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Notes and News

WAYS AND MEANS IN PSYCHIATRY

PSYCHIATRIC treatment is usually long and costly ; buttwo annual reports remind us that keen workers can provideit at relatively little expense ; and that good facilities makeit possible’to, shorten the time of treatment. The LiverpoolPsychiatric Clinic, which has been in action since 1924, hasstill to. protest its urgent need of an adequate psychiatricsocial service and proper secretarial assistance. 1 , Yet ineach of the past three years the clinic, with its tiny balance-sheet of less than 1:350, ,has accepted 259-260 new outpatients,and in 1944 it was able to increase the number of attendancesfrom 830 to 922. With adequate funds and more staff themedical directors believe the clinic could meet the increasingdemands ’for its services which come from doctors, publicauthorities, and social organisations. During the year itsstaff have helped many invalided members of the Servicesto adjust themselves to civilian life, and have continuedto take a keen interest in the problems created by war for

, children and young people.A contrast in opportunity is offered by the York clinic at

Guy’s Hospital, of which the first annual report has justappeared. As the first British psychiatric inpatient clinichoused in a general hospital, its facilities for treatment havebeen exceptional and its experience unique. During the9 months which had passed when the report was written168 patients had passed through the clinic, and it was expectedthat numbers would exceed 220 by the end of the year.About two-thirds of the admissions have been EMS patientsrecommended by Service psychiatrists; the remaining thirdwere nearly all private patients, but a few non-paying patientsfrom the general wards of Guy’s were accepted, and it is hopedto extend this service. The clinic maiiitains only 43 beds,but thanks to the wide choice of methods available and goodstandards of staffing, the turnover has been rapid, the averagestay for Service patients being 43 days and for private patients44. Conditions treated have included all the commonneuroses and psychoneurosis, with anxiety state heading thelist and combat exhaustion coming a good second. Most ofthe combat exhaustion cases recovered in 21-28 days, andonly one had to be boarded out of the Service, though somehad to be discharged in lower medical categories. It is note-worthy that the civilians have usually been suffering frommore -severe degrees of psychological abnormality than theService patients. Methods of treatment include electricconvulsive therapy, insulin therapy, continuous narcosis,hydrotherapy, vitamins, psychotherapy, social activity,and occupational therapy. Some patients, towards the end oftheir stay, have been able to go to work during the day-time,returning to the security of the clinic at night-an arrange-ment which recalls the night sanatoriums of Russia.

University of CambridgeThe title of the degree of MD has been conferred on Mrs.

Mavis Gunther.

University of EdinburghOn Friday, June 8, at 5 rM, at University New Buildings,

Teviot Place, Edinburgh, Prof. E. B. Verney, FRS, willdeliver the sixth Sharpey Schafer lecture on the absorptionand excretion of water and the antidiuretic hormone.

Royal College of Physicians of EdinburghAt a meeting held on May I, with Dr. A. Fergus Hewat,

the president, in the chair, Dr. James Ronald (Stirling)took his seat as a fellow. Dr. Cyril Hocken Tewsley, Cazca-

(Auckland, NZ), Dr. Munir El Gazayerli (Alexandria), Dr.Bryce Ramsay Nisbet (Kilmarnock), Dr. Albert Arthur Huse(Birmingham), and Dr. Ronald Haxton Girdwood (Edinburgh)were elected to the fellowship. Prof. J. A. Nixon (Bristol)was appointed Dr. Alexander Black lecturer for 1945.

British Institute of Radiology .

On Thursday, May 17, at 7.30 PM, at 32, Welbeek Street,London, Wl, Dr. E. Rohan Williams will deliver his presi-dential address on the planning of the diagnostic radiologicaldepartment in a large general or teaching hospital. On the

following day, at 4 PM, Dr. J. F. Brailsford will read a paper onmalignant disease of bone.1. Annual Report, 1944. Obtainable from the Secretary, 1, Aber-

cromby Square, Liverpool, 7.

University of Dublin-Prof. B. A. MeSwiney, FRS, will deliver the fourteenth John

Mallet Purser lecture at the School of Physic, Trinity College,on Wednesday, May 16, at 4.30 PM. He is to speak on visceralsensation. ’ ,

Medical Society of LondonOn Monday, May 14, at 5.15 PM, at 11, Chandos Street,

WI, Dr. F. M. R. Walshe will deliver the annual oration.He has chosen as his subject the integration of medicine.

Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene At a meeting to be held at 26, Portland Place, London, WI,

on Thursday, May 17, at 3 rM, Colonel H. E. Shortt, IMS,will speak on the transmission of kala-azar in India.

Royal Society of MedicineOn Wednesday, May 16, the section of physical medicine

is holding a meeting at 2 PM at the RAF Physical TrainingSchool, Loughborough, Leics. At the section of obstetricsand gynaecology at 5 rM, on May 18, Mr. A. F. Clift will speakon the rheological properties of cervical secretion and Mr.Malcolm Donaldson on carcinoma of the cervix uteri. Thesection of radiology will meet at 6.30 PM on the same daywhen Dr. J. F. Brailsford will read a paper on the latent phasebetween onset and radiographic signs.Building Research CommitteeThe scientific advisory committee on building appointed by

the Minister of Works includes Prof. J. M. Mackintosh, FRCP,and Prof. S. Zuckerman, MD, FRS. Lord Amulree, MRCP, andDr. R. S. F. Schilling are among those appointed as assessors.Children’s Ward as War MemorialA children’s ward in the country is planned for St. Thomas’s

Hospital as a memorial to children killed by enemy action inLondon. A special appeal for funds is being made and agala performance of A Night in Venice is to be given in aidof the project at the Cambridge Theatre on June 4, at 6.30 PM.

Parliamentary Candidates -

Lieut.-Colonel Leonard Browne, RAMC, has been adopted asLabour candidate for the Penrith and Cockermouth divisionof Cumberland, and Squadron-Leader Samuel Segal, MBCS,RAFVR, as Labour candidate for Preston.

A Prisoner of BuchenwaldIn the Times of May 2 the death is announced last spring,

at Buchenwald, of Dr. George Rodocanachi, of Marseilles," after 2 years’ imprisonment for his assistance to the Alliedcause, and for having, with his wife... sheltered over 190allied airmen."

Lectures for Doctors at Birmingham .

The British Council has arranged the following lectures, for,doctors of the Dominions and US Forces and members of,the British Medical Association, in Birmingham on Sundaysat 7.30 PM at the University Overseas Club : Dr. T. L.

Hardy, peptic ulcer (May 13) ; Mr. Hugh Donovan, cancer(June 3) ; and Prof. A. C. Frazer, fat embolism (June 17).London Association of Medical Women’s Federation

At a meeting to be held on Wednesday, May 16, at 8 PM,at BMA House, Tavistock Square, WC1, Lieut.-ColonelAlbertine Winner, RAMC, will speak on Social Medicine andthe Women’s Services,in the Armies of Britain, Canada, andthe USA.

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Mr. H. S. SOUTTAR has been elected a manager of theRoyal Institution.

AppointmentsALLISON, D. R., MD LEEDS, MRCP : physician to the Manchester

Northern Hospital.CAMPBELL, JOHN, MB GLASG. : factory surgeon for Dreghorn,

. Ayrshire.FERREIRA, JOAN, MRCS : temp. asst. MOH for Swansea.GREEN, G. W., rts LEEDS, DPM : asst. MO in the York Clinic, Guy’s

Hospital, London. ’

HARRIES, C. W., MB LPOOL : temp. asst. MOH for Walsall.ROSENTHAL, RUDJ,:MD PRAGUE : RSO at the Coventry and Warwick-

shire Hospital.

The fact that goods made of raw materials in short supply owingto war conditions are advertised in this paper should not be taken as an indication that they are necessarily available for export.