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MEDICAL SERVICE IN INDIA.
1414 in the foundation of a school. Inasmuch as Mount Vernon is primarily a hospital for the treatment of cancer, the affiliation would become void should radiotherapy for cancer be abandoned. A scientific
Sir Thomas Horder is chairman and Dr. Malcolm Donaldson honorary secretary, which was established to control treatment and research at Mount Vernon Hospital, has been accepted in that capacity by the Radium Institute ; Sir Cuthbert Wallace will act as director of medical services for both places, and the school will be managed by a joint committee. Lectures will be delivered at the Institute in Ridinghouse-street, where the out-patient and follow-up departments will be located, together with a certain number of in-patients, but the bulk of the clinical teaching on in-patients will be done in the hospital at Northwood. At the instance of the Radium Commission, which is anxious that the teaching should be started as soon as possible, a course of one month’s duration has been arranged to begin on Oct. 6th. This course will be given by the teachers in the two institutions and by others with special knowledge of radiotherapy. For example, Mr. Rock Carling will demonstrate the radium bomb at the Westminster Hospital annexe and the treatment of special regions will include demonstrations by Mr. W. D. Harmer on the larynx and antrum. On five mornings in each week of the course there will be attendance at out-patient practice. Later in the morning lectures and demonstrations will be given on the physical aspect of radium therapy, and on principles of treatment, including the methods of radiation and susceptibility of cells to different wave-lengths. Special teaching will be given by Sir Charles Gordon-Watson on the rectum, Mr. Stanford Cade on the tongue and pharynx, Mr. Geoffrey Keynes on the breast and oesophagus. Dr. Donaldson on the uterus, Prof. S. Russ on physics, Dr. J. C. Mottram on experimental pathology, and Dr. Philip Gosse and Dr. W. R. Ward on surface On three afternoons there will be ward radiation. The details of the scheme rounds at Northwood. will be circulated later and it is intended that the course itself shall be repeated periodically. Mount Vernon Hospital is appealing to the public for its assistance in equipping the hospital to be partner in a school of this magnitude. The new wing of the hospital, when complete, will bring up the number of beds from 150 to 250 and the projected X ray department will enable another form of treatment to be compared in efficiency with radium.
I
Annotations. "Ne quid nimis."
advisory committee, of which
ROYAL MEDICAL BENEVOLENT FUND SOCIETY OF IRELAND.-The report of this Fund for 1929 presented at the annual meeting held last week in the Royal College of Surgeons, Dublin, shows that during the year a sum of 22104 was disbursed in grants to seven medical men, and 13 orphans and 63 widows of medical men, the average amount of grant being less than 924 10s. " Small as this grant is," writes our Dublin correspondent, " there is no doubt that in many cases it stands in the way of utter need. The subscriptions do not show any falling-off, but they are far less than they ought to be. Every medical practitioner in Ireland-some 4000-might readily subscribe 211 at least to the Fund. None knows to what needs he or his immediate dependents may be brought. From some counties a generous return comes, from others there is nothing, and from the whole City and County of Cork there is a single guinea ! In each county there is a branch honorary secretary, but it would be fairer to the Fund and to its unfortunate beneficiaries if these secretaries who are unwilling to do any work would resign their offices and give the committees an opportunity of appointing more active workers."
MEDICAL SERVICE IN INDIA. THE absence of direct reference to medicine or to the health of India in the second vohune1 of the Simon Report, which appeared on Tuesday, can hardly fail to strike those who realise the part which the medical services have played, but there is a frank recognition that the problem of internal security is not a matter only of the preservation of law and order. The spread of epidemics, such as plague, in India is only prevented by constant vigilance on the part of the authorities, and it is laid down on an early page of the "report that the life of millions in India depends literally on the existence
of a thoroughly efficient administrative system. There must be in India a power which can step in and save the situation before it is too late. The principle, that during the period in which India is progressing on the road to complete self-government full provision must be made for the maintenance and efficiency of the fundamentals 9f government, applies with the utmost urgency to the securing of health. The Statutory Commission assumes that no change will be made in the position of existing members of any All-India services, and that the rights and privileges which they have at present will be safeguarded. The Commissioners see no reason why ’a career in the services should not under the new constitution provide ample interest and opportunity for men of brains and character, but, they add, " we cannot ensure this," and they recommend that retirement on proportionate pension should remain open without limit of time, although they believe that the majority of officers will be prepared to remain, providing this right is secured. At the present juncture India cannot afford to lose experienced men; it is recognised that European officers lay great stress on the continued provision for themselves and their families of medical treatment by European doctors. This the Commissioners regard as essential, and they recommend that no change should be made in the present rule (Devolution Rule 12) which gives the Secretary of State in Council power to prescribe the number of Indian Medical Service officers to be employed in the provinces, as well as the appointments and conditions under which they shall be employed. No effort, it is added, should be spared to secure an adequate number of European recruits for the Indian Medical Service to implement this fundamental
obligation.
____
THE HUNTERIAN MUSEUM Sir Arthur Keith’s annual report on the museum of the Royal College of Surgeons of England outlines a scheme of scientific research which will enable the museum to take its proper place in the advancement of science. Some of the rooms in the College have been converted into laboratories, and several new rooms have been built and equipped for research-work of a kind appropriate to the ordinary working of a museum. Through the efforts of its President, Lord Moynihan, the College is now in a position to award scholarships, three of which, bearing the names of Beaverbrook, Melchett, and Bernhard Baron, will be available at an early date, and will yield their holders £ 00 per annum. To a limited extent research has always been carried on at the Hunterian Museum, but it can hardly be said to have been recognised as one of its normal functions. The new scheme gives promise of fruitful investigations, the results of which will be embodied in the published transactions of the museum. Those who visit Lincoln’s Inn between July 3rd and 26th, when the 1 Report of the Indian Statutory Commission. Recommendations. H.M. Stationery Office. 3s.
Vol. II.
Sir Thomas Horder is chairman and Dr. Malcolm Donaldson honorary secretary, which was established to control treatment and research at Mount Vernon Hospital, has been accepted in that capacity by the Radium Institute ; Sir Cuthbert Wallace will act as director of medical services for both places, and the school will be managed by a joint committee. Lectures will be delivered at the Institute in Ridinghouse-street, where the out-patient and follow-up departments will be located, together with a certain number of in-patients, but the bulk of the clinical teaching on in-patients will be done in the hospital at Northwood. At the instance of the Radium Commission, which is anxious that the teaching should be started as soon as possible, a course of one month’s duration has been arranged to begin on Oct. 6th. This course will be given by the teachers in the two institutions and by others with special knowledge of radiotherapy. For example, Mr. Rock Carling will demonstrate the radium bomb at the Westminster Hospital annexe and the treatment of special regions will include demonstrations by Mr. W. D. Harmer on the larynx and antrum. On five mornings in each week of the course there will be attendance at out-patient practice. Later in the morning lectures and demonstrations will be given on the physical aspect of radium therapy, and on principles of treatment, including the methods of radiation and susceptibility of cells to different wave-lengths. Special teaching will be given by Sir Charles Gordon-Watson on the rectum, Mr. Stanford Cade on the tongue and pharynx, Mr. Geoffrey Keynes on the breast and oesophagus. Dr. Donaldson on the uterus, Prof. S. Russ on physics, Dr. J. C. Mottram on experimental pathology, and Dr. Philip Gosse and Dr. W. R. Ward on surface On three afternoons there will be ward radiation. The details of the scheme rounds at Northwood. will be circulated later and it is intended that the course itself shall be repeated periodically. Mount Vernon Hospital is appealing to the public for its assistance in equipping the hospital to be partner in a school of this magnitude. The new wing of the hospital, when complete, will bring up the number of beds from 150 to 250 and the projected X ray department will enable another form of treatment to be compared in efficiency with radium.
I
Annotations. "Ne quid nimis."
advisory committee, of which
ROYAL MEDICAL BENEVOLENT FUND SOCIETY OF IRELAND.-The report of this Fund for 1929 presented at the annual meeting held last week in the Royal College of Surgeons, Dublin, shows that during the year a sum of 22104 was disbursed in grants to seven medical men, and 13 orphans and 63 widows of medical men, the average amount of grant being less than 924 10s. " Small as this grant is," writes our Dublin correspondent, " there is no doubt that in many cases it stands in the way of utter need. The subscriptions do not show any falling-off, but they are far less than they ought to be. Every medical practitioner in Ireland-some 4000-might readily subscribe 211 at least to the Fund. None knows to what needs he or his immediate dependents may be brought. From some counties a generous return comes, from others there is nothing, and from the whole City and County of Cork there is a single guinea ! In each county there is a branch honorary secretary, but it would be fairer to the Fund and to its unfortunate beneficiaries if these secretaries who are unwilling to do any work would resign their offices and give the committees an opportunity of appointing more active workers."
MEDICAL SERVICE IN INDIA. THE absence of direct reference to medicine or to the health of India in the second vohune1 of the Simon Report, which appeared on Tuesday, can hardly fail to strike those who realise the part which the medical services have played, but there is a frank recognition that the problem of internal security is not a matter only of the preservation of law and order. The spread of epidemics, such as plague, in India is only prevented by constant vigilance on the part of the authorities, and it is laid down on an early page of the "report that the life of millions in India depends literally on the existence
of a thoroughly efficient administrative system. There must be in India a power which can step in and save the situation before it is too late. The principle, that during the period in which India is progressing on the road to complete self-government full provision must be made for the maintenance and efficiency of the fundamentals 9f government, applies with the utmost urgency to the securing of health. The Statutory Commission assumes that no change will be made in the position of existing members of any All-India services, and that the rights and privileges which they have at present will be safeguarded. The Commissioners see no reason why ’a career in the services should not under the new constitution provide ample interest and opportunity for men of brains and character, but, they add, " we cannot ensure this," and they recommend that retirement on proportionate pension should remain open without limit of time, although they believe that the majority of officers will be prepared to remain, providing this right is secured. At the present juncture India cannot afford to lose experienced men; it is recognised that European officers lay great stress on the continued provision for themselves and their families of medical treatment by European doctors. This the Commissioners regard as essential, and they recommend that no change should be made in the present rule (Devolution Rule 12) which gives the Secretary of State in Council power to prescribe the number of Indian Medical Service officers to be employed in the provinces, as well as the appointments and conditions under which they shall be employed. No effort, it is added, should be spared to secure an adequate number of European recruits for the Indian Medical Service to implement this fundamental
obligation.
____
THE HUNTERIAN MUSEUM Sir Arthur Keith’s annual report on the museum of the Royal College of Surgeons of England outlines a scheme of scientific research which will enable the museum to take its proper place in the advancement of science. Some of the rooms in the College have been converted into laboratories, and several new rooms have been built and equipped for research-work of a kind appropriate to the ordinary working of a museum. Through the efforts of its President, Lord Moynihan, the College is now in a position to award scholarships, three of which, bearing the names of Beaverbrook, Melchett, and Bernhard Baron, will be available at an early date, and will yield their holders £ 00 per annum. To a limited extent research has always been carried on at the Hunterian Museum, but it can hardly be said to have been recognised as one of its normal functions. The new scheme gives promise of fruitful investigations, the results of which will be embodied in the published transactions of the museum. Those who visit Lincoln’s Inn between July 3rd and 26th, when the 1 Report of the Indian Statutory Commission. Recommendations. H.M. Stationery Office. 3s.
Vol. II.