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quarters found and remedied, but the real income isin the steady watch against the importation ofdisease into this country whether by infected

passengers, unhealthy seamen, unsound food, or

plague-stricken rats. In any case the most inter-

esting portions of these reports are not to be foundin the information officially required by the

Ministry of Health but in the comments andnotes which each medical officer is allowed-indeed encouraged-to put forward.

Dr. C. F. WHITE, who has just relinquishedhis post at London’s port in order to superintendthe health of its city, discusses in his final reporttwo points of major interest.! One is the extensionof the precautions now taken to prevent the spreadof infections from ship to shore, and the other theeffect, immediate and remote, of the new instruc-tions on crews’ spaces issued by the Board ofTrade. He shows how illogical and even dangerousit is to make no provision for the boarding ofships which on arrival report cases of illness,however trivial. This leaves to the master the re-

sponsibility of diagnosis even when his ship is withina port health district ; and under the cover of"influenza "-a diagnosis which port medicalofficers have good reason to fear-" many cases oftyphoid fever, some of small-pox, and a few ofplague have been landed in this country." Dr.WHITE offers, incidentally, from an unparalleledpractical experience, hints on details of procedurewhich have helped him to make effective thesurveillance of passengers and crew from infected

ships. For example, he has found it unsatisfactoryto take addresses from the passenger manifest andthe crews’ articles. The safer way is for the medicalofficer, assisted if necessary by clerks, to ask

everyone on board specifically where he is goingimmediately on disembarkation. The use of a

double post card for the notification of (1) animmediate, (2) a changed address has expeditedthe clearing of ships and the transmission ofinformation to the medical officer of health of thedistrict of destination.The adverse comparisons constantly made

between the crew accommodation and amenitiesin British ships and those of many other nationslend point to Dr. WHITE’S reminder that sincethe life of a ship is twenty to thirty years it will belong before all our crews are housed in accordancewith the standards recently laid down by theBoard of Trade for new ships. There is ampleevidence in our columns during the last 30 yearsthat he understates the facts in saying that " shipowners, naval architects, and ship builders havenot in the past studied the welfare and comfortof the crews of ships." It seems that they as well asmarine superintendents and masters will be forcedby public opinion-and perhaps by a shortage ofcandidates for the service-to do so in the future.In questions asked of the President of the Boardof Trade in Parliament only last week Mr. WINDSORreferred to defects in crews’ quarters found by theHull and Goole port health authority during1937 in 597 British ships, only 43 of which defects,

1 Port of London Health Committee. Annual Report of theMedical Officer of Health for Dec. 31st, 1937.

he asserted, had been remedied. They included badventilation, insufficient lighting, both natural andartificial, unsatisfactory arrangement of bunks,insufficiency of heating, and water-closets withoutwater-supply. Mr. WINDSOR added that during1937, as the result of inspections undertaken by thesame authority, 869 British vessels were found tohave defects of dirt, vermin, and other conditionsprejudicial to health, and that in 91 of them theconditions remained unchanged. The officialanswer contained no denial of the allegations butput the responsibility for such evils on the porthealth authorities and on the masters as repre-sentatives of the owners. Mr. OLIVER STANLEYadded that the Shipping Federation and theNational Union of Seamen had recently set upa joint committee to consider methods of im-

proving the standard of comfort and cleanlinessin crews’ accommodation. The details contributedto Dr. WHITE’S report by Mr. J. S. BEATTIE,chief sanitary inspector for the Middle Riverdistrict, deserve the committee’s attention. Theyrelate particularly to coasting vessels, beingbased on inspections of 135 ships and 1311 officersand men and make it abundantly clear that "

unhygienic accommodation and inadequate andunsatisfactory provision for food storage are stillall too prevalent. In the ships inspected the hoursof duty averaged 110 per week. The generalattitude to the welfare of the men of the mercantilemarine is happily changing and officers will infuture be encouraged to make recommendationswhich they would once have regarded as so unlikelyto yield results as not to be worth drafting.

RESEARCH APPRENTICES

IN the past recently qualified men with a bent forresearch too often had to give up hope of developingit for lack of means of support during an apprentice-ship. Later came an epoch where grants were

obtainable from various sources, but their acceptanceusually implied some obligation to collect observationsor experimental results for publication. It is nowrealised that the time spent on immature effort ofthis kind can be better applied and that allowancefor an unproductive period may yield far better fruitin the long run. The Medical Research Council, aswe announced last week, are inviting applicationsfor the third batch of post-graduate studentships of200. These are designed to maintain for a yearmen and women who have already held house

appointments and are strongly inclined to a careerin clinical science or experimental pathology. Theintention is to select graduates " of special abilityand original mind," and a ladder is provided, inthe form of research fellowships, for those who aspire tobecome investigators in branches of medical scienceconcerned directly with disease as it occurs in humanbeings. Wide scope is offered to the post-graduatestudent in his choice of work, the only reservationis that he must be advancing his training in methodsof research, not working for higher examinations.It is probable that many given this chance willprove to have originality and zeal without that

peculiar blend of curiosity, logic, and persistencewhich spells success; but even if they do not choose,or are not chosen, to pursue a career in scientificmedicine their work in any other branch cannot butbenefit from the experience gained.