458 EPSOM COLLEGE WAR MEMORIAL.

EPSOM COLLEGE WAR MEMORIAL.

IN 1895 the late Sir Arthur Blomfield presentedhis designs for the rebuilding of the old chapel atEpsom College, but because of lack of funds and otherreasons, it was possible to build part only of thenew chapel then planned. A new chancel was

accordingly built and completed by the end of 1895.For 30 years the boys have used their chapel withits new chancel and old nave. The completion of theoriginal plans has been eagerly awaited amongstall Epsomians past and present, and the Council,actively supported by the Old Epsomian Club,decided that no more fitting war memorial to the

Lambeth Parish Church (where the school has itsmission), the vicars of Christ Church and St.Barnabas, Epsom, and the two school chaplains.After the Bishop’s procession had entered the chapel,wreaths were placed beneath the war memorial tabletby the head prefect, the second master, and thepresident of the Old Epsomian Club, and then theheadmaster read the names of the 140 past studentsand masters, of whom the new nave stands a memorialto all who follow them. The Bishop’s address-" The leaves of the .tree are for the healing of thenations "-while reviewing the fundamental principlesfor which this and all war memorials stand, camechiefly as a message to the boys of the College,emphasising that it was for them to continue the work

The New Chapel at Epsom.

old boys who fell in the late war could be desiredthan the completion of the chapel. After six yearsof careful planning the new nave has been added tothe chancel. Mr. Arthur Blomfield has been respon-sible for adapting and carrying out his father’s originaldesigns ; the work has cost £11,500, of which £2000 Iremains to be collected. The chapel is built of redbrick with Bath stone windows and dressings, and hasa seating capacity of 650. The choir are placedin the chancel facing inwards, while the seating ofthe congregation differs from that in the old chapel,in that chairs are used instead of pews and theseall now face the east. In addition there is a galleryat the west end. The whole of the heating andlighting systems are new, while the organ has beenre-erected in a new organ chamber on the south sideof the nave.On Saturday, Feb. 21st, in the presence of a large

gathering of parents, relatives, and old Epsomians,the new nave was consecrated by the Bishop ofWinchester " in memory of those from Epsom Collegewho gave their lives in the Great War in the cause ofRighteousness, Liberty, and Peace." The Bishopwas attended by two past headmasters, Rev. T. N. 11.Smith Pearse and the Rev. W. J. Barton, by two pastchaplains to the College, Rev. J. M. Swift and Rev.J. A. Davies, M.C., and by Bishop Hook, the ruraldean and vicar of Epsom the rector and curates of

begun with such sacrifice by their brother Epsomiansbefore them, that is, to work for the betterment ofthe world and the advent of universal peace. Theservice concluded with the " Te Deum," the " LastPost," and the National Anthem.Among the large gathering present were Lord

Dawson of Penn, Sir Ernest Goodhart, many members.of the Council, and many old Epsomians, includingDr. Arthur Kapper, who entered the school in 1855,the year of its opening. To the great regret of all,Lord Rosebery, the President of Epsom College, andSir Henry Morris, Bart., were both unable to attendthrough ill-health.

It may be recalled that Epsom College has nowentered upon its seventieth year. It is difficult to-realise that its foundation pensionerships and scholar-ships, its present position, and the wonderfuleducational facilities it offers, could possibly beunknown to any medical man or woman, but judgingby the unequal support accorded to it by the professionin general this must be so. During the last few years-the numbers at the school have rapidly increased,and to-day there are 331 boys, and not one more canbe fitted in anywhere ; there is a waiting-list of over400 names. As recently as last December 1 wesupported the appeal made by Dr. Raymond Crawfurd,

1 THE LANCET, 1924, ii., 1293.

459PARIS.-BUCHAREST.

chairman of the Council, in unqualified terms and- nothing further need be said now, save that thevisit to Epsom for last Saturday’s ceremony provedthat while its medical foundation remains the

very essence of its being, the College is becominggenerally recognised as a public school of highstanding in the country.

PARIS.

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

Tests for Motor and Tram Drivers.THE excellent motor-bus and tram service provided

by the S.T.C.R.P. (Société des Transports en Commun I,de la Region Parisienne) could hardly be improved, Ibut the directors of this concern never rest on theirlaurels, and are always seeking to add to the efficiencyof their service. The latest innovation is the provision ’’,of a psycho-technic laboratory which was formallyopened last month, and which is intended as a testing-house of the human machinery employed on the motor- buses and trams. The tests conducted at this labora- ’,tory resemble in certain respects those already in ’,general use for prospective aviators ; the reactionof would-be drivers to a variety of stimuli is studiedunder artificial conditions made to resemble as closelyas possible those under which drivers will find them-selves in normal circumstances. The tests are to be Iapplied also to drivers who have had some mishap, ’,and whose capacity to continue at work is questioned. ’,In addition to purely dynamic tests-i.e., investiga-tions of the muscular power and the fatigue responseof the persons examined-a number of psycho-motortests have been devised. The prospective driverfinds himself seated on a motor-bus surrounded byhandles and levers and confronted by a cinema filmportraying as many vehicles and pedestrians as canpossibly crowd together at one time on to the road.He is further confronted by red and green lights,noises of all descriptions, and his reactions to one andall of these stimuli are faithfnlly and mercilesslyrecorded-whether he presses the right brake, and,if he is a tram driver, rings his bell at the right moment,and does other appropriate things-and thus his

capacity to thread the congested streets of Paris isjudged. It is proposed that every driver shall undergothe tests of this laboratory at intervals of five yearsup to the age of 50, by which time he will, no doubt,be ripe for a less nerve-racking vocation. Con-sidering that the company concerned possesses1500 motor-buses and 2500 trams it is clear that thisnew psyclio-technic laboratory will not be idle.In France it is hoped that a service of a similar naturewill soon be provided for all motor drivers, amateuras well as professional, and that a means will thusbe forthcoming for the elimination of the unfit driver.

Poison Gas and Tuberculosis.

At a conference on the respiratory sequelæ ofpoisoning by warfare gases, held recently at Val-de-Crrace, Prof. E. Sergent, of Paris, stated that poisoningby gas, in itself, was not sufficient to cause tuber-culosis-a statement which was based on clinicalobservations, statistics, and experimental evidence.When an aggravation or a sudden recrudescence oftubercle is observed following poisoning by warfaregas, one must assume that there has been a reinfectionof the injured lung by active and latent tuberculosis.When a late pulmonary infection appears in a patientwho has been previously gassed, this cannot be laiddirectly to the account of the gas, but other generalfactors must be taken into account, apart from thegas, such as accidental reinfection or recrudescencethrough lowered resistance in the patient.

Anti-microbic Properties of River- and Sea-water.A most interesting communication, from the

hygienic point of view, was read on this subject to

the Academy of Medicine by I)r. Arloing, professorof experimental and comparative medicine and ofbacteriology at Lyons. From a study of the watersof the Rhone, the Sa6ne, the Isere, the Brac, theRomanche, the estuary of the Seine, and the road-stead and harbour of Le Havre, he found that theserwaters had remarkable bactericidal properties withrespect to certain organisms of the intestinal group.Dr. Arloing attributes these properties to a bacterio-phagic and bacteriolytic action of the water,varying with its regional source. Thus the Rhoneand the Isere have a marked antipathy towardsthe typhoid organisms, the Isere and other streamsin the neighbourhood of Grenoble, including waterfrom melted snow, having a particularly destructiveaction on paratyphoid A, while the waters at Le-Havre are inimical to the B. dysenterice. Thebacteriolytic effect on the B. coli is the most general,and this is found particularly in slow-flowing, impurewater (Sa6ne, Seine, and harbour of Le Havre).The anti-microbic action is usually more markedbelow than above an important locality. Thisbacteriolytic property, from its biological character,seems to be bacteriological rather than physico-chemical.

BUCHAREST.

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

Transplantation of Eyes.SOME years ago a young Hungarian scientist ,

Dr. Koppanyi, created a stir by his claim tohave transplanted eyes in vertebrate animals withsuch success that a certain amount of visualpower was regamed through the transplantedorgan. Koppanyi demonstrated the results of hisexperiments at the Ophthalmological Congressheld in Vienna in 1921, but the Congress was notprepared to regard his claims as proven. Furtherexperiments along Koppanyi’s lines were, however,sanctioned by the Congress, and one of the workers whoundertook research in this field was a Transylvanianophthalmologist, Dr. 1BTicholas Blatt. Dr. Blatt pur-sued his practical investigations for over two years,during which time he experimented upon over

600 animals, 400 fresh water fishes, 200 rabbits, andseveral chickens. In all cases the animals werenarcotised before the operation. The most that canbe said for the experiments is that anatomicalhealing took place in 26 cases among the 400 fishes,in 2 cases among the 200 rabbits, and in no case

among the chicken experiments. Be made someinteresting observations on such phenomena as colourchange in fishes when one eye had been trans-planted, that is, for all practical purposes, in fishesblinded in one eye; but out of the sum total ofthe attempts made to re-create sight nothing ofvalue to afflicted human beings emerged. A ratherpathetic sidelight on his work is the fact that hehad to hide himself away in a small and speciallyerected laboratory because, when the nature of hisexperiments was voiced abroad, hundreds of blindpeople flocked to him in the hope of receiving " newlamps for old."

Anatomical Cadavera in the RumanianUniversities.

The starting-point of the anti-Semitic feeling whichhas run high in the Rumanian Universities duringthe past two years, and has led to several veryregrettable incidents, may be traced to the demandof the Christian medical students that Jewish medicalstudents should be excluded from the classes of prac-tical anatomy, except in so far as their dissections werelimited to Jewish cadavera. This demand was rejectedby the professors, but the attitude of the Christianstudents was so firm that, in order to ensure the peace-ful continuance of regular studies, a compromise hadto be made, in conjunction with the Minister of Public