Besides all this, the people of South London are preparing to establish three Technical Institutes, with the help of the Charity Commissioners; and, if possible, to secure the Albert Palace for a Battersea Institute. A similar movement has begun in North London. These local Technical Schools are independent of the City Guilds of London Institute at Kensington, but the impulse was given by its establishment.
The seventh meeting of the International Medical Congress was formally opened by the Prince of Wales, on the 3rd of August, 1881. It was the first time the Congress had been held in England. The great room of St. James's Hall was nearly filled, 3000 members being present. No lady practitioners were admitted, although at least 25 women, practising medicine, were then on the English Medical Register, and a protest against the decision of the Council had been signed by 43 duly qualified medical women. At previous meetings of the Congress in foreign countries women were not excluded.
The Prince of Wales, on his arrival, was received by Sir W. Jenner, Sir William Gull, Sir James Paget, Sir J. Risdon Bennett, and other members of the Committee. The Honorary Secretary having read the report of the Executive Committee, the Prince of Wales, who was accompanied by the Crown Prince of Prussia, the late Emperor "Frederick the Noble," rose and said:--
"Your Imperial Highness and Gentlemen,--I gladly complied with the request that I should be patron of the International Medical Congress of 1881, and among many reasons for so doing was my conviction that few things can tend more to the welfare of mankind than that educated men of all nations should from time to time meet together for the promotion of the branches of knowledge to which they devote themselves. The intercourse and the mutual esteem of nations have often been advanced by great international exhibitions, and I look back with pleasure to those with which I have been connected; but when conferences are held among those who in all parts of the world apply themselves to the study of science, even greater international benefits may, I think, be confidently anticipated, more especially in the study of medicine and surgery, for in these the effects of climate and of national habits must give to the practitioners of each nation opportunities, not only of acquiring knowledge, but of imparting knowledge to those of their _confrères_ whom they meet in Congress.