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as the teacher who never allowed slipshod work to passunnoticed or unmentioned, but who could be relied on totreat them as intelligent people, enjoying with her the unravel-ling of a difficult problem. That the solution of a clinicalpuzzle might entail long hours of discussion and investigation,with the hazard of physical exhaustion to physician andstudents alike (but never a chance that the needs of the indi-vidual patient would be forgotten in dialectical inquiry), wasa sine qua non of Una’s working methods. She expendedevery ounce of her intellectual ability on behalf of her patientsand those students, both junior and senior, who could keepup with her.

" During her long career at the Royal Free she never

ceased to teach. In the late ’twenties, as the only registrar onthe medical side, she established the dynamic attitude towardsthe proper reporting of clinical signs which was the terror ofher juniors, and which became a characteristic of their laternote-keeping. In the ’thirties, as a junior physician, she

recognised the multiple needs of the diabetic patient, and withpatient reiteration she persuaded both patient and familydoctor to learn and to practise the rules of living with thisdisease. The pregnant diabetic was always sure of her per-sonal supervision, and the delight which she showed in a

healthy baby proved how she combined heart and head inher professional life. Diabetes mellitus was her special subjectand these clinics grew ever longer, consuming more timethan her physical strength could always bear. Modern theoriesand teclmiques in almost any medical subject delighted her,and she enjoyed a year in America as Marsden professor asmuch for the stimulus in new ways of thinking as for thedifferent aspects of medical teaching which she encountered.

" During her thirty years as a consultant physician in

London, Una submerged her physical frailty in the limitlessdepth of her enjoyment of life, supported by spiritual control.As a wife and mother she set an example to all women whohave dared to combine marriage with an insatiable career.

Neither one loyalty nor the other appeared on the surface tobe more important to her. She typified the modern, elegantwoman of the world with the warm heart of the mother-figure,although this latter attribute was not always apparent to theuninitiated. The double responsibilities as wife and physiciannever appeared to daunt her. She remained a woman of dis-

tinction, loving the good things of life, whose roots weredeeply set in a family tradition.

" A fitting memorial will be found in the lives of thoseyoung people who saw her work and listened to her teaching,remembering in future years her pungent wit and the skillwhich she brought to everything she did."

Dr. Ledingham is survived by her husband, Dr. JohnLedingham, and by their daughter and their son, Dr.J. G. G. Ledingham.

PAUL LUDWIG ELIESER ROTHSCHILDM.D. Freiburg, L.R.C.P.E.

Dr. Paul Rothschild, who died on Nov. 11, had been inpractice in this country for over 30 years.

G. W. P. writes:" Paul Rothschild was one of a group of young Jewish doctors

who worked in the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute at Berlin in thelate ’twenties and who came to this country or the UnitedStates and distinguished themselves in their country of adop-tion, two eventually winning Nobel Prizes. Rothschild was a

pupil of Volhard, and one of his favourites. Volhard calledhim Schwarz ’ and continued to write to him during the Nazityranny; he felt that Rothschild should have a first-rate scien-tific education, and so sent him to work with Meyerhof inBerlin-Dahlem. There Rothschild did distinguished work,particularly on the energy released during isometric and isotoniccontraction. Afterwards he went to Cambridge to work withBarcroft on blood-volume, and then to London to work withLewis, with whom he published two classical papers on thepain of intermittent claudication and one on ischasmic paralysis

of nerves. Finally he went to work with Verney on the excretoryfunction of denervated kidney.

" Rothschild adored England, particularly the do-it-yourselfattitudes and the techniques based on plasticine, sealing-wax,pipe-cleaners, and paper clips. He had an immense sense offun, made himself acquainted with all the local lore and localgossip and made friends with all with whom, and amongstwhom, he worked. When Hitler began to assume power in1933, Rothschild came back to Lewis and worked with Grantfor a year, taking the Scottish triple qualification in 1934. OnLewis’s advice he went into practice, first in a mining valleyin South Wales and later in Fulham. He was a model of whatevery doctor should be; he took an immense amount of troublewith his patients’ physical illnesses and also with their personalproblems and he kept the most voluminous and splendid notesin his illegible hand in a series of black notebooks. During thewar he joined the R.A.M.C. as a lieutenant and finished as alieut.-colonel and medical adviser to the Persian and IraqForce. After the war he resumed practice in Fulham and, later,in Kensington. He had a large circle of devoted patients whomhe understood and cared for as nobody else was able to do.

" Paul Rothschild was a very wise man and his counsel was

sought not only by his patients, but also by his friends wheneverthey had difficult decisions to make. He had an extraordinarycapacity for being interested in quite small things as well asbig, and he was one of the best of the many good physicians ithas been my privilege to know. His friends and his patientswill miss him." ,

Dr. Rothschild leaves a widow, a son, and a daughter.

VIOLET LUCY DE ALBINI HICKSON

M.R.C.S., D.P.H.Dr. V. L. de A. Hickson, formerly assistant medical

officer and school medical officer for Herefordshire, diedon Nov. 16 at the age of 64.She qualified from Westminster Medical School in 1929, and

afterwards held a house-appointment at Westminster Hospital.She took the D.P.H. in 1936, and the same year she joined thestaff of the Herefordshire public health department. She spentthe rest of her working life in the county, apart from shortperiods in Berkshire and Staffordshire.

J. S. C. writes:" Dr. Hickson was very well known and liked by two genera-

tions of mothers of young children by reason of her work atthe infant-welfare centres and in the school health services.She was devoted to her work, but she managed to find time tohave several hobbies, including foreign travel and foreignlanguages. The cheerful fortitude with which she acceptedher illness made her a source of strength and hope to others."

Public Health

Rickets in Glasgow’Dr. W. A. Horne, medical officer of health for Glasgow,

in his report for 1964, remarks that surveys in the poorer areasdisclosed the reappearance of rickets and anaemia in children.In some areas many babies were being given liquid cow’smilk and mixed feeding in the first few weeks of life. A cam-paign was instituted to persuade mothers to use only driedmilk throughout the infant’s first year of life, and to givevitamin D, either as cod-liver-oil compound or as a multiple-vitamin syrup, obtainable at child-welfare clinics; and to showthat orange juice, blackcurrant syrup, and rosehip syrup donot prevent rickets, although they do prevent infantile scurvy.As a result of this campaign only 4 cases of severe rickets werefound in the first six months of 1965, compared with 38 inthe year 1964.

FluoridationDorset County Council has decided not to add fluoride to its

water-supplies.