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Notes and News

CHARING CROSS HOSPITAL

THE board of governors of Charing Cross Hospital hasaccepted in principle a proposal by the Ministry of Healthfor the rebuilding of the hospital and the associated medicalschool on the site of Fulham Hospital in West London. The

Ministry’s proposal has been approved by the UniversityGrants Committee and the University of London. The formerplan, which called for reconstruction of hospital and schoolat Northwick Park, was opposed by the U.G.C. and theuniversity on the score that this site was too far from thecentre of London.

A DANISH CENTENARY

ON Sept. 1 the centenary of the Danish Medical Associationis to be celebrated in Copenhagen. The Almindelige DanskeLsegeforening was founded on Sept. I, 1857, by Dr. AndreasBlack (1819-1892) ; and its membership has swelled from aninitial 80 to 1500 in 1907 and 5689 at the present time. Theassociation’s fine house in Copenhagen, Domus Medica, wasbought in 1948 to replace the old Dbmus Medica, near Amalien-borg Castle, which was blown up in the 1939-45 war as areprisal against Danish doctors who opposed the Germanoccupying force. The chairman this year is Dr. CharlesJacobsen, a general practitioner in Copenhagen.

SURGEONS’ BATTLE

A NEW popular history of medicine,1 written by an Americanlay writer, is essentially a history of surgery describing inbiographical form those who have fought the four greatbattles for the control of hsemorrhage, pain, infection, andshock. These accounts include Vesalius, Pare, Harvey,John Hunter, Ephraim McDowell, Lister, Halsted, and

Cushing. They are well written, but medical detail is scanty,and there are curious twists of emphasis. The account ofHunter stresses the eccentric and ludicrous sides of hischaracter, until the author sees for the first time Reynolds’sportrait in the Royal College of Surgeons ; she then realisesthat he was " beyond everything else an idealist, a visionary,a poet of science." The macabre, bizarre background ofParis in the days of Vesalius and his constant quarrels withSylvius dominate this section of the book.

LEFT-HANDED DOCTOR

READERS whose memories reach back to our preperipateticGrains and Scruples series will recall the lively and free-

ranging pen of Peter Quince, bellows-mender. In a new book 2

the same pen, candid almost to embarrassment, tells the storyof his seven years in a Norfolk village practice, before bellows-mending claimed him for its own. Granting always that ourprofession’s prevailing practice or pastime of undressing inpublic almost to nakedness is a good one, the book can bewarmly commended.A left-handed doctor is, in this case, one who conducts

village operatic and choral societies with his right hand, hispractice with his left-or so Peter Q. would have us believe.Each hand, it seems, after some initial gaffes, learned and didits job, and even worked in, more or less, with the other, giving,each in its field, some very creditable performances. Thebook should prove instructive to the larval doctor, revealingto the layman, and entertaining to both.

University of CambridgeOn Aug. 3, the following degrees were conferred : M.D.—T. B. Anderson, *G. H. Dhenin, R. L. Huckstep, J. S.

Mitchell, M. J. D. Newman, J. R. H. Pinkerton, C. B. Prowse,T. J. Rendle-Short, R. V. Walley, Pow-Meng Yap.M.B. B.Chir.-*R. A. Barron, N. G. A. Gracey, J. G. Halberstam,

A. J. Hosking, *J. E. Portelly, *T. S. Worthy.M.B.—*Rahul Banerjee, P. A. F. Chalk, W. J. Cliff, *D. A.

Crockford, * T. R. P. Cullinan, * Katharine E. Cuthbert, Sonia R.Dias Bandaranaike, *D. C. Dumonde, *M. W. Haslett, I. M.Jessiman, *B. A. Latham, D. A. Nightingale, *J. W. B. Palmer,Anne W. Peryer, R. A. N. Petrie, *D. BV. Potts, *J. E. Robinson,*June M. Wilby, *Elma P. Wyatt..

* By proxy.

1. Scalpel : Men Who Made Surgery. By AGATHA YOUNG. London:Robert Hale. 1957. Pp. 311. 21s.

2. Left Handed Doctor. By PETER QUINCE. London : J. M. Dent.1957. Pp. 194. 16s.

University of OxfordAt a congregation on Aug. 3 the degree of B.M. was conferred

on the following :Mary M. Addison, S. R. Coverley, Ruth S. Davies, and A. J. Ferris,

University of LondonThe following degrees have been awarded:M.D.—K R. Dempster, Stanley Dische, A. E. Dormer,M.S.-Marco Caine, J. C. S. Leverton.

College of General PractitionersThe first Pfizer lecture of the Northern Home Counties

Faculty of the college will be delivered on Sept. 26 at Univer.sity College Hospital Medical School, London, W.C.l, at 8 P.M.,by Lady Isobel Barnett, M.B., whose subject will be WhyDon’t we Live to be a Hundred ?The lecture is open to doctors who are not members of the college.

Tickets may be had from Dr. D. G. Wilson, 19, Chiltern Avenue,Bushey, Herts.

Radio-isotopes in Scientific ResearchAn international conference on radio-isotopes in scientific

research, convened by UNESCO, will be held in Paris on

Sept. 9-20. Sir John Cockcroft, director of the Atomic

Energy Research Establishment, will preside over the coll-

ference. The main purpose of the conference will be theexposition and discussion of new ideas and methods for theuse of radio-isotopes in biology, physiology, agriculture,medicine, oceanography, and industrial research. Furtherinformation can be had from UNESCO House, 19, AvenueKleber, Paris, 16.

Ophthalmological Society of the United KingdomThis society offers a Treacher Collins prize (£100) for the

best essay, by a doctor of any nationality, on the Eye inRelation to the Collagen Diseases. Essays should be sub-mitted by Dec. 31, 1959, to the hon. secretary of the society,45, Lincoln’s Inn Fields, London, W.C.2.

CORRIGENDUM : Surgery in Hœmophilia—In the article byDr. R. G. Macfarlane and his colleagues (Aug. 10, p. 251) thereference to Fraenkel, G. J. (1957) should have read J. R. Coll.Surg. Edinb. (in the press).

AppointmentsCOOPER, R. S., M.B. Lond., D.P.H. : deputy M.o.H., deputy principal

M.o.,Luton.DISLEY, PHYLLIS J., M.B. Glasg., D.P.H.: assistant M.o., public health

department, Liverpool.ELITxoRrr, ALICK, M.D. Camb., M.R.C.P. : part-time consultant

physician in psychological medicine, Royal Free Hospital Group,London. ,

HUNT, F. T., M.B. Lond., D.P.H.: senior assistant M.o.H., Derby. ’

JONES, BRYAN, M.B. Wales, B.so.: M.o., North Western Gas Board,Manchester.

MucELOW, E. H., M.B. Birm., D.M.R.D., F.F.R. : consultant radiolo-gist, United Birmingham Hospitals.

POOL, MONICA B., M.B. Sheff., D.C.H.: assistant M.o.H., assistantschool M.o., Oldham.

REEVES, R. G. W., M.B. Birm. : part-time medical superintendent,Chard and District Hospital (chronic sick section).

WILLIAMS, MARY P. K., M.B. Lpool., D.P.H.: assistant M.o., publichealth department, Liverpool.

Fife County Council :FRASER, 1. A., M.B. Aberd., D.P.H., D.C.H.: assistant M.o..

Cowdenbeath area.GARDINER, ROBERT, M.B. Aberd., D.P.H. : assistant M.o., Auchter-

derran area.iNNEa, GEORGE, M.B. Aberd., D.P.H. : assistant M.o., Markinch

area.

Sheffield Regional Hospital Board :JOHNSTONE, J. M., M.D. St. And. : consultant pathologist-in-

charge, Grimsby area hospitals.KIDD, H. B., M.B. Camb. : senior assistant psychiatrist, Carlton

Hayes hospital, Narborough, nr. Leicester.MACFARLANE, ARCHIBALD, M.B. Edin., M.R.C.P.E.: consultant

pathologist, Mansfield area hospitals.

Births, Marriages, and Deaths

BIRTHS

CARTER.—On Aug. 18, at Redbill County Hospital, to June (neeJarvis) and Keith Carter-a daughter (Valerie Jill).

DICKINSON.—On Aug. 15, at University College Hospital, London.to Elizabeth (nee Farrell) and John Dickinson-a daughter.

LICHTER.—On June 29, in Johannesburg, to Heather (nee Lloyd)and Ivan-a daughter, Shelley, sister to David, Jonathan.and Barry.