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Diphtheria: Its distribution and prevention
164
PUBLIC
was polluted more .or less than that of No.rwich, whose air was, in fact, found to be relatively very clean. Each year this report becomes more and more exhaustive, and, as time goes ,on and the practice of making observations extends more widely throughout the country, its value will become more real, not only from a scientific but from a health and practical point of view.
Diphtheria : Its Distribution and Prevention. is but nine years since the Medical ITResearch Council published a special monograph on diphtheria. This valuable w o r k - the labour ~>f seven authors--left little to be Written with regard to the pathology and bacteriology of diphtheria. On the side of epidemiology and prevention, however, a vast amount of material has been accumulating in this country and many others; so vast that few could have undertaken the task of reducing it to order. Material there was for a millionaire to finance and a commission to investigate. Yet one man has tackled it, and it is matter for congratulation that it should be a member of the health service in this country. W h e n Dr. J. Graham Forbes (Principal Assistant Medical Officer, London County Council) produced " Diplatheria : Past and P r e s e n t - - I t s fEtiotogy, Distribution, Transmission and Prevention, ''-~ he presented a magnum opus in all senses of the term. H e has taken for his text, apparently, the statement made b y Sir George Newman that " no local authority responsible for the health of children should be satisfied that it has done its duty u n t i l e v e r y parent knows that his children can be inoculated against diphtlieria with safety and reasonable certainty of complete protection." The title indicates the manner in which the author has proceeded to the establishment of his c a ~ for immunisation, and the result is a volume which will take a prominent place in the literature o.f preventive medicine. It is not a text-book for clinicians, but it should be in the hands of every medical officer of health. From it, each one may gather the part he has played in the campaign against diphtheria: in it he *London: John Bale, Sons & Danielsson, Ltd., 1932. Price 45s. net.
HEALTH.
MARc~,
will read what others have done, and will realise what can be done. It should be in the hands of every epidemiologist, who will have to hand a library of information and a wealth of detail. It should be read by the statistician, who will see that Dr. Forbes has not ignored him. The length of the vo.lume--832 pages - - n e e d not alarm the busy reader, as there are many pages of statistical detail which may be skimmed over lightly without detriment. A wealth of maps and graphs and a welltabulated display of figures add to the value of the work. It is inevitable that errors should creep in, 5ut such ag have escaped the vigilant eye of Dr. Forbes .appear to be trivial. If criticism is to be made, it can be directed to ttie cumbersome size of the Volume, occasioned by the thickness of the paper employed. Otherwise, as a piece of bookmaking, it is a credit to the publishers, as it is to ihe diligence in research of its author.
Dr. Parlane Kinloch. I T H great regret the death is recorded, at the age of forty-six years, of Dr. J0,hn Parlane Kinloch, Chief Medical Officer of the Department o6 Health for Scotland. His passing brings to an abrupt end one of the most brilliant careers in public health administration in recent times, and preventive medicine o v e r a m u c h wider area than Scotland suffers a very serious loss. Dr. Parlane Kinloch was a native of the Vale o6 Leven, Dumbartonshire, and was educated at Glasgow H i g h School and Glasgow .Uniyersity, where he graduated M.B., Ch.B. in 1909. In the year following he took the D . P . H . o . f C a m b r i d g e with dis~inction, and in 1913 the M.D. of Glasgow with commendation. After a series of minor appointments he became, in 1914, Deputy Medical Officer of Health for the City of Aberdeen, and Lecturer in Public Hea!th in the University. For three years he co,remanded the Aberdeen University Officers' Training Corps, and in 1918 was in charge of a mobile hygienic field laboratory in France.. After the war Dr. Parlane Kinloch resumed h i s appointments in Aberdeen, becoming Reader in Public Health in 1.923, and later in the same year succeeded Professor Matthew H a y as Medical Officer of Health and 'head of the University Public Health Department. The Society is indebted to Dr. A. S. M. Macgregor, Medical Officer of Health of
W
PUBLIC
was polluted more .or less than that of No.rwich, whose air was, in fact, found to be relatively very clean. Each year this report becomes more and more exhaustive, and, as time goes ,on and the practice of making observations extends more widely throughout the country, its value will become more real, not only from a scientific but from a health and practical point of view.
Diphtheria : Its Distribution and Prevention. is but nine years since the Medical ITResearch Council published a special monograph on diphtheria. This valuable w o r k - the labour ~>f seven authors--left little to be Written with regard to the pathology and bacteriology of diphtheria. On the side of epidemiology and prevention, however, a vast amount of material has been accumulating in this country and many others; so vast that few could have undertaken the task of reducing it to order. Material there was for a millionaire to finance and a commission to investigate. Yet one man has tackled it, and it is matter for congratulation that it should be a member of the health service in this country. W h e n Dr. J. Graham Forbes (Principal Assistant Medical Officer, London County Council) produced " Diplatheria : Past and P r e s e n t - - I t s fEtiotogy, Distribution, Transmission and Prevention, ''-~ he presented a magnum opus in all senses of the term. H e has taken for his text, apparently, the statement made b y Sir George Newman that " no local authority responsible for the health of children should be satisfied that it has done its duty u n t i l e v e r y parent knows that his children can be inoculated against diphtlieria with safety and reasonable certainty of complete protection." The title indicates the manner in which the author has proceeded to the establishment of his c a ~ for immunisation, and the result is a volume which will take a prominent place in the literature o.f preventive medicine. It is not a text-book for clinicians, but it should be in the hands of every medical officer of health. From it, each one may gather the part he has played in the campaign against diphtheria: in it he *London: John Bale, Sons & Danielsson, Ltd., 1932. Price 45s. net.
HEALTH.
MARc~,
will read what others have done, and will realise what can be done. It should be in the hands of every epidemiologist, who will have to hand a library of information and a wealth of detail. It should be read by the statistician, who will see that Dr. Forbes has not ignored him. The length of the vo.lume--832 pages - - n e e d not alarm the busy reader, as there are many pages of statistical detail which may be skimmed over lightly without detriment. A wealth of maps and graphs and a welltabulated display of figures add to the value of the work. It is inevitable that errors should creep in, 5ut such ag have escaped the vigilant eye of Dr. Forbes .appear to be trivial. If criticism is to be made, it can be directed to ttie cumbersome size of the Volume, occasioned by the thickness of the paper employed. Otherwise, as a piece of bookmaking, it is a credit to the publishers, as it is to ihe diligence in research of its author.
Dr. Parlane Kinloch. I T H great regret the death is recorded, at the age of forty-six years, of Dr. J0,hn Parlane Kinloch, Chief Medical Officer of the Department o6 Health for Scotland. His passing brings to an abrupt end one of the most brilliant careers in public health administration in recent times, and preventive medicine o v e r a m u c h wider area than Scotland suffers a very serious loss. Dr. Parlane Kinloch was a native of the Vale o6 Leven, Dumbartonshire, and was educated at Glasgow H i g h School and Glasgow .Uniyersity, where he graduated M.B., Ch.B. in 1909. In the year following he took the D . P . H . o . f C a m b r i d g e with dis~inction, and in 1913 the M.D. of Glasgow with commendation. After a series of minor appointments he became, in 1914, Deputy Medical Officer of Health for the City of Aberdeen, and Lecturer in Public Hea!th in the University. For three years he co,remanded the Aberdeen University Officers' Training Corps, and in 1918 was in charge of a mobile hygienic field laboratory in France.. After the war Dr. Parlane Kinloch resumed h i s appointments in Aberdeen, becoming Reader in Public Health in 1.923, and later in the same year succeeded Professor Matthew H a y as Medical Officer of Health and 'head of the University Public Health Department. The Society is indebted to Dr. A. S. M. Macgregor, Medical Officer of Health of
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