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Parliament

Offices, Shops and RailwaysPremises Bill

Mr. RICHARD MARSH’S private member’s Bill to safeguardthe welfare of office workers was passed in 1960 and dulybecame the Offices Act. Soon afterwards the Governmentannounced their intention of introducing their own more

comprehensive measure before the new Act came into forceat the beginning of 1962. In fact no Government Bill wasintroduced by this deadline, but neither was Mr. Marsh’s Actimplemented, for no regulations were drawn up to make iteffective. More than a year behind schedule the Government’sown measure was introduced in the House of Commons onNov. 1. It has 77 clauses and 2 schedules and makes provisionior the health, safety, and welfare of people employed inoffices, shops, and certain railways premises. It is estimatedthat more than 1 million premises employing some 8 millionpeople will be within its scope.The Bill lays down general provisions dealing with clean-

liness, overcrowding, temperature, ventilation, lighting,sanitary conveniences, washing facilities, drinking water,accommodation for clothing, seats, first-aid, fencing of exposedparts of machinery, the training and supervision of youngpeople working dangerous machinery, and fire precautions.It specifies, with some exceptions, a minimum of 40 sq. feetfor each employee and a minimum temperature of 60° F.But these conditions may not be enforced till after a respiteof five years. Offices in factories, railway premises, and

premises occupied by local fire and police authorities will beinspected by the Factory Inspectorate, but the inspection ofmost offices and shops will fall to local authorities.

QUESTION TIME

Recruitment and Salaries of Nurses

Mr. KENNETH ROBINSON asked the Minister of Health ifhe was aware that the nurse recruitment situation had sub-

stantially improved but that many hospital managementcommittees had insufficient funds to take advantage of this.-Mr. ENOCH POWELL replied: I have been informed that theincrease in nursing staff has been continuing. I have nodoubt that hospital authorities are giving it due priority withintheir financial allocations.

Dame IRENE WARD asked the Minister what financial

provision was being made for hospital management com-mittees to meet the salary award by the Industrial Court tothe nursing profession; and if he would give an assurance thatthere would be no reduction of establishment by refusal topermit the filling of vacancies.-Mr. POWELL replied: Alloca-tions will be increased to meet in full the increase in staffcosts resulting from the award. Hospital authorities willcontinue to be free to fill vacancies within their financialallocations.

Dame IRENE WARD asked the Minister if he would give anassurance that the management side of the Whitley councilfor the nursing profession would be allowed freedom to

negotiate salary scales for trained staff commensurate withtheir responsibility.-Mr. POWELL replied: Yes, withinreasonable limits.

Clinical Research

Mr. ROBINSON asked the Minister if he was satisfied thatcurrent criteria governing experiments on human beings inconnection with medical research offered adequate safeguards forthe public, and that they were being generally observed withinthe National Health Service.-Mr. POWELL: I have no reasonto suppose that the guidance given in January, 1959, is not

being generally observed. I understand that the MedicalResearch Council is considering whether further guidance isneeded.

ObituaryEARL JUDSON KING

M.A. McMaster, D.Sc. Toronto, Hon. M.D., F.R.I.C.

Prof. E. J. King, who since 1944 had held the chair ofchemical pathology in the University of London at the Post-graduate Medical School, died on Oct. 31 at the age of 61.He was born in Toronto, the son of the Rev. C. W. King,

and he was educated in Canada. After taking his B.A. degreeat McMaster University in 1923, he moved, with a bursaryfrom the National Research Council of Canada, to the Universityof Toronto where he received the degree of PH.D. in 1926.The following year he was appointed a research associate atthe newly opened Banting Institute, and there he began hisresearch into silicosis. He spent two postgraduate years inEurope working at the Lister Institute in London and theKaiser Wilhelm Institut in Munich where he started his workon phosphatase. On his return to Toronto in 1930 he con-tinued this research and, with A. R. Armstrong, devised themethod for estimating phosphatase in blood which is still inuniversal use.

In 1935 he came to London to become reader in pathologicalchemistry at the newly opened school at Hammersmith, andin 1944 he was appointed to his chair. During the late war hehelped to organise chemical pathological services in an E.M.S.sector. His research on antimalarial drugs led to his appoint-ment as a consultant in medical biochemistry to the R.A.M.C.and I.A.M.C., and he spent a year in India with the rank ofbrigadier. In 1946 he returned to Hammersmith, and as

subdean of the school took a large part in providing post-graduate courses for demobilised doctors. In 1957 he becamechairman of the school’s combined departments of bacteriology,biophysics, chemical pathology, hxmatology, and morbidanatomy and histology.He served on many committees dealing with his specialty

and with medical education. He was or had been, to nameonly a few of his interests, chairman of the InternationalFederation of Clinical Chemistry, the British Association ofClinical Biochemistry, the central academic council of theBritish Postgraduate Medical Federation, and the editorialboard of the Biochemical Yournal. Because of his interest insilicosis he had been a consultant to the South African Councilof Scientific and Industrial Research, and he was the Britishrepresentative of the medical research committee of the HighAuthority of the European Coal and Steel Community.Though King held only honorary medical degrees his

contribution to clinical pathology was outstanding, andmedical colleagues from his school and his specialty havesent the following tributes.

E. N. A. writes:" King was one of the first of the non-medical members of

the Association of Clinical Pathologists. He took an active

part in its meetings, and when the increasing number ofbiochemists working in hospital led to the formation of theAssociation of Clinical Biochemists, of which he was successivelychairman and president, his statesmanship was material in

keeping together the medical and non-medical workers in

hospital laboratories, even when, from time to time, theirinterests appeared to differ.

" Many of the routine methods in everyday use, from theKing-Armstrong phosphatase method of his Canadian days,have been developed from work done in his laboratory: butapart from the introduction of new methods, he took an impor-tant part in raising the standards of accuracy in laboratorywork: he did much to standardise haemoglobin determinationsearly in the war, and the surveys organised by him after thewar showed the enormous variations in analytical resultsbetween different laboratories.

" His contributions to the literature of clinical chemistryrange from the strictly practical Micro-Analysis in MedicalBiochemistry (with I. D. P. Wootton) to the stimulating workBiochemical Disorders in Human Disease (with R. H. S. Thomp-