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herpes simplex simulates herpes zoster. Further-more, the virus of herpes simplex has been recoveredfrom the mouth between herpetic attacks, and if itsresidence during quiescent periods is the gasserianganglion what was it doing in the mouth ? 1 Onewould expect it to lie quiescent in the gangliauntil reawakened into activity by some new

upsetting factor. In view of these two objections itis difficult to share BURNET and LusH’s preferencefor the second hypothesis ; the facts seem to bemore readily explained by assuming that the viruspersists in the cells of the mucous membrane.

WAGES AND SICK-PAY

THE Court of Appeal has decided in MARRISON v.BELL that an employee who has been absent fromwork through sickness has a right (unless there isa special agreement to the contrary) to drawboth his wages and also his insurance benefit.Marrison was a salesman employed at E3 10s.a week. He became ill and went to hospital.After he had been absent for 16 weeks his employergave him a week’s notice. Marrison then suedhis employer for jE56—namely, 16 weeks’ wages.Bell, the employer, denied liability. He had been

obliged to engage and pay another man inMarrison’s place ; moreover Marrison had been

receiving health insurance benefit at the rate of18s. a week ; to pay him his wages would meanthat he received £ 4 8s. weekly. Bell contendedthat the contract had been broken because it wassubject to the implied condition that it should bedischarged if Marrison was unable to perform hisservice through incapacity. Alternatively hecontended that the continued absence of an

employee without his master’s consent dischargedthe master from liability under the contract. Thecounty-court judge found in favour of the master.He did not regard the contract of service as

terminated by the workman’s absence, but he

thought that the right to wages ceased during thatabsence unless there was some express agreementto the contrary. It was inequitable that Marrisonshould draw both wages and insurance benefit.

In the Court of Appeal a different view wastaken. Lord Justice ScoTT was clear that illnesswas not a breach of a contract of service. Therewas a long series of cases to the effect that,irrespective of the length of notice under thecontract, wages continued during sickness untilthe contract was terminated by notice. InElliott v. Liggens (1902) the court had to considerthe effect of the receipt of part of the workman’swages by way of compensation under the Work-men’s Compensation Act. It was then decidedthat the act had introduced a modification ; whilethe workman was receiving some part of his wagesas statutory compensation, his common-law rightto his full original wages must be regarded as

suspended. But health insurance benefits werenot of the same nature as workmen’s compensa-tion payments. The insurance benefit was some-

thing additional, consisting of medical assistanceor similar advantages ; it had nothing to do withwages ; when Parliament established national

health insurance, it never intended to interferewith the worker’s right to his wages. Marrisonwas entitled both to the insurance benefits and,until his contract of service was terminated bynotice, to his wages also.The decision has caused considerable misgiving.

It will hardly improve the relationship betweenmaster and servant. The master will feel aggrievedif he has to pay two men’s wages for one man’swork. Lord Justice ScoTT observed that thedecision need not embarrass employers becausemost employees are engaged on a weekly, or atany rate on a monthly, basis. The employercan therefore terminate the contract of serviceat short notice. But the decent employer does notwant to feel obliged to dismiss a servant who isill. In domestic employment there has been ageneral idea that sick wages plus insurance payshould equal ordinary pay. This has seemed

equitable, but the employers who have thoughtthis solution was reasonably adequate now findthat they have paid the sick servant less than hisrights. In factory and outdoor employment ithas not been uncommon to act as the defendantdid in Marrison v. Bell-namely, to stop payingwages during the workman’s absence (in view ofthe provision of sick-pay) and to take him backas soon as he is well again, provided that herecovers in a reasonable time. The Court of

Appeal decides that the master must either givenotice or pay wages. The medical aspect isuncomfortable. The employee who knows thathe will be dismissed if he is absent through sicknesswill be tempted to disobey medical advice ; hewill remain at work when he ought to go sick, andhe will go back to work before he is fit to do so.

Anxiety over the prospect of dismissal will be anadded cause of depression. The legal situation

may be met by an express agreement that theamount of insurance benefit payment shall bededucted from wages during a period of absencethrough illness. Otherwise fresh legislation maybe needed to correct the unforeseen consequencesof the decision.

ANTI-TUBERCULOSIS WORK IN WALESTWENTY-SEVEN years ago the Welsh national

association, created in memory of King Edward VII,entered into voluntary agreements with localauthorities and insurance committees in Wales to

provide treatment for tuberculosis on their behalf.All went well for two decades, but in course

of time a feeling gained ground amongcertain of these authorities that the expenditureon tuberculosis was out of proportion to theamount of local funds available for public-healthwork. The dissatisfaction came to a head whenthe association’s proposals for the third fixed-

grant period suggested still higher expenditure toallow the association to take over activities forsome of which the local authority was responsible.The association proposed to undertake home-visiting and aftercare, to control the tuberculosisregisters, and to oversee the disinfection of thehome after removal of an infectious case. It

proposed to extend its scope just because in many

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areas the local authorities had failed to carry outtheir statutory duties, and it was believed thatthis default was one of the reasons why the death-rate from tubercle in Wales was not decreasingas it was in England and Scotland. The clash of

opinion led to the appointment by the Ministryof Health two years ago of a committee of inquirywhose report is summarised on a later page. Atthe commencement of the inquiry it appeared as ifthe efficiency of the association’s work was beingchallenged, but the aspect of affairs soon changed.Evidence taken in public made it clear that theassociation was effectively carrying out its properfunctions in the diagnosis and treatment of tuber-culosis, and that there was a general desire for itscontinuance on a national basis. It was howeveralso clear that the lamentable failure of localauthorities to do their own preventive workafforded justification for the suggested incursionsinto other branches of work. Graphic accountsare given of appalling housing conditions, to whichattention had been drawn in vain by local medicalofficers of health ; of school buildings long con-demned as dangerous to health but still in use ;of antiquated and objectionable methods of dis-posal of sewage ; of a water-supply liable to

pollution; of failure to provide clean milk ormidday meals for children. It is fair to add thatthe committee found a great disparity among localauthorities in the standard of performance of

public-health services and that some are praisedfor foresight, enterprise and public spirit. Thelater part of the inquiry became in fact an investi-gation into the efficiency of sanitary administrationin Wales, from which it emerged clearly enoughthat many of the Welsh local authorities are toosmall and too poor to carry out public-health workefficiently, whatever may be the case with the

large urban areas in the south. There should besome combination of small areas to provide a unitof population capable of finding the effective

machinery, with the corollary of whole-timeM.O.H.’s and sanitary inspectors covering thewhole country. The inquiry, which has throughoutbeen fully reported in the Welsh press, has

undoubtedly led to a quickening of the nationalhealth conscience, and will stimulate backwardauthorities to play their part in any anti-tuberculosis scheme.

TWENTY-FIVE YEARS OF PSYCHO-ANALYSISSiNCE 1914 members of the British Psycho-

Analytical Society have been probing the springsof desire and the wells of loneliness, but not untillast week has the society itself made any publicappearance. At the silver jubilee dinner Dr.ERNEST JONES, founder of the society, had oneither side of him a minister of the Crown ; at the

high table were representatives of all branches ofthe medical profession, while each of the separatetables had its own international gathering. Dr.SIGMUND FREUD, the society’s most distinguishedmember, was unable to be present, but his daughter,Miss ANNA FREUD, conveyed a message from himand was entrusted with a message in return.

Greetings were personally conveyed from kindred

psycho-analytical societies in France and Holland,two of the three European countries in whichthe practice of psycho-analysis is still admissible :the parent society in Vienna exists no longer,and Dr. JONES thought everyone would agree thatthe British society is now the chief bulwark of

psycho-analysis in Europe. Earl DE LA WARR,proposing the principal toast, recognised the

change in public attitude to many questions-legal, educational, sex relationships-that had beenbrought about by the indirect influence of psycho-analysis ; and Mr. WALTER ELLIOT recalled a

pre-war conversation with Dr. EDWARD GLOVERwhen they spoke together of medicine turningthrough psychology to sociological study, althoughneither of them could have foreseen what it wouldlead to. It was Dr. GLOVER, in proposing TheGuests, who unkindly remarked that psycho-analysts with very slight exception are bad writers ;but that matters the less because, said he, theyare themselves so much at loggerheads on educa-tion as to make it unlikely for them to issue anymajor pontifications on the subject for some time.And Dr. JONES, although himself at one timeno mean fighter, excused himself from furtherendeavour to persuade medical colleagues to takea more objective view of the problems, with whichpsycho-analysis is concerned, by admitting franklythat the internal difficulties nature has imposed inthe way of reaching the unconscious mind, andstill more in the way of maintaining a free com-munication with it, have proved far greater thanwas at first supposed. It will, he said, take

perhaps a couple of generations yet of intensivework before we shall be in a position to presentto the outer world a well-codified body of know-ledge. For himself the anniversary encouragedrather a mood of retrospection, a sort of stock-taking. He came into this field of work by thefollowing route. In the usual preoccupation ofyouth with the general problems of life and its

meaning, he had passed first from a study of

religion to that of philosophy, but evermore cameout of the same door wherein he went. A moreintimate contact with reality then took him intothe field of sociology, in which he fared no betteruntil he tried to bring our social institutions-laws, government, marriage-into relation with abiological knowledge of human nature. Someintuition told him that access to the fundamental

layers of the mind could most advantageously beattained, by a detailed study of the clinical

phenomena investigated by psychopathology, andhe looked around eagerly for the company of thefew minds who took them seriously. Then cameFREUD ; and, said Dr. JONES, the rest of the storyyou know.

MEDICAL SCHOLARSHIPS AT LONDON UNIVERSITY.-The London Inter-Collegiate Scholarships Boardannounces that an examination for twelve medical scholar-ships and exhibitions of a total value of E1640 will beginon May 8. They are tenable at University College Hospital,King’s College Hospital, the Royal Free Hospital, andSt. George’s Hospital. Full particulars and entry formsmay be had from the secretary of the board, Universityof London, Senate House, W.C.I.

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