823DEMOBILISATION AND VENEREAL DISEASES.

It is to be hoped that the chemistry of these iaccessory factors will soon be cleared up anda method found for their isolation in the purestate. Biologists have done well in developingthis new scientific aspect of dietetics, and so

far chemists have not kept pace with them.We may appropriately, in connexion with thewhole subject, congratulate Professor FREDERICKGOWLAND HOPKINS, University Reader in ChemicalPhysiology and Praelector in Bio-chemistry in

Cambridge University, on having been awarded atthe last annual meeting of the Royal Society, heldon St. Andrew’s Day (Nov. 30th), the Royal Medal ofthe society. As stated on the occasion of the presen-tation of the medal, Professor HOPKINS was amongthe very earliest, if not actually the earliest, torecognise and announce that minute quantities Ofcertain bodies, the nutritive value of which hadhitherto been unsuspected, exert an enormous

influence upon growth and upon normal adultnutrition. He showed that without these accessoryfactors a diet otherwise full and seemingly completeis incapable of allowing growth and even of main-taining body-weight or life. Subsequent events haveabundantly proved what a valuable observation indietetic research was thus made.

Demobilisation and VenerealDiseases.

THE Local Government Board is’alive to the verypressing danger of the mobilisation of venerealdiseases on demobilisation of the Armies to which wemade extended reference last week. The Board hasissued a circular (V.D. 19) to county and boroughcouncils, asking them to secure at once a consider-able extension of facilities for the free treatment ofvenereal diseases. In the first instance arrange-ments are suggested for more frequent clinics,including evening sessions at existing treatmentcentres, and in the second for the provision ofadditional centres. The Board suggests that in

many cases it will not be practicable to provide sufficient centres by arrangement with the voluntaryhospitals, and that it will therefore be necessaryfor the borough councils to make arrangements ontheir own premises, possibly utilising a tuberculosisdispensary or isolation hospital. For the treatmentof gonorrhoea, in the intervals between the clinics

. treatment by a trained nurse or attendant (subjectto medical supervision) is suggested, the treatmentto be given either at the hospital where the treatmentcentres are or at new auxiliary centres. The latter

should also serve the requirements, between thedates of attendance of the doctors at the regularclinics, of persons who are apprehensive that theymay have contracted disease, although no medicaldiagnosis has yet been made. Borough councils ofthe larger areas are urged to consider at once thedesirability of appointing whole-time venerealdisease officers. Negotiations are proceeding withthe naval and military. authorities for the earlyrelease of doctors specially experienced in thetreatment of venereal diseases, of whom a list willshortly be available.

Annotations.A NATIONAL TRIBUTE TO VOLUNTARY

AMBULANCE WORKERS.

A LETTER from Lord Ranfurly in another columncalls attention to the admirable work, extendingover 40 years, which has been done by the Ambu-lance Department of the St. John AmbulanceAssociation. And in our correspondence columnslast week Sir Rickman Godlee and Sir James Cantlie,respectively President and Principal of the Collegeof Ambulance, Vere-street, W., entered a plea forfunds in order that the College may have an assuredincome, and be enabled to carry out in peacetime the useful-the immeasurably useful-workwhich it has done during the war. Everyoneshould recognise the important part which first-aidteaching has played in the saving of life duringthe war, while the Home Office regulations withregard to emergency treatment in factories is a

proof of the value of prompt surgical aid in the

civil direction. First-aid is, indeed, an essentialadjunct to medicine and surgery; immediateattention after injury, wherever it may take placeand by whatever means, often saving lives, andalways assisting treatment. It should be realised

that men, women, and children of these islandsalso leave the homeland to reside under unusualclimates and in thinly populated districts, as theneed of the workers dictates, and these localities aresurrounded by many dangers to health which arenew to them, and which present themselves incircumstances where the threatened persons arebound to depend on their own ingenuity. A partof the work of the College of Ambulance is to

guard against these dangers. At any time thehealthy individual life is an asset to the nation,but at the present moment such a life has anartificial value when war has left its hideousmark on the population. The College ofAmbulance was founded in September, 1914, whenSir James Boyton gave the magnificent buildings,3, Vere-street, London, as a home for the Collegefree of rent for a year, the expenses of the work beingpaid in part by the fees of the pupils, and Sir JamesCantlie giving his services as teacher free. In

September of the present year the incorporation ofthe College took place, and now, if the institution is toform a sufficiently noble memorial to the thousandsof voluntary workers who have given their servicesto the country in time of need and adequately playits part in the reconstruction work that is beforeus, it is necessary that substantial financial aidshould be forthcoming. The very nature of thework prevents it from being self-supporting, forlarge teaching fees cannot be asked from those whofreely give their services to the country withoutpay. The sum required to establish the associationon a permanent basis as a national memorial is1:100,000, and Lord Mount Stephen has started thelist of subscriptions with £500. We hope the appealwill receive the whole-hearted support of both thepublic and the medical profession. Subscriptionsshould be sent to the Honorary Treasurer, 3, Vere-street, London, W. 1.

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AN ANOMALOUS DISEASE.

THERE was a curious epidemic at Taranto in Mayand June of this year, attacking the civil populationand the crews of the men-of-war. Ships might

11 Ne quid nimis."