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SUNSHINE MEASUREMENTS.
1243 is performed the better. In those cases in which Nature is unable to isolate a dead toe, it may be reckoned as fact that any operative intervention at the primary lesion or between it and the main arterial trunk is a waste of time. I
am.
Sir.
vours
faithfullv. JOHN O’CONOR.
MEDICAL SCHOOLS AND THE LONDON UNIVERSITY BILL. To the Editor
of
THE LANCET.
SIR,-In the Committee stage of the University of London Bill last Thursday, the Government added an amendment which has the practical effect of exempting any theological college which desires exemption from the operation of the regulations proposed regarding the selection of teachers in schools. I regret that the medical schools had not thought it worth while to ask for the same privileges. I cannot think that the medical schools will appreciate the necessity of submitting appointments of their medical and surgical staff to the new Council of the University, upon which they may have no representation whatever, and which will be largely a body unfamiliar with the special needs of hospital schools. Sir Wilmot Herringham, in his interesting letter to you, thinks that nothing is to be feared from the Crown and the London County Council representatives, and it is the fact that they have not, with one or two exceptions, hitherto taken a very considerable part in the activities of the Senate. I submit, however, that the position will be totally changed with the representation of these bodies increased fourfold, as it will be, upon the future Council of the University. Surely the genesis of the Departmental Committee itself, as an offspring of the Haldane Commission, makes its recommendations rather more significant than they otherwise might be. It was frankly the aim of the Haldane Commission to introduce State control of the University upon the German pattern, and to this end they provided a representation of six members of the Crown and the London County Council out of 15 upon their supreme executive body which they called the Senate. Exactly the same proportional representation of these interests is reproduced by the Department Committee Report. We are, I think, likely to get under these circumstances an entirely new type of representative from the Government and from the London County Council. The future Council will have the only real power in the University. The proportion of educational representatives will, as Mr. Lees-Smith plainly stated in his Minority Report, allow of only a bare majority of Senatorial representatives, and if there is any disagreement between such representatives, the outside members, as one may call them, will exercise a very real control. Sir Holburt Waring, I think, takes a wiser standpoint than Sir Wilmot Herringham, in the objection he makes to the preponderant academic representation upon the Senate. He is reported to have declared as his opinion that " There are too many academic representatives on the Senate, and they will quarrel among themselves as to how the spoils are to be divided." I find it difficult to understand why Sir Wilmot Herringham should consider the future Council any more impartial than the present Senate, more especially as with the composition of the new Senate and the very preponderant influence of the collegiate representatives, it is inevitable that a large number of heads of colleges will be members of the future Council, and we shall again have the anomalous position that members of the Council will have to decide questions in which they themselves are finaninterested on behalf of their colleges, and the cially " dog-fight " that Sir Holburt Waring foresees cannot fail to occur. I am, Sir, yours faithfully, E. GRAHAM LITTLE.
SUNSHINE MEASUREMENTS. To the Editor of THE LANCET.
SIR,—May I draw your attention to a confusion of terms which may lead to a confusion of thought. The Times of Nov. 25th, referring to the weather of the 24th, speaks of " Sunlight (ultra-violet rays) figures " at Kingsway 0 ; at Ventnor 5. These measurements were made with an acetone-methylene-blue colour test which does not react to light rays, only as is claimed to ultra-violet rays. These, I submit, should not be called sunlight, but the sun’s ultra-violet rays. Why on the 24th there should have been none at Kingsway I know not; here at Putney it was bright sunshine all day long, but at Ventnor there were 5units. This brings me to another point.. How many units is the maximum for Ventnor in November ? From the Times of Dec. 22nd, 1924, I infer that the maximum for July is 24 ; but we might be told. Nov. 25th, 1926, was a very foggy day ; there was no ultra-violet light at Kingsway, or at Lowestoft, and only 2 units at On the 26th we were given the hours of Ventnor. sunshine on the 25th at various health resorts. These resorts advertise their hours of sunshine, and perhaps we shall have Ventnor advertising its ultra-violet light " as much more important than sun3hiiie. Ultra-violet light is said to play an important part in ordinary photography ; a lens may stop it to some extent, but it is possible to take photographs through a pinhole without a lens. Photographers have their own strips of sensitive paper for testing the light, but they are not standardised. The rapidity of plates is standardised by the Heuber and Driffield method. There are five million elementary school-children in England, and as far as preventive medicine is concerned most of them are dependent on the rays of the sun, so these rays are fairly important. I am, Sir, yours faithfully, WALTER EDMUNDS ** * We
agree with Mr. Edmunds that the
figures
unintelligible to the reader when no standard of comparison is given. There seems little doubt that a sunny day in London may give no reading at all on are
the Leonard Hill test meter.-ED. L.
THE TREATMENT OF FLOUR. To the Editor of THE LANCET.
SIR,—I have just read the letter of Mr. W. Jago in your issue of Nov. 13th, in which he traverses certain statements by Mr. G. D. Elsdon, public analyst, on the above subject. It appears to me that Mr. Jago misses the main point in this all-important matter of the adulteration of one of our staple articles of food. Persulphates and other chemicals are foreign additions to flour, and whatever their bad or supposed good qualities, they constitute, when added to flour, substances which render this food not of the natllre of flour. At the very least, therefore, the public is surely right in demanding that the presence of all such foreign substances should be declared to the purchaser, and the public analyst is doing good service to the community in guiding public opinion on this question. I know of no clearer rights that the consuming public should have, if indeed it does not possess them, than the right to a, normal article, coupled with the right to demand that it shall know what it is buying. This right of the consumer has now been conceded, in the case of preservatives, by the new Preservative Regulations, and it is an eminently reasonable thing to ask for its extension to the whole range of foods, but especially to that staple food-flour-which is in daily use in every household in the form of bread. I am, Sir, yours faithfully, ARNOLD R. TANKARD. The City Laboratories, Hull, Dec. 1st, 1926.
am.
Sir.
vours
faithfullv. JOHN O’CONOR.
MEDICAL SCHOOLS AND THE LONDON UNIVERSITY BILL. To the Editor
of
THE LANCET.
SIR,-In the Committee stage of the University of London Bill last Thursday, the Government added an amendment which has the practical effect of exempting any theological college which desires exemption from the operation of the regulations proposed regarding the selection of teachers in schools. I regret that the medical schools had not thought it worth while to ask for the same privileges. I cannot think that the medical schools will appreciate the necessity of submitting appointments of their medical and surgical staff to the new Council of the University, upon which they may have no representation whatever, and which will be largely a body unfamiliar with the special needs of hospital schools. Sir Wilmot Herringham, in his interesting letter to you, thinks that nothing is to be feared from the Crown and the London County Council representatives, and it is the fact that they have not, with one or two exceptions, hitherto taken a very considerable part in the activities of the Senate. I submit, however, that the position will be totally changed with the representation of these bodies increased fourfold, as it will be, upon the future Council of the University. Surely the genesis of the Departmental Committee itself, as an offspring of the Haldane Commission, makes its recommendations rather more significant than they otherwise might be. It was frankly the aim of the Haldane Commission to introduce State control of the University upon the German pattern, and to this end they provided a representation of six members of the Crown and the London County Council out of 15 upon their supreme executive body which they called the Senate. Exactly the same proportional representation of these interests is reproduced by the Department Committee Report. We are, I think, likely to get under these circumstances an entirely new type of representative from the Government and from the London County Council. The future Council will have the only real power in the University. The proportion of educational representatives will, as Mr. Lees-Smith plainly stated in his Minority Report, allow of only a bare majority of Senatorial representatives, and if there is any disagreement between such representatives, the outside members, as one may call them, will exercise a very real control. Sir Holburt Waring, I think, takes a wiser standpoint than Sir Wilmot Herringham, in the objection he makes to the preponderant academic representation upon the Senate. He is reported to have declared as his opinion that " There are too many academic representatives on the Senate, and they will quarrel among themselves as to how the spoils are to be divided." I find it difficult to understand why Sir Wilmot Herringham should consider the future Council any more impartial than the present Senate, more especially as with the composition of the new Senate and the very preponderant influence of the collegiate representatives, it is inevitable that a large number of heads of colleges will be members of the future Council, and we shall again have the anomalous position that members of the Council will have to decide questions in which they themselves are finaninterested on behalf of their colleges, and the cially " dog-fight " that Sir Holburt Waring foresees cannot fail to occur. I am, Sir, yours faithfully, E. GRAHAM LITTLE.
SUNSHINE MEASUREMENTS. To the Editor of THE LANCET.
SIR,—May I draw your attention to a confusion of terms which may lead to a confusion of thought. The Times of Nov. 25th, referring to the weather of the 24th, speaks of " Sunlight (ultra-violet rays) figures " at Kingsway 0 ; at Ventnor 5. These measurements were made with an acetone-methylene-blue colour test which does not react to light rays, only as is claimed to ultra-violet rays. These, I submit, should not be called sunlight, but the sun’s ultra-violet rays. Why on the 24th there should have been none at Kingsway I know not; here at Putney it was bright sunshine all day long, but at Ventnor there were 5units. This brings me to another point.. How many units is the maximum for Ventnor in November ? From the Times of Dec. 22nd, 1924, I infer that the maximum for July is 24 ; but we might be told. Nov. 25th, 1926, was a very foggy day ; there was no ultra-violet light at Kingsway, or at Lowestoft, and only 2 units at On the 26th we were given the hours of Ventnor. sunshine on the 25th at various health resorts. These resorts advertise their hours of sunshine, and perhaps we shall have Ventnor advertising its ultra-violet light " as much more important than sun3hiiie. Ultra-violet light is said to play an important part in ordinary photography ; a lens may stop it to some extent, but it is possible to take photographs through a pinhole without a lens. Photographers have their own strips of sensitive paper for testing the light, but they are not standardised. The rapidity of plates is standardised by the Heuber and Driffield method. There are five million elementary school-children in England, and as far as preventive medicine is concerned most of them are dependent on the rays of the sun, so these rays are fairly important. I am, Sir, yours faithfully, WALTER EDMUNDS ** * We
agree with Mr. Edmunds that the
figures
unintelligible to the reader when no standard of comparison is given. There seems little doubt that a sunny day in London may give no reading at all on are
the Leonard Hill test meter.-ED. L.
THE TREATMENT OF FLOUR. To the Editor of THE LANCET.
SIR,—I have just read the letter of Mr. W. Jago in your issue of Nov. 13th, in which he traverses certain statements by Mr. G. D. Elsdon, public analyst, on the above subject. It appears to me that Mr. Jago misses the main point in this all-important matter of the adulteration of one of our staple articles of food. Persulphates and other chemicals are foreign additions to flour, and whatever their bad or supposed good qualities, they constitute, when added to flour, substances which render this food not of the natllre of flour. At the very least, therefore, the public is surely right in demanding that the presence of all such foreign substances should be declared to the purchaser, and the public analyst is doing good service to the community in guiding public opinion on this question. I know of no clearer rights that the consuming public should have, if indeed it does not possess them, than the right to a, normal article, coupled with the right to demand that it shall know what it is buying. This right of the consumer has now been conceded, in the case of preservatives, by the new Preservative Regulations, and it is an eminently reasonable thing to ask for its extension to the whole range of foods, but especially to that staple food-flour-which is in daily use in every household in the form of bread. I am, Sir, yours faithfully, ARNOLD R. TANKARD. The City Laboratories, Hull, Dec. 1st, 1926.