Januabt 5, 1878.]

PUNCH, OB, THE LONDON CHARIVAEI.

301

A PRECAUTIONARY MEASURE.

" Now go to School, and bb a good Boy. And mind you
don't use any rude Wobds ! '

" Rude Woeds ! Tell me a sew, Mummy, and then I shall

know, you know ! "

GOOD WOMAN'S WORK.

Punch lately uttered words of wisdom on the " little health " of
the Ladies. He is reminded in good time of the " Ladies' Sanitary
Association,"* whose business it is to spread the knowledge of those
laws, by observance whereof—

" Those may get health who ne'er had health before,
And those who have little health may make it more."

In 1857, a few wise women, impressed by a sense of the wide-
spread ignorance of the laws of health, and the vast amount of pre-
ventible illness and death thence arising, set to work to get together
and circulate plain knowledge on the subject. Some wise men
helped the wise women. They began with Lectures to Ladies, and
went on with Tracts. Never was a more praiseworthy or helpworthy
tractarian movement than that which sprang from the "Ladies'
Sanitary Association," in words of wisdom on The Worth of Fresh
Air, The Use of Pure Water, The Value of Good Food, How to
Nurse the Sick, The Health of Mothers, How to Clothe and
Manage a Baby, The Power of Soap and Water, &c, &c, &c,
and other such " homely " truths, which have circulated in swarms
from their eighty-six thousands to their tens, doing as purifying
and sweetening a work as the insects who spread the pollen of the
flowers.

With an average yearly income of £350, the Association has, since
1857, published seventy such tracts, edited by scientific men but writ-
ten in simple language. The publications of the Association have
had a circulation of nearly two millions, have been translated into
several languages, welcomed at hospitals, working-men's clubs,
lending libraries, mothers' meetings, and schools, and distributed
by Clergy of all denominations, Scripture-readers, City Missionaries,
Sisters of Mercy, Bible-women, and Sanitary Missionaries.

The paper on Overwork served to prepare the way for the
"Early Closing Association." The Dance of Death helped to call
attention to the use of arsenic in ball-dresses, flowers, and wall-
papers. Dress and its Cost, pleaded not unsuccessfully for over-
tasked seamstresses, working weary hours in ill-ventilated rooms,
and from the same source came the present effort to obtain seats for
shop-women,_ who suffer so much by long hours of standing behind
counters, which is procuring relief for them steadily, though slowly.

The delivery of practical lectures on health, sanitary improve-

* The Office ia 22, Berners Street, and its Secretary is Miss Rose Adams.

ments, and domestic economy, formed another principal feature in
the Ladies' crusade. Some seventy courses have been delivered on
physiology, public health, gymnastics, chemistry, cooking, and
nursing. Branch associations have been formed, day nurseries
have been opened, houses cleaned, cleansing materials lent, clothing
clubs formed, and even a company for building suitable dwellings
for the poor. Poor London children have been fed, cared for, and
made happy, in a humble way. Baths, washing-tubs, pails, brooms,
and brushes, disinfectants, cooking utensils, and nursing appliances,
patterns of garments, made and unmade, text-books on domestic
economy, models of filters, drain-traps, ventilators, invalid cooking
and nursing appliances, have been kept and lent for purposes of
illustration.

The Association has helped to introduce into schools text-books
of domestic economy, and in its last tract, Our Schools and Public
Health, has tried to draw the attention of all engaged in training
the young to the importance of teaching physiology and the laws of
health.

In the face of the needs pressing and the work accomplished, the
Association may fairly take credit, in its own words, for having
laboured, " by God's blessing, to secure happier, purer, more intelli-
gently-managed homes for England, and a healthier, more tempe-
rate, truer manhood and womanhood for her sons and daughters."
Punch, at this Christmas-tide, can have no fitter function than to
point to what these Ladies have done, and to ask all his Lady-readers
not only to wish well to, but to join and aid, their wise and kindly
efforts. _

NEW YEAR'S LEAYES.

{That might be " turned over" with advantage.)
On and after the First—■

Lord Beaconsfield might abandon the oracular diplology of
Delphi for plainer English.

Mr. Bbight might look rather less to the points of his oratory, and
rather more to the accuracy of his data.

Mr. Gladstone might leave the themes proper for the stump to
the mountebank who is in place on it, and preserve unimpaired the
hard-won dignity of a great name.

Lord Debby might manage to see less than seven distinct sides to
every question, and, when occasion requires, might even bring his
great mind to a definite statement in black and white.

Mr. Lowe might relinquish his taste for political calisthenics, and
try six months as a farm labourer without the franchise.

The Emperor of Russia might give up a military parade or two at
St. Petersburg, and try an experiment in '' Civilisation without
Gunpowder."

Mr. Mackonochie might deny himself a little bit of trimming,
a vestment, a mop and a mow, and a flower-pot or two, and inculcate
by his practice some of the obedience and respect to authority which
he preaches.

Marshal MacMahon might avoid being thrust by his advisers into
contemptible situations, accept accomplished facts, and brush up his
best cocked-hat for the Opening of.the Coming Exhibition.

The British Mason might gather from experience that his Em-
ployers were not created solely for his convenience, and, the next
time he has a chance of a job, not be fool enough to hand it oyer to
a set of Foreigners, because he is too dense to understand a simple
sum in Rule-of-Three.

The Turkish Government might give up a hopeless contest with
the "logic of events," and set about the more rational business of
paying up arrears to the Holders of its Foreign Debt, together with
a handsome bonus.

The Patriotic Alarmist might fall asleep without thinking out a
Government Plan for the Defence of the Isle of Dogs, and define
" British Interests " without either referring to Pitt, quoting
Palmebston, or using a rhyming dictionary, and

The Man who takes a Common Sense View of It, might pay a
little less attention to the scares of the hour, and quietly wait the
Opening of Parliament.

Misnomers.

Who would expect to find our War-deprecating and Tree-felling
ex-Premier in a seat inscribed "Ha! War-den ! " while his rival,
who never handled an axe, sits in " Hughen-den " ? Surely the
names must have got transposed. Or is it merely a brace of cases of
the right man not in the right place ?

shakspeabe to wit.

Science has lost a distinguished follower in Herr Ruhmkoeff,
the inventor of the famous "coil" which bears his name. Herr
Ruhmkobff, who was as benevolent as he was scientific, has just
" shuffled off this mortal coil" at Paris, at an advanced age.

VOl. x,xxiii.

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