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Last month the city council approved a report based onthese principles for the staffing of its municipal hospitalsand health centres. The cost of specialist services tothe corporation when this scheme comes into full opera-tion will be £22,000 per annum-a yearly increase ofabout £11,000.

HOMŒOPATHY AND THE BILL

- Mr. ANEURIN BEVAN, the Minister of Health, withDr. J. A. Charles and Mr. J. M. K. Hawton received adeputation on June 27 from the British HomœopathicAssociation, which included Dr. Alva Benjamin, SirJohn Weir, M.B., and Dr. W. Lees Templeton. Thedeputation said that many people in all parts of thecountry wished to have homoeopathic treatment, whichshould therefore be provided for them under the NationalHealth Service. To ensure that this demand wasadequately met they asked that certain homoeopathichospitals should be designated as teaching hospitalsunder the Bill, and that the homoeopathic doctor shouldnot be debarred from practice in an area on the groundsthat there was already a sufficiency of non-homoeopathicdoctors.

In reply, Mr. Bevan said he hoped that the homoeo-pathic hospitals, in general, would come into the NationalHealth Service scheme, and he would try to preservetheir special character and atmosphere, like that of otherspecial types of hospital, by making suitable appoint-ments to the management committees, &c. He thought,however, that the regional hospital boards would haveto look at the services in any given area before a con-clusion could be arrived at about any particular hospital.He could not give any assurance as regards designatinghomoeopathic hospitals as teaching hospitals ; it was nothis function to determine what kind of training was tobe given in teaching hospitals, and the universityauthorities must come into this question. There wouldbe no discrimination against homoeopathic methods ofpractice ; equally, of course, there would be no discrimi-nation in favour of them, or of any other particularclinical methods.Many of these problems, the Minister added, might

not prove so formidable in practice as they might seemin theory, and he would gladly ask the association tomeet him again at a later stage when the preparationswere being made to bring the Act into operation.

On Active ServiceAWARDS

THE following awards have been made in recognitionof gallant and distinguished services in the Far East:

C.B.E.

Brigadier C. H. STRINGER, D.S.O., O.B.E., L.R.C.P.L, late R.A.M.o.O.B.E.

Lieut.-Colonel D. C. Chopra, M.B., I.M.s. (since died).M.B.E.

Major S. M. BANFILL, R.C.A.M.C.Major J. N. B. CRAWFORD, R.C.A.M.C.Major C. W. MAISEY, M.R.C.S., R.A.M.C. ,

Major J. A. G. REID, R.C.A.M.C.MENTIONED IN DESPATCHES

COMMANDS AND STAFF

Colonels.-E. PERCIVAL, D.S.O., M.C., late R.A.M.C.; V. H.WARDLE, M.C., late R.A.M.C.

R.A.M.C.

Brigadier D. S. MIDDLETON.Colonels.-J. BENNET, J. TAYLOR, O.B.E.Lieut.-Colonels.-J. W. CRAVEN, M.C., W. G. HARVEY.Majors.-H. M. S. G. BEADNELL, M.B.E., P. R. GRAVES,

M.B.E., H. HENDERSON.Captains.-J. E. A. BARTLETT, M. H. CHURCHILL, T. R. S.CORMACK, E. K. CRUICKSHANK, J. G. JESSON, W. H.McDONALD, J. A. MARK, T. B. SMILEY, M.C., R. B. C.WELSH.

R.C.A.M.C.

Major G. C. GRAY. _

The President of the United States has conferred the degreeof officer in the Legion of Merit on Major-General Sir EdwardPhillips, K.B.E., o.B., D.s.o., M.C., M.B., late R.A.M.C., and thebronze star medal on Colonel Thomas Parr, M.D., R.A.M.C.

In England NowA Running Commentary by Peripatetic CorrespondentsYou will remember King Aethelbeorht (the vulgar

call him Ethelbert), who married Bertha, and receivedSt. Augustine under an oak tree, and became the firstChristian king of England. Well, they had Laws even inthose days, and I want to call the attention of Mr. Paling,Minister of Pensions, to their excellence. For example,Aethelbeorht says that " if the eye and foot of a servantare destroyed by wounds his full value shall be paid."The Ministry, Allowing for the difference of outlook inso many hundred years, says much the same thing, butyou have to lose the eye and a leg above the knee to besure of 100 %. Of course, the comparison betweenAethelbeorht and Mr. Paling is not perfect. Aethelbeorhtis talking about single payments in cash or cows whileMr. Paling is concerned with weekly payments. But wecan make some sort of comparison. Here are some ofthe things for which compensation of 12s. was due inA.D. 600-if an ear is struck off, if the power of speechis injured, if the belly is wounded, if the thigh is broken.That was Aethelbeorht’s code. Now look at Mr. Paling’s.Loss of an ear 7 % only, but complete loss of speech wouldprobably be 100 %, and abdominal wounds and thighfractures would be judged upon the amount of disable-ment produced. The comparison is in favour of Mr.Paling, and Aethelbeorht appears rather stolid andunimaginative. ’

On the other hand his Laws did, in other directions,imagine ways of incurring a 12s. compensation whichwould shock Mr. Paling’s department. Thus 12s. wasthe proper compensation payable (I expect the Kingand his relatives shared it) for excessive attachment toa widow, that is, if she was of the third class : a second-class widow cost the offender 20s. If the lady wasmarried, and her husband alive, the freeman involvedmust buy the wife from her husband, and then providehim with a new wife at whatever it might cost him. Thisseems rather hard upon the husband who was thusdeprived of the sanctions of the unwritten law. Hemight not indulge in physical retaliation, for " if oneman strikes another on the nose with his fist 3s. com-pensation was payable, and if the haemorrhagic nosewas carried to a doctor for treatment a further 30s.had to be paid. This argues that the medical treatmentof Aethelbeorht’s day was not to be lightly borne or,perhaps, that the doctors were so skilled that they wereworth a fee of what, in modern money, would certainlybe at least £50.

Mr. Bevan ought to be told about this. He is aProgressive (or a backslider, everything depends uponthe point of view) and now he is offering a paltry 12s. 6d.for a whole year’s treatment while Aethelbeorht lays itdown that we ought to have £50 for treating an epistaticnose, or ought it to be " epistasic " ? It is true thatAethelbeorht was a mere Anglo-Saxon, while Mr. Bevanis an obvious Celt, but even Celtic doctors were betterpaid than we are going to be. For example, for treatinga bishop the Celtic doctor could expect a fee of 40 cows,and even a slave was worth 2 cows, or the equivalent insheep or goats. There are no slaves here nowadays andevery man is as good as a bishop, or better. It is abun-dantly evident that we ought to have at least a capitationfee of 40 cows, according to the Brehon code, which wasprobably just as much Welsh as Irish, although St.Patrick seems to be mixed up with it somehow. So letus face this upstart Welshman with cries of " back toAethelbeorht " and " give us our cows."

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Like me, they had obviously come over to Yarmouthfor the day. It was late afternoon, and Father, Mother,and Auntie had had enough of it. Three-year-old Binkie,weary and fractious, was lagging behind. Mother turnedand spoke sharply to him-" Binkie, if you don’t some-thing-or-other I shall something-else ; you see if I don’t."With the time-stopping sensation of déjd vu I knew exactlywhat was going to happen next : and it did. Binkie totteredforward wildly to catch up, tripped, fell, and lay prone,bellowing to high heaven for comfort and sympathy,Mother, torn between conflicting emotions, jerked himup, petted him, dusted his clothes roughly, wiped hisface gently, chid him, and gave him to Father to carry.