MEDICINE AT KHARTOUM

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unknown glass is essential. According to a chartpublished in a paper by Sir Arnold Lawson Crookes’sglass is constant in its absorption almost irrespectiveof the tint, Crookes A and Crookes B being practic-ally identical in their absorptive power as far as theultra-violet rays are concerned, but they only absorbrays of a shorter wave-length than about 360 , ,.London smoked glass No. 4 has a similar effect.Fieuzal glass No. 2 cuts off all the ultra-violet rays.Amber does not. For the operator it is desirableto secure the maximum amount of visible radiationwith a minimum transmission of any rays with awave-length shorter than 400 . V.. For the patientthe choice need not be so restricted, partly on accountof the short time during which he is exposed to theaction of the rays and partly because in his case

there is no objection to cutting off some of the visiblelight. The manufacturers of Arcos glass claim forit a total absorption of ultra-violet, as well as greatlyreduced transmission of heat rays, and they supplyan easily sterilisable form of goggles.

MEDICINE AT KHARTOUM.

THE School of Medicine at Khartoum, founded asa, memorial to Lord Kitchener, is designed to meetthe need for native doctors in a rapidly developingcountry. Native doctors are needed to work underBritish doctors at the larger hospitals, to take solecharge of smaller hospitals, and to engage in fieldwork against the endemic diseases-malaria, bil-harziasis, ankylostomiasis, yaws, and syphilis-whichare interfering with the increase of the populationand diminishing its efficiency. The school wasopened in February, 1924, by the late Sir Lee Stackand work was commenced with a first-year class of ’,ten students selected from young men who hadcompleted their course of training at the GordonCollege. A further class of eight students was

admitted in January, 1925. The report, which hasjust been issued, tells of the work completed by theend of that year. Photographs show the handsomebuildings, the lay-out of the laboratories, dissectingroom, lecture room, and library, and students at workin them. The school stands in three and a half acresof land lying on the western side of the main avenuerunning north from the railway station to the Palace,which faces the Blue Nile, rebuilt on the foundationsof Gordon’s Palace. On the other side of the avenueis the Khartoum Civil Hospital. Adjacent to thehospital and fronting the medical school new researchlaboratories are being erected, and provision is beingmade in these laboratories for the teaching of pathology.A school hostel, under construction 200 metres away,will afford immediate accommodation for 40 studentsand admit of extension if called for later. The houseof the medical registrar responsible for the work andconduct of the students is situated in the schoolenclosure. The curriculum covers a period of fouryears. The first year is devoted to the preliminarysciences ; the second to anatomy, physiology, andhistology; the third to medicine, surgery, andpathology ; and the fourth year continues the third-year subjects and includes also lectures and demon-strations in public health, midwifery and gynaecology,and a brief course in forensic medicine. Clinicalteaching is given in the well-equipped Civil Hospital,which has 100 beds and a large out-patient department.The hospital at Omdurman, a town of 80,000 inhabit-ants separated from Khartoum by the White Nile,affords additional material for clinical demonstrations.Importance is attached to the teaching of public health,for which the three towns with their combined popula-tion of 130,000 provide ample scope. With the

exception of the registrar, all the teachers belong tothe Government medical and scientific staff : thusthe medical and surgical teaching is given by thephysician and the surgeon of the Khartoum andOmdurman hospitals; public health teaching by the

2 British Journal of Ophthalmology, 1925.

medical officer of health of these towns ; pathologicalteaching by the Wellcome Research Laboratories.As a consequence the school budget is maintauiedat a figure which would otherwise be quite impossible*the total expenditure for the year 1925 with the firstand second-year classes under training was only B2447.When the third- and fourth-year classes come undertraining the expenditure will increase in proportionand additional sources of income will have to be found.The progress made during these first two years pointsclearly to success in the future, and we hope that noquestion of financial stringency will be allowed tohinder a work so important to the material progressof the country and to the welfare of its people.

UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH: THE D.T.M.&H.AND D.P.H.

THE Students’ Number of THE LANCET was pub-lished this year at a time when the regulations forthe degrees of B.Sc. and D.Sc. in Public Health atthe University of Edinburgh were under considera-tion, but the regulations for the diplomas in TropicalMedicine and Hygiene and in Public Health are inorder, as are the regulations for the diploma inPsychiatry. Candidates for the D.T.M. & H. diplomamust be graduates in medicine and surgeryof the University or hold corresponding degrees orqualifications from other sources, and the full courseof instruction is given during the autumn term,beginning therefore in October. The diploma of theUniversity in Public Health is granted to candidatesof a similar standing, and the course is divided intotwo parts, for which examinations are held twiceannually, in March and July for Part I., and inOctober and December for Part II. The course,which extends over 12 calendar months, begins inOctober, and provision is made by the Universityfor instruction in all the subjects, while candidatesmust study for at least two of the three terms in theUniversity. Detailed particulars regarding these

diplomas, which are contained in full in the UniversityCalendar, may be obtained from the Dean of theFaculty of Medicine at the University. This noticewas accidentally omitted from the Students’ Numberof THE LANCET.

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THE COOMBE HOSPITAL.

IN anticipation of the Coombe Hospital centenarycelebrations, which have been held in Dublin thisweek, Dr. T. P. C. Kirkpatrick has contributed to theSeptember number of the Irish Journal of MedicalScience a sketch of the history of the hospital. In1821 the Meath Hospital moved from the house it hadoccupied in the Coombe for just half a century to itspresent site in Long-lane. The vacant house was takenby Dr. Kirby, head of one of the private medicalschools, who established 50 beds in it and used it forthe clinical instruction of his students. Some yearslater the question arose of providing accommodationfor maternity cases on the south side of the city, aspatients suffered hardship in making the journey tothe Rotunda Hospital, which was then the onlymaternity institution in Dublin. In 1826 it wasarranged to take one ward in Kirby’s Hospital formaternity work, and thus the Coombe Hospital beganits special work. In 1829 the surgical part of thehospital was closed and the institution became theCoombe Lying-in Hospital, with Dr. Richard ReedGregory as its first master. From the first the hospitalpaid much attention to teaching, and issued certificatesto the pupils who attended its practice. These certi-ficates were accepted by the Royal Colleges of Surgeonsin Ireland, of England, and of Edinburgh, as well asby the medical boards of the Navy, Army, and IndianMedical Services. When, some years later, the RotundaHospital began to issue diplomas in midwifery whichpurported to be qualifications to practise, the Coombefollowed suit, and acute controversy a,rose between thetwo institutions, the Rotunda holding that as the