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PROVINCIAL MEDICAL JOURNALISM
550 mature trained personnel and of money4 but probably also through " the failure of some workers to employ similar objective methods for the evaluation of the mode of treatment under consideration, even though superficially they have appeared to do so."5 There are, for example, still investigators studying the adrenal responsiveness on groups including" 30 male patients, aged 30 to 63 years, who have been hospitalized because of schizophrenia for 2 to 19 (average 11) years." These7 investigators6 were repeating some earlier experiments in 34 chronic cases "20—40 years old and with an average duration of hospitalization of 2-5 years." Another report describes eighteen male patients with dementia praecox who " ranged in age from 20 to 45 years, with the mean 8 age being 31 years." Surely schizophrenia, being a regressive process, should not be investigated in terms of average values. Analogously, in the case of human growth and maturation. another but differentiating process, it would be futile to determine hormone values in a group of males aged 2 to 19 (average 11) years. Obviously before investigating groups of individuals at a certain stage of the process under study, one must first observe the development of the process in individuals. ROLAND FISCHER. Division of Psychiatric Research, Psychiatric Services Branch, Saskatchewan Department of Public Health, Regina General Hospital, Canada.
PROVINCIAL MEDICAL JOURNALISM
SIR,—It was with melancholy pleasure that I read Dr. Brockbank’s graceful obituary of the Bristol MedicoChirurgical Journal : a Journal of the Medical Sciences for the West of England and South Wales—to give what For such, alas, his tribute is. was always its full title. A journal may change hands or policy, but when it changes its name it becomes merely a memory. Nay, less than that-who today even remembers the Morning Post, the Bristol Tirrzes and Mirror, the Medical Circular, the Transactions of the Provincial Medical Association, or (to return to the subject) the Transactions of the Bristol Medico-Chirurgical Society ? Fuerunt!! Vain now our efforts to keep the journal afloat throughout the war, vain the Sisyphian struggle for subsequent solvency. Dr. Brockbank’s suggestions for the local journal ignore the dilemma he himself has stated-rapid rise in costs contrasted with meagre prospects of increased income. The editor, always conscious that to set the type for one page consumes four annual subscriptions, must severely limit original articles, and jettison reports of discussions, correspondence, humour. " Economic pressure led to the abandonment ofNotes on Preparations for the Sick ’ in 1921 and of ’Progress of the Medical Sciences ’ in 1924. [In 1951] no sooner did the increase in subscriptions and in advertisement income promise -some relief than a further advance in expenses of production snatched it away.... BVe haveeliminated Reviews, Lists of Books Received, Obituarv Notices and most of the examination results ; and can hardly go further in this direction. Without constant care it would be quite easy to squander a whole year’s income on a single quarterly issue.’’9
Compelled, after serving the journal for 29 years, to resign the chair, and all unconscious of this eluctable doom, at least I handed on my charge punctual and solvent.
Absumet heres. E. WATSON-WILLIAMS.
4. Kubie, L. S. Science, 1952, 116, 239. 5. Hope, J. M., Elmadjian, F., Malamud, W. J. clin. exp. Psychopath. 1951, 12, 267. 6. Hiatt, H. H., Rothwell, W. S., Horwitt, M. K. Proc. Soc. exp. Biol., N.Y. 1952, 79, 707. Amer. J. Psychiat. 1950, 641, 651. 7. Pincus, G., Hoagland, H. 8. Young, M. K. jun., Berry, H. K., Beerstecher, E. jun., Berry, J. S. Univ. Tex. Publ. 1951, no. 5109, Biochemical Studies no. 4 : p. 189. 9. Bristol med.-chir. J. 1951, 68, 121.
DIRTY ANÆSTHETIC MACHINES Messrs. Howards & Sons Ltd., of lIford, Essex, write : " One of the manufacturers of anaesthetic ether recentlv received a complaint from a hospital that the ether supplied was below standard and that the patients would not take it. On investigation it was discovered that the fault lay in the bottle of the anaesthetic machine itself, which had not been properly cleaned. VVe are writing on behalf of the makers of anæsthetic ether to draw attention to the danger ofusing such machines without old ether having first been removed."
Public Health Influenza THE
subsidence of the influenza epidemic, already apparent for some time to general practitioners in many areas, is now reflected in a substantial decrease in the number of deaths from influenza in the last week of February. In the 160 great towns of England and Wales there were 314 deaths in the week ended Feb. 28, compared with 521, 530, and 446 in the three preceding weeks. Deaths in the London and south eastern region decreased to 90, as against 201 in the week ended Feb. 21 ; and there were also fewer deaths in the northern half of the country, where there had been a slight increase in the preceding week. But the number of claims for sickness benefit received by the Ministry of National Insurance is still considerably higher than at the corresponding time last year.
Infectious Diseases in
*
England
and Wales
Not including late returns.
Medicine and the Law Negligence Negatived HEADLINES in the daily press are accustoming the public to findings of negligence against hospital managements and medical practitioners and to the consequential award of damages which are often substantial. The result of the case of Slater v. Liverpool and District Eastern Hospital Management Committee and Pugmire is the more satisfactory to the successful defendants inasmuch as the plaintiff’s claim was put forward a,4 one in which the facts spoke for themselves. A three-month-old baby, it was said, was admitted to hospital on Nov. 11, 1947, suffering from gastroenteritis ; she was a perfectly formed, normal child. A fortnight later, as the baby could not take her food. it was decided to give an intramedullary drip into the left tibia. The fluid was dripping continuously into the leg for 32 hours, during which time (it was alleged)a condition was set up which ultimately led to the loss of a foot. The left foot became gangrenous and on Dec. 15 it dropped off. Here, it could be said, was a baby which entered a hospital with two feet and came
PROVINCIAL MEDICAL JOURNALISM
SIR,—It was with melancholy pleasure that I read Dr. Brockbank’s graceful obituary of the Bristol MedicoChirurgical Journal : a Journal of the Medical Sciences for the West of England and South Wales—to give what For such, alas, his tribute is. was always its full title. A journal may change hands or policy, but when it changes its name it becomes merely a memory. Nay, less than that-who today even remembers the Morning Post, the Bristol Tirrzes and Mirror, the Medical Circular, the Transactions of the Provincial Medical Association, or (to return to the subject) the Transactions of the Bristol Medico-Chirurgical Society ? Fuerunt!! Vain now our efforts to keep the journal afloat throughout the war, vain the Sisyphian struggle for subsequent solvency. Dr. Brockbank’s suggestions for the local journal ignore the dilemma he himself has stated-rapid rise in costs contrasted with meagre prospects of increased income. The editor, always conscious that to set the type for one page consumes four annual subscriptions, must severely limit original articles, and jettison reports of discussions, correspondence, humour. " Economic pressure led to the abandonment ofNotes on Preparations for the Sick ’ in 1921 and of ’Progress of the Medical Sciences ’ in 1924. [In 1951] no sooner did the increase in subscriptions and in advertisement income promise -some relief than a further advance in expenses of production snatched it away.... BVe haveeliminated Reviews, Lists of Books Received, Obituarv Notices and most of the examination results ; and can hardly go further in this direction. Without constant care it would be quite easy to squander a whole year’s income on a single quarterly issue.’’9
Compelled, after serving the journal for 29 years, to resign the chair, and all unconscious of this eluctable doom, at least I handed on my charge punctual and solvent.
Absumet heres. E. WATSON-WILLIAMS.
4. Kubie, L. S. Science, 1952, 116, 239. 5. Hope, J. M., Elmadjian, F., Malamud, W. J. clin. exp. Psychopath. 1951, 12, 267. 6. Hiatt, H. H., Rothwell, W. S., Horwitt, M. K. Proc. Soc. exp. Biol., N.Y. 1952, 79, 707. Amer. J. Psychiat. 1950, 641, 651. 7. Pincus, G., Hoagland, H. 8. Young, M. K. jun., Berry, H. K., Beerstecher, E. jun., Berry, J. S. Univ. Tex. Publ. 1951, no. 5109, Biochemical Studies no. 4 : p. 189. 9. Bristol med.-chir. J. 1951, 68, 121.
DIRTY ANÆSTHETIC MACHINES Messrs. Howards & Sons Ltd., of lIford, Essex, write : " One of the manufacturers of anaesthetic ether recentlv received a complaint from a hospital that the ether supplied was below standard and that the patients would not take it. On investigation it was discovered that the fault lay in the bottle of the anaesthetic machine itself, which had not been properly cleaned. VVe are writing on behalf of the makers of anæsthetic ether to draw attention to the danger ofusing such machines without old ether having first been removed."
Public Health Influenza THE
subsidence of the influenza epidemic, already apparent for some time to general practitioners in many areas, is now reflected in a substantial decrease in the number of deaths from influenza in the last week of February. In the 160 great towns of England and Wales there were 314 deaths in the week ended Feb. 28, compared with 521, 530, and 446 in the three preceding weeks. Deaths in the London and south eastern region decreased to 90, as against 201 in the week ended Feb. 21 ; and there were also fewer deaths in the northern half of the country, where there had been a slight increase in the preceding week. But the number of claims for sickness benefit received by the Ministry of National Insurance is still considerably higher than at the corresponding time last year.
Infectious Diseases in
*
England
and Wales
Not including late returns.
Medicine and the Law Negligence Negatived HEADLINES in the daily press are accustoming the public to findings of negligence against hospital managements and medical practitioners and to the consequential award of damages which are often substantial. The result of the case of Slater v. Liverpool and District Eastern Hospital Management Committee and Pugmire is the more satisfactory to the successful defendants inasmuch as the plaintiff’s claim was put forward a,4 one in which the facts spoke for themselves. A three-month-old baby, it was said, was admitted to hospital on Nov. 11, 1947, suffering from gastroenteritis ; she was a perfectly formed, normal child. A fortnight later, as the baby could not take her food. it was decided to give an intramedullary drip into the left tibia. The fluid was dripping continuously into the leg for 32 hours, during which time (it was alleged)a condition was set up which ultimately led to the loss of a foot. The left foot became gangrenous and on Dec. 15 it dropped off. Here, it could be said, was a baby which entered a hospital with two feet and came