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which would have made the operation of these particularautoclaves reliable, despite defective temperature-recordingequipment.

St. Peter’s Hospitals,London W.C.2. A. E. FRANCIS.

DEATH-CAP POISONING

SiR,—I was very interested to read your editorial(June 17, p. 1320) on this subject and the subsequentcorrespondence. To us, Amanita phalloides poisoning inthe United Kingdom is extremely rare indeed. No verifiedcases have come to our notice over a number of years.Could I plead for anyone who has looked after a case ofA. phalloides poisoning in this country in the past ten yearsto get in touch with us and let us know the details oftreatment and outcome ?

National Poisons Information Service,New Cross Hospital,

Avonley Road,London SE14 5ER. ROY GOULDING.

HEPARIN AND FALSE-POSITIVE TESTS FOR

MUCOPOLYSACCHARIDURIA

SIR,-Screening tests for mucopolysacchariduria includeprecipitation by 5% cetrimide 1 and staining with toluidineblue.2 We have observed strongly positive results for bothtests with urines from two patients who did not seem tohave any storage disease. Further inquiry showed thatboth patients were receiving i.v. heparin therapy for throm-botic episodes. The tests became normal after heparintherapy. Heparin obviously is excreted in the urine, andit is not surprising to find that it causes a positive resultwith these tests. False-positive results can sometimescause considerable problems for the unwary!

Department of Pediatrics,University of Oregon Medical School,

Portland, Oregon 97201, U.S.A.

NEIL R. M. BUISTHELEN T. CURTIS.

ATHLETIC ACTIVITY AND LONGEVITY

SIR,-Schnor 3 reported that after the age of 50 longevityis not affected by past athletic activity. I have examinedthis generalisation further in relation to specific sports.Information was obtained from Who Was Who in AmericanSports. Excluding athletes who had died at war or byaccident, it was found that the mean lifespans of theathletes were related to the sport in which they had partici-pated.

The mean lifespan of the football players (57-4 years)was significantly lower than that of both baseball and trackathletes (in both comparisons, p<0-01). Furthermore,22% more of track athletes than football athletes livedpast 50.

Schnor’s generalisation should therefore be qualified.Different athletic activities seem to be related to differencesin life-expectancies.

I thank Mr. Daniel Reis and Miss Elizabeth Zbick for assist-ing me with the data collection and computer analysis.

Mansfield State College,Mansfield, Pennsylvania 16933,

U.S.A. GALE LARGEY.

1. Buist, N. R. M. Br. med. J. 1968, ii, 745.2. Curtis, H. T., Buist, N. R. M.J. Chromatog. 1971, 57, 165.3. Schnor, P. Lancet, 1971, ii, 1364.

Obituary

JOHN MACFARLANE CLIFFM.B.Cantab., F.R.C.P.

Surgeon Captain J. M. Cliff, professor of navalmedicine, Royal Naval Hospital, Haslar, Gosport,died on July 3, at the age of 50.

After holding the post of casualty officer at St. Thomas’sHospital, London, and of orthopxdic house-surgeon atAddenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge, he joined the RoyalNavy as a probationary temporary acting surgeon lieutenantin 1946, and was granted a permanent commission 2 yearslater. He first saw service at sea in H.M.S. Alert, but hisreal interest lay in clinical medicine, and after his returnto the U.K. he gained the M.R.C.P. in 1953 and was electedF.R.C.P. in 1966. He served in turn as specialist, seniorspecialist, and consultant in medicine in R.N. HospitalsHaslar, Malta, and Plymouth, gaining the Errol-Eldridgeprize for his contribution to the health of the Navy. In1971 he was appointed joint professor of naval medicineof the Royal College of Physicians and the Royal NavalHospital at Haslar. He was an officer of the order of St.

,John of Jerusalem.He is survived by his wife and son.A. O’C., to whom we are grateful for this biography,

writes:" John Cliff was a well-known and much liked figure

throughout the Navy and was greatly respected in allmedical circles, both uniformed and civilian. He wasessentially a general physician with a deep and sympatheticunderstanding of his patients, and in all his dealings withthem he brought not only knowledge based on wide experi-ence, but a great deal of kindness and common sense.It was particularly tragic that he should die so soon afterhis appointment as professor, a post for which he wasideally suited because he always took the greatest interestin postgraduate training and the careers of young medicalofficers.

" John enjoyed his work to the full because he loved hisService, to which he was intensely loyal. The Royal Navyhas not only lost an outstanding medical officer, but alsoone of its staunchest supporters, who could be counted onto work untiringly for the good of both the patient and theService. So many have benefited from his help and advicethat his sudden death has left a deep sense of loss."

ALEXANDER WILLIAM HENDRYO.B.E., M.D.Aberd., F.R.C.P.

Dr. A. W. Hendry, a former lecturer and physicianin Aberdeen, died on July 22 at the age of 85; and theNorth-East of Scotland has lost a kenspeckle figure.He trained as a pharmacist before starting his medical

career. He graduated M.B. at the University of Aberdeenin 1914 and was commissioned into the R.A.M.C. on theoutbreak of war. In January, 1915, he was posted to the16th General Hospital in France, where he treated someof the first gas casualties. In 1916, when serving as medicalofficer to a field artillery brigade, he was wounded andgassed. The hospital ship he was sent home on was sunk,but he was among some survivors picked up by a Frenchfishing-vessel. After his recovery, by which time he wasthe possessor of a wonderful head of wavy pure whitehair-which was a distinguishing feature till the dav of

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his death-he was posted as a medical specialist to theBritish military base hospital at the Curragh. In 1918 hewas appointed o.B.E. (military division) and in the sameyear he received his M.D. In 1921 he returned to Aberdeenas a lecturer in the department of materia medica, andbecame assistant physician and subsequently physician atthe Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, serving there from 1924until his retirement in 1947. From 1937 to 1947 he wasalso a lecturer in clinical medicine at the University ofAberdeen. He served as physician at MorningfieldHospital from 1929 to 1957, and at Stracathro Hospitalfrom 1939 to 1954.

Alec Hendry’s interests in medicine tended towardsneurology, with a psychiatric bias, and for years he visitedthe Aberdeen mental hospitals as consulting physician,but his medical tastes were catholic. He was a straight-forward teacher, but the quality that made most impressionon all he met was his compassion. He was a quiet, some-what unobtrusive man, but beloved by his colleagues,his students, his staff, and above all by his patients. His

fatherly appearance and kindly manner made him univer-sally and affectionately known as " Pop "-though perhapsnot to his face, except by colleagues and friends.

Throughout his career he took an active interest in oldpeople and in the disabled, and he transplanted this intoaction by membership of the Aberdeen Old People’sWelfare Council from its inception in 1946 until illness in1969 made it a bit heavy for him to carry on. Also hechaired the local branch of the Multiple Sclerosis Society.

Alec Hendry’s integrity was clear for all to see, and hisprinciples were high and firmly adhered to, but he wasalways charitable in his judgment of any who disagreed.As his colleague and next-door neighbour for nearly fortyyears, I never heard him say an unkind word about anyone.

He is survived by his wife.T. E. A.

Dr. JOHN PARKS

G. V. P. C. writes :" John Parks towered over his subject. He looked like a

pro footballer and thought like a good quarter-back,always seeking openings to use the talents of his wholeteam and planning his moves in advance. His twin careersin obstetrics and in the world of American deans wereclimaxed by his rising to the top of each, and he leavesmany tangible benefits internationally both to the specialtyand to academic medicine.

" John was a great Anglophile, and he and his wifeMary Dean loved to travel in Britain in parts away fromthe usual visitors’ beat. In Washington they were alwaysglad to welcome visiting Britons, and the Parks’ Humber(often with G.B. discs) would process among its morestreamlined American contemporaries like the Queen Marycoming up the Solent. Of the many honours he received,the fellowship of the Royal College of Obstetricians andGynaecologists pleased him perhaps the most. When hisportrait was commissioned to honour his deanship, hechose to sit in the robes of a fellow of the college.

" His physical memorial will be the newly sited GeorgeWashington Medical Center, but to many he will live in hisclinical work, his teaching, and perhaps most of all in thegreat pleasure of his company. The loss will be felt jointlyby American and British gynxcology. "

A memorial service for Prof. J. T. Ingram will be held at AllSouls Church, Langham Place, London W.1, on Monday,Sept. 11, at 12.30 P.M.

Notes and News

THE FIRST YEAR OF LIFE

THE exact scope and function of the specialty of develop-mental psediatrics is a subject of some controversy, butthere is general agreement on the need for all doctors toknow more about routine developmental assessment, sothat any abnormality may be recognised, and the skills ofthe developmental paediatrician brought into use, at theearliest possible moment. With this need in mind a filmhas been made, called A Growing Responsibility,! whichdeals with the development of the child over the first

year. The film is intended for showing both in the UnitedKingdom and overseas to undergraduate and postgraduatestudents in medical schools, to general practitioners onrefresher courses, and to paramedical staff. The baby isshown at five important states of development in the firstyear-at birth, at 6 weeks, 4 months, 9 months, and 1

year-and an indication of what to expect from the normalbaby at each stage is given. Examples are also shown ofthings that may be wrong, and we see babies with rhesusdisease, phenylketonuria, thyroid deficiency, choreo-athetosis, and other conditions. Emphasis is, however,laid on the fact that the range of normality is large, andthat any one child’s development must be seen in thecontext of his own growth-rate and of the average growth-rates of children of his own age, sex, race, nationality, andeven social class. To illustrate this point, part of the filmwas shot in Africa, since African babies develop muchfaster in the early stages than do those born in Europe.For instance, an African baby of 3 weeks is shown whocan hold his head well above the plane of his body inventral suspension, a stage which the European baby willnot reach until the age of 8 weeks. The film shows three

developmental assessment interviews, and here the emphasisis on the need to base assessment not only on the baby’sbehaviour (which may be affected temporarily by tiredness,hunger, or a minor infection) but also on the case-historyand the mother’s report. The importance of such simpleprocedures as measuring the baby’s head is illustrated byshowing hydrocephalic and microcephalic babies. Anotherpoint which is stressed is the need to gain the parents’cooperation and confidence, particularly if it becomesclear that there is something wrong with the baby, whengreat care must be taken in the words chosen to give thisnews. The film itself succeeds in being informative withoutbeing alarming, and although it was designed as teachingmaterial, and is as yet not available to the lay public, itcould well be of benefit to mothers in antenatal clinics,and indeed to anyone with an interest in children.

Royal College of PhysiciansThe Moxon medal for 1972 has been awarded to Dr.

C. L. Cope, and the F. E. Williams prize to Surgeon Rear-Admiral J. M. Holford.

Royal College of PsychiatristsThe Scottish division has set up a working-party to

consider and make recommendations on the future provisionof psychiatric services in Scotland. The chairman is Dr.A. C. Tait and the secretary Dr. H. C. Fowlie, to whomany interested person or organisation should write; hisaddress is the Royal Dundee Liff Hospital, Dundee DD25NE.

1. Produced by James Chapin Associates and written and directed byJonathan Ingrams for Bencard. 16 mm., optical sound, colour,38 minutes. Available on free loan from the liaison officer, BencardFreepost, Great West Road, Brentford, Middlesex.