- Email: [email protected]
THE DURHAM DISPUTE
755 ment in the film Another Case of Poisoning gave effective warning of the dangers of handling food carelessly, and in His Fighting Chance showed how the patients’ chances Two of recovery from poliomyelitis have improved. specialist films were also made for doctors and nurses -one on bronchography and the other on infection in
hospitals. THE BLAIR-BELL MEDALLIST A GREAT and well-deserved honour was paid to Prof. J. M. Munro Kerr on St. Andrew’s night when the obstetrical section of the Royal Society of Medicine made him the first recipient of its Blair-Bell medal, which is to be awarded quinquennially to the man or woman who has done most to advance the science of obstetrics and gynaecology. Mr. V. B. Green-Armytage, president of the section, said that for over fifty years Professor Munro Kerr has adorned and embellished his profession and specialty : " for over fifty years he has, as you know, fired and enthused countless students and postgraduates ; and,still more, for over fifty years he has certainly earned the love, affection, and regard of countless of our colleagues." After being introduced by Mr. Green-Armytage and Prof. Hilda Lloyd, P.R.C.O.G., Professor Munro Kerr received his medal at the hands of Lord Webb-Johnson, president of the society, and concluded a happy occasion with a happy speech recalling old friends and
former
days. "CITIES WITHOUT NOISE"
-
,
WHEN Elizabeth Barrett Browning complained that the world was" full of dreary noises " she can have had no inkling of the din which was destined to rend the air of the 20th century. We who live in the age of motorcycles, pneumatic drills, and neighbours’ wireless sets may well regret the passing of a time when noises were nothing worse than dreary. From excess of visual impressions we can shut our tired eyes ; but our ears are never closed, and through them, day and night, we are exposed to noises against which we can offer no defence. In addressing the Royal Society of Arts on this subject on Nov. 29, Lord Horder spoke as chairman of the Noise Abatement League, and as one who has played a prominent part in its labours. Its most tangible achievement before the war, he said, was the law on night silence in built-up areas, the effects of which were soon felt in daylight as well-and are still, as anyone who knew London twenty years ago can testify today. But the enthusiastic enemies of noise (who included H. G. Wells, A. P. Herbert, E. V. Lucas, and others of their calibre) had many irons in the fire : their sensitive ears could distinguish in the cacophony of the metropolitan orchestra such discordant instruments as the steel riveter, the ageing tramcar, the milk-cart, and the dustbin-and they fought them all. The root of the matter, said Lord Horder, is spacing. If we spread ourselves over a sufficient area we cease to offend each other with our noises ; if we gather too closely together the result is mutual discomfort : the happy mean is a problem for the architects, who have often shown their interest in this work. Noisy industries should be zoned, and high buildings alternate with lower ones ; school playgrounds should not occupy confined spaces, and airports should be sited so that aircraft need not cross the city. Noises in the home also deserve attention, and some people might be prepared to pay a little more for insulated rooms : at present (as H. G. Wells once said) ilat-dwellers are about as protected from sounds as they would be from sights if the walls were made of glass ! We must not imagine, Lord Horder continued, that 11 noise can be prevented ; some, seems, must be
it
reason, then, to suppress such noises as we can. We tolerate the blended hum of street traffic, but the roar of an unsilenced motor accelerating down the street jolts our senses and affronts our sensibility. Science, it is true, has made us noisy, but it has also given us the weapons to subdue noise, if we will only use them. Those who want to make a really unholy din should do so in the proper place-in a park, perhaps, like Whipsnade, provided for their use. " The elimination of needless noise," Lord Horder concluded, "-will never be achieved by Acts of Parliament alone-no, nor by science, however firmly we may harness it to this particular purpose It can only come about by a general recognition of the fact that needless noise is a form of selfishness and lack of thought. Thus it is the man in the street who must, eventually, decide if we shall He must get it into his have ’Cities without Noise.’ head that making a noise that is not necessary is a form of bad manners." more
.
THE DURHAM DISPUTE TRADE unionists commonly insist that their fellowworkers should join their union : by forcing employers to dismiss anyone who does not do so, they successfully apply the policy of the closed shop. The idea is that no worker ought to benefit from the efforts of a union unless he supports it by becoming a member ; and this is certainly a tenable point of view. The situation is altogether different, as the Tintes points out,! when it is the employer who insists on membership of a union against the wishes not only of the workers but also of the union concerned. That is what the Durham County Council is doing : it has decided that all who work for it must be members of an approved trade union or professional organisation, and it intends to discharge anyone who does not produce evidence of membership. Though most of the 48 doctors working for the council are, no doubt, members of professional organisations, at least 44 of them have rightly decided that this demand -made without negotiation on the national level-is unacceptable : and the British Medical Association, so far from wishing to receive new members under the council’s compulsion, is giving full aid to the objectors. The Royal College of Nursing and also the union which represents most of the 4000 teachers in County Durham are taking the same line ; and the Government has unsympathetically hinted to the council that if dismissal of teachers and doctors leads to a breakdown of its medical and educational services, central grants towards these services will no longer be payable. The council has a good record and its members are no doubt acting from sincere conviction, but, as often happens when people’s loyalties are narrow, it is managing to do a great deal of harm. Prof. E. D. ADRIAN, o.M., F.R.C.P., has been elected of the Royal Society in succession to Sir Robert Robinson, who retires after five years in office. Through his work at the Home Office as an expert on drugs and factory legislation, Sir MALCOLM DELEVINGNE was brought into contact with many members of the medical profession. He represented the British Government at international conferences on labour regulation and on the control of opium. In 1931 he was chairman of the supervisory body for the limitation of manufacture of dangerous drugs. When he retired from the Civil Service in 1932 he was nominated by the Privy Council as a member of the council of the Pharmaceutical Society. In 1936 he was chairman of the Interdepartmental Committee on the Rehabilitation of People Injured by Accidents, and three years later he presided the Emergency Committee for the Nursing over Profession. He died on Nov. 30 at the age of 82.
president
1.
Times, Dec. 1,
p. 7.
hospitals. THE BLAIR-BELL MEDALLIST A GREAT and well-deserved honour was paid to Prof. J. M. Munro Kerr on St. Andrew’s night when the obstetrical section of the Royal Society of Medicine made him the first recipient of its Blair-Bell medal, which is to be awarded quinquennially to the man or woman who has done most to advance the science of obstetrics and gynaecology. Mr. V. B. Green-Armytage, president of the section, said that for over fifty years Professor Munro Kerr has adorned and embellished his profession and specialty : " for over fifty years he has, as you know, fired and enthused countless students and postgraduates ; and,still more, for over fifty years he has certainly earned the love, affection, and regard of countless of our colleagues." After being introduced by Mr. Green-Armytage and Prof. Hilda Lloyd, P.R.C.O.G., Professor Munro Kerr received his medal at the hands of Lord Webb-Johnson, president of the society, and concluded a happy occasion with a happy speech recalling old friends and
former
days. "CITIES WITHOUT NOISE"
-
,
WHEN Elizabeth Barrett Browning complained that the world was" full of dreary noises " she can have had no inkling of the din which was destined to rend the air of the 20th century. We who live in the age of motorcycles, pneumatic drills, and neighbours’ wireless sets may well regret the passing of a time when noises were nothing worse than dreary. From excess of visual impressions we can shut our tired eyes ; but our ears are never closed, and through them, day and night, we are exposed to noises against which we can offer no defence. In addressing the Royal Society of Arts on this subject on Nov. 29, Lord Horder spoke as chairman of the Noise Abatement League, and as one who has played a prominent part in its labours. Its most tangible achievement before the war, he said, was the law on night silence in built-up areas, the effects of which were soon felt in daylight as well-and are still, as anyone who knew London twenty years ago can testify today. But the enthusiastic enemies of noise (who included H. G. Wells, A. P. Herbert, E. V. Lucas, and others of their calibre) had many irons in the fire : their sensitive ears could distinguish in the cacophony of the metropolitan orchestra such discordant instruments as the steel riveter, the ageing tramcar, the milk-cart, and the dustbin-and they fought them all. The root of the matter, said Lord Horder, is spacing. If we spread ourselves over a sufficient area we cease to offend each other with our noises ; if we gather too closely together the result is mutual discomfort : the happy mean is a problem for the architects, who have often shown their interest in this work. Noisy industries should be zoned, and high buildings alternate with lower ones ; school playgrounds should not occupy confined spaces, and airports should be sited so that aircraft need not cross the city. Noises in the home also deserve attention, and some people might be prepared to pay a little more for insulated rooms : at present (as H. G. Wells once said) ilat-dwellers are about as protected from sounds as they would be from sights if the walls were made of glass ! We must not imagine, Lord Horder continued, that 11 noise can be prevented ; some, seems, must be
it
reason, then, to suppress such noises as we can. We tolerate the blended hum of street traffic, but the roar of an unsilenced motor accelerating down the street jolts our senses and affronts our sensibility. Science, it is true, has made us noisy, but it has also given us the weapons to subdue noise, if we will only use them. Those who want to make a really unholy din should do so in the proper place-in a park, perhaps, like Whipsnade, provided for their use. " The elimination of needless noise," Lord Horder concluded, "-will never be achieved by Acts of Parliament alone-no, nor by science, however firmly we may harness it to this particular purpose It can only come about by a general recognition of the fact that needless noise is a form of selfishness and lack of thought. Thus it is the man in the street who must, eventually, decide if we shall He must get it into his have ’Cities without Noise.’ head that making a noise that is not necessary is a form of bad manners." more
.
THE DURHAM DISPUTE TRADE unionists commonly insist that their fellowworkers should join their union : by forcing employers to dismiss anyone who does not do so, they successfully apply the policy of the closed shop. The idea is that no worker ought to benefit from the efforts of a union unless he supports it by becoming a member ; and this is certainly a tenable point of view. The situation is altogether different, as the Tintes points out,! when it is the employer who insists on membership of a union against the wishes not only of the workers but also of the union concerned. That is what the Durham County Council is doing : it has decided that all who work for it must be members of an approved trade union or professional organisation, and it intends to discharge anyone who does not produce evidence of membership. Though most of the 48 doctors working for the council are, no doubt, members of professional organisations, at least 44 of them have rightly decided that this demand -made without negotiation on the national level-is unacceptable : and the British Medical Association, so far from wishing to receive new members under the council’s compulsion, is giving full aid to the objectors. The Royal College of Nursing and also the union which represents most of the 4000 teachers in County Durham are taking the same line ; and the Government has unsympathetically hinted to the council that if dismissal of teachers and doctors leads to a breakdown of its medical and educational services, central grants towards these services will no longer be payable. The council has a good record and its members are no doubt acting from sincere conviction, but, as often happens when people’s loyalties are narrow, it is managing to do a great deal of harm. Prof. E. D. ADRIAN, o.M., F.R.C.P., has been elected of the Royal Society in succession to Sir Robert Robinson, who retires after five years in office. Through his work at the Home Office as an expert on drugs and factory legislation, Sir MALCOLM DELEVINGNE was brought into contact with many members of the medical profession. He represented the British Government at international conferences on labour regulation and on the control of opium. In 1931 he was chairman of the supervisory body for the limitation of manufacture of dangerous drugs. When he retired from the Civil Service in 1932 he was nominated by the Privy Council as a member of the council of the Pharmaceutical Society. In 1936 he was chairman of the Interdepartmental Committee on the Rehabilitation of People Injured by Accidents, and three years later he presided the Emergency Committee for the Nursing over Profession. He died on Nov. 30 at the age of 82.
president
1.
Times, Dec. 1,
p. 7.