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MEETINGS FOR ALL AGES
415
The results of the questionaries to film-users and of the experiments to judge audience response 3—5 all suggest that the film can play a very important part in medical education. But its present very limited use can only be extended if films are made to teach a specific point (and this means shorter films, tailored for a definite audience) ; if remote-control magazineloading projectors for the classroom become less of a novelty; and if the distribution and selection of All these films can be simplified for the teacher. are tackled at being piecemeal present. The points establishment of a university film library would cut the cost of hiring films and provide a centre for coordinated research on the use of the film in medical teaching.
Annotations BACKGROUND PICTURES THE art of conveying information and inducing thought is so difficult that any fresh approach is welcome ; and, as an experiment, we publish this week an article illustrated in a way that departs considerably from our usual practice. Vhen he delivered his lecture on Ephebiatrics last month, Sir Ileneage Ogilvie put on the screen a series of pictures, of startlingly different kinds, which all had a bearing on what he was saying but w hich were shown without comment or any interruption of Ins talk. His intention was that the impressions oii the listener’s eye should be an accompaniment to the impressions on the ear-as ullo1Itrl!siY(’ as mu.ic at a good restaurant, but nevertheless reinforcing the effect of speech by keeping the listener alert and offering material for his visual memory. Sir Ileneage wondered whether this lecture technique unquestionably effective in skilful hands-could be applied when the same thoughts were presented not in but ill the printed word ; and, to put it to the test, we have reproduced nearly all his lantern-slides at more or less appropriate points in his text. Here difficulty arises because pictures and print compete for the attention of ugly one sense—of visionand if the pictures are large enough to be intelligible they may also be large enough to be distracting. To a journal which normally tries hard to make every illustration clearly illustrate some definite point it is painful to have to publish pictures of no medical importance and scatter them vaguely over an article that is wholly intelligible without such aids. We think it important that if not the rest of the community, should preserve the So we cannot help power to read as well as to look. hoping that it is only the novelty of Sir IIeneage’s pictures that makes some of them so confoundedly memorable. MEETINGS FOR ALL AGES WE have lately mentionedsome of the difficulties of running a conference, and a conference for medical students has its own problems, especially when the programme is as busy and distinguished as that arranged for the Students’ International Clinical Conference, recently held in this country. We were glad to record7 afew of the many events at this meeting which illustrated how well the task suited the British Medical Students’ Association, who arranged the meeting under the auspices of the International Federation of Medical Students’
doctors,
Associations. News of a professional gathering is not always welcome to those who must or might attend ; and some of the reasons for the conference h)ues have been set out in Steinberg, H., Lewis, H. E. Brit. med. J. 1951, ii, 465. 4. Cardew, P., Hughes, H. H., CollardP. lancet, 1953,ii 5. Ruhe, D. S., Bazilauskas, V. F., Sche nker, N. P. J. med. Educ. 62. 1953, 28, 3.
6. Lancet,
484.
1954, i,
32.
7. Ibid, Aug. 7, 1954, p. 285.
the Widdicombe File by Dr. Hawked We hope that hc and many others may soon bonent from the good ad viee given in the past by the Council for International organisations of Medical SnimweH.9 The council now urg’o 10 that clearer distinctions be made between the various types of meeting, and they define the functions of the congress, the conference, the symposium, and the seminar. The congress, attended by a great many people and with an important social programme, should be strictly educational, bringing the latest advances before as young and as international an audience as possible. The conference should be a much smaller meeting to which members are specially invited, and its aim should be the exchange of information and ideas between leading authorities. A symposium, as the council see it, is an even smaller meeting of specialists (15 or 20 at the most), who live together for several days, exchanging ideas and discussing work they havethemselves carried out " on well-defined subjects on the fringe of several disciplines." It helps the discussion if there is no audience, so publication of a symposium is of great value. If a few dozen listeners are admitted, the occasion becomes a seminar, and the audience ask questions and mingle with the It is clear that these titles have main participants. different meanings for different people, and it would be a useful step if the council’s definitions were universally
adopted. BANNISTER AND PETERS PERHAPS we should give more space in our students’ number each year to things outside the strictly academic bounds of students’ affairs. We have a strong cue this year in the athletic distinctions won by a medical student lately qualified : Roger Bannister, of St. Mary’s Hospital, the first to run a mile in under four minutes and a winner for England earlier this month. Choosing his races with care, he has been criticised for appearing so rarely on the track ; but his performances, both at Vancouver and Queen Square, have further justified his shrewd methods. The Empire Games raised another, less agreeable, subject with medical implications. Bannister’s success in the mile was closely followed by the collapse of Peters a few yards from the finish of the marathon. The sight of a brave athlete in terrible distress shocked spectators and renewed arguments that began with Dorando’s marathon in 1908. There is no good evidence that a well-trained athlete has ever done himself permanent harm by his exertions (Peters’s full recovery will, we hope, bear this out) ; and the effort syndrome has notably failed to establish itself as a physical disease. But an experience like that of Peters is clearly one that neither runners nor spectators welcome, and, as Sir Adolphe Abrahams observed in a letter to The Times last week," there is a simple rule that would go far to protect long-distance runners from their own energy and enthusiasm. It would hardly be practicable and seldom desirable to lay down detailed regulations about the weather conditions under which a sporting contest should In this case, however, the issue or should not be held. is fairly simple : the distance man’s chief enemy is the midday sun ; so, if these races were held early or late in the day, there would be much less risk of the heatstroke that apparently struck Peters. When fast times often count more than races won, it would be’ unkind to blame the man who, in a big race, forces himself to the limit, regardless of conditions and even though he is leading, as Peters was, by a great distance. Happily, it is very rare for an athlete to get into serious difficulties, but even an occasional happening of this kind can harm the prestige of athletics. One way of guarding it would be to make this provision for races of three miles or more.
8. Ibid, 195 4, i, 44. 9. Ibid, 1953, ii, 1254. 10. C.I.O.M.S. Bulletin, 1953, 4, 11. Times, Aug. 18, 1954.
no.
3-4.
The results of the questionaries to film-users and of the experiments to judge audience response 3—5 all suggest that the film can play a very important part in medical education. But its present very limited use can only be extended if films are made to teach a specific point (and this means shorter films, tailored for a definite audience) ; if remote-control magazineloading projectors for the classroom become less of a novelty; and if the distribution and selection of All these films can be simplified for the teacher. are tackled at being piecemeal present. The points establishment of a university film library would cut the cost of hiring films and provide a centre for coordinated research on the use of the film in medical teaching.
Annotations BACKGROUND PICTURES THE art of conveying information and inducing thought is so difficult that any fresh approach is welcome ; and, as an experiment, we publish this week an article illustrated in a way that departs considerably from our usual practice. Vhen he delivered his lecture on Ephebiatrics last month, Sir Ileneage Ogilvie put on the screen a series of pictures, of startlingly different kinds, which all had a bearing on what he was saying but w hich were shown without comment or any interruption of Ins talk. His intention was that the impressions oii the listener’s eye should be an accompaniment to the impressions on the ear-as ullo1Itrl!siY(’ as mu.ic at a good restaurant, but nevertheless reinforcing the effect of speech by keeping the listener alert and offering material for his visual memory. Sir Ileneage wondered whether this lecture technique unquestionably effective in skilful hands-could be applied when the same thoughts were presented not in but ill the printed word ; and, to put it to the test, we have reproduced nearly all his lantern-slides at more or less appropriate points in his text. Here difficulty arises because pictures and print compete for the attention of ugly one sense—of visionand if the pictures are large enough to be intelligible they may also be large enough to be distracting. To a journal which normally tries hard to make every illustration clearly illustrate some definite point it is painful to have to publish pictures of no medical importance and scatter them vaguely over an article that is wholly intelligible without such aids. We think it important that if not the rest of the community, should preserve the So we cannot help power to read as well as to look. hoping that it is only the novelty of Sir IIeneage’s pictures that makes some of them so confoundedly memorable. MEETINGS FOR ALL AGES WE have lately mentionedsome of the difficulties of running a conference, and a conference for medical students has its own problems, especially when the programme is as busy and distinguished as that arranged for the Students’ International Clinical Conference, recently held in this country. We were glad to record7 afew of the many events at this meeting which illustrated how well the task suited the British Medical Students’ Association, who arranged the meeting under the auspices of the International Federation of Medical Students’
doctors,
Associations. News of a professional gathering is not always welcome to those who must or might attend ; and some of the reasons for the conference h)ues have been set out in Steinberg, H., Lewis, H. E. Brit. med. J. 1951, ii, 465. 4. Cardew, P., Hughes, H. H., CollardP. lancet, 1953,ii 5. Ruhe, D. S., Bazilauskas, V. F., Sche nker, N. P. J. med. Educ. 62. 1953, 28, 3.
6. Lancet,
484.
1954, i,
32.
7. Ibid, Aug. 7, 1954, p. 285.
the Widdicombe File by Dr. Hawked We hope that hc and many others may soon bonent from the good ad viee given in the past by the Council for International organisations of Medical SnimweH.9 The council now urg’o 10 that clearer distinctions be made between the various types of meeting, and they define the functions of the congress, the conference, the symposium, and the seminar. The congress, attended by a great many people and with an important social programme, should be strictly educational, bringing the latest advances before as young and as international an audience as possible. The conference should be a much smaller meeting to which members are specially invited, and its aim should be the exchange of information and ideas between leading authorities. A symposium, as the council see it, is an even smaller meeting of specialists (15 or 20 at the most), who live together for several days, exchanging ideas and discussing work they havethemselves carried out " on well-defined subjects on the fringe of several disciplines." It helps the discussion if there is no audience, so publication of a symposium is of great value. If a few dozen listeners are admitted, the occasion becomes a seminar, and the audience ask questions and mingle with the It is clear that these titles have main participants. different meanings for different people, and it would be a useful step if the council’s definitions were universally
adopted. BANNISTER AND PETERS PERHAPS we should give more space in our students’ number each year to things outside the strictly academic bounds of students’ affairs. We have a strong cue this year in the athletic distinctions won by a medical student lately qualified : Roger Bannister, of St. Mary’s Hospital, the first to run a mile in under four minutes and a winner for England earlier this month. Choosing his races with care, he has been criticised for appearing so rarely on the track ; but his performances, both at Vancouver and Queen Square, have further justified his shrewd methods. The Empire Games raised another, less agreeable, subject with medical implications. Bannister’s success in the mile was closely followed by the collapse of Peters a few yards from the finish of the marathon. The sight of a brave athlete in terrible distress shocked spectators and renewed arguments that began with Dorando’s marathon in 1908. There is no good evidence that a well-trained athlete has ever done himself permanent harm by his exertions (Peters’s full recovery will, we hope, bear this out) ; and the effort syndrome has notably failed to establish itself as a physical disease. But an experience like that of Peters is clearly one that neither runners nor spectators welcome, and, as Sir Adolphe Abrahams observed in a letter to The Times last week," there is a simple rule that would go far to protect long-distance runners from their own energy and enthusiasm. It would hardly be practicable and seldom desirable to lay down detailed regulations about the weather conditions under which a sporting contest should In this case, however, the issue or should not be held. is fairly simple : the distance man’s chief enemy is the midday sun ; so, if these races were held early or late in the day, there would be much less risk of the heatstroke that apparently struck Peters. When fast times often count more than races won, it would be’ unkind to blame the man who, in a big race, forces himself to the limit, regardless of conditions and even though he is leading, as Peters was, by a great distance. Happily, it is very rare for an athlete to get into serious difficulties, but even an occasional happening of this kind can harm the prestige of athletics. One way of guarding it would be to make this provision for races of three miles or more.
8. Ibid, 195 4, i, 44. 9. Ibid, 1953, ii, 1254. 10. C.I.O.M.S. Bulletin, 1953, 4, 11. Times, Aug. 18, 1954.
no.
3-4.