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never obscure. Professor Bergson trounced the populaidoctrine of psychophysical parallelism, holding " thatwe obtain through consciousness a metaphysical know-ledge of mind." Among his contentions were-" thatchange and movement are in reality simple and thatstate and rest are composite." Again, " that it is in

pure duration that the substantiality of the soul consists,’and" it is by intuition that we obtain knowledge of thEmind." These may seem hard and dark sayings to thosfbrought up on Bain and to those who refer the psychicallife to cerebral activities. They may perhaps find partialconsolation in Bergson’s concession " that although thEpsychical life in itself may be altogether distinct from thEcerebral processes, it is upon the brain that our adapta-tion to the immediate situation, our mental equilibriumdepends."The charm of the lecturer, which had fascinated huge

fashionable audiences at the College de France, won thEsympathetic reception of his London audiences. ThEwhole trend of the theme was in harmony with thEteaching of Arthur Balfour in his philosophical excur-sions " towards a more idealistic interpretation of thEuniverse," or, as Wundt was forced to admit, in " theseultimate questions of psychology we must appeal tc

Regent’s Park, N.W.1. W. J. COLLINS.

PARTING OF THE WAYS IN DIET

SIR,-The remarks of Prof. V. H. Mottram under theabove heading are very apposite. Recently we have seenfour cases of scurvy in adults in this hospital and onecase of pellagra. There can be little doubt that a con-siderable portion of the population is not getting anadequate vitamin intake now. The present policy ofallowing foods of high vitamin value to become veryexpensive, and then fixing their price above what themajority of the population can afford, is certainly not asound nutritional policy, whatever other merit it mayhave. In this hospital we are at present exploring thepossibility of giving capsules containing a concentrationof vitamins to all patients admitted here. I feel there isevery justification for this for the next three months atleast, unless there is a rapid change in the country’spolicy towards the equitable distribution of all protectivefood-stuffs.

Central Middlesex County Hospital. H. JOULES.

" E. Y. D. "

SIR,,-You might like to 4tell your peripatetic corre-spondent of Nov. 9 (p. 607) that I think instead of saying" James Bovell," he should have written " Egerton Y.Davis " or " E. Y. D., Jr." Osler himself told me howhe wrote articles over that name.

N OIV York Academy of Medicine. ARCHIBALD MALLOCH.

** * Our correspondent writes: "Yes, I was wrongand was thinking of ’ E. Y. D.,’ but being in the NorthSea couldn’t look it up. Somewhere in Harvey Cush-ing’s ’ Life of Osler’ is a picture of an agenda paper onwhich Osler had written’ James Bovell ’ about 30 times.He was, of course, one of Osler’s early inspirers, anenthusiast who forgot all about his patients when playingwith his microscope. I suppose Osler helped himself to getout of a dull meeting and go back to his golden days byscribbling thus, but that’s a very different thing tohaving a double on whom to heap one’s sins." Theconvenience of " E. Y. D." (Y stands for Yorick) toOsler was that after his indiscretions he could be safelyput out of the way. Osler wrote in a preface to one ofthese pseudonymous papers "... he (E. Y. D.) wasdrowned in the Lachine rapids in 1884, and the body wasnever recovered...."-ED. L.

MEDICAL SERVICE IN CHINA

SIR,-It is hoped to send a fully equipped ambulanceconvoy of some fifty or sixty members of the FriendsAmbulance Unit to Central China as soon as possible,and the Foreign Office has approved of the expedition.A number of doctors will be required and it is hoped thatthe convoy will comprise a mobile operating team.Qualified men of British nationality who would like tojoin the convoy should apply to me.

ANDREW MORLAND,Chairman of the Medical Subcommittee,

135, Harley Street, W.1. Friends Ambulance Unit.

CHILLY SWEEPER

Sin,—I agree with Dr. Clifford Allen-there is some-thing wrong, and not only in Harley Street. On themain road in my own district I recently observed, as Iwas passing by on the other side, a man lying half deadwith his clothes stripped off his back. He had obviouslybeen attacked and seriously injured, and he was sufferinggravely from wounds, shock and exposure. Surelythere is some way of seeing that poor unfortunates likethis should get some attention, instead of being left todie on the road ? Something ought to be done bysomebody.

ADAM LEVITE.

ParliamentIN spite of a general desire to make as speedy progress

as possible with the War Damage Bill, the most importantmeasure of the present session, the House of Commonsfound time to give a whole day last week to the con-sideration of a select committee’s report on the conductof one of its own members, and to a debate on the actionof the Home Secretary in suppressing two newspapers.The arraignment of Mr. Boothby, who has taken aprominent part in the political arena for a number ofyears, and who had just placed his feet firmly on theladder of advancement by his appointment as parlia-mentary secretary to the Ministry of Food, was a taskfor which neither the Prime Minister nor the House as awhole had any relish. But in view of the verdict of theselect committee, arrived at after the most searchinginquiry, there was no alternative. Mr. Boothby wasallowed the fullest opportunity to give his reasons whyhe dissented from the select committee’s findings andthen the curtain was rung down as quickly as may beon an incident which all members of the House will tryto forget. Mr. Herbert Morrison found it fairly easyto dispose of the attack made on him by a very smallgroup of members for suppressing the Communistjournals, the Daily TV orker and the Week. Normally thepresent Home Secretary would have been the first him-self to challenge any attempt to interfere with the free-dom of the press ; but he had no difficulty in provingthat the times are not normal, and that these two news-papers by their persistent attempt to obstruct our wareffort had left him no option but to stop their publication.The majority-323 votes to 6-by which the opposingmotion was negatived demonstrated the overwhelmingsupport in all quarters of the House for the repression ofanything which imperils our war effort. The remainderof the week’s sittings of the House of Commons weretaken up by a detailed examination in committee of theearlier clauses of the War Damage Bill. The House ispassionately anxious that the bill when it becomes anact shall really bring a substantial measure of help tothose whose property has been bombed, and particularlyto the small house-owner. In practice however this isnot at all easy, and as the debate has proceeded a fearhas been growing that injustice and hardship may resultfrom the decisions of the War Damage Commission.The Chancellor of the Exchequer frankly admitted thedifficulties and complications of the position, but assuredthe House that the desire of the Government is to do thefaiT t.hinp"-

Medical Prisoners of WarProf. D. L. SAVORY asked the Secretary of State for War

what steps were being taken to facilitate the repatriation ofmedical officers serving in His Majesty’s forces, and nowcaptives in Germany.-Captain H. D. R. MARGESSON replied:The German government have been informed that HisMajesty’s Government are ready to repatriate the Germanmedical personnel who are entitled to repatriation under theGeneva Convention of 1929, if the German government willalso conform to the terms of the convention as regards Britishmedical personnel in their hands. The matter is being activelypursued, but a satisfactory settlement has not yet been reached.

Artificial Shortage of Doctors -

Sir FRANCis FREMANTLE asked the Minister if he wouldconsider the seconding of medical officers from the Army, witharrangements for their instant recall in case of need, to relievethe excessive demands made on medical practitioners by the

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QUESTION TIME