of the Apothecaries’ Hall, the Dublin School of Medicine, the Original (now Ledwich) School of Medicine, the Meath Hospital, and the Coombe Hospital.

In 1854 he went to Germany (where he graduated in philosophy and medicine), and there he acquired the friendship of Liebig, to whom he dedicated one of his works, and, to quote the words of his preface, “whose commendation it has been his good fortune to gain.” About this time Mr. Cameron was making experiments in agricultural chemistry on a small piece of ground attached to his dwelling, as well as in the laboratory.

At the meeting of the British Association in Dublin, in 1857, he read an elaborate paper, proving that the nitrogen of plants could be wholly derived from urea; and his assertion as to the assimilability of urea was subsequently verified by Hampe, a German chemist, and, more especially, by George Ville, of Paris.

In this year he published his “Chemistry of Agriculture,” which attained a large circulation. In 1856 he had been appointed Lecturer on Chemistry and Natural Philosophy to the Dublin School of Medicine, and, on that school becoming extinct in the following year, he succeeded Dr. Maxwell Simpson in the chemical lectureship at the Original, now termed the Ledwich, Medical School. Both of these appointments were spontaneously offered to him, doubtless on account of the estimation in which he was held as a lecturer. In 1859 he was also invited to take the lectureship on chemistry to the Medical College of Steevens’ Hospital, and retained his connection with both schools until 1874.

In 1863 Dr. Cameron was employed by a number of sugar refiners to help them in their agitation for reforming the method of levying the duties on sugar. Hence he was moved to write a pamphlet on sugar, which attracted considerable attention, and is believed to have had some influence in parliamentary circles. From 1858 to 1863 he was editor and part proprietor of the *Agricultural Review, *in which he wrote hundreds of articles on various subjects. In 1860-62, he was also editor of the Dublin Hospital Gazette.

About this time he was elected a Foreign Member of the New York State Agricultural Society, and of the Royal Agricultural Society of** **Belgium. In 1862 he contributed a series of papers on the inorganic constituents of plants to the *Chemical News. *He showed that it was impossible to develop a plant without the aid of potassium, whilst sodium could be dispensed with. These papers have been extensively quoted in Continental and American works.

In 1863 he was awarded a medal by the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland for an essay “On the Uses of Phosphates in Agriculture.” For several years Dr. Cameron continued to publish pamphlets and papers relating to agricultural chemistry and vegetable physiology. In 1868 he wrote the well-known “Stock Feeders’ Manual,” and he is the author of the articles on “Agricultural Chemistry” in Cassell’ s “Technical Educator.”

In 1862 he was elected Public Analyst for the city of** **Dublin, the only others appointed up to that time being Dr. Letheby, of London, and Dr. Hill, of Birmingham. The Adulteration Act, under which he was appointed, was very defective, but he, nevertheless, worked it so successfully that, within three years, more than 50 persons were convicted of selling adulterated food in Dublin. This Act, which was the first of the kind, was passed in 1860, and was wholly inoperative in every place save Dublin.

After the passing of the Sale of Food and Drugs Act, Dr. Cameron was appointed Public Analyst to no fewer than 23 out of 32 Irish counties, as well as to the cities of Limerick, Waterford, and Kilkenny, and to several large towns. For many years he was expert and analyst to the Government in criminal cases, but resigned that position five years ago.

In 1867 he served on the International Jury of the great exhibition in Paris, and in the same year was elected Professor of Hygiene or Political Medicine to the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. His lectures were open to the public, and, during many sessions, so well attended were they that people came at two o’clock to secure seats for a lecture which was not to be delivered until two hours later. The first course of lectures was published in 1868, and was dedicated to Baron Liebig. In 1869 Dr. Cameron wrote his “Handybook on Health,” chiefly intended for schools.

Since 1869 he has regularly contributed reports upon public health to the Dublin Journal of Medical Science, which are not merely a chronicle of **salutary affairs, many of them being original essays. A large volume of them was published in separate form in 1874, and another volume in 1887.

In 1874 Dr. Cameron published his “Manual of Hygiene and Compendium of the Sanitary Laws,” a book which has attained to a large circulation, and is one of the text-hooks recommended by the University of Cambridge and the Royal University for Ireland to those studying for sanitary diplomas. This work has been partly translated into Japanese.

Amongst Dr. Cameron’s other volumes may be mentioned a “Handybook on Food and Diet,” “Translations of Poems from the German,” and “A Guide to the Zoological Gardens, Phoenix Park.” He has also edited, and in great part re-written, the last four editions of Johnston’s “Agricultural Chemistry and Geology,” and has edited the well-known “Catechism of Agricultural Chemistry and Geology,” which has recently been translated into Danish and Finnish.

Dr. Cameron’s contributions to the medical journals have been numerous. His account of a mental affection which he has termed “Toxiphobia,” in the Dublin Journal of *Medical Science, *contains some curious matter. His paper in the same journal on “An Epidemic of Typhoid Fever caused by Infected Milk,” will, the *Lancet *states, always be a classic on the subject. It was the first paper of the kind in which the higher mathematics were used in proving that the milk was the cause of the epidemic. In the same journal Dr. Cameron discussed the question as to “The Plurality of Fevers confounded under the general term ‘Typhoid.’” He has also published important papers on “The Therapeutic Action of Ferric Iodate,” and on “The Physiological and Therapeutical Action of the Iodates and Bromates, especially those of Quinine.” The latter, in effervescing form, have been largely used in Dublin during the last six years, with great success in the sluggish forms of pneumonia and in neuralgia.

Dr. Cameron was the first to make the important observation that chlorine is absorbed into the blood, and may be detected in the brain - that it is a cerebral poison. This observation has been confirmed by Binz, of Bonn, who has extended Cameron’s experiments to bromine and iodine, which appear to act similarly to chlorine.

Dr. Cameron appears also to have been the first to point out that many colours on wallpapers, other than green, contain arsenic. In 1874 he was elected Professor of** **Chemistry to the College of Surgeons of Ireland, whereupon he resigned his connection with the Ledwich and Steevens’ Hospital Schools, but retained his Professorship of Hygiene.

In the same year he became Co-Medical Officer of Health with Dr. Mapother, and, in 1880, Dr. Mapother having virtually retired, he became sole active Medical Officer of Health for Dublin. In 1882 the Corporation of Dublin placed the whole of their sanitary department under his direction, increasing his salary to £1,000 per annum, and permitting him to retain his numerous other appointments.

His administration of the sanitary affairs of the city has been effective, and has led to the closing, mostly for ever, of nearly 2,000 unfit for human habitation, while the condition of thousands of other houses has been greatly improved. His sanitary reports, and his papers on hygiene, published in the journals, are numerous and interesting; he has given great attention to the question of the social life of the very poor, and some of his articles on this matter have appeared in lay journals, such as the *Pall Mall Gazette *and *Eastward Ho!. *His evidence before the Commission on the Housing of the Poor, 1885, is specially referred to in the report of the Commission, and he has been quoted largely by M. Raffalovich in his great work “Le Logement de l’Ouvrier et du Pauvre.”

In June, 1885, Dr. Cameron received the honour of knighthood in consideration of “his scientific researches, and his services in the cause of public health.” In 1885-6 he was President of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, and since 1884 has been Vice-President of the Institute of Chemistry of Great Britain and Ireland: he is Examiner in Sanitary Science at Cambridge and the Royal Universities.

In the first-named capacity he had the privilege of presiding in April, 1886, when, before a most distinguished company, Fellowships of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland were conferred upon Professor Husley, M. Pasteur, Sir James Paget, Sir Joseph Lister, Sir Spencer Wells, and Mr. John Marshall, F.R.S., for their great services to medical science.

In addition to the appointments mentioned, he is also Lecturer of Chemistry and Geology in the Government Agricultural Institution, Glasnevin, and Chemist to the Royal Agricultural Society, which latter body he induced, in 1883, to found a Board of Examiners for agricultural students, and to grant a diploma in scientific agriculture.

Sir Charles Cameron has been President of the surgical section of the Academy of Medicine, and of various other bodies, and lie is connected with most of the useful societies of Dahlia. He is aii Honorary Member of the Societies of Public Hygiene of Belgium, Paris, and Bordeaux, the State Medical Society of California, the Royal Hibernian Academy of the Fine Arts, the Institute of Architects, etc.

Sir C. Cameron’s greatest work, issued in June, 1886, is a “History of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, and of the Irish Schools of Medicine,” which includes a medical bibliography. This work is really a history of medicine and medical institutions in Ireland, and contains nearly 300 biographies, some of which are very full, of the most eminent medical men in that country. Having had access to the archives of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, those of the Dublin Corporation, and of the Public Record Office, as well as to many private and public libraries, Sir Charles Cameron has been able to reconstruct a remarkable chapter of the forgotten history of the capital of Ireland. He begins with an account of the state of medical knowledge previous to the year 1700, wherein he throws great light upon the social condition of the country; and, tracing the gradual progress of medicine through the 18th century, describes the constitution of the Irish College of Surgeons, and the rise of its influence from that day to this, an influence which he shows to have been very beneficial to the many medical institutions of the country.

In 1887 Sir Charles Cameron and the Registrar-General of Ireland were appointed by the War Office Commissioners to inquire into the causes of the prevalence of enteric fever in the Royal Barracks. Their report, laid before Parliament in February, 1888, shows that enteric fever is rifer amongst soldiers in barracks than amongst the civil population. The report is one of the most elaborate and complete on any hygienic question yet published, and its authors have received for it the thanks and approval of the War Office.

Sir Charles Cameron married, in 1862, Lucie, daughter of John Macnamara, Solicitor, of Dublin. She died, universally regretted, in 1883, leaving seven children; and her cousin, Mr. W. G. Wills, the novelist and dramatist, collected, and has published in pamphlet form, a number of testimonies to her high character and unselfish disposition, written by those who knew her.

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