1473

long subsections on pneumonia and on pulmonarytuberculosis are evidence that the problems of thesecommon and serious diseases are being worked at,and worked at extensively, although little increasein control over them is apparent at the moment.

THE ROYAL MEDICAL FOUNDATION OF EPSOM

COLLEGE

EPSOM COLLEGE is self-supporting. That is a

fact that cannot be too widely known ; and the

prosperity of the school is evident to everyone whohas seen the extension of its buildings in recent yearsor has had the privilege of attending a gatheringof Old Epsomians. But like some other and older

public-school foundations the council of EpsomCollege is the administrator of a charity, and thisroyal medical foundation is in need of money andis appealing to the medical profession for supportas usual at this time of year. The foundation hastwo main objects: the one to help those of our ownprofession who fall on evil days, the other to makeit possible for the children of medical men and womento receive the first-class education which they couldnot get for themselves. Happily the two functionsof the foundation are combined in the foundationscholarships for boys to be educated and maintainedfree of cost at Epsom College. During the yearthat is just ending 57 such scholarships were grantedat a cost of 8550 and 13 exhibitions of 60 eachwere also given. Further grants towards the educa-tion of boys and girls absorbed a sum of S735, whilea total of JE4795 was spent in the form of pensionsand annuities, the total expenditure for the yearbeing 14,860. There is, it seems, an unfortunate

impression abroad that the council of Epsom Collegehas an endowed income sufficient to provide thesepensions and foundation scholarships. That is veryfar from the truth. The net available permanentincome amounts only to 3800, leaving a balanceof 11,000 to be met by the generosity of subscribersand donors. It is true that the council hopes gradu-ally to build up an endowment for the foundationscholarships, and has actually taken two steps inthis direction: (1) by creating a capital endowmentaugmentation fund, and (2) by deciding, so far asis humanly possible, to invest all bequests and

legacies. But that is where the difficulty comes inwhen, as is the case just now, there are eighteenboys, all deserving, whose last chance it will be toobtain a foundation scholarship, and there are onlyten vacancies at the school. Naturally the desireto help the other eight boys by grants towards theireducation elsewhere is very great. With an adequateincome from subscribers this could be done without

imperilling the building up of an endowment fund.These in brief are the reasons why an appeal for theRoyal Medical Foundation of Epsom College hassuch a claim on members of the medical profession,and knowing the quality of the benefits conferredwe can only endorse this appeal with every possibleemphasis.

THE PILGRIMAGE TO MECCA

THE International Sanitary Convention of 1926

provided that a report should be made annually bythe Quarantine Board of Egypt (Conseil SanitaireMaritime et Quarantenaire d’Egypte) on the pil-grimage to the Holy Places of Islam. The reportfor the pilgrimage of 1935 recently published isthe eighth of the series and is worthy of special remarkfor the high quality of its production both in manner

1 Rapport sur le Pèlerinage au Hedjaz de l’année de l’Hégire1353 (A.D. 1935). Alexandria. 1935. Pp. 103.

and matter. The president of the Board (MajorJohn Gilmour), who is the author of the report,creates, out of the bare statistics of pilgrims fromwidely separated countries, a vivid picture of thestream of humanity which on March 14th, 1935,converged to the number of 80,000 on Arafat andagain dispersed north, south, east, and west to theirdistant homes. He does so simply by describing theroutes by which they came and went and the number sso travelling, by recording their state of health onentering the Hedjaz and on leaving, and by detailingthe precautions taken to see that, so far as prac-ticable, the faithful might be protected against deathfrom small-pox, cholera, and the enteric fevers bytriple vaccination. Perhaps still more important forthe countries to which the pilgrims return or throughwhich they pass on their homeward journey are themeasures described to prevent the dispersal by sickor healthy persons of infections acquired at the

sanctified, but too often disease-rife, places of pil-grimage. For 1935 the record is clear ; the pilgrimagewas free from epidemic disorders. At the con-

clusion of the period of religious observances it wasdeclared net, not br’ut, and therefore not to be sub-jected to the quarantine measures which the latterdeclaration involves. As the result of the experienceof 1935 at the quarantine station of El Tor, it is

proposed that in future pilgrims returning from apilgrimage net shall not, as in the past, be detainedtill bacteriological tests show that they are free fromsuspect vibrios ; only those with clinical signssuggesting cholera will be so tested. As regards theconditions in the Hedjaz itself, tribute is paid to theimprovements that have been made by the Govern-ment of Ibn Saud for the comfort, the safety, andthe sanitation of the pilgrims. It may be that theformer discomforts and dangers of the ritual visit didbut increase the religious fervour of prospectiveHajis, yet the popularity of the pilgrimage in Islamappears to be on the increase, to judge by the figuresof 50,000 in 1933, 60,000 in 1934, and 80,000 in 1935.A novelty which may become of increasing importanceis the use of land routes-by train, motor-bus, andcamel-across Arabia to Mecca from the northernand western frontiers. The sanitary measures whichthis development demands receive careful discussionin this admirable report.

Sir Robert Bolam, F.R.C.P., has been appointedvice-chancellor of the University of Durham fromFeb. llth, 1936.

Dr. Howell Gwynne-Jones who was the medicalattendant of the late Princess Victoria has beencreated a commander of the Royal Victorian Order.

Mr. J. J. Fox, D.Sc., has been appointed Govern-ment Chemist in succession to Sir Robert Robertson,D.Sc., F.R.S., who retires in April next.WE regret to announce the death of Dr. William

Collier, vice-president and consulting physician to theRadcliffe Infirmary, Oxford, in his eightieth year.Lord Nuffield has given £ 125,000 to promote research

and advance the treatment of crippled children..Most of the money will be administered by a NuffieldCentral Fund to develop clinics in parts of the countrywhere there is none or where facilities are inadequate.Recommendations will be made to the trustees ofthe Fund through the Central Council for the Care ofCripples. There will also be a scholarship for a

surgeon and a scholarship for a nurse to be tenableat the Wingfield Morris Orthopaedic Hospital, Oxford.