NOTES 



Sir Alfred Keogh, G.C.B. 



All men of science will be greatly pleased that the high 

 honour of the Grand Cross of the Bath has been conferred 

 upon Sir Alfred Keogh, the Director-General of the Army 

 Medical Service. For many years past he has been engaged 

 in raising the Royal Army Medical Corps to the height of 

 efficiency which it has now reached, and the services of the 

 Corps in connection with the war are known to all. 



On February 3 the Times published a very generous letter 

 from Lord Esher, admitting the error made (before the war) by 

 himself and his Committee for the reconstitution of the War 

 Office in not listening to Sir Alfred's objection to the D.G.M.S. 

 being placed under the Adjutant-General. Lord Esher now 

 recommends Lord Derby to strengthen the Army Council by 

 placing the D.G.M.S. upon it. We may remark that the defect 

 exists everywhere in British administration, the heads of Medical 

 Services being generally kept in subordinate positions and 

 seldom being placed upon Executive Councils. For years 

 past medical men and the medical press have been trying in 

 vain to obtain a reform in this matter. 



White Fakirs 



The Indian fakir seated by the roadside, lost in visions of 

 nirvana or some equally impossible superstition, living upon 

 the admiring charity of ignorant peasants, too lofty to work 

 or to talk or even to kill the flies that sting him, and clothed 

 in rags ; has his counterpart in Europe, and especially here, 

 in the transcendental persons who would teach us that what 

 is useful is useless and what is obvious is untrue. But the white 

 fakirs, though they still keep the admiration of the unwise, 

 do by no means hold the beggar's bowl but often sit in the 

 seats of the academically mighty and flood the world with 

 golden words — which float away from their lips into the air 

 as beautiful but as empty as soap-bubbles. Whatever is 



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