Religious or Unitary truth possesses invaluable guidance for Medicine, not only in its practical application as an art, but in the methods by which it can alone become a science. Truth recognises this great fundamental fact--viz., that spirit moulds form, that the senses alone are not reliable guides in solving the problems of even physical life. Research and observation also show that essential elements of Truth have always existed in Humanity; that we cripple our power of advancing in Truth if we do not seek out these indications of the Divine in all past experience and carefully consider the light they throw on present life. We recognise in these weighty facts a great Providential method of human growth and an infinitely beneficent aid towards the attainment of that moral Ideal wherein Goodness and Truth, Justice and Mercy, Love and Wisdom, become one--inseparably united. One of the great truths given in past ages, which it is necessary to study and enforce in the present age, is the intimate connection which exists both mentally and physically between human beings and lower forms of animal life. This is a truth of great moral significance. It was dimly, perhaps grotesquely, seen in some religions of the past, but is so much lost sight of in the present day that our responsibility for the care of the inferior creation we were intended to train with justice and gentleness, becomes too often a cruel and odious tyranny. Even in some branches of knowledge (knowledge which can only justly claim the name of science when it is the most comprehensive study of truth) injustice and cruelty are misleading the intellect, and thus threatening danger to the progress of the human race. Being profoundly impressed by the fundamental character of these truths as necessary guides in medicine as well as in every department of human life, when I learned that extensive preparations were being made in the greatest city of the world for consideration of perhaps the most important subject that can engage our attention--viz., Health--I arranged to be present as a delegate, and steadily attended the Congress, comparing notes with other friends who were attending its various sections. In this way we gathered an accurate knowledge of the tone of the discussions, the methods pursued, and the tendencies of modern investigation. These facts seemed to me of sufficiently serious import to make them worth recording in the following pages. WHY HYGIENIC CONGRESSES FAIL