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The plaintiff coming along the road at right-angles,with the lights in his favour, passed on to the crossingand hit the engine. The L.C.C., whose engine it was,were held liable in damages. The same principles wouldapply in the case of an ambulance.In practice an ambulance driver is not likely to be

prosecuted for technical breaches of the law. There willbe cases in which there is plainly no risk in crossingagainst traffic lights, and the driver who does so in suchcircumstances is hardly likely to be charged. The vast

majority of motorists and pedestrians will no doubt feelthat it is only reasonable to give way to ambulances evenwhen driven, say, on the wrong side of the road. But ifa motorist or pedestrian does insist on his rights and anaccident occurs, it will be the ambulance driver who willbe liable.

Parliament

Salaries of University TeachersON NOv. 16 the CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER

announced new scales of salaries for university teachers.Academic salaries, Mr. BUTLER said, were last reviewedin 1949, and he was satisfied that a further review wasnecessary to enable the universities to maintain theirstandards of recruitment. He had considered recom-mendations made by the University Grants Committee,after consultation with the Committee of Vice-Chancellorsand Principals, and he proposed to ask Parliament toprovide the additional funds necessary to enable theuniversities, asfrom Oct. 1, 1954, to bring into effect newrates and scales of salary for full-time staff. The necessaryincrease in the recurrent grant to universities was

estimated at about -B2-/- million a year.The new annual salaries proposed are as follows :

CLINICAL POSTS

Professors.-Ranging from :E2500 to -2850 (JE3100 in certaincases).Readers.-Within the range of maxima for lecturers.

Lec-M-’s.ņRising from :E700 to maxima ranging fromH750 to £ 2400 (or for lecturers holding posts of specialresponsibility such as the headship of an independent depart-ment, B2750).

PRECLINICAL POSTS

Professors.-Ranging from ;E2250 to -2850.Readers.-Within the range of maxima for lecturers.

Lecturers.-Salary rising from 1700 to maxima rangingfrom 91450 to f2050.

NON-MEDICAL POSTS*

Professors.-The grants will be related to basic salaries ofîl900 in universities and university colleges. Provision willcontinue to be made for supplementation and this will allowfor a range of salaries up to JE2850.Readers and senior lecturers.-A range of salaries with

varying maxima up to JE1850.Lecturers.-Scales rising generally from :E650 to -1350.Assistant lecturers.-Ranging from :E550 to :E650 a year.

Replying to further questions, Mr. Butler said thathe did not think there had been undue delay. He knewthat there had been anxiety, and he was aware that theview was fairly widely held that the position had arisenbecause of the absence of proper negotiating machinery.If anyone had any constructive view to put to him onthis matter, without prejudice to the existing provisionfor consultation, he would be glad to receive the hon.members and anyone they liked to bring to see him.-)Ir. WALTER ELLIOT : Would the Chancellor be willingto consider some sort of standing body, because theseintermittent negotiations are really difficult and do notcome to fruition until a good deal of the damage whichwe fear has already taken place ?-Mr. BUTLER: Onecannot speak too highly about the work of the University’An additional allowance of -50, within a maxinrmn of ;828o0,

will continue to be paid to non-medical stafrs of LondonUniversity.

Grants Committee, and I should not like any languageto be used that criticised it ; but I have indicated thatthis is a matter on which thought is necessary, and Ishould be glad to hear of any constructive ideas.

Mr. H. "BVILSOX asked how far the increases in salarieswere to be met by increases in the fees paid by students.-Mr. BuTLER: The cost of the increase in academicsalaries will be met by an increase in the Treasuryrecurrent grant. The question whether university feesshould be increased is under consideration by the Com-mittee of Vice-Chancellors and Principals, but not as amatter related to any particular head of universityexpenditure. The question requires considerable study,and if an increase is decided upon, it will be some timebefore it can be fully effective.-Mr. vVILSOX: Apartfrom the general increase in fees which is being con-sidered, does this mean that the whole cost of the increaseof universitv teachers’ salaries will be borne by Exchequergrants ?-Mr. BUTLER : Yes, Sir. If there were to be arise in fees, it might have some effect on universityfinances, but it is not attached to any particular headof university expenditure.-Mr. ARTHUR WOODBURN:Would the Chancellor keep in mind that raising universitvfees in many cases simply raises public grants to studentsand that, if he continues this vicious circle of raisingthings all round, he makes things worse instead of better ?- Mr. BUTLER : The right hon. gentleman should nottake it that I have announced that there is to be a rise.I said that this matter was being considered by the Vice-Chancellors Committee, and I think that I ought not tocome into it at this stage.

Hospital PrioritiesIn the House of Commons on Nov. 15 Mr. F. H.

HAYMAN drew attention to the delay in implementingthe regional board’s plans to build a badly needed newarea hospital in Cornwall.-In her reply Miss PATRICIAHoRNSBY-SMITH, parliamentary secretary to the Ministryof Health, said the West Cornwall Area was acknowledgedto be a difficult one. It had a population of 260,000 and1289 beds. There was no question of the Minister goingback on its priority need for an area hospital. Negotiationsfor the site at Truro would, she hoped, be soon complete.The problem of finding the capital cost from centralresources remained. There were general hopes formany hospital priorities-priorities in the new townswhere 250,000 people had been moved in, and wherethere were no hospital beds at all ; priority for theteaching hospitals which, like Cornwall, were acknow-ledged and registered in the Ministry as having a priorityclaim upon central funds. Though .81 million morethan in any previous year had been allocated this yearto the National Health Service they could not see anopportunity of including a priority scheme of this mag-nitude-the Cornish hospital might well cost £1 million- within the next two years. Priority this year, andprobably also next year, would be deliberately givento the mental hospital side. Cornwall had had its fairshare in that, and she hoped that it would be possiblefor an allocation to be made to finance an area hospital assoon as the main general allocation was increased. Thisscheme was too big for a regional allocation. No newgeneral hospital had yet been centrally financed sincethe start of the health service. The first new projectof the service, she added, would be the 23 million to bespent on our mental services over the next three years.

QUESTION TIMEGeriatric Units

Replying to a question, Mr. IAIN MACLEOD said that therewere now 59 geriatric units for active treatment. Theseaccounted for 20,500 of the total of 53,871 beds normallyavailable for the chronic sick. He had no separate inform-ation as to the number of patients treated annually in theseunits, but in the year ended Dec. 31, 1953, 101,081 patientswere treated in beds allocated to the chronic sick.

Undernourishment of Infants

Mrs. JEAN MANN asked the Minister of Health if he wasaware that medical officers had expressed concern regardingundernourishment of infants fed on rational dried milk,

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due to the inadequate feed amounts prescribed on the tins ;and if he would see that the prescribed amounts were alteredso as to bring them up to the requirements of the Britishbabies of today.-Mr. MACLEOD replied : I am aware of therecent study on artificial feeding of infants in Aberdeen 1 and,with the Minister of Food and Secretary of State for Scotland,I am considering the results. But it should be realised thatthe feeding-tables issued with National dried milk are designedonly to guide the mother until she can consult a doctor orclinic, as she is expressly advised to do before startingartificial feeding, or if the baby is not thriving.

N.H.S. SpecialistsIn reply to a question asking the number of full and part

time specialists serving in the National Health Service Mr.MACLEOD gave the following figures : :.

* These figures are derived from limited returns made by theemploying boards.

In answer to a question Mr. MACLEOD gave the followingfigures for consultants in the four Metropolitan regions :

_ G.P.s in the N.H.S.

Mr. G. R. MITCHISON asked the Minister how many doctorswere serving in the National Health Service, respectively,as trainee-assistants, as assistants, and otherwise as generalpractitioners.-Mr. MACLEOD replied: The most nearlycomparable figures available for England and Wales are asfollows :

Merit Awards

Replying to a question, Mr. MACLEOD said that 9 peoplenot medically qualified were in receipt of distinction or meritawards in connection with the National Health Service in

England and Wales. All held dental qualifications.

Recruitment of Mental-hospital Staff

Replying to a question, Sir WALTER MONCKTON, Minister ofLabour, said that since April this year special efforts had beenmade to improve recruitment of mental-hospital staff by localcampaigns. Statistics were not yet available to show howmuch these campaigns had achieved, but immediate resultsdid not appear to have been very substantial, and the problemremained serious. He looked for an improvement when thepublicity campaigns had had time to produce their effect.

Hares and MyxomatosisReplying to a question, Mr. HEATHCOAT AMORY, Minister of

Agriculture, said that no case of myxomatosis had been con-firmed in hares in Great Britain, but he understood thatthe disease had been confirmed in three brown hares inFrance.

1. Hytten, F. E., MacQueen, I. A. G. Lancet, Oct. 23, 1954, p. 836.

In England NowA Running Commentary by Peripatetic Correspondents

Nov. 12 is Dr. Sun-Yat-Sen’s birthday, and whereI am now living it is celebrated as one of the publicholidays that relieve the round of the Chinese seven-dayweek. In the afternoon the local doctors gathered instrength at the city hall to play their part in the cele-brations. Though there are several uniformed andimposing consultants in the capital, I am the soleunworthy representative of Western Medicine; so, Iwas placed in solitary state in the front row, while thesociety’s president sat with the mayor and the presidentof the People’s Party on one side. The president led thechant which opens most official sessions, and the prayersas he stood before Dr. Sun’s portrait. My Taiwanese"

counterpart," who interprets, shops, and drives forme, had slipped into the next chair to tell me that I

.

was expected to give an address on the British healthservice. I followed the official speakers, and spoke mostbriefly, interlarding my account of the last six yearswith what I could remember about Dr. Sun’s adventuresin London. After the presentation of scrolls to threedoctors with more than 40 years’ service in the com-munity, a forensic expert gave some advice on what todo when threatened with litigation-as common, it seems,in Formosa as in England. Then we all adjourned tothe garden of an obstetrician whom I had previously met.I had thought that the " garden-party " on the invitationwould be a misnomer for me. There were a few wives.but they were kept firmly out of hearing and only justin sight. It was about 5 P.M. ; so I began with bananas,peanuts, and a little rice wine ; but that was not to befor long. The garden had little grass and few flowers,but a pond with goldfish twisted among the trees and atthe back grew a large banyan. There were two batteriesof charcoal stoves, for Japanese and Chinese food. I

began with Japanese, but someone brought me Chinesetoo : and then soon began the series of toasts—designed,I always feel, to see how much this foreigner can hold.Then the egrets came, like white arrows against thedarkening sky, till the banyan was filled with theirwhiteness as they argued and jostled for the best positions.People began to move, and I went indoors with our hostto listen to one of the doctors playing the Chinese harpand to drink tea. The children slipped away from theirmothers and came in through the windows and doors:for all the screens had been removed. When the playingstopped, you could hear the grumbles- of the egrets in thedusk.

I do not think I ever carried a bucket of coal untilwe were married. My Oriental status as the Lord andMaster of the household would have lasted much longerthan that if my mother-in-law had not come to stay.She had the unshakeable conviction that women whocarried coal buckets invariably twisted their innardsinto some weird knots that inhibited procreation.She brushed aside my professional opinion that itstrengthened the pelvic floor ; she had set her mind onbeing a grandmother. I spat on my lily-white hands andreported for duty below. Many a bag of fine gold haspassed between the evasive breadwinner and a regimentof hewers of wood and drawers of water, professionalpelvic-twisters, with gnarled bucket-clutching fingers.and an unfailing repertoire of local gossip. Still a gapremained. Fifteen years of Sundays, fourteen hols withpay, six weeks when their legs were bad, and two thatwent astray.

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The shades of my mother-in-law bound me to thecrackling scrunch of anthracite and the choking dustof slack. As a ruthlessly efficient fuel-overseer she watchedme from Valhalla. But fifteen years of bondage havenever eased my shame. I have slunk around the cornetin the half-light of dawn or dusk and pretended to theneighbourhood that a well-ordered household lay behindmy façade of professional dignity. At least untillast Monday. Our obliger failed to come at 8: mywife was horribly bilious and decided to stay in bed.I scraped the nucleus of three scrambled eggs from therusset cortex of a saucepan, fed the kids, and shood