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E. B. A., to whom we are grateful for this biography,writes :"Alex Wilmot was a wise, modest man, too wise to

venture a hasty opinion and so modest that he was oftenembarrassed by the distinctions which came his way. Hepossessed a deep sense of humility but he never failed tooffer help when help was required, nor did he refuse ajudgment when one was sought. He was a keen naturalist,a competent amateur carpenter, and a good sportsman,actively playing several games until the last. Indeed it was

perhaps fitting, if death had to come now, that he died whilehe was in full flight during a game of squash. In Durbanhe will be best remembered by his students and his col-leagues as a fine clinician and teacher, a kindly critic, anda wise counsellor."

Dr. GEOFFREY BouRNE, consulting physician and cardio-logist to St Bartholomew’s Hospital, London, died onDec. 4 at the age of 77.

Diary of the Week

DECEMBER 13 TO 19Sunday,13thMANCHESTER ROYAL INFIRMARY10 A.M. Mr. W. McN. Orr: Liver Transplantation.

Tuesday, 15thINSTITUTE OF DERMATOLOGY, St. John’s Hospital for Diseases of the

Skin, Lisle Street, London, W.C.24.30 P.M. Dr. D. D. Munro: Hair Growth.

WESTMINSTER MEDICAL SCHOOL, Horseferry Road, London S.W.15.15 P.M. Prof. D. M. Matthews: Individual Forms of Vitamins B12

in Health and Disease.

Wednesday, 16thINSTITUTE OF DERMATOLOGY4.30 P.M. Dr. Michael Feiwel: The Biology of the Dermis.

ROYAL FREE HOSPITAL, Gray’s Inn Road, London W.C.15.15 P.M. Dr. Edgar Sowton: Physiological and Clinical Results in

Cardiac Pace-making.MANCHESTER MEDICAL SOCIETY

5.15 P.M. (Medical School.) Sir Charles Illingworth: The SanguineMystery. (Rock Carling lecture.)

Thursday, 17thROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS OF ENGLAND, Lincoln’s Inn Fields,

London W.C.25 P.M. Mr. H. Brendan Devlin: Midgut Malrotation Causing Intestinal

Obstruction in Adult Patients-its Clinical Features,Pathology, and Management.

INSTITUTE OF PSYCHIATRY, De Crespigny Park, London S.E.5.NooN. Prof. N. Geschwind (Harvard): Anatomical Mechanisms of

Acquired Reading Disorders.

Friday, 18thNATIONAL HEART HOSPITAL

5 P.M. (Royal College of Physicians, St. Andrews Place, LondonN.W.1.) Dr. Donald Fredrickson (Bethesda): MutantGenes, Hyperlipoproteinsemia, and Premature VascularDisease.

AppointmentsBLAND, EILEEN P., M.B., St. And., F.F.A. R.C.S.: consultant anaesthetist,

United Birmingham Hospitals.HANHAM, I. W. F., M.B. Cantab., M.R.C.P., F.F.R., D.M.R.T.: consultant

radiotherapist, Westminster hospital group.MACLACHLAN, T. K., M.B. Edin., M.R.C.P., D.P.M.: consultant child

psychiatrist, United Cambridge Hospitals, and Cambridgeshire andIsle of Ely County Council.

OppENHEiM, GISELA B., M.B. St. And., D.P.M.: consultant psychiatrist,Charing Cross hospital group.

ORIEL, J. D., M.B. Lond.: consultant venereologist, West LondonHospital.

ROWLANDS, D. J., M.B., B.SC. Manc., M.R.C.P.: consultant physician,United Manchester Hospitals.

Notes and News

PLEA FOR GENERAL-PRACTITIONER BEDS

THE reasons most commonly advanced for the establish-ment of more general-practitioner units are that they pro-vide supervised care for patients who do not need the fullrange of services made available for consultant beds in

general hospitals; G.P.S like them for the continuity of carethey provide and for the opportunity these doctors get topractise skills they might not otherwise be able to use. Thetendency, however, is to shut down smaller hospitals(including cottage hospitals) and to go for economies ofsize. These closures are often unwelcome to patients, whorather like the convenience and ambience of their localhospital, and to G.P.S. Some objective evidence of the value ofG.P. beds comes from a survey by a Berkshire G.P. whohas looked at what alternatives to Radcliffe Infirmary,Oxford, might have been offered to the 602 adult medicaland surgical patients admitted in March, 1970.1 Dr.Loudon also estimated the effects on consultant bedsof an early-discharge policy from hospital to home or toG.P. unit. About 1 in 6 of the medical patients might,Dr. Loudon thinks, have been managed in a G.P. unit, andmost of these were cases of cerebrovascular accident or

respiratory or heart disease. Predictably perhaps, manyfewer surgical patients would have benefited from firstadmission to a G.P. unit but many could have been dis-

charged earlier. Loudon concludes that 35% of all thepatients could have been managed differently, and thisrepresents a saving of 32 °, in bed-days. He would like tosee a group of four 20-bed G.P. units linked with theRadcliffe Infirmary; as a start the Infirmary is to provideaccess to some general wards for a small number of

" asso-

ciate general practitioners ". On the economic side, inter-pretation of these findings is much more difficult because theOxford region has long been out on a limb in the hospitalcosting returns both with regard to length of patient stayand costs per week; it also has in the region five peripheralG.P. units run by the Nuffield Hospital ManagementGroup. In these hospitals weekly costs are some 45%lower than for the Radcliffe Infirmary but the Radcliffe isa teaching hospital; the saving would be much less strikingif the comparison were made with a non-teaching generalhospital outside London.

CONTROLLING VOLUNTARY UNEMPLOYMENT

THE Supplementary Benefits Commission is criticised inan article in the latest issue of Poverty, the journal of theChild Poverty Action Group, for the rules by which itdetects and controls the " voluntary unemployed ", andalso for the vague and misleading information provided onthis subject in the Supplementary Benefits Handbook.Standard procedure consists of four controls; the first twoapply to persons under 45 who have no serious physical ormental disability, and limit the length of time for whichbenefit is paid if work is available. The second two applyto people who are not fully fit and are over 45, and providefor allowances to be reviewed after 6 months, or 1 year formen aged 60 and over. In the article Michael Meacher,M.p., suggests that the rules which apply to able-bodied mendo little more than attempt to persuade them to accept jobseither at lower wages or with poorer working conditionsthan their potential capacities might permit. He points out

1. The Demand for Hospital Care: In-patient care: alternatives anddelays. By I. S. L. LOUDON, B.M., D.OBST., M.R.C.G.P. 1970. Ob-tainable from the United Oxford Hospitals, Radcliffe Infirmary,Oxford. Pp. 94. 15s.

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that the Commission might expect a man to move to

employment up to 100 miles away from his home. Also

brought in question is the Commission’s definition ofsocial handicap and its ability to recognise disorder. Mr.Meacher asks whether by social handicap (which is allowedas a reason for not working) would be meant drug addictionand alcoholism, and whether such personal problems asgross obesity, dermatitis, unattractive personality, psychoticwithdrawal after an accident, or personal uncleannesswould be sufficient qualification for exemption fromregistering for work. The Child Poverty Action Group isinviting Claimant’s Unions, the Claimants and UnemployedWorkers Unions, social workers, and other interested bodiesfor examples where the rules have been applied andhardship has resulted. The Group then intends to hold ateach-in so that the public can be made more aware of theissues.

NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF CLINICAL TUTORS

AT a meeting of clinical tutors at the Royal College ofPhysicians of London on Dec. 3, a National Associationof Clinical Tutors was formed. Sir John McMichael hasaccepted an invitation to be the Association’s first president.The aim of the Association is to promote postgraduateeducation, and its constitution defines clinical tutors as

those persons appointed by a university, a regional hospitalboard, or the regional postgraduate medical organisation tohave overall responsibility for postgraduate medicaleducation in their group or association of groups. Thechairman of the Association is Dr. John Lister, of KingEdward VII Hospital, Windsor, and the secretary is Dr.David Ferriman (North Middlesex Hospital, Silver Street,Edmonton, London N.18).

University of DundeeProf. J. P. Duguid has been appointed dean of the

faculty of medicine in succession to Prof. D. M. Douglas.

Royal College of Physicians of EdinburghAt the annual meeting on Dec. 3 the following were

elected to office: Dr. J. Halliday Croom (president), Dr.J. G. M. Hamilton (vice-president), Dr. A. W. Wright,Dr. R. M. Marquis, Dr. J. Williamson, Dr. Mary K.Macdonald, Dr. H. J. Walton (members of council).

Royal College of Surgeons in IrelandThe fellowship in surgery has been conferred on the

following: P. J. Farrell, Ismail Goolam Mohamed Peer,G. A. Tadros.

Faculty of RadiologistsThe following have been admitted as fellows:Radiodiagnosis.-N. M. Adam, F. G. Adams, J. S. M. Beales, L. A.

Cala, M. H. Dahniya, D. J. Delany, C. J. Dow, W. J. S. Earwaker,M. A. Fayyad, M. P. Gandhi, B. Hartley, M. A. A. Jaward, T. M.Kolawole, W. H. Leach, D. J. Lintott, J. C. MacLamon, T. McManners,M. M. McNair, B. E. Nathan, L. Preger, D. 0. Rees, M. S. T. Ruttley,F. I. Spiro, R. E. Wild, G. G. Worsp.

Radiotherapy.-J. E. S. Brock, A. Campbell, S. I. El-HaddadA. L. Hovenden, 1. J. Kerby, M. J. Munro, G. G. Ribeiro, R. D. H.Ryall, T. K. Wheeler.

The Rohan Williams medal has been awarded to Dr.T. K. Wheeler. Dr. J. W. Pierce was admitted to thefellowship without examination. Miss B. M. Key andProf. B. G. Ziedses des Plantes have been admitted as

honorary fellows.

Florey FellowshipThe Royal Society of London and the Australian

National University, Canberra, have awarded the firstFlorey fellowship to Dr. J. H. Pearn, a Brisbane pocdia-trician. He will undertake 2 years’ study in Britain onaspects of muscular disorders in children.

Whittingham Hospital InquirySir Keith Joseph, Secretary of State for Social Services,

is setting up a committee of inquiry into conditions atWhittingham Hospital for the mentally ill near Preston,Lancashire. The police have investigated a number of

allegations against the staff, and on Dec. 4 a nurse from thehospital pleaded guilty to manslaughter of a patient andgrievous bodily harm. The committee will examine themanagement of the hospital, the quality of patient care,the handling of complaints, and conditions in the hospitalgenerally, and will make recommendations to the Secretaryof State.

General Medical Council

The current term of office of the 11 medical membersof the General Medical Council will expire on April 29,1971. A general election will therefore be held in the earlypart of 1971 to elect 8 members for the constituency ofEngland and Wales, 2 for Scotland, and 1 for Ireland, toserve on the Council for 5 years. Nomination papers, whichshould be returned by Jan. 28, 1971, may be had from theRegistrar at 44 Hallam Street, London WIN 6AE.

International Agency for Research on Cancer

Applications are invited from established cancer workersfor travel fellowships to be awarded by the InternationalAgency for Research on Cancer in 1971-72.The fellowships will be awarded for 3-month periods for visits

to other institutions for consultation, collaborative planning ofresearch projects, and the acquisition and standardisation of newresearch techniques. Details may be had from the chief of theresearch training and liaison unit, International Agency forResearch on Cancer, 16 avenue Marechal-Foch, 69-Lyon (6e),France.

Department of Health and Social SecurityMr. Howard Goodman is to become chief architect to

the Department of Health and Social Security in successionto Mr. W. E. Tatton Brown.

British Orthopaedic Research SocietyThe next meeting of the society will take place on

Monday, March 1, 1971, at the Institute of Child Health,London. Papers are invited on research in orthopedicsand its related disciplines. Summaries should be sent

(by Dec. 31) to the honorary secretary, Miss Ruth Wynne-Davies, Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Universityof Edinburgh, 12 George Square, Edinburgh 8. (Amendednotice.)

Royal SocietyProf. A. L. Hodgkin has been elected president of the

Royal Society in succession to Lord Blackett. Prof.W. R. S. Doll has been elected to the council.

Drug AddictionThis is the subject of a symposium to be held by the

London Medical Group (103 Gower Street, W.C.1) onThursday, Jan. 14, at St. Mary’s Hospital Medical School,Praed Street, W.2, at 5.45 P.M. The speakers are Dr. N. B.Malleson and Dr. J. H. Willis.

International Congress of ImmunologyThe first International Congress of Immunology will be

held in Washington, D.C., on Aug. 1-6, 1971. Details maybe had from the secretariat of the congress, 9650 RockvillePike, Bethesda, Maryland 20014, U.S.A.

CORRIGENDUM: Why Collect Statistics ?-In some copies ojlast week’s issue, the year 1939 was showrf in the third line fromthe end of the first paragraph of the letter by Prof. M. R. Alder-son (p. 1199). The year in fact was 1839.