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MORE AND SAFER MILK

To the Edtior of THE LANCETSIR,-In your paragraph last week on More and

Safer Milk you report the Minister of Health as havingsaid that " the more the consumption of milk wasincreased the more important did it become tosecure the safety of the supply." Most doctorswould agree to this but how many are doing anythingto implement it ? Everywhere the public is beingurged to drink more milk or to supply it to others.The under-five population and nursing mothers arelikely to follow school-children as subsidised recipients.If a voice whispers " what of milk-borne disease ? "lay bodies brush it aside, saying " that is the doctors’business." It is the doctors’ business but so fewtrouble to mind it. They feel that the Ministry ofHealth should see to that. The Ministry is upagainst the Treasury and the Treasury must consideragricultural interests too. So the ball rolls fromone to another with the net result of an increasingsubsidy for unsafe milk.

Is not this an occasion when general practitionersmight actively support medical officers of health bydemanding that subsidy and safety should marchtogether ?

I am, Sir, yours faithfully,ESTHER CARLING.

WANTED A HOSPITAL EMBLEM

To the Editor of THE LANCETSiR,-Now that the matter of a hospital emblem

in connexion with a Hospital Week in London isunder consideration, it might be opportune to askthe College of Heralds to submit designs for a

hospital flag which in miniature might be adopted

for Hospital Week in London. It would be a pityto have one emblem for Hospital Week in Londonand a flag of another design flown by hospitals ontheir fete days and on State occasions. The councilof the British Hospitals Association have had thematter of a hospital flag up for consideration and itis mainly the cost that has so far deterred themfrom taking steps to meet the wish expressed byseveral hospitals for a properly designed flag.

I am, Sir, yours faithfully,R. H. P. ORDE,

Hon. Secretary, The British Hospitals Association.

RADIOGRAM AND RADIOGRAPH

To the Editor of THE LANCETSiR,-In your issue of Jan. 30th Radiogrammarian

writes : "roentgenograph and roentgenogram are toodistinctively American to gain ready acceptance inthis country." Far from being " too distinctivelyAmerican " those words are not even distinctivelyAmerican. They, and the other derivatives of,roentgen are used almost exclusively in the Scandi-navian and German literature. Acta Radiologica’spreference for roentgenology, roentgenogram, &c., iswell known, and there is, in my opinion, much tocommend it. Surely it is not inappropriate to namea science after its founder, or an X ray photographafter the scientist who made the first one ?

Finally, why not be as international in our ter-minology as possible ? °l If American, Scandinavian,German, and other roentgenologists prefer roent-

genogram, &c., then I think that that is an excellentreason for using them in preference to the derivativesof radio.

I am, Sir, yours faithfully,Feb. 4th. ROENTGENOLOGIST.

OBITUARY

S. HARRY HARRIS, M.D. Sydney, F.R.A.C.S.THE announcement of the death of Dr. Harry Harris

of Sydney, New South Wales, will have been readwith deep regret by his fellow urologists. Onlylast year he spent several months in this country,taking part in discussions, and demonstrating inour theatres his operation of prostatectomy withprimary closure of the bladder. At first condemnedhere, much to the disappointment of its originator,Harris’s method of prostatectomy has steadily gainedin favour and has been widely adopted. Actuallythe first description of it appeared in a paper read atthe Australasian Medical Congress held in Dunedinin March, 1927. Like many important originalpapers, however, it attracted little attention, andHarris’s visit to Europe in 1935 was in the nature ofa crusade against what he regarded as unreasonableprejudice. He was determined to demonstrate theadvantages of his method, and although he was inindifferent health, he worked with such industry thatthere were few who had not the opportunity of watch-ing him operate. His enthusiasm was infectious andhe made many converts. It will be a gratification tohis friends that he lived long enough to see his workvindicated. It was no light task for a surgeon livingin Australia to drive home his claims against a

definitely hostile school of opinion, but few obstaclescould withstand his determination. The majorityof British genito-urinary surgeons are now preparedto admit that although his technique is unlikely

ever to be used as a routine, it has gained an importantplace in prostatic surgery.Another operation with which Harris’s name is

connected is that of renal sympathectomy. For over

eight years he carried out denervation of the renalpedicle and was therefore in a position to speakauthoritatively of its scope and its limitations. Thecondition in which he found that renal sympathectomygave the most favourable results is the one for whichhe coined the somewhat awkward term of " renal

sympathetico-tonus." This condition of overactionof the sympathetic nerves of the renal pedicle hecompared to Hirschsprung’s disease of the largebowel, and his views on it were fully described in anarticle he published in these columns two years ago.

Harris was educated at Sydney Grammar School,of which he was captain in 1900.. He representedSydney University at cricket, and after a residentpost at Sydney Hospital entered general practice.In 1914 he joined the staff of the Lewisham Hospitaland from 1918 onwards he was purely a consultant.Dying at the comparatively early age of 56, he leavesa widow and one son. Two of his brothers are membersof the medical profession.

ANDREW DANIEL CLINCH, M.D. Dubl.Dr. Clinch, who died on Feb. 2nd, was formerly a

medical inspector of the Department of Local Govern-ment and Public Health, and was one of the bestknown and best liked medical men in Ireland.