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going to turn prescribing doctors into dispensingdoctors is, in our view, fantastic. But it might bea sympathetic gesture, on the part of those medicalpractitioners who are inclined to do what the lawentitles them to do, to fall into line with the newlycreated circumstance. What is lawful is not alwaysexpedient.

SIR RAYMOND CRAWFURD AND EPSOM

COLLEGE

AT the annual meeting of the governors of EpsomCollege on June 26th the election of nine foundationscholars was reported ; their names will be foundon p. 41 of our advertisement columns last week.Lord Leverhulme was able to give the gratifyinginformation that the King had consented to becomepatron of Epsom College, thus ensuring the con-

tinuance of royal patronage since the foundation ofthe school in 1855. He also reported the resignationof Sir Raymond Crawfurd from the chairmanshipof the council, of which he is to remain a member.Sir Raymond joined Epsom College council in 1915.He was chairman of the school committee from1918-21, vice-chairman of the council from 1921-23,and chairman for the 13 years since. He has madethe position difficult for his successor, for he has notonly written thousands of letters in his own handand collected large sums of money, but he has beenthe prime mover in securing the admission of medicalwomen to the benefits of the foundation, the abolitionof voting, and the passing of an Act of Parliamentmaking these and other administrative changespossible. As time has gone on his work for theschool has increased in many directions, but perhapshis main objectives may be described as the raisingof the standard of scholarship in the school, improve-ment in the rates of pay for masters, and increasein the number of open entrance scholarships. Sir

Raymond was himself responsible for the planningof the biology block and for the arrangement of thespecimens in the museums where boys learn biologythrough nature study. Almost single-handed heraised sufficient money to enable the school to buildand equip the finest sanatorium in the country. Itis a happy retrospect for the retiring chairman.

TUBERCULIN SURVEYS OLD AND NEW

THE renewed activity noticeable in the tuberculinsurveys undertaken in different parts of the worldis probably due, to a certain extent, to significantdiscrepancies detected when the findings of morethan a score of years ago are compared with thoseof to-day. This alone would justify such an extensiveinvestigation as that of Dr. Marcel Gillard, who hasundertaken more than 10,000 tuberculin tests inschool-children in Belgium, and who has publishedhis findings in the Presse Médicale for May 27th. Toanticipate one of his findings it may at once bestated that the comparatively high proportion of

negative reactors to tuberculin at different ages is, inhis opinion, a sign that the proportion of personsinfected with tuberculosis is less now than it was ageneration ago ; this change cannot be explainedaway as fictitious on the assumption that all theolder tuberculin surveys were conducted in a heavilyinfected milieu. Confronted by the choice betweenthe Pirquet and the Mantoux tests, Dr. Gillarddispensed, as a rule, with both as being calculated toalarm the children and drive the parents to recrimina-tions. Preference was, therefore, given to Moro’stest with a tuberculin ointment. Hamburger hasrendered this test more sensitive by increasing theconcentration of tuberculin in the ointment and by

giving the skin a preliminary rub with ether. In aseries of tests with Pirquet’s and Moro’s reactions,Dr. Gillard has found that Moro’s is the more

sensitive of the two up to the age of 12 years.It is the less sensitive of the two afterthis age, and is useless in adults. It was foundthat at the age of 3 years six children out of

every seven gave a negative reaction, whereas atthe age of 8 years only three out of four did so.At the age of 12 years two out of every threechildren were found to be negative reactors. It

might have been anticipated that rural communitieswould uniformly show a higher rate of negativereactors than urban communities ; but this was notthe case, and it would seem that density of popula-tion is not the only factor influencing the " index oftuberculisation." In several rural communities farfrom any large centre, and with a population of 1000or less, the proportion of positive reactions wasremarkably high. With the improvement in com-munications by road and rail to-day, the country isdaily becoming more urban and the town more rural.

BIRTHDAY HONOURS

AMONG the knighthoods conferred by the Kinglast week we regret the omission from our list of thename of Dr. Henry Tristram Holland, C.LE., whois in charge of the Church Missionary Society Hospitalat Quetta which was destroyed in last year’s earth-quake. Dr. Holland, who has lived for 36 years innorth-west India, and holds the Kaisar-i-Hind goldmedal with bar, is now on his way to England. Weshould also mention the M.B.E. conferred on

Dr. Arthur James Keevill, for public services in

Tanganyika Territory, and on Dr. Sura RajagopalNayudu, acting chemical examiner in Madras. Wetake the opportunity of repeating here the confer-ment of the C.B. (Military Division) on Air Vice-Marshall Iredell and Major-General Skelton, whosenames appeared by inadvertence in another categoryin a few early copies of last week’s issue.

Mr. Cyril F. Penton, M.A., Barrister-at-Law, hasbeen appointed senior commissioner of the Board ofControl in the place of Mr. S. J. Fraser Macleod,K.C., who has retired from the service. Mr. Pentonwas educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge,and was called to the Bar by the Inner Temple in1912. He has been a commissioner since 1931 andnow becomes legal member of the Board.

UNWANTED INDICES TO " THE LANCET."-Anyreader who has an unbound copy not in use of theindex for any of the years 1932, 1933, 1934 (Vols. I.and II.), and 1935 (Vol. I.) would greatly oblige byposting the same to the Editor of THE LANCET, 7,Adam-street, Adelphi, London, W.C.2.

THE second congress of the International Societyof Gastro-enterology will take place in Paris on Sept. 13th,14th, and 15th under the presidency of Prof. Pierre Duval.The main subjects for discussion will be the early diagnosisof cancer of the liver and acute and chronic intestinalobstruction. Sir David Wilkie will be among the speakerson the second subject. The British secretary is Dr. T. C.Hunt, 12, Queen Anne-street, London, W.I.At the end of the Paris meeting the International

Congress on Liver Insufficiency will be held at Vichyon Sept. 16th, 17th, and 18th under the presidency ofProf. Loeper. Papers will be read on hepatic cedema,malarial liver, enlarged liver in children, sulphurmetabolism, the liver from the point of view of surgicalintervention, and hepatic drugs.