- Email: [email protected]
WOMEN DOCTORS IN WAR
727 A further method of dialysis under trial was to isolate loop of ileum surgically, bringing both ends to the surface of the abdomen and anastomosing the remaining intestine. It had been shown that perfusion of such a loop a metre long for 10 hours would remove as much as 5 g. of urea from the blood. Dr. Kolff concluded by foreseeing the time when a man in whom both kidneys had been removed might perform his nightly lavage, after daily business. going about his a
ordinary
WOMEN DOCTORS IN WAR AT
a
meeting
of the Medical Women’s International
Association, held in London from Sept. 19 to 22 under the presidency of Miss LouisAMABTiNDALE, F.R.c.o.o., women doctors from Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Great Britain, Holland, India,* Nw Zealand Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United States described the work of their
colleagues during
the
war.
IN THE FORCES
Dr. S. LAMOTTE (France) said that French medical women had won an uncontested place in the Army during the later campaigns. The occupation of France made it impossible to set up an officially recruited force, but a body of women doctors got -together and worked with the French Army in France, North -Africa, Italy, England, Alsace, and Germany-the A.F.A.T. (the French women’s auxiliary army force), formed in North Africa in 1944, contained a medical corps of over 150. After the liberation the corps set up centres for refugee children and treated deported men in Germany. Dr. Lamotte herself later joined a biological and therapeutic research station of the medical corps which studied problems of malnutrition and infection. Dr. LETITIA FAIRFIELD (London), one-time woman medical adviser to the War Office, said that medical women had been used almost interchangeably with men. The only difficulty that had arisen was over routine inspections in men’s barracks. In the recruitment and training of the A.T.S. they had also been able to suggest points where the routine of the Army must be adapted for a women’s service. Before the end of the war there were 600 women doctors in the Army. Dr. DOROTHY FENWICK (London) said that women doctors were given important work in the Air Force and were well received by their male colleagues. She herself covered 22,000 miles a year on visits of inspection, and every airwoman had the opportunity of consulting a woman medical officer. RESISTANCE
Dr. FoG (Denmark) told how medical women in her country had secretly received weapons, helped and transported saboteurs, hid refugees and parachutists, and acted as couriers. Constant coming and going made consulting-rooms a safe place of rendezvous, visits to patients afforded a means of conveying information, ambulances and hospitals were often used to save Jews and others whom the Germans were seeking, and wounded saboteurs were kept in secret clinics and private houses. Many women doctors were discovered and sent to concentration camps for long periods. Dr. DROEVER BONNET (Holland) related how one woman doctor was a leader of the whole Dutch movement, and how another who used her house as a centre of the resistance was arrested and killed by the Germans. Yet another, as chief doctor in a German internment camp. was able to help some internees to escape. Dr. ASTRID GULDBERG (Norway) told of ten women doctors who were imprisoned for their share in the resistance, and of one who went voluntarily with her Jewish patients to Germany, and has never been heard of again. Dr. DE BLAINVILLE (France) was arrested for her resistance activities in 1944 and sent to Fresne prison, near Paris, and then to Ravensbruck, the biggest concentration camp for women in Germany, where there were 1G,000 internees at one time with no medical attention. Huts were densely overcrowded, and infection Was rife. Examination for pregnancy was conducted with no attempt at cleanliness, and prostitutes mingled with healthy women. Experiments were carried out on
the prisoners with the greatest cruelty. treated
were
as
guineapigs
and then
Many women put to death.
RECONSTRUCTION
Dr. BERGEROT (France) said that 600,000 arrests were made in France during the war, and there was still no news of 250,000 people who were deported to Germany. There was an order in France that employers must take back their old employees, but this created difficulties because so many of the returning men were suffering from emotional instability, loss of memory, and physical deterioration. Dr. JEISLER (France) declared that the peak of delinquency and emotional disorder in children was reached in .1942, and had since lessened. The war had increased psychological disorders in children, but only among those who had already shown such tendencies. A few children had been found living wild in bands near the towns at the time of the wholesale deportations. Some, who had lost their parents or had seen thein maltreated, wanted to avenge them. Jewish children had been particularly difficult. The surviving children of the deportees were like little savages. They had their own laws and their own chiefs and were brutal, but with patience they were gradually coming back to normal. Dr. MiDDLBHOVBN (Holland) said that Holland had set up relief units, which had enabled them to combat in a short time the most cruel consequences of the hunger blockade. Tuberculosis and syphilis had increased
and congenital syphilis was now not uncomThe physical condition of the Dutch population of the Netherlands East Indies, who had been evacuatedto Holland after the capitulation of Japan, was deplorable, and dispensaries for tropical diseases and nutritional deficiencies had been set up. She was impressed by the training and education which the children had been given by their mothers in the Japanese camps. They behaved much better than the Dutch children,- who practically ran wild during- the war years. Those who had collaborated with the Germans presented another grave problem. They were still in camps, their children had been taken from them and placed in homes or with foster parents, as camp life was not suitable for them, and it was feared that they would become infected with Nazi ideas. The next international congress is to be held -in Holland, in June or July, 1947, when the Place of Medical Women in Post-war Reconstruction will be the topic for discussion.
alarmingly,
mon.
MENTAL DEFICIENCY IN IRELAND
NORTHERN
THE Mental Health Services Committee appointed by the minister of health and local government to investigate the problem of mental deficiency says in its report’
In Northern Ireland there is no Mental Deficiency Act, institution, no community supervision, and there is only
"
no
school (in Belfast), which is unable to meet local needs. Apart from the inadequate provision made by the Education Acts and the Poor Relief Acts, the responsibility for dealing with mental defectives has not been placed by statute on any authority and, for the most part, these unfortunate people lead a hopeless existence at home, in Poor Law institutions, or in mental hospitals... we cannot over-emphasise the need for early action." one
special
even
Ascertainment, the committee suggests, should be
improved by placing schools
a
on
medical practitioners and on to notify the mental-
statutory obligation
deficiency authority of suspected deficiency. Defectives should be dealt with by the ministry of health as the central authority, and by a regional authority composed of representatives from county and county-borough councils and other interested bodies ; this regional authority should be responsible for ascertainment. the provision and administration of institutions, and the supervision of defectives in the community. Local mental-health committees should be formed to advise the regional authority and coordinate the activities of those interested. The mental-deficiency authorities should be either amalgamated or closely associated with 1. H.M.
Stationery Office.
1s.
ordinary
WOMEN DOCTORS IN WAR AT
a
meeting
of the Medical Women’s International
Association, held in London from Sept. 19 to 22 under the presidency of Miss LouisAMABTiNDALE, F.R.c.o.o., women doctors from Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Great Britain, Holland, India,* Nw Zealand Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United States described the work of their
colleagues during
the
war.
IN THE FORCES
Dr. S. LAMOTTE (France) said that French medical women had won an uncontested place in the Army during the later campaigns. The occupation of France made it impossible to set up an officially recruited force, but a body of women doctors got -together and worked with the French Army in France, North -Africa, Italy, England, Alsace, and Germany-the A.F.A.T. (the French women’s auxiliary army force), formed in North Africa in 1944, contained a medical corps of over 150. After the liberation the corps set up centres for refugee children and treated deported men in Germany. Dr. Lamotte herself later joined a biological and therapeutic research station of the medical corps which studied problems of malnutrition and infection. Dr. LETITIA FAIRFIELD (London), one-time woman medical adviser to the War Office, said that medical women had been used almost interchangeably with men. The only difficulty that had arisen was over routine inspections in men’s barracks. In the recruitment and training of the A.T.S. they had also been able to suggest points where the routine of the Army must be adapted for a women’s service. Before the end of the war there were 600 women doctors in the Army. Dr. DOROTHY FENWICK (London) said that women doctors were given important work in the Air Force and were well received by their male colleagues. She herself covered 22,000 miles a year on visits of inspection, and every airwoman had the opportunity of consulting a woman medical officer. RESISTANCE
Dr. FoG (Denmark) told how medical women in her country had secretly received weapons, helped and transported saboteurs, hid refugees and parachutists, and acted as couriers. Constant coming and going made consulting-rooms a safe place of rendezvous, visits to patients afforded a means of conveying information, ambulances and hospitals were often used to save Jews and others whom the Germans were seeking, and wounded saboteurs were kept in secret clinics and private houses. Many women doctors were discovered and sent to concentration camps for long periods. Dr. DROEVER BONNET (Holland) related how one woman doctor was a leader of the whole Dutch movement, and how another who used her house as a centre of the resistance was arrested and killed by the Germans. Yet another, as chief doctor in a German internment camp. was able to help some internees to escape. Dr. ASTRID GULDBERG (Norway) told of ten women doctors who were imprisoned for their share in the resistance, and of one who went voluntarily with her Jewish patients to Germany, and has never been heard of again. Dr. DE BLAINVILLE (France) was arrested for her resistance activities in 1944 and sent to Fresne prison, near Paris, and then to Ravensbruck, the biggest concentration camp for women in Germany, where there were 1G,000 internees at one time with no medical attention. Huts were densely overcrowded, and infection Was rife. Examination for pregnancy was conducted with no attempt at cleanliness, and prostitutes mingled with healthy women. Experiments were carried out on
the prisoners with the greatest cruelty. treated
were
as
guineapigs
and then
Many women put to death.
RECONSTRUCTION
Dr. BERGEROT (France) said that 600,000 arrests were made in France during the war, and there was still no news of 250,000 people who were deported to Germany. There was an order in France that employers must take back their old employees, but this created difficulties because so many of the returning men were suffering from emotional instability, loss of memory, and physical deterioration. Dr. JEISLER (France) declared that the peak of delinquency and emotional disorder in children was reached in .1942, and had since lessened. The war had increased psychological disorders in children, but only among those who had already shown such tendencies. A few children had been found living wild in bands near the towns at the time of the wholesale deportations. Some, who had lost their parents or had seen thein maltreated, wanted to avenge them. Jewish children had been particularly difficult. The surviving children of the deportees were like little savages. They had their own laws and their own chiefs and were brutal, but with patience they were gradually coming back to normal. Dr. MiDDLBHOVBN (Holland) said that Holland had set up relief units, which had enabled them to combat in a short time the most cruel consequences of the hunger blockade. Tuberculosis and syphilis had increased
and congenital syphilis was now not uncomThe physical condition of the Dutch population of the Netherlands East Indies, who had been evacuatedto Holland after the capitulation of Japan, was deplorable, and dispensaries for tropical diseases and nutritional deficiencies had been set up. She was impressed by the training and education which the children had been given by their mothers in the Japanese camps. They behaved much better than the Dutch children,- who practically ran wild during- the war years. Those who had collaborated with the Germans presented another grave problem. They were still in camps, their children had been taken from them and placed in homes or with foster parents, as camp life was not suitable for them, and it was feared that they would become infected with Nazi ideas. The next international congress is to be held -in Holland, in June or July, 1947, when the Place of Medical Women in Post-war Reconstruction will be the topic for discussion.
alarmingly,
mon.
MENTAL DEFICIENCY IN IRELAND
NORTHERN
THE Mental Health Services Committee appointed by the minister of health and local government to investigate the problem of mental deficiency says in its report’
In Northern Ireland there is no Mental Deficiency Act, institution, no community supervision, and there is only
"
no
school (in Belfast), which is unable to meet local needs. Apart from the inadequate provision made by the Education Acts and the Poor Relief Acts, the responsibility for dealing with mental defectives has not been placed by statute on any authority and, for the most part, these unfortunate people lead a hopeless existence at home, in Poor Law institutions, or in mental hospitals... we cannot over-emphasise the need for early action." one
special
even
Ascertainment, the committee suggests, should be
improved by placing schools
a
on
medical practitioners and on to notify the mental-
statutory obligation
deficiency authority of suspected deficiency. Defectives should be dealt with by the ministry of health as the central authority, and by a regional authority composed of representatives from county and county-borough councils and other interested bodies ; this regional authority should be responsible for ascertainment. the provision and administration of institutions, and the supervision of defectives in the community. Local mental-health committees should be formed to advise the regional authority and coordinate the activities of those interested. The mental-deficiency authorities should be either amalgamated or closely associated with 1. H.M.
Stationery Office.
1s.