- Email: [email protected]
JOHN KNIGHT, SERJEANT SURGEON
627 THE EDINBURGH PREGNANCY DIAGNOSIS
STATION
To the Editor
of
THE LANCET
a letter sent out as from the Pregnancy Station here to those medical practitioners Diagnosis whom it has served in the past it would appear that the station is closing down in Edinburgh and is reopening in London. Actually this is not so. It is the case that, to my great regret, Dr. Wiesner, to whom is due all the credit for the inception and successful development of the station, is leaving this Institute and is moving to London where he intends to continue his diagnostic and advisory work. But during the past five years the station has become a necessity to many practitioners and accordingly will not be closed. At least it must continue to serve Edinburgh and the East of Scotland and to do this it must serve a much wider area, for its efficiency must be largely determined by its size and this must depend on the number of clients. To ensure efficient running, prompt reliable service, and low charges several thousands of tests must be made annually. Its income must be sufficient to provide skilled medical supervision, an efficient technical staff, smooth routine, and above all sufficient data, for only then can the records possess any considerable scientific value. I have to hope therefore that this laboratory will be used by practitioners from all parts of Great Britain. If the facts were better understood there would of course be room for more diagnostic laboratories than at present exist. It is irritating to recognise that even yet so many practitioners either do not know that there is such a service in most of the larger cities or, knowing, take no advantage of its existence. It should not be necessary to keep repeating that the tests now used yield an accuracy of not less 97 per cent. ; that pregnancy can be recognised as early as 10-14 days after conception ; that the report on any given specimen can be despatched after 24 hours, 48 hours, or 5 days according to the particular test made, and that all that is required is 50 c.cm. of
SIR,-From
morning urine. The interest of this work is not commercial, it is to be found in the unusual and the exceptional; for in these cases is the seed of knowledge which being disclosed will contribute largely to the endocrine therapy of the immediate future. I am, Sir, yours faithfully, F. A. E. CREW. Institute of Animal Genetics, Edinburgh. Sept. 8th.
cultivating one of his most God-like faculties-the creative ingenuity of the engineer. To me Sir Alfred’s address conveyed an impression wholly opposite to that which it seems to have created in your mind, Sir. His view can hardly be styled a " gloomy misconception nor does it appear to be inconsistent with " the plain experiences of life." Science is being prostituted all over the world in the "
service of sectional interests and in order to forward motives hostile to human welfare. The " knaves or fools " have the whip-hand in many places and they constitute a very real danger to civilisation. How 1 comes it that " no naturalist could believe that If your concluding paragraph refers to some technical point in philosophy then I must ask you to allow me to withdraw this criticism ; but if, on the other hand, it refers to the " plain experiences of life " then I feel sure you must have mis-read Sir Alfred Ewing or else hold a view of certain modern tendencies which appears to me wholly opposed to the weight of the evidence. "
I am,
Sir,
yours
faithfully, LOCKHART, M.D.
LEONARD P. Beeston, Notts, Sept. 8th.
*** We take the opportunity of regretting the misprint of Yale for York as the locus of Sir (James) Alfred Ewing’s address two years ago.-ED. L. HYPEREMESIS GRAVIDARUM To the Editor of THE LANCET
SiR,-In support of Dr. Hurst’s view that there is an important functional element in the vomiting of pregnancy, it would perhaps be of interest to two cases. 1. A husband asked
quote
me
to
Park-square West, N.W., Sept. 5th. THE WORLD WE LIVE
see
his wife in the
country. She had lost her first baby from hyperemesis gravidarum ; she was pregnant for the second time and seemed likely to do the same as she was vomiting repeatedly. I saw her and explained things to her that evening and again next morning. Her vomiting ceased and she carried her child to term. 2. A patient of mine went abroad, being pregnant At three months she was vomiting at the time. practically everything and was subsisting (if I remember rightly) on sponge-cake. She was so ill that she returned to England. I saw her and to her the of an presence hysterical element explained in her vomiting, told her to get up and have a good square meal at the Berkeley with a cheery companion She went with her husband and her vomiting ceased’ I am, Sir, yours faithfully, C. H. RIPMAN.
IN
To the Editor
of THE LANCET SiR,-Your leading article in to-day’s
issue on Sir James Jeans’s address to the British Association ends with a paragraph that appears somewhat confused. You state that no naturalist could believe the proposition that man’s control over nature has outstripped his moral control over himself. This proposition you derive from the presidential address at the York meeting of the Association in 1932 when Sir Alfred Ewing stated his belief that man was ethically unprepared for so great a bounty as had been conferred upon him by modern engineering science. He added that this bounty in the hands of knaves or fools might easily wreck our civilisation, but he ended the theme with a declaration that he could not think that man was destined to atrophy through
JOHN KNIGHT, SERJEANT SURGEON
To the Editor
of THE LANCET SiB,—In addition to the interesting account of Mr. Serjeant Surgeon Knight given in your annotation last week, the following extracts from the Calendar of State Papers quoted by Morgan Richards in his " Chronology of Medicine " may be useful to " E. M. C." Grant to Richard Pile, of the office to the King and of first Serjeant Surgeon ; and similar grants to John Knight and Hum. Painter, with annuities of n50 each. 1661, March (? 1662 historical year). Petition of John Knight, Serjeant Surgeon to the King. Having served his Majesty abroad was continued with others in their respective places on the Restoration, received the usual fee belonging to his office for embalming the Duke of
1661, July llth.
of first
Principal Surgeon
628
Gloucester, being the only profit that has fallen but is
to
him,
ordered to divide it with Richard Wiseman, Surgeon in Ordinary. Begs not to be made the only person who has had his fee taken from him. Grant to John Knight of the office of Principal Surgeon: fee 26. 6. 8 with the like pension of B150. 1662, September. Petition repeated in the same words as those used in March. 1662, Sept. llth. Warrant to Mr. Knight to retain the whole usual fee which he received for embalming the late Duke of Gloster, which has been disputed for by some other of the King’s Surgeons. now
I am,
Sir,
yours
faithfully,
Cavendish-place, ‘V., Sept. 10th.
CECIL WALL.
VACCINES IN PEPTIC ULCER.-Dr. J. N. Gale writes : "In my letter last week I inadvertently omitted the source of the vaccine used in the treatment of peptic ulcers. It is sold by Parke, Davis & Co., under the name of Intestinal Streptococcus Vaccine, and I used carbolised saline as a diluent."
St. George’s Hospital Sir Humphry Rolleston will preside at the prize distribution on Monday, Oct. 1st, at 3 P.M., when Prof. Langdon Brown will deliver an address entitled We Have Rea&on to Think. A post-graduate course for former students of the hospital is being held from Sept. 28th to Oct. 1st, and the annual dinner will take place on Saturday, Sept. 29th, at 7.45 P.M., at Claridge’s Hotel, with Mr. W. Fedde Fedden in the chair. St. Mary’s Hospital A week-end post-graduate course, open to all medical practitioners without fee, will be held from Sept. 28th to 30th. The annual dinner of past and present students will take place in the new medical school library on Saturday, Sept. 29th, at 7.30 P.M., when Dr. P. Montague Smith will be in the chair. St. Thomas’s Hospital A post-graduate course for former students will be held between Sept. 24th and 28th. Dr. W. L. Wainwright will preside at the old students’ dinner which will take place at the Dorchester Hotel, at 7.45 P.M., on Sept. 28th.
University College Hospital On Monday, Oct. 1st, at 3.15
OPENING OF THE MEDICAL SCHOOLS IN connexion with the opening of the session at the London medical schools the following arrangements have been made :-
Charing
Cross
Hospital
opening of the school will inauguration of the centenary year. ments will be published later. Guy’s Hospital The
be celebrated at the Details of the arrange-
On Tuesday, Oct. 2nd, at 2.45 P.M., the prizes will be distributed by Lord Nuffield. Mr. C. H. Fagge will deliver the inaugural address.
King’s College Hospital On Saturday, Sept. 29th, from noon to 6 P.M., and on Sunday morning, there will be lectures and demonstrations open to all practitioners. Post-graduate lectures will also be delivered in the lecture theatre of the medical school on Thursdays at 9 P.M. from Oct. llth onwards. The annual dinner of past and present students will be held on Sept. 29th, at 8 P.M., at the Connaught Rooms, Great Queen-street, W.C., Dr. Wilfrid Attenborough
P.M., in the library of the medical school, Sir John Rose Bradford, F.R.S., will deliver the opening address. The annual demonstrations for old students will take place on Oct. llth and 12th, and the annual dinner will be held in the library of the medical school on Oct. 12th, at 7.30 P.M., with Sir John Parsons, F.R.S., in the chair.
Westminster Hospital On Monday, Oct. 1st, at 3.30 P.M., the winter session will open at the Central Hall, Westminster, when Sir John Simon will deliver the inaugural address. A short course for former students of the hospital will be given on Saturday and Sunday (Sept. 29th and 30th), and the annual dinner of past and present students will take place at the Trocadero Restaurant, on Saturday, Sept. 29th, at 7.45 P.M. Dental Hospital Prizes will be distributed at the hospital on Friday, Oct. 5th, at 8 P.M., at a conversazione at which Prof. William Wright will preside. The annual clinical At Home will be held at the hospital on Nov. 24th, and the dinner of past and present students will take place on the same evening at the Trocadero Restaurant, at 7.30 P.M., when Mr. J. Thornton Carter will be in the chair.
Royal
Further details of post-graduate courses will appear in due course in our Medical Diary.
presiding. London Hospital A post-graduate course for former students of the hospital will be held from Oct. 17th to 20th. The old students’ dinner will be held on Thursday, Oct. 18th, at 7.30 P.M., at the Trocadero Restaurant, with Dr. James Thomas in the chair.
Middlesex Hospital The hundredth winter session will be opened in the Queen’s Hall, W., on Monday, Oct. 1st, at 3 P.M., when Dr. Henry MacCormac will deliver an introductory address, entitled Our Profession, and Sir Farquhar Buzzard will present the prizes. A post-graduate course for former students of the hospital will be held from Sept. 28th to Oct. lst. On Oct. 1st the annual dinner will be held at the Savoy Hotel at 7.30 P.M.
Royal Free Hospital On Monday, Oct. 1st,
at 3 P.M., Dr. M. H. MacKeith, dean of the British Post-Graduate Medical School, will deliver an opening address on the Institutes of Medicine, and will afterwards distribute the prizes. Miss Elizabeth Bolton will be in the chair. The annual dinner will be held on Thursday, Dec. 6th, also at the Savoy.
St. Bartholomew’s Hospital On Nov. 5th, an appeal banquet will be held at the Mansion House in connexion with the medical college .appeal for funds for the purchase of the Charterhouse site.
MEDICAL NEWS of Cambridge Dr. A. B. Appleton is resigning his appointment as lecturer in anatomy on going to St. Thomas’s Hospital as professor of anatomy in the University of London. Among university teaching officers who vacate their offices on Sept. 30th, on reaching the limit of tenure, are Mr. V. C. Pennell, F.R.C.S., and Dr. D. G. Reid, university demonstrators in anatomy.
University
University The next
of London Medical Graduates Society extra-metropolitan dinner will be held at
Queen’s College, Cambridge,
on
Friday, Sept. 28th,
at
7.30 P.M. Members should apply for tickets to the hon. secretaries at 11, Chandos-street, London, W.I.
Central London Throat, Nose, and Ear Hospital From Oct. 1st to 27th an intensive post-graduate course in laryngology, rhinology, and otology will be held at this hospital. On Dec. 1st and 2nd a general week-end course has been arranged, and from Dec. 3rd-8th there will be a course in methods of examination and diagnosis. The annual address will be given at 4 P.M. on Friday, Oct. 12th, by Mr. Douglas Harmer, consultingsurgeon to the throat department at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, who will speak on treatment of malignant disease in the upper
jaw.
STATION
To the Editor
of
THE LANCET
a letter sent out as from the Pregnancy Station here to those medical practitioners Diagnosis whom it has served in the past it would appear that the station is closing down in Edinburgh and is reopening in London. Actually this is not so. It is the case that, to my great regret, Dr. Wiesner, to whom is due all the credit for the inception and successful development of the station, is leaving this Institute and is moving to London where he intends to continue his diagnostic and advisory work. But during the past five years the station has become a necessity to many practitioners and accordingly will not be closed. At least it must continue to serve Edinburgh and the East of Scotland and to do this it must serve a much wider area, for its efficiency must be largely determined by its size and this must depend on the number of clients. To ensure efficient running, prompt reliable service, and low charges several thousands of tests must be made annually. Its income must be sufficient to provide skilled medical supervision, an efficient technical staff, smooth routine, and above all sufficient data, for only then can the records possess any considerable scientific value. I have to hope therefore that this laboratory will be used by practitioners from all parts of Great Britain. If the facts were better understood there would of course be room for more diagnostic laboratories than at present exist. It is irritating to recognise that even yet so many practitioners either do not know that there is such a service in most of the larger cities or, knowing, take no advantage of its existence. It should not be necessary to keep repeating that the tests now used yield an accuracy of not less 97 per cent. ; that pregnancy can be recognised as early as 10-14 days after conception ; that the report on any given specimen can be despatched after 24 hours, 48 hours, or 5 days according to the particular test made, and that all that is required is 50 c.cm. of
SIR,-From
morning urine. The interest of this work is not commercial, it is to be found in the unusual and the exceptional; for in these cases is the seed of knowledge which being disclosed will contribute largely to the endocrine therapy of the immediate future. I am, Sir, yours faithfully, F. A. E. CREW. Institute of Animal Genetics, Edinburgh. Sept. 8th.
cultivating one of his most God-like faculties-the creative ingenuity of the engineer. To me Sir Alfred’s address conveyed an impression wholly opposite to that which it seems to have created in your mind, Sir. His view can hardly be styled a " gloomy misconception nor does it appear to be inconsistent with " the plain experiences of life." Science is being prostituted all over the world in the "
service of sectional interests and in order to forward motives hostile to human welfare. The " knaves or fools " have the whip-hand in many places and they constitute a very real danger to civilisation. How 1 comes it that " no naturalist could believe that If your concluding paragraph refers to some technical point in philosophy then I must ask you to allow me to withdraw this criticism ; but if, on the other hand, it refers to the " plain experiences of life " then I feel sure you must have mis-read Sir Alfred Ewing or else hold a view of certain modern tendencies which appears to me wholly opposed to the weight of the evidence. "
I am,
Sir,
yours
faithfully, LOCKHART, M.D.
LEONARD P. Beeston, Notts, Sept. 8th.
*** We take the opportunity of regretting the misprint of Yale for York as the locus of Sir (James) Alfred Ewing’s address two years ago.-ED. L. HYPEREMESIS GRAVIDARUM To the Editor of THE LANCET
SiR,-In support of Dr. Hurst’s view that there is an important functional element in the vomiting of pregnancy, it would perhaps be of interest to two cases. 1. A husband asked
quote
me
to
Park-square West, N.W., Sept. 5th. THE WORLD WE LIVE
see
his wife in the
country. She had lost her first baby from hyperemesis gravidarum ; she was pregnant for the second time and seemed likely to do the same as she was vomiting repeatedly. I saw her and explained things to her that evening and again next morning. Her vomiting ceased and she carried her child to term. 2. A patient of mine went abroad, being pregnant At three months she was vomiting at the time. practically everything and was subsisting (if I remember rightly) on sponge-cake. She was so ill that she returned to England. I saw her and to her the of an presence hysterical element explained in her vomiting, told her to get up and have a good square meal at the Berkeley with a cheery companion She went with her husband and her vomiting ceased’ I am, Sir, yours faithfully, C. H. RIPMAN.
IN
To the Editor
of THE LANCET SiR,-Your leading article in to-day’s
issue on Sir James Jeans’s address to the British Association ends with a paragraph that appears somewhat confused. You state that no naturalist could believe the proposition that man’s control over nature has outstripped his moral control over himself. This proposition you derive from the presidential address at the York meeting of the Association in 1932 when Sir Alfred Ewing stated his belief that man was ethically unprepared for so great a bounty as had been conferred upon him by modern engineering science. He added that this bounty in the hands of knaves or fools might easily wreck our civilisation, but he ended the theme with a declaration that he could not think that man was destined to atrophy through
JOHN KNIGHT, SERJEANT SURGEON
To the Editor
of THE LANCET SiB,—In addition to the interesting account of Mr. Serjeant Surgeon Knight given in your annotation last week, the following extracts from the Calendar of State Papers quoted by Morgan Richards in his " Chronology of Medicine " may be useful to " E. M. C." Grant to Richard Pile, of the office to the King and of first Serjeant Surgeon ; and similar grants to John Knight and Hum. Painter, with annuities of n50 each. 1661, March (? 1662 historical year). Petition of John Knight, Serjeant Surgeon to the King. Having served his Majesty abroad was continued with others in their respective places on the Restoration, received the usual fee belonging to his office for embalming the Duke of
1661, July llth.
of first
Principal Surgeon
628
Gloucester, being the only profit that has fallen but is
to
him,
ordered to divide it with Richard Wiseman, Surgeon in Ordinary. Begs not to be made the only person who has had his fee taken from him. Grant to John Knight of the office of Principal Surgeon: fee 26. 6. 8 with the like pension of B150. 1662, September. Petition repeated in the same words as those used in March. 1662, Sept. llth. Warrant to Mr. Knight to retain the whole usual fee which he received for embalming the late Duke of Gloster, which has been disputed for by some other of the King’s Surgeons. now
I am,
Sir,
yours
faithfully,
Cavendish-place, ‘V., Sept. 10th.
CECIL WALL.
VACCINES IN PEPTIC ULCER.-Dr. J. N. Gale writes : "In my letter last week I inadvertently omitted the source of the vaccine used in the treatment of peptic ulcers. It is sold by Parke, Davis & Co., under the name of Intestinal Streptococcus Vaccine, and I used carbolised saline as a diluent."
St. George’s Hospital Sir Humphry Rolleston will preside at the prize distribution on Monday, Oct. 1st, at 3 P.M., when Prof. Langdon Brown will deliver an address entitled We Have Rea&on to Think. A post-graduate course for former students of the hospital is being held from Sept. 28th to Oct. 1st, and the annual dinner will take place on Saturday, Sept. 29th, at 7.45 P.M., at Claridge’s Hotel, with Mr. W. Fedde Fedden in the chair. St. Mary’s Hospital A week-end post-graduate course, open to all medical practitioners without fee, will be held from Sept. 28th to 30th. The annual dinner of past and present students will take place in the new medical school library on Saturday, Sept. 29th, at 7.30 P.M., when Dr. P. Montague Smith will be in the chair. St. Thomas’s Hospital A post-graduate course for former students will be held between Sept. 24th and 28th. Dr. W. L. Wainwright will preside at the old students’ dinner which will take place at the Dorchester Hotel, at 7.45 P.M., on Sept. 28th.
University College Hospital On Monday, Oct. 1st, at 3.15
OPENING OF THE MEDICAL SCHOOLS IN connexion with the opening of the session at the London medical schools the following arrangements have been made :-
Charing
Cross
Hospital
opening of the school will inauguration of the centenary year. ments will be published later. Guy’s Hospital The
be celebrated at the Details of the arrange-
On Tuesday, Oct. 2nd, at 2.45 P.M., the prizes will be distributed by Lord Nuffield. Mr. C. H. Fagge will deliver the inaugural address.
King’s College Hospital On Saturday, Sept. 29th, from noon to 6 P.M., and on Sunday morning, there will be lectures and demonstrations open to all practitioners. Post-graduate lectures will also be delivered in the lecture theatre of the medical school on Thursdays at 9 P.M. from Oct. llth onwards. The annual dinner of past and present students will be held on Sept. 29th, at 8 P.M., at the Connaught Rooms, Great Queen-street, W.C., Dr. Wilfrid Attenborough
P.M., in the library of the medical school, Sir John Rose Bradford, F.R.S., will deliver the opening address. The annual demonstrations for old students will take place on Oct. llth and 12th, and the annual dinner will be held in the library of the medical school on Oct. 12th, at 7.30 P.M., with Sir John Parsons, F.R.S., in the chair.
Westminster Hospital On Monday, Oct. 1st, at 3.30 P.M., the winter session will open at the Central Hall, Westminster, when Sir John Simon will deliver the inaugural address. A short course for former students of the hospital will be given on Saturday and Sunday (Sept. 29th and 30th), and the annual dinner of past and present students will take place at the Trocadero Restaurant, on Saturday, Sept. 29th, at 7.45 P.M. Dental Hospital Prizes will be distributed at the hospital on Friday, Oct. 5th, at 8 P.M., at a conversazione at which Prof. William Wright will preside. The annual clinical At Home will be held at the hospital on Nov. 24th, and the dinner of past and present students will take place on the same evening at the Trocadero Restaurant, at 7.30 P.M., when Mr. J. Thornton Carter will be in the chair.
Royal
Further details of post-graduate courses will appear in due course in our Medical Diary.
presiding. London Hospital A post-graduate course for former students of the hospital will be held from Oct. 17th to 20th. The old students’ dinner will be held on Thursday, Oct. 18th, at 7.30 P.M., at the Trocadero Restaurant, with Dr. James Thomas in the chair.
Middlesex Hospital The hundredth winter session will be opened in the Queen’s Hall, W., on Monday, Oct. 1st, at 3 P.M., when Dr. Henry MacCormac will deliver an introductory address, entitled Our Profession, and Sir Farquhar Buzzard will present the prizes. A post-graduate course for former students of the hospital will be held from Sept. 28th to Oct. lst. On Oct. 1st the annual dinner will be held at the Savoy Hotel at 7.30 P.M.
Royal Free Hospital On Monday, Oct. 1st,
at 3 P.M., Dr. M. H. MacKeith, dean of the British Post-Graduate Medical School, will deliver an opening address on the Institutes of Medicine, and will afterwards distribute the prizes. Miss Elizabeth Bolton will be in the chair. The annual dinner will be held on Thursday, Dec. 6th, also at the Savoy.
St. Bartholomew’s Hospital On Nov. 5th, an appeal banquet will be held at the Mansion House in connexion with the medical college .appeal for funds for the purchase of the Charterhouse site.
MEDICAL NEWS of Cambridge Dr. A. B. Appleton is resigning his appointment as lecturer in anatomy on going to St. Thomas’s Hospital as professor of anatomy in the University of London. Among university teaching officers who vacate their offices on Sept. 30th, on reaching the limit of tenure, are Mr. V. C. Pennell, F.R.C.S., and Dr. D. G. Reid, university demonstrators in anatomy.
University
University The next
of London Medical Graduates Society extra-metropolitan dinner will be held at
Queen’s College, Cambridge,
on
Friday, Sept. 28th,
at
7.30 P.M. Members should apply for tickets to the hon. secretaries at 11, Chandos-street, London, W.I.
Central London Throat, Nose, and Ear Hospital From Oct. 1st to 27th an intensive post-graduate course in laryngology, rhinology, and otology will be held at this hospital. On Dec. 1st and 2nd a general week-end course has been arranged, and from Dec. 3rd-8th there will be a course in methods of examination and diagnosis. The annual address will be given at 4 P.M. on Friday, Oct. 12th, by Mr. Douglas Harmer, consultingsurgeon to the throat department at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, who will speak on treatment of malignant disease in the upper
jaw.