527

RUBY THOMSONM.B. EDIN., D.P.H.

Dr. Ruby Thomson, who died at her home in WestKensington on April 3 in her fifty-first year, was thedaughter of Dr. John Christopher Thomson, sometimeGovernment medical officer in Hong Kong. She

graduated in medicine at Edinburgh in 1912, and afterholding some house appointments was appointed in 1914senior medical officer to the Staffs county council, actingas chief tuberculosis officer 1915-18, interrupted by aperiod as R.M.O. at Woolwich Arsenal. A year as

assistant M.O. for maternity and child welfare in Willes-den led to her call to Fulham, where she took a full sharein the inauguration of the council’s first maternity home,infant welfare clinics, day nursery and babies’ hospital.For many years she represented the local authority onthe National Baby Week Council and on the Associationof Maternity and Child Welfare Centres, until in June1940 failing health obliged her to retire. Her loss willbe widely felt, for her honesty of purpose and enthusiasticinterest in every phase of maternal and child welfareendeared her to colleagues and patients.

Medical News

Society of Apothecaries of LondonThe following candidates, having completed the final

examination, are granted the diploma of the society entitlingthem to practise medicine, surgery and midwifery : E.Crews, Guy’s Hosp. ; M. M. El Garrahy, St. Mungo’s Coll.,Glasgow ; and S. Wetherell, Guy’s Hosp.

At the Royal Society of Medicine at 4.30 P.M. on Tuesday,April 22, the section of medicine will meet to discuss thenature and treatment of the effort syndrome. The openersare Dr. H. J. Starling, Dr. Paul Wood, Dr. Aubrey Lewis andDr. Maxwell Jones. At 5 P.M. on the same day there will bea general meeting of fellows of the society. On April 22, at4.15 P.M., at the section of comparative medicine Mr. FrederickBlakemore, D.V.S.M., will open a discussion on swine influenzain the British Isles, and Miss M. G. Macfarlane, Ph.D., and Mr.B. C. J. G. Knight, D.Sc., are to read a paper on enzymicactivities of Cl. welchii toxins. On April 26 the section oforthopaedics will meet at the Wingfield-Morris OrthopsedicHospital, Oxford. Dr. A. H. Robb-Smith and Mr. J. C.Scott will read a paper on fat embolism, and Mr. W. B. Foleywill report on cases of septic arthritis. In the afternoonat 2 P.M., Dr. J. M. Barnes and Mr. J. C. Scott will speak onthe spread of bacteria and toxins from infected wounds. Onthe same day at 2.30 P.M. at the section of physical medicineDr. P. Bauwens will open a discussion on the value of electro-diagnosis and electrotherapy in peripheral nerve lesions.This meeting will be held at Botleys Park War Hospital,Chertsey, Surrey.An ordinary meeting of the Medico-Legal Society will be

held at 26, Portland Place, London, W.1, on Thursday,April 24, at 5 P.M., when Dr. J. C. M. Matheson will read apaper on infanticide.A meeting of the subscribers of the Naval Medical Compas-

sionate Fund will be held at 3.15 P.M. on April 30 at themedical department of the Navy, 64, St. James’s Street,London, S.W.I, to elect six directors of the fund.Colonel (temporary Brigadier) C. M. Finny, F.R.C.S., late

R.A.M.C., has been appointed an honorary surgeon to theKing in succession to Colonel Benjamin Biggar, and Major-General 0. W. McSheehy, M.B., late R.A.M.C., in successionto Major-General F. D. G. Howell. Major-General J. A.Manifold, M.B., late R.A.M.C., has been appointed anhonorary physician to the King in succession to Major-General J. W. L. Scott.The Eireann Minister of Defence has appointed nine

physicians and surgeons headed by Commandant P. J.

Delaney to come to London to study civil defence arrange-ments. The mission will investigate medical problems arisingout of evacuation and visit some of the reception areas.They will study the steps which are being taken to guardagainst the spread of infectious disease, and also examinethe arrangements for maternity homes, first-aid posts,ambulance services, base hospitals, medical supplies andblood transfusion. The Ministry of Health is providing fullfacilities for the mission’s tour of inspection.

Notes, Comments and Abstracts

A PHARMACIST LOOKS FORWARDIN his address to the members of the British Phar-

maceutical Conference on April 16 Mr. A. R. Melhuish,the chairman, speaking, he said, as " a workadaypractising pharmacist," impressed on his colleagues theimportance of personality. The pharmacist, he thought,can only develop that if he trains himself so that he canexpress with confidence opinions worthy of attention ;he will be doing service to the community if he can saywith knowledge " This is rubbish," or " That is a grosslyexaggerated claim," or " This is exactly the same as apreparation in the pharmacopoeia." The line of develop-ment of public-health services can be seen clearly enough:the National Health Insurance Act, with medical,dental and ophthalmic benefits, will be extended asfunds permit to more and more of the population.Locally, medical services of local authorities will supple-ment the N.H.I. service on a basis of regional hospitals.There will be an absorption of the insurance committeesinto the local authorities’ machinery, as recommendedby the Rolleston Commission ; just as there will be amarriage between the voluntary and the municipalhospitals. In this development there will be an increas-ing growth of the pharmaceutical services of authoritiesand an increasing use of the N.H.I. system of supplyingmedicines. While a widespread network of pharmaciesexists, as it does today, bringing a dispensing service toeveryone’s door, pharmacists need not fear the spreadof state dispensaries. But they should cease to strivefor such politically unattainable goals as reservation tothe craft of the right to sell all medicines ; they will bedoing far more for themselves and for the medicalservices of the country if they devote their energies tothe fields of activity which do not involve legislation.

THE RIGHT TO FITNESSSOME say-G. K. Chesterton was one-that we are notentitled to expect anything of life, and that it is a greatpiece of luck for us that we are alive at all and enjoyingas many things as we do. Others feel that man withhis forebrain and his great opportunity has made agrievous mess of his world. Of these two attitudes- ,the optimistic and the pessimistic, perhaps-it is, oddlyenough, the pessimistic which is the more constructive,at any rate in the field of public health. Dr. AleckBourne, speaking at the Students’ Congress at Cambridge,the early part of which was noticed in our issue of April 12,spoke of good health as a right of the citizen, comparableto the right of being policed and defended. The state,he said, recognises the need for universal education butdoes not yet admit this public right to health, inasmuchas many known causes of ill health are still tolerated.He quoted the Rhondda Valley experiment as a case in’point. Vitamin therapy, in that area, halved thematernal mortality-rate, which had previously beennearly thrice the average rate for Britain. Much ofour national ill health is due to such factors as mal-nutrition, overcrowding, long working hours, ignoranceand poverty. If all curative medicine ceased and allresearch was held up for two years during which peoplewere fed adequately and housed decently he believedthat at the end of it the race would be healthier. Inhis view, national ill health will not be solved by betterdoctoring but by eradicating causal conditions ; whenthat is done we shall have a chance of building peopleresistant- to physical attack by infection and mentalattack by stress.

HOSPITAL READINGBEFORE reading became a universal accomplishment

many people must have dreaded a sick bed less for thepangs of disease than of boredom. The Guild ofHospital Librarians find 1 that only a few hospitalpatients refuse books on the grounds that they " neverread, thank you " ; most of them make good use of thehospital library. Their choice of books ds interesting ;at hospitals for sailors there is great enthusiasm for" Westerns," and the puzzled librarian wonders whether acorresponding number of cowboys yearn for a good sea

1. Book Trolley, April, 1941.