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MORE AND SAFER MILK

To the Edtior of THE LANCETSIR,-In your paragraph last week on More and

Safer Milk you report the Minister of Health as havingsaid that " the more the consumption of milk wasincreased the more important did it become tosecure the safety of the supply." Most doctorswould agree to this but how many are doing anythingto implement it ? Everywhere the public is beingurged to drink more milk or to supply it to others.The under-five population and nursing mothers arelikely to follow school-children as subsidised recipients.If a voice whispers " what of milk-borne disease ? "lay bodies brush it aside, saying " that is the doctors’business." It is the doctors’ business but so fewtrouble to mind it. They feel that the Ministry ofHealth should see to that. The Ministry is upagainst the Treasury and the Treasury must consideragricultural interests too. So the ball rolls fromone to another with the net result of an increasingsubsidy for unsafe milk.

Is not this an occasion when general practitionersmight actively support medical officers of health bydemanding that subsidy and safety should marchtogether ?

I am, Sir, yours faithfully,ESTHER CARLING.

WANTED A HOSPITAL EMBLEM

To the Editor of THE LANCETSiR,-Now that the matter of a hospital emblem

in connexion with a Hospital Week in London isunder consideration, it might be opportune to askthe College of Heralds to submit designs for a

hospital flag which in miniature might be adopted

for Hospital Week in London. It would be a pityto have one emblem for Hospital Week in Londonand a flag of another design flown by hospitals ontheir fete days and on State occasions. The councilof the British Hospitals Association have had thematter of a hospital flag up for consideration and itis mainly the cost that has so far deterred themfrom taking steps to meet the wish expressed byseveral hospitals for a properly designed flag.

I am, Sir, yours faithfully,R. H. P. ORDE,

Hon. Secretary, The British Hospitals Association.

RADIOGRAM AND RADIOGRAPH

To the Editor of THE LANCETSiR,-In your issue of Jan. 30th Radiogrammarian

writes : "roentgenograph and roentgenogram are toodistinctively American to gain ready acceptance inthis country." Far from being " too distinctivelyAmerican " those words are not even distinctivelyAmerican. They, and the other derivatives of,roentgen are used almost exclusively in the Scandi-navian and German literature. Acta Radiologica’spreference for roentgenology, roentgenogram, &c., iswell known, and there is, in my opinion, much tocommend it. Surely it is not inappropriate to namea science after its founder, or an X ray photographafter the scientist who made the first one ?

Finally, why not be as international in our ter-minology as possible ? °l If American, Scandinavian,German, and other roentgenologists prefer roent-

genogram, &c., then I think that that is an excellentreason for using them in preference to the derivativesof radio.

I am, Sir, yours faithfully,Feb. 4th. ROENTGENOLOGIST.

OBITUARY

S. HARRY HARRIS, M.D. Sydney, F.R.A.C.S.THE announcement of the death of Dr. Harry Harris

of Sydney, New South Wales, will have been readwith deep regret by his fellow urologists. Onlylast year he spent several months in this country,taking part in discussions, and demonstrating inour theatres his operation of prostatectomy withprimary closure of the bladder. At first condemnedhere, much to the disappointment of its originator,Harris’s method of prostatectomy has steadily gainedin favour and has been widely adopted. Actuallythe first description of it appeared in a paper read atthe Australasian Medical Congress held in Dunedinin March, 1927. Like many important originalpapers, however, it attracted little attention, andHarris’s visit to Europe in 1935 was in the nature ofa crusade against what he regarded as unreasonableprejudice. He was determined to demonstrate theadvantages of his method, and although he was inindifferent health, he worked with such industry thatthere were few who had not the opportunity of watch-ing him operate. His enthusiasm was infectious andhe made many converts. It will be a gratification tohis friends that he lived long enough to see his workvindicated. It was no light task for a surgeon livingin Australia to drive home his claims against a

definitely hostile school of opinion, but few obstaclescould withstand his determination. The majorityof British genito-urinary surgeons are now preparedto admit that although his technique is unlikely

ever to be used as a routine, it has gained an importantplace in prostatic surgery.Another operation with which Harris’s name is

connected is that of renal sympathectomy. For over

eight years he carried out denervation of the renalpedicle and was therefore in a position to speakauthoritatively of its scope and its limitations. Thecondition in which he found that renal sympathectomygave the most favourable results is the one for whichhe coined the somewhat awkward term of " renal

sympathetico-tonus." This condition of overactionof the sympathetic nerves of the renal pedicle hecompared to Hirschsprung’s disease of the largebowel, and his views on it were fully described in anarticle he published in these columns two years ago.

Harris was educated at Sydney Grammar School,of which he was captain in 1900.. He representedSydney University at cricket, and after a residentpost at Sydney Hospital entered general practice.In 1914 he joined the staff of the Lewisham Hospitaland from 1918 onwards he was purely a consultant.Dying at the comparatively early age of 56, he leavesa widow and one son. Two of his brothers are membersof the medical profession.

ANDREW DANIEL CLINCH, M.D. Dubl.Dr. Clinch, who died on Feb. 2nd, was formerly a

medical inspector of the Department of Local Govern-ment and Public Health, and was one of the bestknown and best liked medical men in Ireland.

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Educated at Belvedere College and Trinity College,Dublin, he qualified in 1898 and a few months laterwas appointed dispensary medical officer of theClondalkin district, Co. Dublin, whence he was latertransferred to the Grand Canal-street district, Dublin.During the war he served in the Royal Army MedicalCorps in France. Shortly after his return to Irelandhe was made a medical inspector of the Local Govern-ment Board, and he retained that position until hisretirement three or four years ago. " As a Govern-ment medical inspector," writes our Dublin corre-

spondent, " Clinch was an officer of singular ability.Possessed of robust and shrewd common sense,

tactful, kindly, with a thorough and tolerant know-ledge of his countrymen, he succeeded in keepingup a higher standard of efficiency among the menand the institutions under his supervision than mighthave been effected by a more stern disciplinarian.Since his retirement from the public service he hadtaken trips to many parts of the world as a shipsurgeon. Outside his professional work Clinch wasbest known by his life-long interest in Rugby football.As a student he played for Dublin University and wasgiven his international cap as long ago as 1892 ;when no longer eligible to play for the Universityhe played for and was captain of the WanderersClub. Between 1892 and 1897 he played in teninternational matches, and in 1896 he toured SouthAfrica with an Irish team. When his playing dayswere over he became one of the most active workersof the Irish Rugby Union, on whose councils hiscommon sense, tact, and popularity made him apower. Of late years his health had failed, but hisdeath came unexpectedly. He had indeed been

present to watch his favourite game and to join in apresentation to an old colleague only three daysbefore his death.

" Clinch had a great gift of making and keepingfriends. His fellow-students of forty years ago foundhim the same at 65 as at 25. Meeting him at intervalsof perhaps years there was no change in the firmhand-grasp and none in the gentle voice and thekindly smile which went so unexpectedly with themassive and powerful physical frame."

CHARLES JAMES LEWIS, M.D., D.Sc.,F.R.C.P. Edin.

ON Saturday last Dr. Lewis died at Birminghamwhere much of his professional life had been spentand where he was emeritus professor of public healthin the University. Before going to Birmingham,however, he was for many years in practice in Edin-burgh, and it was in Edinburgh that he got hismedical education. His undergraduate career was

distinguished : he was president of the Royal MedicalSociety, graduated with first-class honours, andgained the Wightman prize. He became a memberof the general council of the University and in 1895was elected a fellow of the Royal College of Physiciansof Edinburgh. In 1900 he took a science degree inpublic health, and received the Gunning prize. Inthe following year he also carried off the Parkinprize for an essay on

" the curative effect of carbonicacid gas and other forms of carbon in cholera, fordifferent forms of fever, and other diseases," andabout the same time he was writing on typhoidbacilluria and the purification of drinking water.He was now well launched on a public health career,holding teaching appointments at the school ofmedicine of the Royal Colleges and elsewhere, andan examinership at the College of Physicians. WithDr. Balfour he was co-author of " Public Health and

Preventive Medicine," and his medical interestsranged from the bacteriology of the nose and of theatmosphere to problems of demography. It wasespecially as a bacteriologist interested in publichealth that some thirty years ago he was appointedto Birmingham, where he became university lecturerand chief bacteriologist under the professor of patho-logy, Dr. Leith. A colleague who joined him as

junior in 1907 writes: "Dr. Lewis was very deafand it was said that increasing deafness had obligedhim to give up a lucrative general practice and taketo bacteriology for his livelihood. For some yearswe worked together, often in the same room, and Icame to know him very well. He was a most gentle,kind, and courteous man ; I do not recollect himever complaining of anything or saying a harsh orunkind word. In his work he was scrupulouslyhonest and in his research he recorded everythingthat told against him just as carefully as the factswhich favoured his opinions. I do not rememberhim ever accepting the findings of anyone in thelaboratory. He insisted on seeing and doing every-thing for himself. For a great deal of his originalwork others got the credit; Dr. Lewis seemed quiteindifferent to fame or money. At that time hisfavourite recreations were golf and bridge. He wasa very keen golfer and he seemed to spend everySunday at the Sandwell Park Club, where he playedregularly till ill health and weakness made exertionimpossible. He was a most lovable little man,rather diffident in most things, but most unwaveringlyobstinate in his insistency on accuracy and truth inhis laboratory work and in his records and writings."

Dr. Lewis’s inquiries at Birmingham, includingobservations on the non-lactose-fermenting bacilliand on Morgan’s bacillus, were published in reportsto the Local Government Board. After the latewar he was made director of the public health labora-tories of the University and associate professor of

public health ; and on his retirement a year or

two ago his valuable services were recognised byconferring on him the title of emeritus professor.

MAX SCHLESINGER, M.D. BudapestIN Dr. Max Schlesinger, who died on Feb. 4th

at the age of 30, medicine has lost a research workerof brilliant promise and considerable achievement.A Hungarian by birth, he was greatly attracted byphysics and mathematics. After taking his medicaldegree at Budapest he turned his attention to thephysical properties of viruses and bacteriophagesand for a number of years did remarkable work underProf. Bechhold at Frankfurt. A year ago he cameto this country and after a few months at the NationalInstitute for Medical Research was appointed to thestaff of the Imperial Cancer Research Fund.Among the notable results achieved by Schlesinger

was the successful application of the method of

centrifugation to the study of the particle sizes ofviruses and bacteriophages. Recently he evolveda simple method whereby the Sharples centrifugemight be used for this purpose. He also conductedextensive studies on the purification of phages bya method involving fractional filtration and centrifuga-tion. A weighable amount of phage was finallyobtained and studied as regards its chemical composi-tion and its optical and staining properties.

BISHOP AUCKLAND COTTAGE HOSPITAL.-Sir GeorgeGillett, commissioner for the Special Areas, has decidedto make a grant of over 10,000 towards the cost ofrebuilding and re-equipping this hospital.