March 7, 19 18] 



NATURE 



13 



status of the doctor and placed responsibility in the 

 right place. No advance was possible until this read- 

 justment had taken place. He was associated with 

 the scheme for the formation of the Advisory Board, 

 consisting of military men and of civil and military 

 medical men, upon a much broader basis than the 

 svstem which the Board displaced. .At this 

 time there was an Arm\ Medical School ni 

 'Netlev, where certain things only could be learnt, but 

 there was no place where a man could go in order 

 to brighten up rusty or deficient knowledge, or to learn 

 what was new in medicine or surgery since he quali- 

 fied. .\ scheme was then in progress, and money had 

 I It voted for the purpose of enlarging Net'ey, but 

 Alfred Keogh saw at once that such a place ought 

 he in London, and at his instigation the Netlev ex- 

 ision was stopped and the Netley school boldly 

 )Ught to London. At first it was housed temporarily 

 the laboratories of the Colleges of Physicians and 

 Vgeons, .but he saw that, as the Millbank Military 

 )ital was being built, the right place for his school 

 be near to it, and so the Royal Army Medical 

 ilege was built with all the necessary arrangements 

 post-graduate teaching and training and for re- 

 rch work, and with facilities for acquiring new 

 jwledge in any branch. Sir Alfred Keogh 



also the first Director-General to encour- 

 research among the better men of the 

 .^LC, and it was through his influence that such 

 as the late Major Fry and Capt. Ranken, V.C, 

 rie encouraged and permitted to undertake research 

 rk for the Royal Society, with results sufficient to 

 tify publication in the Proceedings of the Royal 

 iety. 



'hen .Sir .Alfred Keogh became Deput\'-Director- 

 leral there was no special sanitary service in the 

 ly, and the knowledge of s^initation and hygiene, and 

 that these words connote, which was jxjssessed bv 

 doctors was of the most elementary kind. He saw 

 It if this were not rectified there would be a terrible 

 unnecessary loss of life in the next war, and he 

 himself to draw up a scheme by which a special 

 inch of the Army Medical Service, devoted to sani- 

 y science, should be created. He also insisted that 

 principles of sanitary science should be taught to 

 military students as a part of their ordinary course, 

 well as to the members of the R..A.M.C., and even 

 fthe combatant officers; a School of Army Sanitation 

 founded, and directors of Medical Sanitary 

 :ice were provided for the armies in the field, 

 a sanitary officer was placed on the staff of each 

 imand. This scheme had to wait years for its 

 lisation, and it is to the credit of Lord Haldane 

 It it was owing to his initiative and support that it 

 ime law. It is the application of science to sanita- 

 lion which has helped in a very great measure to reduce 

 u' incidence of disease in the present war to the re- 

 iiarkable figures which have been published. Bound up 

 ith this is the question of waiter supply to the troops, 

 nd a branch of the Medical Service has had special in- 

 -t ruction in the examination and disinfection of water, 

 iius ensuring a safe and wholesome supply. Sir 

 \lfred Keogh also initiated and superintended a long 

 'Ties of experiments on the kind imd quantity of food 

 w'cessiiry for soldiers, and as the result a system of 

 ►od-rationing was arrived at which has, with but 

 ■ \v modifications, borne the very severe test of the 

 resent war. His attitude towards vaccine therapy 

 iiows the same scientific perception. In the South 

 Urican War many accidents happened owing to our 

 n complete knowledge of the subject, so he appointed 

 1 committee of experts, presided over by Sir W. Leish- 

 nan, who wrote, as the result of the inquiry, the his- 



NO. 2523. VOL. lOl] 



torical paper which has been tlie foundation of our 

 present effective and safe methods. 



In all these ways Sir Alfred Keogh prepared the wav 

 for the extraordinary results which have followed our 

 treatment of typhoid fever and other diseases by vac- 

 cines in the present war; and during the War he hav 

 also exercised the same vigilant control by attacking 

 two other diseases in the same scientific spirit — namely,, 

 tetanus and trench fever. Tetanus is a rare disease in 

 peace-time, but during the war such numbers of cases 

 occurred that he decided to form a committee for thr- 

 study of this disease, which, as a result of its re- 

 searches, would be able to advise as to better method^ 

 of treatment, and this has been followed with the best 

 results. He has also formed a committee for the stud\ 

 of the problems of trench fever, which has alread\ 

 achieved important results. In both these cases, besides- 

 practical results, our scientific knowledge of the disease 

 has been advanced : he has therefore, in all these in- 

 stances, helped towards makin^^ medicine the possibU 

 scientific pursuit which it is always becoming. 



In addition. Sir .Alfred Keogh had for two and a half 

 years the direction of the work on poison gas and gas 

 attacks, which work has been of no small advantage 

 to us. But it is rather in the greater work of saving 

 life that his devotion wilPbe remembered, and the 

 country can never forget what it owes to him in this 

 respect. To have reduced disease to a minimum, so 

 that men are more healthy in the field than at home; 

 to have organised a medical service sufficient for our 

 enormous Army, scattered all over the world ; to have 

 devised and insisted upon methods of sanitation which 

 have borne the strain of most difficult conditions ; to 

 have encouraged and insisted upon research,. even dur- 

 ing the war, into diseases which have become pro- 

 minent and about which we know little, forms a record 

 which no mere words can appraise. It is not onlv that 

 he has done these things, but also that he has done 

 them in the face of grCc'tt opposition, from both the 

 military and the medical side. His power of imagina- 

 tion, however, controlled by the scientific spirit, has 

 enabled him not only to overcome all the difficulties 

 he has had to face, but also to hand over to another a 

 living machine, which he knows will still act with the 

 spirit he has infused into it, and be capable of answ<'r- 

 ing any calls that may be made upon it. 



It is not possible here to speak of Sir .Alfred Keogh "> 

 work at the Imperial College of Science. There is no 

 doubt that the college has caught something of his 

 spirit, for it has given all its energies in every depart- 

 ment to the service of its country, as Sir .Alfred Keogh 

 himself did. 



His example will live; let us hope that his words, 

 quoted above, may not be forgotten ; may they be, as 

 the Preacher said the words of the wise were, "as 

 goads and as nails driven deep in." H. G. P. 



THE DEPARTMENTAL REPORT ON 

 SALARIES IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS. 



T N view of the important changfes that are fore- 

 ■*■ shadowed in the sphere of education in the Bill now 

 before Parliament, the question of a due supply of 

 efficient teachers, especially for the elementary schools, 

 assumes an aspect of high importance. We therefore 

 welcome the carefully considered rept>rt, just issued, of 

 the Departmental Committee for inquiring into the 

 principles which determine the construction of scales of 

 salary for teachers in elementary schools (Cd. 8939, 

 price 6d. net). 



The Committee, of which Sir Harry Stephen was 

 chairman, was comprised of representatives of the 



