Tue Shanghai branch of the Chinese Young Men's Christian Association is to be congratulated on the idea of arranging for a series of popular lectures on "Health and Sanitation" to be delivered before its members during the next few months. Those who have seen the crowded intelligent audiences that attend the public mostings of this institution will realize what a favourable opportunity is thus afforded of disseminating knowledge among the! more enlightened classes of our Chinese fellow-residents. Neither one lecture nor of lectures will cause the nation to abandon the ingrained habits of centuries; but a start has to be made in breaking the ground, and the only hope for the application of hygienic principles to the national life lies in a reform from above. An anudience of several hundred, therefore, such as gathered yesterday evening in the Martyrs' Memorial Hall to listen to Dr. A, Stanley on the subject of "Plague Prevention" provides an admirable medium for the gradual inculcation of sound doctrines of health and sanitation millions to whom these at present meaningless.
jo inertia comprised in China's vast numbers that is the despair of every reform; for before the new order can permeate the whole mass, its motive power has been dissipated. The time for the national uplifting, therefore, has not yet come; not only are the teachers of the multitude lacking, but their teachers have yet to be taught. A nucleus of reform in various centres is all that can be striven for, and for this reason the work of the Chiness Y.M.C.A., which seeks to form gradually the public opinion of future generations, has in it the elements of permanent good. In addition to cultivation of the mind it offers to young China the opportunity of physical development, and where the two are combined intelligently the most effective leaven of civiliza~
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.