Page:The Late Sir William Thorburn (Br. Med J.).djvu/2

 frequent contact with Sir William. At this period he was more concerned with the organization of work and with broad generalizations, yet I do not think he ever showed himself to greater advantage than in his dealings with these cases at this time; at this time, also, he was suffering severely from his own personal bereavements. After the war I knew him as a colleague on the staff of the Royal Infirmary, and another side of his complex character dominated. Questions of hospital policy and details of medical administration received the same attention as in earlier days had been expended upon the cutaneous distribution of apinal segments, or the clinical aspects of the cervical rib, and were left again in the same state of completeness.

It became more and more obvious during these latter years that Sir William's interests were turning in the direction of medical politics, and his untimely death has been a blow to all of us, his students and his colleagues, who felt that he might one day have filled with distinction the presidential chair of the Royal College of Surgeons. Sir William was, I should say, by nature a very nervous and a very self-conscious man, and his aloofness and somewhat terrifying personality were of the nature of over-compensation in the opposite direction. Such men are not always sufficient for themselves, but it is among them, often enough, that the best workers are found.

A special service was held on March 21st at the Manchester Cathedral, which was filled by a large congregation, medical and lay women as well as men, who attended to pay their last respects to a friend and fellow worker or trusted adviser. The Royal College of Surgeons of England was represented by Sir Berkeley Moynihan and Mr. Thelwall Thomas; the University of Manchester by Professors H. B. Dixon, J. Shaw Dunn, J. S. B. Stopford, T. F. Tout, and R. B. Wild; the University of Liverpool by its vice-chancellor, Dr. Adami; the Army Medical Service by Colonel F. H. Westmacott; and the Manchester Medical Society by Sir William Milligan. The Board of Management of the Manchester Royal Infirmary, the Medico-Ethical Association, the old Owensian Society, and the St. Andrews Society of Manchester were also represented. Very many members of the staff of the Manchester Royal Infirmary were present, and also representatives of the nurses, as well as many personal friends in the profession. The interment took place afterwards at the Manchester Southern Cemetery.



Dr. of Pontardawe died on March 4th aged 58. He was the son of the late Rev. William Rees, vicar of Llandovery, was educated at Llandovery and at the London Hospital Medical College, and took the diplomas of M.R.C.S. and L.R.C.P. Lond. in 1888. After serving as clinical assistant to out-patients and in the skin department of the London Hospital, medical officer to the Provident Dispensary, Bethnal Green, and as senior resident surgeon to the Royal Sea-Bathing Hospital, Margate, he succeeded Dr. Grice Jones in practice at Pontardawe some twenty-three years ago. He was medical officer to the Pontardawe and District Fever Hospital at Gellynudd since its opening. Dr. Rees, who was a member of the Swansea Division of the British Medical Association, was a keen sportsman, and well known as a Rugby footballer in his hospital days. He is survived by two sons and two daughters. 

We regret to announce the death of Dr. of Madras. He was educated at the University of Edinburgh, took the Scottish triple qualification in 1887, and became M.R.C.P. Edin. the following year. He also took the Diploma in Public Health of the University of Liverpool in 1909, and four years later the Diploma in Tropical Medicine at the University of London. After serving as surgeon to the Victoria Hospital, Swindon, he became medical officer of the South Indian Railway, where he gained the respect of all with whom he came in contact, and was particularly popular in the social life of Trichinopoly, where the headquarters of the railway are situated. Owing to the depletion of South India of its I.M.S. officers in consequence of the war, Dr. Hayes's services were requisitioned by the Government, and be was appointed to act as superintendent of the Madras Lunatic Asylum, in the work of which instiution he showed great interest, especially in regard to the welfare of the inmates. Dr. Hayes was honorary treasurer of the South Indian and Madras Branch of the British Medical Association, and was lieutenant-colonel in the Indian Defence Force Medical Department. 

The death of Sir calls for at least passing notice here. He was born in 1856, and at an early age became a clerk in the Medical Department of the Local Government Board. He was a man of unusual ability and energy, possessed by the ambition commonly associated with these qualities, and that department then afforded little scope; he left it in 1831 for the Stock Exchange clearing house, and afterwards, in 1887, became secretary of the Royal Agricultural Society. He was the first incumbent of the office of Lecturer on Agricultural History at Cambridge (1896-99). Owing to a mistaken policy for which Clarke was in part held responsible, he retired from the service of the Royal Agricultural Society in 1905 and had not since held any public appointment. During the eighties he was an assiduous and valued contributor to this. It is difficult, even for those who lived through it, to put the mind back to the state of things in public health at that time. The awakening had begun, and the British Medical Association, through its old Public Health Committee, and its , then edited by Ernest Hart, with Clarke as one of his most trusted advisers; did much to stimulate public opinion to demand better things. A great deal of the time and energy of medical men and of the space of this were occupied in arguing for propositions which are now commonplaces; big epidemics of typhoid fever were still common, tuberculosis was popularly regarded as a hereditary disease by which certain families were inevitably affected, the death rate was high, and the infant death rate still higher. Clarke whole-heartedly believed that these things could be mended, and worked ardently with the limited means open to him to end them. It was a characteristic example of English slowness to entertain new principles that means were not found to keep him in the central public health service. It was not the fault of the sorely tried medical department of that day. 



Medical Research Council issued, on March 29th, a report entitled the Schick Test, Diphtheria and Scarlet Fever (H.M. Stationery Office, ls. net), by Surgeon Commander Sheldon F. Dudley, R.N. The report is founded on a study of the incidence of diphtheria and scarlet fever in the Royal Naval School at Greenwich. The author has been able to differentiate between the invisible "epidemics of carriers" and "epidemics of immunization" on the one hand, and the visible epidemics of disease on the other. He concludes that the Schick test is a reliable method for ascertaining who are immune to dipheria, and that the percentage of doubtful reactions can be reduced to two or three. We propose to refer more fully to this valuable report in our next issue. agreement of the Royal Institution for lectures after Easter include a course of four lectures by Sir Arthur Keith on the machine of human evolution; the first of this course will be given on April 10th at 3 p.m. Two lectures, of which the first will be given on May 31st, will be delivered by Sir William M. Bayliss, on the nature of enzyme action; and among the Saturday afternoon lectures are two by Dr. Leonard Williams on the physical and physiological foundations of character, of which the first will given on April 28th. memorandum on the Dangerous Drugs Regulations prepared by the Home Secretary in conjunction with the Minister of Health and the Scottish Board of Health, which was reproduced in the on January 13th, 1923 (p. 69), has now now printed and put on sale. Copies may be obtained, price 2d. each, through any bookseller or direct from the Stationery Office at Imperial House, Kingsway, London, W.C.2, or the dépôts at Edinburgh, Manchester, and Cardiff.

or the Gifford Edmonds prize in ophthalmology awarded every two years for the best compilation on a subject dealing with ophthalmology and including original work, must be sent by December 31st, 1924; the subject selected for the next award is irido-cyclitis. Particulars of the prize can be obtained on application to the Secretary, Royal London Ophthalmic Hospital, City Road, E.C.1. has contributed an introduction to a Book, Medical Practice in Africa and the East, which is about to be published by the Student Christian Movement. The book consists of a series of open letters on professional subjects from men and women doctors with many years' experience in India, China, or Africa. 