970 PARIS.-IRELAND

Franklin D. Roosevelt was governor. Last autumnin Milwaukee Dr. Parran became president-elect ofthe American Public Health Association. Dr. Parranholds somewhat advanced views on public health,and especially on what we call " socialised medicine."Members of the medical profession will watch withsome anxiety to see what influence these views willhave in shaping the policies of the public healthservice. Science Service news agency announces thatDr. Parran’s programme has been summarised byhimself as follows :-

1. To finish the job of wiping out tuberculosis.2. To wipe out ... syphilis, the end-results of which

" crowd our jails, our poor-houses and our insaneasylums."

3. To make available to people everywhere facilities forthe proper diagnosis and treatment of cancer....

4. To reduce the " disgracefully high " death-rates ofmothers in childbirth and babies in the first month oftheir lives.

5. To correct the conditions resulting from improperdiet.

6. To restore crippled children to lives of usefulness.

Dr. Parran visited Sweden last summer and cameback deeply impressed with the success of thatcountry’s campaign to control syphilis. When hewas refused permission to use the word syphilis evenin the most general connotation in a radio addresshe resigned from the committee for education by radio.

PARIS

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT)

SOME VENEREAL DISEASE STATISTICS

WHEN due allowance is made for the wide gulfbetween statistics and veracity, it is possible to

glean interesting and sometimes instructive informa-tion from them. The Union des Caisses d’AssurancesSociales of Paris has recently issued a study of theincidence of, and campaign against, venereal diseasein France. It appears that as many as 20 per cent.of men suffering from syphilis are aged 30-40,and only 5 per cent. aged 50-55 ; in other words,syphilis is pre-eminently a disease of the best workingage. The same authority estimates that 10 percent. of all cases of invalidism can be traced to syphilis.Still more arresting are the figures quoted byDr. Cavaillon and Dr. Dufour in an appendix to thisstudy. They calculate that, every year in France,syphilis causes 20,000 deaths between the sixthmonth of intra-uterine life and the third monthof infancy. It prevents the birth of 40,000 infantsevery year, causes 80,000 deaths, and costs 140,000human lives, even when no account is taken of thedegenerate, the blind, the deaf-mutes, the paralytic,the ataxic, &c. What is perhaps the most startlingstatement of all is that 40 per cent. of the diseasesfor which treatment is given in hospital are venereal.Insanity costs France more than 200 million francsa year, and a quarter is attributed to syphilis. In1916 a veritable epidemic of syphilis was a source ofgrave concern to the French public health authorities.Since then, the defensive reaction has been so effectivethat, at the beginning of 1936, the country wasequipped with 1821 venereal disease services, not

including the services attached to hospitals andcertain dispensaries. Thanks to’ the activities ofthese centres, neurosyphilis has been reduced tosuch an extent that tabes is ten times less common

than it was before the war. It is a curious andnot altogether satisfactory observation that thecare of venereal disease patients is shared by wellequipped, more or less public, services and unscru-

pulous quacks. The general practitioner is out of thepicture.

A FRENCH MEDICAL DEFENCE UNION

The Ligue Médicale de Défense Professionnelle,commonly and affectionately known as " Sou Medical,"is very much of a going concern. It is affiliated tothe weekly journal, Ooncours Midical, in the sensethat you wash one hand with the other. Between1926 and 1933 the average number of new membersper year was 394; in 1935 they numbered 739.At the end of 1925 there were 4500 members, andat the present time there are 7273. A list of thecases dealt with shows that the recovery of medicalfees is the sphere in which the aid of his defence unionis most often invoked, and there is an increasingproportion arising out of accidents-road and occupa-tional. Differences of opinion between doctors andtax collectors also seem to be common. The materialresources of Sou Medical amount to more than twomillion francs ; this backing helps it to insure itsmembers, who pay 100 francs a year, for 100,000francs against the risk of " la responsabilite civile,"a term which even courageous linguists shirk trans-lating. When a member pays 150 francs a year, henot only becomes a reader of, or at any rate a subscriberto, Concours Midical, but he has his aforementionedrisk covered to the tune of 500,000 francs. Withits six lawyers and experts in other fields, Sou Medicalis in a position to render much useful service at avery moderate charge.

LOUIS HENRI VAQUEZ

The death is announced of Prof. Vaquez on

April 15th at his home in Paris. Born in 1860,he had a distinguished medical career and he enjoyedan international reputation as a specialist in diseasesof the heart. To many his name will be familiarin connexion with the instruments he devised for

measuring the blood pressure. He was a professorof the faculty of medicine of Paris, a member of theAcademy of Medicine, and an officer of the Legionof Honour.

IRELAND

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT)

COMPULSORY RETIREMENT OF OFFICERS OF LOCAL

AUTHORITIES

AT the last meeting of the joint committee of theGrangegorman and Portrane mental hospitals, a

resolution was passed which stated: " That, in

compliance with the instructions of the Minister forLocal Government and Public Health as set forththerein, all established officers aged 65 years andupwards now eligible for full or partial superannuationunder the 1890 or 1909 Superannuation Acts berequested to submit their resignations and applica-tions for superannuation at the next monthly meeting."The action of the committee is an example of theconfusion into which local authorities throughout thecountry have been led by the lack of clarity inthe circular issued some weeks ago by the Ministerfor Local Government and Public Health. Localauthorities still persist in regarding the circular asmandatory despite the Minister’s repudiation of suchan interpretation. On March 12th in the Dail he