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it is incumbent upon the adults who conduct, as wellas upon those who generally supply the funds for, the

outing to see that the child’s day in the country doesnot mean that natural sleep is curtailed by several hours,that the child is not herded into a carriage over-filled, is notcrammed with food, hustled through games, re-packed intothe carriage and brought back to London without having achance of realising the quiet spirit, breathing the pure air,and noticing the gentle sweetness of the country side. It isnot necessary for the holiday to be a long one to allow aLondon child to benefit by the country and to gain animpression which will dwell brightly in his memory for longdays. Let him only be taken not too far a journey in nottoo great numbers and let him wander at his will in thequiet fields without being hurried into games or regulatedsports. Even a few such free hours are full of physical andmental good for the child or the man who lives in acrowded city.

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SIR WALTER BESANT.

THE late Sir Walter Besant was a philanthropist in themost literal sense of the word. He loved his fellow-menand spared no pains in their behalf. Of the most genialtemperament and delighting in the happiness of others, thegrey, depressing lives of the poor of London moved him todeep pity. A tireless worker, his heart bled for the seam-stress whose day of labour was longer even than his own.A successful man from the opening of his literary career,his sympathy went out to all of his craft whose labours metwith no return. His vision of a People’s Palace to bringlight into gloomy Whitechapel became a reality; his

scheme for organising men and women of lettersinto a coherent body for the maintenance of their commonrights resulted in that useful corporation, the Society ofAuthors. Of Sir Walter Besant as a scholar, a humourist, anovelist, and an antiquary much might be written and muchwill be written. But from a medical point of view it willsuffice to say that the healthy recreation which his sane andbeautiful stories brought to a vast circle of readers had itsphysical value, while his vivid and picturesque pourtrayal ofeighteenth-century manners served to make us understand the processes of social evolution in a way that no dry-as-dusttreatises could aspire to do. The death of such a man,devoted to wall-doing, whose sanguine energy insured a

practical effect for the dreams of his well-dowered brain, isa loss to the world, and we desire to pay tribute to our senseof this loss.

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PUNCTURE OF THE KIDNEY FOR NEPHRITIS.

THE surgeon is ever invading the province of the physician,and so accustomed have we become to this that we hearwithout surprise of some new surgical method of treatmentfor a disease always hitherto assigned to the physician, butof all morbid conditions inflammation of such an organ asthe kidney might have been thought the least likely to be sub-jected to the surgeon’s knife. A few years ago Mr. ReginaldHarrison, in his presidential address to the Medical Society ofLondon, drew attention to the numerous cases which havebeen recorded in which a kidney has been cut down uponin expectation of some gross lesion being found and nothingof any importance has been discovered, yet decided improve-ment in the symptoms has followed the operation. Mr.Harrison suggested that the improvement was due to the

relief of tension. This was a novel idea, but the results ofthe ordinary medicinal treatment of acute inflammations ofthe kidney are so unsatisfactory that we can only welcomeany treatment which seems to offer a reasonable pro-spect of success. The subject is to be discussed at

the Cheltenham meeting of the British Medical Asso- ciation, the introductory paper being read by Mr.

Harrison. We may hope to have the matter fullyelucidated at that meeting. When we consider analogous.cases we see how much damage may be done to delicate-

organs by mere increase of tension, and the damage is ina large degree proportionate to the tenseness of the capsule.In the eye a very slight increase of internal pressure sufficesto damage irreparably its essential structure, and the name"renal glaucoma" has not inaptly been suggested for thetruly analogous condition in the kidney. How far the

operation of incision of the kidney can prevent or relieve theeffects of congestion time alone can show, but the subjectdeserves the careful attention of all surgeons.

CHARING CROSS HOSPITAL: THE CHERE REINELODGE OF FREEMASONS.

THE Chère Reine Lodge, No. 2853, was consecrated onJune 7th at the Hotel Cecil, Strand, London, W.C., byV. W. Bro. Edward Letchworth, F.S.A., Grand Secretary,assisted by the following Grand Officers : R. W. Bro. Robert

Grey, P.G.W., as S.W.; V. W. Bro. Edward Terry, P.G.T.,as J.W. ; V. W. Bro. Rev. Sir Borradaile Savory, G.

Chaplain as Chaplain; W. Bro. Fitzroy Tower, as D.C. ;and W. Bro. Woodhouse Braine, F.R.C.S., S.G.D., as I.G.The Chere Reine Lodge is the sixth lodge connected withmedicine to be established in- the metropolis and CharingCross Hospital is the fifth of the London hospitals to associateitself with Freemasonry, following the good lead set bySt. Bartholomew’s, St. Mary’s, the West London, and theMiddlesex Hospitals. The cfficers appointed were

W. Bro. Rev. A. W. Oxford, M.D. Oxon., P.G.D,,Worshipful Master ; Bro. John Abercrombie, M.D. Cantab.,F.R.C.P., Senior Warden; Bro. Amand Routh, M.D.

Lond., F.R.C.P., Junior Warden; W. Bro. J. AstleyBloxam, F.R.C.S. Eng., I.P.M. ; W. Bro. C. E. Wright,Chaplain; R. W. Bro. Robert Grey, P.G.W., treasurer;Bro. C. Carter Braine, F.R.C.S., secretary; Bro. FrederickWallis, M.B. Cantab., F.R.C.S. Eng., S.D. ; Bro. Victor Cor-bould, M.D. Brux., J.D. ; Bro. J. W. Eyre, M.D. Durh., I.G.;W. Bro. Arthur E. Reade, Organist; and Bro. P. L. Daniel,F.R.C.S. Eng., and Bro. J. Humphreys, L.D.S. Eng.,Stewards. After the ceremony of consecration andthe conclusion of business the Founders entertainedtheir numerous guests at a banquet. The usual loyaltoasts having been duly honoured the W. Master

proposed "The Consecrating Officers" which was suit-

ably acknowledged by the Grand Secretary. "The

Worshipful Master" was proposed by W. Bro. Astley Bloxam,and W. Bro. Oxford in replying modestly regretted that hewas filling a post which ought to have been occupiedby one of the staff of the hospital had circumstances

permitted. He then proposed the toast of the "Visitors,"which was responded to by W. Bro. Surgeon Lieutenant-Colonel Kiallmark, W.M. of the University of London Lodge,W. Bro. L. Bidwell, F.R.C.S., W.M. of the Cavendish

Lodge (West London Hospital), and W. Bro. A. E. Sansom,M.D. Lond., F.R.C.P., who is W.M. designate of the Lodge’shortly to be founded in connexion with the London Hos-pital. "The Officers of the Lodge" was acknowledged byBro. Abercrombie, Bro. Routh, and Bro. Carter Braine, thelast-named remarking that although it might be imaginedthat the name " Chere Reine " bad been adopted inconnexion with the name of the hospital this was not

actually so. It was rather selected because one of thecrosses erected by King Edward I. to commemorate the-route of Queen Eleanor’s funeral procession was at the

village of Charing, near to Westminster Abbey, and becauseit was thought that the recent death of Her Majesty QueenVictoria, who was Patroness of Charing.cross Hospital,would make I I Ch 6re Reine a doubly appropriate designa--tion for their lodge. We have no dor.bt that the experienced