886 APRIL 13, 1957 CORRESPONDENCE

(L.2) segment. The transition between the normal andabnormal colon was radiologically very striking, and itappeared to coincide proximally with the territorial limit ofthe inferior mesenteric artery. The latent interval betweenthe onset of the rash and the diarrhoea presumably indicated,as it does in typhoid fever, the time ulceration took todevelop. The fact that this " symptomatic " colitis did notrelapse, in spite of radiological evidence of scarring, doesnot support the suggestion that classical ulcerative colitisoriginates from a non-specific insult to the colon.-We are,etc., R. E. STEINER.London, W.12. G. A. MAcGREGOR.

Athlete's FootSIR,-The two very interesting articles, one by Miss Mary

P. English (Journal, March 30, p. 744) and the other byMr. J. C. Gentles (p. 746), as well as your annotation(p. 755) on the same subject, have prompted us to searchthrough our case records for evidence of the spread of tineapedis in families. Among an approximate total of 352patients presenting with tinea pedis confirmed by culturewe note at least 5 cases of spread of infection due to T.rubrum, 2 due to T. mentagrophytes var. interdigitale, and2 due to E. floccosumn. The various relationships of thepatients concerned were as follows: husband and wife,father and son, father and daughter, brother and sister, andsister and sister. In one family T. rubrum was isolatedin culture from the father and his son, whereas T. menta-grophytes var. interdigitale was cultured from the mother.We also have no doubt that many more such cases oftransfer of infection to contacts in families occur than isgenerally recognized.-We are, etc., J. T. INGRAM.

Leeds. C. J. LA TOUCHE.

Lung CancerSTR,-IS it not highly probable that most of the lung

cancer to-day is attributable to our modern tarred roads ?Forty years ago both were very rare, yet smoking was verycommon-five cigarettes for a penny. Is tobacco more likelyto cause lung cancer to-day than it was then ? The sameapplies to air pollution by chimney smoke. Non-smokersget cancer of the lung. Before we make smoking illegal-as some people would like-and before I resign from theB.M.A. because the Journal advertises cigarettes, I wouldhave to be convinced that the very frequent inhalation of tardust over a number of years was not the most likely cause.In fact, I wonder that any of us who live on and use themain roads escape. I would be very pleased if any of yourreaders could disprove this, as it is rather alarming.-I am,etc.,

Clent. Worcs. J. MILLAR SMITH.

Herpes Zoster and Chicken-poxSIR,-Two cases of herpes zoster in children aged 5 occur-

ring recently in my practice have made Dr. R. M. Mc-Gregor's article (Journal, January 12, p. 84) and corre-spondence about zoster very interesting to me. One occurredin a child who had varicella when aged 2 months. the otherhad a very mild eruption while in hospital for tonsillectomyat 3 years old. The sister of the first case developed a rashindistinguishable from varicella 20 days after the zosterrash appeared. without any other known contact with vari-cella. Only the second child had pain, and that not severe.

I do not feel confident in putting forward any definiteproposition in a disease of such variable severity, but couldit be that zoster may affect those people whose immunityto varicella has worn thin, either due to an attack before theage when immunological mechanisms are fully developed,-or only after a relatively long lapse of time ? This mightaccount for the clinical impression that zoster is commonerwvith increasing age and explain why it is more frequent in-the ages prone to neoplastic disease, and so gave rise tothe ground of Dr. McGregor's interesting inquiry.-I am,etc.,

London, S.W.18. M. J. F. COURTENAY.

Obituary

D. W. G. FARIS, C.B.E., LL.D., M.B., D.P.H.

Dr. Desmond Faris, who was the first dean of the,faculty of medicine in the University of Malaya, diedat Hove, Sussex, on March 20. He was 55 years ofage.Desmond William George Faris was born on April

30, 1901, and was educated at Epsom College and at theLondon Hospital, qualifying in 1924 and graduatingM.B., B.S. in the following year. Entering the MalayanMedical Service in 1926 as a health officer, he took theD.P.H. a few years later and became chief health officerat Singapore. During the war he was interned by theJapanese in Changi camp, where his efforts to maintainthe health of his fellow prisoners were notably success-ful. He was appointed C.B.E. in 1946. He had beenprincipal of the King Edward VII College of Medicineat Singapore for some time before the founding of theUniversity of Malaya in 1949, and he was appointed thefirst dean of the faculty of medicine, holding the postuntil last year. Dr. Faris is survived by his widow andby a son, who is at the London Hospital, and a daughterwho is a student of radiotherapy at the MiddlesexHospital.

D. E. C. M. writes: Of those who have served in theMalayan Medical Service and have known and loved thatcountry, none was more devoted than Desmond Faris.Whether as a health officer, as a lecturer in public health,as dean of the faculty of medicine, or as acting vice-principalof the university, whatever he undertook he did with allhis might. Nothing showed forth the man more than hiswillingness to undertake the thankless task of watching overthe health of his fellow internees at Changi Prison and SimeRoad. Much as he hated it, he undertook duties whichdemanded unceasing vigilance, endless improvisation, and,most distasteful of all, constant and close contact with ourJapanese guards. That we eventually came through thatperiod without experiencing any of the many epidemicswhich could so easily have been disastrous was in no smallmeasure due to his work and constant endeavour. Therecan be few who cannot call to mind the picture of him,crowned with an ancient straw hat, bustling about thecamp and poking into all sorts of corners at all times ofthe day.He took over the duties of dean of the faculty of medicine

when the University of Malaya was founded, and in thoseearly formative years gave devoted service. It was no easytask, for there was no well-drilled machinery which merelyhad to be kept running. Each day brought new problems,for which there were no rules or precedence. To Faris, withhis scrupulous regard for detail, his ceaseless questing forthe right answer, and his desire to build up an efficientadministration, it was a constant source of worry and strain.His latter ill-health was largely due to the pressure underwhich he worked during this strenuous and difficult time.His work was not in the glamorous light of the public eye,but what he did for the faculty and the university will be oflasting merit. He well deserved the award of the honoraryLL.D. which he received at the time of his retirement, andhe was proud of such a distinction. He looked forward tohis retirement and longed to be again with his family. It istragic that he should have had so short a time with them.Kipling is not a popular poet in these days, yet how wellhe described the aspirations and burden of Faris:

"Fill full the mouth of FamineAnd bid the sickness cease."

APRIL 13, 1957BRITISH 887

MEDICAL JOURNAL

R. H. DALE, M.B., F.R.C.S.Ed.We much regret to announce that Dr. R. H. Dale,plastic surgeon to the City and St. Paul's Hospitals,Saskatoon, died suddenly on April 3 at Saskatoon, atthe early age of 47.

Robert Henry Dale, the third child and only son ofSir Henry and Lady Dale, was born on January 28,1910. Educated at University College School andTrinity College, Cambridge, he went on to St. Bartho-lomew's Hospital for his clinical work. He qualifiedin 1934, and later graduated M.B., B.Chir. Having heldthe posts of house-surgeon to Sir Girling Ball andhouse-surgeon to the orthopaedic department at histeaching hospital, he became resident surgical officerat the County Hospital, Lincoln. Having takenthe Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeonsof Edinburgh in 1937, he went into a surgicalpractice at Grantham, where he was elected to the staffof the local hospital. Early in the war his partner, beingthen unmarried, joined the Army Medical Service,leaving Dr. R. H. Dale, like many others, to take doubleduty and to deal with air-raid emergencies in Grantham,which had become an important munitions centre. Hereceived, indeed, what might have been a serious injurywhen a spurt from a thermite incendiary bomb fell uponthe dorsum of his foot. When his partner was releasedhe himself joined the Royal Air Force and served for18 months at Halton, with the rank of squadronleader. He returned to Grantham, where he had builtup an increasing surgical connexion as a member of thestaff of the Grantham Hospital. He realized, however,that, with the National Health Service impending, therewere senior claims to his for consultant appointmentsthere, and, being reluctant to have his activities limitedto general practice under the conditions of the NationalHealth Service, he sold his practice early in 1948 andaccepted an offer from Sir Archibald Mclndoe tobecome surgical registrar at Queen Victoria Hospital,East Grinstead. During the next few years he gainedwide experience of plastic surgery and published a

number of papers on the subject, including one in thisJournal on the treatment of hydrofluoric-acid burns.His paper on electrical accidents in the British Journalof Plastic Surgery (1954-5, vol. 7, p. 44) was a veryuseful and well-illustrated report on an important topic.He remained at the Queen Victoria Hospital till 1953,by which time he was holding a multiple senior regis-trarship at East Grinstead, the Royal Northern Hospital,and St. Charles's Hospital, Notting Hill. No consultingappointment, however, being available for him, hissenior registrarship came to an end in 1953, so that hisspecialist career with the National Health Service wasterminated. He accordingly determined to makeanother fresh start overseas, and found that there was an

opportunity for one with his special experience atSaskatoon, whither he migrated in June, 1953. In lessthan four years he had built up there, at several hospitalsin the city, and especially at the new University Hospitalwhen it was opened in 1955, a practice and a reputationin plastic and traumatic surgery which had extended toa wide district in western Canada. It had, indeed,become excessive in the irresistible pressure of itsdemands, so as to leave him no adequate reserve forrest and recreation. He had just undertaken a book onthe plastic surgery of the hand, in collaboration withMr. Patrick Clarkson, of London, and had becomesecretary and treasurer for the current year to the

letter showed that the hard winter and overwork hadmade him feel abnormally weary. He was found deadin bed on the morning of April 3, and necropsy revealeda coronary occlusion as the cause.

Dr. Dale leaves a widow and three children, and tothem and to his mother and father we extend our deepsympathy in their loss.

Dr. W. E. LINDSAY, formerly dean of the faculty ofmedicine in the University of Saskatchewan, at Saska-toon, in a letter to Sir Henry Dale, wrote:

" In the comparatively short time that he had been hereRobin had made for himself an almost unique place in theaffections of his colleagues and friends. To this was addeda real respect based on the quality of the work he was doing.He had opened up a field that was new in these parts, so thatin addition to our grief for the loss of a friend we realizewhat it means to the school and the hospital, and indeed tothe people generally, who had come to recognize his skilland to depend increasingly on it."

H. S. STANNUS, C.B.E., M.D., Ph.D.F.R.C.P., D.T.M.&H.

The obituary of Dr. H. S. Stannus was printed in theJournal of March 9 (p. 589).

Dr. H. E. MAGEE writes: I first met Dr. H. S. Stannusin 1942 and then began a close association for about sevenyears, after which we met less frequently. We were notonly colleagues working together, but very good friendsand more. The news of his death, which I learnt only afew days ago, was a great shock and sorrow to me. Ourprofessional association began with his part-time employ-ment by the Ministry of Health to carry out nutrition surveysin various parts of the country on people of all ages andoccupations. It was my business to arrange these surveysand to deal with the reports thereon. I had, therefore,much opportunity of appreciating his great skill as a physi-cian and his scientific precision. The clinical assessment ofthe nutritional state was in those days, as it still is, a subjectof some controversy. Stannus fully realized this and sethimself out to contribute of his very best to provide reliableinformation which the Ministry so much needed in thosedays. For one thing, he addressed himself with great zealto the cause of folliculosis, which at that time had beenattributed by some to deficiency of vitamin A and by othersto deficiency of vitamin C. Stannus designed an ingeniousmethod whereby pictorial records could be made of thedegree of the condition. The method made it possible, bymeans of therapeutic trials, to measure the effects of administration of one vitamin and then of the other. His findingsshowed that neither vitamin was concerned in the aetiologyof the condition. Had the result been otherwise, the ques-tion of a ration of one or other vitamin would have had tobe considered, especially for adolescents, who were chieflyaffected. Towards the end of 1943 there were some com-plaints about the inadequacy of the rations for miners, andfears were expressed about their health. Stannus spent aweek in each of the Notts and Leicestershire coalfields, inter-viewing and examining the miners as they came off theirshifts at all hours of the day and night. I was quite con-vinced that his presence amongst these men with hispleasant manner and great humanity did much to reassurethem about their health. At any rate, there were no furthercomplaints from these two areas.He was a man of refined and artistic tastes, and it was a

great joy to drink his excellent sherry in his pleasant andartistically furnished rooms in Harley Street and then todine quietly with him in his club near by. He was anexcellent and very generous host. After medicine, genealogywas his next love. In the course of his inquiries into hisown family tree he was able to unearth authentic records ofmy own. His explorations took him to Dublin Castle, thento south Co. Antrim, where some branches of the Stannusfamily had settled about the beginning of the seventeenth

APRIL 13, 1957 OBITUARY

Canadian Association of Plastic Surgeons. I-Es last

888 APRIL 13, 1957

century: one family settled at the neck of the Isthmus ofIslandmagee. Stannus discovered at Carrickfergus that a

Stannus family had saved a Magee family from the massacreof 1642, whereas, according to tradition, only one malemember of the Magee clan survived the massacre. Thisdiscovery was a great joy to both of us.

Dr. K. SPERBER died at Accra, Gold Coast (now Ghana),on March 3 at the early age of 46 after a long illness.Born in Czechoslovakia on March 16, 1910, Karel Sperbergraduated in medicine at Prague University in 1935, andtook the equivalent of the D.P.H. soon afterwards. Aftertwo years' service with the Czech forces he became surgicalofficer to the well-known works hospital of the Bata ShoeCompany, where he first showed his marked capabilities fortraumatic and obstetrical surgery, which remained his mainprofessional interests. Soon after the German invasion ofCzechoslovakia he made an adventurous escape to England,and in 1940 obtained an appointment as a ship surgeon. Onhis first voyage to the Far East his ship was sunk off theStraits of Malacca and he was taken prisoner. During thefollowing three months he attended 500 Allied survivors on

board German prison ships. In the words of official docu-ments, " his only surgical instrument was a pocket knifeand his only medicines a few pills supplied by the enemy."Being of Czech nationality the Germans regarded him as a

subject of the Reich serving under an enemy flag, and hewas a marked man from the day of his capture. This did notprevent him from putting persistent and effective pressureon the authorities of prison camps in Germany to improvethe badly lacking medical facilities for 3,600 Allied internees.In the words of a visiting delegate of the Protecting Power," he did a most excellent job and was of the greatest valuefor the spirit of the camp." Eventually, however, he washanded over to the Gestapo and was taken first to thehorror camp of Auschwitz and later to Buchenwald. Hissurvival, while great numbers were exterminated in thesetwo camps, was a miracle, even for a man of his physicaland spiritual toughness. He escaped from Buchenwald inthe last weeks of the war and returned to England. Afteranother period as a ship surgeon he joined the ColonialMedical Service, and served from 1950, first in the Sey-chelles Islands and later in the Gold Coast. A year agohe set up in general practice in Accra, but his untimelydeath deprived him of the fruits of hard and conscientiouswork, in which he persisted almost to the day of his death.Dr. Sperber was appointed an honorary O.B.E. in August,1946, for his outstanding work for Allied seamen, andsome two years later he became a naturalized British subject.He was a man of striking appearance, of indomitable spirit,and with a golden sense of humour. He loved the simplegood things in life, above all good company and goodstories. He was no classical scholar, but he had a favouriteand characteristic Latin quotation, remembered from his

early school days : Amicus fidus rarus est. To his manyfriends, now dispersed all over the world, this simple truth

will be a measure of their loss. He is survived by his

wife, Kathleen, whom he married in 1947. With her hefound that haven of cloudless happiness for which he had

yearned through years of darkness and horrors.-E. P.

Dr. A. E. KILLON died at his home at Slough on March 11.

A native of Chester, Alfred Ernest Killon studied medicine at

Liverpool University, afterwards qualifying L.A.H. at Dub-

lin in 1920. He had been in practice in Slough for 18 yearsand had earned the reputation of being a sincere friend to

his medical colleagues and patients alike. He was an accom-

plished pianist and organist, and possessed a wide know-

ledge of classical literature. He is survived by his widow.

Dr. HARRY D. FINDLAY writes: Dr. A. E. Killon was a

modest, unassuming man who never sought the limelight.For that reason, perhaps, he was less well known to some

of his colleagues than his merits deserved. Only those of

us who were privileged to visit him in his own happy homeknew the facets of his character that made every one of hispatients a personal friend. A wise and kindly man, he wasskilled in the arts of music and song. He bore a year ofsuffering without complaint, and faced the last enemy witha courage that was a revelation and an inspiration. To hiswidow his colleagues, who were also his friends, extendtheir deep sympathy.

Dr. G. S. HOVENDEN, who was a general practitioner inBarnes for over fifty years, died at Putney Hospital, after a

short illness, on March 14. He was 87 years of age. GeraldStanley Hovenden was born at Norwood on August 27,1869, and was educated at the Whitgift School. He quali-fied M.R.C.S., L.R.C.P. from Guy's Hospital in 1894, takingthe London degrees of M.B., B.S. in the same year. Heproceeded to the M.D. in 1896. In 1900 Dr. GeorgeRodman, his cousin by marriage, who was in practice inBarnes and East Sheen, invited him and his twin brother,the late Dr. Arthur Hovenden, to join him as partners. Thisthey did and remained in the same practice till Dr. ArthurHovenden's death in 1946 and Dr. Gerald's retirement a

few years ago. During the last war, when his brother'shealth had broken down and his junior partners were calledup, he held the practice together with only part-time assist-ance. His appearance of being unhurried even when hewas doing four men's work is still remembered by hispatients. He was a member of the British Medical Associa-tion for over sixty years and until recently was a veryregular attendant at the Divisional meetings. His presiden-tial address to the West London Medico-Chirurgical Societyin 1947 was entitled " Fifty Years in General Practice." Ina generation when it was still possible for a general prac-titioner to claim that he was up to the standard of clinicalassistant in the various specialties, he was able to apply his

knowledge and experience in practice. He was a skilledanaesthetist with chloroform and ether; he performed manytonsillectomies and adenoidectomies; he was good at dental

extractions; he was a particularly good paediatrician (as he

had been a clinical assistant at Great Ormond Street); andhe had a large midwifery practice. Dr. Rodman was a

pioneer radiologist, and in the early days the practicetreated a large number of fractures. Dr. Hovenden was

the ideal family doctor. His own family was the centre

of his life, and through his kindness and understanding of

human problems he became the friend and counsellor to

several generations of families in his practice. His unspar-ing devotion to his patients' welfare inspired complete trust,and his gentle, genial manner and obvious enjoyment of

his simple pleasures were typical of a man who was con-

tented with his life. He was also intensely interested in

the modem developments-both in medicine and in generalaffairs-which were growing so rapidly around him; he

was, for instance, a pioneer motorist. He loved riding, and

up to the last war was a familiar figure in Richmond Park,riding with his family. He was a keen walker and dinghysailor and enjoyed holidays abroad. He was an excellent

bridge and chess player; but the pleasure which he enjoyedfrom reading-in English and French and German-lastedtill a few days before his death. He was married twice

and had one daughter and three sons; two of his sons are

in the medical profession-one carrying on his father's prac-tice and the other a surgeon commander, R.N.

Dr. A. H. PRICE, who for many years was a well-known

general practitioner at Reading, died on March 17 at his

home at Twyford, Berkshire. He was 64 years of age.Alfred Henry Price was born at Glenbeigh, Co. Kerry, on

April 25, 1892, and was educated at St. Columba's Collegeand Trinity College, Dublin, graduating M.B., B.Ch., with

first-class honours in medicine, in 1916. He proceeded to

the M.D. in 1919 and in the following year took the D.P.H.

He was a notable sportsman in his student days, playingcricket and Rugby football for Trinity College and gainingan Irish cap. After graduation he held a resident appoint-

ment at the Adelaide Hospital, and then served in the Royal

BRITIMEDICAL JOURNAL888 APRIL 13, 1957 OBITUARY

APRIL 13, 1957 OBITUARY BRIATsIH 889~~~~~~~~~v~~~~~~~~~~~~~~MEDICALJouR-NAL.

Navy until 1919, his wartime duties taking him to China,among other places. He acted for a short time as medicalofficer to the Canton municipal council, later becomingmedical officer to the Dimbulla District Planters' Associa-tion in Ceylon. In 1928 he returned to England and joinedthe late Sir Stewart Abram in partnership at Reading. Onthe death of his partner, Dr. Price carried on the practicealone until 1947, when he was joined by his son, Dr.H. M. Price. For some time Dr. Price was in charge ofthe physiotherapy department of the Royal Berkshire Hos-pital, where previously he had been clinical assistant in theear, nose, and throat department for 13 years. He wasmedical officer to Reading School and commanding officerand medical officer from 1943 to 1946 of the Reading SeaCadet Corps. A member of the British Red Cross Societyfor 17 years, he was for a time assistant county director.From 1942 to 1946 he was honorary secretary of the Read-ing Division of the British Medical Association. He hadalso held office as the honorary secretary of the localmedical war committee. Always ready to take an activepart in the community he served, he was a keen supporterof the British Legion. For many years he was a church-warden at St. John's Church, Reading.

Medico-Legal

TRIAL OF DR. J. BODKIN ADAMS

EXPERT EVIDENCE CONTINUED

[FROM OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT]

The trial of Dr. John Bodkin Adams, of Eastbourne, con-tinued before Mr. Justice Devlin at the Old Bailey. Dr.Adams is charged with the murder of a patient, 81-year-oldMrs. Edith Alice Morrell, who died on November 13, 1950.He pleads not guilty.

Sir Reginald Manningham-Buller, Q.C., is appearing for theprogecution with Mr. Melford Stevenson, Q.C., and Mr. MalcolmMorris. Mr. Geoffrey Lawrence, Q.C., is appearing for Dr.Adams with Mr. Edward Clarke and Mr. John Heritage. TheMedical Defence Union is acting for Dr. Adams.On the eleventh day of the trial, April 1, Dr. M. G. C.

Ashby was recalled to complete his evidence-in-chief. Afterquestioning the witness about graphs illustrating the pre-scriptions the Attorney-General asked:

" In your opinion, what would be the effect on a woman of81 years of age if given morphia and heroin in the quantitiesshown to have been prescribed between November 8 and 12 ? "-"I don't think it is possible that she could have survived thosequantities without being steadily worked up to that dosage; thatis to say, a patient receiving those doses when being treated forthe pains of cancer would survive them, but they would havebeen built up several weeks before. They would have beengetting perhaps 3 or 4 gr. of each. What led me to a conclu-sion about an inability to survive was the very sudden rise inthe prescriptions as illustrated on the graph. The two situa-tions are entirely different.""That is taking morphia and heroin together ? "-" Yes."" If she had had the morphia alone what would have been the

effect, in your opinion ? "-" I don't think she could have stoodsuch a very sudden increase of such an extent, because again theprescriptions as illustrated on the graph show no previous raisingof morphia at all really right back to August 18. So there wasno preparation for the big dose in respect of acquired toleranceto very high doses, again differing from the usual cancer patient."The witness said that the same considerations would apply

if the patient had had heroin alone; he did not think shecould have survived if, instead of having the heroin andmorphia alone prescribed, she had the major part of both.He wished to correct a " slight error" in his previousanswer: the heroin was not quite the same as the morphiabecause, according to the prescriptions as illustrated on thegraph, there had been a fivefold increase of heroin for theprevious six or seven days. With such an increase it would

be possible that she could have survived what was thenmore than 12 times as much; the dosage had been raised18 times after only six days, and he did not think it waspossible that a woman of 80 could survive that.He said that every general practitioner would be aware of

such facts in relation to morphia, because it was a drug ofalmost universal use. Not quite the same could be said ofheroin, because there must be many family doctors whovirtually never used it except perhaps in a linctus. He hadnever himself used heroin and morphia together in condi-tions where there was not severe pain, nor had he seen itused by a colleague in such circumstances.He said that the complaint of severe pain on June 27,

1948, when the patient had been at the Neston CottageHospital, Cheshire, was probably due to arthritis. Therewas no evidence either way of the incidence of a thalamicsyndrome. The pain on June 28 was probably dyspepticfrom the distension of the stomach or viscera. Brandyfrequently gave relief in such circumstances.The Attorney-General: On every night while she was in that

hospital-we do not know on whose instructions-she was giveni gr. of morphia. Would that, in your opinion, have producedaddiction or not ? "-" 1 do not think it is possible to answerthat question with a straight 'Yes' or 'No,' for this reason:that if we assume for the moment that addiction is producedafter three weeks it is not rational to say that there is no measureof it after nine days; but it would be very slight, and I don'tthink the addiction would have reached the degree to which thedoctors would have to give any attention to gradually weaning.But I don't think it would be right to say that there would notbe the beginnings of addiction in a very mild way in an averagepatient."

Expectation of LifeHe was sure none of the doctors concerned would have

agreed to Mrs. Morrell's journey back to Eastbourne hadthey not thought that she had greatly improved and that hertransfer would in no way prejudice her further recovery.After morphia had been given for a week to 10 days everydoctor would be thinking in terms of how much further itwas right or proper to go on with it, because the dangers ofaddiction would then be steadily mounting-accepting forthe moment the arbitrary figure of about three weeks.

In answer to the judge, he said he did not criticize thegiving of morphia at the Cheshire nursing-home, because.it was recorded that the patient was in severe pain and nodoctor would dispute that morphia was one of the drugs thatcould properly be given to deal with it, although there mightperhaps be better choices. The more important considera-tion was that during those first few days just after a severestroke the patient's expectation of life was very poor indeedand the doctors would not be thinking in terms of futureaddiction; their one consideration would be to ease painwithout prejudicing the patient's life. There would be animmense change in the prognosis on July 5, the day she wasthought fit enough to return to Eastbourne. The prognosiswould then be quite good and she could have been expectedto have lived for six months to several years.Asked by the Attorney-General whether there would be

any justification on July 9, 1948, having regard to the previ-ous injections, for injecting Mrs. Morrell each evening withhyperduric morphia just to secure sleep, the witness replied:" Taking into consideration that impending addiction wasthe overriding consideration at that time, morphia would notbe the drug of choice; it would be one of the barbiturates,which are the drugs for promoting sleep."He could think of no justification for adding heroin to the

morphine injection on July 21, 1948, and he thought itenormously increased the already present danger of addic-tion. The patient would have been firmly addicted, but inno sense unweanable, by the time she left the Eastbournenursing-home in October, 1948. After further questions onweaning treatment and tolerance, the Attorney-Generalsaid:" What would be the effect on the general physical health of

an old lady of 80 or 81 if she was submitted to heroin andmorphia injections over a long period ? "-" Patients' reactionsvary to this, but on an average I think it can be said with assur-