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In England NowA Running, Commentary by Peripatetic CorrespondentsBEING isolated in Loch Whatnoch, attached to a Naval

rece]ption party for surrendering U-boats, is not the mostexciting of jobs, though it has its moments. A crop ofboils or a septic finger seem to be the worst ills thatbefall a Hun in an Unterseeboot approaching these shores.Nothing so interesting as a case of allergy to the WhiteEnsign or to the Scottish climate has yet been observed.On the contrary, the men are surprisingly fit, sun-

tanned, and indecently robust compared to some of ourJolly Jacks. The latter, however, will always make upin rude but magnificent wit what a few lack in brawn.

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" I just can’t understand it," said my friend John,the Consulting Physician, pointing to the Times." Both A. B. and C. D. left £100,000. They weresuccessful physicians in good practice, although byno means the ultra-fashionable of their day. How onearth could they have accumulated such fortunes ? "" Perhaps they were left money, or made luckyspeculations," I hazarded. " Perhaps you’re right,"he grunted. " But I knew them fairly well and theycertainly had no obvious social contacts. A. B. wasof very humble origin, and, judging by appearances andhabits, C. D. was not born in the purple. And as forspeculations, well I can’t visualise either of them withthe necessary financial acumen and enterprise. Let’sassume they made this big money. Now what sort ofa physician’s practice would be necessary to enable oneto save £100,000 ? " This was doubtless a rhetoricalquestion, but I answered that I had not the foggiest idea.That, Heaven knows, was truthful enough. Suchastronomical figures are as foreign to my experience asski-ing is to a South Sea islander’s.

" During the last three years," said John, " I havemade nearly £11,000. I reckon that is a pretty goodeffort in war-time or any time for that matter, althoughI have been qualified thirty years. To do that I haveworked 365 days in each year-366 in 1944. I don’tsuggest that I did a full day’s work every day but therewas not a single day when I did not do some sort of work,whether seeing patients, writing an article, preparinga lecture, or correcting exam papers. I’m dead certainA. B. and C. D. never worked like that. And at theend of three years I have saved £950."

" You forget the abnormal conditions," I objected," the crippling income-tax, the outrageous price ofeverything."

" I do not forget these things. As an offset you have toremember that in these days there is no opportunity forluxurious living. Money can be thrown away but sanepurchases are impossible. My expenditure has been thatof bare existence, and although in some details ridicul-ously high it is strictly limited. I used to spend £120a year on my clothes ; during the last- three years Ihave spent less than £50 in all. I have taken no holiday,not even week-ends. I have not been to one theatre,not even to a cinema. I have dined out twice. I havenot run a car. From all of which I think it is fair toassume that to save 10% of your gross income is a reason-able allowance in normal times. How many patientsa day ceuld A. B. and C. D. have seen ? I considermyself lucky-if I can get through one case every three-quarters of an hour. Consider the usual routine of’aconsultation. It is no automatic affair of looking at thetongue, feeling the pulse, wagging one’s head solemnly,and pronouncing a few pompous pontifical words ofexhortation or advice. In most cases there is a longhistory to disentangle : one has to isolate the essentialsof other opinions, to analyse pathological reports,examine X-ray films and electrocardiograms, and at theend be ready for more or less unlimited discussions andexplanations with the doctor and the patient, not tomention a number of relatives who are often quiteprepared to spend the rest of the day in what they con-.sider to be a good cause. Three-quarters of an hour isa very modest estimate, working at high pressure. Howmany such consultations can one adequately handle ?

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On exceptional days I have dealt with eight and thestrain has left me with the conviction that even threesuch days a week would break me down. There may

have been windfalls to A. B. and C. D. in the shape oflucrative long-distance calls. But don’t forget they. were not making money all the time. Apart from coin’mittees and other meetings there must have been plentyof unpaid work-hospitals, attendance on one’s col-leagues, their wives and sometimes their children,concessions to appeals ad misericordiam. You can

accumulate a lot of silver cigarette boxes, but thesedon’t take you far along the road that has £100,000 atthe end of it."

" I suppose," said I lamely, " that they must have in-herited money or done well on the Stock Exchange." "I Isuppose so," grunted John, and turned to the City page..

* * *" When a man is bored with the Out from the Battle

Exhibition he is bored with life," S. Johnson might haveremarked. For you may know all about the layout of a .RAP, CCP, ADS, and CCS, which you will find therelife-size it may be no treat for you to see that a trian-gular bandage can be compressed to the size of a match-box ; that the difference between a CCP and an ADScan be summed up in the fact that a CCP carries calomeltablets whereas an ADS carries 01. ric. in quarts andmag. sulph. by the pound ; that self-heating tins canbring you a variety of pleasant milky drinks when youare wounded, where previously you got only tea, tea, ormore tea ; that the mobile cook-house (not mentionedin the programme) can cook for 50 men on its one high-pressure paraffin " range," supported by, a battery of" hay-boxes " ; or that the’ casualty must reach theCCS level before he can hope for a female hand to smoothhis pillow. But have you seen the little wire clips whichthe Germans used to keep glass stoppers from poppingout ? Do you know the composition of their blood-substitute, ’Periston,’ in which a plastic called poly-vinylpyrrolidon provides osmotic properties and vis-cosity ? Have you seen the ’ Sparklet ’ insecticide sprayswhich when the top is broken off deliver a cloud ofpyrethrins, DDT, sesame oil, and whatnot sufficient tokill every bug within 1000 c.ft. ? Yes ? Well, then,you ought to see the Plexiglass ’ models which con-valescents cut with a fretsaw out of cockpit windscreens.And it will be worth your shilling entrance fee to watchthe team of three volunteers renovating books for thehospital libraries at a speed of 50 a day. The exhibitionis in the garden of Clarence House, on the north side ofThe Mall, near St. James’s Palace : 11 AM to 7 PM onweekdays, 2-7 PM on Sundays, until July 31. As youmay have gathered, its subject is the care of the woundedby the Army Medical Services and the Red Cross andSt. John War Organisation.

The poet who wrote of " flaming June " was probablyholidaying in the Highlands at the time. Up Deesidethe countryside is ablaze with the bright yellow blossomof broom and whin, and the farmer who does not ordin-arily appreciate these feasts of colour, for they meanlean farming land, is partially appeased by the thoughtthat gorse in its fullest golden glory is augur of a goodharvest. We had travelled from London to Aberdeen bythird-class sleeper-a pleasant enough way of covering the500-miles-in the hope of ridding ourselves once and for’all of that jaded spiritless feeling called war-wearinessthat would persist despite long weekends and shortuncomfortable war-time holidays. The soft grey granite(hard in another sense) of the northern city was at oncesoothing and restful,- though the smug complacency ofits inhabitants jarred on a mind still over-conscious offlying bombs and rockets. But in the country, to lieidly by the murmuring river and listen to the shrillcries of oyster-catcher (come inland to nest) and snipe,or the more distant wail of the whaup, to walk softlythrough the pine-woods seeing anew the wood-sorreland wild orchid, to wander for hours over the." vacantwine-red moor," these things were the real mind-healers,and besides them the artificial worries of town lifefaded to nothing.

ROYAL SOCIETY or MEDICINE.—At a meeting of the sectionof physical medicine on Wednesday, June 27, at 4.30 PM,Dr. A. Spencer Paterson will speak on electro-convulsivetherapy, and Dr. E. J. Crisp on backache. On June 28, at5 rM, at the !section of urology Mr. Ogier Ward is to read apaper on surgical aspects of urinary bilharziasis.