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STANLEY MELVILLE
318 culosis in cattle is not stamped out, the time may come when, with the diminution of the human type, the bovine type may take its place, increasing among human beings, even though it remained stationary among cattle. A year ago in our own columns,4 A. S. Griffith and W. T. Munro reported a " startling number of cases of pulmonary tubercle associated with the bovine bacillus in England and Scotland. They were very unequally distributed over the
Health have not been at all enthusiastic
the
far enough." Readers of an article from a wellinformed correspondent which we published on May 12th (p. 1028) will be less astonished. "Assuming efficient control," he said, "it is obvious that at the best it is Grade A milk over again but with rather relaxed standards. And Grade A milk is fairly as accepted universally failing to give a safe milksupply.... Stated briefly, the scheme of the Milk Marketing Board will materially assist in the production of a clean milk-supply but will do compara. tively little to give a safe milk-supply, and it is a saje milk-supply which is insistently demanded by the medical profession." While every step towards cleanliness is highly desirable and the Board is making a useful advance in the right direction the credentials offered by accredited milk are not sufficient to make it a suitable drink for children unless its dangers are removed by heating. A roll of accredited producers combined with pasteurisation of the milk-supply would, as our correspondent pointed out, be a very valuable combination ; but where there are no adequate guarantees of safety the profession will never be able to join wholeheartedly in the cry of Drink More Milk.
"
country. STATESMAN, PRIEST, AND PHYSICIAN THE name of Robert Laws, who died in a nursinghome in London at the age of 83 on Monday last, is probably familiar to many as a missionary and statesman, though the fact that the starting-point of his career was medical may have escaped notice. He received a full medical education, however, at the University of Aberdeen, and later studied at the Edinburgh Presbyterian Theological College. He obtained a doctorate in both faculties and was ordained a medical missionary in 1874. He continued in medical practice as a resident in the Glasgow small-pox hospital until the founding by the United Presbyterian Church of a mission in Nyasaland in memory of Livingstone. Laws formed one of the small party sent out to organise the starting of the mission, and his medical knowledge was of great value to his comrades ; in the development of the work which followed it proved of the first importance. Two years later his wife joined him in Nyasaland, and for 50 years the Livingstonia Mission had Laws as its organising head. While he placed his work for the gospel in the forefront of his personal programme, his energy in the cause of education, his industry in acquiring native languages, and his organising power were the other qualities to which he owed his wide influence in the Protectorate. He translated the New Testament into Nyanja, and wrote an EnglishNyanja dictionary and various school-books in Nyanja and Tonga. He was nearly 80 years of age when he left Nyasaland to pass the days of his retirement in Edinburgh.
STANLEY MELVILLE
ANOTHER KIND OF MILK THE Milk Marketing Board are proceeding with their scheme for a register of " accredited " milk producers, and its operations are to begin next January. The new scheme establishes what is in effect yet another grade of milk. To become accredited, the producer must have his herds "clinically" examined once in six months by an approved veterinary surgeon, and must permanently remove all animals considered a danger to the milksupply. The county agricultural organiser will certify that the methods of production and handling are satisfactory, and the county medical officer of health or county bacteriologist will examine three samples annually and declare that their bacterial count does not exceed 200,000 per c.cm., and that Bacillus coli is absent in 0-01 c.cm. These bacteriological standards are the same as for Grade A milk on delivery, but cows supplying Grade A must be inspected every three months. Under the new scheme the accredited producer will have an extra penny a gallon for his produce, this being raised by a small levy on all producers of milk. It is hoped that with this inducement a large proportion —even a majority-will seek to qualify and that the whole standard of milk production will thereby be raised. So far so good ; and in commending the proposals the Times (August 6th) expresses surprise that " the authorities at the Ministry of ’
4 THE LANCET, 1933, i., 399.
over
scheme, because it does not, in their opinion, go
A COMMUNICATION from Sir Humphry Rolleston, Lord Rutherford, and eight representative cosignatories, asks that the services rendered to radiology in all its aspects by the late Dr. Stanley Melville should be recognised by some such suitable memorial as a travelling fellowship in radiology connected with his name. The National Physical the Laboratory, Royal Society of Medicine, the Society of Radiographers, St. George’s Hospital, and the Brompton Hospital-the two institutions with which Melville was connected, and the British Institute of Radiology, all endorse the appeal, as does the British X Ray and Radium Protection Committee. The connexion of this last body with the appeal is particularly significant, for Melville played a prominent part in bringing home vividly to the public and the medical world the dangers of X ray work as illustrated by the tragic deaths of so many of the pioneers. Melville was also active in establishing the Cambridge diploma in medical radiology and electrology ; the incorporation of the British Institute of Radiology with the Rontgen Society was another of his successful activities, for he always displayed particular anxiety with regard to the welfare of the lay-workers. Melville was himself a long and sad sufferer from injuries incurred in his professional work ; he never spared himself, and always thought of others. We commend the movement to keep alive his memory to our readers. Dr. J. Duncan White and Dr. A. E. Barclay, of the British Institute of Radiology (32, Welbeck-street, London, W.1), will receive now donations however small, and a meeting will be called later of those who subscribe to decide upon the exact form which the memorial shall take eventually.
THE medical superintendent of the new British Post-Graduate Medical School, Sir Thomas Carey Evans, has received from Mr. Arthur Evans a collection of pathological specimens illustrating The specimens are diseases of the gall-bladder. each with a clinical record of mounted, beautifully the case, and the collection will form the nucleus of the
museum
of the school.
collectors may be
as
It is
generous.
hoped
that other
Health have not been at all enthusiastic
the
far enough." Readers of an article from a wellinformed correspondent which we published on May 12th (p. 1028) will be less astonished. "Assuming efficient control," he said, "it is obvious that at the best it is Grade A milk over again but with rather relaxed standards. And Grade A milk is fairly as accepted universally failing to give a safe milksupply.... Stated briefly, the scheme of the Milk Marketing Board will materially assist in the production of a clean milk-supply but will do compara. tively little to give a safe milk-supply, and it is a saje milk-supply which is insistently demanded by the medical profession." While every step towards cleanliness is highly desirable and the Board is making a useful advance in the right direction the credentials offered by accredited milk are not sufficient to make it a suitable drink for children unless its dangers are removed by heating. A roll of accredited producers combined with pasteurisation of the milk-supply would, as our correspondent pointed out, be a very valuable combination ; but where there are no adequate guarantees of safety the profession will never be able to join wholeheartedly in the cry of Drink More Milk.
"
country. STATESMAN, PRIEST, AND PHYSICIAN THE name of Robert Laws, who died in a nursinghome in London at the age of 83 on Monday last, is probably familiar to many as a missionary and statesman, though the fact that the starting-point of his career was medical may have escaped notice. He received a full medical education, however, at the University of Aberdeen, and later studied at the Edinburgh Presbyterian Theological College. He obtained a doctorate in both faculties and was ordained a medical missionary in 1874. He continued in medical practice as a resident in the Glasgow small-pox hospital until the founding by the United Presbyterian Church of a mission in Nyasaland in memory of Livingstone. Laws formed one of the small party sent out to organise the starting of the mission, and his medical knowledge was of great value to his comrades ; in the development of the work which followed it proved of the first importance. Two years later his wife joined him in Nyasaland, and for 50 years the Livingstonia Mission had Laws as its organising head. While he placed his work for the gospel in the forefront of his personal programme, his energy in the cause of education, his industry in acquiring native languages, and his organising power were the other qualities to which he owed his wide influence in the Protectorate. He translated the New Testament into Nyanja, and wrote an EnglishNyanja dictionary and various school-books in Nyanja and Tonga. He was nearly 80 years of age when he left Nyasaland to pass the days of his retirement in Edinburgh.
STANLEY MELVILLE
ANOTHER KIND OF MILK THE Milk Marketing Board are proceeding with their scheme for a register of " accredited " milk producers, and its operations are to begin next January. The new scheme establishes what is in effect yet another grade of milk. To become accredited, the producer must have his herds "clinically" examined once in six months by an approved veterinary surgeon, and must permanently remove all animals considered a danger to the milksupply. The county agricultural organiser will certify that the methods of production and handling are satisfactory, and the county medical officer of health or county bacteriologist will examine three samples annually and declare that their bacterial count does not exceed 200,000 per c.cm., and that Bacillus coli is absent in 0-01 c.cm. These bacteriological standards are the same as for Grade A milk on delivery, but cows supplying Grade A must be inspected every three months. Under the new scheme the accredited producer will have an extra penny a gallon for his produce, this being raised by a small levy on all producers of milk. It is hoped that with this inducement a large proportion —even a majority-will seek to qualify and that the whole standard of milk production will thereby be raised. So far so good ; and in commending the proposals the Times (August 6th) expresses surprise that " the authorities at the Ministry of ’
4 THE LANCET, 1933, i., 399.
over
scheme, because it does not, in their opinion, go
A COMMUNICATION from Sir Humphry Rolleston, Lord Rutherford, and eight representative cosignatories, asks that the services rendered to radiology in all its aspects by the late Dr. Stanley Melville should be recognised by some such suitable memorial as a travelling fellowship in radiology connected with his name. The National Physical the Laboratory, Royal Society of Medicine, the Society of Radiographers, St. George’s Hospital, and the Brompton Hospital-the two institutions with which Melville was connected, and the British Institute of Radiology, all endorse the appeal, as does the British X Ray and Radium Protection Committee. The connexion of this last body with the appeal is particularly significant, for Melville played a prominent part in bringing home vividly to the public and the medical world the dangers of X ray work as illustrated by the tragic deaths of so many of the pioneers. Melville was also active in establishing the Cambridge diploma in medical radiology and electrology ; the incorporation of the British Institute of Radiology with the Rontgen Society was another of his successful activities, for he always displayed particular anxiety with regard to the welfare of the lay-workers. Melville was himself a long and sad sufferer from injuries incurred in his professional work ; he never spared himself, and always thought of others. We commend the movement to keep alive his memory to our readers. Dr. J. Duncan White and Dr. A. E. Barclay, of the British Institute of Radiology (32, Welbeck-street, London, W.1), will receive now donations however small, and a meeting will be called later of those who subscribe to decide upon the exact form which the memorial shall take eventually.
THE medical superintendent of the new British Post-Graduate Medical School, Sir Thomas Carey Evans, has received from Mr. Arthur Evans a collection of pathological specimens illustrating The specimens are diseases of the gall-bladder. each with a clinical record of mounted, beautifully the case, and the collection will form the nucleus of the
museum
of the school.
collectors may be
as
It is
generous.
hoped
that other