535THE WAR.

the rate fixed for the permanent appointment, pending thetermination of the war. It was also passed by a majority toinstruct Dr. McGinley to take up his duties at once, anddirections were given that the keys should be handed over tohim. One of the guardians actually remarked, in referenceto the chairman who voted for a candidate who was over

military age, that he was an old ex-artillery man, and that’the people should gather stones and throw them at you,’to which the chairman is reported in the public press tohave replied, ° It is all they could do, for they are

cowards.’ On Sept. 9th a letter was read at the meet-

ing of the Omagh board of guardians from the LocalGovernment Board reminding the guardians that anypayment made to Dr. D. F. Murnaghan under existingcircumstances would be liable to surcharge by the auditor,to whom the matter had been referred. It was decided tolet the Local Government Board know that, in the words ofa guardian, . they would transact their own business andwould pay the salary. If the Local Government Boardattempted to surcharge them, they had the courts of law todecide who was right.’ The weak action of the LocalGovernment Board in these cases is exciting great wonder.It is felt that they should either allow the guardians tomake whatever appointments they like, or should firmlydecide not to sanction their choice. Either course wouldshow some decided action, but, instead, letters continue tobe written week after week, a line of policy which makes allthe country guardians feel that the Local Government Boardis either divided in opinion or is afraid to act."

THE BLINDED IN WAR AT THE VILLA ALDOBRANDINI.

Grandly situated on the Tusculan Hills, within an hourby rail from Rome, and familiar to the English-speakingworld through the verse of Frederick Locker and the

gay romance of Mortimer Collins, the Aldobrandini Villais at present the home of Italian officers and linesmen whohave had their eyesight impaired or lost in action, whetherin the Trentino or the Istrian Triangle. They are under thecare of Professor Neuschiiler, an Italianised German, of theRoman Ophthalmic Clinique, who, assisted by his wife, theSignora Maria (née Buonerba), has earned the gratitude everdue to supreme medical skill reinforced by the sagacité decœur. That gratitude (writes a Rome correspondent) has justfound expression on the occasion of the fifteenth anniversaryof Professor and Madame Neuschuler’s wedding-day, when,to their visible emotion, they received from their patients anilluminated parchment, on which the following inscriptionfrom the pen of Signor Leopoldo Micucci had been

engrossed :-Quod vos-quindecim per annos-una amoris et pietatis fide vinctos

- frontis oculis pro par-ria demissis-heu non datum videre-dolentium-cordis et mentis purissimum lumen-gratia ardet perenni.(To see you, after 15 years of married life cemented by loveand connubial loyalty, is, alas denied to our outer eye, extin-guished in our country’s cause ; but, grieving as we do, ourinner eye, with purest light of heart and mind, glows withthe gratitude that never fades.)To this touching ’’ manifesto are appended the sigr-a-

tures of all the gallant patients now under treatment inFrascati’s noblest villa.

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THE FREEMASONS’ WAR HOSPITAL.This hospital has been established at 237, Fulham-road,

S.W., and contains 60 beds, with operating theatre, X-raydepartment, and apparatus for radiant-heat treatment. Theinstitution is now complete and ready to receive the wounded.It will be conducted under the control of the War Officeand the British Red Cross Society. The Hon. Arthur Stanley,M.P., and Dr. R. Fox-Symons, of the British Red Cross Society,have inspected the premises and expressed high approvalof their suitability and of the up-to-date equipment theycontain. They were accompanied by Sir Horace Marshall(honorary treasurer to the fund), Mr. C. E. Keyser (chair-man of the committee), Mr. G. F. Marshall (chairman of thehouse committee), and Mr. Percy Still and Mr. C. H. Thorpe(honorary secretaries). The hospital will be occupied almostimmediately by wounded soldiers ; and it is of interest tonote that while it has been established by the generosity ofFreemasons, membership of the Masonic body is not a con-dition of admission. An appeal to Freemasons has met withgenerous response ; but further financial help is needed forthe hospital’s continued maintenance.

OBITUARY OF THE WAR.

GEORGE STANLEY GRAHAM, M.B., CH.B. LIVERP.,LIEUTENANT, ROYAL ARMY MEDICAL CORPS.

Lieutenant G. S. Graham, who died on June 19th at

Amara, Mesopotamia, in his twenty-fourth year, was theonly son of Captain R. P. Graham, of Blundellsands,Liverpool. He was educated at Oakes Institute and enteredthe Medical School

____

of the University ofLiverpool with the

County and Gee

scholarships, gain-ing also the LyonJones scholarship in1911. He took his

degree with first-class s honours in

1915, having pre-viously acted as resi-dent officer at the

Hospital for Women,the Children’s Infir-

mary, and the Lying-in Hospital. After

qualifying he was

appointed housesurgeon and residentmedical officer tothe Royal Infirmary,Liverpool. In

November, 1915, he obtained a commission in the RoyalArmy Medical Corps, and went out in February, 1916, tomeet an untimely death.One of his chiefs writes of Lieutenant Graham as an

enthusiastic and skilful worker who had been, as a resident,useful to the staff and acceptable to the patients. TheVice-Chancellor of the University has recorded the regretfelt by the members of the medical faculty at the loss of alife which showed so much promise.

JOHN MAITLAND STENHOUSE, B.A., M.B.,B.C. CANTAB.,

CAPTAIN, ROYAL ARMY MEDICAL CORPS.

Captain J. M. Stenhouse, who died on August 25th in ahospital in France of wounds received in action on July 18th,was the second son of the late Major-General W. Stenhouse,Indian Army, and was 38 years of age. He was educated atthe Bedford Grammar School and entered Sidney SussexCollege, Cambridge, where he graduated in medicine in 1903.After filling resident posts at the London Hospital he acted astravelling physician to Prince Leopold of Battenberg, spendingtwo winters with him in Khartoum. In1906 he joined thestaff of the UnionMedical College at

Peking, and duringthe e outbreak of

pneumonic plague inManchuria five yearslater he volunteered his services to the Chinese Governmentand remained at Harbin until thedisease had beenstamped out. Forhis services he wasdecorated with theOrder of the DoubleDragon. During therecent revolution inChina, 1911-12, he

accompanied the e

Army, doing Hed uross work, Heing in Jtiingland on

furlough at the outbreak of the present war he im-

mediately obtained a commission in the Royal ArmyMedical Corps. After some months of work at homehe went to France, where he was attached to a general

536 TREATMENT OF VENEREAL DISEASES AT GENERAL HOSPITALS.

hospital until November, 1915, when he was transferredto the Royal Field Artillery, and it was while servingwith them that he received the spinal wound which provedfatal later.The colonel of his brigade writes of Captain Stenhouse

as a man who tended the wounded under the heaviest shellfire without any thought of his personal safety, and addsthat he had been recommended for the D.S.O. CaptainStenhouse leaves a widow and two little boys.

ALEXANDER PETRIE LOW, M.B., C.M. EDIN.,CAPTAIN, ROYAL ARMY MEDICAL CORPS.

Captain A. P. Low, who was killed in France on July 14that the age of 41, was a native of Arbroath and was educatedat the Academy there. He studied medicine at EdinburghUniversity and was medallist in physiology, practicalanatomy, and practical pathology. After a short experi-ence as assistant in a mining practice in the North of

England, he started in general practice in Dundee. Later hewas appointed assistant surgeon and again surgeon to DundeeRoyal Infirmary, and when the First Scottish General Hospital(T.) was organised he was a member of its staff, and assuch was mobilised on the outbreak of war. After a yearhe applied for transfer to France, and had nearly com-pleted a year of service in various capacities. Asmedical officer with the Seaforth Highlanders he was

following the attack, dressing his men under fire, when hewas killed.Many of Captain Low’s comrades, both officers and men,

have written expressing their appreciation of his courage andconscientiousness. Among his colleagues in civil life he took afull share of cooperative work as secretary and representa-tive in the British Medical Association. He is survived bya widow and two young sons.

SOLDIERS’ AND SAILORS’ DENTAL AID FUND.-Thisfund was started in November, 1914, and had for its object thegiving of dental aid to sailors and soldiers to fit them foractive service. It was closed in May, 1916, the War Officehaving intimated that the men of the home army need nothave artificial teeth. From the statement of accounts whichhas just been issued it is shown that £6,815 were collected,and that after payment of expenses there was a cash balanceof f:140, which has been divided between the Royal andNational Dental Hospitals. Application for help was receivedfrom 13,787 sailors and soldiers, including recruits. Surgicaltreatment was given in 11,455 cases, double dentures wereprovided in 1568 cases, and single dentures in 463 cases.The committee calls attention to the fact that less than

42 per cent. of the subscribed fund has been spent in officeexpenses.

PROVISION FOR THE SICK AND WOUNDED IN

RUMANIA.-Queen Marie of Rumania has taken the initia-tive in transforming the Royal Palace at Bucharest into ahospital for sick and wounded. Her Majesty has sent atelegram to Mr. Alfred Hurst, of Edinburgh, chairman of theNational Rumanian Relief Fund, expressing appreciation ofthe work of the Edinburgh Committee formed for the purposeof presenting to Rumania motor ambulances and hospitalequipment. Lord Rosebery, the President of the Fund, has ’,given 100 guineas. :

SILVER BADGE FOR WAR SERVICE.-The King Ihas approved the issue of a silver war badge to officersand men of the British, Indian, and Overseas Forceswho have served at home or abroad since August 4th, 1914,and who on account of age or physical infirmity arisingfrom wounds or sickness caused by military service have, inthe case of officers, retired or relinquished their com-missions, or, in the case of men, been discharged from theArmy.THE GAZETTE OF THE 3RD LONDON GENERAL

HOSPITAL.-The September issue of this Gazette maintainsits reputation both in regard to literary matter and illustra-tions. It contains reproductions of portraits of Captain SirJ. F. H. Broadbent, Captain F. J. Wethered, Captain A. E.Dodson, and Captain L. A. Celestin. The matron recallsthe fact that the hospital started with 520 beds, while nowthe majority of 1637 beds are occupied, and an extension upto 1800 beds is contemplated.

MALINGERING AND SELF - MUTILATION. - Wepublish elsewhere the new regulations under the Defenceof the Realm Act making it penal to attempt escapefrom military service by feigning disease, or by producingdisease by self-mutilation or self-drugging. It is an offencealso against these regulations to assist any would-bemalingerer in such schemes.

THE FIRST WAR CHARITY TO BE REGISTERED.-The Joint War Committee of the British Red Cross Societyand the Order of St. John is first on the new register underthe War Charities Act. No one will challenge its right tothis place.THE sum of £1000 has been collected through

Mr. T. R. St. Johnston, the District Commissioner of theLau Islands, for the purchase of a pair of the latest typeof Red Cross motor ambulances for the front. The LauIslands are a group lying about 200 miles to the east ofFiji ; and the natives, an intellectual type of the Polynesianrace, are intensely loyal, and have previously subscribedlargely to various patriotic funds. The islands produceabout E100,000 worth of the all-important copra per annum.

THE Secretary of the War Office announcesthat all applications for permits to visit wounded or sickofficers of the Territorial Force in France should be made atthe Territorial Force Officers’ Casualty Department, YorkHouse, Kingsway, W.C., and not at the War Office.

Correspondence.

TREATMENT OF VENEREAL DISEASESAT GENERAL HOSPITALS.

"Audi alteram partem."

To the Edttor of THE LANCET.

SIR,-As surgeon to a provincial general hospital, I

suggest it would be a good plan to follow up your excellentleading article of August 12th with another dealing withsome of the difficulties in the way of working the plan ofthe Local Government Board. I am presuming that all areagreed that we should help to combat this admitted evil, anda free and full discussion in your columns would, no doubt,be very advantageous in suggestions for the best method ofhelping the scheme and possibly diminishing the difficulties.When my colleagues and myself met to consider the questionit was thought it would not be easy, with the staff reduced tohalf just now, to start evening clinics, especially consider-ing that books and forms would have to be kept, and so farthere is no indication that simplicity in these respects wouldbe attended to. Then, again, how can the secrecy so muchinsisted on be maintained either at the clinic or in the

hospital wards, when we are told no distinction whatevermust be made between the venereal and other patients?May not trouble arise with the other patients andnurses unless special wards and attendants are provided?As cases would come not only from the town but also fromthe surrounding districts, who would have to be paid for, thatincreases the number of officials who would claim the rightof visit and inspection, and add to the calls on the time andpatience of the medical officer of the clinic.An opinion as to the rates of pay would be useful. Should

the scheme be adopted, as in all probability it will be, thevoluntary basis of hospitals is seriously encroached on, andsooner or later will, I think, disappear altogether, and allhospitals will be maintained and governed by the State.Opinion may vary as to the desirability of this, but that it iscoming is, in my opinion, inevitable. Is the alternative

preferable, that the treatment should be given at the specialState institutions and by special State officials ? It would

probably be equally efficient, and would leave the hospitals tocontinue in their present method of government. These aresome of the points that occur to me, and some discussion onthem and many others I have not noticed would be a greathelp to hospitals and the profession generally.

I am. Sir. vours faithfullv.

Sept. 8th, 1916.RAYMOND SHAW, M.S., M.B. Durh.,

Surgeon to the Great Yarmouth Hospital.