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does not have the facilities to cope with young people.The fear is that Diana and the other young people im-prisoned with her will be destroyed by their continueddetention there.

Obituary

WILLIAM MICHIE

M.B.E., M.A., M.B. Aberd., F.R.C.S.E.Mr William Michie, until last year consultant surgeon

to the Aberdeen Royal Infirmary and the Royal Aber-deen Children’s Hospital, died in Aberdeen on March 23.He was born in 1911 at Durris, Aberdeen and educated at

Banchory Academy and the University of Aberdeen, where hegraduated M.A. in 1930 and M.B.in 1935. As a student he was

president of the University Unionand he was awarded a Bluefor athletics. After house-

appointments in Aberdeen,Hackney, All Saints (with Mil-lin), and Stanmore (with Sed-

don), he returned to Aberdeen in1937 as surgical registrar-inthose days a post of considerable

I responsibility. He became

t F.R.C.S.E. in 1939 and spent the

t war in the R.A.M.C. as a surgi-jj cal specialist in West Africa, in a

casualty clearing station from

Normandy to the Rhine, and then in a general hospital incharge of a surgical division. Soon after he returned to Aber-deen he was appointed to the consultant staff of the Royal In-firmary and the Royal Aberdeen Sick Children’s Hospital andhe served these two hospitals for the next thirty years.

Bill Michie was a general surgeon of wide experience. As adevoted pupil of his master, Gordon Bruce, it was natural thathe should develop a special interest in the thyroid gland, andhe achieved world-wide recognition in thyroid surgery. Hewas a good and shrewd man who did not say much-but whathe said mattered. In his later years he enjoyed committee work,notably as a member of the council and finance committee ofthe Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh from 1971 untilhe died, as a member of the council of the Association of Sur-geons of Great Britain and Ireland, of which he was a mostsuccessful president in 1972-73, and as president of theMedico Chirurgical Society of Aberdeen in 1971-72. From1973 he was one of the two British representatives on theMonospecialist Committee in General Surgery of the Euro-pean Union of Medical Specialists, where he gave good advicefrom the point of view of the British provincial surgeon.

But to this man, distinguished and respected as he was asa surgeon in his own North-East region, and elsewhere in Bri-tain and in the world, there was another side. His hobbies weregolf, shooting, and fishing. Balgownie is not a course for boys,even gifted ones, and he was captain of Royal Aberdeen in1967-70. But he really excelled as a fisherman, and to watchhim fishing fly was an inspiring and humbling experience forlesser anglers. Every May he took two weeks’ holiday to fishfly, usually at Park on the Dee. Choosing in advance the timeto go was, he thought, the most difficult decision of the year,to get the water and the weather right. He was buried atDurris on Easter Monday, below the farm where he was bornand across the fields from Park, the stretch of the Dee that he,loved so much.He is survived by his wife and two sons.

A. W. W.

AUSTIN WILLIAM DREVAR LEISHMAND.M. Oxon., F.R.C.P.

Dr William Leishman, honorary consultant physicianto the United Sheffield Hospitals and subsequently to theSheffield Area Health Authority, died on March 17.Born in 1907, he ably represented the third generation of adistinguished medical family; his grandfather, William Leish-man, was regius professor of midwifery in the University ofGlasgow, while his father, Sir William Leishman, had a dis-

tinguished career in the ArmyMedical Service. William Leish-man received his medical educa-tion at University College,Oxford (where he met his futurewife), and at St. Bartholomew’sHospital Medical College, Lon-don, graduating B.M. in 1932and D.M. in 1937; he becameF.R.C.P. in. 1950. After hospitalappointments and a few monthsin general practice at Stratford-on-Avon, he joined the Army atthe beginning of the 1939-45war. As a lieut.-colonel he ex-

perienced a remarkably toughperiod in France, Palestine, India, and Crete, from where heescaped over a mountainous area, finally arriving in Alexan-dria carrying only his wife’s photograph and his flute.On demobilisation he became first assistant to Prof. (later

Sir) Edward Wayne at the Royal Infirmary, Sheffield. It wasabundantly clear to his colleagues in Sheffield that Dr Leish-man was a first-class clinician of the highest integrity, and thathe also possessed undoubted talent both as a flautist and on thegolf course. Most of his professional life was devoted to thecare of patients at the Royal Infirmary, Sheffield, and at Don-caster Gate Hospital, Rotherham. Ever-increasing teachingcommitments were undertaken by him after his appointmentas honorary physician in 1946. As honorary clinical lecturer inmedicine in the University of Sheffield, his clear and kindlyexpertise was deeply appreciated by both undergraduates andpostgraduates, many of whom, from various parts of theworld, attended his retirement function.The name of William Leishman will always be revered in

relation to hypertension. Undoubtedly he was the first personto show clearly that the prognosis with anti-hypertensive drugswas much better than without this therapy. He founded thefirst thriving clinic for this disorder at the Royal Infirmary,and he was internationally famed for his work in this field.And he was without doubt a founder of the specialty of clinicalpharmacology. In later years, in spite of being dogged by ill-health, he remained remarkably devoted to his patients; oneChristmas Eve I met him at eight o’clock in the morning inthick snow by the Royal Infirmary, and this was soon afterenduring a crisis in his personal life.He is survived by his wife and their daughter.

E.K.B.

R.E.N. adds:"Willie Leishman was a part-time physician of the old

school, and I can recall him regretting the fact that the currenttrend towards full-time practice would soon ’leave no-one totreat the citizens of the town’. Nevertheless, after a careermarked by distinguished personal research in hypertension, hislater years were notable for the happy cooperation between hisbusy clinical firm and the late Dr Graham Wilson’s depart-ment of clinical pharmacology in Sheffield. The friendly andeffective collaboration between these two distinguished practi-tioners of different kinds of medicine was something whichshould be emulated widely. When you joined Dr Leishman’sfirm there was never any doubt that he was your friend as wellas your chief, and a large number of his former staff will retainthe happiest memories of their time with him."

783

ARTHUR OLIVER GRAYM.D. Durh., F.R.C.S., F.R.C.P.E., F.R.C.O.G.

Mr A. 0. Gray, consulting obstetric and gyneecologi-cal surgeon to Charing Cross, Hampstead General, andMiller General Hospitals, London, died on March 20 atthe age of 89.He was educated in Durham and in London at the Royal

Dental Hospital, Middlesex Hospital, and St. Bartholomew’sHospital, qualifying in 1913. During the 1914-18 war he wasin the Royal Navy, serving as surgeon in charge of the R.N.hospital ship China with the Grand Fleet at Scapa Flow, andlater at the Royal Naval Hospital Granton in Edinburgh. Backin London at the end of the war he worked at the MiddlesexHospital (where he was in charge of the hospital’s first ante-natal clinic), St. Charles’s Hospital, and the City of LondonMaternity Hospital. Consultant appointments at the MillerGeneral (1920) and Hampstead General (1924) followed.He was appointed to the Charing Cross Hospital in 1932,

becoming consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist, and hospi-tal governor, in 1938; he was vice-dean of the medical schoolduring the 1939-45 war. In addition, he held appointments asconsultant gynaecologist to Sutton and Cheam Hospital, theLondon Skin Hospital, and the Charterhouse RheumatismClinic. By his own account, his favourite hospital occupationwas undergraduate teaching, and he served as examiner in ob-stetrics and gynaecology to the Universities of Durham, Lon-don, Cambridge, and Prague, and to the Conjoint Board andthe Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. Amonghis publications were his book Synopsis of Gyncecology, pub-lished in 1925, and contributions to a number of textbooks.

G. C. S. writes:"It was always an outstanding pleasure to work with Arthur

Gray as his anaathetist at the now defunct Hampstead Gene-ral Hospital-not solely because one was thereby privileged tosee a display of outstanding technical virtuosity, but alsobecause, having himself worked as the first resident anaesthe-tist to be appointed at the Middlesex Hospital, he had thusgained an awareness of the problems inherent in anaestheticsand consequently made it a delight for us to work with him.His many honours and appointments were gained on sheermerit, and intrigue was utterly unknown to him. His outsideinterests were as wide as they were erudite. He was both aknowledgeable astronomer and also a highly skilled organist,having been vice-president of the Stock Exchange Orchestrafor several years. Frequently between morning and afternooncommitments at the Hampstead General he would find happi-ness and relaxation by playing on the organ of the nearbyHampstead Parish Church. Arthur was a delightful man, kindto his patients, loyal to his colleagues, and ever helpful to hisjuniors, and it is as such that he will be remembered." "

Sir STEWART DUKE-ELDER, F.R.S., director of research of theInstitute of Ophthalmology in London (which came into exis-tence largely through his efforts) from 1947 to 1965, died onMarch 27 at the age of 79. He was one of the world’s most dis-

tinguished ophthalmologists, known equally as a research-

worker, clinician, and writer; his 7-volume Textbook of Oph-thalmology, completed in 1954, he later expanded into the15-volume System of Ophthalmology. He was consultant oph-thalmic surgeon to St. George’s Hospital and Moorfields EyeHospital, London.

Prof. CHARLES HERBERT BEST, F.R.S., who, in 1921, withSir Frederick Banting discovered insulin and its use for thetreatment of diabetes, died on March 31 at the age of 79. Hewas professor of physiology in the University of Toronto from1929 to 1965 and from 1941 director of the Banting and BestInstitute of Medical Research there. His research covered anumber of subjects, including the use of heparin, but he con-tinued to work on diabetes throughout his life and also to raisefunds for diabetes research.

Notes and News

HOW TO HELP FAMILIES OF ALCOHOLICS

ALCOHOLIC patients are slow to recognise that they are indifficulty, but opportunities to help them can sometimes befound before they are themselves prepared to cooperate. In anew booklet’ Marie-Louise Meyer, director/founder of theLondon Council on Alcoholism, points out that when a

member of an alcoholic’s family seeks help for the patient, heor she could be asking for help for himself or herself. She dis-cusses how it is possible to work first with members of thefamily, especially the spouse, whose behaviour and reactionmay be able to effect some change in the alcoholic. She indi-cates how to help a wife to cope with her emotions and feelingsof guilt, self-pity, or aggression; and also how she can choosean appropriate time to discuss the problem with her husband,when a wife should be firm (for example, in making the hus-band take all responsibility for lateness and absenteeism atwork, debts, or driving fines), when separation is better thantrying to keep the family together at all costs, and how to copewith the children.

WHO WB.L LOOK AFTER US?

A FALLING birth-rate and an increasing proportion of thepopulation classified as elderly, allied with unemployment, arethe ingredients of a gloomy population scenario in the U.K.People now in their 30s, 40s, or 50s are asking-Who will payfor the Welfare State in the 21st century when we need itmost? The answer from the Office of Population Censuses andSurveys looks comforting. They calculate "dependency ratios"by adding the numbers of children to the numbers of men andwomen over retirement age and dividing the total by the work-ing population. The resulting projections form a series of peaksand troughs lying between ratios of 0.72, reached in themid-1970s, and 0-62. However, the definitions used for"child" and "work" suggest that the simple projection-thatfor every two dependents there will always be roughly threeworkers to provide--could go badly wrong. Many people over16 do not work for many years, unemployment is high andcould go higher, and no-one has found a way of calculating ahousewife’s contribution to the gross national product.

FIT FOR LIFE: HEALTH CAMPAIGN IN SCOTLAND

A FITNESS campaign, planned to last for twenty years andknown as Fit for Life, was launched in Scotland on March 30.The campaign, which is ntounted by the Scottish Health Edu-cation Council and the Scottish Sports Council in associationwith the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, will cost60 000 in the first year. Instructions for the fitness pro-gramme, which will involve about 20 minutes’ exercise threetimes a week, are given in a booklet3 presented in a pocket-sized cassette; besides the graded exercises, there are guidelinesfor dieting and for giving up smoking.

Liverpool School of Tropical MedicineProf. H. M. Gilles has been appointed dean.

1. Counselling Families of Alcoholics: a guideline for the helping profession. ByMARIE-LOUISE MEYER, S.R.N. First published in Health Visitor, May,1977. Copies are available from the London Council on Alcoholism, 68Chalton Street, London NW1 1JR. 50p+7p postage.

2. O.P.C.S. Popul. Trends, 1978, no. 11, p. 45. H.M. Stationery Office. £2.25.3. Available from Fit for Life, Department FL, 1 St. Colme Street, Edinburgh.