628 IRELAND.—MEDICAL RESEARCH COUNCIL REPORT.

ventilation that is either unknown or whose value isnot properly appreciated.

Mental Hygiene.The first international congress of mental hygiene

is to be held in Washington, D.C., during the week ofMay 5th-10th, 1930. The secretary of the AmericanNational Committee, Mr. Clifford W. Beers, has beenelected secretary-general of the congress. An adminis-tration office has been opened at 370, Seventh-avenue, New York City, in charge of Mr. John R.Shillady. British members of the sponsoring com-mittee are Dr. J. L. Birley, Sir Hubert Bond,Dr. A. Helen Bovle. Sir Farquhar Buzzard, TheCountess of Chichester, Sir Maurice Craig, Lady(Horace) Darwin, Miss Evelvn Fox, Dr. Edwin Goodall,Dr. J. R. Lord, Dr. H. C. Marr, Dr. Bedford Pierce,Prof. George Robertson, Sir Leslie Scott, LordSouthborough, and Dr. Henry Yellowlees.

IRELAND.

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

S’ay2atoriunzs and Tuberculosis.

AT the annual meeting of the Royal NationalHospital for Consumption Prof. T. G. Moorheadtook the opportunity of suggesting what place sana-toriums should take in the fight against tuberculosis.Recent pronouncements, he said, had led many tothink that sanatoriums had become obsolete, butthey were still the first line of defence. What hadfailed had not been the sanatoriums, but the provisionof after-treatment. It had been estimated that therewere in the Irish Free State 18,000 fewer sufferersfrom tuberculosis than in 1912, and in the accom-plishment of that change sanatoriums had certainlyplayed a part. There was still inadequate sana-

torium accommodation. He urged the establishmentof a tuberculosis colony ,in the Free State, but itshould not be established in connexion with anysingle institution, but should be open to patientsfrom all sanatoriums.

The Hospitals and Treatnzerat for School-children.For some time past negotiations have been going

- on between the city hospitals and the City Com-missioners of Dublin regarding the treatment of school-children for disabilities discovered in the course ofmedical inspection. The Leinster Branch of theBritish Medical Association tried to secure unanimityamong the staffs of the hospitals about the remunera-tion they would accept for specific services in thehospitals. Certain grouped hospitals have, however,agreed to conditions which do not meet with theapproval of the Leinster Branch, and it is suggestedthat these terms have been agreed to without theauthority of the members of the staffs of the hospitals.At a recent meeting of the branch a resolution wasunanimously carried withholding approval of the

arrangements on the grounds that the remunerationmentioned was quite inadequate for the servicesrendered, and that the correspondence submittedto it bore no evidence of the terms having beenaccepted by the medical staffs of the hospitalsconcerned.

A Medical Recruit to the Dáil.Dr. Thomas F. O’Higgins has been elected deputy

for the northern division of the city of Dublin by anarrow majority. His entry to the Dail should addstrength to the already important medical groupof deputies. Both divisions of the. city of Dublinnow have a medical man among their representatives.Dr. O’Higgins is a son of the late Dr. T. F. Higgins,of Stradbally, Queen’s County, and a brother of thelate Mr. Kevin O’Higgins, Minister for Justice. Hetook his qualifications from the Royal Colleges of

Physicians and Surgeons in 1914, and subsequentlyserved for some years in the Royal Army Medical

Corps. For the past few years he has been Directorof the Army Medical Service of the Irish Free State.He has been a competent administrator, and it iswell that while the public loses his services in oneccapacity it secures them in another.

MEDICAL RESEARCH COUNCIL.ANNUAL REPORT FOR 1927-28.1

THE report for the year 1927-28 to the King inCouncil from the Committee of the Privy Council forMedical Research incorporates the fourteenth annualreport of the Medical Research Council. The totalsum at the disposal of the Council last year was2166,000, including the Parliamentary grant of148,000 and an additional .S18.000 from unofficialpublic and private sources. It is noteworthy thatless than 6 per cent. of the total expenditure was spenton administration, that roughly one-third has beenallocated to the maintenance of the NationalInstitute for Medical Research and its associatedlaboratories, and that two-thirds has been paid outin salaries and grants for expenses to workers inother institutions.

Liaisons throughout the Empi7°e.-During the yearliaisons have been established or fostered between theMedical Research Council and other official researchorganisations in the Empire, notably by the visit oftheir secretary, Sir Walter Fletcher, to India, and bythe cooperation ot 1:-’1’01. Lyle uummins, of the

Tuberculosis Committee of the Council, with thecorresponding committee of the South AfricanInstitute for Medical Research. The NationalResearch Council of Canada is keeping the MedicalResearch Council informed of the progress of large-scale experiments designed to test the value of theB.C.G. vaccine, and investigations carried out in thecolonies, protectorates, and mandated territories isbeing brought effectively into relationship with thosein progress in Great Britain by the work of a newlyestablished Colonial Medical Research Committee.The Empire Marketing Board has cooperated with theCouncil in investigating the nutritive values ofvarious foodstuffs and products.

It happens that this year the Medical ResearchCouncil are able to draw attention to several thera-peutic innovations, certain of which are based on workdone in their own laboratories or elsewhere under a,grant from the funds at their disposal. The greatservice done by the Council in fostering medicalprogress is bearing fruit not only in the opening up ofnew avenues of approach, but in making availablefor general use the results of scientific investigationat the earliest possible moment, and in the criticalexamination of new methods of diagnosis andtreatment. We summarise below some of theircomments on methods of treatment.

COMMENTS ON INNOVATIONS IN TREATMENT.

Pernicious Aitcentia.

Referring to the treatment of pernicious anaemia.by the administration of liver, the Council note thatMinot and Murphy made this discovery by directlyapplying in hospital practice the results of experi-ments made with dogs which Whipple and Robscheit-Robbins, of Rochester, N.Y., had just published.Here again, as in so many other instances, the experi-mental method has brought a practical advance whereobservational study through all the years had broughtnone. Here, too, is a fresh instance of service beinggiven to mankind for which the dog was found to beespecially fitted.The coäperation of manufacturing firms was

enlisted by the Council as soon as it was establishedthat the unknown factor which effects the cure canbe extracted on a commercial scale, and a simplifica-tion of the process used in America was worked out

1 London : H.M. Stationery Office. 1929. Pp. 165. 3s.