

This ebook was transcribed by Les Bowler.





                               COLLECTANEA


                                * * * * *

                           _DE DIVERSIS REBUS_

                                * * * * *





                           ADDRESSES AND PAPERS


                                    BY
                       SIR PETER EADE, M.D., LOND.

   _Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians_; _Hon. Fellow of King’s_
  _College_, _London_; _Consulting Physician to the Norfolk and Norwich_
    _Hospital_, _to the Jenny Lind Infirmary for Sick Children_, _and_
            _to the Norwich Dispensary_; _Honorary Freeman of_
                          _the City of Norwich_

                                * * * * *

                                  LONDON
             JARROLD AND SONS, 10 AND 11, WARWICK LANE, E.C.

                          _All Rights Reserved_

                                   1908




CONTENTS.

CHAPTER                                                           PAGE
          I.  ON RECREATION GROUNDS FOR NORWICH                      9
         II.  ON TEMPERANCE AND AIDS TO TEMPERANCE                  15
        III.  ON TORTOISES—_With Illustration_, 1908                29
         IV.  A FURTHER NOTE UPON TORTOISES                         38
          V.  MY CHRISTMAS GARDEN PARTY                             44
         VI.  MY CITY GARDEN IN “A CITY OF GARDENS”                 53
        VII.  PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS TO THE NORFOLK AND               72
              NORWICH NATURALISTS’ SOCIETY
       VIII.  ON ST. GILES’S CHURCH AND PARISH, NORWICH             90
         IX.  THE TOWER OF ST. GILES’S CHURCH—_With                 99
              Illustration_
          X.  ON SIR THOMAS BROWNE—_With Portrait_                 121




PREFACE.


The following Addresses and Papers on various subjects have been selected
from many others contributed by the Author, as thought to be possibly of
sufficient interest in their respective spheres to justify their
reproduction in a collected form.  They are very diverse in their
character, and embrace a great variety of topics.

It has been well said that all men are delighted to look back; and the
Author, whilst thus recalling past work, can only express the hope that
some of these Papers may have contributed, however infinitesimally, each
in their own way and at their respective times, to help forward the
appreciation of the then present, or the progress of the world’s welfare
or knowledge in the future.

   _Norwich_, 1908.




I.
PROPOSED PROVISION OF RECREATION GROUNDS FOR NORWICH.


Condensed Report of Speech in Norwich Town Council, 1880, reprinted from
the _Norwich Mercury_ of October 23rd, 1880:—

Dr. Eade, pursuant to notice, rose to call attention to the question of
recreation or playgrounds for the children of Norwich.

He reminded the Council that four or five years ago, after some
considerable talk with leading citizens, he ventured in the public Press
to call attention to the deficiency which existed in Norwich in respect
of recreation or playgrounds, and also of public baths.  Ever since that
time the question had, more or less, started up at intervals, while
certain steps had been taken, which, in the course of time, would
probably result in something being achieved.  But, as time went on, the
city was growing rapidly, open spaces were built upon, and he and those
who were anxious to see something done were passing away.  He had,
therefore, taken upon himself once again to call attention to the
subject, and to ask the Council to take action upon it.

After remarking upon the great importance now generally attached to
questions affecting the public health, sanitation, or preventive
medicine—for these were synonymous terms—and the intimate connection now
everywhere recognised between the general welfare of the population of
our great cities, and the absence of disease, with the consequent
reduction in the death-rate, Dr. Eade said that it was entirely from the
point of view of the public health that he wished to call attention to
this subject.  The physical growth, the physical well-being, and the
physical development of the population formed a large branch of this
subject; and he was afraid that, with regard to this, Norwich could not
be said to be in the forefront of progress.  Even since he first mooted
the question many of the open spaces which he then believed available for
the purpose had been built over or otherwise dealt with.

Norwich, once a city of gardens, was rapidly becoming a cramped and
over-crowded city—at least, in its older portions; and in the new
portions no provision was made for the physical welfare of the
population, and no opportunities were given for the physical development
of the children.  Not in a single instance had a good wide roadway been
opened up in the new districts; on the contrary, he was sorry to see in
one or two of the most populous districts roads which ought to be great,
wide thoroughfares, nothing better than narrow lanes.  One most
remarkable instance was Unthank’s Road, which was being built up at the
lower part where it was extremely narrow, so that instead of being made a
great artery for the traffic of the city, it was converted into a mere
lane, and it ought to be called Unthank’s Lane—not dignified by the name
of road.

No doubt before many years were over the city would have to incur a large
expenditure in widening that and other roads.  How short-sighted, then,
was the policy of allowing such encroachments to go on!

To show what bearing these points had on public opinion long ago, Dr.
Eade pointed out that even in Shakespeare’s time the question was raised,
as was seen in “Julius Cæsar.”  Mark Antony, in his speech to the
citizens, first asks—“Wherein did Cæsar thus deserve your love?” and then
the reply comes (by his Will) “To every Roman citizen he gives
seventy-five drachmas;” and afterwards—

    “Moreover, he hath left you all his walks,
    His private arbours, and new planted orchards
    On this side Tiber; he hath left them you
    And to your heirs for ever; common pleasures,
    To walk abroad and recreate yourselves.”

Dr. Eade proceeded to say he wished there were Julius Cæsars at the
present time desirous of making wills for the benefit of Norwich.  He
then quoted the opinions of Lord Shaftesbury and the _Lancet_ as to
places of public recreation and their influence upon the physical and
moral welfare of the population, and added, that he fully agreed with the
writer in the _Daily Press_, signing himself “C. I. T.,” when he
wrote—“The city expects the authorities to guard the health and lives of
the humbler population at all costs.”

Other towns had done and were doing that which he wanted them to do in
Norwich.  Towns as large as Birmingham and as small as Falmouth, had
provided public parks, and many had more than one.  Birmingham had seven
parks and recreation grounds, Sheffield four, and Bradford three