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379 PROFESSOR HANS ZINSSER Dr. Zinsser, who died in New York on Sept. 4 at the age of 61, held the chair of bacteriology at the Leland Stanford Jr. University, at Columbia University, and at Harvard University. He was closely concerned with the problems of infectious diseases engendered by war and his counsel and the resources of his laboratory were put freely at the disposal of those responsible for the defence of his own country and of the British Isles. Lately he had given much help in planning the Harvard medical unit, now in this country, and only illness prevented him from taking a more active part. In the last war he served in the United States army, organising the service for the control of communicable diseases among the newly recruited troops at home and later in France. His epidemiological studies took him also to Serbia, Russia, Mexico and China, and he was a con- vinced internationalist who held that the humanities and science could not be banished from among us by the clash of arms. Speaking in London four years ago at the banquet of the second International Congress of Microbiology he said : And may some political Leeuwenhoek discover a microscope by which he can see and define the little animalculae of enmity and hatred and savagery, so that at last, in international congress assembled, wise men may sit in peaceful assembly planning research into the virulences of human stupidity and consider measures of active immunisation, chlorination, and delousing for international politics as we do this for infectious disease. An American colleague testifies that it is as a human being that Hans Zinsser will be remembered by those who knew him best-outspoken, courageous, independent, and lovable. He was a poet of no mean ability and under a pseudonym contributed many articles to leading American periodicals. Of his last book, which has just been published in America under the title " As I Remember Him," Dr. Peyton Rous wrote to Sir John Ledingham : ’ ’’ Zinsser’s book is now on the counters and all the reviewers sing delightedly. Which is as well, for he, poor fellow, is in a bad way with lymphatic leukaemia. That is why he looked so haggard when you saw him last September and why the book was written in its special way. He is intent on realising that he has lived, and the book is his testament. Also he tries still to live as hard as ever and finds solace in that." Zinsser was also a musician of more than average ability. But he was primarily a scientist and his field observations on typhus fever were outstanding. He embodied them in his book " Rats, Lice and History," which has been described as the biography of typhus. His recent studies include work on the rickettsias and on the development of vaccine applicable for mass protection. He was also a skilled clinician in infectious diseases and his breadth of interest is reflected in the activities of his students, who are to be found in experimental laboratories, working in field epidemiology, or engaged in clinical practice. We have received an appreciation of Prof. Zinsser from Sir John Ledingham in which he writes : " Neither in his work nor in his play did he spare himself. In Harvard medical circles, where he was familiarly and affectionately known as Hans, his personality and ver- satility of genius made him a real power and his place in their councils will be hard to fill.. The department over which he presided has long been known as one in which research took a foremost place and workers from many lands found congenial facilities for study.... My last conversation with him was at a private dinner before the official opening of the third International Congress for Microbiology on Sept. 2, 1939, in New York, and though one could see that he was a sick man he certainly did not show it in his speech, for he was his cheerful self and made eager inquiries about the prospects of a European war which was fated to commence only a few hours later. Since then it would seem he has thrown himself into the book whose reception by the American public must, as Rous writes, have greatly cheered him. Doubtless it will charm his many friends here and in the France which he loved, and help to keep fresh the memory of a brave spirit. Ave atque vale." . Notes, Comments and Abstracts SOLDIERS’ DOCTOR IN his Honyman Gillespie lecture in Edinburgh last week, Colonel D. S. Middleton, F.R.C.S., spoke on the work of a regimental medical officer. He said that the M.O. found the quality of his undergraduate training as well as his initiative and personality tested severely. By being brought into contact with both the preventive and the corrective stages of medicine he learned much which would benefit him in subsequent civil practice. He must become to some extent a soldier, at least so far as discipline was concerned. His influence for good in any unit was great if he conducted himself well, but the M.O. who was late for parades and slovenly in dress soon forfeited the respect of his men. As a soldier he had to develop a good general knowledge of the tactics employed by his unit if only in order to work out means of evacu- ation of wounded. He must be a master of map-reading and must be able to memorise a map in order to make his way about country in the dark and to direct the evacu- ation of wounded men. Furthermore, he must be able to teach all this to his stretcher bearers. The hygienist, working through the M.O., was nowadays a more important person than the army surgeon. The enormous reduction in the incidence of preventive disease in modern campaigns reflected this, but it was important to remember that since the commanding officer depended on the M.O. for the health of his men the latter must have an intimate knowledge of the details of the men’s life. Not only must the M.O. know the ordinary clinical features of disease, including tropical diseases, but he must be conversant with the means of trans- mission of infections and infestations and with the means of prevention. In his own unit the M.O. had great power relative to his rank, and slackness on his part might not only permit the entry of serious disease to that unit but might spread to others. There were several problems occupying attention in the R.A.M.C. just now. The first of these was ventilation. With the present large garrison army there was considerable difficulty in ensuring proper ventilation in billets, huts and barracks, particularly in relation to the blackout. The outbreak of cerebrospinal meningitis was partly attributed to ventilation troubles, but it must be remem- bered that the army was not more seriously affected than the civil population. The second current problem was that of water. The recent civil outbreaks of enteric fever had shown that, especially for country districts, water supplies might not be perfect. All non-municipal sources of supply to the army must now be chlorinated. The M.O. must know about transport of water and about the purification of small quantities of water, even that in the private’s water-bottle. Turning to the collection and evacuation of casualties in the field, Colonel Middleton said that the method developed during the last war might still be useful during the early stage of an invasion. But during air attack civil and military services would be pooled, casualties being collected and evacuated through first-aid posts to base hospitals under the Emergency Medical Service. Under these circumstances the main problem would be that of transport and the M.O., finding himself inadequately supplied, might have to requisition all kinds of emergency vehicles. The really important thing for a M.O. is to get his casualties admitted to a properly surgically equipped hospital in the shortest possible time. Undue attention to first-aid might delay urgent evacuation. He drew attention to the dangers associated with the widespread use of tourniquets by non-medical men and to the necessity for avoiding the over-heating of shocked patients. The M.O. had an important function in the classification of wounded for deciding on priority of evacuation. The M.O. should watch carefully the progress of recruits who were slightly below physical standard. He should obtain extra food for them and save them from the hardest work at the beginning, thus assisting in the rehabilitation of many sub-standard men. On the vexed question of the clerical work required of army medical officers, Colonel Middleton pointed out the individual records of the M.O. constituted the basis
