The "Peculiar People" are not so very peculiar, after all,
in thinking that in the case of illness good food without medical attend- ance may be quite as good as good food with it. John Robert Downes was tried on Wednesday, before Mr. Justice Blackburn, for the manslaughter of his own child, and when it was decided that he caused the death of his child by neglect,—it was admitted that the child, which was suffering from inflammation of the lungs, was well fed and nursed,—a decision was arrived at which it is very doubtful whether the wisest physicians would endorse. But whether this be so or not, it is clear that in a surgical cage, the refusal to get medical aid might very easily cause death, which could otherwise be avoided, and therefore we have some doubts whether such a hospital as the "Peculiar People" propose to set up in Tower Street, London Fields, where the maladies of patients are to be attacked with prayer alone, should be permitted. The inhabitants are evi- dently dreadfully afraid of this "home of faith," probably sup- posing that it will become a centre of infectious disease. But if the "home of faith" were devoted to it Incurables" only, —as seems to be proposed,—in the strict sense of people suffering from chronic diseases which medical men cannot reach, there would be no ground of objection ; and perhaps the prayers would then be really of more than usual service. What incurables want is kind- ness, sympathy, and a religious and cheerful spirit. There, perhaps, they might have all these,—unless, indeed, the last were wanting, for superstition is apt to be a little grim,
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