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I the United States. For those who could be with him, iti was a special treat to hear and see him enable us to knowthe child’s world without any loss of its complexity,colour, or texture. Others who never met him had heardhim speak. Many American pxdiatricians had that experi-ence for the first time at the 1956 international congressin Copenhagen. Those so fortunate, and many more,eagerly and profitably followed those of his writings thatreached this country. It is pleasant to record that thecollection he liked best is just now becoming availableover here in a paper-back edition." Playful, wise, devoted, and generous, yet with the good

hard sense that urged the frustrated paediatrician ’ not totake up psychiatry merely because you’ve been told youare " good with children"’, Donald Winnicott has

bequeathed us an ageless appreciation for children andtheir views."

Diary of the Week

MAY 23 To 29

Monday, 24thINSTITUTE OF LARYNGOLOGY AND OTOLOGY, 330/332 Gray’s Inn Road,

London W.C.15.30 P.M. Dr. Wallace Rubin (New Orleans): Advances in Diagnosis

of Vestibular Disease.ST. MARY’s HOSPITAL MEDICAL SCHOOL, Norfolk Place, Paddington,

London, W.25 P.M. Dr. D. A. Long: Cancer Immunity.

Tuesday, 25thROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS OF ENGLAND, Lincoln’s Inn Fields,

London WC2A 3PN5 P.M. Dr. J. P. Pryor: Improved Function of Cadaver Kidneys after

Transplantation. (Hunterian lecture.)INSTITUTE OF DERMATOLOGY, St. John’s Hospital for Diseases of the

Skin, Lisle Street, London W.C.24.30 P.M. Dr. J. A. Greeves: Psychosomatic Aspects of Skin Disease.

UNIVERSITY OF LONDON5 P.M. (Institute of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Hammersmith

Hospital, London W.12.) Prof. C. E. McLennan: FunctionalUterine Haemorrhage.

KING’S COLLEGE HOSPITAL MEDICAL SCHOOL, Denmark Hill, LondonS.E.5

5.30 P.M. Prof. J. Lindop: Radiation as a Factor in Cancer Incidence.ROYAL ARMY MEDICAL COLLEGE, London S.W.15 P.M. Prof. Sir James Fraser: The Surgical Undergraduate.

Wednesday, 26thROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS OF ENGLAND

4 P.M. Dr. D. H. Tompsett: Museum Preparations of the Lymphatics.ROYAL POSTGRADUATE MEDICAL SCHOOL, Hammersmith Hospital,

London W.122 P.M. Prof. K. S. Zinnemann: Problems of Classification of Hcemo-

philus Species.INSTITUTE OF PSYCHIATRY, De Crespigny Park, Denmark Hill, London

S.E.55.30 P.M. Dr. D. Stafford Clark: Films as Bridges in Psychiatryň11.

UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD MEDICAL SCHOOL5 P.M. (Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford.) Mr. D. N. Ross: The Use of

Biological Valves in Cardiac Surgery. (Litchfield lecture.)

Thursday, 27thINSTITUTE OF PSYCHIATRYNOON Dr. Robert Liberman (U.S.A.): Behavioural Approaches to

Family and Couple Therapy.ROYAL VETERINARY COLLEGE, Royal College Street, London N.W.1

5.15 P.M. Prof. R. R. A. Coombs, F.R.s.: Allergised Cells and theirReactions. (M’Fadyean lecture.)

LONDON JEWISH HOSPITAL MEDICAL SOCIETY8.15 P.M. (11 Chandos Street, London W.I.) Prof. Paul Polani:

Some Errors of Sex Determination and Differentiation inMan and their Biological Background.

UNIVERSITY OF DUNDEE5 P.M. Dr. B. B. Brodie (U.S.A.): Factors Which Affect the Duration

of Action and the Toxicity of Drugs. (Rosemany Casslecture.)

UI’.’1V1!1!3ITY OF ABERDEEN, Foresterhill5 P.M. Prof. S. M. Cohen: Some Implications of Antibody Structure.

Notes and News

CAREER PROSPECTS

SINCE 1965 the Health Departments have been issuingeach year figures for staff in post and estimates of con-sultancy prospects for trainees in hospital specialties andprospects for general practitioners in training. The latesttables 1 show that, for England and Wales, senior regis-trars in non-psychiatric medical specialties have better

prospects of obtaining consultant posts than do their

surgical contemporaries, including those in obstetrics andgynxcology. Since the ideal duration of a senior registrar-ship is three years the annual possible output from thisgrade is about a third the total number in post; by allow-ing for deaths and retirements among consultants and forexpansion in consultancy quotas the Department calculatesthe expected annual number of consultant vacancies. Asa general rule, these two sets of figures provide a roughidea of the prospects for individual specialties, but forsome the position may be complicated by movementsfrom academic to hospital grades. In post at Sept. 30,1970, were 1671 senior registrars. The prospects of theirgetting a consultancy in their chosen specialty (as repre-sented by the balance between trainees and posts available)is, for the ten largest specialties, as follows:

In general, specialties which were short of trainees in1965 are still short today: similarly, general medicineand general surgery, where trainees have not been scarce,are in the same position in 1970. " General pathology "is thought to be too misleading a title for predictions tobe made, but estimates are given for subspecialties such asmorbid anatomy and bacteriology. The chronic shortagefor child psychiatry and for mental handicap contrasts

with the surplus for adult psychiatry. For general practice,as in former years, the supply of trainees is far short ofrequirements.The Department does well to give publicity to the

staffing structure and career prospects in the HospitalService, but there are occasions where more commentaryand rather fewer figures might make the position clearer.The tables in their present form give no useful guidanceto doctors choosing specialties at more junior levels

(though prospects for registrars becoming senior registrarsare promised). It is difficult to see whether the publicitygiven to career prospects has in fact influenced choice ofspecialty in the past few years, but young surgeons whohave chosen traumatic and orthopaedic surgery on thebasis of the Department’s 3+ accolade since 1965 may besurprised because in 1970 their prospects suddenly becameunfavourable, with a surplus of trainees. This changemay well be the outcome of a policy of encouraging movesfrom general surgery, which is overcrowded, to traumaticand orthopaedic surgery.

1. Hlth Trends, 1971, 3, 32.