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lished work was on pulmonary and cardiological topicsand recently he had been interested in Coxsackie heart-disease. He served on numerous committees and was muchin demand as counsellor and friend by members of themedical profession who held him in high regard. Con-vinced that a well-organised programme of postgraduateeducation was essential in any medical centre of any size,he gave a good deal of his time and talents to postgraduateeducation both as a member of the organising committeeand as a teacher, enjoying particularly the stimulatingexercise of teaching membership candidates whose laterexamination success always pleased him greatly. Hisability to inspire well-founded confidence brought himrapid success in his part-time private practice.As a young man he played soccer and later took up golf,

which he enjoyed, though pressure of work recently pre-vented his playing as much as he would have wished. In1964 he learnt to fly, obtained his pilot’s licence, and onhis visit to Scotland this year he took up a light plane tofly over Aberdeen and Donside. He gazed with muchpleasure and excitement on those places in town and

country which had excellently nurtured, shaped, and tem-pered his character. His wholly- attractive Scottish blendof ability, kindliness, humour, and conviviality was as afine whisky, to be savoured, enjoyed, and rememberedwith thankfulness.He is survived by his wife and their children.

A. R. A.

Parliament

Attitudes to Mental HealthLAST week the House of Lords aired their views on

mental health, when Lord O’HAGAN rose to call attention tocontemporary attitudes to the mentally subnormal. Resist-

ing the temptation to chide the Government for not doingmore, they regretted the widespread publicity concentratedon what goes wrong. Many were particularly concernedabout the need for community involvement in mental

hospitals. Baroness BRooKE OF YSTRADFELLTE emphasisedthe danger that these hospitals might become isolated fromthe community, thus shutting the staff into a narrow

environment where it was so easy to be apathetic or

aggressive. She said that people living in the neighbour-hood should be given opportunities to do voluntary workin the hospitals and that staff should be encouraged to haveoutside interests. Baroness Sw ANBOROUGH also thought thatactivities organised by volunteers could do a great deal forthe patients. Cheerful canteens, shops, and uninstitutionalclubs all helped to restore the patients’ dignity andindependence. Baroness BROOKE was particularly con-cerned that every patient should have his own possessions-his own locker and his own clothes.

Several peers also insisted that local authorities should domore to care for the subnormal in hostels in the community.Lord GRENFELL felt that public opinion was not so

enlightened that everyone would welcome such a hostelnext door to them. But he believed that hospital groundcould be released for the building of prefabricated hostels,that it should be mandatory for new towns and housingdevelopments to include hostel building in their schemes,and that some of the cottage hospitals which have beenclosed could be taken over as hostels. Answering thedebate for the Government, Baroness SEROTA, Ministerof State for the Department of Health and Social Security,reminded the peers that local authorities already cared forthe majority of the mentally subnormal, just under 100,000compared with 64,500 in hospital. She hoped that theforthcoming reorganisation of the personal health and

social services would do much to ensure closer cooperationbetween the various authorities.

Protection against Radiation HazardsThe Radiological Protection Bill passed its second reading

in the House of Lords on Nov. 13. Baroness SEROTA, Minis-ter of State at the Department of Health and Social

Security, said that the object of the Bill was to transfer toa statutory Board the functions of the Radioactive Sub-stances Advisory Committee, the radiological protectionservice run by the Medical Research Council, and the partof the central health and safety branch of the UnitedKingdom Atomic Energy Authority which deals withradiological protection. The new Board would be a singlenational point of authoritative reference and wouldprovide technical services to Government departments andothers. A committee would also be set up to advise and tobe consulted by the Board. It would have a wider member-ship than the Board and would enable scientific, medical,employer, and trade union representatives, together withrepresentatives from Government departments, to beassociated with the work of the Board. Thus, the M.R.C.and U.K.A.E.A. would transfer a substantial proportionof their radiological protection staff to the Board, and theywould contribute to its cost. Lord RITCHIE-CALDERemphasised the dangers of radiation. If atomic energybroke away the whole of the population would be at risk;it was a question of the genetic effects and of hazards tofuture generations. There was no maximum permissibledosage: the level of radiation in the atmosphere must be gotback to zero as soon as possible.

QUESTION TIME

Implementation of the Children and Young PersonsAct

In answer to a question about the Children and YoungPersons Act, Mr. JAMES CALLAGHAN, the Home Secretary,said that he would publish a commencement order bringinginto force on Dec. 1, 1969, the provisions on children’sregional planning committees and the new system ofcommunity homes. This would enable planning of thecommunity-homes system to start as soon as possible. Theorder would also bring into force on Jan. 1, 1970, theprovisions which would strengthen the law on privatefostering. He intended to bring into force on Oct. 1, 1970,most of the remaining provisions of the Act. These wouldinclude the new definition of " care and control ", the newcode of supervision, and the replacement of approved-school orders and fit-persons orders by care orders, butwould not initially include the provisions affecting theprosecution of children and young persons and the minimumage for borstal training. He would at the same time

specify the tenth birthday as the age below which the localauthority would normally be responsible for supervisinga child under a supervision order and for providing thecourts with information on a child’s home surroundings.

Psychologists in Education ServicesIn answer to a question on the Summerfield Report on

Psychologists in Education Services, Mr. EDWARD SHORT,the Secretary of State for Education and Science, said thatdevelopments in universities since the committee had beenappointed had much improved the prospective supply ofeducational psychologists. The numbers now in post-graduate courses were already at the level proposed by thecommittee for 1970, and were running some 33% higherthan had been assumed. This would go far to meet theimmediate recommendations of the committee for expan-sion of the profession. The recommendations about

qualifications were for the local education authorities as

employers, and for the establishments responsible for

providing courses in educational psychology, to consider.