WELLBECK ABBEY 334 WELFARE WORK tains; on the Lauter; 34 miles N. N. E. of Strassburg. In the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871 a battle took place here on Aug. 4, 1870, the first important engagement between the two annies, in which the French were defeated. Pop. about 7,000. WELBECK ABBEY, the seat of the Duke of Portland, in Nottinghamshire, England; 3 miles S. of Worksop. Oc- cupying the site of an old Premonstra- tensian abbey, it came from "Bess of Hardwick" to her son Sir Charles Cav- endish, the father of the 1st Duke of Newcastle, whose far-away heiress mar- ried in 1734 the 2d Duke of Portland. It stands in a park 10 miles in circum- ference, and is a stately Palladian edi- fice of mainly the 17th and 18th cen- turies, but was greatly enlarged about 1864 by the 5th duke, to whom it owes its semi-underground picture gallery, ballroom, and riding school, the last 385 feet long, 104 feet wide, and 51 feet iilgh. WELCH, WILLIAM HENRY, an American pathologist, born in Norfolk, Conn., in 1850. He graduated from Yale in 1870, and from the College of Physi- cians and Surgeons in 1875. He carried on post-gi'aduate courses in Germany, and in 1879 became professor of patho- logical anatomy and general pathology at Bellevue Hospital Medical College, He practiced in this post until 1884, when he was appointed Baxley professor of pathology at Johns Hopkins University. Here he served until 1916, for several years also occupying the post of dean of the medical faculty. In the latter year he was director of the School of Hygiene and Public Health of Johns Hopkins University. He was also president of the Maryland State Board of Health, and president of the board of directors of the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Re- search from 1901. From 1906 he was a trustee of the Carnegie Institution. He lectured at the Charing Cross Hospital in London and in other hospitals. He was a member of many American and foreign medical societies, wrote "General Pathology of Fever" (1880); "Bacteri- ology of Surgical Infections" (1895) ; "Thrombosis and Embolism" (1899), and contributed many articles to medical magazines. WELFARE WORK. During the World War great impetus was given to welfare work in the United States as well as in other countries. The term, while of wide application, has in prac- tice been applied in the main to the efforts made by employers to improve the working and living conditions of those in their employ. It has resulted in a great deal of attention being given to matters touching on the health of the working people, such as food and housing, as well as to the environment amid which their work is performed. The methods adopted to improve conditions have included rearrangements and im- provements of lighting and heating and atmospheric conditions, and the shorten- ing of the working day. To these have been added the establishment of facil- ities for recreation and refreshment, as well as lavatories and rest rooms. Where a large view has been taken of the obli- gations of the employer, and in com- munities which are small enough, an effort has been made to provide enter- tainment and occupation even outside of the hours of work. Club houses have been established, teams for various sports have been made up, playgrounds have been provided, recreational groups have been formed with facilities m chosen lines, there has been attention given to the housing of the workers, to nursing and medical attention, the pro- motion of gardening, premiums to stimu- late rivalry in the care of the home and its environs, the institution of flower gardens, and numerous other activities warranted by local conditions and the desires of the working people themselves. It was seen in the course of the war what opportunities in this line had been opened by the great powers with which the administration had been intrusted, and a great deal of work in that direc- tion was done in the industries under the control of the Government. The housing problem received marked atten- tion, and emergency hospitals were established and visiting nurse work de- veloped. Statistics compiled by the Gov- ernment showed that among private in- dustrial establishments over one-third were active in social betterment work among the families of the workers. Playgrounds, visiting nurses, domestic science classes, systems of charitable re- lief and the like were in vogue in con- nection with many of these establish- ments. The work in the United States was only a reflex of similar work done in various countries of Europe, and de- veloped under the influences of the war. In Germany welfare work has been de- veloped on lines so remarkable that the factory portion of a town in a German city is often the most beautiful part of it. Welfare work in connection with large industrial establishments has also been greatly developed in Great Britain, and there, as in other countries, new activities in that direction were opened up by the great expansion in certain lines of industry during the war.
