B.M.A. TO CELEBRATE FOUNDER’S DAY

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27375, 14 June 1954, Page 2

B.M.A. TO CELEBRATE FOUNDER’S DAY

WORK OF SIR CHARLES HASTINGS

This week the Canterbury division of the New Zealand branch of the British Medical Association will hold a ball to celebrate Founders’ Day. The association was founded 122 years ago—in 1832—at a meeting convened by Sir Charles Hastings and held at Worcester Infirmary, England. The association celebrated its centenary in July, 1932, under the presidency of Lord Dawson of Penn. The founder, who was also the first secretary of the association, was born at Ludlow, in Shropshire, on January 11, 1894, the sixth son of the Rev. James Hastings, rector of Bitterley. The rector and the famous Warren Hastings, of Daylesford, were generally considered to be cousins and the two families were on friendly terms. As a boy, Hastings was devoted to outdoor life and was not particularly studious. He was apprenticed to two surgeons at Stourport, Worcestershire, and with a view to his obtaining the position of house surgeon of the Worcester Infirmary they advised him to go to London for further study. He accordingly became a pupil at the celebrated Blenheim Street School of Joshua Brookes and also attended private lectures.

liy 1812, Hastings returned to Worcester and at the age of 18, with *no diploma, he gained the post of house surgeon in the infirmary, defeating an older, well-qualified man by 134 votes to 133. He justified his appointment. After holding the position for three years, Hastings went to Edinburgh 1o study for a degree. He soon joined the Royal Medical Society and took an active part in its discussions. He carried out an experimental inquiry into the action of the blood vessels in health and in disease and was said to have been, at that time, the only student in the university who used the microscope in physiological and pathological investigation In 1817 he was elected president of the Royal Medical Society and in 1818 he graduated in medicine and was elected physician to the Worcester Infirmary at the age of 24. This post he held for 44 years, resigning in 1862. He was for a long time considered the leading physician in Worcestershire and in the surrounding counties.

In 1932, he delivered the inaugural address at a meeting which he called and at which the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association was formed. For many years he was secretary and the leading spirit in the association and skilfully guided it through many difficulties. He subsequently occupied several important positions in the medical .world and in the field of natural history, and was knighted in 1850.

Sir Charles Hastings died on July 30, 1866, aged 72 years. His medical library is now in the library of the British Medical Association in London. The Sir Charles Hastings clinical prize of £5O for general practitioners was established by the association in 1924 and was first awarded at the annual meeting at Nottingham in 1926.

SAVE THE CHILDREN FUND

REPORT OF CHRISTCHURCH COMMITTEE

Six hundred and thirty-eight children in war-ravaged countries overseas are sponsored by the Save the Children Fund in the South Island. Of these, 441 are sponsored under the Christchurch committee, 113 in -Timaru, 41 in Dunedin, and 43 in In addition to the sponsorships, each of which involves the sum of £lO 10s a year, many persons have given donations of money and gifts of clothing to be sent to Europe and Korea. These figures are recorded in the annual report of the Christchurch committee. New sponsors during the year, the report notes, were many branches of the Junior Chamber of Commerce, and it thanks the Christchurch Junior Chamber for its efforts in this regard. The Christmas tree appeal at the Anglican Cathedral resulted in 5000 toys and more than £2OO being handed to the committee. The Post and Telegraph women’s guild sent more than 100 Christmas gifts to poor children and the Christchurch Free Kindergarten Association has decided to help in equipping kindergartens in poor countries. Appreciation of these gestures is expressed in the report. To the Catholic Women’s League, for the use of storage room, to Mrs W. F. Willcox and her helpers for packing and dispatching goods, to Messrs Wilkinson and Wilkinson and A. R. Guthrey and Company for continued help, the committee gives thanks. Two developments in the administration of the fund are mentioned in the report. One is the decision nf headquarters to start a special cate-

f 'ory of members, called associates. The fee for associates is £1 a year. j. he second development is the estabishment of play centres and kindergartens, especially in Greece and Korea..

The report quotes from a letter sent by the international headquarters of the fund in Geneva in which it asks for a continuance of support and says that there are still between 6,000,000 and 7,000,000 refugee children and countless orphans in Europe and South-east Asia. It mentions that Austria, France, Italy and Korea have thousands of children undernourished, badly housed and too young to earn their own.living. It adds: “The sponsorship scheme offers «the most effective way of helping them both materially and morally.” •

There is new spring and summer work for woollens, according to Paris —so lighter colours and more interesting weaves have been developed accordingly. There are wool taffetas, wool satins, wool poplins—and light, gauzy wool crepes as well as the heavy grained ones. Facecloth has a satin finish. Toile, a crisp, uncrushable wool, is transparent enough to compete, with the sheers for summer frocks. 1 Gay colours and designs, once considered the exclusive property of cottons and silks, are being used for the new woollens. Stripes, for example, appear in wools of every weight—horizontal, vertical, single, double, and triple stripes; broken stripes; pencilfine black stripes, and wide, brilliant ones on white backgrounds. “Mocha tweed’’—so named because it looks like coffee grains spilt on a white tablecloth—shows one of the interesting new weaves.