527
as well, So £5.2million has been set aside this year for this purpose. Meanwhile, continuing concern is expressed by the courts because increasing numbers of mentally abnormal offenders are sent to prison instead of hospital. Although lack of money has been the main reason for the delays, there are other difficulties over staffing and local opposition in several parts of the country. Concern has been expressed about the type of patients housed by the new units. Soothing words have had to be used by Ministers to explain that these units would not be suitable for severely mentally handicapped patients. But local opposition to the idea of mini-Broadmoors has been strong. Because the units are expected to form an integral part of the psychiatric services of a region, the idea is that they should be placed near centres of population. But this immediately raises predictable difficulties. The story of the slow progress in getting these units under way is a depressing though not unfamiliar one to those working for the benefit of the mentally ill. But Ministerial resolve remains firm. Now, to demonstrate the Government’s determination to make progress, a Departmental invitation has gone out to interested bodies in the N.H.S., the unions, and the professions to set up yet another committee to help the regions overcome their difficulties.
Obituary HENRY GEORGE MILLER M.D. Durh., F.R.C.P., D.P.M.
Dr Henry Miller, vice-chancellor of the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, and formerly dean of the medical school and’professor of neurology there, died on Aug. 25 at the age of 62. He was born in Stockton-on-Tees and received his medical education at the College of Medicine at Newcastle, graduating M.B. from the University of Durham in 1937 and M.D. in 1940; he became F.R.C.P. in 1953. After qualifying he worked as assistant resident pathologist at Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, at the Hospital for Sick Children, London, and as medical registrar at the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle. During the war he served as a neuropsychiatric specialist in the R.A.F. Medical Service. Following further training in London at the Hammersmith Hospital and the National Hospital, Queen Square, he returned to University of Newcastle upon Tyne in 1947 as Newcastle upon Tyne assistant physician to the Royal Victoria in neurology in 1956. In the university he was first part-time lecturer and then personal reader in neurology, being appointed to a personal chair of neurology in 1964. As clinical sub-dean from 1962 he held particular responsibility for organising the clinical part of the medical curriculum; he was dean of medicine from 1966 to 1968, when he took up office as vice-chancellor of the universe. He held visiting professorships in the United States and Australia and was an honorary member of neurological associations in several countries. A number of textbooks bear his
Infirmary, becoming physician
including Early Diagnosis, Modern Medical Treatment, and Diseases of the Nervous System; his monograph Medicine and Society was published in 1973. He is survived by his wife, also a doctor, and two sons and name,
two
daughters.
W. B. M. writes: "Despite his later achievements as vice-chancellor, Henry Miller will surely be best remembered by his innumerable friends and admirers, and even by his adversaries, as the man he was at the height of his formidable, but always genial, powers as clinician, speaker, polemicist, and bon viveur. His considerable contribution to clinical neurology was based on his insistence that the specialty’s main role lay in the general hospital, and that neurological disease was amenable to the techniques of epidemiology and controlled observation. To these convictions were added an intense feeling for the infinite variety of neurological practice. Many sense that he left the clinical field with some regret, and indeed he still had much to contribute. "He was a masterly public speaker, with a fine command of the English language, which he used with elegance and wit. He did not suffer gladly anyone whom he thought pretentious and it is undeniable that, when carried away by his eloquence in pursuit of some favourite topic for the telling phrase, he would sometimes speak strongly. Nevertheless, to be a superb speaker implies having something worth saying, and it is sad to realise that we can no longer sit in Henry’s expectant, exhilarated, and occasionally outraged audience. Henry wrote as he spoke-with knowledge, humour, and felicity of phrase. "Behind the no-doubt deliberately fostered exuberant public image, many were privileged to know Henry as an untiringly loyal friend and to have cause for gratitude for his unstinting help. No appreciation of Henry Miller would be complete without acknowledging his memorable zest for living life to the full." A fellow
vice-chancellor, D.G.C., adds: "Among vice-chancellors, who are usually cautious and perhaps rather conventional men, Henry Miller stood out as a colourful personality. His opinions were always forthrightly, usually entertainingly, expressed. He had very wide interests in the arts, in music, and in the theatre. He was fond of proclaiming his Socialist convictions, although his evident enjoyment of the pleasures of life is not always found among men of the Left. He was a superb speaker, both as an entertainer and as controversialist. "As a university administrator, he did not pretend to be fond of the routine of endless committee meetings, though others found these much more tolerable when he was present. When a colleague talked too long and too prosily it was sometimes evident that he was containing his impatience with difficulty. He was as near to being universally liked as any man can be, and he will be very much missed, both in Newcastle and in the councils of the British universities generally." a
EDWARD SAMUEL STERN M.D.
Cantab., F.R.C.P., F.R.C.Psych.
Dr E. S.
Stern, formerly medical superintendent and consultant psychiatrist at the Central Hospital, Warwick, died on July 15 at the age of 71. educated at Clifton College, Selwyn College, Camand University College Hospital, London, graduating M.B. in 1931. After house-appointments and a period as a junior research fellow, his interests turned to psychiatry, and he worked first in Napsbury Mental Hospital, which he left to become deputy medical superintendent at the Leicester City Mental Hospital in 1937, moving to the Central Hospital, Warwick, in 1942; he retired in 1970. He was a successful administrator and a happy chief to all his staff. Future planning, research, and education were his interests, and he was soon involved with the Birmingham He
was
bridge,
528 SOVIET SURGEON
Regional Hospital Board as psychiatric adviser. He was always closely associated with the Royal Medico-Psychological Association, being a bronze medallist, chairman of the child psychiatry section, and secretary of the study tours committee, organising successful European tours, including one to Israel,
MANY doctors
have literary ambitions, surgeons perSince Russian medicine is hidden from the haps especially eyes of the West by the political scene as much as by the language barrier, an autobiography in English by a leading Russian surgeon is bound to be of interest.’ At 67, Dr Kovanov spans the whole development of today’s Russia. His generation reflects life in a Communist society, in the countryside, at school, at university, overshadowed by the threat of war from another totalitarian dictatorship, by a narrowly won war, and by the rebuilding of his country afterwards. His tale may appear strange to us, but it gives some insight into the actions of a great people with an entirely different mentality. It also demonstrates the creation and growth "of a new intelligentsia that would be of the people and with the people all the way". President Kalinin did impress the medical students, however, that "a doctor’s prestige is proportional to his professional reputation". There is an interesting chapter on Russia’s great doctors, who were the author’s teachers or contemporaries. The war takes up a fair proportion of the memoirs. Kovanov’s later career is a good mirror of the practice of surgery in his country. The book concludes with the description of the inaugural day tradition initiated by Moscow University and with the hippocratic oath adjusted to the needs of Soviet doctors. seem to
so.
where he delivered a paper in Hebrew. Clinical psychiatry remained his prime interest, and he formed easy and happy relations with his patients. Insulin treatment, electrotherapy, and psychotherapy of freudian origin were all within his repertoire, but always with a critical approach deriving from his background of research. He later took up statistics and was proud of his election as a fellow of the Statistical Society in 1962. He was a valued consultant to mental health review tribunals. Teddy was a keen freemason, and did much for charity. Other interests ranged from classical and modern languages to gardening, carpentry, and woodcarving. He was a good companion, a ready friend, a welcoming host, and a wise and compassionate doctor. He is survived by his wife and two daughters of a previous T.W.D marriage
.
’
Notes and News
ANÆSTHETICS AS CARCINOGENS MANIPULATING MICROORGANISMS
THE controversy over the hazards of occupational exposure volatile anaesthetics has concentrated on the possible risk of abortion and cancer in operating-theatre staff and of malformations in children. In a tailpiece to its latest series of monographs, the International Agency for Research on Cancer looks at the volatile anaesthetics. Trichloroethylene gets a full monograph because it is also an industrial solvent. A carcinogenesis bioassay3 shows that trichloroethylene does induce a hepatocellular carcinoma in B6C3F1 mice. An I.A.R.C. working group discussed anaesthetics in February of this year, and its conclusion, based upon the work of T. H. Corbett and colleagues with respect to carcinogenicity, is cautiously worded: "Available studies indicate that working in the operating-room . environment is associated with an increased risk of cancer, teratogenic effects and, possibly, mutagenic effects, but it is not possible at the present time to determine which particular facto
CONCERN over the possible hazards of altering the genetic constitution of microorganisms dates from before the U.S. National Academy of Sciences suggested a moratorium on this area of research in 1974. Since then two working-parties have reported on this subject in Britain-first, the one under Lord Ashby! and now the one under the chairmanship of Sir Robert Williams.2 The hazards would be to the public as well as to those occuptionally exposed, but the matter is to be handled by the Health and Safety Commission on the statutory side while the expert advice on the design and conditions of experiments of this sort would come from a non-statutory group under the Department of Education and Science. The Health and Safety (Genetic Manipulation) Regulations, now circulated in the form of a consultative document,3 would require anyone who seeks to alter the genetic constitution of a microorganism to notify the Health and Safety Executive of his intentions. Exemptions will be allowed for certain types of experiment, and the Commission seeks help in identifying these. Few research-workers will argue with the objectives of these controls, but they may be forgiven for thinking that the administration of them is going to be rather cumbersome.
JUNIOR HOSPITAL DOCTORS week the executive committee of the Hospital Junior
LAST Staffs Committee decided to withdraw its recommendation in favour of a 24-hour strike.8 This move followed a meeting with the Secretary of State, Mr David Ennals, who had accepted the principle of a 52-week contract with full basic and supplementary salary on holiday and study leave. The Department of Health later issued a statement denying a suggestion that the provisional settlement was inconsistent with the Government’s incomes policy. On Aug. 25, Mr Ennals said: "I hope that junior doctors throughout the country will recognise and welcome the progress made in the talks ... it is my hope that we can now drop the final curtain on the strained relations between the doctors and the Government." 1. See Lancet, 1975, i, 351. 2. Report of the Working Party on the Practice of Genetic Manipulation. Cmnd 6600. H.M. Stationery Office. 50p. 3. Health and Safety Commission. Compulsory Notification of Proposed Experiments in the Genetic Manipulation of Microorganisms: Consultative Document. 4. See Lancet, Aug. 28, 1976, p. 480.
responsible."
tors are
Monash
University
Prof. Graeme Schofield has been Faculty of Medicine. World
appointed dean of
the
Congress of Psychiatry 6th World Congress of Psychiatry
The of the World Psychiatric Association will be held in Hawaii from Aug. 28 to Sept. 3, 1977. Details may be had from the American Psychiatric Association, 1700 D.C. 20009, U.S.A.
Eighteenth
Street N.W.,
Washington,
The London Medical Orchestra will resume rehearsals in Christ Church School, Cosway Street, London NW1, at 7 P.M. on Sept. 21. New members, particularly string players, are welcome. Details may be had from Mrs A. P. Mason, 102 Hamilton Terrace, London NW8
(01-2864367). A lecture
on
stroke will be given by Dr J. S. Smith at 1 P.M. on Wedat Northwick Park Hospital, Watford Road, Harrow,
nesday, Sept. 8,
Middlesex HA1 3UJ. 1. In the Name of Life: Reflections of a Soviet Surgeon. By V. V. KOVANOV. Moscow: Progress Publishers. London: Central Books. 1976. Pp. 324.
£1.50. 2. I.A.R.C.
Monographs on the Evaluation of Carcinogenic Risk of Chemicals Man; vol xi, p. 285. Lyon, 1976. 3. Carcinogenesis Bioassay of Trichlorœthylene. U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. 1976. $3·30. to
as well, So £5.2million has been set aside this year for this purpose. Meanwhile, continuing concern is expressed by the courts because increasing numbers of mentally abnormal offenders are sent to prison instead of hospital. Although lack of money has been the main reason for the delays, there are other difficulties over staffing and local opposition in several parts of the country. Concern has been expressed about the type of patients housed by the new units. Soothing words have had to be used by Ministers to explain that these units would not be suitable for severely mentally handicapped patients. But local opposition to the idea of mini-Broadmoors has been strong. Because the units are expected to form an integral part of the psychiatric services of a region, the idea is that they should be placed near centres of population. But this immediately raises predictable difficulties. The story of the slow progress in getting these units under way is a depressing though not unfamiliar one to those working for the benefit of the mentally ill. But Ministerial resolve remains firm. Now, to demonstrate the Government’s determination to make progress, a Departmental invitation has gone out to interested bodies in the N.H.S., the unions, and the professions to set up yet another committee to help the regions overcome their difficulties.
Obituary HENRY GEORGE MILLER M.D. Durh., F.R.C.P., D.P.M.
Dr Henry Miller, vice-chancellor of the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, and formerly dean of the medical school and’professor of neurology there, died on Aug. 25 at the age of 62. He was born in Stockton-on-Tees and received his medical education at the College of Medicine at Newcastle, graduating M.B. from the University of Durham in 1937 and M.D. in 1940; he became F.R.C.P. in 1953. After qualifying he worked as assistant resident pathologist at Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, at the Hospital for Sick Children, London, and as medical registrar at the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle. During the war he served as a neuropsychiatric specialist in the R.A.F. Medical Service. Following further training in London at the Hammersmith Hospital and the National Hospital, Queen Square, he returned to University of Newcastle upon Tyne in 1947 as Newcastle upon Tyne assistant physician to the Royal Victoria in neurology in 1956. In the university he was first part-time lecturer and then personal reader in neurology, being appointed to a personal chair of neurology in 1964. As clinical sub-dean from 1962 he held particular responsibility for organising the clinical part of the medical curriculum; he was dean of medicine from 1966 to 1968, when he took up office as vice-chancellor of the universe. He held visiting professorships in the United States and Australia and was an honorary member of neurological associations in several countries. A number of textbooks bear his
Infirmary, becoming physician
including Early Diagnosis, Modern Medical Treatment, and Diseases of the Nervous System; his monograph Medicine and Society was published in 1973. He is survived by his wife, also a doctor, and two sons and name,
two
daughters.
W. B. M. writes: "Despite his later achievements as vice-chancellor, Henry Miller will surely be best remembered by his innumerable friends and admirers, and even by his adversaries, as the man he was at the height of his formidable, but always genial, powers as clinician, speaker, polemicist, and bon viveur. His considerable contribution to clinical neurology was based on his insistence that the specialty’s main role lay in the general hospital, and that neurological disease was amenable to the techniques of epidemiology and controlled observation. To these convictions were added an intense feeling for the infinite variety of neurological practice. Many sense that he left the clinical field with some regret, and indeed he still had much to contribute. "He was a masterly public speaker, with a fine command of the English language, which he used with elegance and wit. He did not suffer gladly anyone whom he thought pretentious and it is undeniable that, when carried away by his eloquence in pursuit of some favourite topic for the telling phrase, he would sometimes speak strongly. Nevertheless, to be a superb speaker implies having something worth saying, and it is sad to realise that we can no longer sit in Henry’s expectant, exhilarated, and occasionally outraged audience. Henry wrote as he spoke-with knowledge, humour, and felicity of phrase. "Behind the no-doubt deliberately fostered exuberant public image, many were privileged to know Henry as an untiringly loyal friend and to have cause for gratitude for his unstinting help. No appreciation of Henry Miller would be complete without acknowledging his memorable zest for living life to the full." A fellow
vice-chancellor, D.G.C., adds: "Among vice-chancellors, who are usually cautious and perhaps rather conventional men, Henry Miller stood out as a colourful personality. His opinions were always forthrightly, usually entertainingly, expressed. He had very wide interests in the arts, in music, and in the theatre. He was fond of proclaiming his Socialist convictions, although his evident enjoyment of the pleasures of life is not always found among men of the Left. He was a superb speaker, both as an entertainer and as controversialist. "As a university administrator, he did not pretend to be fond of the routine of endless committee meetings, though others found these much more tolerable when he was present. When a colleague talked too long and too prosily it was sometimes evident that he was containing his impatience with difficulty. He was as near to being universally liked as any man can be, and he will be very much missed, both in Newcastle and in the councils of the British universities generally." a
EDWARD SAMUEL STERN M.D.
Cantab., F.R.C.P., F.R.C.Psych.
Dr E. S.
Stern, formerly medical superintendent and consultant psychiatrist at the Central Hospital, Warwick, died on July 15 at the age of 71. educated at Clifton College, Selwyn College, Camand University College Hospital, London, graduating M.B. in 1931. After house-appointments and a period as a junior research fellow, his interests turned to psychiatry, and he worked first in Napsbury Mental Hospital, which he left to become deputy medical superintendent at the Leicester City Mental Hospital in 1937, moving to the Central Hospital, Warwick, in 1942; he retired in 1970. He was a successful administrator and a happy chief to all his staff. Future planning, research, and education were his interests, and he was soon involved with the Birmingham He
was
bridge,
528 SOVIET SURGEON
Regional Hospital Board as psychiatric adviser. He was always closely associated with the Royal Medico-Psychological Association, being a bronze medallist, chairman of the child psychiatry section, and secretary of the study tours committee, organising successful European tours, including one to Israel,
MANY doctors
have literary ambitions, surgeons perSince Russian medicine is hidden from the haps especially eyes of the West by the political scene as much as by the language barrier, an autobiography in English by a leading Russian surgeon is bound to be of interest.’ At 67, Dr Kovanov spans the whole development of today’s Russia. His generation reflects life in a Communist society, in the countryside, at school, at university, overshadowed by the threat of war from another totalitarian dictatorship, by a narrowly won war, and by the rebuilding of his country afterwards. His tale may appear strange to us, but it gives some insight into the actions of a great people with an entirely different mentality. It also demonstrates the creation and growth "of a new intelligentsia that would be of the people and with the people all the way". President Kalinin did impress the medical students, however, that "a doctor’s prestige is proportional to his professional reputation". There is an interesting chapter on Russia’s great doctors, who were the author’s teachers or contemporaries. The war takes up a fair proportion of the memoirs. Kovanov’s later career is a good mirror of the practice of surgery in his country. The book concludes with the description of the inaugural day tradition initiated by Moscow University and with the hippocratic oath adjusted to the needs of Soviet doctors. seem to
so.
where he delivered a paper in Hebrew. Clinical psychiatry remained his prime interest, and he formed easy and happy relations with his patients. Insulin treatment, electrotherapy, and psychotherapy of freudian origin were all within his repertoire, but always with a critical approach deriving from his background of research. He later took up statistics and was proud of his election as a fellow of the Statistical Society in 1962. He was a valued consultant to mental health review tribunals. Teddy was a keen freemason, and did much for charity. Other interests ranged from classical and modern languages to gardening, carpentry, and woodcarving. He was a good companion, a ready friend, a welcoming host, and a wise and compassionate doctor. He is survived by his wife and two daughters of a previous T.W.D marriage
.
’
Notes and News
ANÆSTHETICS AS CARCINOGENS MANIPULATING MICROORGANISMS
THE controversy over the hazards of occupational exposure volatile anaesthetics has concentrated on the possible risk of abortion and cancer in operating-theatre staff and of malformations in children. In a tailpiece to its latest series of monographs, the International Agency for Research on Cancer looks at the volatile anaesthetics. Trichloroethylene gets a full monograph because it is also an industrial solvent. A carcinogenesis bioassay3 shows that trichloroethylene does induce a hepatocellular carcinoma in B6C3F1 mice. An I.A.R.C. working group discussed anaesthetics in February of this year, and its conclusion, based upon the work of T. H. Corbett and colleagues with respect to carcinogenicity, is cautiously worded: "Available studies indicate that working in the operating-room . environment is associated with an increased risk of cancer, teratogenic effects and, possibly, mutagenic effects, but it is not possible at the present time to determine which particular facto
CONCERN over the possible hazards of altering the genetic constitution of microorganisms dates from before the U.S. National Academy of Sciences suggested a moratorium on this area of research in 1974. Since then two working-parties have reported on this subject in Britain-first, the one under Lord Ashby! and now the one under the chairmanship of Sir Robert Williams.2 The hazards would be to the public as well as to those occuptionally exposed, but the matter is to be handled by the Health and Safety Commission on the statutory side while the expert advice on the design and conditions of experiments of this sort would come from a non-statutory group under the Department of Education and Science. The Health and Safety (Genetic Manipulation) Regulations, now circulated in the form of a consultative document,3 would require anyone who seeks to alter the genetic constitution of a microorganism to notify the Health and Safety Executive of his intentions. Exemptions will be allowed for certain types of experiment, and the Commission seeks help in identifying these. Few research-workers will argue with the objectives of these controls, but they may be forgiven for thinking that the administration of them is going to be rather cumbersome.
JUNIOR HOSPITAL DOCTORS week the executive committee of the Hospital Junior
LAST Staffs Committee decided to withdraw its recommendation in favour of a 24-hour strike.8 This move followed a meeting with the Secretary of State, Mr David Ennals, who had accepted the principle of a 52-week contract with full basic and supplementary salary on holiday and study leave. The Department of Health later issued a statement denying a suggestion that the provisional settlement was inconsistent with the Government’s incomes policy. On Aug. 25, Mr Ennals said: "I hope that junior doctors throughout the country will recognise and welcome the progress made in the talks ... it is my hope that we can now drop the final curtain on the strained relations between the doctors and the Government." 1. See Lancet, 1975, i, 351. 2. Report of the Working Party on the Practice of Genetic Manipulation. Cmnd 6600. H.M. Stationery Office. 50p. 3. Health and Safety Commission. Compulsory Notification of Proposed Experiments in the Genetic Manipulation of Microorganisms: Consultative Document. 4. See Lancet, Aug. 28, 1976, p. 480.
responsible."
tors are
Monash
University
Prof. Graeme Schofield has been Faculty of Medicine. World
appointed dean of
the
Congress of Psychiatry 6th World Congress of Psychiatry
The of the World Psychiatric Association will be held in Hawaii from Aug. 28 to Sept. 3, 1977. Details may be had from the American Psychiatric Association, 1700 D.C. 20009, U.S.A.
Eighteenth
Street N.W.,
Washington,
The London Medical Orchestra will resume rehearsals in Christ Church School, Cosway Street, London NW1, at 7 P.M. on Sept. 21. New members, particularly string players, are welcome. Details may be had from Mrs A. P. Mason, 102 Hamilton Terrace, London NW8
(01-2864367). A lecture
on
stroke will be given by Dr J. S. Smith at 1 P.M. on Wedat Northwick Park Hospital, Watford Road, Harrow,
nesday, Sept. 8,
Middlesex HA1 3UJ. 1. In the Name of Life: Reflections of a Soviet Surgeon. By V. V. KOVANOV. Moscow: Progress Publishers. London: Central Books. 1976. Pp. 324.
£1.50. 2. I.A.R.C.
Monographs on the Evaluation of Carcinogenic Risk of Chemicals Man; vol xi, p. 285. Lyon, 1976. 3. Carcinogenesis Bioassay of Trichlorœthylene. U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. 1976. $3·30. to
