9,000 members, with a reserve fund of £10,000; in the local branch there are 359 members, who subscribe about £150 per annum, — The Birmingham Medical Institute was launched Feb. 5, 1876, but the question of admitting homeopathists as members was nearly the upsetting of the craft at the first meeting; thanks to the sails being trimmed with a little common sense, however, the difficulty was tided over. The opening of the Institute in Edmund Street took place December 17, 1880. The cost of the building was about £6,000, and the purposes to which it is applied are the providing accommodation for meetings of the profession and the housing of the valuable medical library of over 6,000 books. As something worthy of note, it may be mentioned that the Institute was opened tree from debt, the whole cost being previously subscribed.
Memorials and Monuments.-See "Statues," &c.
Men of Worth.—The "Toy-shop of the World," the home of workers, free from the blue blood of titled families, and having but few reapers of "unearned increment," is hardly the place to look for "men of worth or value" in a monetary point of view, but we have not been without them. A writer in Gazette, September 1, 1828, reckoned up 120 inhabitants who were each worth over £10,000 each; 50 worth over £20,000; 16 worth over £50,000; 9 worth over £100,000; 3 worth over £200,000; 2 worth over £300,000 each, and 1 worth over £400,000. Taking certain Income Tax Returns and other information for his basis, another man of figures in 1878 made calculations showing that there were then among ns some 800 persons worth more than £5,000 each, 200 worth over £10,000, 50 worth over £20,000, 35 worth over 50,000, 26 worth over £100,000, 12 worth over £250,000, 5 worth over £500,000, and 2 worth over or near £1,000,000 each.
Mercia.—In 585, this neighbourhood formed part of the Heptarchic kingdom of Mercia, under Cridda; in 697, Mercia was divided into four dioceses; this district being included in that of Lichfield; in 878, Mercia was merged in the kingdom of England. According to Bede and the Saxon Chronicles, Beorned was, in 757, king of Mercia, of which Birmingham formed part, and in Canute's reign there was an Earl Beorn, the king's nephew, and it has been fancifully suggested that in this name Beorn may he the much-sought root for the etymology of the town's name. Beorn, or Bern, being derived from ber, a bear or boar, it might be arranged thusly:—
Ber, bear or boar; mong, many; ham, dwelling—the whole making Bermongham, (the dwelling of many bears, or the home of many pigs!
Metehley Camp.—At Metchley Park, about three miles from town, near to Harborne, there are the remains of an old camp or station which Hutton attributes to "those pilfering vermin, the Danes," other writers thinking it was constructed by the Romans, but it is hardly possible that an undertaking requiring such immense labour as this must have done, could have been overlooked in any history of the Roman occupation. More likely it was a stronghold of the native Britons who opposed their advance, a superstition borne out by its being adjacent to their line of Icknield Street, and near the heart of England. From a measurement made in 1822, the camp appeals to have covered an area of about 15½ acres. Hutton gives it as 30 acres, and describes a third embankment. The present outer vallum was 330 yards long by 228 wide, and the interior camp 187 yards long by 165 wide. The ancient vallum and fosse have suffered much by the lapse of time, by the occupiers partially levelling the ground, and by the passing through it of the Worcester and Birmingham canal, to make the banks
