630 MEDICINE AND THE LAW

personal experience and the consensus of opinion ofthe medical officers from whom inquiries have beenmade seems to show that the onset of cancer is at anearlier age in the native than in the European, themaximum age-group being 30-40 years. This maybe a factor in the high ratio of sarcomatous tocarcinomatous growths.The natives in the reserves in Kenya have been

touched only lightly by civilisation. They live underconditions of filth and squalor. Sanitation is almostnon-existent as yet and the main food is maize meal.Meat is eaten when available, but this is rarely, sincecattle are regarded as currency.

CONCLUSIONS

These observations provide further evidence againstthe theory that cancer is rare among indigenouspeoples living under natural and primitive conditions.As yet only a negligible proportion of the populationof Kenya live under " eivilised " conditions ; but

analysis shows that malignant disease is far from rareamong them. The distribution in the body differsmaterially, however, from the distribution recordedin the European.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Smith, E. C., and Elmes, B. G. T. : Ann. Trop. Med. andParasitol., 1934, xxviii., 461.

2. International Health Year Book : League of Nations HealthOrganisation, Geneva, 1930, pp. 1091, 1141, 1189.

3. Sequeira, J. H., and Vint, F. W. : Brit. Jour. Derm. andSyph., 1934, xlvi., 361.

4. Medical Department Annual Report (1932) for Kenya Colonyand Protectorate, Nairobi.

5. Wolbarst, A. L. : THE LANCET, 1932, i., 150.6. Cazanove: Bull. mens. Off. Internat. d’hyg. pub., May,

1931, p. 880 (reviewed in THE LANCET, 1931, i., 1411).7. Snijders, E. P., and Straub, M. : Communication to Trans.

Fifth Congress, Far East Assoc. Trop. Med., 1933, p. 779(reviewed in Trop. Dis. Bull., 1924, xxi., 906).

8. Strachan, A. S. : Jour. Path. and Bact., 1934, xxxix., 209.9. Vint, F. W. : East African Med. Jour., 1931, viii., 349.

MEDICINE AND THE LAW

Diabetes Treatment by Unqualified PractitionerAT a Camberwell inquest last week, where death

was found to have been due to diabetes, the SouthLondon coroner described the treatment as " arrantrubbish " and the unqualified practitioner who hadadministered it as a " quack." Sir Bernard Spilsburygave evidence that the medicine prescribed bythis practitioner would have no appreciable effect;it was simply useless. The coroner explained to thejury that, had there been evidence that the treat-ment had shortened life, a verdict of manslaughterwould have been proper. As there was no suchevidence (the medicine having no more effect thanso much water), a verdict of death from naturalcauses was returned.The deceased, a woman aged 32, had suffered

from diabetes for several years. She had originallybeen treated by a duly qualified doctor ; he wascalled/in again shortly before her death when shewas in a state of coma and a death certificate was

likely to be required. The unqualified practitionerwho treated her had a plate outside his " surgery "in Peckham Rye which bore the words " Dr. WilliamMellor, Osteopath, U.S.A., Homoeopath, India." Hetold the coroner that he had obtained a degree inosteopathy at the First National University, Wash-ington, New Jersey, and was an associate of theWestern University, Kapurthala, India. " Would

you be surprised to hear," inquired the coroner," that there is no such place as the Western Univer-sity, Kapurthala, but merely a place which issuesdiplomas on payment of a fee ?

" Mr. Mellor replied

that the information would surprise him ; he hadnot studied in India but had sat for the examinationin homoeopathy in London " under the IndianEducation Scheme." He explained that he calledhimself a doctor because of his doctorate of osteo-

pathy ; he did not practise as a physician and wasnot a surgeon or a general practitioner; he held a

degree as doctor of medicine from the American

Academy of Medicine and Surgery, Washington, butdid not practise ; he was also a member of the BritishHomoeopathic Association. The coroner, in summingup to the jury, disposed somewhat summarily of Mr.Mellor’s titles and qualifications. " He calls himselfa doctor of osteopathy but none of the institutionsto which he referred are known in the academicworld as genuine places where degrees are properlygiven ; in other words he is simply a quack." It isevident, however, that the descriptions which Mr.Mellor had adopted were found impressive by membersof the public. A sister of the deceased said thatMr. Mellor had been recommended by neighbourswho thought he was a qualified doctor. The preambleto the Medical Act declares the expediency of thepublic being able to distinguish between the qualifiedand the unqualified practitioner. Mr. Mellor’s plateobscured the distinction.

A Bogus Major of the R.A.M.C.The police disclosed a curious career of imposture

when Richard Gerald Willoughby pleaded guiltyat Andover last week to summonses charging himwith having unlawfully worn a major’s uniform andmilitary decorations at South Tidworth on August 3rd.Willoughby attended a cricket match at the R.A.M.C.ground, driving up in a large car. He was dressedas a major of the R.A.M.C. and wore field boots, asword, the Military Cross, and other war medals.After watching the cricket he asked to be directedto the officers’ mess, where, while accepting refresh.ment, he told an officer that he had come downfrom Millbank in connexion with an outbreak of

diphtheria. He also said that there was a lot oftonsillitis about. He was afterwards entertained atdinner at the O.T.C. camp officers’ mess ; here hetook too much to drink and was sent back to the

military hospital. Doubts having arisen about hisidentity, he was taken to the police station wherehe said he was a doctor and a retired major, butcould not now call himself a doctor as his name hadbeen struck off the Register. Research by the policefailed to show that Willoughby had ever held acommission in the R.A.M.C. The records showedthat he had enlisted in the Duke of Cornwall’s LightInfantry in September, 1914, as Percy SeymourKelly, changing his name to Willoughby by deedpoll on obtaining a commission in the Royal Fusiliersa month later. He resigned next year, re-enlistedas Robert Kelly and soon obtained a temporarycommission as Eric Patrick Cosmo Gordon 0’Kelly,but was removed from the Army a few months later.Enlisting again in the Royal Dublin Fusiliers, hedeserted in November, 1915. He served once moreas Percy Seymour Kelly from July to October, 1918,when he was discharged as physically unfit.He had posed in London hotels as an officer in

the Canadian Rifles. He had travelled round thecountry as a clergyman, visiting real clergymen,and on one occasion actually preaching a sermon.He served six months’ imprisonment in Americafor impersonating a British officer, and had beenimprisoned in Canada for posing as a doctor. Hehad obtained a situation as a chartered accountantat £ I000 a year. He had described himself as Dr.

631BRITISH ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE

Robert Beatey Martin in Panama, and had obtainedan appointment in that name as ship’s surgeon in aBritish liner. He was landed at Singapore withmalaria and, as Dr. Martin, escorted to England ajudge who was ill. In 1932 he was sentenced at theOld Bailey to two years’ imprisonment for false

pretences and indecent assault. It was a remarkable

history of fraud, and the Andover magistratesawarded him three months’ imprisonment and S5fine for his escapade at South Tidworth last month.

Puerperal Melancholia and CriminalResponsibility

Newspaper paragraphs last week described pro-posals for reforming the law of infanticide. Womenwho kill their babies while suffering from melancholiafollowing childbirth should, it was suggested, betried by a committee of alienists and psychiatristsinstead of by an ordinary criminal jury. The pro-posals envisage the mother’s mental state as partlyan economic and political problem. It is hintedthat the increase in infanticide may be due to unem-ployment, the mother being naturally worried atthe extra addition to the family when the father isout of work.

Opposition may be expected from the judges, thelegal profession, and the Home Office. It will bepointed out that two post-war statutes have operated,and were intended to operate, against mothers beingfound guilty of murdering their new-born children.The Infanticide Act of 1922 and the Infant Life

(Preservation) Act of 1929 enable the most lenientview to be taken. The reformers seem scarcely tohave given Parliament credit for the change in thelaw whereby the disturbed mental state of a motherwithin a short period after childbirth is now takenspecially into account. Those concerned with theadministration of justice are jealous of handing overthe duties of courts to lay tribunals : they are sureto demand that facts shall continue to be found bymagistrates and juries under a system which doesnot preclude the assistance of expert witnesses.

Everyone will be sympathetic towards the anxietiesof the mother at childbirth, but there may be somedifference of opinion about the alleged increase ininfanticide. The latest criminal statistics (thosefor 1933) suggest that the number of persons annuallytried for infanticide under the 1922 Act is fallingrather than rising. There was one case under the1929 Act in 1931 ; there were no cases in 1932 or1933. The coroners’ statistics for 1933 show that336 inquests were held on the bodies of newly bornchildren. These were cases where inquests were

adjourned under Section 20 of the Coroners (Amend-ment) Act, 1926, and not resumed, prosecutionsbeing conducted in the ordinary criminal courts.Out of the 336 cases there were 13 verdicts of wilfulmurder, 2 of manslaughter, and 3 of infanticide.There is nothing to show the relation of these figureseither to puerperal melancholia or to unemployment.It is a point with which the official editor of thecriminal statistics might deal in next year’s volume.

Inquest on Prehistoric ManThe Times of Sept. 5th recorded the holding of

an inquest in Ireland upon human remains found atMullaghneish mountain, near Londonderry, andestimated to be over 3000 years old. The evidenceindicated that the remains were those of an Irishchieftain of the Bronze Age. They consisted of aportion of a rib, a tooth, and skull bone ; they hadbeen roughly cremated and were found in a bowl-shaped urn buried in a vault-like structure of stone

in a bog ; a substance of the nature of clay withinthe urn was apparently food to sustain the departedspirit on its journey. The coroner had taken theview that there was a question of ownership. Theurn and remains had been removed to the BelfastMuseum and he had served a warrant on the curatorfor their return ; he thought the police should havethe custody till the ownership was established. An

English coroner would probably have left the questionof ownership to another court; this was not treasuretrove. The coroner’s concern is with a dead body,and there are ancient legal difficulties about propertyin a corpse. The discovery of these ancient remainsrecalls the fact that there has occasionally been apious practice of reinterring Stone Age, Bronze Age,or Iron Age skeletons in churchyards and cemeteries.Where piety has thought it necessary to " giveChristian burial " to pre-Christian relics, it has beena necessity that must have made strange bed-fellows.It seems almost as incongruous to assert a coroner’sjurisdiction over the prehistoric dust upon theshelves of a museum.

BRITISH ASSOCIATION

FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE

Chemotherapy of MalariaOPENING the discussion by the chemistry section

of the Association on the chemotherapy of malaria,Colonel S. P. JAMES, F.R.S., referred to the distressingeffects of the malaria epidemic and famine in Ceylon.The area affected was not as large as Yorkshire, butthe cost of relief measures was about 350,000, andduring the six months from November to April14t tons of quinine, costing 50,700, was used. About620,000 was also spent on Atebrin. The epidemic hadreminded the world once again that no royal roador short cut to the prevention of malaria had yetbeen found ; during recent years similar remindershad come from British India, Malaya, East and SouthAfrica, Nigeria, the Sudan, Mauritius, Trinidad,Barbados, and other British territories overseas. Inview of these and other examples it had to be admittedthat, despite some remarkable discoveries, existingknowledge on the prevention of malaria was notsufficient. Direct war on the malaria-carrying mos-quito was too difficult and too costly for general use,and quinine had failed to maintain its old reputationas the sovereign remedy which meets all needs.More knowledge was needed in many different direc-tions, one of them being the much neglected subjectof chemotherapy. Quinine satisfied the practisingphysician because it promptly stopped most clinicalmalarial attacks ; but it had the grave defects ofnot preventing infection of either the human host orthe mosquito and of not preventing relapses. Todiscover and prepare drugs which would be effectivewhere quinine failed was the chief aim and objectof antimalarial chemotherapy. In Germany twosynthetic antimalarials, Plasmoquine and Atebrin,which to a considerable extent fulfilled that require-ment, had already been discovered, and now it wasto be hoped that England would make adequatearrangements to pursue the subject in the sameintensive way and with the same objects in view.Up to the present, said Colonel James, the chemicalindustries of this country had not concerned them-selves with the matter, and the Government grantswhich had been allotted during the last few yearsto assist antimalarial chemotherapeutic research had