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CORPORAL PUNISHMENT IN SCHOOLS.
827 PUNISHMENT IN SCHOOLS. To the Editor of THE LANCET.
CORPORAL
SIR,—The report of the joint conference of the Medical Officers of Schools Association with representatives of educational associations in your issue of April 2nd (p. 699) contains an inaccurate summary of my speech. I am there represented as stating that I "used two-hour periods of detention, which had resulted in corporal punishment becoming obsolete, not because it was not wanted, but because there were persons who could not be trusted with it." The inference would naturally be made that there were persons (presumably masters, though here the headmaster is the only person who may inflict corporal punishment) of the kind referred to, in this school. That is not so. What I said was (1) that I hoped that corporal punishment generally would eventually become obsolete, because I had heard of or come across persons in the course of my experience (both masters and " prefects ") who were not fit to be trusted with the power of inflicting it; (2) that the weekly two-hour periods of detention, available only for house masters (acting on their own behalf or on reports made by class masters) have so far resulted in corporal punishment becoming It still remains in reserve as a final unnecessary. resort.—I am, Sir, yours faithfully, Headmaster, University College School, Frognal, Hampstead.
TREATMENT
OF
DISABLED
SOLDIERS;
WORK OF THE MINISTRY OF PENSIONS. To the Editor of THE LANCET. SIR,—There are some membersof the medical profession who are not in the way of treating disabled soldiers, but who will be interested to hear what is done for their treatment and recovery by the Ministry of Pensions, whose good work for the disabled is, besides, not sufficiently made known to the public, who only hear the complaints that are made, made often without sufficient cause. A soldier who becomes unfit for service is " boarded," a sailor is "invalided" and discharged as permanently unfit. The board fills up a treatment card for him if it thinks good, and when he returns to his home he is visited by an emissary of the Local War Pensions Committee, and is put in touch with the person or institution which can give him the treatment required. If the board has found he requires no treatment just now, but yet a little later he becomes uncomfortable and complains to his Local War Pensions Committee, it has him examined by a local medical man on behalf of the Pensions Ministry, who, if he finds the trouble is the consequence of a disability contracted in the service and due thereto, will get for him the treatment that his condition needs, medicine, appliances, massage, electrical or sanatorium treatment, or The may send him to a pensions hospital should indoor treatment be required. The pensions hospital is a large well-staffed and well-equipped institution. I have one now in mind which had 600 beds established in an emergency hospital built for the war on the sunny slope of a hill in charming surroundings. It had a medical superintendent with some eight other officers resident, and a dozen visiting specialists in surgery, medicine, X ray, ear. eye, massage, electrical, and so on, each of whom had a well-equipped department at his control; the nursing is done by the Ministry of Pensions Nursing Service, and, if I may judge by the cleanliness of the wards and the evident care of the nurses dealing with disabled patients, the work of that Nursing Service is very well performed. Officers and other ranks are received, and so far as But more is possible cured. Reconstruction is attempted than physical cure. also a prominent aim. There are workshops and schools. Men are trained as basketmakers, carpenters,
mechanics, tailors, shoemakers, bookkeepers, photographers, painters, &c. They are taught how to raise and
care
for fowls and other farm stock.
There is
a
capital splint-room and a workshop for making artificial limbs. They cannot be doing work all the time, they
have their prescribed treatment as their first duty; the man you see as you pass with his forearm in the whirlpool hot bath would have been found, had you come in the afternoon, in the shoemakers’ shop, and so on. Insane patients are not received, but there are wards for consumptives, well isolated. The men, who wear their own clothing, not uniform, appeared well-fed and happy, the staff were cheerful and good natured, there was a good recreation-room with a small stage, and a clean, well-kept dining-room. The public would be satisfied if it knew how much thought and care is being given to the treatment and reconstruction of its disabled heroes, and I recommend others to do, as I have just done, and see over one of these centres. I am, Sir, yours faithfully, D.Sc. March 29tdi 1921.
Obituary. J. HOPKINS WALTERS, M.R.C.S. ENG. IN Dr. J. Hopkins Walters, who died at Reading on March th, at the age of 76, there passes a notable character. Dr. Walters was educated at Guy’s Hospital and practised during his earlier days at Faringdon, Berks. In 1878 he moved to Reading, where he speedily became one of the leading practitioners in the town-a position which he held until his retirement in 1913. He was on the active surgical staff of the Royal Berks Hospital from 1879 to 1904, and subsequently was appointed consulting surgeon. He was President of the Reading Pathological Society for two years. In his younger days he was a keen sportsman and good shot; he also took a great interest in the Volunteers, in which for In local many years he was a surgeon-captain. politics he was prominent, sitting for a considerable
the Reading Town Council, where he formidable adversary in debate and prompt in action. Temperamentally a fighter, he was not afraid of stating his views, often original and always founded on reason, in vigorous and, at times, picturesque language. Dr. Walters, though of the older school of medical men, was readily receptive of new ideas, and up to the time of his retirement was more up to date than most practitioners of his years. Even after he relinquished active practice in Reading he made a voyage half-way round the world as ship’s surgeon. On the outbreak of war he volunteered for various posts which the authorities, on account of his age, were unable to grant him, and he eventually acted as medical officer to the regiment quartered in the town and to two V.A.D. hospitals. He was a good speaker and a versatile writer, both in the medical press and as a controversialist in lay journals. On the eve of his death he had seemed in better health than usual, and, indeed, played a game of billiards at his club. Death occurred suddenly in his sleep, as he had always desired-he was ever impatient of illness in himself. Like all able men of his type, he had some enemies and very many friends.
period was
on
a
CHARLES ALBERT HINGSTON, M.D., B.Sc. LoND. Dr. C. A. Hingston’s death at Plymouth on April 5th well-loved practitioner who was also a wise and generous philanthropist. Son of the late Dr. Charles Hingston, he was born at Plymouth in 1843, and after being educated locally, entered as a student at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, London, and matriculated at the London University. On graduating M.B. in 1864 he joined his father in partnership, taking his M.D. und B.Sc. degrees a year later. His public appointments included that of consulting physician to the Plymouth Public Dispensary and Dental Dispensary, and physician to the Ear and Throat Hospital, Plymouth, and to the Devon and Cornwall Female Orphan Asylum. Dr. Hingston was particularly interested in the Y.M.C.A. movement and did much to put its local branch on a firm financial basis, presiding himself over the South-Western District of the Association. He made himself responsible for building the Crownhill Convalescent Home, and he expended some £5000 on a lodging-house for tramps. He will be much missed in and around Plymouth.
removes a
CORPORAL
SIR,—The report of the joint conference of the Medical Officers of Schools Association with representatives of educational associations in your issue of April 2nd (p. 699) contains an inaccurate summary of my speech. I am there represented as stating that I "used two-hour periods of detention, which had resulted in corporal punishment becoming obsolete, not because it was not wanted, but because there were persons who could not be trusted with it." The inference would naturally be made that there were persons (presumably masters, though here the headmaster is the only person who may inflict corporal punishment) of the kind referred to, in this school. That is not so. What I said was (1) that I hoped that corporal punishment generally would eventually become obsolete, because I had heard of or come across persons in the course of my experience (both masters and " prefects ") who were not fit to be trusted with the power of inflicting it; (2) that the weekly two-hour periods of detention, available only for house masters (acting on their own behalf or on reports made by class masters) have so far resulted in corporal punishment becoming It still remains in reserve as a final unnecessary. resort.—I am, Sir, yours faithfully, Headmaster, University College School, Frognal, Hampstead.
TREATMENT
OF
DISABLED
SOLDIERS;
WORK OF THE MINISTRY OF PENSIONS. To the Editor of THE LANCET. SIR,—There are some membersof the medical profession who are not in the way of treating disabled soldiers, but who will be interested to hear what is done for their treatment and recovery by the Ministry of Pensions, whose good work for the disabled is, besides, not sufficiently made known to the public, who only hear the complaints that are made, made often without sufficient cause. A soldier who becomes unfit for service is " boarded," a sailor is "invalided" and discharged as permanently unfit. The board fills up a treatment card for him if it thinks good, and when he returns to his home he is visited by an emissary of the Local War Pensions Committee, and is put in touch with the person or institution which can give him the treatment required. If the board has found he requires no treatment just now, but yet a little later he becomes uncomfortable and complains to his Local War Pensions Committee, it has him examined by a local medical man on behalf of the Pensions Ministry, who, if he finds the trouble is the consequence of a disability contracted in the service and due thereto, will get for him the treatment that his condition needs, medicine, appliances, massage, electrical or sanatorium treatment, or The may send him to a pensions hospital should indoor treatment be required. The pensions hospital is a large well-staffed and well-equipped institution. I have one now in mind which had 600 beds established in an emergency hospital built for the war on the sunny slope of a hill in charming surroundings. It had a medical superintendent with some eight other officers resident, and a dozen visiting specialists in surgery, medicine, X ray, ear. eye, massage, electrical, and so on, each of whom had a well-equipped department at his control; the nursing is done by the Ministry of Pensions Nursing Service, and, if I may judge by the cleanliness of the wards and the evident care of the nurses dealing with disabled patients, the work of that Nursing Service is very well performed. Officers and other ranks are received, and so far as But more is possible cured. Reconstruction is attempted than physical cure. also a prominent aim. There are workshops and schools. Men are trained as basketmakers, carpenters,
mechanics, tailors, shoemakers, bookkeepers, photographers, painters, &c. They are taught how to raise and
care
for fowls and other farm stock.
There is
a
capital splint-room and a workshop for making artificial limbs. They cannot be doing work all the time, they
have their prescribed treatment as their first duty; the man you see as you pass with his forearm in the whirlpool hot bath would have been found, had you come in the afternoon, in the shoemakers’ shop, and so on. Insane patients are not received, but there are wards for consumptives, well isolated. The men, who wear their own clothing, not uniform, appeared well-fed and happy, the staff were cheerful and good natured, there was a good recreation-room with a small stage, and a clean, well-kept dining-room. The public would be satisfied if it knew how much thought and care is being given to the treatment and reconstruction of its disabled heroes, and I recommend others to do, as I have just done, and see over one of these centres. I am, Sir, yours faithfully, D.Sc. March 29tdi 1921.
Obituary. J. HOPKINS WALTERS, M.R.C.S. ENG. IN Dr. J. Hopkins Walters, who died at Reading on March th, at the age of 76, there passes a notable character. Dr. Walters was educated at Guy’s Hospital and practised during his earlier days at Faringdon, Berks. In 1878 he moved to Reading, where he speedily became one of the leading practitioners in the town-a position which he held until his retirement in 1913. He was on the active surgical staff of the Royal Berks Hospital from 1879 to 1904, and subsequently was appointed consulting surgeon. He was President of the Reading Pathological Society for two years. In his younger days he was a keen sportsman and good shot; he also took a great interest in the Volunteers, in which for In local many years he was a surgeon-captain. politics he was prominent, sitting for a considerable
the Reading Town Council, where he formidable adversary in debate and prompt in action. Temperamentally a fighter, he was not afraid of stating his views, often original and always founded on reason, in vigorous and, at times, picturesque language. Dr. Walters, though of the older school of medical men, was readily receptive of new ideas, and up to the time of his retirement was more up to date than most practitioners of his years. Even after he relinquished active practice in Reading he made a voyage half-way round the world as ship’s surgeon. On the outbreak of war he volunteered for various posts which the authorities, on account of his age, were unable to grant him, and he eventually acted as medical officer to the regiment quartered in the town and to two V.A.D. hospitals. He was a good speaker and a versatile writer, both in the medical press and as a controversialist in lay journals. On the eve of his death he had seemed in better health than usual, and, indeed, played a game of billiards at his club. Death occurred suddenly in his sleep, as he had always desired-he was ever impatient of illness in himself. Like all able men of his type, he had some enemies and very many friends.
period was
on
a
CHARLES ALBERT HINGSTON, M.D., B.Sc. LoND. Dr. C. A. Hingston’s death at Plymouth on April 5th well-loved practitioner who was also a wise and generous philanthropist. Son of the late Dr. Charles Hingston, he was born at Plymouth in 1843, and after being educated locally, entered as a student at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, London, and matriculated at the London University. On graduating M.B. in 1864 he joined his father in partnership, taking his M.D. und B.Sc. degrees a year later. His public appointments included that of consulting physician to the Plymouth Public Dispensary and Dental Dispensary, and physician to the Ear and Throat Hospital, Plymouth, and to the Devon and Cornwall Female Orphan Asylum. Dr. Hingston was particularly interested in the Y.M.C.A. movement and did much to put its local branch on a firm financial basis, presiding himself over the South-Western District of the Association. He made himself responsible for building the Crownhill Convalescent Home, and he expended some £5000 on a lodging-house for tramps. He will be much missed in and around Plymouth.
removes a