The Prince of Wales opened the Congress of Hygiene and
Demography on Monday, in St. James's Hall, with an address- apparently intended to prove to the world that Mr. Stead has not mistaken his Royal Highness's profound craving for pre- siding at formal investigations of this class. (Why, by-the- way, should "demography," which means, we suppose, the description of the peoples of the earth, as " geography " means the description of the earth itself, be specially associated with hygiene? It might more naturally, we should think, be asso- ciated with sociology or politics. The description of the peoples is no more closely connected with an inquiry into the condition of their health, than with an inquiry into the condi- tion of their science or art.) The Prince referred with some pride to his experience on the Commission of inquiry into the housing of the working classes, and said how much he had learned from it. He expressed his anxiety that the subject of hygiene should attract a great deal more popular attention,. as well as a great deal more scientific attention. But though it is certainly very easy for the people to know a great deal too little of the conditions of good health, it is also possible for them to think a great deal too much about it. There is a certain kind of chronic apprehension about bad drainage and the rest which unsettles the nerves much more than it protects the body.
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