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Dr. L. R. LEMPRIÈRE (Haileybury) said that whenparents met the school doctor they realised that hehad a personal interest in their sons, and they appre-ciated it. Some parents sent their sons to schoolwith miniature medicine chests. As a rule a motherwould admit only two things about her son : that hewas highly strung and that he was, constipated. Nohealthy boy was afraid of seeing the doctor. Whenexamining new boys he always had a dog in the room,and a toy for measuring grip. A boy going outwould say to the next comer : " He’s got a rippingdog in there, and a thing you squeeze-and he’soffering five bob if you can beat him." This estab-lished an atmosphere of confidence.Mr. J. E. MAITLAND (Banstead Hall Preparatory

School) suggested that the Medical Officers of SchoolsAssociation might draw up a uniform medical historysheet.Mr. A. E. LYNAM (Dragon School) asked whethera committee of health for schools could be founded toadvise on such things as diet and the pasteurisationof milk.

Dr. WATNEY RowE thought that publicity shouldbe given to the discussion by printing and circulatingthe addresses.-A mother, who spoke last in thediscussion, said that her son had been at a preparatoryschool for seven or eight years and she had neverbeen given an opportunity of meeting the schooldoctor although she had wished to do so. Consequentlyher boy saw his own doctor in the holidays and wentback to school taking with him the remediesprescribed.

SUCCESSFUL CANNING ONE HUNDREDYEARS AGO

A PAPER on the Canning Industry was read byMr. T. N. Morris, of the Cambridge Low TemperatureResearch Station, before the Royal Society of Artson Feb. 28th, in which the permanence of thesociety’s interest in food-supply questions was

displayed. For in 1866 the society set up a FoodCommittee, which took a large amount of evidencefrom experts, inventors, and others. At that timecanned meats were a novelty and the manufacturerswho produced them gave evidence before the com-mittee. In his evidence before this committee onApril 3rd, 1867, Dr. A. S. Taylor, the famous medicaljurist, gave an account (Roy. Soc. Arts. Jour., vol.xv., p. 379) of the examination of a tin of provisionswhich formed part of the stores of the frigate Blonde.This vessel went on a voyage to the Sandwich Islandsin 1826, and when the tin was opened 20 yearslater in Dr. Taylor’s laboratory at Guy’s Hospital,the contents were found to be in a good state ofpreservation.

BARBITURATE SUICIDES IN MARSEILLES

D. Olmer and M. Audier declare that, so faras hospital statistics go, attempted suicide by drugsof the barbiturate acid group has considerablyincreased (Bull. de l’Acad. de Med., 1934, cxi., 269),At the Hotel-Dieu, Marseilles, they have seen 23.cases since the beginning of 1931 ; in that yearthere were 4, in the following year 4, last year therewere 8, and in January of this year alone theytreated no less than 7. They quote the figuresof the Marseilles health department for suicide inthe town to show that the suicide rate from hypnoticshas risen during the last five years from one to sevencases in a total more or less stationary at slightlyover a hundred. Of the 23 Hotel-Dieu cases, 17 werein women. Only 3 died, and now that the use ofstrychnine is the standard remedy they suggest thatthe death-rate will be even lower. They share thegeneral enthusiasm of the profession in France forstrychnine as an antidote to barbiturates (see THELANCET, Jan 13th, p. 93), but emphasise the needfor caution in its use. First of all, they point out,it is necessary to be quite certain that the symptomsare due to a barbituric drug ; the diagnostic methodthey use is Fabre’s urine test with xanthydrol. It is

also desirable, they say, to ascertain the intensityof the intoxication, which is no easy matter, for theamount taken is not usually known, and the contentin the body fluids is not a sure guide. Even if theamount of the drug were known, the resistance ofthe organisms is not. Strychnine has therefore tobe given tentatively ; Ide’s method has so far proveduniformly successful. On the whole, they consider,the physician need not hesitate to inject 10 cg. ofstrychnine sulphate intravenously every hour whenthe patient is in coma. All the other classicalmethods are employed simultaneously. In theiropinion, the hospital admissions are only a smallfraction of the total number of cases of attemptedsuicide, and they press strongly for the regulationof the sale of barbiturate drugs.

CHILD GUIDANCE IN ACTION

A REPORT to the London County Council educationcommittee recommends that the child guidance unitat the West London Hospital for Nervous Diseasesshould be recognised as a school clinic. Such recog-nition is asked for in order to promote regular attend- .

ance of the children and to facilitate contact with thecare committees. The first annual report, whichhas just appeared, gives evidence of satisfactoryprogress. Miss D. F. Robinson, from the ChildGuidance Council, put her experience at the TavistockClinic at the disposal of the unit during the difficultinitial months, and secured the contacts inside andoutside the hospital that are indispensable for anew enterprise of this type. All children are firstseen by a neurologist, who eliminates organic diseases.Further experience, says the director, Dr. EmanuelMiller, will show whether a certain number of casesare thereby excluded, which would be amenable tochild guidance methods. The time of members ofthe staff does not allow for the " full-dress " con-

ference, but as the psychiatrist, the social worker,and the psychologist are usually on duty together,discussions are frequently taking place. Discussionswith external agencies can, it is found, be suitablydone by correspondence. The children hithertoexamined have shown a wide range of disorders, andthe director thinks that they were all worth investi-gating, in the interests of knowledge and propaganda,and mostly worth treating, since some excellentmaterial is being reclaimed for normal citizenship.Observation of children in play groups and alonehas often revealed interests and thwarted needsdisguised under symptoms and misbehaviour. Thecases seen number 176, of which 42 have been closedafter full treatment: satisfactory adjustments havebeen achieved in half.

MORNING MISERIES

Mr. D. McClure writes : "In reference to thecommunication from Dr. W. B. Cosens (THE LANCET,Feb. 24th, p. 440) the following extract from theletters of Lord Byron is of interest:

"Feb. 2nd, 1921.-1 have been considering whatcan be the reason why I always wake at a certainhour in the morning, and always in very badspirits, I may say, in actual despair and despondency,in all respects-even of that which pleased meover night. In about an hour or two, this goesoff, and I compose myself either to sleep again,or at least quiet. In England five years ago, Ihad the same kind of hypochondria, but accom-panied with so violent a thirst that I have drank asmany as fifteen bottles of soda water in one night,and still been thirsty. At present I have not thethirst but the depression of spirits is no less violent.I read in ’Edgeworth’s Memoirs’ of somethingsimilar in the case of Sir F. B. Delaval ; but then hewas, at least, twenty years older. What is it ?-liver ? In England, the apothecary cured me ofthe thirst, in three days, and it had lasted as manyyears."The memoirs of Richard Lovell Edgeworth were

completed and published in 1820 by his daughter,Maria. He himself died in 1817.