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Over the years the people have come to know this, and queueslengthen yearly. It is difficult enough to close a hospital in thiscountry when adequate provision already exists in the area, but attimes of crisis departments can always be closed and patientsdiverted to another hospital. Where there is no other hospital and nomeans of communication, all who come must be seen and availabletreatment given. This places a great burden of responsibility on thedoctors and especially on the medical superintendents.Responsibility without power-for, as they are employed by amultitude of agencies and subject to the fluctuating finances andpolicies of their host countries, they are too fragmented to develop apowerful central organisation. Each voice calls from its own

wilderness, precious hours are spent writing to any likely source ofsupplies, and even the triannual home leave is not exempt. "Theysay ’Have a good rest’," said the doctor recently back from Tanzaniaas she set off to look for motor-cycle spare parts. "What we need,"said her colleague, "is a procurer."What they need are friends. Sympathetic individuals or groups

who will encourage, support, and supply. Not by sending "giftparcels", those packaged dustbins of the Western world which standreproachfully in a dark corner until somebody has time to unpackthem, toss out the useless sun-tan oils and appetite suppressants,and emerge some hours later with a handful of unsorted antibioticsof doubtful worth. No, they need a link with the affluent North; achance, if you wish to put it that way, to gather up the crumbs. For,to paraphrase Churchill, never has it been so possible for one in theNorth to allay the suffering of a hundred in the South. The effortinvolved is small, the reward vast.

Anyone-individual or group-interested in "adopting" a hospital is invitedto write to the Bureau of Overseas Medical Services, 31 Bedford Square,London WC1, marking the envelope Friends.

c/o Hyde, Mahon and Pascall,33 Ely Place,London EC1N6TS ANNE SAVAGE

BangladeshGOVERNMENT’S DRUG POLICY ASSAILED AGAIN

The Pulse, a medical newspaper published in Bangladesh, hasreturned to the attack on the Government’s drug policy—if it everceased the onslaught, that is. Its issue of Nov 7 declares: "Muchdamage has already been done by the implementation of the drugpolicy in the country. As the execution of the unimaginative, ill-conceived and hasty phased out programme nears completion, theevil forces that the policy has released in the market have beenexposed to all. The policy has dealt a severe blow to industrialisationin the country, incentives to smuggling of drugs and medicines intothe country and also other clandestine channels, scarcity and risingprices of medicines hitting hard the common man, deterioration inthe quality of drugs delaying recovery from diseases and therebyprolonging suffering of the patients and so on ... It is about time westop praising ourselves and help streamline the nation’s industrialpolicy. While the Drug Policy bans manufacturing of even essentialmedicines under license the Industries Ministry allows new

cigarette companies to manufacture cigarettes under license. Howfoolish we look in the eyes of the world... Bangladesh is in thethroes of more than one problem. It suffers from hunger,malnutrition, over-population, illiteracy, poverty and a host ofother difficulties. In a situation like this we ask the readers to judge ifonly drug and medicine would be a priority item for anyone who isselflessly interested in helping Bangladesh. Is not our policymisguided and apparently malignantly motivated?"At a seminar held recently in the pharmacy department of Dhaka

University, most speakers opposed the policy and the chairmansupported the activities of multinational drug companies. The voiceof Dr Zafrullah Chowdhury was alone in defence of the policy.Banned products, such as Fisons’ antidiarrhoeal ’Fistrep’ (a

questionable combination of clioquinol and streptomycin), can stillbe bought over the counter. Many other banned items are reportedto be available under the counter, often at inflated prices.

1. Round the World. Bangladesh: A national drug policy. Lancet 1982; i: 1405-06.

NOTES FOR LANCET AUTHORS

Prospective authors are referred to the statement UniformRequirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical

Journals published in the issue of Feb. 24, 1979 (Lancet 1979;i: 428-30) and to these notes:

Units. Non-metric units should not be used in scientificcontributions, so pints, inches, and so on, and Fahrenheittemperatures will be changed editorially to metric units. Partsof the SI system are controversial or unfamiliar even incountries that have adopted the system-notably, in the matterof concentration of substance, gas tensions, blood-pressure,and radiological units. For these, authors should provide(separately from the text) explicit two-way conversion factorswhich will be printed in a prominent place in the article; if thisinformation has to be added by the Editor, the author shouldcheck accuracy at proof stage.Abbreviations. Since there is no universally accepted list of

abbreviations nor agreement on the principles on which theycan be constructed, authors. should use the ones they arefamiliar with, taking care to define them at first mention andleaving the final form to house-style.

Qualifications. For the Contents page of the journal, infor-mation about full professorships and about main academic orother qualifications is needed.

Copies of typescript. A single copy will suffice, preferably thetop one or a good copy on non-glossy paper. The manuscriptshould be typed, on one side of the paper only, with doublespacing and wide margins.Length of contributions. All editors exhort authors to be brief.

In The Lancet this particularly applies to Preliminary Com-munications (not more than 1500 words), Hypotheses (1500words), Methods and Devices (750 words), and Letters to theEditor (500 words), all these limits to be reduced if illustra-tions and/or tables are included.

Trade names. Proprietary names of products should beindicated, as, for example, ’Marmite’ at the first mention andmarmite thereafter. If the brand name for a drug is used, theBritish, U.S., or international non-proprietary (approved)name should be given first.

Proofs. If the author is to be on the move in the days or weeksafter the article is submitted, he or she should either nominatea colleague to deal with the proofs or list his or her movements.

Covering letter. In the letter accompanying the article, theauthor may wish to define the extent of any concessions he orshe is prepared to make-for example, he or she may be willingto leave out a figure or two, a table, or even part of the text.Material such as tables and appendices can be made availableto interested parties by the author, and a footnote to this effectcan be included in the text.

Colour printing. On the rare occasions when The Lancet haspublished colour illustrations the journal has borne the cost,but offers to contribute will be considered.

Reprints and copyright. Within a few days of publication of apaper, 100 offprints (the pages incorporating the article) aredespatched to the author (by air-mail outside Europe) free ofcharge, for the author’s use. Reprints can be arranged onapplication to the Reprint Department. The Lancet now askscontributors to assign to the journal their copyright to thewords in the articles; but it has decided not to adopt theprocedures of the U.S. Copyright Clearance Center. Thejournal holds the view which formerly prevailed-namely,that single copies for research or study could be made withoutpermission or payment. Permission for multiple facsimilecopying in any form must be had from the author and from theEditor, who will need to know the purpose for which thecopies are to be used. We hope that authors will continue toconsult us whenever dual publication of any contribution iscontemplated whether this be before, after, or at the same timeas its appearance in The Lancet.