[page] 270

my good friend, are deserving of praise instead of persecution, for the brave fight you have made against such terrible odds. I hope for your success.

From ALFRED MILNES, Esq., M.A., Fellow of the Statistical Society of London.

DEAR DR. Ross.—If words of friends are helpful in your hour of need, I would that words of mine could come clothed in power beyond speech. I am not so presumptuous as to suppose that anything can be said by the raw recruit to cheer you, the veteran of a hundred fights. Men and women have breathed the air of liberty, who but for you had died in thraldom. And, now, the fight is won for the parents of an oppressed race, it has to be fought out for the children of all races. Nor is the struggle quite so unequal as it seems. Your purpose is single and your aims are weapons of precision. Toil on, then, undaunted; you are sowing seed that our little ones may reap, nor fail to bless the sower.

From DR OIDTMAN, Staff Surgeon of the Imperial German Army, and Chief Physician to the Hospitals at Verdun and St. Quentin, during the Franco-German War.

RURICH CASTLE, PRUSSIA.

MY DEAR FRIEND AND COLLEAGUE,—The Count Hompesch wishes you all success from his heart, and I do also. Our congratulations on your success: Your brethren in Germany are having success. Chancellor Bismarck has taken our side. With all wishes for your success.

From DR. ALFRED R. WALLACE, co-discoverer with Darwin, of the Principle of Natural Selection.

FRITH HILL, GODALMING, ENGLAND.

DEAR DR. Ross,—You are doing an excellent work, and the result will, I trust, be the repeal of the most iniquitous compulsory vaccination law. The reckless way in which false or one-sided statements are promulgated by pro-vaccinators is surely an indication of the badness of their cause. A good and really scientific practice never needs bolstering up by exaggerations and lies. I stepped out of my special path to strike a blow at this

[page] 271

wretched superstition as soon as I became thoroughly convinced of its errors, and of the cruelty and danger arising out of its compulsory enforcement. With best wishes for your succees.

From LADY E. DE MORGAN.

CHELSEA, ENGLAND.

DEAR DR. ROSS,—You are waging a noble warfare, against prejudice and ignorance. Be of good courage, "Blessed are ye when men shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil." May God bless your labors.

MODERN REFORMERS.

"The world has had reformers, men who were sternly just,
Who smote the thrones of wickendness and laid them in the dust;
Meek, tender men, made mighty by mankind's blood and tears,
Strong men, whose words were thunderbolts to smite the wrong of years.

Were all these stern reformers of a breed too weak to last?
Did all the great wrong-smiters wane and perish in the past?
Did they fight a losing battle? were they conquered in the fray?
Why are there no reformers fighting in the world to-day?

Well, 'tis but a thing of labels; the reformers have not gone,
But they're mixing with the people with misleading placards on;
For we placard them "Fanatics," "Visionaries," "Cranks," and "Fools,"—
Men Denounced by clubs and churches, by the journals and the schools.

There are men who bear these placards daily in the market-place,
Heroes of the ancient lineage, kings and saviours of the race,
Yet we never see their greatness through life's trivial events,
But our children's sons will read it on their granite monuments."

FINIS.